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“Will you bring human police?”

“I’ll bring Edward and Olaf, but I don’t know about the rest. I can’t prove they’ve broken any human laws.”

“I will leave it to your discretion whether a lie would be useful here.”

“You mean use the warrant even if I’m not certain she did it?”

“It is your honor that is at stake, not my own. I will call the wereanimals and my vampires. Be careful, ma petite.”

“You, too.” He hung up.

I stopped walking. My pulse was suddenly in my throat. Panic screamed through me. I was sure, certain, I would get everyone killed. If I took the cops, they’d die. If I didn’t invite the cops, my other friends would die. I couldn’t do this.

I looked at Micah. “This could turn into a hostage situation, and I’m not trained for that. They’ve got a few hundred people in there; what if I get them killed? What if I make the wrong choice?”

Micah searched my face with his gaze. “First, you need to shield better, because this kind of self-doubt isn’t like you. Second, she doesn’t want them dead. She wants to blood-oath them, and that means she wants them healthy.”

I nodded. “You’re right, you’re right.” The tremble of panic in my gut was still there. He was so right. I’d had vampires mess with my mind before in all sorts of ways, but Mercia’s power was almost the most awful. Because it made you have to feel your own emotions intensified until you almost couldn’t stand it. I think I’d have rather dealt with a good old-fashioned attempt to control me with her thoughts than this emotional rape.

“Why isn’t it affecting you?” I asked.

“I don’t think she’s targeted me yet.”

“She targeted Graham. How did she know to target him?”

“Soledad scouted for her, maybe,” he said.

I nodded. “Right, right.”

Nathaniel came up to us, alone. I asked, “Where did Zerbrowski go?”

“I got him talking about the party at his house. I asked what food his wife wanted us to bring. I think he’s more worried about you bringing us both to the party than he admits, because it distracted him from your super-secret phone call. What’s really happening?”

I told him. “I’m afraid no matter what cops I send in, she’ll mind-fuck them. It’s so subtle, she just emphasizes what you’re already feeling. It seems not to activate the holy items.”

“Because she’s not adding anything,” Nathaniel said.

“What?” I asked; we all looked at him.

“She’s not putting power into you, she’s giving more power to what’s already inside you. Maybe that’s why the holy objects don’t go off?”

I smiled at him. “When did you get so smart?”

He shrugged, but looked pleased.

“What if we call out Mobile Reserve and she fucks their minds? I can’t guarantee that she won’t turn them against each other, or more likely the congregation, and once I call them, they sort of take over. I’ll lose control of the situation.”

“I’m not sure you have control of the situation now,” Micah said.

“Thanks,” I said.

He touched my shoulder, gently. “Anita, what you’re really trying to decide is, is it the police you need to be backup, or is it Jean-Claude’s vampires and our shapeshifters?”

I nodded. “You’re right, you are exactly right. That is what I’m trying to decide.”

“Won’t Zerbrowski and the rest of the uniforms suspect something when you run out of here?” Nathaniel asked.

“I have nearly total discretion on how any warrant of execution is served. I don’t have to include any other police. But the Harlequin have fixed it so that the warrant really isn’t in effect here.”

“It’s a shame you can’t deputize civilians, like in the old movies,” Nathaniel said.

I had the grace to look embarrassed. “I was sort of disappointed I couldn’t do that, too. It would have been so damn convenient.”

“Whatever you are going to do, it has to be done now,” Micah said.

I felt paralyzed. I couldn’t decide. It wasn’t like me in an emergency. I stepped away from both of them so they weren’t touching me. I took a deep calming breath, and another. All I could think about was how I’d almost gotten Peter killed. He might be a lycanthrope, at sixteen. Would I get