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“Nope,” Dolph said. “The survivors ate him.”

“Bet they didn’t,” I said.

“They used teeth to kill him, Anita. That’s eating him in my book.”

I’d seen shapeshifters eat people, not just attack them, but since most of those were illegal kills, i.e. murders, I let Dolph win the fight. He was still wrong, but hard to show him my proof without getting people in trouble.

“Whatever you say, Dolph.”

He was quiet for long enough that I had to say, “You still there?”

“Why do I think you’re holding back on me, Anita?”

“Would I do that?”

“In a heartbeat,” he said.

His asking about the date had triggered some vague memory. “There is something about today’s date.”

“What is it?” he asked.

“I don’t know—something. Do you need me to come in?”

“Since almost all this shit is preternatural-related, every uniform and his K9 is asking for us. So yeah, we need everybody in the field today. They’ve been hitting the monster isolation wards of most of the major hospitals.”

“Jesus, Stephen,” I said.

“He’s all right, they all are,” Dolph said. “A guy with a 9mm tried for them. The cop at the door got hit.”

“He all right?” I asked.

“He’ll live.” Dolph didn’t sound happy, and it wasn’t just the hitter or a wounded cop.

“What happened to the shooter?” I asked.

He laughed, an abrupt, harsh sound. “One of Stephen’s ‘cousins’ threw him up against a wall so hard, his skull cracked. Nurses say the shooter was about to put a round right between the uniform’s eyes when he was…stopped.”

“So Stephen’s cousin saved the cop’s life,” I said.

“Yeah,” Dolph said.

“You don’t sound happy about that.”

“Leave it alone, Anita.”

“Sorry. What do you want me to do?”

“The detective in charge is Padgett. He’s a good cop.”

“No small praise coming from you,” I said. “Why do I hear a ‘but’ coming?”

“But,” Dolph said, “he gets freaked around the monsters. Someone needs to go down there and hold his hand so he doesn’t get carried away with the murderous shapeshifters.”

“So I’m a baby-sitter?”

“It’s your party, Anita. I can send someone else. I thought you’d want this one.”

“I do, and thanks.”

“Don’t stay all day, Anita. Make it as quick as you can. Pete McKinnon just called me to ask if he could borrow you.”

“Was there another arson?”

“Yes, but it wasn’t his firebug. I told you they bombed the Church of Eternal Life.”

“Yeah.”

“Malcolm is in there,” he said.

“Shit,” I said. Malcolm was the undead Billy Graham, founder of the fastest-growing denomination in the country. It was the vampire church, but humans could join. In fact, they were encouraged. Though how long they stayed human was debatable.

“I’m surprised his daytime retreat was that obvious.”

“What do you mean?”

“Most master vamps spend a lot of time and energy hiding their daytime address so that shit like this doesn’t happen to them. Is he dead?”

“You are amusing as hell today, Anita.”

“You know what I mean,” I said.

“No one knows. McKinnon’s going to call you with more details. Hospital first, then his scene. When you get done there call me. I’ll figure out where to send you next.”

“Have you called Larry?”

“You think he’s up to this much solo action?”

I thought about that for a second. “He knows his preternatural stuff.”

Dolph said, “I hear a ‘but’ coming.”

I laughed. “We have worked together too damn long. Yeah, but he’s not a shooter. And I don’t think that’s going to change.”

“A lot of good cops aren’t shooters, Anita.”

“Cops can go twenty-five years and never clear leather. Vampire executioners don’t have that luxury. We go in planning to kill things. The things we’re planning to kill know that.”

“If all you have is a hammer, Anita, every problem begins to look like a nail.”

“I read Massad Ayoob, too, Dolph. I don’t use my gun as the only solution.”

“Sure, Anita. I’ll call Larry.”

I wanted to say, “don’t get him killed,” but I didn’t. Dolph wouldn’t get him killed on purpose, and Larry was a grown-up. He’d earned the right to take his chances like everyone else. But it