Incubus Dreams - Laurell K. Hamilton [296]
“Yeah.”
“What if feeding on the femoral, the inner thigh, is considered too taboo, too sexual for the church to teach its members?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know the theory that if we don’t tell teenagers about sex that they won’t think of it on their own.”
“Yeah,” he said and smiled and shook his head, “speaking as someone who was once a teenage boy, and who will one day have a two teenagers on my hands, it’s a nice theory, but it doesn’t work that way.”
“Yeah, I know that, but what if the church is like the right-wingers? If you don’t talk about it, or tell the new little vamps about the dirty stuff, they won’t do it, or think of it on their own.”
“Feeding from the inner thigh is too much like oral sex for the church,” he said, and there was no teasing in his voice when he said it. He was working, thinking.
I nodded. “Exactly.”
“But Avery, our newish vampire, did think of it, and did try it, but didn’t know what he was doing.”
“Yes, and because he’d had no information, he didn’t know how dangerous it could be. It’s like the kids who came up pregnant in junior high, because they used candy bar wrappers for condoms.”
Zerbrowski looked at me. “You’re joking.”
“My hand to God, I am not making that up. The point is that if you don’t educate the newly emerging vampire, just like the newly emerging teenager, you end up with them doing stupid shit. Dangerous things that get them or others, killed, or hurt. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to basic sex ed, or beginning blood donations for vampires. Ignorance will get you killed in both.”
He looked down at the body. “She fits the physical profile of the first vic. If you ignore the difference in height, she’s even blond, which fits all three vics.”
“But this one’s not a natural blond.”
Zerbrowski frowned at me.
“I don’t mean that, I mean her roots are showing. I didn’t really check that closely, but it looks like she either shaved everything, or had very little body hair to begin with. A lot of strippers shave.”
“Like your new boyfriend,” he said, his voice was mild, but his eyes weren’t.
I shook my head. “None of your damn business, Zerbrowski.”
“You guys were getting pretty cozy on the dance floor, but then he’s living with you now, isn’t he?”
“Somebody talks too much.”
“Hey, I’m a trained detective, I detected that you’re shacking up with a stripper who’s what, seven years younger than you?”
“As the detective in charge at the scene, shouldn’t you be solving this murder?”
“I’m thinking. Teasing you always helps me think.”
“Glad to hear I inspire you. What are you thinking about?”
“I’m thinking that I want to talk to Avery Seabrook before he gets executed. If he’s part of the other murders, then I want the names of his friends. If he did this by accident, then I think we need to know that, too. If you’re right, and the church isn’t teaching basic vampire 101 safety to its members, then we’ve got hundreds of potential accidental deaths walking around out there tonight. That ain’t good.”
“Legally, we can’t do anything to force the church to change its teaching methods. Separation of church and state, and all that.”
He nodded. “I can’t, and Federal Marshal Blake can’t, but Anita Blake, sweetie to the Master of the City, might.”
“Are you encouraging me to encourage someone else to put undue pressure on an upstanding member of the community?”
“Would I do that?”
I nodded. “Yep.”
“My head’s sore,” he said, “I give up. How the hell do we catch a vampire and hold him for questioning without getting anyone else killed?”
“He’s only two years dead, Zerbrowski. He’s not that big and bad.”
He glanced down at the body. “Tell that to her.”
He had a point.
“If this was an accident, then he might, just might, run to the church for sanctuary or absolution, or whatever.”
“What