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feeling seriously picked on,” I said.
    â€œIt’s nothing personal, Blake.”
    â€œI do not think that means what you think it means,” I said.
    He gave a small laugh. “Thanks, we needed that.”
    â€œAnita can help us,” Edward said.
    â€œAre you admitting that the high-and-mighty Ted Forrester, the one that the vampires have nicknamed Death, can’t handle things here without his sidekick, the Executioner?”
    â€œDeath and the Executioner—has a nice ring to it,” I said.
    â€œSo does Death and War,” he said.
    â€œThat’s catchy, too.”
    â€œ
War
is Anita’s newest nickname from the vampires and wereanimals,” Edward explained.
    â€œWhy didn’t you get a new nickname?” Sheridan asked.
    â€œ
Death
suits me,” he said, and I could almost see him give her that terribly direct eye contact from his pale blue eyes. It was like having a winter sky stare at you.
    I could hear the shiver in Sheridan’s voice over the speakerphone when she said, “Yes. Yes, it does.” Her tone told me that our bid to get her to back off the crush by talking about Donna and the wedding hadn’t worked. Edward was handsome, but this level of persistence made me wonder what he’d done to impress her this much.
    â€œGo back to sleep if you can, Anita.”
    â€œI don’t feel like I’ve been that big a help.”
    â€œYou’ve helped as much as you can when they won’t let me share information with you freely.”
    â€œYeah, because they wouldn’t want the big bad necromancer to fuck up their case.”
    â€œThere’s no need for that, Marshal.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œCursing like that.”
    â€œLogan cursed.”
    â€œBut he didn’t say that.”
    I realized he was upset that I’d said
fuck
. “If you don’t let me cuss when I talk, I may have to just smile and nod.”
    He laughed as if he thought it was a good joke. I hadn’t been kidding, but since they didn’t want me to help them any further I wouldn’t have to shock them with my language anymore.
    â€œDon’t mind Pearson,” Sheridan said. “The rest of us curse. He just doesn’t like the F-word and we are having the meeting in his office.”
    â€œI’ll try to be better if we talk again. Best of luck with your vampire problem.”
    â€œThank you, Marshal. That’s most kind,” Pearson said.
    â€œDon’t mention it.”
    Edward picked up the phone and went off speaker so at least they couldn’t hear my side of the conversation. “What did you do to cause Sheridan to have such a crush on you?”
    â€œI don’t know.” I didn’t press, because it was probably the truth. Since Edward could flirt and seduce to get information out of people without any emotional qualms, I knew he meant it.
    â€œYou just don’t know how charming you are.”
    â€œI will try to use this superpower for good, or personal gain, or to hunt down my enemies and slaughter them so I can dance in their blood.”
    â€œYou have the most cheerful analogies, Edward.”
    â€œWe all have our strengths, Anita. Sleep well. I’ll call you again if everyone will agree to it.”
    â€œOkay, be safe and watch your back like a motherfucker.”
    â€œI always do.” He hung up. I hung up. We were done. We could go back to bed for a couple of hours.
    I opened the door for Micah. He was one of the men in my life whodidn’t argue over which of us got the door. I valued that, because sometimes you just want to open the damn door. We were in the corridor and it was just as empty as it had been an hour and a half ago. We all mostly worked nights here, so six or seven a.m. wasn’t a time that any of us expected to be awake to enjoy.
    â€œDo you think the smallest bite is a child vampire?”
    â€œI really hope