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pointy teeth, and then he nodded.
    â€œGroovy,” I said. “Now get the fuck out of here.”
    Without a word, Fred pulled himself up and hobbled offdown the street. Even with a busted wheel, the vampire limped faster than the human eye could follow.
    I pulled in juice and dropped a confusion spell over the street, just enough hoodoo to render any witnesses or inconvenient security cameras useless to a police investigation. I looked in the direction the vampire had fled, then turned back to the crowd of stunned onlookers and shrugged.
    â€œHe wasn’t on the list.”

Three
    Adan was annoyed. We were cruising down Santa Monica Boulevard toward the beach, and he was pressed against the passenger door and glaring at me.
    â€œYou didn’t have to kick his ass like that in front of everyone.”
    â€œHe started it,” I said. “I wasn’t going to touch him as long as he didn’t scratch my car.”
    â€œYou sound like a ten-year-old, Domino.”
    â€œWell, what should I have done? He’s a vampire. You want me to go back and let him take a bite out of me?”
    â€œNo, of course not. And I know he’s a vampire, but he’s been cool to me. Besides, you provoked him.”
    I shrugged. That was true. I tried a different angle.
    â€œHe’s cool? You know the magic is in the killing, right? Every human is topped off with ten pints, give or take, but all that’s just foreplay. It’s the mouthful that stops the heart that keeps him going.”
    â€œI know. I just said he’s been cool to me. ” He shook his head and snorted. “Anyway, you’re a gangster. Where do you get off judging him?”
    I scowled. “Yeah, I’m a gangster—in your father’s employ, I might add—but that doesn’t make me a homicidal undead monster. Come to think of it, I can’t even remember the last time I killed a guy and drank his blood.”
    â€œNo, you just kill guys and have some stooge bury the bodies.”
    Ouch. That was going to leave a mark. “I don’t kill anyone. Usually. And never civilians. If you choose to get in the game, you know the rules and you know the risks. It’s not murder when you have to kill an enemy soldier.”
    Adan laughed. “Oh, yeah, the standard gangster code of situational ethics. That bullshit’s an insult to real soldiers.”
    â€œThat…is probably true. Anyway, it’s just a fucking metaphor. Excuse my language.”
    â€œActually,” Adan said, “I think it’s a fucking analogy.”
    I glared at him and he laughed. I shook my head, chuckling, and just like that the tension was borne away by the wind whipping through the open convertible.
    I wasn’t sure why I was arguing with this guy, anyway. His last name was Rashan. He knew the score. The truth was, Adan had pushed one of my buttons. Growing up, I’d always thought I’d end up using my magic for the Forces of Good. Maybe work a quiet job by day and kick evil ass by night, like Batman or the Ghostbusters. Long before I hooked up with the outfit, I’d seen enough of the world to know how things really work.
    Adan was right. I clung to that gangster code because it was just about all I had to distinguish myself from psychopathic freaks like the Vampire Fred. I hadn’t killed often, but I had killed. I hadn’t killed innocents, but I’d taken husbands, and fathers, and brothers and sons. Even some sisters. To stay sane,I tried to convince myself they were bad guys, just like me, and they got what they deserved.
    And still, late at night and usually when I was drunk, I’d type their names into that search box on my laptop and reach out to them in the Beyond. They never answered, but I knew they were waiting for me out there in the dark.
    Adan noticed my uncharacteristically angsty mood and laid a hand on my arm. “I’ve had this argument a thousand times with my