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understand—approve even. Ruby had been living on the streets when she’d met Jake. She was tough and had been through enough that if she said it was an emergency, it was. She wouldn’t, pardon the expression, cry wolf.
    I grabbed the phone from Peg’s hand.
    “Kate here.”
    “Oh thank God!” Her voice was breathless with relief. In the background I could hear fierce growling and barking accompanied by swearing, sirens, and a woman’s moans.
    “What in the hell is going on?”
    “Dusty’s in labor. We’re at the emergency room at a hospital here in Vegas, but the ob-gyn on duty in the emergency room is a Thrall host. You know they’re enemies and with her defenseless and all… well, Rob sort of went nuts and changed form and now he’s blocking the whole hallway, snapping and barking. He won’t let anyone near her, and they’re going to call the police. Kate, I don’t know what to do!”
    Shit! “Have them call in another doctor to treat her.”
    “They have, but I don’t think he’s gonna get here in time. Her contractions are only two minutes apart! I’ve been trying to time them, but I didn’t attend all the partner classes like Rob did.”
    I took a deep breath and tried to think rationally. This was insane. Why in the hell was she calling me? What was I supposed to do about this? I mean, I’m probably the only other person in Vegas who knows the Denver werewolf pack, and I’m Not Prey, but neither fact was likely to be useful in the current situation—
    Unless … inspiration hit. It might not work, but it was sure worth a try.
    “Put the vampire on the phone and make sure Rob can hear me talk.”
    “Got it.”
    There was a pause, during which the barking stopped. I still heard low, menacing growls, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.
    “Dr. Drewrey here.”
    He talked with just the slightest bit of a lisp, a dead giveaway that he’d only recently gotten his fangs. Unless, of course, he’d lisped before. But I doubted it.
    “My name is Kate Reilly. Do you know who I am?”
    “I’ve heard of you.” His voice was cold, bitter. I wasn’t exactly surprised. To some of the lesser vamps I’m something of a “bogeyman.” After all, the only way you can get to be Not Prey is to survive an attack. To do that involves killing the vamp attacking you. I’ve survived more than one, and wiped out two entire nests in the process, including most of the human herds the nests had fed on. Far as I know, I’ve killed more vampires than anyone else on the planet. Which is why the vampires hate me so much. But I’m Not Prey. While they detest me and want me dead, by their own rules they have to treat me with the respect they would treat a queen vampire and they can’t lie to me. It’s a handy thing that might just get me out of the current mess.
    “I’m Not Prey. You can’t lie to me.”
    “I’m a little busy here.” His sarcasm made the lisp more pronounced. Okay, I had to think quick now and try to imagine any possible problem with delivering a baby.
    “Just reminding you of the rules, doctor. Because I want you, right here and now, to honestly promise me that you will treat Dusty Quinn to the best of your medical ability, as if you were a human doctor and she was just another patient. I want to hear you say that you won’t harm her or the baby in any way because she’s a surrogate for the werewolves…that you won’t withhold treatment or deny drugs, or give drugs or treatment that are wrong for her or the baby, or make mistakes or omissions for any other reason.” I paused and then, before he could speak, added, “And
    … that you and the queen collective won’t let anyone else in the hive attack her or the baby or harm them while they are patients in the hospital.” I had to take a deep breath after all that. But it should cover most of the issues. The trick to dealing with the Thrall is to use a lot of compound sentences. You have to cover all sorts of weird,