Undead and Unworthy

Someone had considerately carried me up to bed (I prayed it was Sinclair), and I woke up with a large Post-it stuck to my forehead.

I snatched it away and read: Developments! Come down as soon as you get rid of your horrible vampire breath. Also, your mom wants to know how long she's going to be stuck with BabyJon; I guess he's teething again.

Oh, goody. Jessica was back. And my poor baby brother! He drooled like a beast when he popped a new tooth; I'd seen him soak an entire quilt. He was impossibly cute most of the time, with his shock of black hair, amazing blue eyes, and sweetly chubby limbs, but I could hardly bear to look at him when he was slobbering his way through the tooth of the week.

I couldn't help it; I grinned, picturing my mother's horror at watching BabyJon soak one of her antique quilts.

I hopped out of bed, shrugged out of yesterday's outfit, and brushed my teeth and hair. Then I changed into gray leggings, a dark blue PROPERTY OF RENFEST sweatshirt, and black flats - no socks. Then I hurried downstairs to the kitchen.

" - took him down so easy," Antonia was bragging. "Look! Not a mark on me."

"Anymore," Sinclair corrected her politely. "You don't fool me, dear."

"Okay, maybe El Fiendo got in a few good ones, I admit it. But I'm all healed up and he's roasting in hell. That puts it in the win column for me."

"It was foolish of the two of you to go after him by yourselves. You might have run into all of them."

All of them - I wondered how many were left. Jeez, even when I knew they were running around pissed at me, I couldn't keep track of them.

"Hey, think I'm gonna sit around on my ass while the fuckin' Fiends pop up without warning whenever they want? Who needs the pressure? Besides, I hate pop-ins. I hate this whole stupid situation." Except she appeared to be thriving on it.

"So where is the dead guy who was in our foyer?" I asked, gratefully accepting a glass of grapefruit juice from Tina. It wasn't nearly as good for me as Sinclair's blood, but I'd had enough from my husband to keep me going for a while. "Not that I mind that he's gone."

"The body," Sinclair said carefully, knowing how I felt about such icky things, "is in the basement, in the walk-in freezer."

I shuddered, and juice slopped over the rim of my glass. Among other things, when the mansion had been modernized thirty years ago, the old owners had put in a giant freezer for entertaining. Luckily, we kept it empty. Most of the time.

"We don't know if we will need access to the body again," Tina said apologetically. "I staked it after you fell asleep, just to be sure."

"Do we know his real name?" I wasn't expecting a good answer here, but I had to ask.

I got a pleasant surprise from Tina. "Nick was here, and printed him. He's going to run it through privately - "

"Why privately?"

Antonia gave me a "you poor dumb bitch" look, as Tina patiently explained, "What if the dead man was born in 1910? And he looks like a man in his late thirties? That might bring up questions we would find awkward to answer."

"Does Nick have enough juice to run prints - twice - without anybody else finding out?"

"We will see."

I had to be happy with that. I knew dick about police procedural. But if he was getting secret assignments from the chief, he probably had some clout.

"Thank you for your assistance, Antonia," Sinclair said over my musings. "We are grateful."

"Why do you think I beat feet to get back here from the Cape? You guys'd sit around and talk it to death. You need a werewolf to get shit done."

"Are all werewolves as insufferable as you are?" I asked sweetly, "or are you a genetic anomaly?"

Before she could answer, I looked around and said, "Hey, where's Laura? I'd think she'd want to be in on all this stuff now that she knows what's going on."

"She called while you were sleeping; she's teaching her church youth group tonight," Tina said with a barely repressed shudder.

"Okay, how about Jess? She left me a sticky note."

"You just missed her; she went to Detective Berry's house, complaining bitterly that it had been 'ages and ages' since they'd had some alone time."

"Why didn't she just go with him?"

"Oh, it's kind of dumb. She doesn't like to be stuck at anybody's house without a getaway car. It's one of her things. But it's great that she gets to see him tonight... he must have the night off."

Tina was opening her laptop. "Yes, yes, the poor deprived things. Let them stay gone for a month."

I was unwrapping a blue raspberry Blo-Pop. "Tina," I said reproachfully, then popped it into my mouth and sucked enthusiastically.

"Sorry, Majesty, you know I'm fond of Jessica. It's him I can't stand. And if he deliberately places you in harm's way once more, I may not be responsible for my actions."

"You shush. Just check your e-mail."

"Actually," she said, not looking up, "I'm checking Nick's e-mail."

I nearly gagged on the sucker. "Boo! Unless you've got a warrant. And vampires can't get warrants, I bet." I paused. "Can we?"

"You're so adorably naive, I may vomit," my husband said from behind the Washington Post.

"And you're so - " My cell phone chirped "Living Dead Girl" and I snatched at it. I was sure it was my mom, bitching about baby duty. But there was no way BabyJon was coming back here until we - "Hi, Mom?"

"It's Jessica!" I winced and held the phone away from my ear. "You've got to come, quick! All of you! Nick's gone, but the Fiends have been here!"

"Whoa, whoa, calm down." I was trying to take my own advice and not hyperventilate. "How d'you know the Fiends took him?"

"Who else would break in and attack him? Please, please come right now! There's blood all over the place!"

"But - but - " I was so panicked I couldn't think, much less speak. "But why did they take Nick?"

"Because," Tina said, not looking up from her laptop, "the fingerprints came back. Forensics notified him by e-mail, but he hasn't actually gotten this message yet, so they had to move fast. And so will we."

"What? Why?"

"The Fiend's name was Edward Hamlin."

Hamlin? Why did I know that name? So much had been happening in a short time, I -

"Nick has been working on a little project for Police Chief Hamlin," Tina added, helping me out.

"We're coming!" I shrieked into the cell, then snapped it shut so hard I broke it.