Crimson Death
Page 141

   I realized I wanted to fight, because part of me knew that I would have shot Brennan. I don’t shoot to wound, so I stepped into Nolan. I moved forward into the fight instead of trying to calm it down, because I didn’t feel calm. Brennan didn’t need killing, but I knew that was exactly what I would have done if Donnie hadn’t stopped me. I stepped into Nolan until only the smallest fraction of space was left between us. It was aggressive and designed to make the fight worse. I was afraid of what I’d almost done, and fear has always translated into anger for me. My beasts came with my anger in a rush of energy that fueled the aggression. We could fight; oh yes, we could. I felt Nolan’s beast flickering inside him, rising toward the surface of him in his own rush of confused emotions turned to rage. It wasn’t the same kind of wolf as the one inside me, but they recognized each other. Bow-fucking-wow.
   “Your man lost his nerve and pulled his gun, because he didn’t know what else to do, Nolan! This is why you can’t jail the monsters! This is why you kill them, because you can’t do anything else!”
   He snarled into my face. “You pointed your weapon at a friendly that you had no intention of shooting; if you were my man I would take your sidearm and you would not get it back!”
   “I pointed my gun at an armed threat, and I don’t shoot to wound!”
   He almost snarled the next words into my face. “Brennan was pointing his gun at the threat he saw in this hallway.”
   Was there an edge of growl in my own voice as I spoke? “He staggered away from that wall. He wasn’t steady enough to fire into a fight. He was a danger to your own man.”
   “My men are trained to fire during a fight!”
   “I’m trained to end the fight!”
   “What the fuck does that mean?”
   I was damn near on tiptoes putting my face up into his, as I said, “I’m an executioner, Nolan!”
   “You wouldn’t have shot him!”
   “The fuck I wouldn’t! Donnie blocked my shot.”
   “I did, sir,” Donnie called.
   My wolf with her mostly white fur was just suddenly clear inside me. I could see her standing with the black saddle mark across her, the slight darkening around her eyes that was the beginning of the marks around a husky’s or malamute’s face. She looked up into his brown eyes with her gold ones and his energy rose to hers. His eyes changed to amber.
   Nolan looked down at the floor, blinking, then leaned back from me. He took a step back, and in a much calmer voice he said, “Your woman still lost control.”
   “No, Captain Nolan, she did not, because if she had, there’d be fresh bodies.” My voice was calmer, too.
   When he looked at me again, his eyes were back to human brown. “If Donahue hadn’t spoiled your aim on Brennan, would you have shot him?”
   “I was taught that you don’t draw your gun unless you mean to use it, and if you start shooting, then you shoot until the target is stopped. Dead is stopped.”
   Nolan looked at me. “I don’t want to lose men to friendly fire.”
   “Then you need to train them not to lose their nerve the first time they realize just what they’re up against.”
   “I did not mean for him to hit his head,” Magda said. “I overestimated his ability to fight, as I underestimated this one.” She clapped Mort on the shoulder. He winced. “Did I hurt you?”
   “I’ll be bruised, but so will you.”
   “No, I will heal any damage before bruises form.”
   “That must be nice,” he said.
   “Yes, it is,” she said.
   “I’ve never met anyone that much faster than me,” he said.
   “You are very fast for someone who is only human.”
   He took the compliment, and I realized that in that weird guy/warrior way Mort and Magda were now friends. It had sort of been how Edward and I first bonded, too, so I understood how it worked, but I was just girl enough to know it was a little crazy.
   Edward stepped up beside Nolan. “You thought your cell would hold up.”
   “I did.”
   “You thought your people would stand a better chance at subduing a shapeshifter.”
   Nolan nodded. “I did.”
   “Don’t take it out on Anita or any of her people.”
   “He just did take it out on me,” I said.
   Edward smiled at me. “Yeah, but I wanted to see who would get the most riled.”
   “You wanted to see which of us would get angrier?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
   He smiled at me, and it was all Ted charm, but the glint in his eyes was all Edward—that part of him that liked to know everyone’s weaknesses, like an out-of-control temper that you aimed at the wrong person. I understood why Nolan was still only a captain at forty; with that kind of temper I was amazed he’d made captain. Of course, he had just watched us prove that his unit wasn’t even close to prepared for the monsters. That was worth a temper tantrum or two, just not this public.
   “Are the vampires going to be that strong and that fast when they wake up?” Donnie asked, nodding toward the cell where they’d stowed the body bags while we tested the other cell.
   Nolan looked at me. “Well, Blake?”
   I appreciated that he asked my opinion and not Edward’s. I think he was trying to make up for the yelling match. “Not as fast, and the newly dead won’t know how to harness all that superstrength yet. Magda has had years of training and practice. She’s not only stronger and faster than human-normal, but she knows how to use all of it. You’ve got a suburban mom and two teenage girls. Just being vampires won’t make them instant martial arts experts or give them washboard abs; that takes work whether you’re dead or alive.”
   “So will the other cell hold the new vampires?” he asked.
   I looked at Magda. “Will it?”
   She nodded. “For a few nights, yes, but they will learn how strong they are, and they will begin to use that strength. They will also learn how to use the other things they have gained from becoming vampire.”
   “You mean mind tricks,” Nolan said.
   “Their gaze can trap you and make you into their slave. It can turn a man against his friends and family.”
   “It doesn’t work over cameras. As long as we don’t open the door and look them in the eye, we’ll be fine.”
   “You’ll have to feed them,” I said.
   “We’ll shove in some bags of plasma,” he said.