"You are a legal vampire executioner, Anita. If I broke human law, you would kill me yourself. You would not fault Jean-Claude for doing the same if I broke vampiric law."
"You think I'd just let him kill you?"
"I think you would kill me for him, if you felt justified."
A small part of me wanted to argue, but he was right. I'd been grandfathered in like most of the vamp executioners who had two or more years on the job and could pass the firearms test. The idea was, making us federal marshals was the quickest way to grant us the ability to cross state lines and to control us more. Crossing state lines and having a badge was great; I wasn't sure how controlled we were. Of course, I was the only vampire hunter who was also dating her Master of the City. Most saw it as a conflict of interest. Frankly, so did I, but there wasn't much I could do about it.
"You do not argue with me," Malcolm said.
"I can't decide if you think I'm a civilizing influence on Jean-Claude, or a bad one."
"I saw you once as his victim, Anita. Now I am no longer certain who is the victim, and who the victimizer."
"Should I be offended?"
He just looked at me.
"The last time I was in your church you called me evil, and accused me of black magic. You called Jean-Claude immoral, and me his whore, or something like that."
"You were trying to take away one of my people to be killed with no trial. You shot him to death on the church grounds."
"He was a serial killer. I had an order of execution for everyone involved in those crimes."
"All the vampires, you mean."
"Are you implying that humans or shapeshifters were involved?"
"No, but if they had been, you would never have been allowed to shoot them to death with the police helping you do it."
"I've had warrants for shapeshifters before."
"But those are rare, Anita, and there are no orders of execution for humans."
"The death penalty still exists, Malcolm."
"After a trial, and years of appeals, if you are human."
"What do you want from me, Malcolm?"
"I want justice."
"The law isn't about justice, Malcolm. It's about the law."
"She did not do the crime she is accused of, as our wandering brother Avery Seabrook was innocent of the crime you sought him for." He called any of his church group who joined Jean-Claude "wanderers." The fact that Avery, the vampire, had a last name meant he was very recently dead, and that he was an American vampire. Vampires normally only had one name, like Madonna or Cher, and only one vamp per country could have that name. Duels were fought over the right to use names. Until now, until America. We had vampires with last names, unheard of.
"I cleared Avery. Legally, I didn't have to."
"No, you could have shot him dead, found out your mistake later, and suffered nothing under the law."
"I did not write this law, Malcolm, I just carry it out."
"Vampires did not write this law either, Anita."
"That's true, but no human can mesmerize other humans so that they help in their own kidnappings. Humans can't fly off with their victims in their arms."
"And that justifies slaughtering us?"
I shrugged again. I was going to leave this argument alone because I'd begun to not like that part of my job. I didn't think vampires were monsters anymore; it made killing them harder. It made executing them when they couldn't fight back monstrous, with me as the monster.
"What do you want me to do, Malcolm? I have a warrant with Sally Hunter's name on it. Witnesses saw her leave Bev Leveto's apartment. Ms. Leveto died by vampire attack. I know it wasn't any of Jean-Claude's vampires. That leaves yours." Hell, I had her driver's license picture in the file with the warrant. I have to admit that having a picture to go with it made me feel more like an assassin. A picture so I'd get the right one.
"Are you so certain of that?"
I blinked at him, the slow blink that gave me time to think but didn't look like I was thinking furiously. "What are you trying to say, Malcolm? I'm not good at subtle; just tell me what you came to say."
"Something powerful, someone powerful, came to my church last week. They hid themselves. I could not find them in the new faces of my congregation, but I know that