'We?'

'SWAT, remember?'

'Yeah, me, too. And, Ted?'

'Yes, Anita.'

'Bring your flamethrower.'

He gave that excited sex chuckle again. 'For real, you're not just teasing this time?'

'Zombie reports from all over the area and it's still daylight. It's just going to get worse after dark.'

He gave that low, deep laugh again. 'You say the best things.'

'Conversations like this is one of the reasons people think we're doing each other.'

'Maybe,' he said.

'Someone on your end of the phone said something you didn't like about us, or me, and you're rubbing their face in it.'

'Would I do that?' The words were innocent; the tone was not. Someone must have done something that truly pissed him off for him to play into it like this, because he knew it hurt my reputation worse than his. People expect men to be sex-hungry bastards, it's the old boys-will-be-boys idea, but a woman who sleeps around is a whore. I hated the attitude, but I knew it was a reality in most people's minds. I didn't understand it; I mean, if you think sleeping around is bad, shouldn't it be equally slutty no matter if a man or a woman does it? Or equally okay?

'Get here as soon as you can, and let me know which of the guys with you pissed you off and I'll help you play with him, between killing zombies.'

'You sweet-talking thing, you,' he said.

That made me laugh. We hung up with both of us laughing. There were so many reasons that Edward and I were friends.

CHAPTER 79

Yancey and Sergeant Badger came over to me. Nicky moved up to join us. 'If we destroyed the vampire's body, would this all end?' Badger asked.

'I believe so.'

'That's not very definite,' Yancey said, with a smile that couldn't take the worry from his eyes.

'This vampire is doing things that are not possible, so the best you're going to get from me is, I think that will work, but we thought another marshal in another city destroyed his body once before and you see how that turned out.'

'Why didn't it work?' Yancey asked.

'Because this vamp can jump bodies to other vampires he's made and zombies he's raised. I admit the zombie thing is a new vampire trick, even for me.'

'So he jumped to a different body; why will destroying this body work any better?' Badger asked.

'Because this is his original body. We destroy that and no more jumping around, or we hold him in the body he's currently using long enough to destroy it and him with it; that could work, too.'

'Hatfield's group is close to where Little Henry drew the map to, so they could detour and destroy the body.'

I thought about sending Hatfield toward not just the Lover of Death, but Seamus; it seemed like a good way to get her killed.

'That's not a good face. What's wrong?' Yancey asked.

'Little Henry still sulking because you sent his map via smart phone, and he's not included?'

'Yes,' Badger said.

'But that's not the look on your face; you don't care if Henry sulks about this. What were you really thinking?' Yancey said.

'What are you, an expert on my facial expressions?'

He just looked at me, crooking one dark eyebrow over those brown-black eyes.

'He's figuring you pretty fast,' Lisandro said.

I frowned at him.

He just smiled at me. 'It's just the truth.'

'Fine. I don't want to get Hatfield and the men with her killed.'

'You won't be doing anything to them,' Badger said. 'You will be here helping save lives, while she tries to do the one thing that could end all this before it gets out of hand.'

'Besides, Blake, you've got to stop believing that only you can save the world and give the rest of us a chance,' Yancey said.

'Hatfield is competent,' Badger said. 'Text her any information you think she needs to remember and let her do her job. Right now, I want you to tell us everything you know about flesh-eating zombies.'

'If you want to know about zombies in general I've got lots to share, but flesh-eating zombies, honestly they are so rare that there isn't a lot of information.'

'Tell us what you have, Blake. It's more than anyone else has,' Badger said.

I nodded. 'Okay, I can tell you this: When it gets full dark they will be faster, stronger, and even harder to kill.'

They exchanged a look between them. Badger sighed and rubbed his hand over his close-cropped hair. 'What can kill them?'

'Fire. Blow them up into small enough bits and you can burn the pieces at your leisure.'

'What about the bomb squad?' Nicky asked.

We all looked at him.

'If you know how to defuse a bomb, you know how to make one,' he said.

'That's a good idea,' Badger said.