The cemetery was one of the largest and oldest in the city. You could see the years marching across in the changes in the tombstones from ornate angels and beautiful sculptures to the nearly flat stone markers that were easier to mow around. It was like visible archaeology: centur-ies in a glance, and the change from looking up to heaven to staying low to the ground, and worrying more about ease of maintenance than about God and all his angels. The sunset was a spectacular spread of pink and purple and pale crimson all done in neon-glow colors, as if some disco queen's lipstick had been spread across the western sky and set on fire. I don't know if I'd ever seen the sky painted so bright with the dying of the light.

I took Nicky's hand as we watched the sunset. I wasn't sure this plan was going to work, and I'd decided that if the other cops wanted to give me grief about being up close and personal with my guys, so be it. We were about to enter a night that could be like the hospital, except with more zombies, and no hallway to contain them. If hundreds of killer zombies rose we were going to be either one of the safest spots in town, or one of the most dangerous. We wouldn't know which until it was too late to back out.

'The sunsets are always like that out here,' Yancey said.

It made me turn and look at him, Nicky's hand still in mine, so that my turning turned the big man with me. It was a couple thing, that turning with the hands joined so that you spent most of your time looking in the same direction.

'Really?' I said.

'You expect to get bored with another spectacular sunset, but you never do,' Badger said. They'd stayed with us in case our plan worked and the big bad showed up. Willy had found a vantage point and was waiting to do what snipers do best: shoot the bad guy on my signal. Machete was with him in case a zombie tried to sneak up and eat Willy while he was trying to shoot.

'How could you ever get bored of something that beautiful?' Dev asked.

'Most people stop seeing things they experience too often, even the amazing ones,' I said.

He shook his head. 'I don't understand that.'

'I like that you don't understand it.'

He smiled a little uncertainly. 'Do you stop appreciating the wonderful things in your life just because you see them every day?'

'No,' I said, and turned to Nicky, going up on tiptoe to kiss him gently. It earned me a surprised and very pleased look, which made me smile. He knew that I did not do public displays of affection when I was around the police often and especially not with my secondary lovers.

I walked over to Dev, put my hands on his arms, and looked up into that handsome face and those eyes with their ring of pale golden brown and blue around the outside. I went up on tiptoe and he leaned down so we could kiss.

I moved back from the kiss and stood flat-footed with my hands still on his arms. 'I don't grow tired of the wonderful things in my life, Dev. I value that you're afraid of the zombies and you're still going to stay here with us.'

'I'm your bodyguard, Anita; I would suck at my job if I left now.'

I smiled. 'I guess so.'

'I feel totally neglected,' Lisandro said. 'Aren't I wonderful, too?'

I laughed. 'I'm told your wife and kids think you're amazingly wonderful.'

He grinned at me. 'Yeah, they do.'

'I'm not married,' Yancey said. 'Do I get a kiss?'

'I know I started it, because of kissing more than one man at work, but don't let my PDA with my guys go to your head.'

'It didn't go to my head, I promise,' he said.

It took me a three-count to realize he'd made a double entendre. I laughed. 'I'd get mad, but that was clever.'

He grinned at me. 'Thank you, I'm pretty proud of that one myself.'

'You do throw the best parties.' It was Edward in his most cheerful Ted voice walking across the grass toward us. He had two SWAT officers with him, too. I knew that the other two were mirroring our sniper and spotter from a different vantage point. The local PD was allocating a lot of their best people to my very 'maybe' plan. I hoped we all lived.

Edward introduced the first one as Lindell, who was as tall as Dev, but so thin he probably had to fight for every ounce of muscle and every pound of weight. He was just built lean and willowy. Officer Shrewsbury was barely six feet, built solid, and moved in a tight coil of energy as if he were just waiting for someone to yell, Go! He was also a natural redhead, complete with the pale skin and freckles that usually went with it. Lindell's nickname was Paris. Shrewsbury's was Berry, as in Strawberry. No one offered to explain the tall, almost homely Lindell being named after the city of love, and I didn't ask. I'd learned that nicknames were personal, sometimes very personal, especially among the special teams.

Edward came up to me smiling broadly and radiating his alter ego, Ted.

'If you didn't bring your flamethrower, I'm going to be disappointed,' I said, smiling.

'It's in the car, Anita; you know I never tease unless I'm planning to come across.'

I smiled at him and gave a small eye flick behind him. He made the smallest eye-slide to the side Paris was standing on, which meant Paris was the guy who had been giving Edward enough grief about our supposed love affair that he'd begun to play with him.

'I know you're always good for anything you promise, Ted.' I put a smile to go with the teasing tone and looked up in time to see Dev puzzling down at me. I had totally forgotten about promising to help Ted tease someone, so had forgotten to mention it to my guys. Oh, well.

'Very important, everybody, when the sun goes down I will be having some vampires fly to meet us. They are my close friends and associates; do not shoot them thinking they're bad guys.'

'How do we tell one vampire from another?' Paris asked.

'Are you saying all vampires look alike?' I asked.

He frowned at me, then said, 'I'm saying that our main perp is a vampire, so how are we supposed to know the difference?'

'The three that are joining us will literally be flying in, as in coming from the sky on their own power. The bad vamp, as far as I know, can't fly.'

'I thought flying was just a story. You mean they can really do that?' he asked.

'A few master vamps can levitate; actual flight is a lot rarer, but these three can do it.'

'Who's coming to play with us?' Edward asked.

'Wicked Truth and one you haven't met yet, Jane.'

'A vampire named Jane?' Paris made it a question.

'Yep,' I said.

'I thought all vampires had cool names like Jean-Claude, or what was the other one you just said, Wicked True?'

'They're the Wicked Truth, think of it as a paired call sign,' I said.

'See, cool.'

I was beginning to think it wasn't personal with Paris; he just couldn't stop talking long enough to think things through. Maybe his nickname came from the fact that the mythological Paris had started the Trojan War.

Darkness came, and it wasn't the fading of the brilliant sunset that let me know, it was the feeling inside me as if a switch had been clicked over. It was as if I could breathe easier in the thin air, or as if I'd been holding some tension inside me all day that finally eased.

I felt Jean-Claude wake for the night. Knew when he opened his eyes and knew that he felt the cool night breeze against my face. I didn't envy Claudia explaining everything to him. I thought about Wicked and Truth and I could feel them, too. Feel them coming aware to the night and all the possibilities. Claudia would be telling them that they had been volunteered to stand at my back and be my metaphysical battery, and if Seamus showed up they, plus Lisandro, were probably the best chance we had at winning without just shooting him on sight. Since shooting him might kill Jane, too, and she'd done nothing, we'd try not to shoot him, but if we had to, we would.

Badger's radio crackled and he touched his mic on his vest. 'Roger that.' He turned to me. 'We're getting reports of packs of zombies.'