I looked where she was looking on the far side of the room and found there was a small table with two chairs, and a couch. Micah was asleep on it with a small pillow and a blanket that covered most of him. His face looked pale and his curls like a dark halo where they were escaping from his braid. He looked younger, more fragile lying there.

I whispered, 'How's his dad? Sheriff Callahan?' My voice sounded rough, and my throat was dry. Since I was getting fluids through the IV, it meant I'd been out a while.

'As good as can be expected,' she said, but busied herself with taking my pulse and shoved a thermometer under my tongue before she moved enough that I could see there was someone sitting in a chair by my bed. It was just as well I couldn't talk, because I would have yelled, 'Edward!'

His blond hair was still cut neat and short, as it had been the whole time I'd known him. His eyes were a pale blue, cold as winter skies, his expression almost empty right now, because it was just me looking at him, but he was sitting like his alter ego. He had one ankle on the opposite knee, showing off the rich blue of his jeans and the paler wear marks along the seams, and the cowboy boots with their scrollwork, brown on brown. A white cowboy hat sat on his knee; its brim was creased and folded just right by constant wear. It had aged to a nice ivory, in contrast to the white of his button-down shirt. The sleeves were rolled up over strong forearms; his marshal badge was on a lanyard around his neck, which meant he wasn't Edward right now; he was Ted Forrester, fellow U.S. Marshal attached to the Preternatural Branch. Ted was Clark Kent to Edward's Superman, or maybe supervillain. He was pretty much a full-time marshal now, but when I'd met him his Ted Forrester had been a legal vampire executioner just like me, but as Edward he'd been a very pricey assassin. He specialized in shapeshifters and vampires, because humans had become too easy a prey, and he was bored. I was still a little fuzzy on how much the government knew about Edward, as opposed to Ted, but it was on a case with Edward where I first heard the name Van Cleef and met some of the other people who'd trained, or were trained by, him. Edward would never talk about it much.

'Hey, Ted,' I said, and coughed to try to clear my voice.

He smiled, blue eyes shining and just suddenly a brighter blue. The nurse had turned to look at him, and his face had slipped instantly back into Ted's, but also he was smiling at me, because he'd seen it in my eyes that I would have yelled out the wrong name. 'Hey, back,' he said in a low but cheerful voice, his Ted voice. Edward, now you see him, now you don't. He'd become his Ted persona so strongly that he was engaged to a widow with two children. Donna knew some of what Ted did, but not all. I'd been wicked pissed at him for using her and her kids as part of his disguise until I realized that he really loved her and the kids. I didn't understand what he saw in Donna, but then he wasn't entirely happy with the loves of my life either, so we were even.

The nurse took out the thermometer and smiled down at me. 'No fever. The doctor may want to do one more X-ray before he lets you go, but other than that you seem to be doing exceptionally well. The healing abilities that lycanthropes possess never cease to amaze me.'

I could have argued that I wasn't technically one since I didn't change shape, but I let it go. It was beginning to feel a little like the lady protesting too much.

'Why an X-ray?' I asked.

'You had a crack in your pelvis.'

I gave her wide eyes, then frowned. 'I remember walking after I got shot.'

'You did, but it was a small crack and if the video is any indication, you were pumped up on adrenaline and shock. It helps the body not feel things until later.'

'Video?' I asked.

'You were all over the local news,' she said.

'National news,' Edward said, softly.

'I'll let Dr Cross know that you're awake.'

'Can you take out the IV?' I asked.

'Dr Cross will want to see you first.'

'Can I have water, or at least ice chips?'

'I'll check. My name's Becky; buzz if you need anything.' She pulled a curtain on metal rings closed and went out the door on the other side of it. We waited until the door hushed shut on the other side and then I said, 'How did you get here?'

'Airplane.'

'I mean, why? Who called you?'

'I called your phone until someone answered. They got me to Micah.'

'You saw the news footage,' I said.

He gave a small nod.

'And just like that you flew out?'

'You'd do the same for me,' he said.

I nodded. 'Yeah.'

'What I can't believe is that you didn't call me sooner.'

I frowned. 'Why?'

'You have a zombie apocalypse and you don't invite me.' He put his hand on the hat and shrugged at the same time; it was a Ted gesture and we were alone. I guess if you use cover long enough you begin to blur the lines. It was still a little unnerving to see Edward make Ted gestures instead of the other way around.

'I didn't know it was a zombie apocalypse until we were in it, and for the love of God do not say the phrase zombie apocalypse where the media can get hold of it.'

'Too late,' he said.

'Shit,' I said, softly but with feeling.

He nodded. 'But the big news was you killing the dangerous wereanimal and saving a mother and her children.'

I looked away then, suddenly interested in my hands on the sheet. I could see the kids with their faces pressed against the car windows, the woman covering her face with her hands as the copter blades blew her hair across her face. I could see the huge hyena ...

'I'm sorry about Ares. He was a good man in a fight.'

I nodded, taking the high praise for Ares from Edward. 'He was.'

'I'm sorrier that you had to be the one to do it.'

I sighed. 'Yeah, me, too.'

'One thing that the pilot and copilot don't seem clear on is what caused him to go apeshit. Ares had control of his beast, or he wouldn't have been one of your guards. What went wrong?'

'All he could say was that someone was taking him over, making him change.'

'He was bitten by the vampire that was possessed by the other vampire?'

'Yes.'

'The bite shouldn't have been enough to control a shapeshifter like that.'

'I know that.'

'So this is new to you, too?'

'If one of the other regular cops had come back and told me this story I'd have said they misunderstood, that maybe the infected bite drove him crazy with pain.'

'But you wouldn't have believed that one bite from basically a surrogate would be enough to give a master vampire power over someone like Ares.'

'For the level of control "he"' I made quote marks with one hand 'had over Ares I'd have said that eye contact would be minimum, or eye contact and a bite.'