“Understandable,” he told her.
“The big thing worrying me right now is that I know he’s going to go after Raleigh and Simon, but I don’t know which one he’ll try to hit first. I could be in the wrong place right now, just spinning my wheels.”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“Yeah.” Caxton rubbed at her eyes. She needed sleep. Well, she’d needed sleep since Arkeley took the curse. Since Gettysburg. She was learning to live on just a couple hours a night. “Did Glauer call you about checking some possible lairs?”
“Yes. I have people on it.”
Caxton closed her eyes. “How many people? Do they know how dangerous this could be? How many places can they check out before dark?”
“Let me worry about that. You have enough on your hands.”
Caxton held the phone away from her face and tried not to scream. Of course she was going to worry about it. This was her case. She wanted to say a number of things in response. Then she rethought them and instead just said, “Okay, good. Did you send a deputy up to Syracuse to collect Simon?”
“I…did,” Fetlock acknowledged.
From his tone Caxton could guess what had happened. “He refused protective custody, I take it.” Shit, she thought. She had called that one.
“I’m told he refused to leave his current residence. Said he had an experiment going on he couldn’t let out of his sight. Is Simon some kind of scientist?”
“He’s a college student. Probably worried about getting a B in geology or something. Not the most levelheaded guy I’ve ever met.”
Fetlock tried to sound encouraging. “I’ve detailed three units to watch his place, in shifts. We’ve got round-?the-?clock coverage. If Jameson shows up there we’re ready for him.”
She thought of the cops she’d sent to protect Astarte. “No. We’re probably not. If he comes for Simon tonight I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“So what do you want to do, Special Deputy?”
“I can’t be in two places at once,” Caxton said. “And I’m already here. I’ll keep in touch, Deputy Marshal.”
“Please do,” Fetlock said, and hung up.
She made a couple more phone calls, preparing for the night to come, and then headed back to the convent building—it was time for dinner.
Vampire Zero
Chapter 28.
Dinner at the convent proved simple enough, a salad of mixed greens, vegetable barley soup, and some grainy bread that Caxton chewed and chewed until it was soft enough to swallow. She was seated at a long table with twenty girls, all dressed in oversized clothes that covered them from neck to ankle. Apparently attractive clothing was a distraction, and therefore to be avoided in the retreat. None of the girls spoke a word as they ate, but they all kept looking up at Caxton with wide eyes, clearly wondering what she was doing there. Raleigh sat on the other side of the table but didn’t make eye contact during the meal.