“Edie?”

“Asher—thanks for the other night,” I started off strong, then paused. How best to explain it? It was quiet on the far end of the line this time. I imagined him in his library, lying on his couch, reading a book.

“You’re welcome. What’s wrong now? You only call me when you want something.”

I was abashed. He was right. “I’m sorry, Asher.”

“It’s fine for now. Just know that someday soon when I want something, I’m going to call you.” He didn’t sound like he was teasing.

“Anything. Just ask it. Only help me out one last time.”

“Okay.”

“You remember my brother? He’s selling drugs. He’s in trouble. I’m trapped here for the rest of my shift—I don’t know what to do.”

“What about the Shadows?” Asher asked.

“They’re not reliable,” I said, choosing my descriptor carefully.

He made a thoughtful noise. “How unreliable currently are they?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Are you in danger?”

“No. I just need Jake to be safe.” It was what I’d always needed, for almost as long as I could remember. “He’s homeless. He stays at the Armory, downtown. He’s selling this stuff called Luna Lobos, which has something to do with the weres. Plus he’s an idiot. You know what he looks like. That’s pretty much all you need to know.”

“All right, Edie. I’ll get on it.” It sounded like he was setting a book down and standing up.

“Thank you so much, Asher.”

“You’re welcome. You’ll owe me after this, though. We’ll figure out how much for, later.”

“Like I said. Anything.”

“I may take you up on that.” He hung up on me before I could say anything back.

I felt a little better, going back onto the floor, and found Meaty waiting for me, just in case.

“I’m back. Like I said I would be,” I said.

Meaty nodded solemnly. “Thanks.”

* * *

So now I had Charles’s patient, and no report, on top of the other four. I flipped through the charts and caught myself up to speed—Mr. Hale was also the victim of a gunshot wound, much as Javier had been. Because Mr. Hale was some vampire’s daytimer, though, he was eligible for vampire blood to heal him. I found the authorization from from the Throne that signed off on it—I’d never seen an actual order before. It was written on vellum, like Anna’s party invitation. I wondered if all the vampires had the same stationery, with a snort. On the bottom was an imprint into something that I hoped was wax, but looked more like a scab. There was a design in the center of it that looked roughly like a dagger or some kind of handled tool. I scraped at it with a fingernail, and a crusty piece came off.

“Ew.”

The County transfusion lab kept donations of elder vampire blood for Y4. Vampire blood was a rare commodity—despite all the blood they drank in, very little of it ever came out again. The metabolic processes that created blood had slowed in death like the rest of them. Anna, as a living vampire, seemed to be the only known exception.

I set the chart aside and sat up to look over the nurses’ station. Our daytimer patient was watching me. When he caught me looking, he waved for me to come in.

I walked over to his room and stood in the door. He looked as sketchy as the mute weres down the hall, face riddled with old pockmarks and a sheen of grease. He smelled rank, like old sweat and urine. A scrub-down with mere shaving cream wasn’t going to save my nose from him, assuming he’d even let me. “Hey lady—where’d my other nurse go?”

“His wife got sick, he had to leave.”

The daytimer shrugged, then winced. “Can you give me anything for pain? I got pain, bad.”

“Let me look at your chart.”

I hoped that Charles had caught things up before he left so I didn’t double-med the guy. Then again, there was almost no way he could die on my shift. Him getting vampire blood was almost the reverse of a Do Not Resuscitate code. Nothing I could do to him tonight would kill him, except if maybe I was carrying a bottle of holy water across his room and tripped on top of him.

I grabbed five milligrams of morphine out of the Pyxis, his max dose, drew it up, and took it in to him. My badge with my name on it was in my scrub pocket; I’d put it there so it wouldn’t dangle over the weres as I tucked them into bed. I was supposed to pull it out and hang it outside the isolation suit so that patients could ID us. I decided not to bother with that this time. I’d be fine being hey lady for the rest of the night.

“Whole syringe, eh?” he asked when I came in. “You sweet on me?”

I ignored him. “How badly do you hurt, on a scale from one to ten?”

“Bad. Baaaaad,” he said, writhing in bed to illustrate it. “I got shot, lady.” He flipped the covers back to show me his bandaged leg.

“Didn’t you get vampire blood this morning?”

He laughed at his own lame joke. “Aw, lady, you caught me. But how many times can I get morphine for free?”

“Why would you want morphine, if you can get vampire blood?”

“You think I get vampire blood for free?” He rolled his eyes and flipped his covers back.

I prepped a saline flush in the room, and gave him all of the morphine. He wasn’t going to die tonight, and I didn’t want to hear from him again.

* * *

I finished all of the charting on my weird patients by the end of the night. Report was minimal, since none of them had done anything. I was on my way to the elevator when Gina caught me.

“Hey, where’d Charles go?”

“Food poisoning,” I lied, and felt awful for it.

Gina made a face. “That’s what he gets for eating all those Hot Pockets.”

* * *

I wondered who would guard me safely home this morning—and how everything would go down tonight. Just as I made it to the lobby, Helen and a twenty-person entourage were coming in. She smiled at the sight of me, and separated herself from her group.

“Go on ahead, everyone,” she said, gesturing them onward. “You too, Fenris.” She shooed her son, who’d tried staying behind. He gave me a quick wave, behind her back. “There’ll be a lot of visitors today. Many want to pay their last respects to their leader.”

I was sure Winter’s day-shift nurse would love that. I couldn’t blame them, though; this might be their last chance to see him alive, if his current condition could even be called that. Helen’s guests walked around us, all in different shades of black. I was very glad Lucas wasn’t in their number.

“You called it off with him, I assume?” She smiled at me indulgently once we were alone.

“There was never anything to call off, really.”

“Says you. Wolves can be surprisingly sentimental. Still, it was for the best. He’s going to be a pack leader—it’s a complicated life.”

“No one would know that better than you,” I said without thinking. She tilted her head at me as though I’d spoken words in a foreign tongue. “I’ve heard,” I added.

“Well, I can’t speak to what you’ve heard. But things will be over tonight.” She reached out to take my hand. “If he doesn’t get better when the moon comes, we’ll—” she began, and paused.

“Withdraw care,” I filled in for her, because it sounded less callous than pull the plug.

She nodded, her face grim. “Yes. I’ll be signing some paperwork to that effect this afternoon, and then staying until the end. Moonrise is at five fifteen tonight. The rest of my pack will have to be afield with Lucas, ringing his time in. Even little Fenris will be gone. My father’s death will be my burden alone.” Her hand squeezed mine a little tighter. “Would you like to be there? You were at the beginning, it’s only fitting you would be at the end, too.”

I really didn’t want to—but I didn’t know how I could tell her no. My ride to Anna’s ascension wouldn’t come until eleven at night. Still, though—

“It would mean the world to me, not to have to be alone.”

I swallowed my refusal. No one should have to be alone and in pain when they didn’t want to be. “Okay.” I gave her a weak smile. “I just need to go home and sleep some now, then.”

“Thank you, Edie. Thank you a lot.” She reached out and patted a flyaway of hair from my ponytail down in a maternal fashion before going on down the hall.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

I wonder what the person in the black foreign car following me thought I was doing, cruising the alleyways and homeless shelters of downtown that morning. I’d left a message on Asher’s phone, and on Jake’s, and neither one of them had gotten back to me yet. I didn’t know where else to check. I’d hit all the big shelters I’d heard of, and I didn’t know all the smaller ones. The people inside them were all nice, letting me look—my wearing scrubs and the slight tone of panic in my voice helped. Maybe they thought I was looking to make good on a New Year’s resolution, one day early.

Exhausted and beaten, I went home. The car parked nearby in my parking lot, but no one got out. I went into my apartment and stared disconsolately at my phone. I took a shower so I wouldn’t have to take one tonight, and crawled into bed after setting a four thirty P.M. alarm. I was almost asleep when a text buzzed my phone.

All’s well. From Asher.

Thank u, thank u, thank u, I texted back. One weight of many lifted, I fell asleep.

* * *

Four thirty came earlier than I’d have liked. I put scrubs back on, then pulled my car out onto the freeway. It being New Year’s Eve, there was some traffic, but no one was driving drunk yet. The weather wasn’t cooperating, the sky was full of ominous clouds, and the morning’s gentle snow had turned into freezing sleet.

When I parked in the hospital lot, the black car parked behind me.