All Together Dead

count.
    “She’d offended me, and I enjoy sex that way, so I abducted her and had a little fun,” Michael said. “Then Jodi goes all ballistic on me and breaks my fang. See?” He opened wide enough to show the judges the fang’s stump. (I wondered if he’d gone by the booth that was still set up out in the vendors’ area, the one that had such amazing artificial fangs.)
    Michael had the face of an angel, and he didn’t get that what he’d done was wrong. He had wanted to do it, so he did it. Not all people who’ve been brought over to be vampires are mentally stable to start with, and some of them are utterly conscienceless after decades, or even centuries, of disposing of humans as they damn well please. And yet, they enjoy the openness of the new order, getting to stride around being themselves, with the right not to be staked. They don’t want to pay for that privilege by adhering to the rules of common decency.
    I thought breaking off one fang was a very light punishment. I couldn’t believe he’d had the gall to bring a case against anyone. Apparently, neither did Jodi, who was on her feet and going for him again. Maybe she meant to snap off his other fang. This was way better than The Peoples’ Court or Judge Judy .
    The blond judge tackled her. He was much larger than Jodi, and she seemed to accept that she wasn’t going to heave him off. I noticed Bill had moved his chair back so he could leap up if further developments required quick action.
    The tiny Dahlia said, “Why did you take such exception to Michael’s actions, Jodi?”
    “The woman was the sister of one of my employees,” Jodi said, her voice shaking with anger. “She was under my protection. And stupid Michael will cause all of us to be hunted again if he continues his ways. He can’t be corrected. Nothing stops him, not even losing the fang. I warned him three times to stay away, but the young woman spoke back to him when he propositioned her yet again on the street, and his pride was more important than his intelligence or discretion.”
    “Is this true?” the little vamp asked Michael.
    “She insulted me, Dahlia,” he said smoothly. “A human publicly insulted me.”
    “This one’s easy,” said Dahlia. “Do you both agree?” The blond male restraining Jodi nodded, and so did Bill, who was still perched on the edge of his chair to Dahlia’s right.
    “Michael, you will bring retribution on us by your unwise actions and your inability to control your impulses,” Dahlia said. “You have ignored warnings, and you ignored the fact that the young woman was under the protection of another vampire.”
    “You can’t mean this! Where is your pride?” Michael was yelling and on his feet.
    Two men stepped forward out of the shadows at the back of the stage. They were both vampires, of course, and they were both good-sized men. They held Michael, who put up quite a fight. I was a little shocked by the noise and the violence, but in a minute they’d take Michael off to some vampire prison, and the calm proceedings would continue.
    To my absolute astonishment, Dahlia nodded to the vamp sitting on Jodi, who got up and assisted her to rise. Jodi, smiling broadly, was across the stage in one leap, like a panther. She grabbed up the stake lying on the judges’ table, and with one powerful swing of her lean arm, she buried the stake in Michael’s chest.
    I was the only one who was shocked, and I clapped both hands over my mouth to keep from squeaking.
    Michael looked at her with utter rage, and he even kept struggling, I suppose to free his arms so he could pull the stake out, but in a few seconds it was all over. The two vamps holding the new corpse hauled it off, and Jodi stepped off the stage, still beaming.
    “Next case,” called Dahlia.
    The next was the one about the vampire kid, and there were humans involved in this one. I felt less conspicuous when they came in: the hangdog parents with their vampire representative (was it possible that humans couldn’t testify before this court?) and the “mother” with her “child.”
    This was a longer, sadder case, because the parents’ suffering over the loss of their son—who was still walking and talking, but not to them—was nearly palpable. I wasn’t the only one who cried, “For shame!” when Cindy Lou revealed the parents were giving her monthly payments for the boy’s upkeep. The vampire Kate argued for the parents ferociously, and it was clear she thought