Living Dead in Dallas

voice that would brook no denial.
    No hospital had ever moved so quickly. I could only suppose that Dr. Josephus was on the board of directors.Or maybe he was the chief of staff. The portable X-ray machine was wheeled in, the X rays were taken, and in a few minutes Dr. Josephus told me that I had a hairline fracture of the cheekbone which would mend on its own. Or I could see a plastic surgeon when the swelling had gone down. He gave me a prescription for pain pills, a lot of advice, and an ice pack for my face and another for my knee, which he called “wrenched.”
    Within ten minutes after that, we were on our way out of the hospital. Luna was pushing me in a wheelchair, and Dr. Josephus was leading us through a kind of service tunnel. We passed a couple of employees on their way in. They appeared to be poor people, the kind who take low-paying jobs like hospital janitor and cook. I couldn’t believe the massively self-assured Dr. Josephus had ever come down this tunnel before, but he seemed to know his way, and the staff didn’t act startled at the sight of him. At the end of the tunnel, he pushed open a heavy metal door.
    Luna Garza nodded to him regally, said, “Many thanks,” and wheeled me out into the night. There was a big old car parked out there. It was dark red or dark brown. As I looked around a little more, I realized that we were in an alley. There were big trash bins lining the wall, and I saw a cat pouncing on something—I didn’t want to know what—between two of the bins. After the door whooshed pneumatically shut behind us, the alley was quiet. I began to feel afraid again.
    I was incredibly tired of being afraid.
    Luna went over to the car, opened the rear door, and said something to whoever was inside. Whatever answer she got, it made her angry. She expostulated in another language.
    There was further argument.
    Luna stomped back to me. “You have to beblindfolded,” she said, obviously certain I would take great offense.
    “No problem,” I said, with a sweep of one hand to indicate how trifling a matter this was.
    “You don’t mind?”
    “No. I understand, Luna. Everyone likes his privacy.”
    “Okay, then.” She hurried back to the car and returned with a scarf in her hands, of green and peacock blue silk. She folded it as if we were going to play pin-the-tail, and tied it securely behind my head. “Listen to me,” she said in my ear, “these two are tough. You watch it.” Good. I wanted to be more frightened.
    She rolled me over to the car and helped me in. I guess she wheeled the chair back to the door to await pickup; anyway, after a minute she got in the other side of the car.
    There were two presences in the front seat. I felt them mentally, very delicately, and discovered both were shapeshifters; at least, they had the shapeshifter feel to their brains, the semiopaque snarly tangle I got from Sam and Luna. My boss, Sam, usually changes into a collie. I wondered what Luna preferred. There was a difference about these two, a pulsing sort of heaviness. The outline of their heads seemed subtly different, not exactly human.
    There was only silence for a few minutes, while the car bumped out of the alley and drove through the night.
    “Silent Shore Hotel, right?” said the driver. She sounded kind of growly. Then I realized it was almost the full moon. Oh, hell. They had to change at the full moon. Maybe that was why Luna had kicked over the traces so readily at the Fellowship tonight, once it got dark. She had been made giddy by the emergence of the moon.
    “Yes, please,” I said politely.
    “Food that talks,” said the passenger. His voice was even closer to a growl.
    I sure didn’t like that, but had no idea how to respond. There was just as much for me to learn about shapeshifters as there was about vampires, apparently.
    “You two can it,” Luna said. “This is my guest.”
    “Luna hangs with puppy chow,” said the passenger. I was beginning to really not like this guy.
    “Smells more like hamburger to me,” said the driver. “She’s got a scrape or two, doesn’t she, Luna?”
    “Y’all are giving her a great impression of how civilized we are,” Luna snapped. “Show some control. She’s already had a bad night. She’s got a broken bone, too.”
    And the night wasn’t even halfway over yet. I shifted the ice pack I was holding to my face. You can only stand so much freezing cold on your sinus cavity.
    “Why’d Josephus have to send for