The Night Beat

be mate, as you always wanted. After all, don’t you long for a true family?” His voice was gentle, soothing.
    My head nodded, without my brain’s consent. “But…you’re evil.”
    “Evil is in the eyes of the beholder. I’m not evil to your mother. And to those who fight alongside us, I am the leader, the one they turn to for guidance. Is that evil? To care for your people?”
    It sounded so reasonable. The claw of doubt was drumming on my head now. But the base of my tail was twitching, and I’d spent a lot more time listening to it. “How can you separate Jack from you?”
    Little Harp smiled. “As we separate ourselves. Souls are simple things to divide. And highly overrated.”
    “Was your soul always inside Jack?” I had to know, one way or the other.
    Little Harp nodded. “We studied you. You are our daughter, your mother’s daughter. You needed the male of males -- anything less left you feeling incomplete. We created your perfect mate, over time. Put the right humans together at the right time, a nudge here, a shove there. Finally, he arrived, exactly what you needed. Throwing you together was simple.”
    “Uh, wow.” I didn’t know what else to say. I wouldn’t have credited either Harp with the brains to perform the ultimate genetics experiment.
    He smiled and kissed my forehead. Just like a father would. “You are our only living child. We want the best for you, for you to be mated with perfection, so you can enjoy all the planes of existence have to offer.”
    It all sounded so reasonable. If I didn’t think. But I’d never been able to not think, even when it had seemed like I was going to die because of it. The base of my tail asked the question it had asked before, as we were leaving the Little Church. “Why didn’t you all finish us at the Estates, when you had the chance?”
    Little Harp chuckled. “The work was done. We want you safely with us, before we destroy the others. You are more important than all of them put together. You are our child.”
    Something clicked. All the little things, from the first time I’d met my real father until now started to fall into place. And something Jude had said -- that I always made the right decision when it came to good and evil -- surfaced. Jude had said that I made mistakes in my love life just like every other being, but that when it came down to it, I was important because I always made the right choice. And I was the child of the Adversary. And a werewolf.
    The Adversary had hunted werewolves for all of my existence. Because of me. No one had ever said it aloud, but I’d known, for all my undead life. I was the reason my undead kind were forced to separate, to live more like other undeads than werewolves. I was the reason we no longer had a true Pack.
    And one werewolf out of all of them refused to give in to the fear, refused to hide, even though it made him an outcast within the group. No wonder they wanted me kept away from him. What would have happened if I’d ever actually listened to what Ralph was saying?
    I didn’t have to guess. I knew. It was why they wanted me with them on the other side. Why they’d gone to the trouble to create Jack. I was the Child of the Adversary, title totally important.
    “Can I see Jack again?” I needed to, just to be sure.
    Little Harp smiled. “Of course. Whatever you want. You are our child, and we will care for you as you need and deserve.” The entire being switched and now I was in Jack’s arms. “Vic, are we going to be okay?”
    I looked at his face, studied it really. It looked exactly as it always had. There was no difference. He was still incredibly male, still appealing to me in ways no other male ever had been.
    Over the centuries, I’d been many things. But what I’d always been, from the moment Black Wolf brought me to Necropolis, was a cop. And cops knew how easy it was to become just like the perps they spent so much time with. Hang with drug addicts, become an addict.
    I stroked Jack’s face. “You’re my drug, aren’t you?”
    He gave me a half-smile. “I suppose so.”
    I leaned up and kissed him. “Jack, thanks for the offer, but I’m going to have to do what all our stupid posters suggest…and just say no.”
    Then I shoved out of his arms and let myself come down from the high.

Chapter 59
     
    I landed a few seconds later. Because I crashed into Maurice.
    “Ooof! Let’s work on losing a few pounds, shall we, Vicki darling?”
    “Nice catch.” I