The Night Beat

hunting vampires -- or because it was werewolves who saved me, or a combination thereof. Bottom line is I think that the undeads with the best chances of killing the Adversary are werewolves.”
    “That’s great, but there’s a new wrinkle, then,” Amanda said. “You turned Jack into a werewolf, and he’s a part of the Adversary. Meaning that they now incorporate all the werewolf skills along with their standard minion abilities.”
    “We’re so screwed,” Maurice muttered.
    I considered this. “No, I don’t think so. At least, not yet. Jack sucked as a werewolf, that’s why I got clued in that something was wrong. So either they can’t handle the idea, or the additional skills, or, because of already being the Adversary, they aren’t really a werewolf. No matter what, it’s not taking like it took with me and everyone else.”
    “Or they’re processing it more slowly,” Ken said. “And if that’s the case, we have to work fast, before they fully incorporate this new aspect into their overall being.”
    “We have to work fast anyway, since there are other aspects of the overall plan working, active and in place. It’s easy to focus on Jack and that part of the plan, but really, we still have a bunch of doppelgängers wandering about, the major minions are still on the human plane, and Nero’s gone AWOL again. And that’s merely for starters.”
    “Where do you want to start?” Ken asked as we finally reached the tops of some of the tallest Prosaic City buildings.
    “The hospital. I need to talk to Ralph.”
    There was a distinct, thudding silence. I waited it out.
    “Ah, Vicki,” Maurice said finally. “Are you sure?”
    “Is he dusted?” I made sure I had my cop-voice on. Just the facts, no emotional attachment, no guilt.
    “No,” Amanda said quickly. “Magdalena was able to catch him. But….”
    “But?” I had a horrible feeling what the “but” was going to be, but I didn’t want to guess aloud, just on the off-chance I was wrong.
    “But he’s unconscious and in critical condition,” Ken supplied. Damn. I’d guessed right. “He’s about as close to dusted as you can get without actually being dust.”
    “Wonderful.” I tried not to focus on the fact that I’d essentially put Ralph into harm’s way and kept him there. But it must have showed on my face.
    “No.” Ken shook his head. “You didn’t do this to Ralph. Our enemies did, but you didn’t.”
    “Really? I didn’t fall for their perfect man trick? I didn’t turn Jack into a werewolf, without asking anyone to verify if he could make the transition well? I didn’t help the Adversary set things up to take out Ralph and everyone else?”
    Maurice coughed. “Okay, yeah, you did. But not on purpose.”
    “I’ll bet that’ll heal Ralph right up.”
    We hit the ground, and I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. I had to figure it was going to be the only one I so sighed for a while.
    Amanda put her arm around my shoulders. “He’ll forgive you,” she said quietly.
    I pulled away. “Maybe he shouldn’t.”
    Ken sighed. “Lord, what fools these undeads be.”
    Amanda gave me a look I was familiar with -- her “you’re an ass but I love you” look. “Come on, idiot-girl.” She grabbed me again. “Let’s go to the hospital and see just how rotten things are in our personal Denmark.”
    “Everyone’s quoting Shakespeare,” I muttered. “What, did H.P. do some weekend course I missed? Just in case, I have one, too. Hey, nonnie, nonnie.”
    Amanda laughed. “Glad to see your sense of humor’s back.”
    “Such as it is,” Maurice said with a snort.
    “Yeah? Let’s hear your Bard quote, then.”
    Maurice gave me a long, slow smile. “Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. Let’s go see which it’ll be for you, shall we?”
    “Um, I fell for the trap, remember?”
    Maurice still had that wide, sly smile on his face. “We shall see, Vicki darling. We shall see.”

Chapter 60
     
    We reached the hospital, but getting to Ralph’s room proved to be a challenge. Due to all the activities we’d been indulging in, admittance rate was still at an all-time high, and we had a lot of beings, both sick and well, to get through.
    Monty was just being released as we arrived. He hugged me. “So sorry to hear about what happened.”
    “Yeah, I suck at the romance.”
    Rover curled up around me and gave me white worm lovies. I scratched his head and felt a tiny bit better. White worms were