The Night Beat

head. “I told you to go human a century ago, Ralphie. But did you listen?” He looked around. “What a mess. I hate to interrupt, but we do have a situation.”
    “You’re not interrupting,” Ralph said, sounding very disappointed.
    Maurice rolled his eyes. “She thinks you’re hot, stop acting hangdog.”
    I looked back and forth between them. “I thought you two didn’t like each other.”
    Ralph shrugged. “It was easier to deal with you that way.”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    Maurice sighed again. “Ralphie didn’t want you compromised, Vicster. However, not exactly being a wolf of the world, he somehow felt that you thinking we couldn’t stand each other was a good way to protect you.” He shook his head. “The things I’ve had to put up with over the decades. Specifically the whining. No being whines quite like a werewolf in love.”
    “Are you Special Ops, too?” I was prepared for Maurice to say yes. Maybe the entire team was Special Ops. Maybe all of Necropolis Enforcement was there as an illusion for me, the clueless idiot.
    Maurice snorted. “Hardly. I just found Ralphie a little…secretive and checked him out carefully, a long time ago.”
    “He thought I was hiding that I was gay,” Ralph said flatly.
    “He’s not,” Maurice reassured, though if the kiss had been any indicator, I didn’t need the confirmation. “However, what he is is Minion Target Number One. As I see you realized.”
    “Why are they trying to kill Ralph now?”
    This time everyone in the room gave me the “really?” look. “I don’t know,” Sexy Cindy said, sarcasm overly evident. “Maybe it’s because the dude’s finally gotten you to look at him as more than an annoyance?” I couldn’t argue. Ralph’s arms were still around me and I hadn’t exactly let go of him, either.
    “Could we have maybe one minute alone?” Ralph asked. “Perhaps while everyone else cleans up the dead lesser minion?”
    “Not lesser,” Merc said quietly. “I think we just offed Enepsigos.”
    The room was quiet. She’d been very powerful, not up to the Three A’s level, but close. “Uh, yay team.”
    “Thanks, Vic,” L.K. said with a morose chuckle. “You know what this means?”
    “We’re really popular?”
    “There’s a convergence point open,” Maurice said. “We’ll advise the Count while you two get your situation taken care of.” I opened my mouth but he put his hand up. “It wasn’t a guess. I’m here because there’s a convergence point open. Three guesses which one and the first two don’t count. Beings are advised. Trust me when I say you two getting your one minute of requested alone time is probably a good use of time and leave it at that.” He spun on his heel and flounced out.
    The others followed him, taking the dead body and severed wings and head with them.
    Ralph sighed. “Back in action.”
    “Not you. You need to rest and get well.”
    He stroked my hair and the side of my face. “I am well. And I’m also not letting you face all of this without me.”
    I thought about all the grandstanding he’d done with me over the years. Not grandstanding, though, not really. He’d spent all this time trying to protect me, because it was his job and because he’d fallen in love with that job.
    “I know this is hard for you,” Ralph said softly, still stroking my hair. “And with what just happened with Wagner,” he snarled the name, “I’m sure you’re confused and not really ready for a relationship with anyone, let alone me.” He closed his eyes. “I just want to know if, after this is over, you think you might still be open to a date, or even going steady.”
    “You heard me?”
    He opened his eyes. “Yeah. I heard you talking -- to someone else and to me. I couldn’t answer, even though I wanted to. So I had to struggle to get to you. According to the doctors, if I hadn’t woken up when I did I’d have dusted.” Ralph gave me a half-smile. “You know what they say about hearing the voice of someone you --” He stopped talking and smiling and looked down. “Well, you know.” He let go of me and headed for the door.
    “You really are a dork, you know.”
    Ralph’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah, I know.”
    “I mean, you have the girl all ready to burst into tears and tell you how sorry she is that she was an unobservant idiot and how much she wants you to hold her and do that growl thing again, let alone that kiss thing again. And instead of taking advantage