The Night Beat

us.”
    “I note he’s not the one injured.” Ralph made this sound like Maurice had tossed me to Slimy and then run off screaming.
    “I wasn’t the one who went on Mister Monster’s Wild Ride,” Maurice said haughtily. “I also wasn’t the one listening to the Enforcement Band Radio to be able to intercept the object of my unrequited affections the moment she returned on premises.”
    Ralph growled, always impressive in a werewolf. The doctor in charge had enough. “All personnel who aren’t medically trained and part of my med team, out. Now. That particularly means you, Agent Rogers.”
    Ralph bared his teeth, shot me an expectant look that turned to doggy-disappointment when I didn’t demand he stay so we could hold paws, heaved the big sigh, then turned tail and left. The tension in the room dropped.
    Maurice winked at me. “I’ll ride herd on Mister Lovestruck. I can see why you want the human when this is your most likely alternate.”
    “I have options!”
    “Uh huh. Let’s talk about why you and Ken didn’t work out, shall we?”
    “Later,” the doctor snapped. “After she’s healed later.”
    Maurice blew kisses to all and swished out after Ralph. The tension in the room went back to normal.
    “How do you deal with them?” one of the nurses asked as they started the various tortures we called medical treatment.
    “I tell myself it could always be worse.”
    “How?”
    “I could be living and working with my parents.”

Chapter 10
     
    I was through with the torture that was medical care and ready to go back on duty. The only downside was that I knew without asking that Ralph was waiting for me. I prayed Maurice was, too.
    I normally didn’t waste prayer on something minor, but it had been a long night and Ralph always jumped up and down on my last nerve. Besides, if things went according to how they’d seemed, Jack was going to be here soon, and I didn’t really want to have to introduce him to Ralph.
    Of course, what I wanted and what was going to happen were rarely the same thing. Yahweh didn’t waste help on the minor stuff, which was why it never paid to bother him with it. This was one reason why plenty of other gods had a lot of Necropolite followers. Zeus and his gang were all over the little stuff, for example. But experience had taught me that when it was you against the Prince, it really paid to have the god willing to get down, dirty, and personally involved on your side.
    However, I wasn’t facing the Prince, I was facing the werewolf version of the entire cast of Revenge of the Nerds rolled into one. And sure enough, he was in the waiting room, at full alert. And, also sure enough, so were Ken and Jack. My ex, my hoped for, and my never gonna happen, all together in one small space. Sometimes my unlife was too good to be true.
    Maurice and Amanda were there, too, and Monty and Rover. They all looked worried.
    “I wasn’t hurt all that badly,” I said as Rover undulated over for pets and scritchies. As beings with no limbs, white worms unlived for the gentle scratching. I had Rover rolling around in wormy ecstasy in no time.
    “Yes, we know,” Ken said briskly. “We have a new problem.”
    I picked Rover up and let him drape over me. This earned me a happy smile from Monty and a glare from Ralph. Jack, thankfully, didn’t look grossed out. He looked like Ken -- worried.
    “Human, undead or otherworldly?” I asked while I scratched Rover under his chin and he gave me the white worm version of a love hug. Fortunately, Monty had him well trained, so no ribs cracked and I didn’t have trouble breathing.
    “We don’t know,” Ken said.
    “We got things squared away at the scene of the crime,” Jack added. “But….”
    “But?”
    Monty sighed. “But despite our cleanup efforts, there’s a residue that shouldn’t be there.”
    “Aura, deposit, signature, impression, what?”
    “Aura, as best we could tell,” Ken said.
    “ I couldn’t see it,” Jack said. “But I could feel it. It felt evil,” he added.
    “That makes sense.” I wasn’t looking directly at Ralph, but I could see him out of the corner of my eye. His tail was practically wagging itself off his body. I heaved a sigh. “This sounds like a job for us werewolves.”
    I knew I didn’t sound enthusiastic, but you’d never have been able to tell from Ralph’s reaction. He was practically bounding around the room with joy. “Vic and I will go check out the scene and report