The Night Beat

back.”
    Maurice snorted, big time. “As if.”
    “This is a werewolf job,” Ralph snarled.
    “And under chapter three, section twenty-two, paragraph fifteen of the Enforcement Codebook, no agent will go to investigate any source likely to be attached to the Prince without at least two other agents of different species.” Ken could quote the Codebook verbatim and from memory. The reason none of us hated him for it was because he only did it in cases like this.
    “That means you need a vampire and a lich along,” Maurice translated snidely. “Or a zombie, but, since we don’t have one handy, you’re stuck with us. And, since we’re so dedicated to the cause and there are two of you, you luck out and get three vampires, an extremely experienced lich, a white worm and, if I’m any judge, a human along for the ride. Aren’t you lucky ?”
    Ralph growled. “We don’t need any of you along. A werewolf pack together can never be defeated.”
    “Um, right, Ralph.” I did not want to get into this subject with him here and now. Never, really. Ralph and I didn’t see nose-to-nose on this one, and I doubted we ever would. “However, since I’m the agent in charge of this case, I say who goes along. And considering what came out of there almost kicked all of our butts and then some, I want everyone named already with us. And, if we cross any zombies, succubae, witches, warlocks, altar-demons, fairies, mummies, skellies, hellhounds, daemon cats, or any other undead species on active duty, I want them along, too.”
    “As far as anyone’s ever heard,” Maurice added, “two does not a pack make.”
    Ralph grumbled and growled, but I ignored him and strode out of the waiting room. Happily Amanda caught up to me before I had to stop and ask which way was out. Overachieving sense of smell or not, hospitals messed with me big time.
    “Jack’s taking this really well,” she murmured to me as we walked briskly to the moving sidewalk that would take us from the hospital wing and into Central HQ.
    “Yeah, I hope he’s not faking it.”
    “He’s not. We all scanned him. He’s interested, but not freaked out. Probably why your police chief partnered him with you.”
    “We’ll see, I guess.” I tried not to be hopeful -- interested in the whole undead thing and interested in a relationship with an undead were two different things.
    We reached Central HQ, hopped off the moving sidewalk, and went to the dispatch desk. The Count wasn’t there, of course. He ran dispatch, but he ran it from higher up. He left the mundane portions of dispatch to those Enforcement personnel trained for it. Tonight we had three succubae, two banshees, and a couple of skeletons on duty. However, I wanted the being in charge.
    “Is Clyde around?”
    One of the banshees nodded and shrieked his name. Ralph and I just managed to cover our ears in time, and thankfully, Maurice covered Jack’s. Vampires could mute a banshee’s scream and liches and white worms were immune to it. But it was beyond painful for werewolves and humans.
    “A little warning next time would be nice,” Ralph growled. I didn’t contradict him.
    Clyde lumbered around from the back. He was an older mummy originally from Egypt. Amazingly, not all mummies were -- they were dotted all over the Eastern Hemisphere. But we got a steady migration -- Necropolis was considered newer and more vibrant, the place to go if you really wanted to make it as an undead and set yourself apart from the rest of the deaders. If you could make it here, you could make it anywhere, kind of thing.
    Clyde had come out before it was cool, though. When Necropolis formed, centuries before, he’d volunteered to come and help get things set up, and he’d never left. He and the Count were close friends, which helped. Between the two of them, they knew everything that had gone on in and around Necropolis. H.P. had them guest lecture a lot.
    “Hello, Victoria,” Clyde said slowly. Mummies spoke faster than golem, but neither were speed demons verbally. “Glad to see you back to normal.”
    “Me, too.” I ignored Ralph’s grumbling about how human form wasn’t really normal for a werewolf and forged on. “Has H.P. briefed you or the Count about what we encountered tonight?”
    He nodded. “Yes. Very unusual.”
    “Getting more unusual. Ken and Jack found what we think is residual aura left after some heavy-duty cleanup. We’re heading back to check it out, but do you have anything