When we pulled up, the cops had her body on the street and EMTs were standing nearby.

She’d been beaten and her throat had been slashed. It was a message, I could tell that, and it didn’t bode well for Mike’s survival. Or Warwick’s.

Hargrove was there. “You…whoever has that police scanner…”

I hopped off the bike and tugged off my helmet.

“You…”

“I’ve seen worse,” I told him, firmly. “Any sign of the other two?” I tried to sound as if one of them wasn’t somebody I cared about. I tried to sound like some kind of professional. Truth was that I didn’t really want to look at the body. There wasn’t as much blood as there should be.

Thruor frowned. “There’s not enough blood. They took some of it.”

“Not vampires.”

“No. Definitely not vampires. She’d stink of them if it was. Much more likely people who fancied themselves as witches. Or demon worshippers. Or, like Hargrove said, the mob. Maybe they have some other use for the blood.” She sounded doubtful on that.

“Vampires are real.” Hargrove almost asked that as a question.

“Yes, and they don’t sparkle,” I told him with slight amusement. “They stink. But this wasn’t vampires. Thea’s right – the body would smell of them if it was, and it would be puncture wounds, not a slash from a bladed weapon.” I sighed. “Okay…she was found here?”

“She was found in that dumpster.” Hargrove pointed.

Wishing for the fyrhund…or even a mundane dog…again, I headed over to the dumpster and peeked into it. “Where’s her badge?”

“Gone. Probably, they’re hoping they can use it to get entry or something. People keep thinking they can do that.”

I wondered what precautions cops took against badge theft and counterfeiting that I didn’t know about. They had to have some measures to keep people from stealing a badge and then using it to break into somebody’s home. “Yeah. Probably.”

Even if Thea was right and this was some kind of black magic ring, they were still crooks, with a use for a police shield. But in that case…

The back of my neck pricked. I dropped behind the dumpster automatically.

Gunshots. Several of them, from the far side of the area. One of the cops fell as the others scattered to cover. After a moment, they returned fire.

Mundanes, definitely. Thea had also found cover behind the ambulance. The bullets were putting holes in it.

I reached for my own gun then hesitated. In front of the cops. Finally, I decided they could avoid officially noticing in this and snapped off a couple of what I hoped were helpful shots.

Then, things went quiet.