“I’ve seen your fitness reports, Blake; don’t be coy.”

“Then you know I can pretty much lift weight until the mass of the weight to be lifted exceeds my body mass. Any other questions?”

He looked at me and tapped his finger on the edge of the file that had held the photos. “Not right now.”

“Good.” I stood up.

“The preternatural branch of the service is becoming more and more its own unit; did you know there’s talk of forming a new branch of service altogether?”

“I’ve heard the rumor,” I said, looking down at him.

“Some of the preternatural branch marshals are just killers with badges.”

“Yep,” I said.

“Why do you think the powers that be let you all run wild like this?”

I looked down at him. It seemed like a real question. “I don’t know for sure, but if I had to guess I’d say they’re making us into a legal hit squad. They give us badges to placate the liberal left, but they give us enough room in the law to kill the monsters the way the not-so-liberal right wants us to.”

“So you think the government is turning a blind eye to what the preternatural branch is becoming.”

“No, Marshal Raborn, I think they’re setting themselves up.”

“Setting themselves up for what?” he asked.

“Plausible deniability,” I said.

We looked at each other. “There are rumors that the laws are going to change again, and vampires and shapeshifters will be easier to kill legally, with less cause.”

“There are always rumors,” I said.

“If the laws change, which side will you be on?”

“The side I’m always on.”

“Which is?” He studied my face as he asked.

“Mine.”

“Do you think of yourself as human?” he asked.

I went for the door then, but stopped with my hand on the doorknob. I looked back at him. “Legally, shapeshifters and vampires are human; that you’d even ask that of me is not only insulting, but probably illegal.”