I had the old cuffs off and was able to see Barney’s wrists clearly enough to think that they were both thicker than mine, though still narrow for a man of his height. I had a moment of struggling with the locking mechanism on the new cuffs. It was only the third time I’d put them on anyone outside the practice that we’d all been ordered to attend when they became semistandard issue. I was up on my knees, concentrating so hard on the metal that Barney leaned close enough so his mouth almost touched my hair, before Dolph put a foot on his shoulder and kept him pressed against the wall. He also had a handgun pointed at him. It would be hell to pay if he died in custody, but Dolph was the boss, and if the boss said it was time for guns, you didn’t argue. I couldn’t even argue, not really.

I answered the young cop’s question, now that I had Dolph there ready and willing. “Most holy items only glow like that when the vampire is using vampire powers; once the vamp quiets down the glow diminishes, or goes out.”

I got the shackles off over Barney’s boots; they were the big ones designed to go over men’s boots. The cuffs were big enough to fit around my neck and have room to spare. The vampire was tall enough that he had to draw his knees up so the single solid metal bar between cuffs and shackles could reach, since Dolph was keeping his upper body very solid against the wall.

“So, it’s not that the Sarge lost his faith?” the young guy asked, and the moment he asked I realized we had a more serious problem. I stood up so I could keep half my attention on the newly chained vampire and still see the cop who’d asked. He was a uniform, with brown hair cut too short for his triangular face. His eyes were a little wide still. I didn’t get into it in front of the suspect, but I made a mental note later, noting the name tag on the officer: Taggart. If you didn’t have faith in God, or whatever, then holy items didn’t work no matter how bug-nuts the vampires got.