My language didn’t ruffle him. Don hadn’t been around for the first twenty-two years of my life, but he’d been front row and center for the last five. I hadn’t even known I was related to him until a few months ago. Don hid our family connection from me, since he didn’t want me knowing that the vampire who-allegedly-raped my mother was his brother.

“We’re going to need to get another female to play bait,” Don stated. “You can still lead the team, Cat, but there’s too much liability to have you dangling on the hook any longer. I know Bones agrees.”

That made me give a sharp bark of laughter. Bones liked me risking my life on a regular basis about as much as I liked my father.

“Of course he does. Hell, Bones would dance on your grave if I quit my job.”

Bones arched an unperturbed brow, not disputing that.

“You’d just have him pull Don out from under the dirt, Cat,” Dave said with a wry smile.

I smiled back. That’s what Bones had done to Dave after Dave had been killed on a job. I’d known vampire blood was a powerful healing elixir, but I hadn’t known that if a mortally wounded person swallowed some before dying, he or she could be brought back later as a ghoul.

Don coughed. “Be that as it may, everyone agrees it’s become too dangerous for you to continue on as bait. Think of the bystanders, Cat. Whenever there’s a Code Red, more of them stand a chance of getting killed.”

He was right. Tonight was a prime example. Vampires and ghouls got pretty desperate when they were cornered. Add in the fact that I didn’t have a reputation for taking prisoners, and what did they have to lose by taking as many humans down with them as they could?

“Shit.” It was an acknowledgment of defeat. “But we don’t have any females on our team, thanks to your sexist rules, Don, and we have another job next week. That’s not enough time to round up a qualified female soldier, break the bad news to her about vampires and ghouls, train her to defend herself, and then have her dolled up and ready for action.”