“You misunderstand the point of a symbol of faith then.” He walked toward the vampires. “You’re abominations, of course it doesn’t matter to you. What matters is how much it means to me.”

The alley filled with light.

Cazador, Alabama

Earl Harbinger lit up a cigarette. He tried not to smoke in the conference room out of professional courtesy, but it had been a stressful day. They’d only just gotten back to the compound, and already their world was getting flipped upside down again. His team were gathered around the conference table, every last one of them staring at the piece of paper sitting in the middle like it was a snake that was about to bite them. In a way, he supposed it probably was.

It was the largest PUFF bounty ever, and it was being offered as part of a special, one of a kind deal. A quarter billion bucks . . . He may have been one tough son of a bitch, but he was still vulnerable to conventional weapons. There was no crazy magic, no weird effects, ancient curses, or mystical bullshit. It was just a lone flesh golem. Normally, taking that on would be a no-brainer.

But this was Franks they were talking about.

Holly Newcastle broke the silence. “That sure is a lot of money . . .”

Owen Pitt pounded his fist on the table. “We can’t spend it if we’re dead!”

The room went back to being unnaturally quiet.

On the surface, this was straightforward. Franks was like him. They were special, but they still had to abide by certain rules. When something like them strayed off the reservation, then it was open season. If the tables were turned, and Earl had murdered some innocent people, then his PUFF exemption would be revoked, and Franks wouldn’t give a shit about their history. Franks would do his best to put Earl in the ground.

Earl took a drag from his cigarette. “I want everyone’s opinion.”

Milo Anderson had just got back from his cadaver delivery at the body shack, and hadn’t even bothered to take off his rubber apron. “We know Franks.”

“We know he’s an asshole,” Holly muttered.

“Well yeah, but he’s the good guy’s asshole. Wait. That’s not right. I mean he’s one of the good guys,” Milo said. “Nominally . . . Okay, sometimes. Probably a little.”

Milo was something of an idealist, and even he was having a hard time thinking of Franks as good.

“Come on. We know Franks has done some pretty awful things to innocents.” Trip Jones especially didn’t have any patience for the MCB’s witness intimidation. It offended his sense of honor. Earl liked having Trip on his team because it was good to have a Hunter with an actual conscience. “Is him murdering a bunch of Feds really that farfetched to anybody?”

There were a lot of shrugs and shaking heads at that.