Paul thought, Just sit, keep breathing, don’t turn white, don’t turn red, don’t hit anybody or break anything.

“Paul?”

“Just a minute. I’m trying to decide if I should laugh or cry. What’s your thought? Tears?”

“I didn’t write it, Paul.”

“Damnit, Justin, don’t you see what this is?”

“It’s an attempt to recognize the human rights of an alien species.”

“It’s a license for the vampires to hunt and kill human beings. Jesus Christ, I lost my father to these things! A little boy waits, and a wife, she waits and waits, and Dad just never comes home. You go on for years wondering, ‘Did he die or get killed, or did he walk out on us?’ It eats away at your heart and makes you hard, and gradually, it kills your heart. In my case, I found my dad. Most people never find a damn thing.”

“The government has decided that the differently blooded are part of nature.”

“Justin, pardon my stupidity, but aren’t we out there trying to protect people? I mean, isn’t that the fundamental promise of government? If a rancher gets his cattle killed by coyotes, you know what happens? He goes out and he damn well shoots the buggers or traps ’em. Nature made the coyote to eat cattle. But that doesn’t mean the rancher’s just gonna let it happen.”

“You’re under investigation for suborning your orders, Paul.”

Suborning was an ugly word. It meant misusing your orders or intentionally misinterpreting them. It was the kind of word you heard in trials. “That’s the criminal route.”

“I told you to get a lawyer. This is a serious situation, buddy. You could be looking at a count of murder for every single creature you’ve killed.”

“Justin, for the love of God, help me!”

Justin stared at him like he was something in a damn zoo.

“This is coming from the White House.”

“A bunch of college kids with no experience of life. Look, this is about people being killed. You know—mothers and sons, fathers and daughters.”

Justin worked at his pipe. “I’m only the messenger.”

“Why don’t you tell Mr. President something for me—for this stupid grunt nobody who just happens to value human life above all things. A couple of days ago in Paris, I was in a room—deep underground—where I saw maybe half a million dead people stacked in rows . . . long, long rows. Every one of them was a tragedy. Every one of them was a broken family, or a broken heart, or at least a life stolen from somebody to whom it was precious.”

“People will have the right to defend themselves.”

“From something that can move so fast you can’t see it, that’s four times as strong as you are and twice as smart? I don’t think so.”

“The state will protect them.”

“Only one way to do that. Kill the vampires.”