Free Breach (The Blood Bargain) by Macaela Reeves Page B

a vitals section; births, deaths, marriages.  No surprise that the deaths folder was the largest.  I wondered if... I went to the T’s.  Looking for the good doctor.
    His file was thicker than others.  I pulled it out, finding no documented cause of death on the piece of paper just a date and the word deceased.  Beneath it was a report of what had happened prepared on an old fashioned typewriter.
     
    Doctor Albert Tommen was tried in closed doors for unauthorized experimentation on reanimated corpses, collecting test subjects through illegal means, and six counts of murder.
    Evidence presented proved without a doubt that the doctor conspired with Antonia of the vampiric house of Lambros on the above mentioned crimes. The council unanimously found Albert Tommen guilty of all charges and subsequently sentenced him to death.
    Through special request, Albert Tommen was delivered to Caius to execute his sentence as decreed by the council.
     
    There was a post it note stuck on to the back of the trial paper:
     
    His unfortunate choices have led to the death of virology as we know it.  There are no other survivors from the CDC in our region that have been accounted for.  From this date on, no further research into the lifespan, extermination or biology of the dead will be commissioned.
     
    I bit my lip at the phrasing.  Illegal means indicated the possibility of legal means to obtain bodies.  The thought of any authorized research within our walls made my skin crawl.
    Surely the council hadn’t been that stupid.  After all, Dimitri had indicated it was forbidden.
    Dimitri ...why again do all roads lead back to flipping Dimitri?  With a groan I put the files back and shut the cabinet.  I had other things to do besides stand here and brood. 
    Locking up the records office, I was able to get off the second floor and out of the building without having to exchange words with any of my fellow councilmen.  Zack had tried to strike up a conversation with me just off the first floor landing, but I mumbled something about being in a rush and kept on walking.
    I was technically in a rush, so it wasn’t a total lie.
    The task the council had given me required coordination.  One did not just walk up to the vampire’s home and ring the doorbell.  You needed an invitation.  Failure to have one could likely result in death as they tended to take the private property rule to new levels.
    There was only one person in town who took those appointments.   The single gateway for coordinating blood duty and all other needs of the vampires.  Not even Daddy Graham could get around it.  An understood truth in Junction, if you wanted to talk to Caius, you went to Yu Wei.
    I didn’t know how she got the job-I never asked-but she held onto it despite the level of concern and xenophobia the rest of the community had projected over the years.  No one was outwardly rude or disrespectful to her, on the contrary deep down I think the majority of survivors in our community respected the hell out of her.  After all she dealt with the creepy crawlies so they didn’t have to.  All of her work was conducted out of an old nail salon on the square, complete with the 1980’s style posters-women with big hair, bright red lipstick and mile long red fingernails-and the turquoise wall border over faded pink walls decorated with too many mirrors.  I had been there only once before for orientation after Dimitri had demanded I be placed in his blood service.
    He had saved my life, guess he wanted a piece of it in return.
    When I pushed open the door to the old shop she did not look happy to see me, looking down over her reading glasses her brows came together, edge of her lip turned downward.  Combined with her dark hair knotted on her head and her reserved clothing, she kind of reminded me of a librarian.
    “Back so soon Miss Younger?”   She made no move to get up from behind the desk where she was seated, simply turned the page of the