RITS: Forever Knight: A Stirring of Dust, Chapter 6

Honesty times, Snowflakes. I don't like Radu, and I don't like these flashbacks. Zombie vampires would keep me interested, but it's all about a manufactured love interest with Janette, now, so I'm a little bored. And this chapter doesn't help, because the first half is all about Radu - and the second half is MetroPD's outstanding police work.

Radu, if you hadn't figured it out yet, is totally the vampire from the silver box who's running around slicing people's heads off. He slept in a dumpster during the day, and there's an interesting bit about how the silver calms him, keeps him from dreaming. Silver, of course, is tied up in a lot of paranormal legends. It'll kill werewolves, and in some tellings of vampires, it will injure or kill them, too. This is the first legend I've seen where silver is a boon to the vampire.

Anyway, Radu kills a homeless dude and takes his clothes, and then is off to look for more food. He finds it, and tells the guy that they're going to talk first, and then he'll kill him. He needs to know about this century, which makes me think he's been in that box since the flashback timeline. He's all confused by cars and the lights, and then he gets distracted by a vampire on a plane flying above him.

That triggers flashback time, where he's trying to convince Janette to stay with him in the middle of nowhere, probably Romania. It's the night after they all split up, and she totally fucked him, though I can't imagine why. No, wait. Nick's probably boring as fuck in bed.

Radu's all convinced he's in luuuuuurve with her, and wants her to stay with him, but she's noncommittal. They're on a balcony, and they start making out when Nick comes in and physically pulls Radu away. Radu thinks it's about jealousy, but Nick points to a zombie vamp and demands an explanation. Where'd the zombie vamp come from? Nobody knows! Sizemore didn't think it important to make sure we knew it was up on the balcony, too, but apparently it was.

Don't do that when you write, kids. Put everything you see in a scene on the page for your readers. I don't mean have pages and pages of descriptions, but if it's important? Yeah, you should throw in a line or two. I would think Janette wouldn't want a zombie watching her suck face with Radu, but who knows?

Back in the future, Radu realizes that he should be looking for Janette, who is his Twoo Wuv.

He bites the guy and kills him, but doesn't cut off his head, and the dude gets up almost immediately to go attack people for blood.

At the precinct, Nick walks in late and gets read the riot act by Tracy, who had to go to the homeless dude's crime scene all by herself. And here's this chapter's theme: Bitches be overreacting - except not really.

Tracy's upset, because the crime was vicious and disturbing. She tells Nick that they're supposed to be working together - he can't just waltz in and out any time he wants. She was warned about what a loner he is, but she doesn't like it.

He apologizes, though he does tell her that crime scenes are bad, and she has to get used to them. She sends him over to the crime lab - which we finally learn is in its own separate building, not in the basement, like I've thought for 20 years - to look at the body.

Before he goes, his attention is captured by a woman in the precinct who's there to report an attack. Some dude bit her - and she claims he was dead. "Haven't you people seen Night of the Living Dead?" she says, while a uniform says she needs to calm down, and Reese says she needs a sedative.

Bitches be overreacting.

Nick, of course, knows that she was bitten by a zombie vamp, and he goes to see the body before he can hear anything else from her, because it makes him uncomfortable.

The homeless guy was bitten, obviously. Nat is having a moral crisis about having to lie on her reports just to protect vampires. Well, not just to protect them. To protect herself, too, because if she reports about vampires, not only will she lose her job, she could bring the Enforcers down on herself. Despite the fact that we've seen said Enforcers ONCE in three seasons.

She and Nick also talk about how the media might get involved, and that Reese likes them, so Nick might have to have a talk with Reese and get him to keep things quiet.

Nick has a whole bit where he thinks about Natalie overreacting, but then dials himself back because this is her whole, real life. She can't just pick up and become someone else if things go badly for her - and if they go really pear-shaped, she'll end up dead. He's not used to worrying about anyone else, and he has to consciously make the effort to take Nat's concerns seriously.

Nick says that whoever's cutting off the heads is doing these victims a favor - because the headless dead won't walk. Nat asks him straight-up what's going on. Nick is hesitant to tell her, but in this modern world with super-fast communication and no superstition, he needs to rely on humans to keep the monsters secret. He's afraid of what will happen if the monsters ever come out of the coffin, because he thinks it will be violent. (Josephine vehemently disagrees, in case you wondered.) Luckily he can rely on Dr. Lambert, the ME, to keep things quiet in this case.

He tells her about the zombie vamps - well, that they exist. She wants to know all about them, but his own superstition prevents him from talking about them. Sort of a Voldemort situation. He tells Nat that it's better if she knows less, and she sort of eyerolls him about it, but doesn't argue very forcefully.

He then asks her to cut the heads off of anyone who comes through the morgue that she thinks may have been bitten.

Nat's all "NOPE" but Nick pleads with her. This is for public safety, not just to cover up paranormal crimes. He swears he'll get the murderer - and then is off to do just that, while he has darkness on his side.