"Easy, man," Dave warned Tate, seeing my features darken. "This guy could pick his nose at dinner and then leave her with the check. Don't load the shotgun yet."

This visual seemed to calm Tate, because he shut up and turned his attention to the paperwork in front of him. There were photos of the crime scenes, autopsy reports, and eyewitness statements. You know, the usual light reading material. Most of the victims were either lesbian or bisexual and were last seen leaving with an Asian woman with long black hair. Three of the victims had left from the same bar, Ophelia's, so that's where we were headed.

"What do you think?" Tate finally asked after mulling over the reports for half an hour.

I tapped a finger at one of the photos. "Two men inside, posing as a couple. Two around the back as lookouts. The other six split in two groups with separate vehicles. No wires inside, only in the van. If I leave with the target, switch out the tail so she doesn't get suspicious. Once at her home base, wait for my signal, then come in blazing. Have someone waiting at the van to pull up the capsule immediately for transport. Should be quick and clean."

"Oh, it might be quick, but it's never clean," Dave commented.

I shrugged. It was true that we usually looked like something out of the horror movie Carrie after one of our missions. This was not a job for the squeamish.

"Tate, you can pick the pair for inside. But absolutely not Juan. He'd be too busy beating his meat to be any good as backup."

Dave laughed, easing some of the tension that still lingered from earlier. "Cat, are you sure you were never in the Navy? You have the dirtiest mouth of any chick I've ever met. Who taught you to speak that way?"

A twinge shot through me, and I shoved it back down with all the other memories of Bones that I couldn't bear to dwell on. "It just comes naturally, I guess."

Ophelia's was pretty upscale. Velvet couches, high-end tables, and excellent drinks. They boasted a smaller dance floor that was mostly packed with couples of the same sex. I wore a tight, strapless crimson dress that hugged my breasts in order to stay upright. I carried a small purse that held only my fake ID and cosmetics because all my weapons were tucked away in my specially made knee-high leather boots.

As soon as Juan saw me in my low-cut, tight dress, he began to protest his assignment outside the club. "Cat, you never let me have any fun. I'll tongue-kiss whoever you set me up with if you let me inside. Madre de Dios, you look like strawberries and cream, my favorite-"

I slapped him. He rocked back on his heels, but the grin never left his face. Maybe why I tolerated him, aside from his effectiveness as a fighter, was because he reminded me of another pervert. Change the Spanish accent to an English one, and it would be like listening to Bones.

"That's exactly why you're not coming inside, so shut up and get serious."

We left Juan to sulk in the van while I went inside, hoping to get lucky with a murderous female vampire who might or might not show. If she didn't come around tonight, there was always tomorrow. If at first you don't succeed and all that.

Tate and Peter followed me inside, pretending to be a loving couple. Once in the club, we didn't make contact with each other. We didn't have to. Every so often, one of them would whisper, "All clear," and I heard them. Wires weren't necessary when I could detect their slightest breath. Being half-monster did have its advantages.

A few times different women asked me to dance. I accepted, wanting to blend in. My current partner looked to be in her early thirties with curly brown hair and big brown eyes. Bones had taught me how to dance, one of the countless things he'd shown me, so there was nothing chaste about the way I moved. My partners seemed to like it. When this one tried to kiss me, however, I pulled back. No point in her getting possessive if the vampire showed up.

"Not so fast, honey," I said. "I'm keeping my options open tonight."

"Your loss," she replied, walking away.

I stifled a snort. Had to love a girl with confidence.

"You've never looked better," I heard Tate say to Peter, and I went on alert. That was the signal that they'd spotted someone who might be our target.

"Let's dance," I announced to the girl on my left, who'd been eyeing me for the past half hour. She accepted with alacrity and I turned things up a notch, gyrating aggressively against her. Then I grasped her hips and turned her around, nibbling on the back of her neck. She gasped and arched against me, molding her rear to my crotch.

"Juan would be spewing in his pants by now," I heard Peter say.

Tate kept his talk to business. "Target approaching your left."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a swish of waist-length black hair, poker straight and thick. Then almond-colored eyes met mine for an instant before I looked away.

That must have been enough for her because I felt her as she approached. Judging from the vibe she gave off, she had been undead for probably around fifty or sixty years. Older vampires gave off a stronger current, like supercharged static electricity. Master vampires were even rarer. They positively vibrated the air around them. Bones had been one of those. He'd crackled with energy like a walking lightning bolt. No wonder he was the person vampires called when they wanted to kill one of their own. Bones had been a bounty hunter, to put it nicely. Hit man would be a more appropriate term since most of the creatures he delivered were missing their bodies from the neck down. I should know; for a time, I'd been his assistant.

Almond Eyes was still watching me, I could feel it. For effect, I raised my arms and let my head fall back as though absorbed in the rhythm of the music, displaying my neck to maximum advantage. My crimson dress would be a startling contrast against my pale skin, which had a faint, almost imperceptible incandescence. My skin had garnered me the highest praise from my former victims. Bones had once likened it to a homing beacon for vampires.

Apparently it still worked, because she headed right for me, and her aura parted the air before her. When a cool hand touched my shoulder, I glanced up as if in surprise.

"I like you," she purred in smooth, unaccented tones.

My dancing partner glowered at her. "Hey, wait just a minute."

The vampire pushed her aside as casually as if she were swatting back like a pesky fly. Vampires were as tactful as rampaging bulls when it came to something they wanted.

"Sorry, sweetie," I said to the sputtering girl and then put my arms around the vampire. She was my height and our faces were level as we began to dance. She pulled my hips firmly against hers and then twisted them for maximum friction.

"What's your name, lovely?" she murmured, licking red lips.

I smiled back and licked mine too, but more leisurely. "Cat."

"Ahhh..." She drew the sound out as the music continued to another song. "Curiosity killed the cat, or so they say."

A dark sense of humor. My favorite. "And satisfaction brought it back," I replied at once.

She gave a throaty laugh. "I haven't heard that before. Do you believe it?"

"Oh, yes," I said and kissed her.

It was the first time I'd ever kissed a woman. When comparing apples to oranges, it wasn't any different. Lips, tongue, mouths, all the same. Granted, I wasn't used to tasting lipstick, but then what can you expect? None of the men I'd kissed had ever worn any.

She reached down and squeezed my ass. Getting pawed was an unfortunate necessity when playing the part of bait, but I only let this sort of activity go so far. If it went beyond my tolerance, I simply pulled out the silver. The sight of a long, lethal blade was enough to douse any vampire's lust, particularly when that blade soon skewered them in the heart.

Then someone roughly pulled us apart. I looked up to see a man, roughly forty, with a medium build and wearing a poorly fitting jacket.

"Excuse me, miss," he said to the vampire. "I'm Detective Avery, and I'd like to ask you a few questions."

So my people weren't the only ones staking out Ophelia's looking for an Asian murder suspect. Kudos to the local law enforcement for doing their homework and taking the initiative. Not that it would do them any good. You couldn't exactly read a vampire their rights.

"Detective?" Her voice was all innocence. "Of course. One moment." Then she turned back to me and her sultry expression returned. "Go get a drink, lovely. I'll be right back."

Shit. I hoped she didn't take him outside and break him in half. Walter was out there, but if he intervened, that would give us away. Fortunately, she looked like she had decided that discretion was the better part of valor. She led the detective to a corner in the bar, facing him so that her back was to the majority of the people.

With my enhanced vision, I saw a flash of green and heard her speak with inhuman resonation, telling him he'd seen nothing and to go home. Nosferatu mind tricks. They worked on humans like a charm. The detective headed for the door without a backward glance.

She took her place next to me moments later.

"What was that about?" I asked, just like a normal person would.

She trailed her hand across my bare shoulders. "Rash of car thefts. He wanted to know if I'd seen anything suspicious." The lie slipped from her lips without pause. "You have the most beautiful gray eyes I've ever seen, Cat. Like darkened silver, and your skin... You are stunning. I want to be alone with you."

My, but she was quick. We hadn't even shared a drink yet. "You haven't told me your name," I pointed out, as if piqued.

She kept touching me as she answered. "Jade."

"Jade." I covered her hand with mine. "I would love to be alone with you."

The valet went to get her car. Jade made good use of the time by kissing me deeply. From a block away, I could hear Juan moan. This was his dream come true. Thankfully, she paid the noise no heed, and the valet didn't take long to bring her shiny silver Corvette around.

"I hope you live close by," I said when I climbed into the passenger seat.

She smirked at me. "Not far, lovely."

After about ten minutes, Jade pulled up to a three-story house in an upscale neighborhood. Her house was surrounded by a high iron fence that opened electronically with a clicker in her car. It was well past midnight, but there were lights on inside her home.

"Your house is so large," I commented as I counted the number of heartbeats I heard coming from the structure. Three humans at least, and they could be prey... or pets. Over the years, I'd come to realize what Bones had repeatedly tried to tell me. Having a pulse didn't make someone automatically better; it only made them automatically warmer. I'd witnessed firsthand how cruel humans could be, and they matched the undead any day in viciousness.

"A few friends of mine stay with me," Jade replied as we entered the front door.

"I can't wait to meet them," I said, which was the absolute truth.

We walked through a lovely foyer and entered a large living room. I counted seven more vampires, four female and three males. A human woman sat on the lap of one of the males, and aside from the dazzling amount of jewelry she wore, she had nothing else on. I measured the otherworldly energy in the air and did a quick estimation that none of the vamps were over a hundred years old. Maybe I wouldn't need the team as backup after all.

"What do you think you're smiling at?" a pretty, petite blond vampire demanded as she rose from her chair.

Then Jade grabbed me from behind. I made no effort to struggle. Instead, I let out a laugh.

"What's so funny, lovely?" Jade murmured as her lips grazed my ear.

"You are," I retorted. "Thought you were bringing home takeout, didn't you?"

"What?" In her arrogance, she let me go and faced me. She'd shed her human disguise, and her eyes glowed with pure emerald light while her fangs extended like daggers.

"You have entered the realm of death," Jade declared. "Now look into my eyes."

That made me laugh harder. She was downright cliche. "No, but how about you look into mine?" And I unleashed the emerald light in my own gaze. She gasped in disbelief.

"You!"

Oh, so she'd heard about me. It was nice to have fans.

In the split second that she froze with shock, I pounced, twisting her head off before she could flinch. Then I torpedoed it at first vampire who lunged at me. That bought me another second, and I yanked my knives from my boots. Several blades sank home, and two more vamps went down for good. Another one leapt at me, and instead of moving out the way, I caught her. She was unprepared for my strength, and with a brutal snap, I broke her back over my knee. Her spine shattered and she collapsed. Before she had time to heal, I drove a blade into her heart and twisted. She began to shrivel at once.

Instead of attacking, the other four tried to run. This is where my team would come in handy. I gave chase, grabbing the nearest vamp and plugging his heart with a silver knife before flinging him out the window.

That was the signal they'd been waiting for. Moments later, the van crashed through the metal gates, and I heard the guys yelling as they approached the house.

"Get the human!" I barked to whoever was close enough to hear me as I spied the naked girl trying to escape out the side door. To ensure that she didn't get far, I flung one of my knives and skewered her in the hamstring. She went down with a scream, but she was lucky that she hadn't been trying to go for a gun or I would have aimed to kill. My human body count had gone up along with my vampire one.

The remaining three vampires raced up the stairs. I followed in hot pursuit, my adrenaline flowing. It was a sad reality that the only time I felt truly alive was when I was in a fight to the death.

Noise behind the door to my right made me drop low and kick it open. I rolled through the entrance, avoiding the arms that struck empty air instead of me since I was near the ground. Then I buried my dagger into the nearest body part, which turned out to be my attacker's groin. Hair-raising shrieks filled the room, and I yanked the knife out and thrust it through the vampire's heart next, jerking it brutally.

Two more to go.

On the third floor, I heard sobbing and movement. I ascended the stairs as quickly as I could and kicked through the only door at the top of the landing. One look revealed that it was a prison. My two vampires were in there, but so were two naked, weeping girls, and the vampires had them by the throats. Bite marks and bruises covered the humans' bodies, confirming that they'd been the vampires' version of an in-house snack. Even though I'd seen this sort of thing before, it still filled me with a blistering rage.

"You want to see them die?" the pretty blond-haired vampire hissed at me. She didn't look afraid, but the other vampire, a brown-haired man, stared at me with frightened fascination. "Come closer, and they will," she went on. "Leave, and they'll live."

"I have another proposition." As I spoke, I could hear one of my guys come up the stairs, so I kept talking to mask the sound of his footsteps. "The first one of you that lets a human go lives. The one that doesn't dies. Well? Who feels like living to bite another day?"

"I've heard of you," the male vampire said with a moan. "You're the Red Reaper. We told Jade not to bring home any redheads, but she thought you were a myth."

"Shut up, Taylor!" the blonde snarled.

"I'm not a myth, Taylor," I said. More footsteps started on the staircase. I talked louder, faster. "You know how many of your kind I've killed? Hundreds." Now that was a gross exaggeration, but it had the desired effect. Taylor visibly quailed.

The blonde turned to him in fury, and I took advantage. Three of my blades shot across the room and pinned her hand to the wall, away from the helpless girl's neck. Tate burst into the room at the same time and fired, striking Taylor several times. Tate was a crack shot and his gun was filled with silver bullets, so Taylor slumped to the floor. By the time the blonde yanked her hand free, I already had her gripped in my arms, and my final knife was in her chest.

"Don't even think of moving, Sunshine, or this silver will shred your heart," I warned.

Cornflower-blue eyes glared into mine. "What are you?"

"Homeland Security," I replied and left it at that.

Juan and Peter entered the room while sirens started to wail in the distance. The gunshots had no doubt disturbed the peace of this opulent neighborhood, not that I was worried. The other members of the team would hold the regular police at bay until the scene was contained.

"We've got a chopper coming to take these girls to a hospital," Peter informed me as he broke the chains around their wrists. Not surprisingly, both women were hysterical. He looked around the room for something to cover them with, but there was nothing.

"Bedsheets, lower floor," I said.

Juan went to fetch them. Then Arnold and John popped into the room. "Capsule's ready."

"Okay, Tate, cover me. I'll bring her downstairs, and you shoot if she even looks like she's thinking of making a break for it."

The blond vampire continued to glare her hatred at me, but she didn't try anything as we slowly made our way down the stairs and then out the front door. A tractor-trailer had been backed up as close as it could get to the house, and when my men saw me, they slid up the door.

The capsule was open, and the interior resembled an escape pod from hell. Four long, strategically placed silver pikes protruded from the capsule door, facing inward. Five sets of reinforced titanium clamps were awaiting the vampire's waist, wrists, legs, ankles, and neck. The capsule was soundproof, airtight, and blastproof, so once she was inside, she'd be truly helpless. She must have realized that because when she got a good look at it, the vampire began to scream.

Then she tried mind control, which didn't work on me, and my men had been trained never to look a vampire in the eye. Still, as a precaution, they snapped the opaque visors down from their helmets so their eyes were covered. Now they couldn't see, but we had run through this drill so many times they didn't need to. They knew this part by heart.

I shoved the blond vampire inside the capsule and began fastening the clamps. In less than a minute, I slammed the door shut, cutting off her wail when the silver spikes thrust into her torso. Too much struggling on her part, and they'd rip through her heart. That's how we made sure the vampire we brought back didn't wreck our transport on our way to the compound.

Once the capsule was safely loaded into the tractor trailer, Tate took off his helmet. "Don will be doing cartwheels about having a female vampire. We've only brought home males before."

"I don't think there'll be any difference in her blood," I muttered.

Juan gave me a wicked grin as he pulled his gloves off and flexed his fingers. "Cat, tonight was the best job we've ever pulled. Seeing you play tonsil-hockey with that gorgeous bloodsucker made my year. I'm going to burn new calluses into my hand just remembering it. Hey, do you think you could loan me that dress-?"

A punch to the jaw stopped him from saying anything else, and he rubbed his face. Dave coughed to cover his laughter, but I heard it anyway. Even Tate, usually more circumspect, had a curl to his lips, but then he sobered.