"She doesn't like humans, you mean."

"Well, strictly speaking, Tess, neither of us is really human."

I cocked my head. "Touche. All right, she doesn't like the living, then."

"She is . . . complicated." He chuckled softly. "Dangerous."

"More dangerous than you?"

He licked his lips. "I suppose that's a matter of opinion. She does have a quick temper."

"But you're always in control." I smiled back. I was getting the hang of this game-the push and pull of dominance and submission. I wasn't about to tip my hand, but I needed him to realize that I wasn't a victim either.

He seemed pleased by the response. "I am more composed than she is," he said simply. "Less quick to anger. Though you wouldn't want to see me when I'm angry."

"No," I said. "I don't think I would."

Lucian leaned back. "You think Sabine had something to do with this." It wasn't a question.

His expression remained neutral.

I shrugged. "I don't know that for sure. But she does fit the bill-someone who the victim trusts, even idolizes. His mistress. He was carrying a picture of her in his pocket, after all."

Lucian looked doubtful. "Sabine is powerful, yes, but no vampire has the ability to inflict such an injury-they can cloud the mind, but not cut into it like a surgeon. That is telekinesis."

"What about necromancers?" I tried to sound casual.

Lucian's expression didn't change. "No. A necromancer couldn't do this."

I didn't get the impression that he was lying. Odd. I pushed further.

"I thought that some vampires were telekinetic."

"Some of the oldest and most powerful ones, yes-but even their abilities are limited. Bending light and shadow, levitation, manipulating objects from a distance-nothing so precise as what you've described."

"There are a few demons who might be capable of it," I said. "Rygel demons are often telekinetic, but they're native to South America. And they're secretors, so they'd leave behind some type of bodily fluid. There are some shamanic half-breeds who have the power to heal with surgical precision. They can also use that power to inflict damage, which is why they're sometimes hired as assassins. But that's extremely rare-I don't think there's been a case in over ten years at least."

"The majority of the world's most powerful telepaths," Lucian said evenly, "are human. I don't have to remind you of that."

"But why would a human kill a young, newly sired vampire, then leave him in an alley for us to find? It doesn't make a lot of sense."

"Death never does." He rose. "I'll get Sabine."

14.

My cell phone rang. I glanced at the call display and saw that it was my mom. Jesus Christ. Could she possibly have better timing? I switched the phone to vibrate and put it back in my pocket. Now didn't seem like the time to chat about Canadian Idol.

Lucian returned a few moments later. The girl with the bullwhip was right behind him. She was the one I'd locked eyes with earlier, when I first walked into the club. She'd gotten rid of her chain-mail outfit and replaced it with a tight-fitting red dress and stiletto boots. It wasn't BCBG either, but Armani. She was either loaded, or she'd recently bitten someone who worked at Leone. It was clear that she recognized me, too, since she was smiling. She glanced at me, then back at Lucian, and I saw a hint of fang-that was deliberate as well.

"Is she lost?" Sabine asked, in a mock-concerned voice.

"Miss Corday is an investigator for the CORE," Lucian said politely. "She found Sebastian's body."

Sabine shook her head. "Poor Sebastian. He was just a baby, you know."

"Actually," I said, trying to keep my voice firm, "I don't know much about him. That's why I was hoping you'd be able to answer a few questions."

She sat down on the floor in front of me. It was an odd position-I was higher up than her, but she knew exactly who was in charge. She was mocking me. Reminding me where we both stood on the food chain.

"Anything to help the CORE," Sabine said, smiling. "Your investigations are always crucial."

She didn't give a rat's ass about our investigations. She was probably close to four hundred years old, maybe five hundred, and-to her-we were just little bugs crawling around the surface of a corpse.

"Did Sebastian have any enemies?" I asked. "Anyone who saw him as a threat?"

"Does a newborn infant have enemies?" She gave me a patronizing look. "Sebastian didn't know anyone-except me-and nobody knew him. The child didn't have enemies. He didn't have friends." She smiled. "He just had me."

"Because you were his mistress. You took care of him."

"I made him." She rolled her eyes. "He was nothing before I met him. A worthless musician who didn't have two dimes to rub together. Playing shitty bars and collecting table scraps. I gave him the power that he'd always dreamed of."

I seemed to remember that Sebastian had long, graceful fingers. The fingers of a guitar player, or perhaps a pianist. I briefly imagined him busking outside of The Commodore, playing keyboard at night while the cabs shot by him like golden daggers, and drunken students narrowly avoided kicking over his hat full of tips. It didn't make me sad. It made me angry.

"You sired him," I said, "which means that you could just as easily destroy him-if you felt that was necessary."

Sabine made a sound deep in her throat. It was like a dog's growl, only much lower. My eyes widened, and Lucian laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Easy," he said. "She doesn't understand your kind, remember."

I noticed he didn't say "our kind." I guess a part of him was still human-he remembered that he wasn't a vampire, at least. But what was the space between human and vampire? Where did that leave him? Riding a difficult hyphen.

"Obviously not," she spat. When she looked at me, her eyes were black with contempt. "To be sired is a holy gift- an act beyond measure. Among our kind, the most loathsome crime is infanticide, for one to murder one's own creation. To destroy my own kin would make me a defiler of the worst sort. An outcast."

"So you didn't kill him," I said affably.

"I couldn't! Such a thing is beyond my comprehension!"

I shrugged. "But you don't seem too distraught that he's dead. You don't seem too surprised either."

Her eyes narrowed. "You know nothing of what I feel. Just because I don't wear every grotesque emotion on my face, like a human, doesn't mean that I don't feel it just as keenly below the surface."

"You've got a great poker face, then."

She put her hand on my knee. The touch was light, but it felt like a ton of bricks. She could tear my leg off before I had the chance to breathe.

"I loved Sebastian," she said. "Perhaps you don't believe that, since he was my inferior-my servant. But I've loved all of them. Everyone that I've sired."

I shuddered to think how many of Sabine's "children" might be out in the world, maiming and killing for her.

"If he was so weak," I said, "he doesn't seem like a suitable mate for you. I get the impression that you like"-I smiled thinly, careful to avoid looking into her eyes-"power. Right?"

Sabine laughed softly. "Obviously, Miss Corday, you know very little about the mechanics of sexuality."

I blinked. "Enlighten me, then."

She licked her lips. "The submissive is always the one with the power-always the one in control. I enjoyed giving power to Sebastian, just as I enjoyed taking it away. And besides-power is a tricky thing. That, at least, you must understand. Sometimes you find it in the unlikeliest places."

"Even in a human?" I kept my look level.

Sabine shrugged affably. "Humans can be interesting- under the right circumstances." Her eyes fell on Lucian, and he didn't look away.

"Sabine has many outside interests," he supplied.

"Well," I said coldly, "I'll just try not to follow that suggestion to its logical conclusion, if you don't mind."

"Sebastian was gentle, yes," Sabine continued. "His sensitivity made him a good companion, but a poor vampire. I had to protect him at all times, or else he would have been killed by someone more powerful."

"By one of your enemies?" I asked.

She looked at me archly. "I do have several. And yes, to insult me, they might have killed one of my servants. Since Sebastian was the weakest one, he would have been the likeliest target. But Lucian tells me that he wasn't killed by one of our kind."

"We're not sure of that yet."

"Well, what are you sure of?"

I exhaled. I didn't trust Sabine under any circumstances, but I couldn't tell if she was lying or not. I got the impression that everything she said was lies mixed with truth-the hardest kind to decipher. Like political rhetoric.

"All we know," I said, "is that something very powerful killed Sebastian, and then left his body for us to find. His murder is also connected somehow to the attempted murder of a teenage girl who we've been watching. We found her address in Sebastian's shirt pocket."

She raised an eyebrow. "Why would he care about a human girl?"

"I don't know. I thought you might be able to answer that question."

Sabine smiled. "Sebastian's loyalty was rare for a vampire, even a young one. He served me and only me."

"Sexually, you mean."

She nodded. "Nobody else touched him."

"Our serology department didn't find any traces of semen or vaginal fluid on Sebastian's body, so it wasn't likely that he'd engaged in any sexual encounters for at least forty-eight hours prior to his death."

"Sometimes," she said, "I liked to make him wait. Fasting, you might call it." Her eyes swept across my body, and I was startled momentarily by the strength of her hunger. Vampires were known for their erotic flexibility, but Sabine seemed especially voracious. "It makes the prize sweeter."

Lucian was also looking at me, although his expression wasn't one of hunger. I couldn't quite read it.

"I'm sure it does," I said, trying to sound neutral. "Did Sebastian have a residence of some kind? An apartment where he slept during the day?"

She made an unpleasant expression. "A putrid little hole in the Downtown Eastside. The only thing he could afford, the poor lamb."

"You've been there?"

"Sometimes I visited him."

I could only imagine what a nocturnal visit from Sabine might entail.

"We didn't find any keys on him."

Sabine reached into a hidden pocket of her dress-very well hidden, since it was practically skintight-and handed me a generic-looking key.

"I have my own," she said. "Go ahead and search his place. I hope you find some answers there."

"Technically, we need a warrant-"

She laughed. "You don't need anything to do your job. I've seen your kind do all sorts of things without permission. It's all just worthless paperwork anyway, and my people don't respect something that's written on a piece of paper."

"But you do respect power," I said levelly.

Her eyes held mine for a moment, and they seemed to gleam with their own inner light. I didn't look away, although I could feel my insides constricting.

Sabine smiled. "You may not have power, but you do have courage, child. And I respect that. So go ahead. Tell me if you find anything."

I took the key. Our fingers touched momentarily, and I felt a current of electricity pass between us-a dark flow of power. She was tasting me, just as Lucian had. Only, where Lucian's mind had been playful, hers was like a cover of black earth, an immense darkness slipping over me. Her power was old, with sharp edges. Almost animal. I breathed in slowly to keep from being sick. Sometimes you could forget how different vampires were, until they did something like that-and then you remembered that you were dealing with a velociraptor in the body of Scarlett Johansson.

"Thank you, Sabine," I said, weakly inclining my head.

"Like I said"-she laughed-"anything for the CORE." She rose, crossing to the doorway, then put her hand lightly on Lucian's chest.

"Coming?"

"Soon," was all he said.

She brushed her lips against his cheek, then left the room.

Huh-an interspecies romance. He must be v-sexual, after all.

"Well," I said, "she's certainly a cool glass of water."

Lucian chuckled, resuming his spot on the couch beside me. "Yes-Sabine can be tricky. As you've seen, she respects power."

"But you don't think she's capable of murdering Sebastian."

Lucian looked at me thoughtfully. "To tell you the truth, I don't know everything that Sabine is capable of. But it seems unlikely that she would kill her own servant-especially someone as weak as Sebastian. It makes more sense that someone would kill Sebastian to get to her. To send her a message."