I looked up, and saw that Sabine wasn't listening. She was staring out the window instead. I had to get her involved in this as well. I couldn't afford to have her paying too close attention to the outside world, in case help arrived.

Yeah. Sure. The mystical cavalry. "I've got to admit," I said carefully, swallowing the bile around my words, "the whole thing was brilliant. You heard about the magnate and the vampire line of succession from Sabine, your undead girlfriend. I'm pretty sure that's a violation of CORE rules, by the way-dating a vamp."

He said nothing. Just kept smiling.

"And you," I said, looking straight at Sabine, "back at the club, you told me that you liked humans, so long as they were interesting. Well, Marcus Tremblay was all kinds of interesting, wasn't he? Smart, rich, powerful-he had complete control over the CORE Mystical Crime Division. With an ally like that, you'd be able to do all sorts of nasty things to the humans that you found less interesting-and there'd be no consequences. You must have gotten all lubed up over that idea, huh?"

"Don't pretend to know me, human." Sabine glared at me. "I deal in power, just like Lucian Agrado deals in death. Marcus had the power that I was looking for. It was as simple as that. Desire never played a part."

I looked at Marcus, and saw a flash of annoyance pass across his face. Annoyance, and something deeper.

I'd been right. Marcus was a lot deeper into this relationship, while Sabine was just in it for the swag. The power. And that irked him. If I could get them mad at each other, I could throw them off balance.

"So," I continued, "Sabine tells you about Patrick-the number one draft pick for vampire magnate-and you can tell that she's just itching to have him replaced. Lucian was the one who picked him out, and Sabine has a real problem with Lucian. Maybe it's an intimacy thing, maybe she resents the fact that he still has a heartbeat and doesn't turn into Korean barbeque whenever the sunlight hits him-hell, maybe he just wasn't very good in bed-who knows how her mind works? Whatever the case, she's got a vendetta. And that's where you come in."

I saw a dark shadow pass over Sabine's eyes when I mentioned Lucian's name. I'd been right a second time. I remembered her words. We satisfied each other once. I'd assumed at first that Sabine, the powerful immortal, was the one who ended the relationship, but now I was willing to bet that Lucian had done the deed. Sabine still had feelings for him. She was displacing all of that onto Marcus, but he was just a pawn. It must have pissed him off so much. He was a powerful mage, at the height of his game, and he knew that he'd never mean anything to Sabine. She loved her poor submissive thrall, Sebastian, more than she'd ever care about Marcus.

"You and Sabine talked it over and decided that a little change was in order. If Patrick became the magnate, then Lucian would convince him to take a more active role in cementing the peace between vampires and mages. He was like Desmond Tutu in necromancer's robes. You said it yourself, Sabine. Lucian was a pacifist."

She continued to glare at me.

"But that would shake up everything," I continued, "especially for you, Marcus. You were profiting from the conflict between vampires and mages. It gave you all sorts of high-profile cases to investigate. If the truce between us became something stronger-like an alliance- then you'd suddenly be pushing paper. You wouldn't be the CORE's golden boy anymore, and Internal Affairs would be going over your entire life with a fine-tooth comb. They'd be investigating every office, and you knew that they'd turn up all sorts of other nasty deals that you had in the works. All of the skeletons in your closet. You couldn't let that happen."

I took a breath. "That's around the time you discovered that your beloved Sabine had a younger vamp on the side. Sebastian. He was newly minted undead, all enthusiastic and full of promise. You knew that Sabine would get tired of your relationship eventually, and make Sebastian her exclusive paramour. So that's when you realized that he'd be the perfect victim for your plan involving Mia."

"Sebastian was pathetically stupid," Marcus said. "Loyal, like a puppy. He followed her around everywhere. He was the easiest one to manipulate."

Sabine flashed him a look of undisguised hatred. This was working better than I'd thought it would. Both of them clearly despised each other, even as they desired each other at the same time, only for different reasons. They were using each other ruthlessly, but now the fibers of their sick partnership were beginning to come undone. I could see the fractures. Both of them underestimated each other, and both held the other's dreams and desires in contempt. They'd made no effort to understand one another-it was just business. But that would end up being their most crucial mistake.

"You introduced some poisonous gossip into the mix," I said to Marcus. "You let Sabine drop some of the details about Mia, the line of succession, and what you planned to do with the poor girl. He didn't realize that you'd already infected her long ago."

Mia looked stricken at this, although she must have known by now. She didn't say anything.

She just stared straight ahead.

"Poor, noble Sebastian," I went on, "still so young and enthusiastic-he couldn't stomach the thought of a young girl dying, just to prevent a political alliance. So he went looking for Mia-not to kill her, as you made us believe, but to warn her. But you and Sabine were one step ahead of him.

"You knew how Cassandra would react when she saw Sebastian. She thought that he'd come to take Mia away from her, and she wasn't about to let that happen. After she killed him, she left his body for us to find. That's when one of you came along, although I'm not sure which one."

"I found him," Sabine said. Her voice was unexpectedly muted. "I saw his body there-saw what that bitch had done to him."

I understood it now.

"You told Marcus," I said, "and then he joined you in the alley." I looked at him. "You posed Sebastian's body-made it look curious. You could have eradicated the body, but you knew that it would be a challenge. His death was so mysterious, so bizarre, that you knew we'd have to investigate it. And for the finishing touch, you put that photograph in his pocket, so that we'd come straight to Sabine. She'd be able to handle us from there. And then you made sure that I was assigned to the case."

"Because I knew you'd screw up," Marcus spat.

I smiled. "Exactly. You'd seen my records, and you wanted me gone. So I was your second victim. You made sure that I'd be occupied with figuring out what happened to Sebastian, and then-well, that's when things got complicated. " My smile widened. "You hired the Vailoid demons because they were mercenaries-they'll do anything, if the price is right. You sent them after Mia, but here's where your plan hit its first snag. You didn't expect her to be with me."

I remembered the Vailoid demon's words. Nobody said anything about two mages. Marcus hadn't expected us to be with Mia at all. It was designed to be a clean kill, slick and execution style, but Derrick and I became the unexpected variables.

"It didn't make any sense," Marcus admitted. "She wasn't supposed to be at your apartment."

"Of course not. So when your Vailoid demon tracked her, he ended up following her there- into the middle of a very unexpected confrontation with two CORE operatives."

My eyes narrowed. "At first, I couldn't figure out why he had a gun. A Vailoid is more than capable of tearing a human being apart with its bare claws. But now I realize that it was part of your original plan. You were going to have the Vailoid shoot Mia, execution style, and then blame it on a human criminal." I smiled. "Probably me. Then you could blame Cassandra's death on me as well. Since I was supposed to be working Mia's case, I was the one responsible for her death. But that plan didn't quite work, because Derrick and I managed to kill the Vailoid."

Marcus said nothing. I had him there.

"So you sent another group of Vailoid demons after Cassandra. This time, I wouldn't be there, since you'd assigned me to check out the vampire's den-where Sabine could keep an eye on me. Or rip my throat out. Whatever came first. But Mia got spooked and called me. Once again, you'd managed to underestimate our relationship. You couldn't fathom that I might actually care about this girl-that I might jeopardize my job, and my life, in order to keep her safe. That's why you were so surprised when you saw me at SemTec Laboratories. Well, not saw me." I gave him a pleasant look. "You heard me-us-coming out of the elevator. And I felt the hint of your signature." I glared at Marcus. "You couldn't hide from me forever."

"I wasn't hiding." He chuckled. "You know that by now."

"You'd sent two Vailoid demons to murder Cassandra," I continued, "and she managed to kill one of them. So there was one left. One loose end. You heard us and panicked."

"We didn't panic, sweetheart." Sabine shook her head. "We knew that you'd be coming. You just got there a little too early-that's all. So we did a little slice and dice on the Vailoid demon-"

"And then you threw him out the window," I finished. "That makes sense, since Marcus alone wouldn't be strong enough to lift him. You both figured that his cranial injuries would look consistent with a fall from a fourteenth-story window. But you were a bit rusty on your demonoid biology. You forgot that Vailoid demons have a thick outer carapace on their skulls-a bony covering. Cassandra's psionic blast hit his brain directly, just as it had with Sebastian, but it couldn't smash through his skull. And neither could the pavement. The demon's injuries didn't make sense-and they led us right back to Sebastian's autopsy results."

I continued to smile. "And because you were panicky now, you made another mistake. You didn't have the chance to clean up this crime scene, and you left a fiber. A very unique fiber-the same kind that we found on the body of the first Vailoid demon who tried to kill me."

"The scarf," he muttered.

"Oh yes. Sabine's scarf. Made of rare Muga silk, and distinctive as hell. Those fibers put Sabine at both crime scenes, and you knew it." I cocked my head. "You knew that I'd figured it out, so you had to step up your plan."

"You weren't even supposed to be working this case," Marcus snarled. "I ordered you to take a leave of absence!"

"But I couldn't just leave Mia. I'm her protector." I smiled. "And the people at the crime lab trust me, Marcus. Some of them trusted me enough to put their own jobs on the line, so that I could continue to use the lab's resources. I never quite ended up where you thought I'd be. I was always tracking you. Finally you decided to end it here, once and for all. You brought us here to get rid of us."

I looked at him coldly. "How about it, boss? Did I get it exactly right?"

"Pretty good. You forgot one thing, though." Marcus grinned. How could I ever have thought that he was anywhere close to human? There was nothing behind his eyes. They were a million times worse than the terrifying black orbs that I'd seen when I stared at Lucian that night. Those had been dark with power, but all I could see in Marcus's expression was an impossible absence. A void where desire should have been. That nothingness was so much worse.

"What's that?" I asked shakily.

"You never asked what happened to Mia's parents."

"What about my parents?" Mia lunged forward suddenly, struggling against her bonds-but she couldn't break the rope. It was probably enchanted. "What did you fucking do to my mom and dad?"

Marcus gave her a slight kick, and she fell off the bed, landing facedown on the floor. I flinched. Mia struggled up to her knees, staring at him with blazing hatred.

"What did you do to them?" she repeated.

I could feel her power again. It was gathering.

Oh shit.

"You know where we found you, sweetie?" Sabine smiled indulgently at her. "In a shopping mall. Cassandra sniffed you out-said that you had a lot of potential. Of course, at the time, she didn't realize that you had the wrong sort of blood for the job. We had no idea that you'd be able to resist the vampirism for so long. Other than that single flaw, you were absolutely perfect."

"So you kidnapped her," I said.

"Oh, we did much better than that," Sabine continued. "Cassandra struck up a friendship with Mia's mother. First they were just casual acquaintances, but soon she was babysitting for Mia all of the time. Just before her sixth birthday, when her latent power was beginning to peak, we knew that the time was right. So we convinced the Polanskis to sign a few documents."

"What did you do-hold a gun to their heads?"

"I believe it was a knife to Mia's throat," Marcus said pleasantly. "That was a lot more efficient than threatening either of them. Paternal love, you see. It wins out over common sense every time."

"You killed them," Mia said. Her voice wasn't soft, or broken, like it should have been. It was like a single, clear note, unbearable in its pain and density. A steel cord being snapped. "You killed them," she repeated. She was staring straight at Marcus. Something fiery and impossible had awoken in her eyes.

"But don't you want to know how, little girl?" He smirked.

"Fuck you, Marcus!" I snarled.

He was off the bed in a flash. He struck me across the face, but there wasn't any magic behind the blow. Just his naked fist smashing into me, with nothing I could do to stop it. He didn't need magic anymore. He had me. I tasted blood in my mouth, but I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of saying anything.

"I'll tell you," he continued in a storybook voice, as if he hadn't just hit me. As if he'd been merely relating a pleasant anecdote this whole time. "After we convinced them to sign the papers, I borrowed a van from the lab. Signed it out and everything." His smile was maddening. It wasn't just derangement, but pure pleasure. He was absolutely proud of what he'd done. Of how well he'd done his job. "I drove them out into the woods, and I made them beg. I made them get down on their knees and beg." He looked at Mia. "Just like I'm going to make you beg, kitten. And it'll do you about as much good as it did them."

Mia didn't say anything. She'd gone to some other place-some dark and unreachable cavern in her own mind. I hoped that she wasn't listening. I didn't want to be listening. I wanted to shut my ears and scream.

"Sabine rounded up some of her friends," he continued, "made sure that they were good and hungry. And then they fed. They drained every last drop of blood, until the bodies were white-" His eyes suddenly burned, as if some sort of madness were taking hold. Whatever he'd kept at bay for so long was finally coming out. The killer inside him. The invisible monster that I'd never seen until now. "Almost holy, you understand? White like snow. White like a marble sculpture. They were beautiful and perfect. It was almost a shame to burn them."

I turned away. I felt like I might throw up.

"Of course, Tess"-he smiled brightly at me-"you know, and I know, that it's almost impossible to burn away a body completely-even in a crematorium. There's always some pesky bone fragments, a tooth here and there, a jaw-bone, some calcined material. They can always be identified somehow. But that night, Sabine and I made sure that the fire was extra hot. We eradicated all trace of them. Not even ashes. Not even a scrap of flesh left behind."

He shook his head. "It's been nearly seven years, and I can still remember it like it was yesterday. The burning. How it smelled-"

I remembered the dream. I saw it so clearly in my mind's eye now. The light. The fire that Derrick had seen in Sebastian's mind. That's what it had meant. The horror of that light enveloping Mia's parents, the sound and the smell of them disintegrating, like scraps of parchment. Their final thoughts. And Eve-the same smoke, the same fire. Was she calling to me? Or was it just-coincidence? Sebastian must have known, too. Sabine must have let it slip, either on purpose or by accident, and he saw the image just as I did. It struck him to the core, and that was when he decided to act.

The pain of it twisted in every inch of me, and suddenly all I could think about was how it would feel to snap Marcus's neck.

But I never got the chance.

Mia was standing. Her eyes were incredibly wide and bloodshot. I could almost make out what looked like petecchial hemorrhaging-burst blood vessels-around the surrounding conjunctive muscles and eyelids. As if some terrible force was strangling her from the inside out.

She flexed her arms suddenly, and the ropes fell away. Power was flowing like a dark river across her limbs now, warping the air around her body, making her appear bright and somehow far away at the same time. I could feel it humming through every inch of the room, a giant conductor. The waves struck me, hot and sickly sweet, amazing and horrifying at the same time.

"Sit down-" Marcus began.

Mia screamed. It wasn't a normal, human scream. It pierced me down to the marrow, so sharp and so agonizing that it brought tears to my eyes instantly. It was an angry, desolate howl, so full of desperation and rage that it seemed impossibly large for her small, fragile body. It was the sound of a human life coming undone, avulsing, tearing apart cell by cell, until there was nothing left but a wash of naked power.

She raised both of her hands, and a pulse of energy exploded outward from her body. It was invisible to the naked eye, but I could feel the immensity of it, and feel ripples as they passed through the air. The force of the blast knocked me to the ground, chair and all, and I found myself lying on my side. Marcus and Sabine both flew backward-Marcus smashed into the bookshelf, and Sabine bounced off the nightstand, knocking it sideways as she tried to regain her balance.

I watched, as if in slow motion, as my gun and athame fell from the top of the nightstand. The gun slid beneath the bed, but the athame rolled slightly, coming to rest a few inches away from me.

"Grab her!" Sabine leapt across the bed, moving so fast that she was a blur. Marcus shook his head to clear it, then stalked across the room.

I had only a few seconds to react. If I grabbed the athame, I'd be able to melt the ropes and get off maybe one flash of power. But what could I do? I might be able to knock out Marcus with a single blast, but that left Sabine-she'd rip my throat out before I could move. I could set the place on fire, but then I'd still have to get Mia out of here, and Marcus would kill me before he let that happen.

Both of them were a lot more powerful than I was, and both had very little to lose. I realized then that the situation was impossible. There was no one magical technique that could get me out of this, no deus ex machina that would save the day.

There was only one thing to do.

I gave a sharp tug with my will, and the athame leapt into my hands. Concentrating, I channeled a rush of power through the blade and felt the ropes disintegrate in a flash of heat.

Marcus was standing in front of Mia now. He raised his hand, and I saw a nucleus of dark power swirl to life around his fingertips. Electrical materia-the equivalent of indoor lightning. Only very stupid or very powerful mages played with electromagnetism, and I knew that Marcus wasn't stupid. That bolt of energy would cleave through her chest with a concussive force more powerful than any shotgun blast. It would annihilate her.

I held the athame outward and, closing my eyes, willed all of the channeled power inside it to release itself-to obey the form that my mind had given it.

A shaft of energy exploded from the tip of the blade, fluorescing the air around Mia's body just as Marcus released his levin-bolt. The two energy matrices met each other, their forces colliding with a sound like a gun going off. Both Marcus and Mia were flung backward. Mia landed in a crumpled heap on the ground, close to me, and Marcus crashed into the coffee table.

"You tricky little bitch." Sabine grabbed me underneath the arms and lifted me up, until I was dangling about four feet off the ground. "I'm going to snap every one of your little bird bones, and let me tell you, honey, I'll enjoy doing it."

"Put her down," Marcus said, his voice slightly hoarse now.

Sabine didn't respond. She just kept looking at me hungrily. It was the same hunger I'd seen at the club, only far more intense. She wanted to rip me apart.

"Sabine. Now." Marcus glared at her. "I'll deal with her."

She growled at him. "Don't command me, Marcus!"

"Then don't lose your head!" He put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't lower yourself to human emotion, Sabine. Let me deal with Tess for now. You'll have plenty of time to work on her- later."

I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but I knew that I didn't want to find out.

Sighing, she dropped me, and I landed on the ground with a sickening thud that only increased my nausea.

Marcus looked at me and sighed. "So that's it, huh? Your awesome display of power? A pathetic little shield?"

"It was worth it," I said simply. "And if I had more power, I'd shove eighty thousand volts up your ass, you fucking psycho."

Marcus ignored this. He looked at Mia for a bit, then shook his head. Like a guidance counselor who's finally given up. "Poor kid. She never realized how powerful she was. It's such a shame that she's damaged goods."

"You don't have to hurt her," I said. "You can still fix this, Marcus. You can still walk away-"

"And I'm going to, kitten." He pointed the Glock at my head. "I'm going to walk away from this, easy as you please. Not you, though. You're too much of a liability. Stupid as you are, there's still the chance that you could screw things up again, and I can't have that."

"So you're just going to kill me?" I met his eyes. "Just like that? A bullet to the brain, and you think all your problems will be solved?"

"I didn't say where I was going to shoot you, Tess." He shook his head. "And besides, I can't deny Sabine the pleasure of torturing you. So we've got something extra special planned. You see, Mia never got to see her parents die, and I think that's really unfair. That really deprived her of a formative experience."

He looked at the comatose girl and sighed. "In order to make up for that, I'm going to let you bleed for a while- nothing fatal, mind you. Just a bit of tenderizing. Then we'll be sure to wake Mia up, so that she can watch as Sabine drains the life out of you. Real slow and gentle. It'll be just like an Anne Rice novel, I promise."

"Go to hell, Marcus."

"There are a lot of dimensions that I might end up in, baby, but hell won't be one of them."

He smiled. "Now, let's see what these hollow-point bullets can do at close range. You'd be amazed at what the body can survive-what you can live through, despite the pain, when your heart just keeps on pumping. Stubborn thing, really." He leveled the gun at my chest. "It's a flaw of being human."