I suppressed the urge to throw something-or kill something. He was right. "You can still check out the vampires- interview Lucian, and report anything that you find out from him. But after that, you're off this case until the paperwork comes through clean. Got it?"

I exhaled. "Fuck. Yes."

"Good." Marcus smiled. "So everyone understands what's going on. Now, Selena, why don't you take these three to the clinic and get them patched up? Call me when the aunt arrives. "

He turned on his heel and walked away.

"Sometimes it's like talking to a procedure manual," I said.

"Yeah." Selena fixed me with a level look. "But this could have ended up a lot worse, and you know it."

I could barely meet her eyes.

"Get your things, and take the girl to the clinic," she said. "I'll see what I can do about getting you cleared as soon as possible."

I sighed in relief. "You're fantastic."

"Huh." She grabbed her cell phone and walked away. "Just don't forget it."

10.

I was sitting on a very cold gurney in CORE Clinic 21B, wincing from the pain in my newly stitched arm and shoulder. Twelve stitches-not bad for tussling with a Vailoid demon.

Derrick was sitting in the chair next to me. He'd overextended himself by trying to attack the demon's mind but hadn't done any permanent damage. They gave him an IV drip to replace some of the fluids he'd lost.

Mia was sitting on the floor. We'd offered her a chair, but I think she felt safer there. She wasn't in shock. She was just very quiet. I was actually a little surprised when she agreed to come with us so easily. She just got into the car and sat silently in the back, her eyes glassy as she stared out the window. She hadn't said a word since we'd arrived at the clinic-not even when we had to walk through a XXX video store to get there. The CORE hid their facilities well, and nobody was about to look for a secret clinic at the back of the Pleasure Box-fine purveyor of adult films, books, and magazines, on Fourth Avenue and Vine.

I still didn't quite understand why she'd lied for me, but I was afraid to ask her. Maybe she didn't even know herself.

She didn't even crack a smile when Derrick pointed out the butt plugs, and that made even me smile, split lip and all. We might as well have been in a grocery store, or a church, for all she knew.

Evelyn, my favorite nurse-and the one who'd just stitched me up-came in bearing a cup full of pills. "Here you go, sugar," she said, handing them to me. "Something for when the Demerol wears off."

"Sweet Jesus, thank you." I swallowed the pills greedily. "Will they make me drowsy? I may have to stay awake tonight. "

Her eyes narrowed. "I don't care what you're mixed up in, Tess. If you don't get a good rest and take care of yourself tonight, I'll come over and kick your ass myself."

"I'd listen to her," Derrick offered, still slurping on a juice box. "She could take you, Tess."

"That's right, you listen to him," she said. "He knows what I'm capable of."

Derrick nodded. "I once saw her slap a senior CORE instructor for trying to talk on her cell phone when she was supposed to be resting."

I sighed. "Honestly, Evelyn-I'll try. I just might be getting a rude awakening sometime tonight, and I don't want to be all useless and groggy when it happens."

"What did you do, Tess?"

I looked at Mia, then back at Evelyn. "It's complicated."

"So complicated that a Vailoid demon tried to rip you apart?" Evelyn saw how immobile my expression was, and sighed. "Fine," she said simply. "But if it gets any worse, I want you to call someone. Promise?"

"I promise. Really."

Evelyn shook her head in disgust. Then she turned to Mia.

"What about you, sweetie? You want anything? Some tea or hot chocolate? We could fix you something to eat, too."

Mia looked up. "No thank you," she said calmly, and I almost jumped. "I don't need anything right now."

"Okay, then-but if you think of something, just flag one of us down." Evelyn turned to me.

"And if I see you again later tonight, I'm going to kick every inch of your butt, Tess Corday. Understand?"

I swallowed. "Yes, Evelyn."

She smiled beatifically at Derrick. "See you later, hon."

"Bye, Evelyn!" Derrick grinned back, like a sibling who knows that both parents love him best.

Then she turned and walked out, closing the curtain behind her. We had what passed for privacy at the clinic, despite the fact that it sounded like we were in the middle of a crowded theater.

"So," Derrick said after a bout of silence, "are we going to rent a movie? 'Cause I'm voting for Shall We Dance. It's a feel-good story about overcoming adversity and learning to embrace a more beautiful you."

Mia giggled.

"Finally." Derrick smiled. "I thought it would take all night to make one of you act normal again."

"Normal. Sure." Mia looked at him. "I just watched some psychotic-thing-with a detachable jaw and fangs try to kill both of you. I don't think movies and popcorn are going to make me feel normal tonight."

I sighed. "She's right-this isn't a joke. Mia, you saw some pretty intense stuff today, and nobody blames you for being scared. Or for thinking that some of it might not have been real-"

"Don't talk to me like I'm a little kid." Her glare was icy. "I'm not stupid, Tess. I saw what I saw." She looked away. "I can't not know anymore. Wish I could, though." Her voice fell.

"Wish I'd never met either of you."

I wish I'd never met you.

Eve was getting up, stumbling, trying to run away. I'd only shown her something small-the tiniest bit of light that I conjured up, just a pale green glow that clung to my hands like shimmering moss-but it terrified her. I could still remember the look in her eyes, that expression somewhere between fear and disgust. As if I'd just stripped naked before her, and she didn't want anything to do with my body, my powers.

It's just light, I kept saying. Eve, you don't have to be frightened. It's just a bit of light-it won't hurt you-I won't hurt you-please- But she was already running toward her house. Trying to get away from me as fast as possible, with fragments of that spectral light clinging to her shadow, following her, as if out of benign curiosity.

I stared at my hands.

"You don't have to be afraid," I said softly.

Mia stared at me. "Hello? I got attacked by a walking shark! Don't I get to freak out about that?"

I blinked to clear my vision. Derrick was staring at me strangely, but he didn't say anything. God-why were these memories coming back now? And why did Mia have to look so much like-her?

"I didn't-I mean-" I sighed. "You've got to understand, Mia, that we are trying to protect you. We had no idea that demon would come charging in there. We just wanted to talk to you."

"Bullshit."

That caught me by surprise.

"You could have warned me. 'Yeah, Mia, by the way, you might not want to come back to my apartment-since there's a psycho monster with detachable fangs that wants to kill you-'"

"A demon," I corrected.

Mia looked at me. "What?"

"It was a demon. A Vailoid demon. They're mercenaries, mostly-working for money or whatever else they might need." I tried not to sound too dramatic, but I knew that I was scaring her, regardless. "It came for Derrick and me. Someone sent that demon to kidnap you-it wouldn't have hurt you, but it had orders to kill us. It nearly did."

Mia stared at the floor for a moment. Then she asked: "Who sent it?"

"I don't know." It was pretty much the truth. "I have some ideas-but nothing concrete. We're working on some leads."

Mia narrowed her eyes. "At least tell me the gist of what's going on. You said that thing was a demon. Like-what-is that a fallen angel or something? Or a vampire? Do those things really exist?"

"I don't know anything about fallen angels, but vampires-yeah, they exist." I cracked my knuckles. "Vampires are demons, too. They don't all have long flowy capes and talk European-like, though. In fact, they pretty much look like us."

Mia blinked. "That thing-what did you call it?"

"A Vailoid."

"The Vailoid, yeah-he didn't look like a human. Or he did at first-but he had those crazy fangs." She shuddered. "So some demons look like that, and others are, like, totally human? Like you or me?"

"Right," I said. "Depends on the demon. Some are better at blending in. Some are so good that you'd never be able to tell until it was too late."

Mia digested this soberly for a moment.

"They're not all bad," Derrick said. "I mean, Tess and I-"

"We aren't always fighting them," I said hastily, giving him a sharp look. "Some are actually on our side. A lot of them coexist peacefully with humans, and hardly ever cause us any trouble."

I didn't need Mia to know that her power-if she indeed had power-came from a demonic source. That definitely qualified as too much info for one night, and she was already handling the rest of this pretty well. There was no sense in blowing her mind, or giving her a reason to bolt.

"What about those people who were at the apartment?" she asked. "All the photographers, and the others? They looked like cops, but they weren't."

"They're part of the organization that we work for," Derrick said, obviously picking his words carefully. "They're investigating what happened."

"Organization?" She looked quizzically at me. "I thought you worked for the Vancouver Crime Lab."

"Sort of," he said, trying to smile. "We work for a crime lab. But we're not precisely connected to the VPD."

He looked at me, as if to say: Should I tell her everything?

I shrugged. At this point, we were already in like bandits.

"So you're not cops," she said coolly.

I sighed. Yet another conversation I'd been dreading.

"We are-sort of," I said. "We deal with things that the cops can't. Cases that are-out of their purview."

Derrick raised an eyebrow but said nothing. For a while, we were all silent.

"So-where do they come from?" Mia asked after a moment.

I was distracted. "Who?"

"Demons." Her look was strange.

I struggled for an answer. "We don't know exactly." When she looked skeptical, I spread my hands. "Honest. We really aren't sure. The records are fuzzy, but we're pretty certain that demons have existed for as long as humans have. Possibly, they were here before us. Although 'here' probably looked a lot different back then."

"Demons are a lot like us," Derrick added. "They come in all shapes and sizes-they all think differently, act differently. They have different jobs and different backgrounds-"

"Jobs?" Mia asked in surprise.

He nodded. "Most demons have to work-unless they're independently wealthy. It's the same with us-we get paid a pretty modest salary for what we do."

"And what exactly is that?"

"Demons create chaos," Derrick said. "We contain it. Like The X-Files, only without the tubular bells."

She rolled her eyes. "That's all you're going to tell me?"

"I think if we talk any more about this, we're just going to confuse you," I said. "You've seen and heard enough for one night."

"Tess, you said yourself-I need to know this stuff. If one of those badass things comes looking for me, I'll need to know how to protect myself."

"If a demon comes looking for you, what you need to do is run," Derrick said. "Run very fast, and try to find us. Under no circumstances should you try to take one of those things on."

She folded her arms. "So I'm just supposed to run away like a little baby? Like a screaming girl?"

"Yes," I said firmly. "There's no shame in it. And you are a-" I stopped short of saying "baby," seeing the dangerous gleam in her eye. "You're a thirteen-year-old girl, Mia, and you don't know what you're up against. Derrick and I have been trained for this sort of thing. We know how to protect you."

"Like you did a bang-up job today," she mumbled.

I frowned. "We tried our best. And this time, we won. I'll admit, it got pretty hairy there for a bit-"

"That thing kicked the shit out of you, Tess."