Lilith frowned at Jarod. "Is this true?"

Jarod shrugged, amused at her reaction. "Maybe. I haven't quite figured out the chemical reactions yet. I did find a genetic marker, common to the vampires here, that exists in my blood."

"You're serious?"

"I'm a doctor. I'm always serious."

She bent toward him, her nose almost touching his throat. She sniffed delicately, then touched her tongue to his skin, right on top of his pulse.

He wondered fleetingly if she was going to bite him right there in front of the rest of the group. They had become the center of everyone's attention. Strangely, though, he wasn't embarrassed. Nor was he particularly frightened. Instead, he was quickly becoming aroused.

Her tongue trembled there, right against his pulse. It occurred to him that, in all his ten years in the Underground, he'd never been aroused by a vampire. Maybe because none of them liked the smell of his blood. He wondered what her mouth would taste like if he just turned his head and kissed her. His mind conjured a picture of stroking her tongue with his "Either eat him or eat him, if you get my meaning," Lucien said laconically.

Delicately, Lilith moved away, and Jarod shifted in his seat, hoping no one looked too closely at the changed contours of his lap. Lucien went on. "If you eat him, Julian won't be pleased. The doctor has several projects at home that I know Julian's counting on."

Lilith's gaze was still on him. "And if I eat him?"

"None of us really wants to see that." He tapped the glass behind him and gestured to the driver.

"I do," said Sasha.

Jarod gave her a dark look. He almost told her that was no way for a teenager to talk before he remembered she wasn't a teenager.

There was no telling how old she really was.

The limo slowed and turned. "Look sharp," Lucien said. "We're almost at the airport."

They debarked near a runway on the outer edges of JFK Airport.

Jarod could see the lights of the airport proper some distance away. A hundred or so feet from the car sat the huge, bulk of an SST.

"Since when do vampires own supersonic jets?" he said to Lucien, the question mostly rhetorical. "Besides, I thought they retired the Concorde."

"Retired but not destroyed," Lucien answered. "We don't own it, but when you have to get to Eastern Europe before sunrise, you make things happen."

"No wonder Julian had a headache."

A man approached them across the tarmac, pointing a flashlight in their general direction. "Are you Lucien?"

Lucien stepped forward. "I am."

"I'm Buck." The man put out a hand for Lucien to shake. "I'm the pilot." He looked warily at the vampire's face. "This is everybody?"

"This is it."

Sasha leaned toward Jarod. "His blood smells quite tasty."

Jarod turned to see her lecherous smile. So did Lucien. Jarod gave her a tolerant smile, but Lucien looked grim.

"No one touches the human helpers." His voice was cold and brittle. "Anyone who does, answers to me. And I'll ask for your life."

Sasha looked chagrined. "Jeez, it was just a joke."

"Not a funny one."

She was stuck at sixteen, and it showed, Jarod thought. He wondered what she would say if he offered her the possibility of returning to mortality.

Buck looked decidedly uncomfortable. He shook his head. "Damn.

I'll never get used to you people."

He led them toward portable stairs that had been pushed against the plane. Lucien followed directly behind him, his imposing presence enough to keep the rest of them in line. Even Jarod felt as if he'd done something wrong, and he had no desire whatsoever to exsanguinate the pilot.

The plane was big, a full-sized Concorde. Jarod headed for the middle rows, choosing a seat near the wing. There was certainly plenty of room. They could sit far enough away from each other that they'd barely be within shouting distance. Which was fine with him. A little isolation sounded good right now.

Seconds later, Lilith plopped down in the seat next to him.

"Do you mind?" she asked.

"That depends. Are you going to lick me again?"

She grinned. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Not so much." He looked out the window at the distant lights and the empty, black tarmac. "Look, I was planning to grab some sleep."

"You're kidding, right? With all these vampires around?"

"Lucien won't be sleeping. He'll keep an eye out for me. Besides, you heard what Sasha said. They don't like they way I smell."

"I didn't get that. Why?" "Because, somehow or another, all the vampires here are related to Lucien, and so am I."

Her eyebrows rose. "How could you be related to Lucien?"

"The four First Demons had biological children as well as Blood Children. Their blood carries specific genetic markers. Lucien's and Ialdaboth's are far more common than the other two. Particularly Aanu, as he's been missing-"

"So I'm not part of the family?" she broke in, afraid he might go on in the same didactic way all night-he seemed the type who could.

"That would be my guess. You're more likely related to Ialdaboth, or the fourth First Demon. His name was Ruha, but I don't know if he still uses it."

Lilith looked distant. "Of course he does. Those two liked the demon names."

"As did you, apparently."

She blinked coolly. "Lilith wasn't always a demon. Neither was I.".

"You were never a demon," he said gently. "Not like Ialdaboth."

Her face relaxed, and she smiled a little. "You can say that because you didn't know me before."

He shrugged, not sure how to answer.

"You just sleep," she said. "I'll make sure nobody bothers you."

"Not even you?"

"Not even me."

Lilith peered past the sleeping Dr. Greene to look at the sweep of night sky, the wing of the plane silhouetted against it. Then she looked down the aisle, where she could see Lucien's hand dangling off the edge of the armrest.

All the passengers had settled into silence. The pilot, of course, was all locked up in the cockpit. Literally. Anti-terrorist measures worked equally well against vampires.

She looked again at the doctor, still surprised he could sleep so easily. But he was right-his blood smelled strange. She hadn't noticed it at first. But his skin had tasted odd, and now she could sense the vague, tangy odor. She wouldn't want to risk taking a whole meal from him. The effects might very well be deadly-even before Lucien or Julian killed her for doing it.

Still, in spite of the smell and the danger, his blood called her. Not so strongly she couldn't ignore it, but constantly. She wondered why.

She hadn't felt it in the Underground. Maybe because she'd been hooked up to the IV, receiving whole blood. The plasma drinks weren't as satisfying.

She was experiencing another new reaction to the doctor, too. He aroused her. Just looking at him lying there, sleeping with his glasses still on, she felt her body responding. She hadn't responded sexually to a human in a very long time. Usually she only wanted their blood.

That urge was harder to resist. Shifting in the seat, she leaned toward him, sniffing the spot under his ear, above his pulse, near where she'd licked him before. It was her favorite place to smell on any potential sex partner. Even vampire males carried a certain, vaguely different odor there that she enjoyed.

The doctor's was particularly nice. Almost sweet, but a masculine sweetness. She touched the spot with her lips. Then, not entirely sure why she did it, she lowered her mouth to his and kissed him.

She knew the moment he woke because his lips opened under hers and one hand rose to cup the back of her neck. He pressed her close, his tongue pushing against hers, his body hardening under her.

She answered his sudden passion, enjoying the heat of his mouth, the small pulses there, the taste of him.

Finally, she drew away. "Dr. Greene," she said, "what's your first name?"

"Jarod," he answered. "Why are you kissing me?"

"I'm not at the moment." She looked down at his lap, just to see what had transpired there. He definitely had responded positively to her advances. She reached to trace the line of his arousal, but he grabbed her hand.

"No," he said. "Not here."

"Why not? Haven't you always wanted to join the Mile High Club?"

"Not really." He pushed her back a little, studying her face. "Why is this happening?"

"I don't know."

"Probably a doctor-patient, father-figure rescuer, transference thing."

"I take it you're not a psychologist?"

"No, nor do I play one on TV. But my point is that we need to be careful. I don't want to hurt you, and I don't want you to hurt me, either, particularly since you have sharp, pointy teeth."

"No quick flings in your world?"

"Occasionally. But I'm not sure I'm up for that. Not with you."

"I'm hurt."

"No, you're not."

"You're right. I'm not." She smiled and traced her finger down his nose. "So shall we see what happens? If our . . . mutual attraction . . .

wears off in a few days, we'll just pretend it never happened. And if it doesn't . . ."

"If it doesn't, then we'll talk. Or something."

"I vote for the 'something.'" Disappointed, but not angry, she sat up. "When do we land?"

He looked at his watch. "About an hour."

The SST landed in Paris, where they boarded a private jet. The jet was sun-tight, all the windows welded shut and painted black.

"From the Italian enclave," Lucien told Jarod as they took their seats near the front of the plane. "They use it to shuttle to other parts of Europe from time to time."

"Do they have any information on Ialdaboth's enclave?" Jarod asked.

"Enough to know they don't want to get involved at this stage."

His expression gave Jarod no clue as to how he felt about that.

Taking a seat next to him, Lilith said, "Smart decision. They're too close geographically."

Lucien half-turned in his seat across the aisle from them to look at her. "What do you know about the Italian enclave?" he asked.

She looked away. "Only how many of them we've killed over the past three hundred years or so."

Lucien nodded. Jarod looked at his watch. At this time of year, at this latitude, they should reach Bucharest before sunrise, with a comfortable margin. He looked at Lilith, who was rubbing her forehead.

"Are you all right?"

"Headache," she said.

He put an arm over her shoulders, and she looked at him in surprise.

He gave her a half smile. Watching her rub her forehead, he wondered what she looked like naked. Somehow, even though he was her doctor, he'd managed not to discover the answer to that question.

In Bucharest, the human pilot of the jet escorted them to a house near the airport. Lilith, still fighting a headache, watched as the pilot spoke in Italian to Lucien, who nodded and passed him a handful of Euros.

"We stay here," said Lucien. "It's sun-tight and shielded from the locals."

"Human or vampire locals?" Sasha asked.

"Both," said Lucien.