Maggie had tried calling Sean all day.

Gyn at his office had politely fielded her every call, whether she had ranted or cajoled.

Sean was out; he was busy. He'd see her that evening.

She was terrified, afraid he might not live to see the evening. If only he believed her, he might stand a chance, but he didn't believe her. He wouldn't protect himself, he wouldn't be prepared. He'd think himself a crack shot, and that he could stop the killer with a bullet.

She sat in her office, her head bowed over her desk, when she felt a stirring in the air.

Before she could lift her head, she felt fingers moving lightly through her hair. "Bad day?

I've warned you against mortals. Of course, you can save your beloved Canady. You know that."

She looked up at Lucian. He wasn't mocking her. In his typical black silk shirt and chino pants, he appeared the handsomely dressed man about town, arrogant, a.s.sured, earnestly sympathetic.

"Aaron is a monster!" she told Lucian. "Why can't we kill him?"

"We're all monsters," Lucian told her. "Remember? How do we condemn him for being a predator, when it is what we are?"

"No, we're not all predators like he is-"

"Ah, Maggie, Maggie, my sweet Magdalena! Don't you remember what it was like?

Before the advent of blood banks? Don't you remember the pain, the agony of the hunger when it went deep? I know that you remember the kill, as much as you wish you did not."

"Yes, but men go to war, people do kill, there is anger, there is pa.s.sion ... but there isn't such ruthless cruelty in men or beasts that exists in Aaron! Lucian, please ..."

He sat on the corner of her desk, smoothed her hair back again, smiled sadly. "What is it about you? I should snap my fingers and say be d.a.m.ned with it all! You're not even my lover anymore, and yet ... but I'm sorry. You know that I can't kill him. Nor can you. And yet ..."

"And yet what?" Maggie asked, inhaling sharply.

"Part of our code has to do with the lines between life and death, Maggie. Vampires are found and killed by men, and that is why we are not to destroy our own kind."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, that, of course, though we may not kill him, Aaron can be destroyed. Some things are myth, and some are not. All creatures have their weaknesses. We all know too well, we can be killed. A stake through the heart will do it. Cremation. Decapitation. Aaron was not my creation; I never knew who made him, because I believe his benefactor was killed soon after Aaron was made. I had not come to the States often when I followed you here, and I knew little about him. But think, Maggie, you come back here, because here is home. When you travel to Europe, you must bring native soil. I believe that Aaron's roots are here as well. He is comfortable here, he walks freely here-you met him here. And though it's a fallacy that we burn to ash with simple daylight, he must rest somewhere. We must all rest somewhere. If he can be found while sleeping ..."

She felt as if her heart quickened. That was it. Do some research on Aaron Carter. She closed her eyes. Yes. He had claimed that he was "distant kin" to the Wynns. They had accepted him. He had been welcomed as a suitor for Lilly Wynn, all those years ago. Then Lilly Wynn had died ... and been reborn. She hadn't heard anything about Lilly Wynn since that long-ago time. Since Colonel Elijah Wynn had gone mad and begun to kill his own soldiers, looking for the lover who had cost him his daughter ...

"Lucian-"

"You mustn't kill him. Remember that."

She shook her head. "Lucian, he is a thing of evil beyond any of us. I will rid the world of Aaron, one way or another. And if you must condemn me for the act, Lucian, then so be it!"

"Maggie, Maggie, Maggie ... you must not be a martyr to the world!"

She had so seldom seen Lucian tender. Pa.s.sionate, yes. Arrogant, demanding. Not tender. He very gently held her, kissed her forehead, released her. "This thing I do for you!" he said softly.

And then he was gone.

CHAPTER 16.

Pierre went from the morgue to the hospital, protesting all the while. He was fine, he was embarra.s.sed that he'd been knocked out so easily. He ruefully joked that most people went from the hospital to the morgue, and not the other way around.

"How did that b.a.s.t.a.r.d get into my morgue?" he wanted to know. Sean opened his mouth to explain. Closed his mouth, having given up. There was no rational explanation.

When Pierre was gone, he returned to headquarters, telling Jack, who remained behind with some of the uniformed officers to retrace the events, to meet at the office as soon as he could.

Sean walked into his office and slammed the door, totally unnerved and glad to see that Gyn had left coffee on for him, with a note not to stay in his office too late. He sipped his coffee, running his free hand through his hair.

He turned around ... and saw that Lucian DeVeau was sitting in one of the chairs before his desk.

"Good evening," DeVeau said.

Sean sank into his swivel chair behind the desk. "You startled me."

Lucian shrugged. He was a good-looking man with patrician features, strange, hypnotic, yellow eyes, and a casual elegance to his movements. "Sorry."

"Well, I'm glad to see you. We've been looking for you, you know."

Lucian smiled and leaned forward, folding his hands on Sean's desk.

"Has she told you yet?"

"Told me what?"

"What she is."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're lying," Lucian said. "But that's all right. We seldom let the truth be known- self-preservation, of course. And people don't handle the information at all well."

"Well, can you beat that?" Sean murmured sarcastically.

"If you don't want my help-" Lucian began.

"On the contrary. I'm anxious to hear anything you have to say."

Lucian's smile broadened. "I'm sure there's a whole lot you want to know. Well, I'm not going to tell you too much about the past. It doesn't matter."

"Because it's over?"

Lucian nodded. "Yeah, it's over. And this is all so charming. I think you really love her.

And I think she loves you."

"Are you still in love with her?"

Lucian laughed softly. "Am I in love with her? As much as I'm capable of being, I suppose, but that doesn't matter. I'm here as her friend."

"You're not sleeping with each other?"

"We haven't slept together in years." "How many years?"

"Decades, old boy, decades."

It all had to be a macabre joke.

"I'm sorry. I don't believe any of this."

"Don't you? I think you do, but I can help you on the road to belief as well. You're not in great shape at the moment, Lieutenant. Another encounter with Aaron? What can I say to convince you-beyond what you already know but don't want to see? Ah, yes! I'm willing to bet that the police have recently discovered body parts. Belonging to one Rutger Leon."

Sean started. The news hadn't hit the papers yet. The front pages had been filled with the aborted attack on Mamie.

"Fine-what about Rutger Leon's body parts?"

"Well, I'm the one who made them into parts."

"You?"

"I was very hungry. I'm sure that Maggie informed you there are many of us trying to form a higher society. We indulge in small mammals and the Red Cross most frequently.

Still, when I hit one of those terrible urges myself-in keeping with our higher society-I try to abate my cravings with those most deserving. Rutger came to the hospital to torture the girl. I decided not to let him."

Sean concluded he was definitely losing his mind. "Why are you here?" he asked.

"So that you can save Maggie's life."

Sean frowned. "What do you mean?"

"She's going to try to kill Aaron, of course. She's going to try to trap him, and kill him.

No matter what I say to her. She can't do that. For one, he's very powerful, and he could kill her. She's bested him before, so she doesn't realize just how powerful he's become.

And if she managed to do away with him, I'd be required to order an execution. It's a law more ancient than any of us. We are not to kill our own kind. No matter what I think of Aaron, or how I feel about Maggie, if she destroyed him and I didn't order her death, there would be rebellion and chaos among our ranks."

"Then why are you telling me this?" Sean demanded harshly.

"Obviously, you, as a mortal, have to kill him."

"How?"

Lucian smiled. "Good response. Not 'don't be ridiculous, I'm an officer of the law, I can't kill him.' Get to him before Maggie. And carry a sword."

"Get serious. I can't walk around with a sword-"

"Then get a really big knife. When you get your chance, you've got to cut off his head."

"I can't even find him! How the h.e.l.l am I going to get his head off?"

"Ah ... now I have your attention. If you want this to end, you have to figure out how to kill Aaron. As to how you're going to manage to do it... well, h.e.l.l, I don't know. I believe he comes from this area-"

"Believe? You don't know?"

"No, I don't know everything. As I said, Aaron has gotten strong. He'd like to be me.

But he wants revenge against Maggie more than anything, so he'll go after her first. They met here. And at some time, he must sleep. All vampires must rest. He won't necessarily sleep by day-like Maggie and me, he has learned to abide the daylight. Still, in the day, we haven't the strength we have at night. Find him by day, find him when he's at rest. Don't give him any warning shots, officer. Find him, kill him. Stake him through the heart, take his head."

"If I were to suggest such actions at a task force meeting-"

"No task force is going to help you, Canady. Look to the past. If you dare, be sane.

Refuse to believe all this. But if you love Maggie, you'd better kill Aaron."

The private line to Sean's office started blinking. Sean kept staring at Lucian.

"Your phone," Lucian said politely.

"Right. Excuse me," Sean said, swiveling around as he picked up the receiver.

Jack was on the line.

"I'm on my way in right now. You know what, Sean? No one saw this character enter the morgue. No one at all. It was like he disappeared into mist, and arrived from mist. What do you think?"

"I think it's all nuts. Get here as fast as you can."

He set the receiver down and turned back to finish his conversation with Lucian.

But Lucian was gone.

Into thin air.

Fifteen minutes later, Jack came into his office carrying his notebook.