"All right, let me talk to them."

  "I heard sirens. They'll be here in a sec. In the meantime—"

  "Don't you dare sing me a lullaby."

  "I wouldn't dream of it. I just wanted you to know, we think one of the senators on our oversight committee might be dirty."

  "They're politicians, Jaz. It kind of goes with the territory."

  "You're tired, I get it." I told him about our suspicions, wondering how much really sunk in. The guy might actually still be asleep. Dave could do that, carry on a perfectly logical conversation with you in the middle of the night and then not remember anything about it the next day because he'd been mostly asleep the whole time. "Pete, are you awake?"

  "Yes, Jasmine, I'm awake. It's your fault too, I want you to remember that."

  "Believe me, I will. And, um, we've got the senator thing covered from here, okay? If you get nosy and get yourself killed I'm gonna have to put your kids through college or something, so do me a favor and steer clear."

  "You know, last week Ashley was talking about getting her Ph.D. at Yale, so I have to say I'm a little tempted. But don't worry. There's a reason I hire the best."

  Wow. If only I deserved that remark. "Hang on, somebody's at the door."

  I opened it mid-knock. The cop on the other side looked slightly stunned that I'd responded so quickly. Even more so when I handed him my badge and the phone and said, "It's for you."

  He took it like it might be rigged to blow, and held it about six inches from his ear. "Hello?" he said while his partner hung back, his Glock out but pointing at the floor for the moment.

  The first cop listened for awhile and when he gave me an amused look, I relaxed. When he chuckled I started to fume. No doubt Pete was telling him all about my tendency to leave a trail of wrecked cars and blood-spattered walls that a blind dog with a cold could follow.

  "Did she really?" asked the cop. He laughed louder and motioned for his partner to listen in on the call. All told, Pete kept them entertained for another three minutes and 25 seconds while I leaned against the wall and timed them. At 3:26 the cop handed me the phone and my badge.

  "He wants to talk to you," he said, then he nodded, headed out the door and down the stairs with his partner close behind.

  "I take it I'm off the hook," I said as I shut the door.

  "Yup."

  "Thanks."

  "No problem."

  We hung up. Since my toes still felt like icicles, I went into the bathroom, shucked my socks, plugged the tub and ran in enough hot water to soak my feet. I could see the front door from where I sat, so I was aware of the chiseled marble look on Vayl's face when he entered the condo a few minutes later. That all changed when he saw the blood on the walls.

  "Dear Christ!" He staggered sideways, caught his balance on the stove and pulled his phone from his pocket with shaking fingers. "Jasmine, be all right. Please be all right," he whispered as he dialed, his face suddenly very human, and extremely worried. He jumped about three inches off the floor when my phone rang. I answered it.

  "Make it quick," I said, "there's somebody else in the condo with me and he looks alarmed."

  He didn't say a word, just dropped his phone, came over and picked me up off the edge of the tub. It's a little disconcerting being dangled effortlessly. Plus, I generally equate bear hugs with lumberjacks and friendly purple dinosaurs, not with suave, sexy vampires who savor a daily dose of necking.

  "I thought you were dead," he said.

  Ah, that explained the momentous show of affection. "So you knew Liliana was coming after me?"

  "I… had a feeling." I let his evasion stand for now. But in my mind I drew the line. One more and I would raise hell. Or, smarter but less satisfying, ask him to come clean. He let me slip through his arms until my feet touched the carpet. But he wasn't quite ready to let go. "I am sorry that I left you. I suspected she would come after you, only not so soon. She has always coveted Cirilai, first because she was my wife and thought she deserved it. Then because our sons were dead and she thought I did not."

  "So… you've never… taken it off before?"

  "No. Not for Liliana. Not for anyone. Until now."

  I started to squirm and he let me pull away slightly. Okay, don't panic. Every time you panic all hell breaks loose so do-not-panic.

  "You're right, she came for the ring," I told him. "She demanded it from me."

  "What did you do?"

  "I shot her. Then I pushed her off the roof."

  He smiled. Not the twitchy twitch but a genuine, full-face smile. "You must have really wanted that ring."

  I put my hands on his chest, because he still held me by the arms and, frankly, because I suspected there might be hyperventilating in my not too distant future and I needed a strong base to lean on. I looked into his remarkable eyes, just now a warm, honey-gold with flecks of amber, and I nodded.

  "To be honest, I did want it. I do. I'm… I can't explain how honored I am to be wearing it. But, also to be honest, the whole deal terrifies me."

  "Because…"

  I took a long look at the stitching on his collar, the urge to cower my way out of this conversation damn near primal. He and I had been tiptoeing around the subject so long I suspected if I made us face it squarely, one of us would be required to cut and run. A perfectly acceptable reaction if you had a place to retreat to. Neither of us did.

  "I've only been your assistant, your avhar, for awhile," I finally said, avoiding his gaze, "and I can't imagine any other kind of life. When you gave me this ring… when I gave you my blood… it's… we've gone beyond that. We're trusting the safety of our souls to each other."

  He raised my chin with a gentle finger and I winced as our eyes met. The look we shared pained me in its naked honesty.

  "You are my avhar. I am your sverhamin. The intensity of that relationship has taken us beyond the bonds between co-workers or teammates. Some would call that love."

  I winced again.

  "But you would not have it so." He squeezed my arms, put one of his arms around my back. "It is no secret. You have experienced the heaven and hell of love."

  "But, see, the hell came last, so that's still the memory, the feeling, that lingers. For a long time I tried to come up with some way to explain how I felt because Evie kept pushing me to put it into words. She thought, somehow, that would make it all better. But I couldn't tell her I felt like I should be bleeding from every pore. I couldn't tell her I felt like I'd been flayed alive, that when I looked in the mirror every morning I couldn't believe my hair hadn't turned white overnight. It just wasn't close enough to the truth. So I didn't say anything at all."

  "I understand." He whispered it into my hair. And I believed him.

  "There's only so much a person can go through, Vayl."

  He pulled me closer. "There is only so much a person can go through alone. But I am not asking you to do anything you cannot bear. I have eternity, Jasmine. I can wait until your feelings are no longer fractured."

  "It may be awhile. My feelings for you… it's hard to be okay with them when my love for Matt is still fresh in my memory, still strong in my heart."

  If my statement had hurt him, he didn't show it. He said, "My father used to say that true love never dies. It simply makes your heart big enough to hold even more love."

  "So… I can keep the ring?"

  "Yes."

  Chapter Twelve

  I drove Vayl back to the Pink Palace, leaving the room cleaning chores to the experts. The Agency employs a whole fleet of them for obvious reasons. We made it inside with barely 20 minutes to spare before dawn.

  "You look exhausted," Vayl said as he eased my jacket off my shoulders and hung it over a chair. I had something intelligent to say about that, but then he started rubbing the back of my neck and all I could say was, "Oh."

  "I know I should let you sleep, but I am so relieved Liliana did not kill you, I cannot take my eyes off of you."

  "You're relieved! When she caught me trying to make my getaway I thought I was toast."

  "And that young man I took to the hospital. His blood smelled so wrong, I was afraid just being close to him had damaged you permanently."

  "Yeah, what the hell do you think is up with him?"

  "I have no—"

  My phone began to ring. This close to dawn it couldn't be good news and I hated to answer it. But Vayl retrieved it from my jacket and tossed it to me.

  "Yeah?" I barked.

  "It's Bergman. I'm in Florida, but I've gotta sleep. Do you need me tonight or can I meet you tomorrow?"

  "Tomorrow's good."

  "Where do I look for you?"

  "Hang on." I covered the mouthpiece. "It's Bergman," I told Vayl. "Do you know of a good place he and I can meet tomorrow?"

  He thought a moment, then his eyes lit. "Actually, I do." He gave me the address and I passed it on to Bergman, along with an agreeable time. When we hung up I said, "So where are we meeting?"

  Vayl looked vaguely embarrassed, like I'd just caught him and his pals plotting to stroll on over to the Silver Saddle, where girls dance mostly naked and all the drinks taste like sour lemonade.

  "Vayl?"

  "The place is called Cassandra's Pure and Natural, after the woman who runs it. It is a small health food store."

  "Nice front," I drawled, getting more and more annoyed at Vayl's hesitation. Hadn't we just had a major moment? What the hell was he hiding? "And if you pay Cassandra a little extra?" I asked.

  "She will take you upstairs and give you a reading."

  "A… what?"

  "She is psychic. She will touch your hand or read your tea leaves or deal your tarot. Whatever you like."

  I slumped onto a couch and started to mutter. "Unbelievable. After what just happened between us… no, I don't have any right. None at all. We're barely a couple. We're not even sleeping together. I have to—"

  "What in God's name are you babbling about?"

  I jumped to my feet. "You're cheating on me!"

  Vayl's eyes went black. He looked like a drill sergeant about to demand pushups. "I—never—cheat," he said slowly and distinctly, so even we neurotic idiots could understand.

  "Then what's with the attitude?"

  "What about your attitude?"

  I slapped myself in the forehead. "Okay, fine. We all know I am crappy at relationships. Whatever is happening between you and me makes me feel like I'm surfing in shark infested waters. So, yeah, I am overly sensitive at the moment, even paranoid. But you're acting Shifty!"

  Vayl sat across from me. "All right," he murmured, "if you will know it all, then I will tell you." He looked at me balefully. "Though I think you ask too much, you are my avhar."

  "There is a theory," he began, "one I hold dear, that says nothing can truly be destroyed. Everything that was ever present will always be present in some form. That is as true of souls as it is of water and wood." He cleared his throat. If he'd been wearing a tie he'd have loosened it. "I believe my sons exist somewhere today as they did in 1751. I believe they live, physically, somewhere in this world and so, wherever I go I find a Seer, in the hope that I will be directed closer to them. In the hope that I will see them again."

  "You're saying… you think they've been reincarnated?"

  He nodded. "I have been told we will be reunited in America. It is why I came here."

  "What… what do you," I paused. How to ask this without causing more pain? "So you want to meet them? Make friends? Be… a father to them?"

  "I am their father!" he snapped. "That is the one, incontrovertible truth of my existence."

  I shut my mouth. Then I opened it again, but only to say, "Cassandra's is fine."

  He stood up. "Ask her about the signs they found on Amanda Assan's brother's body. She studies ancient languages the way you shuffle cards." As in, obsessively. "It may take her some time, but she will not stop until she finds a translation."

  "Okay."

  "Dawn is coming."

  "Yes."

  He shoved his hands in his pockets. At the moment there couldn't have been a bigger gap yawning between us if we'd been standing on opposite sides of the Pacific. I was sorry for it. And grateful. "Well," he said, "good night."

  "Good night."

  He moved so silently I wouldn't have known he entered his bedroom and closed the door unless I'd been watching. If vampires dreamed, and if it would be a comfort to him, I hoped he would dream of his sons.

  Chapter Thirteen

  "I'm having a hard time getting the wife to cooperate." Cole had managed to keep my business card safe from the ravages of the washing machine. Obviously his guardian angel had dropped the ball. Too bad it hadn't landed on Cole's head. A bout of amnesia could've turned events in a safer direction for him. As it stood, he'd kept his word and approached Amanda Assan with our plan. Needless to say she was less than enthusiastic.

  "No kidding?" I checked my watch. It was 2:00 in the afternoon. I'd only been up an hour and already I was irritated. And not just because of the nightmares that had stalked my sleep, or because Cole had ignored my advice. True to form, Evie had followed through and left the number of Albert's nursing agency on my voice mail. I'd called them and they'd told me I'd have to put him on a waiting list. They had recommended another group in the meantime, and I'd given them a call. But it bothered me to hire blind like that, not knowing a place's reputation. No choice, though. I sure wasn't going to make Evie do any back-checking in her condition and frame of mind. When I had a spare minute I'd do it myself. Meantime, Albert would be breaking in a new nurse named Shelby Turnett any minute now. I'm not big into prayer, but I did send up a wish that she had thicker skin than mine. She'd need it.

  Now this. Trying to gain cooperation without threat leverage always annoys the hell out of me. People are just too willing to say no.

  "Did she say why?" I asked.

  "She was putting her jewels in the safe last night when he caught her checking out the contents of a small duffel bag she remembered he'd brought back with him from India. When she asked him about it he told her to mind her own damn business. Then he ordered her to stay in the house for the next week. She had to sneak in her phone call to me. Apparently she's not allowed to talk to anybody either." A spurt of rage made me grit my teeth. I calmed myself with the reminder that soon Amanda Assan would be a free woman.

  Cole went on. "She also said one of their houseguests had to go to the emergency room last night and for some reason Assan was more enraged than worried. Long story short, he's on a rampage and everybody in the house is kissing his ass until further notice."

  "There's got to be a way to get a peek inside that duffel bag. I wouldn't mind checking out the sick houseguest either. Did she say where they'd taken him? Or was it a her?" He took so long to answer I thought we'd been cut off. "Hello?"

  "I just had a thought and I'm feeling like an idiot for not thinking it before."

  "What's that?"

  "I have pictures of everyone Assan's talked to in the last two weeks." Cole speeded up as he began to get excited. "Amanda hired me as the new pool boy so she and I could talk without making Assan suspicious. I might have a picture of that houseguest. And if Assan's meeting with terrorists I might have the pictures to show which ones!"

  Oh baby!

  "I'm supposed to clean the pool today," Cole went on. "Why don't you come with? You could meet me at my office and take a look at the pictures first. Then we could go to Assan's together. We'll both do the pool work, then I'll go to the kitchen, now that I know where it is," he paused and I could tell he was smiling, "and distract the cook while you snoop around. What do you say?"

  "This could be incredibly dangerous for you, Cole." I don't even think he heard me. He rushed on, like a parent-challenged teen planning his first kegger. "You know what else? I saw somebody the night we met. At the party?"

  "Yeah?"

  "As I was leaving, a door opened and a man looked out. I got the feeling we were having a mutual oh-crap-you're-not-supposed-to-see-me reaction."

  "Could you identify him again?"

  "No problem." Being purely hetero, I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but he was easily the best looking guy I've ever seen.

  Click. Blocks of information shifted and realigned in my brain as I realized Derek Stinkin' Steele must be the same stud Cole had glimpsed during the Great Bathroom Escape. And his amazing looks suddenly made sense in light of Assan's legitimate profession. It was suddenly imperative to know the man's true identity.

  "Forget the pool work for now," I said, "and tell me you're a big fan of the Pink Panther movies."

  "I own the whole set."

  "Then I assume you also own a few disguises?"

  "A dozen at least." I could tell he was grinning. Despite knowing better, so was I.

  "Excellent." I told him to meet me down the street from the hospital Vayl had taken Derek to. "How soon can you get there?"

  "An hour."

  "Good. See you then."

  We hung up, and after a quick phonebook search I found Samaritan Care Center in the yellow pages. Thirty seconds later I knew Derek was still there, reclaiming some lost fluids in room 429.

  I kicked it into gear. I pulled the costumes I'd brought from my trunk. One would transform me into a working-class brunette, the other a truck-stop blonde. I chose brunette.

  The hair was straight and shoulder-length. I stuck a red beret on top at a jaunty angle and a new girl began to emerge from the mirror. I called her Dee Ann. She liked to pronounce her name Dee-on and, though she worked as a bank teller, she pretended she could paint better than Van Gogh. A man's shirt covered in multicolored parrots, blue jeans, army boots, a long green trench coat and reflective sunglasses completed the ensemble.

  I dressed in my room. My weapons case coughed up Grief and a small black box containing Bergman's latest prototype. It had started life as a band-aid. But Bergman had replaced the absorbent padding with a tiny bug. That went on the middle finger of my right hand. I stuck the receiver, a former hearing aid, into my left ear. Theoretically I should be able to attach the bug to Derek's skin, and it would transmit every conversation he took part in for the next two hours. Having had some experience with Bergman's new inventions, I wasn't expecting it to last more than 20 minutes. Hopefully that would be all the time I'd need.