"Remind me to kick his ass next time," I said.

"Lissa, listen to me. I promise none of this will happen again. I promise. I messed up. Didn't stand up well enough for us. All I can think about is how you feel in my arms. Don't turn me out or send me away again. I don't think I can stand it." He reached out for my hand. I looked into his gray eyes—they seemed sincere enough. While he held my hand, he slipped his ring back on. I didn't try to stop him. He leaned in for a kiss—I didn't stop that either. I did have to fold us away before things got too out of hand—I didn't think Jayd would appreciate an amorous couple making love on top of his central dome.

Chapter 14

I stood and stared at Pearlina Rin for the longest time. She'd hissed at me when I'd first shown up, but had gone back to staring at the floor beneath her feet. Pearlina perched on the edge of her cot—it was bolted to the floor and held there tighter than that with wizardry Erland had provided. If we needed something stronger, I could always ask Connegar and Reemagar.

Pearlina's dark hair hung long about her face—she hid behind that curtain instead of glaring angrily at me, as others might have done. She was of medium height—taller than I by several inches, and pretty enough, with large, dark eyes. That wouldn't save her from her fate—Vampire Councils everywhere were notorious for being ruthless.

"How does it feel," I finally said, "to be the one who murdered six-hundred-million people?"

"I've never killed anyone," Pearlina spat, handing me a nasty look.

"Yes you have. I can feel the taint about you," I said. "You've murdered by your own hand. The six-hundred-million, you murdered with a few words. The entire planet of Trell, blown to bits because of a few Alliance credits."

"Trell?" Well, somebody hadn't gotten the memo.

"Yes. All gone," I wave a hand. "I can give you the news-vids if you want—the journalists are still talking to the few people who were off-world at the time—they have no homes to go to now," I pointed out. "A few other worlds have offered assistance, but it won't ever be the same."

"But I was—my family—I," Pearlina was about to crumble. She was Trellian—I'd known it the moment I'd scented her.

"Dead now," I said. "Did you think Black Mist wouldn't hedge their bets when you handed information to them? If I hadn't been called away, I'd have been there too. Oh, you might have achieved your objective with my death, but honestly, after Kifirin got through with you, a teacup would be much too big to hold what was left of your remains."

"Kifirin," Pearlina snorted, turning her head away from me.

"I am allowed to protect my mate," Kifirin appeared, blowing heavy smoke. "I would kill you now, but my mate wishes to speak with you first."

"I've already told the others everything I can."

"But you haven't told me everything," I said. "Oh, I know somebody prevents you from saying where Black Mist is quartered. We'll move past that. When was the last time you saw him—the vampire who created Black Mist?" Pearlina's eyes went wide—I'd hit the mark.

"Eleven moon turns ago." The answer came grudgingly—I'd placed compulsion with the question. Now, all it took was asking the right questions to get around her other compulsion. Somehow, the Black Mist asshole had locked her up, preventing Gavin and the others from getting information on him or his organization. It might be a combination of compulsion and wizardry, but more than likely it was le'meruh. I was doing my best to skirt around it. Le'meruh was unbreakable compulsion—only the one who placed it could remove it. The only other way to kill it was to kill the one who held it.

"What kinds of foods did they serve there that you liked? Any kind of fruit you were partial to?" Every world had its ethnic foods. I was gambling on this, along with a few other clues Pearlina might give me.

"They serve a grassberry dessert, with cream. I liked that after getting the hind sandwiches from the cart outside." Well, it was one of the few planets that served deer as a regular meal.

"What color was the brick on the building nearest the cart?"

"Wasn't brick. Gray stone."

"Did you wear a coat?"

"Too hot."

Norian had shown up by this time, Lendill right behind him. Lendill pulled his comp-vid out and recorded Pearlina's responses as soon as he arrived.

"Does he feed from children or adults?" It was just a question. I wasn't really expecting an answer—most vampires hid this from those like Pearlina.

"He likes children." Pearlina actually shuddered.

"He kills them when he feeds?" I wanted to gag, but I kept going anyway.

"Usually. I saw him feed from a twelve-year-turn twice before she died. He likes to hear their screams. "

"Has he fed from you?"

"No—too old."

"You came here to get bitten by a vampire. Didn't you?" I had a feeling about her and I wasn't wrong, as it turned out.

"I volunteered after I found out that I'd get—you know—every time. The ones here don't withhold it, like he does." Norian lifted an eyebrow at Pearlina's admission.

Come on, Norian—vampires can give a climax with the bite, I sent.

And you never bit me?

Norian, I'm questioning the prisoner.

Sorry, breah-mul.

"Your favorite fruits or vegetables they grow there?" I went on.

"I love the coral fruit," Pearlina said. "Can I get some for my last meal?"

"If you tell me what you know about Solar Red," I promised.

"Those fools. They think they own Black Mist. Black Mist only uses them to clear the way for their own purposes."

"Where do they come from? Solar Red? Are they close to Black Mist?"

"In our laps, now," Pearlina laughed. "They bring the young ones for the meals."

"How convenient," I muttered.

"It is, isn't it?" Pearlina laughed again. "Like a buffet." That had me jerking my head toward Norian.

Norian—Black Mist is in the dungeon of Solar Red Headquarters!

But where? We have to know where!

Isn't Lendill working on this? We have deer sandwiches, coral fruit, grassberry dessert with cream. Come on, that has to give us something.

Seventeen worlds have that as a regular offering, Lendill sent to both of us.

Then we have seventeen worlds to look at. Before, we had nearly five hundred.

That narrows it down, Lissa, but even with one world, it's like looking for the pin in the hayfield. Norian wasn't budging a micrometer on this.

Come on, Nori. Missing children. Warlocks or wizards going in and out. Vampires, too—I'm sure he has more of them. Lion snake shapeshifters, possibly reptanoids with funny eyes—gotten any hits on where those we found traveled to and from?

Traced them to several worlds. Not one in particular, Norian was mentally grumpy.

Then the warlocks or wizards were transporting them, I returned. Let's ask Pearlina.

"Pearlina, for coral fruit and a grassberry dessert, were the vampire's warlocks taking the lion snakes far to send them out for assassinations?"

"I hated them, their eyes weren't natural," Pearlina snapped. "Zellar didn't like them either. He only took them two or three light-years distance. He said he couldn't stand taking them farther than that."

"How many snakes were there?"

"Only six that we sent out. The rest didn't have good speech, so we made them do other things. Clean up and such. Maybe fifteen or so when I left. Some of them died. The females all died."

Are you getting that? I sent to Lendill.

Got it, Lendill replied.

"What can you tell me about Zellar?" I asked.

"He did amazing things. The boss really liked him."

"What kind of amazing things?"

"He destroyed a starship once, when the boss asked him. Six light-years away and moving at light speed. That's amazing."

"That is amazing. Six light-years."

"Yeah. He's terrible in bed though." Lendill snickered at Pearlina's observation.

We didn't get much more from Pearlina. I didn't tell her, but the Council was scheduled to question her a final time the following morning. After that, they'd perform the execution. I was already asking Cheedas to prepare Pearlina's final meal for dinner as soon as we got above ground.

* * *

"This is getting us nowhere." Norian was so frustrated I thought he'd have a stroke. His hair was wild after he'd raked it with his hands too many times to count. We'd gone over the worlds that had the fruit, vegetables and other things Pearlina mentioned. As Lendill said, there were seventeen of those. Then we overlaid a map of all the locations where Norian had found the reptanoids boarding ships to travel. We didn't have a good handle on comings and goings, so all of those were included. It didn't help.

"Well, she did say that Zellar had a range of six light-years at least, if he hit a ship. Now, what if he hit that ship we were on that circulated Tykl?" I suggested. "Let me see if Erland can come." I sent out mindspeech. Erland was there in a blink, looking just as fresh and handsome as ever.

"Pearlina said that Zellar once hit a starship from six light-years away," I said. "Is that normal for a warlock?"

Erland stared at me. "It's not normal for any warlock. A few might do it. Not Zellar."

"But Pearlina said he did. Said he hit a moving starship from six light-years away," I insisted. "She believed it was the truth—I would have known if she were attempting a lie."

"Zellar doesn't have that kind of natural talent," Erland said.

"Even so, we have the ship that was hit while orbiting Tykl," I pointed out. "Let's pull up Tykl on a map and then draw a six light-year radius around that and see if it intersects with anything else we've gotten."