“The very act of becoming a sycophant—of crossing over from a clean vampire to one that thrives on the poisonous energy sources all around us—is considered a capital crime. The punishment is the same for all sycophants. Death on sight. Any clean vampire who comes across a sycophant not only has permission to destroy them, but they are obligated to. You have to understand just how deadly and dangerous this breed of vampire is. The choice to become a sycophant is exactly that—a choice. You don’t accidentally decide to start feeding on poison. It’s a conscious act.”

“I see,” she said quietly.

She did see. And when he explained it like that, she could agree. But surely…

“Isn’t there some way a sycophant can be rehabilitated? If they go back to feeding from clean resources? Or—”

“There is a time period during which becoming a sycophant is a mutable thing. But it is a short time period. Days. Maybe a week at most. If a vampire feeds from a polluted source he can undo the damage if it’s corrected immediately. However, there is no going back after a certain amount of time has passed, and there is no going back if the vampire has killed during a feed.”

“I see. But it is possible for a sycophant to become a normal vampire again? What if the vampire can become clean again? How do you know if you kill without exception?”

“Cases like that are beyond rare,” he said.

“But it is possible.”

“Renee, your desire to be fair does you credit, but I promise you the likelihood of this is almost nil. And when faced with a poisoned mind…it’s like an addiction for them. Once they have a taste of the drug they don’t want to let it go. The craving is irresistible.”

“I’ve seen even the worst addicts come out of it, make something of themselves.”

“Inasmuch as this is the same it is also different. I cannot explain it to you in ways you could ever comprehend unless you were experiencing it for yourself.”

Renee fell silent again. In spite of the things she saw in her job every day, she still believed people were inherently reclaimable. Perhaps not murderers or those who gladly committed heinous acts, but most who had lost their path needed only to find it again.

Here she was dealing with a race she knew nothing about. Her only resource to understanding them was Rafe. She was put in the position of trusting him to know better than she did about this. Should she trust him? Had he given her reason to be trustful of him? He had taken from her without permission and then erased her memory of it; he could potentially make her believe anything he wanted her to believe.

However, she realized she did trust him now. Within reason. He had come clean to her when he could just as easily have deceived her further. He could have erased her memory, putting her in danger without her even knowing it. But his conscience refused to let him do that. Would he face some kind of censure for telling her? Some kind of punishment?

“Will you get into trouble for telling me the truth about your people?” she asked.

His long fingers clenched at the steering wheel a moment before relaxing. He sighed.

“It’s hard to say,” he said. “There are some humans who know about us, but they usually have to be approved by a committee before they are told. We do background checks and psych evaluations to see if they are capable of coping with such an enormous secret and the responsibility that comes with it. I’ve broken with the law. It is possible they will send someone else to use hypno on you to clean your mind of our existence. I will do everything in my power to prevent that from happening. As I said, your life is clearly in danger and I won’t leave you out there unsuspecting of the danger you are in. I am hoping that the committee agrees with me. But your profession is a strike against you.”

“Why?” she asked, swallowing noisily at the idea of someone coming to erase her memory.

“Your instinct is to find and relay the truth. Keeping a secret about the crimes you encounter because of your knowledge of us is a lot to ask of you. It no doubt will go against your grain. Many people would find that too hard to deal with.”

She could understand that. And he was right. How could she keep silent about all of this? Crimes against humanity had been committed. Those who committed the crimes needed to be brought to justice.

She sighed realizing she had come full circle again.

“I will find a way to deal with it,” she said firmly. “I won’t betray your secret society.”

“I believe you, but I am not the one you have to convince.”

“Do you have to tell anyone else about me? Can’t it just be between us?”

A frown marred his handsome features. “I am not accustomed to keeping secrets from those around me. I am in a position of trust among my people. If I betray that trust…”

“Of course. Forget I asked.” She fidgeted with her hands nervously. “When are you going to tell them that I know about you?”

“I should be telling them now. I should be driving you to our holding facility where you would be questioned and evaluated.”

“You’re not going to do that?”

“No. Not right now. Right now I’m going to take you home so you can decompress from the excitement of the night.”

“I’d like that. I’m completely wound up.”

“I don’t blame you. I’m feeling that myself.”

“Do you think these people are after you because of this treaty you were talking about or is it something else?”

“I can’t tell. But with the timing, it seems highly unlikely that it’s anything else. This treaty will be the beginning of the end for the sycophants. It will pool the resources of many nations for the express purpose of rooting out the evil that is the sycophants. I don’t know what they hope to gain by targeting me, unless they are targeting the entire upper echelon of the e-vamps. There may have been other attacks I’m not aware of. I’m going to have to make a few calls when we get to your place.”

“Okay” was all she said.

They pulled up to her brownstone a short while later and Rafe parked the car. As they walked up the sidewalk, his hand fell to her waist and he guided her inside. She noticed that his attention was sharp on their surroundings—as was hers. They would not be caught off guard again.

They made it inside the house without incident and began to climb the stairs. They were passing the second floor when Emily popped her head out of her apartment and spied them.