“This is true,” Danton said. “We already have several humans who have been exposed to what we are and who gladly—even enthusiastically—give themselves to us for feeding. But it’s not nearly enough to survive on.”

“That’s only because the world at large doesn’t know about you. You are giving yourself away to only a select few when the world is full of millions who might feel the same way.”

“Or millions who might feel threatened and would then seek to eradicate us.”

“Yes. I understand that this is an even more likely possibility. Like I said, this is why I understand why you wish to remain hidden in our society. But consider this, in this age of people easily spying on one another, of lives being hacked and information being stolen, it is only a matter of time before someone is discovered writing about vampires in the wrong email or talking about them on the wrong open line. Then you will be exposed without getting out in front of it, without you being in control of the release of information.”

“We have some of the best encryption money can buy. And we are very careful not to mention ourselves in any written form. We never mention the word ‘vampire’ out in the open. Should you be allowed to retain your memory of us, you would not be allowed to do so either. Do you think you could control yourself?”

“Of course I can. I’m not a child.”

“And you haven’t written anything down about us? Say, in a journal or diary? A letter to yourself that will explain everything and undo whatever hypno we might use on you?”

She bit her lip as she remembered her impulse to do exactly that. But impulse was one thing, acting on that impulse was something else entirely.

“The thought did occur to me. But I do not commit to paper anything I am unwilling for someone else to discover. In a job where such clues lead to convictions all of the time, I have learned to be cautious.”

“Let’s talk about your job,” Josef said. “Do you—”

“Yes. Let’s talk about my job,” she interrupted him. “I am in a unique position. I know about your people. I know a crime has been committed by one of them. I also know that I am so good at my job that I could find this criminal to both our species. But I also know that no human would be able to bring in or punish a vampire. Not without great threat to the lives of many. So I propose this…let me look for the perpetrator. Let me use my considerable skills for your benefit. Let me find this guy and then let me turn over the information on how to find him to you.”

There was silence for a long minute, then Danton said, “What you are suggesting is very dangerous for you and those who are working the case with you.”

“Yes. That is why you need to act quickly when I find him. You must get to him before my people do.”

“And you are all right with our type of justice?” Danton asked.

“Your justice is your business. As long as it fits the crime.”

“The very act of being a sycophant is a death sentence,” Josef said coldly.

Renee hesitated, remembering what Rafe had told her about the rare few who might be rescued from a life as a sycophant.

“As long as you are certain they are irreclaimable.”

“I haven’t ever heard of one being reclaimable,” Tomas said.

“Maybe because you kill them with impunity. You don’t take the time to find out if they are able to be rehabilitated.”

“You see. Already you judge us for our justice methods,” Josef said.

“I judge my own people in the same way. Only usually it’s the opposite. I feel that our punishments are too lenient. There are just some people who should never be allowed out on the street again.”

“That is a harsh worldview. Not too dissimilar to our own.”

“It is a harsh world. I believe in the death penalty. An eye for an eye. A life for a life. That’s just my personal opinion. But that doesn’t keep me from performing my job as fairly and competently as I possibly can. I face killers and liars every day. A liar isn’t always a killer but a killer is usually a liar. Although, you’d be surprised how many simply want to unburden themselves of the crime they committed. It happens more often than you might think.

“As I understand it sycophants are always lawbreakers, but not always killers. There has to be a way to make your punishment fit crimes more properly. Death for feeding from a tainted source? That seems a bit harsh and a little extreme.”

“The thing is, you can’t tell a sycophant who is just dirty from a sycophant who is a killer. They all smell the same,” Danton said.

“Smell?” Renee asked.

“Vampires can smell the taint of sycophanthropy. It’s rather like the smell of a sweaty old tennis shoe. Musty and fungal and wet.”

Renee wrinkled her nose. “How delightful,” she said.

“It isn’t. And neither is this naive conversation,” Josef said coldly. “Who are you to tell us our punishment methods are wrong? You overstep yourself.”

“I didn’t say they were wrong. I simply said there had to be a better way of determining wrongdoers from pure evil. It’s the same struggle humans deal with every day. But can you imagine what it would be like if we put every drug user to death for their weakness? Every purse snatcher? Every shoplifter? There are degrees of crime and there should be degrees of punishment.”

“This is an ongoing argument in the higher echelons of our government, Renee. There are many who feel as you do. We are not a perfect society—far from it—but the law is the law as it stands now. All sycophants are subject to capital punishment,” Danton said.

“Then I will adhere to your law. I will do as I do in my everyday life…uphold the law and the legal system in spite of my personal feelings about crime and punishment. In fact, there are many detectives who feel as I do. But we do our best to see murderers punished to the fullest extent of New York State law.”

“And you are willing to ignore human law and allow vampire law to take precedence in the matter of sycophants and other vampires who are breaking the law?”

She didn’t hesitate. “I am. After last night I realized there is no way the police can go one-on-one with a vampire. If I had been alone in that alley—alone and unaware of how to kill a sycophant—I would be dead. And even if they did know how to kill one, do you know how hard it is to make a shot like that? The electricity they use is like getting hit by a Taser. Completely incapacitating. And it can be done from a distance and doesn’t need to be as accurate as aiming a Taser has to be.