Katrine held up a syringe and Renee could see it was loaded. God only knew with what.

“Now, I won’t tell you what’s in it. I’ll let you guess. It could be heroin. Or it could be a big dose of AIDS-infected blood. Or maybe we’ll just pump her full of air bubbles and see how she likes that.”

Renee swallowed hard, but she wasn’t all that afraid. Unlike Rafe, she could see the liquid in the syringe—it was loaded with the muddy brown of heroin, not the bright red of blood. She had seen enough heroin on the streets when she’d been a beat cop to recognize what she was looking at.

“What’s a little heroin going to hurt me?” she asked loudly, hoping Rafe got her message, that she was identifying the substance for him.

“So you’re not afraid of a very addictive drug?” Killean asked. “Will you be afraid when I pump it into you and try to balance your pure body between a high and an overdose? You’re not used to drugs. You’re not built for them. That makes you more susceptible to their effects…and their dangers.”

“Why are you doing this, Killean?” Rafe demanded, taking the opportunity to get the information they needed before things got too out of hand.

“Don’t you know? I thought all you lawful vampires had spies watching my every move.”

“That’s your paranoia,” Rafe said coldly. “You know we can’t get close to you.”

“Not unless you use a human,” Killean said as he moved closer to Renee. He reached out to stroke her hair. Did he know? Renee wondered. Did he know they had been planning to send her in to get close to him?

No. He couldn’t possibly know that. They had only just hatched the plan. And it had been spur of the moment. They hadn’t even come close to a cohesive plan. They’d barely even spoken about it.

“I thought I would return the sentiment. I thought I would use a human to get the information I want for a change. That’s where you come in, my dear.”

“Me?” she asked, making herself sound shaky. “I think you’re all cracked! There’s no such thing as vampires!”

“I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but there are. We’ll be proving that to you a little later on. You see, I know Rafe. Quite well. He is as lawful a vampire as there has ever been. One of the most important tenets of vampirism is to let no harm come to a resource.” He leaned in and whispered to her. “That means you. And it means it would absolutely kill him to know that all he has to do to stop me from hurting you is for him to break another tenet of vampire law. Protect the nation at all costs.” Killean raised his voice on that last. “So what will he do? Protect his resource or protect his nation? Sacrifice the one for the many? Or sacrifice the many for the one? It’s a fascinating philosophical conundrum. But it’s more than philosophical. In this case it’s actual.”

“You haven’t answered my question. Why are you doing this?” Rafe tried again.

“To gain power of course. Power over you, over the nation, over that spoiled little holier-than-thou bitch you call a queen.”

“To what end? A sycophant can’t rule the nation.”

“Says you. A sycophant can do anything a lawful vampire can do. More even, because we are not restricted in our diets to those precious few resources like you are.” He patted Renee’s head again. “But you don’t know that because you’ve never tried it, Rafe. You’ve never walked on the wild side. You really don’t know what you’re missing.”

“You’re an addict, Killean. Plain and simple. You’re just looking for your next high…and you don’t care where it comes from. Don’t you remember? Don’t you remember the clean high of taking from a clean source?”

“That high that you speak of is nothing compared to what I feel now. You don’t appreciate that. But you will.” He turned to the female sycophant. “Do it.”

Katrine smiled maliciously and stepped forward. Renee struggled as they held her arm down and Katrine found a vein. Renee felt the prick of the needle and she cried out in panic. Her heart was racing madly as the plunger on the needle sank.

“I know this isn’t for you,” she heard Rafe say, and she could hear the fierce tension in his voice. “This is for Draz. You’re just a low man on the totem pole. You’ll never rule the nation as long as Draz is pulling your strings.”

“Draz knows nothing about this!” Killean snapped sharply. “I don’t need him. I’m strong enough on my own.”

Suddenly, to Renee, it felt as if the world was slipping away. Numbness washed over her and her head began to spin. The voices she heard seemed to come from very far away and she felt incredibly sleepy.

No! She had to fight it! Rafe couldn’t take them on his own. She had to be here for him. She had to help.

She reacted. She kicked up her feet and ringed a knee around the neck of the phant holding down her right side. Using all of her strength she yanked him downward, slamming his head into the table. The minute her arm was free she backhanded Katrine. Then she reached across to shove a hard palm into the nose of the phant holding down her left side. He fell back, dragging her with him and she fell off the table hard.

“Get her!” a warped voice yelled from very far away. She reached for the gun at her ankle but she knew it was only a .22 and the odds of her hitting the brain stem were slim to none. The bullet would tumble and bounce around and go wherever it wanted to once it entered the body. With a .22 she’d be lucky to penetrate the skull if she was too far away.

The gun cleared the holster just as a wave of paralyzing warmth rushed through her. It seemed the harder she fought, the faster the drugs were working. She’d be a drooling mess in another minute or two. Every moment counted. So did every shot.

She brought the gun up to the throat of the phant that still had hold of her left arm. She pulled the trigger and his entire head jerked back. He dropped like a rock.

Renee rolled and slid her knees under herself. She sat up on them, wobbling as she looked around. The room was complete bedlam. Rafe had snapped his cuffs and was fighting off what looked like scads of sycophants. She realized she could best help him by not falling into the hands of another sycophant. Otherwise they could use her to get him to stop fighting. When she turned her head she could see Killean heading for her, clearly intent on doing just that. She aimed shakily at him, keeping him instantly at bay. He held up his hands in acquiescence. But he smiled as if he knew a secret. She got her feet under her and staggered to Killean. The floor dipped suddenly beneath her and Killean lunged at her. They fell to the floor together and she fought with him. He was so strong and she was getting weaker by the second.