her back. Of course, working at Fangtasia would be a dream job for a fang-banger, and this gal had the scars to prove she enjoyed her perks. She was confident enough to grin at Eric, foolish enough to take the wooden chair with some confidence, even crossing her legs like Sharon Stone—she hoped. She was surprised to see a strange vampire and a new woman in the room, and not pleased by my presence, though Bill made her lick her lips.
“Hey, sweetie,” she said to Eric, and I decided she must have no imagination at all.
“Ginger, answer this woman’s questions,” Eric said. His voice was like a stone wall, flat and implacable.
Ginger seemed to understand for the first time that this was a time to be serious. She crossed her ankles this time, sat with her hands on the tops of her thighs, and assumed a stern face. “Yes, master,” she said, and I thought I was going to barf.
She waved an imperious hand at me, as if to say, “Begin, fellow vampire server.” I reached down for her wrist, and she flung my hand away. “Don’t touch me,” she said, almost hissing.
It was such an extreme reaction that the vampires tensed up, and I could feel that crackling the air in the room.
“Pam, hold Ginger still,” Eric commanded, and Pam appeared silently behind Ginger’s chair, leaning over and putting her hands on Ginger’s upper arms. You could tell Ginger struggled some because her head moved around, but Pam held her upper body in a grip that kept the girl’s body absolutely immobile.
My fingers circled her wrist. “Did you take the money?” I asked, staring into Ginger’s flat brown eyes.
She screamed, then, long and loud. She began to curse me. I listened to the chaos in the girl’s tiny brain. It was like trying to walk over a bombed site.
“She knows who did,” I said to Eric. Ginger fell silent then, though she was sobbing. “She can’t say the name,” I told the blond vampire. “He has bitten her.” I touched the scars on Ginger’s neck as if that needed more illustration. “It’s some kind of compulsion,” I reported, after I’d tried again. “She can’t even picture him.”
“Hypnosis,” Pam commented. Her proximity to the frightened girl had made Pam’s fangs run out. “A strong vampire.”
“Bring in her closest friend,” I suggested.
Ginger was shaking like a leaf by then with thoughts she was compelled not to think pressing her from their locked closet.
“Should she stay, or go?” Pam asked me directly.
“She should go. It’ll only scare someone else.”
I was so into this, so into openly using my strange ability, that I didn’t look at Bill. I felt that somehow if I looked at him, it would weaken me. I knew where he was, that he and Long Shadow had not moved since the questioning had begun.
Pam hauled the trembling Ginger away. I don’t know what she did with the barmaid, but she came returned with another waitress in the same kind of clothes. This woman’s name was Belinda, and she was older and wiser. Belinda had brown hair, glasses, and the sexiest pouting mouth I’d ever seen.
“Belinda, what vampire has Ginger been seeing?” Eric asked smoothly once Belinda was seated, and I was touching her. The waitress had enough sense to accept the process quietly, enough intelligence to realize she had to be honest.
“Anyone that would have her,” Belinda said bluntly.
I saw an image in Belinda’s mind, but she had to think the name.
“Which one from here?” I asked suddenly, and then I had the name. My eyes sought his corner before I could open my mouth, and then he was on me, Long Shadow, vaulting over the chair holding Belinda to land on top of me as I crouched in front of her. I was bowled over backward into Eric’s desk, and only my upflung arms saved me from his teeth sinking into my throat and ripping it out. He bit my forearm savagely, and I screamed; at least I tried to, but with so little air left from the impact it was more like an alarmed choking noise.
I was only conscious of the heavy figure on top of me and the pain of my arm, my own fear. I hadn’t been frightened that the Rats were going to kill me until almost too late, but I understood that to keep his name from leaving my lips, Long Shadow was ready to kill me instantly, and when I heard the