"Mia is formidable in an argument." A small smile flickered over Kurt's face. "She's so very- pa.s.sionate pa.s.sionate. If we were together, she'd be much calmer."

Joe ran his hand over the polished surface of the piano. "This piano is horrendously expensive. It's a shame for it to collect dust."

Kurt touched the keys ruefully. "I feel no desire when she can't hear."

"I'd consider it an honor to hear you play."

Kurt scrutinized Joe for a moment. "Very well, Doctor."

Joe sank down into the leather armchair. "Please, call me, Joe."

Kurt settled down onto the bench. "Anything you'd particularly like to hear, Doctor?"

So, Kurt wasn't about to lessen the professional distance. Joe had the feeling it would always remain so. "I wouldn't presume."

Kurt's eyes focused on the distant wall. "I'll play what Mia likes."

He sat in silence for a moment then started to play. Joe recognized the piece from a CD in his office. Chopin's Nocturne in E Flat Major Nocturne in E Flat Major. It started out softly, delicately building, outwardly innocuous as a rippling brook but with potential torrents carefully contained. Kurt's slight figure became powerful as his hands moved over the keys, drawing out all the dark pa.s.sion of the music. Amazing that one of these things could create such beauty.

When Kurt finished Joe was speechless, moved by the music. Kurt turned on the bench, huge eyes glittering silently, brushing back a tawny curl from his pale forehead. They regarded each other, the man and the vampire, one male animal and the other. Did Kurt have any idea of the suggestive things Mia said? And what did she say to Kurt on that cream-colored perfumed stationery? Intimate missives. Intimate missives.

Adversaries, without any say in the matter. Was this why Lydia sent him in with them, to play them off against each other on purpose? And if so, why?

Surprisingly, it was Kurt who broke the silence, almost shyly, "Does she like the flowers?"

Joe didn't know what to say, so he told the barest truth, hoping Kurt wouldn't see it entire. "She hasn't said anything."

Kurt's face went still. Joe quickly changed the subject. "I'm no expert but you're extraordinarily gifted."

Kurt shrugged, the smallest of smiles warming his face. Was he actually blushing?

"You might have been a great musician. I mean you are. You could have been famous if... "

Kurt became horrifyingly still, a marble figure carved into a tomb, or was it a predator about to spring? "If this hadn't happened to me?"

"Could you always play like this? Or is it enhanced by the mutation?"

"No more questions!" Kurt suddenly snapped. "Leave me now."

Joe paused for a moment then spoke humbly, "Thank you Kurt."

"For what?"

"The music."

"The music? Yes. The music- you're welcome," Kurt replied in a vague staccato, staring hard at Joe's face. "This is very difficult for her, to be caged, like an animal, after all we've been through. I'm gravely concerned."

Joe wasn't quite sure what to make of this. Was this a warning of some kind?

"This isn't what she promised."

Joe stood up, running his hands over his exhausted eyes. "I should go now."

Kurt's face relaxed subtly. He moistened his full bottom lip slightly. "I don't hold you responsible, Doctor. Forgive me if I was brusque."

"I'd be handling it a lot worse if I were you."

The vampire laughed a small laugh, like an intake of breath. Joe smiled and stifled the bizarre urge to pat him on the head paternally, and turned uneasily to let himself out of the cell.

SIX.

Joe sat in his office, overlooking the symbols he'd jotted down from Kurt's letter when Jean surprised him by touching his shoulder. "Runes, Joe?"

He looked up into her ocean-blue eyes. "Ruins?" "Ruins?"

"Runes, stupid." She wrinkled her freckle-dusted nose. "Viking runes, used by the Norse, they carved them on these huge stones all over Europe. They're sometimes used for divination. My brother was into stuff like that." stupid." She wrinkled her freckle-dusted nose. "Viking runes, used by the Norse, they carved them on these huge stones all over Europe. They're sometimes used for divination. My brother was into stuff like that."

"Divination?"

"Prophesy, fortunetelling."

Joe reached over, closed the office door and swung his chair around to face her. "Jean, don't tell anyone, but I'm carrying letters between Mia and Kurt."

She laughed. "How romantic of you. Here are the reports from pathology and medical."

"Finally. See you later?"

She smiled and nodded as she made her way out.

Joe was astonished by the test results. Cells that never died, only divided and re-divided, constantly rejuvenating. Deadly viruses, Ebola, HIV, and virulent bacteria like bubonic plague were devoured by a few drops of their blood. The cell cultures went on that way for one week or so, but unless fed fresh human blood cells they became erratic, dying rapidly. When exposed to ultraviolet light, they broke down in minutes, the cells unstable, and detiorating into rotting jelly.

More wonders appeared before his eyes. Chromosomal anomalies in all twenty-three pairs, as if someone had snipped out offending genetic threads and replaced them. But what was responsible for this tailoring? So far the agent was unidentified.

Human? So it appeared. Impossible to say, at this point, the extent of the differences. His scans showed their brains looked the same as human brains, but their limbic functions were more highly developed, and their sensory apparatus worked on a much more efficient level.

Their bodies weren't much different in appearance from mortals, except for an absence of pigmentation from non-exposure to the sun. Hair and nails grew at a slightly accelerated rate. Kurt grew facial hair, although very little. Their nails were somewhat harder and stronger, like horn. Their skin was as smooth as newborns, and hair luxuriously thick and glossy.

The vampires gained almost no weight. The digestive system still functioned as normal, but their caloric intake was very small at any one meal, but like birds they ate often, because of a more rapid metabolism. Odd, he considered, because most animals with quick metabolisms didn't live long, a notable difference being parrots, which often outlived their owners.

Their muscles, if not bulky were extremely dense and well developed- more flexible and two to three times stronger than a large, strong human male. But these two diminutive creatures weren't the largest specimens. A fully matured alpha male, as Mia called them, would be much more dangerous.

Of course there was the question of s.e.x s.e.x. Obviously, they still had the physical and mental capacity to perform and enjoy, but she didn't ovulate or menstruate and he shot blanks.

Joe spent hours reviewing the data in his office and wondering about them. Aside from the physiological differences the tests revealed, he observed nothing about their behavior that couldn't be construed as ordinary human behavior in a confined atmosphere. Both were bored, obviously, agitated by the constant intrusions on their privacy, but only Joe knew how much they missed one another. No one on the staff but Jean or Lydia saw their emotional depth and intelligence, or even seemed to care. They didn't view them as anything but monsters. Yes, they had killed many times but they obeyed a biological imperative. Somehow they found a way to deal with it and still feel empathy. Yet even Joe wasn't quite sure if he wasn't being manipulated to believe so. That's what made them so dangerous.

He glanced at his watch and saw that it was past four. Jean was off-duty. He had three hours until he had to meet with Mia. Enough time for a quick rendezvous.

Jean's lithe figure lay on the bed, tanned skin smooth and supple, molten gold hair falling over her straight shoulders. Something of the sun and sea about her, blue and gold and clean, Joe mused as he caressed her.

It ate him that they had to hide their relationship. This wasn't just some cheesy affair. Jean was more than a mistress. She was his only friend. If things were different he'd get a divorce and marry her, but he couldn't. His family would turn their backs on him. And what would Rima do? She'd never been on her own and wouldn't know how to get on without him. It was an unfair mess most Americans wouldn't comprehend in these days of easy coupling and uncoupling. He had scruples, duty to his family, but he couldn't live without Jean.

She rolled over to kiss him. "What time are you back on duty?"

"Graveyard shift, I have an appointment with her at seven but I have to stop in to see him first."

"Oh come on, Joe, all the guys envy you."

He rolled over onto his back and stretched his arms out over his head. "They're welcome to the job. What do you think of her?"

Jean frowned thoughtfully, "They're both pretty creepy. They look at you and you're naked to them- like they can see inside your head."

Joe shook his head and rolled over on to his belly, laughing. "They read body and facial cues. Their olfactory sense is superior to ours. They can perceive slight changes in body chemistry by scent."

She rubbed a knot out of his shoulder with her long, capable hands. "She's gotten under your skin."

"She'd like to."

She rubbed harder at his shoulders. He grunted at the pressure of her fingers. "You've met your match."

He looked up. "Huh?"

"You don't take well to strong women. This one is beyond your wildest dreams. She has you by the b.a.l.l.s."

"Ridiculous," he said, getting up from the mattress.

Jean c.o.c.ked her head to the side and continued to rub it with the towel. "Are you attracted to her?"

"She's not my type."

"The guys actually have a pool going to see who'll have s.e.x with her first, you or Kurt. They're betting on you, I hear. Bunch of jerks, they'd shrivel if she so much as looked at them. Why do you think Lydia gave you this job?"

"A sick joke?"

"Maybe there's a certain irony- but who else could stand up to her? She'd eat the others alive. You're different. Why do you think Mia responds to you? Lydia knew exactly what she was doing."

"First cla.s.s castrating b.i.t.c.h... "

"You make me laugh. Lydia's barely one hundred pounds, but she has you, too. Maybe women in powerful positions are there for a reason, not just to annoy you. Lydia is the top in her field, and a d.a.m.ned good administrator. She sent you in there because no one else has the forceful personality required for the job."

Joe grinned. "Jean, you have common sense. You see things I can't because I'm too... "

"Pigheaded? Arrogant?"

"Exactly, and now Mia's p.i.s.sed off at me and I don't understand why."

"Try treating her like a woman, not a subject."

"If I start to see her as a human being, I'm lost."

Jean's face darkened. "What do you think she wants?"

"Not s.e.x, that's just a manipulative ploy."

"Maybe she's falling in love... "

"Why are we even having this conversation?"

"They're people, Joe, even if they aren't like us. I talk with Kurt when I run scans on him. He's very sensitive and kind of sweet. He loves her deeply."

"Don't get taken in. They fool me sometimes too. It's how they operate. They make you think they're human- then suck everything out of you. Don't tell me you're falling in love with Kurt?"

"Don't be silly. But there's something, well- ethereal ethereal about him. His face is achingly perfect, with that honey-colored hair and those great big blue eyes- like an angel- a beautiful male angel. Both of them are gorgeous in this unearthly way. Maybe vampires are the angels people claim to see... " about him. His face is achingly perfect, with that honey-colored hair and those great big blue eyes- like an angel- a beautiful male angel. Both of them are gorgeous in this unearthly way. Maybe vampires are the angels people claim to see... "

"Reading the tabloids at the supermarket again?"

She flicked her towel again at him and he pulled her down to him laughing.

"Did you check out those runes, Joe?"

"Don't tell me a thing. Don't spell anything. They must use it as a cipher." He kissed her on the throat. "Enough about them." He began kissing her sun-browned skin all over, haunted suddenly by the image of porcelain-pale flesh. Jean wrapped legs around to take him inside, but he was elsewhere, far beyond the confines of her cozy apartment and tanned body.

Kurt was was angelic, Joe had to admit, when he entered his cell later that evening. More like a p.u.b.escent boy than the young man he'd obviously been. His eyes caught Joe's for a moment and appeared vaguely amused. angelic, Joe had to admit, when he entered his cell later that evening. More like a p.u.b.escent boy than the young man he'd obviously been. His eyes caught Joe's for a moment and appeared vaguely amused.

"Productive afternoon, Doctor?"

Joe ignored his observation. "I'm on my way to Mia. You have a letter?"

Kurt studied Joe's face again as he handed him an envelope. His expression darkened. "Yes, I see... "

Joe let himself out cautiously, not really sure what Kurt was getting at. Moments later, Joe handed Mia her partner's letter. She rushed over to the armchair to read it, chuckling at something in the contents.

Joe cleared his throat. "Mia- about Kurt. I saw something last night, on his arm."

She looked up. "I thought you knew. The doctors must have seen when we were examined."

"Somehow I missed this. Which camp?"

"Dachau."

"How did he survive? He looks as if the wind could have blown him away."