"Next to nothing." I ris closed her eyes. "We didn't communicate much, or often. I wasn't a good mother."

"Cara."

"I wasn't." She shook her head at her husband's quiet protest. "I was only twenty when she was born, and I wasn't a good mother. I wasn't a good anything." The words were bitter with regret. "I t was all parties and fun and where can we go next. When Tiara's father had an affair, I had one to pay him back. And on and on, until we loathed each other and used her as a weapon."

She turned her shimmering eyes to her husband as he lifted their joined hands, pressed his lips to her fingers. "Long ago," he said softly. "That was long ago."

"She never forgave me. Why should she? When we divorced, T ee's father and I , I married again like that." I ris snapped her fingers. "Just to show him he didn't matter. I paid for that mistake six months later, but I didn't learn. When I finally grew up, it was too late. She preferred her father, who'd let her do whatever she liked, with whomever she liked."

"You made mistakes," Georgio told her. "You tried to fix them."

"Not hard enough, not soon enough. We have an eight-year-old daughter," she told Eve. "I 'm a good mother to her. But I lost Tiara long ago. Now I can never get her back. The last time we spoke, more than a month ago, we argued. I can never get that back either.""What did you argue about?"

"Her lifestyle, primarily. I hated that she was wasting herself the way I did. She was pushing, pushing the boundaries more all the time. Her father's engaged again, and this one's younger than T ee. I t enraged her, had her obsessing about getting older, losing her looks. Can you imagine, worried about such things at twenty-three?"

"No." Eve thought of the mirrors again, the clothes, the body work Tiara had done. Obviously, this was a young woman who obsessed about anything that had to do with herself. "Did she have any particular interest in the occult?"

"The occult? I can't say. She went through a period several years ago where she paid psychics great gobs of money. She dabbled in Wicca when she was a teenager-so many girls do-but she said there were too many rules. She was always looking for the easy way, for some magic potion to make everything perfect. Will you find who killed her?"

"I 'll find him."

Even as Eve made arrangements to have the Francines transported to the morgue, she saw Mira come in. After an acknowledging nod, Mira wandered to a vending machine.

She'd cut her hair again, Eve noted, so it was short and springy at the nape of her neck, and she'd done something to that soft sable color so that little wisps of it around her face were a paler tone. She sat, trim and pretty in her bluebonnet-colored suit, with two tubes of Diet Pepsi.

"I ris Francine," Mira stated when Eve came over. "I recognized her. Her face was everywhere a generation ago. I always thought her daughter was h.e.l.l-bent on outdoing her mother's youthful exploits. I t seems she succeeded in the hardest possible way."

"Yeah, dying will get you considerable face time, for a while."

"Quite a while, I 'll wager in this case. Vampirism. I had a meeting one level up," Mira explained, "and thought to catch you in your office. Peabody gave me the basics. Murder by vampire proponents is very rare. For the most part, it's the danger, the thrill, the eroticism that draws people- primarily young people. There is a condition-"

"Renfield Syndrome. I 've been reading up. What I 'm getting from the people who knew the vic was a predilection to walk the edge, a desperation for fame, attention, a serious need to be and stay young and beautiful. She'd already had bodywork. And you have to add in sheer stupidity. I get her. She's not unusual, she just had more money than most so she could indulge her every idiocy."

Eve paused as she broke the seal on the Pepsi tube. "I t's him. The method of killing was very specific, planned out, and there was no attempt to disguise it. He took jewelry, but that was more of the moment than motive. He went there to do exactly what he did, in exactly the way he did it."

"The compulsion may be his," Mira considered. "A craving for the taste of blood, one that escalated to the need to drain his victim. Have you gotten the autopsy results as yet?"

"No."

"I wonder if they'll find she drank blood as well. I f so, you may be dealing with a killer who believes he's a vampire, and who sought to turn her into one by taking her blood and sharing his own with her."

"And if at first you don't succeed?"

"Yes." Mira's eyes, a softer blue than her suit, met Eve's. "He may very well try again. The rush, the power-particularly when coupled with s.e.x and drugs-would be a strong pull. And she made it so easy for him, even profitable."

"How could he resist?"

"And why should he?" Mira concurred. "He was able to enter her highly secured building undetected. More power, and again cementing the illusion of a supernatural being. She gave herself to him, through s.e.x, through blood, through death. Held in thrall-whether by his will or chemicals- another element. He removed her blood from the scene. A souvenir perhaps, a trophy, or yet another element of his power. His need for blood, and his ability to take it. You believe she was drugged?"

"I haven't had that confirmed, but yeah. Her closest pal states she'd been using, and heavily, the last week or so."

"I f he drank any of her blood, he'd have shared the drug." Seeing Eve had already considered that, Mira nodded. "More power, or the illusion of it.

From what you know, they'd only met a week or two earlier. I t wasn't eternal love, which is one way of romanticizing vampirism."

"I don't get that." Interrupting, Eve gestured with her drink. "The romantic part."

Mira's lips curved. "Because you're a pragmatic soul. But for some, for many, the idea of eternity, that seeking a mate throughout it, coupled with the living by night, the lack of human boundaries is extremely romantic."

"Takes all kinds."

"I t does. However, the way he left the body wasn't romantic, or even respectful. I t was careless, cold. Whether or not he believes he could sire a vampire through her, she was no more than a vessel to him, a means to an end."He'll be young," Mira continued. "No more than forty. Most likely attractive in appearance and in good health. Who would want eternal life if they were homely and physically disadvantaged?"

"This vic wouldn't have gone for anyone who wasn't pretty anyway. Too vain. Her place was loaded with mirrors."

"Hmm. I wonder how she resigned herself to the lore that she'd have no reflection as a vampire."

"Could be she only bought what she wanted to buy."

"Perhaps. He'll be precise, erudite, clever. Sensual. He may be bis.e.xual, or believe himself to be as in lore, vampires will bed and bite either s.e.x.

He will, at least for the moment, feel invulnerable. And that will make him very dangerous."

Eve drank some of her soft drink, smiled. "Knowing I 'm mortal makes me very dangerous."

CHAPTER Four

Eve grabbed the tox report the second it came through. Then she stared at the results. She engaged her interoffice 'link, said only, "Peabody," then went back to studying the lab's findings.

"Yo," Peabody said a moment later at Eve's office doorway.

"Tox report. Take a look." Eve pa.s.sed her a printout while she continued to read her computer screen.

"Holy c.r.a.p. I t's not what she took," Peabody decided, "it's more what didn't she take."

"Hallucinogens, date-rape drugs, s.e.xual enhancers, paralytic, human blood, tranq, all mixed in wine. h.e.l.l of a c.o.c.ktail."

"I 've never seen anything like this." Peabody glanced over the printout. "You?"

"Not with so many variables and with this potency. I t's new to me, but let's run it by I llegals and see if it's new to them. According to the results, and the time line, she downed this herself, before she disengaged the alarm, or just after. Maybe she knew what was in it, maybe she didn't. But she drank it down, on her own."

"Hard to say, seeing she's dead, but she pretty much wins the stupid prize."

"All-time champ." Eve paused as her machine signalled another incoming. "And we may have a runner-up. We've got DNA." She scanned the data quickly. "s.e.m.e.n, saliva, and the blood she ingested. All the same donor."

"Pretty d.a.m.n careless of him," Peabody commented.

"Yeah." Eve frowned at the screen. "I t is, isn't it?"

"Another conclusion is he just didn't care-being a vampire." Peabody shrugged as Eve glanced back at her. "He doesn't care if we match his DNA because he'll just, I don't know, turn into a bat and fly off, or poof into smoke. Whatever."

"Right. A whole new scope on going into the wind."

"I 'm not saying it's what I think, but maybe what he thinks."

"We'll be sure to ask him when we find him. Meanwhile, go ahead and run the c.o.c.ktail by I llegals. I 'll do a standard search for the DNA match.

Maybe he's in the system."

But she didn't think so. He wasn't careless, Eve thought. He was f.u.c.king arrogant. I t didn't surprise her when her search turned up negative.

"Lieutenant."

She glanced over, experienced that quick heart punch when her eyes met Roarke's. He was dressed in the dark suit he'd put on in their bedroom that morning, one of the countless he owned tailored to fit his long, rangy frame.

"Right on time," she said.

"We aim to please." He stepped in, eased a hip onto the corner of her desk. "How goes the vampire hunting?"

"I don't think we'll have to call in Van Helsing." When he lifted his brows and grinned, she shrugged. "I do my research. Plus I 've sat through some of those old vids you like so much."

"And so armed, we'll venture into the den of the children of the night. Never a dull moment," he added and flicked his fingers at the choppy ends of her hair. "Your case is all over the media."

"Yeah. Bound to be."

"I noticed the primary hasn't given a statement.""I 'm not going to play the game on this one, or give this a.s.shole the satisfaction. She drugged her own brains out prior-mix of Zeus, Erotica, Wh.o.r.e, Rabbit, Stunner, Bliss, Boost, along with a few other goodies, including her killer's blood."

"There's an ugly recipe."

"And my money says he provided the brew, pushed on her vanity and stupid b.u.t.tons, got his rocks off, then drained her like a faulty motor."

"For what purpose?" Roarke wondered.

"Best I can tell, he wound her up because he could. And he killed her because he could. He'll want to do it again, real soon."

"Foolish of him, don't you think, to have chosen such a high-profile victim?"

She'd considered that, and had to appreciate being married to a man who could think like a cop. "Yeah, smarter, safer to bite a vagrant off the street. But this was more fun, more exciting. Why snack on street wh.o.r.es or sidewalk sleepers, the n.o.bodies, when you can gorge yourself on the prime? Plus, it was profitable. A street level LC isn't going to be sporting blue diamonds. He's stoked, believe it, watching all the media coverage."

"Unless he's spent the day napping in his coffin."

"Ha, ha." She pushed up, instinctively brushed a hand over the weapon at her side. "Almost sundown. Let's go clubbing."

Peabody was lying in wait, along with her cohab, E-Division Detective McNab. He wasn't just a fashion plate, but an entire place setting, and was decked out in pants of neon blue that appeared to be made up almost entirely of pockets. He'd matched it with a bright green jacket with streaks of yellow jagged across it and some sort of skinny tank that melded all the colors of the spectrum in a kind of eye-searing cloudburst.

"I thought we could use another pair of eyes," Peabody began even as Eve's eyes narrowed. "You know, strength in numbers."

"I did a rotation in I llegals when I was still in uniform." McNab grinned out of his pretty, narrow face. "And when I worked Vice, we ran into all kinds of freaky s.h.i.t."

"You don't want to miss a chance to cruise a vampire club."

He smile turned winsome. "Who would?"

She could use him, Eve thought, but she gave him the hard-eye first, just for form. "This isn't a d.a.m.n double date."

"No, sir." So he waited until Eve turned her back to walk to the elevator before hooking pinkies with Peabody.

"I llegals hasn't worked the combo," Peabody began once they'd shoehorned into the elevator. "They don't even have Bloodbath on their list of watch points. But they have worked a combination of Erotica, Bliss, Rabbit, with traces of blood-usually animal blood-in cases of vampire fetishism.

They call it Vamp, and the use generally skews young. They haven't had any homicides as a result of."

"Our guy upped the stakes, considerably. Have to wonder why the club hasn't made their list."

"I t's new," Peabody told her. "Way underground. Hadn't hit their radar until I contacted them regarding our investigation."

"Underground clubs pop up faster than weeds," McNab put in. "Live or die on word of mouth. Since it's more than urban legend that people tend to go down and not come back up, they don't get heavy tourist traffic."

"Tiara Kent found out about it somewhere." Eve strode off the elevator and into the garage.

"Crowd she runs with." Peabody jerked a shoulder. "New place with a jagged edge? I t would be right up her alley."

"And in less than two weeks from the first time she goes down, she's guzzling a new, exciting illegals c.o.c.ktail, and dies from a neck wound." Eve slid behind the wheel of her vehicle. "That's fast work, smooth work when you consider the security in her building never made him." She glanced over at Roarke. "How much would a few pints of human blood net on the black market?"

"A few hundred."

"What about famous human blood?"

"Ah." He nodded as she drove out of the garage. "Yes, that might drive up the price to the right buyer. Are you thinking she was specifically targeted?"

"I t's an angle. She's known, and she's known to take risks, to s.l.u.t around, to live wild. Her best friend hadn't heard of the club before Kent clued her in. So maybe the idea or an invitation got pa.s.sed straight onto the vic. In any case, she hooked up with her killer there, so someone saw them together. Someone knows him."

"You know," McNab speculated, "if you factor out the blood-sucking, soulless demon angle, this should be a slam dunk."

"Good thing none of us believe in blood-sucking, soulless demons." But Peabody's hand crept over and found McNab's.

Eve caught the gesture in the rearview, just as she caught the way the fingers of Peabody's free hand snuck between the b.u.t.tons of her shirt to close over something."Peabody, are you wearing a cross?"

"What? Me?" The hand dropped like a stone into her lap. Her cheeks went pink as she cleared her throat. "I t just happened that I know Mariella in Records, who just happened to have one, and I happened to borrow it. Just for backup."