Running her hands up the smooth expanse of silk to his shoulders, she closed her eyes at the deliciously erotic sensation growing in her. Guilt mixed with it. She was ugly. All she had wanted to do was console Kisten, but the very act of comforting him was turning her on.

The thought of Art and what had almost happened hit her. Between one breath and the next, the muscles where her jaw hinged tightened and her eyes dilated. Shit. May as well give in. Feeling like a whore, she opened her eyes and fixed them on Kisten's. His were as black as her own, and a spike of anticipation dove to her middle. Warped and twisted. Both of them. Was there any way to show she cared other than this?

"You'll handle it," she whispered, wanting to feel her lips pulling on something, anything. The soft skin under his chin glistened from the thrown-up mist, begging her to taste it. "I save your ass. You save mine," she said. It was all she had to offer.

"Promise?" he said, sounding lost. Apparently it was enough.

The lure was too much, and she pulled herself closer to put her lips softly against the base of his neck, letting his pulse rise and fall teasingly under her. She felt as if she was dying: screaming because they needed each other to survive Piscary, pulse racing in what was going to follow, and despairing that the two were connected.

"I promise," she whispered. Eyes closed, she raked her teeth over skin but didn't pierce as her fingers lifted through the clean softness of his hair.

Kisten's breath came fast, and with one arm he picked her up and set her on the counter, forcing his way between her knees. She felt her gaze go sultry when his hands went behind her hips, edging over the top of her pants. "You're hungry," he said, a dangerous lilt to his voice.

"I'm past hungry," she said, twining her hands behind his neck as if bound. Her voice was demanding, but in truth she was helpless before him. It was the bane of the vampire that the strongest was the most in need. And Kisten knew the games they played as well as she did. Her thoughts flitted to Sleeping Beauty in the refrigerator, and she shoved away the loathing that she wanted to feel Kisten's blood fill her not ten minutes after a woman had died in their apartment. The self-disgust she would deal with later. She was eminently proficient at denying it existed.

"Art bothering you again?" he said, his almost delicate features sly as he slipped a hand under her shirt. The firm warmth of his fingers was like a spike through her.

"Still . . ." she said, stifling a tremor to entice the feeling to grow.

His free hand traced across her shoulder and her collarbone to slide up the opposite length of her neck. "I'll have to write a letter and thank him," he said.

Eyes flashing open, Ivy yanked him to her, wrapping her legs around him, imprisoning him against her. His hands were gone from her waist, leaving only a cool warmth. "He wants my blood and my body," Ivy said, feeling her lust for Kisten mix with her disgust for Art. "He's getting nothing. I'm going to drive him into taking my blood against my will."

Kisten's breath was against her neck, and his hands were at the small of her back. "What's that going to get you?"

A smile, unseen and evil, spread across her as she looked over his shoulder to the empty kitchen. "Satisfaction," she breathed, feeling herself weaken. "He promotes me out from under him to keep my mouth shut or he becomes the laughingstock of the entire tower." But she didn't know if she could do it anymore. He was stronger than she had given him credit.

"That's my girl," Kisten said, and she sucked in her breath when he bent his head, his teeth gently working an old scar to send a delicious dart of anticipation through her. "You're such a political animal. Remind me never to cross stakes with you."

Breathless, she couldn't answer. The thought of having to deal with the contaminated scene flitted past, and was gone.

"You'll need practice saying no," Kisten murmured.

"Mmmm." Eyes open, she found herself moving against him as his hands pulled her closer. His head dropped, and her hands splayed across his back curled so her fingers dug into him. Kisten's lips played with the base of her neck, moving ever lower.

"Could you say no if he did this?" Kisten whispered, grazing his teeth along her bare skin while his hands under her shirt traced a path to her breast.

The two feelings were joined in her mind, and it felt as if it was his teeth on her breast. "Yes . . ." she breathed, exhilarated. He worked the hem of her shirt, and she gripped the hair at the base of his skull, wanting more.

"What if he made good on his promise?" he asked, dropping his head, and she froze at the wash of a silver feeling cascading to her groin when he set his teeth where his fingers had been. It was too much to not respond.

Pulse racing, she jerked his head up. It could have hurt, but Kisten knew it was coming and moved with her. She never hurt him. Not intentionally.

Lips parted, she tightened her legs around him until she nearly left the counter. And though she buried her face against his neck, breathed in his scent, and mouthed his old scars, she didn't break his skin. The self-denial was more than an exquisite torture, more than an ingrained tradition. It was survival.

The truth was that she was very nearly beyond thought, and only patterns of engraved behavior kept her from sinking her teeth, filling herself with what made him alive. She lusted to feel for that glorious instant total power over another and thus prove she was alive, but until he said so, she would starve for it. It was a game, but a deadly serious one that prevented mistakes made in a moment of passion. The undead had their own games, breaking the rules when they thought they could get away with it. But living vampires held tight to them, knowing it might be the difference in surviving a blood encounter or not.

And Kisten knew it, enjoying his temporary mastery over her. She was the dominant of the two, but unable to satisfy her craving until he let her, and in turn he was helpless to satisfy himself until she agreed. His masculine hands pushed her mouth from his neck, forcing his own lips against her jugular, rising and falling beneath him. Her head flung to the ceiling, she wondered who would surrender and ask first. The unknowing sparked through her, and feeling it, a growl lifted from her.

Dropping her head, she found his earlobe, the metallic diamond taste sharp on her tongue. "Give this to me," she breathed, succumbing, uncaring that her need was stronger than his.

"Take it," he groaned, submitting to their twin desires faster than he usually did.

Panting in relief, she pulled him closer, and in the shock of him meeting her, she carefully sank her teeth into him.

Shuddering, Kisten clutched her closer, lifting her off the counter.

She pulled on him, hungry, almost panicked that someone would stop them. Blessed relief washed through her at the sharp taste. Their scents mixed in her brain, and his blood washed into her, making them one, rubbing out the void that loving Piscary and meeting his demands continually carved into her. His warmth filled her mouth, and she swallowed, sending it deeper into her, desperately trying to drown her soul somehow.

Kisten's breath against her was fast, and she knew the exquisite sensations she instilled in him, the vamp saliva invoking an ecstasy so close to sex it didn't matter. His fingers trembled as they traced her lines and reached for the hem of her shirt, but she knew there wasn't time. She was going to climax before they could work themselves much more.

Breathless and savage from the sensations of power and bloodlust, she pulled back from him, running her tongue quickly over her teeth. She met his eyes, pupil-black. He saw her teetering.

"Take it," she breathed, desperate to give him what he needed, craved. It wouldn't make amends for the savagery of the act, but it was the only way she could find peace with herself.

Kisten didn't wait. A guttural sound coming from him, he leaned in. Sensation jerked through her, the instant of heady pain mutated almost immediately into an equal pleasure, the vampire saliva turning the sting of his fangs into the fire of passion.

"Oh God," she moaned. Kisten heard, and he dug harder, going far beyond what he usually did. She gasped at the twin sensations of his teeth on her neck and his fingernails on her breast. Body moving with his, she pulled his hand from where he gripped the back of her neck and found his wrist. She couldn't . . . bear it. She needed everything. Everything at once.

His mouth pulled on her, and with elation filling her, she bit down, slicing into old scars.

Kisten shook, his grip faltering as sexual and blood rapture filled them both. He pulled away from the counter, and her legs tightened around his waist.

She heard in his breathing that he was going to reach fulfillment, and content that they would end this with both of them satisfied, she abandoned all thought. Everything was gone, leaving only the need to fill herself with him, and she took everything he gave her, not caring he was doing the same. Together they could find peace. Together they could survive.

Ivy's grip tightened, and she sank her teeth deeper. Kisten responded, a low rumble rising up through him. It sparked a primitive part of her, and fear, instinctive and unstoppable, jumped through her. Kisten felt it, gripping her aggressively.

She cried out, and with the pain shifting to spikes of pleasure, she climaxed, her pulse a wild thrum under Kisten's hand, and in his mouth, and through him. He tensed, and with a last groan, his lips left her as he found the exquisite mental orgasm brought on by satiating the hunger and blood.

No wonder she was screwed up, she thought, even as her body shook and rebelled at the rapturous assault. Evil or wrong didn't matter. She couldn't resist something that felt so damn good.

"Kist," she panted when the last flickers faded and she realized she still had her legs wrapped around him, her forehead against his shoulder and her body trying to figure out what had happened. "Are you okay?"

"Hell yes," he said, his breathing haggard. "God, I love you, woman."

As his arms tightened around her, an emotion she seldom felt good about filled her. She loved him more than she would admit, but it was pointless to plan for a future that was already mapped out.

Slowly he settled her back on the counter, his muscles starting to shake. The rim of blue about his pupils was returning, and his lips, still reddened from her blood, parted and his eyebrows rose. "Ivy, you're crying."

She blinked, shocked to find she was. "No, I'm not," she asserted, swinging her leg up and around to get him out from between them. Her muscles protested, not ready to move yet.

"Yes, you are," he insisted, grabbing a cloth napkin and pressing it to his wrist, and then his neck. The small punctures were already closing, the vampire saliva working to stimulate repair and fight possible infection.

Turning away, she slipped from the counter, almost stumbling in her need to hide her emotions. But Kisten grabbed her upper arm and turned her back.

"What is it?" he said, and then his eyes widened. "Shit, I hurt you."

She almost laughed, choking it back. "No," she admitted, then closed her eyes, trying to find the words. They were there, but she couldn't say them. She loved Kisten, but why did the only way she could show him involve blood? Had Piscary completely killed in her how to comfort someone she loved without it turning into a savage act? Love should be gentle and tender, not bestial and self-serving.

She couldn't remember the last time she had slept with someone without blood. She didn't think she had since Piscary first turned his attentions fully to her, warping her until any emotion of caring, love, or devotion stimulated a bloodlust that seemed pointless to resist. She had carefully built the lie to protect herself that blood was blood and sex-and-blood was a way to show she loved someone, but she didn't know how much longer she could believe it. Blood and love had become so intertwined in her that she didn't think she could separate them. And if she had to admit that sharing blood was how she expressed her love, then she'd have to admit she was a whore every time she let someone sink his or her teeth into her on her way to the top. Was that why she was forcing Art into taking her against her will? She had to submit to rape in order to keep herself sane?

Kisten's eyes roved the kitchen, and she saw his nose widen as he took in their scent. They'd endure a ribbing from the entire staff for having "relieved their vampiric pressures" in the kitchen, but it would cover up the smell of the corpse, at least. "What is it then?" he asked.

Anyone else would have been pushed aside and ignored, but Kisten put up with too much of her crap. "All I wanted to do was comfort you," she said, dropping her head to hide behind the curtain of her hair. "And it turned into blood."

Making a soft sigh, Kisten took her in a slow, careful embrace. A shiver lifted through her when he gently kissed away the last of the blood from her neck. He knew it was so sensitive as to almost hurt and would be for a few more minutes. "Hell, Ivy," he whispered, his voice telling her he knew what she was not saying. "If you were trying to comfort me, you did a bang-up job."

He didn't move, and instead of pulling away, she stayed, allowing herself to accept his touch. "It's what I needed, too," he added, the smell of their scents mingling inciting a deep contentment instead of a dire need now that the hunger had been satisfied.

She nodded, believing him though she still felt ashamed. But why is that the only way I know how to be?

FOUR.

Ivy swiveled her chair, rolling the banshee tear safe in its plastic bag between her fingers and wondering if it was magic or science that enabled a banshee to draw enough emotional energy through the gem to kill someone. Science, she was willing to believe. A science so elaborate and detailed that it looked like magic. Resonating alpha waves or something, like cell phones or radio transmissions. The files hadn't been clear.

The office chatter coming in her open door was light because of the ungodly hour. She was working today on the upper-tower schedule, having a three-thirty afternoon appointment to talk to a banshee who had helped the I.S. in the past. That it would get her out of here at midnight was a plus, but it was still damn early.

Mood souring, Ivy leaned back in her chair and listened to the quiet, the usual noises sounding out of place because of their sparseness. The office atmosphere had changed, the glances she caught directed at her having gone from bitter to sympathetic. She didn't know how to react. Apparently the word had gone out that Art had made a real play for her blood, causing her not only to contaminate a crime scene but also to almost succumb. And whereas she could have taken comfort in the show of sympathy, she felt only a resentful bitterness that she was the object of pity. How in the hell was she going to get rid of Art if she couldn't say no to him? It was a matter of pride, now.

Ivy's eyes lifted to the humming wall clock. Art was tucked underground, and knowing he wouldn't be coming in for several hours gave her a measure of peace. She'd like to stake the bastard. Maybe that's what Piscary wanted her to do?

Over the ambient office noise of keyboards and gossip, she heard her name spoken in a soft, unfamiliar voice. Focusing, Ivy listened to someone else give directions to her office. Ivy set the tear beside her pencil cup with its colored markers, turning to her door when the light was eclipsed.

Her breath to say hello hesitated as she evaluated the woman, forgetting to invite her in. She'd never met a banshee before, and Ivy wondered if they all had that disturbing demeanor or if it was just Mia Harbor.

She was wearing a dramatic calf-length dress made of strips of sky blue fabric. It would have looked like rags if the fabric wasn't silk. The cuffs of the long sleeves ran to drape over her fingertips, and it fit her slight figure perfectly. Her severely short hair was black, cut into downward spikes and iced with gold, completely contrary to her pale complexion and meadowy attire but somehow harmonizing perfectly. Dark sunglasses hid her eyes. Small, petite, and agelessly attractive, she made Ivy feel tall and gawky as she stood in her doorway, the expression on her delicate features shifting from question to a tired acceptance.

Ivy realized she was staring. Immediately she stood, hand extended. "Ms. Harbor," she said. "Please come in. I'm Officer Tamwood."

She moved forward, her dress furling about her calves. Her hand was cool, with a smooth strength, and Ivy let go as soon as it was polite. The confidence of her grip caused Ivy to place her somewhere in her sixties, but she looked twenty. Witch charm, Ivy wondered, or natural longevity?

"Please call me Mia," the woman said, sitting in Art's chair when Ivy indicated it.

"Mia," Ivy repeated, sinking back down behind her desk. She considered asking the woman to call her by her first name, but didn't, and Mia settled herself with a stiff formality.

Unusually uncomfortable, Ivy leafed through the report to hide her nervousness. Banshees were dangerous entities, able to draw enough energy from people to kill them, much like a psychic vampire. They didn't need to kill to survive, able to exist on the natural sloughing off of emotion from the people around them. But that didn't mean they wouldn't gorge themselves if they thought they could get away with it. She had never had the chance to talk to one before. They were a dying species as public awareness grew about this innocent-looking but highly dangerous Inderlander race.

Like black widow spiders, they generally killed their mate after becoming pregnant. Ivy didn't think it was intentional; their human husbands simply lost their vitality and died. There had never been much of a population of them anyway-every child born was female, and the magic needed to conceive outside one's species made things difficult.

"I make you nervous," Mia said, sounding pleased.

Ivy glanced at her and then back to the papers. Giving up trying to maintain her stoic demeanor, she leaned back in her chair, setting her hands in her lap.

"I won't be taking any emotion from you, Officer Tamwood," Mia said. "I don't need to. You're throwing off enough nervous energy and conflicted thoughts to sate me for a week."

Oh joy, Ivy thought sourly. She took pride in suppressing her emotions, and that Mia not only felt them but was sopping them up like gravy wasn't a pleasant thought.

"Why am I here?" Mia asked, pale hands holding her tiny blue-beaded purse on her lap.

Ivy gathered herself. "Ms. Harbor," she said formally, seeing Mia grimace when Ivy made an effort to calm herself. "I'd like to thank you for coming to see me. I have a few questions that the I.S. would be most grateful if you can help me with."

A sigh came from Mia, chilling Ivy-it sounded like the eerie moan of a lost soul. "Which one of my sisters killed someone?" she asked, looking at the tear in its evidence bag.

Ivy's prepared speech vanished. Relieved to be able to sidestep the formalities, she leaned forward, the flat of her forearms on the desk. "We're looking for Jacqueline."

Mia held out a hand for the tear, and Ivy pushed it closer. The woman let go of her purse and took the bag, slipping a white nail under the seal.

"Hey!" Ivy exclaimed, standing.

Mia froze, looking at Ivy over her sunglasses.

Breath catching, Ivy stopped her vamp-fast reach for the evidence bag and rocked back. The woman's eyes were the shockingly pale blue of a near albino, but it was the aching emptiness that halted Ivy. Unmoving, her heart pounded at the raw hunger they contained, chained by an iron-laced restraint. The woman was holding a hunger whose depths Ivy had only tasted. But Ivy had learned enough about restraint to see the signs that her control was absolute: her lack of emotional expression, the stiffness with which she held herself, the soft preciseness of her breathing, the careful motions she made as if she would lose control if she moved too fast and broke through the envelope of her aura and will.

Shocked and awed by what the woman confidently contained, Ivy humbly sat back down.

A smile quirked Mia's face. The snap of the seal breaking was loud, but Ivy didn't stop her, even when she shook the tear into her palm and delicately touched it briefly to her tongue. "You found this at the crime scene?" she asked, and when Ivy nodded she added, "This tear is not functioning." Ivy took a breath to protest, and Mia interrupted, "You found this in a room stinking of fear. If it had been working, every wisp of emotion would have been gone."

Surprised, Ivy struggled to keep her emotions close. That the room reeked of fear when she entered hadn't made it to her report. Since she had contaminated it, it seemed pointless. That might have been a mistake, but amending her report to include it would look questionable.

Mia dropped the tear back into the bag. "It wasn't Jacqueline who killed. It wasn't any of my sisters. I'm sorry, but I can't help you, Officer Tamwood."

Ivy's pulse quickened. Thinking Mia was protecting her kin, she said, "The man admits to killing the victim, but doesn't know why he did. Our theory is Jacqueline left the tear knowing there was the chance domestic violence would cover her crime. Please, Mia. If we don't find Jacqueline, an innocent man will be sentenced for murdering his wife."

The crackle of the broken seal was loud, and Ivy wondered what the black crystal tasted like. "A tear older than a week won't function as a conduit for emotions," Mia said. "And while that tear is Jacqueline's"-she tossed the bag to the desk-"it is at least three years old."

Wondering how she was going to explain why the original seal was broken, Ivy frowned. This had been a waste of time. Just as well she hadn't told Art about it. "And you know that how, ma'am?" she said, frustrated. "You can't date tears."

From behind her black glasses, Mia smiled to show her teeth, her canines a shade longer than a human's. "I know it's at least that old because I killed Jacqueline three years ago."

Smooth and unhurried, Ivy rose and shut the door. The hum of a copier cut off, and Ivy returned to her desk in the new silence, trying to maintain her blank expression. She watched the woman, reading nothing in her calm. Silently she waited for an explanation.

"We are not a well-liked group of people," Mia said bluntly. "Jacqueline had become careless, falling back on old traditions of murdering people to absorb their death energy instead of taking the paltry ambient emotions that Inderland law grants us."

"So you killed her." Ivy allowed herself a deep breath. This woman was scaring the shit out of her with her casual admission of so heinous an act.

Mia nodded, the hem of her dress seeming to shift by itself in the still air. "We police ourselves so the rest of Inderland won't." She smiled. "You understand."

Thinking of Piscary, Ivy dropped her eyes.

"We aren't substantially different from each other," the woman said lightly. "Vampires steal psychic energy, too. You're just clumsy about it, having to take blood with it as a carrier."

Head moving slowly in acceptance, Ivy quashed her feelings of guilt. Generally only vampires knew that a portion of a person's aura went with the blood, but a banshee would, seeing as that's what they took themselves. A more pure form of predation that stripped the soul and made it easy to break it from the body. A person could replace a substantial amount, but take too much aura too quickly, and the body dies. Ivy had always thought banshees were higher on the evolutionary ladder, but perhaps not, seeing as vampires used the visible signs of blood loss to gauge when to stop. "It's not the same," Ivy protested. "No one dies when we feed."