"I killed three of them. I've taken one of them captive."

"What are you going to do to him?"

"Her. I'm going to interrogate her."

"You're not answering my question."

"I'm going to do whatever it takes to get her to talk."

"That's what I was afraid of."

"If I don't figure out a way to stop them now, I'll never have peace. The rest of you could be in danger as well."

"More reason to make me into a vampire."

"More reason not to. Numbria has already admitted she knows what I am."

"Who told her?"

"That's what I have to find out. It's going to be a long day."

"The longer you're gone, the more suspicious it will look to Matt and Teri."

"What are they doing now?"

"Sleeping. It's still early and they went to bed late. Tell me where you are."

I give him the name and address of the motel. "Don't come here unless I call for you," I warn him.

"Fine. As long as you answer when I call."

"Agreed. Is the secret service searching for me?"

"I don't think so. I know they haven't linked you to Teri. They haven't questioned her."

"A secret service agent named Mike saw me kill the three and still let me go."

"Did you cast a spell on him?"

"No. He seemed to grasp that the people I killed weren't normal. And that I should be left alone to deal with the rest of them."

"That's a hell of an insight on his part."

"I think Mike's what people call an old soul. You run into them if you live long enough. He has a rare form of intuition. He won't report me."

"You meet the strangest people."

"I hooked up with Teri so I could have some normal friends."

"Then juiced her up with vampire blood and pushed her into the Olympic limelight, where she shattered a world record."

"Are you saying it's my fault they came after me last night?"

"I don't have to say it."

That's what I love about Seymour. No one can cut to the chase like him. I tell him about my feeling of being watched. He's worried.

"They must have picked up your trail. Finish with your captive and get as far away from her as fast as you can. Let her live. Send her back to them as a goodwill ambassador."

"She's bleeding an awful lot to be an effective ambassador."

"They don't heal like you do?"

"No. But they're very strong, very fast. I could let her go and she could turn around and try to kill me."

"It's your call."

"There's something else that bothers me about this feeling of being watched. It reminds me of the IIC group."

"The Array?"

"Yes."

"That gold medal is costing you in more ways than one."

"That's not fair. Teri deserved to fulfill her dreams."

"Bullshit. She cheated, even if she doesn't know it."

"That wasn't her fault."

"It doesn't matter. Look at the attention it's brought. The vampire I wrote about was obsessed with staying in the shadows. What's gotten into you?"

"How do you know I didn't plan this? Look how it's flushed my enemies out into the open."

"As far as I can tell, you're the one who's out in the open."

I don't know what to say, so I say nothing.

"Let me help you," Seymour continues. "Let me come there. I can help you question the woman."

"You're too squeamish."

"Listen to me, Sita, please. I have a bad feeling about this."

"Go back to sleep. I know what I'm doing."

"Famous last words. If you begin to feel the least bit odd, call me."

I promise. I hang up and drive back to the motel. Numbria hasn't tried to escape. She must know more about the strength of the handcuffs than I do. I start out by showing her the labels on the two bottles I hold in my right hand: dilaudid and morphine.

"I'll give you a shot to take away the pain and then bandage you," I say as I fill the syringe. "I can set your broken bones, too. I don't need an X-ray. I assume once everything is set, you'll heal much faster than your average person?"

"Why are you doing all this?"

"There's no reason for you to suffer."

"You're a hypocrite. You're going to make me suffer if I don't answer your questions."

"A hypocrite says one thing and means another." I find a vein and insert my needle and inject her with the opiate solution. Her face relaxes almost instantly. "I haven't lied to you."

"You're Bloody Sita," she mumbles. "You want my blood."

"I'm not interested in your blood," I say, although I must admit I have seldom encountered blood that smells so vibrant. It makes sense. Their power must be derived from their blood. I imagine drinking it would be a rare delight.

Yet I push away such thoughts as I clean her wounds with alcohol and hydrogen peroxide. For her size, I have given her a strong shot. She appears to float on euphoric waves, even as I dig out fragments of bone from both her knees and sew up my incisions. The bones in her palms are also a mess, and I wonder if she will need a specialist and a series of operations to recover.

When I'm finished attending to her injuries, and before the narcotics wear off, I give her a shot of Sodium Pentothal. She doesn't notice. There are still enough opiates in her system to potentiate the truth serum. Her eyes fall shut, but I don't mind. As long as she can hear me.

"You hear my voice, don't you, Numbria?"

"Yes."

"And you know my name?"

"Yes."

"What is my name?"

"You have many. Alisa Perne. Lara Adams. Your oldest name is Sita. Bloody Sita."

"Why do you call me Bloody Sita?"

"Because you are a vampire. You are evil."

"Who told you I am evil?"

"The Source."

"Is the Source an individual? Or a group of individuals?"

"A group."

"Does this group have a leader?"

"Yes."

"Is it like a secret council but with a president?"

"Yes."

"How old is the Source?"

"It goes back to the beginning of time."

"The beginning of history?"

"Yes."

"What does your group call itself?"

"The Telar."

"Are the Telar connected to the IIC?"

"I don't know what that is."

"Do you know what the Array is?"

"No."

"Do you know a woman named Brutran?"

"No."

"Have you heard her name mentioned?"

"No."

"Can the word 'Telar' be translated into English?"

"Roughly."

"Translate it for me."

"It means the Immortals."

"How old is the oldest Telar?"

"I don't know."

"If you were to guess, what would you say?"

"Ten . . . twelve . . . thousand years old."

I have been standing as I question her. Now I have to sit down. It is hard for me to imagine any creature on earth older than myself. It's just so ingrained in me that I'm the oldest.

"How many Telar are there?"