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“Me neither.”

“But there’s nothing we can do, right? I mean—it’s who he is. And, like—” Her voice fell slightly.

“I mean, it’s sort of who I am, too, right? On some level. I’m just a version of him that’s all doped up and medicated.”

I didn’t like where this was going.

“You’re not doped up,” I said. “You’re managing an illness.”

“But to him, it’s not an illness. It’s everything.”

“Is that what you want? To be just like him?”

She sighed. “Not really.”

“Being a vampire isn’t the easiest thing in the world. You need blood to survive. You can’t go out in the sunlight—”

“But he can. I mean, he stays in the shade, and he doesn’t sit next to the window, but he can manage during the day.”

“That’s because he’s the magnate. He has abilities that other vampires don’t.”

“Maybe I do, too.”

I didn’t know what to say. My cell rang.

“One second.” I flipped it open. “Hello?”

It was Selena. “They’re here.”

“Who?”

“The necromancers. They’re in the lab.”

My stomach flipped again. I wanted to ask her if Lucian was one of “them,” but I couldn’t risk sounding too interested.

“Why are they here?”

“Because of you. They said that they’re very concerned about your incident in the park.” She didn’t sound entirely convinced. “They want to reassure us that we’re working together, not in opposition.

And they want to talk to you personally.”

I swallowed. “Really?”

“Yes. Get here as soon as you can. They brought something for you to look at.”

“What did they—”

But she’d already hung up.

“Urgent business at the lab?” Mia asked.

I nodded. “I have to brave a shitstorm.”

“Sounds like a weekday.”

“Lately. Yeah.” I gave her a look. “Let’s chat when I get home.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“It’s not. I just want to play catch-up.”

“Do you want me to spy on Patrick for you?”

“Would you if I asked?”

“Probably not.”

“So is this a trick question?”

“Possibly.”

I got up and placed my mug in the sink. “Then my answer is maybe. But don’t get caught.”

“Do you think I’m an amateur?”

“No. Just don’t follow him anywhere.”

“That’s no fun.”

“Seriously. Don’t.”

“Okay, fine.”

“Fine means you won’t follow him?”

“Fine means fine.”

I grabbed my jacket. “You’re both going to drive me crazy.”

She’d already returned to her textbook. “That’s the plan. Then we can force Derrick to do whatever we want.”

“Never going to happen.”

“Whatever. Bye.”

“Bye.”

I closed the door behind me. Even this early in the morning, the sun was bright and clear. The air chilled me. For a moment, all I could do was stand there, breathing in and out slowly.

Sometimes, I loved them so much that it paralyzed me. They weren’t even my kids. All that bound them to me was a stack of papers. But they still felt like a part of my own body. A breath that I was always taking in. I didn’t want to let it go. I wanted to hold it in my lungs forever.

And then I got scared.

What if they got hurt or broken? What if they needed me and couldn’t reach me? Or what if the opposite was true? Maybe I was doing irreparable damage to them. Maybe I was a pathetic guardian, a monstrous parent doing everything wrong, and someday they’d talk about me with a goblin therapist.

Chances are, my brain said, you’ll be dead before that happens.

With that thought turning itself over and over in my mind, until it was polished smooth, I headed off to meet the necromancers.

13

Selena was giving the necromancers a tour of the lab facilities when I arrived. My stomach seized a little when I saw Lucian, accompanied by a young man and a middle-aged woman. At least that was what they looked like on the outside. Who knew how old they really were? Lucian caught sight of me, but didn’t smile or acknowledge my presence, aside from a brief second of eye contact.

After spending nearly a week wondering where the hell he’d disappeared to, I felt like I was entitled to at least a nod. But in truth, I already knew—or at least suspected—where he’d been the whole time. Trinovantum, the hidden city. That was where he always vanished to. It was like a necromancer time-share.

Selena gave me a look as I approached. I couldn’t tell if it was a shut up and let me do the talking look, or a help me because I’m exhausted and overwhelmed look. I decided to play it safe and take her lead.

“Sorry I’m late.” I extended my hand to the necromancers. “Tess Corday. I’m the senior officer assigned to the Ordeño case.”

The older woman took my hand. Her grip was firm and cold. “Deonara Valesco. Third Solium of the Dark Parliament, and tactical advisor to Lord Nightingale.”

She had graying black hair and blue eyes that seemed only mildly interested in my presence. The rest of her attention was occupied by the lab itself. I, in turn, was fascinated by a kind of black shawl that she wore, which had delicate silver stitching around the edges. If I looked at the embroi-dery for more than a few seconds, I swore that it moved a little. But maybe it was just me.

“Thanks for meeting us here,” I said. “We appreciate your cooperation.”

“Not at all.” She was staring at a mass spectrometer.

“This place is fascinating. I’ve always wanted to visit, but never had the opportunity until now.”

“There’s plenty to look at,” Selena said. “Hopefully we can learn a bit about each other’s analytical methods.”

“Yes.” Deonara tore herself away from staring at the equipment with some difficulty. “Of course.”

I didn’t buy it, though. She wasn’t interested in sharing information. She’d learn as much about our resources as possible without actually telling us anything useful about her side of the investigation.

Then she’d have plenty of information to take back to Lord Nightingale, whoever he was, and we’d be left with nothing. If we wanted to learn anything about her world, we’d have to pull it forcefully out of Deonara’s brain. And Derrick was nowhere to be found.

Luckily, we had Selena, who was excellent at gleaning information from uncooperative sources.

The young man took my hand. His touch was actually warm. “Braxton Tel. Fourth Solium of the Dark Parliament. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Tess. You come highly recommended to us by your supervisor, Detective Ward.”

He had glasses and short brown hair. Kind of cute, actually.

I shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Braxton. What exactly does a Fourth Solium do for the Dark Parliament?”

“Mostly dull things. I wouldn’t want to bore you with an explanation. Deonara gets most of the fun jobs.”

“Of course. If you call delicate treaty negotiations ‘fun.’” She was staring at one of the scanning electron microscopes. “Are any of these tools powered by what you call ‘materia’? Or are they strictly electronic?”

“Most of them are just sophisticated devices for microscopy,” Selena said. “We’re working on engi-neering a few hybrid tools. But that’s far into the future.”

Actually, we already had hybrid tools, like the Nerve simulation chamber. But she wasn’t going to tell them that.

I suddenly realized that I was still shaking Braxton’s hand. It was surprisingly soft. I let go of it, smiling awkwardly. “Sorry.”

“Not a problem.” He smiled back.

Lucian was staring at both of us. I couldn’t tell if he was jealous, or simply annoyed. At this point, I didn’t really care. There wasn’t even much to be jealous of anymore. We barely saw each other, and when we did, things were awkward at best. We were supposed to be working on the same case, but he’d frozen me out practically from the beginning.

I held out my hand. “Lucian. It’s nice to see you again.”

Confusion flashed across his eyes. But he took my hand all the same.

“Likewise. Thank you for lending us your expertise.”

He searched my face briefly to see what I was feeling, but I kept the mask on. It seemed like the most appropriate thing to do.

Deonara turned to me. “It was brought to our attention that someone attacked you and your ward.

Are you all right?”

“Just some bruises and scrapes. Could have been worse, though.”

“Indeed. The individual in question broke protocol by transporting a Vorpal gauntlet out of the city.

Military tools such as those are strictly regulated. We’re quite disappointed by the situation.”

I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. Were they actually going to do something about it, or did they simply plan on shaking their finger at someone?

“It’s sad that someone felt the need to endanger your safety in this manner,” Braxton added. “But we do have some dangerous factions within the Parliament. Rogue cells and whatnot. There’s little we can do to control them.”

I chose my next words carefully. “Do you see any chance of apprehending a suspect? Or is it going to be a hitand-run?”

“Well,” Deonara said, “that will depend on how sophisticated your detection equipment is. We don’t have the means of identifying a suspect, but you might.”

“I’m not sure I follow you. We weren’t able to recover any trace from the scene, and it’s been days since the attack.”

“They found the Vorpal gauntlet,” Lucian explained. “It’s here.”

“Yes. Someone disposed of it on the outskirts of Trinovantum.” Deonara seemed to have lost interest in me again. Her eyes were elsewhere. “In the interest of political harmony, we thought it best to bring the evidence to you.”

Ah. This was what Selena had meant by a surprise.

“Cindée has the fume hood ready,” Selena said. “She’s waiting for us.”

The five of us walked down the hallway and entered the trace lab. Cindée looked up and smiled at me. “Hey, Tess. Good to see you’re still in one piece.”

“That’s me. Hard to kill.”

I looked at the hood, which was actually more of a steel cupboard with an industrial exhaust fan on the top. It was set against the wall and had a movable fiberglass partition, attached to an aircraft-grade stainless-steel cable which was used to raise and lower the sash. The fiberglass was lined with both cement and a special epoxy resin, to protect the operator from toxic cyanoacrylate fumes.

The gauntlet was sitting inside the cupboard. It looked innocuous, even defeated, with one of its red crystals shattered. But a chill passed through me as I remembered what it had been capable of. Its power had literally ripped my magic to pieces, dissolving and de-creating it, as if it had never existed.

“Should we be wearing some kind of protective gear?” Braxton asked. “I don’t want my lungs filled with deadly chemicals.”

It sounded strange for a necromancer to refer to anything as “deadly.” Weren’t deadly chemicals like catnip to them?

“No need to worry,” Cindée assured him. “The blast shield is heavy-duty, and all the fumes get sucked through a charcoal filter at the top. You’ll be fine.”

Cindée lifted the sash, exposing the gauntlet. Pulling on a pair of plastic gloves, she dropped a tablet of cyanoacrylate, or superglue, onto the burner. Then she replaced the sash and turned the burner on low. White vapors rose from the tablet. I watched in fascination as they coated the gauntlet, like a dusting of snow. The glue worked its way into every contour, crack, and crevice within the glove, as well as the irregular surface of its red crystals.

After letting the fumes settle for a few moments, Cindée switched on the exhaust fan, which got rid of the excess vapors. Then she gently raised the sash.

“Y’all are sure this thing’s dormant?” she asked. “I don’t feel like getting disintegrated today.”

“The gauntlet’s been completely vitiated,” Braxton confirmed. “When the catalytic gem was broken, its power vanished.”

Cindée grabbed a pair of forceps, using them to gently manipulate the surface of the gauntlet. She turned it to the side, then smiled.

“There it is, folks.”

A single print had crystallized on the intricate leather straps of the gauntlet. It was slightly distended because of the textile substrate, but it still looked beautiful, pristine and white from the superglue.

“Fascinating,” Deonara said simply.

Braxton frowned. “How accurate is this type of test? Isn’t it what you call ‘presumptive’ in nature?”

“No,” Selena said. “Spraying a surface in search of hidden blood is a presumptive test, because the luminol can detect all sorts of things. These results are far more probative, as you can see for yourself. The fingerprint is right before our eyes.”

“Care to do the honors, Tess?” Cindée asked. “After all, you nearly got killed by this pretty little thing.”

“Gladly.” I walked across the room and opened a cupboard, retrieving a professional SLR camera with a special diffusion lens for the lab’s poorly lit conditions. I snapped two shots of the white print, then plugged the camera’s memory card into a nearby computer. I tinkered with a few filters to the best of my ability, until the resolution of the print seemed acceptable. Then I fed the digital file into the CORE’s fingerprint database, which recognized both human and demonic prints.

“This will take a few minutes,” Selena told them. “It’s not like on television. Why don’t we sit down in the conference room in the meantime?”

Braxton looked at the screen curiously. “How many fingerprints do you have in your database?”

“A few hundred thousand. We’re still entering a lot of the older prints that were recorded on ten-cards. The software’s always being updated, and we have covert access to the FBI’s IAFIS print bank, as well as our own encrypted database.”

I waved good-bye to Cindée as we followed Selena to the conference room, which was a slightly plusher version of the interrogation chamber. Everyone took a seat. Selena had called ahead to order refreshments from the cafeteria, and we all helped ourselves to coffee and shortbread. She’d thought of everything.

Lucian was the first to speak. “I know that this investigation has been a bit awkward. Perhaps we haven’t shared as much information as we could have. But we’re committed to helping you in any way that we can.”