He stared at her, and something flamed and then fell in pain in his eyes. For an instant he looked as if
she'd hit him-then all she could see was regret. "Oh, Rashel" In one motion he caught her and held her.
His face was pressed to her hair. She could feel him breathing like some stricken creature-and then she
felt him regain control, grabbing discipline from somewhere, wrapping himself in it. He rested his chin on
her head. "I'm sorry you have to ask that, but I understand. I don't want to make you a vampire. I want-"
I want you to be what you were two minutes ago. That happy, that idealistic....
He sounded as if it were something that had been lost forever.
But Rashel felt a new happiness, and a new confidence. He had changed. She could sense how much he
had changed already. They were in the real world, and he wasn't raving about needing to kill her, or her
needing to kill him.
"I just wanted to be sure," she said. She tightened her own arms around him. "I don't know what's going
to happen-but as long as we're right together, I think I can face it."
I think we live or die together from now on, Quinn said simply.
Yes, Rashel thought. She could still feel lingering sadness in Quinn, and confusion in herself, but they
were right together. She didn't need to doubt him anymore.
They trusted each other.
"We have to do something about the people downstairs," she said.
"Yes."
"But we can't kill them."
"No. There's been enough killing. It has to stop." Quinn sounded like a swimmer who'd been tumbling in
a riptide, and whose feet had finally found solid ground.
Rashel sat up to look at him. "But we can't just let them walk out of here. What if they try it again? I
mean, whoever set this bloodfeast up..." She suddenly realized that she had asked everybody else, but
not him. "Quinn, who did set this up?"
He smiled, a faint echo of his old savage smile. Now it was grim and self-mocking. "I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"Some vampire who wanted to get the made
vampires together. But I've never met him. Lily was the go-between, but I'm not sure she knows either.
She only spoke to him on the phone. Neither of us asked a lot of questions. We were doing it for the
money." He said it flatly, not sparing himself.
And to be rebellious, Rashel thought. To be as bad and as damned as possible, because you figured you
might as well. She said, "Whoever it is might just go somewhere else and find somebody else to get his
slaves for him. Those seven guys could be having a new bloodfeast next month."
"That has to be stopped, too," Quinn said. "How to stop it without violence, that's the question." His
fingers were still tight on Rashel's, but he was staring into the distance, lost in grim and competent
thought.
It was a new side of Quinn. Rashel had seen him in almost every mood from despairing to manic, but she
had never worked with him before. Now she realized that he was going to make a strong and resourceful
ally.
Suddenly Quinn seemed to focus.
"I've got it," he said. He smiled suddenly, mocking but without the bitterness. "When violence won't
work, there's no other choice but to try persuasion."
"That's not funny."
"It's not meant to be."
"You're going to say, 'Please don't kill any more young girls'?"
"I'm going to say, 'Please don't kill any more
young girls or I'll report you to the Joint Council.' Listen, Rashel." He took her by the arms, his eyes
flashing with excitement. "I have some authority in the Night World-I'm the Redfern heir. And Hunter
Redfern has more. Between us, we can make all kinds of trouble for these made vampires." "But Fayth-a
friend of mine-said they were all so powerful." In the intensity of the moment, Rashel almost missed the
fact that she'd just called Fayth her friend.
Quinn was shaking his head. "No, you have to understand. These aren't rogues, they're Night World
citizens. And what they're doing is completely illegal. You can't just kill a bunch of girls from one area
without permission. Slavery's illegal, bloodfeasts are illegal. And no matter how powerful they are, they
can't stand up against the Night World Council." "But-"
"We threaten them with exposure to the Council. With exposure to Hunter Redfern-and to the lamia.
The lamia will go crazy at the thought of made vampires getting together in some kind of alliance. They'll
take it as a threat of civil war."
It might work, Rashel was thinking. The made vampires were just individuals-they'd be up against whole
lamia families. Especially against the Redfern family, the oldest and most respected clan
of vampires. "Everybody's scared of Hunter Redfern," she said slowly.
"He's got tremendous influence. He practically owns the Council. He could run them out of the Night
World if he wanted. I think they'll listen."
"You really do think of him as a father, don't you?" Rashel said, her voice soft. She searched Quinn's
eyes. "Whatever you say about hating him-you respect him."
"He's not as bad as most. He has... honor, I guess. Usually."
And he's a New Englander, Rashel thought. That means he's against vice. She considered another
moment, then she nodded. Her heart was beating fast, but she could feel a smile breaking on her face.
"Let's try persuasion."
They stood-and then they paused a moment, looking at each other. We're strong, Rashel thought. We've