And there, standing with a little group that in-duded Daphne, was Quinn.
It gave Rashel an odd shock to see him, and she wanted to look away. She couldn't. He was laughing,
and somehow that caught hold of her like a fishhook. For a moment the morbid lighting of the room
seemed rainbow-colored in the radiance shed by that laughter.
Appalled, Rashel realized that her face had flushed and her heart was beating fast.
I hate him, she thought, and this was true. She did hate him for what he was doing to her. He made her
feel unmoored and adrift. Confused. Helpless.
She understood why those girls were clustered around him, longing to fling themselves into his darkness
like a bunch of virgin sacrifices jumping into a volcano. I mean, what else do you do with a guy like that?
she thought.
Kill him. It would be the only solution even if he weren't a vampire, she decided with sudden insane
cheer. Because prolonged contact with that smile was obviously going to annihilate her.
Rashel blinked rapidly, getting a grip on herself. All right. Concentrate on that, on the job to be done.
She was going to have to kill him, but not now; right now she had to get herself chosen.
Walking carefully on her heels, she went over to join Quinn's group.
He didn't see her at first. He was facing Daphne and a couple of other girls, laughing frequently- too
frequently. He looked wild and a little feverish
to Rashel. A sort of devilish Mad Hatter at an insane tea party.
"... and I just felt so totally awful that I didn't get to meet you," Daphne was saying, "and I just wish I
knew what happened, because it was just so seriously weird..."
She was telling her story, Rashel realized. At least none of the people listening seemed openly
suspicious.
"I haven't seen you here before," came a voice behind her.
It belonged to a striking girl with dark hair, very pale skin, and eyes like amber or topaz... or a hawk's.
Rashel froze, every muscle tensing, trying to keep her face expressionless.
Another vampire.
She was sure of it. The camellia-petal skin, the light in the eyes... this must be the girl vampire who'd
brought Daphne food in the warehouse.
"No, this is my first time," Rashel said, making her voice light and eager. "My name's Shelly." It was
close enough to her own name that she would turn automatically if anyone said it.
"I'm Lily." The girl said it without warmth, and those hawklike eyes continued to bore straight into
Rashel's.
Rashel had to struggle to stay on her feet.
It's Lily Redfern, she thought, working desperately to keep an idiot smile plastered on her face. I know it
is. How many Lily's can there be who'd be working with Quinn?
I've got a Redfern right here in front of me. I've got Hunter Redfern's daughter here.
For an instant she was tempted to simply make a dash for her knife. Killing a celebrity like Lily seemed
almost worth giving up the enclave.
But on the other hand, Hunter Redfern was a moderate sort of vampire, with a lot of influence on the
Night World Council. He helped keep other vampires in line. Striking at him through his daughter would
just make him mad, and then he might start listening to the Councilors who wanted to slaughter humans in
droves.
And Rashel would lose any hope of getting at the heart of the slave trade, where the real scum were.
I hate politics, Rashel thought. But she was already beaming at Lily, prattling for all she was worth. "It
was my friend Marnie who told me about this place, and I'm really glad I came because it's even better
than I thought, and I've got this poem I wrote-"
"Really. Well, I'm dying not to hear it," Lily said. Her hawklike eyes had lost interest. Her face was filled
with open contempt-she'd dismissed Rashel as a hopeless fawning idiot. She walked away without
glancing back.
Two tests passed. One to go.
"That's what I like about Lily. She's just so absolutely cold," a girl beside Rashel said. She had wavy
bronze hair and bee-stung lips. "Hi, I'm Juanita," she added.
And she's serious, Rashel thought as she introduced herself. Quinn's group had noticed her at last, and
they all seemed to agree with Juanita. They were fascinated by Lily's cold personality, her lack of feeling.
They saw it as strength.
Yeah, because feeling hurts. Maybe I should worship her, too, Rashel thought. She was finding too
many things in common with these girls.
"Lily the ice princess," another girl murmured. "It's like she's not even really from earth at all. It's like
she's from another planet."
"Hold that thought," a new voice said, a crisp, laughing, slightly insane voice. The effect it had on Rashel
was remarkable. It made her back stiffen and sent tingles up her palms. It closed her throat.
Okay, test number three, she thought, drawing on every ounce of discipline she'd learned in the martial
arts. Don't lose zanshin. Stay loose, stay frosty, and go with it. You can do this.
She turned to meet Quinn's eyes.
Chapter 10
Or not to meet them so much as graze past them, before concentrating on his chin. She didn't dare stare
directly into them for long.
"Maybe she is from another planet," Quinn was saying to the girl. "Maybe she's not human. Maybe I'm
not, either."
That's right, Rashel thought. Make fun of them by telling them a truth they won't believe.
But, she noticed, Quinn looked more as if he didn't care what they found out than as if he were mocking
them. "Maybe she's from another world. Did you ever think of that?"
Rashel was confused again. Quinn seemed to be trying to get himself killed. He appeared to be verging
on telling these girls about the Night World, and under the laws of the Night World, that was punishable
by death.
You're really slipping, Rashel thought. First the slave trade, now this. I thought you were supposed to be
such a stickler for the law.
"There are darker dimensions," Quinn was confiding to the group, "than you have ever imagined. But,
you see, it's all part of life's grand design, so it's all right. Did you know"-he put his arm around a girl's