Ghastek focused on the woman as well, with a kind of clinical interest usually afforded to an odd insect. "Here come the grieving parents. I've met them before."

"Is that her sister?" I asked.

"No, that's Mrs. Sunny, her mother. The boy is Amanda's brother."

Not human.

The middle-aged man saw the female navigator, whose body the People had just loaded on the gurney. "Amanda! Jesus Christ, Amanda! Baby!"

"No!" The woman cried out.

He dashed to Amanda. "Oh God. Oh God."

The golden-haired woman chased after him, the boy in tow. "Don't go near her!"

The man grasped Amanda's hand. The golden band of the necklace popped open. An eerie soft light ignited within the necklace, setting the gold aglow.

"Oh Go-" Amanda's father fell silent in the middle of the word, transfixed by the necklace.

His hand inched toward it.

"Stop!" Curran barked. The man froze, arrested by the unmistakable command in that voice.

I was already moving.

The golden woman pushed past him, yanked the necklace from Amanda's neck, spun, and thrust it at the boy's throat. The gold band locked on the child's neck, adhering to his skin. I missed it by half a second.

The boy gasped. His father shook his head, as if awakened from a dream.

The golden-haired woman stared at me with her old eyes and smiled.

*** *** ***

"Are you out of your mind?" I snarled. "That necklace just killed your daughter."

"This isn't your affair," the golden-haired woman said.

"Take it off. Now."

She sneered. "I can't."

She knew exactly what that necklace did. She made a conscious choice between her husband and her son.

The boy dug his fingers into his neck, trying pry the necklace loose. It remained stuck. The skin around the band of gold was turning pink. We had to get that thing off of him.

The man stared at her. "Aurellia? What's going on? What's the meaning of this?"

"Don't worry about it," the woman told him. "I'll explain it later."

"No, you'll explain it now." Curran moved next to me.

"I have to concur," Ghastek said.

The woman raised her chin. "You have no authority over me."

"Aurellia, what is going on?" her husband asked.

"On the contrary. We have all the authority we need." Ghastek snapped his fingers. A woman in a business suit and glasses popped up by his side as if by magic.

"The necklace caused the death of a journeywoman in our employ," the woman said. "We've expended a considerable amount of money training her, not to mention the cost of the two vampires that were terminated as a result of her death. That necklace is evidence in our investigation of the incident. If you obstruct our investigation by withholding this evidence from us, we will obtain a court order requiring you to surrender the necklace to us. Should we choose to pursue this matter further, you will find yourself in a very actionable position."

Some people had attack dogs. Ghastek had attack lawyers. If he got his hands on the boy, he'd find a way to remove the necklace. Even if he had to behead the child to get it.

I couldn't let the People get the boy.

"That's nice," I said. "I have a simpler solution. Take the necklace off the child now and I won't kill you."

"Wait a God damned minute." Amanda's father moved to stand between me and his wife. "Everyone calm down. Just calm down."

"Give me the boy and nobody gets hurt," I told them. "Nobody here will stop me."

"That child is wearing our evidence," Ghastek said.

Curran's eyes lit up with gold. He leveled his alpha stare on the woman. She flinched.

"Give me the child," Curran said, his voice a deep inhuman growl.

"Fine." Aurellia shoved the boy toward us. "Take him."

Curran swept the boy off the floor and picked him up. Ghastek's face fell. We'd won this round.

"Give me back my son!" the man demanded.

Curran just looked at him.

"It's in the boy's best interests to stay in our custody," Ghastek said. "We have better facilities."

"It's not your facilities I doubt," Curran said. "It's your ethics and your intentions."

"What does that supposed to mean?" Ghastek narrowed his eyes.

"It means the necklace is more important to you than the boy," I said. "You'll slice the flesh off his neck to get it."

"That's a gross exaggeration." The Master of the Dead crossed his arms. "I've never murdered a child."

"Oh it's never murder when you do it," I said. "It's a regrettable accidental casualty."

"You can't do this!" Amanda's father thrust himself before Curran. "You can't take my son."

"Yes, I can," Curran said. "We'll keep him safe. If your wife decides to explain what's going on, I'll consider returning him."

"Go fuck yourself," the golden-haired woman said. "Crawl back into whatever dark hole you came out of. I have no care for you or your kind." She turned and walked out of the restaurant.

Her husband froze, caught for a moment between his son and his wife. "This isn't over," he said finally and chased after Aurellia.

"Give us the boy," Ghastek said, his tone reasonable.

"I don't think so," Curran said. "If you want to examine him later, you're welcome to visit the Keep."

Around us the People tensed. In the corner two vampires leaned forward.

I unsheathed Slayer. I had a lot of practice and I did it fast. The lawyer woman jerked back. The opaque blade smoked, sensing the undead. Come on, Ghastek. Make our night.

Ghastek sighed. "Fine. I'll make the necessary arrangements later."

Curran headed out through the door. I waited a second and followed, walking backward for the first two steps to make sure that no undead would come leaping out of darkness at Curran's back.

The door of Arirang swung shut behind us. Ghastek's voice called out, "Alright, people, back to work. Let's process the scene tonight."

"What's your name?" Curran asked.

The boy swallowed. "Roderick."

"Don't be afraid," Curran told him, his voice still laced with snarls. "I'll keep you safe. If anything threatens you, I'll kill it."

The boy gulped.

A giant scary man with glowing eyes and inhuman voice just took you from your parents, but don't be afraid, because he'll kill anything that moves. Kick-ass calming strategy, Your Majesty.

"He might be less scared if you stopped snarling and turned off the headlights," I murmured.

The fire in Curran's eyes died.

"It will be okay," I told Roderick. "We just want to take off that necklace, and then you can go back to your parents. It will be okay. I promise."

If the necklace snapped his neck, there wasn't a damn thing I or Curran or anybody else could do about it. We had to get him to the Keep's infirmary.

We headed into the parking lot just as Andrea pulled up in a Pack Jeep.

Chapter Three

Doolittle bent over the boy, studying the necklace with a magnifying glass. Dark-skinned, his hair salted with grey, the Pack medic looked to be in his early fifties. Doolittle was the best medmage I had ever met. He brought me back from the edge of death so many times, we stopped joking about it.

There was something so soothing about Doolittle. Whether it was his manner, his kind eyes, or the soft Southern accent, tinted with notes of coastal Georgia, I didn't know. The moment he walked into the room, Roderick relaxed. In thirty seconds they had struck a bargain: if Roderick stayed on his best behavior, he would get ice-cream.

Not that Roderick had to be bribed. It took us almost an hour to get to the Keep and the entire ride over, he did not say a single word. He didn't move, didn't fidget, or do any of the normal things a seven year old kid would do in the car. He just sat there, quiet, his brown eyes opened wide, like he was a baby owl.

Doolittle pressed his thumb and index finger just above the necklace, stretching the skin. A vein stood out, burrowing from the gold band under the skin into the muscle of the neck like a thin root.

"Does it hurt when I press here?" he asked.

"No," Roderick said. His voice was barely above whisper.

Doolittle probed a different spot. "And now?"

"No."

The medmage let go and patted Roderick's shoulder. "I do believe we're done for tonight."

"Ice-cream now?" Roderick asked, his voice quiet.

"Ice-cream now," Doolittle confirmed. "Lena!"

A female shapeshifter stuck her red head into the room.

"This young gentleman is in need of ice-cream," Doolittle said. "He's earned it."

"Oh boy!" Lena made big eyes and held out her hand. "I better pay up then. Come on."

Roderick hopped off the chair and took her hand very carefully.

"What kind of ice-cream would you like?" Lena asked, leading him through the doorway.

"Chocolate," the boy said quietly, with a slight hesitation in his voice.

"I've got loads of chocolate..."

The door swung shut behind them.

Doolittle looked at the door and sighed. "The necklace is rooted in the sternomastoid. If I try to cut it out, he will bleed out. You said his mother put this atrocity on him?"

"Yes," Curran said.

"The collar glowed when the husband came near," I said. "He was reaching for it and she yanked it away from him and snapped it on the boy."

"So it was probably intended for her husband," Doolittle said.

"That or it's an equal opportunity offender," I said. "Any neck will do and the boy was the closest."

"And it killed the girl instantly?" Doolittle asked.