Killer's Gambit (Psychic For Hire 3)

“It’s very difficult to get hold of. And it’s no good in a fight. It takes a day or so for the pathogen to take effect.”

“Too bad.” I put the bottle and stake in my satchel. “So what’s this?” I picked up the box. It was locked.

Looking pained, Theo unlocked it. Inside was a sleek gun and a row of wicked -looking silver bullets. I whistled.

“I am not sure it’s the best idea to give you this,” Theo said, still looking like he was on the verge of changing his mind. “It would be an extremely bad idea for you to turn up with this. If they saw it, they might think you were there to pick a fight.”

I pushed the box back towards him. “It’s no good anyway. I don’t know how to use it.”

Theo looked both relieved and upset and asto

nished at this. How could a would-be killer of monsters not know how to use a gun? “Do you want me to give you a lesson?”

I shook my head. “Maybe later. For now I don’t plan on using the weapons. Now about this truth serum…?” I raised a hopeful eyebrow.

He frowned. “How exactly were you planning on getting them to ingest it?” he asked.

I made a face. “Perhaps they would have invited me in for tea.”

That made Theo laugh. “I doubt it. And I am not certain what the effect would be on the undead. However, you’re welcome to take the ingredients and attempt to make it up yourself.” The encouraging smile he gave me when he said this made it clear that while he was glad I was taking an interest in expanding my repertoire of magical skills, he doubted I would succeed.

Potion-making took magical skill and practice, of which I had none. Theo did say once that he had sensed some inherent magic in me, but I’d turned down his offer to teach me to use it. Knowing Theo’s cautious nature I was sure his methods would be more theory than practice and I was too impatient for that.

Theo was looking at me slightly anxiously. “Diana, I’ve been doing some reading up on the Angel of Death and wanted to talk to you—”

“Gaargh!” I said, interrupting him swiftly. “I really don’t want to talk about that now, Theo. Maybe later?” I added that last bit as a gesture of goodwill given how disappointed he looked. I didn’t really want to think about it. I didn’t know whether he or I would like what we discovered.

Searching for a change of topic, I found myself asking, “Do you know anything about dhampirs?”

Theo’s eyes lit up. “A very interesting question!” he said enthusiastically.

He proceeded to give me a lesson on vampire genetics which was far more detailed than I had wanted. But at least he wasn’t talking about Angels of Death anymore. While vampires largely procreated by turning humans into vampires, he said, apparently in otherworld vampires valued their blood-kin highly. Therefore male vampires would try to sire their own genetic children on human women, but the chances of fertilization taking place using a vampire’s sperm were very low. Even when that did happen, such pregnancies were rarely viable, often ending in miscarriages. It was a highly celebratory event for the whole brood’s blood-kin if a baby did come to term. The children born of these pregnancies were known as sanguiths, sickly half-human half-vampires with all of a vampire’s weaknesses and none of their strengths. But if these sickly sanguiths survived to adulthood, their sire could turn them into a full blooded vampire in the usual way, thus creating a highly loyal new blood-kin member of his brood.

“So that’s what a dhampir is?” I asked. “Steffane Ronin was awfully arrogant for someone who’d been a sickly kid all his life.” I couldn't quite imagine him as a vulnerable sanguith.

“No, no.” Theo emphatically shook his head as if despairing of my impatience. “Sanguiths, if they survive the change, become normal vampires, no different from a vampire created from a human. A dhampir on the other hand has all of the strengths of a vampire and none of the weaknesses. A dhampir is born, not made.”

“So you’re saying some of these sanguiths are actually dhampirs?”

Theo shook his head again. He explained patiently that a dhampir was a child born of an unchanged sanguith woman and vampire father. But this almost never happened because sanguiths were so sickly that their vampire sires would not risk them to pregnancy when a human woman would do instead. Also, it was even rarer for a sanguith’s pregnancy to be carried to term given that the weak body of the mother could not sustain the growing baby.

“However, and this was the interesting part,” he said, “If a sanguith does bear a living child, the resulting babies vary as to what creature they are in terms of their genetics. It is thought that a quarter are fully human, half are sanguiths, and a quarter should be dhampirs.”

“Should be?”

“Since a dhampir baby would have the strength of a vampire, such a fetus would kill its sanguith mother while it was still in the womb,” Theo explained. “Neither baby nor mother would survive. It’s one reason why dhampirs are so rare that they used to be thought to be myths. Another reason is that the genetics that make a dhampir are thought to lead to few viable embryos. And finally, vampires kill dhampir children, regarding them as abominations.”

My mouth dropped open. “What? But dhampirs are like super-vampires, aren’t they? Able to walk in sunlight. Not really needing to drink blood to survive. Why would vampires kill them? Surely they would value them?”

Theo looked thoughtful. “This is an aspect of vampire custom that vampires are highly secretive about. I have wondered if they regard dhampirs as abominations because they fear them. I read an ancient account which spoke of a dhampir boy gaining the skills of elder vampires quickly, making the elders feel threatened. They destroyed him. Perhaps that is why vampires do not suffer a dhampir to live.”

“So why didn’t the Ronins kill off Steffane Ronin as a child?”

Theo shrugged. “Only the Ronins know that. It could be the key to cracking your case.”

Chapter 8

DIANA