Living With the Dead (Otherworld 9)

"We have some idea who Adele may have aligned herself with and, yes, it's an organization, but for now, the important part is that we know what she is. We'll be able to deal with her."

"But the larger group, community, whatever, the one made up of everyone with paranormal powers..."

"I wouldn't exactly call it a community."

"You know what I mean."

Hope sipped her coffee.

Robyn waited a moment for Hope to answer. When she didn't, she said, "So we have clairvoyants and..."

Hope added another cream. Stirred. Sipped.

"Clairvoyants and..." Robyn prompted.

Hope set her cup down and leaned back. "What else do you need to know?"

"I said I want to know - "

"Need," Karl said.

She looked from one to the other. Both met her gaze, expressions blank.

"So you won't tell me," she said finally.

"Won't, shouldn't, can't..." Hope said. "Anything you need to know, though, I'll - "

"Oh, this is silly." Robyn slumped into the chair, arms crossed. She felt childish doing it, but at least she managed to avoid pouting. "I'm not exactly asking for national security secrets."

"Aren't you?" Karl said. "Perhaps not national security, but certainly very valid security concerns for a group of people."

"Why? So what if the world suddenly discovered people who could remote-view?"

"Have you ever heard of the Inquisition?" Karl asked.

"Now that is silly. Yes, people were afraid of witchcraft in the Middle Ages. They also thought dragons inhabited the edge of the world. Are you honestly going to tell me that if people today knew about clairvoyants, they'd hunt them down and burn them at the stake?"

"Perhaps not."

"There's no perhaps about it, Karl. This isn't the Middle Ages - "

"What if you read a headline announcing the discovery of a mutant gene found in a very small group. This gene forces them to murder one person each year to stay alive, and to feed off people the rest of the year, like parasites. Would you say vive la difference? Live and let live?"

"Well, no, but whatever those people are - "

"Vampires?"

Robyn blanched. She didn't mean to, but she couldn't help it.

"But if there are... vampires, they aren't people," she said.

"I wouldn't try telling them that," Hope murmured.

Robyn looked at her. Were they serious? Or were they only giving the most outrageous example they could? She straightened and met Karl's gaze.

"Fine, I wouldn't approve of vampires. But that's not - "

"Let's take another example then. A slightly larger group. People with no biological imperative to kill, but with a strong - sometimes overwhelming - instinct to do it. An instinct to see man not as a conscious being, but as just another threat and food source. Many resist the urge, some successfully. Some don't bother to try. Should we exterminate them all? Just to be safe?"