He gave me a rictus of a smile. “Ain’t got no incentive.”

“I’ll give you one.” Unless it was to speak to the rusalka in a low murmur, Lurine had been silent during the discussion. Now she uncoiled from around the tank with unnerving speed and loomed over him, her upper body swaying back and forth like an immense cobra’s. Her voice had taken on that implacable bronze edge, and I didn’t have to see her face to know her eyes were glittering with a deadly basilisk stare. “If you don’t, I will hunt you down and find you. And I will crush you, bit by bit, bone by bone.” The tip of her tail caressed his cheek with sensuous grace. “You understand a bit about suffering, don’t you? I’ll make it last for days. Did you know that as long as your heart’s still beating and blood’s flowing to your brain, you can live for a long, long time?”

“Rather like a headless chicken,” I added. “Only with more nerve endings.”

For the first time, Jerry Dunham looked well and truly afraid. It was pretty damn gratifying.

Cody shuddered and shook himself. “Jesus!”

“You should get out of here, too,” I said to Lurine. “We’ve got cops and paramedics on the way, and I can’t vouch for their discretion.”

Lurine glanced at the rusalka, obviously reluctant to abandon her.

“She will be safe until such time as arrangements can be made,” Stefan assured her. “I will see to it myself.”

A look passed between them, and then Lurine nodded. “My husband was on the board of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I’ll start making calls.”

“You’re not—” I began in alarm.

“No, cupcake.” Her tail circled my waist, giving me an affectionate squeeze. “Of course not. Calls about arranging to transport her safely back to where she came from. Or at least to Puget Sound, which is where she got tangled in a fisherman’s net. She’s a long way from home.”

“Sorry; I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Lurine squeezed me again. After the fate she’d threatened Dunham with, you wouldn’t think that would be entirely comforting, but it was. “It’s okay. You’ve had a rough day, baby girl. I’m just glad you’re all right.”

For the first time, it occurred to me to wonder how Lurine had gotten in on this, and I asked her.

Releasing me, she nodded at Stefan. “He called me.”

“You did?” I asked him.

He inclined his head. “Of course. She declared you under her protection. It was a necessary courtesy.”

“Oh.”

Lurine shifted, dwindling abruptly from a glorious and terrifying monster to a naked B-movie starlet. “Speaking of courtesies, would you be so kind as to fetch my clothes?” she asked Stefan. “I left them in the Town Car.”

I caught Cody staring.