The afternoon was spent learning equipment, most of which Claire had never seen, though some of it she’d heard about. Most fascinating was a genetic sequencer hard at work cracking the code of vampire DNA. ‘It’s deceptively human,’ Dr Anderson said. ‘Tough to tell the difference, because there’s really very little to find. It’s almost as if the DNA was only part of the equation for how vampires change – it’s not just a physical process. And I don’t have any equipment that can capture something that only happens on the spiritual plane, at least, not yet.’

‘I might,’ Claire said. She felt tentative about it, and a little overwhelmed by what Dr Anderson was doing in this very sparkly lab; who was she to pretend to be an inventor? It didn’t feel nearly as weird when she was with Myrnin; everything seemed possible.

Here, she felt very … young. And inexperienced.

But she had Dr Anderson’s undivided attention. ‘Go on.’

‘I … I thought that since Myrnin had made machines that interacted with vampire powers, then it might be possible to make another machine to cancel them.’

There was a long, strange silence, and Claire felt herself growing hot and uncomfortable under Anderson’s steady stare. Then her professor said, very carefully, ‘Do you have such a device?’

‘Maybe? I mean, I know it can amplify vampire emotions. I think if I can use it in reverse, it could make them afraid instead of angry, cancel out their aggression and hunger … It’s all really just a guess right now.’

‘But you built it.’

‘I have a prototype.’

‘Where?’

Dr Anderson was taking this way more seriously than Claire had ever expected. Even Myrnin hadn’t seemed so impressed. ‘It’s packed, they’re delivering it with all my stuff this week.’

‘You shipped it?’

‘I thought it might be hard to get it through security at the airport.’

‘Ah. Excellent point. But you really thought it was safer to trust it to a moving company? Do the vampires know you have this device?’

‘Myrnin does.’

‘And has he told Amelie?’

‘I don’t know,’ Claire said. She felt more than a little off balance, as if she had done something bad but she wasn’t sure what exactly it was. ‘Shouldn’t he have?’

‘If he thinks you’re worth keeping alive, he won’t,’ Dr Anderson said. She had a remote, calculating look in her blue eyes, suddenly, and it was chilling. ‘The last thing Amelie would want is a device like that, capable of giving humans a way to control vampires. When is this device scheduled to arrive here?’

‘Um, tomorrow, I think. They’re just supposed to put the boxes in my bedroom if I’m out.’