In response, I showed her my left wrist, which was covered by a thick silver chain bracelet. It looked like fashion, but it was also a weapon, and a good one. Then I pulled down the neck of my T-shirt to show her the matching necklace.

She laughed softly, and the glow and fangs were immediately banished. ‘I’m just messing with you,’ she said, and gave me a quirky, in-on-the-joke smile. ‘You’re a cool one, Shane.’

‘As long as I don’t have to be a cold one.’

‘I knew I liked you. You’ve got’ – she licked her lips, not at all suggestively. Okay, maybe a little. Or a lot – ‘spice.’

‘It’s my body spray, it’s real manly. Don’t take it as an invitation. I’ve got nothing for you, Jesse.’

‘Don’t sell yourself short, handsome, but in any case, you’re not my preferred flavour of snack. And I’m not one of those who go in uninvited, if you take my meaning.’

‘I get it. You like to think you’re a nice vampire.’

The smile vanished, and what was left in its place was just … dangerous. ‘Let’s not call each other names. Someone might get hurt. What are you doing here? Hunting? Because if that’s your thing, we can work it out somewhere else. I have to earn a living here.’

‘Just pulling down a pay cheque, same as you,’ I said. ‘Look, I really didn’t expect to run into any vam—very nice ladies such as yourself in a city like this. My understanding was they were all concentrated back home, where the Founder kept an eye on them.’

‘She does love to keep her hand on us,’ Jesse agreed. ‘I left town thirty years ago, and I did some travelling – finding others and bringing them home. When Professor Anderson came here, I was assigned by the Founder to watch over her.’

‘Or just watch her?’

She shrugged. ‘They’re not mutually exclusive, as it turns out.’

That was uncomfortably close to what I was doing with Claire, so I decided to let that part go. ‘You’re assigned here, then. Officially.’

‘Yes.’ She cut her gaze around one more time, and checked her watch. ‘And because you understand the score, we never had this conversation, or I’ll have to get in contact back home and ask what they want me to do about you and your adorably blabby mouth. Clear?’

‘Clear,’ I said. ‘If I find out you’re hunting here, though, I’m not going to be happy.’

‘Well, wouldn’t want that, now, would we?’

‘No, we wouldn’t,’ I said, ‘since I’m Frank Collins’s boy.’