‘Oh, she does,’ Anderson said. ‘Just not unless she’s invited to.’

‘Well, you should know,’ Jesse purred, and laughed when Dr Anderson’s cheeks turned pink.

‘All right, now that you’ve made your point, sit over there, Jesse. What’s going to happen is that I’m going to point this weapon at you and press the trigger, and you should report to me exactly what it feels like. It shouldn’t hurt you.’

‘Shouldn’t?’ Jesse’s eyebrows climbed higher. ‘Not sure I like the variable in that statement. Claire, you tried this on any other vampires before?’

‘Myrnin,’ Claire said.

‘Did it hurt him?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘Well, I’m not Myrnin, and I’m not so willing to hop on the crazy train, but all right. Just for you, Reenie.’

Anderson rolled her eyes. ‘God, please don’t call me that name. Just go sit in the chair. I promise, it’ll be a very brief exposure.’

Jesse crossed the room to the plain aluminium chair that sat against the wall, put her hand on it, and said, ‘Here?’

‘Yes, please.’

Jesse sat down, crossed her legs, and folded her hands in her lap like a church lady, which she was most certainly not. ‘Ready, aim, fire.’

‘Not funny,’ Anderson said softly, but she raised VLAD, sighted and pulled the trigger.

Nothing came out of the gun – no rays or smoke or visible sign of any kind – but Jesse sat up very straight, eyes opening wide. Anderson immediately let go of the trigger and replaced VLAD on the foam pad. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked, and took a step forward. ‘Jesse?’

‘Stop,’ Jesse said, and held her hand out. She looked … odd, and her face was utterly expressionless. ‘Irene, stop right there, please.’

Dr Anderson did, looking very worried, until Jesse finally dropped her hand back to her lap and relaxed. ‘That was … interesting.’

‘Apparently,’ Dr Anderson said, and smiled, though it was clearly a troubled sort of smile. ‘What just happened to you?’

‘I’m not really quite sure. I can tell you that when I sat down, I was feeling a little nervous about what was about to happen, and I was also feeling a little’ – Jesse cut her glance toward Claire for a second, and probably amended what she was going to say – ‘a little amused, I suppose. And all of a sudden I was both those things, still, but ramped up to eleven. It was … disconcerting, because those are not two emotions that go very well together. You understand?’

‘It amplifies,’ Claire said. They both focused on her. ‘The way I set it up to start with, whatever the vampire feels, it’s amplified by the device. I think it kind of works on humans, too. But more on vampires, obviously.’