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Or a blood slave. In fact, she thought it was safe to rule out just about any job one might find in the River Market area.
    Ben shrugged. “They didn’t specify. Use your imagination.”
    “Why aren’t the locals handling this?” Nathaniel asked.
    “Charles Morgan is the master vampire in the area. He owns that city, which you can assume includes the police, and perhaps the branch of the Agency located there,” she explained. For obvious reasons, she had a better grasp of vampire politics than most of her colleagues.
    Her boss nodded. “The local office does a decent job unless there are vampires involved. The head office has noticed, but there’s not a lot they can do about it except bring in outside help so that’s what they’re doing.”
    “We’ll head out tomorrow,” she said and stood. “I’ve got some things that need to be tied up before I leave town.”
    Ben scowled. “Can’t you do any better than that?”
    “Since one of those things is my training with the Director, I would say no. Unless you’d like to take that up with him.” Juliana had used her limited magical ability to kill someone during her last case. The bastard deserved it, but the law stated she had to undergo full mage training now whether she liked it or not. The fact that her brother-in-law happened to be the leader of all the mages in the western United States just meant she had a better teacher than most.
    Turning slightly more pale than usual, Ben shook his head. The Agency didn’t cross the Gathering when they could help it. Not that she blamed them. If there was anything worse than a pissed off mage, it was a whole Gathering full of them.
    “I’ve got rookies to scare the crap out of,” she said and walked out the door, Nathaniel on her heels. Ann Marie’s dad sat in one of the chairs lining the wall outside Ben’s office, waiting for his turn with her boss. She smiled and headed toward the rotunda.

Chapter Four
     
     
    The rotunda was the first thing people saw when they walked into any Agency building. A large, circular entryway with stairs leading to the upper level and a balcony overlooking it all. The walls were lined with charcoal gray tiles. Along the back was the In Memoriam wall with the names of agents and Walkers that had fallen in the line of duty etched into the marble. Each office had a special section for the dead that made that facility their home base. When Juliana and Nathaniel stepped out of the hall, they found Jeremiah leaning on the railing. She came up beside him, placed her hands on the cool, metal rail and looked at the recruits gathered below. “Any of them quit?” she asked.
    Jeremiah shook his head. “Not yet. The yeller tried to get his daughter to, though. Girl’s got some fire in her, that’s for sure.”
    Juliana felt a brief pang of concern remembering the man sitting outside Ben’s office. Hopefully he wasn’t important enough that they’d make Ann Marie leave just to please him. If she made it this far, she was a decent prospect. Besides, she shouldn’t have to give up what she loved just to make someone else happy.
    Pushing away from the rail, she made her way down the curving stairs. The recruits fell silent as she descended. “Any idea why I had you meet me here?” she asked.
    A couple of them fidgeted but no one stepped forward with an answer.
    “There are people that think we should be thrilled with every applicant we get. It takes a lot of agents to do what we do, a lot of Walkers.” She moved toward the memorial wall as she spoke, stopping when she arrived at one end of the names. “I however think it’s important that you understand your future.”
    There was a snort of laughter and then a male voice piped up from the back. “What? So you bring us down here, show us the wall of names and think that’s going to scare us away?”
    “Have a little respect,” Nathaniel snapped from where he’d taken up residence at the back of the group. “Those men and women