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thanking me.”
    “For getting in the way? I don’t think so. You could have been killed. I don’t even want to think about the paperwork that would have involved.”
    “That is not funny.”
    “Sorry.” He ceased rummaging through Trent’s pockets and got to his feet. “We don’t have a lot of time. I left a message for the head of the task force. If I don’t check in from the surface and give the all clear soon, he’ll know things have gone south. He’ll send the team down here to see what went wrong. So unless you want to explain thingsto the head of the local branch of the FBPI, you’d better explain them to me.”
    “You’re offering to leave me out of this?”
    “My gut tells me you aren’t into the illegal tech business but my gut has been wrong before. Either way, you are a complication I’d rather do without. This job was about taking down Vickary and Trent. I’ve got you at the scene but I don’t have a real case against you.”
    She drew a shaky breath. “Good to know.”
    “But this is a one-time-only offer. Make up your mind and do it fast.”
    “No problem. Your offer is accepted. Thanks.”
    She gave him a fast version of events. When she was finished, he shook his head.
    “You followed a dust bunny down here to rescue a bunch of other dust bunnies? What was that about? Read too many
Little Amberina and the Dust Bunny
stories when you were a kid?”
    “Sure, blame it on my early reading habits.” She gestured toward the melted cages.
    “That was your work?” he said. “What the hell did you do to the glass?”
    The last thing she wanted to do was tell him the exact nature of her talent. No, she thought, that wasn’t the last thing she wanted to do. The very last thing she wanted to do was undergo an FBPI interrogation with the head of the task force. Her career was at stake. Better to answer Rafe’s questions.
    “I’m a singer,” she said. “Not a professional musician. It’s my talent. Paranormal music, only. Can’t carry a tunewhen it comes to normal music, just ask my family. Glass has some unique properties as I’m sure you know. Hit the right notes out on the spectrum and it’s easy to shatter the stuff.”
    “Your voice,” Rafe said. He regarded her with a thoughtful expression.
    She frowned. “What about my voice?”
    “Nothing. It’s just . . . very nice, that’s all. Sort of musical or something. You sound like you could be a professional singer.”
    “Well, I’m not,” she said firmly.
    He glanced again at what was left of the cages. “That glass wasn’t shattered. Looks like it melted.”
    She cleared her throat. “If I go far enough out on the spectrum I can melt glass.”
    “And after you melted the glass you used your talent on Vickary.” Rafe whistled softly. “You’re a Siren, aren’t you?”
    “Heavens, no,” she said briskly. “No such thing. Myth. Legend. Tales from the Old World. I’m just a fairly strong para-music talent. Actually, I’m in the dream counseling business.”
    Rafe smiled slowly. There was a disturbingly intimate look in his eyes. “You might be in the dream counseling business but you’re a genuine Siren.”
    “No, really—”
    “I sensed the heat in your aura when I touched you. You’re powerful. Strong enough to melt glass and sing a man into a coma. That makes you a Siren, as far as I’m concerned.”
    She braced herself, waiting for him to add the damningwords. After all, everyone knew that Sirens fell into a unique category as far as history, legend, and para-shrinks were concerned—the category that contained
psychic vampires
. It was the
Not Supposed to Exist,
but If You Find One, Lock Her Up
category.
    Rafe moved on without further comment on her powers.
    “Okay,” he said. “Here’s how we’re going to do this. You were never down here, understand?”
    “But when those men wake up they might remember me.”
    “It’s unlikely they’ll remember much, if anything, about what happened just