THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

body toward her a little more, but she could tell by the way his voice bounced off the wall that he hadn’t completely turned around.
    Did she want the job? Oh, man, crunch time. Could she take the leap of faith? Did she have any choice? She wet her lips. “What are your terms?”
    He turned fully around to face her and named a figure that surpassed her annual income last year by a good margin, even with the crazy extra shifts she’d logged.
    What on earth was he expecting for that princely sum?
    “I won’t have to do anything … illegal?”
    “Not even close.”
    His answer came without hesitation, but just like before when she’d intuited his plan to hunt down and destroy the vampire who’d attacked her, she detected the space between what he said and what he thought. What he actually thought was he’d take care of any shady stuff himself.
    That knowledge should have sent her running for the hills, but she found it oddly reassuring. He clearly didn’t know — or maybe he just didn’t care — how transparent his thoughts were to her. Certainly it would make a refreshing change from the minefield of politics, ego and subterfuge she’d had to navigate every day at the hospital.
    “You said there’d be a phlebotomy element?”
    “Yes.”
    “These subjects I’d be drawing blood from … would they be human or vampire?”
    A sigh. “I thought we’d agreed vampires are human.”
    Whoops. “Sorry.” She chewed the inside of her cheek a moment. “So they’re vampires, then? Infected, mutated, however you want to describe them.”
    “Yes, they’re vampires. But they pose no threat. They’re nothing like the rogue that attacked you. These people are civilized. They come voluntarily, and they have a vested interest in the continuation of my research.”
    “They want to be turned back, you mean?”
    The room had lightened sufficiently for her to see him shrug. “Some hope for that outcome. Others are quite happy with their lot, and just come for the free lunch.”
    Free lunch? She laughed, a short, startled sound. “You supply them with blood ?”
    “Think of it like a Methadone clinic. If opiate addicts can get their regular dose of Methadone at a clinic, they stay off the streets and out of trouble. They lead productive lives instead of engaging in round-the-clock criminal activity to support their addictions. Vampires are no different. If these people can get human blood through a legal, or at least not out-and-out illegal source, then everyone wins.”
    She felt her forehead crease into a frown and immediately lifted her hand to smooth it. God, she had to stop doing that or her forehead would look like a roadmap. Or rather, more like a roadmap than it already did.
    “Aren’t they worried about what you’ll use this research for?”
    “Oh, I make full disclosure. I’m working on a vaccine to protect the very high-risk populations — the homeless, the drug-addicted, the mentally ill who roam our streets. The prime targets for the predators like the one who attacked you. Still, I’ve had to work hard to gain their trust, particularly those who don’t embrace a so-called cure. They have to trust that the vaccine won’t be turned against them, or used to deprive these peaceable citizens of viable sustenance.”
    Her mind whirled and spun. In a world where pharmaceutical policy decisions were dictated by the bottom line, how could he hope to control the fruits of his labor?
    “In all conscience, can you offer them that assurance?”
    “I have offered it, so let us hope I can deliver it.” He cleared his throat. “Now, shall we discuss the hours of work? As I suggested when we talked by telephone, we’re a dusk to dawn operation here. Now you understand why.”
    As she’d told him on the phone, day or night made no difference. She was quite accustomed to shift work. What she wanted to pursue was the sunlight thing. “It’s true, then? The mythology about vampires and daylight?”
    He laughed, a low, amused sound. “Yes and no.”
    She arched an eyebrow.
    “No, vampires don’t explode into columns of fire, nor are they instantly reduced to a pile of ash. But they do have a severe photosensitivity.”
    “Like a sun allergy?”
    “Precisely. But more profound than anything you’ve ever seen in one of your ERs.”
    She called on her memory to dredge up what details she’d retained. Somehow the immune system started treating the sun-exposed skin as “foreign,” triggering an