She reached into an overhead cabinet and pulled down a bottle of tequila. “Drink?”

“No thanks.”

Tamara rolled her eyes. “C’mon. With a name like Gomez you’re saying no to tequila? What a wuss.”

Lady, you’re talking to a vampire.

“I’m on duty.”

“Like that’s ever stopped anyone from drinking at DOE.” She picked a lime from inside the refrigerator and started slicing. She brought the tequila and a plastic tray to the table, carrying sections of lime, a saltshaker, and two shot glasses.

She sat in the other chair and uncapped the tequila. Despite my refusal, Tamara set a shot glass in front of each of us and filled them. She licked the top of her fist and sprinkled salt on the moistened flesh. Lifting her glass, she said, “Salud,” and poured the tequila down her throat. She licked the salt on her hand and bit into a piece of lime. After pursing her lips for a moment, she gasped, “Damn, that was good.”

I barely sipped my tequila. The salt-and-lime routine had never worked for me, even before I was a vampire.

Tamara lit one cigarette, took a puff, and exhaled. She twisted her mouth to one side in that curious way that smokers do to pretend that they’re not stinking up the air with their habit. “What’s with the makeup, Felix? Does it have anything to do with you not wanting to drink tequila?” Her smirk added, “you pussy.”

Not only was she insulting my status as a vampire, now she was going after my masculinity as well. I had thought I had done a good job with my makeup but apparently not. “It’s medication. I have a skin condition.”

Her mouth formed an “O,” and she feigned embarrassment to have noticed.

Since I was the investigator, it was time for me to earn my pay. “How are you managing on medical leave?”

Tamara poked at the surroundings with her cigarette. “Take a look. I’m doing like shit. I used to live in a four-bedroom split-level two miles from here. Now this shoe box is home.”

“I mean health-wise.”

“Mental health? At first I was so freaked out that I bought a gun.” Tamara stuck her hand in the purse on the table.

Was she after the gun? I got ready to grab her wrist.

She withdrew a plastic, amber-colored bottle. “You know they put us on Prozac.”

I relaxed and smiled inwardly at the false alarm.

She dropped the bottle back into her purse and combed a hand through her hair. “I had to quit taking it. Prozac looks so perfect at first. Everything seems under control. Then you realize that parts of you are missing, I mean parts of your personality. The more you use it, the more it feels like you are dissolving into the air.”

I had to fake concern while I steered the conversation to the incident in Building 707. “Are you better now that you don’t take it?”

“I feel more complete.” She mashed the cigarette into the ashtray. “On the other hand, it’s like I’m walking on ice. At any moment something will crack and down I go.”

“Go where?”

“Into nympho-land.” Tamara hung her head and clutched her fingers. “It sounds funny, doesn’t it? Like a joke. A bunch of horny women going out of control.” She lifted her head and gave a weak grin. “A man’s fantasy, no?”

“For some.”

Tamara reached into a pocket of her purse. She opened her hand to show me a gold wedding band. “It cost me my marriage and my family. I couldn’t control myself.”

This was regrettable for her, but what I needed to know was what had caused the nymphomania. I’d let her volunteer information before I resorted to vampire hypnosis.

Tamara prepared another shot of tequila. Good. The more lubricated she got, the easier my job. She gulped and slammed the empty glass on the table. “But you know what? The truth is, the real goddamn unvarnished truth is that I enjoyed it. I mean, what I can remember.”

She closed her eyes and clenched her hands before her face. “It’s like you’re on fire. You want it.”

“It…what?”

Tamara gave me an incredulous stare. “Sex. Everything about sex. Regular sex. Oral sex. Butt sex. Period sex. You go and you go,” she pumped her hand, flailing her head, shaking her blond tresses, “until you’re sizzling with lust, aware of nothing but your pleasure. Then you float back to reality, and it’s like you’re washed up on a beach after a storm.”

Tamara sighed and lit another cigarette. She brushed a strand of hair from her face. “And I don’t mean a nasty cold beach, either, I mean one of those beer-commercial beaches where the water is warm and the sun toasts your skin.”

She sucked on a lime and remained quiet for a moment. Looking over her shoulder to the picture on the wall, she said wistfully, “I do miss my boys.” She turned back toward me. “Can’t say I miss my husband, though. He turned into a real asshole about this and kicked me out of my house and then filed for divorce. Just because I nailed his brother, and the minister.”

Tamara pushed the sleeves of her sweatshirt over her forearms. She leaned on her elbows and gave an accusing glare. “You know what I learned from all this?”

“No.” But keep talking.

“How much you men fear women. I mean this whole sex thing. Women being the fair, weaker gender and all that bullshit. That you men grant us sexual permission. It’s a myth so you can control us.”

“Okay, guilty as charged,” I said. “Put all of man’s failures on my shoulders.” Now shut up about this and tell me what happened in Building 707.

“All of man’s failures?” she laughed. “Who are you now, Jesus Christ?”

“If I’m going to help, you’ll have to tell me about the beginning.”

“What if I don’t need help?”

“You like what happened?”

“Not what it cost me.”

“Then I need to know what caused it.”

“Read the report.”

“What report?”

“If you have to ask that question, I can’t tell you. It’s classified.” Tamara crossed her arms. “I could lose my job. Hell, I could even go to prison for revealing anything.”

Time for my vampire powers. This brassy Amazon had no defense. I bowed my head and popped the contacts from my eyes.

“Are you okay?” Tamara asked. “You really can’t handle tequila, can you?”

I sat upright and stared at her, shining the full effect of my tapetum lucidum into her eyes. My lupine gaze transfixed her. The red aura of a human shimmered around her.

“Holy shit.” Tamara jerked her head back in surprise, but only for a second as my hypnotic spell took effect. Her blue eyes dilated. Her face relaxed. Her lips parted slightly and released a curl of smoke. Her arms unfolded, and the cigarette dropped to the carpet. Such a strong-willed woman, and yet such easy prey.

I could turn my vampire gaze away for ten seconds, maybe even a minute, depending on the human, before I lost the hypnotic lock. I snatched the cigarette and snubbed it in the ashtray. Returning to stare into her eyes, I held Tamara’s hands in mine and kneaded the flesh between her thumbs and index fingers. Her breathing slowed, and her eyelids fluttered to remain open.

Gently, I raised our hands and, in a quiet voice, commanded her to stand up. I led her to the bed and levered her long body onto the mattress, resting her head on a pillow. The plastic slides fell from her feet. A wave of pheromones rose from her body. My control over her was complete.

The halo of her aura floated on the pillow. Her hair fell away from her neck and exposed the tender skin and tempting veins. The pleasure of erotic domination surged through me. My fangs started to grow, and I lapped my tongue against my dry lips. Blood tastes much better than tequila.

But I wouldn’t bite her. This investigation was tricky enough without me leaving holes in the necks of the witnesses. Plus, who knew what had contaminated her?

I climbed on the bed and straddled her, careful to put my weight onto my knees and not against her hips. Her pelvis arched aggressively and she pressed her groin against me. Odd. Hypnosis victims have always remained passive.