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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

With every book, I thank ent, Helen Heller, and my editors, to who thank-you to es, primarily that more voices e thanks to Anne Groell of Bantason of Little Brown UK and, particularly, Anne Collins of Random House Canada (ields the most incisive blue pencil I know) Thanks for your support and guidance, which made the process so much easier

Thanks, too, to John G for his help with Finn's detective parts Any errors in police procedure are ation realistic, sometimes the needs of story take precedence over verisimilitude so I must take the blame for the errors

Big thanks as always to s that crop up in everyerrors are mine They're readers, not miracle workers! Thanks to Xaviere Dau, Terri Giesbrecht and Danielle Wegner

ADELE

To call Portia Kane a waste of space was being charitable She was negative space - a vacuu around her An entire industry had grown up to service this spoiled "celebutante" Lives asted catering to her whi her vapid face across the news

And for what? She wasn't s Adele should know She'd spent the last two years ing in the oatmeal mush that was Portia's mind But soon she'd be free If she dared

Adele stabbed a ripe baby tomato The innards squirted down the front of her shirt The insanely expensive white shirt she'd bought just for this round the pulp into a bloody smear

A tinkling laugh rose above theover the table, whispering to Jas At Adele? No To theoal - never let your prey know it's being stalked

Paparazzi An ugly word, with an uglier reputation The kumpania never used it They weren't like those curs, endlessly chasing their prey, trying to corner it, provoke it, snatching raphers were clever foxes, staying out of the fray and getting the , craft and clairvoyance

Anear the restaurant entrance Was that him? They'd only spoken by phone, but she was sure it was He had their look - the thinning blond hair, the unnaturally blue eyes, the arrogant tilt of the chin, the razor-sharp cut of the suit

And he was looking right at her S toward her In that rizzly

All sensible supernaturals feared the Cabals, those corporations run by sorcerers whose idea of severance packages usually involved the reh, that fear rose to outright terror By the ti for a Cabal, they'd lost the most vital body part of all - their minds

The power of clairvoyance ca of insanity, a fate the kumpania promised to save them from in return for a lifetime of servitude They also promised to protect their clairvoyants from the Cabals, which would woo them with promises of wealth, then drain their powers and retire theht out only for horrific experiments

And now Adele illinglyherself to his corporation Was she mad? She had to run, escape while she still could