I stopped, suddenly aware that a dozen pair of eyes were on me. I could imagine nothing more humiliating for a witch than this, to sit in a room filled with sorcerers telling you that one of your race, who pride themselves on their family bonds, had let her teenage daughter live on the streets. Not only that, but she didn’t even care enough to come to her daughter’s side when she lay comatose and alone in a Cabal hospital. It was inconceivable.

“Maybe if I could speak to her,” I said. “There might be a misunderstanding…”

“Or we could be lying,” the sorcerer said. “Here’s my cell phone. Anyone got Lyndsay MacArthur’s number? Let the witch—”

“Enough,” Benicio said, his voice sharp enough to cut diamonds. I’d heard that tone before…from his son. “You are excused, Jared.”

“I was only—”

“You are excused.”

The sorcerer left. I struggled to think of some way to defend my race. Lucas’s hand squeezed my knee. I looked at him, but he’d turned to the table, mouth opening to speak for me. I quickly interrupted. As much as I longed for the support, the only thing that could make this worse would be for him to jump to my rescue.

“Is Dana’s father aware of the situation?” I said.

Benicio shook his head. “Randy has been in Europe since spring. If he’d known about Dana’s estrangement from her mother, he would have requested leave to come home.”

“I meant the attack. Does he know about that?”

Another head shake. “He’s currently in a very unstable location. We’ve tried contacting him by telephone, e-mail, and telepathy, but haven’t been able to deliver the news. We expect him to be back in a major city within the week.”

“Good. Okay. Back to the case, then. I’m guessing we’re here because you want Dana’s attacker found.”

“Found and punished.”

Somehow, I doubted that punishment would involve the local authorities, but after hearing what had been done to Dana, I couldn’t bring myself to care.

“But the Cabal can investigate by itself, right?”

A reedy voice from down the table answered. “Mr. MacArthur is a class C employee.”

I looked at the speaker, a specter-thin, specter-pale man dressed in a mortician-black suit. Necromancer. It’s a stereotype, I know, but most necros have a whiff of the grave about them.

“Paige, this is Reuben Aldrich, head of our actuarial department. Reuben, Ms. Winterbourne isn’t familiar with our designations. Would you explain for her please?”

“Of course, sir.” Watery blue eyes looked my way. “Employees range from class F through A. Only class A and B employees are entitled to familial violenceinsurance.”

“Familial…?”

Lucas turned to me. “It’s insurance that covers corporate investigations into criminal matters such as kidnapping, assault, murder, psychic wounding, or any other dangers one’s family might face as a result of their employment with the Cabal.”

I looked at Reuben Aldrich. “So Mr. MacArthur, being class C, isn’t entitled to a paid investigation into his daughter’s attack. So why bring it to us—to Lucas?”

“The Cabal is offering to hire him,” said the man beside me. “The reallocation of resources and man-hours would make the cost of an internal investigation prohibitive. Instead, we’re offering to retain Mr. Cortez in a contract position.”

Lucas folded his hands on the table. “Paying for an outside investigation into an assault not covered by the benefit package is a generous and considerate offer, but—” He met his father’s gaze with a level stare. “—unlikely to meet corporate profitability standards. You mentioned to Paige that the attack on Miss MacArthur wasn’t the first.”

“There’s a second, possibly related, case,” Benicio said. “Dennis?”

Dennis explained. Eight days ago another Cabal employee’s runaway teen had been attacked. Holden Wyngaard was the fourteen-year-old son of a shaman. Someone had followed him for several blocks at night, then jumped him in an alley. Before anything could happen, a young couple had wandered into the alley and Holden’s attacker had slipped away. The Cabal was not investigating.

“Let me guess,” I said. “Mr. Wyngaard is a level C employee.”

“Level E,” Reuben said. “Substance-abuse problems have caused his status to drop. He is currently on suspension, and therefore entitled only to the most basic health-care benefits.”

“But you think the cases are connected?”

“We don’t know,” Benicio said. “If we had clear proof of a pattern, we’d conduct our own investigation. As it stands, it’s a troubling coincidence. While the expense of a full-scale investigation isn’t warranted, we’d like to be proactive and hire Lucas to look into the matter.”

“Not me,” Lucas said, his voice soft, but firm enough to carry through the room. “Paige.”

“Of course, if Paige was interested in helping you—”

“I’m currently in the midst of defending a client, and couldn’t possibly pursue this in the timely manner you’d require.”

Benicio hesitated, then nodded. “Understandable. You have other obligations. I can’t argue with that. If you’d like to set Paige on the case then, and supervise—”