Vinnie tried to remember what lecturing felt like. Before Scorpius, she’d given lectures all over the country to law enforcement organizations when she wasn’t hunting serial killers. She could talk to these people. A scratched whiteboard waited at her back, while some of the most dangerous people still alive sat in front of her on folded chairs.

Jax Mercury looked just as deadly in the soft afternoon light as he had in the morning. Shaggy black hair, hard brown eyes, and sharp Latino features. Lynne Harmony sat next to him, cultured and educated, her gaze intense and curious. Blue from her famous heart showed through her T-shirt in an electric glow. The second she’d entered the room, Jax had put her safely between him and the door.

What would it be like to have somebody so intent on protecting her? So damn determined? Vinnie felt a small spurt of jealousy that she quickly quashed.

Tace, the medic, sat next to her, while Sami, a pretty brunette with sparkling eyes, kicked back on his right. Raze leaned against the side wall as if preparing for an attack.

Did he ever sit?

Of course, he was right between Vinnie and any threat, whether he’d intended to place himself there or not.

“You ready?” Jax asked quietly. His gaze was shuttered, his body on alert.

One of her gifts, one she’d honed with training, was reading body language as well as digging into subtext. Jax didn’t know her, didn’t like her, and wasn’t going to trust her.

If he had any clue how crazy she was, he’d throw her right out.

“I’m ready.” She nodded and tried to ignore the sight of her stepmother sitting behind Jax. Lucinda had married Vinnie’s father when Vinnie was thirteen, and they’d had a fairly decent relationship until Lucinda had succumbed completely to schizophrenia a few years after Vinnie’s dad had died. Regardless, Lucinda had died years ago and wasn’t present in Vanguard territory. Nope. Not at all. And ghosts didn’t exist. So Vinnie needed to get a grip on her hallucinating brain somehow.

They were on the first floor of Vanguard headquarters, in Jax’s offices, where a large conference room was surrounded by lockers holding weapons.

“Okay.” Jax scrubbed a hand down his face. “Lynne has educated us about Scorpius and the bacterium’s effect on the brain and body, so we can skip any more information there. I understand that sociopaths and serial killers might have different brains than normal people. For now, I need you to give us a brief lesson on the way sociopaths and serial killers think before we move on to discussing President Atherton.”

Vinnie swallowed. The Vanguard leader wanted her to distill seven years of higher education and five years in the field into an hour briefing? “No problem.” She reached for a blue marker to twirl in her hands. “Simply put, sociopaths don’t feel anything, especially empathy. They can fake emotions, and well, but they don’t really feel them.”

Her stepmother nodded vigorously. Today her blond hair was streaked with purple and dangling elephant tusk earrings hung from her ears.

Vinnie kept her gaze on the real people and not her new hallucination. “Serial killers range from the disorganized kind who just want to harm or kill to the brilliant, calculating kind who live for the game of hunting people.”

Raze crossed his arms and settled his back against the wall. “It’s impossible to tell one until they act, right?”

“Correct. Before Scorpius we looked at nature and nurture. What was their nature, genetic makeup, and so on, in addition to how they were raised. Were they abused?” She settled into knowledge she still held. “Even though Scorpius changes the brain and has created killers out of people who might never have killed, we still need to look at background and behavior in order to figure out predators.”

Lynne nodded. “We have to wait until people snap.”

“No.” Vinnie shook her head. “People actually very rarely just snap. There are always warning signs. Behaviors to watch. Anger, acting out, careful planning, and so on. The problem is, often those things are muted or hidden until something bad happens, and then we see the signs.”

“But some Rippers are obviously nuts,” Jax said.

“Yes. The bacterium changed not only the physical aspects of the human brain, but the way neurons fire and so on. Heck, we don’t really know how the infection changed parts of the brain we’ve never understood. Not all sociopaths are serial killers, though.”

“But Rippers are serial killers, right?” Jax asked.

Man, she hated that nickname for the killers. Jack the Ripper shouldn’t live on in infamy. Yet it was too late to change. “Yes. The common name for serial killers these days is ‘Ripper.’”

“Go on,” Jax ordered.

She breathed in and then out to calm her heart. “Serial killers can be organized, disorganized, or a mixture. The disorganized ones are the people running naked in the street and biting their victims or shooting guns wildly.” She sighed. “Keep in mind that Scorpius strips the brain and helps to create sociopaths. Again, not all sociopaths turn into killers.”

“For now I’m just worried about the ones who do,” Jax said slowly.

“Okay,” Lynne said. “Why do they kill? I mean, are they all hearing voices in their heads?”

Vinnie coughed. “No. There are many reasons. Some killers have visions or hear voices from God, some are hedonistic, some are on a mission to rid the earth of certain people, often prostitutes, and some killers just need the power of controlling others. These reasons often overlap.”

“Can they be cured?” Raze asked.

Vinnie shrugged. “The prevailing thought is that they cannot be cured. But we’ve never dealt with the situation of a bacteria stripping brains and helping to create these killers. Who knows?”

Lucinda nodded wildly.

She wasn’t there. The woman did not exist. Vinnie kept herself from looking at her very dead stepmother.

Jax ground his fist into his eye. “The headaches from Scorpius probably don’t help.”

“No,” Vinnie said.

He dropped his hand to the table. “Let’s move on to the president. Bret Atherton is a brilliant and organized killer.”

“Absolutely.” Vinnie nodded.

Lynne Harmony blanched. “He’s convinced he’s doing the right thing by hunting me. And you,” she said, eyeing Vinnie. “Thus he’s on a mission?”

Vinnie nodded. “A mission combined with the need for power and control. You and I both escaped him, and he can’t let that happen. Even though he has no empathy, he has a hell of an ego. He’ll come for us both.” Lynne had dated Bret Atherton before he’d turned into a Ripper; Vinnie, on the other hand, hadn’t known him until she’d been taken by him after he’d already succumbed.

“Can he be manipulated or controlled?” Jax asked quietly.

Lynne cut him a shocked look.

Jax kept his gaze on Vinnie. “He’s evil and he’s the enemy now, but somebody has to lead the country, and he’s good at it. He’s working to bring the branches of the military under one umbrella, and we need that. The devil you know . . .”

Vinnie swallowed, her mind spinning. “His ego would allow for manipulation, and he’s always going to think he’s the smartest person in the room.” A flashback of his kicking her leg while she’d been shackled to the wall rippled through her mind, and she shoved it away. “He might work with you for a while, thinking he’s in control, but at some point he’s going to want you dead. All of you.”

Jax nodded. “I know. But I was thinking we’d let him organize the military before taking him out.”

Vinnie shook her head. “You won’t have time, I don’t think. He’s coming for us as soon as it’s feasible.”

“He’ll need to regroup first,” Tace mused, his Texan accent tingeing his words. “He lost forces in the fight we waged in Vegas to rescue you, and it looked like the military wasn’t under his control quite yet.”

“Agreed,” Jax said, his gaze sharpening. “Why did Bret want you, Vinnie?”

She shrugged. “He read many of my FBI files and thought I was psychic. He wanted me to find Lynne for him.”

“Are you?” Sami asked.

“No.” Crazy maybe, but not psychic. Probably. “Definitely not.” She heard voices and thoughts that didn’t exist. “I was just good at my job hunting serial killers, and I have, I mean had, great instincts.”

Raze lifted his head. “You don’t now?”

“No,” she whispered. “My brain is a mess from the drugs Bret injected me with. My instincts are all over the board.” Now she was apparently hallucinating.

Lynne tapped her fingers on her faded jeans. “It’ll take time for your brain to heal, but it will. Your instincts will return.”

“You don’t know that,” Vinnie said. It was nice of the scientist to try to reassure her, but reality was reality. Her brain had been infected with Scorpius, and nobody had a clue what a bunch of truth serum drugs would do to an altered brain like hers.

“You said there wasn’t a cure for serial killers. Is there a cure for a sociopath who hasn’t turned into a serial killer?” Tace asked, his eyes burning.

“No,” Vinnie said. “There’s never been a way to turn a sociopath into a normally functioning person. But keep in mind, we’ve never dealt with Scorpius before, or Scorpius-created sociopaths, so maybe there’s a chance we can reverse the effects. Lynne? You understand the physiology.”

Lynne tilted her head. “The changes to the brain seem permanent, though most of our information is based on behavioral observation rather than physical examination. The infection spread so quickly there wasn’t enough time to study the progression of the disease before the world went dark.”

Jax looked around at his lieutenants. “All right. So we face a threat from President Atherton and one from the remaining members of the Twenty gang.”

Vinnie paused. “Who?”

“My former gang. Before I went into the military, I was with a gang called Twenty right here in LA. President Atherton reached out to them and they helped kidnap Lynne. During the rescue, I killed their leader.”

“And several of their members,” Tace added.

Jax nodded. “The remaining members will want retribution, so everyone stay alert on patrol.”

How was it possible they had so many enemies when there were so few people left on earth? Vinnie shook her head and replaced the marker. She’d forgotten to use it.

Jax cleared his throat. “Tace and Sami, go inner territory and scout for problems. Report back in a few hours. Blue? You still have research files to go through from the last raids, so take the afternoon, and I’ll meet you for dinner around dusk. Raze, you haven’t slept in too long. Catch some shut-eye.”

Raze pushed off from the wall. “I’m fine.”

Jax studied him for a moment. “Fine. Finish surveying the northern fence for needed repairs.” He turned his sharp focus on Vinnie. “Everyone out so I can speak with Dr. Wellington.”

Lynne stood and leaned over to peck a kiss on his forehead before following Tace and Sami out of the offices and into the vestibule of the building.

Raze didn’t move.

“Please sit,” Jax said, waiting until Vinnie had taken Lynne’s vacated chair. “Out, Raze. I won’t scare your lady.”

“I’m not a lady,” Vinnie said quickly, her knees weakening. Thank goodness she’d sat. She shook her head. “I mean, I’m not his. Definitely not his. That would be impossible so soon, don’t you think? Plus, I’ve had the infection and he—”

“Vinnie,” Raze said.

She gulped. “Sorry. Mouth goes off and I can’t stop it.”

Jax kept his focus directly on her. “No worries. Shadow? Get to work.”

Raze waited for Vinnie to nod at him. “If you scare her, you’ll answer to me.” He turned and loped gracefully out of the room.

Jax smiled, transforming his face from deadly to charming. “He’s sweet on you.”

She pressed her lips tightly together and noticed belatedly that her hallucination had gone, too. Maybe even crazy Lucinda was afraid of Jax. Hopefully she wouldn’t appear again. “Uh-huh.” She rubbed sweaty palms on her borrowed yoga pants.

“Are you willing to work for me?” Jax asked, his gaze searching.

She nodded. “I want to work and feel needed.” More than anything, she wanted a home.

“Okay. I’d like for you to keep me updated on sociopaths and serial killers.” He sat back and steepled his fingers beneath his chin. “In addition, people here need a shrink. I understand that isn’t what you did with your degree, but you can do it, right?”

“Yes,” she murmured. Maybe she could find a place for herself and be useful, despite the hallucinations.

“Good. Folks here are scared and hurt, and many have lost way too much. We lost one of our leaders a couple of weeks ago, and morale is shitty.” Jax dropped his hands to his faded jeans. “Tace set up an office for you at the back of the combat infirmary, and he put a sign-up sheet outside for folks to make appointments.”

Warmth slid through her. “All right.”

“I’m ordering my closest lieutenants to meet with you as well. Tace has been infected with Scorpius, and we didn’t have any vitamin B to make sure his brain remained intact. Watch him.”

Vinnie nodded, her mind spinning. Jax didn’t trust her, but he wanted her to spy on his people?

“Sami has secrets, and if they’re dangerous to Vanguard, you’re to tell me.” Jax’s face hardened even more.

“I can’t break confidentiality,” Vinnie countered.

“If there’s a danger to others, you will.” Jax leaned toward her. “Raze is hiding his agenda, and if you find out what it is and it’s a threat, you also have to tell me.”

“I have a duty to report if there’s a threat to others or to a patient,” Vinnie said. Of course that was in the old days, before Scorpius. “Anybody else?”

“Yes. Watch out for a young girl named Lena. She brings gifts that are a little spooky, and she doesn’t speak. Maybe you can help her find her voice again.” Jax rubbed his whiskered chin. “There’s also a pregnant girl, about two months along, who’s sixteen. She doesn’t know that no live birth has occurred since Scorpius.”

Vinnie blinked. Panic exploded in her chest. How could that be? “Not one live birth?”

“No. It’s only been six months, so who knows? But Scorpius took care of all pregnant women, or at least their babies.” He sighed. “Lynne is working around the clock to see if vitamin B can somehow save a fetus.”

Vinnie coughed. “If not—”

“Yeah. If we can’t reproduce, then Scorpius won after all.”

A pit opened up in her stomach. “I’ll go check out my new office.” She stood and then paused. “Why did Raze think you’d scare me?” Besides the obvious fact that Jax was scarier than hell.

Jax stood and towered over her. “Because he knows if you screw me over, or if you harm one of my people, I’ll end you.” He didn’t smile. “I think Raze was afraid I’d tell you that.”