Thompson grinned. "Sounds good to me, Inga. What about news reports, entertainment broadcasts, that sort of thing?"
Sanchez grinned back. "Just as normal, except for a couple of oddities. The holos aren't carrying any 'casts of contact sports, and on a talk show, one of the guests had fangs; the others were acting a little nervous, but she was telling them how harmless she and the other `Kins of the Dragon' really were." Sanchez touched a control on the arm of her command chair. "Watch."
The Captain's monitor screen lit up to show several people seated in a group of comfortable-looking chairs around a low table, and Thompson repressed a chuckle. Talk shows seemed to be the same everywhere, he thought—then one of the guests caught his attention. She was attractive, wearing the uniform of a System Security officer—Chief of Detectives, from her badge—except that she was more than slim, she looked damned near starved.
"How do you feel about the Kins who were killed, Chief Kaufman, and what do you plan to do with the ones who killed them?" a man—Thompson guessed him to be the show's host—asked.
The woman shrugged slightly. "My personal feelings have no bearing; I plan to deal with them as I would with any other murderers, how else? I am an officer of the law."
"You don't have any desire for revenge? After all, the killings were rather … unpleasant."
The detective chief grimaced. "Yes, they were. But I can't take revenge, any more than I can feed on someone who doesn't want me to—it should be common knowledge by now that Kins feel any pain we deliberately inflict."
"But you can feed on someone who's not willing, or kill; Kins have done it."
"We can, yes; I've killed in the line of duty since I became a Kin, which was bearable because I knew that not killing would cause more harm later. And I did try to feed on someone who didn't want me, once—I suppose most Kins have—but I'd rather starve into coma than try that again. Thank the Prince I didn't really hurt him, but I did feel every bit of his terror."
"Looks like she's doing just that, too," Thompson commented. It didn't look like much intervention, if any at all, would be needed—not with the `servants of the Devil' appearing on talk shows trying to reassure people and looking like death warmed over. "What the hell do they do for food, then?"