CHAPTER ONE WHEN IAN CAME into Kerry's room to ask for a favor, it never occurred to her that her four-year-old brother could ask her to do something that might get her killed "What kind of favor^" she asked, sticking a finger in her book to keep her place It was almost eleven o'clock at night, her second period literature teacher had promised a test to- morrow. and she still had fifty pages to go. with the author seeming in no hurry to wrap things up "I left Footy at the laundry," tan said Footy was fan's stuffed koala bear "lan," Kerry pointed out-—the same thing she'd pointed out the instant he'd entered her room—"it's the middle of the night- You're supposed to be asleep in bed, I'm supposed to be asleep in bed. Dad is asleep . " lan's bottom lip began to tremble, and Kerry rested her forehead in her hand, "Don't cry," she said Ever since Mom had left, Kerry couldn't take it when lan cried- "Maybe you forgot him at Creg's"—lan started shaking his head—"or in Daddy's car?" "No," lan said. "I was playing under the counter where you fold your stuff. You know the pink stripy one that doesn't match the others?" Kerry didn't know, but she nodded to keep him going. "I was using the laundry cart as a ton. i know that's where I left him, under the pink stripy counter. Can't you go and get him?" Kerry shook her head. "I've only got a learner's permit, so I'm not allowed to drive unless there's somebody who has a license with me," she explained. "I'd get in trouble with Dad and the police- Footy will be fine one night without you. It'll be like a campout for him" If lan had thrown a tantrum, he would have been easier to resist. But he stood there silently, tears running down his face Then, very quietly, he said, "It won't be like a campout. Somebody will steal him." "lan, munchkin, the kind of people who go to laundries in the middle of the night are not the kind of people who steal ragged little koala bears." "Footy's not ragged," lan said, "And if it was Corny, you wouldn't leave her." Kerry looked to her dresser at the unicorn she'd had since she was two. Now that Kerry was sixteen, Corny rarely trav- eled farther than from the bed to the dresser, but lan had made his point. "All right, all right." Kerry took her finger out of the book. "But you stand by Daddy's door and make sure you hear him snoring, or I'm not moving. And if Dad wakes up, tell him , . ," Tfll him what? What story would he possibly believe? And what am I doini) coaching a fow-year-old to lit7 Hadn't there been enouifb lies in this family in the year before Mom mooed out? 'Tell him I'll be back soon," she finished, She shooed lan out of the room and pulled her jeans on, tucking in her IF IT'S MORNING DON'T TALK TO ME night- shirt. She'd be wearing her jacket, and anyway, she thought, if anybody stopped her, she was going to be in too much trouble to be embarrassed by what she was wearing. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail without even checking in a mirror This was all her mother's fault. They wouldn't even have to go to the laundry if her mother hadn't abandoned them, moving from Brockport, New York, to Somewhere-or-other, Florida, to study to be a private investigator—and only one postcard since. She had left the car because the man she went with had a better one, but she'd taken the washer and dryer, What kind of mother leaves her family. lettin<) her kids run the risk of losmi) their koala bears in laundries? Kerry asked herself. It was a dangerous question, because the answer was easy: a mother who doesn't like her kids. Stilt, once Kerry had tiptoed out of the house—and not counting the fear of getting stopped by the police—it seemed such a simple, safe little task FIVE MINUTES LATER, Kerry pulled up in front of the Quick- Clean Laundry The street was dark but not deserted Next door the Strand Theatre was all lit up. The movie must have just ended because there were people still coming out. Down the other way was a pizza place where the college kids hung out She could smell the tomato sauce and hear the music The laundry, of course, was always open. In a college town where half the kids lived off campus, there had to be a twenty-four-hour laundry Her dad hadn't taught her parallel parking yet, and Kerry ended up a good three feet from the curb and overlapping two parking places That left half a space behind her car before the comer, and a parking space and a half before the last of the cars from the movie crowd, but she told herself she was only going to be here a sec and didn't need to worry about getting ticketed As she opened the door, she was greeted by the smell of warm wet soap. All the lights were on—she'd seen that from the street because the place was half windows—but nobody was there Not even the little guy who ran the place, the one who made change and sold overpriced single-wash boxes of soap and fabric softener if you forgot to bring some from home, and yelled if he caught you leaving without cleaning out the lint tray Kerry had known that the little guy couldn't be there all twenty-four hours that the place was open, but she was amazed there wasn't somrbody around to make sure people didn't come in and pry open the money boxes. She felt creepy being there all alone so late at night. Crab Footy. she thought, and then ^ri bomt. Fighting a yawn, she realized she was way too tired to tackle her literature project. She'd just have to bluff her way through the test. She glanced around the shop and immediately identified the counter lan had been talking about. The counters were all white with gold speckles except that one, last remnant of a previous decor or an addition from somebody's leftover something-or-other. She thought, Well. that was tasy. Except, of course, Footy wasn't there. "Stupid bear," she muttered She crawled under the counter just to make sure. There was a paper pamphlet—probably one of the owner's Bible tracts that he was always trying to pass out—and maybe Footy could be hidden behind it. The floor was gritty with spilled soap that stuck to the palms of her hands and, when she tried to wipe her hands clean, stung where she'd bitten the skin near her nails- She poked at the paper, wondering what the chances were of mice lurking around a place like this, No Footy, but at least no mice either. Only a razor blade, which someone had probably brought to open the boxes of detergent. Ittiof Kerry thought at whoever had dropped it, remem- bering how lan had been crawling under here. Carefully she picked the blade up and backed out from underneath the counter Her good deed paid off, for it wasn't until she put the razor down in the ashtray on the desk with the cash register that she noticed Footy sitting on top of the pile of religious pamphlets. "You, mister," she said, picking up the bear and shaking a finger at him. Then she dropped her voice to a whisper because the only other sound was the hum of the fluorescent lights. "You are in deep trouble, and you're grounded until you're thirty-seven. Whatever that works out to in bear years" She hadn't even lowered her finger when the back door burst open. The owner, Kerry thought as she whirled around to face whoever it was that was making such a commotion coming in. Mr. Quick-Clean. He must have stepped out to get a cup of coffee or a slice of pizza and then realized how long he'd left his place unattended. As she turned, Footy smacked against the cash register and slipped from her fingers to the floor, instinctively Kerry bent down to pick him up, knowing, even as she shifted her balance, that this was the last thing she should do. She should call out "Hello," step forward, let the owner see that she was here, look like a paying customer—or at least like someone who had a legitimate reason to be here and not like someone trying to hide or to break into the cash register. But before she could straighten, she saw the people com- ing in through the door: four men, three of them dragging one who was—Kerry felt her heart stop, then start again at 3 frenzied pace—gagged and bloodied, with his hands tied behind his back. Kerry dropped to her hands and knees under the desk. A drw) deal <) she wondered It was just about 9 00 when they reached Fawn Meadow Circle Most of the houses were brightly lit, and some even had Christmas decorations up, too, although this seemed premature to Kerry since it was only the first week of De- cember and there was no snow Amid all the tights, the Nowicki house looked not only totally dark but almost in- timidating Ethan pulled up in front and gave her another reassuring smile Thank you," Kerry said, reaching around the seat for her backpack "Anytime." Ethan assured her, but nothing was the same as last night 59 Kerry got her key out of the pocket of the backpack and started up the walk, Ethan s headlights lighting her way. Kerry put her hand on the doorknob, but before she even got the key in, the door swung open. Odd for her father not to lock up, but maybe he was at one of the neighbors' and had left thinking he'd only be away a few minutes; maybe he hadn't counted on being away after dark But that didn't fit in with the car being gone Kerry groped for the tight switch The living room was a wreck Not wreck as in it-hadn't-been-cleaned-in-a-week. Wreck as in pictures askew, furniture tossed around, cushions slit Kerry whirled around just in time to see Ethan pulling away from the curb, "Wait!" she cried Ethan kept going. Kerry dropped her backpack and raced across the lawn, "Ethan!" But it was winter, he had his windows rolled up. "Elhan!" She ran out into the street, waving her arms franti- cally, He was up to the comer stop sign, five houses away, and there was no way he could hear her and no way she could catch up. His brake lights were on, but in a second he'd go around the comer and she'd be on her own. What should she do? Co to the Armendarizes', she supposed. Or the Hagginses'; they were friendlier. But Ethan's brake lights were still on. He must have seen her in his rearview mirror, for in a moment he began to back up. She ran down the street, reluctant to be near her house, afraid of whatever had happened in it. Ethan rolled down his window. "Somebody's broken in," Kerry said, panting. "We've been burglarized." "Get in," Ethan told her- 60 He turned the car around and pulled up in front of the house. The light from the open door spilled brightly on the front stoop. No sign of movement, "Wait here," he told her, He left the car door open and didn't turn off the engine. Kerry watched apprehensively as Ethan walked up the driveway "Don't—," she whispered as he hesitated in the doorway, but then he stepped in and she lost sight of him, Wait m the car, where she couldn't see him? Alone? Right When she got to the house, Ethan hadn't moved beyond the living room She had tried to be quiet, just in case the intruders were still in there, but when she saw what he was looking at—the red writing on the wall—she gasped. Though he had his back to her, he must have heard her coming, because he wasn't startled "It's just paint," he said "It's just red paint." "Are you sure?" "Smell it," The awful pain that had started in her chest loosened a bit. At least it wasn't blood. VAMPIRE, the writing said, WE HAVE YOUR FAMILY. 61 CHAPTER SIX V EMPIRE'?" KERRY SAID "Somebody thinks I'm a wmpim" There was additional writing below VAMPIRE, WE HAVE YOUR FAMILY There were some letters and numbers that Kerry didn't understand at first and didn't take the time to try to work out LEV 1710 "You said they got them " She turned on Ethan, who seemed unable to tear his gaze from the wall "You said the police got all of them " Quietly, sounding surprised more than concerned. Ethan said, "There must have been more than the four" Kerry's voice became louder and shriller with each word 62 "And with all their questioning, the police didn't figure that out?" Ethan finally turned to face her "And the ones in custody," Kerry continued, "don't these others realize that they're making it worse for the ones who've already been arrested? We've got to call the police—" Ethan was suddenly at her side, holding on to her elbow She hadn't seen him move She shrank back, startled, and he began pulling her to the door "Shh." he warned "Ethan—" He gave her a strong shake His voice a whisper even after all her yelling, he said, "They might still be in the house " That had been her first concern, but she'd forgotten in the horror of worrying about her father and lan "We'll call from another phone," Ethan told her She nodded and let him lead her out of the house He closed the door behind them and picked up her backpack Kerry started to cut across the lawn to the Hagginses', but Ethan tugged on her arm in the direction of the car "We've got to get to a phone," she insisted "If they're watching us," Ethan hissed at her, "that'll put us and your neighbors in danger" He hustled her to the car, tightening his grip when she tried to get one last look over her shoulder at the house windows "What if they're stil! in there?" she demanded "My father and brother?" "No" Ethan took off with a squeal of tires that in normal circumstances would have had her worried about Mrs Ar- mendariz "They would have gotten them out of there first thing" 63 Wby7 Kerry was about to ask What malm you so sure? But before she had a chance, Ethan made a nght-hand turn, going the direction opposite from his uncle's house, which was where she had assumed he was heading—and she said, "It'll be faster to call nine-one-one than to go all the way to the police station " "If they suspect you're a vampire, it's because you helped me last night They may welt be watching my house We'll call from Regma's " "But—" "Kerry'" he snapped in a tone that was equivalent to Be {juieti She had been going to ask whether he was sure Regina would be home on a Friday night, but maybe he knew where she kept a spare key He was obviously trying to work some- thing out—who knew what?—and she gave him the benefit of the doubt Her own mind, meanwhile, closed down and just went around and around a single thought / hope they re all right Please. God, let them be all ngbt RECINA'S WAS A bnck house surrounded by more-modem but still old wooden houses that stood on what had originally been all one property There were lights on downstairs and in one of the upstairs windows, and Regma's red Fcrran was parked in the driveway Kerry opened her car door as soon as the car stopped, but she hesitated when Ethan made no move to turn off the engine or get out He rested his elbows on the steering wheel, leaning forward, studying the house "Whaf?" she demanded "Something's wrong" She wanted to call him paranoid, but the accusation died somewhere between intent and vocalization She listened, 64 because that seemed to be what he was doing Then she lowered her voice to a whisper "What do you hear?" "Nothing" He said it as though it should be significant But it was December The house windows were closed, the car windows were rolled up, and quiet as this car was compared to her father's, there was the engine noise In another moment he turned off the car and stepped outside She stood next to him on the front walk "She's home," she said as the upstairs light suddenly went off and the one in what had to be the next room went on "Automatic lights," Ethan told her After what fell like at least a half hour but was probably closer to ten or fifteen seconds, she demanded, "What are you listening for?" He gave her a long look but didn't answer She wondered if he was going to tell her to wait outside, but when he finally went up to the front door, he didn't say anything, maybe waiting to see what she would choose on her own She was about two steps behind him He had his own key, she told herself she wasn't surprised It certainty made things easier "AWr," Ethan said the instant the door opened She'd had French in junior high, and though she remem- bered little else, she remembered the words Madame Welch had carefully but somewhat naively tried to steer them away from "Well, yes dear, that's almost right, but don't put a d in, or it's a vulgar expression" Kerry had a pretty good idea what Ethan had Just said, but in the instant it took her to wonder why he'd said it—much less why he'd said it in French—he'd taken off across the living room and was going up the stairs two at a time In the well-lit downstairs Kerry caught a glimpse of 65 polished wood walls and expensive antiques Everything was orderly, nothing obviously amiss—certainly nothing like what had happened at her house But no matter how com- fortable and secure it looked, she wasn't willing to get sep- arated from Ethan, especially not with something having rattled him She ran up the stairs after him He'd ignored the room with the light that they'd seen from the street, didn't glance left or right but made straight for the last room at the end of the hall Kerry did it more slowly, half expecting someone to leap out at her The rooms—guest bedrooms, a workroom with computer and fax machine, a bathroom big enough to fit two of the Nowickis' bathrooms—were empty But something was wrong Surely it was more than jumpiness on Ethan's part He had taken several steps into what had to be the master bedroom, but he was just standing there Unasked for came the memory of how he'd stood in much the same way at her house, staring at the message written on her wall. She came up behind him, sure he was aware of her despite the fact that he didn't turn around He was still in that attitude of listening, of studying intently, though the room was dark The light was on behind them, in the brass-and-oak bathroom Ethan was making no attempt to find the room light Kerry remembered passing a switch that was probably for the hall light, but she hesitated Surely he had seemed familiar enough with the layout of the house Surely he and Regina were sleeping together, she should have no more delu- sions about that He should know where the light in this room was So why was he standing in the dark? 66 In the seconds it took her to work that out, her eyes became accustomed enough to the dark that the last thing in the world she wanted was more light The easiest thing to make out was the big brass bed Her first impression was that the covers were all lumpy and askew, that the bed wasn't made But then she thought, no, there was someone in the bed Except that the shape was all wrong Not someone, but Two dogs? A larger one stretched out in the middle and one of those hairy little dust-mop-looking ones on the pillow? But Regina didn't seem the kind of person who'd own dogs, much less let them sleep on her bed And they weren't moving Kerry was finding it hard to breathe, to hold back the growing conviction that it was, in fact, Regina in the bed And that—if it was—the head was much too far removed from the body "Ethan?" she whispered, less in a voice than on the simple exhaling of a breath She wanted to look away before her eyes became any more accustomed to the dark, but she couldn't He swore in French again Several times The light went off in the bathroom— Not in here, she prayed —and came on in the computer room across from the bathroom Which was still enough to show that the lumps were definitely Regina Kerry finally managed a backward step "Who would do such a thing?" she asked "Vampire hunters," Ethan whispered HE'S m shock, she thought Ht's saymf) it, fcul il hasn't sunk in yet. Which had to be a mercy 67 He was saying, still never looking at her, "That's one way humans kill vampires expose them to sunlight, then chop off the head and stuff the mouth with garlic I've never been clear what the garlic's supposed to do " Kerry remembered the awful stillness in her own house They had never checked those bedrooms Not Dad. she thought Not Inn Nobody could think that of lan She couldn't stop shaking "They make em wbm they're still fads?" Roth had asked This was all her fault She should have gone to the police herself She headed for the computer room, found the phone, dialed 9-1— Ethan set his hand down to disconnect her call "If there's someone here," she pointed out, "they'd cer- tainly have heard us, they'd have had the chance to come out and get us " "Just wait—," Ethan started, but she pulled the phone away from him "For what this time?" His eyes, that lovely shade of blue, scanned her face Looking for what? "Kerry She was willing to forgive bad choices But too many things were beginning to sink in Like the way he'd run up the stairs with no trace of a limp Like how there was no evidence of that awful bruise he'd had on his temple last night He reached to take the phone from her, and she yanked back on the sleeve of his Jacket, exposing a pale and perfectly unmarred wnst where yesterday she'd cut him so badly she had been sure he'd need stitches 68 After all she'd seen, and despite all logic, she couldn't be surprised "You're exactly what they said," she told him, less question than statement "You're a vampire " Lest she have any lingering doubts, he took the phone from her and yanked the cord out of the wall 69 CHAPTER SEVEN SOMEHOW, BEFORE KERRY was aware of Ethan moving. he'd tossed the phone aside and had taken hold of her wnst The coldness of his skin seeped into hers How had she never noticed that before" She tried to squirm away. but though he wasn't holding tight enough to hurt, she couldn't budge He caught up her other wnst and drew her in closer "I'm not going to hurt you," he told her She tried to knee him in the groin, which always seemed to work in the movies, but he was too fast for her, and in a moment he had her backed up against the wall "Don't," she whispered Stilt holding her wnsts up against the wall, he took half 70 a step back so that he wasn't pressed against her It wasn't much of a gamble on his part—not with that speed and strength And she didn't have enough room to struggle any- way But at the very least he was inconveniencing himself, and for no other reason that she could see than to make a declaration that he wasn't going to take advantage of the situation She was angry at the relief that weakened her knees, that made her want to look at him more favorably just because he wasn't thoroughly despicable "I'm sorry," he told her She fought not to read sincerity into his voice She knew he was a liar Everything he'd said so far had been a lie "You're involved in this purely by accident, and for whatever it's worth, I swear to you I am grateful for last night and I never thought to see you again" Her eyes were hot and stinging She fought to keep them open—-to face what was coming—and not to cry It would have been easier but for the strand of hair that had gotten loose and was poking at the edge of her eye "I'll do all in my power to save your father and your brother," he told her No doubt to keep her calm until it was too late He shifted position so that he held both her hands in his left, and he used his free hand to brush the hair out of her face She cringed from his touch "I'm not going to hurt you," he repeated She forced herself to look directly into his eyes "Does that mean you're not going to harm me, or does it mean that when you kill me, it's not going to hurt''" He didn't answer, which was answer enough There was no malice in his blue eyes Maybe he was sorry, 71 as he said, he certainly was being as gentle as he could, but she saw his gaze flick briefly to her throat He slipped his right hand behind her neck, supporting her head, and pulled her in closer so she was pressed against his chest "Wait," she said, "please" Her own struggles brought them into more intimate contact than he'd attempted on his own, and she shrank back in panic "Don't," she begged, knowing that surely she was trying his patience, that his kindness would stretch just so far, that if he were truly kind he -could never have survived as a vampire "Listen, please " She stopped strug- gling, to show she wasn't just stalling for time Not that she could stop shaking or gasping for breath "Just a minute Just listen for one minute" He hadn't bitten her yet For this moment at least he was only holding her steady, and she forced herself not to think about their relative positions She felt his breath, light on her throat, which was unexpected She realized she'd been feeling his heartbeat, too, a steady five or six beats a minute, belying the coldness of his touch "I can help you," she told him, determined to make her- self useful to him, determined to make her family valuable to him His eyes searched her face, as though he honestly wanted to find something there to make himself believe her "Oh, Kerry," he said, sort as a sigh "You want to find the vampire hunters who killed Regina, don't you?" she cried as he bent over her throat again He hesitated, looking up at her through a fringe of dark hair "You want to find who killed her before any of the other vampires start getting killed, don't you?" It was a risk Regina could have been a hapless mortal like Kerry herself, assumed guilty by the vampire hunters because of her association with 72 Ethan Her death could mean nothing to him If so, Kerry didn't have anything else to offer But she didn't think so If nothing else, there was the matter of how dark it had been in Regina's room Inner shutters as well as drapes, she was willing to bet In any case, Ethan had his head raised He was watching her, waiting "They think I'm one of you," she continued, putting it together in her mind even as the words came out "But they're hoping to draw me out of hiding by using my family Maybe you can draw them out by using me" At least he was considering it "I have nothing to lose," she said, remembering, a moment later, that he had said the same thing last night It couldn't hurt to remind him he owed her his life or rather his continued existence "At least this way I get a chance My dad and lan get a chance 1 can go places you can't Or at least, 1 can go at times you can't It'd be like gaining back the daylight" His expression told her nothing She should probably be mentally preparing herself for death—that would be more useful than pleading But how did one prepare for death? And while she was trying to work that one out, he stepped back Then he released her arms and stepped back farther With a slight smile he bowed his head to indicate acceptance For the moment She still couldn't see that his teeth were long enough to have done what he had been about to do But she had no doubt how close she'd come to dying It was hard to get her voice to work, but she asked, "What assurance do I have that if I help you in good faith, you'll let me and my family live afterward?" 73 Ethan looked surprised, then he laughed, seeming gen- uinely amused "None" She realized that, like Regina's, his ready smile was most often pretense She supposed that after a couple hundred years vampires had probably heard everything, seen everything, done everything already, no doubt most of the time they were bored out of their minds She wondered—same old question, but with a new twist—how old Ethan really was Old enough to have developed acting skills, definitely And to be a good Judge of people He had seen that she would respond well to a poor frightened victim, so that was what he had been for her when he needed her help last night No doubt he could convincingly be other things for other people In a moment all trace of humor was completely gone from his face His voice was neither harsh nor threatening, he might have been reading course descriptions from the college cat- alog "Of course, if I even suspect the possibility of betrayal, your family will be the ones to pay for it" His voice got even softer "Believe this, Kerry An easy death is only one of the choices I can offer" He waited to see that she believed, which she most em- phatically did Then, "Come," he said, putting his hand out for her She took one step forward, to show that she would follow and he didn't need to hold on to her He didn't move. so they stood face-to-facc looking at each other until she finally gave him her hand She shivered as his cold, strong fingers closed around hers How an pampim madt? she wondered Had a vampirt bitten him when ht'd still ben mortal? Human, she corrected herself He'd referred to nonvampires as human, as though humans and vampires were two different species Which 74 probably made killing people easier The stones she'd read and movies she'd seen offered conflicting methods Surely there was more to it than a vampire's victims becoming vam- pires, after enough years of that, there'd be more vampires than humans Or was there something about being bitten a certain number of times? And what about being buried in unconsecrated ground? Kerry wondered if Ethan had spent any time in a grave The thought made her shiver But he only led her as far as the desk, and if he noticed—he didn't comment Ethan sat down and turned on the computer, it made the distinctive high-pitched squeals that indicated it was attached to a modem He watched her while he waited for the screen to come up, probably to see how quickly she caught on to what he was doing It took a couple seconds Fast, slow. or average? she wondered, sure that he could tell from her face the moment she guessed, though she couldn't tell anything from his face And she doubted she could have even in better light than from the flickering monitor Once the prompt appeared, he typed, one-handed be- cause he was still holding onto her hand "Had to leave abruptly Regina can't come I'll catch up when lean Michael" "Is that your real name?" Kerry asked, trying to decide whether he looked more like a Michael or an Ethan He looked in her direction but didn't answer, and in the dim light she still couldn't make out his expression, if he had any "You're warning the other vampires, aren't you?" she asked "What is this, a bulletin board for vampires? You all subscribe to the service and every day—every night—you check for secret messages to see if anybody's on your trail?" 75 "Something like that," Ethan acknowledged "I thought the big advantage of being a vampire was living forever, not having to be afraid of anything" Ethan didn't answer He stood, and this time he headed downstairs They made their way without turning on any lights Part of that could be thorough familiarity with the house, but Kerry was beginning to suspect that Ethan could see in the dark a lot better than she could, especially after he skirted a kitchen table that Kerry didn't sec till she collided with it He paused long enough to let her rub her bruised hip "Are there other vampires in Brockporl you need to warn?" Kerry asked "Oh yeah " Ethan's sarcasm was thick enough to recognize without seeing the smirk on his face "Brockport, New York, is a regular hotbed of vampire activity" She put that down as something to remember It might prove useful at a later date that Ethan and Regina could well be the only vampires in the area Or was that just what he wanted her to thmk'1 "So, what were you and Regina doing here?" she asked He was back to not answering "What about Rochester?" she continued "Any vampires there? Or in Buffalo?" He pulled her around to look directly at her She could barely make him out in the soft glow that was all that reached them from the light now on in the living room "Don't," he warned in a soft and matter-of-fact voice, "make a nuisance of yourself" "Sorry," she said "I don't know what I need to know to keep both of us alive" Not that Ethan was, strictly speaking, alive 76 "You don't need to know about other vampires," Ethan told her "Right," she said And then again—because it couldn't hurt, "Sorry" Vampifts in Rochester and Buffalo, she noted mentally Ethan opened a door that could have led directly into a blank wall for all she could make out in the dark But he took a step down, she could feel that "I can't see a thing," she said "If you've got the extra energy to keep me from tumbling down the basement stairs, that's fine, but wouldn't it be easier on both of us if you just turned the light on?" She hoped she sounded as brave as she thought she did He stepped back onto the same level and reached behind her The light over the basement stairs came on "Better?" he asked "Yes" Politeness couldn't hurt Even if it wasn't sincere "Thank you" Not that she liked the idea of going down there with him What can be do to me doum there, she tried to console herself, that he couldn't have dmt just as wll upstairs? Besides bury my body when he's through? But Ethan said, "Sometimes I forget," by which she took him to mean sometimes he forgot human limitations, which was probably as close to an apology as she'd get from him Just when she'd worked that out he added, "Don't become a smart aleck" He tugged on her arm, the only warning she got before their hasty descent of the stairs The idea of burying didn't seem so clever when Kerry saw that the basement had a dirt floor Were any of Regina's victims down here? she wondered Was Ethan planning on burying Regina? The place was a mess It looked as though Regina had 77 gone through at least two sets of furniture for every room and piled all the extras down here Among all the other stuff, Kerry spied a moped, practically furry with dust That seemed to be what Ethan was heading for But he stopped just short of it, picking up instead a red-and-yellow can that sloshed when he shook it GusoliHt, Kerry's father would say, belongs in a !)arai)t or sM, it's dangerous m a house And ifbcrt's Dad now? she wondered "You're not going to—," she started He did He poured great dollops of gasoline on a green damask love seat with tassels "But what about the neighbors?" she demanded, not quite having the courage to grab his arm She couldn't have made him stop in any case, but she felt guilty for not making the attempt It was a five-gallon drum, and it had sounded )ust about full "What if the fire spreads?" "Not likely, with a brick exterior," Ethan said "And it's necessary in any case I have no idea what she has here, what people could find Old pictures, papers Seeming anachro- nisms that might get someone thinking " It was how vampires survived, Kerry realized people not thinking about vampires anymore, not believing, seeking ra- tional explanations Like assuming that vampire hunters were crazies No wonder he was jumpy at the idea of a big old houseful of proof He still had hold of her hand, and he pulled her along as he kept on pouring gasoline all the way up the cellar stairs, across the kitchen, into the living room, and up the stairs to the second level The automatic light had come on in the guest bedroom closest to Regina's room. Kerry balked, but he dragged her along as effortlessly as a child with a pull toy 78 He pulled her into the room, carefully set down the gas- oline can, then shoved her against the tall antique armoire on the wall opposite from the bed "Little girls who hang around with vampires need to get used to dead things," he said, blocking her escape by leaning against the armoire with an arm outstretched on either side of her "In fact, little girls who hang around with vampires already are with dead things " Kerry had no idea how to handle the sudden fierceness in his voice "I'm sony Regina is dead," she said, thinking that might be it Or that the acknowledgment of his possible grief might make up for her earlier mouthiness "Regina," Ethan said, "has been dead—" But he cut off whatever he had been going to say, evidently deciding that was something else about vampires she didn't need to know for a long time," he finished with a blatantly insincere smile "And I very much doubt any living soul is sorry" He shoved her toward the bed The sight wasn't as bad—and it was worse—than she'd anticipated There was the hair, which Kerry recognized, but the body looked the way she imagined an unwrapped mummy might look charred, blackened, and withered, more like a hairless monkey than anything human Even the nightgown Regina had been wear- ing and the sheets beneath her were scorched Kerry glanced at the windows "Obviously opened at some point during the day," Ethan said vehemently "Then reclosed to look normal" "What do you want me to do?" she asked, which—while not a safe course—was the least- likely-to-provoke -him thing she could think of to say "Open all the windows," Ethan replied, returning to his customary bland tone 79 "Fine," she told him She had been afraid he'd want her closer to—perhaps even touching—that thing on the bed that had been Regina There were shutters She'd guessed right She flung them open and raised the windows, all the while aware of Ethan behind her, pulling loose all the sheets and bedcovenngs, and wrapping up Regina's body "Get the other windows on this floor," he ordered She considered making a break for it, but if his hearing was as good as his eyesight, he'd know before she made it past the first step She remembered how he'd stood in front of the house listening and had known something was wrong "What do you hear?" she'd asked "Nothing," he'd an- swered Was it that he couldn't hear Regina's heartbeat? Her once-every-ten-or-fifteen-seconds heartbeat? And once they entered the house Kerry shuddered He'd started swearing as soon as he opened the door, and he'd gone right to Regina It could only have been the scent of her spilled blood There was no use trying to run Kerry had gotten five windows in three rooms open when Ethan called her "I'm not—," she started "That's all right" She figured he knew exactly which windows she'd opened, and how hard she'd exerted herself for each one She'd never before been so conscious of her heart pounding in her chest, her blood flowing through her veins From the doorway, Kerry saw that Ethan had Regina and her bedding on the floor, rolled up in a quilt that he'd gotten from the quilt rack at the foot of the bed From the smell of gasoline, she realized he'd doused the mattress. As soon as Kerry walked in, he struck a match and tossed 80 it onto the bed The fire started with a great whoosh, faster than she'd have imagined Her inclination was to run immediately, but Ethan handed her the matches 'Three more," he told her The first down the basement stairs, the second in the living room, and the third tossed up the stairs right before you leave" "Me?" Her voice came out as a squeak It was hard to concentrate with the room so hot already and the over- powering smell of the gasoline The book of matches sat in her hand, strangely heavy and incongruous It was obviously a wedding favor—silver bells on a white background, with the message "Steve and Beth, May 24, 1947" "The first down the basement stairs," Ethan repeated, "the second—" "—in the living room," she finished, "and the third on the stairs" He was keeping her alive to help him, if she didn't start helping soon, he was bound to reconsider "Very good," he told her As she ran out of the already smoky room, she was aware of him picking up Regina's body easily and flinging it over his shoulder He was only a step behind when she veered off toward the kitchen She lit a match, thinking only at the last instant to make sure she wasn't standing in a puddle of gas- oline before she dropped it She lit the second match in the living room, but her hands were shaking too hard to get the third going The smoke was stinging her eyes, her throat felt as though she'd been drinking gasoline, and she thought, If he wants a third, he can do it himself Ethan was already sitting in the car, the engine going, when she slammed Regina's front door behind her She could scream She probably would have time for one Fire' or Vampire' or Help' 81 But only one. She got into the car, very much aware of the bundle in the backseat, the decapitated body of a murdered vampire. Very much aware of the living—more or less—vampire be- side her And very much aware, before they reached the end of the street, of the dark smoke filling the darker sky behind them 82 CHAPTER EIGHT AFTER SEVERAL MINUTES of driving, Kerry roused herself enough to ask, "Where are we going?" "Bergen Swamp," Ethan answered . "There's a swamp in Bergen?" The Bergen town line was about two minutes from Main Street, Brockpoit "I thought Bergen was mostly farms and student housing " Ethan glanced at her "Well, it's hardly in the same cat- egory as the Florida Everglades. But, yeah, it's a swampy, wooded area Good for hunting " For a moment Kerry thought he meant vampires hunted people there Then she realized he meant game hunters, after deer and rabbits. "Oh." She was unable to hide the relief in her voice. 83 He glanced at her again, and again what she was thinking must have been transparent He sighed, loudly, and shook his head Kerry looked around at the familiar countryside rolling by in the darkness fields and occasional houses Her heart did a quick nutter, but she tried to keep her voice casual "I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but you passed through Bergen about five minutes ago " He gave her one of those looks she was beginning to think of as a vampire-thinks-of-amusing-thought-that-is- amusmg-only to-other vampires look "1 thought we were talking about long-term goals," he said "We have a couple errands to run on the way " "Such as?" "You aren't going to like them, so I'd rather put off telling you " He saw her expression and laughed "But 1 doubt they're as bad as what you're thinking " What she was thinking was that they were heading off toward Rochester to find a victim for him to feed on The awful, frustrating thing was that—even if that should turn out to be what he intended—when the time came, chances were there would be absolutely nothing she could do to prevent it She forced herself to think of alternatives Maybe he was telling the truth For once They were definitely going in the direction of Rochester, and there was little else between here and there except towns even smaller than Brockport Rochester It suddenly came to her He was going to enlist the help of other vampires Which probably significantly increased her chances of losing her own blood He was watching her, evaluating, still amused "Besides," he added, "we have time to kill" S4 And she was sure he was aware she could think of two ways to take that She intentionally ignored one of them "What about my family?" she demanded "Aren't you for- getting them?" "Definitely not," he answered brightly "They're absolutely the only control 1 have over you " It wasn't exactly the answer she'd anticipated "Well?" "Wtll what?" "They're in danger Now, unless you know that they're being held captive in Rochester—and I don't see how you could know that unless—" She stopped Was Ethan involved? Had he arranged for lan and her dad to be kidnapped as pan of some elaborate vampire scheme to But she couldn't work it out in any way that made sense at all Beside her, Ethan waited patiently for her to continue "Unless you know that they're being held captive in Roch- ester, we seem to be headed away from them " "1 have no idea where they're being held," he told her "Was that what you were asking?" "1 was asking I was pointing out, because of the time involved Couldn't you do whatever it is you're going to do with a phone call?" Ethan gave her a puzzled look and said, "No," in a tone strongly indicating she was wrong about the purpose of this tnp being to communicate with Rochester vampires She said, "What if whoever has Dad and lan " She needed a deep breath to continue " kills them while we're busy running your errands?" "Kerry, I don't know who has your family But if they're still alive—now, at this moment—it doesn't make sense for whoever has them to kill them They're useless dead " "Unless I don't know they're dead " 85 "There is that," he acknowledged. "But there was nobody at your house I would have heard And i would have known"—he was saying this last part slowly, phrasing it carefully—"if your father and your brother were dead in the house If there had been a quantity of spilled blood, I would have known it." Kerry spared a thought to be pleased that she had been right about that And if she could keep her wits about her, gather enough useful information, she just might be able to overcome Ethan, rescue Dad and lan, and come out of this alive Ethan was saying, "So they probably weren't dead at the house and it would be no advantage to take them away from the house and then kill them. Whoever is after me has invested a significant amount of time studying the situation He She . They aren't going to rush things now I'd say your family is safe enough for the next few days Their best hope is for us not to become overly hasty through misplaced concern" Kerry tried to find the fiaws in his reasoning, besides the obvious one: that he had no concern for her family "That works out well for you." she finally said. He just flashed a cold smile When he didn't volunteer any more information, she asked, "What are we going to do at the Bergen Swamp once we get there?" Ethan stopped for a red light out in the middle of a country crossroad, no other traffic in sight. He rested his face in his hands "Get rid of Regina's body" Kerry still hadn't been able to figure out what he felt about Regina's death: grief for a loved one, or annoyance because the circumstances were inconvenient, or something 86 else she couldn't begin to guess. Every time she settled on one, he did or said something that shifted the balance again. Could vampires love? The light's changed," she told him After a few more miles of silence she asked, "So she's truly dead?" This time he couldn't seem to grasp what she was asking. Before he was forced to state the obvious, that her head had been cut off, Kerry said, "1 mean, I thought the only way to kill a vampire was a stake through the heart." He was looking at her as though she were crazy- The worst part was she wasn't sure why. "I thought anything less than that, the vampire would recover from." Though for the moment they still seemed centered in the correct lane, he hadn't glanced away from her to check the road for what seemed to be an incredibly long stretch. "Like you recovered from your injuries," she said- "Would you please watch the road?" "Cod," he said, Excuse me for my ignorance, she wanted to say / wasn't exactly sure what the term undead covered. Instead, she just said, "Well, I didn't know," "What, you thought her head would grow a new body? Or her body a new head? Or the two pieces could just be stuck together, like—" "Alt right, I'm sorry. 1 thought your recovery was just about miraculous" "It wasn't anywhere near the same," he snapped. "All right." He cast a sudden worried look at her, which came a moment before she realized she had learned a potentially 87 valuable lesson Vampires were susceptible to a variety of deaths, if the injuries were severe enough She said, "All I was asking was if she'd be coming back" "She won't be coming back," Ethan said There was no way to tell how much he suspected she guessed IT WAS ABOUT a forty-five-minute drive to Rochester Kerry asked herself about forty-five times if she was doing the right thing How far should she trust Elhan? That was an easy one not at all And yet—and yet—he had let her live, when all he had needed her for so far was to light the gasoline while he carried Regina's body to the car With an extra two min- utes he could have done that himself Yet why bring her to Rochester to kill her when he could have done it at Regina's house? Unless he didn't want her charred bones found in the wreckage of the house, for some reason she couldn't work out Or unless there were some sort of vampire hierarchy, and he planned to offer her as a gift to the chief or king or president vampire Which didn't make a whole lot of sense As they reached the suburbs, as they stowed from the fifty-five m p h speed limit and started having to stop for lights and traffic, Kerry wondered what were her chances of surviving should she throw herself out of the car and run screaming for help Not very good, she estimated Surely Ethan had taken into consideration that she might try some- thing of that nature No doubt he had confidence in his ability to stop her before she attracted attention But he was still taking a risk What could he possibly hope to gain? Unless he had spoken the truth Unless he needed her help to get to Regina's killers If that was the case, escaping—even if possible—would doom Dad and lan 88 But how likely was it Ethan would let her live with all that she was seeing and teaming about vampires? Which brought her right back to- Was she doing the right thing? Kerry had been hoping that whatever Ethan needed he could find in one of the outlying suburbs, but he drove right into the city Not only that, but into one of the sleazier parts of the city "Do you trust me?" Ethan asked "No" Kerry was amazed that he even had to ask He gave his soft, pleasant, insincere laugh "All for the best, I suppose, but that's going to make this more difficult Please don't do anything stupid" He'd been looking for a parking space and now he pulled over Even though it was eleven o'clock, this particular section of the city was brightly lit, at least those buildings that weren't boarded over and spray-painted were brightly, even garishly, lit Women—and some girls who looked not quite as old as Kerry herself—walked by in tight skirts and high heels De- spite the cold, most had theirjackets unbuttoned or unzipped so they could be seen better The jacket of choice seemed to be rabbit with leather trim There were a few young men, too, though most of the men were in the cars that very slowly cruised down the street "What are we doing here?" Kerry demanded "Shopping" She'd been right the first time He was looking for some- one to drain of blood, someone who wouldn't be missed Ethan tugged on her arm, trying to get her to come out the driver's door, obviously suspecting that if he got out first she might lock the doors behind him, which at the moment struck her as a very good idea Kerry clutched the door handle and dug in with her sneakers and her bottom 89 Ethan pulled, strongly enough to make her slide effort- lessly across the seats. "I asked you not to do anything stupid," he hissed into her ear Out on the street, the prostitutes watched with mild in- terest, She was sure they thought she was one of them and they were wondering if he was through with her and going to trade her in. Even when it was apparent he wasn't going to let go of her arm, some of the women blew kisses or stood with their hands in their pockets, holding their jackets open, just in case She was concentrating so much on the people around them, she didn't realize until the last second that Ethan was leading her into one of the stores- She balked when she saw the sign. LOVE, ETC books, videos, etc. "Trust me," Ethan whispered, beyond all reason. "It's not as bad as you think." The store was awful Lingerie with cutouts. Men's bikini briefs with peacock feathers Posters of couples: men and women, men and men, women and women There was no place Kerry could look that she didn't sec something em- barrassing. And she felt stupid because some of the stuff was embarrassing even though she didn't know what it was. And then she felt stupid to feel stupid, because there was no reason for her to feel embarrassed. The people who ran the store should be embarrassed. At least Ethan kept a tight hold on her hand while he spoke to the man behind the counter. Her hand was sweaty; his, as always, was colder than any living person's. For the moment she didn't mind what they looked like. She wanted 90 people to think they were together. Especially the other cus- tomer in the store, a scuzzy-looking man in a long coat. Kerry stared at her feet, sure that if she glanced up he was going to flash her. She suddenly realized that what Ethan was buying were handcuffs. Which was bad, but probably not as bad as it could be- If he wanted to restrain her physically, he was strong enough to do it without handcuffs. "Enjoy," the clerk said with a smirk in his voice Back at the car, they got in the same way they'd gotten out, through the driver's side Once settled, Ethan turned to her and asked, "Are you all right?" As if he couldn't see that she was shaking. "Fine," she snapped, "How not?" "If I intended you harm - ," he said with his mocking smile- "Well, I wouldn't need these. These are protection," So they were for her. What was he waiting for? For her to acknowledge that he was doing her a favor? "Compared to this," Ethan said as he started the engine and pulled away from the curb, "the next part will be a piece of cake." After a while she couldn't take it anymore. "What's the next part?" she asked. "We steal a car" 91 CHAPTER NINE THEY PULLED INTO a car dealership on the outskirts of Rochester The place was closed, but the parking lot was well lit No doubt to keep people from doing exactly what Ethan was planning on doing "We already have a car," Kerry said miserably "Why do you need another one?" "I don't want this one noticed anywhere near the Bergen Swamp" What was worse was knowing he was right Every step of the way, he kept making decisions that were right, and she kept getting pulled further and further into the wrong What would Dad say if he knew what she was doing? Dad had made her take a ring she'd found on the running track 92 at school to campus security—that was how honest he was How would he react to her stealing a car? Let me find out, she prayed She was willing to face anything if she could only know that she'd find Dad and lan alive on the other side of it Ethan made her get out in front of the big door marked SERVICE DEPT "You should turn off the headlights, shouldn't you?" she suggested "So we'll be less obvious?" "I want to be obvious Here, lean on the hood, pretend to fill this out" He handed her a form he'd gotten from a metal container by the door "What are we doing?" she asked as he reached under the driver's seat and pulled out a flannel-wrapped package about the size of an envelope but a little thicker "And what's that^" "Tbw are various-size lock picks And we are using the overnight drop-off service, in case the police drive by" Kerry leaned on the hood and stared at the form Ethan was looking into the parked cars "If these cars are broken and need to be fixed," she asked, "how do we know the one we'll take won't have its engine fall out halfway there?" "Well, of course we can't be sure," Ethan replied as he crouched down on the far side of a blue Shadow, presumably to fiddle with the lock, "though I do believe the manufacturer generally prefers the term serviced to fixed And I don't think a car is ever technically referred to as broken" "Whatever," Kerry grumbled He opened the door, and his voice became muffled as he leaned to do something with the steering column "In this particular case, the car has just over a thousand miles, so it probably isn't broken at all, it's in for its thousand-mile warranty check And—special bonus at no extra cost—it's blue " 93 "Don't tell me, blue is your favorite color" The Skylark was blue, too, though a darker shade "Blue is a wonderfully nondescript color for a car," Elhan said "Nobody notices a blue car" The Shadow's engine rumbled to life "Handy trick," Kerry said "Where did you leam so much about cars?" "Ah, it's something they teach us in vampire school" Be- fore she could think of a suitable reply, Ethan had stashed his breaking-and-entry tools in his pocket "Get in," he told her While she did, he doused the lights on the Skylark and transferred Regina's quilt-wrapped body to the backseat of the Shadow He'd also gotten the denim Jacket from Regina's car, probably while Kerry was busy torching Regina's house "Leftovers?" she asked as Ethan tossed it into the Shadow's backseat "From one of Regina's victims?" "Possibly " Ethan shrugged "I certainly didn't know all of Regina's business It's history now" At least (bat's wer, she thought once the evidence was safety in the new car But the instant he slammed the back door, Kerry saw a black-and-white police car turn into the parking lot I'm ifoiMf to get killed, she thought Either Ethan's <)OIM) to np my throat out so 1 can't tell thm anything, or we'll crash and burn dunn<) a httfh-'spnd chase. or the police will open fin. But far from seeming perturbed, Ethan walked slowly around the front of their newly acquired car to the passenger side, where he rapped his knuckles on her window Incredulous, she rolled it down "Do you have the form?" he asked "I didn't really fill it out," she whispered. "I should hope not" He took it from her and stood there 94 as though checking what she'd written then he dropped it into the mail-slot-like opening in the service department's door The police car was cruising the lot, shining a light in the salesroom Stilt not hurrying, Ethan got into the car beside her "How about stopping for an ice cream?" he asked "You're not taking this seriously enough," she told him, even though the police showed no inclination thus far to arrest them or to open fire "But I am We still have too much time I don't want to go to the swamp until as late as possible, to lessen our chances of being seen " Ethan pulled out of the parking lot "Don't look back," he warned "I'm watching" After a few moments, he said, "They're not following us " Kerry put her hands over her face "1 can't stand this " "Nonsense," he told her "You're a natural" Which was not an encouraging thought "Why are we headed back toward Rochester?" Kerry asked "More traffic this way, JUSI in case we were followed Be- sides, I promised you ice cream " "This is not a date " He just laughed They stopped at a restaurant, where he insisted on buying her a sundae After looking at the menu as though unable to make up his own mind, he finally told the waitress, "I'll just have a decaf" He smiled charmingly "Afraid of staying up all night?" Kerry asked He turned the smile on her 'Tell me about school," he said instead of answering "Why?" 95 "What else are we going to talk about in here? What electives are you taking? What do you hope for out of life?" "Oh no" She set down her glass of water so firmly the water sloshed over the rim and onto her hand "I'm not going to have you sit there and judge me and decide if my life is worthwhile" "All right, then," he said equably "Have you seen any good movies lately?" She glared at him wanly, wondering why he wanted to know, how he could possibly use this information against her The sundae came and once she smelled the hot fudge, she found that beyond all reason she was hungry after all How can I bt hungry when I don't even know if my family is still alive? she chided herself When I don't know whether I'll still be alive by the end of tbt night? But it seemed silly to go hungry until then, just to spite Ethan Meanwhile, Ethan carried the conversation by himself, chattering about movies and TV and books and current events He poured sugar and cream in his coffee, occasionally ran his finger around the rim or otherwise played with it but never drank a sip "Can we go?" she finally asked, as a group of bizarrely dressed young people came in, loud and laughing and ob- viously regulars "It's the Rocky Horror Picture Show contingent," Ethan said brightly It was a relief for Kerry to learn they were apparently in costume and didn't normally dress that way, considering the makeup that some of them were wearing, boys as well as girls Two or three had toilet paper draped over their shoul- ders It wasn't a relief that a couple of them waved and Ethan waved back "Friends of yours?" she asked 96 "Not the way you mean," he answered "Have you ever been " He let the question drift off and gave her one of those evaluating looks "No, I don't suppose you have You really should consider having some fun once in a while" "How dare you—" But at least he was getting up, paying, leaving She followed, scowling at the group of teenagers, unable to think of any way to warn them away from Ethan Outside, it was even colder than she had remembered, and her breath came out frostily Apparently by this time Ethan had enough confidence that she wouldn't lock him out that he let her get in the car in the normal way He even held the door for her Then again, she remembered, he had his lock picks in his pocket "Ceez, Kerry," he said, still in his just-an-average-guy - out-on-a-date mode, "you've really got to develop your con- versational skills" Of all the nerve "If you talked about something important—," she started "We can talk about important things now that we're alone," he said, starting the car "What shall we discuss?" "The possibility of Regina's body getting blood all over the backseat of this car" From infunatingly cheerful, Ethan went straight into an- gry "First of all," he said, "so what? Second, dead bodies don't bleed it's the beating of the heart that causes blood to move through veins and arteries" Considering the way he generally kept his voice soft and even and unemotional, she was stunned by his vehemence, though she had no idea what he was so vehement about "And third, there's no blood left in Regina's body anyway" "What are you saying?" she asked Suddenly the ice cream 97 sundae seemed to collect in the pit of her stomach like a solid lump. "You drank from her?" she whispered "No" Ethan gave her a look that indicated he was as horrified as she "No," he repeated "Vampires can't drink each other's blood?" she asked. "Of course they can drink each other's blood," he said "How do you think—" He cut himself off "But she was dead That'd be like "Never mind," she told him By the look on his face, she didn't want to hear whatever analogy he came up with "It would be worse than drinking an animal's blood." "Vampires don't drink animal blood?" He shook his head She guessed. "Or . collected blood from the Red Cross?" It the idea of drinking someone's blood did awful things to her stomach, apparently the suggestions she was making were doing the same things to his He pulled off the side of the road Alarmed, Kerry backed up against the door, but he put his hands out in a conciliatory gesture "I only want to explain," he said "It's important you understand" He paused as though trying to organize his thoughts Obviously this was something vampires didn't need to discuss between themselves, and just as obviously it wasn't something they normally shared with humans Ethan was speaking hesitantly, having a hard time putting this into words "It's not just the nourishment from the blood itself There's " He ran his hands through his hair, a nervous gesture she hadn't seen from him before As though he re- alized what he was doing and wanted to hide this sign of strain, he rested his elbows on the steering wheel, not looking directly at her anymore, except to steal quick glances He had his hands together, the fingers steepled, which almost 98 looked like praying Perhaps he had the same thought, for he shifted position, clasping his fingers together "There's a physical and mental bond, a sharing of the spirit, for lack of a better word Kerry took in a deep breath "I think I've heard this line from the boy who took me to the harvest dance" Ethan laughed with what sounded like genuine amuse- ment, which was disconcerting because she hadn't meant to be funny "There 15 a similarity" He looked at her appraisingly, as though trying to gauge how experienced she was She folded her arms in front of her chest, determined to keep him wondering, before she realized that her gesture had probably told all Ethan said, "Sometimes, not always—but with the right partner—vampires mix the two acts sex and the drinking of blood Either of itself is very pleasurable, but the com- bination " Parked on the side of a dark road, Kerry didn't like the direction this was taking, even though Ethan was showing no inclination to demonstrate She said, "I'm sure praying mantises and black widow spiders feel the same " "Difficult to say " Ethan was close to laughing again, this time at her, she was sure "But it is pleasurable for both parties " He shrugged "Or it can be As with humans, there are always those who take their enjoyment from violence " "You're saying it's pleasurable because you're a vampire," Kerry said "If another vampire dnnks your blood, you don't die I think that makes a pretty significant difference " For some reason that startled him Then he said, "Kerry, a vampire doesn't kill every time he feeds " She had no idea whether to believe that "A vampire needs to take a little bit more than your 99 Red Cross does during a blood donation, not much more than a pint It leaves the human slightly lightheaded, a bit weak But exhilarated Even without the sex " Kerry was skeptical "How many vampires do you think there are?" he asked That seemed a trap "I have no idea" "Good answer" Again the light laugh, which might or might not have been sincere "But consider one vampire, one unexplained death per night, how long would it take for people to get suspicious?" He had a point She said, "Are you trying to tell me you've never killed anyone?" "Would you believe that?" he asked, his eyes wide with innocence She was tempted, but "No," she said "Good" He laughed "I'm glad you're not that gullible " "So why do you kill if it isn't necessary?" "Ah, but it is necessary periodically Without taking blood, the vampire becomes unable to think of anything besides his all-consuming need, which just grows and grows until even- tually he loses what you humans would so arrogantly term 'his humanity ' He becomes like a beast, tearing unthinkingly into the first available victim, and doesn't even recognize until too late if that victim should be his own parent or child or lover He'll feel devastated, afterward, with their blood cours- ing through his veins However, even with a steady diet of blood, too long between kills and the vampire becomes men- tally and physically sluggish He gets weaker and weaker, unable to move, unable to rise out of bed, until finally he's unable even to take the few breaths a vampire needs to survive It's more than the nourishment; it's the draining of the life force. Feeling the echo of another person's thoughts and 100 memories, which is just as life-sustaining to us as the blood itself And besides She pressed, because he was in a much more open mood than usual "Besides ?" "You won't like it" He put the car into drive and pulled back onto the road "Killing is very pleasurable" Consider yourself fairly warned. Kerry thought "So what does all this have to do with Regina?" "Nothing," Ethan said "You're the one who brought up vampires' feeding habits " "You're making me crazy, do you know that?" Kerry said She could never get the upper hand with him, not even for a minute She forced the frustration out of her voice, deter- mined not to give him the satisfaction "So you're saying that another vampire could have killed her, a blood-starved vampire—or just a slightly perverted one—who drained her, then cut off her head to make it look like vampire hunters?" "No" "A vampire wouldn't do that?" Kerry asked, between sar- casm and bitterness Ethan said, "It was the sun that killed her before the decapitation" "How can you tell"'" "By how little blood was on the sheets, and the way they were all mussed, as though she struggled A vampire's sleep is very deep No restless tossing and turning as in hu- mans' sleep Sunlight is all that could have wakened hei prematurely" "Not even " It was hard to say out loud "Not even getting her head cut ofh" Kerry asked incredulously There have been such cases," Ethan told her, "and there were no signs of struggle " 101 He should know. Unless, of course, he was lying- For •II she knew, vampires weren't nearly as sensitive to sunlight as he indicated. For all she knew, he could have donned sun- glasses and opened the shutters himself. She tried to work it out, with him killing Regina and trying to use her as an alibi when the other vampires came looking, but that seemed need- lessly complicated even by vampire standards. She said, "I assumed you spent the night with her You know." He gave her another of those incredulous 1-can't-bclieve- 1-heard-you-say-that looks- "Regina and me?" "I assumed," she repeated, feeling like an idiot. "No." Fine, she thought. But don't pull that W]io7-R.a)ina-and-me? routine on me. when you get all twitchy every time her name comes up. She said, "So these vampire hunters want me because . . . ?" "Clearly, because you helped me escape and they assume you're one of us." "Clearly," Kerry repeated. "And what are they likely to have done with my family?" That's something else to figure out along the way." Ethan shook his head. "I've been trying to fit Leviticus seventeen- ten into it, and I'm not coming up with anything." "What?" Kerry asked. The message on your wall," Another of those looks. "Be- neath the part where they said they had your family." Kerry remembered there had been letters and numbers she hadn't been able to figure out. "It's the Biblical injunction against the taking of blood," Ethan explained "I certainly had it quoted to me enough when they captured me. 'If anyone partakes of any blood, I t02 will set myself against that one and will cut him off from among my people.'" "The laundry owner." Kerry said. "He's always been real religious. . - " She saw the look Ethan was giving her and petered off. "You and Regina killed him that night, didn't you? And his wife, and Roth, and Sidowski" "Sister," Ethan corrected. "You left out Ken Kelada, the one I killed while they were in the process of capturing me- But apparently there was at least one more." Ken. She remembered the laundry owner on the phone, telling Marcia, "Ken's dead," and Sidowski's accusation "He broke his neck, just like that." Ethan had denied it, back when it never occurred to her to doubt him. She had thought she was getting used to the idea of violence, but five people dead so far, not counting Regina— Ethan was watching her. "I told you you wouldn't like it," he said. 103 CHAPTER TEN THEY TURNED OFF onto a road that was gravel for a while, then simply dirt T "Welcome to Bergen Swamp," Ethan said "Looks like woods to me," Kerry said Ethan grinned at her "Ah, but that's until you step in- to it" Eventually, when the road was more rutted grass than din, he pulled over to the side "What if there are hunters?" Kerry asked They'd passed two other cars parked closer to the main road "I'll be aware of them long before they sec us," Ethan assured her "Us?" That was an unpleasant surprise, and she didn't get 104 out of the car as he opened the back door and flung Regina's remains over his shoulder Surely he wasn't worried that she'd try to escape when they were miles from anywhere "What if there are hunters?" He threw back her own question at her "Do you want to be alone in the car, trying to explain what you're doing here?" "I could explain I'm waiting for my " Kerry choked on boyfriend and substituted, "someone " "It might work" Ethan smiled at her "With certain hunters" Kerry didn't like the line of thinking that started "I'd advise you to stay very close," Ethan said "Step where I step Feel free to hold on to the back of my belt There art patches of quicksand" She scrambled to get untangled from the seatbelt before he got too far ahead "Waif" she yelped One step out of the car and already she was so deep into something that she nearly walked out of her shoe Ethan turned around with a glare for all her noise "Don't—" "Make a nuisance of myself," she whispered "I know I'm sorry Please don't walk so fast 1 can't see as well as you can " He gave her a chance to get back into her shoe, and when she was ready, she took hold of the hem of his jacket She did her best to walk as quietly as he did, but even stepping into his footprints she made more noise than he did "Are you sure you know where you're going?" she asked Trust me," he said She was beginning to hate it when he said that "I've lived in the area all my life I know every inch of it." A lot of inches, she thought They walked, it seemed, forever Things scurried just out 105 of sight—at least out of her sight The underbrush near them crackled ceaselessly Probably bnt not to ask. she thought, pic- turing snakes—which were admittedly unlikely in the middle of the night, with winter setting in—and rabid raccoons And other vampires Would Ethan protect her from other vam- pires? Could he? Finally, in a spot that looked just like every other, Ethan stopped He set Regina's body on the ground, then stooped down Nol praying. Kerry thought—do vampires pray?—but studying the land, and the sky, and the land again "Is this a good place?" she asked "I don't know," Ethan snapped, testy again He rested his face in his hand "I've never done this kind of thing before" He pushed the hair away from his forehead, and she saw that his hand was shaking He sighed "1 have no idea what I'm doing" Which was both a relief and a concern "Never had to dispose of a dead vampire's body before?" she asked "Never had a vampire 1 knew die," he corrected Vampire life—with its secret computer messages, and its blue cars, and its absolute dread of the discovery that could doom all—had sounded, despite the potential for immortal- ity, like a fragile, precarious existence She was surprised he'd never experienced the death of one of his compatriots before "Ethan " He sighed, burying his face in his hands "Ethan. how long have you been a vampire?" He shook his head "Almost a year," he whispered It was not what she expected It was not at all what she expected But it explained a lot She crouched down beside him and put her hand on his t06 shoulder Through the leather jacket she could feel his hard muscles but not the coldness of his skin. "How did it happen?" "I don't want to talk about it" He stood abruptly and took a few steps, but there was no room in which to pace With his arms folded and his shoulders hunched, he looked as young and vulnerable as he had that first night. Finally he said, "My brother and I were driving from the college to the city, to sec the New Years Eve fireworks down- town over the Ccnesee River It was my first year away from home I was a freshman Peter, a senior." He paused, as though unsure whether to continue Whatever was coming next caused him to speak with his teeth on edge "Out in the middle of nowhere we passed by this car stopped by the side of the road, the hood up, no flares or anything It was a couple of kids. the girl looked about your age, the boy maybe seventeen, eighteen " Ethan momentarily closed his eyes "Peter felt sony for them He stopped, circled around, pulled up alongside The girl came to my window Her eye makeup was all"—he gestured vaguely—"running She looked like she'd been crying and she said they'd been stuck out there for hours and nobody would stop So we said we'd take a look, and we got out of our car" Ethan turned his back to her to compose himself When he turned back, his voice quavered "The boy had a gun He shot Peter three times, and me twice." He shuddered, tight- ening his arms across his stomach, so Kerry was sure, though he didn't say it, that that was where he'd been shot "They went through our pockets, took our wallets, and when Peter tried to get up, they shot him one more time, in the head, and drove off in our car 1 managed to crawl to Peter's side . but he was dead already I was sure I was going to 107 die, too And then a car pulled up I thought it was them again " Once more his voice quavered "But it was this beautiful lady Regina She came and sat down there on the side of the road She put my head in her lap and stroked my hair, and she told me I was dying, which i knew already And she told me that, if I wanted, she could stop the pain And she said, if i wanted, she could help me live " He covered his face and finished the story speaking into his hands "I was so frightened, I said I wanted to live " "How awful," Kerry said, hardly able to speak out loud "Oh, Ethan " She shook her head, knowing that she could never get the words right to let him know how sorry she was She thought again of everything he'd said and done since they first met, and she realigned it all to fit with this beginning And yet And yet "But ," she said, "you've been a vampire at least long enough to change your identity once " He looked at her over his clasped hands "You identified yourself as Michael for the other vam- pires " "Ah," he said equably, "there is that" She was no longer hesitant "And when we were just getting out of the car, you said you'd lived in the area all your life, not that you came here for college " He shook his head, not looking at all contrite "You do have me there," he admitted, walking back to Rcgina's body "Damn you'" Kerry said He just smiled She was almost willing to try kicking him for making her feel so wretched 108 He waved her back "I'm going to take her out of the wrappings," he warned "I hate you," she said "That'll probably work out for the best" It may well have been the most honest thing he'd said to her so far Once more, as he stooped down before the body. she wondered if vampires prayed, or if it would be appropriate to pray for a vampire But Ethan )ust tumbled the body out of the wrappings like someone unrolling an area rug to air it out, and Kerry grimaced, unable to look away before making out what she already knew, that there were two separate pieces Immediately the body and head began to sink in the quicksand "There's a creek a few minutes' walk this way " He pointed "We'll throw the pillow and the nightgown in there " It was the first she realized he must have undressed the corpse back at the house "We'll drop off the rest of the bedding a little bit here and a little bit there" "You're so sentimental," she said "You really need to get ahold of yourself" He caught her by the ponytail and yanked her back, spinning her to face him "You don't know anything," he said She remembered what it had felt like, in the computer room at Regina's house, when she had first realized he planned to kill her She'd been foolish to think of him as anything else If b< lets you hpt, she told herself, focus on what you saw then. Think of him, always, that way And not as the sometimes charming, sometimes infuriating companion who chatted to help pass the time, or the open and reasonable, vampire who spoke frankly but with some embarrassment about his *09 bloodlust, as though it were a controllable disease, or even the avenging angel who was her family's only hope of survival, and certainly not—especially not—what he'd fooled her with twice already, the poor little waif who only needed to be held and comforted Whether those were pure fabrications or whether they were, in fact, facets of his personality, the only important one was the one she'd faced in the computer room, the one she faced now She could see the glint of his teeth in the moonlight, she all but felt his gaze on her throat She'd overstepped whatever bounds he'd set for her, and there was no use even trying to struggle He bent over her arched neck If she had a choice, if it was a matter of letting go or holding on, she was determined to die rather than become a vampire She felt his lips on her throat but where would that leave Dad and lan^ He kissed her, gently "If you don't like vampire games," he said softly, "don't play" A moment later he released her, so suddenly she almost fell He tossed her the pillow, the bloodiest of the items, and gathered up the rest, indicating, again, the direction of the creek *f0 CHAPTER ELEVEN AT THE CREEK Ethan ripped open Regina's pillow, shaking out a cloud of down before tossing the empty piltowcase into the water He dropped the nightgown farther along, then left the creekbed, veering off through the underbrush They weren't backtrailing, and Kerry could only hope Ethan knew where he was going She had no sense of where they were in relation to the car And Ethan wasn't talking to her He hadn't said a word—besides "Give me the pillow"—since they'd left Re- gina's body at the clearing He was walking faster than she could comfortably keep up with, but she didn't want to hold on to his jacket the way she'd done earlier And she certainly ffl wasn't going to beg him to slow down when he could easily see for himself she was having trouble She tramped along behind him, snapping twigs, skidding down embankments with a flurry of dead leaves, uprooting plants when they climbed a steep incline, and puffing open-mouthed with the exertion She didn't dare let the distance between them grow to more than a few feet or she'd likely misjudge where he'd stepped and land in ground that was boggy rather than just wet The only way she could keep up was noisily, and if he didn't like it, he could say so He didn't say a thing She had a chance to catch her breath when Ethan stopped to set one of the sheets on the soggy kind of ground she'd been avoiding He picked up a rock. big enough that a normal man probably would have had a hard time budging it, and hurled it so that it landed on the sheet Both began to sink immediately Then they were back to walking Just when Kerry had begun to give up hope that they'd ever find their way out of the woods, they finally reached the road, the stolen Shadow just a few feet from where they'd emerged "What about . 7" She gestured vaguely to the other sheet, the comforter, and the quilt he was stilt carrying He threw them into the backseat, which she took as his subtle way of tcliing her not to worry, that they'd dispose of them later And, indeed, as they passed through Spencer- port—once more heading toward Rochester—he flung the denim jacket out the window without even slowing down He still wasn't talking when they returned the Shadow and exchanged it for his original Skylark ll2 "It'd be interesting," she told him, "to be here when the customer and the mechanics start arguing about the mileage and the half-empty gas tank and all the mud" Still no answer, despite two attempts at conversation on her part SuUting, she figured Be Ukt that. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared out the window She expected that they'd turn around and head back to- ward Brockport, toward finally doing something about finding lan and Dad, but he continued on to Rochester They stopped at an observation point that looked out over the Erie Canal, where he weighted down the second sheet with a rock and threw it into the water He picked up a few extra rocks, which he tied up in the comforter, but they didn't get rid of that until they were passing over the bridge that spanned Iron- dequoit Bay Kerry checked her wristwatch It was past 5 00 The last several weeks, her alarm for school, set at 6 30, had gone off while it was still dark outside She estimated sunrise was about 7 00 Enough time to ditch the quilt and make it back to Brockport, if that was his intent Not that they could go back to the house he had identified as his uncle's Whoever had killed Regina had to know about it and could come during the day while he was helpless She stole a quick glance at Ethan She seriously doubted he planned to ask her to guard his sleep. The thought of sleep made her eyes droop It had been so long since her few hours' worth of sleep Thursday night After all the running around and emotional strain of tonight, she was surprised, now that she thought about it, that she'd made it this long She stifled a yawn, and Ethan glanced at her Which was more than he'd done the last couple hours ti3 "Where are we going to spend the day?" she asked m the midst of a second, bigger yawn He seemed to be considering not answering, but he finally said, "Rochester subway system " "Rochester doesn't have a subway," she said. "It did until the fifties," Ethan told her She thought this was good news, that he hadn't gotten confused with Buffalo—since at this point there probably wasn't enough time to get there before dawn But she couldn't be sure. She didn't even know what to hope for anymore, everything had gotten so muddled She asked, "So what happens to an old subway system? Doesn't it get knocked down and filled in?" "Most of it did," Ethan agreed "So this will be underground?" "Yes" "And really dark?" 'That's the point" "I mean really, really dark?" He looked at her but didn't answer. Rats. she was thinking And assorted creepy-crawliwf things Creepy-crawling all over her while she couldn't even see them And the kind of people who lived in sewers and on park benches—not just eccentric people like Phyllis, the little old lady who came into the store with cans and bottles she collected for the refunds and who always wore her clothes backward so the CIA would get confused when they tried to follow her—but drug users and escaped convicts and perverts. She remembered, for the first time in hours, the handcuffs, which would guarantee she'd be absolutely unable to defend herself Stop it. she told herself. Ethan would hardly choose to H4 sleep where there were humans about, not while he'd be unable to protect himself Rats and creepy-crawling things She tried to reassure herself that she could make noise to keep them away And hope the noise didn't attract the perverts Suddenly she wasn't the least bit sleepy Ethan pulled into the parking lot of a twenty-four-hour supermarket "Now what?" she asked miserably as he led her into the store "Flashlight," he told her And, when she looked up hope- fully, he added, "1 don't need you getting hysterical" She didn't argue with him about it While he picked up two heavy-duty flashlights, the kind with six-volt lantern batteries, to last throughout the daylight hours, she took the opportunity to use the rest room She half suspected he might demand to accompany her, but whether he was beginning to trust her or was just reluctant to make a scene, he let her go on her own Just when she'd decided that it didn't make any difference what she hoped or thought, that she could never escape no matter how she tried But the situation hadn't changed Dad and lan were still missing, and Ethan was her best chance of finding them She relocated him in the video department, watching, of all things, 101 Dolmdhotis. But he had considered that she might not come back, she thought, determined to read human expression into his eyes, into the fact that he linked arms with her "In the movies," she pointed out to him, "a vampire could have turned into a bat or mist and followed me " "In the movies," Ethan countered, "Lassie never peed on the rug " **5 Arm in arm they approached the cash registers "Snack?" he asked her After he'd been nice enough to provide for light and a bathroom stop, she was sure he was about to do something thoroughly reprehensible She had the awful feeling he was talking about the cashier In the bright lights of the store, she saw that he'd lost most of the color he'd had earlier in the evening Had he eaten—fed was the word he'd used— before she ran into him early in the evening? Probably not The realization hit her that the color she'd seen in his cheeks had probably been from drinking the blood of the laundry vampire hunters last night When she didn't answer, Ethan tossed a box of sugar doughnuts on the conveyor belt "All we've got back in the car is Coke and chips," he reminded her But then, as they walked back outside, test she begin to think too kindly of him, he took her arm and whispered into her ear, as though they were conspirators together, "There were too many people" Good, she wanted to say But was it good for her if he got too hungry? Back on the road, she asked, "Why did you buy Coke and chips? Can you eat som< foods?" "I entertain," Ethan said He looked over at her and gave a wicked grin. "Occasionally" "I see Sort of like the old witch in 'Hansel and Cretcl.'" "Sort of," Ethan agreed. "It works out especially well with college students I give them all the beer they can drink They pass out" He gave her a quick glance, to make sure she understood "Etcetera " She didn't like where she had led this, and switched di- rections "So where's this subway station?" H6 "It's not a station " "Whatever" She leaned her head against the window The window was cold, but it was warm in the car, and dark, and she had already survived a lot longer than she had originally thought possible, and he hadn't killed anybody in her presence yet. and she only planned to close her eyes for a second but the next thing she knew there was a bright light, and she was lying down on the ground Ethan had hold of her wrist She was instantly awake enough to know that he was going to sink his teeth into her arm but not awake enough to ftght Then she felt the cold circlet of metal and heard a click She tried to sit but was brought up short because she was handcuffed to a solid-feeling section of track "You did that," she accused him "I did what?" "You made me fall asleep" "You were predisposed to anyway," he told her They were in a tunnel There was a lot of rubble but no garbage—probably meaning no people It was no doubt all for the best that while the glow of the flashlight he'd set by her was bright in their immediate area, she couldn't see very far The tunnel looked ready to be brought down by a good sneeze He set the second flashlight, unlit, right by her hand, in case the first's battery wore down Her backpack and the bags from the two grocery stores were also within easy reach "You didn't want me seeing how to get in here," she said as he sal down cross-legged near her but not near enough for her to be able to reach H7 He just smiled "Did you cany me?" It was a disconcerting thought, that he'd had her completely helpless Not that she wasn't com- pletely helpless in any case Had he bitten her while she'd been asleep? Would she know? She didn't think she felt weak She managed to refrain from touching her neck to check, but he seemed to guess what she was thinking anyway His smile flickered at the edge of genuine amusement "You didn't need me at all, did you?" she asked "What do you mean?" "In the laundry When I thought 1 was rescuing you You could have just used your hypnotic vampire powers—" 'Too much adrenaline" "I beg your pardon?" He was having a hard time not laughing at her "I could have put the thought in their heads that they wanted to sleep, but they were too keyed up and would have resisted" She sighed "Were you ever in any real danger from them^" "Certainly," he answered cheerfully enough "But you probably could have escaped without me?" Ethan made a point of pausing to consider, a mere po- liteness, she was sure "I wasn't incredibly worried yet," he admitted "But you had no way of knowing that And it was very kind of you to want to help " "You're being too friendly," she told him "You're making me nervous" "Good night, Kerry," he said with a laugh, lying down on the ground She started to lie down also, but she jumped when she realized Regina's wadded-up quilt was under her head Even f(8 though she couldn't see any blood, she shoved it away in disgust. Ethan was watching "You might get cold," he said "Not that cold," she answered, though she could already feel the chill seeping into her "You're being silly " He closed his eyes and lay still for a moment, but then he took off his jacket and tossed it at her "What about you?" she asked, hardly able to keep her teeth from chattering He opened his eyes yet again "Vampires only feel the most extreme temperatures," he told her- "1 was wearing the jacket so as not to be conspicuous " Kerry lay back down, wondering if her sleepiness was his effect or Just the last thirty hours catching up "What about tomorrow?" she asked She ignored the fact that she was beginning to think like a vampire, marking time by nights rather than days "What's the plan?" When he didn't answer, she looked and saw that his eyes were closed She checked her watch- 7 05 She knew that his heart did beat, although very slowly, during his waking hours Did it slow down even further, or even stop entirely, by day? She felt asleep before she could figure it out 1*9 CHAPTER TWELVE KERRY WOKE UP at about 10 00 A M , her back sore, her right arm—the shackled one—stiff, her toes numb, and the rest of her body aching with cold The tight was still on No creepy-crawl ies in sight, and Ethan hadn't twitched Finally she pulled the quilt to her Without looking closely, she spread it out just enough so she could lie on top It would protect her somewhat from the cold, hard ground Any blood, she tried to assure herself, would have been on the sheets and comforter Still, she was sure she'd never fall asleep again The second time she slept, she dreamed about R-egina making Ethan into a vampire She was aware enough to know 120 that she was dreaming and that, anyway, he had already admitted this wasn't the way it had happened But she dreamed it the way he had described it He was lying by the side of the road. his head on Regina's lap His expression was frightened and brave and defiant all at once, the same as it had been at the laundry, the darkness of his hair accentuating the paleness of his skin. Regina, looking beautiful but cold and cruel, leaned over him She ripped his chin up, arching his neck, and set her lips against his throat She caressed his face and hair gently, but Kerry could see this was only so he wouldn't struggle as she drank his blood Because it was a dream, Kerry could feel what Ethan felt, which was fear—how could it not be?—and shame, but also pleasure, which was the reason for the shame Kerry tried to wake herself up but couldn't His breathing came faster and taster, until, with a shudder of pain, it stopped entirely Then he opened his eyes With that, finally, Kerry woke It was only early afternoon, but she didn't dare sleep again The trouble was, awake, she kept thinking about her fam- ily Was Dad okay:? He wouldn't try anything brave and stupid, would he? And how about lan? Did kidnappers rou- tinely let little kids bring their stuffed koala bears with thenP And where was Mom when they needed heP Best to ml her mind with other thoughts, Kerry decided. Any other thoughts The flashlight seemed to be getting dimmer, so she turned on the backup flashlight, turning off the first to conserve the battery in case they got desperate From her backpack she took out the book she was supposed to have read for literature class. With Regina's quilt wrapped around her, munching on 121 boxed sugar doughnuts and potato chips and sipping Coke, which was as cold as if it had been refrigerated, she finished the story. She hadn't seen a major plot twist coming, and she automatically deducted fifteen points from her potential test score on the basis of an essay answer that made no sense in light of the way the story halt ended Eventually she got bored enough th-i she not only did her math homework, she started the n'.'rt unit's assignment as welt Like I have much chance of nw malti'i; it back to school, she thought Ethan woke with a sigh at 4:35 Kerry would have been willing to bet that if she looked it up in an almanac that would have been the exact moment the sun disappeared beneath the rim of the world She was about to say "Good morning," but that was ridiculous under the circumstances, and "Good evening" sounded too much like a cartoon version of a Transylvanian count. "Hi," she said. Ethan sat up, exhibiting none of the slow, gingerly move- ments she had needed before she could move without stifmess He did give a little stretch, putting his arms around his knees See what a coupit hundred years' practice slecpiw) in graoeyard$ will do for your physique, she told herself "Still here," he commented. Hard to tell whether he was surprised. She held up her arm to show it was still securely shackled to the track "I truly hope that wasn't a hardship," he said. She had found she was most disinclined to believe him when he used words like honestly and lm(y, though in this instance she couldn't see what he had to gain by lying "1 was okay," she told him- Even in this light she could tell he was 122 paler than last night, and she didn't want to say anything that might get him annoyed enough to see her as a meal Not that she estimated he'd need much of an excuse "What's the next step?" she asked. He indicated her backpack. "Do you have a change of clothes in there?" "My school clothes," she answered. "What I wore yester- day " She saw that the cuffs of her supermarket-uniform pants were muddy from their trek through the Bergen Swamp. How had Ethan managed to stay clean? When she sniffed at her blouse, she found that it stank of gasoline. Day-old clothes couldn't be worse than that He got the key from his pocket and came to unlock the handcuffs "Your hair is longer than yesterday," she said. "Yeah." He sounded tired, or disgusted "Our bodies have a tendency to revert to the state they were in when we first became vampires. My hair was longer then I have to cut it every day, or in two days it's down to my shoulders" That could (w rtcmtly, Kerry thought. People wore their hair all sorts of lengths nowadays- On the other hand, she knew the 1960s were famous for boys wearing long hair She'd seen movies set in the 1950s and was fairly certain short hair was in back then The only other times she was aware of men wearing long hair were during the Civil War and in colonial times- She really hoped Ethan was from no further back than the'60s She rummaged in her backpack and found a spare ponytail elastic for him. "Thanks " This time he did sound surprised- His hair was just long enough that he was able to pull it back into a tight tail f23 Kerry thought it made him look like a drug pusher "You cut it yourself?" she asked "Barbers notice things like people coming in every day " Perhaps in repayment for the elastic, Ethan started massaging her wrist to get all the feeling back into it The corpse coldness of his touch did more to stiffen her muscles than his attempt at being helpful relaxed them "I was lucky to be welt shaved at the time" he added uncommonly talkative "When vam- pires who have beards want to get nd of them, they have to shave two or three times a night" 'That's how your bodies heal" Kerry said, catching on 'by going back to the way they were" "Which makes it impossible to maintain either a tattoo or a permanent" Ethan let go of her hand "Not that I've had personal experience with either" "So when you said that Regina made you a vampire to save your life even if that had been true, it couldn't have been true" She paused, considering whether this had come out making any sense at all Suddenly she wished she hadn't said it at all It was too vivid a reminder of her dream Ethan seemed to grasp what she'd meant "It couldn't have happened that way, no Vampire blood can heal vampires, and our saliva has healing properties, though hardly enough to cure the dying It's fwt enough so that if a vampire is careful where and how he bites, somebody might not even know he's been bitten " Kerry touched her neck, wondering again if he'd taken some of her blood last night when he'd earned her in here Ethan grinned at her "Present company excluded, of course" Only the paleness of his skin convinced her he was telling 124 the tiuth "Do you plan to?" Stupid question Of course he'd deny it Take your blood? No " He sat back on his heels and looked at her appraisingly "Why? Are you intrigued? Do you want to know what it feels tike?" "No," she told him in a voice that she hoped sounded more firm than panicked She tried to shove the sensations from the dream behind her "I Just want to know what to expect I figured you probably didn't have time Yesterday To"—it was hard to say and he wasn't Jumping in to help her, though he must know what she meant—"feed Before we met" "I didn't," he said When he didn't say anything else, she said, "I didn't think you did " He flashed another smile at her "As with living as a human, there's more to being a vampire than feeding," he said "Surely you can survive a day without food? You prob- ably wouldn't like it, but you could do it" "Without turning into a beast?" she asked "Ah," he said in an adult-to-a-child So-that's-what's-becn- wonying you? tone "That's after much longer than a day," he assured her "Besides, if I fed on you, I don't think you'd ever forgive me" Kerry found it hard to believe he would really be con- cerned about that "And if I did something for which you didn't forgive me," he finished, "I could never trust you again " He stood, one of those disconcertingly fast movements that was hard to follow "Hurry up and get changed," he said There's no reason for both of us to go hungry " 125 AFTER A CONSIDERABLE hike over nibble, they eventually came out at a spot near where the Cenesee ran into Lake Ontario Kerry was amazed to think of Ethan hauling her over all that the previous night, and how she'd slept through it They left behind Regina's quilt—"In case I ever decide to bring another date here," Ethan told her—but carried out Kerry's backpack and what was left of the groceries He took her to a Creek-style family restaurant because, he said, the Creeks generally served breakfast all the time, day and night "Why is that?" she asked "Are there a lot of Greek vam- pires?" He Just smiled in that way that might mean she'd hit on something he wanted to hide, or that might mean she'd Just said something really dumb In the restaurant she came back from using the rest room to find Ethan sitting at their table reading a newspaper "Any- thing interesting?" she asked when he didn't put it away "Mmm-hmm," he said in the same distracted way her rather did at the breakfast table Thinking of her father made her eager to be doing something, and she found herself getting furious at Ethan's slow pace "Reading the personals for secret messages from your friends?" He gave her a dirty look She wanted to shake him and scream. Do something' but suspected that if she annoyed him too much, he would start moving even more slowly Determined not to ask any more questions, figuring he wouldn't answer them anyway, she con- centrated on her cheese omelet When she finally looked up, she saw Ethan drinking from the glass of orange juice that was all he'd ordered "Are you really drinking that?" she asked 126 "No, it's alt done with mirrors," he answered, still not looking up "I didn't think you could " He did look at her then, peeved His glance darted about the practically deserted restaurant "Are you talking about that special diet my doctor has me on?" he asked tightly She nodded, delighted to be an irritation to him "I can have liquids," he told her She smiled brightly, but a second later he turned his attention back to the paper "Didn't your mother ever teach you it's rude to read at the table?" she asked It got her wondering if his mother had known he was a vampire How would her own mother react if she knew what Kerry had done in the last twenty-four hours? If Kerry had been a disappointment before—and she had to have been, or Mom wouldn't have left—the opposite coast wouldn't be far enough should she find out about this Ethan brought Kerry back to the East Coast when he answered, "I figured it was ail right since I'm reading about you" "What?" She grabbed for the paper, but he smacked her across the knuckles with it "What's it say?" she demanded, lowering her voice, suddenly convinced that people wen listening "' disappearance last night of Kerry Nowicki, sixteen, described as having brown hair, hazel eyes, standing about five feet, three inches, and weighing a hundred and twenty pounds "A hundred aunt twenty'" Kerry squeaked Ethan grinned at her outburst but shushed her "There's a picture" He flashed the newspaper in front of her, and she winced 127 It was from last year's school yearbook, taken shortly after her mother had left, when—in a fit of depression—she had let her friend Nellc talk her into a home perm last seen in a pink Jacket, white shirt, black pants, and purple apron—' " Yeah, right, like she'd wear the apron out of the store She hoped they at least mentioned it was a uniform "Who reported me missing^" He motioned her to wait and continued reading "'It is not clear whether Kerry ever amved home after leaving the store parking lot at about eight forty-five in the company of a young man named Eva».'"—he gave her a significant look—" 'described as being in his late teens or early twenties, having dark hair, dark eyes, and weanng a vinyl Jacket' Vmyl," he scoffed, rolling his blue eyes "Wonderful witnesses One of your friends describes you here as 'quiet but friendly' and always having 'a friendly word for everyone "Who said that?" Kerry asked "Craig McDougal, night manager" "Oh, puke," Kerry said That doesn't sound very friendly " "What do they say about lan and my father?" Again he hushed her "What?" she said, seeing him frown "Ethan'" "Sfcb " She repeated his name in a whisper "What bus do you take?" "What?" "School bus Is your driver Cindy Dickerson^" Kerry shivered "What happened'?" "An accident that wasn't an accident, involving the bus f28 and a nineteen eighty-five white Skylark registered to Stephen Nowicki of Fawn Meadow Circle " "My father?" she asked incredulously, not knowing whether to be relieved or if this was further bad news "Your father's car," Ethan corrected "Is your father in his mid-to-late fifties with a receding hairline and a tendency to wear flannel shirts?" "No" "Good" Ethan read, " 'Witnesses say the Skylark side- swiped the bus, driving it off the road near the comer of Brockport Townline Road and Route Thirty-one The bus skidded along the guardrail for a hundred and fifty feet, with the Skylark remaining in position alongside the bus so that Dickerson couldn't get the vehicle back up on the shoulder At the point where the guardrail ended, the bus's right front wheel went up over the concrete divider, causing the bus to tip over onto its side and fall into the drainage ditch along the side of the road Meanwhile the Skylark came to a stop after hitting a fire hydrant' There s a diagram " He held the paper up so she could see, but it was hard to focus "Was anybody"—she couldn't say killed—"hurt?" His blue eyes moved rapidly back and forth as he skimmed the article "Cuts, bruises, a couple broken arms and cracked ribs Most of the people were treated at Lakeside, then re- leased One kid, Kurt Wilmier"—Kerry nodded to show she knew who he meant—"was hit by flying glass and he was taken to Strong Memorial in Rochester The rest afl seem to be in satisfactory condition at Lakeside They say the bus nor- mally transports forty-five students but most had been dropped off already, so there were only seven stil! in the bus The driver of the Skylark took off on foot during the confusion" 129 They're saying," Kerry asked, "that it was intentional? The driver of my father's car purposefully Ethan was nodding Kerry sat back in her seat, stunned. The police checked the registration on the car," Ethan said, "and when they went to your house, they found it as we found it- Your neighbor"—he glanced again at the paper—"Mrs. Annendariz thinks your father and brother may have been missing since Friday evening, based on a phone call from you." Kerry nodded. "Either they haven't caught on yet—or they just didn't mention—that that's your bus " "1 don't take that bus home on Fridays," Kerry said. "Be- cause of working at the store But Brockport Townline Road and Thirty-one, that's right before my stop Do you think this had anything to do with"—Ethan raised his eyebrows at her—"us?" "If not, I would say that's a fairly incredible coincidence. Our pursuer is beginning to get a face- Or at least a hairline." This is not something to take lightly." "Oh, I'm not taking it lightly," Ethan assured her "One thing we've learned over the years, the number one rule— after You can neper have too many covers w a wma.ow—is Don'I mes with kids." She remembered the very first night, when he had talked her into not going to the police, arguing that the people from the laundry would never mention her. . . . "People go crazy when other people hurt fcnfs," he'd said. It was to lessen their chances of being found out, but still, she thought, it was one point on the side of the vampires. This is awful," she said. "Whoever this is, he risked killing 130 a school bus-load of kids to get at me What kind of a person would do something like that?" "Not a very smart one," Ethan said, "if he's after you because he thinks you're a vampire, and he rammed the bus in the afternoon " Kerry picked up her fork and Jabbed it into her omelet several times before she realized what she was doing She mushed what was left of her food into a soupy mix "Now what?" she asked "We need another car," Ethan said Kerry looked at him in shock "We'll rent it," he assured her "It's just at this point I don't know if my name has gotten tangled up in all this " "You mean because of"—she finally remembered that they were in a public place—"the people from the laundry dis- appearing?" He was obviously startled at the suggestion. "No. They didn't disappear Regina and I made it look like it involved drugs and prostitution " "What?" Kerry asked "Why^" "Because that's the kind of thing the police see so often they're the least interested in it And to keep the families off track." "The poor families, though" Kerry thought of shocked parents and spouses spending the rest of their lives thinking they'd never really known their loved ones Like she'd realized she'd never really known her mother. Ethan shrugged "What about Regina's house? Has that been tied in to this?" "A different article entirely" Ethan turned to the lo- cal section Kerry could read the headline upside down: l3t SINGLE-FAMILY HOME COMPLETELY DESTROYED BY BLAZE, and underneath that, in smaller print. Fire of Suspicious Or- igin Ethan read aloud "' arson suspected no one hurt in the blaze The owner wasn't home at the time of the fire. and the police are seeking her for questioning "So," Kerry said, "nothing specific has you worried, but you're just going to"—she suddenly realized, halfway through the sentence—"drop Ethan Bryne and pick up a new identity" He didn't answer "It must be tough," she said, "living through eternity al- ways having to look over your shoulder " There was a flicker of annoyance across his face, but before he had a chance to say anything, his attention suddenly shifted to the front door Kerry saw a policeman had just walked in For a moment she thought about Jumping up, asking him for help But how likely was a policeman to believe in vampires? And besides, who was better suited to rescue her father and lan from vampire hunters—a policeman or a vampire? Ethan, she was sure, read all of these conflicting thoughts on her face He gave her a second to be sure of her choice, then "So," he said breezily, opening the newspaper to the last page, "which is your favorite comic?" It took Kerry a moment to catch up " 'Calvin and Hobbes'" "That's the morning paper How about 'Peanuts'?" "Fine" The policeman seemed to know the woman who was the hostess, and the cook, who came out from the kitchen wearing a chefs hat and a white apron Ethan spread the paper out on the table, and they both leaned over it to read "Peanuts" "Cute," Ethan said 132 "Mmm-bmm," she agreed, though she was too distracted for the words to make any sense Police, or even mall security guards, always made her fee! guilty—even when she hadn't done anything She hoped she didn't look guilty The policeman was looking around the restaurant, and she was sure he paused an extra few seconds on her "1 don't get 'Doonesbury,'" she said "1 never get 'Doonesbury,'" Ethan said The policeman was definitely heading toward them "Excuse me" Ethan looked up, and if she hadn't known better. Kerry would have sworn he was startled to find a policeman standing there wanting to talk to them Startled, but not worried Curious—the way a perfectly innocent person would be "We're looking for a young girl," the policeman said He even had a picture "My God," Ethan said, "she looks just like you, Sterne" Kerry reached for the picture It was a copy of the one in the paper Hesitantly, as though thinking about it, she said, "Naw Maybe our eyes arc the same " "Oh, the nose, too," Ethan said "She definitely has your nose " He took Kerry by the chin and tilted her head so she was in profile for the policeman "Don't you think?" he asked The policeman nodded "The hair's different, of course, curlier and lighter" That had been a side effect of the perm "May I ask your names?" "Tim," Ethan said, then corrected it to 'Timothy Davm, and my sister" "Steffie Davin," Kerry said "Do you know this girl?" the policeman asked "Her name's Kerry Nowicki" 133 "Do we have any Nowickis in the family?" Ethan asked her "What's the name of Aunt Fern's daughter's family—the one in Sodus^" "Noland, i think," Ethan said "Well," the policeman said, "then I take it you haven't seen her/" "I don't think so," Ethan said "I don't think so," Kerry repeated Thanks for your trouble " The policeman went back to the hostess and asked if he could set the picture up by the cash register "What do you think she's done?" Kerry asked "fain away," Ethan answered with a knowing nod. The policeman left " or arson, accessory to murder, grand theft auto, and obstructing justice," Ethan finished Kerry pushed her plate away She was becoming an ac- complished liar—just as her mother had been those last sev- eral months "What? No credit card frauds" she asked "Ah," Ethan leaned in close to whisper, "that comes when we rent the car " 134 CHAPTER THIRTEEN L THAN USED ANOTHER name to rent the car, charging i—? he said, 'Tell him that you overpowered me " "Yeah, like he's going to believe that. "1 tied you up before dawn, but you got loose while I was still asleep in my coffin, and you secured the lid shut so I couldn't get out—" "Do you sleep in a coffin?" Kerry asked "No. —and you've been looking for him ever since Which, you tell him, was what I planned to do tonight. So you've gone to him, first to warn him, second because he's the one person in the world who'll believe you about me, third to have him do your dirty work for you " "Meaning, to kill you." Obviously "And where will you be all this time?" "My house, which is where you'll tell him 1 am. Except that I won't be in the helpless heap he anticipates." "Will you kill him?" Even though she knew that Marsala might well have injured or killed her family, that went against everything she had ever believed in- "My God, Kerry," Ethan said, "that can't be a surprise." "No," she admitted. "As it can't be a surprise that, given the chance, he'd kill me. And no matter what he tells you tonight, hell be planning to kill you, too." Ethan looked so calm, so matter-of-fact. Of course, she told herself, this was nothing new to him- She might even ask him, And you arm't planning to kill me? But she didn't- "I won't ask for your help," he told her. "You get him in the house, and that's the last I'll ask. But it might help you to remind yourself that he's not just a danger to vampires; he's so intent on getting at us that he's a danger to your kind, 164 too No matter what, keep reminding yourself of that school bus tumbling into the ditch." "All right," she said "Plus your father, your brother, anybody who gets in his way." "All right," she repeated more emphatically. "I'll do it. It's not a very good plan, you know. Too many loopholes, too many places where he might not believe me, where things might go wrong" Ethan spread his hands in an I'm-open-to-suggestions gesture She didn't have any. He watched her intently, gauging, not liking—she was sure—that his life would be in her hands There must be other vampires, Kerry thought. If he didn't have to protect them, surely Ethan would just move on—to a different identity, in a different place As he'd obviously had experience doing before. But finally he nodded He handed her the keys to the new Monte Carlo- "Then it begins," he said. "And, Kerry, need I mention? If you can't have him back here by six-thirty, don't bring him at ail." "Sunrise isn't until after seven " "If you aren't here by six-thirty," he repeated, "I won't be either. Which means if you bring him here after six- thirty—" "I'll be on my own," she finished for him. So he didn't trust her, not completely. "How about," she suggested, "if I don't find him by six, I'll come back here alone and we can look again tomorrow'" He considered, then inclined his head in agreement "Fine." "What if I find him but he won't come until after sunrise?" 165 Ethan smiled at her Then I hope you can come up with a convincing reason for him why I'm not here. And"—again he threw her own words back at her—"you will be on your own. And so will your father and brother. Vampires are by nature a conservative and cautious lot. Unlike the young, we know exactly how much we have to lose. You don't want me nervous about your intentions." "You don't need to threaten me," she said. He just sat there looking at her, with his eyes cool and distant, an unspoken reminder that—should he decide she'd let him down—he had all the time in the world to plot re- venge 166 CHAPTER SIXTEEN KERRY RECOGNIZED THE first flaw in the plan as soon as she pulled the Monte Carlo away from the curb, There was no way she coutd go to the supermarket to see if Professor Marsala was there because that was the one place she was bound to be recognized, DofSH't matter, she told herself. Surety if the professor planned to spend the greater part of the night in one place, it wouldn't be there, where somebody was sure to notice after the first two or three hours that he was lurking in the frozen- foods aisle- Restaurants and bars made much more sense. The first place she looked was the Student Union at the college, since that was the place where the professor was most likely to find people he knew, people who were most 167 apt to intervene if strangers with long, sharp teeth tried to drag him out The place was incredibly noisy, with music and talking and a whole crowd of people out to have a good time on a Saturday night It also wasn't very well lit. so that Kerry had to wander in among the tables, staring. No sign of the man whose picture she'd seen on the piano, Next she started going to the restaurants- "I'm supposed to be meeting someone," she'd tell the host or hostess. "May I look to see if he's here yet?" He never was The bars were worse When she went into the first one, the bartender called out to her, "Proof" "Excuse me?" Kerry wasn't trying to order something— all she'd done was walk into the place Maybe she hadn't heard right She had the impression everyone was staring at her, thinking how dumb she was. "Proof of age," the bartender said- "Cot to be twenty-one to be legal in New York State." "I'm not twenty-one," Kerry stammered- "No kidding. You can't be in here, then" "I'm looking for"—she realized what it would sound like if she said someone—"my father." "He's not here," the bartender said. "Please leave before I have to have you escorted out." "How do you know he's not here?" she demanded. "No fatherly types at all " The bartender signaled to some- one, and Kerry said, "I'm going, I'm going." She turned around in the doorway for a last look. No sign of Marsala, but the bouncer that the bartender had sum- moned was closing in fast. Kerry left Even if the professor was there, he'd have to f68 leave eventually—she checked her watch—soon, before the place shut down for the night. The second bar was bad, too, though in a different way A woman—she must have been the manager—came bus- tling over as soon as Kerry stepped across the threshold "I'm looking for my father," Kerry said before the woman could start in on her. "Please." She heard the desperation in her voice, and apparently the manager did, too. Her face softened. "Oh, you poor dearie," she said Kerry tried to look more like a poor dearie- The woman escorted her from room to room—the place was a converted house—and even offered to call the police for her, "No, no," Kerry said "Don't bother. He always comes home eventually." The woman patted her hand sympathetically and said, "Oh, you poor dearie," again Kerry even checked the other supermarket, the one where she didn't work Not likely, she knew, but it was only two o'clock, which gave her another four and a half hours. After that, she drove back to the college and started all over again Her search was shorter this time, since several of the places had closed, and in those places that were still open there was less of a crowd. The third time she went to the Student Union she found him. About twenty people were left from the night's earlier crowd, spread out in two main groups; one was clustered around a TV set, watching The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. those in the smaller group were arguing because they wanted to start an alternative campus newspaper but couldn't agree 169 on a name for it. A lone girl was reciting sad poetry about bad men, accompanying herself on guitar; and a couple sat holding hands, the giH crying, the boy speaking softly but earnestly. The cashier, who looked like a student himself, sat on a stool, smoking despite the No SMOKING sign and playing some sort of hand-held electronic game that sporadically beeped or played music. Seated in what Kerry would have been willing to bet was the exact center of the room was Professor Gilbert Marsala. He was thinner than he'd been at the time the picture was taken, his hairline farther back, but there was never any doubt in her mind who it was He was drinking from a mug and reading a book, though he looked up every few seconds, glancing alt around nervously. He spotted Kerry as soon as she started toward him, and she saw his gaze flick around the room as he tried to decide who best to approach for help. She held her hands out—fronts, then backs—to dem- onstrate she carried no weapons, and she gestured behind her, which was meant to draw his attention to the fact that she was alone. Marsala looked tense, but at least he didn't bolt. "I'm all alone," Kerry said as soon as she was within range and could say it softly, so as not to attract attention. "Please, can we talk? Here is fine." He didn't look like she'd expected. Somehow she'd thought he'd have a twitch, or some manic gleam in his eye, something that would mark him as a man with inner demons Someone fanatic enough to run over anyone who got in his way and steal people's fathers and little boys from their homes Kerry sat down, placing her hands on the table where he could see them. "Where are my father and brother?" she asked. "I don't know." For a second she thought he was going f70 to deny knowing what she was talking about, but then he added, "Home by now, I guess. Or still in the hospital. Or maybe the police have them. I let them go, you know" She'd seen they weren't home and she wasn't sure whether to believe the other possibilities, but any note of hope was good to hear anyway "I'm not a vampire," she said- She could see the thought Swrr, you're not travel through his brain. "Any test," she assured him, "anything you can think of, 111 do it." He sat looking at her- "You were with them." "Yes" There was certainly no use denying it "Regina and Ethan. 1 never met them before Thursday night. I didn't know what they were." "They killed my friends—Phil and George, Ken, Danny, and Marcia" "1 know," she said That sounded worse than it was- "I mean, I didn't know until after" "I was watching," Marsala said, and for an awful moment she thought he meant he'd seen his friends die- "I saw him drive up with you, introduce you to her." And she realized he must have been somewhere near Ethan's house. "I saw him clean the blood out of the car, and then I saw them drive you home Like a damned escort service." "It was his blood," Kerry said, not sure how Marsala was interpreting what he'd seen Did he think Ethan had fed on her in her father's car, making her a vampire that very night, or that it was Marsala's friends' blood and that she had helped kill them? "ftbaw's blood. His own. Your friends were going to kill him- I came into it in the middle of things. I didn't understand 1 thought they were crazy and they were going to kill some poor innocent guy" "He's no innocent," Marsala said. "I know that now" Kerry nodded for emphasis. She i7t couldn't bring herself to say any of the things Ethan had suggested She just said, "I do know it" "Did they drink your blood?" He reached to push the loose strands of hair away from her neck but stopped, perhaps thinking touching her was inappropriate, or maybe realizing the marks would have gone away by now in any case She swept the hair clear anyway "No," she said firmly "She drank Joey's blood" There was no answer for that "I watched him change into one of them " Kerry wasn't sure she'd heard that right "You watched . ">" "It took a while Four, five months from the time he first met her" "No," Kerry said, but before she could explain that it only took seconds, he continued, "At first we didn't know There were all those rehearsals, twice a week, then three times, every night by the last two weeks Ridiculous schedule for a school production, like the play was more important than the school- work But then it was finally over Except that it wasn't over 'I'm going out.' he said Every night Just like that 'I'm going out' He led us to believe it was one of the girls from the play, but then Patty, my wife, and I found out it was that Regina woman, the director 'She's older than / am,' Patty said He didn't care She'd bitten him by then " "I'm not sure what you're saying," Kerry admitted "She encouraged him to lie to us She taught him to smoke marijuana, and she provided him with liquor even though he was underage He'd never done any of those things before His marks He'd been a straight-A student in high school, dean's list every semester But suddenly he was failing and taking incompletcs Dropped his old friends, dropped his old *73 interests Stayed up all night, partying, didn't want to get up in the morning Talked back to his mother, sassed me. We had no idea then, but it was the vampire's bite He was changing into one of them right before our very eyes, and we didn't know it Then I started following her Then I saw." Kerry shook her head That's not—" Marsala pointed a finger at her "I didn't know how to stop it" He nodded slowly "I do now" He'd stopped it with Regina "Professor Marsala," Kerry said She didn't dare say, Your son was growing up and be made bad decisions, or That's called rebellion, not vampirism. His story was an awful mishmash combining truth and speculation and, she supposed, a fathers gnef and guilt She said, "It isn't like that Either someone's a vampire or not, it doesn't take months " That what one of them told you"" She nodded "Do you believe everything they tell you?" "No," she said "Of course not But—" "Don't believe anything," Marsala said "I don't know what they promised him But then, when they'd strung him out long enough, when they were done laughing at him, they killed him The police thought it was a car accident" She remembered Ethan saying that he and Regina had arranged the deaths of Marsala's friends to look like part of a straggle between opposing drug factions Of course they wouldn't discard drained bodies carelessly The vampires couldn't afford to have people speculating in that direction And as Ethan had admitted, unexplained disappearances raised too many questions Marsala was nodding, as though to encourage her to be- lieve "He'd been dnnking Car hit a tree But I knew That 173 woman was evil. She turned our son against us I started tracking her, and I found out what she was, then I kept on tracking her because I knew there couldn't be just one 'Wail long enough and she'll lead us to more.' I said Even Patty didn't believe me She couldn't race it and she ran away But I knew The sunlight proved me right" An image of what had been left of Regina flashed through her mind Although she wasn't aware of it. it must have shown on her face, for Marsala said, "You saw her? You saw what the sunlight did? Don't feel sorry for her Do you know why sunlight destroys them?" Kerry shook her head "Because Cod won't permit such evil to exist under the sun" Kerry bit her lip to keep from asking why, then, Cod would permit such evil to exist under the moon "You"—Marsala pointed at her again—"you're an in- between case Like Joey Seduced by the glamor of evil" The word seduced made her cheeks grow warm, which he no doubt saw He nodded, and she was sure he thought it was worse than it was "Fight them," he said "I know they've got their claws in you, but fight them " "They do not have their claws in me," Kerry protested, "and at least they don't go around ramming school buses and kidnapping innocent people" "I don't think you know half of what they do," Marsala said Which was probably true "How old is your young- looking friend? Fifty years? A hundred? Two hundred? Mul- tiply that times three hundred sixty-five nights a year, and call me cold blooded" t74 They don't kill every night" "Something else they told you?" Ethan hadn't killed last night, she thought Or, at least, she was fairly certain he hadn't On the other hand, the night .before, he and Regina had killed four And tonight he was planning on killing at least one She ran her hand through her hair "I don't want to argue," she said "I didn't come here to defend them. But I'm not one of them And I'm not one-of-them-in-training. I want some assurance that you haven't hurt my dad and my brother If you can give me that, I'll tell you where Ethan is, and how you can get him " Marsala sat back and looked at her as though evaluating "Vampires don't lie?" he asked "I never said that I just—" "Do you lie?" Kerry worked hard to look him right in the eyes "No" "Then you told your father exactly what happened Thurs- day night" Kerry looked away "I He didn't ask, and I didn't volunteer the information" "Which is not the same as lying?" Marsala said There was no good answer to that 'Then let me ask you this," Marsala continued "How did your friend know who 1 was?" "He recognized your picture in the paper" "If he saw the paper"—Marsala gave a grim smile—"how is it you didn't know your father and your brother are safe?" "What?" 175 "You didn't ask, and he didn't volunteer the informa- tion?" "I don't understand what you're getting at." "They were in the car," Marsala said. "In the trunk If they're not home now, the police must have them in protec- tive custody" "You—" Kerry made a conscious effort to lower her voice "You rammed into a school bus with my father and brother in the trunk of the car? You could have killed them. They could have suffocated-" "I admit I wasn't thinking straight," Marsala said- "1 went to your house to get you When I found you weren't home from school yet, I forced your family to get into the car, with no clear plan in mind. When I saw the bus ... It was stupid, I admit- I didn't think of those other children on the bus I only thought of you, becoming what 1 had seen Joey becom- ing, feeding on people's blood, killing people, night after night after night for centuries I didn't stop to think—about your family in the back or about your innocent classmates But my point is, unlike the vampires, I didn't hurt anyone- The people on the school bus survived, and your family survived" Marsala waggled his finger at her "And your friend didn't tell you that. He figured he could use you better if you didn't know" "He didn't know," Kerry started, then she changed that to "I don't know. You might have them buried in a shallow grave in your backyard, for all 1 know." Marsala turned around in his seat and called out to the student cashier, "Max!" "Yo," Max said, not quite diverting his attention from his game- 176 "Do you still have that newspaper? The one with the picture you thought looked like me?" Max rapidly hit a few more buttons before reaching under the counter He tossed the newspaper, and it almost made it to their table Marsala leaned over and picked it up, then folded it back to the front page There was her school picture, and the diagram of the accident scene, and the composite drawing of Marsala The professor tapped his finger on a paragraph in the first column ". . Stephen and lan Nowicki," the article said, "found tied and gagged in the trunk of the car, shaken but unharmed." The- following paragraphs described how a man wearing a ski mask and armed with a gun had forced his way into their house, demanding to know where sixteen- year-old Kerry Nowicki was Told she was still at school, he'd tied them and gagged them Then, after searching the house, he trashed the living room, after which he forced them into the trunk of their own car The article said that Stephen Nowicki felt the car swerve and hit something repeatedly, but at some point during the crash into the bus or the fire hydrant, he banged his head on the car's tire iron and lost conscious- ness During the time the police and ambulance were at the scene, only four-year-old lan Nowicki was conscious, and he had been warned by the intruder not to make a sound, "or else" So he dutifully remained quiet By the time his father regained consciousness, the car had apparently been im- pounded by the police because no one heard his cries for help. The two weren't discovered until police investigating the bus incident opened the trunk at about nine o'clock in the evening. i77 Kerry looked up from the newspaper and met Marsala's triumphant smile. "He knew," she whispered. "Apparently he didn't think it was important enough to mention," Marsala said. Kerry couldn't think of how often they'd skirted the sub- ject of her family this evening Ethan knew how frightened she was for them Over and over he'd had the chance to say, They're all right. Marsala doesn't havt them. Relief and a sense of betrayal balanced so precariously she didn't know whether to laugh out loud or cry. "They're treacherous," Marsala said. "You can't trust them They don't think Uke we do- They don't even consider them- selves human They're like aliens; they're like vile and vicious animals " Marsala reached out and covered her hand with his- It was warm and slightly rough, as though chapped from the weather or from honest work "Will you really help me stop him from killing other people's sons and daughters?" he asked. "Or are you here to defend him?" "He knew," Kerry repeated. "1 held my little brother's toy bear and cried, thinking he and my father might both be dead. And Ethan didn't say anything. I cried in front of him, and he didn't say anything." She looked into Marsala's face, the face of a man who'd lost his son and—in a different way—his wife to vampires. A man who'd been unable for three years to convince anyone of the terrible truth only he knew, and who'd fought back in the only way he could "He wanted me to trick you," she said, "to convince you that I was helping you, but to bring you back to his house, where he planned to kill you " "Good," Marsala said "Good?" 178 He had a quirky smile that reminded her of the picture she'd seen of his son, Joe. "I don't mean good that he plans to kill me, I mean {food that you told me- We've had enough lies told to us, I think, you and me So I'll tell you the truth, Kerry Nowicki No matter how good a little helper you've been to this vampire, he can't afford to let you live You have to decide who's going to die: him—or you and me." t79 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN KERRY TOLD MARSALA everything she'd learned about Ethan Some of it he didn't believe, and she couldn't tell if that was because he thought she was lying or because he thought Ethan had lied to her By the end she wasn't sure how much of it she herself believed "Do you know how he plans to kill me^" Marsala asked "No," Kerry said "But you do accept that he plans to?" "He admitted it" Kerry squirmed because by saying so, she admitted that she had knowingly plotted to kill the man she now was facing Marsala didn't point that out Instead he said, "Pull your chair around closer" *80 Kerry glanced around to sec if somebody appeared to be listening The young couple in the back looked cheerier— they were sharing an order of trench fries—but other than that everybody in the room looked the same as when she'd entered She moved her chair closer to Marsala anyway He reached into the inner pocket of his Jacket "Don't get jumpy," he warned And, by that, she knew He didn't pull the gun out of his pocket; he was just showing her "I don't suppose," he said, not sounding very hopeful, "you've ever used one?" Kerry shook her head "What good's a gun going to be against a vampire anyway?" "Fired from close enough, this'll slow him down " Kerry remembered the laundry, remembered Sidowski holding his revolver up to Ethan's head and saying much the same thing She forced the image from her mind "They heal fast, but not that fast Besides, this has silver bullets" "Isn't that for werewolves?" Kerry asked, eager to stop thinking, to lose herself in the details By the disgusted look on Marsala's face, she guessed that whoever had sold him the gun and ammunition must have said something similar "Vampires can't stand the touch of silver," Marsala said "Same as garlic Not as bad as sunlight, but it'll be an extra kick" Kick, she thought Kerry wondered if that was just another superstition, like that vampires' images aren't reflected in mirrors, which she had seen wasn't true Ethan hadn't mentioned anything about (81 silver, but, then again, if it was true, Kerry supposed he wouldn't have if it was true, maybe it would serve to kill him more quickly, painlessly. Marsala said, "1 want you to take this and hide it. See if you've got a pocket big enough Otherwise you can stick it in the waistband ot your jeans." "I'm not sticking a gun down my pants," Kerry whispered at him. "It's got a safety," Marsala said- "Check your pockets " They weren't her pockets It was Ethan's jacket, which seemed terribly unfair There was an inner pocket. "I can't," she said "I could never shoot anybody" "Not even knowing what he is?" Marsala asked. "Not even knowing he's killed uncountable others, and intends to kill you, and may well decide that your family has seen too much and kill them, too?" Kerry withered under this onslaught. "I don't know," she admitted. "But even if I wanted to, I'm sure I'd never be able to hit him 1 have terrible aim when it comes to—" Marsala had taken the gun out of his pocket and was holding it under the table 'Take the damn gun before some- body sees it," he interrupted "All I'm asking is for you to hold it" Kerry took the gun The dark metal was cold, and it was heavier than she would have thought. She gingerly stuck it into her pocket. "Here's an extra clip" Marsala handed over the extra bul- lets "Put it into the outside pocket, same side." "Why?" Kerry asked "Same side so that it's easy to find. Outside pocket so that f82 when you pull out the gun, you don't pull out the clip at the same time and drop it" Not only did it make sense, it almost sounded as though he knew her "In case you do need to use it"—Kerry shook her head, but he kept on talking—"you need to slide back the safety by the trigger. Stop shaking your head and listen- It can't hurt to know " He was right. Kerry stopped shaking her head The safety," he repeated, "is by the trigger You push it back with your thumb. iJyou fire, it'll recoil—it'll kick back So be prepared for that The empty shell will drop out auto- matically and the next bullet will be ready to fire You don't need to release the safety again, but you need to let go of the trigger, then pull it back for the second shot. Do you understand?" "More or less," Kerry said miserably "Do you understand?" Marsala insisted. ii\/ ii Yes. "The clip holds nine bullets We're not even going to talk about reloading." Good, Kerry thought, but she knew not to say it- Marsala put his hand over hers again. She didn't like it. but pulling away seemed too unfriendly a gesture "I know this is difficult for you," he said. "But if he manages to take me by surprise, he'd be a fool not to search me for weapons. And one thing this vampire isn't is a fool" "1 understand " Kerry wriggled her hand free and pushed her hair back from her forehead, then she put both hands in her lap. "Just be ready to hand it to me," Marsala said- "And I 183 probably iyil! sqy 'it,' rather than 'gun,' which might or might not give us another second or so of surprise. Whatever you do, don't let him separate us." "All right" Then, before Kerry was ready for it, Marsala stood. "We might as well get started. The closer we get to his cutoff time, the more nervous he's going to get, the more eager he's going to be to do it fast—which gives us less of a chance to turn the tables on him. Steady now." He took her elbow to help her get to her feet, "It's more clear cut than you think. It's good versus evil no matter how attractively the evil .dis- guises itself." "Fine," Kerry said. He was right, she knew he was right: Did he have to be so self-righteous about it? "Just don't let him confuse you," Marsala warned. THE STUDENT UNION was situated in the middle of the campus, easy access for those who lived and went to school in the surrounding buildings, which meant that there were no parking lots right nearby. Which meant that Marsala could have parked in any of several places. Which meant that Ethan must have been following her all along and been waiting for them, even though Kerry hadn't heard a thing, hadn't seen a thing. Because, suddenly, he was there, materializing out of the shadows as Marsala leaned to unlock the car door, his arm crossing in front of Marsala so that his open palm rested against Marsala's chin, the other hand placed behind the professor's neck- The fact that he obviously hadn't trusted her, combined with the fact that she had just betrayed him, served to bring t84 the color to her cheeks. Was his eyesight good enough to be able to tell? "I could kill you here and now," Ethan warned Marsala, "though in principle I'm against leaving dead bodies strewn about parking lots." Kerry saw Marsala's eyes shift to her, but he didn't say anything, and he didn't struggle Ethan, standing behind, had no way to see He kept one hand under Marsala's chin but ran the other along Marsala's torso. Kerry could tell he found something by the way he reached into one of Marsala's pockets, A srconJ gun? Kerry wondered. Didn't Marsala trust her either? But what Ethan pulled out was something much smaller, and not at all shiny. It took her several seconds, and then it was the smell that told her: a handful of garlic cloves- With an expression of mild disgust, which may have been for nothing more than the smell, Ethan let them drop. "Cet in the backseat," he ordered. "Kerry, you drive." Marsala handed her the keys. She couldn't tell from his face what he wanted her to do. Ethan got in the back with him. What was she supposed to do if Ethan attacked him there, drinking his blood while she was behind the wheel? Marsala's gun weighted down the jacket, so it hung lower on the right- hand side. "Ethan?" Could he hear the tremor in her voice? Would it make him suspicious? "His house," Ethan said. It would help if she could read his expression- When Marsala was talking, she could recognize his emotions: hate 165 for the vampires, tenderness for his son, anticipation mixed with fear at the thought of having this finally done. But she couldn't tell what Ethan was feeling, whether it was anger at Regina's killer, or satisfaction because he'd caught him, or simple bloodlust. What should I do? she wondered Sitting behind the steering wheel, it took Kerry several seconds to realize she couldn't follow Ethan's instructions, even if she wanted to. "It's a stick shift," she said, "I don—" "Push in the clutch with your left foot," Ethan told her, "then turn the key." Nothing happened. "Do it again," Ethan instructed. "Keep the clutch in." This time the car started. "All right, put the car in gear: pull the stick toward your leg, then straight back. There's a diagram on the ball- You want to go from P to one." Kerry did exactly what Ethan said, and nothing happened. She pressed harder on the accelerator, and the engine raced, but still the car didn't move. "Ease up on the clutch," Ethan said. "Slowly." The car shudder-hopped several feet. "More gas," Ethan advised, The car lurched forward and Kerry slammed on the brake The engine stalled. "I hate this," she said. 'Try again" The fourth or fifth time the car stalled. Ethan finally gave up, "All right," he said- "Kerry, you get in the back. We'll ride in front." She'd been afraid that he would abandon her there in the parking lot, which would leave Marsala weaponless and on 186 his own. But the fact that he wanted her along strengthened Marsalas claim that Ethan planned to kill her, too, once he'd gotten rid of Marsala Ethan pulled Marsala out of the car. He opened the front passenger door, obviously intent on getting in fint and then pulling Marsala in after him, which would entail crawling over the stick shift—but that way at least Marsala wouldn't be alone in the front seat. However, taking up the entire passenger seat was a toolbox, the huge kind, such as Kerry would have imagined a professional construction worker having "I'll move it," Kerry offered. She'd gotten out of the driver's seat and circled around to the right side of the car, but Ethan—stilt holding on to Marsala with his right hand—had already leaned in to get it out of the way himself Kerry saw him freeze, then turn to Marsala. She looked over his outstretched arm. At first she couldn't tell what had happened, except that the cover had come up- Then she realized what was in the box- at least a half dozen pointed, two-foot-long stakes, a mallet, a silver crucifix, and—by the smell—more garlic at the bottom. On top of it all was a hatchet, no doubt the one Marsala had used on Regina Seeing the hatchet, imagining Marsala watching Regina die in the sunlight and then chopping off her head, Kerry felt her resolve begin to melt. She glanced at Ethan, expecting to see anguish or—at the very least—fury. Nothing. She could read nothing on his face Take the box in back, would you, Kerry?" he asked in a perfectly level, perfectly calm voice Kerry closed the cover and picked up the box, which was heavy but manageable She stepped out of the way to let Ethan enter. Then—at the moment Ethan was occupied with <87 dragging Marsala in after him—she turned, holding out her coat in a gesture that was an unwelcome reminder of the Rochester prostitutes. She felt the tug as Marsala took the gun from her inner pocket. By the time Ethan was settled behind the steering wheel, Marsala, next to him, had the gun in his own pocket, and Kerry was sitting in the backseat with Marsala's vampire-hunting kit. f88 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN L. THAN KEPT A wary watch on Marsala as he drove, no JL-^doubt ready to grab him if he tried to escape from the car, to shove him back if he lunged Marsala, of course, did neither; and Kerry, hunched mis- erably in the backseat, realized she was too confused to ac- tively hope for anything Except that she could keep from crying Which, the moment she thought about it, she couldn't She bit her lip, trying to regain control, sure—at least— she was being so quiet no one would notice "Kerry?" Ethan, spreading his attention between Marsala and driving, spared a quick glance in her direction Then another "Did he hurt you?" Before she could answer, he <89 grabbed a handful of Marsala's jacket and shoved him so that his head bounced off the side window, saying, "If you hurt her—" "No!" Kerry said at the same time Marsala said the same thing. "I'm all right," she insisted. She could see Ethan's skeptical reflection in the rearview mirror. He kept hold of Marsala until he had to downshift, and even then he let go reluctantly. And what was she supposed to make of that? She rested her forehead in her hand and didn't move until Ethan pulled the car into Marsala's driveway, "Out," he told Marsala, and he began sliding him across the seat and out the door. To Kerry he said, "Stay here." "No," Surely when Marsala had told her not to let Ethan separate them, he had been more afraid of getting separated from his gun than from her. but she couldn't just abandon him now Marsala was on the side of right, she told herself as Ethan's blue eyes, surprised, turned in her direction, Re- memfctr Regina's house, she told herself. Remember Berffoi Swamfi. "If anybody looks out and sees me just sitting here, they'll get suspicious," she explained. "AH right, then," Ethan said in a tone that was like an , icicle melting down her jacket collar. "In that case, you can carry the box." Did he guess she'd betrayed him? Had she just failed his final test by not admitting it and begging his forgiveness? Don't be silly, she told herself- If Ethan suspected her, she couldn't imagine he'd waste time and effort with tests- They used Marsala's key this time and turned on the light that hung over the entryway stairwell. "Up," Ethan ordered. Kerry followed the two of them. 190 "You tike the idea of drinking my blood in my own house, vampire?" Marsala asked. "That's what the other one, the female, would have done, too. I tracked her. 1 followed her for two years before she led me to you, and I got to know her habits. She had a great sense of irony." At the head of the stairs, Ethan gave him a shove into the living room. "Or are you going to let the girl drain me? Is that how the transition is made, with the first kill?" Kerry set the vampire-hunter's box down at the top of the stairs, wondering if he was just stalling for time or whether he really believed that, as though the fact that she had helped him wasn't enough to convince him Ethan had never bitten her. "Nobody's going to feed on you," Ethan said. He backed Marsala up against the wall, holding him by the shoulders so that Marsala couldn't get to the gun. Why didn't he do it before^ Kerry thought /H the car. m the driveway, going up the stairs? Not that she wanted to see Ethan killed, but she knew there was no other way. "I see," Marsala said. How could he remain so cool? Didn't he know how quickly Ethan could move? "We're just here because we're all good friends," Marsala said. "We're just here to make your death look like something else," Ethan corrected. He tossed a set of keys onto the coffee table, Kerry could see the Ferrari symbol: Regina's keys, to give the police a lead in her disappearance, even if the body was never found "What's the matter?" Marsala taunted. "Don't you want to do it in front of the girl? Don't you want her to see you with my blood dripping off your fangs, smeared on your teeth and chin? Don't you want her to see what you are before you t9i finish making her one of you?" He didn't wait for an answer "Kerry"—she Jumped at the suddenness of his calling her name—"there's a tape recorder in the box, under the stakes Get it out and press PLAY " Elhan gave her a confused and worried glance He hadn't known, Kerry saw He hadn't guessed. He hadn't suspected The thought had never crossed his mind But it did now "Do it," Marsala commanded "No" Ethan didn't know what was going on—Kirry couldn't tell what Marsala planned—but he definitely needed to see which of them she'd listen to "I'm sony," Kerry said She opened the box and lifted the tray out, exposing a portable AM/FM radio-tape player and the gaHic she'd suspected all along "Kerry," Ethan said uncertainly, spending a dangerous amount of attention on her Kerry pressed the P1AY button There was the hiss of the tape before the recording started, and Marsala said, "And now take out the gun" She jerked her head up She had an instant of terror, supposing a second gun that she couldn't find, before she saw both men start to move There was no gun But with no way to know that, Ethan released Marsala and lunged toward Keny While Marsala went for the gun in his pocket Kerry, still on the staircase, dropped to her knees and covered her head, knowing what woefully inadequate pro- tection that would be against vampires or bullets There were two shots, and Ethan cried out in pain, just as the music on the recorder started—loud classical music, 192 perhaps the overture to an opera. Just the kind of music to camouflage murder Kerry forced herself to look up She had been sure Marsala would aim for the head to inflict the worst damage She was sure that she would look up to find Ethan dead or dying, but Marsala had shot him in the leg The left leg, she noted irrelevantly, the leg opposite from the one that had been injured last time Both bullets had hit him in the thigh As Ethan tried to sit up, Marsala came closer and fired a third bullet into his right knee Kerry covered her mouth to keep from crying out Ethan doubled over, not making a sound this time Marsala had a clear shot at his head if that was what he intended But apparently that wasn't what he intended "You," he said, motioning to Kerry She had to pass by Ethan, who watched her but made no move to stop her She remembered him saying that vampires didn't feel hot or cold the way humans did, and she told herself that he couldn't fee! pain to the same extent that a human would, either As proof, she pointed out to herself that otherwise he would have screamed when Marsala's third bullet hit his knee Surely his first outcry had been from startlement She re- membered how hurt and scared he had looked in the laundry, and how that had been an act "I'm sony," she said again "Open the drapes," Marsala told her She glanced at Ethan, who was looking from her to Marsala "Do 1 have to say everything twice^" Marsala demanded Kerry knelt on the couch to reach the cord that opened the drapes covering the picture window i93 The side window, too And the sliding-glass door in the kitchen That's the main one It faces east" Marsala checked his watch, then glanced at the tape recorder "Come oh, long before Madame Butterfly realises she's been betrayed, the sun is going to nse up over those trees and flood this whole part of the house with all that lovely, cleansing light How long since you've seen a sunrise, vampire^" Ethan met his smirk levclly and said nothing Kerry crossed in front of him again to go into the kitchen, to open the drapes over the door that led from the kitchen to a small wooden deck in back of the house Stop it. she wished at Marsala There was no need to gloat and torment Ethan She remembered, again, how Ethan had almost killed her at Rcgina's house Tm nol ifoiru) to hurt you." he'd promised She tried to replace that image with the one from Bcrgen Swamp, when he'd been angry, but then he'd only kissed her neck As in Tag. you're it So maybe he hadn't been angry after all That one was too hard to figure out Once again the thought of Regina's house forced itself into her mind He'd held her slightly off to the side, so that she'd been pressed against his chest, but that was all, as though he was taking into account her age and lack of experience, or the fact that she'd helped him the night before "Oh, you're quiet now," Marsala said to Ethan. "But we're going to need Madame Butterfly to cover your screams later " "Professor Marsala," she begged "1 take it," Marsala continued as though she hadn't spoken, "circumstances being what they arc. that neither of you has ever witnessed a vampire's death by sunlight" Ethan briefly closed his eyes, then opened them again as though to say he could face whatever Marsala had to say "Let me share my experience," Marsala said. He had to 194 raise his voice because, on the tape, singers had now joined the orchestra "I entered the female vampire's house at about noon I expected that I would find her asleep in a coffin in the basement Imagine my surprise when I found her in an elegantly decorated bedroom, wearing a modest though al- luring negligee, probably purchased at Kaufmann's or Lord and Taylor Not the Halloween scene I expected at all Still, 1 set my kit down" He indicated the box by the steps "I arranged the stakes on the floor so she could see them when she awoke, turned on Madame Butterfly to allay the fears of neighbors who might otherwise be concerned by any un- accustomed noise, laid the crucifix down on her bosom, then gently opened the vampire's mouth and placed several cloves of garlic inside She stirred just the faintest bit then, but she didn't awake And then I opened the windows " What have I done? Kerry thought, seeing the relish with which he told his story "First I pulled back the drapes There were two sets of windows ! opened the drapes of one, then the other She frowned, in her sleep I could see the little line, here"—he indicated between the eyebrows—"as though she might have been having a bad dream Perhaps remembering a victim's blood that didn't taste as sweet as she had anticipated" Mar- sala smiled into Ethan's look of loathing "And then 1 pulled open the shutters First one"—he gave a flourish with his hand—"and then the other Of course, she started screaming as soon as the first was open " Ethan closed his eyes again "Well," Marsala corrected himself, "she didn't actually scream at first, because there was all that garlic in her mouth But she was spitting out the garlic and making these noises deep in her throat that would have been screams if she could 195 have gotten them out, and she thrashed on the bed, but she couldn't get up. Because of the crucifix- Her skin became red . oh, in seconds. She went hrom seriously sunburned to raw and blistered in the time it took her to realize what was happening and to clear the garlic hrom her mouth. She begged for mercy- Not for me to let her live—she knew it was too late for that—but for me to use the stakes or the hatchet on her Do your victims ever beg for mercy, vampire? Did Joey? Don't"—Marsala made a gesture as though to cut Ethan off, though Ethan hadn't given any indication he was going to speak—"don't tell me you weren't the one to kill Joey I know you weren't even in Brockport then. But surely you vampires discuss such things, don't you? "Oh, 1 had such an interesting dinner the other night. First 1 won his trust, and then 1 ripped his throat out. My Cod, he screamed won- derfully-' Do you share vampire stories like that?" Ethan didn't answer. This isn't necessary, Kerry wanted to shout at Marsala. You don't need to 3io this. Marsala asked, "Or is one just the same as any other for you? She didn't ever mention him, did she? She probably couldn't even remember his name by the next morning, could she?" His fingers flexed on his gun. Kerry braced herself for the shot she was sure was coming, but Marsala gave another smile "You can't goad me," he said- "You don't get off that easy." He took a deep breath. "So, she may not have known what I meant when I kept repeating,'I'm Joe's father.'"He shrugged. "But I was everyone's father at that moment. I stood there for everyone she'd killed over the years- I watched her skin blacken. And crack- And curi. And fall off. Did I mention the smell of burnt meat? finally, the little gurgling noises coming J96 from her throat stopped And a while after that the body stopped twitching. That was when I chopped off her head, to make sure she couldn't come back. There was hardly any blood by then What there was, on the edge of my blade, boiled away in the sunlight. Then I closed the shutters and the drapes, so that the house would look the same as always. I rewound Madame Butterfly. We hadn't even got very far into it. Five, six minutes at the very most, I'm sure it seemed much longer for her" Marsala looked at Ethan appraisingly. "I imag- ine you'll take longer to die, with the weaker early morning sunlight." "Professor Marsala," Kerry said, "why are you doing this?" "1 want the names of other vampires," Marsala said It was, she could sec, what Ethan had expected "I was too eager to see the female vampire die," Marsala said. "Regina," Kerry corrected, fed up with this- "Her name was Regina." Which it may or may not have been, after all these years- "Professor Marsala, you can't do this. It's one thing to kill them to protect yourself, but you have no right to torture—" "I was too eager to sec the female vampire die," Marsala insisted to Ethan "The last thing I should have done was fill her mouth so that she couldn't talk- You will talk And if you talk fast enough and if I believe what you're saying, I may give you one of the easier deaths she begged for " Marsala checked his watch "Not a lot of time to make up your mind," he announced cheerfully. "Although no doubt you have an inner sense that's already told you that . . And perhaps I shouldn't have used the crucifix to hold her down. so that she could have thrashed even more" (97 Beyond the look of pure hate Ethan was wearing, there was a flicker of contempt Marsala saw it, Kerry knew he did He smiled smugly as he walked past Ethan, leaving a wide clearance around the wounded vampire as he approached the toolbox where he kept his supplies He set the safety on his gun and tucked it into his belt "Let's see If you do cooperate, which of these would you prefer I use? Understand, we won't have a lot of time for decisions at that point" He touched the point of one of the stakes to show that the pun was intentional "And you probably won't be very coherent by then, spitting up your own blood and all One of these? Or this?" His hand strayed to the hatchet "Or this?" He picked up the silver crucifix and held it triumphantly in Ethan's direction If he was expecting Ethan to cringe, he must have been disappointed Ethan looked close to laughing Which may or may not have been budding hysteria But still he said nothing, which Marsala obviously found infuriating "And what about you?" Marsala said, turning what Kerry was now sure was his mad gaze on her "I'm very sorry 1 helped you," Kerry admitted, which she knew wasn't a smart thing to say, but she couldn't help it. The worst part was, she didn't think that had anything to do with what he said next: "How shall I kill you? I wish i knew if there was a way to reverse the vampire process" "She's not a vampire," Ethan said, his first words since this had all begun Marsala held up his hands helplessly as though he hadn't even heard "But who is there to ask whose answer 1 would trust?" "She's not a pampin.' Ethan repeated more emphatically. 198 "Either someone's a vampire or not There isn't any transitional stage—" "Obviously the sunlight doesn't affect you," Marsala continued to Kerry "And in any case, I'd offer you an easier death since this condition isn't your fault" "SHE'S NOT A VAMPIRE'" Ethan yelled at him "You just let yourself get seduced by evil," Marsala said "Just like Joey did I wish there had been someone around to offer him an easy death" Marsala picked up one of the Stakes and the mallet Kerry, keeping her back against the hallway wall, slid away in the direction of the bedrooms Marsala came after her Behind him, Ethan tried to get to his feet, but his right leg buckled under him Marsala whirled around, dropping the mallet as he reached for the gun in his belt "No!" Kerry screamed as he shot Ethan yet again in the leg Ethan dropped heavily to the floor She came running up behind Marsala, with no other plan than to make him stop hurting Ethan Marsala turned, and she found herself facing the gun in his right hand and the pointy stake in his left Furious, she shoved him away from her She heard the gun go off yet again She was sure she'd been hit—how could he have missed at such a distance?— but so far nothing hurt, and he was tipping over backward He had flung his arms wide for balance, and the first thing she thought was that he had missed after all And the second thing she thought was that he'd walked backward into his 199 toolbox And after that there was no time for thought as he fell down the stairs, hitting his head at least three different times before the final crack on the slate floor of the entryway It was no use going to check for a pulse Kerry wasn't that familiar with dead people—Ethan and Regina ex- cepted—but she knew Marsala was dead My fault, she thought Though she'd only intended to push him away from her, she had pushed him, not realizing how close to the stairs they were. She spared a thought to think that she was sony she'd killed him, but she couldn't be sony he was dead She spared another thought to think that she was glad she was alive, and then she was scrambling in the kitchen to drag the drape in front of the sliding-glass door "Kerry," Ethan called The sky was turning pink It had to be a matter of seconds now, She pulled the drape shut and headed for the living-room windows Ethan clutched her ankle as she passed, making her stumble and fall to her knees. "What arc you doing?" she screamed at him The drapes aren't thick enough." "Just let me " She tried to wriggle free, but she could see that the drapes were an open weave, almost lace, all of them, and at the most they'd soften the sunlight She could see the marks of fading on the carpet and furniture "Get the gun," Ethan told her She started to ask why, but she knew. "1 can't," she whispered. Ethan released her ankle "Kerry, I got caught by the dawn once before It was only for a second, before I could bar the 200 window ° He looked at her desperately "Please," he whis- pered, "a bullet through the brain will be much faster and less painful" The gun had fallen out of Marsala's hand halfway down the stairs, so she didn't have to go all the way down, didn't have to look at the body of the man she had killed She stood there, considering going the rest of the way down, consid- ering going out, closing the door behind her, leaving nature to take its course without demanding any more of her She probably wouldn't even be able to hear Ethan's screams as he began to die Kerry picked the gun up, and it felt even colder and heavier than it had in the Student Union "Kerry," he called, which meant. Hurry. She came back up to the top of the stairs, where she knelt because her legs couldn't cany her any farther Her hand shook so that she had to hold the gun in both hands, and even then she thought she was going to miss entirely, or just inflict more damage, more pain, without killing him "It's all right," he assured her, closing his eyes, bracing himself But she hesitated, and he took in his next breath in a hiss of pain. ''Kerry'" he cried, a plea for her to be merciful Then, as the soft glow of sunlight touched him. "Cod'" She threw the gun into the kitchen She was on her feet before it stopped skittering across the linoleum floor He'd flung his arms up, instinct to protect his face from the scorching rays of the sun Crabbing his wrists, she dragged him across the rug She wasn't strong enough—she knew she wasn't; she'd get him only so far and then he'd die agonizingly—but she got him down the hall to the master bedroom and—mistrusting the 20 f looks of those drapes, too—into the closet She pulled the doors shut, enclosing them in a space about five feet long and three wide. But it was blissfully without sunlight. She groped for the string she'd glimpsed, and the light came on, Ethan was hunched over, breathing hard and ragged Could vampires go into shock? she wondered. She yanked one of Marsala's shirts off its hanger to use as a bandage around his leg. "Not necessary," Ethan whispered, and—in fact—she saw that he was no longer bleeding, She sat down, sliding her back down the wall, afraid of hitting the door and accidentally opening it on to the killing sunlight. "Lean against me," she told him He looked up at her with eyes made wide by pain and possibly mistrust, but he leaned against her—there was noth- ing else he could do. She could feel the beating of his heart, brought to an almost human rate by fear and exertion. "Don't be afraid," she said, though he had no reason to trust her, "I'll guard your sleep." He closed his eyes. He took one more breath ... . . which he didn't exhale. 202 CHAPTER NINETEEN L VENTUALLY MARSALA'S Madame Buttafty tape ended. l—^Kerry could hear the sounds of traffic, very faintly, from outside. What if the police came to question Marsala again? What if a neighbor came to complain about all the noise in the earliest hours of the morning? Kerry was determined that she would protect Ethan, even if she had to hold the door closed with her fingernails against prying intruders- Her arm became numb from his never-stirring position and she shifted him as gently as she could, even knowing that in all probability she conUn't wake him up, even if she wanted. She began to think of how hungry she was, which made her think of how hungry he was likely to be, come rousing 203 at sunset, which made her think that the most sensible thing to do was to kick open the closet door Anyone be kills after this. she thought, it'K be lifcc I killed them. It was an unsettling thought. But still she couldn't open the door. Eventually she fell asleep, and when she did, she had another vampire dream It started, like the previous one, with Ethan's story of Regina making him into a vampire, except this time it was Kerry herself who lay by the side of the road, and when she looked up at the sound of footsteps approaching on the grave!, it was Ethan who stood there. She looked up at him, afraid and expectant at the same time, and he knelt beside her, then sat, putting her head on his lap She had lost so much blood from her vague and unspecified wounds that for once she felt cold and his touch was warm Warm and gentle and sensuous, although all he touched was her face He leaned over her "1 won't hurt you," he whispered, so softly she couldn't make out the words, but she knew them. by feeling the breath of them on her throat. And then he bit her. There was a moment of pain but, as he had promised, it felt very, very good She was aware of her heart slowing as her life's blood drained out of her, and of his heart beating faster as her blood filled his veins, but still hers was faster than his. Finally—she tried to pull him back—he straightened. Then he lifted his own wrist to his mouth and ran it across his teeth Blood welled up, as it had done in the laundry when she'd accidentally cut him with the razor blade. His and mine together this time. she thought as it ran over the white cuff of 204 his shirt and dripped onto the ground. He held his arm out to her "Choices." she remembered him saying, as he put his wrist to her mouth. At first she recoiled from the taste, but it filled her mouth and she had to spit it out or swallow. She swallowed. And a second time: she hesitated and the warm, coppery blood filled her mouth again. But then she began sucking on his wrist, drawing the blood from his arteries, unable to stop. He had his eyes closed, his head thrown back. She could feet his emotions running through her veins, sense his very thoughts as though they were her own. There were no more lies possible There were no lies necessary- She tugged on his arm till he was lying down with her, holding her against him so that she felt their hearts at last—at long last—beating in unison. He bit her neck again and began to drink back the blood she had just taken. Kerry realized there had to be more to it than this, that they couldn't survive forever on just each other's blood, but—What the heck. she thought, it's just a dream, it doesn't have to make sense. But with that thought she woke up. Ethan, of course, hadn't moved. Kerry, however, figured she'd better She stood, leaning him against the side wall, but the closet wasn't big enough for her to get as far away as she wanted. She glanced at her watch. Another two hours till sunset. Surety he'd be all right for two hours. But she didn't dare leave him, didn't dare open the door a crack for fear of the trickle of sunlight that would kill him. Miserably, she sat back down on the floor at the greatest distance she could in this cramped space, a distance that was still so close she could touch him if she wanted, and she tried to convince herself she didn't want to. Choices, she thought again. She had to make her own, and 205 those were the only ones she was responsible for Not his Not—this was a new thought—her mother's Let go of those. she told herself It was the first time since her mother left that she felt free ETHAN GROANED AT 4 35 and woke with a shuddering breath 'Welcome back," Kerry said Ethan looked at her warily His hair had grown longer yet during the day's sleep, so that it hung loose in the ponytail holder she'd loaned him, giving him a rumpled look that his motionless sleep wouldn't have He brushed the hair away from his face with the back of his hand "I assumed you'd change your mind," he said softly "I told you 1 would watch over you " She didn't say that she had thought about it, but she imagined he probably knew that He sat up from his undignified slump, awkwardly, wincing with pain, as she pushed open the closet door His face, especially on his cheeks below his eyes, was sunburned When his shirt gaped at his neck, she could see that he was burned even where his clothes had covered his skin, he looked sun- burned, like someone who had sat outside too long on the first sunny day or summer His arms, exposed where his sleeves had been rolled back, were blistered and raw "Will you recover?" she asked He nodded, grimacing as he evaluated the damage. "Much slower than from any other kind of injury," he said "Slower even than it would take a human to heal but eventually" He still hadn't gotten over his surprise at being alive, she could tell Thank you," he said 206 She nodded "I'm going home now," she told him "I owed you this one day's protection, but my father doesn't even know yet whether I'm alive " He got to his feet seconds after she did, slowed down by his injuries "Kerry" He took her hands lightly in his own He was warm, finally, the effect of the bums Which was too much like her dream "Why didn't you tell me they were all right?" she de- manded, pulling her anger back up around her "You knew how frantic I was You knew " "I also knew you wouldn't help me unless you thought your family was still in danger," he admitted What could she answer, when he was right? "Couldn't you think how crazy it'd make me to see it there in the paper and realize you'd known and hidden it from me?" "He had a newspaper" Ethan groaned, finally putting things together He shook his head "I overlooked that pos- sibility 1 assumed Marsala would tell you, and that you'd think he was lying I never stopped to think what would happen if he had proof" She looked up into his eyes and tried not to let herself be distracted because he was so very attractive Not J was wrow) to lie, but / was wrong to get caught "How would you have felt if our positions had been reversed?" she demanded "If it was someone you loved? If I knew Regina was safe when you thought she was dead—" "First of all," Ethan interrupted, reaching to touch her hair, "f already told you, Regina and I were not lovers—" "No," Kerry interrupted him, "first of all, that is not the point Second of al!"—she punched his arm as hard as she could He looked surprised, but didn't protest—"can't you say two sentences without lying? Every single time Regina's 207 name comes up, you get all crazy, and you have the nerve to tell me you weren't lovers?" She turned her back. on him and shrugged off the hand he put on her shoulder- "And third of all, I don't care if you were lovers or not" "Kerry," Ethan said- She refused to turn around "We were both vampires, sharing for a time the same small town- We were temporary companions of the night. Never lovers in any sense of the word. But I thought I'd led them to her. I thought I'd done something, and they'd found me out, and followed me, and killed her because of me. I thought it was my fault" The idea that he, too. had been blaming himself for some- one else's actions caused Kerry to turn around, and she made the mistake of looking into his eyes- She let him draw her in closer, let him kiss her—finally—on the lips She put her arms around him, gently, so as not to hurt him, and for a few sweet moments let herself pretend that it could stay this way forever. Which was a dangerous thought, considering. "Ethan," she asked, remembering how he had made her fall asleep the night they had fled together so that she couldn't see how to get into the Rochester subway system, "can vam- pires affect people's dreams?" "No," he said- He'd lied so often, about so many things, there was no reason to believe him now, except that she very much wanted to. And he did, she thought, sound puzzled by her question. She could feel the strong but incredibly slow beating of his heart and knew that her own was going faster than it should have. He ran his hands over her back and shoulders, and she truly, truly didn't want to stop- 208 His kisses went lower, to her throat, which felt incredibly good J just want to know what it feth like, she thought H! stop him before it goes too far. But then she thought that it had already gone too far. That it was already going to be the most difficult thing she had ever done to say— "Ethan." He kissed her lips again, perhaps to prevent her from speaking anymore. She returned that kiss, then tipped her, face away. He resumed kissing her neck. "Ethan" He didn't stop, so she spoke even as he kissed her "Ethan, 1 just want you to know—not that anybody can ever Iruly know exactly how they're going to react to any given situation until they've actually been in that situation, and then it's too late because then you're saying how you did react instead of how you're going to react, so you can only guess. Which is what I'm doing, even.though I don't have all the information, so you might think I'm being terribly naive, which I probably am But I don't want you thinking I'm im- plying any sort of criticism of anybody who may or may not have been in the same situation, which is obviously impossible anyway because every situation is different He had pulled back and was frowning, probably from concentration as he tried to follow what she was saying, and she couldn't fault him because she'd lost track her- self. Taking a deep breath, she said, "1 just want to let you know that I don't intend to become a vampire " He was studying her face, his blue eyes wide, but she couldn't tell what he was thinking, and it occurred to her that perhaps he had never intended to make her a vampire, 209 that perhaps he was just going to get rid of the last witness in as kind and gentle a way as he could "In case the question ever comes up," she finished lamely He was startled, for he said, Then why did you help me?" "Because " She looked away so he wouldn't see her eyes, which were suddenly filled with tears "Because—stupid as it is—1 love you " He caressed her face and she threw her arms around him once again, sobbing into his chest before she remembered his bums and that she was probably hurting him She pulled away and he leaned to kiss her, and she repeated, frantically, forcefully, "1 don't intend to become a vampire" She braced herself for the bite He hugged her, but without the intensity of before, and he rested his chin on her head as he rocked her slightly, more a comforting movement than anything else. I could slill cbanift my mind. she thought, both wanting to and not And, because it was the last thing she wanted to do, she pulled away from him "If you aren't going to kill me," she said, "I need to know what to tell the police What do 1 claim happened?" Ethan studied her face Then he sighed, looking away Kerry stared at the toes of her sneakers "Your father didn't come to pick you up," he said softly, calmly, with years and years' worth of experience, "so you accepted a ride home from Ethan Bryne, a customer at the store whom you'd chatted with before " "Did I like him?" Kerry asked Ethan smiled "Not all that much, but you were desperate for a nde" 210 "t don't think I like this story" "It gets worse," Ethan assured her "As the two of you walked out to his car, a man you did not then recognize, but who will turn out to be Gilbert Marsala, came out of the shadows He had a gun and threatened to shoot unless Ethan drove where he was instructed, which turned out to be here, Marsala's home Marsala put you in the sauna room in the basement, moving something heavy in front of the door so that you couldn't get out You yelled for help, but apparently nobody heard you After a long time—you had the impression it was the next night—Marsala came to get you out You demanded to know what had happened to poor Ethan Bryne, but alt Marsala would talk about was Satan and vampires " "In favor or against?" Kerry interrupted "In favor of Satan but not vampires" Ethan stooped to touch a singed area on the rug where he had bled last night and where the sun had burned through She crouched across from him "I'll pour lighter fluid on these," he said, "and bum them even more You can say Marsala raved about burning out all the vampire blood, including yours, which is when you shoved him, and he fell down the stairs You were sure he was hurt but didn't realize he was dead, you Just figured he'd be more furious than ever You were sure that if you tried to go down those stairs, he'd grab you You ran into the library and jammed the desk chair under the doorknob, certain he'd come banging on it any moment You waited and waited Eventually, you fell asleep Finally, when you couldn't stand it anymore, you pulled the chair away and peeked down the stairs It was only when you saw him in the same position that you realized he'd been dead all along Unfortunately, in because of your ordeal, you weren't thinking straight, so in- stead of calling the police from here, you walked home Which will give me time to . . arrange things here." "What about Ethan Bryne?" "Never to be seen again, I'm afraid" "Are you really going to let me go?" she asked. Ethan, still crouched by the burned bloodstain, held his hands up to indicate he wasn't going to stop her. "How can you ask that?" he said with what sounded like sincere hurt and amazement. Which stilt might have meant either yes or no. She made it to the door of the room before he stopped her He called, "Is there any chance you'd ever change your mind?" She turned back It was tempting. Faced with the prospect of never seeing him again, it was very tempting. But her only hope was not to let him see that. "Is there any chance you'd change yours?" she countered. "It would be nice not to have to be looking over my shoulder all the time," he acknowledged. "And to see your hair in the sunlight." He glanced away as though embarrassed at the sentimentality of that- He made no assurances, which might have been more promising than if he did- "Good-bye, Kerry. In the future, be careful whom you rescue." "Good-bye, Ethan," she said "Michel," he corrected, and because he gave it the French pronunciation, she thought maybe it was his real name. It was more encouraging than any of his honcsttys or trulys. "Good-bye, Michel," she said- She walked down the stairs, past Marsala's body, and out the door, heading for home 212 VI.'I/'-N V.'-JM V .4 I:, the author of six fantasy novels. Hei nume'"ous shoi t stories hav'e been published in /'• c'-^i, Abon^n'.a' Sc;e;)cp F!C'I'O!\ and Isucsc A'--'; ,;. s Sci'erice F'.cfiO1'1 Mr_!'.:yiZir'e She lives with hei husband and daughter in Rochester Nc-/.- Yor<