Sean Canady stood by the uniformed officer at the door, George Mendez, looking in on the young man who had been attacked in the morgue.
So far, David hadn't woken up, so he hadn't been able to tell anyone anything. But he was stabilizing, and he appeared to be in better shape than Mary had been.
"Don't leave him; not for a minute," Sean ordered his officer.
"No, sir."
"Not even to take a leak, I mean it. I've got Howlett down the hallway. Call him if you need a break."
"Yes, sir," George Mendez promised. He was new to the force and a quietly practicing Catholic. Sean had chosen him for exactly that reason. He'd seemed to take it in stride, no questions asked, when Sean had hung a crucifix around David's neck.
In fact, he'd seen Mendez fingering the large silver cross he wore himself, usually beneath his uniform.
"Sir?" Mendez asked.
"Yeah?"
"Did they make a mistake? Was the girl alive?"
"Mendez, right now, we don't know what went down. A body is missing, and a young man has suffered serious blood loss. For all I know, it could be a sick fraternity prank. Anyway, until we know more, we say nothing. Howlett will be keeping away the press and the just plain curious. But I want one of you with this young man at all times. I've informed the staff that not even the doctors are to draw a curtain against you, got it? If he needs a bedpan, you're still right here."
"Yes, sir. I won't let you down, sir."
Sean nodded and started down the hall. Howlett stopped him. "The press is outside," he warned.
"Thanks."
Sean straightened his spine and headed out to meet the enemy.
Praying that she had made an impression on Jeremy and Nancy earlier, and that she wasn't too late if she hadn't, Jessica raced to her office.
She banged on the door. "Jeremy, let me in."
She waited, somehow sensing that he was in terrible danger. She winced as she stood there, fearful his good heart would be his downfall.
She fumbled for her key, finally got it into the lock, then rushed through the door and ran to the inner office.
As she burst in, Jeremy, who had been facing the window, turned at last. He blinked, staring at her stupidly.
"I was...sleeping," he said, sounding confused.
Jessica went to him and grabbed him by the shoulders trying to shake him into awareness.
"You can never-never-let her in."
"But...it was Mary."
Nancy began to stir at last. "I thought I heard banging. It was so strange. I thought I heard-"
She broke off, staring from Jeremy to Jessica.
Jeremy continued to face Jessica, his features drawn and taut, his eyes filled with sorrow.
"It was Mary," he repeated.
Jessica lowered her lashes, shaking her head. Then she looked up at him.
"I know," she said softly.
Going from strip club to strip club was probably not something that most men would consider an onerous task, but the tension gripping Bryan was so tight that he couldn't even summon a pretense of normal courtesy.
No, he didn't want a lap dance.
No, it wasn't the price.
No, he wasn't gay.
It was just that there was only one woman who interested him, and comparing her to anyone else was like comparing the elegance of silk, the electricity of a lightning storm, to raw linen and a pale dawn. Last night...
But right now, he had to find Mary. He wondered if he was wasting his time.
Then, at last, he found her.
It was one of the tawdrier places, off the beaten track. The bouncers were big, but flabby. The shine was worn off the poles, the runway carpets threadbare. The girls looked to be older than the usual and, like the bouncers, less than perfectly fit.
Until Mary made her appearance.
She'd picked up some kind of apparel-if it could be called that-backstage. Bryan gritted his teeth, wondering how she'd acquired it, but he had a feeling she hadn't made any further attacks. There were no private dressing rooms in this establishment.
No, she was waiting to take a customer into one of the little curtained alcoves.
She strutted down the runway as if she'd been born to it. She had the naughty schoolgirl look that was such a come-on to some men. She had a smile that was a sheer tease, full of forbidden promises.
She posed, teased, tempted. She practically had sex with the pole.
Money was flying; men were roaring. She began to offer her services for lap dances. One man offered a thousand dollars. Hoots and jeers filled the air.
Mary assessed the double-chinned businessman, and a smile of disdain touched her lips before she wetted them with her tongue.
"Why not?" she whispered, and beckoned to him, starting backstage.
The man nearly tripped over himself running after her. Discreetly, Bryan followed.
There was darkness. A very strange darkness. Not like ebony, not like a blackout. Officer Mendez couldn't have said exactly when he began to notice it, because it was subtle. It was as if a shadow had descended. Not a real shadow, nothing with a shape or definable edges, just a strange, new sense andfeel of darkness.
And then cold.
Officer Mendez knew his duty. Pure terror began to rip through him, but he had vowed he wouldn't leave, and he wouldn't. He fought his fear and approached the young man on the bed. He touched the boy's crucifix, then noticed that the pillow was oddly damp.
Holy water? Had the lieutenant actually sprinkled the young man's pillow with holy water?
Please, yes.
Mendez curled his fingers around the silver cross that protected his own throat. He began to pray aloud. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..."
It felt as if he were being strangled. As if the shadow had taken on a physical form and was attacking him, reaching for him....
"I will fear no evil," he continued.
He closed his eyes for a minute, afraid he was about to lose it completely and go tearing out of the room.
He thought he heard laughter, it was gone as quickly as it had come. With it went the shadow, the sensation of cold. Gone as if it had never been.
He had broken out into a cold sweat, and he was shaking, but now he began to breathe more easily.
Then it came again. The laughter. He placed his hands over his ears, never thinking for a second to reach for his firearm. He knew it would be useless.
"I will fear no evil."
Again the laughter drifted away.
This time it stayed gone.
Mendez sank into the visitor's chair at the foot of the bed and looked around nervously. Nothing appeared to have changed. He thanked God he hadn't given in to his fear, thanked God he hadn't run screaming down the hall.
He sank to his knees and humbly begged God never to be given this assignment again. He was newly married, with a baby on the way. He had to live.
He stayed on his knees as the night progressed, wondering if he dared try to explain to Detective Canady that there had been a shadow in the room.
And that he was afraid it would come back.
The curtain drew closed behind the businessman. Bryan took a quick look around; there were other curtains, providing privacy for whatever went on in the alcoves. There was nothing he could do. She had to be stopped.
He wrenched aside the curtain just in time to see the overeager fat man kneeling on the floor, blubbering like a two-year-old. His eyes were wide, his toupee askew.
Mary stood over him, telling him to shut up and bare his throat, and though he shook and gasped for breath, he didn't have the will to deny her. He was like a bleeding diver in a chummed sea, watching the approach of a great white, knowing he was about to be bitten in half. He could see his life-and his death-all at once.
Mary hissed as the drapery opened and stared at Bryan. For a moment he could see the sudden sharp growth of her canines, could see what the fat man could see, the promise of death, as surely as if the fangs belonged to a deadly asp.
He drew out a vial of holy water, thrice blessed, and doused her.
She screamed. A terrible scream, like a banshee crying out, and there was the terrible smell of burning flesh.
The fat man cried out, ducking.
Mary doubled over.
Bryan moved, ready to deliver the coup de grace. But the fat man suddenly screamed again, leaping to his feet.
And in those seconds Mary found the will to survive. She whirled with the speed of light and burst away from the alcove and the curtain. Someone screamed in her path, and people went flying, landing hard against the runway, where a nearly naked woman was doing a come-on with a bull whip.
Everyone in the place was suddenly standing, and fists were flying wildly. It had all happened in just seconds.
Swearing, Bryan leapt over the still screaming and blubbering fat man. He thrust out an arm, pushing his way through the crowd.
Mary had escaped into a back alley. He did the same.
Jessica stayed with Nancy and Jeremy until the sun began to rise. By then Jeremy seemed to have made a major change. He grew calm, no longer so shattered. He was quiet and pensive.
"It's safe to leave by day, isn't it?" he asked Jessica.
She hesitated. "I don't really-"
She broke off; he was staring at her with something close to contempt.
"You do know," he said quietly. "I don't know how you know, but you know."
She stared back at him. "You're probably safe by daylight," she said at last. Then she shrugged and started across the room, taking a seat at her desk and staring at them. "Don't believe the legend that vampires can't move about by day. They can, and they need only sleep near or with a few granules of their native soil. They don't like sunlight, but it won't kill them, and too much saltwater, not just holy water, can kill them. What else? A really powerful vampire can make you forget just about anything. And a really powerful vampire can twist most people to his or her will without even looking them in the eyes." She paused again. The kids had worried that everyone would think they were crazy. Now they probably thoughtshe was totally insane.
"I wouldn't talk about this, if I were you. If you try to convince other people that vampires are real, they'll probably find a way to lock you up. Maybe we all deny what we're afraid to believe, I don't know. The point is..." She gritted her teeth and leaned forward. "The point is, there is a particularly powerful vampire known as the Master. He's just about as evil as sin itself. He has appeared many times throughout history. He was dormant for many years, and I actually believed he might have been destroyed, but...anyway, I believe he followed Mary here. So it's not just Mary walking the streets of New Orleans. There's far worse out there," she finished softly.
"Are you a slayer, then? Are there really such things?" Jeremy asked.
She lowered her lashes, shaking her head. "No. I'm not a slayer. I simply try to stop them from killing, from making more of their kind. Sadly, I failed to save Mary."
"How do you know about this...Master?" Jeremy asked.
"He's been around before," she said simply. "I went to the conference in Romania hoping to hear rumors of vampire activity. As usual, there was lots of talk about cults and people who think they need to suck blood, but in all that hot air, you can usually find some glimmer of truth or catch wind of one of the parties the Master has started hosting as his personal feast. He likes to pick and choose. Mary was quite beautiful," she added softly.
"This is insane," Nancy said.
Of course it sounded insane. They'd insisted they'd seen vampires without having any idea of what that really meant.
"You wanted the truth. I've given it to you. You'll need to protect yourselves at all times. Especially if I'm right and the Master is here, planning one of his parties."
She was surprised when Nancy said, "The sad thing is, I believe you." Her voice turned to a whisper. "I was there. And I know that you're telling the truth. I just want it to be insane."
Suddenly Jeremy sprang to life and shook his head. "But...the whole city needs to be warned. The entire state. Hell, the world!"
Jessica sighed. "Don't you understand? You can't go creating panic, or a situation in which you condemn those who can fight the evil to being stuck in a mental ward."
Nancy looked at Jeremy. "We need to go. We can help our friends, at the very least. We can hand out crosses to our friends. We can ask them to wear them in memory of Mary."
"I'm going to suggest you come back here tonight," Jessica said.
"But our friends-"
"You two are the ones he wants. He'll be angry with Mary, because she wasn't able to seduce you into letting her in."
"If he hurts her-" Jeremy began angrily.
"Jeremy," Nancy said, taking his arm, "she's dead. The Mary we know is dead. Isn't that true?"
Again Jessica looked down, wondering what to say. She lifted her head and stared up at the two of them. "The Master is evil-excessively cruel. I'm afraid that Mary, who is now his creature, isn't at all the person you once knew. She'll sound like the woman you knew and loved, but she is his to command. Jeremy, you have to be strong. Strong for her."
"You mean, so I can kill her," he said bitterly.
"If need be."
"Maybe I can-"
"You have no idea what you're up against. You have to keep yourself safe and let me know any time she comes. Do you understand?" She hesitated. "Jeremy, the Master hates me, and he will try especially hard to hurt the two of you, because he knows we've grown close. He'll target some people for his amusement, but others..." She trailed off, not certain how much to say. "I believe the Master is intent on ruining my life, hurting those I care about. You have to be strong, Jeremy. You have to resist Mary, no matter how hard that is. Do you understand? She intends to kill you."
Nancy was frowning, but she clearly comprehended that they were in serious danger. "He understands." Nancy said firmly. "I'll see to it."
"Let's go," Jeremy said dully.
"Be back before dark," Jessica warned them firmly.
Jeremy looked at her, troubled. "Why does he want to hurt you so badly?"
"It's a very long story."
He waited. She remained quiet.
"All right," he said softly. "I'm going to assume you had something to do with the fact that he was...gone for so long. So you need to be careful, too."
"I will be," she vowed.
Then the two of them were gone.
She leaned back and folded her hands in her lap. After a moment, she murmured aloud, "That didn't go too badly."
She took a deep breath. Then she started to cancel her appointments for the week.
Except for one.
Sean leaned his head wearily against the back of his chair, momentarily closing his eyes. Maybe the aspirin would kick in soon.
What a night, and what a horrendous beginning to the day.
He'd already had to make the call to Mary's parents to tell them that their daughter's body had disappeared. At the hospital, there were two rumors going around. One claimed that a psychotic necrophiliac had stolen the body. Then there was the suggestion-taken more seriously by most-that the girl had never been dead, that the doctor on call had made a horrible mistake, and she had simply awakened, perhaps suffering some memory loss, and had grabbed some clothes from somewhere and headed out to the streets.
He'd also had to arrange for constant surveillance of Dave where he lay in the hospital, and he had to make sure he chose the right men for the job. The days were easy enough, but the nights were murder.
Now he was being told that Bryan MacAllistair was waiting to see him.
"Send him in," Sean told the desk clerk.
MacAllistair entered the room and just stood there imposingly, waiting.
"What can I do for you?" Sean demanded.
MacAllistair looked worn, exhausted. "Come clean," he said, taking a seat at least.
Sean groaned. "Come clean? You're a fine one to insist on honesty."
"I almost had her," MacAllistair said softly.
"Oh?"
MacAllistair shook his head. "The way I see it, you know damned well I was in the morgue. Jessica must have called you by now."
Sean leaned forward. "So, what the hell were you doing in the morgue?"
A humorless smile curved the man's lips. "Trying to stop a vampire," he said quietly.
Sean was shocked into silence, though he shouldn't have been, he thought.
"She's a vampire now. I tracked her down in one of the strip clubs. I almost had her, but she got away."
Sean blinked.
MacAllistair's grim smile deepened as he leaned forward. "I don't know what the hell is going on here, but I will find out. I think you know as well as I do that there's a vampire loose in the city. I intend to stop it. I can help you, you can help me."
MacAllistair rose. Sean fought to control his temper as MacAllistair spoke again.
"Call me if you need me. I promise I'll call you. Thanks for your time. I thought I should let you know I almost had her. I'd be watching my back tonight, if I were you."
With that, he nodded a goodbye and left.
"Son of a bitch!" Sean swore. "I should have arrested him."
For what? He asked himself. Knowing the truth?
Stacey was at the house, along with Gareth. She seemed relieved to see Jessica.
As Jessica walked up the steps, she surveyed the work being done.
Strings of garlic, dressed up with flowers, were hanging everywhere. There were containers of holy water and other religious symbols as if they had gotten their holidays confused.
"Nice job," she said dryly.
"You all right?" Gareth asked tensely.
She offered him a weary smile. "Just fine."
"We've heard all the news," Stacey said.
"I imagine."
"So, she's...gone?" Stacey asked.
Jessica nodded. "I'm going to lie down for a while. Get a little rest. If everything is all right here?"
"We've got it covered," Gareth assured her.
She hesitated, about to head inside. "Have you seen Bryan MacAllistair?" she asked.
"No," Stacey said, frowning and looking at Gareth.
He shook his head solemnly.
Jessica lowered her head, letting out a sigh of exhaustion. "I've got to catch a few minutes of sleep. We'll talk later."
"No problem," Stacey replied.
Jessica walked through the front door and up the stairs to her room. In the hallway, she stopped, tempted to slip into his room and go through his things.
She was so tired, but it suddenly felt necessary.
She glanced around, though she knew she was alone in the house, then took out her master key and slipped into his room, locking the door behind her.
She stared around the room. Neat and tidy. His computer was on the desk. There were no papers beside it. In the closet, there were two dress jackets, shoes, a windbreaker and a few good shirts. She walked quickly to the dresser. T-shirts, boxers and flannel pajama bottoms.
Frustrated, she closed the drawer and moved back to the computer. She turned it on and scanned his files. Nothing of interest. The computer was either brand-new, or everything was encrypted in someway she didn't have time to figure out. She connected to the Internet, anxious to view his past searches.
Startled, she swallowed and stepped back.
Then she gritted her teeth, telling herself she was a fool to be nervous. Of course he had looked up everything to do with vampires. Naturally some of the sites he had found discussed interesting cases revolving around vampirism. Naturally some of those cases involved her.
She thought she heard a sound in the hall. She turned off the computer, stepped back, froze and listened. Nothing. She was just so tired that she was hearing things.
She stepped out of his room, locking the door in her wake. Down the hall, she entered her own room. Good Lord, but she was exhausted. She kicked off her shoes, pulled her shirt over her head and shed her skirt, letting everything fall on the floor as she headed into the bathroom. She let the shower pour down on her long and hard.
Just two nights ago she had been in heaven. And now...
Who the hell was he and what the hell had he been doing there? He'd had a stake!
And where the hell was he now?
He had stirred such deep emotions in her. Awakened feelings she hadn't known in forever. He had reminded her so much of...
What was gone. Dead. What could never be again.
Wrapped in her robe, she strode back out to the bedroom, threw herself down on the bed and staring up at the ceiling.
Only then did she realize she wasn't alone in the room.
"At last." came the deep voice, barely a whisper on the breeze. "At last. I've been waiting for you, you know."