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“You do?”
2
Nepthys could hardly believe her.
2
“It is.
1
He should be.
3
I hope that you can do a better job than the last lot.”
2
She sat up, running her hands along her pale, round thighs.
0
“All right, then.
1
Let me see if I can find him.”
0
Isis closed her eyes and lifted her hands.
3
A dark glow coalesced around her palms.
2
Amy leaned forward, looking amazed.
1
The glow reflected on her pink face, casting a sickly pallor over her heartbeat-strong cheeks.
2
Tiny drops of blood began to seep out of Isis’ palms as her brow creased.
2
Her candy lips twisted into a frown.
2
The dark glow grew stronger and larger, filling the air for about a foot around her hands.
2
In her palms, the droplets of blood swelled into small pools.
2
The dark glow began to flicker, and Isis’ frown of concentration became one of worry.
0
The pools in her hands grew deeper.
0
She didn’t shed a bead of sweat, and I didn’t even see her draw a breath, but the glow around her hands shuddered like a stubborn candleflame.
3
Then her fingers tensed and her arms began to shake.
2
The blood in her palms, still filling up, began to ripple.
2
He glanced at me with honest concern, probably the first honest moment he’d shown me: ‘Is she all right?’
0
‘Is she all right?’
2
Her hands twitched and a drop of blood shook out, splashing on the crease of her thigh and hanging to one strand of the black hair between her legs.
2
She gasped and the dark glow went out, taking the blood with it in a flash of heat and red steam.
2
Isis collapsed on the fur, strings cut.
2
Now Nepthys lunged forward, took her by the arms.
3
“Isis, what happened?
2
She shook her head, rubbing her face into the white fur and murmuring something.
2
“What did you say?”
3
She rolled onto her back, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
2
For the first time, she looked vulnerable.
2
When she finally spoke, I had to lean close to hear her.
3
“I found your vampire,” she said, “but he might know that someone’s looking for him.
2
He’s taken great pains to keep himself hidden.
3
You should look for him at Dvorov’s as quickly as you can.”
2
She turned to me with tired sympathy.
3
“I didn’t see a girl with him.
3
Hurry, though, and you might find him before he leaves.”
0
A twitch of her fingers summoned her pale servants.
3
“One of these will lead you out.”
3
I looked back to see Nepthys whispering something to her.
0
He stood to go, but she caught his sleeve and pulled him back for a moment.
2
There was a terrific echo, each beat reverberating inside of the next, and the old stained-glass windows rattled in their frames.
2
I turned back to the door.
3
“Come on, Amy,” I said, “he’ll be along soon.”
3
When we got there, another pale servant was waiting for us with a box of dark stained wood.
0
He offered it to Nepthys, who opened the box: on velvet lining, a wooden hammer and two stakes.
3
“Mountain ash,”
0
Closing the box, he paused beside the open door and looked back at me.
1
“I really hope we find your Rachel,”
0
“I really hope we find your Rachel,” he said.
1
“I know a quick way to Dvorov’s,”
1
“I know a quick way to Dvorov’s,” said Nepthys.
3
“I bet he’s kicking himself now for not having a way to contact me.”
0
The pulse from inside made the building sound like a giant heart.
2
“Yo, my man Nep!
0
You got the sucker already?”
0
“No, but we got a tip that he might be in your club.
3
Have you seen him?”
0
“Here, man?
1
I haven’t had a vampire here since you and – ” Nepthys shot a wicked look at him.
3
“Anyway, long time, man.”
0
“That’s odd.
2
On the dance floor, people moved with their eyes closed and their hands in the air.
1
Do you mind if we check it out anyway?
3
I have a real feeling that he’s in here somewhere.”
2
Dvorov glanced over his shoulder, a little nervous.
2
“I guess, man, but be quick.
3
We’ll be in and out in a minute.”
0
Nepthys stepped in and Dvorov walked us towards the dance floor.
2
Dvorov asked us.
0
“No, he said that his research was purely academic, not for hunters.”
0
“Bummer.
2
I guess I probably should’ve known, though.
2
I mean, he is kinda tight about that stuff.”
3
He didn’t look very surprised.
3
“Anyway, this is the dance floor, man.
3
Good luck.”
1
Then I saw the bar on the other side of the crowd and knew where to start looking.
3
I danced with Rachel for a while, but then something by the bar seemed to be pulling her eyes.
2
I tried to slip along the edge of the crowd.
0
Things with scales and claws kept flailing against me, pressing me into the wall, but I took a breath and kept moving.
2
My nose filled with a reek of thick sweat.
0
The music began to build, and a strobe came on.
3
Somewhere toward the center of the dance floor, I heard a howl that sent bitter winds under my clothing – for a second, I was back with my family in Russia, hiding from the cold.
2
Then I felt a tug on the back of my shirt and noticed that Amy was following me.
3
I gathered her under my arm.
3
Dvorov was somewhere behind me, too, negotiating delicately through his patrons.
1
Just in front of me, a massive thing slammed into the wall, sending up a cloud of granite dust.
2
It slumped to the floor and I realized that it was a werewolf.
2
Its haunches twitched in time to the music.
1
As it started to rise, a man with thick, scaled skin stretched across rippling muscles leapt on him.
0
She told me that she was heading for a drink and slipped out of the crowd.
1
I thought that my odds were better on the dance floor.
1
Holding Amy in my arms as we ducked between the crush of dancers, I started to wonder if the chances of finding this vampire were even good enough to merit this.
2
A cold thing with countless, writhing tentacles fell against me, thrashing as if in the throes of a drug overdose, tripping me and clutching at my limbs.
2
A woman who could have been an elf twitched and jerked beside me, fingers trembling at the torn edges of her clothing.
2
The creature blocking my vision moved back, but I had seen all that I needed to see.
3
A bleeding, eyeless thing shuddered and beat its arms against me, but I ducked around it and toward the bar.
2