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When she hadn’t come back halfway through the next song, I glanced over at the bar.
0
I slipped past the waving monstrosity that had blocked my view before, a mountain of wet, veined flesh, and had almost passed through the crowd when a clawed hand grabbed my arm.
2
It was Dvorov.
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He pulled my ear down to his mouth.
2
“You seen enough, man?”
0
he shouted.
2
“Yes,”
1
“Yes,” I called back, “I saw him!
2
“I saw him!
2
He’s sitting right there at the bar!”
2
Dvorov tried to peek through the crowd, but it had shifted again and we couldn’t see a thing.
2
“I don’t think he’s there,”
0
“It must have been wishful thinking.”
2
“No, I saw him!
2
I have to hurry, too!
2
Who knows how long he’ll stick around?”
2
“Listen, man, he’s not there!
2
I’m telling you, it’s not even worth checking the bar!”
2
I turned to keep going, but he caught my arm again.
2
“Don’t do this, kid!
2
It was just a little set-up where someone had stacked a few crates and brought something alcoholic to share, mostly beer.
1
It’s a dumb idea.
3
Even if you did find this vampire cat, he’d tear you apart!
2
I shook him off and squeezed between two dancing nymphs, getting almost to the edge of the dance floor.
0
Suddenly, Amy screamed.
2
I whirled around and threw up my arm just in time to knock Dvorov away.
2
His eyes were glowing red, and he had bared a set of fangs that could probably take my hand off.
2
The dancers near us tried to clear some space.
3
He shot back up, hardly touching the ground, and I kicked him back.
2
He jumped at my arm while I was still off-balance, and I felt the surge of adrenaline that comes right when your body realizes that it’s too late to save itself.
0
On the floor was Dvorov’s head, separated from his body by several feet and a growing puddle of dark blood.
2
Nepthys stood over him with a blue sword in his hand.
2
It flashed in the strobe where it wasn’t streaked with Dvorov’s blood.
3
“He wasn’t the only one with a secret or two,”
0
“He wasn’t the only one with a secret or two,” he said by way of explanation.
0
“You spotted our boy, didn’t you?
2
I bet his hide-out is nearby, too.
3
Let’s hurry.”
2
Rachel was standing with a plastic cup, looking like she was having a conversation, but I couldn’t see anyone else there.
2
He wiped off the sword and sheathed it in a scabbard now belted to his hip.
0
The crowd parted for us.
0
The vampire glanced up when he saw the crowd split and his eyes flashed when he noticed us.
2
In a blink of the strobe light, he was on his feet and dashing from the room.
2
“Come on!”
2
shouted Nepthys.
3
We chased after him, Amy keeping up valiantly behind us.
2
He bashed up a set of stairs set into the side of the wall, and we chased up after him, heading up a huge staircase that seemed to go up for more stories than the building could have held.
2
Luckily, the vampire turned off after three stories.
0
He ran down a hallway and slipped behind one of the doors, but Nepthys was close behind him and left it open for me.
0
I called out to Amy to shut the door in case the vampire had any friends who might be trying to follow us.
2
Inside was a dark room that looked like a storage space for DJ equipment.
0
Nepthys urged me on from the back of the room, then made a turn out of sight.
2
When I came to the door at the end of the room, it looked like it had been torn off its hinges.
2
I didn’t imagine that Nepthys had done it, and it wasn’t without alarm that I ran after him.
2
The vault rose into obscurity above me, and a massive rose window stood ahead of me.
2
The panes looked dyed black, and only a few cold beams slipped through the filter.
3
Footsteps echoed through the stone chamber, and the sound reflected back to me from everywhere.
2
When I asked her if she'd ever seen them – before I was old enough to stop believing, I mean – she would always look sad and tell me, "No, not since the family came to America has anything happened to us.
3
I couldn’t tell how many people were running, much less where they were.
0
On the steps in front of the altar, I saw pale forms and realized that they were Rachel and two other women.
2
He stood in front of a blue light, so I couldn’t see him clearly, but what I saw was memorable.
2
Then I heard Nepthys shout, “Nathan!
2
“Nathan!
2
Behind you!”
2
I whirled and dropped in time to see the vampire shoot over my head, leaping like a panther.
2
There was Nepthys, on the other side of the pews, holding the wooden box in his hand.
1
He tossed it to me, and I just barely had it open before I saw the vampire again, turning to face me.
2
I pulled out the hammer and one of the stakes.
3
He leapt over the pews, soaring like a grasshopper, and drew a gleaming knife in midair.
2
I dodged, but he tossed it, and I held the box in front of my face.
2
The blade lodged in the wood, its silver point penetrating the velvet and nearly reaching my skin.
2
My arms shook from the force of his throw.
2
Then he landed heavy beside me and I scrambled to stand.
2
His first move pulled out the dagger, almost wrenching my arms from their sockets as I held on to the box, and the second shattered the box with a crushing punch that sent me reeling backwards.
2
He wore a jacket of what might have been blue velvet, and his hair gleamed black against his white skin.
1
I dropped the splinters and the broken second stake and raised my hammer, ready to drive the ash spike into his heart.
0
Behind him, I saw Nepthys running between the pews.
3
I braced my legs against the stone floor and he was on me.
2
I raised the stake; he drew back the dagger for a slash that could doubtless open my neck from throat to spine.
2
The stake went down, there was a blur, and then my hands were empty and I felt pain under my jaw.
2
Two points of fire opened in my throat for an instant, then all went numb.
2
My mind began to dissipate, but then I felt the pain withdraw and a lifeless voice said, “This one’s blood isn’t worth drinking.”
2
“This one’s blood isn’t worth drinking.”
3
Hands closed on my neck and I felt my spine crack.
2
I must have fallen to the floor then.
2
I could perceive Nepthys’ sword flashing over me, and I heard steel crack, then bone.
2
The blue haze seemed to stop just shy of his pallor, setting off his striking face without illuminating its details, and his wrists flashed white in the darkness.
2
I thought I heard Rachel’s voice blearily calling for me.
0
Then one set of footsteps began walking toward the altar.
0
I was content to let myself drift away, and I had almost forgotten the body lying with broken neck on the cathedral’s hard tiles when I felt a warm touch on its cheek.
2
A girl’s voice, soft and almost recognizable, spoke, “Nathan.”
0
“Nathan.”
3
I felt my head turn and something in my neck reconnected.
1
Then my eyes opened and Amy handed me the hammer and stake.
2
I stood and turned toward the altar.
3
The vampire was walking just steps ahead of me.
2
I stepped up behind him and raised my hands, which almost seemed to be glowing.
2
Then the stake came down into his back and one, two, three strikes with the hammer drove it in.
2
The vampire fell forward and blood began to flow from his mouth.
2
Behind me, Amy was kneeling beside Nepthys, whose arm and rib cage were knitting back together like a wooden toy that falls apart when its string is released but draws itself together at a slight tug.
0