He smiled. "I've been hurt worse while still on the bench."

"Next time I'll dig a little deeper," Austin muttered as another group of kids arrived.

For about half an hour, a steady procession of the neighborhood children climbed up the steps to claim their loot. Claire kept a wary eye on the wards while Dean stood in the open doorway, happily handing out the candy. By the time the crowd thinned and the stairs emptied, it was full dark.

"Uh, Boss? There's a real evil-looking cow down on the street"

"A cow?"

"Yeah. It's got barbed horns and glowing red eyes."

"Considering how the rest of the stuffs been manifesting, it's probably a Guytrash."

"What should I do?"

"Shut the door; it'll go away."

Brow creased, he did as he was told. "These things can't hurt the kids, can they?"

"Have you ever heard of a kid being hurt by a cow on Halloween?"

"Well, no, but..."

"This kind of manifestation can't hurt you if you don't believe it can hurt you, and frankly, not many people believe in the traditional ghoulies anymore." The wards blazed red and Claire reached for the door. "There's probably enough race memory left to give them a bit of a scare, but isn't that what tonight's abo... oh, my." She stared up at the very large man wearing what looked to be black plastic armor and shivered a little at the menace in the black plastic eyes.

"Truth or dare?" His voice was darker; deeper even, if that was possible.

It was essentially the same question. The trick was, never for an instant to show uncertainty. "Truth."

"You think you can do it alone, but you can't."

"What are you talking about?"

"You've had your truth." She could hear amus.e.m.e.nt in the dark tone. "Now, it's my turn."

"Hey, Nicho! Look who it is!"

A pair of six- or seven-year-olds charged up the stairs and grabbed onto the trailing black cloak.

"You are so cool, man."

"You're our favorite."

"It's really you, isn't it?"

He turned enough to look ominously down at them. "Yes. Really."

"Cool."

"Way cool."

"Can we have your autograph?"

"Will you come home with me and meet our mom?"

"No, no! Better! Come to school with us tomorrow."

"Yeah, you could slice and dice those guys who won't let us on the swings."

"Slice and dice!"

The features of the mask were, of course, immobile, but Claire thought she could detect a faint hint of building panic as the question and comments continued at machine-gun speed.

"You looked a lot taller in the movie."

"Where'd you get those cool boots?"

"We loved the way you iced that guy without even touching him."

"You gonna be in the prequel?"

"I got the micro machine play set that looks just like you."

"I drew a picture of you on the inside cover of my reader. It was pretty good, but I got in trouble."

"Can I hold your light sa..."

"No." He yanked his cape from their hands.

"Oh, come on, just once."

"Me, too."

"I said, no."

"We wouldn't break it."

"Yeah, don't be such a jerk."

Breathing labored, he rushed down the steps, strode out onto the sidewalk, and disappeared.

"Cool."

"Yeah. Way cool."

The taller of the two looked speculatively up at Claire. "You got any gummy bears?"

"I'm melting, I'm melting..."