Whatever had happened to cause Devereux to arrive had clearly taken a toll on him, because he struggled to get to his feet and appeared dazed. Bryce cocked his head and watched his guest, who'd fi-nally managed to rise.

Devereux turned his head in my direction and I instinc-tively moved toward him. His eyes held an emotion that almost looked like fear. He whispered in my mind, "This is impossible."

Bryce intercepted me, stepped between us. He gave me his back and ran his hands over the muscles of Devereux's chest. He frowned. "Don't look at her. Look at me. I told you what would happen if you didn't cooperate."

Devereux rubbed his eyes. "What is this spell? You are not powerful enough to summon me."

Bryce clapped his hands again, laughing. He swung his arm in a wide arc, indicating the robed participants. "When you have the right bargaining chips, anything is possible."

He hollered atRaleigh , "Now!"

Raleighhit the "stop" button on the CD player and the lullaby abruptly ended. I hadn't realized how loud it had been-what a counter-point the lullaby was to the chanting-until it was gone. I had a vague idea of what Bryce had in mind, but I couldn't figure out anything I could do to help Devereux.Or myself.

"Raleigh, bring me one of the blood sacks. Now! Move it!"

Raleigh, who enthusiastically enjoyed his role as Bryce's flunky, smiled-or more accurately leered-as he scurried over to the corner where Midnight, Ronald, and Alan waited.

He grabbed Alan by the neck and pulled him to the edge of the circle, dropping his head with a loud thump. I was glad Alan was unconscious, because that had to hurt. The bearded vampire with the sword reached his hand through the invisible entrance and pantomimed holding a curtain open. Bryce seized Alan and dragged him inside.

He picked up a ceremonialathame that had been placed strategically in the ritual space. The confident, wicked smile on his face faltered as he darted a glance in Lucifer's direction and found him stand-ing.

Moving toward us. I wished there was a volume control knob to turn down the chanters, because the repetitive sound was giving me a headache.

Devereux's voice whispered in my mind, "Stand back."

Bryce had gotten so distracted by Lucifer's approach and finding the knife to bleed Alan, that he'd underestimated De-vereux's recovery. Bryce knelt down next to Alan, raised theathame and re-peated some words in Latin. Before the blade reached Alan's skin, Bryce was forcefully lifted into the air by Devereux's arm around his neck.

The blade flew from Bryce's hand and clattered to the floor. The two of them tore at each other, snarling and swearing. They levitated,then wrestled down to the floor, pounding on each other like human fighters on angel dust.

I stood frozen, feeling like a helpless idiot.

As Devereux and Bryce flailed, they crashed into the chanters, who had nowhere to go, because thecircle was pro-tected by its own, weird force field. Apparently, the only way in or out was through the imag-inary opening. The fighters struggled back to their feet, separating long enough to hiss and growl at each other. Devereux spoke, deep and slow. "You are the mistake I have paid dearly for. It is finished."

With a ferocious roar, he launched himself at Bryce and ripped his throat out. Bryce crashed to the floor like a downed tree. Blood spurted everywhere, drenching the circle. A siz-zling sound, like butter in a hot pan, could be felt as well as heard. Faint static electricity caused the hairs on my arms toraise . Tiny sparks ignited around Devereux. I pulled Alan as far away from the oozing blood as I could.

Although copious amounts of blood still flowed from the wound, the skin of Bryce's throat had already begun to knit itself back together. I shifted my eyes away from Bryce in time to see Luciferplow into the circle and grab Devereux. On a good day I was sure Devereux could hold his own with the ghoulish vampire, but he was weak and things looked bad. Lucifer lifted Devereux into the air, holding him by his hair, trying to sink his fangs into Devereux's neck. Bryce's throat was healing so quickly he'd be back on his feet within seconds, and I didn't think Devereux had a chance offending off both his enemies.

I cast my eyes around frantically, searching for anything I could use to help Devereux. My eyes caught movement in the mirror. The waist-coated violinist, still holding his instrument and bow, was waving his arms excitedly to get my attention. He moved his mouth, offering more silent words, and pointed his bow at something on the floor. My eyes tracked where he pointed and didn't see any-thing except the sword.

I glanced back at the image in the mirror; he nodded and mouthed, clear enough for me to understand, "Yes! Pick it up!"

The sword I really am dense.

What happened to the ZZ Top vampire who was guarding the opening?

I scooped up the blade, which was much heavier than I expected. I intended to stick it in Bryce's chest, because everyone knew you could kill a vampire by puncturing his heart. I hoped that wasn't another movie myth.

Bryce's neck was almost completely healed and he'd just lifted his head off the ground when I brought the sword down, aiming for his chest. I whacked his head off instead. This time the blood oozed insteadof spurted. I heardRaleigh scream Bryce's name. The collective gasp of the now-silent chanters made me raise my head to investigate. All their surprised eyes were on me. A few of the vampires moved a step forward, as if they intended to take the sword away.

I didn't care about that. My brain had clicked on "auto-matic." All I knew was that I'd missed my target.Before they could do anything, I raised the sword again and plunged the tip directly into Bryce's heart, holding the grip with two hands.

Sword in the Stonein reverse.

In my prevailing shocked and traumatized state, that de-cision made perfect sense. I'd never again scoff at a story of a mother lifting a car to save her child. That was one heavy sword, but I'd wielded it like it was made ofaluminum foil.

The electrical sensation increased and the sparks of light surrounding Devereux ignited crackling fire sounds.

Bryce had said the blood was the final part of the ritual. He just never thought it would be his blood. But what would it mean for Devereux that the circle had been saturated with the thick, red stuff?

He'd managed to pry Lucifer's hands off his hair, but wasn't making much progress in getting free.

"Kismet?"

I turned to find Alan sitting up, staring at me, his mouth open. He still wore the fake fangs.

He shifted his eyes to Bryce's body-both parts-then to the sword, then back to my face.

I can only imagine how I must've looked.

Well, I probably looked like what I was: a blood-soaked, traumatized, barefoot, ghost-seeing, vampire slayer. In my demented state, I wondered if I should add "vampire slayer" to my business card. But I figured it wouldn't do much for my vampire therapy business.

I wasn't even particularly surprised that Alan had re-joined the land of the living. Since Bryce had been the one to put the whammy on him, and he was now undergoing an accelerated decomposition process, it made sense that Alan would be released from his evil eye.

It's funny how lucid you can become in the midst of a psychotic break.

Bryce's handsome face had regressed to his true age and the massively wrinkled skin began to crumble like ancient papyrus. Chunks of his now gray, brittle hair blew across the floor in the air currents caused by Devereux's continuing struggle with Lucifer.

I turned toward my ghostly helper in the mirror and mouthed the words "Thank you." He bowed from the waist, raised his violin to playing position and moved the bow vig-orously over the strings. I wished I could've heard the tune.

Apparently seeing ghosts is another one of my skills. Who knew?

A groan from Devereux brought him back tocenter stage in my attention. Something was happening to him. He stumbled, not able to remain erect. His eyes met mine and I saw fear again before he collapsed on the floor.

Lucifer loomed over him, slowly bending down.

Devereux whispered in my mind, "I love you."

Something about the hopelessness and finality of the feel-ing he sent along with the words terrified me. A bone-chilling cold that rose from the horror of killing Bryce and the pos-sibility of losing Devereux washed over me. I dropped to the floor and crawled to the vampire I loved. I stroked his cheek, calling his name over and over. He didn't answer.Alan grabbed theathame from where it had fallen on the floor, leaped up onto Lucifer's back and stabbed him re-peatedly. Lucifer seemed more annoyed than injured and flailed about, trying to dislodge the irritant between his shoulder blades.

Lucifer finally reached over his shoulder, grabbed Alan by his thick hair and threw him into the former chanters. One of the vampires held onto Alan for a few seconds, a confused expression on his face.

Maybe he wasn't sure where his loyal-ties belonged since I killed Bryce. He must have decided that it wasn't wise to be on the losing team, so he let Alan go.

Grasping at straws, I screamed up at Lucifer, repeating all the words he'd said to me in one of his other personalities. "She must be punished. You are the warrior of God.The redeemer of lost souls. She's a harlot! Jezebel!Whore!'

Lucifer froze. He reached down and grabbed a big chunk of my hair, pulling me up as he straightened.

He locked his red eyes on mine and I felt my brain slide out my ears. I closed my eyes to break the eye contact and kept repeat-ing the words, trying to remember everything else he'd said, until I felt him relax his grip on my hair. Even before I opened my eyes I could tell he'd trans-formed. But I knew for sure when he launched into his southern-accented rant.

"Whore!Jezebel! You'll be washed in the blood!"

He seemed to shrink before my eyes.The stained, hor-rible smelling black coat now larger than his shriveled frame. His eyes black coals again. He backed away from me, clutching his coat around him, rocking slightly.

I became aware of Alan standing next to me, his eyes wide, fascinated by the spectacle unfolding in front of him. I hoped the transformation from one of the split-off per-sonalities to another might release Devereux from whatever power-hold Brother Luther-or Lucifer, whoever he really was-had on him, but Devereux lay still as death.

The ritual Bryce set in motion had taken on a life of its own and fulfilled the original intention: to control Devereux. Then several things happened at once. A loud noise drew my attention to one of the mirror panels on the other side of the room, which turned out to be a hidden door.Lieutenant Bullock's costumed police officers stormed the room, yelling, "Police!Freeze!"

The human rescuers were followed by Luna and too many vampires to count.

The arrival of Devereux's coven caused the vampires who'd been in the ritual to dash through the imaginary open-ing in the circle and pop out of the room. Lunabarreled toward the ritual space and smashed into the invisible force field.

"Fucking magic bullshit!" she screamed. "They had the whole building protected so we couldn't enter through thought. We had to follow the stupid humans who'd found a way in. Now we'll have to erase their memories."

Her expression became suddenly serious as she got a closer look at Devereux lying helplessly on the floor. Her face contorted. Enraged, she screamed at Brother Luther, thinking he was Lucifer, not realizing that for all in-tents and purposes, he was a different person.Er , different vampire.

Trying again unsuccessfully to enter the circle, Luna vented her anger and frustration on the stooped, pitiful vam-pire standing over Devereux. The longer she yelled, the more upset he became until he covered his face with his hands and sobbed loudly. I knew what would happen if he reached a breaking point in his anxiety, so I tried to convince Luna to stop harangu-ing him.

"Please, Luna. You've got to stop. He's calm for now.

Trust me, if you keep screaming at him, something bad will happen. He's sick."

"Fuck that. This asshole did something to Devereux and I'm going to find out what he did. Take your human psycho-babble somewhere else."

She'd been prowling around the perimeter of the circle, test-ing for an opening. Not finding one made her even angrier. I stared down at Devereux's beautiful face and remem-bered the music. Keeping the dangerous, psychotic vampire subdued so we could remove Devereux from the circle was the highestpriority. Maybe when he was freed from the influence of the spell, he'd revive.

Playing the lullaby, which would make Brother Luther shift into his child personality, seemed to be the best tempo-rary solution. Perhaps he'd be immune to Luna's threats in his regressed state. All I could think about was saving Devereux, so I didn't consider the repercussions when I sailed through the opening in the circle, heading toward the CD player.

Alan called out, "Where are you going?"

"No time to explain." He'd missed the musical portion of the evening.

When I got there, the little CD drawer was open and empty.

Where was the CD?

Where wasRaleigh ?

Luna yelled, "About fucking time," and leaped through the opening I'd shown her. She strode toward Brother Luther, snarl-ing, fangsbared, a true vampire Amazon on the warpath.

Too late, I realized my mistake and ran after her. I tried to step in front of her and she pushed me aside effortlessly, shoving me into Alan so hard we both hit the floor. The sight of her caused Brother Luther to shriek in ter-ror. He clutched his stomach and performed the same up and down rocking motion he'd done at my house. In between sobs he begged, "Don't hurt me, don't hurt me, help me,help me."

Luna kicked him, screaming, "What have you done to Devereux, you festering piece of shit?"

He whimpered, "Mama!'Then dropped to his knees, covering his head with his hands and arms. A physical spasm rocked his body. He threw his head back and gave an ear-piercing primal scream. As before, the transformation was rapid and astonishing.Alan and I stood and watched Lucifer. Shocked, Luna backed away. "What the fuck?"

He rose slowly to his feet, his no longer emaciated body filling the previously loose coat.

Alan sucked in a breath. "Jesus Christ."

Somehow Brother Luther's body had become taller, bulk-ier-more muscular. His actual bones had shifted. His eyes were on fire. He advanced menacingly toward Luna, his mouth open, exposing his still-elongating fangs. She assumed a fighting stance, crouched low,waiting . Several of the vampires Luna had brought with her crowded into the circle. They growled deep, flashed fang and surrounded Lucifer.

He took a step toward Luna, hand reaching for her throat.

Just then, Lieutenant Bullock crashed into the circle, gun pointed. "I said freeze!'"

All eyes turned to her for a split second, and in that tiny window of opportunity Lucifer scooped up Devereux and they both vanished. We all froze for several seconds, stunned. Staring down at the empty space on the floor, my brain finally registered that Devereux was gone and I lost it. I screamed like the Banshee from Hell. The walls rever-berated.

All the pain, fear, confusion, and grief I'd tried to hold inside burst forth in one long, gut-wrenching, soul-shatter-ing cry. Then the tears began. I dropped to the floor, laying my forehead on the spot where Devereux had been. Everyone was silent while I sobbed.

Alan knelt down beside me and stroked my hair. "I'm sorry, Kismet. We all tried to save Devereux.

He's very powerful. If anyone can get away from that lunatic, it's him. You've got to keep hoping."

I raised my head and met his eyes to see if he believed what he'd said, or if he'd chosen that moment to dredge up his unused therapy skills. His warm eyes beamed sincerity.And compassion. I sat up, exhausted, tears streaming down my face. I was grieving for his competition and he wasbeing re-markably understanding .

Luna snorted in disgust. She narrowed her eyes, pressed her lips together tight and covered the few steps to where Lieutenant Bullock still stood pointing her gun. She knocked the weapon away, growled and brought her face nose-to-nose with Lieutenant Bullock's.

"Bitch!You distracted us. I almost had the fucker. I'm trying to decide if I should kill you now, or wait until we find Devereux so he can do it himself."

Lieutenant Bullockretreated a couple of steps. "You're interfering with police business. Step away."

Luna barked out a laugh and turned to the other vam-pires. "Police business? Gather 'round, everyone.

This cow thinks she has something to say about what's happening here. She thinks she knows one fucking thing about anything."

Lieutenant Bullock still didn't seem to understand who, or what, she was talking to. She might've understood vam-pires in theory, but she had no personal experience with them. She probably thought all the bloodsuckers in the room were dressed in their ball costumes. It's likely she didn't know she was conversing with the real deal.

"There's a body on the floor and blood everywhere. You bet your ass I have a lot to say about it."

Luna plastered on her most evil smile. "And what kind of body do you think is on the floor, human?"

Alan rightfully sensed that things were going south at the speed of light, and he jumped up and squeezed himself in be-tween Luna and Lieutenant Bullock. But instead of helping, he leaped into the fray. The three of them argued at the top of their voices. The other cops and vampires lined up on opposite sides, facing each other like the Sharks and the Jets in West Side Story.Though I doubted if they'd break into a dance routine.

I tried tointervene a couple of times but didn't have the energy to involve myself in anything as meaningless as blame or police or whether vampires exist. Devereux was gone.Maybe dead. That was all the pain my heart could hold. I staggered out of the circle and walked aimlessly in no particular direction.

The sound of someone crying penetrated the fog in my head."Shit!" How could I have forgotten about Midnight and Ronald?

I raced over to where Ronald still cradled Midnight in his lap and knelt. He was crying, his shoulders shaking. "She's so cold. She's dying, Dr. Knight. I'm losing her."

I stroked his cheek with the backs of my fingers. "Hold on, Ronald. It's not over yet."

I leapt up and hollered, "Call an ambulance!"

That stopped the argument. Everyone ran over to see what I was yelling about. There'd been enough death and loss for one night. Mid-night wouldn't be on the list if I had anything to say about it. Having a positive goal seemed to galvanize everyone. Soon Midnight and Ronald were being carried on stretchers out of the music room to a FlightFor Life helicopter, waiting on the castle's roof.

I noticed that everyone in the room took turns watching me, as if they expected me to pick up the sword and behead someone else. Since I hadn't known I was capable of that kind of violence to begin with, I couldn't give anyone any guarantees about my future actions.

With Devereux gone, nothing really mattered anyway.