CHAPTER 8.

Well?" Daphne said.

"I think it's the slave trade."

And, Rashel thought, I think I was right-this is something big.

The Night World slave trade had been banned a long time ago-back in mediev al days, if she remembered the stories correctly. The Council apparently h ad decided that kidnapping humans and selling them to Night People for foo d or amus.e.m.e.nt was just too dangerous. But it sounded as if Quinn might be reviving it, probably without the Council's permission. How very enterpri sing of him.

I was right about killing him, too, Rashel thought. There's no choice now. H e's as bad as I imagined- and worse.Daphne was goggling. "They were going to make me a slave?" she almost ye lled.

"Sh." Rashel glanced at the man behind the doughnut counter. "I think so. W ell-a slave and a sort of perpetual food supply if you were sold to vampire s. Probably just dinner if you were going to werewolves."

Daphne's lips repeated werewolves silently. But Rashel was speaking again b efore she could ask about it.

"Look, Daphne-did you get any idea about where you might be going? You s aid they mentioned a boat. But a boat to where? What city?"

"I don't know. They never talked about any city. They just said the boat was ready . . . and something about an aunt-clave." She p.r.o.nounced it ont-clave . "The girl said, 'When we get to the aunt-clave ...'" Daphne broke off as R ashel grabbed her wrist.

"An enclave," Rashel whispered. Thin chills of excitement were running thr ough her. "They were talking about an enclave."

Daphne nodded, looking alarmed. "I guess."

This was big. This was . . . bigger than big. It was incredible.

A vampire enclave. The kidnapped girls were being taken to one of the hidd en enclaves, one of the secret strongholds no vampire hunter had ever mana ged to penetrate. No human had even discovered the location of one.

If I could get there ... if I could get in ...

She could learn enough to destroy a whole town of vampires. Wipe an enclav e off the face of the earth. She knew she could.

"Uh, Rashel? You're hurting me."

"Sorry." Rashel let go of Daphne's arm. "Now, listen," she said fiercely. "I saved your life, right? I mean, they were going to do terrible things to you.

So you owe me, right?"

"Yeah, sure; sure, I owe you." Daphne made pacifying motions with her ha nds. "Are you okay?"

"Yes. I'm fine. But I need your help. I want you to tell me everything about that club. Everything I need to get in-and get chosen."

Daphne stared at her. "I'm sorry; you're crazy."

"No, no. I know what I'm doing. As long as they don't know I'm a vampire hunt er, it'll be okay. I have to get to that enclave."

Daphne slowly shook her blond head. "What, you're going to, like, slay them all? By yourself? Can't we just tell the police?"

"Not all by myself. I could take a couple of other vampire hunters to help m e. And as for the police . . ." Rashel stopped and sighed. "Okay. I guess th ere are some things I should explain. Then maybe you'll understand better."

She raised her eyes and looked at Daphne steadily. "First, I should tell you about the Night World. Look, even before you met those vampires, didn't you ever have the feeling that there was something eerie going on, right alongside our world and all mixed up in it?"

She made it as simple as she could, and tried to answer Daphne's questions patiently. And at last, Daphne sat back, looking sick and more frightened t han Rashel had seen her yet.

"They're all over," Daphne said, as if she still didn't believe it. "In the p olice departments. In the government. And n.o.body's ever been able to do anyth ing about them."

"The only people who've had any success are the ones who work secretly, in small groups or alone. We stay hidden. We're very careful. And we weed th em out, one by one. That's what it means to be a vampire hunter."

She leaned forward. "Now do you see why it's so important for me to get to t hat enclave? It's a chance to get at a whole bunch of them all at once, to w ipe out one of their hiding places. Not to mention stopping the slave trade.

Don't you think it should be stopped?"

Daphne opened her mouth, shut it again. "Okay," she said finally, and sighed.

"I'll help. I can tell you what to talk about, how to act. At least what wor ked for me." She c.o.c.ked her head. "You're going to have to dress differently.

"I'll get a couple of other vampire hunters and we'll meet tomorrow after sc hool. Let's say six-thirty. Right now, I'm taking you home. You need to slee p." She waited to see if Daphne would object, but the other girl just nodded and sighed again.

"Yeah. You know, after some of the things I've learned, home's starting to l ook good."

"Just one more thing," Rashel said. "You can't tell anybody about what hap pened to you. Tell them anything-that you ran away, whatever-but not the t ruth. Okay?"

"Okay."

"And especially don't tell anyone about me. Got it? My life may depend on it .".

"Elliot's not here." The voice on the telephone was cold and as hostile as Ras hel had ever heard it.

"Vicky, I need to talk to him. Or somebody. I'm telling you, this is our ch ance to get to an enclave. The girl from the warehouse heard them talking a bout it." It was Friday afternoon and Rashel was phoning from a booth near her school.

Vicky was speaking heavily. "We staked out that street for days and didn't see anything, but you just happened to be in the right place at the right time to help a girl escape."

"Yes. I already told you."

"Well, that was convenient, wasn't it?"

Rashel gripped the handset more tightly. "What do you mean?""Just that it would be a very dangerous thing, going to a vampire enclave. A nd that a person would have to really trust whoever was giving them the info rmation about it. You'd have to be sure it wasn't a trap."

Rashel stared at the phone b.u.t.tons, controlling her breathing. "I see."

"Yes, well, you don't have much credibility around here anymore. Not since l etting that vampire get away. And this sounds like just the sort of thing yo u'd do if you were in on it with them."

Great, Rashel thought. I've managed to convince her that I really am a vam pire sympathizer. Aloud she said, "Is that what Nyala is telling everybody ? That I'm working with the Night World?"

"I don't know what Nyala is doing." Vicky sounded waspish and a little une asy. "I haven't seen her since Tuesday and n.o.body answers at her house."

Rashel tried to make her voice calm and reasonable. "Will you at least tell E lliot what I'm doing? Then he can call me if he wants to."

"Don't hold your breath," Vicky said, and hung up.

Great. Terrific. Rashel replaced the handset wondering if she wasn't supposed to hold her breath until Elliot called, or until Vicky pa.s.sed on the message .

One thing was clear: she couldn't count on any help from the Lancers. Or an y other vampire hunters. Nyala could be spreading any kind of rumors, and R ashel didn't dare even call another group.

There was no choice. She'd have to do it alone.

That night she went to Daphne's house.

"Well, she's grounded," Mrs. Childs said at the door. She was a small woman with a baby in one hand, a Pampers in the other, and a toddler clutching h er leg. "But I guess you can go upstairs."

Upstairs, Daphne had to chase a younger sister out of the bedroom before R ashel could sit down. "You see, I don't even have a room of my own," she s aid.

"And you're grounded. But you're alive," Rashel said, and raised her eyebro ws. "Hi."

"Oh. Hi." Daphne looked embarra.s.sed. Then she smiled, sitting cross-legge d on her bed. "You're wearing normal clothes."

Rashel glanced down at her sweater and jeans. "Yeah, the ninja outfit's just my career uniform."

Daphne grinned. "Well, you're still going to have to look different if you're going to get into the club. Should we start now, or do you want to wait for the others?"

Rashel stared at a row of perfume bottles on the dresser across the room. "Th ere aren't going to be any others."

"But I thought you said . . ."

"Look. It's hard to explain, but I've had a little problem with the vampire hunters around here. So I'm doing it without them. It's no problem. We can sta rt now."

"Well . . ." Daphne pursed her lips. She looked different from the dishevel ed wild creature Rashel had rescued from the street last night. Her blond h air was soft and fluffy, her cornflower blue eyes were large and innocent, her face was round and sweet. She was fashionably dressed and she seemed re laxed, in her own element in this normal teenager's room. It was Rashel who felt out of place.

"Well... do you want to just take along a friend or something?" Daphne aske d.

"I don't have a friend," Rashel said flatly. "And I don't want one. Friends are people to worry about, they're baggage. I don't like baggage." Daphne blinked slowly. "But at school . . ." "I don't stay at schools more than one year at a time. I live with foster families, and I usu ally get myself sent to a new city every year. That way I stay ahead of the v ampires. Look, this isn't about me, okay? What I want to know-"

"But . . ." Daphne was staring at the mirror. Rashel followed her gaze to se e that the reflecting surface was almost completely covered by pictures. Pic tures of Daphne with guys, Daphne with other girls. Daphne counted her frien ds in droves, apparently. "But doesn't that get lonely?"

"No, it doesn't get lonely," Rashel said through her teeth. She found hersel f getting rough with the lacy little throw pillow on her lap. "I like being on my own. Now are we done with the press conference?"

Looking hurt, Daphne nodded. "Okay. I talked with some people at school an d everything at the dub is going on the same as usual-except that Quinn ha sn't been there since Sunday. Ivan and the girl were there Tuesday and Wed nesday, but not Quinn."

"Oh, really?" That was interesting. Rashel had known from the beginning tha t her greatest problem was going to be Quinn. The other two vampires hadn't seen her-she didn't think they even realized that Daphne had run off with a vampire hunter last night. But Quinn had spoken to her. Had been . . . ve ry close to her.

Still, what could he have seen in that cellar, even with his vampire vision?

Not her face. Not even her hair. Her ninja outfit covered her from neck to wrist to ankle. All he could possibly know was that she was tall. If she cha nged her voice and kept her eyes down, he shouldn't be able to recognize her.

But it would be easier still if he weren't there in the first place, and Rashel c ould try her act on Ivan.

"That reminds me," she said. "Ivan and the girl- are their little groups into d eath, too?"

Daphne nodded. "Everybody in the whole place is, basically. It's that kind of place."A perfect place for vampires, in other words. Rashel wondered briefly if th e Night People owned the dub or if some obliging humans had just constructe d the ideal habitat for them. She'd have to check into that.

"Actually," Daphne was saying, a little shyly, "I've got a poem here for you.

I thought you could say you wrote it. It would sort of prove you were into t he same thing as the other girls."

Rashel took the piece of notebook paper and read: There's warmth in ice; there's cooling peace in fire, And midnight light to show us all the way. The dancing flame becomes a fu neral pyre; The Dark was more enticing than the Day.

She looked up at Daphne sharply. "You wrote this before you knew about t he Night World?"

Daphne nodded. "It's the kind of thing Quinn liked. He used to say he was th e darkness and the silence and things like that."

Rashel wished she had Quinn right there in the room, along with a large sta ke. These young girls were like moths to his flame, and he was taking advan tage of their innocence. He wasn't even pretending to be harmless; instead he was encouraging them to love their own destruction. Making them think it was their idea.

"About your clothes," Daphne was going on. "My friend Mamie is about your si ze and she lent me this stuff. Try it on and we'll see if it looks right." S he tossed Rashel a bundle.

Rashel unfolded it, examined it doubtfully. A few minutes later she was exa mining herself even more doubtfully in the mirror.

She was wearing a velvety black jumpsuit which clung to her like a second ski n. It was cut in a very low V in front, but the sleeves reached down in Gothi c points on the backs of her hands almost to the middle finger. Around her ne ck was a black leather choker that looked to her like a dog collar. She said, "I don't know . . ." "No, no, you look great. Sort of like a Betsey Johnson ultra model. Walk a little . . . turn around . . . okay, yeah. Now all we have to do is paint your fingernails black, add a little makeup, and- " Daphne stopped and frowned. "What's wrong?" "It's the way you walk. You wal k like-well, like them, actually. Like the vampires. As if you're stalking something. And yo u don't ever make a noise. They're going to know you're a vampire hunter f rom the way you move."

It was a good point, but Rashel didn't know what to do about it. "Um . . ."

"I've got it," Daphne said brightly. "We'll put you in heels."

"Oh, no," Rashel said. "There is absolutely no way I'm going to wear those t hings."

"But it'll be perfect, see? You won't be able to walk normally."

"No, and I won't be able to run, either.""But you aren't going there to run. You're going to talk and dance and stuff.

" Hands on her hips, she shook her head. "I don't know, Rashel, you really ne ed somebody to go there with you, to help you with this stuff. . . ."

Daphne stopped and her eyes narrowed. She stared at the mirror for a moment, then she nodded. "Yeah. That's it. There's no other choice," she said, expe lling her breath. She turned to face Rashel squarely. "I'll just have to go with you myself."

"What?"

"You need somebody with you; you can't do this all alone. And there's n.o.body better than me. I'll go with you and this time we'll both get chosen."

Rashel sat on the bed. "I'm sorry; this time you 're crazy. You're the last person the vampires would ever choose. You know all about them."

"But they don't know that," Daphne said serenely. "I told everybody at scho ol today that I didn't remember anything that happened from Sunday on. I ha d to tell them something, you know. So I said that I never got to meet Quin n; that I didn't know what happened to me, but I woke up last night alone o n this street in Mission Hill."

Rashel tried to think. Would any of the vampires believe this story?

The answer surprised her. They just might. If Daphne had begun to come out o f the mind control while she was in the truck ... if she had jumped out and started running, only to become fully conscious a little while later.. .. Ye s. It could work. The vampires would a.s.sume that she'd have amnesia for the whole period she was in a trance, and maybe for a little before. It could wo rk. . . .