I clenched my own jaw at the pain. He'd nearly penetrated the bones beneath the skin. I used my free hand to push him back down onto the bed, allowing him to pull my arm with him. In those few seconds, the dangerous deed of contamination had been accomplished, for better or worse. We were locked in a life-and-death struggle from this moment on.

My blood ran down Will's rotting chin and neck: not a pretty sight. I steeled myself with the thought that Melaphia had gone through much worse. I allowed my mind to drift away, toward the mansion. I couldn't communicate with Melaphia as I could Jack, but in a prayerlike moment, I asked her forgiveness. She was sworn to me and me alone. It hadn't been fair to order her to help Iban. But then, what in life was fair?

Eleanor's image blossomed in my thoughts.

Certainly I hadn't been fair to Eleanor. Even though I'd known better, known that happiness would ever elude me, in a weak moment, I set out to try again. Now I'd involved her in my overlong, dysfunctional existence without even offering her the ease of my company. Doctor Phillip would not have approved.

Christ-I- Will moaned and adjusted his bite. I winced in pain, then experienced a familiar touch in my mind.

Eleanor. She must have perceived my thoughts. I opened the part of me I'd blocked from her since Diana's arrival and received a shock. The distance between us-she at the mansion on Houghton Square and I at the plantation-had collapsed. I felt her presence before she stalked through the broken front door.

Jack's mind barged through my shock. I told you you needed to talk to her.

Jack, keep her away from me. Eleanor, go home.

No.

I heard her voice then, speaking to Diana. "Where is he?"

Eleanor, don't be a fool- She was met by silence. I had no true inhuman connection to Diana so I couldn't tell what she was thinking. But I had a good idea of what she'd do if she thought an unfamiliar fledgling meant to interrupt my ministering to Will.

"I said, Where is he?" Eleanor repeated.

I order you to leave this place. I felt her gasp in pain as I applied pressure to her mind. She belonged to me, after all.

"No, don't make me go," she cried aloud.

"Get away from that door," I heard Diana say.

Then Jack: "Come on, El. He's kinda busy just now-"

"Get away from me!" The door handle rattled, then I heard a guttural scream and the sounds of a struggle followed by a crash- as if something had been thrown across the room. Will began to choke again and when he released my arm this time I moved away from the bed. In a steadier voice he moaned, "Mother."

I s.n.a.t.c.hed up the shirt I'd discarded and held the material against my wrist to staunch the bleeding before I crossed the room to yank open the door. The sight that greeted me stopped me in the doorway. Eleanor seemed to have been thrown upward to the ceiling; she floated there near the gas chandelier, pinned in place by some invisible force. The ornate stake in her hand had penetrated the lath and plaster overhead. She stared down at me with wild eyes. Jack had climbed onto the dining room table and was tugging on her free arm. Hugo looked on with some amus.e.m.e.nt. Diana, as unflappable as a guard at Buckingham Palace, stood next to me at the door of our son's sickroom.

"Let her down," I ordered Diana.

"If you make her go away," Diana said. "She tried to kill me."

I turned to her. "Have you forgotten your promise so soon?"

With a narrowing of her gaze, she complied. Eleanor, uttering a small sound of surprise, fell into Jack 's arms. As he stepped down off the table, he made to set Eleanor on her feet.

"Take her home," I said.

"No!" Eleanor squirmed away from him and ran to me, dividing her attention between me and Diana. She stopped short, suddenly noticing my state of undress and the blood oozing from my arm. "What's going on?"

I grasped the hand holding the stake-the one we'd used often in our blood games-and twisted the wood from her fingers.

Then I turned her in the direction of the front door. "Nothing to concern yourself about. You should not be here." At some point I would have to lecture her on the proper way to kill another vampire. Walking up to them with a stake just wouldn't do.

"Please...let me stay." She looked in Diana's direction, seemingly mesmerized. "I promise, I won't be any trouble."

You are in danger here, I warned her.

Then it was too late. Diana asked, "Aren't you going to introduce us? I should at least know the one who's marked my heart for death."

Holy c.r.a.p, Jack whispered in my mind, echoing my feelings exactly.

Unarmed now, Eleanor moved inside the circle of my arm and slipped her own arm about my waist. I could feel her trembling.

As a human she'd had no fear in her world, but here she sensed she'd thrown herself into deeper water. And since her feelings were accurate I couldn't offer much comfort. Diana approached us from one side, Jack from the other. If nothing else, I knew I could depend on Jack to get Eleanor out of there if the need arose-whether she wanted to go or not. Then I would deal with Diana.

"Eleanor, this is Diana," I said, keeping it brief.

Diana extended her hand and Eleanor accepted it. "h.e.l.lo," she said, sounding breathless.

Diana smiled. "You must be Cuy's..."

The fact that she'd used my boyhood nickname and did not complete the sentence spoke volumes...to me.

"Cuy?" Eleanor asked.

Diana's laughter was closer to menace than amus.e.m.e.nt. "All right, William, then." She glanced at me, still holding Eleanor 's hand.

"She's mine," I said.

"I can see that," Diana answered with a tight smile. Suddenly Eleanor gasped, stiffening next to me. She winced in pain and jerked her hand away from Diana's.

That b.i.t.c.h. "She hurt me!"

"Time to go," I announced. "Jack?"

"Wait," Eleanor said as her gaze moved over my bare chest. "When will you be home?"

What did it matter what I promised at this point? I'd say whatever it took to get her out of harm's-out of Diana's-way.

"Soon."

"Promise?"

My conscience twisted in misery. I was most a.s.suredly contaminated with the plague now. Going home wasn 't an acceptable risk. "Yes, I promise. Now go with Jack."

Jack I thought for a minute I was going to have to drag Eleanor away, but her pride kicked in and she finally lifted her chin and linked her arm through mine. Thank goodness. I didn't much relish a hair-pulling vampiress catfight right now. Any other time it might be hot, but not with a killer rotting virus eating away at us. I could tell by the vampire bite on William's arm he'd gone through with his plan to feed Will. That was just great. Now his offspring-that would be me and Eleanor and Werm-were even more at risk.

Once your sire is dead, you're pretty much on your own. We needed to get out of there, p.r.o.nto.

We were about to make a clean getaway when I heard Diana behind us say, "Hugo, go with them."

Hugo's gaze came around like the Terminator on steroids. His face looked like he 'd already danced a few with Mike Tyson (although he still had both ears). I wondered if William had anything to do with his injuries. "So you can be alone with him? I think not," Hugo said. "Look at his arm-now he's contaminated."

Eleanor gasped but I seemed to be the only other one in the room paying attention.

"My son suffers," Diana said. "If you don't want to suffer along with him, I suggest you get out of my sight. This pox is your fault." Hugo's busted-up sneer faltered. He was afraid of his woman, probably because female vampires draw power off their men. I reckoned after Mr. and Mrs. Bloodsucker had been together a few hundred years, it was the gal who wore the pants in the batcave. We have an old saying in the South: If Mama ain't happy, ain't n.o.body happy. This Diana chick was not a happy vamper.

"I could do with a good hunt," he finally said, like blowing the joint was his idea. "The lot of you may be determined to die but I at least wish to live."

Get him out of here, William whispered into my thoughts. Give my blood time to work on Will before Hugo puts two and two together and comes up with voodoo.

Look, I told you before I'm not a babysitter. Especially not a babysitter to a.s.sholes like Will and Hugo. Besides, I was no good at it. Look what happened to Sullivan on my watch.

Do it, Jack.

What-ever. If El and I turn up dead before morning, maybe you'll be happy then.

I tightened my grip on Eleanor's arm, but she balked like a mule now that Hugo had agreed to go along. I didn't blame her for not wanting to leave Diana and William alone. I leaned over and whispered to her, "They're not going to get romantic with that boy of hers rotting right under their noses. You have nothing to worry about. " I wasn't at all sure this was true, but I can sound convincing when I have to.

"Jack?" William tossed me El's stake. "If Hugo gives you any trouble, use it."

Hugo stared at William, pure hatred simmering in his eyes. But Diana was having none of it.

"Go," she told him again.

I could feel William's silent push toward the door. I dragged up the leg of my jeans and slid the stake into my boot. Eleanor nodded and we started walking.

Actually, hunting wasn't a bad idea as long as we weren't the ones on the menu, but it meant I had to make sure Hugo and, for that matter, Eleanor didn't get out of hand. "Follow me," I said, and led them to the convertible. It'd be a nice cozy ride into town.

On the drive to the tunnels I laid down the no-killing law. I expected Hugo to argue, but he was all brooding and s.h.i.t, probably about leaving Diana alone with William. Eleanor wasn't much better. Except for Carrie Underwood's "Jesus, Take the Wheel"

playing on the radio, it was a pretty quiet trip back to town.

"We'll go to the tunnels so our hunting will be hidden from the police or anybody who might decide to call 'em." It would also be easier to keep an eye on Hugo in an enclosed place. None of that messy chasing -the-vampire-across-Oglethorpe-Square stuff.

Only problem was, I had a feeling the street people would be steering clear of sleeping in the tunnels after William 's little killing spree the other night. I figured I had to stock the lake, so to say. I got out my cell phone and dialed 411.

After they connected me with the city water department, I listened to the voicemail options and pressed the b.u.t.ton for emergency repairs. "h.e.l.lo? I want to report a water main break."

Eleanor's place-or more accurately the bas.e.m.e.nt door of her new place-was as good as any to enter the tunnels. William had ordered some discreet workers to install a metal door and dig a fresh opening to the tunnels only a couple of days before.

I'd chosen to steer as clear of the Houghton Square mansion as I could so Hugo wouldn 't be able to pick up any vibes that might allow him to find his way there on his own. I wanted him as far away from Mel and Renee as possible.

"Why must we hunt in the sewers like a pack of rats?" Hugo complained. "Do you foreigners even understand the term 'low profile'? Anyway, these are not sewers. If you want to see sewers I'll take you down to the waste treatment plant and throw you in." The thought made me smile for the first time tonight.

Hugo scowled and started to sniff the air like the hound he was. Then he got an odd look on his face as if he 'd just smelled or heard something real interesting. Even busted up, his nose and ears must have been better than mine because I didn 't pick up a thing.

"I think I shall go in this direction," he said. "I'll meet you back here later."

"Oh no you don't. We're staying together. I don't want to have to hide any bodies tomorrow. I hear the humans in that direction." The sound of digging echoed in the distance.

With an odd look, Hugo shrugged and went where I told him. I could feel it grating on him that he had to take orders from me, William's flunky, but I guess he hadn't lived more than-well, h.e.l.l, a long d.a.m.ned time and not learned how to pick his battles. I already knew that armed with a stake or not, I could never turn my back on him if I wanted to survive another day myself. As for Eleanor, after she heard that William was contaminated the fight seemed to have gone out of her. She followed along without a word.

We approached a bend in the tunnels and slowed; the digging was louder and we heard human voices.

"It's stopped. I don't hear it anymore," said one.

Another said, "Yeah, was that spooky or what? Did you ever figure out where it was coming from?"

"No. But if I hear that creepy whisper again, I am out of here like a bat out of h.e.l.l." The digging continued.

"Why are we here anyway? There's no main break. It musta been a false alarm. No water, no sound of water-"

Walking soundlessly as only vampires can, we caught them unawares. Before the men could as much as gasp, we'd taken them, there being handily one for each of us. I felt sorry for feeding on a bunch of blue collar guys like me, but what 's a vampire with dinner guests to do? I grabbed one of the guys by the throat and his hard hat clattered to the ground, making a racket. The other two had time to cry out before they were bitten, but n.o.body could hear them. n.o.body alive, anyway.

I finished first and released my prey to make sure the others followed my instructions. Eleanor finished a few seconds after me, but Hugo just had to show off. I tapped him on the shoulder, but he wouldn't let go of the short, dark-haired guy he'd clamped on to.

I reached for the victim's tool belt and removed a big, honking pair of pliers. "Let him go now if you don't want me to pull out your fangs where you stand, just like we used to do in the bad old days-no painkillers, no laughing gas, no nothing."

Hugo let the guy slide to the ground and I checked his pulse. He was still alive. Tomorrow he'd think they'd been overcome by a gas leak or something. Hugo was a different story. He looked like he wanted to kill me. So what else was new?

"I'm going back to my house," Eleanor announced. "I need to be alone."

I touched her on the arm, but she shrugged away. "Are you going to be all right?" I asked.

"No," she said in a small voice. "How could I be?"

Hugo leered at her. "You need the protection of a real man. A real vampire."

Eleanor returned his gaze. She was not the type to shrink from a man's lechery; that was her job, after all. She looked as if she wanted to ask him something, then glanced at me and seemed to think better of it. "I'm going home," she said, and walked away. "Now there is as fine an a.s.s as a man will see anywhere," Hugo remarked, watching Eleanor leave.

"Shut the f.u.c.k up," I said, even though he was right. "Let's get out of here."

But Hugo didn't move; he paused and listened. I thought I heard a scrabbling noise and looked toward it, then back at Hugo. He smiled broadly.

"I wish to rest here for a little," he said. "I often find myself a bit faint when I've fed off a human who is particularly...robust."

What kind of p.u.s.s.y talk was that? Faint? I'd never heard of such a thing. "You're fine. March."

"You insolent lackey," he said. "How dare you order me about like a common servant?" He reached into his pocket and before you could say Draw, I had Eleanor's stake in my hand. Pointy end out, just in case. But he fluttered a handkerchief out, then dabbed it at his forehead just like he was going to swoon right then and there. He closed his eyes and leaned against the tunnel wall.

The guy was stalling, but why? What was I missing? I thought back to what the workmen were saying when we came upon them. I'd been concentrating so hard on trying to sneak up on 'em, I hadn't paid much attention to their conversation. What had they said? They'd been hearing some creepy whispers that had stopped right before we came along.

I looked at Hugo, who mouthed something.

"Can it, your lordship," I said. "We've fed and we're leaving." I grabbed him by the arm and hauled him back toward Eleanor's house, where my car was parked. He protested some, but not much, and I knew why. He'd gotten what he needed.

He knew where Reedrek was.