"If you'll recall, Vladamir, the original plan was for me to wear the vest. I've already died once and I figure the odds are against my seeing the sun set this evening. My only concern is that there are two people I'd like to take with me when I go."

"You blame me for your family's deaths," he said. "This is your revenge.""I want Bey," I said. "He's the one who dug them up. He's the one using them now. You're my ticket to his destruction. I'd rather have Bey, but I'll settle for you if you don't cooperate."

He considered my words and then glanced at Mooncloud and Garou. "Perhaps you are willing to sacrifice yourself. But am I to believe that you would blow up your friends, too?"

I smiled. "Have you forgotten so quickly? I have no 'friends.' Only allies. You taught me that." I turned to Mooncloud and Garou. "What do you say, ladies? Would I blow you up, too?"

Garou's face was coa.r.s.e with impending change: she nodded slowly. Mooncloud's features were ashen. "I do believe you would," she murmured.

"So, it's settled," I said, pushing him back down into the long packing crate. "Cooperate and this might all work out so that we are both rid of Kadeth Bey. Mess with me, and we'll all go find out what G.o.d really looks like."

He made no reply and I slammed the lid shut.

Garou and I wrestled the packing crate down the hall and out the side entrance while Mooncloud drove the Bronco around to meet us. Even after dropping the tailgate and the rear seats, we had to shift the box in diagonally, letting a good foot and a half hang off the rear end. I crawled in with it to stabilize the load while Garou rode up front with Mooncloud. No one spoke during the short drive. Mooncloud kept glancing in the rearview mirror at the detonator strapped to my wrist. Garou sat in stony silence, glaring out the window as if some sort of meaning might be found in the pa.s.sing scenery.

We drove to Atkinson and then followed the rutted path across the field. "Around to the back," I said as we approached the old hospital building. "Stop here."

You couldn't miss it in the light of day: the bricks had been replaced in the southeast window, but now they were a jumbled stack instead of the uniform wall of the day before. Anyone coming up from the bas.e.m.e.nt after sunrise would notice in an instant. Perhaps they noticed last night.

Perhaps they noticed Suki. . . .

While Garou and I wrestled the packing crate out, Mooncloud adjusted her transceiver headset and turned it on. "Now what?" she asked, as we set Ba.s.sarab's transport on the ground, next to the building.

"Do we knock?"

"Yeah," I said, picking up a melon-sized chunk of concrete. I hurled it through the old cas.e.m.e.nt and the brick facade exploded inward. "Knock-knock."

The three of us lifted the crate over the tumbled sill and shoved it toward the shadows inside.

"Now what?" Mooncloud repeated, dusting off her hands.

"It's very simple, Doctor," I said, pulling the Dartmaster out of my pocket. I shot Garou in the thigh.

"You are going to a.s.sist Lupe over to the Bronco while she can still walk, get in, and drive to the far side of the field where you will wait for further instructions."

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Garou cried, yanking the dart out of her leg. "Why?"

"It's a cleaner equation if you're not part of the math. Better move toward the Bronco: I calculated a more potent dose to compensate for your lycanthropy."

She started to stagger and Mooncloud moved in to provide support. "Let me put her in the Bronco and then come with you."

"There's no need for either of you to go where I'm going," I said with a half smile. I turned and pulled myself up and through the ragged opening. Then I turned back and flashed the remote, strapped just below my left hand. "Remember, the far side of the field, and don't come any closer until this deal is done." I switched on my own headset. "Adios."

Garou was definitely getting wobbly. As Mooncloud attempted to shepherd her toward the vehicle, I broke open the Dartmaster and removed the CO2 cartridge. I didn't know how close the test firings coupled with the two shots I'd used on Wren and Garou had come to exhausting the charge, but I wasn'tgoing downstairs without a fresh load of propellant. I changed cartridges and tossed the extra dart I had readied for Garou just in case the first dosage had been insufficient. I reached into my other pocket and loaded one of the special darts I had prepared for Kadeth Bey.

And then I kicked open the lid to Ba.s.sarab's box.

"You are a dead man," he hissed.

"You have a knack for stating the obvious." I repocketed the dart gun and gestured with the detonator. "Get up."

He moved sluggishly, except where the wedge of sunlight through the broken wall threatened to touch him. I slipped the detonator off my wrist and used the rubber bands to refasten it to the Sabrelight while he reached into the crate. He shook out the black duster that served him as a nineteenth century subst.i.tute for an eighteenth-century cape.

As he opened the lining in the back of the garment, I wondered how he would upgrade his wardrobe for the next century. Nehru jacket? Probably not as handy for hang-gliding nor for concealing weapons like the Mossberg 9200 shotgun he was sliding into the opening that would drape between his shoulder blades.

"This is madness!" he protested as he donned the coat and adjusted the shoulders against the awkward weight down the middle of his back. "How do you expect to pull this off?"

I repressed the urge to say, "That's for me to know and you to find out." Instead I countered with a question of my own: "How come you didn't travel the dreampath the day your house burned down?"

"What?"

"You were already burned by the fire. Why did you subject yourself to further damage from the sun when you could have transported yourself by traveling this so-called dreampath?"

He scowled and studied the wedge of sunlight spilling through the shattered wall, a reminder that all of his escape routes were cut off. "It is not so easy. I was disoriented from the smoke, the heat. And the sun was up: I have never traveled a dreampath during the day. I'm not sure that it can be done.

"To travel the dreampaths, you must relax, clear your mind. You must focus your mind on a specific destination or you may become lost in between."

"And where's that?"

He shrugged, moving closer to the inner door that opened on the central hallway. "Limbo. Between dimensions."

"Like being banished?" I was remembering Luath and the general.

"Very like. Perhaps worse."

"But the first time I did it, I ended up in your room, and I wasn't focusing on a destination at all."

"That was my doing. I sensed your movement within the dreamplane. I intercepted you to keep you from becoming lost in between."

"So, what happens the next time I dream? What if you're not around to reel me back in?"

"This is not to become a problem."

"Yeah? And why not?"

"Because," he said, "very soon we shall both be dead."

"Oh, yeah," I said, "I forgot."

He eased the door open and peered into the darkness of the corridor. "However," he said after a long moment, "if you and I were to both survive this-"

"We're speaking hypothetically here, of course. . . ."

"Of course."

"Thought so.""If we were to survive, I would probably find the time to coach you through a couple of controlled dreamwalks-"

"I can't believe you two are bickering about this," Mooncloud's voice crackled in my earpiece, "while Bey and Bachman are probably waiting right around the corner."

"I was wondering when you were going to join us, Doctor. How's Lupe?"

"Still conscious, but unable to do anything beyond cursing your name. If they don't kill you, there's a very good chance that she will, once the tranquilizer wears off."

"Don't worry about us, Doctor: Bachman is already expecting us, and we're making enough noise to let them know we're not trying to sneak up on them."

"Perhaps we should not keep them waiting," Ba.s.sarab said, reaching the junction of the hallway and the stairwell.

"Okay, Doc, close your mike and listen closely: I can't afford any distractions once the negotiations begin. If everything blows up in our faces, I want you to get over to Mount h.o.r.eb Hospital as fast as you can. There's someone you'll need to see in Fifth-floor-Psych, room 512. You got that?"

"Room 512, Mount h.o.r.eb Hospital, Fifth-floor-Psych. Who and why?"

"I'll explain later. Just remember and get there as fast as you can after this is over. Bye, Doc." I looked over at my hostage. "Ready?"

He readjusted his duster, nodded, and started down the stairs. I followed a few steps behind.

They were waiting for us in the furnace room, Bey and Bachman, insolently at ease and seated upon a jumble of crates like moldering royalty in an Egyptian tomb. Only a bare dozen candles were lit, shifting the clumps of darkness around us like stray cattle from a shadowy herd of the d.a.m.ned.

Bey was a mess. His skin was black and shriveled from his torching at the Tremont, here and there, portions of ruined flesh had flaked away to reveal smooth, albeit grey, skin beneath. Bey the Deathless was on the mend.

Bachman, however, wasn't. And her antic.i.p.ation of my promised blood had her even edgier and jumpier than I had seen her last.

>>So, dRAcUl< bey="" projected,="" the="" skin="" at="" the="" corners="" of="" his="" mouth="" cracking="" and="" splitting="" as="" his="" mouth="" twitched,="">>yOu HAvE cOMe tO tHrOW yOUrSeLf UpoN oUr mERcY< "your="" mercy,="" bey?"="" ba.s.sarab="" spat="" a="" gob="" of="" scarlet="" on="" the="" floor,="" at="" his="" feet.="" "not="" b.l.o.o.d.y="">

I cleared my throat. "Perhaps you should explain our working arrangement."

Ba.s.sarab parted his greatcoat to reveal the vest. "This yearling has managed to entrap me with this garment containing a large concentration of high explosives. If he pushes a b.u.t.ton, the plastique charges in this vest will detonate." He smiled and his teeth seemed sharper than I had ever seen them before. "The result for you, Bey, will be no simple decapitation: I doubt that all the king's horses and all the king's men would ever be able to put Bey the Jackal together again."

It was hard to tell from the charred ruin of the sorcerer's face if he was discomfited by this revelation, but his ectomorphic form shifted on the crates like an alert cobra's. >>WhY iS He sO aNXiOuS To dIe?

AnD, FOr tHAt maTTEr, hOw Is iT tHAt yOu ARe sO cALM aNd cOoPErAtIVe?< the="" old="" vampire="" shrugged.="" "as="" for="" csejthe,="" he="" is="" nearly="" mad="" with="" christian="" guilt="" over="" his="" own="" d.a.m.nation.="" your="" violation="" of="" his="" family="" has="" pushed="" him="" over="" the="" edge.="" he="" is="" more="" than="" ready="" to="" die="" if="" it="" will="" destroy="" you="" and="" return="" his="" wife="" and="" daughter="" to="" their="" eternal="" rest.="" as="" for="" me?="" what="" choice="" do="" i="">

He tells me that, if I cooperate in the bargaining here, I may live past another sunset."

>>BaRgAInINg?< bey's="" eyes="" narrowed="" and="" piece="" of="" crusted="" ear="" dropped="" off="" to="" reveal="" a="" smooth,="" grey="" lobe.="">>I wAs TOlD yOU WErE sURrEnDErINg yoURsElF tO rETuRn wITh Us TO nEW YoRk.< ba.s.sarab's="" smile="" became="" a="" smirk.="" "uncoerced="" compliance?="" the="" centuries="" have="" petrified="" your="" brain="" ifyou="" believe="" that="" i="" would="" give="" myself="" up="" without="" a="" fight.="" no,="" the="" bargain="" i="" refer="" to="" is="" between="" my="" captor="" and="" your="" keeper,"="" he="" said,="" nodding="" to="">

Bey looked at Bachman. >>WhaT iS He bABbLiNG aBOuT?< but="" elizabeth="" was="" staring="" at="" me.="" more="" specifically,="" she="" was="" staring="" at="" the="" detonator="" in="" my="">

"Your promise," she whispered. "What about your blood?"

"I expect it will be literally vaporized along with the rest of us. Let me spell it out for all of you," I announced, switching on the Sabrelight and pointing it at the ceiling. "I am not a happy guy. And, unless I get a whole lot happier in the next few minutes, I am going to turn this little bas.e.m.e.nt tete-a-tete into a real open house."

>>YoUng oNe< bey="" crooned,="">>aRe yOu rEAlLy sO wILlINg tO dIe?< "the="" way="" i="" figure="" it,="" a.s.shole,"="" i="" growled,="" "is="" with="" you="" finally="" gone,="" my="" family="" can="" rest="" in="" peace.="" i'll="" be="" very="" happy="" to="" send="" dracula="" to="" h.e.l.l="" as="" he's="" the="" one="" who="" made="" me="" what="" i="" am.="" if="" it="" wasn't="" for="" him,="" my="" wife="" and="" my="" little="" girl="" would="" still="" be="">

"And what of me?" Bachman's voice was hushed and harsh with fear and need. "What of our bargain-the promise of your blood freely given?"

I flashed the light in her face, blinding her for the moment. "You traitorous b.i.t.c.h! You betray your friends and lure them to their deaths and you have the nerve to speak to me of promises and bargains?

You just sit there for now and don't say s.h.i.t unless I ask you a question!

"Now," I continued, trying to control the trembling in my voice and my hands, "I am even more unhappy than I was when I walked through the door a few moments ago." I still held the remote and flashlight in my left hand. I slid my right hand into my coat pocket and pulled out the Dartmaster. I pointed it at the Egyptian sorcerer. "Where is my family?"

He looked at the pistol. >>WHat Is tHAt? A gUn? WhAT cAn yOU hOpe tO aCcoMpLisH wITh a guN tHaT YoU coUlD nOT Do wIth SWoRd, fLAmeThROwEr, aNd sTAkE?< i="" answered="" by="" shooting="" him="" in="" the="">

He didn't even flinch. He looked down at the dart protruding from his shirt in mild surprise. With deliberate slowness, he pulled it from his flesh. I fumbled the Dartmaster's chamber open and inserted another dart as he examined the spent projectile. "I'm going to ask you again, where is my family?"

>>HOw fAScInAtINg.< he="" turned="" it="" over="" and="" over="" in="" his="" spidery="" hands.="">>It iS bOTh a DaRt AnD a tINy sYRinGe. ThEy UsE thIs fOR tRANqUiLiZINg aNiMALs, dOn'T tHEy?< he="" looked="">

>>Is THat wHAt yOu'RE tRYiNg tO Do? PuT mE to sLEeP?< i="" shot="" him="" in="" the="" belly="" this="" time.="" "i="" said,="" where="" is="" my="" family?="" what="" have="" you="" done="" with="">

>>YoU mUSt rEaLIze tHaT tRaNQuIliZeRS, dRUgS, Or eVEn pOIsOns wILl hAve nO moRe efFeCT thAn sTAKinG, bEheAdINg, oR bUrnIng.< he="" pulled="" out="" the="" second="" dart="" and="" sniffed="" the="" needled="" tip.="">>YoU'vE alReaDy tRIed YoUr sO-caLlEd hOly wATer aNd yOu kNOw hOW eFfEcTiVe tHAt tUrNEd oUt To bE.< i="" had="" fumbled="" through="" another="" reload="" and="" shot="" him="" again.="" this="" time="" i="" almost="" missed,="" barely="" managing="" to="" tag="" him="" in="" the="" arm.="" "i'm="" running="" out="" of="" patience,="" bey!="" i="" want="" to="" see="" my="" family!="" i="" want="" to="" see="" you="" exorcise="" them="" with="" my="" own="" eyes!"="" i="" broke="" open="" the="" chamber="" and="" fumbled="" for="" another="">

>>ThEy aRe aWAy,< bey="" said="" with="" enhanced="" nonchalance.="">>ShaLl I gO GEt tHEm aNd bRInG thEm To yOu?< "i'm="" sure,"="" i="" said,="" "that="" you="" can="" do="" that="" from="" right="" here,="" without="" moving="" a="" muscle."="" i="" glanced="" over="" at="" bachman.="" "where's="">

"I'm here," came a hoa.r.s.e cry from the back of the room.

"You surprised me," Bachman said, ignoring my directive to only answer direct questions. "I expected you to come to her rescue while we were gone, last night. Your humanity is slipping, indeed.""Are you all right?" I called.

"She crawled under a workbench and hasn't spoken or moved in hours." Bachman tried to make her ruined mouth smile. "Don't worry: I kept your family away from her."

A hot flare of anger erupted behind my eyes and I brought the Dartmaster around and shot Bey again. "I'm waiting!" I screamed at him. "Get them back here now!"

He smiled and pulled the dart loose. >>ThEy aRe tOo fAR aWaY. EvEN iF tHey cOUld ReSpoNd tO my cAlL, It mIgHt bE aN hOur bEfoRe thEy wOUld gEt hErE.< i="" fumbled="" another="" dart="" into="" the="" chamber.="" "vlad,="" go="" over="" there="" and="" get="" suki="" out="" from="" under="" that="" workbench."="" i="" swung="" the="" sabrelight's="" beam="" back="" into="" bachman's="" face.="" "you-go="" help="">

>>WhY dO yOu kEEp sHoOtINg yOUr sIlLy lItTle DaRTs At mE?< bey="" asked="" mildly="" as="" the="" vampires="" moved="" to="" the="" back="" of="" the="" room.="">>YoU mUSt rEaLiZe tHAt yOu cAN't kILl a MaN wHo Is aLreADy dEaD, aNd tHEsE lITtLe sTInGs dO nOt eVEn qUAlIfY aS a mINoR aNnoYaNCe.< "then="" grin="" and="" bear="" it,="" you="" son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h.="" it="" makes="" me="" happy,="" and="" as="" long="" as="" i'm="" happy,="" i'm="" not="" pressing="" the="" b.u.t.ton."="" i="" swung="" the="" beam="" so="" that="" i="" could="" see="" the="" workbench.="" an="" arm="" came="" out="" from="" beneath="" the="" bench="" and="" ba.s.sarab="" stepped="" back="" so="" that="" bachman="" would="" have="" to="" take="" the="" extended="">

A crate creaked as Bey shifted his weight, and I turned and shot him in the face. "Don't move, G.o.ddammit!" I fumbled for another dart as I swung the light back to the workbench. Bachman was bent down, pulling, and Suki's face appeared in the circle of light. Her shoulders emerged. Then her other arm.

She was holding something in her other hand: a Glock 19 auto pistol. The gun barrel came up with inhuman speed and came to rest just above the bridge of Elizabeth Bachman's nose. The impact of the hollow-point bullet took the top of her head off, scooping out the brainpan, and hurled her body halfway across the room where it impacted with the remains on an old boiler tank.

Her body started decomposing even before it finished slumping to the floor.

Distracted, I didn't see the monstrous forms of my wife and daughter until they were well out of the shadows and hurtling across the room. They descended on me, shrieking like the fire alarms of h.e.l.l. The Glock fired a quick succession of shots at the thing that looked like Kirsten and the impact of the bullets jerked it backwards as if it were executing a quick, spastic moonwalk. The creature wearing my wife's body was upon me before Ba.s.sarab could bring the shotgun out and around. I staggered, off balance, and the remote went flying out of my hand, the Sabrelight spinning its light-show trajectory like some kind of deranged UFO.

>>YoUr fAMiLy iS hERe, CsEJtHe,< bey="" taunted.="">>ArE yOu nOt hAPpY tO sEe tHEm?< i="" cursed="" him="" then.="" called="" him="" every="" vile="" name="" and="" used="" every="" epithet="" i'd="" ever="" heard="" or="" imagined="" as="" i="" slapped="" away="" the="" hands="" that="" had="" once="" caressed="" me="" and="" used="" my="" fists="" upon="" the="" face="" that="" had="" once="" meant="" more="" than="" life,="" itself,="" to="" me.="" tears="" came,="" hot="" and="" blinding,="" as="" i="" split="" the="" lips="" that="" had="" kissed="" mine="" a="" lifetime="">

Then a hand grabbed my wrist from behind. I shook it loose, but another hand grasped my shoulder and an arm fell across my throat. A multiplicity of hands fell on me, then, clutching and grasping. A smell like sour earth and long-dead rot washed over me, and my gag reflex took over in a shuddering succession of dry heaves. The Dartmaster was pulled from my grasp, and when my eyes could focus again, I could see others in the room.

Others like Jenny and Kirsten. Only not so well preserved or presentable. Bey had looted the local cemeteries for reinforcements, and now a shambling phalanx of corpses formed a ring about the necromancer. Dozens of hands and arms, inhumanly strong despite their putrescent flesh and denuded bone, held Ba.s.sarab and myself immobile as Bey retrieved the remote detonator.

He turned and walked over to Suki, bent down, and pulled the now-empty Glock from her hand.

>>AnD wHeRE dID yOU fINd tHIs, My pReTTy?< he="" turned="" the="" weapon="" over="" in="" his="" hand="" and="" then="" tossed="" it="" across="" the="" room.="" one="" of="" the="" corpses="" swayed="" "to"="" when="" he="" should="" have="" gone="" "fro"="" and="" thehandgun="" struck="" him="" in="" the="" face.="" half="" of="" his="" jawbone,="" including="" his="" chin,="" clattered="" to="" the="" floor="" along="" with="" the="">

>>BAcHmAn tOLd mE YoU wErE tOO wEaK to cAUSe AnY tRoUBlE,< bey="" continued,="" reaching="" down="" and="" grasping="" the="" asian="" girl="" by="" the="" throat.="">>I gUEsS tHaT'S tHe lASt mIsTAkE sHe'Ll eVer mAkE.< he="" chuckled="" and="" lifted="" suki="" up,="" off="" the="" floor="" by="" her="">

She made a choking sound and grasped at Bey as he lifted her into the air, but his reach was longer than hers.

"Now you're the one making a mistake," I said.