"This my fault. I told them about this. I convinced them to come."

"You didn't force them to come here."

"I didn't tell them we were coming here."

"True."

"You're not very comforting."

"Not my . . . "

The skittering returned.

Pulling Mike's Glock from where she'd tucked it up against the small of her back, Vicki whirled and blew the head off something that looked like a cross between a rat and a rotweiller seconds before it took a bite out of Star's leg.

" . . . job," she finished, ignoring Ren's scream in favor of grabbing the rat thing by the tail, carrying it outside, and whipping it about forty meters back toward the flock of scavengers. On her way back inside, she scooped up a double handful of grey sand from where the building met the road.

She could feel Ren watching her as she scattered the sand over the blood and brain spatter on the floor.

"You have a gun. What kind of vampire carries a gun?"

"One that'd like to keep us all alive until morning." Vicki told her, rejoining her at the door. With any luck the bang had scared off the rat things and hadn't attracted anything else. "The gun's Detective Celluci's. He must've tossed it through as the portal was closing."

They turned together to face back down the road where the arc of ribs stripped clean of flesh gleamed in the s.p.a.ces between the black birds.

Vicki could hear Ren's heartbeat and breathing speed up. "We're never going back, are we?"

"Please." Given the light levels, Vicki made sure the eye-roll could be heard in her tone as she stretched the truth a bit. "This isn't our first portal; Mike'll work it out."

"The cop?"

"He's got resources." He'd probably been on the phone to Tony before Vicki'd hit the ground on the other side and Tony'd know how to fix this. Tony had to know how to fix this.

"But he's a real cop?"

"He is."

"And you're a real vampire?"

"I am."

"Oh man, that's totally like a bad romance novel!" And this time, Vicki could hear the eye-roll in Ren's voice.

She grinned, thinking of Henry. "Kid, you don't know the half of it."

Something skittered in the background but didn't come close enough to shoot. Ren's shoulder pressed up against hers although Vicki doubted the girl had consciously sought out the contact. "You're a vampire, right? And given the whole non-sparkling, lack of emo thing, I'm guessing you're like a traditional vampire?"

Vicki frowned, decided not to bother translating the teen speak, and shrugged. "Traditional enough, I guess. Why?"

"If there's like even a sun here, what happens to you when it rises?"

"All right, I've got the mouse." It was in a little, green plastic carrying cage and Mike felt like s.h.i.t every time he looked in at it. He'd had to drive out to the Super Walmart at Eglinton and Warden to get it and that went on the growing list of experiences he never wanted to repeat.

"What color is it?"

"What f.u.c.king difference does the color make?"

"It's probably safest if we keep as close to the original ritual as possible."

Setting the cage on the crypt, Mike took a deep breath and reminded himself that he-and more importantly, Vicki-needed Tony. "Probably?"

"Well, magic is mostly a matter of will so you should be able to bull through any minor variations but . . . "

There was a whole wealth of things Tony clearly didn't want to say in that but. And that was fine because Mike didn't want to hear them. He shone his flashlight down into the bowl and scowled. "I can't tell what color it was-too burned. She must have used an accelerant."

"That was the spell working. Is there dirt in the bowl? Toss it out and get fresh," Tony instructed when Mike grunted an affirmative. "I've sent you the symbol you have to draw in the middle of the circles."

"That's not what was there before." Mike squinted down at his screen. "It's, I don't know, backwards."

"It's supposed to be. This thing's a cut-rate gate; one way only. This is the inbound symbol."

He found a broken piece of sidewalk chalk, no doubt tossed aside by the idiot teenager who'd gotten them all into this mess. "I'll call you back when I'm done."

"Don't take too long, remember . . . "

"You don't have to f.u.c.king remind me about the time," Mike snapped and hung up. Sunrise hadn't been his friend for some years now.

Returning from disposing of another rat thing's body, Vicki glanced up at the sky where the stars were definitely a little dimmer. Clearly it had been too much to hope that this s.h.i.thole would be a s.h.i.thole without a dawn. Sitting down next to Ren, she sighed. "Okay, I didn't want to do this but, can you shoot?"

"A gun? Eww, no. Guns are stupid."

"Guns are dangerous. People are stupid. And we don't have time for that lecture right now." Vicki pulled out Mike's weapon and held it resting across her palms. "If I shut off at dawn, you're going to have to keep us all alive until sunset."

Ren shook her head. "I can't."

"Kid, you opened a portal between worlds. In my book, that says there's not a lot you can't do if it comes down to it. Hopefully, it won't come down to it, but, if it does . . . "

"I don't even like first person shooter games!"

Vicki ignored the protest and held up the Glock. "How much can you see?"

"What?"

"I can see in the dark. How much can you see?"

Frowning, Ren leaned away from the gun. "It's not as dark as it was."

Not an answer but it would have to do. "Okay, these are the sights-ramped front sight and a notched rear sight with white contrast. You aim with them but I'll use some wreckage to build a shelter with a limited access so all you'll have to do is point and shoot. Now the Glock has a triple safety system to prevent accidental discharge but once you've released the external safety, here, the two internal safeties automatically disengage when the trigger is pulled."

"Forget it!" Ren shoved at Vicki's arm. "I'm not going to shoot anything!"

"Would you rather be eaten by a giant rat?"

"No, but . . . "

"Then pay attention."

"It's arunda-ay!"

"It's nonsense!" Mike protested. "It doesn't mean s.h.i.t!"

On the other end of the phone, Tony sighed. "It means we get Vicki back," he said quietly. "Try it again from the top."

One hand gripping the edge of crypt, Mike, glanced over at the square of sky he could see through the grill, took a deep breath, and started again.

And then again.

One more time before Tony muttered, "Close enough."

"Close enough?"

"Look, like I said before, it's mostly a matter of will. The rest is just a way to focus power."

"I don't have that kind of power."

"How badly do you want Vicki back?" The phone casing cracked in Mike's grip and although he couldn't have heard it, Tony snorted. "That's plenty of power, trust me. Light the candles and get the mouse."

The mouse seemed oblivious to its fate. Mike thanked heaven for small mercies. He couldn't have coped with a terrified animal. "Why . . . ?"

"Its death symbolizes the journey from one world to another. I don't like this either but I don't think you can skip it. Put it in the bowl and cut its throat then set it on fire and start the chant. When you finish, the gate should open."

"And if it doesn't?"

"I'll be on the first plane to Toronto. Don't hang up, just set the phone down. I'll chant with you."

"Will that help?"

"It can't hurt."

The silver knife was surprisingly sharp. The mouse's head came right off. It helped, a little, that it didn't have time to suffer. Its fur had just started to smolder when Mike began the chant.

The rat things were getting bolder. She'd killed two more and had just given thanks that they didn't hunt in packs when she saw a large shadow moving through the building across the road. Back home, a lot of predators hunted at dusk and dawn. It figured, Vicki noted silently, that would hold true here as well.

No, not moving through the building. Slithering.

All things considered, she supposed she shouldn't be surprised by giant snakes. "And no f.u.c.king sign of Samuel Jackson when I could really use him," she muttered rubbing the back of her neck. She could feel the dawn approaching. The shelter she'd built would give Ren and the kids a chance against the rat things but giant snakes were a whole different ball game.

"What are you looking at?"

Vicki glanced down the road to where the portal wasn't, and shook her head. "Nothing."

The portal wasn't opening.

The stone under the symbol remained solid.

He should have known this magic s.h.i.t wouldn't have a hope in h.e.l.l of working. Charging around the crypt, Mike smacked the wall with both palms. "G.o.d d.a.m.n it! Open up!" And again. And then with his fists. "Open the f.u.c.k up!"

There was a whoosh behind him.

He turned to see the mixing bowl melting in the heat of the flames.

Turned again to see the center of the circle flare white, then grey under a smear of blood.

"All right, you're going to have to . . . " The flash of light she caught in the corner of her eye had probably been nothing more than an indicator that dawn was closer than she thought, but Vicki turned toward it anyway.

"Is that?" Ren's fingers closed around her arm hard enough to hurt.

"It is."

"But what if it doesn't lead home!"

Vicki took another look across the road. She couldn't see the snake. Probably not a good thing. "Trust me, we'll still be trading up." It was hard to find the Hunter this close to sunrise but, somehow. she managed it. "Gavin! Star! Wake up and come here. Quickly!"

Still wrapped in her imperative, they did as they were told.

Vicki shoved Ren out into the road and the other two out behind her. "Get them through the portal," she growled. "Get them home."

"What will you be doing?"

"I'll be right behind you." She could hear the slithering now. "Run!"

To her credit, Ren grabbed her friend's hands before she started to move.

They'd made maybe twenty meters when the rush of wind at her back had Vicki spin around and squeeze off five quick shots.

Giant snake.

With arms, of a sort.

And no visible eyes.

The bullets dug gouges in the charcoal grey scales. It paused, head and arms weaving about three meters off the ground, but seemed more puzzled than injured.

"Vicki!"

"Keep running!" Next time she ended up on another world with teenagers, she'd add don't look behind you.

On the bright side, the giant snake thing had to be keeping the rat things under cover.