"Me too," Jules agreed as he .ngered the elastic of her Agent Provocateur thong.

"Not now, Jules," Lilith said as she slithered free of his grasp. "Later. After the hunt."

Jules's eyes .ashed as if he might press the issue, then he smiled and withdrew his hand from between her legs. "Whatever you say, baby."

Lilith looked out the windows and saw that the Mercedes had come to a stop and that they were parked a few blocks from their destination. "We're here!" she shouted triumphantly, reaching over and popping open the door before the driver could do it for her. She looked over her shoulder and saw the others climbing out of Tanith's Bentley.

"Catch me if you can!" Lilith whooped, laughing as her friends chased after her, their shouts and laughter echoing through the narrow, angled streets of Greenwich Village.

Although it was after two in the morning, the streets were far from deserted. There were still plenty of younger people, coming and going from various clubs and all-night diners, laughing and joking. As far as the casual observer could tell, Lilith and her friends were just another boisterous group of college kids on their way back to the NYU dorms after a night of partying.

Still giggling among themselves, the group headed toward the triumphal arch at the foot of Fifth Avenue and Washington Square North. Dramatically lit by stra-tegically placed spotlights, the white marble mon-ument looked like a giant gravestone.

Although lampposts lined the pathways, the park itself was considerably darker than the surround-ing neighborhood. As the vampires walked through the arch to the large recessed fountain basin in the center of the square, they could make out at least a half dozen men prowling near the metal benches that ringed the path around the fountain wall. These shadowy .gures in baggy pants, running shoes, and hooded sweatshirts were the true lords of Washington Square Park.

No doubt the dealers also thought Lilith and her friends were just another group of drunken revelers in search of drugs. Lilith smiled in antic.i.p.ation of the look of terri.ed surprise on the prey's face when he .nally realized the truth.

Jules motioned for them to gather in closer, taking cover behind a small cl.u.s.ter of trees and a low fence with a sign that read stay off the gra.s.s. As usual, he had to play the role of the game master, setting down the rules for the others.

"One of us goes in and trances the prey into following them somewhere secluded, then we all move in. Extra points for trophies-something personal-from the prey. Drugs don't count. Now that we've got the ground rules, who wants to play the bait?"

"Ooh! Ooh! Me!" Lilith said, waving her arm as if she were begging the teacher to call on her in cla.s.s.

"Very well, Lilith it is," he said with a laugh.

She turned and peered out from between the trees at the men loitering on the west side of the central foun-tain. She saw a fat African American guy with a gray beard sitting on a bench with an I . New York shop-ping bag stuffed full of what looked like wadded news-paper and discarded fast-food containers next to him.

Ewww. She wasn't going to put the moves on some old, gross Buddha-belly guy. Whoever she picked had to at least be young and in good shape.

She zeroed in on a tall, gangly dealer leaning against one of the large carved granite outcroppings that were set into the fountain's sit wall like the points of a compa.s.s. His face was turned away from her and his hands were hidden in the slash pockets of his navy blue hooded jacket.

The dealer's head swiveled like a radar dish as she approached, giving voice to the ubiquitous cry of the dealer: "Smoke? Smoke?"

Lilith stopped and turned to face him but didn't speak. Reading this as interest from a potential customer, the dealer motioned for her to move closer.

"How many?"

Lilith didn't step closer but instead favored him with a half smile. She saw the look on his face change from one of pure business to one that antic.i.p.ated, hoped for, pleasure.

"You lookin' for something more, baby? 'Cause what-ever it is, I got it," he bragged.

Lilith ached to say something catty, but she didn't dare speak for fear of breaking her concentration. Since the easiest way to control a mind is to have the prey willingly focus on you and look you right in the eyes, being physically attractive is a distinct advantage.

As the dealer stared at the beautiful young girl before him, he suddenly realized he couldn't take his eyes off her. It was as if the entire world had telescoped down to her achingly perfect oval face and eyes, which seemed to glow in the dimness like those of a cat.

Lilith thought, Come with me, as hard as she could.

Although his arms and legs were numb, as if someone had shot them full of novocaine, the dealer was seized by the desire to walk with this strange angel, wherever she might lead.

Lilith smiled to herself as he began to move toward her. However, before her prey took a second step, his head suddenly whipped to one side, as if he had heard someone shout his name-and then he stepped back.

What the h.e.l.l?

Somehow the dealer's mind had slipped free of her control. This was de. nitely not supposed to happen, at least not to her. Lilith furrowed her brow, redoubling her concentration.

Look at me.

As the dealer slowly turned his head back toward her, Lilith could see that his eyes were unfocused and his jaw slack: obvious signs that the clot was indeed mes-merized.

Come with me.

The dealer stepped forward yet again, only to sud-denly stop and wobble slightly on one foot, like a kid playing a game of freeze tag.

Lilith's face began to burn with frustration. She had no doubt the others were giggling their a.s.ses off as they watched her from their hiding place in the shadows.

NOW!.

Her command echoed in the dealer's head like feed-back from an electric guitar, causing him to lurch for-ward as if he'd been jabbed with a pitchfork. However, a fraction of a second later he jumped backward, slamming into the granite outcropping so violently it looked like a phantom hand had shoved him against it.

Lilith scowled as she tried to .gure out what was going on. The way her prey moved was more like a puppet on a string than an animal trying to escape a snare. But what could cause that kind of interference?

Just as it occurred to Lilith that she might not be the only one inside the dealer's head, a girl she had never seen before stepped out from behind the other side of the outcropping. The stranger was dressed in a pair of gray skinny jeans, purple tweed boots, a long black shirt, and a cropped, faded black leather bomber jacket. Her dark hair was worn in a blunt, jagged bob that, along with her full lips and high cheekbones, made her look like a semi-feral pixie. With a start Lilith realized she was standing face-to-face with a New Blood.

"This one is mine!" the New Blood growled, pointing to the dealer, who stood pinned like a b.u.t.ter. y against the outcropping, drool dripping from his mouth.

"Get lost, s.k.a.n.k," Lilith hissed, unsheathing her fangs in ritual challenge. "He belongs to me!"

"You get lost, b.i.t.c.h," the New Blood snarled in response, her eyes glowing. "I was here . rst!"

Lilith stepped forward, her hands clenched into . sts. "How dare you speak to me like that! Don't you know who I am?"

"Yeah," the New Blood sneered. "You're the snooty uptown b.i.t.c.h whose a.s.s I'm gonna kick!"

The two glared at each other as they circled like boxers getting ready to . ght. Lilith took a swipe at her rival, eager to slice the New Blood's clothes and . esh to ribbons with her razor-sharp talons. However, the New Blood proved unexpectedly agile, sidestepping her charge with the grace of a matador. Lilith whirled around, surprised by the other girl's speed.

The New Blood laughed at the startled look on Lilith's face. "You oldies talk a good game, but when it comes down to it, you're nothing but a wuss!" The New Blood's laughter was abruptly replaced by a screech of pain as Lilith drove her nails into her opponent's right side.

"First blood is mine!" Lilith sneered as she yanked her hand free. "So who's the wuss now, newbie?"

The New Blood staggered, her right hand clamping her side, bright red blood oozing from between her .ngers. Although her body was already rapidly healing, she would be vulnerable to attack for the next minute- more than enough time for Lilith to deliver the coup de grace. The New Blood's eyes rolled back in their sockets until only the whites were visible.

"What's the matter, newbie?" Lilith taunted. "You're not going to pa.s.s out on me, are you?"

If the New Blood had a response to Lilith's jeers, it was lost in the howling wind that suddenly churned every piece of trash in the plaza into a maelstrom of grit and refuse, chasing most of the remaining dealers from the park.

As Lilith raised her arms to shield her face from the stinging lash of the maelstrom, she saw Tanith and Jules running toward her from their hiding place.

Eyes still rolled back in her head, the New Blood raised a hand, as if reaching for an invisible rope, and then closed it into a .st. There was a sound like some-one running through dry autumn leaves, and a nimbus of pale blue .re blinked into existence around her clenched . st.

"Lilith!" Tanith shouted over the roar of the wind. "Get away from her! She's a stormgatherer!"

Lilith turned to stare at her adversary, who now held a ball of bluish-white lightning in the palm of her hand. Her previous bravado was quickly replaced by fear. Although vampires can resist every human disease and have regenerative powers that make every wound except decapitation or a stake through the heart a matter of inconvenience, electricity can kill them.

As she backed away from the New Blood, Lilith saw Jules running toward her. "Jules! Help me!" she yelled.

Lilith's shout broke the New Blood's concentra-tion, causing her eyes to suddenly drop back into their sockets like the reels on a slot machine. Although the gale-force winds instantly died away, she still held a .stful of crackling lightning.

Freed from his trance, the dealer abruptly jerked awake and .ed into the darkness beyond the ring of lights surrounding the plaza. In the next moment the heavyset, bearded dealer seated on the bench jumped to his feet and pulled a compound crossbow out of his shopping bag.

"Van Helsings!" Jules shouted in warning.

"Lilith! Look out!" Tanith screamed.

As Lilith ran toward her friends, she looked over her shoulder just in time to see the vampire hunter . re his weapon at her. Instinctively she threw herself to one side at the last second, the arrow coming so close it grazed her rib as it .ew by. Tanith wasn't as lucky. She hit the ground like a dropped doll, the bolt from the crossbow jutting from her breast.

Lilith fell to her knees beside her friend. "Get up, Tanith! You have to get up!"

As the vampire hunter raised his weapon for a second shot, the New Blood .icked her wrist, tossing the light-ning ball at him, then turned and . ed, disappearing into the shadows without looking back.

There was a horri. c scream, followed by the smell of burning . esh and hair, as the . stful of lightning struck the vampire hunter square in the chest. He dropped his crossbow and fell to the ground in a twitching heap.

Jules stood over Lilith as she knelt beside Tanith's body, frantically scanning the area for signs of more Van Helsings. Although he had never gone up against them before, he knew the vampire hunters didn't travel alone. Sure enough, he spotted three more, dressed like drug dealers, running toward them from the other side of the park, each armed with a crossbow.

"It's an ambush!" Jules shouted as he yanked Lilith to her feet. "Forget about Tanith-she's dead! We've got to get out of-!" Before he could .nish his sentence, the closest of the advancing Van Helsings . red on him. The young vampire roared in pain and leaped at his attackers, fangs and claws bared.

The Van Helsing instinctively fell back, screaming as a monster with the wings of a bat and the face of a man swooped toward him, an arrow in its thigh.

Jules grabbed the vampire hunter's crossbow with his clawlike feet, yanking it and its owner into the air.

"Shoot it!" the Van Helsing yelled as he struggled to free himself from Jules's clutches. "Don't worry about hitting me! Just shoot!"

Jules banked sharply and let go of his unwilling pa.s.senger, sending the Van Helsing .ying into a park bench. As the other vampire hunters hurried to their comrade's aid, Jules soared into the night, leaving Lilith to escape the best she could.

"d.a.m.n it, the stormgatherer got away," Drummer growled as he got to his feet.

"Are you okay?"

"I'll live." His right arm felt like it had been wrenched from its socket, and he was pretty sure he had at least one cracked rib, but all things considered, he was in fairly decent shape. He waved the others away with a pained grimace. "Don't worry about me-go see to Big Ike."

Remy, the older of the two, hurried over to the big man's body and checked his pulse. "He's badly burned- especially his hands-but he's still alive. Lucky for him he was wearing rubber-soled shoes."

"Get on the horn to removal," Drummer grunted. "Tell them we have a man down."

"What about her?" Kevin pointed at the body of the vampiress sprawled across the pavement.

"You know the drill," Drummer replied. "Suckers like to play possum. We have to make sure she's dead."

"Gotcha," Kevin replied as he pulled his Ghurka knife from its sheath and cautiously nudged the body with his boot. "You know, I've never seen a sucker sum-mon up a tornado before-or turn into a bat, or what-ever that thing was."

"That's because up to now, you've only taken down undead," Drummer explained. "Undead can't shape-shift or control the weather. What we went up against tonight were true-borns. Old Bloods, most likely." He frowned as he stared down at the dead girl. The vampiress looked disconcertingly young and pretty- no more than sixteen or seventeen. He scratched his head in confusion. "That's funny; I could have sworn the blonde was wearing blue. . . ."

"You mean like this?" Remy asked, holding up the shredded remains of a peac.o.c.k-blue silk dress.

"Where did you .nd that?" Drummer asked sus-piciously.

"It was lying over there, right next to the fountain." Before Remy could turn to point out where he had found the ruined garment, he heard a deep, guttural growl that stopped him in his tracks.

Suddenly a huge wolf with piercing blue eyes and no tail leaped out of the fountain basin in an explosive spray of cold water, knocking Remy to the ground.

"Shoot her!" Drummer yelled, .ring his crossbow at the .eeing creature. "She's getting away!" His arrow fell short, bouncing harmlessly against the pavement as the monster wolf disappeared into the streets.

"d.a.m.n it!" Drummer snapped, hurling the cross-bow to the ground despite the excruciating pain in his shoulder. "The boss is going to lose it when he hears about this!"

Chapter 4.

C.

ally Monture shook her head in disgust as she hurried down the stairs to the subway. What was she thinking? She should have let the bimbo in the awful blue dress take the prey. But no, she let her pride get in the way, and now she was running for her life. Granny had warned her about letting her tem-per get the better of her in tight situations and, as always, had been proven right. Cally was relieved the old woman was no longer around to see how badly she had screwed up-but only a little, for she sorely missed her grandmother.

Although she had been stalking the park off and on for several months, this was the .rst time she had run into real problems. She probably would have rethought her plans for the night if she'd known she would be crossing paths not only with Old Bloods, but Van Helsings as well.