of the trees. It was the brunette that had tormented Jason. She stalked forward in a long black dress that covered her from neck to ankle. She slid her arms around Janos, nuzzling his neck, giving us a glimpse of her pale back. Only a fine webbing of black straps covered her back. The dress moved like it would slide down her body at the least movement, but somehow it stayed in place. Fashion-plate magic. Her dark hair was in a looping braid to one side of her face. She looked good for someone I'd seen ripped to rotting bits of flesh.
I couldn't keep the surprise off my face.
"I thought she was dead," Larry said.
"So did I."
"I would never have risked Pallas if I truly thought your werewolf could kill her," Janos said.
A second figure came out of the dark woods. Long white hair framed a thin, fine-boned face. His eyes glowed blood-red. I'd seen vampires with glowing eyes before, but they always glowed the color of their irises. No one who had ever been human had red irises. He wore a proverbial black tux and tails, complete with a nearly ankle-length cape.
"Xavier," I said softly.
Larry looked at me. "This is the vampire that's been killing everyone?"
I nodded.
"Then what's he doing here?"
"That's how you found Jeff so quickly. You're working with Xavier," I said. "Does Serephina know?"
Janos smiled. "She is master of all, Anita, even him." He said the last like it impressed him.
"You won't get to munch on your fairie for long if the cops trace Xavier to you."
"Xavier was following orders. He was on a recruitment drive." Janos seemed to like saying that last bit like it was an in-joke.
"Why did you want Ellie Quinlan?"
"Xavier likes a bit of young boy now and then. It is his one weakness. He turned the girl's lover, and the boy wanted her with him forever. Tonight she will rise and feed with us."
Not if I could help it. "What do you want, Janos?"
"I was sent to make your life easier," he said.
"Yeah, right."
Pallas uncurled herself from Janos. She glided over to Stirling.
Stirling stared up at her, cradling his broken arm. It had to hurt like hell, but it wasn't pain on his face now, it was fear. He stared up at the vampire; all the arrogance had slipped away. He looked like a kid who'd discovered the thing under the bed was really there.
A third vampire moved out of the trees. It was the blonde half of the pair. She looked fine, like she'd never rotted right before our eyes. I'd never known a vampire that could look so dead, and not be.
"You remember Bettina," he said.
Bettina wore a black dress that left her pale shoulders bare. A throw of black cloth went over one shoulder and down the front of the dress. A gold belt held it in place, cinching her waist tight. Her yellow braid was wound in a crown atop her head.
She walked towards us, and her face was perfect. The dry, rotting skin had been a bad dream, a nightmare. I wish. Fire, Jean-Claude had said, fire was the only surety. I thought he'd meant just Janos.
Janos reached over and grabbed Jeff from Kissa. He gripped the boy's shoulders with both black-gloved hands. His fingers were longer than they should have been, as though they had an extra joint. Against the white of Jeff's jacket, you could tell that the index finger was as long as the middle finger. Another myth that was true, at least for Janos. Those long, strange fingers dug into Jeff just a little.
Jeff's eyes were so wide it looked painful.
"What's going on?" I asked.
Kissa was dressed in the same black vinyl outfit she'd had on in the torture room, though it couldn't be the exact same one, because the first one had Larry's bullet hole in it. She stood beside him, her hands in fists. She stood very still, as only the dead can, but there was a tension to her, a wariness. She wasn't happy. Her dark skin was strangely pale. She hadn't fed yet tonight. I could always tell... with most vampires. There are always exceptions.
Xavier moved in a shadow of that impossible blurring speed past Stirling, to stand beside the still unconscious Ms. Harrison. Larry shook his head. "Did he just appear there, or did I see him move?"
"He moved," I said.
I expected Janos to send Kissa out to join the others, but he didn't. A figure crawled over