She loved Muir Woods. Even though all the wood around her was deadly-or maybe because it was. She liked taking risks. And the place was beautiful: the cathedral silence, the mossy greenness, the resinous smell.
Last week they'd hunted seven gang members
through Golden GatePark. It had been enjoyable, but not really private, and they couldn't let the humans fight back much. Gunshots in the park would attract attention. Muir Woods had been Jez's idea- they could kidnap the gang members and bring them here where nobody would disturb them. They would give them weapons. It would be a real hunt, with real danger.
Jez squatted on a branch to catch her breath. There just wasn't enough real danger in the world, she thought. Not like the old days, when there were still vampire hunters left in the Bay Area. Jez's parents had been killed by vampire hunters. But now that they'd all been eliminated, there wasn't anything really scary anymore. . . .
She froze. There was an almost inaudible crunching in the pine needles ahead of her. Instantly she was on the move again, leaping fearlessly off the branch into space, landing on the spongy pine-needle carpet with her knees bent. She turned and stood face-to-face with the skinhead.
"Hey there," she said.
The skinhead's face was contorted, his eyes huge. He stared at her, breathing hard like a hurt animal.
"I know," Jez said. "You ran fast. You can't figure out how I ran faster."
"You're-not-human," the skinhead panted. Except that he threw in a lot of other words, the kind humans liked to use when they were upset.
"You guessed," Jez said cheerfully, ignoring the obscenities. "You're not as dumb as you look."
"What-the hell-are you?"
"Death." Jez smiled at him. "Are you going to fight? I hope so."
He fumbled the gun up again. His hands were shaking so hard he could scarcely aim it.
"I think you're out of ammo," Jez said. "But any-
way a branch would be better. You want me to break one off for you?"
He pulled the trigger. The gun just clicked. He looked at it.