had used Damon's clothes to teach him to howl madly at his scent.
But Damon had his own knowledge of herbs and had ransacked Mrs. Flowers's kitchen to find a handful of witch hazel, a smal amount of strawberry wine, aniseed, some peppermint oil, and a few other essential oils she had in stock, sweet and sharp. Mixed, this created a pungent lotion, which he had gingerly applied to himself. The concoction formed for Saber an impossible tangle of strong smel s. The only thing the now-sitting dog knew was that it was surely not Damon sitting on the steps and tossing him hearty bal s of hamburger and delicate strips of filet mignon - each of which he gulped down whole. Damon watched with interest as the animal devoured the mix of sleeping powder and raw meat, tail whisking on the floor.
Ten minutes later Saber the hel hound was sprawled out happily unconscious.
Six minutes after that, Damon was opening an iron door.
One second later he was pul ing a pil owcase out of Mrs.
Flowers's antique safe.
In the glow of the flashlight he found that he did indeed have a star bal , but that it was just a little more than half ful .
Now what did that mean? There was a very neat hole dril ed and corked at the top so that not one precious droplet more need be wasted.
But who had used the rest of the fluid - and why? Damon himself had seen the star bal brimful of opalescent, shimmering liquid just days ago.
Somehow between that time and now someone had used about a hundred thousand individuals'life energy.
Had the others tried to do some remarkable deed with it and failed, at the cost of burning so much Power? Stefan was too kind to have used so much, Damon was certain of that. But...
Sage.
With an Imperial Summons in his hand, Sage was likely to do anything. So, sometime after the sphere had been brought into the boardinghouse, Sage had poured out almost exactly half the life force from the star bal and then, undoubtedly, left the rest behind for Mutt or someone to cork.
And such a colossal amount of Power could only have been used for...opening the Gate to the Dark Dimensions.
Very slowly, Damon let out his breath and smiled. There were only a few ways to get into the Dark Dimensions, and as a human he obviously could not drive to Arizona and pass through a public Gateway as he had the first time with the girls. But now he had something even better. A star bal to open his own private Gateway. He knew of no other way to cross, unless one was lucky enough to hold one of the almost-mythical Master Keys that al owed one to roam the dimensions at wil .
Doubtless, someday in the future, in some nook, Mrs.
Flowers would find another thank-you note: this time along with something that was literal y invaluable - something exquisite and priceless and probably from a dimension quite far from Earth. That was how Sage operated.
All was quiet above. The humans were relying on their animal companions to keep them safe. Damon gave the root cel ar a single look around and saw nothing more than a dim room completely empty except for the safe, which he now closed.
Dumping his own paraphernalia into the pil owcase, he patted Saber, who was gently snoring, and turned toward the steps.
That was when he saw that a figure was standing in the doorway. The figure then stepped smoothly behind the door, but Damon had seen enough.
In one hand the figure had been holding a fighting stave almost as tal as it was.
Which meant that it was a hunter-slayer. Of vampires.
Damon had met several hunter-slayers - briefly - in his time.
They were, in his consideration, bigoted, unreasonable, and even more stupid than the average human, because they'd usual y been brought up on legends of vampires with fangs like tusks who ripped out the throats of their victims and kil ed them. Damon would be the first to admit that there were some vampires like that, but most were more restrained. Vampire hunters usual y worked in groups, but Damon had a hunch that this one would be alone.
He now ascended the steps slowly. He was fairly certain of the identity of this hunter-slayer, but if he was wrong he was going to have to dodge a stave launched straight down at him like a javelin. No problem - if