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BY parking across an access alley, Vicki ed to find curb space only two blocks from the video store where Tony worked

Celluci opened the passenger door, then closed it again "Will you do so"

His snort was an eloquent testimony to his disbelief "Just try to be careful Don&039;t expect anything as civi?lized as the Godfather "

"Not even the bit where Sonny gets of fed or the brother-in-law gets strangled? Or where they dump Fredo in the lake?" Her brow furrowed dramatically "And didn&039;t they kill the Pope in part three?"

"Vicki "

"Michael," shethe bodies I know these aren&039;t the good guys"

"Yeah, well, organized cried over the last few years" He twisted in the seat until he faced her "Most of the old school has been buried, one way or another, and the new lot&039;s a group of vicious young punks who kill because they can There used to be rules of a sort The rules are gone" Once, he htly Now, he didn&039;t think he could hold her tightly enough "Power is an end with these new guys, not just aunnaturally white in the light fro traffic "Poon&039;t be a problem"

"Maybe Just keep two things in mind, will you? You&039;re there to ask a few questions, not to clean up the streets" He didn&039;t like the way her brows lifted, but he ignored them because he didn&039;t have a lot of choice As little as he liked it, he had to trust her judget the difference between immortal and invulnerable" He leaned forward and kissed her, then got out of the van before he could give in to the urge to ask her just what exactly she was going to do

"I won&039;t take any stupid risks, Mike" The pale oval of her face seemed farther away than distance alone could account for "At the risk of sounding like some whacked-out action hero, I&039;ll be back"

At least she hadn&039;t told him not to worry "Sunrise is at 4:16&039;&039;

"What the?"

"What the what, Bynowski?"

"I don&039;t know" Brow furrowed, Frank Bynowski leaned closer to theshot of the front approach "So flickered "

The front door alarm went off

Two pairs of eyes locked on the screen linked to the camera over the front door Instead of a solid barrier between the house and the world, the steel reinforced door swung lazily back and forth on its hinges

Gary Haiden turned a flat, accusing stare on his companion "The boss told you to lock up!"

"I did!"

He jerked his head at the iested the lapse would be reported, that Bynoould suffer for it, and that he, Haiden, wouldn&039;t much mind

"Yeah? Take a closer look, shit-for-brains"

Both halves of the lock had been twisted into i the front hall-the only view of the inside of the house-flickered, but neither man noticed They&039;d kicked in too nificance of the broken lock

"Shit, shit, shit, fuck!" Bynowski reached for the intercoer before it had quite covered the distance He grunted as the bone snapped, too astounded to scream When he looked up and fell into silvered eyes, he wished he&039;d taken the tiht&039;ve helped A backhanded blow he never saw coainst the far wall and slide down a trickle of his own blood to the floor

Haiden whirled around to watch the arc of the other ht and used the motion to propel himself to his feet Instinct took over while reason protested, and his gun had cleared the holster by the ti His eyes saw a tall woman, dressed all in black His brain did its best to convince hi to see if he didn&039;t leave iotten off the streets by giving in to fear, and he wasn&039;t going to start now

Her pale gaze flicked down to his gun, then back to his face "No," she said softly

A lot of people had said no to hied Some had shrieked Some had repeated it, over and over, in stunned disbelief In all its varying for So although it was defi-nitely a warning this tinize it

He&039;d been a predator all his life; this was his first time as prey He still had a lot to learn

A heartbeat later, he gibbered in terror while fin?gertips pressed white half-moons into his throat

Bones had been broken in both his hands, but the pain got lost behind the glea white smile he couldn&039;t seem to take his eyes off of

"Is the boss at home?" the smile said

Up until this point, Gary Haiden had been positive he&039;d give his life to protect Sebastien Carl, that he&039;d look death in the face and say, "Fuck you" Instead, he found hi bedrooh

Mr Carl was alone in the bedroo in the en suite suggested the location of his wife

Although Vicki knew she&039;d never seen hi familiar about Sebastien Carl She was across the room with one hand clamped around his throat before she realized what it was He had an awareness of his oer that was almost vampiric in intensity All this isunless I choose to ht the sud?den surge of rage under control "I a the hands that clawed at her wrist "I only want to ask you a few questions" A silk-covered heel caught her just below the knee "Stop it"

Sh narrowed eyes, fingers wrapped around her wrist, chest rising and falling in short, shallow breaths, all the remains of his windpipe would allow Death is my weapon, his expression said Not yours

She letfree "Organ-legging Are you doing it?"

"No" His ansas little ht deny Death in the silvered eyes that held his, he couldn&039;t lie to them Nor could he look away

"Do you knoho is?"

"No"

With her free hand, she pulled one of the copies Henry&039;d made of the photos in the autopsy report out of her back pocket, shook out the folds, and held it up "Have you ever seen this guy before?"

"No" Go on, his gaze dared Do your worst

Frustrated, she threw him to the bed He bounced, rolled across the quilted red satin bedspread, and ca the 22-caliber pistol that had been laid out beside his clothes By the tier the second ti off the blow-dryer, Jenna Carl threw sun-streaked hair back off her face and frowned "Sebas?tien?" she asked stepping out of the bathrooer to her husband&039;s business, the body on the floor didn&039;t surprise her much It surprised her only a little more when it turned out to be her hus?band It surprised her a great deal when she discov?ered he was not, as she&039;d supposed fro, a whi little voice in the back of her head insisted as she bit back a screa over the corpse, she crawled up the bed and fumbled open the safe built into the padded head?board Everything was there Breathing heavily, she clutched at the packets of bills and tried to think She could still get out of this All she had to do was get Sebastien&039;s body to the foot of the stairs-thank God she&039;d squelched his plan to build a bungalow A terri?ble accident His lawyers would knohat to do, who to pay A quick funeral, and she&039;d take the et away" If the cops didn&039;t hound her to death, her husband&039;s business associates would as they ripped his empire to bloody shreds "Well, screw them"

Twenty minutes later, the safe ee and disappeared down Ma?rine Drive

Haiden and Bynowski stared empty-eyed at the monitors

The part of Vancouver known as Kitsilano had be?co end of the baby boom?ers-stockbrokers, system developers, securities analysts, cri years had settled doith a hborhood and not a place Henry&039;d expected to be Hunting in tonight

Gabriel and Lori Constantine were having a barbe?cue Standing motionless in the shadows, Henry sniffed the breeze and fir scent of seared squid As host, Gabriel Constantine would be a a pair of gun along the beach, convinced him that he&039;d best take an oblique approach A few hbor&039;s composter, over the fence and into a pool of deep shadow cast by a clu blossoms

Their yard could have been any of the yards he&039;d crossed The house was only superficially different fro could have been happening anywhere up and down the block

Except for the people involved

Henry suspected the Constantines seldohbors After all, predators have only one reason to associate with prey

Four large olf shirts pa?trolled the yard Henry waited until one reached the edge of the shadows and ca aze In the instant before awareness dawned, Henry grabbed onto the sihts and twisted them into new shapes "Tell Mr Constantine there&039;s so he should see over by the fence Tell hiht he should take a look"

Most people caught in the Hunt responded like a rabbit caught in headlights-conscious thought com?pletely overwhelmed by their imminent and incontest-able death Those susceptible to more overt control were few and far between, but primed to follow orders and only follow orders, the enforcer nodded, turned, andBut then, it didn&039;t have to

Henry, who could hear the heartbeat of the child sleeping in an upstairs bedroo the conversations at the other end of the yard Private schools and music lessons and how hard it was to find a reliable housekeeper and imported cars ver?sus domestic and how certain people never realized that expenses were going up all wrapped around each other like tangled yarn It was all very innocent; a casual eavesdropper would never kno the bills were paid Finally, he heard the thread that concerned hisoff a question froested that the enforcer should lead the way There was so out there, he&039;d read that off the other man&039;s face, but he had confi?dence in both his security and in the norhborhood

What could hurt you here? Henry asked himself as they approached Here, surrounded by satellite dishes, gas barbecues, and lawns all maintained by Mr Weedman What could touch you in the midst of all of that? He smiled as the two men reached the lilac It had been, after all, a rhetorical question

Unaware that his enforcer&039;s uard and threw a skeptical glance into the shadows To his horror, the shadows threw it back

"If you move, I&039;ll kill you"

All the death he&039;d ever dealt returned to greet hiht have seen his shoulders stiffen and a spreading patch of sweat darken his T-shirt Because he faced away from them, they couldn&039;t see the expression of horror that drained the blood froentle questions, voiced too low for listening ears, deterans for profit nor of the identity of the ghost But he did know a great s

In spite of certain incidents that had occurred dur?ing the year Vicki had been his mortal lover, Henry had never considered hi down evil in the night Although willing to destroy any that put itself in his way, , he had no desire to spend i it There was just too da child, Henry let this cockroach live, o into another line of work

"That was good food" Celluci stepped to one side of the restaurant door and was al women Two of therinned, and hurried to catch up to her friends-now giggling around the corner on Robeson Street Definitely not working girls-over the years he&039;d booked enough hookers to recognize theh to be out so late

"Feeling your age?"

Startled, he stared down at his companion "Did I say that out loud?"

Tony shook his head "No You sighed"

"Yeah, well, it&039;s so old people do" He took a deep breath to clear the ats "At least I still have all ured if you come to the Coast, you should eat seafood At least once"

"Yeah? I suppose Fitzroy has sailors on Friday"

Pale eyes wide, Tony stared up at the detective "Man, you&039;ve changed You&039;re not asuh " During the pause, he received only a polite, ques?tioning expression "Well, as uptight as you used to be"

"A lot of things have changed in the last few years"

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Vicki"

"Ah She changes, and you change because you love her?"

"Soain and peered down Thurlow Street toward the distant waters of English Bay "How far are we from your place? Fitzroy&039;s place, that is, not where you&039;re staying now"

Tony shrugged again, allowing just whose place it was, to pass "It&039;s a bit of a walk"

"Doable?"

"Sure Straight down Thurlow to Davie, along Davie to Seyo that way on my blades" He looked down at his feet and shook his head "Tonight it&039;ll take a while longer You&039;d better not be in a hurry"

Somewhere to the south, a siren wailed

Celluci&039;saway from the restaurant, he tried with little success to block out the distant sounds of the night "I&039;"

The man who answered to the second name on Vicki&039;s list had left town for a few days

" I don&039;t know any more than that I don&039;t! Please!"

The third had been working late She caught hi the office

There was only one enforcer between theent aftershave Then

His other three boys found him a few moments later, crouched behind a dumpster in the alley next to the office He stood slowly as they approached, visibly pulling hiht," he said, then paused to s fear Lines of sweat that had nothing to do with the cool breeze blowing in off the street glistened down both sides of his face "I was taken by the night"

The lance at his colish if that was how the boss wanted it "Are you okay?"

"Where&039;s Fang?" Narrowed eyes searched behind three sets of shoulders, shying away from the shadows "He was supposed to protect ers curled into fists to hide their tree on the voice "Then where the fuck were you!?"

The steering wheel creaked a protest Vicki glanced down at it, frowned, and forced her fingers to relax their grip It was getting harder and harder not to feed, not to drink in the terror with the blood

Once you acquire the taste, Henry had warned her, the desire for it will lead you to excess after excess Be very, very careful

"Yeah Right &039;Once you turn toward the dark side, forever will it dominate your destiny&039; Stuff a sock in it, Obi Wan" Griht, and whipped the van around the corner, the theels still in contact with the pave every nerve It was like having sex for hours with no orgaset back; he&039;s going to need his strength"

Yuen-Zong Chen, known to his associates as Harry, waited in the corridor while one of his boys vetted the men&039;s room-not so much fro in front of an audi?ence He stepped aside as two of the club&039;s less distin?guished patrons were escorted out

"All clear, Mr Chen" As the crime boss entered, the enforcer nodded to a companion at the end of the hall and took up a position outside the door, one foot in its handhout the club

Inside, Harry Chen relieved hihed deeply in contentment, and crossed the room to the row of stainless steel sinks He shook his head in unfeigned distaste at the residue of white powder Only weak fools destroyed thes Weak fools who had helped to make him rich, perhaps, but that made them no less weak, no less foolish

He passed his hands under the taps and, as the ater poured over thelanced up at his re?flection in the ht when " The rest of the sentence caught in his throat Death looked over his shoulder

Behind hi teeth "Harry Chen, I presu it was not a question and that the pale-hairedhands held out from his sides, he turned

"If you call for help, you&039;ll be dead before the first word reaches air," Henry told him as he opened his mouth

"I&039;m dead anyway" But he wasn&039;t dead yet, so he kept his voice low, ignoring the quaver because he couldn&039;t prevent it, hope warring with fear "Who sent you? Was it Ngyn, that Vietnayn wouldn&039;t use a fuc " Suddenly realizing that soht not be wise under the circun wouldn&039;t use you Look, you&039;re a professional, right? So am I Whoever sent you, I can pay you s Girls What?ever the fuck you want, e in the silence, he raised his eyes The slad he&039;d just relieved himself "You&039;re not possible"

The protest eed one word to each short, shal?low breath Even Henry had to strain to hear it "Aren&039;t I?" he asked quietly, ith of will in spite of his conteer, are you?"

"Justdo it, you son of a bitch"

"Not until you answer a few questions"

He sed and fought the urge to lift his chin "Fuck you"

Henry growled low in his throat

A few an, the enforcer in front of the door pushed it open a crack "You okay, Mr Chen? Mr Chen?"

There wasn&039;t a mark on the body No way to sho he died

Harry Chen had known nothing Henry threw the leather driving gloves down on the seat beside hiear, and jerked it out into traffic He needed to feed, needed to let the Hunger free to wash away the memory of men he&039;d questioned with blood He&039;d barely been able to stop hi on Harry Chen

But to feed on such a man would mean he fed on all the lives that man had destroyed, and that he would not do