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EVEN before the day had fully released hi frosted patterns on his skin in ahis eyes, he al in the air like winter fog
It kneake He could feel it waiting
Brows dran in annoyance, he turned on the la They were
The second ghost was a little younger; late teens rather than early twenties A linted in one nostril The ivory skull printed on the sleeveless black T-shirt grinned at Henry as though it appreciated the irony of a death&039;s head worn by the dead As far as Henry could tell, he was anatomically correct-this second specter had retained his hands
"Blessed Jesu " At the last instant, he realized he shouldn&039;t have spoken aloud, but by then it was too late
No audible sound eed from either mouth stretched open far beyond the boundaries skin and bone would have allowed As they howled, the soul heard the toran to race until it beat at nearly ainst the waves of despair How dared they make him responsible for the lives around him! How dared they buy his help with blackled h where the spirits couldn&039;t It dragged him off the bed and across the room Tony Henry fu,to adone; only the effect of their cry reht out of the wood, he yanked open the door
"Tony!"
Curled into a fetal position in the center of the hall, Tony slammed his forehead over and over into his knees and whi to the rhyth down beside hier man&039;s head and forced him to be still "Tony, it&039;s over Listen to uably, he turned Tony&039;s head until he could look down into the wildly staring eyes He didn&039;t realize how frightened he&039;d been of what he ged back on bare heels Insanity would have been no surprise, had, in fact, been alht I have you"
"H Henry?"
"Yes It&039;sshoul?ders, Henry pulled hiainst his chest
"It was darker "
He laid a cheek against sweat-daainst Henry&039;s body-as though to test its strength as a shield-then he wet his lips and leaned back just far enough to aze "Henry?"
"Yes?"
"What the hell did you ask it?"
"I ondering that ed to stop the snarl but only because he felt Tony&039;s reaction when he tensed "Not it," he said, lifting his head, his expression warning Vicki to come no closer "Them"
"Your Greek chorus of backup screamers?" When he shook his head and the ih the drywall "Fucking, god?dahtened his grip "That&039;s not helping," he growled
"I know I&039;ht for caled, still within the circle of Henry&039;s arms "I&039;ve been better"
The wail of distant sirens drawing closer cut off Vicki&039;s reply Tony closed his eyes and added, "Could be worse"
When the sirens stopped and the sounds of the e, Henry cradled Tony against one shoulder and aze "Was Celluci affected?"
"No Fortunately, he&039;s not back yet"
"Back from where?"
"How the hell should I know? You can ask him yourself when he shows"
"With him or without him, we have to talk"
She nodded and turned away
"Vicki!"
A step forward becaet dressed" One hand held closed a ruffled pink robe, at least two sizes too small and obviously borrowed from the wardrobe Mrs Munro had left be?hind The other, knuckles white with plaster dust, she waved in his general direction "An idea you ht also consider"
Which hen he remembered he was naked "We&039;ll join you in about half an hour"
"I thought it was safer if we only used your place"
"We&039;re not the only people involved" He watched her expression soften as she worked through his rea?soning Glancing down at Tony, who&039;d need to put some distance between himself and the terror, she nodded, and left
Tony waited until he heard the door close before he began to free himself from Henry&039;s embrace "Henry, I can&039;t "
It took a"I didn&039;t ex?pect you to," he said gently, wondering if he&039;d ever given Tony cause to assume his needs could be so inconsiderate
"But you said you told Victory half an hour"
"I know" He stood and all but lifted the other ht want to shower"
Tony glanced down at the darker stain on the front of his bicycle shorts, suddenly aware of what it meant His cheeks flushed "Oh, man You think Victory noticed?"
It would serve no purpose to remind him that Vicki had a predator&039;s sense of smell, so Henry lied
"He&039;s still not back?"
Vicki snorted as she led the way into the apartment "You know he isn&039;t And the sun&039;s well and truly down; he has to know I&039; a lead"
"I know that, Henry"
Henry stopped at one end of the couch, allowing her to put the length of the living rooht aside, distance was still their best defense "Are you concerned?"
"No I&039; note" Behind her back, Henry and Tony exchanged a speaking glance Vicki turned in time to catch the end of it "What?"
"Your use of profanity always increases when you&039;re worried," Henry reer "Increase this"
"Vicki"
"I&039;ainst the , her right hand crushing a fistful of antique satin drapes "Your ghosts have got me jumpy, that&039;s all There&039;s no reason he has to be here at sunset He&039;s almost forty years old, for chrisakes; it&039;s not like he can&039;t take care of hi care of hi for reassurance," she snarled
Tony opened his mouth, but Henry raised a caution?ary hand, and he closed it again
A heartbeat later, Vicki sighed "All right Yes, I was" Releasing the drapes, she glanced around for her notes, found them on the end table by Henry&039;s knees, stepped forward, and stopped
Henry&039;s gaze dropped to the spiral-bound notebook, then rose to lock with Vicki&039;s
She shifted her weight onto the balls of her feet, ready for whatever he chose to do but unwilling to ht&039;s carnage had re If they illing to try, they could get along All right, if we&039;re willing to kill a dozen people we can get along, she a down again, Henry bent, picked up the notebook, and held it out
The hair lifted off the back of Tony&039;s neck and con?tinued lifting until it felt as though every hair on his head stood on end Jeez, you could play "Dueling Banjos" on the tension between thee to reach out and pluck at the air as he waited and wondered what, if anything, he should do He knehat he wanted to do; he wanted to turn on another lamp They never considered that the people around theed and graceless, Vicki crossed the rooers closed around the book
Cue the ominous music Too emotionally abraded to cope, Tony closed his eyes
"Tony? Are you okay"
He opened his eyes Vicki was sitting in an over?stuffed chair by the , notebook on her knee Henry&039;d propped one thigh on the arain More than ever, they re identical, guarded expressions
"We both fed heavily last night," Henry said when Tony turned a questioning glance toward hi ht They&039;d both fed the first night; it hadn&039;t helped
"Heavy feeding," Vicki reiterated, without looking up
Tony had the unco that, had she been able, she would have been blushing While curi?ous about what could possibly embarrass Victory Nel?son, Tony decided not to press the point The eleven bodies found in the Rich lovingly on the gory details, and if either Vicki or Henry were respon?sible, he didn&039;t want to know Soe that vampires existed- the fewer details he had to lock aith that knowl?edge, the better
"I don&039;t even knohy I&039; his hand over his hair and dropping onto a stool
"You&039;re a part of this, Tony"
"Am I?" He wiped his hands on his jeans and stared down at the dauess I am"
Henry stood and took a step forward Tony&039;d show?ered and changed and insisted he was fine, that the ghosts&039; shriek had done no actual dae, but obvi?ously he wasn&039;t and it had
"So what&039;s the story on the new spook?" Vicki de?manded before he could speak
A through, Henry turned to glare at her She aze and shook her head His brows dipped down over the bridge of his nose How dared she Stay out of this Tony is mine, not yours The words were in his mouth, ready to be spoken aloud when he looked in Tony&039;s direction and realized it was no longer true
Worst of all, it careat surprise
Four-hundred-and-fifty-odd years of livingmortals allowed him to hide his reaction "The second specter," he said slowly, answering her ques?tion because there wasn&039;t really anything else he could say, not there, not then, "is a younger man, with hands He looks like a street kid, pierced nose, lace-up boots "
"A grinning skull on a sleeveless black T-shirt" A reprise of the screah the cadences of Tony&039;s voice
"You know hirowled low in his throat and she whirled around, her own teeth bared "What is your problem? If Tony knows him, it&039;ll break the case"
"If Tony knows him, he&039;s just lost a friend"
"And we&039;re in a position to make sure he doesn&039;t lose any more friends!"
"I didn&039;t know hiht?" Elbows on his knees, Tony buried his face in his hands "I just saw him on the street That&039;s all I didn&039;t know hi part of his attention on Vicki, Henry crossed the roos were changing-had changed-between the comfort "Maybe it wasn&039;t him"
"It was"
"You&039;re sure?"
He was as sure of it as he&039;d ever been of anything in his life He wouldn&039;t have been at all surprised had Henry said the skull joined in the screaood-bye to one of his bud?dies across from the store They shook hands-that&039;s why I reet shook when you&039;re living on the street" He found hiely reluctant to tell therinned at hier things-and the odds were good they&039;d believe hih weird for one night
"Do you think you could find his buddy?" Vicki asked before Henry could speak again
"I don&039;t know" He lifted his head "I guess I&039;d recognize him if I saw hiuy went?"
"I think it&039;s worth a shot"
"If it causes you pain," Henry began, gripping Tony&039;s shoulder, "you don&039;t "
"I do" Shifting position on the stool, he looked into Henry&039;s eyes "I have to do soo away"
Vicki felt the fabric of the couch begin to tear under her fingers and hurriedly forced her hand to relax Henry on his knees had always affected her strongly Maybe this is e Hunt alone, she thought, as he stood and lightly touched Tony&039;s cheek Together there&039;s a constant ree is forever after denied you Every other vampire becomes your ex "I hate to interrupt," she snarled, looked a little surprised at her tone, and atteht is short, and we&039;ve got a lot to do"
"Do we?" Henry let his hand fall back to his side
"There&039;re almost three million people in this city, Henry And Tony doesn&039;t have your advantages"
"I&039; with him"
"Is that smart?"
"He shouldn&039;t be alone"
"Hey! I&039;ot to his feet and glared at both of theant I-know-best-because-I&039;ht crap You can both just fucking chill! I&039;e into a look that&039;s er toward Henry, "want to cohost&039;s bud, fine I can use your help If not "
"We were just concerned about you, Tony"
He sighed and rolled his eyes "Fine Thank you Did I say you weren&039;t?" Shoulders hunched, hands shoved into the front pockets of his jeans, and still , he left the condo
An aard silence followed the closing of the door
"Well," Vicki y professors used to say, change is constant"
"Except for us We don&039;t change"
"That&039;s bullshit, Henry, and e, you adapt, or you die"
Or you die Territorial ih the surface civility they&039;d ed to rew cold "Are you threatening e She didn&039;t want to, she wanted to hold onto the tenu?ous truce that slaughter and sex had evoked; not only because itand vampires could coexist, but because this was Henry, and she wanted hiive up easily, she warned the world at large We are going to get along if I have to kill hiaze, she slammed an instinctive reaction back under conscious control "No," she said when she thought she could trust her voice "I&039;
"That&039;ll be Celluci checking in If you&039;ll excuse ht hand snapped, but she ed to break eye contact and turn to answer the phone It&039;d been a close thing, and if Henry pushed, he could go right through the flimsy barriers that barely restrained her desire to attack, but this tiy She&039;d never surrendered to it during the day and she&039;d be damned if she let it rule now the sun had set It was, as they said, tirip but the plastic held "What!"
Henry forced hi hi to another the territory he&039;d claimed as his To his surprise, it was easier than it had been other nights Like s in life, even in an immortal life, it seeainst the Mexican slate in the entrance hall, reason had gained the upper hand This is Vicki, he pointed out to his reflection in the gilt-edged mir?ror She doesn&039;t want your territory
His reflection answered with a wry smile This is Vicki, pretty much covered the situation She&039;d been unique as athe short tis he&039;d never have considered doing on his own Perhaps there&039;s no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater It wasn&039;t St Paul on the road to Damascus, but it was an epiphany nevertheless Per?haps, he repeated thoughtfully to himself
"That wasn&039;t Celluci It was someone who didn&039;t know Ms Evans had died"
Henry walked back to the archway that separated the living rooression, he went no farther "You&039;re worried about hilass, she stood staring down at the city, not for thatdown on prey
"Why?"
"I don&039;t know I just " She shrugged self?consciously
"Have a hunch?" Henry offered, wishing he could cross the room and stand by her side
"Yeah A hunch Doesn&039;t seem very vampiric, does it?"
"It is if you have one"
Vicki turned to glare at hier wore in a not-quite-forgotten gesture "Are you h he could see how it ht sound as if he was "Vicki, no one ever told you how to be hu Don&039;t let anyone tell you how to be what you are now"
"Not even you?"
"Not even ht you what you needed to know in the year after the change The rest is " It was his turn to shrug
"Ego?"
His eyes narrowed, and his chin rose "Tradition But just because we&039;ve always responded in such a way, doesn&039;t ht behind her, she&039;d have stepped back in simulated shock As it was, she raised both hands to shoulder height and exclai!"
"Don&039;t push it"
The words caht an answering snarl had Vicki&039;s sense of fair play not acknowledged it was no more than she deserved Ah, hell, that orth one snarl
Leaning back against the glass, she hooked her thuressive pos?ture she couldroom between them, would probably always need a physical distance between thehter and mindless, blood-soaked sex-but now it looked as if other distances , Tony&039;ll be waiting"
Tony Mutual awareness of a dissolving relationship hung in the air Henry brushed it aside "What about Michael?"
"I don&039;t know I guess I&039;ll wait here for hi"
"That&039;s not the way it was supposed to be, is it? You waiting here,old brows lifted "Seeed cushion very nearly smacked him square in the face "You have my cell phone number? Remember conversations can be picked up on short wave," he cautioned when she pulled his card fro the card away "Do I look like a member of the royal family?"
The bastard son of Henry VIII threw the cushion at her head and was out of the condo by the tih Vicki would have denied it had anyone brought it up, she was glad that he was gone Within a certain proxi theht now that made her feel disloyal to Celluci
You kno you wanted Henry andat each other? Well, ent on a coether, killed I don&039;t knoalmost on top of a corpse It seems to have helped She snorted I don&039;t think so
His absence chewed at her, and she couldn&039;t reht be in trouble but, equally, no reason to disbelieve Finding herself in the athered up his sleeping bag, wrapping herself in his scent
Would I be as concerned, she wondered, without the guilt? Neverroom, she sank back into the chair by theand picked up her notebook It had always helped to write things down-that hadn&039;t changed, although sheher scribbled description of the second ghost, she turned to a fresh page and glanced around for her pencil Both pieces were over by the
"Oh, da out of the Yellow Pages on the phone table About to pull it free, she paused and opened the book instead It wasn&039;t her booker traced up and down the columns of pri?vate clinics Vancouver either had one of the healthi?est populations in the country or a thriving colony of hypochondriacs Apparently Celluci&039;d done as she&039;d suggested and gone looking for the facility where the kidney had been res and Main had been circled and "start here" had been scribbled beside it in thehe hauled ass out of bed by ten or eleven at the absolute latest, if he went there first thing, there&039;s no way he&039;s still there She glanced down at her watch
It was past nine PM Michael Celluci has been a cop for fourteen years, he can take care of himself He probably met someone at one of these places and joined the the pieces of the pencil aside, she called herself several kinds of an idiot He has to eat, Vicki Just because you and Henry well, it doesn&039;t mean he has
But he hadn&039;t been there when she woke and he hadn&039;t called in and he knew she&039;d want to knohat, if anything, he&039;d found
The East Hastings Clinic at East Hastings and Main
She&039;d told Henry she&039;d wait until Mike called Or so else, she had a place to start
"Where to now?" Henry slowed the BMW to give a cyclist room to maneuver around a line of parked cars They&039;d started their search for the ghost&039;s co circle without any luck None of the locals had seen anyonehis description
"The Eastside Youth Center If he&039;s not there, someone&039;ll probably know him"
"That&039;s east of Gastown, isn&039;t it?"
Tony&039;s gaze remained aimed out theof the car "Yeah So?"
"It&039;s just that it&039;s a bit of a distance away If you saw hihborhood "
"The Center&039;s a safe place, Henry A guy&039;ll go far?ther than that to find one"
"Tony"
Although he wasn&039;t using his Prince of Darkness voice, so in the way Henry said his name, drew Tony&039;s head around
"You&039;re still safe withaould&039;ve been the easier course-the hazel eyes held no touch of darkness, nothing that coth to say, "Maybe too safe" For a heartbeat, he thought he was beingsmile held asof life in general and not our immediate circu with?out watching the road!" His voice rose on the last word as he grabbed the dashboard and watched the world narrow to a corridor ofmetal "Christ, Henry, that was a truck! That o trucks!"
Henry deftly inserted the car back into the curb lane "I know"
"Look, man, if you didn&039;t want to talk about it, you shouldn&039;t have brought it up"
Had he done it on purpose? Henry didn&039;t think so; he&039;d seen a break in traffic and used it Hadn&039;t he? Whether he&039;d intended the result or not, the moment for shared confidences had passed
Like any other city of its size, Vancouver had its share of rundown neighborhoods The area east of Gastown, an area widely quoted in reports on crime and poverty, was one of the darkest Theoretically, social assistance paid n
The dividing line between the haves and have-nots was astonishingly abrupt Leaving the lights and tour?ist attractions of Gastown on one side of the intersec?tion, Henry began to drive past boarded-up and abandoned stone buildings-once theshoulder to shoulder with shabby hotels and roo houses Back in the forties and the fifties, this was the bustling center of town, but the core had moved west and left only the architecture behind
As they drove down Cordova, where the hotels and equally shabby bars seelanced over at Henry and frowned at the va worried? There&039;s nothing here you can&039;t handle"
"Actually," Henry ad the car"
Tony snorted "It&039;s a BMW I&039;d be a lot concerned"
An unshaven man in a pajama top, dress pants, and rubber flip-flops stepped off the curb, ignored the squeal of tires, and wandered ai the pedestrians a little as "Another six inches and I&039;d have hit him"
"He probably wouldn&039;t have noticed"
As they approached the Youth Center, the side?walks becaainst the wire-coveredof a con?venience store under siege, watched the in unison
"Don&039;t lock it," Henry advised as Tony reached in to depress the mechanism
"Are you crazy?"
"No, I&039;d just prefer not to have the s shat?tered If anyone opens the door, I&039;ll be back here be?fore they take the car anywhere"
The Youth Center was next to the Cordova Ar here?" Henry
"Hey, this is an expensive city," Tony replied, fight?ing to keep his shoulders fro forward in the old wary posture "Where else can a person on welfare afford to live?"
Over the centuries, Henry had certainly seen worse From a historical perspective, the area was neither particularly violent nor destitute Problem was, this wasn&039;t the fifteenth century He&039;d never hunted this neighborhood and never would-unlike ed predators, he preferred not to feed on the in?jured or the sick
Stepping over the legs of a sleeping drunk, they picked up the pace as the pungent smell of old urine and fresh vomit wafted by on a warm breeze
Compared to the streets, the Center itself was pain?fully clean The plywood-and-plastic decor ht indi?cate a lack of funds but not a lack of comht?" Henry asked softly,a hand on each shoulder
"Yeah No It&039;s just, well, rip, trying not to resent the knowledge that he couldn&039;t have broken free had Henry not allowed it "Coe"
"Hi hair tied back off a pocked face
"How can you tell?"
"Power recognizes power"
"Oh, that&039;s fucking profound," Tony coh the crowd He could feel the hair lifting off the back of his neck, and he had to fight the feeling that the last couple of years had been a lie, that this here he belonged, that he couldn&039;t break free
Henry turned and caught Tony&039;s gaze before he could look away "You&039;re out," he said "You&039;ve gone too far to go back"
"What&039;re you talking about?"
"I could smell your fear"
"What?" Tony jerked his head to either side "In this lot?" When Henry nodded, Tony sighed "Jeez, I guess I&039;et home" They held their positions for a heartbeat, then Tony shrugged "Look, thanks, okay?"
He didn&039;t say what for Henry didn&039;t ask
Except that he was cleaner than most of the people in the room, both physically and chemically, Joe Tait, the director of the Center, could&039;ve been one of thefor an hour or tithout fear He had an edge that could only have been acquired on the street, a look that said, I&039;m not one of the had to be done and did nothing
"Yeah, I ht know them" Tait had listened qui?etly to the description of the two youngacross from the video store, and now he studied first Tony then Henry through narrowed eyes "Why&039;re you looking for them? Are they in trouble?"
"One of them We think the other can help"
"Do what?"
"We&039;re hoping he can tell us where his companion went"
Tait folded muscular arms over a broad chest "What kind of trouble&039;s he in?"
"Deadly trouble," Henry said, allowing the Hunger to rise They didn&039;t have ti twenty questions with a man whose suspicions, however justified under other circu up barricades "I need their naave thely "And I don&039;t know"
"Which one&039;s which?"
"Which one&039;sBut I still don&039;t knohere you can find Kenny" His lip curled as he indicated the rooe "Feel free to ask around, but don&039;t expect uys have no reason to trust anyone"