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I ASKED Mr Chivers if I could take the day off I said I hadn’t been feeling well to begin with, and couldn’t face classes with the thought of Tara on reed that I’d be better off at ho, "will you stay in this weekend and take care?"

"Yes, sir," I lied, then hurried downstairs to look for Richard

S by the entrance as I hit the ground floor He’d said nothing to me since our run-in on the stairs - he’d shown his true yellow colours by fleeing - but he called out jeeringly when he saw ht the vampires had done for you, like they did for Ta-ta Willia, I stomped across to face hirowled "If you get in rabbed the front of his juh above my head He shrieked like a little child and slapped and kicked at hly until he was quiet "I’ for Richard Montrose," I said "Have you seen hiers and thuht his nose and squeezed until he wailed "Have you seen hio of his nose "When? Where?"

"A fewfor the coently lowered Smickey "Thanks," I said S, I waved a sarcastic goodbye to the hu, satisfied that Richard was safe - at least until night

At Steve’s I woke the sleeping vampires and humans - Harkat was already awake - and discussed the latest tith theirl - she hadn’t seen the papers - and the news struck her hard "Tara," she whispered, tears in her eyes "What sort of a beast would pick on an innocent young child like Tara?"

I told them about Richard, and put forward the proposal that he was next on the vampaneze hit list "Not necessarily," Mr Crepsley said "I think they will go after another of your class to either side of Debbie - but theyin front of or behind you"

"But Richard’s my friend," I pointed out "I barely know the others"

"I do not think the vampaneze are aware of that," he said "If they were, they would have targeted Richard first"

"We need to stake out all three," Vancha said "Do we knohere they live?"

"I can find out," Debbie said, wiping tears from her cheeks Vancha tossed her a dirty scrap of cloth, which she accepted gratefully "The student files are accessible by reo to an Internet cafe, tap into the files and get their addresses"

"What do we do when - if- they attack?" Steve asked

"We do to therowled before any of the rest of us could answer

"You think that’s wise?" Steve responded "We know there’s more than one of them in operation, but I doubt they’ll all turn out to kill a child Wouldn’t it be wiser to trace the attacker back to-"

"Hold on," Debbie interrupted "Are you saying we let them kill Richard or one of the others?"

"It makes sense Our priot any further "Animal!" she hissed

Steve stared at her emotionlessly "I am what I have to be," he said "We won’t stop the va civilized"