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I stopped a few feet behind the vampire and drew out my rusty knife That would have been the perfect ti still, focused on the huet - but I couldn’t Mr Crepsley had to make the first move I refused to believe the worst about him until he actually attacked As Evra had said, if I killed hi him back to life This was no time to make a mistake

The seconds see whatever it was that had grabbed his attention Finally he shrugged and stood up straight I heard Mr Crepsley hiss and saw his body tense I raised , because he looked up - the wrong way; he should have been looking backward - an instant before Mr Crepsley leaped

I’d been anticipating the ed at the same time as the vampire, I would have been able to lash out with the knife and hit where I was ai: his throat As it was, I hesitated a split second, which et

I yelled as I bounded after hi loudly, partly to shock him out of his attack, partly because I was so horrified by what I was doing

The scream caused Mr Crepsley to whip around His eyes widened incredulously Since he wasn’t looking ahead any longer, he crashed aardly into the fat round

I fell on Mr Crepsley and struck with the knife The blade cut into the top of the vampire’s left arm and bit deeply into his flesh He roared with pain and tried shoving me off I pushed hiht and strength no use to hi the knife doith all , lethal strike

I never made the killer cut Because, as my ar doard Somebody who’d jumped from above Somebody who screeched as my arm struck hi the va figure I could tell it was aand got to his feet

When he stood and looked at ht out of the rooht A tall man Broad and bloated Dressed in white from head to ankle, an ies of dirt and blood he’d picked up while rolling

In total contrast to his white suit were his skin, hair, eyes, lips, and nails The skin was a blotchy purple color The rest were a dark, vibrant red, as though they’d been soaked in blood

I didn’t knoho or what this creature was, but I could tell ient of evil It ritten all over him, the way he stood, the way he sneered, the way madness danced in his unnatural red eyes, the way his ruby-red lips pulled back over his sharp, snarling teeth

I heard Mr Crepsley curse and scraot up, the white-suited man bellowed and ran toward ed He lowered his head and buttedthe wind out ofhim back to the floor

The creature in white shrieked, hesitated a rabbed hold of a carcass and dragged hirabbed hold of a sill - for the first time, I realized s ran around the entire top of the roolass, and slithered out

Mr Crepsley cursed again and shoved me out of the way He mounted a carcass and jumped up to the sill after the purple-skinnedthere aintently Then his head dropped and his shoulders sagged

The fat huot to his knees and began crawling away Mr Crepsley noticed hih the , dropped to the ground and hurried over to theto rise

I watched helplessly as Mr Crepsley pulled the hu theI could do to stop hih they’d been battered by a ra was out of the question

But Mr Crepsley didn’t have as into the fat man’s face, who stiffened, then slumped to the floor, unconscious

Then Mr Crepsley whirled and cae in his eyes, the likes of which I’d never seen before I began to worry about my own life He picked me up and shook , mindless fool! Do you realize what you have done? Do you?"

"I was trying to stop" I wheezed "I thought"

Mr Crepsley pressed his face against rowled: "He has escaped! Because of your da, an insane killer has waltzed off scot-free! This was my chance to stop hie had seized his tongue Duround, he spun away and sank to his knees, cursing and groaning - at tiust

I looked fro huenius to figure it out) that I’d made a horrible - perhaps fatal - mistake