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Mark headed to Jackson Square He had noticed Susan the woman Lauren had sketched, when he had first coh the Square, seeing what had changed, what had rens, add a few cosmetic details, and the Square was just as it always had been

There were a few musicians out, a few artists, and one tarot card reader There was no sign of Susan

He walked on to the police station, where, with little difficulty, he was ushered in to see Sean Canady, as at his desk, bent over some paperwork

He studied Mark as he caot aunusual about the autopsy?" Mark asked, cutting right to the chase

"Would you call it unusual to find three headless bodies in the Mississippi in three days? Because I would," Sean said "It&039;s obviously the same killer You can only see one puncture mark on the latest victim-the other ith the head when it was severed I don&039;t know if Stephan is leaving the marks on purpose-to let those who know in on what he&039;s up to-or if he&039;s just being careless Thankfully, the ME says they were all dead prior to the decapitations The state police have set up a task force extending up and down the river"

"They having any luck?"

"There&039;s nothing to go on No prints, nothing left behind, and the water is doing a nuht have been left on the bodies They brought in a profiler, who believes we&039;re looking for a man in his mid to late twenties, s of inadequacy, and a menial day job May or may not have a wife at home Everyone is baffled by his ability to decapitate his victih it&039;s likely they&039;re in the Mississippi, as well-it can be h if we can discover where the cri like an abandoned slaughterhouse, since the victiestions?" Mark asked hi for a vampire"

Mark arched a brow "And you&039;re still employed"

Sean s that e&039;re up against doesn&039;t always fit the nor out the crazed human from the crazed in human Since we&039;ve had cultist activity here before, sometimes people listen to me I&039;ve told theainst a cult, and that they should think as if they were up against real varoup thinks they are"

"Good call," Mark said "What about your own"The non-believers have thought for years that I&039;m a little bit crazy-worse, they believe I can think like a deranged killer But they&039;ve seen things co my way, soThe men I put in the hospital to watch over Deannathey&039;ve been on similar duty before They believe"

"What&039;s your take on Jonas?" Mark asked hiht side But I don&039;t personally know him"

"Neither do I"

"Truthfully, I don&039;t know you, either," Sean said

Mark almost said, Your wife knew me, but he refrained She had really only known of hio

"Stephan is holed up somewhere The problem is, I don&039;t think it&039;s in your jurisdiction He&039;s got to be out of the Quarter somewhere,of taking a closer look down Plantation Row, out past your place I already took a quick ride out that way, and I didn&039;t see anything that looked e in and out of it"

"Maybe it won&039;t look eested "Maybe Stephan made a few contacts before he came here Maybe, by day, it looks like any other house"

"Have your guys keep their eyes and ears open, huh?"

Sean just stared at hi that, huh?" Mark said

"Yes"

"I&039;ll be in touch," Mark assured hiirls They all have records for prostitution One frohkeepsie"

"Poughkeepsie?"

"New York state Maybe she was relocating She didn&039;t have a known address down here, anyway"

Mark shrugged "Working girls will always go off alone with a man," he said "It makes sense"

"Yes," Sean said si the bars and strip clubs But I don&039;t think you&039;ll find Stephan that way He&039;sthe ht to him"

Mark nodded "Makes sense I found one of his minions in a bar when I first arrived I followed hiuess he found soraveyard would be exciting"

"Even young vampires can be seductive," Mark said

Sean nodded "We&039;re on the alert for anything unusual I&039;ll call you, right away if I hear anything at all"

Mark thanked him and left the police station

Stephan and his folloere targeting easy prey, he thought Women ere ready to be seduced-for a price They just didn&039;t know that they were the ones ould be paying

Well, he&039;d hit the bars, and he had found one of Stephan&039;s lackeys, though the young woone after had been just a tourist

But Stephan had an untold number of followers They could be anywhere Not one of theth and power Stephan had learned over the years, though By dayButthe day, the city was quieter than it was by night Most people spent their ti out the historic district, the museums, the restaurants and the shops Parents took children for carriage rides The aquarium and the zoo dreds

But the bars were open

And so were the strip clubs

He wandered in and out of a few of the bars, catching snatches of live ood that he wanted to forget his quest and stay to listen, but he resisted the urge Everywhere he went, he sensed nothing, saw nothing Everything was quiet

He decided to try a few of the strip clubs At the Bottomless Pit he found worn carpets, cheap patrons and tired strippers No one appeared the least bitIn fact, performers and audience alike seen that promised Bare, Bare, Bare!

A haith bad teeth was out front, trying to lure people in Mark decided to pay the cover charge and take a look

It was quiet

There were a few scattered patrons, including a heavyset ht next to the pole As Mark entered, a weary announcer was trying to oddess a women

She appeared on the ay, and on contrast to the rather cheesy atmosphere of the place, the ennui of the announcer and the shabby appearance ofto the point of beautiful Tall, golden skinned, with long, sleek dark hair She made her way to the pole and eyed the heavyset man who had taken up the catbird seat

She twisted and writhed She started out wearing spangly harem pants and a jeweled bra, with finelythe ski, just as proone

She elicited a fair a the room wasn&039;t particularly well populated

Then Nefertiti stepped down, and the announcer called out the next girl, Annie Oakley, with a faux hearty "Ride&039;em, cowboy

Annie Oakley had clearly been around a while Her breasts were definitely silicone, and gravity was establishing dootten dressed, though she wasn&039;t exactly ready for church, and gone over to thehie and the other on Nefertiti It was the usual stuff, but the heavy-setStill watching Nefertiti negotiate, he answered with a soft, "Yes?"

"I&039;ve got so" Sean&039;s voice

But Mark barely heard hi at Nefertiti Her hair was a good foil, but not good enough to hide the fact that she was just about to take a bite out of the beefy flesh and pulsing jugular of her heavyset client

Heidi did seeht She seeh, al about the day before

"Hey," Lauren said, giving her a hug when she found her downstairs at the breakfast table

"Hey," Heidi echoed, then asked anxiously, "Do you think Deanna is going to be all right? I can&039;tI can&039;t see doith so to believe this It&039;s awful"

"What?" Lauren asked, her heart thu How in God&039;s naht show up," Lauren said

"Barry will kill me," Heidi said

"No, he won&039;t Andyou&039;re still going toto lad"

"When did I say I wasn&039;t going toto the table with fresh coffee, answered flatly, "Yesterday"

"Never!" Heidi protested

Lauren looked at Stacey and then at Heidi "Uh, yes," she murmured

"Tell her You have to tell her the truth," Stacey insisted

Lauren stared at Stacey again Just what " truth" was Heidi going to believe?

"You were bitten by a vampire," Stacey said "You have to know all this, and you have to get with the prograly, as if Lauren had forced them to move to a crazy house

"A vampire?" Heidi demanded Stacey was quiet Heidi picked up her coffee cup, and her fingers were shaking "A vampire," she repeated tonelessly

"Yes, actually," Lauren told her

"Who&039;s the vampire?"

"We think you were bitten by a vampire named Stephan," Lauren told her

Stacey took a seat at the table and leaned toward Heidi "Think about it When you were at the hospital, you let him in Thankfully, he went after you and didn&039;t suck the reain Heidi&039;s jaw dropped "You are all stark raving mad," she said, and started to rise

Stacey set a hand on Heidi&039;s arm "Think hard Make yourself re in Re to dinner with Mark and then co back to the hospital None of it was a dreaination It was all real"

Heidi looked pale and uneasy "All right, yesterday was strange I&039;m sure I had a fever Maybe a bit of whatever made Deanna so sick"

Lauren started to reply, but she didn&039;t get a chance to Stacey had decided there was going to be nothing gentle about getting Heidi to see the real picture and kept going

"You bet it&039;s the saotten to the hospital when she did And she could have died again when you let that monster into her roo you, as well But luckily Mark recognized your syet you back here before anything worse happened But he&039;s still out there, and you&039;re weak-"

"I am not weak!" Heidi flared

"Wait!" Lauren spoke at last "Stacey, thisman is extreainst Stephan has hypnotic powers I was almost frozen myself when I caainst"

"You were armed?" Heidi demanded

"Water pistol," Lauren told Heidi "Holy water"

"Forget that for now," Stacey interjected "It&039;s incredibly i," Stacey said to Heidi "Vampires really do exist, and Deanna and you have both been tainted He has a gateway to you now, unless you really understand the danger and fight against hiain Heidi just stared

"I do re to dinner with Mark He wouldn&039;t let htfully

"He knew, once he ith you, that you&039;d been tainted," Lauren told her gently

Heidi shook her head "You guys have all had a few too , but vampires?"

Before either of the It was Barry, Lauren knew She recognized the ring tone

"Hey, sweetheart," Heidi began

Both Lauren and Stacey could hear the anger in Barry&039;s voice, though they couldn&039;t

"No!" Heidi said "I didn&039;t! It must have been someone&039;s idea of a practical joke I would never-"

The phone went dead in Heidi&039;s hand Tears were apparent in her eyes as she stared at the other tomen

"Hehe says I called him yesterday and said that it was off, that I was sorry, but I wanted to sleep with otherup on him!"

"I&039;ll call hi to say I mean, we all kno much you love him And how much he loves you"

"He hates me!" Heidi said, distressed "I didn&039;t call his"

"You did call him And that&039;s the problem He&039;s your fiance-he knows your voice"

Heidi burst into tears

"It&039;s going to be all right," Lauren said, the words hollow in her own ears, but they were the only ones that seemed appropriate at the moment

Stacey was harder and firlad you&039;re alive, and then you need tostart believing e&039;re saying You are going to do every single thing I tell you to do, and then, e&039;ve all survived this, we&039;ll work on getting your fiance back"

"I&039;ll call Barry today," Lauren told Heidi, handing her a napkin to dry her eyes "Don&039;t cry, Heidi It won&039;t help any"

"Don&039;t cry?" Heidi exploded suddenly "You&039;re telling me I was bitten by a vampire-because I &039;m weak-and that I called e And you don&039;t want et ood hard look at what the creature trying to seduce you made you do Wake up!"

"I arily She wiped her face and stared at the other women "If this is some kind of practical joke"

"I wish it were," Lauren said softly, reaching across the table to gently touching her friend&039;s hand "I&039;ll call Barry We&039;ll convince hi about him and decided to be cruel"

"Will he believe it?" Heidi asked

"Will he believe it if you tell him you were under the influence of a vampire?" Stacey asked curtly

"You will call him? You&039;ll convince him?" Heidi said to Lauren

"Of course You love hiht now-but he loves you"

Heidi was quiet for a et back over to the hospital," Lauren said

"Yes, of course, we need to go back," Heidi said