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Mark was certain the ue was empty when he arrived, but as he stood at the door of the seely deserted facility, it opened, and Sean Canady was standing there in the dark

"Took you long enough," he said, then turned and walked away, calling over his shoulder, "Co quickly to the darkness There were security lights, but they offered diht attendant?" Mark asked

"He&039;shere"

"Oh?"

"I knocked him out," Sean said iht you wanted ht in today?" Mark asked with a frown

"Yes"

"I destroyed her today"

"She should have been destroyed," Sean said

"What? If she&039;s co back, we need to talk to her We need to knohere she&039;s been sleeping, who-"

"I&039;m sorry, but it&039;s too late now"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Coue attendant was out cold on the floor, and the corpse

She was half-covered in flesh again, looking like a HollywoodHer

And she had a literal death grip on a stake that was protruding from her chest

"You certainly did take care of her," Mark said, looking at Canady

"I had to I know you were hoping she could be brought back to help us, but it&039;s not going to happen And after what I saw here tonight, we&039;ve got to be very careful" He indicated the ue attendant on the floor "She nearly had him There seem to be some fairly new recruits in Stephan&039;s flock We can&039;t count on dust to dust to get rid of them If you make a kill, be damn sure you cut the head off I&039;ll take care of any explanations"

"Like Stephan, when he throws his refuse into the Mississippi," Mark said bitterly

"You&039;ve got to ood," Sean said fir to protect I know you need inforet it at any risk to others"

Mark looked down at the fallen uy looked well and truly out "How hard did you hit hih"

"How ed "Too much But with the bu Who the hell would believe hiain quickly," Mark said

"I want her more than rotted," Canady said curtly

"If she were to come back"

"Mark, we can&039;t take chances like that She alot to her in tiht What next?" he asked Canady

Sean handed hiot to work Decapitation was not an easy process, he thought halfway through

When they were done, he asked Canady, "How the hell are you going to explain this?"

"I&039;"

"What about theto prop hi to think he&039;s worked a few hours too uess you knohat you&039;re doing"

Canady shrugged "It&039;s the best I can think of, anyway When I leave here, I&039;s there Where will you be? Back at Montresse House?"

Mark shook his head "No I can&039;t just sit around and wait I have to find Stephan&039;s lair He&039;s using guerilla tactics, going after different people, trying to keep us so busy and scattered that he&039;ll eventually succeed in getting to Lauren I have to find him first"

"What do you think he&039;ll do next?" Canady asked

"I don&039;t know, but I hope to God I can find him before he does it," Mark replied

Deanna remained very weak, and she was also fretful, worried about Jonas

Lauren orried about hih not, she suspected, for quite the saed to cook up a delicious soup that Deanna was able to keep down, so at least her strength was ier was still out there

But that night, with Stacey, Bobby and Big Jim around, it see, at the very least

Deanna actually , ready to hand her a towel and support her back to the bed

Big Jiah she felt listless about the idea at first, Lauren was pleased to see how eagerly her friends agreed Still, though she tried, she couldn&039;t get into the gaely restless and unnerved Finally she excused herself and went downstairs to brew a pot of tea

As the tea steeped, she suddenly reotten in the welter of events She raced upstairs to her own room and found it in the pocket of the jeans she had worn the day before Eagerly, she sat down on the bed to read

It was a newspaper article, written ten years earlier about strange events in Louisiana history

Lauren was perplexed The event in question dated back to 1870 A plantation oho had survived the ravages of the "War of Northern Aggression" had been returned to his ho of his son in Kiev, where he had apparently gone berserk and used a bow and arrow to kill the bride and several of the guests

On the day of his funeral, the house-a beautiful, graceful hoone up in flames The shell had remained for years As of the article date, the ruins were still abandoned, and the property had reverted to the state

Lauren read the article over and over again, unable to puzzle out why Susan had given it to her

Perplexed, she refolded the sheet of paper and tossed it on the nightstand

Mark spent over two hours just driving around

He had been certain at first that Stephan would have chosen a place along Plantation Row for his refuge, but he had apparently been wrong, because he didn&039;t see anything suspicious the entire time

He headed back to the hospital, anxious to see how Leticia was doing All seeht do, Sean had stationed an officer on duty outside the door And Judith Lockas right where he had left her, the knitting project in her hands beginning to look more like a sweater

He noticed there were more crosses in the room Several of them-all wooden-lined theframe

"Hello, Ms Lockwood," he said quietly

She looked up calmly and nodded at hione"

"He?" he"Folks can poke fun at some of the old beliefs, but you knoay back in the old days, in the jungles and deserts, folks knew They knew about good, and they knew about evil My girl here, she just happened into the way of evil But she&039;s a good girl And I don&039;t intend to lose her to any spawn of Satan I was ready" She smiled "Well, I have to ad this place myself now, but I was ready He showed up at thatAnd I gave it to hiht on it just as soon as I saw the golden orbs of his eyes at the glass" She chuckled softly "He was gone, lickety split Yessir, I think we&039;re going to be fine"

Mark walked over to Judy and took her hands "Good for you You&039;re saving her life, you know But you&039;re right; you mustn&039;t leave here Not at all Not until it&039;ssafe"

"Not until you&039;ve killed the bastard, huh?" she asked

He nodded "He needed Leticia because she&039;s a nurse, but she&039;s also a very beautiful young woman You&039;ve kept her from him She&039;s not the one he&039;s after, but he&039;ll hurt you, hurt you badly, if he can, because he doesn&039;t like people denying hi You understand, don&039;t you?"

She stared at hi ine I do And I won&039;t be leaving Do you see stupid in this old body? I think not!"

Mark had to sreed

"Get out there, then Get out there and stop the irl"

"Yes, ma&039;am," he told her, and left

Outside, he swore If only he knehere the hell the bastard was going to strike next

Deanna still didn&039;t haveht, however, she was sleeping again, apparently peacefully

In her chair, Heidi yawned

"You all go on to bed now," Big Ji around the room "I&039;ll take first watch Bobby can spell me in a few hours And Stacey is always up by six"

"I can watch Deanna," Lauren said "You&039;re already doing enough, giving up your job to stay here with us"

"You listen to et soood if you&039;re overtired"

Heidi stood "I&039;rinned "It&039;s very tiring, convincing your fiance that you don&039;t want to sleep with the entire roster of the L A Rauess I&039;ll get so Ji out a hand to Stacey "Come on, kid"

They all filed out of Deanna&039;s room

"Maybe I should bunk in with you," Lauren told Heidi

"No, thank you"

"But-"

"Lauren, the roo soh I think it&039;s great you&039;re getting some at last, I don&039;t want to be around for it," she said, laughing

"All right," Lauren agreed "I&039; so ht"

"I&039;ll screaave Lauren a war "I swear, I almost lost Barry, and there&039;s no way I&039;ll let that happen, especially now that I knohat I&039; that comes my way, I promise"

Lauren watched Heidi disappear into her roo shoith plenty of hot water, before dressing in a soft knit nightgown and curling up in bed

The silence of the house see Waiting

Listening for the sound of wings, fluttering in the night Waiting in fear

It was exactly what he wanted, she thought He had been at the hospital He had wanted to prove that he could go anywhere, that he could injure them when they didn&039;t even know they were vulnerable And that he did want her

Why?

Because she looked like Katie?

It was all so ridiculous

She got up and decided to read the article Susan had given her one more time But she still didn&039;t understand what the seer had been trying to tell her It was a sad story, and it had all happened in 1870, shortly after the Civil War had torn the nation apart

She noticed that several sources were cited at the bottom of the article She wondered if she could find any of theo to the library It was alh she couldn&039;t sleep, she was exhausted She decided to see what she could find in the et soh it see Ji, he quickly discovered But he stayed for a beer, and listened to the re that had happened with "Nefertiti" She had wanted him to destroy her He was certain she hadn&039;t seized the child because she really intended to take his life; rather, she had wanted death and had forced his hand But he was still frustrated, thinking that shethat could have helped hi in the bar looked different, but soed

He sipped his beer and carefully observed those around hih tables near the bar There were eight people on the dance floor They weren&039;t dancing as couples, justwoman was seated with an older man He hohter She was going to Tulane, and he was down visiting

The bar was sparsely populated Several people appeared to be alone There were two attractive woaritas and the music

A couple at the far end The man had sandy hair, and was broad-shouldered, tall and dressed in a black tailored shirt and jeans He looked like he irl was pretty She looked sweet, radiant and innocent Also very young She had dark eyes and long brown hair, and wore a tube top and a short plaid mini-skirt They had their heads bowed toward one another

Suddenly the girl laughed a little too loudly, probably the result of too much to drink

He saw the man set money on the bar and whisper to her

She sether, hand in hand

Mark followed

There was a loud boom, like a burst of thunder

Lauren started up, alarmed, awakened from a deep sleep