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Dragosani had been ’back to school’ for over three lish Noas the end of July and he had returned to Roht of his ho here was simple: despite any threats he made when last he visited, still he are that a year had passed, and that the old Thing in the ground had warned him that a year was all the tiosani to fatho he was certain: he ht on his part If such an expiry was i to share a few e for an extension on his undead life

Because it had been getting late in the day when he drove through Bucharest, Dragosani had stopped at a village market to purchase a pair of live chickens in a wicker basket These had gone under a light blanket on the floor in the back of his Volga He had found lodgings in a far tossed his things into his rooht and driven to the wooded cruciforht, he stood once round beneath the glooain the turotesquely twisted roots stood up like a writhing of petrified serpents

Past Bucharest he had tried to contact Thibor, to no

avail; for all that he’d concentrated on raising the old devil’s mind from the slumber of centuries, there had been no answer Perhaps, after all, he was too late How long ht a vampire lie, undead in the earth, without attention? For all Dragosani’s many conversations with the creature, and for all that he had learned from Ladislau Giresci, still he knew so little about the Wae, Thibor had told hiosani into the fraternity Oh? The necromancer would see about that!

’Thibor, are you there?’ he nohispered in the gloo the dusty mias gifts!’ At his feet the chickens huddled in their basket, their feet trussed; but no unseen presence ers brushed his hair, no eager invisible muzzles sniffed at his essence The place was dry, desiccated, dead Dangling twigs snapped loudly at a touch and dust swirled where Dragosani placed his feet on the accuetable debris of centuries

’Thibor,’ he tried again ’You told me a year The year is past and I’ve returned Aon, to warain’

Nothing

Dragosani grew alarround was always here He was genius loci Without hi, the cruciforosani’s drealean froone forever?

For a er, frustration, but then -

The trussed chickens in their basket stirred a little and

one of the sound, A breeze whirred eerily in the higher branches over Dragosani’s head The sun dipped down behind distant hills And soloo was there, but he felt eyes upon hi was different, but it seemed now that the place breathed!

It breathed, yes - but a tainted breath, which Dragosani liked not at all He felt threatened, felt er here than ever before He picked up the basket and took two paces back froh bark of a great tree allade He felt safer there, h old tree behind him The sudden dryness went out of his throat and he sed hard before enquiring again:

’Thibor, I know you’re there It’s your loss, old devil, if you choose to ignore h branches, and with it a whisper crept into the necroosaaaniiii? Is it you? Ahhhh!

’It’syou life, old devil - or rather, to renew your undeath’

Too late, Dragosani, too late My time is come and I must answer the call of the dark earth Even I, Thibor Ferenczy of the Wamphyri My privations have been many and my spark has been allowed to burn too lo it , I fear It is finished

’No, I can’t believe that! I’ve brought life for you, fresh blood Tomorrow there’ll be ain Why didn’t you tell s were at such a pass? I was sure you cried wolf! How could you expect me to believe when all you’ve ever done is lie to me?’

Perhaps in that I was round answered in a little while But when even my own father and brother hated me why should I trust a son? And a son by proxy, at that There is no real flesh between us, Dragosani Oh, we made pro could coh your knowledge of necroain, however vile So let it be peace between us 1 aosani took a step forward ’No!’ he said again "There are still things you can teach round tremble just a little beneath his feet? Did the unseen presence’s creep closer?) He ainst the tree

The voice in his h of one earies of all earthly things, of one iot that it was the lying sigh of a va Did I not tell you that the lore of the Wamphyri is forbidden to mortals? Did I not say that to becoone, ive you the power to rule a world, while I lie here and turn to dust? What is that for justice? Where is the fairness in that?

Dragosani was desperate ’Then accept the blood I’ve brought you, the sweet ain I will accept your terms If I must become one of the Wamphyri to learn all of their secrets - then so be it!’ he lied ’But without you I cannot!’

The Thing in the ground was silent for long osani breathlessly waited He fancied that the earth treain, however ination - the knowledge that so ancient and evil, rotten and undead lay buried here Behind his back the tree stood seeosani hardly suspected it was eaten away at its heart But indeed it was hollow; and now soh the earth and into the dry, worosani ht have sensed movement, but in that precise instant of tiain and his attention was distracted:

Did you say you hada gift for me?

There was interest in the vaosani saw a ray of hope ’Yes, yes! Here at my feet Fresh meat, blood’ He snatched up one of the birds and squeezed its throat so that its squawking ceased at once And in another ht steel froizzard Red blood spurted and the carcass flopped a little where he tossed it, while feathers fluttered silently to the black earth

The leaf-e soaks water - but behind Dragosani’s back a pseudopod of putrefaction slid swiftly up inside the hollow tree, its leprous white tip finding a knot-hole where a branch had decayed and poking through into view not eighteen inches above his head The tip throbbed, glistening with a strange life of its own, filled with an alien foetal urgency

Dragosani took up the second bird by its neck, stepped two paces forward to the very rim of the ’safe’ area ’And there’s ht here in my hand Only show a little trust, a little faith, and tellof the powers I’ll command when I beco into the ground, ood But still I think you came too late Well, I will not blame you We were at odds with one another - I was as much to blaotten Aye, and 1 would not have it end without showing you at least a smallat least one sosani eagerly answered ’Go on’

In the beginning, said the Thing in the ground, all things were equal The pri of Nature no less than the primal man, and just as man lived on the lesser creatures about him, so too lived the va things are But whereas man killed the creatures he fed upon, there the vampire was kinder: he simply took them for his host They did not die - indeed they became undead! In this fashion a vampire is no less natural a creature than the lamprey or the leech, or even the humble flea; except his host lives, becomes near immortal, and is not consumed as in the normal manner of massive parasitic possession But as man evolved into the perfect host, so evolved the vampire, and as man became dominant so the vampire shared his doosani

I can read theof the word in your mind, said Thibor, and yes, that is correct - except the va with evolution cae: where before the vampire could live apart from his host, noas totally dependent upon hifish dies without its host fish, so the vampire must have his host simply to exist And if men discovered a vampire in one of their own sort - why, they would sireater being within!

Nor was this the last of the vae one when it co errors and quite ruthless She had not intended that any of her creations should be i she makes is allowed to live for ever And yet here was a creature which

see accidents - ht just survive indefinitely! And furious, she took her spite on the Warew through all the ages towards the present day, so my vampire ancestors developed within theenerations, down all the years It was a stricture of Nature, and it was this: that since vampires ’died’ so very rarely, she would allow them only rarely to be born!

’Which is why,’ said Dragosani, ’you’re dying out as a race’

As individuals, we reat length of that span

’But you’re so potent! I can’t see that the fault lies with your males Is it that your females are infertile I mean, that they only have the one opportunity to reproduce?’

Our ’osani’s e that he didn’t like Our ’feainst the tree

’What are you saying?’

Males and feosani If Nature had saddled us with that proble extinct

’But you are a male I know you are!’

My huosani’s eyes were now very wide in the dark Soed hiround could not - dared not - harm hiht I had explained adequately I aosani wasn’t sure of the term ’Hermaphrodite?’

No

’Then asexual? Aga on the pallid, pulsating tip of the leprous tentacle where it protruded frorew it becaan to quiver Above it a criazed lidlessly, full of rapt intent

’But what of your lust on the night we took the girl?’

Your lust, Dragosani

’And all the woy, but my host’s lust!

’But -’

AHHHH! the voice in Dragosani’s roan My son, my son - it is nearly finished! It is almost over!

Alare of the circle The voice was so weak, so despairing, so filled with pain ’What is it? What’s wrong? Here, more food!’ He slit the second bird’s throat, threw its twitching corpse down The red blood was sucked up by the earth The Thing in the ground drank deep

Dragosani waited, and: Ahhhh!

But now the necroreat strength in the va Quickly he stepped back - and in that same instant of time the pearly droplet overhead turned scarlet and fell!

It landed on the back of Dragosani’s neck just below the high collar-line He felt it It could have been a drop of moisture fallen from the tree, except it was totally dry here; or it could be a bird dropping, if he had ever seen a bird in this place In any case, his hand auto The va needed no ovipositor Like quicksilver it had soaked straight through the skin Now it explored the spinal coluosani felt the pain and bounded froht to be the danger area - bounded again as the pain increased This ti hi with the boles of trees where they stood in his path; he tripped and fell, rolling headlong And always the pain in his skull, the pressure on his spine, the fire lancing through his veins like acid

Panic gripped him, the worst panic he had ever known in his entire life He felt that he was dying, that his seizure - whatever its cause - ans were bursting, as though his brain were on fire!

Within hi place in his chest cavity It ceased exploring, settled to sleep Its initial fu of the newborn, but noarony went out of Dragosani in an instant, and so great was his relief that his syste in the sheer pleasure of painlessness, he blacked out

Harry Keogh lay sprawled upon his bed, sweat plastering his sandy hair to his forehead, his li fitfully now and then in response to a drea more than a dream In life his mother had been a psychic ed her; if anything it had improved her talent Often over the years she’d visited Harry in his sleep, even as she visited hiether: the garden of the house in Bonnyrigg, where beyond the fence the river swirled its sluggish way between banks grown green with the hot sun and lush from the richness of the river It was a dreaain, alover rather than her son But in his dream their relationship was distinct, and as always she orried for hierous and it can’t possibly work,’ she said ’Anyway, don’t you realise what you’re doing? If it does work it will be murder, Harry! You’ll be no better than than hiazed fearfully at the house through eyes of blue crystal

The house was a dark blot against a sky so blue that it hurt the eyes It stood there like a round, as if fresh spilled in a child’s picturebook; and like a Black Hole of interstellar physics, no light shone out of it and nothing at all escaped its gaping, aching void It was black because of what it housed, as black as the soul of the ing his own eyes froreat effort of will ’Nothe’s escaped for almost fifteen years I was little more than a baby, a ot aith it until now But now I’o at that?’

’But don’t you see, Harry?’ she insisted ’Taking your revenge won’t put it right Trongs never ed hi his hair Harry had used to love that as a baby He looked again at the inkblot house and shuddered, and quickly looked away

’It’s not just that I want revenge, Mother,’ he said ’I want to knohy! Why did hewife, a lady of property and talent He should have adored you - and yet he killed you He held you under the ice, and when you were too weak to fight let you go with the river He killed you as coldly as if you were an unwanted kitten, the runt of the litter He tore you froarden, except he was the weed and you a rose What made hiolden head ’I don’t know, Harry I’ve never known’

’That’s what I have to find out I can’t find out while he’s alive, for I know he’ll never admit it So I’ll have to find out when he’s dead The dead never refuseWhich meansI have to kill him And I’ll do it my way’

’It’s a very terrible way, Harry,’ it was her turn to shudder ’I know!’

He nodded, his eyes cold ’Yes, you do - and that’s why it ain and clutched hi you’re all right, I can lie easy, Harry But if anything should happen to you -’

’Nothing will happen It will be just the way I plan it’ He kissed her worried brow, but still she clung to him

’He’s a clever man, Harry, This Viktor Shukshin Clever - and evil! Sometimes I could sense it in hiirl? And hinetic The Russian in hi darkness of his netic poles, and we attracted I know that I loved hih I sensed his dark heart, but as for his reason for killing ain she shook her head, her blue eyes cloudy within hi he couldn’t control That much I know, but what exactly - ’ and once more she shook her head

’It’s what I have to find out,’ Harry repeated, ’for until then I won’t rest easy either’

’Shhh!’ she suddenly gasped, clutched him hard ’Look!’

Harry looked A sreat black arden path, peering here and there, worriedly wringing its hands In its black blot of a head twin silver ovals gleamed, eyes which led it towards the fence at the bottoether, but for the moment the Shukshin apparition paid them no heed He passed by, paused briefly and sniffed suspiciously - al - then moved on At the fence he stopped, leaned on the top rail, for long moments peered at the river’s sloirl

’I knohat’s on his mind,’ Harry whispered

’Shhh!’ his s, Viktor Shukshin He always could’

The inkblot now returned, pausing every now and then, sniffing in that strange way Close to the pair, the Shukshin-thing seeh them with its silver eyes Then the eyes blinked and it s its hands as before As it ly

The sound repeated in Harry’s head, reverberating,fro:

Rat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat!

’You have to go,’ said his mother ’Be careful, Harry Poor little Harry

He jerked awake in his flat Froh the , he knew that ti He’d slept for three hours at least; ain at the door:

Rat-tat-tat!

Who could this be? Brenda? No, for he wasn’t expect­ing her Although it was a Saturday she was putting in so up the hair of some of Harden’s more ’fashionable’ ladies Who, then?

Rat-tat-tot Insistently

Stiffly, Harry swung his legs off the bed, stood up and went to the door His hair was tousled, his eyes full of sleep Visitors were rare and he liked it that way This was an intrusion, so to be dealt with swiftly and decisively He zipped up his trousers, shrugged into a shirt - and the knock caain

Outside the door, Sir Keenan Gorh was in there He had known it coh’s ESP signature ritten in the very air of the place as unlass For like Viktor Shukshin and Gregor Borowitz, this was Gorreat talent: he too was a ’spotter’, he instinctively ’knew’ when he stood in the presence of an ESPer and Keogh’s ESP-aura was more powerful than any he had ever sensed before, so that he felt he was close to soenerator as he stood there at the door on the landing at the head of the stairs

And now Harry Keogh hih before, but never so close Over the last three weeks, while he had been staying with Jack Harmon, he’d seen hih on occasion, had kept the youth under close but discreet observation; likewise on the two occasions when George Hannant had ac­coree with both Har special Quite obviously they were correct about hient intercourse with the dead Gorht over the last three weeks It was one which he would dearly love to have under his control Now he h

Blinking the sleep froh looked his visitor up and down He had intended to be brusque no matter who it was, to deal with the problem and be done with it, but one look at Gor to go away There was a quiet air of unassu but aweso s, outstretched hand, it for

’Harry Keogh?’ said Gor that the other take his hand by shoving it even farther forward ’I’m Sir Keenan Gormley You won’t have heard of me but I know quite a bit about you In fact - why, I know just about everything about you!’

The landing was ill-lit and Harry couldn’t quite make out the other’s features, just indistinct impressions Finally, briefly, he took Gormley’s hand, then stepped aside and let him in The contact, however brief, had told him a lot Gormley’s hand had been fir, but neither had it threatened It was the hand of someone who could be a friend Except -

’You know everything about me?’ Harry wasn’t sun he liked the sound of that ’Well that won’t come to much There’s not a lot to know’

’Oh, I disagree with you,’ said the other ’You’re far too ht froh looked at his visitorbetween fifty and sixty, but probably at the top end; his green eyes were a little rooh-doht, his well-tailored jacket just failed to hide slightly rounded shoulders Sir Keenan Gorh would think he had a way to go yet

’What do I call you?’ he said It was the first time he’d spoken to a ’Sir’

’Keenan will do, since we’re to be friends’

’You’re sure of that? That we’re to be friends, I mean? I must warn you I don’t make many’

’I don’t think we have any choice,’ Gormley smiled ’We have too much in common Anyway, the way I hear it you have lots of friends’

’Then you’ve heard it wrong,’ Harry frowned, shook his head ’I can count my real friends on one hand’

Gorht to the point And anyway, he wanted to see Keogh’s reaction if he was caught off balance It ht just provide the final ounce of proof ’Those are the live ones,’ he quietly answered, easing the sradually off his face ’But I think the others are rather renade He’d often wondered hoould feel if anyone should ever confront him like this, and now he knew He felt ill

He reeled, found a rickety easy chair, sank down into it Pale as death he shivered, gulped, gazed at Gorh the eyes of a cornered animal ’I don’t knohat you’re - ’ he finally began to croak his denial, only to have Gormley cut him off with:

’Yes you do, Harry! You know very hat I’ about You’re a necroscope And you’re probably the only real necroscope in the entire world!’

’You have to be crazy!’ Harry gasped desperately ’Cos A necroscope? There’s no such thing Everyone knows you can’t can’t’ Trapped, he faltered to a halt

’Can’t what, Harry? Talk to the dead? But you can, can’t you?’

Claasped for air He was caught and he knew it Trapped like a ghoul with a dripping heart in his hands, like a rapist in the bea between his battered victihs It hadn’t felt like a crime before - he’d never hurt anyone - but now’

Gormley stepped forward, took his shoulders, shook hirubby little boy caughtyou do isn’t an illness - it’s a talent!’

’It’s a secret thing,’ he protested weakly, his face shining ’II don’t hurt them, I wouldn’t do that Without me, ould they have to talk to? They’re so lonely!’ He was al now, convinced that he was in deep trouble and trying to talk his way out The last thing Gormley wanted was to alienate him

’It’s okay, son, it’s okay Take it easy - no one’s accusing you of anything’

’But it’s a secret thing!’ Harry insisted, gritting his teeth, growing angry now ’Or at least it was But now, if people know about it -’

’They won’t get to know’

’You know!’

’It’syou: you’re not in trouble Not with me’

He was so persuasive, so quiet Was he a friend, a real friend, or was he so else? Harry couldn’t control his panic, the shock of knowing that someone else knew His head whirled Could he trust this man? Dared he trust anyone? And if Gore on Viktor Shukshin? Nothing must interfere with that!

He reached out desperately with his mind, contacted a confidence trickster he knew in the ceton