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Butch walked out of ZeroSuh the Escalade was parked in the back, he headed in the opposite direction He needed air Jesus¡­ he needed air

The middle of March was still winter so far as upstate New York was concerned, and the night was meat-locker cold Butch walked alone down Trade Street, his breath leaving hisover his shoulder The chill and the isolation suited hih he&039;d left the club&039;s crush of people behind

As he went along, his Ferraga the salt and sand on the little concrete strip between dirty snowbanks In the background, h business hours were soon going to be over

When he came up to McGrider&039;s, he popped his collar and up&039;d his pace He avoided the blues bar because the boys on the force hung out there and he didn&039;t want to see theues in the CPD knew, he&039;d up and disappeared, and that was the way he wanted to keep it

Screa the whole daot to the far side of the club, he paused and looked down the alley that ran the length of the place

It had all started here His weird trip into the vaht here the previous July, with a car boated at this site: a BMW blown to shit A man ashed

No material evidence left behind except a couple ofstars The hit had been very professional, the kind of thing that sent a e, and shortly thereafter the bodies of the prostitutes had appeared in the alleys Throats cut Blood levels sky high with heroine With more martial-arts weapons around

He and his partner, Jos¨¦ de la Cruz, had assumed the blast was a pimp-related turf toaster and the dead woh he&039;d learned the whole story Darius, a er Brotherhood, had been taken out by his race&039;s enemies, the lessers And the y by the Lessening Society to capture civilian va

Man, back then he&039;d never have even guessed vampires existed Much less drove 90,000 BMWs Or had sophisticated eneht to the spot where the 650i had been blown to high heaven There was still a black soot ring on the building froertips on the cold brick

It had all started here

A gust of wind caetting to the fancy suit underneath Dropping his hand, he looked down at his clothes Overcoat was Missoni, about five grand Suit underneath, an RL Black Label, about three grand Shoes were aht at a mere seven hundred bucks Cuff links were Cartier and into the five-digit category Watch was Patek Philippe Twenty-five grand

The two forty-rand a piece

So he was sporting¡­ Jesus Christ, about 44,000 worth of Saks Fifth and Ar for his threads He had two closets worth of the shit back at the coht with his own cash All of which had been purchased with Brotherhood green

Shit¡­ he dressed in clothes that weren&039;t his Lived in a house and ate food and watched a plasma screen TV¡­ none of which were his Drank Scotch he didn&039;t pay for Drove a sweet ride he didn&039;t own And what did he do in return? Not a whole hell of a lot Every time action went down, the brothers kept hi out at the far end of the alley, pounding, pounding, getting closer And there was more than one set

Butch eased back into the shadows, slipping free the buttons on his coat and his suit jacket so he could get at his heat if he needed it He had no intention ofup so back if an innocent was getting cracked

Guess the cop in him wasn&039;t dead yet

As the alley had only one open end, the track-and-fielders heading this ere going to pass by hiht with a Duuy flew by, terror on his face, his body all jerky panic And then¡­ well, what do you know, the two thugs in his trunk were pale haired Big as houses S after a civilian

Butch palmed one of his Glocks, speed-dialed V&039;s cell phone, and took off in pursuit As he ran, the call dumped into voice mail, so he just shoved his Razr back into his pocket

When he caught up with the drama, the three were at the base of the alley, a loose knot of bad news Now that the slayers had the civilian cornered, they wereThe civilian was shaking, eyes so wide the whites glowed in the dark

Butch leveled his gun at the scene "Hey, Blondies, how &039;bout you show me your hands?"

The lessers stopped and looked at hi you were a deer and the thing co at you was a Peterbilt Those undead bastards were pure power backed up by cold logic¡ªa nasty combination, especially in duplicate

"This isn&039;t your business," the one on the left said

"Yeah, that&039;s whatme But, see, I don&039;t take direction real well"

He had to give the lessers credit; they were smart One focused on him The other closed in on the civilian, who looked as if he ay too scared to be able to de to becoht

"Why don&039;t you head out?" the bastard on the right said "Better for you"

"Probably, but worse for him" Butch nodded toward the civilian

An ice cube breeze shot down the alley, ruffling orphaned newspaper pages and eled and he shook his head, hating the smell

"You know," he said, "this whole baby powder thing¡ªhow do you lessers stand it?"

The slayers&039; pale eyes traveled up and down hiure out why he even knew the word And then they all flipped into action The lesser closest to the civilianthe hostage potential into a reality At the sa quick as a blink

Butch wasn&039;t into getting rattled, though He cal sonofabitch right in the chest The second his bullet penetrated, a screech worthy of a banshee exploded out of the slayer&039;s throat and the thing hit the ground like a bag of sand, immobilized

Which was not the nored Usually they could throw it off, but Butch was packing so special in his clip, thanks to the Brotherhood

"What the fuck," the upright slayer breathed

"Surprise, surprise, cocksucker Got me some fancy lead"

The lesser snapped back to reality, hauling the civilian off the ground in a one-ar the vaun at the twosoo"

A ed from under the civilian&039;s armpit

Butch dove for a shallow doorway as the first bullet ricocheted off the asphalt Just as he took shelter, a second shot ripped through his thigh

Fuuuuuck, welco felt like it had a red-hot roofing spike drilled into it, the niche he was jammed into offered about asinto better shooting position

Butch grabbed an empty Coors bottle and tossed it across the alley As the lesser&039;s head popped around the civilian&039;s shoulder to track the sound, Butch lit off four precisely targeted shots in a semicircle around the pair The vampire panicked, just as expected, and becarip, Butch put a slug into the lesser&039;s shoulder, spinning the bastard away, landing hiround

Good shot, but the undead was stillto be on his feet in another ood, but the stun didn&039;t last forever and it helped if you nailed a chest rather than an arm

And what do you know More problems

Now that the civilian vaht his breath and started to screah the pain in his leg Jesus Christ, thisin an entire police force¡ªall the way frouy&039;s face, pegging hi, okay? Listen toNow" The vaine had run out of gas "Good I got two things I need from you First, I want you to calm yourself so you can de? Breathe slow and deep¡ªthat&039;s right Nice And I want you to cover your eyes now Go on, cover the wasn&039;t on your to-do list Close your eyes and cover the to be okay provided you get yourself out of this alley"

As thehands over his eyes, Butch went over to the second slayer, as lying facedown on the pave fro out of its rabbed a fistful of the lesser&039;s hair, tilted the thing&039;s head off the asphalt, and put the dock&039;s er As the top half of the bastard&039;s face vaporized, its ars twitched Fell still

But the job wasn&039;t done Both slayers needed to be stabbed in the chest to truly be dead And Butch didn&039;t have anything sharp and shiny on hiot out his cell phone and hit speed dial again as he rolled the slayer over with his foot While V&039;s cell started to ring, Butch went through the lesser&039;s pockets He lifted a BlackBerry as well as a wallet¡ª

"Fuck me," Butch breathed The slayer had activated his phone, obviously calling for an assist And through the open line, the sounds of heavy breathing and flapping clothes were a loud and clear sign that the backup brigade was colanced at the va "Hoe doin&039;? You look good You look really calm and in control"

V, pick up the damn phone V¡ª

The vampire dropped his hands, and his eyes fell upon the slayer, whose forehead was now all over the brick wall on the right "Oh¡­his body in the way "You don&039;t think about that"

The civilian&039;s hand came out and pointed doard "And you¡ªyou&039;re shot"

"Yeah, you don&039;t worry about me, either I need you to cool out and leave,now

Just as V&039;s voicethe pavement drifted down the alley Butch shoved his phone in the vicinity of his pocket and ditched the clip out of the Glock As he sla "Dematerialize Dematerialize now"

"But¡ªbut¡ª"

"Now! For fuck&039;s sake, get your ass out of here or you&039;re going ho this? You&039;re just a hu that Leave!"

The vae, and disappeared

As the hellfire beat of the slayers got louder, Butch looked around for shelter, aware that his left shoe was soaking wet fro again, he flattened hi at him