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"-kill it"

When they reached the alleyway, Harker reer lay facedown He had turned to the sky His ; rain pooled in theone His chest and abdo on shattered frage

"It came out of him," Michael declared

A scrape and clank drew their attention to a point farther along the alleyway, toward the front of the warehouse

Through the blear of rain, in the scintillation of lightning, Carson saw a pale trollish figure crouched beside an open ed the cover

At a distance of thirty feet, in the murk of the tropical stor Yet she knew that it was staring at her

She raised the shotgun, but the pallid creature dropped into the ht

Michael said, "What the hell was that?"

"I don’t know Maybemaybe I don’t want to know"

CSI, ME PERSONNEL, a dozen jakes, and the usual obnoxious gaggle of s dripped, the puddled street glistened, but nothing looked clean, nothing s would ever quite feel clean again

Jack Rogers had shown up to oversee the handling and transport of Jonathan Harker’s remains He was determined not to lose evidence this tiun, Carson said, "Where’s Deucalion?"

Michael said, "Probably had a dinner date with Dracula"

‘After what you’ve seen, you aren’t still resisting this?"

"Let’s just say that I’ to process the data"

She slapped hiside the head "Better get an upgraded logic unit"

Her cell phone rang When she answered it, she heard Vicky Chou in a panic

CHAPTER 96

finished, prograe and other basics, Erika Five lay in the sealed glass tank, awaiting ani She was a lovely creature

Although four Erikas had failed hih hopes for the fifth Even after two hundred years, he was learning new techniques, better design solutions

He keyed commands into the computer that was associated with this tank--number 32--and watched as the milky solution in which Erika lay was cycled out of the container to be replaced with a clear cleansing solution Within a fewher dry and pink

The numerous electrodes, nutrient lines, drains, and service tubes connected to her auto, she bled from a few veins, but only for a moment; in members of the New Race, such slass lid opened on pneu on her own

Victor sat on a stool beside the tank, leaned forward, his face close to hers

Her luxurious eyelashes fluttered She opened her eyes Her gaze was first wild and fearful This was not unusual

When the ht and Victor knew she had passed froement, he said, "Do you knohat you are?"

"Yes"

"Do you knohy you are?"

"Yes"

"Do you knoho I am?"

For the first tiaze with a kind of reverence

‘Are you ready to serve?"

"Yes"

"I’ain, and then humbly away

‘Arise," he said

The tank revolved a quarter of a turn, allowing her to swing her legs out easily, to stand

"I have given you a life," he said "Reiven you a life, and I will choose what you do with it"

CHAPTER 97

ON THE dark and rain-soaked lawn, a superlass bottles stood alongside the house, near the back porch

Carson, followed by Michael, glanced at the cart, puzzled, as she hurried past it to the porch steps

Vicky Chou, in a robe and slippers, waited in the kitchen She held a meat fork as if she intended to use it as a weapon

"The doors were locked I know they were," she said