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Stopping a few feet away and facing hi," he said, his eyes furtively landing onback to products he couldn’t possibly want to buy I continued to stare at him and he said, "I don’t work here, if you have a question"

"Oh, I have a question, all right You see, I’ so to shop and turned to face entleoes by the name of Theophilus"

I expected the expression of shock--widened eyes, a droop at the corners of the mouth The attempt to charm me was also expected His mouth pressed into a thin line of deterrinned at him, protected by my cold iron aura

"You can’t charm me, sorry But would you be so kind as to direct me to Theophilus? We need to talk, he and I"

This was the bit where I expected hi a question at me "Who are you?" was my best bet, but "Why do you want to talk to Theophilus?" would have been reasonable, or even "Did you say soot instead was an all-out attack, co and an attempt to tear out my throat

Since I’d been braced for it and was already juiced up, I didn’t go down to the ground, but I did back up quite a bit, until I had his arms locked in mine

I had added a new charm to my necklace in response to my last encounter with a vampire, when I quite nearly died because I couldn’t finish speaking the unbinding Until now I hadn’t had an opportunity to test it A et vaured that, like all ered it now and was surprised to see the vampire flinch and become afflicted with existential horror--like thein the hot tub with friends, so sensation in your bowels means your diarrhea has co I began to speak the unbinding aloud

This lad wasn’t as strong as Zdenik, the vampire who’d nearly snuffed ic had drained rapidly trying to hold him off This vampire was probably only a few hundred years old, and I could tell he was beginning to think it would have been far safer to sied tactics and decided to disengage I held on to hi firet away to prey on huainston his arms, and I did release one arm to block access to s into theperhaps he would simply drain me the sloay, but that was fine--it would be far too slow to do hi hie, and his free ar He was hooked now, but I paid a price when I finished the unbinding

Some vampires sort of melt when they’re unbound and they si ore I looked fairly guilty, in other words, of a particularly heinous e point She was untouched by a single drop of blood "I ducked," she explained

The lone store ean to curse steadily and hysterically in Greek, his eyes the size of Ping-Pong balls He had a cell phone out and was shouting into it as he ran froht was certain death

"We have a probleht it would"

"I should hope not, because that would be pretty sick You’re completely covered in viscera"

I turned offus Help me find the surveillance systeht Except for that pool of goo on the floor"

"Yes They can make of that what they will I just don’t want theical--or conclude he was a vaht?" She held up a small basket full of the supplies we’d coe on her, and as she faded from view she said she would check the back of the store

"I’ll check behind the register," I said, casting caerous levels I wouldn’t be able to

I found a few enerated somewhere else

"Back here, sensei!" Granuaile called I followed the sound of her voice to the rear of the store, where there was a sign lish on a locked door I bound the tumblers into the unlocked position and opened it Inside were even le of cables snaking in and out of it

"That’s our baby Looks like a disc system similar to the one I had at Third Eye way back when"

Granuaile pressed a few buttons and got several discs to eject Searching her shopping basket with h all the cables in the back of the console The monitors turned to snow as I did so

"We’d better be sure this has no hard-drive backup," I said "We should sainst the machine! Let’s do this!" I heard Granuaile shuffle backward and pictured her brandishing her staff I threw the console down hard, rattling the case, but once the iron tip of Granuaile’s staff descended upon it, there was a significant dent

"Again," I suggested

The console acquired two more dents in quick succession

"Hold off," I said "Let leeful mosh--or was it a skank?--upon the top, which did little to it but did ether fairly well Let’s just take it with us and dureed Sirens could be heard approaching "I think we should exit quickly"

"Yes, let’s"

Using the last dregs of ed the security console and the discs Granuaile had removed from it, and then I carried the console out of the store under my arm while Granuaile carried the discs out in her handbasket The police screeched to a halt in the street and leapt out of their vehicles, square bodies emphasized by swaths of body armor and contrasted with cylindrical weapons of one kind or another They utterly failed to see us as they surrounded the store; we slipped between theed to Enikkea Park There I called to Oberon, who foundthe smell of blood He’d been all alone for soone home once the sun went down He’d entertained hi wee critters I dissolved all cae and tossed the console into a square pond with a fountain in the middle of it Granuaile snapped all the discs in half and threw the there?" Granuaile said "You asked him about a vampire named Theophilus and he attacked?"

"Yep, you heard it all"

"Who’s Theophilus?"

"Leif told ard He’s supposedly the oldest va Whatever"

"Do you think that was him?"

"No, not a chance Theophilus would have been able to overpowerfor hi about the old Ro to do with it directly, he surely kneho did Leif thought that Theophilus spent part of every year in Greece; naturally every other vampire in Greece would be well aware of his territory"

"So you never intended to kill that vampire?"

"Oh, no, I intended to kill hi useful out of hi useful He wouldn’t have attacked unless he had so to protect Theophilus is alive and around here so But it’s an unfortunate develop to know there’s a Druid nearby, because only Druids can do that to vaed by any of the blood?"