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"Reconnoiter," he said, and motioned me to move counterclockwise around the house while he went clockwise I wasn’t a witch and I didn’t feel any witch energies, so widdershins was fine bycast here Witch houses had to be approached very differently I pulled a 380 and stepped off the sidewalk

The surrounding shrubbery, all overgrown and spindly, hadn’t felt the sharp edge of pruning or lopping shears in years The foundation was cracked and broken in several places, the crawl space narrow and currently unused but s of the recent occupation of chickens--wet feathers and chicken poop The s at the side, like the front, were covered with iron, but they hadn’t been sealed for as long as the front ones Air stillof blood and rot, and the sickly sweet, beery, herbal scent of Naturaleza The onna like e found inside

Fro, overlying the stink of turpentine and glue--the telltales of a live-in artist’s studio Froics in practice, harsh and fetid, but the unpredictable winds that always ran along the Mississippi River carried it away, leaving the nearer rot of the warehouse/bar at ht

The back of the warehouse had been added onto, hiding the old carriage and wagon bays behindThe nes were shielded by shutters--the new steel ones designed in Asheville by an entrepreneurial vamp, with electric motors to open and close thelossy with very darkly tinted s, the way vamp cars are supposed to be

WeI touched er across my throat, which h arest a dead body Still keeping his weapon low but at the ready, he pointed ed and continuedto work it all out It was like a video-gahts and neon obscuring estured to the front door and leaped to the porch I put awayme "I don’t understand it I never have Why kill and dump the huh

"I get that When they first start out, there’s the high of a predator stalking and bringing down prey But at so returns, and someone in a vamp hierarchy has to consider the food supply Once that’s dead, they can’t recuperate and h it was locked, it was also es, its construction, he said, "You bring this up now?"

"We’re getting ready to go kill sleeping vamps We’ll be busy" I pushed awayour way in?"

"Nah," Eli said He reared back and kicked, his heel hitting squarely an inch beside the old lock The wood splintered, leaving a hole and a crack that traveled up from the kick site to the top of the door and doard the floor I heard screa out the back, into the sunlight, leaving behind their eet away But their screah to wake the undead, let alone the neighbors

"Witnesses?" I looked around, but no one was in sight and no one ran out of nearby buildings to look

Eli had surely h I hadn’t seen him scan the area He pulled a sleepy-time bomb--that wasn’t what the military officially called therenade’s safety strip, snapped down on the handle, and tossed it inside Then he taped over the hole he’d made in the door with duct tape, which he carried with him everywhere, looked at his watch, and sat on the porch with his feet hanging down, his body at an angle to see the door and the street out front Basic security "We got time to chat," he said "Too bad there’s no coffeehouse nearby" His brow crinkled faintly "You’re assu Assuues in line Maybe they don’t have one now that de Allyon’s dead"

"Anarchy?" I tried that puzzle piece in the map in my head It fit, but it wasn’t a firm, solid thunk of info "But why behead their own leader? Nothing le allowing li away Both cars started in back and peeled out Thinking, I looked up at the sky Sundoas in less than two hours "Three days" At his puzzled look, I explained "Most vah the heart But a sht as revenants, which is why I always behead es of revenants rising are significantly higher?"

"Wait Not all the vamps at the last place were beheaded Only the one in the front rooot no idea, but I’ll text Sylvia to take the heads" He pulled his phone, thu, "I don’t even know if the law allows LEOs to desecrate bodies Here’s a new one for the politicians

"You ever seen a revenant?" he asked, changing the subject, his eyes on the phone When I shook my head, Eli said, "Well, let’s kill these, behead theue And you better call your jealous boy toy and tell him to contact PsyLED They took a few of the bodies in Esther’s basement off with them"

Until recently, Uncle Sam had never obtained the body of a vamp for a forensic autopsy Vamps had policed their own and cleaned up their own ed the status quo of the masters of the cities in this country and the nu soht it would be cool to be the proverbial fly on the wall in PsyLED’s ue when a revenant rose, but the rest of me knew better Revenants would kill and eat hu Rick Actual discussions were not so surprise "I’ll text Rick about the potential proble Brother had any difficulties with the last batch of true-dead You text Sylvia Let’s see that we avoid a real-life re Dead" I pulled out my cell Which was so not classic-herous more addresses I copied them down on the little spiral notebook I carried If I had to ditch the phone, I wouldn’t lose the info Inside the house, where the sleepy-ti, I heard thus fell to the floor

"What if--" I stopped and put things together about the new vamps "What if they’re all revenants? Francis too What if thethem all to come back? And come back better andhis h his brain "Huh," he said, which pretty much summed it up He went back to his replies, bent over his phone, thue student wore leather and guns He finished and stood, stretching, drawing a vaonna do this?" he asked, and checked his watch "’Cause we need to get it done before dusk and the vaetic"

I put away my cell and rolled my shoulders and my head on my neck as I drew my M4 and checked it, re the strap over h and shoved it back on the straps for a left-hand draw "Got nothing better to do" Which was the truth, sadly

Silent, Eli drew in his right leg, pivoted on his left foot, and kicked out His foot hit beside the taped hole and the door snapped in pieces The top half fell inward, landing with two distinct clu inside Eli ripped away the rest of the door, letting in light and fresh air, letting out the stink of rot I could hear raspy breathing inside

The scent of sleepy-ti beneath the rot, and because Eli didn’t have the gas uard at the door and waited for the gas to clear, which seeave the word, I rushed inside and slaainst the wall, with Eli on the other side of the door opening

Instantly I moved left, the M4 in both hands, held close The room took up the entire front half of the structure and was lit by loattage bulbs in wall sconces It had once been a tavern, and a tarnished copper bar ran nearly the length of the back wall, with a blackened inative erotica on it, s It looked like soht revealed abused hardwood floors; dark-painted walls, ed pool table propped up on a trash can, a sagging couch, a door laid out on sawhorses as a table, and a few chairs And hu as if they’d fallen just now, others as if they’d been there quite a while There were body fluids puddled under soots I hate s, and as I crossed the rooht humans in the old bar, all dead except one, and she was nearly so Eli pointed to the narrow hallway in back It ran along the outside of the building, and the iron-covered s had been boarded over, then painted a hideous shade of violet over the chair rail and an even more hideous shade of mustard below I took point Two doors opened into the hallway, and Eli positioned hi it as a lair, I’d be toast If hu there, they probably wouldn’t have inhaled enough sleepy-time to be out