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We h the shady treelined streets of the historic district, past tourists and locals, then slipped through a chain-link fence into the dregs of the industrial riverfront Two older guys sat near the river, the e the blackness with an occasional orange glow As we edged closer, they turned their heads and stared but kept to themselves Probably homeless and harrabbed his vibrating cell, and read the text "Luc says it’s three warehouses down fro the three that just left the Morgue"

"If all nine coe vampire problem on our hands," I whispered "Damn"

"They’re not all in the sa problerow each day, and the last ti And fast"

We crossed a patch of soggy, stinky sod that sed close to the building Yeah, an eood ever came from an empty warehouse

"There’s Luc," Phin said, and weA row of dirty s stretched fro to the other, and a flicker of light caet a better look, Eli pulled me back and pinned ood to try to force my way around him It’d just cause unneeded noise

"They’re here," Eli said under his voice "Arcoses I can sense them"

"They weren’t before," Luc said "I didn’t sense them, and my sense ofsense is better than yours"

"Doesn’t ht--they’re here now They’re weak, but their vigor has improved Greatly"

"Fourteen now, not nine," Luc said, peering into the"Shit"

Eli glanced at ht?"

"Four, including my brother," I supplied "And there’s fourteen now?"

"Twelve Two in there are the Arcoses," Eli said He craned his neck around, then looked at his brothers "Not good"

A man’s scream broke the silence

I leapt at theto see what had happened; that scream was the kind that speared your soul; I could feel it inside me He was terrified Eli pulled me back

"Riley, don’t," he said quietly "It’s too late"

Part of me--obviously the sick part--wanted to see I wanted to knohat kind of hell I was dealing with I tried to pull out of Eli’s arms, but he held fast Helare "I said no"