Now her voice went hissing and harsh: “Don’t you be an idiot, Celia. They’d be expecting you. I don’t plan to play hero. I’m driving away from the facility right now. I don’t like leaving the priest, but he’s a warrior class two. He can handle himself. Hopefully. But if you don’t hear from me by morning, get the files to Lieutenant Blanchard. He’ll know what to do.”

I didn’t know her lieutenant all that well and the thought of having to talk to him made me uncomfortable. We’d met, like, once. I didn’t like it. Not one bit. But Alex is as tough as I am, maybe more so. If she said “don’t come,” I had to respect that. “You call Vicki if bad things start to happen. Okay? Promise me you’ll call on Vicki.”

I didn’t doubt for a second that no matter how exhausted Vicki was, she would help Alex. There was a sigh of relief in her voice when she responded: “I don’t think I’ll need to. I just passed through the farthest perimeter barrier. I should be home free. But we need to talk in the morning. I’m headed back to the station to turn all this in and file an official request for investigation. Get some sleep, girlfriend. I’ll be okay.”

“How about I stay on the phone with you until I know you’re okay and back in the city? I’ve been ambushed out there before, and there’s nobody around to hear you scream. Vicki would haunt me forever if I let anything happen to you.”

There was a long pause; the only sounds were the crackling of static and the roar of wind past two cars. Finally she responded: “Okay. You’re right. That makes sense. Let me plug in the car charger and put the phone on hands free.”

So we talked. For the next twenty minutes we talked about the reports she’d discovered of guards going missing and escapes that had never made the news. “Then I dug deeper,” she explained. “I wanted to see if there were any workers’ compensation claims against the private corporation that runs the facility. If people were going missing, then getting hurt was the next step. There were almost a dozen claims in the last year. And though I couldn’t find any record of a budget increase, there seem to be more guards on duty than are on the payroll. I saw dozens of guards, but the facility’s website only shows a standard complement of fifteen for the overnight shift. If they’re secretly hiring more staff, there are definitely problems there.”

A hideous thought formed in my head. Did I dare tell her about the guard with the glowing eyes? He’d moved almost too … fluidly. Almost as though— “There may be another explanation, but you’re not going to like it.”

Her voice grew wary, with an edge of fear. “What?”

“When’s the last time anyone did a head count of prisoners?” She didn’t respond, so I kept going. The red light gave me a chance to flip over to the Internet on the cell. I typed in demonic possession & werewolves. Six pages of results came up, including three from the major churches. “What if … and this is only an if … demons were possessing the prisoners as well as the administrators, but not the guards?”

She began to follow my reasoning while I scrolled through websites. But the light turned green, so I couldn’t spend much time reading. “There are too many guards and someone would raise a fuss if they all started acting weird,” Alex mused. “But one or two administrators could order the release of prisoners.…”

“Who could then come back as ‘new hires.’ There would be no paperwork because they wouldn’t be on the payroll. And nobody would be the wiser.” It was a conspiracy theory of the highest order and no small feat. But the demon who had tried to claim me was both patient and smart, and since the disk with the spell to bring him forth had gone missing during the fight with Eirene, I couldn’t guarantee that he wasn’t already in this realm.

“Yeah. We’ve got to get someone in there. Immediately. Okay, I’m just coming up on the QualMart at Terrance Drive. I should be fine from here. Thanks, Celia. Really. This gave me a chance to think and I really do feel better talking to you.”

We’d never been very close. It was more a matter of vying for Vicki’s time than any actual animosity. I’d always hoped we could be friends. I figured if my best friend loved Alex, then I should try to like her or at least get to know her. But we’d never managed to get beyond the superficial.

Until now. “Me, too. Don’t bother about sending me the photos. Give them to your lieutenant personally. Oh, and before I forget, what’s the scoop on the sniper who tried to take off my head at the Will reading?” Alex had been there and had seen John Creede use damned impressive magic to stop the bullet before it reached me. He’d won a lot of points that day.

“Crap! That’s right. I never told you about that. Guy’s name was Selik Mahrain. He’s a professional hit man and INTERPOL has been looking for him for a long time. They were more than happy to come collect him. Last I heard he was in a Turkish prison, awaiting trial for the murder of a Shiite leader. He’d been hired by the queen of a Grecian island to remove you before you met with the siren head queen.”

“Ah yes. The lovely Stefania. Did I mention she was Eirene’s mother and the one who’d put a death curse on me and Ivy when we were little kids?”

Alex let out a noise that was close to a raspberry. “Charming woman. Is that the one you killed?”

“No. I killed Eirene, the daughter. Mommy dearest was killed by Queen Lopaka, who didn’t take kindly to Stefania trying to kill her brother’s only remaining grandchild. Meaning me.”

“Okay, the station is in sight. Go home. Get some rest and we’ll talk tomorrow. I should know more after I make my report.”

Conveniently enough, by the time I hung up I’d arrived at one of my favorite restaurants. La Cocina y Cantina is a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place that was the favorite hangout of me, Vicki, Emma, and Dawna. We’d held Vicki’s wake there. It served the best food in the world. As I pulled into the parking lot, the main lights flicked off. What time was it? I’d forgotten to put on my watch, so I checked my phone display: 10 P.M. Why was the restaurant closing? They normally stayed open until midnight or later.

I got out of the car and knocked on the front door. A woman’s head poked out from the kitchen. Her face exploded into a smile and she rushed forward, rubbing her hands on the ever-present snow-white bar towel. She unlocked the door with a flourish. “Celia! What you doing here at this hour? Huh? Come in and sit down. Come. Come.” Barbara was part owner of the restaurant. She ushered me in like there was a storm outside and locked the door again, being careful to pull down the blinds. “You want a late dinner? Pablo will make you a ‘sunset smoothie.’ ”

Ooh. That did sound good. It was a concoction they’d come up with after my vampire attack. As long as I didn’t think too much about the cow blood in it, it tasted wonderful. But at least the blood was cooked. So it was sort of a beef fajita shake, without the beef. “Sure. That sounds good. What’s up, Barbara? Where is everyone? I was surprised the door was locked.”

She looked around as though afraid. “Bats. A whole flock of them. One old vampire showed up about a week ago and turned three of the boys in the neighborhood. They were bad boys, always into something. Stealing, drugs. But they’d never hurt anybody until he found them. Now people are scared. They’re not coming here after dark and I can’t blame them. If we didn’t have to clean up, we wouldn’t be here after dark, either. But for you … we’ll make an exception. Anytime. Day or night. You come and we’ll make you dinner.”

That was sweet, but I hated seeing nice people being terrorized. This business was all the family had. I felt my brow furrow and anger rise. “You fix me a shake. I’ll be right back.”

I stood up. She clutched at my sleeve. “Oh no, Celia. Don’t go out there. They’re not like you. They’re bad, bad vampires. I don’t want you hurt.”

My smile probably had a dark edge. “Barbara, I was putting vampires in their place before I was turned. Now I’m a lot harder to hurt, and I’m a lot smarter than them. I got to keep my brain.” I patted her arm. “I’ll be fine.”

Her face was wary, but she let me leave, then locked the door behind me. Every third streetlight was out. I’d heard some parts of the city were doing that to save money, but it made the sidewalks dark for long stretches.

I started walking, jingling my keys, anticipating that I’d soon be followed. It didn’t take long. There were four of them hiding in the darkness. I could just make them out because of my vampire vision. Two of the boys were growling, which made the small hairs on my neck rise. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. It was one thing to take on one or two bats, but taking on four might be biting off more than I could chew. Maybe one of them would be willing to listen to reason.

Don’t laugh. It could happen.

I hissed and let myself get all glowy. “Evening, gentlemen.”

“Prey!” One of the boys leapt into the air and came down on the other side of me. I’d done that leaping thing once. It was pretty amazing, but I didn’t like being surrounded.

“I don’t want to have to hurt your fledglings. But your flock has to leave. I’m protecting this block.”

I wasn’t sure which one I was talking to, but after a long pause one vampire floated forward. Yeah, I said floated. That’s never good. Only the really old ones can do that. “This isn’t anywhere close to your side of town, Celia. You don’t make the rules here.”

Oh, crap. I didn’t know the voice, but he knew my name. He floated on power, gleaming with both internal and external light. He’d been killed early in life but long, long ago. The black eyes were ancient, pitiless and remorseless. The slope of the nose and high cheekbones reminded me of high-caste Spanish.

“Do I know you?”

He smiled, but it was really more a baring of fangs. “Lucien was right. You’re just eye candy. You got lucky with Luther and Lilith. But Edgar’s a fool for trusting you. That’s why I decided to start my own flock. We don’t trust anybody.” He moved slowly forward and so did his fledglings, widening their group to flank me.