"When was the last time you saw Katz?"

"Two weeks ago." Rosario wiped the pistol with the rag. "Maybe three."

"How close were you?"

"You mean, did we screw? Once. I doubt she'll ever forget me." Rosario racked back the slide of the .45. The barrel jutted out like a small metal penis.

"Then you haven't seen her lately?"

Rosario raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like you haven't either. Is she missing? And you're wondering why I'm looking over my shoulder." He propped his right elbow on the desk and pointed the pistol straight up. "You packing heat?"

It was none of his business that I was. "No."

"Then start." Rosario released a catch. The slide snapped forward, then tumbled loose and clattered against the desk.

"What did you do in the marines?" I deadpanned. "Force Recon?"

"I was a stenographer." Rosario tugged at his necktie. Wet spots blossomed from his armpits. He wrapped the pistol and the slide in the rag, which he dumped into a desk drawer. "Give me your card, Felix."

I gave him a business card, curious about his desire to cooperate. "We talk again, what do you get out of it?"

"Peace of mind."

Good idea. At least I could handle a gun.

Rosario palmed a cell phone. "If that's all, I've got business waiting."

I thought about zapping him again and decided against it. Rosario didn't act as if he had lied. Plus he had shared a lot, and I had to sort through that information first. I rose from the chair and left. His receptionist sat at her place and rubbed her neck. She gave me a perplexed "Where did you come from?" look as I went past.

Down in the garage, I started my car and drove out into the sunlit pavement. I didn't have a single answer to show for my work so far. As of now, conspiracy outfoxed vampire prowess.

I pulled onto the street when my door locks clicked. The front passenger door jerked open. A scruffy, slender man jumped in, moving too quickly for any human.

Vampire.

My kundalini noir buzzed like the tail of a rattler. I turned toward him, fangs and talons extended.

He raised a scrawny hand in a gesture of appeasement. "Calmate ese, relax."

I grabbed the front of his worn denim jacket and pushed him against the seat. "Who are you?"

He made no effort to resist and tipped a stained ball cap back from his face. A wispy mustache and soul patch above his chin accented his brown, leathery skin.

"Felix, I'm the one who sent for you." He offered his hand. "I'm Coyote."

Coyote. The one Katz Meow mentioned when she had come by my office in Denver. The one who had summoned me.

Coyote held up his empty hands, his thin wrists extending through the frayed cuffs of the threadbare denim jacket. He smelled like he'd been sleeping in an onion shed. "Well? Aren't you going to ask me questions?" He tapped his temple. "Or are you a mind reader, ese?"

I let go of his jacket and eased the sedan against the curb. I removed my sunglasses and contacts. Coyote's aura surrounded him like a calm orange penumbra.

"How'd you unlock the doors?"

"I've been around." His eyes reflected a lupine shine. He spoke with a thick Chicano barrio accent. "Gave me time to learn some tricks."

Since Coyote pronounced his name as if it were in Spanish, I did the same.

"Coyote, how do you know me?"

"I've heard about you, Felix Gomez." He drawled my name. "Vampire detective. Military veteran. Killer." Grinning, Coyote narrowed his eyes. "The only one chingon enough to handle this."

Chingon, that meant I was a bad mo-fo. "You said I could handle this. Which is?"

Coyote swept a hand across the urban landscape and the dark shadows cast by rows of old buildings with rusty fire escapes. "This. Los Angeles."

"Meaning?"

"First we go, vato." Coyote flicked his hand to the front, motioning that we move back into traffic. His fingernails were greasy like a backyard mechanic's.

"No. Answer my questions, then we go."

"Vamos a comer." He rubbed his belly and smacked his lips. "If you're not hungry, then you can watch me. We'll talk then." His fangs extended, meaning a blood meal.

Coyote directed me south on San Pedro through the Jewelry District, which despite the name was a shabby place populated with cheap stores whose signs alternated between Spanish and Chinese.

"You've seen him, no?" Tentacles snaked from Coyote's aura.

"Who?"

"Cragnow." The end of each of the tentacles on Coyote's aura sprouted spikes. The spikes curled onto themselves like fingers making fists. "He's a scary dude."

"I gathered that."

"Be careful. You're not the first to have come here."

"Are you talking about the agents from the Araneum?"

"Simon. They didn't last long." Coyote extended a thumb and pressed it against his sternum. He then drew a finger across his throat. Meaning, they were impaled and decapitated. His aura tentacles stiffened and trembled.

"How many agents?" I asked. "When?"

Coyote shrugged. His aura tentacles formed question marks. "Quien sabe. Four. Maybe five since last year."

"How do you make your aura do that?" I asked.

"You like, huh? It takes practice."

"I'm sure. Why did you send for me? Are you from the Araneum?"

Coyote laughed, a guffawing that turned into a series of howls. His dirty sneakers beat against the floor as his aura pulsed in tempo to his hearty convulsions. He stopped laughing and wiped his eyes. "That's a good one, vato."

"I didn't realize I was a comedian. What's the joke?"

"The Araneum won't have anything to do with me. We don't see ojo a ojo." Coyote used his fingers to spread his eyelids. "They think I'm crazy."

We drove under the concrete tangle of the freeway exchange.

"Really?" I nudged him away and wondered if the Araneum was right. "Why did you send for me?"

"Because Cragnow is messing with catastrophe. He and humans have made a pact."

Vampire-human collusion. The real reason for my mission. My kundalini noir buzzed with anticipation for the fight before me. "Describe this pact."

"There are humans close to Cragnow. Humans who are not chalices. He doesn't bother to hide his true nature from them, and they don't fear him."

I remembered Rachel, the receptionist at Gomorrah Video. She knew about family, meaning us vampires.

Rosario's conversation came back to me.

… taking over Southern California…lifting humanity to a new partnership with the unseen realm… the next step in social evolution…

My kundalini noir coiled tightly, as if to protect itself against a chill.

"Felix. What's up, bro?" Coyote's gaze traced around me as he read the state of my aura.

"Coyote, why do you care what Cragnow does? Has he wronged you? Is this about vengeance?"

"I want to get back at Cragnow, I'll put a dead catfish inside the hood of his Hummer." Coyote's aura made undulating stink lines. He held his nose and waved away an imagined odor.

"Then explain your motive."

"Because, vato, I've seen what humans can do. We can't underestimate their viciousness and ingenuity. Cragnow may think he controls them-I don't know what bargain he's made-but it is a marriage with doom."

"Sounds like you're speaking from experience."

"Too much experience." The points of Coyote's aura trembled like reeds before a wind. His expression melted into a somber mask. "Our best defense is not supernatural powers but remaining unseen. Cragnow has compromised that. Our hope, my hope, is that you and I can stop the damage. Porque, si no"-because, if not-"we vampires are destined for extinction."