"Which you did."

Cragnow gave his head a weak shake. "You couldn't lead Roxy anywhere. She did as she pleased."

"And you let Lara walk in and do this to you?"

"Who would've suspected that little mouse? She offered to work for me if I backed off Journey and came tonight to give me a preview. Imagine that. What a coup. Little sister steps into big sister's high heels and bends over for me. The reverend's girlfriend." Cragnow pressed one hand over his chest to keep the blood from leaking. "But I was careless and didn't read her aura. It was my mistake for underestimating the treachery of humans."

"Where did Lara go?"

"To kill Petale Venin."

"And you've warned Venin?" I asked.

"Why should I? My other mistake was getting involved with Venin. Let them finish each other off."

"Why was Venin a mistake?"

"Because once she understood the potential of my new society, she pulled the other vampires under her control. She knew what to tell them. Who to trust. Who to destroy. What to do next. To get what I wanted, I found myself following her orders as well."

"This was the new society you planned? As flunkie to a human? What made it worth compromising the great secret and defying the Araneum?" I grabbed a nearby chair and broke it apart. I held a leg and raked my talons over one end to sharpen a point.

"What are you doing?"

"You know why I'm here." I fashioned the leg into a dreaded wooden stake. "Where is Petale Venin?"

"Her office in Westwood."

"At this time of night?" I asked.

"She likes to keep busy."

Cragnow stared at the stake. His aura crackled with fear. "Listen to me, Felix. Imagine, no more makeup. No more contacts. No more hiding. No more living in fear at being discovered and hunted. Maybe the Araneum has it wrong."

"That we can't trust the humans? Look around you. This was one human, acting alone."

He clutched the armrest and tried to stand. His aura glowed with frustration and he relented, sinking back into the chair. "There has to be another way. Maybe we can teach them. Don't you see?"

"I see that you've murdered humans and vampires. You tried to get me. Forgive my cynicism."

Pain creased through his aura. He closed his eyes for a moment and gulped. "Tell me that a human yearning no longer burns inside you. We are damned to wander this earth forever, always with a hunger that blood alone can't satisfy."

I let the stake dangle in my hand. I knew that yearning. I knew that hunger. As a vampire I could exist for a thousand human lifetimes and never have what I wanted. Veronica. Maybe there could be another way.

"Think about it, Felix. You and I, we can start this over. We can take Journey's church and put vampires in control. That new society can begin with us."

"You or the Araneum?" I readied the stake. "Not much of a choice. The Araneum has never tried to kill me."

I seized Cragnow's shoulder and held him firm against the chair. His aura lit with panic. He tried to resist, and I thumped his skull with the stake.

I plunged the stake into his sternum, cracking bone. A fountain of blood gushed past my hand.

Cragnow clutched the stake. Blood gurgled from his mouth. His jaw tightened and he fought to speak these words. "Before she left, Lara asked where she could find you." Blood stained his fangs. "After she knocks off Venin, you're next."

"Thanks for the heads-up." I pounded the stake with the heel of my hand until fabric ripped from the back of the chair.

Cragnow's hands fell to his sides and his body clung to the stake pinning him to the chair. His aura withdrew into a faint glow and faded away.

Cragnow's skin withered into a cracked shell. Ancient vampires didn't need sunlight to disintegrate after being staked. His head sagged into his shoulders and his flesh broke apart in chunks that tumbled from his skeleton as the long centuries of being undead caught up with him.

Lara had gone to kill Petale Venin. And add that Lara had me on her to-do list, which grew shorter by the hour.

I stood in Cragnow's den, his body now just a pile of dust. I had to get to my clothes and motorcycle. I didn't relish the anguish of transforming back to a wolf and then again to the form of a vampire. That would be four times tonight of making the supernatural switcheroo, and each time was as painful as exfoliating with a bench grinder. But I couldn't risk running naked through the chaparral and bramble with my 'stuff' hanging out.

I got on my hands and knees, took a deep breath, and summoned the transformation. Back as a wolf, I returned at a gallop to where I had left my clothes.

Minutes later I was on my Yamaha, zooming south to Westwood. I roared between rows of cars on the roads and risked getting clipped by a mirror or someone jumping a lane.

I arrived at Venin's office complex. A white limousine and dark sedans were parked out front. Niphe's BMW sat in a handicapped parking spot at the end of the block.

I left my motorcycle in the alley. I walked close to the building, put my hands and feet against the wall, and climbed like a gecko to the third floor.

I crept along a narrow ledge to a darkened room. With a talon I scratched a circle the diameter of a melon on the window. I tapped the glass and caught the piece. I inserted my arm through the hole and groped for the window latch. I slipped into the room packed with boxes of files and palmed my pistol.

There was only one door out. Heavy breathing and a steady thumping came from the other side. No light shone under the door. Two guesses what kind of civic debate was going on in there.

I eased the door open.

A man in a suit, with his pants and boxers around his shins, faced a desk. A pair of high heels and stockinged ankles rocked on his shoulders. His naked buttocks pounded rhythmically against a woman lying on the desk. Their red auras rebounded from each other like two balloons slapping.

I tapped his arm. He jerked around. I zapped him, then her. I didn't have time for mischief so I left them in flagrante delicto.

I drew my pistol and walked toward Venin's office.

A figure with an orange aura staggered from her door. The vampire steadied himself against the wall and retched. His bile smelled of almonds. Lara had been here.

The vampire saw me. His aura radiated confusion and pain. He raised a Glock pistol and aimed at me.

I dropped him with two shots.

I crept close to Venin's door and listened for anything suspicious. Someone gasped inside, as if struggling to breathe.

With my pistol at the ready, I entered the office.

Venin convulsed in her chair. Blood from a bullet hole stained her blouse. Her spectacles rested askew on her nose. Her eyes circled in opposite directions. Bottles of vodka, Amaretto, and seltzer sat on her desk.

So where was Lara?

An alarm sounded. The overhead sprinklers clicked and water dribbled out. What had happened to the water pressure?

Venin gave a weak gasp and fell silent. Her aura dimmed and went out. The feared matriarch of the vampire-human collusion was dead.

Smoke poured from the air conditioner vents. This place was about to burst into flames. In another minute I'd be a briquet.

Smoke filled the hallway and curled toward me. My eyes stung. I had to get out now.

The last time I was here, Venin had escaped out the door on the other side of the room. I didn't have time to be cautious. I ran for the door, put one shoulder forward, and knocked the door off its hinges. I kept running across the empty room and dove for the window.

The glass shattered and I sailed for a willow tree. I grasped the branches to stop my fall and levitated to the ground.