Outside, Vicky led the way to a dark blue car with mud strategically caked on the license plates.
"We'll drive to the warehouse area," she said.
Rashel was relieved. She was used to walking the city streets at night without being seen-important when
you were carrying a rather unconcealable sword-but she wasn't sure that these other three could manage.
It took practice.
The drive was silent except for the murmur of Steve's voice occasionally helping Vicky with directions.
They passed through respectable neighborhoods and venerable areas with handsome old buildings until
they got to a street where everything changed suddenly. All at once, as if they had crossed some invisible
dividing line, the gutters were full of soggy trash and the fences were topped with razor wire. The
buildings were government housing projects, dark warehouses, or rowdy bars.
Vicky pulled into a parking lot and stopped the car away from the security lights. Then she led them
through the knee-high dead weeds of a vacant lot to a street that was poorly lighted and utterly silent.
"This is the observation post," Vicky whispered, as they reached a squat brick building, a part of the
housing project that had been abandoned. Following her, they zigzagged through debris and scrap metal
to get to a side door, and then they climbed a dark staircase covered with graffiti to the third floor. Their
flashlights provided the only illumination.
"Nice place," Nyala whispered, looking around. She had obviously never seen anything like it before.
"Don't you think-there may be other people here besides vampires?"
Steve gave her a reassuring pat. "No, it's okay."
"Yeah, it looks like even the junkies have abandoned it," Rashel said, grimly amused.
"You can see the whole street from the window," Vicky put in shortly. "Elliot and I were here yesterday
watching those warehouses across the street. And last night we saw a guy at the end of the street who
looked a lot like a vampire. You know the signs."
Nyala opened her mouth as if to say she didn't know the signs, but Rashel was already speaking. "Did
you test him?"
"We didn't want to get that close. We'll do it tonight if he shows up again."
"How do you test them?" Nyala asked.
Vicky didn't answer. She and Steve had pushed aside a couple of rat-chewed mattresses and were
unloading the bags and backpacks they'd brought.
Rashel said, "One way is to shine a flashlight in their eyes. Usually you get eye-shine back-like an animal's."
"There are other ways, too," Vicky said, setting the things she was unloading on the bare boards of the
floor. There were ski masks, knives made of both metal and wood, a number of stakes of various sizes,
and a mallet. Steve added two clubs made of white oak to the pile.
"Wood hurts them more than metal," Vicky said to Nyala. "If you cut them with a steel knife they heal
right before your eyes-but cut them with wood and they keep bleeding."
Rashel didn't quite like the way she said it. And she didn't like the last thing Vicky was pulling out of her
backpack. It was a wooden device that looked a bit like a miniature stock. Two hinged blocks of wood
that fit snugly around a person's wrists and closed with a lock.
"Vampire handcuffs," Vicky said proudly, seeing her look. "Made of white oak. Guaranteed to hold any
parasite. I brought them from down south."
"But hold them for what? And what do you need all those little knives and stakes for? It would take
hours to kill a vampire with those."
Vicky smiled fiercely. "I know."
Oh. Rashel's heart seemed to thump and then sink, and she looked away to control her reaction. She
understood what Vicky had in mind now.
Torture.
"A quick death's too good for them," Vicky said, still smiling. "They deserve to suffer-the way they make
our people suffer. Besides, we might get some information. We need to know where they're keeping the
girls they kidnap, and what they're doing with them."
"Vicky." Rashel spoke earnestly. "It's practically impossible to make vampires talk. They're stubborn.
When they're hurt they just get angry-like animals."
Vicky smirked. "I've made some talk. It just depends on what you do, and how long you make it last.
Anyway, there's no harm in trying."
"Does Elliot know about this?"
Vicky lifted a shoulder defensively. "Elliot lets me do things my way. I don't have to tell him every little
detail. I was a leader myself, you know."
Helplessly, Rashel looked at Nyala and Steve. And saw that for the first time Nyala's eyes had lost their
sleepwalking expression. Now she looked awake- and savagely glad.
"Yes," she said. "We should try to make the vampire talk. And if he suffers-well, my sister suffered.
When I found her, she was almost dead but she could still talk. She told me what it felt like, having all the
blood drained out of her body while she was still conscious. She said it hurt. She said..." Nyala
stopped, swallowed, and looked at Vicky. "I want to help do it," she said thickly.
Steve didn't say anything, but then from what Rashel knew of him, that was typical. He was a guy of few
words. Anyway, he didn't protest.
Rashel felt odd, as if she were seeing the very worst of herself reflected in a mirror. It made her...
ashamed. It left her shaken.
But who am I to judge? she thought, turning away. It's true that the parasites are evil, all of them. The