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answered, afraid of disappointing. “But she’s another body. Another distraction, at least.” I think I’d whimpered then, and he’d shaken me painfully, but he hadn’t spoken to me again. It was like I was a dog, not a person. “This whole night has been a waste,” the child’s voice had complained. “I’ve killed them all. Ugh!” I remembered that the house had shuddered then, as if a car had collided with the frame. I realized now that she’d probably just kicked something in frustration. “Fine. I guess even a little one is better than nothing, if this is the best you can do. And I’m so full now I should be able to stop.” Riley’s hard fingers had disappeared then and left me alone with the voice. I’d been too panicked at that point to make a sound. I’d just closed my eyes, though I was already totally blind in the darkness. I didn’t scream until something cut into my neck, burning like a blade coated in acid. I cringed back from the memory, trying to push the next part from my mind. Instead I concentrated on that short conversation. She hadn’t sounded like she was talking to her lover or even her friend. More like she was talking to an employee. One she didn’t like much and might fire soon. But the strange vampire kissing sounds continued. Someone sighed in contentment. I frowned at Diego. This exchange didn’t tell us much. How long did we need to stay? He just held his head on the side, listening carefully.

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And after a few more minutes of patience, the low, romantic sounds were suddenly interrupted. “How many?” The voice was muted by distance, but still distinct. And recognizable. High, almost a trill. Like a spoiled young girl. “Twenty-two,” Riley answered, sounding proud. Diego and I exchanged a sharp glance. There were twenty-two of us, at last count, anyway. They must be talking about us. “I thought I’d lost two more to the sun, but one of my older kids is… obedient,” Riley continued. There was almost an affectionate sound to his voice when he spoke of Diego as one of his kids. “He has an underground place he hid himself with the younger one.” “Are you sure?” There was a long pause, this time with no sounds of romance. Even from this distance, I thought I could feel some tension. “Yeah. He’s a good kid, I’m sure.” Another strained pause. I didn’t understand her question. What did she mean, are you sure? Did she think he’d heard the story from someone else rather than seeing Diego for himself? “Twenty-two is good,” she mused, and the tension seemed to dissolve. “How is their behavior developing? Some of them are almost a year old. Do they still follow the normal patterns?” “Yes,” Riley said. “Everything you told me to do worked flawlessly. They don’t think they just do what they’ve always done. I can always distract them with thirst. It keeps them under control.”

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I frowned at Diego. Riley didn’t want us to think. Why? “You’ve done so well,” our creator cooed, and there was another kiss. “Twenty-two!” “Is it time?” Riley asked eagerly. Her answer came back fast, like a slap. “No! I haven’t decided when.” “I don’t understand.” “You don’t need to. It’s enough for you to know that our enemies have great powers. We cannot be too careful.” Her voice softened, turned sugary again. “But all twenty-two still alive. Even with what they are capable of… what good will it be against twenty-two?” She let out a tinkling little laugh. Diego and I had not looked away from each other throughout all this, and I could see in his eyes now that his thoughts were the same as mine. Yes, we’d been created for a purpose, as we’d guessed. We had an enemy. Or, our creator had an enemy. Did the distinction matter? “Decisions, decisions,” she muttered. “Not yet. Maybe one more handful, just to be sure.” “Adding more might actually decrease our numbers,” Riley cautioned hesitantly, as if being careful not to upset her. “It’s always unstable when a new group is introduced.” “True,” she agreed, and I imagined Riley sighing in relief that she was not upset. Abruptly Diego looked away from me, staring out across the meadow. I hadn’t heard any movement from the house, but maybe she had come out. My head whipped around at the same time the rest of me turned to a statue, and I saw what had

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startled Diego. Four figures were crossing the open field to the house. They had entered the clearing from the west, the point farthest from where we hid. They all wore long, dark cloaks with deep hoods, so at first I thought they were people. Weird people, but just humans all the same, because none of the vampires I knew had matching Goth clothes. And none moved in a way that was so smooth and controlled and… elegant. But then I realized that none of the humans I’d ever seen could move that way, either, and what’s more, they couldn’t do it so quietly. The dark-cloaks skimmed across the long grass in absolute silence. So either these were vampires, or they were something else supernatural. Ghosts, maybe. But if they were vampires, they were vampires I didn’t know, and that meant they might very well be these enemies she was talking about. If so, we should get the hell out of Dodge right now, because we didn’t have twenty other vampires on our side at the moment. I almost took off then, but I was too afraid to draw the attention of the cloaked figures. So I watched them move smoothly forward, noticing other things about them. How they stayed in a perfect diamond formation that never was the slightest bit out of line no matter how the terrain changed under their feet. How the one at the point of the diamond was much smaller than the others, and its cloak was darker, too. How they didn’t seem to be tracking their way in not trying to follow the path of any scent. They simply knew their way. Maybe they were invited. They moved directly toward the house, and I felt like it might

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be safe to breathe again when they started silently up the steps toward the front door. They weren’t coming straight for Diego and me, at least. When they were out of sight, we could disappear into the sound of the next breeze through the trees, and they would never know we’d been here. I looked at Diego and twitched my head slightly toward the way we’d come. He narrowed his eyes and held up one finger. Oh great, he wanted to stay. I rolled my eyes at him, though I was so afraid, I was surprised I was capable of sarcasm. We both looked back to the house. The cloaked things had let themselves in silently, but I realized that neither she nor Riley had spoken since we’d caught sight of the visitors. They must have heard something or known in some other way that they were in danger. “Don’t bother,” a very clear, monotone voice commanded lazily. It was not as high-pitched as our creator’s, but it still sounded girlish to me. “I think you know who we are, so you must know that there is no point in trying to surprise us. Or hide from us. Or fight us. Or run.” A deep, masculine chuckle that did not belong to Riley echoed menacingly through the house. “Relax,” instructed the first inflectionless voice the cloaked girl. Her voice had that distinctive ring that made me certain she was a vampire, not a ghost or any other kind of nightmare. “We’re not here to destroy you. Yet.” There was a moment of silence, and then some barely audible movements. A shifting of positions. “If you are not here to kill us, then… what?” our creator

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asked, strained and shrill. “We seek to know your intentions here. Specifically, if they involve… a certain local clan,” the cloaked girl explained. “We wonder if they have anything to do with the mayhem you’ve created here. Illegally created.” Diego and I frowned simultaneously. None of this made sense, but the last part was the weirdest. What could be illegal for vampires? What cop, what judge, what prison could have power over us? “Yes,” our creator hissed. “My plans are all about them. But we can’t move yet. It’s tricky.” A petulant note crept into her voice at the end. “Trust me, we know the difficulties better than you. It is remarkable that you’ve managed to keep off the radar, so to speak, for this long. Tell me” a hint of interest colored the monotone “how are you doing it?” Our creator hesitated, and then spoke all in a rush. Almost as if there had been some silent intimidation. “I haven’t made the decision,” she spit out. Then she added more slowly, unwillingly, “To attack. I’ve never decided to do anything with them.” “Rough, but effective,” the cloaked girl said. “Unfortunately, your period of deliberation has come to a close. You must decide now what you will do with your little army.” Both Diego’s and my eyes widened at that word. “Otherwise, it will be our duty to punish you as the law demands. This reprieve, however short, troubles me. It is not our way. I suggest you give us what assurances you can… quickly.”

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“We’ll go at once!” Riley volunteered anxiously, and there was a sharp hiss. “We’ll go as soon as possible,” our creator amended furiously. “There is much to do. I assume you wish us to succeed? Then I must have a little time to get them trained instructed fed!” There was a short pause. “Five days. We will come for you then. And there is no rock you can hide under or speed at which you can flee that will save you. If you have not made your attack by the time we come, you will burn.” This was said with no menace other than an absolute certainty. “And if I have made my attack?” our creator asked, shaken. “We’ll see,” the cloaked girl answered in a brighter tone than she’d used yet. “I suppose that all depends on how successful you are. Work hard to please us.” The last command was given in a flat, hard pitch that made me feel a strange chill in the center of my body. “Yes,” our creator snarled. “Yes,” Riley echoed in a whisper. A second later the cloaked vampires were noiselessly exiting the house. Neither Diego nor I so much as took a breath for five minutes after they’d disappeared. Inside the house, our creator and Riley were just as quiet. Another ten minutes passed in total stillness. I touched Diego’s arm. This was our chance to get out of here. At the moment, I wasn’t so afraid of Riley anymore. I wanted to get as far away as I could from those dark-cloaks. I

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wanted the safety of numbers waiting back in the log cabin, and I figured that was exactly how our creator felt, too. Why she’d made so many of us in the first place. There were some things out there scarier than I’d imagined. Diego hesitated, still listening, and a second later his patience was rewarded. “Well,” she whispered inside the house, “now they know.” Was she talking about the cloaks or the mysterious clan? Which one was the enemy she’d mentioned before the drama? “That doesn’t matter. We outnumber ” “Any warning matters!” she growled, cutting him off. “There is so much to do. Only five days!” She groaned. “No more messing around. You start tonight.” “I won’t fail you!” Riley promised. Crap. Diego and I moved at the same time, leaping from our perch into the next tree over, flying back the way we’d come. Riley was in a hurry now, and if he found Diego’s trail after all that had just passed with the cloaks, and no Diego there at the end of it… “I’ve got to get back and be waiting,” Diego whispered to me as we raced. “Lucky it’s not in view of the house! Don’t want him to know I heard.” “We should talk to him together.” “Too late for that. He’d notice that your scent wasn’t on the trail. Looks suspicious.” “Diego…” He’d trapped me into sitting this one out. We were back to the spot where he’d joined me. He spoke in a rushed whisper.

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“Stick to the plan, Bree. I’ll tell him what I planned to tell him. It’s not close to dawn, but that’s just how it has to be. If he doesn’t believe me…” Diego shrugged. “He’s got bigger things to worry about than me having an overactive imagination. Maybe he’ll be more likely to listen now looks like we need all the help we can get, and being able to move around in the day can’t hurt.” “Diego…,” I repeated, not knowing what else to say. He looked into my eyes, and I waited for his lips to twitch into that easy smile, for him to make some joke about ninjas or BFFs. He didn’t. Instead, he leaned in slowly, never moving his eyes from mine, and kissed me. His smooth lips pressed against mine for one long second while we stared at each other. Then he leaned away and sighed. “Get home, hide behind Fred, and act clueless. I’ll be right behind you.” “Be careful.” I grabbed his hand and squeezed it hard, then let go. Riley had spoken of Diego affectionately. I would have to hope that affection was real. There wasn’t another choice. Diego disappeared into the trees, quiet as a rustling breeze. I didn’t waste time looking after him. I sprinted through the branches in a direct line back to the house. I hoped my eyes were still bright enough from last night’s meal to explain my absence. Just a quick hunt. Got lucky found a lone hiker. Nothing out of the ordinary. The sound of the thudding music that greeted my approach was accompanied by the unmistakable sweet, smoky scent of a

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burning vampire. My panic went into overdrive. I could just as easily die inside the house as outside. But there was no other way. I didn’t slow, just rushed down the stairs straight to the corner where I could barely make out Freaky Fred standing. Looking for something to do? Tired of sitting? I had no idea what he was up to, and I didn’t care. I would stick tight to him until Riley and Diego got back. In the middle of the floor was a smoldering heap that was too big to be just a leg or an arm. So much for Riley’s twenty- two. No one seemed terribly concerned about the smoking remains. The sight was too common. As I hurried closer to Fred, for once the sense of disgust didn’t get stronger. Instead, it faded. He didn’t seem to notice me, just went on reading the book he held. One of those I’d left him a few days ago. I had no problem seeing what he was doing now that I was close to where he was leaning against the back of the couch. I hesitated, wondering why that was. Could he turn his nausea thing off when he wanted? Did that mean we both were unprotected right now? At least Raoul wasn’t home yet, thankfully, though Kevin was. For the first time ever, I really saw what Fred looked like. He was tall, maybe six two, with the thick, curly blond hair I’d noticed once before. He was broad-shouldered and muscular. He looked older than most of the others like a college student, not a high school kid. And this was the part that surprised me most for some reason he was good-looking. As handsome as anyone else, maybe even handsomer than most. I didn’t know