As soon as Karen was done with her office hours on Thursday, she headed over to the hospital. Justin met her there. He didn’t like her being alone with Edward. The guy irritated him; but even more, he knew that Karen was creeped out by him. They still hadn’t been able to pin anything definitely Unknown to him, but Justin wasn’t taking any chances that Edward might do something to Karen if he had the opportunity. Just like the thing inside Cathy seemed to take the opportunity to attack people when they were alone with her.

Frank was already at the hospital. He’d had a couple of things to deal with at work that morning, plus an appointment with a patient, so he hadn’t been there long when Karen and Justin arrived. Tony was in the basement of the safe house, working on a project; but Leigh also came to the hospital to check on Cathy that afternoon. Angie was home with Aiden, undoubtedly making sure he got plenty of rest....

The first thing the four Envoys did when they met up at the hospital was find out where Edward was. Karen wanted to do the second Mental Shield on her mom, but they had no idea what would happen when she did it. They didn’t want Edward anywhere nearby.

They were in luck. By noon that day, Edward had been awake for more than 24 hours; and the lack of sleep, on top of the stress of his wife’s condition, was beginning to show. So the hospital staff had finally talked him into taking a nap. The ICU had a couple small rooms that they reserved for the families of patients, just for such situations. They knew that Edward would never agree to go home, so they promised him that they’d wake him if Cathy’s condition took any turn for the worse, or if she woke from her coma. With those assurances, he’d agreed to get some sleep, and that was where he was when the team went up to find him.

“Listen, Frank, I was thinking,” Justin whispered as they walked over to the Isolation unit. “Could we inject a dye into Cathy or the creature, to find out where she ends and the thing begins? I know they do that kind of thing to find problems in the heart and blood vessels, right?”

“It might work,” Frank answered. “The problem is that the dye is a radioactive isotope, and it would not be an entirely safe procedure for a pregnant woman.”

“Well, you said that electrical charges seemed to slow it down,” Justin said. “Could you ‘paddle’ her across the belly with the defib. machine?”

“Definitely not,” Frank told him. “The jolt could still send her heart rate through the roof. There’s no way her nervous system could channel the charge to the creature without it going through her too.”

“OK.... Well...I’ve been working on one other idea,” Justin told him. “I can always rig a small sandblaster to shoot salt rather than sand. So if we can get the thing at least partially out of her, we can use that to coat and embed the thing with salt so fast that it won’t have time to fight us.”

“Might work,” Frank said. “And even if it doesn’t for this, it could be handy in other situations.”

The team had gotten over to the Isolation ward, and were finishing up the discussion as Frank, Karen and Justin suited up to go in. Justin wanted to restore more of Cathy’s energy before Karen did the Shield, since they didn’t know how her body, or the creature, might react to it. So he and Frank went in first. No one was doing anything in there without Frank there, just in case the creature attacked.

When Justin came back out, Karen went in. She stood beside her mom and held her hand as she raised the Shield. Cathy’s eyes fluttered open and she looked straight up at Karen. “Oh, thank God! You’ve got to.... AHHHHHH!” Cathy screamed in pain, then passed out.

Frank pushed Karen back and began checking Cathy’s vitals. A moment later, the ICU team came rushing in with a ‘crash cart.’ Cathy’s EEG, EKG, and other vitals had changed due to her sudden awareness of the pain, and the medics had no idea what to expect. There had been no indications prior to that moment that there might be a sudden change in her condition, so they came prepared for anything and everything. One of the nurses hustled Frank and Karen out of the room while the other nurses and doctors crowded around Cathy’s bed.

“Don’t go far,” the nurse warned Frank and Karen. “We’re going to have questions for you.”

When the nurse went back into the room, she closed all the blinds, so the four couldn’t see anything. They went out to the waiting room. They’d been sitting there quietly for over 15 minutes when Justin looked around the room and up and down the hall to make sure no one else was nearby. “Do you think we could put Edward into a coma, too, so that Karen gets Cathy’s medical power of attorney?” he asked Frank. “Maybe with some drugs or something that would be undetectable?”

Frank thought for a minute. “Aiden would probably know what drugs to use better than I do,” he replied slowly. “But it’s....”

Just then one of the ICU doctors, a woman, came into the room. “So what happened in there?!” she asked, looking at Karen and Frank. It had been about 20 minutes since they’d been pushed out of Cathy’s room.

“I...I don’t know,” Karen spoke up first. “I was holding her hand when all of a sudden her eyes opened and she said, ‘Oh, thank God! You’ve got to....’ Then she screamed in pain and passed out.”

“What did she mean? You’ve got to what?” the doctor asked.

Karen shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Well you must have some idea,” the doctor pushed.

“I don’t know,” Karen insisted. “I’ve got to call Edward? I’ve got to water the plants? I’ve got to save the baby? ‘You’ve got to’ could be just about anything!”

“OK, ok, I get your point,” the doctor said. She looked down at the chart she was holding. “There were sudden changes in her EEG and other numbers, apparently from the pain. Unfortunately, since she’s unconscious, we can’t ask her where it hurts. We did give her a moderate amount of pain medication, just enough to make her comfortable. But we can’t give her morphine or some of the other more effective meds because of her pregnancy. She’s stable for now, and there were no contractions, so I don’t think she’s going to delivery prematurely. But I am going to stop all visitation for a while, to give us time to observe her without outside influence.” She looked down at the chart again. “Her EEG is active now, whereas it was typical of a comatose condition before. So she’s in a standard unconscious state now. We’re going to keep her sedated, until we can bring her out slowly in order to get an idea where the pain is.”

Frank nodded. “You might also want to run a test for meningitis, since there seems to be excruciating pain and unconsciousness,” he suggested. The doctor nodded and made a note on the chart.

“And reflex tests...all of them,” Frank continued. “Non-responsiveness might indicate where there’s pain. Were her pupils responsive?”

“Yes,” the doctor answered.

“Good,” Frank said. “Karen, what’s her favorite music?”

“I’m not sure, but she’s always liked Sinatra,” Karen replied.

“Then I would also suggest piping some Sinatra in there,” Frank told the doctor. “Music can be a very effective psychological pain killer, and that could help since you can’t use the most effective pharmacological ones.”

The doctor nodded, made a couple more notes on the chart, then stood. “Thank you. You’ve been very helpful. We’ll let you know if her condition changes at all.” She turned to go.

“Will you be telling my step-father, or should I?” Karen asked her before she could leave.

“I planned to let him sleep a little longer,” the doctor said. “While her condition has changed, she is still unconscious, and he can’t see her right now anyway. We don’t require anything from him, so there isn’t much point in disturbing him when he needs the sleep.”

Karen nodded, and the doctor left the room.

“Perhaps you should go check on her again,” Frank suggested to Karen when the doctor was far down the hallway. “See if you can notice any difference in her astral self or that of the creature.”

“Sure,” Karen agreed. “Chapel again?” Justin nodded and the four went down to it. There were a few other people in the room, a couple near the front, and an older man alone near the back. The Envoys found a spot near the wall, about halfway up the center aisle. Karen took the seat closest to the wall, and Justin sat beside her. Frank and Leigh took the chairs directly in front of and behind the couple, to break up any view of Karen that other people might have. Karen carefully leaned against Justin and he wrapped his arm around her and held her tight to his side. He leaned back just enough so that Karen could balance her head against his shoulder. She relaxed, and her body went limp as her spirit slipped out of it.

Karen gave a last little tug to free herself. She was so comfortable sitting there with Justin’s arm around her that something in her must not have wanted to leave, so slipping out was a little tougher than it normally was. But once she was out, things were normal again. It didn’t even take a conscious thought for her to find herself looking down at the shadow of Edward’s prone body. Before she went to see her mom, she wanted to reassure herself that Edward was still sleeping and that he wasn’t going to interfere with what she was doing right now. As he laid there, she could make out the shadow within the shadow that was his astral self, firmly bound inside the body. Like with Angie’s spirit, Edward’s seemed to be larger than the body that contained it. He looked like himself, but taller, more muscular, more powerful...and somehow darker. It wasn’t just the fuzziness that made corporeal things harder to see from this side. His spirit was more sinister than his outward body looked.

Karen shook her head, then moved on to her mother’s room. Tony had said Cathy looked like she was horrified, trapped inside herself when he’d seen her spirit last night. Now, to Karen, she looked like herself. Not that she looked like the body she was in now. She actually looked like she had before she met Edward. She looked like Mom again...the 64-year-old mother, grandmother, widow, retired teacher. Mom’s spirit was unconscious, just like her body. But it certainly was NOT pregnant. Karen had never really looked at the spirits of any other pregnant women before, so she wasn’t sure if the spirit changed its appearance as the woman’s body did during pregnancy, or if, since pregnancy was such a temporary state in proportion to the whole of a woman’s life, the spirit remained the same.

It was an interesting question, but Karen didn’t have the time to ponder it right then. She looked directly at the area where her mother’s belly, her pregnant womb, would be...and she took a ‘step’ back in shock when she realized that the creature was staring back at her. It looked like a real baby. And it appeared to be confined to Mom’s womb, not spread throughout her body or attached at other spots. But the eyes.... They didn’t look at her with the bleary, unfocused gaze of a very young baby. They looked directly at her with...not really intelligence, though there might have been some there, but with rapt attention, studying her as if it recognized her as a threat.

If she’d been in her body, Karen would have swallowed hard to keep down her rising gorge. Her astral form probably went through the motion anyway, though she couldn’t feel it. She backed carefully away from the creature until the wall she went through blocked her view of it, and hopefully its view of her. Then she turned and flew back to her body and hurled herself into it, glad for the safety of skin and flesh and bones. Her body jerked upright, and she felt herself taking rapid, shallow breaths...the same sort of frightened breathing that accompanies the flight response. She clutched at Justin’s arm and looked around to make sure it hadn’t followed her.

“We should go now,” she whispered to the others. They all stood, and Justin held her close as they made their way down the row and back out into the hospital hallway. “Maybe we should go see what Aiden’s found out about chunk’a’thulu,” she suggested quietly. Leigh looked at her quizzically, not understanding what ‘chunkathulu’ was. “The piece of the thing that Frank managed to cut off,” Karen explained. Frank and Justin nodded and the four went down to Frank’s car.

On the way over to Aiden and Angie’s, Karen described what she’d seen. She shuddered as she told them about the creature watching her.

They were surprised when Angie answered the door less than a minute after they rang the bell...and that she was fully-clothed when she opened it. Aiden had been home for less than 24 hours, and that usually meant the couple would still be taking full advantage of their time together. When they got inside, they found Aiden sitting on the couch in front of the TV, a movie paused on the screen and a bowl of popcorn on the coffee table in front of him.

“Did you find out anything about the sample yet?” Frank asked Aiden as Angie bustled around clearing stuff off chairs so everyone could sit down.

Aiden’s face fell and he shook his head. He got up and disappeared into the kitchen, then came back a minute later with the petrie dish. “I’m afraid this is all that’s left,” he told Frank. “The thing disintegrated before I could do anything with it, and I stored what was left in the freezer to show you.” Frank looked down at the snot-like smear in the bottom of the covered dish.

“So what happened?” Frank asked. “How long did it take before this happened?”

“Well, maybe an hour and a half total,” Aiden answered. “When I got home, I had to take a shower before I could do anything else, so I put it in the kitchen. When I got done showering, I cleared a space on the counter, and sterilized the space and all the equipment I thought I might need. And when I picked up the dish to take it over to that counter, it was like that.” Aiden nodded at the dish Frank was still holding.

Frank thought for a few seconds, trying to figure out how long it had been between the time he’d collected the sample and the time that Aiden found it nothing more than a smear on the dish. “That was it? So it was no more than a few hours after I collected the sample?” Frank asked, trying to confirm the ‘life span’ of the small piece of the creature.

Aiden started to nod, then looked down a the floor sheepishly. “Well, there might have been a little bit of a break after my shower....” Angie grinned. “But it wasn’t long, so it wasn’t more than 3 hours total from cutting to this,” Aiden said, pointing at the dish. “Since I wasn’t sure why it happened, I put what was left in the freezer to preserve it.”

“He’s supposed to be resting,” Frank said, looking directly at Angie.

“It is a form of relaxation.” Angie grinned and shrugged.

“Maybe since it wasn’t attached to the part with the brain, it couldn’t keep itself alive without a host,” Justin suggested.

“But the thing that came out of Aiden was out for a while without dying, and was even able to attack you,” Leigh pointed out. Aiden was beginning to look a little green at the reminder of the thing being in him.

“Maybe the tentacles don’t have any brain and have to create one from the host’s cells, and it needs a brain to stay alive,” Justin countered.

“But it was only in Aiden for a few seconds,” Karen argued. “That couldn’t possibly have been long enough to develop a brain before it was forced out. I wonder if whether the tentacles have brain matter depends on why they’re extended.... Maybe if it’s trying to ‘spawn’ it sends out brain matter to the tentacles, and if it’s only attacking for self-defense it doesn’t. Because that was the difference between the way it attacked Aiden and Frank.”

The three continued to argue about the biology of the creature, and Aiden looked more and more uncomfortable the whole time.

“Yeah, but where would the brain matter come from?” Justin asked. “Wouldn’t it need to use something from the host?” At this point, Aiden looked decidedly ill, and he ran off toward the bathroom. A minute later, the others could hear the sound of Aiden vomiting. Angie went to help him.

“I don’t know,” Leigh said. Karen shrugged.

“So we don’t know anything,” Justin said with a mixture of anger and dejection.

“No, we don’t,” both Karen and Leigh replied in unison.

“We really just don’t know enough about the thing’s biology or the way it reproduces to answer these questions,” Karen told Justin, rubbing lightly on his arm to try to cool the anger she could tell he felt at not having the answers they needed to kill the thing. “That’s why we were hoping that Aiden could study the sample.”

“Do you think it would be possible to do an ultrasound on Cathy’s brain, to find out if the creature is connected there at all?” Leigh asked Frank.

“I’m not sure how that would help,” Frank replied.

“Well, it’s how they used to do brain scans before MRIs became common and affordable,” Leigh told him. “And the procedure was done in Europe much later than in the US. I might be able to find information on it on one of the European medical websites.”

“It couldn’t hurt,” Justin said. “Is there anyone else we could get help from, too? Like that guy from the CDC, the one who helped Tony with his cholera? Maybe we should at least let him know....”

Karen’s face lit up and she hugged Justin. “That’s it! Dr. Ray! Maybe we can ask him to get Mom transferred out of Receiving....”

“And if we knock out Edward first....” Justin said.

“Then he can’t argue or try to bring in his own doctors,” Karen finished.

“Wouldn’t Dr. Ray outrank them?” Justin asked. “He was the head of the CDC.”

“No, he’s just another researcher there and ‘happened to be’ the one sent to check out Tony,” Karen corrected, indicating the ‘quote marks’ around the “happened to be” part. Because, Dr. Ray didn’t just happen to get sent. Fr. Andrew had contacted him, and Dr. Ray had volunteered to come up. “Given the high-level contacts Edward has in the government, I’m guessing that his doctors would trump a CDC researcher, especially if his include the Surgeon General. But a CDC doctor will certainly trump a Receiving doctor, if Edward’s not in any condition to contact someone else.”

“So...we call Dr. Ray; knock out Edward so he can’t interfere; then have Dr. Ray get both Edward and Cathy transferred out of Receiving, so he can ‘isolate them someplace safer’ to deal with ‘whatever is causing them to become comatose;’ get Babythulu out of Cathy and destroy it; then deal with Edward,” Justin said, summarizing what appeared to be their new plan.

The others nodded, Karen with a grin on her face. Finally, a plan that was simple and didn’t start with cold-blooded murder. She could live with this, even if they ended up having to kill Edward in the end after all. All they had to do now was find a way to knock out Edward without the cause being discovered.

Frank looked around. He’d thought he heard a car door open and close, but he couldn’t tell just where the sound came from. “Maybe we should continue this conversation somewhere...more secure,” he suggested. The safe house was the best place they could think of.

Karen’s youngest brother Sean was just arriving, so Karen intercepted him and told him what she could about their mother’s condition. He continued on into the hospital, and Karen rejoined the others for the trip back to the safe house. On the way, they dropped Aiden and Angie at home. Frank wanted Aiden to start his R& R immediately; and he didn’t want anyone from the hospital stopping by there or calling only to find that Aiden wasn’t resting like he should be.

“Call me if you need me,” Aiden said over his shoulder as Angie hustled him into the house. Frank nodded.

“Of course they will, you idiot,” Angie told him with mock frustration. “They always do.”

As the remaining 5 Envoys filtered through the back door of the safe house, Frank tapped Karen on the shoulder. “I need to ask you something,” he told her. “There’s a question I’ve been thinking of asking Edward, and I wondered if his answer will change your opinion of him at all.”

“What’s the question?” Karen asked.

“If he had to make a choice between saving your mother or the baby, which would he choose?” Frank told her. “If he chose your mother, would you feel any different about him?”

“Depends if he knew the baby was ‘Babythulu’?” Karen replied.

“Oh, he does,” Frank insisted. “He may not know exactly what the creature is, but his guilt is more sinister in nature than just ‘I got her pregnant and now it might kill her.’”

Karen suspected the same thing, but Frank was a better judge of human nature than she was. Even after all the things she’d seen and done in the past couple of years, deep down, Karen still couldn’t help but expect the best from people, even if she tried very hard to be cynical. That was what made this whole thing with Edward so difficult for her. Her gut kept telling her that he was ‘evil personified;’ her heart kept telling her that he couldn’t really be that bad if her mother loved him. Part of her knew that eventually Edward would have to be ‘eliminated.’ He carried the stink of the Unknown on him like the odor of cigarettes on a smoker. They just could never catch him with the butt between his fingers. And Karen wanted him gone. But every time they got close to having to make that decision, she couldn’t help but pull back. That other part of her, the part that just wanted her mom to be happy, recoiled from the pain that killing Edward would cause.

“It might make me less eager to kill him,” she told Frank. “But I won’t like him any more than I do now.” She turned and joined the others in the main room, and Frank followed her.

Leigh, Justin and Tony were tossing around ideas for how to get rid of Edward and how to get the creature out of Cathy. “But, if we try to force it out of my mom, how much of her innards come with it?” Karen asked. “We know what it did to Aiden’s stomach, and it was only in there for a few seconds.” Everyone got quiet, thinking about that complication.

“My current thought is that we Sphere the thing, to get it to put out its tentacles,” Frank explained to them. “Then, since electricity seemed to slow it down, we attach leads to it, and feed it a continuous current while doing a C-section to get the main mass out of Cathy.” The others nodded in agreement. That might actually work, if they could pull it off.

“But we need to look a the bigger picture for a second,” Frank continued. “We still don’t know who or what is controlling Harrington. His handlers can’t be too happy about him losing the abilities he got from ‘Bob.’ If he loses Babythulu now, too, what will they do to him? And expanding on that, what will they do to Cathy? His ‘owners’ probably have a ‘Hound’ on him. If we just outright kidnap him, to interrogate him or even to ‘convert’ him to our side, the Hound will find him too fast. They’ll know we have him as soon as we do the first Shield, and I’m not sure we can keep away from them for the twelve hours before we can do the second. They’ll shut him down before we could even get any useful information from him.”

Frank stopped for a minute while the others thought about this. “But,” he went on again, “what if we get Harrington to agree to transfer Cathy to another hospital? And since he’s a pretty high-profile target, what if, during the move, the vehicle gets blown up by terrorists? That might give us the time we need to figure out how to get the thing out of Cathy.”

“Well, with some help from Tony or Angie, I could easily rig something to look like it was blown up,” Justin agreed. “In fact, I’ve been doing some work on Gary’s ambulances, on the side. Maybe we could get one of those.”

“What might even be better,” Frank suggested, “is if I get a DHS van and it’s targeted by Middle Eastern terrorists. If Harrington’s handlers think that HE was the target, they’ll be scrutinizing the attack from that angle, and looking right at us. But if he’s just collateral damage, then they’ll look at it as an attack on DHS. If they see it that way, then I’m the first one they’ll look at. That’s why I’ve tried so hard to keep the rest of you out of the ‘public eye’ on these things. It’s already common knowledge that I’ve pissed off terrorists. And if I happen to be in the van with Harrington when it goes up...?” Frank shrugged.

“But that means that you’d have to disappear too,” Leigh said. The dismay in her voice was echoed on the faces of all the others.

“Well, Cathy will be disappearing, too, and someone will have to look after her,” Frank reasoned. “Aiden could do it, but if Cathy is as messed up psychologically as Tony thought she looked, I’m the one better able to help her with that. What I’m thinking is that if someone happens to pull up next to the van and shoot a rocket at it, it’s pretty logical that the van and everyone in it will be damaged beyond recognition.”

Justin and Tony were already sketching out ideas on a pad of paper from Karen’s pack. “We’ll need...at least 4 bodies,” Justin mused. “Driver, Frank, Edward and Cathy. If we do the explosion right, we don’t even have to worry about the female body being pregnant. The fetus could easily have burned up. And I’m sure Tony and Angie can come up with a way to rig the explosion so that it’s not traceable.”

Karen looked decidedly ill. Part of it was the drain of using her Arts earlier. But part of it was that they were all sitting there planning what could end up being cold-blooded murder. Sure, if things went right, and they ‘disappeared’ Edward...and Mom...and Frank...and whoever was driving, then no one had to die. But what if something went wrong? And what if Edward didn’t want to or couldn’t help them? They’d all thought there was something wrong with her for wanting to get a black market baby to cover up killing the creature. But now they were discussing stealing bodies from the morgue in order to cover up kidnapping, as if that were somehow less of a crime. And none of that guaranteed that they would be able to get the creature out of Mom without killing her in the process. She looked up and saw Frank staring at her.

“She may not be safe no matter what we do,” Frank said, as if he’d been reading her mind. “She’s been intimate with the Unknown, no pun intended, for so long now that she’s probably been ‘tagged.’ But, she’s been Shielded once already. If we do it again in the morning, at least the Unknown will have to send something to tag her again.”

Karen stared at Frank. It wasn’t just her mom she was worried about. What if Frank...? She hadn’t realized just how much she’d come to depend on him being there to talk to. And to pull their butts out of the fire.

“Are you going to be able to do this, Karen,” Frank asked. “Because it means that you may never be able to have any contact with your mother again.”

“Or with you,” Karen thought to herself. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

“If it’s our last resort and it means my mother will be safe and free of this thing,” she answered him, letting her breath out with a sigh. “But I’d like some time to do research, to see if we can figure out what this thing is and how to get rid of it without endangering my mom any more than she already is. And I’d like to call Fr. Colin. Maybe.... I know that Tony said he didn’t recall anything like this from his research on demons; but maybe Fr. Colin knows a thing or two that Tony doesn’t yet.”

“We should have time for that while we prep for the other plan,” Frank told her. “And, by the way,” he said, raising his voice to get the attention of the others, “until we know for sure that we’re going to do the exploding van trick, we need to keep this just between the few of us that are involved in the planning. That means me and the 4 of you, and Angie, if she’s helping with rigging the van. Aiden shouldn’t have any issues with disappearing to care for Cathy after this, if it’s necessary. But since he’s supposed to be resting, I don’t want to bring him into it until we need him.”

It was almost 1am on Thursday morning now. Karen figured that it was as good a time as any to start trying to get ahold of Fr. Colin. They had no idea where he was right now, so she hoped that she wouldn’t be waking him. She needn’t have worried, though. The phone rang 5 times then went to voice mail. She left a message, hoping he’d get back to her soon. Then she opened her laptop to get started on her research. She had to find some way of killing this thing without killing her mother; and she needed to do it before they were forced to commit murder.

The team went over the idea again, to solidify some of the details. Once all the equipment was ready, Frank would talk Edward into moving Cathy for special treatment that ‘Receiving isn’t equipped to provide.’ He’ll offer to provide the transportation, since Edward is so high-profile. The van will be attacked by terrorists somewhere near the river, and some or all of the occupants will be spirited away to safety, their ‘remains’ being replaced by cadavers from the morgue.

“I’d like to make the timing work so that we can get Edward ‘de-hounded’ at the same time,” Leigh told them. “If we don’t at least try to ‘flip’ him, we may be missing out on a prime chance for more information about what we’re up against.”

“Not to mention that, if we leave him in the van, we’re talking about cold-blooded murder,” Karen added, her stomach flipping over at the thought of committing a mortal sin.

“That problem is,” Frank said, “that we don’t know how Harrington will react to this if we kidnap him. We still haven’t been able to figure out just how deceitful he really is or just how much he really knows about the things happening around him. Will he feign a change of heart in order to save himself, then revert to his old ways as soon as he can? And how much about ourselves will we be revealing? Information that he’ll be able to feed to his handlers if we fail to flip him. He already knows a great deal about us as individuals. If he learns, or his handlers learn, that we’re Envoys....” Frank paused, letting the others consider that.

“Anyway, back to the plan,” Frank said. “Justin do you think you’ll be able to fix two vehicles to look exactly identical, so that we can rig one then swap it with the one that Cathy is in just before we explode it? Maybe even have the rigged one remotely operated, so that no one is actually in danger during the explosion?”

“Hell, yeah!” Justin replied excitedly. “I hadn’t even thought of that, but it’d be pretty easy. And I know of a couple different places along the river where we could pull the switch! Think you’ll be able to provide us with the bodies and clothes for in the rigged unit?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Frank answered. “How long do you think this will take?”

Justin thought for a second. “Maybe a week?” he said.

“Well....” Frank paused again. “I’m not sure we’ll have that much time, so work as fast as you can without getting sloppy or making mistakes. We don’t know if or when Harrington will shake off the shock of what’s happened and take the matter of Cathy’s care into his own hands. Karen and her siblings won’t be able to distract him forever. In the meantime, I’ll keep caring for her and try to keep him busy. And we’ll keep working on other options, in case we can’t wait for the exploding van.”

“Do you think there might be some way that you could send an electrical charge to the thing without hurting Cathy and without having to Sphere the thing?” Justin asked.

“None that I can think of,” Frank told him. “The thing is pretty well-attached to her system, just like a real baby would be. There’s little we can do to it that won’t affect Cathy. But we do have the small, inert piece of it that I got when I did the ultrasound. I’m going to be getting that to Aiden first thing tomorrow, so he can start working on it.”

Finally, the team scattered to their homes to get some sleep. Karen called Fr. Colin again around 2am, and again at 3am. But before she could try a fourth time, she fell asleep on her laptop keyboard from sheer exhaustion.

About 5am, her phone rang. She jerked awake and opened it just before it went to voice mail. “H’lo,” she mumbled.

“Top o’ the mornin’ to ye,” Fr. Colin said cheerfully. “I’m sorry I didn’t get back to ye sooner, but I left me phone in me coat pocket. So what can I do for ye?”

Karen thought for a minute, unsure where to start and how much she could say over the phone. “It’s...my mother’s pregnant, and...” Karen started.

“What? Isn’t she...?” Fr. Colin interrupted.

“Yes, well past the age,” Karen told him. “And the baby...it’s not...it’s not human...it’s something else.”

“Ah, and you think...” Fr. Colin said.

“Yes. I’m hoping that it’s something you’ve dealt with before,” Karen answered, “though Tony said it didn’t match anything he’d come across in his research. We’re trying to find a way to get it out of her but...but I’m afraid that it’s going to end in murder,” she finally blurted out.

“Well, I think I can be there in....” The priest paused. “Depending on flight options and security, I think I can be there in 6 to 10 hours. Until then, be strong, and get some sleep. Ye sound whipped.”

“Thank you, Father,” Karen said. “I’ll try.” She shut the laptop and joined Justin in bed, and she was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

The next day, the Envoys continued working on their projects as much as they could. Leigh, Angie and Frank took turns ‘caring for’ Aiden, who was busy studying the piece of tentacle. Karen and Justin both took the day off from work, Karen so that she could do some research before going back to the hospital to be with her mother...and Edward; and Justin so that he could spend time with Karen and work on collecting what he’d need for rigging the van. Luckily, among the properties that Justin had bought as both investments and hideouts was another garage, which he’d fully equipped with everything a mechanic could dream of. This gave him a place to work on the project without drawing the attention of the guys at work or the neighbors at home.

As soon as Leigh’s Shield went up, Aiden began to heave. Justin quickly rolled him onto his side, so he wouldn’t aspirate, then grabbed a pan for him to vomit into. Karen let her Sphere drop, and Cathy’s belly stopped moving. Aiden was vomiting like his insides were trying to come out. He lurched onto his hands and knees, his head hanging over the pan, and the others thought they could hear the sound of something inside him tearing. Cathy just lay there. Suddenly, Aiden coughed out blood and a fist-sized grey mass. The mass had tentacles several inches long sticking out from it, and a few seconds after it landed in the pan, the tentacles began to twitch and twist, as if the thing was trying to move.

When he got home, Tony could see that the team had been at the safe house recently. There were a couple laptop bags laying on the table, and dishes in the sink. But the power cord dangling off the edge of the table told him that they’d left in a hurry. They must have planned to come back, or they wouldn’t have left stuff there. That meant they hadn’t gone far. He speed-dialed Justin’s cell, but it went straight to voice mail. Angie’s number did the same, as did Leigh’s. Tony thought for a second, wondering where he should start looking first. Where would they have gone that they all had their phones off? The hospital was the only place that came to mind, so he headed back out. They’d most likely be at Receiving, since Aiden worked there. And there was no telling just how long they’d been there or who was hurt. It was almost 10pm, and if they’d had to interrupt their dinner, then they’d be as hungry as he was, Tony figured. So on his way to the hospital he stopped and picked up a dozen Coney dogs. When he got there, he headed straight for the ER waiting room.

Angie spotted him before he got through the doorway. Since Edward’s back was to the door as he hunched over the clipboard, Angie stretched and shook her head, pointing toward the ER. Tony took the hint and kept going rather than draw Edward’s attention. He strolled past the curtained cubicles as if he knew where he was going, brushing against any closed curtains in order to catch a glimpse of who was inside. But when he heard the sound of violent retching, he had a feeling he’d found them. He ducked between the curtains. A whistle slipped past Tony’s lips. Was that Karen’s mom?! He didn’t remember her being that hot! Hubba, hubba!

“Tony! Gimme a hand before this thing gets loose!” Justin hissed at him. Justin had yanked out the drawer of the small table and dumped the tongue depressors out of a stainless steel tray. He dug to the back of the drawer and pulled out another, matching tray, and dumped the packets of pre-cut gauze squares out.

Tony wasn’t sure what Justin was talking about until Justin lunged and dropped to one knee near the wall. Something was moving there, and Justin scooped it into one tray and slammed the other over the top. All Tony saw was a glimpse of something that looked like one if those fake vomits, except it was moving. “Quick! You got any ‘duck’ tape?” Justin asked him.

“Uh, no. But I got some cable ties,” Tony said, holding the bag of Coneys out toward Leigh and digging in his jacket pocket with his other hand. Leigh took the bag, her upper lip curling slightly at the smell of the chili dogs.

“That’ll do! Quick! Wrap a couple around these trays!” Justin ordered him. Tony did, and Justin’s breathing slowed noticeably as soon as he was done.

Karen stood up from the wheelchair and moved to stand beside her mom. She was afraid to touch her, afraid that the thing in her mother’s belly would try to attack her, too, if she got too close. She looked down at Aiden, who was still spitting up blood, though his spasms had slowed considerably. Leigh’s Shield had helped Aiden; why hadn’t it helped her mom? Maybe...? Karen put up her own Shield hoping that if she tried to concentrate its power onto her mom, it would cause her mom to cough up the creature growing inside her.

Justin set the sealed steel trays on the table and turned back to Aiden. He put his hands on Aiden’s back and concentrated, pumping everything he could into his friend. Slowly the retching stopped. Aiden let his head hang down and wiped his arm across his mouth as he sat back on his heels. He still looked pathetic, and Frank moved in to look him over. Karen held her Shield for as long as she could, but there was no reaction from her mother. She hung her head, and tears rolled down her cheeks.

Frank thumped lightly on Aiden’s chest and stomach, listening with a stethoscope he pulled from the drawer. “To be safe, you should get an endoscopy,” he told Aiden.

“I’ll check myself in,” Aiden told him. “They’ve all been expecting me to get an ulcer any time now anyway.” He nodded toward the rest of the ER, meaning he was talking about his co-workers. “Oh and, by the way, stop that thing,” he said, looking up at the table. The others followed his gaze and saw the cable-tied trays rocking and jumping slightly on the table. The thing inside was trying its best to get out. Justin grabbed it and carefully nestled it inside his messenger bag.

Aiden stood slowly, holding onto Frank and the wheelchair to help himself up. He couldn’t stand up straight because of the pain in his stomach. “I’m going to go bleed on someone to distract them,” he told the others, hoping they’d take the opportunity to get the creature out of his ER. None of them were supposed to be in there except him and Frank, anyway. He shuffled painfully toward the curtains, waving off Leigh’s offer of help. He stopped and turned, one hand holding the curtain for support. “Oh, and I’ll assign myself as Cathy’s attending physician, so someone doesn’t slap her into the MRI and see what’s in there,” Aiden told them. He continued out into the ER. The team could hear the commotion start when he got to the nurses’ station and they realized that he needed medical attention.

Justin felt the messenger bag bump against his hip, once...then twice...then a third time. He pressed it hard against his side with his elbow. “I think we need to get this thing to the meat locker,” he told the others. “It’ll give us something to practice on, to figure out how to kill the thing inside Cathy.” The others nodded agreement. “Tony, can you come help me?”

Tony shrugged. “Sure. By the way, I brought Coneys. I figured youse guys might be hungry.” When he saw the pained and slightly ill looks on most of the others, he shrugged again. “OK. More fer me.” He took the bag back from Leigh.

“Karen, I need to ask you something,” Frank said, his voice quiet and serious. Karen wiped the tears from her cheeks with the sleeve of her jacket before turning to look at him. His face was as serious as his voice had sounded, and Karen steeled herself for the question. “When you attacked the creature Out-of-Body, could you see the part of the creature that was still inside your mother separate from her?”

“Whoa! You mean dare’s anudder one’a dose in Cathy?” Tony asked, interrupting, pointing at Justin’s messenger bag. Frank nodded.

Karen’s shoulders dropped as she visibly relaxed. She almost laughed as she let out the breath she’d been holding. She thought he was going to ask her if she’d be able to kill her mother, if that was what they had to do to kill the creature. And she’d been kneading the answer around in her head a thousand different ways so that it didn’t come out sounding like she was a weak link when she said no. For God’s sake, that was her mother lying there on the gurney, incubating some creature from Hell! How could she plan ahead to kill her own mother? If it finally did come down to that, if there was no one else who could do it.... She couldn’t think about that. She would have to cross that bridge when she came to it. And she hoped that they would find some other way to deal with it before that time came.

“No,” she answered. “I’m sorry, but I was so busy with the tentacles that I didn’t think to look.”

Tony thought for a second. He’d seen records at the Vatican library about demon incubation, and knew there was a precedent for it. But nothing he’d read about was quite like this. He told this to the others.

Frank looked at Karen. It was obvious that she had already weakened herself quite a bit by going Out-of-Body and fighting the creature, then raising a Sphere and a Shield. He didn’t want to stress her any more at the moment, so he turned to Tony. “Tony, do you think you could go look at Cathy and see if you can see the creature?”

“Sure,” Tony answered. He glanced around the small room for someplace to rest his body while he did this, and he spotted the wheelchair, which had gotten shoved back against the wall. He sat down in it and made himself comfortable.

“Have you looked at Edward like that lately, hon?” Justin asked Karen. She simply shook her head. “Might not hurt to look now, Tony,” Justin suggested.

Tony nodded, and a second later his head dropped to his chest as his spirit slipped out to take a look around. When he looked at other spirits or astral creatures in this plane, they were just as clear as any person would normally look to him. But when he looked at living people from this side, it was like looking at someone who’d been mummy-wrapped in Saran Wrap. He could make out the features of a person’s spirit, but it wasn’t crisp and clear. The body that was wrapped around it kind of got in the way. He looked at the others. Like other times he’d seen her in the astral plane, Karen looked exactly like herself, except that this time she looked tired, drained. Leigh looked pretty much like herself, but more so–taller, blonder, stronger. Tony’s mind flashed back to the vision he still held of her as the blonde angel that pulled him from the brink of death after he’d killed the ghul. He grinned.

The first thing he thought of when he looked at Justin was that old Sgt. Rock cartoon. He looked like a big, buff, beat-up soldier, maybe kind of dumber than he really was. Justin had told Tony a little about what he’d been through over in Iraq. His spirit looked like Tony imagined he must’ve looked that day he lost his men to the zombies. And Frank? Frank looked just like the Terminator, complete with the glowing red eyes. Frank always gave the impression that he’d built a steel wall around himself, and that’s exactly what it looked like from here. Finally, Tony looked at Cathy. She reminded him of that painting by Munch, “The Scream.” He’d seen it once when he was in Oslo on a business trip. Her face was drawn, her eyes and mouth open as if she were screaming. She looked frightened, trapped. But he could see no sign, from this side, of the creature in Cathy’s womb, no tentacles wrapped around her or anything.

Tony went to the Waiting Room. He skidded to a halt when he saw Angie. Her astral self seemed to bulge beyond the boundary of her body. She looked like a goddess, like Athena, in fact, complete with the gleaming armor and bulging muscles. Damn. It was too bad she was taken! Finally Tony looked at Edward. He looked exactly like he usually did in the real world, neatly dressed, poised, confident. And his spirit showed none of the distress of his wife lying in a coma in the ER. Tony slipped back into his body, and his head jerked up as if he’d been startled awake. He told the others what he’d seen, grinning as he described what each of their astral selves looked like and frowning as he described Edward and Cathy.

“Karen, what do you want me to do about interrogating Edward?” Frank asked.

Karen looked Frank square in the face. “Anything you want,” she told him. He raised an eyebrow. She’d had qualms before about harming Harrington.... He didn’t have to say it; Karen knew what he was thinking.

“You should have let me kill him when I had the chance,” he told her.

“I know,” Karen admitted. “But I was concerned about how it would affect my mom. Now...?” Karen glanced over at her mother’s prone body, her belly prominent under the blanket that had been draped over her to keep her warm. “She’s not going to know it if anything happens to him now. And we can worry about explaining it to her when...if...she wakes up.”

“We need to take him out,” Justin said. “Even if he’s not the direct cause of whatever is in her, she wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for him. It’s his fault.”

Frank shook his head. “Unfortunately he has too many friends in high places, and he’d be missed too quickly for us to cover our trail. For now we’re going to have to continue to treat this like a medical emergency, until we figure out how to make him disappear without drawing attention. I’m going to go interview him just like any doctor trying to discover what could have happened to my patient, trying to figure out where she might have picked up the ‘bug’ that’s causing her illness.”

Frank left the room. “Think we ought to restrain her?” Justin asked Karen.

Karen shook her head. “I’m not tying my mom down. I don’t think she’s dangerous.”

“I’m not worried about her,” Justin told her. “I’m worried about what that thing inside her might make her do.”

“And how do we explain it?” Karen asked him. “We’re not even supposed to be in here, and sooner or later someone’s gonna come to move her to a room.”

“We could just say that she was flailing and kicking and almost hit me, and we didn’t want any of the hospital personnel injured trying to care for her,” Justin suggested. Karen shook her head, and Justin could see from the look on her face that his idea wasn’t going to fly. He glanced over at Tony. “You got a car here?” Tony nodded. “Good. We need to run past the shop on the way to the meat locker. There’s a couple things I wanna pick up that might be useful. We’ll need to build some sort of enclosure for the thing before we can do any tests on it.” The two headed out, leaving Karen and Leigh to stay with Cathy.

When Frank got to the Waiting Room, a look flashed across Angie’s face that said “Thank God you’re here to rescue me!” She stood and moved to a chair across the room, so her presence wouldn’t make Edward too uncomfortable to talking to Frank...or interrupt Frank’s interrogation. Edward looked around and realized that Frank was standing there. He started to stand.

“Please, have a seat,” Frank said, nodding at Angie and motioning to Edward that he should stay where he was. “I have some questions I need to ask you.”

“How is she?” Edward asked, his eyebrows drawn together in concern. Frank sat down across from him, taking the clipboard and paperwork from Edward and setting an open notepad on it.

“She’s stable at the moment,” Frank told him truthfully. “But we haven’t been able to determine what’s causing her illness. That’s why she’ll be sent to the Isolation Ward, at least until we can figure it out. Which is what I need to talk to you about. Can you tell me where you’ve been traveling lately? Have you been out of the country?”

Edward slumped back into the plastic chair, his hands clasped together and his lips pursed as he thought about all the traveling he’d done in the last 6 months or so. “We were in London for a week in July,” he told Frank. “When I did a talk there. And in Amsterdam in August for the same thing. But most of my business has been in Virginia and the DC area lately.”

That matched what Frank could remember of the schedule on Harrington’s website. Frank made notes on his pad. “Has she been seeing a doctor regularly since you discovered she was pregnant? Has there been anything unusual about the pregnancy so far?” he asked Edward.

“She’s been fine,” Edward answered. “Once we found out she was pregnant, she began seeing a specialist in DC, Dr. _____.” Frank recognized the name from the time he’d spent in DC. The guy was ‘Physician to the Political Elite.’ “Her blood sugar and blood pressure have been good,” Edward continued. “She’s been tiring more easily than before, but she told me that always happened during her previous pregnancies. And she said that so far she’d been having less trouble with this one than any of the others. Her appetite’s been good, and she didn’t have any morning sickness.”

“Have you noticed if she’s eating properly? Has there been anything she’s eaten that was unusual, or that caused her other doctors concern?” Frank asked after jotting down more notes.

“I’m sorry, no,” Edward said. “I haven’t really been paying attention to what she eats, only that she is eating. She’s been taking care of the whole nutrition thing herself; and, of course, the staff does all the cooking for her.”

“Good. They should have records of what food they’ve been buying and where, in case she’s ingested some food-borne bacteria or virus,” Frank told him.

“You mean like that whole thing with the spinach?” Edward asked.

“Exactly,” Frank replied. “There are any number of things she could contract that way. But there are a number of tests that we’d rather not run on her, due to the pregnancy, if we don’t have to. So if we can find commonalities between her condition and something that’s happened to someone else, we can narrow our options.” Frank paused while he made a couple more notes. But as he wrote, he concentrated on sensing if there was anything Unknown controlling Edward. Like before, there was the very faint residue of repeated contact with the Unknown, but no immediate presence. Frank had enough practice observing interrogation subjects to know that, while Edward was hiding it very well, he did feel some responsibility for Cathy’s condition. His well-honed knowledge of human nature told Frank that it wasn’t just the normal ‘I got her knocked up and now she’s in trouble’ guilt, but something more sinister than that.

“Have there been any changes to her behavior recently?” he asked Edward.

“She’s been kind of ‘hormonal,’” Edward answered.

“How do you mean?” Frank asked.

“She’ll be so happy one minute, practically giddy. Then she’ll be melancholy, worrying if she’s too old to carry the child to term or if we’ll be able to raise it properly, given our ages. Then, other times, anything I say sets her off,” Edward explained.

“Does she get violent?” Frank asked.

“Oh, no!” Edward said. “Just...snappish.”

Frank felt the phone in his pocket vibrate, and he ignored it for the moment. “Just in case she picked up something from your travels,” he said to Edward, “would it be possible for me to get a blood sample from you?”

“Of course,” Edward told him. “But how will that help?”

“Since her immune system has been compromised, you may be fighting off something that she can’t,” Frank explained. “We can compare the antibodies in your sample to her sample; and if it is a bacteria or virus, we should be able to isolate it to help determine a safe treatment. I’ll also need a list of everything she’s eaten in the past couple weeks, where it was purchased and prepared, and samples if they’re available. If you could call your staff and have them start working on that, I’ll send someone to collect it from them.”

“Of course,” Edward said. He pulled out his phone, but stopped before opening it. “Oh, that’s right, I can’t use it in here, can I? I’ll just step outside for a moment...?” The statement came out sounding like a question, and Edward moved to the edge of his seat, unsure whether he should stand and go out or stay where he was.

“Please,” Frank told him, motioning toward the door.

Edward stopped just inside the door, his hand on the knob. “Will...will I be able to stay here with her?” he asked Frank

“Because she’ll be in the Isolation Unit, the time you can spend with her will be highly limited. We don’t want to stress her system any more than it already is. So you’ll need to wear a mask, gloves and a gown when you go in, to prevent transfer of anything new in or out. And you’ll only be allowed inside her room for 15 minutes at a time, with at least an hour between visits,” Frank told him. “But there is a Waiting Room up there, and it’s considerably more comfortable than this one. And if you’d like to have your staff get some things together for you, I can have my people bring it back when they go to get the information from your staff.

Edward nodded, and left for the exit, to call his staff. Frank pulled out his cell. There was a text message from Tony: “There’s no such thing as too many bodily fluid samples.”

Angie stretched and yawned. “God...if I’d had to be nice to him one more minute...” she said. “He gives me the creeps. By the way, what was going on back there? I saw staff running to and fro.... And where’s Aiden?”

“He’s taking care of some tests,” Frank told her evasively. “You can go see him yourself. I have to see about getting Cathy moved to Isolation.” He stood and Angie followed him out of the room. As they got to the ER, a gurney was being wheeled up to take Aiden to Radiology.

“Oh, come on! I can walk there myself,” Aiden was arguing with the nurse. She wore that implacable look on her face that said none of Aiden’s arguments...or charm...were going to sway her.

“I would suggest putting him in a wheelchair,” Frank told the nurse. “It might be less of a temptation for Miss Paloma.” Aiden turned bright red, and a huge grin spread across Angie’s face.

Leigh and Karen had been able to hear Aiden arguing, and they heard this exchange. “I’m guessing the wheelchair won’t slow her down,” Karen whispered to Leigh with a giggle.

Frank got the name of an intern from Aiden before he was wheeled away, with Angie right behind, and he handed off the job of getting the food information from Harrington’s staff to the kid. Then he made the arrangements for having Cathy moved to Isolation. That would give him the chance to check her over without too many prying eyes. There was usually only one nurse at a time attending to the ward, since it was rarely full. And it would limit Edward’s access to his wife, which, if he did cause this directly, would be in her best interests.

He went back to Cathy’s cubicle before the attendants came for her. “Leigh, since Angie’s with Aiden, can you keep an eye on Edward? He should be back in the Waiting Room by now. You can bring him up to the Isolation Waiting Room,” Frank told her. He described the limitations he was placing on visitation. Leigh nodded.

“Karen, after he has his 15 minutes with her, I’m going to do an ultrasound. I want you to be there, if you think you’ll be alright to do a Sphere. Otherwise I can have Leigh do it.” Karen looked a little pale to him, and he didn’t need another team member out of action.

“No. I’ll do it,” Karen said. This was her mother and she wanted to be there when Frank did his tests. If that meant she tapped herself out, so be it. When the attendants came to move Cathy, Leigh went to find Edward and Karen followed Frank.

On the drive to the garage, Justin described to Tony the idea he had for the enclosure. It didn’t have to be big, but they needed a way to get things into the cage without the creature being able to escape through the same opening. So he was thinking of something like an aquarium made from bullet-proof glass, plastic-welded together, with straps around it for back-up. And it would have a spinning drawer made of aluminum to get things inside. All they needed to figure out was how to get the creature into the box without having to handle it.

“Yo, I could rig da ties on da trays and blow ‘em wid a radio-op det charge,” Tony said after thinking about it a second. “All ya gotta do is build da box aroun’ da trays.”

“Yeah, that ought’a work,” Justin agreed. At the garage, Tony followed Justin around carrying the things Justin handed him. There were some odds and ends of bullet-proof glass, the plastic weld goop, a chunk of aluminum, a propane torch and an acetylene welding rig, two of the shop’s painting suits, complete with full respirator masks, and all the tools Justin thought he might need. As they got everything loaded in the back seat, Justin ran back inside. He came out with a couple aerosol spray cans. “In case we need a fast, ready-made blow torch,” Justin explained. “Gotta lighter?” Tony nodded and the two headed over to the meat locker.

They had not only done repairs in the time since the fight with the ghul and his minions, they actually done some upgrades, too. The place was pretty well secured, with all the surveillance equipment they could fit in it, as much reinforcement as they could load into the walls, floor and ceiling, and a number of traps and defenses which could be used individually or together. They’d also stocked the place with a hefty supply of survival gear, including lots of salt. Justin set the bag where he could keep an eye on it, and the two men got to work on the box.

They had the job almost complete when Tony poked Justin in the arm. “Yo, d’you notice dat? Da bag...it ain’t movin’,” he told Justin.

Justin watched it for a minute. Tony was right. The thing had been bouncing around like crazy earlier and now it wasn’t moving at all. Had the creature died, since it didn’t have a host body to live in? “Maybe we ought’a take the trays out, to keep a closer eye on it,” Justin suggested. Tony nodded assent. Justin went over to the bag and lifted the flap. Before he could even react, the creature flew at him and wrapped its tendrils around Justin’s face.

“GET IT OFF’A ME!” Justin screamed. “GET IT OFF’A ME!” He stumbled backward, clawing at the thing, trying to work his gloved fingers between the thing and his mask. He could feel the thing’s tentacles through the rubber of the mask, poking, prodding, looking for an opening it could get through in order to get inside him. It took all his willpower not to panic.

Tony grabbed an aerosol can and the lighter laying next to it. As soon as he had the lighter going, he held up the can and pressed the valve, aiming it on a tangent to Justin’s face that should have allowed him to torch the creature without melting Justin’s mask. The one thing he’d miscalculated was how close together he was holding the lighter and the can. A gout of flame sprayed across the room at the creature, but the flame was also crawling up the stream toward the can. Just before the can exploded, Tony tossed it away from himself and Justin. He turned back around to find that the creature had dropped from Justin’s mask and was crawling limply across the floor toward Justin’s foot. It had shriveled and burned where the flame had touched it, but it was still alive.

Justin spun around and went to grab the propane torch from where he’d left it by the back door. “Try salting it!” he hollered at Tony.

Tony grabbed a box of salt from the stack on the counter. He poured some into his gloved palm and threw it at the thing from about six feet away. The thing flinched as the salt hit it, and Tony could see and hear it sizzle where the salt touched it.

Justin came back with the torch and saw this. “Pour some more on it,” he suggested. The thing had stopped trying to attack them and seemed to be looking around for a way to escape. Tony stood over it and poured a stream of salt directly from the box. The thing jerked around, twisting and turning as it shriveled. By the time Tony had emptied the box, all that was left was a black oily residue on the cement floor. Justin used the torch to burn it away. Then he pulled out his phone and called Frank.

Frank had allowed Edward some time with Cathy before doing more tests, and he, Karen and Leigh were in the Isolation Unit waiting room when Justin called. “Salt,” was the first thing Justin said when Frank answered. “Lots of salt. Shrivels it like a slug,” Justin told him.

“Hey, I didn’even get ta use da explosives!” Tony complained in the background.

Justin didn’t bother covering the phone’s mike. “So put ‘em away and we’ll use ‘em some other time,” he said to Tony. “Think you could pump a whole bunch of salt into, up, through, whatever?” he asked Frank. “I think Aiden called it a lavage?”

“Unfortunately we can only put so much salt into her system before it does damage,” Frank told him. “And the amounts we’re talking about are pretty small. But I’ll see what I can do.” He paused. “So...I take it our test subject is no longer viable?”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Justin replied. “But the bastard escaped the trays in my bag, and it attacked my head. Oh, and fire works, too. By the way, how’s Aiden doing?”

“Hold on a sec, and I’ll check,” Frank said. “He was arguing about getting on a gurney the last time I saw him.” Frank got on a hospital phone and called the nurses’ station. “He’s in Endoscopy right now,” he reported to Justin and the others. “There are a lot of little tears; the largest was about a half-inch, but it looked like it had already started to heal.”

Justin grinned. He’d given Aiden everything he could, and it must’ve actually done some good.

“Apparently they believe that he does have ulcers, and that a month off work and some cauterizing will help,” Frank finished. “So he managed to sell it.” Edward was just coming back into the room. “Cathy is stable, and I’m about to do an ultrasound,” Frank said, suddenly changing the subject.

“Right,” Justin said, getting the message. “We’ll be back as soon as we get this place cleaned up.”

Frank closed the phone and stood. Karen stood with him. “Can I see her for a minute?” she asked.

“Yes, but you’ll need to leave as soon as the ultrasound machine gets there,” Frank told her.

Edward sat down for a second, then got back up. “I think I need some coffee,” he told them, as Frank and Karen were about to leave. “Would anyone else like anything?”

“No, thanks,” Frank told him. Karen just shook her head.

“Do you mind if I come with you?” Leigh asked Edward.

“Of course not,” Edward said, sounding weary and glad for the company. The four went out, two toward the elevators and the other two toward Cathy’s room.

The ultrasound machine was already there and prepped. Karen started to follow Frank into the dressing room. “It might be better if only one of us is in there with it,” Frank told her. “Wait by the windows and I’ll signal you when I need you to do the Sphere.”

Tears welled up in Karen’s eyes. She knew Frank was right, but it was hard hearing him refer to the creature as if her mother was now nothing more than the carrier for that thing. She nodded, wiping the tears away before they could spill down her cheeks, and she went around to the windows that lined one wall of her mother’s room. With all the machines that were hooked to Cathy, the nurses didn’t really need to have constant visual contact with her, so the curtains were drawn to give her a little privacy...or rather to give her visitors privacy with her. After a minute or two, Frank appeared at the window and pull the curtains back just enough so that Karen could see in. He set the ultrasound to record straight to a disk he inserted in the machine, and prepped Cathy. The room wasn’t large, so Karen had a good view of Frank and her mother.

Frank started the procedure. He didn’t have a lot of practice with doing ultrasounds, and that was why he was recording the whole thing, for Aiden to look at later...and for future reference. As he did the initial pass, he recorded it on the machine’s tape, as well, as proof for Edward and any other doctors he might call in that everything looked normal. And it did. The screen showed a normal, healthy, if somewhat large, 7 ½ to 8 month male fetus. There was a strong fetal heartbeat, though it was perhaps a little too steady to be truly ‘normal.’

Frank turned off the machine’s tape and signaled Karen to do a Sphere. He held the probe steady on Cathy’s distended belly. Karen raised the Sphere and immediately the creature went wild. Cathy’s belly began jerking away from where Karen was standing, and tentacles shot out her eyes, ears, mouth, even her vagina, trying to escape. But it was as if the thing was tethered somehow to Cathy’s womb now. Frank leaned over and grabbed a bottle of saline from the table. He shot a stream at the nearest tendril, and it flinched. Obviously they’d need a much stronger solution to do any real damage to it. As the Sphere ended, all the tentacles pulled back into Cathy’s body. What Frank had seen on the ultrasound screen was indeterminate, but there may have been a good-sized mass at the center of all the tentacles.

Frank set the probe aside and began to check Cathy’s vitals. Her pulse was up to about 200, but beginning to drop already. He leaned in to wrap the cuff around her arm, and a tendril shot out of Cathy’s mouth.

It grabbed Frank’s closest arm and began to crawl up it toward his ear. Karen leaned against the window and put up another Sphere, her heart trying to pound a hole in her chest. The tendril released Frank’s arm and tried to crawl directly away from Karen. Frank stepped back and pulled out his Taser. The probes sunk deep into the meatiest part of the tentacle, and it vibrated for a second. But the shock didn’t seem to affect Cathy at all. Frank pulled out the probes, and the Sphere went down. As it did, the thing tried to retreat back into Cathy, but it was moving slowly. Frank flipped on the defibrillator. When it was charged, he pressed the paddles against the tendril and pushed the triggers. The thing stopped moving for a second, then twitched and tried to retreat again, even more slowly. And again the charge had no visible effect on Cathy.

Frank took the knife from his pocket and cut into the tendril. It was like cutting taffy, and he was able to take a large chunk of it before it had retreated too far back into Cathy’s mouth. He put the piece of tentacle into a specimen dish. It continued to twitch randomly, but it seemed to lack the will to move far or the intelligence to escape. So the creature must have some centralized brain that the specimen was now detached from. Frank covered it and set it aside in order to stabilize Cathy’s vitals. But already her numbers were returning to normal levels. She’d begun to stabilize as soon as Frank and the creature stopped fighting. The only remaining effect was that her BP was a little low. That was better than it being too high, though, so Frank cleaned up and slipped the disk and the specimen dish into his pocket and went out.

Karen stumbled to the nearest chair. She knew she had already used her Arts more than she should have that night. But when the thing attacked Frank, she couldn’t let him fight it alone. She felt nauseous now, and knew that she wouldn’t be able to use her Arts again without getting some sleep first. Frank came over to check on her. “You can’t let anyone else be in there alone with her. That’s when it attacks. And I won’t be able to stop it again tonight,” she whispered to Frank.

Frank nodded and checked her pulse. It was a little weak, but steady. “Are you alright?” he asked her. She was much paler than before, and looked like she might pass out.

“I’ll be fine,” she told him. “I just need some sleep. Let me sit here a minute and then I can go back to the waiting room until Justin gets back.”

Frank went over and interviewed the nurse on duty. He wanted to know if she had any connection to Harrington. She’d met him when he came in to visit his wife earlier, she told Frank, and thought he was “the most wonderful, charming, kindest man” she’d ever met. “Mrs. Harrington is a very lucky woman, to have a husband like him,” she said. Frank smiled and nodded. She didn’t follow the script to the letter, but it was close enough. The man was obviously just that charming, and she bought into it.

“It seems to disturb Mrs. Harrington to have close contact with visitors right now. Her vitals jumped just while I was in there examining her,” Frank explained to the nurse. “So I would prefer that you not go in there unless it’s an emergency, and closely supervise any visitors. In fact, if you can talk them out of disturbing her, that would be best. And if anyone questions this, direct them to me or her primary, Dr. Carter.” She nodded and made notes on her chart.

When he was done, Karen was standing and looking a little wobbly, so Frank helped her back to the waiting room. Edward and Leigh were already back there. “My God, are you OK, Karen?” Edward asked, standing to help her into a chair. Frank let him help her, and he signaled to Leigh that she should stay and that he was going to check on Aiden.

“It’s just been a really long day, and all of this has been a bit of a shock,” she told Edward. “I just felt a little light-headed after I left Mom’s room, so I sat and waited for Dr. Muelder to finish the ultrasound. He said the baby looks fine.” Edward nodded, and he and Leigh sat on either side of Karen, in case she felt faint.

When Frank got over to Endoscopy, there was a spirited debate going on. Angie was standing to one side watching the whole thing and trying to stay out of the middle of it. She looked relieved when she saw Frank. “They want to admit Aiden, and he’s trying to talk them out of it,” she whispered to him. Frank recognized the head of Gastroenterology and the Chief of Residents among the group.

“If you walk out now, it’s AMA,” one doctor told him, throwing up his hands.

“What’s going on,” Frank asked the head of GE.

“He blew about 10 spots in his stomach, and that’s a hell of an ulcer,” the doctor said. “We need to keep him for at least 48 hours and enforce full rest. And that’s going to include sedation if he doesn’t settle down.” The doctor had raised his voice so that Aiden could hear that last bit. “What he really needs is a month of vacation. But if he agrees to stay, we can let you and his friends see him for 20 minutes. Then he’s ours.”

“And if he doesn’t agree?” Frank asked. The doctor frowned. Frank could tell that it wasn’t an option they were considering. “Look,” Frank told him. “You know that he’ll go crazy being in the hospital and not being able to help out or attend to his patients. And chemical rest is not helpful in these situations. In my medical opinion, it would be worse for his condition than letting him leave. In fact, he’s better off as far away from here as we can get him for a while, if he’s to get any real rest.”

The Chief of Residents had come over, and both doctors were thinking about what Frank said. The squabble around Aiden had quieted down. “What are you suggesting?” the head of GE asked.

Frank explained that he would take full responsibility for Aiden. Aiden would stay in his own home and take whatever treatment the doctors at Receiving determined was most expedient, and Frank would see him every day and report his progress. He would be on full leave for a month, and at the end of that time would report back to the doctors at Receiving to be examined. He would not return to work...or even show his face at the hospital...until he’d been given a clean bill of health. There was more quibbling and extracting of promises from Aiden, a fair amount of consultation and prescribing, and agreement that there would be some psychotropics included in the med list, but not harmful ones. Aiden had immediately picked up on what Frank was doing, and did and said exactly what he needed to for Frank’s plan to work. And in the end, everyone agreed that it was a reasonable treatment, considering.

While Frank was dealing with that, Tony and Justin had returned and been directed up to the Isolation waiting room. They’d swung back past the garage to return the torch and welder and pick up the other two paint suits. The one Tony had worn was fine, but the mask of Justin’s was a little crispy for safety. Then they stopped at a convenience store and picked up as much salt as they could carry. And Tony insisted on going past an Italian place to pick up some linguini and red sauce. He was hungry again, even though he’d eaten a couple of the Coneys in the car, and figured that the others might want something by now. Too bad he kept choosing food that looked a little too much like the thing they were fighting....

Justin knew in a split second that Karen had pushed herself too far. Leigh stood to let him sit beside his wife, and Justin pulled her close. She laid her head on his shoulder and didn’t argue when she felt him boost her energy a little. She knew he’d done quite a bit of ‘work’ that evening, too, and she knew that she recovered from the strain faster than he did. So she didn’t want him wasting more energy than he could spare. Tony offered them all some of the pasta, and seemed put out that no one wanted any. He sat at one of the little tables in the room and ate by himself.

Karen felt a little better, and she lifted her head and looked at Edward. “Has anyone told Leslie or my brothers yet?” she asked him.

Edward’s head drooped, as if he really felt bad about the omission. “No,” he answered. “Everything happened so suddenly, and....”

“Do they know about her being pregnant?” she asked. She held her breath waiting for the answer. Was she the only one Mom had hidden this from?

“No,” Edward said. “She said she wanted it to be a surprise, but I think she was a little embarrassed about it, you know, at her age.” He was pulling out his phone.

“No, that’s OK,” Karen said, straightening up and patting Edward’s hand. “I’ll call them. I don’t want you to be the bearer of bad news.” She stood and Justin stood with her. She wasn’t going anywhere without him when she was in this condition. The two headed for the door. Frank was just coming up the hallway, Angie pushing Aiden in a wheelchair right beside him. Tony and Leigh saw them and stepped out to join everyone in the hallway. Frank filled them all in on Aiden’s situation, and Karen explained that she needed to call her sibs. It was almost midnight, and she hoped they were all still up. The whole team followed her outside, leaving Edward alone in the waiting room.

Karen’s sister and brothers were just as shocked as Karen about their mom’s condition. None of them had any idea she was pregnant. And they all told the same story as Karen, about Cathy being evasive when they tried to see her. Now they understood why. They all agreed to take turns staying at the hospital with Edward, until the doctors figured out what was wrong with Mom. Since Sean lived closest, he’d come down first. Patrick and Beth would come by in the morning, and that would give Leslie time to find a sitter for the kids. Then she’d come by as soon as she could get there and stay until Dave got off work. By then, Karen would be able to come back. Karen closed her phone. They were all standing around Frank’s car.

“So, how do we kill the thing and dispose of the remains without people noticing the disappearing baby?” Justin asked.

“Black market?” Karen suggested. Justin turned and looked at her like tentacles had just shot out her mouth. “What? All we have to do is find one the right color and age, and make a switch. Money can buy anything these days, and we have plenty of it,” she rationalized.

“I am not doing that,” Justin said. “Besides, it’s illegal.”

“I’m not worried about the illegal,” Karen told him. “And it’s not entirely immoral, since there are plenty of babies out there that need adopting. It’s just faster than adoption.”

“Ask the women they kill for the babies if it’s immoral,” Justin retorted.

“It won’t work anyway,” Frank interrupted. “Harrington’s savvy enough to request a DNA test if there’s anything even remotely hinky about the birth. We have to eliminate him and the creature for it to work.”

“Isn’t there some disease that could explain her illness, something that would require a late-term abortion to save her life?” Justin asked.

“Maybe,” Frank said. “But it would take too long to find the right disease. And there would need to be an autopsy of the remains. We can’t let that happen. Whatever we take out of her, it isn’t going to look anything like an 8-month male fetus. I can pretty much guarantee that. And at this point, the thing is tethered pretty firmly inside her. It can attack someone else and split off a part of itself to infect that person, but getting the main body of it out of Cathy may require surgery.”

“At the very least, we need to get her out of Receiving and into somewhere else more private,” Justin suggested. “Don’t we have some contact at that hospital that Fr. Damian stayed at?”

"We should try an exorcism," Tony said. "It could be a demon, even if it's not one I've read about before."

“What? Should we have her transferred to Cottage’s Exorcism Ward?” Karen asked. It was late, she was nearly dead tired, the evil SOB that married her mother had gotten her pregnant with some kind of Hell Spawn, and they had no idea how to get the thing out of her mom without people noticing or without killing Mom. She didn’t see how moving Mom would help.

"Sure," Frank said. "Maybe they have a quiet little room in the basement for that kind of thing."

The others all stared at Karen, wondering if she was doing OK. Justin crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. He hated it when Karen made sarcastic jokes about one of his ideas. He knew she wasn’t trying to hurt him, that she was tired and spent and worried about her mom. But it hurt all the same.

Karen leaned her head against Justin’s arm and wrapped an arm around his waist. “Sorry, hon. I just don’t think Edward’s gonna agree to that. And the marriage license gives him the right to do whatever he wants with her and there’s nothing I can do about it.” She nearly spit out the last few words.

“She’s right,” Frank agreed. “If we try to move her, he’ll call in his own doctors and have her moved to them. He might do it anyway, and there isn’t anything we can do to stop it.”

The team stood in a small circle, staring at each other and at their feet, trying to think of what to do next.

In the few weeks since the ‘Group Hug,’ the group had, at Karen’s urging, begun having regular team meetings. Sometimes they were for training, with Frank and Angie setting up scenarios for the team to work through. For one, they rented the shooting range, to run through a zombie attack drill with ‘pop-up’ zombies and non-combatants scattered around the course. For another, they rented the dojo for practice using non-lethal hand-to-hand techniques. And a third was devoted to Aiden running them all through a Red Cross first-aid clinic, with a greater focus than the usual clinics had on violent injuries like gunshot wounds, knife wounds, bites, limb loss, etc. Other meetings were brainstorming sessions, sitting around the table at the safe house checking out potential ‘trouble’ via news and ‘conspiracy’ websites, or going over old research to find possible new links, or reviewing new weapon ideas that Justin was working on, like the silver-tipped tranquilizer darts. And one meeting involved just checking on creatures and victims from previous cases, like Marlene, and ‘Bob,’ and the cement-encased Weendigo.

Otherwise, things seemed to be quiet. Fr. Colin eventually made it back to Detroit, apologizing profusely for having taken so long to come and bless the condo. Leigh hadn’t stayed there since Deacon had been in the place, opting to stay with Aiden and Angie or Justin and Karen until she found another place for herself. Fr. Colin didn’t find anything ‘strange’ occupying the space. But there had been several events there associated with the team and the Unknown, and Leigh felt it might be a good idea to ‘cleanse’ it before Karen rented it out to anyone else.

Karen was still trying unsuccessfully to see her mom. And she was beginning to think that her mom was trying to avoid seeing her. They hadn’t seen each other since having lunch together one day back in May, though Karen spoke to Cathy about once a week on the phone. Somehow they could never get their schedules to line up so that they could even meet for a quick lunch. Cathy had been traveling a lot again with Edward, since business was picking up for him in the new year. And then Karen was gone on her dig all summer. But lately, Cathy had sounded almost evasive when Karen brought up the subject of seeing her. She would hesitate longer before answering, as if she were trying to figure out a new excuse, one she hadn’t used before. And some of the excuses sounded lame to Karen, like when Cathy claimed one time that she was so busy packing for their next trip that she couldn’t take a break for lunch, or another that she wasn’t feeling very well and didn’t want to pass the ‘bug’ to Karen. Finally, on October 10, when most of the team was gathered at the safe house for a meeting anyway, Karen brought the problem up to the others over the Italian food she’d picked up on the way over.

“Way back in April or May, we talked on the phone about her and Edward having children,” Karen said, shaking her head. “When I told Mom that I thought she was past the age where she could have them, she asked what I thought of them adopting. I dunno. Maybe they’re going through with it, and that’s why she’s so busy. I’ve heard it can be a long and difficult process getting approved to adopt. Or maybe it’s already been approved and she wants to surprise the family with it at Thanksgiving, and she’s afraid that she’ll spill the secret if she sees me before then. I just.... I know Mom would be devastated, but for the sake of all the orphans out there, I hope that Edward doesn’t get approved. I can’t even imagine how badly that kid would get twisted by him.” Frank was already on the computer before Karen finished talking.

“I got access to all the medical records I could find on your mother,” Frank told Karen and the others. “She had her annual check-up in May and all her test results looked good. And she hasn’t had any reason to see a doctor since then, at least as far as I can tell from the records I was able to get access to. However, there could be records that haven’t been computerized, or she’s seeing doctors who keep their files anonymous.”

“Can you check where she is right now?” Justin asked.

“And where Edward should be right now?” Leigh added.

“Karen, do you have your mother’s cell number?” Frank asked. Karen opened her phone and pulled up the number in the phone book. Frank typed it into the laptop, then sat back and waited. A moment later, he leaned forward to look at something that caught his attention. “This is interesting,” he muttered. He typed again. “Hmm. The GPS chip in her phone is off, and so is the phone. Do you have any other numbers for her?”

“No, it’s the same number she’s been using and that she usually calls me from,” Karen told him.

Talking as he scrolled through something on the screen, Frank said, “Well, it looks like most of Harrington’s speaking engagements are in the DC area and the southeast. Lots of government work. But his next one is in Dearborn.” It was about 8:45pm, and Karen’s phone rang. The caller ID display just showed “MI call.”

“Hello?” Karen answered.

“Karen...? Help....” It was her mom’s voice and she sounded distressed. Karen waited, but there was only silence, and then the connection was dropped.

“It was my mom, but...she sounded upset and then...nothing,” Karen said, her voice wavering, as she held the phone out to Frank, trusting that he would find some way to trace the call. Frank started pressing buttons on the phone to bring up the last call. When he saw that no number was recorded, he plugged the phone into his laptop. Leigh and Angie began clearing away the rest of the food, and Karen stood nervously beside Frank. Justin went and put his arms around her.

“It came from somewhere downtown...maybe the MGM Grand,” Frank said. Karen grabbed her coat and headed for the door. She glanced over her shoulder as she put her hand on the doorknob, and saw that no one was behind her.

“Come on! We have to get down there and find her!” she shouted.

“Hon, we’re not even sure...” Justin started.

“I can work on narrowing it down in the car, if someone else wants to drive,” Frank said, already unplugging the laptop from the power cord. The others grabbed their coats and whatever else they thought they might need that was close at hand on their way to the door, and fell in behind Frank and Karen. Justin grabbed the keys to Frank’s sedan, which was big enough to carry all six of them, and Aiden locked up the safe house on their way out. Aiden and Angie bracketed Frank in the back seat, so that he wouldn’t be jostled too much as Justin negotiated the corners at the highest speed he could without drawing unwanted attention.

“Can you narrow it down to a room, or one of the lounges, or...?” Justin asked.

“Working on it....” Frank answered curtly.

“Maybe if you tapped into the security cameras,” Justin suggested. Frank didn’t respond this time.

“OK. It looks like there’s some sort of fund-raising event booked into the ballroom tonight,” Frank reported from the back seat. Justin was just pulling up in front of the casino. They could see a crowd of people in evening clothes streaming in and out the doors; and then further ahead the red lights of an ambulance caught their attention. It was just pulling away, leaving a handful of security men and a couple of people who looked like floor managers standing in a small cluster where it had been parked.

“Could that be her?” Justin asked. “Should I follow it?”

“We don’t know if it’s her yet,” Leigh told him.

“And following it, if it’s not her, could waste precious time if she’s still inside somewhere and in trouble,” Frank said, typing quickly on the keys.

“Can you tap into the ambulance radio to find out?” Justin suggested. “Or at least find out where they’re headed?”

“We’d have to interrupt their connection with the hospital...” Frank said, looking at Aiden to see what he thought.

“We could just listen until we know if it could be her,” Aiden mused. Frank tapped a few more keys, and they could hear what must have been one of the EMTs speaking to the hospital.

“Receiving, this is Superior 423. I’ve got a pregnant, middle-aged white female. Seems she collapsed at the Grand. She’s stable, but her BP is low, 110 over 60.”

“Pretty big coincidence, don’t you think?” Frank said as the EMT continued to give Receiving his patient’s vitals. Frank tapped Justin on the shoulder, and Justin pulled out and began to maneuver to get ahead of the ambulance. “Leigh, maybe you should flip on the lights,” Frank suggested. His car was equipped with both lights and a siren, but he didn’t want to draw too much attention until they were sure it was Cathy.

“Siren, too?” Justin asked.

“Not unless and until we need it,” Frank said. He brought the GPS tracker back up. Sure enough, the cell that Cathy had called from was on and its GPS signal indicated that it was in the ambulance they were chasing. But that could be a trick to draw them away from the Grand.

“Lemme talk to them,” Aiden said to Frank. Frank tapped a couple keys and indicated that they were linked to the ambulance and the mike was active. “Whoa! Whoa! Right! Turn right here!” Aiden suddenly said, grabbing Justin’s shoulder. “I’ll take you by a shortcut. Superior 423, this is Dr. Carter at Receiving. Can I have the name on that patient?”

“Harrington. Aren’t you off tonight, Carter?” the EMT asked. In the glow of the dash lights, Justin and Leigh saw Karen’s eyes get wide, and her hand flew to her mouth at the mention of her mom’s new last name. Justin looked back at the road when Aiden nudged his shoulder and indicated a left at the next corner.

“Did you say pregnant?” Aiden asked, ignoring the EMT’s question.

“That’s an affirmative,” the EMT answered.

“Estimate of her trimester?” Aiden asked.

“Definitely third,” the EMT replied.

“Thanks, 423,” Aiden said. He indicated that Frank should cut the mike, then tapped Justin for another turn.

“Uh, maybe you oughta put on the siren now, Leigh, considering the way Justin’s driving,” Frank said as he slid sideways, his progress across the seat stopped only by Angie’s presence next to him.

“Hey, I’m doing...” Justin started to object.

“...Very well,” Frank interrupted. “It’s to warn anyone else on the road to stay out of your way.” Aiden nudged Justin to make another turn, and as he rounded the corner they could see the back side of Receiving looming straight ahead.

“My spot is about halfway down that row that goes along the side of the building,” Aiden directed. He was opening the back door even before Justin had finished pulling all the way into the spot with the reflective metal sign with “Dr. A. Carter” on it. Aiden pulled out one of his cards from his wallet and slipped it under the wiper blade. The others piled out of the car and followed him in the staff entrance. Aiden led them through a locker room, grabbing a white lab coat along the way. Frank realized it might make them less noticeable and grabbed one for himself. Both were pulling on the coats as Aiden led the team into the ER. Aiden went straight to the nurses’ station to let them know he was there.

“Wait, aren’t you off...” one nurse began to say as the ambulance bay doors slid open and the EMTs wheeled in a gurney dominated by a very large belly...attached to Karen’s mom. Edward was walking alongside the gurney and looking very concerned, his hand resting on Cathy’s arm.

“Mom!” Karen pushed past Aiden and ran to the side of the gurney, opposite Edward. Cathy looked very grey, the same color Karen looked when she gave blood without thinking to eat something beforehand. But beyond the coloration, she looked surprisingly young, closer to 40 than her actual 64 years. Edward brightened slightly when he saw Karen. “How far along is she?” Karen asked him across her mother’s recumbent body. She seemed to be unconscious.

“About seven and a half months,” Edward answered. The others seemed surprised that Cathy still had a month and a half left, considering how big she was. But Karen recalled seeing family photos of her mom during her previous four pregnancies, and it appeared that she’d always ‘carried big.’ “We were at the party, and she just dropped. She’d said she felt fine and she wanted to go....” To anyone else, it would have sounded like Edward was blaming himself for Cathy’s condition, for letting her go to the party. But to Karen, it sounded like a very well-rehearsed act. She didn’t believe a word he said, and wondered exactly what Edward had done to her mom.

“Why didn’t she tell me? ” Karen asked Edward. The nurses were just taking the gurney over from the EMTs, who had turned their attention to giving the resident on duty Cathy’s latest vitals. Edward and Karen were told to step out of the way before Edward could answer Karen. The two backed away from Cathy, unable to talk over the activity occurring between them. Aiden was just charging over toward the gurney as the resident, Dr. Parker, turned to check the patient. The two physicians bumped into one another.

“Aren’t you off tonight?” Parker asked Aiden. He sounded a little indignant that Aiden was there, and Frank wondered if Parker might harbor a little professional jealousy toward Aiden, who’d been made Chief Resident.

“She’s a friend,” Aiden answered.

“She’s my mother and it’s a family emergency and he’s part of my ‘family,’” Karen told the other doctor.

“You’re related to the patient? Then you need to back off,” Parker told Aiden. He seemed to be glad to have found a reason to assume the lead position over Aiden. Aiden took a very small, two-inch step back away from the gurney, and Parker had to literally squeeze past him to examine his patient. He checked the chart, and lifted Cathy’s eyelids to shine a small flashlight into them, checked her pulse, and listened to her heartbeat with his stethoscope, relaying everything he found to a nurse who was standing by with a clipboard. As he did all this, Karen noticed small dark spots just below her mom’s ears, as if she’d bled from them and the blood had been incompletely cleaned away. When he was done, he now turned to the nurse and ordered several tests he wanted run. She made more notes on the clipboard. Karen looked at Aiden and put her finger to her ear as if she were rubbing it. He had noticed it, too, and gave a small nod. Then he suggested a couple other tests that should be run. The nurse started adding them to her list, but stopped when she saw Parker frown at her. Almost reluctantly, he nodded once and she resumed writing.

Justin came up behind Karen and put his arm around her. Parker had moved away from the gurney, so Karen, Justin, and Edward approached it again. Giving Edward a slight nod hello, Justin put his hand on Cathy’s shoulder. He wasn’t sure how much good it would do, but he took a deep breath and released it slowly as he transferred some of his own energy into Cathy. Her color got ever so slightly better, but what really startled Justin was the sudden rush of heat that usually warned him of an Unknown presence. The others felt the same thing, and all tried to gauge just how powerful the creature might be. It was relatively powerful, kind of like Camazotz. It wasn’t on the scale of the Hell Mouth, or 'BOB,' or the Weendigo; but it was more powerful than the Zombi Master had been. However, like him, the presence felt like just a symptom of something larger.

Parker motioned for a couple of attendants to move the gurney to a ‘room,’ which in Receiving was just a portion of space along a wall that had been blocked off by three curtains around it. He followed the gurney, with Aiden and Frank right on his heels. But when Karen, Edward and the others tried to follow as well, a nurse cut them off. “I’m sorry, but you’ll need to wait in the Waiting Room,” she told them.

She was about to lead them there when Angie told her, “That’s OK, I know the way.” Angie led the other four toward the small room with the uncomfortable plastic chairs. Most of them had been there more than once in the past couple years. Edward went to a chair and slumped into it, his face dropping into his hands. The shudder that wracked his body was visible to all of them. Karen sat down next to him and put her hand on his shoulder. For her mother’s sake, she kept trying hard to like this man. And if he hadn’t creeped her out from the moment she met him, she would have been more sympathetic to his obvious pain. Instead, she hoped that she could act half as well as he could, so that he’d keep believing that she was just a dutiful daughter.

“She just went to the Ladies Room,” he said quietly...in fact, apologetically. “She was fine. She’s been going a lot. And then she didn’t come back and didn’t come back.... Finally I asked another woman to go look and she was lying on the floor.”

“But...why didn’t you...she tell me?” Karen asked him.

“She was...she was afraid that you would disapprove. Or that you’d be jealous. I don’t know,” he told Karen.

“Jealous? ” Karen barked out a harsh laugh. That wasn’t the word Karen would have used. “Where did she get that idea? She’d asked about it months ago. And I told her it would be great if you started a family. But I thought she was talking about adoption! I only said that I didn’t think that she would be able to have another child at this point.”

“She... ‘started’...again, almost a year ago,” Edward said, looking and sounding a little embarrassed to be discussing this. “We talked about using protection, and what we’d do if she did get pregnant. But we kind of figured, well, what were the odds of that? And then when she did.... Well, I was so happy. I never thought that I would be starting a family at my age. And we were so excited. But she’s been very moody....”

Karen smiled at him. “Welcome to pregnancy.” Edward smiled sadly.

“And she’s also been happy...and scared. But everything’s been going well with the pregnancy so far, and according to the ultrasound, it’s probably a boy. At least, that’s what they told me. I really couldn’t tell what I was looking at.... I...I don’t know what I’d do without her,” he finished, his voice barely a whisper.

“The tears were a nice touch,” Karen thought to herself as she put her arm around his shoulder to console him. Leigh was sitting on Edward's other side, and Karen caught her eye. It was clear that Leigh was having similar thoughts.

In the ER room, Frank stood back against one of the curtains, doing his best to stay out of the way while keeping an eye on everything that was going on. Aiden made no effort to stay out of the way. In fact, he was hovering so close that it was making Parker nervous. The nurse that was in the room was obviously a veteran of the ER. She went about her business in a completely professional, if detached, manner. She'd seen it all in her years there, and this was just another unresponsive patient. All of them kind of wished that the med. student who was there wasn't. He was in the way without being at all useful. Oh, eventually he probably would be. All three doctors had been in that position themselves, and could kind of sympathize. But they were too busy trying to figure out what was wrong to 'babysit' right then.

Aiden did, at least, try hard not to say anything or interfere with Parker's work. He just wanted to make sure that Parker didn't miss anything. However, all three were coming to the same conclusion that the nurse came to almost immediately. And when Parker tested Cathy's Bibinsky reflex and it was negative, they finally had to admit it. She was in a coma of “unknown cause.” Little did Parker realize just how true that diagnosis was. Parker ordered several more tests that might give them a clue as to the cause. He'd seen the blood stains near Cathy's ears and suspected an aneurysm or a cerebral hemorrhage. Aiden concurred. But he had an ace up his sleeve in that he'd also sensed the touch of the Unknown. He shot a glance at Frank. He really wanted everyone out of there so he could try to Heal Cathy.

“I'll get him out of the room,” Aiden heard Frank's voice say in his head. Aiden nodded. The nurse had already prepped Cathy for being moved to a room, and the med. student was out scheduling her tests. “Dr. Parker, have you ever seen anything like this before?” Frank asked the resident. “Do you think it could be related to the pregnancy and the patient's age?” Frank turned and held open the curtain for Parker. Parker stepped into the 'hallway' and Frank followed.

“It could be,” Parker said, “but I'll know more when I get her history.” He stopped at the nurses' station and told them to have Mr. Harrington fill out the paperwork for Mrs. Harrington's admittance. They would also need his signature on a couple waivers. “Her pulse is a little high and her BP a little low,” Parker told Frank. “Neither should affect the baby, and we'll certainly keep her condition in mind while doing everything we can for her. She seems to be stable, but until we get a look inside, we won't know how much damage there is or whether she'll come out of it.” Frank nodded.

“I'll speak with the family,” Frank told Parker. Parker nodded and moved down to the next room, where a middle-aged businessman thought he might be having a heart attack. Frank turned and headed for the Waiting Room.

“Hon, maybe we should go to the chapel,” Justin suggested quietly to Karen.

“I'm not sure I should leave him,” Karen told him, glancing over at Edward, who was staring into space as if he were contemplating the worst possible outcome.

“I really think we should go 'out' there, 'see' if the quiet helps you gather your thoughts,” Justin said, his emphasis on certain words finally cluing Karen in on his idea that she should take a look at her mom Out of Body. Angie, who'd been pacing around and understood what Justin was suggesting long before Karen got it, stopped and tapped Karen on the shoulder. She gave a little nod toward the door, letting Karen know that she'd keep an eye on Edward. Karen looked at Leigh, who also nodded.

“It's OK,” Edward said. “You go on. Prayer might be the best thing for her right now.” Karen didn't realize that he'd even been aware of what was going on. For a moment, she'd actually forgotten who she was sitting with. She finally nodded and stood to go. As they walked out into the hallway, they saw Frank coming.

“Frank, can you keep an eye on things while I take Karen to the chapel?” Justin asked him. “I figured that's the one place quiet enough for her to go 'take a look' at Cathy.” Frank glanced into the Waiting Room and saw Angie and Leigh sitting on either side of Edward.

“I think they've got this covered,” he told Justin. “Why don't I take Karen to the chapel while you go help Aiden with Cathy. He's finally gotten a chance to be alone with her.” Justin and Karen both nodded and Justin went toward the ER, while Frank and Karen headed toward the chapel. Karen's spirit slipped free of her body easily, and Frank sat next to the empty shell, keeping it propped up in case anyone else happened to come in. If Karen hadn't been so concerned about her mom, she probably would have followed the hallways as if she were still in her body. But the mere thought of her mom lying on a gurney in the ER took Karen's spirit straight there, passing through walls, doors and curtains as if they weren't there.

She arrived there just as Justin did, and both were horrified at the sight they came upon. Aiden was standing beside Cathy, his hands on her as if he'd been Healing her. But his head was tipped backwards and there were tentacles of what they assumed was ectoplasm that extended from Cathy's ears, nose and mouth into Aiden's. Karen flew at them without even thinking, pushing through them to break their hold on Aiden. It felt like she was pulling on snotty taffy, and the backlash of hitting it sent her flying back across the small space. But she felt rather than heard a scream of pain from the creature, so she knew she’d hurt it too; and the tentacles retracted from the point where she went through them, pulling back into Cathy.

Justin saw Aiden start to drop and he lunged forward to catch him before he hit the floor. He could hear Aiden let out a little squeak, all that was left of the scream his body had been trying to force out since the moment the creature had attacked him. As Justin eased Aiden down carefully, he pulled out his phone and paged Frank with a 911. There was a trickle of blood coming from Aiden's ears, nose and mouth. “A Sphere might help right now,” Justin said quietly, hoping that Karen could both hear him and raise a Sphere when she was Out of Body. The backlash from her attack on the creature had hurt, but Karen had the same thought Justin had.

When Frank saw the 911, his first thought was that he couldn't leave Karen's body unattended. But getting Leigh or Angie would take too long. He poked his head out into the hallway and spotted a wheelchair. He also noticed that a nurse carrying a clipboard full of paperwork and a pen was just going into the Waiting Room. Frank grabbed the wheelchair and lifted Karen's body into it. He briskly pushed her up the hallway toward the ER. As he passed the Waiting Room, Angie spotted him. Luckily Edward's attention was on the nurse, who was explaining the paperwork he needed to fill out. With a quick flick of her eyes, Angie signaled Leigh to take a look out the door. Leigh turned slightly in her seat, as if she were uncomfortable. Which was actually true. She spotted Frank, who, with a nod, signaled her to follow him. Leigh got up as if to stretch, blocking Edward’s view out the door if he happened to look that way, and went out into the hall, then trotted to catch up with Frank and Karen. And once again, Angie threw herself onto the 'Edward grenade' asking questions of the nurse to clarify what was needed, so that she could ‘help’ Edward fill in the papers.

Karen raised the Sphere, and she and Justin could both see Cathy’s belly begin moving, lurching away from where Karen’s spirit hovered, as if the baby inside her were writhing, trying to escape from Karen’s presence. Justin pulled his gun and pointed it at Cathy’s belly. From the corner of his eye, he saw Aiden’s body twitch, as if he, too, were being affected by the Sphere. “Damn it! I was hoping that I hadn’t really seen what I thought I saw,” he muttered to himself, as he pulled his other gun and pointed it at Aiden. He hadn’t been sure until now, but he’d thought he saw some of the tentacles retreat into Aiden too. Just then, Leigh and Frank wheeled Karen’s body into the small cubicle, only to see Aiden’s head twitching back and forth and Cathy’s belly writhing, and Justin pointing his weapons at both. Karen felt the pull of her body, and she let herself slid back into it as she concentrated on the Sphere. As Frank stared at Cathy’s belly, he saw something moving, just under the skin. Justin slipped his guns back into his holsters in order to pump a little energy into Aiden; and Leigh raised a Mental Shield, unsure what it would do, but hoping it would help.

About a week after the ‘cat incident,’ after everyone had settled back into their routines, Frank contacted everyone. He called the meeting he was arranging a “Group Hug,” but everyone understood that it was going to be more like a debriefing.

For her part, Karen thought it wasn’t such a bad idea. They never really did that kind of thing on a regular basis when they finished a ‘case.’ But most teams, be they military, sport or business, had some sort of a meeting at the end of a mission or game or ‘financial quarter.’ Maybe it would help them all to work better as a team if they started doing the things that other sorts of teams did to keep things running smoothly. Regular practice sessions, group activities, debriefings. They did get together socially fairly often. And small subsets of the team would workout together regularly on various things, like Justin, Angie and Frank going to the shooting range, or Justin and Karen working on Karen’s boxing, or Angie, Justin and Leigh doing martial arts workouts together. But when a ‘job’ was over, they all scattered, trying to slip back into ‘real life’ as quickly as possible to avoid thinking about what had happened. One or more of them would schedule appointments with Dr. Muelder, but they rarely talked about a job as a group, to explore what they thought was done well or poorly and ways they could improve themselves as individuals and a team.

In the couple weeks just before the last ‘case,’ Aiden and Angie finished moving into their new condo; and Justin persuaded Karen, Leigh, Angie and Aiden to go to the Ren Fest, to see if there was anyone there teaching old weapon styles. He figured that it would never hurt to learn the basics of handling things like pole arms or shields. Sometimes he’d get together with a couple of his cousins who were involved in SCA, but it wasn’t quite the same when the weapon was a foam-wrapped PVC pipe as when it was cold, hard steel. Leigh offered to introduce Justin to some reenactors she knew... if they ever happened to go to Europe on a case and had some spare time. Justin had even been making a point of finishing reading the Zombie Survival manual, and starting to look through some of the information that Professor Smith had given them. But in the week between the case and the meeting, they had all gone back to work as if nothing had happened.

Frank made reservations for one of the private rooms at Opus-One. He’d managed to find a time when even Aiden could make it because he had a couple days off. Tony ended up calling Frank from some far-flung corner of the world to say he couldn’t make it. But besides the day he spent licking his...ahem...’butt,’ and the trauma of being squirted with vinegar, Tony hadn’t been very involved in the case anyway. Frank chatted with him about being a cat, and decided that Tony hadn’t suffered any real ill effects and had no opinion either way about how the case was handled. Other than suggesting that Frank might ASK him to stop doing something first, before resorting to the vinegar, next time.

The only person Frank hadn’t invited was Terry. Given the legally questionable tactics they’d used with Dr. Lindeman, he figured that what she didn’t know, wouldn’t hurt her in this instance. He was surprised, though, when Reg walked into the room and began to hug or shake hands with everyone. He didn’t specifically exclude Reg from the meeting, but since Reg had been in the Bay area with his sister and nieces, Frank wasn’t sure he’d even gotten the message, much less that he would have the time or feel the need to come.

“Hey, I got your message, Frank,” Reg said cheerfully, shaking Frank’s hand, then sitting down next to Leigh.

They ordered dinner, and when the last of the food was served, Frank got down to business. “I wanted to discuss some of our actions and requested actions in the last job,” he told them. “We all did or said some things that... well...were questionable in view of the whole SAVE creed about following local laws,” he continued.

“Hey, if you’re talking about me threatening the guy...well...he deserved it for one thing!” Justin objected, feeling like Frank was talking about him specifically. “And I wouldn’t have actually done it unless nothing else was working. But I know my role here–large and scary.”

Karen leaned closer to Justin and gave him a quick hug. She knew that he sometimes felt out of place and useless when the job required a lot of research or careful negotiations. But she also thought he’d done a great job playing ‘bad cop’ when they interrogated the vet. And she was pretty sure that she would have been willing to resort to violence had their positions been reversed.

“Hey, what about me!” Angie objected. “I’m...OK, well, not large. But I can be scary, too!”

“Only when people know you, Ang,” Justin told her. “Otherwise, you’re a beautiful, petite woman.”

Angie shrugged, knowing that Justin was probably right about that, and Aiden hugged her. He liked her just the way she was.

“I wasn’t talking about you specifically,” Frank said. “More than one person on the team expressed a willingness to use violence against the good doctor. At least of the members who could talk.”

“Mrow!” Karen said with a laugh.

“So wasn’t it weird that we could understand each other and them, even though they couldn’t understand us?” Aiden asked her.

“Probably because we were both speaking ‘Cat,’” Karen said. “For that matter, I could actually understand Tony, too!”

The others laughed. “Considering most of the time we can’t,” Justin said, “except when he’s talking about blowing something up. Then he speaks in perfect English.” There was more laughter.

“I just wanted to make sure that everyone was OK with what had transpired,” Frank continued. “When I first joined the team, everyone seemed more conservative, and aligned with the Catholic dogma against killing and torture.”

Karen didn’t say it out loud, since she knew that not everyone agreed with Fr. Andrew’s methods, but she wondered if maybe it was his presence that had reined in the group’s more violent proclivities back then.

“Well, you know that I’ve always preferred not to resort to violence,” Aiden said. “But considering who I hang out with....” He laughed, and for once Angie didn’t hit him for teasing her. “Hey, Reg, did you hear about Angie’s and my condo yet?” he asked.

“No, I....”

This time Angie did turn and punch Aiden lightly in the arm. “What?! It’s not a state secret!” Aiden said, laughing and raising his hands in defense.

Reg leaned over to feign hiding behind Frank. “I don’t wanna start a fight... especially if it involves hitting me, but... I haven’t heard much of anything lately,” Reg told them. “Exactly what happened on this last job?”

They all started talking, until Frank suggested that Leigh tell it, to save Reg from having to listen to four people at once. Each of the others added bits and pieces from their own point of view as the story came out.

“Now you see why Angie and me were kinda willing to put a bullet or two in the guy, right?” Justin asked Reg.

“Well....” Reg hedged. He was never really big on bullets to begin with, which was why he carried a Taser.

“It wasn’t really the vet’s fault, though,” Karen said.

“No, he didn’t actually cause the changes and he was basically clueless,” Frank agreed. “But he did ignore the severity of the problem, and try to cover it up.”

“But I can see why Justin and Angie wanted to do something to him,” Karen said. “I don’t know what I would have done in that position, but I might’ve been willing to hurt the guy, too.”

“And I never said I’d kill him, either,” Justin clarified. “I just wanted to scare him a little... and put non-lethal holes in him only if he refused to talk.”

“I was kinda thinking about lots of little claw holes, myself,” Karen said thoughtfully.

“Karen...” Aiden chastised her.

“Well, what about paper cuts?” she countered. “Those can really hurt, but I don’t think you can die from them...can you?”

“Karen!” Aiden shouted.

Karen grinned. Like Justin, she said things like that because they were outrageous and let her blow off steam, not because she had any intention of actually doing them. And it was pretty annoying to be turned into a cat. And scary if she let herself think about the possibility that they might not have been able to reverse it....

“I have to agree, in a way. I mean, you all know that I do believe in using necessary force,” Angie said. “But I’m also beginning to understand that force may not always really be necessary.”

Frank raised his eyebrows in surprise, and Angie stuck out her tongue at him.

“Hey, did you know that we have a maid now, too?” Aiden asked, cutting off the chance for an escalation between Frank and Angie.

“No,” Reg answered. “So why’d you guys finally decide to move, anyway?” Almost instantly, Angie’s demeanor changed. Everyone got a little quiet, especially Reg, who knew that he must have opened a wound with the question.

“That’s right, you weren’t here,” Leigh said, her voice hardly more than a whisper.

“Why don’t you tell this one, Karen,” Frank suggested.

Karen hit the high points of the story: that something had ripped half the neck out of a woman who turned out to be a new prof at WSU; that Aiden found that there had been a couple other similar attacks in the past; that at first it looked like a vampire until a floater turned up with her head ripped off; that they went looking for clues near where the prof was attacked and found a vampire; that he invaded Aiden and Angie’s place when Angie and Leigh were sleeping there.

At this point, Leigh and Angie commented on what had happened, and Reg could sense how, even months later, Angie was still pretty upset about not being able to protect Leigh. Rather than draw out the pain, Karen finished the story with, “Anyway, we found out the thing doing the killing was the vampire’s child after she ripped the head off one cop and carried away the other of the team who patrolled that neighborhood, after they tried to investigate the deaths on their own. We found the creature in an empty warehouse and managed to kill both her and the vampire.”

“And rescue the cop,” Justin added.

Aiden had been quiet the whole time, nursing the pain he felt over not having been there to protect Angie. “I wonder if the tension under which we live makes us tend toward more violent responses than we otherwise would,” he mused, as much to himself as the others. “So, what’s been up with you, Reg?” he asked cheerfully, trying to change the subject and get everyone’s minds off their recent cases.

“How are Claire and the girls doing?” Leigh asked.

“OK, actually,” Reg said. “The girls are fine, but I’m not so sure about Claire. It wasn’t real good for her to see her supposedly dead husband show up on stage and then watch her brother kill him, I guess.”

“But you didn’t actually kill him,” Leigh objected.

“No, but the association is there in her mind now,” Reg said. “But they have a live-in maid who’s really helping out, especially since she happens to have a background in psychiatry. Topaz has kind of taken over the role of ‘head of the family. And I’ve become just ‘Reg’ rather than ‘Uncle Reg.’”

“‘Paz mentioned that in her last letter,” Leigh told him. “Not outright, but when she referred to you it was as just ‘Reg.’”

“And I still haven’t really talked to my dad about ‘poaching’ my girlfriend,” Reg continued. “But my little brother is doing fine!”

Surprised looks shot back and forth around the table. Frank and Leigh had both made cryptic remarks in the months since Reg’s reappearance, but no one had ever come out and said that Audra was pregnant by Reg’s dad.

“Well, um, congratulations, I guess, Reg,” Justin and Aiden managed to force out.

“So, has she had the baby, then?” Leigh asked.

“Oh, no, not yet,” Reg said. “She’s got a month left.”

“So has Audra gotten you to call her ‘Mom’ yet?” Frank teased.

Reg groaned. “No. But my father can’t resist teasing me about it,” Reg answered. “Do you have any idea how hard it is when I think about her getting busy with my dad?”

There were understanding groans from everyone. Karen could certainly see the problem. The thought of her mom and Edward.... She shuddered. At least Audra was a nice person and Reg liked her.

“To be honest, I never expected to see that side of her... or that shape on her,” Reg joked. “She was never the maternal type.”

“So, Reg, Have you gotten a chance to follow CJ’s show, ‘Supernatural’?”

“Nah, I don’t have much time to watch TV,” Reg said.

“Well, if you get a chance to watch, check out the car,” Justin suggested.

“Why? Nice?” Reg asked.

“Yeah, if I do say so myself,” Justin told him. “I made it. The trunk is all tricked out with storage for weapons of all sorts, for fighting everything you could dream of.”

“Oh! Sweet. I’ll have to take a look sometime, then,” Reg agreed.

“Yeah, I kinda wish we had some of that stuff. Or at least a diary like they’ve got, that gives us some idea of how to kill these things when we find ‘em, rather than having to try stuff until something works,” Justin said almost wistfully.

“I sometimes wonder, ya know, when we can talk so casually about these things,” Aiden said, “whether we’ve stared too long into the abyss, if we’re becoming that which we hunt.”

“Well, if you can still ask the question...” Frank said.

Karen nodded. That was exactly the same thing Fr. Andrew had said to her once, when she asked the same question of him.

“At least I have an advantage over the rest of you,” Aiden told them. “I’ve already been a monster.”

“Not completely,” Angie argued.

“And we managed to fix it,” Leigh agreed.

“Well, as one who’s had to kill a loved one in the line of ‘duty,’” Frank said, “I can tell you that it does put you closer to that edge.”

Karen stared openly at him. He’d never told anyone, not even Terry as far as she knew, about his past. Karen had always understood from things he’d said that he’d killed people before, at the very least while he was in the military. But she never knew just how he’d gotten caught up in this Fight, or that it had forced him to kill someone close to him.

“Like killing my husband,” Leigh agreed.

“I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. But don’t you worry that having to slow down in order to question the necessity of killing will end up getting you or someone else killed?”

“That’s always a possibility,” Frank agreed.

“Well, I don’t plan to adjust my reaction time,” Justin said. “It’s a lot easier to shoot first and ask forgiveness later.”

“So, are you satisfied?” Aiden asked Frank, referring to the reason he’d arranged the meeting in the first place.

Frank smiled. “Rarely,” he answered. “But I knew where my moral path was headed before I walked in here. The question is, ‘Are you all satisfied?’” Frank looked around the table at all of them. “I had to put a gun to the head of my fiancee and pulled the trigger to keep her from getting possessed by a critter,” he continued. “I’ve killed for my country. And I routinely bend and break the laws of this land as a member of Homeland Security. I’ve taken 15 or so different oaths over the years to protect and uphold the Constitution, and they’re still all in force. But I just happen to know about enemies that most government employees don’t.”

They were all quiet for a moment, thinking about what Frank said. Karen swallowed hard. So he’d had to kill his own fiancee. No wonder he was so messed up. She wasn’t sure she’d have the strength to do that, if it came right down to it. She truly hoped she’d never have to make that decision.

”So how was that, anyway, being a cat?” Reg asked, looking at Karen and Aiden.

“Well, I could kind of see the appeal of what Tony was licking,” Aiden laughed, lightening the mood.

“Oh, do we have to?” Karen interrupted him with a groan.

Aiden grinned. “But I was more worried about my girlfriend,” he finished. “She seemed upset.”

“Yeah, well, her boyfriend was a cat.” Justin said. “So has anyone else been reading the papers?” he asked.

“I saw something about some crazy bishop in Mozambique, who’s telling people not to use condoms because there’s a conspiracy to wipe out all Africans by infecting the condoms with HIV,” Leigh said. “And apparently there’s a health minister in South Africa who is telling people that if males shower after sex they are safe from contracting HIV.”

Justin shook his head. “That isn’t what I was talking about,” he said. “I’ve been trying to keep my eyes open for ‘work’ for us. But I haven’t found anything other than a small article about some unusual hunting deaths in Ohio somewhere.”

“At least we’re not under any immediate supernatural threat here, as far as I know,” Aiden told them.

“Unless the Rakshasa is still around,” Leigh said.

“So, how does one go about finding a Rakshasa?” Karen asked.

“Put out Brownies?” Leigh suggested.

“I didn’t know they liked chocolate,” Karen laughed. Leigh shook her head. “I meant the other kind, the little sprites,” she told her.

“Oh, good! I thought maybe you meant the little girls with the brown uniforms,” Aiden laughed. “You know, the ones that become Girl Scouts, if they don’t get eaten by Rakshasas.” Everyone started laughing now.

“Did you know that the chocolate cake ‘Brownies’ were actually named after the other kind?” Leigh asked.

“Which, the sprites or the little girls?” Karen asked. By now, there was so much laughing, Leigh didn’t even bother to answer. Anything she said was just going to get lost, and it didn’t matter anyway. The conversation had been getting them down, especially Frank’s revelation, and what they needed most was some humor, not a lesson in culinary history.

“So are you in town long?” Leigh asked Reg, as everyone dabbed with napkins at the tears of laughter.

“I never know,” Reg said. “I hope so. I’m going to stay with my dad for now, at least.”

“Good,” Leigh told him. “I’d have offered you space at the condo, except I’m not staying there myself at the moment, until Fr. Colin has a chance to bless it. The vampire went there first, looking for me, before he went to Aiden and Angie’s. So I wouldn’t be comfortable there right now.”

Reg nodded.

“Hey, I saw something in the news,” Angie told them all. “Did you know that Ralph Macchio is being sued for sexual assault?”

“I hadn’t heard about that,” Karen said.

Justin shook his head. “That’s where kneeing in the crotch comes in handy,” he said. “As a male, I can tell you from experience that it’ll stop most guys cold. And most personal safety instructors will tell you that it’s still the most effective move for warding off unwanted attention.” Everyone looked at Karen and started snickering.

“Hey! I never...!” she objected. Justin grinned and gave her a hug.

“That and stomping on the instep and poking the eyes,” Leigh added. “So have you ever been kneed, Reg?” she asked him.

“Well...there was that one time up north,” he answered delicately.

“You mean by Leigh?” Karen asked. “Wasn’t that at the beginning of the fight when she tried to get away from the motel?”

“No, it was at the very end,” Reg said with a slight groan of remembered pain.

“That’s right,” Justin agreed. “She tossed you across the room first.”

“Oh, right!” Karen said. “That’s what woke us up!”

Leigh hung her head for a moment and turned a little pink, embarrassed by the damage she’d caused to Reg in that fight. But she knew that no one, not even Reg, held it against her, so she could laugh along with the rest of them about it now.

And they were all cracking up again. “Did you know that the ancient Chinese had a name for that move, called ‘Monkey Snatches the Golden Peach’?” Reg said.

“Wouldn’t that be ‘Snatches the Golden Pear’?” Karen asked trying hard to keep a straight face. That didn’t last long, because the whole group was falling off their chairs laughing by now, even Frank.

When Reg could finally stop laughing, he said, “Actually, it’s referring to the fuzz...you know....”

“Personally, I’d stick with ‘Wax On, Wax Off,’” Karen laughed. Justin, bending over to impersonate someone who’d just been kneed, moaned, “I’d like to go back to grabbing the pebble, boss.”

Once again, the room was filled with peals of laughter. Frank shook his head. “I officially declare this group no more disturbed than before,” he told them when the laughter had died down a bit. They all grinned at one another as if they’d just been absolved of all their sins.

“So, is anyone else interested in hunting?” Justin asked. “Deer season is getting close.”

“I might be,” Angie said. “Can I use an M-16?”

“Um, would there be anything left?” Karen asked.

“Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of bow hunting,” Justin told her.

“Oh. Well, I’d been thinking about me, a knife and a tree,” she replied.

“Hunh?” Justin asked, looking at her quizzically.

“You know, I wait in the tree until a deer goes by, then jump on it and slit its throat,” she told him.

“Mmhm. You’d better watch out for the antlers,” he said. “But actually, I think that might be illegal in Michigan. I’ll have to check.”

“I’ll just wait for the meat to show up in my freezer,” Aiden said.

“Me, too,” Karen agreed.

“Well there are other things that are illegal in Michigan, too, and that never stopped us,” Angie said. “Like Tasers. Unless you’re law enforcement.”

“But our Bounty Hunting licenses cover that, don’t they?” Leigh asked. “I still carry mine.”

“Yeah,” Reg agreed.

“So do I,” Justin said, “and yes, the license does cover them. But some people would argue that any hunting is bad anyway. I was out hunting with my cousin once, and some people from PETA came onto my cousin’s private land to stop us from deer hunting. Even threw balls studded with nails at us. I’ll tell you what, next time I’ll have a shotgun full of rock salt handy for them. Even if it is illegal. Not to mention bad for the gun.”

“It is pretty effective, though,” Angie agreed.

“And painful, from what I understand,” Justin added.

“Right, salt in the wound and all,” Frank said.

“Speaking of painful,” Leigh said, “did anyone else hear about that Dr. Israel out in New York? It’s a good thing you were never sent there, Karen.”

“What?” Justin asked, not having heard about it, but noticing Leigh’s mention of Karen.

“This nut-job runs a place where people send uncontrollable kids and they still use shock treatment,” Karen told him. “But I was never that bad.”

“Not just regular shock treatment,” Aiden explained with disgust. “Shock Aversion Therapy, they call it. The kids actually carry around batteries in a backpack that are hooked to electrodes on various parts of their bodies. The attendants carry remote controls to zap the kids if they do something wrong, whether it’s hurting themselves or hurting someone else or whatever.”

“Kind of like those collars you use on dogs to train them to not bark or to not go past the ‘invisible fence’ markers,” Karen said.

“I dunno,” Justin said. “It kinda sounds like maybe we should be making a road trip to New York.”

“Well, for their part, I have to say, it is a last resort,” Frank said. “The people that have sent their kids there have usually tried everything else they can. And it does seem to work.”

Aiden shook his head. “The whole thing still offends me, as a physician, even beyond all the other objections,” he told them.

And with that, they all began getting up and gathering their jackets. Frank took care of the bill, since he’d arranged the meeting. But everyone else demanded to be allowed to chip in on the tip at least, and Frank agreed. And they all went home with something to think about before they had to rejoin the Fight.

Karen had been deep asleep and dreaming when Angie screamed. It was a weird dream, too. Fr. Andrew was in it, and Justin, and sardines...and birds that kept flying just out of reach. When she finally woke enough to figure out that Angie was the one screaming, she also realized that her dream had been trying to tell her something. She looked at her left hand...paw. Her wedding ring wasn’t there! She licked her toes (somehow that just didn’t gross her out the way it should have) trying to feel for it, and felt nothing but fur and skin and the bones underneath. Then she looked down at her chest. When she couldn’t see the crucifix hanging there, she tried to feel for it, but her paw wouldn’t bend the right way to touch her chest with the bottom of it like she would’ve done with her hand. Maybe whoever did this to her had put them in her purse. She shot off the bed and ran for the stairs, practically flying past Justin’s legs. Too bad she couldn’t really fly. It would’ve been helpful when she missed the third stair because the spacing was different to her cat-legs; then she could’ve just floated down rather than bouncing down every...single...stair...until...she...hit...the..floor..at..the bottom. Justin heard the thumping and ran to check on her. He got to the head of the stairs in time to see Karen do the ‘I meant to do that’ stretch at the bottom then race off out of sight.

Once Angie stopped screaming and the cat stopped squirming, the others were able to figure out that it was Aiden. They also noticed that Tony hadn’t gotten up. In fact, his bed looked empty...almost. About halfway down, there was a lumpy spot under the covers. When Leigh pulled back the comforter, there was a large ‘tiger’ cat sprawled out, still sound asleep. She threw the covers back over Tony. It was about 8:00 Wednesday morning. Angie now had Aiden squeezed tightly to her chest. He’d stopped struggling when he figured out what happened. Now his only concern was comforting Angie...and breathing. He tried to purr, but she was holding him a little too tightly for that, so he settled for just laying?... No more like hanging there quietly. Justin went downstairs to see where Karen went. She’d gone straight to where Justin had left her purse on a chair. She first tried to feel around inside and pull things out one at a time. But the lack of opposable thumbs made that harder than she had imagined. So she nudged the purse to the very edge of the chair, grabbed the bottom of the purse in her teeth, and lifted the bottom, spilling the contents out onto the floor below. She gave it a quick shake, then dropped it over the edge too, and jumped off to start pawing through the stuff. She didn’t really carry that much stuff in her purse, since she only carried it when she just really didn’t want or need to drag her whole pack along somewhere. But when she didn’t find the ring and crucifix after looking through everything once, she looked again...and again.

By the time Justin got downstairs and found her, the stuff was scattered under and around the chair, and Karen’s head was deep inside the purse, checking to make sure the items hadn’t gotten caught up in a fold. She felt Justin coming across the floor and shook the purse off her head. She looked up at him and let out the most pitiful wail he’d ever heard. The others heard it upstairs, but Frank and Leigh were busy comforting Angie...as much as she would allow it. “What’s wrong, Karen?” Justin asked her, squatting down beside her. Karen held out her left paw, then licked it right about where her ring should’ve been. She wailed again, and Justin picked up her paw. “What? Did you hurt yourself coming down the stairs?” he asked. She pulled her paw away impatiently, shaking her head, and licked it again, then motioned toward her chest, where the crucifix should’ve been hanging. Then she used her paw to draw a cross-shape on the floor. “What? X? What are you trying to tell me?” Justin asked. He started guessing at all the things her paw and an X might mean. All the guesses were wrong. “I’m sorry, honey,” he said when she wailed piteously again. “I’m better at Pictionary than Charades.”

Leigh was just coming down the stairs when Karen tried her pantomime again. She’d licked the paw, then started pulling on the third claw, trying to make Justin noticed which ‘finger’ she was indicating. “I think she’s trying to tell you her wedding ring is missing,” Leigh told him. Karen stopped immediately and wailed again. Then, as best she could with her cat anatomy, she tried to make the sign of the cross with her right paw. “And her crucifix,” Leigh said. “Oh, God!” Justin moaned. He knew how important the two items were to Karen; they were the only pieces of jewelry she always wore. He swept all the stuff she’d dumped from her purse out from under the chair; then, seeing that they weren’t there, he dug through the purse, opening every pocket in it. But the ring and necklace just weren’t there. “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he told her, picking her up and rocking her in his lap as he sat cross-legged beside the chair. Karen wailed again. “I’m thinking we go find that vet right now and put bullets in him until he tells us where your ring and necklace are,” he said. “I can start with a toe, and work my way up.” He was only mostly joking. Then Leigh remembered the other reason she’d come down. “Justin, remember how Aiden found that injection site on Karen?” Leigh asked. Justin nodded. “Maybe you should be careful about touching her there, in case that’s what made Aiden turn into a cat.”

Frank was just coming down the stairs, finally sure that Angie wouldn’t accidently suffocate Aiden. “But what about Tony?” he asked. “He didn’t touch her, and he’s one too. There must be some other explanation.” “But neither of them had any contact with the vet or the vet tech,” Justin said. “On the other hand, those other nine people did. I wonder which one they all have in common, the vet or the tech?” Justin stood and set Karen on the floor. She had calmed down somewhat by now, though he could feel that she was still tense and upset. But he was thinking that if he could work out which cat/person was in which cage from what Tony had been able to tell them, they might be able to hack into the clinic’s records and see which of the two had contact with all the other victims. The project reminded him of those stupid logic problems from school: “If Jeff is taller than Becky, and Becky is standing next to the tallest person in the class, and....” He marked out what he remembered of the cage arrangement and what Tony had told them about the cat/people. Frank was working on finding a way into the clinic’s files. Leigh came over to watch him work, then quietly suggested that he might want to make sure he got to questioning the vet before Justin could. She was pretty sure that Frank’s methods would be more subtle and less physically violent than Justin’s. She did suspect that Justin was only venting, since he was obviously upset about Karen. But she wasn’t sure what he might be willing to do in the heat of the moment.

Karen paced the floor, for the moment more concerned about the missing ring and necklace than about her current ‘feline’ condition. By the time Justin had finished matching up the cat names he remembered from the various cages with the locations of all the cat/people, Frank had gotten into the clinic computers. From there it was quick work to find that Lindeman was the last person to sign off on each of the cat/people’s files. He was in the middle of telling this to the others when he was interrupted by THUMP......THUMP......THUMP...THUMP...THUMP... THUMPTHUMPTHUMP. At the bottom of the stairs, they found the tiger cat that Tony had become sprawled on the floor. Karen padded over to him. “Mroow meow, maoo,” (“It helps if you don’t think about moving and just do it, kind of like when you move on the astral plane,”) she told him. Tony warily got to his feet and tried it. Actually it wasn’t as hard as he expected. Then he went over and sniffed Karen’s butt. “MEOW!” (“HEY!”) Karen shouted, clamping her tail down between her legs. “Mrow, mrow,” (“Sorry. It jus’ seemed like da t’ing ta do, like lickin’ my own butt,”) Tony told her. “Meow, mroow,” (“Yeah, well, keep my butt out of it,”) Karen said, backing carefully away so he couldn’t get anywhere near her rear end again. The exchange got Tony thinking though, and a second later, just as Frank, Leigh and Justin were going back to what they were doing, Tony dropped onto the floor and started licking another part of his definitely-unfixed-male anatomy. Frank wrinkled his nose and headed for the kitchen. The others heard a couple cabinets open and close, and Frank came back with a spray bottle. He pointed it at Tony and pulled the trigger, and a couple squirts of a clear liquid shot across the room and pegged Tony in the head. “MEOW!” (“Fuck!”) Tony yelled. He shot across the room and under the couch, spreading the smell of vinegar as he went. Or at least he tried to shoot under the couch. But he was just a little too big to fit under the front edge easily, and it took him a dozen or so seconds of scrabbling and pushing with his back claws to work his way under. Leigh and Justin started chuckling. “That was kind of mean,” Leigh said through the laughter. “I think that’s private stuff, not public,” Frank replied, directing the comment more at Tony than Leigh. “I wonder how long before he figures out that a certain part is ‘barbed’?” Justin pondered aloud. “Eww,” Leigh said. “Can we not discuss that?” Justin just shrugged.

Angie came down the stairs in her A-shirt and boxers, Aiden still held tight in her arms. He didn’t look particularly comfortable. As Karen padded by, she stopped and squinted up at him. “Meow, meow,” (“That is you, isn’t it Aiden?”) she asked him. “Mrrph,” (“Mrrph,”) he managed to mumble. Karen took that as a “Yes.” “Raow?” (“Are you OK?”) she asked. “Mrrph,” (“Mrrph,”) Aiden replied. She took that as a “Yes,” too, and continued her circuit of the room. “Since it appears that the vet had contact with all the victims except Tony and Aiden,” Frank said, “I wonder if the injection Karen was given did have something to do with Aiden being changed. That doesn’t explain Tony’s case, but maybe he had some contact with one of the other victims.” Frank went over to the med kit and got gloves and a handful of syringes and needles. He went to Aiden first. “I apologize ahead of time if this isn’t as painless as it should be, but I didn’t get much practice on cats,” he told Aiden. Angie seemed almost oblivious to what Frank was doing, so Aiden helpfully wiggled one leg free from her embrace. When Frank was done with Aiden he went to Karen, who had jumped up on a chair and held her leg out (the one that hadn’t already been poked.) Then he collected blood from Justin and Angie, who had both had a lot of contact with their cat/people but hadn’t changed themselves yet. Finally, he and Justin tried to coax Tony out from under the couch, but Tony just hissed and growled and pushed himself deeper under it. He was still a little peeved with Frank. “He could’a just ast me ta stop lickin’ in da middle’a da room...” Tony thought to himself.

Besides the blood, they’d wanted to get more details from Tony about the other victims he’d seen. There hadn’t been any hits yet on the search of missing persons databases. Frank was hoping for a way of narrowing the search criteria. Obviously Karen’s purse had been left behind when she was changed, and the ring and crucifix were missing. And when she’d done the Sphere in the parking lot, she’d reappeared naked before turning back into a cat. Had the other victims been naked, too? And did Tony remember if they had any identifying marks or needle marks? “Meow once for ‘No’, and twice for ‘Yes,’” Justin prompted Tony as they questioned him. Tony was a little distracted, so it took some time and a little help from Karen to straighten out some ambiguous answers, but they finally were able to figure out that all the other victims’ astral-selves appeared naked, too. And Tony couldn’t remember seeing any needle marks on them. “I wonder if any of the clinic’s vet techs have ‘disappeared,’” Justin said. “Good question,” Frank agreed, “but we won’t find the answers here. I think it’s time for some leg-work.” Leigh had noticed some time ago that Justin, when he’d shot out of bed that morning, had managed to slip his boxers on backwards. But she couldn’t figure out how to politely point it out. So when Justin turned to pick up Karen, Leigh caught Frank’s eye and motioned at the offending clothing. “Uh, Justin, maybe you should put your shorts on properly before we go anywhere,” Frank suggested. “They’re backwards.” Justin looked down. Yup, they were. “I gotta shower anyway,” Justin said. He bent down to pick up Karen, but she’d had a sudden thought and took off toward the stairs. Her purse was left behind at the vet’s and put into lost and found; but since she was naked when she did the Sphere and Tony said the others were too, where did their clothes and jewelry go? Did the vet take them? And why? She’d tried to feel for her ring and crucifix, but couldn’t feel or sense them on herself in any way. But that didn’t mean they weren’t there. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on your point of view), they had two new victims right there in the safe house. She ran upstairs and jumped on Aiden and Angie’s bed, and after rummaging around and finding a partial answer, she jumped back down and over onto Tony’s bed. Sure enough, Aiden’s shorts and Tony’s sweatpants and gold chains were still there under their respective covers. So the vet had done something with them.

“MEOW! MEOW!” (“Hey, guys! Come up here, I found something!”) Karen was calling from upstairs. Karen sounded insistent, but not as upset as she’d been earlier; so Justin didn’t run for the stairs, he just walked. Aiden had managed to do a cat-wiggle around until he was facing Angie. He licked her nose, his only way of asking if she felt any better. “Do you want to get down?” she asked him sadly. She was still distraught, but she was starting to come around enough to realize that sitting there and squeezing the stuffing out of Aiden wasn’t going to help him at all. “Mrow?” (“Are you going to be OK if you let go of me?”) Aiden asked her. “You’re right,” she answered him. “I should get off my butt and get dressed and get to work.” She set him down and stood to follow Justin upstairs. He had gotten up there to find Karen pulling Aiden’s shorts and Tony’s sweats and gold chains out from under the covers. “Rrrrm!” (Look!”) Karen said, holding each item up with her teeth. “Hey, I get it!” Justin told her, excited that he’d finally understood her without having to resort to Twenty Questions. He went halfway down the stairs and leaned over the railing. “Hey, Frank! It looks like victim’s clothes and stuff get left behind. Aiden’s and Tony’s are up here. I wonder if Lindeman has the other victims’ stuff stashed somewhere,” he said. “I guess we’ll find out as soon as the rest of you are ready to get going,” Frank retorted. “You guys get ready, and I’ll be back shortly.”

Frank wanted to get the blood samples to the lab to get the processing started as soon as possible. He also needed to collect a few things that might make questioning the vet go more smoothly. In the meantime, Justin, Angie and Leigh got showered and dressed. They were all still upstairs in various stages of readiness when Frank got back. So he sat down at his computer to check a couple things. He’d been wondering if the vet was really the vet, or if someone...or something...had taken the man’s place in order to cause this trouble. So he compared the signature on the recent files to signatures from before he’d retired. They were the same. Frank also wanted to get Lindeman’s home address. It would be easier to ‘collect’ him for ‘questioning’ from his home rather than having to confront him in some public place. Karen had been pacing back and forth in front of the door. She was going to make sure they didn’t leave her behind. When Justin came down and saw this, he suggested that she might want to ride in his messenger bag, since there were some places where cats couldn’t really just walk in on their own...like the vet clinic. Karen went to the bag and stuck her head in. Dang! Justin carried a lot of stuff in there. And not all of it looked very comfortable to lay on. So she did a little ‘cleaning.’ As Justin watched, she grabbed a loaded magazine with her teeth and dropped it on the floor. A couple cartridges popped out and bounced away. She hacked a little. Blech! The metal tasted funny on her tongue. But that didn’t stop her from going back in for the other one. Next she tried to grab the multi-tool, but it was too heavy for her to lift with her teeth, so she tipped the bag over and pulled at it with her paw. That was when she saw the ‘spring billy’ at the bottom of the bag. Well, that definitely had to go! She tried to pull it, but it wouldn’t budge. Finally she ended up crawling completely inside the bag, bracing her head and front paws against the bottom of the bag and using her back paws to push it out.

When Leigh and Angie got downstairs, Frank stood and handed each of the three a bag. He was dressed in his MiB suit. “Here. Put these on,” he told them. They opened the bags. Inside, each had their own version of the suit Frank was wearing, right down to the gloves, sunglasses and dress shoes. Angie set her bag down on a chair and started undressing right there in the living room. “Uh, Angie?” Justin said, staring. She ignored him and kept going. Karen walked over and head-butted his shin. “Mrow!” (“Hey! Quit staring at other women!”) she told him. “Meow!” (“Mmmm, nice,”) Aiden said appreciatively. Justin shrugged and started changing, too. Finally Leigh gave up and did the same. “Wow! You even got the sizes right, right down to the shoes,” Justin commented. By the time they’d finished changing, Karen had already made herself comfortable in the messenger bag. “Hey, Tony,” Justin called, “are you staying here?” “Meow, meow,” Tony said. Two meows for ‘Yes.’ “OK. Do you want me to bring back some Coneys?” Justin asked him. “MEOW MEOW!” Tony answered. Two more emphatic meows for ‘YES!’ Frank looked at Justin. Justin shrugged. “I may as well keep him happy as long as he sticks to licking his own butt,” Justin said. “I don’t think that’s what he’s licking,” Frank told him. “I don’t wanna know,” Justin replied. “So, do we need new fake IDs?” Justin asked him as they finally headed for the door. “No,” Frank answered, wearing a slight smile. “Now, let’s go see if the good doctor is at home.” When the four Envoys and two cats got outside, they found that Frank had also traded his usual sedan for a ‘plain brown wrapper’ while he was out running his errands.

In fact, the good doctor was not at home. No one was when they got there at 9:30. “So do we need a warrant?” Justin asked Frank. Another smile. “Why don’t you check the back door?” Frank asked in reply. Justin went around the back and ‘let himself in.’ Then he came straight to the front door to let in the others. Angie stayed just inside the front door, holding Aiden and keeping an eye out for anyone approaching the house. “Angie, if he comes back, no killing him,” Frank warned her. She thought about it for a second, then said, “OK. Knees only.” “Copy that,” Justin agreed. “I have more options for getting information from him if he doesn’t have holes in him,” Frank told them. The two looked at each other, then back at Frank and shrugged. Then Karen and the other three black-suited Envoys started to take a quiet look around. The place was immaculately clean, the kitchen itself excruciatingly so. Justin wasn’t even quite sure anyone actually lived there. No one could keep a house that clean all the time. But as they explored further, they found signs that the doctor really did live there. A few items in a laundry basket, a clean coffee cup on the drainboard. There was a faint odor of coffee still lingering in the kitchen. It seemed clear that he lived there alone though. There were a few particular items the group kept an eye out for...a computer, a journal, or an unusually esoteric collection of books. He did have a collection of very old medical books, but nothing occult or arcane. Frank could feel a lingering sense of the Unknown in the house; like the odor of the coffee, it indicated that something had been there but wasn’t there currently. Here and there throughout the house, they found framed photos from trips to exotic locales and souvenirs from the trips. Some photos were of Lindeman with a vivacious-looking woman. There were neatly-kept albums with even more photos. But the woman seemed to disappear from the photos about 10 years back. Recent photos were of just him. And there was nothing from his recent trip to Tibet. There were no pictures of children, but a few photos showed him and the woman with a big, fluffy, long-haired calico cat. There were no recent pictures of the cat either, and no sign that a cat currently lived in the house. Karen was quite sure of that.

In the study, Justin found a laptop docking station. The vet must have taken the laptop with him. And there were no external storage devices. There was a printer, though, and Justin suggested checking the printer buffer to see if the vet had left anything incriminating behind in that, if they had the time. On a shelf were a series of handwritten journals, travel journals. Those ended several years back, though, and the team assumed that he must have ‘gone digital.’ Scanning through the journals, Leigh found that Lindeman was the type who cataloged all the boring details, down to ‘what I had for breakfast;’ and the journals were not very exciting to read. As Justin looked around, he made sure to check for concealed compartments on walls, bookshelves and furniture, but found nothing. “He doesn’t strike me as that type of person,” Frank said. Frank went to the kitchen and looked in the refrigerator. He was wondering if he might find a larger quantity of whatever Lindeman had injected into Karen. There was nothing of that sort in the fridge. There was a 6-pack of a micro-brew beer, and neatly stacked and labeled food storage containers. Frank found the same thing in the freezer. There were no strange vials, or anything even remotely weird. Not even food that was a little past its prime. Of course, that in itself was weird, considering what the inside of most people’s fridges looked like; but there was no accounting for personal habits.

Justin went out to check the garage. He was astounded. It was the cleanest garage he’d ever been in. The few things that were stored out there were neatly packed and labeled. There was a mat on the floor where the car was parked, to catch anything that might drip from the car. But even that was clean. Frank was booting up his laptop at the desk in the study. He wanted to check Lindeman’s phone records. He’d gotten a message that there had finally been a hit on the missing persons search, so he checked that while Lindeman’s phone records downloaded. A man named Peter Brown had been reported missing for 2 days by his wife. And the only reason she’d waited so long to report it was because the police wouldn’t take a report until at least 24 hours had passed. The report said that he’d taken their cat to the WSU vet clinic, and never returned home. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since. But she was positive that he wouldn’t have taken off, especially not with the cat. And the cat was found to still be at the clinic. Frank found that Lindeman didn’t make many phone calls from home, and received fewer still. There were some calls to a travel agency. But no calls that appeared to be of a social nature, and no calls to take-out restaurants. There was no DSL, and he had AT&T dial-up service for his internet connection. Even that was rarely used. He seemed to go online just once or twice a month to pay bills, though he would be online for a couple hours straight at those times. There was nothing overtly suspicious about any of the calls.

Since he was logged in anyway, Frank did some more poking around into the man’s past. Leigh had managed to plow far enough through Lindeman’s travel journals to find that the woman in the pictures was his wife Bess. But from one year’s journals to the next, he simply stopped mentioning her. She told Frank and he looked for her information. If they’d divorced, she would be a good source of info about the good doctor. He found that she was dead, of breast cancer. As Angie stood by the door, petting Aiden and watching the street and surrounding houses, she realized that she was feeling drowsy. So she walked a brisk circuit of the living room. That was when Aiden spotted the photos of Lindeman. “Meow Mrow,” (“Hey, Karen! I know that guy,”) Aiden called to Karen. “Mrrow, meow,” (“I treated him at the hospital yesterday morning, for really bad cat scratches,”) he told her. “What, Aiden? Do you want to get down?” Angie asked him, misunderstanding his conversation with Karen. She leaned over and set him carefully on the floor, as if he might hurt himself if she just let him jump. “Mraw?” (“Are you sure?”) Karen asked. “Marow,” (“Pretty sure,”) Aiden answered. “Morow, mro?” (“Do you think you should tell Frank?”) “Mrow mrow,” (“Come with me and you can tell him yourself,”) Karen told him. Aiden used his teeth to grab a small decorative pillow from the couch, and followed Karen back to the study. Angie was hot on their heels, thinking Aiden was going to destroy the pillow.

Justin was just coming in from the garage, shaking his head at its cleanliness, when he spotted Angie running past. “What’s going on?” he asked her, breaking into a jog to follow. “He’s got a pillow,” Angie said. Justin had no idea what she was talking about, but he followed anyway. It must be important if Angie was running. When the cats got to the study, they made as much noise as two cats could, to get Frank’s attention. Angie and Justin came in just in time to see the effects of the Sphere Karen raised. Karen was there, naked, squatting on the floor, with her arms wrapped around her chest. Aiden was naked too, just standing up and using the pillow to cover himself. “Only about 10 seconds,” Karen warned Aiden. “I treated Lindeman at the hospital yesterday morning for really bad cat scratches. I think that was the contact!” Aiden said quickly. A couple seconds later, both of them had turned back into cats. Angie couldn’t help but laugh at Aiden, sprawled belly down across the little pillow. She bent down and picked him and the pillow up. “So every one of the victims except Tony had direct contact with Lindeman, but not all at the clinic,” Frank said. “And yet, not every person who has contact with Lindeman turns into a cat.” He paused, studying the computer. “Brown must’ve been the first victim, since he’s the first to turn up in the missing persons reports,” Frank continued. “I’m guessing that others have come in and just not made it into the computer yet. The strange thing is that they haven’t been linked to the vet clinic yet, or I would have expected Terry to let me know. Just by dumb luck and the miracle of statistics, they should have connected at least a few more by now. The DPD may not have the swiftest boats in the water, Terry being the exception, but even they should have noticed the pattern.”

“Now, I wonder if the good doctor is at work today?” Frank said, mostly to himself as he typed on the keyboard. “Good...the doctor is in,” he said, continuing to type. “Dr. Robert Lindeman, DVM, is in his 6os, and drives a Land Rover.” “Any credit card activity?” Justin asked. Frank didn’t respond, so they figured he hadn’t found anything of note. The front of Angie’s suit was covered in cat hair, but she didn’t seem to notice or care. “I think we ought to stake out his car,” Frank suggested. “We’ll need to swing back past the truck first,” Justin told him. “If we’re gonna try following him around, I have a tracker and a ‘kill switch’ I wanna rig his Rover with first, if I can.” Frank nodded. They’d been at the house for about an hour, and they were pretty sure there was nothing else there for them to find. When they got to the truck, Justin gathered a tool box with everything he’d need for putting in the ‘kill switch,’ and he even remembered to grab an extra-large set of cover-alls to put on over the suit before he crawled under the car. “Nice that he’s so careful of your suits,” Angie said. “By the way...you measure us in our sleep?” “Probably just got the measurements from ‘Princess,’ I bet,” Justin said. Frank just smiled, which they’d learned was all the answer he was going to give to some questions. “They do tend to make one invisible,” Frank said. “And cut right, they make it hard to tell your real size.” Then, before Justin could get back in the car, Frank told Leigh to sit up front and Justin and Angie to sit in back. “If we do pick up Lindeman, I want you two on either side of him in back,” he explained.

They spotted Lindeman’s Land Rover at the back of the lot, near the back entrance to the clinic. As soon as they pulled in next to it, Justin slipped into the cover-alls and crawled under the vehicle. The thing had been recently washed, even underneath. This might have been the cleanest underside of a car that Justin had ever worked on, except for those ones he got almost as soon as they rolled out the factory doors. Putting on the tracker was a piece of cake. But things were wired a little differently in the engine, since it was foreign-made. So putting on the ‘kill switch’ took a little longer than it usually did. Which for Justin still wasn’t a very long time. So he had plenty of time to clean up when the job was done. Then Frank moved the car a short distance away from Lindeman’s, and they continued watching who came and went. Over the course of the hour they were sitting there, 8 people came out of the clinic and 6 went in, none of them the vet. Lindeman finally came out the back door at precisely 12:02pm, fastening the clasps on his Steelcase briefcase as he walked. Frank let him get to the Rover and get it unlocked...which meant his back was to them when Frank and Angie got out of the car. Angie set Aiden on the seat she’d been in. “Now you stay there,” she told him, waggling her finger. She brushed as much of the cat hair as she could off the front of the suit (“Good thing both Aiden and the suit are black,” Angie thought to herself), then followed Frank over to the vet. “So, does she always talk to you like that?” Justin asked Aiden, who was staring out the window intently at Angie. “Meow,” (“Actually, yeah,”) Aiden answered. “Too bad, man,” Justin said.

Angie stopped about halfway to the Rover and let Frank approach the vet alone. “Dr. Lindeman?” Frank asked politely. The doctor spun around, startled to find someone behind him. “Yes?!” he answered quickly, a hint of tension in his voice. Frank calmly extended his hand. “I’m Agent James Smith of the FBI,” Frank introduced himself. “I’ll need you to come with me.” “Can I see some identification?” Lindeman asked him. “Of course,” Frank said, holding out his ID. Lindeman studied it closely, until he was convinced that it was real. “What do you want?” Lindeman asked. “I have some questions for you,” Frank told him. “What’s this about?” Lindman challenged. “A matter I think you’ll want to speak with us about,” Frank replied. “I have a lunch appointment,” Lindeman said, trying to talk his way out of whatever ‘Agent Smith’ had in mind. “Hopefully we can clear this up quickly, so you don’t miss it,” Frank said with a smile. Lindeman sighed, and his shoulders dropped slightly. He pulled an older-model cell phone from his coat pocket and dialed a number. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to miss our appointment,” he said into the phone. There was a short pause. “There’s a gentleman here who insists on speaking with me now,” he answered, the emphasis on the word “now” sending the other person a message of exasperation and regret. Lindeman put the phone back in his pocket and Frank placed on hand lightly on his back with the other arm extended, directing him toward the car. When they saw the two coming, Karen nudged Aiden and they both ducked under the front seat. Angie walked ahead of them to the car and opened the back door for the vet. He sat down, and then was forced to slid to the center when Angie got in beside him. That left him squeezed between her and Justin, and he had to rest his briefcase on his lap.

On the one side, Justin could feel how tense Lindeman was, and he was glad the man was uncomfortable. On his other side, Angie was glaring daggers at him, trying to kill him with her eyes. Frank pulled out, and not even the other Envoys had any idea exactly where they were headed. “There’s been some trouble with the recent trip you took,” Frank said over the back of the seat to Lindeman. “To Tibet?” Lindeman asked. “Yes,” Frank answered. “What?” the vet asked. “We’ll discuss that when we get to the office,” Frank replied. “Should I call my attorney?” Lindeman asked, with a little trepidation. “Shouldn’t need one...I hope,” Frank told him. “You aren’t under arrest, sir,” Justin said. “Karen, why don’t you come up here,” Frank suggested. Karen wiggled her way out into the front foot well, and hopped up on the seat between Leigh and Frank. “Oh, what a pretty cat,” Lindeman exclaimed. Justin thought he felt the man relax slightly at the sight of Karen. But he showed no indication that he recognized her. He leaned forward and put his hand over the seat to stroke her head, and Karen growled at him. “Oh! Are you sick?” he asked her. Now he lifted his other hand, which had been holding the briefcase in place, and reached forward with both hands, as if to pick her up. Karen backed away and growled again. “She’s Irish, sir,” Justin told him. Lindeman leaned back in the seat and picked up the briefcase, holding it in front of himself like it would protect him from these strange and unhelpful people.

Frank could sense the presence of the Unknown. Karen concentrated on Lindeman. He seemed to give off a sour odor that she thought was either nervousness or outright fear. She could see the layers of air currents swirling around the back seat like the smoke from incense. Frank pulled the car up an alley, and stopped behind an old office building. Frank, Leigh, and Karen got out of the front seats. Angie got out and motioned for Lindeman to come out the same door. Justin waited to get out until Lindeman had moved to Angie’s door. He came around the back of the car so that he and Angie once again bracketed the vet. Frank had gone to the door of the building and stood waiting with his hand on the knob. “I really think I need to talk to my attorney,” Lindeman said. He stopped halfway to the door and refused to move another step. Justin put a hand under the vet’s elbow on one side, and Angie put a hand against the small of his back from the other side, putting firm but constant pressure against it. “Now would be a bad time to make trouble,” Angie said grimly. “Guilty people make trouble,” Justin added. “So do innocent people,” Lindeman replied, his voice a half-step higher with fear. He tried to take a step backward toward the car, but Angie and Justin held him where he was. Aiden hopped out the open back door of the car, and nosed at the cuff of Lindeman’s pants. He managed to work the pant leg up enough for the others to see the bandage that he’d applied at the hospital the morning before. “Mrroow!” (“Yeah, this is the guy!”) Aiden said.

It was clear to Lindeman that he couldn’t get away, and clear to Frank and the others that Lindeman wasn’t going in willingly with them. In fact, any minute now, Frank expected him to start making a ‘scene.’ “You’d better back away from him,” Frank said to Justin and Angie. Lindeman thought for a second that he’d won the battle of wills against this Federal agent. He was wrong. Angie, Justin and Aiden all took a few steps back away from Lindeman; and before Lindeman knew what was happening, Frank had his Taser out and tased the vet, the leads hitting him squarely in the back of one hand. All the hairs on Aiden and Karen stood up as they felt the residual electrical current charge the air around the man very briefly. At the first spasm, he’d dropped the briefcase with a clatter. When the charge was cut, Justin stepped up and caught Lindeman before he could follow the briefcase to the ground, and plucked the leads out. Then he squatted and let Lindeman drop over his shoulder, in order to ‘fireman carry’ him into the building. Leigh went and held the door open. As Justin passed by, Frank took the cell phone out of the vet’s coat pocket. He quickly and expertly disabled the GPS chip inside it, not knowing how long they’d be keeping the man nor how soon someone would miss him. Then he bent and picked up the briefcase. “I’ll stay with the car,” Angie told Frank. Aiden rubbed against her legs, then followed Frank inside. Angie kind of wished that he’d stayed outside with her, but she had a job to do out there, and she knew he had more of a stake in finding out what the vet had done.

Leigh held a chair for Justin to set the vet down on, then helped him tied the man in place so he wouldn’t fall over while he was still unconscious or leave when he woke up. Before they’d even finished, Aiden had taken up a position on the doctor’s lap, ‘guarding’ the prisoner. Frank set the briefcase on a nearby table and opened it. The first thing he found, lying right on top, was a strung-bead necklace with a carved jade pendant of a cat’s head. It didn’t take a degree in Unknown Science to figure out the artifact had something to do with this whole thing. Frank picked up the necklace and headed out of the room. “I’ll be right back,” he told the others. “There’s something I want to check out. Don’t damage him while I’m gone.” As he passed her with the necklace, Karen got all tingly, and every hair on her body stood on end. It was not a very comfortable feeling. And though she couldn’t see well enough to know exactly what Frank was carrying, she knew that It was what caused the reaction, not Frank. Before he’d gotten very far, Frank got the feeling he should put the necklace on. But he resisted the urge. He took the necklace to the farthest part of the building from the vet, and tried to sense the Unknown. Sure enough, he felt the same heat and pressure that he’d felt in the car. So it was this that caused it, not the man.

He went back to the other room, and set the necklace on the table, then sifted through the rest of the contents of the briefcase. It was mostly patient records, and a collection of notes in the doctor’s handwriting. It appeared that he was gathering case studies. Karen rubbed against Frank’s legs. “No, no sign of your ring or crucifix,” he told her. While he’d been out of the room, Justin had searched the man’s pockets and gotten out his wallet and a large key ring, and set them on the table next to the briefcase. Every key on the ring was oriented in the same direction, but they weren’t grouped by size. Maybe they were grouped by the location of the lock they went to? It wasn’t immediately important. Leigh had taken up a position behind the vet, close enough that he should be able to feel her there, but out of his line of sight. “Doctor? Time to wake up,” Frank said, moving across the room. The vet didn’t stir. “Wake up,” Justin demanded. He tapped the vet solidly on the forehead several times with his index finger. That sure as hell woke him up when the drill sergeant did it to him the first and only time. The doctor shook his head, and when he went to rub his forehead where Justin had tapped it he found that he was restrained. “Who are you people?” he demanded. “We’re the friends of the people you turned into cats,” Frank told him. “And we’d like our friends back.” Justin pulled out his gun, and Karen came to sit beside his left leg, staring intently at the vet. “You turned people into cats,” Justin said. “We want you to turn them back.” “I don’t know how,” Lindeman said. “Wrong answer,” Justin told him, lifting the gun to aim. “So, which leg is your favorite?” Aiden jumped down from his lap to get out of the way. “What?! I...you...you can’t,” Lindeman sputtered.

“Justin, why don’t you check the hall,” Frank said. It was not a request. Justin frowned, and backed to the door, his eyes never leaving the vet and Lindeman’s never leaving the gun. When he got to the door, he turned, smiled and holstered the gun and went out. “If I’m gonna be the ‘bad cop,’ I may as well play it to the hilt,” he mumbled to himself so quietly that only Aiden and Karen’s cat-ears could hear him. Justin put the toe of his boot against the edge of the door as it closed, so that he could prop it open a crack and hear what happened inside. “I apologize for my friend,” Frank said, going to the table and holding up the amulet ‘to look at it,’ but in such a way that Lindeman could see he’d found it. “He’s missing his wife and would like her back.” Frank set the amulet down and turned back to Lindeman. “I’d like mine back, too,” Lindeman told him. “Did she turn into a cat?” Frank asked, already knowing the answer, but wondering what Lindeman would say. “No, she died,” was all the vet offered. “How do we turn them back?” Frank asked bluntly. “I don’t know,” Lindeman answered just as bluntly. “It’s generally happening to people I’ve had some contact with. Some people change and not others, and I don’t know why. I was given the amulet in Tibet, by a monk. He said it would ‘bring me the enlightenment’ I seek. That it would ‘heal the hole in my heart.’ My cat Jesse ran away the day my wife died and I never did find her. I presume she got out, with all the people coming and going.”

“When did you first notice people turning into cats?” Frank asked him. “I got back a week ago,” Lindeman started. “Three days ago, I was examining a sick cat. I took blood samples and left the room to have them processed, leaving the owner and cat in the room. When I came back in, there were two cats and a pile of clothes. So I put both the cats in the kennel in back and gathered the clothes up. What else am I going to do?” he asked Frank, shrugging as much as the ropes would allow. “I didn’t even know how it was happening or that I was doing it. I don’t know how you figured it out. It’s happened several times now, but I don’t know why.” “Has the amulet spoken to you?” Frank asked him. “Don’t be silly,” Lindeman said. “It’s inanimate.” “As you’ve already deduced,” Frank said, “my friend in the hallway is distraught. And you haven’t told me anything about how to make him less distraught.” “Make sure they have their shots,” Lindeman said. “Bad humor isn’t going to help,” Frank told him. “I’m serious!” Lindeman said, his voice rising with fear that Frank might get mad and call the big guy with the gun back in. “She could be subject to all kinds of diseases that humans don’t get, which could be dangerous for them.

Justin opened the door slightly and stuck his head in. “Progress?” he asked Frank. “Yes, some,” Frank said. “One more question,” Justin said. “Wedding ring and crucifix?” “Desk drawer,” Lindeman answered. “Which keys?” Justin asked him. Lindeman described the key’s position on the ring and told them the serial number on it. Justin let the door drop shut onto his boot again. “So, what did you plan on doing with the poor people who are going crazy from being turned into cats?” Frank asked him. “What’s so bad about it?” Lindeman replied. “Cat’s don’t have it so bad.” “How would you feel seeing your wife turned into a cat when there’s nothing you can do to fix it or help her?” Frank asked him in return. “M...maybe I could turn him into one, too,” the vet offered. “I’m glad you’re being helpful,” Frank told the vet, “but I’m sure you aren’t telling me everything. So maybe this will help.” Frank pulled a syringe out from an inside pocket of his jacket, and the doctor tensed up, visibly scared now. “It can be painful, but maybe the pretty colors will help,” Frank said consolingly. The doctor was so focused on the syringe that Frank was holding, using his fingers to wobble it slightly back and forth...back and forth...back and forth...as he came closer, that the man never noticed that he was slipping into a hypnotic trance.

If Karen and Aiden hadn’t had the attention span of cats, they’d have slipped into trances as well. Even Leigh had to give her head a slight shake to wake herself up, and she’d suspected that Frank would be doing this. When Frank was satisfied that Lindeman was ready, he went back to the table and picked up the amulet and held it out in front of the vet. “What feelings do you get about this?” Frank asked him. “That I should wear it and that it will help take my pain away,” Lindeman answered. “Tell me about the person who gave it to you,” Frank said. “Very, very old,” Lindeman told him. “He came up to me wearing the saffron robes that monks wear. And he spoke perfect English. ‘I know I have what you’re looking for,’ he told me. ‘This will heal the hole in your heart.’ He put the amulet in my hand and walked away. How does someone move like that? I suppose it’s the martial arts training the monks get....” “How did he move?” Frank asked. “Very...sinuous,” Lindeman said. “How does it feel to wear it?” Frank asked. “Right,” Lindeman answered simply. “Do you have to wear it to change people into cats?” “I don’t know. I’ve been wearing it most of the time,” Lindeman told Frank. “Describe what happened the first time a person changed into a cat, in detail,” Frank told him.

“The cat was brought in with some kind of infection. I took blood and urine samples, and left the room to give them to a tech to test. The symptoms seemed to indicate a urinary tract infection. I went back into the exam room and thought the owner had gone out. Sometimes they go to use the bathroom. Then I saw the pile of clothes near the chair,” Lindeman said. “And the amulet felt like...?” Frank prompted him. “Warm and strong. There was a cat in the pile of clothes. I thought maybe one had gotten out of the cages in back and slipped into the room as I’d left it. I carried it back to put it away, but none of the cages were open and no cats were missing from them. So I put that one in a cage. Then I went back to the room and realized that it must be the owner, Mr. Brown.” “What was wrong with Mr. Brown’s cat?” Frank asked. “Dehydrated. Lowered kidney functions.” “Have all the cats whose people changed had the same problem?” Frank asked. “Yes! I hadn’t thought about that,” Lindeman said excitedly. “But...I’m not sure how it all connects....” “Are all the cats that you treated for this still in the clinic?” Frank asked. “Yes, and doing well,” Lindeman replied proudly. Frank thought for a second. Only Aiden and Tony didn’t have cats at the clinic for treatment. Aiden saw the vet at the hospital. And Tony did go into the clinic out-of-body. Maybe that somehow flagged him to be affected by whatever Unknown element was at work here.

“I don’t wish ill to any of these people,” the doctor said. “They obviously care for their animals. I can’t see what purpose is served by turning them into cats, though cats do have pretty good lives.” “Short,” Justin commented from outside the door. Frank could think of nothing else to ask the vet. He obviously had no idea how this was happening or how to reverse it. So he spent the next few minutes planting a new memory in Lindeman’s mind of what had happened there, to replace the tasing and questioning and fear. He was questioned by government agents, but he can’t remember their names. They had a question about something on his recent travel visa. He had a pleasant conversation with them, and got the problem straightened out satisfactorily. He will notice that the amulet is missing but it will not trouble him. He will feel that it wasn’t right for him. “The monk told you that it was time to move it to the next person who needed it,” Frank finished. As he was planting these new memories, he indicated silently that Leigh and Justin should untie the man and place all his things back where they’d come from...except the amulet. As they worked on that, Justin made wax impressions of the vet’s keys. Then Frank motioned for Justin and Leigh to guide the man back out to the car and help him into it. Frank picked up the amulet and slipped it into his pocket, then carried the briefcase out. Aiden and Karen slipped out just before the door shut, and hopped into the car and crawled back under the front seat. Frank drove back toward the clinic. About halfway there, he brought the vet out of the trance. “Well, I’m glad we got that cleared up,” Lindeman said. The others smiled and nodded pleasantly. “Here’s your car,” Frank said, pulling up behind the vet’s Land Rover so few minutes after 1pm that no one should notice that he was missing. “Sorry you had to miss your appointment.” Angie let the guy out, and managed to hide her reluctance as she did it. Then they drove off, back to the safe house.

As he drove the short distance, Frank could hear the amulet speaking to him. “Put me on...put me on,” it whispered to him. What? Did the thing think he was that stupid? As they went back into the safe house, he said to the amulet, “Turn my friends back into people and we’ll talk.” “The power to have what you want is in your hands,” the amulet told him. “You talkin’ to the amulet, Frank?” Justin asked him. “It’s trying,” Frank said. “Should we break it?” Justin asked him, concerned. The others looked at him, waiting for the answer. “Probably not,” he said. “That could keep them from ever changing back. We don’t know enough about it yet.” Karen went over and head-butted Leigh in the shin. “Mrow!” (“Time for some research!”) she told her. Leigh had Frank lay the amulet out on the table for her to study it. The pendant itself was jade, and carved in the shape of a cat or tiger head. Some of the beads appeared to be bone, others glass, and a few were made of buffed lapis lazuli pebbles, which are found naturally in Tibet. Leigh sat down at the laptop and began looking through the results of the searches she’d started last night. And she began more searches based on descriptions of the necklace and what they knew about how it came into Lindeman’s possession.

Around 6pm, Justin disappeared for about a half hour, then came back in with Coneys, some for the remaining humans and a couple that he cut up on a plate and put on the floor by the couch for Tony. The smell of the food was making Karen crazy. She had been sitting beside Leigh and watching her type, and doing a pretty good job of not playing with the mouse or the keyboard or Leigh’s fingers. (At least she thought she’d done a good job.) Now she began pacing around. She thought about going to snatch some of Tony’s Coneys, but when Aiden tried, Tony almost took his head off. Then the plate disappeared under the couch. “MRRoow! MRRoow!” (“I’m starving! Somebody...please....”) Karen cried. Leigh, who seemed to understand what she and Aiden said pretty well for not being a cat herself, started looking for healthy pet food recipes online. Angie had plopped down on the couch, worn out from trying to work while her heart was breaking. What would she do if they never figured out how to fix this? Aiden disappeared for a few minutes, then came back carrying a laser-pointer. He hoped that playing with him might cheer Angie up. Luckily, Angie still had her sense of humor. She flipped on the pen and got Aiden chasing the red dot all over the room. Karen cried again, and Leigh finally went out to the kitchen to see what she could put together from what she had in the fridge. There was a flurry of chopping and mashing of vegetables, and then Leigh set two plates on the floor with a mound of...something on each. Karen sniffed it. Blech. She never was much for eating her vegetables, and mashing them into something that looked like baby food didn’t make them much more appealing to her, no matter how hungry she was.

Aiden came over, breathing hard from playing, and sniffed it. His nose dropped into the food and the food started disappearing like he was inhaling it. He looked up to take a breath and saw that Karen had turned up her nose at the stuff. “Mmmrr?” (“You gonna eat that?”) he asked her. “Mrrn,” (“Not if I can help it,”) Karen told him. She walked away to head-butt Justin this time. Justin went to the fridge and got a chicken breast out. He started to put it on a plate. “Mrroww!” (“Cook it, please!”) Karen told him. He paused, not quite sure what she wanted. She went over and rubbed against the stove. “Oh, right, OK,” he told her. He got out a frying pan and some oil to saute it. Karen went over and head-butted Leigh again. Aiden had already moved on to the plate she’d put down for Karen. She sighed. “Alright. You are carnivores,” she said, getting out a can of sardines. She’d no sooner opened it than both cats were weaving around her legs screaming for her to set the can down. She did and Karen pounced on it before Aiden could get near it. Leigh got another can and opened it for him. By the time they’d finished licking the cans all the way around the kitchen floor, Justin had finished the chicken. While Karen waited impatiently for him to cut it up, she head-butted Leigh, then went over and rubbed the computer. If the Leigh-servant was done feeding her, then she needed to get back to her research. Justin split the chicken breast between the plates Leigh had put down, and the cats dove into it.

Leigh went back to the computer, and as she pored over the input from her research, she came across a description of a creature called a Rakshasa. It was a demon or unrighteous spirit from Hindu mythology. People who had been particularly wicked in their human existence could become Rakshasas in their next life. They were shape-changers and illusionists that above all else loved causing strife or distress. They could also possess humans. When Leigh had finished her research, she called the others over. Aiden and Karen were still ‘cleaning up’ from lunch, so they laid under the table and worked on that while they listened. Leigh told them about the Rakshasa. “From everything that I’ve been able to find, and what I already know about occult items,” she said, “I think that, since the amulet seems to be fairly strongly Unknown and wants to be worn and preserved, destroying it is the way to reverse its effects.” Frank looked at her, one eyebrow raised. He didn’t have to ask the question; his face said it all. “Yes, I’m almost positive,” Leigh reassured him. The little part of her that wasn’t positive was the same little part that always made her wonder if she was doing the right thing. This time she knew she was right to ignore it.

“Well, we’re gonna need to get those people out of the cages before we change ‘em back,” Justin said. “And that sounds like some B ‘n’ E. Gimme an hour down in the shop and I’ll have keys for us. Oh, and we should probably gather some clothes for all the naked cat/people.” Justin went down to the basement, and Angie grabbed a bag to collect clothes from what they all had lying around upstairs. Aiden followed her, and when she opened a drawer, he jumped in and immediately grabbed a ‘scrub’ shirt. “Nrrm!” (“I have a ton of these at home, pretty much one-size-fits-all!”) he told her. “Of course!” she said, laughing. She went back downstairs. “I’m gonna go get a bunch of scrubs for all of them,” she told the others. Luckily, Aiden had just gotten home from the hospital yesterday when Tony called them all to the vet clinic; so they had the truck instead of Angie’s bike. “Come on!” Angie said to Aiden. The black cat followed her out the door. They were back by the time Justin was done with the keys, Angie carrying a bag full of scrubs. They all started to head out to their cars about 10pm. They’d need some spare space for transporting the other victims. Karen went over to the couch. “Meow, meow,” (“Tony, you might not want to be under there when the spell is reversed. It’ll probably be a little cramped,”) she told him. Frank was about to lock up when Justin went back in to find Karen. The two men realized that they should probably bring Tony along for his own good, just in case he needed to be in the area when the amulet was broken for it to break the spell. So, Frank held the open cat-carrier that Karen used for Drew when they had no choice, and Justin lifted the couch. Tony came shooting out from under it...and right into the carrier. Frank slammed the door shut before Tony could spin around and escape. “MMRROOOW!” (“You bastards! I ought’a....!”) Tony yelled. Justin snickered. Tony’s paw pushed out between the bars of the door, claws extended, and took a swipe at Justin, who was just out of reach. Then he went to the back of the crate to sulk. “Hey!...you could stay near the center, you know,” Frank complained as the box tipped back, off balance, and he grabbed at it with his other hand to keep from dropping it.

Tony rode in the back seat of Frank’s car, Karen rode with Justin in his truck, Aiden with Angie in his truck, and Leigh brought Marcus. They all parked around back, and went in quietly, in case there was someone on night duty. The first thing they did was open all the cat cages. Tony seemed pretty sure about which ones had cat/people in them, but they wanted to be safe. When Justin opened Drew’s cage, he leapt into Justin’s arms. When he didn’t go home with them yesterday, he was afraid they were going to leave him there forever. Then Frank broke the amulet. There was a blinding FLASH of light, but no sound beyond the mewing of a couple dozen cats. When everyone’s sight cleared, there were 4 clothed Envoys, 3 naked Envoys, 9 other naked people crouched there on the floor in shock, and about a dozen angry cats running around. Justin immediately handed Karen her clothes, and Angie did the same for Aiden. Frank handed Tony some clothes. Karen had to juggle her clothes and Drew, because he was so happy to see her, he wouldn’t leave her alone until she picked him up. Then Frank and Angie passed out scrubs to the dazed and confused victims. As those people dressed, Frank and Aiden checked them over to make sure they were physically OK, while Leigh, Angie, and Justin began collecting the cats. Tony and Karen joined in when they were dressed, and even Drew tried to help. (Yes, it did take five mostly competent Envoys and a cat to do the job. We are talking about herding cats here.)

None of the victims believed they’d been cats when Frank asked them. All thought they’d been drugged somehow and robbed. When most of the cats were secured, Justin slipped out to the doctor’s office. There he found not only the victims’ watches and jewelry in the desk drawer, he found a box of neatly folded clothes, both men’s and women’s, in the closet. He took all of this back to the kennel area. First he went to Karen. He slipped her wedding ring back on her finger, then grabbed her and pulled her in tight for a passionate kiss. Then he hung the crucifix back around her neck. She grabbed him and kissed him. As Frank and Aiden checked over each person, Frank put them into a light hypnotic trance. He got each to pick their clothes and personal items out of the collection from the vet’s office, got each of their addresses from them, and planted new memories of what had happened to them. Each person’s story was different, unverifiable, and as far from ‘I was turned into a cat and held captive at the vet clinic’ as Frank could make it. When everything was set, the team locked up the clinic the way they’d found it, and drove to each victim’s house and deposited the person on his or her porch. They dropped Tony back at the safe house, where he stayed when he was in town, and the others all went to their respective homes.

Friday morning, in the Freep, there was a small article. “Dr. Robert Lindeman, a highly respected local veterinarian and researcher at the WSU Veterinary Clinic, was found dead at his home on Thursday. Colleagues had expected him at a meeting at noon that day, and when they failed to reach him at his home or office, asked for police to check on his well-being. Police found his car in the garage, and entering the home, found the doctor. It appeared he’d been savaged by a large cat. Neighbors said the doctor would put out food for feral cats in order to draw the cats close enough for him to check their health. Experts believe that disease may have caused one or more of those cats to attack the vet. Citizens should report any feral cats to Animal Control immediately, and experts recommend that people not feed the cats.”

The next day, May 29, Karen met Professor Elsworth Smith III at Metro. She’d made up a posterboard with his name on it, just in case. But as she stood by the baggage turntable watching the flight’s passengers gather around it, she had no trouble picking the professor out of the crowd. She shoved the posterboard in a trash can. The first thing that came to her mind was that he kind of looked remotely like Donald Sutherland. He was tall and thin, with long-ish silver-gray hair and a cookie-duster mustache. Her next thought was that he definitely looked like the stereotypical academic. He wore a tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows, and carried a well-worn messenger bag and an umbrella with a silver handle. As she got closer, she spotted the tiny silver indalo pin on his lapel. She introduced herself, and offered to help with his bags. They shared pleasantries on the walk out to the parking ramp, including the fact that he’d actually read a couple of her papers, which surprised Karen, because she rarely thought of her work as meriting the interest of anyone beyond those in her own field. But once inside the confines of the Jeep and on the road, the two got to business. Karen gave the professor an abbreviated run-down of what had happened since she’d last talked to him. He was disappointed that they’d been unable to keep the two creatures alive until he’d gotten there; but he certainly understood the need to dispatch them when the opportunity presented itself. And it made him all the more eager to see the remains and speak with everyone involved.

They’d all agreed to meet at the safe house at 11:30am, and Justin brought subs for lunch. Even Aiden had managed to get a long lunch break to stop by, bringing what copies he could from the hospital files on the victims, identifying information deleted first, of course. Justin seemed surprised, given both the professor’s appearance and what Aiden had been able to tell them about him, when Smith pulled a laptop from his bag. The others teased Justin, and Karen, about not all academics being as Luddite as Karen. Smith asked for details about the vampire’s abilities, typing them in as the team described what Deacon had done. “Ahh.... I believe the one you describe may be Jean-Louis Dupre." He began taking detailed notes, interspersed with “Ahh”s and “MmHm”s and “I see”s, as each person told him about their interactions with and impressions of the vampire. Finally Karen couldn't wait any longer. “So just what type of vampire was he?” she asked the professor. “I've heard the term Juju Vampire and Voodoo Vampire used in relation to Dupre,” Smith told them. “Though, I believe he was one of a kind. Unless he'd managed to create 'children'...?” The Envoys explained that as far as they could tell, and as far as Deacon told them, none of his children had ever survived long, all having gone mad quite soon after creation. “This one and the Aztec vampire are the only two that have reflections, as far as I know right now,” Smith said. “That's interesting, since we encountered something similar in Mexico,” Leigh told him. “A creature called Camazotz...perhaps a forebearer of the Aztec vampire.” Smith's face lightened up. “You must tell me about that ” Frank shook his head. “Let's finish with this one first,” he said. “Then we can tell you about other things we've dealt with.” “I've kept some notes, and can give you a thumb drive of them, too,” Justin told Smith.

“There are a number of mythologies regarding burying creatures face down, specifically because it's said to confuse them when they try to dig their way out,” he commented, returning to the subject of Deacon and his offspring. Leigh nodded. She and Karen had found mention of it in connection with both vampires and zombies, and Leigh had seen other references to it in past research as well. Karen and Justin made the professor comfortable in one of their guest rooms that night. The next day, when they'd all finished with their 'interviews', Smith wanted to see the remains of the creatures. The team had moved them to the meat locker for safe keeping. There, Smith took extensive notes and measurements, and numerous photos. He also took various samples of the remains, for analysis. Back at the safe house, they began telling him about their other cases. He was extremely interested in the 'Hell Mouth.' “It's quite rare to hear of things related to Native American mythologies, especially this powerful,” he said. “I would greatly enjoy speaking with this wise woman, Weeping Sparrow. Would it be possible to call her?” he asked. The other Envoys laughed, then Karen apologized for their seeming rudeness. They weren't laughing at his request, but at the thought of Weeping Sparrow chatting on the phone. “She has difficulty dealing with technological devices,” Karen explained. “They interfere with her ability to interact with the natural world and the spirits in it. The only way we can get in contact with her is to call the reservation. Someone there will relay our request to her then get back with us. The process can take a day or two, but I think we can arrange a meeting.” “She really likes Karen, so I'm sure she'll agree,” Justin told Smith.

Eventually, Smith's fingers, fast as they were flying over the keyboard, couldn't keep up and he switched to using a digital recorder to collect the new information they had for him. They also shared copies of all the research they'd done for the cases, including the information Leta had shared with them about Voudun and zombies. In return, he gave them access to all his research, most of it regarding vampires. “Robert Anderson had a theory that I've always given some credence, though others flatly dismiss it,” he told them as the exchange of information grew, “It was basically that the more 'we' do,” (he nodded at them and glanced down at his indalo) “the more 'They' can do. Sort of like the Law of Conservation of Energy. But if we stop our work, they don't seem to...so it doesn't seem to hold across the board. However, I think it deserves more attention, if someone ever has the time to devote to it.” What had originally been a quick trip to Michigan for Smith, was gradually growing to a week, then two. He spent the first week gathering all the information he could from the team. No detail was too small, since one never knew when that detail might become important to someone else. They even took him around to the scenes of some of the events, including the lot where the electrical creature was buried in Reg's former basement, and Justin's old house. When Smith asked if he could go in the house, Karen warned him to be prepared for the overwhelming pressure of the evil Unknown presence that 'lived' there. But Frank, relating his experience in the basement, when only the help of Weeping Sparrow's 'body guards' got him out alive, forbade Smith or anyone else from going in. Smith understood. “I can see why your friend Weeping Sparrow does not feel the thing is worth dealing with lightly,” he told them.

Over meals, and in the car during trips to 'incident' scenes, the Envoys talked with Smith about the job they all did and the people they'd met doing it. He'd heard, of course, about Fr. Damian/Andrew's death, and expressed his condolences to the team. “The one person who used to collect this sort of information in the past, before the Purge, is, I've heard, no longer in the position to do so. The events of 'That Day' unsettled him to an extreme degree,” he told them. “So you knew Alister...and Dee...back then? Leigh asked him. He did, he told them, but the way he said it implied that she wasn't one of his favorite people. Karen couldn't help but laugh to herself. So Fr. Andrew wasn't the only person who didn't like her. Maybe it was her, then, and not him, who created the gulf between them. It wasn't a pleasant time or memory for Smith, but he was willing to share the story. His nephew had been a vampire, though he had refused to believe that truth, he told them. Dee was the one who ended up killing him. “So is Dracula really dead?” Frank asked him. “I believe so,” Smith replied. “Or if not, then he's been dormant for a very long time. An unusually long time.” By the end of that first week, Karen had made arrangements for Smith to spend time at the reservation visiting with Weeping Sparrow. Karen couldn't stay there with him that next week; but once she'd introduced Smith to Weeping Sparrow and explained how she knew him and what he was interested in, Weeping Sparrow was quite happy to entertain him. He finally returned home half-way through June with much more new knowledge than he'd expected to learn when he'd first spoken with Karen on Memorial Day.

Given Angie’s reaction to Deacon’s ‘visit,’ and the concern of all the other Envoys, Frank insisted that Angie see him for regular therapy sessions. He even went as far as removing her from duty until he deemed her ready to return to work. Angie insisted that she was fine, and refused to talk to Frank. Oh, she went to her appointments. But she just sat there, staring at him and refusing to talk. After several identical sessions, Frank finally gave up. “OK, you’re fine?” he asked Angie. “I’m fine,” she insisted. “Then sign this,” he said, handing her a sheet of paper with something typed on it. Angie grabbed the paper with a smirk, took a pen from the desk and signed without even looking at what was written on it. She smugly assumed that she really had ‘won’ her battle of wills against Frank, and that she was signing paperwork that would allow her to return to active duty. She should have known Frank better than that by now. “OK, let’s go,” Frank said, standing up and taking the paper from her. “Where?” Angie asked warily, a hint of concern just beginning to tickle the back of her brain. “To the hospital,” Frank told her. “You just committed yourself.” Fear then anger flashed across Angie’s face. “Gimme that!” she said, grabbing the piece of paper back and ripping it up. Frank calmly sat back down, crossed his legs and looked up at her, managing not to grin. He hadn’t won the war yet, just one battle.

“Marine, your world-view has been completely torn apart and re-written. Either you sit here and talk to me, or I can find another doctor who will agree with me about having you committed,” Frank told her. Angie’s shoulders slumped. “Aiden,” she murmured, realizing that Frank would have no trouble finding that ‘other doctor,’ though she hoped that Aiden would at least take some persuading before agreeing to such a drastic step. That was a low blow. Because she knew as well as Frank that Aiden would eventually agree, believing it was for her own good. But it would be the end of their relationship. And while she wouldn’t come out and admit it, she certainly wasn’t ready for that, especially if she was forced into it over something so stupid, when she had other options, no matter how unappealing. Tick...tick...tick...BOOM! Tick...tick...tick...BOOM! No one in the world had a cell phone ring tone like Angie’s. Of course, even if it had been just like anyone else’s, they both would have known it was Angie’s phone ringing, because Frank always shut off his phone when he was with a patient. Angie was relieved at the interruption, and mad enough at the direction Frank had gone in that she went ahead and answered the phone to spite him. “Hey, Angie,” Justin said cheerfully. “We still on for going to the range at 4:30?” Angie hadn’t told anyone that she was seeing Frank, so Justin had no idea that he’d just given her a little mental space to work out what to do next. “Sure,” Angie agreed. “4:30. I think I’m going to need it today,” she told him, glaring over at Frank.

Angie closed the phone. Frank watched her stuff it in her pocket without saying a word. It was kind of irritating, Angie thought to herself. Normal people would have asked her who it was and what they wanted. Why the hell couldn’t he just act like a normal person once in a while? “It was Justin,” she finally told him, almost spitting the words out. “We’re going to the shooting range this afternoon.” Then, under her breath, but still just loud enough that she knew Frank would hear it, she said, “Better therapy than this.” Frank still said nothing. “So, what’s it gonna take to get you off my back and get me back to work?” she finally asked, anger and resignation in her voice. “Not nearly blowing your own hand off setting a simple charge,” Frank stated matter-of-factly. “Hold your hand out, flat,” he instructed her. Hah. She knew what he was trying to prove. Her hand wasn’t going to shake. She stood there, holding it out, steady as a rock. She smirked. “Now...think about your old apartment, and Leigh coming over to spend the night,” Frank told her. Damn him! Angie felt her fingers twitch. She concentrated on keeping it firm and steady. Her hand shook with a small tremor, then another. “Anyone’s hand would shake if you make ‘em hold it out that long,” she complained. But the more she concentrated on her hand, the more the memory of that night, that moment when she realized what had happened, flooded her mind. And the more her hand shook, out of anger and fear...and guilt. Damn it all to hell!

“I don’t talk about my feelings to anybody!” Angie fumed. “Then, at the moment, you’re your own little bomb waiting to go off, and who knows who you’ll take with you,” Frank told her bluntly. “Talking won’t change anything,” Angie told him. “It’s just a bunch of whining. ‘Boo hoo, life’s hard.’” “What makes you say that?” Frank asked her. “Good people die for no reason, bad people walk away. Shit happens,” she answered. “Someone in particular you’re talking about?” Frank asked. He knew the facts of all their cases as well as she did. Probably better, since right now she was looking at all of them emotionally instead of rationally. While a number of people died ‘for no reason,’ very few of the “bad people” had walked away once the team had taken on the case. Maybe they still weren’t the most cohesive team out there, and sometimes they were a little slow on the uptake. But with the two exceptions of the Hell Mouth and Edward, they had a pretty good record of taking out the bad guys. “We’re just kidding ourselves that we’re doing anything,” Angie complained, ignoring his question. “It’s like emptying the ocean with a teaspoon. There’ll always be one more...or a thousand more.” “But there’s more than one of us,” Frank replied, nudging her along.

“Yeah, but there was nothing I could do to protect Leigh. And there’s always going to be another,” Angie said, dejectedly. “But we knew nothing about what we were up against yet,” Frank reasoned. “Now we can spread the word about it and it won’t happen again.” “Sure,” Angie argued. “But what happens when something else grabs Terry and carries her away?” They were still trying to be low-key about it, but Angie knew that the two were a ‘couple.’ If he was going to push her buttons, then she was damn sure gonna push his. “Maybe next time, she’ll be near Leigh or Karen, who can do a Sphere to drive it away. Or there will be a crowd, and we’re together so we can stop them,” Frank told her. He understood what she was trying to do. If she could shift the focus onto him, his fears, then he’d be forced to agree that there was nothing wrong with her or else admit that there was just as much wrong with him. He wasn’t going to argue that. He knew he had problems. “Or not,” Angie said morosely. “I don’t know how Aiden stands it. He loses patients all the time....” Angie was quiet for a moment, and Frank let her be. They’d made a huge step forward today, just getting her to open up a little. He knew they weren’t going to solve the underlying issues all at once. “Now...that’s all there is,” Angie stated, straightening up then slouching insolently on the chair. “Can I go now and shoot things?” “Sure,” Frank said agreeably. “Can I come along?” “Sure. Why not?” Angie replied.

Angie and the rest of the team weren’t the only people Frank was counseling now. His background and degree had led his new boss, Eric Vallejo, to ask if he would see people from the department, in addition to his other duties. In the long run, that meant he would be doing the psych evaluations for new hires and for annual reviews. But initially, Vallejo wanted Frank’s expert opinion about how much trouble the personnel of the Detroit office would have accepting a new chief. Vallejo was concerned about the effect Mackenzie Stevens’ tenure as bureau chief, and his later death, might have had on the rank and file. But other than Agent Westin, who had still been in rehab at the time, most of the people that Stevens kept closest to himself had been recalled to DC upon his death. For the remainder, the ones who had been there under Jared’s command, the main issue was learning to trust that Vallejo wasn’t going to treat them as irresponsibly as Stevens had. Vallejo had no problem with that. He may not have had much experience in the field, but instead of using other people’s work to cover his own ass like Stevens did, he immediately admitted his shortcomings to his people and asked for help. He knew he would have to earn the trust of those now under his command, and the first step was trusting them.

Frank was happy to accept this new task because of the opportunity it presented him. Ever since Edward Harrington’s effect on people, and his apparent affiliation with people in high places, were brought to Frank’s attention, Frank had wanted to find out just how many of the men and women he worked with in the DHS were under Harrington’s ‘spell.’ His new position as the Detroit office shrink opened the door for him to question everyone. It turned out that about 10% of them thought that Edward Harrington was “wonderful...the kindest, most generous....” For the most part, that wasn’t a problem on a day-to-day basis. He’d just have to keep an eye on them if something came up that involved Harrington, any of his cronies, or the Unknown. More importantly, out of that 10%, Frank chose a couple as candidates for a very subtle de-programming program. He was sure that whatever else Harrington had done to these people, the last step had been planting a suggestion that would cover the memories of what had really happened at whatever Harrington event they’d attended. So Frank’s plan was to gently ‘tease’ his patients into a light hypnotic trance that would allow him to slowly draw out the true memories without their realizing it. It might take a while, but it was his best option for getting more information about Harrington.

About a month after Frank had finally pushed Angie into starting to talk to him, Aiden pulled him aside. “I don’t know what you’re doing,” Aiden said, “but it seems to be working. I am worried about her liver, since she’s out drinking with Tony or Justin...or both...a lot. But she’s doing a lot better.” Frank had been keeping her on ‘soft duty’ at work, since she still couldn’t keep her hand steady. It was driving Angie nuts. Now Frank had some outside indication that she was improving, despite the hand problem. Another indication was that she and Aiden had bought a nice condo together. It was a little farther from the hospital than Aiden would have liked; but Angie convinced him that they should go ahead and spend the money since they had plenty of it. The really important thing, as far as Frank was concerned, was that Angie had finally decided to have her name put on the deed with Aiden’s. Right up until the last minute, she was going to let it go in Aiden’s name alone. But just before the closing, she had it changed. The fact that she was willing to commit to the relationship in such a concrete way told Frank that she really had made progress.

Finally, in August, as he drove to join Angie and Justin at the range, he devised a test for her. If she could do this, he was ready to trust her being back on full duty. “Angie, I want you to cross your arms over your chest and fall back and let Justin catch you,” Frank told her, as the three stood around admiring the groupings on their first targets. Angie snorted a laugh. “I wouldn’t have done that before!” Justin feigned a hurt look, then grinned. “Look, if I do it, can I go back on full duty?” she asked Frank. Frank stood there a moment, as if he were thinking about the answer. “Yes,” he finally said. Angie glared a warning at Justin, then turned her back to him and crossed her arms. It took her a minute to work up to it, then she stiffened and fell back, expecting to hit the floor but hoping she didn’t. It felt like she’d been falling forever, but it had actually been only a second, and about a foot and a half, when she felt Justin’s hands catching her under her shoulders. He tipped her back up onto her feet, then grinned and said, “Now you catch me!” She and Frank laughed. “I ain’t that strong!” Angie told him. “I might break your fall, but who’s gonna pull your fat ass off’a me after you flatten me?” “OK,” Frank said, interrupting the teasing, “you aren’t fixed yet, but you’re on the way if you’re willing to trust someone else. But you still aren’t handling explosives until I’m sure you won’t blow up yourself or anyone else.”

Karen managed to have a fairly quiet summer dig. Drew had come along to keep her company, Justin usually came up on weekends, and Leigh came up a couple times to visit and take a break from her research. The only unusual activity had been the ‘dead camper family.’ Karen first noticed them the evening of July 3. Or rather, she heard them. Talking, laughing, singing...like they were setting up camp nearby. It just seemed odd that none of the students seemed to hear them. Usually they were so eager for visitors to break the monotony of the dig routine that they were halfway up the trail if they even thought they heard the crunch of tires on the two-track. The next day, Karen went looking for them. Nawakwa Lake was kind of remote, so they usually didn’t have anyone else out there besides the dig team, the regular visits from the local sheriff’s deputies, and the occasional lost fishermen. But if people were camping nearby, Karen would let them know the dig was there and that they were welcome to visit anytime. After the incident a couple summers before, no one was allowed to leave camp alone; so it took Karen most of the next day hiking around with a couple of willing volunteer companions before they stumbled on the little campsite. Only...Karen was the only one who actually stumbled on the campsite. The two students with her didn’t seem to see it. So she laughed it off as her ‘old’ ears mis-hearing echoes from their own camp, and called off the ‘search’ for the campers she ‘thought she heard’ the night before.

Visits from the deputies had been more frequent this summer due to the wildfires burning to the east. When they stopped by the camp around dinner time, Karen asked if they knew of anybody camping nearby. They didn’t, since most people were avoiding the area because of the fires. In fact, the deputies wanted to remind Karen and her students that there was a complete ban on open fires...and that included fireworks. They’d have to settle for tossing chem-lites in the air that 4th of July. Later, while ‘her kids’ did just that (well, actually, it was more like they were tossing the lites at one another), Karen fired up the laptop and started a search for deaths of campers in the Eastern UP. Then she noticed Drew getting all bristly and tense. When she came back out of her tent to watch the ‘festivities,’ he refused to go with her, and she spotted the ‘campers’ enjoying the show from the edge of the camp. No one else saw them, but they seemed to be having a good time. Karen let them be for the moment. She would start trying to deal with them tomorrow. Before bed, she narrowed the parameters of the search. Obviously she was dealing not with a group of missing hunters or a missing Boy Scout, but with a family.

The next morning, she had her answer. Exactly 23 years before, the Weaver family had gone missing on their third annual holiday camping trip. When they hadn’t returned home on the expected date, a search was mounted. Eventually, the remains of their camp were found a quarter mile off a two-track, near where a stream fed into a remote lake; and their bodies were recovered from their soaked, collapsed tents. The summer had been a wet one, and area lakes and streams were swollen from the near constant rain of the previous week. Local law enforcement surmised that the family, not having dealt with those conditions before, chose their campsite poorly. When the rain started the second night of their trip, the saturated ground couldn’t drain the water fast enough, and a flood drowned the whole family as they slept. Only, they didn’t seem to know it. Karen was sure that they hadn’t been there the past few years, and she wondered if they ‘set up camp’ a different place every year, just like the article said they did when they’d still been alive. She needed to get out of camp alone to take care of this. So even though she had the Spring term grades ready to be posted, she told Jaidon, her only grad student at the moment, since Jaime and Chris had both graduated, that she was going to go someplace quiet to work on the grading. She sketched out the spot where she’d be, the same spot she’d seen the ‘camp,’ and told Jaidon she’d check in every 15 minutes. Since he hadn’t been with her two years ago, and didn’t know the reason behind the ‘no one leaves camp alone’ rule, he trusted that she’d be fine. She hoped that was true.

This time the family was in camp when Karen got there, cleaning up from breakfast and getting ready to go on a hike. The kids saw her first and ran across the camp screaming that there was a ghost there. Mom poked her head out of the tent to tell the kids to settle down, and Dad came over extending his hand to introduce himself. “Jerry Weaver,” he said to Karen. “And this is my wife Sheila and our children Geoff and Kaylie.” Karen reached out to grasp his hand without thinking as she introduced herself. But when Jerry’s hand passed right through hers, his eyes widened and he backed away. “You...how...you....” he sputtered, glancing around to make sure the kids were a safe distance from this...this THING that had invaded their camp. Sadness crept onto Karen’s face. This was going to be harder now. Not only did she have to convince them that they were dead, she had to convince them that she wasn’t. “That’s what I’m here to talk to you about,” Karen told Jerry. “Is it OK if we sit?” She went over to the small card table they’d set up, but her hand went right through the chair she touched. She moved to the stumps by their fire pit and sat down on one. Jerry stood warily near one of the chairs, several strides away from Karen. Sheila stayed farther away, standing near the tents, clearly afraid. Now that the kids were sure the ‘ghost’ wasn’t going to drag them away without their parents knowing about it, they got bolder, approaching the fire pit and prodding each other to go touch Karen. When Kaylie finally did, her hand passed right through Karen’s arm and she ran screaming and giggling to Sheila in mock fear. The hairs on Karen’s arm stood up and she shivered.

“I’m not sure how to tell you this,” Karen started. “I’m not the one who’s a ghost.” Jerry stared at her with confusion then disbelief. “So, you’re trying to tell me...what? That we are?” he demanded. “I don’t know who...or what...you are, but get the hell out of my camp and stay away from my family!” he yelled at Karen. Karen could feel the heat of his anger rolling off him as he took a step toward her. She stood and backed away. “I’ll be back at my dig, if you’d like to talk,” she said sadly; then she retraced her steps. About halfway back to the dig, she stopped and called Jaidon to let him know she was on her way back. She hoped that she wasn’t bringing trouble with her. That evening, she saw Jerry approach the edge of the dig site and hesitate there. She excused herself and went to her tent, nodding at Jerry to follow her. “We were talking, after you left,” Jerry told her, passing straight through the tent flap rather than under it. “If you’re wrong, then you need some help. If you’re not, then...we do.” Karen nodded. “There’s something I think you should see, and I hope you don’t have trouble reading it,” she told him softly. She opened her laptop and pulled up the article she’d downloaded from the Newberry paper’s online archives. Jerry whistled. “Boy, aren’t those things expensive?” he said, admiring the laptop. “I’ve looked at them in the stores, but I’ll have to wait until the price on ‘em comes down.” Karen enlarged the image and played with the contrast, hoping to make it easier for Jerry to see. But it was no use. Whatever veil prevented other people from seeing him made it impossible for him to read the screen, no matter how solid he seemed to Karen.

“Let me read it to you,” she said. She proceeded to read the story to him. “That can’t be right,” he argued after listening. “We’re fine.” Karen shook her head. “Why can’t any of my students see you then?” she asked him, talking quietly so that if her students did hear her talking they’d think she was on the phone with Justin. “You were here last night, and I’m the only one who saw you. Try touching something. I’ll bet you can’t touch anything in here. Have you ever met another person who could see ghosts? Ever seen one yourself before? You could argue that I and all my students are the ones who are ghosts, I know. But if I’m a ghost and can see you, why can’t they? If you’re all ghosts, then the only thing that’s weird is that I can see you. Which is more likely? That you and your family can all of a sudden see a whole crowd of ghosts, only one of whom can see you? Or that you’re the ghosts, and I’m the only one that can see you?” Jerry stood there struggling with what she’d told him. If he hadn’t been having such a nice time camping with his family up until now, he might have been angry. Instead he was just confused. Were they all dead? Had the stuff this woman told him really happened? How could he know? And if it was true, what did they do now? Why were they still here? Where were they supposed to go and how did they get there? He drifted around Karen’s tent, watching as his hand went through items that he tried to pick up.

“If it’s true....” his voice faded without finishing the thought. “It happens a lot,” Karen told him. “Mostly it happens because people died so suddenly or unexpectedly that they weren’t ready for it. Once they realize, most people know where they need to go. I’m not sure how exactly. Most have told me before they passed on that they saw a light. And they said that they could see other loved ones who’d passed waiting for them in the light. But I can’t see it. Only the person or people that are supposed to be going there can see it.” Karen paused, watching Jerry consider all this. “If you’d like, I can come back to your camp tomorrow and talk to Sheila and the kids,” she told him. He shook his head. “No, I think I’m the one who needs to do this,” he said. He straightened. “I can do this. For them.” Karen nodded. “I can tell you one thing for sure,” Karen said as Jerry moved to the door. “Everyone I’ve ever seen pass over, everyone like you, has looked happy. So it must be a wonderful, beautiful, peaceful place over there.” He smiled and nodded, but the smile didn’t touch his eyes. “Thank you,” he told her. Then he was gone. The next morning, Karen told Jaidon that she was going to finish up the grades she didn’t get to yesterday, and get them sent down to WSU. When she got to where the Weavers’ camp had been, everything was gone. The stumps were where they’d been, but all trace of the fire pit was gone. And though there was still the lingering aura of an Unknown presence, she could tell that the spirits were gone from the area. She hoped that they’d actually passed on, and said a silent prayer that they had made it to the place they were meant to be. Then she got the Spring grades uploaded on their way to WSU, and headed back to the dig.

The dig season was over on August 17, and Karen spent that weekend hauling equipment home and getting their finds safely stored in the lab on campus. That gave her just a few days to get the last of the grades in before the deadline, since the new term opened on the 26th. But she was done in time to go see Choking Susan at Mephistos in Hamtramck on the evening of Friday the 24th. And she still had another week and a half to get her class syllabi posted online and hard copies made before classes started on Sept. 5. Besides doing that, she spent most of the time at home, and even got to have a nice dinner out for her birthday. The first week of classes went smoothly. There was a minor glitch with the wireless projector she’d signed out from the library one day, and a few students who missed the first couple classes because they had trouble adding the course. When Karen got home from taking care of some drop/add paperwork on campus the afternoon of Sept. 11 (so much for the ‘paperless campus’ concept), Drew wasn’t waiting to pounce on her like he usually did. He was in the family room lying on the floor, moaning, his eyes glassy. She grabbed her phone and flew up the stairs to get a large towel. She speed-dialed their usual vet, Dr. Williams at the Cat-Comfy Clinic. The machine there answered, and told Karen that the office was closed for vacation. If it was an emergency, she was directed to go to the clinic at WSU.

Karen carefully lifted Drew onto the towel and gently scooped him up, wrapping it around him. She carried him out to the Jeep and laid him on the passenger seat, then dialed Justin as she sped down their street. “Something’s wrong with Drew,” she told Justin’s voice mail as soon as it beeped. “Dr. Williams is on vacation, so I have to take him to the clinic at school.” She gave him the directions as best she could in a voice mail, before she pulled into the parking ramp. When she got into the clinic, no one else was in the waiting room. “Can I help you?” the receptionist asked. “There’s something wrong with my cat,” Karen told the girl, slightly out of breath. “I usually see Dr. Williams at...” “Right, the Cat-Comfy Clinic,” the girl finished for her. “They told us they’d be sending their patients here while they were on vacation.” The girl took Karen’s and Drew’s names, and what information Karen could give her about Drew. “Let me take you back to one of the exam rooms, while the computer downloads your file,” she told Karen, leading her through a doorway. “Someone will be with you in a minute.” A couple minutes later, a young woman in a lab coat came in. “Hi! I’m Cathy. I’m one of the lab techs. Tell me what you can about...(she scanned the sheet of paper she was holding)...Drew while I get a blood sample.” Karen described what had happened, including the fact that Drew had been with her in the UP all summer. “Well, he seems to be very dehydrated,” Cathy told her after examining him. “Let me get the blood work started, and Dr. Lindeman will be in in a minute.”

Ten minutes later, an older man in a lab coat, with a stethoscope hanging around his neck, came in. “Hi! I’m Dr. Lindeman. So what seems to be the matter with...(he looked at the sheet of paper)...Drew?” Once again, Karen explained what had happened. The vet examined Drew carefully. “Do you mind leaving him here over night?” he asked Karen. “He’s severely dehydrated, which puts his kidneys at risk of failing. I want to start an IV to rehydrate him. We should have the results of his blood work by morning, and then we’ll have a better idea what caused this.” Tears began to fill Karen’s eyes. “Will he...?” “He’ll be fine,” the vet reassured her. “I’ll just need your signature on these forms. This one is the boarding form...I’ll also need a number where we can reach you. The other says you agree to allow us to start treatment and to treat anything else we deem necessary.” Karen nodded. “You can fill them out here, and someone will be in in a minute to get them from you,” Dr. Lindeman told her. Karen sat down and filled out the forms. Then she waited for someone to come in and get them, so she could go home. She vaguely wondered if Justin had gotten her message yet. She was feeling really tired, as the adrenalin rush of finding Drew sick wore off. She’d just shut her eyes for a minute, while she waited for someone to collect the paperwork....

Justin heard his phone ring over on the top of the tool chest, but he was elbow deep in an engine at the moment, so he let it go to voice mail. A half hour later, his arms tingling from the soap and the scrubbing, he checked his messages. “Something’s wrong with Drew,” Karen said. Her voice with so tight with fear that Justin almost didn’t recognize it as hers. “Hey, Jerry! I’m outta here. Lock up, OK? Something’s wrong with Drew,” Justin shouted across the shop as he headed out to his truck. Jerry didn’t ask any questions. He knew how much the cat meant to Justin and Karen. Justin dialed Karen, but the call went straight to voice mail. Then he tried Tony. The goombah seemed to have gotten pretty attached to Drew too. Voice mail again. By the time Justin found the campus vet clinic, 45 minutes had passed from the time Karen left her message. “I’m looking for Karen Kazotchek,” he said, bursting into the clinic. “Karen...?” the receptionist asked quizzically. “My wife...brought our cat in a little while ago. Drew...a mostly black cat...?” Justin said. “Oh! Right! She’s left already. And your cats are resting comfortably in back,” the girl told him. Justin turned to go, then stopped dead still. CATS? “Can I see him...them?” Justin asked. “Sure!” the girl said cheerfully. She disappeared from the desk and reappeared in a doorway. “This way,” she waved him over. “So...how long ago did my wife leave?” Justin asked as they headed toward the back of the building. “I’m not sure,” the girl said. “I didn’t see her leave. Here we are!” She pointed to a pair of cages among almost 2 dozen with cats in them. In one, he saw Drew lying on his side looking uncomfortable and unhappy, an IV tube leading from the bag outside the cage to his shaved front leg. There was a clipboard hanging below the IV bag, and a white tag on the door read DREW KAZOTCHEK.

In the next cage was a tabby with reddish-brown/gold fur and no collar, lying on a towel. The name tag on the door said GINGER KAZOTCHEK. The chart clipped to the clipboard had their address, and him and Karen as ‘Ginger’s’ owners. “Uh...how are they?” Justin asked the girl. “Well...” she glanced at their charts. “It says Drew is dehydrated, and...it looks like we’re waiting for the results of blood tests,” she told him. “And it looks like Ginger...can go home anytime.” “Would it be possible to talk with the vet?” he asked. “Lemme check,” the girl said. “You can wait right here.” As soon as she was out of sight, Justin opened ‘Ginger’s’ cage and moved the cat around to see its face. Karen would have called him if she’d gone home. And they didn’t own a second cat. So something strange was going on here. The cat had obviously been in a deep sleep, and it...she...stretched and yawned. “So Drew...is this Karen?” he whispered to the black and white cat. Drew blinked and moaned. Justin ruffled the other cat’s...’Ginger’s’ fur. God, its reddish-brown hairs were the same color as Karen’s hair. Only the white hairs mixed in made it look ginger-colored. “Shit.” Justin pulled out his phone to try Karen again, but it rang before he could hit the speed-dialer. “Yo How’s da liddle fur ball?” Tony asked. “He’s fine,” Justin answered. “But....” “Hey, cool ” Tony said, cutting him off. “I’ll talk ta youse later ” Tony hung up before Justin could say anything more.

Justin hit the dial-back code. “Yo, Justin! Whaddya want?” Tony answered. “Something’s going on here,” Justin said quickly. “Get over here and call the others.” He gave Tony directions, then hung up just as the receptionist came back into the room. “I’m sorry. Dr. Lindeman’s left for the day,” she told Justin. “I can leave a message for him or one of the other doctors to call you tomorrow....” Justin glanced at the clipboard. One of the notes on it listed “Cathy” as the tech who’d taken Drew’s blood sample. “Could I talk to Cathy, then?” he asked “I think she’s left, too,” the girl said. “Her shift ended at 4.” “So, what’s this Dr. Lindeman like?” Justin asked her. “Is he good?” “Oh, yes!” she replied. “I don’t know him very well, ‘cause I only started here this year, and he’s retired. But he comes in to help out one day a week, or when other vets are on vacation. And everybody loves him. I just saw something in the campus paper that he just got back from a vacation in Tibet and is going to be doing a presentation and slide show about the trip on Friday.” By the time she was done gushing, they both could hear the bell indicating that someone had come into the office. “Is it OK if I take ‘Ginger’ then?” Justin asked as she turned to go. “Sure! I’ll get the paperwork ready and you can sign her out on your way out,” she said. Justin picked the tabby up off the towel, wrapping his hand under her belly and lifting gently. “Mrraawww!” she protested, claws out and legs flailing. “Sorry!” he, said, cradling her in his arms so she wouldn’t rake him. As he turned to go, Tony, Frank, Leigh, Aiden and Angie came in. He could see the receptionist pointing the way through the door, then heading back out to the front desk.

Karen rolled and stretched. She could feel every muscle in her body as she tensed, then relaxed each one. She hadn’t realized she was that tired and her brain still felt groggy. She was glad she took the quick nap. Except...something felt different now. She yawned wide and tried to put her finger on what felt odd. Someone was talking.... God, Justin didn’t need to yell like that! And who was the girl who was yelling back at him? Karen opened her eyes and blinked several times. She hated it when ‘eye snots’ glued her lids shut. It seemed to happen more since she started wearing contacts. Maybe she’d have to look into getting Lasik surgery sometime. She rubbed at her eyes with her knuckles. Suddenly something wrapped tight around her waist and lifted her from bed. “Hey !” she yelled. “Le’go!” She swung her arms and kicked with her legs, struggling to get free of whatever grabbed her. But something didn’t feel right. Her legs and arms....

“Sorry!” the others heard Justin say to the cat in his arms. “So, how’s Drew?” Aiden asked. “Not great,” Justin said. “But that’s not the problem.” He looked down at the cat, who had settled down and was now grooming herself. “I...I think this is Karen.” The four other Envoys looked at one another then back at Justin and the cat, eyebrows raised. “I know!” Justin said, cutting off anything they might say. “It sounds crazy. But I’m not. And I’m not joking. Listen to this....” He pulled his phone from his pocket and played the message Karen had left him. The cat was purring, completely ignoring him and everything else. “She hasn’t called back,” he told them. “And I can’t raise her on her cell or our home phone. They said she left, but no one saw her leave. And look at this....” Justin pointed to the chart with their name and address as owners of ‘Ginger Kazotchek.’ He looked down at the cat. “Don’t worry, you’re beautiful, hon,” he murmured to her as she rubbed a paw over her ears. “Maybe we should go outside,” Frank suggested. Aiden rubbed Drew’s head through the bars of the door, and the five went out. “So, what do you know about the vet?” Frank asked Justin as they walked to his truck. “His name is Lindeman. He's retired but helps out when needed. Everybody loves him,” Phil said. “Hold on,” Frank said. He jogged over to his car and grabbed his laptop. When he got back, he set it on the passenger seat, opened it and typed in the vet’s name. Not much came up on the quick search Frank did. “Looks like he was a vet for 27 years before he retired,” Frank said, for the benefit of those who couldn’t see the screen. He turned to Justin, who was still holding the ginger tabby. “Is this pretty widdle kitty you, Karen?” Frank asked, tickling her chin with his finger.

Karen pulled her head back and squinted up at Frank. It was really bright outside, like she’d just come out after spending hours in a cave. Everything looked different, and Karen couldn’t really put her finger on why. Colors seemed muted and it looked like the air was swirling around them all, kind of like driving through fog with her hi-beams on. And why on earth was Frank talking to her in ‘baby talk’? She sniffed, and smells filled her nose, more than she’d ever noticed before. She sneezed hard. She’d never noticed how much Justin’s clothes smelled of gas and oil and grease. Under all that, she could smell soap and deodorant and the pizza he must have had for lunch, and finally ‘him.’ But why? How? And what had happened that Justin was carrying her? She blinked and tried to read what Frank had on the computer. She blinked again. Had her contacts gotten stuck to her eyelids when she took that short nap? She squinted and concentrated, but what should have been words were just blurry squiggles. Then Justin was shifting her around in his arms and...handing her to Aiden? What the...?

“Hey! I just realized,” Justin said, “Karen would have been carrying her purse. I’m gonna go in and see if they have it here.” He handed the tabby...Karen...to Aiden, and jogged to the door. “Hi!” he greeted the receptionist. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of my wife, and she isn’t answering. But she has a habit of forgetting her purse places, and I was wondering if she might have left it here. Do you have a lost and found?” “Sure!” the receptionist answered brightly. She bent down and reached under the counter, and pulled out a large cardboard box. Justin didn’t even have to dig through it. Karen’s purse was lying right on top. “There’s probably already a message on your home phone,” the receptionist told him. “If we can find ID in or on things that get left here, we’ll usually call right away.” “Well, if it’s OK, I’ll just take it home,” Justin said. “Thanks!” As he headed for the door, he mumbled, loudly enough for the girl to hear him, that he had to find some way to attach it to Karen so she couldn’t forget it. He slung the strap over his shoulder as he headed back out to the truck. “Yo! Dat purse really matches yer shoes,” Tony teased him. But Justin wasn’t smiling. Karen never forgot her purse. This confirmed that something was very wrong and that someone here at the clinic was involved. Aiden was rubbing the tabby’s belly, and the cat was purring loudly. “Please stop petting my wife,” Justin said, reaching to take the cat into his arms. “I’m the only one here who’s allowed to make her purr.” "Aiden, can you check her for possible injection sites first?" Frank requested. "I'm not sure," Aiden replied. "I normally do this on patients who aren't covered in fur...Tony aside." "Hey!" Tony objected. The others laughed, and Aiden checked carefully at all the spots he thought a vet might do injections. Sure enough, when he touched one spot on her right front leg, the cat mewled a little and pulled back. Aiden stroked her head, then gently pushed back the fur to find a tiny needle mark. He nodded at Frank as he handed the cat back to Justin.

“Set her down a minute,” Frank instructed him. “Why?” Justin asked. “I was just wondering if, if this is Karen, she can still....” Frank raised one eyebrow and nodded at the cat. “Oh! Right!” Justin set her down and the others circled around her. They all glanced around, checking to make sure no one else would see this. “Karen? Can you still raise a Sphere?” Frank asked her, squatting down in from of her. The pavement felt rough on Karen’s hands and feet, as if she was barefoot and down on all fours. “Mrow!” (“Of course,”) she said, closing her eyes and concentrating. A second later, Karen was crouched there in the parking lot, buck-naked. She looked up at the others crowded around her and she tried to get her bearings. The sun felt hot on her back, as if.... She had started to rock back on her heels, then glanced down and realized that she was naked, and she wrapped her arms around her chest and clamped her knees together. She felt her face get hot, then a second later it felt itchy. She licked her paw and rubbed it.... Wait! Her PAW?! The others weren’t even sure they saw what they saw. It was as if one minute they were looking at a cat, then they blinked and were looking at Karen, and a few moments later, they blinked again and she’d turned back into a cat. Justin scooped Karen up into his arms and started stroking her head. They had to find whoever did this, Justin thought to himself. First he...or she...would reverse this, and then Justin would put a bullet in his...or her...head. “We need to get a look inside there,” Justin said, nodding at the clinic. “Something or someone in there did this to her. So...what time are we coming back? Should we go find the vet first? I have a little something that’ll make him see the error of his ways.” Justin patted the gun that was held snug against his side by the holster.

“Maybe we should do a little more research first,” Frank suggested. “We don’t know yet that it was the vet. The paperwork said that a vet tech had also seen Karen. We don’t know anything about her.” “I could always go in and take a look around,” Tony offered. “You know...out-of-body?” Frank and the others nodded. They needed to get a look inside, but they didn’t want to tip anyone off just yet. Tony jumped in the front seat of the truck and got comfortable. A second later his body slumped even further. And Karen watched, fascinated, as the bare-chested ‘Roman god’ Tony kind of ‘sat up’ out of the t-shirt and jeans-wearing Tony, got out of the truck, and floated toward the building. She’d never seen anyone do that before, even though she’d watched Fr. Andrew and Tony go out-of-body more than once. So cats (and she’d finally started to wrap her brain around the fact that she was, indeed, now a cat) could see this kind of thing normally? Or was it just because she could see spirits before she became a cat. The researcher in her began to wonder how she could go about testing the theory. And she began to doze off, comfortable in Justin’s strong arms and warm in the sun.

Tony was careful as he floated into the building, watching for anything that might be ‘guarding’ against that kind of visit. The place looked pretty normal...until he got back to the kennel area. There were about a dozen cats in cages back there (at least, he assumed they were in cages, not floating at various heights above the floor, because he couldn’t actually make out the thin metal bars that made up the cages), and scattered among them were caged, naked humans. Nine of them to be exact. Tony wasn’t positive, but he was pretty sure there were cats in those cages when they were in there earlier. Actually, he was pretty sure that, to anyone else, they would have still looked like cats. He was seeing their astral-selves, not their bodies right now. The people, 4 men and 5 women, were crouched over, looking confused and generally freaked out. Tony studied each one, trying to memorize identifying characteristics. If he’d been able to, he’d have tried to remember the names on each cage door. Except that the cages and labels themselves were really hard to make out, and the writing was impossible. He finished a quick circuit of the rest of the building, checking to see if the vet and tech really were gone for the day. Then he headed back out. Karen would have seen him hop into the seat and sit on his own lap, then sink back into his body...if she’d been awake.

Tony opened his eyes. “Yo, someone take notes before I ferget all’a dis,” he told them. Then he closed his eyes and began describing the nine people. “Dey was all pretty scared lookin’,” he told the others when he finished. “I’m bettin’ dey don’t know dey’r cats.” “Let’s head back to the safe house,” Frank suggested. “We need to figure out who those people are, how they all turned into cats, and who caused it.” The six Envoys and one cat met back at the safe house. Karen was awake again when they got there, and she suddenly realized that she needed to go to the bathroom...badly. “Mrooow!” (“Uh...Justin, I need to use the bathroom,”) Karen said. “What? Do you want to get down?” Justin asked her. He set her feet on the floor. But when she tried to walk toward the bathroom, Karen realized two things. First, that she would need Drew’s litter box, not the toilet. Second, and more immediately important, she couldn’t walk. She flopped over on her side, each foot going in a different direction. She concentrated and rolled onto her stomach, pulling her legs back under her body, then tried to stand, but couldn’t. Next she thought that maybe she had to think about it like she was crawling on her hands and knees. That didn’t work either, and she was back on her belly, legs out to either side. “Meooow!” (“What the hell is wrong with my body?!”) she moaned. OK...the anatomy was different. Maybe she needed to do it like she was squatting, moving on her fingertips and toes with her knees drawn up. She managed to move herself this time by digging her toes into the floor, but was sure that the only thing that prevented her from getting splinters in her cheek and shoulder was the fur covering her. And her whiskers getting squashed against the floor felt like someone was ripping huge hairs out of her face.

Justin’s heart was in his throat. He’d set Karen on the floor, but at first she just flopped over on her side. Then she rolled over and pulled her legs in. But when she tried to move again, she ended up flat on her belly. Now she was pushing herself along with just her toes. He wanted to cry. First his beautiful wife had been changed into a cat, and now it turned out that she must be crippled somehow, too. “Mrrrrooooow!” (“Justin, Help ME!”) Karen wailed. He picked her up, and the pressure on her bladder made her hiss. “What? Do you need food? Are you hungry?” he asked her. “Nrooo!” (“No! I need to pee!) Karen grunted. “Maybe she needs the litter box,” Tony suggested. “Is that it, hon? Do you need to use the bathroom?” Justin asked her. “Meow!!” (“Yes!!”) Karen almost screamed at him. “You could try the toilet,” Frank offered. “Yeah, I’ve heard that cats can be trained to use one,” Leigh agreed. “Mrow!” (“I can’t even work my legs to walk! Do you really think I can balance on a toilet seat?!”) Karen shouted. Justin carried her quickly to the room where they kept Drew’s ‘litter box away from home.’ He set her down in it then crouched next to her. “There you go, hon,” he said, as cheerfully as he could manage under the circumstances. “Raow!” (“Well, get outta here! I’m not peeing with you standing there watching me!) Karen hissed, taking a swipe at him with one paw, her claws accidently unsheathed. “Sorry! Sorry!” Justin apologized, backing out of the room.

Karen had never felt so relieved to relieve herself. And somehow, scratching the litter over the spot just came naturally to her. She did it without even thinking. Then she tried to get out of the box, but once again her feet and legs didn’t move like they should have. Finally, the only thing she could think of was to just launch herself out of the box as if she were flopping onto the bed at home. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked and she landed on her side outside the box. Justin had been talking to the others about the research they were planning, when he heard a thump near the litter box. “I think that means she’s done,” Frank told him. Justin ran over there and found Karen sprawled on the floor, just starting to pull her legs under her. But again, when she tried to walk for herself, she ended up spread-eagle on the floor. “Mrooo?” (“Why can’t I do this?”) she complained. Justin picked her up and carried her back to the others. “I have an idea,” Frank said. “I think you’re over-thinking this, Karen,” he told the cat cradled in Justin’s arms. “Put her down,” he told Justin. They all wondered what Frank was up to. He disappeared upstairs, and came down a minute later with something held behind his back.

With a flourish, he produced one of the cat toys they’d gotten for Drew, a stick with a feather on a long string dangling from one end. Frank held the stick out and drew the feather across Karen’s head. Then, with a feral impulse that she didn’t understand and couldn’t fight, Karen flipped around nimbly and launched herself at the feather, which was hanging just above her tail. The moment she moved, Frank jerked it away across the floor, forcing her to chase after it. Karen moved, quick and sure, back and forth across the floor following the feather. The others watched, both amused and slightly horrified. They were all finally started to understand that it really was Karen inside that tabby body when suddenly the cat started behaving exactly like...well...a CAT! After a couple minutes of that, Frank stopped. “See what I mean?” he asked them all, particularly Karen, who was lying panting on the floor, the feather held snugly between her front paws. “When you don’t think about it, you move just fine. So what we need to do....” (Frank walked into the kitchen as he talked, and the others heard a cabinet open, then close.) “...is help you stop thinking long enough to practice moving right.”

And with that, Frank dropped a little cloth pillow stuffed with catnip on the floor in front of Karen. Karen knew he was right. But even if she hadn’t known, she couldn’t resist the...the smell...it.... Karen crouched, then launched herself onto the pillow, both her and it sliding a couple feet across the floor with the force of the movement. Then she batted it away, only to go chasing after it again. This kept her busy for the next couple hours, while the others set up computer searches. Frank tapped into the missing persons lists of all the area police departments, and started a search based on the descriptions that Tony had given them. Leigh started one web search for anything to do with people turning into cats, filtering into a separate file the hits related to shape-shifting, and another search for cats and Tibet links. By the time the others were ready for bed, Karen was sprawled out on the couch (having gotten up there by herself), sound asleep on top of the catnip toy. Justin picked her up carefully, trying hard not to wake her, and asked Aiden quietly to put the catnip away. They had stuff to do tomorrow, and he didn’t want Karen all whacked out on that stuff all day.

Everyone slept peacefully...until they were awakened in the morning by the blood-curdling sound of Marine screams. Karen was up on her feet in a split second, back arched, every hair standing and all her claws out poking tiny holes in the sheets. Leigh, Frank and Justin bolted out of their beds and ran to the side of Aiden and Angie’s bed...only to find Angie, alone, sitting there holding a black male cat out at arm’s length. The poor cat, who could only have been Aiden, was clearly frightened, flailing wildly with his ‘arms’ and legs and wailing loudly.

Terry looked at Frank, then around at the other 4 Envoys. They all looked eager to head out, as ready to find and kill the thing that killed Potter as every cop in Detroit. “Technically, it's a crime scene,” she told them. “I can't just bring along all my friends, no matter who they work for.” She glanced back at Frank. “So if you're coming, follow at a distance.” “Heh, distance is right,” Frank grunted. “It's probably a CAC, so....” “CAC?” Leigh interrupted. “Calling all cops,” Frank told her...and Karen, who also had a confused look on her face. Both nodded. “So, every cop in the city will be there,” Frank finished. “Right,” Terry agreed. “But it'll also draw a crowd, so you'll blend right in.” Justin was looking at the pin on the map. “It's only a couple blocks away, so we could go on foot,” he told them, as Terry left, her car keys dangling from her clenched fist. Of course, Terry couldn't walk. It'd look a little strange if the lead detective on the case wandered onto the scene from only a block away. “I'll be taking the Lincoln,” Frank said. “Want the arsenal close by?” Karen asked with a sort of sad smile. This was getting really ugly a lot faster than she'd anticipated. Frank grinned. “That and the med kit,” he answered. Oh...well, there was a cheery thought. “I'll take Charlie, too,” Leigh offered. “That way we'll have a couple different vehicles nearby, if we need them.” Frank and Justin nodded. “I'd like to go on foot, to get a street-level view as we approach the scene” Karen said hesitantly, looking to Justin. She didn't want to go alone any more than he would've let her, but she also didn't want to fight over it if he'd prefer to go in the truck or one of the other cars. Justin nodded. “I'll go with 'em,” Angie told Frank, cocking her head toward the couple. Frank nodded and the five headed out.

As soon as Frank had himself buckled in, he opened his phone. He scrolled through the 'phone book' of temporary numbers he kept for active cases, and dialed the Blue Note. “Is Deacon Blue still there?” he asked the male voice that answered. “They already finished their last set and packed up for the night,” the voice replied. “We're closing early, because of the holiday. But they'll be back next Friday night. If you wanna leave a message for them, I can make sure they get it.” “Could you check in back, in case they haven't finished packing the van yet?” Frank asked. “Sure,” the guy answered. Frank heard the click of the receiver being set on the counter, and the squeak of rubber soles on the tile floor. He could faintly make out the sound of the canned music playing over the sound system and the clink of glasses being set on the counter. A minute later... “Nope, they already cleared out,” the guy told Frank. “No problem. I'll just come by next Friday,” Frank told him. He eased the car into the alley that passed behind the Blue Note. It wasn't that he didn't trust the guy. In fact, it wasn't even that he didn't trust Deacon...though he didn't. He was just hoping that he would be lucky enough to catch the van before it left the alley...and to find Deacon in it. But the alley was empty. He eased back out onto the next street and headed for the crime scene.

Leigh had headed straight for the scene, but got stopped as she tried to turn Charlie up the nearest alley. “I'm sorry, ma'am,” the patrolman said as she rolled down the window. She could see a couple other officers unloading sawhorse barricades from a dark van with DPD markings on the sides and back. Others were stringing yellow 'Crime Scene' tape around anything tall enough to attach it to, and trying to persuade other onlookers to move along. “We're closing off this block for now, nobody in or out. But there's a parking ramp across the street,” he told her, forcing the words out politely through his clenched jaw. Leigh smiled and nodded and thanked him, then backed Charlie carefully into the street and headed toward the parking ramp. She turned into it, but drove back out the opposite exit to try getting closer from the other side. Justin had grabbed his night-vision goggles on the way out of the safe house, and he, Karen and Angie made their way up Cass, joining an ever growing stream of gawkers headed for the flashing police lights. The first thing Karen did as she walked out of the safe house was to open her mind and senses, hoping to catch some warning if the creature, or Deacon, who she was sure had something to do with it, were nearby. She immediately felt a rush of heat, and saw the street just teeming with people she'd never seen in the neighborhood before.... People she'd never “seen” before. So many of them.... She'd never done this except in controlled situations, dropping her defenses like this and opening herself to get a 'background count' of the amount of Unknown activity in the area. It was kind of overwhelming, like a sudden burst of static from a radio that'd been blaring music up 'til then....

Karen tripped over the curb as she stepped out of the alley 'cut', stumbling and grabbing for Justin, as she cursed under her breath. She'd been lagging behind as her mind struggled with the pressure of the 'crowds', and now Justin was just out of reach. She landed on her hands and knees, grunting as her palms scraped across the concrete. She rocked back onto her toes and brushed the little pieces of broken cement from her hands. Well, it wasn't the first time she'd done that because all her attention was on something other than walking. She pressed her hands against her thighs and started to stand when she felt Justin wrap his arm around her waist and help her up. He opened his mouth to tease her about her extraordinary grace, but closed it as soon as he saw her face. It was the same wide-eyed, staring-into-space look that she got when she saw a ghost. But she seemed to be looking everywhere at once. “Thanks...Sorry,” she mumbled, brushing the dirt from her knees. “I didn't expect quite so many....” Angie came up on her other side. “You OK?” she asked. “Yah, just clumsy,” Karen grunted. Angie nodded and plowed on ahead. Justin gave Karen a little hug, and the two set off after her, Justin staying in step with Karen, in case she stumbled again.

The three were half way between the safe house and the Blue Note when they hit the back of a crowd of 'solid' people. By this time, Karen had managed to get a handle on tuning out the background 'noise' so that she could feel only for things as 'strong' as Deacon or the thing that was ripping the heads off people. At least, she assumed that whatever it was, it was going to 'feel' stronger than a ghost. And as she gradually blocked the 'static,' she could tell that something else was in the area. It couldn't be too far but, of course, it wasn't like there was some beacon or neon light flashing “Unknown Creature Here!” Yeah... 'This way to the Egress!' Wouldn't that make life much easier? Karen glanced at Justin. He glanced back down at her. He felt it too. They both looked over at Angie. But all her attention seemed to be focused on forcing their way through the crowd. She'd been kind of distracted since this morning. Actually since Leigh woke her and she realized what had happened. But it wasn't distraction. She was single-mindedly mulling over what had happened the night before...which kept her from paying full attention to anything else. Not only did the bastard get in without her waking up or being able to stop him, but the 'spit of a diseased camel' completely ignored her! Sure, Leigh was a stunner. But what was she? Chopped liver? Angie elbowed a tall, thin, black guy a little harder than she probably needed to, and pushed up against the yellow tape. Justin moved up behind her, shrugging and shooting an apologetic look at the guy Angie had elbowed, holding Karen's hand behind him almost tight enough to make her wince. When he saw that they were at the tape, he stepped back and pulled Karen forward into the space he'd just made in front of him, wrapping his arms protectively around her. People in jackets labeled DPD Crime Scene Unit were setting up large battery-powered lamps similar to the ones Karen had used to light digs in caves or ones that had to be worked at night.

Leigh had gone around the block to come up Cass from the other direction. There were a dozen cop cars cordoning the whole block, but this time her way was blocked by the mass of onlookers that had gathered around the spot where the ambulance was easing its way through the crowd. She finally gave up and parked the car as close as she could get it, and got out to work her own way through the crowd. Frank had parked on the other side of the block, and considered the scene as he got out of the car. “Now...if I were an undead blood-sucking leech, where would I go to see what's going on...?” he mumbled to himself. “Right.... Up.” Frank glanced up at the buildings that circled the area. He couldn't see Deacon, but he had a feeling he was up there anyway. Frank made his way around to the far side of the nearest building. Something told him this was the one he'd find Deacon on, and he climbed the fire escape as quietly as he could manage. By now a small section of Cass and the mouth of the alley were brightly lit, and as he got to the first landing, he got a good look at the whole scene along Cass...the sheet-covered lump that must be what was left of Potter; the cops, some holding back the crowd, others working the scene; the crowd itself, which numbered about 50-60 by his estimate. Terry appeared to have just gotten to the scene, and was being filled in by another cop. He couldn't make out his other four teammates, but he knew there were there somewhere. In fact, now would be a good time to make sure.... “Everybody else there?” he asked, triggering the throat mike. “I'm here,” Leigh answered. “Me, too,” Justin said. The other two grunts must've been Angie and Karen, and Frank wondered what they were concentrating on.

He continued up, and when he got to the roof it looked like no one else had thought of coming up there. He didn't even see Deacon up here. No...wait.... Frank spotted Deacon the same way you spotted a comet. You couldn't look directly at it; you had to kind of glance in the right direction out of the corner of your eye. And there he was, a spot where the shadows, cast upward by the lights below, weren't quite right. He didn't want to spook Deacon into running...or worse, attacking him. Now wasn't the best time for that fight. So he made sure that his path didn't aim directly at the vampire. But he only got a couple steps before the shadow turned and resolved into Deacon's form. “I did not do this,”Deacon said quietly but firmly to Frank. But Frank already knew that. “What do you know about her?” he asked Deacon, coming up to stand beside him and look down at the crowd below. “I should have realized by now that it isn't gonna work,” Deacon said softly. “But every so often I forget...and I try to have another child. Maybe it's being home. But it's too much power; it drives 'em mad. I thought she was adjusting well, when I went down for my rest.” Deacon paused, scanning the sea of life below him. “She was gone when I awoke,” he continued. “I thought I could handle her myself....” “She took a cop this time,” Frank told him bluntly. “They'll turn the city upside down.” “I would not reject your help,” Deacon replied. “I can't sense her myself. I could smell you coming. I could tell you where each of your companions is right now. But I can't sense her. It's like I'm blind to her.” Deacon's eyes never left the crowd milling around the street, and Frank kept one eye on him the entire time. He waited, as Deacon worked up to speaking again. Trying to rush the vampire might anger him, but he did wish Deacon would get to the point sooner rather than later.

“She seems to like the water,” Deacon finally went on. “I don't know if it makes her feel safe.... I don't believe there's any humanity left in her.” He seemed sad, bereft. But as much as he tried to pretend that, unlike his offspring, he did have some humanity left, Frank knew that Deacon had no more than this 'child' of his. He'd just survived long enough to hide the fact behind a well-rehearsed persona. Deacon sighed. “A stake through the heart won't stop her,” he told Frank. “What will?” Frank asked. “Take off her head,” Deacon answered. “That'll stop anyone, even me...though I'd prefer you not.” “We have a truce for now,” Frank said. “Good. I'd hate to have to kill you. I don't like to kill. That passed a long time ago,” Deacon told him. Yeah, right. Ever the genteel artist. Frank didn't bother saying it out loud. They didn't have the time for a philosophical discussion about wrong and right. More importantly, Shaunessy probably didn't have the time for it. Frank looked at him expectantly. Deacon glanced over at Frank then back down at the crowd, then began giving Frank a list of places he'd already searched for his 'child.' But Frank could tell that he wasn't telling him everything. “What are you leaving out?” Frank asked him. Deacon glanced at him again, both annoyed and intrigued by Frank's perceptiveness. “Nothing you need to know,” he said. “I haven't lived this long by being a fool.” “Fair enough,” Frank agreed. “Show me what you can.”

Deacon reached into his coat and pulled out a city map, and spread it open on the ledge. There were marks on the map that Frank assumed indicated the places he'd looked. “There's only so much I've been able to search on my own,” Deacon said almost apologetically. “Have you checked the warehouses?” Frank asked, looking at the map. “No, but it's a good idea,” Deacon replied. “See you below.” Before Frank could look up, Deacon had dissolved into the shadows again, leaving the map behind. Frank folded the map and headed back to the fire escape. “Did you guys hear all that?” Frank asked as he was climbing down. The others had heard most of the conversation, though some of what Deacon said was muffled by his distance from the mike. “She seems to like the water,” Frank told them. They'd heard that part, and Justin, Karen and Angie were already making their way around to the other end of the alley, in the general direction of the river. Maybe Justin could pick up its tracks, or some sign that Shaunessy had gone that way chasing it. Angie flashed her badged to one of the cops that she knew and ducked under the tape. Justin and Karen couldn't follow her, so they started fading back through the crowd in order to cut around the block and meet her on the other end. Leigh had just pushed through to the tape line on the far side of the mouth of the alley, and spotted them moving away. She started to ease her way through the crowd to follow them. “And de-capping will kill her...and him,” Frank continued. They had missed that part. “So, do you think what happened in my dream could be wrong?” Leigh asked. None of them had an answer to that yet. “Dammit, I knew I was forgetting something,” Justin grunted. “I'm gonna head back to the truck and get the machete.” “Not alone!” Karen squeaked, grabbing his arm. If that thing could rip the head off that big cop, it could do the same to Justin. Or to her. But somehow that didn't worry her as much as the possibility of Justin getting ambushed by it. “I won't be gone long,” he reassured Karen (not that it did at all). “But she'll be alone until then,” Frank reminded him over the comm unit. “Then come with me,” Justin suggested to Karen. “I'll slow you down,” she replied. “What about Angie?”

As Angie moved through the scene, she could see the K-9s at the corner of the alley. The dogs were less than thrilled with what they were being asked to do. The handlers held Shaunessy's hat in front of their noses, and urged them to follow her scent up the alley. But they kept turning back, whining and trying to avoid both the body on the sidewalk and the scent of the thing that had killed it...the scent of Death itself. “I'll protect you, Justin,” Angie said snidely into the mike. “I'm on my way now.” Angie made her way over to one of the handlers. “Are they new ones?” Angie asked, nodding at the dogs. “No,” the handler answered. “They've both done this kind of thing before. This is the way they usually act when someone's used a scent masker.” “Mm-hmm. I'm more of a cat person,” Angie said, shrugging. The guy laughed. “I can't imagine getting a cat to follow a scent,” he joked. In her ear, Angie heard Karen's voice, “I dunno...you did choose Aiden.” Angie had to smother a bark of laughter, and she could hear the others snorting and laughing over the ear bud. She leaned down and scratched the dog's ears, and the dog put its paws on her shoulders and licked her face, almost begging her to take it somewhere safer and more pleasant. She patted the other dog's head as she made her way over to where Terry was standing. “Anything I can do to help?” she asked Terry. “No, I've got enough manpower,” Terry told her. “You can go back to whatever you were doing; but if you find anything, you'll let me know, right?” Terry wasn't wearing her mike, since she was out on official business. But she knew that Angie and the others would have them on, and she knew that Frank would hear her. “Of course,” Angie answered. Then she moved along toward the far end of the alley, to meet up with Justin and Karen.

Leigh had managed to squeeze through the crowd and keep Justin in sight, and she cut down the next alley a minute behind them, joining them just as Angie did. “I have another machete in Charlie,” Leigh offered. “Why don't you and Karen get that one,” Frank suggested, “while Angie and Justin go for the other one.” “Who'll be watching your back?” Karen asked him. “Oh, I expect I have someone doing that already,” Frank answered. “I'll meet you all at Cobo.” Angie looked up at Justin and said, “1-2-3-GO!” She started running down the back alley toward the safe house before Justin even realized what she was saying. He shrugged and started off after her, determined not to let her out of his sight. She might be able to kick his ass using her clever little Marine tricks, but she obviously forgot he'd gone to college on a baseball scholarship and jogged every day. She couldn't outrun him. He caught up to her fairly quickly and jogged along beside her until they were within sight of his truck. Then he put on a little burst of speed, sprinting ahead to touch the truck first. She punched him lightly (for her, anyway) on the arm as he leaned in to retrieve the machete. Then they turned and headed back toward where they left Leigh and Karen, and piled into Charlie.

Frank had already driven the couple miles down Cass to Cobo. He parked and waited for the others. A couple minutes later, Charlie slid up behind the Lincoln. The five headed around Cobo to the river's edge. Frank had his hand-sun, but left it off for the time-being to avoid unwanted attention; the others all had flashlights. Justin slipped on the night-vision goggles, hoping to catch a glimpse of Shaunessy that the flashlight might miss. When he saw no sign of warm bodies in either direction, besides the occasional rat or muskrat, he took off the goggles and started scanning the ground for tracks or other signs of the creature or Shaunessy. He wasn't finding anything that looked enough like tracks to give them an obvious direction to search, up or down river from Cobo. But as he got down closer to the water, he noticed some mud scrapes and a couple spots where rocks embedded in the mud had been dislodged. He hand-signaled to the others which direction to go, not knowing how close they might be to the creature and not wanting to give away their positions by talking.

Frank stayed up on the wharf that ran along the river behind the warehouses, scanning for movement other than the Envoys. In the direction Justin indicated, there was a row of 4 warehouses, two obviously in use and well-kept, the other two not currently occupied but still in good repair. As Justin worked his way along the river, Frank followed on the wharf. “Got a cop whistle here,” Justin said quietly into the mike, pretty sure now that the creature wasn't lurking around waiting to ambush them. He'd spotted the glint of metal just as he moved the flashlight's beam to watch his footing. Angie was right behind him. Leigh and Karen stayed further up the bank, ready to move to Frank if he needed them, since he was working alone up at the top. Frank was studying the buildings, looking for any opening large enough for the creature to carry the cop through. Karen was getting a generally uneasy feeling as they neared the piers which jutted out from the wharf, and she warned the others. She couldn't pinpoint it, but she knew that it wasn't caused by the ghosts that she continued to see all around them. Some wore modern styles of clothing, but plenty more wore clothing that looked like styles from the 30s. Of course, lots of people had died down here back then, and not just the ones involved in boot-legging. Karen's attention was drawn back to the present when Justin groaned as he neared the cement pilings under the pier Frank was standing on.

“Got a shoe here...a nice, arch-supporting, black leather, woman's-sized cop shoe,” Justin told them. “Tell me you didn't find the foot in it,” Frank said. “No,” Justin replied. “It's still tied, like she kicked it off. She may be leaving a trail. It was under the edge of this pier....” Frank, Karen and Leigh could hear Angie cursing quietly in Arabic after slipping on slimy rocks as she and Justin made their way under the pier. “I can't tell yet if she went in this way, but there's some kind of large pipe going into the side of the building down here,” Justin told them. “It's one of the empty buildings,” Frank said, “I'll find a way in up here, and see if there's a way out at river level.” “Not alone,” Leigh said quickly. She and Karen climbed up to the wharf and met Frank beside the building. He'd found a window that was already broken, and was clearing away jagged glass fragments. He motioned that he would go in first, then help Karen up, and then Leigh would come in last. The place was quiet inside, and smelled of dust and mold and rat poop. When all three were in, Frank asked quietly if Karen wanted to scout around out of body. She hesitated. She wasn't sure if the creature could sense her that way, and if so, whether it could do anything to her. But it was going to be the fastest and surest way of finding Shaunessy. She nodded. “Just don't leave my body here alone,” she told Frank and Leigh. “No, please don't,” added Justin. She'd eventually told him about using that 'talent' to find him at Horst's house. But she'd also told him often enough about the risks, particularly that “something” else could inhabit her body if she wasn't in it, and she'd have to fight her way back into it...if she could. The thought of something else preventing her from being “her” made him feel a little sick.

“Leigh?” Frank asked, glancing from her to Karen as Karen settled down on the floor and leaned back against the wall. Leigh nodded, and Frank went to check the hallway beyond the door. Karen's body went limp, and Leigh reached out in case it started to slump over. But Karen was getting used to doing this and had learned to balance herself just right against whatever supports she had available. Once out, she paused. The building looked big from the outside, and now she wasn't sure where to start looking. She wanted to find Shaunessy and the creature as fast as possible.... She decided to start at the bottom and work her way up. She dropped through the floor to the lower level, then pushed through what she thought was the outer wall closest to the river and pier. Moving through the cement felt like...well, like she was drowning in wet cement. It was uncomfortable and claustrophobic, but not as bad as moving through the dirt and worms and wards had been at Horst's house. She could see Justin and Angie to her left, crouching near what must have been the pipe they'd mentioned. She couldn't be sure because unless she was moving through an object, it didn't have enough astral substance for her to 'see' it. The less 'life' in something, the less substance it had on this side, just like for ghosts in the normal world.

In fact, even living things didn't have much substance here. But the spirit inhabiting the living body made the body easier to see, like a person wearing gauzy material gave the material shape and made it more visible. She studied Angie. Something about her didn't look quite right, like her spirit wasn't in synch with her body. Karen knew that a person's spirit basically looked like how the person viewed him or herself. Hence the 'Roman god' look Tony's had...and...well...Fr. Andrew's appearance. Almost two years later and she still had a hard time thinking of him. But she hoped that, in death, he finally truly looked like that, and that made her feel better. Angie's spirit somehow didn't seem to fill in her body like it should have. Karen knew that this whole thing with Deacon had had a deep effect on Angie; only now could she see just how much it had shaken her right to the core of her being. Karen was going to have to warn Frank about that. She had a feeling that he and Aiden were the only ones who might be able to coax Angie back to normal, and they were going to have to start working on it as soon as possible. Karen pushed back through the wall and 'felt' her way along it to the next room. There didn't appear to be anything there, so she continued on. She knew that astral movement was basically like flight caused by thought, and that it didn't actually involve muscles or 'walking.' But she tried to move at the same pace she would have in her body, and used that and the number of walls she passed through to plot how far she'd gone. She pushed through the next wall, and 'stumbled' as she realized that she had come out almost on top of Shaunessy. She glanced around the room and flinched when she saw the creature Frank had described to them from his dream sitting against the opposite wall. But it didn't seem to notice her presence. She couldn't be sure, but she thought it might be next to a door, and there might be another door on the wall adjoining that one to the right.

Karen studied Shaunessy. The cop was sprawled out on a drop cloth that seemed to be covering a pallet or something beneath her. She was close to the wall, and it took a moment before Karen could tell if she was alive or dead. Alive...but barely. The creature looked like the personification of despair. It had its knees drawn up to its chest, with its arms wrapped around its legs and its forehead lying on the point of its knees. It was big, even all scrunched up like that...over 6 foot for sure, and it had snow white hair and dark skin, just like Frank had dreamt. Karen carefully eased back through the wall, and made her way back to her body, taking note of any landmarks that would help them find the room again. Hopefully she was right about there being two doors, and they'd be able to come at the thing from two directions. She slipped back into her body as easily as she'd slipped out this time, and was glad she'd have plenty of energy left for whatever came next. “It's downstairs, a couple rooms over,” Karen told them, stretching her limbs out before getting to her knees. In the dust on the floor, she sketched out the parts of the structure that she'd been through, and pointed out where Shaunessy and the creature were in the room. “Shaunessy is close to dead,” she said. “I'm not much good in a fight anyway, so I'm going to go over to her if I can, in case the thing tries to escape with her.”

“It's gonna take us a minute to get in,” Justin said over the comm unit. “The pipe is covered with a steel grate. I can see where it pulled the grate open, but it shut it tight after going in. I'm pretty sure the two of us can get it open again, but I'll have to oil it, and it still might make some noise.” Frank was only half listening. He had no idea where Deacon had gone after leaving the roof, but he hadn't met Frank 'below' like he'd said he would. Luckily, Frank had a way to contact the vampire, even though he had no way of knowing if the message got through. Frank concentrated, 'sending' a telepathic message to the vampire that he'd found his 'child' and the missing cop in the basement of one of the warehouses. Inches from his ear, Frank heard Deacon say, “Splendid.” He materialized out of the shadow behind Frank. “I didn't want you to think I wasn't keeping up my end of the bargain,” Frank said, turning to face the tall 'man.' “I had no worries,” Deacon replied. “So, is there anything else we need to know about her abilities?” Frank asked him. “Can she stop time like you?” “She's my 'get',” Deacon answered, “but it took me time to learn to control it.” “Will sheer damage stop her?” Frank asked. “Knee-capping will slow her down for a second. And she'll be sluggish if she's just fed,” Deacon told them. “I'll try to grapple her. I'm strong enough to hold her.” Deacon motioned for Frank to lead on. A wry grin turned up the corners of Frank's mouth. “I haven't lived this long by being a fool,” Frank said, repeating Deacon's own words as he motioned for Deacon to go first. Deacon grinned in return and responded, “Fair enough.” He moved toward the door without making a sound, then paused, waiting for the others to follow him.

Justin glanced back at Angie. They'd both heard Deacon's voice, and Angie's face had never looked grimmer. As he began to dig through his pack for the small can of WD40, he heard the distinctive 'shink click' of a round being chambered quietly behind him. “Angie,” Frank said, “I don't suppose you brought any of your toys along, did you? It might be faster and quieter than Justin's method of opening the grate.” “Actually....” Angie said, “I do happen to have some det cord handy.” She had several feet of it wrapped through her belt loops, and a half dozen caps in a pill bottle in one pocket. She wasn't sure why she'd even bothered to bring the stuff though, and now wished she hadn't. Her brain wasn't willing to admit the truth to itself, but the truth was, she no longer had any faith in herself or her abilities. Justin backed out of the way and let Angie crawl up to the pipe. She unwound the cord and hung it loosely on the grate, then dug into her pocket for the bottle of caps. But trying to get just one out was like trying to pour just one drop of water from a gallon jug. Her hands were shaking so badly that four caps spilled out onto her palm, and it took three tries to get the extras back in the bottle. Justin had never seen her hands shake before, and he got the bad feeling that something was going to go wrong. After finally stuffing the bottle back into her pocket, Angie looked from the cap to the cord and back again. Dammit! She should have set the cord first, before pulling out the cap. She shook her head. This just wasn't going right. Well.... As long as she didn't break the cap, she should be able to attach it to the cord, and then measure, cut and set the cord. It'd be fine....

Angie never felt the cap break. Luckily, Justin had been watching her every move, and he saw the spark when she squeezed the cap into place. Thank God he'd never passed on the chance to play football with his cousins.... In one smooth movement, Justin propelled himself at Angie, picking her up and throwing both of them behind a jumble of broken concrete. A split second later there was a muffled 'foomph' as all of the det cord went off at once. And then a stream of muffled Arabic cursing from Angie, who was being crushed against the rubble by Justin. He rolled off her, and when the clatter of flying rocks and metal stopped, the two poked their heads up over the cement. The grate no longer covered the pipe opening. In fact, the grate was completely gone. Unfortunately, so was the det cord. “Too bad,” Justin mumbled. “Would've been handy for taking off heads....”

They scrambled for the pipe, and Justin started in first. Just before he was fully inside, Angie tapped him on the back. He stopped and turned. “Thanks,” she said. Justin nodded, then turned off his flashlight and headed in. “We're on our way,” he whispered into the mike. Frank, Karen and Leigh followed Deacon out the door. They could hear suppressed curses from both Justin and Angie. Between the bruises from landing hard on a pile of broken concrete, and the new ones they were getting from bumping into the walls and ceiling of the pipe in the dark, they were getting sore. But they were trying to get inside without the creature knowing they were there. Given its strength, the element of surprise was the best weapon they had. Frank, Karen and Leigh were trying to move as quietly as possible, too, which slowed their pace. After Deacon stopped to wait for them the second time, he told them with exasperation, “She'll hear you anyway.” “Don't worry too much about making noise,” Frank whispered over the mike to Justin and Angie. Justin flipped on the flashlight and picked up their speed.

As the vampire and three Envoys neared the room, Deacon stopped them. “I'll go around to the other door, and try to cut her off. I'd rather she go through me than one of you.” Justin and Angie heard him over Frank's mike, and Justin could feel Angie tense up behind him. He stopped and looked back over his shoulder. “I know you want to but, don't shoot him...yet,” he warned Angie. Frank and the others heard the comment. “Supernatural being...supernatural hearing,” he warned them. Was he talking about Deacon or the creature? Didn't matter. Angie looked very thoughtful, as if she actually hadn't been thinking about it before and the comment only just sparked the idea. Deacon moved ahead and disappeared around the corner. Frank went to hand signals, indicating that Karen and Leigh should stand to either side of the door, that he would go in first, and that Leigh, then Karen would follow. Leigh adjusted her grip on the machete. Frank lifted the muzzle of the sawed-off shotgun out of the way, counted down from 3 on his fingers, then kicked in the door. He leveled the gun as he moved in, turning when he spotted movement from behind the door. The creature lunged for him before he could swing the barrel over and squeeze off a shot. It moved fast, crossing the room, grabbing Frank by the throat, and lifting and pinning him to the wall in a matter of seconds. He could already feel it cutting off his air, and he dropped the gun barrel onto its shoulder and pushed the muzzle against its neck. BLAM!

At that moment, Justin and Angie, moving up the back hallway toward the other door, saw Deacon materialize in front of the door and push it open, and take a step across the threshold. “NO!” he screamed, watching Frank's finger squeeze tight on the trigger. No one was really sure whether he was screaming it at Frank or at his 'child,' but it was far too late. Leigh had followed Frank in, and rushed forward to help him. Blood from the creature, much more than it should have had, sprayed everywhere, splattering the walls, floor, ceiling, and Leigh. And the blood continued to pour from it, like from a mosquito that's slapped just after it's fed. Frank couldn't do much more than watch, as the hole made by the blast widened, the weight of the thing's head ripping it further as it fell to one side then tumbled to the floor. The joints and muscles of its body froze up, its stiffened arm keeping the hand locked in a death grip around Frank's throat, holding him tight against the wall, his feet inches off the floor. Deacon was frozen in the doorway, whether by fear or grief none of them cared. What mattered was that he was in the frickin' way. Justin tried to push him aside, but the vampire didn't move. Justin squeezed past him through the doorway and headed over to Shaunessy. She had the same dull grey pallor he seen in guys who'd had limbs blown...or yanked...off, the grey of excessive blood loss. Justin turned her over gently as he pumped some of his own energy into her. He hoped it would be enough to keep her alive until she got to Aiden. Angie had been right behind him, and he turned to see her plunge a stake into Deacon's chest. It was the smooth, clean, abrupt movement born of action without thought, and Justin was glad that Angie had been able to do it. “The rest of us never agreed to the truce,” he muttered into the mike for Angie's sake. Deacon clutched at the stake with a look of surprise, and stiffened.

Leigh had gotten to Frank, and with a forceful swing of the machete she hacked into the shoulder joint of the arm that still pinned him to the wall. Behind her, Karen was moving into the room. Leigh took a second, more deliberate swing at the arm, and severed it as Karen raised a Sphere. She veered past Leigh and the creature, and over to Shaunessy, hoping to get both the creature and Deacon in the Sphere at the same time. Behind her, Deacon fell forward into the room, landing on his face. And the creature, suddenly deprived of the support from the severed arm, fell backward to the floor. The arm, and Frank with the hand still wrapped around his throat, dropped down to the floor as well. Frank was already fumbling in his pocket, and pulled out a vial of holy water. He sprinkled a little onto the creature's body and the body spasmed. Splashing the rest on the arm, the hand twitched tighter, then loose enough to fall from Frank's neck. Karen pulled out a knife and cut a strip of material from her shirt, and pressed it over the wound in Shaunessy's neck to keep what little blood the cop had left inside her.

She caught Justin's eye, then nodded toward Angie. Angie was standing over Deacon's prone body, completely expressionless. Justin rose and strode over to the motionless woman. Pulling the machete from its sheath, he grabbed Angie's arm and slapped the machete's grip into her hand before she could react and pull away, boosting her energy at the same time. Their eyes locked for a second and he nodded, then Angie turned and swung down on Deacon's neck with a viciousness Justin had never seen her display before. He turned to go back to Shaunessy, as Frank stood and looked down at the creature, the body lying near where he stood and the head a couple feet away. The hurt, accusing look in its eyes, which still watched him, reminded Frank of a child who's just seen her puppy run over. “You left out something else, didn't you?” he said softly. 'Taking off her head' wasn't actually enough to kill her, obviously. So Leigh's dream wasn't wrong. “I'm the one with the medical degree,” he said a little louder to Justin, tearing his eyes from the creature's gaze. “I'll take her,” he nodded at Shaunessy; “you help with the staking.”

Justin pulled out a stake and went to the creature's body. As he slammed the stake into its chest, the eyes closed...even though the head was completely detached from the body. A shiver rippled down his spine. Now THAT was creepy. Frank bent over Shaunessy. Leigh had retrieved the med kit from where Frank dropped it in the hallway before they came in, and she squatted next to him, handing him whatever he asked for from it. Frank peeled the now-bloody wad of flannel back from Shaunessy's neck and checked the wound. Behind him, he could hear Angie's machete hack a second time into Deacon's flesh and bone...and then a third. “Can we take the dismemberment out into the hallway?” he asked sarcastically. Angie rolled the body over with her toe and slid it through the doorway with a couple well-placed shoves of her heel, being careful not to dislodge the stake. “She's going to need lots of blood, and surgery,” Frank said, looking at the seriously wounded cop. “I'm going to get her out of here before I call in the cavalry.”

Leigh and Karen helped lift her so that Frank could get his arms under her without too much undue jostling. They were close enough to see the bruises already starting to darken around his neck. When he lifted the woman, the cloth under her slipped to the floor, and they could all see that the thing she'd been lying upon was a box. Leigh looked from the box to the creature and back. The box was smaller than the creature's six foot height; it would have had to lay with its knees to its chest to fit inside. But given that the rest of the rooms they'd seen were empty, that was the only reason they could think of for the box to be there. Justin, Karen and Leigh lifted the creature's body, and the severed head and arm, into the box, placing it as much 'face down' as they were able. Leigh tipped the lid shut and walked around the box clockwise, pulling the nearest end of it around with her. At the end of the third revolution, Leigh felt the box shift slightly under her hand, as if the weight in it had been redistributed. They opened the lid, and saw that the body had sort of bloated into the state of decomposition appropriate for the few days she'd actually been dead. “That's just wrong,” Justin commented.

“I'm going,” Frank told them. “You guys clean up here.” Angie was still contemplating Deacon's lifeless, and now headless, body. When she heard Frank cross the room toward the other door, she called, “I've got your back,” and jogged over to him. She was doing what she normally would have, but her voice was still too hard and flat. Justin and Karen had been hoping that being able to take out Deacon herself might have somehow boosted Angie's self-confidence. Apparently it hadn't. She opened and held the doors for Frank, and they made their way up onto the pier. Frank wanted it to look like 'whoever' had kidnapped the cop had made 'his' escape via the river. Hopefully that would keep them from searching the warehouse too carefully, because there was no way they could remove or hide all the blood that had come out of the creature. He laid Shaunessy down gently, knelt beside her and pulled out his phone. “Officer down,” he told the 911 operator. “Send an ambulance.” He gave his location, then called to warn Aiden that he'd be sending the injured cop his way. He looked up at Angie as he shut the phone. “I'm good,” he said. “Why don't you go in and help the others.” He didn't want any of the others involved in the official report, but Angie refused to go until she saw the ambulance pulling around the building. Then she finally hustled over to the window that Frank had originally used to get inside, and disappeared through it before the cops or EMTs saw her. “Take her to Receiving,” Frank suggested to the medics as they checked Shaunessy's pulse and lifted her onto the gurney. “She's gonna need the best.” Pretty much every EMT in Detroit knew Aiden from his time as an EMT, and knew he was now the chief resident in Receiving's ER. Frank's comment didn't need any more explanation.

It was a little past 11pm now, on perhaps the most unpleasant Memorial Day any of them had ever had. Inside the warehouse, Justin, Karen and Leigh duct-taped the stake in place and wrapped Deacon's body in the drop cloth, and put his head in a garbage bag Justin pulled from his pack. Leigh changed into the set of clean clothes she'd begun carrying in her pack (it was no longer even remotely amusing how often she found herself in this sort of situation), and cleaned the creature's (or, more accurately, Potter's and Shaunessy's) blood off herself as well as she could. They wiped up all the blood they could manage with the rags and bleach they had available, and closed and locked the doors to the room until Frank gave them the 'all clear.' Outside, Frank explained to Terry and the 'police escort' that followed her to the river that he'd been “working on a smuggling case along the riverfront” when he “came across Shaunessy's body on the pier.” He'd “heard the CAC call on the DPD frequency earlier, and knew you were looking for her,” so he'd kept his eyes open. With a glance that no one but Frank noticed, Terry silently asked if the warehouse was 'off limits.' Frank confirmed her suspicions with an equally surreptitious nod. She quickly sent the other cops up and down the riverbanks and to the surrounding buildings to look for any trace of the perp. She indicated that she would check the closest building herself, with the help of Agent Muelder if he didn't mind sticking around to give her a hand. “Sure,” Frank helpfully agreed. “My night's shot now anyway.” The rest of the Envoys worked on tracking down which hotel Deacon and his band were staying at, while they waited for the cops to give up and go home. They knew it couldn't be too far from Aiden and Angie's old apartment, which helped narrow down the search. Fifteen minutes later, they finally dialed the right one. They told Frank over the comm unit.

They were just beginning to wonder if Frank had shut off his mike, because they hadn't heard much after listening to him lie to the cops. They weren't even sure that he knew they'd found Deacon's hotel. A moment later, they heard Frank's voice through their ear buds. “Let's go, before late-night traffic starts picking up at the hotel,” he said. “I'm pulling the car around.” The four hauled Deacon's wrapped body and head upstairs and out the side door and stuffed it into the Lincoln's trunk, then climbed into the car themselves. Frank drove back out and dropped Leigh and Karen off at Charlie, and the two cars headed to the hotel. They pulled into the alley and rolled up to the service entrance. They all put on their black, 'Fed-look' jackets, and Frank and Angie went in first to clear the way. There was no one between the door and the elevator, so the other three carried Deacon in and they all headed up to his floor. While Frank and Angie went out to clear the hallway and make sure Deacon's bandmates weren't in the room, Leigh, Karen and Justin kept Deacon in the elevator. “Justin,” Frank called over the comm unit. There had been no sound from the room, and this was the signal for the others to bring the body and for Justin to have his lockpicks out. Justin crouched in front of the door, and a minute later it was swinging open and they were carrying Deacon's body in. Sam and Tone were, indeed, not in the room, and, laying the body on the bed, the group made a quick search to find Deacon's coffin. It turned out to be disguised as an equipment case. It was padded like any equipment case might be, but it was the little pillow inside that gave away its true purpose. They positioned the body and head inside, face down, and Leigh began circling it, one hand spinning it with her. At the end of the third revolution, the case seemed lighter when Leigh stopped its movement. And when they looked inside, only Deacon's clothes were left lying flat on the bottom of the case.

Frank checked that the hallway was empty, and the five went out the way they'd come in, but without their burden. They went back to the safe house to crash for the night. Angie was still wound pretty tightly, and Leigh decided she was getting a hug whether she wanted it or not. But with Deacon's death, Leigh's stress was finally relieved enough for her to let out all her pent-up emotions, and she broke down and began sobbing on Angie's shoulder. Angie stood there and patted Leigh's back awkwardly until the sobs subsided. Karen took the opportunity offered by Angie's discomfort to draw Frank into the kitchen away from the others. She felt that, as the team's unofficial mental health advisor (which she thought was kind of ironic, considering Frank seemed to have his own stack of issues), Frank should know about the disconnect she'd observed between Angie's body and spirit. He nodded knowingly. What Karen had seen only confirmed what Frank had already suspected, given Angie's recent behavior. It was his professional opinion, which he couldn't share with the others, that if Angie didn't deal with what happened soon, she would have a breakdown. And the others seemed to agree, because they'd all expressed to him their concern for her. He asked if Karen needed to talk about anything after what had happened. Karen, now that she stopped to think about it, realized that she didn't really have much mental anguish over anything that had happened. Yes, she felt bad for Leigh and Angie having to go through what they did. And yes, she did, in a way, feel that Deacon had some redeeming qualities. He hadn't actually killed anyone himself...that they knew about, anyway. But taking something from someone who hadn't willingly offered it, and repeatedly creating 'offspring' when he knew that the 'child' would be a violent, crazed monster, showed a decided lack of wisdom and common sense...or a complete inability to reason...which offset any of his better attributes. So the fact that he had to die because he was a vampire, caused her absolutely no consternation.

The next morning, Karen found a voice mail on her cell from Professor Smith. She'd shut the phone off before they went out 'monster hunting,' and had completely forgotten to turn it back on until she got up. The call came in at 10:45pm, just about the time they were staking Deacon and his 'child.' Smith had managed to get an early flight from Logan, and would be arriving at Metro at 10:38am. Too late to stop him now, so she called the office and told them she had to cancel her morning office hours. The team didn't really need his help anymore, but maybe their input could help his research. And it would have been inexcusably rude to leave him sitting at Metro or send someone else to get him. She let the others know to stick around the safe house for Smith to speak with them; but it sounded like all of them were taking time off for 'appointments' with Frank, and would be around anyway. So she got the truck keys from Justin and hit the road.

Frank and Angie returned to the table, and the conversation turned to Aiden and Angie, and maybe Leigh, needing to find new places to live. Angie was trying hard not to show it, but having her home, however humble, invaded had really shaken her. Aiden was upset about it too, but more because he wasn’t there to prevent it and wouldn’t be able to help her find another place until the next day. Leigh told Angie she’d help her apartment-shop, and suggested that first they look online and in the Freep for some ideas. She went over an bought a paper from the rack by the front counter. It was almost 1pm, and Terry’s phone rang. After a couple “uh-huhs,” she got up to head in to work. It wasn’t anything horrible she told them. Since it was a holiday, most of the detectives had the day off with the understanding that if something came up they might be called. Her name happened to be up next on the list. A thought appeared to cross Frank’s mind as he listened to Angie and Leigh discuss apartments over the Classifieds, but he didn’t tell the others what it was. Finally, Aiden pushed his chair back from the table. “I s’pose I ought’a get back to the hospital before they have to page me,” he told the others. “And I’d suggest that you all salt every door and window or other way in or out of your homes.” Before he could move any further, Angie straddled his lap and engaged him in a long lip-lock. “I’ll come back to help you find your way home,” she told him. Justin started to tease Angie about the ‘PDA,’ and Leigh growled at him to stop immediately. “I’m trying very hard right now to focus on helping her, to keep myself from....” Leigh bit off the thought, the stress clear on her face. “Don’t make me mad.”

Justin stood. “Fine. I’ll just go wait for Karen in the truck,” he told her, scooping up his laptop and heading for the door. He had only been trying to lighten the mood, and he was angry and hurt that Leigh jumped all over him for it. Karen stood, unsure what to do. They still had work to do, but she felt Justin’s pain and wanted to be with him. And she also felt like Leigh had been unnecessarily mean in the way she reacted, and she didn’t want to say something to Leigh that she might regret. She did recognize the strain Leigh was under and that she was trying to deal with it the best she could. And, of course, Karen didn’t know if she’d have been able to hold up that well herself under the same circumstances. But Leigh was among friends. Why not just come out and admit that she was upset...scream, yell, pour out her anger at the creature who did this to her...instead of keeping the lid on her feelings until she ended up exploding and taking it out on her friends and teammates? When Aiden stood, Frank did too. “I’ll be back shortly,” Frank said, and refused offers of company. “I’ll meet you guys at the safe house.” That left just Karen, Angie and Leigh. And they suddenly realized that since Angie and Leigh had come to the hospital in a DPD patrol car, they would need a ride over to the safe house. “C’mon,” Karen said. “The truck’s over in the lot by the ER entrance.”

The four drove over to the safe house in silence. When they got inside, they got as far as the front room and were startled to find Tony leaning over the upstairs railing with a gun aimed in their direction. “Oh, sorry!” Tony said, raising the shotgun’s muzzle and lowering the butt as he came down. “Weren’t you supposed to be...?” Justin started to ask. “Yeah, Beijing,” Tony interrupted glumly. “I wuz really lookin’ forward ta some Peking Duck.... But da job got cancelled at da last minute. Before I even got ta de airport. ‘Least I wuzn’t halfway dere.” The four quickly brought Tony up to speed on where the case was at. Last he’d known, something had ripped half the neck out of a new prof and left her dumped on Cass, and the team was going clubbing to get clues. They were just finishing the update when Frank came in the back door, about 45 minutes after he’d walked out of the coffee shop. “Here,” he said, holding out a set of keys each to Angie and Leigh. “Someplace safe for you to sleep until we get this problem solved.” None of them had really thought about it before, but it was just like Frank to have ‘bolt holes’ for an emergency. Angie went over and hugged Frank. He quickly wiped the look of surprise from his face, but it was mirrored on the faces of the others. It wasn’t the first time someone had unexpectedly hugged Frank, but no one had ever expected Angie to be one to do it. She let go and took a step back, straightening her shirt like a Marine straightening her uniform.

“Better be careful, Frank,” Justin warned, grinning. “Marines are well known to be carriers of rabies. And this one is obviously showing signs of it.” Angie stuck her tongue out at Justin then grinned. “Gosh, I didn’t know that,” Karen said. “How can you tell if a Marine has it? Are there signs to look for?” “Just look for the Marine Corps insignia,” he told her. “They’re ALL carriers.” “You guys know where the initials USMC came from, don’t you?” Frank asked them. “Uncle Sam’s Misfit Children?” Justin asked. That was the one he’d heard in the Army. Frank shook his head. “When the Marines were first formed, they were asked to spell SCUM, and that’s what they came up with,” he told them. “I heard that they’re called ‘jarheads’ because their heads will fit in jars,” Leigh laughed, finally joining in the merriment. “Oh, ha ha ha,” Angie said, trying hard to look stern. She wasn’t about to humor these knuckleheads by telling them all the Marine jokes she knew. Because just like blonds always knew all the best blond jokes, Marines knew all the best Marine jokes.

“I’ll need to run over to the apartment to get a few necessary items from it,” Angie told them, when the jokes had finally abated. “Not alone ” Leigh said quickly. “I’ll go with you.” “That’s fine,” Frank said, “but nobody leaves here until I can go over first and make sure that no one is keeping an eye on the place waiting for you to show up to get your things.” Right. None of them had considered that. “Ya know, with a truck and a few more people,” Justin suggested, “we could get you completely moved out in about an hour. Give me a minute to make some calls....” He already had his phone out. The way he figured it, if he offered some beer and pizza, he could probably get at least a half dozen of his friends and cousins over there. And one of his cousins, Danny, just happened to run a combination U-Haul and self-storage business.... In about 15 minutes, Justin had a truck, 5 cousins and a couple of the guys from work ready to move the entire building for him. But it was gonna cost him a little more than beer and pizza, since each one decided to add something to the menu. “Hey, ya know, ribs would be great, too,” one suggested. “What about wings?” another asked. “Some sushi and a salad and a nice chardonnay would be fabulous,” a third told him. Yeah, well...the family never really talked about it, but they all knew he was gay. And except for a couple of the older aunts and, come to think of it now, the three idiot cousins he saw at the barn meeting, most of the family was totally cool with that.

“OK,” Justin said, coming back into the front room. “I gave them directions to your old apartment, Angie, and they’re going to meet us there at 3pm. That gives us an hour for Frank to case the joint and the rest of us to collect the food and beer and wine.” “Wine?” Angie asked. Justin explained the change in menu, and told them that he’d arranged for her and Aiden to keep the truck for however long it took them to find a new place. “Hopefully that’s not too long,” Angie said. “Well, I don’t care if Deacon does have our address,” Karen said, “I love my house and I am NOT moving on his account. If he can get in past the salt, I’ll just kick his ass until he leaves.” Justin started calling around to take-out joints and placing orders. Leigh had a call of her own to make. “Top o’ the marnin’ to ye,” Fr. Colin said as he answered the phone. Leigh was a little surprised to get him at first. But then, a priest would have Monday off she supposed. “Do you do home blessings?” Leigh asked him. “O’ course,” he answered. “Do ye need yer house blessed then?” “Well, I wouldn’t want to cause problems for the next occupant,” Leigh admitted, hesitantly. “Why, what do ye mean?” Fr. Colin asked. “It’s not really something I’m comfortable discussing over the phone. But, let’s just say that there was a home invasion at Aiden and Angie’s, and I happened to be there with Angie at the time.” “Aye, I understand,” Fr. Colin replied. “I’ll be back in Detroit by Thursday. Do ye have someone ye can talk to about it?” “I do, thank you for asking,” Leigh told him.

Justin had come back into the room and realized that Leigh was talking to Fr. Colin. “Leigh, there’s something I was wondering; can you ask Fr. Colin if the salt has to be in the open across portals or if it can be hidden under the lintel?” Leigh relayed the question. “I has t’be a visible, unbroken line,” Fr. Colin told her. Leigh thanked him and hung up, then told Justin what he’d said. “Too bad,” Justin said. He’d been thinking that maybe they could do it in such a way that Deacon couldn’t get in but without him being able to figure out that they were wise to the whole ‘salting portals’ idea. Frank glanced at his watch, and a few minutes later he slipped out the back. The others went around salting the portals of the safe house, just in case. “We’re gonna need more salt,” Angie said, shaking the now empty boxes from the kitchen. “Gotta stop and get beer and wine anyway,” Justin said. The five went out the back door about 15 minutes after Frank had, but when the others headed for the pick-up, Tony headed for his car. “I’m just gonna keep an eye on youse guys,” he told them. “Go on ahead.” The three women and Justin got in the truck and headed in the general directions of Aiden and Angie's apartment, planning to pick up the beer, salt and take-out orders along the way. A minute later, Tony pulled out, far enough back to get a good look at everything the truck passed but close enough to stay in sight of it.

Karen was quiet as they drove, concentrating on sensing if there was anything Unknown around them as they went. She knew what Deacon had felt like from meeting him at the Blue Note. She hoped that she'd be able to recognize the feeling again, if they passed it. Not long after they left the safe house, she looked around trying to spot whatever had caused the rush of Unknown heat she felt. On the sidewalk was an old woman, sitting with her back against the brick wall. Though Karen didn't see a shopping cart nearby, the woman looked homeless. Then a man walking by kicked her in the shoulder, but she never moved. It was like his foot went right through her. It must be her, Karen thought to herself; she must be a ghost, another like the girl at the Blue Note, unsure where to go now, maybe not even aware she was dead. There were so many like that, so many who had no one close to them and so little real contact with the world around them that they never even knew it when they died. It was so sad, and Karen always felt bad that she couldn't help them all. She shuddered, trying to shake off the feeling. She needed to concentrate. A couple more times, as they made the short trip, Karen thought she felt something Unknown lurking around. But none of the feelings were quite the same as Deacon had felt. She hoped that one of the team was able to figure out some clever way to find Deacon's resting place. Because if they had to rely on sensing him, they'd be at it until the bats came home. Still a short way behind the truck, Tony didn't notice anything out of the ordinary during the trip. No suspicious-looking tall black men watching the truck go by, no unusually large shadows hovering over the streets.

By the time the team reached the apartment, the moving truck and several of the guys were there. The others got there within minutes of Justin and the women, arriving about the same time Tony pulled in. And Danny even thought to bring boxes, packing materials and rolls of tape. “Hey, guys ” Justin shouted, waving them over. “From here on out, the Marine lady here is in charge.” He motioned toward Angie. “Just do what she tells you...and ask permission before you try to hug her.” Angie led the whole mob up to the second-floor apartment. As she started to direct the large males toward the bigger pieces of furniture that would need moving, Leigh and Karen looked at one another. “We'll start packing the smaller stuff,” they said, laughing. Once the larger items were moved out, Justin directed another cousin to back the truck up to the side of the building right under the largest of Aiden's few windows. With the truck in place, they set up the ramp so that it led down from the window. “This way, we can just slide the smaller stuff down to a couple guys in the truck, rather than carrying each box,” Justin explained. At that point, the box-movers actually got far enough ahead of the box-packers that everyone started taking breaks to scarf the food Justin had brought. At one point, Justin was startled by a tap on the shoulder. He turned and Leigh quickly hugged him. “Thanks...for arranging all this,” she said when Justin looked thoroughly confused by the hug. He shrugged, a crooked smile creeping onto his face along with the pink rising to color his ears. “No problem,” he told her. “I just figured...you know...we wouldn't want this to take too long...and since I've got a cousin with a truck...you know....” He shrugged again, kind of at a loss for words. Leigh smiled. She just wanted him to know that she wasn't really mad at him, and that she did recognize that while he sometimes said the wrong thing, his actions always spoke loud enough to remind everyone that he cared for them. She figured she'd gotten that across, and she went over to get some food.

The place was almost empty, the last few random things being tossed into boxes and a few of the 'movers' wiping down counters and shelves, when Shaunessy and Potter knocked on the open door. “Hi, folks,” Potter said, sensing the sudden jump in anxiety levels when they all saw the cops at the door. “We just heard about someone moving out'a here, and came by to check how everything was going.” “Can't say as I blame you,” Shaunessy said, looking at Angie. “But is there a way for us to contact you, if we need to, as the case progresses?” Justin saw the look on the faces of a couple of his cousins, and he shook his head. He wasn’t going to tell them anything more than what he had, that the place had been broken into and his friend wanted to move to someplace more secure. And he didn’t want them asking Angie about it, either. Leigh got one of her business cards from her purse and handed it to the policewoman, and that prompted Angie to check her wallet. She managed to find a card, too, though it was not as crisp and clean as Leigh's, and she handed it to Shaunessy. A short time later, Angie locked the door and dropped the key into an envelope with a short note to the landlord. She dropped this into the slot where they usually left their rent check. It did take a little more than an hour to get her and Aiden moved out, but considering they had to pack everything too, it didn’t take too long. When everything else was done, Justin stood around for a few minutes chatting with his cousins and buddies. “So where do we go to unload all’a this?” one cousin asked. “They don’t have a new place picked out yet,” Justin told them. When he saw that Leigh and Angie weren’t looking, he slipped each of them $50. He knew they would’ve helped for nothing other than him asking; but it was the afternoon of a major holiday, and they all took time that they could’ve been spending with their families and friends having fun instead. So the cash would maybe buy their wives and S.O.s some flowers or dinner out to make up for it. The way Justin figured it, the money was well spent because it helped out a friend in need.

Danny had taken the loaded truck back to a storage unit large enough to just drive the truck inside, along with a padlock that Angie gave him. If Justin’s cousins had gone along to Aiden and Angie’s temporary apartment to help unload their stuff, it wouldn’t have been a real ‘safe house’ anymore. And none of them were really sure what Frank already had there anyway. So Danny would just keep the truck in storage until Angie came for it. “Thanks, Justin,” Angie said warmly, as she tossed the couple bags of stuff she’d kept for the next few days into the back of the truck.“That’ll give us a few days to find a new place. We’ll look near the hospital, since Aiden’s on a health kick right now and wants to walk to work.” Angie shook her head. “It’s hard to believe I’ve been living with the big lug for more than a year,” she told them. “And it’s already more than two since I came to Detroit lookin’ for him. A’ course, my mom thinks I should either marry him or dump him. ‘It’s been long enough, yadda yadda yadda,’” she said, mimicking her mom’s ‘nagging voice.’ “And she wants to meet him, too,” Angie complained. “‘It’s nice that he’s a doctor, but if you’re going to marry him, you’d better be planning a visit home with him before then,’” Angie mimicked again. They all headed back to the team’s safe house, and met Frank there. He kept an eye on the apartment the entire time the others were inside but didn’t see any sign of Deacon, he told them.

“So, how are you, Angie?” Leigh asked her. “I’m fine,” she replied overly cheerfully, as if she were trying to convince herself of it. “I’m fine.” “Don’t lie to me today,” Leigh said, staring Angie down. “Really. I’m fine,” Angie told her. “I have a place to stay...I’m fine.” Angie paused and turned to Frank. “So just how uncomfortable will Aiden be staying at your bolt hole?” she asked him. “Are we gonna need to supply our own mattress?” “There’s plenty of canned food and drink in the cabinets, some spare clothes in the closet, and medical supplies and various hair dyes and makeup in the bathroom,” he explained. “And lots of rock salt, too.” No mention of a mattress. “But it might not be a bad idea for all of us to stay here, for the next night or two anyway,” Frank added. “About the whole ‘unbroken line of salt’ thing,” Justin said. “I was thinking that, with the salt mines under Detroit, wouldn’t it be possible to get large chunks and make lintels and window sills out of them, kind of a permanent salt line...?” “That’ll last about a week, with the humidity here in Detroit,” Angie laughed. “Actually, I saw this thing on TV about a post office down in, like, Tennessee or Kentucky, that’s made entirely of salt blocks,” Justin told her. “They last a lot longer than you’d think. The only reason they have to replace the ones at this post office is because no one believes it’s really salt, so visitors always lick it. They end up basically rebuilding it every five years or so.” “Not to mention the deer it must attract,” Frank suggested. “And the porcupines.... So why bother?” Karen asked. “Seems like they should just use something else.” “Because it’s a tourist attraction,” Justin told her. “I’d stick with giant balls of twine,” Karen mumbled.

“Ever seen what a marble floor looks like?” Frank asked them. “Imagine the whole floor made of salt. The vampire’d have to keep dancing around.... And it would look nice too.” “I wouldn’t want it in my kitchen or bathroom, though,” Karen said. “Imagine when you spilled something....” “So if you’re trying to keep out a Jewish vampire, would you need to use kosher salt?” Frank asked, grinning. “I’d just use pork products,” Karen said. “You could make an unbroken line of bacon....” “Great, and it’d work against Muslim vampires, too,” Frank agreed, laughing. “You could just hold out a cross made of ribs.” “I was thinking a ham bone,” Karen told him. “Heavier for swinging at the vampire, in a convenient handle shape.” By now they were all laughing hysterically, miming swinging around a ham at imaginary vampires. “I can’t wait to see Karen go hand-to-hand against Deacon with a ham bone,” Frank laughed. Then he got serious. “But don’t forget he can ‘time stop,’” Frank warned them. “We should all be wearing our indalos at all times.” “Well, if we’re spending the night here,” Karen said, now that things had settled down, “then I need to get some clean clothes and Drew from home.” “No one goes alone,” Leigh reminded her. “She’s not,” Justin agreed. “I’ll need to pick up a few things, too, and we need to salt the house.” “Can you pick up a few things for me, too, and salt my place?” Leigh asked. Karen made a list of what Leigh needed, and she and Justin took off. While they were gone, Terry called about 6pm. “I’m packin’ it in for today,” she told Frank thinking he was at his place or hers. “You might want to stop home and pick up a change of clothes,” Frank said. “The rest of us are going to spend the night here at the safe house.” “Oh. OK. See you shortly,” Terry said, sounding disappointed. Justin and Karen were back by 7pm, shortly after Terry got there, and everyone had enough stuff to spend a few nights at the safe house, just in case. Justin had thought to download the last 24 hours from their home’s security recorder, but they found nothing unusual on the recording when they looked at it. “Finding Drew took more time than anything else,” Karen told the others as he jumped from her arms and went exploring. “We went through the whole house, calling him and shaking the food bowl, before we found him asleep on top of the fridge, under the overhead cabinet.”

Most of the team spent the next few hours on various projects. Karen still thought that the creature ripping out women’s throats might be connected somehow to Deacon, and she set up a computer search to find out if there was any correlation between incidents of savagely-slaughtered women and Deacon’s tour route. She started with Detroit, and found that he was in Detroit around the time of the previous two incidents that Aiden had discovered. And there had been five other similar incidents in Detroit over the last 50 years of women having their throats ripped out, as well. None of those deaths had occurred any closer than 2 years apart, with most many years apart. Unfortunately, the archives on Deacon’s website didn’t go back nearly that far. His tours usually started in New Orleans, traveled around in no particular recurring order for roughly 7 months, then ended in San Francisco. He’d take the next 5 months or so off, then start over again. When she’d found out that much, Karen let Frank know and then she reset the search parameters to find similar deaths across the contiguous 48 states as far back as records were kept, knowing that it might take longer than they had. “Maybe we should fire up the ‘Spook Server,’” Frank suggested, sitting down at his computer to link Karen’s laptop with the server. If Deacon...or the other creature...did evade them this time, it would provide a record of the information for whoever had to deal with them the next time, minus the time and effort.

“Hey, maybe you should get in touch with Deacon and ask him about the ‘groupie’ killer, Frank,” Justin suggested. “Maybe he knows something and will offer his help. You did say he told you he didn’t want trouble, right? Well, that thing could cause as much trouble for him as it is for us.” “Oh, I expect he’s cocky enough to think he can handle the thing himself,” Frank said, “assuming he doesn’t already know about it.” “So then we stake him right away,” Justin said. “And speaking of stakes, Tony...do you think we could work out a way to fire small ones from, say, a .38?” “Hunh, I wuz t’inkin’ a’ sump’n a liddle bigger ‘n dat ” Tony told him. The two headed down to the basement workshop, Justin thinking about flechet rounds for shotgun shells and Tony dreaming of bazooka-sized stakes. Angie was about to follow them down when her phone rang. “Hey, hon ” Aiden said. “I finally figured it out. The guy I was trying to think of, the ‘expert’ I was trying to remember? I knew that Drew must’ve given me his name once. Then, I was answering a page on my phone when I realized that I’d definitely have put the guy in my phone book if I had contact info for him. His name’s Elsworth Smythe the third, only the last name’s spelled S-M-I-T-H. Here’s his number and email address...” “Hold on! Lemme get a pen and paper,” Angie interrupted him. Aiden spelled out the eddress, which was the decidedly unoriginal ‘elssmith@something.edu.’ “Can you let the others know? Gotta run!” Aiden finished, immediately hanging up. He could be so frustrating, Angie thought to herself. Well, maybe she should be there to see him when he finished with whoever he was working on now.

“I’m heading over to the hospital,” she told the others after giving them the information. “Not alone! I’ll take you over,” Leigh told her. “What? And then you’ll drive back alone?” Frank asked. “Or were you planning on staying at the hospital all night, too? I’ll drive. And we can call Smith when I get back. I want to make sure the call isn’t traced.” While the three were out, Justin came upstairs and called Uncle Jerzy. Working on the other weapons in the basement reminded him that they needed as much holy water as they could get. Jerzy was a little perplexed by the request. Justin wouldn’t go into much detail about why he needed it, and Jerzy was concerned that he was planning on going after a demon by himself. That was a job for the experts that the Vatican could send. He was a priest and he wouldn’t have considered tackling a problem like that by himself. Justin was just a little frustrated. He wished that Fr. Damian had explained everything to Jerzy, rather than just assuring him that Justin was a good man (and Karen a good woman) fighting the same fight against evil that he did. That was so vague that, aside from allowing Jerzy to hear their confessions without freaking out, Justin still couldn’t come out and really explain things like this to his uncle. Jerzy told Justin that he would do what he could, and have the vials ready and waiting for him in the morning. But it wasn’t going to be in the quantity that he got the feeling Justin was asking for. Justin assured him that whatever he could provide would be enough, and that it would not be used thoughtlessly. Tony came up to see what was taking Justin so long, and to grab a beer. “Too bad,” Tony said, when Justin told him how little they were getting. “I wuz hopin’ we could jus’ go load up a super soaker or two.” “Would it still be considered holy water if you put it in a toy?” Justin asked. He’d never paid much attention to stuff like that in catechism. He couldn’t even remember it coming up. “I’m pretty sure it retains its sanctity regardless of its receptacle as long as its treated wit’ respect,” Tony told him.

“Frank, I didn’t get much sleep last night,” Leigh said as they headed home from Receiving. “Could you keep an eye on me while I take a nap later? I was hoping to maybe do a ‘CPD” and figure out what to do about Deacon.” “Sure,” Frank told her. “You head up to bed, and I’ll be up as soon as we’re done contacting Smith.” Leigh did as Frank suggested when they got inside. When Frank was ready at the laptop, Karen dialed Smith’s phone number, since that would be faster than waiting for him to reply to an email. The phone was ringing its fifth time when she heard it picked up, then fumbled and dropped. Finally she heard, “Smith,” in some sort of East Coast accent.” “Mr. Smith?” Karen asked. “Doctor Smith, actually,” the older-sounding man replied. “Ah, good. My name is Karen Riley. I was given your name by a friend who said you might be able to help with a problem we’re having here in Detroit,” she told him. “Something to do with my area of expertise?” he asked. “Yes, sir, I’m pretty sure,” Karen answered. “Reflection?” he asked. “Yes, sir,” Karen replied. “One of us saw it ourselves.” “MmHm, MmHm,” Smith said, obviously thinking to himself. “Tell him about the ‘time stop,’” Frank whispered. Karen nodded. She had been waiting, not wanting to interrupt the man if he was about to say something else. When he hadn’t after a long pause, she said, “It seems he can stop time, though those of us with indalos don’t seem to be affected.” “Oh dear, oh dear! That’s going to take some research...but, I believe I can be there tomorrow, I think,” he told Karen. “Where shall I meet you?” “I can pick you up at the airport,” Karen told him. “Just let me know when you get in and what flight.” “As soon as I do, my dear,” Smith replied. “Is there a number where I can reach you?” Karen gave the man her cell number, and the two said good bye. Then she told the others what he’d said. She wasn’t used to putting calls on speaker-phone, so it didn’t occur to her to do it unless someone reminded her to. “You know he still has an analog phone?” Frank asked, amused. “And no, it wasn’t tapped or traced.”

Then, finished with that, Frank went upstairs to keep an eye on Leigh while she napped and tried to do a CPD. She was already dozing off when he got up there, so he made himself comfortable in a chair. He watched as she started awake several times, her hand flying up as if to brush something away from her neck. Finally, after a while, he could tell that she’d fallen deeply asleep. She’d been concentrating her mind on finding out Deacon’s weaknesses. She slept peacefully for a while, then slid softly into a dream. She saw Deacon standing on a stage, spotlighted, beautiful music playing. But it was piano music, not sax. A waltz. A long, sparkling black skirt swirled around her ankles as she began to dance to the music. She closed her eyes as she danced, and could feel a hand in hers, and another at the small of her back, spinning her around. Her head fell back as she let herself go with the music, the hands guiding her gently, never forcing her. She opened her eyes and looked up at Deacon. He looked pleased that she was there, satisfied. She lifted her free hand slowly, then suddenly plunged a stake deep into Deacon’s chest, into his heart. She stood and watched him as, in slow motion, he clamped his hands to his chest, grabbing at the stake melodramatically, unable to dislodge it. And sadness filled his eyes as he fell slowly to the floor, drifting down like a leaf and landing face down. The music continued to play, as the wooden floor rose up around him almost organically, forming a coffin around his body. She walked around the coffin, touching the top lightly with her fingertips, feeling the inlay under them. She began to dance again, circling the coffin clockwise. But as her fingertips brushed the top, it began to move with her, spinning as she moved. Three times she went around, the coffin moving with her; and as she finished the third circuit, the coffin dissolved into smoke and disappeared as if blown away by a breeze she couldn’t feel. All that was left was the faint smell of sawdust and cedar. And the music faded away....

Frank saw Leigh rousing and got ready, in case there was something wrong. She smiled as she sat up. “My day just got better, Frank,” she said. “A stake will work, but we have to spin the coffin three times.” He knew there must be more to it than that, but the important thing was recording it before she could forget details. He handed her a digital recorder. “Tell it to the recorder,” he said. And she did. Downstairs, Terry was helping Karen set up another computer search, this time looking for information about what the other creature could be. She started with the broadest possible search, the neck-ripping and blood-drinking, well aware that she might get tons of useless stuff. And she did. She saved those results for future reference and narrowed the search to female-type creatures, and then to female victims, and then to infrequent feeding, saving each batch of results for cross-referencing when she had time. In the basement, Tony and Justin had been working on various vampire-fighting weapons, then practicing firing them at a ballistics-gel dummy set up at the far end of the basement. Frank came downstairs, and Leigh came down a few minutes later and told the others about her dream. Justin had come upstairs while Tony was test-firing the bazooka, and he was showing off what they’d come up with, including the single-shot derringers Tony had come up with as a wrist-carry ‘weapon of last resort.’ They didn’t have much range, Justin told them, since the gun could only fire a small projectile with a small load. But if the vampire was at your neck, it should be enough to startle him into letting go long enough for you to escape.

Leigh went across the room to practice drawing stakes from the belt Justin had given each of them, and Justin asked Frank when he was planning on contacting Deacon. Frank told them that he was planning to wait until after they’d spoken with Smith. “We wouldn’t be prepared if I called him now and he wanted to meet right away,” Frank said, explaining his reasoning. “I’m thinking of picking up a couple safe houses,” Justin told Karen. “It just seems like a good idea to have a few as back-ups.” “I’d suggest you do it under a dummy corporation based off-shore, somewhere that doesn’t have an info-sharing agreement with the US,” Frank suggested. “Isn’t that how we picked up the butcher shop?” Karen asked. Justin said that it was. But for that they’d used funds from the account Kat set up with the rest of the reward money. He was going to do this with their own money. “That’s not a bad idea,” Leigh agreed. It was almost 10pm, and most of them were starting to think about hitting the sack, since they’d had a very short night the night before. Then Terry’s phone rang. “Oh, crap. It’s the office,” she said, looking at the display. “Worth,” she answered. “Whoa! Slow down, slow down!” Pause. “Oh, shit.” Terry’s face went pale. “Scramble the crime scene people. I’ll be right there.” She closed the phone. “You don’t look so hot,” Justin said to her. “Potter,” was all Terry said, as she fought back her emotions. “They found him out back behind one of the clubs.” “Which one?” Justin asked, poised to find it on the map. Terry gave him the address she’d been given, and he marked it. It was in the same area as the other attacks. “His head was torn off...and nobody knows where Shaunessy is,” Terry said grimly.

When the six got to the coffee shop, it was clear that Aiden was a regular there. As he walked past the front counter, he picked up a pot of coffee and a mug and headed straight back to his usual table in the corner. “If you guys want any of this, grab yourself a mug,” he told the others over his shoulder. Karen wasn’t planning on staying up late enough to burn off coffee, so she sipped on a glass of water. She’d had a little more to drink than any of the others, since that was a part of clubbing for her, and she needed to rehydrate.

Justin was already wired enough. After what they’d encountered at the Blue Note, he had plans beginning to take shape in his brain for a new take on an old weapon for everyone. But Frank, at least, was heading for Terry’s ‘floater’ scene when they left here, so he needed a little fuel. It was 3:30am now, and he wasn’t sure just how much longer he’d be up. “So, obviously this is a different...” Aiden started.

“Perpetrator?” Leigh filled in the word Aiden seemed to be hunting for.

“Yes, I guess that’s one word to describe it,” Aiden agreed.

“I think we met the one who did this,” Leigh told him. “He’s playing sax at the Blue Note, Deacon Blue.”

“Good enough to put the world on hold,” Frank added. The team explained what had happened there.

“So what else do you know about him?” Aiden asked.

“The waitress said he’s from New Orleans,” Justin said.

“What do the liner notes say, Leigh?” Karen asked. “You got his CD, right?”

“They are from New Orleans,” Leigh said, scanning the back of the jewel case. “Deacon Blue and the Boys. Sam plays the bass and Tone the drums. No last names. There’s a website.”

“So what can you tell us about Sue’s wounds?” Justin asked Aiden.

“My patient was awake for a few minutes before I sedated her. Miss Charles is a secretary for National City Bank,” Aiden told them. “She told me that she thought she’d fainted because she’d only had a salad and 3 crackers for dinner before going out. Stupid diets. If she hadn’t been eating too little in the first place, the amount of blood loss shouldn’t have been enough to make her pass out.” It seemed to irritate Aiden that the woman was so concerned about her weight that she refused to eat sensibly. “All three sets of marks are similar in span and depth. I’m willing to say they were all caused by the same person.”

“How deep were they?” Justin asked. “I mean, they didn’t look savage like Vanessa’s. Were they just deep enough to do the job, or what?”

“That’s basically it,” Aiden said. “Just enough to get the blood flowing.”

“Was the choker on her when she was brought in?” Justin asked. “She’d been wearing one to cover the older marks on her neck.”

Aiden blushed when Justin mentioned covering marks on her neck, and Angie smirked. The others suddenly realized that Aiden had his shirt collar carefully pulled around his neck so that only the front was slightly open. And of course they all stared at him until he ‘broke.’

“OK, yes...I’m hiding a hickey,” Aiden said, reddening further. “It really wouldn’t be appropriate for my patients to see it.”

“Anything we need to worry about?” Frank teased Angie.

She shrugged. “He tastes good.”

“What’s amazing is that he’s embarrassed,” Justin said. “Why be embarrassed about a hot chick giving you a hickey? You’re lucky I don’t completely remember the ‘hickey chant’ we used to do in high school.”

“I’m embarrassed because my girlfriend enjoys talking about our sex life to our friends,” Aiden moaned.

“I heard that’s a sign of a healthy sex life,” Justin told him.

“I think she’s just compensating for something,” Frank teased.

“Wait...are you saying that Angie has a small dick?” Justin laughed.

“I could hurt you,” Angie growled, warning him.

“You’ll need to talk to Karen about that,” Justin told her.

“What?” Karen asked, surprised to hear her name come up in this conversation.

“She’s the one that keeps my social calendar,” Justin continued.

“Did I miss something?” Karen asked, starting to turn a little pink. It had been a long day by now and the Sphere and Shield she’d done earlier, plus the late hour, had her worn out. Her brain was starting to shut down for the night, and she’d fallen off the conversation train long before it jumped its tracks from Sue to Angie hurting Justin.

“Angie is threatening Justin for teasing her about giving Aiden a hickey,” Frank explained, summing up the huge tangent for Karen.

“Please don’t hurt my husband,” Karen pleaded, grinning. She found it funny how often she had to say that to Angie, protecting her big, strong, former jock, ex-GI husband from the tough little female former-Marine.

“Um, could we get back to the point?” Leigh asked. The others settled down

“I got the impression that Deacon seemed to think I was part of some group,” Frank told them. He related his conversation in the alley with the vampire. “I’m not sure that he knows specifically about SAVE, but maybe he thought I was with some team of vampire hunters or something like that.”

“Well, there must be other people that do this kind of thing, right?” Leigh said. “And by the way, thanks for throwing yourself on the ‘Deacon grenade,’ too. It seemed to keep his attention off the rest of us.”

“That was the point,” Frank said, nodding. “Not only did waving at him keep him from consciously noticing that I wasn’t the only person in the room unaffected, but following him out back kept him from having the time to think about the incident enough to realize it later.”

“Well, we all appreciate it,” Karen agreed.

“The strange thing is,” Leigh asked, “why didn’t his ‘time stop’ affect us?”

“Ya know, now that I think about it,” Aiden said, “I seem to remember reading something in a report or Drew mentioning something about ‘time stopping,’ and about some creatures that are able to do that.”

“Wait!” Karen said, leaning across the table and putting out her hand to stop Aiden from continuing. “Reports? You mean somebody actually puts out reports about this stuff?!”

“Well, they used to, back in the day...before...” Aiden said, shrugging.

“Before ‘That Day’,” Leigh said, and the way she said it sounded like the words were capitalized. Dee wouldn’t, and probably couldn’t, tell Leigh everything about what happened back then. But Leigh had picked up enough from the things Dee said, and the things she left unsaid, to know that life as Envoys knew it changed in a monumental way when SAVE, around the world, was almost wiped out in a single day’s events.

Aiden had gotten a slightly more complete and less emotional briefing about those events from Fr. Andrew. But his impression of what happened and the changes it brought about was no less bleak. Aiden shook his head. “Anyway, those little pins I gave you, that Drew gave me, supposedly keep it from working.”

“And it must be something about the design itself, not just them coming from Fr. Andrew,” Frank added. “Because I had mine before I met him or the rest of you, and it worked for me too.” Frank looked at his watch. It was almost 4am, and he still wanted to see what Terry had found. “So, Angie, you comin’ with me?” Frank asked.

“Sure, just a sec,” Angie replied. She turned and planted a lip-lock on Aiden that should’ve caused suctioning sounds to echo through the room.

“Wow. I’ll refrain from doing the ‘Kissing Chant’,” Justin said.

“The ‘Kissing Chant’?” Frank, Karen and Leigh asked quizzically.

“Yeah, you know... ‘Aiden and Angie, sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G....’” Justin chanted. They all rolled their eyes, and Karen thought for a second that her contacts might get stuck on the back of her eyeballs.

“Maybe you should take Justin home now, Karen,” Frank suggested, “and think of some way to break him of his chanting habit.”

“Me? What am I supposed to do?” Karen asked.

“Well, everything does seem to be leading back to sex for him this evening....” Frank said.

Now Karen was as red as Aiden had been earlier. Angie turned around and smirked, then stuck her tongue out at Justin.

“Mind if I come along with you and Angie?” Leigh asked Frank. She had been thinking about Deacon, and was trying to formulate a question for doing a Clairvoyant/Prescient Dream later. It would be the first time she would be trying out on her own the methods Frank had been teaching her for controlling the dreams and remembering them afterwards. So far, every time she’d had one of those dreams accidentally, it had been a terrifying thing and she’d woken extremely agitated and disturbed. She didn’t want to go home and do it alone in the condo, and was going to ask to sleep over at Angie and Aiden’s place. But if Angie was going with Frank, that meant she’d have to stick with Angie.

“Your choice,” Frank told her. Floaters were never attractive. If she wanted to get up close and personal with Terry’s case, that was fine with him. He’d have just as soon gone home and read the report later. But if this was connected with Vanessa, there’d be things he’d be looking for that the coroner wouldn’t. He needed to see the body himself to know. He pulled out his phone.

“Worth,” Terry answered her phone.

“It’s me. We’re done here,” Frank told her. “So where are you? Is it worth coming by?”

Terry gave him her location. “I’m gonna be here a while. They’re still trolling for parts,” she said. She sounded more than tired; she sounded weary.

“We’ll be there shortly,” Frank told her, “with coffee.”

“Thanks,” Terry said.

“We’ll leave our phones on,” Karen told the others, as they headed back over to the hospital to get Karen’s and Frank’s cars. “You call us if you need us.”

Leigh nodded. Then she and Angie rode with Frank back to Karen and Justin’s house, so that Angie and Leigh could collect their vehicles. The three headed down to the riverfront from there; and Justin and Karen went inside.

Karen was halfway up the stairs before she realized that Justin wasn’t behind her. She came back down and could see the light on out in the garage. A minute later, Justin ran in and grabbed a pencil and paper from the kitchen and ran back out to the garage. “You’d better be to bed before I fall asleep,” Karen told him on his way back out the back door.

“Why do you think I’m running?” Justin asked over his shoulder. Karen grinned and headed upstairs. A short time later Justin came up. “I can put it together in the morning,” he told her, not saying what “it” was, “but I needed to get it down on paper right away.” Neither did much talking after that.

As Frank, Angie and Leigh pulled up to the docks, they could see that one whole section was ‘roped’ off with yellow crime scene tape. They hadn’t even gotten to the tape when a uniformed officer led Terry over to them.

“C’mon in,” she said, lifting the tape for them. She must’ve had the ‘uni’ keeping an eye out for them.

“Well?” Frank asked her.

“I don’t know if it’s related yet,” Terry told him. “We haven’t found the head yet.” Frank raised his eyebrows. “See for yourself,” Terry said, leading him over to a body bag lying on the dock and squatting down beside it. Leigh and Angie followed the two, but stood back a little as Frank squatted down opposite Terry and the two unzipped the bag. The first thing they could see was shoulders and a torso topped by the ragged stump of the neck.

Frank studied it with the eye of a trained forensics investigator...and a doctor. It didn’t look like any tool had been used to separate the head from the neck. In fact, what it looked like was that the head had just been twisted around and around until it came off. “What about the rest?” Frank asked.

“The arms and legs are present, if not completely accounted for,” Terry told him. “Female, but we determined that more by the ‘absence’ than the ‘presence.’” Frank raised his eyebrows again, and Terry pulled the zipper down further. Both arms had been dislocated, pulled from the sockets but not fully removed. One of the legs was turned around. “Legs aren’t supposed to go that way, are they,” Leigh commented glumly.

“The coroner’s best guess is that she was in the water a couple days, maybe three,” Terry said. “But it’s been kinda warm, so he’s not sure yet.”

Frank rocked back on his heels and studied the body, starting with the general observations. He kept up a blunt running commentary of what he saw. “She was Caucasian, late 20s or early 30s max. The only clothing left is her underpants.”

“What remains of her pubic hair is brown,” Terry said, reading Frank’s thoughts from the direction of his gaze.

“Assuming her head was proportional, she was tall, maybe six foot,” he continued. “And she had been muscular and small-breasted. At least, from what I can tell. There isn’t much left of the fleshier parts. A lot of the chest and...(he pulled on a pair of latex gloves and rolled the body gently onto one side) all of the buttocks are down to raw meat. The soft, fleshy parts are the first to get eaten by scavengers. Possibly a body-builder,” Frank mused. “It took a great deal of physical strength to yank her arms like that. There’s plenty of evidence of post-mortem tearing and chewing by rats... fish... crabs... But there’s nothing to indicate that any cutting was done, even at the neck. And while there isn’t enough there to be totally sure, it doesn’t even look like the neck was partially torn out, like Vanessa’s had been, to facilitate the ripping off.”

Frank got closer, to refine his examination of the body. “Given the time in the water it’s hard to tell, but I don’t see anything that looks like defensive wounds. And from the musculature, she would’ve been able to defend herself if she could have. On the other hand, ignoring the bloating, I don’t think the body’s been in the water any more than 24 hours. There’s evidence of rat bites, and while rats can swim, they generally don’t eat while they’re swimming. Maybe it was under a dock for a while before ending up in the water. Falling in, getting picked up by a wave...or being tossed in. And if that is the case, that’ll make it even harder to determine time of death with the recent weather.”

“I’ll get you a copy of the coroner’s report as soon as it’s ready.” Terry told him.

“Any scars?” Leigh asked.

“Or tattoos?” Angie added.

Frank looked over the body again. “No tats that I can see, but there’s lots of skin missing. The coroner might find something at autopsy. ALS can sometimes show up the subdermal ink. Looks like she had knee surgery, but a while ago. It’s long-healed. And it was laparoscopic, so no pins or joint replacements to get serial numbers off of.”

“The head’ll help with making an ID,” Terry said, “or we can hope her prints are in the system.”

“Getting the prints might be hard with her having been in the water,” Frank said, “but that’s what CSIs are for. And she may not be in the system. Hookers don’t usually have the time or money to get involved in serious body-building. And exotic dancers generally want to be more...well-endowed.”

Frank stood. He’d gotten about all he could from the body. If he were in the lab, he was sure he’d find more. But, again, that’s what the CSIs were for. He pulled off the latex gloves and Terry pointed out the bag that the CSIs collected all their used materials in. All that kind of stuff needed to be accounted for in case trace got transferred onto any of it during the collection process.

“Any chance you might wander back to my place when you’re done tonight?” Terry asked him quietly.

“Are you putting in an official request?” Frank replied, humor flashing in his eyes.

“Well, I wouldn’t kick you out if you’re there when I get home. Not that I know when that’ll be....” Terry said.

“As long as you plan to shower as soon as you get in,” Frank told her.

“I don’t think I could do anything else,” Terry said, wrinkling her nose. “I hate floaters.”

Frank, Leigh and Angie headed back out to their vehicles.

“Listen, Angie,” Leigh stopped her before she put on her helmet. “I was wondering.... I don’t want to impose, but, would it be OK if I slept on your couch? I’ve been thinking about Deacon, trying to figure out what we can do about him, considering what we think he is, and I expect I’ll be having another nightmare tonight.”

“Sure, no problem,” Angie answered. “But you don’t have to stay on the couch. You may as well share the bed. Aiden won’t be back to use it until Tuesday.”

“Thanks,” Leigh said gratefully. She got into her car and followed Angie back to her and Aiden’s place.

Terry walked back out to the end of the dock, to watch the water recovery team work. It was about an hour to sunrise, but there was already the hint of light down-river toward the horizon. Terry hoped that she wasn’t still there to see it come up.

All evening, Frank had been pondering in the back of his mind how to frame the question he wanted to Dream about. The whole thing with Deacon, while he did need to be dealt with, was just a side note to the main problem of the thing that ripped out half of Vanessa’s throat and may have killed at least two other women...and now maybe a third. They needed to figure out what it was, where it was, and how to kill it. That was an awful lot to expect from one Dream, so he wanted to narrow down his focus. And the latter two questions would be easier to answer with research when they had the answer to the first. What was the thing that chewed on Vanessa? He headed over to Terry’s place and went straight to bed, hoping to get the Dream, and its resulting nightmares, out of the way before Terry got home. But as he laid there, trying hard to relax and center his thoughts, he began to regret the coffee he’d had only a couple hours before. He would toss and turn, then finally start to drift off, only to wake suddenly and begin tossing and turning again. This went on for the next three hours. He thought that maybe he was finally drifting off for good when he heard Terry’s key in the lock. He checked his watch. 8am. He rolled over, groaning. Terry, thinking Frank was asleep, wandered quietly past the bed, grabbed her robe, and headed straight into the bathroom. Frank heard the water come on in the tub. Terry undressed in the bathroom because her clothes reeked; and a minute later she shuffled by in her robe, holding the clothes at arm’s length on the way to the small washer in the closet off the hallway.

Frank heard the lid drop shut. When Terry came back into the bedroom, she could see that Frank’s eyes were open and alert. “I’d ask if you want to join me in the shower, but...I don’t want to join me in the shower,” she said. “We never did find the head. Hell, it’s the Detroit River. The thing could be in Canada now.”

“Or it might never have made it into the river...” Frank said ominously.

Terry turned and went into the bathroom without responding. Sometimes, her relationship with Frank notwithstanding, she really regretted having insisted on knowing the whole truth. Frank laid there for a few minutes, until the lingering scent of decomp from Terry’s clothes going through the room twice made him get up and go in search of one of the multitude of scented candles he knew Terry had sitting around the apartment. He lit it and carried it into the bathroom. The room was pretty steamy, and Terry must have been on her third or fourth lathering by now. She gave him a weary smile through the translucent shower door. Frank wasn’t quite used to that yet. Terry had made the switch from a curtain to the door right after the whole thing with the human torches. The things she’d seen at some of those scenes.... She never said anything much about it at the time, but it had really shaken her up. “Thanks for the candle,” she said loudly enough for him to hear her over the water.

A few minutes later, Terry came out of the bathroom wrapped in her robe, with fluffy slippers on her feet, still toweling off her hair. She didn’t really cut a very romantic or erotic picture, but it was the most comfortable, comforting clothing she owned. As she came back into the room after throwing the towel into the washer and starting the load, Frank handed her the glass of scotch he’d poured when he heard the shower turned off.

“Ya know what I really like?” Terry asked, dropping onto the bed. Frank picked up one of her feet and began rubbing it. “Mmmm...besides that.... You understand,” she answered the question for him. “And not just because of the whole psychiatrist thing. You’re a cop, too. And sometimes it seems like you know what I’m thinking before I even think it. Not that that isn’t a little creepy sometimes.... But you knew, without me having to come out and say it, that I didn’t want to be alone when I got home.”

Frank didn’t say anything. There wasn’t anything to say. He might not be sure of the wisdom of being in the relationship, with the work that he did and the life he led; but she was right...he did understand. He set down the one foot and started on the other.

“Mmmmm.... Snuggles?” Terry asked him. “‘Cause I’m about to fall unconscious.”

“How many hours do you need?” Frank asked her. “Six?” she answered wistfully. “But I could by on 4.”

Frank set down her foot and went out to the kitchen. He loaded the coffee maker and set it to turn on automatically at 2pm. “What?” Terry asked when he came back.

“Set the coffee maker,” Frank answered, crawling into bed beside her. “Mmmm...you’re wonderful,” Terry said, drifting off to sleep. And this time, when Frank laid there, centering himself and relaxing, focusing his subconscious on the question he had, he felt himself drifting off...hopefully for real this time....

The darkness in front of his eyes began to resolve into a dark framework of metal surrounding him, lit by some hidden source. He blinked a couple times, willing his eyes to become accustomed to the dim light. He reached out to touch the metal around him, and realized that he was standing up off the ground, on a fire escape or balcony. Light came from below, from a streetlight somewhere beyond the corner. As his eyes adjusted further, he noticed that there was light coming from above, as well. The full moon was just peeking over a nearby building. On its way up? Or down? He couldn’t tell. Straight above him, he could see that the sky was crystal clear. He became aware of a sound like tape being pulled off a roll...no...cars, driving on wet pavement. Concentrating, he tried to get his bearings. It smelled like it had just rained. The air was still, and the sounds of people talking...laughing...negotiating...drifted up to him from a block or two away. He heard the scrape of a shoe below him and looked down. Hair, either silver or white...it was impossible to tell in this light. It was cut short. He could see, below the hair, dark clothing, a long-ish, maybe ‘car-length’ coat. The way the person moved, he thought it was a woman, though there was something of the stalking cat or hunting coyote in the way it was moving, too--placing its feet carefully, stopping after every few steps to listen...or to sniff the air like an animal tracking a scent.

From further away to his other side, he heard the tap of shoes approaching, a woman’s leather-soled shoes. He looked out, up and down the alley, and up, above the nearest buildings. He realized that he must be near the corner of a building, where the alley emptied onto the street. Now that he was used to the darkness, from this vantage point he could make out the lights of apartments and condos on Wayne’s campus. Sizes and distances seemed distorted by the weird angles of the different light sources, so he couldn’t tell for sure what building he was on, but it had to be along Cass. The ‘clicking’ of high heels was closer now, and he saw a woman at the mouth of the alleyway, her form outlined against the opening beyond, the streetlight stretching her shadow out behind her until it blended in with the shadows of the alley. She turned, and he heard a female voice say something like “I’ll see you next Tuesday.” As she got closer, he could see that she was a pretty African-American woman, tall, like Vanessa...but not exactly. Suddenly he noticed that all the other sounds had faded away. All that was left was the clicking of her shoes on the pavement....

He felt more than heard a low growl rumble below him. The woman turned the corner into the alley...and the white-haired creature leapt on her, clamping its hand over her face before she could scream. It wrapped its other arm around her, hugging her body tightly to its own, so that the only sign of her struggle was her legs kicking weakly, just far enough off the ground that the shoes didn’t even scrape it. The creature dropped its head, and he heard a wet munching slurping sound, like a kid burying his face in a huge slice of watermelon. All of a sudden the thing stopped...and looked straight up at him. Its eyes glowed red against the dark hunger of its face...its white, Nordic-featured face. Above those eyes, its high forehead was topped by the short, spiky white hair. And below the eyes, its fangs and lips dripped with the woman’s blood. It growled again, at him this time, a warning and a threat. And then it dragged the woman away into the darkness of the alley.

Frank couldn’t move, and for a second or two he wasn’t sure if he was awake or still dreaming. He felt like he was pinned down, like.... Like Terry was all tangled up with him, her legs twined with his, an arm over his chest and her chest atop his arm, her head wedged between his shoulder and his chin. She was snoring just a little, just enough for him to know that he was awake, in her bed, in her apartment.... With his one free arm, free only because it was on the opposite side of the bed from where Terry had begun the ‘night,’ Frank reached out and felt around on the night stand until his fingers touched the small digital recorder he always kept by the bed. He pressed the Record button as he brought it close to his face, and he began describing the Dream. A couple minutes into his recitation, he felt Terry wake. She opened one eye and watched him for a moment, until she was sure he wasn’t talking in his sleep. Then she carefully disentangled herself and laid there besides him, quietly listening to the Dream and waiting.

It was past 5am by the time Leigh and Angie collapsed into bed. “Just don’t kill me first, if I wake you with my nightmare,” Leigh sleepily requested of Angie.

“MmHmmm,” Angie grunted into the pillow. The two fell asleep. Leigh was just minding her own business, sleeping... when she realized she wasn’t sleeping anymore. She was standing in the dark, a warm breeze stirring her long skirt and ruffle-y, flowing blouse. She could hear sax music, just the sax, sounding like a lost soul crying in the night...crying for love, for understanding. She felt her nostrils flare when they were struck with the smell of roasted cinnamon, like that used to mellow the bite of chicory coffee. Then, under the cinnamon, the fainter odor of coffee. There was a dampness about the breeze, she realized, like it was coming off the water. And the smell of salt and earth, the smells of the bayou. The music wrapped around her like a lover’s caress. Looking down, she saw the mist swirling around her feet, sliding up her body. She moved, swaying in time to the music, to see what would happen to the mist. It embraced her, moving with her like a lover, in the most erotic of dances. And still she could hear the music....

She closed her eyes and leaned away from the warm, humid touch, dropping her head back. And she felt a strong arm against her back, carefully lowering her into a dip as they moved with the music. She put her hand out, her fingers alighting on the muscular arm, sliding up it, across a shoulder, around the back of a neck, and up the neck...until her fingers tangled in the soft texture of a black man’s hair. The smell of incense mixed with the faint odor of the grave, and the strong arms swung her around with the music, firmly but tenderly. Lips, damp with sweat, kissed her wrist... the crook of her elbow...her shoulder... her lips... her throat... She could feel wet pressure against her throat, her blood pulsing under the touch of his tongue and lips.... And then a tiny pinch... that should have hurt, but somehow didn’t... or maybe she just didn’t mind the pain.... Or the languorous warmth that flowed out from her throat, suffusing her body... And he whispered something softly into her ear, so softly she didn’t understand exactly what he’d said. As the music faded, the mist slid away down her body, leaving her sweaty and relaxed...

Leigh opened her eyes slowly, and could see the stripes on the ceiling from the glow of the streetlights pouring through the blinds. Or was it sunlight? Her neck.... She could feel a bead of sweat roll slowly down the side of her neck, and she reached up to wipe it off as she sat up on the edge of the bed. But it didn’t feel right.... Behind her on the far side of the bed, Angie was curled up into a fetal position around a pillow, deeply asleep. In fact, Leigh had to look twice to check that Angie was actually breathing. That was strange, because like the others who’d been in the military, Angie went from sound asleep to wide awake in a split second, and it usually took little more than a change in the air currents to wake her. And the sweat Leigh had wiped from her neck...it felt slicker than her sweat did after a workout. She brought her hand around to her nose, then cautiously touched her tongue to her fingers. It wasn’t sweat. The liquid had the metallic smell and salty taste of... blood. Leigh stood. She felt incredibly relaxed, physically and mentally, like after really good sex. But she hadn’t... she couldn’t... Leigh rushed to the bathroom. Her body and brain were sending her all the signals that she’d just finished making love. She leaned over the sink and peered into the mirror. On the side of her neck there was a little blood, like she’d nicked herself with a pin, and it seemed to have oozed from two tiny puncture marks. Oh, hell...

Leigh’s first thought was to shower. The ease and euphoria she’d felt before now chilled in her veins. She had thought it was just a dream, but she was wide awake now. And her rational self over-ruled the shower idea just as she was using a tampon to do a ‘self-rape-kit.’ The shower would wash away most if not all of the physical evidence that Deacon had violated her. She was going to have to see Karen and Aiden about this. And considering that her body was telling her that she had indeed been having as much fun as her brain dreamt she had, she was probably going to have to have a chat about this whole thing with Frank eventually, too. But... why hadn’t Angie...? How had he gotten past her? If he did anything to her...

Leigh rushed back into the bedroom and leaned toward Angie’s still body from a few feet away. She could see no evidence of physical injury. Leigh stepped to the edge of the bed and carefully reached out to touch Angie’s throat, wary of the chance that Angie could wake suddenly and break her arm before she realized it was her. The pulse was strong and steady, though beating at the slow pace of someone in a dreamless sleep. If she didn’t wake for that... Leigh leaned closer, checking for needle marks... or bite marks. But what struck Leigh as she bent over Angie was the faint odor of chloroform. So that was how he’d dealt with her....

Leigh grabbed her phone and dialed Karen while she hunted around the apartment to find Aiden’s emergency med kit. It was harsh, but smelling salts would wake Angie fastest, and since she didn’t seem to be injured in any way...

“Hunh, h‘lo?” Karen answered her phone. She rolled over, and found that Justin was up already.

“Karen, it’s Leigh. I’m sorry to call you so early,” Leigh said, “I know you haven’t gotten much sleep.” Honestly, though, Leigh had no idea what time it was. She hadn’t thought to look before, and now found that it was already 10am. “You know how we’d been talking about seeing Sue again this morning and all, and I was just thinking that if you weren’t busy we could do it now and kill two birds with one stone,” Leigh said, kind of rambling.

Karen glanced at her clock and saw that it was about 10am. Ah, that was another reason why she loved Justin. They’d only gotten to bed at about 4am, and they hadn’t gone right to sleep. But Justin got up at ‘oh-my-god-o’clock’ every morning no matter how late they went to bed the night before. And he always did it quietly enough that she could keep sleeping until her own alarm went off. She sat up and rubbed her eyes with her other hand. Now that she was a little more awake, she could tell that at least she’d gotten enough rest before the phone rang. “Sure,” she told Leigh. “So Frank’s gonna be there, then?”

“Oh, I can call him, too,” Leigh told her. “I guess I was just being a little selfish right now.”

“Wait.... You mean..?!” Karen asked, suddenly fully awake.

“I’ll meet you at Receiving, but no need to rush,” Leigh said. Then she quickly hung up. She couldn’t get into a big conversation about the whole thing right now. She’d found the kit and gotten a vial of smelling salts, and she needed to get Angie up.

Leigh stood at arm’s length from Angie and cracked the small vial, then quickly stuck it under Angie’s nose.

“HUH?! WHA’?!” Angie sat straight up, struggling to kick off the covers that had gotten tangled around her feet.

“I think someone’s been in here,” Leigh said quietly and calmly to Angie.

“Oh, crap! Are you OK?” Angie asked, “Am I OK? Who...?”

“Deacon,” Leigh told her, “I think he....”

“I’ll kill him,” Angie said, cutting her off. And the tone of her voice told Leigh she meant it and would be quite happy to do it.

“You aren’t the only one; you’ll have to stand in line,” Leigh told her.

“Shit, Frank’s never going to let me live this down,” Angie moaned. How many times now had she been unconscious and unable to help in a fight? She’d lost count, and it was beginning to bug her the way getting kidnapped by Unknown creatures bugged Terry.

“I think we should both see Aiden,” Leigh said, “and I think I’m OK to drive.”

“I’ll drive,” Angie said in a tone that brooked no argument. Then she gracefully tripped over her own feet on her way to where her jeans were hanging over the back of a chair.

“I’m going to call a cab,” Leigh retorted.

“We should probably call this in,” Angie mused aloud as she pulled on her jeans. “I really don’t want to call in a ‘vampiric rape,’” Leigh told her.

“You don’t have to put it quite like that,” Angie said. She already had her phone in her hand and speed dialed the precinct.

“Hi, I need....” Angie started.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Special Agent Paloma,” Sgt. Peters teased as he heard Angie’s voice. “I s’pose you think you’re too good for us now, since you got yourself transferred back to DHS.”

“No, I don’t think I’m too good for you, Peters,” Angie said. “I know I am...and you still failed. But that’s not why I called.” And when she said that, Angie’s voice got so serious that Peters knew she wasn’t calling to joke around or chat.

“Listen, someone broke into my place, and my friend and I need to be checked out at the hospital,” she told him. “Send a car and a CSI team, ‘K?”

“Got it, Paloma,” Peters said. “And Paloma,” he added before Angie could hang up, “we’re here for ya, y’know?”

“Thanks, Peters,” Angie replied. “And can you kind’a keep a lid on this? I’m OK, and I don’t want too much to be made of it.”

“Sure, Paloma,” Peters said.

Leigh and Angie quickly finished dressing and they carefully stuffed the clothes they’d been wearing into clean Ziploc bags. “I expect they’ll be taking your pillow,” Angie said, glancing pointedly at the spot of blood on Leigh’s pillow.

“I did a ‘self-rape-kit’ too,” Leigh told Angie, holding up the Ziploc bag with the tampon.

“Good thinking,” Angie said as they heard a knock on the door. “You can give it to them.”

Angie answered the door and found two uniforms outside. They’d gotten there so fast that Angie figured they must be the team that was working this neighborhood this morning. One was an African-American man who looked like he could’ve been a linebacker. The other was a small woman, very white with red hair, blue eyes and freckles. The DPD couldn’t have formed a stranger-looking team than these two.

“Officer Shaunessy,” the female cop said, holding out her hand to Angie. “And this is my partner, Officer Potter.” So, in spite of Potter’s more imposing presence, Shaunessy was the senior. Angie ushered them in and shut the door. “The CSIs are on their way,” Shaunessy told her. “But I can take your statements now and then another car will take you to the hospital.”

The two women explained what had happened, or at least as much as they knew and could divulge. They’d gone to bed about 5am and the place had been locked up tight, windows closed and locked, door closed and locked. Leigh woke a little before 10am with the blood on her neck and Angie unconscious on the other side of the bed. Leigh honestly wasn’t sure if she’d been violated, since all her clothes were still in place when she woke. But she had no idea how she’d gotten the cut on her neck, and she just wanted to be sure. They were pretty sure that Angie had been drugged to put her out cold, and they had no idea how anyone could have gotten in. By the time their statements had been taken, a second patrol car was there to take them to the hospital and they were quickly bundled into it.

“Listen, can you take us to Receiving?” Angie requested. “We have friends that work there.” The officer nodded.

Then both Leigh and Angie pulled out their cells. “Aiden, Leigh and I are on our way in,” Angie told his voice mail. “We’ll explain when we get there, but we’re not injured...exactly.” He was probably in the middle of someone just then; but he’d get the message by the time they got there.

Leigh listened to Frank’s phone ring a few times. She wondered if he’d had as bad a night as she had. OK, well, there probably wasn’t any way it could be, but... Heck, was Terry even home yet? She hoped that Frank was able to answer. She didn’t want to leave a message, because she wasn’t really sure what to say.

“It’s your phone,” Terry whispered to Frank. He was just finishing up dictating his dream into the recorder, and she didn’t want to mess up his concentration. But since she was there with him and he had the day off, it was either a huge emergency at work or it was one of the others calling. Both possibilities, whether they liked it or not, needed immediate attention.

Frank set down the recorder and picked up the phone, looking at the display. “What can I do for you, Leigh?” he asked her.

“Well, you can get most of it from the police report,” Leigh said. “There was a home invasion at Aiden’s. I’m OK on the outside, but a little anemic. We’re going to Receiving.” Then she hung up before Frank could ask her anything else, because they were pulling up at the ER entrance.

Aiden and a nurse met the two at the entrance with wheelchairs. “Good thing you called for reservations,” Aiden teased them. “It’s been a fairly busy night. There was a dust-up between a couple rival gangs.” But they could see that the smiling face was just for show. If his girlfriend had to come to the ER in a cop car, something was seriously wrong and he wasn’t at all happy about that. The two were taken to adjoining exam cubicles for the not-entirely-pleasant experience of having rape-kits ‘pulled.’ Both women explained that the clothes they’d been wearing had been bagged and left with the officers on the scene. But the officer that came to pick up the rape kits had orders to get Leigh’s clothes from the night before as well, which is all she had to put on that morning for the trip to Receiving. So Leigh called Karen and asked her to stop past the condo and bring some clean clothes. And then it was a matter of waiting. Aiden had already been called away to help with other incoming emergencies, and they were supposed to meet Karen and Frank there to see Sue anyway.

It was around 11am when Aiden came back to Leigh’s cubicle. “I just saw Angie,” he told Leigh. “She’s fine, but she did have a trace of chloroform in her blood. They’ll be testing the swabs from your neck for DNA, and you’re a little bit anemic. But there was no semen in the vaginal swabs that were taken, and no indication of penetration.” Aiden was talking very quietly, in an extremely controlled manner, and Leigh thought she could hear his teeth grinding. But that wasn’t much of a surprise. His home had been invaded, his girlfriend chloroformed and another friend assaulted there. He said nothing about the marks on her neck. “Do the bites match?” she asked, prompting him.

Aiden hesitated. “Yes, they seem to be the same size as Miss Charles’,” he admitted. “But since you’re not on any weird diet, you’ll be fine with a couple iron supplements and a good meal. You aren’t down enough to need a transfusion,” he told her. “Just orange juice, food and lots of water.”

“So, do you think I could get some juice and cookies, since I donated?” Leigh asked lightly. She was disturbed by the bite marks, but more than that, she was angry that Deacon had done this to her.

Aiden smiled. “I think we can arrange that, and I’ll have some scrubs sent in, too,” he told her.

“I shouldn’t need the scrubs; I called Karen to bring me clothes,” Leigh said, “since we still have to go up and see Sue again.”

iden nodded. “Angie’s in my office, whenever you’re ready,” he told her. Then they heard him being paged over the PA, and he headed back out to work.

“Time to get up, Terry,” Frank said almost cheerfully, “and get your vampire killing kit.”

“Huh?” Terry asked, slightly confused. Frank hadn’t said anything between answering his phone and hanging up, so she had no idea what Leigh’d wanted.

“Count Dracula took a bite out of Leigh,” Frank explained.

“So is Angie OK?” Terry asked.

“Yeah,” Frank said, dressing.

“Hell, is the vampire OK?” Terry laughed. She could imagine that Angie would’ve put up a bit of a fight, and Leigh was no slouch when it came to defending herself, either.

Frank grinned. “Listen, can you go to the hospital and check on them?” Frank asked her.

“Where are you going,” Terry asked. “Checking out the scene,” Frank told her.

“Right,” Terry said. She should’ve known. She didn’t need to ask about his dream, since she’d heard almost everything he’d dictated; so she didn’t interrupt his flow. He was already up and dressed before she was fully out of bed. He gave her a kiss and flipped on the coffee maker on his way out the door.

She took longer getting dressed; she was having a little problem with the buttons on so little sleep. Then she called the office, to see if there had been any missing person’s report filed that resembled the floater, and sucked down her starter cup of coffee. There was no report that matched yet, but she really didn’t expect anything, for a few reasons. First, unless the missing person was a child, they usually wouldn’t take a report until 24 hours had passed. By Frank’s estimation, it wasn’t much past that when they found her. Second, unless she had family or friends in the area who had been expecting to see her, it was a holiday weekend and no one might have missed her yet. Third, the autopsy wasn’t done yet, and without some concrete way to connect her to a report, the connection could easily be missed. On the way to the hospital, she stopped to get more coffee for herself, and some for the others. Aiden always seemed to need it, and she had a feeling that Angie and Leigh were gonna need it, too, this morning. She ran into Aiden first, and after taking a long sip of his coffee, he led her up to his office. He was a little surprised that Leigh and Karen weren’t there yet, but he left Terry there so Angie could fill her in in the meantime. And he would be down in the ER until they needed him.

Over at Aiden and Angie’s place, Frank was surprised to see the door halfway open and a uniform standing outside it. He’d assumed that when Leigh said he could “get most of it from the police report,” she’d meant that she’d tell him when he got to the hospital. He was a little astonished to find that they’d actually called in the DPD on something like this. But, he’d just have to make the best of it and hope they hadn’t done too much damage to the scene. He pulled out his badge and showed it to the large male African-American officer.

Potter opened the door the rest of the way and led Frank in. “Wait here,” Potter told him, shutting the door all the way, then disappearing into Aiden’s kitchen. “I got a Fed here,” Potter told Shaunessy in a low voice. “Don’t know what he wants.”

A moment later, the black cop followed a white female cop out of the kitchen...only Frank wasn’t where Potter had left him. A CSI had come out to get his kit, and Frank had followed him back into the bedroom, passing the bathroom, where he saw another CSI bent over the sink. Frank watched the CSI work the bedroom, and carefully stalked around the room himself, trying to get an idea of what had gone on there earlier. The window was wide open, and Frank put his head out to look at the fire escape. As he pulled his head in, he looked up at the outside and bottom of the sash. The tell-tale traces of printing powder made it obvious that they’d already processed the window and found no prints. But...there were scratches on the aluminum frame, very subtle, and he couldn’t think of a tool that would make marks like that. They almost looked like...fingernail scratches.

“Can I help you?” Shaunessy said firmly to Frank from the bedroom doorway. It was definitely a ‘get off my territory’ warning. Luckily, Frank had no intention of stepping on their toes, especially since the CSIs seemed to be doing a competent job.

Frank straightened up. “Agent Muelder, DHS,” he said, introducing himself. Then, turning to the CSI, he asked, “Did you see this?” He took out a pen and used it to point out the scratches. The CSI took a look.

“No! How’d you spot those?” he asked Frank. “We were both over that window a couple’a times, taking photos, dusting...and neither of us saw ‘em.”

“I almost missed them, too,” Frank said. “Guess I was just looking when the light was just right or something.”

“Damn. They said the window had been shut,” the CSI explained. “That’s why we were trying to take such a close look at it, because it was open a crack when we got here, and Shaunessy and Potter,” he nodded at the cops, “said they hadn’t touched it.” Frank nodded and went over to the two cops. The CSI squeezed past the three and went to the bathroom to get the other CSI. The looks on Shaunessy and Potter’s faces told Frank that they were revising their opinion of him.

“We can talk in the kitchen,” Shaunessy said, turning. Potter motioned for Frank to go first, and Frank didn’t hesitate. Potter brought up the rear.

“The vics said that neither of them had been in the kitchen since getting home last night,” Shaunessy explained. “The CSIs checked it out and cleared it, and we’ve been staying out of their way. They did find a cloth handkerchef in the bathroom trash basket that still smelled of chloroform.” Frank nodded. So they were being thorough. Then Shaunessy read from her notes the statements that Angie and Leigh gave her, to bring Frank up to speed.

“I don’t like this,” Potter blurted out when she’d finished.

“Potter!” Shaunessy said with a curt shake of her head.

“What do you mean?” Frank asked him.

“It’s just been a rough week,” Shaunessy answered for him, hoping to calm him down. But Potter wanted to open up to someone, and he got the impression that Frank was the person who would understand.

“We found a woman with her throat torn out not too far from here,” he told Frank. “It just seems weird, and I don’t like it.”

Frank looked at Shaunessy. “You know that this type of violent offender doesn’t go backwards,” he said.

Shaunessy understood what he was saying. “So we’ve got two different incidents here,” she said, “and then there’s the floater they found last night.”

“I heard her head was torn off,” Potter added.

Frank let the hint of a smile turn up his mouth. “Don’t believe everything you hear,” he told them. He had to get this one clamped down fast.

“We might have seen the perp who tore the girl’s throat out,” Shaunessy finally admitted tentatively. Frank put on his best ‘go ahead and open up to me’ face. It worked. “We were first on the scene, because this is our beat,” Shaunessy explained. “I stayed with the girl until the wagon could get there, while Potter checked out the area.” She paused and let Potter take over the narrative.

“I saw somebody move down the alley...white hair, maybe six foot, but I didn’t get a good look because it was dark and....” Potter stopped for a moment and looked at Shaunessy. She nodded, urging him to continue. “I got to the corner, and...they were gone. No sign of ‘em at all. And when they’d moved, it...it didn’t look right. They were too damned fast.” Potter stopped abruptly, angry at himself for not getting a better look, a better description of the perp, and angry that someone would do this on their beat.

“Speed freak?” Frank asked him, trying to get him to continue. “Maybe,” he agreed. But Frank could tell that he wasn’t telling him everything yet. Potter sighed, not sure if he should say anything more. “You’re gonna think we’re nuts,” he told Frank.

“I’ve been at this a while,” Frank said, reassuring him.

“Ever since then, I got the feeling that somebody’s watching me.” Potter waited for Frank to laugh or something, and when he didn’t, both cops seemed to relax a little, relieved that the one person they’d told so far seemed to believe them.

“We’ve been trying to look into this a little more, ya know...when we can,” Shaunessy said. “There’s a detective assigned, but...it’s just a simple assault with intent right now, and they got a lot more on their plates....”

“Besides,” Potter added, “this is our beat, and if some guy is gonna go around attacking people....”

“And we caught the case,” Shaunessy finished.

“Have you come across anyone else who saw anything?” Frank asked them, implicitly approving of their investigation.

“No,” Shaunessy admitted.

“But it’s not the usual ‘we ain’t seen nuthin’,” Potter said. “And we ain’t gonna give up.”

“Obviously somebody is taking this seriously,” Shaunessy said. “I mean, you are DHS. You think this might be somethin’ bigger?”

“Hard to say,” Frank told her. “I’m mainly here because one of my agents was one of the people in the bed. But I’ll definitely look into it and help you out if I can.”

“Thanks,” Shaunessy said. “We’re gonna keep askin’ around, and I’ll get you a copy of the reports.” They traded business cards.

“My advice?” Frank said, looking both of them in the eye, “Trust your instincts. If you’re being watched, be careful.”

“My dad and granddad were both cops,” Shaunessy told him. “They had a saying... ‘If your feet say run, keep up.’”

Frank smiled and nodded. “I’m gonna hang around a little while longer,” Frank told them, and they nodded. Then Shaunessy took up the post outside the front door and Potter picked up his coffee. Frank went into the bedroom and, carefully avoiding the CSIs, began trying to get into Deacon’s mind. If he could figure out the way the vampire’s mind worked, he’d be able to find it faster to kill it. He began walking through the event from Deacon’s point of view... ‘I come up the fire escape and find the window shut and locked. I try to get a look inside...to see if she’s in there....’

When Karen got off the phone, she began hunting for Justin. She finally found him in his workshop, with a pile of wood slats and leather straps on the bench in front of him. “Leigh just called and I think something’s up,” she told him. “She wanted to go do the Shield on Sue again and said something about killing two birds with one stone, and I think maybe something happened to her last night.”

“I’ll be in in a second,” Justin told her. “I just have one more to finish. Then I’ll clean up and go with you.” If something happened to Leigh, he wasn’t letting Karen go check on her alone.

It was about 10:30am, and the two were just about to walk out the door when Karen’s phone rang again. “Karen, it’s Leigh. If it’s not too much trouble, could you go to my place and bring me some clean clothes?” Leigh asked.

“Of course!” Karen said. “We’ll see you in a little bit.”

When they got to the garage, Justin went to the workbench first. “Here,” he said to Karen, holding out one of the things he’d been working on. He’d gotten the idea down on paper last night...that morning...when they got home, and it didn’t take too much work to fashion them from stuff he already had laying around. They were essentially knife belts, and Justin had modified them to hold wooden stakes that he’d made from ash and oak lathing. He’d had the idea for the weapon belts a while ago, and had been fiddling with different ways for them to be worn and for weapons to be attached. So putting together a belt for each of them from what he’d already designed went quickly. The stakes took a little more time to shape, but he’d managed to get a handful of stakes from each type of wood before Karen came out to find him.

“Leigh wants me to stop and get her some clean clothes,” Karen told Justin as they set the other stake belts in the back seat and climbed in the truck. Justin headed over to the condo and followed Karen upstairs. Inside, Justin shut the door behind them. He was just going to wait on the couch while Karen collected Leigh’s things. But as he turned, he realized something was ‘off.’ It took him a few seconds to figure out what it was. His mom had not been, nor were Marie or Karen, slobs by any means; but comparatively, Leigh was an almost fanatical housekeeper. However, where there should have been only neat, parallel lines in the vacuum pattern on the carpet, he saw the faintest disturbance in the tracks. It was just a subtle tilt to fibers that should have been straight, with a hint of smudged dirt on the tips of a few of the fibers near the French doors. “Karen, wait!” Justin hissed, grabbing her by one arm. He signaled her to get behind him and pull her gun, as he pulled his own. There was no time to explain right now, so he signaled that they would be clearing the rooms and sticking to the walls. He worked his way toward the master bedroom, which happened to be the farthest room in the condo, keeping one eye on their surroundings, and one eye on the footprints.

When Justin was sure that whoever had been there was gone, he relaxed slightly and explained what he’d found to Karen. The prints were man-sized, but they were nowhere as deep as the size of the foot implied; so the person must have been lighter than most men with that shoe size--or a Shaolin monk. The print was definitely of a shoe, not a bare foot, and there was no indication of any pattern to the sole of the shoe, meaning it was probably a smooth leather sole not a sneaker. The prints, which weren’t in any sort of continuous trail in the first place, seemed to begin at the French doors, go to the bedroom, then return to living room. And there they just stopped.

While Karen got out Leigh’s vacuum and a couple muslin tea bags to use as a filter, Justin checked to make sure he hadn’t just lost the tracks when they made an unexpected turn. He even checked to see if there was any trace of the person having moved across some other surface, like the furniture, walls or ceiling. But there was nothing.

“Do you smell that?” Karen asked, wrinkling her nose.

“Smell what?” he asked back. He didn’t smell anything, but, truth be told, the smell was fainter than most people would have noticed. Karen only happened to catch it because it was a smell that was fairly familiar to her. It was the same scent of dirt and decay that she came across when an old grave was opened.

“Grave,” she told Justin, “and I don’t think anyone makes Eau de Sepulchre incense or room deodorizer.”

Justin went to the doors where the tracks started, and Karen began vacuuming over the spots that Justin had pointed out to her. She’d have just walked right over them if Justin hadn’t seen them and shown them to her. She hoped that whoever had been there had left some trace behind. Justin found that the balcony door was open about a quarter inch. So he’d come in through the door. But there’s been no moisture on the carpet, even though it had been raining out last night. And how had he gotten in, Justin wondered, when he was positive that Leigh wouldn’t have gone out and left the house unsecured.

“I don’t suppose you saw Deva around anywhere,” Karen chuckled when Justin mentioned the door. It still hurt her to think about what had happened to the little cat; but Deva had had a habit of coming in through portals that people were sure had been sealed, leaving them open a tiny bit behind herself.

Justin didn’t seem amused by the thought. He and Reg had done an expert job of securing the condo after Deva had been killed there. And not only had Brown Jenkin danced around in the attic that one Christmas, but now someone had managed to sneak in and traipse through the whole place leaving barely a trace. Justin wasn’t just concerned about Leigh’s safety, he was angry that the work he and Reg had done had been circumvented. Justin stepped out on the balcony and studied the door and its frame. There were no obvious tool marks on either, and no hole in the glass. But...there in the door...near the bolt.... Faint dents in the metal. They weren’t deep, but they were evenly spaced as if.... Justin turned sideways and put his hands over the marks. They were spaced just as if someone had dug their fingernails into the door to pry it open. The span of the person’s hand was even bigger than Justin’s, so undoubtedly male; but no one should have been able to pry that door open with just his bare hands. He told Karen what he’d found. “But, I thought vampires couldn’t enter a house unless they’re invited in,” Karen said. She already suspected Deacon, after the way he’d looked at Leigh last night. “Well, you and Leigh did say that there are a lot of different types of vampires and not all of them follow the ‘usual’ rules,” Justin replied. He took close-up photos of the scratches, and Karen suggested doing a ‘rubbing’ of the marks, in case something like that turned up somewhere else. Finally, Justin downloaded the video feed from the condo’s cameras onto a thumb drive, and Karen collected clothes for Leigh. Then the two finally headed on to Receiving, and arrived about noon.

Leigh was just beginning to wonder if something had intercepted Karen and if she should get a set of scrubs and go find her. In fact, she had her cell out to call Karen when Terry walked into the cubicle. “Have you seen Angie yet?” Leigh asked her.

“How’s she doing?”

“She’s just pissed that she was unconscious again when a friend needed her help...and that Frank will never let her live it down,” Terry told her.

“She thinks she’s pissed,” Leigh said. “I’m pissed that I apparently need a physical guard to protect me when I try to do a Clairvoyant/Prescient Dream!”

“You aren’t the only one,” Terry told her. She didn’t go into details, since she didn’t know if Frank wanted the others to know about how he’d almost overheated the one time and how she’d had to dump water on him to wake him and bring his temp down. But if that ‘C/P Dream’ was the same thing that Frank had been doing at the time, then it didn’t seem to be safe for anyone to do alone.

“You didn’t happen to run into Karen out there, did you?” Leigh asked. “She’s supposed to be bringing me clean clothes so I can get out of here sometime today.”

Leigh was starting to get grumpy, so Terry didn’t push her to talk about what had happened. Luckily, a short time later, Aiden led Justin and Karen into the cubicle.

"You did say not to hurry," Karen said to Leigh with a wink and a grin as she handed her the bag of clothes.

“We’ll wait in Aiden’s office,” Terry said, herding Karen and Justin back out almost as soon as they’d gotten in. “We can talk there.”

‘I can see that she is, but so is another. I need an opening to get in,’ Frank continued in his mind, walking through the incident in Deacon’s shoes and trying to work out a profile for him. A mist was the only thing left behind when Deacon disappeared in the shadows last night, Frank recalled. ‘So, I don’t need to get through the window in any normal sense, I just need it open far enough to slip in as a mist. And I’m strong enough to manage that without tools. Once inside, I have to neutralize the other one. She could cause me trouble. So I ‘time stop’ them long enough to put the chloroform on the hanky and knock her out. When that’s done, I do what I came here for...then leave the way I came in.’ Frank looked around the room. Aside from what he could tell was moved by the CSIs as they worked, it didn’t look like things had been disturbed. No signs of a fight or of items broken or knocked over. So Deacon didn’t hurry, and it seemed like his movements were well-planned enough that he was prepared for all possibilities, like Angie’s presence. Of course, with the ‘time stop’ ability, he shouldn’t need to hurry. Frank asked if he could see what the CSIs had collected so far, and they allowed him to look at the evidence bags, though of course he wasn’t allowed to open them. Both Angie’s and Leigh’s bed clothes, a pillowcase with a small blood stain, the handkerchief labeled as having been found in the bathroom waste basket, and the tampon. So he was tidy--he’d put the chloroformed hankie in the wastebasket in the bathroom--and organized. He’s done this before, often enough to be comfortable with the familiar routine, like a rote exercise. And he knows that the ‘time stop’ either lasts only a short time, not long enough to control Angie with that alone, or requires a level of concentration that he can’t maintain when he’s feeding. That was good to know.

Frank continued to think through the incident, recording a word or two that would mean nothing to the CSIs if they overheard him, but that would remind him of the important points. Deacon proceeded without malice--he could have killed Angie outright--and even without much predation. Again, no signs of a struggle and not much blood on the pillow case. So Leigh didn’t struggle either, and she told the unis that her bed clothes were still all in place when she woke. Afterwards, she still had the presence of mind to rape-kit herself; so while he was sure that it was something they’d be discussing later, the incident hadn’t been so violent or traumatic that Leigh had been panicked or hysterical afterwards. She’d realized she shouldn’t shower, and she’d taken the time to find the most efficient way to wake Angie.

Deacon thought of his actions as a necessary evil; he had to feed, so he might as well make it as pleasant an experience as he could, for both himself and his vic. The hankie portrayed a certain gentility about the man and his actions, though there was no doubt this was a rape, no matter what the exam ended up showing. And if he hadn’t kept the two ‘time stopped’ through the whole incident, then he must have controlled Leigh some other way, some way that was non-violent and left Leigh with enough awareness and self-control to cope. Only one thing still had Frank concerned. He couldn’t get a feel for how old a vampire Deacon was. The gentility suggested an older vamp who had lived during a time more concerned with propriety and manners. But Deacon had seemed quite comfortable in this day and age, with no particular problem dealing with modern technology. That belied his being very old...or he’d just done a good job adapting to the times.

When Leigh finished changing a few minutes later, she went to Aiden’s office, where she found Terry, Angie, Karen and Justin waiting for her. “So what’s going on?” Karen asked her. Leigh and Angie went through the morning’s events one more time. They’d barely finished when Aiden came to see how they were. “My office is just not big enough for this,” he said.

“No, but Sue’s room is,” Karen suggested.

Frank had just walked up behind Aiden. “Boy, this is cozy,” he joked.

Aiden shook his head. “Sue’s awake,” he told them.

“Could you sedate her?” Justin asked.

“Not just so that we can use her room for a conference room,” Aiden said.

“Well, we don’t have to talk up there,” Karen said. “I just want to do the Shield on her, and Frank, and now Leigh, too.”

“How do we explain all of us up there?” Terry asked.

“I’ll let Aiden handle that,” Karen laughed. The seven trooped up to Sue’s room, again by a route that avoided cameras. On the way, Karen realized that she and Justin couldn’t very well go in as a couple, since Sue thought Justin was single. Karen didn’t want to ruin his cover. A cloud crossed Justin’s face when she mentioned it. He hated being left out of the action, even though there wasn’t going to be much going on.

“I wasn’t going in either,” Terry mentioned.

“Well, then I’ll just hang out with you guys in the hall,” Angie said.

Karen and Leigh let Aiden, then Frank go in first. From that point on, it didn’t really matter that the two women were in the room. All of Sue’s attention was focused on the men.

rank took the lead.... “Agent Muelder, DHS,” he introduced himself to Sue, holding out his hand. She took it, but let go of it only reluctantly. And she didn’t seem to recognize him. But then, he hadn’t been wearing his Fed suit last night and she’d been more interested in Justin...and Deacon. “Can you tell me exactly what happened last night?” Frank asked her, sliding his hand away gently.

“I felt dizzy and light-headed. But I didn’t have much to eat yesterday,” Sue told him. “So I figured I’d just sit down for a few minutes when I got home, and it would pass. Next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital.”

“Before that,” Frank prompted her. “Can you tell me about your evening?”

“Well, I went to the Blue Note with my friend Betty,” Sue said. “And when we left, I said good night to her and hugged her, then went home, just like usual when we go clubbing.” And then, as if she considered the clubbing completely unrelated to her current situation, she went on. “A girl can’t afford to get fat these days,” she told him, making Aiden frown, “but Dr. Carter...” Sue said his name with a little sigh, “says I should eat a more balanced diet.”

“I’m here because I’ve been investigating a series of drugging cases,” Frank told her. “Do you recall anything strange about your drinks at the club?”

“Well, I know I should get some of those tester sticks,” she said, “but I really didn’t drink that much. Just one beer.”

Leigh nudged Frank’s elbow from behind and handed him a few of the sticks from her supply. Making it look like he’d just pulled them from his jacket pocket, Frank handed them to Sue. As she took them, she rested her hand on his wrist...then ‘forgot’ to let go of it.

While Frank kept her attention, Karen did a Shield, making sure to include Frank and Leigh, as well as Sue, within it. Then Leigh raised a Sphere, just to be safe. No one seemed to react to it.

Aiden moved around checking Sue’s vitals and making notes on her chart. When Frank had finished talking to her, Aiden told her, “You can go as soon as I get your blood-work results back...and you eat all of what’s on this tray.” He pointed at the lunch tray, which had barely been touched though Aiden knew it had been there for at least a half hour before they came in.

“And here’s a prescription for a visit to the hospital nutritionist,” he said, handing her a slip of paper. “He’ll teach you how to maintain your proper weight without starving yourself.”

Sue smiled at him and he smiled back. But it was a sly smile.... He’d made sure to give her the name of the male nutritionist rather than either of the female nutritionists. He figured she’d pay more attention to a relatively handsome male than to any female on the planet, no matter how well-educated.

Then Aiden shooed everyone out of the room, so that Sue could concentrate on eating her lunch without being distracted by himself or Frank. When they came out, Justin noticed that Leigh looked a little pale, even for her. He asked how she felt, and when she confirmed that she was a little tired, he put his hand on her shoulder and boosted her energy.

Passing through the parking lot on the way to Aiden’s other ‘office,’ Justin herded everyone on a detour past the truck. There, he gave them all their ‘stake belts.’ He even had a spare ready, in case Tony turned up unexpectedly. They talked about the case on the way. Justin was reluctant to upset Leigh considering what she’d been through that morning already; but what he and Karen found at her place was too relevant to let go. So they told the others about the break-in and the prints. They hadn’t had a chance to look at the video footage yet, but Karen gave the vacuum ‘filter’ to Terry, to see if she could get any contents examined. If not, Karen thought she might be able to get the chem lab on campus to do it.

After hearing about the ‘break-in’ at the condo, Leigh, without going into too many details about her ‘dream,’ explained why she was confident that there was some ‘mist’ connection, given the events in her ‘dream,’ the break-in, and what Frank had seen last night.

Frank described the scratches on the window sash at Angie’s, then asked Leigh, “Considering it seems like Deacon knew where to look for you, do you have your wallet?” Leigh was startled by the question, but no more so than Angie and Karen. None of them had even thought to check for something like that, since they didn’t remember Deacon going anywhere near their purses. Leigh dug through her purse and almost panicked when she couldn’t find her wallet right away. But it turned up when she dumped the contents out on the table at the coffee shop. Inside, her license was in its usual pocket...but upside down.

Karen and Angie pulled out their wallets now, and found that their licenses had also been disturbed. This shook all of them up. Not only could they not remember Deacon having any opportunity to handle the licenses, but this meant he knew their names and where all of them lived. Justin had brought his laptop along, and he popped in the thumb drive. It took a little ‘surfing’ to find the part when Deacon invaded the condo; then they all scrunched around the computer to watch what happened.

The first thing they saw almost looked like a glitch in the recording. A fog crept up over the balcony railing, along the floor and up the door. For the next minute or so, they could see only the top of a fedora, because of the angle of the hidden camera. Then they saw the door swing open a crack and the head dissolved into mist as if swallowed by the shadows. A moment later, the motion sensor on the cameras inside activated the recorder, and they saw a brief blur as a dark shape moved across the living room toward the back hallway. Slowing down the playback speed, they could see that it was Deacon, placing his feet carefully to leave as little trace as he could. But he had been moving at an incredible speed, so that when Justin reset the playback, he seemed to flow through the room. He disappeared into the bedroom, where Leigh kept the camera disabled unless she was planning to be gone for a longer period. When he found the room empty, he reappeared on the camera for a split second again before disappearing into a shadow. Then they saw a mist drift back out the door. Justin checked the time stamp. All of this happened in a matter of minutes, about 5am.

Sunrise was at 6am that morning, and by the time Leigh woke, the sun was well up. So Deacon was definitely up after sunrise; and unless his resting place was really damn close to Angie’s and he was able to stay behind buildings the entire way, he was out in sunlight. “Were you wearing your indalo or some religious symbol?” Frank asked Leigh. Her hand went immediately to her neck. She had a cross that she rarely took off, and she knew she had it on when she went to bed. But it was gone. Why hadn’t she noticed that before?

Frank called Shaunessy. “Did your CSIs happen to find a necklace on the bed, a cross?” he asked her.

“Hold on a sec,” she told him. The sound was muffled by her hand over the mike, but he could hear her talking to someone. A moment later she came back on the phone. “Not on the bed, so I looked around and found it in the drawer of the night stand,” she said. “Thanks,” Frank replied. He told Leigh and the others. “So obviously he’s got at least some resistance to holy or religious symbols,” Frank surmised, “since he had to have touched it to take it off. Or else he had some power to make Leigh do that herself for him.”

“I would suggest spreading salt across any portals,” Aiden said. “I don’t know if it will work, but it’s the best thing I can think of until we figure out what this guy is vulnerable to.”

“Leigh, if it’s OK with you, there’s something I’d like to try,” Frank said. “I don’t know if it will work, but I want to hypnotize you and see if the bite created any sort of psychic link to Deacon. It’s a long shot, since it’s something I remember from reading Stoker’s “Dracula;” but if it works, it might lead us to his resting place and make killing him easier.”

“Are we sure we want to kill him right away?” Karen asked him.

“Oh, no...I’d rather let him keep running loose until he completely drains Leigh,” Frank said sarcastically.

“That isn’t what I’m suggesting,” Karen replied. “I’m not saying don’t kill him. All I am saying is that he may have some idea about what the thing is that’s ripping out women’s throats and how to kill it. Shouldn’t we try to get any info we can from him before we stake him? It just seems like he could be more helpful alive...or at least undead...than dead right now.”

“Yeah...about the thing that’s ripping out women’s throats,” Frank said. He described his dream to them, and the conversation he had with Shaunessy and Potter. “So we might be making progress on that creature without the vampire’s help,” he finished.

Leigh agreed to let Frank try hypnotizing her and got comfortable in her chair. Frank warned the others to be quiet while he worked, but Leigh was too tense and he wasn’t able to get her under. The break in the conversation had left all of them pondering their own thoughts. “Angie, can I talk to you alone for a second?” Frank asked when he’d finally decided he wasn’t getting anywhere with the hypnotism. Angie had been dreading this all morning. She nodded and the two went to an empty table in the opposite corner of the room.

“Yeah, Frank?” Angie asked when they sat down. “Or, should I say ‘yes, sir?”

“‘Yes, sir’ would be more appropriate right now,” Frank said. He was quite serious, but he didn’t sound as angry as Angie had been expecting. “Angie, if you are ever the victim of a crime again and do not call me immediately, I will fire you,” Frank told her sternly.

Angie let out the breath she’d been holding. “That’s fair,” she agreed.

“Are you OK?” Frank asked her, his tone softening.

“Angry,” she said, “very...and a little scared. I mean...he only knocked me out, but....” She paused. “I’m scared,” she continued, “and I’m not used to being scared. I called the locals because I’ve been spending a lot of time with them and I want to get Leigh in to the hospital.... But you’re right; I should’ve called you. I...didn’t even wake up to smell the chloroform....”

“He might have ‘time stopped,’” Frank consoled her.

“Yeah...and my indalo was in the night stand,” Angie said with a hint of disgust at her own stupidity.