Ann came back and propped me up again. It was clear that she didn't expect a lot. Either the being in my head had given her an excuse or she was shaken by those creatures. We tried to hurry over to Thomas, but it was difficult. He had been closer to the truck than us by the time the fighting ended. It was only thirty feet or so but it felt like a mile. The wolf eyed me as we approached.

"Tell me about this Order." Thomas struggled to get words out. "Make me believe getting gutted was worth it."

"The Order of Merlin." I corrected weakly. My ears rang, but the rest of my senses were gradually coming back together. Winding back in around my limbs.

Thomas managed to take slow shuddering breaths with disconnected muscles. "Who the hell is that?" He wheezed.

I couldn't shrug right. The Merlin part had never made sense to me. Supposedly there was a bird called a Merlin. Beyond that, there was no answer on the internet.

"They attacked your pack." I said.

Shaggy leaned against the car trying to catch her breath. She wasn't feeling that great either. The shade creatures had essentially left her alone. I wondered why the woman hadn’t tried first aid on Thomas. Maybe survival was out of the picture.

"If they hadn't pushed us then-" I couldn’t finish the thought.

"My sister would still be-" He trailed off with a shuddering cough. There wasn't a lot of blood coming out of him anymore. Once she felt better Shaggy knelt down to check his dilation and the wound.

"I don't know if he'll make it." Ann said.

"Of course, I'm dying." Thomas coughed. "Take my truck. Keys are in the ignition."

Shaggy and I shared a look. Do we try to do something for Thomas, or take the wolf's word that he was dying? Should we call him an ambulance and hope he could hold on long enough? Doing so would double the reasons for Malcolm and Charles to hate me.

"We'll take care of your friend." Shaggy said. "Then find out where Anthony has taken her. Somehow. There's no point rushing after him, though, he could be anywhere by now. We'll have to wait until he's stopped moving."

"I can track Kahina." I said to her.

"Right now? Without a real scent trail?" Shaggy was surprised. Thomas snorted.

"Yes." I said.

"I'll get the guns." The undercover agent tried to hustle back to the SUV and started gathering ammunition.

That left me and the wolf. Thomas had only recently turned into a nicer being. Part of me remained upset about his actions over the last few months. The other part felt a little guilty. Thomas had gone to bat for Kahina and me in these last few hours.

A normal person wouldn't usually be calm over seeing someone with their guts hanging out. I could see where parts of his flesh were trying to knit back together. Blood didn't gush out, but even a wolf's hyperactive healing wasn't enough. Shaggy seemed indifferent to his situation and I wasn't much better. Maybe it was all the death recently or I was a product of my environment. Maybe it was easier because I never really liked Thomas. Yet watching a man die, one who had a name and wasn't some nobody, wasn't easy. It felt like a dirty irony that he was dying in front of me just like his sister had.

"God I want to hate you so much." Thomas looked miserable and checked his wound again. A sword, who carried a damned sword anymore? Anthony, that's who. Well, and me for that brief period of five minutes.

"It's hard." Thomas said. "She, won't, let, me." His hand was weak, it kept slipping ever so slightly. I propped him up against a wall. If nothing else it might make Thomas comfortable. "I can't let go of her."

"Julianne?" I asked. Was he talking about a pack memory?

"No. Nun down the road. Saw up her skirt and fell in lust."

Shaggy ignored us and planted her stash of guns into the back of the truck. She was doing the best out of all of us, physically at least. Her body language was detached. I had a feeling she hit a mental wall. Bottled up emotions would come out eventually. Hopefully, we would be done by then. She and Daniel would need to work through surviving together. Maybe she didn't truly nderstand how close death had been. Ann might be a psychopath and not care.

"See. You're fine." I got back to Thomas and attempted terrible banter. If he could joke at a time like this then things might not be as bad as they looked. Maybe he could survive by holding his guts in long enough to heal.

"Wolves know a fatal wound when it happens. Too bad it's dragging ass." His breathing slowed down along with speech. "I went out with style."

"Taking on two vampires for your dead sister's best friend is definitely stylish, I’ll even call it noble." I tried to play along. Similar to how he and Julianne had bantered.

Maybe if I knew first aid, or anything more complicated than shoving a shirt into his wound. I tried to poke the beast in the back of my head with a mental stick. Too bad that presence was sound asleep. Thomas' breath grew shallow and his eyelids dropped.

"Stay with me." I shook his shoulder lightly. Maybe he could pull through. Not that I held a lot of hope. Maybe the police would show up soon. Maybe they wouldn't. There were too many maybes in this situation and it was driving me crazy.

Police were out anyway. With a transition like this going on, they were probably all taking extremely long coffee breaks.

"The pack'll be better without me. You'll see. Grandpops can move on." Thomas’ words were distant. Like he was watching his death from somewhere far away.

"You can move on too." I said.

Shaggy started the truck up and revved the engine a few times. She wanted to get going, now. The woman was willing to leave Thomas here. I almost was, but Julianne’s brother deserved better.

"No. I don't want to forget her." Thomas wasn't smiling anymore, his eyes were off in the distance. At least I wasn't holding him, that would be a little much for me right now.

"Pack never forgets right?" I suggested. What would Julianne's grandfather think of me now? The wolf's entrails were gradually drawing back into his body, but most were hanging there. The only reason he was conscious as death closed in was because of a wolf's toughness.

"We don't forget." Thomas' words started to drag out. Each one took longer to form than the one prior. "But we bury our memories." He said in a flat tone.

I had to blink a few times before the joke registered. "Hah."

He tried to nod. Then took another shuddering breath. All the color had dripped out of his face. I had never seen a wolf drag on this long.

"Tell Stacy she's a bitch." He almost whimpered trying to get the last words out. One last stupid attempt at humor before his breathing stopped altogether.

"Yeah. I will." Only a moment's rest had helped me regain control of my legs. That and those creatures being gone. I looked down at the latest sacrifice for this madness. Amber eyes stared off into the distance. A poetic sort might believe Julianne would be waiting for him on the other side.

There was a vampire to hunt and Anthony had a head start already. Thomas' truck was right here. Almost as soon as I turned around someone laughed. Weak but amused. I turned back to see Thomas eying me from his position on the ground.

"No goodbye confession? Not secretly pining for me?" His words sounded far more coherent. My facial expression must have been funny because he started weakly laughing again.

"You didn't think that nonsense was real did you? Help me shove my guts back in. We've got to rescue my sister's friend right, Princess?" Thomas didn't even wait for me to come over. He started threading his intestines through the wound on his side and kicked both legs weakly.

The whole dying act had been a joke? While Kahina was being carried away by Anthony? I couldn't decide if I was relieved he was alive or hated him even more for playing a tasteless joke on me.

"Looks like a platter of scrambled eggs." His shaky hands were doing rather well. "We'll put all this back in and hope my morning crap is right on time." That damage should have killed him. I would have died for sure, healing or not.

"I'm not the first in our pack to get hurt this bad." He said. I still hadn't left the side of the truck. This was utterly bizarre and my brain had finally snapped. "The healing is great, lets you do all sorts of stupid stuff and walk away."

Shaggy rolled her eyes, got out of the driver's seat and popped open the tailgate. The sleeping bag Kahina had been in minutes ago became a bedspread. It was amazing that the undercover agent didn't make a comment. Her teeth weren't even grating against each other in frustration. We were both beyond exhausted.

"My great uncle Ted, he lost both feet at once, shoved them back on with some glue. Can't dance anymore, not that his wife lets that excuse fly." It was hard to tell who Thomas was talking to now. Maybe himself, maybe me, or the ghost of Julianne that was stuck in his pack memories.

We worked together to lift the heavy wolf. He kept talking the entire time, hopping and trying to hold his guts in with one hand. Thomas kept rambling through the open window between the cabin and back. I wasn't sure what to think as we loaded into the front.

"David, you know, Doug's brother, he actually had his eye popped out." There was a squishing sound as we heard Thomas feed the last yard of intestines into his side. "Sure, a new one grew in eventually, but it moves funny when he laughs. He can legally drive, not that anyone in the pack wants to hitch a ride with him."

The truck was idling and Shaggy stared at me expectantly. It only took a moment to find a direction for Kahina. I pointed off to the north. The vampire had managed to cover miles in a matter of minutes. Now he seemed to be walking inside a building. Shaggy shook her head.

"We'll do Daniel's suggestion first. It should help us sneak up on him and those things. If there are more. Daywalking vampires are rare as hell." Shaggy said with a dry voice. Like she saw it happen enough in her line of work that it had a classification. I didn't want to correct her. Those weren't daywalking vampires, they were being ridden by the Shades on the other side somehow.

"How long will it take?" I asked.

"Maybe twenty minutes? Then it depends on your ability to track." She said.

"I can track her from anywhere." It came out as a mumble. "Will Kahina live that long?"

"I don't know.” Ann stated without emotion. “By all rights Anthony should have killed her already, but hasn't. Something must be holding him back. Maybe he's still on our side and trying to throw off the remaining hunters."

I closed my eyes and tracked Kahina down. Sure enough, Anthony, with one of those weird Shade creatures in his shadow, wasn't hurting a hair on her head. It didn't make me happy, but at the same time I couldn't handle another round of that fear again. Not without help to back us up. Twenty minutes was long enough for Thomas to heal partially.

"Maybe." Anthony might be on our side, he had been fighting a possession last time. Maybe Anthony or the creature in his shadow was friendly. Come night time the vampire would be awake and back in control. We had hours until it happened.

There was nothing to do but get the extra help Shaggy suggested. Even if we charged after him right now there was no chance. That sword, speed, and our poor conditions.

I looked back on our wounded wolf. Thomas was rambling in the background. Maybe he would live at that. The open window didn't prevent his delirious rambling from reaching the front.

"You're tough." I commented to him.

"Comes with the breed, Princess. The bullets that caught my sis would never have killed a real wolf. Not without silver." The half gutted wolf wheezed out his words.

"I know."

"I know you know I know." His heart wasn't in the attempt at humor. Thomas’ fingers were slowly losing their coordination again. He managed to get everything back inside and was trying to keep pressure on the wound.

"Hang in there." I said.

"Cats hang. Wolves lounge." Thomas' eyes were rolling in the back of his head.

I surveyed the damage. Blood had gotten all over the back, it wasn't a lot, just everywhere. The wound on his side was starting to close on its own. Like his body had waited for body parts to no longer be hanging out.

"That's gross, Thomas." I said. Conversation might help him stay conscious.

"It only makes me hungry." He frowned and tried to move an arm. "That should disturb me. Is there still food up there?"

"The healing does that?" I asked, trying to keep my voice deadpan. Shaggy tossed a fast food bag into the back while driving. Thomas fumbled with one hand.

"Yeah, healing and gushing more blood than a vampire on her period makes me ravenous." Thomas was becoming unfocused as time passed. The distant look in his eyes told me he was in shock. Every time he blinked it felt like his eyes would never open again. Then I really would have collected the set, like Thomas snidely remarked a week ago.

I slid the window closed and looked at Shaggy.

"How is he not dead?" I whispered.

"You'd know more than I. Only Alphas have that kind of regeneration, though. He might be better than you."

Might? The man survived a blade across his stomach and was rambling as a result. I could see into the back where Thomas was unwrapping a hamburger one handed.

"The cut wasn't deep. Anthony could have sliced him in two but didn't." Shaggy said.

"How do you know?"

"Because I went to practices, you didn't. Anthony is a master with a blade. It's part of what got him hired on as a second. Vampires respect hand to hand skills."

"Hell." I muttered. The idea of a sword-wielding partial vampire having Kahina worried me. One slip or loss of control and she might die.

"Anthony only improved after you burned the side of his face months ago."

"Great." Last time it had been easy to stop the partial vampire. Now, months later, he was more proficient, had an actual weapon, and was closer to completing his change. Worse, I was too tired to use half my abilities without passing out.

"So the wolf lives, Lady Rhodes may be in good hands, or may not be. Either way we'll get our assist and go get the Lady." Ann Myers said.

"Where are we going?" I glanced at the brunette out of the corner of my eye. Was her hair really that color? Did she use boosts in her shoes to make walking easier? Maybe she spoke in a surfer accent like Daniel. None of those questions were said out loud.

"Not going. Gone." The truck shifted into park with a clank of noise.

I stared in confusion. We had gone a full circle more than once over the last week. This time, we were back at Julianne's Bar and Grill. Half the parking lot was blocked with sector tape which extended around my entire home. It would never feel secure there again. A few heads turned over to us from where they were looking. None of them looked like pack, though. No strange shadows with faces in them.

Daniel was nowhere in sight. I was willing to bet he was watching from a car, biting his nails in frustration. The man was torn between what his job required of him and the feelings he had for Ann, assuming that was her real name. She didn't even look around. It was like her brain had reduced life to a series of short tasks just to keep moving forward.

"What do we do with Thomas?" I asked.

"Let him rest. It'll be fast anyway." She said.

Shaggy escorted us in this time. Both of us were moving sluggishly but better than we moved in the alley. There was no awkward pause at the door to seal up silver. The room was nearly empty except for a very bored looking waitress standing behind the bar counter. She was fiddling with a ribbon.

"Who are we meeting?" I asked.

"Her, I think." Shaggy said.

"She's just a waitress."

"And you're just a bouncer." The waitress responded. The ribbon became wrapped around one finger, then unwound. A moment later it was bent into a bow shape. She almost clucked at it in disapproval.

“Sorry. I can't remember your name." I said.

"Muni." She smiled while talking. This wasn't a friendly smile, it was like being laughed at. I sat down at the counter and looked across at Muni. Shaggy didn't seem comfortable sitting.

"We're here for a trinket." Shaggy said hurriedly. She looked slightly nervous while one hand kept inching closer to her gun.

"Oh?” Muni paused her ribbon manipulation to stare at Shaggy. The motion made the undercover agent blanch momentarily. “Who gave you permission?"

"Daniel Crumfield."

"Interesting." The waitress kept glancing around the room, her attention barely settled on anything for more than a moment. She was much different now than any other time I had seen her. This person, Muni, gave off a completely different vibe.

"You and the Lord both need a trinket?" She continued.

"Lord?" Shaggy looked puzzled.

Muni ignored her and stared at me, waiting for something.

"What does she mean by that?" Shaggy asked me.

"I wish I knew." I tried not to grind my teeth in irritation. It felt like everyone on the planet knew what I was but me. And Shaggy. "Can you tell me what a Lord is?"

"Sure." She opened her mouth and I was hopeful for the first time in a long time.

Then time skipped. A clock in the background had swung forward five minutes in a single blink. Either the creature in my head had blacked things out or something else had happened. There was a sort of liquid marble in Muni's hand. She popped it into her mouth like a grape.

The smile on her face as the food vanished was disturbing. A curve to those lips coupled with a hooked nose made her mouth look like a beak momentarily. She stared directly at me then shifted away. Not once had she actually blinked.

"Did that make it clear?" Muni asked.

"Make what clear?" I asked.

"Exactly. Maybe you'll change your mind later." Muni said.

The waitress fussed with a feather woven into her hair, picking at a bit of fuzz that had attached to it. She wrapped the ribbon around the feather, tying it up. Her next words caught me off guard. "Though I must remind you, Lord."

"Of what?" I turned to look at Shaggy. The brunette was staring ahead with a glazed over look on her face.

"If you persist on your association with the Bloodletter my life will have been risked for naught." Muni’s words held a hint of a leftover accent. Almost Emerald Isles but harsher. Winter made vocal. Old.

"What risk-" Time skipped again. I found myself on the other end of a sentence, agreeing with something that hadn't stuck with my memory. It was hard to say if this was because Muni or that damned presence in the back of my head.

"About..." Shaggy started up like a mechanical doll that had a fresh pair of batteries.

"Don't waste our time asking. Trinkets take more than a moment to make. Luckily you already have a solution."

Muni stopped talking and started preening again. Her fingers twined through other feathers hanging from hair. She was completely engrossed in the moment. Then she stopped and looked around the bar with a sigh.

"Explain." Shaggy said.

"It can't be done." The waitress clucked.

"Explain Muni or I'll have your licenses revoked." Shaggy threatened. One hand rested comfortably on the gun.

The look in Muni's eyes was cold and inhuman. It was like an angry wolf looked out from a vampire's cold demeanor. The irises were nearly pitch black on her white face. There was no way she was normal either. The Hidden. Keeper was right, they had found me. Why did that feel unimportant? Like I had known all along?

"You'd be a drooling idiot before you reached the door." Muni said.

"Try me." Shaggy gripped her gun tight enough to whiten knuckles.

"Ladies." I said, once again having to be the voice of reason. Not a role I enjoyed. "We're short on time."

"It's pointless because he already has my most powerful trinket." Muni didn't look at me anymore. I started to ask for an explanation, but Shaggy cut me off.

"How does it activate?" Shaggy asked.

"Just start calling him a different name. It'll make him hard to remember. Even looking right at him you'll find his form slipping from memory." The raven haired woman shrugged.

The undercover agent stared at Muni, then looked at me. Obviously her brain was going the same place mine was. What on earth had I done that warranted an object to make people forget me? Never mind, there was a long list.

"How long have I had this-" I fumbled for the words in confusion. "-trinket? Where is it?" Hopefully not in my bullet ridden basement.

"On your wrist." She said.

I looked down and was startled. Sure enough, there was a woven band around my wrist. It was difficult to concentrate on and as soon as I noticed it my eyes started to wander. Seconds passed as I looked around the bar, completely forgetting what we were talking about. Finally, my eyes settled back on Shaggy and Muni. The waitress looked embarrassed, her face fluffed up.

"You've had it a long time." Muni was hesitant in her words. "I won't say more." That inhuman gaze still avoided me. I stared at her trying to will eye contact, to read anything in her body language.

The waitress didn't say anything else. Not even when the side of my face drew back in a snarl. Her eyes flickered with an undecipherable emotion, then it was swiftly buried. It didn't matter, that was a look I knew well. Fear. Beneath that angry sneer, Muni was afraid of me. No, not me exactly, the being inside my head. If I moved with even an ounce of aggression she would hop out of here so fast a dust cloud might form.

"Fine. Will it work with Shaggy?" I tried to pull my confused anger back. Now wasn't the time to be lost to that other presence.

None of it made immediate sense. I had a feeling that this went back a long ways. There was a faint brush of that other voice resting in the back of my head. It reminded me that there were more important problems now.

"No." Muni responded.

"Alright." A stylish flash of light caught my eye. Similar to what revealed Shaggy earlier. On the table were weakly scrawled words that hadn't been there before. My head tilted slightly as I read them.

Run, Now - Candy

I could hear the sound of tires screeching to a halt outside the door. The Order found us. Candy must have run out of energy that had kept the illusions going. I would send her a gift basket and a spa voucher if we survived this. Now it was a matter of staying ahead of our pursuers long enough to recover Kahina. And trusting Muni.

"Hide." I told the waitress, but Muni was already gone. In the time it took me to look down at the words and back up, she vanished. The only thing betraying her former presence was a single pitch black feather.

"Rear door, sir." Shaggy was planning an escape.

"John. Call me John."

"Okay, John. I'll get the car."

"This way. Julianne had another exit." I grabbed Shaggy and started down the tiny hallway that lead past the kitchen to the back rooms.

"Underground?" She asked me.

"Yeah." I used it once or twice when ducking police inquires. "Wine cellar to the sewers." We were talking on the go. I lifted a foot and slammed it into a door covering the back room.

"Joy." Shaggy said.

Her gun was held in a death grip. She kept it leveled down the hallway waiting for the first unwelcome person to poke their head around the edge. I wasn't exactly being stealthy either so it might take moments for them to fan through the rest of the room. Voices came from the main bar room. Feet stomped and rattled the floorboards.

There hadn't been anyone else in the bar that I saw. Then again they could have all been in the bathroom, or on a break, or across the parking lot staring at the crime scene my home had become. Muni may have made them forget to come inside the bar. It didn't matter because our pursuers were unaffected. Shouts echoed from other rooms as they invaded.

"Find him!" Him, not her. They weren't after Kahina. Once again they were after me. I had to rescue Kahina first.

I was still weak yet managed to flop a few kegs in front of the cellar door. Shaggy helped. They found the cellar door almost immediately after we barricaded it. The exit was in the back of this room. It took a bit to move away empty crates. We slipped through a half sized alcove with a ladder going down. I used this escape more than once in the past when working the more questionable assignments Julianne had given me. The fact that it remained useful after four years gave me hope.

"Quick!" I lowered myself down five rungs at once. It was too slow to take them one at a time. Shaggy came down right after. She lost her grip on the last part of the ladder, but I caught her.

I had forgotten how bad the smell was down here. It was a sewer, but nothing prepared you for the stench. Shaggy's face scrunched up and she tried to avoid stepping in anything nasty. It was impossible to avoid all of the mess.

"Where do we come out?" She asked.

"All over. Best exit is across the street between buildings." I responded.

"Best?"

"It's not a manhole cover, and we have to get Thomas." My shoulder went up in a shrug.

"We can steal another car." Shaggy said.

Above us, we heard shouting and gunfire. Our pursuers were shooting the door down. Idiots. Their answer to everything had become bullets. Here's hoping they didn't start a fire and blow up the bar.

"Your guns are in Thomas' truck." I said. She cursed but finally nodded. The woman let me lead us towards an exit.

"Here." I pointed to a slim doorway. This was an access tunnel that was no longer maintained.

Shaggy cleared the passageway first. Behind us, I could hear stomping as the people chasing us tried to catch up. There was no sense of fear that came with those daywalking vampires so it was probably only Order members chasing us. We ducked behind bushes and watched across the street.

"Hide here." I said.

"You're going over there?" Her eyebrows went up for a moment in surprise.

"That trinket's on me right? They will hopefully forget that I'm even there." My words were a little unsure. This trinket must be a real thing, I tried to remember where it was but couldn’t quite pin the knowledge down. I had always gone by alternate names while avoiding trouble. Perhaps there was a reason for it. "I can bring the truck over here."

"You suck at driving, and it's a stick shift." Shaggy lifted her gun and got ready to go out.

"Then what?" I asked.

"Get my guns, I'll call a ride." She suggested.

"You sure, Shaggy?"

"Ann, for the love of god, sir, Ann. I call you John, you call me Ann." She said.

My brain wrapped around that for a moment. The reason she hated me using nicknames was because she had a trinket too? That must have been confusing. Not that I understood a damned thing about these mythical devices. Mine theoretically made people forget me. Did Ann's make people think she was someone else?

"Fine, Ann." I conceded. My own mind had been waffling on how to label the woman since her near death experience.

"If Thomas is up to it, get him to drive. If he's not, leave him there. They don't know the wolf is on our side. No sense dragging him into more of this, sir. John. Sir."

Anything was better than sitting here waiting for the Order to figure out which way we had gone. Assuming they sent many people down into the sewer.

"Good luck, John." Ann said.

Walking across the street seemed foolish. It would be suspect if I tried to sneak through. Instead, I went into the parking lot like nothing was wrong. From the outside of Julianne's bar, there wasn't much visible beside awkwardly parked cars in front of the main entrance. There was still a batch of people drinking and staring at my taped off home. There was nothing in there that was useful enough to detour for. I had to trust that Daniel was being careful with my stuff and preventing people from going downstairs. No matter how bad the scene was.

Thomas' truck sat in the middle of what few cars there were. I cracked open the top of his camper shell and peaked in on him. The wolf was passed out with hands still clenched against one side. Breath came slow but steady. Stacy and Corey would be on their way soon for him I was sure.

I was going to just leave the wolf there. Charles would kill me, but there was no way I was dragging anybody else into this madness. I would rather deal with a third auto theft than face either Alpha over this situation. Kahina had to survive first. Otherwise nothing else mattered.

"Thanks, Thomas." I said, then yanked out the bundle of guns. A man walked through the parking lot nearby. He didn't look familiar or threatening, but he was loudly speaking into a phone.

"We missed him." The man said. "My men are trying, but their damned slanty ear whore blocked the slave."

I assumed the slanty ear whore was Candy, and this slave must be their Seer. The Order had come to the bar looking for me, not for Kahina. Was it really my fault? I was torn between following the man and listening to the conversation and escaping back to Shaggy.

There was no time. The longer I stood over here the higher our risk. If they were after me then I had to get away to keep helping Kahina. The walk back to Shaggy was slow. Not because of any desire to take time. My body was barely functional and the bag of weapons was heavy. It was worth the effort but only because Ann was such a good shot.

Not once did anyone shout at me, fire bullets in my direction, or bother to glance in my direction. Even Shaggy ignored me, talking on her phone to someone.

"I need a pickup." She was saying. I stood there waiting for her to notice me.

"No, now." True to form she had one hand on top of her holstered gun, the other on the phone. She was crouched behind a random trash can.

"I know it's rough back there, but this is almost over. We're coming back in. This ends tonight." Shaggy kept right on talking, ignoring me standing in front of her. "Right, for better or worse."

I set the gun bag right in front of her and stared blankly. It was difficult to remain upright.

"Shit." Shaggy blinked like there was fog covering her eyes. "Sorry, sir, didn't notice you."

"It works then." I nodded.

"Trinkets do. Don't ask me how." She looked at me then back down at the bag. It was the closest look to happiness on her face since she nearly died. "No, you need to get a car out here. I don't care which one and stealth isn't important." Shaggy rattled off a street address two blocks over then hung up.

"What do we do?" I asked.

"We're going to head over to the compound after we get the Lady back. It'll be a straight shot between the two." Ann said.

"Is that wise?" I asked.

"Nowhere safer. Your elf has to be running on fumes.” She said, and I could only briefly picture a sweaty exhausted Candy. The image didn’t help my focus. “We can’t really consider any other options."

Her speaking got my mind back on the subject of the creatures chasing us. Daywalking vampires made no sense to me. I said, "I've seen those faces in their shadows before."

"What faces?"

"The face in those vampire's shadows." I tried to restate my idea without feeling puzzled. They had been clear as day and a dozen flavors of creepy.

"I didn't see a face."

I shrugged and stored the mystery away. It didn't really make a difference anyway. Knowing they were possessed by something wouldn't magically reveal a weakness. There were no chants or charms I heard of to fight them off. Though that strange pillar smashing I performed was clearly effective.

My body about keeled over. "I need to rest."

"You okay, sir?" She asked.

I stared across the street at my boarded off home. Shaggy followed my gaze. My answer consisted of a softly spoken "Not really."

My only skill was being a thug in a Deckard. Seeing my home taped off, knowing the wreckage that was in my hallway, the blood everywhere. Hell, not to mention that Charles and Malcolm would be pounding on the door the minute things settled. No. I wasn't okay by any definition.

"Yeah, me either." Ann almost smiled.