Pitt waited in a corner of the main room. He knew he was taking a risk. The town might be going up in flames while he used one of the locals as bait. He could be totally wrong about the man.

If nothing happened, he could walk into town and see what was going on. Gumm might have stopped both vampires with his clerical gifts. None of the gods were fond of vampires.

The few times he had dealt with vampires had been with the Brotherhood. They had joined other monsters trying to crush humanity and the other human species. The arrival of the demigods put a stop to that more often than not.

He wondered if there was a source for vampires that could be cut away so they wouldn't spawn anymore. He decided that the gods would have said something if there were. And then he would be on the road to pull the problem out of the ground.

Being retired didn't mean being free of his oath.

The night thickened outside as he waited. He lit a lamp and placed it between him and the window. He put his sleeping victim in the chair so it looked like he had fallen asleep in his chair while staring outside. He went back to his corner.

The almost ghoul hadn't wanted to help with that part. A blow to the face had cut off his protestations. No one liked to be live bait for a monster.

A tapping on the glass drew Pitt's attention. He waited, glad that he hadn't lit a cigarette while he waited. The window lifted in its runners. A pale face appeared. It wouldn't be pale long after a meal.

“Where's your master?,” asked Pitt, still standing in the shadow cast in his chosen corner.

The vampire paused at the words. Evidently it had been feasting well up to then. The first blockade made it glare across the room with pale eyes and new fangs.

“You're too young to be a master vampire,” said Pitt. He stepped closer, hands in his pockets. “What's this? An attempt to branch out while your master is looking at other concerns?”

“I just needed a little blood,” said the vampire. “I can take all of yours instead.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?,” asked Pitt. He pulled out his tobacco pouch. “I think that it would be better for you to get out of town and keep going. Pantalus already has an eyeball on things. His clerics will start flooding the area looking for you in a few days. Then where will you be?”

“I will still be enjoying this life,” said the vampire. “That's more than I can say for you, or my source here.”

“So you don't want to tell me where your master is?,” asked Pitt. He rolled up a cigarette as neatly as he could.

“He's going to town,” said the vampire. “When he's done, I'm sure it will look like the plague suddenly killed most of the people. Thanks to your warning, we will be long gone before any cleric arrives to stop us.”

Pitt put his pouch away and lit his cigarette with a snap of his fingers, He took a puff as he looked at his new enemy.

“No pleas for mercy?,” asked the vampire.

“Why?,” asked Pitt. “You can't kill me, and I personally find them demeaning. Either grant mercy, or don't. Don't be jackal about it.”

The vampire flung himself at the stranger. His speed made him a blur in the lamplight. He clawed at the other man, only to be shoved back by a tremendous force that brought pain to his chest. He staggered back, gasping at the blood running down the front of his tunic. He lifted the clothing and observed a hole torn through the cloth.

Pitt held something that could be a bag in his hand. Blood dripped from the object to the floor.

“This is your heart,” said Pitt. He wrote the symbol of Pantalus on it with a finger. The muscle burst into flame. He dropped it into lamp as fire ate at the blood on his hand and cloth. “That was your heart.”

The vampire screamed as he reached for the lamp. He had to rescue his heart before it was too late. He could heal with enough blood if he could get it back.

Pitt took the lamp in hand and kept out of reach of the vampire as the heart continued to burn. He set the lamp down when his victim collapsed on the floor. Skin turned to ash, then the flesh underneath. A skeleton remained inside some old clothes in seconds.

A dark shadow formed around the sleeping villager. It reached up through the ceiling and fled into the night. It sounded like the calls of angry birds as it flew away.

“That was easier than I thought,” Pitt said to himself.

He gathered the remains up in a blanket he found. He made sure to write the symbol of Pantalus on the floor before lifted the blanket up. He took the dusty skeleton outside and placed it in a pile of wood. He set fire to the wood with a snap of his fingers.

Should he expect a visit from the other vampire, or should he head into town? Either presented problems. He decided that he could leave his survivor alone for the rest of the night if the young vampire could be believed. He carved the god of death's symbol on the thresholds of the house to keep out anything that was stopped by such a thing.

He used the stars to line up where he thought the road should be and started marching through the darkness. He hoped Gumm had held on long enough to keep the master vampire on the edges of things.

If the goal was to infect as many people as he could, one concentrated attack on where the sick had been taken could do the job. The temple didn't look big enough to hold more than twenty people. Others would have to be put in other places.

Pitt doubted they would be protectable against something like a vampire. He doubted Gumm's chances even with Avrii Nol looking out for him. The god of war preferred her followers to grow strong through fighting.

Farm people in the middle of the empire wouldn't give you any chances to do that unless some of them had turned to banditry and a call to the goddess was answered.

A lot of people didn't want a masked clown swordsman imposing his god's will on how the problem should be fixed to their advantage.

Pitt looked for town lights. Once he had a better idea where the town was, the faster he could move. He didn't want to go by and wind up walking away from everything by accident.

Pantalus would not be amused by that.

He also didn't want to explain how he missed a whole town when he should have known where it was.

He decided to use a tree to look around. He picked one at random and pulled himself up through the branches. He looked around. He nodded when he saw light in the distance. The town stood at the moment.

He jumped from tree to tree. It was slightly faster than running on the ground, but each landing in a tree showed him how much closer he was to his goal. He leaped one last time and landed on the edge of the town. He straightened his coat and decided to talk to Gumm about the younger vampire.

Maybe the cleric already knew who the older vampire was. That would save a lot of searching. All he would have to do was have a little talk, and send the monster on his way.

A task for the gods generally didn't go that easy in his experience. Usually there was blood and dirt, some underhanded moves, and then his fist to his enemy's face.

The rest was sorting out how any damage was going to be fixed by the locals.

“Who are you?,” called someone with a good eye, and not enough sense not to challenge a monster in the dark.

“William Pitt,” said Pitt. “Is Cleric Gumm around?”

“Why should I tell you that?,” asked the villager.

“Because I will be annoyed if you don't,” said Pitt. “Why are you out here anyway? Go somewhere and bar the door.”

“Guard duty,” said the villager. “We're trying to keep the streets clear.”

“A vampire is not going to be worried about that,” said Pitt. “Keep an eye out. Sound an alarm if you see anything. Wear a holy symbol that you believe in. Don't go anywhere that's not lit up.”

“Cleric Gumm has put talismans on the buildings,” said the guardsman. “We're only hear to make sure troublemakers stay off the streets until something can be done.”

“Don't go far from those talismans until I find the culprit,” said Pitt. “The less people we have to bury by the end of this, the happier I will be.”

“Pitt!,” called Gumm. He wore a blank white mask with slots for his eyes and a colorful jacket and short cape. He stood at the edge of a roof, looking down on the tableau. “What did you find?”

“So you weren't kidding about being her cleric too,” said Pitt.

“I don't get to advance as much because there just isn't any reason for a war to break out here, and I have my other duties,” said Gumm. He used a drain pipe to get to the ground. “What did you find?”

“The dead widow's neighbor was getting fed on, there was another vampire, and the master vampire was supposed to come here and cause trouble, but I don't see a lot of trouble happening,” said Pitt.

“I placed as many signs as I could in the time I had,” said Gumm. He gestured for Pitt to follow. “All the sick victims we knew about I placed in the temple. Hopefully that will keep them safe until this mess is over.”

“Everybody come in from the farms?,” asked Pitt.

“No,” said Gumm. “Some of them decided that they could ride out any problem on their farms until something happened to their advantage. They're just making targets of themselves and their kin.”

“If nothing happens tonight, visiting those farms will be the next step,” said Pitt. “We can't let an army of vampires grow and block us in until we're wiped out. We're going to have to go out there and make sure everything is all right.”

“Do you think the master vampire will attack?,” asked Gumm.

“It depends on what he wants to do,” said Pitt. “He could sit back and just turn everyone caught alone in the dark into his young until he has enough to wipe you out. He could set fire to the town and then pick people off while they're trying to save something. He could run.”

“You don't think he will run?,” said Gumm. He pointed a blade at a building as they passed. He nodded when nothing happened.

“That's the least likely of things to happen,” said Pitt. “We could force him to run if we kill all of his young.”

“So basically we have to kill him before he can turn most of the town into vampires,” said Gumm.

“All the sick you gathered up were already being turned,” said Pitt. “I hope you put them under lock and key at your temple.”

“I placed two rows of talismans around them,” said Gumm. “The only one allowed in the building is the apochatery. He has strict instructions not to open the building up for anybody but me.”

“If there is a problem, it will come from this medicine man,” said Pitt.

“I'm more worried about the villagers on the street,” said Gumm. “I would feel better if they went to a defendable building and held there.”

“I agree with that,” said Pitt. He noted the groups of men on the streets with weapons. “I doubt any of these could stop a vampire on their own, much less a bunch of them in a group against one. Maybe getting them behind barricades would be better.”

“I will pass the word for them to gather at the local inn,” said Gumm. “Maybe you can talk to them like you did Valence.”

“I don't know what to say other than don't fall asleep, and keep an eye on anything that might be unfriendly,” said Pitt.

“I was hoping for something more practical,” said Gumm.

“I'll think of something,” said Pitt.