"I will never let you go hungry." Kyle placed the woman on his father's lap. "Hurry, before she wakes"

Diallo savagely twisted the woman's head, lifted her neck to his mouth, and plunged his fangs into her jugular vein. Blood spurted. The woman sighed, a sensual sound. The coppery odor of fresh blood permeated the air.

A pleasant chill pa.s.sed through Kyle as he watched his father feed. He marveled that he could enjoy watching a vampire feast on a human. The mere thought used to revolt him.

Something was happening to him, he realized. A profound change was occurring deep in his psyche, like tectonic plates shifting under the earth's surface.

He was certain that finding his father, finally, had triggered the transformation. He was metamorphosing into a mature vampire. More daring. More confident.

More in touch with his natural desires.

As he watched his father suck the human's blood, he licked his lips.

Suddenly, he was hungry. Famished. Although he had fed only a couple of hours ago on a packet of blood.

Perhaps his father would share the woman with him.

But Diallo did not offer. He drained the human's body, then carelessly flung the corpse off the bed.

Kyle's hunger vanished. He wasn't genuinely hungry. What was wrong with him?

He had to maintain control of himself. Hunting prey for his father was essential, but only until his father had adapted to packaged blood. He could not join his father in feeding on live prey. If he did, they would regress into predatory savages. The idea was madness.

But only yesterday, I had thought that murdering a human was madness, too, hadn't I?

"You are in turmoil, my son," Diallo said. He rested his hand on Kyle's shoulder. "Sit with me."

Kyle sat on the edge of the bed.

"What troubles you?" Diallo said.

"Mother has taught me a different way of life for a vampire," Kyle said. "A way that she feels is more civilized."

Diallo smiled. "Lisha is wise. But she is a female. You are a male. And I am your father. Only I can show you how a powerful male vampire ought to conduct himself."

His father's eyes were dark, absorbing.

I needed you to save me," Diallo said. "You need me to guide you. We need each other, my son."

"Yes, Father," Kyle said. Intense emotion swelled his lungs, making it hard to breathe.

He had never experienced such a heartfelt connection with anyone, vampire or human.

"We need a daylight watcher," Diallo said. "I understand that the man you had befriended served in such a capacity. But he is no more. I will show you a watcher that is better than a man"

"What do you mean?"

"Help me walk. Let us go outdoors"

Kyle a.s.sisted his father in getting off the bed. Across the bas.e.m.e.nt, a short flight of steps ended at a solid set of storm doors. The doors were unlocked; Kyle had brought the woman into the cellar through this doorway.

They ascended the stairs and walked into the night.

It was cool and quiet. The sky was clear, sprinkled with stars and a pale half moon.

Diallo drew in a deep, deep breath. He laughed, like a giddy child.

"The night!" Diallo said. "I have missed the freedom of darkness. At night, all things are possible for us. Always remember that truth."

"All things?" Kyle said.

Instead of answering, Diallo dropped to his knees in the gra.s.s.

Alarmed, Kyle went to him, but Diallo waved him away.

His father ripped away the sleeves of his silk shirt, exposing his muscular arms. He spread his arms to their full length. He closed his eyes and raised his face heavenward. Moonlight seemed to shimmer around his head, like a halo.

What is he doing? Kyle wondered. His father's behavior did not follow anything Mother had taught him. What was this talk of finding a watcher that was better than a man?

Tension thickened the air as his father meditated, his body like an onyx statue.

The silence endured for several minutes ... and then Kyle heard, faintly, the gallop of approaching animals.

It sounded like dogs.

David and Nia were in the living room when the dog went berserk.

They had temporarily given up discussing the Bible, the ghost, and the other strange things that David had experienced lately. They just didn't have any solutions. Tomorrow, David would visit the psychic woman, Pearl, to get some answers.

They were watching a sappy romantic comedy movie that Nia had insisted he would like, when King went nuts. The dog had been lying on the floor, viewing the television as if engaged in the story. Abruptly, King jumped up and began to bark.

"What's wrong, boy?" David said. "What're you barking at?"

King ran out of the living room. He continued to bark.

Confused, David looked at Nia.

"He could be hungry," she said. "Or want to go outside."

"He doesn't normally act like that"

He found the dog in the hallway. King stood on his hind legs, scratching the front door, barking.

David looked outside the window. There was no one in sight.

King quit barking, and whined.

"What is it, boy?" David said.

The dog looked at him with yearning, as though frustrated by their inability to communicate directly.

"What's wrong?" David said.

King ran to a window. He scratched the gla.s.s. He whined.

"Do you want to go outside?" David said. "Wanna go outside?"

Whenever David made the suggestion in the past, if King wanted to take him up on it he wagged his tail. King's tail did not wag this time.

David grasped the doork.n.o.b. King growled.

The dog only growled at him when they were play-fighting, and there was nothing playful about what was happening now.

Cold anxiety touched David's spine. He was not afraid of his dog. He was afraid of what his dog evidently sensed, a threat that he could not see on his own.

He went to a window and looked outdoors once more. He saw only the night silent, deep.

Stories that his father had faked his death. Ghostly visitations. Anonymous phone calls. Mysterious family Bibles. So much bizarre stuff. Add a freaked-out German shepherd to the list.

"Is everything okay in there?" Nia said.

"Why don't you answer her?" David said to King. "You seem to be the one here with the sixth sense"

King trotted past David and into the living room. The dog settled on the carpet beside the coffee table. He was his ordinary, lazy self again.

"One of these days," David said, "you're going to learn how to talk, or write, or something, and you're going to tell me what that show was all about, Mr. King"

King yawned.

Puzzled, but deciding to leave it alone, David returned to the living room.

Kyle watched his father as the approach of the dogs grew louder.

Diallo remained kneeling, arms spread, eyes closed, face tilted skyward. Like a worshipper of the moon.

A pack of a half-dozen dogs swept around the corner of the mansion. They looked like mutts that had been left to fend on their own and find their meals in garbage cans and handouts. None of the animals wore a collar. All of them were full-grown, and none of them weighed less than thirty pounds.

The hounds pa.s.sed Kyle as though he did not exist. They gathered around Diallo.

Oddly, though the dogs were excited and panting, they did not bark. They were quiet, expectant.

Kyle had never witnessed a vampire using a canine for any purposes whatsoever, other than ordinary security. His father, he believed, was going to do something with these beasts that Kyle had never seen before.

Diallo uttered a soft cry. With his nails, which had grown into sharp claws, he slit a gash in each of his wrists. Thick blood streamed across his skin.

Kyle winced.

Diallo offered his bleeding wrists to the dogs.

The dogs padded closer to him. They lapped the blood, three of the hounds on each of his arms.

Comprehension came to Kyle. Diallo was going to make these hounds his servants.

He viewed the rest of the spectacle with amazement.

Almost as one, after the canines fed on Diallo's blood, they dropped to the gra.s.s. They squirmed and squealed. Saliva bubbled from their lips.

Diallo motioned for Kyle to come forward. He grabbed Kyle's hand and got to his feet.

Diallo's self-inflicted wounds had closed.

"I have always used dogs as watchers," Diallo said. "They are a man's best friend. Why not a vampire's?" He laughed.

The dogs wailed in pain.

"Their pain will pa.s.s soon," Diallo said. "They are experiencing the death of their mortal bodies."

As Kyle watched, the hounds ceased their cries and seizures. They began to recover.

"These hounds will remain active both day and night," Diallo said. "They will possess extraordinary intelligence. They are obedient to my will. They are peerless guardians and hunters"

"I never knew dogs could be used like this," Kyle said.

"Lisha knows," Diallo said. "She taught me"

Kyle felt betrayed by Mother. She claimed to have taught him all of a vampire's abilities. What else had she kept secret from him?

"When the dogs bite another canine, or a human," Diallo continued, "the bitten one will fall under my influence and will serve as either a servant hound if a canine, or a valduwe if he is a human."

"A valduwe?" Kyle said. He had not heard the word in many years.

"Valduwe have the hunger for blood, but do not possess all of our talents. They are excellent warriors." Diallo's lips twisted into an enigmatic smile.

"Mother teaches that the valduwe are an abomination," Kyle said. "She forbids their creation."

"When will you put away childish things?" Diallo said. "And claim your birthright as a vampire?"

Kyle did not know how to respond. Diallo smiled. He snapped his fingers.

The dogs arranged themselves in a tight line, like trained soldiers.

Diallo placed his hand on Kyle's shoulder.

"This is my son, Kyle," he said. "Look upon him."

The canines' attention shifted to Kyle. Unlike normal dogs, they did not turn away when he met their gaze. They stared at him, without fear. Unnatural awareness gleamed in their eyes.

"You will obey Kyle as you obey me," Diallo said. "He sits on my right hand. You are my warriors."