Shrieking, aflame, the vampire tumbled off the roof like a bundle of straw. It crashed onto the pack of vampiric dogs. Yelping, the creatures scattered.

With the pursuing monsters disoriented by the fire, David began to pull away from them.

"Great job, Jahlil," Nia said.

"Thanks. I just wanted to get those things off our a.s.s"

"Good work, but don't celebrate yet," David said. "We're getting ready to enter the swamp"

Death surrounded Diallo.

The dead female seer was sprawled in the rocking chair. The police officer lay under a blanket. Indirectly, Diallo had been responsible for his death, as well; every vampire that walked in this town acted under his command.

However, the experience of standing amidst human death that he had wrought was curiously hollow.

The seer's words echoed in his mind.

You will see her again, Diallo. She is not lost to you forever.

How could the woman have possibly learned about Manama? How had he dared to let his emotions swell so close to the surface of his consciousness?

He did not understand, and it disturbed him. Yet, strangely, it excited him, too.

What if the seer's prediction was correct? What if he found Manama again?

No one had ever confirmed his long-held hope that he would one day be reunited with her. No one until now.

He did not believe in coincidence. Coincidence was a symptom of man's unwillingness to believe in fate. For him, signs of fate at work were the compa.s.s of his existence.

Was it fate that he would see Mariama once more?

He yearned to believe that it was true.

But until the truth was revealed, he would have to pursue his mission.

He cast a final glance over the dead. Then went outside the house, where his son awaited him. It was time to find David Hunter.

As David drove down the narrow route toward the swamp, a dense cloud of fog swallowed them. He tried to raise the brightness of the headlights, but they were already on the highest setting.

"David, be careful." Nia watched the road, warily. "You can slow down, we have a good lead."

"Yeah, but I don't want to drive too slow." He squinted through the windshield at the roiling, silvery waves of mist. He was driving only fifteen miles an hour. The vampires had been distracted by their torched comrade, but they would not give up. He had to press forward at a good pace.

The leather-wrapped wheel stuck to his sweaty hands as if melded to them with glue. A persistent itch above his right eyebrow agitated him, but he didn't dare to take his hand away from the wheel.

Thankfully, at this leg of their journey, the trail was straight, though in the fog it was a challenge to stay on course. Patches of mist floated like aimless spirits, and gnarled trees loomed like giant hags in the murkiness.

Fine condensation coated the windshield. He turned on the wipers to clear the gla.s.s. They skidded across the window with a harsh whonking noise.

"We're in the clear," Jahlil said. "I don't see those a.s.sholes coming after us. All you gotta do is get through this swamp. That's it."

"We'll make it," Nia said. "Hang tight."

David gnawed his lip. Their optimism was encouraging, but he would feel better after he'd reached dry land.

The path dropped out of sight.

Terror leapt in his heart. He twisted the wheel, in a desperate attempt to reconnect with the road.

But it was too late. The Pathfinder plunged into the water with a tremendous splash. A giant tree hulked ahead of them. David pumped the brake, but he was too late for that, too. The truck smashed against the tree, the impact throwing David forward, the seat belt tightening across his chest. Nia and Jahlil shouted in surprise. David rocked back into his seat, and that was when he heard the engine cough, sputter, and die.

Chapter 24.

avid sat still, and silent, stunned by their predicament. Nia and Jahlil even King had fallen quiet, too.

Water gurgled underneath the vehicle. Floating serpents of fog slithered across the windows.

"We are not stuck here," David said firmly. "Everyone stay cool."

Nia clutched the armrests. Jahlil muttered under his breath. King whined.

He refused to accept that they were trapped. Only minutes ago, he had felt destiny touch him, like an electric charge. They were not meant to stay in this situation, no way.

In the distance, he heard barking dogs.

He twisted the key in the ignition with nearly enough force to snap the key in half.

The engine stuttered, but did not catch. He pushed the gas pedal.

"Be careful, you don't want to flood the engine," Nia said.

"Don't you think I know that?" he said. But then he eased his foot off the accelerator.

"Sorry, only trying to be helpful."

On the dashboard display, the engine light burned. What could be wrong? This truck had only forty thousand miles on the odometer, and he kept it superbly maintained. And he had only b.u.mped the tree. The damage should be minimal.

He tried to start the truck again. It fluttered, then caught. He urged it into a steady thrumming.

"I told you," he said. "We're not getting stuck here. Sorry I snapped at you, Nia."

"We're all on edge" She smiled nervously.

"Enough talk, let's get out of here," Jahlil said.

David shifted into reverse.

The wheels spun, but the Pathfinder did not budge.

"Oh, no," Jahlil said. "We're stuck in the mud."

"d.a.m.n," David said. Tension squeezed his chest, as if steel bands were tightening across his torso.

"We'll have to get out and push it," David said. He looked at Jahlil. "You and I. Nia can get behind the wheel and work the gas pedal."

"Man, you're crazy," Jahlil said. "There're snakes in this swamp, remember what Pearl said? Water moccasins. Those things are deadly."

"Yeah, I remember." David peered out the side window at the dark water. "But we don't have a choice. We've got to do it now They'll be on our a.s.s again, soon."

Even as he spoke, the vampiric dogs' barks grew louder. King whined.

"Take weapons with you," Nia said. "Ones you can strap over your shoulder. Just in case"

Jahlil hefted the bulky flamethrower out of the rear cargo area and offered it to David. David grabbed the weapon's strap, and carefully opened his door.

The swamp water was tar black. The murky surface purled only an inch beneath the truck.

He stepped outside, and it was like plunging his feet into a tub of ice cubes. He sucked his teeth.

Nia scooted behind the steering wheel. David shut the door and strapped the flamethrower on his back, as Mac had instructed him.

"Hit the gas when I give you the signal," he said.

Behind them, the mist prevented him from seeing more than ten feet ahead. However, he heard the hounds getting closer. Their snarls echoed through the night.

"Let's go!" he shouted to Jahlil. On the other side of the truck, Jahlil, his shotgun hanging over his shoulder, sloshed toward the front of the SUV.

David trudged through the water. He knew virtually nothing about water moccasins, but he was alert for any sinuous movements. Driftwood littered the marsh, and green vines floated here and there, like disembodied tentacles.

He came around the front of the truck. Insects fluttered in the headlight beams. The gnarled oak with which the vehicle had collided grew on a muddy wedge of earth. He stepped onto the island, and his feet immediately sank into the muck.

"Put a leg against the tree for leverage," he said to Jahlil. "We'll push on the count of three"

Nodding, Jahlil braced his body against the tree trunk. They put their hands on the hood, above the Pathfinder's headlights. David squinted against the glare.

"One, two, three!" David raised his fist so that Nia could see the signal and punch the gas.

They pushed. The tires squealed. David grunted, his muscles burning. The Pathfinder inched backward, the wheels spitting up mud.

After they had moved the truck about a half foot, they hit another rut.

David gave Nia a sign to hold off for a moment, so they could catch their breath. He sucked in great gasps of air.

The bloodsucker mutts had stopped barking. Odd.

He put his hand on the flamethrower, peered into the layered fog.

A vampire charged out of the mist.

It was Kyle. The fiend appeared to be floating on air. In truth, David realized, he was running on the surface of the water.

Jesus.

"Look out!" David said, to warn Nia and Jahlil. He sloshed away from the Pathfinder, to keep from blowing up the truck when he fired the flamethrower.

Kyle bore down on him. His eyes blazed like the flames of h.e.l.l. "Hunter!"

This is what it comes down to, David thought. Finally, the big face-off.

He swung the weapon toward Kyle and pumped the trigger.

The flamethrower emitted only a puff of harmless air.

Roaring, Kyle backhanded David across the face.

David soared through the air as if slugged by a giant. He hit the water and sank underneath, muck pouring into his nostrils and mouth.

He flailed his arms. Gasped for air. Thought he wouldn't make it, he was going to drown, but then he broke the surface, coughing violently. Blood streamed down his chin, and a numb pain spread from his nose and fanned across his face. b.a.s.t.a.r.d had probably busted his nose.

A gun banged. David wiped mud from his eyes, and saw what was going on. Jahlil had stepped away from the truck and taken a shot at Kyle.

G.o.d, don't let that kid die. Please.

The vampire took the hit without slowing. Kyle surged forward and smacked the shotgun out of Jahlil's grasp. Jahlil screamed in rage and threw a fist at the monster. Kyle seized Jahlil like a parent grabbing a petulant infant. He tossed the boy across the swamp. There was a resounding splash, somewhere in the misty darkness.

Gotta kill that b.a.s.t.a.r.d, David thought.

But he had lost the flamethrower in his fall. The weapon lay against a nearby oak, half submerged in the water.

Still woozy from the blow he had taken, he started toward the tree.

Then he stopped.

A large black-and-green serpent slithered across the marsh: a water moccasin.

It was coming toward David.

When David shouted his warning, things began to happen so quickly that Nia grew almost faint with fear.

Paralyzed in her seat, she watched David try to fire at Kyle, then fail as the vampire hit him, sending him flying through the air.

Then Jahlil, the brave kid, fired his shotgun at the vampire. But it was in vain. The vampire threw the boy across the marsh.