King would dine on a bowl of water and a few sticks of beef jerky.

Nia blessed the food, and they pulled out chairs and sat at the dinette table.

"I'm so hungry, this tastes like prime rib to me" Jahlil bit into a beef jerky.

They spoke little as they ate, each of them consumed with the single-minded focus to feed and replenish their energy. A breeze whisked around the cabin, making the thick logs creak and whistle. David flinched when he first heard the sound, then relaxed when he realized that it was only the wind.

Sipping water, Nia suddenly belched.

"Sorry." She smiled self-consciously.

"How unladylike," David said. "We ought to send you to your room, Miss James. You know better."

"I've got a better idea," Jahlil said. "We make her sleep on the floor with King. There isn't enough room on that bed for the three of us. And if she's gonna burp like that there's no telling what a mess she might make in the bed"

David laughed.

"All right, that's enough boys," Nia said. "Or else I'll make both of you sleep on the floor with King. Isn't that right, King?"

King looked up curiously from his s.p.a.ce on the floor, as though wondering why they kept mentioning his name.

They laughed.

It feels so good to laugh, David thought. It had been an awful night. The laughter nourished his spirit just as the food sustained his body.

The wind fluted again, a piercing cry, and the lighthearted moment of camaraderie slipped away.

David looked around the table. "We have to talk about our next move, guys"

"About the only move I can make is to the bed" Nia yawned. "Honey, I'm exhausted"

"Me, too," Jahlil said. "As soon as I'm done grubbing, I'll be out"

"I figured that getting a few hours' rest would be part of the plan," David said. "We're in no shape to do anything else tonight. There wouldn't be much point in trying, either. Like I said earlier, the night belongs to the vampires."

"And the day is ours," Jahlil said.

"You've got it," David said. "I say, we get up early in the morning. We find Diallo's lair. We find it and we do the same thing to him that we did to his son"

"Torch him." Nia shivered at the memory of the gruesome incident.

"Yeah," David said. "We take care of Diallo, and the rest of the vampires will be history. Remember what Pearl told us? All of these vampires, together, are like a monster with a hundred arms, and Diallo is the heart of the beast. Destroy the heart, and the monster dies."

"Okay, but how do we find him?" Jahlil said. "He's not gonna be at the Mason place anymore. He could hide anywhere that's dark and safe for him. We could waste all day looking, and then night will come again. . He left the sentence unfinished, and the anxiety that flashed in his eyes communicated what he feared would happen.

David pinched the bridge of his nose. He was so tired that he was beginning to see double images.

"I honestly have no idea where he'll be resting," David said. "We'll have to brainstorm a list of potential places, and then visit each, one by one. That's the only plan that makes sense to me."

"Yeah, me too," Nia said. Chewing on a fingernail, Jahlil nodded tightly.

:, Then that's the plan," David said. "Tomorrow morning, we'll get into the specifics."

Their meal and discussion complete, they pushed away from the table. As David cleaned up the remains of their meal, King shuffled to the door. The dog whined.

"You would want to go outside to potty after we've barricaded the door," David said. King wagged his tail.

"I'll take him out," Jahlil said. "But you better be quick, doggie"

"Don't worry, he's a regular minuteman," David said.

They pushed the dresser aside. Jahlil escorted King outdoors.

Through the window, David and Nia watched the boy and the dog walking around the moonlit yard.

"He's a good kid," Nia said. "A little stubborn sometimes, but brave as h.e.l.l."

"A natural leader, like his father," David said. He sat on the king-size bed. The mattress was firm. He patted the s.p.a.ce next to him, and Nia sat there.

He curled his arms around her waist, drawing her closer. He kissed her lips.

"I love you," he said.

She pressed her body into him and energetically reciprocated his kiss. "Love you, too"

Although he was wrung out, and dread of what tomorrow would bring lay heavy on his heart, a powerful libidinous urge surged through him. He ached to make love to Nia, right now.

"I wish we could have one night, alone, with no worries," he said. "Just one"

"We'll have it, soon. We'll have more than one night like that, too. You'll see"

She pulled him down onto the bed. They lay facing each other. He traced his finger along her cheek.

She grasped his hand and took one of his fingers into her moist mouth. She glided her tongue across the tip of his finger, suggestively.

"You are something else," he said. But he was getting aroused. He moved closer to her, slid his hand across her hip.

Jahlil and King came back inside.

"All right, y'all," Jahlil said. "Time to break it up. I'm not into watching folks get their groove on"

Nia smiled, whispered to David, "Later, honey." They got off the bed, put the dresser back in place in front of the door, and David checked again that the three windows were fastened. Cool wind slipped through the gap of the last, partially opened window. He would leave it open while they slept, to allow fresh air inside.

He thought he heard, faintly, the sound of barking dogs. Frowning, he listened closer.

"What is it?" Nia asked.

"Nothing" He shook his head. "Just my imagination."

Sometimes, the memory of terror could be as vivid as the real thing.

He only hoped that he slept without nightmares.

Like a storm cloud, Diallo traveled slowly through the night.

He had left behind his army at the swamp, commanding them to leave him and hunt on their own. For only the third time in his life, he was too anguished to withstand the burden of leadership.

He had discovered his son tangled in the branches of a water oak, high above the marsh. Kyle's flame-ravaged body smouldered like a dying ember. He was little more than a brittle skeleton held together with tenuous strands of charred flesh.

"My son," Diallo had said. He could not say any more.

Carefully, he had extricated his son from the boughs. Holding Kyle in his arms, he glided to the earth. He began to walk.

"I have lost too much," Diallo whispered. "I will not lose you"

As Diallo marched through the darkness, Kyle's limbs swayed like branches in a breeze, clattering softly. The flesh was seared away from his skull, making his once-handsome face utterly unrecognizable. Most critically, fire had swallowed his vampire heart, too. He was, without question, dead.

"I will not lose you," Diallo vowed. "You are my only son. You must live."

The wind rustled through the field in which he walked, tall blades of gra.s.s hissing like serpents. The fat moon gazed down on him, as distant and uncaring as ever.

Diallo looked deeply into the dark, eyeless sockets of his son's skull.

"You will live," Diallo said.

The breeze threw a fistful of dead weeds over his head.

Resolute, Diallo journeyed through the darkness to bury his son.

In spite of the terrifying day and night that he had endured, David slumbered deeply and dreamlessly, his exhaustion rewarding him a sound sleep.

He awoke to the pinkish-gray light of dawn slanting through the thin gaps between the blinds. King, ears raised alertly, stood at the half-open window across the room, staring through the gla.s.s with a peculiar intensity.

David raised into a sitting position, his tired bones creaking. Beside him, Nia slept quietly; Jahlil was asleep on the far side of the bed, snoring softly.

The makeshift barricade in front of the door was undisturbed. The other windows were shut, too.

"What're you looking at, boy?" David asked the dog. "Is a squirrel out there making fun of you?"

King glanced at David. The dog wagged his tail, once, but did not move away from the window.

Wiping his eyes, David pushed off the mattress and padded across the cool hardwood floor.

He rested his hand on the dog's back and knelt so that he could peer out the blinds at the same eye level as King.

A maple tree grew in the yard outside, its leafy arms extending to within a few feet of the window. A huge black bird had perched on a nearby branch: a raven.

The raven.

David's heartbeat accelerated.

The dream image of Lisha, the beautiful and ancient female vampire, shimmered through his mind's eye.

Feeling as though he were in yet another dream, he reached forward and grasped the pull cord, raising the blinds. They clicked upward.

The bird's liquid black eyes found David's. Its stare was intense, and, David thought, expectant.

She's waiting for me, he thought. Waiting for me to do something.

The bird ruffled its feathers, impatiently.

She's waiting for me to follow her.

The thought came to him so lucidly that he wondered whether it had originated in his mind at all; perhaps the idea had been implanted in his brain by the mysterious vampire who communicated with him through the raven.

But follow her where? Why did she want to lead them somewhere?

Pearl had said that the vampire who puppeteered the bird might a.s.sist them in their mission, yet Pearl had also cautioned them that Lisha had her own ulterior motives, too.

The raven cawed, as if pushing him to reach a conclusion.

David made a decision based solely on gut instinct.

"Okay," he said. "We'll follow you. Wherever you want to take us ""

He could have sworn that the bird smiled.

Chapter 25.

avid awoke Nia and Jahlil.

I"Everyone, up and out," he said. "We've got to leave, right now."

"Huh?" Nia stretched, blinking. Her voice was scratchy. "What's going on?"

"We've got a guide to help us," he said. "Remember the raven? She's waiting for us outside."

Understanding flashed in Nia's eyes. She threw off the blanket. Jahlil followed suit.

It took them less than five minutes to dress and grab their bags. They moved the dresser that served as the barricade, and opened the door.

The raven awaited them on the walkway. It watched them, black eyes glinting with a sentience that was downright creepy.