"Because I've been captured by vampire hunters and I'm lying quietly, listening to their plans."

Okay, so much for lucid.

"Why not." Peter pocketed the napkin and patted Mason's shoulder. "Please don't mention that to the writers," he muttered as he stood. Turned. Frowned down at both techs, Brianna, Zev, and Adam who were sitting on Mouse. "Why isn't he taped?"

Saleen held up the empty cardboard roll. "We've got electrical, but it won't hold long enough for us to get enough around him."

"Wonderful. You couldn't have taped him first?"

"Oh, sure, criticize." His lower lip went out.

Brianna bounced on Mouse's wrist. "I have to pee!"

"Big surprise the way you sucked back that bottle of water," Ashley sniffed from within the circle of Tina's arms.

"I have to pee NOW!"

"Fine." Shoulders squared, a man facing the inevitable, Peter pointed at Tina. "Tina, take the lantern and . . ."

"No!" Ashley tightened her grip. "Mason's gone mental, so Tina stays with me!"

"Whatever, Zev . . ."

But when Zev shifted his weight, Mouse got an arm free. Tears streaming down his face, the big man grabbed the back of Saleen's shorts and very nearly started the whole fight again before Zev wrestled his arm back to the floor.

"All right, Amy, you take Brianna upstairs. Zev, move carefully around to hold down both arms. Adam, once Zev's in place, you go with her. Check the bathroom for Lee-maybe he's just taking a p.i.s.s. Tony, do the lipstick writing in front of the other door." "I want Tony to go with me!" Brianna opened her mouth to shriek, but Tony clamped his good hand over it.

"Bite me," he warned, "and I'll pull your brains out your nose. No more shrieking, the room's too small and everyone's on edge."

Her nostrils flared dangerously over the edge of his hand, but she nodded. "My father would fire you if you pulled my brains out my nose," she growled when he uncovered her mouth.

"Yeah? Well, right now, on a scale of one to ten, that's about a minus two. I'll go with you . . ." Because the needs of little girls trump the needs of possessed actors. I'm sorry, Lee. ". . . but first I'm securing this room."

"No, me first."

"You want your sister to be safe, don't you?"

Brianna shot him a look that suggested he was out of his mind, but after a moment reluctantly nodded. "Yeah, whatever."

He stepped over Mason, and crouched by the other door. The door that led to the kitchen. The door that Lee had gone through when he left. The door he was not charging through, racing off to the rescue. You can't go after him right now, so try concentrating on the immediate problem. How long would it take an arm to get around the first floor?

Hopefully, a few minutes longer. "Amy . . ."

And she was there with the book.

No longer distracted by a battle behind him, the copying went a little faster. When he finished, he handed Amy the flattened lipstick. She sighed, capped it, and handed it back.

"Hel-lo! I still gotta pee!"

"Fine." One hand clamped on her shoulder, Peter gestured toward the supine cameraman with the other. "Tony, take Zev's spot on Mouse. I'll keep Sorge from braining Mason . . ."

"And I do the same for you," Sorge muttered staring down at Mason who smiled and said, "What the vampire hunters don't know is that it's my show, so it's all about me. It's always all about me."

Peter nodded at his DP. "Thank you. Zev, go upstairs with Amy and Brianna and Adam."

Hang on. Tony stepped forward and b.u.mped up against Mason's leg. "I thought I . . ."

"No. You're staying here. I'm not having the boss' youngest daughter escorted through a haunted house by a PA who keeps zoning out. Unless you can protect them with your magic power."

Man, he just wasn't going to let that go. Tony sighed and surrendered, moving around to where Zev had Mouse's arms laid out over his head with a knee on each forearm and a good grip above the elbow. The moment they got back from the can, he was heading out for the other lantern and the moment after that, they were going to find Lee.

Brianna stomped one bare foot. "I want Tony!"

Peter smiled down at her. "Tough."

"My father . . . !"

"Isn't here."

Her brow furrowed and she glanced around the room, gaze finally lighting on her sister.

Ashley's shrug got lost in the depths of Mason's jacket. "He's right. And there's like arms walking around, so stop being such a p.i.s.sant, Cheese."

"But Tony said he'd show me the burning baby." Volume dialed down to a whine. "He promised."

"You promised?" Tina's head snapped around like a bad horror effect. "You promised to show an eight year old a burning baby?"

Although they were a good four feet apart, Tony leaned away from the force of the script supervisor's affronted gaze.

"It got her out of the ballroom," he muttered defensively, then turned his attention to the girl. "Look, Bri, Peter's right."

Probably too late, but it never hurt to suck up. "I can't protect you if I zone out, but I can still be dead weight here."

"You're not dead!"

"It's a . . . never mind. Zev can show you the baby."

"No, he cannot!" Tina snarled.

"If I don't see the baby . . ." Volume ratcheted back up again. ". . . you'll all be sorry!"

No one doubted it.

"Show her," Peter said, eyes rolling.

"You won't be able to see it," Tony rea.s.sured Zev as he choked, "but I'm pretty sure she will." Given that everyone had seen the hand, it was possible that Zev would also see the baby. Since that hadn't occurred to Zev, Tony wasn't going to bring it up. "Just open the nursery door, give her a three count to look, and then close it. Don't let her go in and don't keep the door open any longer."

"Do I want to know why?" Zev asked taking Brianna's hand.

"No." He popped the top off Amy's lipstick with his teeth, and beckoned Brianna closer with his nearly useless left hand. "Pull your ap.r.o.n thing out tight." He carefully drew the symbol on the fabric. "There, that might help."

She peered down her nose at it. "With what?"

"I have no idea."

"Brenda is going to have a fit!" Mason giggled. As all eyes turned on him, he sighed dramatically. "Yes, I know, an out-of-character comment. Unless, of course, one of the vampire hunters' name is Brenda, in which case it's a perfectly valid . . . Hey! Don't stop looking at me! I'm acting here! I'm the star!" Tony had a.s.sumed that the killers were always the ones the house had driven over the edge. If the common urge to brain Mason was any indication, apparently not.

"The kitchen sink's closer than the bathroom," Amy sighed, taking Brianna's other hand. "Why can't she just pee in that?"

Even Mouse stopped weeping long enough to look appalled.

"What? You've never done it? You're guys; you pee in corners for chrissake!"

"I am not a guy," Tina reminded her, "and this child is not peeing in the sink."

"But . . ."

"No."

"What is it with people and bodily fluids?" Amy demanded. "Healthy urine is safe to drink."

"Why do you know that?" Zev asked as Adam picked up the lantern. He shook his head when it looked like she was about to answer. "Never mind. I don't actually want to know."

Lantern high, Adam paused, his hand almost to the doork.n.o.b. "What if the arm didn't go around to the other door?

What if it's waiting in the dining room for this door to open?"

"It's an arm," Tony said after a moment. "I don't think it's that smart."

"It's an arm," Zev repeated. "We shouldn't even be having this conversation."

"Just stay inside the pattern. That's what's stopping it, not the door."

"What if Lee's waiting in the dining room?"

Where Hartley killed Brenda.

"Then slam the door and Brianna can pee on someone's foot."

Hanging between Zev and Amy, Brianna looked intrigued.

Door open.

No arm.

No Lee.

"If Lee goes after them, do you think they can stop him?" Tina asked as footsteps started up the stairs.

"Zev and Adam can handle him," Peter told her leaning against the counter. "He's an actor, for crying out loud."

"He's a costar," Mason muttered.

"What happened to lying quietly and listening to the vampire hunters' plans?"

"Right."

Tina tightened her grip on Ashley. "I can't believe you're allowing that child to look at a burning baby."

"It's not a real baby," Tony offered. "It's a ghost baby."

"She'll be traumatized."

"Perhaps," Peter allowed. "But better a supervised visit than have her go charging off on her own again. I think CB'd rather get her back traumatized than not at all."

"The Cheese doesn't have nightmares, if that's what you're worried about. Mom says she's like Dad; sensitivity of a post." Ashley pulled out of Tina's arms and stuffed her hands in the pockets of Mason's tuxedo jacket. "Me, I'm like Mom. I'll have screaming nightmares about that arm coming right at me for years. And years. It'll probably stunt my growth." She shot Mason a challenging look through her lashes. "I'm very sensitive."

Mason nodded. "So am I. But then, I'm a star. I thought we were going dancing; why am I tied up?"

"Captured by vampire hunters," Peter sighed, fondling the napkin.

"Right."

Tony shifted position to give a different set of bruises a chance to ache and saw that Mouse, who'd been lying quietly under the weight of three men, was staring up at him, his eyelashes clumped into damp triangles. "You okay?"

"You've been avoiding me."

So not the time to go into this. "No, I haven't."

"Yeah."

"I'm right here."

The big man sighed. "Not now, before."

"I haven't." He looked up to see he was once again the center of attention. "Really. I haven't."

"Ever since I kissed you."

c.r.a.p.

"He's not himself."

Peter leaned back, folded his arms and crossed one ankle over the other. "Sounds like he's having a lucid moment to me."

"He's not."

"Did I hurt you?" Mouse's lower lip trembled.