Matt made the cutting motion that signaled we were off the air. This gave the local stations a few minutes for commercials and promotions. I pulled off my headphones and went to the door.

"Hey, Rick." I tried to sound casual. Either he was going to deliver a scathing message from Arturo or he wanted to know what I'd found out about the Church of the Pure Faith. I still hadn't learned much.

"h.e.l.lo. So, this is the famous studio."

"Yeah. Not to be rude, but I'm going to have to get back to it in a minute. What can I do for you?"

"I thought we might trade information. What have you found out about Elijah Smith?"

There it was. I shrugged. "Not much. n.o.body who knows him is talking. A couple of reporters tried to sneak into his caravan once and got thrown out. I'm going to keep at it. I've still got a couple of leads to try. I'm sorry I can't give you more."

He pursed his lips, masking disappointment. "Well, maybe your persistence will pay off. In the meantimea"

He offered me a manila envelope. "I heard your show last week. I thought you might be interested in this."

"What is it?"

"Evidence," he said. "Now you have no reason to go poking around Obsidian by yourself again."

I looked up. My throat got tight. "You know about that?"

He nodded. "So does Arturo. He's disappointed you didn't give him a chance to act against you directly."

"Yeah. I bet he is." How stupid could I have been? Of course Arturo had guards posted. Of course they spotted me. Score another point for cowardly self-preservation.

I took the envelope and scooped inside for the contents. There were a few photos, weirdly lit in black and white, like they had been taken with some kind of night vision camera. There was a forested area. I recognized the slope of hill behind Carl and Meg's house. A couple of people were running with a couple of wolves. One of the faces was circled. Mine, of course. A couple of photos later in the sequence, I was ripping off my clothes and my body was changing shape. These were copies of the photos that set Cormac on me. I put them back.

The rest of the envelope held a half-dozen pages of information. Some phone records, a terse written agreementa"someone putting a contract on you didn't mean it was actually a contract. I didn't think hit men gave out receipts.

Rick explained. "Those show phone calls between Arturo and his go-between, and the go-between and Cormac. The go-between is a woman with ties to the local militia movement. Cormac has a background with them. She's been discussing with Arturo the possibility of, ah, signing up, as it were. She'd do anything for him."

"What else do you know about Cormac?"

"He doesn't work cheap. There are some figures listed." He showed me the appropriate piece of paper. I blinked.

"That's a lot of zeros."

"Indeed."

"Arturo wants me dead that badly?"

"Oh, I don't know. He had backing. There's a whole conglomerate that's unhappy with you."

"Who else?"

"That I'm afraid I don't know. Sorry."

"No, don't apologize. This is great." In fact, I was choked up. I'd been feeling friendless lately, and here came help from such an unexpected quarter. "Why help me like this? If Arturo finds out you did thisa""

He made a dismissive gesture, as if he'd just loaned me five bucks and not saved my a.s.s.

"Don't worry about that. He doesn't have to know. You may not believe it, but there are some of us who think you're doing good work."

There was always the possibility that Arturo had put him up to this, that this was all part of some nefarious plot toa to do something.

Rick deserved better than that kind of att.i.tude. I sighed, humbled. "Thanks. Could you get a copy of all this to Cormac?"

"Already done."

"Thanks, Rick. I owe you one."

He tilted his head, regarding the ceiling for a moment. "You know, I could also be helping you because it would make Arturo crazy."

He winked, grinned, and slipped out as quietly as he'd arrived. He melted into the shadows at the other end of the corridor. Like a vampire or something.

Matt was staring. "Was thata was that aa" He made a gesture, two fingers pointing down from his mouth like fangs.

"Yeah. So, Matt, how do you feel about this job now?"

He shook his head, whistling through his teeth. "Never a dull moment."

The next day at work, I had a list of phone numbers sitting on top of the pile of c.r.a.p spread all over my deska"ratings projections, transcripts, unanswered mail, phone messages, newspapers and magazines that I used as fodder. The headline on Wide World of News this week was "Following Kitty Norville's Lead, Dozens of Vampire and Werewolf Celebrities Confess!" They had pictures of Quentin Tarantino, David Bowie, Britney Spears (huh?), anda Bill Clinton? Yeah, right.

I'd made it to the cover of Wide World of News. I must have really hit the big time. Or something.

I crossed off phone numbers as I made calls. Reporters, police departments, people who knew people who'd disappeared into Elijah Smith's caravan. I'd already talked to the reporters from Uncharted World who'd tried to break into the caravan. One of them had a theory that Smith was actually a front for government researchers who needed vampire and werewolf test subjects. The other one sounded a bit more sane, thinking that some sort of cult of personality had formed around Elijah Smith. Neither one of them believed he was really curing anyone. We couldn't know, because we couldn't talk to any of his people.

No one left him. The caravan was growing. What if it worked?

I tracked the latest piece of the puzzle to Modesto, California, where the caravan had parked two nights ago. The police there had tried to issue Smith citations for trespa.s.sing and causing a disturbance. The two officers who'd been sent to issue the tickets woke up in their patrol car the next morning with no memory of what had happened over the last eight hours. The caravan was gone. I tried to talk to the officers in question, but apparently they were still in the hospital, for observation. I spent two hours on the phone, but no one would tell me what was wrong with them, or where they thought the caravan would appear next.

As I hung up the phone, one of the k.n.o.b interns brought me a letter. She bopped into the room, handed it to me, and bopped out again. It didn't have a stamp or return addressa"it had been hand-delivered. I should have been suspicious. But I had a feeling. It smelled okay. I opened it and drew out a card, blank except for a handwritten line, You were right. I owe you one, and a phone number.

Chapter 7.

"h.e.l.lo, you're on The Midnight Hour."

"I want to know about the orgies."

"The orgies?"

"Yeah, the vampire orgies. How do I find out where they are? How do I get in on one of them?"

"Hma let's see. Are you a vampire?"

"Yeah."

"Then you usually get invited. Are you part of an organized Family, or are you on your own?"

"I have a Family." He sounded indignant, like how dare I suggest he wasn't sufficiently pedigreed.

"Not all Families have orgies. I meana"what kind of orgy are you looking for?"

"You knowa orgies. An orgy orgy." I could almost see the vague hand gestures accompanying his speech. The alarm bells started going offa"that little twitching in my mind when I suspected I was being had.

I said, "Orgy, orgy. Right. How long have you been a vampire?"

"Uha not too long."

"No, really. How long specifically? Because you realize that 'not long' has an entirely different scope to some vampires. If you've been around since the Roman Empire, 'not long' might be a couple of centuries, you know? How long is 'not long'?"

"Uma a year?" He was fishing for the right answer, the one that would get him on my good side.

"Okay, what's your namea Dave. Right. You're not a vampire."

"Buta""

"You know why you're not? Because vampires don't have orgy orgies. You're looking for lots of hot s.e.x with nubile vampire babes, and you're thinking a vampire orgy is the place to get it because you've heard all these stories. Right?"

"Buta buta I meana"

"But you know what? s.e.x is different for vampires. When a vampire says s.e.x and a normal human says s.e.x, they're talking about two different things. Because vampires don't have s.e.x without sucking blood. s.e.x is almost synonymous with feeding for them. Are you getting this, Dave? If you feel like being the main course, by all means, go find yourself a vampire orgy, because I can tell you exactly what those nubile vampire babes are going to do to you."

"Buta I meana the storiesa I've hearda"

Gullible and inarticulate. Gotta love it. "Next caller, you're on the air. Bruce?"

"Um, hi, yeah. I wanted to know, could I get the phone number for that a.s.sa.s.sin who was on the show last month?"

"You mean Cormac? You want Cormac's phone number?" I couldn't keep the tone of annoyance out of my voice. "The same Cormac who tried to kill me?"

"Yeah."

"May I ask why you want Cormac's phone number?"

"Well, you know. I kind of wanted to ask if he needs an a.s.sistant, or an apprentice or something."

"So, Bruce, you want to be a werewolf hunter?"

"Yeah."

"It's a dangerous line of work. You ever see a werewolf in action?"

"Uma on TV. You knowa"on Uncharted World and stuff."

"Oh, my G.o.d, the videos on that show are so doctored. Let me tell you what it really looks like. The average werewolf has four sets of claws as long as your fingers. Two-inch-long canines. Jaw pressure five times that of a human. And werewolves are fast. I'm talking a two-minute mile. Can you run that fast, Bruce?"

"Uha""

"Can you shoot straight?"

"Uha""

"Do you know how long it takes the average werewolf to tear apart a full-grown deer?"

"Noa""

I smiled sweetly. The expression was lost on the radio, but the tone would carry through my voice. "The last time I did it, it took about five minutes. And I'm just an average werewolf."

I swore I heard Bruce gulp over the line.

"Whoa."

"Sorry, Bruce, it's kind of against my own personal self-interest to do free advertising for werewolf hunters. You know what I mean? Thanks for calling."

I did an inward shudder. People would not shut up about Cormac, and it was starting to get on my nerves.

"Next caller. Betty, you're on the air. What's your question?"

"Hi, Kitty. I just wanted to know, are you going out with that Cormac guy from last month?"

My jaw dropped. I took a full five seconds to recover and say, "What?"

"Are you going out with that Cormac guy?"

"We are talking about the same Cormac who tried to kill me on the air, yes? The guy who hunts werewolves for a living?"

"Uh-huh."

"And you want to know if I'm dating him? Why on earth do you think that's a good idea?"

"Well, I sort of sensed something between you two when he was on the show."

"You sensed something. Are you psychic?"

"I don't think so."

"Empathic?"

"No."

"Clairvoyant?"