“He’s been drowning his sorrows,” I said, taking another step back as Daemon did an encore. “Now his sorrows are fighting back.”

“What are you doing here with him? And at a vampire club, for God’s sake?”

“Miss Diamond?” Flame and Casper joined us, looking sternly at Lopez. “Do you need assistance?”

“Oh! No thanks, guys. This is a friend of mine.” I glanced at Lopez. “Are you still going by Hector Sousa?”

He said to them, “I’d like a few minutes alone with Miss Diamond.”

I saw Flame’s skeptical expression and assured him it was okay. He nodded, gave Lopez a hard glance, and stated that he and the others would be within earshot and visual range at all times. Then he and Casper turned away and rejoined Treat and Silent near the motorcycles.

“Who are they?” Lopez asked me.

“My vampire posse,” I said, still cradling my injured hand against my chest.

“Your what?” He drew in a sharp breath when he got a good look at my battered face and my general dishevelment. “Holy shit, what’s happened to you?”

“I am never working with vampires again,” I said seriously.

Daemon finally seemed to be finished with his stomach’s rebellious response to the evening’s festivities. He gave a despairing groan and sank down into a sitting position on the sidewalk, his back resting against the building, a prudent distance away from the mess he had just made.

“Hey, are you all right?” Lopez asked him distractedly, still looking at me.

“Urngh.”

“It’s been a rather trying evening, but I was safe,” I assured Lopez. “I have my vampire posse to protect me now.”

“Vampire posse? You know, somehow, that seems just . . . perfect.” He rubbed his forehead. “I was having a lovely evening wading through a sewage mishap underground while searching for the murder scene. I would have been happy to stay there all night—or at least until the methane gas made me pass out. But then I got a message saying that you were here with him.” He glanced at Daemon, who was holding his head in his hands and muttering that he felt like hell. “At first, I thought, no, it must be the other actress from the show, because Esther and I talked about this—exactly this—and there’s no way she’d do something that crazy . . .” He sighed and glared at me. “But then I realized, no, if anyone was going to be that crazy, it would definitely be you. So I asked a squad car to bring me straight here.”

“Ah, so that’s why you smell, um, the way you do.” I asked, “But how did you find us? I mean, who sent that message?”

“Daemon’s a murder suspect in a high profile case,” he said in a low voice. “Who do you think contacted me?”

My eyes widened in surprise. “The police are tailing him?” I whispered.

“Plainclothes cops, unmarked car. They followed him here from the theater.” Still keeping his voice low, he added, “And since the investigating team knows that I’m worried you’re at risk, they contacted me when they saw you in his company. I got the message a little while ago, when I came topside for some air.”

“Oh.” I felt bad about disrupting his work.

“What are you doing here?” he asked in exasperation.

I tried to remember. “Actually, I was keeping my agent company.”

Lopez glanced over his shoulder at Thack, who was some distance away, with his back to us all, as he continued his conversation with Uncle Peter.

“That’s who the other man is?” he asked in surprise. “Your agent?”

“Yes. Thackeray Shackleton.”

“Oh, right. You’ve mentioned him before.” Lopez added, “That can’t be his real name. Speaking of which . . .” He turned his gaze back to Daemon with a sigh. “I only came here to get you. But we can’t just leave him here like this.”

“We can’t?” I said in disappointment.

After all, Daemon had a cell phone, a personal assistant at his beck and call, and a chauffeur-driven limo somewhere around here. He was also indirectly responsible for all my injuries. So I was perfectly willing to leave him alone, drunk, and vomiting on the sidewalk.

“Well, I can’t,” Lopez said apologetically. “You know—that whole ‘protect and serve’ thing.”

“Oh, right,” I said. “Bummer.”

Daemon’s nose was swollen and runny, and he was drooling a little. Some vomit had gotten on his black silk shirt and his leather coat.

“This has been the worst day of my life,” the celebrity vampire moaned.

“All things considered,” Lopez said as he looked at how the mightily self-absorbed had fallen, “this is almost enough to make me believe in a just god.”

“You don’t?” I asked. “A churchgoer like you?”

“If I hadn’t already had doubts,” he said, “then being a cop would certainly have brought them on.”

Daemon sneezed violently, twice in a row, then glared at us through glassy, red-rimmed eyes. “For fuck’s sake, will the two of you get away from me?” he said, his speech noticeably less slurred now.

“Are you sobering up?” I asked hopefully.

“I can’t believe the week I’m having,” Daemon moaned.

Gazing at him, Lopez shook his head. “I just don’t get it. How does this guy get so many women?”

I shrugged. “It’s a mystery to me.”

Daemon snapped, “It helps that I don’t smell of sewage.”

“He looks pretty rocky,” Lopez said. “I wonder if he needs to go to a hospital. How much has he had to drink?”

I shrugged. “Other than plenty, I don’t really know.”

“I don’t need a hospital,” Daemon insisted.

“In that case,” said Lopez, “we need to get you home, Danny.”

Daemon flinched. “Don’t call me that!”

Lopez asked, “You came in your own car, right? Where is it now?”

“My car,” Daemon said wistfully. “Yes. I want it right now. I want to go home.”

“And I want my stuff.” I added to Lopez, “My tote bag is in his car.”

“My car . . .” Daemon squinted at Lopez. “Do I know you?”

“No.”

I went out into the street so I could look up and down the block. I spotted the limo double-parked, halfway down the street, shining darkly beneath the streetlamps. With my injured hand cradled against my midriff, I stepped into a pool of light and waved my good hand overhead, hoping to attract the driver’s attention. It worked. The headlights came on, illuminating me as I gestured for the car to come collect us.

Nearby, Lopez was again speaking to the cops in the squad car. Then he joined me in the street, a regrettable aroma wafting around him, and put his hand under my elbow, tugging me back toward the sidewalk as Daemon’s car pulled to a stop near me.

“I need to get into the car,” I said. “My stuff—”

“The officers will get your bag and keep it in the squad car until you’re ready to go. They’re taking you home,” he said as he dragged me back to the sidewalk.

“Oh?”

“Yes. After they help the Vampire Ravel get into his car without passing out.” He turned to face me. “As long as I’m here, I wanted to make sure . . . What’s wrong?”

I had been trying not to grimace. Apparently I was not successful. “Could you stand downwind of me?”

He sighed. “Fine. Whatever.” We switched places. “I wanted to check . . .” Now he made a face. “What do you smell of?”

“Antibiotic ointment and muscle liniment.”

“Oh. Of course.”

“You were saying?”

“I wanted to make sure you . . .” Lopez stopped speaking and looked over my shoulder with some consternation.

“Now what?” I glanced in the same direction and saw my four-man posse all staring at us.

“If this is what it’s like to have an audience,” he said, “I don’t understand the attraction.”

“No, I think this is what it’s like to have bodyguards.” I admitted, “It takes some getting used to.”

Lopez held their unwavering quadruple stare for another moment, then gave up. “This is distracting. Let’s go around the corner and talk for a minute.”

I waved and reassured my posse that all was well, then I let Lopez lead me around the corner of the building. This being late Sunday night, the street was quiet, with no cars or pedestrians in our immediate vicinity.

“Jesus, what else happened to you?” Lopez asked with concern, noticing the way I was cradling my injured hand. He gently took it in both of his hands, palm up, and examined it while I explained. The cut was still bleeding. “This looks deep, Esther. I think you might need stitches.”

“I can’t afford stitches. Do you have a handkerchief or something?”

“Oh, um, here, use this.” He reached for the cotton bandana that was keeping his long hair out of his eyes, pulled it off, and shook it out.

While he folded it into a neat square, I threw the bloody, crumpled cocktail napkins on the ground. I was normally a conscientious citizen who despised polluters, but I was much too tired to go look for a garbage can in the dark.

As Lopez took my hand in his again, I asked him, “Do you really think I need stitches?”

I was fretting about the cost. As a city employee, he might have a medical plan that would cover something like this, but I certainly didn’t.

“I don’t know.” He brought my hand a little closer to his face and bent his head over it, trying to get a good look in the dim light. “Does it hurt very much?”

“Not that much.” In fact, I was mostly aware of the feel of my hand lying in his warm palm, his fingers clasping me gently. “Uh, just stings, I guess.”

He absently stroked the side of my hand with his thumb, sending tingles through my solar plexus. “I guess it’ll be all right if you . . . take care of it.”

His voice was a little husky now.

“Oh. Good.” So was mine.

“But I’m not a . . .” He swallowed.

“A . . .” I breathed.

“Not a doctor,” he murmured.

My chest hurt. My throat felt tight. I was pretty sure he noticed that I was breathing too fast. But then so was he.

It wasn’t a good idea for us to stand so close together. Touching. One of us should move away.

I tried and found that I couldn’t. My feet felt like they were weighted down. I realized the hand he was holding was starting to tremble.

His black hair gleamed like onyx beneath the rays of light flowing down from a nearby street lamp. I felt his warm breath wafting softly across my palm. I swallowed and curled the fingers of my other hand into a fist, aware of a desire to stroke his hair.

A delicate trickle of blood started to run down my wrist.

He hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head. I gasped when he caught the ruby trickle of blood with his tongue. He went still, aware of my startled reaction. I didn’t move a muscle, just stood there with my hand in his hand, staring at his bent head while his warm mouth hovered over my skin.

My heart started pounding, and I felt a quiver in my pelvis. His rapid breathing tickled me as it danced across my tender flesh. I leaned a little closer to him, feeling hypnotized by the moment. Captured by the damp, trembling touch of his lips.

“Let’s find out,” he whispered, his breath stroking my wrist, “what’s so great about . . .”

I closed my eyes when his warm, wet mouth moved over the base of my palm. He licked delicately at my recent wound, then closed his lips on my skin and began sucking gently, drawing my blood into his mouth.

Although the night was chilly, I started to feel warm all over and then, in certain places, wickedly hot. A brisk wind swept down the dark street, and the contrast between the cold air on my skin and the hot mouth sucking more insistently on me now drew a voluptuous sigh from me. I tilted my head back, spiraling into the mindless sensation that spread through me from the nerves that were thrillingly alive beneath that stroking tongue.

Ramping up his game, he nipped my sensitive skin, making me flinch me a little. I gave a helpless moan and leaned against him as my knees sagged, shakily seeking something to hold me upright. I felt the delicate flutter of his eyelashes brushing my skin and the teasing caress of his thick hair as his tongue and mouth continued working rhythmically, taking what wanted. Sucking with increasing intensity now. Feeding on me.

Clinging to him for balance as my heart thundered, I looked down at his head, bent over my hand, his breathing getting harsh now, and I brushed aside his black hair and sank my teeth into the back of his neck, biting him hard enough to hurt a little—in that good way.

He drew in a sharp, startled breath and went very still for a moment—then sucked more fervently on my wound, drawing my life force into his hot mouth, massaging me with his agile tongue, and nibbling—

“Detective?”

I uttered a gurgling shriek and staggered backward—which is what saved me from getting a bloody nose when Lopez lifted his head and sprang bolt upright, moving as if he’d received an electric shock.

I clapped my good hand over my mouth and gaped with horrified embarrassment at the patrolman who had come around the corner and caught us in the act.

Lopez’s chest was heaving as he stared at the cop in consternation.

The policeman looked a little bemused at our reaction. “Oops. Sorry,” he said casually.

I realized that my chest was heaving, too. I tried to get control of myself. And of my thoughts. It was dawning on me that nothing in the cop’s face suggested that he realized he had just interrupted . . . that.

Huddled together in the dark, a dozen feet away, and glimpsed for only a second or two, I realized we had probably looked like we were just embracing, not . . . not...

Lopez cleared his throat. “Yes, officer?”

“We put the vampire guy in his car and sent him home. Four bikers and a guy in a suit are all asking for Miss Diamond.” The cop concluded, “And we’re ready to take her home as soon as you’re done with her, detective.” Perhaps realizing how that sounded, in the circumstances, he added, “Er, I mean, as soon as you’re done talking with her.”

“Thank you. We’re almost done now. I mean, we’re almost done talking. Well, I mean . . .” Lopez said in defeat, “Jesus, go away, would you?”

“Yes, detective.”

The cop disappeared around the corner. Lopez took a deep breath. Then another. The wind blew this way again, and I caught a whiff of sewage.

I hadn’t noticed the smell at all when he was sucking my blood. I hadn’t noticed anything but the way he . . .

And then when he . . . Well, I doubted I would have noticed a nearby rocket launch at that point.

“You’re really not the altar boy you pretend to be, are you?” I said on a puff of mingled embarrassment, surprise, and lingering arousal.

He laughed a little, obviously embarrassed, too. Then he asked, “Are you okay?”

“Of course,” I said.

“So . . . I guess that’s blood play, huh?”

I felt my face flush. “I guess so.”

“I, uh . . .” He looked away, still a little self-conscious. “I think I get it now.”

“Uh-huh.” With my good hand, I fiddled with my hair. “It’s, uh . . . Yeah.”

“I mean . . .” He took another breath, then met my gaze again. Shedding his self-consciousness now, he said with candid directness, “I liked that.”

“You are a dark horse,” I said.

He smiled. “Only in the right company.” Then he added, “But, God, I really don’t think I could . . . you know ... cut you to play around like that.”

“Good to know.” I looked down at my throbbing hand.

“Oh! Here. I think you need this.”

Without coming any closer, he extended his arm to offer me the folded cotton bandana. Also without getting any closer, I accepted it with thanks, being careful not to let our fingers touch when I took it from him.

Still feeling self-conscious, I started to laugh. “Oh, God, do I have to take back everything I just said to Daemon a little while ago about how disgusting I thought this sort of thing was?”

“Nah, don’t give that guy any ideas.” He brushed his hair out of his eyes.

“I was wrong,” I said ruefully. “There’s definitely . . . something about it.”

I didn’t say it aloud. And I wasn’t going to.

“Yeah,” he said. “There is.”

My nightmares still haunted me. As did the waking memory of how close Lopez had come to dying—twice—because of me. Sure, I might have been quivering pre-orgasmically in the middle of a public street a minute ago, but that was unexpected (to say the least), and it certainly didn’t mean I had changed my mind about what was right. Or what I could live with.

“Be honest with yourself, Esther,” the killer had said to me that night, having left Lopez to die alone in the dark. “Would he be lying in agonized paralysis awaiting his death now if not for you?”

I couldn’t live with that.

Pressing the folded bandana to my injured hand and trying to stifle the blood flow, I forced myself to pull my thoughts together. “What did you want to ask me?”

“Huh?” He seemed startled by the question.

“Didn’t you want to ask me something?”

He looked at me like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Lopez?” I prodded.

“Well . . . yeah, I do want to ask you something.”

In the silence that followed, I recalled that during sexual arousal, a man’s blood flowed away from his brain. I was wondering just how long it would take this man’s brain to start functioning again, when he spoke.

“I’m wondering . . .”

“Yes?” I said encouragingly.

He let out his breath slowly. “Am I being punished?”

“What?”

“It feels like I’m being punished.”

I stared at him in blank bemusement.

Confronted by my bewildered silence, he said, “I wasn’t going to bring this up. I swear. Well, not until we had the killer in custody, anyhow. I didn’t want to make things awkward.” He made a gesture indicating the two of us. “Between you and me. Or for you, with me,” he added quickly. “I wanted you—I still want you—to feel comfortable calling me if anything weird happens or you see anyone suspicious. I don’t want you to hesitate to ask for my help because of ... personal things.”

“I didn’t need help tonight,” I reassured him. “Everything was—”

“No, I don’t mean that. I mean . . .” He stopped, regrouped, and started over. “After what just happened . . .” His vague gesture indicated our brief bout of vampire sex. “I know I’m the one who started it, but you didn’t seem like you were ... just being polite.”

I felt my face flush again. “No. I wasn’t being polite.” I couldn’t imagine the circumstances in which I would passionately bite a man’s neck, while he sucked my blood, in order to be polite to him. It occurred to me ask, “Are you okay? Did I hurt you when I, uh . . . ?” I gestured awkwardly to his neck.

“I’m fine. But since we just got, um, pretty personal, and you seemed to be . . . into it . . .”

“Go on.”

“Am I being punished because I dumped you? Is that why you wouldn’t even talk to me after that night in Harlem?”

“Dumped me?” I repeated, a little miffed. “I thought you gave me up.”

“I did.” He shrugged. “But you felt dumped. You told me so. And then, later, when I wanted to talk . . .”

“Oh. I see.” I shook my head. “No, you’re not being punished for dumping me.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes. I don’t play games, Lopez. Not like that.”

“I know. I didn’t mean you were playing games. I meant . . ” He made a frustrated sound. “I don’t know. Women are hard to figure out. You, especially. So I had to ask. Because this feels like punishment.”

“I’m not punishing you.” In an attempt to prove it to him, I asked, “What did you want to talk about? If you say it now, I’ll listen.”

“I didn’t have a speech ready, Esther. I thought, you know, we’d both talk. And then . . .”

“And then we’d try dating again, and everything would be different this time? Because things went so well between us when we saw each other in summer?”

There was a long silence.

I finally asked, “Was that the talk, then? Did we just have it?”

“I think so.”

“How did it go?”

“Oh, it was a lot like talking to myself for the past couple of months.”

Another silence.

“So we’re okay now?” I asked.

“Yeah, I guess we are.” He sounded perplexed.

My heart and body were screaming about how much they had missed him, demanding to be heard. But I kept my head in command of things this time, and I reminded my unruly organs that the two very worst experiences of my entire life were the two times that this man was targeted with death because of me.

And the second attempt had come so close.

Much, much too close.

Lopez saw the shiver I couldn’t control. “Are you cold?”

“A little.” I pulled my jacket more tightly around me; but I was shivering because of my memories of a stormy night in August, not because of the November wind.

“Come on.” He nodded in the direction of the people who were waiting for us. “The cops will take you home.”

We walked back that way together, keeping a sensible distance between us now. As soon as I saw Thack, pacing impatiently with his hands in his pockets while he waited for me, it hit me.

“The first victim,” I said suddenly to Lopez, stopping in my tracks. “I mean, the remains that were found underground which you think might be this killer’s first victim.”

“Yeah?”

“Male or female?”

“Male,” he replied. “Why?”

“Have you identified him?”

“No.”

“When was he killed?”

Looking at me with mingled interest and suspicion now—a familiar combination in his attitude to me—he said, “Probably mid-August.”

I went still. “A little less than three months ago.”

He nodded, studying my expression. “Now tell me why you’re asking about this.”

I took a steadying breath, my heart thudding. “I think the victim might be a Lithuanian named Benas Novicki.”

“How do you know who the victim might be?” he demanded.

“Benas Novicki was kind of an acquaintance of Thack’s distant—very distant—relatives in Vilnius.” I nodded toward my agent, who was making exasperated gestures at me, indicating that he was more than ready to blow this popsicle stand. “Benas disappeared about three months ago in New York.”

Lopez was frowning. “That’s not a name I’ve seen in any missing persons reports that have been cross-referenced with the murder case.”

“Nobody reported him missing.”

“Why not?”

“I guess they weren’t that close,” I tried.

“Esther.”

“Okay. Here it is.” I knew this wouldn’t go over well, but I might as well just tell him. “Benas was a vampire hunter. Before he disappeared, he was hot on the trail of a vampire he’d been pursuing for a while.”

“Okay,” Lopez said wearily, “I obviously inhaled way too much methane gas in the tunnels earlier tonight. In fact, I think we can safely say that all of my behavior since I arrived here has been pointing to that conclusion. And now, I could swear I just heard you say that the first victim was a vampire hunter. Probably I should go seek treatment.”

“There’s no need to be sarcastic,” I said. “Look at it this way—”

“A vampire hunter? Esther.” His facial expression suggested that our very brief chat tonight about our relationship had been right on the money.

“Look, he thought of himself as a vampire hunter,” I said patiently. “Which means that if he knew about a killer who exsanguinated his victims . . .”

There was a pause.

“Oh, Jesus. Point taken.” Lopez nodded, his expression turning somber. “He’d have gone after him, and that’s how he wound up dead.”

“Now that you have a name, can you identify the remains?” I asked.

“Maybe. If so, it’ll take time, though. There’s definitely not enough of him left for a visual ID.”

I wondered if Lithuanian vampire hunters still used crossbows. “Were there any personal possessions found with the remains?”

“No, nothing.” Lopez brushed his hair out of his eyes. “Benas told someone he was on the trail of a killer?”

“Yes. Someone back in Lithuania.”

“If he was right about that, it might mean he wasn’t the first victim,” Lopez mused. “He’s just the first one we know about.”

“Oh! Of course.” After a moment, I asked, “You’ve been over the case file for Adele Olson by now. Was she killed by the same person as the other victims?”

“In my opinion, yes. Branson is . . .” Lopez made a waggling gesture with his hand. “Starting to lean my way. His partner, though, is stuck on good old Danny Ravinsky for Angeline’s murder. And, by the way, just how stupid is that guy? He didn’t give the cops his real name in a murder investigation?”

“Don’t even get me started,” I said.

I assumed Branson’s partner was the woman detective who had questioned Daemon. Her theory of the case was wrong, but I found it easy to understand how several hours of interviewing Daemon made her desperate to see him behind bars.

“Have I got the, uh, vampire hunter’s name right? Benas Novicki?” When I nodded, Lopez said, “Okay, I’m going to look into it.”

“Good.” I waved to Thack to indicate I was ready to leave.

He opened his arms to the heavens, as if to say, Finally!

“Oh, wait, one more thing,” Lopez said as Thack headed this way. “I remember what I was going to ask you. Have you had that door sealed?”

“What?” I said blankly.

“The door I showed you, leading into the tunnel system.”

“Oh! Damn.” I covered my eyes with my good hand.

“I gather that means no?”

“We’re going now, right?” Thack asked. “I’m so ready to leave.”

“I forgot,” I said to Lopez.

“How could you forget? I thought it was pretty memorable, Esther.”

“A lot happened right after that!” I said defensively. “And a lot keeps happening.”

Thack said, “Esther, please.”

“Oh, who dragged me here in the first place?” I snapped at Thack.

“Who got me involved in this?” he snapped back.

“In what?” Lopez asked.

“Nothing,” we said in unison.

Looking as if maybe he had inhaled too much methane tonight, Lopez said to me, “Remember the door tomorrow. Okay?”

“Okay.”

My vampire posse joined us.

Flame asked, “Are we leaving, Miss Diamond?”

“Miss Diamond is being escorted home by the police, who will see her safely inside her apartment,” Lopez said. “You’re dismissed for the night.”

Flame looked at me for confirmation, which I gave. He made arrangements to meet me near the theater tomorrow, “beyond the perimeter” of where trouble could be expected. Then he, Treat, Casper, and Silent left, roaring away on their two motorcycles.

“Can we go now?” Thack asked.

“Yes.”

“Wait,” Lopez said. “One more thing.”

“Now what?” Thack asked wearily.

“It’s personal,” Lopez said to him.

Thack said to me, “On the way home, you’re going to tell me who he is, right?”

“No, she’s not,” Lopez said.

“Get in the car,” I urged Thack. “I’ll be with you in a second.” Once he was out of earshot, I asked Lopez, “Who exactly are you tonight? I’m so confused!”

“I’m pretty confused tonight, too,” he said. “So just don’t talk about me at all. All right?”

“Sure,” I said. “Was that the ‘one more thing’?”

“No.” He hesitated.

“Well?”

“This is a little awkward. I don’t want you to be offended.”

“What is it?”

“Well, um, considering what I did back there . . .” He made a gesture indicating the spot around the corner where we had played with fire. “You’d tell me if there was something I needed to know, right?”

“Something you . . . Oh! Oh.” I realized what he meant. I wasn’t offended. It was a fair question, coming from someone who’d just drunk my blood. “There’s nothing to tell. Nothing,” I assured him.

“Okay.” His gaze shifted to the squad car. “You’d better go. I see that Shackleton’s chomping at the bit to set off on this expedition.”