When John the Baptist sank to his knees with a guttural groan, the vampire attendants eased him away from Bethany. She sat upright and unsupported now, her eyes bright, twin rivulets of blood trickling from the corners of her mouth. She took a deep, experimental breath, licked all around her lips, and smiled broadly. “I feel good,” she announced. “I feel great!”

A polite golf clap went around the crypt.

Geoffrey the prat spread his arms. “Welcome, my love,” he said to her. “Welcome, my sister.”

Bethany glanced at him. “Oh, fuck you!” His mouth fell open in shock. Lady Eris did the one-eyebrow raise. “You made me wait long enough for it.” Bethany looked around the room. “Jen!”

Jen blinked. “Uh . . . yeah?”

Her sister grinned again, revealing bloodstained teeth. “C’mon, girl! We’ve got unfinished business at home. Let’s go!”

“Huh?”

“Let’s go!” Bethany hopped off the sarcophagus with startling speed, nearly falling over and catching herself in the blink of an eye. “Wow. That’s gonna take some getting used to.” She grabbed Jen’s arm, yanking her away from me. “Car keys in your purse?”

“Hey!” I protested.

“You can call someone for a ride,” Bethany said over her shoulder, already dragging Jen toward the stairs. “This is a family matter.”

“Bethany!” Geoffrey said in a thunderous voice. “I do not grant permission for this!”

“I don’t need your permission anymore,” she retorted. “Unless her ladyship forbids it, I’ll be back before dawn.”

He shot Lady Eris a look of appeal.

She shrugged. “I’ll allow it.”

By the time he got his protest out, Bethany and Jen were halfway up the stairs, and by the time I pushed my way through the vampire throng in the crypt, they were out the door, leaving a puzzled-looking Cody in the foyer.

“I take it the rising worked,” he said. “Should I have stopped them?”

“Probably,” I said. “Maybe. I don’t know.”

He glanced toward the courtyard. “Should we go after them?”

“Definitely.”

The taillights of Jen’s old LeBaron were already vanishing in the distance when we set out after them in the cruiser, which didn’t really matter since I was pretty sure that Bethany was headed for the Cassopolis home. Cody put on the siren and the lights and we took off at a good clip, which also didn’t matter since apparently being turned into a vampire also meant driving like a . . . well, like a bat out of hell. I guess lightning-fast reflexes and a total lack of fear of dying will do that to a person. I hoped Jen was okay.

The Cassopolises’ place was a dingy ranch house on the outskirts of East Pemkowet. We arrived to find the front door standing wide open and lights on inside the house. Cody took the lead and I followed him, drawing dauda-dagr as a precaution.