“This plan doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence,” Shane said to Claire. “Even with the cool flamethrower.”

Naomi held up a shaking hand, palm out, to signal them to wait, but then the hand curled into a fist before it finally relaxed. She sat back and raised her face to the cold rain, looking … well, not pale, but almost blue. Her lips had taken on a light tint of cyan. She looked like she’d been carved out of cloudy ice.

“Different bloodlines,” she whispered. “It is like different blood types to you.”

“It makes you sick,” Claire said, and got an erratic nod.

“How sick?” Shane asked. “Can you walk?”

“A moment,” Naomi said. She sounded stronger already. “We must go before my bloodline destroys his within me, but the battle between them is … challenging. He comes of strong stock.” She gave them a faded smile, and pushed to her feet; Claire was prepared to prop her up, but she didn’t need it. “He is in that direction.”

“That’s … not so good,” Shane said, because the way Naomi was pointing was toward the interdicted end of Morganville, the one the draug had slowly claimed as their stronghold. “Why would he be staying in there? Why not get out?”

“It’s possible they have him,” Naomi said, but then shook her head to correct herself. “No, I would feel that, through this link. He is alive, and in hiding. But it won’t be easy to get to him, even now.”

“Less talking,” Claire said. “More walking. I mean it, we’re not out here after dark, no matter what happens.”

Naomi’s eyebrows climbed higher. “Even if one of us must be left behind?”

“If one of us is,” Shane said, hefting the flamethrower higher on his shoulders like a heavy backpack, “it’s going to be you. No offense.”

Naomi smiled, very prettily. “Oh, but it is very much taken.” Claire wasn’t actually sure, looking at her, whether she meant it or not, but it was better to be safe with a vampire than really, really sorry. She nudged Shane sharply in ribs that weren’t protected by the flamethrower straps.

“Sorry,” Shane muttered. “I mean, we’ll all come back or none of us. Of course. I’m sure you’re thinking the same thing.”

“Assuredly.” That same sweet, impartial smile, and again, there was just no figuring out if she meant it or not. But it didn’t matter, because they were in it now, together, and they needed to move.

Fast.

Leaving Founder’s Square, with its safe little circle of lights still burning and its cordon of police and vampire guards … That was difficult. Not just because, deep down, Claire didn’t want to go, but also because the guards wouldn’t let them go. As in the Elders’ Council building, everyone had been given strict orders, and Claire imagined they’d been along the lines of Whatever you do, don’t let those bastards in here, or let anybody else go out. Naomi, though, wasn’t taking no for an answer, and there were few human cops who were willing to stand up to a vampire with an attitude, and a gun.