“Get over yourself,” she admonished once she was in the car. She reached for her phone, turned it on, and listened to two messages. One from Jay insisting she call him, the other from her dad, who tried his best to sound like he was just checking in, but there was an underlying gravity to his voice that couldn’t be missed. “…so call me when you can,” he said as he signed off.

“Will do, Dad,” she said, putting the car into gear and glancing once more toward Wagner House.

Vlad watched from the bell tower of the church chapel. Kristi Bentz was becoming a big problem.

Elizabeth was right.

It was time to leave, before they got caught. There were other hunting grounds, but they would take some time to establish, so it would be necessary to sacrifice more than one tonight and again tomorrow. Then they would stop for a while. Make the blood last.

The taillights of the Honda faded in the distance and he licked his lips at the thought of Kristi Bentz and her long, supple neck. He imagined sinking his teeth into her as well as doing all sorts of things to her body.

So Elizabeth wanted to watch.

Who better to start with than the girl who was trying so desperately to unmask them? Wouldn’t there be sweet irony in Elizabeth viewing it all?

Yes, he decided, there was a poetry, a symmetry to it.

As if the taking of Kristi Bentz’s life had been preordained.

But he was getting ahead of himself.

First, there were others to attend to. Beautiful girls who had already pledged their souls.

Tonight, one would be taken.

Tomorrow, if all went as planned, there would be two.

Their images came to mind and he felt a hot lust run through him. He imagined their surrender.

But first, tonight, one was waiting….

Ariel was groggy, couldn’t lift her head, and she was cold, so damned cold. The room was dark, but somehow familiar, as if she’d dreamed it. And she was naked as she lay upon a couch of some kind, the pile soft against her bare skin.

You know what’s happening.

You suspected this, didn’t you?

Why were you so desperate for friends?

Dazed, she sensed a change in the atmosphere and knew she wasn’t alone. She was on a stage of some kind, it seemed, a raised platform, and she felt as if dozens of eyes were watching her, though she saw no one.

She tried to say something, but her mouth wouldn’t form words, her vocal cords seemed paralyzed, just as her body was. Fear screamed through her and she tried like hell to move, to roll off the couch, to do anything.