“It’s too quiet.” The lady with the nonexistent sex life said it for all of them. “Kind of eerie.”

Dacian turned away from the audience and spoke quietly to Cinn. “Vampires and demons are quiet killers. The Mackenzies carry these big-ass swords, but they make silent kills. No guns. Things might heat up, though, when the two magic makers go at it. The cosmic troublemakers?” He shrugged. “Who knows?”

“Hey, lady, the wizard guy said we might get a surprise fantasy. When’s that going to happen?” A young guy over in the corner evidently didn’t get off on strange plants.

Dacian was looking down at her when she saw his eyes change. One moment they were warm, filled with everything that made her love him, and then they were black with no white showing.

“I’d say right about now.” Cinn couldn’t stop her voice from shaking as her heart skipped a beat and then began to race madly.

Dacian’s last coherent action was to shove her away from him. She sailed into one of the counters and fell to the floor along with about five of her plants.

“Wow, cool.” The young guy was finally entertained.

Asima leaped into action. Cinn didn’t even see her move, but she was suddenly between them. Whatever power she flung at Dacian drove him backward until he was pressed against the post. “Put the cuffs on his wrists and ankles while I hold him there.”

Cinn didn’t waste time with words. She scrambled to her feet and rushed to the post. Asima had managed to keep Dacian from flailing around, but Cinn could almost see the energy the cat was expending to hold him immobile.

She cuffed his wrists and ankles and then stepped back.

Her audience cheered. They didn’t have a clue how close to death they were.

“A bondage and discipline fantasy. Are you paying attention, Clyde?” The bad-perm lady was feeling it. Her husband? Not so much.

“I can’t keep this up, so I’m going to release him. Come stand by me in case he breaks the chains.”

Cinn didn’t waste any time in getting behind Asima. Then she remembered the other humans. “Everyone stay behind the cat. She’s the messenger of a goddess and has unspeakable powers. She’ll keep us safe from …the mindless killing machine.” That hurt to say.

The old guy was into the whole fantasy thing. “Woo-hoo! You go, kick-ass kitty.”

Cinn stared with tears in her eyes at what Dacian had become. He growled and hissed at them, his eyes black and filled with hate, his lips drawn back to expose his fangs. He’d kill her without hesitating now.

“Vampire!”

“How’d they get those fangs to look so real?”

“Wonder where he got those neat contacts?”