“Bingo . . . Sorry, just an expression. Our reflexes and strength are superior to the humans from the Histories. Not by much, but enough to pull out a few tricks now and then. Still, it’s nothing compared to the advantage your minds will give you.”

Karas went on to retrace her history here: How she’d soon begun compensating for her heightened emotions with a superior intellect. How she’d started using that intellect when she was thirteen to win small bets involving certain mathematical problems, then graduated to more complex problems. “Sleight of mind,” she called it. Soon she was headlining as a child prodigy in her own stage show.

She studied on her own during the day and began building a small fortune performing in the evening. By the time she was fifteen, she’d exhausted the requirements of primary education and enrolled in a Web-based university program, studying entertainment business management with a secondary emphasis in language and history.

All the while, she had used every possible avenue to search for them. For Darsal. For Alucard. All to no avail.

Her plan was well formed even then. She would learn everything she could about history, never relenting in her ambition to find the companion books to the black Book of History in her possession. She would learn as many languages as she thought necessary to assist her in a global search for her friends and the books. And she would launch a career using her advanced intelligence to give her the broad access and exposure needed for her search. Rather than entertain, she would manage entertainers, creating both wealth and exposure through high-profile artists.

Most importantly, she would appear with her artists onstage frequently, so that she, too, would become world renowned. If Alucard was out there, and she had to assume that he was, she had to be visible enough worldwide to attract the attention of Johnis, Silvie, and Darsal before he got to them.

“So you’ve succeeded in all of this,” Silvie said, stating what seemed to be obvious. “Well enough to spring us from jail.”

“That was harder than you might guess. Fortunately, I manage the girl you kidnapped, and I’m very tight with the authorities in Las Vegas. The chief of police owes me a dozen favors. At this moment I manage fifteen of the top billing acts in the world through Global Entertainment Network, GEN.”

“You’d think the warriors would own the wealth, not the artists,” Johnis said, looking around the lavish setting.

She laughed. “There’s plenty of money in war—always has been, always will be. But humans will pay as much for their thrills as they will for their security. Was it any different in the forests? The first thing I noticed in Middle were the nightly celebrations.”

“Like I’ve always said”—Johnis winked at Silvie—“ ‘a poet is worth two fighters.’ Just ask Elyon.”