“I cannot be a part of this.”

“Let’s not make any rash decisions,” Tanith said.

“Vampires are forbidden from killing other vampires. It is our most sacred code.”

“You don’t have to kill him,” Sanguine said. “You can just injure him a little. Cut off his arms and legs or something.”

Dusk stood. “You can retrieve the bow without my involvement. Contact me when you’re done.” He walked out.

Jack couldn’t resist. “So Dusk is missin’ out on this job because of his principles,” he said, “and he missed out on the last one because he’s rationin’ out his serum to keep his bitey side down durin’ the night... So what good is our little vampire to us at all, may I ask?”

“He provides moral support,” Tanith muttered, then she sat up straighter. “But that’s fine. We can’t let anything delay us. We have a little under sixty-five hours before the dagger loses its charge and Johann Starke realises he’s been robbed, so we are sticking to our timetable no matter what. I’m going after the bow. Billy-Ray is going to take care of Kaiven.”

“What about Sabine?” Jack asked. “I think she’s proven herself to be a valuable member of this team and I think she should be treated as such.”

Tanith frowned at him. “Uh, yeah, OK. Anyway, Sabine, you and Jack are going to run interference.”

“Us?” said Sabine.

Jack’s heart leaped. “We could do that,” he said, struggling to keep the excitement from his voice.

Tanith looked to Annis then. “And Annis... Annis is going to take down the vampire. Think you can handle that, Annis?”

Annis pulled a long grey hair from her mouth. “I’ve never eaten a vampire before,” she said.

Tanith grinned. “That’s the spirit. We move out now.”

“I’ll make my own way there,” announced Jack, and walked quickly from the room.

He slipped out of the window and leaped from building to building, trying to get rid of the smile on his face. Partnered with Sabine. It was almost too good to be true. It would have been foolish to read too much into it, but since he had a few miles to cover it was a good enough way to spend the time as any. So what did it mean? Did it mean that Tanith could see the partnership potential already? Could everyone see that? Did they look at Jack and look at Sabine and think to themselves, Yep, those two are meant for each other? It was like the Skeleton Detective and the Cain girl. People looked at them and said, Now that’s a team. Would they say the same about Sabine and Jack? The thought sent shivers of excitement through him as he ran and jumped and dived. They’d be just like Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain, then, but with added kissing.

Jack laughed.