Alex takes the syringe with nerveless fingers. Behind him, across the warehouse, he can hear Pete retching, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters next to the thirst that has been eating away at his guts. The ward around his neck has stopped buzzing and lies quiescent against his skin, burning hot. He raises the syringe to his lips and squeezes the plunger, overcome by a sense of desire that is erotic in its intensity, turning his knees to jelly as the first drops touch his tongue.

Blackness. Orgasm. Total loss of control.

A few seconds pass. Alex realizes he’s lying on the floor. He opens his eyes. He’s fallen over but he feels great. For the first time in weeks he isn’t half-starved, on the edge of perpetual mild nausea. Someone is standing over him.

“Alex. This is important. Are you awake? Can you hear me, Alex?”

He tries to nod, then tries to say yes, but what comes out is: “Oh wow.”

“Good lad! Stand up.”

Alex rolls over, then pushes himself to his knees.

“You, Vicar: over here, yes, go to the young boy in the chair. Stand behind him. Bend over, I’m going to reactivate the ward . . .”

Something out of sight changes, some texture in the background noise, which tells Alex the dome is back in place. And of a sudden, the hunger pangs are back, albeit muted.

“Alex, ah, good. Stand up straight.” He can feel the force of Basil’s will wrapped around him like a warm blanket, and he feels so grateful he can barely find words to express himself. “Stop trying to think, there’s a good boy. I want you to go and stand by the door. Facing it.”

“Wh-what?”

“The door, Alex.” (Dammit, you’re half-starved into idiocy.) “That door. The one you came in through, do you remember?”

Alex nods.

“Good. Go and stand by it. If anyone comes through the door, I want you to kill them. It is very important that you kill them.”

“Must I?”

“Yes, Alex, you must. Otherwise they will kill you.”

“But I’ve never—” He shakes. “Need my phone.”

“Never mind your—wait, your phone? Is there something on it? A weapon?” Alex nods. “All right, you may collect your phone. Then go and stand by the door and kill anybody who comes through it.”

Alex, full of energy for the first time in days, jumps to obey.

• • •

BASIL NORTHCOTE-ROBINSON, STRIPPED OF HIS COFFIN-DODGER cover story, stands revealed as an ancient and powerful vampire, who has been working his insidious will on the organization for half a century without detection.

But Basil is not omniscient. He has forgotten something. In fact, he has forgotten several somethings, the combined effect of which will undermine his fiendish scheme to use the organization to destroy his greatest rival, while using his greatest rival to snuff out everybody in the organization who knows the truth about vampires.