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I knew who it was before I found him with my eyes.

Black stood in the next store doorway down from us, shooting up at the same window as Cowboy. I flinched when a window exploded near where he stood, forcing him back. His jaw hardened as he peered out again, and fired back.

“BLACK!” I shouted, echoing Angel’s yells at Cowboy. “Goddamn it! Stop! He has the advantage! You’ll never hit him from here!”

Another window exploded next to Black, forcing him to back up even more.

“He’s warning you!” I snapped, furious with him. “Get the fuck back! Before he stopswarningand shoots you for real!”

Black turned at that, his gold eyes flashing in the morning sun.

He looked at me, fury and frustration hardening his expression.

I saw him hear me, though.

I watched him contain and control his rage with an effort, right before he stepped back. He began stalking backwards in our direction, his gun still aimed upwards, his back towards us as he retreated.

“Elvis!” Black growled, once he got even with the kiosk. “She’s right, goddamn it. We need to find a way into that building. We won’t get him from here.”

“Where’s the girl?” A.J. yelled from behind me.

I looked back, and realized the rest of our group was divided among the next few storefronts behind us. Most of them had weapons drawn, too, but none I could see were firing. I wondered if anyone had been, apart from Cowboy and Black.

“Where’s Nick?” Kiko shouted then.

Black jumped at the question, then turned all the way around for the first time.

His gold eyes turned clinical as he scanned through all of our faces.

Cowboy squeezed off a few more shots, then he began backing towards us, too.

I watched Black as he finished accounting for everyone in our group before he turned back towards the bomb scene. He looked over the whole area and up and down the street and across the road with sharp jerks of his head.

He cursed under his breath in Prexci, the seer tongue.

I didn’t have to ask why.

I did my best to look, as well, even knowing it was likely futile. I looked everywhere I could along the street, hoping to glimpse a black umbrella, or a dark, billowing coat, or shocking white skin and sunglasses through the clouds of smoke.

I didn’t see anything that could have been him.

Nick was gone.

30

THE VAMPIRE

Nick ditched the umbrella first, setting it on a glass counter silently as he gazed around the room, getting his bearings. He was inside a boutique designer clothing store on the north side of theChamps-Elysées. Clean, white rows of summer clothing hung artfully along each wall. A smaller number of widely-spaced central displays showed the newest acquisitions, most of them dresses hung at different angles on tiered display racks.

He removed his leather gloves by tugging on each finger, and set those down next to the umbrella. He removed the long jacket next, then the hat and sunglasses.

He used the time to think.

He knew he was likely the only person on their team who could bring Dalejem down.

He was definitely the only one who could do it alone.

He’d deliberately stayed out of most of the detailed planning discussions on the plane, listening without really contributing much, other than to occasionally point out that Dalejem wasn’t a complete fucking idiot, so they might want to reconsider this orthat suggestion that would definitely only be work if hewasan idiot.