Violets Are Blue

beside two tall, handsome men in satiny black robes. They looked to be in their early twenties, maybe even younger. They looked like young gods. Everyone crowded forward to see what would happen next.
    “I am here to anoint two new vampire princes,” Daniel announced with grave authority. The persona was the same one he used onstage. “Bow before them!”
    A woman in front screamed. “Our princes!” she shrieked. “Dark princes! I worship you!”
    “Silence!” Charles shouted. “Take that stupid cow out of here. Banish her.”
    The lights suddenly blinked once, then went completely out. The few burning torches were doused. I reached for Jamilla, and we slid back toward the nearest wall.
    I couldn’t see anything. I felt a cold spot at the center of my chest.
    “What the hell is happening, Alex?”
    “I don’t know. Let’s keep together.”
    It got crazy very fast in the darkness. People screamed. A whip cracked nearby. It was madness. Chaos. Sheer terror.
    Jamilla and I had our guns out. There wasn’t anything we could do in the dark.
    A minute or so passed. Everything was inky blackness. It seemed like a very long time. Too long. I was afraid of being stabbed. Or bitten.
    A generator kicked in somewhere in the house. The lights in the cellar flickered, then went on again. Then off. Then on to stay.
    I saw afterimages, rings of color. And then —
    The magicians had disappeared.
    Someone shouted, “There’s been a murder! Oh God, they’re both dead.”

Chapter 74

    I PUSHED my way through the shocked crowd and didn’t meet resistance. Then I saw the bodies. The two young men in black robes lay sprawled on the cellar floor. They had been stabbed and their throats cut. Blood was pooled around the bodies. Where were Daniel and Charles?
    “Police,” I called out. “Don’t touch them. Back away.”
    The men and women closest to the bodies slunk away. I wondered if they had been about to drink the spilled blood. Wasn’t that the ritual? The pattern for the ghoulish murders so far?
    “There’s only two of them! Two cops!” someone shouted.
    “We
will
shoot you,” Jamilla called out in a loud, clear voice.
    “Back away. Do it. Where are Daniel and Charles?” I shouted.
    The crowd began to close in on us, so I fired off a warning shot. It echoed loudly. The shot created renewed chaos in the cellar. Men and women began struggling to get through the doors. No one was getting away, though. FBI agents were waiting outside.
    Jamilla and I pushed our way into a connecting room in the basement. We started down a narrow hallway lit only by candles. Daniel and Charles could have come this way when the lights went out. It seemed likely; they knew the house.
    There were small rooms crowded next to one another on either side of the dusty tunnel. The layout reminded me of ancient catacombs. Everything was closed in—musty, damp, depressing as hell, scary.
    “You okay?” I glanced back at Jamilla.
    “I’m fine. So far anyway. This place is starting to grow on me,” she wisecracked. Her eyes darted about, though.
    I could hear Kyle’s voice calling to us. The FBI was inside now. “Anything up there? Alex? You see anything?”
    “Not yet. Daniel and Charles took off when the lights went out. No sign of them.”
    We moved cautiously, checking each of the rooms. Most of the space seemed to be used for storage. A few were completely empty. Dank and eerie, like tombs. Atmospheric, I suppose. Spooky for sure.
    I kicked open another door. Jamilla and I peered in. She gasped, her mouth open in a silent scream. “Oh Jesus, Alex! What the hell happened?”
    I reached out and held on to her arm. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. I couldn’t make myself believe it. My knees went weak.
    Daniel and Charles were laid out on the floor of the room. They had been murdered. I was too stunned to speak. Kyle came into the room behind us, said not a word.
    We moved closer to the bodies, but I knew they were dead. The throats of both men had been cut. And there were deep bites, fang marks.
    So who was the Sire now?

Part Four

HUNT

Chapter 75

    LATE THE following afternoon, Jamilla had to return to San Francisco. She pretty much admitted that she was burned-out and baffled. I gave her a ride to the airport, and we continued to talk about the murder case all the way there. We realized we were both obsessing.
    What had happened the night before changed everything. We had tracked down the supposed killers, and