She paced a lot. Slammed things. Snapped at Iliana. Refused to talk about any of it. Slept on the floor often, even when she and Morgead hadn't been fighting. Referred to the organization she had pledged undying loyalty to as "Circle Jerk."

Morgead woke up at six-thirty on Christmas Eve, warm in his silk-sheeted bed and energized to face the night. Despite living in a window-less compound, his sleep schedule still revolved around the rising and setting of the moon. He tried to keep fit--there was an indoor track and a small swimming pool--but had found himself as dulled and quieted by life inside the facility as Jez was.

She was sitting up in bed beside him, arms crossed over her chest, glaring at the opposite wall. Her brow was wrinkled from ernest frowning, and as Morgead watched, she scooted down on the mattress to deliver a swift kick to the footboard.

"Good morning," he said dryly.

She didn't respond. A bundle of flaming red curls drifted onto her face and she blew it away, only to do so again a second later. "Damn hair," she said, and kicked the footboard again. There was the sound of nails grinding to keep hold of the wood.

"What's wrong?" he asked patiently, trying not to sigh.

"Won't stay out of my face," she told him, as if the answer were obvious. "I should just cut it all off."

His immediate reaction was to say no, not only because he really did like her hair long, but because she would appreciate that it was a slightly romantic notion. Jez enjoyed a little romance here and there, as long as he didn't start in with the flowers.

But this morning nothing was working. "Fine," she said after a moment. "Don't stop me or anything."

She kicked the footboard a third time and it tore loose, the bottom end of the bed dropping two feet to the floor. Morgead shut his eyes hard, took three deep breaths to keep from exploding, and got up.

As soon as she realized he was heading for the bathroom, Jez was out of bed and racing past him. She in the shower before he'd even reached the door, and a moment later her clothes came flying over the shower curtain rod.

Morgead frowned. Since when did Jez have a problem taking her clothes off in front of him? Their relationship had turned physical fast once she moved to the compound; in a place this dull, fooling around became not just an optional past time but a necessary and addictive break from monotony.

Well, whatever. Nothing she did these days made a hell of a lot of sense. He grabbed his toothbrush and tube of Crest that had busted open in the middle when he stepped on it one night. There was dried toothpaste all over the bathroom.

After dressing, he stuck his head back around the door. "Jez? You want human breakfast this morning? The chef wants to know if she can leave."

She didn't answer, but after a moment he heard a sniffle from the shower. "Jez? You okay?"

Still no reply, and he pushed back the curtain enough to see inside. Jez was sitting on the floor, knees drawn up to her chest, water splashing her calves. Maybe it was only the shower dripping on her face, but he thought she was crying.

Seeing her like this instantly washed away all the resentment he'd been feeling toward her lately, for her chill and inapproachability, for the digs she made senselessly that hurt him. Despite it all, a single tear was enough to make him fall to his knees beside the tub and rub her bare shoulder. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head and turned her face away. She hated crying in front of people. She hated crying at all.

"Jez, come on. You're tearing us both up. Talk to me a second."

Her face twisted with hurt and she jerked the plastic curtain between them. Morgead sighed and leaned against the wall for a moment, so frustrated he felt like he could have chewed asphalt. Instead, he slammed the bathroom door shut and headed for the track.

There were two lanes. One was flat, for pitiful humans like Iliana who found exercise disgusting to begin with. The other was set with huge bumps and jagged drop-offs. Even a few potholes to twist an ankle in. It was only an eighth of a mile long, but booby-trapped enough that Morgead had to keep him mind on what he was doing even while making his fourteenth lap.

Jez, he thought furiously, is on her own. She's pushed me away again and again, and I'm sick of getting kicked like an annoying puppy.

She'd gone and beaten him up the week before, might have staked him if a handful of the guards hadn't stopped her. He'd tried to melt into her mind while she was sleeping, just so that she would know he was there, so that maybe he could figure out why she was so belligerent all the time. She'd woken up with her hands already around his neck and busted up a dresser trying to crush him with it.

He wasn't sure if he was angrier that she had denied him entrance or that she had pinned him.

The worst part was that he still wanted to help her. He probably always would--wasn't that what having a soulmate was all about?--and she wouldn't let him. "I'm not here because this is a four-star hotel," he'd told her one afternoon, in the middle of one of their recurring screaming fights. "I'm here because I love you and I want to do whatever I can to make this easier for you."

"You don't love anybody but yourself," she'd shouted back, at which point Delos had politely asked if they could save if for that evening so he could get some sleep.

Later, Mona had taken Morgead aside and suggested that he take a vacation. Perhaps a long one.

At the time, he'd been offended, but now he was beginning to think that it might be a veritable option. He wanted to be here with Jez, but if she didn't want him around, it would just be harder for both of them. Besides, people stuck together constantly always fought. They probably just needed their separate spaces.

He had lost track of how many laps he'd run when Ash flagged him down. He had been around a lot lately, covering for the Christian Daybreakers who wanted to hang out at home with their families. Morgead felt sorry for him, not having any sort of family to go home to. Apparently his sisters had told him not to come to Oregon, that Mary-Lynnette didn't want him in town.

"Hey," he said, as Morgead slowed to a halt beside him. His face had changed subtly over the last year, not lined like human faces became, but different. The expression, perhaps. A little older, a little wiser.

What he had come by to suggest wasn't at all wise.

"I don't know if Jez will go for it," Morgead said finally. "She's been so...pissy, lately, I don't even know if she cares anymore."

"Think about it," Ash said. "My treat."

"You really think you can get away with it?"

"Trust me, I have a fool-proof plan."

Morgead scratched he head and started jogging for another lap. "I'll think on it," he promised, but already knew that his answer would go against any sort of logical thinking. Ash Redfern couldn't come up with a fool-proof plan for taking candy from a baby human, let alone sneaking Jez, Delos and Morgead out of the compound.

She was sitting in the great room when he was done on the track. Her expression was the same one she'd worn when he woke up, dark and distracted, caught up in depressing and resentful thoughts. Iliana was sitting on the floor near by, exploring the contents of yet another Christmas package that had come for her. Because she was unable to shop and couldn't see her family, they'd sent her a credit card and catalogs for every clothing store in L.A. and New York. Her wardrobe had grown so large that she actually had to store some of it in the bedroom where the fourth Wild Power was supposed to be living.

"What do you think?" she asked Jez, lifting a short blue dress up in front of herself. "Isn't it fabulous! This color goes so well with my hair!"

Morgead sat down silently in a chair across from Jez. Actually, Iliana looked terrific in every color. She was the most stunningly beautiful person Morgead had ever seen, which he could say without guilt because Jez's completion of his being was quite a bit more important that how she looked. Although he still didn't think she should cut her hair.

Reading his thoughts, Jez said dully, "Every color goes with your hair, Loni."

"Don't call me Loni!" Iliana shook herself and Jez yawned. "Although you're right, my hair is very versatile. I can see where it would be a real pain, having to color coordinate with hair like yours. All that orange, you can't even consider anything in the ocher family. You'd have to go to all autumn colors, and those have such a dike flavoring."

Morgead covered his laugh with one hand. Jez just rolled her eyes and leaned back in the chair. The compound was remarkably quiet, without Mona there to bark out orders and all the human hang-arounds home for the weekend. With his sensitive nose, Morgead was able to catch the whiff of turpentine coming from Delos's room, which meant he was painting again. Unlike the rest of them, who bitched and moaned about being locked up, Delos had done the sensible thing and filled his time. In the past year and a half, he'd learned to paint, sculpt--both clay and marble--read Russian, Czech, and Hungarian, and play every instrument in the string family.

Jez rubbed her head like it hurt. "You hungry?" Morgead asked.

She shrugged. "I'm cranky."

"Yeah, I got that feeling."

Iliana took another dress out of the box and carefully untaped the plastic protecting it. Morgead just would have ripped it open with his teeth, but that was one of the many differences between them.

"A little blood might make you feel better," he suggested to Jez.

Iliana made a gagging motion and shook the dress out. "Oh, it's terrific!"

"I can take care of myself," Jez said.

Morgead nodded, feeling an angry warmth fill his chest. "Of course you can," he said almost bitterly.

She licked her teeth, temper rising. "You could give me a little room, you know."

"Not a bad idea. Maybe I should leave."

"Yeah, go fix the bed. You're a guy, it's the only thing you're good for anyway."

He threw his hands up. "What the hell does that mean? Wait, never mind. I don't even care. I'm not talking about leaving the room, Jez, I'm saying maybe I should leave the compound."

Her mouth dropped open and she sat up sharply. Iliana glanced back and forth between the two of them before yelling, "Delos! They're fighting again!"

"You're just going to walk out?" Jez demanded, ignoring the blond waif.

"No, Jez, I don't run from my problems. But since you jump on me no matter what I say, I can't think of any other options."

From his room, Delos called back, "Tell me if they start getting violent."

"So now it's my fault," Jez said. "Of course it is."

"How should I know? I don't even know what we're fighting about, since you won't tell me."

"I don't have to tell you everything, you know."

"Fine, then I'll just get out of your way so you won't have to tell me anything."

Morgead was on his feet instantly, trampling Iliana's spread of clothing on the floor as he made his way to the bedroom. He didn't have a suitcase, so he tugged a pillow case off its down counterpart and went about shoving shirts into it.

Jez was pressed into his arms without warning. "Don't leave," she said, and buried her face in his shoulder.

Morgead closed his eyes, deflating. "I can't take much more of your roller coaster tempers, Belle."

"I know, I'm sorry."

From the front room, Iliana called to Delos, "It's okay, they're hugging."

Morgead sighed and lay his chin on the top of her head. "Could you please tell me what's got you so angry?"

She shrugged and pulled away, but it was only to tug him onto a couch beside her. There she played distantly with the fingers of one of his hands and said, "I know what's wrong with me. I'm frustrated."

"With me?"

"Not really. I don't think it has anything to do with you."

Well, that was good. He relaxed a little. "Go on."

Jez shrugged again and looked up at him. "I think it's hard to spend all my time cooped up in here, and not feel like I'm doing anything. I'm not patient like Delos, I want to be doing something."

"I don't think there's anything you can do right now."

"I know. Which is why it's so frustrating. And I keep thinking about the fourth Wild Power, and how they haven't found him yet, and how every day that passes means it's more and more likely that he's sided with the Night World. I want to be out doing something to help, even if it's just menial stuff like patrolling the grounds."

"You wrote that book for Circle Daybreak," Morgead pointed out. "You're helping."

She eyes him and chuckled bitterly. "Circle Jerk's Guide to Vampirism? Yeah, I bet a ton of people are reading it."

"Actually, Mona says it's selling a lot better than expected."

"I'm sure I'm up for a Pulitzer."

Morgead smiled and brushed a loose bundle of curls off her face. "Don't cut your hair, Jez, okay?"

She didn't smile back, but the angry expression on her face faded a little. "I won't. I know I'm being a stupid bitch, lately it just feels like I don't know what I'm fighting for anymore."

"You're not stupid."

She lifted an eyebrow, and he quickly added, "Or a bitch. Tell you what, I talked to Ash today, and he says that if you're up for it, we might get out of here for a few hours tonight."

The shadows surrounding her eyes vanished. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. I take it you're interested?"

"Are you kidding? I'd kill to get out of here."

Iliana called to Delos, "I think they're going to kiss now!"

"You can start with her," Morgead muttered. Jez smiled a tiny bit, grabbed a shoe off the floor and threw it. Iliana screamed and ran away.

"Explain this to me again," Delos said later that evening.

Ash sighed. He, Morgead, Jez, and Delos were huddled at one end of the kitchen, speaking in voices so low only a vampire could have made out the words. "I gave the 'wolves at the door a drugged Christmas pig, which will knock them out-"

"No, I understand the plan. But why exactly are we doing this?"

"To get out for a few hours," Jez said in exasperation. "Run around in the woods, hunt something down and eat it. So we can have a bit of fun."

"Think of it as my Christmas present," Ash told him.

"I'm still not sure I understand the whole Christmas thing," Delos broke in, and Jez and Ash both sighed. Morgead smiled faintly, feeling good, sneaky, in his element. Actually, Delos wasn't nearly as much of an idiot as he sometimes appeared, he had just been hopelessly culture-deprived for the first sixteen years of his life.

"Then forget Christmas," Ash said. "The important thing is that we get out and have a good time."

"All right," Delos said, rolling his eyes. "Although if you two engaged yourselves instead of sitting around bickering all the time-"

"You want to come with us or what?" Morgead asked.

Another roll of the eyes. "When do we leave?"

Ash considered his watch. "I figure the 'wolves should be passing out any time now, so why don't we head up there and help tuck them into bed?"

They were all decked out in black, from head to two, better for sneaking through the woods at night. Jez had her hair pulled up into a loose bun that delivered wisps of hair around her face, framing it perfectly. She had been a little less intense that afternoon, slightly easier to live with, and Morgead was feeling fond of her again. Not that he would ever use that word.

They left the kitchen and went through the great room, which was empty. Iliana was still on a human schedule and usually retired to her room for a barrage of facial treatments at about nine. Ash turned the lights off and made sure all the bedroom doors were shut before they headed out into the labyrinth hallway that served as booby-trapped protection. Morgead got a kick out of ducking the flying wooden stakes and dancing through the swinging battalions.

They all made it in one piece, although Jez got a toothpick stuck in one knee, and tumbled into the outer corridor ready for action. Where they found Quinn, taking the pulse of an unconscious werewolf with one hand while dialing a cell phone with other. Morgead saw Ash's body literally ripple with tension, and they all stopped dead. Jez swore under her breath and Delos released a long sigh.

Lately, Quinn had seemed weaker physically and stronger emotionally. Rashel had quit her job and moved into a cute suburban cottage with him, where they were playing human house and talking about bringing her over. Quinn was at work part time, paper work and management, but he still couldn't sit down without pain.

"It appears we have a security break," he said, cold eyes appraising the four of them.

"Everything's fine here," Ash snapped.

"Mona sent me by to check up. I don't think she'd consider these two-" he gestured to the 'wolves, "fine. If you ask me, they smell like kettle berries."

"I didn't ask you," Ash replied. "Why don't you just stick your head back in your ass and pretend you never saw any of this."

Morgead watched Quinn's face, slightly alarmed at the turn this was taking. He hadn't thought of it before, but Ash and Quinn hadn't been at the compound at the same time since Quinn's skinning, and Quinn was the one making out the schedules lately.

"There's no way I can let you leave," Quinn said firmly.

Ash laughed. "You want to fight me for it?"

"Ash," Delos warned.

"I have no interest in fighting you," Quinn said. He looked faintly bored now, as if this argument were trite.

"Because you know I'd win."

Quinn didn't reply, which Morgead thought was strange. Quinn was known for having a short temper, especially around Ash, but here he was ignoring a direct insult to his strength. Maybe he can't fight, Morgead thought. The idea made him nervous, the image of Quinn as unable to defend himself was unsettling.

Finally, Ash said, "Look, we're going out. We'll be back by dawn, and if you have a problem with that, you can just try to stop us."

"No." Quinn shook his head. "I won't try to stop you, Ash. But I'm coming with you."

"What for?!"

"Well," Quinn said complacently, "somebody has to watch out for Iliana."

The four of them spun around in unison and found the petite waif standing a few feet behind them. She was scowling at Quinn for having alerted them to her presence, but otherwise looked terrific in a brown pants suit and fashion boots.

"How did you get out here?" Jez demanded, obviously as mystified as the rest of them about how she had gotten through the labyrinth.

"I used the door," Iliana told her.

"What door?"

Iliana's face blushed sweetly with annoyance as she turned and tapped a particular rhythm on the nearest wall. Then she stomped on two floor tiles and a door magically slid out of the wallpaper.

"Holy shit," Jez breathed. "How long has that been there?"

"Since I got here. And if you're going out, I want to come."

"You can't," Ash told her. "We're going to do vampire things."

Iliana crossed her arms and rested her weight on one hip. "If you don't let me come, I'll call Mona."

Morgead wasn't sure, but he thought he saw Quinn's lips curl in a tiny smile.

"Fine," Ash growled. "But you better not be trouble."

"Quinn will take care of me."

"Quinn's not coming."

Iliana stepped back and assumed her ultimatum position again. The threat was clear.

"Okay," Morgead said. "Quinn, you can come as long as it's just to watch Iliana."

Ash fumed, and Delos commented, "This is getting more absurd by the minute."

Outside, Morgead was blown away by the scents and sounds coming at him. The night sky opened up above him, wide and velvet blue, starless but clear like ice. Cold air blew cleanly over his skin and carried the smell of pine and earth, of little animals scurrying between fresh plants.

In the parking lot, they encountered another surprise. "Who's van is this?" Quinn asked as Ash shoved the door open.

"Nina's."

"Nina?" Jez, Delos, and Morgead asked together.

"Hi," Nina said from the driver's seat. "Nice to meet you."

"You wouldn't all fit in my car," Ash told them. He slumped in the passenger's seat, obviously not thrilled with the turn the evening had taken. "Nina, this is Morgead, Delos, Jez, and Iliana. You've met Quinn."

"Seat belts," Nina reminded everyone as Quinn pulled the door shut. Five vampires glanced at her and she blushed. "I was talking to Iliana," she stammered.

At the back of the van, Jez was smiling a little again. "Better?" Morgead asked, putting his arm around her shoulders.

"Better," she agreed. "I haven't been out in so long." She leaned over him to crank down the window a few inches.

"I'm cold," Iliana complained. Quinn handed her his jacket and she batted her eyes at him.

Ash pulled out, spraying gravel all over the place, and shot down the dirt driveway. Morgead relaxed in his seat, comfortable with the fresh air and Jez's weight against him. A trip out was exactly what they had all been needing.

After a half hour of driving, Delos said, "Where exactly are we going, Ash?"

"I'll tell you in just a minute," he replied, and ten minutes later, announced in his mock tourguide voice, "If you'll look out the windows on your left, you'll see a sign marking the entrance to the Wyndershine National Forest."

"We're going to a forest?" Iliana squealed, but there were high fives and compliments from the rest of the crew. Except for Nina, who didn't really know these people, and Quinn, who was getting the cold shoulder from everyone after Ash's example.

The road ended in another gravel parking area and Nina turned off the van. "What are the chances we're going to get caught at this?" Delos asked Ash as they climbed out. "Not you and me, but we've got three people here who can't run fast enough to get away."

"If I'd known you wanted me to run, I would have worn my Nikes," Iliana snapped. "I thought we'd be going someplace nice. Like a restaurant. I'm the Witch Child, you know. I can't just be left alone in a big forest in the middle of the night. I'm not disposable like you are, Ash."

Ash ignored her. "I snuck a peek at the security roster while I was checking the place out; it's empty. Nobody works on Christmas Eve. I mean, what's the point? They're all humans with families to go hang out with."

"Speaking of which," Delos said, turning to Nina, "why aren't you with your family tonight?"

She shrugged and grabbed a blanket and picnic basket from the van before locking it. "We don't get along real well."

"So the park is ours," Ash summed up. "We can hunt, we can frolic, and we can play dangerous and tradition Redfern family games involving trees and...." He pulled a pillowcase out from behind his back. The contents appeared to be squirming.

"Rabbits!" Jez cried, delivering her first real smile of the day. "Oh, Ash, I can't believe you remembered. I haven't played that since I ten years old."

"I know." He grinned. "And back then we always had to play with those wimpy little trees because your uncle was afraid you'd fall and stake yourself. But since it's just us, I figure we can pick the biggest tree in the forest."

"What is this game?" Delos asked, his face lifting curiously.

"It's simple," Jez explained. "We find a tall tree, and one person goes up and ties four bags of rabbits at the top. Then we all race up the tree, grab our bags, and run down again. We set the rabbits loose and then go hunt them down. Whoever gets all their rabbits back in the bag first wins." She smiled again. "We played every summer when I was growing up."

"How will we know which rabbits to catch?" Delos asked.

"I've spray-painted them," Ash told him. "Pick a color, yellow, pink, green, or blue."

Delos chose blue, Jez picked yellow, and Morgead took green, leaving Ash himself with pink. Iliana laughed, but Ash was too excited to complain. "Let's go find a tree," he said, and they took off into the forest.

The redwood was massive. Even Morgead could imagine getting tired racing to the top of that, and he got the feeling that if he fell out of it, he'd take a nasty blow. Luckily Jez was back up to full vampire strength, or else he would have told her to sit this round out.

Delos offered to place the bags, and began climbing, taking his time and conserving his strength. Nina spread out a blanket on the ground nearby and sat down with Iliana. Quinn stood, his eyes scanning the forest for danger, and Jez enthusiastically swung back and forth between a couple of branches.

"Hey," Morgead said, nudging Ash. "Thanks for doing this. I haven't seen her this happy in a while."

Ash smiled again. "My pleasure. I know you two are ready to kill each other, cooped up all the time."

Delos returned a few minutes later, and the four competitors took their places around the tree. Nina removed a stop watch from her picnic basket, noted the time, and called, "On your mark, get set, go!"

They were off.

"I just got bit!" Iliana cried for the seventh time. She smashed a lightening bug against the blanket, where it promptly gushed open and left a long phosphorescent streak. "Oh, this is so disgusting."

Quinn watched Nina press her lips to keep from smiling. She had a thick text book open on her lap and a small reading lap, which Iliana had stolen to examine another bite mark.

The night was lovely, everything covered in just enough frost to make it crisp, and Quinn felt the breeze ripple soothingly over his back. It burned a little at the edges of the cuts, a pleasantly fiery sensation. He tilted his head back and his sharp gaze found four figures nearing the top of the tree above him. It was hard to tell which one of them was ahead, but as he watched, Jez broke off a nearby branch and attacked Morgead's footing with it.

Quinn smiled. Delightful tactics the girl came up with.

Iliana squealed again. "You can go sit in the van if you want," Nina offered.

"And walk through the forest alone? I don't think so!"

Quinn had met Nina once before, while Ash was watching him during his recovery. She'd swung by to pick Ash up, and he'd been left with the impression that she would have made the very best kind of vampire. Thoughtful, careful, and with a keen understanding of Nature's brutality. The kind of vampire who understood that death was a part of life and didn't mind doing her fair share.

Frankly, he wasn't sure what she was doing with Ash.

The wind changed, and Quinn's nose caught something. He turned, startled, and inhaled deeply. Blood and flesh, that low, musky scent of death. He breathed again, and his eyes narrowed. What was that, elk?

Then another breeze hit him and he was flushed with the distinct flavor of werewolf. All senses went to red alert and he took a few steps in the direction the scent was emanating from.

"Quinn?" Nina asked. "Is everything okay?"

"Something's dead," he told her.

Iliana made a passionately disgusted sound.

"I'm going to check it out," he said, ignoring Iliana. "Wait here."

"I'm not staying here alone with a human girl," Iliana told him indignantly. "She won't be able to protect me."

"Fine, then come with me."

Iliana threw a frustrated glance skyward and got to her feet. Nina followed, pocketing her portable reading lamp.

They walked a quarter of a mile through the woods, Quinn leading. He heard Iliana stumble repeatedly in her fashion boots, and Nina trying to catch her before she fell in the dirt. "You can find your way back, right?" Nina asked.

"Yes," Quinn said, and his nose caught the scent strong. "Over here."

He kicked aside a small tree to reveal a shallow depression in the earth, covered in moss and small plants. In the center of the bowl was a fourteen-point buck with its throat torn open.

Quinn snapped his hand over Iliana's mouth before she could scream, then followed her line of sight to her shoes, which were sunk an inch deep in blood. "Quiet," he said, picking her up and putting her on his hip as though she were a toddler.

Nina wrinkled her nose but stepped forward. She crouched down and put her palm on the animal's side. "It's dead." She stood up and waited for Quinn to turn away, and when he didn't, said, "The wolves might have been spooked and they ran away after they killed it but before they could eat."

"This was recent," he told her.

She crouched down again and turned on her flashlight. Holding onto the trunk of a nearby tree for balance, she flicked open one eyelid and peered. Iliana gasped and gagged against Quinn's shirt.

"If you throw up on me...." he warned.

Nina brushed her hands off on her jeans and stood up. "It's been dead between ten and thirty minutes."

He frowned. "How do you figure that?"

"I took forensic medicine last semester. There are maggot eggs growing in the nose, but the eyes haven't gone flat yet."

"I thought you were a psychology major."

She shrugged. "It was my elective."

"This is so gross," Iliana moaned. "Can we please get out of here?"

"Not yet," Quinn said, shifting her weight.

"Why is this important?" Nina asked. "So some wolves-"

"They may not have been wolves," he interrupted. "Think a minute. If you're right, and this buck was killed twenty minutes ago, what were we doing?"

"Delos was starting up the tree to hang the rabbits."

"And if a werewolf had been listening to our conversation, what would he have heard?"

Nina ran a hand through her hair. "Jez explained the game-"

"Before that."

She thought, but it was Iliana who answered. "I said I was the Witch Child," she whispered, her voice dropping numbly.

"Exactly," Quinn said.

"I'm sure a werewolf has better things to do than frighten a witch," Nina told them.

"She didn't say she was a witch. She said she was the Witch Child."

Iliana was still whispering. "And they know I'm a Wild Power."

"What's a Wild Power?"

Quinn couldn't tell whether to be annoyed or pleased with Ash for having kept his girlfriend unwary of their secrets. But it didn't matter, because by the time he had figured out the werewolves' plan, and before he had a chance to tell Iliana to run, three figures dropped out of the trees above them.

Jez was in the lead when they reached the bottom of the tree. She dropped twenty feet and had her bag open before she hit the ground, spilling terrified rabbits all over the place and then struggling not to land on them.

Morgead dropped down beside her, and their rabbits scampered in all directions. "Are you sweating?" Jez asked, wrinkling her nose. "Tired already?"

"You're the one with BO," he said, flashing a vicious smile. He leapt toward the fleeing figure of a neon green rabbit.

Behind him was a double thud, and more rabbits entered the mix. Some sat and shook, others dashed for the underbrush, some attacked each other. Ash grabbed at rabbits randomly, and Jez shoved him. "No fair!" she said. "You can't hide my rabbits in your bag."

"Try to stop me," he responded, and a moment later it was chaos.

"Wait!" Delos called suddenly. "Stop a minute!"

Morgead would have dismissed it as a ploy to get ahead if not for the sudden urgency in Delos's voice. "What?" he asked, spotting one of Ash's pink rabbits and shoveling it into his bag.

"Where's Iliana?"

Sudden silence, as Morgead straightened up and looked around for the first time. The blanket was still there, but Iliana, Quinn, and Nina had vanished.

Jez landed on her chest in the dirt, hands clenched around a squirming rabbit. "They probably went for a walk."

"Iliana? I doubt it."

Morgead was about to suggest they not bother with it when he smelled something. The smell of fresh blood filled his nostrils, along with the spice of wolf.

"Is that werewolf I'm smelling?" Ash asked.

"Oh shit," Jez hissed. "We shouldn't have left her with a gimpy guard."

"I thought you said the park would be empty tonight," Morgead snapped at Ash.

"I said no humans would be patrolling it. It never occurred to me that a werewolf would have the same idea I did."

"Werewolves," corrected a voice from the bushes, and suddenly they were under attack.

Morgead woke up with a simply stunning headache. "Mother o'god," he grimaced, sitting up against the wall.

"Welcome to the club," Jez said. He felt her hand wrap around his and he clenched it.

"Where are we?"

"The den."

"What den?"

"The one that belongs to the entire pack of werewolves who are about to kill and eat us," Jez told him sourly.

Morgead opened his eyes enough to glance around. His eyes throbbed at the sudden light as they adjusted, but he made out Quinn, sprawled face down on the dirt floor, Delos, sitting and looking perturbed, Nina, who was adjusting her boot around a swollen ankle, Ash, glaring at Quinn, and Jez, seated beside him and squinting as if she had a headache of her own.

"Where's Iliana?" Morgead asked.

"Good question," Ash told him. "Golly, I don't think I know. The last time I saw her, she was with mister I-wanna-be-Secret-Service over here. Where is Iliana, Quinn?," he asked, kicking the smaller vampire's motionless form.

"Is that blood?" Delos asked, pointing to the back of Quinn's shirt. "They must have ripped open the cuts-"

"No," Nina told him, putting a little weight on her ankle and wincing. "It's deer blood."

Morgead watched Nina's reaction as Delos leaned over and licked the back of Quinn's neck. She merely lifted one eyebrow, halfway between disgust and amusement.

"She's no fun," Jez whispered in his ear.

"Deer blood," Delos agreed. "Reminds me of home."

"I think we need to get past the nostalgia if we're going to get out of here," Ash told him.

Quinn opened his eyes and groaned, climbing up on his elbows. "Hello, Mr. Incompetence," Ash growled.

"What happened?"

"That's what we'd like to know. By the time we bumped into the werewolves, they already had you unconscious."

"There was a deer," Quinn muttered.

Morgead got up and paced around the cramped room. The floor and walls were dirt, but the ceiling was made of wooden slats. An extension cord ran between two of them, a light bulb dangling from its end. There was no door; apparently the captives had been dropped into their chamber and then the ceiling was replaced.

"Mona is going to be so pissed," Delos noted, although he didn't look particularly perturbed. "What did you say happened with the deer, Quinn?"

He rolled, onto his back, sucked in a quick, painful breath, and climbed to his feet. "They must have been following us since we entered the park, because they were listening when Iliana said she was the Witch Child. Once you four were up the tree, they killed a deer to split us up. I smelled it, and took Iliana and Nina with me when I went to check it out. At that point, three werewolves dropped out of the sky. What about you?"

"They were waiting when we reached the ground," Jez told him.

"You know you're incompetent, right?" Ash said to Quinn. "Did you even bother trying to save Iliana when the 'wolves showed up?"

"Two of them went straight for him," Nina broke in. "He didn't have a chance to do anything before they had knocked him out."

"It's no excuse; he was supposed to protect her."

"You weren't exactly a lot of help yourself, Ash," Delos pointed out. "One whack on the head and you were out for the count."

"That's boxing, Delos," Jez told him. "Not fighting with werewolves."

"Could we possibly save this for later?" Nina asked as she stood up and tested her ankle again. "I for one would like to get out of here."

"Want to try busting open the ceiling?" Morgead asked Jez. He wove his fingers together and held them out as a shelf. Jez rose, shook herself, and used his hands as a stepping stone to hurtle herself against the ceiling.

"Ouch," Delos said, watching as the ceiling refused to budge.

Jez tried three more times before falling back against the wall, chest heaving. "They've got something on top of the boards, maybe an industrial refrigerator or something."

Delos ran his fingertips along the apex of the ceiling and the wall. "There's dried mud here, I think this hasn't been opened in a while."

"So they must have gotten us in here some other way. Wasn't anybody actually conscious?" Jez asked. No one replied. "How many werewolves are we talking about here?"

"At least a dozen," Delos said. "I expect the entire pack came out to hunt together."

"How do you feel about using the Blue Fire?" Quinn asked, looking as Jez and then Delos.

"Should I be hearing this?" Nina asked.

"Good point." Ash put his hands over her ears. She rolled her eyes but didn't fight.

Morgead glanced at Jez, unsure what her response would be. Delos was already rubbing his hand, as if anticipating the damage that would be done to his fingers afterward.

Jez lowered her face, the silver glints dulling as she considered. "We could use it to get out of here, but....no, only emergencies," she said after a moment. "Delos?"

"I agree. If things get any worse, I'll think about it, but at the moment we don't even have Iliana." Ash let go of Nina's head as he finished, "There's no point in showing our poker faces now."

"Our what?" Ash asked.

"I think he means showing our hand," Nina told him. "You aren't from around here, are you, Delos?"

"Sort of," Delos told her indignantly.

"Anyway," Morgead broke in. "They must have gotten us in here somehow."

"A hidden doorway?" Ash suggested. Everyone except Jez turned around and began kicking the walls furiously.

"Hey!" Jez called. "Hold up a second! Did anybody think to check that big bump in the floor?"

Delos crouched down and brushed at the dirt on the floor. A thin line edged what soon turned out to be a trapped door, which he threw open.

"Wait!" Jez cried, as Delos went to jump down. "Look at that switch."

Morgead peered through the hole. Below was a crate on which to jump down on, and a damp, grimy hole beyond. An exposed light switch was built into one wall, wires going in every direction.

"What is it?" Delos asked.

"I think," Jez said slowly, "it's an alarm system. Hold on."

"If it's just meant to alarm us," Delos began, "then we shouldn't be afraid to pass through it."

Jez reached into her mess of curls, which were now falling around her face anyway, and removed a bobby pin. As she dropped it through the square cutaway, a network of invisible lasers flashed to blue life and zapped the pin to ash.

"That's an alarm system," she told Delos. "It does more than just alarm you."

"Oh," he said breathlessly.

"Can you disarm it?" Morgead asked.

"Not with my bare hands," Jez replied.

"So we're back where we started." Ash gritted his teeth and took a few tense steps around the chamber. Jez slammed the trap door shut and stomped the dirt back into place.

For a few minutes, they all thought in silence. The atmosphere was unpleasant, taut and worried. Morgead traced the lines from the trap door in the dirt, looking for a possible second hatch, Jez stared thoughtfully at the light bulb, and Nina reached up and tapped the ceiling boards. Finally, she snapped her fingers and said, "Okay, try this out for size."

Delos gave her a questioning look and she shook her head. "Don't worry about it. Here's my thought, you tell me if you think it will work."

"Go on," Jez said impatiently.

"We can't lift the ceiling because of the weight on top of it. But what if instead of trying to lift the ceiling, we bring it down?"

"On top of us?" Morgead asked critically.

"Sort of. If you listen to the way the boards respond to knocking, you realize that the weight is heaviest in the middle of the room. They've arranged something heavy that crosses all the floorboards, but doesn't go all the way to their ends. If we dig a couple inches into the walls, we can reach the cross supports that hold the boards up at that side of the room. Then we remove the cross supports holding up the center boards, they crash in, and we craw out." She pulled the reading lamp from her pocket and started digging near the ceiling. After a few moments work, she had uncovered a two-by-four. "Assuming someone with even a basic understanding of architecture put this up, there should be more two-by-fours supporting this. If we pull this one out-"

"The whole ceiling will cave in on top of us, and we'll be squashed like bugs," Morgead said.

"Take a look at the angles and the depth of the wall," Nina told him, undaunted. "If we drop that ceiling down two inches, it will move one and one third inches outward. That still gives us two thirds of an inch to catch it on. At that point, we can selectively remove the up and down braces in the center of the room, so that the ceiling there caves in and we're still safe at the outskirts of the room. Once that side of the ceiling has caved in, we can just climb up out of the hole it's left."

There was a long moment of utter silence before Morgead said slowly, "Okay, I don't want to be racist or anything, but is anybody else here really disturbed?"

"It does seem odd that out of five vampire, one of whom is over three hundred years old, and a human, the human would be the one to come up with a plan to get us out of here," Delos agreed.

"I'm more concerned that she's dating Ash," Jez added.

Nina just sighed. They went to work.

"All right," Quinn said. "Jez and Delos, get in the corners. Ash and Morgead, stand in front of them."

Ash glared but obeyed. Morgead smashed up against Jez as tightly as he could, just to hear her giggle, and watched Quinn carefully remove one of the support beams holding the ceiling up. The cross beam was laying on the floor at Nina's feet while she winced and watched Quinn.

He jerked the support and jumped out of the way. "Nothing happened," Morgead noted. Despite the dangerous situation, he was feeling kind of bored. He could have stayed at the compound if he'd wanted to play Legos.

"Try the one on the right," Nina said, and Quinn pulled another bored from the wall. "Now the one on the left."

They had removed a solid third from the middle of the ceiling before they began to hear creaking. One board dropped and Morgead was able to see what it had been supporting, a piano.

"Why isn't it falling?" Jez asked.

Nina stepped hesitantly out of her corner and examined the apex of wall and ceiling again. "It's the dirt," she said finally. "I think this ceiling has been here for a while, and the mud has dried around it like a cement. If we chip it away, the boards will fall, but they might land on top of us." She shrugged. "Can one of you move fast enough to jump out of the way with short warning?"

"I can," everyone else said in unison.

"Jez and Delos are out," Morgead told them. "No risking the Wild Powers." Jez growled and shoved him.

"I'll do it," Quinn offered.

"You're still recovering," Jez said.

"Let him," Ash put in.

"You are awfully stiff," Delos told him.

"Let Quinn do it," Ash said again.

"He wouldn't make it out," Morgead said. "He can barely lean over without splitting his scabs."

"He can't go jumping around like he's playing Leap Frog," Jez agreed.

"He wants to take the chance," Ash said. "I don't see why we should stop him."

"Because he'll get himself killed."

Ash shrugged. A hard, cold look had come into his eyes. "If the old man wants to risk it, let him. Unless of course," he stepped away from Delos, moving slow and bonelessly, "you don't think you can do it, Quinn."

Morgead mentally swore. The last thing they needed right now was a stupid rivalry rearing its head. They still had to find Iliana and get out of here.

"Or," Ash added, "unless you're too much in love with yourself to bother sticking your neck for anyone else. Which wouldn't surprise me."

Quinn's gaze was dark but calm, his temper kept under check. "I suppose I deserved that," he said mildly.

"I think you deserve worse," Ash snapped, sudden anger making his movements jerky. "In fact, I think the only way you can redeem yourself at all is to die saving the rest of us. And let's face it, in your weakened condition, your chances of getting out of here at all are pretty slim. Not to mention that if you do survive-"

"Ash," Nina said firmly, but he ignored her.

"-you're going to have to live with the fact that you put the lives of all three Wild Powers in danger, and with the disgust of every human and Circle Daybreak member alive."

"That's enough, Ash," Nina said. Morgead wanted to tell her to stay out of it, that he didn't think now was the time for her to push Ash's buttons, but he was strangely entranced. It had to have been at least two years since he'd seen that look of absolute savagery on Ash's face.

"I think you've got too much to try to live with," Ash said, stepping threateningly forward. "Must be a hell of a lot of guilt to walk around with. I bet you'd like to get rid of it. I bet you'd like to just step under that piano and pull the rest of the planks down, just let all the wood jam itself into that treacherous, betraying, stone heart of yours."

Morgead saw Quinn's weight shift ever so slightly, getting ready to go on the defensive, but Ash was too worked up to notice.

"Because if you don't, I guarantee you that one of these days, your car is going to blow up while you're driving to that nice little cottage you've leased. Or you're going to become the tragic victim of a Humans Against Vampires riot. Or maybe you'll wake up one evening with-"

Nina took two quick steps forward, coming between the two vampires, and shoved Ash hard in the chest. Given that she was human, female, and short, the shove did nothing but break his attention.

"Stop it!" she said, her voice as close to yelling as Morgead had heard it get. "Now is not the time, Ash."

"I think it's the perfect time."

She shoved him again, and Quinn eased back as if trying to help cool the animosity. "You listen to me," Nina said, slapping Ash's face to make him look at her. "I'm tired, I'm scared, and though I'm sure none of you noticed, it's freezing in here. I don't want to listen to you and Quinn bitch at each other."

"Stay out of it," Ash said, as if he hadn't heard a word she'd said.

Her dark eyes narrowed and she said in a low voice, "Ash, in about three hours, I'm going to need a shot of insulin that I serious doubt the werewolves will be willing to give me. If you give a shit, knock it off and let's move."

He stared at her, ground his fangs, and then stepped back. He looked angry enough to kill her and Quinn both. "Good," Nina said, letting out a slow breath. "Now Jez and Delos are going to get back in their corners, Ash and Quinn are going to shield them, and Morgead's going to bring the ceiling down. Got it?"

Jez covered her smile with one hand until it spread so wide she had to use both. Ash said loudly to Delos, "Is it just me, or is the vermin getting bossy?"

Oh, hell, Morgead thought, but Nina just rolled her eyes at Ash and said, "Go on, Morgead."

It was not one piano but three, lined end to end to hold down as many floor boards as possible. When Morgead finally brought the middle fifteen floorboards crashing into the center of the room, the outer two instruments' weights were shifted so that they soon followed, tumbling and smashing together in a jumble of screaming chords and cracking wood.

They had to move quickly then, knowing that the werewolves would be along to check out the crash any second. Delos boosted Nina up out of the hole, the rest of them were able to jump from the tops of the piano mountain.

The room--what was left of it--was a dance studio with mirrors along one wall and a barre along another. "Where the fuck are we?" Ash demanded, his temper still running high.

"Looks like a dance studio," Jez said. Morgead noticed a photograph of a pixie-like man in tights and a silvery, sequined shirt and felt a vague threat to his manhood. He'd never been fond of ballet.

"Why would werewolves bring the Witch Child to a dance studio?" he asked. "Never mind, there's no time. Let's get moving."

They were passing through a door when Quinn spotted a binder, resting beneath a metal folding chair. "It's the Prairie Yard School of Ballet," he said, following quickly behind as they entered a dim hallway cramped with stage props. "It's in downtown Cross Bien."

"Somehow I have trouble seeing a werewolf dancing," Jez muttered.

Morgead banged his shin on a giant paper-machete Mars, crushing it as he went by. "We have a left and a right," Delos whispered from up ahead. "Which way?"

"We'll split up," Jez said. Morgead grabbed her hand and they started down the left behind Ash. Nina, Delos, and Quinn went in the opposite direction.

"Anything?" Jez asked, her voice barely above a breath.

Morgead held up a finger, pressing his ear harder against the door as his loosened his hearing to extend even further. "Talking," he told her. "People are moving around. Crying--that's her. She's in there."

The door was labeled, "Stage," and presumably led to the auditorium. "Let's go," Ash said. He was still hyped, hands fisted by his sides.

"Not so fast. There are at least four 'wolves."

"We can take them."

"But will they kill Iliana first?" Jez pointed out.

Ash rolled his eyes as if this were a petty concern.

"Maybe you should go sit down or something," Morgead told him.

"Shut up," Ash said, and kicked the door open.

Morgead was too busy throwing himself into an attack to bother pummeling Ash, although the image was strong in his mind and he promised to see it into being later. At the moment, he was racing across the stage, into the waiting claws of a massive werewolf with fur like a stray dog's and the personal hygiene of Gandhi.

Iliana was tied to a chair a few feet away, crying pitifully. Even with the short glance Morgead had gotten as he rushed past, he could see that she had been smacked around. Jez was a moment behind him, Ash a split second in front, and two werewolves who were standing the auditorium isles came dashing for the stage.

Another grabbed Ash from behind the curtain, and a fifth--Morgead had miscalculated--lifted a gun. Morgead felt a slash of pain tear through him and the breath left his lungs as he saw Jez slump suddenly. Some unnameable emotion reached into his limbs and focused his hands around the werewolf's neck, where they clenched and shook the life out of the fleabag's body.

Jez was sitting up, slowly, when another bullet caught her in the shoulder and sent her rolling backwards across the stage. Morgead grabbed the gunman just as help from the isles reached him, and he buried his fangs--when had those come out?--deep into one's throat. This fur was clean, tasted sourly of commercial soaps. The other was still in human form, better for holding the gun, and trying to jam it against Morgead's scull. He reached out and broke the gunman's wrist, then crammed his entire hand in the man's mouth, dislocating his jaw and sinking his iron nails into the soft flesh. The man began gagging and the gun clattered to the floor as Morgead ripped out his tongue.

Suddenly Ash was there, helping kick the 'wolf to the ground and knock it unconscious. Morgead didn't wait to see the job completed, he was kneeling by Jez's side, tearing open the front of her shirt so that he could flatten his palms over her wounds.

"I'll be okay," she told him. Her breath was quick but her voice was strong, and she reached out to hold one of Morgead's wrists a moment as she sat up. He glanced at the contusions; her shoulder was already beginning to knit itself together, but he could see that the tissues in her gut were fighting around a metal sphere.

"I've got the gun," Ash said.

"Get Iliana," Jez told him.

Morgead lowered his head and licked as gently as he could at the blood running over her stomach. She hissed, and he probed the torn edges of the wound with his tongue. "This is going to hurt," he said.

"Do it. The other one passed through."

He reached in with quick fingers and tore the bullet out of her abdomen. Her body would eject it naturally, but that could take time they didn't have. He pressed his tongue flat over the injury to staunch the flow of blood while putting that lost to good use and Jez wrapped her arm around him.

In the corner of his eye, he could see the werewolf in human form on his hands and knees, still gagging. Blood was gushing out of his mouth, drenching the floor and dripping off the edge of the stage in fast-moving waterfalls.

"Couldn't you have just killed him?" Jez asked, pushing Morgead away as the skin began to regrow over the wound.

He shrugged. "He shot you. Let him suffer."

Ash, toolless, finally leaned down and ripped the duck tape holding Iliana's hands to the chair back apart with his teeth. She screamed, not from pain but hysteria, and Ash said, "What? Stop it, you're fine."

"We've got to get her out of here," Jez said, climbing to her feet. "You take her, I'll go find the others."

"No," Morgead replied. "You might run into the werewolves again. You take Iliana, Ash and I will grab the others."

She didn't want to admit weakness--in their relationship, weakness was their greatest intimacy and consequently, their greatest sin--but she was obviously hurting and relieved. "Okay. I'll get her to a pay phone and call Mona." She kissed his cheek and then lifted the blond nymph, heading for the stage door.

"There'll be more in a minute," Ash said, shifting from one foot to the other and waving the gun around. "Should we just stay here and take them out one by one?"

Morgead flexed his right shoulder, feeling an ache in the socket where a claw must have dug into him, and watched the wereman finally bleed out, collapsing facedown in a pool of his own life wine. "Let's just find the others and leave," he said.

At which point every door leading to the theater flew open and werewolves tumbled in.

Quinn, Nina, and Delos had gotten lost almost immediately. There didn't appear to be a single window in the place, they couldn't find an exit, and Quinn knew they had been going the wrong way for at least twenty minutes when they ran into Jez, carrying Iliana.

She handed her to Delos and bent over, flexing her shoulder. "Got shot twice," she said as she straightened. "How do we get out?"

Quinn watched Iliana throw her arms around Delos's neck as if she meant to suffocate him. "They were going to kill me," she moaned, and Jez winced again.

"Where are Ash and Morgead?" Nina asked.

"Looking for you three. They'll make it out on their own. Let's go this way." Jez gestured in the direction she had been previously going.

"We just came from there," Quinn told her. "No exits."

"Well I just came from the other way, and there aren't any exits there, either."

Delos shifted Iliana in his arms and said, "We'll go this way," taking off in his original direction. Jez rolled her eyes, but didn't complain as she followed.

"There's the stage door," she said a moment later. "Let me duck in and grab the guys."

As she was reaching for the door, Quinn lay his hand on her arm. "Wait. They're fighting in there."

"Then we should help them."

Without a question, Delos handed Iliana to Quinn and stepped to Jez's side. "Where do you want me?" Nina asked.

"Out," Jez said. "They'll tear you to pieces."

"My thought exactly."

Nina started off again, kicking things out of the way to make it easier for Quinn to get through the narrow hallway with Iliana in his arms. He didn't want her to know, but aside from being tired, he was also beginning to feel claustrophobic. This dance school was a dark, dreary maze, and it stank of human sweat.

Frankly, he was surprised at how level-headed Nina had continued to be. She was now wielding a massive silver meat cleaver that they'd found in the kitchen, and held in the other hand an industrial strength flashlight.

"Stop," Quinn said suddenly. "Get down. Light off."

They both dropped to the floor and Nina crammed the front of the flashlight against her thigh until she was able to flick it off. Quinn nudged her until she ducked beneath a hollow tumble weed prop, and then climbed under a desk with Iliana. She was breathing more slowly now, and her cheeks were damp with only stale tears.

"Will we be okay?" she asked.

He nodded and pressed a finger to her lips. From ahead, two steps of footsteps came pounding forward.

"How the hell should I know?" a male voice asked. "She acts like I'm supposed to be Martha Stewart or something."

Getting closer, quickly.

"Oh, I know! Cat's all like, you can't just use a half a cup of bleach, you have to use a whole cup! Like I'm supposed to know about laundry."

Quinn made himself very still and held Iliana tightly, but to no avail. They stopped only a foot in front of the tumbleweed and sniffed loudly.

"What's that?" the first one asked, and Quinn saw him reach out to lift the prop.

Nina flew up from the floor, thrusting her knife forward with as much strength as she had leaping on a sprained ankle. The first werewolf, still in human form, grabbed her wrist just before it plunged the knife into his stomach and used her arm as leverage to throw her against the wall with. Nina grunted and Quinn felt the board he was leaning against reverberate with the force of her head hitting it.

"It's one of the prisoners!" the second werewolf cried, as he jerked the knife out of her hand.

"Kill her," replied the first.

"Wait," Nina said. "You can't kill me. I'm the Witch Child."

Quinn managed to clamp his whole hand over Iliana's mouth before she protested.

"We got the Witch Child in the auditorium," one of the werewolves said, but he was hesitant.

"And has she told you anything?"

They 'wolves glanced at each other. "What's there to tell?"

"She wouldn't know, she's not the Witch Child."

Suspiciously, one asked, "And you can do that thing with the blue fire?"

"I shit blue fire before breakfast," Nina told him. "How do you think I got out of that cage?"

Quinn nodded inwardly, pleased. So she had been listening to their conversation earlier. The 'wolves exchanged glances again. "That's a damn good question, man," said the first to the second.

I can't believe this is working, Quinn thought, and immediately, one said, "But how can you be a Wild Power if you're...well, you know, Chinese."

Nina laughed, and even Quinn was barely able to hear the note of fear in it. "What, you think the Wild Powers have to be blond-haired, all-American, white kids? You're probably upset that I don't shop at the Gap, too."

After a moment of confused silence, one werewolf said, "Yeah, okay, come with us."

"No."

"Yes."

"I'll burn you with my blue fire," she warned, and Quinn saw a hand so massive it bordered on a paw go crashing into the side of her head. She gave a little sigh and passed out in the 'wolf's arms.

"She's sure smelling," the wolf said conversationally, as he started toward the stage.

"Yeah, and I think she's wearing the same perfume as the other Witch Child."

Quinn waited until he had heard them go through a distant door before lifting his hand from Iliana's mouth and carefully climbing out from under the desk. "Come on," he whispered, setting her on her feet.

"Why did that girl say she was the Witch Child?" Iliana demanded. "I'm the Witch Child."

"She was buying us some time."

"Who is she, anyway?"

Quinn shrugged, befuddled. "A psychologist."

Morgead was really mad when the werewolf managed to knock him out. He was so angry he could feel it even while floating around, dazed, during the several minutes it took him to come back to himself. Anger could be helpful at times like these, fueling the fire and so on, but at the moment it was just a distraction he couldn't afford during a very intense fight.

When he was finally able to open his eyes, which were momentarily caked shut with blood, he realized he was alone. A table leg was digging painfully into his back, and he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, turning everything red, until he felt the blood still seeping out of his shirt. Damn, he thought. They really got me good.

He was weak on his feet, a sensation he could remember feeling only half a dozen times in his life. He gazed around and pressed one palm to the gash on his neck--felt like they'd sliced open his jugular. As he pinched the veins and arteries shut one by one, a thought occurred to him.

If Jez, Delos, and Ash had won, they wouldn't have left him here.

Which meant they had lost.

But their bodies weren't laying around, so they probably weren't dead, either. More likely, the werewolves had thought that since they were with the Witch Child, they were important enough to ransom.

And they believed they had already killed one.

He dropped down off the stage and headed toward an open door, skirting dead bodies and pools of blood as he went. Ash had done some damage with that gun, it looked like.

He followed a trail of blood, which he could tell from scent was Delos's, down the long isle and back into the tiny hall. Here there was blood high up on the walls, it looked like the werewolves had carried Delos above their heads or something. Morgead stopped outside a slender door and glanced down. There was blood on the floor, but it was smeared, and two sets of bloody footprints took off in the other direction. They were half prints, only the ball of the foot and the toe had touched the ground, and the steps were distinctly vampire-followed-by-werewolf stride.

He lay his ear against the door, but could only make out a dim shuffling inside. Turning, he followed the footsteps down the hall a ways, passing the point when the werewolf gave up pursuit and turned back. Just a few yards further, the prints vanished under a door. Morgead lay his hand on the knob and turned slowly, opening the door just enough that he could see it led outside.

Good to know, he thought. He smelled the handle and his head was filled with that warm, spicy scent that he went to sleep with every morning. Even better to know, he thought.

But Delos and Ash were still inside, and maybe Quinn, Nina, or Iliana. He turned back, suddenly feeling a little stronger, and returned to the room where Delos's trail had vanished. With one swift kick, he had the door open and heard something large hit the wall.

He did a double take when he saw Ash and Delos. "Don't laugh, just get us out," Ash said. "And watch the guy behind the door."

Morgead stepped further into the room and discovered that he'd smashed the single guard between the door and the wall. "Huh," he said, making sure the 'shifter was unconscious before turning back to his rescuees.

He knew he didn't have a lot of time, but he couldn't resist staring at them for a moment, immortalizing the picture in his mind. He wanted to be able to describe it perfectly to Jez later on.

With a general lack of cord wood twine, the werewolves had turned to the ballet props to keep Ash and Delos held captive. Mainly, a double set of wooden gallows painted with the words, "Traitors to the Crown." Their hands and necks were clamped between two very large pieces of wood, their bottoms shooting up in the air as they hunched uncomfortably.

Morgead couldn't help laughing. Somebody had taken some pink lipstick and painted big clown smiles on their faces.

"Morgead?" Delos asked. "The lock?"

It wasn't a lock at all; the stocks were held shut with a mere wooden pin that he easily dislodged, releasing then. Immediately, Ash began wiping at his face with one sleeve.

"That's a good color for you," Morgead cracked, and then stepped away as Ash made to deck him. "I've found a way out."

A few moments later, they were out on the silent street. Dawn was approaching between the skyscrapers of Cross Bien, turning the clouds pink and purple. Morgead hurried down the street until he saw Jez ahead, clustered with Iliana at a corner pay phone.

Jez turned quickly and threw her arms around Morgead, and he felt her sink against him a little, as if she weren't entirely able to stand up on her own. Her clothes were now drenched with blood, and she had a nasty gash running down her back. "You okay?" he whispered, too low for the others to hear.

"Almost," she said, and forced a smile as she pulled away. "I called from the pay phone, Circle Daybreak's on its way."

"Where's Nina?" Ash asked.

Delos echoed, "Where's Quinn?"

Iliana, sitting on a bus stop bench with her knees pressed to her chest, looked up. "He went back in to get her."

"What?" Ash cried, and he sounded more shocked than concerned.

"They think she's the Witch Child, so they've got her, and Quinn went back into get her after he left me with Jez."

"Explain more fully," Delos said. "Why do they think she's the Witch Child?"

Iliana recounted her escape more carefully, but Ash was already moving away. "Go with him," Jez said, shoving Morgead in that direction. "Delos will stay with me."

Delos was limping on an ankle that appeared almost to have been severed; he had hopped most of the way down the street. Morgead gave him a quick nod, as they exchanged that glance that men trusting each other to care for their lovers often understand without words, and then Morgead took off down the block after Ash, racing straight for the Prairie Yard School of Ballet.

They were just about to pull the door they had come through open when it flew back and Quinn stumbled out, Nina slung over his shoulder like a sack of coal. One hand held firmly to her legs, the other was toting the biggest machine gun Morgead had ever seen, and there was an impressive string of ammo coiled around his arm like a strip of stamps.

"Run," Quinn said, and Morgead didn't even ask as Quinn literally tossed Nina to Ash and spun around, firing an incredible spray of bursts back through the open doorway. A moment later, the three of them were dashing back down the street, Quinn not even bothering to slow down as he fired the gun over his shoulder.

"What happened?" Jez asked, rising painfully again as they arrived at the bus stop.

Quinn turned, dropped to one knee, and fired once. Far down the street, Morgead saw a shadow drop.

"He got her," Morgead told Jez, watching Ash sit down on the bus bench with Nina in his lap. "Is she okay?"

Nina blinked a few times and put her hand against Ash's cheek, shoving him away as she struggled off his lap. "I'm fine."

There was blood matted in her hair, and a dark bruise was appearing on one cheek, plus she was still limping on a sprained ankle as she stood up and stumbled away.

"Where are you going?" Ash asked, his sentence punctuated as Quinn blew a dozen bullets into some werewolves who had decided to put in appearances.

Nina turned around slowly, and Morgead caught that hard expression that always came into her face just before she told him when and where to get off, but then it faded, and she just seemed so tired, and so worn out. "The vermin," she said, hoarse and fighting tears, "is going to call her roommate."

But she didn't call anyone, because at that moment four armored vans with rising sun emblems painted on the sides came screaming down the street with their sirens on full.

"I'm very disappointed in all of you," Mona said, standing behind her desk and shaking one fist.

Ash and Delos were slouched on the couch, Jez and Nina were slumped in chairs, Morgead was resting on a coffee table, and Quinn was leaning against one wall. Iliana, who had promptly lost all semblance of cool once she was out of danger, had been carted off to a nurse, and then to bed. Since she had confiscated all available freezer packs, Nina was pressing a bundle of ice cubes wrapped in a dish towel to the side of her head.

Jez had two more bullets in her stomach, and another in her thigh, but had been too proud to admit that she needed to feed and then go lay down for a few hours. Delos had joined them a little late, after chugging a quart of O negative and binding his ankle back on with a few venom-soaked bandages. Quinn, in addition to ripping over several of the scabs on his back open, had gotten a silver pen shoved in one ear, and was dripping ooze all over the place. Of all of them, Ash had come out the least scathed, with only a few broken fingers--rapidly healing--and some lipstick residue to show for their adventure.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Mona demanded. "First, you took three Wild Powers out into the open, where anything could happen to them, without any sort of guard and without alerting the proper authorities. B, you drugged several guards to help your escape. And thirdly, you jeopardized our location by revealing the presence of the Witch Child in this area."

Morgead tried to put on his guilty look that had always worked so well on Jez's uncle. Mona just glared at him and he hunched a little lower on the coffee table.

"Not to mention, bringing a complete outsider into the situation, and revealing very sensitive information to someone who isn't even with Circle Daybreak."

"Wait a second," Ash said. "I think we did you a big favor here. We've convinced the werewolves that the Witch Child is Asian. That news will get out, and nobody will be looking for a girl fitting Iliana's description."

Mona shot him a look so cold it would have made Quinn proud. "Nice try, Ash, but you don't have a chance of sweet-talking your way out of this." She jerked her desk chair out and sat down in it. Her temper was beginning to cool a little. "You're lucky your parents are still with the Night World, or I'd have them on the phone right now."

Ash actually blushed.

"And you, Quinn," Mona began again. "What were you thinking? I can understand the urges of teenage rebellion, but you're far to old to be engaging in this sort of dangerous folly."

Morgead saw Quinn and Ash exchanged a strange glance, both uncomfortable and comforting. "I think you should consider hiring on a psychologist," Quinn said, breaking his gaze away and looking at Mona. "They can't leave here, ever. That must be very frustrating for them. A psychologist could probably help you find a few ways to get rid of their cabin fever, without putting their lives in danger."

"That's not an apology."

Quinn lifted his eyebrow in an expression of destain Morgead was very fond of. "You were expecting an apology?" he asked, as if it were the most ludicrous thing in the world.

There was a knock on the door, and Emma, the morning cook, stuck her head in. "Mona, Lord Thierry has just arrived."

"Oh, shit," Mona said, fisting her hands against the table. "You all stay here, I'm going to go talk to him. Try to wipe some of that blood up before he sees you."

She left, slamming the office door just a little, and they all looked at each other. Jez was the first to start laughing, and Morgead joined her before it occurred to him to wonder what he was laughing about, and but soon they were all laughing except for Quinn, who just watched them with a bemused smile.

"Quinn," Nina said, when she had regained her breath. "I don't know who you are or what your deal is with the emotional repression, but I have to say, thank you."

Quinn only nodded gently. "You kept a very clear head," he told her, "and to lie about being the Witch Child the way you did was very quick."

"For a human," she agreed, smiling playfully.

"I'm half human," Jez protested, although a second later she looked as if she wasn't sure what she was protesting.

Nina glanced her up and down. "Don't worry, no one can tell," she said.

They let out a communal sigh, and Jez let her head roll back against the chair as she closed her eyes. "Anybody think sleep would be a good idea about now?"

"Why does sleep have to be an idea before we can do it?" Delos asked, and Morgead groaned.

"You've got to start watching more tv," he said.

There was another hush, and he leaned over to brush the hair off Jez's face. He could already imagine what the shower water would look like after she washed that out.

"Quinn," Ash said suddenly, and Morgead glanced up. Quinn turned his way again, and Ash said, without any apparent emotion, "I suppose we're even now."

Quinn stared at him a moment and then nodded. Neither one of them said anything else.

Later that night, after Mona had bitched and yelled some more, and Thierry had, in his gentle but firm manner, told them that if they ever did this again he'd locked them twenty stories under in a metal bunker that only got the game show channel, Morgead and Jez finally tumbled into bed. They were both wet from their showers and Jez's hair was already drenching the pillow, but it felt good to be nestled in clean clothes between clean sheets, reaching his arms out to pull her against him.

"Nearly lost you today," he remarked, whispering the way they always did while they went to sleep.

"Nah," she said. "Not even close." Her lips trailed over his forehead and he wished they both had a little more energy. "That girl....Nina...."

"What about her?" Her hand darted out from under the sheet and pulled a down comforter over them.

"I....liked her." He reached over to tuck the blanket around the back of her shoulders.

"Yeah, what of it?" Their legs rubbed together, warming them both.

"I was just thinking about how yesterday I said I didn't know why I was doing this anymore. The waiting and all, sometimes it gets so hard and boring. But she seemed worth it, you know? The people like her make it all worth it...." Morgead felt himself easing into a cocoon beside her.

"Yeah," he murmured, "it's all worth it."

They drifted off to sleep.

Corrine Jordan