"But how did Hooky recognize Darren?" Harkat asked.
"Maybe by the scent of Darren's blood," Mr. Crepsley said.
"I don't like this," Vancha grumbled. "Too many 'ifs' and 'buts'. Too twisted by far. I say we get out and leave the humans to fend for themselves."
"I am inclined to agree with you," Mr. Crepsley said. "It pains me to say it, but perhaps our purposes would be best served by retreat."
"Then retreat and be damned!" Debbie snapped, and we all stared at her as she got to her feet and faced Mr. Crepsley and Vancha, hands bunched into fists, eyes on fire. "What sort of monsters are you?" she snarled. "You talk of people as if we're inferior beings who don't matter!"
"May I remind you, madam," Mr. Crepsley replied stiffly, "that we came here to fight the vampaneze and protect you and your kind?"
"Should we be grateful?" she sneered. "You did what anyone with even a trace of humanity would have done. And before you come back with that 'We aren't human' crud, you don't have to be human to be humane!"
"She's a fiery wench, isn't she?" Vancha remarked to me in a stage-whisper. "I could easily fall in love with a woman like this."
"Fall somewhere else," I responded quickly.
Debbie paid no attention to our brief bit of interplay. Her eyes were fixed on Mr. Crepsley, who was gazing coolly back at her. "Would you ask us to stay and sacrifice our lives?" he said quietly.
"I'm asking nothing," she retorted. "But if you leave and the killing continues, will you be able to live with yourselves? Can you turn a deaf ear to the cries of those who'll die?"
Mr. Crepsley maintained eye contact with Debbie a few beats more, then averted his gaze and muttered softly, "No." Debbie sat, satisfied. "But we cannot chase shadows indefinitely," Mr. Crepsley said. "Darren, Vancha and I are on a mission, which has been deferred too long already. We must think about moving on."
He faced Vancha. "I suggest we remain one more week, until the end of next weekend. We will do all in our power to engage the vampaneze, but if they continue to evade us, we should concede defeat and withdraw."
Vancha nodded slowly. "I'd rather get out now, but that's acceptable. Darren?"
"A week," I agreed, then caught Debbie's eye and shrugged. "It's the best we can do," I whispered.
"I can do more," Harkat said. "I am not tied to the mission as you... three are. I will stay beyond the deadline, if matters... are not resolved by then."
"Me too," Steve said. "I wont quit until the end."
"Thank you," Debbie said softly. "Thank you all." Then she grinned weakly at me and said, "All for one and one for all?"
I grinned back. "All for one and one for all," I agreed, and then everyone in the room repeated it, unbidden, one at a time - although Mr. Crepsley did glance at Steve and grunt ironically when it was his turn to make the vow!
Chapter SIXTEEN
IT WAS almost dawn before we got to bed (Debbie dismissed her police guard earlier in the night). Everyone crammed into the two hotel rooms. Harkat, Vancha and I slept on the floor, Mr. Crepsley in his bed, Steve on the couch, and Debbie in the bed in the other room. Vancha had offered to share Debbie's bed if she wanted someone to keep her warm.
"Thanks," she'd said coyly, "but I'd rather sleep with an orangutan."
"She likes me!" Vancha declared as she left. "They always play hard to get when they like me!"
At dusk, Mr. Crepsley and I checked out of the hotel. Now that Vancha, Steve and Debbie had joined us, we needed to find somewhere quieter. Steve's almost deserted apartment block was ideal. We took over the two apartments next to his and moved straight in. A quick spot of tidying-up and the rooms were ready to inhabit. They weren't comfortable - they were cold and damp - but they'd suffice.
Then it was time to go vampaneze hunting.
We paired off into three teams. I wanted to go with Debbie, but Mr. Crepsley said it would be better if she accompanied one of the full-vampires. Vancha immediately offered to be her partner, but I put a quick stop to that idea. In the end we agreed that Debbie would go with Mr. Crepsley, Steve with Vancha, and Harkat with me.
Along with our weapons, each of us carried a mobile phone. Vancha didn't like phones - a tom-tom drum was the closest he'd got to modern telecommunications - but we convinced him that it made sense - this way, if one of us found the vampaneze, we'd be able to summon the others swiftly.
Disregarding the tunnels we'd already examined, and those that were used regularly by humans, we divided up the city's underground terrain into three sectors, assigned one per team, and descended into darkness.
A long, disappointing night lay ahead of us. Nobody found any trace of the vampaneze, although Vancha and Steve discovered a human corpse that had been stashed away by the blood-suckers many weeks earlier. They made a note of where it was, and Steve said he'd inform the authorities later, when we'd finished searching, so the body could be claimed and buried.
Debbie looked like a ghost when we met at Steve's apartment the following morning. Her hair was wet and scraggly, her clothes torn, her cheeks scratched, her hands cut by sharp stones and old pipes. While I cleaned out her cuts and bandaged her hands, she stared ahead at the wall, dark rims around her eyes.
"How do you do it, night after night?" she asked in a weak voice.
"We're stronger than humans," I replied. "Fitter and faster. I tried telling you that before, but you wouldn't listen."
"But Steve isn't a vampire."
"He works out. And he's had years of practice." I paused and studied her weary brown eyes. "You don't have to come with us," I said. "You could co-ordinate the search from here. You'd be more use up here than-"
"No," she interrupted firmly. "I said I'd do it and I will."
"OK," I sighed. I finished dressing her wounds and helped her hobble to bed. We'd said nothing about our argument on Friday - this wasn't the time for personal problems.
Mr. Crepsley was smiling when I returned. "She will make it," he said.
"You think so?" I asked.
He nodded. "I made no allowances. I held to a steady pace. Yet she kept up and did not complain. It has taken its toll - that is natural - but she will be stronger after a good day's sleep. She will not let us down."