"An enclave," Rashel whispered. Thin chills of excitement were running through her. "They were talking
about an enclave."
Daphne nodded, looking alarmed. "I guess."
This was big. This was... bigger than big. It was incredible.
A vampire enclave. The kidnapped girls were being taken to one of the hidden enclaves, one of the
secret strongholds no vampire hunter had ever managed to penetrate. No human had even discovered
the location of one.
If I could get there... if I could get in...
She could learn enough to destroy a whole town of vampires. Wipe an enclave off the face of the earth.
She knew she could.
"Uh, Rashel? You're hurting me."
"Sorry." Rashel let go of Daphne's arm. "Now, listen," she said fiercely. "I saved your life, right? I mean,
they were going to do terrible things to you. So you owe me, right?"
"Yeah, sure; sure, I owe you." Daphne made pacifying motions with her hands. "Are you okay?"
"Yes. I'm fine. But I need your help. I want you to tell me everything about that club. Everything I need
to get in-and get chosen."
Daphne stared at her. "I'm sorry; you're crazy."
"No, no. I know what I'm doing. As long as they don't know I'm a vampire hunter, it'll be okay. I have
to get to that enclave."
Daphne slowly shook her blond head. "What, you're going to, like, slay them all? By yourself? Can't we
just tell the police?"
"Not all by myself. I could take a couple of other vampire hunters to help me. And as for the police..."
Rashel stopped and sighed. "Okay. I guess there are some things I should explain. Then maybe you'll
understand better." She raised her eyes and looked at Daphne steadily. "First, I should tell you about the
Night World. Look, even before you met those vampires, didn't you ever have the feeling that there was
something eerie going on, right alongside our world and all mixed up in it?"
She made it as simple as she could, and tried to answer Daphne's questions patiently. And at last,
Daphne sat back, looking sick and more frightened than Rashel had seen her yet.
"They're all over," Daphne said, as if she still didn't believe it. "In the police departments. In the
government. And nobody's ever been able to do anything about them."
"The only people who've had any success are the ones who work secretly, in small groups or alone. We
stay hidden. We're very careful. And we weed them out, one by one. That's what it means to be a
vampire hunter."
She leaned forward. "Now do you see why it's so important for me to get to that enclave? It's a chance
to get at a whole bunch of them all at once, to wipe out one of their hiding places. Not to mention
stopping the slave trade. Don't you think it should be stopped?"
Daphne opened her mouth, shut it again. "Okay," she said finally, and sighed. "I'll help. I can tell you
what to talk about, how to act. At least what worked for me." She cocked her head. "You're going to
have to dress differently...."
"I'll get a couple of other vampire hunters and we'll meet tomorrow after school. Let's say six-thirty.
Right now, I'm taking you home. You need to sleep." She waited to see if Daphne would object, but the
other girl just nodded and sighed again.
"Yeah. You know, after some of the things I've learned, home's starting to look good."
"Just one more thing," Rashel said. "You can't tell anybody about what happened to you. Tell them
anything-that you ran away, whatever-but not the truth. Okay?"
"Okay."
"And especially don't tell anyone about me. Got it? My life may depend on it."
"Elliot's not here." The voice on the telephone was cold and as hostile as Rashel had ever heard it.
"Vicky, I need to talk to him. Or somebody. I'm telling you, this is our chance to get to an enclave. The
girl from the warehouse heard them talking about it." It was Friday afternoon and Rashel was phoning
from a booth near her school.
Vicky was speaking heavily. "We staked out that street for days and didn't see anything, but you just
happened to be in the right place at the right time to help a girl escape."
"Yes. I already told you."
"Well, that was convenient, wasn't it?"
Rashel gripped the handset more tightly. "What do you mean?"
"Just that it would be a very dangerous thing, going to a vampire enclave. And that a person would have
to really trust whoever was giving them the information about it. You'd have to be sure it wasn't a trap."
Rashel stared at the phone buttons, controlling her breathing. "I see."
"Yes, well, you don't have much credibility around here anymore. Not since letting that vampire get
away. And this sounds like just the sort of thing you'd do if you were in on it with them."
Great, Rashel thought. I've managed to convince her that I really am a vampire sympathizer. Aloud she
said, "Is that what Nyala is telling everybody? That I'm working with the Night World?"
"I don't know what Nyala is doing." Vicky sounded waspish and a little uneasy. "I haven't seen her since
Tuesday and nobody answers at her house."
Rashel tried to make her voice calm and reasonable. "Will you at least tell Elliot what I'm doing? Then he
can call me if he wants to."
"Don't hold your breath," Vicky said, and hung up.
Great. Terrific. Rashel replaced the handset wondering if she wasn't supposed to hold her breath until
Elliot called, or until Vicky passed on the message.
One thing was clear: she couldn't count on any help from the Lancers. Or any other vampire hunters.
Nyala could be spreading any kind of rumors, and Rashel didn't dare even call another group.
There was no choice. She'd have to do it alone.
That night she went to Daphne's house.
"Well, she's grounded," Mrs. Childs said at the door. She was a small woman with a baby in one hand, a
Pampers in the other, and a toddler clutching her leg. "But I guess you can go upstairs."