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everyone gone crazy?” She sounded so sincere that Simone could see the man relaxing.
    “All I know is, I heard some very strange sounds outside my house,” he said. “People screaming, people snarling like animals. When it all finally stopped and I went outside, there were burned-up bodies everywhere. Just cinders, as if they had burst into flame. I saw cops running around with crossbows. Crossbows, for Christ’s sake! So yeah, I almost believe it. Vampires fit.”
    In her astonishment at his explanation, Simone almost relaxed her grip, and she noticed his fingers edging toward the door latch. She pulled his head back and hissed. Did I just hiss? she wondered. Is that what we are? Vampires?
    It made sense. The sudden strength and speed, the hunger for raw meat. The effects of sunlight. She could smell the droplet of blood underneath the point of her blade as strongly as she’d once been able to smell a complete banquet. She realized that she’d been suspecting it ever since the Monster had attacked them, even before they began their escape.
    “What’s your name?” she asked the plumber.
    “Rod,” he said. “Rodney Parker. I’m a good guy. I’m married; three young kids. It hasn’t always been easy, you know? Crescent City is a poor town, so I understand when people are desperate. I’m totally on your side.”
    Patty spoke for the first time. “Sure you are.” Her tone was so sarcastic that he gulped and shut up.
    “Just do as we ask, Rod, and we’ll let you go,” Simone said. They had left the outskirts of town and were on a winding road that led into the foothills. There was the occasional redwood stump or stand of surviving trees amid mobile homes, trailers and a few small, stick-built houses. She recognized the neighborhood.
    “Turn here,” she said.
    Rod pulled off the main road onto a small lane that made a sharp u-curve and turned back in the direction they had just come from. They hit another dogleg to the right and drove onto a dirt road. Awbrey Lane, the road sign said. Simone had lived out here for a couple of years when she’d worked at the Wal-Mart just over the hill.
    “There,” she said, pointing to a small manufactured home in a dense grove of trees. She’d driven by the place a thousand times. The house was just as she remembered, in the dark on even the brightest days. She had often wondered how the owners could stand the gloom. But then, no one had ever seemed to be home.
    As they pulled into the driveway, she saw the broken windows that weren’t visible from the road and realized the building was abandoned. It was perfect.
    Rod pulled up to the door and stopped.
    “I mean it,” he said desperately. “I won’t tell anyone. As far as I’m concerned, you hitchhiked out here. Please, let me go.”
    “Get out,” Simone said.
    He hesitated, and she could see that he was preparing to run.
    “Don’t,” she said. “I’m faster than you, and stronger, believe it or not.”
    It was obvious that he believed her. Something about the certainty in her voice had convinced him. Plus, it was clear that he knew what she was.
    They broke into the house, and she marched Rod to the hallway closet and told him to get inside. He meekly followed her orders.
    As the door closed, it occurred to her that she’d come full circle. The morning had started with her as prisoner of a monster and had ended with her taking a man prisoner. Did that mean she was a monster?
    She wasn’t sure what that meant, but it seemed right.
     
     

 
    Chapter 4
     
    Every time Fitzsimmons awoke in the cold and darkness, he’d forget who he was. As he lay in the silence, he would forget what he was. He’d dream of the day ahead, a humdrum kind of day: shopping, working, dining, lazing about.
    Then he’d try to move.
    And he’d scream.
    Sometimes Peterson or one of his servants was nearby and would come and lift Fitzsimmons out of his enclosure. Other times he’d lie there for days in his own filth, helpless