4

REVELATION 19:6

And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude . . .

~ * ~

Vic sat up and tried to shake the nightfog from his brain. A babble of voices drifted through the pipes and the thick old walls, barely registering in his sensitive ears. Anyelet and the others wouldn't be awake yet; better-fed than Vic, they fell more deeply into nightsleep and stretched it out, knowing that awakening would bring the constant nag of The Hunger. He was always the first to rise, and tonight the chorus of voices and the stench of Howard's room, where he'd decided to hide, forced him awake while the sun was still sinking.

The noise grew and realization hit him. Humans—louder, more rushed than they should have been. He eased into the hallway and stood indecisively. He should flee; Anyelet had surely given orders to kill him, and as strong as he was, Vic would never survive an attack by more than three of his own kind.

But all that noise . . .

Someone was downstairs trying to free the people Anyelet had kept prisoner for so long. The others would sleep for only a little longer; as it had Vic, the noise would tease even the laziest vampires early from their nightsleep.

But he had a few minutes' jump on them and his mouth stretched in a dark grin. Running with the gangs of his youth had taught him that revenge could be a never-ending game.