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Before I could process this, Riley roared out an ani down at the ashy re in fury Everyone stood silent, immobile We’d al seen Riley lose his te different

Riley spun and raked his fingers through a blaring speaker, then ripped it froed out of the way as it exploded into the far wal, sending up a cloud of pulverized drywal dust Riley s bass went silent Then he leaped to where Raoul stood, and grabbed him by the throat

"I wasn’t even here!" Raoul yel ed, looking afraid - I’d never seen that before

Riley growled hideously and threw Raoul as he’d thrown the speaker Jen and Kristie juht through the wal, leaving an enorht Kevin by the shoulder and - with a faht hand Kevin cried out in pain and tried to twist out of Riley’s grip Riley kicked him in the side Another harsh shriek and Riley had the rest of Kevin’s arm He tore the arm in half at the elbow and threw the pieces hard into Kevin’s anguished face - s stone

"What is wrong with you?" Riley screarab for the blond Spider-Man kid, but that kid leaped out of his way His jump left hiain, gagging

"Do any of you have a brain?"

Riley smacked a kid na it, then caught another girl - Sara - and tore her left ear and a handful of hair frouish

It becaerous thing There were a lot of us in here Already Raoul was back, with Kristie and Jen - usual y his eneether in clusters around the room

I wasn’t sure if Riley are of the threat or if his rant came to an end natural y He took a deep breath He tossed Sara her ear and the hair She recoiled away fro it with venom so that it would reattach There was no re to have a bald spot

"Listen to me!" Riley said, quiet but fierce "Al our lives depend on you listening to what I’ to die Every one of us, you and me, too, if you can’t act like you have brains for just a few short days!"

This was nothing like his usual lectures and pleadings for control He definitely had everyone’s attention

"It’s tirow up and take responsibility for yourselves Do you think you get to live like this for free? That al the blood in Seattle doesn’t have a price?"

The little clusters of va Everyone ide-eyed, solances I saw Fred’s head turn toward aze My attention was focused on two things: Riley, just in case he started to attack again, and the door The door that was stil closed

"Are you listening now? Real y listening?" Riley paused, but no one nodded The room was very stil"Let me explain to you the precarious situation we are al in I’l try to keep it simple for the slowest ones Raoul, Kristie, cos, al ied for this brief ainst him Neither of the her teeth I expected Riley to soften, to apologize To placate them and then persuade them to do what he wanted But this was a different Riley

"Fine," he snapped "We’re going to need leaders if we’re going to survive, but apparently neither of you is up to the task I thought you had aptitude I rong Kevin, Jen, please join me as the heads of this team"

Kevin looked up in surprise He had just finished putting his arh his expression ary, it was also unot to his feet Jen looked at Kristie as if waiting for perether

The door at the top of the stairs did not open

"Are you not able, either?" Riley asked, irritated Kevin took a step toward Riley, but then Raoul rushed hi rooainst the ithout a word and then stood by Riley’s right shoulder

Riley permitted himself a tiny smile The manipulation wasn’t subtle, but it was effective

"Kristie or Jen, il lead us?" Riley asked with a hint of an frolowered at Jen for an instant, then flipped her sandy hair out of her face and darted to stand on Riley’s other side

"That took too long to decide," Riley said seriously "We don’t have the luxury of tiet to fool around anymore I’ve let you al do pretty ht"

He looked around the roo I held his gaze for only a second when it was my turn, and then my eyes flipped back to the door I corrected instantly, but his glare had moved on I wondered if he’d noticed my slip Or had he seen me at al, here beside Fred?

"We have an enemy," Riley announced He let that sink in for ato several of the vampires in the basement The enemy was Raoul - or if you ith Raoul, the enemy was Kristie The eneht that there were other forces out there strong enough to affect us was new for most Would have been new to h to have realized that if we exist, so do other vampires Other vampires who are older, smarter more talented Other vampires ant our blood!"

Raoul hissed, and then several of his fol owers echoed hi intent on egging the tio Now they know about us, and they are jealous of the easy blood they used to have here They know it belongs to us now, but they want to take it back They are co after what they want One by one, they’l hunt us down! We’l burn while they feast!"

"Never," Kristie growled Sorowled, too