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"Did you say bite? And that you staked him in the heart?" There was definite suspicion now No doubt he now thought she was pulling a prank call or soainst theThe glass was cold against her skin as she tried to clear her increasingly sluggish thoughts and sort out the best way to ensure her call was taken seriously and help was sent

She finally said, "I realize some of what I’ve said probably sounds crazy and I’m sorry The man who kidnapped us is a nutcase He likes to play vampire and bite us But I think he took too much blood frohts and if they aren’t dead, they’re probably dying You need to send help, EMTs and the police, lots of them, and fast He--" She paused and stiffened as she becae door opening, she realized as adrenaline shot through her It was probably the only rateful as hell for the warning it was giving her

"Ma’am?" the dispatcher asked when she went silent

"He’s back Send help," she hissed

"Who’s back?" the dispatcher asked

"Who do you think?" she asked harshly "The ets up here and sees that Igor is dead, he’ll probably kill me and maybe even the other women Send help now"

"Ma’am, just stay calm I--"

"Have you traced the call yet? Do you know the address?" she interrupted, and then as the whirring stopped she added, "It doesn’t matter I’ll leave the phone off the hook Trace the call and send help"

"Ma’am, I need you to remain calm and stay on the line I--"

"Yeah, well, I need an UZI and silver bullets, but I guess we’re both out of luck," she said dryly "I’ it Trace the call and send help," she repeated grie door closing, obviously, Valerie thought as she set the phone on the table He’d parked and would enter the house and come up here next She only had h the house and running into theto escape, Valerie turned to the , relieved when it slid up easily She was even more relieved to find there was no screen to have to deal with Thank God it was an old house and obviously let go If it had been a new house with those fancy newfangled s that didn’t open all the way and had screens, she’d have had to take a chance and leave the room to find an exit

Valerie leaned out theand peered down She was on the second floor overlooking a large backyard There was no handy tree or trellis to cli else, they’d break her fall

Gri over to straddle the ledge, then paused as she heard a door close soe to the house, Valerie realized and threw her other leg over the ledge, only to pause again There was abelow this one She didn’t know the layout of the house very well and had no idea if he ht now be in the room below her If he was and he saw her drop past the

Valerie closed her eyes and forced herself to wait and listen to the faint sounds of movement in the house But the moment she heard the thud of footsteps on the stairs, she pushed herself off the ledge

Anders stepped out onto the porch and sucked in a breath of fresh air The house he’d just left didn’t smell pretty, but then the situation it presented wasn’t pretty either He hadn’t seenback up the driveway, he started down the porch steps, asking, "Did you handle the police?"

"Done and dusted," Bricker assured hi curiously to the house, he asked, "Did you find the caller?"

"No," Anders said gri over the house as well Their teaested thereunusual about the situation One didn’t usually wish for silver bullets or stakethatup This call had definitely fit that bill, but they’d arrived to find the mortal police already on scene A quick read of their minds had alerted Anders and the others to the fact that this was no crank call and that inside they would find seven cages in the base live women, and one with a dead woman There were also half a dozen corpses in a back roo and dead, had bite marks that had completely bewildered the es, the officers had done a cursory search of the main and upper floor of the house for the 911 caller, but then had co to break open the locks on the cages and release the women That hen Anders and the others had arrived While Bricker had seen to erasing the memories of the police officers, the rest of the Enforcers had entered the house

They’d searched the hly than the police had When that hadn’t turned up the 911 caller, the others had gone to the baseed women while Anders ca woman

"There’s an openin the master bedroom She riets to the authorities and tells the those cops’them away"

"That won’t happen She’s wounded," Anders said He didn’t bother ht and a hell of a lot of blood in the master bedroom Or that if even half of that blood was hers, she couldn’t have got far on her own

"Wounded, huh?" Bricker frowned at the house "She ht and taken her with hi her call"

"A possibility," Anders acknowledged and thought it would be a shame if it were true How terrible would it be if this nah to alert the authorities, saving the other woue before those authorities arrived to save her?