“Odd.” The st member of Sanguine Spark, named Kerry pondered. “The timing is strao say the least, Master.”

  Ray stood up and walked over and handed Jason the phone. “Agreed, plus it’s daylight. Curious what she is pying.”

  Pressing the little light pad to activate the speaker, Jason answered. “Hello, Sylvie. Calling to sett….Oh, Miss Rivers..what …” He listeo Casey frantically speaking.

  “Sylvie is right here having an ongoing visioer.” Casey huffed through the speaker. “You and your troupe o get the fuck out of there, right now. She’s saying you might have five minutes before they desd on you.” Casey finished issuing her dire warning.

  Raising one of his thick brown eyebrows and smiling at his other vampires, Jason took a breath so he could speak. “Miss Rivers, what do you mean by ‘they’? No one is fool enough to e here.” He cleared his throat and reached for a bottle of blood that had been supplied by Twilight Tonight. “Furthermore, where am I supposed to go? The sun just came up, darlin’.”

  Snickering like a couple of college frat boys, the other tires grabbed their own bottle of blood and used their fangs to jerk the cork out. Ray spoke first, “If you think this warning makes us square with what you did to Oscar and Owen, you are mistaken.”

  Holding up his hand and shaking his head silently, ‘No’, Jester repeated his question. “What exactly am I fag, Miss Rivers?”

  “They are called Shadewraiths, Jester.” Casey resumed her quick tone. “Unless you have bloodstone on hand, there is nothing you really do to stop them. Sylvie and I expin more ter.”

  Jester heard Casey pce her hand over the receiver of her phone and mumble something back to Sylvie. “Your little warning does nothing to assist, if I only have minutes.” Jason snickered, “Where the hell do I get bloodstones? I run a tattoo parlor.” Jasoook the phone off speaker and talked directly to Casey. “Okay, let’s assume for a sed that I believe what you are telling me. What am I fag?” Jester rolled his eyes at his felloires and sighed as Casey expined what the Shadewraiths were and what they could do. “So while you called to warhis bbbering has cut down my survival time. Lovely warning system.” Jester looked at his two panions as they started ughing. “Miss Rivers, thanks for the update. We will figure something out. Let me try and prepare for this onsught.” Jason pressed the ‘end’ button and tossed his phone on the desk.

  “Well?” Kerry asked while rubbing his bald head. “Tell us what they are.”

  Ray and Kerry listened ily as Jason paced bad forth in the office expining what he’d quickly learned from Casey about the beasts.

  “So…so…these things are living embodiment's of our fug dark-demon?” Kerry jumped up and balled up his fist. “Mine is already hard for me to deal with, I ’t imagine fighting the one inside me and oag me. Teases me all the time that the blood I e will turn on me, boil me from the inside.” Kerry shivered and looked at Ray. “Fuck this, I say we hide.”

  Ray stood up as well, and started shaking untrolbly. “Guys, mine is ughing at me…right now. It’s ting backwards from three-hundred and sixty, one sed at a time.”

  Quickly looking at his Swiss-made watch, Jason frowned. “That is six minutes. Assuming that it isn’t lying to you, Ray.” He rubbed his a few times and poio Kerry. “You said hide? Where…I assume you have some idea.” Jason picked up his phone and waited for an answer.

  “The whole town is like four hundred years old, there has to be some tunneling that could get us out of here.” Kerry grabbed the crate of bottled blood and pointed downstairs to the basement where their excess supplies were stored. “There has to be a sewer that runs uhe building, we just head down there.”

  Taking a few seds to think the situation through, Jason pihe bridge of his nose and sighed. He khat the two others would only act if he gave permission. The key would be c their tracks until they stumbled into bloodstone. “I’ll call the others ahem to stay away from the parlor, hopefully these ‘Shadewhatevers’ don’t know every member of the troupe.” Jester nodded and poio the basement door. “Let’s try it your way. If nothing else unch through the foundation and dig down.”

  Extending his cws, Ray followed Kerry dowairs. “It’s all we have, Jester. I hate that we are hiding like rats.”

  “Thank god we don’t have to breathe this foul shit, Jason.” Kerry announced when found where the drain pipes for the building were. “Time to be a mole. We just follow the pipe to the jun and that should lead to the bigger line.”

  Laughing as he sent out texts to his wards about the shadewraiths, and that they o find as many bloodstones as they could from spiritual shops that dealt with stones. He looked up from the s. “How about you two dig and I will just follow along. I have no wish to put my hands in that .. shit..and that’s official.”

  When the and cmped in their mind, the two young vampires groaned and started digging just as they were told to do. “Lazy pribsp; Why do I even try to like you?” Ray chuckled and shoved Kerry. “At this point your bald head will shine and give away our position.”

  “Shut up and dig, like I am being forced to, asshat.” Kerry grumbled as Jester's order kept him on task. “Somehow this isn’t fair. It was my idea, funny guy.” Kerry muttered as the dirt flew behind them faster than a bulldozer could move earth.

  “Hey, now you know why I am called Jester.” Jason punched in the final part of his text telling his wards to meet in his home just oskirts of Williamsburg. “Know what is damned funny, guys? The whole town is covered in bd white ghost poles, and the local ival is Halloween-themed.”

  Ray stopped his forrogress and looked behind them. “You know, we should cover the entrance we made, just in case.” He started to go back through the tunnel wheer stopped him.

  “Ray, no.” He showed him the time, its been over six minutes. If they are ing they are already in the parlor. We o go faster.”

  Kerry huffed as he kept digging at an arying desperately to find a way to break through the earth. “The your ass up here and we do this as a team. Three is better than two.”

  Sihe reasoning was sound, aer wao get to his home and pn for the stage of his day, he caught up to Ray and Kerry and began digging alongside them. “You ’t tell ahat I did this.” Jason summoned some of his blood and quadrupled their pace.

  Another five minutes passed and the three-man crew reached a solid crete wall. Kerry looked at his friends. “I love it when I am right.” He puhe stone and made a very rge hole, and exposed the dark and dank running water. “I’ll go first.” Kig off his heavy leather boots, Kerry extehe cws from his feet and hands. Crawling out on all fours, Kerry bouo the roof of the open sewer system, scouting roughly a half mile in a few seds. Once he returned, Kerry poked his head back through the hole from above. “Looks clear as a bell. We crawl on the roof and there’s no ce of getting shit on.” He ughed.

  Jester reached up and pushed Kerry back by his head and crawled out on the wall. “ime I will put my ass in your face, baldy.” Jester ughed. “Okay, Ray-gun, e on out.”