The artist frowned. “What woman next to me?”
“Over there. That table. It belongs to a fortune-teller named Susan.”
“Oh, of course,”
“Please, have you seen her? Do you know where she is?”
“I saw her go into the church earlier. But it’s closed now, of course.”
“Thank you.”
Lauren walked quickly toward the church, which indeed looked closed. But at the entrance to the alley that ran beside the church, she saw a sign. She walked over to it, frowning, scanning the announcements.
! And it was going on right now.
She hurried to the front door. It was locked. She raced down the alley and found a side door, and managed to slip in. She wasn’t sure where she was, but quickly wandering along the hall brought her to the side of the main altar. In a small chapel off to the far side, someone was indeed leading choir practice. The sound of the hymn they were singing was beautiful.
She looked toward the rear of the church, searching the pews.
And there was her fortune-teller, just sitting there, staring at the altar.
Lauren made her way down the aisle, then hurried in to take a seat beside Susan.
“What have you done to us?” she demanded in a heated whisper.
Susan turned to her. “This is a house of God. You will not bring venom in here.”
“What have you done?” Lauren repeated.
“Me? You have brought danger and a curse on me, young woman. You shouldn’t have come here. And you should have left when I told you to go.”
Lauren inhaled, wondering just how absurd she was going to sound. “I know there are vampires here. But it isn’t my fault. You knew it, and you didn’t warn us.”
“I told you to leave,” Susan said softly. “But you and your friends refused to believe. You think you are safe in your ignorance, but I will suffer for your stubborness and arrogance. You bring danger to me just by being here.”
“Susan, my friend is in a coma. But she came out of it for two minutes and mentioned you. What do you know? Why did she talk about you?”
Susan turned on her, her eyes narrowed. “Perhaps because she realized that you had all put me in danger. I am afraid to work. How will I live? I have become a target. Because of you.”
“What are you talking about?”
Susan stared at her. Her face seemed impassive, but her voice was harsh. “Stephan. Stephan Delanskiy.”
Lauren was so taken by surprise that she just stared.
Maybe this was all an elaborate ruse. Susan was in on it with Mark. And apparently the cops were in on it, too.
If she hadn’t seen the wings in the sky, the shadows that took form and came after her, fangs bared…
Susan looked toward the altar again. “There will always be evil. There will always be those who combat it. There will always be those, like me, who see it, sense it, are touched by it…but do not have the power to best it.” She stared at Lauren again, though she seemed to be talking to herself. “Evil has come before, and it will come again. Such is the way of the world.” Her eyes cleared and met Lauren’s. “But you have ruined me.”
“You’re the one who had the crystal ball!”
“And through it, he saw you.”
“But he was here already,” Lauren argued angrily, afraid.
“Yes. But now he will stay. Until he has you.”
“This is ridiculous,” Lauren said harshly.
“Is it? Is it ridiculous when a mother wakes in the night and knows that her child has died? Is it ridiculous when a husband suddenly knows his wife is in danger, when a twin knows her other half needs help? Right now
“I have help,” Lauren whispered.
Susan ignored her and went on. “Forget what you think of as real, what you see as sanity. Forget it all—if you want to live. I am alive now only because I know that what we don’t see is real, that what we don’t admit can be true. If you want to survive, realize that for your friends, and for yourself.”
“I’m not your enemy,” Lauren protested. “You brought this down on me. You and your crystal ball.”
“He would have found you,” Susan said. “The crystal only let you know he had done so. You should have run while you had the chance.” She shrugged. “He might have followed you, but the danger would have been gone from my life.”
Lauren felt oddly as if she had been slapped, the woman spoke so coldly, with such a dismissive determination. But then Susan turned back to her. “You have help, you say? Take that help and cherish it. You cannot win on your own. Even an army could not help you win if that army did not see and believe. For your friends? Keep them safe if you can.” She stood up, clearly anxious to get away. She pulled a folded paper from one pocket of her long skirt and
