Ruiz was damn near attacked by the reporters when it happened. I don’t even know how they knew she was in town. Guess what. I was with her when they found her. I don’t know if they guessed I was a vampire, or if there really is a database somewhere that the reporters can access, but I got a microphone shoved n my face and got asked a lot of questions all at once. How do you feel about the murder? What murder are you talking about? Please get that thing out of my face. The murder just took place, a man named Jared Bucksley was mutilated and parts of him were missing. What do you know about that? I know exactly what you just told me. How do you feel about it? How the hell do you think I feel? It’s disgusting. So you don’t eat your victims? Do you drink blood? I don’t have victims. I don’t drink blood and I eat food. You know, the stuff you buy in stores.

The questions could have gone on from there, but Ruiz cut off the interview and got me the hell out of there. Again, I don’t know how they learned I was a vampire, but the good news was that none of them knew where I lived. I didn’t get assaulted by cameras when I got home.

A lot of people were on the fence about the vampire thing then. A lot of people were already going on and on about how vampires are human beings who are afflicted and deserve the same rights as everyone else. Me? I’m all for it. A few less people were thinking that vampires were harmless by the time that little scenario hit the news. It’s hardly the only crime that hit San Francisco that day, but it made the national news just the same and I remember very well that Illinois State Representative William Blevins was among the first ones to say that the vampires needed to be catalogued and assessed as potential threats before the situation got out of hand, if it hadn’t already. William Blevins. Father of the late Edward Blevins.

I’m not a detective, but I caught that one quickly enough. And you want to know something? How’s this sound for the sort of thing that can maybe make you wonder if there’s a conspiracy going on? Blevins gets his son murdered for his comments. I had my sister stolen away from me. And between the two situations there were at least three more deaths, and each and every one of them was someone connected to the vampire situation. The second was a bishop who’d been throwing fits about how the vampires were actually demons and should be treated as such. I only heard about him because Rio heard about it on the news and let me know about it. Dude was in Eugene, Oregon, not exactly my home stomping grounds, but close enough to home that it seemed a like a good spot to check after Anna got snagged.

Anna disappeared two days after that interview. She called me on the phone and told me she was hearing someone outside our apartment. I was out doing a little work for my employers, and I wasn’t even far away. But by the time I got home she was gone and the front door had been destroyed. My folks weren’t home. They were actually away on vacation. I think that’s a good thing. The green ape thing took Anna, but I don’t think it would have taken more than one hostage.

Here’s my favorite part: it left a note for me in Cantonese. Not just words, but the Chinese symbols. I don’t even read Chinese. I had to go down the street and get the thing translated by Rio’s mom. Rio’s my hero right now, him and his mom both. They’ve been the ones who’ve kept me up to date on everything. I freaked out when I heard that Anna was gone. I also knew I’d be going after her. I called Rio because I needed that translation and his mom took one look at the paper and told me what it said.

“ ‘Your sister is mine. You called me “Disgusting.” Stay out of this if you want to see her alive again.’ ” She looked at the paper for a long time and then looked at me and added, “It’s signed with ‘Blood-Suck Demon.’ ” Actually, she said “Hsi-Hsue-Kuei,” but I’m translating here. It means the same thing.

I could see that Rio wanted to say something about that. Probably he thought that was about as cool as any name he’d ever seen signed on anything. Rio’s big into anime and loves a good monster story. He kind of freaked out a bit when I got the virus. And then he kept asking if I knew how I got it. I figured it was because he wanted to get the virus himself, like there weren’t already a lot of people who’d gotten sick off the vampire virus without changing.

Some things haven’t changed in a very long time. I’m not saying there’s no such thing as police in Chinatown. There are. But for some stuff you don’t call the police. I knew there wasn’t going to be a ransom note. I knew there wasn’t going to be communications between me and the thing that took my sister. It wanted to make sure I left it alone. I didn’t trust that it wasn’t going to hurt my sister. I went back to the apartment and caught the thing’s scent. I even found a little evidence in the form of a thick strand of coarse green hair. The stuff is thick and heavy and dark green. It isn’t dyed. I memorized the scent and then I started looking. I probably hit half of San Francisco while trying to track down that scent before Rio told me about the attack on the bishop in Oregon. I never found a fresh trail, but the thing got around. Its trail moved all over the damn place. I recognized the smell when I got to Oregon and when I moved on from there, too.

— 7 —

So Blevins was dead. My sister had been there, and likely used as bait again, and now she was gone and so was the green thing. I looked at the cops, they looked at me. I went out the window again, screeching and screaming and praying I didn’t break my leg when I hit the ground.

You know how cats always land on their feet? Not me. I landed on my backside and dented the crap out of squad car when I hit it. Windshield got trashed, windows got trashed. The lights stopped flashing and the siren started screeching and I bounced off the thing, crawled to my hands and knees and limped away as fast as I could. I was very, very grateful for the rain before it was all said and done.

Edward Blevins was a waste of my time. Nothing personal against the guy, but as leads went, not such a good time for me. But that didn’t mean I was done in Chicago. See, Edward Blevins was dead, but I was thinking he was just a means to an end. It wasn’t Ed that made the comments about vampires being identified and tracked and I was thinking that was the real reason for the guy getting targeted. His father was a powerful man, a political figure with some clout. That bishop that died was the same way. So was the lady who got herself killed by the thing I was chasing when it stopped in Colorado. She was a country singer or something like that and she’d made several comments about the vampires being a blight against God. After I heard that that I didn’t pay her any attention, but somebody else did. It wasn’t much to go on, I admit that, but it was all I had. Three of the six people who’d been killed by the damn thing were all connected with the very fast growing anti-vampire sentiment the media was giving air time every day. I think the bouncer was just a meal, honestly. I think maybe the poor bastard was just there when this thing got hungry the first time, like I got hungry. Or maybe there was a different reason that I was missing altogether. All I knew about him was a name and that he’d died in my hometown.

And after that, Anna got attacked. And then the bishop. And then the country singer. And then there was the guy in Des Moines, Iowa, a Chinese American named Leonard Hong. I heard about him because Rio knew who he was. Hong was kind of into the same sort of shady business as my bosses. By shady I mean illegal, and by illegal I might be talking about drug trade. Allegedly.

Anyhow, Hong got killed. I figured the same basic scenario: My sister is a good looking girl. If she wasn’t my sister I might be able to say that with more ease, but she is my sister. I don’t think of her that way, but Rio had made a few comments back in the day before I threatened to kick his ass. And Tommy still made them regularly. I couldn’t really threaten to kick Tommy’s ass though, because he’s a black belt in something I can’t even pronounce and the one who taught me about how to fight. Anyhow, Anna is a looker. I figured the green ape was using her as bait and then doing a good job of taking out his enemies. I know that Hong was robbed when he got killed. He apparently had a lot of cash on him. So far my sister was being useful and that meant she got to stay around. I prayed she’d stay useful until I could reach her.

In the meantime, I went looking for William Blevins.

Okay, that’s a lie.

I crawled away from the crime scene I’d made a mess of, I made it to the cheap motel where I was staying, which was almost two miles away, hiding and using back streets, and then I went to sleep for a few hours, aching and whimpering.

Like I said before, I’m not bullet proof.

I was bleeding, and I had to check the wound. I stripped out of my clothes, and looked at the hole in my stomach. It wasn’t very big and it was healing nicely. I got lucky, I guess, because the bullet went clean through. Two bullet holes. Three if you counted the one in my ass, which I didn’t because it was mostly healed by the time I got to the hotel. I stayed in my monster-face and I went to sleep. When the sun rose, I was back to being my usual self, and I was wound free.

I tried standing up and fell on my face, and screamed against my arm as the pain tore at my legs and hips and back.

I forgot to do my stretches.

Hopping Ghost. I hopped all the way to the bathroom, ate four Tylenol and then did my stretches for almost an hour before I could walk without feeling like my legs were being torn apart. It sucks, but I have to look at it as a fair enough trade, I guess. I mean, come on, I took two bullets, fought off a dozen cops, almost managed to leap forty-five feet through the air and survived a five story fall to the ground below and in return I had some painful moments when I forgot to stretch. There are a few benefits to go with the pain.

Of course, if none of this was going on, another vampire maybe wouldn’t have taken my sister from me. It’s hard to say for sure.

After stretching and cleaning up, I turned on the television and watched the local news while I called Rio to see what was happening on the home front.

“Dude, where the hell are you hiding?” Rio’s voice sounded stressed. More than usual, I mean, because Rio always sounds like the world is ending.