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display a pair of very sharplooking fangs.
    Â Â "Not bad," he said. "Almost as good as I could've done."
    Â Â " I'm not the one who managed to get himself caught and tied up in bondage rope," I pointed out. 
    Â Â Zombie Devona looked at both of us. "Play nice, you two."
    Â Â The two Hydes who'd been guarding our counterparts had changed back to themselves – a pair of Bennie's Arcane bartenders – and they quickly began untying their former prisoners. A couple moments later, our others selves were free and had come around from behind the bar to join us. 
    Â Â Everyone on the lounge had been returned to normal by that point. Quite a few people had been wounded during their time as Hydes, and those who weren't wounded saw to their care. A number of the cured headed outside to begin spreading the anti-Hyde virus to the rest of the city. I had no idea how long it would take before this Nekropolis was entirely free of the Hyde plague, but given how rapidly the virus had spread, I figured it wouldn't take more than a day or two.
    Â Â Bennie climbed down from the bar and joined the five of us – Darius, both Devonas, myself and my vampiric doppelgänger.
    Â Â "Thank Mother Kali that Darius was able to reach you!" Bennie said before giving both Devona and me a hug. "And when you get home, tell my other self that they're every bit the chemist our ancestor was!" 
    Â Â "We'll do that," I said. "And speaking of your other self…" I reached into my jacket pocket, took out a flash drive, and handed it to Bennie. "This contains the formula for the antidote that my Bennie designed to work on you. Just in case you ever need it again." 
    Â Â "Thank you." Bennie took the flash drive and tucked it into his pants pocket. "But after this, I'll never mess with my ancestor's formula again. It's simply too dangerous."
    Â Â Vampire Matt and I exchanged looks. That might be how Bennie felt now, but Bennie was nothing if not an unabashed hedonist, and he/she was all too willing to take a chance if it meant experiencing new realms of pleasure. I took another flash drive out of my pocket and handed it to my other self. 
    Â Â "Again," I said, "just in case."
    Â Â Bennie scowled at me, but – now female – she didn't protest. Vampire Matt nodded and put it in his inner jacket pocket.
    Â Â "I'd ask you and your Devona to stay and visit," he said, "but I'm afraid our Nekropolis won't be in much shape for sightseeing for a while. We're going to have a lot of cleaning up to do."
    Â Â "Besides," Zombie Devona said, "you two have your own lives to get back to." She gave my Devona a knowing smile, and I had to wonder if she somehow knew her other self was pregnant. My Devona might be half-vampire and the other a zombie, but they were both still women, and it seemed they possessed that special brand of telepathy that members of their gender shared.
    Â Â My Devona gave her other self a smile, but there was something strained about it, and I immediately feared something was wrong.
    Â Â "We do need to go home," she said. She placed a hand on her abdomen as she turned to Darius. She suddenly looked paler than usual, and her voice quavered when she spoke. "If you could take us right now, I'd appreciate it. I…" She took in a hiss of air and her face scrunched up in pain. "I think I need to see a doctor. Now ."

 
 
THREE
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    "Quit pacing, Matt. You're making me nervous."
  I stopped and turned to look at her. " I'm making you nervous? You're the one lying in a hospital bed hooked up to a bunch of machines."
    Â Â Devona smiled and patted the edge of the bed. "Come sit with me."
    Â Â If there's one thing I can't stand to do when something's wrong, it's nothing. And pacing, useless as it might be, was still something. But I didn't want to make things any worse for Devona than they already were, so I went over to the bed and sat. She took