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As for how many vampires are out there now, I don't know. There for a while, we were killing three or four a night, but it's slowed down some."
    John stared at them, openmouthed . "Three or four a
night
! Why haven't you called me?"
    "John, the last thing you—and your career—needed was to be involved in this city's vampire problem. So, as much for your protection as anything else, we haven't called you every time we destroyed a vampire."
    "If it makes you feel better," Lanie put in, "we keep a list of names and addresses of all the vampires killed—at least, those who are still carrying IDs. Uncle Charles sends their families a small anonymous donation to help them out a bit. They think they've won a contest their loved one entered before they disappeared. It doesn't bring the loved one back, but the money helps them a little while they adjust."
    The detective rubbed his jaw, shaking his head.
    "John, I'm sorry," Charles said. "We did what we thought was necessary."
    "If you don't mind my asking," Bethany asked when the group fell silent, "how did you figure out the truth?"
    Jess found herself leaning closer, wanting to hear the answer. She prayed that maybe his revelation hadn't been entirely her fault.
    "Until tonight, I didn't know for sure," he admitted, dashing her hopes. "I've spent so much time trying to fit the facts of the Exsanguinator cases into a logical pattern—a pattern in keeping with human terrorists—yet there was always some part of each case that wouldn't gel with the rest. Finally, it occurred to me that maybe the answer was right in front of me if I would open my eyes and see it. So I tried to come at it from a completely objective angle, but the answer I got was ludicrous—or so I thought at the time. Still, the more I thought about it, the less crazy it seemed until eventually, I found myself taking long
midnight
strolls around town, looking for vampires."
    "Which is why you were in
Thompson
Park
the other night?" Mac asked. "You were looking for vampires?"
    "Yeah."
    "And you found one," Charles concluded.
    "I don't know. I ran into a man while I was in the park, but I didn't have time to speak to him." John glanced at Jessica and she felt her face heat up. "We were interrupted."
    "Jessica?" Charles turned to her with a questioning look.
    "It was a vampire," she confirmed, holding Charles's gaze. She wasn't about to let him intimidate her when there was a good reason for what she'd done. "It was dark by the time I reached D.C. As I was driving through town, the eyes on the pommel of the sword began to glow." She spared John a look. "It does that whenever a vampire is in the area." She fixed first Charles, then Mac, and finally Dirk, with a level gaze. "So I did what any one of you would have done under the same circumstances. And I would have succeeded if Detective Boehler hadn't stopped me." She turned to the detective, silently daring him to refute her.
    Mac, who'd been taking a drink of his coffee, set down his cup and turned to face John. "If that was a vampire you ran into, you're lucky he didn't attack you."
    "I had my gun," John assured him.
    Mac snorted. "In a year of hunting, I've only stopped one vampire with a gun before and it took eight closely grouped rounds to his head to bring him down."
    John cast a quick glance at Jess and she knew he was remembering the dagger and stakes he'd found in her purse. Now that he understood, maybe she'd get them back.
    "If the vampire didn't attack you," Lanie said, sounding like she was working out a logic problem, "then he must not have been hungry. That would mean he'd recently fed. Did you find a body?"
    Only because she was studying the faces around her did Jess spot the subtle shift in John's expression when he answered. "No, I didn't see a body."
    She was trying to decide whether or not he was lying when Dirk looked at his watch.
    "Speaking of vampires," he said, pushing back from the table, "if you'll excuse us, it's time for our patrol."