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“So do you,” he replies.

“Care to share?” I put my arm out to stop him and look across the street. We’re almost at the train tracks. We considered taking another entrance into the fairground, but then realized it was pointless. If she’s watching, she’ll be watching from all angles. If not, we might as well just barrel in and take our chances.

“I do not.” Thornfield darts across the road in a blur of movement, leaving Kim and I in the dust.

“I’ll never get used to that,” Kim mutters.

“You’re’a demon hunter. Shouldn’t you be…?”

“Vampires aren’t demons. At least, in theory they’re not.” Kim puts his hands into his pockets. He looks too casual for someone who’s about to fight a vampire. But I get the feeling it’s just nerves making him act this way.

She almost killed him.

He escaped with his life, but barely. And now he’s voluntarily returning to the scene of the crime.

“You don’t have to do this, you know.” I put my hand on his shoulder to show him I’m serious.

Kim almost shrugs it off. His jaw tenses. “She has a hold over all of us. She’s evil. She can’t be allowed to live, and after what I did, I need to be a part of bringing her down. I need the closure.”

“I understand that.” Instinctively, my hand goes to my neck and I touch the veins she’s opened more times than I can count. I wonder, briefly, whether something in my muscle memory will prevent me from actually ending her when I get the chance.

But then I figure, if I can’t do it, Lucien will.

“Where was she when you last saw her?” Thornfield asks for the hundredth time.

“In the tunnels. Below the collapsed ceiling. I doubt she’ll still be there. She’ll be stronger now, perhaps she’ll have retreated.”

“Or moved on completely,” I mutter.

Thornfield stops. We’ve reached the fairground. He sniffs the air, like a dog, then walks slowly toward the giant, gaping chasm in the ground. “No,” he says. “She’s still here. I’d know that scent anywhere.”

He doesn’t hesitate, doesn’t tell us to be careful or follow him. We don’t even really have a plan except… fight. That’s the plan.

Without a word, he jumps down into the hole, landing flat on his feet like a cat jumping down from a roof.

Kim and I clamber down beside him.

“She was there.” Kim points to a spot in the corner. There is blood on the floor. “Right there.”

“Whose blood is that?” I ask Thornfield.

He stoops down and swipes his finger through it, bringing a bolt of nausea to my throat. “Not hers. Human.” He looks at Kim. “But not his. Seems they found themselves a snack.”

He gestures to the trail leading back toward the tunnels. “And took him back to the nest to play…”

We follow the droplets. They lead us into the darker parts of the tunnel, where my eyes strain to see and my footsteps echo loudly on the concrete.

“Can you tread a little softer?” Thornfield snaps.

“I’m a bigger man than you, Thornfield. Not as easy for me to tread softly.”

Kim bites back a laugh. He doesn’t like Thornfield any more than I do.

Suddenly, he stops. “The trail.” He bends down, searching the ground in front of him. “It’s gone.”

“What does that mean?” Kim asks, reaching into his pocket for the knife he brought – his only defence against a nest of vampires. Not necessarily a smart move, and I’m beginning to think the guy actually has a death wish.

“It means…” Thornfield stands then points to a door. “They stopped dragging the human and carried them – in there.”