Nodding, Eddie sidled closer to him and lowered his voice. “I think I found Roland.”

Henry’s eyes bugged out. “Roland the Immortal Guardian Roland?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re shittin’ me.”

“Nope.”

“Daaaaaaamn. We been lookin’ for him for months.” He looked past Eddie’s shoulder, as if expecting to see Roland standing there, then met his gaze. “What’d ya do with him? Where is he?”

“Chapel Hill.” Eddie fought the urge to squirm. He didn’t relish telling everyone he had been unable to defeat the immortal.

Henry’s eyes narrowed. “You left him in Chapel Hill?” Eddie grimaced. “I didn’t exactly have a choice. Me, Skinny John, Walter, and Kurt met up with Jason, Max, Big John, and Karl over at the Walmart off of 15-501 and were headed for UNC to see if we could find some fresh victims when this Immortal Guardian comes out of nowhere and …” He shrugged. “It was on.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t Bastien?”

“Yeah. This guy had a woman with him like Roland did.”

“Did she have brown hair?”

“I think so.” It had been hard to tell with her hiding in the trees.

Henry nodded and slapped him on the shoulder. “Good job, man.” He glanced through the window for a second, then once more abandoned his duty. “So the guys are holdin’ him in Chapel Hill?”

Eddie swallowed, stomach souring. “No.”

“What do ya—”

“I’m the only one who made it out alive.”

Henry stared at him. “What?”

“The others are all dead. Roland and his woman destroyed them.”

“They’re dead?” he exclaimed, voice rising.

Eddie looked around as every eye in the house focused on them. “Yeah.”

“Who died?” he heard someone mutter.

Henry shook his head. “You outnumbered him eight to one!”

Eddie bristled at the scorn in his voice. “He had the woman with him. She was armed and—”

Henry sputtered and waved a hand. “The woman doesn’t count. She’s human for shit’s sake! If you can’t kick a human woman’s ass, what the hell good are ya?”

“Well, she sure as hell didn’t fight like a human!”

“Are you saying she was immortal?”

“No, but—”

“Then you should have killed her and kicked Roland’s ass.” Some of the other vamps rose and strode forward to form a semicircle around them.

“Look, you weren’t there,” Eddie snapped. “You’ve never even seen an Immortal Guardian. They aren’t like us.”

“What do you mean?” Wes asked, his butt-ugly mug alight with curiosity. He was a fairly new recruit, turned by Dennis himself only a few months ago.

“Yeah,” Howard tossed in. “How’re they different from us?”

“They’re faster,” Eddie began, his apprehension falling away now that Henry’s contempt had been overshadowed by the other guys’ awe and eagerness to hear a firsthand account of a fight with an immortal.

“How much faster?” Norm asked.

“Like … fifty times faster,” Eddie said. “And stronger. A lot stronger. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“So what happened?”

He named the guys who had fought beside him again, then—giving plenty of bloodthirsty description and exaggerating his own skills—laid out what had transpired.

“So you just ran?” Henry growled as Eddie wrapped it up.

“No, I didn’t run,” Eddie lied. “At least not the way you make it sound. He cut down seven guys, Henry. I was the only one strong enough to fend off his death blows, but even I could see I wouldn’t be able to take him alone, so I came back here for reinforcements.”

“What for?” Henry pounced. “If he’s as fast as you say he is, he could be all the way to Winston-Salem by now.”

Eddie racked his feeble brain for a response that wouldn’t make him sound like a wuss, opting not to mention the second encounter that had led to Keith’s and Bill’s destruction.

“At least he can confirm what no one else has been able to,” Wes said. “Roland is still in North Carolina.”

Howard nodded. “Which means Bastien probably is, too. I bet Dennis will be happy to hear that.”

Eddie heard the heavy door of The Hole open and moved until, between the vamps congregating around him, he spotted Dennis in the doorway.

“Eddie,” Dennis spoke in that commanding voice of his.

At least he seemed to be in a decent mood tonight. Eddie would rather face Jason, Michael Myers, and Freddy Krueger all together than Dennis in a temper.

Straightening, Eddie said, “Yes, sir?”

“A moment, please.”

“Yes, sir.”

The other vampires parted, allowing Eddie to slip through them and join Dennis in The Hole’s doorway.

“I could use your help evaluating some potential recruits,” Dennis said, drawing him into the room.

“Sure,” Eddie answered, willing to do anything to put off telling Dennis that he had had Roland in his grasp and had failed to capture him. He had hoped being able to confirm that Roland was still in the area would make up for the fact that he had run like a little pussy. But after Henry’s reaction …

A somewhat battered kitchen table rested in the center of The Hole, the only furnishing it boasted. On the opposite side of it, looking almost like slovenly soldiers just returned from a weekend bender, a dozen and a half men stood. All were human and younger than Eddie by a few years. None had yet been transformed by the vampires who had captured them. Dennis liked to transform the recruits himself whenever possible. And these recruits were pretty lame.

Eddie curled his lip as he studied them.

There were a few of the typical, totally wasted college students: the type who liked to pants other students and routinely sought ways to humiliate those weaker than themselves for fun. They didn’t seem to be all that sure what was going on. Or to care, for that matter.

There were also about a handful of tough-as-nails gang-bangers or gangstas or whatever, sporting tattoos, saggy-baggy pants, and FU attitudes. A few goths had been rounded up. Decked out in black clothes with pale makeup, dyed black hair, and nose rings, they looked positively orgasmic over being in the same room with two real-life vampires.

A couple of late night joggers had been wrangled, too. That pretty much summed it up.

Losers, Eddie thought smugly. I could take these guys in a heartbeat.

One of the pros of becoming a vampire was not having to worry about getting your ass kicked anymore. He’d been bullied a lot as a kid. And as a teenager. And once had been beaten badly enough to land in the hospital his sophomore year at Duke. (His mamma had just shaken her head and told him he shouldn’t have been running his mouth the way he had.)

But now, he was the bully. Now, he kicked ass.

And even if these guys wanted to kick his ass once Dennis turned them, they wouldn’t be able to, because any soldiers caught fighting amongst themselves were locked in The Hole just before sunrise.

“This, gentlemen, is another of my soldiers,” Dennis said, settling a hand on Eddie’s shoulder in friendly camaraderie.

Dennis considered himself a king and the other vampires his soldiers in a war that would free them all from the tyranny of the Immortal Guardians and allow them to take their rightful place as the most powerful creatures in existence.

In other words, he wanted to take over the world. Eddie thought that was so cool.

The goths turned their adoring gazes on Eddie, who puffed out his chest and gave them just enough of a superior smile to show the tips of his fangs, which still hadn’t receded from the fight.

“Rising to take our rightful place as leaders in this world and grasping the power and all of the wealth that will accompany that will require bloodshed.”

The drunken frat boys looked confused. The goths … didn’t really seem to be paying attention. They were just so hyped about meeting vampires. The gangstas looked unimpressed. And the joggers were shaking in their ass-toning sneakers.

“If you join my army, you will need to familiarize yourself with the weapons we use and our methods of fighting. Eddie, let’s provide them with a display, shall we?”

When Dennis drew a dagger from a sheath on his belt and laid it on the table, Eddie drew his bowie knife and placed it next to the dagger, then removed his other bowie, a switch blade, and brass knuckles.

That was it for him.

Dennis lined up three more daggers and two swords—the kind you saw martial arts guys use in movies—on the table alongside the others.

Eddie had always thought Dennis a bit of a dweeb when it came to his blades. Their leader had such a boner for weapons, carrying six or more at a time, sharpening them every night, even when he didn’t use them.

But after fighting the immortal earlier … Eddie had to admit that Dennis might be on to something. The Immortal Guardian had been covered with weapons. Two short swords, probably a dozen or more daggers (Eddie still couldn’t figure out how exactly the prick had thrown those when he had held a longer blade in each hand), and at least a dozen of those slick throwing star thingies.

The metal offering on the table between Dennis and the potential recruits actually seemed sort of pathetic in comparison.

Dennis motioned to the table with a smile. “Step forward. Choose a weapon. Lift it. Get a feel for it.”

When one of the goths picked up the brass knuckles and put them on backwards, Dennis sighed heavily and gave Eddie a help this idiot out before I kill him look.

Snorting, Eddie swaggered around the table and, yanking the heavy brass from the goth’s fingers, probably spraining a few in the process, demonstrated the proper way to don them, then the way to use them, swinging at the air in front of the goth’s face.