Saturday evening came and went. Damon Benyu didn't show up for their date at The Log Jam.

"I can't believe it, I got stood up by a damned bloodsucker!" Diana grumbled after waiting forty-five minutes. She stomped out to her truck with stiff strides, Duncan by her side.

She stopped abruptly at the driver's door, keeping her head down while she fumbled with her keys.

"He's here," she said in a low voice.

"Gut feeling again?" Duncan whispered back.

"That, and I can see him at the back of the restaurant in my side mirror. We're going down the hill tonight. I don't want him knowing where I live. Let's go."

She pulled out slowly onto the highway, then drove to her office in Damon's Canyon.

"He must have figured out who you are," Duncan conjectured as Diana bolted the door and drew the vertical blinds tight.

"I'd say so. Can't think of any other reason why he wouldn't show. And he knows I lied about you since he saw you tonight. The gloves are off."

Diana adjusted the thermostat to a higher temperature in the chilly office.

"Where are we going to sleep?" Duncan asked, looking around the sparsely furnished room with a yawn.

"Who said anything about sleep?" Diana responded grimly. "Follow me."

She led the way past the hole-in-the-wall bathroom and through a narrow door to the back of the office. Flipping the light switch, she said, "Welcome to my dollhouse."

A dim light trickled from the scaled-back chandelier in the middle of the snug room, a parlor that hearkened back to the original days of the town. Heavy cherry red draperies concealed a narrow window, protected by security bars. A twin-sized canopy bed crouched against the wall, its gauzy draperies as thin and minty green as a moth's wings. A mini-fireplace hunched cold and dark in one corner of the room.

Duncan did a three-sixty on his heel and shook his head.

"What's the matter?" Diana asked, heading for the fireplace. She knelt down and lit the small pile of logs on the grate.

"I feel like I'm back at Gramma Sloan's in Colorado," Duncan said with amazement. "This place is so...so..."

"Old." Diana stood up and glided across the braided cloth rug to the writer. She encircled his waist from the back with her arms and laid her face against his shoulder.

"I was thinking ‘quaint.' Where'd you get the roll-top desk over there?" He reached back and stroked her hip and leg.

"Jacob made it for me when I was a little girl. He said it was better than a hope chest. He made the bed and the breakfast set, too," she added, pointing out the built-for-two cherry table and chairs settled into a corner near the window. "I love it. I stay here sometimes, just to remember the old times..."

Duncan turned and pulled her into his arms, kissing the top of her head. "This is neat. It's like my old tree house in Nebraska. It was my special place, my own stuff, my own place, my own hidden refuge."

"Our refuge. Tonight, it's our refuge." She backed away from him and stood in front of the fire, her amber eyes catching the dancing glow of the flames like a set of topaz jewels. She shed her jacket and kicked off her shoes, laying her weapon within arm's reach.

"Take it off, wildcat," Duncan commanded. He watched, cobalt eyes intense with the craving for his woman, as she provocatively slid her low-cut slacks over her hips, exposing her tanned expanse of thigh, her rust-hued pubic nest. Duncan unzipped his jeans and pulled out his own weapon nestled in a bed of chestnut curls. He began to stroke himself as he watched Diana strip for him.

"I have something you want," she murmured to him. She unbuttoned her blouse, moving from one pearl button to the next with agonizing slowness. Her cleavage swept into view, and she removed the deer antler-handled dagger she had slipped into her bra sheath with a slight smile.

"Horny...how appropriate," Duncan chuckled.

She slipped her arms behind her, lowering them behind her hips, and the blouse slid from her upper body like a second silk skin.

Duncan fondled his balls and tightened his grip on his own crank as Diana unsnapped her bra and tossed it aside. Her pendulous breasts swung loose, the nipples erect and deep rose. She raised a knee and lowered her skimpy panties down the calf and off the foot, then let them drop of their own free will to the carpet at her feet.

Diana raised her arms and unfastened her French braid and fluffed out her hair until it became a scarlet nimbus reflecting the fire's glow. The flames licked shadows across her naked skin, giving her tiger's stripes that shifted and danced along her body.

Diana slid splayed hands down her length, caressing her breasts, her belly, her hips. She meandered an index finger down through her mink pelt, circling and snaking it in a seemingly aimless pattern around her labia. Duncan noticed that she had painted her nails a tone that matched her topaz eyes. She inserted the finger into her pussy, her eyes closing slightly as she absorbed the massaging friction. Slowly, she withdrew her finger and brought it to her mouth, her bronze-tinted lips enveloping the digit. She ran her tongue around her finger, tasting her own nectar from her peach pit.

"Come here, wildcat. I've got something you can taste." Duncan unbuckled his belt and stepped out of his jeans, opening his shirt as Diana prowled her way to him. She placed one hand upon his shoulder and offered her finger to him, holding his gaze fast with her lioness eyes. Duncan tasted her, licked her musk from her fingertip. He urged her down on her knees before him, his rod beading up with his own milky exudate.

Diana brushed his shirt open and took his shaft in with her soft bronzed lips. "Uh-huh, baby, that's so good," Duncan groaned. His sinewy hands clenched in her hair, impelling her to deepen her grasp on his cock. She bobbed her head back and forth on him, sucking and licking his muscle.

She stopped abruptly and rose to her feet.

"What's wrong?" Duncan whispered, disappointed in the sudden withdrawal.

"Not a thing. Everything is so right. Come here, handsome." She took his hand and led him to her bed. Reaching into the top drawer of the small night stand, she handed Duncan something soft and satiny. Scarves. "Tie me up."

Duncan pushed her down onto the bed and tied a hand to each soaring pencil post, firmly but not too snugly. Diana watched him hungrily, her eyes gleaming in the firelight. He tied her ankles so that she was spread-eagled, loosely enough so that she could bend her knees. He abandoned his shirt to the carpet's expanse and straddled her waist, his athlete's body coated with a sheen of sweat. Duncan leaned down and kissed her, his lips soft upon hers, his mouth slightly open. Their tongues met and embraced in a wet suckling of flesh.

Diana could feel his cock throbbing against her belly, and her inner thighs began to feel the seepage from her pussy. Duncan crept forward on his knees until his rod arched out over her face. He played with her, taking his staff in hand and rubbing it gently across her lips and over her cheeks, leaving a snail's path of seminal ooze in its wake. She snaked out her tongue, and he darted his cock away from her, teasing her, knowing her range was limited by her satin bonds.

"Give it to me!" she demanded.

"What do you say, wildcat?"

"Please. Please, give it to me!"

"Not yet. Not this way." He backed down her body, drawing his cock over her breasts, between those fleshy mounds. He continued downward, straddling her belly again. The sweat was pooling in her navel, and Diana was panting with her efforts.

She whimpered with frustration as he went lower and slid his dick through her fur, along the outer lips of her steamy pussy. She arched her pelvis, her opening grasping for the food she desired.

"Duncan, please!"

"You think you deserve this?"

"Yes! Have I not been good to you? For you?" she whispered.

"Oh, you've been very good, wildcat. For that, you get a reward."

Duncan shoved himself inside her honeycomb, forcefully enough to make Diana gasp, but not hard enough to tear her. She arched upwards against her restraints, sucking his cock into her tight lair.

"Mmmm, baby, give it all to me!" she cried out.

Duncan placed a hand gently over her mouth. "Shh, Red, we don't want the beast to hear us!" He continued to pump into her, loosening his hand from her mouth.

Diana whimpered again, biting her lips to keep from crying out. Duncan lay heavily atop her body as he stroked and slammed into her pussy. She nipped him in the hollow of his neck, but so caught up was he in his ecstasy, he didn't notice the wound until he looked at himself in the mirror the next morning.

He recognized the budding orgasm within her, the shift in her rhythm to a more frantic pace. "Come on, Red, let go, let go, let go..."

She let go. Her slippery dew lubricated his shaft and Duncan swiftly followed her lead, his cream flowing into her and down her thighs. He managed a few more fevered jerks of his hips then rolled to the side, exhausted.

As he began to doze off, Diana's low voice swept a path through his consciousness. "Uh, Duncan? Are you going to untie me?"

Duncan rose up on his knees and untied her hands and ankles, kissing the circulation back into her limbs. "So, what do you think, wildcat? Did we make enough noise to wake the dead?"

Outside, the dead was wide awake enough on his own without their help. Damon watched and waited until he determined they weren't coming out. He headed back to his lair and began to build an altar for his bride.

Sunday was overcast, with an early rainstorm soaking the area. It blew transformers and wreaked havoc on branches and power lines. Duncan drove them back to the cabin at daybreak, fighting the winds sweeping through the canyons and dodging branches that whipped the truck's cab as they drove down Diana's narrow driveway.

The power went out at the cabin at 6:15 at night.

There was a thump from the library where Duncan was perusing Diana's collection of erotic literature. "Ow! Damn it!"

"Duncan, are you okay?" Diana lit a candle and ascended the staircase.

"Yeah. Just banged my knee on the coffee table."

Diana held the candle aloft as she entered the library. "Need some first aid?"

Duncan was rubbing his knee. "Want to kiss my joint and make it better?"

"Depends on which joint you're talking about."

"I've got one that's really aching. I think it's stiffening up and it could use a heavy-duty massage to work out the kinks." Duncan raised an eyebrow and leered at her.

Diana pivoted and headed back out of the room, pausing in the doorway to crook her index finger and motion for him to follow. "Come here, big boy. Let's see just how kinky you are."

They stood together in front of the fireplace, the only source of warmth in the house for the time being.

"Give me a second to stoke the fire," Duncan said, kissing Diana on the tip of her nose.

She ran a hand over the front of his jeans. "Seems to me your fire is already stoked. That's a might big log you've got burning in there."

"You ought to see it flare up when you blow on it!" Duncan stacked a few more logs on the grate and the fire licked its way across the newcomers, catching hold and blazing up.

"Oh, yeah? Let me see."

Diana knelt between his legs and loosened his belt. She unbuttoned his fly, taking her time while she ran her other hand along the inside of his thigh. She skimmed his jeans down his legs and he stepped out of them and peeled off his sweatshirt at the same time. The firelight's glow ebbed and flowed upon his body, accentuating the hard sinews of his thighs and arms with the shadows it cast.

"Where does it hurt? Here?" Diana grazed the head of his penis with her tongue and glanced coyly up at him. He nodded.

"How about here?" She ran the tip along the groove where the head met the shaft.

"Oh, yeah," Duncan whispered, tangling his hands in her blazing hair.

"Does this help?" She swirled her tongue along the entire branch, then wrapped her lips and mouth around its fleshy bark.

Duncan gasped and pushed her head onto him. "Oh, Red, yes! God, that feels good!"

He rocked gently as Diana added fuel to his fire, her saliva melding with the droplets of creamy sap oozing from his muscular limb. He urged her on, using his hands to quicken the bobbing motions of her head. He filled her mouth with his heated prick, forcing little grunts from her throat as he shoved into her.

He stopped suddenly and withdrew his cock, pulling Diana to her feet. "I need to come into your pussy," he rumbled into her ear.

"Here, let me slip into something comfortable." Diana shed her clothing and stood with her back to the fire. Her hair gleamed, an angel's crimson halo streaming over her monumental breasts. She held out her hands to her lover and he joined his body with hers.

Diana nestled her face in the soft chestnut curls on his chest and ran her hands over his muscled back and rump. "You're all sweaty. That fire's awfully hot."

Duncan lifted one of her breasts to kiss the nipple. "Yeah, it is. I must have stuck my poker in it, because it's burning up."

"Here, I've got something that you dip it into to cool it off."

"Oh, babe, I think it's going to get a lot hotter before it cools down!" Duncan lifted Diana and carried her to the couch, cradling her in his powerful arms. He laid her on her back and straddled her, gazing down into her tawny eyes.

"Come inside me, Duncan." Diana guided his poker into her snatch and locked her legs around his thighs. Duncan sucked on the tender skin on her neck in the hollow of her collarbone. "Mmmmm, you're a wonderful lover, baby!"

Duncan stroked her from the inside for a few minutes, then pulled back and broke her hold on his thighs. "Here, put your legs over my shoulders."

Diana complied and he leaned forward, plunging deep into her humid pit.

"Uh, yeah. I love this position, I can stick my dick so far into you I can almost touch your backbone!"

As he pumped, his cock created a pleasant friction against Diana's protruding bud. Soon, she was pulling on his shoulders with her bent knees. "I'm almost there, baby. Just a little...ah, mmmm, ahhh!" She tightened her legs and arched her tinderbox into him. The motion was enough to set a spark to his log. It could have been a stick of dynamite with the force of the ensuing explosion that jettisoned forth from his cock.

Duncan loosened Diana's legs from his shoulders. They rolled sideways and spooned on the couch, his arms wrapped securely around her warm body.

Outside, the rain and darkness fell as one, and the wind blew a warning whistle around the eaves.

Up at the campgrounds, Damon spent Sunday night finishing his altar. It had snowed lightly again, and the grounds sparkled with a pristine cleanliness where the vampire had not walked with his defiling body. He stood back to admire his handiwork, a collection of stones from the firepits arranged into a circle with a fifteen foot diameter. He had gathered dried branches from beneath the coniferous stand of trees shading the campgrounds and laid them just inside the stones. He would seal their mating within a ring of fire; he was Phoenix, he did not fear the touch of flames. As dawn grew near, he tired. He would need blood, soon. He would take hers, then he would take the man's after he made the human watch their mating. It would be deliciously cruel.

By Tuesday morning, the power had been restored. Diana checked with the Chief for information about Jesse Carrillo.

"He's still missing," the Chief said. "He was checking out campgrounds west of the highway. He was scheduled to finish his patrol up at the end of the highway on Friday, but we have to assume he was already dead by then."

Diana reported the latest findings to Duncan and went outside to feed the horses. Ebony, a pure black mustang, was blissfully dozing in the corner of his stall. Crabapple was restless, laying a backward kick into the boards, snorting and stamping nervously. She saw Diana coming and rolled her eyes, her ears flaring back.

"What's the matter, girl? You think we're going to have company? I sure hope not, for all our sakes." Diana patted the gray dappled mare on the neck, careful to keep the stall between herself and those hooves.

Duncan and Diana ate supper early and in silence. The cats paced the house, tails up like exclamation points. While they were doing the dishes, the two heard a loud banging in the living room and ran to investigate. The large black cat, aptly named Chunky, sat on the hearth with a look of alarm and guilt on his face. He had knocked the old baseball bat onto the hearth from the mantel where Diana had laid it while cleaning. Diana scolded the cat and brought the bat into the kitchen, laying it on a counter so they could finish the dishes in peace.

Down in Damon's Canyon, the vampire crept from shadow to shadow, approaching Jacob Carpenter's shop.

"Can I help you, young man?" old Jacob asked, coming out slowly from his studio. He stopped short.

"Oh, I think you can, old man. I need some information," the vampire said in a dry husk.

"You're not getting anything from me, monster," Jacob said, pulling a cross from beneath his flannel shirt.

The vampire advanced, his eyes fixed on Jacob's.

"Don't play those games with me, demon. I'm too old and have seen too much to fall for that." Jacob held up two of the hawthorn stakes he'd been working on, honed to fine points, and crossed them in front of himself.

Damon hissed and drew back. "How much does the huntress know about me? How does she plan to stop me?"

"That's her business, not mine. You fear her, then. That is good. You should fear her, she will hunt you down and deliver you of your damned soul."

"She should fear me. I know where she lives, I have watched her home at night, I have seen her in there with the man she calls Duncan. I want to know what she knows, how she plans to deliver me. Then I will take her up to my lair and she will become my mate forever."

The vampire slowly drew near the old man, careful to stay out of reach of the crosses. A car pulled up outside and it drew Jacob's attention long enough for Benyu to pounce. Jacob fell over some of his creations to the floor. There was a dry snap as the old man's brittle hip broke. The vampire leaned over to grab Jacob by the neck. Jacob drove one of the hawthorn stakes into the vampire's leg just above his boot. Benyu howled and kicked out, catching old Jacob in the shoulder.

Furious, Damon Benyu looked around and found a can of flammable varnish. He splashed it all around the shop and picked up a pack of matches with "Jacob Carpenter Fine Woodworking" on the cover from the jar the front counter. He looked down at the old man with dark hatred on his face and dropped the match, backing out the door and running off into the darkness. Benyu had one more stop to make before pursuing the red-haired bitch.

The bathroom door in the back of the shop jerked open, and Zara, old, sweet, arthritic Zara, hobbled out at an alarmingly rapid pace.

"Come on, old Jacob, we need to get you out of here." She reached down her pain-wracked hands and helped the elderly man drag himself through the rear of the shop and out the back door, both of them coughing and wheezing in the dense smoke and heat.

The police chief and several officers had arrived, alerted by the quick-thinking customer with a cell phone who reported the fire. They moved the elderly couple away from the burning shop.

"Madame Zara, are you all right?" asked Sgt. Martinez. He shawled her shoulders with a blanket.

"I'm fine, son. Dragging that old fella is like hauling a mule across the mountains, but I wasn't going to let his skinny old behind cook in there. He's damned lucky this old lady's bladder isn't what it used to be, or I wouldn't have been hidden away in the bathroom when he was attacked." She looked down at Jacob, who was lying on the dirt and sawdust, with a mixture of concern and affection. The whole town knew that Zara and Jacob had been an "item" for some thirty years.

"Mr. Carpenter, hang on, the ambulance is coming," the Chief assured him, laying a blanket over his prone body.

Jacob peevishly moved the blanket off his shoulders and looked at something he was holding in his hand, a mossy mass of greens and browns. He had a distant look in his eyes of sudden realization. His throat was raw from the smoke. "Purity," he rasped. He tugged on Zara's pant leg and pointed to something along the dirt drive.

"What is it, Jacob? You want me to bring that to you? Why?" Jacob pointed again, insistently and urgently. Zara relented and painfully picked up the object with her gnarled fingers and placed it in the old man's outstretched hand. She leaned down to listen to his hoarse words. He held the object up in front of her face and said two words: "Tell Diana!" Then he uncurled her fingers and placed the quartz rock in her swollen hands, and lay back beneath the blanket.

The telephone electrified Diana's nerves in her dark bedroom. She answered with a gruff "What?" as Duncan sat up and turned on the lamp next to the bed. The clock read 2:00 a.m. "This had better not be a Halloween prank."

"Diana, it's Zara. He's been in town! Benyu, he's been here," Jacob's Lilliputian rescuer chattered excitedly. "He burned down Jacob's shop and he knows where you live. You have to get out of there, Diana. And Jacob knows where he's hiding out. He wants me to tell you."

"Zara, slow down and speak so I can understand you! Start at the beginning. Is Jacob all right?"

"Yes, he broke his hip and has smoke inhalation, but the old fart is ornery as ever. It's a good thing I was at the shop, or he never would have gotten out alive. The vampire tried to get information about what you know and how you plan to kill him out of Jacob, but he stabbed Benyu in the leg with one of the hawthorn stakes. The rest are all burned up, everything burned. But my Jacob is okay." Diana could hear tears in Zara's voice.

"How does Jacob know where Benyu is staying?" Diana placed the phone on speaker.

"Jacob noticed some stuff fall off Benyu's boots when he tried to kick him. I'll explain later. But he recognized what it was, it's the needles from one specific type of tree. Jacob has worked with wood all his life, he knew what it was that fell off the boots. He said something about purity. Then he placed a quartz rock in my hand and said "Tell Diana!""

"He's up at The Rock! That's why Jesse Carrillo disappeared. He was supposed to have gone there on Friday to check out the museum and campgrounds, but I'm betting he went early so he could get out of town and head to the coast. Bad timing on his part, poor guy," Diana said.

"Diana, they found the park ranger's truck in town and impounded it. That means Benyu's on foot, unless he steals someone else's car. You have a head start. One other thing. Vernon's Sports Shop was broken into after the fire tonight. Don't know what was taken, but it might be Benyu."

"Zara, I have to go. We're clearing out of here. I know what I have to do now. You take care of yourself and that old Jacob. And may God help us all!"

Diana slid out of bed and threw on thermal underwear, jeans, heavy hiking boots, and a turtleneck shirt. She added a flannel lumberman's shirt and a down parka. Duncan didn't ask any questions, but did the same, dressing in layers for warmth.

"Where are we going?" he asked finally as Diana hauled a couple of backpacks out of a closet and galloped downstairs, two steps at a time.

"Help me pack these," she said, going into the pantry and pulling out trail mix, dehydrated fruit, and granola bars. She filled up several canteens with water.

"Hang on, I have just what we need," Duncan said and ran out to his camper shell, loading up on the survival foods he'd been squirreling away.

"We're going up to the campgrounds at the end of the highway. It's unofficially called "The Rock" because of the big formations that overlook it and the valley below. There's a fire lookout up above the campgrounds. Benyu's probably been staying at the nature museum up there. It's closed for the season, no one ever goes there unless they absolutely have to because it gets snowed in so early. He's been down in town and he's injured, which means we might get there before he does."

"Are we taking your truck?" Duncan wondered, following Diana into the armory.

"No. Benyu's liable to see the tire tracks if we do that. I couldn't get up there even with my four-wheel drive in this weather. Horseback, it's the only way at this point. There's a trail from my pasture up through the woods that comes out at the campground. We can cut off about a mile from the trip by taking the trail. Benyu's on foot, as far as we know. We can get there ahead of him and ambush him."

Diana strapped her .40 caliber into a leather holster, buckling it around her hips and tying the leather strap around her thigh. She hauled her beloved .30-.30 out of the safe. It had been a gift from her mother two months before Mamma succumbed to a massive heart attack. She loaded the 7-shot carbine with silver ammunition and slung it over her shoulder.

"Keep your 9 mm," she advised Duncan, handing him a couple of extra loaded clips. "Lord, what's that?"

A horrendous yowling began in the living room and swept throughout the house. "It sounds like someone skinning a cat," Duncan offered.

"It is the cats! He's here! How the hell did he get here so soon?" Diana charged into the living room, lifting her gun from its holster.

Chunky was standing at the patio door, staring out into the darkness, sounding an unearthly alarm. The hair on his back and tail stood straight up. The Siamese was pacing in the foyer, reiterating the alarm in a greatly higher range. Patches, the calico, stood on the upstairs landing, looking out the front windows and echoing the other two cats in a throaty growl. The two kittens huddled together under the couch in the living room and trembled, new to this sort of excitement. The scent and presence of the vampire overwhelmed and terrified them.

Diana doused the interior lights and ran upstairs. She dropped the backpack at the front door and pulling her carbine around by the sling.

"Do you see anything?" Duncan whispered loudly. He was right behind her, gun drawn.

"No. Wait a minute, what is he doing?"

A small flame flickered in the distance beyond the hedges and suddenly sailed into the air, landing on her trellis. The shrubs burst into flame.

"That bastard, he's firing arrows into my hawthorn hedge. He must have been watching us and figured out he couldn't get past the hedge."

Another arrow and then another sped through the dark, landing on various portions of the hedge, Soon, the entire fence of hawthorn was burning, not close enough to damage the house, but enough to destroy the barrier between them and the vampire.

Benyu had stolen a hunting crossbow and arrows from the sports shop, along with sports tape and athletic socks. He had fashioned a type of projectile Molotov cocktail out of the items, soaking the socks with remaining varnish he had used to fuel the fire at Jacob Carpenter's shop.

The vampire's leg throbbed and burned where Jacob had driven in the hawthorn stake. He had managed to rip it out as he ran, but splinters still remained in the wound, hindering his progress as he tried to run in the direction of Diana's cabin, plundered weapons in hand.

Duncan joined Diana on the landing as she opened a French door and eased out onto the balcony. "Can you see him?" he asked.

"No, but I've got a good idea where he is. Keep an eye out for the next arrow." Diana levered a round into the chamber and shouldered her .30-.30.

Another arrow flew up from the ground and she fired, cranking off rounds and levering bullets in with expert speed. On the third round, they heard a screech from the darkness.

"Got him! That should keep him at bay for awhile, but just to be sure..." Diana stepped inside the door and flipped a switch on the wall. The Christmas lights that Duncan had noticed were permanently installed on the overhanging eaves of the second story lit up. Crosses. The lights were a design of crosses arranged in a single row that encircled the entire house.

"Hey, I'll try anything once," she said, noticing Duncan's dubious look.

"He might try to burn them or the house with arrows."

"Can't get that close—that's why we planted ash trees around front. Our little fortress."

"What if he cuts the power to the house?"

"He can't. Underground cable, we made sure of that when we rebuilt. You learn a lot from your mistakes in this business. So unless he goes all the way back to town and cuts the transformer that caused the power outage earlier, we're fine." Diana closed and locked the door and tromped back downstairs. She pulled bullets out of her pocket and reloaded the carbine as she descended, muttering, "Now I need to get an automatic weapon."

"Now what?"

Diana sat on the couch in the darkness, holding the gray tabbies and soothing their frightened feelings, while the three older cats patrolled the house, watching out windows.

"We wait until morning. First light, we're out of here. I doubt we'll have any more problems with him tonight."

It took just twenty minutes for Diana to be proven wrong.

The horses started screaming just as the feline patrol began their air-raid alert again.

"Son of a bitch!" Duncan was out the door first this time.

Flames were shooting from the garage and the horse barn. Benyu had regrouped and moved in for another assault.

"Let the garage go!" Duncan shouted, pulling Diana by the hand as they raced towards the barn. Ebony could be heard neighing shrilly within his stall, while Crabapple tattooed an angry beat on the wood with her hooves.

Duncan reached Ebony's stall door and unlatched it, staying out of the way as the terrified horse bolted out into the open air, shaking embers from his inky mane. A growl erupted from the side of the barn and Duncan was nearly deafened by a series of rapid-fire explosions as Diana cranked off rounds from her pistol from behind him. A shriek from the strigoi mort split the night as a round connected. A shadow skittered away from the front of the barn down the driveway, fleeing the wrath of the huntress.

Duncan picked himself off the ground where he'd thrown himself after the third round. He thrust Diana away from the burning barn and pointed to her carbine. "Stay out here and fire at anything that moves! I'm going back in for Crabapple."

Duncan could hear the graveyard horse screaming in her stall as he ran a maze through the flames. The exostructure of the barn was starting to flake off as he came through the doorway, leading the struggling horse by a rope halter in one hand, dragging a saddle with the other.

"Diana, grab the saddle!" he yelled above the crackling flames. He dropped the saddle to the ground and held on to the halter for dear life as the Appaloosa tried to rear up. Duncan resorted to punching the horse in the jaw, which seemed to do the trick.

Duncan kept a wary eye on the garage as they passed on their way to the back yard. The hawthorn hedge hadn't completely burned into the back yard yet, and so they encamped on the back patio. A double explosion and a roar blasted the night as both of their trucks blew up inside the engulfed garage. Crabapple nearly pulled Duncan straight off the ground as the vehicles exploded, but he managed to hang on, wrapping the lead rope around both hands.

The rain had begun again, turning to snow as the temperature fell. The flames gradually died out and Duncan was finally able to tie the excited gray horse to a support post for the deck.

"Come on, let's go in. Let's get some dry clothes on and get the hell out of here before he comes back. We need to get to The Rock before Benyu does," Diana insisted. She took a last look out the patio door and locked it. They both rushed through quick showers, rinsing the stinking soot from their skin, then repeated the ritual of dressing for the cold weather.

As the sun just began to shed its blush on the mountains, Diana removed one of the vents from the fireplace. "Kids, come here. Come to mamma," she called to the cats. They came running at the sound of her voice. "Up, up, come on, you know what to do," she urged them, patting the rim of the vent's opening.

The three older cats jumped into the vent, two of them disappearing into the recesses of the vent. The calico lingered, looking back over her shoulder. Diana picked up the two younger cats and kissed them on their noses, then shoved them into the opening. They turned and looked at her with confusion. The calico moved forward and swatted them with a paw, herding them into the darkness. Diana replaced the vent, then called into its slats. "We'll be back, guys. Take care of the little ones. And no pooping in the walls!"

"Where are they going?" Duncan asked.

"Someplace safe. Another safeguard. The vent leads to a graduated shaft that runs up to the roof and out a concealed vent so they can go outside. There are also shafts leading from the main one through the walls. Hidden passageways for my cats. I know, sounds crazy, but they're my family, too. When I'm away, it allows them to go in and out, and yet stay warm at night. There's one shaft that leads to the armory, where I have an automatic feeder and waterer set up. Should keep them fed for a week, not to mention all the stuff they hunt outside. There's a small natural spring running out of the rocks in the woods just beyond the pasture, so they have a fresh supply of water. I just hope they keep an eye on the kittens."

Duncan shook his head in wonder. "You think of everything, don't you?"

"I'm no different than you and your camper with its stock of food and a place to sleep when you can't find a motel. Of course, we both have a lot of explaining to do to our insurance companies. I'll have thought of everything when I think of a story for what happened tonight. Let's get moving."

Diana picked up the quilt on which she and Duncan had made love. "It will have to do for a horse blanket. No time to grab one in the fire." She soothed the Appaloosa as Duncan saddled the nervously dancing horse.

"Will she carry both of us?" Duncan asked skeptically.

"Only one way to find out. If not, one of us is walking." Diana slipped her carbine into the saddle scabbard. "We're going to have to go with only one pack, no room for two." They transferred the contents of Duncan's bag to her hiking pack with an aluminum frame. She tied a solitary sleeping bag on the top of her backpack "We're going to have to sleep really cozy. Any complaints?"

Duncan shook his head. "None that I can think of. How far away is this place, The Rock?"

"Fifteen miles up the highway, fourteen by the trail. With this weather, it'll take us the better part of the day. I'll be right back." Diana ran back inside the house.

Once inside, she raced around, ensuring that everything was secured. She tried to make a call on her cell phone, but couldn't get through. Scanning the kitchen, she spied a piece of polished serpentine that served as a paperweight and slipped it into her parka pocket. She grabbed a couple of fur trapper hats from the foyer coat rack as she passed on her way out the front door. Diana locked the door and laid the serpentine paperweight on the door mat.

Diana ran back to the patio, tossing one of the hats to Duncan and squaring the other on her gleaming tresses. Duncan wrestled on the heavy backpack and settled it on his shoulders. Diana untied the graveyard horse and swung into the saddle, reaching a hand down to help Duncan boost himself up behind her.

They rode away from the house towards the north side of her property into the forest. There was the start of a small path through the trees, a path already treacherous with ice and snow. The horse's breath came out in vaporous streams in the cold air, Crabapple snorting as they traveled.

"This path winds through the woods for a couple of miles, then splits into two forks. One leads out to the highway. With the storm, the road will be closed about three miles above the turnoff to the cabin. The other continues up through the woods to the campgrounds. There shouldn't be anyone else up at The Rock but us and the vampire. I wonder where he is right now?"

Benyu was back at the cabin were he had killed Lisa Turnbow and Chief Mulavey. The police were done with their investigation and the yellow police tape was enough warning to trespassers to keep out that he felt safe for the rest of the day. He would rest up and allow his wounds to heal, then go back to his lair, collect his bag of earth and bid farewell to Damon's Canyon. He'd let the huntress think she had won for now, then come back in the future and take her when she was off her guard. He would make her pay for her deception.

Benyu inspected his leg where Jacob had staked him, the arm where the round from Diana's carbine had entered, and the wound on his shoulder where she had caught him with a round from her handgun. All the wounds were singed, as had been his previous injuries. The leg was of the greater concern; the bullet had passed through his arm and shoulder, but slivers of hawthorn were still needled into his flesh, burning with holy fire. He found a tweezers in the medicine cabinet, and pried out as many as he could find, before light broke and he settled onto the bed, his leg still tingling with minute fragments of wood. It would have to do for now.

Diana and Duncan said little to each other as Crabapple picked her way carefully along the path beneath soaring pines and aromatic redwoods. The trail ran upwards at a sharp angle, a narrow path worn perilously close to the edge of the steep hillside. One misstep on the part of the jittery Appaloosa and they would all tumble down into a chasm littered with deadfalls, jagged stumps, and moss-tinged boulders. A light powder of snow fell from time to time, making the path even more dangerous as the day wore on.

"Why didn't we just take the road from your house back to the highway?" Duncan asked at one point. "With the snow falling, wouldn't it cover up our tracks?"

"I like the element of surprise. The beast would smell us, would smell me, along the road. Can't take that risk."

As they rode, they breakfasted on some of the trail mix and packaged survival food they had brought along, washing it down with water from their canteens.

Duncan's hands wandered up beneath Diana's parka and he played with her nipples, nibbling on her neck and ear.

"Are you having fun back there?" she asked.

"I'd be having a lot more fun if I were the saddle right now." He removed a glove with his teeth and slipped his fingers down the front of her pants. "Mmm, you're nice and toasty down there." He brought his hand out and licked the fingers, savoring her spicy musk that lingered in the dampness. "Ever do it on a horse?"

"Yes. Have you?"

"Never. What's it like?" He wrapped his arms around her waist and nestled into her back.

"Depends on the horse. You need one with a broad back and a placid disposition. Wouldn't even think of trying it on this beast."

Crabapple snorted and pinned her ears back as if she knew they were talking about her.

"Oh. Well, it was just a suggestion," Duncan grumbled. They lapsed once more into silence.

It was slow going as they headed in the direction of the vampire's lair. The sky was overcast, the chill in the air indicating more snow was on its way. Crows awked at the riders from their perches in the trees and tiny chickadees flew in and out of the brush at the side of the trail, serenading them as they flitted in a nervous flight for food. Groves of twisted-branched manzanitas lined the path, their red-skinned trunks gnarled and wounded by old fires.

As dusk loomed, Diana reined in Crabapple under a stand of oaks and sugar pines beneath which hunkered a semi-circular wall of boulders fifteen feet high. "We're going to stop here tonight and camp. We're about six miles below The Rock. We can't travel any further in the dark, it's too dangerous. We'll just have to be on guard tonight in case he comes this way."

"Do you think he'd come along this trail instead of just heading up the highway?" Duncan wearily dismounted from the horse's broad back.

"I don't know what he'll do. He surprised me by coming back for a second attack last night. We have to prepared for anything."

Diana studied their bivouac area, picking a spot within the boulders that would shelter them from the wind for the night. She cleared away the snow with a green entrenching tool she had packed away while Duncan tied Crabapple to a fallen tree limb and unsaddled her. They gathered fuel from the forest floor and laid a modest fire, laying the backpack against the boulders. Using pine boughs as ground cover, they snuggled together in the sleeping bag, the quilt wrapped around them. The couple supped on dried fruit, granola bars and a pop-top can of stew that they warmed over the fire.

"Mmm, isn't this romantic?" Diana teased, spooning her share of the stew from the can with a metal camping spoon. "Happy Halloween."

"Dinner and a fire. What more can a guy ask for?" Duncan responded.

Diana grinned back at him with a knowing smile.

"Diana, can I ask you something? If you're so holy and all, why are you having sex with me before marriage?"

"Are you complaining? And who said anything about us getting married?"

"No, I'm not complaining! I'm speaking rhetorically about marriage! It's just so... converse to your devotion to your faith."

"Duncan, if I were perfect, I'd be walking on water right now instead of slogging on an ill-tempered horse through the snow. Besides, there are some temptations that even I can't resist!" She threw the empty stew can into the fire and snuggled down into the sleeping bag with Duncan.

"Ever do it in the snow before?" Duncan's hand crept up beneath her flannel shirt and thermals and tweaked a nipple.

"Believe it or not, no!" Diana slipped her own hand under his jeans.

"Hey, that's cold!"

"Ah, you'll warm it right up! See what I mean?" She stroked him as he kneaded her breasts.

"Come here, Red. Let's melt some snow!"

They wrestled and rolled around in the sleeping bag, two steaming peas in a very small pod.

"Ouch! What the hell's that?"

"Sorry. Car keys. Force of habit. Here, is that better?" Duncan tossed his keys on the backpack.

"Much. Hey, you'd better stick that up here unless you want it to turn into an icicle."

Duncan unzipped the sleeping bag and rolled on top of Diana. "Oh, yeah, that feels much warmer."

"Hurry up, my ass is freezing!" She encircled him with her legs as he scrunched her jeans below her thighs.

An occasional patter of snow whisked down from the branches as Duncan and Diana rutted atop the pine boughs. The flakes melted as soon as they touched Duncan's upturned ass, white and pounding in the frigid air.

Diana grunted and gulped for air as his ramming weight knocked the wind out of her. "Duncan, I can't breathe!"

"I'm almost there!" The force of his thrusts became urgent. Diana was on the verge of blacking out, tiny red and white lights exploding in her vision, when Duncan climaxed.

"Damn, you're a fucking animal tonight!" Diana wheezed as Duncan eased off her.

"Must be the fresh mountain air. You okay?"

"I will be as soon as I can breathe again. Thin air up here, but you sure were thick down there!"

"It's your fault. You just bring out the beast in a man!"

"That's what I'm aiming for." Diana burrowed into the sleeping bag. "You wore me out!"

"You get some sleep, wildcat. I'll take first watch." Diana pillowed her head on Duncan's lap as he sat with his back against a rock. He stroked her tangled hair and soothed the savage beast into slumber.