With all my love to my hero at home,

My husband and best friend,

Don

Robby MacKay had murder on his mind as he approached the rendezvous site in Central Park. The peaceful scene did little to dissuade his violent thoughts. Moonlight sparkled on the still lake and gleamed off the aluminum hulls of overturned rowboats along the shore. The boathouse sat nearby, empty and quiet. Robby only took notice because he was checking for signs of an ambush.

He and his companions halted in front of a series of steps that descended into a dark gully. At the bottom was a tunnel with a Malcontent waiting inside. Waiting for his death, if Robby had his way.

He started down the stairs with Zoltan and Phineas. Angus MacKay and his wife Emma charged over the hill with vampire speed so they could investigate the far side of the tunnel.

“I told you…come alone,” a Russian-accented voice whispered from the black interior of the tunnel.

Phineas stopped on a landing halfway down the stairs, his hand curling around the hilt of his sword. “You’ve been trying to kill me for months, Stan. Of course I brought some mean and nasty dudes with me. One wrong move and they’re gonna make you look like beef Stroganoff.”

After surviving entirely on blood for almost three hundred years, Robby wasn’t sure what beef Stroganoff looked like, but he took grim pleasure in being called a mean and nasty dude.

Unfortunately right now, he was more of a clumsy weakling. Each step felt like he was sinking into wet shifting sand. The casts and bandages had been removed last night from his feet and hands, so tonight he’d claimed he was ready for action. It was a bluff he could pull off only if he didn’t fall down the stairs.