"Hey," the pilot nodded. "How was the flight?"
    "Not bad."
    "See any funny stuff?"
    "Not yet."
    "Good," Edgar nodded, swayed.
    "You?" Kane inquired.
    Silence, in which he downed another few ounces. "She doesn't get any older," he said eventually in a sort of painful bewilderment.
    "She, who?"
    "Pretty lady."
    "Which pretty lady?"
    "The one who doesn't get any older. Y'want some?" he offered, swaying in Kane's direction.
    "No, thanks though." Yasmina? Someone else?
    "Keeps you from remembering when the things that weren't gorillas ripped your friends to pieces."
    "They weren't gorillas?" That was interesting.
    Edgar shook his head owlishly. "Nope. Believe me, I know a gorilla when I see one."
    "You're not giving us that fighting apes in the Great War story again are you?" someone called from down the bar.
    "Damn you," Edgar mumbled. "Shut up. You don't know the weird stuff I saw over there.... She sure is pretty, though."
    "Where's she live?"
    "The old building."
    "Up by your place?"
    "No, she's in town. I see her walkin' around." He took another drink. "You ever see someone, you wonder what they're gonna be like when they grow up? And then they don't?"
    "Not really," he admitted.
    "Hm. Kinda funny." He swayed again.
    "I'll take your word for it."
    "What was all that screamin' earlier?" Edgar managed to focus a little.
    "It was the apes, coming over the Maginot Line," the town wit cracked. One more line of him, Kane thought....
    "Shut up! I know gorillas when I see them," he mumbled.
    "Eve probably fell asleep," the vampire told him.
    "She scream a lot in her sleep?"
    "It happens."
    "Happens to me, too. Well, I gotta get going if I'm gonna make it back home. S'a long walk." He wove his way to his feet. "See you around."
    "Later," Kane nodded.
    Edgar stumbled out the door.
    "He's not trying to walk home again is he?" the assistant bartender asked.
    The other looked doubtfully at the door. "He should be fine, he always makes it back."
    "I'm always afraid he's gonna freeze."
    "Well, the storm hasn't really started yet...."
    Kane sighed. It looked like he was going to go for a walk in the snow. At the rate Edgar was staggering, this was going to take a while, but he figured he would get back before daylight made his undead existence hell.
    It was boring. Edgar had abandoned the road in favor of a path, which he seemed to know well. Kane walked silently along after him, keeping an eye out.
    Four paws crunched softly through the snow. Edgar picked up his pace a bit. So did it, circling around in front of the man as he stumbled into a tree.
    Kane touched its mind; this one was a real wolf. Go away, he ordered. The wolf seemed rather hurt by the implication that it had been about to do anything and trotted off into the darkness, miffed but obedient.
    Edgar resumed his staggering progress. A while later Ambajejus loomed abandoned before them. He climbed the steps to a big old house, opened the front door, and disappeared inside. A while later smoke came up from the chimney. It didn't look as if he'd managed to light the house on fire, so Kane considered his job completed and turned around for the long walk back.
    There were three very large wolves at the edge of the trees, their stares making it very clear that he was not welcome. He moved carefully around the house, feeling their eyes on him, and began poking through the rest of the town. There was no one about, of course; it was almost three in the morning. Of the two dozen or so houses that made up the central community, five of the largest had smoke rising from them, and the biggest of those had two cars parked to one side. He noted down the plate numbers. Wolf tracks ran everywhere in the deepening snow.
    There was no church in the town, he realized suddenly. Fine with him, but strange for a small town in this part of the country.
    Finally he checked out the abandoned mill; the equipment there was clearly inoperable. The wolves continued to shadow him as he completed his inspection.
    Another loud, proprietary howl; that was the big one, somewhere nearby and coming closer. Others of the pack echoed his cry. Kane took the safety off his pistol. The wolves that had been lurking about as he prowled through town were headed in his direction with new purpose. He stood near the dilapidated building, waiting, as eight of the big creatures approached. He was willing to be chased out of town if that was all they wanted; he would leave it to them to decide if there was going to be blood this stormy night. The pack charged almost as one, not trying to circle him but to drive him away—until one impetuous beast had to take that last step, and leaped for him with a snarl.
    Kane met it in midair. He landed on top of it, teeth buried in its throat. Several wolves piled on, tearing at him. He ignored them grimly, called some fog in and finished draining the life from the first wolf. At least the rest of the pack was unable to attack while three of them were on top of him....
    
    Meanwhile, having received a vision of our comrade's danger, I raced the hotel's coupe toward Ambajejus, Adam hanging off the running board, ready to spring into action immediately. We screamed into the center of town and saw the pack in motion, the pile of them atop Kane.
    

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