“Creepy white bastards that seem a little. snakelike?”

“Yeah.”

“The asetem-ankh-astet. They’re Wygan’s people. They might be magic users, so stay away from them.”

“I’m already staying away. They resist the stunners and they scare the crap out of me. They seem to scare the other vamps, too. I don’t know if it’ll get worse before you get here, but it’s not pretty now. It might be better if you don’t come home.”

“You don’t want me to come back?”

“I want you, but I think, given what you’ve said, that things will get worse when you do. You don’t have to play whatever game Wygan is up to.”

“I’m afraid I do, but I don’t have to play it his way if I know how to avoid it. And I can’t leave here without getting Will out first. Even if they didn’t try to use him against me again. ”

“No. You can’t leave a friend behind. Not even an ex-boyfriend. I’ll hold on here. Let me know if you’re coming back to Seattle or if I should bail out with Chaos and meet you elsewhere.”

I bit my lip, worried and conflicted. “How—how is the furball?”

“Crazed. She zooms around the floor like she’s chasing things, and she makes that chittering sound and dances around with her mouth open like she’s just killed the biggest rat in history.”

“You getting anything on your detectors?”

“Yes, I am. But without you to confirm it, I’m not sure I’ve got a good calibration. It could be stray cell phone signals or it could be the Loch Ness monster for all I can tell. Harper. God, I wish you were here.”

Something hard knotted up in my throat and made it difficult to talk. “Me, too. I’ll finish up as fast as I can,” I promised.

My companions were both watching me as I disconnected. I swallowed a few times to clear the emotion that choked me. “Change of plan,” I said. “We have to move faster than I’d hoped.”

Marsden pursed his mouth. “So it’s startin’, is it?”

I just nodded. Michael looked grim.

Marsden grinned, a terrifying and feral thing with his yellowed teeth and gouged eye sockets. “Right then. We’ll be after the Primate of St. James tonight.”

“The what?” I queried.

Michael looked startled.

“I don’t mean the Archbishop of Canterbury, boy,” Marsden said. Then he turned back to me. “It’s their little joke, y’see. They’re taking the piss by calling the head of their cabal the ‘Primate’ as if he were the equal of the Archbishop of All England.”

“Seattle’s only got one community of vampires. ” I said, though it appeared that wasn’t strictly true anymore.

“London’s older, more factionalized. Some of the Brothers go back to the founding of the city under the Romans. They’re playing by a different set of rules than what your lot is. You could approach the Primate of St. John and hope to get him on your side, but you haven’t got that time. You’ll have to go straight for St. James.”

“No.”

“And why not, may I ask?”

“St. James is in the Pharaohn’s pocket.”

“Hark at her. The expert!”

Annoyed now, I shook my head and snapped at him, “Listen. Two years ago in Seattle the Pharaohn used another vampire to watch me. Her name was Alice Liddell—”

“Like Alicein Wonderland Alice?” Michael asked, wide-eyed.

“Yes, but I’m not sure she’s that Alice Liddell, not really. Anyhow. She tried to use me to take Edward out so she could be top dog, but it didn’t work. She attacked us and we killed her. Or I thought we had—we left her staked down in a burning building. We assumed she was dust. But I saw her two nights ago in a club in Clerkenwell. It was less than two blocks from St. James’s church and she didn’t look like she was having any trouble with the locals.”

“Are you sure she’s got St. James’s for the Pharaohn?” Marsden questioned. “She could just be playing her game against Edward again on her own.”

I gave some thought before I opened my mouth again. Edward was a common enough name, but Wygan wasn’t, so I’d have to speak with care. Michael didn’t need to know that one of Seattle’s favorite late-night radio personalities and one of its richest citizens were vampires with a deadly grudge that had tangled both himself and his brother in its uncaring coils. “There was an asetem in the club—”

Marsden interrupted me. “‘Asete’ for just one. ‘Asetem’ is the plural.”

I gave him a sharp nod. “Asete. This asete talked to me, taunting me. She knew Alice, knew who I was, and said something about Alice and the Pharaohn’s plans as if I ought to know. She said it would be more fun if I was afraid. Alice is working for the Pharaohn-ankh-astet, and I think it’s safe to assume she now controls St. James’s or they wouldn’t have let her in the place.

“Edward used to have a line on things in St. James’s,” I continued, “but he lost it when Purcell disappeared. Sekhmet said Purcell’s lackey, Jakob, had—” I stopped myself from mentioning the charmed letter that had been sent to Will. “Had got the amphorae for the asetem. I thought she meant the vampires in general then, but now I think she meant the Egyptians. Barnaby said they were the Brothers of St. James, even though they took the jars under the priory of St. John. If anyone would know the difference between the Brotherhoods, I’d imagine it’s him. I think they used the priory basement for whatever ritual they did with the jars of blood to raise the creature Barnaby Smith mentioned, and they chose that location to intimidate the Brotherhood of St. John. The timing’s right for that skullduggery with the amphorae to be connected to Alice’s takeover of St. James’s.”

“One problem with that,” Marsden drawled. “The Brotherhoods both hate the asetem. They’ve had an agreement for ages to divide London up at the river and not interfere with one another. That’s how Edward got hisself run out: He tried to bring the asetem into the Brotherhood of St. James by pulling some jiggery-pokery with the Pharaohn.”

“The same Pharaohn?” I asked.

“Yeah. He and Edward is mortal enemies because of that.”

“Enemies united. Alice, St. James, and the asetem against Edward,” I said, fitting the pieces together. Wygan hated Edward for whatever had happened in London. He was running Alice now as he had when we met. “Alice is denying Edward his control in England. Keeping him trapped in Seattle while the Pharaohn starts his ball rolling. ”

“If you say so.”

“Educated guess. My friend on the phone said things are going nuts back home, and there are asetem stirring the pot.”

“You should pray he exaggerates, girl.”

“I don’t think he does. What’s happening there is connected to what’s happening here. The big players are all in Seattle.”

“Except you,” Marsden reminded me.

“I’m not a player, according to you. I’m a tool waiting to be shaped and used. I think that’s why I was lured to London.”

He shrugged. “You say so. Why is St. John not objecting to the asetem in Clerkenwell?” Marsden demanded.

“I’m not sure, but I’d bet whatever they did with the jars under the priory has something to do with it. Probably some kind of intimidation. If I can get to the Primate of St. John, he might help me get past Alice and get Will out.”

“You’d have to break St. James. That’ll mean breaking this Alice and whatever asetem she’s got with her.”

“I don’t think she’s very popular with them. The asete in the club didn’t like Alice. She acted like she was working under orders with which she disagreed. Once Alice is gone, I don’t think St. James will continue to work with the asetem. But I don’t give a damn what becomes of the Red Brotherhoods. I don’t care if Edward’s empire crumbles and they all kill each other so long as I get Will out alive.” And avoid whatever nasty tricks Alice has in store for me, I thought.