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A long ride uptown on the A train later, we were at Columbia Presbyterian talking with a Japanese healing entity, O-Kuni-Nushi, known to his oblivious human colleagues as Ken Nushi, doctor and special seminar instructor for the premed upperclassmen at Columbia University.

A healing spirit, more powerful than a human healer by far, would've come in handy not so long ago, but he didn't know Promise at the time and vice versa. He knew of someone who knew someone who knew someone and so on. As it turned out, he could still do us a favor. First, he was actually willing to pay us. Second, he was able to confirm the students were missing and the college was more concerned than the cops were at this point.

"You are correct. Two students have disappeared on campus over the past two days, also a maintenance man." Behind his desk, Dr. Nushi steepled long, thin fingers, two of which were banded with jade rings. One was white, one red. He had a face that was oddly monkeylike—large ears, black hair in a widow's peak, broad nose, and soulful eyes. Even more oddly, indifferent student that I was, I happened to remember a mythology lesson from years before. In the Japanese mythos, monkeys were thought to bring good fortune. If you needed a doctor, good fortune would be a nice bonus along with a cheerful bedside manner.

"I cannot say what has taken them," Dr. Nushi continued. "But there is something here. A predator, human or not, I can't say. But there is a stillness…an air…" He looked at me, then opened his hands in a "who knows?" gesture. I had an air about me too, he seemed to think, but he remained silent on that subject. Luckily. Niko cared for comments about my Auphe heritage even less than I did. "I cannot put a finger on it," he said, "but I know. Death is here. A good physician recognizes it. This is walking, talking Death and it is using our campus as a feeding ground. Human or non, I want it gone. This is a place of knowledge, not death. But I didn't know what to do with the police saying we must wait forty-eight hours. I didn't know who to contact, not until Mrs. Nottinger called with the offer of your services." He nodded his head toward Promise.

"Sawney Beane." Niko had bowed to Dr. Nushi before he'd taken a seat. Now, in black on black, he sat straight in the deep blue brocade chair with face impassive. "It may be the one we're looking for hunts here now. It may be, as you say, a human. Either way, we will look into it." He looked at Promise, then back at me. "The tunnels and sewers might not be to his liking. He'll no doubt have several prospects going at one time, trying to find the best possible location for his true home. Once he settles on one he'll stay there, but I don't think he has yet. He could be hunting here and taking his victims back to whichever location he's trying out now. Whichever cave."

"If that is true, you will certainly be more help than the police," Nushi said.

"The police aren't here, then?" Promise asked. We knew they wouldn't find Sawney, if he was hunting here, but if they were patrolling the campus in force, they could make things difficult for our investigation. There should've already been rampant speculation about a serial killer with as many bodies as Sawney was leaving around.

But the thing was, bodies weren't being left around. We'd seen that, having checked the paper for several days after finding the bodies in the trees. There'd been nothing until the slayings at the mental institute. No stories on the ones in the trees or on the various body parts floating in the tunnels that could've been stumbled across by the construction crews. Mysteries. We had too much on our plate already, but it was something we'd need to come back to—eventually. Right now … it could wait, but we'd look into it. Maybe in a few weeks … or months. After Sawny, a vacation was the only thing I wanted, not mysteries.

"They are peripherally involved, but as I said, the students are adults legally, as well as is the maintenance man, and it has not yet been two days. They are investigating, but as there are no signs of foul play as of yet …" He spread his hands wider, then placed them on the desk. "They are certainly not here in force." The brown eyes sought out us all one by one. "This is my home, but I am no warrior. Mrs. Nottinger has said you are for hire. I will pay whatever you require to take care of this situation before it worsens."

Someone was actually going to pay us to risk our lives. Hot damn. It made horrific, near-death experiences a shade less annoying. I shoved my hand into the pocket of my black leather jacket and fingered a well-worn rip. I'd given Delilah my good one, but I liked this one too. I couldn't replace it; it was a classic, but I did need to replace the Glock, and explosive rounds for the Eagle didn't come cheap.

"Results will not necessarily be immediate. We will do our best, but Sawney is a one-creature slaughterhouse, quite literally," Niko cautioned. "And if the killer is human, the police would probably find him before we did."

"Then your best is all that I can ask." Dr. Nushi bowed. Nik bowed. And the meeting was mostly over. Except for Promise politely but firmly asking for Nushi's home address for billing purposes. She flashed a bit of fang in either strong incentive or flirtatious behavior. With vampires it was hard to tell. As the tips of Nushi's large ears flushed pink, I went with flirtatious.

We were given false student ID that would pass anywhere on either campus if we were stopped for any reason. Although I couldn't imagine why we would be. I looked the twenty-year-old punk-ass kid that I was. Niko, twenty-two, looked twenty-six, and could pass for a grad student or the TA that he was easily enough. Promise…Promise had an ageless quality, but no one would stop her because they thought she was a serial killer.

One student had disappeared on the way to French class, one while doing laundry in the basement of one of the dorms, and the maintenance man was a mystery. He'd gone out on a call, but taken the documentation with him. No one confessed to putting in a request and no one knew where he'd gone.

We separated to cover the most ground, mingling among the potential meals and looking for dead bodies and/or monsters. I took a map. Niko navigated by either the stars or his innate sense of place on the planet. It was past seven and dark; Promise carried her cloak over one arm and drifted. Two seconds later I'd lost sight of her. She knew how to move. I only knew the direction she'd vanished by the turning of male heads and one or two female ones.

I looked down at the map, considered it for a second, and then wadded it up to toss it into the nearest trash can. It wouldn't help me find Sawney. Smelling him would and thinking like him would. I wasn't entirely happy with the fact that I thought each would be an identical exertion. I'd been a happy-go-lucky maniac myself for over a week once. It wasn't difficult at all to remember the curve and slide of that particular thought pattern. Far too easy, in fact. One jump and you were on the ride, whizzing along with the wind cackling like insane laughter in your ears.

I tried my nose first. It felt safer.

Columbia is bigger than it looks, and it looked plenty big enough. We were concentrating on the Morningside Heights campus, where the students and employee had all disappeared. Nothing had yet happened at the med school and hospital fifty blocks up. There was Morningside Park bordering one side of the campus and Promise said she would inquire of any nonhumans within, a polite way of saying she'd ask the local yokels if they'd seen a new monster in the neighborhood.

I went from building to building, and first I thought it was going to be easy, because I smelled him right off the bat. But it wasn't long before I realized that, yeah, his scent was present…everywhere. Rank and unmistakable. He was hunting here all right. From what I could tell he'd roamed every nook and cranny of the school. Keeping to the shadows, avoiding the security lights, but owning it … every inch.