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Edward took me into the Circus through a side door. There were no lights to mark it as special, but there was also no doorknob on the outside of the steel reinforced door. Edward knocked. The door opened, and in we went.

Jason closed the door behind us. I had missed him earlier at Danse Macabre. I certainly would have remembered the outfit. He was wearing a sleeveless plastic shirt, molded to his body. The pants were half crinkly blue cloth that looked like colored foil, with oval plastic windows, exposing his thigh, calf, and as he turned, one buttock.

I shook my head, smiling. “Please tell me Jean-Claude didn’t make you wear that out where people could see you.”

Jason grinned at me and turned so he flashed his butt at me. “Don’t you like it?”

“I’m not sure,” I said.

“Discuss fashion later, in a more secure place,” Edward said. He glanced at the door to our right that led into the main part of the Circus. It was never locked, though it had a sign above the door about authorized personnel only. We were standing in a stone room with an electric light dangling from the ceiling. It was a storage area. A third door was set in the far wall. Behind it was a stairway and the nether regions where the vampires stayed during the day.

“I’ll be underground, literally, soon enough, Edward.”

Edward looked at me for a long moment. “You promised to hide out for twenty-four hours. No going outside for any reason. Don’t even go into the main part of the Circus when it’s open to the public. Just stay downstairs.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

“This isn’t a joke, Anita.”

I tugged at the bulletproof vest I’d put over my dress. It was too large for me, hot, and uncomfortable. “If I thought it was funny, I wouldn’t have worn this.”

“I’ll bring you some armor that fits when I come back.”

I met his pale blue eyes and saw something I’d never seen before. He was worried.

“You think they’re going to kill me, don’t you?”

He didn’t look away. He didn’t flinch. But what I saw in his face made me wish he had. “When I come back tomorrow, I’ll have help with me.”

“What kind of help?”

“My kind.”

“What does that mean?”

He shook his head. “Twenty-four hours means that you hide until dawn tomorrow, Anita. With luck, I’ll have a name for us, and we can kill him. Don’t be careless while I’m gone.”

I wanted to say something casual, joking, like “I didn’t know you cared,” but I couldn’t. I couldn’t joke staring into his serious eyes.

“I’ll be careful.”

He nodded. “Lock the door behind me.” He went outside and Jason locked the door.

Jason leaned against the door for a second. “Why does he scare me?”

“Because you’re not stupid,” I said.

He smiled. “Thanks.”

“Let’s get downstairs,” I said.

“Nervous?”

“It’s been a long night, Jason. No games.”

He pushed away from the door and said, “Lead the way.”

I opened the door to the stone stairway, which led downward. It was wide enough for us to walk abreast. In fact, there was almost room for a third, as if the stairway had been built for wider things than human bodies.

Jason closed the door with a resounding thunk. It made me jump. He started to say something, but the look on my face stopped him. Edward’s parting comments had unnerved me. If I didn’t know better, I’d have said I was scared. Naw.

Jason walked down the steps ahead of me, exaggerating his walk just a touch to show off his derriere.

“You can cut the peep show,” I said.

“You don’t like the view?” He leaned against the wall, hands pressed behind him, showing off his chest.

I laughed and walked past him, clicking my nails down his shirt. It was solid and hard as a beetle’s carapace. “Is that as uncomfortable as it looks?”

He fell into step beside me. “It’s not uncomfortable. The ladies at Danse Macabre liked it a lot.”

I glanced at him. “I bet they did.”

“I like flirting.”

“No joke.”

He laughed. “For someone who doesn’t flirt, you have a lot of guys after you.”

“Maybe because I don’t flirt,” I said.

Jason was quiet as we walked to the bend in the stairs. “You