ACRID SMOKE HUNG IN the air, wafting in sheets from the pile of ash in the middle of the concrete floor of the warehouse. Angelos ignored the burning in his purloined mortal body's eyes and the tickle in his human throat as he watched this vampire named Lin. He was about to send out another spark to set her on fire, tired of this waiting. She stood by the circle of soot left by the fire twirling the dagger Angelos had given her in one hand, seemingly without conscious thought. With the other, she prodded the ash and bits of charred bird bones with a long sliver from the palettes they'd burned, as if she were looking for something. Or drawing something, he realized as he c****d his head, seeing it from a different perspective. He tried to make out the form taking shape, like two scythes cro
