It wasn't too late by the time Rose dropped him at his apartment, and Jared hurried up to his room to grab a few things, then made his preparations. He'd decided to keep watch outside the same building the vampire had used to pretend to play trapdoor spider, which would afford him a good view of comings and goings from Knight's offices.

The building was some years vacant, its narrow frame wedged between its taller neighbors', or its neighbors' around it. The door was set in a little distance from the sidewalk, and its handle was broken in a way that put Jared in mind of his own apartment's doorknob. He shut himself in, settled on the dusty steps just inside, and began the wait for dusk.

He'd needed a break from The Weiss Diaries, so he'd brought some of Judy's books instead, and spent the time reading through parts he'd skimmed, or that didn't relate directly to demons. He pored over one page that caught his eye with a drawing of the Seal of Solomon, and another with a photograph of one of the other scrolls Judy had given him—the three-angel warding against Lilith. He'd been relying so heavily on the Seal, he hadn't had a chance to try the other talismans in his bag. But he knew little about them, and the tales in the books were the same as the ones that Judy had told him before.

It became harder to focus as the light faded and he continually checked his watch, and at last he abandoned his research and took up position in the doorframe, in the shadow of the old building's upper stories.

He was well aware that his plan was a thin one. Even if the vampire regularly visited his partner in crime, there was no guarantee that he was really planning to do it tonight.

But Jared was already here, and with no better plan, he might as well wait.

He waited.

The half-moon was gradually obscured in scudding clouds. People rushed by in either direction—purses and briefcases, high heels and tennis shoes, baseball caps turned front or back—all with somewhere urgently to be that wasn't here. Now and then a slow enough gait was brought up in alarm at noticing Jared, lurking there in the shadows, and a purse was clutched tightly to a chest and a pace quickened.

Still, he waited. The more often he checked his watch, the more slowly time passed.

A dog walker's retriever snuffed at his pant leg. Rats scurried along the curb. Endless cars flowed by.

A tall figure in a dark suit appeared on the corner, carrying a briefcase. It didn't pause, but kept walking straight out of sight.

Jared leaned out from his cover. He couldn't be sure it was the vampire—and the man hadn't gone in the office building—and yet sure he was.

He didn't go in the front...

He waited, heart hammering, for another age.

Janice Knight emerged from her building looking irritated, crossed the street, and strode out of sight.

Still, Jared waited.

The man reappeared on the corner and started for the curb. Before he reached it, however, he abruptly turned his back, then retreated a few paces, stopping under an awning. Jared jerked his head back behind cover.

Did he see me?

He peeked out again, one hand on the Seal. The vampire had his back to him. He seemed to be bent over his briefcase. It took Jared a moment to work out why.

There were black blots speckling the sidewalk.

He remembered the last time it had rained, when he'd been pacing the floor of his apartment, holding vigil into the late hours of the night. The vampire had evidently been watching, given his later knowledge of this, yet he hadn't attacked at the time. Why? Waiting for Jared to nod off, or...

Rainwater...?

Breathless, he scoped out the street. There was hardly anyone around.

The vampire straightened.

It was now or never.

He jolted from his hiding spot and barreled down the sidewalk. The vampire was pulling something from his bag. Jared sprinted the last few steps, pulling something from his own.

Keen opened his umbrella. Jared jabbed his water pistol into the vampire's back.

"Don't move."

Through the frame of the gun, he felt the vampire's muscles tense. There was a stiff pause.

"...Red. " Keen started to turn.

"Don't—!" Jared jammed the nozzle harder into his back. The beads that were gathered at the tip wetted the suit jacket.

The vampire froze. "Is that...what I think it is?"

"It's not a bullet gun, if that's what you're thinking."

Keen shifted his stance, and Jared could feel the swift in and out of his breaths. "It...won't kill me."

"But you seem worried."

"We're in publick."

"Yeah? Get moving someplace private."

He scoffed. "What?"

"Start walking, or I will fucking shoot ya."

"In the middle of Manhattan?"

"I'm just a guy with a water gun. You're the one they'll be looking at."

"Good Lord. Rife with fire, you are. Color me impressed."

"Shut up and walk."

The vampire took a step forward, his long legs threatening to carry him out of reach.

"Slowly!"

"Walk at your pace?"

"And turn around. We're going that way." Jared moved the gun like a rudder, steering him back toward the abandoned building.

The vampire walked tightly ahead of him, the large umbrella covering them both in its shadow. "You really aren't very religious, are you? Isn't this your day of rest?"

"D'ya ever shut up?"

"I think I'm entitled to speech if you're marching me to my execution. Am I not to stand trial?"

"I don't stand moral judgement from vampires. 'Sides, you were already at the docks."

"Well I suppose you were trying me..."

"And you've got your sentence. It's a short one. 'Die.'"

"Hm. It elicits appeal..."

Jared kept his free hand by his pocket, ready to call on the Seal. They were almost at the door he had come from. "In here."

The vampire hesitated. "And what do you think you're doing, anyhow, Mister Hero?" he hissed. "We aren't scheduled."

"My rule, not yours. Inside."

Keen lowered his umbrella and passed into the dark. Jared stepped swiftly in after and slammed the door behind them. He whipped out the Seal, about to call on it to beat the vampire down—

—Keen started to turn, ducking sideways—

—Jared fired the water gun, splattering his arm and back—

—the vampire cried out, dropping the umbrella to his chest to block the stream—

—he brandished the Seal, and Keen was blasted bodily onto the staircase.

Jared leaped at him, but the vampire held the umbrella at arm's length, buffeting him back. Keen scrambled up the staircase backward, attaining his feet and whirling to run.

Jared lunged after him, Seal raised. Up one flight and careening around the landing. He aimed bursts of the gun at the vampire's head. Keen hooked the umbrella over his shoulder, shielding his skull. He aimed for the vampire's calves instead, drawing a grunt of pain as the spurts soaked the trouser legs.

Pounding up more flights, waves from the Seal forcing the vampire on even as he stumbled. Keen hit the door at the top, and it burst with a crack, ejecting him out onto the roof—and the misty rain. He lurched to a halt under cover of an overhang and made a quick turn to the right, but Jared led with a jet of water, and he was forced out into the shower.

Jared stopped in the doorway, gun trained on the vampire as he stood, frozen, rain speckling down over his head. He remained there a moment.

And another.

And he scowled.

"What—but, how are you...?"

"How am I what?" Keen snapped, eyes fixed on Jared's gun. "Wet?"

"But I thought...the rain..."

"You thought...what? It would purify me?" The vampire began to laugh. "Red, even if it did—this is New York City. The rain is as unclean...as everything else."

"But you were avoiding it!"

"Because this is an expensive suit." He exhibited a bloodied arm. "Although at this point, the point may be moot." He looked up abruptly, blinking against the rain. "Alone, are you?" he hissed, his umbrella sagging.

Jared fired at his head. The vampire leaped back, raising the umbrella. Jared kept the gun on him, moving sideways under the roof overhang, but the slosh in the reservoir told him he was almost out. Sticking the Seal in his satchel to free a hand, he rummaged for the second of the small blasters he'd brought. As he fished it out, the vampire dashed at him.

He raised one gun high and the other low, aiming for the head and knees. The first blaster exhausted, he tossed it aside to swap it for the second, groping for the Seal of Solomon.

Keen dropped forward in a lunge, umbrella shooting out like a saber. Its frame struck him in the stomach, knocking him off balance. Stumbling back, his foot struck hard against the low wall at the building's edge. His eyes widened, as he was suddenly aware of the extent of the empty space behind, and then, arms circling wildly, he was going down.