As she watched, his breathing became more regular. His skin tone improved. He

was becoming stronger, recovering right before her eyes. She put her hand up

to

her chest. She felt weak and dizzy. And suddenly she realized what he had

done.

He had drawn off some of her strength, absorbed a portion of her life energy.

And he was feeding on it, using it to revitalize himself.

As she watched, stunned, he inhaled deeply, exhaled in a sigh, then opened

his

eyes and looked directly at her.

"Who are you?" he said in a strong, clear voice.

She shook her head and backed away toward the stairs leading to the door of

the

cell.

"No, wait, come back!"

She turned and fled the dungeon.

Stephie Baker shivered in her short, unbuttoned coat as she slowly sashayed

down

the street in what she hoped was an irresistibly provocative manner. She was

wearing an extremely short dress and high heels, showing off more of her

attractive legs than she had ever done before, except at the health club. She

was cold, and for the past two hours she'd been thinking that this had been a

truly stupid idea.

She had never done any sort of undercover work before, and when she was

approached about acting as a police decoy to trap the Ripper, she had thought

that it would be an exciting assignment and possibly an opportunity to

advance

in the force. She was a lower-grade police administrator, which essentially

translated as clerk-typist, and this assignment held forth the promise of

real

investigative police work out on the streets, where it was all happening.

The decoy squad had been the brainchild of Inspector Harper-Smythe, who was

directing the special task force. Each police decoy would be dressed up to

look

like a prostitute and sent out to work the streets of Whitechapel with a

backup

team of two armed police officers dressed in civilian clothing who would

watch

the decoy at all times and move in at the least sign of trouble. The decoy

would

be equipped with a tiny wireless transmitter, so that she could keep in

constant

touch with her backup team. It all seemed fairly safe to Stephie. She would

be

in sight of her backup at all times, and if she perceived the slightest

threat,

she could call for help and they would respond immediately. If the Ripper was

to

attack her, they could shoot him down at once. She realized mere was some

risk,