another

dream vision."

"But he got all those people there to go along with him," said Blood. "Those

unfortunate young women and some of the most respected men in the country. I

know how my father was duped into being there, but my brother Ian..." He

looked

away. "I still can't believe it, that Ian would have actually committed

murder...."

"He didn't really mean to," Kira said. "He didn't know what he was doing."

"Your father is a very strong-willed man, Michael," Makepeace said "and he

almost fell under the necromancer's influence. Ian probably never stood a

chance."

"Yes," said Blood. "They look for weakness in the soul, you said."

"Most people have a weakness somewhere," Makepeace said. "Some simply conceal

it

better than others."

"And other people are simply evil at heart," Wyrdrune said. "Those are the

easiest for the necromancer to control."

"Like Carfax," Blood said.

"Yes, like Carfax. He was meant to die, you know. They were all meant to die.

Every one of them. The idea was to use Modred to draw us in where we were too

close to be able to escape, then kill him just before we could get to him. At

the same time those women he'd turned into werewolves and demons were meant

to

kill those men, so that he could absorb all of that released life energy at

peak

levels, along with Modred's life energy as well. That would have made it

impossible for us to stand against him. And in case anything went wrong, he

had

it all set up so that we'd attack Carfax, thinking that he was the Dark One.

Only he never counted on Terri offering some of her life energy to Modred, so

that he could be strong enough to act when the time came and draw life energy

from the very man who had been meant to kill him."

"Ian," Blood said softly.

"Yes," said Wyrdrune. "That was another thing that took the necromancer by

surprise, that one of us would resort to the same methods used by the Dark

Ones.

Only Modred stopped just short of killing Ian."

"I wonder why," said Blood. "After all, killing should hardly bother him. And

Ian tried to murder him, so I suppose it would have been self-defense."

"Modred is a complicated man," said Kira.

"He couldn't come with you?" said Blood.

"He wouldn't come," said Makepeace with a smile. "He didn't want to put a

chief

inspector of Scotland Yard through the discomfort of getting a hospital visit

from a professional assassin."