"Damn it to hell," said Loomis. He glanced around. "Get those people back." He turned to Paul. "Come

with me."

"Damn it to hell," said Loomis. He glanced around. "Get those people back." He turned to Paul. "Come

with me."

"My God," said Paul.

Modred was crouched down over the second body, farther down the alleyway. Loomis approached

him and Paul followed. The stone in Modred's forehead was glowing brightly as he straightened up and

turned around to face them, his expression grim.

"I tried to warn them," he said. "They should have fired immediately, while the entity was still involved in

its ritual. That might have disrupted the necromancer's concentration and given them a chance."

"Is that so? And suppose it was just some bum, going through the pockets of the victims after the killer

had already gone?" asked Loomis. "Dammit, Cornwall, I don't know how the hell you people do things in

England, but we have to follow procedure!"

"Your procedure just got two of your officers killed and one seriously injured," Modred replied flatly.

"When are you going to understand that your damned procedure is useless in a case like this?"

"They did what they were trained to do," said Loomis angrily. "If they'd just started shooting, they might

have killed an innocent bystander, for God's sake!"

"A risk you're simply going to have to take, if you don't want more of your men to die," Modred replied.

Loomis stared at him. "What the hell kind of a copare you?"

"I will repeat," said Modred, "standard police procedures are utterly useless in dealing with a

necromancer. From what your officer said in his report, the killings had already occurred by the time they

had arrived. The first victim was certainly dead, and this one was probably in the process of dying. There

was nothing that they could have done to save them and, unfortunately, Paul and I had not arrived in time

to be of any use. The best they could have done was try and save themselves."

"What do you know about these riders?" Loomis asked him.

"Riders?" Modred asked. "What riders?" He had not heard the latter part of Baker's report.

"Baker said two riders on unicorns rode up behind him, jumped over his car, and came barreling down

this alley," Loomis said. "And now, they're gone, too."

"Your guess is as good as mine, Lieutenant," Modred said, although he had no doubt as to who those

riders must have been. "But if two riders came down this alley and disappeared, then the obvious

explanation is that they must have teleported, along with their mounts. It's possible that they were Bureau

agents."