Morpheus saw Splendor as far as the door, and there stopped, conflicted about his next step. "I want to go with you." But. There was a but. Morpheus turned his head and looked at Pam sitting on the edge of their bed. He sighed.

"If I can, I'll let you know what happens," Splendor said.

Morpheus turned again to Splendor and met xir wide lavender eyes with his. "I would really appreciate it."

Splendor shook xir head.

"Did I....?"

"No! You didn't." Splendor peered up at Morpheus. "They're still gray. That was rude of me." Xe lowered xir voice further, "I could feel, before, how you waited and didn't press a connection."

"I've been too familiar."

"No." Splendor shook xir head again. "I don't want you to look at me and think I could have intentionally harmed one who makes you happy. I didn't know what would happen, but I also didn't do anything to stop it. I let my mother say those things."

There was a tightness in his throat as Morpheus tried to speak. "I don't blame you." And that was true, but his rasping voice couldn't have portrayed much confidence.

Psyche should have known. Morpheus didn't really know her, but he had some idea of the work she shared with his own mother. It should have been within her abilities to predict Julien's mental and emotional state.

And if it didn't seem likely her actions or their consequences were accidental, then she might have overstepped the bounds of her duty. Just the possibility that Psyche might have harmed their family as well as Julien caused a roiling heat inside him.

But he felt the sharpness of River's claws at his collar, and that grounded him. "You know?" Morpheus asked, voice barely stronger than before. "Someone told me once it gets better."

"When?"

Morpheus released a slow breath. "In time. I guess."

Splendor nodded. "I should go. I can feel Sid calling me. But, I will try to bring you news, though there are things I'm not supposed to share."

"I know how it goes."

They were both Children, but of different houses and Regions. Half Splendor's ancestry traced back to a Light Bringer, while Morpheus had multiple lines of descent through hereditary Children of Night.

"You like coffee?" Morpheus asked.

"I do." Splendor smiled.

"Maybe we could get coffee sometime."

"My traditional summons involves ritual sex, but it works nearly as well if you think on a time you were really happy."

"Good to know. Most of our house scries, but there is something." Morpheus stepped out into the hall and extended his wings. He plucked a single black feather from his right wing, and then holding it aloft willed it into the shape of a pager. "Here."

Splendor took the pager. "How does it work?"

"Spirit entanglement." Morpheus shrugged. "Just hold it when you need me, or check it for changes."

⁂

Morpheus absorbed the mass of his wings and went back inside the shoebox. Pam was unmoved from the bed, head bowed, but awake. Morpheus went to him and knelt at his feet.

"Pam."

"Do you have to leave? To work?"

Morpheus hesitated, drawing and releasing a breath. He was meant to watch Joy, but she'd been in Williamsburg for dinner the night before and he figured that if she was out shopping sales, she likely had gone along with her bandmates.

"It can wait."

"We need to talk."

"Yeah."

Pam swallowed. His right hand shifted to his lap and he tugged at the edge of his robe.

Morpheus shifted his gaze aside.

"I wanna get a shower, but, are you OK?"

Morpheus glanced up at Pam's face and nodded. "Well, not really, but I will be. How 'bout you?"

"I'm gonna need a minute."

"I'm here."

Pam scooted then along the mattress then rose and left for their bathroom.

Morpheus waited half a minute then stood and called through the door, "Hey Pam, should I go get us food?"

Pam's voice called back, "Can you just stay?"

"I can, yeah."

"What?"

Morpheus raised his voice. "Won't fly away. Promise!"

While Pam was in the bathroom, Morpheus went to the window. He pricked his finger on one of Pam's potted cacti then bit at his thumb to get his blood to flow. He could feel the warmth of the Djinn before he could call them.

"Hepburn, Loren, I need you to check Joy's flat for me. See if she's there or if there's some sign she's stopped by."

Loren condensed upon the ceiling in the form of one of Dracula's brides. "Promise!"

Hepburn remained invisible, feeding from his hand, but Morpheus took the flare of heat against his skin as assent. It had the effect of making River flex his small claws.

They left the apartment a short time later looking like Audrey and Sophia in Chanel suits striking poses for each other as they went.

"You want me to make you tea," River asked, smoothing a bit of the exostructure he'd wrinkled.

"Thanks, but I got it."

The kettle was steaming and nearly at a boil when Pam came from the bathroom in jeans and blouse. Morpheus collected two cups and a saucer from the cabinet. He finished preparing the tea tray then joined Pam on the sofa near the window.

Morpheus wasn't sure how to begin their conversation, so he pretended somewhat more occupation with the tea than was necessary.

"Is Tyron really your name?"

Morpheus nodded. "It's not my full name. My first name is Morpheus."

Pam chuckled. "I'd have gone by my second name, too."

Morpheus laughed softly. "I don't mind it. Family often calls me Murph." He moved a cup of tea from the tray and set it on the chest near Pam. "How long have you known?"

"Weeks. But, I wasn't really sure what I'd seen at first. I was afraid to ask."

"Sorry."

"I thought, after that, that you had told me."

Morpheus nodded, then shrugged his right shoulder to tell River his saucer was ready.

"You'd just been vague enough to let me fill in the blanks."

"It doesn't feel right to lie outright."

River ran down his sleeve to the chest cluttered with magazines and tea service.

"I didn't know if it was rude to ask. I know people who take effort to get others to see them the way they see themselves. How do I know if you are in disguise or honestly trying to pass...?"

"As human."

Pam nodded several times.

"I'm mixed. So, I am part. Human."

Pam sighed then whispered, "But you really are something else?"

"I need to ask you something before I answer: Do you acknowledge that you aided me when I was on the street and that though we shared expenses, you received no payment or favor in exchange for aiding me?"

"This doesn't involve signing in blood?"

Morpheus laughed aloud. "No. Just a gentlemen's agreement."

"OK, sure. I thought you could use some help."

"Then I am in your debt and you may make a request of me."

"Like wishes or pots of gold— is that offensive?"

Morpheus bobbled. "Not to me."

Pam leaned away, toward the arm of their sofa, and squinted at Morpheus. "I'm sensing this could be a liability issue for you."

"It is," Morpheus admitted. "I could tell you everything, but if someone else finds out, they'll find me a terrible assignment and ease away some of your memories. If there's debt and you request, it's proper, and no one can really do anything about it."

"Lethe water," River said.

Pam rapidly sat upright. "Morpheus, I request you tell me the truth."

"River only looks like a lizard. My father's people are supernatural beings from another realm. Lulu's family are Vampyres. I'm pretty sure they've turned Julien by now."

Pam extended a hand to touch Morpheus on his shoulder. "We should talk about that, but there's something else I should tell you, first."

Morpheus reached for his teacup.

"I met someone."

"That's—"

"No, I should start before that," Pam said. "You remember you had mentioned a while back that you wanted to go to an art gallery?"

"Valois. In SoHo." He took a sip of tea.

"Then you changed your volunteer schedule. But, I went. I thought it was going to be like that scene in Pretty Woman."

"That's a movie."

Pam made a circling moving-on gesture with one hand. "I thought the gallery people might be mean, but I went anyway, alone, and it was cool. So, I talked with a girl there."

"Your someone?" Morpheus set down his teacup.

"No. But she was flirty and helpful." Pam moved some magazines and papers atop the chest. "She gave me all these catalogues from old shows." One of the gallery booklets had Cary Merisi's name on it. "And this is how I know there's more than one thing you weren't honest about."

Morpheus nodded as he took the catalogues. "Julien." There was a painting of him in the background of a Photo of Merisi.

"What is he to you? Ty— Murphy, what's going on?"

"What about your someone?"

"Answer me first."

Morpheus flipped through a catalogue. "You won't believe me."

"Really? Now? I won't believe you?"

Morpheus glanced up. "Time travel is involved."

Pam laughed.

"I told you."

Pam gulped his tea then placed the cup heavily on the chest. "OK. Time Travel."

"A future version of him, who will be a Vampyre in that time, visited me in my past and accidentally revealed that we — me and him in his time — are in a relationship."

"No, he didn't! Murph, you can't be with some time traveler because they tell you that!"

"I know! Right? But he was everything I wanted in that moment. And I— think I love him!"

"Wait!" Pam sucked in a breath and held one index finger between them. "Julien is in a relationship with you, or 'Tyron'?"

"Me me. Not this form." Morpheus flopped towards the sofa back.

"Not sure I understand. Are you here so he can meet you?"

Morpheus grimaced and turned to regard Pam. "No. I can't say why I'm here, exactly, because that's not only my secret to tell. The fact that I keep running into him just seems to be reality's way of establishing opportunity exists."

"It's all accidental?"

Morpheus sat up. "If it weren't, I'd be Dracula. I'd be the stalker who doesn't let Mina choose Jonathan in this lifetime."

"But 'Johnathan' is Athen, who is a real-life vampire?"

"Yeah." Morpheus leaned forward, hands tightly clutching the catalogues.

River wound his way through the service to the edge of the chest and hopped to his knee. "You OK, Boss?"

"I didn't know it would happen this way. I knew he must be turned at some point, but I didn't know. Not why or how. What must he have been thinking or feeling? And no one there until it was too late? But it must be they turned him. He can't be dead."

Pam scooted closer to Morpheus and put an arm around his shoulders. "This OK?"

"Yeah, of course. I know I look like I'm hurting. I am. But I know it's worse for him. I want to go help somehow."

"Yeah."

"I could do it." Morpheus glanced at Pam's face. "Physically, I could go. But it would create other problems. It'd be like crossing a border or working in the wrong jurisdiction."

"Liability." Pam sighed. "Can someone else go. Tyron, or someone?"

"No. I can't even see him now. Vampyres have these senses. I had to really focus on blocking as much as I could when Athen surprised us. I don't even know if that worked."

Pam shivered. "I knew he had bad vibes."

Morpheus laughed a bit. "Humans can have it, too. It's just not as developed, usually. You don't have witches in your family, do you?"

"No more than most people." Pam shrugged. "I was in the system."

"Oh. I have parents. My father is distant, but he's good. I get along with my mom. My eldest brother is supportive about pretty much everything."

Pam didn't say a word.

"Should we talk about something else? You didn't finish saying how you met someone."

"I don't know if it's the best time, now."

Morpheus nodded.

But Pam did continue despite the doubt. "It was at the gallery. This guy was lurking in the vestibule and I thought, as we noticed each other, he was gonna get violent. But, he was just a disheveled artist going through some shit. And...I'm kind of a sucker for people who are in distress."

"I did need your help," Morpheus said quietly. "I didn't know how to do everyday Human things."

Pam laughed. "You are clueless sometimes."

"Do you think he needs you a bit more than I do, now?"

"At this moment, no." Pam hugged Morpheus closer. "But maybe soon? I've been running errands for him. He has money."

"Nice."

"Not rich. But, not in that sort of need. It's not a sex thing, either."

"Not trade."

Pam laughed loudly. "He is rough in his way, but no. I'm not rushing to hook-up with anybody."

Morpheus turned his head and gazed at Pam.

Pam lowered his arm. "So, we can talk about our arrangements, later. If it seems it'll make sense for me to move, or if you want to stay on here or whatever?"

"It's near the end of the month. Shouldn't we decide soon if we do need to give notice?"

"Yeah but, our rent's all under the table."

"So, they probably just keep that deposit."

"You are getting better at everyday human stuff."

⁂

Morpheus had dozed off on the sofa. He shouldn't have been tired, not physically, as he'd slept between the soup kitchen and Splendor's visit. But he must have needed the comfort of knowing his father watched over him, he supposed, when Loren woke him with a whisper, "Jackets are gone."

Joy had gone to Vampyre Central!

"I have to go."

Morpheus found River on the chest that served as coffee table looking at the gallery catalogues and offered a hand so his partner might climb his sleeve.

"Can I borrow these catalogues?" Morpheus turned to glance at Pam.

He was sitting on the sofa, leaning forward slightly, a book titled Snow Crash dangling from one hand such as to save his place. "You can have them." Pam's eyes shifted down then up again. "Not forgetting your avatar?"

It took a moment to understand what he meant. Morpheus hadn't shifted upon waking. "I don't shed or manifest flesh, I merely shift."

"But others do?"

"Of course." Morpheus collected the catalogues.

"You're more like Flynn."

"What?"

"From Tron?" River asked.

"What's tron?" Morpheus looked to his shoulder as he shifted to his Tyron form.

"It's a movie about a man who goes inside a computer," Pam said.

"That doesn't make sense. I really do need to go."

"OK. See you later?"

Morpheus stopped at the door and looked to Pam. "I don't know. Need to check something. Don't wait up, though." He stepped out into the stairwell, waiting just until he sensed the Djinn to extend his wings.

"You realize Pam is trying to process you are from another—"

Morpheus teleported through the Void and onto the rooftop of the Jewel Apartments building.

"Whoa, Murph. You didn't even warn me that time!"

"Forgive me?"

"Sure. But were you listening? That stuff about Tron means Pam's trying to make sense of you being from another world."

"I realize I'm responsible for revealing my nature, but I need to find Joy right now."

"We need to find her," River corrected, "But, I'm not sure you get it. What it's like to be a Human guy from Earth who isn't aware of reincarnation or past lives or other levels of reality."

"No! I don't. I don't get it, Riv!" Morpheus dropped to a crouch and scrubbed his fingers through his hair. He felt River's small foot on his ear.

"But that's why I'm here."

"Why are we even here?"

"Loren, I think Murph here would like you to look around."

Loren and Hepburn both appeared dressed in coveralls Morpheus recognized from the Ghostbusters box art.

"Please," Morpheus said. He saw them leave and then closed his eyes. "What are we supposed to do if we find her? We watch, but no one says interfere."

"We find her first. Can you sense her?"

Morpheus sought calm. It helped sometimes to remember the vision Mother had shown him. In some ways, he wasn't that same person anymore, he'd already learned much more about himself and the world. But there was just something about remembering that he had so clearly seen himself as connected yet separate that helped him orient his spiritual senses.

"I don't think she's here," Morpheus said after a time. "Steven's asleep. I don't sense any other strong presence." He opened his eyes then rose. "You think Pam's OK, though?"

"I think it's right we focus on Joy, but you might need to look out for him a while, even if not living with him."

"Yeah. You were right, though. Sorry I yelled."

"You can be pissed. Frustrated. Angry."

"But find a constructive outlet?"

"I didn't say it, but yeah."

Hepburn and Loren hovered over the roof like full-bodied ghost busting apparitions.

Hepburn reported first, but Morpheus didn't recognize the sign or gesture that might have been something like mind or crown.

"Is that Steven's name?" Morpheus rose from his crouch.

Hepburn flashed a hand-gun gesture.

"I get it: smart, important man who broke his crown."

Hepburn repeated the sign: Steven

"Blood," Loren said and went into a melodramatic swoon.

Hepburn made a sign which in context must mean Human, though Morpheus recognized it also meant created species, rigid form, and clay. Hepburn continued then in sign, gesture, and shift to say the scent of Human blood was recent and in one bedroom, while Vampyre blood was widespread and older.

"Which room. Show me."

The Djinn moved over the roof and Morpheus followed until they stopped.

He glanced to his shoulder. "Hold on."

Morpheus brought the arch of his right wing close to protect River and teleported past the layers of roof and ceiling to the bedroom below.

The Djinn made their own way through gaps and ducts and condensed again; this time as vampire-slaying cheerleaders.

"Julien's room."

"Never would have guessed."

It was glaringly obvious from the purple walls and large poster of Madonna in butch, biker drag. The room was also disturbingly tidy and smelled like perfumed fashion magazines. Morpheus didn't know how the Djinn had distinguished the blood.

"I'm gonna look."

"Where?"

Morpheus glanced to River. "When."

"Oh. You sure?"

"No." He'd always had the ability, and relied on it when traveling across time, but that didn't make the ability easy to use or control. Here, in Julien's room, there was also the possibility he'd see too much in one way or another. "But it'll tell us for sure if Julien's bitten Joy and where they've gone."

Morpheus relaxed and let his senses open. He felt his pupils expand. The sclera of his eyes shifted to black. His wings spread. And he saw.

Joy and Julien both alive and near the door. Joy on the bed. Julien barely dressed and leaning against the doorframe to the adjacent washroom. Joy kneeling on the floor in the corner, with Julien undressed and sucking at her neck.

"Are you seeing it?" River whispered.

"Not enough, yet."

Julien almost naked and curled up in the corner. Joy creeping towards him. Julien standing, peeling off bloody clothes. Julien in blood-stained clothes staggering through the doorway leading to the common area of the penthouse.

Morpheus squinched his eyes and rubbed his head. "Joy was here. Julien bit her. I think she let him."

"You can't tell?"

"It looked like consent, but viewing then from now isn't the same as traveling there. It's images, impressions, overlaying, trailing into each other. Like skipping a movie forward or backward. "

Morpheus walked towards the bedroom door and noticed, just the other side of the bed, the one thing out of place in the entire room: a painting of Julien with white angel wings fallen from the wall.

⁂

Morpheus had trouble tracking Joy after she left the apartment tower with both Julien and Athen, as they'd literally gone through Grand Central. The crowds were excellent cover at any present moment and even better cover when he had to deal with all the visual trails of rushing pedestrians coming and going from dozens of platforms.

Joy might have boarded a downtown 6 train. Morpheus wasn't even certain.

He returned to the main concourse to look for another approach.

The two Djinn walked nearby, condensed solid enough as traveling fashionistas that their heels clicked and River could perch on Loren's shoulder. Loren held their guidebook while Hepburn seemed similarly occupied with a fashion magazine likely lifted from the Vampyre's penthouse. That was really the least of their worries.

"The 4, 5, and 6 travels under Lex?" Morpheus asked.

River checked the guide. "Yes."

Morpheus checked the signs and quickened his pace. "It's late, right, they wouldn't just go out, not with Julien new and Joy drained."

"You asking? How do I know if Julien is some fledgling weeping at the night or only half-vampire until his first kill?"

"Half-Vampyre?"

"Dhampir," Loren said.

"Maybe that's a thing," Morpheus lowered his voice, "but Julien was already vamp enough to bite Joy and drink her blood. He just didn't kill her."

"Maybe they're taking her home?"

Morpheus nodded as they reached the street. "Are there other connections before 14th Street? If she were giving them directions and trying to get to Opium, she'd get the L there. But if she's trying to get home, I think she'd wait until Astor Place."

"A few stops, but no other lines," River reported, "You don't think they're going to Athen's loft?"

Morpheus hoped not; he hadn't liked the way Athen looked at Joy when he viewed the past. "I don't even know where it is. SoHo maybe?"

"It's not like this guide shows famous vampire lairs."

"Come close. I'm going to jump ahead to 14th." Morpheus checked the avenue and walks for an inconspicuous place to disappear from, and then enclosing the Djinn in his wings, jumped.

They alighted at the south end of Union Square Park, near a set of stairs to the subway station below.

"I don't sense anything here now. If we go down to the platform I could try looking back again."

Hepburn's head cocked at him over the magazine with a taxi driver on the cover.

Morpheus sighed. "It's not comfortable. Nearly overwhelming with these crowds. But I can do it."

"Wait, turn that page back again."

Loren flipped the page of their guidebook of the most New York of New York facts.

"Murph, it doesn't say 'famous vampire lair', but look at this."

"Ghost stations," Loren said.

"This line has abandoned stations. The one near 18th Street has been out of service since the 40s!"

⁂

Morpheus didn't have to walk the blocks between Union Square and Gramercy long before he could sense vampiric presences below, possibly as many as six of them, plus the hint of an Angelic presence now and then. This was the true Vampyre Central, not any penthouse or loft or apartment they temporarily lived in for show. A ghost station so close to the borders of an Historic District seemed almost too obvious once he knew it was there.

He had no idea how long any of them had lived in the city. Blade and Julien had been Human until recent years, but the others could all be quite ancient. Had they strolled along the gardens and townhouses a century before? Or had they come with later waves of immigrants and moved into the station as soon as it was vacated?

There didn't seem to be any remnant surface entrance. Even without looking back across time he was certain there'd been waves of urban renewal since the 1940s. There must be an entrance from within the tunnels.

There was no resistance to accessing the tunnels with Morpheus in his Tyron form and Hepburn and Loren disguised as MTA Police. He did have to shift his eyes to grant his form ability to see in the darkness of the tunnel strung with periodic lamps along the ceiling. The first sign of something out of the ordinary was how clean and devoid of graffiti the tunnel became.

Morpheus hung back once he sensed the first heavy, vampiric spiritual presence. He focused on shielding his own mind. Hiding amongst the support beams between tracks, he could see the curbs of the old platforms to the east and west and above each a dark panel cut with backlit slits that revealed a mural behind.

The lair must be exposed to the tunnel yet hidden from riders by these subway zoetropes.

The east platform alone had a collection of bicycles and motorbikes tucked beneath. Trophies from victims or vehicles to make personal use of the MTA's system of tunnels? Maybe both.

"I think she's here," Morpheus whispered, "she feels drowsy."

River hopped from Loren over to Morpheus. "I saw a ladder."

Loren offered the guide and Morpheus slipped it into one of his pockets.

"There must be a way they get in through the transiscope. I don't have line of sight, so looking back will only tell me how they arrived. I could focus a looking glass to scry inside there."

Morpheus rested a hand against another of his pockets where he had one of the mirrors Mother had given him.

"Sensing a 'but'," said River.

Morpheus nodded. He glanced to the Djinn who had shifted again to appear in ghost busting uniforms. He didn't know how much awareness they had of events that happened while they were bottled.

"I kinda had a problem with scrying," Morpheus confessed, "specifically where a certain manpire was involved. I might have binge-watched several of his older teen years."

"Everything?" River scooted to the very edge of his shoulder.

Morpheus sighed. "Only what he did in view of mirrors."

"Murph."

"I know!" Morpheus mouthed the words. "It was really unhealthy and like an invasion of privacy and I have no excuse. It's not like being assigned to watch."

"No. We don't go inside Joy's studio to watch her sleep!"

"That's my father's job."

River put a foot to his face.

"I mean­— monitoring states of sleep. Not lurking in bedrooms. That would be creepy."

"Murph, I won't tell you to scry on Julien, but watching Joy is our assignment."

"We creep," Loren said.

Hepburn signed firm agreement: Djinn listen to Heaven. Djinn watched Humans before bedrooms. Djinn watch you and Julien.

Morpheus raised his hands in surrender. The sign for 'Djinn' being so like that element of 'Human' that meant create, form, or malleable, yet opposite in direction emphasized their difference, and the choice of name sign she used for Julien made it quite clear what had been witnessed. Julien was not merely painted with flowers. He was male and base and bulb from which things sprang. Julien was the root twined about his heart.

"OK! I get it. It's not wrong for Djinn. It's natural. I know it's natural to Angels, too. But it's not like that to Humans. They don't like to feel so seen. Sometimes it even makes me feel uneasy, and, I did it to Julien without thinking how he would feel."

"But Julien's not a kid anymore or Human," River stated. "If he finds out about your past, he can be pissed. But, he can't blame you for doing your job now, when he's going to be stalking Humans for blood."

Morpheus tried to reconcile his images of Julien: the future Vampyre who just got him, the distraught teenager, the jaded Fashion major, this self-destructive fledgling who'd bit a delivery girl.

"It's not wrong for Vampyres to drink blood; it's natural to them."

River just blinked his membranes across his eyes.

"OK, Loren, Hepburn, I would like you to creep in there and check on Joy."

The Djinn dispersed their forms and faded into the darkness of the tunnels; the magazine Hepburn had been holding fell.

Morpheus picked up the fashion magazine and then repositioned a short distance away where he had a better angle from which to view the entry ladder. He backed up onto the ledge along the tunnel to stand clear of the tracks as he waited.

It was quiet, but for the ever-present ambient city noise of things in motion, most muffled, until the beastly growl and scrambling of claws grasping for tracking on concrete.

The light in the narrow corridor of the transiscope went dim, blocked by a condensing form as one of the Djinn poured from the opening and completed a shift into a white camel. Hepburn, Morpheus realized, though he barely had a moment to think before Loren dashed through the passage in a small centaur-like form, nearly tripping over an enormous subway rat, pursued by a massive wolf.

Morpheus felt the air shift as Loren leapt from the edge of the platform on gazelle legs and landed yards away on four cloven hooves. The wind picked up at his back as Morpheus turned and the very tunnel rumbled.

He could hear River warning him there was a train, but Morpheus couldn't concentrate on the words. His mind was already focused on semi-conscious spacial and temporal calculations as the rat heaved itself from the top of the ladder. The wolf bounded from the tunnel and Morpheus could hear the train.

He extended his wings and shifted his exostructure to shield River with an epaulet just as the wolf's jaws snapped for his throat. The full weight of the large canine followed and Morpheus sent himself into the Void even as he fell.

He hadn't tried to teleport with a struggling foe before and it seemed, though it couldn't be, time passed in the Void and there were too many claws on him.

Morpheus teleported back to the Empty World at the west side of the tunnel, still carrying the momentum of his fall, and rolled backward with the wolf still on him. He drew his wings forward as he rolled, dosing the wolf, probably River and nearly himself.

They came to a stop on the downtown tracks, Morpheus on hands and knees with a drowsy wolf beneath him, and what must have been the rat clawing at his right leg. Just past the support columns the uptown train roared past and if the passengers weren't focused on the transiscope they may have seen a panicked white camel and gray-skinned gazelle-woman.

He needed a minute to calm his own rapid breaths.

At least, for this moment the train was between them, Vampyres weren't likely to notice them.

---

[Temporary Author's Note: OK, I'm making the call to end this chapter here. There's still another couple events that happen in this same location, but including them here would make the chapter just unusually long. As of right now, I'm not really sure how I'm going to manage the chapter numbers. I feel like to get the plot and character motivations where they need to be, I need a full chapter of new content inserted between here and the later events set in 1994. Presumably for any future publication all these chapters get renumbered anyway. ]

Audio media top: "The Interview" by AFI

mid-chapter image media: "Si'lat" from 13th century manuscript of "Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing" by Abu Yahya Zakariya' ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini, originally published in 1283.