With a friendly greeting and a confident smile, Smith tries to put the Dominate on the more belligerent of Theodore's friends. However, perhaps the ambient macho aggression of the pack, perhaps because of their slippery and foul supernatural nature, the Dominate doesn't take, and instead the wolfman takes furious exception, hulks out until his hand is like unto a claw of a big fucking wolf, and brutally shreds Smith's face.

Pulling his hand back, the werewolf reels suddenly at the sight of the blood flowing freely down the sleeve of his cheap rent-a-cop jacket, the result of Magenta's lightning-fast application of handbag-fu (whether he was cut by a gaudy silver decoration or the subtle use of a hidden blade remains a mystery). As the befuddled Theodore stumbles to intercede in this sudden outbreak of violence, Magenta grabs Smith, covers his bloody face with a jacket, and drags him scrambling back into the terminal.

The terminal provides no cover or safety, as Smith predicts with perfect hindsight; the werewolves, resembling security staff, move steadily towards them, and the airport guards also seem poised to pose obstacles to the pair's flight. Weaving and ducking through the crowd, Magenta leads them back out through a different exit (a stern and steady application of Presence and a flash of Smith's ruined face cow the guards at this gate, who have already drawn weapons). They dash across the road and dive into a cab, and they motivate the cab driver sufficiently that they are able to escape their pursuers, who shake their fists at the escaping cab in the universal gesture of swearing revenge.

The cat is still with them, they discover, and although somewhat miffed that it was unable to render Smith and Jones invisible to their enemies, it does manage to make itself useful by letting Smith see through its eyes.

The cab drops them off in an industrial area where they walk a couple of blocks to the safe-house that Magenta has set up, where a freezer truck waits for them. Magenta doesn't even bother turning on her cellphone (or perhaps takes great care to keep it off) before they go to sleep.

Smith wakes up the following sunset with his face still unhealed. He covers the scarring with bandages, but he's in desperate need of blood, so through his people, he sets up a meeting with Jeremy Piven, who is currently in Chicago rehearsing for an upcoming theatre production. Magenta checks her messages, which show that O'Hara is rather anxious for them to return to New York.

They take the freezer truck and drive to meet Piven at a popular diner (the kind of place it's worth driving out of Chicago to visit). While waiting for Smith's dinner, O'Hara calls Smith, asks for Magenta, who resignedly accepts the call. O'Hara asks when they're coming to New York, tells them that the Prince has returned and that there are rumors that the death of the Thirteenth generation is connected to the Fairies, and that Twelfth generation vampires apparently can no longer embrace new Childer. Magenta tells him to check his fax for a message she sent him from LA (in which she disclosed much about their experiences in Burning Man and the Black Rock, using a private code).

Smith and Piven hit it off swimmingly, and Piven offers to drive their truck, intending to leave his stage production, career and family so he can hang out with his man Smith 24×7.

Based on coordinates from fae and the ice truck's GPS they get to a small ghost town in Pope county, on the Ohio river.

In town is a burnt warehouse housing charred remains of a lab, and after getting off the truck and asking (no Dominate!) Piven to stick around, thet go over to investigate. Winding their way through totaled lab equipment and charred corpses, they find a single survivor, weak, dehydrated, covered infirst degree burns and begging for Vitae - a ghoul called Derek.

Smith feeds Derek to get him to cooperate, and eventually they squeeze some exposition out of him. Derek claims to have resided and worked on the premises, where according to him research was conducted on vampiric vulnerabilities. He tells S&J how, a few nights ago, the entire place was destroyed, apparently by its keepers - he knows it was set up with a self-destruct feature. Derek tells them that he was a neuroscientist before being recruited by Burzmali to work in this place, and how through this work he met the vampires who turned him into a blood-addict. He tells them that he was specifically researching the vampiric vulnerability to sunlight, and that there were not only vampires working in the facility, but also at least one werewolf that was a willing participant in experiments.

Magenta wants Derek to guide her around the ruin, but Smith disagrees, unwilling to endanger Derek. In the end, they all take a look around, finding little of substance. However, Magenta touches a scorched keyboard and gets a brief vision of a scientist who was working on it, deleting files at the command of a very distinct vampire, knowing that once he is done, he himself will be deleted. Magenta is sure that she will be able to recognize the vampire who gave the command, if she hears his voice or sees his aura. At the end of the vision, she gets a flash of sauron.

Meanwhile, outside, three people arrive on motorcycles, unheard by the oblivious Piven (and, apparently, by the vampires in the ruined lab - Magenta apparently distracted by her visions, and Smith by Derek's snivelling). One of them goes up to the truck, taps on the window and flashes a government agency police badge. Piven notices him, rolls down the window, and gets shot in the head for his troubles.

The shot gets the attention of Smith, who rushes outside. He runs to the truck, and gets clipped by one of the newcomers. Meanwhile, Magenta hands Derek a gun and tells him to hide, coming out only if he hears her call out a password to let him know it's safe. She circumlocates her way outside, where she sees Smith charging into gunfire and the gunman's two companions dismounting from their bikes. Of course, Magenta is likely to have prepared for this eventuality, and luckily enough, she happens to have a sniper rifle in her bag. As Smith struggles with the gunman, Magenta shoots him, only to discover that he's a vampire. Smith finishes him and surges past to the fallen Piven.

One of the others jumps Magenta, but she braces her rifle and drives its bayonet through his heart. The other goon tries to escape, Magenta shoots his bike, but he flees on foot. Before giving chase, she pauses at the door of the truck to check on Smith, and recoils to see that he is feeding Piven his blood. Unable and unwilling to deal with this, she rushes after the escaping goon.

Smith feeds Piven his vitae and the corpse reanimates and latches on, hungry for more. Smith struggles to get his new Childe to stop feeding, but find he is too weak. Inflamed by the bloodlust, the newborn holds Smith down and threatens to drain him. Smith's cries force Magenta to call off her chase and come back to help. She unceremoniously stakes Piven, fetches Derek from his hiding place, and they all limp away in the truck. As they drive out of town, a battered sign saying “Now Leaving Gloconda, Illinois” can be seen behind them.

Once on the way, Smith calls up schuster, schuster, schuster LLC and asks them who owns Burzmali. After a brief while, during which Smith grows aware of how distractingly hungry and weak he feels, Schuster himself calls back and tells him that Burzmali is actually owned by them.