Sing a Slaying Song

[Kristykimmy]

Slaying Song is an NTWF story that will run from the 1st of December until the 25th. I would like to thank my amazing beta readers, Avery and Mostly Harmless (flufflepuff), for all their help in making this happen. Also, thank you to all the NTWFers who signed up to be a part of this. Please read the disclaimer at some point, particularly if you have any questions about the nature of certain characters, because it is there to make things easier.

Disclaimer:

SPOILER: Click to show

Just a disclaimer to start things off. The vampires which are contained within the story adhere more closely to the type of vampires found within the novel Dracula by Bram Stroker. If you're looking for emotionally complex vampires capable of choosing their fates or sparkling in the sunshine, you're not going to get them. What you've got here are certified supernatural hellions. Not all elements will adhere to the rules set down by the afore mentioned book, and relations to all persons living, dead, or undead are purely coincidental unless they gave me their permission to include, torture, murder, or make bad puns with them. With that, I thank you for reading this disclaimer, and remind you that by reading it you've agreed to not destroy me for giving you a love triangle, including leprechauns, and putting together the most epic musical number of all time, and any other lies I may or may not tell.

Enjoy the story.

And without further ado:

Sing a Slaying Song.

Chapter 1:

SPOILER: Click to show

I stepped out the door of my apartment in Artist's Alley and locked it behind me. I looked up at the sky; it was overcast and releasing the first of the night's flurries, hiding any light that the fading sun might afford. I had a bit of walk ahead of me. I pulled my gloves on as I started moving.

My booted feet crunched on yet another inch of fresh snow as I made my way through the streets of Artist's Alley and into the Editor's Mark. It was only late November but we were up to twelve inches already. Flurries swirled around, glowing in the light of the lamps that lit the dark street I walked along.

I pulled my scarf higher over my face as I walked along, waving to Ginz as I passed her heading home. She returned the wave but kept walking fast. In this cold and snow, no one was eager to stop on the street to have a friendly chat. Any other winter, we'd have probably stopped to catch up, but this one was different, and it wasn't even properly winter yet.

I quickened my pace to keep warm, the snow getting heavier every minute. My destination wasn't far now, the hospital at Issues and Inquiries. Before long, the hospital rose before me, a stark white building that had quickly become a symbol of despair for me. I had a suspicion that it would not be long before others felt the same way.

I walked through the front doors and down the hall to the staff room. I hung up my coat and scarf, traded my boots for sneakers, and walked out as quickly as I could. My shift was starting, and in a hospital where nurses were in short supply already, you couldn't afford to dawdle. I stopped at the front desk to get my duty roster.

I looked over my scheduled duties as I walked along, mostly changing bandages and giving medications. I passed one of the other nurses in the hall on my way. I stopped him so we could speak.

“How's Coaster doing?” I asked.

“Not well. He was kind of out of it earlier. We had to give him another transfusion this morning.”

I nodded and continued my walk to my first stop. I was just turning the knob when the code blue alarms went off. I took off running, reaching Coaster's room just as the doctor and two other nurses did.

“Bag him!” the doctor ordered and I hurried to do so.

One of the other nurses immediately started chest compressions. The doctor ordered the other nurse to get more blood for another transfusion while the first nurse and I continued our efforts. Despite our best efforts, the doctor finally called it twenty minutes later.

Time of death: 8:12 P.M. on the night of November 23rd.

Once everything was over, I sat in the nurse's lounge, my head in my hands. I knew I had to get back to work, even though my colleagues had assured me they would handle anything that was immediate while I took a few minutes. It was the first time I'd seen a patient die. Coaster had been so young, and so healthy only weeks ago, and now we'd just covered him with a sheet and left him for the morgue technicians to claim. The nightmare was only getting worse.

“Enjoying the career change?” a voice asked me.

I looked up, Gelquie was standing in the doorway. Gelquie was a mod, I could only assume that if she was here, it wasn't good.

“Here about Coaster's death?” I asked.

“Yeah, I got picked to look into that. I heard you were one of the nurses attending to him. Anything to say?”

“We did everything we could,” I said, clearly enunciating every word and putting added stress on 'everything'.

“What was the cause of death?” she asked.

“Anemia Epidemic,” I said, feeling stupid even as I said it.

The Anemia Epidemic was a fancy way of admitting that we have no clue. The Anemia Epidemic had started a few weeks ago. The first patients had come in complaining of weakness and fatigue. The doctors hadn't been able to figure out the cause, but had treated the symptoms and sent them home. It hadn't seemed to be anything major then.

It had gotten worse in the weeks since; the hospital was now swamped with cases of it. Some of the patients would be fine, others would return, their symptoms worse. With so many cases needing treatment in addition to the usual work load, the hospital had needed more help.

I wasn't a nurse by profession. I had finished nursing school with a nursing diploma, but had gone for a degree in journalism and become a journalist instead. It wasn't so much that I was an overachiever. I had decided halfway through nursing school I'd rather not be a nurse, but I had decided to finish and get my diploma in case I'd ever needed a fall back. I had been happy in my role as a journalist, and I still was one. I fully intended to ditch the nursing once the crisis was over.

When this entire thing started, there was so little information that we were sure they were hiding something from us. My boss at the paper, The Bloids, had suggested that I go back and take my LPN Exam and get a temporary job at the hospital so I could get the inside story. Half for this reason, and half because I genuinely wanted to help, I had. Under normal circumstances, they probably wouldn't have hired me, but they were seriously understaffed so I got the job. I hadn't expected to learn that the lack of information was due to just how much in the dark we were about what was going on, or how helpless we would be to save lives.

Gelquie had left while I was lost in my thoughts, probably to interrogate the doctor who had handled Coaster's case. I rose to my feet, though somewhat reluctantly. Still, sitting there wasn't going to do any good. The best thing I could do would be to get on with my job and try to forget what had happened for a few hours.

I walked home a few hours later, in the pre-dawn hours. The snow had stopped; there hadn't been any significant accumulation that night, but the winter was young. I unlocked my apartment door and stepped in. I stopped by the phone to listen to my messages. Carrie had called to remind me about something. Cassie, my co-worker at The Bloids and a friend, had heard about Coaster's death and left a message to tell me she was there for me if I needed anything.

I sighed, the boss would want to see me for an update on how my story was progressing now. I'd probably have to get up around noon to go into the office. It was now about five in the morning, Cassie would probably be up. I considered calling her to give her an update, but decided against it. I was tired and I just wanted to go to bed.

I walked upstairs and barely lasted through changing into my pajamas. I collapsed into bed and was dead to the world within moments.

Chapter 2

SPOILER: Click to show

The funeral was a grand but grim event. The turnout was high; nearly the entirety of the NTWF had shown up to pay their last respects to Coaster. Yoyti played a dirge on the violin. The strains of the sole violin echoing through the air somehow summed up the feelings of the day more than anything else could have.

Someone had chosen to have it in the evening, which seemed to me a strange time for it, but who was I to question the mods? Of course, that was half my job usually. However, I was currently a nurse, and handling the news about the funeral was Cassie's job.

I sighed as I watched the casket being placed in the crypt. Images of his unnaturally pale face lying on that hospital bed flashed before my eyes. Coaster was as naturally pale as I was, which was enough to be mistaken for someone with anemia in the first place. Given that, the level of absolute pallor his skin had been when he was admitted to the hospital the first time had been shocking to everyone involved in the case.

His autopsy hadn't shown anything useful. Because we'd given him a transfusion during our efforts to revive him, we couldn't be sure if he'd lost significant hemoglobin levels or anything of that nature prior to his cardiac arrest.

I looked down at the snow at my feet. Winter was already such a stark time of year, in spite of the colorful holiday season we were now entering, but this took it to a new level. How much more darkness was going to fall over the holidays, I wondered.

A hand placed on my shoulder snapped me out of my grim thoughts. I turned to look and found Ian Wolf-Park at my side.

“How are you holding up, Kristy?” he asked.

I shrugged, unsure how to answer. We had been in this for the story, but I had forgotten to consider how having to be at the heart of such a story could affect me.

“Honestly, Ian, not so great. I didn't want to be a nurse for this very reason. Anemia Epidemic is as much a mystery now as it was when it started. More people are going to die if the doctors don't figure this out, and I've seen the medical charts of the patients. These are healthy people who didn't have a problem in the world and just suddenly they've been afflicted by symptoms that don't make any sense. This entire thing is insane, and nothing about it makes any sense. We're baffled.”

He nodded thoughtfully, and we stood in silence as they closed the crypt doors and locked them. The funeral over, everyone turned to go. I had to hurry, as my shift at the hospital would be starting soon. We were on the other side of town, in Memory Lane in Admin Alley, so I had a lot of ground to cover in a short period of time.

As I started to walk, Carrie and Celestial joined me. They would turn off presently, as they lived in Mod Squad, but until then, they kept me company. We talked about general nothings, not really in the mood for deeper conversation after the grim ceremony we'd just attended.

I completed the rest of my route alone after that, reaching the hospital with only a few minutes to spare. Though it was obvious that my imagination was running wild, I couldn't shake the feeling that the stark white building looked far more ominous than it had only a few days ago.

***

I was walking home from my shift three days later, exhausted and glad to be going home. The lamps were casting puddles of light on the dark street, the snow falling thick and heavy. I was so glad that tonight marked the last of my night shifts. Starting in two days, I worked days. I was really sort of inclined to be nocturnal, but I did miss the sun.

There was someone else out on the street, standing near a street lamp. That wasn't so unusual, as the night around the community of NTWF could be fairly busy. A lot of the people who lived here were artisans and writers, people whose schedule was dictated by creative inspiration rather than nine to five shifts.

I took a closer look at the person standing across the street, simply out of curiosity. My heart skipped a beat and I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. There, alive and looking healthier than I'd ever seen him, was Coaster.

My voice stuck in my throat as I tried to call his name. I staggered, slipping on the fresh snow and almost losing my footing. I got it back and started to run, crossing the street without a second thought. The person saw me coming and took off running. He darted down the nearest alley and I followed.

“Wait, stop, please!” I shouted. “Who are you?”

I got to the entrance to the alley and looked in. The end of it was closed off with a high fence, preventing exit from that side. Still the alley was empty. There were no dumpsters or other large objects to hide behind, and the fire escapes all had their ladders pulled up out of reach. There was no way to exit that alley, but the stranger was gone.

I walked home in a confused fog. Yes, it had been dark and snow was falling heavily, but the person had been standing beneath the street lamp. He had looked too much like Coaster to be anyone but Coaster. But, Coaster was dead. I'd been there. I'd worked to help bring him back, but I had failed. Coaster was the only person that the person I had seen couldn't have been.

I got home and checked my messages like I always did.

“Kristy, call me the minute you get home. I need to talk to you about something. This is seriously important.” Carrie's recorded voice said, she sounded strained.

I picked up the phone and dialed her number. She picked up on the second ring.

“Hey, Carrie, what's up?” I asked.

“Are you sure Coaster's dead?” Carrie asked.

For the second time that night, my heart skipped a beat.

“Carrie, what did you see?” I asked.

“That's not at all a suspicious question,” she said sarcastically. “Care to explain?”

“I don't know; it's probably nothing. It's just, on my walk home, I could have sworn I saw him. I tried to chase the person down, but they ran away and just vanished. This guy looked just like Coaster, totally identical.”

“Same thing happened to me! I could have sworn I saw him pass by my house in the street earlier tonight. I'm glad I'm not crazy,” Carrie told me.

“Same here. But, if we're not crazy, what's going on?” I asked.

“Zombies?” she suggested.

“Zombeeeeeehs!” I couldn't help myself.

“Kristy, not really the time.”

“Yeah, that's kinda inappropriate at the moment, isn't it? But, the Coaster I saw looked alive. Like, healthier than before the Anemia Epidemic alive. Zombies are kind of dead, and they usually look it,” I pointed out.

“Huh, that's a good point. I don't know. Look, I'll call a meeting of the Mods and Admins to discuss this. This afternoon, probably around four or five. I'll need you to show up to tell them about what you witnessed. I'll also need you as a witness to his death, to confirm that he died.”

“Oh, great, because that's just what I wanted to do with my day off,” I complained.

“Well, next time, make sure your guy is actually dead before sticking him in a crypt and this won't happen,” Carrie said.

“But, I-!” she hung up before I could finish my protest.

I placed the phone back in its cradle and moaned. First the Anemia Epidemic and now lookalikes or zombies? Why did life always have to reach new levels of crazy right around the holidays? I dragged myself up to my bedroom. Might as well get as much sleep as I could before I had to go explain something I didn't understand to a bunch of Mods and Admins who were probably just waiting to slap us all with some citation for being careless.

Chapter 3

SPOILER: Click to show

My heels clicked against the shiny marble floor of the Administration building in Mod Squad. The building had the strangest interior decorating. Everything was made with sharp angles. I wondered if it was supposed to subconsciously intimidate the people who came there. Something to make you think twice about whatever impropriety had caused you to be called there, or about filing your complaints if they were a petty waste of time. It was working on me; I just wanted to go home.

It was almost time for the meeting I had been summoned to. Carrie came out to meet me.

“I hope you properly appreciate this. I had to iron a shirt,” I groused. “I mean, come on, you saw Coaster. Why do I have to be here? You're an admin, why do you need to do this? Can't you just use your admin powers to give yourself the authority to deal with this?”

“No, I need a significant majority to weigh in and give me the power to do that. I can't just go off on a power trip whenever I feel like it. There are checks in the system to keep us from abusing it. I called you because I called in everyone who has reported seeing Coaster since his death. There are half a dozen people, Kristy. Also, you're our key witness, since you were present at the death but you've seen him on the streets since then. I explained all this during our phone call this morning,” Carrie said, frowning at me.

“Carrie, I'd just gotten home from an all night shift at the hospital. You're lucky I remembered to show up. Still, I guess it's a good thing I decided to go out of my way to look professional,” I said with a sigh. “What do we do?”

“You sit in the room with everyone else until you're called on. Please, Kristy, just this once, don't make me look like a moron.”

“Would I do that?” I asked innocently.

“Start going 'Zombeeeeeeeeehs', and you'll be joining Coaster in the crypt,” she said caustically.

“Just don't let them say that word and we're good,” I said, giving her a double thumbs up.

Carrie just facepalmed. I love my friends, and I especially admire that they put up with me. I'm a dip and a handful, and not half a funny as I'd like to be, but they put up with that anyway. I followed Carrie into the meeting room and sat in the row with the others who had seen this Coaster lookalike, zombie, whatever it was.

Eventually, all of the Admins and Mods who were involved in this hearing filed in and took their seats at the table at the end of the room. Carrie took her place at a podium and started talking, introducing the topic at hand. I kind of zoned out, mentally going over my schedule for the rest of the day. I was startled out of my thoughts by Carrie calling my name.

I got up and walked to the middle of the room, standing before the gathered assembly. Gelquie was there, which made me cringe. She had handled Coaster's death in the first place, and she would probably be pretty annoyed about this sudden development. She started the interrogation.

“From the other witnesses we are to gather that Coaster has somehow been spotted since we buried him three days ago. What do you have to say?”

“I have no idea what's going on here,” I said, instantly knowing that had been the wrong thing to say.

Carrie was looking exasperated and the mods less than impressed. I tried to recover. “That is to say, I don't understand how this is possible. I know for a fact that Coaster is dead. He coded on the night of the 23rd and we spent twenty minutes trying to revive him without any success. He was certifiably dead by every standard there is. His body lay down in the morgue for another two days. However, this morning at around four forty-five, I saw someone who looked completely identical to Coaster out and about on the streets of the forum. I was unable to speak to this person to confirm their identity. I cannot explain this phenomenon. I would love to, but I can't. I'm as baffled as you are.”

“So, what are we to take from this?” Celestial asked.

“That we need to make put together a team to look into this further,” Carrie said. “The dead getting up and walking around town is likely a source for concern.”

“So, we're suspecting zombies, then?” Terra asked, she looked amused at how ridiculous we were being.

My lips twitched, but the look Carrie threw me was enough to make me keep my composure.

“What about vampires?” a voice called from the back.

“Vampires don't exist. Go back to your stupid teenage romance fiction unless you have a reasonable suggestion,” Gelquie snapped and a few others nodded.

Carrie was shaking her head, her witnesses weren't doing her any favors making suggestions like that. Dan rose, looking untroubled.

“Look, I have the perfect solution. Memory Lane is a short walk from here. Terra will fetch the keys to the crypt and we'll have a look. If the body is still in the coffin, then obviously what is going on must simply be a case of mistaken identity or one horrible prank. In the the latter case, when the lookalike is caught, we will make sure they are censured appropriately. If the coffin is empty, I'll give Carrie all the resources at our disposal to hunt down Coaster and get to the bottom of his sudden return from the dead,” he explained.

Carrie nodded, though looking a little less confident than Dan was. “Well, I suppose that's a reasonable suggestion,” she conceded.

So, just like that, we found ourselves walking through the streets of Memory Lane. It was about a fifteen minute walk to the crypt where Coaster's body had been laid. We looked through the door of the grating that blocked off access to the crypt. Terra unlocked it and walked in, followed by Dan, Carrie, and one or two others. Cassie also went in, as she was the one covering the story of the potentially not dead Coaster.

I stood outside the crypt, waiting for the answer. I didn't really want to see the body again if he was still in there. The images of him in the hospital were still fresh enough in my mind. I could trust the others to properly look in the coffin.

“Well, I think that settles that,” Dan said.

I looked up and at them. They were standing around the open coffin. Dan shut the lid and locked it again.

“He's still here,” Carrie said. “I guess that's that.”

They walked back out and locked the crypt.

“A lookalike,” Gelquie declared. “That's all this is, mistaken identity. Thank you all for your time, and I'm sorry you all had to come out here. Still, I guess it was good to get to the bottom of this now, before it spiraled completely out of control. You may all go home now.”

I walked next to Carrie on the way out of Memory Lane. “You made me iron a shirt for this.”

“You were the one who seemed the most convinced you had seen him alive and roaming the streets. Next time be more careful,” Carrie told me with a shrug.

I parted with her at Mod Squad and went to have dinner with the members of an artist club I was part of before going home. When I got home later that evening, I found a message waiting for me on my answering machine. It was Cassie telling me to call her back.

I hesitated. When I had responded to a similar recording that morning, I had found myself roped into presenting my testimony at a pointless hearing. Still, I couldn't really blow my friend off, so I picked up the phone and dialed.

“Hey, Cass,” I said when she answered. “What's up?”

“Look, this phantom lookalike just doesn't sit right with me. How could a lookalike only show up in the days after Coaster's death? I've been looking through population records and we haven't had a new resident since four months ago. If this lookalike had been here since before his death, shouldn't someone have seen him prior to the death? There are no reports of anyone spotting Coaster out on the streets while he was in the hospital or of anyone spotting a lookalike in the weeks prior to the Anemia Epidemic outbreak,” Cassie informed me.

I twisted a lock of my long hair around my finger, thinking. “So, does that mean you think it's not a lookalike but someone with a really sick sense of humor wandering the streets dressed up like Coaster in hopes of freaking out the forum? After all, I guess Coaster's look was distinct enough and would not be hard to replicate.”

“I don't know what it means, but I intend to find out, and you'll help me, right?”

“Cass, I've got work tomorrow. I'm currently a nurse, remember? I can't,” I reminded her.

“That's okay, you're working the day shift. So far, the only reports of seeing Coaster have been at night. We'll need to stake out the streets after dark,” Cassie explained.

“Cassie, I need to sleep sometimes, too,” I said, feeling exasperated.

“I'll bring coffee,” she said, sounding too enthusiastic.

“This is payback, isn't it?” I asked.

“Darn right it is.”

“Fine, I'll meet you after dinner, sometime around eight. Where do you want to meet?” I asked.

“At the office in the Splatterboard. I've been putting together a list of the places he's been spotted. We can hit them all and see if we turn up anything,” Cassie said. “See you tomorrow!”

She hung up and I sighed. It wasn't like I had never dragged her off on a wild Weewoo chase before, so I suppose I had it coming. Also, while I was keeping detailed notes on everything I'd learned about Anemia Epidemic, it had been a while since I'd done any proper journalistic work. It might actually be a nice break to go hunting with Cassie. Despite my initial reluctance, I was suddenly feeling excited about the prospect of tomorrow night.

Chapter 4

SPOILER: Click to show

I changed into a heavy sweater and put on a double layer of socks before putting on my boots. It wasn't snowing, but it was below freezing out. If I was going to be out late, I'd want to bundle up. I pulled on my coat as I stepped out the door and locked it behind me. I pulled on my gloves and wrapped my scarf about my face as I started my journey to the offices of The Bloids in the Splatterboard.

I arrived there a few minutes after eight. I opened the door to the offices and walked in. The place was abandoned and dark except for one light at a solitary desk in the back. Cassie looked up with a grin when I walked in.

“Ready to go?” I asked.

“You bet,” she said, getting up. “I've got our game plan for the night here, a map, and our coffee.”

She handed me a thermos and then took a slip from hers.

“And, what are we going to do if we find lookalike Coaster and he's hostile?” I asked as we headed for the door.

“I'll call for help on my cellphone while you start screaming. They'll hear you before they answer my call. Plus, you'll probably scare him away and wake the neighborhood,” Cassie said with a wink.

“This really is payback,” I complained. “Next you'll be making fun of my hair.”

“I'm not the one who suggested wading through swamps for our last joint article,” Cassie pointed out.

“Let's get going,” I said with a resigned sigh.

Cassie locked up her stuff and turned out the lamp and we left. We started in Mod Squad, where Carrie had seen him early in the evening hours two days ago. After an unsuccessful hunt there, we proceeded to the General Area of the Forum and worked our way through all the districts, but without finding anyone. After a similarly unsuccessful hunt in The Editor's Mark, I decided it was time to call it a night.

We had walked to the Forum Gates, heading for Neopia where Coaster had been spotted multiple times as well. I stopped, looking at my watch and realizing how late it had gotten. I signaled to Cassie stop as well.

“Cassie, it's almost midnight; we've been looking for close to four hours now. I do have to get up and go to work tomorrow. I've got to go home and get to bed,” I said. “Please, go home, too. I don't feel comfortable with you wandering the streets alone in hunt of someone who could be a total creep.”

Cassie frowned so I continued, “Also, we don't know what is causing the Anemia Epidemic, or how it is spreading, so please, don't take any chances with your health. Staying up all night in the cold isn't going to help your immune system. Okay? Go home.”

Cassie's frown deepened but she nodded. “Well, that's just great. I was really hoping we'd find this guy. I mean, being able to close the case instead of just writing that it seems to be a rather suspicious case of mistaken identity would have made for a much better story.”

“I know, but you never know. Maybe after you publish the story, the Coaster lookalike will come forward and we'll find out it just really was a case of mistaken identity. Not every strange occurrence has deep significance behind it,” I said, not really believing the words I was uttering.

Cassie turned and started walking homeward and I was about to follow when I noticed Carrie walking out of the Neopia District. I walked over to her.

“Hey, Carrie! What are you doing out so late?” I asked.

“I could ask you the same question. Don't you have work tomorrow?” Carrie deflected the question.

“Cassie dragged me into hunting for Coaster's doppleganger. We just gave up for the night. No luck,” I explained.

“That was actually what I was doing,” Carrie said. “I saw the body yesterday, still there in the coffin, but I don't know. Something about it just doesn't sit well with me.”

“This is what comes of writing zombie fiction,” I teased.

“What if it is necromancy?” Carrie asked.

“Then someone's going to die. You know my 'no necromancer' stance,” I said, curling my left hand into a fist and punching it into my right palm.

Carrie just snickered. “Yeah, right. With your coordination, you couldn't kill a fly, unless you tripped and fell on it. Well, we should both get home.”

I was about to agree when I heard a strange sound in the distance.

“Is that... a dog?” I asked.

“I think I hear someone singing,” Carrie said, looking as perplexed as I felt.

We waited, watching the gates. A moment later, a sled pulled by four huskies raced through the entrance to the forum and came to a stop. The dogs barked excitedly as they lifted their noses high and sniffed the air. The driver of the sleigh got off the back; he was the one singing.

“What fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight,” he sang.

Because he was singing, it was hard to tell, but I was sure he had some kind of European accent. He also put a weird stress on the word 'sleighing' in the song. Carrie took control of the situation.

“Hey, you!” she called. “You have to register with the forum if you're going to stay. Offices are right there.”

He looked over at us, noticing us for the first time. “Much obliged. Here, catch.”

He tossed something to each of us, and I just barely caught it. I looked at the little white object in my hand for a moment before I lifted it to my nose and sniffed it. “Is this a clove of garlic?”

“That it is, lass,” he replied. “Got a trick for you. Take off your glove and touch it with your bare skin.”

“Why?” I asked.

“To prove you can.”

I looked at Carrie as I started to take off my glove.

“Really? The stranger from out of town on the dog sled dares you to do it and you do, just like that?” she asked.

“Well, why not? Maybe after I do it, he'll tell me why. I've done weirder things to get to the bottom of a story,” I said, shrugging as I transferred the piece of garlic to my bare hand. “Done. Now why did I do that?”

“To prove you're not a vampire,” he said, keeping a straight face even as he said it.

Carrie started laughing. “I've heard a lot of ridiculous things over the last few days, but that tops the chart.”

“A skeptic,” the man said with a wry smile. “Why are you two out so late?”

“Hunting down the undead!” I cried merrily.

“You know, then?” he asked.

“Know what? I was being a dork. One of our residents died recently, but he's been seen around town since then. However, he's still in the crypt, we checked,” I explained.

“Would you like to check again?” he asked. “You might get a different result now.”

“That's ridiculous,” Carrie said, skeptically.

“Is it?” I asked. “I mean, you're an admin. You could get the keys and we could check again. If the stranger knows something that will help us get to the bottom of this, then why not go check again?”

“Fine, we'll do it tomorrow morning,” Carrie said resignedly.

“I'm afraid if you do that, you'll get the same result. You'll want to do it now,” the stranger said. “I'll give you a lift to, where is it you keep your dead, Memory Lane? Rather appropriate.”

“How do you know that?” Carrie asked, her tone growing more hostile by the moment.

“One does not come into a town suffering from a vampire outbreak without first studying the terrain,” the man said with a shrug.

“Vampire outbreak?” I asked, my mind feeling like it had just broken. “I don't- what even... Carrie, can we go home now? I don't think the cold can cause hallucinations like the heat can, but I think I'm having one anyway.”

“I'm thinking I'm going to call Dan,” Carrie said. “Report we've got one hell of a crazy here.”

“If you wish, you may. Or, you could come along and I'll prove your doppleganger isn't a doppleganger at all, but the real thing. What say you?”

“Who are you?” Carrie asked.

“Alfred Giles of the Transylvania branch of the Helsing Society. We're the flagship branch. The Helsing Society trains vampire hunters to handle the vampire threat. We'd gotten word that you have an outbreak here, and I was sent to do assessment and clean up.”

Carrie shook her head at me, mouthing no.

“He can see you,” I pointed out. “You could just say it out loud.”

Carrie shrugged and turned her attention back to our visitor. “That's a little hard to swallow, Mr. Giles.”

“Then come along. Or go home and forget we ever had this chat. Your choice,” Alfred said, unfazed.

“I'll go,” I volunteered. “Either you're crazy, or you know something. Either way, you're news and I'm still a journalist. I'm not walking away from something that could have something to do with my story about the epidemic. If you're neither, then I'm probably already home and in bed and this is a dream anyway.”

“Welcome aboard,” Alfred said as I sat down where he indicated on the sled. He looked over at Carrie and asked, “Are you coming?”

Carried sighed deeply but got on. “Only because I can't let you go alone,” she told me.

Just like that, we were off.

Chapter 5

SPOILER: Click to show

Carrie and I found ourselves sitting in a dog sled, racing through the Forum towards Memory Lane, hunting for answers in the strange case involving deaths, dopplegangers, and now the undead and slayers. This was a fantastic start to December, and it was less than an hour old.

We pulled up outside the graveyard and got out.

“Wait!” I called as Alfred walked through the gates to the graveyard. “Don't we have to stop at the administration building for the keys?”

He didn't stop so I hurried in after him. He turned to look at us. “Which one?”

Carrie gestured to the crypt where Coaster lay. Alfred walked up to the gates and pulled something out of his pocket. He inserted them into the lock and a moment later there was a click and the doors swung open.

“Hey! That's highly illegal!” Carrie shouted. She then turned to me, “We're with a guy who can pick locks. He's looking more trustworthy every second.”

Despite this show of unsavory skills, we followed him into the crypt. He picked the lock on the casket and then tossed the lid open. In spite of my reluctance, I looked in.

“Hey, Carrie. It's empty.”

“Thank you for your startlingly accurate observations. It's no wonder you went into journalism.”

I looked up at Alfred. “So, it's empty. I'm still not sold on the vampire theory, though. If you could pick the locks that easy, how do we know it's not body snatchers? Maybe someone stole his body. That happens not infrequently, disturbingly.”

“Well, believe what you will, ladies. I must go register to stay in your charming town, as per directed by your friend.”

Alfred walked out and I turned to Carrie.

“What do we think about this?”

“I have no idea. We'll talk about this tomorrow if one of us doesn't wake up before then and realize it was some crazy dream. If it isn't, a couple of hours to wrap my brain around this might help. After all, we're having dinner with Ian tomorrow,” Carrie said with a shrug and then asked, “That is tomorrow, right?”

“It is,” I confirmed.

“Do you ladies need a ride before I leave you here?” Alfred's voice called from outside.

“I could use a ride! I live almost on the other side of the forum,” I called out.

“I can walk from here,” Carrie informed him as we walked back out.

I got in the sled again. The visitor was strange, and the vampire talk was bizarre, but for some reason I felt inclined to trust him enough to ride alone back to Artist's Alley. It could be that he gave off some aura of trust, but it was probably because riding behind a bunch of Huskies was kind of cool. Still, he dropped me safely in at the entrance to Artist's Alley before driving off.

I looked at my watch, it was now 1 a.m. What a difference an hour could make.

***

I groaned awake the next morning as my alarm went off. I had stayed up way too late the night before. It took me a minute to remember why I had stayed up so late. Memories of the night came flooding back to me. I picked up my phone and texted Carrie.

Did we meet a guy who claimed to be a vampire hunter who showed us that Coaster's casket was empty last night?

Crap. was her only reply.

I took that to mean it hadn't been some crazy dream on either of our parts. I got out of the bed and got ready for the day. Walking to the hospital in the grim grey light of the pre-dawn never really did much for waking me up. I walked into the hospital and went through my usual prep, and then walked out.

I picked up my roster and noticed that everything involving Liou had been crossed off my chart.

“Please tell me we discharged Liou,” I begged.

“I'm afraid she died about an hour ago. Same as Coaster. Just suddenly coded and there was no doing. They tried for almost forty minutes to bring her back,” a doctor standing nearby told me.

I sighed and headed off to attend to my charges; it would be a long day at the hospital. I was glad when it was finally over. I went home and changed out of my scrubs and into street clothes and then hurried to the restaurant in Positive Spin where I was supposed to be meeting Ian Wolf-Park and Carrie for dinner.

Carrie was already seated at a table inside. I sat down and picked up a menu. I wasn't really sure what to say, and Carrie didn't seem to be taking the initiative either. Ian walked in a minute later and sat down, greeting us. We both said hello and then lapsed into silence again.

“We're rather grim tonight,” Ian said. “Has something new come up?”

“Liou died this morning. She's victim number two,” I said grimly.

Carrie sat up straighter. “Anemia Epidemic?”

“Yup. Exactly the same as Coaster. Ups and downs and then dead. There is still no trigger for the relapses that we can find. It's insane,” I said.

“Are you any closer to figuring out what is causing it?” Ian asked.

“If the stranger from out of town is to be believed, vampires,” I said with a dry chuckle.

“He's full of it. I looked all day and I couldn't find anything on a Helsing Society,” Carrie scoffed.

“Would they have an internet site? I mean, if you were fighting vampires, would you want to advertise your location?” I asked.

“Surely some mention of them would have shown up somewhere. All my searches directed me to bad fanfiction. Like, really bad fanfiction,” Carrie replied.

I turned to Ian, realizing he probably had no clue what we were on about. I quickly explained. He looked as skeptical as Carrie by the end.

“Absolute rubbish,” he said. “All of it, the vampire and zombie theories both. There is someone out there playing an absolutely sick joke on the forum. I'm going to get to the bottom of this.”

“How?” Carrie asked.

“By catching this impostor in the act.”

“Good luck with that,” Carrie said. “Kristy, Cassie, and I were out all last night searching and all we found was some weirdo with a dog sled and a legally questionable skills.”

“What about the missing body?” I asked.

“Some weirdo rolls into town and tells you it is gone after you learned it was there just the day before and you don't think that's a weird coincidence? He's part of this conspiracy. But, they can be found and exposed. If someone keeps hunting, they are bound to find them,” Ian insisted.

I sat back, contemplating the menu as Carrie and Ian argued about the feasibility of finding the doppleganger. I just wanted to eat dinner; I was starving. We ordered and I kind of spaced out while we waited. I was surprised when I realized they were waiting on me for an answer.

“What was the question?” I asked lamely.

“What is your opinion on this whole thing?” Ian asked.

“Guys, I'm a journalist. I keep my mouth shut and eyes open and don't form any opinions until I have all the facts available,” I said.

“You're so full of it,” Carrie replied.

“It sounded good, though, didn't it?” I said with a shrug. “I really don't know. I'm too close to the situation to see clearly. This whole nursing thing sounded like a good idea at the time, but I don't know, it might have been a mistake. I mean, it's not like there are lives riding on my ability to see the story for what it is, I'm sure I'm doing more good as a nurse, but still.”

Our food arrived and the conversation waned as we ate. After we finished, we paid for our meals and then decided to go our separate ways. Ian took off in a hurry, determined to not waste a minute in beginning the hunt for the Coaster doppleganger. I was just about to leave when I noticed Ian had left his gloves sitting on the chair. I picked them up and hurried out. He was nowhere to be seen. I checked my pockets and realized that I had left my cellphone behind at my apartment. I stuffed the gloves in my pocket and headed home.

Once there I picked up the phone from the cradle and dialed his cellphone. He picked up after two rings.

“Hey, Ian, I've got your gloves. You raced off without them,” I told him.

“Oh, thanks. I realized I had left them at the restaurant about the time I was back at my apartment. Can I pick them up tomorrow afternoon?”

“Yeah, no problem. I should be home by five. You can drop by whenever after that,” I told him.

We hung up and I replaced the phone in the cradle and dropped the gloves on the table beside it.

Chapter 6

SPOILER: Click to show

Midnight had come and gone. With reluctance, I finally turned out the front light. Calls to both of Ian's phones had gotten me no response as of yet. The snow was falling thick and heavy, and worry sat almost as heavy on me. What if he had slipped on icy ground on the way over and was laying injured on the ground somewhere? Still, going out to look for him wasn't really a feasible option. There were so many routes he could have taken to get my apartment, even if I searched the streets all night long I could still miss him.

Part of me worried that something had happened to him while hunting for the doppleganger yesterday. So far, I hadn't heard anything more about the strange vampire hunter, which led me to wonder if Ian was right that he was part of some conspiracy. Surely someone else would have mentioned meeting him? A guy from out of town on a dog sled was certainly unusual and therefore noteworthy.

I told myself that he'd just left his phone while searching for the doppleganger Coaster and had forgotten about collecting his gloves. I'd probably hear from him some time tomorrow. Trying to sell myself on these assurances, I got into bed and tried to sleep. My dreams were dark and troubled due to my worries.

I awoke the next morning feeling barely less tired than when I had gone to sleep. I checked my phone, but there were no messages from Ian. I still didn't want to let my worries get the best of me. He'd probably come home late and just gone right to bed. He'd contact me later in the day.

I kept telling myself these same lies all day long as I checked my phone in every spare moment, hoping for a message from him. I turned it off while I was working, so there was always the hope that when I turned it back on it would buzz with the incoming message from earlier. It never did.

As I walked out of the hospital that day, I finally broke down and called both his phones again. Again, there was no response. I bit my lip, contemplating what to do. Finally, I decided to go to his house. I walked through the forum, trying to stay calm.

When I reached his house, I walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. The ring went unanswered, just like his phones. I looked in the window, but the shade was down, preventing me from seeing anything. I went next door and rang the doorbell of one of his neighbors. When they answered, I asked if they had seen him since yesterday.

The answer negative, they didn't remember having seen him in at least two days. Of course, I told myself, that didn't mean anything. I sometimes went days without seeing my neighbors, especially given my schedule. Still, I walked home feeling sick to my stomach. I started calling mutual friends of ours to ask if they had heard from him since yesterday. They all answered no.

It was with a heavy heart that I waited near the phone all night once again.

***

I walked into the hospital feeling exhausted. I had reported Ian missing the night before, but the mods told me there was nothing they could do without some indication of foul play. So far, all we knew was that he hadn't seemed to have come home in nearly five days or answered his cellphone. It was frustrating to believe something terrible had happened to him and yet we couldn't do anything to help him.

There had been another two deaths in the days since Liou's passing. The epidemic was still spreading; there were more and more cases coming in every day. I walked out of the employee locker room just as all hell broke loose. Paramedics were racing someone through the hall, shouting out information to the doctor.

“A neighbor came to return something they borrowed from them and found them like this. They are in really bad condition.”

They passed me and I got a view of the patient on the stretcher at last, Selm Starblood. Before I could even register what was going on, the doctor shoved a chart into my hands and shouted at me to go get blood of that particular blood type. I looked at the chart; it didn't really make any sense but I went down to the blood bank like I was told. Turns out that since Selm isn't human, they had in the past donated their own blood in case something ever happened in which they needed a transfusion.

I quickly collected the blood and raced back to the room. The doctor had already gotten an IV going, so we attached the bag and started the transfusion. Selm began to stabilize and color returned to their face.

“Looks like another case of Anemia Epidemic,” the doctor sighed. “I guess this isn't limited to humans. Lets run the usual tests and see if anything new turns up.”

I frowned and bit my lip; this was getting worse all the time if it could also affect non-humans. Selm returned to consciousness not long later, but was disoriented, so I gave them some sedatives to help them rest comfortably. I had just depressed the sedative into the IV line when I noticed Selm's wrist had two tiny marks on it. I picked up their wrist and examined it. Two little punctures, perfectly aligned, right above the radial artery.

“Selm, how did this happen?” I asked.

Selm was already dozy from the sedatives, in addition to being mildly disoriented from the traumatic experience, so I didn't expect much, but I hoped Selm could tell me something about it. They looked at the marks and told me they didn't know. They dozed off before I could ask any more questions. I gently put their wrist back down on the bed and started to leave the room. I came face to face with Alfred Giles in the doorway.

“Mr. Giles, I didn't know you were still in town. What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I am here to visit a friend,” he said with a smirk.

“You know Selm?”

“No, not at all. That's simply what I told the people at the front desk so they would let me in here. I suspect you know why I'm here. I find it strange that you didn't mention you were a nurse the other night. I could have sworn you said you were a journalist,” he said, stepping into the room and closing the door.

“I didn't see the relevance. I am a journalist. This is just until the epidemic ends,” I explained.

“The 'epidemic', as you term it, won't end until we root out all the vampires in this town, my dear skeptic,” he said, setting a bag on a table and opening it.

“Do you need any help?” I asked.

“You trust me now?” he asked.

“Yes, I don't know, sort of. Selm has two tiny little punctures right over their radial artery. It's not a lot to go on, but deficient blood levels and the only wound is so tiny it shouldn't have been able to bleed enough to matter doesn't really add up any other way. Especially adding a missing body that has been seen wandering town at night. I don't know, the case for vampires is looking better all the time,” I said with a shrug.

“It seems to me that I've acquired my first ally,” he said. “I never did catch your name.”

“Kristykimmy, but you can just call me Kristy,” I said.

“Well, then, Kristy, tie this over Selm's wrist and I will get to work securing the entrances to the room,” he said, tossing me something. “It goes over the puncture marks.”

I caught what he tossed me, a little strip of fabric with small flowers attached. I sniffed the flowers, the subtle scent of garlic wafted from them. I did as I was told, securing it firmly but not too tight, so as not to restrict blood flow. Alfred sprayed the window and door frames with some clear liquid.

“That will keep them out,” Alfred said, putting the spray back in the bag. “When do you get your lunch break?”

“In about four hours, my lunch break is early today,” I said.

“There is a place right down the street; do you know it? Would you like to meet there to talk about things?” he asked.

“I guess so. I'll see you there?” I said, still feeling a little uncertain. I wasn't sure what he needed to talk about with me. Maybe he wanted a patient list or something like that.

“You will,” he said as he opened the door and left.

I watched him walking down the hall and then looked back at Selm. They were sleeping peacefully, looking much healthier than when they had come in. I hoped they would stay that way.

Chapter 7

SPOILER: Click to show

I walked into the cafe that Alfred had talked about and looked around. I spotted him sitting alone at a table in the corner and walked over. I sat down and immediately a waiter came over. We ordered drinks and he hurried off to get them. I picked up the menu and selected something light; I wasn't really hungry.

“So, how come you wanted to speak with me?” I asked.

“You seem to be at the heart of this matter. You could be very helpful should you wish. You, better than most, should know who the victims are, both alive and those already past help. That will be very helpful to me in locating them. Also, I'd like to train you to be a slayer,” he explained.

“You're joking,” I said incredulously.

“No, I'm not. In the past, we've seen vampires come back to former hunting grounds after we rooted them out. It's a good strategy, because a clean area is often overlooked for longer. To combat this, we began to select residents of the areas affected by a vampire outbreak to train them as slayers. The vampires are far more hesitant to return to an area populated by people who know their tricks and have killed them before. It has dramatically lowered the instance of a second outbreak in most areas. Large cities typically continue to have outbreaks simply because of their size. Sometimes they wait a few generations, as most times the original slayers don't think to pass the knowledge onto their grandchildren. You can be the first slayer here, should you wish to do something to help protect your home,” Alfred explained.

The conversation was interrupted as the waiter returned with our drinks and asked for our orders. After he left, we picked it back up.

“So, you want me to tag along as you slay vampires and learn from you? For real? I'm mildly disaster prone,” I said.

“I've been doing this a long time, Kristy. I've probably worked with worse. It's amazing what people become under pressure. Look at it this way; help me and this outbreak can end in the near future. Don't help me, and more people will die, which will lead to more vampires, which means your friends may die and come back as vampires. Have you lost any friends yet?”

This question hit me hard. “Well, Liou and Coaster were people I knew pretty well. But, uh, one my friends, Ian Wolf-Park, I had to report him missing last night.” The tears I had so far managed to hold back where Ian was concerned finally escaped. I lowered my head to try to hide this, but he saw. Alfred reached across the table and covered my hand with his.

“Tell me what happened,” he said.

“He was sure that the Coaster we've seen running around town had to be an impostor and part of a sick joke. He was determined to catch him in the act and prove it. That was the day after we met. No one has seen him since that night,” I said, wiping my eyes with the palm of my other hand. “I'm sure something awful has happened to him.”

“That is probably so,” Alfred said, his voice grim. “I won't give you false hopes. If he went after them alone, especially unknowing of their true nature, there is not much hope he is still alive.”

“Those creeps,” I sobbed. “Okay, I'll help. If this is for real, then they've hurt my friends, and I'm not going to take that lying down. Let's kill some vampires.”

“Very good,” Alfred said, but cut himself off when the waiter returned with our food. Once the waiter had left he started again. “If you don't have any plans tonight, I will stop by your house tonight to educate you on the weapons we use. Then, we'll set out for the graveyard. I've already tangled with one of the vampires in town, I have a suspicion she'll waiting for me tonight with backup. She's rather eccentric, even by their standards. There is something about this town that makes me feel that most of them will be. Anyhow, we'll mostly use tonight as a training exercise for you, and hopefully a chance to identify a few of the vampires.”

I nodded, pushing my food around my plate, my appetite completely gone. I gave him my address and we finished our meals in silence. We parted ways outside the cafe, him going off towards the Forum Gates and I back to the hospital. I pulled out my cellphone and looked at it for a minute. I considered calling Cassie, but honestly, I didn't know how I would explain all of this to her. I didn't even truly understand what was going on. Carrie, however, had been there when Alfred arrived in town. I decided it was best not to involve Cassie at this point and called Carrie.

“What's up? I'm sorry to rush you, but I'm actually kind of busy,” Carrie said briskly.

“That's okay, I've got to get back to work too. Can you come by my apartment this evening? Whenever you're free, but before eight?” I said.

“That's specific,” she said.

“I'll explain tonight, okay?”

“All right,” Carrie said as she hung up.

I entered the hospital and got back to work, trying not to think too much about tonight.

***

I opened the door and Carrie walked in, stomping the snow off her boots on the front mat. “Would it kill you to shovel your walk? It's required by law and I should cite you.”

“Charming to see you too,” I said with a wry smile. “I'll get to it. It's difficult to keep up with it with more snow falling every other day.”

“At least tonight it is clear,” Carrie commented. “So, why am I here?”

“I met our charming vampire hunter again today,” I started.

“Someone slay me now,” Carrie cried, throwing her hands up. “What did you do?”

“I think he's not lying. Selm came into the hospital today, all the same symptoms as everyone else, the only unusual thing was two little pin-pricks over their radial artery. He came in right after they did to vampire proof the room, garlic sprays and everything. I looked in at some of the others during my shift. I found identical pin-prick wounds over major arteries on all of them. It is the only outward sign that they all have in common. I met him for lunch afterwards. He says he wants to train some of us to be vampire hunters to kill of the vampires in town and to keep them from coming back. If he's legit, then you'll probably be one of the best vampire hunter recruits. If not, then having you along when we go out might make him rethink whatever dastardly plans he has,” I explained.

“Or get me killed and my body sold on the black market alongside yours,” Carrie said sarcastically.

“Yes, but at least I won't be lonely,” I pointed out.

“You're so selfless.”

“I know.”

“Kristy, this is a bad idea-” Carrie's cautioning words were cut off by a knock at the door.

I pulled it open to find Alfred standing there, a large bag was slung over his shoulders. He walked in and placed it on a table.

“Hi, Mr. Giles,” I said, hoping I didn't sound as awkward as I felt. Carrie's skepticism had left me feeling far less convinced of the vampire threat than I had at lunch that day.

“You may call me Alfred, Kristy. We'll be seeing quite a bit of each other over the next few weeks. That level of politeness is going to become stale fast,” he told me. “I see you called in the other skeptic. Have you converted her, or is she here to see that I don't murder you to steal your organs?”

“Oh, that's not at all unsettling,” Carrie pointed out, given that we had just discussed that without him there.

“You're not the first skeptic, my dear, and you won't be the last. The pool of things I'm accused of being is actually fairly limited and often related to body-snatching, given the disappearance of bodies around the time I show up. The vampires stop sleeping in their crypts after a vampire hunter comes to town. They are not courteous enough to make it easy for us.”

“That makes sense,” I pointed out, and Carrie begrudgingly nodded her agreement.

Alfred reached into his bag and pulled out a crossbow. He handed it to me and I held it awkwardly, wondering what I was supposed to do with it.

“Don't look like a lost puppy; it's not that complicated,” Alfred laughed.

“You're making a mistake letting her touch that. She'll shoot your eye out,” Carrie told him.

“I might,” I warned him.

“It's not even loaded. Here, you hold it like this.” Alfred proceeded to show me how to hold it, how to load it, how to fire, though we didn't actually fire it, and how to unload it if I didn't use the shot. We went over it a few times until I could go through all the motions perfectly. Carrie sat on my couch, back out of the way, and watched.

After about an hour of that, Alfred declared it time to go hunting. Carrie and I bundled up and walked outside to his sled.

“Where are we going?” Carrie asked as the dogs started off.

“To Memory Lane,” Alfred told her.

“Can we make a stop in Mod Squad first?”

“Of course we can.”

This stop happened to be at the home of Celestial. Carrie got off the sled and rang the doorbell. Celes looked rather stunned when she opened the door, but I suppose that since finding a dog sled in front of your house really isn't that common an occurrence that it was to be expected. Carrie walked into the house and closed the door behind them. Alfred and I waited outside, making light conversation about the NTWF to pass the time.

Finally, Carrie returned, and Celes followed her out, dressed in a heavy cloak, gloves, and a hat.

“Who is your friend?” Alfred asked as they approached.

“This is Celestial. Someone I think can probably wipe the floor with you should you prove to be a creep. Want to back out now?” Carrie challenged.

“Not at all. Welcome to the party, Celestial. The more the merrier,” Alfred said with a genuine smile.

“A pleasure I'm sure,” Celestial replied, giving Carrie a look.

Celes got on the sled along with us, and we set off for the graveyard once again. It wasn't long before we reached the gates to the graveyard. We got off as Alfred gave his dogs the command to stay put.

Together, we walked through the gates and into the graveyard.

Chapter 8

SPOILER: Click to show

We walked up the hill, Carrie and Celestial trudging behind, still skeptical and probably afraid to walk close to me, not that I blamed them for that. The crossbow felt strange in my hands, but I hoped I wouldn't have to use it. Who knew, maybe we wouldn't find any vampires. That, or Carrie would turn out to be right and I was being a moron, which was often the case. Of course, the guy had given me a loaded weapon, which didn't seem to be the type of thing you'd do if you were planning to kill a person's to sell their internal organs.

“Do you suppose we'll see anyone soon?” I asked, hoping Alfred would answer in the negative.

“Yes, quite soon,” Alfred chuckled.

“Awesome, that's awesome,” I replied, not meaning a word.

“My dear slayer, couldn't get enough of my charms?”

The voice was familiar, but given the low husky tones in which the speaker spoke, I couldn't place it. Carrie did.

“Robyn, is that you? What are you doing out here?” Carrie called.

“Doing what is that all girls do at night,” Robyn said, sauntering out if the shadows.

“Sleeping? Because that's usually what I'm doing at night. Unless I'm working, I do that too,” I said, Celes and Carrie nodded in agreement.

“No, that's not what-- Augh, whatever, that sounded better in my head. Shut up, blondie,” Robyn snapped.

“Uh, Robyn, you know my name. We've only been friends for like, years. And, why did you say that like it's a bad thing? You're a blonde, too,” I pointed out.

“Yes, and gentlemen prefer them, don't they, my dear?” she said, flipping her long blonde hair. Robyn's long blonde hair was my nearest competition when it came to long blonde hair.

“I suppose that must be why I chose a blonde for my partner, isn't it?” he said, waving at me, seemingly enjoying whatever was going on here.

“Yes, of course. No, wait, not her! Augh, must you play so hard to get?” Robyn cried in frustration.

By this point, we were all rather confused about what was going on. Robyn sauntered forward a little, trying to do that sexy catwalk style walk. However, she tripped over some rocks and stumbled, catching herself before she fell. I tried not to snicker but failed. Robyn worked hard to recover. She leaned up against Alfred's shoulder, grinning seductively. It was then that I noticed that her teeth looked sharper than I remembered.

“So, handsome, is it just me or are you hot? You know, graveyards, I'll bet they just get your blood racing,” Robyn said.

I lost it there. I doubled over, crippled with laughter.

“You quite all right there, my dear girl?” Alfred asked.

“I'm so sorry, I just couldn't help it. Robyn, where did you learn these pick up lines?” I gasped out as Carrie resignedly patted me on the back.

“Augh, did you really have to bring these dips along? I wanted you all to myself. You might think me a bleeding heart, but--”

“Did I hear someone say blood?” a voice called out of the darkness.

My mirth dried up as a chill crawled up my spine. The voice came from someone I knew. Someone I had watched die only days ago: Coaster. Coaster himself came running down the hill, still in the suit he had been buried in, grinning with a manic light in his eyes, his open lips revealing sharp fangs.

“Okay, so I've got this great joke. What do you get when you turn a teacher into a vampire? Lots of blood tests!” Coaster stood there, obviously waiting for some sort of response. I know my mouth had dropped open, and Carrie and Celes were probably in similar states.

“Okay then, I've got a million of them! Why did the vampire subscribe to The 'Bloids? Because it has great circulation. What do vampires call leeches? Competition. Why couldn't Dracula's wife get to sleep? Because he wouldn't stop coffin!” Coaster rattled them off at an impressive speed, barely giving us time to comprehend all the awful puns.

I stood there shell-shocked, my friends were silent, and Alfred gave a slow clap.

“Thank you, thank you,” Coaster said, taking a bow. “I'd keep the jokes flowing, but it'd be a vein endeavor. Besides, they're hardly known to slay the competition at the best, especially since I'm so prone to mistakes. Like, seriously, to be honest, I suck. Going to turn this back over to you, Robyn. Knock 'em undead.”

“Where was I?” Robyn asked, still leaning against Alfred's shoulder.

“I believe you were attempting to seduce me,” he reminded her.

“Oh, right, so like, I was saying...” she trailed off. “Forget it. God. Here come my fangs into your neck or whatever. Just forget I said anything!”

Alfred seized her by the throat as she bared her teeth, revealing that I hadn't been mistaken in thinking her teeth were more sharp than they had been. Robyn also had long fangs in place of the incisors.

“I'm afraid biting on the first date is highly inappropriate. You're far too forward,” Alfred said.

He raised his stake to strike and Coaster dived at him. Celes tackled Coaster and I fumbled with my crossbow. How was I supposed to use the thing with Celes on top of Coaster? Sure, I had a few spare stakes in my bag, but I wasn't sure I could do anything while she was still trying to restrain him.

“I always knew you liked me, Celes!” Coaster shouted gleefully. “You don't have to throw yourself at me, though.”

“Oh, wrong!” Robyn shouted. “Why? Why? I'm the seductive one! I'm supposed to get the 'ships!”

“I'm not! Not like that!” Celes shouted, holding Coaster down. “What is going on here? Are all vampires like this?”

“How about a kiss, Celes? It'll be to die for,” Coaster said.

“That one is a myth,” Alfred said with a shake of his head. “Now, since you're all so keen on being talkative, perhaps you'd like to tell us a little about the vampire presence in this town?”

“I won't tell you a thing. If you speak, Coaster, if they don't kill you, we will,” Robyn swore.

“My lips are like a crypt, sealed,” Coaster cackled.

“Make him stop! I can't take anymore of his graveyard humor,” Carrie cried.

“Gladly,” Celes said, snatching the stake out of my bag and raising it.

“I wouldn't do that,” another voice shouted from the darkness. “We have you surrounded.”

“See, handsome?” Robyn said, adopting that husky tone again. “You should never underestimate a girl.”

“And you should never hit on a slayer,” he replied, plunging a stake into her chest.

I couldn't help crying out. Even knowing we were out here to slay vampires, actually seeing Alfred in the act of doing so caused me to freak out. He released her and she staggered backwards, staring down at the stake protruding from her chest. He reached to the sword he had hanging from his belt and pulled it out. With a fluid motion, he swung it, so fast you could have blinked and missed it. There was no gore, just dust. She instantly dissolved into a pile of dust that blew away in the wind.

While we were all distracted by this, Coaster seized his chance. He shoved Celestial, hard. Celestial was very strong, but he had the upper-hand on a now distracted Celes, and he was much stronger than he had used to be when he was alive. Caught off guard, she lost her grip on him and he rolled to his feet.

“I don't want to die!” Coaster screamed as he ran up the path.

“You are dead, Coaster!” I shouted as I raised my crossbow and fired.

My shaft missed, striking a tomb a few feet from Coaster and lodging in it. Coaster escaped into the darkness, as none of us were foolish enough to separate to go after him.

“Oh, shoot. I think that's one of Stal's ancestors. Do you think he's gonna be mad?” I asked.

“I won't tell if you won't,” Carrie replied.

“Agreed,” Celes said.

“You'll pay for that, slayer! We'll get you!” the voice screamed out of the darkness.

“Me and my little partner, too?” he asked in a humorous tone.

“As much of a cliché as that is, and given that we're vampires and not witches, yes!” Coaster shouted from somewhere.

“You've got something in common with that witch! You're still dead!” I shouted.

“And you're not in Kansas anymore!”

“I never was to begin with!”

“Kristy, are you seriously arguing with a dead man?” Carrie asked.

“Yes. Yes, I am,” I replied.

“Dead men tell no tales, but they never said anything about jokes!” Coaster shouted. “I'd bring up more blood/vampire puns, but having more variety might be A positive experience.”

I heard an echoed exclamation of pain from Coaster and then there was silence.

“It seems our friends have moved on,” Alfred said. “Well, this will be an interesting experience. I've never come across vampires with so much personality before. Is this what the locals are usually like?”

“Uh, in a way. They aren't usually as extreme as you saw them. Of course, I dunno, being undead might change things,” I said, wondering what I had eaten to trigger a dream this bizarre.

“It usually enhances personality a little. They must have had a lot of personality to begin with.”

“Shouldn't we be tracking them?” Celes asked.

“No, wherever they were talking from was an echo point. Some of these vampires clearly know what they are doing,” Alfred said. “They didn't want us to be able to pinpoint their location and track them. Might be that wherever they have made their nest is accessible from here. We'll have to search during the daylight hours. Also, the being surrounded was clearly an empty threat. It was likely only the speaker who was watching us. Never trust a vampire.”

“That should be an obvious piece of advice,” Carrie commented.

“You would be surprised,” Alfred said with a shrug. “Now, if that didn't convince you ladies, nothing will. Do I have two new partners, or shall Kristy and I continue on alone?”

“No, you've convinced us. Coaster was pretty well undead, and well, Robyn...” Carrie trailed off, lost in her own thoughts.

“Okay, wait, though,” Celes said. “We knew Coaster was dead, and from a sickness that you've shown us is being caused by vampires, but Robyn was fine. She never got sick, never died. She was at the meeting where we talked about Coaster's appearances around town. I saw her in the gallery.”

“What time of day was that held at?”

“It was sometime after five in the afternoon,” I told him.

“After sundown, which is when they are out and about. They have people on the inside, they knew what was going on. They had Coaster stay in his crypt to throw everyone off the scent. The fact of the matter is that there may be many, many vampires in the NTWF right now, but they are members of the night life. People who didn't come into the hospital to report their symptoms, perhaps even ones who were kidnapped and turned during a time when no one would know they were gone,” Alfred explained.

“So, how do we know whom to trust?” I asked.

“Well, first, both of your friends are going to have to take the garlic test. If you're both not a vampire, you'll do it. If not, that's rather telling and you had better start running,” Alfred said, pulling two cloves of garlic and offering it to them.

Carrie took off her glove to take it and Celes ate hers, both proving they weren't vampires, much to my relief. Alfred smiled.

“Well then, tonight we rest. Tomorrow, we set to work.”

Chapter 9

SPOILER: Click to show

All things considered, I slept pretty well that night, despite having rather odd dreams about comedy clubs full of vampires making bad puns. The next morning, I went about my usual routine, getting ready to go to work at the hospital. I was just finishing my bagel when there was a knock at the door. I opened it to find Alfred standing there.

“Hey, come on in,” I said, mildly puzzled. I hadn't expected to see him until evening.

“Good morning, Nurse Kimmy. Ready to get to work?” he asked with a grin.

“Nurse Kimmy, eh? I suppose that means that there is something to be done at the hospital?” I asked.

“You suppose right. We will need to vampire-proof it, and I'll need a list of all current patients of the Anemia Epidemic. The reason the patients keep crashing in the hospital is because the vampires continue to feed on them there. Once we make it so they can't get in to the hospital itself, we'll need to do the same for the homes of the victims. They will recover fairly fast once the vampires cannot get to them in the hospital, but we don't want them to relapse once they leave because the vampires can get to them in their homes,” Alfred explained.

“Okay. So, how do we do that?” I asked.

“You get ready to go, and I'll show you when we get there.”

***

Alfred and I arrived at the hospital and stopped outside. It was still almost half an hour before my shift would begin, but I doubted anyone would think it was weird that I was there early. Alfred looked around, the streets were empty.

“Keep an eye out,” he told me as he opened his large bag and pulled out a sprayer.

I kept an eye on the streets and buildings, but saw no sign of anyone watching. Alfred sprayed the doorway in the same way he had the the doorway and windows in Selm's room the day before. When he finished, he asked me what other entrances there were to the building.

“There is a staff access door around the side, in the alley, and there is an entrance in the back, where the ambulances pull up. There is also one up on the roof. We don't have life-flights here, but the air-conditioning units are up there.”

“We'll do the ground level ones now, and I'll handle the roof later,” he told me as we headed for the alley.

We walked around to both entrances, repeating the process at each door. After that was done, we returned to the side entrance and entered the hospital that way. We went into the closet where all the cleaning supplies were kept.

“What do we do here?” I asked.

“You need to change the cleaning schedule to do all the windows today,” he told me as he grabbed a bottle of cleaner and emptied it into the sink. I walked over to the computer and turned it on. I typed up a document that looked like the schedule and then printed it, replacing it on the sheet with the day's usual cleaning schedule. I made sure there was common area cleaning, and some in the more intensive care areas in addition to the window cleaning, so that it wouldn't seem strange.

“All done,” I told him.

“Here, you keep emptying the bottles of cleaner,” he said.

He was filling the bottles he had emptied with the same liquid he had been spraying on the windows.

“Is the entire hospital going to smell of garlic?” I asked.

“Very vaguely. People with more sensitive noses might notice a slight smell throughout the hospital, but most people won't notice. We've refined this to be as scentless as possible. It still deters the vampires, but it doesn't smell strong enough to cause people to clean it off the windows and unknowingly open the building to vampires again,” Alfred explained.

“You've got this down,” I said, impressed.

“The Helsing Society has been doing this for a few centuries now, under various names. We've pretty well honed our craft, though the vampires find ways to change with the times as well.”

“Okay, I got a question. Why do you need us? These vampires don't seem to be much of a problem. I saw you take out Robyn effortlessly and Coaster was kind of pathetic as well. I was kind of expecting them to be terrifying, but, well, the only thing terrifying about them was Coaster's puns,” I asked, really wondering why he'd need additional slayers.

“Hellions running around in the bodies of the dead, preying upon the people of this town, creating more of their kind through the deaths of human beings and spreading their pestilence to the world isn't terrifying enough on its own? You are a hardened woman.”

“I didn't mean it like that. I meant, personally, individually,” I protested.

“I know you did; I was being facetious,” Alfred replied with a smirk.

“Are you trying to make me hate you?” I asked, frowning.

“I only ask you to work with me. Liking me is optional,” he replied good-humoredly.

I didn't reply to this, and we worked in silence for a moment before Alfred suddenly started talking again.

“A vampire can snap your neck just by wrapping their hands around it and giving it a squeeze. A gentle squeeze, really, for them. Their nails are the equivalent of a mountain lion's claws. They have no empathy. You're either a meal or a disturbance, and either way they want to see you dead. They are fully capable and willing to manipulate you using the emotional connection you had to the corpse they inhabit. Now that they know that you're aware of them, they won't hesitate to kill or capture you if they see their chance.”

“Uh...” I tried to come up with a suitable response to the long list of heinous actions that they were capable of.

“Are you afraid of the dark?” he asked.

“No?”

“That was a question?”

“No? Okay, maybe. Should I be?” I was now more than a little confused.

“Of course not.”

“You're messing with my head again!” I cried, realizing what he was doing.

He smirked at me and I resisted the urge to slug him in the arm. We finished refilling the bottles and replaced the them in their proper places, Alfred handed me a small pouch. I looked inside and found more of the bands with the flowers that I had put on Selm the day before.

“Continue to put these on the victims. It helps to deter vampires while they are out and about in town. There is always the possibility that a vampire might be desperate enough to snatch them off the street on their way home. One of the things vampires hate the most is losing their prey, even if they can move on,” Alfred explained. “I'll go get that last door, and then I'll see you and your friends tonight.”

“Will do,” I replied

I said goodbye and was parting ways with him when he called my name. I turned back to look at him.

“Kristy, don't let the charming demeanor of the vampires you met last night fool you. Look around this hospital, at all those suffering from this epidemic, and remember that they are treading a thin line between life and death. Remember that the ones doing this to them might be someone who you interact with on a daily basis; someone who offered you support and comfort after the death of your patients, knowing full well they were responsible for it. Know that their duplicity amused them to no end. This is not a threat to take lightly, regardless of how eccentric the vampires happen to be.”

I bit my lip and he turned and walked away without waiting for a response. I closed my eyes, remembering Coaster, not as I'd seen him last night, but as I'd known him in life. Eccentric, funny, creative, supportive, a good friend. None of that had been present last night. Just a rampant, almost psychotic, insanity, the very fury of which had been somewhat grotesque when I thought closely about it. I opened my eyes and shook my head, clearing it of the dark thoughts. I had to get on with my day.

I needed to sign in for my shift so I walked to the front desk after changing my shoes and hanging up my coat. I picked up my duty roster and and noticed Thorndove listed as one of my charges. My heart leapt into my throat and I ran right to the room listed, nearly colliding with a doctor outside of her room.

“What's wrong with Thorn? Is she okay?” I asked.

“Whoa, are you okay? We should check your levels; you're very pale,” he said.

“I'm always very pale, and on top of that, I'm scared. Is she okay?” I asked again.

“Anemia Epidemic. A neighbor saw her leaving her house in only her nightclothes, no shoes even, last night. The neighbor thought she was sleepwalking, so he followed her. Found her collapsed in the snow a quarter of a mile from the house, almost lifeless. Thorn is very lucky, she would have died last night if that neighbor hadn't spotted her,” the doctor explained. “She's stable now. She was given a transfusion and warmed up. You know how the Anemia Epidemic goes, we'll just have to monitor her and hope for the best.”

I nodded, though now that I knew the truth, I didn't have to 'hope for the best'. The hospital was going to be a safe zone by this evening, and Thorn was safe so long as she was here. Tonight, we were going to start rallying forces against the vampires. We were going to create a force to destroy them utterly.

I walked into the room, moving quietly, not wanting to disturb her if she was sleeping. Thorn was awake and reading a book. She looked up at me and smiled.

“Guess I'm pretty lucky,” she said. “An hour out there in the snow and I would have been dead.”

“You're not, and you'll be fine. You'll be back to sailing in no time,” I assured her.

“Are you sure about that? They tell me that I have Anemia Epidemic,” Thorn said, her voice wavering slightly.

“Well, we might be close to a breakthrough with that,” I said reassuringly, pulling the band of flowers out of my pocket. “Can I have a look at you?”

I examined her arms and found the two pin-prick wounds, right above the radial artery on her arm. From examining other victims, I'd noticed that these vampires seemed to prefer the arms to the neck. I tied the band on and Thorn looked at it.

“What's this?” she asked.

“Well, it's a bit of an experiment. It's a homeopathic cure, but we've seen some results. Selm Starblood didn't have any of the usual relapses since yesterday. We're doing some other treatments, they'll be in your I.V., but you won't really notice. I think you'll be just fine. Just leave that on for the next few days,” I said, fudging the truth a bit.

I didn't want to go around shouting vampires. People were likely to be as skeptical as I had been, and as I didn't have a vampire to pull out of my bag and show them, I couldn't expect anyone to believe me. I could only help the people of the NTWF if they trusted me.

Thorn nodded and I told her I had to go. I walked out of the room, angrier than I'd ever been in my life. Thorn was my oldest friend; I'd know her since before I had come to the NTWF. I wondered if it was random, or if they had targeted her last night as retribution for my part in Robyn's slaying. Given what Alfred had said about the sadistic nature of our foes, it seemed possible. Regardless of why they had targeted Thorn, these vampires had attacked far too many friends of mine. It had gone beyond survival for me; I wanted revenge. I was going to do my part to raise Cain for them.

Chapter 10

SPOILER: Click to show

I arrived at Celes' house that evening in Mod Squad dressed to kill, literally. I was carrying my vampire hunting kit, which consisted of the crossbow and shafts that Alfred had given me, a large amount of garlic in a plastic bag, a mirror in case it turned out that the no reflection thing was true, and a thick knife in a holster on my hip. I didn't trust myself with a sword, but I supposed that I knife would probably do the trick if I actually needed it.

I knocked on the door and Icon opened it for me.

“Hey, Icon,” I said, surprised to see him. “What're you doing here?”

“Slaying vampires, apparently,” he answered. “But, honestly, I'm just here for the food, particularly the stakes.”

“Oh, really? You really had to go there?” I groaned, facepalming at his pun.

I walked in and looked around for a place to put down my bag. Carrie and Celes had removed the furniture from her entryway and were using the long hallway to the other rooms as a shooting gallery. Celes had a traditional bow and was using it while Carrie watched. I was told Carrie was waiting for a crossbow.

“So, Icon is in too?” I asked.

“Yup, we gave him the garlic test, the mirror test, and then we tossed him in the lake to see if he'd sink,” Carrie told me.

“Uh, that last one is how you find out if someone is a witch,” I pointed out.

“Aw, really? Shoot. Sorry about that, Icon,” Carrie called to him.

“No worries. What's a little hypothermia and drowning between friends? At least you didn't mix up the werewolf tells in there; I'm not sure I could find a silver lining in that.” Icon called back.

“They've got Coaster, we've got Icon. I think we're even now,” I said with a dry chuckle. “I called Cassie to come over. She's an archer already, so she'll be helpful.”

“Provided she isn't a vampire,” Celes said.

“Provided she isn't a vampire,” I repeated.

I pulled out my crossbow and loaded it and then took my stance, but hesitated.

“Celes, are you sure you want me firing this off in your house?” I asked, biting my lip as I thought about all the damage I was likely to cause.

“Honestly, no. However, it's too cold to do it outside, and I don't want the vampires to be able to watch us train. So, go ahead, but try not shoot my ceiling.”

I took a deep breath and started again, looking at Celes' target. It was a human shaped cutout with a painted area for where we were supposed to be aiming. It took five or six tries before I hit that area, but all my other shots went into the target.

I was just retrieving my shafts when the doorbell rang. Icon answered it again; this time it was Cassie and Alfred. Alfred had a second bag this time, one much larger than the one he usually carried, slung across his back. I finished collecting all my stakes and walked over to where everyone else was, which was clustered around the bag now that he had set it down.

“All right, no pushing, my dear slayers. First things first. Testing this new girl and confirming that this young man isn't a vampire,” Alfred said.

“We gave him the garlic test and the mirror test. That one works, right?” Carrie said, not making the same joke about pushing him in the lake that she had with me.

“Yes, that one works. Not very practical in the field, as you have to turn your back to use it, which is something you never want to do to an opponent. Also, the garlic distracts them, so it is practical in that manner as well,” Alfred explained, handing Cassie piece of garlic.

“What am I supposed to do with this, and what is going on?” Cassie asked, looking confused.

“She passes,” Carrie said, high-fiving me.

“You're part of the club, and the exclusive story no one will believe,” I told Cassie. “We're hunting vampires and you get to help, if you like.”

It took a little work to convince Cassie we weren't all crazy, but after that, she was on board. The next order of business was handing out the weapons, which was what Alfred's new bag was filled with. There were a few crossbows, and the rest of it was swords. He passed them out, crossbow to Carrie, and swords to Icon and Celestial. Cassie opted to use Celes' traditional bow, as she was already used to that weapon.

“So, the way this works is that you work in a two pronged assault unit. The archers need to hit their target first, through the heart, before the swordsman and woman will be of any use. Speed is essential. With the stake through the heart, they vulnerable and crippled, but not helpless. Those of you who saw me slay the vampire last night know that she stayed on her feet even with the stake in her chest. If I had been slower and lost the element of surprise, she certainly could have fought back or run. They will most likely run, but if they fight back, they will be weaker than otherwise, much closer to the level of a normal human.”

“We'll be switching, then. Archers first, who will then pull back while the sword fighters charge once they have hit their mark?” Celes asked, looking at her thin, lithe blade.

“Exactly,” Alfred said, clapping his hands together. “Archers can take turns here, and perhaps you've another room you won't mind practicing proper sword techniques in? We will be starting with the basics, proper pose, drawing your weapon, that kind of thing. It has gotten a little too crowded in this hall for all of us to be practicing together.”

Celestial nodded and she, Icon, and Alfred left up a flight of stairs that was just off the hall.

I looked at Carrie and Cassie, giving them a rueful grin. “Excited?”

“This is kind of like the NTWF Games, only but the dead get up and attack you after they die,” Cassie pointed out. “We're going to be fighting people we thought were our friends.”

“Speaking of friends...” Carrie trailed off, but her look told me what she was thinking.

“No, Ian's still missing. Alfred thinks the vampires probably have him. He'll probably be one of the friends who we'll be fighting.” My mind flashed back to Robyn and Coaster, how wrong they were. I shook my head, chasing away my doubts. “It doesn't matter; that's not them anymore. It's something else pretending to be them. The only decent thing we can do is set them free.”

Carrie nodded, her face looking a little more grim than a moment ago. I knew she was probably remembering how altered Coaster and Robyn had been, wondering who else we would find like that. Cassie just shrugged and grabbed her bow to begin practice. Until she saw a real vampire, none of this would be real for her, just like it hadn't been for us until last night.

I closed my eyes and tried to steel myself. The hard part wasn't going to be killing them, it was not losing the nerve to do what had to be done.

Chapter 11

SPOILER: Click to show

A week passed with training. We certainly weren't amazing, but we were decent. At the hospital, things were improving. The doctors were scratching their heads, trying to figure out why the victims were suddenly no longer relapsing. They didn't question the wristbands I had put on all of them, figuring it was some sign of support from the people around the NTWF.

We had talked about possible others to recruit, but hadn't made any moves on recruiting anyone new yet. I think we were all a little nervous about the idea of discovering that our friends were actually vampires. We had essentially taken a risk with Cassie and Icon, especially for Carrie and Celes, testing Icon while unarmed and only the two of them. Thankfully, that had worked out, but the actual recruiting posed a problem. Showing up in force to recruit someone was kinda intimidating, but going alone meant one of us might face a vampire alone. Of course, we could ask Alfred to come along, but he usually disappeared during the day. He was a little vague when we questioned him about that, but considering he was the only thing keeping all of the NTWF from becoming vampires, we were all somewhat reluctant to push too hard.

That night, we could tell things were different. Alfred called us together in the hall.

“You have all made wonderful progress in such a short amount of time. I am proud of you all. Now, my dear slayers, it's time to move on. We need to go on the offensive as soon as possible. Now that the current victims are inaccessible both at the hospital and at their own homes, these vampires will begin to change tactics. Kidnappings will likely begin very soon.”

We all paled; that wasn't what we wanted to hear.

“The first plan of attack is to start identifying our friends from our foes. As proven by the tribunal held by Carrie, these vampires clearly have a hold in your governing forces. The moderators and administrators may already be converted,” Alfred explained.

“Carrie, Icon, and I are fine, obviously, but Robyn was retired. She had stepped down from her role as years ago. So, are we looking at admins or mods first?” Celestial asked.

“Dan was the one who suggested that we go look at Coaster's crypt to see if he was still there. So he would have known he was there if he was a vampire, right? He would have told him to stay there, right?” Cassie chimed in.

“That's a good point,” Icon agreed. “I'd stake money on this theory.”

“Would you stop it with the stake puns already?” I asked. I knew he wouldn't, though. That was Icon for you.

“Well then, it seems like our first mission will be visiting this Dan of yours,” Alfred said.

“Let's try to get him at his house,” I suggested, pulling out my phone. “If he's a vampire, he'll know about me already, but let's pretend I'm going alone and maybe make it seem like I'm going recruiting? I'll tell him I need to talk to him about Coaster again. You guys can follow me in groups right? To throw them off, because they will probably have a trap ready.”

“I'll follow you on my own,” Alfred said. “The others will go together in a different direction, away from his house to draw them off. Talk to him at the door. Do not, under any circumstances, enter the house.”

I nodded and called Dan. He picked up right away and told me that I could come over, as he was home, if it was that important. After we hung up, and turned to look at my vampire hunting party and opened my bag, checking to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything I might need.

“Well, here's hoping I don't become vampire chow,” I said as cheerily as I could, giving them a double-thumbs up.

They all chuckled derisively and wished me luck; Icon managed a truly atrocious pun about vampires and my odds. On that note, I set out. I walked quickly through the brisk winter night; the lamplights and their pools of light on the ground were not as comforting as they had seemed in the past. I knew Alfred wouldn't be far behind, but he had to be far enough behind and go a different route to throw the vampires off the scent first. I hoped that we might at least take down one vampire tonight, and perhaps get a look at some of the others we didn't know about. So far, we only knew that Coaster, Liou, and the others on the list of the deceased were vampires, and Liou had not made an appearance as of yet. If we could identify a few more, it might give us clues to figuring out some of the other vampires.

I soon arrived at Mod Squad. Dan's house was nice, a large home with a pillars all along the porch and a stone facade covered in wintering ivy. You got perks for being an admin, and Dan certainly deserved them, given how hard he had always worked for the good of the NTWF. I felt my spirits sinking lower than I thought possible at the thought that Dan was no longer that Dan.

I rallied myself and rang the doorbell. After a minute, Dan showed up at the door, holding a plate of food and looking surprised.

“You move fast. I thought I had a good half an hour still,” he said. “Um, I'm sorry I should have left my plate in the other room. Why don't you come in?”

A now very familiar smell wafted from his plate, giving me pause.

“Dan, what are you eating?” I asked.

“Garlic chicken. Why? You're not allergic, are you?” he asked.

I reached into my bag and pulled out the mirror. I stepped up next to him and turned it to look. Sure enough, Dan had a reflection.

“Ooh, I don't know whether to be disappointed or incredibly grateful,” I said, but was sure it was grateful given how much better I was suddenly feeling.

“I thought I told you not to go into the house,” came Alfred's voice from path leading up to the porch.

I jumped, startled by his unexpected reminder. He was fast.

“We made a miscalculation. Dan's human,” I said, jerking my thumb at the admin.

“What else would I be?” Dan asked irritatedly. “I thought you had news about Coaster and the Anemia Epidemic. What is going on here?”

“Well then, my good man, allow us to share the truth about Coaster and the Anemia Epidemic. We're very glad to find out you don't already know,” Alfred said, inviting himself in.

“He's a friend, and an expert. You've probably heard that we haven't had a relapse in a few days? He's the reason why,” I assured Dan.

Dan looked skeptical, but invited us to tell our story anyway. I let Alfred do that while I called Cassie to tell her to get everyone back to Celes' place, as it had been a bust. There was clear relief in Cassie's voice as I heard her relaying the information to the others. Carrie got on the phone.

“Not that I'm not grateful to hear that Dan's safe, but this does set us back a lot. Alfred said that there has to be someone in our governing structure, and Dan's pretty close to the top. If he's fine, what does that mean?”

“Maybe...” the thought was distant, but I forced it out, “they haven't taken the top management because those are the people needed most during the day? If Dan and the other Admins were no longer available during the day, how would that look? Maybe we need to be looking at Mods?” I suggested. “You, Icon, and Celes are safe, but perhaps for the same reasons? To leave some Mods to deal with the day. Once they had a strong hold here, then they could start taking over the rest of the Mods and Admins? This still has been going on for a relatively short time; the pool of vampires might actually be fairly small. I'll run this theory by Alfred once he's done explaining things to Dan to see what he thinks. You guys should just get back to somewhere safe as fast as possible.”

“Right. See you,” Carrie said, hanging up.

I walked into Dan's sitting room where he and Alfred were currently seated. Dan looked at me when I walked in and said, “You guys are messing with me, aren't you? This is some kind of bizarre prank.”

“I'd really love to tell you that we are, but I'd be lying if I did. Unfortunately, this is real. I saw Coaster with my own two eyes in the graveyard just a few nights ago. He was cracking the most awful vampire jokes. It was- I don't even know what it was,” I finished with a shrug. “This is pretty freaky and hard to swallow, but it's real. Welcome to Transylvania, NTWF style.”

“Actually, there are almost no vampires left in Transylvania, Kristy,” Alfred told me. “The occasional one crops up, but it is usually someone like your Coaster. A vampire with a bizarre sense of humor. They often adopt the fake accent and all the other stereotypical behaviors associated with a Transylvanian vampire. My society of vampire slayers may be one of the oldest and best organized society, but we're not the only one, and every one of them thought it would be clever to establish their flagship branch in Transylvania. It's actually rather crowded there.”

“Oh, well, okay,” I said, unsure of how else to respond to the unexpected lecture on vampire habitats.

Dan looked more confused than ever. “This is impossible.”

“Welcome to the dark side of wonderland, Dan. I'm afraid you either have to kick us out or see how deep the rabbit hole goes,” I said, again finding that shrugging was the only way to express the craziness of the situation.

Dan ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “What can I do?”

“We could use you in a rear lines position. You might be able to unearth the identities of the people of this city who are vampires. Start with your own organization, from the top down, and send them urgent communications insisting they need to meet with you between seven in the morning and four-thirty in the afternoon. Make note of any who show up before or after those times, as they may be among the vampires. Carrie, Celestial, and Icon all are safe, so you may exclude them from your list. I'll come to see you at your office tomorrow to prevent them from entering except through the main door. It will keep you safe, and I'll leave you with some safeguards on the chance that one of them gets wise and hasty.”

“I'm going to wake up soon, right?” Dan asked, looking bewildered.

“Come wake me when you do, Dan.”

Chapter 12

SPOILER: Click to show

“So, that went differently than we were expecting,” I said as Alfred and I walked away from Dan's house.

“I told everyone to call it an early night. I'll walk you home,” Alfred told me, not responding to my statement.

“Where are you staying?” I asked. Alfred was hard to pin down. He came and went as he pleased, and we never saw him during the day. If it wasn't for the fact that I'd seen him handle garlic with his bare hands, I would have almost have suspected him of being a vampire himself. Vampire territory wars would certainly be interesting. Suddenly I was imagining Vampire Mafias fighting each other, humans getting caught in the crossfire, in more ways than one. I had to admit, sharp dressing vampire Mafiosos was something of an attractive idea. Evil and probably much more of a problem than normal Mafiosos, but still attractive. I wondered if it had been done, or if I could corner the market on vampire mafias and become super rich in the process.

“You're not even listening to me, are you?” Alfred's voice suddenly snapped me out of my thoughts.

“No, I was thinking about something else,” I replied sheepishly.

“Anything useful?” he asked.

“No, not even remotely,” I said honestly.

He chuckled. “A bit of a daydreamer, aren't you?”

“A little. How about you?”

“Not so much, I'm afraid. I'm always a little too busy to be. You let yourself get distracted in this line of work and you find yourself dead... or worse. I've seen it happen too many times,” Alfred said, his wistful smile seemed to speak of lost friends.

I shivered and pulled my coat tighter about me.

“You'll be all right. You've got allies to watch your back.”

“What about you? You travel alone and then have to train a bunch of rookies like me who are lucky if they don't bungle their first missions and get you killed,” I asked.

“A professional hazard, my dear. I chose the profession, so it isn't like I did not know what I was getting into. It was not a matter of necessity like it is for you and your friends.”

“Why did you get into it?” I asked.

“That is a story for another time. You need to get your rest.”

I looked up and realized we were entering Artist's Alley. I put my hands in my pockets and found my keys. “Would you like a hot drink before you head off to wherever you're staying?”

“I would love one, but I simply don't have the time. I have a few things to investigate before I call it a night and the night is longer than I like. I will see you tomorrow night. I've plans for us.”

I nodded and waved to him as I opened my door. I noticed he stayed motionless until I had crossed the threshold into my house. I knew he had vampire-proofed my apartment back before he actually recruited me, as he had ascertained that I was a human the first night. Which made me wonder if there was the risk that if he turned his back before I was in a safe-zone I might be attacked. The others had gone home in groups, but had to part to go to their individual houses once in their districts, which made me think we weren't being followed. The vampires were following Alfred. I leaned against my door and closed my eyes.

You let yourself get distracted in this line of work and you find yourself dead... or worse.

“Don't let yourself get distracted, Alfred, please...”

***

The next evening, we gathered at my house. Alfred had apparently told everyone to meet there, something he hadn't mentioned to me. It was weird, since we had been meeting at Celes' place because she had the space. Thankfully, no one decided to practice while waiting, which was good given the limited space of my apartment living room. Dan had joined us, bringing along the list of possible vampires from his investigation that day. Not everyone had been able to meet with him, but most had picked up during the day and arranged to meet him. A few of those he was able to confirm had been seen out and about in the sunlight. Terra and Gelquie, however, were among those who had not returned his call until just after five.

I knew Gelquie worked the nightshifts, so it was simply possible she had turned her phone off for the day. I hadn't seen her since the meeting about Coaster the day before I first met Alfred. She had interrogated me about Coaster's death when it had happened, and it made me sick to think that there was the possibility that she had known all along what was going on and was one of the reasons for Coaster's death.

Alfred showed up about half an hour later, looking somewhat amused, like tonight was going to be a laugh. I'd seen that look on his face before; it was the same as that night in the cemetery when Robyn had lounged against his shoulder as Coaster told pun after pun. I kinda wanted to jump off a bridge rather than see what was in store for us tonight.

“Who wants to attend a Christmas gathering?” he asked.

“I celebrate Hanukkah,” Carrie told him.

“You don't have to do any celebrating if you don't want to. I simply ask you to keep your eyes open. There seems to be a Santa down at the town Christmas tree lot to kick off a sale on the Christmas trees. You don't have a tree, Kristy. Do you not celebrate either?”

“I celebrate Christmas, but I'm lazy and I usually put it off as long as I can. Putting up a tree is hassle and hanging ornaments irritates my hands. Between being too lazy and being much more busy than usual, it kind of slipped my mind,” I explained.

“That's not all that's slipped your mind. You still haven't shoveled your walk,” Carrie pointed out.

“Really?” I complained.

“I could cite you.” Carrie was enjoying this, I could tell. It was payback for getting her involved, like the vampires were my fault because I'd accidentally met the slayer first.

“Drop it, Carrie,” Dan said. “We'll considering this extenuating circumstances and give her a pass.”

I stuck my tongue out at Carrie and she gave me a look that told me she would nail me later. It would probably be in good fun. Regardless, I couldn't say I was looking forward to that. Dan handed Alfred his report on his investigation before heading home, Cassie walking him there just in case. She was still technically the best archer among us, so she had the most chance of incapacitating a vampire should it cross their paths.

Alfred rubbed his hands together enthusiastically, smiling in a way that made me a little nervous.

“I hear tell that there is a bit of a mystery behind the Santa down at the Christmas Tree lot in Forum Events. No one is sure who hired him, but there he sits, listening to the Christmas wishes of any who will sit on his lap. Surely you're not too old to believe in Santa Claus, are you all?”

“Uuuuhhh,” I drew that word out, wondering what Alfred was playing at. He was clearly being sarcastic, but to what point I couldn't tell. “Why don't we all just get our coats and go to the tree lot?”

“So we can sit on Santa's lap?” Carrie asked, giving me a withering look.

“No, so Icon can make bad puns and get put on the naughty list for frying Santa's brain,” I replied.

“Well, if we're going out to see Santa, we should set out to slay like Santa would; with our rain-gear on. It should work for the snow, too,” Icon chimed in.

I cringed even as I smiled and pointed at him with my thumb. “See, he's got the right idea.”

Celes just shook her head at us as she grabbed her cloak. I pulled out my coat and pulled my gloves on and put them on before picking up my bag with my slaying gear. We all filed out of my apartment and started on our way down to Forum Events.

“Hey, Alfred,” I said as I moved to walk next to him. “I don't suppose you've seen any sign of my friend Ian?”

“No, not as of yet. I checked his house, but it seems untouched, and no one has been there since about the time you reported him missing. I am sorry to say that it only supports my theory he must have found one of the vampires on the streets and they took him. Still, it is strange the vampires didn't have him return into your society. He was taken quite a while ago,” Alfred told me.

“Do you think they just killed him?” Celes asked, hearing our conversation.

“That is a possibility, and really, for his sake, the better outcome. Unfortunately, I feel it is unlikely. The vampires kill those they can't take. Even slayers sometimes wind up prey; the vampires prefer to overpower their foes rather than kill them. It seems unlikely that he would have presented a dangerous enough foe that they would have had to kill him. I find myself baffled by his absence. If they have had him this long, it seems likely that they should have used him to try to manipulate some of you by now.”

I tightened my grip on the strap of my bag. It was all so insane, so unbelievable. How did Alfred cope with this on a daily basis? Could something like this really become old hat? I closed my eyes, praying that wherever Ian was, he wasn't a vampire. Even death was better than the living death that vampirism was.

We reached the tree lot not long later. It was going to be one hell of a night.

Chapter 13

SPOILER: Click to show

We reached the Christmas Tree lot in Forum Events not too long later; our pace was brisk given the cold and our nervous anticipation about what was waiting for us there. The place was decked out in festive Christmas cheer; lights and tinsel adorned many of the trees, giving a soft glow throughout the lot. I wandered a little, looking at the trees, wondering if it was right to buy something so trivial this year. Christmas wasn't about the tree and decorations to me, but they were part of my usual tradition. Still, in light of the vampires and death... I decided to buy myself something plastic later.

As I was meandering, I noticed Stalos in the lot, looking at the trees. Celes grabbed me by the collar, hauling me back into the group as they made their way towards the center where this Santa character was.

“Hey, I just saw Stal. What do you suppose he's doing here? He doesn't celebrate Christmas,” I pointed out.

“Maybe he's helping someone else shop,” Icon suggested.

I just shrugged and resettled my coat now that Celes had released her grip on my collar. I walked along with my group, putting everything out of my mind except this Santa we had come to see. I knew Alfred wasn't going to drag us out here for nothing, but I couldn't quite figure out how a mall Santa played into this.

We reached the center of the lot and saw the display. There was a red carpet set up leading up to platform where a throne decked out in tinsel, holly, and bells sat. On it sat a rather thin Santa, his suit not doing much to enhance the thin figure of whoever was under the wig and beard. There were a few people gathered about to see him, mostly parents and their children, along with a few shoppers who were just watching.

At that moment, the next in line happened to be Thundy. He walked up and sat on Santa's lap like this was totally normal.

“Isn't Thundy a little old to be sitting on Santa's lap?” I asked, trying not to cringe.

“I uh, I got nothing,” Icon said, clearly his stock of puns running dry.

The Santa took this in stride, not seeming too discomforted by the adult man on his lap.

“Ho, ho, hohohohoho! What a pleasant surprise to see such innocence lasting so long. Tell Santa your Christmas wishes, young man! Ho, ho, hohohohohohoho!”

There was something creepy about his laugh, something familiar. I looked at Carrie and Celes and judging by the looks on their faces, I could tell they felt the same way about it. I turned my attention back to the scene, staring hard at the Santa and trying to figure out who was under the beard. Then, I did something stupid.

Without thinking, I ran forward and hurried up the steps to the Santa.

“Hello there, young girl. You'll have to wait your turn. Santa has time for all the good children!” the Santa boomed out with his strange cackling imitation of Santa's trademark laugh.

I reached forward and yanked Santa's beard off. There were gasps of horror from all around me as parent's shielded their children's eyes from my heinous act. However, this act confirmed my suspicions. This was no jolly patron saint of the holiday; this was a hellion determined to prey upon the innocent. It was Coaster.

“Really, Kristy?” Coaster shrieked. “What kind of soulless monster are you, ruining the holidays for children everywhere with your callousness? Who really yanks Santa's beard off in front of children?”

“Oh, I'm the soulless one, am I? You're the one possessing the body of the dead! You're a demon; you don't even have a soul!” I screamed right back at him.

“Would you stop arguing with the dead man?” Carrie shouted at me. “What are you, six-years-old?”

I reached into my bag and pulled out a stake, raising it to strike. Coaster leapt up, sending Thundy flying from his lap and landing in a box of tinsel and holly a few feet away. A weak moan of 'Why, Santa?' drifted out of the box.

Coaster pushed me as he jumped and I tumbled down off the platform and into the snow. I rolled onto my back, still clutching the stake and looked around for Coaster. He was above me, plunging from the sky, his hand extended towards me. The nails were long and dangerous, ready to impale me. I felt my breath rush out, I should have known better than to try an up close approach to impaling him.

Suddenly, something hit me from the side and I was moving, rolling through the snow. When I came to a stop, I looked up. Alfred had me, and Coaster was crouched in the snow where I had been just a moment before, looking stunned.

“You're a bit slow,” Alfred said to him as he pulled me to my feet.

“You're a bit dead!” Coaster shouted, making a dive for us.

However, he reversed course fairly quickly as a shaft came flying at him. Carrie had her crossbow out and was reloading.

“No fair teaming up! Guys, come on, where are you? Give me some backup!” Coaster shouted, running away from Carrie's second shot.

Thankfully, no one seemed to respond to that. Everyone around us was fleeing rather than trying to aid the vampire. I reached into my bag and pulled out my crossbow. Surely he couldn't avoid the two of us. Coaster saw what I was doing and clearly came to the same conclusion as I did. He ran back towards the throne and reached behind it, pulling out a girl who had taken shelter behind it: Pixie. What was she even doing in the lot? I knew she didn't celebrate Christmas either.

He pulled her in front of him, using her as a shield. He cackled as she gave a desperate, frightened gasp.

“Curse him!” Celes shouted, gripping her sword tightly in frustration.

“You wouldn't make me hurt a child? That would be so un-Santa like. It would ruin Christmas for everyone,” Coaster said, giving his awful cackling Santa laugh.

“No, you don't!” a voice shouted.

Someone collided with Coaster from the side. Shinko had tackled him, and as his focus was on us, he wasn't ready for the attack. He tumbled into the snow, releasing Pixie who tumbled and rolled out of his grip. Shinko was on top of him; she pulled back and punched him in the face. The punch did nothing to him. He just grinned furiously and grabbed her by the neck. I was already running, the stake still clasped in my hands. I could see the way he was tightening his grip. I knew he had the strength to snap her neck by just squeezing. I reached him and raised my hand to plunge the stake into his chest. He saw me and released Shinko's neck, swiping his arm and knocking me off my feet.

I landed on top of him, knocking Shinko over. She rolled away, holding her neck and gasping. Coaster apparently decided this was a good time for a joke, which worked in my favor.

“Ooh, Kristy, you too? All the girls are just throwing themselves at me tonight!” Coaster giggled.

“Oh, shut up!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, plunging the stake into his chest.

Coaster screamed, shocked by what I had done. His eyes blazed with anger and he grabbed me by the neck, but as I was lying sideways, he could only get one hand on my neck. His strength was noticeably diminished. It wasn't as painful a grip as I would have expected; it wasn't even strong enough to truly restrict my airway. I slammed on the stake with my fist, driving it deeper into his chest, hoping that would get him to let go. He screamed again, but instead his grip intensified.

“Let go of me, you creep!” I screamed as I pounded the stake once more.

He still held on, but Celes was suddenly there, standing over him with her sword raised.

“Oh, crud,” were the vampire's last words.

He dissolved into dust, and I dropped to the ground in the midst of it. I rubbed my neck and brushed the dust off me, disgusted by the thought that I had vampire all over me. Pixie ran to Shinko, tears running down her face.

“Are you okay? You could have gotten killed doing that!” she sobbed.

Shinko's neck had red hand prints on it, but she was sitting up and breathing steadily. “I'm fine,” she said, her voice a little raspy. “Besides, I'm the one who invited you to come here to help me pick out a tree. I couldn't just abandon you.”

I leaned back in the snow, sighing with relief. I could hardly believe it, we had won. We had slain a vampire and managed it without any casualties in spite of the hostage situation. For half a moment, I allowed myself a surge of pride. Maybe we weren't half bad vampire slayers after all.

“Guys, get up,” Carrie said, her voice tense. “Alfred just went after someone, but he said there are several more vampires in the lot. He's going to deal with or drive away the more dangerous ones, but we're on our own against the rest.”

I wanted to faint. Coaster had been one vampire, but it had taken a team effort, and help from bystanders, just to take him down. How were we going to take down more?

Chapter 14

SPOILER: Click to show

More vampires were closing in, and it was just Carrie, Celestial, Icon, and myself against these supernatural villains. Celes took control of the situation. She got to her feet, and pulled me to mine. She looked around, everyone but Pixie and Shinko had fled the lot. I assumed Thundy was still in the box of tinsel, but he would be safe there so long as we took care of the vampires before they had time to notice him.

“Shinko, Pixie, get over here, behind us. We'll keep you safe. We'll all pick a direction to watch and call out when we spot a vampire. Kristy, Carrie, just like we trained. Stake them while they are at the distance and then we'll lop their heads off while they are stunned. Quick and efficient, or we're all dead.”

I nodded to Celes and picked east. I pulled out my crossbow and loaded it, wishing the Cassie were here instead of me. She'd be likely to hit the target. I had practiced plenty, but it was always on still targets in the safety of Celes' house. This was the real thing. If I missed, I might not get a second chance, and then we might all be dead. I glanced at Icon, he had his sword ready, his eyes trained westward. I turned my eyes back to the east and waited.

“To the north!” Pixie shouted.

“I see it,” Celes said.

“Shinko, watch the east for me,” I said, turning to look. There was a figure in the trees, just a dark shadow among shadows.

“How do we know it is a vampire and not a shopper who doesn't know what is going on?” Carrie asked.

“Unless that's Rudolph with two noses, there are red, glowing eyes on the figure,” Icon pointed out, quickly glancing over his shoulder and then back in his own direction. “Which, you gotta admit, is the next logical step in the Christmas saga. I mean, they gotta update it eventually to make new money off it. The song won't be quite so catchy, but hey, I'm sure we'll love the--”

“Just stop already, Icon,” Carrie said, clearly struggling not to facepalm, because then she'd have to take her hand off her weapon and stop watching the south.

“Oh, please let this be a vampire,” I moaned as I took aim. Icon was right about the red eyes, but I was still terrified of accidentally killing an innocent bystander. Using the eyes as a guide I took aim at where the heart should roughly be. The vampire just stood there, watching. I wondered what was going on, what they were waiting for.

“Kristy, come on,” Celes whispered.

I heard Pixie whimper, clearly terrified. My hesitation vanished. I had to be strong or she was going to die here. I'd gotten involved in this so that I could protect my home and my fellow forumers. I pulled the trigger, releasing the shaft. It flew out into the darkness and I held by breath as I reached into my bag to reload.

There was an unnatural scream in the darkness, one akin to the one that Coaster had given when I had driven the stake through his heart. I'd hit a vampire. Celes ran, sword ready, closing the gap between her the wounded vampire. I should have turned back to the east to watch it, but I didn't right away, and this proved crucial.

The vampires were wily.

“Look out, Celestial! Duck!” Pixie suddenly started screaming.

A vampire jumped seemingly out of nowhere, swinging for her as she made her way to the injured vampire. It had been a trap. The one vampire had stood there as an easy target so they could kill the slayer who came to finish it off.

Celestial stopped midstride and dropped to her knees and then onto her back in the snow. The vampire swung through the air above her. From her position on the ground, she swung her sword upwards. It missed as the vampire instinctively jumped away.

I had the vampire in my sights and I fired. It was another hit. I felt a wave of disbelief wash over me as I automatically reloaded like I'd been trained to do. How had I actually hit the second one? I could actually manage this? Celes was back on her feet, swinging the sword. In the darkness, it looked like the vampire simply vanished as it turned to dust.

The original vampire's eyes disappeared, clearly trying to make a break for it now that it saw that their plan had fallen apart. Celes followed anyway, disappearing into the dark.

“Celes, don't!” I shouted, afraid of what other traps could be lurking where we wouldn't be able to watch her back.

“Carrie, west!” Icon shouted. “They're coming out!

I couldn't look, I had to watch the north. “Pixie, watch the south!” I cried as I kept my eyes trained on where Celestial had disappeared. From behind me came another unnatural shriek, followed by the crunching of boots on the snow as someone ran. I heard Carrie cheer, and I assumed that meant that Icon had gotten the vampire.

I felt a pit forming in my stomach with every moment I waited for Celestial to return. How was Icon going to handle all the vampires we shot without Celestial? I had a knife in my bag, and I supposed I might be able to use it to behead the vampires, but then we'd be down an archer as well. Pixie seemed too unsteady after her experiences, and Shinko was technically wounded. Neither of them had had any training for this kind of thing, either.

Finally, there was a shape in the trees, one without glowing eyes.

“Celestial?” I shouted.

“I got him,” she called. She hurried back out and to us, and immediately my relief was muted by the sight of blood on her sleeve.

“Celes, your arm!” I cried.

“He managed to get in a blow. The sweater took most of it, but he cut me. I'll be fine until later when we can get back to somewhere where we can give it some medical attention.”

“Someone get the silver shaft!” Icon cried as he rejoined the party.

“Vampire, Icon! Not werewolves. Try to keep up,” I snapped, although his comment lightened the gravity a little, which wasn't a bad thing.

“Three down, how many to go?” Carrie said, it was more of a statement than a question.

“I'm counting three pairs of red eyes to the east,” Shinko said, sounded defeated.

“There is one to the south,” Pixie said with a quiver in her voice. “What are we gonna do? Four at once.”

“Seven,” Icon said.

“Crap,” Celestial said, grimacing.

I looked around at my companions and back to the north, there were no eyes there. Hopefully that meant that the north was safe, which meant perhaps we could escape that way. I turned to look at the eyes in the east. I could feel that they were waiting to spring. If we made a break for the north, they would be on us in seconds. There was no running; standing our ground was the only option.

“Let's send them back to hell,” I said, gripping my crossbow tighter.

Chapter 15

SPOILER: Click to show

We were surrounded, the vampires closing in on us from the east, west, and south. There were seven total that we could see, and all we could hope was that there weren't more in the darkness. I gripped my crossbow and tried to formulate a plan.

“Carrie, go for the one in the south, I'll get one of the ones in the east. That'll incapacitate them. If we can take down two more on the approach, we'll only have three more to deal with up close. All we have to do is kill three more and we'll live. The wounded will hopefully flee. If we're lucky that'll be the end of them. Shinko, Pixie, if this goes bad, run north and get out of here. Do not look back, just run.”

The others gave affirmations to my plan; Pixie gave a gasping sob at the idea that we could be killed by the vampires, but she didn't protest.

“On my mark,” I said, lining up the closest one in the east carefully. I made to make this count. “Go!”

I released my shaft and I heard two almost simultaneous screams in the darkness. I reloaded as the five other vampires broke from the trees, running for us, their evil eyes gleaming. They were so fast, and I barely had time to reload before they had more than half closed the distance. My second shot missed. I didn't hear a scream from around me, which I assumed meant that Carrie had also missed. I was desperately reloading, but it was clear it was a lost cause. I took my crossbow and swung it like a bat, striking one of the approaching vampires and knocking her to the ground; I belatedly realized it was Sporty. I raised a stake to plunge it into her chest, but another vampire swung for me. I jumped backward, his claws missing me by centimeters. I took another jump backwards as he jumped forwards after me and then went limp, dropping to the ground. The vampire flew over my head, missing me. Sporty rose and stood over me, leering with an ugly, triumphant grin.

“Not, so fast,” I said, putting the crossbow directly against her chest and firing.

Sporty flailed wildly, screaming as the bolt ripped through her. Someone grabbed my arm and gave a strong tug. Shinko pulled me away just as the second vampire swung for me again.

“Celes, Icon!” I shouted, pointing at Sporty and hoping one of them would be free to end her.

The sword that swung through the neck of the vampire didn't belong to either of them. I felt tears of relief sting my eyes as I recognized wielder: Alfred. With his other hand, he punched the second vampire in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground. He put his foot on the vampire's head, pinning him to the ground, and pulled a stake from his bag, driving it through his back and into his heart. He removed his foot from the vampire's head and swung again, another pile of dust littering the snow around him.

I heard Carrie scream and turned to look. A vampire had knocked her crossbow from her hands and winding back to take a swing for her throat with sharp claws. Icon was lying on the ground, unconscious. I finished reloading my crossbow and took aim, but it was unnecessary. Before I'd even gotten the shot lined up, Alfred was there shoving her down, his sword up in her place. The vampire couldn't reverse its swing in time. It stood there looking stupefied as it stared at the stump where its hand had been a moment before, the limb flown off somewhere into the darkness. I took advantage of its distraction and fired, another shaft sinking into a vampire heart. It didn't even finish its scream before Alfred had rendered it to a pile of dust.

I looked around, Celes had managed to hold off the other two vampires on her own with her rather impressive swordplay, simply keeping them busy and at bay while we tried to take down the other three. Alfred dived in, throwing a stake into the chest of one with such ease it almost annoyed me. Sure, he was a professional, but he also made it look like we were completely inept to have had as much trouble as we did. Celestial took the head off that one, and the other vampire decided it was a good time to head for the hills. Carrie had her crossbow back and made sure that he didn't get far.

I turned to look at Icon, who was already stirring. Shinko carefully shook him fully awake.

“Aw, man, I should have ducked,” he moaned as he rubbed his head.

Alfred returned from finishing off the last vampire and knelt down next to him, examining the bruise on his head from where the vampire had struck him. It wasn't a large one, and there was no blood. He did some basic tests to check for obvious signs of a concussion, and Icon passed all of them.

“Well, you seem to be all right. Take it easy tonight, and go in to the hospital tomorrow if you wake up with a headache. Let me see that arm of yours, Celestial.”

Celestial pulled up her sleeve to show him the wounds. There were three gashes across it. I got up and walked over, my training taking over. He opened his bag and pulled out a first aid kit, one that was far better stocked than the average first aid kit. He had hospital grade antiseptics in it and a few other ointments I didn't recognize. I helped him clean the wounds, apply the antiseptic, and then bandage the wound.

He handed me the antiseptic and said, “You can go to the nurse here and have the bandages changed tomorrow. There shouldn't be any complications, but if there are, she'll know well enough if it is something she and the hospital can handle, or if she should call me to have a second look.”

“Why?” Celestial asked, wincing. “Should we be breaking out the silver shafts after all?”

Alfred laughed at that. “No, nothing so dramatic. Some of these vampires are crafty. They dip their hands in acid or venom before a fight with slayers. It doesn't look like anything of the kind with your wound, but it doesn't do to be careless.”

“I think he's right,” I said. “If it were acidic, it would already have burned you. We cleaned it out well, and really, they aren't that deep or wide, so you'll heal fast.”

“How about you, Carrie? Anything you need looked at?”

“Nothing that a long night's sleep won't cure,” Carrie told him. “Where were you? Did you catch the ones you went after?”

“No, just a lot of minor ones. Thirteen or so; I wasn't keeping count. I abandoned my hunt for their leader and doubled back to you when I realized they were here in far greater numbers than I anticipated. This was not a planned action tonight. Coaster was acting rogue, which is why I brought you all down here to get some experience in hunting by taking out him. He was erratic enough in his actions that in my prior experience with vampires, they usually cut them off and leave them to their fates as they are liabilities. Either there is a stronger sentiment of loyalty among these vampires, or their leader is particularly crafty and allowed Coaster to go rogue to set this trap for us. Regardless, you all performed brilliantly tonight.”

I dropped back into the snow, realizing for the first time that my neck hurt from when Coaster grabbed me by it. The cold snow felt good against it. My mind flashed back to the faces of the vampires I'd actually seen up close. One of them had been the owner of the cafe my art group often met at, and another was member of that same group. The other faces had been vaguely familiar; I'd probably passed them in the street dozens of times over my years of living in the Forum. I knew they were at peace now, but it didn't quite help the emptiness I felt at the knowledge that so many people had died, and no one knew. They'd just vanish from their lives and be gone forever; a question I knew the answer to, but couldn't share as no one would believe me.

“Why are you crying?” Pixie asked.

I didn't bother to wipe the tears off my face as they rolled down into the snow. “I'm just tired, Pixie. I'm new to this vampire slaying stuff. Good spotting, by the way. You totally saved Celestial during that first wave.”

“Not to be a jerk after what they just went through, but shouldn't we be checking them?” Carrie asked, pointing at Shinko and Pixie.

Alfred nodded. “You pay attention, my dear. That's good. Never let your guard down. Vampires will play the victim card if they think it will give them the upper hand over a slayer.”

He pressed a clove of garlic to each of their foreheads in turn, and neither shied away or showed any discomfort. He declared them safe.

“Well, on your feet. It is time to get everyone home. You are lucky tonight; it's only nine o' clock,” Alfred said.

I pulled out my phone looked at it. He was right; it was only a few minutes after nine. The battle had felt like it had lasted hours, when in reality it had probably been thirty minutes, if that. I accepted Alfred's hand and he pulled me to my feet. My entire body hurt in protest; now lacking the adrenaline of earlier, I was shaky and unsteady. Still, I didn't want to stay there, among the piles of dust that littered the lot. We all got to our feet and began our journey to our homes.

“Uh, wait, isn't Thundy still in the box of tinsel?”

Chapter 16

SPOILER: Click to show

I was up early and shoveling my walk the next morning. Despite it being my day off, I had awoken early, probably out of habit. I had rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, as I was still exhausted, but my mind began to replay bits of the battle the night before, thus killing any hope of getting more sleep. So, I did the responsible thing and got out of the house and shoved my darn walk. It wasn't a long one, and I was almost done with it, but it still felt futile. Any day now, it would cloud over again and drop another foot of snow on us and I would have to do this all over again.

“Look who is up bright and early and shoveling her walk. Carrie would be so proud if she knew.”

“Shut up, Alfred,” I snapped as I hefted the last shovelful off the pavement and onto the snow covering my lawn.

“Sleep well?” he asked, smiling with that smile I was beginning to hate.

“Are you trying to get a snowball in the face?” I asked, crossing my arms and cocking my head to the side.

“The vampires hardly have quick enough reflexes to hit me, and yet you think you can?” he laughed challengingly.

“Let's find out,” I said, bending down to gather a handful of snow.

“You didn't tell me Coaster cut you,” he said, sounding concerned.

I reached up to touch the little cuts on the back of my neck where Coaster had sunk his nails into my flesh. “Wow, seriously, Alfred? You can see those from there? You've got amazing eyes. It's nothing; he barely broke the skin. I cleaned it out properly, but it wasn't even worth a bandage.”

“Yes, my eyesight is very good. Not to be arrogant, but I'm about as perfect as you can get while still being human. That's why I do front line work. If I had lesser eyesight, poorer hearing, or slower reflexes, I'd be support, working somewhere where repeated vampire breakouts are common as a part of one of the teams designated to clean that section of the city,” Alfred said, leaning against my mailbox.

“Where are your dogs?” I asked, remembering that I hadn't seen them in a while.

“Lodged in a local kennel. I don't use the sled while in town. It is simply for traveling and the first night or two while I make a few rounds about to get a feel for the layout of the town. The dogs bring attention I don't want. I'm far less conspicuous on foot. They also aren't my dogs; they belong to the society and are used as needed. I only use them when traveling through the snow. Otherwise I use a motorcycle. Truly, I prefer the motorcycle; I don't have to stop using it to keep from drawing unwanted attention while hunting. The dogs are good company, though; I'll give them that.”

While he was distracted telling me about his dogs and line of work, I had been shaping my snowball with careful, unobtrusive movements. I was determined to hit him, even if it was an underhanded move by doing it while he was distracted. Though really, honor in battle had never been much of a point with me. I had always been willing to fight dirty.

He glanced over at one of my neighbors who was coming out of their apartment. I seized my opportunity and quickly lobbed the snowball at him. Alfred caught the snowball with an effortless lift of his hand. He turned to look at me, smirking.

“Kristy, if you're going to launch a sneak attack, be more obvious about it. Your careful movements and shifty glances are a very clear tell.”

“You suck,” I complained.

“Do I now?” he asked as he threw the snowball at me. I turned and it hit me on the shoulder.

“Oh, it is so on, Alfred!” I cried, grabbing another handful of snow and throwing it at him.

He ducked under it and unhurriedly walked onto the other side of my lawn, grabbing up a fistful of snow and forming it into a snowball. I made another hurried snowball and threw it at him, but I hadn't packed it well, so it turned into powder as it flew and merely blew away in the wind.

“Are you even trying?” he asked as I tried to duck under his snowball and got hit on the top of the head.

“I'll get you,” I cried lobbing another at him.

He dodged and I ran at him, trying to tackle him down into the snow. He caught me by the shoulders, shaking his head before twisting me around and tossing me down into the snow. Before I could sit up, he pushed down one of the piles of snow from my shoveling on top of me, covering me from the waist down in about two feet of snow.

“Give up?” he asked.

“You suck,” I repeated. “Now I'm going to have to change my clothes.”

“I might be a bit of a nuisance,” he admitted. “However, you're not. I can't remember the last time I had a snowball fight. This was a fun diversion.”

I stopped digging myself out to look at him. “Huh, really? Are you not the type who plays in the snow? I'm not really either, but you provoked it.”

“No, I just never stop anywhere with anyone long enough for such a thing, I suppose. Unfortunately, this is a full time occupation. There are vacations, but most of us use them to go somewhere quiet and be alone for a while. Or they spend most it getting counseling. Things do go wrong on occasion. Thankfully that was not the case last night. You four handled yourselves brilliantly,” Alfred said, looking wistfully up at the sky.

“Well, once we get the Forum clean, we'll keep it that way, and you can come back here for your next vacation. You should come back in the summer; everything is amazing here then. I'll make sure you have some fun,” I suggested, getting myself out of the snow at last. “And, I'm cold and wet and officially over snow again. Come in and have some coffee.”

We went inside and I poured him a cup of coffee and left him in the kitchen while I went to change into dry clothes. When I came back, I got myself a cup and sat down across the table from him.

“So, is there any reason why you just happened to show up at my apartment this morning? Are you just making the rounds and checking up on us?” I asked.

“No, I'm afraid I happen to be here on business. You simply distracted me from it with your snowball assault,” Alfred said, again with that smile.

“Great, on my day off, really?” I complained.

“Now don't be such a downer, my dear. At least you won't be fighting any vampires today. You signed up for this. Slayers have no days off, after all,” Alfred chuckled.

I simply sighed and rubbed my eyes. “Just us?”

“Cassie is helping Dan with his continuing investigation, and the others have to work. You seem to be the only one free to help me today. If it makes you feel better, Celestial was helping me all of yesterday. I'm not singling you out for an unfair workload.”

“I totally pulled all the muscles in my wrist and neck last night, and I probably sprained my spleen. That's totally serious. My organs need to be in top shape for those ever present black market organ thieves. I should probably rest today,” I said, trying to look pathetic.

“To quote you, 'shut up'.”

“I'll go get my boots,” I sighed grudgingly.

“Good lass,” Alfred replied, finishing his cup of coffee and taking both of our cups to my sink. At least he was polite.

Chapter 17:

SPOILER: Click to show

We left the house without my slaying gear, Alfred informing me that we would be back before dark and wouldn't go anywhere where we would need it. It was nice not to have to carry it, as the bag was somewhat large and heavy, but I felt vulnerable without it.

“Where are we going today?” I asked.

“Today, we shall be prowling about the graveyard,” Alfred told me.

“Why? Coaster is at rest finally, and you said the others wouldn't return to their crypts, if they had one. What good would it do to go there?”

“Remember that night when I met your friends, Coaster and that girl with the bird name, up there?” he asked.

“Don't call them that. My friends died and demons ran rampant in their bodies. Those weren't my friends,” I protested.

“Hmh, that's good,” Alfred replied.

“Alfred, did you phrase it that way just to test me?” I asked, a little peeved.

“I don't like to outright ask questions. That in itself can be leading. A certain level of emotional detachment from the victims is necessary. If you still think of them as the people you knew, you'll hesitate. Remember that for when we find people who you were closer to,” Alfred explained.

“So, the night at the graveyard?” I prompted, wanting to get off our current train of conversation. I already understood that I might come up against people who I had been especially close to, but I really didn't want to be focusing on that until I had to.

“Yes, that night I commented that I thought that they might have some way to disappear up there. I've been looking on and off, but mostly I've been busy trying to seal as much of the town as possible to reduce their hunting grounds. Today, we hunt for their lair in earnest,” Alfred told me.

“And, what do we do when we find it?” I asked.

“We make a cursory expedition during the daylight hours when most of them are sleeping to see how best to flush them out so we can eradicate the infestation completely,” Alfred explained. “Also, when we find this nest of theirs, you do not disclose that you know we found it even to the other slayers. The vampires cannot track our movements during the day, so they won't know we've discovered it until we enter, but the more people who know, the more likely it will accidentally be mentioned where ears that should not hear can. It is not that I do not trust our fellow slayers; I would be saying the same thing if I had one of the others here instead of you.”

“I get it,” I said. “Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead. Or, in this case, two can keep a secret if both shut up.”

“Smart lass.”

“Now you're just being sarcastic. So, if, hypothetically, we find this lair today, when do we do our exploration?” I asked.

“Seeing at today is the sixteenth, I'd say the nineteenth. That will give us some time to train the new girl and give the rest of you time to get even better. We'll want to be at full strength when we go down there,” Alfred said.

“New girl? Pixie or Shinko? How are they doing anyway?” I asked.

“Shinko. They are both handling it well, I feel. The other girl wants to help, so, like Dan, I'm putting her in support. She can help take care of the weapons, prepare before any potential battles, and the like. I wouldn't put her in the field. I don't like putting anyone in the field, as it is, but she's rather younger than most of you. Shinko seems to be a fighter, and having another swordswoman will be a help. It'll even you out since we currently have three archers,” Alfred explained, and then added, “Cassie is apparently rather peeved she missed out on the fight last night. She seems disappointed that still hasn't actually seen a vampire yet.”

“She won't be once she actually sees some. I could have lived my entire life without ever having to fight vampires, or even come face to face with one,” I said with a frown.

“That is likely true,” he replied, and we lapsed into silence for the rest of our long walk to Memory Lane.

When we arrived a while later, I stopped at the bottom of the hill, before the gates, and rubbed my arms through my coat. It was day and the crypts that contained the vampires would be empty, but still I felt like I was walking into a trap.

“Come along, my dear. The sooner we start looking, the more likely we are to find it today. The sooner we find it, the sooner we can make this nightmare end,” Alfred called as he made it to the top of the hill.

Though still reluctant, I put on a burst of speed and ran up the hill, reaching it at the same time he did.

“So, what are we doing here? What am I supposed to look for?” I asked.

“Anything that strikes you as suspicious. Overturned gravestones, suspiciously well cared for graves, neglected graves. Anything that looks as though it might be hiding an entrance to something. I'm afraid there are no hard and fast rules for finding something like that. Each to their own when it comes to hiding one's sleeping grounds,” Alfred said with a shrug. “You go left; I'll go right. Wander as you like. Here is my phone number for if you find anything. When I call you to tell you it is time to leave, do not linger. We do not want to be caught up here when the vampires awaken.”

I took the slip of paper with his cellphone number on it. I'd given him mine a while ago, but he hadn't had need to call me yet, so I hadn't seen his before. I punched the number into my speed dial, just in case, and started my search. I looked around, wondering what could possibly be able to hide the entrance to a vampire nest. I wondered exactly what a vampire nest was.

I took out my cellphone and called Cassie. She picked up after a few rings. “Hey, Kristy, what's up?”

“Not much. Recovering after last night's trauma. You?”

“Working with Dan to try to identify more vampires. We're fairly certain about Gelquie and Terra now. We've also got half a dozen minor mods on our suspect list and a lot of regular people. You should come down and help,” Cassie told.

“Yeah, sorry, but I'm actually working on my own investigation. I'm not near my computer, and I'm guessing you're in Dan's office, which is awesome, I was wondering if you could look up what the underside of the Forum looks like. Besides our sewer system, do we have a history of anything below?”

“Gimme a minute,” Cassie replied.

I cleared the snow off of a rock and sat down to wait. I scanned the area, looking for any well tended or undertended graves, but all seem equally buried in the snow. After about ten minutes, Cassie got back on the line.

“Okay, according to records that Dan pulled up for me, there is. Back around the time of the guilds, the knights built catacombs under the the Forum. They apparently stretched all the way to where Memory Lane stands today. They are mostly collapsed and the entrances were sealed for public safety fifty years ago. There is no way down there. Why, do you think the vampires are underground?”

“No idea. Just exploring possibilities around town. There are plenty of isolated buildings they could be sheltering in during the day too. Trying to make a list of places that should be checked out. The sewers are more likely, don't you think?”

“Looking at the schematics, no. Aside from the maintenance walks along the side, there is nowhere to actually move through down there. Those walkways are hardly a defensible place to take a nap. Also, obvious. Just my opinion, though,” Cassie replied.

“And this is why I called you. One place to scratch off my list of possibilities. Thanks, Cass. Have fun hunting.”

“You too.”

I hung up and got to my feet. So, there were catacombs under Memory Lane, potentially under this very graveyard. All I had to look for were signs of a reopened entrance or a tunnel dug into the catacombs. I felt that should narrow what I was looking for significantly. I wandered around, looking at all the plaques that looked large enough to cover a hole into the catacombs, but none of them showed any signs of being disturbed in the grass beneath the snow. I didn't know how much time passed during my search, but I realized that I was hungry in addition to being frustrated and cold.

I had inspected the outskirts and back of the graveyard, sure it would be somewhere out of the way during my search, but it was fruitless. I made my way back towards the middle of the graveyard as my phone rang. I noticed it was two thirty as I pushed to answer it.

“Yeah?” I answered.

“Time to go. Meet me at the gates,” Alfred replied.

“Already? I mean, I'm cold and I'm hungry, but this place is kinda huge and I've only covered maybe a fifth of it. I'm sure you've managed more, but I'm guessing you would have told me if you found it already,” I said.

“I'll come back tomorrow on my own. As it is, we've got two hours until the sun has set far enough for the vampires to rise. It doesn't have to be fully set for them to be about. I've got you out here without your gear, and if we're near the proverbial hell mouth, I'd rather not take any chances by cutting it close. We don't want to be caught close to the lair, either. Best to be long gone before anyone wakes up.”

“Okay, I get it,” I replied. “I could take a sick day tomorrow if you'd like some help looking again. Call it food poisoning.”

“A generous offer; I will consider it.”

He hung up and I quickened my pace a little to keep warm. I was almost back to the entrance when I stopped. I realized that I was standing at the top of the hill above where Alfred had slain Robyn. I was standing a few feet from the crypt I had accidentally impaled with my shaft. Alfred had sent me to retrieve it before we left, so the only evidence of my wayward shot was a gouge in the side. I walked up to the crypt, running my fingers over the spot, wondering why this suddenly struck me as important.

I closed my eyes, trying to focus. I heard Alfred calling my name, his voice close as the entrance to the graveyard was just down the hill from this spot. I blocked it out, trying to focus on what it was that I had almost remembered. A hand was laid on my shoulder and I jumped.

“What are you doing?” Alfred asked.

“I can't remember. I almost had something, something that seemed really important,” I said, gently tapping my temple with my fist.

“What is it about this crypt that reminds you of it?” he asked. “Come on, think.”

“I dunno, Alfred. I'll probably remember in a few hours and it'll be something really dumb. We should just go,” I replied.

“No, let us figure this out now. If it is important to the situation, I don't want to risk that you forget it entirely. To whom does this crypt belong?”

“Uh, a local family. Stalos' family,” I replied. Then, it clicked and I shouted, “Stalos!”

“What about this Stalos?” Alfred asked.

“He was one of the old Admins, back in the day. He's retired now, but he's around enough. Anyway, I saw him at the lot last night. He doesn't celebrate Christmas and he seemed to be alone. At least with Pixie, she was there with a Christmas celebrating friend. Why was he there?”

“Let's open up this crypt and see if that can shed any light on that question,” Alfred said as he pulled out his lock-picks.

I stood behind him as he worked and when he got the lock open, he pulled wide the doors. I was a little apprehensive, as what we were doing was incredibly disrespectful if I was wrong about my suspicions. We were not disappointed. In the middle of the floor was a large hole.

“One of the most noticeable crypts right at the entrance hiding the mouth to their lair. I'll give credit where credit is due, that is far more audacious than I expected.”

“Well, there we go. That must lead into the catacombs,” I said.

“You know about the catacombs? You did your research,” Alfred said, glancing over his shoulder to smile at me.

“I wanted to get a clearer idea of what to look for. But, it was locked from the outside. Does that mean they have another access route?” I asked.

“No, vampires can pass through locked doors if they have previously been invited into the home and it isn't protected against them. If I was sure there were no other access points, I'd seal this one to keep them down there, but I know your catacombs had many exits, some that could be reopened by supernatural strength. Time to leave this as we found it.”

Alfred closed the doors and locked them again. He put his tools away and turned to me with a smile. “In the mood for a late lunch?”

“Oh, yeah.”

Chapter 18

SPOILER: Click to show

For the next three nights, we trained hard at Celestial's house. As Celes seemed to naturally take to the sword, she took Shinko under her wing, and I did the same for Pixie, teaching her how to clean wounds, apply bandages, and pack our slaying kits. I hoped Pixie would never need the first two, but if we came back injured, going to the hospital was a last resort. The vampire thing was still no-good with the average member of the public, as who would believe us? We hadn't believed it without proof. Also, should we come in with wounds caused by violent trauma, they would inevitably summon the mods or admins to look into it, ones who might be vampires. They might not be able to get into the hospital, but we couldn't chance that they could manipulate the hospital staff into bringing us to somewhere where we would be vulnerable.

Alfred was noticeably missing from our company during that time. I called him on the morning of the eighteenth just to make sure he was okay, and he told me to tell all of the slayers to take the nineteenth off and meet at Celestial's house by ten a.m., dressed to slay. I passed the message around, feeling the nervous energy flow through me. They were all puzzled by it, and though I knew what we were taking the day off for, I had to keep my mouth shut one more day.

***

On the morning of the nineteenth, I called in sick at the hospital. I assured them it was food poisoning, uncomfortable but not dangerous. I was able to get them not to ask me to come in for a checkup, as they were still on high alert about the Anemia Epidemic despite the recoveries of all the patients who had come in for it over the last week and a half.

It was still before sunup, but the knowledge that we would be exploring the catacombs had made sleeping deeply that night difficult. My phone rang as I was eating breakfast and I answered it without checking who it was, expecting it would be one of my fellow slayers with a question or something. The voice on the other line was chillingly familiar, but the bad connection made the voice hard to fully distinguish. “Hiiiiii, Kristy!”

“Who- who is this?” I asked, feeling my blood draining from my face. I pulled the phone away from my ear and glanced at the caller ID. The number was Ian's cellphone. I put the phone back to my ear, my heart sinking. The voice wasn't Ian's, but someone I thought I knew was calling me on it.

“You know who it is. I'm going to need a new friend soon,” the voice said in a giggling tone. “You're next.”

“Get off that blasted phone, you fool! Who are you calling?” a voice shouted in the background.

“No, don't you dare!” I shouted. “What did you do to Ian? Where is he?”

The could hear a scuffle on the other side of the phone, the person who had called me protesting in a whining voice about having some fun with their victims and it not being fair. Eventually there was a click and the call ended. I called back, but my call didn't go through. I set the phone down on the table and realized I was shaking badly.

The caller had said that I knew them, her I thought. I thought I did, but the voice had been echo-ey and the call quality not so great, like she had been in a tunnel. I swallowed hard and picked up my phone again, but hesitated unsure of who to call. It was still early, and I didn't want to wake anyone. The vampires couldn't come and get me in my house, and it would be light in an hour, so it wasn't like I had to worry that I was in danger. I put my head down on the table and redialed Ian's number one more time, just in case it went through this time. It didn't.

I got up, putting my half-eaten bowl of cereal into the skin and dumping my coffee out. Coffee tended to make me nauseous if I wasn't well or stressed out, and last thing I needed was to be nauseous on top of everything else today. I sat down on my sofa in the living room and curled up in a blanket, trying to calm down.

If it had been any other phone, I would have been fine. The vampires had shown themselves to be eccentric jerks thus far, so the content of the call hadn't fazed me too much. But, it had been Ian's phone, but without Ian on the other side of the call. I couldn't figure out what that meant. Was he a vampire? But, if that was the case, why did one of the others have his phone? If he was dead, had the vampire who had killed him taken it as a trophy? And, if so, why had they waited to call until now?

Finally, I dialed Alfred's number.

“Good morning, lass. Please tell me you didn't actually get food poisoning,” Alfred said.

“Someone called me on Ian's cellphone about thirty minutes ago. It was one of the vampires. Someone else forced her to get off the phone so I didn't get any more information other than that apparently she's selected me as her next prey and she's messing with me. They disconnected the phone immediately after that call,” I told him, not sure why I was bothering him with it. It wasn't like he could do anything. “I'm sorry, this was stupid. I mean, it's not like anything can be done. It's all bluster; I'm not scared for myself. I just...”

“You just did the right thing,” Alfred said. “You needn't bottle things up. The call shook you; I can tell. All I can tell you is to be strong for a few more hours. With any luck, we will find you some answers in the catacombs today.”

“Alfred, can you say that over the phone?” I asked.

“If any vampire is still out and in a position to overhear, they won't be reporting back today. Sunup is in ten minutes,” Alfred pointed out.

I looked at the time and was surprised that it was later than I thought. “Oh, ha, I guess more time passed than I thought. I got lost a little. It was closer to an hour ago, actually.”

“Doesn't make much difference at this point. I'll see you in a few hours. Stay strong. Perhaps make yourself a cup of hot chocolate and sing some slaying songs to get yourself in the proper mood.”

“You're kinda a dork, Alfred.”

“I might well be, my dear. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” I said and hung up.

I suddenly felt a little better. His ability to turn a joke on the grim situation somehow always lightened my spirits, and I supposed he knew that it did, which is why he always had a smile when times were tough. I laid on my stomach and looked at my wall, the one hung with pictures. In one of the pictures was a group picture from a Forum-wide event. Ian, Gelquie, and Stalos were all included in the picture. Ian was missing; Stalos and Gelquie were probably dead. I was only in my mid-twenties, and they were not that much older than I was. It seemed so unfair that life could be over for them already, and in such an evil fashion. I closed my eyes, cursing whatever vampire had come here and started this.

In my mind's eye, I saw Alfred arriving in town. The dog sled, the singing. What fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight...

Slaying song.

“Slaying song. Oh, Alfred, you're so corny,” I laughed aloud. “And I thought Coaster's puns were bad.”

I sat up and grabbed The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes off the table where I'd left it. Might as well catch up on some reading until it was time to prepare to go to Celestial's house.

Chapter 19:

SPOILER: Click to show

I arrived at Celestial's place a few minutes before ten in the morning, the time which were all supposed to be assembled by. I rang the doorbell and Celestial opened it.

“Come on in. Cassie and Alfred are already here. Icon and Carrie live nearby, so they should be here any time now. Hopefully Shinko will be on time, too.”

“She's coming up the street now,” I said, glancing over my shoulder as I walked into the house.

Shinko saw the open door and picked up the pace so as not to inconvenience Celestial with waiting. We tapped the snow off our boots on the mat and then walked into her sitting room. She had a pot of coffee and cups out. Alfred and Cassie were seated on one of her sofas, and Cassie was asking rapid-fire questions, journalist style, although I was pretty sure she wasn't getting notes for a story. Who would believe her anyway?

Alfred smiled at us when we walked in.

“Ah, the new girl. A good day to you, and how are you today, Shinko?” he asked.

“Good morning. I'm well enough. A little jittery, but since it is daytime, I suppose I won't have to worry about vampires. Also, it's nice to know what I'm up against, and that I'm armed. Punching vampires doesn't seem to do much,” Shinko laughed.

“Depends on how you do it,” Alfred said. “You'll want it to be a move to knock them off balance, not incapacitate them. You'll never have enough strength to do that.”

“Yeah, like you did with that one when you showed up that night. That was pretty cool,” Shinko said, sitting down without touching the coffee.

I poured myself a cup and sat down.

“Don't we get a hello?” Alfred asked me.

“Good morning, everyone! I just know we're gonna have a fantastic time today, cement our bonds, freak out over every little shadow and noise, maybe kill something. Killing things is the best way to bond,” I cried, my grin a little too maniacal.

“Someone got up too early,” Cassie commented.

“Someone's vampire pal called her up early to invite her to dinner,” I retorted. “I'm next on the list of future vamps. If they get me, I'm coming for you, and then maybe Carrie. Icon's too punny, Celes will probably kill me, and I don't know enough about you, Shinko, to decide if you'd be too much trouble or not. We'll find out later, okay?”

“And me?” Alfred asked.

“You know what, keep Cassie. I'm booking it out of town. I wanna live!” I wailed, imitating Coaster from the night in the graveyard.

He laughed heartily, to the confusion of the others. Celestial poked her head in the room to frown at us, clearly disapproving of my imitation.

“Aw, come on, Celes,” I complained.

“That was the worst impression I've ever heard,” she retorted.

“Ouch,” I chuckled, cringing.

The doorbell rang and she went back to the front door to let whoever it was in. She came back with both Carrie and Icon. After some good mornings and just random chatter, we all settled in for Alfred's briefing. I wisely had finished the coffee before we got to this point, because I was sure that even though I knew what we were in for, just actually being on the brink of it would make me nervous.

Alfred rose and rubbed his hands together. “Well, we're all gathered, so I suppose I will begin. On the sixteenth, the location of the vampire's nest was uncovered. It happens to lie in the catacombs beneath the graveyard of Memory Lane. Since then, I have been sealing the other known entrances to the catacombs. The collapses of the tunnels were fairly well documented, and even they would not risk destabilizing the catacombs further by trying to clear collapsed tunnels, so I have a general idea of where is open to them. The area beneath Memory Lane is still fairly extensive, and likely filled with vampires. Most of them will be sleeping. The sleepers are helpless once they enter their sleeping state until the sun goes down. There will be a few guards, though they will be slightly weaker from lack of rest.”

“So, what exactly are we doing?” Cassie asked.

“We are going down there, killing as many of them as we can while they are helpless, sealing off as many exits as we can, and learning what we can about their numbers,” Alfred explained. “We need to move now, so that we may spend as many hours down there as possible. The more vampires we eradicate today, the fewer we will have to fight at their full strength at night.”

We all rose to our feet, Cassie the only one looking excited about this. I couldn't speak for the others, but my mind was on the battle a few nights ago. We were all lucky we got out of that relatively unscathed, so going down into the nest wasn't exactly a fun idea. I just shouldered my bag and followed everyone out of the room.

We made the trek up into the graveyard in silence. My heart started to pound as Alfred pulled out his lock picking tools and unlocked the crypt. He threw wide the doors and then reached into his bag, pulling out a harness.

“I've taken a look, it isn't a steep drop. We could probably jump down without trouble. This is for getting out, just in case. Also, for Cassie,” Alfred said as he began to secure the harness.

“For me?” Cassie asked.

“Yes. You seem to be the best archer among the group. You will be lowered down so that you're already in position. There will undoubtedly be a gate guard. You'll have to shoot it and fast. Who would like to be ready to leap in after her to put it to rest?” Alfred explained.

“I'll go,” Shinko volunteered.

“Good then. Remember like you were shown, one clean motion from drawing your sword through the swing,” Alfred said.

Shinko nodded as Alfred helped Cassie into the harness. She took out her bow and an arrow, and walked to the edge of the opening. She jumped and disappeared below the lip of the opening. The line went taut and Alfred slowly lowered her down. Shinko stood at the edge, watching for her cue. Below there was a scream, not a pained one, but one of anger. This was quickly followed by a pained scream. Shinko jumped down into the hole. I looked over but all I could see was Cassie standing directly below the hole.

“I got her,” Shinko called.

I climbed down, holding onto the edge and letting myself drop in rather than leaping in like Shinko had. Cassie was standing there, looking shell-shocked.

“You okay?

“That was Ginz. That was Ginz!” Cassie seemed about ready to become hysterical.

“No, Cassie,” I said, grabbing her by the shoulders. “That was a demon masquerading in the body of the person they murdered. That was an abomination stealing her face. Ginz wasn't there, Ginz... she's at rest. Okay?”

Cassie nodded shakily and began to get out of the harness. I closed my eyes and steeled myself. I knew the possibility of finding out that my friends were already vampires was down here, but I couldn't believe they had gotten Ginz. Sweet, bubbly, artistic Ginzy. I opened them again and looked around. The rest of the slayers had climbed down, making the passage a little crowded.

“Where do we go?” Celestial asked.

“That way,” Alfred said pointing. “The way behind us leads to rubble. It is a dead end.”

“Are you leading the way?” Shinko asked.

“That would seem to be the most prudent course of action,” Alfred said and started off.

I walked next to Carrie, clutching my bag and wondering how soon I might come across evidence of Ian. Now that I'd gotten that phone call from his cellphone, I was certain that whatever had happened to him involved vampires. It seemed too great a coincidence that he could vanish at that same time as this outbreak, and a vampire would just happen to pick up his phone.

We came to an intersection and Alfred consulted a map he had. I pointed my light down into the tunnel and looked down, it was a room. There were bodies on the floor. I stifled a cry.

“Alfred,” I whispered, pointing.

“Yes,” he said in a normal voice. “I am simply consulting my map. You may begin disposing of them, if you have the stomach for it. If not, I'll do it in a minute. They cannot hear you, and even if they could, they cannot awaken at this time.”

I looked in again and felt my stomach turn. Before, I'd been okay. We'd been in the middle of battle and I was fighting for my life and that of the others. Even knowing these were the same as the other vampires, their still, sleeping, human-like faces sent chills down my spine. It felt like murder.

I swallowed hard and walked into the room. I opened my bag and pulled out a stake. I walked to the closest vampire and lined up the strike. I had to close my eyes, and even then I hesitated. I had to push myself. These weren't humans, and when they woke up, they'd kill others. What if someday the vampires came back? It might be up to us to handle it on our own then.

I plunged the stake. There was no scream, no convulsing, none of the usual reaction. I opened my eyes and sure enough, I'd hit my mark. However, the vampire lay dormant, unbreathing, unknowing. I looked up and found Celes was standing next to me, her sword drawn. She looked as if she wasn't having any easier a time with doing this than I was. She raised her sword and brought it down, the vampire turning to dust.

Carrie and Icon came in and helped us destroy the other four. When we came out, Alfred had his spray out and he coated the doorway.

“We need to make this place as inaccessible as possible for them,” he explained.

Then, we started to move again. We followed him down one of the passageways. We walked quietly, our lights casting puddles on the floor ahead of us as we made our way along. We came across two other resting places, bringing our total up to sixteen. Remembering that we'd slain well over twenty by this point, and who knows what Alfred's total was when he hadn't been with us, it made me wonder how long the vampires had been here, and why the Anemia Epidemic had really seen so few known victims.

We came to what seemed to be some kind of meeting hall. There were a lot of other rooms connecting to it, but whatever purpose they had served was lost to time. Cassie and Celes started to examine the relics left by the knights from ages past that were scattered about on the now rickety tables. The rest of us looked into the rooms adjoining the hall. Some of them were empty, two led to more corridors; I tried a door and found it was locked. I gestured to Alfred and he came over and began to pick the lock.

“Do you hear someone playing a violin?” Icon asked.

“That's a dirge,” Alfred said with a grim smile. “Your vampires really have excessive personality and are so ironic.”

“I could do with a little less character,” Carrie said, she was walking around and listening at the other doors to try to figure out where the music was coming from. “Does this mean they know we're here and they are coming to kill us?”

“No, I don't think so. They won't have many guards, so if they had detected us, they would not be announcing their approach. There, the door is open,” Alfred pushed the door wide open and we looked in.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” I gasped.

Chapter 20:

SPOILER: Click to show

Alfred had pushed open the door I'd found that was locked and we looked in. My shocked outcry was the result of the shocking sight on the other side. Ian Wolf-Park was lying on the floor in the room. He was on top of a pile of pillows and blankets; it looked as if someone had tried to make him comfortable. For a moment, I thought my worse fears were confirmed; he was a vampire at rest.

“You too, Kristy?” said a voice.

I turned to look and saw there was someone else in the room. Tiger was sitting in the corner of the room, her knees pulled up to her chest and looking grim. She was looking at us; despair in her eyes.

“'Me too' what, Tiger?” I asked, walking in and kneeling down next to Ian. I realized he was breathing. “Alfred, he's alive. He's not a vampire yet. He's breathing!”

Alfred knelt down next to him and examined him. “Yes, he is. He is in terrible shape. Still, if we get him away from here, we might have a chance to save him. Our mission has changed, we need to get him and this young woman to safety. How long have you been down here, Miss Tiger?”

“You guys aren't vampires? Oh, thank God,” Tiger said, the relief as sharp as the despair had been. Then she got to Alfred's question. “I don't know. They took my phone and my watch. They've come in here once since they locked me down here. I was left about a day's worth of food, though.”

“Tiger, did they...?” I couldn't finish asking the question that was forefront in my mind.

Tiger pulled back the hair that was hanging over her neck, revealing two little pin-pricks on it. I cringed and had to look away. I'd seen those same marks on the arms and necks of many of the victims, but never on one who knew what had happened to them. I couldn't imagine the horror of what Tiger had been through.

“How many times?” Alfred asked.

“Once,” she said, her voice distant.

“Thank God for that. Don't fret; your nightmare is over. We'll get you out of here safely and you will have nothing to worry about. Once won't have any lasting complications,” Alfred assured her. “Come, Kristy, help me with him.”

I got an arm under Ian and slung his arm over my shoulders. Alfred lifted him on the other side and we raised him up. He gestured to Tiger to follow and she slowly got up; she seemed as though she wasn't sure if this was for real or not. We walked back out into the main room and Cassie came running over and hugged Tiger.

“When did this happen? I just saw you two days ago,” Cassie gasped.

“I'm guessing yesterday,” Tiger said. “I'm so glad to see you.”

“Hey, guys, hate to be the downer, but the violinist stopped mid-song. That didn't sound good to me, in more ways than one,” Icon said.

“Take him,” Alfred said, giving me a moment to get a better grasp on Ian before he let go.

He pulled out his sword and turn to the others. “Archers, get ready. Tiger, behind Kristy.”

Tiger moved to where she was told, standing with me in the doorway of the room where we had found her. I tightened my grip on Ian, feeling strange about not getting my crossbow to fight with. If it was only the one guard, then that would be fine, Alfred could probably take them down without blinking, but if there were a couple of them...

I shook these thoughts from my head and watched as the others pulled out their weapons. Cassie was looking more timid than she had this morning, but I supposed that was because the reality of this had finally sunk in for her.

“Three doorways,” Celestial said, looking to Alfred.

“Two,” Alfred corrected. “I sealed the path we came along so no one could come down a side corridor and come up behind us. The other two doors are the ones we have to worry about.”

“Why don't we just seal them so they can't get us and beat a hasty retreat?” I asked.

“The more we take out now, the fewer we'll have to face in a night or two. Despite the fact that I sealed the obvious paths, it does not guarantee that we would not be attacked on our way to the exit. The vampires are strong enough to break through a wall or two, even in their weakened state. Our going will be slower on the way back to the exit; it wouldn't do to risk that they would anticipate our path and manage to break through an adjacent room into the halls and surprise us,” Alfred explained. “The safest option with vampires is to make them face you on your terms. This is the best moment to make a stand.”

I nodded, biting my lip and wishing we could have gotten through here without encountering more guards. The archers took their stance, waiting for either of the doors to open. The two doors that led to the passageways were a door apart on the south side of the room; we were positioned in the north. Alfred had his sword ready and a stake in his hand. Still, I didn't expect he would need it. Surely the vampires would make easy targets when they opened the door.

The door on the left exploded, raining shrapnel into the room. Cassie and Carrie turned away to shield their faces from the spray of splinters, their heavy winter clothes thankfully providing a lot of protection for their bodies. My natural instinct had been to close my eyes and turn away, but I fought it; the doorway I was standing in offered protection already. I saw a figure come swinging through the doorway, a scimitar in hand.

I screamed, pointing at the vampire, trying to get the attention of the distracted slayers before this vampire killed Carrie or Cassie, who were closest to the doors. Celes was recovered fastest and moved. She was in the path of the vampire before the scream had fully made it out of my throat and had her sword up to catch the scimitar. The vampire brought the scimitar down with such force that it brought Celes down to her knees. Where Celestial got her strength from I don't know, but she held on and fought back, refusing to give another inch.

Alfred cut in with a punch to the face of the vampire. The vampire reeled backwards and turned to glare at him. For the first time I got a good look at her. It was Elycien.

“Oh, crap,” I muttered, and it was echoed by Tiger.

Elcie was something of a fighter in life, but now with vampire strength, I doubted she was going to be easy to kill. Carrie tried to take advantage of Elcie's distraction and fired a shaft at her. Elcie was too quick; she brought up her sword to deflect the the shot before it could strike her heart. Alfred moved in, bringing his sword down on hers. I could tell that he was trying to force an opening so that he could put a stake through her himself.

“Alfred, watch out!” I heard Icon scream.

At the same time, a shaft was loosed from Cassie's bow. It passed just behind Alfred, deterring the vampire who had tried to burst in on him from the other door. This new vampire jumped back to avoid Cassie's shaft and the mystery of the dirge playing violinist was solved. Yoyti smirked at us as Alfred broke off his standoff with Elcie. We all regrouped, them on one side of the room, us on the other.

“You're all very foolish for coming into our nest like this,” Elcie chuckled. “Nice of you to make your stand here. It'll make it so much easier to move you into the holding rooms once we beat you unconscious. I believe Liou was making calls to one of you this morning. I had no idea that we could get takeout just like that. We should try that more often.”

“Shut up, you witch,” I snapped. “I'll die first. No, I take that back; you'll die first.”

“They're already dead. A fact you liked to remind Coaster of repeatedly,” Carrie said with a wry grin.

“Really?” I groaned.

“Ladies, focus,” Alfred sighed.

I smiled apologetically, not that he could see since his back was to me. I noticed Shinko was digging in her bag, but I couldn't figure out why. After all, she was a swordswoman, not an archer. She might have stakes in there, but it would be dangerous for her to try to approach the vampires to use it. She pulled out a large plastic bottle filled with some powder. She hefted it, throwing it at the vampires. Elcie instinctively brought up her sword to deflect it. The plastic sliced open when it met the blade and the powder inside spilled out everywhere, filling the air with the dust that showered the vampires.

The two of them screamed in agony and choked, grabbing their faces and covering their eyes. Carrie and Cassie raised their bows and took aim. Carrie's shaft was successful, finding its mark in Yoyti. Elcie managed to recover before she was hit by Cassie's, leaping out of the way and rolling across the room and back to her feet. She turned to glare at us, her eyes inflamed and her lips blistering. Yoyti slumped to the ground, clutching the stake in his chest and spluttering, his face in a similar state to Elcie's.

“What was that?” Icon asked.

“A bulk brand tub of garlic powder. Tell me I'm not the only one who thought to stock up on garlic products after learning there was an infestation? Good thing that works; I was worried that it wouldn't be effective dried,” Shinko explained.

“I'll end all your miserable lives,” Elcie snarled. She jumped away again as Cassie fired another bolt at her, just barely avoiding the shaft.

“You are kidding me!” Cassie screamed in frustration, her entire body shaking, something I knew meant she was furious. She reloaded again and took aim, but Alfred gesture at her to wait.

“Icon, you take care of Yoyti. Celestial, with me,” Alfred said.

Alfred, with Celestial, cornered Elcie on the other side of the room engaging her in combat. This cut off her ability to get to Yoyti, or even notice what was going on over there. Icon ran at Yoyti, his sword raised to strike, but he jumped back when Yoyti took a swing for his legs. Even injured by both the stake and the garlic, Yoyti wasn't going down without a fight.

“You know, Yoyti,” Icon said with a smirk. “You're one ingredient short of a meal. Throw in some potatoes and you'll be complete.”

I couldn't help facepalming, yet another stake joke out of Icon. Yoyti snarled at him as he slid up the wall and back to his feet. Cassie shot him again, this time in the leg. It caused him to stumble back to the ground. This time there was nothing he could do as Icon swung. From the other side of the room, Elcie saw him turn to dust. She let out a shriek of anger and jumped forward, her scimitar crashing against Alfred's sword. He held her off as she pressed down, trying to force him down. He turned slightly, but she kept footing with him, keeping the pressure on.

However, in her rage, she misjudged his actions. He wasn't trying to escape the lock but turn her towards the archers. Carrie saw this and fired. Elcie screamed and tensed as the shaft hit its mark, tearing through her back into her heart. Alfred put all his strength into pushing upwards. He forced her scimitar from her hands; it went flying behind her and landed a reverberating clang. Alfred's next move was to turn her to dust.

We all began to breathe a sigh of relief when Tiger cried out, pointing towards the doorway Yoyti had come through. A smirking Zylaa stood in the doorway watching us.

“Well, it seems you're not half bad. You'll be going no further than this, though. Check your watches. We'll be coming for you tonight in all our numbers,” Zylaa threatened.

“You can't get into our houses,” Cassie pointed out.

“No, but we can take somewhere hostage. A nice little restaurant packed full of humans; all of them in danger. You'll come out; I know you will,” she chuckled.

“You monster!” Tiger screamed.

“Hush,” Alfred said waving a hand at her. He turned to Zylaa with a smirk of his own. “You've a lot of audacity, I'll give you that. So tell me, who is your leader? They are rather crafty. Did the vampire who started this stay on?”

“No, she took off ages ago, but she left some tips we've taken to heart. We've got a bit of a council, an elite if you will. You already ended one of our circle. As for our leader, I'll let you figure it out, if you can. You've fallen for our other traps now, so I wouldn't be hopeful. You've been very lucky, but you've made us mad. Better start running; we'll be up soon.”

“You'd better run, because we'll send you all back to hell!” Cassie shouted, firing a shaft at her.

Zylaa slammed the door shut and the bolt lodged itself in the door. Cassie cursed under her breath and turned to look at Alfred. I fished my phone out of my pocket and checked the time.

“It's after one, Alfred. If it took us three hours to get in this far, we probably do want to leave now,” I pointed out.

“Calm down, my dear slayers. We've plenty of time. It took us this long to get in because we were stopping often to deal with vampires and to seal passages. We will be out of here long before the vampires awaken,” Alfred said calmly as he picked up his bag from where he had left it. “Icon, give Kristy a hand with her friend. Celestial, you take point, I'll bring up the rear. Let's move along.”

[Kristykimmy]

Chapter 21:

SPOILER: Click to show

After the fight with the vampires Elcie and Yoyti and the ominous threats of Zylaa, none of us lingered on our way back through the tunnels we had come through on our way down earlier that day. Except Alfred, that is. I glanced over my shoulder as we walked, noticing that he had dropped behind and was crouched down on the ground. I couldn't stop as I was half supporting an unconscious Ian along with Icon, so I called over my shoulder.

“Alfred, is something wrong?”

“No, not at all. Tying up some loose ends. Keep moving; you won't lose me,” he called back.

I wished I could see what he was doing, but as the tunnels were dark and our flashlights only provided so much light, I simply couldn't make out what he was doing down there. We continued along, following Celestial and the others up the passageways back towards where we had entered. I glanced back a few times. Sometimes Alfred was right behind us, other times he wasn't in sight.

I wished I could check the time, but I wasn't in a position to fish my phone from my pocket to do so. I didn't ask, because I was afraid of panicking others by reminding them of the passing time. I was sure that time wasn't going as fast as it felt like it was, but at the same time there was a part of me panicking at the knowledge that in a relatively short time, the vampires were going to be up and about, and we were in their lair.

When I finally saw the way out ahead of us in the ceiling, my heart began to pound so hard it actually hurt. We gathered around the harness and, as Alfred was once again missing from our group, Celestial took charge.

“Carrie, Shinko, Cassie you three go up first. Then we'll send Ian up and the rest of us will follow you.”

Carrie got into the harness and went up first. She lowered it back down and Shinko and Cassie followed. We had just put Ian into the harness and were beginning to send him up when Alfred returned.

“What were you doing?” I asked.

“Making sure that when they come out, it will be on our terms,” was Alfred's cryptic reply.

He didn't say anymore, but encouraged us to move faster so we could get Ian to the hospital. The plan was for Alfred and Cassie to carry him as far as Mod Squad and have Cassie call the hospital and stay with him until they came. She would tell them she found him like that. The rest of us would head our separate ways.

Once we were finally all outside the crypt, Alfred closed and locked the door. He then reached into his bag and pulled out a little device.

“Is that a detonator?” Carrie asked, looking chilled.

Alfred pushed the button on it and there was a definite tremor beneath our feet. It only a lasted a moment, and nothing else happened, but I held my breath anyway, expecting something more.

“That will take care of them for the time being. I laid explosives in the tunnels to cave them in. They will be trapped in the area we didn't get into, which is a relatively small area. They will dig out, but we will be ready for them when the time comes. That is a problem for another day; we need to get Ian to safety now. Come, Cassie.”

Alfred put an arm under Ian and raised him up. He and Cassie started off deeper into the graveyard instead of out, but as they had to take him somewhere where they wouldn't be seen until the ambulance showed up, they probably had to take a roundabout route to Mod Squad. The rest of us looked at each other awkwardly.

“Do you need anything, Tiger?” I asked.

She rubbed her neck, wincing from the memories rather than the pain. “Thanks, but I don't exactly know what you could do for me. That guy said I'm fine, and he seems to know what he is talking about, so I guess I should just go home. I'll... I'll be fine once they are all dead.”

“I'll walk you home,” Carrie said.

“I'm going to go home and get ready to go into work,” I said. “I can help Ian when he arrives, and since Cassie is the one calling, no one will think twice when I show up knowing what is going on.”

We all walked down through the gates together and parted there. I hurried through the streets and back to my apartment. Once there, I texted Cassie asking what the current situation was. She told me she had just gotten off the phone and they were on their way. I turned around and left immediately.

The ambulance passed me on the return from picking him up. I had already been walking quickly, but I jogged the rest of the distance. My phone pinged with a message from another one of the nurses informing me that Ian had been brought into the hospital. When I arrived, the nurses there all gave me sad smiles.

“How is he?” I asked, as if I didn't know exactly how dire his situation was. In reality, I was the only one there who knew how dire it really was.

“Well, he's alive, but he's in awful shape. Anemia Epidemic; the advanced stages. He's been unconscious since he was found, so we don't know where he was all this time. Hopefully he'll pull through. We haven't had a death in weeks now.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure he will,” I said breathlessly.

I went to his room and stood in the doorway, unable to go any further. He'd looked awful in the dim light of the catacombs, but here under the harsh florescent lights, hooked up to an oxygen mask and numerous I.V.s, he looked worse.

It had been seventeen days since he vanished, thirteen since I had accepted Alfred's words as truth and agreed to help him. Now I was kicking myself for waiting that long. If I had listened to Alfred on day one, December first, instead of writing him off as a weirdo and possible body-snatcher, I could have told Ian to stay the heck away from what he thought were dopplegangers. Sure, he had been every bit as skeptical as I had been, but I might have had something to convince him with. Now, I couldn't even be sure that I wouldn't be driving a stake through him in a few days despite getting him back alive.

***

I sat next to Ian's bed, trying to read a book, but my eyes kept glazing over. My shift had ended about two hours before, but I was still there, hoping that Ian would wake up soon. Of course, there was the possibility that he would never wake up again. Alfred had told me that we had maybe a week, perhaps a little more, until the transformation would be inevitable, and that Ian could be far gone enough that he would never wake up, or at least until we slayed the monster responsible for his condition. Still, he seemed hopeful that Ian might be well enough to hold on a little longer than that, and maybe even wake up.

“Hey, Kristy! They told me you haven't eaten yet. If you're gonna blow off training, at least don't make yourself sick while doing it. You gotta eat. Come down to the food court and have dinner.”

I looked over my shoulder and saw Pixie standing in the doorway. She smiled at me, trying to be reassuring.

“He'll be fine for the twenty minutes we're eating, so come on,” she said.

I sighed and tucked my book into my bag; I couldn't say no to an invitation like that. I looked at Ian's monitors again, but they were still the same. I slung my bag over my shoulders and followed Pixie down to the food court on the first floor. The food wasn't spectacular, heck, it wasn't even good, but I wasn't exactly in a mood to notice.

“How are the others? Has anyone talked to Tiger since yesterday?” I asked as I dipped a tasteless cracker into my soup.

“Yeah, I went to see her today. She seems to be holding up okay. Carrie assured her that her house was safe, so she's hasn't left it since she got back yesterday. She called out of her job saying she was sick, but she said that she'll probably go back tomorrow,” Pixie told me.

“That's good, getting back into the swing of things as quickly as you can. Don't worry, I won't be a hypocrite. I'll be back tomorrow; you can tell the others that. Regardless of whether or not Ian wakes up,” I replied.

Pixie nodded, smiling. “He's going to wake up. If not now, then when you guys waste the vampire who did that to him. You'll do it.”

“I wish I had your optimism, Pixie,” I said as I stirred my soup absently.

“Eat,” she instructed. “You paid for it, so eat it.”

I chuckled as I started eating my soup. It was rather salty, and the ingredients bland, but it was food. I had forgotten to eat for most of the day simply because my appetite had gone away due to my stress over Ian's situation. Pixie and I chatted aimlessly while we finished our meals; her telling me about the Hanukkah celebration that they were now four days into. It made me remember that it was only four days to Christmas Eve, five to Christmas Day. The season had slipped by without notice for me, with being so wrapped up in the vampire slaying. I had a ridiculous amount of presents I'd bought back in late November and early December to wrap and get mailed. The idea of dealing with them on time was almost as daunting as dealing with the remaining vampires.

“Okay, I've got to get home now. You're gonna go home soon too, right?” Pixie asked as she rose.

“The staff will kick me out before midnight,” I said with a chuckle.

Pixie also smiled and then left stopping to wave at me before she went through the doors into the lobby. I finished my soup and threw away the packaging. I got into the elevator and rode it back up to Ian's floor. He was unchanged from when I had left. I sat down again and had just opened my book when my eye was caught by his heart rate monitor. It was going a little faster than before. I looked over at the bed and found Ian's eyes were open and scanning the ceiling.

“Hi, Ian,” I said, leaning over so I would be in his field of vision without him having to move much. “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

I immediately slapped a hand over my mouth, shocked at my incredibly insensitive choice of expression. Ian looked over at me, looking confused. I removed his oxygen mask so he could talk if he wanted to.

“It's okay. You're in the hospital at Issues and Inquiries; it is a safe zone now. They can't come get you here. You're safe now,” I told him.

“I'm... I'm not dreaming again?” he asked.

“Nope, this is real. The vampires that took you, well, we dealt with some of them. We're going to get the rest of them soon. You're safe, I promise.”

“You know about the vampires?” he asked.

I nodded. Next he asked for some water and I got it for him, holding the straw to his lips so he could drink. He barely had the energy to talk, let alone sit up and hold it himself. When he finished, I set the cup on the bedside table and just smiled at him, so glad to see him awake, no matter how dire his situation still was. If the vampire was left unslain then he would continue to weaken and finally die, a vampire rising in his body. For now, I just focused on being glad he was awake.

“How long was I down there?” he asked.

“You were last seen on the first; the night we had dinner. So, you've been gone eighteen or nineteen days, depending on whether they took you that night or the next,” I told him, cringing in pain at the idea of the suffering he must have gone through in those terrible days. “I'm so sorry.”

He smiled at me, though it was weak. “Don't blame yourself. I didn't believe in the vampires and walked right into their hands. You came to my rescue.”

“I should have taken Alfred seriously from the first night. I could have prevented this if I had.” I had to blink back tears. I didn't want to upset him by crying.

“Let's not do this,” he said. “I'm not strong enough to argue with you.”

I nodded, smiling through the haze of mist in my eyes. “I hate to do this to you, but I need to know who was... preying on you. We need to kill that vampire for you to get better.” We thought we knew, after all, Liou had had his cellphone, but we had to be sure.

“Liou,” Ian said, his face tight. “I found her on my way to pick up my gloves from your house. I saw her and chased her down, determined to prove it was just some sick prankster. The next thing I knew I woke up in some windowless room. I... it was an awful experience. There were others there, a few were brought in and went during the time I was there. By went, I mean they lapsed into unconsciousness and stopped breathing eventually. The vampires would remove them from the room after that. I came to realize what was happening pretty soon. I lingered longer than most... Liou is a sick monster. She didn't have the decency to just get it over with. She toyed with me, bringing nice food and things to make me comfortable, teasing me and playing with me like a toy. She didn't feed often, but the drawn out ordeal of it was worse than if she had done it consistently.” Ian finally broke off, his voice faltering. The trauma of remembering the ordeal and the exhaustion of his long discourse had drained him of what little energy he had.

I took the cup from the table again to give him a drink and then put his oxygen mask back on.

“Thank you, Ian. That's all we needed to know. If anyone else asks you what happened, tell them you don't remember. Given how sick you are, that won't be strange. For now, go back to sleep. You need to keep your strength up to fight this until we end Liou. Okay? I'll stay here until you fall asleep if that'll make you feel better.”

He nodded, smiling weakly from behind the mask. I picked up the book I had brought with me and turned back to the beginning of the book, reading it aloud to him. He was too tired to last long, and within three minutes he was asleep again. I closed the book and tucked it into my bag and then leaned on the bed, feeling exhausted myself. I didn't like telling him to go back to sleep, even though that was the best thing for him. I couldn't help fearing that he wouldn't wake up again. After a minute I got up and slung my bag over my shoulders. I walked to the doorway and willed myself to keep going. I had the information I needed, and there was nothing I could do for him here.

As I got in the elevator, I texted Alfred to tell him what I had confirmed, including a picture of Liou I had. Whenever we made our next move against the vampires, we would need to make sure she did not escape.

The walk home that night was safe, as the vampires were still sealed below ground. Still, it felt longer than it ever had before.

Chapter 22:

SPOILER: Click to show

I laid on the sofa on my stomach, drafting my two weeks notice to the hospital. With any luck, the vampire problem would be ending within the week, so we wouldn't have any more cases of Anemia Epidemic to deal with after that, meaning that the need for me to continue on at the hospital was over. It was a little frustrating to know that my in depth story into the Anemia Epidemic would be full of half truths, as I'd have to withhold the truth of what truly went down in the Community of NTWF. No one would believe our vampire story even if I told it.

Alfred and Cassie were sitting in my living room, their chairs pulled up to the table and looking at something on Alfred's computer. Cassie's phone rang and she got up and went into the kitchen to take her call. She came back looking both annoyed and amused.

“I got to go. The chief just called. Apparently there is some major meltdown going on over sales at the mall and I need to get down there to cover it. See you guys,” Cassie explained as she grabbed her coat and pulled it on.

“Walk safe,” I said. “We got ice last night, remember?”

“I know; I will. Bye, Alfred!”

“Goodbye, lass. Safe travels,” Alfred called, though he did not look up from the computer.

“Whatcha doing there, Alfred?” I asked.

“Monitoring the seismometers we installed around Memory Lane yesterday. The vampires only choice will be to dig themselves straight out, going upwards. Such a project will undoubtedly cause seismic waves which will be picked up by my meters. This will allow us to triangulate the area in which they will break through. When they come up, we will be ready and waiting for them,” he explained.

“You guys are good. Have you done this before?” I asked.

“Myself, no. However, this exact situation has happened many, many times in the past. The various methods of handling it have been well documented, and this particular one has worked impeccably numerous times.”

“So, when do you think we'll be facing off against them?” I asked.

It was now the twenty-second of the December, and every day that passed without access to Liou was one day closer to Ian's eventual death. He was staying strong, even waking up for brief periods over the last two days, but we still only had a week tops at this point.

“I can't say as of yet. There haven't been any seismic waves picked up by the meters as of yet.”

“Could they have been able to move outside of the range of the meters?” I asked, dreading that possibility.

“Yes, that could be a possibility. They could potentially be able to tunnel deep enough to reach one of the other sections given time. However, even they are limited, and they would all be too starved to have the energy to make it all the way through. Trying to get around to an open passage might very well sign their death warrants. No, they're smart enough to know that their only chance of getting out of the catacombs alive will be to go straight up. It is simply likely that they haven't dug up far enough to trigger the seismometers. They will be out very soon, long before our friend will succumb to the curse. Ian will be fine,” Alfred said, looking up to give me a reassuring smile.

“Are you sitting there just watching the meters?” I asked, wondering how boring that must be.

“I wish that were all I had to do,” he laughed. “No, I'm filing reports. Even slaying vampires comes with an unholy amount of paperwork.”

I laughed as I signed my letter. “There, that's done. And I'm hungry; so that makes it lunch time. I hope you like chana masala.”

“I do actually,” he replied.

“Good, because that's lunch,” I said as I hopped over the arm of the couch and walked into the kitchen to start cooking.

Half an hour later, I returned with our food and placed Alfred's on the table next to him. I settled onto the couch and turned on the TV to see if anywhere was covering the mall fiasco that Cassie had mentioned while I ate. There was nothing interesting on the news, just more of the same about how ridiculously extreme the winter was being.

“I've got something,” Alfred said unexpectedly.

I hit the mute button on the TV and turned my attention to him. He turned his laptop to let me see. The map on the screen didn't make much sense to me, but I could tell there was some disturbance. It was so faint though, that it could have been anything.

“Does it actually mean anything?” I asked, hoping that wasn't a dumb question.

“It is very deep underground, which makes me think it must be our friends digging out. It is too soon to say for certain that it is them; I will simply have to keep monitoring until I can. If it is them, what it means is that they are coming up, and they will be here soon.”

***

We gathered in Dan's office, most of us trying to cluster around his desk where he was sitting. Alfred stood next to him, showing him the area the seismic disturbances were coming from while Dan compared it to a overhead map of the forum. It was late afternoon of the twenty-third. Alfred said that given the strength of waves, that he thought they'd break through tomorrow, Christmas Eve.

“Here,” Dan said pointing at his screen. If you're right about where they'll come up, it'll be here.”

“That's the archives,” Carrie said, leaning forward. “That place is huge. How will we know where they'll come up at?”

“They'll come up in the basement,” Icon said. “That's the only place they can come up, it runs the whole length of the building.”

“We'll need to spend the time until tomorrow evening clearing out the basement, then. Try to have as much as possible moved out of there so that there will be less to get in the way. We can have a night team for tonight, and a second crew to work until three tomorrow. We'll close the archives for the next few days and move everything into the upper levels. Considering there will be a large hole in the basement by tomorrow night, we'll have a pretty good excuse as to why we ordered it. I'll go get on that,” Carrie said, hurrying out of the room and down to her own office.

“Icon and I will go down to the archives and send the staff on vacation until further notice. Given the season, I'm sure they'll be happy for the unexpected vacation,” Celestial said, gesturing for Icon to follow her.

“I guess the rest of us will go home and sharpen our stakes. What time do you want us at the archives tomorrow?” I asked.

“Three in the afternoon. The workers will be leaving at that point. Once they leave, we can begin set up in the basement for the fight. I'd get plenty of rest; we'll be up late,” Alfred advised.

***

I checked through my bag for the fifth time, taking everything out and setting it on the kitchen table. My first aid kit, my stakes, my crossbow, my stock of garlic in various forms. I opened the first aid kit and ran over the contents again. It was far better stocked than in the past, complete with tourniquets and needles and suture for stitching wounds. I really hoped not to need any of it, but I couldn't take the risk that we wouldn't.

I checked the crossbow, but it was in perfect condition, as I knew it was. I meticulously repacked everything into my bag, rearranging it a few times before I was satisfied. I looked up at the clock, it was still too early to set out. I didn't want to show up too early since the building was full of workers moving the contents of the basement to the upper levels. One of the best things about the basement was that we could seal the exits. Sure, they could break through the floors into the upper levels, but there was no way they could do that to escape with us there. We had a real chance of ending it for good tonight.

My phone kept buzzing with notices from friends wishing me a Merry Christmas. I responded in kind, still unable to make the mental connect to the fact that it was Christmas Eve. Normally I would have been baking cookies while listening to the newest Christmas album and getting ready to go out to give those cookies to my neighbors. I might have few friends over for a movie and eggnog and hot chocolate in the evening. However, this year those friends were dead, in the hospital, or going to be slaying demons with me. It was quite possibly the bluest Christmas I'd ever had.

I wandered around the house, forcing myself to leave my bag alone until it was time to leave. I tried to read, play video games, surf the internet, and watch TV, but I jumped up and wandered off after a few minutes each time. The TV Christmas specials were on, but they all focused on Santa, and after Santa Coaster, the magic was gone for me. I wondered if one day Thundy would be able to laugh about that.

Finally, my alarm went off, telling me it was time to get a move on down to the archives. I practically cheered, glad to finally be able to be moving. I was not looking forward to the eventual showdown between us and the vampires, but the waiting was getting hard too. I just wanted the whole thing to be over.

I pulled on my boots and coat, grabbed my bag, and ran out the door, pulling my gloves and scarf on as I ran. I hurried through the streets, oblivious to any looks I might have been getting. Still, with it being Christmas Eve, people running around like headless chickens doing last minute shopping wasn't unusual. I'm sure people saw me and internally sniggered. If only they knew.

I got to the archives in Memory Lane in record time. There, Celestial was seeing the last of the movers out. They looked glad to be going home; I'm sure they had plenty of Christmas plans. I hurried up the steps and gave her a winded greeting.

“There's plenty of time; you're a little early even. Did you run the entire way?” she asked.

“Yeah, pretty much. I move fast when I'm anxious; I can't help it,” I replied as I took deep breaths.

“Well, Alfred's downstairs. You can go join him,” she said.

I walked inside, navigating the maze of boxes that had been moved up from the basement. I took the steps down into the basement slowly, finding them steep and high. It made me marvel that so much had been moved up the steps in such a short period of time. I got to the bottom and looked around. What hadn't been removed had been pushed to the sides to clear as much of the floor space as possible.

Alfred was operating a lift, moving a platform up towards the ceiling. I noticed there were a few strange devices affixed to the ceiling around the western half of the basement.

“Whatcha doing?” I called when he stopped it and got out.

Icon came over, carrying a ladder and set it up for him, holding it as he began to climb up.

“Good day, lass. We're setting up something to give us the upper hand. When the vampires break through, they are going to come through in all their number. We'll be a far smaller force, so we'll need to even the odds. Why don't you help Carrie over there?”

I glanced over to where Carrie was and then walked over. She looked up at me and motioned to a device next to her. There were a bunch of them. They were black cylinders with hooks so they could be mounted. Carrie had one in front of her; the side was open, and she was filling it with something powdery. She told me to take one and fill it like she was, so I grabbed one of the bottles sitting there and started filling the devices. Icon came over to collect a few and put them on the platform that was one the lift that Alfred was operating. I watched them repeat the process from earlier, Alfred climbing the ladder up to the platform and then attaching one of the devices to the ceiling. Carrie and I finished filling them and sat down on a box that had been pushed against the wall to wait.

“Know what he is doing?” I asked. “Well, I mean, how those things are going to give us the upper hand?”

“They are filled with garlic. Something a little more potent than Shinko's dried stuff, but not as potent as Alfred's sprays,” Carrie explained.

“Why aren't we using the sprays then?” I asked.

“Because he doesn't have that much left, and there isn't enough time to have more shipped in. Also, this is in a dust form, so it lingers in the air, whereas liquid would be released once and would directly repel all the vampires in the tunnel, making us have to go down there to get them. This stuff will also drift into the tunnel, so they'll have nowhere to go that isn't toxic to them but up, meaning that they will come out into the basement.”

“Okay, but, garlic is also an irritant for us. If the air is filled with it, won't we also be incapacitated?” I asked.

She reached down into a bag and pulled out a mask and goggles.

“Oh, duh,” I said, slapping myself on the forehead.

“Truly,” Carrie said with a wry grin.

Cassie and Shinko came down together. They stopped to watch Alfred and Icon for a minute before they came over to ask what was going on. Carrie explained it again and I opened my bag, pulling out my crossbow and inspecting it again, despite the fact that I'd done that half a dozen times already in the last two hours. Celestial came down a few minutes later.

“I locked up the building. Dan, Pixie, and Tiger are upstairs. Pixie filled Tiger in on what was happening here tonight, and she showed up to help upstairs if we need her. She said she wants to be here when this ends. I don't blame her, and if anyone does get seriously wounded, having an extra pair of hands could incredibly useful,” Celestial reported. “Alfred, is there anything more that needs to be done?”

“As soon as Icon and I install these last two, the only thing to do will be to wait. I've sealed the door already, so they won't simply be able to escape that way. You can keep your masks off until four-thirty, they won't be moving until then. I don't know how long it will take them to break through, but we should be prepared. You should all wander about until then if you wish. I'm sure you're bored to death waiting down here.”

“I'm gonna take him up on that,” I said, jumping up. “I'm going stir-crazy waiting. Might as well take a tour of the the rooms upstairs. I haven't been in the galleries in a while.”

We all scattered, going to do various things to stay occupied until the appointed time. Our wait would be a long one that night.

Chapter 23

SPOILER: Click to show

“What time is it?” Cassie asked, her voice muffled by the mask over her face.

I lifted my eyes from the comic I was reading to the time displayed above it on my phone.

“Almost eleven. The vampires are taking their sweet time. At this rate it'll be morning before they arrive. Although, I suppose that would make it easier for us,” I commented as I tucked my phone into my pocket and got to my feet. I walked over to where Alfred was and leaned over his shoulder and looked at the computer screen. “Still nothing? No seismic activity? Were they playing us and this isn't where they are coming out after all?”

“Not likely; I have a very wide field. It isn't possible that they could have gotten out of the range of the seismometers in this time, and it makes no sense why they would invest the effort in digging up this far only to stop, even as a decoy. It would simply expend too much time and too many resources leaving them little to use to actually escape. Their strength will be dwindling by the day simply from being unable to feed, and faster as they exert themselves to dig out. They must have something up their sleeve, but what it is, I can't for the life of me imagine,” Alfred replied.

Celestial turned to look at us, a grim smile on her face. “I don't like the sound of that. These vampires have proven in the past that they don't operate the same way as usual vampires. Whoever is in charge is clearly craftier than your normal just turned vampire. What does that mean, though?”

“That whoever this vampire possessed was clearly rather intelligent to begin with,” Alfred said. “I don't suppose you have any theories that might shed some light on their planning structure?”

“Stalos,” I said. “I'll bet you my garlic stash it is Stalos.”

“Why Stalos?” Icon asked. “Why not Zylaa? She's pretty crafty, and this vampire Zylaa is clearly a malevolent witch.”

“Because Stalos was something of a leader to begin with. He may have been long retired, but the fact stands. Also, Zylaa said there is a council and we killed one of their number already. Zylaa was clearly on that council. She, Robyn, and Stalos all have one thing in common, they are retired Admins or Mods,” I explained.

“Terra also, we suspect,” Cassie said, cutting in. I'd discussed this theory with her, and she'd come to the same conclusion that I had. “We've already been unsuccessful at multiple attempts to contact her during the daylight hours, and she's disappeared since we closed down the tunnels. Gelquie too, but I'm not sure she's on the council as she is current staff. The retired staff, they're perfect choices, right? After all, they still command respect from the Forum, but they aren't involved in the day to day running of it. They can go missing for long periods of time, but still emerge and get what they want without too many questions being asked. Probably anyone else who is staff is on the council, or closest to them. It makes sense why they would take Tiger. She's a mod. They were starting to try to seize a stronger hold of the town. Unfortunately, I don't think that is very much help. Even knowing who they are doesn't help us guess at their strategy. I've got no clue what they've got planned.”

“The theory is sound,” Alfred said, nodding. “At this point in the game, it hardly matters if we cannot quite guess at what they are up to down there. We simply have to roll with the punches. So long as no one escapes, this will end here tonight.”

“How many do you expect to be down there?” Carrie asked.

“No more than thirty. We reduced their number significantly over the last few encounters. I've been able to come up with an approximate beginning date to this infestation, and the number of vampires at the time of my arrival in town could not have been more than a hundred, and they have reduced in number far more than they have grown.”

“Still too many,” Cassie muttered.

“One was too many. One loss to the vampires is always too many,” Alfred replied.

“So then--”

The building shook beneath our feet and there was a roar of noise. Someone pushed me down and I covered my head, trying to protect myself against whatever was going on. I could feel myself being battered by hundreds of tiny blows. A moment later, it was over. My ears were ringing, and the air was filled with dust. If it hadn't been for the mask and goggles, I would have been incapacitated by the choking cloud. There was rubble all around me. My mind felt sluggish, unable to comprehend fully what had happened. Through the dust cloud, I saw a gaping hole in the middle of the floor into the basement. Then it clicked for me; the vampires had come.

“Alfred, detonate the devices!” I called, but my voice was muffled to my ears, and not from my mask. The ringing in my ears was intense.

I got to my feet, reaching down to make sure my bag was still there. It was, and still latched, so my things were secure inside. I opened it and pulled out my crossbow, loading it and watching the hole opened by the explosion. It was no easy feat; the dust cloud made by the explosion was thick and swirling, creating phantom illusions in the dust. I couldn't even tell how wide it was. They could be spilling out the other side of it and hiding in the cloud of dust, getting ready to ambush us. A figure appeared, climbing out of the hole, and I fired without hesitation. There was a wail of pain that was just barely audible to me over the ringing in my ears, and the figure fell and was lost in the swirling dust cloud.

I wanted to look for my friends, to make sure they were all right, but I knew I had to keep watching and shooting. I'd been against the wall at the time of the blast; most of them had been a little closer to the hole. They might need longer to recover, and I needed to cover them while they took that time. I mentally cursed the vampires, furious that they had managed to get the upper hand over us like that. I was also kicking myself for not thinking they might try something like that. They'd almost gotten the better of us that way once before, down in the catacombs, when Elcie blew through the door into the staging room. It had never crossed our minds that they might have the necessary amount of explosives to do this much damage.

Another vampire appeared on the edge of the hole, but before I could fire, a bolt whizzed past me and found its target. I could feel a grin stealing onto my face, glad at the knowledge that Cassie or Carrie was up and well enough to fight. The good news was only added to when felt someone step up behind me and I heard Shinko's voice in my ear.

“Alfred says to hold them off. He wants to have them let their guard down and move more of their numbers into the room itself before he sets off the devices,” she told me, and I was able to hear her better as the ringing in my ears was beginning to die down a little.

“Is everyone okay?” I asked, keeping my eyes fixed on the hole.

“Yeah. A few bruises, a bunch of minor scratches, but we're good.”

Another vampire appeared on the edge, a much clearer figure now that the dust was beginning to settle, and I took the shot.

“Why are they just letting us pick them off? I mean, we're not killing them, but they're weakened and vulnerable now.”

“They are probably still unaware that we're okay. Remember the night we took down Coaster? Alfred cut the arm off one of them while they were at full strength. They can clearly be hurt even if they can't be killed while at full strength. These are probably the advanced scouts and the rest are further back in the tunnel to avoid being blown up,” Shinko told me. “I'm sure they're not in a big hurry to get up here. After all, we should also all be choking and blinded on all this dust, leaving us pretty much helpless. They were not counting on us being kitted out to handle this.

“Are you sure that's why they aren't coming up yet?” I asked.

“We put our heads together and came up with that answer. It really is the only one that makes sense. They couldn't have been in the blast-zone with that much explosives and be fine,” Shinko replied.

Another vampire crawled out and someone else took the shot. I finally allowed myself to glance around. Cassie and Carrie were set up to my left, watching the hole. Icon was standing a little behind them. I didn't look back to where I assumed Celestial and Alfred must be, but I hoped it would be time to release our secret weapon soon. The already vulnerable vampires would be absolutely helpless once we did that, and perhaps we could begin to move in for some kills.

Suddenly several vampires climbed out of the hole, about a dozen. We all opened fire. I counted three shafts besides my own, which impaled four of the vampires. The others howled in rage and raced at us. I reloaded and took the shot, missing as my target leapt into the air. I tried to reload in time, but I knew it was hopeless. I had to hope that Shinko would be able to deflect the vampire for me.

She didn't need to. Alfred set off the devices and they rained a fine garlic dust on our foes. The vampire fell out of the air, clutching his face and howling the way that Elcie and Yoyti had when Shinko had used garlic powder on them during our last encounter with the vampires. I finished reloading and shot him. He was close, so Shinko ran forward and decapitated him, turning him into yet more dust swirling through the basement. That was one down out of an estimated thirty. My inclination to cheer was crushed by this stark realization.

The situation was suddenly vastly overwhelming, and I had no idea how to go about doing anything about actually ending it. All around us in the swirling dust of concrete, foundation soil, garlic, and vampire remains, the vampires were hurtling around, their screams making a mess in my head as they mixed with the echoes of the ringing from the explosion.

I wanted to stop and just scream at the top of my lungs until everything around me shut up and stopped making so much chaos. I vaguely held onto some semblance of order in my own head by focusing on just trying to shoot as many vampires as I possibly could. That was by no means an easy task, as they were more disoriented than I was, racing around the basement blindly, flailing at the air helplessly, as if fighting with an imaginary foe. I couldn't see their faces, but judging by their reactions, the effect this garlic substance was having on them was clearly stronger than Shinko's supermarket garlic powder.

In the swirling chaos around me, I saw the other slayers moving to take on the vampires that strayed nearest to us. Some of them turned to dust, but others were still unweakened and found a target on which to turn their rage. I could see Shinko wresting with one. I turned to fire at it, getting a close look at her face. It was Gelquie. I almost froze in horror. The eyes were completely red, both from the garlic and the demonic rage the monster was feeling. The face was blistered from the garlic, red foam dripping from the corners of her mouth which was twisted in a hideous smile, fangs clearly visible amidst her gritted teeth.

I fired and missed, sinking it into her thigh instead. She turned with a scream of rage, pushing Shinko hard enough to escape her and come running at me. I mentally freaked out even as my body stayed calm, doing what I was supposed to be doing, reloading for another shot. Before she reached me, or I even raised my crossbow for a second attempt, Icon was there. He drove a stake into her chest, using her own momentum to do the work. She howled and crumpled to her knees. A second later, she was a pile of dust on the floor.

Through the dust and the chaos, I spotted something. Flowing blonde hair that I recognized. Without a second thought, I took off in pursuit.

Chapter 24

SPOILER: Click to show

I ran through the dust, leaping over rubble and dodging around flailing vampires who were half blinded with pain, in a single-minded pursuit of my target. Ahead of me, running almost blindly through the massive basement of the Archives in Memory Lane was the one vampire I had come there specifically that night to kill.

“Liou!” I screamed at her, hoping it would get her to stop and to turn so I could take the shot.

She kept running, not even slowing or hesitating. I wondered if she could hear me, or if the noise had affected her hearing too, or if the garlic had caused her to be somewhat deaf. Perhaps it was my mask, muffling my voice. Perhaps she just didn't care. Regardless, I kept going, determined to get her.

The single-mindedness of my pursuit was a mistake, or rather mistake number two, the first being running off on my own. Something tackled me and we tumbled and rolled across the hard concrete floor of the basement, my crossbow falling from my hands and sliding along with us. I rolled onto my back and found a vampire looming above me. I rolled as he swung, his claws scraping my shoulder, tearing clothing and flesh. I let out a scream more of anger than of pain, not that it didn't hurt. I pulled back with my good arm, punching him dead center in the face, a blow that would have shattered a human's nose. With my other hand, I pulled a stake from my bag. As he pulled away from me after that punch, I drove it into his heart. He wailed with pain, arching backwards and flailing. I pulled both my legs out from under him and kicked him hard with both feet. He toppled to the ground and I scrambled to my feet, retrieving my crossbow and shooting him again in the knee to further incapacitate him.

I looked around, but I had lost Liou. She had slipped away during the fight with the other vampire. I turned to look at the wounded vampire just in time to see a sword come down on him and dissolve him into dust. I looked up into Alfred's masked face as he grabbed me by the arm and hauled me back towards where I had come from.

“I found Liou!” I shouted over the din. “I was following her. She went that way.” I pointed the direction she had been headed when I had been distracted.

I could hear him curse, but he stopped to look. After a moment, he released my arm. “You know better than to have run off on your own, even to go after her! You could have been killed. You're lucky you weren't.”

“I know, I'm an idiot. Can you chew me out after we slay her?” I cried. “She's getting off towards the further edges of the basement. She's probably hoping to get through the floor undetected while we're busy with the main force. If she gets out, Ian's going to die.”

“Oh, believe me, if I remember when this is over, I will give you the tear down of the century. Now, come on,” he shouted over the din.

Alfred took point and I followed, both of us running as fast as we could towards the far side of the basement where I'd last seen Liou headed. This time I kept my eyes open, trying to make sure I wasn't ambushed like I'd been last time. I didn't see any of the other vampires making their way this deep, and that worried me. My friends were tough, definitely tougher than I was, but they were still down by two fighters in the thick of the vampire horde. Still, if Alfred was confident enough to leave them, then he must have felt that whatever we were after was probably more important than that fight, and they could handle themselves. I just hoped that was the case.

The dust began to thin out the farther we went. Soon it was so light that it no longer created a cloud to hide in and we could see more than a few feet ahead of us. The sudden lack of dust was almost as disorienting as the dust had been originally.

Now visible ahead of us was a group of vampires, and I could easily pick out Liou amongst them. They were stacking some of the remaining crates with the intent to use them so they could climb to the ceiling to break their way through. For everyone in the town's sake, we couldn't let that happen. I took a close look at the vampires assembled there. The two who were assisting Liou moving the boxes were unfamiliar to me, but the rest were familiar faces.

Our suspicions about the council were confirmed. The glaring, garlic scarred faces of Terra, Zylaa, and Stalos turned to us. Terra hissed with fury and turned on Liou.

“You led them right here!” she screamed. “You moron. We should have tossed you to them after you made that moronic phone call, just like we did Coaster.”

“It's not my fault!” Liou insisted. “I just wanted to have some fun with my prey. You're all so serious. Coaster was more fun than you guys are. You shouldn't have used him as bait like that. It's like breaking the vampire code or something!”

“If you'd done in Ian properly in the first place, you wouldn't have the big target on your back at this moment that you do. This is where your 'having fun' has gotten you!” Terra shouted back.

“This is exactly where!” I screamed, raising my crossbow and taking aim at Liou.

She jumped and at the last moment I switched my target and shot Zylaa instead. She fell with horrible, angry scream. Everyone scattered; Liou hid behind the boxes and I smirked, not that she could see that behind the mask.

“You can run, and you can hide, but you can't get out of this basement, and it's only a couple of hours to daybreak. When that happens, you'll be weakened from both garlic and daylight, and you'll be helpless,” I told her. “Come out, and I'll make it quick. Give you the mercy you didn't have for Ian.”

“We were going to be such friends, Kristy,” Liou wailed. “You'd have liked being a vampire.”

“I wouldn't have been a vampire, Liou. I'd have been dead while a hellion walked in my body and killed my friends,” I snapped.

“True, that. But, still, I'd have had fun with you until you turned. Just like with Ian. We were the best of friends,” Liou said, a giggle in her voice.

“Shut up,” I screamed, jumping up on one of the boxes and pushing the top one down on her.

She leapt out from under the box and I took a shot at her and missed. I reloaded as she tried to make a dash for it. Alfred stepped in her way and she stopped.

“Ooh, you're that slayer Robyn was hot on. Pity about that too. You'd make a great vampire; bet they would have put you on the council. It would be really funny at vampire reunion parties, people asking if you had a cousin who looked just like you who used to slay vampires,” she giggled out.

I'd had quite enough of Liou and her taunts and jives about my friends. I screamed her name as I ran at her, my arm pulled back to throw a punch. She let me come, let me loose that blow into her jaw, and then turned her face back to grin at me, the punch having had little effect. However, like she had toyed with us, I had been toying with her. She had let me close the gap between us, and now I was standing only inches away. I brought the crossbow up and placed it directly against her chest. Her face contorted in shock as she realized what she had let me do. I pulled the trigger and then ducked as it tore into her. She never screamed, because she was a pile of dust before she even could open her mouth to let out that sound.

From my position on the ground I suddenly felt like something was different. I supposed it was just the relief that Ian would now recover, but it left me feeling tired, like my resolve was gone. It was probably just that I had finally expended the anger that had driven me since Ian had vanished and I learned vampires were behind it. I knew I had to get back up and keep fighting, and I reached deep inside, remembering all the suffering the other vampires had caused. Alfred grabbed my arm and pulled me back to my feet.

“Come on, we've got a fight to get back to. We've got those three to deal with. The other two shifting boxes slipped back towards the main fight, so the council is all ours.”

“I'm running low on ammunition,” I told him, feeling around in my bag and only coming up with a handful of shafts left. “I'd have to go back to the cash to restock.”

“I figured you had run off without checking your stock as well,” he said, shaking his head at me as he took my bag and refilled it from his. “Still, you did warn me that you were daft and I'd have one hell of a job looking after you.”

“I did,” I laughed breathlessly. “Have I made up for it at all?”

“Undoubtedly. You're a fine slayer when you keep your wits about you. There you are. Now, shall we go slay some vampires?” Alfred said, handing me my bag back.

I slung it back over my shoulders and reloaded my crossbow. “Oh, yeah!”

Chapter 25

SPOILER: Click to show

Restocked and reloaded, I was ready to hunt some more vampires. Not just any vampires this time, but the vampire council we had been warned about by Zylaa, who was now sporting one of my stakes and obviously going to be far easier to pick off if we got to her soon. Even if she ripped it out, it would still take a feeding and a rest before the wound would heal and allow her to return to her former state of immortality. For the moment, we had two full strength vampires and one half strength vampire to deal with.

We heard footsteps running from behind us and turned to look. It was Icon. He joined us and gave a mock salute to Alfred.

“Most of the vampires slain, sir!”

“Oh, shut up and talk normally,” I told him.

He grinned at me and then said, “We're mostly running clean up now; we split into two teams to clean out all the corners where they might be hiding. The main horde is demolished. Celestial sent me to give you this information and help you do clean up over here, which is what you guys are doing, right?”

“Yes, we are. There are three vampires left to deal with in this area. You go with Kristy down that row, and I'll go down this one,” Alfred said, pointing.

The inventory of the basement was still arranged in rows this far back, the movers not having had time to even shift it to the sides of the basement. Icon took point as we made our way down the row. He looked forward and I looked up, scanning the top of the boxed inventory, looking for a sign of our foes above us.

“Pity they don't bleed,” I said. “Zylaa would have left us a nice trail to follow if they did.”

“You got Zylaa?” he asked.

“Yeah, the other two are Stalos and Terra. Seems Cassie and my guess was pretty much spot on. A pity we didn't figure it out earlier, though. If we could have taken them out earlier in the game, we might have been able to destabilize them early and prevent this mess. Perhaps have saved a few lives,” I said.

“Hey, we saved a whole lot of lives. The entire living portion of the Forum's lives,” Icon shot back. “We saved Ian's life tonight, and Tiger's last week. We've nothing to be sorry for. We did the best we could as we could-- Look out!”

He jumped backward, pushing me backward with him as something jumped out of the darkness between two boxes and took a swing at us. It was Terra. She turned to face us, glaring at us with angry, red eyes, and snarling, her lips pulled back to show her fangs. She rose back onto both legs and raised her hands in a fighting stance, crossing her arms over her chest to prevent me from lining up a clear shot. I looked to Icon before I fired anyway. It tore into her arm and stayed there. She snarled but seemed unperturbed, even with it lodged in her arm.

“Okay, this isn't great,” I said. “I suppose you cut her to bits and I keep shooting and eventually, through sheer willpower we take her down?”

“Sounds like a plan,” he replied, walking around so he was directly behind me. “Or it would be if Zylaa wasn't standing behind us.”

I raised my crossbow, aiming it at Terra, unsure of what to do now. Even injured, Zylaa was still a danger, mainly because she was distracting us from the real danger in Terra. However, if we focused on Terra, we were still open to attack from Zylaa, who might be able to do major damage even while injured like she was. Icon raised his sword, and I raised my crossbow again.

“Any bright ideas? Any that don't involve puns about how badly this situation sucks?” I asked, really not in the mood for more puns.

“No, but you're right about the vampires sucking. I mean, they do, literally,” Icon said, and I could hear the grin in his voice. Again, I found myself having to resist the urge to facepalm because it was just too dangerous under the circumstances. I saw the vampires tensing.

“You're a real comedian, Icon,” I muttered. “For real, any ideas?”

“Yeah, duck, now!” he shouted.

We both dived to opposite sides as the two vampires leapt at where we had been. I dived in such a way as to land on my back and slide. I had my crossbow up and took a shot at Zylaa. I nailed her in the side and she dropped, howling in pain. Terra jumped away from Icon's sword as he took a swing at her. I fired another bolt at Terra, less to try to hit her and more to distract her. It worked; she took another leap back, away from Zylaa. Icon brought his sword down on the wounded vampire and all that was left was another pile of dust.

Terra shrieked with anger, leaping up onto the boxes. I watched her go from my position on the floor, wondering what she was up to. They didn't stack high enough to reach the ceiling, so I doubted her aim was to try to get through the floor into the room above. It would leave her too exposed as it was. I reloaded and watched her, hoping for an opening.

She gave me one. She leapt from the boxes above, diving towards the ground where I lay. Her weak spot was wide open, so I took the shot. This proved to be just what she wanted. Even though
I hit her, she managed to keep control of herself. I saw her face contort with pain, her muscles spasm, but she held together and kept coming down at me, her nails sharp and deadly, ready to rip my throat out or deal some equally damaging blow.

Time seemed to slow down for me in that moment, that illusion that your mind creates in moments where your mind and body both believe you are in serious danger of major injury or worse. I closed my eyes out of instinct, raising my arms to protect my face and throat, and forced my eyes back open. At that moment, I saw her poised a foot from me, her hands inches from me, a blade above me and between us. Her nails just barely touched the sleeves of my shirt as she fell on the blade. Then she simply turned to dust, which filtered down onto me. I sat up and started brushing myself off.

“Thanks,” I said, turning to look at Icon.

“That was a dumb move she made,” Icon replied. “I mean, come on, I was standing right here the whole time. Did she think I was going to freeze up and just let her kill you?”

“Who knows,” I said as I got back to my feet. “Let's get a move on. There is still Stalos. Sure, maybe Alfred got him already, but you never know. He could still be hiding in our row.”

Icon shrugged and then returned his sword to a proper hold, taking point again. I reloaded my crossbow and began to scan the top of the crates for any sign of Stalos, or any other vampire that might be lurking up there.

We came to the end of the row and saw two shadows cast against the wall, those they belonged to obscured behind a stack of boxes a little ahead of us. We cautiously rounded it to find Alfred facing Stalos, who was clutching his chest. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out he was already wounded. I frowned, and raised my crossbow, figuring I could take him out at the knee if I was lucky and give Alfred an opening. I couldn't help wanting to hesitate this time. Stalos had been a pretty good friend of mine. It really was hard to have to see him like this; to have to know he really was a vampire. I didn't hesitate, but it didn't make its mark. Stal jumped out of the way and glared at me.

“Oh, come on already. It's late, some of us actually do celebrate Christmas, and I'd like to go home and have visions of sugarplums dance in my head!” I shouted at him in frustration.

Alfred laughed as he shook his head.

“Of course you'd think that was funny. I'm serious,” I complained.

“You'll get your Christmas, lass. He's not got much left in him, and the rest of them are pretty well done by this point,” Alfred said with a laugh. “She's right, Stalos. We could get this over with and be done with it.”

“I'm not going to lie down and die to the likes of you,” Stalos spat.

“A pity,” Alfred said.

He took a swing at Stalos' head, and Stalos easily dodged, but it was clear it was a farce. He was toying with him just long enough to get him to let down his guard, the way I had with Liou earlier. I reloaded and took another shot. Stalos jumped out of the way, but took a fairly serious slash to his right leg from Alfred's blade.

“You can't do this all night,” I pointed out as I reloaded again. “We probably can, but you, not so much. And, even if you could, what would be the point? When the sun comes up, you're pretty much going to be dead.”

He snarled at me, his face blistered from the garlic and his eyes glowing red. It was better that way, I decided. He didn't really look like Stalos in that state. I didn't like that they had my friend's faces. His distortion made it easier to keep fighting. Icon had stood there silently that whole time and I glanced over my shoulder at him.

“No puns for us?” I asked.

“I'm trying to think up a really good one,” he told me.

“It better be a really good one after everything you've put us through since this began,” I snarked back.

“Coaster made an A positive joke already, didn't he?”

“He did,” I replied.

“That Coaster, he sucked,” Icon said with an expression of contempt.

“Really? That was the best you could come up with?” I groaned.

“It's been a couple of weeks. I've used up most of my stock already. I hate to admit it, but even I run out. This situation really is like vampires; it really bites.”

This time I did facepalm, and then I fired another bolt at Stalos, sinking it into his left shoulder. He still managed to leap away from Alfred's sword. I couldn't help marveling. It was no wonder Stal was the leader. He had put up the best fight so far, and we hadn't even seen what had gone down between him and Alfred while we had been busy with Zylaa and Terra. There was no way out for him now, no real way he could win, but he just wouldn't give up.

With his left arm now dangling uselessly at his side, I saw an opening. His heart was exposed again. It already had a stake in it, but I remembered how continuing to pound on the stake had hurt Coaster more than a blow anywhere else had. I fired at that spot and hit, sinking a second stake into his chest. His knees buckled, his arms spasmed, and he let out a scream of pain, but ever defiant, he kept his feet. Alfred wasted no time putting an end to the vampire. Stalos' last expression was defiant and full of contempt. Then, he was simply a pile of dust of the floor like everyone else.

Alfred straightened up and put his sword away, looking down at the pile of dust. “So much lost. At least, it cannot spread from here now. Come, let's find the others and see how their efforts at routing out the last of the other vampires has gone.”

I looked back over my shoulder at the pile of dust that was all the remained as we walked away. I wondered how we were going to spin all the missing people. So many people would just vanish from the Forum, and there would be few answers to give. The elation I had expected to feel with the destruction of the vampires was not coming. There was only a dull ache in my heart. A reminder that there was a season to all things; a time to laugh, a time to mourn...

Epilogue

SPOILER: Click to show

It was Christmas Day. I checked my phone and found that it was well over an hour into the morning of Christmas Day. I felt a weary smile on my lips at that realization. It was a good Christmas present, all things considered, the best I'd probably ever received, the knowledge that no one else would die.

We made our way back to the others, and they met us halfway. For the first time since it had actually been inflicted, I was aware of the pain from the wound on my shoulder. I looked over at it, the shirt was ruined, but the wounds weren't deep. I might even get away without a noticeable scar if I was lucky. The others were in similar or better states. Cassie was favoring her left leg, she told me she twisted it while jumping back to avoid a vampire she had missed. Carrie and Shinko had taken care of the vampire before it had actually hurt her.

Both Shinko and Celestial had torn sleeves, revealing cuts I knew were made by nails. I winced, wondering if Celestial had her wounds from the tree lot fight torn open again. They had mostly healed up, but that would be an unpleasant experience if she had.

Carrie's wound was perhaps the most minor, but it looked worst. Her face around the goggles and mask was coated with thick, tacky dust, and she had a bloodstained gauze bandage wrapped around her forehead. She had been cut along the forehead by a bit of shrapnel from the explosion, a purely superficial cut that had refused to stop bleeding merely because it was a head wound. Icon had immediately bound it up to keep the blood from being too much of a distraction, but it had bled enough to flow down her face, resulting in the sticky mess her face currently was.

Icon was the only one who had come out of the battle without any injuries a hot bath and a good long rest wouldn't cure. If Alfred had been hurt in any way, he didn't volunteer the information, and when I asked he just waved me off with what I knew would have been a smile if his face wasn't covered by a mask.

We did another two scans of the basement to be sure that we had gotten all of the vampires and then left to return the the main floor of the archives. Dan, Pixie, and Tiger looked so relived to see us. They had, of course, felt the explosion, but had kept upstairs like they were told to, which was a good thing given all of the dust that was hanging in the air down there. They would have been sitting ducks the moment they entered the basement had they done that. They bandaged our wounds right there while we told them what had gone down that night.

Alfred had sealed the tunnel after we were done with our final scan. If any vampires had remained underground, there was no way they would dig out of there before they simply expired from lack of energy. He did warn us that they wouldn't die; they would simply go into a state of hibernation that they could not awaken from on their own. If anyone were to ever open those tunnels for any reason, we'd have to go down and hunt for any hibernating vampires to make sure no one could wake them up and start an infestation again.

Dan insisted that we come to his house for a celebratory cup of whatever we liked, hot chocolate, eggnog, whatever other festive drinks he had. After what we had just gone through, we all knew we weren't sleeping that night, so we all went. I kind of wanted to go to the hospital to see Ian, but Alfred assured me that could wait until proper visiting hours. He would take a few days to get back his strength, but his recovery would be swift. It would look something like a Christmas miracle.

The party was a lively one, for that moment we just reveled in the fact that the nightmare was over. In a day or two, we'd probably have to return to our normal lives and deal with the toll of the outbreak, but for that moment, we just let ourselves be grateful it was over.

I noticed Alfred sneaking out after only an hour. I followed him out, but he was already out of sight. I had a feeling I knew what he was up to, so I grabbed my coat and pulled it on as I began my long trek to the Forum Gates. I jogged most of the way to keep warm, and to make sure I beat him there. He'd have to take the time of clearing out his stuff and collecting his dogs, but I knew Alfred pretty well by that point. He was efficient, and if wasn't quick, he'd be gone.

I reached the gates and waited, and it was not a long wait. Within twenty minutes, I heard the familiar sound of a dog sled coming along. Alfred gave the order to halt when he saw me; his dogs obeyed, standing or sitting in the snow, looking excited to be out again. He got off his sled and walked over.

“Really? The leaving town without a goodbye cliché? Really?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Not to worry; I'll be back within the week. I'm simply making myself scarce so if any vampires remain they will be more likely to flee the town. I'll pick them off as they go. You tell your friends to stay vigilant. There is always the possibility that one or two were not underground and were laying low until the others got free. If those vampires exist, they will be on the move now, trying to escape to a place where there are no resident slayers. We'll all have a proper goodbye when I'm sure this is over for good,” he explained.

“You couldn't have told us that before trying to slip out?” I asked, annoyed with him.

“Then I couldn't pull the leaving town without saying goodbye cliché, could I?” he said with a smirk. “I rather like the idea of riding out of town without a word, leaving you all to wonder, 'who was that maskless stranger?'”

“You suck,” I told him.

“Not literally, I hope,” he replied.

“I need to find a new way to express that sentiment,” I said, clicking my tongue against my teeth. “You promise you'll be back for a proper goodbye and I don't have to try to drag your sorry self back to Dan's to actually say goodbye?”

“I promise. I also promise to come back in the summer and take you up on your offer to show me the Forum when it is vampire free and glorious. Also, you have my cell phone number. It isn't going to change, so you can call me up to harangue me if I don't show up on time,” he pointed out.

“I will, so you better,” I said, hoping I looked properly threatening. “I might have even had a Christmas present stored away for you.”

He just laughed and shook his head at me. He got back on his sled and I stepped out from in front of the gates.

“Merry Christmas, Alfred!” I called.

“Merry Christmas, lass. Have a good one,” Alfred called and then gave the order for his dogs to start.

I stood there and watched as he rode out the way he had come in twenty-five days earlier. Had it really only been twenty-five days? It had felt like a year. I sighed, glad it was over, sorry to see Alfred go, even if he would be back soon. In the distance, I could still hear him. He was singing again.

What fun it is to ride and sing a slaying song tonight...

And now, a special Christmas bonus: a sneak peek of the prequel:

Prelude to a Slaying Song

SPOILER: Click to show

There was a knock on my door and I rose, slipping my feet into my sandals before I made my way towards the front door. It was now July 1st, and summer was well underway. I was having a lazy day, having taken the day off simply because it was supposed to be a glorious summer day.

All the traces of the great winter had melted away earlier in the year and the spring and summer had been mild and normal. Still, it was impossible to fully erase that winter. The Anemia Epidemic remained clearly in everyone's collective consciousness.

The real cause of the Anemia Epidemic hadn't been some horrible unknown virus we hadn't been able to identify and treat that had miraculously cleared up on its own, but a supernatural plague, an infestation.

Vampires.

In the wake of the vampire infestation, over a hundred of the residents of the NTWF had been lost to the hellion scourge. In the end, we'd managed to destroy all the vampires and told the rest of the Forum that the missing were victims of the Anemia Epidemic. They had not sought help and had died in their homes. A massive closed casket funeral had ensued as we laid to rest all those who had been lost, the caskets empty, their bodies nothing more than dust lost in the wind.

I had lost so many friends in the end, and, for a while, I had been crushed under that realization. It had been a dark winter in so many ways. Still, there was a time for all things. My time of mourning had ended and spring had come in more ways than one. We all found ways to carry on, even Tiger and Ian, who had to live with the horror of having been aware of being victims of the vampires. The lost were still always on my mind, but it I was moving on and living my life. We hadn't let the vampires kill us physically; we weren't about to let them kill us emotionally or mentally either.

I made it to the door and opened it to see a wholly unexpected but welcome face. I couldn't help throwing my arms around his shoulders as I squealed with glee. Judging by the way he lifted me off the ground in a hug, I'm guessing he wasn't unhappy to see me either.

“Alfred!” I cried as he set me back on the ground. “Not that I'm not thrilled to see you, but what are you doing here? You didn't tell me you were coming. Come inside, please!”

Alfred walked in, grinning at me. “I wanted to surprise you all.”

“You and your surprises,” I said with a disapproving shake of my head, not able to banish the smile from my face. “Then, I suppose you're here for your promised summer vacation?”

“I am. An entire month, from July 1st to August 1st when I'll have to return to the daily grind of vampire slaying,” he told me.

“I'm gonna call everyone and tell them to come over, but not why. It'll be fun,” I said with a grin. “Can I get you something to drink? I just made some homemade lemonade.”

“That sounds delicious,” he said as he followed me into the kitchen.

I made a series of calls, telling my fellow slayers to come over when they had time in the day, not letting on that I was calling the others, or why I wanted to see them. Carrie pointed out that last time I'd called her with that exact request, I'd roped her into slaying vampires. I pointed out that with that as her previous experience, she couldn't risk not coming over, and then hung up before she could press me.

“You two are getting on as well as ever,” Alfred laughed.

“Well, we are still the same people, even with vampire slaying now being something we can put on our resumes. We're as good friends as ever; better even, I suppose. There is a special bond between all of us now, coming through that alive and knowing we have to stay alert and ready in case they ever come back. I assume you still talk to everyone?” I asked.

“Some of you more than others. You're a chatter box compared to some of them,” he said, taking a sip of his lemonade.

“You slay demons for a living, for crying out loud! Of course I check in on you often. It worries me when you go a while without responding,” I protested.

“I'm not saying I dislike it. It is pleasant to know there are people out there who would be genuinely sorry that I was dead, and not simply because they'd be down a top-notch slayer,” Alfred said with a grin.

“You just love messing with my head. Honestly, I don't even know why I like you,” I complained, but I was laughing. Honestly, I think I would have been sorry if he came back not the same person who went away. There was something in his ability to be humorous, despite the grim life he led, that made him so likable, even when he was frustrating me by messing with me in that way.

“Probably my eccentric hodgepodge of an accent. Or maybe it was the dogs,” he said. “I've not got the dogs with me this time around.”

“The motorcycle then?” I asked. “I didn't hear a motorcycle.”

“That's because I use a muffler, my dear. It's not exactly wise to announce your presence with a screaming vehicle when you're trying to move through a town without drawing too much attention to yourself. Also, people who don't use mufflers are simply obnoxious.”

“They are,” I agreed. “Did you check in somewhere already?”

“I have checked in with your registration, as per Carrie's orders last time around, and I have rented a flat to stay for the summer. I'm all settled and ready to enjoy your Forum. I hope it is as good as advertised.”

“It is,” I assured him. “You're gonna have a great, vampire-free time here.”

“I look forward to it,” he said with a smile. “It is too lovely a day to sit inside. Why don't we go outside while we wait for our friends to show up?”

I picked up my glass of lemonade and took the pitcher out of the fridge and followed him to the front door. He held it open for me while I passed through. My front yard was small as I owned an apartment rather than a house, but there was some lawn and of course that accursed walk I had to shovel all winter long leading from my door to the sidewalk. I had a small table and chairs out there, nothing fancy, but durable and good for sitting at during the nicer months. I placed the cup and pitcher on the table and went back inside to get a sun umbrella that I set up to shade us.

“Afraid of the sun?” he said teasingly.

“I have something in common with the vampires after all; we both burn in the sun,” I said as I gestured to myself with a wave of my hand. “I'm almost as pale as you can get naturally.”

He just chuckled and nodded. We talked about our lives since we had parted back in January. I had last seen him on January 2nd. He had returned on New Years Eve to tell us all was clear and then left two days later, after staying for the mass funeral for all the victims of the vampire outbreak. He'd been two or three more places, dealing with outbreaks that were caught much sooner than ours had been. They had been so low in number, and in places less remote than the NTWF, so he hadn't needed to recruit anyone there. I'd returned to being a journalist full time, covering minor stories, but with a rather grim 'in-depth' story on the Anemia Epidemic that left out the truth of the matter, covering only what I would have known had I been an outsider in the whole affair. When we ran out of things to talk about on that topic, I brought up another.

“So, when I asked last winter, you told me it was a story for another time. Is it another time yet?” I asked.

“You're going to have to be less cryptic, lass,” he replied, looking at me curiously.

“I meant about how you got started as a slayer. You told me that you chose it, not got pushed into it the way we did,” I reminded him.

“Ah, yes, that,” Alfred said, nodding as he remembered that conversation. “Well, it is another time, and I suppose I've nothing better to tell you at the moment.”

“You don't have to if you don't want to,” I told him, not wanting to push him if he didn't want to share the story.

“No, it's fine, Kristy. It was a long time ago, when I was a younger man...”

[Kristykimmy]

Chapter 2 is up.

[Mostly Harmless (flufflepuff)]

SPOILER: Click to show

ZOMBEEEEEEHS

8D

[Kristykimmy]

Chapter 3 is up.

[Coaster]

SPOILER: Click to show

ZOMBEEEEEEHS *shot w/ silver bullet*

I cannot wait to watch myself instill further chaos and panic in this town especially since the townsfolk are neglecting such a common undead trope 8D

[Kristykimmy]

Chapter 4 is up.

[Thorn]

HOLY SHOOT I ONLY JUST NOTICED CHAPTER TWO WAS HERE, EVEN.
I'd been looking for new posts, not updates to old, derp. xD

*goes to read*

EDIT:

SPOILER: Click to show

ZOMBEEEEEHHHS.
Enjoyed that part. xD

Also I liek necromancers, you mean not-necromancer liking person!
And alsoalso oh my goodness, you named your vampire hunter "Giles". Awesome! xD

[Kristykimmy]

Chapter 5 is up.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Now, I wonder if those gloves will play a certain role. One way to find out, and that's to wait for the next chapter.

[Kristykimmy]

Chapter 6 is up.

[Kristykimmy]

Chapter 7 is up.

[Shinko]

Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice once put it.

= D I'm looking forward to seeing where things go from here.

[Thorn]

Argh I love it! xD
Can't wait to see what happens next! Suppose I'll have to, but you get the point.
Descriptions of olde timey cold weather gear awww yissss, I love snow stories. That's slightly off the topic of vampires, but eh. We don't get much snow here and certainly don't have cool cloaks and stuff. xP

[Avery]

Omg you steal'd mah OC Carey even tho i totally posted dat you should pls nott steal, wuat!11oneeleven