Brought in, how?

  Who knows the ways of wizards? The guy was particularly skilled. Probably had the ability to teleport.

  Then why not teleport all these vamps?

  Because maybe he wasn’t that good. Not everyone can teleport like you do, ma. Wait, yeah... that Minecraft guy. For all his bravado, he’s really a chicken. Doesn’t like confrontation. It’s why he brought in so many backup vamps. And why he waited for the wizard to fully trap the Sasquatches before he made his entrance. The blood sacrifice thing with Terrance, it’s looking like to me, was both necessary and done for dramatic effect.

  He killed a guy for dramatic effect?

  Partially, yeah.

  Well, screw him.

  You said it, not me.

  You said there were other forest creatures nearby? What kind of forest creatures?

  Hmm. Fairies, but they are gone now. Wait. There is a woodland elf not very far away. She’s watching us, wanting to help her Sasquatch friends, but unsure what to do.

  Is she a fighter?

  She can be.

  Call her over. The more the merrier. Quite frankly, we can use all the help we can get.

  Will do. Hold on...

  As she speaks to the woodland elf, the vampires form a half circle around the two Sasquatches. The second one—the one named Sentinel—is now fully sitting up, blinking hard, getting his bearings. Wow, we could really use him if this goes down in a fight.

  Okay, ma. She’s ready to fight. And get this...

  What?

  She and the comatose Sasquatch have a sort of thing for each other.

  Shut up!

  No, seriously. It’s, um, frowned upon by both tribes and/or cultures. But they have been in contact with each other for decades... and have grown very, ah, found of each other.

  But he’s so huge!

  Mom! I’m not talking sex. The impression I got from her is that they care for each other deeply. It’s love, in its own way, though not physical.

  Okay, wow. I can see why she stuck around then.

  Meanwhile, the vamps are all looking at each other, waiting perhaps for a signal from Meinecroft. The German vampire seems a little on edge, a little unsure of himself. His wizard has just been killed in front of his face. And he sees my black wings... speaking of which.

  Allie, you there? I ask, reaching out to her telepathically.

  I’m here.

  How ya feeling?

  Tired. But not so tired as not to shove it up these guys’ assholes.

  Shove what up their assholes, exactly? Never mind. Say, um, do you have a cleaning trick that can remove the gunk from my wings?

  Hmm. Maybe. Hang on.

  A moment later, Allison runs her hands along my wings, actually touching them. Pretty sure no one has ever touched my wings before, and I’m surprised to discover they’re oddly ticklish.

  Stop moving, Sam.

  “Sorry,” I say, and giggle.

  She shakes her head and a moment later, without the weight of the goop weighing them down, my wings spring up naturally.

  “Thank you,” I say, giving them a test flap or two.

  Allie’s down to 30%, ma, says Tammy in my head.

  Dang. Okay, I’ll keep an eye on her until she’s fully recovered.

  Just as I think that, an utterly beautiful, tan-skinned, nearly naked woman steps out from behind a tree, looks at us. She seems to be waiting for the okay. I nod, and she bounds along the forest trail with ease and speed. She stops next to us, nodding in return. Kingsley stares at her... doing all he can not to stare at her near nakedness. Good man.

  “I am Eloa,” she says in English.

  I don’t question how she knows English. Tammy’s own elven boyfriend, Kai, had learned a number of human languages at a young age. Apparently, learning multiple languages isn’t a problem for elves and sprites of the world. Fairies, not so much. I couldn’t understand a peep from Queen Maple.

  Mom, focus!

  Right, sorry.

  “Samantha,” I say. “And this is Kingsley and Allison. My daughter is Tammy. She’s the one you’re hearing in your head.”

  “An honor. Now, do we fight?”

  I note her long bow and a quiver on her back jam-packed with equally long arrows. An archer wood sprite, a witch at 30%. A werewolf at close to 100%, and a Sasquatch at, what, 25%? And little ol’ me.

  All against seven old-school vamps with a few tricks up their sleeves.

  I like our chances.

  “Yes,” I say. “Let’s fight.”

  Chapter Thirty-one

  “Last chance, to leave in peace,” I say.

  Sure, they killed Terrance and need to be punished for that; however, that goes beyond my job current description. First off, no vampire is going to be tried in any mortal court—or kept in any mortal jail. A vampire could just mind control his way out, literally break out, or just shift into one of the many creatures we’re known to shift into. Granted, my creature happens to be a giant, snub-nosed dragon. Dracula—yes, the Dracula—can turn into mist and mice... and also a dragon.

  And many of us can just teleport our asses out of there, too—and that’s if we allow ourselves to get caught and stand trial, which just isn’t going to happen.

  No, the best I can hope for is for these guys to turn around and go back from whence they came... likely somewhere in Europe. Their portal, I see, is still open. Maybe when all of this is said and done, I’ll look up Wally at the burn unit in New York and give him a hot tip on a coven of European vampires.

  Unless, of course, we take care of them now.

  You’re scaring me, ma.

  I’m scaring me, too, but they have it coming. You might want to look away, kiddo.

  For now, I give them this one last chance, and wait for him to process my offer. It doesn’t take long. Like a true bully, he looks around at his back ups for approval before answering. When he gets the go ahead collective nod, he looks back at me... and smiles.

  “I think not, Samantha Moon. Yes, I know who you are. I approved all of Terrance’s hires. Thought you were just a private eye Terrance hired to help us zero in on our Bigfoot. I see you are so much more... and you brought friends. Speaking of which, who the hell is she?” He points at Eloa.

  “Your death!” she screams and knocks an arrow and points it at him.

  “Any chance those are silver-tipped arrows?” I ask her.

  “Of course,” she grunts from behind her drawn bowstring. “We shoot to kill.”

  I nod, impressed... and a little terrified. “What she said.”

  Pretty sure all the vamps heard is she’s armed with silver-tipped arrows. Now, let’s just hope her aim is true and she’s truly on our side.

  She is, ma. She knows you are trying to save Warpath.

  Warpath?

  He’s the comatose Bigfoot.

  Where are you, by the way?

  Where Allison left me. Look up and to your right. In the trees.

  I do, and she gives me a small wave through the dense layer of leaves. I quickly look away. Not wanting to give my mortal daughter’s hiding spot away to a horde of bloodthirsty vampires.

  And don’t worry, I won’t fall out. It’s a big branch.

  Good.

  Mom, look out!

  My inner alarm is already pinging loud and clear—and I’m already ducking. A dagger—not quite as big as a Bowie knife, zings past me... exactly where my head had been. The knife lands with a thud in the dirt nearby, and I look for the vamp who threw it.

  Racing toward me is a well-dressed, fairly good-looking blond vampire with blue eyes. Clearly faster than any human, he’s not particularly fast when it comes to immortals. Though brandishing another knife (silver tipped?), it’s no match for the black blade of the Devil Killer.

  Don’t bring a knife to a sword fight, dumbass.

  He ducks under my sword, slides on his knees that ruins his Armani suit, pops up to his feet and slashes behind him. Except I’ve seen the move a mile away. Hell, it might have even been in some of the Underworld movies. This is like from day one of my training with the vampire swordsman, Sebastian.

  I parry the small blade, then slash upward so fast that he doesn’t have time to move his arm away. Instead, said arm, flops to the ground, cut clean through at the elbow. Blond, blue-eyed vampire stares at his stump in disbelief—then screams, snatches up his dismembered arm, and runs off like a child who dropped his ice cream... all the way through the still-open portal.

  Guess he doesn’t want to play anymore.

  I turn and watch Kingsley manhandle another well-dressed vampire, throwing the guy so hard against the trunk of a pine that the whole hundred foot tree shakes. Kingsley rushes over and, despite not being at full power, promptly twists the guy’s head off and throws it to the side without a second thought.

  My boyfriend, folks.

  Another of the GQ vampires is stumbling around, trying to pull an arrow out from the center of his head. But it’s silver-tipped, and the guy is losing his strength quickly... and he doesn’t have to worry about it anymore. Another arrow nails him in the chest, likely through the heart. Arms to the side, he falls backward like an oak tree.

  Allison is sending out muted blasts of raw, invisible energy. Seems to be all she can muster. Still, it’s enough to slam various vamps into this tree or that. Most end up with broken arms and legs... and neck and backs. All eventually crawl or run back to the still-open portal.

  I’m getting the impression these vamps are in it for the fashion, the money, the status of just being a vampire. The actual fighting, not so much. Pretty sure none of them know what they are doing, though my guy does know his way around a knife fight. When push comes to shove... they want their Sasquatch incapacitated and easy to feast on. Maybe even already dead.

  I thought you said these guys had some tricks up their sleeves, I say to Tammy.

  Hey, I can only report what I read, ma. They thought they had some tricks up their sleeves. Like, they really thought they were the cat’s meow. It’s like what Mike Tyson says, ‘everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.’ I think it’s safe to say you punched them collectively in the mouth.

  Well, one’s left.

  Their leader, of course. Meinecroft.

  He’s going to make a break for it, ma.

  I spot him standing in the clearing, watching as the last of his backup dancers, er fighters, dash through the portal opening. I think I see castle walls beyond. Of course, they live in a castle. Why wouldn’t they? The full vampire experience.

  I summon the single flame, focus on the spot behind him, and appear there a blink later. I drive the Devil Killer through his back and out the front, purposely missing his spine and heart. I don’t want to sever it or kill him. I want him to remain standing and alive. For now.

  “Why a Sasquatch?” I ask.

  His scream turns into gurgling panting. “Are... you... going to... kill me?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Please... please don’t.”

  “You killed Terrance in some stupid blood sacrifice.”

  “It was... the only way... to get us all here... and to keep... the portal open.”

  “Because you all planned on feasting on a Bigfoot.”

  He says nothing, so I twist the handle of my blade. Smoke rises from both the entry point in the back and exit point in the front. “Better for you to keep talking.”

  “Yes... its blood is said to be... magical... powerful... life giving.”

  “But you have eternal life.”

  He shakes his head—and winces in pain. “Not that... no, I could... create life.”

  He points down to his nether regions, which, by the way, the sword has just missed. He wiggles on the Devil Killer, like a living shish-kabob. “I would be... virile again.”

  “You mean, you could...”

  “Yes... father a child. Vampires, as you surely know... are both barren and sterile. The blood of the beast... reverses that. Or so the wizard told me.”

  He’s telling you the truth, ma, though I can’t validate the claim of the wizard. Meinecroft here certainly believes it.

  “All this because you want... kids?” I ask, perplexed.

  “I’ve... I’ve always wanted them. For centuries now. It was the greatest of travesties to be denied fatherhood.”

  “You killed a good man,” I say, motioning to the corpse that was our expedition leader. “I can’t let you go.”

  Meinecroft tries to laugh, but gasps and coughs instead. “Please... it hurts.”

  “I know. Why are you laughing? Or trying to laugh?”

  “Terrance was not a good man, Ms. Moon. He wanted to be one of us. He did our bidding.”

  “Why didn’t you make him one of you?”

  “Quite frankly, he proved to be too cruel. We are gentleman vampires. We saw a way to be rid of him and get what we wanted, too.”

  He’s telling the truth, ma. Terrance straight up killed people; well, according to what I’m seeing in this guy’s memory.

  I absorb all of this, process it. “You did all this... to hunt a Bigfoot.”

  “Yes... to become virile again.”

  “You ever consider adoption?”

  “I’ve raised many sons and daughters, Ms. Moon. All to watch them grow old and die... and always from a distance.”

  “Ah.” I nod, getting it. “You didn’t tell them what you were.”

  “No. I could not. I’ve gotten so close to doing so many times. But, ultimately, I do not want to burden them with this secret... or invite them into this world of death and blood. I’ve faked my death a number of times, setting them all up with a lifetime of abundance. I watch over them from afar. But I am dead to them. It’s... more than I can handle.”

  “Wouldn’t it be the same if you sired your own child?”

  “Not quite, Samantha Moon... would you mind, terribly, removing the sword?”

  “Oh, right. Sorry.”

  I do so quickly—you always want to remove a sword quickly—and he gasps and falls to his knees, holding his stomach. No, he won’t die of the wound, but it is gonna take a god awful long time to heal. Worse than silver, the Devil Killer.

  After a few moments of catching his breath and no doubt waiting for the pain to subside, which I don’t think it does very much, he rises to a knee, then slowly to his feet, and turns to face me. He looks like death warmed over, which is kind of funny to me. Somehow, he looks even paler, and definitely far weaker.

  “Thank you...”

  “You’re not out of the woods yet,” I say.

  He grins, looks at the woods surrounding us. “No, I’m not.”

  “Keep talking,” I say, pointing the sword at him. “It’s the only thing keeping you alive at the moment. And don’t lie to me. I have my ways.”

  “You have a mind reader among you, I presume.”

  “I do.”

  “Very well. You are a well-equipped unit.”

  Kingsley, who’d long since sidled over, chuckles. “You have no idea.”

  “Go on,” I say to Meinecroft.

  He does so. “A child sired from a vampire will take on the very best of the characteristics of the vampire—and none of the worst.”

  I think of my own son, Anthony. Wow, yeah. He had taken on all of the best with a side order of the Fire Warrior.

  “Such a child would be a superhuman. Powerful, fast, semi-immortal. No need to hunt for blood or fear silver. Nearly indestructible.”

  I’m on board until he gets to this last part.

  Uh oh, ma. This guy’s a bit loony.

  Ya think?

  He wants to sire an army of these kids, or as many needed to take over as much of the world as he wants. And it all begins with Sasquatch blood. We probably shouldn’t let him get his hands on some.

  I’m thinking that, too.

  Kill him, maybe?

  Naw. I shake my head. Not in cold blood. Besides, he’ll feel this wound for a long time to come. No, I have another plan. Something he said got me thinking.

  That we’re a well-equipped unit.

  Yeah, that. I take it you can see the plan forming?

  I can, ma. And I don’t know.

  I don’t know, either, but let’s try it.

  Okay, I’m game. But can someone come get me from out of this tree?

  ***

  The plan involves both of us, and it proves to be trickier than I first thought.

  No surprise there; after all, we’re trying to mind control a vampire.

  When she finds the place in the mind that I access for such control, she reaches a block. She’s not a vampire. She can’t access this entry point; that is, if a vampire can even be mind controlled. I don’t know. I’ve never been inside another vampire’s mind.

  Except my daughter has, and she describes what she’s seeing, and it damn well looks like the point where I access a mortal’s mind. Except, there’s a barrier of some sort. I think it is less that Meinecroft is a vampire and more that Tammy is a mortal, and has no such mind controlling ability.

  We do the next thing. Tammy gives me access to her mind. Opening up enough for me to see what she sees. It’s almost—almost—as if I’m in Meincroft’s mind. But I’m in my daughter’s, who’s looking into Meincroft’s. Weird, definitely. Even weirder is that I’ve never been able to look into my own children’s mind. So this is a first for me.

  Don’t go poking around too much, ma. I have my secrets!

  I need to do more than poke around, sweetie. I need to gain control.

  I know, ma. I give you permission, I trust you.

  And so I do. Accessing Meincroft’s mind through my daughter is something I will not soon forget. Teamwork at its best. I sense my daughter watching me in the shadows as I use her powerful abilities.

  And in the end, the stylish vampire with a need to procreate has forgotten all about this need, about Bigfoot. Even more important, he has no desire ever to hunt a Bigfoot again, fearing for his life and his sanity. That, and he now believes I will be back with the Devil Killer to finish the job.