Vampire Lord 6 Chapter 10

“Oh, shit.” I heard Erika yank her seat belt on and buckle it firmly into place.

“This is going to be fun,” Catherine cackled as she strapped her own seat belt securely across lap.

“It’s going to be something, that’s for sure,” I replied and glanced quickly out of the corner of my eye at Valerie to make sure her seat belt was also locked into place. Catherine and Erika would be fine, and their vamp healing would cover almost any injuries they might get from this reckless idea of ours. I was more worried about the freckled human by my side, and I was incredibly glad she sat up front with me where she’d have the extra protection of the airbags. “Hang on.”

“To what, exactly?” Valerie gasped a little as we started to tip over the edge of the road.

“Damn,” I grumbled under my breath as I felt the tires of the jeep begin to slide almost immediately on the rain-soaked grass.

The hill wasn’t impossibly steep, but the rain still poured heavily from the angry clouds in the sky, and it flowed quickly down the hill in tiny rivers. The grass was overgrown and thick, which only made the hill more slippery.

My instincts told me to keep a foot on the brake to coast as slowly as I could down the hill, but I could feel the tires begin to lock up and skid more dangerously as I pressed the pedal to the floor.

“Shit,” I muttered, and I decided to flutter my foot on the brake like I would’ve done to coast through thick icy slush in New York in the winter.

The jeep bounced roughly over the uneven ground, and it was all I could do to try to maintain even a semi-linear trajectory toward the street below.

“Oh my god,” Erika’s voice shook and bounced with every dip and divit the jeep’s tires landed in.

“Come on, Drac!” Catherine giggled maniacally beside her.

“Shhiiiiit!” My heart slammed against my ribcage, and I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white.

The Jeep continued to skid and slide through the water-logged grass, and it slammed over the uneven terrain of the hill. We bounced so hard in our seats it felt like the kind of potholes that would tear our souls right out of our bodies and drop them behind us on the street like garbage.

I started to turn the jeep to the right and aim toward the state route that lay another hundred and fifty yards in front of us, but the ground rose up awkwardly on our left, and I didn’t see it until it was too late.

“Fuck.” I ground my teeth and clenched at the steering wheel, and then I turned the wheel sharply to the right and let my foot off the brake to allow the jeep as much freedom of movement as possible. I knew if I tried to force the jeep where I wanted it to go on such slick terrain, it would only make things worse.

“Sam?” Erika’s voice was sharp with panic as she gripped onto the driver’s seat headrest.

“Hang on!” I shouted as the left front tire hit the sharp ramp that peaked a good two and a half feet above the rest of our path.

A huge crash of guns and farm tools rang out piercingly in my ears as everything in the back of the jeep toppled suddenly to the right side. It was just enough weight to cause a shift in our balance, and I felt the left side of the jeep begin to tilt precariously into the air.

“Fuck!” I threw as much of my weight against my door in a feeble and ineffective attempt to keep the vehicle on all four of its tires.

The inside of the jeep was a sudden vacuum as the four of us sucked air into our lungs in a collective gasp of shock and terror, and then the jeep tipped past the point of no return.

“Ahhh!” Valerie cried out as she was slammed like a rag doll against her window when the jeep hit the first point of our roll down the hill.

The sickening thump of her skull on the glass tore a hole in my chest. Thankfully, the airbags deployed and caught Valerie before she could slam her face into the dashboard, and I turned helplessly to watch her eyes go vacant as she lost consciousness.

“Fucking fuck!” Catherine screamed.

Erika was silent, but I could hear her teeth clench.

We rolled harshly over and over as we tumbled down the hill like a Hot Wheels car. The windows cracked, and our supplies spilled all through the interior of the jeep as we continued to roll dangerously fast down the rest of the slope.

A flash of white light slammed behind my eyes, and my neck suddenly throbbed as I was bounced between my own airbag and my window. I gasped sharply, and I could feel my brain swim for a moment before my vampire body healed the concussion.

After what felt like an eternity, the car slammed to a shattering stop, and we were all jarred roughly onto our sides one final time as we landed on the pavement of route 62. We had rolled all the way down the hill and ended up with the jeep on its left side, and I could see the wet asphalt glisten beside my face where I pressed against the spider web of cracks that spread across my window.

“Uuurrr,” I groaned as my body quickly healed up all the bumps, bruises, and the last of the whiplash I’d sustained during the thousand degree roll in the jeep.

“Holy shit,” Catherine moaned softly.

“Erika?” I popped my seat belt free and dragged myself up by the edge of my seat to glance back at the girls in the back seat.

“I’m okay,” Erika groaned, and she shook her head lightly as a gash on her forehead sealed itself closed. “What about Val?”

“She hit her head on the first roll,” I answered as I used my pointed canines to tear a hole in the airbag, and then I moved to a crouch to inspect her unconscious body that was suspended by her seat belt above me. I touched her cheek gently, and I breathed a harsh sigh of relief as her breath fanned out over my hand. “She’s alive, but unconscious.”

“Thank goodness,” Erika sighed and tried to right herself in the back seat.

The interior of the jeep was littered with our supplies, and seed packets had been flung everywhere like flecks of white in a shaken up snowglobe.

“Val?” I coaxed the freckled girl awake gently as her eyes started to flutter.

Blood dripped down from a laceration on her temple where she’d slammed into her window, and I spotted a small streak of red on the glass above her. The salty sweet smell filled my nose as the farm vet’s hazel eyes opened briefly before they slid closed again.

“Come on, sweetie.” I patted her freckled cheek gently.

“Uuurrrgg,” Valerie groaned as her eyes opened once more, and she stared hazily around her.

“Val,” I said in a soothing voice. “We’re okay, but the jeep’s on its side.”

“Uuggh.” The dark blonde lifted her hand limply and brought it up to prod lightly at the blood that dripped down her forehead.

“Here, let me help with that,” I cooed, and I raised up into an almost standing position to gently lick the blood from her face and close the split along the edge of her scalp. Then I leaned over, and I punctured her airbag as well to get it out of our way.

“Is she okay?” Catherine asked, and she gripped onto the front passenger seat so she wouldn’t fall on Erika as she unclipped her seat belt.

“Do you think she has a concussion?” Erika asked as she stood on the pile of shattered glass that used to be her window.

“Probably,” I answered and looked deep into Valerie’s unfocused eyes. “I know I got one, but it healed up really fast.”

“Yeah, me, too,” Catherine groaned and massaged her neck. “It sucked for a second, but then it was fine.”

“Mhm.” Erika nodded, and she reached up to lay a hand on Valerie’s freckled face. “Your eyes are really dilated.”

“Ooow,” the dark blonde groaned as her eyes fell shut again.

“Come on, let’s get you out of here.” I looked back at Catherine and Erika where they stood crammed beside each other on the rear driver’s side door of the jeep. “I need one of you to climb out onto the passenger door and the other to unhook her seat belt. Then we can pull her out through the window and see how bad the damage is.”

“Hang on a sec, Sam,” Catherine said, and she gave me a half-hearted smirk before she reached up to roll down the cracked passenger window. Then she grabbed onto the outside of the door and pulled herself through the open window to crouch daintily on the side of the jeep where it faced the angry sky.

“At least the rain finally stopped.” Erika shrugged a little. “Must have been somewhere in the middle of our tumble down the hill.

“Yeah, just like Jack and Jill. Those fucks.” Catherine popped her head back into the window with a sarcastic quirk of her eyebrows. “Somebody’s gotta open this window or I can’t lift Val out.”

“I got it,” I said and stood to reach above Val to roll the window down out of the way. “You okay, honey?”

“Sam?” Valerie finally had some focus in her eyes as she said my name.

“Yeah, it’s me,” I murmured, and my heart leapt with relief in my chest. “We’re gonna get you out of here, just hang on a second.”

“Hey, Sam?” The freckled vet looked into my eyes and furrowed her light brown eyebrows at me. “You’re really handsome.”

“Thanks,” I laughed heartily and took a second to lay a quick kiss on her beautiful lips, and then I turned to Erika in the back seat. “Okay, get ready to unhook her seat belt, I’ll lift her up and then, Catherine, you pull her out.”

“Got it.” Erika nodded and braced her feet as she reached up to the seat belt anchor.

“Ready?” I asked Valerie, and I opened my arms beneath her.

“Uh, yeah.” The dark blonde chewed on her bottom lip and reached out to brace her hands on my shoulders. “I guess so.”

“Okay.” I gave her a quick smile, and then I glanced at Erika and gave the dark-haired girl a single nod.

Erika bit her lip and pressed down on the seat belt latch to release the only thing that held Valerie in place.

“Oh!” The farm vet gasped as she dropped from her suspended location, and she landed abruptly in my arms.

“I gotcha,” I assured Valerie, and I gave her a little squeeze. “Now, I’m going to lift you up, and Catherine will pull you out, okay?”

“Okay.” The dark blonde bit down on her lip again, and she nodded at me.

“Ready Catherine?” I looked up at the auburn-haired girl, who stood with her feet braced on either side of the open passenger window.

“Ready,” she replied as she crouched down, and she reached into the jeep to hook her forearms under Valerie’s shoulders. “Come on, beautiful.”

“Woah,” Valerie gasped softly as Catherine and I lifted her effortlessly out of the jeep and into the chilled night air.

“Erika, can you reach up to climb out?” I glanced over at the shy girl in the back seat.

“Um… no.” The short girl shook her head once as she shrugged her shoulders.

“Alright, gimme a sec, and I’ll help you out.” I jumped and grabbed hold of the passenger side door to pull myself out of the battered jeep.

Catherine had already hopped down to the ground and reached up to help Valerie climb down from the side of the jeep.

“We’re good, Sam,” the auburn-haired girl assured me, and she wrapped an arm comfortingly around Valerie’s shoulders. “Help Erika out. I bet that short peanut of a girl can’t reach by herself.”

“I heard that!” Erika’s muffled voice called from inside the jeep, and I could see her smile as she looked up at me above her.

“Come on,” I chuckled and reached my hands down into the back seat window. The dark-haired girl placed her small hands in mine, and I lifted her gently through the open window and onto the passenger doors.

“Oh, wow,” Erika muttered as she looked around us at the carnage of shattered glass that had been flung from the jeep as we rolled ass over teakettle down nearly two hundred yards of slippery, grassy hillside.

“What a mess,” I agreed as I hopped down from the jeep to join Catherine and Valerie on the wet pavement, and then I held my hands up to help Erika down.

“Well, shit, Sam, none of our options were any better,” Catherine said, and she shrugged at me. “None of us expected the road to wash away, and backtracking to go through Black Betsy was way more likely to get at least one of us killed.”

“Probably all of us,” Erika added.

“You made the right choice.” Valerie nodded.

“So, do you think the jeep’s driveable?” Catherine asked, and she twisted a long strand of auburn hair around her fingers.

“Only one way to find out,” I answered. “Val, take a step back. Let’s see if we can turn it back on its tires at least.”

“Be careful,” the freckled vet said as she stepped back several feet, and then she wrapped her arms around herself.

“Erika, Catherine, help me tip this side down.” I grabbed hold of the jeep’s frame. “And watch your toes.”

“Sure thing.” Erika moved to the front bumper and found a solid hold where she was clear of the front tire.

“Let’s put it down gently if we can,” I instructed the girls as Catherine found a spot by the back end. “And one, two, three.”

We pulled on the frame, and the three of us combined managed to tilt the jeep back to its original position.

“Easy,” I reminded the girls as the four thousand pounds of vehicle shifted into our hands. “Slowly.”

“Ooof,” Catherine huffed as we lowered the jeep as carefully as we could manage back onto its tires.

James’s jeep was definitely worse for wear, but it was back on all fours at least. I took a step back and did a mental tally of the damage.

All four side windows were either cracked or completely shattered. The windshield had a crack that shot clear across the width of the vehicle, and the back windshield was entirely gone. Both sides were dented pretty badly and totally scratched to hell, and I was doubtful the doors would even open, let alone close again. One headlight dangled loosely from its wires, and hunks of mud and grass hung all over the mangled body of the jeep.

“Well shit,” I sighed and propped my hands on my hips.

“I sure hope Uncle James wasn’t too attached to this jeep,” Catherine said, and she kicked her boot lightly against the back wheel.

At least the tires were all still inflated, and the hood seemed more or less okay, so maybe we could still start it up and drive it the rest of the way into town before it totally died on us. Otherwise, we’d have to carry as much as we could by hand and come back for the rest later.

“Let’s see if it starts,” Valerie suggested.

“Any idea where the keys are?” Erika asked, and she searched vaguely around the ground.

“I think they might still be in the ignition,” I answered.

“Oh, that’s probably not going to be good,” Valerie said.

“Why not?” Catherine asked and propped a hand on her hip. “We wouldn't have to search for them, then.”

“Yeah, but if they’re still in the ignition, then the jeep should still be running,” Valerie explained.

“Oh.” Catherine’s hand fell from her hip, and she scowled. “Fuck.”

“Eerr,” I groaned as I looked into the driver’s window, and the keys dangled from their proper place in the ignition. “They’re in here.”

“Oh no,” Erika grumbled with frustration.

“Hang on.” I tugged on the driver’s door, and when it didn’t budge, I pulled harder only to find the door was properly jammed. “Fuck.”

“You could climb back in through here,” Catherine suggested, and she pointed at the open window of the passenger door.

“No, gimme a sec,” I answered and pulled even harder on the driver’s door handle.

“Oh!” Erika gasped loudly as the entire door ripped off in my hand.

“Shit.” I took one look at the hunk of metal in my hand and laid it down on the ground a few feet away. “Well, at least I can get in. Besides, I’ve always wanted to drive a doorless jeep.”

“Does it start, Sam?” Valerie walked around the front of the jeep.

“Let’s see,” I answered and took hold of the key in my right hand. I knew the moment I touched it that it was still in the on position, and my hopes sank rapidly. Nevertheless, I turned the key toward me and cranked it forward anyway.

Nothing.

“Sam?” Erika asked, and her fingers knotted together in front of her full breasts. “Anything?”

“No.” I turned the key one more time just to make sure before I pulled it out and shook my head at the girls. “Nothing, it’s dead.”

“Fuck,” Catherine swore and crossed her arms over her chest with annoyance. “How far is it to the fucking barricade?”

“Not far at all,” Valerie said as she rubbed a hand against her forehead. “Maybe a quarter mile. Besides, Johnny is the best mechanic in the county, I bet he can get the jeep running again in no time at all. He’s single-handedly run his dad’s auto shop for the last decade, everybody takes their cars to him.”

I’d closed the wound in her skin but couldn’t heal the damage beneath, and her injuries had started to show. The farm vet’s right eye was swollen, and a deep shade of purple colored her eyelid and the top of her freckled cheek.

“That’s good,” I replied and touched my hand gently to Valerie’s shoulder. “We’re going to have to carry as much as we can back into town and come back for the rest later.”

“I think we should prioritize the weapons and ammo,” Erika said. “The farm equipment is useless unless we survive Thaddeus and his soldiers.”

“Good point.” I nodded at the dark-haired girl. I gazed at the tops of the trees as the sky started to lighten, and I knew the sun had begun to rise behind the storm clouds that lingered. “Let’s gather up everything we can carry and head back into town. We’re on the right side of town, so at least those fanged assholes in Black Betsy won’t stumble upon our supplies.”

Thankfully, the ammo was mostly still in the back of the jeep. Even if the boxes had ricocheted all around the cargo area, at least they were easy to pile back together into the plastic baskets we’d taken from Spring Hill Rod and Gun. Erika and Catherine slung as many rifles over their shoulders as they could fit and then stuffed two hand guns each into their waistbands. I jammed two more pistols into my belt and slung a few rifles over my shoulder, too.

“I can carry something,” Valerie sighed as she glared at me. “I’m not an invalid. Besides, we need to get as much back now as we can.”

“Alright, here.” I conceded and passed two of the lighter rifles to the freckled blonde.

“Thank you.” Valerie smirked at me and slung one over each of her shoulders, and then she picked up two plastic shopping bags filled with seeds that had managed to stay tied throughout our brain-rattling roll down the hill. “And I can carry these, too, they barely weigh a thing.”

“Okay, fine.” I smirked right back at her as I picked up my crowbar and two of the pitchforks and laid them across the top of two plastic baskets filled to the breaking point with boxes of ammo. Unfortunately, my Louisville slugger had bounced out of the jeep somewhere along the way, and I hadn’t been able to spot it easily in our haste to gather up as many supplies as we could carry.

“I think that’s about our limit,” Erika mumbled from behind an armful of shovels, pickforks, and her axe. “We can come back for the rest later.”

“Or we can send Nat, Lily, Bree, and Neko to come and get it,” Catherine cackled as she juggled her own load of smaller hand tools on top of another basket of ammo, and the two tents which she’d slung onto her wrists.

“Let’s start back,” I said as I began to walk away from the wrecked jeep toward Red House. It had to be nearly seven in the morning by this point, and I knew Natalie would be worried.

“At least it’s not completely dark anymore,” Valerie mused as she fell into step beside me. “I know you guys can see fine in the dark, but I’ve been struggling most of the night.”

“That reminds me,” Erika said as she half jogged to keep her short stride on pace with us. “We need to start thinking about the electricity situation.”

“A lot of people in Red House have generators,” Valerie said.

“I know, and that’s great, but it’s not exactly feasible to keep them running long-term,” Erika pointed out.

“Why not?” Catherine asked as she readjusted her awkward load.

“Well, think about it,” Erika replied. “They run on diesel, right? It’s not like that’s easily accessible any more, and even if we managed to find a way to pull the fuel from the gas station tanks, eventually those will run out, too.”

“And then we’ll be totally assed out,” Catherine concluded and squeezed her eyes shut a second in frustration. “Shit.”

“Exactly.” The dark-haired girl nodded and chewed her lip before she made her point. “We need to be prepared to live totally off-grid.”

“Ew,” Catherine complained.

“Sorry, Princess, but you’re just gonna have to learn to live without your industrial strength hair dryer,” I chuckled and teased the auburn-haired beauty who walked beside me.

“Pfft!” Catherine stuck her tongue out at me, but then she smiled. “I guess I’ll manage to survive.”

“You’ll be fine.” Valerie rolled her eyes and smiled at the long-legged vampire.

“Don’t you dare try to take away my lipstick, though,” Catherine huffed. “I draw the line right there.”

“I think we should try to conserve the fuel and generators as much as possible,” Erika went on. “It would be better to start cutting our reliance down on them and save them for emergencies.”

“That’s a really good point,” I said, and I gave the dark-haired girl a grin.

“Thanks.” Erika smiled shyly.

“We should also try to conserve some fuel for the big tractors,” Valerie added. “We can do a lot of farming by hand, but we’ll want to be able to use the tractors and tillers for prepping our new fields.”

“Hmm, yeah.” I nodded at the dark blonde.

“Once we have the ground tilled and cleared, it will be easy enough to switch to hand tools, but turning grassy areas and unkempt lots into farm land is a fucking nightmare without heavy machinery,” Valerie said. “If worse comes to worse, though, Gary has a bunch of livestock we can use as beasts of burden.”

“I don’t suppose we should ever expect the power plants to come back, then,” Catherine said with absolutely no hope in her voice.

“Uh, that’s really unlikely, no,” I answered. “Even if the plants are still operational, any vamps between us and them would have huge stakes in keeping the lights out.”

“Yeah, it’s a pretty big advantage for you guys,” Valerie said, and she looked around with exaggeration in the dim morning light.

“I’d bet all of the power plants around here have already been actively sabotaged by nearby vampire fiefdoms, so it’s really best if we learn to live with it,” Erika said.

“How medieval.” Catherine smirked.

“Well, it is a fiefdom we’re building here,” Erika chuckled. “Makes sense for it to be a little wild, and a little medieval.”

“Ugh, finally!” Catherine groaned with relief as we came around a bend in the road and spotted the western barricade into town.

“Fuck!” I shouted as a single shot rang out and whizzed past my ear. “Hold your fire!”

“Sam? Is that you?” a familiar voice called out from behind the makeshift wall.

“Yeah, Jason,” I called back to the town surveyor. “It’s us.”

“What happened? Why’re you guys on foot?” Gary asked as he and the young man with sandy brown hair pulled the barricade away to let us into town.

“We had a little, um, car trouble.” I shrugged one shoulder at the barrel-chested man. “But we’re all okay.”

“Well, geez, man,” Gary replied as he looked us up and down. “Looks like you brought back quite a haul at least.”

“This isn’t even everything, but where are Natalie and the other girls?” I asked.

“They were resting up at the church last I checked,” Jason responded, and he pushed his wire rimmed glasses up his nose.

“Good, thanks,” I called back over my shoulder as we headed further into town. “Close up that barricade, guys.”

“Yes, sir!” Gary called out after us and turned to follow my order without another word.

“Come on, let’s get this stuff down to the general store, and then we can go tell Natalie, Lily, Bree, and Neko about what happened.” I picked up my speed a half step.

We strode down the main road and hauled all our guns, ammunition, and farm supplies inside the general store.

“Hey there, Sam,” Celia greeted us with just the slightest glance up from behind the counter where she worked on a CB radio. “How’d it go?”

“Well, that’s complicated,” I answered and set the baskets of ammo on the floor. “This isn’t everything we got, but we had some trouble getting back into town.”

“That storm last night gave you hell, mm?” Celia asked as she bent down over the wires that spilled out of the plastic case of the radio in front of her.

“You could say that,” Catherine grumbled as she let the armful of small hand tools fall off her basket of ammo and clatter to the floor at her feet, and then she set the basket down beside it.

“The river flooded up at the end of McLane again,” Valerie explained like it was an everyday occurrence.

“Ah, yeah, well, that’s West Virginia in October for ya,” the middle-aged woman said.

“There was also a pretty significant mudslide,” Erika added, and she laid her load more gently on the floor beside Catherine’s.

“Well, dang.” Celia’s hand paused in the tangle of wires, and she looked up at us for the first time. “Shit, honey.”

“I’m okay, really,” Valerie said as Celia rushed over to inspect the black eye that had grown rapidly more swollen and purple around the farm vet’s right eye. “Just a little banged up is all.”

“You sure?” Celia demanded in her mother hen sort of way, and she gently patted the dark blonde’s uninjured cheek with her hand.

“Really,” Valerie assured her. “I’m fine.”

“Come on,” I interrupted. “We gotta go find the others and fill them in on everything.”

“You just let me know if I can do anything, Sam,” Celia said, and she wrung her hands as she walked back over to her radio project. “Anything at all.”

“I will, thank you, Celia.” I nodded and gave the woman a smile as we headed back out of the general store and up the street to the church.

“Oh my god, Sam!” Natalie nearly knocked me over in her rush to throw her arms around me when we entered the church a few minutes later. “We were so worried.”

“Fuck, what happened to you guys?” Neko asked as she followed quickly behind my beautiful girlfriend to give me a swift hug.

“Val, your face,” Bree murmured with concern, and she reached a hand out gently to touch the dark blonde’s battered cheek. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Valerie sighed as the other blonde fussed over her.

“Let me have a look at that,” Lily said, and she placed her hands firmly on the freckled girl’s chin to turn her face into the light. “Damn, that’s one hell of a black eye.”

“We got into some trouble on our way back,” Erika explained as she returned Brianna’s firm hug.

“Yeah, mother nature tried to fucking kill us,” Catherine said with her usual sass. “And then Sam nearly finished the job for her.”

“What?” Natalie demanded and stared accusingly at me.

“Relax,” Catherine laughed. “I’m just joking. Sam actually saved all our asses during our off-road rollercoaster.”

“Off… road… rollercoaster,” Nat repeated slowly, and her eyes grew wider and wider with each word.

“Um, technically it was Erika’s idea.” I raised my hands in mock defense and gave my girlfriend an innocent smile. “It doesn’t really matter, though, we’re all okay.”

“I’m pretty sure Val has a concussion,” Lily said as she stared hard into the vet’s hazel eyes. “Your eyes are pretty dilated, and this bruising is really thick. But you look fine otherwise, so just take it easy for a while, and you’ll be fine.”

“Thanks.” Valerie smiled softly at the pretty Latina girl.

“So, what happened?” Natalie asked again as she looked back and forth between Catherine and Erika for answers.

“Long story short?” Catherine shrugged. “The river flooded, there was a mudslide, and then we went off road and wrecked Uncle James’s jeep when we rolled it two hundred yards down a slippery grass slope.”

“Oh my god,” Brianna gasped, and her hands flew up to her mouth.

“What the fuck?” Neko asked, and her dark eyes opened wide beneath her faded-pink hair.

“The bigger problem,” I said in a calm tone. “Is that the jeep wouldn’t start back up, so we still have a lot of supplies about a quarter mile west of the barricade that we need to go back and get.”

“That’s not a huge deal,” Lily said and waved a hand dismissively in the air. “We can help with that.”

“Actually,” Natalie corrected as she chewed her lip a moment, and she squeezed her hand tightly into mine. “We have a bigger problem than any of that.”

“What happened?” I asked, and my senses were on sudden alert. “Tell me.”

“The vamps from Black Betsy sent us a message of their own,” my beautiful girlfriend replied as she pulled the length of her ponytail over her shoulder, and she twisted it around the fingers of her free hand.

“Where is it?” I demanded in a growl. I should have expected this. “Show me.”