Chapter Eighteen

Dust Piles

We spend the majority of the day visiting Dad, where he was in and out of consciousness.

He still kept asking for Mom, even though she happened to be right there. Not long before we collectively decide to let Dad rest and go back to the house, my inner alarm begins to ring quietly, giving me this unsettled feeling that something bad is on the wind.

I quietly let Ant and Tammy know to be on guard.

A little after six in the evening, my phone pings with an incoming text. Hoping to find solid answers from Max, I hastily pull it out and check. Not Max, though it’s good news at least. Detective Sherbet lets me know that the Chicago PD found the missing boy safe and alive with his paternal grandparents. Turns out the grandparents had no idea the father wasn’t supposed to have the boy.

Well, at least the kid is safe.

My three brothers want a change of pace, so we end up at the little pizza joint. Soon, we’re back at the house, and I’m still on edge. The feeling of badness hasn’t let up. In fact, it’s getting stronger. Almost feels like a countdown. Mary Lou picks up on me pacing around like a security guard and approaches me while I’m hovering by the living room window, looking outside. “Sam? You seem… agitated.”

“Yeah. Got an off feeling.”

She looks down. “Are you sensing that Dad might not make it through the night?”

“Not quite. More of a danger.” I pull her into the hallway. “Klamath has a vampire problem.”

Mary Lou starts to give me an accusatory look. “Did they follow you or something?”

“Well, not initially, but I think they are now.” I frown. “I killed two of them. One was going to kill Emerson, the other tried to kill me downtown.”

“How much danger are we in, Sam?” whispers Mary Lou.

“Between me, Ant, and Tammy... I would say almost none.”

I let go of the blinds so they wobble back into place. Ugh, these curtains smell like weed.

“And you think they’re going to come after you here?”

“I don’t have exact information, just a warning heads up.”

“Can you handle this?” She squeezes my hand.

“Most likely.”

She nods. “All right. I trust you.”

I motion for Anthony to come over to me, and he does. He gives me this little nod and says. “What’s up?”

“I feel like we’re going to be attacked tonight. Can you cover the kitchen and guard the back door so nothing gets in?”

“On it.” Anthony heads for the kitchen.

Seeing him fast-walk out of the room sends Tammy scooting over to me with an eyebrow raised. “Something up?”

“Yeah. They’re coming tonight.”

“You’re sure?”

I peek outside again. Still nothing, though my inner alarm is pinging steadily. “Well, it’s not like they emailed me to say they’re on the way. But, I’m as sure as I can be without solid evidence.”

“Where do you want me?”

“Stay here in the living room and listen for anything coming in a window somewhere.”

“Where are you going to be?” She tilts her head.

“Front porch.”

She nods. My nervous energy is starting to get noticed by my brothers and Mary Lou’s kids… so I try to act more casual and resume my seat on the couch.

Someone knocks at the front door at the exact moment Dusk happens to be walking back in from a visit to the bathroom. He’s the closest to the door and goes for it. My alarm sense spikes as he reaches for the knob.

“Stop!” I yell and launch myself off the sofa and run for the door.

Of course, he doesn’t listen to me and opens the door. The instant he looks outside, he disappears in a blur as something drags him out of the house while giving off a deep, inhuman growl.

Paxton lets out a scream that could shatter glass.

I hurl myself out the door, chasing the blur of Dusk’s jeans. The vampire who grabbed him throws him off the porch, then leaps down after him. It lands on top of my brother as they crash to the ground. I’ve got maybe two seconds before vampire fangs tear into Dusk’s throat.

The vamp’s elevated groin is a very tempting target… with no time to think, I go for it and sprint straight into a kick with every ounce of my strength. My foot smashes into his manberries so hard I half expect to see them come flying out his nose. The bloodsucker lurches forward off my brother like an undead meat torpedo, hitting the ground on his face maybe ten feet away.

Dusk, flat on his back, stares up at me in absolute shock .

Multiple male voices in the trees groan in sympathy. I toss a quick glance in that direction and pick out eight pairs of eyes. The vamp I kicked is already scrambling back to his feet, growling. He doesn’t look the least bit fazed by having his sensitive bits crushed. Well, damn. I guess they really are dead.

I grab Dusk by two fistfuls of his shirt and pull him to his feet. “Get inside, D. Stay away from windows. I’ll take care of these fuckers.”

A shortish, somewhat pudgy bald guy with deathly gray skin speedwalks out of the woods, heading right for me while sniffing and huffing like some sort of bipedal hunting dog. He gives off a noise somewhere between grunt and the word ‘hiker.’ Uh, oh. I got a feeling they’ve scent tracked me from the farm. That’ll teach me to try being normal and not just fly everywhere.

“Go!” I yell, while giving Dusk a helpful shove toward the house.

He sprints.

Bloodhound guy gets to me before the first vampire (the door knocker), hurling himself at me. It’s not too difficult to sidestep him while leaving my right leg sticking out, so he trips. Alas, there’s no time to counterattack since door knocker dude is jumping at me with his mouth wide open.

Behind me, screams from Ellie Mae, Ruby Grace, and Paxton drown out Mary Lou shouting at everyone to go down the hall. One of the kids is asking, “What’s going on?” over and over, to which my sister simply shouts ‘bear!’

I duck the jumping vampire, avoiding his fangs, but end up getting a face full of his abdomen. Not great, but it beats teeth. The force of him crashing into me knocks me over backward and I land on top of Bloodhound guy with the other vamp on top of me. This is not a great place to be, and not just because his shirt smells like a moldy basement .

The guy on top of me suddenly zooms into the air—and screams. Without hesitation, I take advantage of the opportunity to jump off Bloodhound guy and roll to my feet as an impossibly huge brown bear—that must be Tammy—catches the jumper in her teeth, thrashing him side to side.

An inhuman male scream comes from the other side of the house. Sounded agonized. So glad I asked Anthony to watch the back door. Six more vamps come rushing toward me on the front side of the house.

It goes about as well as I’d expect. Six on one almost always ends up on the ground in a tangled mess. These fiends are a little stronger than me but marginally slower. A mild advantage in speed doesn’t make up for the numbers game, though. Frantic, I elbow and punch as much as I can while trying to ignore the painful rips and tears of vampiric claws and teeth all over my body.

Tammy-Bear chucks her first victim aside and starts nom-noming vampires off the pile, picking them up in her mouth and heaving them across the front yard like some enormous fur-covered crane.

When there are only three left on me, I fight my way into an almost seated position by smashing my fist into a dude’s mouth so hard both of his fangs snap off. The extremely surprised vampire—who resembles a dead version of Shaggy from Scooby Doo , blinks at me once before I grab his head in both hands and give it a neck-wrenching twist. His vertebrae breaks in multiple places with an unsettling crunch. With his head flopping loose on his neck, he loses his balance and falls off me.

Gotta be disorienting to have your head swinging around like that.

“Sorry, Jordan,” I say to him, remembering his face from the poster downtown .

I elbow the guy holding me from behind in the sternum, cracking it… and making my whole left arm and hand numb from the shot to the elbow. I’ll deal. Once his clawed hands slide off my arms, I’m free to jump away and go on the attack.

A wild howling scream of agony makes me look to the side. One of the vampires lays on the ground with a log stuck through him. He’s staring in horror at the six-inch diameter wooden spike sticking up out of his chest. Yeah, the tree isn’t exactly—or wasn’t exactly—big. Someone cut it down a while ago for firewood and hadn’t finished the job.

Dude explodes into a cloud of ash.

What the heck? Staking them actually works? That’s new.

Ooookay. No time to ask questions. If it works, it works.

A blast of bright golden light comes from behind the house in time with another demonic scream. Sounds like Anthony’s got his second kill and I’m only at… zero. My fault for not having the ice blade ready. Didn’t want to freak out the family.

Tammy roars, chasing four vampires around in circles and swatting them as they keep trying to come after me or go to the house. There’s one more coming at me who got away from her. I sprint to the right, heading around the corner of the house… hoping things haven’t changed much since I lived here.

Sure enough, Dad’s rain-collection barrels are still there. Though… they haven’t been cleaned in probably twenty years. I would not want to drink this water. Still… it’s water. I stuff my hand through the top layer of vegetative muck and pump magical energy into the barrel. Tepid water rapidly chills to freezing. The handle of my ice sword hardens in my grip just as the vampire chasing me crashes into me from behind. Water sloshes out of the barrel as he mashes me against it.

He wraps both arms around me and opens his mouth, clearly aiming for my neck. I ram the back of my head into his face. Ugh, it doesn’t do a damn thing about his grip. Ugh. These guys don’t seem to care at all about pain. At least it stopped him momentarily from biting me.

I spin away from the barrel, reaching up over my back with my left hand and grab him by the hair. The instant I have a hold of something, I swing his body around. A moment later, I’m holding his severed head in my hand as his body lands in a heavy heap.

His headless body convulses a few times. He’s ashes before the head can hit the ground.

Next, I haul ass around to the front of the house. Tammy-Bear is playing with her new chew toys, having already mauled the ever loving hell out of them, though none have stopped moving yet. I swoop in and start slicing.

Tammy drags one to the ground, then steps on him with all her weight—which, from the sound of it—has crushed his entire ribcage. He gurgles out a displeased, wheezing roar right before his entire head disappears into her mouth.

“Don’t swallow that!” I yell.

My daughter chomps down, biting the guy’s head off. She swings her head to the side, spitting the decapitated remains out an instant before it explodes into dust.

Two more vamps jump straight over Tammy, launching themselves at me.

I fling myself down, flat to the ground, and let them go right over me, too. As soon as they’re clear, I shove myself upward so hard I end up three feet in the air and almost go over backward. The two vamps land with the grace of a drunken buffalo on roller skates. Left guy eats dirt while the right guy stays more or less on his feet, but is stuck stumbling forward unable to stop himself.

Tammy makes unhappy bear noises while charging at the guy lying on his face. I run after the other one, taking care to step on the prone vampire’s back as I go past him. While I catch up to and decapitate the stumbling fiend, Tammy mauls the other one until he explodes.

I spin around, ready for more… and notice quiet.

We’re alone out here. Tammy looks like a massive raccoon that got into the flour. The fur on her face is covered in pale powder. It’s almost adorable.

Her ears pivot around.

I don’t hear anything other than what is likely Anthony walking around the house to come check on us. My sense of imminent dread is completely gone.

Tammy-bear sits, turns back into her human form and, in a whirl of leaves, dons her leaf dress. She points at me. “Ma, your shirt.”

I look down.

From the waist up, the only things I’m wearing are blood and claw marks. The shirt has been shredded off me. “Oops.”

My jeans have more than a few claw rips and bloodstains on them, too… but they’re a lot tougher than the T-shirt. I can’t even think of what point in the scrap that I lost my shirt. That was… pure chaos. Oh wait. Rain barrel guy.

This might not have ended well for me if I’d been alone. My kids are the best.

I can’t walk back into the house shirtless and covered in blood. I hold up a finger. “One sec.” I summon the single flame and appear in my bedroom back in Fullerton. After a super-fast shower, I don another shirt similar in color to the one I lost, plus another pair of jeans, and teleport back to my parents’ front yard.

By the time I return (which honestly was only about six minutes) Anthony is crouched beside Tammy, studying the mess on the ground… which isn’t all that much of a mess. It’s just dust. An hour or two from now, it’ll be gone with the wind and rain.

“Something is bothering me about this,” Tammy is saying .

“Oh? Just one thing?” I put an arm around her.

She leans into me affectionately. “Those guys didn’t even try to run away. Zero sense of self-preservation. That’s really weird for vampires, isn’t it?”

“Well, who wants to die?”

Anthony shakes his head and says solemnly, “For vamps it’s the Big Sleep.”

I find this hilarious and chuckle. “Okay, Raymond Chandler.”

Tammy’s right, though. Every vampire I’ve ever met takes great pains to protect themselves. It’s an almost universal truism that one’s continued existence is the thing that vampires treasure the most. Which, makes sense. I mean, people who pursue immortality aren’t in a hurry to die. Stands to reason they’d do everything possible to cling to life.

“Yeah. That is definitely strange.”

“So is them exploding into ash piles.” Anthony stands, wiping his hand off on his leg.

“Truth,” says Tammy. “Any idea what’s going on here, Ma?”

I pull out my phone and look at it, hoping to see a text from Max. Alas, he hasn’t replied. “Not yet.”