The vampire nest was in a crumbling townhouse. It looked as if the only thing keeping it from collapsing was the better kept buildings on either side.

“Don’t worry about being bitten. We give them indigestion.”

I laughed a bit. “Got it.” If vampires were actually vulnerable to holy stuff, that made sense. Or maybe…I didn’t want to think about it, but giving a vampire indigestion sounded like a good thing. If the vampire got away and lived (unlived?) long enough to experience it.

That wasn’t in my plans.

Bad hip-hop – the kind where the “lyrics” consisted primarily of curse words and doing horrible things to people’s mothers – blared from the building as we approached. I could vaguely hear other sounds that it was covering. I glanced at Thruor. Should we just charge in?

“I’m going around back. Give me five minutes then kick their door in.”

I nodded. “Got it.” Cover both exits. Get them flanked. “How many are there?”

She held up four fingers then set off towards the alleyway in a surprisingly nonchalant manner.

I knew she didn’t need help with this. Either she was trying to improve my mood or she was giving me a refresher course in dealing with vampires. Or, more likely, both. I watched my watch, then kicked in the door.

My boot hit the hinges end and shattered the wood. In fact, the entire door pretty much crumbled. That image of vampires being all sophisticated that Anne Rice started? Nope. The place stank, and the hip-hop was coming from upstairs. I hoped the noise had covered my entrance, and quickly checked the ground floor. Crap. There was a basement.

Did I turn my back on it? I had to. The kitchen was covered in thick dust and the two other rooms on the ground floor had bedrolls in them. No coffins, but maybe those were in the basement.

Thruor was heading up the stairs. I hesitated, then followed. If there was anything in the basement, I’d just have to keep an eye on it.

Upstairs, the vampires were playing with their food. It was too late to save one of the kids they had, but the other was as yet unmarked. It was her screams the hip-hop had been not quite covering. They had her in handcuffs that had once been the fuzzy kind that you bought in adult stores, but the covering had almost completely worn off. One of them was sort of vaguely…well. It would have been rape, but he seemed to be having problems getting it up.

And Thruor stopped being subtle. She yelled a battle cry and charged. Three of the four leapt towards her.

I stepped around her and reached to grab (fortunately) desire-not-performance guy to throw him into the wall. He was stronger than I thought, though, and grappled with me, pointed teeth inches from my face for a moment. Not just fangs. They were all pointed, as if he’d had them filed down in prison. Then I flung him from me. I didn’t have a key for the handcuffs.

They were rusty enough that I didn’t need one. “Run,” I told the girl. “Out the front door. Don’t stop until you’re in an area with witnesses.”

She made a shrieking sound, but stood and ran, the bracelets still around her wrists.

I turned to the vampires. Now I had something to kill…and I felt a lot better.