We stopped by the house to get my sword. Much easier to hide such a thing when it was cold enough (barely) to wear a long coat.

I definitely wanted to get Loki to teach me how to hide a sword. I was sure he could do it. Even Thruor might be able to. Or, heck, Thruor’s steed, although I’d seen no evidence that she could talk.

For now, I tucked it under my coat, and handed Seb a wooden stake. He had that and the holy water.

Two vampires? I could take them without him, but he needed to get his confidence back. And not get bitten again. I was definitely not going to let him get bitten again. That had to hurt, I thought.

We had to take a bus to the park he was talking about. I didn’t like that. I was armed and if the transit police spotted it, they’d arrest me for sure. And I couldn’t edit their memories the way the ravens could. Well, Munin could anyway. I was now sure that was Munin. Memory.

Lacking that, I had to be careful not to get arrested in the first place. I also didn’t want Seb getting hauled in.

Maybe Mike could get us out, I thought. Maybe I should have…nah. We didn’t need him. We could take these vampires.

A small neighborhood park, the kind of place that fell between blocks, between houses. It was likely nobody outside the development even knew it existed – except the county employees who mowed the grass, and who rather needed to mow it again, from the look of it. Especially around the culvert that ducked under a street at what I thought was the north end.

Maybe the vampires were scaring them off. “In there?”

“They may not be in there right now,” Seb pointed out. “It’s pretty dark.”

Meaning they might be awake and prowling people’s yards. I headed for the culvert nonetheless, and smelled a scent I recognized.

Vampire. Seb hadn’t lied to me. They didn’t quite smell of rotting corpse, but I remembered this oddly sweet scent from the last vampire den.

It was not as strong here. I looked into the culvert and saw that they had rough rags for sleeping. “You’re right. They’re not here. Hrm. Up for an all nighter?”

“A stake out, you mean? I could…”

“Easier for me than you, so if you aren’t up for it say.” I’d found that all nighters were easier for me now. I had more stamina.

You just have to know you can do it. Maybe gods needed to believe in themselves, although I still shied away from the idea that I was one. But maybe everyone needed to believe in themselves.

Seb certainly did right now.

“Alright,” he said. I looked around, then indicated the bushes above the culvert.

“They might smell us.”

I thought about that. “They won’t,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. It would probably help if Seb believed in me, too.