The one thing they don’t tell you about stakeouts in cop shows or detective novels…they’re boring. Well, okay, sometimes it’s mentioned in novels, but in cop shows they always cut to the good part.

I was bored very, very quickly indeed, but I couldn’t complain, because I knew if I did, Seb would realize how bored he was.
The vampires didn’t return for a couple of hours. When they did, they had prey. The prey wasn’t struggling that much despite not being marked. Probably drunk.

I wondered if vampires got drunk off of other people’s blood alcohol. It struck me as the kind of thing that might happen. But then, they had no inhibitions to start with. Or sense of refinement, or any lingering humanity.

Either way, I took the time to note that as they dragged the woman to the culvert, then moved at the last possible moment. I was glad the victim was all but senseless. It meant she would stay down as I struck one of the vampires, feet first, knocking him away from her.
Seb was spraying holy water into the face of the other. A good move, I thought, but I wasn’t about to wrestle with the vampire. I was stronger than he was, that I was sure, and the sword was out and in my hand in a moment.

The beast tried to run rather than bite me, and I took its head off from behind with one quick motion. I did wish they turned into dust like in some versions of the legend, but there wasn’t exactly much I could do about that.

Head and body dropped to the ground, stinking of rot, and I spun to stab into the one on Seb. The holy water had slowed it down only for a moment, and now it had him lifted off the ground, making a sort of growling, roaring sound. I say it, because I couldn’t quite tell if it had once been a man or a woman, but now it was neither. It dropped Seb to turn to face the real threat, not even bleeding from the wound.

Some instinct told me that meant it hadn’t fed recently, but this one didn’t go down as easily as the first. Seb was moving to drag the woman clear of the fight. That was totally the smartest thing for him to do. I cut the vampire’s hand off, but it ran, leaving it behind.

I was forced to chase it, so I did. It jumped over the fence at the back of the park, vaulting with its remaining hand. On the other side of the fence was a garden. From inside the house a deep barking came that sounded like a German Shepherd or the like. I was very glad the canine was inside the house. The vampire was running for the narrow gap between that house and the next. Somebody was yelling at the dog to shut up. In a moment, they’d look outside to see what it was barking at.

I ran. The vampire ran slightly faster, hopping over the side gate and running out into the street.

…where it was hit by a car. I stopped on the sidewalk, watching the body get tossed down the street, hoping against hope that the driver was a jerk and wouldn’t stop.

Of course, I got the one person in all of DC who wouldn’t do a hit and run. Of course.