“What happened?” It was a balding man who got out of the car, the remnants of his hair closely resembling a tonsure.

“He just ran out into the street.” I tried to get between the two of them, having dropped the sword…hopefully, before the man saw it.

The vampire, of course, was not particularly damaged. It lunged at me. He seemed a reasonable gender now we were much closer. I grabbed it and tried to hold it at arm’s length. “He’s hopped up on something.”

“I’m calling an ambulance.” The man tugged out a cellphone.

Great. I couldn’t get rid of him and if the vampire ended up in an ambulance, it would end up with dead paramedics. Dead and eaten paramedics. But it was all I could do to restrain it.

Knock it out? It would come around quickly. I had to kill it, and I had to do so without letting this guy see anything.

I let it go. It thought better of biting me and then tried to run, limping off. I shot a glance at the man. “I’ll get him to the hospital or home or something.” And then I took off, but being careful not to catch it right away. Hopefully the sword wouldn’t be stolen, confiscated or used to cut something before I got back. Seb was probably following me anyway.

Seb had better be following me. I heard the car start up again behind me, but the man wasn’t sticking around. Now he knew there were drugged crazies involved, he’d decided to clear the area. That was my assumption, anyway.

Nice to know some people around here had sense. He’d probably report it to somebody, but hopefully not in enough detail to be traced to me.

I ran around the corner, and saw a broken picket fence. Snagging part of it to make for a makeshift stake, I lunged towards the injured vampire. He fell under my weight and I thrust the stake through his back into the heart.

He stiffened and went limp. Taken care of, I thought with satisfaction. I hated to leave his already fairly well decomposed form on the sidewalk, but I had no choice. As I jogged back, I saw Seb coming after me with my sword in one hand. He was holding it as if it might turn into a snake at any moment.

“I’ll take that.”

“Did you get him?”

“Yes, but you saw our little problem. Had to be a decent guy, didn’t it.”

“Of course.” Seb made a face. “Let’s not be here when and if the cops show up. Actually…”

“Let’s go swing by Thruor’s place. She doesn’t frown on underage drinking.” I could tell what he wanted.

Heck, it was about what I wanted, and I was definitely having those “old enough to fight” thoughts again. And I knew Thruor would have something.