Friday. 7:12 PM

I waited for five minutes before bailing. I was running out of time, and if Ben had left me hanging out to dry, I wasn’t going to let him stop me.

Without a vehicle, my choices were limited, but I’d gotten a little lucky. The repair shop was in the River Market, and I could take the streetcar straight to it. It’d take almost twenty minutes, but it was better than walking. That cut my time until sunset in half. I’m cutting it damned close.

I didn’t have any better ideas. Jogging to the nearest streetcar stop, I got on, taking a handle to keep my balance. It was a straight shot up to the River Market, with a few stops along the way. I kept checking the time, watching minutes slip by as the sun got closer to the horizon.

Dammit, Ben. I didn’t have time for this.

At the last stop, I got off, hurrying towards the cell phone shop. It was two blocks up, and my jogging speed felt frustratingly slow. I wasn’t sure if the daylight was actually getting visibly dimmer, or if I was just imagining it, but I knew time was passing.

The shop’s lights were on. I stepped inside, looking around, finally walking up and hitting the bell.

A teenager who probably worked there about five hours a week came out, nodding at me. “Hey, how can I—”

“I need this fixed,” I said, tossing Andrea’s phone onto the counter. “How much?”

He blinked, looking down at it, turning it over in his hand. “Eh… let me look it up.”

“I’m in a hurry,” I said, checking my phone for the time. A quarter past 7. When was sunset? 7:33?

“Look, we can take it, but we close in like fifteen minutes,” he said, looking at a computer screen as he clicked through a series of menus. “We won’t get it done ‘till the morning. Looks like that’s ninety-two dollars. A hundred and twelve if you want the warranty and protection plan.”

“I’ll give you…” I reached for my wallet, digging out a wad of twenties. “Three hundred bucks if you can fix it right now.”

He stared at the money, then looked up at me. “I… dunno if I’m allowed to do that.”

“Is your boss here? Ask him.”

“Just me, I’m closing tonight,” he said, eyeing the wad of cash. He wanted the money; I was sure of it.

“Can you call your boss and ask?” I suggested. “Or just fix it and meet me on the sidewalk to get your cash. I really need this fixed, like, now.”

Biting his lip, he looked at the money one last time and finally nodded. “Okay, fine. But you’d better leave a five-star review online. Do you want the protection plan for fifteen dollars? It’s got a recovery system if you lose it, and we’ll cover any repairs for up to a year. I’ve got to ask that.”

I checked my dwindling funds. If I did that, I’d have twenty bucks left. “Eh, sure. Yeah.” I passed him the whole bundle, save for the twenty, glancing out the window nervously. “Just be fast.”

He followed my gaze, an eyebrow raised. “Jeez, man. You got the mafia coming after you or something if you don’t get this phone fixed?”

Chuckling nervously, I shook my head. “Can I wait in here?”

“Yeah, I guess. This shouldn’t take super long. What’s your email address?”

I gave it to him, and the kid noted it down. Scooping up the phone, he disappeared to the back room.

I couldn’t see the sun on the horizon, but there were some faint rays of daylight still tinting the sky with bright oranges and deep blues. It had to still be up, just behind the buildings on the horizon.

If the vampire just needed to avoid direct sun, that meant I was vulnerable, but they might not know that. If it had to track me down, it would be prudent to wait until full sunset, so I couldn’t run them into daylight and get away.

In other words, I was banking on the vampire being calculating, prudent, and methodical. Not a feature I usually hoped for my enemies to have.

I wondered how it was going to track me. Smell? Would it follow the line left by my aura? If it was the latter, I could use the last cleansing crystal—

Right. That’s in the truck. Dammit, Ben.

Kennedy had compared the vampire to a bloodhound, so I guessed it was smell.

The shop wasn’t big, but I paced in circles, drumming my temple with a finger, watching the street.

“All good!”

I nearly jumped out of my skin, spinning in response to the teen’s call. “Huh?”

“Uh, your phone’s fixed,” he said, holding it up so I could see the glowing display. “It wasn’t just the screen, the battery got knocked loose and had swelled a bit. I swapped it out for a new battery, no extra charge. And I got the protection app installed. You should really put a password on your device so people can’t go through your shit, though.”

“Thanks,” I said, stepping over and grabbing the phone from him. Do I go through it now, or run?

“Uh, you’re welcome. Thanks for the cash.”

The streetlights had all come on, and the sky was mostly dark. If I stayed put, I’d be asking for trouble.

I would just have to get somewhere crowded. Surely the vampire wouldn’t attack me in the middle of a bar. Then, I could go through the phone, make more plans, maybe do a little research. It’d last me until the bar closed, at least.

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Standing uncertainly, the teen added, “I really need to lock up now, so…”

“Right. Is there a bar around here?”

He gave me that stare that meant I’d asked a stupid question. “We’re in the River Market, bro.”

“Sorry, okay. Where’s the nearest bar?”

“Just up the street, go left out the door. It’s like, two and a half blocks. Can’t miss—”

I was already gone.

The sidewalk was fairly busy, but I did my best to watch for danger anyways, rubbernecking as I followed the directions I’d been given. I wasn’t sure if I could identify the vampire on sight, but it couldn’t hurt to look.

Looking turned out to be a good idea. I spotted her right away.

Six feet tall, skin so pale you’d think she’d never seen the sun before, black hair pulled into a ponytail to stay out of her eyes. She wore all black, carried a black satchel, and her gaze was hard and brittle. If I’d ever seen someone with murderous intent on their face, it was her.

And she was only a block away, walking right towards me.

Don’t assume anything. Maybe she’s just a pedestrian. A really, really angry pedestrian.

Turning the other way, I started walking, trying to go fast enough that she wouldn’t catch up, without making it obvious that I was running.

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw she was still following, staring right at me.

I turned a corner. She turned it behind me. I picked up my pace, and she did the same. She was still closing on me—her legs were simply longer than mine, and the only way I’d be able to get ahead of her fastest walking pace was to break out into a jog.

So, I broke out into a jog.

Behind me, footsteps pounded as she sped up to match and beat my pace. She wasn’t just jogging, she was running. Looking over my shoulder, I saw her in a full sprint, gaining on me at a hopeless pace, reaching into her satchel to—

I slammed into someone, stumbled, and sprawled onto the pavement. The fall reminded me how much my body hurt.

“Crap,” I mumbled, trying to get up. “I’m sorry, I…”

The woman I’d run into was a bit shorter than me, slender, with ashy skin. I wasn’t sure how she’d managed to stay upright when I hit her, but she didn’t seem that ruffled by it. She was smiling, looking strangely happy, like…

As her smile drew into a full, open-mouthed grin, I noticed her teeth were pointed. And her eyes were blood red. And there was a scar on her neck, with two little pinpoints that looked like they’d never properly healed.

“Get back!”

The pale, athletic woman had finally caught up to me, and from her bag she flung out a colorful orb, which wobbled in the air a bit before it slapped the vampire in the face. The water balloon burst, splattered the vampire’s skin, and the beast recoiled and shrieked like she’d been hit with boiling acid.

In the same moment, a strong arm grabbed me by the shoulder, dragging me bodily up to my feet. Her voice was accented, something northern European that I didn’t have the ear to place. “Can you run?”

“I—yes.”

“Run!”

I took off, running the way I’d just come. At top speed, I couldn’t look back, but I felt a loud basso rumble as the ground began to tremble, then heard a shriek of pure, pained rage.

A few seconds later, something grabbed my hand. I flinched, but it was the pale woman, running faster than I could manage, dragging me along. “That’ll only hold her for a moment!”

“What—” I panted, confused.

“No time!”

She pulled me forward as we ran west, getting ground between us and the vampire. My joints ached, but terror and adrenaline were kicking in, giving me the speed to keep up.

The streetcar was pulling up, and she pulled even harder, dragging me up through the doors as soon as they opened. It was the last stop before the car would loop around and head back the way it came, and most of the passengers were getting off, but to the couple who remained she swiped a hand and shouted, “GO!”

Nobody wanted to argue with her on it. The passengers shuffled out, leaving just the two of us as the sliding doors hissed shut.

Dropping her satchel onto a seat, she unzipped it. “What are you?”

I stared, my brain still catching up to the situation at hand. “Huh?”

“Christian? Jewish? I dunno, Scientologist?” She lifted the bag so I could see inside, at the jumbled collection of holy icons. Crosses, talismans, buddha guides, even a metal colander. “What’s your faith?”

“Oh, eh-” I frowned. “I’m an agnostic deist.”

She looked over her shoulder, staring in wide-eyed exasperation. “Are you kidding—Okay. Okay. How were you raised?”

That was easier. “Baptist.”

She tossed me a plain wooden cross. “Okay, see what that does for you.”

“I mean, it was sort of non-denominational, but—”

“Did they use a cross?”

“Yeah.”

“Then quit asking questions. She’s gonna be here any second.” For herself, she took out a garland of garlic that went over her neck like jewelry, and a stone with a circle and a crescent moon carved into it and a wrist strap to keep it handy if she dropped it. As an afterthought, she also took another water balloon. “Vampires are repelled by faith, so just hold out the cross and try to believe in it. If you can convince yourself it’s real for a moment, she’ll be that much weaker.”

“What about garlic?” I asked. “Why does it—”

She spun, snapping a hand at me. “Don’t ask me that!”

“Why?”

“Because if I start thinking about it too much, it won’t work. Just… stop asking questions.” I only then noticed the rings she wore, as she adjusted each one in turn. “By the way, can you throw a punch?”

I felt a little apologetic, holding the flimsy wooden T in both hands. “No, I don’t fight.”

“Good. Then you won’t get in my way thinking you can help.” Taking out a perfectly round crystal, she tapped it with a finger, and the blue light of an illusion spell filled the streetcar. She didn’t want anyone watching what was about to happen, then.

The streetcar slowed to a stop, ready to take on passengers headed back towards downtown.

Only one person got on. Not a person.

The vampire’s face was mottled with blisters where the water balloon had struck, which were actively swelling, bursting, and sloughing away before my eyes. The wounds gave way to dark, smooth, unbroken skin, with the sort of waxy lifelessness of a corpse that’d been made up by a master embalmer. It was perfect, beautiful in its own way, but not something you’d ever mistake for a living human.

“Get out of my way,” she hissed. “That one has an open license on his head. He’s mine.”

“He’s yours if you can get to him,” the woman said in response, planting herself between me and the vampire. “You don’t want to fight me, corpse.”

“If you’re threatening me, that’s self-defense. I’ll get two meals tonight, and the council will pat me on the back for it.” She licked her lips, looking at me like I was a juicy steak and she’d been living on nothing but rice.

“Takes a lot of blood to come back from a beheading,” my guardian warned, adjusting her grip on the runestone. “You think that’s worth it?”

“I think that’s a lot of talk for how much your hands are shaking.” The doors slid shut behind the vampire, sealing us in. “Last chance to back down.”

“That’s funny,” she shot back. “I was about to say the same thing to you.”

I looked between them, feeling extremely out of my depth.

The streetcar started to move, and the two of them went to war.