I decided to let Dusk Reaper stew for the night. Hopefully he’d found some dank alley to stand around and look impotent in. Me, I hopped on the subway and headed for home. I’d left my outfit there and, also, I needed to fill my two personal sidekicks in on the plan change.

Once home, well, I decided to get some sleep first. I’m not a fucking moron. An all-day planning session on how to best set up Dork Reaper was best tackled if I wasn’t dead tired. I tell ya, even with my vampire physiology I still had no idea how superheroes did it. You’d think at some point Nick Fury would just crash the fucking helicarrier into the side of a mountain because he fell asleep at the wheel.

Anyway, late morning found us sitting in our living room with me giving them the lowdown on the night ahead.

“This could work out even better than we originally planned,” Tom admitted. “If you lay this asshat out and then manage to defeat”―he held up his fingers in air quotes―“the stalker yourself, well, I’m pretty sure that’s the last peep you’re ever gonna hear out of him.”

“I doubt it, but at least he probably won’t be able to cause me any more trouble. His credibility will be shot to shit.”

“Okay, so let’s do this.”

I held up a hand. “Not so fast. Sally was good enough to warn me that it was pretty much anything goes as far as this hunt was concerned. It’s possible Reaper could be armed… hell, knowing this limp-dick, it’s more than likely. I can handle a knife or a lead pipe, but if he’s packing heat then that could be trouble.”

“Agreed,” Ed said. “Sounds like we need to scout him out in advance.”

I considered his words. I wasn’t keen on involving them, being that they were both human and thus a lot squishier than me. Conversely, they’d proven their mettle against Jeff. Also, if I said no, the fuckers would probably just follow me anyway. At least this way I could keep an eye on them.

“Fine. I won’t lie. I could use both your help on this one. This isn’t just about running interference with Dusk Reaper. This is the end game. Tonight, I finally destroy the scourge of the vampire race once and for all. It needs to look good.”

“I’m in,” Ed said with no hesitation.

“Fuck yeah,” Tom added.

“Awesome. You guys are my Bucky and Speedy.”

Ed raised an eyebrow. “Um, let’s not use those names.”

“You’re right,” I replied. “They’re already taken anyway. I know. You’re my Faggy and Douchey. I’ll leave it up to you to decide who’s who.”

Tom was quick to fire off, “Dibs on Douchey.”

Ed was equally quick to raise both his middle fingers. The pact thus sealed, we raised our beer cans to the victory that was ours for the taking.

♦ ♦ ♦

The downside of having humans for roommates was their obvious disadvantage in a fight against creatures who could punch holes through cinderblock. The upside, though, was that they were nothing but cattle to most vampires. That made them beneath contempt and thus practically invisible. It also didn’t hurt that the only other still-living (sorta) member of the coven who’d met them was Sally and she wasn’t a part of this. As a result, I had what amounted to the equivalent of ninjas on my side, minus maybe any fighting ability.

The first part of our plan had been to ascertain where Dusk Reaper was hunting that night. I mean, it was a big city and even with vampire senses I could have gone days without crossing his path and that was just within our territory.

Rather than overthink this, I simply stopped by the Loft. As expected, it wasn’t empty, although it wasn’t nearly as full as the night before. Guess the rest of the coven had decided to hole up elsewhere while Reaper and I conducted our manhunt. Of course, it was also possible that Sally had put their asses to work over at the Office and the folks here were just the lucky ones who’d escaped.

Either way, a few curious eyeballs turned my way. It was far better than angry glares.

Finally, Eliza asked me, “Aren’t you going out hunting? Dusk Reaper is gonna find this guy first if you don’t.”

Interestingly enough, her tone wasn’t dripping with fondness at the mention of his name. Sally had once mentioned to me that a good hate fuck could be a wild thing every so often. Maybe that was the case here. Or maybe the asshole just couldn’t get it up. Yeah, I definitely preferred that scenario.

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“Afraid he’ll win?” I asked casually.

She looked uncomfortable for a moment, as if she didn’t want to say anything, but then apparently thought better of it. “Kinda. I mean he’s fun to hang with, but I don’t really want to go back to the way it was.”

I was going to question that, but then I remembered the sensation of Night Razor’s fist ramming into my face with the force of a jackhammer. It was something I was certain most of them had felt at some point or another. “Don’t worry. Neither do I.”

It was good to see not everyone wanted to go back to a system where there was one master and everyone else was basically a slave. Sure, I might be a nice enough guy that I’d slipped into the dreaded friend zone with the women here, but hopefully at least a few appreciated that I didn’t treat them all like my personal fuck toys.

Anyway, the hook baited, I decided to see if I could reel in my catch. “I’d better get going and find a good spot. Wouldn’t want Reaper trying to swoop in at the last minute and steal my kill.”

“You might want to avoid the area down near West 10th then. I think that’s where he said he was staking out.”

And BINGO was her name-o. “I’ll do that, thanks.”

“Good luck, Bill.”

I smiled back at her. Now to see if I couldn’t nudge luck ever so slightly in my favor.

♦ ♦ ♦

“Really, the warehouse?” Ed asked from the driver’s seat of his hatchback.

“Yep, real original isn’t he?” I replied, changing into my black combat duds in the tight squeeze of the back seat.

It was all I could do to not roll my eyes when I learned where Dusk Reaper was hunting. The coven had a safe house down there, an old warehouse. I knew it well. It was where Night Razor and I had finally faced off.

The place looked abandoned, but that was by design. The reality was it served as a spot where the coven could congregate in times of emergency, complete with sewer entrance and state of the art surveillance system. It was actually a smart pick by him. If he got into trouble, it gave him a place to retreat where he’d have the advantage.

Of course, that assumed his attacker wasn’t aware of its true nature. Sadly for him, I both knew the place and also had the security codes to get in. Sally didn’t share much of what she knew about Village Coven, especially the bank records, but she made sure I had enough knowledge to not get locked out in an emergency.

“Everyone ready?” I asked as Ed pulled to the side of the road a few blocks east of our target―just another car double-parked in NYC.

“Fuck yeah,” Tom cried with a fist pump. He was definitely enjoying this a bit too much. It almost made me glad it was ending tonight.

The plan was simple enough: once we took down Dusk Reaper, it would be time for me to vanquish the Village Coven stalker once and for all. That part was simplicity itself, mainly because it was already done. Since it had always been a part of the plan, we’d taken the liberty of taping it a few days prior.

Ed had been wearing my stalker getup, complete with some extra padding. Tom had done a fairly good job of acting like a random pedestrian who’d stumbled across an epic battle and filmed it with his phone from a safe distance, oohing and aahing all the while like he was scared shitless. We’d gone back and forth – Ed the silent warrior, me snarling like some kind of fucking jungle cat. It had been close, but in the end the script called for me to be the triumphant victor.

The plan was for the video to “leak” onto YouTube sometime later tonight. In the meantime, we had a cooler of bagged blood in the trunk to smear all over the smashed biker helmet that would sadly be all that remained of the poor stalker once I was finished with him. Combined, I’d have proof of my victory. Even if there were naysayers, they’d be silenced once it became obvious the attacks had stopped.

It was fucking genius.

All we had to do was get past one dipshit who looked like a reject from a Winger concert. Once he was out of the way, we’d be home free.

♦ ♦ ♦

Hosed down with extra deer scent, just to be safe, I scouted the area from the shadows – taking my time closing in on the location. I might not have enough experience to pick out a vampire by scent alone, but at least he wouldn’t have that advantage either.

Tom and Ed hung back for now, one on foot and the other circling the area with his car.

There! I spotted the douchebag smoking a cigarette about half a block away from the warehouse. It wasn’t hard to pick him out. This area didn’t get a lot of pedestrian traffic after dark, at least not of the up-and-up variety.

It occurred to me that this was an odd spot for him to hunt. Even a total retard should’ve been able to figure out that the vigilante’s MO was to strike when a vampire had a victim in their sights.

Of course, that might have been part of Reaper’s plan. I’d gotten a taste of his personality and at heart the guy was a fucking coward―a bully when the odds were in his favor, but quick to turn pussy once there was a shred of doubt. Perhaps he was betting on returning to the coven and claiming that the stalker was too scared to go after him when all along it was him looking to avoid a fight.

Well, too bad for him. I had other ideas.

I slunk back around the side of the building I’d been using as cover and dialed Tom’s cell. “He’s two blocks west of you. Be careful.”

“He’s the one who’d better be careful, because I’m gonna―”

“Just shut up and do what you’re supposed to.” He was like a brother to me, but goddamn sometimes I wanted to punch his lights out.

Tom had volunteered to be a combination of wingman and bait. His job was to get close enough to Dusk Reaper to ascertain if he was packing any serious heat. That was my main concern. A couple of forty-five slugs to my body could really ruin the evening. It wasn’t perfect. I mean it’s not like Tom could perform a full body cavity search on the asshole without getting killed, but a casual bump on the street might at least clue him in.

That’s the point where things could get dicey. All I could hope was that we’d planned for every contingency.

I glanced again around the side of the building, saw my friend come into view, and quickly donned my helmet.

It was show time.