“They’ve been turned!” hooted owl-Rob.

And so they had. The glow from their eyes was faint, but crimson nonetheless. In mere seconds their canines stretched an entire inch longer.

The lumpy security guard lumbered towards me.

I faltered. I wasn’t going to cut this guy down in cold blood. But it seemed I would have to. After all he wanted my blood. I looked to Nehemiah for help.

“Once they’re turned, they’re turned,” yelled the wizard, reminding me of the harsh realities that a monster hunter faces when defending their city.

Sometimes those that you defend become those that you hunt.

The armed vampire security guard went for my throat. His teeth almost found a hold when another body mass collided with us. Three of us hit the asphalt rolling and tumbling. We were a pretzel of orange hair, beefy arms, and feathered wings. Charice stopped the bite, saving my life. I stopped rolling and grabbed the security guard with Luck imbued strength.

As I got to my feet I hefted him up, tossing him some ten feet into the bed of his pickup truck with a loud crunch, taking him out of the fight. At least I hadn’t killed him. I’d deal with that later.

I helped Charice to her feet and she took to the air again launching aerial blasts of wind from above. While she did that, Nehemiah and Tain were double teaming Jun’ichi. Tain had latched on to the vamp’s arm with his own set of dog fangs. Nehemiah lashed the vamp again and again with his spinal whip. Rob shape shifted between barn owl and house cat at unreal speeds as he circled the teen-turned-vampire, until the teenager buckled over, dizzy from too much spinning, hurled up copious amounts of popcorn and soda before dropping to the ground exhausted.

Jun’ichi himself took a beating, but I could see that he still had some fight left in him.

That’s what Jade was for.

I brought the sword back for the kill stroke while my Good Luck filled Jade once more. I dashed at the fanged fiend, my magic helping me cross the distance in a single bound.

Out of the corner of his eye the wizard saw me coming in and backed off, as did Tain.

My blade sank deep into the vampire up to the hilt. I just missed his heart and went through the shoulder. Still, I doubt it felt good. The vampire screamed as Jade sank deeper than his fangs could’ve ever sink into me. Actually, I was about to find out how far they could sink.

With my blade so far into him, I was close. Too close.

His head whipped towards me and his fangs penetrated my neck. In an instant I felt myself being emptied like a juice box of Hi-C, life liquid siphoning out of my neck. A gross tingling sensation spread from my neck to my collar bones and beyond. I pulled away. To my surprise the vampire did too, screaming as he did.

Wisps of smoke rose from his mouth burning his lips as my blood evaporated on his fangs. His hands darted to his mouth wiping his lips over and over as if my blood were ghost pepper sauce that he couldn’t alleviate.

I staggered, wanting to fight, but an odd feeling crept over me. I fell to the ground and Jade clattered to a stop a few feet away.

The vampire’s eyes opened wide and he bared his teeth once more in an animalistic snarl. He dove at me, claws first.

I held up my arms instinctively. Even so, I knew my arms would not hold him back from dismembering me.

The vampire swiped at thin air only to be caught unawares by the lashing of the spinal whip. The Dullahan’s spinal whip wielded by the wizard wrapped around the vampire’s arms tying them together like a pair of handcuffs.

“No way vamp! Not my friend!”

Nehemiah tugged on the spinal whip hard pulling the vampire through the air towards him. The wizard’s other hand went far back behind him as he wound up for a Bad Luck empowered haymaker. The wizard connected an amethyst glowing fist to the vamp’s face. An explosion of purple light blinded everyone.

When the light faded, the vampire was left staggering, his jaw drooped like it was broken. Jun’ichi fell to his knees.

Nehemiah wrung out his hand as if the punch hurt more than anticipated. Then he raised revolver once again. “I’m all out of silver bullets, but let’s see if that myth is even true.”

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Though Jun’ichi healed fast, the sword slashes marring his body barely had time to close up before bullet holes exploded around them. An unreal amount of crimson blood spilled onto the pavement. The vampire fell on all fours but still breathed with heavy panting. He rolled over onto his stomach and stopped moving altogether.

As for me, I was far from dead. The pain told me that.

Hot searing pain laced from my neck up into my head assaulting my senses. I screamed, my fingernails digging at the puncture wounds of their own volition.

I writhed on the ground for some time until the pain subsided.

My eyes opened and I got to my feet wondering why none of my friends, especially my girlfriend, had tried to help me. I looked around was relieved to find that the vampires were gone and that my friends were okay. They stood in a semicircle around me, looking at me with weird expressions.

“Where’d the vampires go?” I asked.

“We kicked them out of Vallejo for the time being,” said Rob. “The new children carried Jun’ichi back. Probably to the Queen’s lair so she can heal him with blood sorcery. I guess he’ll survive all those bullet and sword wounds after all. At least the children were too preoccupied with the wellbeing of their new lead to stick around and fight us.”

“Well… maybe not all the children.” said Nehemiah in almost a whisper.

I narrowed my eyes at him, my blood running cold as chills assaulted me. “What do you mean?”

I noticed that Nehemiah was casually reloading his revolver with slow determination. He pushed the chamber back into place and it snapped shut with an ominous finality.

“Usually the turning is quick. The blink of an eye is all it takes.”

Charice’s hands went over her mouth and she gasped, tears leaving makeup streaks running down her face. “No!”

“Usually,” said the wizard again.

“You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.”

Nobody laughed.

“What? No Princess Bride fans?”

Rob’s eyebrows drifted apart as his face filled with concern for me. “Remember the part where they have to take Wesley to Miracle Max to bring him back from the dead?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, we may have to do that with you after we kill you for attacking us in your crazed vampire stupor.”

“Rob!” scolded Charice.

Nehemiah’s low voice cut to the quick. “No, he’s right. And I hate it when the leprechaun is right.”

I sank to my knees, my shoulders slumping. “After all the monsters I’ve fought and killed. This it huh?” I hid my face in my hands. “Get it over with then.”

After a while I felt a steel toed boot nudging me in the ribs.

“Stop. That hurts.” I wiped my nose on my sleeve before looking up at the wizard.

His trench coat billowed in the cool night air encircling him.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but you should have turned by now. And you haven’t. So…”

“You’re off the hook!” Rob threw himself on me, wrapping his stubby arms around my neck.

My neck still tingled. “Ouch, watch the fang wounds.”

“Sorry.”

I rubbed where the fang holes should’ve been, but the skin healed already, leaving scars on my neck.

“Why am I already healed? And why haven’t I been turned?”

Before anyone could answer, my Keening burned.

I bent over myself as the excruciating pain spread from the middle of my chest outward across my whole body.

My Good Luck welled up within me along with some other thing that I had no name for. The power edged up my neck through my throat. I opened my mouth and hurled, expecting projectile vomit to exit my mouth. Instead, emerald liquid magic spewed from my pie hole. Green puddles spread across the asphalt in front of me as I hurled my magical guts out. After a while I turned over on my back staring at the sky, panting.

“What’s wrong with him?” asked Charice in a soft voice.

Nehemiah took a knee next to me. Charice cradled my head on her lap running her fingers through my hair, brushing red strands off my face.

“His Keening mark is glowing. And the puncture wound sealed up. I suspect that he would’ve turned by now except he’s cursed already. And the only thing protecting him from becoming a vampire is the Banshee’s Keening.”

“So, he’ll be okay.” Charice let out a sigh of relief.

“Or the Banshee curse is even worse than we assumed. I’ve never heard of a curse counteracting a vampire turning. Even though the Keening hasn’t done anything to Sean other than give him this weird rune, he could be suffering a slower fate.”

“Such positive enthusiasm,” I said with a raspy voice. “Please, don’t go full Mr. Rogers on me with all that optimism. And whatever you do, please don’t pull out the hand puppets.”

Nobody laughed. They were super concerned for me. Which was cool that people in my life cared. I just didn’t want it to be under these circumstances.

“Okay, this is stupid. Help me up.”