No sooner had we finished moving my stuff and devoured Taco Bell did I sense Tain’s and catch on to his trail.

I had sensed Tain near my old apartment first. Rob, Charice, and I followed Tain in circles around Vallejo. Because he didn’t have to obey traffic laws or navigate strictly on the street, it was hard to keep up with him.

Eventually we ended up on Nehemiah’s side of town. Despite being irritated that he’d just gotten home and had dinner himself, he agreed to go with us.

I think he felt guilty for shooting Tain with his Bad Luck. I took a risk to leave the trail and pick up Nehemiah from his house, but we picked up the trail again on the backroads of Vallejo.

“I’m not doing that bear growl metal. Got any AC/DC?” asked Nehemiah.

“Nah. That’s classic metal. Practically hard rock nowadays.” I tried to think of a metal band from an era in between the gap of our age difference. “Megadeth?”

“Never heard of ‘em.”

I sighed and tried a new angle. “What about punk?”

“Punk rock? It’s too fast.”

“Kinda the whole point.”

“You can’t feel a groove moving that fast. The music needs room to breathe.”

“It’s not about the groove. It’s about the aggression.”

Nehemiah imitated the fast punk drumming. “Boom-cha-boom-cha-boom-cha. Where’s the groove in that? It’s the same thing over and over. Plus the bass is a constant wall of sound. There needs to be regular intervals of silence for it to mean anything.”

“Well if you don’t like my music, why don’t you bring your own next time?”

Nehemiah’s eyebrows shot up. “You know what? I might just have something.” He dug into the depths of his trench coat into the magic folds. From nowhere he produced a CD. “Here’s AWB. It’s a little you, and a little me.”

“Why’s that?”

“Average White Band. White guys playing soul music.”

I glared at him.

“This track is Got the Love.”

A wah-wah guitar lick cried over a funky bass riff while the syncopated drums held down the tempo. After a timely drum fill, the horns kicked in, accenting the guitar. While there was a lot going on, the music was chill overall and I caught myself tapping my foot to the groove.

The wizard flashed a toothy grin at me and I smirked back. Soon my head bobbed to the groove. “This is funky.”

“See,” said Nehemiah. “Told you so.”

“Hold up. These guys are all white?”

“Most of the band members.” Nehemiah chuckled. “They’re more Scottish than you are Irish.”

“My brother listens to this kind of stuff,” said Charice. “Lowriders like that funk.”

Nehemiah gave her a thumbs up. “Hey, at least the thugs have taste.”

We followed Tain’s trail to Lake Herman. The place where I’d first met the Kelpie and tried to draw power from the oaks.

A grisly sight awaited us. A broken vampire corpse left for the vultures. Bloody wolf prints left tracks on the ground. I thought I recognized the tattooed vampire from somewhere, but he was destroyed beyond recognition. But from what was left of him, it was hard to tell. We were minutes behind Tain at best.

We rushed back into the car and followed Tain all through Benicia until I realized Tain had crossed the water. I doubled back on the freeway and shot for the Al Zampa Bridge.

I crossed the Al Zampa Bridge, the same bridge I’d galloped underneath while riding Enbarr, Manann mac Lir’s foamy water horse, right before entering Tir fo Thuinn. It seemed like eons ago, but only a few weeks had gone by.

Nehemiah gazed out the window at the bridge. He seemed to be recalling a memory. Maybe he was just enjoying the nighttime scenery.

Moonlight reflected off the water and the liquid looked calm tonight, but I had a feeling it was going to be anything but a calm night. We got over the Al Zampa Bridge and Nehemiah pointed to his left.

“I think he’s heading towards the CNH sugar factory,” said the wizard.

Taking the exit off the bridge, I circled back underneath it to the street below. Crockett was a small town with a down to earth vibe. We passed many closed window shops and a few little pubs and diners. The biggest things this town offered was a view of the Al Zampa Bridge, the rocky waterfront across from Vallejo and Benicia, and the CNH sugar factory plant.

My ‘69 clack Fastback Mustang crossed four sets of train tracks to get over by the plant, and of course the facility was surrounded by a large barbed wire fence. No matter. I just parked along the fence in a large dark shadow then let Nehemiah work his magic and we were inside in a jiffy. With Nehemiah’s aversion to modern technology, he was able to radiate enough Bad Luck to cause the security cameras to go out.

“Rob and Charice, fly around and see if you can spot any signs of Tain.”

“Sure thing, boss,” said my hobgoblin.

I squeezed Charice’s hand and then the two of them shot skyward.

While Rob circled the premises as an owl and Charice glided on wings of pure Bad Luck, the wizard and I proceeded to try to find a way in on foot. We found a smoke break shack which meant a locked door was nearby. The door required a badge to enter. If Nehemiah’s Bad Luck destroyed some technology, I wondered what my Good Luck could do.

“I have an idea.” Good Luck amassed in my palm and I zapped the door scanner with a small amount. For a moment nothing happened, then the red light turned green and the door unlocked with an audible click.

“That’s nice,” said the wizard flashing a toothy grin. “Wish I could do that.”

“We balance each other out. That’s why we need each other,” I said, elbowing him.

Once inside we found ourselves in a factory. It was exactly like you would imagine it to be. Huge beams. Frosted skylight windows. Catwalks. Pipes sprawled out over every inch of the factory, creating a jungle gym maze. Steam arose from humming machinery. It looked from the outside like it was built in the late 1940’s. I didn’t know my local Crockett history very well, so that could’ve been true. On the inside parts of the factory were modernized somewhat, but much of the old frame lay exposed. There were lots of places in the rafters a vampire could hide which was exactly why we suspected Tain would come here. It was a logical place for a vampire to feed, and thus a logical place for a werewolf to hunt a vampire.

“If you were a vampire, where would you strike?” I asked Nehemiah.

“I’d hide somewhere loud and dark, where employees might be isolated from one another. That’s where I’d catch my prey.”

I shuddered at the thought, but his best guess was as good as mine. Apparently Nehemiah had history with these vampires. I'd only fought ‘em twice so far.

We let our ears lead the way and soon we found ourselves around some massive cylinders that were operating at a deafening volume. Above us was a catwalk where employees could monitor gauges that told them if the machinery operated properly or not. Someone had to check those gauges. In fact someone was there now, a man with PPE glasses, a hard hat, and yellow earmuffs. We clung to the shadows and watched, waiting to see if our suspicions were true. After what seemed like an eternity I turned to Nehemiah and said, “I don’t know man, maybe there are no vampires here and Tain is just going nuts.”

“Let’s wait a few more minutes,” said the wizard.

“I think we’re just wasting our time man. There’s got to be better ways to track my dog. I bet —”

The wizard nudged me and I quieted down. In the shadows, above the catwalk and above the unwitting employee a pair of red eyes glared from the depths of the darkness.

I would not have spotted it unless Nehemiah had pointed it out directly.

“Move! Move,” said Nehemiah.

We bolted for a nearby stairwell attempting to get to the employee before the vampire did. We were too late.

The Brock-looking vampire dropped from the shadows landing on top of the employee unawares, crushing him under his flattop mass. The employee let out a shriek before he collapsed to the catwalk unconscious. By the time we made it to the top of the staircase, Flattop sank his teeth in. He heard our footsteps and jerked his head towards us hissing. His eyes glowed with scarlet fury.

Good Luck welled up in my chest and I shot at the vampire. Despite his girth, he rolled out of the way dodging an emerald blast. He dodged attack after attack, then retreated into the shadows.

“Shoot,” said Nehemiah. “We’ve lost it.”

No sooner had he said that did it attack us from behind swiping at our backs. My Luck helped me to evade the fatal claws, but Nehemiah wasn’t so lucky. Out of natural instinct he had dodged but not fast enough and one of the claws grazed the back of his neck. The vampire paused for a moment to lick the blood off of its claws, relishing every moment of it. The wizard grunted in frustration and threw a Bad Luck empowered fist towards its face. Flattop retreated into the shadows again. I had no doubt that Nehemiah and I were stronger together than the vampire when it came to our magic, but the fanged beast was just all around faster.

“It’s a young vampire,” said Nehemiah, “or it would put up a better fight than this and not be so dodgy.”

“Still finding its legs?”

“Wings would be more appropriate to say.”

A cat appeared at my side and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

“I smelled Tain’s scent, but we haven’t seen him,” said Rob. “We flew around this place like seven times. If we were Joshua this whole place would have crumbled by now.”

“Okay. Well let’s just forget about Tain for now. We got ourselves a vampire problem and need to make sure it doesn’t hurt anybody else. Where’s Charice?”

“Here,” she dropped from the shadows landing on one knee and her wings fizzled out.

As if on cue another employee shrieked somewhere in the distance on the other side of the factory.

“Crap,” said Nehemiah.

Rob used his cat dexterity to hop onto a beam and run towards the cry ahead of us.

“Which vampire are we fighting? Scarlet Weave?” asked Charice.

“Your blonde bruiser buddy.”

Charice’s eyebrows furrowed in determination. She looked like she wanted a rematch.

We dashed down the catwalk opting to stay above ground since we were trespassing. By the time we got to the factory worker that had screamed the vampire had already sucked her dry. The unfortunate worker spasmed in the last stages of death. I looked into the woman’s glassy-eyed stare.

A chill bit my heart.

We let someone die.

I clenched my fists unsheathing Jade and Fragarach in one smooth motion.

“We just missed the vamp!” I said. “It won’t happen again.”

Nehemiah circled and then stopped as a realization dawned on him. “It’s back at the first victim. We’ve been duped.”

We made a mad dash back for the first victim only to find the vampire crouched over it convulsing like a boa constrictor as it absorbed the lifeblood of the poor fellow.

I used the momentum from my sprint down the catwalk and lunged into a spinning slice. Jade and Fragarach collided with the vampire. I managed to slice the vampire and knock it off the victim. But as I looked down at the victimized man, he too shared the glassy-eyed, open mouth, zoned-out stare as the woman. Life fled from him.

Though I cut the vampire deep, its wounds healed in a flash. It dove back into the darkness. Cackles echoed from the shadows. I backed up further down the walkway with my swords raised, ready the dice it up into a million pieces for what it had done to these innocent factory workers.

Behind me my friends got attacked. By the time I spun around the vampire was gone again.

It passed from shadow to light back into shadow, each time it targeted a different one of my friends. It changed its angle of attack, never striking from the same direction twice. Something was off. Then it dawned on me.

“There’s more than one vamp now. Backup must have dropped in.”

As if to prove me correct, the two vamps attacked in unison. Flattop went for Rob, while the newcomer went for Nehemiah, then retreated to the shadows again.

Scarlet eyes taunted me from the shadows. I shot a blast of emerald Luck that missed. She laughed, light glinting off of her dripping fangs. It was Scarlet Weave, back for more of yours truly.

A glass window on the ceiling shattered. No sooner had the sound registered in my ears did I catch a glimpse of a massive man-shaped wolf descending from the splintered glass window.

Tain landed near us bending the catwalk under his mass of fur-covered muscles. Foam dripped from his mouth as he snarled at the vampires. Scarlet Weave tried the same attack pattern but he could not match Tain’s speed. My werewolf dog caught the vampire in his jaws. The fanged killer tried to break free by clawing Tain, but the thick fur covering Tain’s rippling muscles acted like a shield against her claws.

Tain went to work on the vampire like a science teacher dissecting a frog. If I recognized the vampire before, there would be no recognizing its remains when Tain was done with it. I felt a hand on my shoulder. “We’ve got to go,” said Nehemiah in my ear.

Owl-Rob alighted on my other shoulder. “There’s employees approaching, boss.”

A group of factory workers who no doubt heard the ruckus bolted up the staircase just in time to see us, their dead employee, and to catch glimpses of the slaughter going on in the background. Their eyes widened in horror.

A courageous worker checked his friend’s pulse. “Call 9-1-1. Sam’s dying.”

Nehemiah shot a blast of Bad Luck at the catwalk severing a section between us and the employees so they couldn’t get any closer. We ran out the way we came in. Massive amounts of blood stained the catwalk and the walls where the vampire had been, but neither monsters were anywhere to be found.

We burst through the exit near the smoke shack. Sirens wailed, closer than I’d thought possible. Apparently the Crockett police department had nothing going on that night. Already flashing red and blue lights lit up the street. We would not be able to make it off of the property in time without being spotted by some cops. Someone inside pulled the fire alarm. The factory front gates opened on their own to allow the first responders access.

“Everybody hold still,” said the wizard.

“We’ve got to get moving!” I said.

“Just shut up and do what I say.”

Nehemiah brought his palms up and began collecting Bad Luck. The more his hands glowed the more each of us faded as he brought an orb of invisibility around us.

Charice gasped. “What’s happening?”

“Oh yeah,” said Rob, smiling. “The wizard can do an invisible trick.”

“Shut up,” I hissed.

Not a second later a several cop cars pulled up and a group of officers hopped out but not before turning on their floodlights. The lights were aimed right at us and the cops drew their guns. They were running right towards us and there was no way they couldn’t see us. But their footsteps kept moving and they found a frantic employee who let them into the building.

Nehemiah released the power and we sped off through the front gate that opened when the fire alarm was pulled. Just as we were running through the gate, another cop car drove up and the officer shouted at us to stop, but we kept running anyway until we got in my car. I took off into a neighborhood and passed a firetruck and an ambulance. I took two right turns until I was heading back down a neighborhood parallel to the CNH sugar factory plant. Whether the cop bothered to pursue us, or I’d successfully lost them, I don’t know. Either way, we made it out scot-free.

“Hey look up there,” said Rob pointing through my window to the house Zampa Bridge. A hulking wolfman-shape scaled the cement foundation of the bridge. And above him flying higher and trying to escape was the bulky form of blonde Flattop.

“There goes Tain,” said Rob. “And blondie.”

“Man that dog has a vendetta or something,” commented Charice. “It’s almost like he’s personally hunting down these vampires one by one.”

It sure seemed like that was the case. But how could my dog have a history and a pure hatred for these vampires when he had just turned into a werewolf and had been my family’s dog for the past few years?

“Maybe since he’s become a werewolf he just has a natural animosity towards vampires,” suggested Rob.

Nehemiah grimaced, shaking his head. “I don’t know man. It seems like he knows exactly where he’s going.”

“And if he keeps going the same direction he’s gonna end up in Oakland,” I said.

“Which is exactly where the Dearg Due and most of the vampires claim as their turf,” said Rob.

It looked like if I wanted to catch my dog tonight, we’d be heading for Oakland.