Vampire thugs blocked the stairs below us, and some blocked the stairs above.

They dogpiled Nehemiah and I.

Both the wizard and I drew upon our magic and tried to blast the horde off of us, but in the close quarters we might hurt each other and Charice.

José broke away from the horde and grabbed Charice by the arm, yanking her close to his body.

“Wait!”

José sneered at Charice, but loosed his grip on her out of respect for his boy Justin. Justin rushed forward and eyed Charice in disbelief.

In a moment I saw him take in us three, one by one, recognizing his sister, then Nehemiah, then me. When his eyes fell on Charice’s wings, his pupils dilated. A part of me hoped he made the connection, that everything I’d told him when he tried to kill me was true. I had not lied to him. I wasn’t crazy, and he was dead wrong.

Having lost my own sister Anna to a supernatural monster, I could only imagine what was going through his head. He obviously did not expect to see his sister wrapped up in the tangled blood-sucking web that he was now a part of.

I noticed that unlike his homies, his skin was not ashen. For whatever reason he had not been offered the vampire curse. Or he had chosen not to partake.

He exchanged words with his sister in Tagalog. Neither my friends nor the rest of RDN knew what they were saying. I’m no linguist, but it sounded like he was asking her if she was okay. Then he hugged her. After releasing her, Justin turned on me in a flash. “You got her involved in this mess? Mi familia? Family is everything to me, white boy. You’ve put my sister’s life in danger. I’ll gut you.”

A large knife flashed in his hand.

The vampires holding me down lifted me and moved out of the way so my chest was exposed.

Justin rushed at me.

Charice grabbed his arm. “Don’t.”

José wrapped his arms around Charice, pinning her to his body. “Let Justin have his fun with carrot top.”

Justin turned on José. “What’s your problem bro. Get your hands off my sister.”

José’s eyes burned red. “I’m holding her back so you can shank this white trash.”

Charice struggled but could not break free of his iron grip.

“Let her go.”

“What you gonna do about it?” José flashed his teeth for emphasis, reminding Justin of his newly acquired strength.

Justin said nothing, which should have dissipated José’s anger. But instead it threw José into a rage. He must have realized he now held the upper hand over the only other person who stood between Charice and himself, besides me.

He tossed Charice to the stairwell landing, then yanked Justin off his feet. The ashen vampire thug slammed his former homie against the cement wall and held him there. Justin kicked his legs, but his feet dangled over a foot above the stairs. With superhuman strength José not only hoisted him in the air, but choked Justin as well.

“What about familia bro?” Justin wheezed.

José flashed his fangs in a wicked smile while his eyes burned into Justin. “We got family. A new family bound by blood. We Raza del Sangre now. You either with us, or you food for us.”

Their thug argument was cute and all, but I turned my focus on getting out from under the mound of vamps smothering me. “Wizard,” I grunted.

“What?”

“Flash time.”

I heard him struggling, trying to get to the flash bang in the depths of his magic coat.

A shrill scream escaped Charice’s lips. “Stop. You’re killing my brother.”

I looked in time to see José drop the unconscious body of Justin to the ground. His body folded at unnatural angles as he conformed to the stair steps.

“Justin!”

And then the pin that kept the UV flash bang from going off fell out of Nehemiah’s hands. With each bounce its echoing clinks quieted more of the vampires until all were silenced. Nehemiah thrust the hand holding the flash bang out and twenty some-odd pairs of scarlet eyes fell on it.

José was the first to react, fleeing like the coward he was. “Correr! Rapido.”

With a mad dash, the rest of the vamp thugs scattered every which direction.

“Cover your ears,” yelled Nehemiah. He dropped the mini explosive down the center of the stairwell.

I lunged over Charice covering her with my body and managed to just get my hands over my ears in time. Even with them covered, the UV blast rocked my whole body.

Before the dust even settled Nehemiah was pulling me to my feet. “Can’t stop while we’re ahead.”

Charice and I looked around. Vampire thugs lay groaning in pain. Wisps of smoke rose from their skin. They suffered from first, second, and even third degree burns, depending on how close they were when the flash went off. Vampires don’t do UV light. Check.

“Killed ‘em?” I asked in disbelief.

“Some. Close quarters will do that. Most of them are in shock. Won’t last forever though.”

“Wait. My brother.”

Nehemiah pressed a finger to his neck. “He’s alive, and not an ounce of vampire blood runs through his veins. Otherwise he’d be burned too.”

Under the desperate wordless pleading of my girlfriend I started to gather her brother up.

“No. Leave him. We’ll come back for him. If we don’t handle this queen while we’re ahead, we’ll all die here.”

Charice’s eyes watered.

“We’ll come back for him,” I promised. Reluctantly, I might add.

We hightailed it up the steps. When we reached the top of the stairwell cat-Rob sat on his haunches flicking his tail.

“What took you so long?”

I jutted my thumb over my shoulder. “Quit fooling around and fall in line, Rob.”

I pressed my back up against the wall and Nehemiah took the door priming his revolver. Charice moved to my side. I nodded to Nehemiah and he opened the door. Channeling my Good Luck into a spherical Celtic knotted shield I stepped through first with the shield covering my torso and the AR-15 pointed straight ahead.

I was expecting to see a small vampire army but instead we met face to face with Donn’s son.

At Diarmuid’s back a large pristine room stretched back held up by rows of rectangular cement support pillars. The room was free of clutter or graffiti anywhere. Scarlet drapes streamed down the walls illuminated by tall candle stands that drew our gaze to the far end of the room. An onyx throne perched, elevated several feet higher than the rest of the room, like it was straight out of every vampire movie ever.

On the onyx throne sat the Dearg Due. Her dress was somehow longer, like an elaborate wedding train, except it wasn’t pearly white. This dress oozed pure scarlet as if it had been dipped in a bloodbath. Count Pale, Flattop, and some vampires new to us kneeled in front of the throne, inside of a wicked runic circle that was half the size of a basketball court. In cryptic chants they were swearing their allegiance to her.

The Dearg Due barked an order, trying to remain in control. “Don’t let them interfere with the ritual.”

I had no flipping idea what was happening, but I sure was going to end it.

Diarmuid moved to block our path. Just Diarmuid, armed with two swords.

I know he was Donn’s son, but did she really think so little of us to trust Diarmuid to handle us all by himself?

Nehemiah stepped forward, gathering more Bad Luck. “Charice, Rob, and I will stop the Dearg Due. Sean, you got Donn’s son, ‘cause you know, swords. But let’s stay together.”

“Yep,” I said. I’d learned that lesson the hard way going up against Donn. There was no way I’d make the same mistake against his son.

I squeezed the trigger and unloaded all of my ammo at Diarmuid. With a flash of red mist he appeared to the right side of me levitating in the air just above the floor. The AR-15 chugged and chugged into my shoulder as I unloaded bullets at him frantically. But each time I got a bead on him, he evaporated into thin air.

He was toying with me.

He solidified before me, grabbed a handful of my shirt and tossed me through the door into another room. I exploded through the door turning it into splinters of wood.

Scratched and scraped, I rolled up to my feet but he flew into me and dragged me through another door, cutting me off from my friends.

Looked like I’d be getting that one on one fight the Morrigan wanted after all.