Charice texted me, but we were already more than halfway from Vallejo to Oakland. If I told her what we were up to she’d either flip out, or she’d want to come. And I didn’t want to deal with either of those reactions right now. Instead I told her Gavin and I were getting fresh air and she could hang out with Rob if she wanted to help, but need not feel any obligation to.

She was my girlfriend, but we’d only known each other like that for a few months. Gavin was blood. Dad was blood. And the blood sucking Dearg Due tried to take my dad out. So blood was going to handle it.

It got me thinking. I wondered how many lives the Dearg Due had upset, how many tragedies she’d caused, directly or indirectly. What she did was worse than killing people. She changed them into monsters that killed people at best, and reproduced more monsters at worse. Her man, Jun’ichi Takahashi had tried to do the same to me a few weeks ago. He’d bitten me hoping to turn me, but he didn’t know I was already cursed. And being cursed was the only thing that saved me. But your average Joe and Jane walking the streets of the Bay Area weren’t cursed and didn’t have magical powers or enhanced martial arts skills to rely on. Nor did they have the friends I had, that could also hold their own in a serious fight against vampires. But I had all that and more.

Or at least I had that.

One of my friends had betrayed me. Had betrayed my dad. Nehemiah, the wizard. The guy that got me into this mess in the first place. My power lay dormant within me, so I guess if he hadn’t unlocked it, it would have happened one way or another. But Nehemiah was the one to unlock my powers. Because of him, I was actively involved with the supernatural world.

Before that I’d been a passive bystander. I was aware though. Ever since my sister Anna had died I knew it was from supernatural means, and later learned my suspicions were correct. But after my interaction with Nehemiah and my magic awakening, I was all in. I could no longer sit on the sidelines and let monsters kill and eat my fellow citizens.

But then I found out that Nehemiah had sold out my dad in the past for some reason. He’d been in some sort of lose-lose situation. I got it. But I don’t care who you’re up against, you don’t sell out your buddy. You just don’t.

But today wasn’t about getting even with Nehemiah. In fact, I still didn’t know what to do about the wizard. I was ready to kill him. Maybe if he could tell me what actually happened, why he sold my dad out to the vampire queen, then maybe, just maybe I’d give him a pass.

But there was no chance of that now. He’d wiped his memory and wiped any chance of forgiveness from me. And to make matters more confusing Dad was actually alive, and had been the whole time, trapped in the body of the family dog, Tain. No, not just trapped in Tain’s body, he was Tain. So I couldn’t cap the wizard when my dad wasn’t actually dead. It did not change the fact that Nehemiah intended for my dad to die that night, years ago. He’d been just as surprised as me to see Dad alive. That probably meant that the Dearg Due had no idea that my dad still walked the earth either, whether on all fours, or on two legs.

Gavin broke my train of thought. “You’re awful quiet.”

“Sorry. Thinking.”

The daylight warmed my skin. The sun would not go down for hours. And vampires couldn’t walk about in the daylight. Plenty of time to catch the vamps unawares.

“Tell me about this vamp lair,” said Gavin.

I summarized, and ended with, “...I don’t give a flippin’ crap about anyone associated with the Dearg Due. She’s rotten and anyone that has dealings with her can catch some lead and steel.”

Gavin nodded. “Sounds good. I’m with you there. Let’s wipe out as much scum while we can. The cleanup crew is here. What’s our game plan though?”

“Easy. We stomp in, throw open the roll up door and start blasting. These are vamps after all. They’ll want it all dark during the day.”

“Who’s to say they’re actually there?”

“We’ll light up whoever is, find the ‘Stang, and if not we’ll ask around.”

Gavin nodded and exited the freeway. I reached into the back seat of the car and unzipped the duffle bag back. Inside was my new AR-15 I got from an RDN gang member, and a Glock I’d swiped off of José, another RDN thug now turned vampire. Unfortunately Dad’s Mossberg shotgun was in the trunk of the ‘Stang last time I saw it, along with all of my heavy metal albums. But I’d managed to talk Cennétig into selling me several 30 round extended mags for the Glock last time I was there. Plus I still had my katana, Jade, and the aquatic crystalline sword, Fragarach, the Answerer.

“Which sword do you want bro?”

Gavin frowned at me. “They’re both yours.”

“Well, the way I’ve been tackling these situations is showing up armed to the teeth. You should be armed accordingly too.”

“Even with your magic?”

“You can never be too careful.”

We both studied Kenjutsu for years and both had admirable sword fighting skills under our belts.

“I’ll take Jade. I know she’s your baby, but I don’t think I could harness the power of Fragarach. It would be useless in my hands.”

I nodded. “Ro Sham Bo for the AR?”

He grinned at me out of the corner of his eye. “Sure.”

He won the game.

“I’ve got my powers anyways. So it’s like I have three weapons.”

“Well…” He held up a hand spreading his fingers like claws. “I DO have powers.”

“But you’re not going to use them right?”

Gavin shrugged. “Maybe. I’m betting I can catch them unawares in the daylight. They won’t know what hit ‘em. But if things get crazy lethal I’ve got some magic up my sleeves.”

“So you wouldn’t use it last time when you were in danger, but you might use it now?”

“I didn’t want to needlessly give into my curse if it only meant making more enemies for you after I went back to Washington. But that was all before I knew Dad was alive. It’s different now.”

“When we get Dad back, he can start training you again. Heck, he could start training me.”

Gavin squinted, looking skeptical. “Yeah. Maybe.”

The warehouse lair on the Oakland docks came into view ahead of us. “That’s the place,” I said, pointing.

“They’ve locked up the joint,” Gavin said.

Sure enough, they had sealed the ten foot tall chain link fence with a large master lock.

“Just drive straight,” I said.

As I reached behind me and snatched up the Glock I simultaneously summoned my Good Luck. I stuck my torso out of the passenger window and sat on the door which was awkward, but I managed. I looked down the sight of the pistol and trusted my Luck. I fired one shot for the master lock, readjusted a hair, and fired another for the chain.

The bullets found their homes like I was as dope a sniper as Bradley Cooper. The master lock and chains shattered, dropping to the ground mere moments before I slipped back into the crappy Corolla and we charged the gate. The gate burst inward scraping the paint off of the sides of the car. Sparks flew.

Gavin aimed the car for the roll up dock door, but I motioned for him to stop.

“We’re going to want to roll that up all the way so that the most sunlight is streaming into the warehouse as possible. We can’t do that if it’s crumpled.”

Gavin grinned and stopped the car. We both exited, gathering up our weapons as we did. We left the car running. We might still need it.

In the daylight the warehouse lair looked less ominous. In fact it was not threatening at all. I already knew what lay behind these walls, the layout, and the vamps that filled it. And they had no idea we were coming.

We headed for a man door next to the dock door. With well-placed AR shots Gavin took out the door hinges. A blast of my Good Luck toppled it with a loud bang. No need to make our entrance secret. We wanted them all to know, you don’t mess with O’Farrells.

“You get the dock door. I’ll cover you,” I told Gavin.

He found the chain to the door and after throwing the latch pulled the chain hand over hand. Sunlight poured in stretching across the cement floor of the warehouse.

Darkness retreated to the back of the large room. As soon as light struck the glossy cement floor and reflected in, I heard hissing cries of pain.

“Vampires. Come out to play-ay,” I said.

A couple of fanged goons came at us but I made sure to stand right in the sunlight. It was like a shield about me. They could not touch me while the warmth bathed my body. All natural, baby.

After they adjusted to the light they tried to attack us. I guess pure instinct and the confusion of the moment made them forget that they couldn’t touch us. By that time Gavin was at my side with the AR at the ready.

“Wait until you see the reds of their eyes,” I reminded him.

Four dazed vamps charged us. The first two fell under the sun’s rays and immediately the smoky smell of scorched skin filled the air. Fumes and screams overwhelmed us, but us brothers held our positions.

One clawed at Gavin’s legs in a desperate attempt to take my brother with him. Gavin squeezed the AR trigger.

Blam.

A point blank bullet traveled through the monster, ending him. Normal bullets would not usually take a vamp out like that. But one burning alive from sunlight was like stomping a salted snail. So easy your grandma’s mom could do it.

The other burning vamp learned his lesson and tried to pull back. I popped him with the Glock ending his blood sucking existence.

“Pathetic!” I yelled. My voice carried over the cries of the dying vamps. “Do your worst, leeches.”

Seeing their comrades taken out so quick the other vamps circled us, skirting the edge of the sunlight. More blood suckers gathered, hissing at us and clawing the air, unable to touch us.

We fired into the crowd, dropping some and injuring others. It was going great until I heard a sound above us. Other bat-men scaled the wall and scampered across the ceiling above us.

“Oh no you don’t,” said Gavin, turning his attention and his AR on them.

Blam.

Blam.

Blam.

He shot the fingers off one causing it to fall to the warehouse floor with a sickening crunch before it blazed, then withered to ash in the light. I focused on a second ceiling crawler but did not shoot the third before it was too late.

He broke the mechanism holding the chain dock door in place. It slid down, closing with an ear ringing bang. The echo of the bang still sounded in my ears as we were plunged in darkness.