The sun outlined the TransAmerica Pyramid with fire.

The crowd waiting for the night in the plaza chanted, “We won’t budge, we won’t roam, outside, inside, is our home.” Even as he led them, Malcolm Donald wished he had come up with a better chant.

The sky turned intense orange and the waters of the bay gleamed purple.

“Awright folks,” Malcolm said into his headset, “The sunset is just four minutes away now.”

Singing and talking faded and a thousand people looked at the man whose confidence was the reason they were outside with lawn chairs, bedding, even tents.

“The bloodsuckers,” Malcolm’s voice echoed, “have never faced anything like this, like us, in their whole, miserable, lightless, homeless existence!”

Cheers swelled, people stamped and shook the stakes which monitors had handed out. The stakes were symbolic; only the guardians on the rim should actually fight.

“Remember,” he shouted, “None of us stands alone! Remember, none of those beasts is superhumanly strong! Their strength has been in numbers. Well, now we have numbers! Like our sisters before the vampire plague began, we will take back the night! We will take back the outside!”

Charity Claire’s ears ached with the cheering. She was closer to the edge than she wanted to be. She envied people with a thick buffer on every side. The stake in her sweating hand made her feel silly. She knew she’d never stab. She’d had a weapon on that black night a year ago but she’d only gone to pieces.

“The strongest, the bravest of us stand guard now! I want to thank the cops, the soldiers and the brave volunteers who will protect us.”

Sally Yan grinned as she looked down the empty street in front of her, not used to the feel of friends and colleagues on every side but liking it. They all held stakes in both hands, though she worried that the single practice drill hadn’t been enough.

Lavinia, hands on her shoulders, whispered, “Proud a ya, baby,” in her ear. A stake in each hand, Sally listened with swelling heart to a crowd cheering for her.

“Just two minutes now. We’re here. We’re not going inside. The shell of a house means less than nothing if our hearts are not in it. This empty night, filled with beating hearts, that my friends means everything!”

Through the ocean of cheers, hearts beat faster as the seconds ticked away. Many joined hands. Charity took the hands of the women on either side of her. Even Malcolm, surrounded by security guards, felt his palms get slick. If this turned into a bloodbath, it would be his fault.

Purple shadows crept up the East Bay hills.

Jesse Casselberger held his husband’s hand. Longingly, he watched the sun which still gleamed from the highest houses and wished he were home. But he’d had to come with Walter; he would die of misery if he lost him.

The sun set where they all stood.

Sewer lids flipped open with a harsh clank. White forms swarmed from the ground, from a building which apparently was abandoned, from BART and Muni Metro tunnels where daytime riders sometimes saw them like nests of sleeping rattlesnakes.

A stake in each hand, Sally watched them flit here and there – then do a collective double take at the hundreds of warm bodies in the plaza. Their forms jammed the street and, like a bitter Antarctic wave, surged toward the crowd.

Lavinia’s hand tightened on her shoulder. Malcolm’s voice roared, “This is where we stand strong! This is where we show that life defeats undead mobbery.”

In the midst of the crowd manhole lids surged and pulsed. But big volunteers had been stationed to hold them down. Pale arms groped from drain grills and people screamed.

The wave of vampires hit the line of defenders where Sally stood.

Sally stepped forward and swung her right-hand stake first, as they’d all practiced. It punched into the chest of a pallid corpse with maddened eyes, which fell and was trampled by the one behind. Sally staked that one with her left hand, scraping his rib with a jar that went through her bones.

As she reached back with both hands and Lavinia slapped fresh stakes in them, she saw that the line wasn’t strong enough. Some idiots had swung first with their left hand and knocked others out of whack; some had missed their thrusts.

And the vampires weren’t stopping. Somehow Sally, like all of them, had expected that after a few dozen had been killed the rest would circle cautiously and call out threats and taunts like they always did. But the vampires were maddened by the sight of so much blood with nothing magic to stop them from taking it.

The line bulged inward. Sally killed seven vampires. Lavinia handed her stake after stake but to her left and right pale forms pushed through. As she stabbed and killed another, a vampire climbed over the still-standing body. She wrestled it away, kicked at a third body that squirmed between her legs.

From behind came a sound which froze her heart. Lavinia screamed a gagging, blurbling, “Aw fuck!”

Without thought or plan, she whirled and grabbed the cold face which was sucking her beloved. Lavinia fought too, but three others bit into her hands, her arms. Claws tore at Sally from behind as the icy sea broke through.

Lavinia’s magic eyes drifted closed and her head lolled back.