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in one hop, and joined the rumble, which had moved out into the street by this point. I didn’t like the number of porch lights that were flickering on, so I stopped throwing punches long enough to say “If you still want to stay incognito for more than the next five minutes or so, we might want to move this party somewhere more private.”

    “Or I could just kill you quickly,” the girl said, nailing me with and uppercut that sent me flying into the path of an oncoming minivan.

    “Or that,” I said as the van crashed into my back (or I crashed into its front, whichever way you want to look at it). Greg took a kick to the head that spun him completely around, and she grabbed his head like she was going to twist it completely off his body. That’s one of the only sure-fire ways to kill us, and when I saw what she had in mind, I found a lot more strength than I’d ever had before.

    I picked up that stupid little minivan, and slammed it into the freshman from hell with everything I had. Toys, glass, baby seats and a couple of yuppies spilled out onto the pavement, but the girl was finally down. Greg dragged the yuppies over to the sidewalk and dropped his Jedi mind trick on them about hitting a Great Dane while I used their seatbelts to tie the girl’s hands and feet.

    “Grab Tommy. I stashed him on a roof.” I yelled to Greg.

    “Where are you going with her?” He yelled back. He was weaving a little back and forth, but he could stand, at least.

    “Where else? I gotta take her to Dad’s.” And I tossed the girl over my shoulder like a rolled-up carpet and took off toward the only place that was safe to interrogate her – St. Patrick’s.

Chapter 6

    I carried the girl/witch/thing over my shoulder toward St. Patrick’s Church, hoping by all I had ever believed in that Dad could contain her. “Dad” is Michael Maloney, the priest at St. Patrick’s, and he’s one of the best friends a vampire could have. He’s also an old friend, the only person from before that Greg and I ever associate with. He’s been there for us for a long time, and I really hoped that he had enough juice with the Big Guy Upstairs to bind this whatever-she-was long enough to get some answers.

    I couldn’t just go in through the front door, that whole holy ground thing is pretty true. But there’s a corner of the cemetery that sits on unsanctified soil, because the church decided during the Great Depression that it needed a place to bury suicides within the fence, so the church could keep the funeral revenue. But Catholic doctrine wouldn’t allow someone who took their own life to be buried on hallowed ground, so they bought the property next door, knocked down the non-sanctified house that was there, fenced in the lot and expanded the graveyard. It’s really handy to have a place to meet that no one would ever think to look for us, and Greg and I keep a room of sorts in one of the crypts for emergencies. And this was shaping up to be a doozy of an emergency.

    I called Dad on my cell when I was close, and he met me at the crypt with a lantern and a battered leather bag. I guessed it was his exorcism tool kit, and gave it a wide berth. Mike’s never tried to douse us with holy water or anything else, but crosses, true believers and vampires don’t mix.

    “Jimmy, my son, what have you gotten yourself into?” Mike asked as he held the door for me. I dropped my little care package on the floor of the crypt and Mike stood there gaping at the hog-tied teenager in front of him.

    “Don’t call me your son,
Dad
. And I don’t really know what I’ve gotten into. That’s what I’ve got you for. This little chicklet is way more than she seems. She kicked the crap out of me and Greg both, and if I hadn’t dropped a minivan on her head she probably would have killed Greg.” That was the moment that my body decided to let all the bruises and exertion catch up with me, and I slid down to sit on the floor of the crypt.

    “I