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tonight. It would destroy him if he couldn't save her. Even though he'd been little, he blamed himself for the death of his parents.
     
    She felt the quick anger and sadness at her father melt away, become the more familiar feelings of betrayal and bewilderment. In a way, she'd known her father wasn't going to be here. Cancel the ‘daddy of the year’ award.
     
    They got into the car and Jack drove. He was a very cautious driver. Like a little old Italian lady. While other guys drove at a hundred miles an hour, Jack didn't want to invite more risk into his life than he had to.
     
    They parked down the street from the vampire’s lair. In this case it was a house. A house that had seen some seriously better days. It had a screen door that was hanging on for dear life and paint that had given up the fight, peeling off the walls and dropping to its death in flaky patches.
     
    Most of the plants were dead too. But a hearty Hydrangea and some ugly shrubs were still fighting for survival.
     
    I could totally die here.  
    Fuck.
     
    The vampire who lived her was either a total loser or really liked the monster image. Really, if he couldn't be a rich vampire, then he was a moron.
     
    Vampires had centuries to get rich. They were strong and silent. They could resort to robbery, steal from their victims, but this guy didn't seem to have made it work. Having to take out a loser vampire would make it easier...right?
     
    Maybe he was a newbie.
     
    “What do we know about him?”
     
    “Not a lot. He came into town a few weeks ago. He went to a nightclub and killed a girl in the bathroom. She died of blood loss, obviously. They found him on the security tape. Gilbert sent us the info.” Gilbert Arthur was a Hunter in Australia who always seemed to know what was going on.
     
    It was odd. But the information was always good. Well, sometimes the vampire had left by the time they got there or the details were hazy but he was always right about the attack and location of where the vampire had last been.
     
    Val sighed, “What did Gilbert have that kept the police away from arresting this guy?”
     
    “Ah. That would be the missing security tape.”
     
    She exploded. “Gilbert is in Australia! Why is the tape with him? How did he get it, why does he know this stuff? Shouldn't we be the ones in the know? No, you. You should be the one in the know.” This wasn’t her fight. She was going to college.
     
    Her future involved keggers and one-night-stands. No doubt in that order.
     
    “I'll let the pronoun slide. No one knows where he gets his info from,” Jack said it wearily, as though he'd discussed Gilbert Arthur and his mysterious information a lot.
     
    “Anyway, this guy — ” Jack gestured towards the house, “he's laid low, but today he scoped out a playground. So, game over. Your dad doesn't want to risk waiting until he gets back. And this should be easy. He's poor for Christ's sake! What kind of self-respecting vampire would live in a dump like this? Honestly.” His voice was disgusted and she knew he was trying to make her laugh.
     
    It was something they'd always done on stake outs. Even she didn't want to be left home alone all the time. So sometimes she'd go along. Especially if she knew there was just about no chance they would encounter a vampire. Jack would only invite her when he thought it would be safe.
     
    She'd make hot chocolate and bring popcorn and they'd talk about school, music, tv , life. Play twenty questions. She liked those nights.
     
    They always trash talked the vampire in question. Usually, it was amusing, but it didn't work this time, now that she was the one who was going to be doing the fighting.
     
      Jack tried to take her hand, comfort her but she jerked away in anger. She opened the door, popped the trunk and grabbed her stuff. Scanning the trees and houses around her intently, Val looked for a flash of gold.
     
    Looking for Lucas.  
    Maybe her mind had deceived her.