The Adventure of the Christmas Vampires

forward, and their fists knocked together.

  "There! Now we're officially friends. Best friends forever!"

  Angela gave her a puzzled look, but she nodded her head as if in agreement. "So what do friends do?"

  "Well, one thing is play games."

  "What sort of games?"

  "All kinds! Like...um...I know! Hide and seek. It's like hunting, only you don't hurt anyone."

  "Where is the fun in that?"

  "The fun is in trying to find people. This is how it works: you cover your eyes and count to twenty-five, and I hide and you try to find me."

  "I see. Very well, I will try it."

  "Great! Go stand in front of that tomb, close yer eyes, and count--not super-Vampire fast but Human slow--and I'll go hide. When yer done, say, 'Ready or not, here I come!' Then you try to find me."

  "I understand." She went over and faced the wall of the mausoleum and started counting.

  "One...two...three..."

  Connie looked around. There were lots of places that could hide her, but none that could conceal her completely. Then she spotted a large cenotaph set up in front of an even bigger bush. She rushed over and found there was a space behind it in front of the shrub. She squeezed in and crouched down.

  She listened as Angela finished counting, then heard her call out, "Ready or not, here I come!" She peered around the monument and spied Angela looking around, as she tried to guess where she went. She looked in her direction once, but didn't come towards her. She started to walk around aimlessly, as if uncertain where to look, and Connie had to bite her tongue to keep from giggling.

  Then she just disappeared.

  Startled, Connie search around the mausoleum, but couldn't see her. "Where'd she go?"

  "Right here," Angela said behind her.

  "AAAHH!" Connie jumped and turned around. Angela tapped her on the head.

  "Touche."

  "How'd you find me so fast?!"

  "When you peaked around the cenotaph, I saw the heat aura from your blood. At night, it makes you stand out against the darkness like a candle flame."

  She stood up. "Hey, that's cheating!"

  Angela shrugged. "I cannot help it. It is part of my nature."

  "Huh, yeah, maybe we'd better find a different game, at least until after I've been turned."

  Rosie appeared through the tombstones. "There you two are!" she said in a stern voice. "I have been looking all over for you."

  "We were just playing," Connie said.

  "Playing?" She looked and sounded surprised.

  "Yes," Angela replied, "hide and seek."

  "Well, I must say, that is good news. But come. It is getting late, and Connie needs to go home."

  "But I thought she would be staying with us," Angela objected.

  "She has not made her final decision yet. Giovanna wishes to give her time to consider it."

  "Is this not what you want?" she asked Connie.

  Connie hesitated. Earlier she would have said yes instantly, but after having gotten to know the Vampires and finding out what their lives were like, she wasn't sure anymore. She didn't like the idea of forgetting about her family, or not having friends, or not being able to play games. Angela was a cool girl who could do all kinds of wicked things, but her life seemed so somber and serious. If that was what being a Vampire was like, she didn't want to be one. What was the sense of having all those powers if she couldn't have fun with them? And it dawned on her that she really had been behaving pretty badly, even if Liza did provoke her. But she couldn't be mad at her, she loved her, and Mom and Dad, and Kitty. She didn't want to leave; she just wanted to go home.

  Even as she opened her mouth to tell them that, what looked like a large, heavy arrow shot out from Rosie's chest between her breasts. For a moment everyone froze. With a shocked, pained look on her face, Rosie looked down at the point dripping blood. Then her eyes rolled up as her lids closed, and she collapsed on the ground.

  "Hunters!" Angela cried. "Connie, run!"

  Too scared to hear, Connie whipped around and saw dark shapes all around her moving through the tombstones towards them, hunched over as if crouched.

  Another arrow ricocheted off a headstone next to Angela. She vanished just before a third passed through the air where she had been standing. Connie felt someone grab her and for a moment she felt dizzy as the world swam around her, like earlier when she took Giovanna's hand in the park.

  Then her vision cleared and Angela stood in front of her, gripping her arms.

  "Connie, snap out of it! You must run. These are Hunters, Humans who seek to kill us. They will kill you, too, if they find out you want to be a Vampire. Run for your life!"

  Panic seized her and her heart raced. "Where?!"

  An arrow flew past them and stuck in a tree. "Anywhere! Just run! I will find you! GO!"

  Angela let go of Connie, and she turned and ran as fast as she could, her terror giving her wings. She ran heedless, just trying to get as far away as she could, dodging around stones, monuments, benches, trees, and bushes.

  Her foot caught on something, a rock or an exposed root, and she tripped, falling onto her face. Stunned, she lay still for a few moments, then started to push herself up when a pair of rather large boots came into view. She lifted her head and saw a man towering over her.

  His eyes didn't glow.

  She threw herself up onto her knees and backwards onto her rear, and started crawling away as fast as she could, frightened beyond reason.

  "Aeasy, Lassie," he said, striding after her, "Aye will not hurt yoo!"

  She stopped, confused. "No?" He was a giant of a man, easily as tall and big as Medb. His block-shaped head sported a crew-cut of light colored hair and a shading of facial stubble. She couldn't see the color of his eyes, but he wore wire-rimmed glasses that reflected the moonlight cast off from the snow. He had a long coat that hung to his ankles, and while open, it still covered nearly his entire body. The odd thing was, he seemed to have just one arm.

  "Nay, of coorse not," he said, as he bent down and offered her his gloved hand, "aye haeve come tae save yoo."

  She took his hand and he pulled her to her feet. "Yer gonna save me from the hunters?" she asked, feeling better. "Are you a friend of Giovanna's"

  "Gaeovanna? Nay, Lassie, aye am a Hunter; Hunter Andirssen, commander faer the Alexandrians of Byzantium."

  She skipped back away from him. "A hunter?!"

  "Aye." He walked after her. "We were watching thaes coven in case thaey violated the neutrality of the grave bae feeding on Humans as part of thaer blasphemous celebration. When aye saw thaey held yoo captive, I knew yoo haed tae bae rescued. Now, come with mae and aye will get yoo tae safety."

  She kept backing away from him. "No! I wasn't in any danger! They'd never hurt me, but they said you would!"

  "Thaey lied tae yoo." He spoke in a gentle, soothing tone as he kept after her. "Wae Hunters protect the innocent, tae save them from daemnation."

  She quickened her pace. "But they're my friends!"

  "Whaet?! Dinna say sooch things, Lassie! Vampires and Humans aere mortal aenemies. Thaey feed on oos. Wae must daestroy thaem tae protect oorselves."

  "Not these! They drink donated blood. I wanted ta be one of them!"

  Andirssen stopped dead. "Aere yoo serious?"

  Connie stopped too. "Yeah. That's why Giovanna brought me here, to find out what it's like. Only, I decided not to. Being a Vampire would be fun, but you hafta give up too much. I just wanna go home now."

  He continued to stare at her for some minutes, as if debating with himself about something. Then he shook his head. "Aye am trooly sorry, Lassie."

  Connie relaxed. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. "That's okay. You just misunderstood. I'll just go back to the party, and Giova--"

  "Dinna maeke a move!" His tone turned stern as he pointed at her. He then brought out his other hand, which Connie suddenly realized he must have had behind his back all the time. In it he held a large, black cr
ossbow, and the string was already pulled back.

  "You dinna understand, aye am sorry faer yoo and yoor family." He reached inside his coat. "Yoo haeve been taeinted bae those saetanic monsters, those aenemies of the Most High God." He pulled a black arrow almost two feet long out from under his garment and fitted it into a slot against the string. "Yaer soul is in graeve peril, but aye can still save yoo." He lifted the weapon and aimed it at her.

  "No, stop! I said I wasn't a Vampire!"

  "Nay, yoo aere not, and thaet is fortunate. If yoo waere, yoo would bae daemned faer aell aeternity. But bae at ease. In a moment yoo will instaead bae in Paeradise with God and His Angels. In the naeme of the Faether, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen."

  "No, please!" She tensed, preparing to run, but she knew she couldn't get away.

  Three snowballs slammed into him in rapid succession, the last hitting him in the face hard enough to whip his head to one side and knock off his glasses. As his body turned in response, Angela streaked out of the shadows, jumped, and struck him in the ribs with her shoulder, throwing him off his feet onto the ground as the crossbow flew from his hands.

  She lay on him, fighting him as he struggled and shouted in rage, and looked at Connie. "Go! I will hold him! RUN!"

  Connie took off and the sounds of the struggle faded behind her. But she wasn't just running to save herself. She had to find help!

  She ran into a body, and someone grabbed her.

  She hit and kicked. "Let me go!"

  "Poca Bambola! It is I, Giovanna!"

  Connie stopped fighting and pulled back, but she didn't calm down. "Angela's back there! She's in trouble! She needs help!"

  "Angela?"

  "The hunter caught me! He was gonna