“How can you smile? We might end up tangling with a nest of suckheads. It’s just the two of us,” Kar reminded him. “Three, if we go back and grab Garson.”

Lavos lifted his hand, concentrating until claws slid out of his fingertips. The deadly tips were a menacing sight. “Decapitate the fuckers. We can handle some Vamps.”

“You’re crazy.”

“I’m pissed,” Lavos admitted. “Lorn’s got enough shit to deal with right now. He doesn’t need this on top of it all. Stay close and alert.”

“Fuck.” Kar allowed his own claws to slide out. “I liked these clothes. I got dressed up for the Tab twins because I figured we wouldn’t be gone long. Blood is a bitch to wash out.”

“This is more important.”

They went north, jogging through the woods. Lavos came to a sudden halt and cocked his head. “Do you hear that?”

“It sounds like someone’s car alarm.”

“The battery would have died if it had been going for more than a few hours. That means the scene will be fresh. Let’s go.” Lavos zeroed in on the direction of the sound.

Chapter Two

Jadee couldn’t take the siren for long and shut it down. It was starting to give her a headache, and she wanted to be able to hear what was going on outside. That thought reminded her that her father had cameras mounted to the exterior of the RV.

She placed the rifle on the dining room table but kept it close. She found the remote for the television near the driving compartment and flipped channels to locate the feeds. The first one revealed the passenger side of the RV.

The woman by the door wasn’t there anymore. A little satisfaction struck. She flipped to another channel, getting a view of the front. Jadee didn’t see anything on the driver’s side or on the rear camera. She lifted her chin, peering at the roof. It was all quiet up there.

“They don’t like loud noise,” she deduced. “I might survive this after all.” She spun, talking to the tablet. The three people locked inside the trailer were still in view. Mark’s mouth moved soundlessly, a reminder that she’d muted the device. She turned it back up.

“Jadee? What happened? Are you okay?”

“Yes. I hit the panic alarm and they stopped attacking. I don’t see them on my cameras.”

Peggy clutched at her brother Brent. “They’re coming after us again!”

Mark turned in his chair. “Shut up.” He faced forward. “They’re sensitive to noises. That was smart of you.”

“Didn’t you try that last night? I’m hoping someone heard it and help arrives.”

“There’s no one within range to hear us.” He paused, probably for effect. Mark loved dramatics. “All the residents are dead. We found blood in every home we checked when we arrived.”

“Everyone?” The news stunned Jadee. “As in, the entire town?”

“We can’t be sure, since we only went to a few homes,” Peggy whispered. “But we didn’t see anyone while we were driving around, before they took out the vehicles.”

“We checked the home of our website tipper first,” Brent explained. “His front door was kicked in but he wasn’t there. It’s not a big town and they only have one diner. It was empty.” Brent kept Peggy in his arms, trying to ease her visible shaking. “Probably sixteen homes in all in this area. We couldn’t find any survivors in the few homes we searched the first day. Then we set the trap, hoping to catch whatever had made people disappear.”

Jadee was outraged. “What in the hell were you thinking? Normal people call the police when they find blood! You should have gotten out of here the second you realized something was actually wrong!”

“We caught four Vampires!” Mark boasted indignantly.

“And lost them, you stupid bastard! Why didn’t you get help before they escaped?”

“We couldn’t have someone else taking credit for our work! We planned to study them and document everything before we reached out to a few of our colleagues.”

“So no one else knows you guys are out here and what you were involved with?”

“Just you, Jadee.” Brent frowned. “Your father wanted you to be a part of this.”

“Oh, I am.” She wanted to kill someone, preferably Mark, since she disliked him the most. “Now my father’s missing and I’m trapped just like you are.” She breathed deep, trying to calm down and think. “Okay…how did you catch them the first time?” She was hoping they might be able to do it again.

“We used the motor home,” Peggy whispered. “The bedroom is caged in, so we put a recording devise inside the storage section under the bed to mimic a heartbeat and breathing, left worn clothes and fresh blood for them to scent. It lured all four inside the room. They thought someone was hiding there.”

Jadee had to admit that sounded smart. “And then what?”

“We had cameras to see inside the RV and a remote-controlled trigger to seal the door,” Mark added. “Once they were locked in, we waited until the sun rose, and were able to go in to get them. They do sleep during the day.”

“It was just a matter of shooting them with high doses of paralytic drugs to be sure they would stay down before we opened the door. We put them in body bags and carried them to the cages we brought. We dumped them out of the bags into the cages so we had access to draw blood and do tests on them,” Brent added. “We’d put up a tent to protect them from the sun.”

“They shouldn’t have been able to escape those cages.” Peggy paused. “But they somehow did. We only managed to contain them for a day.”

“Fantastic.” Nope. No luck calming down. She was still furious. “Now we’re in this mess.”

“They might not see your rental and leave it alone.” Peggy’s expression became hopeful. “You could drive us out of here in the morning.”

Jadee resisted calling them idiots again. Her rental was about fifty feet from the motor home. Only a blind person would miss it.

A loud noise struck the top of the RV roof and Jadee almost dropped the tablet. Her gaze instantly fixed on the television to see outside.

The camera feed died, the screen going black.