Evelyn loaded her gun and crossed herself, tossing her waist-length brown braid over her shoulder. She slid down the wall into a crouch, glancing at her right- at Steven- for only a moment before she nodded. She leaned hard to the left, spun around to kneel on the ground in the deserted hallway. Well, it had appeared deserted to the others.

Their broken bodies lay strewn across the floor, one even hanging from a less-than-elaborate chandelier. Ev raised her Walther P99 , fired at the darkest edge of the hallway, heard the hiss of her target. He leapt from the blackness, fangs bared, and she leaned back, firing only twice before he fell, shot in the head.

She stood over him and fired into his chest, said a short blessing, and splashed him with holy water. Steve struck the match, tossed it onto the vampire’s stomach. He burst into flame as Ev murmured “May you walk in the light of the Lord.”

They emerged from the old house, guns holstered, and walked toward their battered Jeep Cherokee. Work was over.