I hung up. Rescue me. Bastard. I wouldn’t just kick him, I would kick him so hard he’d feel it.

“Nothing changed, I see.” Andrea grinned. The smile looked a bit brittle around the edges. “Still enjoying your honeymoon? It’s all rainbows, and sugar hearts, and chocolate kisses?”

I crossed my arms. “Where is my dog?”

“In my truck, eating the upholstery.”

We both looked at the blood. If we let Grendel in, he’d try to lick it.

I went to the back room and got rags, peroxide, and a bucket. Andrea set her rifle aside and pulled up her sleeves.

We knelt and began to mop up the stain.

“God, that’s a shitload of blood.” Andrea grimaced. “Do you think the girl will survive?”

“I don’t know. She took several shots from an M240B. Her leg is all tore up to hell.” I squeezed the blood from the rag into the bucket.

“How did it happen?” she asked.

I wanted to grab her and shake her until she told me where she had been these past months. But at least she was here and she was talking. I would get the story out of her sooner or later.

“Ghastek called. Said they had a loose vamp and it was heading my way. I went out there and chained it up. I had it wrapped around the tree, then Ghastek got close enough to grab it. His guys and the PAD’s First Response showed up with the big gun. They had some words, and then Ghastek fainted.”

Andrea paused, her hands on a bloody rag. “What do you mean, fainted?”

“Took a dive. Kissed the pavement. Swooned like a Southern belle after her first kiss. Had a dreadful case of the vapors.”

“That’s weird.”

“His eyes rolled up and he went down, like someone knocked him out.” I dumped some clean water on the floorboards. “Then the vamp’s eyes ignited red and the PAD opened fire. Ghastek had three people with him. The man was cut down in the first second or two and the bloodsucker went for him.”