Free The Vampire Club by Scott Nicholson, J.R. Rain Page A

has to work overtime for the family reunion.”
    Now I was absolutely amazed. “You still think this is a family reunion? You still think all these goddammed giants are related?”
    “ Makes sense to me,” said Janice, breaking my heart. “I mean, it must all be in the genes. I mean, just look at Dial—how muscular, how handsome, how—”
    “ How about enough?” I said, irritated.
    “ I’m with them,” Buddy said. “She can cook a decent egg, but she doesn’t know beans about vampire hunters.”
    “ Janice, you heard them last night!” I said, stifling a burp.
    “ I heard what sounded like a family reunion, despite all their cussing. Just loved ones catching up on news.”
    “ Friends, fellow vampire lovers, can’t you see we’re in the midst of the ultimate enemy? Will you listen to reason? How is it that Dial’s relatives just happen to live within miles of a vampire—”
    Buddy stood. “We listened to your damned reason last night, and look what it’s cost us—a perfect opportunity to free a bound vampire and fulfill our quest. You’re paranoid, Andy. Deep down, you fear reviving this vampire. I think you fear it may not turn out to be what you have expected. Like the fantasy is better than reality.”
    My mouth snapped open to retort, but Buddy wasn’t quite done: “Now, I think I speak for Janice and Juan by saying Dial is A-OK and he’s very much one of us. Tonight, we will revive our vampire—with or without you!”
    And the three amigos left the kitchen like a wolf pack.
    The Old Man and I sat in silence for a moment.
    “ They’re in grave danger, no pun intended,” said L.
    “ Yep, they’re digging their own graves, pun intended,” I said. “What can we do, Professor?”
    “ Their passion has overcome them. When people are in a state of mind such as theirs, you can do only one thing: keep them from hurting themselves, otherwise you’ll watch your best friends be buried alive—gotcha!”
    “ But there’s so much at stake,” I came back.
    “ A mystery we can sink our teeth into,” he said.
    “ Bite me,” I said, the nail in the coffin of vampire clichés. I got up to leave, buttoning my pants with a grunt, before he came up with something worse.
     
     
     
    Chapter Seventeen
     
     
    He did come back with something worse. Reality.
    “ Andy,” said the professor, as I reached the oversized kitchen door. “We know the enemy is in another one of their meetings, rethinking their plans. What exactly they’re up to, I don’t know, but while they’re away, we have a golden opportunity to poke around—maybe we can get to the bottom of things before night.”
    “ And before,” I added solemnly, “our comrades blunder into a trap—the poor fools. I know of one thing I want to check out.”
    “ What’s that?”
    “ The cellar. I think there’s something down there.”
    The professor smiled and arched an eyebrow. “Like what, my student?”
    “ Something old and very much alive.”
    “ My feelings exactly. Why leave the vampire six feet under in a cold grave, when you could keep track of him in your damned mansion?”
    “ I have a question, professor.”
    “ Speak.”
    “ Why have the VVV stuck around so close to the vampire’s original grave when he was gunned down so long ago? I mean, why not move him somewhere else, thus ensuring that the vampire could never be found?”
    “ Pure neglect, my student. Overconfidence. They welcome challenge. I mean, what else in hell do they have to do, now that they’ve won? Why else would they invite us into the very mansion where the vampire might actually be?
    “ But also,” he added, “they are ensuring the fact that all seekers of this vampire will get discouraged. They are not leaving it to chance that we might ask a lot of questions around town and discover that a very queer family was living just down the road, only miles from the grave, queer enough to cause us to investigate. They brought us into this mansion to