"Holy shit, Lionel—what the hell happened to you?"
Luke lunged forward and caught him before he could slide out of the chair.
The second his hands touched Lionel's body, Luke's face went tight.
The guy felt terrifyingly light. His skin was dry and rough, and there wasn't a single spark of energy left inside him. It was like grabbing a man who'd been lost in the desert for days.
The old woman let out a sharp cry, her voice cracking.
"He burned through too much power! We need to replenish it right now!"
Luke's mind raced. The first thing that ca to him was holy water.
He'd been blessing bottles nonstop the last few days; the corner of the store was already stacked like a small mountain. He grabbed several, twisted the caps off, and didn't waste ti being gentle.
He yanked Lionel's collar, tipped his head back, and poured.
"Glug… burp!"
Lionel choked, then let out a loud, wet belch.
The holy water hit his stomach and a warm wave spread through him. So color finally returned to his deathly pale face.
But he still looked completely wiped out.
"This isn't right… it shouldn't be this bad."
The old woman hauled Lionel upright and started checking him over, brow furrowed. Then sothing clicked.
"What have you been eating the last few days?"
Lionel slumped against the table, voice weak.
"Kitchen's trashed. Been living off frozen spaghetti from the fridge."
She nodded like that explained everything.
"Spaghetti? No wonder you can't keep up. The fact you're still moving is a miracle."
She turned and disappeared into the back room.
A minute later she ca stomping out with a huge armload of food. She dropped a massive smoked ham onto the table so hard the jars rattled.
Then ca a giant wheel of cheese, a long string of dried sausage, several dense loaves of rye bread, and even a jar of pickled olives. The little table was suddenly buried under a mountain of food big enough for an entire football team.
Lionel stared at it, eyes wide and lost.
"Eat all of it. Right now."
The old woman pointed at the pile.
"Your body isn't human anymore. You're burning pure life force. If you don't eat, you're going to turn into a dried-up corpse."
Luke looked at the ridiculous scene, then at Lionel's miserable face, and finally lost it.
"Haha—buddy, you stay here and eat. I've got stuff to do."
He walked out of the store, leaving Lionel to slowly gnaw on the giant ham.
Luke got in touch with a local and bought a used truck. He'd been thinking about it for a while—sothing told him he attracted trouble the way honey attracted flies. Better to drive sothing cheap. If it got wrecked again, at least his wallet wouldn't bleed as bad.
He found a retired guy selling an eight-tenths-new pickup. Solid condition, fair price, and the bed was big enough to haul all his holy-water bottles.
Deal done, Luke drove his new old truck straight back to the campground.
After watching the fire truck hose down monsters, he'd had an idea. He was going to mount a smaller high-pressure water tank on this truck and turn it into his own mobile holy-water cannon.
While he was in the middle of blessing the new tank, chubby little Russell wandered past.
The kid's eyes locked on the voodoo charm hanging from Luke's belt.
"Luke, you got a charm too?"
Luke looked up, confused.
Russell grinned and pulled a tal cross out from under his shirt.
Luke stepped closer for a better look and felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
The cross was upside down. And wrapped around it was a pure, concentrated wave of evil energy.
But the strangest part? That darkness wasn't hurting Russell at all.
Instead it had spread through his whole body like invisible armor, keeping him safe.
Luke suddenly rembered—when Freddy was attacking everyone in their sleep, Russell had been the only one who never twitched. He'd slept straight through the whole nightmare like nothing was wrong.
This cross had to be why.
"Luke… is sothing wrong with it?"
Russell shrank back a little, nervous at Luke's sudden serious face.
Luke took a deep breath, crouched down, and looked the kid straight in the eyes.
"Russell, tell the truth. Where did you get this?"
Russell hesitated, then asked quietly,
"Big brother Luke… if I tell you, will you actually believe ?"
Luke nodded.
"I will. I promise."
Russell's face lit up like he'd just been given the best gift in the world.
"Luke, I told a bunch of people and they all laughed at . This amulet ca from a vampire."
Luke slapped a hand over his face.
Here we go.
Zombies. Dream demons. Voodoo dolls. Now vampires. At this rate they were going to need a werewolf to complete the set.
He forced himself to stay calm.
"Okay. Why would a vampire give you sothing like this?"
Russell scrunched up his face, trying to rember.
"There's a real old graveyard outside town. One ti I was ssing around out there and saw a coffin pushing its way out of the ground."
"I got curious, so I knocked on it. Sobody answered from inside! He said the coffin nails were too tight and he couldn't get out. Asked to help bust it open."
"I rembered the Boy Scout rule about helping people, so I grabbed a big rock and started smashing. Took forever, but I finally made a hole."
"Then a bat flew out, did a circle in the air, and turned into this big guy in a cape. He said thank you and gave this cross. Told it would keep safe."
Luke was quiet for a second.
"Do you know where that vampire went?"
Russell shook his head.
"Nope. After he gave the cross he turned into black smoke and disappeared."
Luke thought for a mont, then loaded every bottle of freshly blessed holy water into the truck.
He told Russell to hop in and pointed him toward the graveyard.
From the sound of it, this vampire might actually be one of the good ones.
Still, Luke wanted to see the scene for himself.
After bouncing down a rough dirt road they finally reached the old graveyard.
An empty coffin sat half-buried in the dirt, lid open. Luke walked over and gave it a closer look. The wood was expensive, carved with intricate patterns, and lined with velvet inside.
He scanned the area for more clues, then his eyes stopped on the gravestone right beside it.
Carved into the stone were four simple words:
Count Alucard's Grave.
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