David resisted the urge to pull his knees up to his chest and huddle. His heart was racing as thuds and muffled yells began to sound from the front room. There was a second crash of glass and he wondered if it was somebody else coming in, or somebody exiting forcefully. He almost wanted to go out there and help somehow, foolish as he knew it would be to try. Even with a supposedly anti-vampire mace gun, he hadn't moved fast enough to do anything. What good would he be now?

He'd always been a protector and a provider, ever since his father had died. But he had also always been practical, and he knew that going out there wouldn't do anybody any good. The noises from the other room were rising in intensity, a flurry of thuds, muffled cries, and shouts. Then suddenly a figure stood in the doorway, and it definitely wasn't Aidan.

Oh no, thought David, shrinking back onto the bed. In a snake-strike of vampire-quick movement the figure was next to the bed, and he could make out just enough in the unlit room to tell that it was Raven, the female vampire he'd met on the road. The sounds of combat continued from the front room, so David knew that Aidan wasn't dead. But apparently he was being kept very busy, and that wasn't at all good.

She grinned, showing her fangs. "Hello human. You and that traitor Aidan humiliated me once, and now I'll have my revenge. I just can't decide if I should kill you outright, or give you the taint and then kill you."

David shuddered and instinctively tried to scramble away, but before he'd even begin the movement, she'd grabbed his arm, holding him tightly enough to hurt. Oh God, I'm going to die, he thought. I've got to do something. Can't run, can't fight. I need Aidan to rescue me again, but he's fighting, I've got to delay. Right, delay somehow. The decision was as fast as a vampire's strike, and he didn't even have to fake his performance. "Please, don't turn me. I'll do whatever you want, but not that. Please!" His whole body was shaking, his voice trembling, and his words utterly sincere. He didn't want to be turned. But despite the fact that he was nearly frozen in terror, one tiny bit of him was calm, planning how best to keep her talking.

"Whatever I want?" She laughed. "What could you possibly give me that I couldn't take from you anyhow?"

"I don't know! Anything! Please!"

"Ha!" She laughed again. "You beg very prettily, but it's not going to save you. My friends are killing your little winged traitor even now."

"He's not a traitor!" said David.

Raven clenched her teeth, her grip tightening almost unbearably. "Yes he is! He's weak, and pathetic, and soft. He sides with you sniveling humans."

There was a sudden scream from the front room, cut off abruptly with a disturbing gurgle, and then it was silent. Let that not be Aidan, David prayed fervently. Please dear God, let it not be Aidan.

"That's the end of the traitor right there!" said Raven triumphantly.

And then a blur of white whirled in the door, snatched up Raven, and threw her across the room.

David let out a gasp of shock, startled by the incredible speed. Aidan leaped over the bed almost before Raven had hit the ground, and grabbed her by the shoulders, lifting her in the air. "I wish I had the luxury of killing you slowly," he snarled at her. She grabbed his wrists, tried to pull his grip off of her, but despite being taller than the diminutive winged vampire, her efforts had no more effect than David's earlier struggles had.

"Let me go, human-lover!"

Aidan grinned, the expression pure savagery. "I'll let you go all right." He dropped his grip on her shoulders and grabbed her head instead, his hands gripping her hair, and with a savage twist snapped her neck, the sound a wet, horrible crack. "Go straight to Hell, that is," he snarled at the nearly decapitated corpse.

David gagged as Aidan dropped the limp form to the floor, the body falling with a dull thump. He huddled on the bed, eyes wide. Aidan turned, his white wings patterned with blood-spray that looked black in the unlit room, his eyes wide and wild, and David had a sudden certainty that Aidan was going to leap at him then, and break his neck the same way. Then the vampire staggered and dropped to his knees, and David realized that a good portion of the blood on him seemed to be his own.

"Gods." Aidan was shivering, panting rapidly. "Gods, there were five of them! One of them had a sword! If Raven had stayed and fought I think they would have killed me."

"Are you all right?"

Aidan shook his head slowly, the trembling stilling, and took deep breaths. "I'll be fine. Give me a bit, I'll be fine," he repeated. "That was just far, far too close for comfort. One of these days they're going to manage to rally enough vampires to take me down" He shivered.

David suppressed a shiver of his own and asked, "Is there anything I can do?"

Aidan took another deep breath and looked down at himself, then up again. "I could use a bath, for one thing. Ugh. And if you're not squeamish, you can help me get rid of them first." He gestured at where Raven's body lay limply on the floor.

David nodded. He wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of hauling around dead vampires, but... he wanted to do something! He got up and went over to where Raven lay on the floor in a heap.

"Just get them out front, When the sun comes up, that will take care of the rest," said Aidan, getting slowly to his feet. "I'll help."

David looked at him. There were dozens of gashes across his body, especially on his wings. Bone showed through one slice on his shoulder. "No way. You stay right there. I ought to bandage you up."

Aidan glanced down at himself, and fingered a second bone-deep slice across his forearm. It was only trickling blood thinly, though an equivalent wound on a human would have had blood gushing out. "Actually, what I really need is to go feed. That will heal the worst of this up."

"Then if that's what you need, go. I'll take care of this."

"Heh. If you insist," said Aidan. "Times like this I wish I kept a cow, or a horse, or some goats or something." He limped across the room, one wing partially unfolded, the tips of the feathers dragging on the ground.. "I'll be back as soon as I can, but I doubt anything else will happen tonight. If there had been any more of them, they would have come with this bunch."

David nodded, then turned to the unpleasant task of hauling the vampire's body outside. His stomach turned as he grabbed her limp hands, no colder now than they'd been when she was alive, and dragged her out of the room.

The front room was completely ruined, both the large windows broken in, the door hanging from one hinge, the bookshelf splintered, and even the moose head had fallen off the wall and lay in a ruin on the floor, with a vampire crumpled half over it. He dragged Raven's body out through the ruined door, then returned for the others.

He nearly lost his breakfast when he had to deal with one that had had an arm torn completely off, but he managed to get all five bodies outside eventually. Then he stumbled back inside and went into the bathroom. He ran the water as hot as it would run and scrubbed his bloodied hands thoroughly, until he'd scrubbed them nearly raw.

"Thanks." David jumped when he heard Aidan's voice behind him. The vampire had come up silently. He turned around and looked at Aidan. He was still covered in blood, but the cuts and gashes seemed to have closed, his wings were both folded properly, and he no longer limped as he crossed the bedroom to the bathroom door. "Are you finished in here?"

David nodded. "Yeah."

"Then if you don't mind, I think I'll take a bath. Then perhaps we can try to salvage the front room as best we can."