He scooped her up easily in his arms. She seemed to weigh practically nothing. She leaned her head against his shoulder as he set off into the night, and he realized she must be tired. So he ran as smoothly as he could, and soon she was asleep in his arms.

The night waned, though there were still several hours of darkness left as he approached his bolt hole. Then he sensed a vampire's presence ahead. Moderately strong, it couldn't be more than two or three. He slowed. Then he shrugged and continued on. As he drew nearer to the bolt hole, he angled to the side a bit, trying to triangulate the location of the vampires he sensed. And realized, as he moved, that the sense was actually coming from the location of the bolt hole itself.

He stopped, and set Megan down gently. "Wake up," he whispered. She blinked groggily, and stared up at him. "There is at least one vampire ahead, in the place I'd planned to stay the day," he explained. "I should be able to take care of it, but not while carrying you, so you'll have to walk."

She nodded. "Right."

He continued forward, with Megan trailing behind, until he reached the bolt hole's entrance. It was in the side of a small embankment, blocked as usual with a large rock. He shifted the rock aside, very aware of the closeness of the vampires. There couldn't be more than three, the bolt hole wasn't that big, and two were more likely, three would have to be pretty friendly with each other in the cramped space, and vampires were anything but.

They must split up to hole up, he thought, before joining into larger packs to hunt. I ought to learn more about vampires, really...

"Hey," a male voice called out from inside as he finished moving the rock. "This is full up, you can't come in."

"I think I can," said David, "And I don't know of any other bolt holes around here, so you're going to have to go elsewhere."

"Yeah right, make us!" said a second voice, also male.

"Hey, wait..." The first vampire spoke again. "I smell human. You've caught one."

"And I'm not sharing," snapped David.

"Man... we both really need it. We'll come out and go find somewhere else to hole up if you share it."

David glanced back at Megan, who was standing behind him, her heart rate up, obviously nervous. He gave her a reassuring smile. "All right. You come out and I'll share."

There was a rustle of movement in the dark hole and the first vampire came out. He was skinny and balding, looking strangely prosaic for an undead creature. He peered around David at Megan. "Nice," he said.

"You both come out before you can touch her."

"All right."

Another vampire emerged, this one looking to be no more than a teenager, sixteen or seventeen. The instant the second vampire came out of the tunnel, David drew his sword. The first one saw it and let out a yelp of surprise, but the second was still straightening from the narrow hole and didn't even see the blade that took his head off. The other spun and dashed off, but David was after him, and soon caught up enough that his sword could reach.

He came back out of the darkness only seconds later. Megan stood by the hole, looking down at the dead vampire, blood puddled around him, with a nauseated expression. David moved quickly to tow the body away from the entrance, and then gestured. "In there." She hesitated, but then ducked and went in. David followed, crouched nearly double in the narrow hole. He left the boulder rolled aside, risky as that was, remembering his first night alone with Aidan. The hole would be stuffy and that much more terrifying for the already shocked girl if he sealed it up.

The inner chamber here wasn't large, there was only just barely room enough for them to both stretch out on the floor without touching, and the ceiling was too low for even the diminutive Megan to stand. David sat down and leaned against one wall, removing his hat with a tired sigh.