He hugged his mother hard, though with care, knowing his strength, when they reached the edge of the lights. "I love you Mom. I'll miss you."

"I love you too, David. And I'll miss you. Maybe someday..."

He smiled. "Maybe. But for now you need to go."

She nodded, then turned and walked into the brightness. It wasn't long before her form vanished in the blur of light. He sighed and turned away.

Megan took his hand. He squeezed hers gently and smiled. "Thank you for that."

"It was the least I could do," she said with a smile. Then she added, "Just out of nosy curiosity... What happened at Cottonwood that scared those vampires so much?"

"Heh." He looked embarrassed. "I kind of... went a little crazy there. I found one of their lairs, where they sometimes gather, and sometimes take humans when they catch them. They had a man..." he trailed off, not even knowing what to say about it. "What they'd done to him was awful. I still sometimes wonder if they hadn't broken him completely, though I did all I could for him, after. But seeing what they'd done just enraged me so much I completely lost my head. If I'd had any sense at all I never would have attacked seven vampires at once. But through surprise and sheer dumb luck, and through the fact that vampires really tend to be lousy fighters, I managed to get them all. Kind of messily, even. Kind of... er.. more messily than usual, even. And since they were underground, their bodies didn't burn up when morning came, so the next night I assume some other vampires found them, and spread the story around."

She shook her head. "I wouldn't have thought that vampires would get scared so easily, even if it was... messy."

"Vampires are cowards. It's their one fundamental, defining characteristic. I've yet to run into one that wasn't. They do horrible things to humans, because they're physically so much stronger, so they can. But it's like schoolyard bullies. They only pick on people weaker than them. They almost never actually fight each other. Generally one of them will back down. So they're totally unused to an actual challenge, and very unused to anything being able to kill them. Some of them seem to think they're really immortal, or they act like that, anyhow. Bravado, the flip side of cowardice. It's not really courage, it just pretends to be. They're a lot more easily intimidated than one would think." He smiled. "Which is why the hat. But come on. We should probably not stay at this bolt hole tonight, those vampires might decide to screw up their courage and come back."