One Last Job

One Last Job

by Terry Spear

Ida Mae Bremerton studied the cloth that bound her wrists as the faint glow of candlelight flickered off one of the walls. She shook her head at herself in the dark great room. All she could think of was her niece, Rachel Bremerton, whose uncle, her brother, didn't believe in women hunting vampires. Give me a break! But then again, Rachel had fallen in love with a vampire! Still, he had been a hunter. Ida Mae was glad her branch of the family didn't see anything wrong with women huntresses.

"I can't believe I could get myself into this same predicament, twice this week. I must really be losing it!" She sighed deeply, not giving up, just...thinking. The vampires' minions had tied her up while the vampires slept until this evening.

Glancing at the sliver of a crack in the heavy drapes that covered the floor-to-ceiling-length atrium door, she frowned to see the light fading fast. "They'll be coming for me soon." She wriggled and struggled until she was finally able to pull her hands free of the cloth. "Good thing their henchman can't tie knots worth a fig!"

Freed, Ida Mae ran to the blackened glass door, her arthritis pinging in her left knee. She jerked the door open to see the sun setting in an orange ball of fire. She bolted down the path to her car and pulled the door open. After sliding into the driver's seat and slamming her door shut, afraid the sound would alert every vampire in the house she was there, she poked her key into the ignition while the sweet scent of garlic filled the interior of the Trans Am. She glanced down at the passenger's seat to see her necklace of garlic curled in a loop.

"That's what I forgot to wear," she mumbled under her breath. Not that she really thought it worked, as in repelled vampires, but it was her good luck charm. Not once had she been captured by a vampire's blood bonds while wearing it.

After mashing down the gas peddle, she braced as the car lurched forward, then roared around the circular drive of the old Victorian mansion. She turned back toward the south side of the city, Dallas,...and home.

When she drove into her driveway, she was surprised to see her sons' cars parked there already.

"Mom!" Thomas, the eldest exclaimed, hurrying out of the house to greet her. "We've been worried something awful!" He glanced down at the red marks on her wrists. He frowned at her as he put his arm around her shoulders and led her into the home. "Tell me you didn't go after them on your own."

They'd had this discussion before. Her sons wanted to use caution. She wanted to take the vampires out before they increased their numbers. That was the difference between the good ones—the ones who lived among them and behaved, and the rogues, who turned people against their will. "I guess I forgot to tell you the plan." Not really. She had her own plan. In fact, she and her deceased husband would have done this together. She didn't know why her sons were so restrained all the time. Don't delay, get it done, was her motto.

"You've been doing an awful lot of that, Mom," her younger son said. "Forgetting the plan, I mean."

John was gifted with the bow, Thomas with the sword. She couldn't have been prouder of her sons. Though she wished they would settle down and give her grandchildren.

"Yes, well, I've had a lot of things on my mind of late."

They exchanged glances as she entered the kitchen and plugged in the coffee pot. Tom cleared his throat. "We've been talking about the matter, and you know after Dad died, you haven't been quite yourself lately."

"Nonsense," Ida Mae said. But it was true. She'd missed him terribly. She kept thinking of all the vampires they'd taken down over the years, how they'd do it until they were ready to retire, which was next year.