Dad chuckled wryly. "You have no idea how powerful my family is."

"I'll be there too," Elyssa said.

I looked at her like I'd just seen a miniature Elvis break-dancing on her head. "No way, babe. In case you forgot, those vamplings almost killed you last night. You need to go home and rest up."

Fire danced in her violet eyes. "I'll do no such thing. You just try and make me leave, Justin."

Yeah, right. She'd have me on my knees begging for mercy in two seconds if I tried to make her do anything. "Fine. We'll all go."

"But—" Dad said.

"I said all of us, Dad. I refuse to lose you again. Or maybe you forgot I almost killed the girl I love to save you and nearly died in the process myself."

"I've forgotten nothing," he growled.

"Good." I pulled out my cell and dialed Shelton.

Several rings later, he answered in a voice thick with sleep. "Damn, kiddo. Can't a guy get some shuteye around here?"

"Did you put a tracker on my dad?"

"Blunt and right to the point, eh?" He yawned loudly. "Sounds like you could use some sleep yourself."

"Shelton, I don't have time for your crap right now. Tell me if you tagged him and if you can remove it."

The phone went silent for a moment. "No, I didn't tag him. As for disenchanting the tracker, I'd have to see it first."

"We have an emergency situation right now. Tell me how to get to you."

"Oh, no you don't. You're not coming to my place with a tracker."

I suppressed the urge to yell. "Where then?"

"Downtown. Centennial Olympic Park. It's a nice public place. When you get there, find a secluded spot and make a circle around your dad."

My thoughts flashed to the last time he'd used one of his fancy magic circles on my dad. "Won't that imprison him?"

"No, you don't know how to make those kinds of circles. But this will block him off from outside magic and, depending on what kind of tracker he has, it might confuse or cut off the signal. "

"Why don't I just make a circle here and you come to us?"

Shelton sighed. "If the tracker is a strong one, a circle might not block it. It's best if we meet somewhere with lots of people in case they do track you. At least that way they won't try anything overt."

The park was about fifteen minutes away by car. "Okay, we're headed out now." I shoved the phone in my pocket and glanced around for the car keys.

Elyssa hiked up the black gym shorts I'd let her borrow since her clothing had been ripped and spattered with gore during Dad's rescue. She strapped a black knife sheath to each of her fair, muscular thighs. Our swords had been lost somewhere, probably in the crypts where the vampires had imprisoned my dad, but subtlety was probably better. People would frantically speed dial nine-one-one the moment they saw Conan the Barbarian and his sword-wielding pals dashing around outside.

My girlfriend produced a piece of chalk from the bloody knapsack still reeking of rotted vamplings, the zombie-like remains of people who failed to turn into vampires. They'd almost killed us in the crypt beneath the old building the vampires called home. "You'll need this to draw a circle." She wrinkled her nose at the bag. "You have some Lysol?"

I grabbed a pink can from under the kitchen sink. Tossed it to her. She doused the small knapsack, fumigating the kitchen. I snagged my keys off the counter. "Let's go."

I had my hand on the doorknob when a soft knock sounded upon it. My hand almost opened the door on reflex, only to have survival instinct slap me in the face and remind me bad people might be waiting on the other side. At least they were polite enough to knock. I checked the peephole. Jade green eyes peered back. I pulled back. Looked again. The green eyes belonged to Katie Johnson, a classmate and former crush of mine. What in the world was she doing here? I thought about the last time I'd seen her and gulped. Elyssa would castrate me if she knew what we'd done.

A black limousine pulled to the curb at the end of the sidewalk behind Katie. My heart skipped a few beats and sped up. My neighborhood was not the sort of place limousines frequented unless it was prom. And it most definitely was not that time of the year.

"Who is it?" Elyssa asked, drawing a silver knife from her thigh sheath.

My breath hitched as the limo driver got out. Big and burly, he sported a black suit and wraparound shades. Then he straightened up, all seven feet of him. He wasn't big and burly. He was monstrous.

Katie knocked on the door again. "Justin? We need to talk. Are you in there? I can hear someone."

"You've got to be kidding me." Elyssa growled. "Get rid of her."

"We've got bigger problems," I said, my wide eyes locked on the massive man coming up behind the unsuspecting Katie.

And no time to solve them.

Chapter 2

I pulled open the door and jerked Katie inside in one smooth motion. She shrieked as her momentum carried her into Elyssa. I caught a glimpse of flame-red hair emerging from the other side of the limo as I slammed the door shut.

Katie stared at Elyssa. At the knife in her hand. Her gaze travelled over the duffel bags and the tension carved in Dad's forehead. "Are you going on a trip?" She glared at Elyssa. "And what's she doing here?"

"I don't have time to explain," I said. I looked at Dad. "They're here. We need to go out the back. Now."

"What about her?" Elyssa said.

"We can't leave her here. She'll just have to come along."

Dad raced to the back sliding glass door and opened it. I gripped Katie by the hand and started for the door. She dug in, trying to stop me, but I wasn't hanging around a moment longer.

"Justin? What's going on? Stop pulling me!" She slapped at my hand as her feet slid along the kitchen floor.

I stopped, resisting the desire to toss her over my shoulder and carry her bodily out of there. "There are some very bad people about to come through that front door. Unless we get out of here right now, something bad is going down."

Her eyes flared wide with fear. "Why? Who would—"

"I'll answer your questions later. Let's go."

Elyssa's eyes burned with murderous intent when I turned to face her. It quickly vanished behind a neutral gaze. "Can't you just toss her over someone's fence? I think the neighbors have a pool she might land in if you want me to do it."

"I'm not willing to take the chance the Slades won't harm her."

"The Slades?" Katie asked.

"My dad's family," I said.

"Hurry up!" Dad shouted as he vaulted the tall wooden fence between our yard and the neighbors' to the back.

Katie gaped. "Did he just jump over a six-foot fence?"

"Get on my back," I said, handing my duffel bag to Elyssa.

Thankfully, Katie was too shocked to pelt me with more questions and hopped on my back just as a tremendous crash sounded from inside the house. I turned to look at the shower of splinters from the front door frame spraying into the foyer.

Katie wasn't exactly light as a feather on my back, but my newly acquired supernatural strength hardly noticed her except for the frantic grip she had on my neck. I ran for the fence and leapt over it. Katie shrieked as we landed with a jolt, nearly bursting my eardrums.

"Hold on tight and don't bite your tongue," I said.

Her grip went from tight to absolutely manic.

Elyssa and Dad cleared another backyard fence, and I followed, using the roof of the house to avoid whacking Katie on the head with a low-hanging tree branch. I streaked after Dad and Elyssa as they crossed a residential street and made for a three-story colonial house on the other side. Dodging around a blue sedan parked on the side of the road, I cast a quick glance around to make sure there weren't any noms witnessing our supernatural displays of athleticism. The last thing I needed was to whip the neighbors into hysteria.

I'd just made it into a thicket of woods across the road when I heard it—a low rumbling growl. I looked back expecting to see a dog. Instead, I saw the limo driver. He hadn't leapt the fence. He'd run through it, leaving a splintered mess behind. And the noise he emitted wasn't human in the slightest. I expected him to leap the car. Instead, he plowed into it, knocking it to the side like a toy. Katie turned her head and saw the car tumbling, sparking, and screeching down the road on its roof. Her body tightened even more as a ragged scream escaped her throat.

Right then I thanked Coach Burgundy and Coach Wise for blackmailing me into playing football. When I'd first grown into my abilities I couldn't run two feet at super speed without tripping and busting my butt. I was going to need every trick in the book to get away from this guy—thing—oh, whatever the hell he was.

"Can you go any faster?" Katie asked, her ragged breathing quickening with fear.

Something silver flashed past me. I whipped my head back and saw one of Elyssa's knives strike my pursuer point-first full in the chest. It bounced off.

Panic thudded in my heart. "Oh, crap. Oh, crap!"

Elyssa cursed and threw another knife. This one went straight for the limo driver's eye. He swatted it from the air before it hit.

"Aren't those things silver?" I gasped as I caught up with her and Dad.

"Of course they are."

"Maybe you should upgrade to uranium."

We cleared the woods and trampled through an ornate rose garden some retirees had obviously spent their golden years cultivating. Thorns tore at my clothes. Katie gasped. An elderly man sitting on the front porch raised his fist and shook it. "You rotten kids!"

The limo driver ripped through the garden a few seconds later. The rose thorns must have caught in his black suit, because some of them came up by the roots. The old man's apoplectic shouts faded into the distance as we cut right and made for the busy road intersecting this one, our feet blurring with speed.