Page 93 of Starved Until Sunset

“Sorry. It’s been a long few days.”

“There’s no need to apologize,” Agatha said. She stood beside Jugs and looped her arm through his.

“You can say that,” Jugs said, making a face as he wiped at his coveralls. “You weren’t just motorboated by a sob.”

They all laughed at that, which felt amazingly good to Demetrius. Then he took another breath, shrugged, and said, “Well, we’ve got vampires now.”

Demetrius caught them up in record time. When he’d finished, Agatha and Jugs sat side by side on the couch, their backpacks sitting at their feet. Every now and then Jugs whispered, “Vampires,” and idly rubbed the material covering his forearms where over the summer he’d been scratched by a zombie and nearly died.

“Worse than werewolves?” Agatha asked.

“Vampires can fly,” Demetrius said. “Well, at least one of them can. The one they call Father. He’s supposedly thousands of years old.”

“Thousands?” Jugs said.

“Thousands.”

“Any idea where they’re being held?” Agatha asked.

Demetrius shook his head. “I suspect it’s somewhere in town, but I haven’t figured out the identity of their Renfield.”

“Renfield? Like from Dracula?” Jugs said.

“Right. Vampires need a human assistant to do things for them during the day and protect them while they sleep,” Demetrius said. “If we can figure out who that is, I think we’ll be able to find Cody and the others.” His phone buzzed, and Demetrius pulled it from his pocket and read the text. “It’s Amelia. She and Otis and Eileen are on their way here. Oliver and Dave and Clarabell are coming over as well.”

Jugs and Agatha looked at each other.

“We’re already dressed for it,” Agatha said.

“Yeah, I know. But I wanted to go trick or treating,” Jugs said with a little whine in his voice.

“Juggy Bear, I will buy you all the candy tomorrow,” Agatha said in a quiet, sexy tone, then leaned in closer and whispered. “For half off.”

“You know just how to woo me,” Jugs said, and they kissed.

“Juggy Bear?” Demetrius said with a smirk. “You do realize I’ll have to tell Cody that one.”

Jugs gave him a gentle glare. “Fine. You can tell Bonker that fun little pet name my amazing girlfriend gave me. But only because he’s being held hostage by a vampire and I know it would give him the will to live.”

Demetrius’s smirk slipped into a sad smile. “Yeah, it would. It will. And we’ll find him. I know it.”

“Fuck yeah we will,” Jugs said, getting to his feet. “Because we’re the fucking Critter Catchers, and vampires are just big, mean critters. Now, what weapons do we have?” He picked up his backpack and turned it back and forth. “Because these proton packs are just backpacks with old vacuum tubes coming out of them.”

“Come on into the dining room, and I’ll show you.” He stood and smiled. “And thanks for jumping in to help.”

“Nowhere else we’d rather be,” Agatha said.

“Well, I could think of quite a few places,” Jugs said as he followed them into the dining room. “But we’re here, so we’re helping.”

Before everyone arrived, Demetrius put together some food for Trevor, and Agatha and Jugs accompanied him outside. Jugs shook his head as Demetrius doted over the raccoon.

“We used to get paid to evict those little bandits,” Jugs said.

“This one’s not so little,” Agatha pointed out.

Demetrius smiled as he tossed Trevor a blueberry. “He’s well-fed. And he wanted to be with us for some damn reason.”

“Do the neighbors complain?” Jugs asked.