There was a brief silence, and Mr. Church said, “Quite right. To the point then. We have known for some time that the Red Knights either are, or pretend to be, some kind of vampire. We know that they are unusually strong and fast, which are qualities ascribed to most species of vampires in folklore. We know that they have unusual dentition, specifically they have sharp teeth and pronounced canines.”

“Yup,” I said. “I can testify to all of that. Fucker didn’t turn into a bat, though.”

“That’s not part of the vampire legend,” said Circe, joining the conversation after what I can only assume was a shocked silence. “There are a lot of legends of vampires transforming into different kinds of things. Mist and fog, swarms of flies, birds—mostly black ones—and even balls of light. But bats aren’t on the list. It was made up for fiction.”

I heard Rudy mutter. “I can’t believe we are having this conversation.”

“The knight I fought didn’t transform into anything but dead meat after Violin put a bullet in his head. Maybe I watched the wrong movies, but I thought stakes were how you killed a vampire. Bullets in the head are zombies, and we’ve pretty much done zombies. And, I might add—they were the products of science, not black magic.”

“The stakes are questionable,” said Circe. “In most legends the vampire hunters use sharpened poles rather than stakes, and they don’t kill the vampire. The stake was used to hold the vampire down, pinning it to the ground or to its coffin, so that the full Ritual of Exorcism could be performed.”

“Dear God,” said Rudy, “what’s that?”

“They cut the vampire’s head off, fill its mouth with garlic, turn it backward in the coffin, then drive iron nails into the arms and legs of the vampire and rebury it. Or cremate it.”

“I’m here to tell you, Circe,” I said, “a bullet in the brainpan does a spiffy job of dropping your modern-day vampire.”

“I have found that a bullet in the brain works on most things,” Church said dryly, and I couldn’t argue with that.

“So, are we talking about something nonsupernatural?” asked Rudy. “If he could be shot and killed, doesn’t that mean—?”

“It means we know how to kill it,” said Church. “It doesn’t mean that we understand its nature.”

“Surely it’s more likely that this is some kind of genetic aberration,” insisted Rudy, “or at most an evolutionary sideline. We know that there were many kinds of human species evolving at once.”

“It’s very possible,” agreed Church. “And it’s the working premise I’ve maintained for many years. If these Upierczi are vampires, then we will want to ascertain whether that is a subspecies or separate species.”

“Wait, roll back a sec. You said ‘many years’?” I asked. “How long have you known about these Red Knights?”