That’s when I heard Mo’Lock calling my name from the other side of the house. I pulled my gun and ran around the balcony. I found the ghoul in the second room on the left. He was standing over a row of three black baby cribs.

“You are going to want to see this, Cal.”

I holstered my gun and crossed the room. I peered into the first crib and inside was an infant, a Nosferatu infant, bald, two teeth. The same in the second and third. They were all fast asleep, cute in a sinister, evil sort of way.

I looked at the ghoul. “What the fuck?”

“Indeed.”

I leaned in on the first one. There were no marks on the neck or anywhere.

They weren’t turning babies into vampires.

They were fucking growing them.

There was a cabinet to the right, black, ornate. I pulled it open and inside were baby bottles. They were filled with blood.

“What should we do?” asked Mo’Lock. “We can’t kill babies.”

“Wanna bet? I say we burn the whole place to the ground.”

“Cal!”

“Just a little holy water. I bet they explode.”

Mo’Lock glared at me.

I relented. He was right. You can’t kill babies, even if they grow up to be bloodsucking monsters.

I guess.

I wasn’t really convinced.

“Well, we have to do something,” I said.

The ghoul gathered the three infants in bundles in his arms. “We’re taking them out of here.”

It was three a.m. We still had time before the others returned. I wanted to search for the fourth coffin but the ghoul wanted to get the babies out of there. I tried to protest.

“We can come back during the day when they are vulnerable,” the ghoul added.

I followed the ghoul out of the room and back down the stairs to the foyer. That’s when I heard a car pull up outside. I had the crossbow slung over my shoulder. I got it ready, checking the tension and loading a stake. I glanced out the window through a crack in the curtain.

It was the three women.

I signaled for Mo’Lock to go hide in an adjacent room.

I planted myself about six feet from the front door.

The door flew open and a woman with short blond hair walked through first. I didn’t hesitate. I fired the crossbow and hit her right in the heart. She gripped the stake in her chest and got out a hiss and then collapsed to the floor in a heap of dust.

I got another ready, but there was no sign of the other two. Part of me wanted to hunt them down but I knew I had a trap waiting for them in their coffins so it wasn’t necessary.