"Vampires" Edgar said in a quiet but serious whisper as he sat on his bed, "are cruel"

"Everyone knows that. Stop whispering, they're not home"

Edgar bristled a little at the dismissive tone of his brother's voice but couldn't deny that he didn't need to whisper. Their parents had been out since the early afternoon and likely wouldn't be back until gone midnight, "yeah but I think we don't appreciate it. We have to really appreciate the cruelty of these beasts"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about how we have to really get into the headspace of being vampire hunters. This is happening, it's actually happening, we gotta prepare. The other night was a bust but now we know Elizabeth hasn't been claimed yet. We have to start thinking seriously about how we're going to do it. Save the damsel, protect Elizabeth, kill the vamp. We got to do this!"

"...alright..." Alan closed the comic he had been casually reading, dropping it onto his pillow as he pushed himself into a sitting position using his elbows.

Edgar sighed. It annoyed him, sometimes, when his brother was all stoic. He knew it was an act and he didn't like being made to look immature by comparison. He knew Alan was just as eager as he was.

"So, OK. What do we know about vamps?" he pushed, "really, what do we know? We have to take stock of stuff"

"Cruel. Serious, absolutely no sense of humor. Seductive and enticing to women. Can turn into bats, that's how they fly. Don't like garlic, holy water hurts them and silver will burn them. Crucifixes deter them, they'll burn the skin. They can't enter a building without an invitation but when they've been invited once, they're in forever. You can't cast them out. They can turn into vapors and float through keyholes. Injured vampires can bury themselves and heal but they can be killed by decapitation, long exposure to sunlight or a stake to the heart"

Alan spoke as if he was giving a report and Edgar didn't know what to say against such an onslaught of information so he added, "sunlight burns them"

"Yes. Long exposure to sunlight will kill them" his brother repeated.

Edgar drummed his fingers against his leg, "...what else? What else..."

"All vampires have hounds of hell"

"Good! We gotta prepare to defend ourselves against a dog, too!" how had he forgotten that? "Good, good. OK, c'mon. What else? This is good, see, this is why we gotta spitball"

Alan sat up a little straighter, clearly pleased by the sincere praise, "they sleep in coffins"

"Alright...so...we gotta consider what works in our favor...during the day, our target will be confined to a coffin"

"But defended by a dog"

Edgar frowned for a second before nodding, "right", that's what they'd read, "but dogs are stupid. We can throw it a steak or something, lace it with rat poison or whatever. We don't have to get close to it to get it out of action"

Alan nodded slowly and Edgar continued, "...we get the dog out of the way and then strike the vamp. Easy. He won't be expecting it"

"That's dangerous" Alan said with a shake of his head, "we have to do a night attack"

"Night? No way, that's dangerous" going after one of the undead during the night?! Did his brother have a death wish?

"I think it will work in our favor. Vampires expect a day attack because that's when they're vulnerable. That's why they got the dogs, right? We gotta get to him. Past a hound who's probably going to attack all visitors regardless, past traps...and he's gotta have traps, man" Alan shook his head, "I'm sure the night is better. The night belongs to him, it's where he's comfortable. It's where he lets his guard down"

Edgar nodded. Those were fair points, "alright...so, hypothetically...say we strike at night...how do we do it?"

"OK. So, we need real holy water. Sam's sister isn't a vamp yet but we were wrong not to go to the church, I think. Let's get the real stuff. Holy water and garlic, mixed together-"

"-yeah! Double whammy!-"

"-and then we need strong stakes. Real wood, like what we have now but we need more. How many do we have? Three?-"

"-five-"

"-we need about ten, each. You know, we might drop one or something. We don't want to be caught off guard. We should get a super soaker, too. Fill it with holy water. A vampire gun..." Alan was frowning a little as he thought, not really appreciating how good and idea it was, "and we have to secure the windows, so he doesn't try to morph and fly out when he realizes what's going on"

"OK, so we gotta get nails and a hammer? Right? Nail the windows shut?"

His brother nodded but carried on speaking.

"We have to work as a team when we attack, one from the front and one from the back. Confuse him, he won't know who to fight against first and when he's making his choice, we make our move"

"Rambo!"

"...but and this is a big but...we're dead if we do it on his turf"

"What do you mean?" Edgar frowned a little, staring angrily, "you're onto it, we have it down"

At first, he'd thought his brother was being too dismissive, not taking it seriously but now he'd gotten into it, he seemed so sure of what had to be done, so sure of the facts and now he was so sure they'd fail?

They were onto a good thing!

"I don't get it? We're onto something good! We get the water, garlic, stakes. We do it at night, that sounded ace? I'm OK with the night attack, you were right"

"When are we going to have time to nail his windows shut? Assuming he has windows. Maybe he lives in an open space? Maybe it's a basement and the only place he could escape from it the only place we can, too? How're we gonna lug all the holy water? No. No, it won't work. We gotta bring him to us"

"Us?"

"It has to be here"

"Here?"

"What? Are you a parrot? Yes! Here!" Alan said, making Edgar flinch with his seriousness, "we know our house. This is our territory. We know the layout, the easiest way to get in and out. We have weapons, we can store the holy water - man, we can even make a trip wire! We have control if it's on our territory"

"...I'm...I'm kinda impressed by you"

His brother smiled, "thanks"

"No, seriously" Edgar insisted.

He often felt like it was him; he was the ringleader and he was the boss, he was the one that did the hard work with research, he was the one with the stronger passion for their career as hunters, he felt like he was the driving force behind their calling but now his brother was really getting into it. It was a life-or-death situation, so it needed nothing less than their full attention but now Alan was so passionate and serious, Edgar could feel his own excitement bubbling.

It was really going to happen.

"Thanks" Alan repeated, "but you're right. We do have to be serious about this. Now, Mom and Dad are going to be gone the day after tomorrow-"

"-that's too soon!-"

"-for a week" his brother finished, firmly.

Edgar nodded, regretting his reaction a little. The day after tomorrow felt like an impossibly short amount of time to do everything but a week...well, a week still felt a bit overwhelming but Alan was being so serious, just like he'd told him to be, and now he wanted to act the same.

He could be cool, too.

He could mask his excitement, his worry.

A week was doable.

"Right. Sorry. So..."

"...so, we prepare. We come up with a plan, we arrange our defenses and our method of attack. We think seriously about what we have to do and we act. They're gone tomorrow, we need two days to clean up after so...so that is soon..."

Edgar nodded, hearing hesitation in his brother's voice.

He figured Alan must have been processing the gravity of it, too.

"We can do it. It's soon but it's not tomorrow, you know?"

"...almost is..." there was a hint of regret, reproachful nervousness in his brother's voice.

Edgar needed him back to the enthusiastic soldier he had been moments before.

Yeah, it was kind of soon but crap it. There was a reason people talking about grabbing bulls by horns. They had to just do it.

"No! Come on. Think about it logically, think what we need to do...we need to get holy water - the real stuff - we need garlic, more wood for stakes..."

"Nails to secure the windows, but if we can get him into our basement then-"

"-you said the basement was bad?"

"No, that was an example" Alan insisted, "like, if our target's coffin was in his basement. We know the layout of ours, the windows are easy enough to secure and so is the door..."

Edgar could feel his face light up, "and the old delivery door! The drop, the-the loading bay!"

"Edgar!" Alan was smiling.

His brother was a genius!

The basement, the basement, the basement!

It wasn't anything to write home about but once upon a time, before their comic store had moved in, the basement had a small loading bay. It was just a sort of long drop from the street to the basement itself and hadn't been used in forever. The doors themselves were pretty much always bolted shut but, "Alan! We could lock him in. We don't even have to kill him we can just lock him in!"

"And then, when it's daylight we can open the windows, open the loading doors and use mirrors to burn him to death!"

What a plan!

It was perfect!

"Do we have a big enough mirror?"

"No! No, no" Alan shook his head, obviously excited now, "but we can get one from a second hand store easy enough?"

"Can we do it?"

Alan nodded.

"Holy shit! Can we actually do it?!"

Alan nodded again, a grin stretching out over his face.

Like a lightbulb moment, everything had suddenly fallen into place.

"OK. OK, crap, OK. This is happening, we're gonna do it! Defenders! Let's make a list of what we have to do? Grab me some paper?" the command just rolled off his tongue but, dutifully, Alan slid off his bed and strode to their messy and unused desk, pausing when Edgar shouted, "wait!"

It was as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him.

So much for a lightbulb moment.

He stared at his brother.

"We don't even know who our mystery vamp is. How are we gonna get him here?"

Alan's shoulders slumped a little.

"Shit" Edgar cussed, punching his pillow.

Everything else had clicked together but that was the last piece of their puzzle and he didn't have a clue.

"We should have started with that. Damn!"

"...Elizabeth"

He looked over at his frowning brother, noticing that his shoulders were straight once more. Edgar didn't know why he wasn't slouching in disappointment anymore. What kind of stupid comment was that? Sammy's sister was stupid and she hated them, she was about as useful as a wet towel.

"She hates us. She's stupid, she doesn't even know what's going on. She's useless. Go back to being serious"

"Exactly. She doesn't know" Alan was frowning a little, speaking slowly, "we can use her...we bring her here and he comes to get her"

"She hates us" Edgar repeated with a shake of his head, "how do we get her here? Keep her here? C'mon man..."

"Edgar, think for a second"

"You think for a second"

"Didn't Star-" Alan paused for a moment, swallowing nervously and Edgar felt himself straighten at the name.

Star.

God, she was so beautiful. Her eyes were wide, innocent but sultry and her lips...full, red...

"-Star said he wanted her, that-that Elizabeth was in danger"

"Duh" Edgar replied, his insulting comment belying how unsure he felt. Star...she was beautiful but scary, terrifying. Their first time to meet a vampire. He'd tried to forget about her because it scared him how much he wanted to be bitten by her.

He hated vampires; supernatural scum. It was his life's calling, his mission to kill them all...but she had made him want to put that all in the past. He wanted to remember her words, forget the her...but it was easier said than done.

"We but don't know who he-"

"-yeah, she was too scared to tell us"

"Would you listen?"

Edgar closed his mouth and nodded. Alan sounded almost exasperated.

"She said the vampire wanted Elizabeth, so that's it. That's all the information we have, all the info we're gonna get. She's how we find out who he is. Elizabeth will bring him to us"

"...how?"

"Didn't Sammy say his birthday was in November?"

What did that have to do with anything? Edgar frowned.

"I dunno? What's that got to do with anything?"

"They're close"

Yeah, and, so what?

"Alright? And?"

Alan tutted, "...am I doing all the work? Come on. Think! We need to convince Elizabeth to come-"

"-she won't! And if she does, she won't come alone. We can't have anyone other than us involved, we can't kill a vamp and protect ourselves and a mortal, we can't let anyone else involve themselves in this, man-"

"-listen. Just, just wait. Listen, OK? I'm thinking...what if we tell her, what if we tell her that we got a Batman number 1 or something...tell her she can give it to Sammy for his birthday-"

"-she'll never fall for it!" that was the stupidest idea ever, "Jesus man, that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard"

Alan, however, just spoke louder, "didn't Sammy say she doesn't appreciate comics? She put a wet glass on one his Superman collectibles once, remember?"

Edgar did. Sammy had been kind of laughing but quite obviously annoyed when he told them the story. It had happened back when they were in Arizona but the memory obviously stayed with him and the message they'd received had been loudly and clear: Elizabeth definitely didn't care about comics.

"So, she'll understand that Sammy'd want it but she wouldn't get the value of it, she wouldn't know we'd never give something like that away. If she just uses whatever comic as a coaster for a glass, come on, she obviously doesn't get them. She doesn't get the value but I think she gets the prestige. So...so, we can make it our apology...Liz is kinda dumb, I think that if she thinks we're doing something nice for our friend, she'll believe it. We can tell her, like, we're sorry for how we broke Sam's trust the other night but we have this idea how to make it up to him and we offer her the comic"

Sam didn't often talk about his family but the stuff he had spoken of Elizabeth was all ridiculously nice. Edgar was sure if they offered her a present as an apology, she wouldn't even bother to say goodbye before hanging up the phone but she was close to her brother so perhaps she would actually hear them out.

Perhaps it would work.

Could Elizabeth really be such a people pleaser?

Would she really buy something so stupid in the hopes of making her brother happy?

"...you think she's that gullible?"

"I think it's worth a shot. What else are we going to do?"

"OK. OK, say that's just dumb enough to work. Say she's dumb enough to fall for it" Edgar said, his fist still buried in his pillow, "how do we keep her here? What's the next step? How do we make sure she doesn't go telling her mom about coming to our shop?"

"Why are you asking me?!"

"Well-I-I mean, this is kinda your idea.." Edgar looked up at his brother with a shrug. It was a little strange to say that out loud because he had sort of assigned himself as their leader but right now, Alan was the one coming up with the bulk of the plan and he had to admit, as plans went, it wasn't terrible.

"We dress her up as a bride. Lure the vamp that way"

"We have to make her bleed, right?"

Alan nodded grimly, "yes. How else would he smell her?"

"Elizabeth...she'll be thankful, right? When she realizes we hurt her to help her? Sammy, too?"

Alan nodded, "of course! Absolutely, it's just hurting her a little now but she'll be so happy when she realizes the danger she was in"

"...maybe she'll pay us? Like a reward?"

"Maybe, yeah, maybe?"

"...but man, if we do get her here...and that's a big if, I don't mean to shit on you dude but..." Edgar shrugged before shaking his head, "OK, so we get her here. I don't think she's going to willingly offer her wrists to us.."

"Not her wrists, we're going to just cut her enough to bleed not kill her-" Alan sounded panicked and Edgar sighed, "-I know, I know, it was just an example. I mean, she's hardly gonna smile and be like, 'oh sure guys, do whatever!'"

Alan seemed to twig, "she's going to fight us"

"Exactly. So...do we use chloroform?"

"Where would we even get any? You're thinking movies. Come on, this is real life!"

Alan was still standing near their desk and Edgar looked upwards slowly.

They'd never ventured into their parents' 'workspace' before. They weren't stupid, they knew what went on but they also knew not to get involved at all. They dealt with the supernatural, nothing more and nothing less. They didn't want to involve themselves in the world of narcotics which was good because their parents had been explicit about it, almost scarily so and Edgar knew why. Again, he wasn't stupid. His parents didn't actually care about them getting hurt or overdosing, they weren't worried about their son's health or their ability to deny all knowledge if there was a bust...no, they were worried about their stock.

Pure and simple.

They didn't want Edgar and Alan using their stock.

"Edgar" Alan's voice was hard, "I wouldn't know where to begin"

"I know, me too...but" he looked at his brother, "there's gotta be something up there to knock a girl out or just loosen her up. We don't even need to knock her out, we just want her to not fight us"

Alan nodded slowly, reaching over and tugging out a sheet of crumpled but unused paper from the pile.

"We making that list?" Edgar asked, slowly, hopefully grinning as his brother tugged a pencil free. Alan nodded, looking happily grim, "let's figure this out"