"All right, that's settled. Any other commandments you need broken?" asked Pastor Mark sarcastically.
"None, thanks. You performed the blessing like we asked you?" Said Nina briskly. She was busy crumbling up the hundred Host wafers she had asked him to bring.
"Yes. Though it won't do any good unless there's a fire."
Nina held up a silver Zippo lighter.
"I see. Well, I'm off then. Good luck in your war. I expect to be canonized if this works."
After they had seen the priest home, the gang made their final preparations.
"You all have your lighters?" asked Nina.
They nodded.
"This bit is brilliant. You are a master strategist, Nina." Said Penny, sincerely.
"Thank you. You and your friends are important to George, and therefore important to me. I've never let down a friend in need in my life. Besides, these vampires have to be taught a lesson."
"But this will likely kill them!" said Mitchell.
"That's the lesson." said Nina Pickering, judge, jury and executioner.
Penny turned to Annie.
"Are you sure this other bit will work? These women may not be suitable. Being a witch requires a great deal of willpower. Hecate would reject someone she felt was unworthy; that's why it takes so long to reform covens sometimes."
"From my experience with her, I don't see that happening, at least with one of them." said Annie.
Annie's bit of the plan involved a quick phone call to someone Mitchell never expected to speak to again. The woman on the other end of the phone was very confused, but agreed to their request.
She arrived alone.
Mitchell came over and gave her a hug.
"Fleur. How are you?"
"Oh, how do you think? I have a twelve year old son who is a vampire, currently being watched by his two gay uncles who are completely unaware of what he is. I've been laid off from work, Bernie's been thrown out of school, all of my neighbors are suspicious of us, and now I'm to overcome more vampires with the help of you lot: The Monster Club. By becoming a bleeding witch!"
Mitchell nodded.
"Spicy as ever. Hecate wouldn't dare reject this one." Said Mitchell pointedly.
Penny nodded.
"Yes, I think she will be an excellent choice. Fleur is it? Here is the plan. When we find Amanda and Kate, depending on which one is in a suitable state, you are to tell her that you pledge yourself to her and to Hecate. Assuming we find the right Maiden to go along with it, you will be given a tremendous influx of magical power. We will likely need to use it very quickly. I'm useless until I've given birth, but I can coach you on how to use your power when you get it. You will get immortality into the bargain. Are you ready for this?"
Fleur nodded.
"Good. Now, Annie, who do you plan on recruiting as our Maiden? You said you had someone in mind."
"I'm seeing to that. But I wanted to ask you first, is there any way I could do it?
"But you're dead!" said the whole gang together.
Annie rolled her eyes. Why did people keep telling her that?
"And you're not a virgin!" said Mitchell.
"What makes you say that?" Annie said, glaring at him.
"OWEN! The love of your life! You never did the deed with him?" Mitchell shouted.
"Owen…had a little problem. Couldn't get the flag to more than half-mast. Why do you think he was so bloody angry all the time? Trust me when I say there is no doubt I qualify, again except for the 'dead' thing."
They looked at her; Fleur (pityingly), Penny (bewildered), Mitchell (shocked), George (blushing furiously), Nina (smirking).
"George led me to think he might have had that problem! Boy was I wrong!" said Nina.
She and Penny burst into laughter.
"I know! You'd never think what he's capable of, just looking at him…" Penny exclaimed.
George looked mortified.
"Um, when you are done gossiping about my admittedly ferocious sexual prowess, can we get on with things?"
"Some things happen once in a lifetime, George. Enjoy it." Mitchell advised.
"Well, here she is, one live virgin."
A slightly plump, greasy haired girl had arrived.
"Hello, I'm Cara." She said cheerily.
Penny, Nina and Mitchell looked at her, struck speechless.
"So, when do I get to be a witch? Imagine, little Cara with the Magic of Ages flowing through her! 10,000 years of – "
"Can it dearie." Said Penny. "Only Kate or Amanda can induct you into a coven." She smiled. "I imagine they'll be fighting each other over who gets you."
Cara's eyes were wide.
"Do you really think so?" she asked, the veiled insult going completely over her head.
"I know it." Said Penny.
"George said I needed to be a virgin when he called. It's a good thing I've been saving myself for marriage! How did you guys guess I was still pure?"
Mitchell suffered a sudden coughing fit, and had to leave the room.
"Goddess help me, in this my darkest hour." Said Penny under her breath.
George came over to her, and placed the amulet she had given him around her neck. Penny started to protest, but George silenced her with one of his patented glares.
"This is all pointless if anything happens to you. You are one of the primary targets, and you have no magic right now. I still have my Star of David. I'm counting on you to get out with Nina and Mitchell if the worst happens."
Penny nodded, her eyes shining with unshed tears.
While the rest of the gang worked on getting in through the garage, George, Cara, Fleur and Annie broke through the front door with the help of Annie's poltergeist abilities. George held out his Star of David. Fleur held a silver cross. Cara clutched a smiley-face nightlight.
"I told you to bring a religious symbol." hissed George.
"I don't subscribe to organized religion. This has always kept monsters away when I was a little girl. I believe in it!" hissed Cara back.
No one was out front.
They made their way into the back corridors, through the aspiration room, and down to where George remembered being held prisoner. It was odd that they had come so far unchallenged.
"All we have to do is make it to Kate or Amanda with you two, and we are home free."
They arrived at the door. George undid the heavy bolt and opened it, heading inside followed closely by Fleur and Annie. Cara stood lookout by the door.
Amanda looked bad, and had numerous wounds from being bled. Kate was very pale and unconscious.
"Bollocks." Said George. He went to check on Kate's vital signs, when Amanda slapped his hand away.
"Don't you think you've done enough damage?" she asked nastily.
Such a statement would have undone him a while back. Not now, though.
George looked at Amanda evenly, his clear blue eyes locking with her dark ones. She looked away first.
"I'm sorry. That was very wrong of me. Penny would have my head if she heard that. This just brings back too many memories. We all nearly died because of Penny's fiancé before. My own son."
"It's good to see that you remember me Mother." Said a new voice.
They turned to see a youngish vamp in rather old fashioned clothing standing in the door. Cara giggled and gave him a peck on the cheek.
"Gedrick! I thought you'd never get here." Cara tossed away her nightlight.
Her eyes scorched black, and she revealed her lovely new vampire fangs.
"What luck you picked on me to help you out. I managed to warn Herrick that you all were coming. And now you are our prisoners. With no Maiden, there will be no witchcraft!"
"You're type always comes to a bad end in these stories. Don't you know that yet?" asked Annie. Cara just stuck her tongue out at Annie.
Amanda was staring unbelieving at her son.
"Gedrick! I thought you were dead!"
"I was, after a fashion. Undead. All you had to do was hang, and I could have married Rebecca and inherited my father's estate. She was the one who turned me. But you had to go and become a witch…, well more of one than you already were."
"I think you ought to leave now. Sons should never talk to their mothers like that. It's disrespectful." said George, rising to his feet and staring the vampire down.
Gedrick laughed, showing his fangs.
"A talking dog. Will wonders never cease. Very attached to your own mother, were you? And what do you call something that whelps little doggies? A bitch?"
George launched himself at Gedrick, who easily countered George's attack and with a few well-placed punches left him curled up on the floor out cold. The moon was of no help to George, it was far closer to new than full and the dormant wolf inside him barely stirred from its dreams of blood and rage to acknowledge its host's agony.
Gedrick laughed at the lot of them before leaving by the door once again, preceded by Cara. When he was all the way out but for one hand, Annie slammed the door with a mild twist of her head, and his shriek made her smile smugly.
Amanda nodded approvingly at her.
Annie knelt down before Kate.
"Kate needs a doctor badly." Annie said.
"Kate needs her power back. Kate needs a Mother and a Maiden. I'm of no help. I'm a Crone as well now, and Penny is no good to anyone for another nine months, that is, if George managed to do his job properly."
"You think George got her knocked up already? They might need a few more tries." Said Annie.
Amanda shook her head.
"If he had seed to plant, there'll be a harvest, don't you worry. Hecate is not a time waster." Amanda said confidently.
"Does George know this?" asked Annie in a high pitched voice.
"Men get told what's good for them to know. Do you think he would have allowed Penny to be here if he knew?"
Annie shook her head and went to check on George. He eventually woke up, groaning in pain.
His nose looked to be broken, and he had blood trickling from both nose and mouth. He would have two shiners tomorrow, if they lived that long.
"Where's the Hecate amulet?" asked Amanda.
"George insisted Penny take it until she gets her magic back. It would be no good here, no vampires to kill."
"And do you think we can make things with only one purpose? There was a reason she wanted him to wear it. But that's out of the question now. Can you get that door open?"
Annie shook her head.
"With you, George and Kate in your present conditions, its best that door stay shut."
"What do we do now?" asked Fleur, exasperated.
Annie and Amanda had no answer for her.
Nina, Penny and Mitchell were following a long stone corridor that seemed to be going nowhere.
"You are aware that you're pregnant, aren't you?" asked Nina.
Penny took it in stride, while Mitchell flinched, but left the women to their conversation.
"And you know this, how? Ahh, the werewolf sense of smell."
"Right in one. George has no idea what a pregnant woman smells like or he would know too…and you wouldn't be here. A relationship based on a lie can't work, even with George. You need to tell him as soon as possible." Nina advised.
Penny wanted to get angry, but knew deep down that the advice was not only true, but well-meant.
"I'll tell him. Right after."
Nina sniffed sharply.
"Trouble!"
"How right you are, miss!" Herrick said, stepping around a nearby corner.
Two more vamps followed him.
"Come with us, please."
Mitchell was grabbed by three more vamps that had snuck up from behind.
Five minutes later, they were tossed summarily into the prison cell with the rest of the gang.
Herrick addressed the lot of them.
"In about twenty minutes, the rest of the vampires will return, and all of you can say goodbye to every drop of blood in your bodies. And anyone seen waving an anti-vampire amulet around their neck will be shot." Herrick pulled out his police-issue revolver.
Mitchell faced Herrick.
"At least let Penny go. She's pregnant, Herrick. Even you couldn't be that much of a monster."
George squeaked in shock.
Herrick's eyes lit up.
"Congratulations! When would the puppies have been due?"
"Oh, you bastard!" screamed George in a voice they had never heard before.
Herrick laughed and slammed the door before George got to him. George pounded his fists until they were bleeding, then slid to the floor.
"Well, that's it then. Twenty minutes and counting before we are the main course at a vampire all-you-can-drink banquet." Said Kate blearily, sitting up with help from Amanda. "Not that they will get much from me."
"Penny, give your amulet to George. You know what he has to do." Said Amanda severely.
George turned his head to look at Penny.
"What does she mean?" he asked. His voice was like stone.
Penny wrung her hands.
"This was my backup plan, in case everything else failed. Hecate is the Goddess of the Moon, George. Only Hecate witches, out of any group of magic-users, have the power to cure a werewolf. We can do something else as well. The amulet derives its power from the moon, regardless of what phase it is in. If you wear it and call on Hecate, she may give you the power to change right now. But it's very dangerous. You will have to prove yourself worthy, or you could turn on all of us."
George looked stricken.
"I can't risk it. Especially not now."
Penny put her hand on George's arm.
"If you don't, we die anyway. I would rather die under your teeth then theirs. There is also the chance you would take them all with you, and survive the night."
"But I wouldn't want to live if I did anything to hurt you… any of you. I would kill myself." George had his face in his hands, overcome with the horror of a single second of life burdened with the terrible knowledge and guilt of what he had done.
"I would await you in Hecate's Garden with open arms. As would our child." Penny stated resolutely.
"What say the rest of you? This is your risk more than mine." George asked.
Everyone nodded their agreement.
"What is Hecate's Garden? Is that what's on the other side of the death door?" asked Annie.
Penny smirked.
"Not bloody likely. Hecate gathers souls faithful to her to a Paradise beyond imagining. The doors to the Gatekeepers are a different matter entirely."
Annie considered this silently.
Voices were heard outside the door. Voices raised in laughter.
Penny put the amulet around George's neck.
"Quickly. Pledge yourself to Hecate and beg for her help!"
George yanked off his Star of David for what he knew would be the last time. He laid it gently on the floor, then considered the amulet, designed to resemble the moon in its full and crescent phases.
"Hecate. I beg you to help me save the lives of my wife, my child, and my friends."
A flash of light filled the room.