Bloodsucking fiends: a love story

screeched in protest, then broke loose. Tommy pulled the hatch open and was hit with the smell of urine and decay.
    "Christ." He turned away coughing. "Lash, give me the lighter."
    Lash handed him the lighter. Tommy reached through the hatch and lit it. There were bars just inside the hatch, beyond that a rotting mattress, some empty food cans, and a bucket. Red-brown splotches smeared the gray walls, one in the shape of a handprint.
    "Is it the fiend?" the Emperor asked.
    Tommy moved back from the hatch and handed back the lighter. "No, it's a cage."
    Lash looked in. "A prison cell? I don't get it."
    Tommy slid down the bulkhead and sat on the steel floor, trying to catch his breath. "You said this thing had an incredible range. Could stay out to sea for months, probably?"
    "Yeah," Lash said.
    "He has to store his food somewhere."
    Inside the vampire's vault, just above his face, a computer screen was scrolling information. A schematic of the Sanguine II lit up one side of the screen with nine red dots representing the vampire hunters and Lazarus. Green dotted lines traced the patterns of their movements since they had boarded the ship. Another area of the screen recorded the time they had boarded and another showed exterior views of the yacht: the raft tied up at the rear, the dock, fog sweeping over the Saint Francis clubhouse. Radar readouts showed the surrounding watercraft, the shoreline, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate in the distance. Optical disk drives recorded all the information so the vampire could replay it upon awakening.
    Motion detectors had, upon sensing Barry's presence near the console on the bridge, activated switches that rerouted all of the ship's control to the vault. The Sanguine II was wide awake and awaiting its master.
    "How's our time, Lash?" Tommy asked.
    "About an hour."
    They were gathered at the stern of the yacht, watching the fog roll into shore. They had searched the entire ship, then gone back through it again, opening every closet, cupboard, and access panel.
    "He's got to be here."
    "Perhaps," said the Emperor, "we should go ashore and set Bummer on another trail."
    At the mention of his name Bummer yapped and worked his head out of the Emperor's pocket. Tommy scratched his ears.
    "Let him out."
    The Emperor unbuttoned his pocket and Bummer leaped out, bit Tommy on the ankle, and shot through the hatch.
    "Ouch!"
    "Follow him," the Emperor said. "He's on the trail." He ran through the hatch, followed by the Animals and Tommy, limping slightly.
    Five minutes later they were standing on the diamond-plate floor of the engine room. Bummer was scratching at the floor and whining.
    "This is stupid," Barry said. "We've been through this area three times."
    Tommy looked at the section of floor where Bummer was scratching. There was a rectangular seam, ten feet long by three feet wide, sealed with a rubber gasket. "We didn't look under the floor."
    "It's water under the floor, isn't it?" Jeff said.
    Tommy got down on his knees and examined the seam. "Troy, give me one of those swords."
    Troy Lee handed him a fighting sword. Tommy worked the tip under the rubber gasket and the blade sank into the seam. "Get that other sword into this crack and help me pry it up."
    Troy worked his sword into the seam and they counted to three. The edge of the panel popped up. The other Animals caught the edge and lifted. The floor panel came up, revealing a coffin-length stainless-steel vault two feet below the floor. Bummer leaped into the opening in the floor and began running around the vault, leaping and barking.
    "Well done, little one," the Emperor said.
    Tommy looked at the Animals, who were holding the floor panel up on its edge. "Gentlemen, I'd like you to meet the owner of this vessel."
    Drew let go of the floor panel and jumped into the opening with the vault. There was just enough room in the opening for him to move sideways around the vault. "It's on hydraulic lifts. And there's a shitload of cables running in and out of it."
    "Open it," Troy Lee said, holding his sword at ready.
    Drew pulled at the lid of the vault, then let go and knocked on the side. "This thing is thick. Really thick." He reached up and took Troy's sword, worked the blade under the lid, and pried. The sword snapped.
    "Christ, Drew! That sword cost a week's pay."
    "Sorry," Drew said. "We're not going to pry this baby open. Not even with a crowbar."
    Tommy said, "Lash, how's our time?"
    "Forty minutes, give or take five."
    To