"...Sandi? How?"

"I don't know. Maybe she really was attacked by one, and got infected."

"But...wait! She was at school in the daytime! How do you explain that?"

"I can't really say. It's only in the past century or so that vampires - fictional ones, anyway - would be killed by sunlight. It's entirely possible that that's the case."

"What do we do, then? Do we confront her?"

"No, not unless we're well-prepared. Sandi could easily crush our skulls if I'm right."

"Well, what do we do in the way of preparation?"

Trent had heard enough. He was about to go into Janey's room to ask if she knew what continent Dad was on this year, but had been shaken to a stop when he overheard what they were talking about. He had a very important phone call to make.

He closed the door to his room, sat down on the mattress, picked up the duck phone, dialed, and listened to the ringing.

"Hey," the dull voice came from the earpiece.

"Jesse, it's Trent. We have to talk. Get over here."

XXXX

Daria and Jane contemplated the giant sacks of garlic. "I dunno, Daria. We want to ward off Sandi, not everybody down wind."

They were at the PayDay, picking up a few items in bulk. Daria held a jumbo can of lighter fluid in one hand already, while Jane had a five-pound can of coffee (the Lane household was running low on the stuff - she had no intention of battling vampires with it).

"Can I help you?" The duo turned to see it was Andrea addressing them. Andrea had shunned them when they had come to the store on an earlier errand, believing that they would viciously insult her, but they had since grown into casually saying 'hello' to one another whilst passing in the hallway.

"Yeah, we were wondering if this garlic was good to ward off vampires," Jane said without thinking. Daria resisted the urge to elbow Jane in the ribs.

Andrea looked inquisitively at the two. "Really? Who's the vampire?"

"Mm...Sandi Griffin," Daria said.

"Bitchin'!" Andrea said, a smirk on her face. "Well, to be honest, garlic isn't useful against vampires at all."

Daria nodded. "I thought as much, but we were operating on the off-chance that extreme odors would overwhelm their senses and let us get the upper hand."

Andrea shook her head. "Vampires may have heightened senses, but they also have higher tolerance to compensate. Tell you what, if you two are serious, there's this shop just off Dega Street that can help you." She gave them directions. "Let me know how it works out!"

"Um..." Daria hesitated. "Since you seem to be pretty knowledgable...would you be interested in joining us?"

Andrea shook her head. "No thanks. It's tempting, but I don't feel like dying yet."

Daria and Jane exchanged a look, thanked her, and quickly made their way to the registers.

XXXX

"Well, I'm disappointed. This isn't how I expected a dingy occult store to look at all," Jane said.

The dingy occult store was actually a well-lit, neatly organized shop that (if you didn't look too closely) appeared to be a specialty bookstore. In fact, the most occult item in sight was the ankh that hung around the clerk's neck. Daria and Jane approached her.

"Hi, we're here because we...uh...need help with vampires," Daria said reluctantly.

The woman looked up from her book - Tobin's Spirit Guide - and appraised them for a moment. Daria appraised back; the woman's hair was an impressive shade of red, darker than Quinn's. "I see," she finally answered. "Don't we go to the same high school?"

Daria suddenly realized she had seen her in passing several times at Lawndale. "I guess so," she acknowledged. "Andrea referred us here," she added.

The woman perked up. "Andrea? That means she thinks you're cool. Good."

She retreated to a back room for a few minutes. Daria looked at some of the nearest shelves of books - most of the books' spines either had no title, or were in a foreign language. The ones that were in English only spurred her curiosity - Three Ways To Make a Cockatrice, The Ethics of Precognition, Astral Projection For Dummies, Cooking For Your Chi, just to name a few. Finally, the woman returned from the back room with a velvet drawstring sack.

The first thing she took out of the sack was a sheet of temporary tattoos all alike. "These symbols are a ward against evil. Apply them pretty much anywhere on your body, though some places are more effective - forehead, over your heart, the base of your spine, and the top of your hand."

"Would permanent tattoos be more effective?" Jane asked.

The woman shook her head. "No, but if you expect to be going up against dark forces frequently, it would be more convenient than plastering these things on every two or three days." She removed the next item from the sack.

"A bag of seed?" Daria asked, skeptical.

"Vampires are a bit OCD - they're compelled to pick things up, count them, and so on. I want to emphasize, though, that this is NOT a sure thing - if a vamp's hell-bent on tearing your throat out, this will only buy you a few seconds, so don't rely on it."

She pulled out the next item. "That's a mirror," Daria pointed out.

"Yes and no. It's granite that's been so highly polished that it reflects just as well as a glass mirror. Vampires can also see their reflections in it - and for some reason, they're terrified of their own reflection."

She pulled the last item out of the sack, a small bundle of glass spheres.

"These are your last resort - don't use them otherwise."

"What is it?" Jane asked.

"Werewolf pee. The scent of another predator will drive vampires into fight-or-flight immediately, and according to past accounts, will usually choose flight."

"And if they choose fight?"

The woman grimaced. "I really hope you have your affairs in order."

"How do you get werewolf pee, anyway?" Jane asked.

"You really, really don't want to know."

XXXX

Sandi and Stacy were trying clothes on in Cashman's. They were behaving themselves, of course, as it would be unbecoming of a Fashion Club member to ruin the sanctity of the dressing room.

"Sandi...when you...eh-heh...didn't it taste...well, since I was...you know?" Stacy asked.

"Oh, uh, I didn't even notice," Sandi quickly lied.

"You're so sweet, Sandi," Stacy smiled, giving her a peck on the cheek. Sandi would have blushed, if she still had circulation.

XXXXXXXXXX

Please note: I made up half of the vampire preventatives given to Daria and Jane and I'm pretty sure the other half wouldn't actually work, so don't attempt to use them on a vampire yourself, guys.

I think things will start picking up towards a climax in the next chapter (though the actual climax won't be for two, three, maybe four chapters more. Not sure yet).