"Another blessing from God," Father Joseph murmured.
"It was the cold," Lissianna snapped impatiently. "He left the sliding glass door open and a draft was coming in. It woke me up. I rolled over to get up and find another blanket to keep warm."
"It was a miracle,'' Father Joseph insisted. "It allowed him to stake you."
"For all the good that did," Dwayne muttered.
"Yes." Father Joseph frowned. "I was terribly upset with Dwayne for staking you at first, until he explained about actually seeing you bite your friend." His gaze shifted to Greg then away and he shook his head. "Once he told me about that, I thought it had been God's will, and the whole matter was over with. I couldn't believe it when your mother called the shelter the next night and said you wouldn't be in because you'd been taken ill." Some of the devastation he must have felt then, showed on his face. "I couldn't believe it. You were supposed to be dead! At one point I even thought it was a lie; that you must be dead, but..." He raised his head and peered at her. "That's when I finally did the research I should have done in the beginning."
"I did the research," Dwayne said with irritation. "You didn't even know how to get onto the Internet."
"I used the resources God had sent me and called my computer friend here to do the research," Father Joseph corrected grimly, then informed them, "He's very good with computers; he's a programmer."
Lissianna raised one sardonic eyebrow in Dwayne's direction. It seemed the tan, the padding, and the cucumber weren't the only things he'd faked that night. He'd told her he was doing his last year of internship and once he was a full-fledged doctor, he planned to start his own family medical practice. Trying to impress her, she supposed. Idiot. What would he have done if they'd hit it off and he'd wanted to pursue a relationship with her? How would he have explained that he wasn't an intern after all?
"Dwayne found all sorts of information on the Internet," Father Joseph announced. "Of course, there was the usual stuff about crosses, holy water, and garlic, which we already know is wrong, but there were also suggestions about vanquishing one of your kind. Some sites claimed that a stake through the heart would do it, but others said that once the stake was removed, the vampire could be resurrected... as you were. Those sites claimed you had to cut off the vampire's head to finish the job properly."
"God," Greg muttered. "Don't you just love the Internet?"
Lissianna shared a grimace with him, but turned back to Father Joseph as he continued.
"I knew I couldn't handle it on my own. So, I again enlisted the help of Dwayne and we prepared this house, then came up with this plan to lure you out here this morning. Of course, at the time I expected you to be driving yourself to work as you normally did. When you got a ride into work last night, I feared the plan would have to be put off for another day, but then your friend showed up. Providence again lent a hand," he said, with a pleased sigh. "While he was in your office with you, I called Dwayne, and he told me how to fix it so the car wouldn't start, then headed out here to wait for our arrival... and here we are."
"Here we are," Greg agreed dryly, drawing Father Joseph's attention.
"Of course, when we conceived the plan, we were only counting on it being Lissianna we had to deal with," the priest pointed out. "So I'm afraid I only brought one stake."
"Such a shame," Greg said pleasantly. "Oh well, I guess we'll just have to put this off to another time, huh?"
"That won't be necessary," Father Joseph assured him quietly, then added, "I do have some wood in the back of the van. I'm sure it won't take long to fashion another stake... Or we could do the two of you one at a time. Lissianna first, I think," he decided. "We can stake and behead her, then use the same stake on you."
"Ladies first, huh?" Lissianna didn't bother to dampen her sarcasm.
"I'll make it as quick and painless as I can," Father Joseph assured her solemnly, then he hesitated, and said, "It would be easiest if you didn't fight this and simply allowed me to get it done with."
I'll bet it would, she thought grimly.
"And then you'll finally find peace," he added, trying to tempt her. On a grimace he added, "It would be much simpler than having to shoot you half a dozen times, then staking you while you are weak."
"Father, I'm hardly going to stand around and let you stake me," Lissianna said patiently.
"I was afraid you would make us do this the hard way," Father Joseph said on a sigh. "Never fear. We were prepared for that. Dwayne, it's time.
"He rigged this up today," Father Joseph informed them proudly as the younger man retrieved a remote control from his pocket. "He's quite clever."
Lissianna stiffened, alert for any eventuality. Dwayne pushed a button on the remote control and a snapping sound then drew her gaze upward to see the ceiling peeling away overhead. She stared in amazement as it began sliding down the slanted roof toward the walls.
Not the ceiling she realized, a black tarp that had been hung to cover the ceiling and walls and rigged to be released when Dwayne hit a button on the remote control. The heavy cloth was slipping away to reveal that the dark room they'd stood in was actually a sunroom and that while they'd been talking, the sun had risen outside. Bright sunshine poured in at them from every direction except the wall Father Joseph and Dwayne stood in front of.
"Nothing's happening to them," Dwayne said nervously, as the cloth snaked to the ground outside the windows and pooled there.
Father Joseph tsked with irritation, then scowled and began to dig around in his pocket as his cell phone began to ring. He peered at the display window, frowned, then barked, "Watch them" to Dwayne, and moved closer to the door. He turned his back as he answered his phone.
Dwayne licked his lips nervously and pointed his gun at them. Lissianna noted that the tip of the gun was shaking and hoped he didn't accidentally shoot one of them in his nervousness.
"Okay, Lissianna, now's the time," Greg murmured.
She glanced at him with confusion. "Now's the time for what?"