Sami pulled his revolver from his ankle holster, pointed it at the head of the smiling bald man and pulled the trigger. The sound of the shot echoed in the basement and the man’s head snapped backwards, his glasses flying across the room. I dived towards the bag, unzipped it and thrust my hand inside. I looked up at the bald vampire that had not moved and was still smiling. Black liquid was leaking from his right eye socket where Sami’s first bullet had hit. My hand felt a stake and I pulled it out. The vampire stopped smiling and started to growl a deep guttural moan. I shouted:

“Tire, Sami, tirent le bâtard!”

Sami fired again into the left eyeball which exploded over the vampire’s face. The growling got louder and the vamp began to stand up, using the table as support. I got up from my knees clutching the stake ready to leap across the table and drive the wood through the tweed suit and into the black heart of our blinded enemy, but then I noticed that our table was being surrounded by others all growling and with their arms and fingers outstretched in our direction. I shouted to Sami who was still staring in disbelief at the two empty sockets of the vamp that was struggling to get to its feet. He looked at me, then at the others closing in, then back at me. It must have occurred to us both at this point that the SUB was the perfect den for the undead. Plenty of food that would hardly be missed, no sunlight, privacy and a place to take stock between meals. We could not see any of the regulars because they had all been eaten.