Cold Open.

Bathgate, Scotland. 1864.

Marta blew out the candle and settled into her bed. The rain and the wind howled outside causing an almighty racket. After twice having to see to the children, she hoped that they would be able to settle this time.

Marta was the nanny for a wealthy family and it was her duty to see to the children of the O’Donnell family she worked for. Four year old Willow and six year old Norah were just down the hallway in their rooms whilst the mother and father were upstairs asleep. Gregor O’Donnell’s family business was in running the railways in Scotland.

Flashes of the lightning lit up her room and after half an hour of trying to sleep, Marta was beginning to get cross at her inability to fall asleep. Those spoiled girls will be the death of her one day, she was sure of it, keeping her awake all night and making the next day unbearable.

The bell rang at the front door. It was too aggressive to be sounded by the movement of the wind whipping around in the porch way. No it had to be someone ringing it. Marta jumped out of bed and hurried down the hall, navigating herself in the dark by memory and the feeling underfoot.

The bell rang again and Marta whispered a string of curses. If it woke up Gregor or his wife Bonnie, then she would be in big trouble for it. And don’t get started on the trouble she’d be in if the girls happened to be woken by it also.

She stepped of the last step and scuttled towards the door. Opening it, she found two saturated and cold looking people. A man and a woman.

“Oh dear, what is the purpose for waking the house at this time?” Marta, not doing well to hide her annoyance.

“Please Miss,” the woman said. “My husband and I have got into trouble in the storm and we need sanctuary until day breaks.” They both had cloaks on covering themselves from the rain and the wind and Marta could see they were shivering.

“I’ll be in a lot of trouble for this, but come in. I’ll take you straight through into the servant’s kitchen. Be quiet and follow me,” Marta decided.

The pair of poor travellers stepped into the grand hallway and waited for Marta to close and lock the front door back up.

“You’ll need to be gone as soon as it turns light,” she told them.

“Thank you so much, you are our saviour. We were scared and lost and close to our deaths, I’d be sure of it if you turned us away,” the woman said.

“Does he not speak?” Marta asked, referring to the man.

“He does, but he feels weak at the moment. Maybe once he’s warmed up he’ll say a bit more,” the woman suggested.

The trio led by Marta silently moved down the hallway to the servant’s kitchen. It was dark, almost pitch black save from the glowing remains of the wood burner.

“Please sit, I’ll get the fire going again here and make you some hot tea,” Marta said, starting to busy herself with the fire.

“Why must we be here quietly?” the woman asked.

“The children are asleep and the owners of the property are also asleep upstairs. If they are disturbed at night for reasons like this then I will be most in trouble. My name is Marta. What are yours?”

“I’m Rowena Radella, and my companion is Tallon. Tallon Hart.”

“Is he not even your husband?”

“No, we’ve decided that a marriage is not compatible with our way of life,” Rowena explained.

Marta was not one to judge. Her job as nanny was strict in it’s opposition to leading any sort of romantic pursuits of her own.

“Here, the fire’s going no. You can deorbe and hopefully your clothes will be dry come the morning.”

Rowena and her companion Tallon took off their hoods, just as a flash of lightning from outside lit the room for a split second.

“Oh-oh my God,” Marta whispered, as she saw their faces properly for the first time. Their greyish complexions. “You’re vampuras?”

“Well I guess the gig is up then,” Tallon said coldly.

“Pity, I like her,” Rowena said slowly advancing towards Marta. “I wanted to play with her a little bit more.”

Marta started edging back, under her breath, saying the Lord’s prayer. “Our Father, who art in heaven…”

“Listen Tal, she’s singing like a little bird now…”

“…thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” she continued, fearing for her life.

“I’ll go upstairs and have my own fun in that case,” Tallon decided.

“…daily br- NO! No please no!!” Marta shouted, interrupting her prayer to beg for the lives of her wards. “Not the children! Please take me! Just me. I’ve not lived a life proper. I’m poor and have achieved nothing. There is so much potential in those children’s lives.” Marta began to sob and even moved towards Rowena.

“Well that makes me sad to hear,” she said. “Tally, I think I will keep her and she can have a life finally.”

“Ok. I’m still going to ravish everyone upstairs though aren’t I?” he asked.

“NO! Please just kill me. Drink me! Don’t turn me. I wouldn’t be able to live to know I couldn’t save them!”

“She’s very demanding Ro,” Tallon muttered. “Just do what you have to.” He turned and left the kitchen.

“Nooooooo!” screamed Marta as she rushed to the door, but Rowena was in her way and grabbed by the arms.

“Let him go. He get’s awfully hungry if he doesn’t feed often. Hopefully a big drink will keep him going for longer,” Rowena mused. “Plus I don’t really like to watch what he does to men. It’s a bit barbaric if you ask me.”

Marta sobbed and dropped to the floor making herself a dead weight. Rowena followed her down and knelt in front of her. “Sh sh sh sh sh now, little one. You’re about to live a life most full. If you manage to avoid a stick in your chest, decapitation and a firey death, that is.” Rowena lunged for Marta’s neck whilst she, too scared and upset to find the strength to defend herself, remained there.

The pain was excruciating. The teeth piercing through the skin and the blood beginning to gush. Her life began to seep out of her and she began wilting back.

“Yes, my sweet. Don’t fight it,” Rowena said coming for air. The sounds of screaming coming from upstairs started to ring out. They sounded like a woman’s. Tallon was just about to get started. Rowena pressed on, leaving him to it, taking off her necklace and with the pointy end of her pendant, cut along her wrist, drawing blood herself. With her other hand, she ran her fingertips through her blood and wiped it over the dying Marta’s wounds, cross infecting her blood. “There, there. It’s done now nanny girl. I’ll be here for when you wake up.”

Chapter Five.

“Members of the Pin Corner Division, please stand for Mr Teddy Shepherd!” announced Alistair. The group stood up as Teddy walked onto the stage in the pavilion hall.

“Please, sit. And call me Teddy.” Teddy looked in his early fifties and had a thick head of black and grey salt and pepper coloured hair. He had a long black leather jacket on, much like Mark and Henry’s grandfather would have worn in the day and he was without the neck corset. Not one to be getting stuck in, Mark thought to himself. “Good evening Pin Corner, it’s good to be here.”

Teddy jumped down and sat on the edge of the stage, like a teacher trying to look cool.

“Thank you for coming Teddy,” Alistair said.

“No problems. Chief Constable Oscar Gordon wanted to be here too,” Teddy said. “To give an update on what happened to those children on Kirkstall Lodge but he got tied up on police business. It’s not a good update though, as in, there is no news yet on learning who the vampuras were who did it, but he assured the work will continue and he looks forward to working with us to do so.”

Mark looked over at David, remembering their run in with the vampuras a few shifts ago having a domestic, and saw that he couldn’t help but shake his head slightly at the idea of the police looking forward to working with the Nasscies.

“I know it’s been a really challenging week or so for you all after what happened so I’ve been going round to check in that everyone’s doing ok. Were you all there that night?” Teddy asked. Mark looked around and raised his hand in the absence of any action from the others. “Yes? You were?” Teddy asked.

“Oh no. No, I wasn’t. I was with Lana in the Town Centre. My brother Henry was though,” Mark said pointing at him.

Teddy smiled. “I guessed who your brother was before you started pointing.”

Mark blushed. “Henry found it difficult at first but he’s doing better now.” Henry shot Mark a look that read ‘why are you telling him this?’ and shut Mark up.

“But I’m fine sir. No need to worry at all,” Henry said, doing his best to look cool.

“You two are new?” Teddy asked.

“Yes, Mark and I started recently, and we’re getting stuck in.”

“Good. That’s good. It’s good to see new blood, if you pardon the pun,” Teddy said chuckling to himself. “But, we’re all doing ok then, the rest of you?” The others nodded, like they were just wanting to get this over with. “Ok, good. Well, in that case, we better head out. Alistair, have you done pairings? I’ll take the two Ronnies out with me.”

Mark could feel Henry’s intense energy from next to him and knew he would be resenting him for bringing him to the Chief’s attention.

“Ok, no problems,” Alistair said looking at his notes. “David, you’re with Lana then. Nadheera and Bridget and I’ll be with Stanley.”

“Good,” Teddy said. “I’ll just have a chat with Alistair first and meet you out there.”

***

“Is it a good thing that he wants to go out with us both?” Mark asked urgently. The group had convened outside the pavilion whilst they waited for Teddy to come out.

“The last thing I wanted was a night with the Chief and my brother,” Henry said when they first got outside.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing. He just wants to get to know the new people. I’m just glad it isn’t me,” Nadheera said. “A whole night of being watched… no thanks!”

“Hmm, reassuring. Thanks Nads,” Henry said.

“I’m sorry Henry,” Mark said. “No one had answered his question and I just felt a need to say something.”

“The reason no one says anything is because we’d rather not be on his radar,” Lana said. “He tries so hard to seem cool and approachable but he’s a real stickler. He’s really no nonsense and a bit intense.”

“Great, thanks a fuck tonne Mark,” Henry said rolling his eyes.

“I disagree. I think he’s fair and reasonable,” Bridget offered.

“Of course you would Bridget,” David said. “You wouldn’t dare say a bad word about a superior.”

“I… I would…” she argued. “If I had to.”

“Say something awful about Alistair then,” Nadheera said. “Don’t you think he’d benefit from some deodorant under the arms?”

Bridget looked a bit panicky. “Anyway, so Mark and Henry are out with the Chief. Good luck boys.”

“Shit. Ok, so what can you tell us about the Chief?” Mark asked. “How can we make small talk between all the stabby stabby?”

“Well him and Stanley go way back,” said David. “Teddy-” he continued, but when Teddy appeared at the pavilion doors, the team all bolted, leaving Mark and Henry left.

“You owe me one,” Henry muttered through clenched teeth under a forced smile.

“Right, shall I let you do all the staking tonight? Give you a chance to catch up,” he said through a similar forced smile.

“Boys! Are you ready? Do you have everything?” Teddy asked. The boys opened their jackets to show their stake and mallets in holster. “Good. Let’s have a look at your stakes. How close are you to your first twenty?”

Both boys unholstered their stakes and turned them to show their tallies. Mark had racked up sixteen and Henry was on twelve.

“Not bad. Not bad at all. You’re not that far behind your brother,” Teddy said to Henry, who could only manage a smile which Mark recognised as a forced one.

“You can show me what you have been learning while you’ve been on Division.”

“I like to check out Cooper & Brook a couple of times on my patrols. We could start there?” Mark suggested.

“Good, yes. Lead the way. And apologies for taking so long. I just wanted to talk to Alistair and Stanley. I’ll let you into a little secret- crossbows are on their way in!”

“That sounds really good Chief,” Henry said.

“Yes, I agree. I think it will be a really good tool for the fight against the vampuras,” Teddy said smiling with pride.

“Will it be the one crossbow or two?” Mark asked.

“Two? No, just the one. Why do you ask that in particular?”

“Oh… Stanley just said the other day that he hoped we’d get-”

“Ah Stanley said, did he?” Teddy chuckled. “Well Henry-”

“Apologies… I’m Mark, Chief.”

“Sorry, Mark. Well Mark, Stanley wishes for a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean they’ll always come true. We will see though. Maybe if I like what I see tonight then I might increase it to two.”

Mark internally kicked himself for dropping Stanley into it, and felt embarrassed for speaking out of turn. He felt a lot of pressure being with the Chief and his twin brother on patrol, and he could feel that familiar sibling rivalry bubbling up that could cause a bit of trouble between the two later if went unchecked. He had to rein it in.

They walked in relative silence to the supermarket. When they got there, Teddy asked why Mark would check it out, to which the probationer explained what he learned on his first shift.

After fifteen minutes of watching, they pressed on, this time Henry suggesting they tried out the carpark of the football and rugby pitches on the edge of Pin Corner. It was doused in darkness at night and it was locally renowned for how ideal a location it was for in-car hook ups and vampuras hunting.

From where they had come from, they had to cross the pitches to get to the carpark. Luckily it hadn’t rained for a few days and the ground underfoot was dry.

“David and I come here often,” Henry said. “…To hunt vampuras,” he hastily added. Sure, Mark thought to himself hearing that. “We took on three vampuras who were smoking wacky backy and were too stoned to notice us.” Teddy nodded in approval.

“Can you hear that?” Mark asked as they neared the carpark.

The trio froze where they were, straining their ears to hear the noise. It was like multiple voices were whispering, and they were fortunate enough that the wind was travelling in the right direction to catch it.

“What do we do in this instance then?” Teddy asked.

“We take our stakes out just in case,” Henry said. “It’s better to put them away if they’re not needed than have to fumble for them if we do.”

“Good,” Teddy said. “Correct.” Mark and Henry unholstered theirs, but even in the darkness Mark could sense that Teddy hadn’t. No neck corset and now not using his stake. Did the man not like getting his hands dirty? Mark wondered.

The trio edged closer to the carpark, using the little light cast by the waning crescent moon in the sky to guide them. It looked like there weren’t any cars in the carpark so Mark at least guessed the voices were coming from the wooded area at the back of the carpark.

Shit! Mark, and no doubt Henry both thought, as they stepped onto the carpark itself. Mark had forgotten that it was gravelly. They froze again for a moment just to hear if the noises were still happening, and they were. Maybe they hadn’t heard the gravel. They all pushed on, heading for the grass verge where the trees were packed in on.

In the darkness, they could see the outline of the source of the whispering. Four vampuras were crouched round something on the ground.

“Lemme try that,” one voice whispered.

“No, you had that one,” replied another.

“Stop there you pieces of shit!” Teddy called out, rather unexpectedly. Mark gulped. The four vampuras shot up, turning round and grouping up to conceal what had their attention initially.

“It’s time you rested in pieces,” the Chief said.

“Give us two minutes, and we’ll meet you in the carpark?” one of the vampuras suggested.

“Absolutely not,” Teddy said, recoiling at the absurdity of the request. “Step away from whatever you have on the floor.”

None of the vampuras moved and they looked highly shifty about it. “We’d rather not,” another of the four said.

“Well then, we’ll make you move. Boys, g-”

“No no no, wait. Wait. I’ll explain,” the first vampura said.

“No way, they won’t understand,” hissed the fourth vampura on the end.

“Understand what?” Mark asked.

“Look, I just want it known, should you know… my friends and I not survive our little fight coming up, that whilst it may look like that we were eating this body, well, there’s no real denying that we were, but that is this by no means a reflection on what vampuras are out there doing. We just killed the guy earlier and thought we’d try something different, but like I said, don’t tar other vampuras with our bad name.”

“Yeah, we’d hate for vampuras to blame us for possibly giving them a bad rap,” the second vampura said.

The Nasscies were struck dumb by the revelation and the arguments being put to them.

“Please say something,” the vampura taking the lead on this anxiously said. “I mean, if we manage to kill you all, then our secret is safe, but if by some chance we don’t, just maybe blame it on badgers. We didn’t really take big bits so it could look like a badger had a go at it.”

“Chief? Permission to dust these cannibals?” Mark asked.

“Ye-”

“Wait! Please, ‘cannibal’ is a bit offensive and not at all what this is,” the third vampura argued.

“Shut the fuck up already,” Teddy snapped. “Go!”

Mark and Henry took the cue and ran for the vampuras who in teams of two charged back towards the boys. Stake in hand, Mark lunged on to the ground, skidding and kicking out at the closest vampura, knocking him over. Mark got up whilst spinning round and made contact with the face of his next vampura.

Distracted, wounded and focused on the pain, Mark staked the vampura easily and pushed the now rigid statue of a corpse on the floor so to not be in the way of his fight with the other, who by now had gotten back up.

“He was my brother in law, man!” whined the vampura.

“My condolences,” Mark quipped, raising his arms defensively to block a hit from the vampura. And another hit, and another. After the third, Mark delivered his own, moving to the right to dodge the next. With distance and distraction, Mark swung his stake at the chest, but missed the crucial heart and stuck the vampura just under the Adams apple.

“Gurghgh!” the vampura could only but gurgle.

“Shit, ooops,” Mark said a bit too apologetically, and stuck the vampura again, this time in the target area.

He checked on his brother, who was fishing for his own mallet, having successfully staked the two he was fighting. Mark did the same and vanquished the vampura statues.

“You two are impressive,” the Chief commended. “Pin Corner are very lucky to have you,”

“Thanks Chief,” Henry panted, catching his breath.

“What do we have here then?” Mark asked, stepping over to the body on the ground.

“Don’t touch it Henry,” the chief said. “I’ll call the police.”

“I’m actually still Mark,” Mark said. Henry awkwardly waved to motion that he was the true Henry.

“Ah, sorry about that. You should really stand in an order so we know who you are,” he muttered.

Mark made eye contact with Henry and in true twin fashion, could tell exactly what he was thinking. Or you could learn to tell the difference.

“Flesh eating vampuras… That’s a new one on me,” Teddy said. “I hope it doesn’t catch on amongst the others.”

***

“Thanks for having me tonight, I enjoyed my time with Pin Corner,” Teddy announced at the end of the shift. Instead of going straight home like they normally would, Teddy had wanted to meet everyone again. “I can see you have a strong team, and your new pups are really good. I’ve spoken with Alistair and Stanley and I have agreed to give this division two crossbows and in three nights time you’ll have your training with the Town Centre Division.”

Bridget, who was close to the Chief raised her hand excitedly for a high five at the news but it was rejected and she awkwardly tried to style it out. But Stanley looked pleased and having two new toys to play with was good news for the whole team.

Mark was also happy, because it meant he’d get to see Town Centre member Zoe again. Result!