Cold Open.

Bathgate, Scotland. 1864

Marta came round. It was still dark outside, so she couldn’t have been out for very long. Leaning over her was a familiar face. What was her name again?

“Wakey wakey.”

“Whaft ‘appened to me?” Marta asked wearily. “Whyf am I sfpeakin’ thunny?” Marta began to panic.

“It’s ok sweety. Calm down, I’m Rowena. Do you remember? I’ve released you from your life, and given you a new one. And you just have some new teeth. You’ll get used to them. Are you thirsty?”

“Yuah, I am asctually.” Marta frowned and shook her head, growing frustrated at her inability to speak like she used to.

“Well, my Tally’s got you a nice drink to get down your throat,” Rowena said, gesturing to across the room. Marta followed her gaze and saw the man called Tallon holding the lady of the house, Bonnie O’Donnell tied to a chair gagged.

“Once I’d finished with the little girls and their daddy…” he closed his eyes savouring the memory of the father and husband of the house, Gregor. “I had had my fill. Plus I thought you might be… thirsty after your ordeal.”

“All you have to do,” said Rowena, “is smell that rich blood that pumps around her body and just bite her neck. The rest will just happen, like instinct,” she said excitedly and seductively.

Tallon pulled Bonnie up from the chair and dragged her over to Marta. Bonnie squirmed and tried to shake from her restraints, but it was no good. Nothing was working.

Marta could feel that instinct, that she had never felt before, to bite Bonnie. She had never felt so desperate for something in her life before. It felt like survival, an urge that needed quelling in order to thrive and live. Marta got herself up and hungrily bit at Bonnie’s neck.

“Oooh, baby’s hungry for her first,” Rowena mused to Tallon. “The urge is too strong to saviour her meal.” Marta guzzled on the blood that now drained from Bonnie. “Woah woah, slow down Marta. You’ll get cramping!”

Marta came off the neck and sighed in delight. “Wow!”

“It’s pretty good isn’t it?” Tallon asked knowingly.

“Yeah..! Yeah it is.”

“See, you’re used to speaking properly now. You’ve had your first taste now, it’s completed you.”

“Did you want some before I finish?” Marta asked.

“Well, I fed from you,” Rowena said, “and Tally’s had his fair share upstairs.”

“The girls…?”

“And their father. They were really terrified for their father. It was intoxicating,” Tallon said.

Marta got up and wiped at her chin with the back of her hand. “The girls? Don’t tell me you killed the girls?”

“Of course, the young don’t last long but the taste is much purer.”

“You monster!” Marta screamed at Tallon. “They were just children!”

Rowen and Tallon burst out with laughter. “Marta sweety,” Rowena said between the laughing. “You’re a monster too. You’re one of us now.”

“I would never kill children. They had their lives ahead of them.”

“You’ve been a vampura for five minutes and you already seem to think you’re better than the instincts that will govern and drive you?” Tallon chuckled dismissively. “You’ll soon learn little one.”

“Never! You better leave now! Get out of my sight! Leave me alone!”

“So ungrateful, Tallon,” Rowena whined.

“I know, you gave her everything, too.”

“Go away now!!” Marta yelled. “I never want to see you again!”

“I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other,” Rowena said. “It’s almost a promise.”

Chapter Six.

“Thanks for all being here and getting off work earlier to do this. It’s important we take time to get through this training without too much impact on the actual night’s work.” Chief Nasscie Teddy was greeting the Pin Corner and Town Centre Divisions at the crossbow training which to his word he had organised. Town Centre Division were going to have four crossbows whilst Pin Corner were getting two.

“We decided that pairing up the Divisions would help get through you all quicker. Victoria Moors have had theirs already. After the paramedics were killed there on duty, we decided not to hang around any longer and give them the tools they needed sooner.” Teddy coughed. The dodgier Victoria Moors Division were getting three, based on the theory that they had quite a few high rise tower blocks on their patch, and it might be more efficient if they could have shoot bows from a distance and at height.

“I’ll hand over to the trainers now, but I just wanted to welcome and thank you.” The Chief walked off to the side and the trainers stepped forward, holding the crossbows they will be training on and therefore be using out on their patrols.

Mark admired the beauty of the weapon that the instructor was showing. “Good afternoon. This training will be quick and to the point…” he paused to see if anyone had picked up on his pun but the awkward hush let him know to carry on. “These are the bad boys what you’ll get to use. This is an automatic crossbow. The magazine here on the top holds ten arrows giving you a quicker reload time, which is what you need in the field. Say you come across a clutch of vampuras then you don’t need to shit yer pants about it, this crossbow means you’ll be able to pick ‘em off one at a time.”

“What’s the range on it sir?” someone that Mark didn’t quite recognise from the Town Centre group asked.

“What’s your name kid?” asked the instructor.

“Lucas, Lucas Wilde.”

“Awright Lucas. Keep walking back there in that direction and I’ll tell you when to stop.”

Lucas reluctantly obliged, everyone’s eyes now on him. All he wanted was a distance, not to be actively involved.

“Keep going… don’t be soft, keep going… that’s it. Stop then!” Lucas did as he was told and faced the instructor who had raised the crossbow at him. The large group of Nasscies parted so that there was a clean gap from instructor to Lucas. “Don’t worry,” he shouted. “This one is empty. But ‘magine you’re a bastard vampura. I could fire a wooden bolt from here and get you still. You’re about seventy metres away. Any longer, I could still just about make it work, but it won’t be as effective.” He lowered the crossbow and the group moved back together. “Get into groups of five and we’ll take you off to fire some of these bad boys for yerselves.”

Mark looked around. He knew who he wanted to be in a group with.

“You should just go and ask her,” Lana said, coming from behind Mark. “Before she groups with just her Division.”

“Who are you talking about?” Mark bluffed.

Lana looked at him deadpan. “You know exactly who.” She looked behind her and started shouting, “Zoe! Zoe!”

“Lana!” he hissed, trying to get her to stop.

Lana’s shouting caught Zoe’s attention and she looked over. “Zoe, do you need a group? Mark and I were wondering if you’d want to join us?”

Zoe walked over with a blonde guy from her division. “Yeah, alright. This is Callum. We’ve got quite a few newbies finally and I’ve buddied up with him.”

“Hiya,” Callum said. He was a handsome looking guy, older looking that Mark was with good strong looking upper arms and shoulders.

“Hey. I’m Lana and this is Mark. Finally you guys have some new people,” Lana said. She looked at Callum and said, “welcome to the team.”

“I’ve just got one more stake before I’ll have my twenty and I’ll no longer be a puppy,” Mark said.

“Nice job,” Zoe said, smiling beautifully and Mark’s tummy filled with butterflies. “We’re good in a group of four right? There’s nineteen of us here today,” Zoe said.

“Yeah, sounds like a plan,” Callum agreed.

Mark nodded. “Yeah foursomes are good,” he said, but as soon as he said it and heard back what he said, he went a deep beetroot red. It was as if his brain and his tongue had stopped communicating with each other and the words just fell out. “I’m so sorry. I don-”

“Just stop,” Lana whispered. Mark looked down at the ground. You can open up and swallow me whole now, ground… he internally begged.

“You four!” shouted the instructor. “This way!”

Lana and Zoe led the way and Callum sympathetically patted Mark on the shoulder with quite some power behind it. “Don’t worry pal,” he said. “Next time.”

***

Lana picked up the drinks from the self-serve till and handed Mark his.

“Thanks for this,” he said opening the bottle top. “Who knew you’d be quite the Hawkeye today, eh?!”

“Honestly, it was beginner’s luck. I’ve never picked up one of those things before!” she laughed.

“You’re a natural, fair play to you.”

“How did Henry get on?”

“He seemed to do alright actually. Got a few good ones on target, he said. David wasn’t very good apparently!” They both laughed. “I’m quite happy to not be the crossbow guy though.”

“Why’s that? You were excellent!”

Mark pretended to get embarrassed by the praise. “Oh, stop it! Honestly? If we both were the archers for the Division, then they’d probably stop pairing us up all the time.”

“Oh, gross!” Lana joked. “Oh God well at least I know now that all it’ll take to finally get you off my case is to make you an archer too!”

“Oi, be nice. Plus as well I think it’d be good for Henry to have something that he’s good at for himself that isn’t being compared to me. I’ve felt a bit bad for him lately that I’ve always had a higher stake count and I’m closer to the big two-zero than he is, and I feel like he feels it’s a competition that he’s losing at, which is not how I see it.”

“Well it’s natural for siblings to be competitive against each other right?”

“Yeah, I’d say so. We’ve strangely and luckily never really been like that before with things. Growing up we weren’t really that competitive. I’m even better endowed than him, but it’s never been an issue.”

“Yuck, I didn’t need to know that.”

“But since joining the Nasscies, I don’t know, I just feel the competition bubbling up.”

“Probably because he wants to make your grandad proud. Show him that he be as good a Duster as he was.”

“Awh, you remembered about my grandad?”

“Yeah because you wouldn’t shut up about him when you first started!” Lana remarked, trying to keep a straight face.

“That’s true. Dad died when we were very young so despite the long distance, he was a real father figure to us…”

“Have you spoken to Henry about this?”

“Don’t be soft. We don’t need to go that far… No, he can be the archer of the team with you and I’ll be the kick ass kung foo fighting extraordinaire!” Mark did a little pirouette and stopped in a fighting stance. “Hoy-yah!”

Mark’s phone went off.

“That should be on silent, you don’t want that going off while you’re stealthing some vampuras!” Lana warned.

“I know, I know, forgive me,” he said. He pulled it out of his pocket. “Unknown number…”

“What’s it say?”

“‘Hey, it’s Zoe from crossbow training. You were very good today, very impressive. Text me sometime. Z’. And then there’s two kisses at the end! How did she… Wait a minute… Did you…? Did you meddle in my personal life?”

“God, I did you a favour. I was dying from second hand cringe at your ‘foursomes are good’ comment that I had to explain to her that you just like her!”

“And what did she say to that?”

“She asked for your number and said she’ll save us all from you and your crappy flirting.”

“Shit, she never said that did she?” Mark’s eyes widened at the horrifying possibility that she thought that about his attempts to talk to her.

“No, I added the bit about the crappy flirting. But she asked for your number, hence she has it. And more importantly, you have hers now.” Mark looked a mixture of relief and annoyance at Lana’s story exaggeration.

“I suppose I ought to say thank you for doing that…”

“You are very welcome.” Lana said with a big smile.

“Despite being annoying, you’re not that bad,” Mark grumbled, deliberately loud enough for her to hear but also quiet enough to pretend he hadn’t meant for her to hear.

“Oh I try to tell myself the same thing about you at the beginning of every night. Now, text her back already.”

“But… we’re working, ma’am,” he said sarcastically. “And so will she be. I couldn’t possibly be texting and distracting myself all night.”

“If you don’t text her then I’m going to stake every vampura myself tonight and you won’t get your twentieth.”

***

It wasn’t long before vampura number one for the night appeared, offering itself the perfect opportunity to get his last one of his probationship.

“Like, why does anyone choose to spend any more time than they need in a public toilet? The smell is enough to make me gag.”

“Probably because people hate going in them and therefore, they’re quite safe for vampuras to hide in,” Lana said. Mark shuddered dramatically.

They’d found themselves in an underfunded public toilet hut, that stood opposite a large playing field and park in the north of Pin Corner. Mark remembered it being built and being brand new when he was young. At the time, before it was there, too many people were toileting in the park itself, so the local council built the toilet block to stop that happening. For a while it worked. Now, more than a decade later, they were in a very bad shape and smell.

“So I’ll be outside listening and waiting,” Lana said. “You go and pretend you need to pee-”

“I don’t actually need to pretend…”

“And if there’s a vamp that comes for you, you stick him with your wood.”

“And when shall I stake him?” Mark teased.

“If you need help, I’ll be right there. It’s a smaller space, so remember your training.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Shut up and go and do it.”

Lana pushed on Mark’s back to propel him forward and he trudged on, unholstering his stake and pushing it up his jacket sleeve to conceal it. He barged into the public toilet and walked to the urinal. One of the two stalls were shut, but not locked.

He was actually bursting for a toilet and decided to chance his luck, quickly relieving himself despite needing to be on his guard. Besides, there was no other way to pretend he was needing the toilet without having some liquid on him.

He kept his head turned to face the stall and occasionally looked down to check his progress and aim hadn’t deviated, but only for a split second. He looked back, then checked down. Looked back… door was still closed. He looked down and looked bac- “OH SHIT!” Mark jumped at the presence of the vampura, who had somehow snuck out of the stall.

He tucked himself back in with one hand whilst trying to push the vampura back with the other, to get some space between each other. When he was more ready with both hands free readied himself in a fighting stance, fists up.

“Please don’t tell me you’re going to punch me without washing your hands first?” the vampura moaned.

“You’ve literally been hiding out in these toilets and you’re concerned that I’ve not washed my hands before I fight with you?”

The vampura was a big guy, almost over six foot, bald and out of shape. This was going to be a tight fight. Mark charged with his forearms shielding his face, using as much force as he could to push the vampura back into the stall. He managed to budge the vampura three steps before Mark could feel being grabbed at the jacket just under his armpits and being thrown towards the sinks. Mark landed across the tops of the two sinks before bouncing off and rolling on the floor.

The vampura strode over and Mark got to one knee and stabbed the vamp in his thigh. He knew it wasn’t going to finish him off, but it might have been enough to slow him down.

“Arrrrghh!” growled the vampura as Mark pulled the stake back out of the new wound just above it’s knee, and rolling to the vampura’s right side. Mark stabbed again with his stake in the back of the knee, this time bring the vampura down onto it.

“There is piss on the floor!” Mark shouted angrily. “And I don’t think it’s mine!” Mark jumped on the vampura’s back, wrapping his arms around it’s neck, trying to get the stake right into his chest.

The vampura resisted Mark’s attempts and with Mark on his back, he stumbled backwards into an empty stall, smashing Mark’s back into the toilet. The vampura turned to face Mark who was now wedged on top of the toilet. The toilet dwelling vampura lunged down at Mark.

In turn Mark tried to push back and suddenly… the vampura went stiff. He’d done it. In the struggle, Mark had managed to stick the stake into the vampura’s chest. Panting, Mark remained sat on the toilet, gathering himself and keeping the vampura’s statue where it was until he was ready to push it off.

“Nice! You did it!” Lana said happily, coming into view. “Congratulations!”

“And where were you?! Didn’t you hear me in here?”

“I heard you getting on with it Mark. You have to earn number twenty.”

“Have you seen the size of this vamp? He’s huge. I nearly died.”

“Oh please. Just dust it and let’s get it marked up! Congratulations!”

“Congratulations?” he grumbled, hitting it with his mallet. “Look at me, I’m covered in old floor piss and I didn’t quite get to finish my own wee before he jumped me!”

“God I’m embarrassed for you.”

“Just let me go home and change please.”

***

Zoe: HOW WAS YOUR NIGHT? I’M SO TIRED!

Mark: I’M IN BED BUZZING. I SCORED MY 20TH STAKING!

Zoe: CONGRATS! THAT’S IMPRESSIVE.

Mark: THANKS. IT WAS PRETTY DANGEROUS BUT I WON! HOW WAS YOUR NIGHT?

Zoe: PRETTY WEIRD.

Mark: WHY?

Zoe: WE WERE CHASING A DOG THAT A WOMAN SIRED!!!!

Mark: WTF?

Zoe: I KNOW! SHE LOVED HER DOG SO MUCH BUT IT NEEDED PUTTING DOWN DUE TO CANCER. SO SHE SIRED IT. FUCKED UP!

Mark: DID YOU FIND THE DOG?

Zoe: NOPE. WE DUSTED THE WOMAN THOUGH. CRAZY BITCH!

Mark: SO THERE’S A VAMPURA DOG OUT THERE?? I’VE NEVER HEARD OF SUCH A THING.

Zoe: NO I KNOW, AND IT’S NOT SOMETHING GILLO WANTS GETTING OUT.

Mark: MY LIPS ARE SEALED.

Zoe: GOOD, COZ IF YOU SAID ANYTHING, I’D HAVE TO TELL EVERYONE YOU PISSED YOURSELF FIGHTING THAT VAMP HAHA!

Mark: FUCK! DID LANA TELL YOU??????

Zoe: DON’T WORRY, MY LIPS ARE SEALED! ;D