Erin’s fingers tightened on the edges of the window. Broken glass cut into her hands but she didn’t feel it. All she felt was the anger and despair battling for control inside her. A year she’d spent planning this and it had all come undone in one night because she’d chosen to trust an outsider. Her hands shook and she expelled a furious grunt as she pushed away from the glass.

Castling had betrayed her, but at least Ben had stayed true to the plan.

Ben.

She wheeled around and saw him lying dead on the floor. The blackthorn stake with Theo’s name engraved in it was sticking out of his chest, dried blood was pooled around the wound. His flesh had turned grey and sickly. Blue eyes were still open and stared vacantly across the room. She wondered if he’d survived long enough to see Castling betray them or if he’d died thinking they’d won.

Maybe if she’d killed Ben right from the start she wouldn’t have lost control of the plan. She knew, deep down, that if she’d tried to go it alone she would have failed much faster.

She tried to ignore the guilt that gnawed at her. The truth was she’d sent Ben out into the world without any guidance because she wanted him to draw Theo’s attention. She used him as additional bait for her plan. His death was her fault.

She cursed herself for caring about the boy. He was collateral damage. She’d known when she’d embarked on her quest for revenge that she would end up sacrificing innocent lives to her cause. What she had not known was that she would end up feeling guilty about it.

She knelt by his side, wondering why she cared for him at all. He’d been nothing but a nuisance from the moment she’d met him. And yet he had come to warn her about Theo. He was made with her blood, willing or not, that was the case. Perhaps that was why she felt the way she did. He was the first vampire she’d ever made. Her first child. And she had failed him miserably.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, knowing that he could not hear her.

Her gaze fell again on the stake that bore Theo’s name. She’d come so close. Too close. He’d been down, full of silver, weak. Ready for the kill.

He still was.

There was still a chance that she could end this if she acted quickly. In his weakened state, Theo would have been unable to travel far. Controlling the bats would have been too much of a drain on his already sapped energy. If she could catch him she could still finish him off.

She took hold of the stake and wrenched it from Ben’s chest. It came loose with a sticky pop and Ben’s dark blood dripped from the tip. She shot across the room and snatched up the fallen axe. With a weapon in each hand, she jumped through the broken window and ran off after Theo and Castling.

🦇 🦇 🦇

A shock wave of energy surged through him and Ben’s eyes flew open as his lungs filled with air. His pain was gone but his body was still weak from the stake that had been plunged into his heart. He sat up and stared down at his chest only to see that the stake was gone. His fingers groped at the hole in his shirt but his wound was completely healed, only a crust of dried blood served as proof that he’d been stabbed at all. The stake must have missed his heart or Ben would not be alive. He watched with intrigue as colour returned to the skin of his hand, banishing the pallid grey.

The hospital room was now empty. No Erin, no Theo, and no Castling. The last thing he remembered was Castling shooting Theo and knocking him to the ground. Had he and Erin finished the job? Where the hell were they?

He climbed to his feet and looked around at the destruction. The floor was flooded with pinkish liquid where the silver solution had mixed with spilt blood. Castling’s gun was discarded nearby, but the axe and the stake were both gone.

If they’d been successful then the room would already be burning; the fact that it was not could only mean that they had failed. The window was broken. Had Theo managed to escape?

If he had then Izzy would now be on his hit list. Ben pulled out his phone and called his friend but his call went straight through to voicemail. She was probably fast asleep by now.

“Izzy, it’s Ben…” he hung up and shoved his phone away. Leaving a message was pointless; if Theo was going after her then by the time she listened to it he’d already be there. Ben would just have to try and stop him.

He snatched up the gun from the floor and checked the magazine. There were plenty of bullets left. He’d never fired a gun before but he assumed it was as simple as pointing and squeezing the trigger. If not then he was in for a nasty surprise.

Ben kicked out the rest of the glass shards from the window frame and then climbed out into the cool night. He glanced around, searching for some clue as to which direction everybody had gone in. There were no visual clues but a sudden shrill scream from nearby told him exactly where to run.

Clutching the Glock in his hand, he shot after the sound. He ran so fast that he felt the surroundings pass him like a strong wind that ruffled his hair. He usually would have enjoyed the sensation but tonight his mind was completely in the grip of fear. Fear for his friend.

A couple of streets away from the hospital he found them. Castling was on the ground next to the body of some poor woman who was gushing blood from a ragged wound on her neck.

Theo, who still had the woman’s blood caked around his mouth, was flat on his back wrestling with Erin who loomed above him, the stake clutched in both her hands. She was trying with all her strength to bring the stake down, but Theo was holding her off.

Ben raised the gun and took aim. Hollywood had given him a false sense of how easy it was to line a gun up for a shot. It was not easy. Erin and Theo were moving around as they struggled and Ben kept having to move the gun to try and focus on his target. He took a deep breath to try and steady his own trembling limbs which were only making matters worse. He got Theo’s chest in his sights and squeezed the trigger before they could move again.

“No!” Castling yelled as the gun roared and caught his attention.

Both vampires turned to Ben and Theo capitalised on the distraction. He twisted beneath Erin and flung her into the path of the bullet. The silver tore through her shoulder and sent her sprawling to the asphalt. Theo snatched the stake from her grip as she tumbled away from him.

“You were dead,” he said in an awed whisper as he stared with narrowed eyes at Ben. He pointed the stake accusingly at him as if that proved his point. “I killed you. You were dead,” he said again.

Ben moved the gun so it was aimed right at Theo who was too stunned to attack him. With no other targets, this time it would be easier to hit him. He squeezed the trigger but Theo darted out of the way. Ben turned on the spot searching for the older vampire, but he was nowhere in sight. He was gone.

“Where did he go?” Erin demanded. Her fingers were inside her shoulder digging for the bullet. Her eyes fell on Ben and her expression was the same as Theo’s had been. “How are you alive?”

“He left me here,” Castling murmured sadly, not that Ben knew what he meant.

“Izzy,” Ben whispered to himself. Theo would go after Izzy to punish Ben for betraying him. “He’s going after Izzy.”

There was no time to stand around and catch up with Erin and Castling. He needed to get to Izzy’s house immediately. Ben smashed the window of the nearest car and ignored the blaring alarm as he climbed inside. Breaking into a car was one thing, but figuring out how to fire the ignition without a car was entirely different.

“Let me,” Castling said, trading places with Ben.

“We can’t trust him,” Erin spat as she joined them at the car.

“You’ve got no choice! Now both of you get in the car and you can have a go at me as much as you like when this is over!” Castling yelled. The car sprang to life and the two vampires jumped into the back seats. “Where are we going?”

Ben gave him Izzy’s address and Castling sped off toward her home.

“Why can’t we trust him?” Ben asked as Castling drove. He needed something to distract him from the morbid thoughts of what might happen if they arrived too late.

“He betrayed us,” Erin said and then told Ben everything that had happened after he’d been staked.

“I did what I had to do to find my daughter!” Castling shouted. There was no apology in his tone. “I think the more pressing matter right now is how you’re still alive when you had a stake in your heart less than half an hour ago.”

Erin shot Castling a glare but then turned to Ben. “He’s got a point.”

Ben shrugged. “How am I supposed to know? The stake must have missed my heart.”

Erin shook her head. “No, you were dead. It didn’t miss.”

They arrived at Izzy’s before they could continue the discussion and Ben almost kicked the car door off its hinges in his haste to get out. Erin was firing out instructions on how to deal with Theo when they arrived, but Ben didn’t hear a word of it. He didn’t care about strategies, he only cared about getting there in time to stop Theo from killing Izzy. He would not allow Izzy to die because of a situation that she had nothing to do with. He couldn’t let her die because of him. His heart would be stained by the guilt of her loss for as long as he lived; and since he seemed to be a little harder to kill than the average vampire, he was likely going to live for a pretty long time.

Before he’d even finished climbing out of the car, Ben noticed that the blue painted door of Izzy’s house had been smashed in. He ran up to the doorway and stopped.

Erin grabbed his shoulder and stopped him from entering. He turned her way, warning her with a glare not to try and stop him.

‘You distract. I kill.’ She held up the axe from the hospital.

He took his eyes away from the weapon and nodded his agreement to Erin. Then he entered Izzy’s house.

The house was small but well kept. Izzy owned the little one-bedroom place and was especially proud of it. She was halfway through refurbishing it and had invested a lot of time, money, and effort into the place—especially the garden. The garden was her sanctuary.

A photograph of Izzy’s grandmother lay on the floor of the hallway, the glass smashed, and the picture loose in the frame. Ben stepped over it and continued his short journey to the doors at the back of the hall. The kitchen door was closed, but the door to the living room was half open, and Ben could see inside.

Theo had already been and gone. The coffee table was upended and magazines were scattered across the floor. The window was smashed where he had made his escape with Izzy. On the covered cushions of the sofa, Theo had left his calling card. The stake with his name carved into it.

“He’s got her,” Ben said as he fell to his knees in the middle of the room.

“What…Where is he?” Castling asked, despair edging into his voice as he followed them into the living room.

“Gone. No thanks to you,” said Erin. She and Ben both turned to face Castling, the rightful outlet for all of their frustrations.

“Hold on,” Castling said. He raised a finger as he tried to compose himself.

Ben had no intention of holding on. He shot across the room and slammed Castling into the wall hard enough to send a crack up the plaster.

“You betrayed us and now he had my friend,” he snarled, his face was millimetres from Castling. It was taken all of his will to resist ripping Castling’s throat to ribbons.

“I didn’t betray anybody. Now take your hands off me. I am a police officer!” he shouted the last sentence, clearly hoping that his position meant something to the people in the room. It did not.

“And I’m a vampire!” Ben roared, his fingers finding Castling’s throat and applying enough pressure to turn the detective’s face red.

Castling’s eyes bulged with sadness and pain. The sharp stab of empathy penetrated Ben’s resolve and he released the man from his grip. Castling slid down the wall and buried his face in his knees.

“You fell for his lies and now we’ve all lost,” Ben muttered as he turned his back on Castling and walked away. Drained of energy and motivation, Ben flopped into the little cosy armchair in the corner of the room.

“How was I supposed to know he was lying to me?” Castling asked. His eyes were red and on the verge of tears.

“That’s what Theo does. He lies,” Erin said. “What happened after you left the hospital? Maybe he gave you a clue as to where he’s gone now.”

Castling shook his head. “He didn’t say anything to me. Those bloody bats carried us to where you found us. He said he needed nourishment and then he attacked that young girl you saw. When I tried to stop him he…” Castling tailed off, seemingly giving way to shame, and his cheeks burned with redness. “He assaulted me.”

For the first time, Ben noticed the bruises covering Castling’s face and the dried blood around his nostrils.

“First you betrayed us to get your daughter back, which was probably a lie anyway, and then you lost the chance to get your daughter back by being a noble idiot. You’re twice as stupid as I thought,” Erin said. Her words were vicious but Ben agreed with them entirely.

“You can insult me all you like. I deserve it, I know. But what we should be doing right now is figuring out what we do next,” said Castling. He was back on his feet and was tucking his ugly brown shirt back into his trousers.

“We don’t do anything next,” Erin told him. “Your only contribution was the element of surprise, which no longer exists. You’re nothing but a liability now. Go home. Your part in this saga is over.”

Castling straightened up and stepped toward Erin. “My daughter is still missing. Maybe dead, maybe alive. I will not just give up. Now, I have looked the other way to your heinous crimes at the hospital, but I will not—”

Erin whipped the back of her hand across Castling’s face. The police officer hit the floor, his cheek inflamed and throbbing, eyes welling with tears.

“I could kill you in the blink of an eye. After the stunt you pulled at the hospital I should kill you. You had one job. Bring the axe down. Now, get up and leave. And consider yourself lucky that I am giving you the chance to leave,” Erin said.

Castling looked at Ben, silently pleading with him to take his side, but he was barking up the wrong tree. Ben wanted to hurt Castling even more than Erin did. If it hadn’t been for Castling Theo would be dead and Izzy would be safely in her bed. Ben looked away and gazed forcefully out of the window. He saw Castling nod in acceptance out of the corner of his eye. Then the detective inspector silently got up and made his way to the door.

“I will not stop searching for my daughter,” he said quietly.

“What makes you think Theo wasn’t lying about her being alive?” Ben asked.

“I just know,” he said with a shrug. “I’m her father and I just know.”

And yet you didn’t know before, Ben thought, but he did not say it. They’d all been through enough and Castling’s failure would haunt him more than anything Ben could say.

“Search all you like,” Erin said. “But if you get in our way, I’ll rip your spine out and turn it into a cane.”

Castling’s head dipped downwards and he walked silently out of the room. Ben tracked his footsteps down the hallway and out through the front door.

“So now what?” he asked in a strained whisper. He wanted to cry, but he didn’t want to give Theo the satisfaction, even if he wasn’t there to see it.

“If Theo was going to kill Izzy he would have done it right here and left her body for you to find. He won’t kill her. Not now he knows your alive. I saw it in his eyes. He is…mystified by you. He will make it his mission to figure out how you survived the stake. To do that he’s going to need you, and the easiest way to get you is to use your friend.”

“So there’s still a chance I can save her?” Relief flooded through Ben. Izzy’s was the one death he could not have on his conscience.

Erin nodded. “But you have to be smart. Learn from Castling’s lesson. If Theo asks for something, do not give it until Izzy is safe. Remember, his word is worth diddly-squat.”

Ben didn’t need to be told that, he’d already come to the same conclusion. “We have to kill him. Anything less than death and he will keep coming.”

Erin sat down on the sofa, her lips twisting into a mirthless smile. “I’m glad we’re on the same page. We need to wait until he calls you. He’ll tell you to come to him and then we can formulate a new plan.”

Ben nodded in agreement. They both knew what was at stake if they messed up again. If they failed for a third time then they would never get another chance. He didn’t verbalise the thought; some things were best left unsaid.

Erin insisted on the two of them staying together until the Theo situation was over, so Ben, somewhat unwillingly, invited her to stay at his new apartment. He wasn’t too upset by his new houseguest since it gave him the opportunity to learn more about vampirism, plus he felt a little safer having another vampire around.

“Very swanky place you’ve got here,” Erin said. She strolled through Ben’s apartment to the vast living room and turned on the spot, taking the room in. “It’s a bit white.”

“Yeah, it was like that when I got here,” he explained.

“You might want to rethink the decor.” She flopped down on the sofa and dropped her leather sports bag on the floor. She’d retrieved it from the hospital on the way.

Erin was trying to appear relaxed, but the tension was obvious in her bunched shoulders, and in the way she picked at her fingernails. She was on edge. She might not care about Izzy, but she cared about killing Theo. Theo was not going to let her get away with trying to ambush him. He would come after her as much as he would come after Ben.

Ben eased himself down on the opposite end of the sofa, still too wary to get too close to Erin. Just because they were currently on the same side didn’t mean he wasn’t scared of her. She’d already tried to kill him once, she’d attacked him twice, and had told him she might decide to kill him at some point in the future. He got the feeling that they had moved past all that now, but he couldn’t be certain. Maybe she was no better than Theo and the moment she didn’t need him anymore she’d cut off his head and burn his remains. Perhaps it was time that he tried to mend the bridge between them properly.

“Listen, I’m sorry that I took advantage of you when you were unconscious.” He had to force the words out because his stupid pride was trying to smother their very conception. For some reason apologising was something he’d always had trouble with.

Erin looked over at him in wide-eyed surprise. “Jesus Christ, Ben, what a choice of words,” she said. “Do you always make everything sound a million times worse than it actually was?”

“I was just trying to apologise I don’t…’”He stopped talking when he realised what she meant.

“There it is,” she said. “The penny drops.”

“I’m sorry I stole your blood is what I meant.”

Erin forced out an exaggerated sigh and threw her hands up in the air dramatically. “Just when I was starting to think you might have what it takes to make it as a vampire you turn back into a little bitch.”

Ben could feel his face heating up. “What are you talking about?”

“What are you talking about?” Erin said, mimicking Ben’s tone and expression very poorly. “I tried to kill you and you defended yourself. Then you saw an opportunity and you took it. I respect that. What I don’t respect is you blubbering like a little bitch.”

“Wow.”

“Wow,” she said mocking him again. “Are you actually sorry, or is this just some kind of manipulation tactic?”

“Of course, I’m actually sorry.”

“If that’s true then that means if you had the chance to go back and do things again, you wouldn’t steal my blood. You’d just leave me and return to your mundane little life of cleaning up the hospital. Is that the case?”

She held Ben’s gaze for an agonisingly long time. Ben sucked his lips into his teeth. His options were to confess that he was not sorry, lie and claim that he would go back to being human, or simply say nothing at all. He opted for the latter and kept his mouth firmly shut.

“That’s what I thought,” Erin said. She flopped back into the sofa cushions and closed her eyes. “I’m so sorry I stole your blood,” she said to herself in that same mocking tone.

“I sound nothing like that,” Ben grumbled.

‘You sound exactly like that.’

The two of them fell into a moment of strange silence. Ben dared not to speak again, knowing that anything he said would likely be met with more mockery.

“I’m not sorry!” Erin snapped, opening her eyes and glaring at him.

“Oh! Can we move on? I just wanted to try and build bridges so you don’t try to kill me again!”

Erin took a moment to think, her eyes narrowed and calculating. “I’m not going to kill you, Ben. So long as you don’t piss me off.”

“Thank you,” he said, letting her see his relief. “Although, you should know that somebody pissing you off is not grounds to kill them.”

Erin smiled with false sweetness. “That’s the beauty of being a vampire, Benny. We don’t need grounds to kill somebody.”

To that Ben said nothing. He wondered if Erin had always been this way or if something had twisted her into becoming so callous. Her husband nearly killing her or the murder of her brother. Would he become like her one day? Was it an experiential trajectory or just part of being a vampire? He didn’t ask because he wasn’t sure he’d like the answer.

Ben’s phone rang and it brought both him and Erin to instant alertness. Izzy’s name was on the screen, but he knew it was not her. Ben shared a look with Erin and she nodded for him to accept the call. He did so and put it on speakerphone so they could both hear the conversation.

“Benedict, Benedict, Benedict,” Theo said calmly, his voice a mixture of reprimand and mirth.

“Where’s Izzy?” Ben demanded.

“Hush now. If you interrupt me again I will hurt her. Do you understand?”

Ben took a second to swallow his pride. “Yes,” he said through his teeth.

“Excellent. Now I see no reason why we can’t return this whole affair to some degree of civility. All this fighting and bloodshed, it’s just not necessary. Don’t you agree?”

Ben took another deep breath before replying. He so badly wanted to leap into his phone and throttle Theo through the line. As far as he was aware, that was not one of his abilities. “Yes,” he said at last. “Let me talk to Izzy.”

“Oh. No, no, no, Benedict. That will not do. You speaking to an emissary of the Black Veil. You will afford me the respect my position demands. Your friend, Isabel, is alive and unharmed. I am inclined to allow you to speak with her. But you must ask nicely first. Do you think you can do that, Benedict?”

Theo was enjoying himself more than he had any right to be. He was toying with Ben the way a fox might toy with a chicken. But there was more at stake than pride, and this was not a pissing contest that Ben could risk losing. Theo had all the cards and Ben had no choice but to capitulate.

“Theo, please may I speak to Izzy?” he said slowly, taking extra care to keep his tone neutral and free from frustration.

“Shortening my name is a touch too familiar, don’t you agree?” he said.

“Theodric, please may I speak to Izzy?” Ben’s voice was growing more strained with every word uttered.

“Yes, Benedict, of course, you may.”

Footsteps and scuffling came through the phone and a moment later Izzy’s terrified voice rang out through Ben’s living room.

“Ben, what the hell is happening?”

“Izzy,” Ben said, relieved to hear that she was okay. He needed a moment to compose his thoughts, to figure out how he could assure her that everything was going to be fine. However, he did not have a moment, and Izzy was too smart to believe his hollow promises. If this was to be his last conversation with his best friend then he was going to make sure he was honest. At least he could give her that.

“Izzy, I’m sorry. Theo is using you to get to me, but please…” He took a beat to expel the built-up emotion within him. He didn’t want her to hear how scared he was. “I promise you that I will do everything I can to get you out of this. I promise.”

“Ben, I don’t understand what’s going on. Tell me how—” Her voice was rudely snatched away and Theo returned to the line.

“I think that will be enough for now,” he said with villainous smoothness. “Benedict listen very carefully to what I say now. You will do nothing to displease me from this moment on. If I feel the slightest bit offended by anything you say or do then I will extinguish your friend’s life like a flame on a candle. Am I understood?”

“Yes,” Ben’s voice came out as a growl.

“Let’s try that again. Without the tone this time, if you will.”

“Yes,” he repeated, this time forcing his voice to come out with less hostility.

“Good. You seem to possess some rather intriguing skills. The silver didn’t hurt you and the stake did not kill you. Even a new vampire such as yourself must realise how very peculiar these things are. I would like to investigate this matter further and to do this I am going to need you to surrender yourself to me. As soon as you do so, I will allow your friend to go home.”

Ben knew better than to trust Theo’s promise. He’d already seen Castling get screwed over. “You promised Castling something too. Remember?”

A small huff came down the phone line. “And had he not tried to interfere with my activities, I would have fulfilled that obligation. I have every confidence that you will be wiser than he was.”

“You’ll let her go home alive and unharmed?” Ben asked. He wasn’t going to be tricked by a poorly worded deal. He still didn’t believe Theo would uphold his end of the bargain, but he had no choice but to go along with it for now.

“Alive and unharmed. You have my word.”

Ben looked at Erin for any advice. She gave him a firm nod. “Deal.”

“Wait for me to text you the location. You will come alone and unarmed. If you betray me again I will kill everyone in this horrid little town.” He hung up without another word.

As soon as Theo ended the call, Erin began firing out ideas at a mile a minute. She seemed to be verbalising every thought she had. However, Ben didn’t hear a word of it. He’d slipped away into his own head. The lights were on but nobody was home. He was rapidly thinking through every possible strategy to rescue Izzy and defeat Theo. He assessed each idea for possible ways it could go wrong. He had firsthand experience of how slippery Theo was now.

“No,” he said finally, having thought through everything and, rather arrogantly, decided that no idea Erin proposed would be better than any of the ones he had considered.

“No? What do you mean no?” Erin demanded. She planted her hands on her hips and looked at Ben as if he were a piece of dirt that needed wiping up.

“I mean, I’m not going to risk Izzy’s life by trying to get the drop on Theo,” he said. There was an odd calmness that came with his decision. Now that he’d made up his mind to do only what he’d been told to do, everything was out of his hands, and there was nothing for him to worry about. He didn’t need to stress over how exactly to execute a plan. He just had to follow instructions.

Of course, he was still concerned that Theo might renege on his promise to let Izzy go, but there was nothing he could do about that until he arrived at the proverbial bridge.

“It’s a bit fucking late for that, Ben,” Erin said. “She’s already been taken.”

“Yes, and I’m now I’m going to do what I need to do to get her back,” Ben spoke slowly and firmly, making it clear that he’d made his decision and nothing was going to change his mind.

Erin let out a strange, frustrated yelp, and threw herself into the sofa hard enough to make it bang against the wall. “We nearly had him at the hospital. We can do this.”

“We nearly had him because we took him by surprise. That won’t work a second time. And, let’s not forgot, the only reason I survived that debacle was because Theo thought he had killed me. Next time he’ll kill me properly.”

Ben had expected Erin to meet him with more furious remarks, but instead, she simply regarded him cooly and when she spoke she did so in an eerily calm tone. “If he even can.”

“What does that mean?”

“The stake should have killed you. You’re three nights old. As far as I know, this is unprecedented. Maybe nothing can kill you.” She shrugged and threw her hands up in the air dramatically.

Ben could feel a bubble of excitement building within him. Erin was suggesting full-blown immortality. If nothing could kill him then he had very little to fear even from the likes of Theo.

“But I’ve never heard of a vampire who couldn’t die,” she added, bursting Ben’s bubble before it had fully formed. “But we could still use this to our advantage.”

“There is no advantage because we don’t know why the stake didn’t kill me. For all we know he missed my heart and next time I won’t be so lucky.”

“He didn’t miss your heart. When that stake was in your chest there was no heartbeat. Your body had started to decay. You were dead.”

Ben shuddered at the thought and pushed it from his mind. “I’m not trying anything. When he texts the location I’m going to hand myself over to him. End of.”

Erin wanted to continue arguing, that much was clear, but she’d come to the realisation that he wasn’t going to budge, and there was nothing she could do to change his mind. “At least let me track you through your phone.”

“How do you mean?”

“Turn on your GPS and let me see your location.”

He shook his head, as tempting as it was. “I’m not risking—”

“There’s no risk,” she cut in quickly. “I promise you will not come after Theo until Izzy is safe. I’ll even secure her safety myself. But only if you let me track you.”

Ben nodded. He had little to lose. Once Izzy was safely out of Theo’s reach, he would be Theo’s prisoner. Erin turning up to try and help was hardly going to make things worse. Given the choice, Ben would rather be dead than be a prisoner for eternity. And he did not want to find out what Theo’s own special prison was like.

With the deal arranged, Erin took Ben out into the town to fill up on blood.

“The least you can do is make sure you’re at full strength before you hand yourself over like a little bitch,” she told him, as they stalked their prey in the Brenchley Gardens.

“I take it the more blood I drink the stronger I’ll be?” Ben said. He’d assumed as much already but it was unconfirmed. He was eyeing a couple of drunks who were staggering around on the empty bandstand.

“That’s right. Not them.” She pulled him away from the two men he’d been about to tuck into.

“Why not? They look like the sort of people who will forget without mesmerisation.” They both gave the impression of spending all of their waking hours drunk. The only downside to feeding on them was how dirty they looked.

“They’re drunk, Ben. If you drink their blood, you will also be drunk. Is that how you want to hand yourself over to Theo?”

“It wouldn’t be the worst thing, would it?” he joked. Erin did not laugh.

“Them.” She pointed at a group of three young girls on the other side of the park. They were huddled together on a bench, each of them grasping a phone that occupied their full attention.

They looked like they were in their early twenties if that. As they approached, Ben heard that they were arranging to meet more friends in town. He felt a pang of guilt at the idea of ruining their night. They all seemed so harmless and innocent. Nothing about them offended him, unlike the crude men on the bandstand.

“I don’t know. They don’t deserve it,” he complained.

“Don’t be such a bitch,” Erin said. Ben was getting tired of being called a bitch. “They’re sober and they’re young—yes, age does matter, the younger and fitter the person, the more strength you gain from the blood. If only we had a couple of bodybuilders around.”

“We could go and find some.” Ben would feel considerably less guilty about tucking into a bodybuilder.

“Do you want to waste time?” she asked and then gave him a shove forward before he could answer.

He could smell their perfumes on the air. He could hear their pulses thrumming quietly.

“Their pulses aren’t pulling me like with the other people I’ve fed on,” Ben said to Erin.

“That only happens the first couple of times you feed. Think of it as a biological trait to make sure newbie vampires actually feed. Without it, there’d be a lot less of us.”

“Interesting,” Ben said. If only Erin had been around to mentor him from the beginning, he’d probably know a lot more than he did.

Erin helped stop the girls from leaving, but she left their blood for Ben. After he’d drank his fill, they left the three unconscious girls on the ground next to the bench. Erin used one of their phones to call an ambulance. As dastardly as she was, leaving three unconscious girls alone and undefended in a public park was something she was not willing to do.

As they approached the exit to Brenchley Gardens, Ben’s phone let out an ominous ding. It was a text message from Izzy’s phone, but to Ben, it was like the drums of war.

All Saint’s Church.

It was time to go and meet Theo.