The shooting paused again and Ben rose fully to his feet without even bothering to take a cursory peek first. The magical blood had filled him with a drunken confidence that he was unable to ignore. A bullet tore into his shoulder and he jerked back, but he did not fall down. He barely felt the bullet go in, it was like being hit by a spit wad.

Ben could see the shooters hiding in the garden. There were three men and each had taken cover behind a tree. Ben recognised the moustached face of Trevor Castling peeking out at him. So, Erin had taken the risk and teamed up with the detective inspector again.

“Don’t shoot him!” Castling shouted at whoever had just wedged a bullet in Ben’s shoulder. “The target is the fancily dressed one.”

“Thank you for the compliment, but I assure you, you are wasting time by trying to shoot me,” Theo said. He was still cowering behind his bench and as he spoke his eyes met Ben’s. The hatred between them was almost visual. Beyond the hatred, Theo revealed a hint of unease. Ben had the advantage now, the numbers were on his side. All he had to do was break Theo’s cover and the bullets would rain down on him again. “Don’t be a fool,” Theo warned him, reading his intentions from the smile on his face.

Ben ran forward. He kicked out at the bench. His foot hit the wood and the bench flew across the grass. However, Ben was not fast enough to counter Theo’s attack.

The older vampire took hold of Ben’s leg, and using it like a handle, pulled Ben off his feet and flung him across the ritual circle.

Castling’s team opened fire on Theo whilst Ben was still in the air. Mild pain lanced up Ben’s side as he hit the grass and rolled across it like an old tumbleweed. The pain receded as soon as he stopped moving, but the dizziness and disorientation remained. He climbed to his knees and held himself still until he had regained his bearings.

Theo had moved and had one of the shooters in his grip, his fangs deep in the man’s neck.

“Shit,” Ben muttered. It wasn’t just a lost ally, but any weakness that Theo had been experiencing would likely now be counteracted.

Erin ran across the circle, axe back in her hand, jaw set in determination. Her red hair trailed behind her like a flag as she charged into battle. One of the shooters squeezed their trigger and a silver bullet shot through the air, shining in the light of the candles. Theo saw it coming as he saw Erin coming. Two attacks coming at him from two different directions. Once again, he displayed his superior speed. He reached out and grabbed hold of the axe that Erin held in mid-swing. He yanked her around like she was a paper bag and threw her into the firing line. The bullet found a home in her back and she went down with a scream. Theo didn’t hang about, he took off in the direction of the shooter even as fresh bullets were launched at him. He dodged them expertly as he made his approach. The shooter ran out of ammo and Theo was on him before he could reload.

Ben was at a crossroads. He could go after Theo or help Erin and keep one more ally in the fight. The silver wouldn’t kill her, but until it was out of her back she would be out of action. What would Erin do? The ruthless vampire would leave the wounded to tend to themselves and go for the kill.

Maybe there was another option.

“Rik!” Ben yelled. The warlock’s head poked up from behind his bench. “Get the silver out of her so she can help me,” he told him before charging off after Theo.

Theo tossed the second gunman aside as Ben reached him. Ben ducked under Theo’s fist and as he turned he swung a right hook of his own. Ben’s fist landed on Theo’s cheek and to the surprise of both vampires, Theo’s head whipped around and he was sent staggering across the grass.

“Warlock blood,” Ben muttered to himself before attacking again. He kicked his leg up and slammed his foot into Theo’s groin. The older vampire howled and doubled over. “How do you like that?” Ben taunted him.

Theo whipped his arm out, elongated claws extended from his fingers and Ben wasn’t fast enough to dodge them. The claws tore through his neck and warm blood sprayed out. Ben gargled and grunted, clamping down with both hands as though he could force his flesh to knit back together.

“As it happens, I did not,’ Theo replied. A well-placed kick to Ben’s abdomen sent him plunging down to the ground. His hands came away from his rapidly healing throat to try and break his fall.

A fresh round of gunfire sounded and with an animalistic shriek, Theo was flung onto his back. He tried to scurry away, but Castling was on him, the barrel of his gun pointed mere inches from his head.

“Move again and you die,” Castling warned.

Ben watched with bated breath, too scared to move in case he distracted Castling. Theo remained on the ground propped up on his elbows, staring into the barrel of the gun. ‘That bullet can’t kill me.’ he said. His voice held all of his usual smug confidence, but mingled within were the echoes of pain from the silver lodged in his chest.

“Tell me where my daughter is,” Castling said. Both hands were on his gun, one finger poised over the trigger.

“I’m getting a sense of…deja vu,” said Theo.

“Stop. Stalling,” Castling said through his teeth. “No lies and no tricks. Tell me where she is.”

“She’s dead! You know she’s dead!” Erin screamed furiously. She was back on her feet now. Rik was tending to Aiden who also had silver lodged in his chest.

Ben felt a pang of pity for the police officer. He seemed to be the only person who hadn’t figured out that Theo had been lying all along. It had been nothing but a trick to save his own life. Or maybe Castling did know it but he wasn’t ready to accept it yet. He couldn’t kill Theo when there was still even the slither of a hope that his daughter was out there somewhere.

“Tell me, Detective, don’t you think it odd that your darling daughter never reached out to you in all this time? Why didn’t little Mia Castling ever get in contact with her daddy?”

“Where is she?” Castling demanded. He took a step forward, pressing the gun into Theo’s face.

“Perhaps little Mia blamed you for her big sister’s death.”

Castling’s anger slipped away into sad resignation and Ben could tell that was the very moment when his final thread of hope died.

“Or maybe she’s been dead along,” Castling said flatly. He squeezed the trigger. Nothing but a dead click came from the gun as it jammed. Castling didn’t have even a second to react. Theo moved in blur. Castling screamed as the vampire buried his teeth in Castling’s face, mauling him savagely. He didn’t waste time taking a long drink, he took just enough to replenish his strength.

Ben and Erin ran forward but they were not fast enough to save Castling. Theo twisted his head around and with a dry crack, his neck snapped. Theo dropped Castling’s body like it was no more than trash.

Ben swung at Theo but he swerved out of the way and delivered a flurry of punches that sent Ben stumbling away. Theo had replenished his strength with Castling’s blood. But there was still silver lodged in Theo’s chest. The silver would weaken him again.

Theo snapped an overhanging branch from the nearest tree and forced it through Erin’s midsection just as she reached him. She was lucky he’d missed her heart. Still, it was enough to put her down.

Ben managed to swerve away from Theo’s next punch and weaved under his following attack. The magical blood powering him was still granting him amazing speed. His body was acting on his thoughts before he’d even finished thinking them. It was phenomenal.

“Do you mean to dance with me, Benedict?” Theo said. The older vampire was snarling viciously, pain lurking behind his dark eyes.

Theo distracted Ben with his hand whilst he kicked out in the opposite direction. Ben tumbled to the ground and before he could get back up, Theo planted his foot on his chest, pinning him to the grass.

“That’s better. Right where you belong,” Theo said. With Ben unable to break free, Theo used the moment to dig into his own chest and remove the bullet that was weakening him. “Pesky thing,” he muttered as he tossed it aside. “Now, I do—”

Erin leapt out of the darkness and landed on his back, clinging on like a limpet. Although she did succeed in pulling him off Ben, her positioning was not ideal for an attack. She clawed at Theo’s eyes and clamped down with her legs to keep herself attached. Theo screamed furiously as he grabbed at her, but with no eyes to see he was flailing blindly.

Ben got up and searched for a weapon. He spotted the stake laying on the altar and ran for it. It was only a few feet away. His fingers touched the wood and then he felt the cool grasp of fingers on his neck dragging him backwards.

“You clowns are really trying my patience,” Theo growled.

Ben was about to tell him the feeling was mutual, but he was not given the chance to reply. Theo sunk his teeth into Ben’s neck and white-hot fire ripped through Ben like a wildfire through a forest. This was it. This was the end for Ben. Theo was going to suck everything special right out of him and then he’d be even stronger than he was already.

Theo jumped away from Ben and shrieked like a man on fire. Ben staggered away, clutching the wound on his neck. He didn’t feel any less than he had before. Theo had only been drinking for a few seconds, nowhere near long enough for him to have taken enough blood.

And yet something weird was happening. Theo was on all fours coughing and retching through his pained shrieks. His skin was taught, every vein and artery raised in harsh bumps across his body. Blood was flying out of his mouth in torrents of red.

“What have you done to me?” he screamed.

Rik stepped out of the shadows, his hands pressed together in mock concern. “Oh, that will be the silver that runs through his bloodstream. What a silly thing to overlook. I did warn you that if I wanted to poison you I’d be more sly.” The warlock grinned devilishly.

“You betrayed me.” Theo lunged for Rik, but he didn’t have the strength for such actions and collapsed in a heap at the warlock’s feet.

“Well, you did say that you were going to kill everybody as soon as you were done here, and I’ll be honest, I did grow a little suspicious of your intentions for me. Especially after you already blackmailed me. Sad to say, there’s just no trust in this relationship,” Rik said. He was truly in his element now mocking the fallen vampire without fear of reprisal.

Ben and Erin approached from either side and Theo looked around frantically for an escape. He was too weak to fight now.

“Aiden! Aiden!” Theo screamed. Ben had forgotten about Aiden, but now he saw the vampire step out from behind a tree. His eyes were wide and terrified and it was clear that he would be of no use to anybody. “Aiden, kill them,” Theo commanded.

“No offence, pal, but I don’t think he’s got it in him.” Erin raised the axe but before she could bring it down a black cloud descended from above. The squeaking swarm of bats flew around their master, shielding him from Erin’s attack. Theo completely vanished behind the veil of flying critters. All three of them backed up as the bats nipped and slashed at them.

“This is not over!” Theo shouted above the noise. He moved within the surrounding bats away from the trio and made his way to his lover who was staring dumbly on. “Not for any of you. I will hunt you all with the full force of the Black Veil. From this moment your lives are forfeit. Each and every—” Theo’s words turned to a hideous shriek and the bats took off into the sky as if the sun itself was chasing them.

As the bats cleared they revealed Theo on his knees, the sharp tip of a wooden stake jutting out of his chest, and Aiden standing petrified behind him, the end of the stake still grasped in his hands.

“What…” Theo sputtered, drops of blood spraying through his lips.

“What was that?” Erin asked as she approached, brandishing the axe once again.

Theo’s flesh was greying before their eyes, but still, he tried to fight it. “Your…brother…” he whispered.

“Oh, save the bullshit, Theo.” Erin swung the axe and cut through Theo’s neck in one fell swoop. His head tore off and went hurtling across the garden, vanishing into the darkness. The now headless body fell forward and Erin stepped to the side to allow it to thud lifelessly to the grass.

“What. Did. I. Do?” Aiden said as he tried to stop himself from hyperventilating. He was staring down at the beheaded corpse of his lover.

“You stood up for yourself,” Ben said, nodding his approval.

Ben stared at the vampire’s now headless body. Blood gushed out of the stump of his neck and his skin startled to putrefy rapidly as if it had mere minutes to catch up on centuries of decomposition.

Rik whistled once and then smiled. “Ding dong, the bitch is dead.”

Ben lay down on the ground and let the grass consume him. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment. It was over. Somehow he’d actually won; he’d really won.

“Is it actually over?” he asked nobody in particular. The question was to the night and the answer was the pile of bones beside him.

And yet, Aiden answered anyway. “No,” he said. His voice was feeble and afraid.

Ben opened his eyes and stared up at the vampire who had just killed his good mood. He had his arms wrapped around him protectively, his eyes were big and watery. He’d just killed his abusive boyfriend; he was likely experiencing a whirlwind of emotions.

“What do you mean?” Erin asked. She had been staring down at Theo’s manky remains, but now her gaze flicked over to Aiden. Like Ben’s, her moment had been spoiled.

“Darius sent Theo here to investigate the hospital murders. When he realises Theo is missing he will come looking for him,” Aiden explained.

Ben pressed his hands into his face and groaned. “Why? Why can it not be over?”

“I have a better question. Who is Darius?” asked Rik.

“Darius is Theo’s boss and the head of the Volakas Bloodline,” Erin explained. “I met him once. He seemed nice.”

“Nice enough to forgive us for this?” Ben asked.

Aiden shook his head. “Not a chance. Theo represented the Veil. He was untouchable.”

Rik stepped up to Theo’s bones and prodded them with his foot. ’He doesn’t look like he was that untouchable to me,” he said.

“You’re not helping,” Erin growled.

“So what happens when Darius gets here?” Ben jumped to his feet and looked around at the three of them, imploring any of them to offer a satisfactory answer. “We kill him and then wait around for his boss to arrive?”

Erin let out a sharp bark of laughter. “We could barely kill Theo and he was about a fifth of Darius’ age. Killing Darius is not an option, and as for his boss…I don’t even know who that is.”

“Teremun,” Aiden said, his voice dry and cracked. “The oldest vampire still roaming the earth. I’ve never met him but Theo was terrified of him,” said Aiden.

Ben looked at Erin to see if she had anything to add but all she offered was a shrug.

“Great. This is just great. So now we’ve entered into a never-ending cycle of being hunted by ancient vampires.” Ben threw up his hands in exasperation. Maybe being human hadn’t been so bad after all. Immortality wasn’t much of a gift if he had to spend eternity fighting for his survival.

“Not necessarily,” Erin said calmly. Her own serenity served to ease Ben’s anxiety a fraction. “Darius doesn’t know what happened here. Theo was the kind of vampire who had an enemy around every corner. Even if Darius suspects Theo is dead he won’t know who did it. The only people who know are the four of us.”

“So what? Do we cut our palms and swear a blood oath never to spill the secrets of what happened here and just hope that nobody breaks their promise?” Ben said.

Rik raised his hand like a child in a classroom. “I could cast a blood oath on us all and then if anybody breaks the oath they would be struck down?” he offered.

“Absolutely not. That’s a dreadful idea,” Ben replied. If he got caught and the truth was tortured out of him he did not want to then be cursed by blood magic on top of whatever other punishment he was subjected to.

“It’s only a dreadful idea if you’re thinking of blabbing,” Rik muttered, but he dropped the matter all the same.

“We have to run,” Erin said and all eyes shifted to her. “Darius will come here looking for Theo, but if none of us are here when he turns up then he won’t be able to figure out what happened.”

“But he’ll look for me. He knows I am…I was with Theo,” said Aiden. When he said Theo’s name he looked down at his remains.

“You’ll have to far away and keep a low profile. Make sure that nobody ever finds you. Make Darius think you vanished with Theo. He’ll think you’re both dead,” said Erin.

“I’ve always wanted to visit the Philippines,” Aiden said.

“Don’t bother, it’s a dive,” Rik said, and it was hard to tell if he was joking.

‘I’ll have to go too,’ Erin said. ’There’s nothing tying me to any of this, but if Darius rocks up and finds me here, he’ll suspect me straight away. Not that I had any intention of loitering around in this dump anyway. I might visit Las Vegas.”

“I don’t know where to go,” Ben said. He’d never really thought about living anywhere else. It was a sad fact that he’d always envisioned himself staying in the town he’d been born in—not because he wanted but simply because he was used to it. Now he had to leave and all the possibilities were crawling out to greet him. There countless places that could offer him a better life than crummy old Maidstone. He didn’t even have to settle for one place, he could travel the world before settling down.

“You’re not going anyway,” said Rik, snuffing out his dreams before they’d even formed. “You promised to protect me from my coven and that’s what you have to do.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to protect you from them if you weren’t living in the same town?” Ben pointed out.

Rik shook his head. “I’m working on something and that something is here. I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not going to tell you what I’m working on either. From now on you have to stick with me like you’re my bestest friend in the world,” he said and plastered a huge smile on his face. Ben immediately regretted agreeing to that bargain.

“What about your coven? If Theo outed you to them then they know he was here. You’re a link that Darius can follow,” Ben pointed out.

Rik shook his head. “Theo didn’t out me in person. Like the coven would trust a vampire. He just sent them some rather damning evidence. They don’t know who it came from.”

“Oh,” Ben said, relaxing again. “What about Leon’s kids?” There was no way Ben was going to sign off on killing children just to keep Darius off his back. He’d rather take his chances with trying to talk his way out of the messy situation.

“You know where they are?’”Erin asked Aiden. He nodded. “Good. Take me to them and I’ll mesmerise them to forget everything. We’ll burn this house and all the bodies.”

“A big old house burning down might attract some investigative attention from senor Darius,” Rik pointed out.

“True,” Erin agreed. “But he won’t be able to figure anything out from a pile of crispy remains whereas I imagine there’s probably a lot of evidence he could use right now.”

“She’s right, we have to burn it all down,” Ben said. “Shall we get on with it?”

The four of them got to work covering their tracks. Aiden took Erin to deal with the children, Rik stayed in the garden to eradicate all signs of the ritual, and Ben returned to the house to douse every room in petrol. It turned out that Theo had been planning to burn the place down to the ground when he departed, so there was an unhealthy supply of petrol in the garage.

Ben started upstairs and worked his way through the house one room at a time. As he flung the petrol canister about, spraying the thick fluid over everything, he couldn’t help but think that he’d been given the worst of the jobs—the one that involved the most manual labour anyway.

He felt sorry for the children. They’d lost everything. Their parents were dead, all their possessions were about to be incinerated, and by the time the sun rose they’d have no memory of anything. They’d have permanent black spots in their minds to taunt them for the rest of their lives.

He was stopped in his tracks when he entered one of the bedrooms, a young boy’s by the looks of things, and discovered a huge mahogany coffin taking up the centre of the room. Nothing good could come from a coffin that belonged to a vampire. Ben stared at it for minutes on end, wondering who or what might be inside. Maybe it was one of Theo’s incapacitated enemies. Maybe he actually just slept in a coffin.

Ben edged into the room and stopped, his hand hovering above the coffin’s lid. There were pictures engraved on the wooden top. A rather menacing looking skull had been drawn inside a large square. Four lines stretched out from the corners of the square and formed smaller squares of their own. A different picture was held in each. There was a bat, an eye, a sun, and a spider. It was some sort of weird sigil.

He reached out to open the coffin and paused. This was exactly the kind of thing that the main character would do at the end of a horror film. They thought they’d beaten the bad guy and survived the ordeal, but then their own stupid curiosity made them open the coffin, and they wound up dead.

Ben was not stupid. And he was not going to die. Not tonight at least. He stopped his work and waited for the others to return and when they did he took them up to the coffin.

“It’s Theo’s loculum recro,” Aiden said dismissively when he saw it.

“Oh, that’s all right then,” Ben said with extra sarcasm. “What the hell is that?”

“I don’t know, he just said if he was ever badly injured I should take whatever is left of him and put it in there,” Aiden said defensively.

“I’ve heard of these,” Rik said, stepping forward and laying his hand on the surface of the coffin. His fingers drifted over the sigils engraved in the wood. “I thought they were just a myth. A lot of the old vampire stories turn out to be myths.”

He took hold of the lid’s lip and pulled it open. Ben prepared himself for something to jump out but nothing did. Inside there was no monster or imprisoned enemy; it was just full of dirt.

“Oh nice, a box of dirt,” Ben said, secretly relieved that nothing more sinister had been lurking within.

“I’m pretty sure Theo said all Veil vampires have one,” Aiden explained.

“If a vampire gets hurt too badly they spend a few days, or however long it takes, in the dirt and then they come out fully regenerated. It essentially allows them to cheat death,” Rik said, his eyes roving over the coffin. “According to the old stories, they are rare because only a witch can create one and each one is specific to the vampire it was made for.”

“This is concerning,” Ben admitted. “Are you saying we could dump Theo’s bones in this and he would come back to life?”

“Well…” Rik weighed it up for a few seconds. “Maybe.”

“Will it burn?” asked Erin.

“Should do. I’m not really sure since until a few moments ago I didn’t think they existed.

Ben slammed the lid shut, ready to douse the whole thing in petrol. There was no way he was going to risk Theo coming back from the dead. “What are these symbols?” he asked.

Rik had no answer to that. He shook his head absently.

“The Black Veil,” Aiden said. He pointed at the pictures. “Each square is the sigil of the different bloodlines. Theo told me all about them.” He pointed to the bat. “Volakas. Mine and Theo’s bloodline.” He stroked the little bat fondly as if he already missed his deceased boyfriend. “The eye is Dinferi.” He pointed at Erin. “The sun is Chang’an. The spider was Korvus. And the skull is Abydor, Teremun’s bloodline.” Aiden actually shivered as he said the name, but that didn’t interest Ben half as much as something else he’d said.

“How did Teremun wipe out the Korvus bloodline?” Ben asked.

Aiden’s face and tone were totally sombre for once. “He killed the progenitor. If the progenitor of a bloodline dies the whole line dies with them. That’s why Theo wanted to be a progenitor, so his fate would not be linked to the first of his bloodline.”

Ben felt a burst of relief. At least he would never randomly drop dead because the vampire who had started his bloodline had been killed or grown tired of immortality and taken their own life. For the first time, he also felt a touch of sympathy for Theo; he could understand why Theo wanted to escape from the shackles of being bound to another’s life.

“The Veil needs to update their sigil,” Ben said. He grabbed the petrol and threw a generous amount of the fluid on the coffin. He set the coffin ablaze before he left the room. Neither he nor Erin left the room until they were sure the coffin was definitely burning. Only when the wood started to fall in on itself did they leave.

With the fire already started, the four of them went out to the garden where they grabbed the bodies and began bringing them into the house to burn with everything else.

Ben noticed that Erin had stopped and was staring down at Castling’s body. The detective’s head had been twisted 180 degrees and was facing completely the wrong way.

“Who were they?” Ben asked about the two men who’d arrived with Castling.

“A couple of cops who were at the station when I went to find Castling.”

“I’m surprised you trusted him again,” Ben said as he approached her.

“I mesmerised him not to believe a word Theo said,” Erin said. “He fought against it in the end. Stubborn bastard.” She shook her head, a small, sad smile alighting on her lips.

“How do they do that? How do they resist mesmerisation?” Ben asked, remembering how Leon had resisted his command.

“If they have a strong enough reason they can fight against it. I guess a father’s desire to find his daughter is a strong enough reason.”

“You’re telling me,” Ben said. The image of Leon’s white sock flashed into his mind.

“What’s wrong Ben?” Erin asked, sensing the shift in his demeanour.

“I…I forced a man to kill himself,” Ben confessed. He told her exactly what had happened with Leon and then waited for her to tell him how disgusting he was. But she did not.

“You’ve learned to do what’s necessary to survive. Maybe you are cut out for this after all.”

“Cold,” he said quietly, his word was carried away on the breeze.

“Hey, I already told you, the vampire world is ruthless. The very fact that you’re still alive is proof that you’re learning that. The moment you forget it is the moment you get killed. So don’t forget it.”

Ben wished that he could accept that and use it as a justification for what he’d done. But he could not. “Why didn’t he resist when I told him to kill himself?”

“There’s only so much a human mind can fight. If you keep piling on the mesmerisation eventually the brain buckles and does as its told.”

“So if I’d just told him to forget what he’d seen and heard again, it would have worked?”

Erin stared at him, her gaze penetrating his very soul. “Probably, yeah. But when your life’s on the line you don’t take chances like that, Ben. I don’t know why you’re beating yourself up about this. Theo would’ve killed the guy anyway.”

They finished throwing the remains into the house and then left it to burn. By the time they left the street, they could already hear sirens in the air.

And that was it. With the clean up completed, and the children mesmerised and freed, all that remained was for the four of them to part ways and they all sincerely hoped that nothing dragged them all back together again.

Aiden was the first to leave. He took Theo’s car and headed straight for the airport, apparently determined to follow through on his plan to go to the Philippines despite Rik’s warning.

Ben, Erin, and Rik stood two streets away from the flaming house. The smoke had risen up in a great plume that cast a huge black cloud on the already dark sky. Erin had her car door open and one foot inside the vehicle, eager to get away. She had Theo’s bones in a bag on her back. She wanted to watch them burn to be sure that he definitely never came back.

“It’s a shame you can’t stay for a while,” Ben said, wondering if there was some way to change her mind.

“Aww, do you have a little crush on me, Benny?” she said pouting in mockery.

Ben tutted. “What are you like a hundred? It would just be nice if you could show me the ropes, you know. I don’t know all the ins and outs of being a vampire.”

Erin tipped back her head and cackled in a villainous fashion. “I didn’t even want to turn you, I certainly don’t want to train you. Even if I did, it wouldn’t matter. You’re not a regular vampire. You’re a progenitor. The first of your kind. I have no idea what you can and can’t do. You’re a little walking mystery box.”

“I’m not little,” Ben argued.

“You’re short and skinny—you’re little.”

“I’m five-nine which is an inch above average.” He’d had more than his fair share of people calling him short over the years.

“You looked that up, did you? Sounds like something a person who was insecure about that height would do.” Despite her taunting words, she smiled warmly as she finished. “Seriously though, stick to the basics and you’ll figure the rest out in time.”

“And the basics are?”

Erin sighed and flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Sleep in the day, stay out of the sun, don’t feed on the dead, don’t drink cold blood, and if you leave victims make them forget everything. Got it?”

“Got it,” he said with a thumbs up.

“Good, because I’m not saying it again. Anyway, thanks for your help in putting Theo down. This whole experience has been a sincere displeasure, and I truly help I never see you or this dreary little town again.”

“Yeah, yeah, the feeling’s mutual,” Ben lied. He wouldn’t mind running into Erin again one day in the future. Despite their rocky start, she’d turned out to be pretty okay.

She gave Ben the address she’d left Izzy at before she hopped into her car and drove away into the night. Ben stood on the street and watched her go. Then he realised that he did not have a car to hand and he really should have asked Erin for a ride into town.

“I don’t suppose you have a car?” he asked Rik.

Rik shook his head. “Theo brought me here in his which Aiden took with him.”

“Great. And Theo took my phone which is now burning in the house. Please tell me you’ve got yours on you.”

“Of course. I’ll call us a cab.” He pulled out his phone and began tapping on the screen. “Where are we going?”

“Just get him to drop you at your place first and then I’ll get him to take me to my friend.”

Rik snorted. “No, no, Ben. My place isn’t safe anymore. I’m under your protection now which means for the foreseeable future I will be shacking up with you.”

“I think you’re misusing that phrase,” Ben said, raising a finger in argument. “There will be no shacking up between us. Don’t take it personally, you’re just not my type.”

“Too manly?”

It was Ben’s turn to laugh. “Oh, please. If anything you’re not manly enough. Seriously, you remind me of my first girlfriend.”

Rik narrowed his eyes in confusion. “Was she also not manly enough?”

Rik was already giving Ben a headache and they hadn’t even left yet. He had no idea how he was going to put up with the warlock for any length of time. “You can stay with me temporarily, but we are getting this business with your coven fixed pronto.”

Erin had left Izzy in a small house whose residents had been mesmerised to look after her, but forget she existed when they weren’t looking directly at her. Ben admired the cleverness of the scheme; it meant there’d be no loose ends to burn after they left.

As soon as Izzy saw Ben alive and unharmed she threw her arms around him in an eternal hug. When he finally prized her arms off him she asked only one question. “Is it safe?”

Ben nodded and then led her out of the house.

He told her everything on their drive back into town. He wanted to take her back to his place, at least for the night, but she refused.

“If there’s no danger then there’s no reason for me not go home,” she said. He couldn’t tell if she was trying to call his bluff. It didn’t really matter because he wasn’t bluffing. There was no danger.

Ben accompanied Izzy into her house and helped her clean up the mess that Theo had left when he’d kidnapped her. Her house which she always kept in pristine condition was a horrible mess and Ben couldn’t help feeling at least partially responsible.

“I’ll get someone to fix that window,” he said, his cheeks pink with shame.

“So many people died because of Theo and Erin,” Izzy said, staring at the shattered remains of her window.

“Yeah,” Ben agreed. “Their rivalry caused a lot of collateral damage.”

“I just don’t know how anybody could kill so easily without caring. How can a person grow so callous?” Izzy wrapped her arms around her torso in a self-hug.

Ben shook his head. He knew Erin’s history, but he still couldn’t imagine the grief she must have felt in order to harden her so much that she was able to kill all those innocents in the hospital without a care. All in the name of revenge. He wondered if Izzy’s death would turn Ben as cold as Erin was.

“And forcing you to turn that poor woman…” Izzy shuddered and trailed off. “I’m sorry you went through that, Ben.”

“Don’t be. I kind of brought all this on myself. I chose to become a vampire. I entered their world willingly. If anyone should be apologising it’s me. I’m sorry that you got dragged into it. If anything had happened to you I don’t know how I would have handled it. When I turned myself into a vampire I never thought about how it might affect you.”

“You didn’t mean for any of this to happen. You didn’t cause any of it deliberately. You’re not like Theo and Erin. You’d never take someone’s life so cruelly just to serve your own agenda, would you?” Izzy asked, determined to prove her point. She was so sure of what his answer would be.

But Ben had not told her about what he’d done to Leon. He’d missed out the part of the story in which he had ordered an innocent man to commit suicide in order to save his own skin. He’d been too ashamed to admit it. Too afraid that she’d turn her back on him.

Now he had another opportunity to come clean. He could tell her everything and because she was his best friend, and she had stuck with him since their school days, he knew that she would stick by him now. She’d help him through his guilt and she’d try to convince them both that it was a one off. A lapse in judgment. A misguided action driven by fear.

But what if it didn’t go that way? What if she was so disgusted by what he’d done that she kicked him out of her house and never spoke to him again? What if his confession disgusted her as much as he’d disgusted himself?

He forced a small smile onto his face. “No, of course I’d never do that.’ Each word of the lie made his conscience writhe, but the lie was told, and the truth was brushed away forever. Never to be spoken of again.

Izzy smiled and then her brow creased. “That’s a horrible shirt by the way.”

He left Izzy’s a short while later and climbed back into the waiting taxi. The driver likely thought he was getting a big payout tonight. Little did he know that neither Ben nor Rik had any money and the only payment he’d be getting was a black spot in his memory.

“So, were you ever really on Theo’s side?” Ben asked Rik as they drove back to his place.

Rik let out a long sigh and shook his head. “No. From the moment he took me I was trying to find a way to stitch him up.”

Ben laughed. Then he thought about Andrea who had been murdered as part of Rik’s subterfuge. She’d lost her life in order to string Theo along until they could kill him. “Would that ritual have actually worked?” Ben asked.

“If Theo could stomach your blood you mean? Yes, I think so. It’s hard to say since I wrote it from scratch, but I believe the ritual would have succeeded. Speaking of which, I save you this.” He held out his hand and in his palm was a small shiny, black stone. One of the stones he’d dropped into the ritual bowl.

“What’s this?” Ben asked.

“Black obsidian. A souvenir from the ritual.”

Ben plucked the stone from his palm and held it up so the passing streetlights fell on it through the window. “Is it magical? Does it do anything?”

Rik glanced at the stone and shrugged. “Hard to say. It absorbed a wealth of magic from that ritual. I think at the very least it will give your abilities a bit of a boost. Should give you some degree of protection. With my coven coming for me you’re going to need it.”

Ben tucked the stone into the pocket of his jeans and turned to look out the window. It had been a long few days and he could not wait to get home and put it all behind him. When he awoke tomorrow night, he could worry about Rik’s coven, but for now, he just wanted to rest.