After the unexpected attack, the Coven did not reach out to Rik and this only served to frustrate Ben more. Rik served as the voice of reason when Ben wanted to storm over to Penenden Heath where the Coven resided and give them absolute hell.

“Apart from the fact that it would be monumentally moronic to attack a coven of witches in their own territory, that could very well be what they want us to do. If we attack them they can kill us both without the need for one of their farcical trials. They’ve probably already laid a trap for us,” Rik said.

“They attacked us out of the blue and they did it right outside Izzy’s house. I’m not going to let them drag her into this!” Ben raged.

Rik nodded, acquiescing to Ben’s point. “I know. I know. But we still need to play this cleverly. We can’t act rashly.”

“Well, we can’t do nothing.”

“We haven’t done nothing. We gave them a beating and sent them on their way.”

“We? I distinctly remember giving that beating myself,” said Ben. If that was the best fighting ability of the Coven then he didn’t know why Rik was so reticent to take the fight to them.

“The point is, if we go to them first it makes us look weak. If we do nothing but wait they’ll think we’re not scared and then they’ll get nervous. Trust me, I know how they work. Our power comes from forcing them to act. The more we ignore them, the more control over the situation we gain,” Rik assured him.

Ben saw the logic in Rik’s plans, and although he did not like it, he reluctantly accepted his decision. At the end of the day, it was Rik’s decision to make. Ben was just the hired muscle.

“If they go anywhere near Izzy or her house again I’m going after them,” Ben said. He wasn’t bluffing.

Rik nodded. “If that happens again I’ll help you paint the town red with their blood.”

Three days passed without an incident from the witches, and Gideon hadn’t made an appearance either. For now, it seemed that the danger had been put on hold, so Ben returned to his own plans, albeit with one eye looking firmly over his shoulder.

Rik had met with the owner of the building that Ben wanted and learned that the man did not wish to sell. He offered them a lease, but that wasn’t good enough. Ben wanted the security that came with owning the property and, for reasons that even he did not understand, he was adamant that he must have that particular building. He’d taken a liking to its look and location and now he wouldn’t even entertain the idea of a different building; not even when Rik pointed out far better ones. So, he took to phoning the owner several times an evening until finally, he gave in.

“Fine! You want my building? Fine! You can have it for half a million,” the man shouted down the phone.

Ben was too stunned to speak at first. “Half a million? It cannot be worth that.” Ben knew absolutely nothing about commercial property, but he was fairly sure that a small shop, hidden down an alley next to a very unpleasant nightclub, could not possibly be worth that much. He’d assumed the man would ask for £200,000 or less.

“Apparently it is worth that much because you’ve been ruining my evenings for the best part of a week! Either pay that price or stop phoning me. Your choice.”

“Fine,” Ben said through his teeth. Once again he had to resist the urge to pay the man a visit and change his mind with a little mesmerisation.

“What?”

“I said fine. I’ll get the money. I’ll call you when I’ve got it.”

Ben sat for a couple of hours and put together, what he considered to be, a flawless plan to rob a bank. He’d enter the bank and immediately mesmerise the security guard to go and turn off the CCTV and to delete everything that had already been recorded that day. Then he would find the bank manager and mesmerise him to give him the cash in a nice big bag. Then he would mesmerise everybody in the building to forget they had ever seen him. Flawless.

Until he told Rik his plan.

“High street banks around here don’t actually keep that much cash in the vault. You’d be lucky to get even 100,000. You might get more in a city, but not a town like this.”

“Seriously?” Ben said. He’s been really proud of his plan.

“Yeah, my uncle tried to rob a bank about three years ago. They gave about fifty-k. He thought they were trying to trick him and argued with them until the armed police turned up. He’s in prison now.”

And so Ben returned to the drawing board. After hours of aggravating research, he learned that there was no business in Maidstone that held that much cash on its premises. He would have to hit several different locations which would make it much harder to get away with; he’d end up mesmerising half the town.

“You could just mesmerise the guy to give you the building,” Rik suggested for the hundredth time.

Ben shook his head, even though it was the most appealing idea, and it was getting more appealing by the hour. “Izzy would lecture me until the cows come home.”

“Until the cows come home?”

“It’s an expression.”

“Where have the cows been? I thought they were kept in paddocks.”

“It means I’ll never hear the end of it,” Ben snapped. “And no, I will not mesmerise her to stop lecturing me,” he added quickly, anticipating Rik’s next suggestion.

Rik nestled into the sofa cushions and sipped his beer which he was drinking from a wine glass. “Shame you don’t know any loan sharks, they’d probably have the cash.”

A flame ignited in Ben’s head and he sat bolt upright, pushing his laptop onto the cushion next to him. He didn’t know any loan sharks, but he did know a pretty big drug dealer who would probably know of a loan shark or two. Hell, Rashid might even have that much money himself.

Unfortunately, Ben did not have a direct way of contacting Rashid since he’d never anticipated needing to talk to him again. However, he knew somebody who could put him in touch with the dealer.

Ben returned to the squalid building he used to live in. Rik was at his side with his nose upturned as they climbed the grotty stairwell.

“It smells of piss,” he complained.

“Yeah, drunks piss on these stairs.” Ben had witnessed it on more occasions than he could count. He’d even trodden it once before, but he wasn’t going to admit to that. Being back in his former place of residence only reminded Ben of where he’d come from, and while that should have brought a smile to his face, it did not; all it did was make him terrified of ever ending up back there. For all the new threats that vampirism had brought him, it had changed his living conditions for the better.

Harry was not at all pleased to see Ben. Hardly surprising since the last time Ben had knocked on his door the encounter ended with Ben tucking into his carotid. After very little persuasion, Harry told Ben exactly where Rashid was living now and Ben and Rik went on their way.

Rashid Khan, the drug dealer who had previously owned Ben’s apartment, had taken up residence in an apartment that was right next to a big, old church. Ben wondered if the close proximity to a holy place had anything to do with him.

Thinking about it, Ben didn’t know if he could enter a church or not. He’d just assumed that crucifixes and churches didn’t affect him, but nobody had told him that. Surely Erin would have mentioned it when she’d told him the basics of being a vampire.

“Where are you going?” Rik asked as Ben turned and veered off in the direction of the church.

“Just need to test a theory,” he called back.

It was still early evening so the church was not closed up just yet. Ben reached the doorway and glanced inside at the dimly lit holy place. He couldn’t see anybody inside but he knew a priest or vicar would be about somewhere. Even a church wouldn’t be left open and unattended in Maidstone; the vicar would come back to find all the crucifixes had been nicked.

Ben ran his finger along the edge of the door frame, testing to see if he started to feel warm at all.

“Vampires can go in churches,” Rik said impatiently as he came up behind Ben. “If Christian God is real he either has nothing against your kind or he’s powerless to hurt you.”

“Are you sure?” Ben asked, feeling a tad more smug.

Rik muttered some peculiar word and Ben felt an invisible force shove him in the lower back. He staggered unwillingly across the threshold and into the church. He froze on the other side of the door, too afraid to move in case he got smote.

“See,” Rik said. “Can we go now?”

“Don’t ever use magic on me again,” Ben warned him as they descended the stone steps.

“Or what?”

Ben gave Rik a shove in the back with his hand and the unsuspecting warlock went flying down the remaining few steps.

“Or that,” Ben replied. He walked past Rik without offering to help him up.

“Bitch,” Rik muttered after him.

Both Ben and Rik looked down at the three bulbs of garlic that Rashid had not even removed from the netting before dumping on his doormat.

“I think that skanky bloke might have warned him you were coming,” Rik said, smiling gleefully.

“You don’t say.” Ben kicked the garlic aside and rang the bell. He heard nothing but silence from the other side of the door, but he had no doubt that Rashid was in there. He rapped his fist on the door hard enough to crack the paint.

“Rashid, I want to talk to you and if you don’t open the door I’ll kick it down and you know that I can!” he shouted.

A few moments later Rashid replied. “What do you want?” he asked from the other side of the door.

“ I want to talk to you, I just said that. Now open the door.”

“Why? Are you here to steal another apartment from me?”

Rik snickered.

“No, but if you don’t open the door I’ll burn your apartment to the ground with you inside it.”

The lock clicked and the door opened. Rashid arranged a meeting between Ben and the loan shark and then Ben and Rik went on their merry little way.

Ben had never been a big fan of nightclubs, so when he walked into Vibe with Rik, the deafening music, the strobe lights, and the sweaty scent of intoxicated dancers made him want to turn around and go home. And yet, as he stood in the entranceway and gazed out at the intoxicated patrons dancing with drunken abandon, a part of him felt compelled to join them. They were having fun and they had nothing weighing them down and plaguing their minds. He realised that a big part of his dislike for nightclubs came from his fear of looking like a fool. The anxiety that came with allowing people to see him letting go and enjoying the music. That familiar old fear that somebody would target him, mock him, or even attack him.

But now he had nothing to fear from any of the people he saw moving about on the dancefloor. If even one of them so much as looked at him in an unpleasant way, he could pluck out their eyeballs and feed them to them. Not that he would ever respond to such a meagre gesture in such an extreme way.

“We’re here to see Stephen,” Ben told one of the bouncers at the door.

“Name?”

“Ben.”

“You don’t get a plus one,” the bulldog of a man said, jerking his head at Rik.

Ben stared the bouncer in the eye and said, “He’s coming with me.”

His eyes glazed over and then he nodded in agreement. “He’s coming with you. Follow me. Word of advice; don’t call him Stephen. It’s Steve.”

They followed him around the edge of the dancefloor to the wide stairway that curved around a corner as it led them upstairs. Ben had never been to Vibe before but he had to admit it had a nice decor. It was a shame it was filled with drunken fools who were making the floors sticky. With a clean-out and a sprucing up, the venue could be turned into something quite nice. It would even make a nice residence.

“Does Steve own this building?” Ben asked the bouncer.

“Leases it I think.”

“Don’t even think about it, I like this place,” Rik warned Ben. Ben had already abandoned the brief flicker of an idea to take the building. He didn’t want to know how much money he’d have to steal to convince the owner to part with such a venue. The building was about ten times the size of the one he already had his eye on, and it was in a much busier location. One of the reasons Ben had chosen his current building was because it was out of the way where few people would find it.

The upstairs bar area was empty. Ben thought maybe it was a VIP area that nobody had booked or maybe it was just closed on weeknights. The bouncer took them to a black door at the back of the upstairs bar area and knocked twice before ushering them inside.

Steve’s office was small and cramped, which was surprising considering the size of the club. Clearly, office space had not been a priority to the loan shark. The dark wooden desk was clear apart from a closed laptop and the residue of some white powder.

“You were told to come alone,” the man behind the desk said, his voice was gruff and grumpy as if somebody had drank the last of his coffee—or snorted the last of his ketamine.

“You must be Steve,” Ben said with all the confidence of somebody who had a malfunctioning amygdala.

Steve’s appearance didn’t do much to intimidate Ben. He was only about five foot six and what he lacked in height he made up for in an assortment of thick gold chains that hung around his neck. His wrists and fingers were decorated with more garish jewellery of a similar style. His head had been shaved bald but his chin was hidden by a scraggly grey goatee. When he opened his mouth to speak he revealed teeth that were coated with heavy layers of plaque.

“It doesn’t matter who I am because this meeting isn’t happening. Get out.” He stood up from his chair and pointed at the door, his heavy bracelets jingling with the movement.

Nobody moved. The loan shark started to repeat his command until Ben caught his gaze and issued a command of his own. “The meeting is going ahead with both of us.”

Steve’s eyes glazed momentarily before he agreed to the order and invited them to sit down.

“So, you want a loan?” he said. He reached beneath his desk and produced a can of Dr Pepper. Without offering a drink to either of his guests, he cracked it open and took a generous swig of the beverage.

“Yes. £500,000,” Ben said without blinking.

Steve snorted and covered his mouth with the back of his hand. “You got balls, saying that with a straight face.”

“Don’t you have it?” asked Rik.

Steve took his time swallowing his mouthful before speaking. “Oh, I’ve got it. But I don’t lend out sums that high to strangers.”

“I’m Ben and this is Rik. Now we’re not strangers.”

“Cute, but cute won’t cut it.”

“Look.” Rik leaned forward and placed both hands down on the desk. “I’ve dealt with your sort before.”

“My sort?” Steve leaned back in his chair, clearly amused by Rik.

“Yes. You’ve got a big speech lined up…” Rik tailed off when Ben raised his hand.

Stephen looked at Ben, eyebrows raised in amusement. Ben had humoured the conversation for long enough. He should have mesmerised the shark as soon as they sat down, but he’d let the conversation play out. And he knew why. He wanted Steve to show Ben how despicable he was so that Ben could take his money with a clear conscience. But there were easier ways of getting to the truth.

“I can’t be bothered with this.” Ben stared into Steve’s heavily lidded eyes. “Tell me the worst thing you’ve ever done.”

Stephen’s eyes conveyed his confusion, but his mouth moved in obedience. “I once broke a man’s legs because he couldn’t pay and then I made him watch as I fucked his wife.”

“Woah!” Rik said, unable to contain his shock. Ben was equally surprised but his displayed itself in silence.

“Was the sex…consensual?” Ben asked, dreading the answer.

Steve nodded profusely, offence igniting behind his eyes. Rape was a stain that even a man like him did not want on his soul.

Ben nodded in relief and then issued another command. “Give me the money. Now.”

Steve’s lip curled as he tried to fight the mesmerisation, but in the end, he was unsuccessful. He stood up and walked around the partition behind his chair.

Ben stood up so he could see as Steve entered a code into a keypad that unlocked the door to the adjoining room. Steve dashed into the room and swung the door shut behind him.

“What if your mesmerisation failed and he’s just locked himself in his safe room?” Rik asked, pointing at the door that had just closed behind Steve.

A flicker of doubt shadowed Ben’s mind before he thought better of it. A man like Steve wouldn’t have scarpered and hidden like a rat, he would’ve fought. He would not hide, not in his own domain. Even so, Ben started to wonder if he was strong enough to break into a safe room.

Steve disproved Rik’s theory when he returned from the secure room with a black sports bag. He dumped the bag on his desk, making a satisfying thud, and unzipped it to show Ben the stacks of cash held within. Ben’s eyes widened with greed at the sight of half a million pounds all in fifties.

“All yours,” the loan shark said, pushing the bag toward Ben. It was clear that there was some conflict within him. He was still trying to overcome Ben’s orders but finding himself unable. “Let’s talk repayment.”

Rik cackled like a hyena, tipping his head right back. “This one’s a bit slow on the uptake.”

“What did you say?” Steve demanded, his expression darkening.

“Hey,” Ben said, drawing Stephen’s attention back to him.

“Listen, buddy, I don’t know what the fuck is going on here but I—”

“Shut up,” Ben commanded, and Stephen obeyed. “The money is a gift to me. You don’t want me to pay it back.”

A dazed look fell over Stephen as he finally stopped fighting Ben’s instructions and submitted to his will. Ben snatched the bag off the table and left the room before anything could go wrong. The bouncer was not waiting outside and Ben and Rik made their way out of the club without issue. Ben’s body was filled with a jittery excitement like little volts of electricity were jumping through him. When he was a kid he’d had a naughty shoplifting habit and every time he’d made his way to the shop’s exit with an item in his pocket, he’d felt exactly the way he did now.

It wasn’t until they got outside the club that things took a turn. The duo were halfway across the car park when they heard a voice from behind them.

“Well, well,” said the voice. Ben and Rik wheeled around to see Gideon standing behind them. How he’d stayed out of sight in such a lit-up and open space, Ben did not understand. There was obviously some sort of trickery at hand; another of his hunter’s abilities.

“You again,” Ben said. Rik tensed up next to him.

“No fighting,” Rik whispered.

“Your friend assured me that you were a good guy,” Gideon said. He took a couple of steps forward and the street light above him added a warm shine to his silver hair.

“I am,” Ben said.

“Mhmm. That big bag of cash right there says otherwise.” Gideon pointed at the offending bag and Ben glanced down as if he didn’t know the bag was there in his hand.

“It’s just a bag of money. It doesn’t prove anything either way.” Ben wondered how Gideon knew what was in the bag—did he have x-ray vision? If so what else could he see?

“How did you procure said bag of money? Did you ask nicely? Or did you mesmerise the money into your possession?”

Ben’s fingers tightened on the bag’s strap as stared straight at Gideon, trying to decide on his next move. It was sorely tempting to charge at Gideon and let him have his full vampiric power, but he suspected that his powers would be less effective on the hunter than he would have liked. This situation required more brains than brawn. He was supposed to cooperate with the hunter, that was the plan.

“The man I took this money from is a loan shark. I’ve hardly stolen from someone in need,” he said.

A hungry light awakened in Gideon’s eyes. “So you admit that you stole it?”

“Izzy told me you have a habit of breaking and entering, so I don’t think you can claim the legal high ground,” Ben retorted. “And technically, I didn’t steal it. Steve handed it to me.”

“Maybe getting into a debate about legality and technicalities isn’t the way forward,” Rik advised, leaning close to try to keep it from Gideon.

“Your warlock friend isn’t wrong. Then again, is he a friend, or a minion?”

“Oh, because I’m a vampire I must have minions?”

“That is about the sum of it, yes. Your kind just isn’t happy unless you’ve got everybody bowing and scraping and begging for mercy.”

“My kind? Is it just me or does that sound a bit racist?” Ben asked Rik who did not respond. “Clearly you’ve got a deep-seated prejudice against vampires. Let me guess, you’re the old cliched hunter whose family was slaughtered by a big bad vampire, and ever since you’ve travelled the world hunting every vampire you can find.”

Gideon’s lips stretched into a sour smile. “A for effort. But wrong. Don’t try to psychoanalyse me, you don’t have the brain cells. It’s hardly your fault, the moment you became a vampire all normal brain functioning was replaced by an innate desire to drink blood and hurt people.”

“Oh, enough!” Ben snapped. “Tell me what I need to do to prove to you that I’m not a villain and I will do it. Just tell me what I need to do to get you out of my life.”

Gideon regarded Ben coolly for several beats. The still air hung between them holding the tension expertly. A car rushed past nearby, momentarily breaking the silence, and still Gideon stood, staring thoughtfully at Ben.

Then the hunter turned on his heel and strode off. Ben watched him stroll casually across the car park, like a man out for a midnight walk. He walked under a streetlight and his hair glowed like the moon. When he reached the edge of the orange light the shadows swooped in to claim him and he was gone.

“Well, that went considerably better than I anticipated,” Rik said, still staring after the hunter.

“Yeah,” Ben agreed, his voice a confused whisper. “Let’s get home.”

🦇 🦇 🦇

Erin climbed out of bed leaving the snoring man to his drunken dreams. She grabbed a champagne flute from the table and poured herself a glass of the thousand-dollar beverage. With her revenge quest completed, she could finally enjoy her immortal life to the fullest—and that’s exactly what she’d been doing.

She sipped the golden fluid and wondered how anybody could have the audacity to put such a high price on a drink, and how stupid somebody had to be to pay it. Not that she’d paid for the champagne. No, the poor fool in the bed had done that. She hadn’t even needed to mesmerise him, he’d offered her the finest Las Vegas had to offer all in the hopes that she would let him take her back to his room. And she had.

What a disappointment that had been.

After getting himself drunk on the fine champagne, he’d “treated” her to fifteen minutes of aimless fumbling, followed by about four minutes of lacklustre humping. His confidence had given her a severely false impression of his sexual prowess.

She glanced at him as she sipped the champagne. He was on his back, his hairy chest rising and falling heavily, and his limp dick draped over one thigh. Size had been wasted on him.

She crossed to the window and looked down on the brightly lit city below. She didn’t care that she was totally naked since the hotel room was so high up that it was unlikely anybody could see her.

She downed the rest of the champagne and wondered if the rich fools who bought it knew that it tasted exactly the same as all the others. Or maybe her pallet was just too unrefined to appreciate the exquisite flavour. Either way, it wasn’t worth the price tag.

Las Vegas was the exact opposite of the environment she’d been raised in. Back when she’d been human she’d lived in London at the end of the Victorian era. Everybody dressed themselves up as well as they could and maintained a facade of everything being prim and proper. There was no place for prim and proper in Las Vegas. The city she stood in now would have been labelled a den of debauchery. And Erin would have been called a common harlot. The thought made her smile.

She hadn’t just come to Vegas because it was the opposite of everything she despised about the place she’d grown up in. She’d come for the nightlife. The city was as nocturnal as she was. It was the perfect place for a vampire. As was evidenced by all the other vampires she’d encountered. Not a night went by when she didn’t run into another of her kind. Each vampire seemed content enough to mind their own business and give one another the space they desired. They all followed one rule: don’t draw attention. Not only would it make it harder for them to operate, but it might bring The Black Veil to town, and nobody wanted that.

Erin had come all this way to avoid the Veil. Darius would investigate Theo’s disappearance which would lead him to England. Nobody would have any reason to go to Las Vegas. She wasn’t sure how long she could stay. Eventually, the city would grow stale. But that day was not on the horizon yet.

Erin dropped her glass on the little table by the window and began gathering up her clothes. She took her time putting them on. The night was still young and her date was unlikely to wake up judging from the volume of his snores.

Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she saw that her eyeliner had smudged across her cheek. That must have happened when he’d been kissing her face. It had started out as kissing anyway and rapidly turned into the man just rubbing his wet lips all over her. Until she’d put a stop to it. Her vampiric strength came in handy when she needed to rearrange certain things, like holding a guy’s head far enough away so he could no longer slobber all over her. Most men were a bit freaked out when they felt her superior strength—this one had just got more turned on by it.

She hadn’t brought a bag with her so she’d have to return to her suite to reapply her makeup. She made her way to the elevators ignoring the stares she garnered from the passing guests. Some of the stares were judgmental, obviously taking her smudged makeup as a sign of her being a drunken wretch. Others were lusty. She ignored them all equally.

Her eyes fell on the door to her suite and saw that it was open just a crack. A slither of darkness stood between the door and its frame. Erin paused, staring at the anomaly. She was not a careless person. She would not have left her door unlocked. She hadn’t had anything to drink prior to leaving her room so there was no chance that this could have been a drunken mistake.

Somebody had been in her suite.

Somebody might still be in her suite.

Under ordinary circumstances, she would have gone inside and investigated. She was a vampire so there were few things she needed to fear. But she was also in hiding from a much older, much bigger, and much badder vampire. She was smart enough to have set herself a few unbreakable rules that were designed to ensure her survival. In situations such as this, there was only one safe response.

Run.

She turned from the room and took off down the hallway at full vampiric speed. She had to assume she’d been found which meant it was time to move on. She travelled light. Nothing she had could not be replaced. Everything would be left and she would start again in a new place.

She stopped running when she reached the parking lot office. She glanced at her phone. She had about ten hours until sunrise. Ten hours to find a safe place to rest during the day.

She burst into the valet’s office and the terrified boy jumped up to meet her. She grabbed him by the collar and ordered him to give her a set of keys.

“Forget you ever saw me,” she commanded before vanishing before his eyes.

She found her new car, a not-too-fancy convertible and jumped inside. She slammed the car door shut and every light in the underground parking lot died at the sound of the closing door.

Erin sat in silence, wondering if she could ride out what was happening by staying hidden. Ten hours was a long time to hide, and even if she pulled it off, the game would only start again the next night. She needed to get away now.

She started the engine. The headlights illuminated the area before the car and the person who was now in front of her.

On his knees just a few feet from Erin’s car, bound, gagged, and looking half-starved, was Aiden. Clearly, his trip to the Philippines had been cut short. Aiden didn’t look frightened, his face was unsettlingly blank like he was asleep with his eyes open. Erin stared at the helpless vampire and waited for another to show themselves. They never did.

A small pang of pity was all she felt for Aiden. She’d known him for all of an hour and his presence changed nothing. She had another rule—don’t stop to help anybody.

She slammed her foot on the pedal and burned toward the exit, narrowly missing clipping Aiden with the rear of the car. He didn’t even try to avoid the vehicle.

Bats were streaming into the parking lot through every available space. Their incessant chirping was growing loud enough to drown out the car’s engine. Bats meant Volakas. Volakas meant…

The thud of something heavy landing on the fabric roof of the car made Erin jump. She glanced in the rearview mirror and could see Aiden through the ever-growing number of bats. The presence of such a large colony of bats cemented the suspicion in Erin’s mind. There was only one vampire who could command such a large host.

Darius.

Tearing fabric forced her to look up. Five huge black talons were ripping the canopy above her head to shreds. Erin slammed her foot on the brake bringing the Mercedes to an abrupt stop.

Whoever, or whatever, was on top of the car should have been sent flying in front of her when the car halted. But nothing did.

The squeaking grew to an unbearable volume as the colony swarmed her car, flying around it like a big, black whirlwind, and blocking her view of anything other than shifting darkness.

None of them entered the car. Their master was holding them off.

With nothing to see through any of the windows, Erin had no choice but to look up. Slowly, she moved her head, each minuscule movement increasing her impending sense of doom. She stared up through the tattered remnants of the car roof. What she saw was not a man. Neither was it a bat.

It was something in between.

The creature was the size of a man, its body covered in short dark fur. The remains of shredded clothing still clung to its waist. Great leathery wings spanned out from its body, they beat the air noisily holding it in place. Red eyes glared out from a humanoid face that was grey and vicious looking. Pointed ears protruded from beneath long black hair.

Erin had never seen anything like it and now that she was seeing it she was powerless to pull her eyes from the monstrous sight. The creature blinked once and then it descended.