Ben didn’t hang around staring at the blank sky which had just moments ago been occupied by the monstrous bat creature. He bolted for his car, determined to reach Izzy before she got kidnapped again.

All the way back to his car he expected the monster to swoop out of the sky and attack him and he was relieved when he was locked safely in his vehicle—not that he gave himself even a moment to enjoy the relief. Without bothering to put on his seat belt, he had the car racing through the town toward Izzy’s house. He pulled out his phone and called his friend to try and warn her what might be heading her way.

The phone rang twice before she answered. Her voice was too cheery for somebody who was in danger but that did nothing to calm Ben down. “Izzy, arm yourself with silver, somebody might be coming for you. I’m on my way!” he said with no regard for the mental torture his words would put her through.

“Fuck,” she said. Her voice was low and quiet, absent of the hysterical panic Ben had expected to hear. He heard her moving through her house, rifling through her bag and then testing her silver spray. Then she went about locking all the doors and windows. Ben didn’t have the heart to remind her that locks would not keep out a vampire. She needed to feel safe and if turning locks provided her with that security he was not going to snatch it away.

He stayed on the phone and kept her updated on how close he was right up until he arrived outside. The front door was open by the time he reached it and she ushered him in.

“What’s the plan then?” she said. Her voice was still calm but her eyes were darting about like an addict due their next fix.

“Stay here behind Rik’s protections and wait for him to get here,” Ben replied whilst typing a text to Rik. “The chances of Darius coming here are slim. It’s me he’s come to town for and he probably doesn’t even know you exist.” If Darius had come for Ben then he would probably go straight to Ben’s apartment. Where Rik was. Ben mentally reprimanded himself for not texting Rik sooner.

“Will Rik be able to do much fight off Darius?” she asked. A slight quiver had crept into her voice and it was obvious that her resolve was slipping.

“Honestly, I don’t know. But our chances are better with him than without. Just a sample of his blood gave me enough strength to hold my own against Theo.” He hadn’t held his own for long but it wouldn’t do Izzy any good to learn that. “If he lets me have a decent amount maybe I’ll be able to send Darius back to where he came from.”

Izzy’s face tightened. “Ben, I’ve known you for years, you know you’re bullshit doesn’t work on me.”

Ben sighed. “Fine. I doubt Rik’s blood will give me the strength to fight Darius. Theo was hard enough and apparently, he wasn’t even half Darius’ age.”

“So, older means stronger?”

Ben nodded as his phone went off. Rik was outside. “We’re safer here than at my place. That’s not bullshit.” Ben strode to the front door and let the warlock in.

“I take it the sight of the two of you still being in one piece means that Darius has not introduced himself just yet. Either that or my defensive spells sent him back to his hole to lick his wounds,” Rik said as he sauntered through to the living room.

“He hasn’t shown up yet,” Ben said, following him.

“And you’re absolutely sure it was him that you saw?”

Ben shook his head. “No. He wasn’t wearing a name tag. I saw a man-sized bat flying around with a colony of bats around him. I deduced that he must be a vampire of the Volakas bloodline since they do the whole bat thing, and since he can turn into a bat creature he was obviously more powerful than Theo. Four plus four equals Darius.”

“You should probably work on your maths.”

“I’m glad to see that you’re in such a jovial mood,” Izzy snapped at him. Rik’s ears burned red like a child scolded by his mother.

“What do we do?” Ben asked him, hoping that his good spirits meant he had a flawless plan.

Rik’s eyebrows shot up. “I don’t know!”

“Oh, for goodness sake.” Ben kicked out at the footstool. “You’re supposed to be the super snazzy warlock with all the wicked spells.”

“First of all, I have not, and nor has anybody else, ever referred to me in that preposterous way. Secondly, you’re my bodyguard.”

Arguing with Rik would get him nowhere. All it would do was waste what little time they had left.

“There is every chance that he hasn’t come here for you,” Rik said. He crossed the room and peered through the window as though he was expecting to see Darius creeping through the back garden. “He was bound to come here to look for Theo since this town was the last known whereabouts of the aforementioned and not-so-dearly departed vampire. For all we know, he still doesn’t even know you exist.”

Ben glanced at Izzy and saw she believed that as much as he did. “And if he has come for me it puts us all in danger.”

“Then let’s have a little brainstorm and figure out how to alleviate that danger,” said Rik.

“The solution is simple; we need to run,” said Ben.

“Run?”

“Yes. We hoped that if Erin and Aiden fled it would stop Darius from finding us. Clearly, that is not the case. Staying in town is no longer an option.”

“Let me say this again and perhaps this time you might listen to me. Just because Darius is here it doesn’t mean he’s here for you. He could just be here to look for Theo. Chances are he still has no idea you even exist,” Rik spoke slowly as if Ben was a toddler.

“I don’t want to take those chances,” Ben said, mimicking Rik’s slowness. He could feel heat rising within him as his frustration tightened its grip.

Rik’s eyes were steely and unwavering. “We are not leaving. I’m working on something here and you have to stay as part of our arrangement.”

“What are you working on?” Ben demanded, narrowing the gap between them.

Rik’s tongue flicked out across his lips like a lizard’s. “I can’t tell you.”

“What’s stopping you from telling me?”

“I don’t want to tell you. Not yet. And us arguing is not going to help this situation.”

Ben stared at Rik with enough determination to make a brick wall crumble and in the end, it was Izzy who stepped in to break their stalemate.

“Rik’s right,” she said softly. “We need to focus on Darius. Rik’s side quest is nothing but a distraction.”

“Okay, okay,” Ben said. He stepped back to give himself room to think. The stress was making it impossible to think strategically. “Izzy, you had nothing to do with Theo. Darius isn’t here for you, but he might use you to get to me, just like Theo did. The safest strategy for you is simply to leave town until it’s safe to come back.”

“I agree with Ben,” Rik agreed. “We can’t leave but you can.”

“And when will it be safe for me to come back?” Izzy asked both eyebrows hovering up her forehead. “When you’ve dealt with Darius somebody bigger and badder than him will turn up to see what happened to him. Or maybe he’ll just kill the two of you and then I can safely come home but my friends will be dead.”

Ben felt a strange pang of jealousy when Izzy referred to them both as her friends. He’d always enjoyed being her only friend and he resented the idea that he might now have to share her. He wondered if she felt the same way about him spending so much time with Rik. Probably not, she wasn’t the petty sort.

“What’s your point?” he asked her.

“There’s no point in running. If I run now then I’ll never stop and I’m not going to spend my life looking over my shoulder.” She crossed her arms over her chest and stood firm. She was being as stubborn as Rik was and he wasn’t going to get anywhere with convincing either of them.

Ben’s shoulders sagged and he dropped onto the sofa as the hopelessness of the situation fell over him. “I don’t know what to do then. We can’t beat Darius and even if we could, like you said, somebody worse will just turn up. We were lucky to defeat Theo. If we take a stand I don’t think we’ll win.”

A heavy blanket of silence washed over the room as reality finally dawned on them. They’d been living in denial ever since they’d killed Theo. They had no hope of surviving against a vampire like Darius. By beating Theo they’d just held off the inevitable. They all should have left when Erin and Aiden had.

“We can’t win yet. But maybe in the not-too-distant future, we can,” Rik said. His lips were pursed like he was trying to stop himself from letting slip a deliciously juicy secret.

“How?” Ben asked, glancing up.

“The thing I’m working on…” His eyes darted around the room. “If I’m successful, it will grant me the power to protect us from anything. Anything. By the time I’ve finished nothing and nobody will ever be able to hurt me again.”

Ben’s eyes narrowed. “What is this thing?” It sounded like a valuable weapon well worth getting hold of.

“I’m not going to tell you yet. If any of this was to leave this room every witch in Maidstone would come to stop me and there’s no deal we could make to hold them off. But I need more time.”

“I’m sorry, mate, but it looks like we’re fresh out of time.”

“Not necessarily,” Rik held up a finger and began to pace the room as his old charisma started to return to him. “We can’t beat Darius, probably, certainly. Okay, definitely. But we know somebody who might be able to.”

“Might?” Izzy repeated, unimpressed.

“We don’t know his full capabilities yet.”

“I’ll take might,” said Ben. Might was better than definitely not. “Who is it?”

Rik took a deep breath before dropping the name on them. “Gideon.”

“Oh, absolutely not!” Ben said at the same time as Izzy said something to the same effect.

“He’s our only shot.”

“He’s not going to help us after we trapped him in the shop,” Ben argued.

“You did what?” Izzy demanded, disapproving eyes turning on Ben.

“Hey, he would not stop coming after me,” Ben said defensively pointing vehemently down at the carpet. “I tried talking to him and it didn’t work. I figured trapping him would buy us some time.”

“And now the grand plan is to release him and use him to buy us even more time against Darius?” Izzy’s logic was undeniable, or rather, the lack of logic in the plan was.

“She makes an excellent point, Rik.”

Rik held both hands up for silence so he could present his case without interruption. Izzy sat down next to Ben and the two of them waited for him to begin. “Darius is here. That’s already out of our control. Running away is not an option.”

“It is an option, you two just refuse to take it,” Ben interjected. A stern glare from Rik silenced him.

“The three of us can stand against the ancient vampire and definitely get ripped to shreds for killing a Black Veil vampire. Or, we can ally ourselves with the one person we know who has actually been trained to kill ancient vampires. Oh, and let us not omit the fact that Gideon abhors vampires. I think he’d actually thank us for sending him after Darius.”

Ben snorted and shook his head. “Yeah, he might thank us right after he kills us.”

“I don’t see any other choice. I’d rather take my chances with Gideon than with Darius.”

“It might work,” Izzy admitted.

“Seriously?”

“Think about it. Gideon is a problem that we can’t handle and so is Darius. Let them fight each other and we can take care of whoever is left.”

Ben had to admit there was a certain appeal to letting his enemies rip each other to shreds. If it didn’t instead backfire catastrophically in their faces. “Let’s just get one thing crystal clear, you won’t be taking care of anything. We let Gideon and Darius go at each other and then Rik and I will clean up the leftovers.”

Izzy looked like she was about to argue but Rik spoke before she could.

“So, you concur with my magnificent plan then?” he asked, grinning inanely.

“Unless somebody thinks of a better one before we go through with it.” Ben stood up. “Come on then, let’s go and let the hunter out of the cage and hope he doesn’t kill us for our troubles.”

When Ben reached the front door he paused. There was nothing but silence beyond the door, too much silence. Anything could be lurking in wait. As soon as they stepped outside Rik’s protective spells would be useless. They’d be sitting ducks for Darius. The shop didn’t have any spells on it since it was a building that was open to the public. They couldn’t have every potential customer getting eviscerated by Rik’s magic—or whatever would happen if somebody tried to enter. Izzy’s car was protected but Rik had not protected Ben’s car. Ben had felt confident that he wouldn’t need it. The confidence had now vanished.

“We should take Izzy’s car, it’s got protective spells on it,” Ben said.

“Actually, those spells are probably due a top-up by now,” Rik confessed.

“What?” Izzy said, a chilly fear clouding her features.

“It’s much harder to protect a moving object. It’s constantly moving through various energies that can tamper with the magic. It’s all very complicated but the salient point is your car is likely not any safer than Ben’s at this moment in time.”

“What about your car?” asked Izzy.

“I don’t have a car. I got a taxi here.”

“Let’s just go in my car,” Ben said and strode out into the night.

He needn’t have worried. Darius was not waiting outside for them. The street was deserted apart from the same sullen cat Ben had seen last time. All three of them hurried to Ben’s car whilst constantly looking around at their darkened surroundings. They made it to the shop without issue and locked themselves inside.

Gideon was sitting cross-legged in the centre of the room with his phone in his hands when the three of them burst in. His bushy eyebrows shifted upwards when he saw them. “Back so soon? Oh, and look, you’ve brought your friend along to see me. Ben’s one of the good vampires, right?” His final question was directed at Izzy. “This is a wickedly effective boundary spell, by the way, I can't even get a phone signal in here.”

Izzy opened her mouth to speak but apparently couldn’t think of anything to say so promptly closed it again.

“I didn’t kill any of the people who died. Theo did,” Ben said as though this time Gideon might actually believe him.

“You seem to be omitting the red-haired woman again,” he said. He planted his hands on his knees, apparently content to remain on the floor.

“Her name is Erin,” Izzy said and Ben shot her a hard glare. “What? We can’t throw ourselves under the bus to protect her. She’s not innocent, Ben. She did kill people.”

“Finally, somebody with some sense and a working moral compass.” He smiled at Izzy in a way that was almost friendly. “Tell me the rest, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me sweetheart, old man.”

Gideon’s chuckle was a rough gravelly sound. “Fair enough. Tell me about Erin.”

Izzy flashed Ben an apologetic glance before speaking. “Erin killed the people at the hospital to lure Theo to town. She had a vendetta to settle with him. Theo turned up and he killed more people—”

“The people at the house,” Ben interjected. Gideon’s cold eyes slid his way before silently returning to Izzy.

“And then Izzy and Ben killed him.”

“With my help,” Rik said, raising his hand.

Clearly, the hunter was not convinced. “Why didn’t you kill Erin too?”

“Theo was trying to kill us. She wasn’t,” Ben informed him.

“So, you only care about yourselves?”

Ben tightened his hands into fists. “Look, there’s another vampire in town now.”

Gideon’s pupils constricted to tiny pinpricks and he turned to Ben, standing up to his full towering height. “Is there indeed? Who?”

Resisting the urge to back away, Ben replied. “His name is Darius.”

“Darius of the Veil? Grand Master of the Volakas Bloodline?”

“You’ve heard of him?”

“Of course, I’ve heard of the second most powerful vampire in the world.” Gideon’s words did nothing to ease Ben’s nerves. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Izzy grab hold of one of the coffins for support.

Rik stepped forward, his feet kicking up small clouds of dust from the filthy floor. “If we let you out of here will you kill him?”

Gideon stalked right up to the edge of his invisible cage and glared down into Rik’s eyes. “What has Darius done wrong? What crime as he committed to deserve death?”

“Are you kidding? He’s like a thousand years old, he must have committed loads of crimes,” said Rik.

“Actually, he’s over two thousand years old and I have no proof of any wrongdoing. Who’s being prejudiced against vampires now, eh?” he flicked his eyes Ben’s way pointedly. “You two little pip-squeaks have trapped me in this dingy little room and now you have the brass-faced audacity to come and ask me to protect you from Darius.”

“It’s in exchange for your freedom,” Ben pointed out. He knew that it would do no good. He could tell when a person could be persuaded to do something and it was obvious that Gideon’s resolve would not falter.

“Even if I agreed to your terms, how could you really trust that I’d keep to my word?”

“Well—” Gideon cut him off before he could start.

“It doesn’t matter. The Order of Malakai does not make bargains. I have a job to do and I will not be deterred.” Gideon stepped away and sat back down in the centre of the room. His coat billowed like a cape as he descended and dust blew about in every direction, Stopping abruptly when it reached the markings on the floor and collided with Rik’s invisible boundary spell. “Why don’t you see if you’ve got another one of these traps you can use on him.” Gideon started to laugh at his own remark.

“This was a waste of time,” Ben said. The three of them left the room to the sound of the hunter’s laughter echoing after them.

As soon as Ben’s foot left the bottom step he felt the abrupt change in atmosphere. The hairs on his arms prickled and rose to attention. The shop floor was far too still. He knew somebody was there in the room before he’d even fully entered it. He recognised the prickly feeling of knowing a more dangerous predator than himself was present; he’d felt the same way when Theo had turned up, but this was worse.

“What’s wro…” Izzy said as she and Rik stopped just behind him, seeing what he had seen mere seconds before.

At the other end of the shop, leaning casually against one of the coffins was a man. His dark hair was tied back and cool, inquisitive eyes gazed across the room at Ben and his friends. This was Darius; there was no doubt.

“Go,” Darius said softly. Only then did Ben notice another vampire in the room. She sped forward at the same time as Darius did. He heard the cries of his friends as Darius fell upon him.

Ben swung a fist at Darius, but the older vampire ducked under it elegantly and then a burning spear stabbed its way through Ben’s chest. Darius backed up to allow Ben the space to fall as the stake sent him to his death. The last thing he saw was Darius’ eyes narrowed in interest.

When Ben regained consciousness Izzy and Rik were standing against the wall with the female vampire watching them hawkishly. Izzy was staring at Ben with a slackened mouth and one hand pressed against her chest; no doubt due to the fact that he had just been temporarily dead.

“Well, how about that,” Darius said. He was again leaning on a coffin, the offending stake in one hand, and Ben’s blood dripping from its tip.

Ben pushed up off the floor and climbed to his feet. Darius didn’t even tense up showing how much of a threat he considered Ben to be. “Darius, I take it?” Ben asked, trying to project the same nonchalance. The fact that Darius hadn’t killed him permanently had to count for something.

Darius raised an eyebrow and the rest of his face remained completely still. “You’ve heard of me? Excellent, that will spare me having to deliver the speech I’d prepared.” He pointed the stake at Ben and a bead of blood rolled down its length and dangled from the point, threatening to drop at any moment. “You, however, are something of an enigma to me.”

“I’m an enigma?” Ben said, rubbing at his forehead. He wondered exactly what Darius knew and what he did not.

“Yes. I came here on the whim of a word. Progenitor,” he spoke the word in a spooky whisper, his voice carried across the air like a song.

“So, you staked me just to see if I was a progenitor?” Ben said, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice. Darius had already demonstrated his speed and Ben knew he had no chance of winning a fight. Diplomacy and negotiation were his only friends.

“I had to confirm it.”

“And if he wasn’t a progenitor he’d be dead right now!” Izzy said accusingly. The woman put a hand on her shoulder to remind her of the current situation.

“It’s okay, Mia,” Darius said with a small shake of his head. Mia dropped her hand. “The girl has every right to be upset, I acted rashly. I am not sorry. When you live a life as long as mine you tend to get frustrated by the niceties and the social protocols. I like to get straight to the point.” His eyes slid down to the stake in his hand and he chuckled. “Pun unintended.”

Izzy glared at him like he’d just shat in her tea but she had the sense not to say anything more.

“Now I’m going to point at each of you in turn and I want you to tell me your name. Just your name and nothing else. As I’ve said, I have very little patience so let’s get this over with as quickly as possible. It is in your best interests not to make me angry.” Darius pointed first at Ben.

“Ben,” he replied. He nodded at Izzy so she knew to comply when the stake came her way.

“Izzy.”

When the stake landed on Rik it was not his name that he said, but a string of unrecognisable words.

Mia screamed and fell to her knees. Her skin turned red in a matter of seconds and sweat poured from her face. She drove her hands into the floor as she grunted and screamed against the power of Rik’s spell. The same was happening to Darius but at a much slower rate, his skin had merely pinkened. He remained standing, mouth stretched in pain and his dark, menacing eyes fixed firmly on Rik who was still muttering his incantation. Beads of sweat appeared all over the vampire’s flesh.

Darius stepped forward and Rik’s chanting grew louder. He did not take a second step but Ben could see his legs trembling from the strain. He suspected that Rik would not be able to hold them forever.

Ben rushed at Darius and snatched the stake from his hand. At least, that was what he tried to do. He might as well have tried wrestling it from the grip of a statue. The stake did not budge an inch. Pained by Rik’s spell or not, Darius was still able to move. His hand swung up and yanked Ben into an unbreakable choke hold. Rik’s incantation grew into a deafening shout but Darius held onto Ben like he was a lifeline. The pressure on Ben’s throat increased with the volume of Rik’s words.

Darius pulled Ben against him and pushed his forearm against Ben’s throat. Heat was emanating from the ancient vampire like he had magma in his veins. That heat combined with the concrete-like strength of Darius felt like a red-hot girder was being pushed against him.

“Stop the spell or I will rip his head off,” Darius grunted, each word laced with pain.

Rik glared furiously at the Grand Master of the Volakas line, but his defiance was killed by rationality. Ben saw the defeat fill Rik’s eyes but he didn’t stop chanting yet. He glanced at Izzy and then nodded at the door. He was giving her the time to get away before he doomed Ben and himself. Ben nodded once with gratitude.

“I’m not leaving you,” Izzy told them both, planting her feet into the floor.

“You have three seconds,” Darius snarled. “One, two…” Rik stopped abruptly and the tingle of magic left the air.

Darius’ grip around Ben’s throat loosened before the older vampire shoved him away. Ben fell to his knees and quickly scurried out of Darius’ reach, even though he knew it would not take much effort for Darius to catch him again.

Mia, sweaty panting mess that she was, wasted no time. She jumped to her feet and grabbed Rik by the jaw, holding his mouth closed as she shoved him against the wall.

“Stupid little witch,” she said, her face was so close to Rik’s that her spit flew over him as she spoke. He squeezed his eyes shut to shield them from the spray.

“Mia,” Darius said softly. She turned to him in disbelief.

“He just boiled our blood,” she said through her teeth.

“We walked in here and attacked them. They retaliated. Let’s not try to claim the moral high ground,” Darius said perfectly reasonably.

With a furious huff, she shoved Rik away from her. He staggered but Izzy was there to stop him from falling.

“And actually, I’m a warlock,” he said, rubbing his inflamed jaw.

“Actually, I don’t care.”

“You’re name?” Darius asked him, he looked almost amused.

“Rik,” he said, his tone harbouring lingering defiance.

“Rik, for a brief moment there things were almost exciting. Thank you for that. However, if you do it again I will let Mia tear out your entrails and those of your friends too.”

Mia smiled sweetly at Rik and he grimaced.

“How did you find me?” Ben asked. He took hold of the nearby chair and dropped into it. He didn’t think Darius meant to kill him since he hadn’t done it yet. Izzy and Rik did not share his optimism and remained standing awkwardly.

“Well, Theo, went missing. I tracked down his boyfriend—ex-boyfriend now—and after a lot of torture he gave me Erin’s name. We found her—insert torture here—and she confessed to killing Theo with Aiden. Then Aiden went and said progenitor which led me to believe there might be a sneaky little progenitor in the same place that Theo died. And here you are.”

Ben narrowed his eyes. “But how did you know it was me?”

“As it happens, there aren’t too many vampires in Maidstone.”

“There are fewer now,” Mia said with a smirk. Ben was not the first vampire they had conducted their experiment on. He tucked his curiosity aside, not wanting to know how many vampires had been murdered in the hunt for him.

“I worked my way through every vampire I found until I found you. And here you are building a funeral home. How very banal.”

Darius discarded the stake on a nearby coffin and stepped away from it. Rik and Izzy backed up which made Mia snort with laughter.

“So, are you here to give me business advice?” Ben quipped. The more he sat listening to Darius the more his confidence grew. Each minute that passed gave him hope that Darius had not come to kill him.

“No, I’m here to learn exactly what happened when Theo came to this town. Tell me everything in the quickest possible way. I warn you, I tend to get violent when I’m bored.”

“All right then,” Ben said. “Erin turned up first and killed the people in the hospital to set a trap for Theo. I stole her blood and used it to turn myself into a vampire.” Darius’ eyebrows rose but he said nothing. “Theo turned up and took me prisoner. He forced Rik to design a ritual that would transfer my progenitorness to Theo. Erin turned up with some cops—” Ben stopped when Mia tensed up, her hands balled into fists. For a moment he thought she was about to attack him.

“Carry on,” Darius said impatiently.

“We all teamed up on Theo and killed him. The end.”

“Why would Theo want to become a progenitor?” Darius asked.

“He said he could use the power to overthrow Teremun and take control of the Black Veil.”

Darius tipped back his head and a burst of rich laughter erupted from him. “Oh, that is so very like Theo. What an absolute buffoon. Rik, tell me, would your ritual have worked?”

Rik shrugged. “I doubt it.”

“Fascinating. So, here is what is going to happen. Ben is going to join me outside for a nice little nighttime stroll and a private chat. Izzy and Rik will remain here and keep my sweet paramour company. If anybody does anything that I do not like, everybody dies. And if everybody does only things that I do like, everybody lives.” He turned and strode over to the door. “Shall we?”

“Will my friends definitely be safe with her?” Ben asked. Mia seemed horribly angry and impulsive. She wasn’t the sort of person who inspired confidence or safety.

“One-hundred percent. You have my word,” Darius assured him.

“Theo gave his word and broke it easily enough.”

Darius’ hand tightened on the door handle and a small crack appeared in the metal. “I am not Theo. My word is law.”

“Okay,” Ben said, seeing no option but to accept his word. “Sit tight,” he said to his friends before following Darius outside.

Five more vampires all dressed in black waited outside the shop. Apparently, Darius had brought back-up not that Ben believed he would have needed it. It made Ben feel better about Izzy’s decision not to run now that he could see it would have achieved nothing.

“I wasn’t sure what I would be greeted by,” Darius explained as though he had read Ben’s mind. Darius made a subtle gesture with his hand and the vampires left without a word, their services no longer required. “The Veil has vast resources and had Theo bothered to use them he wouldn’t be dead right now. Then again considering what he was up to he would have only been postponing his execution.” Darius took them in the direction of the river. He walked with the confidence of a person who was completely familiar with the town.

“Where’s Erin?” Ben asked, trying not to think too much about the horrors that Darius had inflicted on her.

“Is she dead you mean? No, and Aiden lives too. Albeit barely. I have them tucked safely away whilst I decide what to do with them. Erin showed you considerable loyalty by not giving you up, even after Aiden had already given me enough information to lead me here. Why is that?” He inclined his head as he turned to look at Ben.

But Ben didn’t have an answer for him. He was as surprised as Darius that she hadn’t served him up to the Veil the moment she’d been captured. “I honestly don’t know. Maybe she felt like she owed me because I helped her kill Theo. Maybe she’s just stubborn.”

“She certainly is stubborn,” Darius agreed.

They came to the edge of the river where there were two benches and a closed ice cream stand. Darius paused to watch the inky black water trickle by. A single lone duck drifted on the surface as if it didn’t have a care in the world. Ben envied that duck.

“Let’s cut to the chase. You murdered a member of the Black Veil which is one of the few forbidden acts in the shadowy vampire community. However, there is a scenario where you get away with it.”

“I like the sound of that,” Ben said. He kept his distance from Darius and the river. His childhood had taught him never to put himself in a precarious position, such as standing right next to a large pool of water, and in reach of a stronger, potential adversary.

“Of course you do, who wouldn’t? But it comes at a price.”

“It always does. What is it?”

“You’re going to have to help me kill Teremun.”

Ben was not prepared for the freight train that Darius had just smashed him in the face with. A sharp stab of pain erupted in his forehead like a two-second migraine. Ben raised his fingers to his head but the pain vanished before he touched it. A symptom of stress perhaps.

“Problem?” Darius asked.

Ben shook his head. “You really should have told me to sit down before you said that,” he replied as he lowered himself onto one of the metal benches.

“What are you a little girl? Man up.”

“Okay boomer,” Ben said, instantly regretting the retort and wincing in preparation for an attack. Darius didn’t move, he just stared at Ben with his eyebrows squished together in confusion, obviously not knowing what a boomer was and obviously not qualifying to be one. If anybody qualified for the “he’s from another time” expression it was Darius. “Look, I know you like to get straight to the point, but I’m going to need you to explain why you want me to help you kill Teremun.”

Darius tutted loudly and turned back to the river. “It’s not as though we don’t have the time.” He planted his hands on his hips and turned back to face Ben. “Vampirism, for me, was a great boon. It offered me freedom from all things. Silly structures and petty politics. In two and a half millennia the world has not changed. Humans just love making rules to control everybody.” He made an agitated gesture with his hands. “Distorted democracies designed to give the illusion of shared power when really the same handful of people made all the decisions. It was suffocating. Being forced to align yourself with somebody else’s ideologies. Ordered to fight in wars that had nothing to do with you. When I became a vampire I walked away from all that and never looked back. I was free to do whatever I wanted. No senate, no king, no puny politician could tell me what to do.” Darius stopped for a moment to relish in the memory of that first taste of true freedom. Ben remembered feeling something remarkably similar when he’d turned. He also remembered how quickly that false freedom had been snatched away.

“I went about doing as I pleased and it was glorious. Fighting was so much more fun as a vampire. Wounds healed instantly so the fight could drag on for hours with the right opponent.” His joyous expression melted off his face and a grim, sombre one was waiting underneath. “I haven’t had any fun for five hundred years.”

Ben would have accused Darius of exaggerating but the ancient vampire didn’t seem like the sort to embellish things. If he said he’d had no fun for five centuries then Ben believed him.

“Five-hundred years ago Teremun created the Black Veil. He deceived me. He tricked me into helping him track down all the progenitors.”

“How?” Ben asked. His voice was a feeble sound against the quiet of the night.

“There was a war waging at the time. The vampire bloodlines were ripping one another apart and I was loving it. I’d always hated being forced to fight in the trivial wars of humans, but I’d always enjoyed the fight. And this was a fight like no other. I’d never been challenged the way I was in that war.”

“What were you fighting over?” Ben asked. It must have been pretty big if all the bloodlines had gone to war over it.

Darius threw up his hands and chuckled richly. “I have no idea. It started a long time before I got involved. Some disagreement between the progenitors, I think. When I found out that by killing the head of my bloodline, a vampire could wipe out the entire bloodline with it, I found it significantly less fun. The war had to stop. If I was going to die then it wasn’t going to be from a thousand miles away with no chance of fighting to save my skin.”

A car crossed the bridge above them, the noise momentarily snatching their attention away from Darius’ story.

“I hate cars,” Darius said, his lip curling in disgust. “They’re noisy and they stink.”

“They do make travelling a lot easier, though,” Ben said. He’d always been a big fan of cars, but then again he couldn’t sprout wings on demand.

“I helped Teremun track down all the progenitors—they had started the war, so I was fully onboard with Teremun’s plan to lock them away for the good of all vampires everywhere. However, he neglected to tell me where he put them. And he used them to take control of the entire vampire race. Every vampire can be snuffed out on a whim if he so desires.” Darius snapped his fingers. “He called me his right-hand man, his second-in-command, but I’m just as much a slave to him as every other vampire. His rules and his structure have stripped the fun out of everything. I can’t even get into a good scrap anymore because every vampire is too scared of the Veil to fight me. If I’d known that bloody war would have been the last fight I’d have I would have died in it.”

“So, you want me to help you kill Teremun so you can take over the Veil and nobody will be able to control you anymore?” Ben asked. It sounded like Theo’s plan all over again.

Darius walked forward slowly never once breaking eye contact with Ben. Ben pressed as far back against the bench as possible but it did nothing to stop Darius from leaning over him and invading his space. Darius’ head hovered centimetres from his own and his hands gripped Ben’s shoulders with more strength than was necessary or wanted.

“Have you listened to a single word I have said?” he asked carefully enunciating each word. “I do not want to take over the Veil. I want to burn it down.” He released Ben’s shoulders and presented his hands before Ben’s face, holding them as though there were in handcuffs. “I want to be free of Teremun’s shackles.”

Darius turned as he rose and then dropped himself on the bench next to Ben. He moved with the grace of a ballerina. Ben tried to process the information that Darius had given him but it just would not sink in. It still didn’t make sense.

“I don’t know what you think I can do to help,” he admitted, aware that his confession might rob him of the only chance of getting away with killing Theo.

“Oh, Ben!” Darius slipped an arm around him and pulled him close in a horribly uncomfortable embrace. “You don’t know what power courses through your veins. You’re a progenitor. You have unexplored abilities. Nobody knows what you’re capable of yet.”

“I’m immune to silver,” Ben offered. It was the only ability he’d learned so far. He could mesmerise too, but he wasn’t the first vampire to have that power.

“Interesting. With training, we will unlock the rest of your hidden gems.”

“Training?”

“Training. As you are right now you’re just shy of useless. But I will fix that.” he retracted his arm and jumped back to his feet. The way he flipped from being still to moving rapidly was unsettling. “You are the only vampire in the world who Teremun cannot kill remotely. However, all he would have to do is come here to kill you. Not that he would—he’d send somebody else. Me probably. We need to make you strong. We need to make you a credible threat.”

“Why? I don’t want to paint a massive target on myself!” Ben protested. The last thing he wanted was to lure Teremun to Maidstone. So far the plan had been to keep his existence a secret.

“Don’t be so craven. You’re a vampire, Ben, embrace your nature or prepare to die. The target was drawn on you the moment you became a progenitor. A progenitor’s strength grows faster than a regular vampire’s, and I know how to accelerate it further. I will make you strong enough to hold your own against any assassin sent your way, and when Teremun finally comes to deal with you himself we will kill him. I’m not strong enough to do it alone, but with a fully-trained progenitor by my side, he won’t stand a chance.”

The plan still sounded massively risky to Ben but he got the impression that he didn’t really have a choice. “What if I say no?”

A chilly stillness passed over Darius and he dropped his arms to his sides. “Then I’ll kill you and your friends. Alternatively, if you agree to my plan then you and your friends will be placed under my protection. Any threats that come your way will be dealt with swiftly and effectively.”

“I guess I’m in then,” Ben muttered.

“Excellent.” Darius smiled and his pearly teeth glinted in the darkness. “You need to create vampires. The larger your progeny the faster your strength will grow.”

“So, the more vampires I make the stronger I’ll get?”

“That is what I just said.”

“Won’t that draw attention to us?”

Darius shook his head and his ponytail bounced off his shoulders. “I will be in the area running interference. Any vampires who come nosing around will think I am responsible and nobody will have anything to say about that.” He wiggled his eyebrows mischievously.

“And what if Teremun comes to soon?”

“He won’t. Teremun is not quick to act. Ever. He’s overly cautious. He won’t come out of his lair—wherever that may be—until he sees no alternative.”

“I want something in return for my help,” Ben said. He was well aware that he was pushing his luck but since he was instrumental in Darius’ plan he believed he had a little more rope to swing.

Darius raised his eyebrows. “Something more than a pardon for murdering a Black Veil representative?”

“Theo was conspiring to kill Teremun. That’s treason, right? It sounds like I did your job for you.”

“Ha! You quick-witted fellow. So, we’re negotiating now. How delicious. Go on, what do you want?”

“Release Erin and Aiden.”

“Fine.” He waved a hand as though he didn’t care at all. “They can stay with you. They know what you are and I will not risk that secret getting out. Not that Aiden will be telling anybody anything.” Ben did not want to know what that meant. Not yet at least.

“One more thing.”

“You cheeky bastard. Go on…”

“There’s a hunter from the Order of Malakai who I’ve got locked in my shop.”

“What?” he said with dead-eyed disbelief. “You, a vampire for only a few weeks, have managed to capture a Malakai hunter?”

Ben nodded. “Yes. He seems to have it in for me.”

“Well, we can’t have that. I’ll get rid of him. So, is that all or do you have more demands?”

Ben shook his head, he was quite satisfied with what he’d got as it was. With Gideon out of the picture, he’d be able to get on with his life without constantly wondering if he was about to get staked. Darius had agreed to protect him and his friends from all threats—vampires, hunters, witches, and whatever else was waiting in the wings to ruin Ben’s night. Life should be easier, at least until it was time to deal with Teremun. He imagined that Gideon would look like child’s play in comparison. “That’s everything.”

“Well then, there’s one thing left to do.” Darius extended his hand and held it before Ben. If ever Ben felt like he was making a deal with the devil this was it. And like all deals with the devil, the reward was far outweighed by the price. But when the alternative was instant death for him and everybody he cared about, there really wasn’t much choice. He reached out and shook Darius’ hand.