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forming in her eyes. I continued, lowering my voice. “You don’t have to do this alone,

Rebecca. I will help you as much as I can, and my brothers will be here tomorrow evening.

Marcus is good at this sort of thing. Much better than me. He makes it all sound normal.

And then you’ve got Mark, and of course,” I paused for effect, “don’t forget the kitten.” She

giggled at that.

“What more could I ask for?” she smiled through her tears.

“Coffee.”

“Yes please. But not that thick tarry muck Mark gave us yesterday.” She pulled a face.

“Yeah, it was pretty grim, wasn’t it?” I stood up and went into the kitchen, leaving her

to think it over. She didn’t really have much of a choice, but it would be easier for everyone if she were on board with us, so to speak. Especially for her. I made coffee and dug out

some biscuits I’d bought the previous morning. She was sitting in the same position when I

walked back carrying a tray.

“I wonder if the people who hurt this little thing will ever be punished,” she said

quietly, tickling the kitten under its chin. It purred ecstatically.

“Yes.”

She looked up at me. “You’ve done it already, haven’t you?” She knew. There was no

point denying it.

“Yes.”

“Good.” I handed her the coffee, careful not to let our fingers touch. “Does your

television work?”

I grinned at her. “Probably.”

“Do you mind if we watch a film or something?”

“Sure.” I handed her the remote. She glanced at it and pressed a button. The television

lit up, and I watched her face as she flicked through the channels. It was hard to read her

expression, but I wasn’t about to start reaching into her thoughts again. I was afraid of what I would detect, and a lot more afraid of what my reaction would be to what I found. I sat

there, pretending to watch some romantic comedy, while all I could think of was what it

would feel like to touch her.

Rebecca

I got home from school in a complete mess. I glanced in the mirror. My clothes were

splattered with blood, but it was my expression that frightened me most. I looked wild-eyed

and feverishly excited. No wonder everyone had stared at me at school. I was
scary
, man. I shook my head at my reflection and stripped off and climbed into the shower. The hot

water washed the beguiling smell of blood from my skin, and the familiar soapy scent

seemed to wash away the madness sloshing around in my head. I stepped out of the small

shower cubicle feeling a lot more balanced than when I had stepped into it. I dressed quickly

in jeans and a t-shirt and a thick jumper, and threw a load of washing in the machine. I

didn’t want my mother to find my bloodstained clothes and assume that I was the one who

had been hurt. Ten minutes later I was ringing the Angus’ doorbell, eagerly anticipating

seeing his strong, beautiful face again, and nervous as all hell at the same time. He

answered the doorbell in jeans and a white cotton open necked shirt, tall, powerful and

dangerous, but strangely gentle too.

“Rebecca.” He seemed pleased to see me and a bit puzzled too. I explained what had

happened at school, and he nodded. He seemed impressed that I hadn’t actually bitten

Shanice’s neck. Someone who admired my restraint! I was stunned and grateful at the same

time.

We watched a film for a few hours. I can’t for the life of me remember what it was

about, but I felt I needed some kind of distraction. The cat seemed to enjoy it.

Mark arrived straight after school, still dressed in school uniform and carrying his bag.

“Hey, Sis,” he grinned at me. “You look a lot more, er, civilised than you did this

morning!”

I grinned back. “Come say that here!”

“Nah, it’s alright. You got anything to eat here?” he asked Angus, who stood behind

him.

“Frozen pizza. They’re in the freezer.” He looked at me over Mark’s shoulder, his

eyebrows raised. “You ready for those iron tablets now?” I nodded, and felt my face flushing

traitorously. “I’ll get them for you. Mark can heat up the pizza.”

“Excellent. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me. Anyone want pizza?”

“Yes, please.” I was suddenly very hungry. Angus tilted his head slightly as if considering

something.

“Yes,” he said, and took a small container from a nearby cabinet drawer, and tossed it

my way. I caught it one handed, surprised. “Five daily, Rebecca.” I shook the container

briskly. There were a lot more than five in there. I nodded, grateful for his confidence in my reliability. Or maybe he was relying on me not wanting to take too many tablets and go

berserk. Fair enough.

“Coming up!” Mark disappeared into the kitchen, returning twenty minutes later with

three steaming pizzas and a huge smile.

“I have questions,” he announced as he took up his usual position on the floor against

the wall, biting hungrily into a massive slice of pizza.

“Let’s have them,” Angus smiled, and bit into his own slice.

“Well, let’s see.” Mark pulled a small notebook out of his bag, and flipped the pages

until he found what he was looking for. “I have a list.”

Angus groaned slightly. “Not a list!” he said, his voice tinged with false dismay.

“Number one. Is it true that you react to sunshine?” Mark took another huge bite. I

glanced at Angus.

“No. But we always look like we can’t go in the sun because we’re so pale. We don’t

tan. Normal humans tan to defend their skin from the sun. We don’t need to do that.”

That explained my continuing colourlessness in the face of weeks of tanning. So there

was a reason for it! I was strangely pleased.

“Number two.” Mark grinned at Angus. “Vampires on TV and in legends and books are

usually kinda hideous. You both look normal. Good looking, even.” He pulled a face as he

said the last three words, as if it cost him to do that. I was flattered.

Angus grinned widely. “Thanks, Mark.” Mark looked sour.

“My brother Marcus has done a lot of research on vampire legends, and he’s come up

with a theory that, knowing him, is probably pretty accurate.” He took another bite, and

chewed for a few seconds, and swallowed. “Marcus reckons that we look normal because

we eat like normal people too, besides taking iron supplements. He compares it to people

who are addicted to heroin. Some will give themselves over entirely to the drug. Their lives

revolve around the drug, obtaining it, and then using it. They don’t eat normally, or look

after themselves in other ways, like bathing for instance. They soon start to look pretty grim, but they don’t seem to care. Marcus thinks that older vampires used to be a bit like that.

Their addiction hit them like a bus, and they were never able to recover. He also thinks that

we manage to live relatively normal lives because we take iron tablets instead of blood. Iron

is released fairly slowly into our systems, so we don’t have that massive rush that you get

from sucking blood.” He grinned again.

Mark was nodding slowly, like it all made sense. “Cool.”

Angus said nothing.

“Number three. Are there any others out there?”

“Hmmm. Good question. I don’t know. The likelihood is, yes, there probably are more

of us out there somewhere. We haven’t found them yet, but they could be camouflaging

themselves as normal people, same as us. There are a few possibilities, really. Firstly, there could be a family or two of fairly civilised vampires, like us, who know what they are and

how to control it. They would also know how to avoid detection, so it’s unlikely we’d ever

find them. The second possibility is that there is a group of old style vampires, but that’s a long shot. They would have to be pretty organised, and live somewhere that was very

isolated, because they’d look wrong. They’d also need some human go-betweens. That kind

of group would have had to have existed for a long time. We haven’t bothered to look for

groups like that. Marcus doesn’t think that they could exist, and there would be no point in

finding them anyway. They’d be too freaky, even for us.” He grinned.

“The third possibility is that there are more like Rebecca out there, with two human

parents. Both your parents carried different parts of the genes you needed to metabolise

iron, and the combination of the two was like fitting two pieces of a puzzle together.”

“How did you find me?” It was my turn for a question.

“You had a blood test when you were hit by that car. Marcus isolated a specific blood

subtype in the three of us that wasn’t present in the rest of the population. Fergus hacked

into most of the blood banks in the world, including those in the NHS. Your name was

flagged by one of Fergus’ systems. I was in the vicinity, so I was sent to check you out.”

He smiled at me. I felt that now familiar fluttering rush in my abdomen again.

“Marcus somehow got them to send him a sample of your blood. He confirmed the

presence of those three genes in your DNA.”

“Have you found any others like me?”

“Not yet, no. We weren’t even expecting to find you. It was quite a surprise.” He was

smiling with his eyes again. Flutter, flutter. It was becoming almost painful to be in the same room as him, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I was starting to dread having to go

home tonight. I tried diversionary tactics.

“So where do Marcus and Fergus live?”

“Russia. We were born in Aberdeenshire, but we moved to Russia shortly before the

cold war ended. I haven’t lived there for years, though. Marcus and Fergus stayed behind

when I left.”

“Why did you leave?” Mark asked through a mouthful of pizza.

“I’m not sure. There was nothing to keep me there, I suppose. Our family lands are

pretty extensive, and we have a huge house out there. Marcus was able to set up a state of

the art lab in a purpose built addition to the house, and Fergus snuck his computers in there

one day and never left. They had all they needed. Marcus did loads of degrees, Fergus made

loads of money.”

“Do they look like you?” Mark again. His curiosity knew no bounds.

“No. They have light greyish eyes and blonde hair. So when they get excited their pupils

dilate and it looks like their eyes have changed colour from grey to black. Our eyes are

different to yours. When our ‘fight or flight’ response kicks in, our pupils dilate completely, so you can’t see any of the coloured part of the eye at all. I blend in better because my eyes are dark anyway. The change is not so noticeable.”

“I’ve noticed it,” muttered Mark. Angus grinned wickedly at him.

“And yet, here you sit, still alive, and eating my pizza.”

Mark grinned back. “It’s ‘cause your cat likes me, isn’t it?”

“Why else?”

“She needs a name, you know.” I decided to interrupt. The kitten was still cuddled up

on my lap. She was asleep now, and her paws twitched wildly as she stalked her prey in the

throes of feline dreams.

We spent the rest of the afternoon debating about what to name the kitten. Mark and I

did anyway, while Angus stretched out in his armchair and watched us with amused eyes.

The debate got a bit heated when Mark suggested calling the cat Quark, because she was so

tiny, and it rhymed with ‘Mark’. Angus eventually interrupted us to point out that our

mother would be arriving home in about ten minutes. The idea of going home was

unwelcome, but we both stood up reluctantly. The kitten had wandered off to find

something to eat earlier, and hadn’t returned yet.

“I should be OK to go to school tomorrow?” It was a question, not a statement. I was

worried about the whole prospect of attacking somebody and drinking their blood. It was

not something I’d ever wanted to do before, but things were clearly changing. And people

out there were unlikely to be as understanding as Mark and Angus.

“That depends. Now that you know how you react to the smell of blood, you will

probably do your best to avoid spilling any again.” He grinned at me, teasing.

“Very funny. So you think it will be OK.”

“You should be fine,” he said as he walked us to the front door.

I shouldn’t have listened to him.

Angus

It was easier for me when Mark was around. The two of them arguing with each other

reminded me of how young they both really were; they seemed older. And Mark’s presence

distracted me from the enticing female smell that Rebecca exuded. I didn’t have to hold my

breath so much when he was there. It should have been getting easier, but it wasn’t. And

then when they were leaving, and she looked so unhappy and withdrawn, I suddenly

needed to check that she was OK. I hadn’t tried to feel her thoughts the whole afternoon,

but as she was leaving I caved in to intense curiosity. She looked so sad.

Big mistake. As I reached out I was immersed in a violent swirl of confusion and desire. I

withdrew as soon as I could, but it was too late. I felt my eyes changing and my body

stiffening, and I fought to control the hunger that blazed through me. I suddenly wanted her

so much more than anything I have ever wanted before. Ever.

Instead, I somehow managed to suppress that crushing desire, and I let her leave with

her brother. I couldn’t know then how much I would come to regret that decision.

Rebecca

I put off telling Mum about Shanice until after supper. Mark and Joe were sitting

watching some allegedly riveting football match, and I was washing dishes while she tidied