by Cat Thomson
"Katie, raise your crucifix up to the front windscreen now, not the side window," said Tom.
The group of people were now close enough to the car to touch its bonnet.
"Katie!" Tom shouted as he swiftly dumped Leopard's carrier on Gareth's knees and leant forward between the car's front seats.
He grabbed Katie's crucifix from her and pressed it defiantly against the windscreen. The group scattered, the sound of their enraged hissing reverberating within the car. Jonathan pressed his foot down forcefully on the accelerator and the car sped down the street.
"It seems to me that you're a non-believer, Katie," said Jonathan, "but it you don't grasp soon that all these creatures you see out here tonight are vampires, then you're not going to survive long the way things are going."
***
They had driven until dawn to avoid being observed by vampires when they re-entered the shelter. Jonathan stopped the car, and Mark and Gareth got out of it simultaneously. Jonathan shook Katie gently and she opened her eyes and groggily looked at him.
"We've arrived," he said.
Katie climbed awkwardly out of the car, and soon found herself following them down a quiet street. Leopard mewed and she turned to see him curiously peering out from behind the barred door of his carrier as it swung gently to and fro in Tom's hand.
They reached the shelter's entrance and Jonathan entered the door code. Katie followed them down the long spiral shaft nine stairway.
"Safe at last," said Gareth when they reached the foot of the stairs.
"Welcome to the shelter, Katie," said Tom. "I hope you and Leopard will feel as much at home here as the rest of us do."
***
Katie had been shown to the toilets and instead of returning to the others, she had wandered off, soon finding herself in a long, empty tunnel. She yawned as her fingers explored the bite marks on her neck. She had nothing to cover them with. At least up until now, Tom and his mates had been too focused on escaping to notice the marks, and darkness had been on her side.
"Katie!"
She started at the sound of her name as it echoed against the arched steel-clad tunnel walls. She turned around to see a tall man in his fifties approaching her.
"Hi, I'm Ed," he said when he reached her. "Katie, it is safe down here, but it isn't a good idea to wander around on your own. You could get lost; anything could happen."
Katie had averted her gaze to the ground to avoid the risk of exposing her bite marks to Ed in the harsh light of the tunnel, and her bowed head gave her a forlorn appearance.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"No need to apologise," Ed replied. "Maybe one evening I'll take you on a tour, but not without a crucifix."
Katie saw that he was holding a crucifix.
"Come, Katie. I'll show you your bunk."
They returned to where the others were and Ed led Katie to a section of bunks designated for women.
"Would you prefer a top, middle or bottom bunk," he said as they stood in front of three unused beds.
"I'll take the top one, Ed, thanks; somehow that one seems less claustrophobic." Katie barely moved her head from its fixed, stooped position.
Ed disappeared and soon returned with a sleeping bag and a sheet. As he prepared the bunk for her, Tom came over with Leopard's cat carrier in his hand.
"He's been mewing," Tom said, gesturing towards Leopard. "But if we let him out, he might do a runner."
"There should be a collar and lead in his carrier," Katie replied. "We could tie him to the bunk bed for the time being."
Tom disappeared, returning moments later with a bowl of water. Katie already held the struggling Leopard in her arms and was trying to get his collar round his neck. Tom helped her to do it up, then tied the end of the long lead to the foot of the bunk. Leopard walked over to the bowl of water and drank a little. He began to explore his new surroundings, sniffing the air and walking as far as his lead would allow him to.
"We're going to have to sort out a litter tray for him," said Tom. "By the way, they never turn off the lights down here; you might want to buy an eye mask for yourself."
***
Location: London
Friday, 27 March 2026
Sunrise: 05:47
Sunset: 18:25
Strings of tiny lights hanging across a window in a second floor apartment glowed yellow, and the twilight tones exaggerated the depth of London's skyline, with its buildings juxtaposed against the cloudless backdrop of ever darkening grey intermingled with slivers of pink and white.
Nikolas and Michael had just risen from unconsciousness and were alone in the grand chamber.
"Are you sure about this?" Nikolas asked Michael.
"I know a bite when I see one," Michael assured him.
"We must find out who the culprit is and see to it that he is made to understand the laws that govern a vampire. I will accompany you tonight, Michael. We will make our way to the plaything's apartment and we will wait for him."
Michael looked fixatedly at Nikolas, excitement burning red in his eyes. A vampire reprimand could in some ways be more exciting than lustful dominion over a pretty little human.
***
Nikolas and Michael strolled up and down Katie's street, watching with delight as people hurried to the presumed safety of their homes, their faces revealing their wariness and fear of the indefinable threat that now lurked within the darkness of the night.
"Ah!" exclaimed Nikolas. James was approaching them. "As I anticipated, he is very early tonight. He is clearly anxious about his plaything."
Nikolas and Michael ceased walking. As James drew closer to the two of them, he sensed that they were fellow vampires. He slowed down before stopping to warily observe them. They were evidently waiting for him and they knew why he was here.
"Ah!" Nikolas exclaimed for a second time as he scrutinised James, amused by his hesitancy to venture any closer.
James suddenly felt that Nikolas was urging him to become submissive to him, to yield to his power, but he had no desire to be challenged by a fellow coven leader and swiftly turned to leave. Within a mere second, Nikolas stood in front of him, his face provocatively close. James felt a strange stirring within; he found this vampire immensely alluring. He cast his eyes down to avoid looking Nikolas in the eye.
"You cannot run from me, James."
James looked up, startled. "How do you know my name?"
Suddenly, Nikolas took hold of James and flung him to the ground. They rolled about on the pavement, aggression surging through them both, but Nikolas was far stronger than James and soon dominated him, pinning him to the ground and sitting astride him. Michael sauntered over and stood beside them, his demonic laughter strident against James's ear. Nikolas lifted James's right arm to his mouth and bit into his wrist. Although James couldn't feel pain as a vampire, the memory of past pain returned to him, as did the memory of the night he died as a human, and as that recollection floated into his mind, James suddenly recognised the face of the vampire now holding him against his will. When Nikolas saw that James understood who he was, he released his grip on James's wrist and stood up with rapid speed.
James was slower to rise.
"You were cowardly in your hunt that night and attacked me from behind, without warning, as I walked home," said James.
Nikolas smiled. "We can't always seduce our prey, James; sometimes one needs a little variation to one's routine."
In a split-second movement, Nikolas placed his hands firmly on James's shoulders and his eyes locked with those of James.
"I see you have a plaything, James," said Nikolas, his voice almost inaudible, his face almost touching James's. "Surely you're aware of the rules that govern us vampires?"
James was silent as he struggled physically to release himself.
"If you don't make her one of us, James, then I will. If you wish for her to be your mate, then turn her."
Nikolas pushed James aside, and he and Michael casually wandered
off, never once turning to look back at James.
James couldn't bear the thought of making a vampire mate of Katie. His desire and love for her was all the more intense because of her human fragility, and he found her all the more irresistible because of his desire to have her in every vampire sense of the word. He was addicted to the trembling excitement within her aroused human heart whenever they made love, to the warm taste of her delicate life, to the visible tingling of her skin when he touched her. His vampire power and charisma overpowered her completely, putting her into a state of submissive yearning which he found intoxicatingly, deliciously sensuous. Even when his vampire hunger for the blood of prey had not been satisfied, and he had made love to Katie in a state of intensified need, he had been able to take her to the very edge of depravity and then put a stop to his maddening urge to consume her in her entirety. James would do everything in his power to keep Katie human and to protect her from this new threat of Nikolas.
***
As Katie slept, James appeared before her, statuesque, his black eyes focused on hers. Katie began to walk around him, running her fingers over his cold body as she encircled him, admiring the marble-like smoothness of his skin, the perfection of his muscles, their contours accentuated by the lighting in the room they were in.
Katie's dream faded into blackness and she sat up rigidly, her eyes staring ahead. Leopard had been comfortably nestled against her, but as Katie's sleeping bag had risen as she had sat up, he had slid slowly from where he had been lying and now found himself crushed against the rusty metal side panel of the bunk. It was bad enough that he was restricted by a collar and lead, and he flattened his ears against his head in intense annoyance and sat up, waiting for Katie to settle back down again so that he could do the same.
Almost everyone else was asleep and a peaceful silence enveloped the shelter. But Katie's mind felt far from serene. Her temples throbbed and she felt an iciness course its way through her body in spite of the heat she could feel radiating from the inside of her sleeping bag. She ached for James. She wanted to creep out of the underground shelter and go in search of him, out in the gloomy, dangerous streets. She wanted to surrender to his masculine touch, to his mouth on her neck. The urge to be with him was so strong that she feared its intensity.
Katie lay back down. She knew she couldn't risk returning to her flat at night if she didn't want to risk being killed. She sighed as she turned over on to her side, a battle raging between rational thought and her heart.
***
Location: London
Thursday, 16 April 2026
Sunrise: 06:03
Sunset: 19:59
"Guys," Tom called out.
There was a lot going on in the shelter tonight - someone had just turned the music up; Layla was cutting Sylvester's hair; some of Ed's crew were putting together a couple of shelving units.
"Guys!" Tom shouted, louder this time.
People close to where he was sitting turned to look at him.
"I've just read an interesting report on my tablet," he said. "Mysterious disappearances and deaths are on the increase in Paris, Milan, Hamburg, you name it."
"I'd say 'disturbing' is a more apt word to use than 'interesting'," said Alex.
Jonathan and Ed were sitting at a table further down the tunnel from Tom and he got up to go and join them. He handed his tablet to Ed and waited while he read the report.
"Tom, start looking for any signs of vampire activity on the Net, and on the Dark Web in particular; make use of your awesome hacking skills." Ed's eyes reflected his angst.
"You reckon that's how they're communicating?" said Tom.
"Their activities are too well co-ordinated for them not to be. We're going to have to do something about our own communications systems to ensure that they're hack-proof." Ed sighed. "This is all getting far more complicated than I anticipated it would be."
***
Location: London
Friday, 17 April 2026
Sunrise: 06:01
Sunset: 20:01
There had been an urgent matter to deal with at work and Katie had become so engrossed in it that she had completely forgotten the time. When she had eventually left the office, the sun had not been long in setting, and she knew that the shelter's door entry code wouldn't work again until tomorrow's sunrise - a safety precaution that Ed was trying out.
So instead of heading for the shelter, Katie had taken the train to her place, and as she now walked down her street, a fluttering stirred up in her heart. She hadn't seen James since the night she had first been taken to the shelter; she wondered if he still came here at night, hoping to find that she had returned.
She turned onto the pathway leading up to her block of flats, her hand in her bag as she searched for her keys. It was only as she began to walk up the short flight of steps to the building's main door that she realised that she was not alone. A man was leaning casually against the door, watching her. Katie gasped when she noticed the red-black hue of his eyes, and a bewildering sense of impending futility swept over her. But he smiled beguilingly and her instinctive fear quickly melted in the glow of the potent charm which radiated from him. He moved to stand close to her, invading her personal space.
"I can see why he desires you," the man whispered.
In spite of being confused by his words, a rush of pleasure swept through Katie's veins upon hearing them, overriding all thought, and she felt as though she was losing control of her senses.
"Walk with me," he suggested, and held out his arm for Katie to take.
She took hold of his arm unhesitatingly, and they turned and were soon walking slowly along the pavement.
"Fortunately for me, he's late tonight; he's been coming here, like me, every night without fail," the man said.
Katie stared fixatedly ahead. She felt numb, incapable of questioning this man's motives or who he was. Suddenly, he pulled her forcefully against him and Katie felt herself unwillingly melt into a state of submission. He lifted her chin to expose her neck and bent to kiss her there. She shuddered with the pleasure of his touch before she felt his sharp teeth lightly pierce her skin. Katie wanted to scream, the initial pain was so excruciating, but he put his hand to her mouth. When he lifted his head, releasing her from his kiss, Katie felt as though her legs would collapse beneath her.
"Not here," he said softly, and led her back to her apartment block, his arm wrapped around her for support.
He took the keys from her and opened the main door, then the door to her flat, where he assisted her onto her bed. The crescendo beating of her heart filled his ears, and her breast rose and fell in eager anticipation due to the unspoken, subconscious pact that had arisen between them. As Katie lay in obedient anticipation, he knelt beside her on the bed and bit into his wrist, before pressing it against her lips. She felt the sensation of blood throbbing in her temples and it seemed to her that she could hear her own heartbeat echoing in the otherwise quiet surroundings. Liquid trickled into her mouth and down her throat. Katie closed her eyes and pulled the man's wrist even closer to her lips as she gradually began to relish this nectar that he was offering to her.
Suddenly, there was a thud and the stranger was pulled away from Katie. She opened her eyes, startled. It was James who had wrenched the stranger away from her, and she watched as he and the man rolled about on the floor, attacking each other with their fists. Eventually, James overcame the man and pinned him down.
Katie sat up on her bed. Her mind had begun to buzz with alertness and her body felt alive with excess energy.
"She is mine!" James said to his opponent, the strident tone of his voice filling Katie with an incomprehensible dread. "She is mine!" he repeated.
The silver-haired man merely laughed and Katie observed with horror that his upper canines were sharply pointed.
" It's a good thing I got here before it was too late and it's a good thing your attempt to turn her has rendered you temporarily powerless against me," James said
as he got up, leaving the man where he lay on the ground, and striding over to Katie.
Katie smiled at James as he pushed her backwards until she was lying down. He lay down beside her and stroked her cheek gently with the back of his hand for a moment then, in a move so quick that Katie was caught completely off her guard, his mouth moved to her neck. The pain was unbearable as his teeth dug into her flesh at the exact point where the stranger had bitten her. With James's lips rigidly clamped against her neck, Katie soon drifted into a state of unconsciousness.
But just before she did, as her mind hovered in semi-wakefulness, it seemed to her that James was sucking the very life out of her. And it began to dawn on her before her mind fell into a black abyss that whenever James - and now this stranger tonight - had bitten her neck, he had never merely bitten; he had drunk her blood. Katie understood, with a soul-felt shudder, that she was at that moment in the company of two vampires and, not only that, but also that she was on both their radars. They had both expressly sought her company tonight.
***
James glanced up at the intricate cloud patterns in the dark sky, accentuated by his vampire vision, as he walked back to his mausoleum through the tall grass, over decaying grave mounds and around tilted, rain-worn gravestones. He was seething with anger. Nikolas had almost made a vampire of his mate tonight and if he hadn't reached her in time, he would have been too late to stop Nikolas from having his way with her. What then? He knew he was breaking an entrenched vampire rule by keeping Katie human, but he also knew that only he could make a vampire of her if she was to be his mate. If Nikolas was to make her his own, what plan did he have for her? James had almost killed Katie in the process of sucking Nikolas's vampiric life force out of her, but it was the only way he could ensure that she remained human, and his.
James had spent until shortly before dawn with Katie, watching over her pale, still form. Nikolas had got up and left her flat not long after he had been overpowered by James, but, weakened though he may have been by his attempt to make Katie a vampire tonight, there was always a chance that he would return on another night, that he might even bring others with him.
