Blood Song

"We should test this telepathic connection," suggested Angus.

"Distance, you mean?" I replied, speaking aloud too in an attempt to keep Fergus in the loop.

"And barriers. Like concrete," said Fergus. "Or being at the bottom of a lake," he added darkly.

The only real down side to the whole mind sharing thing was Rebecca. I could feel Angus' memories, and it was excruciating to know what had happened between them, to relive that intimacy through another man's eyes. To give him credit, Angus' mind shied away from those images when I was around, but I caught enough to know what they'd shared. I did not want to think about that, so I focused instead on the death we were about to deal, and Angus did the same.

Mark

I wondered why she'd let me keep my mobile, knowing as she must have that it would be on, and that Angus would be tracking it. Seriously, if you have a TV, you're going to know this stuff. Unfortunately the battery had died almost as soon as we crossed over into Scotland. Just my luck.

I must have dozed off eventually, bored as I was by the crap company and Snake Eye's dull driving. Tyres crunching on gravel eventually dragged me from uneasy dreams. The reality of my situation snuck up on me as I yawned and looked around. Massive building in the middle of nowhere. Great.

Snake Eyes and his buddy hauled me out of the car, and half led, half dragged me up some stone steps to a door set in the side of the building. I went along with it, mostly because I had no real choice. They were big strong men, and their grips on my arms were tight enough to hurt. Especially Snake Eyes. He seemed to take pleasure in knowing that he was inflicting pain on me. I watched his face through narrowed eyes as we made our way down a big draughty corridor, noting the smug satisfaction, and I promised myself that I would find a way to wipe that expression from his features. Soon.

Eventually they stopped outside a solid looking wooden door with a couple of chunky bolts set in it.

"Enjoy your stay," Snake Eyes sneered as they opened the door and shoved me through the doorway into a dark room. I heard it close behind me, and the bolts scraping as they locked it. Great.

I backtracked to where I imagined the door would be, and felt my way along the wall until I located the light switch. The room was illuminated with a flick of the switch, revealing a plain old bed, a door leading to an en suite bathroom, and not much else. Fine. I was tired, so I stripped off and climbed into a decrepit-looking shower which reluctantly dribbled lukewarm water over me while I wondered if this was part of the torture Anne had devised to send me over the edge, vampire style. If so, I was definitely ahead of the game. Lack of a good shower was definitely not a major problem for me. I was a teenage boy, for goodness sake.