Blood Song

"Dad is here. He helped the others get me out. I think he wanted to say hello to you, but I think now is probably not the best time. You sound a little strange."

"Really?" I said with a watery chuckle.

"Completely mental, if I'm honest. Is anyone else there with you?"

"Julia's here."

"Let me talk to her, please," he demanded in a business-like voice.

I handed the phone to Julia wordlessly and went to lie on the couch while they spoke. Within seconds I was fast asleep, ensconced in the mohair blanket and the knowledge that Angus was alive, and Mark was safe.

When I woke several hours later, the sun was streaming through the open curtains of the bedroom. I was disorientated for a few seconds until I remembered stirring briefly when Marcus had carried me from the couch in the library to this bed. Grinning at nothing in particular, I swung my legs out of bed and pretty much skipped to the bathroom, still fully dressed in the clothes I'd been wearing since yesterday morning. I peeled them off and spent a blissful twenty minutes in the steam and hot cascade of the shower. Ten minutes and a change of clothes later, I was ready for anything, and absolutely starving. I wandered down a couple of passages, following the sound of voices until I found them all sitting eating lunch around another giant wooden table. Angus must have sensed my imminent arrival, because he was watching the doorway with a gentle smile in his fine eyes. The rest of them were talking loudly. Mark was there, grinning at something Oliver was telling him. Marcus and Fergus sat on either side of an older version of Mark, plying him with questions, poor man. I stepped into the room and suddenly everyone looked up at me.

"Bex!" said Mark as he bounded out of his chair and enveloped me in a hug. I leaned back after a couple of seconds to look at my brother. He seemed bigger, and older. Stronger too, I realised as I started gasping for air.

"Put me down, you big bully. I can't breathe!" I hissed at him. He smirked in response, and lowered me to my feet.

"I'm all grown up now, Sis," he stated, looking down at me with a serious look on his face.

"What happened, Mark?" I asked, unexpectedly afraid of his answer as I saw a growing sadness behind his eyes.

"I killed a lot of people last night," he said expressionlessly, watching my face carefully for a reaction I could see he dreaded. I thought back over all the years we'd been friends as well as siblings, of all the times he'd had every reason to criticise me, how he'd never judged me for the things I'd done or said, and I knew I would rather die than let him down after everything he must have been through.