Blood Song

Mark

Man, I was happy to be back. Barbados is all very well, but it's so over the top on almost every level, that there's no taking it seriously. And the heat really got to me. I had never experienced anything like it. Well, obviously not, since I lived in the slightly less than sunny UK. Funny thing is, Mum and Joe really liked it, and when they heard that they would be staying for another week or so, they were so excited that they barely noticed me leaving.

Alright, that's a bit extreme. But they certainly didn't shed any tears when I left. It might have had something to do with all the grumbling I'd been doing about the heat. Funny thing, though. When mum said goodbye to me at the airport, she said something that made my eyes almost pop out of my head. She said, "I know what Angus is, Mark. He'll look after you both." And then she had smiled enigmatically, and refused to elaborate. Mum does that sometimes, especially when we asked her about Dad. She'd get this slightly faraway look in her eyes, and clam up, Mona Lisa style but without the mildly constipated expression. It had always been a source of great frustration to us all, and now was no exception. I spent the whole flight back wondering exactly what she had meant by that all too brief statement, and decided as the plane landed on the frosty tarmac at Heathrow that I was not going to just let it lie, as I had done so many times in the past when Mum had mentioned some detail about Dad, and then blankly refused to say another word on the subject. I knew that Rebecca had been similarly and sometimes spectacularly frustrated in the past, and I decided to speak to her about it as soon as I could. We were not going to let it lie. Not this time.

Angus and Rebecca greeted me with careful smiles and mildly anxious expressions. I grinned straight back, knowing that they would be concerned for me and my state of mind regarding the whole going-to-be-a-vampire business. I must admit that the news that my life would be changing so fundamentally had been a bit of a shock at first, but after weighing up the pros and cons I had come to the conclusion that it was going to be awesome. Seriously, where was the downside?

Rebecca and Angus bickered gently for much of the drive home about her driving his car. She was my sister, but I sided firmly with Angus on this one. An Aston Martin was not a car I would let anyone else drive, let alone a teenage girl who'd had a whole two driving lessons. I always seemed to be the one relegated to the back seat which had less leg room than a biscuit tin, but I could still appreciate the car better than any girl. I glanced at Angus' face as he laughingly teased my sister, and noted his besotted expression. She'll be driving this car before the year was out, I thought sourly.