The Iron in Blood

"Come!" he barked. I jumped at the sound, and followed him obediently out of the house. He was in his car and firing up that colossal engine before I'd even opened the door. I yanked the passenger door open and dived in just as the car started moving off.

We got to the school before the police did, of course. I had just managed to click my seatbelt into place, when I had to unclick the damn thing again. There was nobody around; the bell had sounded and everyone had disappeared into their classrooms, business as usual. I felt a sudden surge of anger at their apparent lack of concern.

"Where?" asked Angus as he slid out of his seat in one easy movement. I scrambled out, and pointed out where Rebecca had been standing when they had taken her. Angus didn't bother looking around. He just stood there, his face white and composed now, and he closed his eyes and breathed deeply through his nose. Five seconds. Then he was moving again, sliding back into the driver's seat, and gunning the engine. I managed to get my backside on the seat as the car pulled off, the door closing automatically behind me with the sudden lurching motion.

Angus looked at me with blank eyes as if he'd never seen me before. Then he braked suddenly. "You can't come with me," he said harshly.

I don't know where I got the courage from, but I huddled down in my seat, clutching the seatbelt around me, and muttered, "I'm not getting out." I must have been mad.

Angus' eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched again, and I thought for a second that he was actually going to physically throw me out, but then he nodded. "Right." And then we were moving again, weaving briskly in and out of the rapidly clearing traffic. There was a pause in our progress as we waited at a red traffic light. Angus punched in a number on the iphone, turned it to speaker mode, and thrust it into my hands. "Hold this."

It rang twice, and then a brisk voice answered. "What's happening?"

"She was taken by a vampire and two human males. Vampire's pretty old, probably one hundred and fifty or more. He lives on blood only, not human, probably animal. So he's strong for a human, but in pretty poor shape for one of us. The human males are in their thirties and in very good shape. They're armed. Heavily. This looks like it was an organised kidnapping, and the coincidence is too great. One vampire kidnapping another? They must know what she is. How did they find her, Fergus?"