The Iron in Blood

I stared out of the windscreen at the greys and browns of the wintry English countryside blurring past. We were heading north on the M6 motorway, averaging about eighty to one hundred miles per hour. Why north? My sister was missing and Angus was heading north? I didn't get it.

"Why are we going north?" My voice sounded tentative and nervous in my own ears. Angus looked across at me and smiled tightly again.

"I was waiting for the questions."

"You don't mind?"

"No."

I waited a few seconds and the asked my question again. "Why north?"

"Two reasons. Firstly it's a lot less heavily populated. Secondly vampires like the cold. They function best in a temperature range of between minus five and ten degrees. Celsius. That's why my brothers live in Russia."

"How do you know it's a vampire that's got her?"

"I smelled him. And two other guys. Probably military background. They both reeked of gun oil, and one smokes a lot."

"How did you get all that from sniffing the air for a few seconds?" I was impressed. And not quite believing it all.

"I have an excellent sense of smell. If Fergus can get me within five miles of them, I'll be able to track them down using smell alone."

"Cool."

Angus smiled again. "Yeah."

"And you know the vampire drinks blood only. What does that mean?"

"He'll be weaker than one of us. He's feeding his addiction to iron, and not his body. So he won't have much in the way of muscle left, but he'll still be stronger than you humans. Especially after a big dose of blood. And I know that he drinks blood only because I can smell it on him. That and the stink of his slowly atrophying tissues."

"Yuk."

"Yes. But it's a very distinctive smell. Easy tracking."

I waited for a minute or so before asking the question that had been bothering me for a while.

"Why did they take Rebecca?"

The knuckles whitened even more, but his voice was controlled when he spoke. "I don't know. There are a couple of possibilities."

He paused, and took a few deep breaths.

"Firstly, they might not know that she's a vampire. Young female abduction; she'd be raped or murdered or both."

I felt sick. Angus spoke again, managing to keep his tone level.

"Or they do know that she's a vampire. That is the most likely scenario, and that means a whole different set of options. They might want her to join them, as a part of their community," he spat the word. "As a breeding female."