The Iron in Blood

"I found the place, and managed to kill ten of the eleven vampires living there. One got away." I left out the gory details. "I found where they were keeping Rebecca, and shot those two men. I should have delivered a head shot to each of them, but I was distracted." I smiled as I said it. Rebecca blushed.

"She splinted my leg, and carried me about two and a half miles, running most of the way."

"Wow," said Mark.

"Wow," I agreed. "She drove me home. My car still works, too." Mark gave a shout of laughter at that, and Rebecca scowled at me. God, she was beautiful.

"Excellent," said Marcus. "Well, when we got there, the place looked like a bomb had hit it. I assume one had?" he looked at me.

"I had a few grenades in a drawer at home. I rigged up the back door to explode when opened."

"Yes, and so it did. Fergus and I tidied up as best we could, wiping away prints and tracks and suchlike, and placing the heads near the bodies in assorted rooms of the house. I took some samples," he smiled, clearly pleased about that. "Then we burned the place down, barn and bungalow too. And we found the van and abandoned it along some country road, as per our story…"

"We found some papers in the bungalow, innocuous looking receipts and a few handwritten notes. I'm going to have to take them back to Russia to analyse them." Fergus sounded a bit worried about something.

"And my samples are degrading as we speak, too. We have to leave in about an hour to go back." Marcus had a mildly fanatical light in his eyes again. "But first we need to sort out a few matters." He took a deep breath before he continued, and he looked at Angus through narrowed eyes.

"Rebecca turns eighteen in eleven days, correct?" She nodded. "You two," indicating Rebecca and me, "are going to get married then. Fergus will organise the whole thing, of course." Fergus nodded his agreement. "Something small and tasteful, I think. Then you will live in Angus' new house until you have finished school." He looked at Rebecca, who was by now staring open-mouthed at him. "I assume you do wish to finish? You are almost done with your A levels, and you appear to have done quite well so far."

"Er, yes, I was planning on finishing," she said uncertainly, and cast a dazed look at me.

"They do this to me all the time," I said wryly.

"Hush Angus, you know that it needs to be done. This Jack is likely to try and abduct her again. Vampires are likely to be old-fashioned, and he may think twice if she is married. And it will also give you the full authority to protect her." He smiled grimly. "When she is finished school, I would suggest that you relocate to make it more difficult to find her. We believe that your entire family should be relocated too, to protect them. Where you decide to move is up to you, of course. Money is not an issue."