The Vampire Gene

"I want you to meet my brother."

"Really? Couldn't you phone or email or something like a normal person? And who are you anyway? And how did you get Lucy to cooperate with your scheme?"

"Lucy is my niece. Her father is my brother."

"Well then you can let me go, I've met him already."

"Ah," he smirked. "It's not him I wanted you to meet, but my other brother. Well, I say brother, but he's more of a brother-in-law. He's Julia Colborne's brother, see. I think you may have heard of him. His name is Jack."

As the meaning his words sank in I felt my panic start to soar. Maybe he was talking about a different Jack, I hoped fleetingly. It's a very common name. But by the expression of faint pity on his face and the way I had been trapped here, I knew my foul nemesis had struck again.

But I was damned if I was going to sit here and wait for him to arrive. I started to push my chair back as the man sitting opposite me stood up and nodded to Eric. For a big guy, Eric moved very quickly and I felt a stinging sensation in my thigh. I glanced down to see his pudgy hand depressing the plunger of a syringe filled with clear fluid, and my elbow came up and instinctively smashed into his nose, squashing it against his face. I smelled blood and grinned, turning towards him. He was clutching his nose, and when he saw my hungry expression he squealed and backed away pretty quickly. I stepped towards him and stumbled slightly. My limbs felt rubbery, and I swayed. I had to sit down, but my chair seemed to be miles away. I sat down heavily on the floor and put my hands out behind me to steady the world, which was spinning around in a sickening way.

"Ketamine is obviously not your friend," a derisive voice rasped above me.

"An..." I tried to speak, but my tongue wouldn't work. I lay back and turned my face so my cheek was pressed against the cool stone floor, and watched as the demons came for me.

Angus

I listened as long as I was able to Marcus and his new friend discussing Mendelian principles. Fortunately Fergus came to my rescue. He had discovered that the younger of the two brothers, Simon, had drawn up a family tree, and had an electronic copy sitting in the hard drive of his desktop computer. Marcus suddenly stopped talking, and raised his eyebrows. Julia Colborne smiled and nodded.

"Why don't you gentlemen go and have a look. It goes back a few generations, so it might be helpful for your research, Marcus."