The Vampire Gene

I smiled and shook my head. "Don't worry about it. You weren't to know."

"Thank you," she sighed, and dragged her gaze back to the window. "I've never seen them fight. They're so good at it. I wish..." she stopped suddenly and alarm skittered across her face. There was the sound of a key turning in an ancient lock and the old wooden door leading into the house swung open. "Oh, God, my key! I'd forgotten about that. Jack has my key!" the last words were almost a shriek.

Horror washed over me as I stood there, frozen to the spot. Lucy edged away from the window and towards the opposite door.

"Let's go!" she whispered, but I couldn't move. I just stood and stared at the vampire standing in the doorway, tall and powerfully built, with blonde hair cascading in careless waves over his shoulders. His face was flawless, the eyes a deep violet colour beneath high arched brows. At first I wondered if this was another brother of Oliver's, but when he stepped further into the room I saw the way cruelty had carved itself into his face, and I knew that this had to be Jack. I had for some reason expected him to resemble the blood drinking vampires outside, but he looked like one of us.

Almost as if in slow motion he sauntered towards me, triumph in his eyes. He glanced at Lucy dismissively as she made it to the door and through it.

Suddenly my legs obeyed the command from my brain to run, but it was too late. Jack reached out and grabbed my neck with one hand, and the forgotten shotgun still clasped in my right hand with the other. My eyes widened as his hold on my neck tightened and his mouth curled into a malicious sneer, and he flipped the shotgun so the grip lay in his hand. I watched in horror as his finger tightened on the trigger, and there was an ear-splitting explosion as pain ripped through my belly.

I looked down at the blood blossoming on my shirt and felt my legs buckle, before I was lifted effortlessly and swung onto a muscular shoulder, the pressure against my belly making the pain excruciating, and rendering me limp and helpless. I watched my blood falling in rivulets down the back of Jack's trousers, the motion somehow hypnotic, as the reality around me gradually receded and I lost consciousness.

Angus

The second call came as I was turning off the motorway about ten miles away from the Colborne house.

"Angus! Jack's got her. He somehow took her while the others were fighting. She's hurt, we don't know how badly, but there was a lot of blood on the floor..."