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Cold showers wouldn’t work for me.

“But my cast is gone. How can I explain that? I have to go to school tomorrow, and

Mum…”

“That we can fix,” I said.

“Really?” Mark was eyeing the mangled cast on the floor. “I’d like to see that!”

I grinned at him. “Coffee first. Then we call Fergus. I think we could get away with a

knee brace, and you can tell everyone that you fell in the bath and the cast got wet and had

to be removed.” I looked at Rebecca, and she blushed.

“She’s a rubbish liar,” said Mark.

“I am,” Rebecca nodded, embarrassed. “Everyone knows when I am lying, and nobody

ever believes me.” She looked forlorn.

“You’re going to have to try.” I smiled encouragingly at her, and she blushed again.

“Mark, let me teach you how to work the coffee machine. I need to phone my brother.”

I showed Mark around the kitchen, and while he enthused about the espresso machine

and clattered about, I dialled Fergus on my iphone.

“Like your new house?” his voice was reassuringly familiar.

“Very nice, Fergus. I need a knee brace.”

I heard the exaggerated sigh on the other end. “What size?” Fergus never bothered

querying my requests, no matter how strange they might seem. I was grateful.

“I’m not sure. Big enough to fit a seventeen year old girl, height maybe five-seven.”

“Is it for Rebecca Harding?”

“Yes.”

“Is she there?”

“Yes.”

“Have you told her?”

“Yes.”

“Can we talk to her?”

“Sure.” I switched the iphone to speaker mode, and carried it through to the sitting

room. “My brothers want to say hi, Rebecca.”

Her eyes widened slightly, but she nodded, and spoke nervously towards the mobile.

“Hello?”

“Hello Rebecca,” Fergus almost purred.

I mouthed Fergus’ name and she nodded. “Hello Fergus.”

“Welcome to the family, Rebecca.” Marcus sounded enthusiastic.

“Thanks.” Rebecca was starting to look a bit bewildered, so I interrupted. “Knee brace,

Fergus. As soon as possible.”

“An hour, brother. Bye Rebecca!” Click. I looked up at Rebecca and smiled. She smiled

back but she looked confused, and apprehensive. It was beginning to dawn on her properly

now. I wanted to hold her, and reassure her that it was all going to be OK, but I was afraid of touching her. And then her face started to crumble, and tears welled up in her eyes.

Rebecca

It was too much. I’d apparently almost died today, and now I had to adapt to the idea

that I was fundamentally and wierdly different from everyone around me. I felt unbelievably

isolated and lonely. And those two disembodied voices confirming the madness. I wanted to

cry, to curl up somewhere where this was not my reality. I felt those weak pathetic tears

forming in my eyes and I tried to turn away so Angus wouldn’t see me crying, but next thing

he was there, lifting my chin with his long fingers, and smiling down at me, and enfolding

me in his arms, and all my fears evaporated. I felt safe. I buried my face in the fabric of his shirt, snuggling against his shoulder, and wound my arms around his warm fragrant body. I

felt his body shudder, and heard the sharp intake of his breath, and heard the rapid

thudding of his heart against my ear.

His fingers found my chin again and tilted my face upwards. I looked up into glittering

eyes black as night. And then his mouth was on my mouth, his lips moving urgently against

mine. I closed my eyes and surrendered to the sensation that flooded through me. His free

arm tightened around my waist, and pulled me against his chest. I felt the strength and

tension of his body through the thin fabric of his shirt.

The sound of Mark clearing his throat brought me back down to earth, and I pulled

away, blushing furiously. Angus whirled around towards my brother, and almost snarled at

him. His eyes flashed briefly, and then he closed them, clenching his jaw and breathing

deeply.

“Coffee, remember?” Mark sounded nervous.

“Thanks, Mark.” Angus’ voice was level and controlled, his eyes still closed.

I sat down and Mark handed me a tiny cup of black, greasy looking liquid. I glanced

towards Angus, and saw that he was still standing, his eyes now open, and that he too had a

cup in his hand. His eyes were brown again, and he was frowning slightly.

“Are you planning on staying up the whole night?” he asked my brother.

“It looks a bit strong, doesn’t it,” Mark agreed. “I followed the instructions.”

“Fair enough,” Angus grinned at him, and Mark suddenly looked very relieved.

“Man, I thought you were going to bite my head off there.”

“It crossed my mind.” Angus admitted.

“That’s the first time you actually looked like a vampire,” Mark continued. “Cool.”

“Is that what I am, what we are?” I interrupted him. “Vampires? I thought you were

joking, Mark.” I looked at Angus for confirmation. He hesitated slightly, then nodded.

“Historically, yes, we would have been called vampires.”

“But where are the fangs?” Mark wanted to know.

“No fangs.”

“So how did you puncture peoples’ jugulars?”

“Bite through them. And it’s not the jugular we went for, but the carotid. The jugular is

a vein, and carries slow blood to the heart, but the carotid is the large artery that you can

feel pulsating in your neck, here,” he pointed to his own throat, “and that’s much faster, and the blood tastes better too.” I didn’t want to know how he knew something like that.

“I don’t need to drink blood now, do I?” I heard the edge of panic in my own voice.

“No. That’s what the iron tablets are for. But we need to be careful how much we give

you. Marcus reckons we should start at five a day, and work up slowly from there. Too little,

and you could start to feel weak again, but too much can make you a bit mad. Too much

power, too much sensory input, it can all become very overwhelming very quickly. Reality

becomes a distant memory.”

“Oh goody,” I muttered. This was getting better and better. Not only was I some sort of

metabolic oddity, but there was a good chance I could become insane too.

Angus smiled at me again. “It’s OK, we’ll help you through it all. I’ll protect you,” he

added in a softer voice. There was that dizziness again. I closed my eyes and nodded,

remembering the feel of his body against mine.

“Are you immortal too?” Mark was on a roll now, his eyes wide with excitement.

“No, we just live a bit longer than normal humans.”

“How long?”

“Two hundred and fifty years, give or take a few.”

“How old are you?”

Angus hesitated and glanced sideways at me. “I was born in 1951.”

“But you look so young!”

“We all do. It’s got something to do with our ability to regenerate cells. I will look like

this until I die.”

“What about garlic and crosses and wooden stakes?”

“All myth.” Angus was laughing now. “The only way to kill us - and this is not something

we’ve ever tried to prove, obviously - is probably to decapitate us. And maybe if our hearts

stop beating, that could do it too. Other than that we’re pretty tough.”

I sat quietly, trying to drink my coffee and take it all in. The coffee was strong; the

caffeine rush hit, and I felt better suddenly. This potential change in my life was really not all that frightening. Nobody except Angus and Mark would know about it, and I could carry on

as normal, living a normal life. I glanced over at Angus again, and it suddenly occurred to me that maybe I didn’t
want
to live a normal life. I had a choice, now, one that I would never even have contemplated 24 hours ago. I wondered idly which life I would end up choosing.

What I didn’t know was that the choice had already been made, and not by me either.

Angus

The knee brace arrived within fifty minutes of my call to Fergus. Mark was sitting

against the wall again, and the kitten was once again draped over his lap. I had pointed out

to him that he was welcome to sit on the furniture, and that I wouldn’t bite him, but he said

he preferred the floor, and so did the cat. Rebecca sat curled in the far corner of the big

three seater. I gave the brace to her, and suggested she try it on. It was a bit big, but it

would do.

“What should I say to Mum tonight?” she asked, fastening Velcro straps. “She’ll never

believe me if I tell her I fell in the bath. And how did I get the cast off? What if she asks me?”

“I think you should let me do the talking,” Mark interjected.

“I agree with your brother,” I said. “Whenever you need to withhold information, or

even give false information, like in this case, you should always say as little as possible. Keep things simple. That way it doesn’t feel so much like a lie as just keeping quiet.”

“We’d better go now,” Mark reluctantly put the kitten on the floor. It stumbled a few

steps, but gained its balance, and limped across to Rebecca, who leaned down to stroke it.

“Mum will be home in about thirty minutes, and it’s my turn to make supper.”

Rebecca looked up suddenly, grinning widely. “Something to look forward to,” she

teased.

“Just because you’ve now got a taste for the red stuff, doesn’t mean you should mock

my broccoli cheese bake.” Mark pretended to be indignant. Rebecca chuckled, and stood

up. I stayed where I was, watching their easy interaction.

“What about tomorrow?” Mark asked. “Should we come here after school?”

I nodded. “Both of you, please. We don’t want to give the neighbours cause for

concern.”

Mark seemed to think that was hilarious and launched into a long loud baying laugh,

clutching his abdomen, and tears streaming down his face. I wondered if all the excitement

of the afternoon was catching up with him, and he was becoming hysterical. Then he

spluttered, “If only they knew!” He was still giggling as he crossed the road with his sister. I smiled. Nice kids. Brave. But very vulnerable too. That worried me.

Rebecca

I knew Mark was going to make trouble for me as soon as we got in the house and he

started making loud smacking noises with his lips.

“Smooching a vampire! Woohoo!” he ducked away from my attempted swipe, grinning.

“Mark! Someone might hear you!”

“There’s nobody home yet, Bex.” More kissing noises. Brothers!

“Seriously, Sis, it might be a good idea for you to go on the pill or something. Angus

didn’t look like he was going to stop, and I seriously thought he was going to kill me when I

interrupted you two.”

“I’m considering killing you myself, you irritating lttle…” My voice tapered off. Someone

was turning a key in the front door. “If you’re not careful, I will
bite
you,” I hissed at him, showing my teeth. He giggled again, and ran up the stairs.

“Hello, baby! How are you feeling” Mum sounded slightly breathless.

“Much better, thanks.” She looked at me carefully and nodded.

“You look a lot better. You’ve got some colour in your cheeks now. Amazing what a

morning in bed can do.” And half a pint of blood to drink, I thought, smiling inwardly. What

a bizarre day. All I wanted to do was go upstairs and curl up in bed so I could think, but Mum wanted to talk about her day. She went into the kitchen, chattering away about some man

that she’d met at work. I made encouraging noises, and asked questions at the right points

in the conversation. She didn’t even notice that my cast had been replaced by a knee brace.

Mark appeared in the doorway after a few minutes.

“Hey Mum,” he said. “Broccoli cheese tonight?” He grinned sideways at me. I pulled a

face.

“Sounds lovely!” Mum wasn’t fussy.

Joe arrived shortly afterwards, and we ate our supper and drank tea and watched some

crime drama on television. I excused myself just after nine, pleading exhaustion, and

crawled into bed. I had anticipated this moment all evening, and was looking forward to

thinking it all through, but I fell asleep within minutes of putting my head down, and the last thing on my mind as I drifted off was the feel of Angus’ body against mine.

Angus

Fergus phoned me at about nine. I was grateful for the interruption. My house was

beginning to feel eerily empty without the Hardings. Even the kitten had disappeared.

“How did she take it?” That was Fergus. No preliminaries. Hello was a word that

happened to other people. I grinned. I missed my brothers.

“Surprisingly well actually. Her brother was here, and I had to tell him too.” I explained

how I had found Rebecca dying, and what I had had to do to bring her back. I described

Mark’s levelheadedness, and his easy acceptance of a peculiar situation.

“Hmmm,” said Fergus.

“No.” I said it flatly, with finality. I knew what they would think – that Mark knew too

much and would need to be eliminated. I liked and admired that boy, and I’d felt his

determination to keep our secret. I wasn’t about to kill him, or allow him to be killed. “My

cat likes him.”

“As long as you’re sure you know what you’re doing.” I smiled. I had been expecting

them to put up more of a fight.

“So what is she like?” Marcus interrupted impatiently.

I hesitated for a few seconds, wondering how honest my reply should be. I decided to

throw caution to the winds. My brothers would know eventually anyway.

I groaned slightly, wondering how to describe in words the fixation that was beginning

to grip me. They understood anyway.

“Hah!” barked Fergus. “That bad, is it. She would be hard to resist, though, wouldn’t