“I’m afraid today isn’t going to be a good one Lilly.” Margaret Kent, her mother’s oldest friend and now her full time carer, patted Lilly on the shoulder and ushered her into the room. “Last night, however, was a very productive one. Come and I’ll show you what we did.”

Lilly followed her into the living room of the self-contained suite of rooms which now housed her mother. Lilly’s heart sank as she spotted her mother Aileen sitting by the window, staring blankly out at the dull grey day.

“Mum!” Lilly plastered a smile on her face and pulled a chair over to join her at the window. She took her hand, and Aileen turned slowly, frowning in confusion at the sight of her, only to pull her hand out of Lilly’s grasp.

“I’m Lilly, Mum. Your daughter… remember?” This was the most heart wrenching part of her mother’s illness - when her mother’s memory was so bad Lilly would have to explain who she was. It totally broke her heart, particularly when she remembered the strong, jolly, clever woman her mother used to be.

Margaret patted Lilly’s shoulder encouragingly. “I’ll put the kettle on, shall I dear?”

Lilly nodded and pulled her chair around so she could see her mother’s face better.

“How are you feeling today, Mum?” Despite her hectic schedule, Lilly always found the time to visit every day, but sometimes it felt as if she were visiting some stranger in a nursing home.

Her mother didn’t answer her.

“Margaret tells me you’ve been busy,” she went on. “What have you been making?” She peered around at the bags of sewing, knitting and crafting supplies. Aileen and Margaret were prolific crafters, and between the two of them they produced a mountain of, in Lilly’s opinion, mostly pointless and ugly handmade junk. They enjoyed it though, and it kept them busy and content, so Lilly was happy to marvel at the green and orange pom pom earmuffs, or the macaroni picture frames, or the knitted nose warmers they produced in prolific quantities.

Aileen looked away from the window and her face finally showed some recognition.

“Ah, Lilly! How are you, love? You’re looking rather tired. You’re working too hard.”

Lilly breathed a sigh of relief and took her mother’s hand again. This time she was rewarded with a comforting squeeze.

“I’m good, Mum. Not much sleep last night though.”

Her mother nodded knowingly. “Yes, I would think the baby would keep you awake.”

“Baby?”

“Aye, aye. The wee one. What did you call him? Barney? Bernie? Oh for the life of me I can’t remember his name!”

Lilly was confused for a moment before she realised Aileen was talking about her oldest sister’s child, who was now five years old. They lived in London, and Lilly got a yearly Christmas card with a few lines jotted hastily on the back from her. That was all she knew about him.

“Ah, that’s Bradley, Mum, and he’s Catherine’s baby… child. He’s five now.”

“Five?! He can’t be! I’ve only just finished his matinee jacket.” She rummaged around in a knitting bag by her chair and pulled out a blue knitted jacket which would only fit a newborn.

Lilly smiled weakly. “It’s beautiful, Mum. I’m sure Catherine will love it.”

Margaret appeared with the tea tray, and they chatted away for the next few minutes about their latest projects while Lilly poured the tea.

“Lilly,” said Margaret as she passed her a teacup. “Nelson is one spoiled man! I finally finished his scarf. Lord knows I’ve been busy and he’s had to do without but it’s finished now.” She dug about in yet another knitting bag and pulled out a scarf worked in red and blue - the colours of the Caledonian Football Club Nelson supported. Margaret was a fanatical fan of football and felt a responsibility to deck out all her friends and family with a matching scarf, beanie and nose warmer knitted in their team colours.

“Er… It’s lovely, it’ll keep him nice and warm, won’t it Mum?” Her mother was now staring out the at the grounds again, and Lilly sighed. They’d only managed a small window of lucidity today. Her mother’s condition seemed to be rapidly deteriorating.

Margaret leaned forward and spoke in a whisper. “Angus told me we have a vampire staying at the hotel! Is it true?” She looked anxiously at Aileen; Lilly presumed she didn’t want to upset her with talk of vampires, but she needn’t have worried - Aileen was in a world of her own again.

“Yes, it’s true. He’s helping to exterminate some pooks, so if you have any up here let me know and I’ll send him up here to get rid of them.

Margaret hands fluttered at her chest. “A vampire! Oh, my!” She dumped her teacup into its saucer and leaned closer. “Is he very handsome?”

Lilly shrugged and stirred her tea thoughtfully. “Aye, I guess he is.” Too handsome, she thought to herself.

“What team does he support?”

Lilly smothered a smile. “I really don’t know.” She thought for a moment. “Would vampires even be interested in football?”

Margaret looked at her as if she were mad. “Don’t be daft, lass, of course they’d be interested!”

“Hmm, well, I don’t know who he follows.”

Margaret set her tea back on the tray. “Well, you ask him and let me know. I’ve got lots to do but I daresay I can find the time to knit him a beanie at the very least. I’m sure even vampires get cold heads. He’ll have to wait for the whole set though.”

“I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.” Lilly tried not to laugh. She couldn’t imagine Charlie wearing a garishly coloured beanie, let alone a nose warmer. She hoped he’d accept the gift graciously when Margaret finally presented it to him. That is, if he were still around by the time she finished making it.

Margaret waffled on about vampires, pooks, football and the ‘dreich’ weather, somehow managing to weave the subjects into a roughly coherent conversation. Lilly’s attention began to wane, and her gaze followed her mother’s out the window. A movement at the edge of the lawn caught her eye. She leaned forward and saw that it was Charlie, making his way swiftly across the grass toward the north forest. He stopped at the tree line, looked about, then turned and quickly disappeared down a path into the woods. How was he even walking in day time? So much for vampires burning up in daylight. It was a gloomy day. Maybe they could tolerate cloudy weather. She wondered where he was off to. Was he off to hunt pooks? If he was, he had promised to take her with him. Perhaps he was off on the ‘business’ he’d said he had in the area. Whatever it was, her curiosity was piqued, and she made up her mind to follow him.

Lilly stood up swiftly and plonked her teacup on the tray. “I’m sorry, I’ve got to go.” Planting a quick kiss on her mother’s cheek, she apologised again to Margaret and rushed out the door, taking the stairs down to the main foyer two at a time.

“Lilly! Wait up!” She’d grabbed her coat and had nearly reached the front door when Elle called out from the reception. Lilly closed her eyes for a moment before reluctantly heading back to the reception desk.

“Is it important? I’m in a hurry and I - “ She stopped short. “What is that around your neck?

Elle glanced down at her chest. “Oh, it’s my anti-vampire necklace. The chain’s silver, and this is garlic.” She’d pierced large cloves of garlic and threaded them on to the chain.

“Right…” said Lilly. She didn’t have time to discuss the effectiveness or lack thereof of silver and garlic on vampires. “What is it you wanted?”

“That vampire. Did you hear the banging all damn night?”

“Did I ever! His room is right next door to mine.”

“Well, I went in there this morning to clean the room, and this is what I found.” She pulled a plastic garbage bag out from underneath the reception counter.

“Look in it.” She opened the top wide enough to reveal a blood soaked bed sheet. It was more red than white. Lilly gagged at the sight of it.

“He had those three slutty skanks in there all night. With all that blood it looks as if they’ve been murdered. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw it!”

Lilly choked back a wave of nausea and turned to stare up the main staircase. “Maybe I’d better go check… see if they’re okay…”

“I already have. I looked in on them, they were back in their own beds, and they had the bloody nerve to complain that they missed breakfast!”

“So where did all the blood come from? Did they look… injured?”

“No, that’s just it. No injuries at all. I asked them about the blood, and they said that he fed on them! Lilly, they’re his portable ready meals!”

Lilly grimaced at the bloodied sheet and quickly closed the bag over. “Ew. And they’re happy with that?”

“They were quite proud of it. What a pack of crazy bitches. Where's their dignity?”

“You’re telling me! But I guess vampires have got to eat something. I heard there were donors but…”

“Aye. Damned skanks, no self respect at all.”

“Better them than us. Look, I’ve got to go. We’ll talk later, okay?” She took off across the foyer.

“Where are you going?” Elle called.

“Out to check on something…”

“But what will I do with the sheets? I doubt I’ll get the blood out!”

“Burn them!” Lilly called as she reached the doorway. “And put the price of their room up thirty quid each. We can just buy new sheets.”

With that she turned and skipped down the stone steps before Elle could hold her up further.

Margaret had been right - the weather was very ‘dreich’ - cold, dull and overcast by dismal clouds which threatened rain. Lilly pulled the hood of her duffel coat up over her head but it did little to keep out the chill. By the time she’d run across the grass to the edge of the woods she was feeling a little warmer.

She only briefly wondered at the wisdom of stepping into a forest when there was supposed to be a werewolf lurking in the shadows. Charlie had said that werewolves were either human during the day, or sleeping, depending on what type of werewolf it was. She figured she would just be quiet so that she didn’t wake any beasts - she had to be quiet anyway if she was going to follow Charlie and see what he was up to, although she doubted she’d be able to sneak up on him. Vampires were purported to have super sensitive hearing, so he’d either hear her as she approached, or hear her scream if she awoke a werewolf. The sensible side of her was telling her she was being ridiculously foolish, but her stubborn, curious side refused to listen. She took a deep breath, and plunged into the forest. The heavy atmosphere among the trees was so tangible she nearly turned around and went right back out again. Scolding herself at her cowardice, she pushed herself to keep walking along the path. The forest was perfectly silent - even her boots made barely a sound as she walked on the thick carpet of pine needles which lined the path.

As she trudged along, she began to get the feeling she was being watched. She stopped, her heart thumping so hard she was sure Charlie could even hear it, and she scanned the morass of moss covered trunks and granite boulders, rotten fallen tree limbs, and yellowing bracken which littered the dark woodland. As she stood on the footpath, she realised she was beginning to hear voices, and they were in her head.

At first it was only a couple of voices, but as she walked further into the woods, the noise increased until she could hear a cacophony of voices in her head.

It’s her, isn’t it?

I heard it is…

What’s she doing here? Doesn’t she know how dangerous it is?

Tell her…

Yes, we must tell her…

Girl! Girl! You are in peril. Run!

Run!

Run! Why isn’t she running? It’s coming!

Lilly pushed aside the thought that she just might be going crazy, after all, if her mother suffered from Alzeimer’s, perhaps mental illness ran in the family. She decided she wasn’t going to take the chance. Her father had told her to listen to the earth, to her instincts. She would take the voices’ advice.

Slipping on the pine needles, she turned on her heel and began to run back in the direction of the hotel.

No! Not that way! It’s too far!

Run to the circle!

Run! Run to the circle! It’s closer.

The circle! Turn around!

She slid to a stop and spun back in the opposite direction, heading deeper into the woods. She knew the circle the voices were talking about - it was an ancient henge topped with ten foot high standing stones placed in a large circular formation in a clearing in the middle of the forest. According to a local historian they’d been erected a few thousand years ago by the Druids for their magic rituals. Lilly had been there only once - the place had given her the creeps, and had made her feel rather ill, and she’d had no desire to go back there ever since. But the voices were urging her there, and some deep, primal instinct told her she should trust them.

Her thoughts ran through her head quicker than her feet were moving as she pounded down the track. Presuming the voices were talking of the werewolf, she wondered where it was, how fast it could move and what it looked like. She considered trying to climb up into a tree to escape it, but the voices instantly rang in her head again:

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

No! Do not climb - run!

There is safety at the circle!

Either she was going insane and talking to herself, or whatever it was she could hear could read her thoughts. She had no time to really think about this - she just needed to run. A deep growl rang out from somewhere behind her, and the voices grew more urgent:

Run girl! Run!

It’s here!

We need to help her - she won’t make it!

Now she could hear the pounding and crashing of something huge charging through the forest. The growling was clearer now - a deep guttural rumble intermixed with heavy breathing - the creature was running hard. She risked turning her head to see how close it was, and instantly regretted it. Her foot caught on a tree root and she went sprawling to the ground, her chest heaving, bile burning in her throat as she struggled to catch her breath. Looking up, she was horrified to see a bulky, fur covered beast galloping at full speed some fifty yards away from her. Even from that distance she could see a mouthful of massive teeth gleaming in the dim forest light, globs of spittle flying out as its head bobbed up and down as it ran. Scrambling to get up, she heard the voices calling urgently:

Get up! Get up!

We have to help her!

Help her! Make haste!

The werewolf had only run a few feet when a huge branch came crashing down on top of it from the tree canopy. Something in the trees was helping her - or perhaps it was the trees themselves. More branches fell until the werewolf was completely buried. Lilly jumped to her feet and stared in shock at the giant pile of tree branches which covered the creature. There was no movement from the pile - only the tree canopy above was shaking in frenzy as leaves rained down along the path.

Go girl! Go!

It lives! Run!

With a bone chilling howl, the werewolf erupted from its temporary entombment, sending the massive, heavy branches flying into the air as if they were toothpicks. The trees shook and more branches began to rain down along the path as it resumed its pursuit, but it managed to avoid them - ducking and weaving and jumping nimbly, despite its bulk, over the fallen foliage. Its feet landed with a massive thud, its claws scrambling for a foothold in the pine needles and wet leaves before righting itself and charging to full speed again.

Run!

To the circle!

To the circle!

Lilly took off, a mixture of adrenaline and pure fear helping her feet to move faster than she’d ever run before. She burst out of the woods and raced across the grass, heading for the circle of monolithic stones perched majestically in the centre of the clearing. Surprised she was having any coherent thought at all other than ‘I’m going to die!’ Lilly briefly wondered why Charlie hadn’t heard the howl, why he hadn’t come to hunt it - why he’d not come to save her. She’d presumed that he’d been at the circle, and the voices had wanted her to go there so that he could help her. There was no sign of him. Maybe he just didn’t care and couldn’t be bothered, or maybe he wasn’t there at all. Now she feared she had totally lost her mind; maybe she’d been listening to her own thoughts giving her terrible advice, and she was about to be torn to pieces in the middle of the woods.

Her lungs felt as if they would explode as she neared the circle. Her eyes had barely adjusted to the light after the dark of the woods, and she squinted and blinked, tears streaming down her face. Her legs ached with fatigue but she forced herself on as she listened to the sound of the werewolf’s heavy breathing and angry growls - so close now she was certain it was only moments behind her. It was too late. She was beat - her body couldn’t go any further, and she decided to face her death head on.

‘This is it,’ she thought. ‘This is the way I die.’ She made a final charge for the circle and dived between two of the massive stones, staggering to a stop in the centre before turning on shaking legs to face the beast. Bending over to catch her breath, nausea and dizziness assailed her and she fought to stay upright.

Strange, she thought to herself as she watched the werewolf approach, the things which go through a person’s mind as death is looming. She was frightened of the pain which was about to come, but mostly, she was afraid for all the people who relied on her at Rathcraeg. Her family would likely sell the place - would anyone want to take on a run-down, ancient hotel which barely earned its keep? People would lose their jobs. The village would lose their community centre. She wondered whether her siblings would put her mother into a nursing home. She doubted it - money was in short supply and they’d be loathe to spend money on her. She prayed she’d be looked after. How would Elle fair? Rathcraeg was relatively safe for her. Would she move away? Lilly had tried so hard to stick it out there, for everyone’s sake, and now it had come to naught. She laughed out loud, a pitiful laugh, at the quick, bizarre worries which darted through her head. She was about to be shredded to pieces by a mouthful of dagger like teeth, and she was worrying about the sale of Rathcraeg. She hoped the beast would make short work of her, and it wouldn’t be too painful.

Closing her eyes, she steeled herself for the attack, but it never came. The werewolf had stopped just outside the circle and was now furiously prowling around the outer edge, growling and snarling in frustration. For some reason it wouldn’t - or couldn’t - enter the circle. The voices had been right.

Lilly dropped to her knees, taking deep breaths, waves of relief washing through her as she realised she was safe - for now. Her head was still spinning and the nausea was getting worse. She put her head between her knees and wondered how she was going to get out of the circle and back to the hotel. She hoped Charlie would turn up and deal with the creature before the folks from Rathcraeg realised she was missing and set out to find her. She didn’t want them running across the werewolf.

The relentless beast continued to stalk the circle perimeter, and her dizziness increased. It seemed the ground in the circle was shifting - undulating like a choppy sea. Unable to keep her balance any longer, she fell to her side and lay on the grass. She felt as if she were in a world away from the woods, the grey sky, the granite stones and the skulking werewolf. The earth underneath her felt strange - as if it were made of some insubstantial, ethereal substance. It felt so… weird, like she could fall right through it as one would fall through a cloud.

The world spun crazily around her, and her eyes moved in and out of focus. Voices began to whisper from the ground underneath her but they seemed far away and she couldn’t make out what they were saying. Something was tugging at her from below the earth, touching, prodding. She closed her eyes and hoped this was all a big hallucination. This circle had made her ill before, but she’d gotten out of there fairly quickly that first time. Now she felt a thousand times worse and she knew she had to get out, but with the beast still patrolling the circle edge, exiting the henge was impossible.

The dizziness grew worse, and Lilly knew she was probably going to pass out. She lay on her back and turned her head to watch the beast snarling at her between the standing stones. Her vision began to dim, but before she passed out a dark shape materialised out of nowhere beside her, and in a blur of movement, rushed the werewolf, smashing into it with a sickening thud, tackling it to the ground. It was Charlie. As her vision blurred again, Lilly only vaguely registered the vicious battle going on in the clearing before she lost her own battle for consciousness.

* * * * *

“Lilly! Lilly! Wake up!”

Lilly felt the touch of a cool palm patting her cheek. Opening her eyes, she found herself cradled on Charlie’s lap, his face leaning over hers, his brows creased in concern. He smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Ah, there you are! Back in the land of the living.”

She sat up groggily and looked around, blinking to clear her blurry vision. They were sitting on the grass outside the ring of stones. A few yards away, a large hairy body lay in a crumpled heap.

“You killed the werewolf,” she observed.

Charlie grinned. “I’m sorry, I didn’t have time to ask you for your permission. I made an executive decision. How are you feeling?” He shifted his legs out of the way as she attempted to get up.

“Better than before. I don’t know what happened - I just came over all woozy in that circle. It’s happened to me once before, but this time it was so bad… I passed out.”

Charlie jumped to his feet and steadied her with a hand on her back as she wobbled about. “Probably a reaction to the electro-magnetic current. These things are built on ley lines - places where the earth’s magnetic energy fields intersect. They have been known to affect some people more than others.”

Lilly rubbed her temple and shook her shoulders free of tension. The dizziness was almost gone. She wandered over to the werewolf to inspect it, relieved it was still in werewolf form and not the body of an unfortunate local.

“I guess this is the infiltrator kind,” she said, nudging it with her foot. Its hairy, muscular leg flopped to the ground, the unexpected movement startling her. Bending over, she studied the three inch long claws on its feet.

“God, I am so glad it didn’t want to enter the circle,” she said, imagining the damage those claws could have done if it had reached her.

Charlie crouched down and picked up the foot, turning it over to inspect the roughened sole.

“It didn’t like the circle, you say? Interesting…”

He ran his finger over one of the claws, frowning thoughtfully. “Lilly, you have a scratch on your hand. Did it get you?”

Lilly looked at one hand, then the other. Her right hand had a gash at the base of her thumb.

“No, it never got close enough to touch me. I must have gotten this falling over.”

Charlie got to his feet again and grabbed her hand. Bringing it to his nose, he inhaled deeply, his eyes focused on Lilly’s face.

“Are you sure? You know you can tell me if you did.”

She yanked her hand away. “Of course I’m sure! I’d bloody well know it if a werewolf scratched me.”

“Yes, but would you tell me?” He moved closer and his hands went to her shoulders. He towered over her and she had to bend her head quite a way back to meet his gaze. “You know,” he continued, “If you’ve been scratched and you turn…”

She hauled herself out of his grasp. “Of course I’d tell you? Why would I lie?”

“You might be under the impression I’d exterminate you if I knew you were a werewolf.”

She huffed and folded her arms across her chest. “Do you really think I’d risk the lives of everyone I know by keeping the fact I might turn into a werewolf to myself?”

He shrugged. “No. You’re right. I haven’t known you all that long, but one thing I’ve noticed is that you’re magnanimous - almost to a fault...” He left the last observation hanging in the air.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, forget it.”

“So you believe me?”

“What would you do if I said I didn’t?”

She wasn’t expecting that. Her first impulse would be to kick him in the shins. She prided herself on her honesty.

“I don’t know. Try to stay away from you until I can prove otherwise I guess.”

“I would never hurt you, you know.” His eyes caught hers - his gaze so compelling she had to swallow hard to stop herself sighing like a fool.

He was the first to break the moment. He squared his shoulders and grinned mischievously.

“Anyway, I know you weren’t scratched by the werewolf. There’s no scent of it anywhere on you at all.”

“You knew?! So why’d you even ask?”

He shrugged. “I wanted to see what you’d say.”

She folded her arms again. “God, you’re annoying.”

“I try my best!” he grinned, kicking the werewolf onto its back. “You’d better stand back a bit.”

Lilly took a few anxious steps backwards. “Why?”

“I’m sure you don’t want any gore on you.”

Before she could respond, he leaned over and ripped the werewolf’s head clear off its shoulders in one quick, gruesome motion.

Lilly gasped. “What the hell?! What did you do that for?”

He held the head up as though it were a trophy. “I thought you might like it stuffed and placed on the wall at the hotel.”

“That’s disgusting!”

"You have mounted stag heads all over the place.”

She grimaced. “Not my idea. They’ve been there for years. People expect that kind of thing in a Highland hotel. That, and lots of tartan.”

Charlie held the head by its ears and jiggled it about near her face. “So you don’t want to keep it?

She stepped back. “No thank you!”

He shrugged, placed the head on the ground, then began to take off his coat.

“What are you doing?”

“Keeping it for scientific purposes,” he said as he bundled the head up in his coat.

She wondered what he hoped to learn from it, but she didn’t bother to ask. She was more interested to hear why he’d gone into the forest, and why it had taken him so long to get to the circle to rescue her.

“So,” she said, as she followed him back across the grass to the path through the forest. “Why were you in the forest?”

The track was strewn with broken branches which slowed their progress. They had to step over or around them and Charlie threw the larger ones out of the way to clear the path.

He countered her question with one of his own. “Why were you in the forest?”

“Looking for you.”

He waggled his eyebrow. “Checking up on me?”

“No.” That was only slightly true. “You said you were going to take me hunting,” she amended. “You know, to tell you which pooks you could…”

“After today are you sure you still want to do that?”

“They can’t all be as dangerous as the werewolf…”

“No, but there are some that are much, much worse. I’ll do my utmost, but I can’t guarantee your safety absolutely and -”

She realised he’d dodged her question. “You didn’t tell me why you were in the forest.”

“That’s right, I didn’t.”

She blew her hair out of her eyes in frustration and climbed over a branch. “So… are you going to tell me?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s my business. I wasn’t hunting infiltrators, if that makes you feel any better, so I didn’t cut you out.”

His evasiveness only made her more curious.

“So, you can read my diary, but I can’t ask about your business…” She tried another question. “Why’d it take you so long to get to the circle?”

He sighed, stopping in his tracks to turn to her. “There are some things, Lilly,” he said earnestly, “that I just can’t tell you, so it’s best not to ask.” He turned away from her and strode down the path, leaving her totally discombobulated. She raced to catch up with him.

“Did the werewolf hurt you?”

“Aye. Quite a bit. It was a tough one.”

She couldn’t see a scratch on him, although his coat had looked a bit tattered and there was a tear in the back of his denims.

“Are you okay? Are vampires affected by werewolf bites?”

“The one true convention that the legends get right, besides the drinking of blood and the immortal thing, is that we heal almost instantly.”

“So you won’t turn into a werewolf?”

“No.”

“Lucky for you then,” she said, stating the obvious.

“Aye, indeed it is.”

The conversation petered out and they walked silently for the remainder of the journey. Charlie held his macabre package under his arm and set a quick pace, while Lilly struggled to keep up with his long stride.

Eventually, they reached the edge of the forest and walked out into the brighter daylight.

“So vampires don’t go up in flames in sunlight then?” Lilly noted.

“Not in flames, but it’s still uncomfortable. Imagine being left in the Sahara Desert in the scorching heat, without any shade for hours on end. That’s what it feels like.”

“So you get, like, sunburn in daylight?”

“No, not real sunburn, but it bloody well feels like it. It’s possible to toughen up your skin though. We train ourselves gradually to get used to the light. It doesn’t hurt as much as it used to.”

“Are you in pain now?”

He shrugged. “A little, but what’s a bit of pain? I’ve felt much worse.”

“Well, let’s get you indoors then.”

She felt kind of silly feeling compassion for a vampire, after all, he’d probably caused more damage to other creatures than had ever been inflicted on himself, but she liked him, which didn’t make sense as he was so far removed from her old notion of a ‘good’ person, that she should have been repulsed by him.

They walked across the lawn and headed for the hotel. Lilly noted there were an awful lot of horse drawn vehicles parked in the old car park - far more than they usually got during the day. She wondered what was going on.

Elle met her in the foyer, her face flushed. When she spotted Charlie, her hand flew to her silver necklace and she fiddled with it nervously.

“Lilly! Thank God you’re back. Come into the bar. There’s been an… incident. All the villagers are here.” She glared accusingly at Charlie. “Maybe you’d better stay here. Or go up to your room… or whatever.”

Lilly hurried to the bar, which she found packed with the people from the village. They all turned as one and began talking at her. She held up her hand, trying to calm them down. Stuart Carlson, the village’s Lord Provost stood from his seat at the bar, and motioned her over.

“Where is the vampire you have staying here, Lilly?”

She looked around - he hadn’t followed her into the bar. Maybe he’d taken Elle’s advice and headed to his room.

She glanced at Elle for confirmation before turning back to the crowd. “In his room I guess. What’s wrong?”

Fearchar Tomas - the local constable, placed his glass down on the bar towel and signaled for a refill. He never let a crime get in the way of his drinking. “There’s been a murder,” he said. “Rabbie Walder’s body was found on the side of the road this morning. Joanne said he told her he was coming here for a wee pint last night, but he never came home.”

“And you think the vampire did it?”

A chorus rose from the crowd again as they all came to the same conclusion that this was most definitely the work of a vampire.

“What do you think?” the provost told Lilly, his authority quieting room. “There hasn’t been a murder in these parts in forty years. A vampire turns up and the next day poor Rabbie’s body is found in twenty six different pieces strewn along the side of the road.”

The room erupted once more into chaotic babble as angry calls for the vampire’s arrest went around the room.

Lilly held up her hands in an effort to quieten the people. They’d be breaking out their pitchforks and torches any minute, she mused grimly.

“Wait a minute! Hold it! Quiet, please, everybody!”

Her voice could barely be heard in the ruckus.

“EVERYONE! JUST SHUT THE FECK UP!” Clary bellowed at the top of his lungs and the crowd silenced instantly. He was ex-army and was quite effective at shouting orders. “Go on, Lilly,” he said calmly.

“Er… thanks.” She looked around at the frightened, worried villagers. They were afraid now they knew they had a vampire in the area - how would they feel when she told them there’d been a werewolf as well?

“Look, I totally understand you’re afraid, and I can see that you might think it was the vampire but, well, we shouldn’t go jumping to conclusions. There should be an investigation and -”

“Who else could it be?!” Darren Dolson, a local fisherman, stood up too fast and spilled his pint in his enthusiasm to speak. The crowd began to get rowdy again.“Aye! He’s right - only a vampire could tear a man apart like that!”

“Actually, you’re wrong.” Charlie’s strong, calm voice carried over the noise. Their voices dwindled to silence as they turned their heads to find him standing at the doorway. He strode into the room and they cowered away from him, one by one, as he passed.

Moving to the centre of the room, he turned to address the audience. They all sat stunned at the sight of a vampire in their midst.

“I assure you, there are plenty of things capable of tearing someone apart - other than me,” he declared. “This, for instance…”

With that, he took the bundle from under his arm, shook out the coat, and the werewolf’s head fell on to the ground with a thumping splat before rolling across the floor, stopping in the middle of the horrified onlookers. The werewolf’s gruesome face was set in the same angry snarl it had died with - its monstrous teeth gleamed in the candlelight. There was stunned silence for a moment before the room erupted into chaos.