Looking around the filthy room and judging by the light that spilt through the grubby window, I could tell that I must have slept most of the day away, as my room was growing dark again. Annoyed at myself for sleeping so long, I knew I didn’t have time to waste. I’d already been here one whole night and day and had found out nothing about this wolf. Another child had been murdered and Murphy and Luke were still being held hostage by Harker.

I sat up and winced at the pain in my chest. It wasn’t as bad as before, and however much I hated to admit it, Madison had done a good job at cleaning the cuts and bandaging them. My coat was hanging off the wardrobe door, and I put it on. Running my hands through my black hair, I straightened up. I left my room and clambered down the narrow staircase. My stomach grumbled with hunger and I needed some food.

Entering the poky living room, I could see the child’s chair in exactly the same spot it had been the night before. I glanced at the couch, but couldn’t see the body of the boy. Crossing the room towards it, I heard a noise behind me.

“Catch!” someone said, and I turned around to see Drake standing in the doorway of the kitchen as he tossed an apple across the room at me.

Snatching it out of the air, I asked, “Where’s the boy’s body?”

“Buried it,” Drake said, taking a bite from the half-eaten apple he was holding.

“It?” I barked at him. “That was a little boy, not a slab of meat!”

“Whatever,” Drake said, “He’s gone now.”

“And what gave you the right to bury that boy?” I snapped, gripping the apple in my fist. “Don’t his parents have the right to bury him?”

“Harker doesn’t want any more bodies brought back,” Drake said flatly. “He doesn’t want any more attention drawn to this place. He thinks it would be better if the kid’s parents just thought the boy had gone missing – you know, like they never find out what happened to him.”

Taking a step towards him, I hissed, “I couldn’t give a monkey’s fart what Harker thinks. That boy’s parents have a right to know what happened to their son.”

“Perhaps you want to go and dig him up then, and explain to his parents that their son was murdered by a werewolf?” Drake asked, taking another bite from the apple.

“Anything has got to be better than leaving those parents wondering for the rest of their miserable lives what happened to their child!” I spat. Then, grabbing his hand, I shoved the apple into his fist and said, “Keep the apple, I’d rather fucking starve than take anything from you.”

Not giving him the chance to say anything back, I yanked open the front door and stormed out into the front garden. Madison was standing near to the spot where I’d discovered the chair the night before. Hearing the door being yanked open, she turned and watched me cross the front garden and go into the woods.

When I’d gotten far enough away from Drake, I slouched against a tree and pulled a pack of cigarettes from my coat pocket. Lighting one, I inhaled deeply.

“What’s wrong?” I turned around to see Madison standing just a few feet away.

“Nothing’s wrong,” I snapped at her.

“Yeah, there is,” she shot back, moving closer still.

I didn’t want to look at her, I couldn’t look at her. There was something about Madison that made me feel uneasy inside. She reminded me of Sophie. Not in looks, as Sophie had thick, dark brown hair and green eyes; it was the feelings Madison somehow stirred in me that reminded me of Sophie. I hadn’t had such feelings since that night I’d fled her bedroom. Just like I had found it almost impossible to keep my hands off Sophie, I was realising that every time I looked at Madison, she became more and more beautiful and harder to resist. Like on so many occasions I had ripped Sophie’s clothes from her and we had spent hours making love, I was near to the point where I wanted Madison just as much. But somewhere in my heart, I didn’t want her. I wanted to be as far away from her as possible. Her intense stare and the way she made me feel when she was close scared the shit out of me on some deep, hidden level. Was it because she was a Lycanthrope? Was it because I knew her to come from a race of serial killers – was that what was stopping me from having her? The whole hairy tongue thing had faded to the back of my mind and seemed totally insignificant when watching the way she walked on those long legs of hers, the way her hair fell about her shoulders, the way her eyes sparkled, the way her breath had caressed my neck in the bedroom…

“Keep away from me,” I spat, raising the palm of my hand out towards her.

“What?” she asked, sounding confused.

“Just keep away from me,” I told her again, shifting my position against the tree so I didn’t have to look at her.

Then I felt her hand gently squeeze my shoulder, as she turned me around to face her. She looked into my eyes and said, “What’s wrong?”

“I just want to be left alone,” I told her.

“That’s no fun,” she smiled.

“I haven’t come here to have fun,” I told her. “I’ve come to catch a killer.”

Leaning in close to me, she whispered, “Something is happening here -”

“I know, children are being murdered…” I started.

“No, I didn’t mean that,” she whispered, brushing herself close against me. “Something is happening between you and me – you feel it too, I know you do.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied as she looked into my eyes, her lips hovering over mine.

“I’ve never met a man like you before, Potter,” she whispered. “a man who has such a dark side. You could take me away from all of this.”

“From all of what?” I said, fighting the desire to kiss her.

“All this death,” she whispered, then pressed her lips against mine.

As if drowning, I felt smothered by a wave of intense feelings and emotions, like nothing I had felt before, and I was kissing her back. Her tongue felt like velvet in my mouth as she hungrily pulled at me. Then I was falling backwards as she pushed me down onto the ground. I fell onto the carpet of leaves and pine needles that covered the floor of the woods. She sprang on top of me, pulling open my coat and nipping the skin of my neck with her teeth. The trees seemed to close in all around us, shielding us from view, like we were in our own world.

Her soft hair fell across my face, and it felt so good. I ran my hands down her back and scratched at her with my claws. Leaning up, she threw aside her shirt, and the chain with the cross shone just inches from my face. She lowered herself onto me and her skin felt warm and soft. As I looked into her eyes, they were no longer that luminous yellow, but green – the colour of emeralds. I entwined my fingers in her hair, but it was no longer white-blond but dark brown, thick and curly. I looked at her face, but Madison had gone, it was Sophie I was making love to. I rolled her over onto the soft cushion of leaves and her breath felt hot against my neck as she said, “I find your dark side irresistible.”

To hear those words made my heart race as it was filled with joy. Sophie had finally accepted me for who I truly was, she had fallen in love with the real me – the monster – the vampire bat – the Vampyrus. I made love to her and it felt like nothing I had experienced with her before. It was as if everyone and everything had disappeared. There was nothing left but only us.

How long we spent together shielded by those trees I do not know. We finally collapsed in each other’s arms lying breathless together. However long it had been, the day had now turned into night and I could see the light of the full moon spinning through the treetops high above us.

The silence was broken by the sound of shouting. I recognised the voice. It belonged to Drake.

“There’s been another one!” he roared. “Oh my god, there’s been another one!”

“Another what?” I whispered against her chest, not wanting those stolen moments with Sophie to end just yet.

“Oh no!” she said, pushing me off her. But it wasn’t Sophie’s voice, it was different. It was Madison who was talking to me. “Potter!” she shouted. “Hurry up and get dressed. I think the wolf has been back!”

“What?” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes as she hurriedly pulled her clothes back on. “What’s going on here? I thought you were…?”

“What?” she said, tucking her shirt into the waistband of her trousers.

I wanted to say, I thought you were someone else – I thought you were Sophie. But I couldn’t. How had this happened? How had I ended up making love to Madison?

“I can’t believe it,” I breathed, looking at her.

“Neither can I,” she smiled down at me. “I guessed you had a dark side, Potter, but you were something else!”

Then she was gone, racing back towards the house.

15

I pulled on my boots and trousers. How had this happened? I wondered. I’d made love to a Lycanthrope! Had I really believed she had been Sophie? Or had the love I still kept hidden for Sophie blinded me? But Madison was beautiful, right? Maybe I had wanted her, and my feelings of guilt for this had tricked my mind into believing that really I had been with Sophie. Whatever the reason – whatever had happened – Drake was yelling from the house that there had been another murder. Now wasn’t the time to analyse my feelings of love, lust, or guilt.

Throwing my coat on, I raced back through the woods towards the house. By the time I got there, Madison was standing by the open front door and talking frantically to Drake who had a flashlight in his hands.

“What’s happened?” She asked him.

“Where have you two been?” he asked her, looking at the both of us.

“Never mind that now,” she said. “What happened here? What have you found?”

Stepping aside in the doorway and handing Madison his flashlight, Drake said, “See for yourselves.”