“I’m sorry for making you a part of this,” he whispered, then closed his eyes. “Shoot me.”

With tears streaming from her eyes, Winnie closed them and placed her finger on the trigger.

Chapter Thirty

“I’m not going to kill you,” she whispered down at Thaddeus, and pulled her hands free of the gun.

“You must...” Thaddeus started.

But Winnie had turned and fled, disappearing into the bank of black smoke that filled the hallway and was now wafting up the stairs. With her hand over her mouth and nose, Winnie raced through the hall. The air felt burning hot as it touched her face, hair, and hands. Coughing and choking, she made her way into the kitchen. Orange flames danced up the walls and across the ceiling. Peering through her fingers, Winnie tried to see through the intoxicating smoke and flames. Crouched low, she stumbled across the kitchen, striking the corner of the table with her thigh. She cried out in pain, sucking in a throat full of black air. The smoke hit the back of her throat, and it felt scorching hot. Winnie tried to cough the smoke up out of her lungs, tears streaming from her eyes, and drool hanging from her mouth and nose. She dropped to her hands and knees, and feeling as if she were going lose consciousness, she crawled across the kitchen floor. On the other side of the room, she reached up and gripped the edge of the sink. She pulled herself up, and trying desperately not to breathe in, she climbed onto the counter. Through the window she had cleaned, she could see the fields stretching away at the back of the house towards the sea.

With the window seeming to soar before her burning eyes, she hoisted it open. Sucking in a mouthful of cold night air like a drowning fish, she forced her way through the open window. Winnie hung upside down momentarily, her jeans snagging on the window lock. Crying out, she wriggled her leg left and right, desperate to free herself before the smoke and fire took her, or the vampires realised that she was making her escape.

At the front of the house, Michelle heard Winnie cry out. With her long blue hair fanning out behind her, and her jagged teeth gleaming in the light from the flames, she raced towards the back of the house. Nate stared through the window at Thaddeus, who still knelt on the floor. He wasn’t interested in the girl, the Frances imposter; Claude and Michelle could fuck with her. Nate wanted Thaddeus. The hatred he felt inside for the wolf burnt as greedily and as hot as the flames which now clawed their way up the front of the house. He would avenge Frances’s death. He owed it to her, to Nicodemus, but more importantly, to himself.

No one could have known the torment he had lived through for the last three hundred years. Each day and night, every second had been consumed with the thought of his beloved Frances sharing her bed, her life, her soul, with a Lycanthrope. Had anyone known the pain he had felt as he watched Frances from afar, once a year, as she stood alone for him in the moonlight? Did they know that the anguish he felt at being forbidden to talk to her, to hold her? It had driven him half-mad with jealously and rage. However, it was more than that – it was the fear he felt in his heart for her. He knew that Thaddeus would one day kill her. Nate knew in his heart that Thaddeus was only keeping her alive to torture him. How could any man live a happy life, knowing that the person they loved, the person they would give their life for, was with another?

As Nate stood amongst the smoke and flames and stared in at Thaddeus on his knees, he remembered the terrible nights he watched Frances in the moonlight, knowing that she would soon be returning to the Lycanthrope’s bed, where it would make love to her. Nate would sit with his head in his hands as he pictured the wolf’s claws caressing her beautiful body. He could hear Frances crying out with pleasure. Some nights, Nate hated Frances as much as the wolf. How could she have fallen in love with him? But the wolf had tricked her, bewitched her. Nate had heard that some Lycanthrope could do that. So his hatred for Frances would melt away, and only grow stronger for the wolf. It had become like a poison inside of him, which seethed through his veins and blackened his heart. Tonight, at last, Nate would unleash that fury eating away inside of him, and kill the wolf. At last he would be able to take the wolf’s head back to his home, hidden deep within the Carpathian Mountains, and hand it to Nicodemus. The last of the Lycanthrope would be dead. Their species snuffed out of existence, like a candle flame.

Thaddeus looked at the thick, black smoke rapidly coming towards him, then at the window. He saw Nate staring back at him, his eyes blood-red with fury. He would have to wait, Thaddeus thought. Nate could have him, but first he had to get Winnie to safety. He had done terrible things to get Winnie into this, and she had been right – he had put her life in danger. Before he died, before he was sent back to Hell where he knew perhaps he deserved to be, he wanted to help Winnie escape. Thaddeus wanted to do that one last thing. Not because he felt he had to, not because he thought he might be looked more favourable upon in the next life – he had done enough to know that would never happen – but because he did have feelings for her. However unexpected those feelings had been, however sudden they had grown inside him, he did hope that somewhere inside of her, she felt the same. Winnie hadn’t been able to kill him, no more than Frances would have been able to.

He looked back through the window at Nate, and flashing his teeth and snarling, Thaddeus leapt into the smoke in search of Winnie.

Chapter Thirty-One

Winnie pulled her leg free from the lock and collapsed in a heap in the grass beneath the window. Gasping for air, she knew she didn’t have long to put as much distance between her and the house. With mud and grass seeping beneath her fingernails, Winnie clawed forward, her chest heaving up and down as she tried desperately to catch her breath. With her head and lungs beginning to clear, Winnie got to her feet. Stumbling forward like a drunk, she made her way into the dark and towards the sea. She could hear the waves crashing against the cliffs in the distance, hoping that she might be able to find someplace to hide amongst the rocks.

Winnie glanced back over her shoulder in panic, just to make sure she wasn’t being followed. The huge house looked awash with flames. They twisted and ravaged their way across the roof and up the walls. Thick plumes of smoke twisted up into the night, blocking out the moon like a black cloud. Then she saw the vampire, Claude leap from the burning roof. Even without the light of the moon, his razor-sharp teeth glistened in his huge, twisted mouth. He landed in the long grass and came towards her. Winnie spun around, and with her lungs screaming for more clean air, she raced away. With arms pumping up and down by her sides, and her heart slamming in her chest, Winnie frantically pushed herself forward. She could hear the sound of racing footsteps behind her. How had he covered the distance between them so quickly? Her mind screamed. Again she looked back and saw Claude’s grotesque face looming out of the darkness at her. With a scream tearing its way up her throat, Winnie stumbled backwards and onto the ground with a thump. What little good air was in her lungs was forced out of her. Eyes wide with terror, Winnie kicked out at him.

“Get away from me!” she screamed, but her voice came out sounding like an out of breath gasp.

Claude looked down at her. Watching Winnie try and defend herself excited him. He had longed for one of the females to fight back. The feeding would be so sweet. Her heart would still be racing fast as he plucked it from her chest. The thought of her hot blood pumping into his mouth made him shudder with expectant pleasure.

Suddenly he lunged at her, and then pulled back again, like he was teasing Winnie. She scrambled backwards, thrashing out with her arms and legs. He lunged again, and then pulled back. He was enjoying watching her panic. Claude loved seeing the terror in her eyes. It was beautiful.

“Don’t hurt me!” she screamed.

He loved hearing her say that, because it was so dumb. Of course he was going to hurt her. He was going to teach her what pain was.

Winnie dug the heels of her trainers into the ground and pushed herself away from him. He lunged at her again, his ragged claws just inches from her eyes. Then he was joined by another. Michelle suddenly appeared beside Claude like a flickering shadow. Her long, blue hair flowed out behind her, like a streak of lightning. This close, Winnie could see that Michelle’s mouth looked as if someone had slit her face open. Her lips looked like two slices of raw meat. Her dead, black eyes stared down at Winnie.

“What are you waiting for, Claude?” she whispered. “Take her.”

Claude couldn’t bear the sense of excitement and urgency he felt inside of him any longer. So with his long, white claws clacking together like a set of knives, he lowered himself over Winnie.

Seeing this, Winnie scrambled backwards and both vampires laughed. Suddenly, she heard another sound behind their shrieks of joy. It was the sound of howling. A black shadow streaked before her eyes. Then both Claude and Michelle flew backwards off their feet and into the air. The black shadow seemed to pause – take form – before her. It was Thaddeus. He looked back at her, his eyes bright yellow, messy hair blowing in the wind, and claws swinging by his sides.

“Okay?” he asked Winnie.

“Okay,” she whispered.

Before she could say anything else, he was leaping through the air and swiping at Michelle and Claude with his claws. His long, curled fingernails shone like silver as they sliced through the air. He howled so loud that the ground shook beneath Winnie. Pulling herself up onto her elbows, she watched in horror as Thaddeus clattered into Claude, sending them both sprawling to the ground. With his muscular arms just a blur in the moonlight, Thaddeus slashed, tore, and ripped at the vampire screeching in agony beneath him. Within seconds Thaddeus had opened up Claude’s stomach, throwing lengths of oily black entrails into the air. Claude made a gargling noise as if being strangled. Winnie turned away as Thaddeus drove his claws into the vampire’s throat. Something heavy thudded into the ground next to Winnie. Peeking through her fingers, she looked with revulsion at a long pointed-looking slab of meat, which had landed just inches from her. It twitched like a giant worm, and Winnie got up and ran as she realised it was Claude’s tongue she could see wriggling about in the grass.