The corsa, (a small hatchback car), was older than me. It seats stank of must and the roof bended inward over bumps and there was strange lumps of mould growing on the bottom of the car floor. The only redeeming feature about the car was the 1980s road atlas with half the roads missing. As we travelled down the bumpy back roads Michael warned me,

“The suspension is jacked, Lorna, don’t hit your head baby.”

Sheldon sat at the front of the car with a hip flask of tequila and a folder. He threw the folder onto the back seat while he tried to get the radio working. He glanced over his shoulder and yelled,

 “Look at that folder, it’s all the stuff I piked from my sources,”

I opened the front page and was surprised by a large newspaper clipping of a girl holding a birthday cake and smiling, the head line read ‘Hope for Cassie as she turns 15’.

“Who’s the girl?” I asked Sheldon.

“Her? That’s Cassie Logan, poor kid got leukaemia. Her mother was Tessa Logan, it’s her cousin we are going to see today. She and Tessa were working together in Cumbria on the v-types. Mary should have died in the lab with all the rest of the workers but she was off sick the day the incident happened.” Sheldon explained.

 I slumped in the car as I saw a speed bump approaching. Michael ducked his head too. The roof flexed inward as we went over the bump and there was a horrible crack. I looked over to Sheldon who had his hand on his head,

“I don’t feel so good.” Sheldon admitted weakly.

“Let me see your hand.” Michael said.

I didn’t need to see Sheldon’s hand, I could see the wetness of the blood seeping through his fingertips. I dropped the folder and grabbed Sheldon’s shoulders as he slumped forward. Michael swore and pulled the car over.

“He’s been stunned. The wound will heal in a couple of moments.” Michael said.

“Will he wake up?” I asked.

“Probably not. Weird vampire thing, when we get knocked out we usually don’t wake up until the next rising.”

“Great, so what are we going to do with him?”

“Stick him in the back and throw a blanket over him.”

We swapped places and I sat in the front and Sheldon lay in the back. We drove to Sevenoaks and found the hairdressing salon. Mary Logan lived in a tiny flat above a hairdressers called ‘Curl up and Dye’ in the town of Sevenoaks south of London. We parked the car and walked to the front door.

“It’s a little late to making a call.” I said looking at the door bell.

Michael examined the door then glanced about the street. I realised what he was about to do and stopped him, “You can’t break in.” I snapped.

“I’m not going to argue with you about this.” Michael replied.

I looked about and noticed a plant pot by the door, lifting it up I found a key. Waving it infront of Michael he took it off me and opened the front door. We crept upstairs and found Mary fast asleep in her bed. I felt awful for doing this, but we had no other choice. I turned on her lamp light and gently nudged her.

“Mary Logan?” I asked.

“What is this, oh my god!” She yelled holding the blanket up to her nose staring at us in horror.

“Please keep calm we haven’t come here to rob you or hurt you. We want to ask some questions.”

“I will scream if you do not leave immediately!”

Michael voice suddenly interjected, “Scream and I will break your neck.”

Mary looked over to Michael and gasped, “Oh goodness, it’s you! Oh my word.” She mumbled to herself.

“Mary, you recognise Michael right?”

“I thought you had died, I thought all of you had been destroyed.” Mary whispered.

“No, we’re alive and kicking.”

“Oh my word, oh my goodness, I think I’m going to faint.” Mary gasped theatrically.

I picked up a book that sat by some photo frames on her bedside table and began to fan her, “Please don’t pass out, all we want to do is ask you some questions about your cousin’s work. Some of the experiments have escaped and they are hurting people and we have to stop them Mary. We’re the good guys in this.”

“Oh goodness you want to know about Tessa. My poor Tessa, dead at the age of fifty leaving behind her poor husband and daughter! The papers said it was a gas explosion in the lab but I knew there was foul play! Poor Tessa! Poor sweet Tessa.”

“What was Tessa doing before she died?”

“Working on the bio-weapons. You were one of her greatest achievement,” She said looking at Michael, “She spent hours working tirelessly on you.”

Michael laughed bitterly, “She was supposed to find a cure for terminal illnesses not make monsters.”

“Tessa wanted that too more than you could ever imagine, but Christine the CEO of the company didn’t care. That two faced bitch made us create those monsters to sell.”

“You mean to sell us.” Michael said referring to the archangels.

“Oh goodness no, you weren’t for sale. Christine didn’t know about you. No, no, the others were for sale, an entire army.”

“Lady, are you kidding? Those monsters couldn’t follow a single goddamn order!” Michael snapped.

“Yes they could,” I replied, “They hunted me down in the hotel and they didn’t hurt me. They should have killed me being the mindless killers that they are, but they didn’t.”

Mary nodded, “They had been ordered not to hurt you.”

“Who the hell are they taking orders from?” Michael asked.

Mary shrugged, “Whoever took the serum and made the bond.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Tessa made a serum based on the chemical interactions that occur when two vampire’s pair bonded. The serum was manipulated so whoever took the serum would become master of the army.”

“Oh god, Micah must have took the serum. When he broke into the lab, he took the serum and let those monsters kill everyone!”

“Poor Tessa, she never wanted this.”

“Fuck Tessa. She made an army of monsters!”

“And she made you in case those monsters should ever break free,” Mary snapped. “Do not blame Tessa. She did her best in very bad circumstances.”

“I always thought we were the final product of her endeavours. I thought the v-types were failed experiments.”

“The v-types are cannon fodder. You were her pride and joy.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit.” Michael said.

“You have no idea the work we put into you. Our biggest problem was the time it took a human to convert fully into a vampire. Naturally the process would take a decade but we engineered it so that it would take a few hours. Needless to say this had drawbacks. The accelerated transformation caused abnormalities physically and mentally. We ended up classifying the experiments into different types using a scale. At the bottom was 0 which meant no abnormalities and at the top was 20 which meant abnormalities to the severity that meant the creature was incompatible with life. We had a few of those to begin with, the limbs and the head would distort in such a way that the creature could not survive. Most of our v-types drifted between human and vampire form but very few actually turned out perfect. The elusive V-0 type was an extreme rarity. Tessa was proud of you Michael; I believe you were the third V-0 type she made. We planned on keeping the V-0s together and selling them to governments as assassins, and then with other v-types we would make them into combat squads for the army. Our only problem was that we had no way of controlling the v-types. They were wild and feral without the capacity to think or reason. That when Tessa came up with the idea for the serum.”

I looked over onto the dresser examining the photographs and saw one of a woman and young girl without any hair at a zoo. Mary caught me looking and said,

“That was Tessa and her daughter Cassandra. Cassie had leukaemia when she was ten, this is what sparked her research into vampire DNA.”

“How touching.” Michael said callously.

A loud whirl of a helicopter overhead made Michael go over to the window and look out. He swore under his breath. He looked at me and said,

“We have to go.”

“How did they know we were here?”

“I have no fucking idea!” Michael said grabbing my arm.

We didn’t stop to say goodbye to Mary or ask any further questions. Michael dragged me down the stairs and out the door. We both froze as we saw a figure standing in the road looking at us.

“Hello Michael,” Raphael said holding an assault rifle pointed at us as we walked out the flat. “I’m a little early, or everyone else is a little late but I’m here to take you into custody.”

Michael turned to me and said, “Run.”

“Don’t be stupid Lorna, I’m an excellent shot and although I’m not authorized to use the bullets that would kill you, these bullets really fucking hurt. Don’t they Mike?”

There was a loud shot and Michael bent over double. I screamed as Michael crumpled to the floor. I stepped protectively in front of Michael as Raphael pointed his gun at Michael again.

“Don’t hurt him, please,” I begged, “This is my fault.”

“You’re right it is. That’s why I shot him. A little retribution for the stunt you pulled on me when we were with the police.” Raphael said.

“Okay, okay. I’ll come with you but please don’t hurt Michael.” I said.

Michael reached out and grabbed my leg, “Don’t, I’ll heal in a few moments-”

“Shut up Mike and listen to your girlfriend for once.” Raphael interjected.

Out of the blue I heard an engine start. I looked up and to my surprise I saw the corsa driving forward towards us. At first Raphael looked at the car with curiosity than danger and it was only when it did not slow down Raphael opened fired. The bullets shattered the wind screen and then there was a loud thud as the corsa hurtled into him, knocking him into the air. Michael grabbed my hand and ran to the car. Sheldon and I crawled into the back and Michael drove off.

“Sheldon you saved our-” I looked down at Sheldon and stopped. He was full of bullet holes and bleeding profusely.

“Ah shit!” Sheldon screamed holding his stomach, “It fucking canes!”

“Calm down, be still!” I said trying to cover to apply pressure on the multiple wounds.

“It won’t fucking work! I’m dying!” Sheldon shouted.

“Don’t talk crap, you’re a vampire! You’re not going to die.” I snapped.

The car swung round a corner and I held onto Sheldon to stop him falling onto the floor. Getting back up on the car seat I tried to calm Sheldon down,

“Michael got shot too. He healed very quickly.” I said.

Sheldon went deathly quietly and croaked, “I’ve been drinking tequila with silver.”

My blood went ice cold. Michael swore and punched the dashed board. Sheldon was always offering me shots of tequila laced with silver. A vampire could not get drunk unless it had something to suppress the accelerated metabolism. Silver suppressed all vampire abilities. I nearly bled to death when I drunk and fell over on broken glass. Silver took hours to get out the system. Realistically I knew that Sheldon had the same chances of survival as a human with multiple gun shots.

“Why the hell were you drinking tequila!” I cried.                  

“I’m sorry!” Sheldon cried.

Blood was pouring out of him and he was looking whiter and whiter. I tore my wrist open and pushed it against Sheldon’s mouth. But he refused to drink.

“I can’t-” Sheldon said weakly.

“Michael,” I cried looking over to Michael in the driving seat. “What should I do?”

“I can give you my gun.” Michael said.

“How is that supposed to help!”

“End it painlessly.”

“No, Sheldon you can’t die. There has been too much of a body count already. I can’t lose you too.” I cried grabbing his shirt.

“I’m sorry.” He said.

“What if we take him to a hospital?” I asked.

“He’s not human and we don’t have enough time.”

Sheldon reached out for me, “Lorna I can’t see.” He whispered.

“Michael, how did you save me, can’t we do it with him?” I asked.

“No. You were only shot once.” Michael said.

“Fuck it Michael, think of something! Sheldon can’t die.”

“Lorna,” Sheldon croaked. “I-” the word bubbled and cut off. Sheldon went limp and gray and the blood that seeped from him suddenly smelt stale and rotten.

“What happened?” I asked.

“He died.” Michael replied.