Griffin's admission made us pause. Do we trust him, I asked, two answers hitting me at the same time.

No. Lewis.

Maybe he saved this one up his sleeve for bargaining power. Justin.

"Where did they take those chemicals?" I whirled around. The barman retreated behind the bar—his mouth set in a mournful expression. I understood his consternation. While the Liberal Life Party had tried on many levels to make life better for vampires, few companies or people wanted to employ them. Cleaning offices late at night was the best many of them could expect. The smile I gave him was meant half in apology/half in reassurance. He didn't seem convinced.

But most of this was subsumed under mounting excitement. Would we be able to steal them back?

Justin paid for a bottle of whisky and handed it to Griffin. We sat down once more.

"There's a facility south of the city Vampire Security and Sunshine Health use for their logistical operations. The G41 area 7QN."

Postcode too. Useful.

"It's well guarded," Griffin continued, "but I'm sure youngsters as talented as you three seem to be could get past them."

The second sentence sounded sarcastic, but Justin regarded him thoughtfully.

"Can you describe it or draw it?" he asked, and Griffin nodded. The vampire behind the bar found me a piece of paper and a pen and I stuck it in front of him. Griffin sketched out a diagram. The facility, he said, was made up of old shipping container units and a Portacabin surrounded by a perimeter fence and accessible through two guarded entries, one at the front and the other to the right.

Getting in there would be tricky; escaping with vans loaded up with stolen goods impossible.

"There's a compound full of unvaccinated people two kilometres away," Griffin added. "It's one of the more expensive places to live because the people in there assume they are safer thanks to their proximity to a Vampire Security facility, and what they pay for insurance gets them an immediate response if they are attacked."

He let the info hang there. I got it a few seconds later. "If Vampire Security thought vampires were attacking the compound, many of the guards at the logistics facility would need to go there."

He smirked. "Precisely."

I looked around. Naturally, the conversation with Griffin continued to attract attention, most of the vampires present watching us warily after Justin and Lewis's actions had convinced them there was no point sticking up for Griffin. But I sensed ghoulish fascination, or perhaps just boredom as hanging out at that same jazz club night after night must turn deadly-dull after a while.

I couldn't, not in a million years, unleash vampires on unvaccinated children and young people.

Yeah, you can.

Lewis, his thought hitting my head at the same time it did Justin's.

I'll take charge of them. No-one on my watch will kill anyone.

How do I know I can trust you?

Because I'll go with him. Justin this time. And I'll invite Lara, too. We'll make sure no-one attacks anyone. This lot must be bored out of their brains. A fake attack on a compound will be as exciting as a real one.

It took Justin and Lewis several more minutes to persuade me what they planned would work. They would take eight vampires from the bar, and Lara, so that the group totalled ten, which would trigger a massive response from Vampire Security, while I got on with the all-important task of finding and then transporting thousands of boxes out of a secure facility.

Super easy. Not. And all the while we did that, Justin battled incredible risk. He stood in front me now, reminding me—stupidly—of that first time I set eyes on him. Vampire hater, so I thought of myself, confronted with a dark, ashy-skinned, big-eyed, pillowy-lipped, green tipped dreads sporting guy, and my solar plexus clenched and released, as my world spun on its axis. Though my brain stifled the impulse at the time. Told my body to STFU, silly Maya! Sensible girls do not get the hots for vampires.

And now this beautiful, beautiful man planned to... They will come after you with automated crossbows. They'll destroy you, and I can't, can't, can't allow you to take that risk.

The beautiful man gave me a half-smile. Can't? Dunno if you've got any say in that.

His twin signalled his agreement. They would do it whatever the risk.

The state-licensed life is boring as hell for us, Lewis threw in, so dodging some stakes makes it a tonne more exciting. And I'll take care of this one for you.

Sod off! I'll be the one stepping in to save you from danger, arsehole!

The stupid exchange, illogically, reassured me. They might josh about it, but underneath it all lay a deadly seriousness. The bond of twinship and blood that would save them. In the meantime, I would need to magic up a team of thieves to help me. Gregor, for a start. Jason too. Nell and possibly Amelie, Angus's might be/might not be mother, and Dorian, seeing as he seemed to have had a connection to my unfortunate father. Six of us in total. Enough?

And then, once we had those stolen vaccinations, I would need to mobilise as many people as possible to take advantage of the tiny window in time we had. Plus, find the nurses able to administer the vaccination, and...

Oh, God.

You can do it. Justin.

'Course you can. Lewis

And as soon as we're finished scaring the crap out of those people in the compound, we'll help move people to the vaccination centre, Justin added. You'll need to ship them out under the radar—them and the people from the Garshake Estate. There's a network of tunnels all over the city that leads straight to the building Kirsty was using. If you transport a group en masse down them that'll attract far less attention than moving them on the roads.

We stared at each other. Might this, could this be do-able?

YES.

YES.

YES.

AUTHOR'S NOTE - thanks for reading! Next update, Friday 27th August, 2021.