Westbourne, England, 1853

It had been nearly ten years since Ysanne Moreau had seen another vampire.

As Caoimhe had said, the railway industry had continued to boom, giving people the chance to travel all over the country, but Ysanne had not been on one since meeting Edmond's former lover. She still didn't trust the noisy great things.

So most of the time, she relied on her own feet to take her from place. It took longer, even for a vampire, but she felt more comfortable that way. Still, she couldn't help thinking about what Caoimhe had said – that trains might make it easier for vampires to find each other.

Maybe if she used the damned things more, this wouldn't be the first vampire she'd seen in so long.

The village of Westbourne was home to a beautiful medieval church, noted for apparently having the oldest yew avenue in all England, and the vampire was leaning on the ancient wall that ran around the graveyard.

He looked up as Ysanne approached.

Inside the graveyard, a middle-aged couple were standing over a gravestone, quietly holding each other; they didn't seem to have noticed the two vampires.

"Do you know them?" Ysanne asked.

The male vampire looked back at the couple. "They're my great-great-great-great –" He broke off, clouds gathering on his face. "I've forgotten how many greats. They're my descendants."

"I've never met another vampire who still knew of human descendants. I'm Ysanne, by the way."

"Charles."

"Do you live here?" she had to ask. Westbourne was only a small village –surely no vampire could have got away with living in the same place for hundreds of years.

He shook his head. "I come back from time to time, to see how my relatives are doing." There was a note of sadness in his voice, and Ysanne surmised that none of those relatives knew he existed. All he could do was watch from a distance.

The couple started to move away from the grave, and Charles turned away, as if he didn't want them to see him.

"Walk with me?" he said to Ysanne.

They moved away from the church and walked through the village to the sprawl of the cricket pitch, quietly talking. Charles told her about how he worked hard to keep track of his descendants over the years. Ysanne told him about her experience with trains, which led him to admit he'd never been on one, and had no intention any time soon. She told him about the vampire that she and Jemima had been forced to kill.

"You did the right thing," Charles reassured her.

"I know, but I've thought a lot about him since then, and . . ." She tried to find the right words.

Charles abruptly stopped walking. "And what?" His voice was noticeably cooler.

"I understand his frustrations."

"To a certain extent so do I, but what difference does that make?"

"Because if no vampire is happy living in the shadows like this, maybe we need to work together to do something about it."

"Do something about it," he flatly repeated.

"Yes."

"Like what?"

"I don't know yet –"

"Because it sounds like you're saying you think we should reveal ourselves to humans."

"It's not exactly what I'm saying. But is it something we can't ever even discuss?"

"Human history is soaked in blood and slaughter. What do you think they'll do to us if they ever find out we exist?" Charles snapped.

"The human world is changing fast. Perhaps we shouldn't assume they will never be able to see reason where we are concerned."

Charles flung wide his arms. "Tell them now, then. Go on, show them what you can do. Show this village how far from human you are, and see how they'll react."

"I didn't say we should do it now." Ysanne was getting annoyed. "But we are going to live for a very long time, and I would like to think that the future awaiting us is a better world than the one we have now. I would like to think there is a possibility that we can one day live side by side with humans."

"You've lost your mind, woman."

"Thank you for such a scintillating rebuttal."

"You are talking about exposing us. The last time someone tried that, you killed him for it. Are you trying to do the same to yourself?"

"Are you threatening me?"

Charles narrowed his eyes, and Ysanne gave him a savage smile.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," she said. "I killed that vampire because he was putting people in danger – both humans and vampires."

"And you'll do the same thing if you try to expose us," Charles snapped, bunching his fists.

"That's the last thing I want," said Ysanne quietly, turning slightly away from him to gaze out over the pitch. "I want vampires to be happy, and the longer I live, the more I realise that we aren't. We're going to live forever, and yet most of us live alone. We always have to look over our shoulders, we always have to live in fear. How can you not want more than that?"

"Because I don't have my head in the clouds. Maybe our situation isn't ideal, but it's what we have to work with."

Ysanne shook her head. "You're not the first vampire to say that to me, and I think it's part of the problem. We're all just so used to it that we don't ever think about change."

"You're a fool."

Ysanne bit back a retort. It wouldn't help. Charles wasn't prepared to listen.

"I can see we're not going to agree on this," she said.

"You should go."

"I think I should too."

Disappointment tugged at her heart. She hadn't expected Charles to necessarily agree, but his hostility had come as a surprise. Caoimhe hadn't agreed either, and she hadn't reacted like that.

But she couldn't force him to listen, especially not when there was truth in his words. Ysanne wasn't proposing vampires step out of the shadows now; she just wanted people to consider it as a potential future.

But Charles clearly wouldn't, and any bonding they had done before Ysanne brought this up was in tatters. He looked like he didn't want to be anywhere near her.

Ysanne walked away.

She had planned to stay in the village overnight, but Charles's anger had left a bad taste in her mouth. Now she just wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

But she needed blood first. It had been days since she'd fed on anything other than animals.

She was just passing the church when she spotted a thin young woman huddling under a tree in the graveyard, trying to pull her rags more tightly around her as if that would shield her from the chill autumn wind.

Ysanne's mind flashed back to the night that she had found Edmond, a human boy struggling to survive a savage winter. She had been injured, losing blood, and she could easily have bitten him without his consent. Vampires so often had to, in order to survive. But first she had offered to pay him. She had offered him a diamond necklace in exchange for his blood, and he'd willingly accepted.

She hadn't paid him with jewellery again, even though he'd come to live with her for the winter, but when he let her drink from him, she repaid him by hunting down food so he wouldn't starve.

Her eyes fell to the gold ring she wore on her right hand.

Why, in all the long years of her life, had she not continued to pay people for their blood?

She walked into the graveyard.

The girl started when she saw her, scrambling to her feet.

"It's alright," Ysanne said, pausing a few feet away. "Don't run."

"What do you want?"

"I'd like to discuss a trade." Ysanne pulled off the ring and held it up so the girl could see it. Her eyes grew round. "This is yours if you give me one thing in return."

The girl laughed harshly. "Ain't got nothing to give but what's between my legs."

"That's not what I'm after. I require your blood."

"Eh?" The girl backed up.

"It won't hurt and it won't do you any harm. I only need a little."

"What do you want it for?"

"Does it matter?"

The girl was suspicious, uneasy, but she hadn't taken her eyes off the ring.

"What do I have to do?" she asked.

"Let me bite you. That's all."

"And then I get the ring?"

"You have my word."

The girl chewed her lip, dithering.

"Also, you mustn't speak of this to anyone," Ysanne added.

"The only people I talk to are the dead, and they ain't exactly gossips."

"You'd be surprised," Ysanne muttered.

The girl edged closer, her hands twisting in her ragged clothing.

"What do you say?" Ysanne said.

The girl nodded, a quick, jerky movement.

Ysanne glided forward, closing the gap between them. The girl's heart was beating fast with fear, but her jaw was set with determination. "If you don't relax, then it will hurt," Ysanne said.

Taking a deep breath, the girl tried to relax.

Ysanne tipped the girl's head back, gazing at the warm veins pulsing just beneath her skin. Her fangs pushed out. She bit down. The girl let out a squeak of surprise, then sagged in Ysanne's arms, sucking in shuddering breaths. Her blood was warm and sweet and Ysanne drank as much as she could, then she sealed the bite mark with a sweep of her tongue.

"That was . . ." The girl blinked dazedly at her.

Ysanne placed the gold ring in the girl's palm and curled her fingers around it. "Thank you."

She left without another word, her head a chaos of possibilities.

Charles had been quick to dismiss anything she said, but Ysanne was determined to believe there could be more to this life than vampires currently had.

Maybe it would take a long time to get there, but she wouldn't give up on that dream.