Later that evening, Arran checked in to the hotel he'd booked in Blackpool. Now that he knew he was going to feed soon, he couldn't get his mind off how hungry he felt. He sat on the bed and thought about how to tell Cynthia about the whole vampire thing, he could remember her being very receptive the last time he'd bitten her but he'd been drunk at the time and couldn't remember how he'd actually broached the subject. Ideally, he wanted to get through the whole vampire bit first so that he could wipe her memory before sleeping with her. He didn't want to blank out any more than he had to. At the same time, he wasn't sure if he had the will-power.

When the knock at the door finally came, Arran rushed to answer it.

"That was quick," noted Cynthia, hand still raised from knocking. "Happy to see me?"

"Just feeling a bit impatient." She was still dressed for work and the combination of her scoop neck t-shirt and her long, dark blonde hair tied up in a bun wasn't helping. She laughed as Aran closed the door behind her and she sat down in the chair at the small desk, feet propped up on the bed.

"Well that just makes me want to make you wait."

Arran sat down on the bed and considered. This was always awkward, no matter how many times he did this and even full in the knowledge that the conversation would be completely forgotten soon enough. "Actually, Cynthia, there's something I need to tell you."

She laughed, Arran couldn't figure out why. "Is this when you tell me that you're actually a vampire and you need someone to bite but you can't risk exposure so you're going to have to wipe my memory afterwards?" Arran felt every muscle in his body tense up. There was a muffled thought at the back of his head saying that he should laugh and ask what she meant. He found himself unable to speak. "Oh my god, your face," she laughed so hard she could barely finish her sentence, "you look- you...you look like you've come back from the dead!"

"That joke doesn't even work." Was all Arran could think of to say.

"I wondered if you remembered telling me, you were trashed."

"And you're not scared?"

"No. Honestly I'm more pissed off that you're 17."

"I'm only like a year and a bit younger than you, it's not that bad."

"I've been serving you alcohol all summer."

"And that's a bigger deal than me, you know...drinking blood, messing with peoples' heads, being immortal." Arran thought that he should have made that sound more impressive. He felt dazed, he'd never properly told anyone before and now he had he couldn't even remember doing it. He tried to relax, after all there was nothing that he could do about it now.

"Yeah, I'm not fussed."

"Vampires are real and you're not fussed?"

Cynthia paused, swung the chair around to face the desk and fixed her hair in the mirror behind it. "I've actually put a lot of thought into it and honestly, I already knew a lot about vampires. Now granted you're apparently some kind of super mutant and a lot of the literature is hit and miss, but the actual concept isn't shocking. It's just a question of moving a lot of what you already know from the list labelled 'untrue' to 'true'."

Arran couldn't decide if this was a good or bad thing. Given Cynthia's flippant attitude, he doubted that she was at risk of telling anyone. On top of that, it might be nice to be completely honest with someone for once; dancing around issues with his new human friends was really starting to drag. He concluded that he may as well make the best of the situation.

"Most normal people would be scared." He said, now that he was over the shock he found himself slightly annoyed that she didn't find him very threatening, or even exciting.

"Lucky for you that I happen to be highly emotionally intelligent and very rational. Besides," she said, still looking in the mirror and now taking her earrings out, "when getting bitten turns into the best sex you've ever had, it's easy to be forgiving."

Arran's fragile ego was suddenly feeling a lot stronger. He got off the bed and walked behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders. He could feel her pulse under his fingertips as their eyes met in the mirror. "The best sex you've ever had?"

Her eyes narrowed as she smiled. "Calm down, I've not been alive very long. I'm sure you'll be usurped in time. As for the scary part, I know you, Redfern. You're all bark and no b-"

Arran bit down into her neck and she moaned, he kept his eyes on the mirror watching their reflection. He withdrew, Cynthia's breath hitched. He wiped the small trickle of blood that was forming with one finger and span the chair around so that she was facing him.

"I'm sorry," he said, licking the blood of off his finger. "Did I interrupt your quip?"

He was answered by a wicked grin and a decisive push to the chest that propelled him back onto the bed. He pulled himself into a better position as Cynthia climbed on top of him, legs either side of his torso. She kissed him passionately.

"You suck."

---

An hour or so later, Arran lay horizontal at the foot of the hotel bed feeling completely satiated. For the first time in a long time he had allowed himself to let go, not having to worry about revealing too much about himself. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember ever having been so uninhibited. Even with Cree he could never have bitten her, werewolf blood was toxic. He luxuriated in the feeling of post coital excitement turning to relaxed satisfaction. He lay there, listening to the sound of the shower in the ensuite and for once everything felt right in the world. By the time Cynthia emerged from the shower, Arran felt like he was melting into the mattress.

"Well you look happy," she said. Arran opened his eyes with a little bit of difficulty and saw her standing over him, naked except for the towel that she was using to dry her hair.

"What can I say? I'm just very good in bed." He received a wet towel to the face in response. He pulled himself up into a sitting position and watched her as she pulled on her underwear and his t-shirt. "I'm kidding, you're incredible. And you're very, very pretty."

"You know who else is pretty?"

"Me?" Arran shifted backwards, leaning up against the headboard. She laughed and he held open his arms for her to come to. She lay down with her head on his lap and he played with the damp strands of her hair.

"Yes Arran, you're very pretty. But I was talking about that girl that you brought to the restaurant."

"I guess so." Arran knew so.

"Who is she? She didn't like me very much."

"She's a friend from school, I'm charitably helping her become less judgemental and she is very generously tolerating my friendship."

"Was she open minded about the whole, you know, undead thing?"

"I have never died!" he said, pretending to be offended. "My parents both died once, but they're over it ok? Don't stereotype."

Cynthia sat up and looked right at him. "She doesn't know, does she?"

"Of course not."

"Who does?"

"You. Other vampires." He could tell by her expression that his answer wasn't good enough for her. "Werewolves."

"Are there a lot of other vampires?" She asked, surprising Arran.

"Well, yes and no." This wasn't what he'd expected from pillow talk. "Technically as long as a vampire keeps a steady diet of healthy blood, they can go on forever. In the real world we average on about 200 years, but that's including those that get themselves killed almost immediately and also those who have been alive for over a thousand years. There's been a strict policy on creating new vampires for centuries now, you have to apply and if you create an unauthorised vampire both you and it are destroyed, no exceptions. So our population has kind of bottle-necked. I think you could say our worldwide population is about one hundred to two hundred thousand, which is a lot of people, but not a large population."

"Can't they just have kids instead of turning people?"

"Only my type can have children."

"And how many of your kind are there?"

"Five."

"Five? That's nothing!"

"Well vampire men can impregnate human women and create half vampires, which are very similar to us, but that doesn't have a high success rate, there's maybe fifty of them."

"You're basically endangered! Don't you get lonely?"

"I-" he didn't know what to say but he suddenly felt very cold inside. "Actually Cynthia, I hate to do this but I don't feel great, I think I might catch the train back tonight." He pulled away from her, his chest felt tight.

"Arran I'm really sorry, this is all just so interesting for me."

"I know and it's totally fine, I promise, I just feel a little sick." It wasn't fine, but he just couldn't think why. "Can I have my top back?"

Cynthia pulled of his shirt and handed it back to him. He tried not to catch her eye as he got dressed, she looked worried. The longer he spent in the room the quicker his heart raced and he was suddenly aware of how much energy he had coursing through him.

"Are you upset?"

"No, I'm fine. I'm really sorry Cynthia, you know I wouldn't normally do this." He kissed her lightly. "I'll text you tomorrow, ok?"

She nodded. He gave her an apologetic smile, made sure he had his phone and his wallet and left.

Walking through the hotel at a normal pace was no easy task. He wanted to run as fast as he could. He felt completely hyper alert, every detail was so sharp it hurt his eyes and his brain was thinking so fast that he couldn't put words to his thoughts.

Outside was no better, it was only eleven so the streets were crowded. Arran still felt trapped but now he was surrounded by people. Each person had a hundred tiny signatories that they were prey and Arran found himself able to pick out each weakness. This scared him, whenever he'd been in a fight he'd found himself able to exploit the failings of his opponent instinctively but this was a new level. Anyone that got in his way, he wanted to attack and he knew exactly how to do it. In the chaos he caught the scent of a vampire, he identified the trail and went in the opposite direction. If he were challenged right now, he didn't know what he would do.

Eventually, Arran found an alley that was deserted. He tried to sit and ended up collapsing onto the floor. He focussed on breathing. He didn't know what else to do. The night was cold and that helped some as the air stung slightly in his throat.

Was he lonely?

He found that the answer was yes but he couldn't decide how he'd reached that conclusion. There were plenty of people that he knew in the vampire world and he had three half-siblings on his mother's side and one to spare on his father's. Did they ever feel lonely?

Thinking over it, Alessi was the picture of a chic-lit antagonist. He was charming but completely emotionally aloof. Arran had never known him to have any meaningful relationships and he never came home.

Rhona took emotional unavailability to a new level. She could, and often did, trick people into believing they'd made connections with her, purely because it was more convenient that way, or sometimes because it was fun. She could make someone believe that they'd spent their whole life in love with her and then she'd throw them away when she got bored.

Celeste, the middle Redfern child, was totally reclusive and the last time Arran had seen her was probably a decade ago. Maybe she liked being lonely.

That left Arran, the only Redfern child with Redfern as a last name. The odd one out. In fact, now that he thought about it he wasn't even remotely the same as the rest of his family. His father was a vampire, only half of him was different from the standard vampire gene code. He was an impure impurity.

"Hey, aren't you a Redfern?" Arran looked up, the vampire that he'd smelled before was standing at the end of the alley. "I thought I smelled someone."

She had an Australian accent and looked like an avatar from a fighting game. Her muscles were huge under her tanned, sun damaged skin and she had short blonde hair that stood on end. Arran's nervous energy dropped like a brick within him. He still felt terrible but a lot more focused as he stood up.

"I am. This is Redfern territory, what are you doing here?" His voice came out much stronger than he anticipated, but he didn't think that would make up for being seen curled up on the floor.

"Look just coz I'm not from around here mate don't mean you can fool me. Redfern territory is Lancashire, Blackpool's fair game."

"It's always been considered ours."

"No one vampire coven gets more than a county." She took a step forward, trying to intimidate him but something seemed off.

Arran tried to see into her head and found his powers instantly respondent. She was scared, Arran could tell that she didn't know for certain what he was capable of. He thought that makes two of us and decided to push his luck.

"Well we're not exactly your run of the mill vampire coven, I think you know that." Arran's powers held, they'd never been so easy to sustain, and he could tell he'd hit the mark. "Obviously Blackpool has a lot to offer so I hope you enjoy your stay, but if you're looking to kill anyone I suggest you move on."

He walked past her, thinking that the warning should suffice. Due to his telepathy he saw what was coming before it happened but not in time to stop it. She punched him had in the back of the head, his ears rang and he fought to keep the psychic connection open while turning to face her.

"Don't you try to threaten me you little brat."

Arran thought fast, there was no way he could beat her physically even knowing what she was going to do ahead of time, but he couldn't find anything inside of her that suggested she had any powers.

The next hit that came he dodged and in a blind panic swung a fist at the top of her head. When it connected he sent out a blast of mind control energy the only way he knew how; he erased her memory of their whole interaction.

"Wh-?" Was all she managed before he hit her again, bringing her to her knees.

He repeated the process of beating and wiping faster than she could heal. When she was in a bad enough way he said, "I know you don't remember the arse beating you just received, but if I find out you've killed anyone on our territory, the next time I'll make it so you can't forget."

Remarkably, throughout the fight he'd managed to keep a handle on his telepathy and he knew that he'd done enough. He closed the link carefully, trying to pay attention to how he was doing it and walked off.

Maybe his stupid powers were good for something after all.

---

Yaaaay, some action at last. Poor Arran, I'd say he needs to get laid but well...that didn't work out for him very well this time. Please do leave comments, they make me happy <3