This didn't make sense. It was madness, and he had to be truly insane if he thought I would believe him. I'd never met a vampire yet who didn't want me dead. He could have killed me last night. So, why hadn't he?

'Why would you do that?' I said, pressing my back to the wall next to the window and doing everything I could to keep myself upright. 'You said it yourself, Sensors don't save vampires and vampires certainly don't save Sensors.'

'You really want to debate this now?' he said, trying to yank his wrists free from the binds. 'Look, the way I see it is this: either you don't cut me free and you let whoever these people are get you, or you take your chances with me. I'm your best bet here and you know it.'

I hated that he looked so genuine. Hated that everything about him from the tone in his voice to the look in his eyes was telling me I should believe him, because I didn't want to. The Sensor blood in my veins didn't want to. Trusting in a vampire went against everything I'd ever known. It went against everything I was.

Yet, there were so many of them. So... many. I gripped the hilt of the blade and took one stumbling step forward on legs that felt like they consisted of jelly instead of bone and muscle. My skin was electric now. A constant buzzing that made my head dizzy.

A floorboard creaked.

They were already inside the house.

The turn of my head seemed to take forever. A slow-motion action that felt like I was under water.

Standing in the doorway, was a tall figure, dressed head to toe in black clothing, that clung to a lithe, athletic body. A ski mask covered her whole face except for her eyes and mouth and in each of her gloved hands, she held a cruel-looking curved dagger.

'Sarah, cut me free now!'

The intruder glanced at the vampire on the bed, cocking her head to one side, before turning her attention back to me. Fuck.Approaching, like a cat stealthily stalking its prey, she smiled, tonguing the tip of one elongated incisor and spun the hilt of the daggers in her hands like a total pro. Double fuck.

I'd often wondered whether the purpose of my curse, was to know just when the opportune time was to run really fast in the opposite direction. After all, when your whole body was raging against the presence of not one, but multiple vampires, how were you meant to find the power to defend yourself?

'Well, well,' the intruder said, her voice a purr that did nothing to stop the buzzing coursing over my skin. 'You look good enough to eat.'

I gritted my teeth and inhaled, raising the blade. 'And you look good enough to die.'

Her arm swept round in an arc, and I felt the dagger cut through the space above my head as I dodged its path. I kicked out at her legs with a sweeping motion, but she was already on the move, flipping her body over, swiping at me with the other dagger as she flew through the air. Every movement was like a work of art, her body twisting and somersaulting, avoiding every one of my strikes with the knife.

On the bed, the vampire continued to furiously struggle against his binds, the sound of the bedframe rattling, a strange clunky background noise to our fight as he kept begging me to release him.

The intruder swung the dagger again, not close enough to do serious damage, but enough to slice through my sweater and graze the top of my arm. I gasped and her eyes lit up.

Taking a leap of faith as I leapt onto the bed, I quickly cut the bind that tied the vampire's left ankle to the bedframe, watching his eyes bulge as the intruder raised the curved blade and brought it down, missing me as I jumped backwards and instead plunging it into the space between his legs. When the dagger snagged on the mattress and got stuck, I took a chance and I kicked out at her hand, sending the other blade flying across the room, while the vampire, his leg now free, slammed his foot into the side of her face. The impact only seemed to stun her briefly before she managed to dodge his next kick while simultaneously pulling the dagger free. As she raised it, I knew what she was going to do.

I should have let her. After all, what was he to me?

A vampire was always better dead than alive.

Yet, as the dagger came crashing down in a sweeping arc, I couldn't stop myself. Despite the fire that screamed in my veins, despite everything I had ever known about his kind, despite everything I had seen vampires do, I still plunged my knife into the back of her neck and opened a hole in her throat as the blade pushed its way through the other side. I held her there, as the blood gushed freely from her ravaged throat and her body went limp in my arms, her dagger falling onto the bed beside the vampire.

Stunned, I let her body slump off the edge.

The vampire, however, was quick to grab the blade, slicing through his remaining binds.

Sarah, what the Hell are you doing?

I'd saved him. Twice.

And now he was free.

With a fucking dagger in his hand.

He must have known what I was thinking, because his eyes widened a little, before flickering to my right.

'Down!' he barked, shoving me hard and I fell, again in what felt like slow-motion, watching as he leapt forward, slicing the dagger through the air, narrowly missing me and instead, sweeping it across the throat of another intruder behind me. His aim was good. The dagger caught the second intruder, spraying blood across the room.

The intruder – who looked like a clone of the first, from her body shape to what she wore - fell backwards, clutching her throat, the light draining quickly from her eyes, until she collapsed on the floor.

The vampire didn't hesitate. Jumping off the bed, he slammed the door shut and turned the key, before quickly moving behind the heavy dresser and shoving it, with a grunt of effort. Barely understanding what I was doing, I climbed to my feet and helped him, ignoring the buzz of electricity as we worked side by side to push the unit against the door. From the hallway, fists pounded the wood, angry voices filling my once silent home.

Taking a step back, I stared at him in disbelief and confusion.

'You saved me,' I said. 'Why?'

'I'm a man of my word, what can I say? It's an irritating trait at times.' He sniffed and nudged the body of the second intruder with his booted foot. 'And besides, these delights are The Cerberean. The name is derived from the hellhounds that guard the gates of Hades. Specially trained and highly skilled. They serve the Council in everything from chamber security right through to assassinations. They're like the SAS of the vampire world, only far deadlier. If they're here, it means you're in big trouble and now, by association, so am I.'

'Wait,' I said, reaching for his arm as he tried to move past me, only to withdraw it quickly, as he stopped and stared at where my hand had touched him. I guess he wasn't used to the touch of a Sensor, any more than I was used to touching a vampire. 'Wait... what do you mean? What council?'

He raised a dark brow. 'The Vampire Council? The ones that control the whole vampire race. Don't you know anything?'

'Clearly not,' I replied. God, this one riled the fuck out of me. 'So, what do we do now?'

His eyes darkened with irritation. 'Well, there's only one way out.'

'You expect me to jump out of a first-floor window?'

'No, I expect you to climb onto my back, while I jump out of a first-floor window.'

My mouth dropped open. 'Are you crazy? I'm not doing that!'

'Would you rather wait until they smash their way in? Because that's what they're trying to do, and they will succeed. The Cerberean aren't known for giving up on their prey unless there's a very good reason.'

As if to prove his point, the door shook alarmingly in the frame.

'Tick tick, Sarah,' he said, sarcasm and panic lacing his tone. 'What's it to be? Stay here and get killed by a whole army of vampires or take a chance on the one who's prepared to save your arse, even though you stabbed him in the gut?'

He meant this. He actually meant it.

'Fuck it,' I snapped. 'Fine, okay. Yes. But try anything dodgy and I'll stab you again.' I gestured towards him with the knife just to ensure he really understood.

The vampire shook his head in disgust. 'The only dodgy thing I'm doing is saving you, trust me.'

Moving to the window, he pushed it open, before sticking his head out and pulling it back in abruptly when something whizzed past his ear, hitting the ceiling, and rebounding onto the floor.

'Son of a...' he snarled, pressing his back against the closet, and peeking around the edge of the curtain.

'Did they just try to shoot you?' I gasped.

'No. It's a tranquilizer dart,' he said, edging closer to the open window with caution, while pointing at the tiny missile which now lay on the rug. 'Doesn't work on vampires, unless of course the Council have come up with something new from one of their mad little experiments.' He glanced at me, a dark look in his eyes. 'The darts are for you.'

My stomach flipped. If they wanted to stick me with tranquiliser darts, that meant only one thing: they wanted me alive. They wanted to make me suffer for killing Luther.

The vampire looked out again. 'Stay here, stay out of sight. I'll be back.'

I watched in horror as he climbed through the open window and disappeared from view. From behind me, the banging and voices only grew louder, an ever-increasing beat to my panic which was in danger of spiralling completely out of control.

'What the bloody hell is happening?' I groaned to myself. On the bedside cabinet, the framed picture of Gran must have been knocked over when the intruder attacked, and the glass was shattered, tiny pieces now scattered over the pillows like sparkly confetti.

From somewhere outside, a terrible scream pierced the night.

'Shit-shit-shit.' Grabbing the backpack that always sat in front of the closet, I quickly unfastened the frame at the back and pulled Gran's photo free, placing it inside the pages of my unread copy of Alice in Wonderland. I was shoving the book into the top of the bag, when the vampire reappeared at the window, making me jump.

'What's that?' He nodded at the bag.

Fresh blood smeared the side of his face. I stared at it.

'It's not mine, don't worry,' he said, catching his reflection in the dresser mirror. 'What's with the bag?'

Wrapping the blade in one of my shirts and tucking it inside the bag, I pulled the backpack on. 'It's my Plan B,' I said. 'Oh, and I wasn't worried, trust me.'

The vampire smiled and slapped a hand over his chest. 'Aww, you're all heart, aren't you? Come on, let's go.' He gestured for me to take his hand.

'If you could not think about my heart, that would be great, thanks,' I said, exhaling hard before grabbing his hand in mine. The pins and needles raged, but not as much as they did when I had to climb onto his back. With my body wrapped around his, the sensation was almost overwhelming.

'Ready?'' he said.

'S-sure,' I replied, hoping I'd be able to hold on before this damned curse of mine failed me.

The vampire began to climb, somehow managing to climb the front of the house and reaching the roof with ease. When he began to run the length of the roof at speed, I screwed my eyes tight shut, only to open them again at the worst possible time, just as I felt him take a leap.

'Oh my god!' I shrieked, seeing nothing but air beneath us as he landed onto the garage and ran and jumped again, this time landing in the snow, a good twenty metres from the house. With barely a moment to recover from the landing, he took off across the snow-blanketed lawn towards the cover of the trees.

'How the blood hell are you doing this?' I gasped, flinching as he weaved his way through the forest at a speed that made my heart pound even harder, if that was at all possible.

'Trade secret. If I tell you, I'll have to kill you,' he snarled. 'Which I might still do if you puke up over my head. You're not going to puke, right?'

'I think I left my stomach back on the roof somewhere.' Hearing shouts from far behind, I glanced back, seeing dark figures moving swiftly where the moonlight framed the edge of the forest. 'They're following!'

'Then they're going to have to run a lot faster than that if they want to keep up.'

Through the forest he took us, managing to dodge twisted, thick trunks and low branches, not that it stopped me from flinching when it looked as if I might be whipped free by a gnarled tree reaching out to grab me. After a while, when I did think I might be sick after all, I gave up looking at what was hurtling towards us and pressed my face into his neck, feeling the buzz sweep across my cheek, but not hating it enough to make myself look up again.

The cold bit at my skin as he ran, and after a while, I realised I could hear his breath growing shallower, feel his fingers digging harder into my thighs. Daring to lift my head, I was sure I heard him exhale sharply, his hands relaxing their grip a little. He hated this as much as I did. Everything about this was as alien to him as it was to me.

Finally, we broke into a clearing and up ahead, I spied a dirt road, one of those lanes that led into the middle of the forest and abruptly stopped for no reason, as if whoever made the road had just decided they couldn't be bothered to go any farther. Parked at the end, a black Land Rover Discovery waited, faced in the opposite direction as if he'd reversed it all the way down here.

Slowing as he approached, he dropped my legs free of his grasp, depositing me roughly off his back as if he couldn't wait to rid himself of my touch. To be fair, the feeling was mutual, but I didn't appreciate being dumped into the snowdrift like a sack of rocks.

'Well, thanks for the ride,' I grumbled, brushing the snow off my legs, and looking up, my mouth gaping and stomach turning a somersault as the driver's door opened and a vampire the size of a small mountain climbed out. Easily broaching six and half feet – easily – the monster was broad with muscle, and he scowled at me from beneath long wild hair and a thick beard. Even worse was that he headed straight for me, his long legs striding across the clearing.

I was so struck with fear at the sight of him, that it took me a moment to realise the other vampire – the other monster – had flipped the trunk open. The lid stretched like a jaw, nothing but hungry darkness waiting behind its sharp teeth.

Scrambling backwards, I began to run, but I'd barely turned before they were both upon me. The giant one grabbed me with ease, clamping his hand over my mouth to smother my screams.

'Wriggly little rabbit this one, Michael' he grunted, as I kicked and thrashed against him, my frantic struggles useless against his sheer brawn and size. Quickly, he lifted me up, cursing as I managed to brace my feet against the edge of the trunk, preventing him from throwing me inside.

'Well, you know what they say about rabbits?' the vampire, Michael, said, as he grabbed at my legs, allowing his companion to push me inside. 'There's more than one way to skin them.'

He winked at me as he lowered the lid, slamming it shut before I could do anything to stop him.

'Bastard!' I screamed. 'Let me out! I saved you, damn it! Let me out!'

Pounding my fists and feet against the trunk, I screamed and hollered but all I heard in response was their maddening laughter, replaced quickly by the sound of the car doors slamming.

As the engine roared into life and the Discovery began to move, I continued to scream ad batter my hands against the lid, but even as my voice grew hoarse, my throat pained and my hands bruised, I knew the whole thing was pointless.

I'd willingly run from an ambush straight into a trap and it was all my fault.

I'd done the one thing I'd always known I should never do.

I'd done the one thing my blood had literally screamed at me not to do.

I'd put my trust in a vampire.

And now, I really was screwed.