"Are you out of your goddamn mind?!"

As it turned out, Victoria's reaction to my idea was about as bad as I had feared it would be. She had spent a good five minutes ranting about how much of a fucking idiot I was for even suggesting we go to Will for help, but it wasn't like we had a lot of choices.

"Alec, look I know that you're worried, but how do we know we can even trust this vampire?" Victoria said, "He might not even help us."

"Will is a good friend of mine." I replied firmly "Well, he was before I got turned. The least we can do is ask him for help, what harm can that do?"

For a moment, Victoria looked like she was going to start shouting at me again, but she just sighed "Okay then, so how do we find him?"

It wasn't like we could just roll up to the Jackson's front door. I had experienced their welcome mat once before, plus Mr Jackson was not exactly the type to appreciate a werewolf and an angry witch turning up on his doorstep with no notice, and I didn't really want to lead Will to the shack. He was my friend, but, Victoria was right - how did we know we could trust him? I still hadn't forgiven him for not telling me that he was a vampire. He'd had plenty of opportunity to over the years.

Yeah, we were going to have to meet Will somewhere away from his family that was for sure... but where? Where could we meet him where we wouldn't be disturbed? Somewhere abandoned...

"I'll give Will a call." I said, suddenly picturing the perfect place "Get him to meet us in Moonstone Park."

"Do what you have to." Victoria said picking up Kian's note again "I'm going to see what I can get from this note."

I headed outside, the stillness of the forest and the darkness were oddly comforting. Pulling out my phone, I dialled Will's number and hoped that he'd pick up.

One ring.

No answer.

Two rings. Nothing.

Damn it, Will, pick up the bloody phone!

Third ring.

"Hello?"

"Will?" I had never been so glad to hear his voice.

"Alec?" Will asked, sounding like he'd just woken up "You do know it's almost midnight, right? I might be a vampire, doesn't mean I'm up all bloody night!"

"Sorry, but, I need your help."

"What's happened?" Will asked, suddenly sounding wide awake.

"It's not exactly something I can tell you over the phone... can you meet me?"

"Uh, sure I can, where?"

"The park." I said, "Is half an hour okay?"

Will paused for a moment "Okay. I'll be there."

"Thank you."

Will hung up just as Victoria came out from the shack, her face downcast and the letter still in her hand.

"This is really starting to piss me off." She said angrily "My magic can't get anything from this. How did it go with your vampire friend?"

"He's going to meet us at the park, well, meet me. I couldn't exactly tell him that you're going to be there." I said, "I didn't want to spook him."

"Spook him?" Victoria almost laughed "He's a fucking vampire! Are you saying that I'm scary?"

Oh, crap. I was so glad that Victoria couldn't read my mind.

"That's... that's not what I'm saying at all..."

Yeah, that probably wasn't very convincing...

"Whatever." Victoria said with a huff "We should get going. I brought torches out."

She handed me a small plastic, wind-up torch. It was surprisingly bright once we headed out into the forest itself. The darkness surrounded us once we were out of sight of the cabin and all I could see of Victoria was the thin beam of her torch as she led the way back to the main road.

Once we joined back up to the road it was a quick walk over to the park. Lucky, as it didn't give me a lot of time to dwell on the situation.

But, the emptiness I felt because Kian wasn't next to me just wouldn't bloody go away. No matter how much I wished that it would.

Will was already waiting for us in the park, sitting on the same swing that Grace had made move when I first met her. The angry spirit that haunted Moonstone Park. Angry and just a little bit scary when she got mad. I wondered if she was watching us.

As soon as he saw us Will jumped up and in a second he was next to us. Fuck. I forgot how unnerving he could be when he tried.

"Alec." He said warmly before turning his ice-cold stare onto Victoria "Who's the witch?"

"The witch has a name. Victoria Brown." Victoria said, venom flowing through her words before I could intervene. Damn. These two were going to get on like a house on fire.

"The Brown House, of course..." Will said, "So Alec, your out in the early hours with a teacher of all things, and you need my help?"

"Somebody we know is missing." I explained "We..."

"Don't bring me into this." Victoria cut in "For the record, I think it's a bloody stupid idea."

"I thought that you could help us find them." I corrected myself.

"So you've lost somebody, call the police, they deal with missing people all the time."

"The person who's missing, he's a vampire." I said, "So I think the normal police will be a little bit out of their depth."

Will stared at me, his gaze burning into mine "A vampire? Is this the same vampire you wouldn't tell me about after you changed?"

"Yeah," I admitted.

"I don't bloody believe this." Will said, running a hand through his hair in exasperation "What's his name?"

"Kian." I said "Kian Richards."

Will's eyes flashed dangerously, and I could have sworn that he snarled as I said Kian's name.

"That pompous asshole..." He spat.

"Yeah, he wasn't exactly a big fan of yours either." I shot back "But, that's not why we're here, Will."

"Why do you care about him so much?" Will asked, "You're not boning him, are you?"

What a dick.

I had nothing to say to him. My best friend, and yet it felt like I didn't really know him at all.

Will looked from me to Victoria and seemed to take the hint from my stony silence.

"You are aren't you?" He said finally "You and Kian..."

"Yeah, we're together." I confirmed, "Not that it's any of your business who I go out with."

Will said nothing, although I could swear he was blushing. I was glad about that. It was taking all of my willpower to not punch him in the face.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly after a long, awkward silence.

"All we need to know is if you can help us find Kian or not." Victoria said, "He left this note, do you need a light?"

"No, it's fine," Will said taking Kian's note from Victoria.

He spent a long reading the note and then sniffing it.

Smelling the blood.

"Is there anything?" I eventually asked him, unable to take any more.

Weak sunlight was starting to shine through the trees. Dawn was fast approaching.

"This is weird." He replied "It's like there are no traces on this note at all. Not even of Kian. If I didn't know that was his handwriting then I'd be saying he was never near this letter."

"I couldn't get anything from it either." Victoria admitted, "It's like the page has been magically wiped, but there's no trace of any spell being used."

"So, we still have nothing?" I said, the defeat heavy in my voice.

"I wouldn't say that exactly." Will replied "See this on the back of the letter..." he turned the page over to reveal it was blank, as I had expected, but there was an imprint near the bottom that stood out against the contrasting white of the paper that I was sure hadn't been there before.

"Is that an address?" Victoria asked.

"Yep." Will said with a smile "Probably of wherever the paper was purchased. Now, that, we can track."