The address on the back of the note was for a small independent stationery shop in the village. I knew the place, although I had always been wary of going inside. It was the kind of shop that you could just tell was going to be expensive.

Yeah, no fucking way was I the kind of mug who'd pay twenty quid for a notebook... that's just daylight robbery.

The shop was situated at the very end of the high street, the bright pink sign above the door catching my eye:

PAPER HEARTS

I led the way, with Victoria and Will close behind me. The smell of fresh paper and vanilla candles permeated the air as we entered the shop. All around notebooks of all sizes and colours were stacked in neat piles, and stark plastic tubes full of pens and pencils lined the walls.

"This place gives me the creeps." Will said as we headed up to the empty front counter "How can anyone stack books that neatly?"

"With a ruler?" Victoria suggested as she eyed up a selection of multi-coloured pens.

"I know what you mean." I said looking around for any sign of life "It's too quiet in here."

It was far too quiet. There was no sign of any customers or staff for that matter. Weird.

Wandering away from the others I made my way past a large stack of blue, fur-covered notebooks. The plastic tubes on the wall down this aisle were full of rubbers shaped into various animals. I stopped as one tube caught my eye. The rubbers inside were shaped like a wolf, the colours grey, black and white. I picked one out and stared into its eyes.

Then I heard laughter coming from behind me, loud and clear, just like it had in the chemists.

Shit.

Why the fuck did I wander off alone?

I couldn't bring myself to turn around, not that I was expecting to see anything if I did.

Then I heard footsteps running towards me from behind.

Oh, crap. Maybe it was a customer coming in to shop? Stranger things have happened. It didn't necessarily have to be something supernatural, did it?

Oh, who the hell was I kidding?

I slowly turned around, the wolf shaped rubber in my hand ready to throw at who or whatever was coming up behind me.

But, there was nothing there.

I must be losing my bloody mind!

"Alec?"

"Oh, shit!"

I quickly turned back the other way where Will was standing looking at me concerned. Damn him! And damn his bloody vampiric stealth!

"Are you okay?" He asked, "You look white as a sheet."

"I'm fine." I lied "Just my stupid bloody imagination."

He smiled, but his eyes still looked worried. I wished he wouldn't do that. We needed to focus on finding Kian, I didn't need him wasting time worrying about me.

"Okay, well, we've found the owner," Will said as he led our way back towards the main counter.

"So, what's the problem?" I asked noting the hesitancy in his voice.

The way Will's eyes flashed as I asked the question told me that something wasn't quite right here. I'd known him long enough to see the signs. He wasn't telling me the whole truth.

"William Jackson don't make me force it out of you." I warned him "Tell me what's going on. Now."

I felt the wolf rubber turn to pulp in my hand as my fists clenched in anger and started to shake. I began to take deep breaths as my eyes started to mist over. After a minute, the feeling subsided.

"Alec?" Will asked looking scared as I dropped what was left of the rubber on the floor "What the hell was that?"

"Self-control." I retorted, barging past him to lead the way back to Victoria.

I was starting to regret my decision to involve Will in this at all.

Stop being a twat, Colby. He's just trying to help!

I hadn't exactly gone out of my way to make him feel welcome, neither had Victoria, but he had been my best friend. Maybe I should start cutting him some slack...

We reached the front counter and Victoria rushed out from the back office, her face full of panic.

What the fuck was going on?

"You need to see this." She said grabbing my arm and pulling me along with her as she headed into the shop's back office.

We went straight through the heavy wooden door marked 'PRIVATE'. I could only assume that Victoria had used her magic to open it as the handle looked slightly charred.

Well, I wasn't one to judge...

The room Victoria had pulled me into was a small office. A desk sat in the corner, a large filing cabinet took up the whole of one wall, while the other three were painted in a dull pastel green. My eyes were drawn away from the walls to the body and pool of dark red blood that had dried onto the white faux fur carpet underneath it.

Oh, crap... that's not good.

I could only assume that the body belonged to the owner of the shop. The woman was probably in her mid-thirties and was lying facing the ceiling, her eyes bulging in fear, a grimace permanently etched onto her face. Her skin was pale in death, making two deep red puncture wounds on her neck clearly visible.

"Shit."

There was nothing more I could say. Nothing else was processing in my brain. The smell of blood in the room was overwhelming.

"This woman was attacked by a vampire." Will finally said, as if I couldn't bloody well see that fact for myself.

"You don't fucking say!" my voice broke slightly as I replied to him, "I think the holes in her neck can bloody well tell us that!"

"Whoever attacked her wanted to kill her, not feed." Will said "There's far too much blood spilt for that. This is a message."

"So you believe that Kian was actually taken then?" I asked him.

"I believe something weird is going on here." Will agreed "But, what the hell that is... I have no idea. We're going to have to call this in to The Council."

"Hang on a minute." Victoria said cutting him off "If we let The Council know about this then S.P.E.C.T.R.E agents will be all over this place in no time, and we'll lose our chance of finding Kian. I think we need to use this opportunity to follow up on whatever leads we've been left with."

"Well, if Kian was ever in this shop, there's no trace of him anywhere that I can smell." Will replied, "There are no traces of anything here actually, apart from us."

"And my magic hasn't managed to pick anything up here either." Victoria admitted, sounding annoyed by the whole thing "Whatever we're dealing with here... it's like nothing I've ever seen before."

"So, what's our next move then?"

To be fair, I couldn't see how we were going to get ourselves out of this bloody mess, let alone manage to find and save Kian from whoever or whatever had taken him.

Wherever the hell was, I just hoped that he was safe...

"I do have an idea that we can try." Victoria admitted, "But, it means that one of us is going to have to stay here with the body."

Yeah, no fucking way am I doing that...

"For fucks sake." Will sighed after a moment's silence "It's going to be me, isn't it?"

"You are the logical choice."

"I'm sure." Will replied" His eyes glinting dangerously as he kept staring at Victoria.

"Now that's sorted, Alec me and you have a date with a psychic," Victoria said ignoring his gaze.

"A psychic?"

"Of sorts." She explained, "Darrell used to be a student of mine."

"So he's a wizard?" I asked, picturing a guy in long robes with a pointy hat and wand.

"Well, he never actually graduated from The Brown House."

"Why not?"

"He was expelled in his sixth year for causing grievous bodily harm to his fellow students." Victoria said "He started a fire in the library. Three people died. Two students, and one teacher. I had no choice but to expel him, but, he was gifted... so I kept an eye on him."

"Oh, this guy sounds like a right hoot." Will said raising his eyebrows "A magical arsonist."

"Where do we find him?" I asked, cutting in before Will managed to dig himself a deeper hole.

"He works for Eddie Starr. He's his cameraman." Victoria replied, "We find Freddie, we find Darrell Curtis."

"Eddie Starr?" I asked "The guy who does Haunted: Live!?."

"That's the guy."

"You know those shows are a load of crap, right?" Will asked, "People like that wouldn't know the paranormal unless it came up and bit them in the ass."

"Good thing we don't bite then," Victoria said.

I could hear the patience wearing thin in her voice, and thanks to my heightened hearing I also heard Will mutter "Speak for yourself...bloody Witch." under his breath as Victoria headed over to the office door.

"I'm going to put a few wards up." Victoria said as she put a hand on the door "That should keep people away from here for now."

She closed her eyes then, her lips moving with no sound coming out. If I didn't know better, I'd say that she was possessed. Suddenly the door began to glow with a soft white light and Victoria opened her eyes again.

"I'll go and do the front door as well, just to be safe."

Victoria then pulled open the now glowing door and headed out into the main shop. As soon as the door shut behind her I turned to Will.

"Why the fuck are you acting like this?"

"I don't know what you mean." He replied, his voice calm.

I, however, was trying my bloody hardest to keep my anger from boiling over. Will was not helping the situation one bit. He frowned slightly as I just stared at him, not wanting to end up saying something to him that I'd regret later.

Bloody undead bastard!

"You know exactly what I mean, Will." I finally said, "Ever since I told you that it was Kian who was missing you've acted like a dick towards me and Victoria."

Will sighed heavily before answering "Yeah, maybe I have. I'm sorry. I let my old prejudices about Kian influence how I was with you, and your witch friend."

"Yeah, she is my friend." I snapped "She did more for me after I turned and was accused of murder than most. Kian too. All you did was kick me out on my ass because of your dad and his hatred of what I am now. I needed you then Will. I needed my friend more than ever and you weren't there. I didn't ask to be turned, I didn't want to be... this! Having to control my temper, because if I let it get out of hand I could turn and hurt people! Having to lie to my family about what happened to me! Your family know what you are, Will, they're fucking vampires too! I don't have that. I have nobody."

Tears started to fill up the corners of my eyes, stinging as I tried to hold them back. Before I could even blink Will sped over to me and wrapped me in a bone-crushing hug.

"Your not alone, Alec." He whispered in my ear "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, but I'm here now."

I hugged him back and smiled "And I'm grateful for that, just stop being such a miserable bastard."

He laughed as he broke the hug. I wiped away my tears and laughed with him. I was glad that we had made up. As much as I had been bloody annoyed at him for not being honest with me about what he was, I didn't want to lose him as a friend because of it.

It wasn't worth that.

We both quickly stopped laughing as the door went and Victoria came marching inside. She stopped as she noticed that both of us had gone quiet.

"Is everything okay?" She asked, looking from Will to me for some sign of what was going on.

I looked at Will and smiled "Everything's fine." I assured her "Did you ward the front door?"

"I did." She confirmed, "I'm not sure how long it'll hold for though, so we should probably get a move on."