Major Wilson was dressed in black, classic Section 13 military style. His tactical vest had various utility pockets and a pistol holster. On his right side were four ten-inch stakes and were strapped to his belt, some wooden, some metal. An assortment of knives in sheaths and guns were dotted around his body, along with a shotgun in a back strap gun holster.

He was kitted out like a human tank. I’d never seen someone so fully equipped to murder four people just having a quiet dinner.

We all froze, Major Wilson’s sudden appearance throwing us all. Somehow he had knocked out the power, take out whatever guards he’d deemed necessary and find his way right to us. He wasn’t just a killing machine; he was a master of infiltration and stealth too.

Major Wilson pulled out a chair from under the table, making sure it scraped loudly across the floor, and sat down.

He kept hold of his automatic rifle, pointing it at the four of us, but placed the pistol on the table.

He gave us all his bullet eyed stare, the one that could stop a charging herd of elephants at thirty paces. Sat at the head of the table, he had Victoria and Alice to his left and right, with a three-foot distance between himself and them. Vincent and I were sitting beside Victoria and Alice, respectively.

I saw Vincent lift his fingers beneath the table, as if he was about to cast a spell.

“Don’t,” Major Wilson said, training the rifle on Vincent, “One word out of your lips, Vinnie, and it’s lights out, permanently. Don’t think I won’t do it.”

Vincent narrowed his eyes but dropped his fingers.

Major Wilson had us all where he wanted. Or so he thought, at any rate.

“I think it’s time we had a little chat, don’t you, Victoria?” he said.

If Major Wilson’s sudden appearance startled Victoria, she didn’t show it.

Instead, she nodded, cool as ice. She was taking this all in her stride, as usual. I have to hand it to Victoria. I only ever once saw her lose her composure completely.

It wasn’t a pretty sight.

“Stewart,” she said in a light conversational tone, “You’re looking well.”

“Can’t say the same for your brother there,” Wilson replied, “too much time playing with the dark arts, hm Vinnie? Last time I saw you, you only looked about eighty years old.”

Vincent didn’t comment, just stared at Wilson with a half-formed sneer on his lips. While there was clearly no love lost between them, Wilson and Victoria’s relationship was harder to pin down. She was almost behaving as if he was an old friend.

“There’s no need to be rude, Stewart,” Victoria continued. “You’ve just interrupted a civilised meal. Would you care for something to eat? I can have the staff bring you up a plate.”

“Save it, Victoria, the game is up.”

“I have no idea what game you’re talking about, Stewart.”

Wilson ignored her and turned his attention to me for a second.

“What brings you here, lad?” he asked.

“An invitation,” I snarked, “You got one?”

Wilson’s moustache did that little twitch-smile of his.

Despite my flippancy, I knew how serious this was.

There were at least two people in the room who qualified as supernaturals, myself and Alice. Perhaps three, if you included Vincent. I wasn’t sure where ‘warlock’ fitted in on Section 13’s hit list. Wilson still didn’t know there was anything unusual about me, and he had no reason to suspect Alice of being anything other than a teenage girl.

Even so, this could turn deadly at any second. Wilson’s temper was up, and he was flying solo. I doubted any of this was sanctioned by Section 13, given that he’d been suspended.

Major Wilson had gone rogue, and I couldn’t think of anything more terrifying.

He’d barely seemed to operate under any rules whilst he was the head of Section 13.

Now? God knows what he was capable of.

“I hope you haven’t hurt any of my men and women, Stewart,” Victoria said.

“They’ll live,” Wilson grunted, “Which is more than I can say for my people. Now, where are they?”

“Stewart, again, I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“I’m not here to play your little games, Victoria. You were behind the attack on our base. You are harbouring the animals that did it. It’s over Victoria.”

Victoria shook her head.

“Stewart, I can assure you that we had nothing to do with the assault on Section 13. The first I heard of it was through Ethan here. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for your losses. I might disagree with Section 13’s policies but my concern is saving people’s lives, not keeping dangerous creatures safe. There are no supernaturals onsite because I’m a scientist, not suicidal. Yes, I spent some time advocating a capture-not-kill policy when I worked for the section. That doesn’t mean I wanted to create a terrorist group out of them, or whatever it is you imagine I’ve been doing for the last seventeen years.”

There was a moment of doubt in Major Wilson’s eyes.

Then his face hardened again and the familiar fanatical look returned.

“You’re lying,” he said, aiming his rifle at Victoria, “Now...”

The next bit happened so fast I almost didn’t see it.

Alice leapt from her chair and launched herself at Major Wilson.

She was little more than a blur as she streaked across the table towards him. Her fingernails became talons and her teeth turned into sharpened points. She reached Major Wilson and made a lunge at him.

As fast as she was, Wilson was faster. He grabbed her outstretched arm and, in one smooth action, he turned her momentum against her, spinning around and pinning her against the door behind him.

Simultaneously, he grabbed one of his metal stakes from his combat jacket and stabbed Alice through the left shoulder so hard that he drove the stake through the door.

Alice screamed and tried to reach the stake with her right hand. Wilson slapped her hand away and drove another stake through her right shoulder. She was suspended three inches above the floor, her body convulsing. Blood flecked Alice’s mouth as her legs kicked helplessly against the door behind her. Her eyes rolled in their sockets as she went into shock, her arms dangling uselessly by her side.

I stared in horror at the bloody scene the quiet dinner had suddenly turned into.

“No supernaturals, hm, Victoria?” Wilson whispered.

He picked up his pistol and fired once toward Vincent, who had begun muttering a spell. The bullet narrowly missed Vincent’s head. A warning shot. Vincent snarled, then held up his hands.

“Stop this at once!” Victoria said, “Stewart, this isn’t necessary.”

A flicker of fear crossed Victoria’s face. It wasn’t much, but it was just enough for me to realise this was as bad as I thought, maybe worse. Major Wilson had the upper hand and there was nothing we could do. Wilson threw a bundle of zip tie handcuffs onto the table in front of me.

“Make yourself useful, lad,” he said to me, “cuff the pair of them. Nice and tight. Vincent first.”

I looked at Victoria, unsure of what to do. She nodded at me.

I didn’t know if she had a plan to get us out of this situation, but it didn’t look like it. I got up and tied Vincent’s hands behind his wheelchair, then Victoria’s. Wilson paced around the table, indicating that the three of us should move opposite him, waving his pistol and ignoring Alice pinned to the door behind him.

“Stewart, she needs a doctor, right now,” Victoria said.

Her feet had stopped beating against the door and were instead twitching as her head lolled. Blood poured from the two metal stakes in her shoulders down the length of her body.

“She doesn’t need a doctor where she’s going,” Major Wilson said. “A bloody vampire, Victoria? Are you serious? I thought we wiped the last of those vermin out ten years ago. Now, where are you keeping the rest of them? This is your last chance, Victoria.”

I gritted my teeth, scared and angry.

No, actually, this time I was more angry than scared. A lot more angry. I was raging.

I finished tying the Pryces and stood on the other side of the massive oak table from Major Wilson.

“They’re in a building a few hundred metres from here,” I said. “I can show you. I only came here to spy on them, like you said. Moorecroft told me to go along with the plan you made and I was due to report back. Victoria has shown me everything.”

Wilson raised an eyebrow in my direction, “Finally picked a side, have you, son?”

“Yes,” I said.

Then I threw the table at him.