He was a meanold man, recently retired and in his late fifties, tall and lean withpiercing eyes. I couldn't remember ever seeing him smile. He had bee...nthe deputy headmaster at my school until recently, and I had taken a lotof grief from the other kids over this fact. His retirement came as agreat relief, but even now, I saw him as an authority figure rather thanfamily.I had been walking to his house as slowly as possible, but still foundmyself approaching my uncle's front door rather sooner. As Dark stood up, an arrow came whistling through the air, aimed for the vampire's head. But, before it could try finding it's mark, undulating waves of electrical energy surged across his body. His cloak slowly ripped apart from the immense amount of energy that raged around Dark. The arrow was struck by one of the stray bolts of electricity, disentigrating the arrow instantaneously.The vamp looked at him with a new found terror, one of what might happen to her now. Dark looked down at her and. “You’ve got so many other people here, Alison,” replied Eva. “What about Claire? and Brad? and your parents? I have no family or friends here anymore. If I leave, I’ll be with my mother, and my brother. And – I know you find this hard to believe – Chad is the only person outside my family ever to really love me. I know he’s a dickhead sometimes; but he loves me.”“I love you, Eva.” said Alison, as she pulled the black girl even tighter towards her, kissing her softly on her lips and face. “I’ll. Ezra would love that. He’d probably tag along as he was never one to pass up on an adventure. Alfie, too, even though he’d be at his wits end trying to keep them out of trouble.Nate chuckled to himself as he entered the cottage, feeling a bit lighter. He knew his fantasies of the future were childish, but he held on to them to give himself the push that he needed to overcome his writer’s block. His job had really been the impediment (at least that’s what he’d always assumed) and that was no.