"We've come for coffee."
"I think you're becoming addicted to the stuff."
"Absolutely. It gives me quite a buzz."
He stepped past me into my house, and greeted Rebecca with a casual, "Hi, Sis." He put the cat down and it trotted over to Rebecca and launched itself onto her lap, where it sat purring and blinking at us.
"Her name's Mina, by the way. You know, as in Mina Harker, the woman who hung out with vampires." He chuckled at his own joke, and Rebecca smiled.
"I like it," she said.
"I've also come to tell you that we appear to have won a holiday in Barbados, of all places. Mum just phoned from work. Her boss told her about it; he said it was some kind of company raffle thing that they did every year. Only thing is, the tickets expire at midnight tonight, so we're leaving in a couple of hours. Mum didn't want to go but her boss said she had to or the board would take it personally. How weird, being told to go on holiday. Typical Mum." He grinned. "I wonder if this kind of thing happens a lot, or if Fergus had something to do with it..." his voice trailed off.
"Anyway, Bex, you'd best get packing. And I've come to ask Angus here if he will look after Mina while we're away."
Fergus was terrifying. It had taken him, what, five minutes? And he'd organised all this.
"I'm not going." Rebecca was adamant.
"Are you mad, Sis?" Then he looked at me and grinned. "Oh, I get it."
His sister blushed. "Barbados is by the equator, Mark. I'm a vampire, remember? It's too hot?"
Mark nodded but didn't appear convinced. He still glanced at each of us in turn, smirking.
"What are you going to say to Mum?" He continued in a squeaky falsetto, "Sorry, Mum, I can't go because I'm a vampire now, see." He burst out laughing. I smiled. Rebecca was pulling a face at him, but she laughed too.
"A-levels, remember?"
"Good thinking, Batman! Batman, get it?" he chuckled again at his own joke, and escaped into the kitchen to make coffee. Rebecca shook her head, and I nodded my agreement, though I couldn't help thinking that I was going to miss Mark. But he would be out of harm's way in Barbados, as would the rest of the family, and I would be able to concentrate on keeping Rebecca safe.
Rebecca
Angus insisted on walking across the road with me so we could tell Mum I wasn't going with them. I was grateful. I'd been jumpy since I'd found out about that vampire asking about me this morning, and then when Angus had told Fergus that he'd smelled him outside our house, I'd almost had a heart attack. That's one of the reasons why I'd told Angus that I would stay at his place. I just felt safer there. The other reasons I would keep to myself.