His relief was almost palpable. "Thanks. I was really worried. She hasn't been out much. So," he changed the subject, "are you going to offer me coffee or what?"
I chuckled, and held the door wide for him. He stepped inside, and looked around. "Where's the safe?" he wanted to know.
"It's upstairs in a wardrobe."
"Cool." Nothing seemed to surprise Mark. He'd barely registered any astonishment when he'd found out that Rebecca was a vampire, or, come to think of it, that I was one of a family of vampires. I think us using the term iron metaboliser helped, plus the fact that there was a very rational and scientific explanation for what could euphemistically be described as a very unusual condition.
I was making the coffee when my mobile rang. I pressed speakerphone, and Fergus' voice filled the room.
"Angus. I tracked down the YouTube video footage that those vampires used to find Rebecca. I've deleted it off the internet, but the person who loaded it up might find out that it's gone and try to upload it again. I will send you the details of our perpetrator in a few minutes. You might want to pay him a visit."
I thought about what Rebecca had had to go through recently as a direct result of the actions of one of her fellow students, who had robbed her of her privacy and endangered her life all in one go. I might indeed want to pay him a visit. I looked across to where Mark stood, serenely sipping his coffee. He appeared not to have heard, but I was sure that he had. It didn't worry me very much that he had, though. I knew that he would want me to protect his sister in whatever way I could. Sensing my attention, he looked up at me, and I held my finger to my lips in that age old 'shhh' sign. He grinned and nodded.
"Another thing. Marcus has run a few preliminary DNA tests on those samples we took from the vampires you, er, butchered."
"Don't hold back, brother," I said dryly. "Tell it as it is."
"Well, we could say executed, if it would make you feel better."
"Come and say it here," I told him, grinning.
"Ha! No thanks. Anyway, it appears that the blood drinking vampires have the same father, and six different mothers between them. That father is likely to be Jack, and if it is, he's at least two hundred years old. Oscar, the one you smelled outside Rebecca's school is about one hundred and sixty, and he's not even the oldest of the sons."