Beautiful Fighters - an original vampire story (15+) (SAMPLE ONLY)

No such thing as closure

MONDAY OCTOBER 6

Justin waited five minutes after the bus had dropped them off Dunrovia College and made for the car park behind the film studios used by the Media Studies students.

He paused, still unsure of whether he wanted to or should do this, but if the answer was 'yes', now would be the only opportunity. A sense of duty compelled him. Or was it the desire to shout at the woman about how she'd ruined their lives? Love didn't feature at all.

Julie Tree and her car awaited him. He opened the passenger door.

"Hello, hello!" As always, she was far too cheerful for a woman who'd chosen the unlikely career path of lawyer to the undead, beaming up at him from beneath a mop of dark curls already making an escape bid from the silver claw clip at the back of her head. The elbows of her suit were shiny from overuse, and the edges of her cuffs frayed.

She shifted the vast pile of papers on the passenger seat and stuck them behind her, where they joined piles of yet more paper. Paranoia, she'd once told him, made her carry around everything with her, rather than leaving it in her office overnight.

He climbed into the passenger seat, squeezing his feet in between the empty coffee cups and chocolate wrapper that littered the footwell. While the springs on the seat might jag his arse and the cramped space force his knees up higher than he might like, the comfort beat the Vampire Security bus by miles.

Julie handed him a baseball cap. He crammed it over his dreads and pulled it down. Their 'outing' was legitimate, but why ask for trouble?

Julie started the engine and performed a text-book perfect five-point turn.

"What..."

She grinned at him. "Good, eh? My husband put his foot down last month and insisted I take a remedial driving course."

Thank you, Julie's husband. The lawyer might be a kind, supportive soul but that one time Justin had travelled in her car before had sent his non-existent heart to his mouth so many times he could almost feel it beating there. Julie, the Highway Code and road safety had not been words you would put together, and Justin had wondered whatever incompetent idiot of a driving instructor had ticked a pass the day she sat her driving test.

The car drove out of the college gates, with Julie executing another text-book like move as she joined the traffic heading north.

"Didn't you want to bring Maya with you?" Julie asked as they waited at the slip road onto the main motorway. Three Vampire Security vans, sirens blasting, headed in the opposite direction, making Justin sink into his seat.

"No. She, uh, doesn't know about this. Um, you don't mind...?"

Julie shook her head. "Fine. I'll file it under client confidentiality until you're ready to tell her."

He nodded grateful thanks. Lara had come up with the idea of Julie facilitating today's visit to Justin's mother. After hours of mulling over Lara's revelation, he had waited until Maya popped out to visit her mum and sister and approached Lara.

Could he... could he see Grania, he asked Lara. Drop a bombshell like that and the ripples of the explosion will hit home, no matter how far the target tries to dodge 'em. If he showed up at the care home, maybe it would give him the one big opportunity to ask why his mother had acted the way she had.

There was also the argument that in the years to come, decades from now when everyone else—Maya, her Argist friends, Julie and the others were all dead and gone—he might look back at his younger self and scold him for not taking the opportunity to spend more time with a dying relative.