A Surprise in the Gym

Havermouth, Present Time

Heath pushed through the witches undressing in the warehouse’s reception, following the vampires out into the night. The vampires… Of which he was one, he realized as his stomach rumbled again.

There was a strong smell of burnt wood, and the night air was thick, the sky clouded. The smoke did not hide the scent of the vampires around him, metallic blood from their last meals and the body odours and mustiness of clothing from people living in crowded rooms without access to washing machines. He could smell the cooling concrete and tarmac, the petrichor of the earth warning that it was going to rain before morning, and the distant scent of a bin left to moulder too long in all the drama of the flood and the Van Helsing take-over of the town.

The sudden movement of the vampires, scattering into the night, their motions so fast that although he could track it with his hybrid vision, they seemed to drag a tail of color behind them before vanishing into the night as