My first Being Human fic! Just spent the last day writing this and chapter two... and good lord am I excited! I'd forgotten what it was like to start writing a new story. I really hope you enjoy this, and if you don't, that's cool too! Thanks for reading!

Hal was setting up his dominoes. He had placed about three-quarters of them already. He was getting faster. They marched across the table, each one equally far behind the next, creating a spiral that curved around the central point quite elegantly.

Breathing out slowly, Hal placed the next ivory domino and the next, leaning close over the table, positioning the dominoes gently, as though each were a delicate glass flower, so easily breakable. Soon his hand was empty, and there were no more dominoes left. Hal reached to his left and his fingers closed around the side of the green velvet-lined wooden box in which the dominoes slept. One by one, the ivory pieces fell under his deft hands, returned to their home, enveloped in soft green velvet.

Since Leo had died, Hal found himself creating his spirals more and more – four or five times a day. Tom didn't understand it at all, and Annie only a little; it angered Hal slightly. How could they not see how tortured he was? And with only a few hundred white shards of ivory keeping him from returning to the way he was…

Hal swallowed back the thoughts of Leo, and who he had been before the werewolf had found him.

Blood everywhere and bits of flesh in his hair and the sweet warmth trickling over his arms and skin the hairs raised on the back of his neck like electricity so warm between the folds of skin of flesh ripping tearing blood blood blood –

He swept the rest of the dominoes off the table and into the box, snapping it shut and slamming it down onto the table.

Damn Leo for leaving him, and Pearl too – they had tethered him to the salty rock of sanity, kept him from the carnage that his heart and mind lusted after, forced him into the structure of dominoes and calm and breathing. Breathing. Breathe, Hal, he told himself. Leo knew you could do this on your own. You must do this.

Slowly, his hand trembling slightly, Hal reopened the box and took out the first domino his fingers brushed. Three inlaid pips; two on one end, one on the other. Leo and Pearl on the one side, happy and together, safe beyond the door… and Hal, on his own, the lonely pip, surrounded by an expanse of white.

Annie materialised suddenly, making Hal jump slightly. His exterior stayed calm – vampires had the knack of staying silent and still as stone, no matter what state their interior was in.

'Cup of tea?' Annie asked, smiling down at him.

Hal slipped the domino into his trouser pocket and smiled back. 'Please.'

'I'm thinking… Assam!' she said as she disappeared through the swinging doors, into the kitchen. Hal followed her slowly, first making sure the box containing his dominoes was laying on a parallel to the table's edge.

'How's the baby?' he asked.

Annie filled the kettle with water and flicked the top shut, and turned to frown at Hal.

'You never talk about Eve,' she stated.

'I… don't often talk about her,' Hal admitted. 'But I assume I am not to be shot down for inquiring after her?'

The kettle rumbled quietly.

'Of course not!' Annie laughed. 'Eve's fine, just a little restless is all.'

A comfortable silence descended. The kettle's grumbling slowly increased in pace and pitch, and Hal twisted the domino between his fingers. The smooth ivory was somewhat cold to the touch – no warmth could be passed to it from Hal's hand, after all.

The kettle boiled. Annie put teabags into two mugs and filled them with steaming water. She handed one cup to Hal. He held it in his hands, feeling the scalding heat between his fingers but not really noticing it. Annie pulled a biscuit tin off the shelf above the sink and offered one to Hal. He took one and bit into it, tasting the chocolate on his tongue. Of course he gained no pleasure or stimulation from taste – other than the taste of blood, rich warm hot blood sticking to his lips and mouth dripping from his chin – but the taste was there all the same. Apparently, even five centuries of iron-rich blood couldn't dissolve taste buds. The tea was different. He could feel it burning down inside him, warming the dead organs and muscle and tissue from the inside out. Hal leant back against the fridge and smiled to himself. I am not all dead, he thought.

Hal heard Eve crying first, his senses being much sharper than Annie's. The soft mewling of the child slowly grew until Annie finally heard it. She motioned upstairs in apology and then disappeared. Hal downed the rest of his tea and threw the biscuit into the bin, then returned to the living room, where his dominoes waited. He started his regime again: first, he opened the box and lay all the dominoes out before him, then took the first one and stood it in the centre of the table. Soon, a clear circular pattern was discernible on the tabletop.

Someone knocked on the door.

Hal stood up and went to answer it, expecting the person stood on the other side of the rippled glass to be Tom. But even as he reached for the door handle, he could see that the person outside had a build nothing like the werewolf – and by the smell, they were distinctly human.

'Hello?' he asked.

The human outside turned to him and grinned. It was a girl. She couldn't have been more than eighteen or nineteen; she had a young face, though, bowed lips, big round eyes, and a wavy, shoulder-length bob of poorly dyed pale green hair. She was incredibly thin, clothed in faded, torn, rolled-up jeans, an oversized band t-shirt and black, military style lace-up boots. She had a backpack slung over one shoulder – the zip was clearly broken, and Hal could see more jeans inside, along with a wooden box.

'Um, hi,' she replied. 'Is Tom here?'

'No.'

Hal didn't breath. He couldn't smell her. He couldn't smell her.

'Oh.' The girl looked disappointed. 'Can I come in and wait for him?'

'I don't know…' Hal said tentatively.

'Oh, that's fine! I can wait out here, if you'd rather!'

Etiquette got the better of Hal and he rushed to apologise. 'Please, come in.'

The visitor went straight down the hall and into the kitchen, dumping her backpack on the floor. Hal raised his eyebrows as he followed her.

'Mind if I have a cup of tea?' she begged, already reaching for the kettle. 'I'm gasping.'

'Help yourself,' Hal insisted. He didn't want to leave her alone – that would be rude – but her smell was beginning to creep into his mouth and he could already picture the blood spurting out of her all over the kitchen floor pooling and spreading warm and hot and sweet so warm dripping pouring from her mouth into mine and pain in her eyes so afraid ha-ha! Stupid girl so much blood it's in you right now and wants to be out calling to me gushing out of you drenched in your blood matted in my hair –

And he felt his fangs protrude inside his mouth, pressing against the inside of his lip and he ran. Out of the kitchen and through the front door, around the side of the house. He crouched down and pushed his palms into his eyes, feeling the pain and guilt. Leo, Leo, Leo.

Breathe in and out and in and out and in and out, imagine the curve of dominoes lined up, the calm and order, restriction, regime. Remember how far you've come. Remember Leo. Leo, Leo, Leo. He gave everything he could and now you repay him – how? By killing everything that moves? Stop, stop! Dominoes, dominoes, order, restriction, regime.

Order. Restriction. Regime.

'Wanna give me some help?' came a heavily accented voice. It was Tom, struggling up the path, his arms laden with shopping bags.

Hal didn't move; he stayed crouched down beside the house, his hands over his face, breathing slowly.

'Are you alright?' Tom asked.

Hal took a few moments to reply. He tried to get his voice to work again, and felt his fangs still out.

'There was a human in the house.' He barely managed to whisper it. 'A young woman. With green hair.'

'Copper?' Tom was shocked. He dropped his shopping and ran into the house, kicking open the front door, running straight through to the kitchen. 'Copper!'

He grabbed the girl by her tiny waist and swung her around.

'Tom,' she whispered, her fingers on his jawbone. Then she kissed him.

'I told you not to come here,' Tom said, almost angrily, when they broke apart.

'I had nowhere else to go.'

'What happened to Mandy?'

Copper picked up her mug of tea and swallowed the remains. 'Mandy's dead,' she said finally.

Tom gaped. 'How?'

'Werewolves; only a couple of weeks ago.'

'Werewolves don't kill their own kind,' Tom denied the accusation with fervour. 'Not outside the cages.'

'I know what I saw!' Copper insisted. 'They destroyed the entire house, looking for something. I don't know what it was. And now they're after me.'

'They're after you? Why?'

'They were talking about the Old Ones, and the war child… When they executed Mandy they…' Copper looked down at her feet and continued, quietly. 'They tortured her. They wanted to know everything about the war child, thought Mandy knew something about it. They called the child 'the eve of a new dawn'. And there was something else, as well. The Gift.'

'Gift?'

'They made it sound important. I don't know what they were talking about, I can't remember. I was hiding and saw the whole thing. Then they ransacked the house and torched the whole place. I only just escaped.'

'So why are you here?' Tom demanded. 'What do you want from me?'

Copper looked up at him defiantly and blinked, her curly green hair framing her face. 'I want to be able to protect myself.' She paused. 'I want you to turn me.'

'I don't think she should stay here,' Hal said quietly.

'Look, she's just a girl,' Tom interjected.

'A human girl! Do you know how hard it'll be for me? And for Hal?' Annie shrieked.

The three of them were in the attic, discussing the girl downstairs. Annie held Eve in her arms; the baby was sleeping. Hal stood tall, his back stiff. Tom was seated on a large suitcase.

'Why exactly do you want her to stay here, Tom? I don't want any hanky-panky in my house!'

'Annie!' Tom protested, insulted.

'It's too dangerous,' stated Hal, his tone implying that there would be no further discussion.

Annie narrowed her eyes at his tone of voice, but, glad that the vampire was on her side, nodded down at Tom.

'And,' she pointed out, 'it's full moon soon. Do you expect Hal to look after her while you're away?'

'Copper's fine with werewolves; she's been living with them for half her life. She used to live with about five of them, so she was always alone around the full moon. Annie, she's nineteen – old enough to look after herself if Hal doesn't want a part of it.'

'I don't think it's right…' Annie protested weakly.

'And it'll only be for a few nights, then I'll find her somewhere else to go. But right now I'm the only person she knows. How can I not help her?'

Even as Annie started to dispute his argument, Eve stirred in her arms and started to howl. It signalled the end of the discussion.

'Fine,' she hissed, over the top of the squalling baby's head. 'She can stay.'

Hal looked angry for a few moments, then he calmed. It wouldn't be that hard. A few days, at most. And he would be able to stay in his room when she was around. He'd have to take his domino table upstairs, but that wouldn't be a problem. As long as Annie didn't object. He turned to her, to ask if she minded his rearrangement of the furniture, but she nodded before he even opened his mouth.

'Of course you can move the table. Take whatever you need.'

Annie handed Eve to Tom – the child immediately ceased her crying and started to gurgle happily – and crossed her arms. 'I don't think it's fair that you've both had a look at her, and me, the owner of this house, hasn't even heard her voice. I'll be right back.'

She disappeared, creating a sudden change of pressure in the room that caused Hal's ears to pop.

Rematerializing in the living room, Annie looked around. Copper was nowhere to be seen. She went to the swing-door that led to the kitchen and stood on tiptoe to gaze through the circular pane of glass. Through it, she could see Copper sat on a stool beside the sink, eating baked beans out of a can, downing glass after glass of cold water.

'Do you know how rude that is?' Annie shouted as she stormed through the kitchen door.

Copper whirled round and gazed at the swinging doors. She didn't seem to see Annie – or hear her, for that matter. Then she took another swallow of water and turned back to her beans.

'You didn't even ask! You just come into my house and take my food! Ugh!'

Annie threw her arms up in defeat as the girl in front of her continued to eat the baked beans, paying no heed to the ghost that – admittedly – she couldn't see or hear. Annie dematerialised and appeared again back upstairs. 'She's eating my food!'

'It's not like you eat it,' Tom replied, rolling his eyes, as he left the attic and started to descend the stairs. 'And Hal don't eat much neither. So really, it's my food.'

'Oh right!' Annie stormed, following him. 'Because you pay for it?'

'I go out every day and buy the damn stuff.'

'Because I can't!'

They reached the bottom of the staircase. Tom went straight down the corridor to the kitchen, ignoring Annie's angry protestations.

Copper stood up and kissed him; long and hard. Annie made a disgusted noise and sat down, her arms crossed.

'I'm sorry,' Copper said bashfully, motioning to the beans by the sink. 'I haven't eaten in a few days – I've been travelling from London.'

Tom pushed the baked bean cans aside and leaned against the counter. 'What did you use – the train?'

'I hitchhiked. Weren't nobody too keen on giving me a lift either, so I walked a lot of it.'

'You walked from London?' Annie repeated disbelievingly. Copper didn't hear.

'You walked all the way?' Tom gaped.

'Only about forty miles of it,' Copper amended. 'I got followed for about twenty miles out of West London by Patrick's crew, then I lost them just outside of Reading. Bastards nearly caught me too.'

'What would you have done?'

'I don't know. Killed myself before they could.'

'Copper…' Tom murmured, rubbing her arm gently.

Copper shook his hand off her arm. 'I was serious, you know. About you turning me.'

'What's this?' Annie exclaimed.

'I can't, you know that!' Tom said, ignoring Annie. 'And you'd only be protected on full moon.'

'It's better than nothing, Tom. Do you know how scared I've been?'

''Course I don't.'

Copper stood up and chewed on her fingernail. 'I watched Mandy die, Tom.'

A tear slowly rolled down her cheek and dripped off her chin. Tom took her into his arms and she buried her face into his shoulder.

'Who is this Mandy?' Annie asked. When Tom didn't reply she threw her arms up and disappeared, muttering, 'What am I? Invisible?'

'It'll be OK, Copper, I'll sort it.'

'You swear?'

Tom caressed her green hair, smoothing it back from her face. 'I promise you, it will all be OK.'

Hal woke up in a cold sweat. The clock beside his bed showed 4:38. He had dreamt of Leo again; the first time they had met, in fact. In his dream, he had refused Leo's offer of a peaceful life, of control and calm, and he had watched the man bleed to death in a cage as a werewolf split open his chest.

Hal couldn't conceive the idea of a life without Leo's teaching. What might he be, had the dream been truth? Would he be dead? Or alongside the Old Ones, fighting against the people he now called friends.

Yes, he would be fighting, and drinking blood like it was water; he would be satiated and revived and full of warmth. But that was not the way of it. Instead, he was alone, and old and hungry. Hungry for blood, and for the cold leftovers of Copper's spaghetti Bolognese that she had made the previous night.

Hal slipped out of bed and pulled on his trousers, leaving the braces hanging loose. He picked a dirty undershirt off the floor and pulled it over his head as he left his bedroom. Climbing slowly down the stairs, so as not to wake Eve or disturb anyone else, Hal rubbed his face and ran his long fingers through sleep-mussed hair. The floor of the hallway was cold underneath his feet, and the tiled floor of the kitchen was freezing. He claimed the bowl of spaghetti from the fridge and tucked in. It was not warm, and it was not blood, but the Bolognese sauce was rich and meaty. Better than nothing, Hal thought to himself.

He meandered slowly around the kitchen until the front door opened, making a snapping noise that was very loud in the otherwise silent house.

Thinking the worst, Hal froze and sniffed the air. But he couldn't smell any non-human beings, save for the permanent odour of werewolf that stuck to the walls of the house.

Quietly, he put the bowl of pasta down on the sideboard and pushed through the swinging door, gazing around the living room for the source of the noise. Tom was asleep on the sofa, snoring softly, his bare chest pale and gleaming in the moonlight that filtered down through the window. A blanket was tangled around his legs, but Hal could clearly see a pair of trousers on the floor and knew the young werewolf was naked.

Still searching for the source of the noise, Hal took another few steps forwards and nearly fell over Copper's backpack. It had been abandoned in the middle of the floor; a lonely island of crumbled clothes and worn black canvas amidst a sea of beige carpet. He tried to ignore the underwear beside the sofa, but it was hard. He found himself remembering the last time he had… but there was too much blood involved. He wouldn't let himself remember.

Copper was standing in the front garden, wearing nothing but Tom's dirty vest, socks and some knickers. Hal watched her through the glass for a few moments before opening the door and going outside. She was smoking a hand-rolled cigarette. There was a mug of coffee on the floor beside her feet, alongside a zippo lighter, a tobacco pouch and a sharp wooden stake.

'Hi,' she mumbled, when she noticed the vampire.

'Good morning,' Hal returned. 'Aren't you cold?'

Copper picked up her mug of coffee and gulped some down. 'Nope,' she replied, inhaling her cigarette. 'Don't really feel it.'

Hal nodded, gazing at the moon. It was nearly full. He caught a whiff of cigarette smoke mixed with the warm, wet smell of saliva. 'You know that'll kill you, don't you?' he asked, motioning towards her cigarette.

Copper snorted. 'Not before them wolves do. Or vamps, for that matter. The kind of person I am – the kind of life I live – it don't really matter which one kills you. You just got to know it'll be one of 'em.'

Hal chanced a breath. He smelled Copper's cigarette, and the sweat underneath her arms, and the dirt in her hair; he smelled her – the spicy, warm scent of woman – and the deeper, richer one that belonged to all humans. And then he smelled her blood; saw it rippling beneath her cheeks as he gazed at her with such longing.

Copper blushed. He was staring at her so fervently – with such hunger in his eyes – that Copper wasn't certain if he wanted to rip out her throat, or rip off her clothes. She drew on her cigarette and breathed the smoke out through her nose, waiting for this tweed-wearing vampire to decide which way he was going to go.

'I'm… sorry,' Hal said, trying ever so hard to stop staring at the small breasts beneath the thin fabric of Tom's vest. 'Control isn't one of my strong points around humans.' He turned away, finally ripping his eyes from her. 'Especially female humans.'

Copper watched as Hal closed his eyes and breathed through his nose. She dropped her cigarette butt on the ground and stepped forwards, gently taking Hal's hand in hers. She knelt down and picked up her stake, settling the point against the vampire's chest.

'Psychologists call this flooding,' she whispered. Slowly, she raised her wrist to her mouth and bit down. Blood dripped from her lip.

Hal smelled the sweet dark liquid; saw it running over Copper's pale skin, dribbling down her chin. He could almost imagine it on his tongue. A reflex kicked in and he jerked forwards, but stopped when the stake pushed too deeply into his chest. His muscles tensed.

'Will you die?' Copper asked, as she tightened her grip on the stake. 'Or can you control it?'

They stood that way for a few minutes, close enough to feel the other's breath on their face, close enough that the hairs on the back of Copper's neck stood up.

Eventually, every muscle in Hal's body started to relax. Copper noticed this and lowered the stake. Hal glared at her, trying to force his body to ignore the blood on the ground and the blood on her face and the blood on her skin.

'See?' Copper grinned. She knelt down and started to roll another cigarette. Hal dared not move, in case his body did things he didn't want to do.

'We used to do it all the time back in London,' Copper continued, licking her cigarette and rolling it tightly. She put it in her mouth and lit it before continuing. 'Just expose a vampire to a shitload of blood – obviously while they're tied down – and sooner or later, they don't want it.'

'And what do you do then?' Hal asked stiffly.

Copper blew out a ring of smoke. It floated towards Hal and dissipated before it reached him.

'Well, once you've taken away someone's reason to be crazy, they ain't crazy no more. Most of 'em were just placid after that. Hell, a couple of them even joined us.'

'And me?'

'You sure ain't a placid one, I can tell you that. Plus, you haven't touched blood in what… fifty years?' she guessed, looking him up and down.

'You're still bleeding,' Hal said shortly.

Copper looked down at her wrist and frowned. She licked her wound, staying the flow of blood, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

Hal flexed his fingers, and consciously relaxed all the muscles in his body. He took a step forwards.

'That was dangerous,' he hissed. 'You don't know what I might have done.'

'I'm sorry about yesterday,' Copper said slowly, ignoring him. 'I didn't realise you were so weak.'

'I am not weak!' Hal growled.

'Maybe not.' Copper shrugged. 'But you sure are tired.' She took one last draw on her cigarette and then picked up her things. 'Want some coffee?