"Breaking the cycle" is a story set after 4x08 one month into Hal's detox. Told from the perspectives of Hal and Chelsea-girl vampire hunter Belinda Weaver. When Miss Weaver comes to Barry, with Lord Harry in her sights, and a ruthless plan to get hold of something she wants, both she and Hal begin an adventure, which has the potential to either break Hal's "cycle" or, worse, unleash a monster more dangerous than Hal has seen before.

Part 1 - Belinda's Birthday Pressie

If the girls at Cheltenham Ladies College could see me now! That was the thought that ran through my mind before a kill. It always made me laugh.

It had been a few weeks coming. I had that itch behind my eye to get it done, but it had to be done right. I was the first to admit that they had the advantage; the Vampires that is. I sat in the car at the top of the hill. Lights off. Engine dead. Hunkered down in the back seat and waiting. "Staking out" I said out loud, and laughed at the delightful irony…it was for the sake of No-one Inparticular. No-one was my imaginary friend, he sat along side when Vampire hunting. I'm fully admitting I'm not all there, but it's a lonely life and someone has to do it...

Glorious 60! That was what this would be. One more to top off the 59 notches on the crucifix that Mummy gave me…just before they took her from me. It was going to be a good one. It was worth the hard work that it took to find it. I had made a new stake for the occasion, spent a good few weeks shopping for the right bit of wood, another week making it perfect. I needed something sharp and sure, something that would find its target with the least of resistance. If everything I had heard was true, this one was going to put up a good fight.

I watched the clock on the dashboard tick over into midnight. "Happy Birthday, Belinda," I said, to No-one Inparticular, and I blew out the candles on an imaginary cake.

A howl broke through in the night and I jumped a little. It sounded so close. I had timed it right then? The werewolf that this particular vamp had guarding him was off on his monthly romp through the welsh undergrowth. That meant my prey was alone. But it didn't mean he was vulnerable. I had made that mistake before, I had the scars to show for it. You try covering up those kind of scars! Maybelline just doesn't cut it. This kind of beauty costs a fortune in high-end foundation. I wasn't going to go through that again, not if I ever wanted to show my face in the right circles again.

I had heard about this stellar kill six months ago when I hunted a nest of particularly cruel vampires that were pottering about in Chelsea. They were trawling the nightclubs and had a taste for particularly high class meals it seemed. I fitted right in as bait, wading into the Bluebird like something stupid, easy to eat. All those deportment and ballet lessons Daddy paid for were worth something in the end…I do love the look of surprise on their faces when those things realise I'm no happy-meal, when they suddenly realise I bite back!

There was only one left in the nest when I was done. A sniveling thing whose name I never asked before I turned him into shake-n-vac. I had it pinned by the heal of my shoe. I made some comment about it bleeding all over my Louboutin and the little shit laughed! I was going just to get it done-with when it said something which caught my interest. Oh, he would have loved you, it said. That was all I needed: a taste of the next game! A few hours later I learned I needed to know about 'Lord Harry' Pppft – dead things don't have names in my book, let alone 'titles'!

The cruelest of them all, It said, 'Hal' taught them everything they knew. He terrified his own kind! From the stories it seemed this vampire's tastes for cruelty were exacted out upon his fellows rather than humans. He didn't waste his time playing games with his food. Resourceful, a leader, easily bored, I noted to myself.

He was older than they had dared ask, It said, one from the top. A survivor, a charmer, a fighter, I noted.

They all thought he was dead, It said, but he wasn't. He had been seen taking off with some werewolf in tow, over fifty years ago. "Well whatever takes your fancy," I joked, "I'm hardly one to judge people on their night-time pursuits." And, with that, I sherbert-dipped the fanger.

A month ago I succeeded in tracking the werewolf in question to South-End. They hadn't done a good job in hiding. I found they had left recently. I traced the car that the wolf had owned by hacking into the DVLA, to the sunny vales of Barry Island. Just around the corner and down the road from the back of beyond, not even a Starbucks in this hell. It was here I found him, two weeks ago, with another dog. God knows what they had planned to do in this place but, whatever my personal distaste for seaside resorts, I wasn't going to let it happen.

The dog was safe, I had watched it transform the night before, nothing more than a puppy and while it was worth keeping an eye on I'm no wolf-hunter until they look like they're enjoying their 'caninity' more than their 'humanity'. It had found a nice corner away from Barry to do its damage. The vampire was different. I don't have sympathies for them, and if all the stories I had heard were true this was what I had been working up to. I hadn't seen it emerge but I knew it was there. After a while you can just tell: the shut curtains; lights on throughout the wee hours; the strange screams in the night. The wide berth people gave the house was notable to those who knew what to look for. Even if most people don't admit it, evil is easy to spot, and often as subconsciously avoided as the smell from an open drain.

I wasn't going to wait any longer. I was hungry for it now.

I quietly slipped out of the car. I grabbed my bag and shifted it onto my back in one move. Running down the road my heart was pounding that familiar beat…I slipped through the gate unheard and was at the door in two steps. I had the lockpicking kit ready and the it clicked open in barely twenty seconds. I wasn't going to give this vamp a chance to even realise what was about to happen. I was in!

The B&B was silent. There were no lights, no breath in the place. Only the dead lived here. I held my breath too, realising something was near. I could smell it. A coppery, unwashed taste that stuck at the back of the throat. I grabbed my torch from my pocket and held it out front. The stake was wielded, ready to go, and the door was at my back, ready to run. But I wouldn't run. I never run.

I flipped the button on the torch and swung the light around the squalidly decorated room until it found its mark.

"Excuse me?" It said politely when the light fell upon him, reeling back in the glare. Its nostrils flared. Its eyes blackened when it realised I was human. Its teeth bared as it stretched as far forward as it could to greet me, "...who the fuck are you?" It snarled into the light.

I laughed when I realised what exactly I had walked into and flipped the light-switch on the wall. Looking at the vampire, tied into the chair before me, I slipped the torch into my pocket with a baton-swing and lowered my stake.

Now I know why I hadn't seen it leave the house…

Someone had gift wrapped my birthday pressie for me!

Up Next: "How Harry met Belinda"...