Tom woke up to find Annie glaring down at him. He rubbed his eyes as she came into view, then, shocked, jumped backwards.

'Thomas McNair!' she hissed. 'You had sex on my sofa?'

Tom blushed and pulled the blanket up to cover his torso.

'Only a little bit…?' he tried.

'Oh, if I could slap you, I would be most willing!'

'Please don't!' Tom yelped, cowering back on the sofa.

'Next time,' Annie said angrily, 'You do it in your own bed!'

She turned on her heel and stormed towards the kitchen. 'And you can make your own tea from now on!' she yelled over her shoulder.

Tom swore quietly and pulled on his underpants and grey jogging bottoms before chasing after Annie to apologise.

He entered the kitchen and stopped dead. Copper was stood before the cooker, frying bacon and eggs in a pan. She wore the same jeans as she had done the day before, alongside Tom's vest, but her boots were no-where to be seen.

Annie was standing right beside her, arms crossed, glowering silently. When Tom appeared, the ghost turned to him and moaned, 'She's making breakfast. In my house! I make breakfast here!'

'Please be quiet,' Hal mumbled from the kitchen table, where he sat in a puddle of sunshine, reading a newspaper.

'What was that?' Copper asked, turning around to Hal. 'Oh Tom! Want some breakfast?'

'Yeah, thanks,' Tom said. He opened the fridge and poured himself a large glass of orange juice, then sat down opposite Hal. Annie threw herself into a chair and sat there, fuming silently.

Copper grabbed two plates from the cupboard beside the sink and put three rashers of bacon and two eggs on each. She placed the plates before the vampire and werewolf and returned to the cooker to turn it off.

Suddenly the toaster finished, flinging a piece of toast onto the sideboard. Copper grabbed it and swore loudly when it burnt her fingers.

'I feel sorry for her, Tom, I really do, but she's being…'

Tom shovelled egg and bacon into his mouth, completely ignoring Annie's complaints.

'She's being you,' Hal muttered.

Annie scowled at the vampire, and disappeared.

'She'll get over it,' Tom whispered, looking over his shoulder to where Copper was buttering her toast. 'But what happened to you?'

'What do you mean?' Hal asked pleasantly, turning the page of his newspaper. 'Apparently, the American First Lady has been killed. They say the wounds on her neck showed all the signs of an animal attack.'

'Fascinating,' Tom said distractedly. 'Seriously, Hal, what's happened to you? Yesterday you nearly killed Copper, and now she's making you breakfast. Have you done your domino thing today or something?'

'Not once.'

'Then what –?'

'How's the bacon?' Copper asked, munching loudly on her toast. She ran her hand over Tom's hair, tracing the scar on his scalp with a finger.

'It's marvellous, thank you,' Hal said politely, smiling faintly. He folded up his newspaper and took a sip of coffee. He found his eyes being drawn to Copper's stomach, and the pale skin between her jeans and Tom's vest; but he couldn't quite decide why he was fascinated with her. Do I want to kill her? He wondered. Or are my intentions more… human?

Tearing his eyes away from the skin of her navel, Hal cleared away both his and Tom's empty plates, and took one final swig of his cold coffee before pouring the dregs down the sink.

'I'm going to have a shower,' he informed the pair at the table.

'Bathroom lock still faulty?' Tom asked.

'Completely buggered, it seems like. I'll put the doorstop behind the door, but I'm warning you just for good measure.'

'Thanks,' grinned Copper, nodding to him. She gulped down some coffee and pulled her tobacco pouch from her back pocket.

'It's a really bad habit, y'know,' Tom complained as Hal disappeared from the kitchen.

'Yeah, yeah.'

'Plus it makes you taste weird.'

Copper grinned at him and stuck out her tongue. Tom leant to her and wound his fingers into her hair. She kissed him gently – only a brushing of lips.

'And you say I taste weird, bacon boy!'

Tom rolled his eyes and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her onto his lap. She draped her arms over his shoulder and kissed him tenderly, again running her fingers over the scars on his scalp.

And then she pulled away, grabbed her lighter and cigarette and climbed off his lap.

'Be back in five,' she informed him, with one final kiss.

She left the kitchen through the swinging doors, watched by Tom, who leant back in his chair and grinned to himself. By God, he had missed her. And, truth be told, not just her. The pleasure that a woman could give him had been all but forgotten before that night. But now he was satiated – his stomach was full, there was a pounding in his chest, and there was a tightness in his muscles that could only mean one thing: soon he would be free. One more night to go, and then he would turn, and become strength itself.


Copper sat on the step beside the gate in the front garden, leant against the wall. She watched a man walk past on the opposite side of the road, following a large dog. He nodded to her and wished her a good morning. Copper was rather taken aback; no one in London would even think about doing something so neighbourly. Especially when you lived in a house with five werewolves – one gay, two male and middle aged, a child only about twelve and a twenty-four year old black woman. They made an odd mix, with Copper the only human in the house. Sometimes Mandy's brother would come and stay, but never for long, and never around the full moon, when Copper was alone in the house. He was so lovely, Mandy's brother. Poor Luke. His sister a werewolf, his parents adamant that she was the devil incarnate – he was trapped between the only people he loved. Copper had been there to comfort him, but what could a teenager do when faced with that kind of problem? Of course, Copper had experience with dysfunctional families, but she didn't have parents, or a sister, and no idea what it must be like to be a man, so she couldn't help in the slightest. Except for making him breakfast, and spaghetti, and any other type of food that he wanted. She helped Mandy, though – cleaning her cuts after a full moon, and taking care of little Ella for her. I did help. I wasn't a nuisance. They would've thrown me out if I was.

Copper had to light her cigarette again – she'd been in another world, and it'd gone out. She drew on it, breathing deeply, and looked up to the first floor window that she could see. The bathroom window. Just beyond that – a single sheet of glass and a couple of square metres of air – the vampire waited for her. Copper was proud of what she'd done last night – exposing him to her blood. She had known even before she started that he could control himself, but it was still a risk. Especially because he was so tired. Five hundred years of this… Copper thought, breathing smoke out of her nose. He must be so tired.

She stubbed out her cigarette and sucked on her teeth. She was so dirty. She hadn't showered for a good week, and the walk from London hadn't helped her cleanliness. And her teeth… Copper ran her tongue over her teeth again and spat onto the ground. Where did I put my toothbrush? She wondered.

She went back inside, shivering a little, only to find her backpack missing from the living room. Tom had cleared up in the kitchen – it was suddenly spotless, the cooker white and shining, the washing up drying on a rack beside the sink.

'Tom?' Copper called up the stairs, answered by a muffled reply of 'I'm up here!'

She ascended the stairs two at a time, using the banister to propel herself up. Reaching the landing, she heard water rushing behind the door to her right. Bathroom. All the other doors had small golden numbers on them – from two to four. The door that boasted the number three was slightly open – behind it, Tom was getting changed.

Copper pushed open the door and leant against the frame, watching as Tom pulled on a pair of sand-coloured shorts and a thin Henley-style t-shirt.

'You got my backpack?' she questioned.

'Yeah, it's over there.' Tom motioned to the patterned armchair that stood next to the window. Copper's backpack was on the floor beside it, her underwear and t-shirt spilling out of the broken zip. She dug inside, pulling out socks, a comb, a half-open wallet and a couple of pencils before she finally found her toothbrush. She threw the toothbrush and comb onto the bed and wriggled out of her jeans. Replacing her dirty underwear with a cleaner pair, Copper pulled her jeans back on and turned straight into Tom's embrace. He kissed her neck and slipped his hand into her waistband, then picked her up and dropped her onto the bed. She fell with a squeal of laughter onto the mattress, and breathed heavily as Tom straddled her and kissed her hard. Raking her hands over his stomach, Copper smiled and sucked on his lower lip.

'I've got to go to work,' Tom said, as Copper lay back on the pillow. 'Come see me if you like.'

'Nah, I think I'll be fine here,' she teased. Tom kissed her once more and rolled off the bed. Copper watched as he pulled his coat off the hanger on the back of the door and shrug into it. He checked his pocket for keys, winked at Copper from across the room, and disappeared.

She lay on the bed for a few more moments as the house quietened around her. The rushing water of the shower had stopped – Hal must be out, then. Sticking her toothbrush and comb into a jeans pocket, Copper straightened her clothes and crossed the hallway to the bathroom. The door was ajar. She pushed through it and shut it behind her. Putting her toothbrush and comb beside the sink and gazing into the mirror, she screwed up her face in response to how tired she looked. The mirror was slightly steamed over, so she reached out and rubbed it clean, then turned the cold tap on and splashed some water on her face.

'Yuk,' Copper said quietly, viewing her reflection again.

Suddenly there was a presence behind her. She spun and Hal was there, his eyes wide open, nostrils flared. He took a step towards her, his hair dripping warm water. Copper backed up as far as she could, until her spine hit the sink. Hal stepped towards her again, and fixed his eyes on hers. Dark eyes, the iris a circle of brown. His face, newly shaven, was smooth but slightly raw, and Copper could smell a cleanliness about him that could only have come from some sort of shampoo.

He was half an inch away from her when his eyes dropped to her neck. His hand found her throat and pushed her backwards slightly, so that her body curved away from him and their hips touched. Hal leant over her collarbone and inhaled, breathing in her aroma, letting it warm in from the inside out. A droplet of water fell from his hair onto her skin. Hal brushed it away and pushed Tom's vest off her shoulder in one hand movement. He leaned closer, and rubbed his lips against her clavicle, shuddering as he breathed in her balmy skin's scent.
Copper gasped as she felt his soft tongue gently taste her, and then his mouth was moving upwards, over her throat, his lips settling above the pulsating beat flowing through the artery on the side of her neck. He sucked air in through his teeth, creating a thin whistle, and Copper could feel his arousal – two thin pinpricks traced across her neck. And there was half a second when the pressure from his fangs increased, and then Hal was gone. The door swung on its hinges and Copper pushed herself from the sink, gasping air into her lungs so fast she thought she might be hyperventilating. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, fast and hot. Copper caught sight of her face in the mirror – she was blushing profusely, her lips shaking and eyelashes trembling.

It was only after she had finished in the bathroom and had locked herself into Tom's room that she realised something: he hadn't bitten her.


Annie was feeding Eve when Tom returned from work in the late afternoon. He shouted up the stairs to announce his return and informed them, in a voice so loud it could have raised a corpse, that he was making tea if anyone wanted some. Annie heard one door open downstairs and assumed it was Copper going down. A few moments later, another door opened and closed, and someone else descended the ground-floor staircase.

'It's just you and me, now, Eve,' Annie whispered to George's daughter. 'We're all that's left of before.'

It was true – Mitchell was dead, Nina too; and now George was gone. Truly, Annie was the only one left, but Eve was so much a part of George and Nina – or so Annie believed – that she wasn't alone. George and Nina would always be there if Eve was.

Annie gazed down at the War Child and saw the blissful happiness that only a child could ever possess. But, even as she watched, Eve's face crumbled and she yawned loudly.

'To bed with thee!' Annie cried, carrying Eve to her cot and laying her down beside the small stuffed toys that also inhabited the child's sleeping place. Eve's eyes flickered shut and she yawned again, rubbed her eyes… and was asleep.

Annie looked wistfully down on the sleeping child. She hadn't slept in nearly five years. Five years – was that all it was since she had died? It seemed like an eternity to her, but when given a number – five – it was barely anything.

Annie reached down and smoothed the small amount of downy hair that Eve possessed away from her face, back over her cranium, and teleported downstairs.

The kitchen was full of noise – the kettle was boiling, Hal was serving chocolate cake onto three plates, and Copper was rummaging through the fridge.

'I don't want any, thank you,' Annie said, before Tom could ask. She sat down on a chair that wasn't set with a cake fork and rearranged the flowers in the vase at the centre of the table.

'Tea's up!' Tom said loudly, carrying three cups of tea (which smelled like English Breakfast to Annie) to the table. Copper slipped into her chair, crossed her legs like a Buddhist and watched as Hal repositioned his fork slightly, so that it was at the correct angle to the table's edge before sitting down himself.

'Thank you,' Copper grinned, accepting the largest cup of tea from Tom. She pushed her hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear before taking a sip of scalding tea, swearing in response to the temperature, and putting her mug firmly back down on the table. Annie sighed as Copper let loose another curse.

Hal's eyes were fixed solidly on the slice of cake before him, but he could see Copper's fingers tapping the side of her mug, and had to force his eyes back to his plate when she licked a small piece of chocolate off her finger.

He could hear her heart beating, feel the pulsating blood in her veins; and the memory of how her skin tasted beneath his lips made him want to throw the cake away and only ever taste her again…

'Have you thought about what I asked?' Copper questioned suddenly.

'Say no, Tom,' Annie urged him. 'She's a stupid girl and she doesn't know what she's getting herself into.'

'Copper, not now, yeah?' Tom said, his eyes flicking awkwardly towards Hal.

'Yeah, sure.' Copper smiled and turned back to her cake. 'When can I meet her?'

'Meet who?' Tom asked, gulping down his tea.

'The War Child.'

Hal and Tom shared a look.

'How did you know she was here?' Hal asked slowly.

Copper sent him an unfathomable look across the table. 'Everyone knows that you're harbouring the War Child. Mandy knew as well – but she didn't tell Patrick, even when they set her alight.' Copper sent an accusatory look towards Tom. 'I watched it happen, Tom. Watched her die protecting your secret. You owe her this much.'

Annie stood up, incensed.

'We don't have to do anything you tell us to, you silly little girl. Eve is under my protection, and things are going to stay that way for a bloody long time, I'll have you know. You don't have any rights when it comes to that baby, Copper! Ha! Copper… what sort of a name is that?'

Copper had had enough. She slammed her fist on the table and turned to Annie, just as irate as the ghost was.

'It's the name I chose, you arrogant cow, and if you've got a problem with that…' she tailed off. The kitchen was silent.

'You can see me?' Annie exclaimed, confused.

'Hang about…' Tom objected. 'How can you see her?'

'You're not a supernatural,' said Hal, pointing out the obvious. 'You are most decidedly human. How can you see Annie?'

Copper put her face in her hands. 'Shit,' she mumbled. 'Shit, shit, shit.'

'Copper?'

'I've been through a door,' Copper explained.

'Whose?' Annie demanded.

'My own.'

'What was that?' Hal invited a reconfirmation, stunned by what he had just heard.

'I went through my own door. I was only there for a moment – I didn't want to leave. So I came back through, and I saw myself, just lying there, and I sort of… climbed back in.'

'Why didn't you tell me this?' Tom asked. He gripped Copper's elbow, his eyes wide.

'Mandy told me not to let no-one know, said I was one of a kind, that there weren't no-one else like me.'

'Why? What gifts do you possess?' Hal leaned forwards, resting his elbows on the table.

'I can pass through any door…'

Annie gasped.

'And I can come back,' Copper continued 'At will.'

'That's impossible!' Annie said, her mouth wide. 'You'd die.'

'Mandy said that I was a ghost inside a human body.'

Tom picked up his mug of tea and took a large sip. Hal copied him.

'Wait… so does that mean… do you think you're The Gift?' Tom wondered aloud, leaning back in his chair.

'What gift?' Annie demanded. 'A gift for who?'

Copper stood up, crossed the kitchen to the sink, filled a glass with water and downed it. Three sets of eyes followed her.

'I think so.'

Hal rocked his chair on two legs, his eyes closed, deep in thought. Suddenly he snapped his fingers, and pointed at Annie. 'Get the map,' he ordered.

'I've got UK, Europe, Worldwide or Paris.'

'No, the parchment – the parchment you were given!'

'Yeah, of course, the parchment!'

Annie disappeared through the swinging doors and came back a moment later holding two paper-thin sheets of pale parchment.

'Is that skin?' Copper moaned in disgust.

Hal leant over the parchments, ignoring the larger symbols, scouring it for…

'There!' he hissed. He jabbed his finger down on the top right hand corner, where a human-shaped icon was etched into the skin. Inside the body, a star was engraved, just above where the heart should be.

'What does it mean?' Tom asked, leaning towards the parchment to get a better look.

'It's me,' Copper realised, pushing her hair out of her eyes, staring down at the star-shaped heart. 'That's me.'

'Yes, exactly,' Hal agreed. 'This star means ghost, or spirit, and the human is – obviously – a human. But together, and in alignment with the sun of giving, the symbol means 'gift'.'

'Slow down!' Annie pleaded. 'OK. The person on the parchment is a gift, and you are the person.' She pointed at Copper.

'Yes, Annie. I'm the person.' Copper turned back to Hal. 'Does that mean I'm involved?' Copper was disbelieving.

'You could be of utmost importance to Eve's quest – removing the plague of vampires from the earth.'