Anna had first felt that something was wrong when she had seen a movement by the kitchen window. She had just finished a call to her father dearest, nodding as he told her that he'd be working until the early hours of the morning. Vlad's eyes had been on her the whole time, as she conversed cheerily and pretended to sound disappointed at not being able to see the Warden for the rest of the day. Anna had thought, after how angry she'd felt that morning, that she wouldn't be able to hold herself together, but the lies had come to her as naturally as breathing. Somehow, it actually made her feel better. Her dad thought that Anna was on his side in the hunt for the missing vampire, when she was actually the reason Vlad had escaped in the first place.

Her and Vlad had been sat all morning in the kitchen, both searching into where they could run to and where Vlad's dad might possibly be. Anna had had the brain wave to look through some of the files her dad kept at home, and after talking to him she had just started going through them again, when out of the corner of her eye she saw a shadow move across the kitchen window. Anna had thought to herself that it was probably that bitch of a cat that lived next door, but after sticking her head out into the back garden she had seen no trace of the snidey creature, and only one of Vlad's flyers lying on the paving stones. Thinking that the batty old crone had, for good measure, just posted one around the back as well, Anna put the flyer in the recycling and went back to her research.

What felt like hours later Vlad had looked up and said he had heard a loud cheering of people from somewhere in the distance. Anna hadn't heard a thing, and was only pleased to know that Vlad's vampire hearing was working well again. She commented that it was probably a football game and they had both gone back to searching again.

They had just decided to have a blood/tea break, when Vlad frowned and said there was a strange sound coming towards them, from more than one direction, that sounded like lots of stamping feet.

'What do you mean?' Anna asked. 'Like a carnival or something?'

'Shhhh,' Vlad hissed, then half a minute later said, 'It sounds more like a protest.'

'It's probably that batty old woman with the flyers,' Anna said nonchalantly. 'She's probably found out that bus fares are going up by ten pence or something.'

'You met the woman with the flyers?' Vlad asked quizzically.

Anna shrugged. 'Mrs Riggling? Yeah, I bumped into her in our front garden this morning, with a massive stack of flyers with your face on them. I wouldn't worry about it though, she'd always going around shoving something like that under people's noses.'

'But I met her too, Anna. She's come here with flyers about me already, only it was before they had published my photograph. I spoke to her for a good five minutes.'

Anna frowned at him, and watched him as he sat there with a troubled expression on his face.

'She saw my face Anna, and if she's been handing out flyers with my picture on then she might have already made the connection.'

Anna thought for a moment, then threw a sceptical look onto her face. 'Vlad, come on. Even if she did see you, she's a batty old badger, she probably…'

Vlad got up abruptly from his seat and stared in the direction of the street outside. 'Anna, go and check the road.'

'What, why?'

'Because those pounding feet sound like they're almost outside the front door. Go!'

Anna didn't know what to think, but before she knew it Vlad was yanking at her arm and pushing her towards the hallway.

'Ok, ok! I'm going!'

Anna walked down the hall, and grabbing the handle of the front door yanked it open and walked to the end of the garden path. Even she could hear it now; steps and stomps, accompanied by a jabbering crowd of voices. There was a large wooden gate blocking her sight of the street, so she creaked it open and walked out onto the pavement outside.

Anna felt something like a lead weight sink slowly in her chest, as her eyes saw what was making all the noise.

At the end of the street she lived on there was a mass of people, walking straight down the middle of the road. There were placards and posters being held up, none of which Anna could read from that distance, but the one thing that confirmed her fears was a dumpy looking woman at the front of what she had now realised was a mob. The woman had one fist full to the brim with flyers, and the other was holding a large placard on which she had painted a pair of fangs and a big red cross. The woman, with her beady squinting eyes, found Anna on the pavement, and with a shrill shout pointed at her. At this the mob seemed to quicken their pace, and Mrs Riggling was lost amongst a sea of angry humans.

Anna jumped back into her garden, then shut, locked and bolted the garden gate. The fence and gate only came up to her waist, but she thought it was better than nothing. She scarpered back up the garden path and before Vlad could even ask what was going on she was locking and bolting all the doors and windows. Then she ran upstairs to take a look out of a window on the opposite side of the house. As she'd guessed, there was another, slightly smaller mob of people in the back lane, all apparently contemplating the large, scaling hedge that enclosed the back garden.

'ANNA!'

Vlad had super sped up the stairs and was shaking her arm.

'Anna, what's going on, what is it?'

'There's a mob outside,' Anna said.

'Excuse me, but you don't mean…?' Vlad said, almost too politely.

'You were right. That woman from earlier… she knows you're here, and she's gathered a huge mob of people…'

'Mob, as in angry pitch-fork-wielding peasant mob!?' said Vlad, his eyes unbelievably wide.

'Well, I don't know about the pitch-forks, but…'

'It's like Transylvania all over again,' Vlad said, letting go of Anna's arm and clutching at his hair in disbelief. 'I'm dust, Anna. I'm a goner.'

Making a mental note to ask about that Transylvania comment later, Anna tried to sound reassuring as she said, 'No… no. They've got the house surrounded, but you can still escape! You've got your powers back now, you can fly away or something…'

'No, Anna,' Vlad said, a strange note in his voice, like he'd already given up. 'It's still daylight outside.'

Anna felt all the colour drain from her face.

'The sun's still shining,' continued Vlad, 'and I'm trapped. All I can do is wait to be mauled to dust by that angry peasant mob.'

'They're not peasants…' Anna said, half to herself.

'Oi!' came a faint shout from the front of the house. 'OI!'

Anna and Vlad walked to the Warden's bedroom, that overlooked the front garden. Vlad held back in the shadows, but Anna stuck her head out and had a good look. It seemed that the mob was a little more timid than she'd first thought, and was still stuck behind the wooden fence, behind which she could just about see the head of the dumpy Mrs Riggling, who had fought her way to the front of the mob again.

'There! There! Can you see him? That boy there! I can see his shoulder and elbow, in the shadows just behind the girl. He's the vampire on the posters!'

'I can't see nothing,' said one voice from the back.

'That girl's shielding him!' Mrs Riggling cried. 'But I saw him with my own eyes. And why would I lie, ay?'

There was a lot of supportive mumbling of this statement.

'Come on then,' cried Mrs Riggling in a croaky voice. 'Let's get him!'

'Hum…' said a few old codgers, half-heartedly raising placards in the air. 'Yes, we should get him, we should.'

'But isn't this the Warden's house?' said a middle aged woman to her friend stood beside her, who was casually holding a cricket bat.

'Yes, the Warden from the slayer camp.'

'Hum…' said a few of the mob.

'Don't want to cause upset…'

'We can't go breaking and entering…'

'That doesn't apply here, people!' cried Mrs Riggling. 'That boy up there is a wanted man. Not even that, a wanted vampire. We can't let him get away!'

'Is he a vampire?' asked an elderly man, pushing his glasses up his nose. 'Ooo ah, I can't really see him… come out of the shadows, boy! Let me have a look at you!'

'He can't Marin, can he, you useless old fool,' said Mrs Riggling unpleasantly. 'His kind hate daylight. He'll burn up!'

'Ooo ah, of course,' said the elderly man called Martin. 'Come out of the shadows boy and show us yourself burning, then we'll know for sure…'

'By chance, if it were me up there, and there was a chance I would burn in the sun, then I wouldn't chance it,' said a woman beside Martin, who looked like she'd just joined in the mob march whilst walking her dog.

'There are no vampires here!' Anna shouted out of the window.

'Well, now, she would say that, wouldn't she?' said Mrs Riggling.

'Ooo ah.'

'By chance, she would.'

'Hum…' said more of the mutterers, shifting their placards irresolutely.

'We know the vamp is in there, girl,' Mrs Riggling spluttered, letting flyers spill from her hand and litter the flowerbed on the other side of the fence.

Anna looked sideways at Vlad. He looked frantic to say the least, and she was surprised his hair wasn't coming out in clumps as he clutched it so desperately.

'Vlad,' Anna muttered out of the side of her mouth. 'Vlad, what should I say? They're going to come in eventually.'

Vlad was just shaking his head. Then he jumped, and leaning against the wall tried to get a good look down the road.

'What is it?' Anna asked, starting to panic herself now.

'I can hear vans coming closer… a lot of them.'

Anna stared in fear in the direction that Vlad was looking, and less than thirty seconds later Anna saw a line of green vehicles pull into the road.

Someone had called the slayers.