Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favourited this story. I currently have a 4,000 word essay to write, so you'll probably see a ton of updates in the next few weeks... (Procrastination.) Anyway, enjoy the next chapter, I hope it's not too dire, and let me know what you think!

-/-

The atmosphere around the house for the next few days was, to put it lightly, tense. Mitchell and Hal avoided each other whenever they could, whilst George and Nina prepared for the upcoming full moon. It seemed unlikely that Leo would survive it, and Nina personally doubted the idea that Eve would be able to save anyone.

Even so, it was a chance. And if the old man was going to die, it was perhaps better that he did it feeling fulfilled, otherwise he probably wouldn't find his door. She sat in the living room with Eve looking down at her child in wonder, was it really true that Eve was something special? She stroked her head lovingly, and placed her back into the crib before downing the tea that she had by her side. It was still dark outside, but tendrils of light were just beginning to appear. Quickly she checked her watch, she was going to be late for work, where the hell was George? He was supposed to be on baby duty until his shift started, and she walked over to the stairs and looked up. He was coming, she could hear his heavy footsteps in the room above. Sighing, she glanced back over to Eve and took the decision to leave, otherwise she wasn't going to get to work at least sort-of on time, and she couldn't afford to get fired. She walked to the door, opened it, and with one last glance at her child, left the house.

–/-

'Hal.' Hal looked up from the desk in his room, and placed the domino in his hand on it.

'Yes?' It was Annie, and she appeared to be holding some kind of paper in her hand.

'Leo asked me to buy this, I'm not really sure what it is though.' He looked at the paper, it was a ring. An engagement ring.

'It's a ring, Annie.'

'I know. But he wants me to buy this exact one.' A grimace passed over his face.

'They probably haven't made those rings since 1963.' He turned back from her, and went back to his dominos, and placed the final one in the circle. Every time he had to resist the temptation to knock them all down, but steeling himself, he went to taking each individual one down. Suddenly he felt a movement behind him, and he turned around again. 'What?'

'Look, can you just try and find something similar to that?'

'Annie. I can't be around humans.' She bit her lip.

'He's your friend Hal.' Domino's forgotten, he stood up and turned fully around to face her, and pulled the sheet of paper out of her hands.

'I'll see what I can do.' Annie made to leave and walked to the door, but paused.

'He um, asked whether you could take Mitchell with you.'

'Mitchell?' He asked, why would Leo want that, I mean, he'd just met him.

'Yeah.'

'I'm not sure that's such a good idea, the guy's just come off blood.'

'Ask him.' Moving quickly he grabbed his jacket and pulled it on.

'Alright, fine, I'll see if I can stop him from attacking someone.'

–/-

'You're never going to have any self-control if your room's like this.' He stood at the doorway of Mitchell's room, and looked with disgust into it. It was so messy he could barely even see the floor of the place. Mitchell looked up at him, a hint of loathing in his eyes.

'What are you doing here?' The side of his lip pulled up in a sneer and Hal twirled the pen he had in his fingers.

'We're going on a trip apparently.'

'What?'

'Leo asked me to get you so we could go on a shopping trip together.'

'Together?' Mitchell gave a snort, 'I can't go outside yet. And I don't want to go anywhere with you.'

'He probably thinks it's some kind of bonding activity. I don't know.'

'What does he think you're going to stay with us after he dies?'

'He's not going to die.' Mitchell looked like he didn't believe what Hal was saying, and if he was being true to himself, he didn't believe what he was saying either, but Leo had to stay alive, it was the only way that he would control himself. He didn't quite know what he would do when the inevitable end came. Mitchell looked like he wasn't going to move and Hal gave a sigh of exasperation. 'Look, do you particularly want him stuck here because he didn't get his door?'

'This is not going to screw up his door.'

'There have been weirder ones.' The Irish vampire pushed himself up from his bed, and grabbed a jacket from the floor.

'Fine.'

–/-

It was a short walk to the nearest shopping area in the town of Barry, but both vampires were clearly struggling with the outside world. It wasn't as if Hal had not been outside in the past years, and he had been getting better, but now it was beginning to become more challenging. Maybe it was the fact that Leo was dying- and he was dying there was no way to get around that- or the fact that he was no longer in Southend, it felt like that part of him that he hated was returning/

The day was pleasant, not too cold, but the shops in Barry were, disappointing to say the least. There was only one little shop that looked as if it sold engagement rings, a dingy little pawn shop on the main high street. Grimacing slightly he opened the door, and let Mitchell go in first. They had not really talked since they had left the house, and whatever Leo was playing at was probably not working out the way he had planned it to. Inside the shop looked even worse, and there were an assortment of items around the place that looked as if they had been there for years, a mangy wolf's head on the wall, a couple of old books, rings and jewels, all things that people had pawned away over the years. The shop keeper was a dodgy looking man as well, very rough around the edges, he held a copy of 'The Sun' in his hands and when he noticed the two new entrants to the shop he looked as if he was pissed off with having been disrupted from his daily business.

'Wha' do you want?' He asked, Mitchell stayed silent and left Hal to do the talking, and he could see the internal battle that was going on within him.

'Ah, yes. We were just wondering whether the ring in the window was for sale.' The man looked the two vampires up and down.

'Which one?'

'The engagement one.' A sneer made it's way onto the man's face.

'You're not queers are you?' Hal snorted, and stared at the man.

'No, we're not gay.' The shop owner gave a nod at Mitchell, who froze.

'What's wrong with 'im then? Does he not speak?' Mitchell was standing by the door, clearly trying to deal with what was going on within him, but slowly he shook his head.

'No. I do.'

'Look, I'd just appreciate it if you could just sell us the ring?' Annoyance bubbled up within Hal, annoyance at the pushy man and the way he assumed everything, he lay his hand on the desk and drummed his fingers on it. The shop keeper looked to him, his blue eyes studying his face for a moment.

'No I don' wan' to sell it to a bunch of bloody gays.'

'I've told you, we're not gay.' The beat of his fingers grew quicker and he could just feel the bloodlust under the surface. This wasn't a good idea. Leaving Southend wasn't a good idea. None of this was a good idea. He could hear the beat of the man's heart in his ears, and tried to restrain himself.

'Well yer bloody weird.' Out of the corner of his eye he could see Mitchell moving towards the desk, and a foreboding feeling came over him.

'I don't mind how much you want to sell it for, but I really suggest that you might sell it to us.' Mitchell said, bringing himself closer to the man as he did.

'Mit-' Hal began.

'We're just trying to find an engagement ring, alright it's not really any of your business as to why we need it.' For a moment there was no movement, but then suddenly the man pulled a gun out from underneath the desk and pointed it straight at Mitchell's chest. The man's heart was beating louder, from adrenaline, and both the vampires in the room could hear it. Both of them knew as well that if one slipped, the other would too.

'I wouldn't do that if I were you.' Hal said to the man, who still had his eyes fixed on Mitchell, and his eyes hastily focused onto Hal.

'Hal.' Mitchell warned.

'What?'

'I can't.'

'You can Mitchell, alright.'

'Get ou' of my shop.'

'Just sell us the bloody ring!' Hal almost shouted, 'All we want is to buy a ring.' He had calmed down slightly, but Mitchell clearly hadn't, before Hal knew it Mitchell had launched himself at the man, fangs bared and eyes dark, and in the panic of the moment the gun had been dropped to the floor. Thankfully it didn't go off, but it's clatter as it hit the floor pushed Hal into action and he jumped across the desk to pull Mitchell off. But the man had grazed the palm of his hands from being pushed onto the floor, and Hal was distracted for a moment. By that point the smell of the blood had spread through the whole room, and Hal could feel his fangs in his mouth. With every ounce of self-will that he had he pulled Mitchell away from the man at the moment he was about to bite into his neck and the shop keeper pushed himself away from the two men.

'Wha'- Wha' are you?' His hands were shaking and the smell of blood and the beating of his heart were making Hal dizzy. Mitchell tried to pull away from him but Hal's grip tightened.

Slowly, he pulled him away and out from the shop, leaving the shop keeper shacking on the floor, but he still managed to swipe the ring on the way out and it was on his little finger. For a moment they both stood there, Mitchell edging back to his normal state and the horror was evident in his eyes.

'What just happened? Did I-'

'Forget about it.' Mitchell took a deep breath of air and looked back into the shop, where the man was still huddled in the corner. 'We have to sort this out.'

'It's fine. He's hardly going to do anything.' Mitchell ground his teeth and looked around at the street they were in.

'I can't be here. I shouldn't have come out.' He began to walk off, and Hal took one last look at the shop keeper before walking briskly to catch up with him.

'It's fine.' He didn't quite know what to say to the vampire, and he stopped speaking for a moment. 'Look when I first stopped drinking blood I attacked a budgie.' Mitchell stopped walking and turned to him. Hal had never been particularly adept at giving comfort to others, but right now he knew what was happening to the other vampire.

'A budgie?'

'It's a long story.' They began to walk again and it only took a moment for them to reach the car, Hal pulled open the driver's door and sat in the seat whilst he waited for Mitchell. The scent of blood was still on his mind, and he could practically imagine what it would be like for him to fall off the wagon. But he had been strong, he had resisted the call, yet that little voice in his mind was telling him that the next time he might not be so lucky. It was wrong of him to be here, he shouldn't have ever left Southend, but here he was, and the fact that there was another vampire in the house made it even more likely that he would revert back to the person he formerly was.

'Hal?' A voice called him out of his thoughts and he turned to Mitchell, who had clearly been sitting there staring at him for a while.

'Sorry.' Quickly he placed the key in the ignition and began to drive, trying to ignore the thought of blood in his mind.

–/-

The other werewolf, Leo, had passed over the night before, taking the ghost with him, and so there were now two strangers in the house. Tom was solitary, and kept himself to himself, although Annie supposed that had there not been so many people in the house perhaps he would have come into his own, he was mourning the death of McNair was all that Annie could think of as to why he was so silent. But he looked after Eve well, and it must be difficult for him to have moved into a house with people who he barely knew, just after the death of a man who he thought was his father. The other guest, Hal, was also being silent, simply drifting around all day, carrying out his routine of domino laying and lute playing, but she wondered whether he was going to stay.

It was because of this that she materialised into his room just at the moment he had finished doing his tenth push ups of the day, and he looked at her quite shocked.

'You do realise that it is common courtesy to knock?' He asked as he shrugged on a shirt, buttoning it up as she spoke.

'Yeah, sorry.' Annie paused, wondering how to phrase the next sentence. 'Listen, I um, was wondering what you would do next?'

'Next?' The way that he spoke, he communicated quite a lot through very few words, and was just slightly intimidating, although from what Mitchell told her this man could be far more so.

'Yes, well, I was wondering whether you were going to stay here or, er, go somewhere else?' She didn't mean for the last part of the last sentence to sound so hopeful, but the thought of having two vampires in the house made her feel slightly worried. Especially since they usually managed to bring each other down.

'I'm not sure at the moment. I don't really have anywhere to go you see,' he glanced at her, and walked over to his desk and looked down, 'I'm worried that I might... revert if, well, I go somewhere else.'

'I jus-'

'You're worried that I'm going to go crazy?' His eyes flicked upwards and stared into hers, 'There's always a chance of that, but I think that I can stay on the right path if I- if I try.'

–/-

It was in the housemeeting that the four originals were having that everything changed, they were discussing whether or not Hal should stay and George was just arguing with Annie when they saw the figure walking up the path to their house.

'Who is that?' Nina asked, getting up quickly and peering out the window, but she couldn't make out the person in the dark. It looked like a man, rather tall, and if she was correct with dark hair. Just as she was about to tell the other's who it looked like, there was a knock at the door.

'John. I know you're in there, there's no point trying to hide.' The accent was well spoken and there was something about it that sounded... Old. When Nina glanced at Mitchell though, she could clearly see that he recognised it and fear flashed across his eyes. Slowly he turned to Annie.

'Get Hal.' The serious tone was evidence in his voice, and Annie was about to question him, but he spoke before she could. 'Just,' he paused and squeezed his eyes shut, 'please.' The last word was so desperate that she found herself unable to argue back and the other three watched as she disappeared from the room, leaving air in her space.

'John, John, John.' The voice was quietly mocking but Mitchell was frozen to the spot, staring at the carpet.

'Mitchell?' George hissed, 'Who is that?' The squeaky tone that always appeared in his accent when he was frightened was apparent, and brought Mitchell out of his near-trance, but he still didn't say anything. But the voice was soon to answer that question, and when Nina looked away from the two friends her heart almost stopped beating. Somehow the man had managed to get inside and she studied him for a moment. He looked youngish, but she knew that was simply an illusion, his aura held far more age about it that she had ever seen in a vampire.

'John, why don't you introduce me to your pets then?' Instantaneously he snapped his head back to look at the man standing in the front of their living room, and didn't say anything for a moment. It was a curious scene really, Mitchell had never looked so scared, not even when he was around Herrick, and the very fact that Mitchell was frightened made the other two in the room nervous too.

It was at that moment that Nina could hear the stairs creaking, and the two vampires must have noticed it too, since their attention moved to the stairs. From behind the former Bed and Breakfast desk walked Hal, who when he saw who was standing in the front room froze. The uninvited guest however gave a long, insincere laugh.

'Well if my eyes don't deceive me? Are you in on this little dress-up game then too Harry?' Hal, just like Mitchell, seemed unable to talk, but something within him changed and there was a steel in his voice when he spoke.

'I prefer Hal.' A smirk spread over the other man's face, and he walked closer to Hal, Mitchell having been forgot.

'Oh, are you in one of your 'good' phases at the moment then?' Hal didn't speak, but walked closer to the man.

'What are you doing here Wyndam?'

'What am I doing here? What are you doing here? We've all been looking for you, you know, ever since you pulled that disappearing act in the '50's.' A sardonic smile passed over Wyndam's face. 'Well, in reality, I was coming here for John, after his little stunt, a few months ago.' Seeing Hal's curious look Wyndam went onto explain. 'Oh, so you don't know about that then? John here committed a crime that could be worthy of something you did in your earlier -better- days, he went and killed twenty people on a train, but sadly he left a pretty obvious trail. So I was sent in to deal with it.' Hal glanced at Mitchell, and then to George and Nina who were looking at him with curiosity, he didn't want them to know about his past, and wave of regret passed though him.

'But it's been months.' Mitchell had finally spoken, and Wyndam looked down at him.

'Yes, there were some delays. But I didn't think I'd be so lucky to find not one, but two of our most wanted. Ah, but John, I've been sent to collect you. There are changes happening, and I want you to work for me.'

'Work. For you?' He looked almost sickened by the prospect.

'You can't just come in here and tell him to work for you.' George suddenly said in the lull of the conversation, but Wyndam simply regarded him with an unimpressed expression on his face.

'I've lived a thousand years, that gives me quite a lot of leverage.' With that he turned his head away from the werewolf and focused his attention on Mitchell again. 'Now, John, if you don't I'll kill your friends here.'

'No you won't.' Wyndam looked around to the source of the voice, and gave a snort.

'Do you think I'm afraid of you like this then? You're like a spider without poison when you're not off the wagon. Easily crushed.' But it didn't seem like that, Hal looked more comfortable when confronting Wyndam than Nina had seen him when he was around the others.

'Really Wyndam?' The tone of his voice had changed, hidden threat lacing it and he took a step towards him. 'Perhaps I can enlighten you on what is going to happen. You are going to walk out that door and drive off, and leave the residents of this house in peace, otherwise you might find yourself with a stake through your heart.'

'Do you think you can scare me with that talk? I'm five hundred years-'

'And I can be far more brutal.' This time it was Hal who smirked, appearing to fit into a completely different persona. 'Come on, hurry back off to your master and tell him who you saw.' Wyndam stood for a moment and thought, but his face remained impassive.

'I'll be back for both of you.' He said, before turning away, but he reached the doorway and stopped and swivelled back to face the four, but stared specifically at the werewolves. 'I'd watch your backs if I were you George and Nina.' With that he walked through the doorway and as soon as he left Hal's expression visibly crumpled and he gripped the back of a chair to steady himself. Mitchell too looked shaken by the experience and looked to Hal.

'If I didn't know better, I'd say he was scared of you.' Hal looked at Mitchell.

'Everyone should be scared of me.'