David had been waiting. He couldn't do anything else, as it seemed unlikely that the Italian would extend him an invitation to enter. The building was old and the walls were thick so the cry that came would have been unheard to any human who happened to be passing by. But David was not human. For a moment he thought that perhaps his time had been wasted, not that he particularly wanted to join the rest of the gang and the pair of simpering, desperate girls they would 'party' with on the beach. That side of his half-life had all but lost its sparkle for him long ago.

Then he heard a softer, muffled cry that came from higher up in the building. He sat a little straighter on his silent motorcycle, both feet planted on the worn wooden pier as he leant forwards over the shiny chrome handlebars to listen again. Another scream made his nostrils flare, the little smile on his lips widened slightly as he closed his eyes and drank in the sound. He was a hunter and that sound was delicious. But that wasn't why he was here, not tonight.

David shook his head, trying to clear it as he scanned the floor for something to use. His boots clattered as he stooped to grab a fist-sized rock that lay beside a plastic bucket full to the brim of various shells and beach pebbles some poor kid had put down and forgotten. Weighing the rock in his gloved hand, David took aim at the wide store-front and launched it. The glass, a thin single pane, shattered instantly with a satisfying smash that made him grin.

He heard Niko running down the hall and into the main room before he saw him, ducking out of sight behind a shuttered cotton-candy stall that had been fashioned into a hand cart. Angry curses, most of which were in Italian, were caught by him, but the lighter footsteps of the girl were indistinguishable. David frowned, peering around the frame of the cart. What had he done with her?

Treading as lightly as possible, David leant across to grab a handful of the smaller pebbles and crept towards Zingaro. The stones didn't have the weight behind them that the rock had, so he threw a handful as hard as he could, peppering them into the top part of the glass door. It splintered like a spider's web for a second, before imploding with a tinkle. He could see Niko raging inside, inspecting the damage as he tore at his hair and glared through the black gaping hole where the glass used to be.

Ignoring the wash of the ocean, David picked up the patter of bare, frantic feet heading along the back corridor. Within seconds he was around the rear of the restaurant, dodging the aluminium trashcans that spilled their innards into the narrow alleyway. He could hear desperate sobs as the door banged against its frame and the handle twitched and for a moment the temptation of stepping back, if only to hear that tortured scream again, was too great. Don't you remember what it was like to have family?

David pulled the door open and the terrified, weeping girl tumbled out at his feet. Blood mingled with tears on her face, dripping onto her white dress and her haunted eyes were wide and unseeing in her fear and confusion. He knelt down and gripped her cheeks with both hands, feeling the warmth of her flesh beneath his leather gloves and her pulse pounding millimetres from his fingertips. Making her look up at him, unsure if she even really saw him David levelled his icy-blue gaze at Star.

'Run,' he rasped. Star could hear him at least and she scrambled to her feet, heading down towards the steps that led to the beach.

David made his way back around the store front, a little more leisurely this time, to find Niko and the man still dressed in chef whites who was broader and rounder than his companion, trying to sweep up the broken glass. Niko roared as David sauntered over to his bike, smirking the whole time.

'You'll regret this, figlio di puttana!' shouted Niko venomously, edging towards the open front of the window, but not daring to cross out into the open.

'No me interesso un cazzo,' David drawled, unconcerned as he swung a leg over his motorcycle and kicked it to life. He sat for a minute, emotionless gaze locked with Niko's as David raised his hand and pointed two fingers first at Niko, then his own eyes, a silent threat that he would be watching him.

He found the girl curled up in a hollow beneath the end of the pier that linked the Boardwalk with the mainland of Santa Carla's shore edge. The tide was out and the sand she lay upon was damp, the headlight of his bike caught the salt-spray and dusting of sand that clung to her clothes and in her wild, untamed hair. Her arm was tossed over her eyes as though she were trying to block out what had just happened and she didn't even flinch at the sound of his approaching motorcycle but she sat up slowly, as if resigned to whatever he was going to do to her.

There was a stubbornness in her jaw that David had seen many times in her brother, and a petulant pout to her mouth that irritated the hell out of him.

'What's going on?' she whimpered, pulling her knees up and wrapping them with Dwayne's leather jacket that fell past her hands.

'Dwayne told you to stay away from that place,' was his only answer.

'I don't understand… Niko was nice, I don't get it. That scream, oh god! That girl, you've got to go back for that girl.' Star's hands flew to her mouth in horror as her mind replayed that sound. 'She was the girl in the poster, the missing one.'

'I don't got to do anything,' David said disdainfully, coolly staring down at her as he rested his hands on his knees and let his thighs control the lean of his bike in the slippery sand, it's engine still rumbling beneath him. 'Lots of people go missing in Santa Carla. What makes her so special?'

'Her mom came into my work the other night, she bought in some missing posters and begged me to look out for her. I saw the heartbreak in her eyes.'

David stared at her again, as if wondering how on earth anyone could be so stupid.

'She'll get over it,' he said, leaning back on his bike to glance up at the section of sky he could see from beneath the edge of the pier, which was gradually becoming indigo rather than black.

'We've got to go get the cops,' Star intoned, pushing herself up to her knees. 'Maybe they can help her, we can't just leave her there!'

'We?' David snorted in derision. 'We nothing.' His voice was low and gravelly, like the waves washing over pebbles, strangely calming. 'Let me tell you this, Star,' he practically purred her name, but his blue eyes were like chips of unrelenting ice. 'That girl is beyond help and so will you be if you stay out here much longer. Get on the bike.'

She bit her lip, eyes unsure but David knew she wouldn't refuse. They never did, never could refuse. They find me too captivating.

Sure enough, the girl stood up and after a little hesitation she climbed on behind him and gripped the back of his thick, black coat. Star thought she heard David laugh but she couldn't be sure because the buzz of the engine and the rush of the air as they shot suddenly across the shoreline filled her ears. She could feel the bike trying to slip and slide across the fine sand as they raced further on, but David kept expert control of the machine and after a little while Star's apprehension turned into exhilaration. She could taste the salty air on her lips as she grinned, her eyes closed as her breath caught in her throat and her thick, dark curls were left to stream out behind them as David wound the bike over sand drifts and dunes.

By the time they reached Hudson's Bluff, the sky had lightened almost entirely to pink, the dawn diffused only by the early morning mists that rolled off the ocean. David turned off the engine and Star took the hint to slide stiffly off the bike.

'It's warmer inside' David said without looking back at her, though he had already clocked the way her teeth began to chatter. Star followed clumsily, trying her best not to look down at the dizzying drop that was only inches away from her bare toes.

'Dwayne.' David didn't even have to raise his voice as Dwayne appeared, silhouetted in an archway across the room.

''Sup, bruh?'

Lowering himself into his usual chair, David inclined his platinum blonde head and spread one leather-gloved hand palm up towards the entrance, as Star stumbled into the flickering candle light right on cue.

'I've bought you a gift,' David announced, looking up at the other man with a curious expression on his face.

'Star,' Dwayne was across the room in an instant, pulling his sister down from the step she stood shivering on. It was warmer inside, but only marginally. 'What the hell happened? You're bleeding.' His concern changed to accusation in an instant as he swung around. David held his hands up.

'Zingaro,' he said, simply. Dwayne turned his anger on Star.

'You went back to that place when I told you not to? Are you hurt anywhere else?'

'No. But we have to go back, they're killing someone there!' She let Dwayne sweep her up into his arms as easily as if she were a child, and set her down on a large, plump but worn cushion to the right of David's chair where the candle light was brighter.

'We know,' Dwayne said as he crouched beside her, lifting the hair from her face to examine the source of the blood. The cut was shallow and was starting to heal already, but Dwayne turned her head this way and that to examine her with strong, gentle fingers.

'Dwayne,' David's tone was sharper than it had been, and held a gruff warning.

'What? She's gotta know what's out there. She has to stay here now, she can't go back out there, David. I won't let her.' He towered over his sister as he spun to face the impassive David.

'Where are the others?'

'Sleeping.'

David nodded and leant forward in his chair, elbows resting on his knees and his fingers interlaced as he contemplated his fingertips for one very long minute.

'I have enough to deal with right now without having to think about some girl exposing us. There is some serious shit that I need to regain control of because if I don't then we're all in danger.' He spoke slowly, his low, gravelly voice carrying with ease through the cavernous space.

'What are you saying?' Dwayne asked cautiously, sitting down next to Star and wrapping an arm around her.

'I'm saying that she's your responsibility but if she stays with us then she stays with us. There's no other way. We're in a very precarious position now, which won't have been helped by what happened tonight.' Dwayne looked dubious.

'It's the only way,' David continued. 'She becomes one of us, or she's out.'

'I want to,' Star murmured quickly. 'I want to be one of you, a Lost Boy.'

David laughed and sat back in his chair, but the sound was mirthless and his eyes glinted like cold diamonds as he looked down at her.

'A Lost Boy?'

'It's what Dwayne calls you,' Star muttered softly, looking down. 'I want to belong. I have nowhere else to go.'

'You will belong here then, if that's what you want. With us.' Dwayne chucked her gently on the chin and smiled a little.

'You'll belong to us,' David corrected with a small nod. 'But perhaps Dwayne should fill you in on what we are, so you can make an informed decision.' He leered dangerously and stood up. 'I need sleep. Take her out with you tomorrow. I won't be around but make sure the boys stay off the Boardwalk for now. Head further down the beach towards the bay. And get her cleaned up before Marco wakes, we don't need to test him like that.'