At Knowlden's a.s.sent, Manser closed his eyes. This year's number three had died just before he left home. It had been a pity. He liked that one. The sutures on her legs had healed in such a way as to chafe his thigh as he thrust into her. But there had been an infection that he couldn't treat. Pouring antibiotics down her hadn't done an awful lot of good. Gangrene set in. Maybe Laura could be his number four. Once Dr Losh had done his bit, he would ask him the best way to prevent infection. He knew what Losh's response would be: let it heal. But he liked his meat so very rare when he was f.u.c.king it. He liked to see a little blood.

Sarah woke up to find that her right eye had puffed closed. She caught sight of herself in a shard of broken mirror on the wall. Blood caked half her face and the other half was black with bruises. Her hair was matted. Not for the first time, she wondered if her conviction that Laura had died was misplaced. Yet in the same breath, she couldn't bear to think that she might now be suffering with similar, or worse, injuries. Her thoughts turned to her saviours-if that was what they were. And if so, then why hadn't she been rescued?

She relived the warmth and protection that had enveloped her when those willowy figures had reached inside the car and plucked out her child. Her panic at the thought of Laura either dead or as good as had been ironed flat. She felt safe and, inexplicably, had not raged at this outrageous kidnap; indeed, she had virtually sanctioned it. Perhaps it had been the craziness inspired by the accident, or endorphins stifling her pain that had brought about her indifference. Still, what should have been anger and guilt was neutralized by the compulsion that Laura was in safe hands. What she didn't want to examine too minutely was the feeling that she missed the rescue party more than she did her own daughter.

Refreshed a little by her sleep, but appalled at the catalogue of new aches and pains that jarred each movement, Sarah made her way back to the larder where she found some crackers in an airtight tin. Chewing on these, she revisited the hallway and dragged open the heavy curtains, allowing some of the late afternoon light to invade. Almost immediately she saw the door under the stairs. She saw how she had missed it earlier; it was hewn from the same dark wood and there was no door handle as such, just a little recess to hook your fingers into. She tried it but it wouldn't budge. Which meant it was locked from the inside. Which meant that somebody must be down there.

"Laura?" she called, tapping on the wood with her fingernails. "Laura, it's Mum. Are you in there?"

She listened hard, her ear flush against the crack of the jamb. All she could hear was the gust of subterranean breezes moving through what ought to be the cellar. She must check it out; Laura could be down there, bleeding her last.

Sarah hunted down the kitchen. A large pine table sat at one end of the room, a dried orange with a heart of mould at its center. She found a stack of old newspapers bound up with twine from the early 1970s by a back door that was forbiddingly black and excessively padlocked. Ransacking the drawers and cupboards brought scant reward. She was about to give in when the suck of air from the last yanked cupboard door brought a small screwdriver rolling into view. She grabbed the tool and scurried back to the cellar door.

Manser stayed Knowlden with a finger curled around his lapel. "Are you carrying?"

Knowlden had parked the car off the road on the opposite side to the crash site. Now the two men were standing by the wreck of the Alfa. Knowlden had spotted the house and suggested they check it out. If Sarah and her daughter had survived the crash-and the empty car suggested that they had-then they might have found some neighborly help.

"I hope you f.u.c.king are," Manser warned.

"I'm carrying okay. Don't sweat it."

Manser's eyebrows went north. "Don't tell me to not sweat it, pup. Or you'll find yourself doing seventy back up the motorway without a f.u.c.king car underneath you."

The sun sinking fast, they hurried across the field, constantly checking the road behind them as they did so. Happy that n.o.body had seen them, Manser nodded his head in the direction of the front door. "Kick the mud off your boots on that b.a.s.t.a.r.d," he said.

It was 5:14 p.m.

Sarah was halfway down the cellar stairs and wishing she had a torch with her when she heard the first blows raining down on the door. She was about to return to the hallway when she heard movement from below. A lot of movement. Creaks and whispers and hisses. There was a sound as of soot trickling down a flue. A chatter: teeth in the cold? A sigh.

"Laura?"

A chuckle.

The door gave in just before Knowlden was about to. His face was greasy with sweat and hoops of dampness spoiled his otherwise pristine shirt.

"Gun," Manser said, holding his hand out. Knowlden pa.s.sed him the weapon, barely disguising his disdain for his boss. "You want to get some muesli down you, mate," Manser said. "Get yourself fit." He checked the piece was loaded and entered the house, muzzle pointing ahead of him, c.o.c.ked horizontally. Something he'd done since seeing Brad Pitt do the same thing in Se7en.

"Knock, knock," he called out. "Daddy's home."

Sarah heard, just before all h.e.l.l broke loose, Laura's voice firm and even, say: "Do not touch her." Then she was knocked back on the stairs by a flurry of black leather and she was aware only of b.l.o.o.d.y-eyed, pale-skinned figures flocking past her. And teeth. She saw each leering mouth as if in slow motion, dark lips peeled back to reveal teeth so white they might have been sculpted from ice.

She thought she saw Laura among them and tried to grab hold of her jumper but she was left clutching air as the scrum piled into the hallway, whooping and screaming like a gang of kids let out early from school. When the shooting started she couldn't tell if the screaming had changed in pitch at all, whether it had become more panicked. But at the top of the stairs she realized she was responsible for most of it. There appeared to be some kind of stand-off. Manser, the fetid little sniffer dog of a man, was waving a gun around while his henchman clenched and unclenched his hands, eyeing up the opposition, which was substantial. Sarah studied them properly for the first time, these women who had rescued her baby and left her to die in the car. And yet proper examination was beyond her. There were four of them, she thought. Maybe five. They moved around and against each other so swiftly, so lissomely that she couldn't be sure. They were like a flesh knot. Eyes fast on their enemy, they guarded each other with this mesmerizing display. It was so seamless it could have been ch.o.r.eographed.

But now she saw that they were not just protecting each other. There was someone at the heart of the knot, appearing and disappearing in little ribbons and teasers of color. Sarah need see only a portion of face to know they were wrapped around her daughter.

"Laura," she said again.

Manser said, "Who the f.u.c.k are these clowns? Have we just walked into Goth night down the local student bar, or what?"

"Laura," Sarah said again, ignoring her pursuer. "Come here."

"Everyone just stand back. I'm having the girl. And to show you I'm not just p.i.s.sing in my paddling pool . . . " Manser took aim and shot one of the women through the forehead.

Sarah covered her mouth as the woman dropped. The three others seemed to fade somewhat, as if their strength had been affected.

"Jez," said Manser. "Get the girl."

Sarah leapt at Knowlden as he strode into the pack but a stiff arm across her chest knocked her back against the wall, winding her. He extricated Laura from her guardians and dragged her kicking back to his boss.

Manser was nodding his head. "Nice work, Jez. You can have jelly for afters tonight. Get her outside."

To Sarah he said: "Give her up." And then he was gone.

Slumped on the floor, Sarah tried to blink a fresh trickle of blood from her eyes. Through the fluid, she thought she could see the women crowding around their companion. She thought she could see them lifting her head as they positioned themselves around her. But no. No. She couldn't accept that she was seeing what they began to do to her then.

Knowlden fell off the pace as they ran towards the car. Manser was half-dragging, half-carrying Laura who was thrashing around in his arms.

"I'm nearly ready," she said. "I'll bite you! I'll bite you, I swear to G.o.d."

"And I'll scratch your eyes out," Manser retorted. "Now shut the f.u.c.k up. Jesus, can't you do what girls your age do in the movies? Faint, or something?"

At the car, he bundled her into the boot and locked it shut. Then he fell against the side of the car and tried to control his breathing. He could just see Knowlden plodding towards him in the dark. Manser could hear his squealing lungs even though he had another forty meters or so to cover.

"Come on Jez, for f.u.c.k's sake! I've seen mascara run faster than that."

At thirty meters, Manser had a clearer view of his driver as he died.

One of the women they had left behind in the house was moving across the field at a speed that defied logic. Her hands were outstretched and her nails glinted like polished arrowheads. Manser moved quickly himself when he saw how she slammed into his chauffeur. He was in third gear before he realized he hadn't taken the handbrake off and he was laughing harder than he had ever laughed in his life. Knowlden's heart had been skewered on the end of her claws like a piece of meat on a kebab. He didn't stop laughing until he hit the M1, southbound.

Knowlden was forgotten. All he had on his mind now was Laura, naked on the slab, her body marked out like the charts on a butcher's wall.

Dazed, Sarah was helped to her feet. Their hands held her everywhere and nowhere, moving along her body as soft as silk. She tried to talk but whenever she opened her mouth, someone's hand, cold and rank, slipped over it. She saw the pattern in the curtains travel by in a blur though she could not feel her feet on the floor. Then the night was upon them, and the frost in the air sang around her ears as she was swept into the sky, embedded at the center of their slippery mesh of bodies, smelling their clothes and the scent of something ageless and black, lifting off the skin like forbidden perfume. Is she all right now? she wanted to ask, but her words wouldn't form in the ceaseless blast of cold air. Sarah couldn't count the women that cavorted around her. She drifted into unconsciousness thinking of how they had opened the veins in their chests for her, how the charge of fluid had engulfed her face, bubbling on her tongue and nostrils like dark wine. How her eyes had flicked open and rolled back into their sockets with the unspeakable rapture of it all.

Having phoned ahead, Manser parked the car at midnight on South Wharf Road, just by the junction with Praed Street. He was early, so instead of going directly to the dilapidated pub on the corner he sauntered to the bridge over Paddington Basin and stared up at the Westway, hoping for calm. The sounds emanating from that elevated sweep were anything but soothing. The mechanical sigh of speeding vehicles reminded him only of the way those witches' mouths had breathed, snake-like jaws unhinged as though in readiness to swallow him whole. The hiss of tires on rain-soaked tarmac put him in mind of nothing but the wet air that had sped from Knowlden's chest when he was torn open.

By the time he returned, he saw in the pub a low-wattage bulb turning the gla.s.s of an upstairs window milky. He went to the door and tapped on it with a coin in a pre-arranged code. Then he went back to the car and opened the boot. He wrestled with Laura and managed to clamp a hand over her mouth, which she bit, hard. Swearing, he dragged a handkerchief from his pocket and stuffed it in her mouth, punching her twice to get her still. The pain in his hand was mammoth. She had teeth like razors. Flaps of skin hung off his palm; he was bleeding badly. Woozy at the sight of the wound, he staggered with Laura to the door, which was now open. He went through it and kicked it shut, checking the street to make sure he hadn't been seen. Upstairs, Losh was sitting in a chair containing more holes than stuffing.

"This was a good boozer before it was closed down," Manser said, his excitement unfolding deep within him.

"Was," Losh said, keeping his eyes on him. He wore a butcher's ap.r.o.n that was slathered with blood. He smoked a cigarette, the end of which was patterned with b.l.o.o.d.y prints from his fingers. A comma of blood could be mistaken for a kiss-curl on his forehead. "Everything changes."

"You don't," Manser said. "Christ. Don't you ever wash?"

"What's the point? I'm a busy man."

"How many years you been struck off?"

Losh smiled. "Didn't anybody ever warn you not to p.i.s.s off the people you need help from?"

Manser swallowed his distaste of the smaller man. "n.o.body warns me nothing," he spat. "Can't we get on?"

Losh stood up and stretched. "Cash," he said, luxuriously.

Manser pulled a wad from his jacket. "There's six grand there. As always."

"I believe you. I'd count it but the bank gets a bit miffed if they get blood on their bills."

"Why don't you wear gloves?"

"The magic. It's all in the fingers." Losh gestured towards Laura. "This the one?"

"Of course."

"Pretty thing. Nice legs." Losh laughed. Manser closed his eyes. Losh said, "What you after?"

Manser said, "The works."

Wide eyes from Losh. "Then let's call it eight thou."

A pause. Manser said, "I don't have it with me. I can get it tomorrow. Keep the car tonight. As collateral."

Losh said, "Done."

The first incision. Blood squirted up the ap.r.o.n, much brighter than the stains already painted upon it. A coppery smell filled the room. The pockets of the pool table upon which Laura was spread were filled with beer towels.

"Soft tissue?"

Manser's voice was dry. He needed a drink. His c.o.c.k was as hard as a house brick. "As much off as possible."

"She won't last long," Losh said.

Manser stared at him. "She'll last long enough."

Losh said, "Got a number five in mind already?"

Manser didn't say a word. Losh reached behind him and picked up a Samsonite suitcase. He opened it and pulled out a hacksaw. Its teeth entertained the light and flung it in every direction. At least Losh kept his tools clean.

The operation took four hours. Manser fell asleep at one point and dreamed of his hand overpowering the rest of his body, dragging him around the city while the mouth that slavered and snarled at the center of his palm cupped itself around the stomachs of pa.s.sers-by and devoured them.

He wakened, rimed with perspiration, to see Losh chewing an errant hangnail and tossing his instruments back into the suitcase. Laura was wrapped in white bath towels. They were crimson now.

"Is she okay?" Manser asked. Losh's laughter in reply was infectious and soon he was at it too.

"Do you want the off cuts?" Losh asked, wiping his eyes and jerking a thumb at a bucket tastefully covered with a dishcloth.

"You keep them,' Manser said. "I've got to be off."

Losh said, "Who opened the window?"

n.o.body had opened the window; the lace curtains fluttering inward were being pushed by the bulge of gla.s.s. Losh tore them back just as the gla.s.s shattered in his face. He screamed and fell backwards, tripping on the bucket and sprawling on to the floor.

To Manser it seemed that strips of the night were pouring in through the broken window. They fastened themselves to Losh's face and neck and munched through the flesh like a caterpillar at a leaf. His screams were low and already being disguised by blood as his throat filled. He began to choke but managed one last, hearty shriek as a major blood vessel parted, spraying color all around the room with the abandon of an unmanned hosepipe.

How can they breathe with their heads so deep inside him? Manser thought, hypnotized by the violence. He felt something dripping on his brow. Touching his face with his fingers, he brought them away to find them awash with blood. He had time to register, as he looked up at the ceiling, the mouth as it yawned, dribbling with lymph, the head as it vibrated with unfettered antic.i.p.ation. And then the woman dropped on him, ploughing her jaws through the meat of his throat and ripping clear. He saw his flesh disappear down her gullet with a spasm that was almost beautiful. But then his sight filled with red and he could understand no more.

She had been back home for a day. She couldn't understand how she had got here. She remembered being born from the warmth of her companions and standing up to find both men little more than pink froth filling their suits. One of the men had blood on his hands and a cigarette smouldered between his fingers. The hand was on the other side of the room, though.

She saw the b.l.o.o.d.y, tiny mound of towels on the pool table. She saw the bucket; the dishcloth had shifted, revealing enough to tell her the game. Two toes was enough. She didn't need to be drawn a picture.

And then somehow she found herself outside. And then on Edgware Road where a pretty young woman with dark hair and a woven shoulder bag gave her a couple of pounds so that she could get the tube to Euston. And then a man smelling of milk and boot polish she f.u.c.ked in a shop doorway for her fare north. And then Preston, freezing around her in the early morning as if it were formed from winter itself. She had half expected Andrew to poke his head around the corner of their living room to say h.e.l.lo, the tea's on, go and sit by the fire and I'll bring some to you.

But the living room was cold and bare. She found sleep at the time she needed it most, just as her thoughts were about to coalesce around the broken image of her baby. She was crying because she couldn't remember what her face looked like.

When she revived, it was dark again. It was as if daylight had forsaken her. She heard movement towards the back of the house. Outside, in the tiny, scruffy garden, a cardboard box, no bigger than the type used to store shoes, made a stark shape amid the surrounding frost. The women were hunched on the back fence, regarding her with owlish eyes. They didn't speak. Maybe they couldn't.

One of them swooped down and landed by the box. She nudged it forward with her hand, as a deer might coax a newborn to its feet. Sarah felt another burst of unconditional love and security fill the gap between them all. Then they were gone, whipping and twisting far into the sky, the consistency, the trickiness of smoke.

Sarah took the box into the living room with her and waited. Hours pa.s.sed; she felt herself become more and more peaceful. She loved her daughter and she hoped Laura knew that. As dawn began to brush away the soot from the sky, Sarah leaned over and touched the lid. She wanted so much to open it and say a few words, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

In the end, she didn't need to. Whatever remained inside the box managed to do it for her.

Dancing with the Star.

Susan Sizemore.

New York Times best-selling author Susan Sizemore's debut novel was a time-travel romance, Wings of the Storm (1992). She continued writing romance, but after penning a media tie-in novel based on the television series Forever Knight, she was inspired her to create an original vampire world. The result was the five-book The Laws of the Blood dark fantasy series. She later created an entirely different vampire world for the Vampire Prime paranormal romance series. The eleventh in this series, Primal Instincts, was published in 2010. The vampires in both series deal with the challenges of undeath much as humans deal with life, but otherwise are quite distinct: the Laws vamps are still monsters, the Primes are romantic fun. "Dancing With the Star" is definitely an example of the author in her lighter romantic vein. Sizemore lives in the Midwest and knits when she's not writing. She's the author of over thirty novels and more than a dozen short stories-a great many of them are about vampires.

There are plenty of people who come into the Alhambra Club for the things we regulars can offer. It's a nice place, not flashy on the inside, hard to spot from the outside. You have to want to find the place and search for it through friends of friends of friends. If you're a mortal, that is. The rest of us have used it as a hangout for the better part of a century.

There's a television set over the bar, a big, flat-panel model, always playing with the sound off. I wasn't paying attention to it because I was engaged in seducing a handsome young man with far too many body piercings for my usual taste. I mean, if you want piercings I'm perfectly capable of providing them for you. But, he had nice eyes and a lovely voice, and the place wasn't all that full of human patrons this evening. A girl goes with what she can sometimes. I wasn't all that hungry, so I wasn't trying too hard.

I wasn't paying attention to the TV but my friend Tiana was. I was surprised when she came up and put her cold hand on my shoulder, cause she isn't normally rude enough to interrupt me when I'm working a fresh feed.

"Did you hear? There's been a twelve car pile up on Mulholland."

This isn't the sort of thing that would normally interest me, but her excitement got my attention. I shifted my gaze to the television. It showed a scene of fire and carnage spotlighted in beams of white light shooting down from circling helicopters. A crawl on the bottom of the screen was showing statistics about dead and injured and the amount of emergency rescue equipment called to the scene. A windblown blond girl reporter was excitedly talking about the same things.

Beside me, Tiana was starting to breath heavily. I wasn't sure who was getting off on the disaster more, my friend or the reporter.

I looked back at Tiana. "So?"

Her eyes were glowing, not quite the death-eating electric blue she gets when she's feeding, but her pupils held pinp.r.i.c.k sparks of antic.i.p.ation. "You want to go have a look, Serephena?" she asked.