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Let’s do the flaps up to keep the rain out and then talk.’
    ‘I don’t want to talk to you,’ snarled Nathan. ‘I want to get
her
.’
    ‘Well, that’s not going to happen. There are sixof us and one of you, and you aren’t going to touch her. So can we have a civilised conversation?’
    Nathan strained towards Finn, but wasn’t strong enough to break his hold.
    ‘She tried to kill me!’
    ‘You tried to kill her. So can’t you just say you’re even?’ Omar struggled to keep his temper.
    ‘What about this?’ Nathan pointed at the tent peg.
    ‘Ah, that. It hadn’t occurred to you to take it out?’
    ‘You’re not supposed to take out something you’re impaled on,’ said Alistair. ‘It can cause more damage coming out than going in.’
    ‘Shut up, math-boy,’ snapped Finn.
    ‘Look, we’re all in this together, whether we likeit or not,’ said Juliette at last.
    ‘You shut up, too, vamp-tramp.’
    Juliette turned on Finn in fury, but Omar caught her arm.
    ‘Stop it, everyone!’
    The flaps of the tent parted. It was Ignace.
    ‘You’re not doing very well, are you?’
    ‘And who are you?’ shouted Nathan. ‘I’m going to kill that –’
    ‘No, you’re not. For one thing, if you bite her you won’t kill her – you’ll just be stuck with her for eternity. I don’t want to be policing you lot for the next 400 years any more than you want me to be doing it. But this has happened on my patch,and I’m going to sort it out – at least for tonight. You – Nathan, is it? – outside. I can remove that tent peg safely.’
    Nathan didn’t move. He scowled at Ignace.
    ‘Now. Do it.’
    Nathan backed out of the tent and sat, sullen, at Ignace’s feet.
    ‘We need some flour,’ Ignace continued. ‘Do you have any?’
    ‘No,’ said Ruby. ‘Why would we?’
    ‘Bread?’
    ‘Stale bread any good?’ She handed him the food bag out of the tent.
    Ignace made Nathan lie on the ground, despitethe rain which pounded against his wet shirt.
    ‘This will hurt,’ he said as he took hold of the end of the tent peg. ‘Bite on some bread and try not to scream – we don’t want to attract attention if anyone is around. Ava, get out here.’
    When Ava was beside him, shivering and soon drenched, Ignace hauled on the tent peg, drawing it slowly from Nathan’s chest.
    As he pulled, Nathan’s back arched and he growled in agony through the bread clenched between his teeth. Ava felt sick.
    As the tent peg came out, red along its length, a little blood pooled on Nathan’s chest and Ignace immediately dropped bread onto the wound. The bread soaked it up from beneath, turning into a deep red sop. For a moment, Ava remembered thebread-and-milk sop her grandmother used to make for her when she was ill as a child.
    ‘Now, you, open your mouth,’ commanded Ignace. And though Ava opened it to object, Ignace stuffed the blood-sop between her lips and then closed her mouth with his hand.
    ‘Eat it.’
    She struggled desperately to spit it out, the metallic, salty tang of the blood making her feel as sick as the idea of it. She tried to open her mouth, tried to cry ‘Can’t’ and ‘No’, but his hand covered her nose and mouth and she couldn’t breathe unless she swallowed it.

Eight
    Nathan rolled onto his side, clutching his chest.
    Finn launched himself from the tent at Ignace’s legs, but the man took no notice, brushing him off as though he were a fly.
    ‘You’re a total freak! What was all that about?’
    ‘Immunity. I thought you knew all about vampires? To cure someone bitten by a vampire, they have to eat bread made from flour and the vampire’sown blood. You didn’t have flour. This will do. The bread is just a way of getting the blood in.’
    Ava, free to breathe again, was gasping and retching.
    ‘Don’t sick it up – we’ll just have to do it again,’ Ignace said sternly. Ava was white, holding her throat, with either rain or tears streaming down her face. Or perhaps