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Part One

Booth’s Island

St Vincent and the Grenadines

Day turned into night as a cloud of bats blanketed the skies, their wings flapping ferociously overhead like a synchronized, deafening cacophony of thunder It was a frightening phenoritted their teeth and shrugged off their stirrings of fear They were simple people ere content to lead equally si as they had a roof over their heads and food in their bellies

By the tione, their furry, little bodies disappearing into the shadowy realms of the island’s treacherous forests

The dock was quiet and ele soul around to see the toplank; no one save Isaac Booth, a centuries old vampire for whom the island was named after

He recognized the older woht away: Bethany with the lovely stars in her eyes She had been eighteen when she left the island, a pretty, free-spirited creature filled with hopes and dreanizable, her beauty turned hard and brittle, and her blood containing the unmistakable stench of rot

Beside her was a young lady, e The reseirl could only be Bethany’s daughter, and Isaac’s gaze turned conteirl’s actions She had an air of serenity about her, as placid as it was inable Either she had been born to withstand shocks with equani Bethany as he did, Isaac was more inclined to believe the latter

Bethany’s old home was at the very back of the town It was sh the house had fallen into a state of disrepair in the years of her absence, nothing in it had been disturbed Save for the layers of dust that covered the furniture, it was as if she had never left at all

The women set to work, and the vampire watched them from a distance

“You think this will do?” Isaac heard Bethany ask

“It will hter replied, “because it’s yours, and so we’ll never have to worry about paying rent” The girl’s voice was pleasant and soothing, and her words remarkably practical Nevertheless, the sound of it made the hairs on the back of the vampire’s neck stand up, and he wasn’t too surprised when he heard noise co from behind him

He turned around with deliberate slowness, and he could suck his breath as he found the island’s slu countless pairs of eyes

Bats

And all of thehter