Free Blood by K. J. Wignall

lineage.
    â€œNowhere you would have heard of, but boarding would have been out of the question. She’d removed me from the school within six months of my father dying, because of the fees. So I came here. I knew my grandparents had lived here and I thought I might still have relatives locally, but I haven’t found anyone.”
    â€œBut you obviously have somewhere to stay.” He looked puzzled by her degree of certainty and she explained, saying, “Well, I’m guessing you have possessions so you must keep them somewhere, and you look pretty well-groomed, so …”
    â€œOh, I see. Yes, I’m in a squat over near the North Gate.”
    She didn’t respond at first and he feared that squat was a word people no longer used, but after a lengthy pause, she said, “You must be better at this than I am. I wouldn’t even know how to go about finding a squat. As it is, if the weather turns much colder I’ll have to go back whether I want to or not.”
    He wanted to be able to say that he’d help her, that she could come back and stay in his imaginary squat with him and his fellow runaways and travelers. He couldn’t say that of course, but he couldn’t help thinking she’d feel snubbed by his silence.
    â€œWhere would you go?”
    â€œHome, I suppose, to begin with. I don’t even know if the school would take me back—I haven’t given it much thought.”
    Suddenly, he saw a way out and said, “I’d have to discuss it with the other people in the squat first, but if they were okay about it, you could come and stay there.”
    Eloise stopped walking and looked at him, mortified as she said, “Will, I wasn’t asking to stay at your place. Honestly. God, that must have sounded awful, and really, I’d never put someone in a position like that.”
    â€œIf it was my place alone, you wouldn’t need to—I would have offered you shelter the moment I saw you in that doorway.”
    She continued to look at him, a quizzical smile spreading across her face. Finally, she said, “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone quite like you. You’re like some old-fashioned knight.”
    â€œThank you, though it’s a while since I killed a dragon.”
    She laughed and said, “The night isn’t over yet.”
    Will’s instinct would have been to cut in among the old warehouses, but Eloise kept to the main road until they reached the bridge, then turned left. He supposed it was the sensible thing for her to do, to keep away from the dark and deserted corners, the exact same places in which he felt safest.
    As they walked past the warehouse, which had been converted, they both looked in at the rooms that were still lit, though there was less activity visible now, just people watching television, one person walking around with a telephone.
    They were alongside the second warehouse, the one clad in scaffolding, when the hairs bristled on the back of Will’s neck. He stopped walking and stared into the darkness of the footpath ahead of them. Eloise had been talking, but she also stopped after a couple of paces and looked back at him.
    â€œWhat is it?”
    He raised a finger to his lips. She smiled at first, but his expression convinced her that he was being serious and she came back and stood beside him. Something was wrong with the air down here.
    Whispering this time, Eloise said, “What is it? You don’t think those boys have come back?”
    Will didn’t know what to do. If it was what he thought, the demon presence that had attacked him in the church, he should probably leave Eloise to walk the last stretch on her own—she’d be safer away from him, safer, too, in that she wouldn’t see something she wasn’t meant to see.
    But he couldn’t be sure that the demon would leave her alone if they parted. And even if he could, what would she think of him,