fatal love

chapter 157

With James and Lily's wedding over, everyone was thrown back into the war and redoubled their efforts. Sirius was sent out to Manchester to investigate another ring of vampires only a week later, and spent a few days hanging around shady pubs trying to get any information he could on the coven. If it was just a few rogue vampires then that was one thing, but if they were aligned with Voldemort then the risks were much greater. The vampires from Hampshire were still acting out as well, and the last thing they needed right now were coordinated vampire attacks all over the country.

Things went downhill quickly. It was late in the evening, and the pub Sirius was loitering in was shutting. He was almost certain that the couple he'd been watching all night were vampires, a man and a woman who were unnaturally tall and wearing a poor imitation of muggle clothing, and he figured that even if they weren't working for Voldemort, a group of drunk muggles stumbling out into the darkness of the night wouldn't lead to anything good. So he followed them when they left, and his suspicions were confirmed when the couple turned left down an alley, empty except for one drunk man taking a piss against the wall.

Sirius readied himself, wand in one hand and garlic cloves in his pocket. The couple hadn't seen him - they were focused on their prey, and when the woman bared her teeth, and Sirius spotted the gleaming white fangs, that was all the confirmation he needed.

"Stupefy!" he cursed, the spell flying from his wand and hitting the woman square in the back, who fell to the ground in a heap.

Her partner whirled around, pouncing on Sirius and tackling them both to the ground. He smiled menacingly, and Sirius dropped his wand, his hand shooting up to the man's neck and holding him away, trying to stop himself from getting bitten.

The muggle man stared at them both and promptly ran away.

"You're bloody welcome!" Sirius yelled after him, struggling against his attacker and attempting to knee him in the balls.

"You're stuck," the vampire hissed gleefully. "Can't get away, mate."

"Oh really?" Sirius asked. With his left hand, he smashed the cloves of garlic against the man's face, making his skin sizzle.

The vampire wailed, rolling off Sirius and clutching at his cheek. Sirius summoned his wand, pointing it at his assailant.

"Who do you work for?!" he demanded.

The man looked up at him with pained eyes and smiled. "Same question."

"Don't play games with me!"

"Oh, sweetheart, I haven't even started playing yet," the vampire cooed.

The wand shook as Sirius held it angrily. "You want to end up dead?" he shouted. "Who do you work for?"

He was so focused on the man below him that he didn't realise the woman waking up until it was too late. She was crawling over slowly, and Sirius had only just noticed a movement in the corner of his eye before she was sinking her teeth into his calf, tearing out a chunk of skin.

Sirius screamed, his legs buckling, and he had no choice but to kick her and apparate away. Weirdly, the first place he thought of wasn't Chicory Cottage, or the Potters', but the Shrieking Shack. He appeared in the grimy and worn-down little building and cursed, clutching his leg in agony.

"Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!"

He yanked his trousers down and grit his teeth. He'd known that learning all this healing crap would come in handy. Thanking Merlin he'd bothered to research vampire bites, he held his wand to his calf and hissed the incantation, extracting all the vampire venom he could before smearing garlic all into the bloody mess.