THIRTY-TWO | PYRE

The flames and smoke rose into the sky, red and orange and black and grey rolling in waves across the dawn. The sunrise behind was cast out, soft apricot and purple bleeding into obscurity as the fire crackled.

David’s body was in the fire, somewhere. I didn’t look too closely.

Most of the Clan were stood around the pyre, their eyes down and their mouths in sombre, thin lines. Falmer was nowhere to be seen, but that was nothing unusual; he frequented the bar in town, especially since we’d been on a diet of animal blood. He could, more often than not, find willing donors in the women he met.

The only other person missing was Kathrena. Her absence, however, had raised a lot of eyebrows, and had elicited a few startled mumbles and narrowed eyes.

I couldn’t bring myself to care where she was. David was dead, and it was my fault. I’d checked for his pulse, two fingers feeling