It was routine for Loki. This man, Ian Blake, liked to think of himself as a vampire hunter. In fact he was a lonely nutter who drank at the local until closing time and went out frightening goth kids. It was sad really. 

As it was, Ian was now hanging upside down by his ankles from the swings in the park. It couldn't have been a very proud moment for him. Although Loki had the edge over this man where fighting skill was concerned, Ian wasn't in any actual danger. Loki was low on energy tonight.

All the same, it was fun playing with the man like this. Lazily, Loki swiped a hand in his direction and set him off gibbering. The gibbering was exaggerated by a comically large horseshoe moustache.

'OK, old man,' he began. 'Feel free to get out a pad and pen and take notes, because this is only coming once. I don't want to kill you, and frankly I've no need. But I want to make a deal with you, and if you don't hold up your end of the bargain, well, I'm afraid it's curtains. And you don't look like a curtains kind of man. You're more venetian blinds, aren't you?'

Ian gibbered again.

'Yes, that's what I thought.' Loki examined his own fingernails. He'd stopped biting them ever since the Change - although he didn't remember much about that. That was probably why he was so isolated. If he didn't remember the Change, then he wouldn't remember all the other psi-vampires that he undoubtably met there.  Anyway, since he'd stopped biting them, now they were long and sharp. He wasn't sure what purpose this actually served, but it was good for scaring passers-by.

He turned back to Ian, who was suddenly clutching his left arm and wheezing. He had become purple in the face.

'Oh, come on,' Loki said. The last thing he needed now was another death from shock. This had happened before - most of them had pre-existing heart conditions or some such thing. Perhaps hanging a victim upside down and threatening to kill them was too much.

He cut Ian down, but he seemed to have gone into cardiogenic shock already. Loki sighed - Ian was going to be bloody useless now. He dragged him all the way out of the park  and into the woody patch behind the fence, leaving him there to die. If he didn't die he'd at least be brain-damaged and thus couldn't relay the night's events, for which Loki was grateful.

He kicked the fence. Back to the drawing board.

The next one to be tied up was Gerald West from Swansea. As a matter of fact, Loki had seen him in the park before, where he would sit all day long with a packet of pear drops, watching the kids. This made him ideal.

'The hell?' Gerald said, regaining consciousness. 

'OK, old man,' Loki began again. 'Feel free to get out a pad and pen and take notes, because this is only coming once. I don't want to kill you, and frankly I've no need. But I want to make a deal with you-'

'The hell do you think you are, some kind of vampire?' Gerald interrupted.

Loki paused. 'Not a blood-sucker as such,' he responded, 'although I have dabbled. Now listen-'

'I've got a family,' Gerald said. 'You don't want me. Get someone else.'

'You haven't got a family,' Loki interrupted.  'You're a paedophile.'

'What?'

'You sit on a park bench all day watching children on the roundabouts. You've even offered sweets. You've invited them to your garden down the street to see Mopsy's new puppies. I know. Now shut up and pay attention, please.'

'You bloody liar.'

Loki batted the man in the chest, making him swing back and forth slightly. 

'Luckily for you, while you interests make you a disgusting and hideous creature, they also make you an ideal judge of young blood.'

'Eh?'

'So...' Loki examined the fingernails once more for effect, 'can you bring me a child?'

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