I frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”

That smile was back. “You’ll see.”

Excited in spite of myself, I followed him down the hallway where we came across Fletcher. He was holding a shopping bag, surprise, surprise.

Evan spoke to Fletcher. “If anyone asks, they’ll be gone most of the evening. And they’ll be having way more fun than they would have at the opera-thing that Antonio’s got planned.”

Jared exchanged a baffled look with me before asking his brother, “Gone where all evening? And why will we be gone all evening?” His twin merely winked in response.

Fletcher put his hands on his hips, studying Evan over the rim of his glasses. “Hang on a minute, why are you smirking like that? What have you done?”

“I’m only taking Sam to see her Binding gift from me.”

My best friend’s expression morphed into one of intense curiosity. “Don’t think you’re leaving me behind.”

To my surprise, Evan’s smile faltered a little. “Are you sure you’re not too busy, Fletch?”

“When there’s a gift involved? Not at all.”

A very impish grin spread across Evan’s face. “Okay then, if you want to come, by all means come.”

Now I was even more suspicious…but I was also more intrigued. Curiosity won over, and I followed Evan out of the building. When he led us into the rainforest, I went from curious to ‘what the f**k?’ Still, I remained silent as he took us deep into the rainforest, in the direction of what the legion immaturely called ‘the four tits’ – basically, they were four mountains clustered together, surrounding a huge stretch of land.

Evan came to an abrupt halt when we neared the narrow opening that lay between two of the mountains, leading to the land nestled between all four. The excitement on his face made me smile, despite my impatience. “You ready?”

I shoved him. “Move out of my way so I can get through and see what it is.”

“No. You have to close your eyes.”

“Ev, don’t take the piss. I don’t have much patience left.”

“Just do it.”

Releasing a put-out sigh, I nonetheless did as he asked.

“Bro, Fletch – both of you stay quiet until I’ve told her to open her eyes.” He took my hand and guided me through the narrow opening. I heard Fletcher gasp and sensed Jared’s surprise and…awe? That made me even more desperate to look. Finally, Evan brought us to a halt. “Now, Sam, do you remember a month ago you told me how you thought the legion would benefit from having a tactical field to train in? Look.”

When I opened my eyes, I gasped just as Fletcher had done. Tactical field my arse. It was more like a small, abandoned village. The only thing stopping it from looking real was that the buildings were made of plywood. And of course no one has gas drums and piles of tyres just lying around here and there, do they. There was even a bus and several other vehicles lining the ‘streets’. “How did you do all this in a month?”

“I designed it, but every squad member and every one of the commanders – other than Jared, because I didn’t tell him about it – all came together to help me build it. Like it?” My smile must have been answer enough for him, because he chuckled and curled an arm around me. “Then you’re going to love what I’ve got planned for the next six hours.” He slipped his free hand into his pocket and fished out a single, spherical, gelatin capsule.

Anticipation shot through me. “Paintballing?”

He chuckled again, nodding. “Paintballing. I got one of Antonio’s guards to teleport all the necessary equipment here. The squad will arrive any minute. They’re eager to play; they’ve been looking forward to this for weeks.”

I hugged Evan tightly, laughing at Jared’s playful growl. “I haven’t been paintballing for years.”

Stroking a finger through his collar, Fletcher cleared his throat. “This isn’t really my scene, luv. I’m more of a pacifist.”

I gripped Fletcher’s hand. “Oh please stay. It’ll be a laugh. Honestly, it’s addictive, you’ll love it.”

Just then, Chico entered through the narrow opening, followed closely by the rest of the squad…and someone I really hadn’t wanted to see.

Fletcher curled his upper lip in distaste. “What’s Widow Twankey doing here?” She didn’t appear to appreciate that nickname, though she probably had no idea he had named her after a pantomime dame that was always played by a man.

Salem, who I then noticed was holding her lower arm, frowned down at her. “We found her wandering aimlessly. Apparently, she’s looking for you, Coach.”

Fletcher snorted. “Yeah? Well she can sod off.”

Magda lifted her chin, scowling at Fletcher. “As I told Sam, I think it would be good for her and I to spend time together if she intends on Binding to one of my vampires. Besides, if she’s going to one day be responsible for my protection and the protection of all vampirekind, it is only fair that I get to know her.”

Jared, Fletcher, and Evan all went to object, but I held up a hand. “No, she’s right.” I smiled brightly at Magda. “If you’d really like us to become better acquainted, there couldn’t be a more perfect time. You can join us for a few games of paintballing.”

Magda gaped. “Paintballing?” Going by the distaste coating that one word, she thought this kind of thing was beneath her. I sensed Jared’s amusement.

“Don’t worry. I’m not one of those really competitive people who take it too seriously.” The guys all snorted, knowing me too well.

Magda straightened to her full height and forced a smile. “I accept your invitation.”

“Invitation?” repeated Fletcher. “What planet are you on? This is gate-crashing.”

“Nah,” disagreed Evan, “it’s important that she and Sam bond.” He winked at me, humour lighting his eyes. “Come on, let’s go get kitted up.” He led us all to a small hut where, as I’d expected, he’d kept the supplies. “First, I want to talk you all through everything. I know some of you haven’t been paintballing before – particularly Fletcher, Reuben, Damien, and David—”

“And me,” Magda informed him.

Evan nodded. “And Magda. But don’t worry, you’ll all enjoy it. You’ll be split into two teams, and the aim of the game is to complete each mission without getting shot by a paintball. It’s as simple as that.” He shrugged to emphasise the simplicity of it, but then he held up one finger as he continued.

“There are rules for the game. I know that some of you will have big advantages because of your gifts…and that’s why rule number one is that none of you are to use your gifts at any time. Rule number two: if you are hit, you do not need to leave the game unless you’ve been hit in the torso or the head – they’re the only areas that would have any real effect on a vampire. At that point, you simply raise your gun, declare that you’re hit, and head to ‘the dead zone’ – no one is to shoot at or go near this zone. I’ll show you where it is in a minute.

“If you’re hit in the head, it’s considered a fatal shot and you will be eliminated from that particular game. If you’re hit in the torso, you need to only spend ten minutes in ‘the dead zone’ before you can return to the game. But unless the paintball breaks and leaves a mark the size of a quarter, it doesn’t count. And nor does paint splatter, which means that although the paint grenades will do well at distracting the other team, they won’t count as ‘deadly’. Rule number three: do not take off your safety mask unless you’re in ‘the dead zone’ or unless the game has ended. Rule number four: you must allow surrenders. And the final rule: no bodily contact. This is not about combat. That all understood?” Everybody nodded.

Ten minutes later, all of us were dressed in camouflaged overalls and padded gloves. It was when Evan pulled out a bag and handed it to me that I understood exactly why he’d been wearing that smile earlier. Inside was a pink tutu, a headband with pink horns attached, and a white ‘L’ sign. Bastard. In seconds, I was dressed like an army slut. Of course everyone thought it was hilarious, even Jared.

I snarled at my fiancé. “Thanks a lot, Judas.”

Evan huffed at him. “I don’t know what you’re laughing at.” He then pulled out another bag. Jared’s face fell when his twin fished out a Borat-style, lime-green, lycra mankini. Then it was my turn to laugh.

“You’re f**king kidding me.” Jared shook his head. “No way.”

I put my hands on my hips. “Oi, if I’m going to look stupid, you can as well.”

He stood, seething, as his brother and Fletcher helped him put the mankini on over his camo gear. The icing on the cake had been when Harvey took a photograph with his smartphone. Jared made a dive for it. Obviously having anticipated that, however, the others held him back as Harvey dashed off to hide the photographic evidence of us looking like plonkers.

Once the laughing had died down, Evan clapped his hands twice to get everyone’s attention. “Okay, let’s split you into teams. Sam and Jared will each be a leader, which places them on opposing teams. I’ll be refereeing, since it wouldn’t be fair to have two commanders on one team.”

My team ended up consisting of Fletcher, Chico, Butch, Harvey, David, and Salem. As such, Jared had Reuben, Max, Denny, Damien, Stuart, and Magda. The bitch was staying as close as physically possible to Jared, of course. I shot her a ‘you better watch yourself’ look. She returned it, although she did seem nervous. She should be.

“We’re going to be playing lots of different games,” began Evan, “but before we start, we’ll do what’s called ‘walk the field’. This way, you can all familiarise yourselves with the place, see where everything is. You’ll find that on opposite sides of the field are the base camps, which are also the starting points for each team.”

It was as we were walking around that Evan explained, “The first game is called ‘Ammo Retrieval’. In the centre is the tallest of the buildings, which has the sign, ‘Bed and Breakfast’. Inside there is a crate of ammunition. Your objective is to retrieve the crate and take it back to your base camp. The team that manages to do that wins. Simple. If you claim the crate and think you have the time to stop, feel free to reload your paintball guns, as there are pods of pellets inside the crate.”

Having completed the walk through and studied the field – which was absolutely bloody brilliant and topped every Binding gift we’d been given so far – we returned to the supply hut. Evan gave us all the necessary equipment: a protective mask, semi-automatic marker, hopper, smoke grenades, paint grenades, a pod pack – which looped around the waist – and two spare pods of pellets. Magda also had to swap her high heels for a pair of spare boots that were too big for her dainty feet. We then each tied coloured ribbons on our sleeves; blue for Jared’s team, and yellow for mine.

As each team was ready to split and enter their assigned base camps, Jared smacked a kiss on my lips. I could feel the excitement thrumming through him. “Good luck, baby. You’re going to need it, since we both know I’ll win.”

“Sure, sure.”

“I mean it, baby, don’t expect any mercy. I’m going to beat your sexy little ass at this.”

I patted his arm. “It’s sort of cute that you really believe that.”

He laughed and jogged away with his team. Magda gave me a sly smile before trailing after them. She honestly thought it would bother me that she was on Jared’s team? Okay, it did bother me. But I would rather that she wasn’t on my team, since I planned to shoot the crap out of her.

Our base camp was a detached bare house on the border of the field further down from the supply hut. Jared’s base camp – also a detached house – was on the opposite side of the field. Due to the streets of buildings, their camp was out of our line of vision, just as ours was out of theirs. As the ‘B and B’ was in the centre of the field, both teams were equally far from it.

In base camp I turned to my team. “Right, although this is supposed to be all about fun, please understand that I have every intention of winning this. You all with me on that?” Everyone other than Fletcher nodded enthusiastically. “Good. When we need to get into position, I’ve found it often works best to form a ‘U’ shape. Any volunteers for the front? I’ll need two. I’d happily offer, but I’m not too proud to admit that – as a Sventé – I’m the slowest here.”

“I’ll do it, I used to play this a lot as part of my police training,” said Chico.

Salem raised a hand. “I’m fast, and I have a real good aim.”

“Me too,” claimed Butch.

I shook my head. “No Butch, I want to keep you as protected as possible. You’re the fastest here so you’re the obvious person to be responsible for getting the crate back to camp. Chico and Salem can lead. You and I will take up positions behind them. Then Chico can pave the way for you to get inside that ‘B and B’.”

I looked at the other three. “I’m going to put you all at the rear so—”

“Luv, I’ll be no good at this,” declared Fletcher. “I’m too scared to get hit. I’ve heard it really hurts.”

“It’s not that bad. It’s like a hard pinch.”

“I don’t like hard pinches. Seriously, luv, I’ll be hopeless at it.”