Helen raised her chin to the black evening as though it held an exotic perfume only she could know. And that was when she heard it - the lone sound in the sea of silence.

Someone's coming. She turned her head one way and then the other.

Her heart started to pound in time with the approaching footsteps.

The world stopped spinning as the fact that she was so, so alone struck Helen as the most important fact in her entire life.

It's a man, she thought, the heavy footfall and long stride making it clear even though she couldn't see him. Helen stepped off the path, closer to the trees and bushes that lined it, and forced air into her lungs...

'Oh,' Helen breathed when she caught the scent.

A cadence too delicious to be named pulsed into her. 'I will feed tonight,' Helen vowed.