Jonathan stood outside the big house, set back at the end of a secluded tree lined avenue. Inside the bell rang, deep and sonorous, and Jarvis the family butler answered the door.

‘You rang Sir?’

‘Oh! Am I at the right house for Amy Previm?’

Jonathan was somewhat taken aback. He knew Ames was a classy bird but he didn’t think for a moment she was this posh. They’d met at Rumours, the nightclub on Bewdlow high street the night before and they’d hit it off straight away. She was gorgeous, bright and very funny; everything Jonathan looked for in a girl. Most of all she seemed to be smitten with him too and Jonathan couldn’t believe his luck.

All too soon the evening had gone and he remembered asking her for her phone number and her whispering mischievously in his ear, and then the taxi home to Jonathan’s studio flat with Amy snuggled up beside him. He’d gone to the kitchen to make coffee for them both, and was thrilled when instead of finding her on the sofa where he’d left her, she’d appeared naked at the gallery bannister beside his bed. She was such an enthusiastic lover. In the throes of ecstasy, he’d been bitten, scratched and completely ravaged. And he’d loved every second of it.

And then, late morning, after a brunch of orange juice and a bacon sandwich, she’d left having first invited him to her home where they were having a family barbecue that evening.

‘Be sure you come Jonathan! I’m relying on you!’ she’d said as she smiled and walked out of the door.

‘I’ll be there don’t you worry!’, he assured her, then stood watching her walk down the street. Having showered, he stood by the mirror and shaved, and couldn’t help but chuckle as he found scratches and teeth marks in the most outrageous places on his body. What a woman!

‘Do come through Sir, Miss Amy is expecting you’, Jarvis took his coat and led him across the plush entrance hall and through double doors to the back garden. Amy was standing with a small group of people, behind them a huge black dog played with a large bone. They were clustered around an impossibly large brick barbecue, from whose glowing coals occasional crackles and sparks flew.

‘Jonathan! You came!’, and she hurried across to plant a kiss firmly on his lips.

Jonathan was introduced to Amy’s parents; her father, Alexandru, was a member of East European aristocracy and her mother Adriana, a Harley Street Haemotologist. Then, disconcertingly, Amy’s 11 year old sister Alina had said hello and smiled at him in a strange, predatory way. The whole family gathered around as he was finally introduced to Aurelia, Amy’s surprisingly spritely 90 years old gran.

‘I’m very pleased to meet you Mrs. Previm’.

‘I’m pleased to meet you too’, she smiled, a pair of long canine teeth appearing across thin palid lips.

‘I was wondering when the meat course would arrive’.