first part of chapter 1

The curtains fluttered in the wind, blowing into the room like tattered remains from a bombsite. The girl lying on the stained hotel bed was asleep. But the sleep didn’t look natural. She had been getting changed, was only in her underwear and shoes. Sprawled backwards over the faded duvet cover, her eyes closed, her breath slow. A dark figure appeared outside of the open window, their billowing cloak blending into the night. As red eyes burned into life and black lips parted in a sinister smile the girl’s own eyes opened. Revealing only the whites, her head snapped backwards. She stood, as if being pulled up by her chest, arms limp by her sides. She rose, from lying to standing, completely rigid, and stood before the open window. Arms reached forwards, welcoming the shadow into the room. But the dark figure didn’t enter, instead it clutched at the girl’s left arm. Bringing the wrist slowly to its lips, they parted further to reveal sharp, hungry teeth. As the teeth sank into the soft flesh the girl screamed. Body reacting when mind could not. The scream startled the intruder, letting its concentration falter enough for the girl’s mind to be set free. Her eyes stared into the darkness and found two pinpricks of red light starring back. She tore her arm from the shadow’s grasp and slammed the windows shut. But the figure had recovered and pounded on the glass. The girl turned and sprinted from her room, ignoring the fact she was partially naked and in high heels. As she turned down the corridor the wounds on her wrist were already healing. And by the time she had run smack into the two young men walking towards her, they were little more than white, shiny scars. The drops of blood that had run down her arm were wiped off onto the jacket of the man she threw herself at, burying her head into his chest.

Louise-Marie’s eyes flew open when she heard the scream. When she saw what was happening to her she realised why she had yelled. Some freak outside the window was biting her! Blood was trickling down her arm from the two teeth marks on her wrist. She knew she should have stayed in a more up-market hotel, the only reason she was here was for some silly dinner that she had to attend. As she tore her hand away from the stranger she knew she had to get out of that room. Slamming the windows she ran, stumbling slightly from the four inch heeled boots she wore. As she turned out of her room she noticed two men walking towards her. A wave of sadness, such intense grief, guilt and hate engulfed her, the feelings were radiating from the men. She didn’t know where it was coming from, but her gut reaction was to hope it wasn’t from the guy on the left. He was the one that she ran to; burying her head into his chest, suddenly remembering that she was only wearing her underwear.

Tom dragged the bags to the check-in desk and sighed to himself. He had got the crappy job again. Eric owned the car so had gone to park it, he hardly ever let Tom drive. He plonked a couple of notes onto the counter, not caring if he seemed rude. It had been a long day and all he wanted to do was eat and sleep. The girl behind the counter looked at him in disdain; she was used to arrogant customers and knew how to deal with them.
“Number 314 is free sir.” She drawled in her American tone “go straight up and I’ll send your cases with the bellboy.” She knew that the room was the most basic and the bellboys were both getting steadily drunk in the hotel bar. So she smiled sweetly at the man in front of her, took his money and pushed a key across the counter to him.
Eric and Tom were standing in the lift, Eric’s bag was slung across his shoulder, it wasn’t the sort of bag he could leave with other people. Especially people who might look in it. The bag was full of guns, knives and many other sharp implements. He shifted it slightly, the strap was digging in and it had been a hard day. His job wasn’t a very common one; in fact his dad, Tom and a couple of his dad’s old friends were the only other people he knew that did it. The lift doors slid open with a creak and a shudder, the boys looked at each other with raised eyebrows. They stepped out and walked down the third floor corridor, checking the numbers as they went. When they were only a couple of doors away a scream stopped them in their tracks. A door flew open and a semi-clad girl ran at them. Eric leaned towards Tom,
“Dude, she’s hot.” He muttered. Before she threw herself at him and buried her head in his chest.

Louise dried off her tears and stared at her arm, the two scars were staring back at her. Tom grabbed her wrist and pulled it towards him, wrenching her away from Eric. His grasp sent a wave of emotion surging through Louise; the pain that he felt ripped through her body and sent her crashing to the floor. Eric and Tom looked from the scars on her arm to each other and back again. They exchanged knowing looks. Eric hauled the girl up from the floor while Tom started towards the room she had fled from.
“No!” Louise screamed at him “Don’t go in there, there’s a man at the window, he tried to kill me.”
Eric held her at arms length, and stared intently at her,
“We’re on the third floor Miss.” He explained gently, which was not his usual tone of voice. But there was something about this young woman that made him want to care. And it wasn’t just because of his previous proclamation of her hotness.
“My name is Louise-Marie and I'm not some idiotic hysterical little girl. I know what I saw and it was some big freaky guy biting my arm!” she yelled back at him, almost becoming the hysterical little girl she claimed not to be. She took a long shuddering breath. “You probably think I'm crazy, and I'm not so sure that I'm not. But I think that guy was a vampire.”
Eric smiled at her, “I don’t think you’re crazy Lou, I'm sure that guy was a vampire, which is why we have to investigate.” Lou looked at him with one eyebrow raised, was suddenly very conscious of the fact she was near enough naked, and needed to go to a party later. At that point Tom reappeared shaking his head.
“Whatever it was has gone now.” He confirmed.

Tom grabbed the girl’s hand. She had bite marks on her wrist, that wasn’t a good sign. He and Eric looked at each other; this was definitely a job for them. Eric supported the girl and Tom walked towards the open doorway. He peered through the gap and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small electronic gadget, a scream behind him made Tom look back to his friend, who was restraining the girl. She looked scared for them, he decided that she didn’t want him to go in there. That was a good sign for him, if it meant what he thought. Vampires. Tom pushed the door open further and entered the dark room. Everything looked normal enough, he raised the gadget higher and scanned the room. It beeped faintly when swept past the closed window. He strode towards that wall and threw the windows open. There was nothing out there, the machine beeped feebly again and petered out. He gave the room another cursory glance, it was full of clothes. ‘Typical woman’ he thought to himself. Tom returned to the hallway shaking his head.
“Whatever it was has gone now” He confirmed to the others.

Louise pulled on her dress; she was going to be late. But even as she rushed out of the door something made her linger. Pulling the door shut behind her she walked across to the opposite room, knocked on the door and waited. Eric opened it and stared at her expectantly.
“Erm, well, seeing as I'm already late I thought you should come with me. Be my reason for being tardy.” She tried to sound more confident than she actually was. Luckily he grinned at her,
“I’d love to. But do we have to bring loser boy in there?” he joked nodding towards Tom, who was suspiciously stuffing things into a duffel bag. Louise laughed and motioned for them to follow her down.
As the lift started its creaky descent Tom fell slightly, due to the sudden lurching motions. He staggered and grabbed Louise’s arm to steady himself. Once skin touched skin Louise-Marie was thrown into white. A blinding flash, which became what could only be described as a never-ending, white room. She looked around herself franticly, everything had gone. The lift the hotel, the boys she was with, all vanished.
“Hello?” she called, her voice echoing back to her. She thought back to what had happened before the light, she had been in a lift with Eric and Tom. As their names came into her head a large screen appeared before her. Like a cinema screen, it was blank white, yet a different dimension of white from the rest of her view. Onto the screen walked a young man, Tom. He looked the same, except his hair was slightly longer and a lot blonder. If it had been a picture of him Lou would have guessed it had been taken only a few months ago, no longer than a year. Tom was holding a bunch of flowers, walking along a road towards a small country cottage. He knocked on the door, the scene expanding as he came into contact with more things. A young girl answered it,
“Hello, Tom.” She said primly “You took your time didn’t you?” then she walked back into the house, leaving the door open for the boy. He followed her in, as did Louise, watching from her screen. By the time Lou’s view of them was clear again the couple had obviously made up, they were in each other’s arms. The scene dimmed and a new set replaced it. This time it was inside a bedroom, late at night. The two figures in the bed were asleep, but there was movement from the closet on the far side of the room. The person on the left rose, it was the girl. She walked silently towards the wardrobe and opened it. Whatever she saw in there was hidden by the gaping door, but Lou could see the girl’s face. She was scared, so very scared. She screamed, an ear splitting, high-pitched, frantic scream that echoed around the white world. Repeated again and again, Louise covered her ears and watched in desperation as the young girl was grabbed by the thing in the cupboard and pulled inside. The door slammed shut behind her, just as Tom reached the handle. The scream had woken him.
“Sophie!” he shouted, pulling at the door in despair, “Sophie!”
He yanked at the handle with all his might, and it opened. Tom stared in disbelief at the contents; he staggered back onto the bed. Just in time to avoid a body falling on top of him. It was Sophie, her face etched in a scream, her skin sunken and gaunt. The flesh had gone, just a skeleton left, the remains of a beautiful girl. It looked as though whatever was in the closet had gone, but not before sucking the life out of it’s defenceless prey. Louise gasped in horror at what had happened. She now knew the reason for the waves of sorrow that had radiated from the poor boy. She reached towards the screen, trying to comfort him. Her hands passed through into the other room, as she lightly touched his arm her whole world flashed again. This time when she recovered she was back in the lift, the two boys leaning over her, worried looks across their faces.
“Tom,” she whispered “I’m so sorry, I had no idea.”

“There were definite signs of supernatural involvement.” Tom told Eric as soon as they reached their room. “Especially around the window.”
Eric was staring absently out of their own window, not really taking in much of what his friend was telling him. Tom recognised his expression, “Dude, she was bitten by a vampire. It’s not going to happen.”
At the word vampire Eric finally looked up at his companion.
“Are you sure it was a vampire?” he asked.
“Did you not see the bite marks?” Tom replied, speaking to Eric like a child.
“You weren’t there; there was some kind of connection between us.”
“Oh, come on Eric. You’re going all lovey-dovey on me mate.”
“Shut up bitch” Eric grinned at his friend.
“Slut.” Tom answered, smiling as well. “You got any silver crosses on you then?” he continued, turning the conversation back to business.
“Check the bag, front pocket” he frowned at his companion’s back, “We’re definitely going to cure her then, Tommy boy?”
“Yep, I can’t find the damn things. Are you sure you put them in the pocket?”
“Oh, no. I threw them in the main bag.” Eric explained, jokingly hitting himself on the side of the head.
“Aww, you idiot!” Tom looked at Eric in disbelief, “I gotta get all the stuff out now.” He started unpacking the bag, flinging guns, knives, crossbows and other hunting implements onto the hotel bed. At the very bottom he found what he was looking for, a small velvet bag full of silver crosses. He turned in triumph, just as a knock sounded on the door. The boys looked at each other expectantly,
“Who’s that?” Eric hissed, Tommy just shrugged in reply. “I’ll get the door, you pack up the crap” he motioned to the very dodgy array of things scattered on the bed. Tom hurriedly started stuffing everything back into the canvas bag. Eric opened the door and peered out, it was the girl from earlier. She was obviously on her way to join the party going on below; Eric wondered why she had come to see them. He smiled at her encouragingly,
“Erm, well, seeing as I'm already late I thought you should come with me. Be my reason for being tardy.” She sounded a bit nervous, but Eric grinned in delight. He was glad to see her again.
“I’d love to. But do we have to bring loser boy in there?” he joked nodding towards Tom, who was stuffing the last few things into the bag. They both laughed and she motioned for them to follow her. As Eric closed the door behind them Tom pushed a necklace into his hand, from the feel of it, it was a silver cross from the bag. He stuffed it into his pocket for later, just in case.
As the elevator started to descend Tom stumbled, he was never very good in these things. He bumped into Louise, grabbing her arm for support. She gasped loudly, her eyes rolled backwards into her head and she fell to the floor twitching.
“What the hell did you do to her?” Eric shouted kneeling down beside the girl.
Tom stayed standing, frowning down at the girl; it looked like she was having a fit. Then it dawned on him what was wrong with her. He fished around in his jacket pocket and pulled out a book, he had taken it from the bag to read later that night. The old leather binding cracked as he opened it and a couple of pieces flaked off. He flicked quickly through the pages, ignoring Eric’s shouts and Louise’s mutterings. She had whispered an incoherent word under her breath that might have been a ‘hello’. Finally reaching the page he had been searching for Tommy read aloud,
“Many vampires, especially ones of Racuvitch descent, will be able to enter the ‘alius’ when in close contact with ‘divinus’ (supernatural) beings. The vampire goes into a trance like state, mutters, shakes and is completely oblivious to whatever is going on in the real world.”
Eric glared up at him,
“Since when are you a supernatural being?” he demanded.
“I think the vampire that bit her was either a first blood or an actual Racuvitch, so she must have very strong senses. I expect she picked up on the remnants of our job, all those real supernatural beings we’ve encountered.” Tommy explained hesitantly.
“Where do you get this crap from, nerd-boy?” Eric asked, slightly calmer, but still very anxious.
“I got the book from that occult shop in New Orleans a few months back, it’s all about vampires.” Tom explained, a bit too keenly for Eric’s liking, but then again Tommy had always been the weird one. Then he thought of something else odd,
“What on Earth is the alley ous?” Eric asked, trying not to sound too worried, or stupid. But Tom didn’t notice anyway, he was in full geek mode.
“Alius, alias, erm like the Latin word alter? Yeah. Er, alternative. That would make it, other. Yeah, the ‘other’. I think there’s some more on that in here somewhere. Here it is.” Tom flicked through the small book again, stopping this time on a page quite near the back. “The ‘Alius’ is a place where only ‘divinus’ beings, Racuvitch vampires in particular, can survive. It is their link between realms, the past and the future. Other weaker ‘divinus’ things use it to communicate through using telepathy and blood goblets. Nobody knows what this place is like because the only vampires seen to go there are usually destroyed whilst away. Being in the ‘alius’ leaves the Racuvitch vulnerable.” Both boys looked at each other then down at the girl. Louise suddenly stopped shaking and her eyes sprang open. She looked directly at Tom, scared and sympathetic.
“Tom,” she whispered “I’m so sorry, I had no idea.”

The lift doors slid open with a crunch and a squeal.
“Louise-Marie!” a sharp looking woman snapped as soon as she saw the girl in the lift. “Where have you been? This party is supposed to get you contacts not hate-mail.” She finally noticed the two boys and treated them to piercing stares, “And who are they?” she demanded “They will not look good for your reputation.”
Louise sighed,
“Debbie, don’t worry. They’re old friends of mine, I haven’t seen them in ages.” She glanced at the two of them hoping they would go along with her story. “It took a while to catch up, so I invited them to my party.” Out of the corner of her eyes she saw a small look pass from Eric to Tom, then they both smiled and stepped forward.
“We’re school friends, I’m Eric Wesson and this is Thomas Smith.” He motioned towards the taller boy who stuck out his hand for Debbie to shake. When the older lady made no move he withdrew it, glancing at Louise with one eyebrow raised. Debbie gave them a quick tight smile before turning back to Louise.
“Come along child your guests are waiting.” She grabbed her arm and ushered the girl towards the main party area. Louise looked back at the boys apologetically and shrugged. Debbie then guided her around the room, introducing more and more people. Louise was exhausted by the polite smiling and casual conversation. She had to laugh at everyone’s lame jokes and talk business constantly with all the shop owners, printing firms and material manufacturers.
After about an hour of this Louise had to sit down, her head was spinning and she needed a drink. By the bar she joined Eric, who was sipping a beer and watching the room with a bemused expression.
“So what exactly is it that you do?” he asked her. She took a gulp of her drink and replied,
“I could ask you the same question.”
“Ah, but this isn’t my party.” He looked at her and winked. She finished her drink quickly and ordered another from a nearby waiter.
“I’m a fashion designer.” Louise told him in a resigned sort of voice, she was fed up of all the faffing around that seemed to represent her business. “Not a very famous one, but Debbie is trying her hardest to change that. That’s why she organises these.” She swept her hand around, gesturing to the room.
Eric gave her what could have been an impressed smile.
“All these people seem a bit,” he hesitated.
“Up their own arses?” Louise supplied. They looked straight at each other and laughed. But before Louise could say anything else Debbie swept over, she seized the drink from Louise’s hand and threw it down onto the table.
“Louise-Marie, you should not be drinking alcohol. You are only nineteen and imagine what sort of impression that gives to the clients. Now I have a very important man to introduce you to.” As she pulled Louise away Debbie turned back to Eric. Louise could just hear as her manager turned back to Eric and hissed,
“Don’t forget what we discussed.”
Louise was worried by the tone of voice the woman had used,
“What was all that about?” she asked, indicating the exchange of words between her new friend and her manager.
Debbie brushed off the question by pushing Lou towards a particularly fat man wearing a deep purple suit and a monocle. He looked entirely pompous and over-the-top.
“This is Lord Edward Connington. He’s an English millionaire whose daughter has taken an interest in your clothes.”
Louise smiled politely at the man who grasped her by the hand and started pumping it enthusiastically. But as soon as he touched her, skin on skin she went again. This time the white screen was already there when she opened her eyes in the white world. The scene went straight into the action. A younger, thinner and more reserved Lord Edward was walking in a lovely country park. But the park grew dark and dismal; the moon came out, a full moon. Howling sounded from the woods and Lord Edward looked worried. An explosion of fur and claws flew out of the trees and hurtled towards the frightened man. Edward screamed and hid his head behind his arms, crouching into a ball. The wolf lunged, but before it could reach the defenceless boy a gun shot cracked from the right. The creature fell, whimpering and wounded in a heap in front of the Lord. Shaking, Edward peered out from between his fingers at the now unconscious beast. A woman strode from his right to poke the ball of fur, which grunted and began to snore. She then turned to look down her nose at the young man.
“Get up you wuss, it’s only a werewolf. That’s the problem with you rich kids, whatever you don’t understand you run away from.” She sniffed at him in disdain before turning away and talking into a walkie-talkie attached to her shoulder. “Target down in sector three, but we have a casualty.” The voice on the other end crackled into life,
“Injured or girl?” it asked.
“Neither.” The woman replied laughing “A pansy rich boy.” She grinned evilly at the boy still cowering on the floor.
“Leave him. If he hasn’t died of shock then he’ll just crawl back under the rock he came from.” The voice sniggered back. The woman tied up the wolf, hoisted it over one shoulder and strode off still laughing to herself. As she walked past Lord Edward she kicked him with one foot,
“You’ll never amount to anything if you stay like that.” She sneered before leaving him to his tears. Louise knew from experience that to get out she had to touch him again, so she reached forwards and lightly brushed the back of his neck. She felt sorry for the poor bloke, and understood why he was so brash and ridiculous now.
As she opened her eyes again Louise wasn’t surprised to see both Eric and Tommy leaning over her, she pushed herself up from the floor and turned to search for Lord Connington. He was standing a few yards away talking in whispers to Debbie. Lou looked straight at him,
“You shouldn’t listen to people like the girl in the park. Be who you want to be, don’t let anyone else tell you how to live. I'm sure you would have turned out just fine without her influence. And you wouldn’t have to wear such dreadful clothes either.” Lord Edward looked at her in disbelief. He stuttered and gaped for a few moments, before finding his voice,
“Thank you.” He said, probably for lack of a better word. But he smiled at her, dislodging his monocle and pompous grin.

The elevator doors crunched open with a clatter and a bang, revealing a very done-up woman. Her hair was piled high onto her head and her dress had so many spangley bits on it that Tom had to squint. But she ignored both boys completely and looked straight at Louise.
“Louise-Marie!” she snapped. “Where have you been? This party is supposed to get you contacts not hate-mail.” When she did finally glance at Eric it was with a sneer and a sniff, “And who are they?” she demanded “They will not look good for your reputation.” Lou seemed annoyed at the woman, which wasn’t really surprising because she struck Eric as a very irritating sort of lady.
“Debbie, don’t worry. They’re old friends of mine, I haven’t seen them in ages.” Eric caught her eye and realised she needed help “It took a while to catch up, so I invited them to my party.” He and Tom looked at each other for a moment, mentally deciding what to do. One glance was enough; they knew each other’s facial expressions that well.
“We’re school friends, I’m Eric Wesson and this is Thomas Smith.” Eric said pointing to his friend, who stepped forward and offered his hand in greeting. The old woman sniffed again and made no move to shake it. Tommy raised one eyebrow at this blatant snubbing; he glanced at Louise as if to ask if she was always like this. But before Lou could make any repairs to the relationship Debbie had grabbed her arm and was guiding her into the throng of people.
“Come along child your guests are waiting.”
Louise gazed back at the boys, she looked apologetic as she shrugged and smiled at them, before being dragged into the crowd of people. Tom and Eric looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“Well she was a bitch, wasn’t she?” Tom chuckled. “I don’t know how Lou puts up with her.”
“I don’t even know how Lou knows her!” exclaimed Eric “Did she ever mention what she did or why she has parties thrown for her?” Tom gazed around in awe at the gathered people.
“They all look very rich, maybe little Louise-Marie is some kind of Duchess or something.” He said jokingly, sticking his nose in the air and puffing out his chest. Both boys looked as upper-class as they could,
“Let us mingle.” Eric said in his best English accent.
“Oh, yes, let us” Tom replied, and they swaggered into the fray of people.
Eric and Tom had a whale of a time pretending to be all posh and rich. The people they talked to seemed to be very influential in the fashion and textiles world, or the retail side of life. After about half an hour of ‘mingling’ Tom nipped to the men’s room leaving Eric to get the next round. Which was their third, it was free after all. Eric lounged against the snack table, beer in one hand and a fiddly little canapés in the other. It was there that Debbie cornered him, looking down her nose at his bottle when compared to her cocktail glass complete with olives on a stick. She obviously wanted to talk to him because she stood directly in front of him and gave a small, pursed smile.
“Arite?” he said, just to be conversational. He was treated to a slight sneer before she could regain control of her features.
“So, Eric is it?” she asked, without giving him time to answer. “I don’t care if you’ve known Louise-Marie for all of her life, your presence here is disrupting her impression on the clients. I want you to leave her alone, it’s for own sake, she’ll be better off without you and your friend.”
Eric stared at her in disbelief; she was trying to get rid of the only people he had seen that were anywhere near Lou’s age.
“I’m sorry?” he demanded “Exactly who do you think you are? Lou can make her own choice of friends. You can’t control her life forever you know, and you definitely can’t relive your own, very distant, childhood through her.” He had had enough of pleasantries, and thought that this stuck-up cow deserved to be brought down a peg or two. But Debbie actually smiled at him, not a real smile, but the best she could get with all the face-lifts.
“You obviously don’t know her at all; I doubt you’ve ever met her before tonight. Keep away from her or I’ll call the police, I expect you’ve both got some dodgy backgrounds. Especially that Thomas boy, he looks like a hooligan in anyone’s book.” And with that she marched away haughtily. Eric didn’t know whether to shout obscenities after her or just laugh at her. He satisfied himself by doing a bit of both. Tom came back to find Eric laughing to himself and muttering.
“Cow.” He sniggered “How do you know anything about us, what a complete bitch. Hooligan indeed, what a twat.”
Tommy took the beer that Eric offered him as the conversation was recounted. Thomas found it as funny as Eric did, and they both laughed.
Later on that evening Louise found Eric leaning against the bar, Tom had gone to the toilet again; the beer went straight through him!
“So what exactly is it that you do?” he asked her once she had received her drink.
“I could ask you the same question.” She retorted, taking a large and apparently much needed gulp of her drink. Eric smiled at her feistiness,
“Ah, but this isn’t my party.” He winked at her, she drained her glass with a sigh of satisfaction and ordered another.
“I’m a fashion designer.” She told him, although it obviously wasn’t something she enjoyed. Although Eric did get a glimpse of enthusiasm beneath her grimace but it seemed to have been smothered out of her. He blamed the Debbie woman. “Not a very famous one, but Debbie is trying her hardest to change that. That’s why she organises these.” She continued, confirming Eric’s suspicions. He smiled at her, he was pretty impressed by all the rich people in the room that she knew and the fact she was so young. But they didn’t seem like the sort of people she would know in normal society.
“All these people seem a bit,” he started.
“Up their own arses?” Louise ended. They looked straight at each other and grinned. But before Eric could say anything else the Queen Bitch Debbie flounced in and seized Lou’s drink with a look of pure horror.
“Louise-Marie, you should not be drinking alcohol. You are only nineteen and imagine what sort of impression that gives to the clients. Now I have a very important man to introduce you to.” She threw the glass onto the bar and pulled Louise away by her arm, nearly toppling the poor girl over. But before she had got too far Debbie turned back towards Eric and hissed,
“Don’t forget what we discussed.”
He smiled, but it wasn’t out of amusement, and slowly shook his head at her. But she had whisked Lou off to be introduced to yet another influential man. Again Tommy reappeared too late to hear the exchange of words, and before Eric could fill his friend in there was a small scream and a crash.
Both boys rushed towards the sound of the disturbance, Louise was lying on the floor again. Her eyes were rolled back into her head and she was shaking manically.
“Okay, just give her some space.” Tom said in a raised and commanding voice. Everyone did as he told them because he sounded as if he knew what he was doing. “I’m a doctor and this girl is having some kind of fit.” He lied, quickly improvising. Debbie scoffed,
“If he’s a doctor than I'm the Queen of Sheba.” She whispered loudly to anyone who could hear her. Eric smiled at her sarcastically,
“Good evening your highness.” He said bowing to her. Then he straightened up and addressed the rest of the guests. “This is my friend Dr Smith, I assure you he is trained in the medical profession. He will be taking charge of the situation, don’t worry it will all be fine.” He then knelt down beside the unconscious girl, Tom opposite him.
“You look after her and I’ll ask some questions to keep up pretences.” Tommy said in a hushed voice before standing up again and talking directly to Debbie.
“Do you know of any epileptics or history of fits in the family?” he asked her, still keeping his voice calm and collected. He knew the sorts of things doctors should ask, after all, his mother had been one. Debbie shook her head nervously, she was starting to get worried about her little ‘goldmine’.
“Who was she last in contact with?” he continued.
“That would be me.” A large and now very scared looking man stepped forward. He looked as if he was trying too hard to be noticed and larger than life. The look didn’t really suit him. Tom could imagine he’d be more comfortable in a nice tweed suit with a waistcoat and some well fitting glasses. As opposed to his silly, little monocle and too-tight, purple polyester thing.
“And who would you be sir?” Tom asked, the man was obviously very rich and important.
“I’m Lord Edward Connington.” The man explained quietly, showing more of his more natural side. Tom decided it was a good idea to take this line of questioning further. He motioned for the Lord and Eric to follow him into a secluded alcove where they could talk more openly.
“Now Lord Connington, I know this is going to sound crazy and you’ve probably blocked it all from your mind. But I have reason to believe that at some point in your life you’ve had contact with something you can’t explain. Something supernatural.” The Lord looked at Tom in amazement. The young boy thought that the Englishman was going to shout at him or deny everything. But the larger man took it surprisingly well; most people ignore the signs or call you a lunatic if you start talking about unexplainable things or demons and things that go bump in the night. But Lord Edward just looked tired, he was suddenly an old man in a disgusting suit and silly facial hair that didn’t belong.
“Yes, you’re right. I’ve been trying to convince myself it didn’t happen. But when I was a young man back in England I was nearly attacked by a werewolf. Some people were hunting it and I guess they used me as live bait.” Eric felt that this confession was too easy, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“Louise is picking up on your memories of what happened. It must have really warped you.” Eric didn’t even try to sound sympathetic and caring. But Lord Edward elaborated; he evidently really wanted to tell someone about his experience.
“It’s not the attack that scarred me so deeply, but the hunter. She made me feel worthless and useless. I decided then to live how I thought real people lived. Large, boisterous lives full of parties and jokes. But now I'm old and I don’t want to end my days this way. I just want to be me again.”
Eric had an idea,
“Finance Louise’s fashiony thingy, it’ll be great fun. You can have a whole new start, a new career and crap.” Thomas and Lord Edward looked at him as if he was talking rubbish.
“But what about Debbie the cow?” Tom asked.
“What if she doesn’t want my input?” Lord Connington questioned at the same time.
“That bitch deserves to be fired.” Eric told Tom “Dude she thinks you’re a hooligan and I'm dodgy.” He laughed, before turning to answer the Lord’s question, “Hey, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. But right now I'm going to check on her, I think it unwise to leave someone in that state with Debbie!” the two boys hurried back to the still twitching girl while Lord Edward returned to stand beside his wife.
As the girl started to wake up Debbie crossed over to stand beside the Lord, she leaned over to him and whispered,
“What was all that about?” in an accusing manner. But before he could reply Louise woke up fully. She smiled faintly at the two boys peering down at her, Eric was glad she had come back again, it had said in Geek-boy’s book that some inexperienced vampires could get lost in the ‘Alius’. But Lou didn’t talk to him, she stood up and searched for Lord Edward Connington, then looking him straight in the eyes said,
“You shouldn’t listen to people like the girl in the park. Be who you want to be, don’t let anyone else tell you how to live. I'm sure you would have turned out just fine without her influence. And you wouldn’t have to wear such dreadful clothes either.” Lord Edward looked at her in disbelief and Eric was sure he saw a hint of relief. He stuttered and gaped for a few moments, before finding his voice,
“Thank you.” He whispered, still using his refined country Englishman accent, as opposed to the gaudy half-American drawl he had attempted during the party. He smiled kindly at her, letting his monocle fall to the floor. His wife beamed at him, noticeably happier with this side of her husband.