It all began with the knock on the door.
"Ooh, who could that be?" wondered Ursula cheerfully, as she bustled around the kitchen dusting the surfaces with a huge pink feather duster.
Tom shrugged from his position slumped at the table, picking at his breakfast half-heartedly. It was an unusually hot humid day for Britain, and everyone was suffering. "I'm not expecting anyone."
"Not even that nice girl Katie?" Ursula asked innocently.
Tom rolled his eyes. "No."
"Well go and see who it is," Ursula prompted him, tickling him on the back of the neck with her feather duster. "Don't want to keep anyone waiting on our doorstep."
The teenage boy sighed, but got up reluctantly, knowing no one else was going to get the door.
He opened the door, expecting to see Benny, or maybe Katie, or maybe even fierce Nekross brandishing ray guns. It wouldn't have been the first time that had happened, after all.
But he hadn't been expecting this.
"Hello, Thomas Clarke," said the man he had once known as Adams. "I need your help."
It had been a slow day for the Nekross.
Varg had been pacing up and down the flight deck, muttering to himself and occasionally stopping to hit a screen or a keyboard in frustration. Lexi had grown annoyed at this act after the first hour or so, but she supposed she couldn't really blame him. They were all just hungry, after all. And this was the second day without even a drop of magic to sustain them. Technically they could survive for a while without magic, but having had very limited amounts of it over the past few weeks, then having none for whole days at a time - it wasn't good for anyone. Lexi ached for just one full meal, just one time when she didn't have the harsh ache of insatiable hunger tearing at the interior of her stomach like a raging animal.
But ever since the wizard Shroud had gone up around the human Earth, magic takings had been few and far between. Sure, they got lucky sometimes, with some chance findings of easy magic, or if there was a particularly strong spell that broke through just the right area of the Shroud to get to their sensors. But those occurrences were happening less and less. Any small findings of faint magic wouldn't even properly feed the weakest Nekross guard. Plus the Nekross on the ship had run out of magic supplies. They had sent the last scraps back to Nekron, so at least their people wouldn't starve. But there had been none left to feed the Nekross left on the ship. Lexi didn't like to think negatively, but she knew they were slowly starving. There was no point in denying it. Naivety was not an attribute of Nekross.
"Argh! Wizarding scum!" Varg cried out for the fourth time that day. "Why do they elude us?"
Lexi decided not to reply. There wasn't any point arguing with Varg any more, not when they were all bitter, weakened and hungry.
"We haven't picked up any magical sources on Earth for two days!" Varg complained, resuming his pacing.
His sister rolled her eyes at his back, but quickly put on an innocent expression when he turned. "We're all hungry, brother."
Varg didn't appear to hear her. "When I get my hands on those wizards, I'm going to -"
Lexi sighed under her breath. It was going to be a long, hungry day.
"You?!" Tom breathed in disbelief and fear, preparing to click his fingers and cast a spell. Whatever Adams wanted, it couldn't be good.
"Wait! Don't cast a spell yet!" Adams implored. "You need to hear what I have to say!"
"Well you certainly valued my opinion the last time you kidnapped me!" Tom retorted.
"I understand you don't trust me, but I have a proposition for you," the older man told him fervently. "Can I come in?"
"Who are you doing the dirty work for this time?" Tom asked. "Since Stephanie Gaunt met her well-deserved end."
Adams tilted his head proudly. "I am the manager this time. I do my own dirty work, as you so eloquently put it."
Tom raised an eyebrow. "Well done you. You got a promotion from mindless minion."
Adams sighed. "I understand. You can't trust me. But wouldn't you like to get rid of your alien adversaries - for good?"
That got the boy's attention. Tom looked up at Adams, startled. "You mean - the Nekross. Who you attempted to kidnap and failed once before. You're trying again?"
"We can take them out of the equation for you," offered Adams. "That's why I'm here. To offer you a proposition."
Just then, Ursula came around the corner smiling. "Who is it, Tom? Oh -" Her eyes widened and the smile dropped off her face as she saw who was standing at the door.
Tom sighed. "You had better come in..."