"Do you want some tea?"
"Are you the tea Goddess who made that amazing brew when I...visited the first time?"
"Indeed. And the biscuits too!"
Strange it was, both girls were warming up to each other. The two were different as can be; his Annie was tall, shy, a bit of a reclusive and a pristine housewife (The Pink House bore witness to it, even when we boys lived in it.)(Not your room. It was off limits. Interesting carpet in your room, Mitchell. Possibly too bloody red. )(Shut up).
So was Nancy (Not a housewife, probably not) the repair on the trouser leg proved that stitching had not been a high point of her curriculum. But she was good looking, assertive, knew her business, not a fool, quite loud, (I like girls who are matter of fact) (Shut up, I get it)
The two women, now, looked up at him, expecting him on cue to direct the conversation.
"Something happened"
"No? You tell me! Now cut the bullshit and start telling the truth."
" A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..., either you pay attention and understand I have no beef in that story or I shall be telling you lies wilder than those heard in Kandahar Bazaar"
Nancy dug a thick book, took out a pencil...and an eraser, ready to take notes.
All started with CESSNA. What. C E S S N A; he would explain later. While Mitchell was trying empirically to stop the Bristol vampires getting high on blood, a mysterious group had planned their murders. An explosion had killed about all the vampire friends. Not all were killed really, as those who did not die in the fire were simply unconscious, in a coma like him. He had been lucky, there had not been as lucky as him.
The military surgeons had believed him with a severe head injury and worked out the impossible to save his life; technically he had been injured. He suffered enough headaches for England plus quite a severe case of amnesia. To go back to Bristol, 20 of the 31 vampires not turned into ashes because of the bomb, were turned into ashes as their so-called dead bodies went down the cremation route. Officially they were dead; now they were really dead. Burnt alive. In total: 31 lives lost. Mitchell had lost it too. Crazy with guilt and despair, holding him responsible, he had vowed retaliation.
Mrs Daisy Hannigan-Spiteri (Nancy nodded), the widow of one of the victims was in serious grief, as her husband Mr Ivan Spiteri... That would be her second husband, but the first husband had been human; she was human at the time...Arrgghhh, those vampires' family lines were complicated. Mr Spiteri was among of those burnt alive. This was a genocide directed at vampires. So, the two of them had decided t was payback time. 20 vampires burned alive, 20 humans to be butchered as their friends had been. The two vampires had calculated how many people got in every box; the BT had 19, plus the train driver. 20. The BT20 would pay for the Bristol 20. Poetic justice had said Mrs Spiteri.
It was stupid, the problem was CESSNA. And the humans who were financing this project. Instead of that Mitchell went on a private rampage, solving nothing. Turning more and more paranoid (Yes, you were, mate. It was under your nose. Follow the money flow). The stellar young inspector had followed the leads, the ghostly leads. The rest, she knew.
(I was stupid, Soo stupid. It was not your fault, mate; you need a cool head to see the bigger picture, a neutral head. Those operations like Bristol cost a lot of money; that Kemp was as poor as church mice, Jaggatt did not drive a Rolls Royce, even if she had a consultant pay. It was too much personal, you could not help it)
"CESSNA, they rented a bank. Which bank? That bomb, how did they access to the explosive? This machine, that costs a lot?"
"That is where you enter the stage, Miss Reid"
Because that was the secret thing no one had really paid attention at, the clue under everyone's nose; if only everybody had paid attention from the beginning, religious fanatics now days do not wield power. Churches are not anymore into the Spanish Inquisition, the real Churches are banks, money. Who was behind CESSNA? Who were those faceless men and women who had poured good hard earned money into a cracked head like Kemp?
Everybody could see through his seams. The man wanted to star in the Exorcist. George had held doubts from the beginning, Tully Dog, not the brightest of hounds had smelled something rotten. Only Nina so desperate, so ashamed of her condition had believed the priest could help her. Why had she not read that rubbish of all rubbish book Lucy Jaggatt wrote? The international scientific community had laughed. Even the nurses in his ward were chuckling. The thing was not even holding against fun fantasy science. Mythological studies were more serious. "What next?" Was the position of the real searchers. "Vampires and werewolves are aliens!"
(I believed in her; I thought she would save me.)( Only "you" can save "you" from yourself, matey. Only "you". )(God knows I wish a magic wand would give me back my body without an extra soul to share, but I know I have to find the solution to that body sharing myself)
"What are your plans?"
"Someone is planning a massive ethnic cleansing against us, Nancy. Against us, Miss Sawyer. Naturally as in any society, we are divided. Instead of being united, Lycos and we are like cats and dogs; and cherry on the cake our own leaders are hapless."
"The Old Ones are hapless?"
"Old is the master code. They want no change; we carry on like we are. Wyndham who is no better but a personal assistant to a less sleepy senator, was supposed to take m...Mitchell back to South America. This role of the Wrath of God he has taken is a joke. Wyndham ..."
"For a recently turned vampire, and a severely wounded man, you seem to know a lot"
"I have had a head injury, which does not mean I am daft! Besides, we have websites and vampipedia. Miss Nan...Miss Reid can surf the internet, she will know as much as I do"
"I suppose you may well call me Nancy, now. No more social niceties are desirable , you know, when you area fang girl"
The young detective was a game girl; fact remained she was a vampire and she was taking quite badly to have lost in one single bite her work, her family and her friends.
"It is not your fault, it is not my fault. We have not asked to become vampires. We have been contaminated, infected. We are like,..., like patients in infectious diseases wards. No one asks to be infected with Chlamydia. Humans should help us, not stake us. Imagine what families would say if we started burning to the stake syphilitic patients"
"Vampires are not bacteria?"
"No, Miss Sawyer, no we are not! We are infected, sick, contaminating, disseminating, yes. But we are human, and I shall be damned rather than drink one drop of blood from my brother. The Hunger is unbearable, but the infection is contained. It is not spreading, at least not by me"
"I am sorry. I did not think that a vampire could consider..."
"You do not know; it is bad enough as it is. But at least I can see my face in the mirror and ...actually I can't!"
"The Old Ones?...,? Does it mean?"
"Elementary, Mi...Nancy, Nancy. There is an opposition. Underground. Herrick had sleeper cells. He was not the only one to have sleeper cells"
"Why sleeper cells. Why not in the open, there is no shame at all. In fact, it is quite thrilling, like discovering America! I thought, We all think vampires, blood suckers, yadayada; but you are like a country, with rules and ..."
"We may be a 21st century country tweeting all over, but our rulers are backward bastards whose notions about democracy are as recent as the Pharaohs's. Mitchell Bristol Vampires Anonymous was a pilot. If it worked, we had planned to go state wise, then Europe wise"
"Mitchell was one of your "revolutionaries"? My Mitchell wanted to change his world?"
(Yes, Annie, I could not tell you my world secret war. There was too much danger; you and the household were too much at risk. Herrick was just having a middle manager crisis. But try and out throw people who have ruled for thousands of years, and count you lucky to be staked and burnt alive at the same time)
The door was opened with a big slam.
"Nina, I think we are enough ready as we are. It has to stop or we are opening a shop!"
George carrying about every possible bag related to baby wear, baby fashion, baby food, baby furniture known in England came into the front room.
"Oh, I understand now, the smell!"
"Nice! Young lady, I don't care if you are a vampire or not but this chair is my partner chair. My partner needs this chair now, if you please"
"How do you do, Miss Pickering? I am quite hungry now; you mind if I sort of munch..."
Chaos was beginning. The petite werewolf was holding her ground restrained by George, Annie was trying to keep her apart from Nancy also restrained by the vampire soldier.
-"I suggest we all sit. In the front room. And I take the sofa. I remind you all, I am the patient, and Nina will sit in the deep armchair. Nancy at my right, near my un-lame arm so I can...Stop it. Settle. Calm. Breathe in and out; that's for you Nina. George and I as civilized gentlemen will face each other. A...Miss Sawyer will sit at my left. My feet on the coffee table. We can start"
(Masterful, Swanson. My friend, I am impressed.)( Training, years of peace keeping in Helmand. When you have spent a year trying to calm family feuds going way back to the Raj, you know how to start peace talks)
Nina face change was dramatic as she learnt what had been the real behind the scene story in Bristol. What did that make for her cub? Not only the baby was the child of monsters, he was now the intended guinea pig for the Old Ones, but also right in the middle of a cold or hot war between vampires and possibly werewolves. Civil war was rife in the supernatural world. Two years ago, she was complaining how boring her world was.
George was worried, worried and fascinated. It all made sense. All those things Mitchell had vaguely, very vaguely evoked. All the missing bits also. The puzzle was taking shape.
"What's next? I get the cloak and dagger war, the New Labour, Tory politics; but what was Mitchell, really?"
"A secret agent, trying to infiltrate the Old Ones web. If he succeeded to get feeding vampires to stop, people like me, like Adam, could be more in the open, not as risk of an untimely death. But, Wyndham caught him. Either you saved him, even by killing him; or the Old Ones,..., the Old Ones have ways which make Nazi Germany look like Teletubby land"
"So, I saved him. I really saved him, saved his life"
"Yes, you did"
(Yes, you did George, I had been found out. In South America, being turned into an Attack Dog would have been the plus side. Staking was the only solution to save me from the vampire gene. You have no idea what they do to us when we fall alive in their hands, what they do in their research centres.) (Focus Mitchell, you are a soldier. We cannot afford troops with nervous breakdowns)
Swanson was right. Mitchell had died in a blaze of glory, giving his life for a just cause. This new generation of vampires was the fresh new blood his old tired world needed. Smart kids, not fussy, possibly a bit boring when it came to find its true love, but efficient.
About true love, Swanson was looking at Nancy like a bee zooming on a flower. Said flower was uninterested. (Nancy, Swanson?) ; rather she was reviewing her notes, asking for websites address, were there special firewalls, etc. Swanson might have the more dispiriting choice of shoes, but he was sharp when it came to information about the vampire world.
Christa ,who was back for college and Tom had listened in silence. What this much bigger picture meant for the two star crossed lovers who would die rather than admit they were lovers.
Vampire world was a country, vampires allegiance was to the vampiric world. Seldom would they interfere in human affairs, unless said humans went really overboard as in World War II; as for money, they traded in all currencies, Money was not a problem, they had one or more card to play in every boardroom of each and every bank of the planet. The Old Ones decided and all followed. Until about one or two centuries ago, guys like Ivan Spiteri had decided that enough was enough. Fair enough they had to feed, but staying in the shadows was wrong. Why could he not enjoy when not hungry the many beauties of the world, why not enjoy humanity as its best sincerely, after feeding? The much younger vampire had been punished, his bride had been staked in front of him; the woman who had loved him enough to wish to become like him so he would not be alone has been turned into smoke. Ivan went cruel, bitter, and cynical; but his message of hope, of change had not been forgotten.
And his idea must have been right all along; as after about 150 years of widowhood and celibacy (celibacy for a vampire is...complicated. Thank you, Mitchell, I am not stupid), his bride had been returned to him. His Daisy was back. The legends were true! His dark angel Ivan had followed the lead, going deeper into the unsuspecting human world. A vampire could mingle with humans as long as he did not feed, be happy, share the same pains, woes and joys and loves as humans. Even killing Dan had been worth it. He had been given 20 years of humanity. Somewhere in the direction of abstaining from blood was the cure for their medical condition.
"Medical?"
"Yes, Ms Pickering. Medical, there are some of us, like me, who call ourselves human. Human like George or you, but also like the post man who delivered the box this morning. We have a medical condition called vampirism. One day, we shall find a cure, and for werewolves too. Until then, we must accept to be in quarantine; but we are humans. I'd rather spend my life in a hospital fed by tube than endanger my human brother. "
"So after Kemp and his religious fantasies, we have vampires begging to be cured. Kemp would have loved you, if ever he was capable of love"
"I am talking science, medicine. Nurse. Not religion"
"That must no go well with the Old Ones"
"They hunt us, try to get us betray our friends, a bit of torture and we are smoked"
"Research means money. Mitchell was not exactly rich"
"We are not rich. I had to sell my car, though I think I can get Ivan's back. An injured soldier benefits is not going far. But if we could convince the younger Old Ones or that would be a miracle, one of their own Dark Angels that would mean a lot in our world. The main stream vampires like, like Richard, the rug boy, would think twice before feeding. If we stop feeding, we are no more a danger; we can be re-integrated in the human embrace. Contained yes, but accepted as humans."
It was left to George to conclude.
"We do not have one fight on our hands but two. The Old Ones and who or what is behind CESSNA!"
Nancy left soon after. Some research. Before her death, she had been quite a geek when it came to computers. If Swanson had not lied, she would be proud to be known as his first recruit. A recruiting which would not be done by blood allegiance, a first for vampires.
"We shall need that car. Mitchell Volvo is reliable; but McNair mobile home is living its last days. Ivan car would be welcomed A S A P!"
"How do you plan to get it"
"I shall have to go to Bristol"
"In your state, you are barely able to walk or climb stairs. You can't..."
"Nancy will come with me"
(Nancy, sly dog. You sure play a long hand.)( Mitchell, I do not comment on Miss Sawyer; please leave Nancy Reid alone)
Annie had disappeared again. This time, she was sitting on Mitchell bed. You make people better, she could hear him. He had done his best to be better. He had killed those people, but he had been driven to it. He had been so much more than better and she had betrayed him. Pushed him into Wyndham's arms. She had not known what she had been doing. The BT20 was a tragedy of incomprehension and despair. He deserved to be punished, but not this way, not this way.
She was sobbing uncontrollably. The man she did not know anymore was the man she should have known from the beginning. A decent man. A dead man. George had held the stake; she had been the driving force behind him. She had killed him more surely than Lia wolf shape bullet. She had been the weapon, the successful weapon all along.
