Lorimar Van Helsing cautiously crept through his narrow corridor; he reached a small table and quickly ran his hand along the underside until he found it, he pulled out a small silver dagger, after his son's death Lorimar had taken a number of precautions especially since he now had Jessica to consider. He flung the door open and dived through holding the dagger out in front of him.
"Richard Jeperson, what in the devil are you doing" Lorimar shouted at the man "You as well Miss Veil" he added as an afterthought, the tall red head tutted.
Richard Jeperson, The man from the Diogenes Club sat stretched out across Lorimar's favourite arm chair, one leg dangled over the arm of the chair; He wore a pink frilled shirt, garish yellow bell bottoms with a studded black belt, black Cuban heeled boots and to top off the ensemble a velvet fedora in a dark purple. Vanessa Veil meanwhile wore a pink Mini dress with dark green stripes running up ether side, her go-go boots were of similar pink as the dress, It was a credit to Jeperson's taste though Lorimar that she looked positively conservative next to him. They both however clashed with Lorimar's spacious living room cum library.
"Your granddaughter let us in" said Vanessa who was absent mindedly flipping through a copy of De Vermis Mysteriis, had it been anyone else reading the book Lorimar would have probably burnt the house to the ground, just to be on the safe side.
Richard stood, ran his hand through thick black hair, flattened his Fu Manchu and walked over to Van Helsing and hugged him "Long time no see." At this Vanessa flung herself at the men and wrapped them both in a hug, she placed a kiss on Lorimar's check, the old man blushed.
"If you two are here to sign me up for another Brighton you can count me out" said the old man laughing.
"Oh god no," Vanessa said between fits of laughter "Remember the." She made an odd growling sound and clawed at him.
"Yes, Yes I do, it nearly disembowelled me, then you set it on fire if I remember rightly, I presume this isn't a social call?" Lorimar said detaching himself from the group; he quickly crossed to his armchair.
"No, I'm afraid it isn't," said Jeperson gravely "Show him the photos, Vanessa" she crossed over to the small desk, picked up an envelope and passed it to Lorimar, he opened it and pulled out the contents, the photos all showed the same object, a statue of a bat just slightly larger than a man, the statue was made of silver. "You recognize it?" queried Jeperson.
"Yes, it's a statue of Barbatos, said to be one of great vampires, there's quite an interesting history behind the statue, do you know of it?" Lorimar stood and went to his book shelf.
"No," Richard and Vanessa said in unison "we need all the information we can get our hands on, someone's pinched the statue" continued Jeperson his tone was grave.
This new information flustered Lorimar "If the statue has been stolen it is imperative that you find it, it's more than just a statue, it's a prison"
"A prison?" Vanessa was intrigued "for what?"
"A prison for Barbatos, or his spirit at least that's how the story goes" Lorimar ran his finger along the spines of the books, he found the book and flicked through it till he found the page "Here it is."
"The Great Vampires were creatures born in the first moment of chaos; they swept through the universe bleeding entire worlds dry, they universe lived in fear of these monsters until one day the gods came, they welded stakes of silver so large they filled the sky. The gods waged war with the beasts until only a few remained, Barbatos was one of the survivors, he burned for an eternity before falling to earth" Lorimar took a deep breath "Barbatos's body died but his malignant sprit lived on, the land where he feel became warped and twisted,"
"So Barbatos is responsible for Manchester" Richard joked, Vanessa gave him a nasty kick
"Go on Professor" she gestured
"Very droll Richard," said Van Helsing supressing laughter "anyway as I was saying Barbatos corrupted the land, here the seeds of vampirism were planted. For centuries no one would venture there until one day a man came, he was said to be a German soldier who had lost his family to the curse of vampirism, for days he laboured crafting the statue in that dark place fending off wave after wave of Nosferatu, after he crafted the statue he battled with Barbatos spirit in the astral realms trapping him within the statue," He closed the book with a heavy sigh "whoever has that statue has to be found Richard, do you understand me."
After they said there good byes Richard and Vanessa made their way to his Rolls Royce Shadow Shark a lean black car. As they drove back to the Diogenes Club they sat in silence.
"Why didn't we show him the photos of the suspect?" queried Vanessa breaking the silence "He could have told us whether he was a you know what."
"Catriona's ordered full silence we can't talk to any other departments let alone a civilian about the photos" Richard, Vanessa noted was merely parroting this information.
"What's the real reason? We both know Lorimar wouldn't tell anyone"
Jeperson sighed "You know what he's like when it comes to," He made hissing noises "We show Lorimar that photo and he'd go off and get himself killed."
Vanessa nodded they both knew of Lorimar's sons fate, she looked at the picture again still struggling to accept it. The first photo showed a man in a black and red uniform ripping a guard's throat out with his teeth. The photo showed the world's newest defender in the midst of vampiric blood lust, further photos showed similarly men and women drag off the statue as the blood red captain drained the blood of the security guards. Vanessa shuddered this was a monster that had to be stopped.
"Some hero" She mused, Richard nodded in agreement.
They made their way through the Diogenes Clubs front rooms, the usual cover of overweight cabinet ministers had been ordered to leave, as far as Catriona Kaye was concerned the Diogenes Club was now at war with SPECTRUM. They proceeded up the staircase to the chairperson's room; they entered and found Catriona deep in conversation with a tall man with a thin moustache.
"Richard, Vanessa," she said smiling "This is Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. commander of the British contingent of U.N.I.T, He's going to help us win the war."