From Aleine Skyfire: Vampires.
...
"This is a bit quiet, isn't it?" The good doctor only receives an elbow in the ribs for his woeful attempt to break the silence. "Holmes, must you do that?"
"Shush, Watson!" Another voice snaps in the darkness.
"Any sign of the robbers yet, sir?" A third voice, much more innocent sounding than the previous two, asks an older man next to him.
"Not yet, lad, but we'll be lucky before dawn- I bet on it!" The man exclaims triumphantly.
"Not blooming likely, Lestrade!" A fifth voice retorts.
Sherlock Holmes, his companion Doctor Watson, and three Scotland Yard inspectors: Giles Lestrade; Stanley Hopkins and Tobias Gregson, were hiding on a stakeout near the Tower of London.
"Great, you just had to invite Mr Holmes out, didn't you?" Gregson complains to Lestrade.
"You know him, Gregson, he would have interfered anyway!" His colleague hisses. "I'm just saving us the trouble of having him jump out at us from nowhere!"
The other three men share a look of exasperation as Gregson and Lestrade start squabbling again.
"How long will this last?" Watson asks.
"It could last for a while, sir." Hopkins replies. "They have a tendency to do that, Doctor Watson."
Holmes, impatient, cuffs both men round their heads. "Do you want to give the game away?" He hisses, in snake-like tones.
"Look, I see shadows, sir!" Hopkins points.
"That must be them! Quick!"
The five men prepare to get going- only for them to get themselves tangled up with each other, and by the time they had got out of it, they had lost sight of the perpetrator's.
"Drat! We've lost them!" Gregson snarls. "This one's on you, Lestrade!"
"No it's not!" The other inspector argues, going red in the face and glaring daggers at his infuriating colleague, oblivious to the glares e was receiving from everybody else.
"Sirs, please! We have two very dangerous and a traitor to the Queen to catch, and you're both squabbling, like, like..." Hopkins falters, unwilling to insult his superiors.
"Like bloody schoolboys!" Watson roars, much to the surprise of the others- especially Holmes, whose jaw dropped lower than everyone else's. "Hopkins is right- these men are dangerous and they must be stopped before they can steal the Queen's ravens!"
"Yes, you're –ahem! - quite right, gentlemen." Lestrade blusters awkwardly.
And with that, they forge on, determined to catch the famed thieves, known as the 'Vampires of the Tower Hamlets' as they had been raiding the area a lot lately.
...
Once inside the Tower, the five men split up; Gregson goes with Hopkins, and Lestrade is stuck with the Baker Street duo.
"Well, we better clear it, before Lestrade attempts to trick us onto going with Mr Holmes!" Gregson says, and, with a faithful Hopkins beside him, he runs over to the 'Bloody Tower' whilst the other three head to the White Tower.
...
"Gosh, it's cold in here, sir!" Hopkins remarks, feeling his arms turn to stiff blue rods as he plods along up the stone stairs of the 'Bloody Tower' behind his older colleague. "It's also...also a bit spooky looking, isn't it?" He asks nervously.
"It doesn't surprise me in the least, lad- why, my history teacher drilled it in me that this is the very tower the two 'Princes of the Tower' were held- King Edward V and his little brother Richard- both smothered by their uncle, Richard III! The guards claim their ghosts haunt this tower, looking for rescue, but it never comes..."
"Err...sir..."
"What is it, Hopkins? You're not afraid of a silly little ghost story, are you?"
"No-no sir- actually, I'm more afraid of the ghost that's behind you."
"What the bloody hell are you talking"- But Gregson's impatient cursing and grumbling is suddenly cut short by a loud:
BANG!
All Hopkins could see before he blacked out was the stone stairs, and his fellow inspector's unconscious body.
