Chapter Nine

"Well that's gonna be easier said than done!" said Danny. "I mean" he said, gesturing at Tom with his knife "you weren't exactly snatching it off me!"

Tom shook his head "Can't remember!" he said, wearily. "Let's go over what we know…" he looked up, a renewed vigour in his eyes.

"Danny, you drank all the potion" Tom said, to which Danny nodded. "Then, when I bit you…I must have got some of the potion into my bloodstream, which was enough, combined with the verses read by Dougie and the midday sun, to turn me back".

"But are you back?" asked Dougie. Tom still didn't seem to be 100% back to his old self. He was still a bit, well, "vampy".

Tom looked at Dougie in surprise. "Well, yeah…yeah, I think I am!" he said slowly. "I feel like me…I don't remember anything after we staked Harry in the studio and I've been out in the sun without bursting into flames! So, yeah. I'd say I'm back!"

"Ok then" said Dougie, seemingly convinced.

"I've gotta go take a leak guys" Danny said, rising from his seat. Tom and Dougie watched him cross the room.

"But what about him?" Dougie nodded in the direction Danny had just gone.

Tom thought for a moment. He seemed like the same old Danny, if you looked past the continually bleeding wound on his neck. "What do you mean?" he asked Dougie.

"Well" Dougie started. "He's got that fucking great wound on his neck that won't stop bleeding" Tom cringed with the guilt he felt for inflicting an injury that he had no recollection of causing.

"He's just demolished that plate of meat like he hasn't eaten for months" Dougie was ticking the points off on his fingers. "And he's as white as a sheet!"

Tom sat quietly for a moment, contemplating the points Dougie had made. "He's lost a lot of blood," he said, thinking aloud. "So, he's bound to be pale. His iron count is probably down, hence why he's craving meat and…and…I'm not sure about the wound!"

"Maybe the potion thinned his blood or something?" Dougie suggested.

Tom nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, or maybe, maybe vampire spit is like mosquito's, where it stops the blood from clotting so it can be drunk more easily?"

Dougie shuddered at the thought, but having not been able to come up with a more satisfactory answer, conceded that Tom was probably right.

Danny re-joined them at the table. He grinned round at Tom and Dougie "Who's up for desert then?" He rubbed his hands together eagerly and reached for the menu.

Tom and Dougie looked at each other. "He's fine!" said Tom and Dougie nodded. They managed to persuade Danny to have the chocolate and apricot tart and to wash it down with a couple of pints of Guinness, having explained to him that he needed to rebuild his iron levels.

Danny confessed: "To be honest guys, I don't really get what you're on about, but I'm not complaining!"

Since Tom had returned, Danny's mood had improved dramatically, but Dougie still remained downcast and reflective. They all knew they had to try and get Harry back, but Dougie really didn't rate their chances very highly.

Back at their B&B, they sat with their heads close together, studying Halimar's parchment.

"So you translated this, and it sounds like the lyrics to 'Party Girl'" Tom asked, his voice heavy with disbelief.

"Yeah" said Danny, reaching for his MacBook. He opened Google translate and carefully copied one of the lines of text, clicked "translate" and turned the laptop round to face Tom.

Tom read it carefully and then frowned "Yeah, it is quite similar isn't it. Weird!"

"So what do we do now?"

"Well" Dougie said slowly. "We already know what we have got to do. The question is how we do it!"

Danny began to tell Tom what he and Dougie had seen when they peered through the window of the summerhouse.

After thinking for a while, Tom said, "If he's in such a bad way, between the three of us, we might be able to overpower him? Force him to drink the potion?"

Reluctantly, Danny and Dougie agreed that there wasn't really an alternative option open to them.

"But what about the vampire girls?" Dougie pointed out. "What if they hear something or just happen to come along?"

"We'll have to go during the day," said Danny. "We know what time the girl visited him last time and she didn't stay for long, so hopefully they stick to a routine and we can go in without being interrupted."

Tom and Dougie nodded their agreement. "Do we need to make more potion?" asked Danny. "We've only got the one bottle left. Will it still be ok?"

Dougie fetched a glass from the bathroom and carefully poured a small amount of the strange liquid into it. They all peered at it intently. "It still looks the same," said Danny, picking the glass up and examining it closely. He sniffed it gingerly "It still smells the same". Raising the glass to his lips he took a sip and pulled a face "Yeah, it still tastes the same too!"

They decided to make another bottle, just to be on the safe side, in case the one they had got spilled in some way, so they set up the little stove and brewed up in the same way as they had before, pointing out the Tom how weird it was that the stone was cold, but the potion bubbled and steamed as if it was boiling.

All feeling exhausted, they turned in for the night, knowing that tomorrow was likely to be their last opportunity to try and get Harry back. Too much time had passed and they knew from messages they had received from Richard that questions were starting to be asked about their whereabouts and the fact that they seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth. Tom had tried to allay fears by tweeting a short message that they had all been working hard but had been without reliable Internet, but he feared it had done more harm than good, judging from the influx of replies he got, not only from fans, but also from their friends and families, who were questioning their plans vigorously.

The following morning, all three woke with a feeling of impending doom and there was a definite cloud hanging over the three of them as they ate their breakfast in near silence.

Once they had finished eating, they packed up the few items they needed into Danny's Range Rover and drove the short, but now very familiar, distance back to the house.

It was completely deserted when they arrived. There were no cars in the front yard, there were no sounds coming from the house at all. Danny and Dougie led Tom to the front window, where they had spent much time watching the goings on inside the house. But this time, they could see nothing. The "party room" was empty. There was no evidence of anything having taken place there. There were no balloons, plates, empty glasses or bodies. Nothing.

Looking at each other in surprise. Danny voiced what the others were thinking, "The place looks empty!"

Tom and Dougie nodded. "Maybe the vampire girls have moved on?" Tom suggested.

"Maybe," Dougie said cautiously. "Or they've shacked up with Harry again?"

Tom and Danny stared at him in disbelief. "Oh, I really hope not!" said Tom.

Dougie looked grim-faced. "We need to go and find out!"

Quietly and carefully, the three made their way around the side of the house until the gate to the rear garden was in sight. Danny and Dougie glanced down the stairwell to the cellar that had previously held the pile of decomposing bodies, but again, these had all vanished. Not even the stench remained.

Making sure no one was watching, they stealthily crossed the back yard and slipped through the gate. Locating a nearby bush that was large enough for them all to hide behind, they dashed across the open ground until they were safely concealed. Peeping around the bush, they could see the summerhouse clearly. It looked the same to Danny and Dougie as it had before, quiet and still, with no outward signs of life.

Danny was still peering around the side of the bush, when he quickly ducked his head back behind and hissed to Tom and Dougie "The door's opening! Someone's in there!"