A metal utility closet had been pushed over to cover the hole in the
storage room. Buffy and I pulled it back out of the way and slipped into
the tunnel beyond. The smell of rot and mold permeated the air and made me
sneeze. Buffy didn't seem to mind the smell, but her sense of smell
probably wasn't as sensitive as mine. She pulled out a small flashlight
and led the way into the darkness. The distant sound of the trains echoed
as we went along.
The tunnel seemed have a slight downward incline. After about a half hour we came to a place where the tunnel split off left and right as well as going straight ahead. Buffy shone her light down in each direction and then took the right tunnel. We continued in silence until we came to the end of the tunnel and found ourselves at the edge of tracks.
"Which way now," I whispered.
"Shh," said Buffy.
I sniffed the air, trying to catch a hint of blood or something, but all I could smell was metal. A bright light shone suddenly in our faces and we backed up the tunnel a bit as a train pulled into the station. We waited with our breathes held as the passengers got off and the train pulled out. It was fairly silly, it wasn't like someone was going to spot us standing there in the darkness. What would they do even if they could?
Buffy stood for a moment longer and then started sprinting along the edge of the tracks again to the right. I felt like I was in a video game and hoped that her slayer senses were all they were cracked up to be. I almost ran into her when she stopped abruptly. I smelled old blood and found that we were halted in front of another door to some sort of access room. The door was blocked by something, but with both of us pushing, we were able to move whatever it was and slip inside. The room was empty, but when Buffy illuminated the floor with her flashlight I saw a dark stain in one corner. I went up and scraped a bit of the substance off the floor. I got an "ick" from Buffy as I took a taste of it off my finger. It was human blood. We had to be close to something.
"Is that what I think it is?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"There's some sort of trap door over there," she pointed with her flashlight.
We hurried over and pulled it open by the metal ring bolted to the floor. A steel ladder went down into the darkness. Buffy turned off the light and started down. I followed carefully behind her. If Spike and Drusilla were down there, we wanted to at least to try and have the advantage of surprise. At the bottom of the ladder all was silence. Of course that would be the case if the vampires were sleeping.
Buffy turned the flashlight back on and we saw that we were in another empty room. I had to wonder why there were so many odd little rooms in the Underground. It was almost as if they were made for vampires. Then I got the creepy thought that maybe they were. There was another door at the other end of this room. Buffy gestured again for silence and we went to it as quietly as possible. The door opened in so she rushed through.
This time the room wasn't empty, but was filled it was a ratty couch, a few pillows, and a couple of suitcases. I noticed some wilted weeds strewn in front of the couch. Buffy went over and opened one of the suitcases. Inside were some rather frilly women's underwear and a couple of silk skirts. The other suitcase held shirts and boxer shorts. Apparently these vampires traveled light.
"It seems they were here," I said.
"Yeah, that's obvious, but it's weird that they're not here now. Even though the Underground stays out of the sun all the time, they've still got to rest. It's ten in the morning, where could they be," Buffy didn't sound happy.
"Good question, which won't be answered standing around here. Let's get back up top and I'll give Van Helsing a call to see if they got anywhere."
Buffy took a last look around and nodded. We made our way back up the ladder and headed across the tracks to the station. We got quite a few odd looks, jumping up from the tracks onto the platform, but we just ignored the commuters. It turned out to be Piccadily Station. We took the escalator back to the surface where I punched Van Helsing's number on my speed dial.
"Van Helsing here," he said.
"Hey, we found where they've been staying, but it's empty. Any luck with the pub?" I asked.
"We didn't learn that much that was new, but we did find something that might be a lead. In the alley behind the pub I found a Roman coin. Rupert suggested that it might belong to a local vampire. We're on our way to the Barking Central Library to do some research. Why don't you join us?"
"We're at Piccadilly Circus Station, can you get directions from Beatrice?"
"I'll just give her the phone, so she can give them."
"Are you sure you don't want her to just concentrate on driving?"
"What about my driving?" Beatrice laughed. "You need to use the Bakerloo Line and get on a train going towards Elephant & Castle or Waterloo."
"Wait," I pulled a small notebook and pen out of my pocket, "go ahead.
"You got the first part, right?"
"Yeah, Elephant or Waterloo."
"Get off at the Embankment Station and walk to the District Line. Get on a train going to Upminster, Barking, or Dagenham East. You should be able to walk from there. Ask directions to the Barking Library and you'll get there."
"Thanks."
"I can't believe Giles has got them doing research. Can't I ever get away from books, even when I'm on vacation?" Buffy asked
"Sorry, they found what they think might be a clue and Giles wants to see what they can find out. Back to the Underground," I put away my cell phone and sprinted for the stairway.
Buffy laughed and ran after me. We both took the stairs two at a time, avoiding annoyed people coming up. Buffy beat me by a couple of steps and we stopped to purchase tickets again. Within ten minutes we were on our way.
**********
They had amazing parking luck again and found a place in the library parking lot. It was still early in the day, so not many people were there. When they got to the entrance, Giles stopped them and pulled out a piece of paper. He drew an odd symbol on it and handed it to Van Helsing.
"You said there were watchers here at one time, we they recognize that symbol?" Giles asked.
"Yes, actually. This is a varation on one that the Watchers here used. Do you expect to find a former Watcher here at the library?" Van Helsing sounded amused.
"If they were anywhere, it would be here. It's worth a chance."
Beatrice rolled her eyes and then led the way inside. The check out desk was to the right and straight ahead was a information desk manned by a research librarian. Giles walked straight up to the woman and handed her the slip of paper. She was a rather attractive red head with bule eyes that widened when they saw the paper. She examined the three of them, taking in Van Helsing's grey suit, Beatrice's business-like pants and blouse, and then back to Giles who was wearing jeans and a T-shirt.
"You're in luck, Professor Wells often visits us before lunch since he doesn't have any lectures until afternoon. I'll show this to him and perhaps he'll agree to talk to you. Why don't you wait in the conference room over there?" she pointed to a door on the opposite wall.
"Thank you, Miss," said Giles and led the others to the room.
It contained a long oak table with four chairs on each side and two on the ends. Beatrice and Van Helsing sat on one side and Giles sat on the other. They didn't have to wait long when a rather wrinkled old man came in. He was short and his hair was pure white. He was using a mahogany cane, the top carved in the shape of a Chinese dragon. He stood in the door and studied them for a moment. Then he made his way slowly to the end of the table and sat next to Giles.
"I am Professor Wells, Enid showed me the symbol you made, sir," Wells looked Giles in the eyes. "It's been a long time since I've seen anything like that. Please introduce yourselves."
"I'm Rupert Giles, this is Professor Jacob Van Helsing and Officer Beatrice White. I have a feeling that you can help us," Giles held out his hand to Wells.
Wells ignored Giles' hand to stare intently at Van Helsing, "Jacob," he said after a moment, "little Jacob, the last time I saw you, you were just a boy. You held tight to your father's hand and wouldn't look me in the eyes."
"Of course, Professor Wells, you were one of my father's teachers. I had forgotten. Giles, Wells was on the Watcher's council here in this universe before it was disbanded," Van Helsing looked a bit bemused.
"This universe?" Wells looked from one man to the other.
"Giles, here has come from another universe, where the vampires are still going quite strong. He and his slayer followed some vampires from their world to this one," Van Helsing explained.
"Another universe, I have heard of such things, but I found it hard to believe. Vampires from another universe, that is not a good thing."
"That's not the only problem. Doctor Strange has told me that it may be that not all the vampires here were destroyed. He fears that some ancient vampires survived. We were looking into some destruction caused by the alien vampires and found something that we think you should look at."
Giles handed Professor Wells the Roman coin. Wells blinked and studied it. He handed it back to Giles with a sigh.
"This could be very bad, we need to do some research," Wells pressed something under the table and the back wall slid open to reveal a door with a key pad.
Wells rose slowly from his chair and limped to the door. He typed in a combination and the door swung open. He gestured for the others to proceed him into the room beyond. Beatrice and Giles went first. Van Helsing started through, but stopped.
"Professor Wells, the slayer and a friend of mine are on their way here. Will they be able to get in here?" he asked.
"Enid will bring them to us, don't worry," Wells said.
Van Helsing nodded and stepped through the door. On the other side was a large room lined with bookshelves. Four round tables were in the center. They all took a seat at the same table.
"This was one of the Watcher's Council's archives. You might wonder why it was in a public library, let us just say it made some things easier. Perhaps your own Council has more resources than ours did, Mr. Giles. My memory isn't what it used to be, so I can't give you a name, but I do remember a Roman vampire mentioned in one of the chronicles of London Vampires," Wells pointed to a whole shelf of red leather bound books.
"Those 100 volumes have references to every vampire that ever visited or lived in London. I suggest that we start with the first four volumes. Jacob, would you and Mr. Giles do the honors?"
Giles and Van Helsing each took two books down from the shelves and set one each in front of Wells and Beatrice. Then they sat down each with their own volume. It was going to be a long day.
We made it to Barking without much trouble and hurried back to the surface. We asked a man selling newspapers for directions to the library and got them. As we headed for the place, I heard Buffy's stomach growl. I realized that I could do with some lunch as well. I saw a fish and chips restaurant and headed for the entrance. Buffy smiled and followed me in.
As we waited at the counter she said, "Knowing Giles, he probably didn't think about food. Do you think they'll let us bring some into the library?"
"I don't know, but we could try," I said with a shrug.
We gave the counter person our order for five servings to go and took a seat at a table near the window. I enjoyed the people watching for a few minutes. Looked like lots of office and other workers on their way to lunch as well. Our order came up and we each grabbed a large bag and continued our trek to the library.
As soon as we went in a young woman intercepted us, "You'd be Buffy and Katherine?"
"That's us," Buffy agreed.
"I'm to show you to the conference room."
"We brought lunch for the hard workers, is it ok if we bring it in?"
The girl looked around, "My supervisor went out for lunch, so I'll allow it, just don't let anyone else know about it."
"I doubt we'll ever be back here again, so don't worry."
"Follow me."
We followed her to a room, which held only a large table. She pressed something under one end and the back wall slid back. She punched some numbers into a keypad next to the door revealed and it swung open.
"Go on in, I have to get back to my desk," she said.
"Thanks," Buffy slipped through the door and I followed.
Giles, Van Helsing, Beatrice, and an extremely elderly looking man all had their noses burried in four large books. Buffy set her bag in the center of the table.
"We come bearing food," she said.
Giles didn't even look up from his reading. Beatrice took one sniff and shut her book with a bang. I set my bag on one of the other tables and took a seat. Buffy sighed and picked her bag back up and set it next to mine. Beatrice joined us and we pulled out our fish and chips and started to eat.
"Boy am I hungry, I could eat two orders," Buffy said loudly in between dipping her fry in ketchup.
"That sounds good to me," Beatrice added.
Van Helsing shut his book and came over to join us. Giles still didn't look up. That man has a very onetrack mind.
The tunnel seemed have a slight downward incline. After about a half hour we came to a place where the tunnel split off left and right as well as going straight ahead. Buffy shone her light down in each direction and then took the right tunnel. We continued in silence until we came to the end of the tunnel and found ourselves at the edge of tracks.
"Which way now," I whispered.
"Shh," said Buffy.
I sniffed the air, trying to catch a hint of blood or something, but all I could smell was metal. A bright light shone suddenly in our faces and we backed up the tunnel a bit as a train pulled into the station. We waited with our breathes held as the passengers got off and the train pulled out. It was fairly silly, it wasn't like someone was going to spot us standing there in the darkness. What would they do even if they could?
Buffy stood for a moment longer and then started sprinting along the edge of the tracks again to the right. I felt like I was in a video game and hoped that her slayer senses were all they were cracked up to be. I almost ran into her when she stopped abruptly. I smelled old blood and found that we were halted in front of another door to some sort of access room. The door was blocked by something, but with both of us pushing, we were able to move whatever it was and slip inside. The room was empty, but when Buffy illuminated the floor with her flashlight I saw a dark stain in one corner. I went up and scraped a bit of the substance off the floor. I got an "ick" from Buffy as I took a taste of it off my finger. It was human blood. We had to be close to something.
"Is that what I think it is?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"There's some sort of trap door over there," she pointed with her flashlight.
We hurried over and pulled it open by the metal ring bolted to the floor. A steel ladder went down into the darkness. Buffy turned off the light and started down. I followed carefully behind her. If Spike and Drusilla were down there, we wanted to at least to try and have the advantage of surprise. At the bottom of the ladder all was silence. Of course that would be the case if the vampires were sleeping.
Buffy turned the flashlight back on and we saw that we were in another empty room. I had to wonder why there were so many odd little rooms in the Underground. It was almost as if they were made for vampires. Then I got the creepy thought that maybe they were. There was another door at the other end of this room. Buffy gestured again for silence and we went to it as quietly as possible. The door opened in so she rushed through.
This time the room wasn't empty, but was filled it was a ratty couch, a few pillows, and a couple of suitcases. I noticed some wilted weeds strewn in front of the couch. Buffy went over and opened one of the suitcases. Inside were some rather frilly women's underwear and a couple of silk skirts. The other suitcase held shirts and boxer shorts. Apparently these vampires traveled light.
"It seems they were here," I said.
"Yeah, that's obvious, but it's weird that they're not here now. Even though the Underground stays out of the sun all the time, they've still got to rest. It's ten in the morning, where could they be," Buffy didn't sound happy.
"Good question, which won't be answered standing around here. Let's get back up top and I'll give Van Helsing a call to see if they got anywhere."
Buffy took a last look around and nodded. We made our way back up the ladder and headed across the tracks to the station. We got quite a few odd looks, jumping up from the tracks onto the platform, but we just ignored the commuters. It turned out to be Piccadily Station. We took the escalator back to the surface where I punched Van Helsing's number on my speed dial.
"Van Helsing here," he said.
"Hey, we found where they've been staying, but it's empty. Any luck with the pub?" I asked.
"We didn't learn that much that was new, but we did find something that might be a lead. In the alley behind the pub I found a Roman coin. Rupert suggested that it might belong to a local vampire. We're on our way to the Barking Central Library to do some research. Why don't you join us?"
"We're at Piccadilly Circus Station, can you get directions from Beatrice?"
"I'll just give her the phone, so she can give them."
"Are you sure you don't want her to just concentrate on driving?"
"What about my driving?" Beatrice laughed. "You need to use the Bakerloo Line and get on a train going towards Elephant & Castle or Waterloo."
"Wait," I pulled a small notebook and pen out of my pocket, "go ahead.
"You got the first part, right?"
"Yeah, Elephant or Waterloo."
"Get off at the Embankment Station and walk to the District Line. Get on a train going to Upminster, Barking, or Dagenham East. You should be able to walk from there. Ask directions to the Barking Library and you'll get there."
"Thanks."
"I can't believe Giles has got them doing research. Can't I ever get away from books, even when I'm on vacation?" Buffy asked
"Sorry, they found what they think might be a clue and Giles wants to see what they can find out. Back to the Underground," I put away my cell phone and sprinted for the stairway.
Buffy laughed and ran after me. We both took the stairs two at a time, avoiding annoyed people coming up. Buffy beat me by a couple of steps and we stopped to purchase tickets again. Within ten minutes we were on our way.
**********
They had amazing parking luck again and found a place in the library parking lot. It was still early in the day, so not many people were there. When they got to the entrance, Giles stopped them and pulled out a piece of paper. He drew an odd symbol on it and handed it to Van Helsing.
"You said there were watchers here at one time, we they recognize that symbol?" Giles asked.
"Yes, actually. This is a varation on one that the Watchers here used. Do you expect to find a former Watcher here at the library?" Van Helsing sounded amused.
"If they were anywhere, it would be here. It's worth a chance."
Beatrice rolled her eyes and then led the way inside. The check out desk was to the right and straight ahead was a information desk manned by a research librarian. Giles walked straight up to the woman and handed her the slip of paper. She was a rather attractive red head with bule eyes that widened when they saw the paper. She examined the three of them, taking in Van Helsing's grey suit, Beatrice's business-like pants and blouse, and then back to Giles who was wearing jeans and a T-shirt.
"You're in luck, Professor Wells often visits us before lunch since he doesn't have any lectures until afternoon. I'll show this to him and perhaps he'll agree to talk to you. Why don't you wait in the conference room over there?" she pointed to a door on the opposite wall.
"Thank you, Miss," said Giles and led the others to the room.
It contained a long oak table with four chairs on each side and two on the ends. Beatrice and Van Helsing sat on one side and Giles sat on the other. They didn't have to wait long when a rather wrinkled old man came in. He was short and his hair was pure white. He was using a mahogany cane, the top carved in the shape of a Chinese dragon. He stood in the door and studied them for a moment. Then he made his way slowly to the end of the table and sat next to Giles.
"I am Professor Wells, Enid showed me the symbol you made, sir," Wells looked Giles in the eyes. "It's been a long time since I've seen anything like that. Please introduce yourselves."
"I'm Rupert Giles, this is Professor Jacob Van Helsing and Officer Beatrice White. I have a feeling that you can help us," Giles held out his hand to Wells.
Wells ignored Giles' hand to stare intently at Van Helsing, "Jacob," he said after a moment, "little Jacob, the last time I saw you, you were just a boy. You held tight to your father's hand and wouldn't look me in the eyes."
"Of course, Professor Wells, you were one of my father's teachers. I had forgotten. Giles, Wells was on the Watcher's council here in this universe before it was disbanded," Van Helsing looked a bit bemused.
"This universe?" Wells looked from one man to the other.
"Giles, here has come from another universe, where the vampires are still going quite strong. He and his slayer followed some vampires from their world to this one," Van Helsing explained.
"Another universe, I have heard of such things, but I found it hard to believe. Vampires from another universe, that is not a good thing."
"That's not the only problem. Doctor Strange has told me that it may be that not all the vampires here were destroyed. He fears that some ancient vampires survived. We were looking into some destruction caused by the alien vampires and found something that we think you should look at."
Giles handed Professor Wells the Roman coin. Wells blinked and studied it. He handed it back to Giles with a sigh.
"This could be very bad, we need to do some research," Wells pressed something under the table and the back wall slid open to reveal a door with a key pad.
Wells rose slowly from his chair and limped to the door. He typed in a combination and the door swung open. He gestured for the others to proceed him into the room beyond. Beatrice and Giles went first. Van Helsing started through, but stopped.
"Professor Wells, the slayer and a friend of mine are on their way here. Will they be able to get in here?" he asked.
"Enid will bring them to us, don't worry," Wells said.
Van Helsing nodded and stepped through the door. On the other side was a large room lined with bookshelves. Four round tables were in the center. They all took a seat at the same table.
"This was one of the Watcher's Council's archives. You might wonder why it was in a public library, let us just say it made some things easier. Perhaps your own Council has more resources than ours did, Mr. Giles. My memory isn't what it used to be, so I can't give you a name, but I do remember a Roman vampire mentioned in one of the chronicles of London Vampires," Wells pointed to a whole shelf of red leather bound books.
"Those 100 volumes have references to every vampire that ever visited or lived in London. I suggest that we start with the first four volumes. Jacob, would you and Mr. Giles do the honors?"
Giles and Van Helsing each took two books down from the shelves and set one each in front of Wells and Beatrice. Then they sat down each with their own volume. It was going to be a long day.
We made it to Barking without much trouble and hurried back to the surface. We asked a man selling newspapers for directions to the library and got them. As we headed for the place, I heard Buffy's stomach growl. I realized that I could do with some lunch as well. I saw a fish and chips restaurant and headed for the entrance. Buffy smiled and followed me in.
As we waited at the counter she said, "Knowing Giles, he probably didn't think about food. Do you think they'll let us bring some into the library?"
"I don't know, but we could try," I said with a shrug.
We gave the counter person our order for five servings to go and took a seat at a table near the window. I enjoyed the people watching for a few minutes. Looked like lots of office and other workers on their way to lunch as well. Our order came up and we each grabbed a large bag and continued our trek to the library.
As soon as we went in a young woman intercepted us, "You'd be Buffy and Katherine?"
"That's us," Buffy agreed.
"I'm to show you to the conference room."
"We brought lunch for the hard workers, is it ok if we bring it in?"
The girl looked around, "My supervisor went out for lunch, so I'll allow it, just don't let anyone else know about it."
"I doubt we'll ever be back here again, so don't worry."
"Follow me."
We followed her to a room, which held only a large table. She pressed something under one end and the back wall slid back. She punched some numbers into a keypad next to the door revealed and it swung open.
"Go on in, I have to get back to my desk," she said.
"Thanks," Buffy slipped through the door and I followed.
Giles, Van Helsing, Beatrice, and an extremely elderly looking man all had their noses burried in four large books. Buffy set her bag in the center of the table.
"We come bearing food," she said.
Giles didn't even look up from his reading. Beatrice took one sniff and shut her book with a bang. I set my bag on one of the other tables and took a seat. Buffy sighed and picked her bag back up and set it next to mine. Beatrice joined us and we pulled out our fish and chips and started to eat.
"Boy am I hungry, I could eat two orders," Buffy said loudly in between dipping her fry in ketchup.
"That sounds good to me," Beatrice added.
Van Helsing shut his book and came over to join us. Giles still didn't look up. That man has a very onetrack mind.