His skin was starting to wrinkle by the time he stepped out, the air cold against his wet skin. He looked around for a towel, but other than the small hand towel beside the sink, there wasn't one.
He opened the door and stepped, dripping and naked into the lounge. The humid air seemed to rush out behind him, and he felt the comparative chill of the lounge give him goose bumps.
Nanny Voodoo was sitting on the sofa with Cassidy chatting over tea. Both turned to look at him.
"Erm? Is there a towel," he asked.
"Good Lord," said Nanny Voodoo. "Cover yourself up."
Darwin looked down and shrugged. He'd never been particularly shy about being naked. It was just flesh and skin, not some deformity.
"Airing cupboard, top shelf," Nanny Voodoo yelled. "And don't drip on my carpet."
She turned to Cassidy. "It's surprising he's able to catch any prey with something so small." The two of them giggled.
She still had some of his clothes from when he was a boy, some tracksuit bottoms and a T-shirt. They were tight, but they were wearable, although Darwin didn't think he'd ever be able to get the T-shirt off, which now seemed glued to him like some sort of second skin.
Nanny Voodoo sent him off to the Fish and Chip shop for dinner, whilst Cassidy had her shower. He returned to find her wrapped in one of Nanny's flowery dresses, whilst her own clothes were washed and tumble dried.
"You OK?" he asked handing over her order.
She nodded. "I was telling Nanny Voodoo about the Vampire Council."
He sat at the floor by her feet - there wasn't room on the sofa for all three - and began unwrapping his order. "Oh," he said. He'd wanted to flush the memory of the events of yesterday out of his mind. This was supposed to be a happy time.
"Are they all gone?" Nanny Voodoo asked, returning from the kitchen with vinegar and ketchup.
Darwin nodded. "Pretty much. Honest Tom and a few others made it..."
"And what did this?"
"Tentacles," Cassidy said through a mouthful of chips, waving an arm in the air symbolically.
Darwin reached over and picked up the notebook from the coffee table and handed it to Nanny.
"It was after this."
Nanny Voodoo flicked through the pages.
"Old elvish?" she said with surprise.
Cassidy nodded. "That's what Darwin said," she mumbled through a wall of potato.
"Can you read it?" Darwin asked. "I could make out some words but..."
She wagged the notebook at him. "If you had stayed at the council instead of running off then..."
"... Then I'd be dead too," he finished sharply.
Nanny Voodoo looked at him for a second, eyes narrowing as if ready to unleash some barrage of abuse. But she decided against it and returned to flicking through the book.
"We found it on a dead wizard," Cassidy said, gulping chips down.
"We think he was a wizard," Darwin corrected. "We can't be sure."
Nanny Voodoo ignored them, continuing to thumb through the notebook at the expense of her chips going cold.
"I think it's got something to do with mana," Darwin said.
Nanny Voodoo slammed the book shut. "The gateways between realms, Darwin. Whoever owned this was looking at the gateways."
"Why would anyone want to know about the gateways?"
Nanny Voodoo gave him that glare that made him flinch. "Come on Darwin. Think. Why would anyone want to be able to go through the gateways?"
"To invade?" Darwin laughed. "You've got to be kidding, right? I mean, the dwarves have so much ex-Soviet hardware, they could blow any invaders to smithereens, tentacles or not."
"And you would have thought the vampires capable of defending themselves before today, no? I do not understand the maths, but this notebook talks about how and why the gateways are created."
"It could be black market goods. There are always black market goods going to and fro through the unmonitored gateways."
"You think they'd murder an entire race in order to move some fizzy drinks across the border?"
Darwin shrugged. "Why would anyone want to invade Venefasia? Who would want to?"
"Maybe the battle lines between Heaven and Hell have reopened?" Nanny Voodoo looked at Cassidy as she said this.
Cassidy looked up from her chips and shrugged. "Beats me," she said. "Like I know what's going on any more."
"Mark my words," Nanny Voodoo said. "Someone is looking to move an army into Venefasia, and wants to create a gateway."
There was silence for a second, before Nanny Voodoo returned to her chips.
They ate in silence, deep in thought. Something didn't seem right to Darwin about this. There were too many unanswered questions. What were those things and why did they want the notebook? Surely it was more complicated that just wanting to open a gateway. As far as he knew, no-one had been able to do that. Maybe the wizard had discovered something. Ideas were worth money in this day and age, and if the humans didn't want to pay, perhaps the dwarves or maybe even the elves would.
He left his chips unfinished.
"Are you not eating those?" Nanny Voodoo enquired. He handed them over, he didn't feel hungry. The only consolation was that Cassidy had probably eaten the most he'd seen her eat in months, finishing off her chips and then helping Nanny Voodoo hoover up what was left of Darwin's.
"So what are your plans?" Nanny Voodoo asked Darwin later as she handed him the last of the washing up.
"Venefasia," he said, quickly drying the plate and putting it in the cupboard.
She eyed him with a raised eyebrow for a second. “Venefasia? Are you serious?”
Darwin nodded.
There was a pause whilst Nanny Voodoo considered him. She grunted, turned and pulled a scrap of paper and paper out of a full-to-bursting draw.
“There are two gateways in the South-East: Luton and Guildford.” She scribbled furiously away at the piece of paper. “Luton is the easiest to get to but it’s very busy. Wizards coming and going all time of day.”
She handed him the bit of paper. “That’s the address of both of them,” she said. “But if you want my advice. Go to Guildford. Hardly anybody uses it any more. Last thing you want is to get into Venefasia only to be face with a hundred angry wizards.”
Darwin pocketed the piece of paper. “Thanks. I figured we could stay low for a couple of months before coming back. Cassidy says she's always wanted to see Scotland."
Nanny Voodoo dried her hands and looked out into the lounge where Cassidy was finishing up the tub of ice cream Nanny had found in the freezer.
"She's sweet, Darwin. But be careful."
"I am," he said defiantly as if affronted. "I'm still alive, aren't I?"
Nanny Voodoo appeared to ignore him. "She's Fallen Darwin, and people don't easily get thrown out of Heaven."
"What you think, she's behind this?"
"No, but I do think she's trying to lead you down a path you aren't ready to go."
Darwin thought about this for a second. Was Nanny Voodoo suggesting he should be more vampire than human?
She laughed and put a hand on his shoulder, obviously sensing his hesitation.
"Protect her, Darwin. She is more important to you than you realise."
What did she mean by that? Before he had time to ask, she'd left the kitchen, drifting into the lounge.
"Would you like to see some pictures of Darwin when he was younger?" she asked Cassidy. "They are most embarrassing."
"Oh, yes please," smirked Cassidy looking in Darwin's direction.
Yes, I heard, he thought drolly, and then decided against joining them. Secretly though, he felt content, watching Nanny Voodoo and Cassidy flick through albums, point and laugh. It was like all the worries and stress of the last twenty four hours had never happened, that it had been a bad dream from which he had awakened. Tomorrow, they would leave and head to the venue for the meet, and from there on into Venefasia. But there was part of him that didn't want to go,
wanted to stay here, just the three of them, away from the stress of the real world. He smiled, and turned his attention to getting out the clothes from the tumble drier. Clean clothes... how long had it been?
He'd been so stupid to leave it so long before coming back to see Nanny Voodoo. What had been afraid of? Rejection? She'd never been the warmest of people anyway, a clout round the back of the ear as good as sign that she cared as any. He regretted that he'd left it so long. Perhaps in a couple of months, when everything had blown over, he could come back here. Maybe if he and Cassidy got jobs, they could rent a bigger place, be a family of sorts.
He went into the lounge and put Cassidy's freshly laundered clothes in a pile beside her.
"There you go," he said.
"You had such a bad haircut," Cassidy giggled pointing to one of the pictures.
He looked over her shoulder at the picture.
"Yeah," he said with a smirk, “I suppose I did."
"And it's not much better now," scolded Nanny Voodoo.
At least it was clean for a change, thought Darwin.
"Oh, let me cut it," pleaded Cassidy. "Pleeeasee!"
He shrugged. "Go on then." It wasn't like she could make it any worse.
Cassidy squealed with excitement.
"The scissors are in the bathroom cabinet," instructed Nanny Voodoo. "But mind you don't knock over my medication."
Cassidy practically vaulted the sofa as she dashed into the bathroom.
Nanny Voodoo gave Darwin a stern look. "Are you alright?"
He smiled. "Yes, I'm fine," and for once he actually meant it.
There was a crash and the sound of a bunch of pills falling over the bathroom floor.
"Sorry!"
Maybe they could hide out here, he wondered. Forget about the months hiding in Venefasia, and just stay with Nanny Voodoo. They could start their perfect little life early.
Cassidy came bounding back over the sofa, wielding scissors in a way that could have taken somebody's eye out. Darwin sat on the floor at Cassidy's feet as instructed, and closed his eyes as Cassidy went to work on his hair.
"Incidentally, how many people's hair have you cut?" he asked.
"One," replied Cassidy. "Including you."
"Oh," he said.
Oh indeed. Twenty four hours ago he would have been stressing, telling her to leave it alone, having a row over something as petty as cutting hair. Even Cassidy noticed.
"You're very calm," she said.
"Hmm," he mumbled, listening to her snip away and hoping she remembered that he had ears in there somewhere.
"Getting a little too comfortable?" Nanny said suspiciously. "You need to go help your people."
Darwin snapped round. 'Why? It's not like they've ever done anything for me?"
"They're still your family, Darwin."
"Well perhaps I don't want them as my family," he said indignantly. "You're more family than they ever were."
Nanny Voodoo let out a long sigh.
"You can't stay here, Darwin. It isn't safe."
"What do you mean 'isn't safe'? No-one knows we're here..."
"Not for you, for me," Nanny Voodoo interjected, her voice rising to a shout.
Silence was only broken by the snip snip snip of Cassidy's scissors.
"What would happen when you wanted to feed, Darwin? This is a quiet community, it's not a city. It couldn't hide a number of murders."
"I could go into London to feed, I could eat rats."
Nanny Voodoo shook her head. "Is that what she makes you do?"
Cassidy ignored her and continued with her cutting.
"I can do it," he protested, knowing full well he couldn't.
"Can you? And what happens when you come home one night with blood lust? Would you bite me slow, or would you do me a small mercy and finish me quick?"
"I'm not like that," Darwin protested. "Ask Cassidy. I've never tried to bite her."
Nanny Voodoo scoffed, cutting but not altogether cold. "Darwin, even I can smell she's not human."
Darwin sat there open mouthed, unable to think of what to say.
"Darwin, I love you like a son, but you're a monster and you'll always be one. I can't..." she searched for the word carefully, "... cope with that. Come up for a week by all means, but any longer than that and I'm gonna politely ask you to leave... for my own safety."
He didn't want to cry, more importantly didn't want to let Nanny Voodoo or Cassidy see him cry.
"It doesn't have to be like that," he said, head down.
Nanny Voodoo leant over and kissed his forehead. "I wish that were so," she said. "But you belong with your people. They need you right now."
He put his head in his hands. He had Cassidy telling him he was half-human, he had Nanny Voodoo telling him that he was a monster, he wanted to prove himself to his people, but also wanted to stay here and live a quiet idyllic life with Nanny Voodoo and Cassidy. It all hurt his head, and he wasn't sure what he should be doing.
Who was he?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - Joseph's Secret
Maureen woke with a start. The fact it was dark outside made her think she should roll over and go back to sleep. But she didn’t feel tired and it was only when she remembered that she’d not gone to bed before it was daylight that everything became clear.
Her worries rolled in like a tide as the events of yesterday came back into mind. What had she done? What if she'd got found out? What if Joseph had reported her? She didn't think he would, but just how well did she know him, beyond exchanging small talk and pleasantries every couple of days as wizards passed through the gateway?
"Oh no," she said aloud to herself, as if yesterday had all been one big drunken mistake.
Thump! Thump!
She knew the sound, had heard it thousands of times, yet this morning it made her jump. No-one was expected on the schedules. Her heart sunk. They had found out, Joseph must have felt compelled to tell them. She clutched at her chest. What was she going to do? Why had she done something so reckless?
She forced herself to breath slowly, to think about things rationally.
"What's done is done," she said aloud. Nothing she could do would change that. She had no choice but to get up and face the music.
"If you're big enough to go and do these things," she said to herself, reciting her mother as she dressed, "then you are big enough to accept the consequences."
By the time she was at the bottom of the cellar stairs, she was quite calm. She would tell them the truth, that she'd been upset that no-one seemed to be taking Ernest's death seriously, that she suspected the elves were involved somehow. She didn't expect them to understand, but at least they would know the truth.
She was therefore surprised to find only Joseph waiting for her on the other side of the gateway. She tried to look round him, to see if his large bulk was obscuring the Abbot or the inquisitor, but he was alone.
"I haven't told anyone," he laughed.
"Well, of course," Maureen lied unconvincingly. "I knew you could be trusted, Joseph."
"So..."
"So what?"
"Tell me about it. Tell me. Where did you go? What did you see?"
Maureen hesitated a second, wondering if it would be wise to tell him. No, she thought. He'd been good enough to keep her secret, the very least she owed him was an explanation.
So she told him everything, about going to Ernest's flat, how she'd lied to get in, how she'd run into the elf, and how someone had saved her.
"Who do you think it was?" Joseph asked.
Maureen shrugged. "I have no idea," she said.
"Well, what do we do now?"
"Now?" Maureen seemed taken aback. "Now we do nothing. It was a stupid thing to do and I was lucky I wasn't caught, killed or something worse."
Joseph raised his eyebrows. "Nothing?" he questioned. "You suspect that the Friary is covering something up, you sneak into Ernest's house and discover an elf... who attacks you! And you want to just leave i
t?"
"Joseph, I'm a little old lady in her eighties. I'm not Cagney and Lacey."
Joseph shrugged. "Oh well, if you don't want to come along."
"Come along?" Maureen queried. She was starting to feel a bit short with Joseph. "What are you talking about?"
Joseph looked either way before leaning into Maureen and saying, "The disease."
"The disease? What disease? Joseph, you're making no sense."
The troll sighed. "I was not supposed to say nuffin'"
"Says who?"
Joseph paused for a second, before swallowing hard and saying, "Ernest."
Maureen was aware that her mouth was hanging open. She was a mix of emotions at the moment, but above all of them she felt hurt. Of all the people, Ernest could have confided in, he chose Joseph instead of her. It shouldn't matter, she thought. Joseph seemed like he was completely trustworthy - surely he must be if Ernest trusted him - it was just she'd always thought she'd meant more to Ernest than that. She fought back the sudden urge to cry. No Maureen, she told herself, show some control.
She wanted to ask Joseph why Ernest had chosen him and not her, but she realised that could be construed as anti-troll, and she didn't like to think that she was capable of racism. But if truth be told, at that moment, she resented Joseph - hated that a troll was considered a better confidant than herself.
"Why?" she found herself asking.
"This is why I didn't want to say nuffin'" Joseph replied. "I knew you'd get upset."
"I'm not upset," Maureen lied.
There was silence for a second before Maureen picked the conversation back up. "What disease?"
"It's the wizards," Joseph whispered. "They're losing their magic."
"Losing their magic?" Maureen was thoroughly perplexed.
"Yes, loads of them. One moment they're fine, next time you see them, they seem a bit disorientated and are unable to cast any spells."
"They're unable to remember them?"
"No, they try and cast them and nothing happens."
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