"Dear Maureen", it read.
"They have me. They say they will kill me unless you come. Please come quick. 15 Park Place East. Come alone. Joseph."
On a second sheet, a crudely drawn map showed the directions to the location.
Maureen found herself crying. Part of it was relief that Joseph was alive, part of it was fear for his safety. Perhaps she could go to Rofen. Maybe if she explained, he'd understand. Was her job really worth more than Joseph's life anyway? No, she told herself. They said come alone, she'd seen enough police shows on the television to know that involving the police rarely ended well for the hostage. And if her experience of New Salisbury police was anything to go by...
She walked carefully a few steps onto the cloister of the Friary. She felt an inner warmth strengthen her and she fished the broken plant stem out of her dressing gown pocket. Again she muttered the butterfly incantation, and felt a shiver down her spine as the plant disintegrated and a ghostly butterfly flew about her head.
Her jaw dropped and a hand went to her mouth. She could do magic, it wasn't a dream, it wasn’t elven trickery. She walked over and looked out over the side to make sure there were no elves hiding there, just to make sure. No, she told herself, they had no reason to toy with her. She really could do magic. She wished she had more plant stems to test more spells, but no, she told herself. She needed to get back to bed before Sally came.
Whilst the cold of the cellar hit her and made her shiver as she locked the door and hung up the key, she felt an inner strength that she'd not felt since she'd last stumbled out the gateway, injured and bloody. Consequently, the journey up the stairs was a lot easier than the journey down. She still felt weak and frail, but her head had cleared, and she felt a fire in her belly. They had Joseph but he was alive.
She was just getting into bed, when she heard the key in the front door lock, and Sally enter.
"You're looking a lot perkier," Sally told her as she ate the soup and toast Sally had brought for her. "I was worried about you for a while."
"I'm feeling a lot better than you," Maureen said between mouthfuls of toast. How long had it been since she'd last eaten?
"Well, just take it easy," Sally warned. "Don't go doing things before you're ready."
She was right of course, even though her little trip down to the gateway had done her the world of good, she still wasn't a hundred percent.
As Sally took the tray and left her be for the evening, Maureen's thoughts turned to Joseph. They wanted her and for that reason, resting and regaining her strength would do no harm. She could do magic and that changed things. That changed things dramatically. She wouldn't go to Rofen, she would come alone like they asked. She had the element of surprise, and those elves were going to be very surprised. She rarely thought that violence beget anything other than violence, but it was looking more and more likely that the elves had murdered Ernest. And now they were holding her best friend captive.
That sort of thing made her a tad annoyed.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE - The Trap
"So," said Ryan, breaking the silence as he guided Cassidy through the streets of Swindon. "How long you two been going out?"
There was something about the guy Darwin didn't like. Maybe the fact they were a similar age.
"We're just friends, we're not an item," Darwin replied and regretted it when Ryan's face perked up.
"Ha, how come? You not a poof or anything?"
"Oh, I'll fuck anything, I'm not fussy." Darwin gave Ryan a crafty little wink. If I ever get to feast on you Ryan, Darwin thought, I'll make you do some really freaky shit first. Ryan did seem like one of those people his pheromones wouldn't have any effect on though. Shame, he thought, I'd really like to make you suffer.
To make matters worse, Cassidy seemed to be flirting with him now. It's probably just to keep him on our side, he thought to himself. But still it bothered him as she told him that "yes," she was sorry, and that she "had missed him".
Darwin tried to change the conversation by asking questions about D'Toeni. How was he? Had he lost weight? Did he still have the moustache? All questions, that whilst they seemed to visibly annoy Cassidy, helped establish in Darwin's mind that Ryan had actually met the legendary vampire. That still didn’t help his unease about what they were walking into.
"So how did you two meet?" Darwin asked Ryan. "Cassidy's never mentioned you."
Cassidy threw Ryan a glance. "Ignore him," she said.
"We started going out in school," Ryan said, ignoring Cassidy's warning. Ah, how sweet, thought Darwin, childhood sweethearts. "We used to skive off chemistry together and bunk off down the park."
"So, how come you broke up?"
"Darwin," Cassidy hissed. "Don't."
"I wanna know Cass," said Darwin, feeling particularly mischievous. "You've never mentioned Ryan or your old life before. I'm just curious."
To anyone else her face would seem expressionless but to Darwin that slight downward turn of her mouth was enough to tell him inside she was full of fury. Darwin found himself almost enjoying this.
Ryan looked at her, then to Darwin. "We had a little row."
Darwin raised his eyebrows. "Must have been more than a little row for you to break up. What was it over?'
"Don't tell him anything," said Cassidy. "He's just trying to wind you up."
"It was gonna be my final bit of dealing, Cass," Ryan protested. "After that, we'd have been set up for life."
"Yet you got in over your head and I was the one who got shot."
"I would have come and visited you in hospital every day, but seriously Cass, I was a mess. They wanted to kill me, I had to go into hiding. The doctors said you might never recover from the coma."
Cassidy gave Ryan a bitter-sweet smile. "You never went to the police though."
"I couldn't. You know they would have done me. I was planning on coming to visit you once they'd made arrests and it had all quietened down but then I hear you woke up and just left. No-one knew where you went. There was an enquiry and everything."
Cassidy was silent for a second. "I'm not the person you knew back then," she said, her voice sad, filled with regret.
"Yeah, well your dear old nan passed away last year never hearing from you. Damn well broke her heart it did."
Cassidy gave a slight scoff. "What would you know about broken hearts, Ryan?"
"It's still fucking cold. Going off and not telling her where you were gone, or if you were still alive or not. You were all she had."
"Well what can I say, Ryan," Cassidy said, reduced to almost a whisper. "As I said, I'm not the person I once was."
There was an awkward silence before Darwin punctuated it with, "we do know where we are going, don't we?"
Cassidy nodded and sniffed. It was only then that he realised she was crying. Guilt washed him. He felt bad for pressing Cassidy and Ryan on their relationship. It must be difficult, he thought, living with someone else's memories. It was probably the reason Cassidy never talked about her old life. Whereas Darwin had been running from his, the one Cassidy was running from was never really her’s.
They drove through town and out the other side into the country. Ryan started pointing out directions to Cassidy. We must be close, thought Darwin, and he found himself wishing he had some weapon. Heck, even a piece of broken wood from the house they'd just left would have been good right now.
He felt nervous. Part of him wondered if he could overpower Ryan before he shot his weapon. He'd hate to forsake D'Toeni but it might ensure he could get the others to safety. He was the one who provided the minibus, therefore it was down to him, who he rescued and who he left behind. No, he had to prove himself. He’d never get respect if he came back empty handed. He found himself uncurling a fist he didn't realise he'd clenched.
The roads became more and more rural, until Ryan indicated for them to pull over down a country lane by a farm gate. On one side were fields and a wood, on the other side a high bank and hedgerows.
"Just tuck it in here," he said. "We have to walk the rest of the way."
This was the wrong place for a vampire to hide. Too open, too exposed. If Darwin had needed convincing they were walking into a trap, this was it. No vampire would hide out here.
Darwin shielded his eyes from the golden waning sun as he stepped out the minibus and looked around him. "Where we going?"
Ryan turned mid-climb over the stile by the gate and flashed Darwin a grin. "You'll see."
Darwin looked to Cassidy. She looked uneasy too. She walked past him toward the stile. "Whatever happens," she muttered, "do not mention I'm Fallen."
Darwin drew the hood of his sweatshirt up against the sun and followed Ryan and Cassidy over the stile.
Their route took them along a footpath, across a couple of fields and into a wood. The grass was crisp and white, a frost that the day had not been strong enough to dissipate. Their breath created clouds, the air cold enough to chill their lungs. The sheep in the fields looked uninterested in their new visitors, huddle together for warmth.
The woods by comparison still held the remains of the recent snowfall. Most of it had melted, but there were still places where it was thick enough to leave an imprint.
It's not all been churned up with the mud, thought Darwin. That means not a lot of people have passed this way. He thought that was good news. Less people meant an easier escape, didn't it?
Ryan turned right, following an animal track through the undergrowth. Brambles tore at Cassidy and Darwin's clothing, scratching at the skin underneath.
"You sure you've not brought us the scenic route, Ryan?" There was a reason to Darwin's question. What if the reason that there were so few footprints in the snow was because he was bringing them in via some indirect path.
"No, this is the only way in. It's quite well hidden. Deliberately hard to find."
They came to a fence, two metre high chain link with a single wire above it separated by concrete posts every couple of metres. Ryan pulled at the fence to reveal it had been cut close to one of the posts, creating a flap big enough to crouch through. Darwin noted only a couple of sets of footprints in the mud beyond.
"How long have you known about this place?" Cassidy asked.
Ryan shrugged. "Never knew it existed until yesterday. It's amazing how many things are hidden under your nose that you don't know about. I've got a cousin in the next village and even she didn't know about it."
"Debra? Debbie?"
Ryan laughed. "Yeah, Debbie. I think you met her once."
"How's she doing?"
Ryan rolled his eyes. "Seriously, Cass you don't want to know."
This, however, didn't stop Ryan regaling Cassidy with all that had happened in Debbie's life in the couple of years since Cassidy saw her. Darwin filtered out the tales of cheating boyfriends and paternity tests to try and make a note of where they were going, frequently turning round so if he had to come back this way in a hurry, he knew what visual landmarks to look for. If they managed to escape this, he doubted they had a lot of time trying to find the hole in the fence.
Progress was slow. These paths were not very well trodden and if they weren't fighting brambles they were fighting tree limbs, heavy with melting snow. It was frustrating but nowhere near as frustrating as watching the ice melt between Ryan and Cassidy as they reminisced.
"Well," said Darwin, shaking his leg to try and fight off yet another bramble which clung to his trousers. "I didn't think it was possible to be this remote."
"Land's M.O.D.," Ryan replied. "You don't tend to get a lot of people over here. And those who do soon get bored and turn back."
"Oh, so you're working for the Army now, are you Ryan?" Darwin had a slim hope this might goad Ryan into revealing more information on what they were about to walk into.
Ryan laughed. "Yeah right, like I'd ever be a soldier. Eh, Cass?"
Cassidy laughed. "Yeah, soldiers tend to get up before Midday."
"Nah, I've been a well early riser these days since I gave up the dealing." He glanced back at Darwin. "Nothing serious mate, just E's and hash."
"So are you clean now?" Cassidy asked.
"Pretty much. You know, just socially, not all the time like I used to."
"Sounds like you've really turned your life around," Darwin said, trying to hide any hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"Well, things have been pretty shit since I got sacked from the phone shop, but they're really starting to pick up now. This new geezer is paying me well loads."
"And you think that'll last once you bring us in?" Darwin asked.
Ryan glared at him. "It ain't like that."
"And you're a terrible liar."
Ryan turned and pointed an angry finger at Darwin. "You want this Tony geezer or what?"
Darwin bit his tongue and thought of a couple of new particularly painful ways to kill Ryan.
The silence seemed to weigh heavy in the forest for a few seconds, before Darwin relented and said, "lead on."
Ryan pushed passed Cassidy. "Your mate is a real twat, you know?"
"So's your ex-boyfriend," Darwin whispered to her as he passed.
After some time, in which Darwin noticed Ryan doing a really bad job of circling in toward their target, they stopped.
"We're here," he said.
Darwin looked around trying to work out what was so special about this location. It wasn't until Ryan walked over and started tugging at it that Darwin saw the hatch, half hidden under a Holly bush. It was about a metre square with no visible bolts or locks. After a couple of attempts it opened to reveal a ladder descending down into darkness.
"Down there?" asked Cassidy.
"Down there," Ryan nodded. “It’s perfectly safe. He’s just hiding in the dark.”
Darwin hung back.
“Are you not coming?” Cassidy asked him. He wanted to tell her he didn’t like this, that she was a fool to trust Ryan.
“Ah, leave him if he’s scared,” Ryan said. “We’ll go on our own.” This forced a little smile out of Cassidy.
Darwin stepped forwards. “No, it’s fine. I’m cool to go.”
He went first. He didn't like this, didn't like it one bit. If there was only one way in or out then that limited their escape options. Still, he suspected that if someone wanted Cassidy and him dead, they'd already had plenty of opportunity. Cassidy followed next. Last came Ryan, closing the hatch behind him and plunging them into darkness.
"You know, a torch wouldn't have been a bad idea," Darwin called up. The vampire in him gave him excellent night vision, but even he was having difficulty seeing.
"Just keep going down the ladder," Ryan called back. "Stop when you hit ground."
They seemed to descend forever. Part of that was due to Cassidy who panicked in the dark and demanded that Darwin guide each foot to each rung.
"It's alright, babe," Ryan would reassure from above. Somehow Darwin thought Cassidy needed more than just her loser ex-boyfriend's assurances.
They eventually reached ground level, and Darwin could tell by the echoes of feet against rungs that they were somewhere very large.
"Wait a second," Ryan said, reaching ground level and fumbling along the wall. Like they could see anything to go anywhere without him, thought Darwin.
There was a click, and a string of lights lit up.
They were in a tunnel of considerable size. Darwin reckoned you could get two double decker buses side by side along it.
"What is this place?" asked Cassidy, staring around her in awe.
"It's an old nuclear bunker," Ryan replied. "They built several of them around here during the cold war."
"But it's huge," Cassidy cooed.
"They say there's an entire town in one under Corsham. They're supposed to all be connected."
Cassidy's eyes went wide with excitement. "Have you explored?"
"Nah, some of the tunnels have collapsed and the place is a maze. I don't wanna get lost."
"Wish you wou
ld get lost," Darwin muttered under his breath.
They followed the lights down the passageway, the sheer scale of the installation only becoming apparent to them as they passed room after room.
"You could keep an army down here," Cassidy exclaimed.
"I think that was the idea," Ryan said.
Darwin could smell D'Toeni before they even got close. There was something unmistakable about the smell of a vampire, Darwin thought. He could also smell blood, but not human blood. Pig? Cow? Certainly not rat.
Ryan lead them to what looked like an old communications centre just off the main tunnel. Whatever equipment had been here was now long gone, the wires protruding from the less faded areas of the wall the only clue as to the former use of this room.
D'Toeni sat on a swivel chair, turning idly this way and that, a sheep carcass by his feet.
Darwin thought the vampire looked ragged. His face had always been pocked and lined but there was a weariness about it. His hair seemed greyer at the sides if that was possible, and the moustache seemed to hang limp on his lip.
"Ah," D'Toeni said, clasping his hands together like some over-enthusiastic teacher. "At last. You're here!"
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - Why You Should Never Try To Mug Little Old Ladies In New Salisbury
"I think it will do you good," Sally agreed.
"Well I've not seen her for years, and her grandson said he'd come and pick me up."
Maureen was feeling a lot better, was sitting up in bed and eagerly finishing off the chilli con carne that Sally had brought round.
"Are you sure it's not too soon, though? Could you maybe give it another day or two?"
"Darren," it was the first name Maureen could think of, "can only knock off work early today. As it is, it'll be middle of the night before he gets here."
Sally sighed. "Well, if you're sure."
Maureen patted Sally's hand. "Oh don't you worry dear. They are going to pamper me like a queen."
"Just take it easy. Don't go overdoing it and have a relapse."
"I won't, I promise."
Sally smiled and picked up the tray. "You have a nice time then, Maureen."
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