"Yes, until then, Luis." Moon patted the tree trunk gently. Then he shrugged and resumed his journey.
Chapter 23
The rest of the walk to Sonia's was a nightmare for Moon, who spent most of the journey looking over his shoulder, expecting to see the Toyota Cruiser hurtling after him to finish its job. But the Cruiser failed to materialise and the walk was uneventful except for that first perilous encounter. By ten past six he was letting himself into Sonia's flat with the key she had given him.
He was greeted by the sound of female voices and laughter accompanied by the smell of cooking emanating from the kitchen. Sonia, Avril and Ellie were seated around the kitchen table chatting as he entered. Sonia raised her head and said, "Hi Jerry, this is Ellie, my old friend from school. Ellie, meet the love of my life, Jerry, but he'd prefer it if you'd call him Moon."
"Hi, Moon," said Ellie brightly with what Moon thought might be a slight Scottish accent. She was what Moon tended to think of as a 'fluffy' girl, very blonde with a soft, gentle face and enormous blue eyes, which were made to seem even larger by skilful application of a tasteful amount of eye shadow. The sides of her almost white hair were pulled back and held in place with a lacy blue ribbon. Her slim, curvaceous torso was wrapped in a soft, powder blue cashmere sweater over a matching cord miniskirt and her long legs shimmered under satiny, pale blue tights. She looked like a fourteen-year-old's wet dream. The only thing that marred all that fluffy blue perfection was an oversized pair of slippers in the shape of stuffed pandas. How on earth had Sonia, his would-be ‘queen of darkness’, and this fluff-pot become friends?
"Hi, Ellie," he replied with a smile and a nod. "Did you guys have fun this afternoon?"
"Oh, yes indeed. I don't get to Bristol often enough for my liking, the centre's great for shopping."
"We did a lot of the craft stalls in the market then took a bus up Gloucester road to have a look in some of the speciality craft shops up there," explained Sonia. "Ellie's a real crafty type."
"Yes, I do a lot of beadwork and I've got a thing for dolls' houses. See what I found." She pulled a tiny pot-bellied stove out of one of at least fifteen small, pink and white striped paper bags that were tumbling out of a plain pink carrier bag on the table. "Isn't it lovely? I normally get this sort of stuff off the Internet but this one was a bargain." She indicated the small packages. "They had a sale on and I got a bit carried away. We were about to show them to Avril when you came in."
"You should see what she does with them, Jerry," said Sonia enthusiastically. "It's not just your boring old Victorian town house stuff. She does fantasy scenes as well. She made this wonderful fairytale castle a few years ago with owls in a ruined turret and unicorns in the garden. She's got a real talent."
Ah, thought Moon, now I see why they're friends. Ellie obviously shared Sonia's love for fantasy, although he suspected Ellie's tastes didn't run quite as dark as Sonia's did.
"Tea's in the oven. It'll be another twenty minutes, sorry. Ellie and I were a bit late home," said Sonia, pointing to the ancient gas cooker, which had several pans balanced none-too-even on its rings with their contents bubbling merrily. Then she caught his eye and gave him a sharp, questioning look. "Is something wrong?"
Moon thought he had managed to recover from his earlier brush with death but Sonia knew him well enough now to recognise the tell-tale signs of stress. "Oh, it's nothing, I'll tell you about it later," he muttered, gesturing towards Ellie with his eyes.
Sonia raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Okay."
The meal was Avril's steak and kidney pudding, which tasted alright, but always left Moon feeling like he had eaten a mattress in gravy. Afterwards he volunteered to do the washing up while the girls retired to the sitting room with tea or coffee to watch 'Ballroom Fever'. The show paired up celebrities with members of the public and put them through intensive dance training with weekly competitions to stay in the running for a large cash prize; it really wasn't his sort of thing.
"I'll dry," said Sonia as Ellie and Avril left the room.
"Are you sure?" asked Avril. "It's the semi-finals."
"Yeah, I need to talk to Jerry," she replied, rolling her eyes as if to imply boyfriend problems.
"Oh, okay, we'll let you know who wins."
"Now," Sonia rounded on Moon once the others were safely out of earshot. "What's happened? You looked well stressed out earlier."
Moon sighed and gave Sonia a worried look. "I was nearly run down in the street on the way over here. And that’s not all - the bloke driving the car matched the description that old Rosie gave us for the ring leader of the bad guys she saw."
"God, Jerry!" gasped Sonia, looking stricken. "We need to put an end to this thing before one of us gets killed. I don't want to lose you, having only just found you."
"The feeling's mutual," he assured her. "Look, I'll contact the Inspector as soon as possible but I doubt he can do much about it without witnesses. We need to be really careful tonight though. Rurik's guys are likely to be out trying to kill us so we ought to make sure we don't get separated and we should only go to places where there are plenty of potential witnesses if they try anything. Where were you planning to go?"
"Well, there's that new cocktail place down by the docks and then I thought we'd move on to one of the clubs along by the Watershed."
"Okay. Do you mind if we pop over to the Rest for an hour or so first? I'll give Uri a buzz and see if he can organise some back-up."
Sonia didn't look very happy. "Okay but..."
"But what?" asked Moon, surprised by her hesitancy. "Well, Uri and the girls are very Goth," she sighed.
"Yeah, they're vampires; you don't get much more Goth than that."
"Look, Jerry. Ellie and I go way back but she doesn't know I'm into the Goth scene… and I'm not sure how she'll take it."
Moon suddenly realised why he had been feeling something was out of place since he had arrived. Sonia wasn't wearing her usual Goth make-up, just normal foundation with light eye shadow and medium pink lipstick, so she looked much less anaemic than she usually did. Her clothes were different too; she wore a pastel purple halter-neck with white flowers around the top and a dark purple miniskirt with white lace around the bottom. "Oh, I see," he said. "Look, if Ellie's as good a friend as you think she is then she won't be bothered about you being a Goth and I'd much sooner have Uri around if things are going to get rough. If you don't want to visit the Rest I'll go with your decision but I don't think it's a wise choice."
Sonia bit her lip then looked at Moon with resignation. "I guess you're right. You phone Uri and I'll let the others know about the change of plan."
Moon found Uri's home number on his mobile and dialled it. He hoped that one of the vampires would pick up and not one of the Maddocks. He still found their cosy home arrangement oddly disturbing - he felt instinctively that vampires ought to live in a remote castle or half-ruined abbey and not in a pleasant suburban house with a normal middle class family. Roanne answered, her soft Welsh accent sounded even more musical over the phone. "Hello, Moon, what can I do for you?"
"Hi, Roanne, isn't it?" Moon paused. "How did you know it was me?"
"Supernatural vampiric powers," replied Roanne. Moon thought this a bit overdramatic. He and Sonia had known Uri and the girls for a while now so vampire powers were just a normal topic of conversation. "I sensed your aura when I heard the phone ring."
"Oh? Okay..." replied Moon and was greeted by a peal of giggles on the other end of phone.
"God, you humans are so gullible sometimes!" laughed Roanne. "We've got caller display, that's all. There are some things that even vampires can't do."
"I'm glad to hear that," replied Moon, smarting slightly at being caught out. "Anyway, I'm phoning to ask you and the others for a bit of a favour. This Rurik business is starting to get a bit dodgy and I need some back-up for tonight."
"What? Have you found out where the sneaky old sod’s been hiding?"
"No, but one of his ha
ppy little elves tried to kill me with a four-by-four this afternoon and I'm worried that they'll make another try when we're out this evening. Sonia's got a friend visiting so we have to play 'business as usual' and we'd really welcome some supernatural muscle to cover our backs."
"Oh, I see..." Moon could hear Roanne sucking her teeth on the other end of the phone then she gave a small intake of breath. "Look, it's not such a good night for us. Blood Velvet are playing a small set at the start of the 'Necrofest' event that Kate’s arranged at the Rest this evening. Just four or five songs but we've got to be there. Charli and Uri are there already setting up and I was just about to set out on my way over there for the rehearsal when you called."
"Bugger!" swore Moon. "Is there nothing we can do? I wouldn't have phoned if I didn't think we could really do with some help tonight."
Roanne paused then came to a decision. "I know - why don't you guys come over for our set? I'll have some complimentary tickets left for you at the desk. How many of you are there?"
"Five, I think, if Roger's coming."
"Okay. I'll get five tickets set aside for you at the admission desk. Will you be okay getting there?"
"Yeah, we'll phone for a taxi. I really appreciate this, Roanne, I owe you one."
"I'll expect payment in blood," she replied, jokingly. "Bye, Moon, I'll see you at the Rest."
Moon laughed. "See you, Roanne, and thanks again."
As he turned off his phone he became aware of raised voices in the living room. "A Goth! Sonia, you're a bloody Goth? No way!"
Moon walked through the short hallway to the lounge. He hoped that Ellie was going to be less difficult to convince than it sounded at the moment. When he entered the room Sonia and Ellie were seated next to each other on the ageing sofa and Avril was in the more comfortable of the two mismatched armchairs. None of them looked very happy.
"Is this your influence, 'Moon'? Have you got our Sonia mixed up with a bunch of weirdos?" asked Ellie, her blue eyes radiating an arctic chill.
"No, actually," replied Moon. "It was the other way round. Sonia introduced me to the Goth scene - she'd been involved in it for some time before I came along."
"Yeah, and some of those weirdos you're dissing are the best friends I've ever had," broke in Sonia. "I came here needing some way I could fit in and this was it. They accepted me willingly, despite the issues I was having getting over Craig. They're really non-judgemental and very protective of their own."
"Oh well, I guess I can just treat tonight as a field trip to Weirdville," Ellie grimaced. "I'd ask if I could borrow some black widow's-weaves if you had anything that'd fit me."
"They wouldn't suit you," replied Sonia with a small grin. Inaccurately, Moon thought, considering Ellie would look gorgeous wearing a potato sack. "But that reminds me, I need to change if we're going to go to the Rest.”
Moon remembered his news. "Before you go to change, Roanne's wangled us some complimentary tickets for the 'Necrofest'. They're playing the first set so they won't be free until about nine. Perhaps you’ll want to wear something a little more striking for the gig."
"Great!" replied Sonia, "I forgot 'Necrofest' was on because Ellie was visiting. C'mon, Ellie, we can't have you going to your first Goth band fest dressed all blue and fluffy. I'm sure we can fix you up with something suitably 'weird'."
Moon sat in the living room and flicked vaguely through the TV channels as he waited for the girls to come back downstairs. If the shrieks and giggles coming from Sonia's room were anything to judge by they were probably going to be a while. Saturday evening TV hadn't improved, despite the addition of scores of cable channels. He reflected as he watched a parade of infomercials and soaps flashing on and off. Then something caught his eye. "That was the Bristol Downs, wasn't it?" he said to himself. He flicked back from the re-run of 'Dad's Army' that his channel surfing had stopped on and briefly caught the end of a news item on a local community channel. "...nd the City Council have no explanation for this unidentified blight, which has devastated the grass and other vegetation on this small area of the Downs that lies between Ladies Mile and the Circular Road. There has been strong government denial in response to rumours that it has been caused by leakage from toxic gas containers that were stored here during World War Two..." Moon, turned down the volume and watched the next few seconds of footage carefully, trying to fix the location in his head. Ioho's musical voice was ringing again through his mind. "If you would find Rurik, look for a blighted place..."
"A blighted place?" he whispered to himself. "I wonder what's under there…"
Fifteen minutes later Sonia and Avril came downstairs and stood on either side of the doorway, presenting Ellie in her new role of Goth chick. Moon had to admit that it suited her very well. Her long blonde hair was held back with a fluffy black elastic tie, emphasising the heart shape of her face, which was covered in white base on which someone, Moon guessed Avril, who was good at such things, had painted a delicate spider web coming up around her right eye to her scalp. The spider itself dangled from beneath her lower lid like a black teardrop with a small red, adhesive gem for the body. The rest of her eye make-up was a cunning combination of purples and pinks, which was complemented by the dark, sparkly purple of her lip gloss. The spider theme continued to her ears, from which dangled tiny silver spiders and the top of her dress, which Moon recognised as one of Avril's, who was more Ellie's size. It had a frill of black spider-web lace around the neck-line and a silver locket shaped like a dangling black widow hung amongst it, just above her generous cleavage. The dress was corseted, with black silk ribs outlining dark purple taffeta panels, and it flounced out around the hips like a French maid's outfit, showing more spider web ruffles and a hint of frilly black panties. Neither Avril nor Sonia wore Ellie's size in tights so Sonia had lent her a pair of spider-web stockings. These left a larger than normal gap at the top of her long legs, which Moon couldn't help noticing - and found difficult to stop noticing once he had started. The stiletto-heeled ankle boots with silver tips were Sonia's as well. "You look... great!" said Moon, trying to walk the narrow tightrope between complimenting the girls on their efforts and upsetting Sonia by over-enthusing about how gorgeous her friend looked. "And you both look stunning as well," he said to Avril and Sonia, who were also decked out in their Gothic finery.
"Charmer," replied Sonia, flashing her Internet fangs. "But you're far too dowdy to go out with us now. Grab him, girls!"
Their taxi arrived ten minutes later and the driver gave Moon a quizzical look as he climbed into the front seat. "Halloween come early has it?" he asked dryly after they had told him their destination.
"Something like that," replied Moon, from behind a mask of Goth make-up. He gestured with his eyebrows towards the girls in the back seat. "It wasn't my idea," he whispered.
"Oh?" replied the cabby, nodding to confirm his membership of the brotherhood of long-suffering males. "The things we do for love, eh?"
Chapter 24
They arrived at the Hangman's Rest just after quarter to nine. Moon paid the taxi driver, who gave Ellie's legs one final long appreciative look before driving off towards the city centre. "Are you sure I shouldn't have worn a longer dress?" asked Ellie, as she hitched down her taffeta frills and tried to pull her stockings up further.
"No, you look fantastic," replied Avril, shaking her head enviously. "I just wish I had your problems."
"Foin lookin' doxy you 'as there, mate," whispered a villainous-looking spirit, who often haunted the entrance of the car park. He leered suggestively at Ellie. "'Ow much?" he asked Moon, winking lewdly at the girls.
"Not for sale, George," Moon vibed back.
"Buggery!" swore the ghost. "An' Oy does loike moy doxies. Are 'ee sure, Moon?"
"Of course he's sure," replied Sonia, who was listening in on the conversation. "Now, sod off!"
"She'm got a mean mouth on 'er fer a sickly lookin', toiny titted 'ore, that one," said George, frowning and pointing at Sonia.
>
"You're no oil painting yourself, Puss-face!" retorted Sonia, shooting a dagger-filled glare at the lusty spook.
"Sonia, we're not alone!" interjected Moon, nodding at their companions and taking Sonia by the arm. "See you later, George."
"Hey! I can hear you," vibed Sonia in surprise.
"Yes, it has possibilities, doesn't it?" observed Moon. This was the first time he had used silent ghost speak around Sonia since she had begun to develop her own psychic gifts and it hadn't occurred to him that they might be able to communicate that way.
"Is something wrong?" asked Ellie. "Sonia, are you sick?"
"No, I just felt a bit nauseous there for a second. I'm fine now."
"Are you sure you don't want to go into the main bar and sit down? We could get you a glass of water."
"No, I'm alright; let's just get into the gig. Okay?" Sonia looked up at Moon. "Who was that little maggot?" she asked in ghost-speak as they headed towards the sound of Blood Velvet's opening number. "One of the bits of gallows' bait you said haunt this place?"
"Actually, Gallows George was the local hangman a few hundred years ago. He stays around because he misses the old days." Moon grinned. "These days he has several fast friends among the people he executed. Funny old world, isn't it?"
"If you say so…" Sonia was still fuming at being mistaken for a Georgian prostitute… a prostitute with the ‘Pox’, to add insult to injury, if she had interpreted George’s scorn filled comments correctly.
They were joined by Roger, who had been waiting for them outside the function room door. The ticket desk was the same beer-stained bar table at which Moon had first met Sonia and Avril several months earlier. This time it was being manned by the diminutive Ragger and his girlfriend Suzy, who was a stunningly attractive white-blonde Amazon of a punk-goth. The sides and back of her hair were shaven in a kind of shaggy Mohawk, which showed off a coiled dragon tattoo that ran around the back of her head from left to right. Suzy was over six feet tall and had piercings in just about any place you could conceivably have one. When Ragger had first introduced Moon to Suzy he had thought the two of them were an odd couple. However, he had come to know them both on a more friendly basis over the numerous visits he had made to the Rest since then and had grown to appreciate the strength and love in their apparently mismatched relationship. Suzy was rather shy, despite her size and taste in metal-wear, and Moon suspected they had both been victimised at school because of their unusual heights, which possibly explained the powerful bond that had grown between them now.
Under a Ghostly Moon (Jerry Moon Supernatural Thrillers Book 1) Page 27
