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Book 3 Chapter VIII - Something To Think About, Isn't It?

Chapter 26 - Something To Think About, Isn't It?

"...We're in Rome," Grievous said. "So of course we know of vampires in Rome."

"I mean, we know of no other vampires in Rome. So Sinistrah and the human brat are here." Nightmare looked like the cat that got the cream. "It will be easy to hunt them down. And no one even knows we're here, so no one can stop us!"

Neither of them noticed the small black widow spider sitting on the wall opposite, watching them through its red eyes.

After they left, the spider scurried up the wall and out the window, which was open just enough to let the air in and it out.

~~~~

"Nevermore!"

Dani yelped and stumbled forward, clutching at a tree branch just in time to stop herself falling. She glared over her shoulder at David and Nevermore. The vampire was trying (and failing) not to laugh, and it sounded as if the raven was doing the same.

"Why did you have to teach that ridiculous bird to speak?" she demanded angrily. "It's going to give me a heart attack soon if it keeps flying up behind me and talking to me!"

David gave her an innocent look. "I didn't teach her to speak, I just told her what her name was."

If looks could kill, he would have been dead as the proverbial doornail. So would the raven.

"How are we going to contact the Browns?" Dani said at last, to change the subject. Usually she'd call them "Jackson and Lacey", but something had changed in the past week or so.

"If we find a police station, we can ask for the nearest InGEN base and -" David broke off, staring. "Is that who I think it is?"

Confused, Dani turned and tried to see who or what he meant. There were several people around, but no one she recognised from InGEN, and it stood to reason that the only person likely to be on Earth that he'd recognise would be from InGEN.

"Abi!" the vampire called.

A vaguely familiar girl further along the street who had been walking towards them and staring down at the pavement stopped abruptly and looked up. She frowned when she saw them.

"I thought it was you when I heard about the bloodless corpse the police found," she said in a harsh, clipped tone with a strange accent that was slightly familiar, though Dani couldn't think where she'd heard it before.

Dani decided she didn't like this girl. There was something about her that was frightening, something... unnatural. There was no other way to describe it. Her skin was too pale, especially when combined with black hair. Her eyes were a shade of brown that was just too close to red. She didn't look human. In fact, she looked like David. And, oddly enough, Dani got the impression that David didn't like her much, either.

"What are you doing here?" the girl continued.

I'm sure I've seen her before, but I just can't think where...

"An accident. What are you doing here? Are you -" David stopped and his eyes narrowed. "You're working for Terror."

She sighed. "I know you hate her, and I'm not fond of her either. But she's asked me to work for her and she's paying me well. Right now I desperately need money since I used up most of what I got from my last job on weapons, additions for my starship, things I needed for my experiments, and then I had to bail Grim out of another mess he got himself into."

"Oh, so you haven't given up your mad scientist experiments. I thought you had since I stopped hearing about them. When will you be realistic and give up your ideas of immortality?!"