Day 7 - part 5
“We must go and feed, I have the most disgusting taste in my mouth.” Vanessa spoke, her palate pressing against her tongue as if trying to force the taste of the tainted blood out of her mouth.
“How the fuck do Vampyre taste buds even work anyway? Christ, sometimes I feel too fucking human. No, don’t answer that, I was just speaking aloud,” she said as Eldred had been about to answer.
“We do not need to feed, no, we shall wait until later, just think how good the food will taste when cleansed.”
“Dammit, I need to get this taste out of my mouth.”
“Come my child, allow me, taste my blood, it will cleanse away the taste of the spoiled food.”
Eldred tipped his head to one side and ran a nail down his skin, slicing the flesh and allowing his blood to seep. Unable to control herself Vanessa flew across the room, mouth wide open, and as she latched on his neck and bit she was unaware of her dress falling in her wake, nor did she notice as Eldred caught her and twisted so that she lay beneath him.
Her scream of intense pleasure as he penetrated her was heard throughout the house echoing through the rooms and bouncing around the corridors and stairways. Amanda pricked her ears and then carried on preening, the scream unnoticed by all the other occupants, too lost in their own worlds to take heed.
Mavis took to and opened her old book of Spells and Lore. There was a spell she wanted to find, she knew it existed, but could not remember its detail. It was a spell to locate the ancients. It was not a particularly specific spell, she did not, she felt, need the power of the focus on Vampyres specifically, that would be to taxing on her, too powerful a spell for what she felt was needed. She had detected but one of the foes from the old days, and was sure the simpler spell would do.
It was true that her senses had detected quite a strengthening in the feel of the Vampyre, but she was sure that it was just that he was gaining in strength, rather than that he was building a new den. There had been only the one death reported in the newspaper that she had seen, and was sure that he was laying low building his strength, biding his time as he assimilated this new world about him.
She knew the world that he was used to, Lords and Ladies, manor houses and serfs, wenches to feed from at will, but he would have no experience of technology beyond perhaps flintlock weapons, but probably only pitchforks and scythes, rudimentary farming tools, the serfdom rarely armed, even in time of war. The ruling rich were not so stupid as to give their under trodden serfs access to weapons.
No, she had concluded, he was laying low, building his strength, and she knew that she would need to strike soon. She had to prepare the spell. She would only get one chance at it.
Bones Maccoigh tapped the end of the marker on the table. “Alright, enough people. Right, where are we then, lets have an update. First things first, CCTV?”
Gurpinder spoke, “Okay, nothing at all seen in any vehicle on any of the arterial routes approaching the bridges or on any of the cameras on the bridges. If they cross the river by bridge they were hidden in a vehicle.”
“Right, on to SOC then, Christine you have been closest on this one”
“Sir, Christine spoke up, “interesting but not very helpful sir. This may take a little time. Okay, in the crypt were dark animal hairs, an identical match to those found in Vanessa Hilt’s house. Lab says initially they look to be Panther, however in detailed analysis there are inconsistencies with the DNA Panterus Pantera, the regular Panther.” Christine paused.
“Sir, there have been reports for some time of large black cats in the area, and there is evidence of large cat predation on the local sheep population. There were also, as you recall from the notes, panther paw prints around Raddles Mission. So, a big black cat of some sort, looking like a panther, is almost certainly a key element of the case.”
Christine paused again looking once more at her notes before continuing. “There was also, in the crypt, a direct match to the Ancient DNA found in or on the victims. This Ancient DNA was also present in Vanessa Hilt’s house, Leanne Adams house and across the river at the scene of the murder, possibly two murders, in Blakeney. The river is still being searched for a second body, but no success so far.”
“Vanessa Hilt’s DNA was also found at the boat house, but detailed analysis now show that the sample is now somehow corrupted, it appears to be regressing up the DNA tree, back in time. Hilt’s DNA was not found in the Mission or at the scene of Leanne Adams attack. There were no panther hairs seen at the Adams residence or across the river.”
“In summary Sirs, the only common denominator is Ancient DNA man. Every other lead we have overlaps him some of the time, but not all of the time.”
Bones had listened to the report, making occasional notes as Christine spoke. “So, people, the only place that the three individual elements of Ancient Matey Boy, Black Cat and Nurse Hilt co-exist is the Hilt house. Right, Gur, Jase, I want that house buttoned up, I want surveillance. I want the lane cctv’d from both approaches, the field and path at the side of her house and picture and sound from inside the house. Dick, Bekah, got through news reports and plot all the black cat sightings going back 12 months, see if we can’t at least localise them, may give us an area to concentrate our efforts in.”
He looked at Bentley, “I know you thought along similar lines with Hilt’s house, but I have more resource than you, I can do better than a simple intruder alarm. Chris,” he paused and looked directly as Bentley and then to Christine and back again to Bentley, “Christine, you guys did very well with the resources that you had to hand, okay, now you are temporarily in the big league. One thing that our technology does not have that you can beat us on hands down is local knowledge. Ancient history DNA man has gone to ground somewhere, I want you two to focus on that map and give me some possible locations. I want you to think of the impossible things and places that we wouldn’t.”
He clapped his hands. “Right, come on people, things to do.”
“We must go and feed, I have the most disgusting taste in my mouth.” Vanessa spoke, her palate pressing against her tongue as if trying to force the taste of the tainted blood out of her mouth.
“How the fuck do Vampyre taste buds even work anyway? Christ, sometimes I feel too fucking human. No, don’t answer that, I was just speaking aloud,” she said as Eldred had been about to answer.
“We do not need to feed, no, we shall wait until later, just think how good the food will taste when cleansed.”
“Dammit, I need to get this taste out of my mouth.”
“Come my child, allow me, taste my blood, it will cleanse away the taste of the spoiled food.”
Eldred tipped his head to one side and ran a nail down his skin, slicing the flesh and allowing his blood to seep. Unable to control herself Vanessa flew across the room, mouth wide open, and as she latched on his neck and bit she was unaware of her dress falling in her wake, nor did she notice as Eldred caught her and twisted so that she lay beneath him.
Her scream of intense pleasure as he penetrated her was heard throughout the house echoing through the rooms and bouncing around the corridors and stairways. Amanda pricked her ears and then carried on preening, the scream unnoticed by all the other occupants, too lost in their own worlds to take heed.
Mavis took to and opened her old book of Spells and Lore. There was a spell she wanted to find, she knew it existed, but could not remember its detail. It was a spell to locate the ancients. It was not a particularly specific spell, she did not, she felt, need the power of the focus on Vampyres specifically, that would be to taxing on her, too powerful a spell for what she felt was needed. She had detected but one of the foes from the old days, and was sure the simpler spell would do.
It was true that her senses had detected quite a strengthening in the feel of the Vampyre, but she was sure that it was just that he was gaining in strength, rather than that he was building a new den. There had been only the one death reported in the newspaper that she had seen, and was sure that he was laying low building his strength, biding his time as he assimilated this new world about him.
She knew the world that he was used to, Lords and Ladies, manor houses and serfs, wenches to feed from at will, but he would have no experience of technology beyond perhaps flintlock weapons, but probably only pitchforks and scythes, rudimentary farming tools, the serfdom rarely armed, even in time of war. The ruling rich were not so stupid as to give their under trodden serfs access to weapons.
No, she had concluded, he was laying low, building his strength, and she knew that she would need to strike soon. She had to prepare the spell. She would only get one chance at it.
Bones Maccoigh tapped the end of the marker on the table. “Alright, enough people. Right, where are we then, lets have an update. First things first, CCTV?”
Gurpinder spoke, “Okay, nothing at all seen in any vehicle on any of the arterial routes approaching the bridges or on any of the cameras on the bridges. If they cross the river by bridge they were hidden in a vehicle.”
“Right, on to SOC then, Christine you have been closest on this one”
“Sir, Christine spoke up, “interesting but not very helpful sir. This may take a little time. Okay, in the crypt were dark animal hairs, an identical match to those found in Vanessa Hilt’s house. Lab says initially they look to be Panther, however in detailed analysis there are inconsistencies with the DNA Panterus Pantera, the regular Panther.” Christine paused.
“Sir, there have been reports for some time of large black cats in the area, and there is evidence of large cat predation on the local sheep population. There were also, as you recall from the notes, panther paw prints around Raddles Mission. So, a big black cat of some sort, looking like a panther, is almost certainly a key element of the case.”
Christine paused again looking once more at her notes before continuing. “There was also, in the crypt, a direct match to the Ancient DNA found in or on the victims. This Ancient DNA was also present in Vanessa Hilt’s house, Leanne Adams house and across the river at the scene of the murder, possibly two murders, in Blakeney. The river is still being searched for a second body, but no success so far.”
“Vanessa Hilt’s DNA was also found at the boat house, but detailed analysis now show that the sample is now somehow corrupted, it appears to be regressing up the DNA tree, back in time. Hilt’s DNA was not found in the Mission or at the scene of Leanne Adams attack. There were no panther hairs seen at the Adams residence or across the river.”
“In summary Sirs, the only common denominator is Ancient DNA man. Every other lead we have overlaps him some of the time, but not all of the time.”
Bones had listened to the report, making occasional notes as Christine spoke. “So, people, the only place that the three individual elements of Ancient Matey Boy, Black Cat and Nurse Hilt co-exist is the Hilt house. Right, Gur, Jase, I want that house buttoned up, I want surveillance. I want the lane cctv’d from both approaches, the field and path at the side of her house and picture and sound from inside the house. Dick, Bekah, got through news reports and plot all the black cat sightings going back 12 months, see if we can’t at least localise them, may give us an area to concentrate our efforts in.”
He looked at Bentley, “I know you thought along similar lines with Hilt’s house, but I have more resource than you, I can do better than a simple intruder alarm. Chris,” he paused and looked directly as Bentley and then to Christine and back again to Bentley, “Christine, you guys did very well with the resources that you had to hand, okay, now you are temporarily in the big league. One thing that our technology does not have that you can beat us on hands down is local knowledge. Ancient history DNA man has gone to ground somewhere, I want you two to focus on that map and give me some possible locations. I want you to think of the impossible things and places that we wouldn’t.”
He clapped his hands. “Right, come on people, things to do.”