Start | Chapter Sixteen Part Four | Index | Chapter Seventeen Part Two

“Eh! Was that supposed to happen?” David asked as he opened his eyes. “I could hear her thoughts.”

“Well it’s a little unusual,” Meredith said. “But you’re a telepath as well…” She frowned over at Tanya, Daniel and Sarah who were all trying not to laugh. “What?” she said.

“I am sorry!” Tanya waved a hand in apology. “It’s not really funny.” She paused and pulled a face. “Oh, who am I kidding – it’s hilarious in a bitterly tragic kind of way.”

“I wonder what the truth would do to him?” Sarah said softly.

“What are you two talking about?” Meredith asked. “Something to do with what happened to his wife?”

“From what he said his wife was a werewolf.” It was Michael who explained. “It sounds like she was killed by renegades. It’s tragic and bitterly ironic. He hates werewolves and he is obsessed with Anna because she reminds him of his mortal wife, who was herself a werewolf.”

“Ouch!” Leisa said. She seemed uncharacteristically withdrawn and David looked over at her curiously.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“What he said to Anna about the supernatural world’s revelation being inevitable. I don’t think he’s wrong. I was just wondering if I was naive to hope a war could be avoided.”

Tanya snorted. “Not if monsters like him keep using it as an excuse to kill it can’t.” She rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “The general thought among the non-renegade werewolf packs is that we need to manage the revelation ourselves somehow. Get ourselves a public relations expert.”

“Becoming superheroes comes up occasionally,” Daniel said. “Which is a bloody stupid idea.”

David blinked at them and began to chuckle. “I bet you three would look good in spandex… for a certain value of good.” He looked over at Meredith. “But we still don’t know where she is.”

“No, not exactly,” she agreed. “But now that you have a mental link to her location we just have to follow it.” She looked around at the group. “We still don’t have enough people to win against a vampire as strong as Ragnar, you know.” She looked at Tanya. “Do you have anyone else you can trust with this?”

“Anyone else like one of my underlings, you mean?” Tanya pulled a face. “You’re joking right. Most of them are raving fanatics in spite of my best efforts. Even if they weren’t I’d be dubious about roping any of them in for this. Too dangerous.”

“Hmmm…. yeah.” Meredith narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “Then I think we should call Liam. I wouldn’t take him along on a vampire hunt unless we had time to give him some serious training, but I bet he knows some things which could have seriously awesome back up potential.”

“You know, that isn’t a bad idea,” Tanya said. “I want to ask him about Dave anyway.”

“Yeah, that too,” Meredith agreed.

“What about David?” Leisa asked.

“He is just a little bit too good considering how recently his psi emerged,” Meredith said. “He is picking everything I teach him up first time.”

“And apparently he is always been able to see our eyes,” Tanya added.

Daniel gave a low whistle. “You think he is some kind of fairy or daemon? It’s possible. Aunt Susan’s mother was some kind of fairy, though she never spoke of it much.”

“From what mum’s told me her mother wasn’t an entirely pleasant person,” Sarah said. “Good to her kids, kind to her neighbours and willing to feed anyone but she had a whole string of – um – artistic gentlemen friends who all died young of various illnesses. The police investigated her at some point. Then one day when all her kids were grown up she upped and vanished.”

“Hmm, that sounds like she was a leannaun,” Meredith murmured. The others looked at her. “One thing that really is a lot like the stories. Psychic vampires who feed on creativity and artistic endeavour. Their powers enhance their victims creativity to make more food.” She noticed their looks. “What? Jasmine at my day job’s one. That’s why she’s an art therapist working with the terminally ill. She gets to improve their quality of life by helping them create stuff and feed at the same time. I don’t think they die any sooner for it either.”

“No offence but I don’t think I want to be one of those,” David said.

“Unlikely,” Meredith said. “You’re entirely the wrong sex. They are almost always female. I’m not even sure what the male equivalent would be. On the upside this means you are probably some kind of sidhe, assuming you’re a fairy at all. Liam will know.” She looked over at Tanya. “We can’t go till the sun is up anyway. I really think you should call him.”

“I just hope he doesn’t mind being woken,” Tanya said.

“I am honestly not sure he sleeps,” Meredith replied.

Start | Chapter Sixteen Part Four | Index | Chapter Seventeen Part Two