'I see I come at an inconvenient time, you are dressed to go out,' the man says, and his voice is almost hypnotic, inspiring incredible confidence, and making Vincent rather suspicious. For who is to say that this man isn't using a spell on him? He tries sight, sees nothing, and then remembers his manners.
'Good evening, sir, we were indeed just going out, but if there is an emergency, we can go out any other night we want, we haven't got reservations.'
'Good evening to you, too, sir, I have no emergency, but my daughter told me you are having some trouble with supernatural occurrences. My name is Jakob Thorn, Melissa's father. She gave me your address, and such information as made me want to know more at the first possible opportunity.'
Melissa's father!
Vincent would have imagined him to be seven feet tall with fiery red hair and the same colour beard. At the same time, he berates himself: who's being judgemental on appearances now?
'Mr Thorn, my name is Vincent Heathcliff, do come in, we'll visit that show some other time, it's in terribly bad taste anyway. Though I used to play in it, and had the time of my life doing it. Still, it will be there tomorrow and every night after.'
He's babbling, but so much depends on this man, Catherine's safety mostly, Vincent feels very apprehensive all of a sudden.
Fortunately Adison is in the hall, interested to see who the caller is.
'Mr Thorn, my lovely wife Mrs Adison Heathcliff, Adison, Mr Jakob Thorn, Melissa's father.'
Instant comprehension in Adison's face, too, and they lead their important visitor straight to the kitchen, where Catherine doesn't even try to act the toddler, she does see things no-one else sees, and merely walks up to him and shakes his hand politely, 'I'm Catherine Heathcliff, how do you do?'
Mr Thorn shows no surprise either.
'Jakob Thorn, and I'm fine, thank you.
So you're the little girl who's set upon by servants of the night, I can see why, you have great potential. But I think they underestimate your will.'
Mr Thorn looks at Catherine with polite interest, and Catherine looks back with her most adult face.
Then she asks, 'Can you help us to stop them from hunting me, Mr Thorn?'
He practically exudes calm, Melissa's father.
'I have heard you are quite a capable group, so I was thinking of helping you to stop them yourselves, don't you agree that it gives a good feeling when you solve a problem by yourself?'
Catherine finds herself thinking of the witch in the carriage, and stunning her to let go of Adison, and she nods fervently.
'I didn't think of that before, but you are right. It makes one feel stronger to handle problems oneself.'
Adison now invites their guest to sit down, and she offers him coffee or tea. He accepts a cup of coffee gratefully.
'Thank you very much, ma'am, I hoped for that, I left right after dinner to arrive at a reasonable time, but an evening is not complete without a nice cup of coffee.
Now, Melissa told me just a tiny bit about you, she would have said more but I asked her not to, I'd rather hear things straight from the source. Prevents misunderstandings, in my experience.
So, will you tell me all that has happened to you, everything relevant to occult happenings, anything physics can't explain, as my daughter would put it?'
Vincent tells him, 'That will take some time, for I guess it started long ago, when I was still someone else, before I was reborn.'
'I was counting on that, which is why I skipped coffee at home. Will you indulge me anyway? The plots these people weave work slowly and very convolutely, and sometimes things that seem evil are in fact not that, but merely chaotic.
I'll explain the difference later, first, your story. Maybe you can start in the furthest past, with your story, Mr Heathcliff?'
'Would you please call me Vincent? I'm used to being addressed with my first name.'
'If you will call me Jakob, all of you, Catherine too.'
They all agree, and Vincent starts with his story, being taken from the streets of a rather large city by Cathy's father.
Victor and Mina have really found each other again, working late together, sleeping in together, even manning the practice together, and Mina really likes working with her lover, he is so incredibly competent at what he does.
She helps him draw now, and everything else Adison used to do, following the procedure she perfected before Catherine came into their lives. Victor clearly misses working with Adison, and Mina says, 'Victor, the two of you can decide by yourselves how you often want to work, you are making a very good living, you can take fewer patients and spend time together in here, or man the practice together. No need to work all by yourselves all the time.'
That is certainly true, and Victor acknowledges that.
'You are right, I will propose working together more often tomorrow, we were such a good team. Though I really like working with you as well, you're as precise, it shows that you used to study things meticulously from an early age.'
After a few hours of very efficient work by the light of a special lamp Victor developed years ago, they clear up their working space and head home.
This time, Mina doesn't sense a thing, not even being followed. They walk arm in arm through streets and alleys, trusting her keen senses to alert her to danger, and on Victor's new blade and Vincent's old blade, the unmarked one returned to him by Neil, now used by Mina for outings, to keep them safe.
Not especially attentive since Catherine is not with them, they take a shortcut they generally use, through a really dark alley, across a part of town that is not very favourable. Strangely enough, the chance of being waylaid here is smaller than in the richer part of town they could detour through, people here simply have nothing worth stealing. Almost through their shortcut, they suddenly find their passage blocked by two dark shapes, huddled in dark hooded cloaks.
Instantly taking a fighting stance, they free their swords in one swoop, ready for action, and before they have a notion what's happening, the dark shapes find themselves pressed against a blind wall, blade at their throat.
Muffled sounds come from underneath the hoods, and since neither of them has the ability to spy out magic use, Mina reluctantly decides to go for the kill.