'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.
Until a hood falls back, and shows a frenzied girl with indecently loose curls, not muttering an incantation, but begging for mercy, crying unashamedly, face totally contorted in fear of death.
Will these girls never learn?
As she lowers her saber slightly, her girl falls to her knees and literally throws herself at Mina's feet, sobbing noiselessly.
Victor looks at her and states, 'I take it you know these girls?'
By now the other has quickly taken off her hood as well, realizing it nearly got her killed, showing another curly haired, frightened girl.
'I do,' Mina says, and for their benefit, 'and I seem to remember telling both very clearly that I'd kill them next time we met.'
Even Victor is shocked by the sound of her voice, it is straight from someone's worst nightmare, and her facial expression matches it perfectly. He is a very sensitive person, much more so than Vincent or even Catherine, the little girl has nerves of steel.
That is why Mina loves Victor so much, and she feels obliged to let him know she's playing a role here. But apparently he is on to her, for he allows his own girl a little space to breathe, and she also drops into the mud, crying quietly.
Their sobbing sounds much like that of ordinary girls, young, frightened, hopeless girls. Still, they may be acting as well as Mina, there is no way to tell, so she orders them in a commanding voice, 'Stop snivelling and speak, why do you bother me again?'
Her own girl has managed to control her sobbing, and speaks haltingly,
'You advised us to flee, and we didn't dare go back, but now someone's after us and we don't know how they find us but they do, we've escaped three times so far, but they let us, they're toying with us, hunting us down slowly.
We haven't eaten or slept since we fled, we can't go on, you let us live, we knew your workplace, we knew you use this alley all the time, we thought we'd beg for your help, we didn't realize you'd see us as a threat, we nearly died again, didn't we?'
And the girl drops to the ground again, positively grovelling, an awful sight. But Mina knows she cannot leave these girls to be hunted and killed, slowly and painfully doubtlessly, though it will be a danger and a hassle to help them.
Still, there are things she has to make up for, and even if it is a trap, she cannot deny these girls a chance to be saved. Adison can probably remove the spell that is used to track them, and then they'll feed them and Mina will put them up in her old haunt, still a relatively safe place to stay for someone vulnerable.
She looks at Victor, who states exactly what is in her mind, he has read her thoughts.
'You need to help these girls, for who you were, I understand. They will not increase the danger to Catherine, though we cannot have them stay in our house.'
Relieved that he understands, she tells the girls, 'All right, I will help you. Someone helped me when I was near death and totally helpless, and I need to repay that debt. But...'
Her voice changes again, and the hopeful faces of the girls turn back to fear, as she says, 'Any danger to the people with me will cost you dearly, so do exactly as you are told, until you are safe. Then your life is your own again. Come with us now.'
They walk home slowly, the girls must be exhausted for they cannot go very fast. Mina is constantly alert to everything around them, and Victor keeps an eye on the girls, not that they are in any shape to offer them mischief.
