There were two motorbikes but no signof Jimmy or Davy.
She looked around for a moment thensaid, “Now where did those two rascals get to?” Then she heard rustling aboveher head, looked up and began shaking her fist. “You boys get down from therebefore you break your necks. Hey Jim, come quick! They’re climbing up the drainpipe.”
Everyone went outside and looked up.Jimmy and Davy were high up the front of the house, using the drainpipe andthick ivy to effortlessly climb. They got to an open window and went inside.
Daisy was furious. She was about tomarch inside to tell them off when Arthur and Bill grabbed her arms.
“Get off me!” she said.
“You can’t go in mum,” said Arthur.
“Get off your mother,” said Jim sternly.
“They’ll bite and curse you,” saidOphelia, “You’ll become like them, a slave to Og.”
Ophelia shivered as she recalledLilith sinking sharp teeth into her, the dizzy other worldly feelings andstrange desires that consume her. She was beginning to feel it again anddesperately want to clear her head, to get back to normality. She knew that theonly way to temper her feelings was with her stock of Vita Dantis – butthen she realised with horror that she’d left it in the back of the van. Howstupid to forget it! She desperately hoped its effects were not about to wearoff.
Ophelia looked down the street towardthe van parked up at the side of the square and saw two other bikers, each at adifferent house. There was the shattering of glass as one kicked in a frontwindow and stepped inside. She felt an urge to go down into the square and joinLord Percy, but managed to suppress it.
“Hey, you young ruffian!” said Jimshaking his fist at the biker still in the street.
A moment later the other biker cameout of a house with a screaming Mrs. Scunthorpe – a matronly lady who lived afew doors away – held by the throat. He bit her.
“What’s he doing to Ethel?” saidDaisy.
A young boy ran up the street. He wasbeing chased by the huge dog. There was a growling noise as the dog caught theboy with his jaws and felled him to the floor.
“Call the police!” said Jim.
Suddenly, a high-pitched scream rangout from inside the house – the scream of a young girl.
“Rosie!” exclaimed Arthur. A wave ofpanic welled up inside him as he thought of his baby sister, sleeping upstairs.He let go of his mother and ran into the house. The others followed as he racedupstairs, hardly daring to believe that his two very amiable brothers wouldever hurt his baby sister.
There was another scream from insideRosie’s bedroom. Arthur got to the landing and stopped when her bedroom doorwas flung opened. Davy and Jimmy came out and, standing between them, holdinghands with each of her brothers, was Rosie. She was in her night dress and had avery strange expression on her face, vacant with fluttering eyelids.
Davy and Jimmy moved forward, takingRosie with them.
“Get out of the way Arthur,” saidJimmy who shoved him hard in the shoulder.
They went down the stairs, knockingBill and Ophelia roughly aside.
Daisy gazed at her two sons in horror.She knew it was them but she hardly recognised their faces. Their kindly, easygoing expressions had vanished, replaced by a look of hunted aggression. Andtheir teeth, what had happened to their teeth – all dark and yellow!
“Where are you taking Rosie?” shescreeched.
Jimmy shoulder barged his mother sohard she was knocked off her feet. As he looked back at her, lying on thestairs, his mind became a turmoil of emotion. What was he doing to his family?He desperately wanted to stop, to go and help his mother up, but there was astrong voice in his mind, immutable and absolute. It was the whispered voice ofArddhu Og, who’d commanded them to bring youth, and that’s exactly what he andDavy were doing. Bringing their baby sister to Og’s gang leader...
Jim was at the bottom of the stairs.He was normally a placid man but now looked fired up and angry, with thesleeves of his dressing gown rolled up and his fists clenched.
“Stop this now!” he barked.
Davy and Jimmy both shoved theirfather in the chest so hard he was knocked flat on his back. He bumped his headon the tiled floor and fell unconscious. The boys went outside and started uptheir motorbikes. Rosie rode pillion on Jimmy’s bike.
They went down the cobbled street andinto the village square. The front doors were open to many houses and thelights were on, with people out in the street confused as to what was going on.Many were being attacked by the bikers. There were people lying in the squareseemingly unconscious, but some were getting up, with blood oozing from theirthroats or faces. In the centre of the square were three of Davy and Jimmy’sbest friends: Jack Appleton – a curly haired lad, Barney Smith – a pug nosedboy, and Judy – his buxom girlfriend. Davy and Jimmy had known these three alltheir lives, had gone to school with them and played with them since they weretoddlers. Three of the bikers had hold of them by the arms.
“We caught these scallywags coming outof the village pub,” Bulldog said, “really drunk and singing songs.”
“Jimmy, Davy, thank God it’s you,”said Jack when he saw his friends. His voice was slurred with drink.
“Hello you three,” said Jimmy butdidn’t move forward to help them.
A second later the three bikerssuddenly turned and attacked them – muttering strange curses and feeding onbleeding wounds like a pack of ferocious dogs.
Percy appeared in the square, ridingBeauty with Grace behind him, and trotted over to Davy and Jimmy. As soon as hesaw Rosie up close his features took on a voracious look of anticipation.
“Such a charming girl, so young andbeautiful,” he said with a gracious bow. He dismounted Beauty and Gracefollowed, linking his arm and gazing at him adoringly.
“Quite a catch,” said Percy.
Rosie looked up at him, trembling. Amoment later he’d sliced her
