Perfect Shadows

chapter 2

A small shadow, a child-sized man, slipped from the alley to follow the man and boy, pausing for a moment to listen to the howls still coming from within. It was not difficult to keep his quarry insight as the riders let the horses pick their own way through the muddy, mucky streets of Norton Folgate. They entered the City, where they soon reached Crosby Place, handed the reins to a waiting groom, and vanished indoors. He sidled up to the serving-man, showing a coin and asking a few hurried questions. The answers seemed to satisfy him. He pressed the coin and its brother into the waiting hand before scurrying away into the dark.

The little man made his way quickly to Aldgate, to one of the many cottages that subdivided what had once been Northumberland House. He stumbled to the little brazier that served to heat the room, and finally managed to calm his breathing enough to blow the embers into life and light a candle.

“Doctor Montague,” a colorless voice spoke from the shadows, startling the little man so that he almost dropped the light. The candle flickered wildly for a moment and the little man set it hastily on the dirty table.

“My lord earl,” he said, in a voice as shaky as his hands. “You startled me.”

“You told me that you held the secret of immortality in your hand, Doctor. Was that an idle boast?”

“I may say that it is within my grasp, my lord. Have you heard of the undead? The vampire?” His voice sank into a whisper and the two heads, one sandy and one dark, almost touched as the nobleman leaned close to catch the commoner’s words.