Control

Control

Chapter 2: The War Child

Sophie's P.O.V

One of Leo's favourite records played in the background, while Leo lounged back on one of the sofas in the front of the Barber shop. After the last full moon he was definitely a lot weaker, but luckily it hadn't taken him away from us. It was quite a miracle that he was still breathing, albeit with some difficulty, however he was alive and that's what mattered. Hal sat in the adjacent chair, precariously placing his dominoes in alignment, his focusing technique. Leo taught him to keep control of his demon with little things such as placing the dominoes up and take them down piece by piece, he was never allowed to blow them down…no this was a sign of losing control. Habits like this kept us from drinking blood, fifty five years with blood from one split decision to save a werewolf…

I had also picked up habits, though they were less 'strange', in my opinion anyway than Hal's, just your average OCD cleaning, aligning books, dusting ornaments and putting them back in their rightful place. I cleaned the shop nearly every day…well when the shop was closed I would clean downstairs, but more times it would be the rooms above the shop. Mirrors and people were a no go for us; first of all mirrors would give away that we weren't human and secondly Leo did not want us going near humans in case the bloodlust took over and we ended up draining the whole country.

Even though I cleaned the whole place from top to bottom including all the nook and crannies, Pearl was never satisfied. I'm sure that if I spent an entire month cleaning the place without anyone setting a foot in the place she still wouldn't be happy with my efforts and would find something to nit-pick about. Speaking of Pearl, she appeared looking rather flustered and tired, could ghosts get tired?

"Oh, you're friend is back." She said as she lounged back onto the chair nearest the front windows, I sat down next to Leo who smiled and patted the back of my hand. I returned the smile, I was not sure how Hal and I could stay in control once Leo was gone, it was a thought I never did want to dwell on.

"I beg your pardon." Hal said, clearly frustrated as he scowled at Pearl who by this time had picked up one of the magazines that were offered to the customers as they came in.

"Yeah, I just saw him." she replied cheerfully, I never knew if Pearl simply did this to agitate him because it was fun or this was just how she would generally reply.

"Where?" he asked, this could soon go into yet another argument between the pair of them. Sometimes I wondered whether living with Pearl was such a good idea for our mental state, but living with Leo meant living with Pearl, but after a while she was alright to live with…well Leo and I thought so anyway…whether Hal did, I didn't know.

"I love this song." Leo stated, his smile growing. I had to admit it was quite good music, better than a lot of music I'd heard back in…hmm about the 16th century. Though I could listen to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata for days, my taste in music was at least a little bit dated.

"It's a wonderful track Leo." I chimed in, it was better than getting into the argument.

"Upstairs, oh it's good to sit down." She replied Hal had tried to re-start aligning his dominoes however I could see that his hand was shaking slightly another tell-tale sign of a lack of control.

"You just left him there?" he questioned, I shook my head for some reason or another Hal had always had a phobia of spiders even before he was a vampire.

"I met him once you know, stage door the new opera house 1950." Leo said, he would always tell us stories about his life, before well…before he ended up chained in the basement of the dog fights.

"Really?" I questioned, trying my hardest to tune out their incest ramblings on the presence of a spider.

"Why didn't you kill it?" Hal asked it was always the resort he would go to when there was a spider around him.

"At least I think it was him, I was so drunk it could have been Shirley Bassey." Leo answered; he was quite the rebel as a young man. He chuckled slightly, though it was masked with a chesty cough. I laughed in response, though our little conversation was about to be brought into their argument.

"I won't do your dirty work for you." Pearl exclaimed, as she flipped through her magazine angrily. Leo shook his head a knowing smile appeared on his face once more. After all Pearl and Hal argued more times than I could keep count.

"Well I can't do it, you know I can't." Hal hissed through gritted teeth, Leo wouldn't let us kill anything whether it is a human or a small insect such as a spider. "Leo do you hear this?"

"He can't do that Pearl." Leo stated, making Pearl roll her eyes. She generally lost arguments like this when Hal brought Leo into it, and when it could mean that Hal would lose control and go on a rampage through the whole of Britain.

"We need to get rid of him, he's filthy and he hates me." Hal snarled, other than people who got on his nerves and vampires that disobeyed him, spiders would always get on his nerves.

"He doesn't hate you Hal." I assured it never did any good though I tried every time something like this came up. Hal offered me a small smile, but it disappeared as fast as it had appeared.

"Pearl could you." Leo asked while pointing upwards with his hand and nodding his head towards the stairs. Pearl looked rather disgusted and hurt by the fact that Leo was now asking her to kill a spider.

"Why should I have blood on my hands?" she asked, her voice becoming shrill with irritation. My hand twitched at the word blood, I looked over at Hal who also seemed to twitch at the word too. Even after fifty five years dry, it was still difficult sometimes to stay off the bitter sweet liquid, just thinking about it made me twitch more.

"There doesn't have to be blood on anyone's hands, it's a spider, just catch it in a cup and put it outside." Leo replied calmly, he was always good at diffusing situations, though I still couldn't stop thinking about fountains of blood. Leo's hand brought me out of gruesome memories, and the smack of Pearl's magazine against glass also helped to.

"Fine, you're helping, both of you." She huffed, stalking towards the chair, as she did so she hit Hal on the back of the head with the magazine she had rolled up. He gritted his teeth and stood up looking behind his shoulder at the fleeting form of Pearl.

"Come on." He said, holding his hand out to help me up, I accepted it and we climbed the stairs to rid the house of a 'menace'. Once we were out of earshot with both Pearl and Leo, Hal ceased walking and turned round a small cheeky smile on his lips.

"Should we leave her to it?" he asked, I laughed softly he'd certainly changed after fifty five years of no blood, he'd become more cold and reserved, but I found myself in these kind of situations with him and it certainly made me feel grateful. Our little moment was interrupted by no one else but Pearl chucking the spider down the stairs at us, we both jumped avoiding the eight flailing legs of the doomed insect.

Meanwhile in Barry

Tom arrived back at Honolulu Heights after a night of killing a good chunk of the vampire community, though he would never tell Annie since this went against her 'commandments'. He looked around to make sure there was no one around that could witness him cleaning a very bloody and sharp piece of wood, one of his favourite stakes, before he placed it in the hanging basket next to the door. Surely Annie wouldn't find a stake there, though you could never be too sure. He opened the door slowly as to not draw attention from unnecessary noises caused by the squeaking of said door. Now only the stairs and his room door were the last two obstacles until he would have gotten away with it.

Once Tom had finally gotten into his room, he threw his coat down onto the bed before grabbing an old wooden box that contained memories…well mainly the kills he'd made. He made sure that all things that could incriminate him including the rag he used to clean the stake that was now safely hidden in some flowers and the fangs of his victim. As he stood back up from placing the box back in its rightful place, Annie materialized on the other side of the bed.

Annie's P.O.V

It was lonely around the house; sure there was Eve who needed round the hour care and Tom who was also quite the handful to care for. It just wasn't the same since…since George, Nina and Mitchell passed on. It broke my heart to think of them once more, I'm sure Tom also felt the same he'd lost them too after all, I'm sure we'd be able to cope…but the dread of the vampires coming back and taking Eve with them was a constant thought in my head, making me paranoid. It wasn't to my surprise when I appeared in Tom's room to find him sneaking around.

"Where have you been?" I asked, crossing my arms trying and possibly failing to make him confess to whatever he had been doing, most likely trying to take out all of Barry's vampire community.

"Out, stop doing tha'." He replied nodding at my presence in his room, he hated me appearing out of thin air, most people did it freaked them out, but it was always fun to do so. The answer wasn't what I was looking for; I wanted a more honest answer even if it was that he had been killing vampires all night long.

"Out where?" I persisted, this could go on for a while he was a very stubborn man; he wouldn't give in until the very end when he would have to.

"Jus' out." He replied as he shrugged his shoulder, looking round the room before he regained eye contact with me. Damn it, maybe I should read up on how to tell a lie from the truth.

"Right, let's get this over with." I said, his shoulders dropped he knew I was serious and he was probably regretting whatever he had done during the night.

"Annie." He sighed, his eyes looking hopeful that I would give in and let him go once, but he had to learn that now he couldn't simply go gallivanting off somewhere in the middle of the night and come back in the early hours of the morning. It was dangerous for Eve especially if he was killing vampires who would have friends that would come looking for Tom, leading them straight to the child that would one day kill them all.

"Assume the position." I stated, looking away from Tom as he moved over to the wall. He looked rather miffed at the decision to go to a last resort and check for bloody stakes or any other incline of what he'd been up to.

"I ain't done nought." He said as he placed his hands either side of the picture on the wall and spread his legs slightly. His grasp of grammar was almost shocking; however he had been cordoned off from society for basically his entire life.

"I have done anything." I corrected as I began to search his person.

"Exactly." He said, he was quite the cheeky werewolf when he wanted to be, though for most of the time he was a gentlemen, he had great values…a little bit dated, but better than a lot of modern men.

"I'm not agreeing with you, your grammar is appalling. Right you're clean." I stated, though he definitely was hiding something and I was going to find out what it was.

"See." He replied I backed off walking back to my previous spot as he turned round.

"What do you expect when you sneak in all…sneakily?" I asked, using my fingers to put the question across to him more. "Hmm? Now I agreed to let you live under my roof on one condition you abide by all of my commandments."

"You taking 'bout the 'ouse rules Annie?" he asked, I turned round and picked up said house rules.

"Yes and why don't we just run through them again, so that we're clear?" I said, pointing the pen towards Tom so that he would begin to recite them.

"No smoking. No dialling 0800 numbers. All dishes must be washed, dried and put away, not left to drip. No bringing girls home. Never put a cup down without a coaster. And if I'm goin' be late two rings." He recited almost perfectly although he missed out the most important rule of them all and I knew he had done it on purpose.

"And, we're missing one aren't we?" I asked, knowing full well he knew exactly which rule I was talking about.

"No killing vampires." He mumbled, it was the rule he hated the most, it went against everything he had ever been taught.

"So sorry." I said it was a way of getting him to speak up and say exactly what I wanted him to say. It always worked.

"No killing vampires. But I was thinking if I'm out on the street an' I see a vampire are you sayin' I can't kill 'im?" he asked.

"Yes that is exactly what I am saying." I agreed, killing vampires would draw unwanted attention to the household and we had already lost two of our friends to them, although it would cut the amount of vampires that could threaten us.

"Ok, what if 'e attacks me?" Tom asked, it was a valid question, if Tom did nothing against an attacking vampire he could be killed and then Eve would have less people to guard and watch over her…though that vampire who saved her could become useful, but asking a stranger no, a strange vampire for help was too risky.

"Then, yes you can yes." I gave in slightly; Tom could easily go out at night killing vampires and use the excuse that they attacked him first. He nodded towards the paper in my hand obviously wanting me to write down the new amendment.

"Right well make a note of tha' then." He said, I nodded scribbling down the words at the end of the last rule

"Yes I was going to make a note, right, good." I said putting down the paper on the small table that it had previously been on.

"Why don't the three of us go away somewhere? The Old Ones 're comin' I don't understand why we're still 'ere." He asked, it was an idea I had thought about after all the vampire community of Barry wanted the child and there weren't enough of us to save Eve from them. However it wouldn't make a difference they'd still find us, there were more vampires outside of Barry.

"What? No, it wouldn't make any difference, we could go to Timbukbloodytu and the mayor would be a vampire." I replied, he didn't seem happy with the answer though. "No we've tried running and it doesn't work. If the old ones want to find you they will. No better idea is to stay put, don't draw attention to ourselves and stay out of trouble. Now I am responsible for the saviour of the world, don't do that face Tom... you know my feelings about that face."

"Annie she's not the saviour, I love that little girl to pieces I really do, but this is insane she's just a baby. She's not gonna walk on water, she's not gonna feed the five thousand and she's not gonna be visited by the three wise men followin' a star."

Hal's P.O.V

I cannot believe that Leo has us on some wild goose chase, all because he heard a voice that told him to visit a place in Barry where there would be a ghost, a werewolf and a baby that was supposed to be a saviour of sorts. It was insane, surely this was all in his mind and it was his old age making him believe that some miraculous baby would save him. Though upsetting him by not allowing him to go was not something Pearl, Sophie nor I wanted to do, we all knew it was coming to the end of his days and we wanted to keep him as happy as possible even if it meant pushing this bloody car all the way to the bloody destination.

"Not much farther." Leo hollered, and thank god it wasn't Pearl was becoming a bigger irritation than usual as Sophie, she and I pushed the car.

"Seven, Hal." She stated her voice wasn't as shrill as it got when she was agitated, that was due to the fact that she was out of breath, but it still got on my nerves. Sophie, who was on the other side of me, shook her head either at Pearl's irritating mannerism or at the statement itself.

"They were all on the left hand side of the road, I never stop on the left side, and you know that." I answered, both women sighed in irritation they knew exactly why I didn't stop, they should have told me before we set off that the petrol was low so that I could make sure we stopped to fill up.

"Seven petrol stations." Pearl exclaimed, though it wasn't rather loud as we did not want to upset Leo who sat in the driver's seat. I shook my head; if she carried on I would leave her to push the car herself.

"It's unlucky." I stated, it was like many of their beliefs in what was unlucky and was lucky, for example Sophie thought it was unlucky to sleep on the right side of the bed, I never complained about that.

"Couldn't you have put that aside for once?" Sophie asked, I looked over my arm at her as she looked up at me, she too looked rather irritated, and it was quite a feat to irritate someone who never seemed to be bothered by any sort of bickering.

"No." I replied, she nodded in defeat she knew I wouldn't back down even if she persisted. By now Leo had caught on to the bickering.

"Everything ok?" He asked, I looked between the two women as they took deep breaths.

"Everything's good." I replied, through a heavy sigh, if they hadn't have been pushing the car, I'm sure the both of them would have elbowed me in the side.

"Great everything's great, just great." Pearl answered as she took another deep breath.

"Fantastic in fact." Sophie added, as she tried to be cheerful though it sounded a lot more sarcastic than it was meant to. But it seemed to satisfy him.

"Couldn't you have talked him out of this?" Pearl asked, as she bent lower to push the car further forward.

"He was adamant." I replied through gritted teeth lowering my head, and pushing the car harder, and hopefully we'd be there soon or at least near a petrol station.

"And besides he's not well." Sophie added, Pearl seemed to have not heard her or wanted to ignore the fact that she was right, Leo wasn't well.

"Oh this is madness, do you really think we are going to knock on this door and find a ghost and a werewolf shacked up together?" she asked, as she stopped pushing the car Sophie and I followed suite, we couldn't leave her behind…well we could but she would be more irritating once she caught up with us.

"Like that would ever happen." I replied sarcastically motioning to Leo and her. Sometimes she never thought before she let the words come out of her mouth.

"Never rule out the weird Pearl." Sophie answered; once again Pearl seemed to have ignored her at the same time as ignoring me.

"Shacked up together babysitting the messiah." She added, maybe she had listened. It wasn't everyday were a voice on a record tells an old werewolf to go to a small B&B in a small town in Barry, where another werewolf and ghost are looking after the baby saviour.

"You're right, it is madness but he's not well Pearl, and he doesn't ask much of us." I said as we resumed pushing the car, she became more agitated after I had said that, whenever Leo and his illness were mentioned she would either ignore it or become extremely irritated and leave.

"I know he's not well I'm perfectly aware of that thank you." She hissed, I looked down at Sophie who awkwardly shrugged her shoulders. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned his illness, but sometime soon she would have to accept that he wasn't well.

"Sorry." I murmured, it went silent for a couple of seconds before Pearl chimed in once more with her incessant ravings.

"It's times like this I'm glad I'm invisible, because when some unsuspecting man or woman answers that door you're going to have to tell them we're here to visit a god child. Good luck with that." She said shaking her head, there was truth in what she was saying, but did she have to be so whiny about it?

"I'll explain that we are humouring our friend, I'll say that he's old…" I began to answer before she cut me off with more of her whining.

"And what? Losing his mind? Is that how he's going to leave us?" she asked, her voice reaching her shrill irritating pitch that could drive me insane.

"He's not going to leave us." I stated through gritted teeth, though I knew I was simply lying to myself. If he didn't pass before the next full moon, the next one would kill me certainly. There was another pause of silence.

"Maybe, just maybe Leo is right." Sophie said hopefully, she was always the optimistic one out of our duo. It kept life happier even if there was death around us every day.

"And the chances of that are?" I asked cynically, I didn't want to hurt her feelings by making out that what she had said was stupid. However it was better that we didn't expect any saviour to be at our destination so that the let-down was not too steep.

"Slim…I know, but still…" she admitted, I shook my head as she tried to defend her point.

"Sophie, giving him false hope is worse than just humouring him." I stated, though it wasn't very convincing even I would not have believed the statement and neither did she. Humouring him was just as bad as giving us all false hope.

"Is it?" she murmured, I was about to reply when Leo interrupted us all.

"I think we're here."

Tom's P.O.V

After being caught sneaking back in this morning, the day had carried on as it usually did, with us both taking care of little baby Eve. Whether she was the saviour was an argument that created tension between Annie and I on numerous occasions, I did not believe it at all and besides it gave an almighty weight to the shoulders of the little baby. I walked into the living room to find Annie peeking out through the blinds clearly scared or paranoid of something outside.

"Tom," she called, I walked over looking out of the window myself, ready to tell her she was just being paranoid and whatever it was, was not a threat to us or Eve. However once I looked out the window I spotted them, a man dressed in a brown suit, with brown hair and a woman with charcoal black hair wearing a white shirt with flowing sleeves and black trousers. Instantly I knew it, they were vampires. I ran to the door yanking it open, grabbing the stake I had hidden early and grabbed the front of the man's shirt holding the stake over his heart.

"Please don't, we mean you no harm man. I promise." an elderly man said, holding his walking stick up towards me, why was he trying to protect a vamp? The red-headed woman held onto his arm and the other vampire was being guarded protectively by the vampire I had in my grasp.

"It's alright Leo." The red-headed woman reassured, she looked rather scared or frightened by the aggressive action I had taken. She looked over at the two vampires, the woman looking back at her and smiling…

"Remove your weapon." The man growled, glaring at me as I grasped his shirt tighter.

"I know what ya 're, but who 're ya and who sent you here?" I asked, looking between him and the woman.

"We don't want any trouble." The female vampire said calmly, I didn't believe that for a second; when vampires were involved there was always trouble. I glared at the woman, which brought out a growl from the man, obviously these two were together.

"Tom! What are you doing? And where did you get that?" Annie asked hysterically, I could picture her pointing at me and the stake angrily.

"I'm going to count to ten, I suggest you use that time wisely and step away." The man said all too calmly for someone who had a stake so close to their heart.

"Hal," the woman whispered, he looked down towards her. The two of them could probably overpower me by tag-teaming me…so why hadn't they?

"You don't scare me." I stated shaking my head, I killed countless of vampires two more wouldn't be anything to be scared about.

"One."
"Two."
"Did you hide that in my hanging basket?" Annie asked, I'm sure sooner or later she would have found out, just it would have been better if she found out later.

"Three."

"Four."
"That is it; I'm going to have to add another commandment: Though shalt not hide stakes in my shrubbery!" she stated, sometimes she really needed to hear herself when she spoke.

"Is she serious?" the red-headed woman asked in disbelief to no one in particular.

"Pearl, be nice." The female vampire hissed in a warning tone, to which the woman just nodded at me.

"Five."
"Six." The vampire hissed, sooner or later he'd get angry and attack me and so I wouldn't break any of Annie's rules since I was allowed to kill if a vampire attacked me.

"Who sent you?" I asked angrily, the older man looked concerned.

"We were told to come here." The man replied, it didn't make sense, if the vamps had been sent on their own to kill Eve why had they brought company?

"Seven."

"By who?" I questioned, not taking my eyes of the male vampire in case he decided to lunge, kill me and run into the house killing Eve.

"Can you see me?" Annie asked looking at the red-head who looked down at her dress before looking back at Annie totally confused.

"Can you see me? I'm a ghost." The woman answered, so two vampires, a ghost and an old werewolf, reminds me of the old set up here, two werewolves, a ghost and a vampire.

"So am I." Annie replied, the vampire looked towards his companions, who looked shocked. If they were told to come here how did they not know that Annie was a ghost and I a werewolf, and why were they surprised?

"Eight."

"An angel, we were sent here by an angel." The man answered, god this couldn't be about Eve could it? Knowing Annie she would make it about her, but I wasn't about to let this vampire anywhere near her.

"Nine."
"Hold on, you're a ghost is he a werewolf?" the red-head asked, she sure was far more annoying than Annie could ever be. Both the vampires seemed annoyed at the constant questions the woman was asking.

"Talk about slim chances eh?" the female vampire said, rather amused with herself if they had been sent by an angel to see the 'saviour' why would an angel send two vampires to see the child that was supposedly going to wipe them out?

"A very naughty werewolf." Annie replied, I would have rolled my eyes if I wasn't so focused on the man before me.

"She sent us to see the…saviour." The man chimed in, just as Eve began crying, everyone turned to look at the front window, even I for a minute before looking back at the vamp. Annie placed a hand on my shoulder making me step away from him and lower my stake. He glared brushing off his shirt, the woman placed a hand on his arms, he looked down at her for a minute and in the minute she removed her hand.

"Well, well, well, did you hear that Tom?" Annie asked, sounding very smug. "They've been sent to see the saviour by an angel no less. Well isn't that just brilliant."

"Fantastic."

Sophie's P.O.V

After the little misunderstanding, well more like a werewolf trying to kill us because he hated us…nothing brand new, but after living with Leo I'd forgotten that nearly all werewolves hated us. Anyway, Annie allowed us into the quaint B&B it was quite a nice place even if it looked a bit dated, immediately I knew that Pearl did not like the place what so ever. She hated anything that wasn't to her tastes, which pretty much made anything other than the inside of the Barber shop acceptable and even then she'd through a tantrum if you messed up any of her decorating. What really stuck out was the picture of a beach on the wall next to what I presumed was the kitchen, the moment Pearl's eyes came upon it I could see the disgust written in them.

Hal was pacing round the room, spinning a domino round and round in his hands, Pearl and Leo sat on a sofa facing the werewolf Tom who sat in an armchair glaring at Hal. I was sat on the adjacent sofa to Pearl and Leo, Annie came back through the doors to the kitchen carrying a glass of water for Leo.

"Here you go, now are you sure there isn't anything else I can get you Leo?" she asked, she was quite refreshing from Pearl, less annoying and a lot sweeter.

"I'm fine honestly." Leo replied, she sounded concerned about his well-being after all a long journey could take it out of you especially when you were as sick as Leo was. Annie turned round placing a hand on Hal's shoulder, a bad idea he didn't like to be touched by strangers.

"Ok, would you like to…" Annie began to ask, before realising that Hal had tensed up and there was silence and of course she noticed Hal glaring between her hand and her person. "No okay."

"Hal…" I murmured receiving a softer glare than the one he was giving Annie. When he didn't want to do something he was adamant that he wasn't going to do it, including sitting down in a stranger's living room after they kindly invited us in, regardless of what had occurred outside.

"Sit down Hal, you're making them nervous." Leo added motioning to the free seats around the room, he flipped the domino in his hand faster, showing that he was frustrated and on the verge of being angry.

"Yeah Hal sit do'n." Tom added sarcastically I wonder what made him despise vampires so much, even some of the werewolves we'd met that hated us, didn't give of as much hatred as the wolf did…maybe he'd been kept in a dog fight somewhere…hopefully not.

"Thank you I'll stand." Hal replied, Annie nodded as she sat down on the armrest of the sofa I was sitting on.

"Great, lovely." She said a hint of nervousness in her voice, most likely due to the coldness of Hal. "So how do you all know each other?

"We live together" Pearl replied proudly, normally you would think people would be utterly shocked to find three supernatural beings living together, once they got over the initial shock that you were a supernatural being. However Annie seemed surprised as if she knew how it was possible.

"What?" she questioned, turning towards Tom somehow I knew this conversation was going to be all about Pearl.

"I know it's unusual." She said making Annie shake her head…I'm guessing that there was or had been the same set-up here as there was back home.

"No, it's not, that it's…" Annie tried to say, though once Pearl started you couldn't get a word in edge ways, I honestly felt sorry for Annie.

"Three supernaturals living under the same roof."

"Yes exactly and I…" Annie tried once more to add her own thoughts into the conversation, but her attempts were foiled by Pearl.

"A werewolf and a vampire becoming friends, it's unheard of I suppose." She continued what she said had truth to it, most vampires hated werewolves and vice versa, and you generally wouldn't find either of them living with the spirit they could have possibly killed.

"Well, no actually not that unheard of because I…"

"I think, it's largely my influence." Hal shook his head and I rolled my eyes before standing up and wandering round the front room before standing next to Hal.

"Interestingly enough, I…" Annie tried once again.

"Pearl, let the girl speak…" I tried to intervene however Pearl still wanted to be centre of attention.

"I've achieved the impossible." She said smugly, she seriously had to listen to herself sometime. Annie by this time had gotten impatient however she was still polite as she interrupted Pearl's ramblings.

"I did it, sorry, I did it too. It's not anything to shout about is it. Erm but I did do it." She said quite happy with herself as she saw the look of shock on Pearl's face and probably at the fact that she had stopped Pearl from continuously talking.

"What there's a vampire here?" Hal asked agitated, I put a hand on his arm to give him reassurance as well as myself, we'd seen some of the most evil vampires there had ever been and we didn't want to see any today.

"We would have known if there was…" I said reassuringly like werewolves knew when someone was a vampire or another werewolf, we could tell as well. I mean if we mistook a werewolf for a human and drank their blood we'd be a pile of dust within minutes.

"Err no, not exactly, erm things have changed a lot for us recently so…" Annie explained I caught a flash of sadness cross her features as she explained, had there been a fight? Had they passed on?

"Oh, that's a pity. Over 55 years and I've never had to change my line up." Pearl said, trying to sound as if she cared at the same time she came across rather smug, she always knew how to make someone feel terrible didn't she.

"Pearl…" I murmured, Hal shook his head once more he couldn't believe how callous she was being.

"Good." Annie said forcing a smile, I believe that Pearl's comments had stung.

"Annie, I understand that you are the saviour's guardian." Leo began, it was actually a miracle that we had found the saviour…but it was still a grey area as whether she would heal Leo or not.

"Well, yes." Annie agreed.

"I appreciate how demanding that must be and so one minute in her presence is all I ask." Leo said, Annie smiled it wasn't a happy smile more like I understand.

"And I shall make it so. Thomas bring forth the chosen one…go get the baby tom." She said patting his hand while nodding her head towards the kitchen for Tom to go fetch the baby. He walked passed us glaring daggers at Hal who followed him till he went through the doors into the kitchen. My attention was drawn back to Leo and Annie.

"Now Leo when exactly did this angel speak to you?" she asked, I wonder whether she'd believe him when he told her it was over the radio, as Pearl put it an hallucination. My attention was quickly diverted back to Hal who made a kind of hissing noise to get my attention before motioning for me to come over to where he was stood. On the table lay a piece of human skin…it couldn't be…what was it doing here?

"Over Louis Armstrong, on the radio." Leo replied, I looked over at them catching Annie's eye before she quickly looked back at Leo.

"And erm, what did she sound like, this angel?" she questioned, what an odd question it wouldn't have been my first reaction to someone hearing the voice of an angel over a Louis Armstrong record.

"Where did you get this?" Hal interrupted pointing down at the skin the held the prophecy of the war child…could Eve be said child?

"Erm well, a man no a vampire erm he gave it to me, saying it comes with Eve." She explained, what vampire gave her that? Could it have been…Regus? If it was then this child was indeed the war child, the child that would one day wipe out the vampires.

"You do know that it's human skin?" Hal asked, what a lovely question to ask, it disturbed me that for some reason or another the only thing that they could write a prophecy on was some human skin including nipples…I mean who was so warped to suggest such an idea…well a lot of vampires have 'quirks' so to speak, but whoever thought of this was completely mental.

"Why is it always human skin?" I mumbled, no one seemed to take interest in my question, though Hal seemed to have coughed back a laugh.

"No that one's not, actually that one's fake, its prosthetics." Annie said, though her eyes told me she knew it wasn't fake…who would want to think about some skin they had lying around in their home?

"Does it make it easier for you to believe that?" Hal questioned amused, if I were Annie I wouldn't want to think that it was real either.

"Yes." She replied laughing nervously, Hal turned back to focusing on reading the scripture.

"It would make me more comfortable if it was fake too." I said smiling at Annie, who smiled back. I turned back to the piece of skin and put my hand over Hal's, he turned his hand over and gave my hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Then that's what it is." He stated, Tom came back through the double door carrying the baby with him and placing her between Annie and Leo.

"Thank you, and this is she." Annie said, smiling. Hal and I moved closer, Leo looked shocked at the presence of the tiny infant.

"She is so tiny, how can something so powerful be so tiny? I'm not a young man anymore, I'm ill and I'm useless but I need more time, this can't happen yet…" he was cut off, when he started coughing badly, Pearl scrambled for her bag.

"It's ok, don't say anything Leo just breathe, concentrate on breathing." She said her voice filled with worry. Suddenly the lights began flickering on and off, soon all the electrical appliances seemed to be coming alive.

"What's happenin'?" Tom asked, Leo waved Pearl off and leaned down towards the baby.

"Will you help me?" he asked, or rather pleaded. It was hard to see Leo looking so helpless asking an innocent baby to help him overcome his illness.

"Annie?" Tom asked concerned, he looked ready to jump into action and stop whatever was messing with the electrics in the house. Annie looked round for a moment before focusing on Eve.

"It's eve isn't it? It's eve don't you get it? Eve's saying yes, Leo, Eve is saying yes. She will help you." Annie said overjoyed as a small smile found its way onto Leo's face. After a while the lights returned to normal and Leo regained his breath, Annie, Tom and the baby left us saying that they were going to prepare for helping Leo. Hal and I stayed next to the lovely piece of skin and Leo and Pearl stayed sitting discussing their luck.

"Do you think she is the prophesied child?" I whispered, as I watched Hal's fingers as they ran over the engravings. He stopped on the symbol of the moon child.

"It can't be a coincidence that we were brought here, where a child and this prophecy are." He replied, if she was the war child it meant she would be in danger from vampires seeking to destroy their future destroyer…that could explain why Tom didn't like us one bit.

"I didn't think it existed." I murmured, placing my fingers on the rubbery like surface, a small chuckle escaped Hal's lips as he placed his hand on top of mine, guiding it around the piece of flesh. "And I didn't think it would be this weird."
"What did you expect it to be like?" he asked amused, every vampire…well every vampire that wasn't a complete nonce knew that several scriptures of the vampire community were written on pieces of human flesh.

"Well I didn't expect it to…well to have…" I replied blushing slightly making Hal chuckle.

"You didn't think it would have nipples." He said coolly, I nodded it was the weirdest thing about the piece of…well ok it was skin, but why couldn't they remove the nipples? Or better yet use a piece of skin that wouldn't have anything that stuck out. By now Leo had turned round towards us, and brought us into their little discussion.

"Well Hal, Sophie, Pearl's been converted. What about you?" he asked, I believed him from the moment he told us he had heard a voice, there were weirder things I'd heard about during the years I had been 'alive'. I nodded as Leo smiled; Pearl had also turned round at this point looking at the skin on the table with a look of fascination and disgust.

"What is that thing anyway?" she asked, Hal's hand skimmed over the thing once more before he placed them either side of it.

"To us, it's holy scripture the only thing we really believe in. I didn't even know it physically existed. Yet here it is in the same house as that child. It's not a coincidence." He answered, in essence it was what it was, though with prophecies and the alike it always got more and more complicated.

"What are you taking about?" Leo asked, Hal contemplated answering for a couple of minutes however I beat him to it.

"It's a prophecy, about a child that will be incredibly powerful. The war child." I answered though it didn't look like Leo had completely understood the gravity of the situation.

"I think that Eve really is the war child, she's actually going to do it. She's going to rid the world of us." Hal mused slightly happy at the same time I'm sure I heard a hint of astonishment.

"Us?" Pearl asked, now she seemed interested in this whole complicated prophecy larky.

"Vampires." I replied, looking towards Hal whose hands were once more tracing the skin stopping on the engraving that meant child of the moon.

"Is that what that thing says?" she asked, I paused before nodding, in essence it did basically say that a child would bring about the end of the vampires.

"Child of the moon, the god head, death of the vampires it won't happen today or tomorrow, it could be years from now but it will happen." Hal pronounced, his fingers stopping on each symbol as he said them.

"Oh im so sorry, if I'd known I wouldn't have brought the two of you here." Leo said remorsefully, I shook my head I was sure that it wasn't a coincidence that a voice over the radio had told Leo to come to this house, where a child and the prophecy were kept. Nothing concerning prophecy ever was coincidence it was fate.

"No, I think we were meant to come, I think we were meant to find her." Hal replied looking up at me, I nodded and at that moment both Annie and Tom came back into the room.

"Well erm, we have some very, very exciting news for you don't we Tom?" Annie announced, though I believed Eve was indeed the war child I was still sceptical that a tiny new born could cure Leo and something told me that Annie and Tom doubted this too.

"Yeah, I suppose." Tom agreed, before receiving an elbow to the side by the smiling Annie. "Righ' we're gonna do this thing, to channel Eve's energy because she's god and tha', erm and hopefully that might help you err not die or whatever"

"Is there subtitles for this conversation?" Hal said sarcastically and it was his turn to have an elbow in the side. Though it didn't stop him from glaring at Tom who held his glare…would they ever get on? Would we even stay here for that long?

"Okay, so basically what tom is saying is that we are going to have a ceremony!"

Hal's P.O.V

Why were we here? Surely everyone must have seen through this terrible guise, Annie didn't seem to know exactly what she was dealing with…and Tom certainly didn't seem to think that Eve could help Leo, then why were we gathered in the back of the B&B around Eve? And did Annie have draped over her head?

"Welcome everyone. Do not be afraid come closer and gather round the prophet. Don't be afraid." She said, motioning for us to come forward we all took one step forward in our semi-circular line. "I would now like to ask you all to hold hands."

I took Sophie's hand as Leo took hers and Pearl took his, I took out a handkerchief before dropping my hand for Tom to take, I was not about to touch his hand. Annie then raised her hands, holding a book in her hand she began the ceremony.

"All powerful and merciful Eve, we have come here today to ask you to assist our dear friend, Leo. We humbly beseech thee to restore him to health, drive away all illness and infirmary, strengthen him, raise him up so that he may..." she proclaimed, stumbling as she lost her place, she flipped the pages in her hands searching for the missing page, before deciding to continue without reading from her pages. "Ahem... Raise him up so that he may... stand on mountains. Raise him up so that he may walk on stormy seas. Let the road rise to meet him. Let the force be with him. Carpe diem. Veni, vidi, vici. Et tu, Brute. Dolce et Gabbana est. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen!"

Suddenly Leo fell backwards onto the sofa, he was having trouble breathing. Pearl, Sophie and I rushed to his side, he couldn't leave us now…not now.

"Oh my God! Oh my gosh what's happening?" Annie exclaimed, Tom had gone to her side checking on the baby, the lights were once again going haywire.

"He can't breathe, that's what's happening." Pearl shouted as she tried to get Leo conscious, she started pointing in the direction of her bag. "Get my bag. Leo, Leo."

I raced over grabbing her bag before chucking it over to her. I placed a hand on Sophie's back, trying to reassure her that everything would be ok, however even I believed this could be the end for him, and it scared me.

"What the hell did you do?" I shouted glaring towards Annie; she looked so out of her depth, scared of what had just occurred. My assumptions were proven correct she didn't know what she was doing and that could have just cost Leo his life.

"Hal, calm down." Sophie said holding onto my arm with her free hand as she helped Pearl with Leo, Tom glared at me in defence of Annie.

"Don't talk to her like tha' mate!" he growled, if I was my old self I wouldn't have hesitated to rip him to shreds, avoiding the toxic blood of this infuriating Neanderthal of a werewolf.

"You have no idea what you're doing." I growled back, the lights were flickering faster and Sophie's gripped tightened making sure that I wouldn't lunge at them.

"I'm warning you." Tom shouted, moving forward Sophie stood up as Pearl took over completely, Leo had regained some consciousness however he still wasn't breathing properly.

"Everyone calm down." She said calmly although deep down she was probably as scared as I was, knowing that we could lose someone who had managed to keep us in control for over fifty five years. Pearl now piped up.

"She said she'd help him so why doesn't she? Never mind switching lights bloody on. Why doesn't she cure him?" she asked or rather pleaded, she was on the verge of breaking down. She'd loved Leo since the first time she'd met him, however I doubted Leo knew.

"'Cause she's just a baby, an innocent baby. Why are you trying to make her out as somethin' she ain't? She's George and Nina's baby why ain't that enough? Come on little'n." Tom replied angrily as he picked up the carry and carried her out of the room. Annie took the thing that was wrapped round her head away, before coming over to help with Leo, after stabilising his breathing we moved him upstairs into one of the bedrooms. Where Pearl immediately shooed us out of the room so that she could focus on getting him at least a bit better, Annie left us to go check on Eve her eyes told me she was utterly sorry that it hadn't worked what so ever.

Sophie and I went downstairs no one was in the front room there was a small table in the corner that I had my eye on to use to set up my dominoes. Though that would have to come late, first was making sure Sophie was alright, her fingers tapped nervously at her bottom lip another one of her habits. I brought her into a tight hug, her hands clutching at my waist coat and her head buried into my chest.

"He's going to be alright isn't he Hal?" she asked quietly as I ran my fingers through her soft black hair, she looked up her blue eyes clouded with sadness. Something always twitched inside when I saw her this sad, and I honestly didn't know whether Leo would survive this or not I hoped he would.

"I'm sure he will." I said reassuringly kissing the top of her head before breaking the hug. She picked up my case that contained the dominoes and handed it to me.

"I think I'm going to get some fresh air." She murmured kissing me on the cheek; I nodded as she headed for the front door, as I sat down at the table and began to set up the dominoes. After a while Annie appeared by now I had nearly finished setting them up, she sat down on the table adjacent to the one I was sat at.

"Wow! I used to love that game when I was younger, knocking them over is the best feeling in the world." She said happily, I was never allowed to knock them down so I never knew why she felt overjoyed at the prospect of dominoes.

"I never do that." I stated, placing another domino precariously down next to another one, she seemed extremely surprised by the statement.

"What?" she exclaimed taking some of my focus away from me, something that should not happen.

"I build them up piece by piece and when I'm done I take them down piece by piece." I said closing my eyes momentarily to regain my focus and placed the final domino down.

"Well you are missing out on a part of that game then." She said cheerily, I would much rather she left me alone to finish this.

"Leo gave me these, every day he made me line them up, but never let me knock them down." I explained she seemed shocked once more; then again I'm sure most people would find it a very odd thing to do every day of the year.

"Why?" she questioned she was now intrigued, but I wouldn't tell her what would happen if I lost it, she'd be absolutely terrified and repulsed by me and I'm sure Tom would stake me immediately.

"He wanted to show me I was in control, if I could teach myself to fight small urges then I could train myself to resist much bigger ones." I explained, she nodded as though she understood what I was getting at, after all a vampire had lived with her for some time so she probably knew what we were capable of, but I was much worse than many of the 'ordinary' vampires.

"So you used to do that all of that every day?" she asked, I laughed slightly if I was doing right now, then obviously I still set them up and took them down.

"I still do, it's part of my routine now Annie. I like routine it keeps me…it keeps my mind occupied stops me from thinking too much. Being responsible for the saviour for the world must dominate most of your time." I answered; she nodded though she had to think about her answer for a bit.

"Yes, I suppose so."