‘By three minutes?’ My tone was not as professional as it should have been.
The vampire looked down his bulbous nose at me. ‘Punctuality may not matter to sun dwellers like you, but it is a matter of principle and morals as far as I am concerned.’
This was more like the sort of vampire I had expected: punctilious, annoying and a with a complete irony bypass. I bit the inside of my cheek then threw him a curve ball designed to put him off balance and hopefully encourage greater honesty. ‘Have you ever conjured up a monster to attack another creature?’ I asked.
Penelope, who was by my side, sucked in a sharp breath but the other vampire didn’t react. ‘No.’ He pointed to She Without An Ear who was staring into space looking bored. I didn’t blame her. ‘Is that why the cat is here? Is it a conjuration? Because I can tell you many things about the nature of cats that might improve such conjurations. Given that this one is missing an ear, you could do better. To begin with, one should know that their Latin namefelis catusand...’
I interrupted again. I was a cat lady: I couldn’t let a damned vampire mansplain cats to me. ‘Did you travel with anyone else?’
‘No, and…’
‘Did you see anyone else?’
‘No, but…’
‘Was there any indication from Fields that anything was wrong?’
‘His lantern was slightly askew. I would not have been surprised at such inattention from one of the younger worms, but Fields was usually more meticulous and refrained from jerking around. This was only the twenty-third time that I had noticed his lantern wasn’t in perfect alignment and…’
I sighed inwardly. This would be a very long night indeed.
Chapter
Fourteen
The long-winded vampire who thought punctuality was a matter of morals wasn’t any help whatsoever. Neither was the older female who refused to answer my questions in any language other than French, the dapper vampire wearing a baseball cap as if he were down with the kids – and who asked me on a date – nor the wide-eyed vamp who looked about twelve years old and who took at least thirty seconds to answer the most basic of questions. Even giving her name was a matter of weighty importance that required a long period of thought.
None of them had noticed anything unusual about the worms, none of them had seen any shifty characters and none of them had any idea as to what had happened.
‘That was a colossal waste of time,’ I muttered as the final vampire departed.
She Without An Ear agreed and flopped by my feet. The act of doing nothing for the past few hours had obviously exhausted her beyond belief.
Even Penelope nodded. ‘They were quite unhelpful.’ She sent me a side glance. ‘You do not truly believe that the personresponsible for the lost worms is the same person involved in the attack upon your person?’
I shrugged. ‘How often do conjured monsters appear in the Understream?’
‘Not often.’
I raised my eyebrows.
‘Fine,’ she sighed. ‘Never. But there is no evidence to suggest these crimes are connected.’
‘There’s no evidence to suggest that they’re not.’ I grimaced. ‘In fact, there’s no evidence at all.’
She was watching me carefully. ‘I do not think the attack was meant to hurt you, despite the volatile nature of what occurred.’
That was what worried me. I smiled tightly. ‘As long as it doesn’t happen again, then it’s all good.’
Penelope nodded. ‘I was about to suggest that we could walk Tiger’s usual route, which starts not far from here. It’s been two months since he vanished but there might be more pointless rubbish for you to pick up along the way.’
‘Was that an attempt at a joke?’
‘It has been known to happen.’
I grinned. ‘What do you call a cat that only drinks blood?’
This time both She Without An Ear and Penelope paid attention.
