The Twilight Circus Read Online Free Page B

Crone. “She’s not much older than you.”
    Nat narrowed his eyes.
The hoodie
! “The mugger?”
    â€œNot a mugger,” said Crone. “Try superhuman hero, black belt in three disciplines, zombie basher, et cetera, et cetera. Her name is Alexandra Fish. She was very keen to meet you,
and
she’s one of our best agents.”
    â€œNot my idea of a superhero,” muttered Nat. “She might have hurt that old lady really badly.”
    â€œThere
was
no old lady,” said Crone. “The person dressed as an old lady was me.”
    Nat didn’t know what to say.
    â€œFish and I just wanted to see for ourselves the gifts that Professor Paxton said you had,” said Crone gently.
    â€œThe
prof
told you where to find me?” asked Nat incredulously.
    Crone nodded. “Things have changed, Nat. He thought we could help each other. He’s also asked me to look out for you.”
    â€œMore like the other way around from what you’ve told me,” said Nat.
    â€œWe do have some successes,” said Crone, a little touchily.
    â€œSo in return for NightShift’s protection we would be sort of like consultants?” asked Nat.
    â€œExactly,” agreed Quentin Crone.
    Nat grinned. “We could head up the Shape-shifting Department?”
    Crone knew when he was being made fun of. He gave up. “I’ll pretend you agreed to the deal and I’ll keep my side of the bargain anyway,” he said. “I’ll do everything in my power to keep your trail cold. I will sabotage any government information about the Wolven and Helleborine Halt and I will permanently remove any images from the World’s Most Wanted site. On that, you have my word.”
    Nat looked at him askance. “Why would you do that?”
    â€œBecause we’re the good guys.” Crone smiled. “You have my card. If you hear anything … anything at all about Mr. Scale, it’s in your interest to tell me. Do we have a deal?”
    â€œI’ll try to keep in touch,” said Nat. The train was slowing down.
    â€œI suppose it’s good-bye, then,” said Nat awkwardly.
    â€œ
Au revoir
, Nat.” Crone smiled, shaking Nat’s hand. “We’ve reached the end of the line.”

CHAPTER 4
A S INGLE D ROP OF B LOOD
    Far away from the NightShift HQ in London, and roughly five hundred miles south of Paris, lay the wild and remote region of Salinas. It rested uneasily on a bed of salt plains and squashy, treacherous marshland. Jet-black bulls roamed the white plains, sharing their landscape with all manner of wild creatures from the warty-tusked wild boar and delicate pink flamingo to the rare and beautiful blue-eyed, black palomino, a horse so rarely glimpsed it was rumored to be all but extinct in the wild.
    Above the plains of Salinas, not too far from the medieval town of Marais, lay the dried-out husk of an ancient vampire in its filthy coffin. A rough wooden stake was still wedged through its blackened heart, driven there with heroic force more than a century before by a brave man. All this time the vampire had lain moribundand dormant, waiting to be summoned again, to join forces in a reign of promised and unholy evil.
    It had long been blind, its eyes having shriveled to calcified balls in its skull, but it could still feel and hear the scurrying and scratching of a hundred tiny creatures as they invaded its coffin. The rats’ sharp teeth gnawed through the rotten wood easily, and in minutes they had broken through to where it lay. Dozens of tiny cold feet and long scabrous tails brushed the vampire’s desiccated face as the creatures eagerly investigated the rank space.
    The rats squealed and fought until, inevitably, a young male was bitten clean through the neck. As its body twisted and turned in agonizing death throes, a single drop of hot, vibrant blood spilled from the doomed rat into the vampire’s skeletal chest cavity,