Free 1 A Motive for Murder by Morgana Best Page A

age. How old are some members of the, err, Society? You can't seriously mean that they live longer than normal? Do they turn non human or anything?" I remembered all those old Frankenstein movies I'd seen as a child, and then I thought of Buffy, and Twilight. "You really don't mean vampires, do you?" I jumped up and walked over to the other side of the room. I was getting scared despite the fact that I didn't believe any of it.
    Diva suddenly ran in, starling me. She ran over to Douglass, hissed, and then circled him. He bent down to stroke her, but she scathed his hand hard and ran out the room. "Ouch," Douglass said loudly, and then that word was followed by a string of muttered words which I couldn’t quite hear, and probably just as well.
    I jumped to my feet. "Oh I am so sorry, Douglass. I’ll get a Band-Aid."
    "That won’t be necessary." His tone was clipped. Douglass took a handkerchief out of his pocket and folded it around his hand. "As I said, Beth did not want to take the procedure; some members don't."
    "Okay, okay, but what about the ones that do? How old are they?"
    "A few hundred years old."
    "You've got to be kidding! Seriously! Do you expect me to believe that?" I walked back and sat down on another floral monstrosity.
    "I know it's hard to believe, but you write about the paranormal for a living; there must be some things you've come across that can't be explained away."
    I looked hard at him. "You are serious, aren't you! Do they look old? How old would someone who was really three hundred years old look? Like an eighty year old or a thirty year old? You haven't answered my question - are they vampires? Do they look like Edward, all sparkly? Can they go out in the sun? They are golems, aren't they, or those homunculus things? Are they still human? Or like a Time Lord? Do they regenerate and then look like someone else?" My words tumbled out one after the other. I caught my breath. I felt I was about to cry. This was all too much.
    Douglas crossed over to my chair and patted my shoulder. "Misty, I'll answer all your questions. I do understand this is a shock."
    "Hmmpfff," was my reply, and I sniffled into a tissue.
    "Yes, they are most certainly still human. No, they don't look like elderly people, and as for how old they look, it depends on the age they started the procedure. They generally won't look much younger than when they started. If someone who's been having the procedure stops for any reason, the ageing will restart, but they won't suddenly get very old and turn to dust like you see on Hollywood. No, they are not vampires, but at one point in history they may have been confused with vampires, because the procedure does require human blood."
    I gasped, and started shaking. Douglas took off his coat and put it over my shoulders, but I thrust it back at him. Douglas ignored my anxiety and kept on with his explanation.
    "The procedure doesn't require human sacrifice, if that's what you're thinking. It's only a few drops of blood, not as much as a quarter of a cupful or so, for fifteen consecutive days. However, it does involve ritual, and invoking of spirits. After the first two days and for the rest of the procedure, the person is overcome with bloodlust and must be contained in a circular room covered with alchemical symbols. After the procedure's over and the person can go back into public, they still need to keep away from any sight of human blood for a while, as the bloodlust can still be present, but only to a far lesser degree. That's where I think the legend of the vampire arose."
    I heard myself laughing hoarsely, as if from a distance. "You don't believe in vampires, but you believe in this?"
    Douglas spoke slowly. "Misty, that's why we need to find that page. For centuries the procedure has been carried out near West Wycombe, in an underground vault in Buckinghamshire. Earlier this year, the vault collapsed. Chalk is unstable and even though the unsafe areas in the area were supported,