Prologue
The room was dark, the curtains were drawn. They had been for over twelve years. If someone were to happen to glance at the old, dark house they would have noticed a pulsating yellow light, dim behind the closed blinds.
They were coming...
Chapter one
-part one
He walked down the street for the tenth time, he was dressed in his favourite, prim, black suit complete with bow-tie and black loafers. Selwyn glanced at his watch, ten-past-twelve, he had been here for two hours. He wondered again if it was worth the time but quickly reminded himself of the consequences if he did not persevere, he gulped.
Then, it happened. The night sky was lit up with a bluish-green flash, temporarily blinded, Selwyn closed his eyes and stood stock still for a few seconds then went into action. He slid his mobile out of his pocket and punched in a few numbers. The voice that answered was course and rough and spoke in an unrecognisable tongue very fast.
Irritated, Selwyn quelled the stream of talk by snapping,
"Dalned, English please!"
"Sorry Tralvador, forgot," answered Dalned with the barest hint of sarcasm. Selwyn sighed, sometimes talking with Dalned was sooo hard.
"Enough chatter, we have a sky blue-Sea green situation on Truant Corner!"
"Sky blue?" asked Dalned
"And sea green, yes."
"We haven't had a simultaneous Centaur-Elf materialisation for five years!" Stated Dalned with rare and obvious excitement.
"Yeah," said Selwyn, "now can you please send someone over!"
"Already have done." came the cool reply.
Selwyn realised that the reply had come from both the phone and from behind him.
-part two
He spun round, from a cocoon of red light stepped a demon, a red demon standing seven feet tall with curved ram's horns. You've got to be impressed. Then the image flickered, the hologram died and there stood Dalmed, reddish-grey, five foot seven inches and with no horns at all. Dalned sulked.
"Never trust holograms Dal." laughed Selwyn.
"Ha ha, great joke." said Dalned, and stepped on the hologram inducer.
"Now lets get back to the matter in hand ," said Selwyn, "lets check out the materialisation."
"Fine, lets go and get it over with." agreed Dalned petulantly.
Together they walked up to the door of the house that the flashes had come from. Selwyn tried the door, it was locked. He took three steps back, did a cartwheel and smashed the door in. There came a wailing from a box on the wall. Selwyn swiftly drew a gleaming revolver from a holster on his hip and fired twice at the box. The wailing ceased.
"Burglar alarm," stated Selwyn, "Your knowledge is amazing, oh great one!" mocked Dalned, a smile creasing his features. Ignoring him, Selwyn took the stairs two at a time, flying through the house until he came to the third floor.
