17 Aug 2012
Sunrise
Camden Town Hookers

Barnabas Cuffe and Agatha Pendragon emerged from the doors of a pub in Camden like cicadas from beneath the earth. For months the pair had lived in dark solitude, all but dead to any who knew them. They had followed the fruitless investigation into their disappearance in the Daily Prophets brought up to them by one of the few vampires who knew they occupied that particular room.

The room had cost them heavily in gold and other favors but the secrecy had been complete, totally unmatched, the best blood could buy (speaking metaphorically). They could afford it, indeed, they could not have afforded not to. With Theodora Kingstreet on another murder spree, somehow loosed from inside her cell, Barnabas and Agatha could take no chances. They'd had no choice but to disappear.[1] They'd fled to the vampires but they may as well have fled the earth with no intention of returning until the blood had stopped shedding (speaking quite literally).

And that day had finally, finally come. Kingstreet had been convicted and the hole in Azkaban that had allowed her activities stoppered up. Barnabas and Agatha walked the still quiet streets now, dark sunglasses and fine clothes. Cuffe used a beautiful cane, for show. Agatha was ostentatious under a parasol.

"I do hope the elves have tended the orchids," Agatha said.

Barnabas lit his pipe with his wand, not so brazen in these early morning hours. "If you told them to, they'll have done it. Heaven f&@ing help them if they've touched my office."

He was off elves now, and on to editors.

"Imagine doing something so macabre without a body," Agatha said adjusting her glasses.

Barnabas Cuffe puffed away. "Bodies, my arse."

"Oh, it's lovely to be out." Agatha was off bodies now. She took a deep breath. "Shall we have breakfast?"

Cuffe shook his head. "You go without me."

"Oh, Cuffe, not work, not already. You're wan." Somehow she managed to make it sound like a jab.

Cuffe sniffed. "At least I'm not dead this time."

"Thank Merlin," Agatha said.

1.	24 Jan 2012 - Without a Forwarding Address