“Frugal does not buy loyalty. Maybe if you’d paid us a little extra, we might have been encouraged to look the other way just now.”

“If I had paid you more, would you?” Dee wondered out loud, curiously.

“Probably not,” the creature said. “We are hunters. We usually catch what we hunt.”

The Magician’s thin lips twisted in a nasty smile. “But you failed to capture Flamel and the children yesterday,” he said.

The small man shrugged uncomfortably. “Well, yes…”

“Failed,” Dee reminded him.

The tattooed man stepped closer, lowering his voice as he glanced quickly left and right. “We tracked their scent as far as St. Marylebone Church. Then the Dearg Due turned up,” he added, a touch of horror in his voice.

Dee nodded, careful to keep his face impassive. The stink coming off the creatures was appalling-a mixture of old meat, stale clothes and unwashed bodies. The cucubuths were hunters, the children of a vampire and a Torc Madra, more beast than man, and he was guessing that at least one of the figures standing around him had a tail tucked in the back of its pants. But even the savage mercenaries were terrified of the Dearg Due, the Red Blood Suckers. “How many were there?” he asked.

“Two,” the cucubuth leader whispered. “Female,” he added with a grim nod.

Dee nodded again; the females were far deadlier than the males. “But they didn’t catch Flamel or the twins either,” he said.

“No.” The creature grinned again, showing his appalling teeth. “They were too busy chasing us. We lost them in Regent’s Park. It was a little embarrassing to be chased through the park by what looked like two schoolgirls,” he admitted. “But capturing you will more than make up for it,” he said.

“You haven’t captured me yet,” Dee murmured.

The cucubuth stepped back and spread his arms wide. “What are you going to do, Doctor? You dare not use your powers. Your aura will bring everything-and I do mean everything-that is now in London down on you. And if you do use it and manage to escape, the sulfurous stink will linger about you for hours. You’ll be easily tracked to your lair.”

The cucubuth was correct, Dee knew. If he used his aura, then every Elder, Dark Elder and immortal human in London would know his whereabouts.

“So you can come quietly with us…,” the cucubuth suggested.

“Or we can carry you out of here,” the larger creature added.

Dr. John Dee sighed and glanced at his watch. He was running out of time.

“In a hurry, Doctor?” the cucubuth asked with a toothy grin.