Wedding dress soaked, Alf made her way through the streets of Highgate. She had no direction in mind, simply wandering aimlessly. Thunder roared in the skies above and Alf glanced around. She was cold, tired, and hungry. Most of all she was wet, and judging by the weather it looked like she would not be getting dry any time soon.

She knew that she had to find the Doctor, eventually, but at that moment she wanted to be alone. Alf looked up as a crowd walked towards her. She turned left and walked into a dark back alley, situated in between a row of houses. She carried on, deep in thought, totally unaware of the person following her in the darkness.

‘Alf,’ a voice said.

She stopped and slowly turned around. Someone was standing before her, half buried in the shadows from the houses on either side. Alf looked closely. There was something familiar about that figure.

‘Nick?’ she asked, hopefully.

He stepped out of the shadows and smiled. His long blond hair was no longer in a ponytail, and he wore black clothes, but it was definitely Nick.

‘Nick!’ Alf cried out, and rushed over to him. She hugged him tightly. ‘Oh Nick! I thought I had lost you.’

‘You have,’ he answered coldly.

Alf looked up into his red eyes and removed her arms. Nick’s face looked harder than before, and Alf was not too sure if it was simply because of the shadows. She shook her head, not able to comprehend what was going on. ‘But you’ve come back. Bradley said you had returned to the Millennium People.’

He tilted his head to one said and regarded Alf. ‘Nick did indeed try to return to the Millennium People, but my God, Ashgotoroth, was far too strong for him.’ He lifted his arms and smiled a thin, cold smile. ‘I am the Emissary of Ashgotoroth.’

‘What?’

He bared his sharp teeth, and Alf staggered backwards in horror. ‘That’s right, Nick is gone. I am Nicholaus, the greatest of the Kuang-Shi on this planet.’ Nicholaus laughed. ‘Nick never loved you. He was just biding his time until his People called him home. He was almost there, too. Now, he is just dead.’

‘No,’ Alf said in a whisper. ‘You’re lying.’

‘Am I?’ Nicholaus tapped the side of his head. ‘I have all of Nick’s memories.’ He smiled, taking a perverse delight from witnessing the growing despair in Alf’s eyes. ‘We shall meet again, I’m sure. A time anomaly like you will be a great feast for Ashgotoroth.’ He bowed and moved away slowly. ‘Until then.’ He drifted back into the shadows and was gone.

Alf dropped to her knees, her body shaking as the real horror took hold of her. She was totally oblivious to the rain and the cold; her mind drifting back to another trip to London, and to her torment at the hands of another vampire version of her beloved Nick.

No!

The scream echoed in her mind, where no one else could hear.

The Doctor sat behind a table in a blank room. It was empty except for the table (upon which his wet hat lay) and chairs. He knew exactly what the room was, for he had been in similar rooms many times over his lives. It was an interrogation room. It was in this room that he had been told to wait. There was no other person with him, no UNIT soldier to keep an eye on him, although the Doctor would wager on there being some sort of guard outside the room.

He wondered where Simon had been taken. Another room like this one, he suspected. To see what the young man knew.

The door opened and two men walked in. A third man remained outside the door, which caused the Doctor to smile smugly. The third man was a guard, as he had thought. The first man to enter the room the Doctor did not know. He was tall, although not as tall as the Doctor or the second man. His fair hair was cut short, and he had piercing eyes, hiding behind them a sly sense of self. The Doctor recognised the rank insignia on the man’s shoulders. The Doctor stood up and held out a hand.

‘Brigadier Kowlard, I presume?’

Kowlard shook the Doctor’s hand. ‘Good call. And I’m sure you know the Lieutenant General?’ He indicated the man behind him.

The Doctor smiled at the man in question, for he did indeed know the man. They had met on three occasions in the past, although neither time had the man looked so old and so bemused. The Lieutenant-General had a full figure, although not quite matching the Doctor’s, and his hair was grey. He wore a grey beard too, again seemingly a slightly less impressive copy of the Doctor’s.

‘Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart! Gone up in the world, I see?’

Lethbridge-Stewart nodded, although he did not smile. ‘So it would seem. A lot has happened since you left us back in 1972, Doctor. So nice of you to come back.’

The Doctor looked to the floor, like a schoolboy having been told off by his favourite teacher. He cleared his throat, and looked back up at Lethbridge-Stewart hopefully. ‘Well, I was a little befuddled by my regeneration back then. Here I am now, all ready to help and be helped.’

‘Just what makes you think we need your help, Doctor? We’ve managed quite well since you vanished on us. We could have done with your help during the Nestene Incursion. Your expertise would have come in very handy.’

The Doctor almost flinched at the bitterness in his old friend’s voice. ‘Sorry. But, erm, I can make amends now. There is a problem in London that I can help you with, and it is something that I have equal expertise about.’

Lethbridge-Stewart shook his head and sat down. ‘You know I was called back from Geneva when UNIT learned you were back. And what do I find? You telling me about something that UNIT has been aware of for months.’

The Doctor blinked in surprise. ‘You have?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then why haven’t you done anything about it? Do you realise the danger Bradley’s little coven of vampires could cause the human race?’

‘Enough, Doctor!’ Lethbridge-Stewart’s tone was forceful. ‘Just sit down and listen.’ The Doctor did as he was told and the Brigadier-General turned to Kowlard. ‘Brigadier, if you would be so kind?’

Brigadier Kowlard cleared his throat and began. ‘We have been watching the so-called Cult of Ashgotoroth for three months now, but little has been happening. However we have strong reason to believe that the death of the homeless people of London are linked directly to that cult. A vampire, calling himself Prince Bradley, who first appeared in London in 1989, runs the cult. The dead bodies have all been drained of blood, and almost all of them have been seen to have contact with one or more members of the Cult of Ashgotoroth.’

The Doctor could not contain himself. ‘If you know all this then why haven’t you stopped him?’

Kowlard held up a hand to silence the Doctor. ‘Because he is contained. At the moment the victims of his cult are only the homeless. The sad fact is that the homeless people of London are also faceless to the general public, and therefore the concern is not high. However, if we move in on the cult too soon then things could get a lot worse.’

‘As they will now, no doubt, get,’ Lethbridge-Stewart added. ‘Thanks to you, Doctor.’

‘What?’

‘Well, now that the little coven has been exposed to many others the vampires will not be secretive about their killing.’ Lethbridge-Stewart stood up, but his eyes never left the Doctor. ‘As usual you wander around with no thought of the consequences. Looks like UNIT will have to take care of things again, cleaning up your mess like we always have.’ He turned to leave, but spoke to Kowlard before he did so. ‘I’m going to get in touch with Geneva to advise them on our next course of action.’

Once Lethbridge-Stewart had gone, Kowlard turned to the glum looking Doctor. ‘Please remain at UNIT HQ, Doctor. Until we decide what to do with you.’

The Doctor gave no indication of having heard.