'Oh sorry,' said Emma. 'Are you okay?' she asked. As she moved her eyes from the women's feet up towards her face, Emma suddenly felt like she'd been slapped. Standing in front of them was the dread-locked woman from Abney Park.
'I'm fine, I'm fine. Don't worry. Sorry I'm in a hurry. Must dash,' she said in a very posh English accent as she rushed away without even glancing at them.
'Th...th... that's her from the graveyard,' whispered Lana. 'What is she doing here?'
'More importantly, do you think she recognised us?'
Lana shook her head. 'She didn't even look at us. Do you really think she works here? It's just so... weird. And did you see her eyes? They weren't all yellow and glowing this time, they were just, you know, dull.'
'Yeah, I know. Let's get out of here and go tell Eleanor. She'd want to know.'
As they exited the building, thunderous clouds hovered overhead threatening to empty their load. The sisters looked up just as a great clap of thunder echoed throughout the sky before droplets of rain began to drop one by one on top of them. As they walked huddled beneath their jackets that they held over their heads, the rain gradually became heavier and heavier until their small steps turned into a sprint as they rounded the corner and headed down the road until they reached the strange front door with the Praxos emblem on it.
The moment they arrived, it was pulled open by Wilbur who stood waiting with a couple of towels for them.
'Aww thanks Wilbur,' said Lana as they roughly towel dried themselves and followed him through the house, taking a different route this time. Eventually they found themselves in an old kitchen.
'Where did this room come from? We never found it the first time we were here?' asked Emma in amazement as she slowly walked around the large room, fingering the old fashioned aga that was covered in dust.
Wilbur smiled secretively, 'There's lots here at Praxos that you haven't seen yet, ladies. Come on, follow me,' he said as they ducked down and walked into a tiny pantry. When he closed the door behind them, the pantry was transformed into an elevator and they quickly began their descent to HQ.
'That's amazing,' sighed Emma. 'A pantry lift. That's just cool.'
After Wilbur left, taking their damp towels with him, the girls walked into the main hall and spotted Liam sitting beneath the angel statue with his computer on his lap.
'Hey you,' said Lana with a grin as she flopped down beside him and laid her head on his shoulder. He put his arm lazily around her and carried on what he was doing. Lana closed her eyes.
Emma, feeling like a gooseberry, just stood for a moment and took in the beauty of the statue above her when she suddenly realised something.
Slapping her forehead with her hand, she turned to look at Lana and said, 'It's been right in front of us the whole time.'
Opening one of her eyes, Lana raised her eyebrows, 'What has?'
'Emelia. What if she's an angel?'
Slowly lifting her head from Liam's shoulder, Lana gently bit her lip and thought about it before nodding. Climbing back up, she and Emma stood side by side looking at the statue.
'What do you reckon?' asked Emma. 'Do you think it's possible?'
'It's more than possible. It would explain a heck of a lot. We really need to get our heads round this paranormal malarkey, you know. We have to stop thinking like humans,' laughed Lana. 'If you know what I mean?' she said, knitting her eyebrows together with her finger in mouth.
Emma nodded, 'Yeah I know exactly what you mean. Come on.'
Turning away, the girls excitedly ran towards Eleanor's office, knocking and waiting for a response before entering.
Eleanor stood facing the huge screen with her arms crossed, watching a crime unfolding. An armed man had punched a young woman and dragged her into his car.
Lana and Emma both stood with their mouths agape.
'Shouldn't we do something?' asked Emma.
Eleanor turned and smiled at them briefly.
'Don't worry. It's all under control,' she said, turning back to the screen just as a woman appeared seemingly out of nowhere and dragged the man out of his car window. She grabbed his own gun and punched him in the face with it. She then handcuffed his hands behind his back and turned her attention to the poor, stunned woman who sat cowering in the back seat.
After a few moments of coaxing, the woman gingerly climbed out, tears streaming down her face. Her defender hugged her, said a few more words, turned to look at the secret hidden camera and gave a thumbs up signal before disappearing, leaving the shocked woman alone to call the police.
'Wow... was she... one of us?' asked Lana as Eleanor nodded and finally turned her attention to the girls.
'Yes, she's actually one of the professors at the academy. I believe today is her day off,' she smiled. 'Now, what can I do for you?'
'Two things actually,' offered Emma. 'We went to the British Museum earlier and bumped into one of those evil people from the other night.'
Emma had certainly caught Eleanor's attention. 'One of the Skulls? At the British Museum? Are you absolutely certain?' she asked as the girls nodded. 'Did she recognise either of you?'
The girls shook their heads, Lana continuing, 'She was really focussed on something. She was in a hurry.'
'That's good. Which of the women was it?'
'The one with the dreadlocks,' replied Lana.
'Right. Just give me a moment,' Eleanor said as she picked up her phone and dialled.
'Bryn? Eleanor here. We just received word about the whereabouts of one of the Skulls. It's believed she works in the British Museum.... yes, that's right. Dreadlocks, blonde, about... approximate age girls?' she asked.
'Nineteen or twenty, more or less,' Emma replied.
'About twenty, Bryn. No, we don't have any names. The only name that came to light the other night was Grycan, a wolf - possibly a Lycanthrope. Yes, fine. Excellent, I'll leave it with you. Thank you.'
Putting down the receiver, Eleanor returned her attention to the sisters.
'And the other thing. We were wondering whether it's possible for Emelia to be an angel?'
The idea seemed to please Eleanor for some reason and she stood with a smile.
'I knew you'd eventually come to the probability of paranormals and yes, I do believe it is a possibility.'
Lana pulled a funny face, 'Why didn't you say something?'
'This is your task, Lana. You must come to the conclusions, not me,' she smiled warmly. 'It's how you will best learn to use your skills. Remember that.'
'If Emelia is an angel, wouldn't you have known her though, Eleanor?' asked Emma as their guardian shook her head.
'I'm afraid not. I don't know of all the angels that roam the earth. I know many of them, but not all. It is up to you now to delve further into this possibility. You must ask the right questions to the right people and soon, you will get your answers,' she said as she wandered slowly over to the door and opened it, indicating their time was up.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
'We should ask the Mentors,' Lana suggested as they walked out of Eleanor's office and back towards the main hall. 'And Wilbur...'
'You called?' said a voice behind, startling them both.
As Wilbur stood over them waiting for them to speak, Lana shifted from one foot to the other, putting her hands in the back pockets of her jeans.
'Erm, yes. We have a question... about a possible angel?'
'Yeeesss,' he said slowly.
Emma delved into her satchel and pulled out the photographs of Emelia. 'Do you know her, Wilbur?'
Gazing down at the images, he stroked his chin with his fingers before turning to Lana, then Emma, and shaking his head.
'Sorry, she's not particularly familiar. I don't think I've seen her before. But then, I've had to deal with countless people and paranormals in my time. She looks a little like you though, don't you think?'
'Yeah, I've been getting that a lot. Thanks though, Wilbur,' Emma replied as they left him standing behind t
hem.
'We already know Declan and Saleena don't know her, so who next?'
'Let's ask Zane and Marian. Diarmuid and Liam will know where they are.'
Liam was still deep in concentration on his laptop, sitting in the same spot, beneath the statue of the Praxos angel.
'Liam?' asked Lana as she approached.
'Hm hm?' he responded without looking up.
'Do you know where Zane and Marian are?'
'They're out with Diarmuid,' he said flatly.
'Do you know where?' asked Emma.
He just shrugged his shoulders. Lana leaned forward to see what he was doing. When she saw that he was just playing a stupid game, she became irritated, pushing the laptop shut.
'Babe... I was right in the middle of... oh never mind,' he said, shaking his head, a bit peeved.
'We need to know where they are,' she demanded.
'They went to the Tower of London ages ago.'
'See... that wasn't so hard, was it?' she said flirtatiously, making him laugh. 'You wanna come with us?' but he shook his head and re-opened his laptop to continue playing the game. Before they walked away, he winked, 'Practise makes perfect.'
After trying to phone Diarmuid, they found his mobile was switched off. He must be in the middle of a tour, they figured and so they moved on to finding the other Mentors.
With none of the other Watchers in the immediate vicinity, the girls had to phone them to find out where they all were. Moira and Imran were on a boat trip with Brody and Oksana, Ava and Rupert were shopping with Megan and Rhydian, Penny and Nisha didn't know where Habika was and Bryn was busy sorting something out for Eleanor.
'Great. Now what do we do? Time's running out. We're going home in a couple of days,' sighed Lana as they sat down in the dining room with a cup of tea.
'Let's talk to Joe. See how he is... Joe... Josiah. You there?' asked Emma quietly looking around the large room.
Within moments, the ghost of an elderly man hovered before them, his face filled with sadness.
'I'm here,' he said slowly.
'How are you doing, Joe?' Emma asked, feeling awfully guilty.
Sighing heavily, the old ghost approached her and looked at her face. He attempted a smile but failed terribly. 'Same, same,' he uttered.
'Joe, I'm so sorry about everything. We didn't mean to bring you so much grief.'
'You didn't bring me grief, Emma. I've lived with this grief my entire life. Ever since... ever since...'
'1953?' Lana interjected and he nodded slowly.
'Yes that's right. Ever since she vanished. My Emelia Doris,' he sighed.
'Sorry?' Emma said suddenly, her attention captured. 'What did you say?'
'Ever since she vanished,' he murmured.
'No not that. The bit about her name. You just said her name, her full name?'
'Emelia... Doris,' he whispered, his eyes widening. 'I'd clean forgotten her name. It just came back to me now. I didn't even realise I'd remembered it. Emelia Doris,' he sighed.
Emma and Lana had immediately jumped up and disappeared out of the room, leaving Joe and their cups of tea behind.
'Sorry Liam, you're just going to have to practise later,' Lana said loudly as she ripped the laptop out of his hands and plonked herself down on the ground with Emma beside her.
Liam barely said a word, he just stood up and walked away, shaking his head.
After twenty minutes, Lana let out a high pitched squeal, 'I think I found her, I found her. Look here, look. Emelia Doris, born to the wealthy Doris-Baxter family in 1827. Oh, she died in 1845, just 18 years old. There's a sketch of the family,' she said as she waited for the image to open. When it did, the girls just sat motionless. It wasn't her.
'I really thought it was going to be her. I mean, how many women are there out there called Emelia Doris? I'm so bummed,' sighed Lana as Joe appeared suddenly by their side.
'What's going on?' he asked.
Glancing at each other, Lana leaned over and closed the laptop.
'Oh it's nothing. We're just doing a bit of research. Nothing that would interest you,' she said. Looking somewhat downtrodden, he vanished as quickly as he'd appeared.
'Why didn't you tell him we were looking for her?' asked Emma, a little put out.
'I don't think we should until we find out exactly what happened to her. Let's just wait. All we know is that she probably wasn't human. We shouldn't say anything until we know for sure.'
Emma reluctantly agreed as they heard the grandfather clock in the living room strike five o'clock. Moments later, Eleanor came bounding out full of energy, wearing black leather jeans and a pink t-shirt covered in sparkly sequins.
'Hey girls, any luck?' she asked as she whizzed over to them, grinning, stretching her arms high above her head.
Lana and Emma both nodded their heads and explained that Joe had finally remembered Emelia's full name.
'Perhaps now would be a good time to show you our special archives,' she said as she motioned for them to follow her. Leading them down one of the tunnels, Eleanor pulled a necklace out from underneath her t-shirt, revealing a key dangling from it. As they approached an old wooden door, she bent forward and unlocked it, pushing it open. The girls followed her inside before she closed and locked the door behind her. The flick of a switch revealed a small room with two doors either side. Turning to the right one, Eleanor used the same key to unlock it. When it was pushed open and a light switch turned on, Emma and Lana were gobsmacked by the sight before them. It was a massive room, not unlike the main hall, and it was full of filing cabinets, huge book stands and boxes upon boxes were neatly placed among them.
'What is this place?' asked Lana as she stood staring around her.
'It's our filing system. It goes back hundreds of years. Here you'll find everything you'll ever need to know about the Paranormals, the Elementals, the Others, even the Watchers, Mentors and Guardians... not that there have been too many of those. Not in England anyway.'
'But it's so... so... so big. It would take months, if not years, to go through this lot,' Emma sighed, with a gulp.
'Not necessarily,' Eleanor smiled as they followed her through the mass of paperwork until they stood in front of a smaller door that was already unlocked. As she pushed it open, there was a little desk with a modern computer on it.
'It might seem like an awful lot of paperwork, but we keep it all backed up on the archive computer. Wilbur and a few of the others keep it up to date.'
'Wilbur certainly keeps himself busy,' smiled Lana as she walked up to the computer. 'Can I switch it on?' she asked.
'Of course. You know what to do. I'm going to leave you now. I'll give you the key. Now, use your heads. Think,' she said tapping the side of her head. 'As Watchers, you have remarkable brain power that you just haven't tapped into yet. The answers you are searching for, may well be here. If they are, I believe that you can find them. Think about Josiah,' she said with a smile before turning around and closing the door behind her.
'Wait,' shouted Lana as Emma rushed to the door and opened it. 'What about the password?' she yelled but Eleanor had already gone.
'Great.'
'It's okay, Lana. We know what it is, we just have to think,' she said tapping the side of her head with a chuckle.
'Okay then. Let's try... Praxos,' she said as she typed.
'Too obvious,' Emma said just as the computer flashed back, ' Access Denied'.
'Watchers?'
Access Denied.
'Eleanor?'
Access Denied.
'Hayden-Jones?'
Access Denied.
'Wilbur?'
Access Denied.
'Angel?'
Access Denied.
'Skulls?'
Access Denied.
'I know,' Emma smiled as she leaned forward and typed in the name Tarquin and pressed enter.
'Access Granted.'
The girls squealed before Lana turned to her and asked, 'What's Tarquin?'
'You don't remember?' Emma asked as Lana shook her head, confused.
'Tarquin was the name of the man Eleanor loved,' she said sadly.
'Oh, that's so sad.'
'So what do we look for now?' Emma asked.
'All we know is the name Emelia Doris.'
'Let's just do a search for that then,' Emma said as she typed it in and pressed enter.
There were several Dorises, most of whom were fallen angels, although there was one reference to a Doris who was married to a man called Nereus and had something to do with Greek Mythology. There were also a few Emelias. One Emelia Hilton was an Elemental who was killed by the Skulls in 1949, another was a Watcher who currently works in New Orleans and the third was something called a fae who lives in Nairn in Scotland.
'What's a Fae?' whispered Lana.
'Let's have a look,' Emma said as she clicked on it. Immediately several images popped up of innocent looking beautiful people, with a long description which began 'Fae, also known as fairies, faeries or fay are human in appearance with magical abilities and sometimes wings (it remains unknown why some grow them and some don't). Generally, the fae work alongside Praxos but there have been several who have been tempted by the darker side of paranormal life. Mirelia Murdoch, for instance, was infamous for having been involved in the kidnapping and torture of Tabitha Collins and her family in 1659. Fortunately Praxos was able to contain Mirelia before further wrongdoings could be carried out. Mirelia perished in the Great Fire of London in 1666. Further reading can be found here...'
'Fairies are real?' breathed Emma dumb-foundedly. 'That's so cool.'
'This is freaking me out, Sis,' said Lana. 'If fairies are real, what else are we going to find here?' she asked nervously.
'We need to know. This is part of our world now. There's no point in freaking out. It's too late for that.'
'What else is there?'
'An Emelia Roundhead who was a known Shifter, worked with the Skulls.'
Lana gulped, 'A Shifter? Is that what I think it is?'
Emma continued to read the description to herself before nodding, 'Yeah. It's a creature that looks human that can change its form to look like someone else,' she shivered.