02 - Vampire Science

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VAMPIRE SCIENCE

JONATHAN BLUM & KATE ORMAN

BBC BOOKS

Other BBC DOCTOR WHO books include:

THE EIGHT DOCTORS by Terrance Dicks 0 563 40563 5

THE BODY SNATCHERS by Mark Morris 0 563 40568 6

GENOCIDE by Paul Leonard 0 563 40572 4

THE DEVIL GOBLINS FROM NEPTUNE

by Keith Topping and Martin Day 0 503 10564 3

THE MURDER GAME by Steve Lyons 0 563 40565 1

THE ULTIMATE TREASURE by Christopher Bulis 0 563 40571 6

BUSINESS UNUSUAL by Gary Russell 0 503 40575 9

DOCTOR WHO titles on BBC Video include:

THE WAR MACHINES starring William Hartnell BBCV 6183

THEAWAKENING/FRONTIOS starring Peter Davison BBCV 6120

THE HAPPINESS PATROL starring Sylvester McCoy BBCV 5803

Other DOCTOR WHO titles available from

BBC Worldwide Publishing:

POSTCARD BOOK 0 563 40561 9

THE NOVEL OF THE FILM on audio tape 0 563 38148 5/Z1998

Published by BBC Books,

an imprint of BBC Worldwide Publishing

BBC Worldwide Ltd, Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane,

London W12 0TT

First published 1997

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Original series broadcast on the BBC

Format © BBC 1963

Doctor Who and TARDIS are trademarks of the BBC

ISBN 0 563 40566 X

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham

Cover printed by Belmont Press Ltd, Northampton

Scanned by the Camel

Contents

FIRST BITE

CHAPTER 1 SOMETHING WONDERFUL,

SOMETHING HORRIBLE ............................................ 7

CHAPTER 2 VAMPIRES ARE REAL ................................... 17

CHAPTER 3 NOW YOU SEE ME ........................................ 23

CHAPTER 4 HOUSE CALL ................................................. 31

CHAPTER 5 STAKE-OUT .................................................... 34

CHAPTER 6 FEAR OF FALLING ........................................ 44

CHAPTER 7 SLAKE ............................................................. 53

CHAPTER 8 BLOODFASTING ............................................ 60

SECOND BITE

CHAPTER 9 HURT/CHOCOLATE ....................................... 69

CHAPTER 10 TWICE SHY .................................................... 75

CHAPTER 11 CROSSING OVER .......................................... 83

CHAPTER 12 RAISING THE STAKES .................................. 93

CHAPTER 13 UNDEATH WISH ............................................ 105

CHAPTER 14 AMORAL OF THE STORY ............................. 108

CHAPTER 15 OVER THE EDGE ........................................... 115

THIRD BITE

CHAPTER 16 BLOOD WAR .................................................. 121

CHAPTER 17 ALL RIGHT ON THE NIGHT ........................... 127

CHAPTER 18 REALITY BITE ................................................ 133

CHAPTER 19 MATTER OF DEATH AND LIFE ..................... 140

CHAPTER 20 GETTING A LIFE ............................................ 145

EPILOGUE .............................................................................. 148

Acknowledgements ....................................................................... 149

For the cast, crew and other hangers on who helped make Time Rift (especially AC Chapin, Amy

Steele and Kris Kramer) – without whom none of this would've been. Just one more take, guys!

FIRST BITE

CHAPTER 1

SOMETHING WONDERFUL, SOMETHING HORRIBLE

San Francisco, 1976

The girl was headed for a fall.

Carolyn watched her from the next table, with the appalled fascination of someone watching a

car hurtle over a cliff in slow motion. The girl was breaking all the unwritten rules of the bar.

Making herself look like easy prey.

Bars like this one were supposed to be safe, a refuge from the testosterone-crazed macho men

who were taking over the disco scene. But the people here could be just as predatory. One bite

and away, and good luck on ever getting a phone call after the following morning.

So you learnt how to play the game, how not to come on too strong or too easy. How to use all

the little tricks Carolyn had spent far too much time picking up.

Her usual method was to bring along a sketchpad, in an attempt to look like some kind of

artist. Her drawings had always ended up turning back into doodles of aromatic hydrocarbons as

the homework she kept trying to forget pushed its way back into her mind.

But tonight she just didn't feel like bothering. So she sat, and drank, and listened to the

woman playing guitar on the small stage in the corner, and tried not to look too interested. Being

obviously available meant you were obviously desperate.

But this girl, the one sitting at the next table, was just casually scoping out everyone in sight

without a care in the world. She had an easy confidence, with none of the furtiveness or discom-

fort which so many of the other women wore around here, and eyes that knew a lot more than

they were telling.

It was either the face of someone who was a master player in the singles scene – and she

looked far too young to be that – or someone who had absolutely no idea of what she was getting

into. Pretty soon someone would descend upon her, and the girl would end up being eaten alive.

Carolyn figured she'd better beat them to her.

She leaned back in her chair to get closer to the girl, then murmured in her ear. 'I wouldn't be

quite so free with the eye contact, you know? The pick-up artists are out in force tonight.'

'I'd noticed,' the girl responded, giving Carolyn a sideways glance. She was a young blonde

with unbelievably short hair and a wiry, athletic body. Unapologetically butch. She was at least a

couple of years younger than Carolyn – nineteen, at the very most – but her face was already dis-

concertingly hard to read.

'Well if they give you any trouble, just call for me. I'm Carolyn. Carolyn McConnell.' She

extended a hand, and the girl clasped it.

'Sam. Sam Jones. And yes, that is my real name.' She had a British accent, very cool and pre-

cise. This girl was giving nothing away. Clearly this was going to turn into one of those fascin-

ating, frustrating conversational dances, where each person tried to keep themselves intriguingly

mysterious. Well, it was working, Carolyn thought: Sam had already got her curious.

'You here by yourself?' she asked Sam.

'Nah, I'm with him,' she said, pointing over to the bar, where a long-haired guy who looked like

Oscar Wilde was collecting their drinks. The guy was dressed flamboyantly even by Castro Street

standards, in a long green velvet coat which looked like a leftover from the glory days of the

Haight.

Carolyn looked him up and down. 'I take it he's not your boyfriend.'

The girl smirked. 'No way on Earth.' A good sign, thought Carolyn. 'We're on the road together.

He's showing me the universe, you know? Excitement and adventure and all that. Letting me get

some new experiences.' Sam met her eyes, and Carolyn saw a piercing seriousness there which

left her wondering just how much this girl had experienced already.

'And so he brought you here?'

Sam grinned. 'Yeah. We're just waiting for something to happen.' Suddenly Sam wheeled

around in her chair and fixed her with another one of those too-calm focused looks. 'Pop quiz,

hotshot. What do you believe in?'

Carolyn stumbled. 'Huh? What do you mean?'

'Just that. What do you believe in?'

Well, this was a new approach. Carolyn stalled for time, trying to think of a suitably deep

response that would hold this girl's interest. 'Well, uh, lots of things. I believe my biochem pro-

fessor is genetically incapable of giving anyone an A.' Sam smiled close-lipped at that, but her

gaze didn't waver. 'Well, I believe in God, I suppose. But I believe that's not enough, that we've

got to work to fix the world ourselves. That sounds awfully vague... I don't know what else to

say.'

'Put it another way. What do you dream about?'

That was easy. 'Finding a cure for cancer.' But then that wasn't quite true, was it? If she really

believed in it, she'd be at home studying for that exam she'd written off. 'Except when I dream

about chucking it all and just becoming a stagehand at some theatre.'

'And what are you doing about it?'

'Um. Studying, mostly. It's not much, sorry...'

'Don't apologise. What are you doing about it?'

Damn she was good. 'Learning. Taking classes.'

'What else?'

'Digging up articles. Finding people who know.'

'How far are you willing to go?'

'As far as I can,' Carolyn breathed.

Suddenly Sam sat back, a satisfied smile on her face. 'Not bad, not bad at all.'

Carolyn had the distinct feeling that something significant had just happened, but she had no

idea what. Clearly Sam knew just what she was doing. God help anyone who fed her a bad pick-

up line. 'And how about you? What do you believe in?'

Sam grinned, slowly, and spread her hands wide. 'Everything.'

Carolyn had no idea what to say to that.

'Sam,' the man in the velvet coat called out from near the door. His voice was firm and urgent.

'She's outside. I think she's going around the back.'

In an instant Sam was out of her seat and bolting for the exit. 'Nice talking to you.' Carolyn

was left staring in confusion as the pair of them dashed out of the bar.

It took her just a moment to decide what to do. She had a quick word with Lyn at the bar, who

let her slip through the kitchen to the back door. If Sam didn't want to be followed, she shouldn't

have spent so much time trying to be fascinating.

There were two women in the alleyway, in a close embrace. The taller one was all but sweeping

the shorter one off her feet. There was no sign of Sam or the man in the coat. Carolyn saw that

an old Ford Torino was blocking one end of the alleyway – behind there might be a good place to

watch whatever was going to happen. The tall woman was pulling the other woman's head back

by her hair and there was blood running down the other woman's neck and the woman had her

teeth in the other woman's throat.

Teeth in the other woman's throat.

Carolyn screamed.

The tall woman looked up, was looking straight at her. Was running straight at her. The

bleeding woman fell in a heap, and the tall woman was reaching for Carolyn, and there wasn't

even time to think that this wasn't happening, just time to grab the door handle and try to fumble

the door back open before the tall woman's hand grabbed her shoulder and the nails dug in –

'Stop!'

The hand let go. Carolyn got the door open and was halfway inside before she even thought to

look to see who had shouted.

The man in the velvet coat was stalking into the alleyway, his hand raised high, his eyes blaz-

ing. Carolyn got her first proper look at him. He was tall and slender, with long chestnut hair and

green, green eyes.

Sam followed a pace behind him, cool and impassive, as if she did this every day. The tall

woman stood frozen in a fighting crouch, hands raised like claws, her mouth a mess of blood and

lipstick.

'Eva.' The woman started with fear. 'That's the name you're using this time, isn't it?' The man

kept advancing on Eva, slower now, relentless. 'I knew you'd come back here. You never thought

anyone would notice, did you?'

Carolyn couldn't take her eyes off him. His voice was low and strong, and it was holding Eva

transfixed.

The woman bleeding on the pavement was stumbling halfway to her feet, was running, falling,

crawling towards the door where Carolyn was standing. Using the distraction as a chance to

escape. Carolyn thought she should be doing the same thing, but she couldn't move. And the

wounded woman ploughed into her, was suddenly a dead weight in her arms, dragging her off her

feet. Pinning her to the ground.

She could see the man circling around Eva, light but unshakable on his feet, somehow sur-

rounding her all by himself. 'Your last victim wasn't quite dead. I found her where you dumped

her body. Her name's Cheryl, did you know that?'

Eva hissed.

His eyes were locked on her, and his voice rasped with barely controlled fury. 'The hospital's

keeping her under close observation, but they think she's going to live now. Disappointed, are

you?'

Carolyn felt the blood running down her blouse. It was coming from the other woman's neck.

She sat up against the wall, supporting the weight of the woman sprawled on top of her, and

started pressing around the wound. Trying to control the bleeding, trying to hold the woman's life

inside her body with the sheer force of her fingers.

The woman's skin was already clammy. Her chest was rising and falling under Carolyn's arm,

short, shallow breaths. For God's sake, don't let her die.

Eva had fangs. She could see them now. She'd never spotted them all the times she'd seen her

around the bar. Eva had fangs, and she was baring them at this skinny English guy in the Jane

Austen costume.

Eva's muscles were tightening. Oh God, she could rip him in half. She could kill them all and he

wasn't scared in the slightest. He just kept advancing on her, as if unshakable confidence and

righteous rage would be enough to protect him.

And she was backing away from him.

His words were like a gale blowing in her face. 'You think you're strong, don't you? You think

you're more than human. You think that gives you the right to do what you do to them.' He pulled

off his coat and stood there braced for her. 'Why don't you try picking on someone who's less

human than you are, mm?'

Carolyn held her breath.

Eva was going to spring. Was going to kill him.

For one moment, all Carolyn could hear was the bleeding woman's breath rasping in her ear.

Eva ran.

And the man was shouting at her as she bolted for the car down the alleyway, and Sam leapt

away from the car as Eva snarled at her, and the man was still roaring at Eva as she threw the

door open and started the motor. And Carolyn found her own voice, yelled for Lyn, for a doctor,

for an ambulance. She heard footsteps and commotion starting up inside. Then the man was sud-

denly flattening himself against the wall of the alleyway, and the car's motor was revving, and the

headlights stabbed at her, heading straight for her and the woman whose neck she was holding

together. Move. She dragged the wounded woman over the door sill as the Ford's wheels crashed

through where their legs had been.

There were voices surrounding them now, back inside the hallway. Experienced hands lifted the

bleeding woman's weight off her, started asking questions she didn't know how to answer. None

of them registered. As soon as she could move, while they were tending to the victim, Carolyn ran

back out. She had to see what that man was doing.

He was standing on the street corner, still shouting and shaking his fist at Eva's tail lights.

'Come and have a go if you think yer hard enough!' he called after her.

Then, as soon as he knew she was gone, he turned around, his face breaking into a sudden

broad grin. 'I was beginning to think she'd never take the hint.' It was a face full of experienced

innocence, the look of someone who had seen the worst the world had to offer and walked

through unscathed.

'Did you get it in place?' he asked Sam.

Sam nodded, her cheeks still flushed with excitement. 'Right in the wheel-well, like you said.'

'I didn't have a chance to plant the other one on her. But still, it's a start. Good job getting that

woman to safety, by the way.' With a jolt Carolyn realised that he was talking to her. Before she

could answer, he'd moved on. 'Sam, get the car. I'll distract the innocent bystanders for you.' And

he and Sam were bustling off down the alleyway together, leaving her with a hundred questions

getting lost somewhere between her brain and her lips.

'Hang on,' she yelled. Sam and the man stopped and spun around to face her.

Others were beginning to fill the alleyway. A siren howled in the distance, growing louder. The

man's gaze was flicking anxiously around them, as if he were itching to run off, to catch up with

the events he'd unleashed.

'What's this all about?' Carolyn yelled at him. That was all she could get out.

The man dithered for a few precious seconds. Then he stepped towards her, and now he was

staring straight into her eyes, grasping her hand and pressing it first to the left side of his chest,

then to the right.

'Yes, I'm not human, and yes, that was a vampire, and yes, you really have wandered into an

ancient feud between my people and theirs, and now you can either stay here and tell people

stories they'll never believe, or come with us and help us stop her from killing people. Excuse me.'

And she could feel an impossible double pulse through her fingertips, and a tingling chilliness to

his skin, and she had no idea any more what other questions there were to ask. He was already

dashing off down the alley, and she was still standing frozen with shock.

Sam grinned as she hurried after him. 'He's the Doctor,' she said. 'Deal with it.'

Two minutes later she was squeezed into the back seat of a battered maroon VW Beetle, pressed

tightly against Sam and holding on for dear life as the Doctor sent them barrelling downhill.

Sam was laughing giddily and bouncing in her seat with each bump. All the sophistication she'd

shown in the bar had vanished; she looked years younger, maybe only seventeen.

Carolyn knew how she felt – the last time she'd been on a ride like this, she'd been twelve

years old and her big brother had been showing her what his new GTO could do. Under other cir-

cumstances she would have been enjoying this, but... no, wait, strike that. She was enjoying this.

The front seat of the Bug was filled with a pile of electronics, which hummed like a theremin.

As they gained on Eva's car, the pitch it put out wobbled more and more. If they got too close,

they slowed down. The Doctor – funny how she'd just accepted that that was his name –

explained that they were letting Eva lead them to any other vampires in the area. His whole chal-

lenge to her had been a bit of misdirection, a chance for Sam to slip a tracking device on to Eva's

car.

'We've got to find out what we're up against,' he said. 'This could be one lone vampire, or a

coven, or a fully fledged army out to resurrect ancient demons and mythological horrors. That sort

of thing.' He cocked his head as the hum suddenly dipped in pitch. He turned the car down a side

street, and the pitch climbed back up again. 'My people, the Time Lords, have been on the lookout

for descendants of the Great Vampires for millions of years, ever since the war we fought against

them. If any evidence of one turns up, we're duty-bound to investigate.'

'It plays hell with holiday plans,' Sam threw in cheerfully. 'Not that we didn't need some excite-

ment round here anyway. I can't believe people get nostalgic for this.'

Right, thought Carolyn. 'And so Eva ran off because she knew you were a, uh, a Time Lord?'

'Nah, she ran cause she's a bully at heart,' said Sam.

'The people who believe the most in the idea of the food chain are the ones who think they're

at the top,' the Doctor said without taking his eyes off the road. 'Remind them they're not, and

suddenly they're terrified.'

He grinned again, and somehow it all seemed perfectly reasonable.

'We do this sort of thing all the time,' said Sam. Suddenly she was sophisticated again.

'We?' asked the Doctor.

Sam made a face. 'All right, you do this all the time. I'm just a beginner.' She quickly sealed

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02 - Vampire Science

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