Kali put down her mug of tea and as she moved towards the hallway, Augustus came flying up the stairs from the basement.

"Who's at the door?"

Kali stared at him.

"I was going to ask you that."

Augustus looked confused for a moment. Tawiscara had appeared and had perched himself on the chandelier in the huge hall. The doorbell rang again.

"Security is on but I didn't hear any of the alarms go off, thats weird."

Kali snorted.

"Security is never 100%, no matter how well you think you've covered the bases. Besides, with the amount of dark magic both Kizmat and my dear sister have consumed today I'm surprised we haven't had more visitors than this!"

Augustus looked frightened.

"Should I let them in? Charon normally deals with this sort of thing..."

Kali felt sorry for him, he was lost without his mother even though he was a grown man. She decided to take charge, something she rarely did, preferring to let everyone to run round like headless chickens but Augustus was her nephew and like it or not he was to be protected at all costs.

"Move Kizmat and Charon deeper into the complex, once you've done that seal off the life support chamber and leave only the small computer room accessible. Then you get your ass back up here as though your life depended on it because I need you to guide me through pretending to be your bloody mother!"

Augustus nodded and shot like a scalded cat down into the basement, Kali waited until she heard the computer room door slide closed and then sealed them all into the basement and closed the door. She slid the panelling back in place and pulled a vegetable rack in front of it, making sure there was no way the secret entrance could be detected with the naked eye. She hated lying to Augustus but Charon had impressed upon her how important it was to protect him. She wandered into the hallway with her mug of tea and opened the front door with a face that said "What the fuck do you want?"

"Do you people know what fucking time it is? I'm knackered from wrestling ugly, moronic, cross dressing demons, I finally get in and get a mug of tea and you pricks show up. So what is it that you want?"

The two men stared blankly at her, apparently not expecting her to be even standing upright but then she figured they thought she was Charon - good.