Just a short one-shot here, folks...although I may write more if it goes down well and if Reborn in Shadow is going OK.

Enjoy!

PIETER VAN ECKHARDT'S DIARY

July 29th: Tried yet again to wake the Sleeper, using six different alarm clocks this time. Am starting to think it is just lazy.

August 10th: Have found the final Cabal member, a man named Karel who will take charge of our investments and recruitment. Finally the traditional five members are present. Unhinged villain (me): check. Dour military man: check. Token female: check. Quiet, intelligent type: check. Comic relief fatso: check. The unholy circle is complete.

August 13th: Karel worries me. He's very efficient but I sense him looking at me strangely when my back is turned; despite his human appearance, suspect he may actually be a member of the most evil, degenerate, subhuman species ever to stalk this earth.

August 17th: Was right about Karel! He IS a lawyer. Will watch him closely from now on.

August 23rd: Think Gunderson is in love with me. He has started calling me Master and blushing whenever I enter the room.

September 4th: Palms becoming chapped from an excess of rubbing together in fiendish glee. Note to self: purchase hand cream.

December 22nd: Spent day recovering from the Cabal Christmas social, a hilarious all-nighter at Wobbly Jo's in Prague. Karel put a dampener on things by refusing to wear his paper hat, but even after having been around for six hundred years, I've come to the conclusion that you haven't lived until you've seen Boaz and Muller performing the "Macarena" on a karaeoke platform.

Staggered home singing at 4 am after extracting Gunderson from a drunken fight. Lost Muller along the way as we had to drop him into the River Vltava to sober up, and then continued back to the Strahov in a Conga line.

December 26th: Am very disappointed that, after sending a personal letter to Santa asking for fresh organ-harvesting victims for Christmas, I did not receive any. Will have Karel write one of his politely menacing legal letters warning about false advertising.

On the positive side, my minions were kind enough to present me with gift-wrapped classic reference works- Villainy in Ten Volumes from Gunderson, and How to Win Friends and Eviscerate People from Boaz and Muller.

The third package, a slightly tattered secondhand copy of Evil for Idiots, was simply signed 'K'. Cannot fathom the meaning of this at all.

January 1st: Ah, a brand new year of villainy and scheming to look forward to. My New Year's resolutions:

-Start ripping vital organs from ethnic minorities and the elderly, in spirit of compliance with new EU regulations on equal opportunities.

-Practise evil laugh in front of mirror every day

-Purchase special pillow for the Sleeper to prevent it from keeping us all awake by snoring.

Things seem to be going well. The only dark patch is the Proto-Nephilim, who is not yet house trained and who took a whiz on the rug left to me by my grandmother. Kicked it, only to have it whip round and sink needle sharp puppy-fangs into my ankle in retaliation. Cursed hound.

Credit where credit's due-although almost all of this is my work, there were one or two lines-specifically the ones about Karel's paper hat and practising the evil laugh, which were contributed by 'Ms. Croft, I Presume' during an MSN conversation.

In case anyone's wondering, RiS stalled majorly last week but I think I've wrestled it into submission now so chap. 7 is only a few days away.