“Shit.” Glancing in the rearview mirror, I threw the transmission into reverse and slammed hard on the gas while twisting the wheel. My black Mustang peeled backward, out of the parking spot, and righted itself until it faced the road ahead of us. I stole a quick look at Lydia and frowned. “How’re you doing, sis?”
Her haunted eyes shifted from the windshield to me. “Get us the hell out of here, John,” she said. Lydia hugged her chest like she was cold, but being a vampire and all… Let’s just say, I knew exactly why she was doing it.
It was kind of hard for me to forget it myself.
“Getting us out of here,” I said. I focused on the road ahead, shifting into drive and hitting the accelerator. Rubber spun and stuck and with that, we barreled out of the airport parking where my car had been sitting for three months. Three months spent with the fucking Order and the shit finally hit the fan. The Interstate would be next and from there, we could get the hell out of Seattle.
“Do you need to feed again?” I merged onto the busy freeway, forced to slow when we hit a sea of cars. The sun had just set a few hours ago. Fucking rush hour traffic.
“We’ll worry about that closer to dawn.”
I nodded. As I came to a stop behind a minivan, I looked at Lydia again. “If you need my wrist before then… .”
She shook her head emphatically and closed her eyes. I frowned. Lydia had spent so many days repeating the mantra that she wouldn’t feed from me and even now, I could tell she hadn’t gotten over it. I wasn’t about to argue with her, either. Nodding, I left it at that. The car fell silent for a few moments.
“Where are we headed?” she finally asked.
“I don’t know.” My Mustang crawled forward a few yards and stopped again. “We need to get ahold of Dad and Victor.”
“Do you have your phone?”
“In the glove box.”
I heard her open the glove compartment, but didn’t look at her again. Instead, I listened to her press buttons and ripped my fingers through my hair, my hand shaking slightly. The adrenaline of the last hour started to work out of me and I knew I’d need a cup of coffee and something to eat to make it wherever we were going. Stopping for anything else seemed too risky, though. I didn’t want them to get ahold of us again.
Hard to believe, but only two weeks ago, Lydia and I had been sitting with my weapons instructor, a master seer named Ben, receiving orders for what would be our second mission. The first mission had been tricky, but we made it out the other side with only a few scratches and a bruise or two to show for it. The other watchers and seers-in-training applauded us and looked at me and Lydia both like we were heroes. I couldn’t have been happier. Finally, a vampire was receiving some recognition by the Order as something other than a killing machine.
Maybe I was stupid to think our problems ended there. Granted, I knew Wallace Alexander, my great-uncle and the head of the Order’s High Council, had it out for us, but I didn’t know how badly. Stuck in the trenches with the rank-and-file, things looked to be going pretty good for Lydia and me. People liked us. Ben had started respecting me after weeks of giving me shit and I had the chance to talk to him more about the first mission we went on and how I could do better the next time. He listened to me and patted me on the back for a job well done, all said.
Things snowballed from there, though.
While Lydia and I were in Seattle to fulfill our calling, we still had other very pressing things to figure out. Namely, what led my sister to drawing out my powers in the first place, the reason why we traveled across the country to the front step of a place we once considered a prison. The videos. They had started spreading like wildfire around the internet, implicating Victor’s bloodline as being nothing more than sadistic monsters when we knew nothing could be further from the truth. Prior to my first mission, I wandered the halls and heard dear ol’ Uncle Wally chatting about Victor and Dad. Before the second one, I decided to take another late night stroll.
Maybe this is why we got in trouble. I don’t know if one event led to another, I just know how they played out. We had already warned Dad and Victor they were on the Order’s radar screen, but this wasn’t enough. Slipping through the vacant halls, I crept up on Wallace’s office and heard my cousin David talking. I raised an eyebrow. Pressing my back against the wall, I waited and relaxed only when I realized nobody else was in the administrative wing at this time of night. That was right around the time David went on to say, “We have our reasons to believe Victor Mason is knee-deep in dark magic.”
I blinked. My future maker wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole, and neither would my Dad let him without a fight. I came close to barging into the office to tell them they were both full of shit. That is, until Wallace responded with, “Like the other two reports we’ve been investigating?”
Other two reports? Now, I was interested.
“Yes.” David cleared his throat. “We… might have more of an epidemic than we thought.”
“Who would have known Peter Dawes would be that ignorant?” Wallace scoffed. “I knew we should have killed him sixteen years, when we had the chance. He’s been looking for a way to retaliate and we honestly shouldn’t be surprised.”
“So, you believe Peter Dawes is doing this willingly?”
“Nobody forces him to do anything. He might have even presented the offer to Mr. Mason; what’s so hard to imagine about that? Find an ambitious vampire on the other side of the fence and give him a way to access dark magic.” The next few words came out in a lower tone of voice. “He’s going to equip them all for Armageddon.”
There was a pause. “You think he’s plotting something grand scale?” David asked.
“What else should we believe? Of all the bloodsuckers in the Lamiae, he gets cozy with someone in politics?”
“So, this is a conspiracy, then.”
“One gets the power, the other gets the revenge.”
David grunted. “I wonder why The Fates haven’t sent us any warnings.”
The sound of leather creaking preceded my Uncle Wallace speaking with what I could imagine was a slimy grin on his face. “Because we are already on the case, David.”
“Good point.” They shared a chuckle. My skin wanted to crawl. I dashed away and found Lydia, telling her what I’d overheard the moment I found her. The entire thing was utter bullshit – Dad and Victor married and bonded for love. While I knew Victor did hold a decent position in his bloodline, he never threw his weight around like he was entitled by the universe. What Lydia and I both agreed on, though, was neither of them would ever betray the other for something like vengeance or power. It would break both their hearts.
“I keep thinking about what you said… about the other reports,” Lydia said after a few moments of silence settled between us. She sat at her desk and I, on the edge of her bed.
Looking up at her, I raised an eyebrow. “We could always pull the trump card,” I said.
“What trump card?”
“The passwords.”
Lydia furrowed her brow at me. “You think we should?”
“Somehow, this is all tied together. I can feel it.” I lifted a hand to start enumerating items. “The videos, the paranoia, the fact that the videos only out Victor’s bloodline, and this weird suspicion that Dad and Victor are in cohorts to do something stupid. If they have other reports, I can’t help but wonder…”
“… if this has something to do with why they have it out for Victor’s bloodline.”
I nodded slowly. “We’re missing a piece to the puzzle, but this all seems to be related.”
“Yeah, I agree.” She glanced away, then looked back at me. “Did you say Wallace and David were the only ones in the office?”
“Yeah.” I cocked a thumb toward the door. “I didn’t see many other people out, either. It’s getting to be that hour.”
She nodded. “Let’s give it another couple of hours. Do you still have them memorized?”
I tapped the side of my head. “Locked away in the ol’ noggin.”
“Great.” She spread her lips in a broad smile and I had to mirror it. In the space of a minute, we went from speculating to plotting espionage and the thought made me rub my hands together in anticipation. By the time we crept out into the dark corridors winding back toward the offices, I felt the hair on the back of my neck standing up, a rush of adrenaline shooting through my veins.
The passwords. They were given to us by Lydia’s former boyfriend Zach, who once worked as his uncle’s assistant before he flew the coop himself. Our gateway into the Supernatural Order’s intel. The moment we found his uncle’s office, I focused on the door’s lock like Dad had taught me and listened to it turn until it clicked. Twisting the knob, I swung the door open and we slipped inside before shutting the door behind us. The office was dark, but we didn’t risk turning on any lights in case security came strolling by. Instead, I sat in the plush office chair and waited for the computer to power up.
A few keystrokes later, we found ourselves staring at shit labelled ‘Classified Information: For Approved Eyes Only.’ Sorting through the documents related to Dad and Victor only told us a lot of the same stuff we already knew. Once we scrolled past the most recent correspondence, something jumped out at Lydia and she pointed at the screen. “That. Click on that,” she said.
I read the subject line and nodded. ‘Updated Information: The Lamiae and Revenir Bloodlines and Dark Magic.’ “Huh, there’s that word again,” I said while the message loaded. “Lamiae. I think that’s their designation for Victor’s bloodline.”
Lydia nodded and we both began to read.
To All Personnel,
On November 17, 2009, it was brought to our attention that our fears regarding the mixing and conspiracy between the two bloodlines is, in fact, a very real and present one. During our meeting on August 6, 2009 (See Memo dated August 7, 2009 – The Final Resolution), it was determined the Order would use high-resolution videos posted on the Internet to create a rift between the Lamiae and the Revenir, thus preventing a catastrophic mixing of the bloodlines. A mixing of the bloodlines would give the Lamiae access to the Revenir’s dark magic capabilities, through a Lamiae trait called ‘blood bonding’.
Yesterday, reports from the London office have confirmed readings from two Lamiae strongholds of the use and exploitation of dark magic. In one locale, just outside of Vienna, Austria, we seem to have the largest concentration of activity, but another location around the region of Seville, Spain has also reported activity within the past few weeks. The readings do not indicate the use of strong – or world-threatening – magic. What has the London office more concerned is its presence in areas which have been largely considered more densely populated by Lamiae.
It is our recommendation to the London High Council to approach these areas with grave caution and not to enter unless the readings become stronger, or the will of The Fates suggests otherwise. The Lamiae are faster, stronger, and some have been observed employing a variety of extraordinary gifts, although it has not been determined which of these gifts are particular to the bloodline or the vampire in question. We will continue to monitor the situation with the London office and report any change in supernatural activity at once. In the meantime, we have two master seers from both offices on alert, should the need to step in arise.
What we are facing is unprecedented. I need not remind the High Council how important it is that we stay the course and continue maintaining the integrity and secrecy of the servers where the videos are being stored. Repeated attempts to ‘hack’ our servers have been thwarted and will continue to be so long as the videos are deemed effective. I cannot stress it enough. The two bloodlines must be kept apart at all costs and this demonstrates the reason why.
Sincerely,
Wallace Alexander
Presiding Chair, High Council. Seattle Headquarters
Lydia and I stared at the screen, our mouths hung agape, for what seemed like minutes. Finally, I muttered, “So, that’s the reason behind all of this? That’s fucked up.”
“You said it.” Lydia frowned. “We definitely have to let Dad and Victor know about this.”
“Damn straight we do.” We clicked through a few other documents, even finding the one marked ‘The Final Resolution’, but it only told us more of the same. There had been a meeting, the Order decided to start farming videos of the Lamiae, and everything happening now was because of the people surrounding us every day. And now, they were after our family.
When Ben pulled Lydia and I aside to tell us about our second mission, I had it in the back of my mind the entire time. That would be when we would call Dad and Victor, to let them know with Delilah and Robin what was going on.
Little did I know what would happen when we returned.
