Prologue

"Mother, I do not agree with this meeting." Luke said in a low voice as he followed his mother through the eerily quiet library. Normally the sounds of hushed whispers and the flipping of pages were present. Only at night absolute silence could be observed. And that was what it was, 1am to be precise. Luke and Lily had broken into the library, though that wasn't a hard feat to achieve, and were about to meet up with someone called 'Link'. Lily had met him online in the follower community and had found it worthwhile to at least have a meeting with him, before deciding anything else that is. Her sons hadn't been as enthusiastic about the idea.

"I know you don't, dear." Lily answered her adoptive son kindly. "But if we want to lure Joe out of hiding, we will have to strengthen our lineage."

"We can find another way. How can we be sure we can even trust this guy?" He protested but she just waved him off as they continued walking through the long hall. Their faces were alternately cascaded in moonlight or darkness as they walked on, due to the large bookcases blocking the moonlight that shone through the tall glass windows. The place had been a church in the past, but as religion became less and less important in society nowadays it had been abandoned and the library had taken up in it instead.

As they neared the long mahogany tables at the end, which were used for studying during the day, they noticed a shadowy figure becoming apparent. It was looking straight at them, the moon illuminating its features just enough to see an outline.

"Are you who they call 'Links'?" Lily asked after a moment of silence, feeling the tense form of her son behind her.

Luke wasn't one to trust people easily, and he didn't like people randomly being added as 'family members'. He hadn't even wanted this meeting to take place, but his mother had not been up for persuasion. So he decided to do the next best thing, come along and make sure that his mother was safe. Naturally, he did not like the man they were meeting either, so he narrowed his eyes at the shadowy figure as a sign of hostility.

The man was big. Not in the sense of 'heavy' but in the sense of looking like a body builder. His face was cast in shadow, making it hard to get a good view. Luke did notice however how the man studied them carefully before answering.

"Yes, I am." He said in a low, firm voice. "Am I right to assume you are the one who contacted us?" He asked in turn.

Lily was the one to nod this time, smiling kindly. She sat down at the table, as did Links. Luke stayed standing and took this opportunity to look around, gathering information on how to get out of here fast if need be. As his gaze roamed the balcony upstairs, which held even more bookcases, he suddenly caught sight of something, though it has disappeared almost as quick as it had appeared.

"Are you alone here?" Luke asked, interrupting their conversation. The man frowned slightly, but did well to hide it, as he tilted his head to the side. "I came with back up." He admitted, not ashamed of it. Like you did." He told Lily. "She is harmless though, if you don't provoke her." He directed the last part at Luke in particular.

Lily nodded in understanding and shared a look with her son telling him it was fine. She then continued her explanations, while Luke kept his eyes fixed at the spot where he'd seen the so called back up. He noticed a pair of eyes appearing once again, staring straight into his. He couldn't define the color, but he felt a chill run down his spine at her intense stare. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling.

The moment he blinked however she had disappeared again, without making a sound. How intriguing, he thought as he focused back on the conversation at hand.

The light of the moon was revealing yet concealing at the same time. She could see the right half of his face as he stood there looking up at her, his left side cascaded in darkness. The whites of his eyes glowed in the moonlight and for some reason, even though she couldn't see properly, she knew he must be smirking. For a moment she contemplated going down and starting up a conversation with this ever so intriguing stranger, they already knew she was there anyway so hiding wasn't very useful anymore. But just then her phone started to buzz, demanding her attention.

She scowled, crouching back away from the railing and stealthily making her way further back into the darkness. She pulled her phone out and saw the caller ID: Terryl. She pressed him away and quickly shot him a text:

"What's up? I can't talk right now, I'm in church."

"In church?" He sent back. "In the middle of the night?"

She rolled her eyes, "I'm a student. It's the only fucking time I don't spend on studying." she replied feeling just slightly annoyed. Next time she wouldn't even bother coming up with an excuse if it was going to be like this.

"Yeah, ok, I can get that. Just never thought of you as a religious type."

She sighed, "Just tell me what's up"

"Did you finish your part of our literature project yet?"

She stared at the text for a moment and took a deep breath to calm down. She didn't want to snap at the damn guy, though that might be hard when they weren't actually talking on the phone. Then again, she could probably write a very menacing text message…. "I sent it to your mail address yesterday." She sent instead of the message that she'd come up with.

"Oh right, sorry, hadn't checked. Thanks. :)"

She shook her head in exasperation as she finally put her phone away again, sneaking up to the railing in the hopes of getting another glimpse of the guy from before. She didn't though, instead Links stood waiting for her, looking rather impatient. She quickly climbed up onto the railing and jumped down onto one of the book cases, which was only a few feet beneath her. Then she climbed down the shelves and jumped the last few feet down to the ground, landing in a crouch. That's what all those years of gymnastics gets you!

"What were you doing?" He asked her and she made a face. "My project partner needed me." She answered. "How'd it go?" He smiled smugly as they started walking towards the exit of the library. "They've agreed to meet us," he told her. "At least a few of us." He frowned slightly at those last words.

"What do you mean?"

"They're careful, they know what to look out for. Too many followers attract attention. They only want those they know they can trust."

She nodded slowly, thinking about his words. "So who are you picking? Are you going yourself?"

He shook his head, "No if I do that everything'll fall apart back home." He shook his head slightly. "I'm gonna send you in though." He told her. "And I was thinking Kevin, Lorelei and maybe Jester?"

The last one was more of a question and she shrugged, "Fine with me. I trust the guy and he's fun to hang with most of the time."

He nodded, "Alright, you'll be meeting them personally with the rest tomorrow at The Red Devil's. I'll be there one last time to introduce you all, but after that you'll be on your own."

We headed outside and she grinned at him, "I'm fine on my own Links, you know that." she said with a wink before turning into a separate direction from him.

"Just be careful with that guy from before." He commented.

She froze at the words and spun around, but he had already vanished. She put my hands in the pockets of her coat and frowned deeply. What had he meant by that? She quickly shook it off though and took her phone out again, seeing another message from Terryl. He really didn't know when to stop, did he? God!