Chapter 3: Let the Confusion Begin

The two persons walked into the foyer, studying the place closely as Bigfoot went to get Dr. Magnus. The female was a beautiful, tall, dark skinned, brown eyed middle-aged looking woman, while the male was slightly smaller with fairer skin.

"I hear you have information on the Cabal that might be of interest to my colleagues and me?" Helen Magnus asked as she walked into the foyer.

"Ah yes, you must be Dr. Magnus, pleased to meet you. My name is Theodora Mathews and this is my brother, Iosif. We also believe our brother Stephan is here. Have you seen him?" Theodora asked while holding up a picture of Tesla.

"His name is Nikola, not Stephan. But . . . if this is who you are looking for, then, yes he is here," Helen replied.

"How did you track him down, if you don't mind me asking?" Helen asked, wondering herself.

"We or rather Theodora tracked his scent. Ina smell and senses in general are quite a bit more refined then our human counterparts," Iosif replied.

"Excuse me? You mentioned something I'm unfamiliar with. Who or what are the Ina?" Helen asked, intrigued by Iosif's answer to her question.

"The Ina are probably responsible for most of the world's vampire lore."

"But I thought vampires were of the species, sanguine vampiris?" Helen interrupted, a puzzled look on her face.

"That maybe what your people called us, but most of the lore is false, even most of what was left at Ba'alesom," Iosif answered as the door bell rang again.

"That's probably mother and father," Theodora said, as Helen went to get the door.

Helen opened the door, seeing two people with similar features to the ones she just was just talking to.

"Hello, you must be the mother and father, Theodora was talking about. I'm Dr. Helen Magnus. Looking for your "son" I presume?"

"Yes, we are familiar with your work Dr. Magnus and yes we believe he is here. My name is Shori Mathews and this is one of my mates, William Gordon."

'One of?' Helen thought. This was getting more interesting by the minute! It was then that Helen noticed how strikingly similar both Iosif and William looked to Nikola. Iosif had a slightly darker complexion, but everything else in terms of physicality was the same as far as she could tell. Perhaps they were telling the truth about Nikola being their son and brother. If so, Helen wondered how Nikola would take the news. 'Not well, I bet,' Helen thought again.

~The Sanctuary Infirmary, 15 minutes earlier~

Nikola Tesla was attempting to get up off the infirmary bed again. Still in pain even though the sedative had worn off completely, he found himself alone. He had decided to rest for a while longer; but . . . only after realizing how much pain he was in from last night, whatever had happened. 'She must have gone to talk with that protégé of hers, whatever his name was,' Nikola thought.

Nikola could bare the pain enough to walk, so he got up and went back to the guestroom he was staying in. He didn't like being in his nightclothes from last night still, and it was quarter to eight in the evening. He needed to get dressed. He had work to do! 'Damn, I didn't think 'rest a little more' would mean all day!' Nikola thought sarcastically while he got dressed. After he finished getting dressed, he proceeded to find Helen. They had much to discus concerning their situation with the Cabal.

He was on his way to Helen's office, when he heard voices in the foyer. One of them sounded like Helen's, but he was too far away to tell. Plus, Helen wasn't expecting company; at least not that he was aware of. He decided to check it out and started walking towards the foyer area.

As Nikola drew closer to enter, he began to catch better wind of the conversation.

"How did you track down, if you don't mind me asking?" he heard Helen ask the two people, one male, one female setting across from her.

'Crap,' Nikola thought, panicked. 'But it doesn't make since that Helen would work with the Cabal just to turn me in. If that had been the case, wouldn't she have just let them capture me in Italy? Something else has to be going on, but what is it?'

"We or rather Theodora tracked his scent. Ina smell and senses are quite a bit more refined than our human counterparts," the male answered. Nikola was intrigued by the male's answer to Helen's question. What made these unexpected visitors even more fascinating was the fact that he noticed the male's similar appearance to his own.

'This is getting interesting,' Nikola thought to himself. Although he had no real evidence of it, he got a strong feeling that the "him" these beings had sniffed out, was in fact himself. He had never in all his research come across an abnormal that looked partially human but could track something down by scent alone. The fact, that he might have more than the Cabal to worry about was, somewhat troubling. These "Ina", who or what ever they were, were a potential threat. Even so, Nikola decided to continue listening to the conversation from a distance.

"The Ina are probably responsible for most of the world's vampire lore."

"But I thought vampires were of the species sanguine vampiris?"

'As did I,' Nikola thought to himself.

"That may have been what your people called us, but most of the lore is false, even most of what was left at Ba'alesom," the male answered.

'Wait, what!?' Nikola thought, panicked and became lost in a whirlwind of thought as two others entered the foyer.

Nikola was brought out of his temporary whirlwind of thoughts by a request for his presence in the foyer.

"We know you're hiding close by. We can smell that you are. You might as well come out of the shadows," one of the females declared.

"Was about to anyways; not that I believe anything I've heard thus far. Who or what are you and why are you here?" Nikola asked rather flippantly.

"My name is Shori Mathews, this is one of my mates William Gordon, and these are two of our children, Theodora and Iosif," she said, pointing to each of them as she said their names.

"You, we believe are a family member of ours," she continued while showing Nikola the picture of himself she held up.

Nikola stared at the photo momentarily before speaking again; also taking note that the other male looked quite a bit like him as well.

"What makes you think you can just come in "tracking" me down like I'm you're prey and claim that I'm your family?" he asked, anger and annoyance showing though in the tone of his voice.

"Nikola!" Helen interjected, looking at him sternly.

"You really have no idea about your true origins, do you?" Theodora asked, slight frustration showing itself in the tone of her voice.

"Theodora! Claim down. It's not like he was ever really given a chance to learn about it in the first place. We never wanted to give him up, but we knew it was the best course of action until the rest of the Silks were dealt with," William answered.

Nikola looked at the guests with interest, although he was unsure if he wanted to hear anymore of their story. On the one hand, it sounded like he might still have family and perhaps his ancestors hadn't been completely killed off or sterilized. On the other hand, if that was true, than both he and The Five had been played for fools. He was getting increasingly uneasy and conflicted feelings about all this.