- CHAPTER THREE PART ONE -
-Interstate 85, Alabama, Present Day-
=KRISS=
"Dammit," Kriss hissed under her breath as she punched at the radio buttons. Rain cascaded in sheets down the car windows around her, creating the illusion of a watery cell. She had been driving for almost twelve hours now, and her back and knees were beginning to ache. "C'mon, I know you want to work for me," she crooned at the radio, hoping that this time the inanimate object would respond, or just work. It had been giving her problems since she had left Virginia that morning. She just needed to replace it but money had been tight since the funeral.
Sighing she slouched to her side slightly trying to dig on the floor in front of the passenger seat without taking her eyes off the road. Her fingers snagged on ropy construct and she grabbed at it. "Yes!" she squeaked as she drew the cable up towards her. "AHAHA, I'll show you radio, thought you'd beaten me eh?" she laughed as she fumbled one end of the cord into the aux input on her dash. She was so happy she'd had it installed two years ago when she'd graduated. Plugging the other end into her iphone she surreptitiously looked at the phone screen and the road at the same time opening her music player. She knew all the songs by heart and flipped through them searching for the one she had playing her in head without having to look at the screen.
As the first strains of Marylin Manson's version of Tainted Love beat through the car speakers she sighed and relaxed into her seat. She was only about an hour away now and the rain appeared to be easing up slightly. She let her mind wander as she saw the "Welcome to Florida," signs on her right. She flipped through the past week's events and went back over her mental checklist. About a week ago today, which would have been last Saturday, she had received her assignment, The Order, having modernized to the times sent their agents texts instead of the carrier pigeons originally used. She always laughed a little at that part of their history, it reminded her of something out of Assassin's Creed™, secret assassins getting hits via carrier pigeon.
The message had been a simple one, although the subsequent mission was anything but; "Go to Mystic Falls Virginia and find out what you can about the Bennet Line and the magic's surrounding that town. Then head south to Lousianna, we have reason to believe that the Original Family is breaking some laws." What she had discovered in Virginia had been disturbing, magic being used indiscriminately, the borders between our plan and the Other Side tampered and Fussed with. It was just a reminder of how forgiving The Order had become over the centuries. They now allowed the supernaturals of the world to mostly govern themselves, however when one, or a group of them, truly stepped out of bounds it was their job to intervene.
Unbeknownst to most of the supernaturals today, The Order oversees and polices them, and they have since the late 1100s. They were originally a Knightly order first created during the cursades to fight against the unholy. They became the construct they are today after the fateful day their founder met one of the, "Original Family" and saw for his own eyes the raw power they could wield. Since then The Order has grown and many divisions exist, they have three main branches, Werewolves, Witches, and Vampires. Each branch handles the supernaturals that fall within, responsible for maintaining the order and peace so that the human world remains oblivious to their existence. Within each branch there are agents of varying abilities and backgrounds. There are witches, werewolves, and vampires within each, as well as hunters, trackers, and a variety of researchers and scientists.
Kriss was in her own right a very skilled vampire hunter. Her parents had come to the states from Paris about ten years before she'd been born, her mother a skilled and powerful witch and her father a long descendent of a prestigious vampire hunting family. They had both been transferred from the Paris headquarters in order to get out of some mess created by their families. Kriss had never been able to get the full details and both of them avoided the subject whenever she tried to bring it up. Although her hunting skills were above average, Kriss was primarily part of the research and recognizance section of the Vampire branch. Upon seeing the state of the magicks used in Mystic Falls she had called in one of her old friends, Henry Greeves a very powerful witch and hunter from the Witch branch to look into and fix the obvious breaches in Order Law. She knew he would go easy on the offenders simply because they didn't know that the Laws existed.
Kriss narrowed her eyes and gave a little annoyed huff towards her superior's; she disagreed in their hands off attitude and their lack of informing the supernatural communities of both their existence and their laws. How were they supposed to maintain any kind of order if the very people they're keeping in-check don't even know they're there. Shaking her head she focused on the road again, she had found one bit of important information on her trip to Mystic Falls, someone a distant off shoot of the Benett family, a not very powerful member, had gotten their hands on a very powerful spell, one which they took with them to Louisianna. On her own Kriss doubted that the little witch could cast the spell, but if she had friends with a bit more power, or even a coven behind her… Kriss shuddered at the possibilities.
The first thing on her checklist after finding a hotel and checking in was to pay the Mikaelson family a visit. She wasn't sure of the extent of their involvement in the matter she was now chasing, but her superiors seemed to think they were at least ankle deep in it. She knew that if nothing else they might be aware of or be able to point her in the direction of someone who was involved. She doubted that someone could show up in their neck of the woods with a spell meant for resurrecting vampires without them hearing about it.
A/N : I broke this chapter into two parts because of it's length.
A/N : I will be (trying) to update the story every monday, and thursday. I may update again on Saturday some weeks, depends. Also this may change once the fall semester starts next month as I'm not sure how much my class work load will be.