Chapter 6: Some Checking Up To Do

~Somewhere in Old City~

As Shori and Theodora were headed to where Wright had parked the car, they ran into Daniel Gordon, one of William's brothers, and Daniel's symbionts in another car headed towards the Sanctuary. Linda Higuera, a tall Latino looking woman and one of William's symbionts was in the driver's seat. The others spotted Shori and Theodora and found a place on the side of the road to park.

Shori and Theodora approached the parked car, noting that Iosif's symbionts; Grant and Margaret were also in the car with the others.

"They must have figured out we've found him," Daniel explained.

"What happened?"

"Punta Nublada was attacked for the first time in over two centuries and this time the attackers were somewhat successful."

"Damn! I thought these kinds of things were over for good. Let me guess arson?"

"Yes, just like your mother's & father's communities."

"So, that means that Iosif & William as well as Stephan will have to stay at the Sanctuary; at least until thing get sorted out. Damn it! I thought they'd have at least waited until he was at one of our communities to attack."

"I think we should get back to our community quickly than, if it is still intact. If not, we'll find someplace to go for the meantime," Shori said as she and Theodora started to head south.

~Back at Cabal headquarters~

A middle-aged man walked into the small conference room in which Ana and Dana were having a conversation.

"We've got a potential problem," the man interrupted.

"What would our potential problem be?" Ana asked the man.

"The Mathew's brat's real parents have found him. The real one I mean."

"Let them find him. We've already sent arsonists to Punta Nublada to destroy the community and with only a few symbionts, if any survive the attack, they be forced to stay at the Sanctuary were we can keep a better eye on them. Plus, it will take them a while to figure things out and they'll be too pre-occupied with getting through to their son, if I know him as well as I think I do, that it will be too late when they finally do figure it out," Ana reassured the man.

"Very well then, I will leave you two to your business," the man said before leaving the room.

Ana waited a minute after the man left, before turning the computer monitor back on. Another man, dressed in a lab coat, appeared on the screen.

"Do we have the latest results from our experiments with the genetically altered bugs?" Ana asked the doctor via microphone.

"Yes, but we won't know how effective they'll be until we test them out. Should I start the experiments with the Blood?" the doctor asked.

"Yes and I want regular updates," Ana responded.

"I'll get right on it then."

"Good," Ana said and turned off the monitor.

"Looks like we'll have our army in no time," Dana commented.

"If all goes well, and it should, than yes."

"Do you think it necessary to destroy the Mathews community as well?" Dana asked.

"No, not yet, it would draw too much attention. Besides, that was probably Milo Silk's and my mother, Katherine's downfall the first time. However, her death will not be in vain! We will show those half breed's what they really are!" Ana exclaimed with a smirk on her face.

~Will's Office, present~

"We've got some unexpected guests and some unexpected information about Nikola and possibly the Cabal later on," Helen informed both Henry and Will.

"If it has anything to do with what happened last night, I've looked some stuff up. Turns out, what Nikola was talking about during his lucid nightmare was true. His older brother, Dane did die right in front of him when he was only seven years old," Will began.

"However, there's more than one account of how Dane died. One states that Dane fell off a horse when Nikola spooked it; another states that Nikola pushed twelve year old Dane down the cellar stairs. Now, I highly doubt Nikola had enough strength to push Dane down a flight of stairs at the age of seven. Plus, Nikola mentioned the horse riding incident in his nightmare. So, I'm thinking the horse incident is what really happened," Will finished.

"Either way, that's still an early age to have experienced death. However, that's not what I was going to say. According to our guests, vampires aren't much like we thought," Helen responded.

"Whoa, whoa whadya mean?" Henry asked.

"Well, for starters, they don't call themselves vampires. They call themselves Ina, they weren't all killed off, and they were never sterilized, like are research suggested. Also, the blood the Five experimented with was not from a pure sample. Now, again, this is all according to our guests. . . Oh, and they claim to be Nikola's family," Helen answered.

"Wait . . . our guests are vampires?" Will asked.

"So they claim. I guess we'll have to wait and see, plus if they have useful information on the Cabal as they claim I want to know."

"Are you planning on taking anything like a blood sample to study?"

"Yes, and they aren't finished giving us information either. What little they did give both Nikola and I, is rather far removed from all that we know or thought we knew about vampires that we thought a break was in order," Helen said.

~Nikola/Stephan's guestroom~

William and Iosif had surprisingly found Stephan's guestroom door unlocked. William quietly opened the door and walked inside followed by Iosif. They found Stephan staring out his window, apparently deep in his own thoughts.

"Stephan," William said as he walked up to him.

"Don't call me that!" Nikola exclaimed with his back towards William, on the verge of tears.

"We know this is hard to take or even believe for that matter, but you will never find out the truth if you don't at least give us a chance," William said trying to claim his son down.

"Even if you are who you claim to be," Nikola managed to get out, struggling to hold himself together as it was.

"Why should I trust you?" Nikola asked, his face turned away from his potential family.

"Would you rather we referred to you as Nikola?" Iosif asked his brother.

Nikola had figured out trying to hide anything from either of them was pointless. That they'd smell any emotion he was trying to hide. What scared him was the most, even though he knew this, he didn't understand how he knew and he had never remembered ever experiencing anything like this or reading about it while doing his research. What was happening to him?

"You abandoned me! You left me to suffer! If you were my family, why wait this damn long to contact me?" Nikola screamed facing Iosif and William, tears now running down his face.

"Your pain and anger is understandable, as is your reluctance to trust us. We are complete strangers to you; yet I think you sense, at some level that we are telling you the truth. Merely being exposed to our scents, has started your process of change; the removal of the altered DNA and the re-activation of your true genetics. While this will not complete the process, it has started it. You have been having some weird feelings since our arrival, have you not? Say, needing to leave the common room and go to some thing familiar? Your mother, or I should really say your Ina mother, had experienced the same thing when she was re-introduced to her father. Because, your Ina mother and one of your sisters were in the room with you, you felt uncomfortable around them," William explained.

Nikola stared at William in wonder. He didn't know how, this man knew that he'd felt uncomfortable around the two women, but he had clearly noticed, somehow. Perhaps they were telling the truth. Perhaps these two men were his family. However, Nikola wasn't quite ready to admit it, not yet anyways.