I'm back from Poland again and have a new chapter in my pocket. Here it is and I want to thank Jo again for beta reading this really long chapter! Great work! Thanks also to my dear review-writers who always raise my spirits each time I can read a few sentences. Don't be shy! I love all of your reviews, no matter how short or long they are. Of course I love the long ones even more but I also appreciate the shorter ones. This is my only reward – so don't hold back! I'll be back at Sunday again with the next chapter. Wish you a great time until then! Best wishes, Jenna
Translated by: Lilith
Beta read by: Jo1027
Distrust
"To whom you wish evil you're inclined to regard as an enemy, and if someone like that gives us a rose, we believe him to give it to us not for its scent, but for its thorns."
Georg Moritz Ebers, (1837 - 1898)
Sometimes it is even difficult for a vampire of my age to keep his nerves and to stay calm and relaxed. To participate in such a large gathering of vampires such as this was also a challenge for me as I was tormented by the knowledge that I was one of the people who would attract the attention of most of these vampires. This idea alone was enough to cause a queasy feeling in my stomach and to cause all the muscles of my body to tense up. But I had felt really bad only after I had become aware that we were about to take two humans to the meeting of bloodsuckers and that this held a certain risk but not only for them. This had only occurred to me because while driving to the meeting point Mick's stomach had suddenly started to rumble to such an extent that I thought for a moment we had a wild animal in the car. The others had laughed and Thomas had even stopped at a roadside diner and had permitted Mick to buy something to eat for him and Beth. I, however, had remained quite silent and thoughtful. Until now I had only been worried about Beth concerning this meeting. That Mick was currently noticeably a human and also smelled like one to every vampire and that I could hear the enticing pounding of his pulse all too clearly when I listened more closely, only crossed my mind when he again got into the car with an overjoyed smile on his face and handed one of the two hot dogs he had bought over to Beth.
Many of the invited vampires had not seen my friend yet nor were they used to the sight of a person who was both vampire and human and would certainly approach him with a mixture of skepticism and curiosity. One could almost rule out the possibility that they would overlook him and leave him alone. They would approach him in one way or another before Gabriel was back with us and that didn't please me. In fact it caused this pressure in my stomach. If I was honest it even made me a little afraid because my newly acquired confidence in Mick was shaken by his last outburst. So it did not help me that Thomas and Elizabeth were at my side as we climbed out of the cars and along with the others headed for the flat factory building where the assembly would take place. I doubted that the two of them would be able to get Mick back under control if he lost his head again. And Beth... perhaps her presence made the whole thing even worse. Mick's previous concerns about his behavior in her vicinity had not been unfounded, as the events in Mexico had shown. Hopefully, Gabriel and Mick really knew what they were doing here.
The vampires had taken great care this time to protect themselves from possible attacks by the Legion. I could discover in my wide panoramic view over the area several hidden and heavily armed guards, cameras and motion sensors that a human eye would detect only with great effort. I also assumed that there was probably satellite surveillance for the airspace. None of the vampires who had survived the inferno in Mexico would be willing to take the chance of that happening again.
I looked searchingly over to Mick and Beth. Beth had just pushed the last bit of her hot dog into her mouth and looked for a moment like a little hamster after a successful foraging. Mick, who seemed to be strained with the same tension as me uttered a little laugh at the sight of her and she smiled slightly shamefacedly, with red cheeks but happily sparkling eyes.
"I wash shimply hungry," she brought out inarticulately and shrugged her shoulders helplessly causing Mick to laugh even more. His gaze became very warm and soft and one could tell that he would have loved nothing better than to kiss her right now. Cloud nine seemed to be very close again, despite the stress - time to push this cheesy, pink thing at times a little out of my field of vision!
"You're probably not alone," I added and raised my eyebrows slightly in my best friend's direction. "His hot dog was gone before his ass touched the back seat."
Mick's next laugh was a bit indignant. "That's not true!" he returned. "Not even I can eat that fast."
"You don't eat," I said with an amiable smile, "you literally suck the food in!" To tease Mick was indeed a good way to divert attention from my own fears.
"Well," my friend finally acknowledged defeat and now also shrugged his shoulders, "my body is in a very confused state. Chewing, sucking... you can indeed confuse it at times."
My grin became even a bit broader and Beth let out a soft, incredibly girlish laugh that bribed Mick to give her another affectionate glance. I was almost tempted to roll my eyes. Teenagers in love behaved no less sentimentally. It didn't really bother me at the moment, but there was already a small, well-known sting in my chest area and beyond it the deeper need to once again spend a little time with Mick alone, to have fun with him, to feel his affection without Beth distracting him.
We had now reached the large steel door of the factory where two security guards were standing. They immediately stepped aside willingly as Elizabeth gave them a sign. My tension reached a new climax when Thomas opened the door and we entered.
The warehouse of the factory area was apparently still used for it was well filled with containers, large wooden boxes, barrels and all other sorts of things one needed for the transport of goods. In the middle of the hall someone had set up a long table with many chairs in which some of the invited guests had already settled down. But most of the attendants were still on their feet and deep in conversations and lively discussions. With this amount of people it was hard to believe that the meeting was actually supposed to take place in half an hour.
"I can't believe it," I could hear Guillermo, who had been in the second car with Logan and Seth, mutter behind me. "Why did they arrive so early?"
"That shows clearly how much we trust each other," I added sarcastically. "What a sworn community! Well, that makes me feel warm all over!"
Elizabeth, who walked ahead of me, cast a warning glance at me over her shoulder. For her sake I spared further comments regarding our vampire community and instead gave Mick, who had become noticeably more nervous, an encouraging smile. It didn't surprise me though. Even though most of those present acted as if their conversations were much more interesting than our arrival their eyes roamed treacherously again and again to my best friend, suspicious, curious, in some cases, even aggressive. The smell of humans could hardly stay hidden to a vampire in such an environment.
There were some vampires present I knew already, including, unfortunately, Lance and a few other members of his 'noble' family who met us with the deepest contempt in their eyes. But there were also others I had only seen occasionally or never before. They could barely conceal how great their need was to approach Mick, to come closer in order to inspect him, but none of them dared to make a move toward us.
A strong, slightly smaller man now turned to us, immediately lifted his arms and beamed at me with overstated happiness. "Giuseppe, my friend," he laughed as he quickly came up to me and enclosed me, stiff as I was, immediately in his arms with a powerful patting on the back. "It's great that you have made it in time!" His eyes turned to Mick although he spoke with me, not noticing that his rude treatment of me again forced me to straighten my jacket.
"Will you now introduce me in a proper way to your friend," he grinned. "The last time we met, we had no real time for that."
I nodded and tried at least for a halfway warm smile. "Tony, this is my best friend Mick St. John in the company of our lovely Miss Turner whom you already know. Mick, that's Anthony Gambino, one of the sliest vampires and toughest business partners I've ever met in my long life." I ran a hand over my neck because I felt a strange tingling there and rubbed a few times over the sensitive skin.
Mick took the hand offered by Tony and smiled although the sound of the name immediately created this thoughtful furrow between his brows. "Gambino?" he repeated and it occurred to me that this name would indeed tell him something for he had grown up at the time of the War of Castellammare and certainly in the 50's had followed the news about the Mafia problems in the States.
"Like... Carlo Gambino?" he added, interested. His nervousness had settled. Even his heart rate had an acceptable rhythm now. Amazing.
Tony grinned and his eyes sparkled with amusement. "My cousin," he admitted, and now Beth also raised her brows in surprise.
"Carlo Gambino… wasn't the biography of that man the template for Coppola's 'The Godfather'?"
Tony raised his hands, shrugged his shoulders. "I haven't anything to do with that," he said in the most innocent tone. "I've nothing more to do with this whole family."
I doubtfully raised an eyebrow and a little smile appeared on Tony's lips. He added nothing more although one could tell my two friends didn't believe a word.
"Have we already reached the introduction of participants," a snotty voice with a distinct French accent mingled in our conversation as one of Lance's 'relatives' came up to us. His light brown eyes roamed with barely disguised disgust over Mick's shape and the haggard man's thin lips twisted into a false smile. Once again, I realized that arrogance didn't suit everybody. It made some people even uglier than they really were.
"Étienne de la Morelle," he introduced himself coolly and offered Mick his hand, which my friend took only very reluctantly.
"Mick St. John," he said quietly while my stomach made a small twist because I noticed that the other vampires no longer pretended to talk, but used Étienne's courage to step closer themselves with great interest.
"Mick?" the genteel nobleman repeated with arrogantly raised eyebrows and out of his mouth the name sounded almost like an insult. "A short form of Michael?"
My friend surprised me with his modest nod for I was accustomed to hearing him say the sentence, "Just Mick". The fact that he adhered to his birth name and so admitted the proximity to his human past and especially to his father was new.
His words were followed by a further comment from his opponent. "It's hard to believe that there's still a vampire inside you," Etienne smiled coolly. "You smell like a human, you sound like a human," his eyes went to Beth with a disapproving frown, "you waste your time with humans," his gaze scanned the parts of her body where a Freshie usually had these treacherous dot-shaped scars, surprisingly, finding none of them there, "without feeding on them. One might think you were only pretending to be one of us."
He could not stop himself from uttering a slightly scornful laugh, but it remained stuck in his throat as Mick's eyes became almost white within a few seconds. He showed his sharp fangs with a short smile then transformed back almost faster into a human. Mick's smell and heartbeat had not changed one bit and even I stood there for a moment with an open mouth.
"There're really no flies on you," Mick interrupted the suddenly arisen unbelieving silence around him and smiled at Étienne provocatively, as his little show had just now proved exactly the opposite.
Étienne's chest expanded as he took a deep, uncontrolled breath in order to collect himself again. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
"The question is then probably only if you prefer to be a human or a vampire with special abilities," another cool and for me unpleasant voice said and now Lance had to step so close that I could not help looking in his black eye. The man urgently needed a little styling and image consulting!
"That's really not relevant!" Guillermo complained and glared angrily at the old vampire.
"Oh, I think it is," he replied smiling. "It would show to whom he feels more connected."
"Since when are we on a crusade against the entire human race, Lance?" I smiled at him kindly. "Seems that someone didn't pay attention…"
How beautifully his dead eyes could light up. Never let it be said that I could not touch other people internally.
"And since when do you sympathize with the humans, Josef?" he asked back equally lovably. "Have you gone soft in your old age?"
"Oh!" I clasped my heart and put on wonderfully exaggerated puppy dog eyes. "I'm touched! Are you worried about me?"
Of course, Lance did not respond to this, trying instead to smile artificially.
"Josef's right!" It was Elizabeth, who probably had no desire to stand silently by and to endure any more of Lance's insults. She stepped firmly between us and glared at him angrily. "We don't wage war against all humans, only against the Legion! And because of that we can use any help that is offered to us, whether it comes from other humans or vampires!"
Lance made a disgusted face. Apparently he had found a new victim for his scorn and contempt. "God, Elizabeth, can't you ever stay objective? This morbid cohesion of Sire and Fledgling above all reason is really pathetic! We're out of the age in which we celebrate this connection to such a degree!"
Here was the anger that I had really wanted to hold back, but it rose to a boiling point rather quickly due to this crude violation of vampire etiquette. In our society one remained guarded over who was whose Sire and what kind of relationship was between the older vampires. This diminished the risk that others could take advantage of this close connection for their own malicious purposes and prevented anyone from being vulnerable and susceptible to blackmail. The fact that Lance had laid open Elizabeth's and my relationship in front of everyone was an outrage that actually required a direct response, although I knew that not one of us could afford to give in to his rage and start an open fight. Such an act would break the whole assembly and further fuel the discord and distrust among the vampires. And Lance also knew that and was giving us both, the inwardly seething Elizabeth and me, a contented smile. Only Malik's stern voice could sweep this joyful smile off his face.
"I suggest we all sit down together now and try to increase our discussion to a level that's worthy of such a meeting," he said in the purest English as he pointed with a decisive gesture in the direction of the table. His anger about the hostile atmosphere between us was also written clearly on his face and none of the other vampires really wanted to pick a fight with him. His words put the limbs of all present in motion and I used the distraction to breathe in deeply and slowly to grab my anger and stuff it back into the darkest corner of my mind where it had crawled out from. I felt Mick and Beth look at me and almost had the feeling as if I had one person with two heads but the same thoughts in front of me.
"He will be sorry for that," Elizabeth whispered to me softly before she strutted over to the table with this stunning smile on her lips behind which she could hide any emotion.
Mick stepped closer to me. "She's your Sire?" he whispered incredulously. "Elizabeth Bathory? What is with this story about…"
"Mick," I choked him off and made even Beth close her mouth before a word had slipped from her lips at all. "Now is really not the right time to discuss this." With that I just pushed past them and headed for the table to settle on the first available chair. This could become quite a beautiful night still! Beth and Mick bombarding me with questions I did not want to answer. There was hardly anything I was less keen on.
To distract myself from this mental picture I looked over to Logan who had walked along with Thomas toward the head of the table to prepare everything for his presentation immediately after our arrival. 'Everything' meant a laptop with a projector he had simply insisted on and several notes he desperately clung to now, able to suppress the tremor of his hands only with difficulty. Time and again his eyes darted across the many alien faces and he did not seem to perceive how uninteresting he was to everyone else. Most vampires were still eyeing up Mick and Beth who had settled next to me and apparently still had problems accepting that the two belonged to the resistance movement of the vampires. Malik seemed to have noticed this as well for he cleared his throat noisily and made sure that the others looked at him again.
"Before we start with the actual meeting, we should perhaps clarify a few important questions," he said gravely. "A few, not all!"
He looked at Mick who was now sitting beside me with a calmness even I could not afford and that really beat me. How had he managed to get rid of his initial nervousness and tension in spite of the stress?
"The most important will be the following," Malik continued. "What exactly happened to Mick St. John? What is he now?"
I could see some other vampires nod but most of them looked intently at my friend.
"A hybrid," echoed a voice from the door and only now I noticed that another vampire had entered the hall. Tall, dark-haired, with a stern face and goatee. August. I clenched my teeth firmly and quickly turned my gaze away from him. His betrayal of me still ate at my nerves though he was probably fairly loyal to Gabriel and continued to be on our side.
"One half human, one half vampire," he explained further and I could hear him coming rapidly closer. "I would have never thought that before, but it's indeed possible."
Loud, incredulous murmurs arose at the table and I asked myself inwardly why this was happening. At least a major number of the ones who were present had heard those words before out of my mouth. Vampires were sometimes such busybodies!
"But how... how can that be?" an Asian-looking man asked. He was one of the few who was not well informed about all these things.
"The answer to that would go beyond our current time frame, John," Thomas explained softly while August settled at one of the few remaining places at the table. "This is very, very complicated. The most important thing is that Mick is well so far, that he can live with his new state and has regained control over his body. He's no danger to any one of us."
"You mean to tell us that the beast inside him which we have experienced in Mexico a few weeks ago has disappeared completely?" Lance asked with this mild smile that let his doubts shine through only too clearly. Too bad that my legs were not long enough to kick him directly between his. He was simply too far away!
"I'm sorry I scared you so much, Lance, but I'm no more a beast than you are," Mick raised his voice now and gave him such a look of pity that I had to hold my hand inconspicuously in front of my mouth not to laugh out loud.
"At least I've never wiped out an entire village with over one hundred people in one night," my friend went on calmly and Lance features derailed. He sucked air into his nose loudly and stared at my friend with large, unbelieving eyes.
"Or cut open the bellies of some humans to warm my feet in their guts." His eyes were now on Etienne who forgot for a few seconds to breathe. I soon knew who had given this personal information to Mick probably in order to silence the vampires who were hostile to him as quickly as possible. A really smart move. Atrocities against vulnerable ones were in our community not regarded particularly well and the most insanely sadistic vampires carved out a miserable existence in solitude and loneliness, which amounted to banishment.
"What exactly has the Legion done to you?" unfortunately the Asian asked after a long moment of silence. I thought by now I recognized John Wu, one of the most influential vampires in Asia and a member of the Grand Council.
Now, a light flickering was to be seen in Mick's eyes and I prayed inwardly that it would remain that way and not much more emotion would be added to it. Currently, the other vampires were so wonderfully impressed.
"Even that would go beyond the scope of this meeting," he evaded the question skillfully.
"Is the Legion still after you?" The next awkward question came this time from Patricia who commanded the squad of the Cleaners. "I have heard something about that."
"It would be stupid if they did not do it," Thomas said instead of my friend. "But that's not the reason why they hunt us all if that's what you want to know. I know that there is this rumor, but it's not true. Most of you should actually remember that the first list appeared before Mick's abduction and already at this early stage they had started with the first attacks on vampires. It was rather the splitting of the Legion and other incidents that led them to declare war on us and now act more radically toward us than they have in a long time."
"Other incidents of what kind?" John Wu asked with a thoughtful frown.
"Certain activities of some vampires led them to believe we were preparing for a war against the Legion and would try to exterminate them for once and for all."
"Do you mean that there's a traitor in our own ranks who's to blame for the Legion attacking us again?" Étienne asked with a sharp voice and leaned slightly forward to draw the attention of all the others.
"We suspect it at least," said Elizabeth calmer than she actually was inside. "It wouldn't be the first time."
"I understand." Étienne nodded sarcastically. "So the old Luis-story has to pay again for explaining the sick, power-hungry behavior of these people. Humans are always so innocent!"
"No one claimed that Etienne," Thomas said unusually vigorously. "Of course, something within the Legion has changed! Of course, there are a lot of fanatical, sick people who currently appear to be running amok, but with the information we have collected in recent months and weeks, we cannot pretend that we're free of any guilt. Our community has changed as well, has drifted apart and has built up walls, which shouldn't be there, are not supposed to be there! And we now know with certainty that there's a small group that is dedicated to Luis' old ideals, who are of the opinion that the role of our species is to preside over this world and to suppress the human kind!"
"This is still better than to kiss these feeble creature's feet and be restricted by them, to let them ride us," Étienne growled and in doing so he did not look at Thomas but at Beth and the hatred in his eyes was now shown so clearly that I was tempted to jump up, grab him by the collar and throw him across the hall. Staking was also not a bad idea and then burning him... or beheading him.
"A vampire is not created for degenerating to a lapdog for a human!"
There he was indeed right. And unfortunately many of the other vampires also agreed with him for the faint murmur that followed his words was more of a consenting nature.
"It depends on the vampire," I intervened with a friendly smile and quickly eyed him up. "You would indeed make a very cute lapdog with a glitter collar and a matching leash."
Étienne's eyes flashed brightly and he in fact dared to bare his teeth and hiss at me.
"See, he can still bark!" I stated now more than pleased and turned to Beth, who looked at me with wide, disbelieving eyes and did not seem to share my enthusiasm. "Cute, isn't he?"
I noticed from the corner of my eye that Étienne jumped up and I tensed my body, reckoning any moment an attack would come, but it did not get that far. Lance grabbed his friend and pulled him back down on his chair giving me a very angry glance.
"I'd rather chop off my arms than work with humans!" Étienne clamored clearly fighting against Lance's firm grip, but my smile became even gentler and I only leaned back in my chair with feigned calmness. But Guillermo could not hold back his anger as well as I could. These words caused him to boil over and he jumped up furiously.
"You're talking here of the living beings that keep you alive, Étienne!"
"They're my food, that's true," he snapped back angrily. "But nothing more than that! They're weak in body and spirit! You cannot trust them! How often did they hunt us down, torture and kill us! They don't want to make peace with us! And I don't understand how you can work with them! They will betray us, once the time has come! They will always stick with their own kind!"
"Not the humans who are on our side in this fight," growled Guillermo. "Do you know at all how many of our human friends have donated blood in order to enable us to bridge the time of the war with their own blood? Have you even realized how often this woman…," he pointed to Beth, "… risked her life to help us? So much selflessness I could not find with any vampire at this table… except for Mick."
"She didn't do it for us but for him!" Étienne made a face as if he wanted to spit up immediately in front of Beth and I gritted my teeth again but now so firmly that a slight crunch was heard. I had to avert my gaze from that face so that I would not smash it in the next second. My eyes got stuck on Mick's hands on the table as he clenched them into fists with such force that his knuckles turned white under the skin. As calm as he seemed to be from the outside, inside he no longer was. Probably this tense energetic tingling near me that spread so intensively to my own body came not only from Elizabeth but also from him.
"Basically she only hopes that he becomes a whole human again at some point and then you will wonder how quickly the two change sides!"
I could hear Mick draw a deep breath through his nose and his eyes began to sparkle more aggressively, became brighter and more dangerous than before. "You call us traitors?" he asked softly, and the tension of his body was now also becoming visible to the outside. However, I was probably the only one who noticed that under the table Beth laid a hand on his thigh to calm him and make sure that he remained sitting at least.
A provocative smile crossed Étienne's face. "Not yet."
I expected that Mick would transform, leap over the table and wring Étienne's scrawny neck, because I myself longed so much to do this that I could hardly contain myself. But that did not happen. Instead, Mick suddenly froze and closed his eyes briefly until a small, knowing smile moved on his lips. And then it began.
It crackled in the atmosphere, the tingling on my neck grew stronger, and Étienne's false smile croaked instantly. Slowly he turned his face to the door and silence sank down on the great hall. We could all feel it now, this concentrated energy, this force, this crackling in the air that was approaching us at breakneck speed. Seconds later the door to the hall flew open and He stormed in, tall, dark, with glowing eyes and a long flowing coat. He moved so quickly that my own movements seemed unbelievably delayed to me and my mind was not capable of setting the images my eyes perceived into thoughts in time. I registered just one sweeping motion as he reached the long table, then something heavy and round flew through the air and landed with a dull whang right in the middle of the table. Horrified gasps and screams followed this action. Some of the others even jumped up so frantically that their chairs went crashing to the floor. I only raised an eyebrow, tilted my head a little and looked with confusion into the dead eyes of the vampire who had disrupted our meeting so 'head over heels' and now came to rest on the table. I was no less shocked than the others but I still had, surprisingly, enough control over my body to not show it outwardly.
"Is there something you want to tell me, Étienne?" Gabriel's deep rumbling voice echoed through the room and his white-red eyes bored into the addressee's who all of a sudden didn't look so arrogantly hostile but had turned to a pillar of salt out of fear, his eyes open wide and directed at the disembodied head. He had been one of the few who had leapt from their seats and now backed away even further, with a pale face and the fear of death in his eyes.
"This… this is a misunderstanding, mon Maître," he stammered. He didn't get any further, however. A shadow flew past me taking the direct route across the table; then something silvery whirled through the air. There was an ugly, dull chopping sound and Étienne slumped down as headless as his disembodied friend. It rumbled shortly as his limp body hit the floor along with his detached skull. Gabriel's broad shoulders rose and fell under the deep breath he took before he jumped down from the table with the lissomness of a feline predator and then turned back to all of us, now standing at the other end of the table and turning his back to Logan who had shrunk back to the wall in fright.
It had again become quiet in the hall, so quiet that you could hear the different, incredibly fast heart sounds of all those present all too clearly, at least if you were a vampire. I looked to the side and noticed that Beth had become white as chalk, was clutching her hands on Mick's arm and trembling slightly. She watched with alarm as Gabriel transformed back, calmly placed his samurai sword only slightly wet with blood before him on the table and then nodded to someone.
That someone was Malik I noticed when he rose, grabbed the head which still lay before me on the table by the hair and took it out of sight. It only left behind a dark red mark and a few blood spatters which had scattered on the table in a star pattern. Almost a work of art.
Gabriel had put on a cool smile, took a seat on one of the chairs at the head of the table, interlaced his fingers and let his penetrating gaze slide across the many frightened faces which had turned toward him. The cold and danger which he radiated even began to intimidate me a bit. His face was a mask, expressionless, as if there was nothing in this world that could shake this vampire.
"I think today's meeting is now officially opened," he said loudly and clearly and it seemed his attitude, the dark, menacing look in his bright eyes and that power emanating from every single pore of his body left no room for questioning his authority in the slightest. Here before us was not just some old vampire. In front of us was sitting the most powerful among us, the legend, the mystery, the Untouchable. And everyone had to submit to his will. Without exception, everyone!
"Is there anyone here who also has his doubts about what we are doing here and how we do it?" Gabriel asked with this threat lurking in his voice after a few seconds of silence that had seemed endless to us and my respect and admiration for the ancient vampire grew from second to second. It was one thing to fight his enemies, quite another to have the power to act against his own family with such vehemence and intransigence.
"And with that I won't talk about that ridiculous little conspiracy behind my back that Clement, Étienne and Emile instigated. Someone is already dealing with that."
He paused to give the others the opportunity to say something but no one dared to even move.
"Something you'd better understand," Gabriel went on after a few breaths. "We're in a state of war and thus in an exceptional situation that can only be mastered by the vampires who I consider to be capable of it. Whoever is not satisfied with my choices is allowed to go without harm coming to him. But he should be aware that there's no turning back. From that very moment he's on his own and won't get any help during the rest of this war, no matter how much trouble the Legion brings him! Should he try to act on his own against the Legion, I will come and judge him. Should he try to transact business with the Legion to save his own skin, I will come and judge him. Should he try to take revenge on my wards or only bring them trouble in any way…," his eyes remained remarkably long on Beth and when he turned again to the others his eyes had once again become frighteningly bright, "… I will come and judge him!"
The last two words were once again spoken so loudly that his voice echoed menacingly in the hall, as though the world around us wanted to emphasize once more the finality of his words. Only a few minutes before it had become quite clear to every one of us what it meant to be 'judged' by Gabriel.
"I demand absolute loyalty from all those who choose to stay with us," he continued. "Obedience, trust, exact cooperation. No one will do anything without having previously discussed it with me or my staff! No one will approach the humans who work with us in any unpleasant way! They have chosen to help us and we can use all help offered to us! We work together as one coherent team so that the Legion will not succeed this time in making us work against each other. I want you to forget where you come from and what conflicts were previously between you. From today on we all form a unit no matter from which country we come or what kind we are!"
Again this ominous pause in which no one dared to stir even a little.
"I see that we agree," Gabriel smiled and leaned back in his chair. He turned slightly and looked over to Logan who was still stuck to the wall as if he was held there by an invisible magnet and had not yet overcome his shock.
"If I remember correctly, you are to present the information about what we've been able to find out about the Legion and its activities," the old vampire said softly, surprising me again with his overly current knowledge. "And how our situation has developed in general."
Logan, who was intimidated, nodded reluctantly, detached from the wall and went back to the table which induced the other vampires who had been frozen in their state of shock to again take their seats.
The young man had to swallow hard to even get out a tone. "Shall…" He noticed just in time that his voice sounded a little too high and too delicate and cleared his throat quickly. "Shall I do this now?" he asked finally, and to my relief a whole lot deeper and harder. Everyone knew that he belonged to my team and any embarrassment for him automatically fell back on me. I really did not want to have to throw him from the roof of the factory later. Everything else here was already difficult enough.
"Sure," Gabriel smiled and confirmed his statement in addition with a requesting nod.
Another deep breath and Logan stepped up to the table and switched on his laptop. Gabriel used the time while the device booted to once again glance at each one of us at the table. Besides Malik and me Mick was the only one who dared to hold his gaze, but that didn't surprise me much. Much more interesting was the fact that the cold in Gabriel's eyes sank a few degrees during the eye contact with Mick and Beth and I noticed a small twitch around the corners of the old vampire's mouth. But he controlled it immediately as Logan cleared his throat again and projected the first picture onto the white wall behind him. An overview of the U.S. states.
"So… uh…" Our little freak swallowed and then turned to face the wall. "Well, this is a map of the States."
I had a really hard time avoiding an exasperated groan and a roll of my eyes. Instead, I firmly pressed my lips together, arms entwined across my chest and breathed deeply through my nose. Mick looked at me from the side and could not hide his little smirk. It was quite clear to me that Logan wasn't the reason for his 'fun', and somehow it vexed me a little.
"Kurt and I have tried to mark all actions of the Legion in the past few weeks with different colors." Logan typed something on with the keyboard and some red, yellow and blue dots appeared on the map. "The blue dots are actions against their own people, the yellow ones are for vampires who have disappeared and the red ones show battles with casualties on both sides."
Fortunately, there were not as many as I remembered and because of that there was not that much turmoil at the table. The other vampires seemed more interested than scared and that was a good sign. Perhaps they were also still too afraid of Gabriel to also be afraid of the Legion.
"As you can see, the actions have generally subsided somewhat," said Logan, now much more confident, thus saving himself only just from his free-flight from the roof of the factory. "What this means... we can only speculate about."
"They are preparing for something," Lance dared to raise his voice as the first one of the other vampires. The man really loved to hear himself talk, for his knowledge was not that amazing or so worth mentioning. Certainly the same thought had hit a lot of other vampires here without them feeling the need to verbalize it instantly.
"Something bigger," he added even more 'imaginative' and pompously looked around our illustrious gathering. "I know this behavior only too well."
Jesus! What a warrior!
"The Legion has definitely not given up. They are only collecting information and waiting for an opportunity to strike again."
"Yes, they are," Logan surprisingly took the reins of the conversation back and a satisfied grin pushed itself onto my lips. That was almost worth a place in one of the cars.
"And I also know what opportunity they are waiting for." His fingers were flying over the keyboard and on the wall behind him shown a warrant of an unknown woman. "Some of the files that we received were coded although not hard to crack, but more important is that I have been looking for this special code on the net and found some sites and information with that code. I am sure that there are covered searches by the Legion and if I'm right they are looking for other people who at first glance seem to be totally uninvolved and normal."
"At first glance?" John Wu repeated and his eyebrows contracted thoughtfully. "What does that mean?"
"I cannot say for sure, but it's very likely that these people also belong to the Legion and are to be killed. Or at least they play a significant role in this war and are urgently needed by them, whatever…"
"What's about this woman?" Patricia asked interested.
Logan glanced behind him and then uttered a small sigh. "She's dead, so I think that she definitely belonged to the Legion."
"In other words, they have still not reconciled and continue to fight each other," concluded another vampire who was unknown to me.
Baby Ringlet nodded hesitantly, but stopped when Lance let out a chuckle.
"I've heard something very different," he said with an arrogance that was almost enviable.
"And that would be?" Mick asked him straightaway, smiling kindly.
Lance eyes were glued to his face with clear distaste as his lips curled up into a fake smile. "Well, there are rumors which say that the old leadership of the Legion has been activated and wants to try to bring unity and order into the organization again to then be able to strike a devastating blow at us!"
It was palpable again, that slight uneasiness and fear that had turned us against each other at the beginning. Vampires were not only busybodies but also in many situations quite cowardly and thus not so dissimilar to the humans despised by so many vampires.
"You know how it is with rumors," Gabriel chimed in immediately. "People blow the things up into such enormities that even some fairy tales fade away in comparison to them."
Lance turned to the old vampire slightly irked. "You mean we should not take it seriously?" he asked sharply.
"I mean, it should not make us afraid," Gabriel replied calmly. "We have resources to counter these possible efforts."
"Such as?"
I frowned. Lance behaved too boldly in my opinion and I was surprised that the old vampire put up with it. It was worth at least a reduction in the number of Lance's fingers.
But Gabriel seemed to see this differently because he actually tried to answer that impertinent question. "Distrust, betrayal, the dispersion of rumors. Nothing pushes people further apart than the feeling of being betrayed by people from their own ranks. Chain reactions resulting from mistrust are the most effective weapon against such an organization as the Legion. They are like dangerous viruses that can destroy one giant organism step by step."
"But they know this themselves," Lance objected almost defiantly and I was on the verge of blinking, confused… or better yet vociferously demanding the amputation of his arm. "They will fight it."
"But it's a lost battle, my friend," Gabriel replied relaxed. "The Legion has never relied on camaraderie, trust and loyalty, but always on pressure, fear and fanaticism. That worked as long as all have been fighting for the same goals and beliefs. But that has now changed. There are two different, equally strong parties fighting for the upper hand and that means that in this situation one or two old vets cannot achieve anything. They are fighting a losing battle if they have not already taken sides and it only seems to everyone else as if they want to settle their differences."
His words confirmed my own thinking as to why Gabriel had sent us a few weeks ago via the Internet the order to make a part of our search for people from the Legion public, to show some of Ritchcroft's files on the Internet. He must have been informed very early about what was happening within the Legion and once again I wondered how he got such secret information so quickly and why he still did not let us in on some things that were happening around him.
"That means one of our tasks will be to continue to fuel confusion and dissension in the ranks of the Legion?" this time Patricia asked and Gabriel nodded promptly.
"Among other things."
"We are also looking for the people of the Legion we have some information about," added Logan. "And we'll also find the Doc somehow."
"The… Doc?" repeated Lance with a mocking smile. "Are you talking about this professor? Frank Peterson? But he's where he belongs."
"You think so?" Mick probed calmly and his smile had reached a degree of falsehood that could equal quite well the one of his enemy.
"Don't you?" came the counter question and again my eyes wandered to Gabriel, confused that he approved of this little confrontation. Not only that, but he even gave the impression that he was waiting curiously to see what happened. And wasn't there even a small smile hiding in the corner of his mouth?
"Does that mean it's in your interest that the Legion has again got the man in its hands who were the only one who was able to bring forth their whole research?" Mick asked hypocritically and Lance smile became suddenly clearly cramped. "Or that they might be able to force him by torture to betray everything he could have found out about us?"
"They certainly don't need torture for that," Lance gave back contemptuously. "This man has without fail and with pleasure immediately blurted out everything he knows!"
Now I too could not stay out of this any longer. "I understand," I smiled and folded my hands in front of me on the table. "Everyone's a traitor - except mommy."
'Glowering' wasn't the right word anymore for the glance that followed my words. 'Hate-filled' was the more appropriate word.
"If Frank Peterson is a traitor he has fairly well camouflaged this," Gabriel added, before Lance or anyone else could say anything more. "He has done some things that suggest that he wanted to help Mick at least. Anyway, the fact is that this man is of inestimable value concerning the research on vampires and the cure even to us. We should definitely compare our knowledge to that of the Legion, to be able to respond if they want to use this knowledge against us. And they will. I am absolutely sure about this. So we need to find Frank Peterson and free him! What we do in the end with him, we can decide later, but his liberation is high on our priority list!"
"How many points does this list have?" asked another, very dark-skinned vampire, with African-American impact that I still could not identify.
"To be precise - four," Gabriel explained. "The incitement and underpinning of the fraction within the Legion by new rumors and falsehoods, the locating of the rest of the labs and the professor, the building up of our own large, well-equipped fighting force, and what is ultimately the most important point, bringing such pressure on the Legion that it is forced at some point to contact us and sit down at the negotiating table. And we can only manage that if every single one of you tries to collect as much information as possible about the structures and the various important people in this organization. To reveal their identities is one of the most important keywords in our battle. We can only defeat these people if we know who they are and what drives their actions."
"What does this mean concretely?" a dark-haired woman, Bridget Bishop if I wasn't wrong, asked. That had been quite an interesting affair back then.
"Logan will send you all the files and images of men and women we were able to uncover so far," Thomas now explained. "If you find them, catch them, but don't kill them. One of us older vampires will deal with them and try to get any information from them that they have."
"That means we should look for these people but do nothing to them," Bridget probed frowning. "Is that all?"
"No, but concrete actions will not be announced until shortly before they start," Thomas replied. "Only then can we be sure that none of the planned actions have been revealed."
"And who develops these actions?" asked John.
"My staff and I," Gabriel responded again with a small smile.
"And who exactly is part of this senior staff?" another man with a French accent dared to ask. It did not surprise me that he sat near Lance. How many family members did he bring along for support?
"All those who were actually trying in recent weeks to push forward the resistance against the Legion and that being the case I know I can rely on them. And some delegates from other countries." Gabriel knitted his brows a bit and seemed to think. "It's good that you ask this, Francois, because even if we all work hand in hand we cannot, as Thomas has said, inform anyone about everything. That would be too risky if one of us should fall into the hands of the Legion."
"And what does that mean exactly?"
"It means that we're going to make use of a little of the system used by our enemy. Everyone here will be assigned to one of the vampires on the staff and will be supplied by him with the information he needs to take action. Everything else remains classified and will be discussed only within the staff meetings. Just as we're going to do it today."
"Does that mean some of us have to go now?"
Gabriel shook his head and smiled coolly. "No, you are supposed to stay. A few of you will come with me in a moment. Malik, Elizabeth, Thomas, Grigori, John, Lance, and of course, Josef with the rest of his team." The glance at Mick and Beth was so obvious that it could escape no one and made once again clear to all the others how important the two were to him. "They will come back later and report to you as much as they are allowed to. However, we will stick strictly to one thing: Concrete actions will be announced only shortly before they start and not everyone will be involved."
His words were followed by a low murmur but no one dared to express criticism or to bare their dissatisfaction in any other way.
Gabriel looked up with a friendly smile to Logan. "Is there anything else all the others should know?"
Logan's eyebrows wandered towards each other, a sign that he was thinking hard. But only when he looked again at Gabriel's urgent eyes did realization flash through him.
"Oh, yeah!" he said a bit too enthusiastically for my taste and almost seemed to appear awkward as he typed more commands into his laptop. Immediately several pictures of guns and ammunition appeared on the wall. "This is actually very important!"
He cleared his throat a bit pompously. "August was so nice to put together a team of friendly doctors to study the new weapons and, above all, the new ammunition of our Legionnaires." He cast a courageous glance at Lance. "This team even includes some humans!" he added very clearly and caused a further hint of anger in Lance's eyes. Then he looked over to August. "Do you want to say anything about this?"
The doctor took a deep breath and sat up a little straighter. "Yes." He lowered his gaze briefly to gather his thoughts but soon looked up again. "I don't know how much you know about these silver bullets but that they're very dangerous which I probably don't need to say. They melt in heat and not only lead to paralysis of the entire body but also with enough silver in the body without fail to the death of a vampire. Thanks to the work of my team we have been able to produce a compound that inhibits the distribution of silver in the bloodstream and makes it even possible for the body to fight it independently and wash it ultimately out of the blood."
I saw that Thomas, as if on cue, reached down and picked up a suitcase from the floor. He set it on the table before him and opened it immediately. I was not really surprised when he reached in and brought out a handful of smaller syringes that were filled with a pinkish liquid which he also spread on the table. The eyes of the others got wider and wider and again a slight anxiety build up among them. I could see in their eyes the urge to reach out for the saving meds.
"Each one of you is going to get some of those syringes and can later fetch some more if needed," Thomas explained while my eyes rested once again on Gabriel's face. The satisfied expression in his eyes confirmed what I had suspected. The whole small insertion had been arranged, except for the matter of the executions, perhaps, for they had also shocked Thomas and Elizabeth.
"If you're hit by the silver bullets you must immediately inject yourself with the compound," August enlightened the others further while I was fighting to not let my appreciative smile show. The old 'carrot and stick' trick always worked even in contexts such as this.
"But don't forget to remove the bullets as quickly as possible," the doctor went on. "Too much silver may still cancel the effect of the injection."
"It would be even better, of course, if you don't get shot at all," the Vampire Eldest added with a small smile. "Wear bulletproof vests and don't always look for the direct route. Flight is a strategically valuable method and not cowardice when faced with a superior force. You're of no use to anybody dead."
At his words Thomas and Elizabeth began to issue the syringes among the attendants and I raised my eyebrows a little surprised when I noticed that they left out not only Beth but also Mick. My friend looked at me and almost imperceptibly shook his head to me to indicate that I should keep my observation to myself. A little question mark appeared on Beth's face which she quickly tried to hide.
"I don't know how long it will take the Legion to find out that we've found a defense against their ammunition," Gabriel continued, "but I'm sure that they've some other bad things that they can draw upon. Don't feel too secure! Be careful! And adhere closely to what we tell you! That's the only way most of us will be able to survive this."
That Gabriel spoke from experience he hardly needed to point out once more. Everyone here knew how old he was and how many wars with the Legion he had been through. His experience with a situation such as this was of inestimable value for each one of us and I was able to see in most faces at this table that finally they had remembered exactly that. In the near future they certainly would not attempt to go their own way and instead work together with us as we wanted them to do.
There were only three vampires who still had a pretty grim expression: Lance and two other men who were sitting very close to him also gave the impression that they fancied themselves to be something very special. They were good actors but could not fool a vampire like me. There was a minimal amount of aggressive sparkle in their eyes, a touch of contempt and rage that was not harmless. We had to remain vigilant of our allies also. Anxiety and doubt were in crisis situations easy to restore, you just had to find a suitable occasion. And Lance was a specialist at doing this.
From the moment that the 'cure' against the silver bullets had been distributed the meeting was more smooth, peaceful and more relaxed than before. Gabriel had once again proved how well he knew the vampires in our community and how skillfully he could deal with means such as pressure and tempting offers. He had shown to the others what destructive force lived within him and to make clear to them that the same force also promised protection and support if you gave enough of yourself to it, gave in to his will and cooperated with him. They all had become quite tame and were suddenly cooperative as never before and no longer questioned any syllable that came from our lips. So they accepted it without a murmur when Gabriel's chosen 'staff' withdrew for its important meeting and left them alone for a long while. And that was a good thing, because the conversation in this smaller circle was difficult enough.
There were two important points that were discussed further: the capturing of Matthew Perrington and the related new information about Jason's and Cynthia's deal with the cure. The topic 'Matthew' was treated quickly. The man was now with his family somewhere in Alejandro's custody and was providing us with all the information he possessed. After an intense conversation with Alejandro about the machinations of the Legion he had become incredibly cooperative and had indeed helped us quite a bit by giving us hints concerning some other hidden labs spread across the country. Unfortunately, two of them had been already destroyed by the Legion and two had a difficult access because they were beneath other strictly monitored buildings. Therefore, we hadn't been able to inspect them more closely. Tony was content to go on trying to get to the bottom of it for he had already been involved in the actions around Matthew.
The deal with the Cure, however, saw for greater turmoil. It was hard for some of the vampires to understand that other vampires despite our critical situation apparently did business with the enemy which could harm our community. The atmosphere quickly became charged to such an extent that I had the feeling that the others would have liked to immediately go to Jason's room and lynch him personally. I could understand it, but since I knew how important it was that this man stayed alive for now, I found it not very difficult to keep his whereabouts known only to me. A positive effect of the boiling anger of the other vampires was that several of them instantly agreed to establish teams that would look for Cynthia and Henry. We avoided mentioning Coraline's participation in this without having coordinated it previously with each other. Not only because we did not want to upset Mick further but also because she belonged to Gabriel's and Lance's family and would only cause new distrust toward the French vampires that we did not want at the moment. The other vampires were already excited enough as Gabriel presented to them the Cure and the questions that followed immediately were enough to require a high degree of sensitivity to avoid causing new conflicts. Of course, the others wanted to know where the Cure came from, who had invented it and why. These questions also interested me immensely as all my previous sources had encountered problems in finding clear answers.
Gabriel was probably one of the few who knew the history of this compound quite well, but I immediately realized that he did not share his complete knowledge with us, but only give us a reasonably satisfying insight into this small miracle packaged in cans. Nevertheless, I was surprised with some of his statements. The remedy had not been developed by Luis and his family as we had originally thought due to Coraline's false statement, but had been refined by them. A group of other, much older vampires had invented the Cure, but for lack of sustained and constant effort had not researched it any further but had just hidden it somewhere. The story of how Luis had heard about the Cure and stolen it Gabriel kept from us. Instead he approached the subject of 'treason' and its causes.
"Even though we sometimes believe ourselves to be superior beings who live beyond the norm and have their own laws and rules, our history has shown yet again that our transformation into a vampire doesn't free us from our all too human weaknesses and selfish needs," he had explained when asked how the Legion had been able to hear of the Cure. "In our heart of hearts we all remain the person our previous human lives have made us. Nothing is more difficult to change than the character structures that have developed over the course of our lives and have become so deeply ingrained in our souls. And even if we have the desire to be different, if we really have the will to change, we will again and again be tempted to fall back into old patterns of behavior, to react to certain things, to be seduced by them although we really don't want that to happen. Someone who has never been able to cope with certain pressures and betrayed other people out of fear for his own welfare will not act differently as a vampire under the same circumstances. Someone who has learned to gain an advantage for himself due to the fact that he trims his sails to the wind will not be a reliable fellow campaigner as a vampire. Betrayal has many faces and I've met them all before. What we must learn is to not let it worry us, but to fight it or in the best case use it to our own advantage."
At this point Tony had once again mingled into the conversation and said that one could make very good spies out of traitors for your own cause if you were careful and did not show the traitors up in public. It didn't surprise me that he had such ideas for he came from a 'family' which had been able to protect its own position of power successfully through such strategies over a long period of time. Only I knew immediately that Jason was no longer a suitable candidate as a spy because after Mick's actions the Legion were most likely aware that Jason had been busted. As far as Cynthia and Henry were concerned, there was certainly still a chance to apply this not so harmless strategy and I knew I was not the only one who had this idea.
The rest of the meeting we spent to distribute tasks and divide the areas of action among us. The fact that my team was entrusted with the task of continuing to search for Peterson was no surprise, but one look into Gabriel's eyes was enough for me to know that this was not all. We would certainly have another conversation in an even smaller circle about the various ideas, behind the backs of the others who at the end of the meeting gave a very contented impression, and with their new information and orders returned a little pompously to the others.
It was not long until the meeting was dissolved completely and we were able to leave the factory building, and above all, the nerve-wracking excitement of the day finally behind us.
Of course there were still many things to clarify within our own team and I understood that this could not necessarily be delayed on a long term basis but that the clarifying conversations and the corresponding necessary Smalltalk had to take place in our apartment without first having the opportunity to at least have a little break - which didn't appeal to me. Nevertheless, I made the best of it as I stood in the living room, a glass 0 negative in my hand, and tried to follow Tony's whining about betrayal and ambush within family groups. I was tired and overwrought and actually needed peace urgently, just like my currently all too human best friend who hung rather than sat between the cushions of the couch and did not even notice that his eyelids sometimes closed for too long to pass for a blink. I wondered how long Elizabeth would bear his shammed interest in their conversation. At least Beth, who sat between the two, looked so attentive that I did not need to feel ashamed for Mick's behavior. Elizabeth had at least one listener. Speaking of listener…
"… I wouldn't have done otherwise," I got the end of Tony's long sentence just in time to nod my approval.
"We currently don't use schemers," he went on immediately, but something in his eyes told me that he was not comfortable with his statement. "Although Étienne did, in fact, enjoy a high reputation in France… just like Clement."
I knitted my brows unintentionally as I tried to understand what the man was talking about and at the same not let him notice this. Unfortunately, neither of these tries worked so well.
"Clement?" Tony raised his eyebrows quizzically, searched in my eyes for a realization I was currently not capable of. "His skull was lying on the table before us…"
I nodded almost imperceptibly. "You mean his name should mean something to me," I concluded witty.
"He was one of the few 'family members' who resettled to America and represented from time to time the interests of the Europeans here…"
"At the meetings of the Council?" I was in fact slightly confused. I dimly remembered that there had been a Frenchman in our midst. But he actually had only sat there silently and had taken notes of the meeting rather than to take an active part in it. But the meetings had been held so infrequently that I just could not remember what this vampire had looked like or what his name had been.
"Yeah." Tony looked at me a bit critically, but then shrugged his shoulders. "Well, he never had been particularly noticeable… always rather a bit…" he searched for the right word, "… strange. I would really like to know what exactly happened there especially because of his drastic punishment."
There it was again, the discomfort in his eyes. However, in his case it referred to Clement's execution and not to the lack of information about the small conspiracy in our own ranks, which worried me much more. Unfortunately I could not do anything about this feeling, because Gabriel had once again disappeared and had stated in advance that he would probably come back to us the next day to then clear away the remaining ambiguities.
"One thing has become clear in any case," added Tony, while I noticed from the corner of my eye that Elizabeth had gotten up off the couch and approached us. "In no case would I make Gabriel an enemy."
"At least that would be not a state that lasts long," I said back with a small smile.
Tony would probably not share my sense of humor in this respect, because I already saw a little bit of indignation flashing up in his brown eyes. Vampires were always so sensitive when it came to their own kind.
"Your friend is really a phenomenon," Elizabeth freed me from the slight anxiety between us by simply stepping up to us and nodded smiling towards the couch on which Mick now had indeed managed to fall asleep in a sitting position. "First he gives the impression that he possesses an energy he could uproot trees with, and now he falls asleep from one moment to the next one and just looks so human that one can hardly believe that there's a very powerful vampire inside him."
"Which anecdote did you tell?" I replied with a grin as my eyes rested on Beth, who appeared to be completely absorbed in watching her sleeping boyfriend affectionately. "Maybe it's more due to your story than to his state."
Now I looked at her again for I could not miss out on this aggressively amused twinkle in her green eyes which were so wonderfully familiar to me. "Maybe we should test in what kind of state I can get you," she replied with a clearly lascivious undertone which immediately caused slight goose bumps on my arms.
"Do you really still need tests for that?" I countered as disreputable as she. She just smiled and Tony tried to catch our attention with a slightly embarrassed cough.
"I... I'm going to hit the road now," he said, trying to bring his usual self-confident smile back to his face. "My plane takes off in two hours and you know… the traffic."
I nodded and let him pat my back one more time that day. Elizabeth, however, was awarded a tender kiss on the hand before Tony turned away from us to then depart from the others. Not that I wanted to feel his lips even somewhere on my body, but at least Elizabeth clothes remained where they belonged in greetings and farewells. Unless she had other plans. Images flashed in my mind's eye. Clothing torn from bodies… sweaty bodies which were intertwined… moaning and panting… brown hair falling onto my face, tickling my skin… blue eyes. I was startled. That was not Elizabeth! My goodness, was I starting to unintentionally become monogamous?
I tried to hide my horror while Elizabeth looked toward Beth and then searched my eyes.
"There's still one thing that we absolutely have to clarify," she said now more quietly.
"Coraline," I tried a shot in the dark.
She nodded and waved quickly to someone behind me. When I turned, I noticed Max, who had only a few minutes ago entered the apartment, coming up to us. Until now he had only talked with Elizabeth and Thomas.
"It looks as if Dexter may help us to find her," Elizabeth explained.
"Oh! Just say he could suddenly remember that there is a way to contact her," I turned to Max and his lips lifted into a much too rarely seen smile.
"His memory is probably slowly recovering from the shock of our sudden appearance," he replied. "The only question is what kind of message we want to send her and how far Mick should be involved in the matter."
I looked over to the couch and noticed with discomfort that Beth's attention no longer rested on Mick as she watched us with a frown on her face. "I'm not sure," I had to admit, and that was the truth. On the one hand, I knew that Coraline was still a sensitive subject for him and Beth but on the other hand I was also aware that I would provoke enormous anger if I acted behind his back and he eventually found out, and he definitely would. Mick and Beth were, in relation to detection work, a really dangerous team.
Beth stood up now to approach us. But luckily she did not get far, because suddenly Thomas stepped in her way and involved her in a conversation. The man had some really incredible timing!
"We could well use him, in any case, as a decoy," said Max and Elizabeth nodded in agreement.
"Coraline is a sneaky beast," she said with such a strong aversion that I raised my eyebrows in surprise, "and she certainly knows that we're after her. She will be careful and if she doesn't see or feel Mick, she will quickly take flight. We need him to catch her."
I knew she was right. Coraline was an intelligent woman who had been through some bad things, things that had taught her to be careful. However, she had one big weakness… and that was Mick. Even if she would never admit it, it was simply a fact that over the years she had developed an obsession for him that made her forget all reason sometimes. It was quite possible that she would take the risk of getting caught when she saw him in person and really saw the opportunity to speak with him.
I felt compelled to nod and looked over at Beth who was approaching us in spite of her conversation with Thomas. She would likely have far more problems with our idea than even Mick and I could understand that. The idea of being involved with Coraline for a while, if only for just a few days, didn't even please me and my shared past with Coraline was far less traumatic than Beth's was. However, I knew it was important and right to take this unpleasant step and not to struggle against my friends' ideas.
"Dexter should send her a message that he has new information and knows Mick's next destination," I addressed Max so quietly now that Beth certainly could not hear it. "I'll sit down with Mick tomorrow and inform him that we're going to set a trap for Coraline."
"Do you think he'll take part in it?" Max asked with mild concern in his voice. For one heartbeat I thought about this and then nodded.
"I can definitely persuade him," I added, looking over to the couch where Mick had slumped down quite a bit more. If someone didn't wake him up soon he would later be sore all over. His posture looked not quite healthy.
I heard the door of the apartment open behind me and when I turned around Guillermo came in with such a beaming smile on his face that I had the feeling that the sun would rise again. He had gone outside after a phone call and had stayed away an amazingly long time. Apparently something had happened which was this time very good news and as he walked to me first, I was probably the first one to be told.
However, the young Mexican first decided to communicate in a nonverbal way and only held one of these code cards that opened our apartment up in front of my nose. I raised my eyebrows a little bewildered.
"Another key?" I just guessed and asked myself why this was cause for such rejoicing. It could hardly be a new achievement for his code-cards-scrapbook.
Guillermo grinned broadly. "'Another' is right, but the last word you need to change."
"Another apartment?" I could hear a disbelieving voice behind me ask before I could put my own brilliant idea into words. Always these cheeky women!
Guillermo nodded enthusiastically in Beth's direction as she now appeared beside me. "The guy next door has just moved out. He actually wanted to fly tomorrow, but some of his appointments have been delayed and I asked him to call me in that case"
There they were my selfish urges and needs, crying out loudly to me 'Grab the card and run away with it!' But because firstly such action seemed to me too childish and immature, and secondly there were two other people who needed quiet more urgently than me along with a space for themselves for peace and rest I didn't do anything. One of them was standing right beside me and staring at the card in Guillermo's hand with such wide, longing eyes, as if it was the last pair of Manolo Blahniks in a special sale. Who could lift their elbow and push her out of the way at this sight?
Guillermo seemed to think so too, because his look became totally soft and sweet-tempered and the card had already moved to the young woman before I could answer his silent question with a nod.
"Guillermo, do you actually know how much I love you for this?" Beth uttered with a deeply grateful smile, which was immediately reflected in the Mexican's face. The fact that she leaned forward and pressed a kiss on his cheek caused his smile to become even brighter. He said nothing more to this, but nodded in the direction of the couch where Mick flinched and now raised his head slightly confused, trying to blink away the fatigue that still held him in its claws.
"Well, come on, get him up and get him into the apartment before he starts to please us all with his loud snoring," I whispered to Beth with a grin. "Otherwise, he will soon be the one that I won't take along to any more meetings."
She gave a little laugh, but then looked at me quizzically. "Does that mean there will be no other important discussions today?"
"Nothing I couldn't tell you and Mick tomorrow," I replied and meant my words quite seriously.
She looked at me for another moment and then inhaled deeply, finally letting go of her last remaining tension. She walked over to Mick happily holding up the card. It was amazing how much more awakened he looked all of a sudden as he received the good news and a small smile appeared on my face. Fatigue is a strong force, but there are forces that are even stronger.