Chapter Thirty Six

Darius

I had a bad feeling about this, there had to be more going on than a simple attack on The Major and Peter had gotten two names from the girl Blair before killing her, confident that was all she knew, Ethan and Alexis. Now Ethan was a new one to me but I'd heard of Alexis. She had a gift of her own, a very special one, she could steal other gifts temporarily to use herself which made her extremely dangerous.

She had been a nomad when I came across her centuries ago. Very beautiful but totally amoral. She didn't care about anyone but herself and anything she wanted she simply took. She had tried taking me but Sara had put her right and we had never seen her again. Now what was she doing with another gifted vampire like Blair? What did she hope to gain from attacking The Major? More importantly what had she wanted him for in the first place? Something was brewing I could feel it in my bones and it made me jittery so I did what I always do at such times I went on the net, the dark web, looking for other signs, other things going on. If you knew where to look you could pick up a lot of intelligence very quickly and I soon found I'd been neglecting my surveillance because there was a hell of a lot going on and with each nugget of information I became more uneasy.

As I started to collate it all I realised there was just too much for one person so I contacted Emmett, who had impressed me earlier, and told him what I needed him to do. He was more than happy to help in any way and when I gave him a taste of what I'd found he was even more eager, like me he didn't think we'd seen the last of this, whatever it was. Then I went back to trolling, picking up hints, sometimes only a single word or a name and trying to piece it all together and make sense of it. Peter was useless with a computer so I got him ringing around to see how many friends we could call on if this was as big as it seemed to be getting. I scribbled plenty of notes as I went and Emmett sent everything he could find while Peter cursed, cajoled, and generally bullied some into offers of help if needed. Deciding we needed to sit down and discuss all this I set up another video conference and as it went on I think we all understood this was big, The Major had just been the beginning or at least a side show rather than the main event.

"Now let me get this straight. We have a cull of Guardians, well no ones gonna cry about that, some mysteriously disappearing covens in more than one country and some gifted vampires who seem to have vanished into thin air? And you think this means what exactly?"

I gave Peter a dirty look but before I could answer him Emmett broke in,

"There's something else too."

I looked at his serious expression,

"What?"

"You know the mad Mexican Jazz worked with, the one who turned him?"

Peter rolled his eyes,

"Yeah as a matter of fact Char and I do, intimately you might say. Why? Don't tell me she's missing too?"

"Actually she is but more than that there are a shit load of rumors that her new born army was wiped out and she's working with whoever did it to stay alive."

I sighed heavily as Peter rubbed his jaw,

"Well if that's the case maybe she's the one who set Blair on The Major. She'd do anything to pay him back for deserting."

I shook my head,

"No, this is deeper than petty revenge, much deeper and far more dangerous I think. After all he was attacked because he refused to help someone."

I stopped there because I suddenly heard the two more names that Emmett had just spoken,

"Say that again."

My tone of voice stopped everyone dead and Emmett looked taken aback,

"I said the name Silas came up a few times but just in passing. Why do you know him?"

"Oh yes I know Silas only too well. He and I have a score to settle and if he's involved then this is even bigger than I thought."

"Bigger? Are we talking world domination? Armageddon? Come on Darius give us something."

I merely looked at Peter who rubbed his chin thoughtfully,

"Just a minute, you are, aren't you? Fuck me, if you're right we're going to need more muscle than we have at present... a lot more."

Emmett

This had just become even more bizarre and worrying because I didn't think Peter was joking this time.

"Will someone fill me in because Carlisle and Jazz are gonna want to know what's going on and I have to be able to tell them something."

Darius looked at Peter then nodded,

"OK, Carlisle may have heard of Silas and possibly Alexis. She's bad news but he is one mean mother fucker. When the Volturi took over from the Romanians he was the other contender but he wasn't quite powerful enough to overcome all Aro's gifts and guards. I believe he's been laying low all this time probably waiting for an opportunity to seize power for himself."

"But what makes you so certain its him? The name only came up a couple of times in passing"

"One, Silas name never comes up even in passing and two he believed that the vampires should rule the entire world without any hindrance...especially from such as the Guardians. He hated them with a vengeance and if you ever see him you'll know why."

"So you've seen him?"

"Yes to my cost. I crossed him quite unintentionally when I was fairly new."

"So what happened?"

"He murdered my mate in front of me and then buried me in an old stone casket twenty feet below the surface."

I didn't know what to say to that, I couldn't even imagine what that must have been like.

"When I finally got free I found a pile of ash where her body had been burned and I collected what I could, buried it and put a stone over the spot. A year later I received a portion of the stone and two fingers, one wearing her wedding band. Every year for a decade I got another parcel from him and then it stopped. I guess he thought maybe I'd learned my lesson."

I swallowed hard then tried another question,

"What should I tell Jazz and Carlisle?"

"Nothing until I'm sure. Give me another day, two at the most and we'll join you. Maybe Carlisle would be the best person to contact the Volturi though, I'd better speak to him... is he there?"

"No. but he'll be back in an hour or two."

"I'll contact him later then"

"Why the fucking Volturi?"

Darius turned his now bleak eyes on Peter,

"Because if it is Silas then were going to need all the help we can get, all the gifts we can get hold of and they're gonna want to help once they know what's going on. Trust me, Aro fears Silas as much as any man."

That chilled me to the bone, as far as I was aware the Volturi feared no man but I would see what Carlisle knew.

"I'll tell him to stand by. What about Jazz?"

"Where is he?"

"Out hunting with Edward, its his first time out since Blair was killed so he's gonna be some time."

"Lets wait and see, speak to Carlisle first. In the meantime I would say don't tell anyone but I guess with Edward about that's pretty nigh impossible."

"Ill try, I can keep him out for a while, we all learned that over the years but Rose is going to be curious."

"Try to keep quiet until I speak to Carlisle. I'd like to be sure before we push the alarm button Em."