Chapter 4
A/N:This also needs editing as I am rubbish and I am just spewing as many words as I can for my NaNoWriMo entry. Thanks if you've read this far.
Happy reading.
A few minutes later she was found by James. He was on the way to the room he shared with Tyler and discovered her lying in a jumble on the landing. James jumped into action after a moment and pressed two fingers to her jugular. He sighed in relief and then called for Will, who was the closest person available and the team medic.
Will lost the lower half of his left leg in the first war but was keen to help in the second and so he was assigned to the on-site hospital, but after the wars no one wanted a disabled man in their employment when they could have a man with two legs doing the same work but better, which was when Lexi and Silas found him and then taken him in. He had prosthetics but didn't use them unless he had to.
Leaning on crutches, William came as quick as he could after spotting Lexi on the floor. James aided Will into a seating position so that he could determine Lexi's condition.
"She's fine, I think. I can't really tell since she doesn't have any obvious wound on her or any other problem but she should be okay. Looks like she should just rest more," he explained.
James nodded and they propped her against the wall with the 2 foot framed picture of Winston Churchill.
They looked at each other in worry and then Will said, "We should tell Silas."
"As quickly as possible," James agreed.
The both of them managed to get her to her bed and resting before James left hurriedly to get message to Lexi's other half. Will stayed in the chair monitoring her condition for the next ten minutes until footsteps came thundering towards the room and Will stood up.
"How is she?" Silas asked looking panicked and out of breath.
"Fine, just overworked it seems," Will reassured.
Silas sat down at the side of the bed; he gently tucked some hair out of Lexi's face. He turned his body to face James and said, "Gather everyone in the gym, I have some announcements to make."
James left and Will stood awkwardly. Silas rose and opened the door, he motioned for Will to walk pass. In silence they made their way to the gym, Silas walking at Will's pace.
Silas walked in and went to the centre of the room, Tony and Jenny realized why they all had been called down and stood on either side of Silas who gave a small nod in confirmation. The group gathered in a small semi circle around the three and waited patiently, James and Will were curious of the reasons of them all acting oddly.
"Okay, people, we have an announcement. It might not seem plausible or believable even for us, and we deal with the crazy of London but we have physical evidence and there is no other explanation," Jenny projected, "So you have probably noticed that Lexi isn't here with us right now and that she's been unwell. We are here to discuss that."
Everyone started to look anxious.
"In this very moment: she is fine. But earlier on however, she fainted and before that she was taken as you all know and something happened when sh-"
"Lexi's a vampire," Tony injected.
"Tony!" Jenny and Silas scolded. Silas had been silent and listening carefully up to this point.
"What? You were taking too long and they need to know a-sap, not to hear you drawling on for a decade," Tony said attempting to defend himself, verbally first then with his hands as Jenny reached over Silas to smack Tony hard in the arm, "And you voice is boring."
Jenny gasped indignantly, "How dare you say that to me, I'm going to break that face of yours when I crush it to pieces!"
By now the others were whispering to each other and looking incredulously at the trio in front of them.
Silas stepped in, "All right, break it up, kids. We have some explaining to do," he motioned to the small crowd. He spoke up and said, "We don't actually think she's a 'vampire' but something has happened to her to change her. I've come across something like this before a long time ago but I was reluctant to admit it before because the person it happened to didn't make it. They died very soon after these sort of symptoms started to show."
They were all quiet now, including Tony and Jenny, along with the others, they had grown sombre.
"Lexi has been having violent night terrors, same as they did. She has sharper teeth, same as they did. She has started fainting spells, same as they did. Essentially what I'm saying is that our future with her may not be a particularly long future. Unless we find out how to combat these effects. As far as I know, the other person I knew that went through this, after the early symptoms started to show lived for almost half a year. I'm not sure how long Lexi is going to live for but I hope until we are all old and happy but this might not be the case so we are going to stop fighting like children and find answers," Silas gave a pointed look at the pair next to him.
After half an hour of group discussions they all dispatched and left to do their own thing. Then Silas, Tony and Jenny were there last and they all headed up to the master bedroom. Tony and Jenny stayed for a few minutes but left after they expressed their fatigue. They bid goodnights and went back to their own rooms.
Silas got changed and then slid into bed and pulled Lexi into his arms, drained from the day's development. He gave a condensed explanation of what he told the others. She was anxious and scared but she contemplated his words and decided to sleep on it.
They were deep asleep when they began to hear shouts from the other side of the house. Lexi and Silas shot a quick look at each other before they rushed out of bed, Silas helping Lexi as there was no stopping her from doing something when she was set on doing something.
Everyone else had woken up as well and some were at the heart of the action and others were observing concerned. When the crowd saw the couple they parted to make room for them to walk past. Lexi and Silas walked towards the commotion to discover a man dark haired man dressed in black, previously carrying a range of firearms that were now a safe distance away, and he was tied to the radiator against the wall unconscious.
"What happened," Silas asked Mason who looked on the edge of hysterical.
Mason distraught as he brokenly explained what happened, "Uh, this guy, the somehow got into our room and the shot Andrew in the head. And that woke me up, I'm not sure how the got in but after that I started shouting and Ty and Will came out from their room next to our- mine. I think he didn't know I was there so we managed to knock him out and get him here. Will's already checked on Andrew, and he died instantly."
Everyone was listening intently and then Lexi stepped in and ushered Mason down to the kitchen, she turned to Silas and said, "It's okay, I'll make him a cup of tea."
Silas nodded and told most of the people gathered around to go back to their rooms if there weren't any pressing matters, he asked a few to get Andrew's body somewhere the police would find, making sure there was clear identification on him so that they could contact the house. This way the police wouldn't be on their tails, this way it would look like Andrew had been in a freak shooting and that they could eventually give him a proper burial.
Tyler said to Silas, "I think the guy was either just to scare us, and if the was here to do that then consider us scared, but he might have also been aiming for yours and Lexi's room, as Mason's and yours are mirrored. He could have made a mistake and was sent here to kill you or Lexi."
Silas mulled over that for a moment and then sent Tyler back to his room to get some more rest. Silas himself went down to the kitchen to check on Lexi and Mason.
The opened the door to find Lexi leaning against the stove with a mug and Mason was at the table, hands around some tea.
"Hey," Lexi said when Silas came in.
The busied himself with making coffee as he replied quietly, "Hey, how is he doing?"
"Not too good but he'll be fine. I think we all need something to make us happier right now, with my situation and now Andrew's murder," she said, then a little louder, "I should talk to Aurelia, I met her a few times at the post office in Bath, she's from Bucharest. Or maybe maybe Alexei, he works at that music shop in Hull, he's actually from St. Petersburg. they both know a lot about the myths and folklore about this stuff. maybe we can visit them and see if they know anything."
"Yeah, they might be able to help," Mason said looking back to them.
Silas agreed and then made plans with Lexi to see them. He and Lexi with Henry, the weapons specialist, would see to the Romanian while Jenny, Mallory and Tom would visit the Russian.
It was early morning anyway so they didn't see any point in going back to bed so the couple requested Mason to inform the people involved. They all got dressed and met one another at the front of the house.
Lexi had packed everyone some food just before heading out as it would take a while to get to their destinations. She also grabbed some shades as her eyes were now more sensitive to bright light of any kind, her night vision had improved greatly as well.
It was in the sizable drive way that there were 4 vehicles, sometimes more since there were 14 people living there coming from various backgrounds, people needed to get around and cars were the easiest and with a very knowledgeable mechanic on hand, getting them fixed wasn't a difficult task.
Silas and Lexi gave a quick report before everyone separated and went to their specific car. Silas drove a Chrysler Royal, which he thought practical whereas Mallory drove the newest model of the Ursaab, now called Saab 92 which she cherished but would then sell for a high price to buy the next craze in vehicles.
Silas drove for just over two hours before finally arriving in Bath. They went through the suburbs, (shudder, none of them liked that mundane and boring option of life) and through the outer town and then into the heart of the city. Driving for a few more minutes they then parked in front of a small house among a long row of them.
"This should be where she lives, this is the address she gave me, Queens Square," Lexi said, holding a slip of paper.
They got out of the car and walked towards the dark blue door. Lexi knocked and it opened to show a thin short woman.
"Who the hell are you lot?" the woman asked.
"Err.. We're here to see Aurelia," Lexi said.
The woman gave a shrill shout, "Aurelia!"
Another woman came half tumbling down the stairs, "Dorina, what is it?"
"These people are here to see you," Dorina said with a scowl and she walked away from the door.
Aurelia turned to face them, she recognised Lexi, "Oh, it is so good too see you again, I haven't visited you in a while, come in, all of you." Aurelia spoke in a heavy accent.
The three standing at the door came into the small hallway and followed Aurelia into another room. They got to the living room and Aurelia offered them a warm drink and then asked them to take a seat on the sofa.
"So, I'm guessing this isn't a social calling but I will treat it like one," she said, "What are you here for?"
Lexi held Silas' hand and looked to Aurelia who was in the kitchen boiling the kettle, "We just wanted to ask some questions. On the blood drinkers."
"Ah, the moroi and strigoi. They are the type of soulless and the demons of the world," she said. Aurelia then went on to explain about her version of the lore. Lexi and Aurelie chatted for an hour while Silas and Henry listened and made comments every now and again.
A few hours later they left Aurelia's home with a homemade cake and bottles of water. Silas and Henry got into the car with a smile and a wave, Lexi hugged Aurelia who said, "Come back soon, we need to talk regularly."
"We will, I'll bring some friends. You should meet Jenny and Mallory, you would love them."
"Yes, yes," Aurelia said enthusiastically, "Bring them along soon. Bye, bye now. Have a safe journey."
They all waved goodbye in the car as they made their way home. Arriving back at the house two hours later they grouped back with Mallory, Tom and Jenny. As they went into the kitchen Henry and Silas explained to the others who they met and the information that Aurelia gave. When Lexi asked Mallory what she and the other two found out from Alexei, she laughed and proceeded to tell them about their day.
"Well, at first when we met this Alexei person you were telling us about we all thought he was just going to be of some use at least, but then he started babbling on about witches and the Russian Orthodox Church. In the end we pieced together bits from the mumbo-jumbo that he laid out to us and basically he told us what we already knew and mentioned something about a woman, Lilith, you know, Adam's first wife from Christianity. The mother of all creatures, literally, all those monsters and stuff can be traced back to her apparently," Mal said, "Although he gave us books on Vlad Tepes and dhampirs. I'm not sure where that comes in but it might be useful and he told us to return the when we're done with them but I'm not going back. Hell no. One of you lot can go back to the crazy."
"That's fine, we can mail it back. No need to to travel again,we only needed this today for a face-to-face," Lexi said.
Jenny was complaining about the 3 and half hour long drive to get to Hull and then the drive back, saying how Tom was a constant horror to be stuck with in a small compact space. "Tom would not stop behaving like a child, it's like as soon as he gets in a car he turns on this childish charm. He should be besties with Tony," Jenny said at one point to Lexi.
"I am," Tom called from the other room and Lexi chuckled.
The 6 of them gathered around the kitchen table and began to brainstorm for ideas and plausible answers to Lexi's 'condition', now possible 'vampire transition'. Jenny was tasked with reading through, taking notes and marking significant sections of the books.
"What do we know that's definite then?" Henry asked.
Silas replied with, "We know that Lexi needs blood, human blood to survive as the animal blood we tested a few days ago didn't go down well, her body rejected it. But we also know that her body can digest and consume normal human food and drink. Her body still functions as it would do as normal but her eyes are just that bit more sensitive, so are her senses. They are stronger now, she has 'fangs' but I don't think she's been on a murdering spree so we can rule out the Vlad Tepes theory, but keep the book for a bit, it might contain something of a use. They dhampir one however, it seems a bit more believable, it is linked to Balkan folklore and it also link to Bulgarian and Belarusian legends. We should look into that."
"Yeah, I'll go to the town library tomorrow, they might have something on dhampirs," Tom said and then he smiled, "And I'll walk, so no one needs to whine about me as a passenger in their car."
"Yes, you do that Tommy-boy," Jenny said.
"Okay, so we have everything up to date. We can tell the rest of them tomorrow because right now I'm knackered and need my beauty sleep, so do all of you. Especially you, Mal, you look like you could do with a decent night's sleep," Lexi said, ordering them up, "All right, out you go everyone, come on," she ushered.
Lexi had her arm around Silas' waist and he had his arm around her shoulders, supporting each other as they walked behind the other four going up the stairs to their rooms to retire for the night.
In Silas' other hand he held a glass of orange juice. When the couple got to their room he said, "You need more blood, Lex. It's been a long day and you haven't had any since before yesterday." He put the juice on one of the bedside tables.
Lexi looked anxious and then said, "No, no. I shouldn't..."
"It's fine, come here," Silas sat on the bed and pulled open the second draw of the bed-side table to show a small knife. He quickly brought it out and held it over the side of his hand, the side closest to his pinkie, and made a light incision between his pinkie and the base of his hand.
Lexi watched on, wide-eyed and shocked, not moving from her spot across the room by the full length mirror. She tried to turn away but her her canines extended into fangs.
"It's okay, come over here," Silas urged. Lexi made cautious steps to the edge of the bed and sat down gently, Silas placed his hand that was now slightly pooling with blood in her arm range. She carefully gripped both her hands on his arm and lifted it towards her lips. Lexi quickly latched on and drank, Silas with his left arm smoothed her hair, a few moments later he said, "Lexi, darling, that's enough now."
She snapped her head back immediately and looked apologetic.
"See, everything's okay. Nothing went wrong. you have more restraint than I thought you would," Silas smiled encouragingly, "Now I need you to go get cleaned up and to get me a bandage from the bathroom, can you do that, sweetheart?"
Lexi mutely followed through, she bandaged his hand first and then washed her face. She was more than eager to get rid of the blood that matted her lips. While she washed up, Silas downed the contents of the glass and then joined Lexi in getting ready for bed, she seemed to have more energy than earlier but she still moved tentatively. "Let's sleep for now," he said and he pressed a kiss into her hair.
The next day Tom left for around noon to head for the library, with him he carried a decent sized messenger bag, being hopeful to find more information on the vampire/dhampir hypothesis. Meanwhile in the training room where everyone else were gathered together so that they could be filled in, however, one of them wasn't there.
Yelena was just in her room in which she shared with Mallory who she loved dearly, she was closing the door to her bedroom when a hand holding a cloth came over her mouth and nose, it knocked her out cold in seconds.
She awoke later to nausea and a headache, feeling sore all over. She quickly discovered she was tied securely to a metal chair, moving and struggling in her straps she soon found out how useless it was. Abandoning that action she looked around at her surrounding and saw that she was in an empty, hotel suite. It was decorated with flowers and pearls, pink and sky blue walls, swirly patterned furniture. You get there was a theme. Her chair was facing the fireplace and the mirror above, on her right there was a tall window that she could probably get to if the chair wasn't so heavy and on her left was the door to get out.
Sighing she berated herself for not carrying her usual gear that included blades strapped to various places on her body. One of them her wrist, so if she hadn't let her guard down so much in the past few months then she would have escaped by now, well, her capturers would have probably taken off her but she was annoyed anyway.
As far as she knew, she had been here for over two hours, according to her calculations. If the kidnappers were intent on letting her die of boredom, then they were getting off on a good start. Yelena busied herself with counting the little flowers on the sofa, she was up to 183, but then the door finally opened to reveal a man in a military jacket carrying a duffle bag, smoking a cigar.
"Dear God, what took you so long," Yelena said, "You know, I thought you'd never come. So, who are you and why have you taken me?" She had a vague idea and if she was right then there wasn't much of a chance that he would hurt her.
As she was taking the man put down his duffle and sat on one of the frilly eye-sore sofas, he took a long drag and laughed at her words.
"I like you. You're funny, much more fun than Lexi, she was such a bore," he said rolling his eyes and grinning, "The name's Nate, love, what's yours?"
Her suspicions were confirmed, "Don't call me that, I'm not telling you my name."
"Very well, I don't need to know it anyway. Just needed someone from that little crew of yours. You are doing nicely, hon." Yelena cringed.
Nate stood up and said, "No need to worry much. I'm not here to torture you for information or anything. I have a message for you to deliver."
"What," she grounded out. He was starting to get on Yelena's nerves.
"Just tell that lovely couple you live with, you know who I'm talking about, that she needs vampire blood to survive the transition, only a drop will do."
To anyone else he would have sounded vague and mad but Yelena instantly caught onto what he was saying and was itching to get ho- wait. What if he was lying? What if this was just another ploy to hurt others?
Nate sighed and said, "What I'm telling you is the truth, love. Make sure that gets to them. Oh, and I lied, I do that. This is gonna hurt like a bitch. Sorry, love."
He took two quick steps to her and punched her hard across her face.
A/N: Thanks for reading if you've read this far and I'm sorry for the mistakes here and how jumbled the writing is.