Chapter 12: Until Proven Innocent

Ceridwen and Jeremy rode silently in the back of the vehicle. Jeremy stared at his sister uncomfortably.

"So, has he made any comments during your lectures?" he asked. Ceridwen turned and stared angrily at him.

"You interrupted the first real lesson he's attended," she said. Jeremy frowned.

"I think he's calmed down in the past couple of months," he said with a mark of approval. Ceridwen's gaze softened into amazement at the remark. Jeremy shook himself. "Not that I trust him or think he's doing well, or anything."

"You or anyone else," Ceridwen muttered as she turned to look out of her window once again. "But the truth is that he is doing better than even I anticipated, at least, I think he is. He seems a little agitated lately, like he feels threatened."

"He better," Jeremy said softly as the car pulled into the driveway of an old building. Ceridwen knew that this had once been a free clinic and was now a sort of medical bivouac for all of the operatives in the area. Corners of the United States saw more action in the bureau than anywhere else. Maine, Florida, Washington, and New Mexico had many of these stations for supplies and information. The two exited the vehicle and pulled out their identification badges before approaching the entrance. "They should be waiting for us. They said that they needed to speak with you about something before giving us the next shipment of blood."

Ceridwen frowned and sighed heavily as the two waited for the door to open. After a few awkward seconds of silence, the door creaked open showing three operatives in their dark uniforms. The two nodded to their colleagues, who motioned for them to enter immediately. Ceridwen turned and watched the door close behind them. She felt a twinge of anxiety flicker in the back of her mind causing a few hairs on her arms to stand on end.

"Miss Nistuart," a voice from a good distance away called. Ceridwen turned to face the new sound, accompanied by Jeremy. A stout man with gradually thinning black hair and tiny rimmed glasses approached them, panting heavily. Jeremy noted that this kind of exertion was probably not something the little man was used to, meaning he was most assuredly from the executive centre. He coughed once to hide the last gasp for catching his breath. "It is a pleasure to meet one of the most courageous, and certainly the youngest, reformist in our history. Kudos to you for attempting to shatter that glass ceiling, my dear."

"Actually, it would be a glass wall, sir, but I thank you. I take it that you were the one that needed to talk to me?" she asked uneasily. Something about this whole setup made Ceridwen feel like a victim of some kind. The man nodded quickly.

"A few strange things have happened far north of your station in Winter Harbour and are getting closer to you every now and again. They are killings and they were definitely done by a preternatural being," the man explained.

Ceridwen's eyes narrowed and began to glow. "You aren't suggesting that Dwight would have had anything to do with this, are you?" she said firmly.

"No, no, no, Miss Nistuart. In fact, the progress we are hearing about from you is quite fascinating," the man said with a reassuring pat on the girl's shoulder. The werecat forced back a concerned hiss at the unwanted gesture in an already uncomfortable situation. "No, it was a lycan not a vampire that is behind these murders." Jeremy's eyes widened and he felt himself ready to shout all manner of defenses at everyone in the room on behalf of his sister. The man sighed and moved closer to her. "Your viral DNA was at the scene. We're afraid that perhaps Lucy might have . . ."

"Lucy is thousands of miles away thanks to you; I haven't seen my sister in twelve years!" Ceridwen shouted furiously. The stout administrator and the three operatives near the door all froze and stared at the girl in disbelief. Ceridwen drew in a deep breath and shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm not feeling well. It couldn't be Lucy, it couldn't. She and the man she was placed with have been in Bulgaria for the past few months. She called me just the other day."

The man's eyes lit up with anticipation. "She called you? Where was she? Did she say how long she had been there?"

"She was in Bulgaria. I believe they've been there since late September well after that Khomoko festival in Prague that they attended to keep an eye on it," Ceridwen said. She stared at the man in full concern. "Has something happened since then?"

The small man wiped his brow, sighing uncomfortably as if about to spread news of death that he had been dreading all afternoon. Ceridwen tensed at the energy he was emitting and felt every nerve in her body standing on edge.

"Well, we all know that Professor Abraham is a good man and an even better physician and would never let anything bad happen to Lucille, but there have been a few odd instances in the past few days that have everyone concerned. The truth is that we've been trying to send a team ourselves to Brasov or an area nearby where they should have been headed, but there have been so many setbacks in the past month what with the changes in authority and all . . ." the man began stammering.

"What is going on with Lucy?!" Ceridwen demanded raising her voice with an animalistic growl in the back of her throat. The man took a defensive step backwards looking at Ceridwen in concern. He coughed for a moment as the girl shook her head. "Just tell me what has happened; are they hurt, missing, what?"

"They're missing, Miss Nistuart, both Lucille and the professor. We haven't had any contact with them in a week and no one else in the area has even seen a trace of them," the man said uneasily. "We're concerned that perhaps she was overtaken by the illness and has come looking for help."

"Ceri would have known if her sister was nearby," Jeremy said taking a small step in front of the girl. "Is there anything else we can help you with before we get the supplies and take them back to the still reforming vampire waiting to be fed?"

The man frowned at the youth's sarcasm and demands. He looked to the left for a moment, thinking carefully. "I suppose the only thing that can be done is keeping a close eye out for any other occurrences in your area and trying to determine where Lucille and the professor are at the moment," he said turning to walk back to the rest of the offices in the back. "The officers will get the supplies to your vehicle. I am very sorry to trouble you about this, Miss Nistuart, but we hope that with your help we can find out what your sister has . . ."

"Whatever it is, Lucy is not anywhere near here," Ceridwen growled. She felt her muscles seizing with a need to destroy the being that had just verbally accosted the reputation of her family. She began to soothe herself mentally, trying to remind herself that this was protocol and no accusations had truly been made. She was finding it harder and harder to restrain her feelings. Odd, she thought. It was as if the moon was full and she was having a full swing in her cycle, but the moon was neither full nor new. Something was definitely wrong. She sniffed carefully and felt a surge of pain rip through her abdomen. She groaned and clutched her midsection with a grimace. Jeremy noted this and raced towards her. Ceridwen put up a hand dismissively. "I'm going to wait in the car."

He nodded and watched his sister exit the building with two of the officers carrying heavy boxes. He frowned. Ceridwen was reacting to something, or rather, someone that shared something with her. There was really no other explanation. Jeremy turned and stared at the blank walls of the building pensively. With Ceridwen being somewhat out of commission, he would have to do some serious research himself.

Ceridwen waited patiently as her brother told the operatives now surrounding him where to send the supplies and where to load the boxes that they, themselves, would be carting back to the mansion. The girl's mind began to burn. What did the man mean by killings in the area? Why hadn't she or Jeremy heard anything about such a thing? Furthermore, how could her viral DNA have ended up at the crime scene? She furrowed her brow and felt a dull throb begin to fill her head from one temple to the other. Lucille had called her a few days before, or had it been a week? Ceridwen began to feel warm as the frustration of having lost track of a few days set in. She had never been so flustered before. She shook her head. This was, in part, Dwight's fault for being so erratic. One minute the vampire was curious and willing to cooperate and the next he was belligerent and hateful. Then again, she had told herself that mood swings and personality adjustment would be a far cry harder for her to deal with in taking this case than seeing a second-hand rendition of reformation had given her over the past few years. She had looked forward to this ordeal since before her adolescence. Ever since she and Lucy had been taken from their mother's side, the girl had wanted earnestly to help all creatures as unfortunate as herself. A sharp pain suddenly ripped through her abdomen, making itself evident to Jeremy with a shrill scream. The boy turned instantly towards the vehicle with his adopted sibling. He frowned and raced over to the vehicle. As he skidded to a halt at the door of the car, he saw his sister lean back and lay sideways on the backseat, clutching her trunk as tightly as she could. He fumbled with the door handle for a moment before flinging the metal barrier open and demanding to know what was wrong. She groaned and felt a flood of information fill her nostrils, mind, and nerve endings. Jeremy's heart skipped a beat as he leaned over his sister, assessing her eyes first. They glowed softly. Though she may not have been about to change fully, there was something that was causing the virus to go on the defensive.

"Ceri?" he asked quickly. "What is it? What are you sensing? Talk to me!"

Ceridwen groaned more loudly and began to sob. "It has to be, there isn't anyone else, but I recognize the scent," she murmured sadly. Jeremy stared at the girl in confusion and forced his way into the back, feeling around one of the side compartments for a dose of the antiviral. As he retrieved the syringe and prepared to slip the needle into her skin, Ceridwen turned and grasped either side of her brother's face desperately. "Lucy wouldn't kill anyone, something else must have her."

Jeremy frowned and gently placed a hand on his sister's face as well. "Ceri, Lucy hasn't had her virus controlled like you have," he reasoned.

Ceridwen's nostrils flared ever so slightly. She leaned dangerously close to the boy's face, nearly sitting nose to nose with him. "Lucy is not a murderer."

"I'm not saying she is," Jeremy replied calmly. As the glow faded from the girl's eyes, a smile crossed his face. "I got to thinking about something. If you, the premiere in most of these preternatural studies, the golden child prodigy, do not know much about the disease, then why should I trust what less qualified people say? Especially when it's pretty obvious that guys like that toad in there don't think to liberally. I don't think Lucy did this."

"Then what did?" Ceridwen asked as the car began to move forward. Jeremy smiled and reached for their safety belts. He fastened Ceridwen's first watching her grow faint from the injection. The first few hours after an emergency dose were usually as tiring as being transformed. He fastened his own and smiled even more brightly.

"When we rescued you from that warehouse, there were lycans and vampires from all sorts of places and all sorts of all ages. Dwight's sire had been hard at work for years, gathering all those minions," the boy explained as he reached for his sister's shoulders and pulled her forward to lay her head on his lap. As she complied and breathed deeply, Jeremy felt a swelling of excitement and fulfillment at his own genius. He had been able to solve this right away. "I think he may have your father's sire in his service." Ceridwen's eyes widened in fear and confusion for a moment. She grabbed the hem of Jeremy's jacket and pulled it to her comfortingly. It made sense, but there would be several gaps of the story to fill in if it were true. "I think both of you will have gotten rid of a few skeletons if we can catch the little jerk. That would do you a world of good, right?"

"Lucy, too," Ceridwen whispered. A slight smile crossed her face as fatigue swept over her more fully. "We'd be normal again."