Unfinished Thoughts – Chapter 2

Pulling Jared Sage into a spirit dream was slightly more difficult than normal. I had never met him, but I'd seen a picture or two, and Sydney had told me enough about him to allow me to finally reach him. If Sydney's reaction to the first time I pulled her into a spirit dream could serve as a reference, I knew her father would freak out. For that reason I decided to materialize us in the Moroi Court; go big or go home, I say.

From his initial reaction, Papa Sage didn't think much of my skills, probably assuming this was a regular dream. But he knew I was a vampire; I could see the disgust engraved on his eyes. For a long time I just strolled along the many Moroi portraits I had placed upon the walls; I had no idea who the hell they were but I made sure to have all our distinctive characteristics more pronounced.

After a while the realization that something was amiss seemed to hit him. I heard a sharp intake of breath and a flicker of fear reached his eyes for a fraction of a second, disappearing almost instantly to be replaced with his usual cold, judgmental stare. I could see how the Sage girls would feel intimidated by him, although the black cotton pajamas he was wearing – I hadn't conjured up any clothes for him, so those were his own at the time - made it difficult for me to find him anything other than amusing. That is, I would probably find him amusing if my heart hadn't been full of hate and despair for his share of responsibility at Sydney's fate. My dad was far from getting a Best Dad mug for Father's Day and he was usually a dick, but Jared Sage was on a whole different level of irresponsible parenthood.

A surge of violent thoughts took over me and for a moment, all I wanted was to smash his head against the wall. How dare he? How could he do what he did to his own daughter? I didn't know what Sydney was going through, but she sure as hell hadn't been taken to a spa in the Bahamas. I was prone to taking the blame for everything, as her kidnapping was a result of our careless behavior but this guy in front of me was the reason Sydney was wherever she was. This guy, with his bigoted beliefs, his racist outlook at life, his personality incapable of love, was to blame as much as me, and perhaps even more.

I clenched my hands into fists to try and control my emotions. I couldn't let him see how much this was getting to me, how desperate I was for any scrap of information. If I were to get anything out of him, I had to play this right.

"It's you," he said, emotionless. When he realized I wasn't going to answer, he continued.

"You're him. The creature of darkness that corrupted my daughter. It's you."

His voice was even but I could hear a hint of uneasiness hidden beneath his calm tone. As if he expected me to attack him with my magic powers of deception and corruption at any moment. Or maybe he was just waiting for me to sink my teeth in his neck. I'd rather starve than drink his blood, but he didn't need to know that. His eyes wandered from me to the chandelier in the ceiling, to the pictures on the walls. His face didn't betray any emotions he might be experiencing, and I controlled the urge to see his aura. Not yet. There would be time for that later.

I stared at him for a few more minutes, neither confirming nor denying anything, before I started to make the pictures on the wall slowly disappear. Once again, he didn't let me see any reaction my magic might be having on him, and I wondered if he was just really good at poker or if he didn't have a heart at all and therefore couldn't feel anything. I was inclined to go with the second answer.

As the whole room started to fade away, I walked up to him as if meaning to touch him but keeping my distance, looked him in the eye and finally spoke my first words to him:

"I will never leave you alone."