Chapter 11:

For you, Hazel, as always :)

Amelie's POV:

She couldn't help herself, as she read the books to her friends, from keeping some information back from them. After all, she qualified this with the realisation that they would one day perhaps desire her position – and if she told them everything they needed to know, even if she destroyed the books, they would be able to survive without her.

As always, her own survival took precedent over the loyalty she had towards her friends; it had to. There was no way around the fact that they could rise against her, that they could desire her position more than the value they had on her friendship with them, and she therefore had to act accordingly to ensure that she could never be destroyed.

So she read the books slowly, reading ahead even as she spoke to see what she ought to leave out for them, there not being vast amounts left out, yet the most important, illusively secret information pertaining to their kind staying firmly within Amelie's head only. After all, she couldn't take chances; this was her life that she would be playing with.

~x~

They finished the books within a week and all the other two could do was sit there, stunned that that was merely a small proportion of the knowledge Amelie was permitted to learn and that they could become aware of so much more.

"Well…what do we do now?" Myrnin asked slowly as Amelie emerged from her library, locking the door behind her. Whilst they felt that they were aware of everything, Amelie was certain that, if given the chance, Myrnin would have been in there with the books within one second.

"We find the rest of the Elders around here," she replied slowly. "We find them and begin to destroy them slowly, moving through the ones around us in a manner that makes it appear as though someone from across the country is destroying them – not us."

She took a step forwards and sighed ever so slightly, her eyes bright with the idea of power. She had plans for what she wanted to do, of course she did, and there was the glint in her eyes that had both Myrnin and Oliver intrigued and worried for what she wanted them to do.

"And then," she paused for a dramatic impact, "then we plan our attack upon my Father."

~x~

The weeks passed and they began to worry because there were no vampires in the surrounding area whatsoever, all of them having been destroyed when they moved there. Amelie had long contemplated moving their base, yet she couldn't for fear of the suspicion raised when the murders of Elders seemed to move in a correlated area towards where she lived.

Perhaps she was reading too far into it, yet she knew that there was no way that it could go unnoticed that a new Elder had just so happened to move into an area where her fellow Elders were suddenly being killed.

"What do we do?" Myrnin, naturally, was the one to overreact in the situation, throwing himself into a chair with enough momentum to have thrown himself out of the window if he had desired to.

Amelie rolled her eyes as she sat down at her own side of the desk, pressing her fingertips to her temples. "We do nothing, Myrnin," she sighed, allowing a large volume of air to escape her unneeded lungs. "We simply remain here and plan what we must do in a shorter period of time because I have no desire for this charade to continue for more than two years, therefore we must be precise in our movements."

"You mean we are to simply plan for the next three weeks?" he repeated, aghast at the lack of action. "I shall return to my science for this time, Amelie, whilst you plan what you desire to do, for this has no impact upon me," for the first time, there is an almost rift between the pair as he opposed her plan for the…planning of the destruction of the Elders.

She had no desire to fight to keep him onside; she had no need for him until after the next Elders meeting, so why not allow him to do as he desired? "Very well, Myrnin, run along and play with your chemicals," she allowed, pulling a sheet of paper closer to herself before beginning to write her ideas for the destruction of her own kind.

The door slammed shut behind him, leaving her to her solitude. She revelled in the silence, the thing that she got so little of nowadays, and began to decipher the complicated thought processes she had, trying desperately to formulate a plan inside her head that made sense when she wrote it out also.

~x~

The date for the next meeting rolled round quickly and it was with a sense of trepidation that Amelie dressed in her black robes. She tucked the books within her pocket and knew that her Father would soon be learning what was contained within the pages, though he most likely knew the majority of it also, and she could use that time to begin to decide who would be the easiest to attack.

"Remain at least two miles away," she reminded Myrnin and Oliver as the trio began to make their way across to Stonehenge, a journey slightly over an hour from their hometown.

"Yes, we are to discover the direction from which the Elders arrive, so we can pinpoint where we strike first," Oliver relayed, bored of the repetition of the same thing. "We understand what we are to do, Amelie; you needn't repeat yourself over and over again."

Her eyes narrowed as she paused, merely one hundred feet from the place where she has ordered her comrades not to pass beyond. "Very well, gentlemen, I shall return later and find out what information you have managed to collate," she smiled ever so slightly before walking on towards the meeting, alone.

.

Her Father walked across to her as soon as he saw her arrival, his expression cool as she regarded him. She wondered what process he had made, as well as debating internally as to whether this plan continued to be conceivable to work without him being suspicious that she really didn't have any desire to work with him. Only at that moment would she be able to consider destroying him – because, for her then, he was much too valuable an asset.

It was strange for her to consider him an ally, since she hated him more than anything, yet she considered him this simply because he was making her job one thousand times easier by ridding the world of the vampires she knew were so much stronger and older than the ones she had to dispose of.

"Amelie," he greeted her courteously and she did the same back, yet refrained from calling him her Father; she couldn't face that, not with the depth by which she hated him. "I presume you have my literature," he pressed and she removed the books slowly from her pocket, her eyes darting around at the same time to try and keep an eye on where the Elders were coming in from, which groups were the largest as they discussed their own matters before the meeting began.

"Yes, here you are," she replied dismissively, watching as he mouthed the question 'how many have you dealt with?' to her. "Unfortunately, I was unable to bring you the chicken you so desired to have, for there were to be no chickens found in my area of the country today."

"Most unfortunate," he understood her code instantly and was displeased with her – she could tell that by his tone. "Yet perhaps by the next meeting?"

"Most definitely," she replied confidently, flashing him her smile that she knew had always set him on edge. She knew her strengths when it came to her Father, and unnerving him was one of her undeniable ones. "That shan't be a problem. Yet the problem shall be: can you deliver on what you promised me?" she leaned forwards in a conspirative manner and he knew what she meant without a shadow of a doubt.

"Just watch, daughter," he sounded all too confident. "There shall be no issues with my success; that is something I can guarantee you."

And, with a shiver that ran through her entire body, Amelie knew she could believe him.

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Thanks

Vicky xx