Chapter 13:

I don't own anything

Amelie's POV:

Within three hours, she had formulated a plan that could potentially wipe out almost two thirds of her enemies within England, Scotland and Wales, and she knew that it was so ingenious – if it worked – that there would be nothing that could occur in the vampire world that could cause more destruction, ever to happen. It was dangerous to everyone involved, especially herself, if she happened to be the instigator, but she knew that the chance of her being caught within the trap was relatively low; she would not die, she was sure of it. And there was a very, very small possibility that she would be caught as the person who had caused it, because the vampires killed would be coming from the other side of the country to her, so there should be no reason why she would be suspected…at least, that was the theory.

And the best part of her planning was that because Bishop had finished his reign of terror within a short period of time of this plan, it was quite conceivable that the group of vampires (as she knew that was what his aim was, for people to think more than one vampire had killed the masses of vampires dead on the bloody pathway snaking through Europe) would have moved across the Channel and launched their attack on the Elders.

Then again, perhaps not: Amelie had heard, through sources that were perhaps not the most reliable, that apparently the 'group of vampires' were biding their time, waiting until the hierarchy of vampires crossed the Channel in order to hunt down these vampires themselves. And therefore there would be very little chance that there would be an attack on the Elders in their meeting place…something further supported by Amelie's knowledge of it being Bishop who had been the attacking force, and therefore he could not attack the Elders without revealing it had been him who had caused such widespread carnage.

"Myrnin," Amelie called, raising her voice just marginally, so he could hear her. "I require your assistance," she continued, as his curly-haired head popped through the door mere seconds later.

"Ahh, I presume that you have succeeded in formulating a plan in your mind?" Myrnin commented, strangely upbeat for no apparent reason – but that was just Myrnin, nothing different about him than usual.

"Yes, I do," she said, motioning for him to sit down before her as she spoke. "And I require your best alchemical knowledge, Myrnin. There is a time for you to allow the creative juices of your mind to roam free, unadulterated and without question as to the sanity of your idea."

"I am most certainly intrigued, Amelie, but how could I not be, when this mysterious plan of yours affords me to possibly use this ingenious new creation I have, where I have mixed an extraordinary number of chemicals in order to—" he was cut off by Amelie after a few sentences; she could only take so much of his illogical alchemy babble, after all, and she had reached her limit.

"Yes, yes, I quite understand that you are excited, though you are yet to be aware of the plan I have constructed," she reminded him, her voice perhaps harsher than she would normally have been – anything to do with her father had always left her on the edge, she realised, and woe behold anyone who happened to irritate her whenever she was in one of these moods. "I need you to, by whatever means possible, create a scenario where, if one spark is set alight, it will burn everything – and everyone – within a three mile radius. And I require you to have made it in three days time, before the next impromptu meeting, so it can be arranged in the correct location, to remove as many Elders as possible."

As she spoke, Amelie watched Myrnin closely. There was no response to her desire to murder, in complete cold blood, however many vampires – and humans who got caught in the middle of it – besides for a calculating expression, one that showed he was already focused on the task in hand and how to twist his knowledge of the sciences, of alchemy, to the point that it allowed him to do something humans wouldn't consider in even five hundred years. Amelie wanted something to cause a massacre of unheard of extremes, and it was obvious that she was going to settle for nothing less.

"I…I may have something, though it would be potentially dangerous to whomever initiated the attack…but there would be the positive that there would be no plausible way to link it to any of us in particular, for it would appear relatively natural. Obviously, with the events of late, it would most likely be linked to the actions within the mainland Europe, and that could only work to our advantage, I presume." Myrnin sounded…thoughtful to Amelie, as though the problem of killing was merely something that could be worked through in a logical manner.

"Well, if you can have your creation arranged by the deadline I have set, that would be most useful," she replied pointedly. "Otherwise, my father may feel it more beneficial to him to eradicate our deal, and for him to point the blame in our direction for the carnage that occurred throughout the Mediterranean."

"Certainly, that shall not be an issue," Myrnin commented, standing up and rushing out of the room before Amelie could even consider uttering another word. She had many things she wanted to discuss with him, such as practicality of carrying his invention across the country with assured safety, but there was no chance of that now he had the opportunity to unleash his creative instincts and create something that worked. She had no doubt that it would work, though perhaps its limitations would be just as dangerous to herself as it would be to her opponents.

Then again, that was a risk that Amelie knew she had to take.

~x~

"Run, Myrnin," she told him, pulling the hood of her cloak over her head, on the off chance that a vampire could pass and recognise her – at least the cloak afforded her the chance to not be immediately identified by someone she may well know. "I will remain and light the line of fuel; I will then run myself before the trigger catches alight. You have worked it out, I suppose, that I shall be afforded enough time to run without being harmed, I presume?"

He nodded and muttered something, but she didn't understand; it was in his native tongue, and she had never had an inkling to learn Welsh – English had been tedious enough. "Yes, yes, it will be fine," he commented, realising that Amelie was waiting for a response that she could understand. "You will have approximately thirteen seconds to clear four hundred metres; less than that distance and you risk showing side effects from the blast at the meeting, something which would not bode well for your cries of innocence," he reminded her.

"I know. And now, you are to return home to Oliver and the pair of you must prepare for the next Elders Council meeting. There cannot be that many more of us, surely, before you and your fellow friend of mine are invited to join the ranks," she reminded him, and he rolled his eyes, once again muttering something in Welsh before smiling ever so slightly.

"I shall see you when you return after the meeting, Amelie. Good luck." And, with that, her dearest friend was running away, not desiring to remain and add pressure to the tense situation she faced. If she did this wrong, the flames would move towards her before they were meant to, and engulf her slender body. If she did it right, then it would destroy anything that approached, and she knew enough about the vampires on this side of the country that they always travelled in a pack, to prevent attack from other vampires, or even humans. Apparently, the superstitious nature of humans on the East of England was much greater than that where Amelie lived – or so she hoped – and this was their reasoning for travelling in such a large group.

But she had to wait until they were close before she set fire to the paths of twisting liquid, trails that snaked through the trees and grassland and was attached to small boxes that Myrnin had made; Amelie didn't understand what the liquid was, and she didn't have any idea whatsoever about the boxes, but she was well aware that they were dangerous, whatever was inside. Yesterday, Myrnin had tested out a much smaller version, in a meadow thirteen miles from their home. She had watched in a silent horror as everything within the four acre wide meadow was incinerated.

Perhaps the three mile radius was too small for his predictions.

For now, though, all Amelie had to do was wait.

~x~

It wasn't long before they appeared in her sight, just in the background. Now was the time to strike.

Her hand shook slightly as she rubbed two pieces of flint together, waiting for the spark that she knew would come…until it did. As soon as she saw it, she dropped everything she was holding, inclusive of a handkerchief that had an A embroidered onto the corner, and ran in the direction Myrnin told her would be the safest.

And it was from there, behind a land bunker filled with wet, sodden soil, did she watch as the inferno blazed.

There was no gradual build up of fire, as there generally was; it was a sudden blast, heat reaching as far back as she was as though it was a hot summer's day. Twists of orange and yellow mingled with red and a thick, grey coloured smoke that began to rise steadily in a plume. Within the licking flames that consumed everything in their reach, she could hear the yells of some of the vampires, as the fire ripped their skin from their bones and made them into piles of ash.

She had done it.

And there hadn't been one single problem.

(She ignored how it seemed far too easy to do it.)

~x~

At the Elders meeting the next evening, she saw her father standing next to Jonathan, his eyes watching her as she entered the circle, dressed in her robes. With just the smallest inclination of her head, she indicated that she was responsible for the murder of almost three hundred vampires, and that there was no doubt about her being adequately strong and dangerous to tackle this issue.

She could tell that the other Elders were agitated, and she was a good enough actress to pretend that she felt the same way, though she knew Bishop's eyes lingered on her for more than just paternal feelings; she had, through one movement, diminished the brutality shown by his actions, because she had struck the Elder's Council so close to home, defeated vampires who were on their way to discuss how to deal with the problem in Europe.

Amelie had managed to make herself more dangerous than her father.

And she should have known that that really wasn't going to go down well with Bishop.

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Vicky xx