Time is running out.
The masters expect the four of them back within the next two weeks, and so far, they have had two failed attempts - both close brushes - at terminating the beast. Failure never being an option in the first place, he knows his next shot has to land on target.
"I assume she's mostly unscathed," Alec says as he walks in, the former glancing up from the book in his hand. "Felix is in the back, and Jane is in the bedroom, so I would avoid that one." He takes a seat next to the boy, trying not to overthink his next steps. "I don't think yesterday was your fault." At that, Demetri looks up at the kid. "I'm not discounting the fact that this human is a clear distraction for you," so much for hoping, "but I also understand that these Children of the Moon are not exactly an equal match for us. Especially because our powers are not nearly as potent on them as usual."
"Thank you, Alec." There are very few occasions when he has said this to the boy - just as few as the ones where they have properly interacted. Alec revels in Felix's company more - he seeks the lack of seriousness and friendliness the Roman brings with him, something that by nature, Demetri cannot easily provide.
"I am curious about one thing, however."
"Go ahead."
"This human, why are you so concerned for her? Is she your singer?" Well, it's certainly not that, because she would have died before she could have said "what" otherwise. So why is he so concerned about her well-being?
"I feel some form of kinship."
"Like a mate?" He is curious now, leaning towards him.
"No, not that. More like a… friend." Yes. A friend. "She's someone I enjoy spending time with because we have complementary personalities and similar interests."
"I know what a friend is," Alec snaps, but there is a look of wistfulness on his face. Being in the Guard has done him no favors in the friendship department - the only people he can call that are a bunch of undead twenty and thirty-somethings who haven't been children for a millennium or so. Alec, however, will be fifteen forever - a teenager who has borne the emotional toll of a thousand soldiers combined. Him and Jane are more alone than I thought.
"You would probably like her - she's very into comic books, as you would have noticed that night at the party."
At that, the boy's face lights up. "DC or Marvel?"
"Both."
"I suppose I could come to tolerate her if you bring her around. Jane, however, will not be this easy to persuade."
"Oh I know," he chuckles dryly. His twin makes no bones about her distaste of him and pretty much everything he does, from being one of Aro's first members of the Guard to his lifestyle. "I hope I can persuade her to not actively attack my friend though, hopefully."
"Hopefully."
"Will you put in a good word for me?" He knows Jane listens to her brother. "She listens only to you and Master Aro, Alec."
"I only promise to try."
"That is good enough for me." He needs to figure out the next steps for tracking this Child of the Moon, because their skills don't seem to work as well on it. He doesn't think there is a way that any modern technology would be able to help them better than their own gifts, so they'll just have to soldier their way through this one. It's not like their gifts are completely useless on it - he can still pinpoint the beast's location to a useful level of precision, and he figure's Jane and Alec's gifts can still impair its abilities, but they will need more than Felix to hold him down. Where will he find industrial strength chains? Looks like Amazon is his best bet for now. "Well, that didn't work out." Felix is looking down at him, where he's scrolling through Amazon to find chains that will successfully hold this beast. "I highly doubt anything on there could help us, except perhaps bear spray."
"Why would we need bear spray if we have Alec?"
A beat. "Touché."
"How about we just go to some hiking store and buy it?" Alec pipes up. "I checked the weather forecast, so we shouldn't face any problems in that department."
"Besides, this is America," Demetri says. "You can buy a gun with no safety checks. It shouldn't be that hard to get bear spray and chains." Now, it's time to brainstorm possible attack plans. "I would suggest your sister join us for now, Alec."
"Attack plans?"
"Yes." The kid nods, heading off to the back. Jane enters a few moments later, expression dour, as always . Can she lighten up a little, just for once?
"So, what is it?" She flops down on the sofa, staring at the device in front of him.
"We track him down, except we are well armed with heavy chains and immobilising sprays. Alec and you hold him down with the chains and your powers, and Felix and I finish off the beast. We are covering every loophole this time." The last time, they believed their powers would suffice in taking down the beast, but locating it was an issue in itself. He was unable to get a proper lock on the beast, and when they got there it was still in his wolf form and near uncontrollable. Now that the moon is not full, it cannot change, but its immunity to vampire venom makes their job so much harder. Besides, they can change when in extreme danger.
And it will smell us if we move as a group.
A singular vampire's scent can be masked, but only by a human, and only when they're fairly close by.
"What are you so deep in thought about?" Felix is looking at him expectantly.
"I have an idea, and I don't like it." At Felix's look, he continues. "Children of the Moon can smell us out, but a vampire's smell can be masked by a human if they're in close proximity. We can't carry this out amongst a group of people, obviously, but we can if we get the Child in his human form to a secluded location where we can subdue it from a distance, with Alec acting like a sort of tranquiliser."
"And where will you find this compliant human?" Jane asks. She seems to catch on fairly quickly judging by her sneer. "Ready to sacrifice your toy so soon?"
"This only works if she agrees. And it will be upon me to ensure her safety."
"Good," the girl nods. "We're not supposed to be taking responsibility for your liability."
"What if she doesn't?" It's Felix again. "You're assuming your friend will be agreeing to walk into a death trap. We have to make a plan in case this falls out."
"Which is why we revert to the original plan discussed if this doesn't pan out." This is a massive ask from anyone, especially a human, but a part of him knows she will be bitter with him if he did not give her the choice. It's not like he has many options either. "Well, I should be on my way off." The twins disperse, but Felix lingers back as Demetri puts on his coat.
"You're letting her jump out of the frying pan and into the fire?"
"Sophia needs time to think about this. I'm not asking something trivial of her." The larger man seems to consider this.
"In all my experience with humans, the longer you give them time to process life-changing news or decisions, the more they fear it."
"And eventually, they come to terms with it. Besides, I have to go see her anyway." Felix raises an eyebrow. "It's been a day, hasn't it? She's supposed to be getting discharged today, and she needs help getting home."
He gets to the hospital three hours before the planned departure time. The receptionist on duty is much nicer than the one he first encountered, and she quickly lets him through with a smile. In her room, Sophia is asleep. She looks the same as the first time he saw her asleep - younger and calmer. He takes his seat in the armchair by her bed, listening to the beep of the monitor as he watches her. Demetri would prefer she get up on her own - however, if she does not wake up by the one hour mark before discharge, he might have to do that. Trying to push away the unsavoury request he has of her, Alec's words come to mind.
Is she his mate?
Given that vampires find their mate once in a lifetime, he isn't quite sure. He likes being around her, she's good company, and he doesn't like the idea of leaving her behind. But thinking of her does not bring any physical desires to mind, just companionship and warmth.
An hour later, he sees her shifting, and her rising heart rate indicates she's waking up. "Hey," Sophia croaks out, squinting at him before her eyes adjust to the lights.
"Morning."
"What time is it?" She yawns out, wincing a little as she attempts to stretch her arms.
"Ten thirty. You get out at one."
"Nice. I don't know how many hours I've slept by now, but it's definitely been more hours than I've been awake."
"Your body was healing, after all. You're lucky you had no serious injuries."
"Yeah, except this fucking arm," she waves her left arm, covered in a cast. "I still don't know why they kept me here for this long."
"You were very disoriented, and when I came in to first check on you, I informed them about your concussion. They just wanted to make sure you didn't have any brain damage."
"Yeah, except for the damage suffered to my wallet," she grumbles. It's sad how much American people have to prioritise their finances over their health - what do they have against universal healthcare?
"I told you, I'm covering this."
"I can't possibly ask this of you." He feels like this is a good time to broach the subject.
"Well, I do have a favour to ask of you."
"Is it going to be drinking my blood? Because I'm a little weak at the moment but I'd be up for that, since that is going to be free, unlike this fucking hospital bill." He focuses to check whether anyone could have heard that; the coast is clear.
"Maybe don't talk about that so loudly," he says through clenched teeth.
"Oh please, no one's going to say anything," she waves her casted hand dismissively. "What with the shitpost and meme culture we live in."
"Shitpost?" At that, her eyes widen almost comically.
"You watch Brooklyn Nine Nine and Star Wars but don't know what a meme or shitpost is."
"I don't spend that much time on the internet, unfortunately." They can't leave a trail that leads back to them.
"Oh my god, you need to be introduced to tumblr. Don't worry, no one there uses their own identity," she adds, sensing his predicament. "There's no easy way to even track it down to you, and if you have a good enough VPN it should be easy for you to go unnoticed. Besides, it's just tumblr - unlike facebook or instagram, no one uses their pictures or anything. It's a mess of a website that people enjoy being weird on." Her face scrunches up. "Do you know what YouTube is?"
He's not been living under a rock. "I'm not that out of touch, Sophia."
"Just checking, grandpa."
"Ha, ha."
"I'm hungry." He is too - it's not been that long since he fed, but all the work that's been done in the past few days has really made him hungry.
"Want me to grab you something from the cafeteria?" She seems to consider it.
"The nurse doesn't get here till like noon, so sure, yeah." The next two hours pass in relative mudanity - he gets her a bagel with cream cheese and some pastries, the nurse checks in an hour later and Sophia eats only bits and pieces of that. After one final examination, she signs some papers and they are on their way. The smell of another vampire is quite strong in the building, so he checks mentally for the tenor of the person it could be. Hopefully it's a familiar one.
It's Carlisle Cullen.
"Hey, you okay?" He feels Sophia tapping on his arm. "You look a little lost in thought." He can feel Cullen approaching him, the scent growing stronger with each second. The man will have quite a few questions.
"It's someone I know."
"Someone like you?" she carefully asks, Demetri replying with a nod. "Do you want me to wait outside or somewhere else?" Too late - Carlisle is already within eyesight.
"You'll be better off sticking with me right now. He's fine." He turns to Cullen, the man looking at them with a wary smile. "Hello, Carlisle."
"Hello. And this young lady is?"
"Sophia Summers, hi," she waves at him, hand burrowed in her sweatshirt sleeve like a paw. "I'm a friend of Demetri's." She knows , he mouths at Carlisle, whose frame visibly relaxes, but he still seems on alert.
"Hello, Sophia. What brings you here?"
"I was briefly admitted after an accident," she shrugs nonchalantly, waving her cast. "Nothing too serious, but I did break an arm and had a concussion prior to the accident so." At that the doctor smiles.
"Your pupils are slightly dilated than expected, and there is a minute difference in their sizes, so I guessed so. I'm wondering if the concussion occurred maybe a week or so ago, and you had a car accident, maybe?" Her mouth drops open, looking across the two men in incredulity.
"Is this like your power or gift?"
He shakes his head, chuckling slightly. "I've just been a doctor for quite a while."
"Ooooh, gotcha. That makes sense."
"Well, we must take your leave now," Demetri angles his head towards her, "she should be getting home now."
"Oh, absolutely, and I won't take a minute more of your time, old friend." He knows better than to question the purpose of his visit, but it still seems like he has a question to ask, so Demetri tells her to sit at the reception while he checks in with the good doctor before he leaves.
"You seem to have a question."
Even for their kind, he speaks at a volume lower than most. "The human. What do you have with her?" His protectiveness over a total stranger makes Demetri nearly laugh. Leave it to Saint Carlisle to worry about the well-being of a random human being.
"Don't worry - she's under my protection. She's a friend, a rather resourceful one at that, and she is helping us with the wolf problem in the area."
"I had chalked the disappearances up to the Guard, frankly," he says, brow furrowed. "Alice's gift has its limits."
"It's a Child of the Moon, so I would tell you and your family to stay alert." At that, his expression sharpens, eyes wider.
"Are you sure?"
"We did our field work, Carlisle."
"Alright then," he sighs. "I'll tell them to be careful. I assure you're here to take care of it."
"Yes. Sophia has been very helpful in giving us a head start." And he doesn't want her getting hurt, which only makes it more difficult to ask what he has to from her.