Chapter 64

The flight to LA uneventful, the layover just as much so. Nick and I sat in the small waiting room for private planes while Igor and Ki took care of calls that needed to be made. On the flight Igor had gotten word that Helix had woken and that the Seeker's were trying to repair his memory that must have been altered at the time of the missing pages from the Library of Alexandria. Ki comes back into the empty waiting room. Not many private plane owners would be out at this time of night.

Looking out the window, I take in the scene of the well lit runways, several planes touching down once again on mother earth. Nick was busy reading something on his phone, but more than that he hadn't spoken much to me since last night. Not that we spoke much now a day with so many people among us. His mind was on what remained of his clan, while all that I held dear was gone. It burned in my chest as I look down at the folder in my hand. It was the one on the playing cards. Ki asks as he sits down beside me with a sigh, ' Anything new?'

'No, what about Helix?'

Ki shrugs and replies, 'So far the seeker's haven't been able to do much with him or the librarians that had seen him during the time. But Igor has suggested to the Five that maybe the Grand Seeker could.'

'Grand Seeker?'

'Yes, much like us, Seekers have those above them. But only the Grand Seeker holds dominion over them all. She is very nice.'

'You've met her?'

'Yes, several times. However I have to admit the first time was a little...jarring.'

I frown and ask, 'How so?'

'We will just say she is a very old and powerful vampire. Being in her presence is simply awe inspiring, even for us Pureblood Royal. Nothing slips past her and she is a healer of all wounds.'

His eyes go down to my arm, but the sleeve covered the fake bandage. I chuckle and ask, 'So what exactly are the Seekers? My teacher Furlow said they were healers.'

'That is one aspect of many,' Nick murmurs, not even bothering to look up from his phone.

'That's true, you would know better than anyone, right Nick?'

There was an edge in Ki's voice as I look between them. Nick glances up at us then back down at his phone typing as he says, 'Yes, I know her well. She isn't just a healer, but a teacher. You could consider the Night Hunter's the justice of the vampire world, the Royals the power, and the Seekers the faith of our world. They keep the knowledge and the wisdom of many in their ranks, learning and improving the world at large.'

'Well put,' Igor says, stepping in and continuing, 'The plane is fueled and ready to go. The sun will be up in less than thirty minutes.'

--D--

My mind was going back to my last conversation with Jerry. Having been jolted back when Ki got a call from the Seeker's saying she had finally woken. It had brought it all back as I stare down at the cards in front of me.

All three of the Purebloods had been right, I needed to bring the Phantasma to justice and the burn to find them had started eating me up the more I thought about Jerry. He had found a message on the playing card, or a symbol. It had him scared and I knew it had to take a lot to scare him.

Stiffening at the past tense of that thought, my eyes narrow, that deep cold numbness coming to me as I pick up the card. Looking at it from different angles, I think back. He had said something about a light, a special light. No, it was and I murmur, 'UVA light.'

My eyes slowly move to the shuttered plane window and my mind slowly clicked into place. If you wanted to hide something from vampires, you had to put it somewhere they couldn't go. Slowly my hearbeat picked up and I look up at Nick who sat across from me. What I was about to do would make every single one of these Purebloods and A ranks jump.

Moving my hand to the shutter, Nick asks, 'What are you doing?'

Slowly my eyes lift as I say softly, 'I figured out what Jerry was talking about when I last heard from him.'

I crack the window and a single beam of white light slices into the plane and onto the otherside against the wall. Vampires saw light differently than humankind. It looked much like a laser beam, but one deadly to vampire. It had a fine crystaline look to it when you looked at it up close, like a prism of colors. For me I could see it as Nick, Ki, Igor, and the others could but also as a human could.

Nick snarls and is out of his chair away from what could burn him in a nanosecond. Ki yells out, having seen it from his seat, 'Are you out of your mind?!'

'No, but you will like this,' I say picking up the ace.

Keeping my hand away from the beam of direct sunlight, I slowly put the card into it, as if scanning a barcode at the store. Sure enough, there is was. A faint blue symbol that showed through the blood. I knew when Jerry had figured this out he had had only a UVA lamp on the card, making the image show up moreso.

With that I slam the shade down and the prismatic sunlight was gone, cut off once again. Looking up, I see all of the others staring at me. With slow deliberate steps Ki, Igor, and Nick come towards me, sitting at the table with me. They all looked a little leary of me, but Nick finally speaks out, 'How did you figure it out? About a symbol on the card?'

'Jerry.'

They looked from one to the other, as if questioning each other about my sanity. Letting out a sigh, I tap the card explaining, 'Before his death, he called me. No more than 30 minutes before hand he told me he had found a symbol on the playing card. He had found it by using a UVA light, and the best lamp for making UVA light is?'

'The sun,' Igor murmurs in thought, the first hint of emotion I had ever heard in his voice and my heart gave an unusal skip.

Blinking, I shake it away and continue, 'Yes, exactly. Who would think there would be a symbol under the blood on the ace.'

Ki says as he picks up the card in surprise, 'We did think there might be a message, even a taunt, but despite our tests nothing came up.'

'Why would you make it easy? The Silent Phantasma doesn't work in the same way that most do. They aren't taunts, its not a person who wants recognition. This person wants us to fear him and from what I have seen its working. This group has had hundreds of years to prepare. Its done so in complete anonymity for that long. Only once they have started putting their plan into action have these playing cards been put into play. Now they want us to know and fear them, but not by regular means. None of you thought to look at this card in the daylight, only a human would. How best do you hide something?'

'By hiding it where the enemy will not look,' Igor replies, looking at the card in Ki's hand.

'Couldn't have said it better myself.'

'But how could they leave a symbol on a card like that, which only shows up under sunlight?'

'That is the real question now isn't it.' Nick replies, as he holds out his hand for the card.

Ki asks, as he hands the card over, 'Nina, your a geneticist, so can you?'

Shaking my head, I explain, 'No, its more complex than that. Genetics will only help on the human realm. What you need is a bio engineer or a well versed chemist, they can figure the chemical compounds that make up the ink that left that symbol...'

I trail off as I stare at the card and I can feel their eyes on me. Nick gives a huff and says, 'You know of someone who can help, don't you?'

The six pairs of Pureblood eyes and the small group of A rank who were at the front of the plane were rivited as I nod, thinking of the old friend. The man who had shied away from me weeks ago. The question was if I could find him as I nod and say, 'His name is Samuel Longsworth.'