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Chapter 4: Uncommon Knowledge |
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Once all the guests were gone, William was then left alone to contemplate how to explain this to the others. He knew that Bradley and Cole would be all for it. They believed that William couldn’t steer them wrong, Charlotte and Alexander, on the other hand, would be skeptical. Running through argument after argument in his head, and still coming up short of anything to say, it seemed that he may just have to order them to come and hope they comply. Starting to pace again, William began running through the list of reasons to go. Of course they would go but there is absolutely no way they would win if they didn’t go whole-heartedly. And it was already going to be hard enough without any added complications. Alex wasn’t supposed to exist and didn’t in the minds of most vampires. Only those elite few even knew of that family’s existence. Other then those few, the only others who could possibly know are those who have lived near her and had to run in fear. William almost laughed out loud, vampires running from a human. How did it come to this? The answer was obvious and expected. That bloodline is an ancient and powerful one. The heirs of that line had survived countless wars and rebellions with humans and numerous battles with vampires. He knew plenty about her ancestry but couldn’t tell you much of anything abut her. He even googled her and came up empty except for a couple private myspace and facebook pages, and he couldn’t even hack those. Someone had carefully reinforced every single entry making her site as hard to get into as his own personal computer. It was as if someone wanted to make sure that no one knew anything about her without her permission. Well at least he had one thing, her picture. He was able to copy and paste it from her myspace account. That was something at least.
“Well, at least I won’t necessarily have to kill her,” William muttered to himself as he pulled her picture out of his pocket for the millionth time, “I just have to turn her, which could be just as dangerous or probably even more dangerous then killing her in the first place. Regardless, it would be up to her to choose between the lesser of two evils and not upon own my own shoulders at least.”
“William? Is everything alright?” An extremely beautiful young woman had just entered the room with grace equal to William’s. She had long, shoulder length, blond hair and light blue eyes. Her skin had the same pale look to it as William’s, along with the same unsettling gaze. Behind her, a young boy came in. He had light brown hair that had an untidy look to it, along with green eyes that seemed to hold much more knowledge then his age would normally allow. His skin was also pale.
Watching as they crossed the room to sit on the sofa, William went back to his desk and sat down lightly. “I’ll explain soon enough Charlotte…Alexander. I don’t want to have to repeat myself, so we will wait for Bradley and Cole to return.” As he predicted, within ten minutes a man with brownish-blond hair and brown eyes came in and soon after that, a black haired man with green eyes joined the party. Naturally, they were both as pale as Charlotte, William, and Alexander.
“I’m glad you finally made it Cole. I’ve been holding off explaining what happened at the meeting until you got here. I didn’t want to have to repeat myself and it’s kind of a long story. It started out well enough. They all seemed impressed by our home and I soon memorized all of their names and faces. I also was able to learn a little bit about most of them but nothing interesting. Surprisingly, we really only discussed one issue. Some of the members of the council seem to believe that vampire kind is threatened by a girl by the name of Alexia Brown. As you may or may not know, Alexia’s ancestry is a long and powerful bloodline, for lack of a better term, of vampire slayers. The council has charged us with the authority to do whatever is necessary to remedy the problem she presents. They seem to believe that we are the best people for the job…or the only people stupid enough to even consider doing this, now that I think about it. At first I wasn’t sure if it would be a good decision to accept, so I divided the meeting up. In doing this, I gave myself an hour to figure out exactly what we would be dealing with. I have gathered some information about her but we don’t have a lot to go on except that she is extremely powerful and cunning. In all reality, we never really had a choice in the matter. During the second phase of the meeting, it was decided by majority vote that we would be the ones to go after Alexia Brown. We were given the option of killing her or turning her. I believe it would be within our best interest if we gave her the choice instead of making it for her.” He waited patiently as this soaked in. As he expected, Cole and Bradley’s faces immediately brightened up and Alexander and Charlotte’s faces were just as skeptical as he expected.
“Way to go Will! You managed to get us into some action on your very first day,” Bradley said triumphantly, then becoming thoughtful, “I’ve only heard of her bloodline in the vampire myths you used to hear parents tell their children. I always assumed they were just that, a myth. I never imagined that there is really a family of vampire slayers out there. Are you sure there isn’t anymore info that we could get a hold of?”
“I knew you would be all for it Bradley. Unfortunately, I don’t know much. I found out from two of the council members that she is stronger then her mother and I was told some information about her family and school. While I was waiting for you to return, I did some research in the ‘public’ will archives and found out where she lives. Her father inherited four acres from his father. Also I found out some on her family and school. Other then that and a picture, I have nothing concrete to go on.”
“What does she look like?” Charlotte leaned forward, leaning on her elbows.
William placed the picture in front of her. “I got it from her myspace but that was all I could get. It was locked up tighter then my own computer. As a matter of fact all her internet files were. I suppose they couldn’t reinforce the will record. Or maybe they didn’t think about it. I’m not really sure which. I’m hoping for the latter. That could indicate sloppiness. We could use that to our advantage.”
“She’s pretty. Do you know how old she is? She looks to be in her late teens in this picture but looks don’t always tell.”
“Eighteen. She was born in 1990 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Other then where she lives and goes to school, I have nothing more on her. This alone makes me uncomfortable about this.” William said as Charlotte passed the picture to Alexander and Cole on the sofa. Bradley leaned in from his place in the chair to get a better view.
“Well, it appears that we have no choice in the matter. We have to go. The council demanded it. I trust you William. When we have to fight her, you do know that you will be the one. The rest of us aren’t strong enough and I know how you will want to give her a fair chance so five on one is out of the question.” Alexander smiled and looked pointedly at William. “That is of course unless you have decided that desperate times call for desperate measures.”
William looked at Alexander like he had never seen him before. Alexander usually made a decision last, not first. “Thank you Alexander. I will fight Alex if it comes to that but hopefully that can be avoided. I won’t kill her without giving her a fair choice and, in the event of a refusal, I will take her down without help.”
Alexander stood and crossed over to the window. “Well, do u have any idea how to get information on her? We can’t do this blindly.
“I have some strategies to run by you but they aren’t very defined. I do need more information on her and I’m not sure on the best way to get it without exposing ourselves.”
“Well we are going to have to risk some exposure if we want this information. There is no safe method with something this delicate,” Cole interceded. Bradley nodded in agreement. “You have us to back you up and there is no possible way she could beat all of us.”
“I’m not sure all of us would be enough. We will either need to take her by surprise or injure her. Then and only then will I be able to have even the slightest chance of beating her,” William said quietly. “Anyway, a councilmember gave me an idea for gathering information during the meeting and I came up with a few but I want to see if you can come up with anything better before we decide on a single strategy.”
They spent the rest of the day sorting through ideas and trying to find one that was full proof. They adjourned that night with restless thoughts. They had a little success that day but it was far from full proof. William had agreed to this plan only because it placed the others in as little danger as possible but it placed him in far greater danger then he would have liked to be in. Then again, he always knew he was going to have be in danger somehow. He had agreed to fight her alone for crying out loud.
Later that night, Bradley found William on the balcony outside his room, staring up at the full moon. William had been there for a while now, since twilight, and Bradley was getting worried.
“What’s wrong, William?”
“What do you mean? Oh I have a sore throat and my allergies have been bothering me lately.”
“Very funny William. You should really be on television. Seriously, I’ve known you for well over fifty years. That’s more then ample time to figure out when you are distracted and when you aren’t and right now you are concerned with something. Now, what’s wrong Will?”
William just smiled and laughed. “Bradley, you are my best friend but this is just some self-doubt issues that have to be worked out by me. I don’t think you can be much help, well, unless you can see the future.”
Silently, Bradley angled himself so William couldn’t turn away. “I think talking about it would at least help you sort things out. You know, put things into perspective and clear your head. I can tell you from a first hand account that it works.” He continued after William began shaking his head. “Do I need to go print off some stats for you? I will if I need to.”
Laughing and motioning for Bradley to follow, William walked past Bradley to the small table that sat in the corner on the far left side of the balcony. “If you insist we talk, then come sit down and we’ll talk. You may have to do some prying but I’ll try to be open.”
“I never expected not to have to pry. You’re stubborn and you don’t give up secrets without a fight. Everyone knows that. So first tell me what is bothering you.”
“I’m not used to being so unsure of my position. We don’t know if we can win against Alexia and I don’t like the stakes. To make matters worse, we don’t even have sufficient information about her or even a reliable informant. Internet files are untrustworthy and changeable but we don’t even have that to go on. All her personal files are locked up tight with no way to get to a key. So we don’t know what we’re up against.”
“I know what you mean but we’ve been in worse, right? Besides, you know a little and you have a picture. If you’ll pardon the cliché, a picture’s worth a thousand words. We know what she looks like and that’s plenty for now.”
William pulled the picture out of his back pocket and smoothed it out on the table between them. He had taken it out so many times that it simply laid flat without protest. He had studied it so intently that he could tell you all about her picture, even down to the smallest detail. She was wearing a deep, royal blue silk blouse that played up her dark green eyes and tan skin and had a tantalizing V-shaped neckline, accenting the silver necklace with an onyx stone she wore. You could only see a few inches below the waist but you could tell that she wore dark wash, straight leg jeans. Her style was obviously sophisticated and modern, an older look for someone her age but it suited her perfectly. Her dark brown hair was curly but in an unnatural, curling iron way. It hinted that her hair was naturally straight and had either natural or artificial blonde highlights along with some temporary red ones. The picture looked like it was taken in a forest or at least in the middle of some trees at around noon.
It’s funny how much more a vampire notices then a human.
“Wow that really is a great picture. I wonder what she would look like as a vampire.”
“To be honest, I kind of hope she decides to join us. Not only will it save me from having to put my neck in a noose trying to kill her, but it will bring a very attractive and strong vampire into existence. That would be worth more to the council than killing her. I wonder if she would stay with us or go off on her own.”
“Oh could that be part of what’s bothering you? You are afraid you would have to kill her? Maybe you are beginning to like her?”
“Bradley, you know me better then that. I don’t want to kill her simply because I’m worrying about my own life. I don’t want to lose.”
Bradley just looked at William knowingly. William was hard to read until you got to know him and even then he wasn’t the easiest. “Will, you will win. You’re too strong to lose. Besides what kind of human would refuse an offer to become immortal. They may regret it later but at that moment they will fall over themselves just to get it. Mortality scares them. Don’t forget, Alex is human.”
“Maybe you’re right Brad. I’m probably just worrying over nothing. Alex won’t refuse, not when her life is endangered at least…or the life of her family members. I don’t know. We will work out what the extent of what we are willing to do to when later. I don’t feel like worrying about it now.”
“You should go hunting. You look like you need it. Besides, it’s been a while since you’ve last been out.”
William nodded and got up. He looked up at the moon one last time and, jumping down from the balcony, started off into the woods without a backward glance. With one last thought of Alex, William ran off into the night.
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