Birth of Jaiden (3 page)

Malcolm was their worst
enemy at the moment. He was one of the oldest vampires around, and
pure evil. It seemed that his latest mission was to populate the
earth with vampires that were just as evil as he was.

Alex remembered the last time
they had discussed those same issues. Damion had stated it was
their mission to stop Malcolm from making vampires by killing him.
Several years earlier, the council had voted unanimously for the
new law that prohibited the creation of more vampires without
approval from them. The law would stay in effect until they could
control the vampire population better. But Malcolm considered
himself above their laws; in his mind, he
was
the law for the bad guys.

“
You know it’s true,
Alex.” Alex was startled out of his reverie by Stewart’s
voice.

“
Of course I know it’s true, but
we are here to find
solutions
, so try to help, ok?”

Stewart leaned back in his
chair and put his hands up defensively. “Ok, ok, chill
out.”

Alex looked at Danielle because
looking at her made him feel better. Then, he continued. “One thing
we have to consider is that Malcolm was a threat before, but his
elusiveness heightens the threat level considerably.
Everyone
is in danger; you
all need to keep your senses sharp and keep yourselves out of
harm’s way, if possible. Malcolm knows we are all important and
nothing would please him more than to get rid of any of
us.”

He watched everyone nod
their heads in agreement.

Jeremiah spoke up. “There’s not
much we
can
do except wait.”

“
No!” Damions eyes
glittered with intensity. “We cannot just sit around and wait for
him to attack us.”

“
We can’t do anything if
we don’t know where he is,” Jeremiah countered.

“
We
will
find him!” Damion shouted.

“
Not if he doesn’t want to
be found.”

Damion leaned forward. “Look,
Jeremiah, we are the Great Council. We are here to make sure that
the supernatural creatures abide by the laws we have created.
Everything
must
remain in the best interest of the human race.”

“
I know perfectly well why
we are here,” Jeremiah retorted.

“
Well, I don’t think
anything
Malcolm is up to is
going to be beneficial for the humans.”

“
We cannot put ourselves
in danger by going blindly into something we know nothing about.
The council has to protect its own.” Jeremiah pounded the
table.

“
I can’t believe you are
saying this, Jeremiah; you are a part of this council, as was your
father, and his father. Many here come from long lines of members,
so you should know as well as any of us that we do what is best for
others, not ourselves.”

Alex couldn’t take it
anymore. “Stop it! We all have sensitive enough telepathy to know
that something is wrong, terribly wrong. I agree that we need to
move in soon, but first let’s see what the search parties find
out.”

When his gaze moved to
Stewart, Alex felt he was hiding something. Although he knew he was
right, he didn’t want to confront him until he had had time to talk
to Damion and Danielle. If Stewart was planning to betray them, it
had to be taken care of.

A thick, silence filled
the room.

Deanna cleared her throat
and everyone looked her way. She remained silent,
though.

Victoria coaxed her. “Go
ahead.”

“
Well…I was thinking that
we could get some, uh…well, vampire slayers to help us.”

Nobody moved a muscle, but
Alex could see that everyone was looking at her as though she were
crazy. But she wasn’t crazy; in fact, she had come up with a grand
plan.

Alex was impressed. The
last thing Malcolm would expect would be for vampire slayers to
hunt him. “Yes!” he exclaimed excitedly. “That’s it!”

More comfortable now that
she had some support, Deanna continued explaining. “I figure that
some of these slayers have been looking for Malcolm for their whole
lives and he can easily see them coming. So when we find him, we
simply tell the slayers where he is, and let them go after
him.”

“
That’s
your plan?” Jeremiah looked at her
incredulously.

Victoria instinctively
came to Deanna’s defense. “Maybe you should let her finish,” she
snapped.

Jeremiah kept silent
because he knew Victoria would fight him till he was deaf from the
sound of her voice.

“
Go on,” she instructed
Deanna.

“
Well, I figure that while
the slayers are keeping him busy, we can sneak in for the
kill.”

“
Sneak in for the
kill
; are
you mad?” Stewart asked her.

Before anyone could say a
thing, Danielle clasped her hands together in prayer style. “I love
the idea.” She smiled at Deanna.

“
And who’s going to
volunteer to approach the vampire slayers?” Stewart
sneered.

With a smug, almost
challenging, smile, Deanna looked at him. “I’ll do it.”

“
First we have to find
him,” he replied with raised eyebrows and tilted head.

“
Let’s do it, then!”
Damion shouted like a football coach.

Alex figured Damion was
trying to prevent any further arguments, so he quickly asked his
question. “Hey, I was wondering what you all would think about me
bringing Chris to the meetings from now on.”

“
I think it’s about time,”
Damion said immediately.

“
I agree,” Danielle added.
“Is everyone in favor of that?”

Alex listened to the
murmured ayes; Deanna practically hollered hers.

“
Well, I guess that’s it,
then,” Damion concluded. “Unless anyone has anything they want to
add.” He looked around and when no one said anything, he stood.
“Ok. Everyone work on what you need to and remember to be careful.
I will get hold of everyone when we need to meet again.”

They all rose and left the
room.

3

Alex exited the room and
breathed in the fresh air. It had been stuffy in there.

Danielle came to his side
and hooked her arm around his. “Walk with me.”

She led him to an elevator
and they rode down together. There was a huge crowd waiting to get
on so they carefully wove their way through the people and out the
front door. The relentless rain was coming down hard and fast in
large drops.

“
Do you sense it too?”
Alex asked her while they waited for the valet to bring his car
under the overhang.

“
Stewart?”

“
Yes.”

“
Something is definitely
wrong, but patience is a virtue, my friend.”

“
What?”

“
Stewart is not the kind
to keep a secret for very long; it’s almost like he wants us to
know that he’s hiding something.”

Shocked, Alex realized she
was right. The thought had never occurred to him. “You’re right, it
was pretty obvious.”

“
He’ll reveal it soon
enough.”

“
Why don’t we just ask
him?”

“
He knows we suspect
something; I think that was the whole point.”

“
So we just sit around and
wait for something to happen?”

“
Yes.”

Alex felt so frustrated by
Danielle’s brief answers. They were total opposites: She was
patient, but he was an action taker. He wanted to know right now if
Stewart was a traitor.

“
If we pursue Stewart,
he’ll only become more defensive and clam up. But don’t worry; we
will find out sooner or later.”

“
And you think it’s safe
to let it go.”

“
Yes.”

When the valet arrived
with his car, Danielle embraced him. “I’ll see you soon,” she
whispered softly into his ear.

“
Do you want a
ride?”

“
No thanks, I want to
walk.”

“
In the rain?”

“
Yes.”

She lightly kissed his
cold cheek before walking off. He watched her weave her way in and
out of the crowd until she seemed to disappear.

Alex drove away with
Danielle still on his mind. Over the years, they had come to
understand one another like no one else could.

He wished that she could
talk about the future or the past, or anything that could change
the way things were supposed to happen, but he had stopped asking
her long ago when he had realized that there were probably a lot of
things that she didn’t know. It seemed like being earthbound kept
her out of the loop.

Through the darkness and rain,
he could see the trees on either side of the highway starting to
bend towards one another to form a tunnel. Despite its size, his
house wasn’t visible from the road. As it came into view, he
swelled with pride at its resemblance to Tara in
Gone with the
Wind
.

When he pulled into the
circular drive, he saw Christopher’s car. After he had parked,
Chris came over to greet him.

“
Let’s get inside,” Alex
motioned toward the enormous front doors.

They entered the foyer
dripping wet, shed their soggy coats and ventured into the sitting
room.

“
How are you, Chris?” Alex asked
as he went to the fireplace and pushed the little button that
started the fake fire.
The things they come up with these days are
amazing
, he
thought.

“
I’m ok; I just came by to
see how you are. It hasn’t exactly gone unnoticed that you have
been kind of down lately.”

“
I am down, but things
have started picking up so it looks like I should be pretty
busy.”

“
Good. You need something
to occupy that roaming mind of yours.”

“
Well, you’re going to be
busy too.”

“
Doing what?”

Alex turned away
nonchalantly. “Oh, just stuff for the council. No big
deal.”

He hid a smile, knowing
full well Chris had been waiting a long time to hear those
words.

Chris’s green eyes lit up.
“Are you serious?”

He ran his fingers through
his perpetually messy, dark brown hair.

“
Yeah, it’s true; everyone
agreed.”

“
Thank you, Alex, you know
how much it means to me that you and the rest of the council trust
me enough to be part of it.”

They stood side by side
next to the fireplace, Chris turned to face Alex. Alex put a hand
on each of his shoulders and looked into his eyes.

“
Of course it would be you
who follows me; you are the closest one to a son that I will ever
have. You make me proud and always will.”

Alex released his
shoulders and they both moved to chairs. Once they were seated,
Chris remained quiet, but Alex could tell that he wanted to say
something.

“
What is it?”

Chris squirmed a little in
his chair. “Well, it’s just that we have known each other for so
long, and you know all about my human past, but you have never told
me anything about yours.”

“
My story is too long to
tell.”

“
I’m not ignorant, Alex. I
know something terrible must have happened for you to carry such
baggage for so long. I’ve been thinking of you a lot and I really
think it’s time for you to do something about it.”

“
Chris, don’t push this.
I
don’t
want
to talk about it.”

“
I think that you should.”
Chris still looked very uncomfortable. He had never brought this up
before so it seemed pretty odd for him to want to talk about it
then.

“
Why?”

“
Alex, this is really hard for
me to say because I don’t like to pry into people’s personal
feelings, but when you created me, you created a connection to you
as well. So I can feel when you are in pain…physically
and
mentally.”

“
Feel my pain?”
Alex repeated. He
could not believe what he was hearing.

“
Yes, and this,” Chris
waved his hand around, “depression or whatever it is that you are
in is growing so great that it’s started affecting me too. But I’m
only bringing it up because if it is causing me to hurt, I can only
imagine what it is doing to you.”

Alex felt his jaw hanging
open. “Huh.”

“
I know.” Chris sauntered
over to the book shelves that covered the wall from floor to
ceiling. “I also know that over the years, there have been a lot of
things that have built up to what you’re going through, but in my
opinion it is time to fight it.”

Alex watched Chris
carefully while the younger one ran his fingertips over the spines
of the leather bound books. He felt guilty about Chris having to
suffer, but he was still reluctant to speak about his life to
anyone. It was in the past, and that is exactly where he wanted to
keep it.