KATARINA: VAMPIRE (SLAY/LOV)ER

Part XI - Second Thoughts

At Katarina's home later that night:

"You want me to believe all this? I can't believe you would even bring her here! Give me one reason I should trust her," barked Mark.

"Dad, she's killed a lot of vampires already just to get here. She wants revenge on her dad; it makes sense," argued Kat.

"I've never heard of 'intuition' being a vampire power."

Jasmine chimed in. "I would agree with you, Mr. McKinley."

Mark silently stared at her.

"It's not recorded in any of the church's manuscripts, " she continued. "But you need to think: Ninety nine percent of the time female hybrids are killed as soon as they are born because the males fear how powerful they might become. There's been what, two, maybe three, prominent females throughout history? I was lucky enough to survive and I've never let them know my true potential. So, no, it's never been recorded but it doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

"She makes a valid point, dad."

"You trust her, Kat?"

"If I didn't trust her, I wouldn't have brought her here."

As Mark stood there deep in thought the ticking of the clock was the only noise cutting through the silence.

"Alright," he said looking at Jasmine. "Having someone like you could be of use; but I call all the shots."

"I'm okay with that," Jasmine replied. "We both want the same thing; it doesn't really matter how we get there."

"Good. Now that we've established I'm in charge," he said while raising his hand as if he was about to conduct a grand plan. "Who has any ideas?"

Facepalms all around.

Awkward silence filled the air as they all stood around without any ideas.

"Hear me out," started Kat. "One of my interning duties is to pick up coffee for Mr. Smith. What if we put holy water in his coffee?"

"That might work. Yeah, if he took a large enough slug," Mark chimed in.

"Kat, does he drink his coffee hot or iced?" asked Jasmine?

"Hot. Why?"

"If the coffee is too hot, he will most likely sip on it, only ingesting a small amount of holy water, and would realize something was up. It seems reckless," explained Jasmine.

"Damn, that's good thinking," added Mark.

"What if I had a cup completely filled with holy water, and splashed it in his face, then used that moment of confusion and the element of surprise to stab him in the heart?"

"In the middle of his office? That would be hard to cover up," argued Mark.

"I agree with him, we aren't trying to advertise the existence of vampires to the general public. That's a sure way to get someone to come after you, whether it's a member of the Church or a vampire. Either way would be rough. Plus, he's been at this gig for a while. He might be one of those paranoid vampires that wears full chainmail underneath his day clothes."

"Okay," Kat started again. "What if we drugged his coffee with a tranquilizer, then I can pour the holy water down his throat? The sheriff's office has bear tranquilizer, right dad?"

"That could work," Mark agreed while nodding his head. "And yeah, we have tranquillizer darts. I could make up a reason I needed some and we could break them open and that would knock him out cold like that," he said, snapping his fingers.