Midnight Solstice

Chapter 12

Picture: Gracie-Lynn Morgynstein
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   "I'm going to tell you right now, you better be careful with Katerina. I know all about your bond with her...You're mates." Lorne said as he walked forward. He stopped and faced me.
   "Yes, we are. But how do you know about that?" He let out a dark laugh.
   "Two months ago, Katerina and Gracie decided they were going to sing a song for our customers at the bar, and as they were singing, I had a vision. It was of practically everything that happened today, and some of the events that happen months from now."
   "But I could see how much you care about her and I'll admit, it scared me. I was afraid that when you would come for her; to bring her to the Volturi, she would want to leave. That was half the reason I tried to hide her from you when you and Felix came to get her."
   "What was the other half of the reason?" I asked him. He sighed.
   "I practically raised the girl you know; with her mother's help of course. She's been with me from the beginning of this mess. And when the Volturi gave up trying to save her, she and I grew closer and now she's like another daughter to me. I didn't want to see her grow up.  But now that she is grown up, she has to rely on the people who gave up trying to save her. And I truly wish she didn't but to get the justice she deserves, she has to."
   "I'm sorry that we did give up...but it wasn't my call."
   "It is your call now. And you have to promise me that you'll take care of Katerina and end this, once and for all."
   "I can promise you that, Lorne. I won't let any harm come to her." He smiled.
  "That's good to hear. Now on to the real reason why I want to talk to you." He reached into his pocket. "Now, I have orders to give this to you." He handed me a black piece of plastic with a metal thing sticking out of it.
  "What's that?" I asked him. He groaned.
   "Wow Alec, you take living under a rock to a whole other level." He told me, his voice dripped with fake enthusiasm and his smile was formed from sarcasm. "It's a flash drive."
    "Who ordered you to give this uh...flash drive to me?"
   "The King of the Fae himself." I froze.
    "Kind Alucard...what business does he have with vampires?"
    "Unlike the Volturi, Alucard has been looking into the Michael's experiments ever since Fern started coming here to complain about them. He has gathered a lot more evidence than the Volturi has and it's all on that flash drive."
   "How did you get it?"
    "He walked into my bar yesterday and told me that you would need it to get anywhere with your case."
   "Why does he care?"
    "You have to remember that Fern was a fae, and Katerina is part fae. Michael's experiments are a fae crime just as much as a vampire crime."
   "Why give it to me?" I questioned. "Why not give it straight to Aro?"
   "Alucard has his suspicions about Aro, as do I...but everything is on that flash drive, from Aro to my brother. He said that he knows you'll be able to put a stop to Michael if you have that information. Alucard also wants you as an ally. He fears that the fae are in danger because of Michael and wants as many powerful allies as possible."
  "How am I supposed to keep this from Aro? For all we know he could have someone spying on us right now."
   "Have Andi put mental blocks on your brain, that's what Michael does. That's why Aro can't read the minds of anyone who has come in contact with him or his experiments. His block wears off because he has a faerie do it for him. But Andi's gift will work for you."
   "How do you know?"
    "Keep up, will you? I saw everything that happened today. You also need to tell Caleb keep an eye on the future, just in case Aro gets suspicious. And you need Fred and George to look at that flash drive so they can monitor Michael's location. They are extremely good with computers."
  "Alucard knows where Michael is right now?!" I shouted. Lorne shushed me.
  "Yes, everything is on the flash drive. I told you he's been on this case for a long time. Keep this low profile. You need to keep Katerina in the loop as well and bring her to me at least every two weeks so I can monitor everything as well. I can't see anything if I don't hear her sing. Do that and between Caleb and I, we should be able to catch everything."
   "Lorne there's no way Aro's going to let me bring Katerina to you without becoming suspicious." He shrugged.
   "Aro will let you as long as you bring Jayden with you. He can visit with Gracie, and we can talk about the case and what our next move is."
   "So we are going to use the kids as an excuse to pull this off? I don't like it." I told him. I ran a hand through my hair.
   "You aren't going to like what happens if we don't."
   "What happens Lorne? What could possibly happen that's any worse than trying to go behind Aro's back?"
   "It's simple. If we ignore this, in seven months, Michael will attack here, and kill more than half of the guard including Katerina, and he gets away. And Aro won't do anything about it. In fact, it looked as if he was happy about it. You were going to leave with her for some reason once the case was closed. Michael took care of that problem for him."
   "Alright, I get it. I'll do it, but what if we need more help than just the seven of us?"
   "Eight." Lorne corrected. I raised an eyebrow. He began whispering. "Felix was ordered to bring Jayden back to his room. He came to get him and overheard at least half of the conversation. And you have to tell him before he runs and tells Aro so I suggest you get going. You have a lot of work to do."
    He turned on his heel and limped to the door. He unlocked it and opened the door, causing Felix to fall flat on his face. Lorne dragged him in. "Alucard with contact you directly when he needs to talk with you." And with that, he walked away. Felix stood up.
   "You better start explaining before I go and tell Aro you've gone mad." He told me.
   "You tell Aro and Katerina is going to end up dead, along with me and anyone else who has anything to do with this." I shut the library door and locked it. I began explaining what Lorne told me about King Alucard and the flash drive. That was all I needed to explain because Felix heard the rest.
   "Alec this is crazy. How do we know Lorne's telling us the truth? And how do we know that the information on the flash drive is true? For all we know, Alucard could be trying to keep us busy."
   "To do what Felix, catch Michael Morgynstein himself? I doubt Alucard would do that. Besides, Lorne wouldn't have bothered trying to convince me to go through with this if it wasn't true. I mean, in his vision he saw Katerina die if we don't do anything. He's trying to keep her safe and I promised him I would as well. Now you can help me with this or you can get a mental block on your brain and keep your mouth shut." He was quiet for a minute.
   "Are you positive that we should do this? You do realize what we are doing right? We would be betraying the Volturi, and Aro. Not to mention that it is nearly impossible to get around Aro's gift."
   "Felix, this will work as long as we keep this low profile. And it's not like we are betraying anyone. We simply just aren't telling anyone what we know until we can catch Michael."
   "Alec, I will help you with this, because you need someone to keep your head on straight and I'm certain that none of the newborns are going to be able to do that. Just know that if things get bad, we have to tell someone. I don't care who, but we can't keep this between the eight of us and catch him. Eight of us against one big bad guy with a shit load of evil experiments gone wrong is not good odds for us." I nodded. He was right, those are terrible odds.
   "Now we just need to tell the other five and we can start." I started walking to the door.
   "Wait!" Felix shouted. I turned around.
   "Alec I think we should tell Demetri, and maybe Brynn and Adeline too. I know that we should keep the amount of people that know about this to a minimum, but two trackers plus someone who can compel people can give us better odds. Especially if Aro does have ulterior motives."
   "You're right. But I don't know how this ends Felix, I don't want everyone to get hurt because of this."
   "You are worried about your sister aren't you? If she finds out, you know she'll go right to Aro." I sighed.
   "I know. Don't get me wrong, I love my sister to death, but she's Aro's lap dog. If it comes down to it, and she has to choose between me and Aro...I'm afraid of what she'll choose. I'd like to think she'd choose me, but I'm not sure."
   "I don't blame you Alec. When Aro put you in charge of this mission, Jane was pissed, but not just at you. She was mad at Aro too. I don't know what's been going on with her, especially lately. She seems to get mad really easily."
   "If we need more help, we'll have to ask her and explain everything then. But we can't risk her exposing our plan now."
   "Okay, we should tell the rest of them now though. The sooner we get Andi's mental block on us, the sooner we'll be in the clear."
   We walked out of the library. As we walked, we collected the people we needed and went outside to the garden. We couldn't risk being overheard. When we were walking, we saw Lorne talking to the masters. He gave me a wink as we passed. He was keeping them busy for us. When we finally got outside to the farthest edge of the garden, we stopped.
   "Okay, is this some sort of late night training session that I wasn't informed about?" Demetri quietly whispered to Felix and I. Felix shook his head.
   "It's crazy but we just have to do it." He whispered. "Just stand here and act like you know what's going on, that's what I'm doing. I know what he's going to say and I still have no idea how we can pull this off." Everyone soon fell silent and I started speaking.
   "I know you all wonder why we're gathered here now. I'm still trying to make sense of it all myself. But I need you all to trust me and bear with me because this is something that needs to be done." As I explained the tasks, I watched everyone's faces change into confused glances as whispers were exchanged, asking if this was real or a test. Katerina didn't say a word. She kept silent throughout the whole speech. When I was done, Demetri spoke.
   "Have you gone insane?" He asked me. "This is your way of catching Old man Morgynstein? You think that Aro isn't going to find out? He will eventually."
   "We will deal with him then. But we have to stop Michael before this gets worse. Can't you see? This isn't a matter of punishing someone who broke our laws, this is a matter of keeping all of the supernatural people safe and out of harm. Whatever is on this flash drive might tell us who he's experimenting on now and who's going to be next in line. I'm asking for your help because I can't do this alone, and I trust all of you to do what you know is right, not what people train you to think is right, and not what other people think is right. I'm asking you for help so that we can keep our world safe."
   "You don't know us. How do you know that I won't run and tell Aro right now what you all are planning?" Adeline asked me.
   "I'm not saying you have to help, but it would be convenient if you did. But either way, you get to leave here with a mental block on your head so even if you did tell Aro, he wouldn't believe that I would go behind his back and try to solve this case myself." I told her.
   "You might as well help, I mean helping us is better than keeping silent about it." Felix added.
   "I'm in." Caleb said. "You need all the help you can get.
   "Me too. You won't get ten steps out of here without my help." Andi told us.
   "Same goes for us." Fred and George said in unison.
   "I don't have much of a choice do I?" Katerina asked me. "This whole thing is centered around my family."
   "I'll help too, but I don't know how much help I'll actually be." Brynn added.
   "Between the two of us, we'll be able to do something." Demetri told her. She smiled.
   "I'm glad to hear that." We all looked at Adeline. She sighed and rolled her eyes.
   "Oh alright, I'm in. But if we get caught, I'm out...I mean it."
   "We won't get caught if you keep your voice down and shut up." Andi told her. For once, Adeline didn't argue with her.
   "Let's hope we don't get caught then." I told the group.
   "Shouldn't Jane be here?" Brynn asked. Felix and I exchanged a glance. He began to speak.
   "Jane's very loyal to Aro, and if she figured out that we were doing this...chances are she run and tell him faster than we could tell her no." She nodded.
   "Oh...that sucks." She said. I mouthed a quick "thank you" to Felix who gave me a small smile.
     "Yeah it sucks, now I'm the only blonde." Caleb added.
   "I'm so sorry about your blonde issues Caleb, but now is not the time to whine about them." Fred told him sarcastically.
   "Hey, us blondes got to stick together. Besides, it's not my fault I'm surrounded by a shit load of red haired people."
   "Technically, I'm the only one with actual red hair, the rest of them are gingers and Andi." Katerina told him.
   "Thanks Kat. I know I'm that I'm the only newborn with brown hair but you don't got to rub it in."
   "Well, then we can be the three musketeers." Caleb told the two.
   "Yeah, Blondie, Brownie, and Burgundy." George joked.
    "Sure thing gingy." Katerina told him with a wink.
    "Very funny Kat."
      "You know, you can be gingy 1, and Fred and be gingy 2." The two gave Katerina identical glares. She giggled and shrugged.
   "Can we get back to business please?" Demetri asked. They all laughed and nodded. I had to fight my own smile.
   Maybe this would work out. They all work well together from what it seems, so maybe we can do this. That's what I had to tell myself as we were all getting our mental blocks from Andi. She went around to all of us and placed her hands on our heads, similar to how she put her hands on Katerina in Afton's office. When it was Katerina's turn I couldn't help the yell of surprise that came out of my mouth. I forgot about our mental bond for a moment. The pain did hurt, but not as bad as before. She yelled at the same time as I did.
   "Dude what the hell was that?" George asked me.
   "Oh you guys missed that. Alec and Katerina's minds are bonded together. So when one feels some sort of mental pain, the other will too. They can also communicate inside each other's heads." Felix informed him.
   "Since when?" Fred asked.
    "Since now." Katerina told them.
     "Why?" Caleb asked. I chuckled.
     "That is the question I have been asking since this whole mission started." I said. And it will be the question I ask until we can get this whole mess straightened out. But that would take longer than I wanted it to.