Midnight Solstice

Chapter 14

Picture:Adeline
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   "A surprise?" I asked her with a tight smile.
   "Yes brother. Since the newborns are doing so well with their fight training, I thought it would be fun to take a day to have them help each other with their gifts." Felix and Demetri were as confused as I was. What was she up to...
   "I don't see a problem with that." I told her. "They've been doing a good job helping each other out anyway."
   "Precisely what I was thinking!" She looked towards the newborns. "What are you all waiting for? Get working." They scrambled quickly to the opposite side of the room and began talking in hushed voices.
   "What are you up to Jane?" Felix asked.
   "What makes you think I'm up to something?"
   "The fact that you are standing their smiling like a possessed demon about to kill us all." Her smile faded.
  "I can assure you, if I wanted to kill you, I would have."
  "And I can assure you, if you tried, you couldn't." She raised her eyebrows as she laughed.
  "It appears Felix has gained some courage." Her eyes narrowed as she glared at him. "Remember your place." That was a common thing she says to the lower ranking guard members when she's angry.
  "It's not me who needs to remember my place. What was that thing Aro told you a couple days after you changed...respect your elders, right? Well I'm a lot older than you Blondie. And if it wasn't for your gift and the fact that I actually like your brother and don't want to piss him off, you wouldn't stand a chance, so enough with the games." That pissed her off really bad. It kind of pissed me off too because even though Jane can act like a major bitch (like right now) she still is my sister.
  "Why don't we calm down?" I suggested, even though it came out more like a command. Jane ignored me.
  "Pain." She murmured. Felix fell to the ground, screaming. This caused all of the newborns to run over to see what was happening.
  "Jane stop!" I shouted. She didn't listen.
   "Come on Jane, remember what you told me? Use your words." Caleb told her.
  "Yeah. I think that's enough. Whatever message you were trying to send, he got it so that's enough." Katerina said. Jane continued using her gift.
  "I said that's enough!" Katerina jumped in front of Felix, who stopped screaming immediately after she did so. She put her arms in an "x" in front of her face. And then the unthinkable happened. This red, flame like object appeared in between the two of them, that caused Jane to go flying into the wall. Large cracks appeared in the wall. Luckily, Jane wasn't hurt. She stood up immediately and started to run towards Katerina. I held my hand up to motion her to stop.
  "Jane try using your gift again from there." I told her. She stopped dead in her tracks.
  "So you're giving me permission to hurt her?" Jane asked sweetly.
  "No." I told her. She frowned. "Katerina, do exactly what you just did to protect Felix."
  "Are you nuts?! Did you see what just happened?!" Demetri exclaimed.
  "Yeah, I did. And we need to see it again."
   "Why?"
   "Because I have a theory. Now do it again." I ordered. Jane began using her gift. The same thing happened, only except this time Jane slid across the floor instead of crashing into the wall. When that was done, I heard a clapping sound coming from the doorway. We all turned to find Marcus standing in the doorway.
  "Well done Katerina...I haven't seen anything like that happen in all of my years."
  "Thanks. But I'm not quite sure what happened."
   "Why don't we let Alec explain his theory and then I'll give you my thoughts." Marcus walked forward to stand with the rest of the group.
  "Well, after seeing Katerina protect Felix the first time, I thought that maybe her gift wasn't only a defensive talent, but was a shield as well. But her gravity is a different type of shield than what we think of a shield being, since we are vampires and are used to seeing basic shielding abilities. I think that her shield doubles as a defense mechanism as well as protection for her and whoever she's protecting. I think the fire might have been from the fact that Jane's gift feels like being burnt alive."
  "Seriously, that's crazy!" Andi exclaimed. Marcus nodded.
"I don't think that there has ever been anyone with a gift like that, vampire or fae. This is truly a remarkable discovery."
   "Remarkable? Did you see what just happened? I could have died!" Jane exclaimed angrily.
   "Could have, but you didn't. I would be thankful for that if I were you." Marcus told her. That shut her right up. I felt a little bit guilty that I didn't feel bad about that.
   "She's right though, she could've died, I mean the only thing that can really kill a vampire is fire, and I'm pretty sure that was fire between us then." Katerina said.
   "Indeed, but you have more control over that than you give yourself credit for."
   "What do you mean? You just saw what happened, and what happened to that vase when you told me to use my gift when I was in your office the other day. I have absolutely no control Marcus." I nearly forgot Marcus has extra sessions with Katerina about our laws. You'd think they'd quit after three months, I mean after all we don't have too many laws. Marcus chuckled which interrupted my thoughts. He never laughs.
   "Well, I don't think this has anything to do with your vampire gift, other than the fact that your vampire side makes controlling your gifts harder. I think you are having a hard time specializing in your fae elements."
   "What's specializing?" Brynn asked.
     "Well, every fae has an ability that is related to one of the four elements, earth, water, fire, and air. When a fae reaches a certain age, they discover their elemental gift, in other words, they specialize in an element." He explained.
   "But Katerina already specialized in Earth. Her gift is gravity, so what does specializing have to do with anything?" I questioned.
  "A very powerful fae can specialize in more than one element, Alec."
   "Woah woah woah, hold up. Even though she's more vampire than she is fae, she can still continue to specialize?" Felix asked quickly.
   "It appears so. Now she is an earth fae as well as a fire fae." Katerina's eyes widened.
   "That's not possible. I'm more dead than I am alive, there's no way that I can. I mean I've never done anything with fire except for today."
   "Well perhaps someone should call Pauley. He is an expert about the fae, and he has helped the fae with specializing for many years." Felix, Demetri and I groaned. "Well, we can just continue to wonder if she actually did specialize in two elements, and wait until she sets the castle on fire if you don't want to call him, but that's your choice."
   "We don't have to meet him here, we can go to Uncle Lorne's bar. He won't mind, and I haven't seen him in three months. Jayden also has been begging me to go see Gracie anyway. So the kids can hang out in the apartment upstairs, and we can talk in the back room where Lorne does his future readings." Katerina suggested. I looked over at Adeline who gave me a quick nod before speaking.
   "It's a good idea, it's more comfortable for Katerina, and Jayden gets something out of it too." Her pupils grew then shrunk as she compelled him.
  "You're right, it's a good idea." He told her. She gave him a sweet smile. That's a nice act she has going on. At least she can pull that one off better than Jane. She's been trying to be less bitchy, but it doesn't work. And she continues to try to flirt with me, but we can't really do anything secretly without her so I let her down easy and move on.
   "When can we go?" Katerina asked.
    "Why don't you all finish training before you go anywhere. Just be careful not to set anything on fire. I'll have someone call Pauley for you. But I do wish to talk to you before I go." He and Katerina left the room.
   "Alec, how many fae have you heard of that have specialized in more than one element?" Jane asked me. A flash of fear crossed her face.
   "Her mother. She specialized in three elements. It's doesn't surprise me that Katerina has specialized in two elements, her mother was very powerful anyway, so I think she will be as well."
   "She may be more powerful because of what her father did to her."
   "Well you better not piss her off anymore then, because I don't want to have her as an enemy." Demetri said to Jane. She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm serious Jane, if I become burnt toast because I'm too close to you..."
   "That won't happen Demetri." I told him. I think Jane has been targeted enough today.
     "You can't be sure of that. Kit Kat was right about one thing, she doesn't have any control." Felix said quietly.
    "She has some control. You can't distract her when she's using her gift." Caleb informed us.
   "Yeah, she can do a lot more than she lets any of you see." Andi added.
   "Like what?" Jane challenged. "She jumps every time a door closes, so what makes you think that she can do anything other than breaking things?"
   "That's not her fault. If it wasn't for what her father did to her, she would be fine. She can't think straight because of what happened then."
   "What happened then, huh? You have no idea."
   "Neither do you." George interjected. "None of us do except the bare minimum. And even that is too painful for her so why don't you try to be a bit more understanding because that poor girl is scarred for life because of what happened to her." Him and Jane were standing face to face. Well, George had to look down at her because she is shorter than him. I pushed the two away from each other.
  "Let's stop this before another accident happens." I told the two.
  "No." George said. "I'm tired of everyone, especially her, thinking that they are so high and mighty above the rest of us." He turned back to Jane.
   "I can nearly guarantee that some of us are going to rank in the guard right up there with you and Alec, so enjoy the top spot while you can because once training is over, you may not be there for long." She laughed.
   "And who is going to rank up there with us?" Her smirk grew in his silence.
   "Kat will." Fred said. "Her gifts already more powerful than all of ours and she hasn't even gained control over it yet. Just imagine what she'll be capable of when she gains control, and specializes in more than one element."
   "That's if she gains control."
    "She will." Andi said. "And she'll blow you right out of your spot. I mean she did just blow you into the wall so who knows what's going to happen now." She walked over to Fred and George. "Now if you'll excuse us, we are going to go take a walk to cool down before we all lose it." She shot me a glance. "Unless you want us all to keep arguing." I shook my head.
  "Go ahead. Come back in ten minutes." Oh how I wish I could go with them...I longed to leave here and curl up in a ball on my bed right then as I watched the three leave.
   "What are you all doing? Get back to work!" Jane yelled, causing the remaining newborns to go back over to their spot on the wall.
   "You better teach them some respect brother, they're lacking in that." Jane said as she stormed out.
   "So are you." I murmured aloud. Luckily she didn't hear me.
   "I'm sorry about that. I should've just kept my mouth shut." Felix said.
  "Don't be sorry, she needs to recognize that they all have a lot of potential and they could very well blow us all right off our pedestals." I told him.
  "Don't worry about it, we've all been really tense lately, and I think it's good that we are communicating. I think expressing what we feel is better than keeping it all locked up like we have. These guys come from the modern day world where that's normal so I think it won't hurt to speak our minds every now and then." Demetri added.
   "Demetri, since when did you become a shrink?" I teased.
   "Since now. We need group therapy. And a lot of rehabilitation."
   "Hey, are you guys going to help us or gossip all day?" Brynn asked us loudly.
  "Well, I was planning on gossiping all about you during this while you guys figure things out for yourselves but I suppose we can help." We began to walk over to the newborns.
   "Quit flirting Demetri." Felix told him.
    "I'm not flirting. I'm joking around. If you want to talk about flirting, talk about Alec and Kit Kat."
   "Shut up would you? I'm pretty sure Katerina could hear you right now from wherever she is."
  "Hey, if I were you, I'd hurry up in making her fall in love with you and all that mushy lovey stuff. A girl like that won't stay single for very long."
  "She will as long as I'm here. No one else will touch her." I told the two of them before we got to the group. "Alright, let's actually do something today other than argue."
   A couple minutes into training, Katerina and the other three returned and we really got things started.
    As the time passed, I got compelled, I got teleported to Venice (but I returned dry this time), I nearly got crushed by gravity, and Katerina and I got a major headaches from Andi's gift. Fred made two ice packs appear for us, after making a snide comment about how "connected we are." Katerina then swept him up on his feet and he floated in the air for a couple of minutes before she slammed him on the ground. After that we moved on. When we got to Caleb's gift he shook his head.
   "I can't just have a vision when I feel like it. The visions come only when I need to see them."
   "You can have a vision if you want to." Katerina told him. "You told me that I can make people float if I want to and I did. So you can have a vision right now if you want." She sat on the ground and motioned for him to do the same.
  "This isn't going to work."
   "Uncle Lorne told me that when he has a hard time having visions, it's because he has too much going on in his head. So to solve that, he meditates."
  "Kat, meditating isn't going to make Caleb have a vision." Felix told her. When we spilt up the newborns for training their gifts, Felix got Caleb, and Adeline. He's been trying everything with Caleb but he just can't have visions when he wants to. He hasn't had a vision since right after he finished the change.
   "I know that. But it will help him clear his mind enough so that the vision can get through. Most of the time with Uncle Lorne's visions, they get blocked by personal thoughts and memories so mediation helps to clear his mind long enough for the vision to get through."
   "That makes sense." Caleb said.
    "Exactly, so we are all going to sit down and meditate." She made the veins pop out under her eyes. "Right guys?" We all murmured words of agreement and sat down in unison, in a circle. I sat next to Katerina and George.
   When she pops her veins out like that, she means business. It's funny really. She has more authority here than she should, and yet she uses it for little things like this. Most people her age would totally take advantage of that, but she doesn't. It's almost like she doesn't want the power.
   "It looks like you are going to get that group therapy session in Demetri." Felix told him. Demetri elbowed him and rolled his eyes. Katerina just ignored them and focused on Caleb.
   "Close your eyes." She told Caleb. "Now think of clearing your mind of anything that doesn't relate to what you'd want to see in a vision." The room was silent for a moment before Fred and George began making the traditional "om" noise that people use during mediation, causing us all to laugh.
   "What are you all laughing at?" George asked.
    "We're meditating. You aren't supposed to make noises." Fred told us. The room went silent again. I let my eyes close.
   "Om...." The twins chanted again. Caleb laughed.
   "I can't do this when you guys are making complete fools of yourselves."
   "We aren't make fools out of ourselves!" Fred whispered.
  "We're mediating which is what you should be doing right now vision boy." George told him, bringing back the memory of when Caleb called himself that when talking to Heidi. Caleb smiled and flipped them off with both hands before closing his eyes once more. This time the room stayed silent.
"Do you think this is actually going to work?" I asked Katerina.
  "Yes I do. It wouldn't kill you to have more confidence in them. I know I may be a lost cause, but they aren't. They are going to do really great things here, I can tell."
"You aren't a lost cause." I grabbed her hand against my better judgement. "You just have so much more power you need to control. You need more time than what they need."
"That's sweet of you to say. But I don't know if I ever will gain control, especially if I have to worry about specializing in the other elements."
   "We still have nine months before training is over. We just need to get you to control your gift before then. You've already made so much progress. Everything will work itself out, I promise."
"You can't promise me that until you catch my father. Then you can tell me everything is going to be okay. Until then, you can tell me that I'll make it through this because as long as my father is still out there, nothing is okay, and things won't work themselves out until he's gone."
    Before I got a chance to respond, Caleb's loud gasp filled the air. We all opened our eyes. He sat completely still, but his eyes flickered back and forth. After a few moments of that, his eyes stopped moving and he brought his knees to his chest.
  "I don't know what the hell that was!" He exclaimed.
  "It okay Caleb. Just walk us through it. What did you see first?" Felix prompted.
  "A building, it was made with grey bricks and a lot of windows but the windows were broken. It was abandoned. There was this needle on the ground inside. It was filled with this dark red stuff, it looked more like gel than a liquid." Katerina's grip on my hand tightened.
   "That sounds like the solution my father uses in his experiments. Keep going Caleb, maybe we can figure out where he is."
   "More like was. I don't think he's there anymore or will be there for long. There were boxes and everything left was on the first floor, like he was moving everything out. I saw the number 2722 on the outside near the door. But this vision wasn't like my first one. My first one was like I was an outsider watching in the air, but this one felt like I was actually there on the ground, in the building. It was really freaky.
   "Wait a second, 2722 was the number of the building of Michael Morgynstein's last known location." George said.
   "Yeah, 2722 Randolph Drive in Florence." Fred added. "If he's leaving there, someone's gotta follow him. We can't loose track of him before we have our game plan." 
   "Alright. Who's going to go track down Old man Morgynstein?" Felix asked.
  "Brynn and I can go. The more trackers the better."
   "Demetri, I can barely find my TV remote, what makes you think I can track him down?" She argued.
  "That's why I'll be there with you. Besides, it's good practice for you."
  "Caleb you should go too, maybe you'll get another vision if you go there." I told him. "And Adeline also. If he catches you, she can compel him to let you all go. The rest of you, be on call. If they need back up, all of you are going." We all stood up.
  "We've got to go see Aro and make sure we can leave. You aren't doing anything until we figure out your specializing predicament." I told Katerina in a hushed voice. Then I turned to the rest of the group once more.
  "You guys need to check out the building and see if he left anything behind. If he did bring it back here."
  "Bring everything back, even if you think it's not evidence because my father likes to leave clues." Katerina added. Fred and George ran up to me as we all began leaving.
"Do you have a minute now? We really need to talk to you..." George said urgently.
   "Yes he does." Katerina told him. "I'll wait in the lounge area for you." She walked away.
   The three of us walked to rebel H.Q. The twins began pulling up all sorts of old documents that appeared on the computer screens.
  "What's all this?" I asked.
    "We have no clue. It looks like some journal entries but we don't know who wrote them." Fred said. "But they are all about Aro. This one says he killed his own sister because he didn't want Marcus to leave the Volturi." I tilted back the screen that the entry was on and began reading.
There is so much that the guard members don't know about Aro. He's stalked humans at young ages for years until they are old enough to be turned and join the Volturi. He also craves power, it's like a drug to him. He killed his own sister to make sure Marcus didn't leave the Volturi...
  I stopped reading there. I couldn't believe that. He wouldn't have done that, he loved his sister.
   "That can't be true. He wouldn't have. Didyme and Marcus were happy. Aro would do anything to keep his sister happy." I sat down in one of the chairs. There was no way in hell he would do something that awful.
   "Was Didyme his sister?" George asked. I nodded.
   "Yeah, she died because of an accident. That's all I was told." I ran a hand through my hair.
  "Hey, this may not be true, whoever wrote this doesn't have proof."
   "Why would Alucard include this in the evidence of it wasn't true?" I asked.
   "Why would he include this at all?" Fred questioned.
  "I don't know." I was still in shock. "Is there anything else?"
  "Just more stuff about Aro, but we will print it out and hide it. We can delete it from the flash drive and then figure things out."
   "I can drop off the papers for you later if you'd like. You should probably see them before anyone else." George offered. I nodded.
   "Yeah that would be great. I have to get to Katerina now, I shouldn't keep her waiting." I left the room and walked down to the lounge.
   Aro has done many things that others would think of as bad; that even I think are bad, but he wouldn't just kill his sister because he wanted to keep Marcus in the Volturi. I didn't even know that Marcus and Didyme were planning on leaving the Volturi. I wasn't even told how she died other than the fact that it was a really awful accident. I sighed and quickened my pace.
  As soon as I saw Katerina, all logical thoughts left my brain. She sat by herself looking aimlessly into the fire. The light from the fire hit her face in a way that made her look so angelic. I wish I could draw her right now. Maybe I would later
  "I could draw it and show her someday, after we're together. That way it wouldn't be creepy." I thought. It would be creepy anyway, regardless of when I draw her. But it's possible that we may never get together if she doesn't fall in love with me. My heart may explode if I don't hurry up with that.
   This is all too much. I feel so protective over her, and yet I haven't known her for long. Sometimes I wish we didn't have this bond because it's so difficult to hide how I feel for her. I don't think I love her completely, but I care for her more than just a simple friend. And I wish I didn't know we were mates, then I wouldn't have to worry about forcing her into anything. But of course it's the universe's goal to make things harder for me. So here I sit with premature emotions because she supposed to be mine, and I know it. In that moment, it was almost as if she sensed the anguish in my mind.
  "Are you okay?" She asked me.
   "No, after figuring out that Aro killed his own sister and fighting my feelings for you, I'm really tired and want to lie in the middle of the street and get run over." I thought.
  "I'm fine. It's been a long day." I told her. She gave me a small smile.
  "Yeah, no kidding." The two of us headed straight for Aro's study.
"Good one Alec, she's definitely not going to fall for someone who constantly hides their emotions. You know, for someone who used to be able to get a bunch of women in your bed, you really suck at talking to her."
  "Are you sure you're okay? I can see if Andi wants to go with me if you want to take a break." Katerina offered.
  "Don't worry pet, I'm fine."
"No you aren't. You know that she's making you feel things that you haven't felt in a long time and you are absolutely positively scared of it." My thoughts were getting annoying.
"I'm not scared of it! As a matter of fact, I'm terrified of it, but that's beside the point." We continued to Aro's study in silence. Luckily he was in there with Jayden when we entered.
   "Hey! Are you guys going to Gracie's today?" Jayden asked excitedly.
  "As a matter of fact, we were planning to." Katerina told him. She turned to Aro. "If that's alright with you of course."
  "That's fine. I'm surprised you haven't asked sooner. I figured you would have a harder time with the separation than this." She sighed.
  "It's hard, but I've been too busy trying to keep my family safe by trying to catch my father to really get a chance to worry about it." He smiled sadly.
   "That's understandable."
    "Father can I go with them?!" Jayden exclaimed.
   "Well..."
    "Please Father? I want to see Gracie again." Aro sighed.
   "Jayden, I don't think that your mother would approve of you going to a bar to see your friend."
  "Mother doesn't have to know! She can't read our minds."
   "And he only has to walk through the bar to get to the apartment upstairs anyway. It's pretty big and they'll have a lot of stuff to do." Katerina said, giving Jayden a quick wink.
   "You really aren't helping me." Aro told her. She shrugged.
   "I'm not trying to." She told him with an innocent smile.
   "Alright, fine. Jayden can go as well. But be back before curfew." Jayden ran over and hugged Aro.
  "Thanks Father!"
   "This conversation didn't happen and I don't know you are leaving, understood young man?"
   "I wonder what would happen if I told mother that you said that."
   "Do you want me to change my mind?" Jayden shook his head. "Then leave before I tell your mother you said she doesn't have to know." He ran out of the room.
   "Be careful with him, he's been very hyper lately." Aro told us.
  "Will do." Katerina said as she turned on her heel and walked out, dragging me behind her.
   "Let's go slow pokes!" Jayden yelled as he disappeared around the corner.
   "I didn't think we would be baby sitting today Katerina." She laughed.
   "Gracie would kill me if I didn't bring Jayden to come see her, she's been asking me about it for a while now." She said before we took off after him.
    We caught up to him quickly and went to the car. I drove off as Jayden began chewing our ears off about how excited he was. This was going to be a long car ride.