Midnight Solstice

Chapter 18

Picture: King Alucard
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  "King Alucard?" I exclaimed out of shock. I stared to bow because, he is the King  of the fae, but he held his hand up to stop me.
  "That won't be necessary." He told me in a thick British accent. "After all, we are practically family." I raised an eyebrow.
   "What do you mean?" He took a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to me.
   "Please give this to Katerina for me. It tells her exactly what I'm going to tell you."
"This is about the flash drive, isn't it?" He chuckled.
"You get right to the point! I like that...but actually, this isn't just about the flash drive. But we can start with that."
"Wait!" I said quickly. "What if someone sees you here?"
"Relax Alec, I'm going to talk to Aro next. I figured it would be best if I spoke to you first."
"Alright. But I have a question before you start. Why me? Why give all of this information to me?"
"My boy, I believe that is two questions. But nonetheless, I gave it to you for two reasons. The first reason is that Aro put you at the head of your "mission" as he calls it. I just wanted to give you the upper hand against Michael." I pondered that for a moment. It made sense I suppose.
  "And what's the second reason."
"You'll do anything for Katerina. She's the reason for his rage; his main target. If he were to get her...there's no telling how bad he'll hurt her. He already hurt Fern and now she's dead! Shot right in the head..." Tears were welling up in his eyes as his voice cracked. "I should have never let her leave the fae district." I felt the slightest hint of confusion bubble up in me, like water boiling to the surface.
"Why do you care so much about them?" I questioned. I wasn't sure how to feel about this. He was acting as if they were everything to him. He hasn't even met Katerina.
"Fern is my daughter. That makes Katerina my granddaughter. And since her mother is dead, and her father is a psychotic madman, someone needs to take care of her so that she doesn't end up dead...or worse."
  I froze and my eyes widened in shock. This man is the King of the fae...and since Katerina's mother is deceased, that would make her the heir to the throne. And if Alucard got killed...she would end up becoming queen...
"I realize that is a lot to take in...I didn't even know I had a granddaughter before Fern died. She left the fae district when she met Michael. I saw the monster he was the moment I met him and told her that she couldn't be with him. She didn't listen to me. I liked his brother Lorne much better. I asked him to take care of her, and to make sure Michael didn't hurt her. At first that job was easy for him. But Michael made Fern believe the lies he told her and she was delirious to all of it! Lorne was even starting to believe it too, but he had his suspicions."
"I lost contact with Lorne around the time that Fern conceived Katerina, of course I didn't know the reason for the loss of contact until Fern was dead. He called me and told me the whole story the night of her death. He was upset about his human lover Carissa, since she was killed. He was human then, but there wasn't a lot he could do. But Lorne was more upset over Fern than he was over Carissa. He loved Fern more than Michael ever could have. Fern didn't feel the same, but she did feel something for him. Anyway, Lorne told me about Katerina and Michael's other experiments, and that's when I knew I had to do something about Michael."
"For the past five years, I have had my best men watching Michael's every move. But I needed inside information, so Lorne stayed with Michael and reported back to me about what he was doing. When it was too dangerous for Lorne to stay, he tried to escape, and I'm sure you know what happened then."
"But there was one thing that Lorne missed. Michael was unleashing a virus on the fae that he caught, it didn't change their physical make-up; they were still fae; but he took away their immortality which is what he did to Fern while he beat her around on the night of her death."
"When I figured out that Aro had offered Fern protection from Michael, it was too late to help her. Once she was dead, he stopped trying to catch Michael. So when I was told that he reopened the Morgynstein case...it perplexed me. But I put two and two together soon enough and I now know that he just reopened it to satisfy Katerina. When it comes down to it, you'll be on your own. Aro won't do anything to help you, that's why you aren't getting anywhere according to him. He won't let you go farther than he wants you to."
"But that's why I gave you the flash drive. Lorne told me that you have a bond with Katerina, and that you two are mates. I knew because of that, you would keep her safe and that you could end this once and for all. When the time comes to face him, you'll have myself, and my people behind you. And I promise you, we will end this." It was silent for a moment before I got the courage to speak.
"You're saying that you want me to lead a rebellion against Michael Morgynstein, and go against Aro?" I asked incredulously. He nodded. "Look, I understand why you think I can do this, but..."
"But you can't?" He finished.
"With all due respect, I can't see how I would do a good job leading a rebellion." Like that is the biggest problem. I'm also going against my creator; the man who saved me from burning alive at the stake. But you know, no big deal.
"Well Aleczander, it's quite simple. You are virtually unstoppable. With your gift, you can take down hundreds of people in fraction of a second. Michael wouldn't be able to touch you. Not to mention that your fighting abilities are much underestimated. I was thinking about giving the flash drive to your sister, but I figured she would run to Aro right away. Also, her gift only works on one person at a time, so she could be easily taken out, and if the group loses their leader...things won't end well."
  "So what do you want me to do?" I asked. I had no clue what he expected of me.
   "Just keep doing what you are doing Alec. Let me know when you decide to confront Michael, I will make sure to be there with an army when you do. And don't think of this as a rebellion, think of it as a fight for the rights of all supernatural kind." He began to walk away.
  "Wait!" Alucard turned around. "There's something you should know...Katerina specialized in all of the elements!" I blurted. Geez Alec, way to play it cool. First you told Aro when you didn't want to, and now you told this man! Well, I was going to tell him anyway, but I was going to hold off on it. So much for that! Alucard laughed, breaking me away from my angry rant.
   "That's impossible. There hasn't been a faerie who has since our Goddess gifted Aurelia."
   "Your Goddess?" I questioned.
    "As the legend goes, our Goddess Aretha, caused a witch and a vampire to fall in love and the two soon had a child; the first fae. The day she was born, the Goddess came down to earth and gifted the child with the power of the elements. The young girl was named Aurelia. As she grew up, her power grew so strong that the humans believed that she was a Goddess herself. It is said that because Aurelia was gifted by Aretha, it was almost as if she were the Goddess's daughter. Unfortunately, she met a rather horrifying end when the vampires and witches felt threatened by her powers and fought each other for the right to kill her. The vampire's won the war, and Aurelia was killed by leader of the vampires at that time, and he drained her of all her blood. So Aretha promised that another girl would come that possessed the power that Aurelia had. This girl's purpose would to be a bridge between our kind, the vampires, and the witches."
"Well, if your legends say that another girl would come that has the power of all the elements, then why does this surprise you?"
"Because that was multiple millenniums ago, and our kind has gotten along with your kind and the witches ever since the death of Aurelia. If Katerina is the girl the legends talk about, then either our kinds aren't getting along as well as I thought, or the Goddess has a bigger plan for Katerina then any of us could ever anticipate."
"So what? Isn't that a good thing?"
"It's good for the fae, but it isn't good for you. Katerina is going to need intense training to master all of the elements; training that you can't give her."
"We've been training her just fine..."
"In your vampire way. You don't know how to train her elemental powers. It isn't your fault, you've all been trying, but there is just a certain way the fae need to train their power. Do you mind leading me to...wherever Aro is right now? We need to discuss Katerina's newfound abilities. I need to set some things up to make sure that Katerina has the best training and protection possible." 
  "Uh...alright." We began walking to the throne room. "Why does she need protection? She's safe here."
"She won't be if the word gets out that she's specialized in all of the elements. Someone would try to kill her. There are groups of people that have been waiting for another girl like Aurelia to come around so that they could kill her and start total chaos over the races."
   "Total chaos?!"
    "You would be surprised how many people want to rid the Fae of their power, and the Volturi as well." I couldn't help but laugh at that.
   "I'm very much aware of how many people don't like the Volturi and wish to kill us or take away our power. It will happen one day, and when that happens, I will hopefully leave quietly in the midst of it all and keep my sister and Katerina out of harm. Of course, we would have to bring Katerina's cat as well, that's if he's still alive when that happens. But I doubt it..." I shut myself up when I realized I was blabbing.
   "You are a very interesting man Aleczander..." I wish he would stop calling me that... "I thought that you didn't show any emotions at all, but once you mention my granddaughter, it's like your a love sick puppy. It's actually quite amusing...but I can't help but ask, why are you so hesitant with her?"
   "I don't know what you mean." I told him, putting my guard up. Alucard gave me that look; you know, the look someone gives you when they know you are lying. Okay, so maybe I did know what he was asking. He was asking me why I haven't asked her out yet to put it in simple terms.
   "Why is everyone so interested in my love life lately?" I exclaimed frustratedly. "Sorry..." I apologized quickly. "I've been asked that a lot lately."
   "It's not a problem. I understand."
   "Well, if someone were to find out about her and that person or group of people even; happened to be holding a grudge against myself, or my sister...I wouldn't forgive myself if something happened to her because of me. That and I don't want to force her into something she doesn't want. If she's going to be with me, I want that to be her choice, not mine."
   "I can't tell you what you should do about this situation, but I can tell you this...when people find out about the things she can do, she'll have more enemies than you or your sister have. Katerina will think the same about you, and worry about your safety rather than her own."
   "How do you know what she'll think? You haven't even met her."
   "I don't need to. When Lorne talks to me about her, he is able to describe her better than anyone ever could. And because of that, I know that she puts others before herself constantly."
   "Really?" I questioned, even though I knew that was true. Take her cat for example. She didn't take him because she wanted him; she took him because he was in a bad situation. And when she defended Felix from Jane; she wasn't trying to prove anything, she was just trying to be kind and help him out because he was in a lot of pain from Jane's gift.
   "I can sense that you are thinking of her. Am I correct about her?" I slowly nodded.
  "How can you sense that?"
    "Our Goddess sometimes will gift a faerie if she has a special plan for them. She has a plan for all of the fae, but some plans are bigger than others. I was gifted with an odd ability, kind of like your leader's, but more...open I guess you could say. Not only do I specialize in the element of Earth, I also can also mentally sense what others are thinking. I can even see specific memories if a person chooses to show them to me. Speaking of which, do you mind if you show me when you figured out about Katerina's abilities?"
  "You mean when we figured out that she specialized in all of the elements?" He nodded. "How do I show you?" Alucard stopped walking. He turned me to face him and put his hands on either side of my head. Aw shit, not this again... He laughed.
  "Would you relax a little bit? It isn't as bad as I made it sound." Yeah, I need to relax. I've been getting that a lot in these past couple minutes.
  "Does it hurt?"
   "You may feel as if someone is poking at your brain, literally, but don't try to push me out if that happens. That just means it's working." He gave me an encouraging smile before shutting his eyes.
  "It might not be me who shuts you out."
   "I'm well aware of that, now just focus on the moment you knew Katerina had specialized in all of the elements. I'll do the rest."
   I let my eyelids close. I ran the scene through my head again. I thought about how amazed I was at her abilities, and how incredible it was at first to know that she had so much power. But that lead to my feelings of anger and fear over what could happen if Aro or even Alucard found out about her. They could use her for their own nefarious purposes. But I now know that Alucard wouldn't do that to her. In these past few moments, I saw how much she meant to him, regardless of the fact that they haven't even met.
  I felt Alucard move his hands away from my head. I let myself enjoy the feeling of relief that I had knowing that I could trust Alucard. I slowly opened my eyes a couple of moments later. It shocked me how easy it was to ignore the itching in my brain that occurred while I was remembering my memory.
  "Alec!" I heard a voice shout. I looked back to find Katerina running towards me. She was breathless when she stopped. "What the hell was that? It was like my brain itched really bad and I couldn't get to it because my skull was in the way! Did something happen?!"
   I couldn't help but think that she looked so cute when she was confused, like a lost kitten. Her plump lips were positioned in a pout and her big blue eyes looked up at me in such a way that made me light headed.
  "You have his eyes..." Alucard murmured. Katerina shifted her gaze to him and smiled kindly, but the confusion remained in her eyes. Alucard looked as if the world just stopped. I don't know if he was scared or pleased or what! His face was blank and it looked as if he just shut down.
  "Uh Alec, who's your friend?" She asked me, trying to make sense of everything.
"Katerina, this is King Alucard, he was just looking at my thoughts about when you did you specializing test. That was probably the itching you felt." Her eyes grew wider. She began to curtsy but he held his hand up in the same manner he did for me. He slowly smiled.
"There isn't a need for that Katerina. The pleasure is all mine." He saluted her in the traditional fae way by putting his right hand in a fist over his heart and putting his forearm across his chest while putting the left arm behind his back. He gave a slowly bow to her.
"I'm glad to finally meet you. But I'm afraid I don't know too much about about the Fae culture other than the language that my mother taught me, so I'm just going to apologize in advance for anything that I do that may be considered weird or wrong or anything along those lines."
"It's fine, don't worry about it." He told her in the fae language. It sounded like a mix of Japanese and French. I'll admit, that sounds like an awkward mix, but it actually is a beautiful language. I only know that because Aro set myself and Felix up to be almost like diplomats between the vampires and the fae at one point. Fortunately that never happened.
"You never told me you spoke Faettea." I told her. Faettea is the ancient name for the language. She smiled sheepishly.
"You never asked." She said in the foreign language.
"Alec, why don't you take Katerina somewhere to sit and wait for me since I need to talk to her about something." Alucard put his hand in his pocket and began fishing around. He laughed nervously. "I already gave you the paper, didn't I?" He asked me. I nodded. "Well then, why don't you two go over that while I talk to Aro; you'll understand why I want to talk to you after you read it. How far are we from where Aro is?" I resisted my urge to laugh at his flustered tone.
"The throne room isn't too far from here. I can walk you the rest of the way if you'd like. Katerina is good at staying put, she can wait a couple of moments for me."
"Yeah, staying put is one of my many talents." She said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. He chuckled.
"Thank you for the offer, but that won't be necessary. Where is this throne room that you speak of? Is that where Aro is?"
"Yep! Just go to the end of the hall, take a right, go to the end of that hall, and it should be the first door on the left." Katerina looked up at me for confirmation. I nodded, causing her to smile at me proudly. I couldn't help but smile back.
"Then I bid you adieu until later." The two of us watched as the King walked away.
"The King of the Fae just talked to us." Katerina said in shock.
"Yeah." I said, running that thought through my head. "Hey, I thought you didn't know your way around here still?"
"I may have just been using that as an excuse to talk to you." She laughed nervously and bit her lip.
"Aw, isn't that sweet?" I teased as I lead her to the lounge area around the receptionists desk. The red chairs and couches matched those in the other lounge areas except that there were fewer here. We sat down on the couch.
I couldn't help but like that fact that she made up excuses to talk to me. It gives me hope that maybe this whole bond thing is more than just one sided.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I did that really cheesy thing where you yawn and purposely stretch your arm so that it ends up around the person next to you. She laughed and bit her lip, shaking her head as she did so.
"What?" I questioned. She raised her eyebrows.
"You know what. That is the dorkiest move I have ever seen Alec."
"I don't know what you are talking about."
"Yes you do!" She bursted into laughter and rolled her eyes. "Alec!"
"What?! I don't know what's so funny pet?"
"Everything is ten times more funny when you are tired!" She told me in between giggles.
I liked it when she laughed. Of course, I've probably thought that a million times now, but it's true. I love it when she's happy like this. Believe it or not, she has a way of lightening up the mood in this place. Even the smallest smile from her can brighten up a room full of the most depressed and anxious vampires.
"I'm sorry, I should've just left you alone so you could sleep. I could have just told him about your specializing test so you wouldn't have been bothered."
"It isn't your fault. I had only just gotten into bed anyway. I wasn't sleeping."
"Maybe you should. I can wake you when he gets here."
"Possibly, but I have to read whatever paper he gave you first." I sighed and handed her the paper.
"I don't know if you are going to like what's on there or not..."
"Relax Alec, I'm sure it's nothing big." There we go again with this whole relaxing thing! That's three times now!
"It's bigger than you think." I told her, attempting to relax even though I was annoyed with relaxing to begin with.
"He already told you what it's about?"
"Sort of, just read it and we will find out." Katerina leaned back into me and unfolded the paper. She held it so that I could see it as well. It was written in a very clear cursive handwriting.