Lost & Found

Battle Strategy

"Sang my darling, how are you?" Adelaide said in a lyrical voice that originated somewhere past the living room.

I schooled my expression as I dropped my bag onto the floor, and as I got closer to her, the awful headache lessened, and lessened. By the time I made it into the kitchen, it was gone, and I couldn't recall the past few hours.

"I'm well, I think I fell and bumped my head-"

Adelaide interrupted me and turned to face me, "Oh enough about you, we all know you're a clumsy little girl, let's talk about me!"

I smiled, thinking that sounded like a wonderful idea. With this mindset, I sat down on a chair and raised a single eyebrow in her direction. A silent urge for her to continue.

She grinned, flashing her fangs and contorting the burns that marred her skin. She never talked about what had happened to her in her human body to affect the tissues so thoroughly that the immortal body that she'd been altered into did not take away the imperfection.

"Those Hunters, you know the ones, who killed my beloved Timothy?"

I nodded, instantly finding the taste of disgust filling my mouth. But I didn't say anything as she continued on. Even so, a small headache tempted its way through my brain, scratching and stretching as if it were a cat that planned to nap in my space for a time. I resisted the urge to reach up and rub my temples.

Headaches for me aren't unusual, but this one, unlike the regular ones, didn't feel.. Wrong.

"You mean the nine boys?"

She nodded gravely and pouted a bit, "Yes, them. You've been doing your job so fantastically, helping to satisfy my sick needs and to create just enough mayhem to attract them, right?"

I didn't hesitate. "Yes Adelaide, has it worked? Are they here?"

The questions were as honest as anything I'd ever said, but they left my tongue feeling dry and sandy. My hand twitched. My brain felt heavy, and there was something I couldn't quite remember. Like a word on the edge of my tongue, waiting to be blurted out but not possessing all of the letters needed to properly announce it.

I'd forgotten a lot of things over the years since I'd been with Adelaide, and she'd assured me it was probably just some lingering effects of my mother's cruel acts towards me in my childhood.

"They are! They're down in that little hotel, on the corner of 9th and Main? Well, anyways, I've decided that since you've been so devoted to me, that you can help me kill them."

I blinked, ready to say no and then a cool voice overtook my mind.

You will do as you're told. You will do as you're told. You will..

"How do we do it?"

~A Report~

"So what the fuck does this mean?" Gabriel spat out, frustration coating every syllable.

I glanced over at Victor, who was still looking raged over having to tell the story we all shared.

"It means," I said while pushing up my glasses and attempting to count my breaths to stay calm, "that Sang is being manipulated so deeply that she's not in control. Her actions, every single one of them, could just be some kind of mind control that her captor is issuing."

North growled. "How do we get her off of it?"

They all looked to me. Sometimes, during situations like this, it was hard for me to be the leader. I had just gotten the same news that they had all received, but more so I had had to say it out loud. Admit that the girl we were all so helplessly in love with had managed to go from one messed up situation to another.

Both were abusing her, but in different forms.

I took a deep breath and addressed them as a whole.

"We need to go over what we know, and treat this like any case."

There were a few shouts of protest, but Sean's reasoning voice echoed my thoughts almost exactly.

"If we can't pull ourselves together long enough to formulate a plan, and go in guns blazing instead, Sang could die. We could put her at risk because we didn't take specific steps or precautions that we would have otherwise if we'd bothered to do things right."

Owen straightened his shoulders, "Gabriel you have the best handwriting, please start a list. Sean, I would like for you and Victor to go over with other Hunters to see if there's ever been a case which the Vampire in question not only able to use persuasion but also had an ability that was linked to the mind and the memory. Anything helps. Everyone else, make yourselves useful."

It took us a good three hours of nothing but straight work. Not even Luke got up to eat, instead choosing to help Sean and Victor research.

By the end of the three hours we knew a few things for certain:

-The vampire had an ability to do with manipulation of memories and seize them

-She has been feeding Sang her blood, amplifying not only their connection but Sang's devotion for who knows how long

-She can manipulate Sang through their blood bond

-Sang isn't always aware/in control

-The woman feeds off of "Dark" souls

The most important was the last thing on the list, the one that gave us hope.

-Sang isn't lost

There were a few things left to be answered, and I was worried that the answers to the questions would be a game changer to the plan that Nathan, North, and Owen were all busy devising.

Why did the girl keep Sang after all these years?

I stood by the window of our crappy hotel room and crossed my arms over my chest. Every single member of my team was harder at work than they ever had been in the past. We'd always put everything into every case.

With every passing second, I couldn't help but feel like we losing the upper hand in this war.