Life - Life & Death Book 1

Chapter 25 - Part 2 - Zivena

"Zivena?" Someone calls. "Zivena, you need to wake up."
I grunt. This bed was as comfortable as I thought it'd be. There's no chance in hell I'd willingly wake up. I hear the door open and I peek out from under a pillow. Mictain is standing next to my bed with his arms folded.
"The briefing is in less then ten minutes," he says.
Oh crap. I scramble out of bed.
"Why didn't you wake me earlier?"
"I've been trying to wake you for the past twenty minutes! I even made you breakfast thinking the smell would get you up."
"You made me breakfast?" I smile. He's already proving to be a great roommate!
Mictain blushes and looks away. "I'm used to it," he shrugs.
"Well you're not going to hear me complain," I grin and walk to the kitchen. There are pancakes, waffles, toast and pop tarts. Even a fresh fruit salad! "You made all this?"
Mictain takes a seat at the kitchen bench next to me. "I went for a walk this morning and found a few different places open so I thought I'd grab some stuff." He takes a drink of his coffee. I grab a bowl and fill it up with fruit salad and crumbled pop tarts.
"That's disgusting. Why are you ruining perfectly nice fruit with pop tarts?" Mictain scrunches his nose.
"Because I can," I grin with my mouth full.
He shakes his head and finishes his coffee. "You'd better hurry up. We need to be downstairs in five minutes."
I groan but keep shoveling food into my mouth. When I finish, I rush into my bedroom and raid the cupboards. There are a few pairs of business pants and jackets but I ignore them and take out a pair of jeans, t-shirt and jacket. I throw everything on and brush out my knotty hair. Trying not to trip over, I pull my boots on and walk to the kitchen to grab a piece of buttered toast.
Mictain gives me a pained look and walks into the elevator, "You have crumbs all over your face."
I mumble something incredibly rude around my mouthful.
"I think I'm glad I couldn't understand that."
I glare at him. The elevator comes to a halt and I quickly finish my food, brushing all the crumbs off my face and shirt.
Hod is waiting outside, talking on the phone. He walks off when he sees us, leading us down a short corridor. There's a large room set up with a massive screen and rows of tables and chairs facing it. Over twenty people are sitting down, each with a tablet in front of them. Mom and Dad are near the middle and wave at us when we walk in.
"When did you guys get in?" I ask. A few people look around, but I try to ignore them.
"Earlier this morning," Dad replies.
Mom smiles. "You should both come over for dinner tonight, okay?"
I nod and glance at Mictain. He hesitates before nodding as well.
"Zivena, Mictain. We need you both seated," Hod says. The three of us take our seats in the back row. "Taregan will be leading this meeting so make sure you leave questions until the end."
Artemis walks in and sits beside me. "Taregan's outside so we should get started soon."
We all nod and sit tight. There isn't much talking from the Guardians around us. Almost everyone has a coffee cup in their hand and I regret not waking up earlier to make myself one.
"Morning everyone," Taregan calls as he steps into the room, closing the door behind him. "Thank you all for coming in so early. This case has been bleeding our resources dry for far too long. As we all know, the killer has murdered eleven humans, killed a young Guardian and has now kidnapped another. I'm proud to say that we found evidence of a struggle at the dump site, meaning the killer could be injured." Yes! Sinopa put up a fight.
"We know that this killer is intelligent and lacks remorse. The first nine bodies turned up in Central Park. The tenth victim was a hiker that had been missing in the mountains of West Virginia for a week. Ander was taken with over a hundred Guardians nearby and wasn't found until a month later. The last two victims that were found last night were only missing two days.
"There are three things we need answered. One: why the location change. Two: why the change in timeline. And three: why take Sinopa. Artemis will be taking a search team out this morning to try to gather more evidence." Taregan looks around the room. "Was anything found last night?"
I can sense a lot of reluctance from the Guardians at the front.
"What?" Taregan snaps. "Spit it out."
A woman in the front stands up. "I'm sorry Taregan, we don't want you thinking that we don't want to find Sinopa but..."
"But what?"
The woman sighs, "Last night a few of us were searching Central Park and I ran into Lotair." There's groaning from other parts of the room. I frown. I swear I've heard that name before...
"Oh," Taregan says, his face dropping. "Right." Taregan glances at Mictain and I before focusing back on the woman. "Did he say anything?"
"Not really. He only gave us vague information that he may or may not know something about the murders and kidnapping. He seems more interested in getting information about Life and Death. Almost as if he knew they arrived last night."
What. The. Hell.
Artemis grabs my arm as if she knows I'm about to stand up and probably say something stupid. I frown at her.
"We will explain once the meeting is done. It's a complicated situation now Lotair is involved," Artemis says under her breath.
Taregan sighs, "I'll arrange a meeting. Is there anything else?" No one else speaks so Taregan waves his hand and everyone starts to clear out.
Once the room is empty, Taregan walks over and spins a chair around to face us.
"Who's Lotair?" Mictain asks.
"He's the second in command to the Cracked Vamp."
"Who?" I ask, right as Mictain says, "Why were they reluctant to mention it?"
"Because Lotair only wants to cause trouble because she wants trouble."
"I'm really confused," I speak up.
"She, the self-proclaimed Vampire Queen of New York, only offers up information if she's going to get something out of it. She's also batshit crazy. So the fact that Lotair was at the scene of the crime means that yes they may have information for us but in exchange we need to set up a meeting with her."
"What aren't you saying, Taregan?" I ask.
Taregan is quiet for a moment. "She wants to meet you both. She somehow already knows you're here. Problem is, we won't be able to get a meeting with her for at least five days. Four, if we're lucky."
"What? We don't have that kind of time to waste," I say.
"We can't do anything, Zivena," Artemis steps in. "She isn't breaking any laws so we can't go charging in. We have to wait to see her."
"This is ridiculous!"
"We know. That's why everyone was so annoyed before. We've all had to deal with her, and she never lets just anyone meet with her." Artemis looks at Hod, expressionless. "Hod was her favorite for a while."
Hod sighs. "All I can suggest is prepare yourselves."