The Scarlet Daughter

The Meet and Greet

Town of Thartenville 2012

Almost as soon as Charlotte,Lora, and Ben arrived at the little town, Ben had complained about the name.

“What kind of name is Thart? It sounds alot like fart.” Charlotte glared at him as Lora giggled at Ben’s joke.

“Yes well no one cares about the name we are trying to find the girl.” Over the last few years she had managed to figure out who the person they were looking for was.Her name was Danny Riche. Both her parents were vampires and she had known about that since she was little. Danny was also a vampire so her parents had to tell her when she realized she had a craving for blood. Ben had found a picture of her on her facebook account and thought she was really pretty. Of course he wasn’t going to tell Charlotte that, she would make him stay with the rest of the pack and take someone else instead. He pulled out the piece of paper that had Danny’s address on it.

“So how are we going to do this?Maybe a little breaking and entering,kidnapping,blindfolding, you know, the works.”Ben smiled at Charlotte who rolled her eyes to stare up at the darkening sky.Ben looked too, “Okay,okay, i’m kidding. But seriously, we need to have a plan here Charlotte.” He looked patiently at her as she stared at the sky.

“I have a plan and i’ll tell you after we find something to eat. Then we’ll wait till night  so the girl will be alone.” Charlotte turned around and looked down the street at a pizza place. “Lora, would you eat some pizza for me. If you do you can have some blood before you go to bed.” Lora nodded enthusiastically at Charlotte and reached for Ben who was still in the middle of the street.

“Come on Benny let’s eat pizza.” He looked at the little three year old. “Okay, but I get your crust,” Ben replied smiling as he lifted her up into her arms.Together, the three of them headed toward the restaurant.

                          two and a half hours later…

They were sitting quietly in an old booth in a corner, each lost in their own thoughts. Excluding Lora because she had her head on the table as she slept peacefully. Urrrp! “Ben, please, use your manners.” Charlotte scolded, “You’ll wake Lora. Besides, you shouldn’t eat that much, you’ll be burping pizza in her face, and it won’t be a good first impression.” As she was saying the last sentence her frown had started to hint at a smile.

“How…”

“How did I know? Oh, please I saw the picture myself and don’t think I didn’t see the drool coming out of your mouth.” This time her frown really did turn into a smile.

“Well… ummm…Okay enough talk let’s go over the plan one more time,” Ben stammered as he tried to stop blushing.Charlotte raised her eyebrows, but didn’t comment on the subject. Taking a deep breath he looked down at the notes he had taken on some leftover napkins.

“So, first you make sure the parents are gone, after they leave for the annual bloodsucker’s meeting. Lora and I will go meet Danny and tell her what Lora is and that we need her help. Meanwhile you follow the parents and try to talk to each of them separately, using your spells or whatever you do to get information without them knowing. Make sure you disguise yourself good, because you can’t fight a horde of angry vampires single handedly. Umm… let’s see here, if Danny panics or becomes violent i’ll  convince her to drink the tea and when you get back we can take her and the information…. that’s all we’ve got. It might actually work, good job Charlotte.”

She nodded and stood up, gently shaking Lora’s shoulder to wake her up, “ Let’s get to it then.” Ben got up and reached across the table to pick up the toddler, while she paid for the pizza. He walked out onto the sidewalk outside of the pizza place to wait for Charlotte.