Chapter 7:
Jake entered the command room to find Jess.
"Tristan White," Jake said to her. "He's a recent graduate of the local university. Find out everything you can about him including family history."
"Will do," Jess said.
"Amy, what's the status on the search?" Jake asked. All of the other vampires and ten watchers were once again out on the streets looking.
"No reports of anything out of the ordinary so far," she said. "The police have figured out that the rounds fired in that shooting were high tech military. They and the military are having a fit but keeping it from public view. They haven't seemed to detect the chemical though."
"Fuck," Jake breathed. "Anything else?" Amy shook her head.
"Sir," a man said, entering the room. It was Chris, one of the watchers who was in charge of the security systems for the Valdemar estate. "We may have a problem."
Great, Jake thought. He followed Chris across the room to the bank of video monitors and terminals that controlled the entire estate's security system. "What is it?"
"Look at this," Chris said, sitting in his chair. He typed a few things on a keyboard and the image changed on the main monitor above him. It was a camera mounted in one of the walls. Jake noticed that it was the one on the southeast corner of the property pointing out at the road by the camera number. Then he noticed a vehicle parked there. "Why would someone park there..." he said.
Chris hit a couple buttons and the camera zoomed in on the vehicle's driver's window. The outline of a moving body came into view. "How long has it been sitting there?"
"Just about two hours," Chris said. "I've also noticed two other vehicles driving past the estate more than once. It looks like someone is scoping us out.
"And then there was this." Chris hit a few buttons and the camera switched to a view near the old one. The time showed about fifteen minutes earlier. The video played and a tall, blonde haired woman walked into view. She was walking along the opposite side of the street, her head was lowered.
Jake frowned, "Why would anyone be walking out here?"
When she walked out of view, the feed switched to the camera which saw the vehicle. The blonde woman walked through the frame towards the vehicle which was parked across the street from the estate. As she approached it she slowed, then bent over to tie a shoe. As she stood back up, she was facing the camera.
"Holy shit," Jake said. The camera feed kept going, the woman continued out of view. Chris changed the feed back to the current one. Just as he did, the vehicle pulled out and drove off.
"I can't believe it," Jake said. "Tarja was here, so close... and I didn't sense her."
He told Chris to keep watching and then turned and walked across the command center
"What do you have for me, Jess?" He asked, taking a seat.
`Here's as much information as I've found," she said, handing him computer printouts. "There is nothing out of the ordinary that I see. He is the only child of a middle class family. I'm starting the search on family history now, it could take awhile."
"OK, stick with it," Jake said. "Amy, contact all personnel and tell them to return to the compound. Make sure they are staggered and tell half of them to enter the compound through the front gate and the others through the back entrance."
Amy and Jess looked at him with confusion. They rarely used the back gate, it was usually kept closed and locked because it was so hard to get to from outside. Amy turned back to her console and started doing what she needed to.
Jake grabbed the phone and quickly dialed the number. He was soon on with Nathaniel and Teresa. He informed them of all the developments.
"Tarja? There?" Teresa asked. "What in the world is going on?"
"I don't know, but I think my compound may have been discovered," Jake said. "And Tarja? That would put two of his biggest and most powerful supporters, Charles and Tarja here in the same city as him. And having plans for Tristan. I'm getting nervous here. I just ordered all of my people back to the compound."
"Good idea," Nathaniel said. "They probably think it is merely a civilian house or something, but they still might attack, so better safe than sorry. Reinforcements arrive there early tomorrow night. There will be six vampires and ten watchers under the command of Bradley."
"Excellent," Jake said. He and Brad had worked together before. "I'll have the guest bedrooms prepared."
With that they terminated the call. Shortly thereafter, all of his people had assembled and they had a quick de-brief meeting. No one found anything really unusual. However, the feeling in the air was unmistakable out there. Jake then told them all about what happened and said they would all remain on grounds the following evening and that there would be more arriving.
"Who is Tarja?" Shane asked.
""Her and I both worked with Zalmon at the same time," Jake said. "She was sired by Mathias. She is powerful. When the war started, she originally joined our side. However, she betrayed us and then defected to him. Her treachery is the reason for the massacre of fifteen vampires and ten watchers. She has been the cause of countless more deaths of vampires, watchers, and innocents since she joined him."
Chapter 8:
Jake was up an hour before the sun set the next afternoon. Vampires could be awake during sunlight, as long as they were in protected buildings. Special glass was in all of the windows of his mansion. Also, the sun didn't force them into sleep. Some of the most powerful and oldest vampires could even venture into daylight though they were weaker in daylight. Jake could venture out into sunlight for short periods of time, though he rarely did. After showering and getting ready, Jake headed downstairs.
As he reached the second floor, he ran into Jack, another one of the watchers. He informed Jake that nothing new had happened
"Tristan is looking for you," Jack said. "He woke up about an hour ago."
"Where is he?" Jake asked as they reached the first floor.
"In the library, sir," Jack said. He then turned and headed towards the kitchen. Jake walked on to the library to find Tristan sitting in a chair reading.
"How are you?" Jake asked, seating himself facing Tristan.
"Good," Tristan said, putting his book down. "I'm still sore and overwhelmed by everything."
"Understandable," Jake nodded.
"Why can't I leave?" Tristan asked.
"For your safety," Jake said, straightening in his chair. "It is best that you remain within the protection of this compound. Zalmon wants you and I'm sure whatever it is he wants you for, it can't be good."
"So that is all you want to keep me here for?" Tristan asked angrily. "To see why Zalmon wants me?"
"No," Jake snapped. "I also want to keep you safe. Zalmon has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent people like you."
Tristan frowned and remained silent. Jake eased off and adopted a soothing tone when he started speaking again. "I know how hard this is for you. I hate that I have to basically keep you as a prisoner in this mansion, but I couldn't live with myself if I let you go and Zalmon killed you. If everything goes well, you won't have to stay here long."
Tristan sighed and they were silent for a few minutes.
"So what did you major in at college?" Jake asked, attempting to start up a conversation with Tristan to get to know him.
"History," Tristan answered. "I studied European history."
Jake smiled, "What was your favorite period?"
"Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries," Tristan responded. "I did my thesis on Napoleon."
"I remember those times," Jake said. "I was living in France during the revolution and the period of Napoleon. It was an exciting time in Paris."
Tristan's eyes brightened, "Really? What was it like? Did you ever seen Napoleon?"
"I saw him once during a parade," Jake answered, he went on to explain his experience living in the Paris of that time.
"What is your favorite place you've been or lived in?" Tristan asked, changing subjects.
"My home in Finland is one of my favorite places," Jake began, "just because it has so many memories. Same thing goes for Vienna. I really enjoyed traveling in Asia during the nineteenth century." Jake sighed, "I've seen so many things in my life, and I've been so many places, it's hard to pick. I'm really happy here though. I love this house."
"I really like it," Tristan admitted.
"Where all have you traveled or lived?" Jake asked Tristan.
Tristan began telling of his various adventures. He told Jake about the semester he spent in Germany and the summer spent backpacking across Europe. He told Jake about his favorite places, and Jake told him about his experiences at those places and how he had seen them change.
"I have never seen destruction like that before," Jake said in reference to Berlin following World War II. Jake was becoming more and more interested in the young man as they talked, but even more confused as to why he was wanted by Zalmon. He's an extremely interesting person, Jake thought, but normal. Why does Zalmon want him?
As the sun set and the other vampires awoke, Jake rose to leave.
"Can I come?" Tristan asked, timidly. Jake hesitated for a moment before telling Tristan to follow him. The pair went down to the command center. No one looked twice at Tristan; if Jake had brought him, he was fine.
Chapter 9:
"Our guests should be arriving soon," Jake said to the assembled group. "I want everything to be ready. I want the compound on full alert. We'll verify identities before we allow them into the compound. I don't want to let anyone in we don't know."
With that, the people went about the business at hand. Tristan turned to Jake.
"Who's coming?" he asked.
"Reinforcements," Jake said, smiling at Tristan. "An old friend and some additional company to help ensure that this compound remains safe and that we kill Zalmon."
Tristan nodded. He had rapidly become attached to Jake, maybe it was the fact that Jake had saved him. Or maybe it's that he's so great and cute, Tristan thought.
About a half an hour later, a call came in for Jake. He took it on speaker phone.
"Who is it?" He asked.
""An old friend," a British accent came across, "the man who saved your ass at least ten times."
"Yeah, well," Jake answered, smiling. "I saved yours at least eleven."
"Psh! That one time in London doesn't count," Bradley answered.
Both Jake and Bradley laughed. Jake said, "I'm glad you're coming, Brad. Where are you?"
"About a mile out," Brad answered. "Checking in to make sure you don't destroy us when we arrive."
"Good," Jake answered. "Who is with you, what vehicles are you driving?" Brad listed off who he had with him and what vehicles they were driving in. Jake then left the room with Tristan and Alicia following. They went up to the entrance hall to greet the new arrivals. They stepped out onto the front porch and watched as three large sedans and one SUV pulled through the gate and were checked by Shane, Dante and Zack. They proceeded up the drive and parked in front of the house. Tristan was surprised to see so many men and women get out. One of the male vampires led the way up to them. He was on the shorter side at about five-six, but seemed to be well-built. He strode with confidence up the front steps and up to Jake. The two embraced as old friends do.
"It's good to see you, old friend," Jake said. "Follow me."
Brad's large party followed Jake and his few men into the house and then into the dining room which had been set up for a large group like this.
"Come, everyone have a seat," Jake said. He sat at the head of the table. Brad sat on one side and Alicia on the other. Tristan hesitated, but Alicia pointed him to the seat next to her. The rest of the household left the room, bound for the command center and for other duties.
"I would like to welcome you all to my house," Jake started. "And I thank you for coming here to help us in this most important of times. Here is the status." Jake proceeded to brief the group on all the developments and situation. After that, most of the group left to move things into their rooms. Jake, Alicia, Brad and a vampire named Joshua who was Brad's number two guy stayed. Once again Tristan hesitated, but Jake motioned for him to stay.
The four vampires discussed strategy, how they would divide the forces to continue the hunt and to protect the compound. Tristan was impressed by their professionalism and strategy.
"So," Brad asked, nodding towards Tristan. "Why did he want our friend here?"
"We don't know," Jake responded. "Let us check and see if Jess has found anything, follow me." He rose and the others rose too, they went down to the subterranean command center. Jess was waiting for them and beckoned them through to a small side room. They all went in and then closed the door. The room looked like a small conference room with a computer and projector.
`What do you got?" Jake asked Jess as they all sat.
"Well, as I told you. There is nothing in Tristan's life that seems to make him interesting to Zalmon, or anywhere in his father's lineage. However, when tracing his mother's family, I ran into a problem..."
"She was adopted," Tristan said quietly. "She has never found out who her real parents were."
"Exactly," Jess said. "Do you know why?"
"No," Tristan said. "We've never figured it out."
"Sorry I'm the one to tell you this," Jess said kindly. "But your maternal grandparents died shortly after your mother's birth in a car accident under `suspicious circumstances'. Your mother was nearly killed as well, but she survived and was adopted because the officials couldn't find any family."
Jake watched Tristan as a look of shock and then sadness washed over his face.
"I, however, have found your grandparents identity and mapped their genealogy." She walked over to the computer and typed in a few things. The projector came to life and on the screen a family tree appeared with Tristan at the bottom. "This is five generations of your mother's family."
Everyone looked over it. Jess continued, "Now, at first glance, nothing seems out of the ordinary.
"However, if you trace this line," she indicated one that went through him, through his mother, through his grandfather, great-grandmother, and ended with his great-great-grandfather. "You will notice a pattern."
"Every one is an only child or the only one to have children of their generation," Jake observed.
"Exactly," Jess said, smiling. "Which means Tristan is the sole descendant of the bloodline of Nikolai Chavdar."
`Impossible," Brad breathed. "Chavdar didn't have any children that survived."
"Or so was thought," Jess said. "If you notice, the woman who bore the child was not his wife. It was a mistress that no one knew anything about. The child was born after Chavdar died."
Jake exhaled and shook his head.
"Um, what does all this mean?" Tristan asked, looking around. "Who was this Chavdar guy?"
Jake sighed and turned to face Tristan. "About eight-hundred years ago, our species was in a time of trouble. It had become almost impossible to create new vampires. Everyone was baffled as to what was happening. Most created vampires died shortly after their creation. The ability for vampires to give birth to new vampires had long before disappeared with the first vampires. So as everyone wondered what was happening, a great vampire by the name of Daniel took it upon himself to try and save our species. He didn't have the knowledge science provides us now, but he knew that something was wrong with our blood. It was too weak to produce new vampires and that the new carriers were too weak to handle it. He searched the world for what he believed to be the ideal carrier. Even without scientific knowledge, he knew what he was looking for—he could feel it. He found it in a wealthy family in Eastern Europe. The mother and father were both powerful and intelligent human beings. Daniel felt that they both had something special in them and the combination of their blood made a perfect match for the vampire blood. They had two sons and a daughter. Daniel decided that these children would be the ideal for new vampires. When the daughter reached the age of eighteen, he took her and made her a vampire. Anya became a powerful vampire and it seemed that Daniel's plan had worked. He then took Nathaniel when he turned eighteen and he became even more powerful than Anya. Finally, he took Marek, who became the greatest of all."
"He's your sire?" Tristan asked.
"Yes," Jake smiled. "Daniel had combined his great power with the power of their blood to form new bloodlines of vampires and also revitalized the old ones when they came into contact with the three new vampires. He had saved our species.
"However, what Daniel or no one else knew is that there was a fourth child, a girl, who was born of the same father, but a different mother. She remained human and so did her descendants for almost seven hundred years. In eighteen-ninety, a vampire named Jordan came across one Nikolai Chavdar in Bulgaria, the same area as where Daniel had found his new vampires. It was obvious to Jordan that something more existed inside Nikolai. That is when we discovered the truth that there had been a fourth child and that Nikolai was a descendent of her. There is a belief that the mother of the girl was potentially an even better blood than the mother of the other three and that through the centuries, the blood only got stronger. However, we couldn't prove it then. The vampire community was confused and scared as to what to do. They could convert him or his children, but no one knew what that would mean. As we debated, all of his legitimate children were killed. About a year later, Nikolai died of cancer at the age of forty-five. We didn't know that he had fathered another child through another woman shortly before his death. That would be the second child in that line we missed. We later learned that his other children were killed by Zalmon. The war broke out ten years after Nikolai's death."
"Was it Zalmon that killed my grandparents?" Tristan asked. Darkness clouded his eyes. Jake looked to Jess.
"It's impossible to tell for sure," Jess said. "But it is quite likely."
"Why would he do that?" Tristan said, anger rising in his voice. "And why did he kill Nikolai's children?"
"Zalmon is afraid of those who are more powerful than him," Jake answered, "unless they are under his control."
"Then why did he take me captive?" Tristan asked. `Why didn't he just kill me when he found out I existed?"
"I have no idea," Jake said. "I want to know that answer as well."
After that, they talked a little more before breaking up and going to send their people out to search the city once more. Tristan went upstairs reeling from all he had learned. Jake too was reeling over it. What could this mean? Why did Zalmon want him so badly?
The next few nights passed without much change. Every night, teams of vampires went out to search the city. They never came across much. Brad and Josh found and killed a vampire who was loyal to Zalmon, but that was all.
For the most part, Jake remained at the mansion to oversee the mission and ensure that his estate was safe. He was worried after having seen Tarja nearby. Tristan was at his side almost all the time. Both of them had quickly grown attached to each other. They sat in the library and had long talks about their lives, history, philosophy, literature, and much more.