The Vampire Council: Case File:1 (7 page)

Stephanie quickly shoots up pushing her chair back enough for it to fall backwards. ‘But that’s treason.’ She shouts.

Dirk gets a little taken back by her forcefulness. ‘You act as this is news to you. That’s why we’re all here.’

‘Yes, of course. Excuse me; I lost myself for a moment there.’ Stephanie begins to worry that she had blown her cover and Dirk now knows she’s a spy.

‘Apology accepted, please be seated.’ Dirk gestures to her fallen chair.

As she bends to pick it up her back is now turned to group. Dirk gets to his feet and pulls out his gun, without any hesitation pulls the trigger the moment she turns back to face them. The bullet hit directly between her eyes, blowing blood, brain and shards of skull all over the clean white walls behind her. Her body flies back onto the chair tipping it and her body to the floor. Blood begins to pour out over Dirks crisp clean white carpet. None of the group seems fazed by what had just happened.

‘Let this be an expression of trust. I’m willing to take out whoever and whatever gets in the way of my plans.’ Dirk puts his gun back in his jacket pocket as he retakes his seat.

‘So why don’t we activate the programme now whilst the cracks are there.’ Stanton finally speaks.

‘If we activate now, it could mean disaster. The cracks are there, and after the events of today I can assume they’re only going to get bigger. So leave it to me. I’ll force these cracks to widen and I’ll give you your orders when it’s time to strike.’ Dirk stands. ‘Any questions?’

The group all look at each other and shake their heads.

‘Alright then. It was lovely to see you all and I’ll have Max here show you out.’ Dirk walks through French doors out onto an outside roof decking as Max thanks the guests for coming and shows them the door. As the last guest exits Max closes the door and joins Dirk out on the decking.

‘Are you sure about all this?’ Max asks.

‘I have never wanted anything more than I want this. The Ana Programme will be the end of this shit life we lead.’ Dirk gazes at the sunrise.

‘I’ve received word our little pet failed on his mission. I thought it would be best to tell you after the meeting.’

‘Doesn’t matter the fact he showed up was good enough. This will shock the council into a state of panic and fear. And this is good for our plan.’

‘Are we all done tonight sir?’

‘Yes you can go. Oh, but first. Phone someone to come clean that mess up.’

‘Yes sir.’

‘Oh and the mess outside our front door too, be quick with that one, the mortals will be out on the streets soon.’

‘Yes sir. I’ll deal with that one now.’ Max leaves Dirk out on the decking and exits the apartment.

Dirk continues to stare at the sunrise as an evil smile appears on his face.

CHAPTER 10:

TIME TO BE ROGUE

J
eff stares out of the hotel room window at the sunrise. Tessa is sat at the end of the bed scraping dirt from beneath her nails with her knife.

‘I still don’t understand.’ Jeff turns to face Tessa and lets out a sigh at the sight of her cleaning her nails in such a barbaric way. Tessa slips her knife back into her boot before releasing a sigh that triumphed Jeff’s.

‘It’s quite simple. But I’ll explain it again for you.’ Tessa leans back supporting her weight with her arms. Jeff turns back to the window at the sight of Tessa’s calmness. ‘I’m what’s known as a rogue. I’m not connected to the council in anyway.’

A spark flickers in Jeff’s brain at the idea of leaving the council.
So you can leave?
A feeling of happiness shoots through his body at such an idea. He focuses his attention back on Tessa.

‘So it is possible to leave? I can leave and this nightmare can be over?’ Jeff can’t hold back the smile appearing on his face.

‘Don’t be flashing about that cheeky smile, you could make a girl just drop her panties.’ Tessa stares with a cheeky grin at Jeff whilst raising an eyebrow and biting her bottom lip. Jeff’s smile fades as a frown appears.

‘Stop with the joking. I want to know. So it is possible to leave the council?’

Tessa shakes her head to get rid of her cheeky grin which is replaced by a look of seriousness as she rolls her eyes at the stupidity Jeff owns.

‘You can leave the council. But you can’t leave the lifestyle.’

Jeff’s heart begins to sink. ‘What do you mean?’

‘The moment you decide to drop out of the council that’s it really. It’s the end. You’re now a rogue.’ Tessa begins to fiddle with her fingers. She can see in Jeff’s body language that he is not
too keen on what he is being told.

‘Surely that can’t be any worse than working for the council. You have freedom being rogue surely?’ Jeff tries his hardest to cling onto hope.

‘Being a part of the council you only have to worry about being hunted by one group of people, and because there’s not that many vampire hunters compared to vampires it’s very rare you come across them especially for rookies.’

‘So who else is hunting you?’ Jeff spots a flinch from Tessa, he knows he has hit a nerve but he wants to know.

Tessa looks up into Jeff’s eyes, ‘You.’

Confusion fills Jeff.
Me, what is she on about?
He could tell by the stern tone of her voice that she didn’t want to discuss it anymore. But with his background of being a lawyer he couldn’t stop himself from asking her more questions to get answers. ‘What do you mean me?’

‘I didn’t mean just you. I meant you in general.’

Jeff thinks for a moment as he processes this new information.

‘You’re quite slow aren’t you?’ Tessa slips Jeff a smile. ‘The council dear. Once you become rogue, you’re now an enemy to The One. The one doesn’t take kindly to his followers leaving the council. And since this is so you become expendable.’

This perfect idea of an escape had quickly turned sour. The idea of never being rid of this filled Jeff with rage. He slams his fist on the window ledge and screams. ‘They fucking make us kill you?’

‘Indeed. I was trying to hint towards maybe you not thinking about becoming rogue. It’s no walk in the park. Especially if you end up on the wrong path.’

Jeff’s ears prick up as his eyes dart to face Tessa. ‘What do you mean wrong path?’

Tessa sits herself back up on the edge of the bed and rubs her nose before answering. ‘Well there’s two ways you can go. There’s the way that involves getting into the wrong crowds, killing mortals for food and sport, drug rings. And most stupid of all being hired by traitors to attack the council. There’s nothing more stupid than trying
to fight for the thrown as it were.’ Tessa’s blood boils at the very thought of it.

Jeff leans on the window as he continues to soak in all this new information. Again he wants more. ‘So I take it that’s not the path you’ve chosen?’

‘No. Me and a few others and joined together to collect information on a special programme being formed.’

Jeff pushes himself away from the window and stands directly in front of Tessa. ‘Is this the programme you and Dirk were talking about in the ally way?’

Tessa slowly raises her eyesight to Jeff’s eyes and lets loose a slight giggle and a smile. ‘As much as I like the sight of your, how shall I say, great man package you have,’ Tessa lowers her eyes indicating Jeff’s crotch which is a metre away from her face, ‘but I was wondering if you could make me a cup of tea?’

Jeff pushes Tessa by her shoulders and climbs on top of her holding his body up with his arms. He stares with anger into her eyes. ‘Enough with your joking and flirting and be serious about this.’

Tessa bites her bottom lip and raises her eyebrows as she grabs hold of Jeff’s waist. ‘I don’t usually rush into things with a man but if you insist.’

Jeff punches the duvet next to Tessa’s head. ‘I would never cheat on my wife.’

At this moment the hotel room door slowly opens. Both Tessa and Jeff turn their heads towards the door.

‘I’m sorry to disturb you this early in the morning but I thought…’ Rita slowly enters the room whilst looking around into the corridor to make sure no one could see what she was up to. She stops whispering as she turns her head into the room and spots Jeff lying on top of a female with her hands around his waist. ‘Oh I’m so sorry.’ Rita becomes flustered and embarrassed and leaves the room.

‘No Rita it’s not what it looks like.’ Jeff fights Tessa’s grip as he quickly gets himself to his feet to stop Rita before she closes the door behind her. Tessa sits herself back up on the edge of the bed.

‘No it’s fine, I shouldn’t have disturbed you.’ Rita closes the door behind her. Jeff stops just before the door and lets out a big sigh as he runs his hands up his face and through his hair.

‘Why so stressed?’ Tessa continues to display a smile on her face.

‘Just shut up Tessa.’ Jeff’s patience is wearing thin with Tessa.

‘So you and little miss are an item? Doesn’t surprise me though, you look her type. But what happened about the whole loyalty thing towards your wife?’ Tessa gets a slight joy out of annoying Jeff as he takes the bait easily.

In anger Jeff turns to face Tessa and scrunches up his face as he begins to shout. ‘For your
information I’m not seeing Rita. I feel sorry for her, she got punished.’

‘Well that’s nothing new; lower ranked vampires always get punished for doing the slightest thing wrong. Get a little cut somewhere on their bodies so they feel a bit of pain and then they’re allowed to get back to work.’

‘I get that, but it’s the fact she was brutally savaged by our little friend from earlier.’ Jeff had just wiped the smile from Tessa’s face. She stands up and walks in front of Jeff.

‘And let me guess you now want to punish Dirk. Believe me you’re not the only one.’ Tessa turns away and walks over to the window.

‘What’s the history between you two anyway?’ Jeff snaps back into lawyer mode.

‘He’s a traitor. Me and Vaelen had found out that Dirk was planning to destroy the council from the inside. We managed to get a heavy following of council members to help see Dirk get a guilty verdict in court and be sent to death for high treason. But there was a slight problem of lack of evidence. Over time more and more council members began to back him including Vaelen. So all the charges were dropped and he went about his business.’ Tessa hates reminding herself of the past. And Jeff notices this.

‘And it’s because of that you decided to leave the council and follow him on your own as you knew the council was flawed.’

Tessa smiles again. ‘I under estimated you Jeff. You’re quite smart. We could use a guy like you on our team.’

Jeff walks over to Tessa. They stand face to face in front of the window.

‘You saying I should leave the council?’ Asks Jeff.

‘I was thinking more along the lines of you being our man on the inside. Since we have to lay low we could use someone feeding us information about the council. Maybe help us get a step closer to figuring out what Dirk is up to.’

‘And if I do this for you, you promise we’ll take Dirk down.’ Anger fills Jeff’s face.

‘Trust me if we get the evidence we’re after Dirk will sent to death within minutes.’

Jeff looks into Tessa’s eyes and knows she is deeply dedicated to making sure Dirk pays for his crimes. ‘Ok. I’m in.’ Jeff and Tessa shake hands at their agreement.

‘Oh what strong hands you have.’ Tessa again bites her lip and smiles at Jeff.

Jeff pulls his hand away. ‘Stop that or I won’t help you.’

Tessa begins to laugh as she opens the window. ‘Don’t worry I’m joking. I’m not into kids.’

Jeff thinks for a moment. ‘I’m thirty-one.’

‘I’m three hundred and ninety. I like older men anyway.’ Tessa laughs as changes into vampire form and leaps out of the window.

Jeff shuts the window behind her and looks around the room before perching himself on the
edge of the bed.
What am I doing?
Jeff throws his face into his hands as fear begins to fill his heart.

CHAPTER 11:

IT’S NOT CANON

J
acqueline takes a drag from her cigarette. The feeling of the hot smoke entering her lungs always gave her a sense of feeling. It’s the one thing from her previous life she has held onto. She taps her nails against her desk as she reads from a file open on her computer screen. She folds her legs, slips off her heels and edges herself forward closer to the computer screen. The light from the monitor illuminates her face. The look of panic yet intrigue strikes her face as she reads deeper into the file.
This is not normal.
She takes one last drag from her cigarette before putting it out in the ashtray next to her computer. All her concentration is now on this file. She rustles in her seat getting more and more agitated. She cannot keep herself from fidgeting as she scrolls further through the file. The name Leofric catches her eye. She quickly minimizes the file and opens a folder on her desktop marked ‘Known Hunters’. Within this folder there are ten more folders marked one to ten. Known vampire hunters are categorized to their level of threat. One being the least threatening and ten being the truly dangerous hunters. Jacqueline didn’t want to waste her time searching through folder by folder so moved her curser to a search option at the bottom of the open window. She squints her eyes to see what she was typing due to the lack of light. Her nails tap down on the keys. L. E. O. F. R. I. C. She hovers her finger over the enter key in hesitation. Her body shivers as she inhales a deep breath through her nose and closes her eyes.
Please.
Her finger slams on the enter key. The folders automatically start opening until the file on Leofric was located. Jacqueline places her hands in her lap and exhales.
Please.
She opens her eyes. The Leofric file had been located. She looks closely at the folder address bar at the top of the folder. The number ten stares back at her.