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Trinity
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Over the next several hours, and into the next morning, information was flooding in. It was coming in so fast that we were temporarily overwhelmed with it. We were just putting it in piles while we tried to figure out what went where.
All of this new information was going into the room that I set aside for us to use. I had blocked off the conference room that was just below my office. It was normally only able to be reached from the hallway on that floor, but I decided to make a few modifications to it for the time being. I created a staircase in my office that would take us down to that conference room. I also temporarily removed the doors to that room so that the only exit was through my office. It was, for all intents and purposes, a hidden room for my office.
Gabriel, Vincent, Shawn and Dietrich stayed at the office from the moment that the meeting was over. They were receiving reports and files from other countries and putting things into different piles. We were going to be working on organizing it first thing in the morning.
After the meeting was over, Rawlynne and Jackson went straight back to their office. Rawlynne was the director of the local field office and was able to access more information than those that worked around her. However, her and Jackson, with their powers that I had given them so long ago, were able to access more than the average person could ever even dream of. If the information was in a system anywhere in the world, they would be able to access it. Too bad that this information didn't just flat out tell them who it was that was killing my people.
.....
I wanted to keep working like the others were, but I was forbidden to do so. Reece, Gabriel and Vincent told me that after I closed off the room, he and I were to go back to our tower and show the kids that there was nothing wrong. If we didn't do that, then we would run the risk of prematurely causing a panic to run through the castle. And, until we were ready to go and visit these crime scenes ourselves, we needed to keep the investigation a secret from everyone else.
After Talia, Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley all went to school the following morning, and Reagan and Rika went to spend some time with their new friends, Reece and I got back to work on the case. I wasn't going to sit idly by and not help with this case.
“So, what do we have so far?” I asked the others as I came into the room. Instantly, Gabriel and Vincent looked up at me and started to work in tandem as they explained things to me.
“We have received twelve of the remaining case files. We are just waiting on a couple more that should be here soon.” Vincent spoke first. He was getting to his feet and straightening a pile of papers before setting them aside.
“We are compiling the victim's details first. Ages, species, manner of death even though they are all the same, the dates that they were killed, and anything else that stands out at this point.” Gabriel added as he wrote something on a dry erase board behind him.
“We have photos of the victims before and after the murders. We are putting together as much of a timeline as possible, but I do believe that we will need to speak with their family and friends to know if there was anyone unusual in the area leading up to the murders.”
“We are going to need to find out when they were last seen, who they were with, and how these people managed to get the victims alone and how they managed to overpower them.” Vincent set a pile of documents at the head of the table, presumably for me to review when I finally got to work on them all. “I suggest that we go through all of this as quickly, yet thoroughly as we possibly can. After that, we should travel to the site of each of the murders so that we can gather more information. There won't be anything like seeing it first hand to see if there was anything else that we are missing.”
“I agree. We should go there in person. And just as you said, we need to go over all of this information before we go. It would also be helpful to have someone that stays behind to compile and analyze everything that we discover at the various crime scenes.”
Just as I was agreeing with Vincent and Gabriel, I heard the sound of footsteps thundering down the stairs to the conference room. I could already tell that there were four people coming into the room, and it sounded to me like they were all wanting to get to me before the others did.
First into the room was Shawn and Dietrich. They were leading the group, most likely because they were able to shadow walk ahead of the others. The others in this case being Rawlynne and Jackson. I could see that the latter of the group had stacks of documents with them. Dietrich was carrying a file folder with him, so I assumed that meant that he was here to tell me something as well. Whatever was going on, they were all in a hurry about it.
“Trinity!” Dietrich called out to me the moment that he was able to see me. He normally didn't shadow walk unless he had to. It was something that he liked to avoid since it made people uncomfortable. This time though, he was walking through all of the shadows that he could so that he was at my side in a hurry.
“Yes, Dietrich, what is it?” I gave him and Shawn, who was also shadow walking, my undivided attention.
“I have information for you. Things that I think that you need to see.” He turned and started to unload the contents of his folder onto the table. “I called my people as you suggested. I asked them all about people that had gone missing, people that I should be concerned about.”
“And?” I knew that this was not going to be good news. I knew that he wouldn't be this frantic if he hadn't learned that there had been murdered vampires.
“Well, let's just say that our victim count has now reached at least thirty.” He was spreading out the documents into twelve different piles.
“Another dozen?” I asked as I looked down at the papers that he had for me.
“Yes. All of these victims were vampires. All of them went missing for some time and was later found murdered by their friends.”
“Not by a human?” I asked as I picked up the first document and saw the name of the deceased. The name was Helena Thatcher from London. She had been found on top of the Eiffel Tower following a vacation that she took last month.
“No, humans hadn't found them. They went missing and were not heard from for several days to weeks. When their friends began to worry about them, they went looking for the missing persons. Apparently, all of them were found last week. The liaison that was gathering the information said that he was already preparing to contact me. He had just started to receive this information the day before yesterday. I just reached out to him before he could contact me. Also, all of these murders happened in Europe. Between the United Kingdom and other western European nations. These people seem to be primarily targeting the supernatural community. I do not know who they are, but they are definitely a threat to us all.”
“Well, I just received word that the string of homicides that was reported on the news was for twenty-seven individuals, not eighteen. And all of them are shifters, magic users, or fae. Jackson and I looked into them all briefly, and not a single one of them appears to be human. It is definitely true that these people are only after nonhumans.” Rawlynne was laying out the information that she had on the table as well. She was making it so that we all could see the various cases that had been reported on.
“Well, I think it's safe to say now, but it looks like it might be a really bad time to be one of us.” Reece was standing beside me, looking at all the documents that had just been laid out before us.
“Yes, and I hate to say this, but I am starting to suspect a human group is behind this.” I looked up in time to see that the others were both shocked to hear this and seemed to be expecting it at the same time. “Whoever these people are, whatever their group is after, it is clear that they hate us for not being human.”
“But how did they find out about us? How do they know how to kill us?” Shawn, with his eyes wavering in fear and fury, asked those questions with desperation in his voice.
“I don't know what they want, or who they are, but I promise that they will pay.” The conviction in my voice was stronger than anything that I expected to feel at the moment. Well, everything except for my anger. That was already raging and still growing. “Come on everyone, we've got work to do.”
