~~
Trinity
~~
There were looks of horror and fear. There were looks of anger and rage. And there were looks of worry and sorrow. So many different faces with so many different expressions. And as I looked at them all, I tried to take a note of how they all responded to that news.
“How many?” Mom's voice was steady, but I could tell that it was thick with fear and other emotions. “How many murders were there in California?”
“Five. All along the coast. We investigated four of them yesterday and one of them today.” Reece explained to her. “One of the killers has escalated in the process. I don't know if he was one of the killers from the other continents or not, but he did something that none of the others have.”
“I don't even know what the others have done.” Dad said. “This wasn't something that you had shared with us before you left. We knew that there were murders, but not the nature of them. And we still don't quite know why you felt the need to take our granddaughter in the middle of the night so that she was traveling with you all over the world.”
.....
“There was a reason for that, Dad.” I told him with a growing ache in my chest. “Let me explain to you what has been happening.”
“I think that would be the best place to start.” Grandfather nodded at me, his authoritative tone taking over. “We all need to be on the same page.”
“Fine. I will start with all that we knew before we left. Then I will explain what happened while we were in Europe. And lastly, I will explain what happened in California.” I told them the timeline that they were going to get from me. “This will include graphic details of murders and other incidents that have occurred. I just ask that you stay as calm as you can until I am done.”
“Yeah, we can do that.” Trevor nodded at me. “Go ahead, Trinity. Tell us what we need to know.” He was as strong looking as ever, that giant mountain of a man that hid the truly soft teddy bear that was inside of him.
I told them about the information that had been brought to us before we left. How there had been murders happening every five days since the beginning of July. I told them how they were killed. The runes being applied, the throat being cut, the heart being removed. That was all that we had learned before we had left. That was how they were all killed. Nothing had changed in all those murders. But the murders were happing in different countries at the same time, so we knew that we were dealing with more than one killer. Right from the beginning we knew that there were several people that we were looking for.
After that, I told them about how we had gone to Wales and saw the words that were hidden on the wall, and how those words were at almost all of the crime scenes, they were just hidden. They were a message for someone like me. Someone that could use magic to see them.
I looked at Dietrich when I started the next part. When I told them about the souls being trapped in their bodies and how that struck a chord with him. He knew someone who used to do that, but that person has been dead for a very long time. I also told them that Talia, with her link to the underworld and souls, was the only one that could get the trapped souls from their bodies. She needed to release them, so they stopped suffering in their bodies. Everyone in the room was horrified and disgusted about the fact that the souls could feel the pain of things like the autopsies. Even those that knew about it before were angered by it all over again.
I went through all the details that we had learned before we left and while we were traveling. I told them about going back to Germany to search for the home of Dietrich's old friend. However, that home had been hidden and needed us to break down their defenses. We were planning that for the day after we got the call about California. That was when we split with Shawn and Dietrich.
Now it was time to explain California to them. The five different murders there. The rape of the victim in Waterton. The words on the rocks as a warning. The psychic that was working in the medical examiner's office. And the man that was captured and interviewed. They were again angered when they learned that he had been watching us, the words that he said, and the fact that he used a rune on his neck to take his own life.
Needless to say, everyone in the room was stunned and silent after what I had to say. Even those that had been in California with us. They were hearing all of this put together in a timeline of events from start to finish, and that just helped to make this all that much more real.
“Well, now that I have told you all that I have to say, I think we should hear from Shawn and Dietrich. They seem to have found something as well.”
“Thank you, Trinity.” Shawn nodded at me, his voice thick and filled with angry sorrow. He hadn't known what had happened in California, so he was learning all of that now.
The two of them stepped in front of the group while Reece and I sat at my desk. I only had one desk chair, but that was fine. I was sitting on Reece's lap in the oversized chair. It was bought just for moments like this. When we were sitting together for whatever reason. It's fine though, I liked the way that it felt to have his arms around me like this. It was comforting and helped to make me feel safe. Like none of this was real for a moment, even though I knew better.
“I am glad that I could make it back in time for this meeting.” Shawn nodded at the group as he stood next to Dietrich. “This was a lucky coincidence for us.” Thinking about the time difference, they had to have gotten up before four in the morning to be here right now. That or they never slept.
“Shawn and I were tasked with investigating the home of a man that I used to know.” Dietrich started. “When I was a much younger man, I was with a group of my friends that helped the world.” He was explaining things from the beginning. “We hunted people. Bad people. That might sound wrong to some of you, but we only killed those that were a threat to the secrecy that we are all expected to keep, or those that were murdering people, including humans. We sought vampires, shifters, and magic folk. At that time, there were far less Fae in the world of humans, and those that were, knew how to keep a secret better than most. I know this makes me and my friends sound like monsters, but we were eliminating the true monsters. The ones that the stories and legends are all about.”
“I understand.” Shane, for once, spoke seriously and nodded at him. “If your group hadn't been there, the secret could have gotten out much sooner.”
“Exactly.” Dietrich nodded at him. “With those friends of mine, we used runes to help us. Some of those runes are being used by this group of people. Like the trapping of the souls. Alaric did that in the beginning, and then cleansed the soul with fire. However, he had too much heart to do that again. He didn't want to cause them more pain and suffering than he already was.”
“While Dietrich and I searched his friend's home, we found some things that were very enlightening.” Shawn explained. “They knew that Dietrich and I were the ones coming, but the house was empty. No one was there. We found journals, a family tree, a computer that we need to have to be searched by an expert, and a clue that led us to an orphanage. Only this wasn't really an orphanage.” This was the first time that Shawn made a reference to the boxes that he and Dietrich had carried through the door. “These files are about the children that had lived in that orphanage. They weren't orphans, but children from that same family. They were being raised there as warriors. And their mission is to destroy us.”
Shawn and Dietrich both put the boxes on the table that I had in the middle of the room. Along with that was a book, two journals, a roll of parchment, a laptop and several flyers.
“This is all that we found. It doesn't look like much, but there was a treasure trove of information in here. Names, birthdays, physical descriptions, and a lot more information about all of the children that went through that home. And not only that, but information from Alaric himself and a man that went against the new family regime.” Shawn looked around the room and stopped when he got to me.
“Alaric didn't want this war. He wasn't teaching these things to his family. He would be angry if he could see his descendants now. And the other man, Rayk, whose journal that we found, he was murdered by his family for thinking like Alaric did. There was something that happened to this family along the way, something that changed what they believed.”
I was at a loss. They hadn't even explained the evidence yet, and I felt like I was angrier at these people. Murdering their own family? Seriously? How fucked up could you be?
