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Trinity
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I watched my daughter run out of the room crying. She was heartbroken from all that had happened today. The vision that she had had in school, learning about these boys that were part of that murderous family, and so much more. She had been through so much over the last few weeks, and it was all my fault. I had brought her in on the case in the first place. I was the reason that she was having such a hard time. This was all my doing, all my fault. How could I have done this to her? How could I have let this happen? I was a horrible mother.
Yet, I was just trying to do what I thought was best. For her and for my people. It's not easy, trying to juggle the good of the many with the good of the few. I wanted to protect my family and my friends, but I also needed to protect the entire world of shifters and magic users. It was so much though, so hard for me to manage it on my own.
Yes, I had help. I had others there that would gladly help me when I needed it, but the fact that I needed to bear this burden, that I needed to worry about them all, it was so hard for me. And I just wanted nothing more than to have some relaxing time away from all the responsibilities. That wasn't going to happen though. As long as I was in charge, this would always be on my mind.
“Talia?!” I called after her softly, after Alexio had already chased her out of the room. I knew that he would take care of her. I knew that she would be fine. But that wasn't enough for me. I wanted to calm her down. I wanted to hold her in my arms. Though now was not the time. I needed to focus on work. And that was the way that it always was.
.....
“She will be fine.” Reece patted me on the shoulder, he must feel the same way that I did. “We will go see her soon.”
“Yeah. I know.” I nodded and turned back to face Clovio and Warrick. “We need to figure out what we are going to do now.”
“Wh..what do you want from us?” Warrick was scared but Clovio just did his best to straighten his back.
“As my daughter mentioned, she has had another vision of the upcoming attacks.” I jumped right into it. “Do you know anything about them?”
“We didn't even know they were in the country until today. We have never known who or when they were going to kill. We were supposed to remain as in the dark as possible. We were information gatherers and that was all. I swear.” I could tell that Clovio was telling the truth, I didn't need the nod from Vincent and Gabriel that told me that his words rang with truth.
“Alright. You don't know the when and where, that is fine, Talia was able to get that information. She also has the names of the victims. I don't want to let it get that far though. We need to stop them. We need to make sure that these girls don't get traumatized.” I knew that they weren't going to have that information, but it was worth asking anyway. “Now, do you know the men that are going to be doing the killings? Talia has drawn a picture of them all.” I pulled out the copies that were in my pocket. We had scanned them and stored them in the computer, but I also copied them so that I was able to have access to them at all times. “These are the five men that she saw in her vision this morning.”
“This morning?” Clovio looked up at me in surprise. “So, the vision happened today?”
“Does that mean anything?” I raised an eyebrow at him as I tried to gather what it was that he meant.
“W..well, we saw some of our cousins earlier today. Th..they were assigned to the kill teams.” Warrick was the one that answered as he looked at the photos in my hand. “That one, Claud, is the leader of their group. He is the one that Talia showed us earlier.”
“You saw him? Today?” Reece pounced on his words when he heard what he was saying.
“Those men at the park?” Westin snapped at them.
“The killers were there, but they got away?” Lucas sounded angry when he realized what had happened.
“You didn't know they were the killers, so it isn't your fault.” I looked over at Lucas and Westin as I soothed their anger. “We will find them.” Looking back at Clovio and Warrick, I continued to talk to them about the men that they knew. “Where can I find these men? I need to stop them from killing those girls.”
“I..I don't know.” Clovio was shaking his head, something that obviously angered Reece.
“These girls that are supposed to be killed, the ones that are going to die next, they are just kids. They attend high school with Talia. They are children. They didn't do anything wrong. How is it that those men, or your family, thinks that killing kids is justified in any way?” The rage was coursing through him now. Talia definitely had her father's temper. Then again, I got like this too, when I needed to.
“I don't think it's right. Neither does Clovio or Armina. We never agreed with the family, but we had to follow along. To go against them is to die. I don't want to die.” He was crying now. This man was just a kid as well. Yeah, he was likely over eighteen, just like Rika and Reagan, but he was still just a kid. He wasn't responsible for this, and that meant that I needed to protect him as well.
“Alright, I get it.” I nodded at him. “I know that you couldn't stop them. you would have died. You have us now though, and we will protect you. So, please, help us. We need to stop these people. We need to put an end to this. Help us stop them, and we will protect you.”
“A..are you going to kill them?” Was that hope or fear that was making his voice shake.
“What do you think?” I didn't want to say yes. That would make me sound like a monster. And the truth was, I would only kill the ones that needed to be killed. And those would be the ones that didn't surrender. I had a feeling though, that most of the die hard members of the family wouldn't surrender. They would be like true zealots in a cult, they wouldn't stop until they were dead.
“I think that you will kill them.” Clovio answered me honestly in a steady voice.
“And how do you feel about that?” I asked him in a voice that matched his. I needed to keep all the emotions out of my tone so that I didn't spook him.
“I think that the guilty need to die. My uncle tried to save the family before, and they killed him. They talk about him as if he were a warning to those that think like I do. And the others celebrate his death as the day that the family was liberated from a monster. I think that my family is too far gone. And it's not like we're actually a family. We are raised like orphans, that place wasn't just a place to live, it was a way of life for us. And I hated it with a passion. I wanted a normal life, a normal family. I wanted to be like my Uncle Rayk. I want to live the life that he wanted for us.”
“That is a good answer.” Dietrich smiled as he stepped forward. “I read Rayk's journal, one that was hidden in the desk at the mansion.”
“Y..you knew how to open it?” Clovio looked shocked. “I..I figured it out when I was a kid messing around in there, but no one else seemed to think about it. I saw that journal, but I was so scared by what I learned in it that I put it back. H..how did you know about it?”
“I knew your family founder. The one for whom the orphanage was named after. Alaric Jaegan was a friend of mine. And he would be appalled by what has been happening with your family. He loved all types of people, and he was not the type to kill anyone without reason.”
“A..Alaric? You knew Alaric?” Warrick sounded awestruck by Dietrich's words.
“How is that possible?”
“I am Alyssa's father. One of them anyway. I am a vampire. I have lived for over five centuries. I knew Alaric when I was going through a rebellious phase, and he saved me from myself. I owed a lot to him. I know that he would approve of the two of you, but not the bulk of your family.”
“I..I am sure that you are right.” Clovio nodded at him. “I..I want to help you. I want to stop them. I don't want anyone else to die.”
“That's good.” I nodded at him. “Then the first thing that we need to do is make it so that you can contact us. Do you have Rika's phone number?”
“Y..yes.” He nodded embarrassedly. I knew he would have it.
“Change the number in the contact. Make it mine or Reece's.”
“Mine.” Reece demanded. “If you need to tell us something, do it in code while texting the contact named Rika. They won't know you are telling me anything.”
“Alright.” Clovio nodded.
“You, Warrick, do the same with Alyssa's contact and my phone number.” Dietrich instructed him.
“Yes, Sir.” Warrick responded like he was answering a drill sergeant.
“OK, now that this is done, you need to head back to the dorms. Act like nothing happened, you seem to be good at pretending. If you learn anything, tell us about it. Report to us on the movements of the others. And we need to know who all of these men are. I know that this one is Claud, and Talia said he was the leader. And one other is named Fritz, that name was in Talia's vision, but the others need to be identified.”
“This one is Fritz.” Clovio pointed to one with blond hair and dark yellow eyes. “These are Patrik, Jonathon, and Adrian. They are not enrolled at the school, but there are others of us that are there.”
“Names.” Vincent ordered him with a single word.
“Aloisius, Gunnar, Armina, Lovisa, Hede, and Hedi. With me and Warrick, there were eight of us. Armina is like us though, she is against the family and lives in fear on a daily basis. The others are perfect little Jaegan drones that do what they were told to do.”
“OK, we will look into them. Find out everything that you can, Clovio, and report back to me. If I get word that you tipped these people off, I will kill you. I will show you and your family no mercy. I am putting my faith and trust into you, do you hear me? Do not blow this.”
“I..I understand, Queen Trinity. I will not go against you. I don't want to die, and I know that my family will kill me almost immediately if they were to find out about this. I trust you, and I want to help you.”
“Good. Do not make me regret this decision.”
“We won't, Queen Trinity.” Warrick nodded at me. “We will prove that we are not the bad men that others think that we are.” I knew that he was talking about Rika and Alyssa. They would need to prove themselves before those two even looked at them again. I felt bad for them for a moment, but I wasn't going to let it get to me. My main goal here was going to be putting an end to all of these murders. And that started with stopping the ones that were predicted today.
