In The Beginning, Chapter 125
Charlie POV
Hyacinth and I had been looking at the map for around ten minutes when Theia returned, her arms full of multi coloured stones. She dumped a dozen of the palm sized pebbles onto the table, before disappearing, I picked up one that reminded me of a painting by Monet, the splashes of the pinkie-red colour looked like flowers in a bed of green grass, the flecks of black adding shadow and depth to the illusion. I still had the stone in my hand when Theia re-appeared with even more of the strange rocks, scattering them over the polished wood as she lay them down.
“Do you remember what I taught you about teleporting?” She asked me as she tried to gather the stones into a pile.
“Yes, although the science is mostly lost on me, we use naturally occurring pathways to move between locations.” I nodded, as I helped her catch a few that were sliding towards the edge.
“Zeus’ children do not have this ability.” I opened my mouth to argue I had seen them do it, when she held up a hand to stop me. “They can move between two points, that is true, but they do not use natural pathways, they punch a hole through reality, and sometimes it does not heal correctly. Have you ever put something somewhere, known it was there, only for it to be gone when you needed to retrieve it?” She asked, her face morphing into a self-satisfied grin at the expression on my face. “There are millions of these breaches, invisible to most creatures, but there, consuming, stealing, absorbing anything it touches. Sometimes, they are tiny, and next to nothing gets lost... sometimes, they are enormous, and someone must step in to seal them.” She explained distractedly.
“So... like black holes?” I asked confused.
“Yes... and no... I can explain how vampires travel or I can tell you about the unakite and how it can help us.” She grumbled.
“Please continue.” I replied a little sarcastic, still unwilling to forget her dismissal of Daniel’s life.
“Unakite can emit a frequency that closes these breaches, between the three of us, we could use these stones, at strategic intervals to create a faraday cage, but instead of blocking electro-magnetic energy, it will prevent them opening a breach.” She replied excitedly.
“So, we need to find the best place to gather them and trap them...” I replied, looking at the map again. “The meadow seems to be the obvious choice... how do we get them there...?” I pondered, leaving the room to find Daniel, the women trailing behind me. “Daniel?” I called as I knocked the door, it swung open quickly.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, obviously confused, and worried.
“Theia has a way to stop the vampires from teleporting, we’ve been looking over the maps, but we should co-ordinate. We think the meadow is the best place, but we need a way to draw them in. What do you think?” I asked, he shot a look behind him, and the chatter around the house stopped, becoming eerily quiet.
“Strategy meeting, now!” Daniel said loudly. “I was just filling them in on a few things. You were always going to be involved in the plan.” He linked me, I smiled to show him I understood as the din of scraping chairs and shuffling feet filled the house. Daniel indicated for me to enter first as he placed a hand on my back, Hyacinth and Theia had turned around and were stood in the far corner of the room, when I passed the short passage. Daniel led me to the table, he stood in the centre, placing me on his right, Kasa came and stood beside me, while Lander was on Daniel’s left. “Introductions first.” He said as Alex stood opposite me, Ben to his right, Robert to his, a man I hadn’t met took the last spot at the end of the line, while two others took the spaces at the other end beside Alex. “Gentlemen, this is my mate, and Luna Charlie, her aunt, Theia is behind you, you may know her as Hera, Juno, Uni, Hathor, Atahensic, Chimalma, or Akna. Beside her is Hyacinth, queen of the witches, our most respected ally. This is Lander’s Delta Holden, and Kasa’s Beta Kai, and his Delta Chaska. Their Epsilons are...” He looked around to find the older men stood beside his father, while the men around the table took their seats. “Ah, Seneca, and Aksel.” Each man gave a little nod at his name, not that it was hard to tell who was whom. Kasa’s pack all sporting beautifully tanned skin, and dark hair, while Lander’s was very obviously of Scandinavian decent, and Daniel was somewhere between the two. “We need to create a plan for the men, we estimate we could have as little as a day, or as much as three or four. From what Theia has told me about the vampires, I don’t believe they will wait, not when one of Zeus’s sons was killed by Charlie.” He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. “I propose we place men here, here, and here.” He explained, placing little stone markers on the barn, a place to the east of the house, and at the bottom of the meadow. “With our silver nitrate bullets-”
“Those would kill us to, right?” Kai asked, his voice even, a slight frown on his face.
“If you’re hit in the head or chest, yes, you should recover otherwise.” Daniel replied, satisfied Kai leaned back. “They are not just strong, they have abilities, some we will be able to fight, some we won’t. The snipers’ goal will be to eliminate any and all of these threats. Charlie, Theia and Hyacinth will be neutralising their ability to teleport, but we have to get them to the meadow first. Then we can trap them.”
“What do you suggest?” Asked Holden, looking at the map with interest.
“The way my ancestors built the town was as tactical as possible using the topography of the area. The flow of the land means their only logical way to get what they want... Charlie, is from the Northeast.” He placed a darker marker on the map. “They will send scouts, using the trees as cover... I suggest we leave a small gap here. Let them through to report we have few men in the trees, but a patrol around the house. They will teleport themselves as close to the house as they can before they attack, giving us time to be seen walking to the meadow. Once we draw them in, our warriors can surround them, Lander’s and his men coming from the west, Kasa from the East, my men will come from the North and we will have the snipers at the south.”
“The men should start running drills, get their response time down.” Holden suggested, while Daniel’s attention was all on me.
“It will be on you to get us out of there if the warriors are delayed.” He linked, and I smiled it was my turn to squeeze his hand in encouragement. “No, we don’t want to alert the vampires to this at all, everything discussed in this room, stays here.” He said aloud to Holden.
“With respect Alpha, how do we know how long it would take to mobilise if we don’t practise?” Chaska asked, looking to his own Alpha for clarification.
“We don’t, but if we are wrong, and they send scouts out, we will be laying out our whole strategy. The men coming from the east can use a path through the trees here, once the vampires have passed this point.” He drew a line on the map to make it clear. “The scouts we have placed. Here, and here.” He explained, pointing to more markers. “Will give the signal, I want their escape route choked off before they know what’s happening. At the same time the men coming from the west will make their way around using this road.” Daniel used is finger to show the route, that circled the town, to the road that led to the drive. “Leave the vehicles there, shift and wait for the signal-”
“What’s the signal?” Holden interrupted.
“Me!” Called Theia. “My spies can let me know when to advance, I can alert the men. All of them.” She offered, leaning against the wall. “Let your men save their strength for battle.” She announced, walking through the room towards the door. She obviously wanted us to follow her, as she would have just left otherwise, I stood to up, used to her little idiosyncrasies.
“She’ll be pissed if you make her wait!” I chuckled as I followed her, Daniel hot on my heels, the other Alphas following suit until we were a single file procession out of the house. Dotted amongst the snow on the lawns, were dozens of crystals, stones and gems, their colours vibrant against the soft white of the fresh flurry from the night before. We lined up along the path at the front of the house, no one dared step foot on the display Theia had created, as she walked, barefoot, down the shovelled path that ran down the centre until she reached the very end. She turned to face us, dropped to her knee, shoving her hands into the snow on either side of the path. Like ink along cotton, the snow seemed to change colour, darkening until I wasn’t sure it was still there, spreading from her fingers to the furthest corners in seconds. The ground seemed to hum and pulse as Theia’s face remained calm, her breathing steady, there was a build of energy, I could feel it in the air around me, seeping up from my feet. A blinding flash of white light dazed me momentarily, my eyes struggled to adjust to my surroundings afterwards, it almost looked like birds flying all around me. I put my hands over my eyes, as I tried to rid myself of the different shapes and colours I could still see on my closed lids. But when I looked again, there were dozens of birds; cuckoos, cranes and hawks where the stones were moments before. Theia stood and whistled, every bird’s head snapped in her direction, and took flight, like a swarm they surrounded her before climbing and spreading through the sky. And all I could think was... I wanna learn how to do that!
** TRIGGER WARNING; the next couple of chapters focus on some very dark material, as we learn more about the vampire hierarchy, and one of Zeus’ sons in particular. Rape, torture, and violence against women will be featured heavily. I felt readers needed this information as it will explain plot points later on, but I am happy to discuss this with anyone who disagrees. The last thing I want to do is upset anyone, which is why I am writing this, so you understand and are warned. The chapters will give readers insight into the vampire world, but I will try to keep it to background information, so the story will continue for those who choose to skip ahead.**
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