Birth of Jaiden Read online

  It’s so sad, and I’m to blame, Alex thought before he hurried away in disgust. I can’t watch anymore. The elevator took him far above the casinos and the many floors of rooms to the conference room floor. The doors opened to the dark gray carpeted hallway with its starch white walls and framed windows of other offices.

  He opened the door to the conference room and Danielle immediately rose to embrace him. “Hello Alex.”

  He rushed to her and hugged the beautiful angel, savoring her scent; she smelled like a fresh spring day.

  “Hi, Danielle.”

  He held her small frame while she planted a kiss on his cheek with her full pink lips. Her long black hair fell down to her waist and tickled his hands.

  When she finally released him, Danielle pulled back and looked at him. Alex could swear that she had the longest black eye lashes that he had ever seen.

  “It’s good to see you, Alex.”

  She turned and went to her chair. Alex admired her long, white skirt, which seemed to flow around her legs, as well as her pale, pink peasant top; they both covered her skin appropriately. Very angelic, he thought.

  He took the chair next to hers and realized that the others had been staring at their interaction. Directly across from him was Victoria Jackson, their witch. In his opinion, she sure did look like one too. She wore an old black dress and her arthritis distorted hands clutched a frayed wicker bag. Her gray hair was pulled up into a bun on top of her head.

  Reluctantly, he greeted her. “Hello Victoria.”

  “Alex.” She nodded at him and then glared at everyone else with her small blue eyes.

  Sitting next to her was her apprentice, Deanna Ventress. Deanna was one of his favorites; she was an incredible source of information and ideas.

  “Hey Deanna!”

  She had been sitting with her head down and her bright red hair spilled down around her face so that you couldn’t see her light green eyes. But she quickly raised her head so that Alex could see they were filled with happiness, as they always were.

  How can someone with such a great attitude stand to be around Victoria all the time? This thought had occurred to him more than once.

  Alex could not deny that Victoria was an awesome witch. Even though she was a bit of a downer, she knew pretty much everything when it came to magic.

  He looked over when the door opened. Ah, enter the dark angel, he thought dramatically.

  Damion Snow was actually a pretty good guy; he had just lived the wrong kind of life when he had been alive so he had had to go to hell. It happens.

  With his blond hair and blue eyes anyone who didn’t know better would have thought that he was the angel and Danielle was the dark angel.

  “Hi.” Damion addressed everyone as he took his chair on the other side of Alex.

  “How’s it going?” Alex asked him.

  “Only hell is worse.” He smiled wickedly.

  Alex wiggled his eyebrows. “How much worse?”

  Damion shook his head. “You never give up, do you, Alex?”

  “Never.” Alex met Damions eyes and they both burst into laughter at their running joke. Their laughter didn’t subside when Jeremiah Duncan marched into the room and took a seat beside Victoria; in fact, it only made them laugh harder.

  Another running joke between the council members was that Jeremiah and Victoria were twins separated at birth. He was gray haired and grouchy just like her.

  Victoria’s glare suddenly cut through them like the sharp blade of a knife. Alex gasped viciously as he tried to curb his laughter.

  Damion’s reaction was quite the same, but somehow they managed to settle into silence just as Stewart Craven arrived, last as usual. Alex admired his arrogant demeanor, the way he could disregard anyone or anything. His looks matched his attitude, with his long blond hair and icy blue eyes.

  As he watched Stewart enter and find his chair with a quick hello to everyone, Alex couldn’t help but wonder what was going on with him; he had recently tried his telepathy on Stewart, to no avail. Stewart knew how to close his mind to others, just as they all did, but recently Alex felt that something was wrong with him, and he wanted to know what it was.

  After Stewart had taken his chair, Alex, as well as the rest of the group, focused his eyes on Damion.

  “I have some bad news, folks.”

  Tension tightened inside of Alex. “It’s Malcolm, right?”

  “Isn’t it always Malcolm?” Victoria spat out.

  “No one can find him which means that something bad is probably going to happen soon.” Damion lowered his eyes.

  Victoria snorted, “You mean that slaughtering whole villages in Africa is not bad. Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

  Damions eyes shot up sharply. “Of course not, Victoria, that’s horrible, but what could be coming might be worse.”

  Jeremiah finally decided to put his word in too. “Let’s not argue; we have too much to discuss.”

  “I’m not arguing, just stating fact.”

  “Why do you always have to have the last word, Victoria?” Damion bore his eyes into her and tried to stare her down.

  “Stop it, guys.” Danielle’s voice was firm. “Damion’s right; this could be very bad if we don’t get on it.”

  Alex watched with humor as Damion and Victoria tore their eyes away from each other and settled them on Danielle. It was Deanna who spoke first, though. “What are we going to do?”

  “We need to inform the warriors and get a search party going in every country. He could be anywhere.”

  Stewart put his elbows onto the table and leaned on them. “I don’t think he wants to be found. Therefore we probably won’t find him.”

  Stewart’s comments infuriated Alex. “Why are you always the devil’s advocate?” he asked even though he knew that Stewart was right.

  Malcolm was their worst enemy at the moment. He was one of the oldest vampires around, and pure evil. It seemed that his latest mission was to populate the earth with vampires that were just as evil as he was.

  Alex remembered the last time they had discussed those same issues. Damion had stated it was their mission to stop Malcolm from making vampires by killing him. Several years earlier, the council had voted unanimously for the new law that prohibited the creation of more vampires without approval from them. The law would stay in effect until they could control the vampire population better. But Malcolm considered himself above their laws; in his mind, he was the law for the bad guys.

  “You know it’s true, Alex.” Alex was startled out of his reverie by Stewart’s voice.

  “Of course I know it’s true, but we are here to find solutions, so try to help, ok?”

  Stewart leaned back in his chair and put his hands up defensively. “Ok, ok, chill out.”

  Alex looked at Danielle because looking at her made him feel better. Then, he continued. “One thing we have to consider is that Malcolm was a threat before, but his elusiveness heightens the threat level considerably. Everyone is in danger; you all need to keep your senses sharp and keep yourselves out of harm’s way, if possible. Malcolm knows we are all important and nothing would please him more than to get rid of any of us.”

  He watched everyone nod their heads in agreement.

  Jeremiah spoke up. “There’s not much we can do except wait.”

  “No!” Damions eyes glittered with intensity. “We cannot just sit around and wait for him to attack us.”

  “We can’t do anything if we don’t know where he is,” Jeremiah countered.

  “We will find him!” Damion shouted.

  “Not if he doesn’t want to be found.”

  Damion leaned forward. “Look, Jeremiah, we are the Great Council. We are here to make sure that the supernatural creatures abide by the laws we have created. Everything must remain in the best interest of the human race.”

  “I know perfectly well why we are here,” Jeremiah retorted.

  “Well, I don’t think anything Malcolm is
up to is going to be beneficial for the humans.”

  “We cannot put ourselves in danger by going blindly into something we know nothing about. The council has to protect its own.” Jeremiah pounded the table.

  “I can’t believe you are saying this, Jeremiah; you are a part of this council, as was your father, and his father. Many here come from long lines of members, so you should know as well as any of us that we do what is best for others, not ourselves.”

  Alex couldn’t take it anymore. “Stop it! We all have sensitive enough telepathy to know that something is wrong, terribly wrong. I agree that we need to move in soon, but first let’s see what the search parties find out.”

  When his gaze moved to Stewart, Alex felt he was hiding something. Although he knew he was right, he didn’t want to confront him until he had had time to talk to Damion and Danielle. If Stewart was planning to betray them, it had to be taken care of.

  A thick, silence filled the room.

  Deanna cleared her throat and everyone looked her way. She remained silent, though.

  Victoria coaxed her. “Go ahead.”

  “Well…I was thinking that we could get some, uh…well, vampire slayers to help us.”

  Nobody moved a muscle, but Alex could see that everyone was looking at her as though she were crazy. But she wasn’t crazy; in fact, she had come up with a grand plan.

  Alex was impressed. The last thing Malcolm would expect would be for vampire slayers to hunt him. “Yes!” he exclaimed excitedly. “That’s it!”

  More comfortable now that she had some support, Deanna continued explaining. “I figure that some of these slayers have been looking for Malcolm for their whole lives and he can easily see them coming. So when we find him, we simply tell the slayers where he is, and let them go after him.”

  “That’s your plan?” Jeremiah looked at her incredulously.

  Victoria instinctively came to Deanna’s defense. “Maybe you should let her finish,” she snapped.

  Jeremiah kept silent because he knew Victoria would fight him till he was deaf from the sound of her voice.

  “Go on,” she instructed Deanna.

  “Well, I figure that while the slayers are keeping him busy, we can sneak in for the kill.”

  “Sneak in for the kill; are you mad?” Stewart asked her.

  Before anyone could say a thing, Danielle clasped her hands together in prayer style. “I love the idea.” She smiled at Deanna.

  “And who’s going to volunteer to approach the vampire slayers?” Stewart sneered.

  With a smug, almost challenging, smile, Deanna looked at him. “I’ll do it.”

  “First we have to find him,” he replied with raised eyebrows and tilted head.

  “Let’s do it, then!” Damion shouted like a football coach.

  Alex figured Damion was trying to prevent any further arguments, so he quickly asked his question. “Hey, I was wondering what you all would think about me bringing Chris to the meetings from now on.”

  “I think it’s about time,” Damion said immediately.

  “I agree,” Danielle added. “Is everyone in favor of that?”

  Alex listened to the murmured ayes; Deanna practically hollered hers.

  “Well, I guess that’s it, then,” Damion concluded. “Unless anyone has anything they want to add.” He looked around and when no one said anything, he stood. “Ok. Everyone work on what you need to and remember to be careful. I will get hold of everyone when we need to meet again.”

  They all rose and left the room.

  3

  Alex exited the room and breathed in the fresh air. It had been stuffy in there.

  Danielle came to his side and hooked her arm around his. “Walk with me.”

  She led him to an elevator and they rode down together. There was a huge crowd waiting to get on so they carefully wove their way through the people and out the front door. The relentless rain was coming down hard and fast in large drops.

  “Do you sense it too?” Alex asked her while they waited for the valet to bring his car under the overhang.

  “Stewart?”

  “Yes.”

  “Something is definitely wrong, but patience is a virtue, my friend.”

  “What?”

  “Stewart is not the kind to keep a secret for very long; it’s almost like he wants us to know that he’s hiding something.”

  Shocked, Alex realized she was right. The thought had never occurred to him. “You’re right, it was pretty obvious.”

  “He’ll reveal it soon enough.”

  “Why don’t we just ask him?”

  “He knows we suspect something; I think that was the whole point.”

  “So we just sit around and wait for something to happen?”

  “Yes.”

  Alex felt so frustrated by Danielle’s brief answers. They were total opposites: She was patient, but he was an action taker. He wanted to know right now if Stewart was a traitor.

  “If we pursue Stewart, he’ll only become more defensive and clam up. But don’t worry; we will find out sooner or later.”

  “And you think it’s safe to let it go.”

  “Yes.”

  When the valet arrived with his car, Danielle embraced him. “I’ll see you soon,” she whispered softly into his ear.

  “Do you want a ride?”

  “No thanks, I want to walk.”

  “In the rain?”

  “Yes.”

  She lightly kissed his cold cheek before walking off. He watched her weave her way in and out of the crowd until she seemed to disappear.

  Alex drove away with Danielle still on his mind. Over the years, they had come to understand one another like no one else could.

  He wished that she could talk about the future or the past, or anything that could change the way things were supposed to happen, but he had stopped asking her long ago when he had realized that there were probably a lot of things that she didn’t know. It seemed like being earthbound kept her out of the loop.

  Through the darkness and rain, he could see the trees on either side of the highway starting to bend towards one another to form a tunnel. Despite its size, his house wasn’t visible from the road. As it came into view, he swelled with pride at its resemblance to Tara in Gone with the Wind.

  When he pulled into the circular drive, he saw Christopher’s car. After he had parked, Chris came over to greet him.

  “Let’s get inside,” Alex motioned toward the enormous front doors.

  They entered the foyer dripping wet, shed their soggy coats and ventured into the sitting room.

  “How are you, Chris?” Alex asked as he went to the fireplace and pushed the little button that started the fake fire. The things they come up with these days are amazing, he thought.

  “I’m ok; I just came by to see how you are. It hasn’t exactly gone unnoticed that you have been kind of down lately.”

  “I am down, but things have started picking up so it looks like I should be pretty busy.”

  “Good. You need something to occupy that roaming mind of yours.”

  “Well, you’re going to be busy too.”

  “Doing what?”

  Alex turned away nonchalantly. “Oh, just stuff for the council. No big deal.”

  He hid a smile, knowing full well Chris had been waiting a long time to hear those words.

  Chris’s green eyes lit up. “Are you serious?”

  He ran his fingers through his perpetually messy, dark brown hair.

  “Yeah, it’s true; everyone agreed.”

  “Thank you, Alex, you know how much it means to me that you and the rest of the council trust me enough to be part of it.”

  They stood side by side next to the fireplace, Chris turned to face Alex. Alex put a hand on each of his shoulders and looked into his eyes.

  “Of course it would be you who follows me; you are the closest one to a son that I will ever have. You make me proud and always will.”

  Alex released hi
s shoulders and they both moved to chairs. Once they were seated, Chris remained quiet, but Alex could tell that he wanted to say something.

  “What is it?”

  Chris squirmed a little in his chair. “Well, it’s just that we have known each other for so long, and you know all about my human past, but you have never told me anything about yours.”

  “My story is too long to tell.”

  “I’m not ignorant, Alex. I know something terrible must have happened for you to carry such baggage for so long. I’ve been thinking of you a lot and I really think it’s time for you to do something about it.”

  “Chris, don’t push this. I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “I think that you should.” Chris still looked very uncomfortable. He had never brought this up before so it seemed pretty odd for him to want to talk about it then.

  “Why?”

  “Alex, this is really hard for me to say because I don’t like to pry into people’s personal feelings, but when you created me, you created a connection to you as well. So I can feel when you are in pain…physically and mentally.”

  “Feel my pain?” Alex repeated. He could not believe what he was hearing.

  “Yes, and this,” Chris waved his hand around, “depression or whatever it is that you are in is growing so great that it’s started affecting me too. But I’m only bringing it up because if it is causing me to hurt, I can only imagine what it is doing to you.”

  Alex felt his jaw hanging open. “Huh.”

  “I know.” Chris sauntered over to the book shelves that covered the wall from floor to ceiling. “I also know that over the years, there have been a lot of things that have built up to what you’re going through, but in my opinion it is time to fight it.”

  Alex watched Chris carefully while the younger one ran his fingertips over the spines of the leather bound books. He felt guilty about Chris having to suffer, but he was still reluctant to speak about his life to anyone. It was in the past, and that is exactly where he wanted to keep it.

  “Burying it won’t make it go away.”

  “Maybe not, but it’s my prerogative to pretend that it didn’t happen.” Even as he said this, he knew that the nightmares and the memories were burned into his mind forever. “I’m so sorry that I have given you this burden to bear, but I have never spoken of it, and I still don’t have any intention of doing so.”