Chapter Six

“You’re telling me that Vampires have moved into the area?” Alison practically growled out as she turned to face Kallum. They’d hurried under the bleachers so that their private conversation wasn’t out in the open for everyone to hear. After all, they’d think the group was insane to say Vampires had invaded the area.

Kallum sighed as he reached into his backpack and pulled out a small book, titled The Complete History of Vampires. Alison scoffed at the title and looked over at Skylar, who was looking right back, just as skeptical. “I know it’s not written by another Elemental, but it’ll still work. Humans believe in this stuff, which is great because it’s all true,” Kallum said as he looked up at the two sisters.

“Alright, fine Kal. Just tell us what the book says about identifying one. Or how to kill one. Honestly, anything we need to know should be in that book, or maybe Meri will know something, though knowing her she probably won’t give us the information easily,” Alison huffed as she leaned against one of the railings.

“It says that Vampires usually hunt at night, making them nocturnal. The sun will kill them within seconds of standing outside. That’s the best way to kill them. However, another way would be...no that can’t be right,” he trailed off as he read through a page on the book.

“What?” Roze asked from where she stood beside Tristan.

“It says silver, but that’s how you kill an Elemental. Whoever wrote this had some of their facts wrong,” he answered as he flipped a page. Alison chuckled and stepped forward, snatching the book from his hands and tossing it behind her shoulder.

“That’s because humans don’t know anything. They can’t get close enough to an Elemental or a Vampire to ask, hey how do I kill you? We’ll just ask Meri and then we’ll deal with this problem, they can’t stay in the area because it’s a danger to us and the humans around us,” she instructed, before turning and heading back up towards the school, right as the bell rang to signal the end of class.

***

The second they got home from school that day, Alison hurried up to Meri’s office as quickly as she could, and knocked urgently on the door. There was a long pause before the door slowly opened, revealing Meri. “What’s wrong Alison?” she asked, looking the young girl over carefully.

“Vampires,” was her only response as she pushed her way into the office. Meri quickly moved out of her way, before following her inside, closing the door behind them. Alison fell into a chair and turned, slowly, towards Meri.

“What’s this about Vampires? They went extinct back when Jessaminne and Chloe went on the hunt for Junemarinne. They no longer exist,” Meri asked as she sat down in her own chair, behind her desk.

“See I thought the same, which is why that’s not what my mind went to originally when we found the scent. But then I got to thinking when Kallum found this book, what if they only thought Bestallus was the last Vampire? There’s no way to fully know because they stayed in Ireland until Jessaminne’s granddaughter moved the pack to America. They never even found Junemarinne,” Alison explained as she leaned forward.

Meri seemed at a loss for words. Alison had looked at this whole thing from all angles already. More angles than even she had. “Alright, you can read over Jessaminne’s book on Vampires, but it’s all in Gaelic, seeing that she only spoke that language, so you’ll need something to translate, and even then things can get lost in translation,” she finally said.

A huge grin spread across Alison’s face as she jumped to her feet. “I won’t let you down, I promise. I’m sure I can find something that will translate for me, otherwise, I can use the internet, though that’s not always accurate, especially for a language used so long ago,” she replied. Meri smiled slightly, before walking over towards one of the many shelves she had and pulling a few books down. Sitting behind them, snuggled tightly in a hole in the wall, was a safe. Meri blocked Alison’s view as she put in the combination, opening the safe and pulling out a very old book that looked like it was going to fall apart the second someone touched it.

“Do not, under any circumstances, take this to school,” Meri instructed, her voice growing stern. Alison simply nodded her head in response, before holding her hand out towards Meri, who very carefully sat the book into her outstretched hand. Alison pulled the book close, before walking towards the door, placing her hand onto the knob. “Oh, and Alison,” she added, looking over at her niece, “please be careful, if a colony of Vampires has moved in right next door, it’ll be highly dangerous.”

“I’ll be careful Meri. The safety of the pack has always, and will always, come first. No matter what, I will keep every member of this pack safe and out of harm's way, I just can’t make any promises on keeping myself safe,” Alison replied, before turning and leaving the office. The door snapped shut behind her as she made her way upstairs to her bedroom. She had a lot of reading to get done before the pack meeting next week.