She nodded. "I'm feeling fine. Thank you." Her voice was a little softer than normal. "Thank you for all the help."
"You were hurt and in my territory, I could not leave you out there knowing that you were running from something." He glanced at her. "Care to tell me what it is that you're running from?"
She cracked a smile. "It's hard to explain, but I can sum it up as my past. I'm trying to outrun it, and if I don't leave soon, it'll catch up."
"Let me tell you something." Levi sat across from her and met her gaze. "You can't outrun the past or the horrors that it holds. One day you're going to have to face it head-on."
She hung her head. "My past isn't all rainbows and sunshine."
"Of course it's not, if it were, you wouldn't be running from it." Levi chuckled. "No one runs from a good past. Run for now, but you'll need to make plans for when it catches up. Because when it does, it's going to drag you under."
"Are you speaking from experience?" She put her fork down and stared at him.
Levi nodded. "A long time ago, I made a choice that was on much more on the darker side of life." He sighed as he remembered walking into his first lab with Ira. "Someone changed my life though, and together we were able to change the course of our fate. Now though, the things I had chosen to do are coming back, and it may cost me everything."
She slipped off the chair. "Then maybe you should take your own advice." She took her dishes and laid them in the sink. "You know I can't stay here for a full month."
"I think you should because of your injuries."
She shrugged. "I don't want to bring my trouble to you or your territory." She walked out of the kitchen, and Levi sighed. She wasn't one of his people. He couldn't demand that she stay, but for a moment he wished he could.
Mario walked into the kitchen after Jaimie left. He looked at the doorway and then to Levi. "Have a good day's rest?"
He nodded. "Abigail is back on her feet and already hard at work."
"And what are your plans tonight?"
Levi stood. "I'm going to go check out the scene of the crash and see if I can't learn something else about it."
"You're hoping to find another vampire?"
Levi nodded. "And I plan on torturing him until I get a straight answer on who sent them."
"Torture? I didn't think you did that anymore."
Levi stiffened. "How else does one get a vampire to talk?"
Mario gave him a grim look. "You know-"
"I do." Levi cut him off. "If you have a better suggestion, then I'm all for it."
Mario sighed. "I don't."
"Then it's settled." Levi walked out of the room. "If you want to stay here, I understand. I don't plan on making any of the deaths easy. We need to know where Ira is and what his plans are."
"We don't know if he was behind the attack."
"Then we need to know who was. The only way that's going to happen is if we can get our hands on a vampire connected to it." Levi looked at Mario. "We need to get this taken care of one way or another."
"What happened to leaving it in PIB's hands?" Mario sighed. "Levi, you are going to put yourself out there and make it easy for Ira to attack you."
Levi sighed. "I'm going to find information. That's it. There's nothing in the books, nothing in the records. I'm doing my job as king. Now, you can either come and help protect me, or I'm going alone."
"I can see where Abigail gets her stubbornness from," Mario muttered. "If you're going, I'm coming along too. But if PIB is there, we aren't staying. I don't think you can explain why you are there."
Levi chuckled. "Thank you, Mario."
"I'd follow you to the end of the earth and back. It's the least I could do."
And Levi knew he meant it.
Levi took himself to the scene of the accident. It wasn't far from PIB's downtown campus. The van was gone, the vampire bodies were gone, and there wasn't an agent in sight. The tracks from the road led straight to the cracked tree, and Levi walked over to it, trying to imagine how it went down. Abigail must have fought the vampires off in the van, but Oliver mentioned that he'd taken one of them out.
"What are you thinking?" Mario asked appearing behind him.
"I'm just trying to figure out how the van ended up against a tree." Levi crossed his arms.
Something rushed past them and let out a shrieking laugh. A male vampire stopped and turned to look at them. His red eyes locked on to Levi. "Oh, the territory leader, you've come to grace us with your presence." He grinned showing blood-stained fangs. "My master would like to see you."
"Oh, I just bet he would." Levi smiled. "Why don't you tell me who your master is?"
The vampire moved from one foot to the other almost like an antsy child. "That would ruin the fun." He held his arms out. "We have other orders."
One by one, more blood-starved vampires started to appear in the area. Mario stepped closer to Levi. "We leave, now."
Levi nodded, but then the vampires parted to make way for someone walking towards them. Levi stared at his brother walking through the vampires. Ira's lips lifted in a half smile. "Hello, brother."
Levi snarled. "Ira. What are you doing in my territory?"
"You know exactly who I'm here for. I almost had Abigail, and had my associate not screwed up, I would have." Ira grinned. "But now that you're here, I think plans have changed."
Ira snapped his fingers, and the blood-starved vampires closed in.
Chapter Seven
Levi grabbed the closest vampire by the throat and tore a chunk of flesh out as he threw the vampire away from him. The vampire cried out, gurgling on his blood. Another one rushed Levi, and he simply slammed his hand into the vampire's chest and ripped out the heart. The corpse dropped to the ground, but the others kept coming, and it seemed with everyone they dropped to the ground, another one took its place.
The horde switched to focus on Mario as Ira's power wrapped around Levi. He growled, and let his own power reach out, slapping against Ira's and making him hesitate. "You've grown."
"You have no idea what has gone on the last decade." Levi straightened his shirt and tie.
Ira let out a laugh. "You think so? I know everything about you and Abigail. I've watched you so close, I've watched her grow up, and seen how you keep her at arm's length. You could have been great, and she could have been the queen of the hybrids, if only you hadn't betrayed us." He lashed out and grabbed Levi by the collar of his shirt and dragged him so they were face to face. "There will be no king."
Ira reached out with his other hand. Levi snarled and slammed his head into Ira's, making the vampire drop him. Levi let his power leak out around him. The power of a vampire was a funny thing. Each had his own talent. Levi's and Ira's were similar in that they could easily persuade anyone, but they also both had a physical manifestation of power. Levi flung his hand out and threw Ira back against the damaged tree, snapping it further.
Ira laughed and stepped away from the tree. "Do you want to play power against power, Leviticus?" Ira raised a hand, and something wrapped around Levi's throat, threatening to crush it.
Levi closed his eyes and pushed more energy out of him, breaking Ira's hold. Sirens wailed in the distance, and voices shouted not far from where they were. Ira and Levi both looked up, and Mario stumbled towards them, covered in blood.
"PIB has been alerted." He glanced at Levi. "Best we get going."
Levi nodded and rushed for Ira, one last time, but the vampire disappeared, leaving his hand reaching for nothing. Just like they had appeared, one by one, the blood-starved vampires disappeared.
Mario glared at him. "Now, Levi."
He closed his eyes and took himself back to the mansion. A moment later Mario appeared at his side. "Now do you understand?" Mario snapped.
Levi nodded and rubbed his neck. "If I could have gotten a better grip on him, I
could have-"
"Could have what? Brought him here?" Mario shook his head. "No more searching for him or the blood-starved. Fucking let PIB and the council deal with it."
Levi leaned against the wall. "Do you need patching up?"
"No, none of this is my blood, it's all theirs." Mario wiped some off of him. "I'm tired of losing clothes to vampire blood."
Levi snorted. "Could be worse. Could be human or werewolf blood."
Mario licked his lips. "Or witch blood."
Levi glared at him, finding no humor in the joke.
"I am kidding, Levi." He shook his head. "I'm going to go clean up. You might want to do the same in case our little tiger friend decides to come up and visit again."
Levi walked off to his room as Mario disappeared. Once again Ira was taunting him. He was behind the attack on Abigail, and the fact that the vampires had managed to get her into the car meant that Ira had been close to getting her.
He snarled as he walked into his room and slammed the door. He needed to hit Ira where it hurt. The vampire had no known weaknesses. The only thing he had was his dedication to creating hybrids of some sort, and he was failing at that. The creatures they faced were nothing more than blood-starved vampires.
He paused in his anger. If they could get one alive, maybe they could run their own tests on them, see how close Ira was to creating a perfect hybrid. He reached for the phone to call the doctor they had on the council.
"Doctor Webber, it's Levi. I have a question to ask you."
The man chuckled. "What is it? You really have no need for a doctor."
"If I was to get one of those blood-starved vampires to you, could you run blood tests on it?"
There was a moment of silence. "I could, but without involving others what tests I can run will be limited."
"I just need to know what the mix of blood is, that's all. Maybe observe them for a little bit if we can."
The doctor sighed. "I have one containment unit, and that is it. If you can get me one that PIB hasn't gotten their hands on, they won't miss it."
"Thank you. I'll see what I can do." Levi disconnected the call. Ira was determined to make Levi aware of what was going on. Certainly it wouldn't be hard to send Mario off and have him get one. He threw his phone on the bed and sat down. There wasn't much he could from the mansion at this point other than paperwork and try to get any type of trail on the system.
For once he was feeling helpless as King of Vampires. Going back out in the night wasn't an option after the attack from Ira. All he wanted was one damn vampire, was that too much to ask?
Ira appeared back in his home and threw his head back laughing. Levi was growing in power and could now hold his own against him. Ira hadn't had the chance to truly test powers against him at the abandoned hospital six months ago, but tonight was a wonderful chance. He leaned against the wall and grinned for a moment.
Abigail had no idea that he was behind the attack because she didn't know he controlled the vampires. If she made any connection, it would lead her straight to Tomes who would act like a scapegoat in all of this. It was just too perfect, and Levi would continue to try to and hide it all from his precious daughter. Ira pushed away from the wall and went to the stairs that lead to the basement. There was one particular creature that was showing promise, and he wanted to check on her.
He passed the room with the experiments laying in the beds. He could hear faint groaning from the room on occasion, and he would check on them eventually, but his focus was the containment rooms. He paused in front of one of the rooms. Chained to the wall was the creature he was looking for. Her long blonde hair was matted with sweat and dirt, sticking to her thin face. She looked up at him with red eyes and snapped her fangs at him.
He looked at the chart that hung outside her door. She'd been a witch and was mixed with vampire blood. She'd been lured into the experiment with false promises of ways to control her magic because she was without a mentor. A month ago, he'd increased the amount of vampire blood he'd given her because he felt the magic in her fight against the blood while it was mixing.
For a moment her eyes flashed hazel and the anger faded. She met his gaze. "Help me."
"Once you can figure out your control, then we'll talk about help." From the look of fear on her face, he knew she heard him. "I just need you to fight the magic and make sure you're not going to kill me, then I can let you out, and we can talk about your next step."
"I want blood. What the fuck have you done to me," she snarled, and her eyes turned red again. He felt the wave of magic come off her, but it hit the magical barrier all the containment rooms had.
He made a note on the chart explaining that her magic hadn't left her completely, but she also still craved blood like a vampire. She was far from the perfect hybrid, but he was getting closer to creating one. His mind went to Abigail. The first time he'd seen her, he had known something was different. The tiny babe in Elizabeth's arm felt like both a vampire and a witch. As she grew though, that sense of vampire disappeared, leaving just the magic.
He wanted to believe that Elizabeth and Levi had created the perfect hybrid, but the question still remained how they managed it. What witchcraft did they use to bring her to life?
He hung the chart back up and looked at the woman in front of him. "Soon, when you're free of your chains, we'll run other tests. We'll see what other weaknesses you have." He walked back down the hallway to the stairs. Blood-starved was the first step. Then he'd stick her arm out in the sun and see if she started to burn. If she did, then she would be pretty damn useless for his plan. If not, then she'd be perfect.
He shut and locked the door behind him. He needed another witch or warlock to help with this, but it was going to be hard to find one that he could trust. He needed one that didn't mind dipping into black magic. His mind turned to Oliver, Elizabeth's beloved brother. If he could be persuaded, it could work, but there was no telling if his love for Abigail was as strong as it had been for Elizabeth. If it were, there would be no persuading the wizard.
Ira went to his office and sat at the desk. Pulling out a piece of paper and a pen, he began his query.
Dear Mr. Mackintosh,
I have a most interesting proposal for you…
Levi sat on his bed as dawn started to approach. He'd texted Abigail, but received no response. He called, and still no response. There was a thing on the news about a zombie attack, and he swore he saw her and Simon when the camera swept over them. Zombies, blood-starved vampires, and Agent Tomes and Grace, it seemed like there was a connection there after all. He rubbed his eyes and checked his phone one more time for a response from here, but nothing.
Ira had almost gotten her, and Levi wouldn't have been able to do anything. Mario wouldn't have let him go after her. There would be no rescuing her because it would prove that Ira could control him through Abigail. Oliver though, probably wouldn't stand for it.
The warlock would be useful as things became more dangerous. Laying back in the bed, he grabbed the book off his nightstand and started reading, trying to calm his mind as the exhaustion started to pull at him. He read through a few chapters and still hadn't heard back from Abigail. He sighed and put the book down and closed his eyes.
Levi watched from the porch as Abigail ran around and played with Tobias. Her smile never wavered as she dodged behind trees to hide and then back out in an attempt to scare Tobias with a 'boo.'
Elizabeth sat next to him. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to deliver the notes that Tobias needed, that's all." His gaze never left Abigail. "He needed them tonight, so instead of him driving up to the property, I dropped them off. Said that he was working on a translation and needed the rune references."
She nodded. "A friend of ours asked him to translate something that has to do with a murder. Tobias, of course,
agreed, because he's still feeling guilty about the past."
"Which part?" Levi asked and folded his hands to keep from laying one on top of hers.
Abigail stopped and eyed him for a moment before running farther into the yard with Tobias right behind her. She squealed as he scooped her up from the ground with a playful growl. That's when Levi saw the bandage on her wrist. "What happened to Abigail's wrist?"
Elizabeth tensed up. "She fell."
"Don't lie to me, please."
She shook her head. "Ira paid her a visit." There was a small sob in her voice. "I don't want to talk about it. She doesn't really remember it. She's fine."
That bastard. Levi locked his jaw. "Where were you that he found you?"
"Tobias and I were at a meeting with a client. Please, Levi, don't make a big deal out of it."
"He bit her." Levi snarled. "Do you have any idea what kind of damage he could do?"
"Yes." She left it at that. "If you've dropped the notes off, it's time for you to leave."
Her easy dismissal of him stung, but it was for the best. "I want to watch Abigail for just another moment."
"We all agreed to limit her exposure to you." Elizabeth put a hand on his arm. "It's time for you to go."
He watched the toddler giggling in Tobias' arms and a pain spread through his chest. "Alright." He stood and disappeared, taking himself back to the mansion.
Elizabeth still wanted to push him away, but it was clear that if Ira attacked Abigail that she wasn't safe.
"Levi…" Abigail's voice came from somewhere in the mansion.
"Abigail?" he called back.
"Levi, help me." Her voice was pained, and it struck his heart. Where was she?
He ran and found her down in her chamber, hunched over a body. Simon. Abigail looked up at him, fangs flashing and blood coating her chin. "Help me."
Levi's dream shattered as the phone beeped with a notification from his security system. He wiped a hand over his face trying to force the image away from his brain. The notification said that Abigail had just entered the house, and he assumed that she was probably here to use her chamber. It was probably case or wolf related, but either way, he wasn't going to bother her.
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