chapter 14

"Any news yet,Heather?" Charlie asked, concerned, instead of angry.

"No, Charlie. No one in this Council has managed to track Elizabeth down," she replied professionally, and added "yet" silent enough for only her to hear.

Charlie, as the head of the Council was furious of the news of Madoc's death. Although Madoc was only on the lower rank at the Council, he was still a part of it. Charlie, however, still had doubts regarding the mysterious murder. Although Heather's words were very convincing, he felt something not right. For one, Heather was the only witness of the murder. Not that he didn't trust Heather or anything. He just felt something odd was going on.

Second, he felt something strong, something powerful. And to him, there's nothing stronger than this one thing he had ever experienced. The existence of Danae. Somewhere out there in the world, wandering. He could sense it. And it wasn't good.

"How come none of you can track where Elizabeth is? We always manage to track people with the record of time, 10 minutes the longest!" Charlie yelled to the Council members, in a huge meeting room. "And how long has it been now?"

"We're sorry sir, there's no sign of her." A member apologised.

"I asked you, how long has it been? Are you deaf?"

"I'm sorry, sir, It's been three days."

"Damn it! In this tiny world, consisting 195 countries, 7 continents, across 5 oceans, you cannot find ONE single person?"

"We've tried our best, sir. For the first time ever, we combined all the vampire forces just to search Elizabeth."

Charlie was shut by that. Could Elizabeth really be the one who inherited Danae's powers? Charlie began to think the most feared thought. He shook his head vigorously, not realising where he was at.

"Are you okay, Charlie? What were you thinking?" Heather asked, eyes widening.

"Nothing important," Charlie snapped and disappeared from the room.



Elizabeth rushed upstairs to the room once she finished her breakfast. Literally. She finished her break very fast. Very fast to avoid Stefan's curious stare and Elena's questions. Very fast which increased Stefan's curiosity. And very fast that Stefan was unable to catch up with her eating, which also means he couldn't question Elizabeth further more.

Stefan got up from the dining table and brisk-walked to Lizzie's room upstairs.

"Lizzie, come down. I know you don't want me to drain you with the questions you're thinking i might ask. Well, I want to, but if you don't want to, then I won't. I promise. Open the door, Lizzie." Stefan begged her, almost fell on his knees.

Lizzie opened the door, slowly, and steadily. She peeped through the door as she opened it, and saw Stefan, well, begging.

"Fine, let's go down. What's the occassion, anyway?" Lizzie replied, trying hard to fake a cheerful tone. Which again, failed.

"Don't fake it, Lizzie. I know. But I just don't understand how your wrist turned out that way,"

"I thought you promised, no questions!" Lizzie stopped on her tracks, in the middle of the staircase.

"Hey, that wasn't even a question."

"Fine, you got me. I don't even know. When i woke up from the dreadful dream-"

"Dreadful dream?"

"Y-yes.."

Their conversation ended as the flight of stairs reached the end, to Lizzie's relief. They found Madeline, Stefan's trusted aunt, sitting cross-leggedly on the single couch.

"Morning, Stefan, Elizabeth." she nodded to each of them. "Where's Elena? I need to tell all of you something, although I assume Elena knows this already."

Stefan narrowed his eyes in confusion but obeyed his aunt and called Elena. Madeline cleared her throat and began her speech as Stefan arrived with Elena.

"We are all gathered here today-"

"Oh come on, aunt Madeline, no need to be so formal. It's just us here." Stefan groaned.

"True. Just, straight to the point." Elena added.

"I'm sorry, I'm just a little exhilarated." she said as she rolled her eyes. "So, I was saying, that, Stefan and Elena here, my nephew and niece..-"

Madeline paused to see Stefan, Elena and Elizabeth weren't leaning back anymore and were waiting expectantly and impatiently for her story. In fact, their eyes were widening, craving for information.

"are actually the descendants of former Vampire Guardians, Mason and Sylvia Salvatoire."

"Vampire Guardian?? What do you mean?" Stefan shouted, taken aback.

"I know," was all Elena's reply.

"You knew about this all along? And didn't even tell me??" he stared at her in disbelief.

"What are Vampire Guardians, aunt Madeline?" Elizabeth asked, still interested in the story.



Charlie was tapping his foot impatiently while sitting on his comfortable chair in his office, which, at that time, didn't feel comfortable at all. His curiosity was growing each second passing by. He couldn't stop thinking about why Elizabeth couldn't be found. Still. It was as if the Vampire Powers were very weak considering the combined forces of the vampires couldn't find her. The thought of Danae was also interrupting his mind. He felt the connection to her very close. Yet unreachable. He quickly put the thought aside as there was a more important matter to solve.



"Vampire Guardians, are actually humans. They were created, not exactly created, just given the privilege of immunisation against Vampire Powers."

"So that explains why Stefan experiences no effects whenever he touches me. Unlike any other people I know. Including Vampires themselves!"

"That's a very good news, Elizabeth!" Aunt Madeline cheered.

Stefan just nodded in response and was secretly thankful for the gift. "But aunt Madeline, how come I wasn't informed about this but Elena was?"

Aunt Madeline smiled at her nephew and said, "That's because you kids are only to be informed upon reaching the age 16. Elena stayed with your parents until she's sixteen, while you? You were fifteen, when you left, weren't you?"

Stefan flushed and didn't argue more. Elena, Elizabeth and Aunt Madeline stifled a laugh as they watched Stefan flushed with embarrassment. Now he knew why he was immune to Elizabeth. They all knew then, but the Council.




That night, Elizabeth slept peacefully, without the interruption of the horrifying dream; Danae. She was shocked, yet content, that Danae, the mirror image of her, didn't pay a visit. Or maybe Elizabeth already knew how to use her power against Danae. She couldn't tell just yet. And she still had a lot to learn about herself, mainly how to apply, or control her tremendous power that everybody was up to. And she still hadn't figured out why and how her wrist was as if tattooed. Beautifully tattoed with spiral patterns.