Devil Inside

A Positive Initial Outcome.

Back at Haven, Elsa and Sebastian had to tear themselves away from each other for a short time. Elsa needed to be fully debriefed and Hesper was anxious to give Sebastian a full check up and begin to test the serum she had developed for him. His eyes had lit up when he heard about it, Elsa could feel the hope surge inside him and she prayed it wouldn’t be unfounded. So whilst Sebastian went with Hesper , Elsa went with Marcus to tell him every single thing that had happened the previous evening; it was not something she was looking forward to.

They had collected as much as they could from Vincent’s refuge. There was a lab where there were vast stores of Sebastian’s blood and all the computers, lab equipment and stores had been brought back with them. Marcus showed Elsa and she shuddered to see the sheer volume of blood that had been harvested from Sebastian.

“My God Dad, they must have bled him dry every hour.”

Marcus nodded grimly, “It’s clear that Vincent was planning something big,” he said, “We need to find out who else might have been involved. Some of the blood was already packed up and ready to be shipped out.”

“Do you know where?”

“Not yet,” Marcus gestured to Elsa to sit down, “I’m sorry you have to go over all this again,” he said, “but the more we know the more we can do with the information.”

“I understand,” Elsa said and she recounted her experience of the night from the moment they had seen the beginnings of Layla’s attack until Marcus had burst into the room where Sebastian and she had been found, alone amongst the carnage.

“So it was the gas that killed them?”

Elsa nodded, the memory of it would haunt her for a long time to come, “They started to choke at first, coughing up blood. Then it started to leak from everywhere. Their eyes, their ears, it was horrific. Rueben managed to speak, he said it was attacking their hearts.”

“The blood was very thin,” Marcus said, rubbing the bridge of his nose, he was clearly still exhausted and listening to Elsa explain how people he’d known well and considered friends had died in such a terrible way was proving wearing, “Hesper’s team will analyse it and I think we may have found some canisters of the gas too. We need to find out how it works so something like that can’t happen again. I’ve never come across it before.”

“Dad, you really need to rest,” said Elsa, concerned, “You’d been working too hard before all this happened and I don’t think you’ve really slept for days.”

“I slept on the plane,” Marcus argued.

“For a maximum of half an hour,” Elsa countered, “We can go over the rest later, it’s not like I’m going to forget it.”

Marcus’ shoulders sagged, she could see he was giving in, “You’re right,” he said, “My mind needs to be clear and right now it isn’t.” He looked at her, his eyes full of tears suddenly, “I nearly lost you didn’t I?” he said and his vulnerability stabbed at Elsa’s heart.

“No,” she said softly, “You didn’t, Sebastian saved me.”

Marcus looked down at his hands, which Elsa was now holding, “You’ve grown up so much,” he said, “You really love him don’t you?”

Elsa just nodded.

“I can see, by the way he looks at you – I mean, well – he did save your life in there.” Marcus was obviously trying to say something he was finding difficult, “It seems like he deserves a chance,” he said finally with a sigh and Elsa smiled.

“So you’re not going to give him the mildly threatening fatherly chat?” she asked.

“Oh no, I’m going to very him the very threatening fatherly chat,” Marcus said, “You’re still my baby even if you can dispatch fifteen plus vampires single handedly.”