Nefarious

C111 - Knockout

Alex went to speak with his parents about the murder and it left me with excess time alone. Not long ago Jace proudly told Alex how Xavier had never been on the third floor, but now Jace broke that rule himself, which I fully understand. Xavier was in Jace's room now, excluded from the rest. Apparently, there were rumours going that we may have insiders in the castle, working for Hayden. It was all chaos now really.

As I was about to fall asleep, Jace's sister entered. Her hair was up in a hair tie this time, making her face much more viewable. "Have you seen a little girl by any chance?" she asked stressfully. Her long pitch black hair moved past her shoulder, touching her hand that was resting on the door handle. "No," I answered, shaking my head slightly. She closed her mouth, and I could see her jaw tensing. It must be a vampire thing. "What's wrong?" I asked hesitatingly. "I can't find my daughter, and with what's going on right now-" she started. "You're afraid she has been taken," I finished her sentence. She nodded, sighing loudly. "I don't even dare to ask Jace, he'll literally torture each vampire in here to get answers," she told me. Crap, this means he's actually an uncle to some young girl. I never saw that one coming, that's for sure.

I offered to help her search, even though I probably shouldn't have. However, when searching along with her I discovered that this castle has its weird and shady rooms. I repeatedly asked what the different rooms were, but she didn't answer my questions, which I respected due to the initial quest - to find her missing daughter.

Jace's sister stopped me from entering the second I headed for a random room. "You can't go in there," she paced. I frowned, speculating on why she was so scared of me seeing the room. The door was made out of metal or something, coloured jet black. "Why?" I asked sceptically. "Alex would kill me," she answered, bringing me away from the door. "Alex wouldn't-" I started. "Yes, yes he would. You don't know him the way we do, and you've got to realize that soon. You're precious to him, I'm not," she cut me off. "I understand, but can't you just give me some kind of clue?" I whispered. She shook her head, dragging me further away from the door.

My search with Jace's sister didn't last for very long. We ran into a problem suddenly, literally. She ran into Jace when trying to avoid a group of male vampires. "What the hell are you doing down here?" he asked angrily. "I was warning people," she lied. "I've already done that," he cleared his throat. I swallowed oddly, terrified that he would discover the truth and murder her on the spot. "There are a lot of vampires, surely everyone can't have gotten the message," she explained. "You're hiding something from me, and not only that, you're doing it with... Valerie?" he scoffed. "Excuse me?" I snickered. "No offence, actually, never mind, definitely meant offensively," he rolled his eyes.

To prevent other vampires from hearing whatever Jace had to say, we went to some strange looking room. It reminded me of a typical living room with muted colours. It wasn't as fancy down at the first floor as the upstairs, in fact, it was quite boring here.

"I'm planning on telling Alex about Nikkie because now we'll have Alex's brother with us as well," Jace told his sister. I know Dane broke my trust, but Nikkie never did. She literally let Alex bite her to cover our tracks, a fake friend wouldn't do that. However, reacting strongly to what he said would only make the situation worse. I knew he would tell me to keep shut and that there was nothing I could do about it, so I had to do something when he wasn't prepared. "Do whatever you have to do. I'll be back quick, just have to check on my daughter," his sister said.

Jace's sister leaving the room gave me the perfect opportunity to prevent him from telling Alex about Nikkie. By the fireplace, there were several tools. There were brooms, a bellow, a shovel and two pokers. I moved carefully towards the holder of the tools, making sure Jace wasn't looking at me while doing it. He was looking through some old book, probably waiting for his sister to come back. I grabbed a hold of an ice cold poker, forming a tight grip on it. I had only seen things like these being used in movies as a way for people to defend themselves, but that would change soon.

Holding onto the poker was difficult enough itself because of my trembling and slippery hands. Having to have enough strength to actually knock him out and not just piss him off, however, I knew was going to be the worst part. I felt the iron heat up in my palm as I continued to hold onto it tightly. My fingers pressed the beautifully detailed iron poker further into my palm, and I knew it would leave marks afterwards. I heightened the tool gradually, allowing myself to build up enough courage to do anything to Jace. "Valerie, there was-" he started. An immediate feeling of adrenaline rushing through me caused me to hit him in the head with all the strength I could possibly use. The sound of the iron hitting him was followed by a thud - him falling to the floor. It worked.

Knowing his sister would return shortly, I let the tool slip from my hand, hearing the iron hit the floor not long after. Jace was laying on his back, looking peaceful for once. I carefully sat down on my knees beside him, seeing the mark I'd caused on his head. "What have I done?" I whispered shakily. I knew this would save Nikkie some time, but nevertheless, this was just a temporary solution to a problem I am too weak alone to solve properly. He will wake up eventually, and when he does, he won't be happy to find out I was the one who knocked him out...