The Last of the Twenty: Broken Pawns

Chapter 5

At the edge of a small bed in an almost equally small room, Nadia starred, unblinking at a spot on the far wall, as if nothing else in the world mattered outside of that small watermark. Wes bent down in front of her and peered into her face nervously, snapping his fingers a few inches from the tip of her nose. She didn't respond, it was like he wasn't even there. Shrugging his shoulders, he sighed heavily and fell into a chair next to the bed. From the opposite corner of the room Dillon glanced nervously between Nadia and Delilah. Delilah either didn't notice or didn't care, concentrating heavily on the incredibly intricate handwriting that tightly filled every page of an old leather bound book.

"Seriously, can't you snap her out of that? She's giving me the creeps sitting there like that." Dillon asked Delilah.

"Sorry honey that's beyond me. You're gonna have to wait for Ethan to get here, he'll get her back to normal." She said without so much as glancing away from the pages of the book.

"Why'd he have to do that in the first place? Seems like overkill to me." Wes said. He leaned over and waved his hand in front of Nadia's face, eliciting no response. Except for her steady breathing and occasional blinking, Wes wouldn't have even been sure she was alive.

"She was starting to go into fits, poor thing had a lot thrown her way all at once, and you know as well as I we didn't have time to steady her nerves. Ethan swore he saw something in Alex's eyes earlier tonight, and he thinks it's starting again. Had to get her hidden away."

"Well I wish he'd hurry up and get here then." Wes mumbled to himself as he leaned back into the chair miserably.

Delilah smiled down at the book and shook her head. "He'll get here when he gets here, don't worry about that. We got bigger problems to deal with, how to keep her alive for starters."

"What exactly does he think Alex is anyways?" Dillon asked. Wes perked up for the first time since arriving and leaned over the edge of his chair, looking hopefully at Delilah.

"Yea what is he? Ethan's been awful worried about him being around Nadia since we went after him in the parking lot, but he won't tell us why." Wes said.

Delilah snapped the book closed and threw it on top of a pile of similar books at her feet. "Sorry, but I really don't know. Tell the truth I don't think Ethan knows either. All I can tell you for sure is that he's been after it since before he made me, and that he's afraid of it. Sorry to disappoint you, but that's all I know.  I was hoping to find some answers in these, but I can't make heads or tails out of any of these things either. I was hoping they'd tell me something."

Frustrated, she kicked over the pile of books, scattering them across the floor. Delilah had been trying to get answers out of them for a year now, but the writer had been too damned cryptic about things. Who had he thought was going to find this and why had he wanted to keep things such a damned secret? She had been frustrated with that kind of crap for centuries now. Groups of people that wanted to keep things secret often kept them too much of a secret, making it hard for other people to come in after the fact and pick up where they left off.

"Who wrote them?" Dillon asked, picking one up that had landed at his feet. The writing was very old and faded in places, so carefully and elaborately written that it was hard to make out the actual words. Dillon tried to make out some of it but gave up quickly when he realized it was written in some other language. "And what language did they write them in?"

"I doubt you'll be able to read them, honey. Ethan's maker wrote them way back in the late 1700's, and it's all in French." Delilah said with a wink.

"French?" Wes asked picking one up himself. "Why would he write it in French?"

"Well, I suppose the fact that he was French may have had something to do with it." She answered, "He was sent here with Ethan during the French and Indian wars at first, then after that they ended up staying in America for the colonization efforts. Ethan told me once the leader of their order wanted a link to the new world for some reason."

Wes sat back and let out a whistle, "Damn Delilah just how old is he anyways?"

"And what's this order he's in?" Dillon asked.

Delilah laughed. "Don't you two ever stop with the questions?"

Wes just shrugged, "He doesn't really tell us much, we just stick with him because of the old treaties. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, that kind of thing. At least that's how the stories go in our family."

Delilah smiled slyly. "And you believe all your families' stories do you?"

Dillon shrugged, "If Daniel believes it we do. Truths are um, passed down to guys like him through the family line, it's one of their gifts." He said.

"And do you know everything about Daniel and what he is?" Delilah asked, her own curiosity peaked for the first time.

Wes just shook his head, "Nope, we just trust him. He's the Alpha after all, not just our big brother." 

"Some would call that blind faith," Delilah mused, "And that's kind of how it is with me and Ethan, but I don't blindly follow everything he says. I love him and I believe what he tells me, but I'm no fool, I know he doesn't tell me everything, can't tell me everything. I really don't know much about this order he's in, only that his maker was high up the ranks and ended up getting killed by this thing Ethan's been after. Ethan's still in the order but I can't begin to guess where he is in it now. I'm only tolerated because I'm his wife, otherwise I'm sure they'd kill me for knowing the little bits I do. As for how old he is, honestly honey, I don't even think Ethan knows."

Dillon threw his hands in the air and dropped back into his chair groaning. "You all have too many laws for me. I like being in a pack, makes things simple." From the other corner Wes shook his head in agreement.

"Sometimes I have to agree with you, even if you are a wolf." Delilah laughed. "Yea, vampires have too many groups that think they're all high and mighty. It honestly gives me a headache to think about how ridiculous it all is. Still, I think it's my destiny to be part of Ethan's order. I've met the leader once, and even though he terrified me, he was at least impressed with my abilities. Problem is I have to survive past the age of 300 to be admitted, kind of a vampire rite of passage."

"Rite of passage? What kind of..." Wes started to ask, suddenly cut off when Delilah held up her hand, her eyes wide with fear. For a moment she seemed like she was in a trance, disturbingly similar to the one Nadia was stuck in. Her trance faded as fast as it came, she snapped out of it and looked at Wes and Dillon with obvious concern.

"What is it?" Wes asked.

"Ethan..." She whispered, "He's terrified..."