Out Of Our Hands - Vampires Sequel (AU)

Part 5

~

When we got back into the living room, Liam was sitting on the sofa with Harry next to him. Louis sat on his other side automatically, without saying anything, and Harry took his hand and passed him an apologetic look. Thank god.

"Okay." I began, guessing it was me who had to start the conversation. "Louis's told me some interesting things."

I saw Harry's eyes flicker to him again, and then back. He looked at me expectantly.

"About Nick Grimshaw."

"You know him?" Cara asked Louis, voice rising high. "You have to be joking!"

"Nope." Harry said with a hint of bitterness. "We know him alright. But why is he relevant?"

"Because Cara saw him there when Zayn was being kidnapped." I informed him.

"You're fucking joking!" Harry shouted suddenly, shocking all of us as he stood up. "I swear to god if I get my hands on that man, I'll-"

"Hazza."

Harry quietened as Louis said his nickname, although he was still breathing heavily in anger.

"Calm down. We'll sort it out, okay?" Louis urged. "Sit back down. We need to work out what's going on here."

Liam turned to me. "Niall?"

This was my cue. I launched into the story, explaining to everybody what Cara had told me about Grimmy being there when Zayn was kidnapped. Then I told them what Louis had told me - albeit with a few little interruptions from Harry about 'what a prick' Grimmy was and one from Louis saying 'why did I tell him?' where he was quickly comforted that anyone would tell their friends something like that - what had happened wasn't his fault.

But it all boiled down to one question, which Cara was the one to ask: "So what are we going to do?"

All eyes turned to me. "What? What're you looking at me for?"

"You're the head hunter, if you remember." Liam pointed out. "So you're the one with the answers."

"I don't have the answer. I don't know what we should do."

It felt like I was letting them down, and I hated it.

Then Harry spoke up. "We need to talk to Nick."

"If you talk to him Harry, you'll end up ripping his throat out." Louis said "Not a chance." He saw mine and Cara's astonished faces, and he added, "He's perfectly capable of it. We all are, just some of us have a longer fuse than my boyfriend here."

"Then maybe Harry isn't the best one to talk to him." Cara began tentatively. "We need someone to talk to Grimmy who won't get angry, who's innocent enough to get away with gently probing questions."

In one movement, all eyes moved to Liam.

"What? Me?"

"You're perfect. I agree with Cara. He'll never guess in a million years."

"He knows I'm mates with Lou, though."

"So? He doesn't know that Lou told us about him. Just make a general enquiry, ask if Zayn's been seen lately. Say something like he's getting bad at his job, there are far few vampire deaths. He's sure to spill it." I looked at Harry's slightly offended expession. "Harry, there are less deaths because none of us are slaying. Not because of Zayn, but it's probably best to let Nick think that it's Zayn."

"Yeah, he'll take any opportunity to slag Zayn off." Louis leaned back on the sofa. "I agree with Niall."

"I do, too." Harry said, and Cara nodded.