When Jamie reached the library, he could only sense one person.
The librarian.
She was a woman who looked as though she were in her forties, with light mousy brown hair cut just a little shorter than her shoulders. Jamie made sure to keep tabs on her mind while he was there.
Not that he was threatened by her, he just had a habit of keeping tabs on the humans around him. Knowing his surrounding always made him feel more comfortable.
The librarian greeted him with a smile and a nod. He politely returned her gesture before heading into the labyrinth of shelves.
The library was an extremely large building. It had a huge desk and behind it was a doorway where the librarian was standing.
There were five computers by the back wall, all lined up with dividers separating each one. Several tables and chairs were laid out for the library users, and there were five steps with a railing which divided the lower half from the part where all the books lay.
Up the steps there were about twenty rows of shelves that stretched from ceiling to floor, covered on either side with books. Each shelf had a ladder that could be moved from either end to retrieve books from the higher shelves.
It was, all together, quite impressive.
Jamie had considered asking the librarian for some assistance in finding what he needed, but he thought he'd try himself first. He went hunting around the shelves for a while, wandering through the labyrinth, glancing from one side to the other, his eyes skimming over all of the book titles. But he found nothing.
None of them seemed like they would be any help. Jamie sighed, regretting his decision to come here in the first place.
At the time books had seemed like the best way to find out things quickly, but he hadn't accounted for the fact that he had no idea where to start, or even what books would hold the information he was looking for. Not to mention the fact that he wasn't even sure if there even were any books in existence which would contain any truthful information on Vampires. And the best place to find any information that could answer his questions would be online.
Jamie's head shot up and he looked in the direction of the librarian's desk; though he couldn't see it from where he was within the shelves.
Suddenly aware that there was silence.
The librarian was gone.
The library was empty.
He looked up at the ceiling, the lights were still on, and he hadn't heard the doors lock, although he hadn't really been paying close enough attention to hear it if they had.
She had seen him walk into the library and she hadn't seen him walk back out. Surely she wouldn't have left him here alone.
Jamie swiftly made his way through the labyrinth, moving past all of the shelves and back out to the railings by the staircase.
As soon as the desk came into view he froze, suddenly finding himself unable to move.
In the place of the librarian sat a young girl, who was holding a book in her hand studying its cover. She must have been sixteen, maybe seventeen, but she didn't look much older. The girl was beautiful in a dreamlike way, by that he meant that she was so beautiful she hardly seemed real.
She was tall for a female and beautifully proportioned with lightly tanned skin and pale blonde hair which had shimmers of gold sweeping through it.
However, the girl's looks—stunning as they were—weren't what had Jamie frozen in place, but the fact that he felt he knew her. Though from where, he hadn't quite figured out.
Jamie couldn't help but stare; he found it impossible to look away. Why couldn't I sense her presence earlier? he asked himself as he watched her curiously.
He concentrated all of his Power and his thoughts on her. Allowing the energy to build inside him before he slowly let it spread, encasing her in a wave of psychic energy. He let his mind reach out and search for hers; it took him close to five minutes to find anything. When he eventually did catch something, it wasn't her thoughts, but Jamie's psychic mind was now consciously aware of her presence.
It was strange that he hadn't sensed her earlier. Usually he could sense anyone or anything within a mile's radius, and usually he could do that with little to no effort whatsoever.
He tried harder in an attempt to gain some insight as to who she was, and how she had been able to shield her presence from him. He pushed his mind out further, reaching out to hers and calling her thoughts to him.
Breaking into someone's mind was ordinarily a simple task, but for some reason tonight it was proving to be quite difficult.
He stared at her, hoping that this would make his Powers more effective, his eyes squinted in concentration.
She sat there reading while Jamie tried with all his will to break his way into her mind. Something seemed to be blocking his way through, so he pushed harder. The girl dropped her book, suddenly moving her hand to her head. After a moment she moved both her hands to her temples, closed her eyes and massaged them with her fingertips.
Jamie felt his eyes go wide as he watched her with fascination.
She could feel him.
She shouldn't have been able to sense what he was doing.
But she did.
Even though he knew he was pushing her mind so hard he was causing her discomfort, Jamie didn't back down, he kept on probing, until he finally broke through. He looked at her expression. She appeared to be in a state of serious concentration. Jamie focused just as hard to try keep his hold on her thoughts.
Within her mind there were no words, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't make out any clear images. Everything was a jumble, almost as if her brain was purposely causing her thoughts to scatter to keep him from knowing what was in there.
Her lips moved and it looked as though she mumbled something under her breath. Jamie didn't hear what she said; too preoccupied in his attempt at deciphering the words in her mind. But before he had a chance to get a clear image, he was pushed out.
The girl's hands were still on her head, massaging the temples like she was trying to rid herself of a headache.
Probably my fault, Jamie thought. Once again he tried again to work his way back in. For only a second feeling as though he almost had it, but there was something stronger than him blocking his powers.
And then he lost all sense of her completely.
When his senses scanned the room, they found nothing.
No trace of any other living being.
If he hadn't been looking at her right then, he would never have believed she was real. Yet there she was, sitting behind the library desk where she had picked up her book and continued reading where she'd left off before he had so rudely interrupted.
All living creatures have a will of their own, which made breaking into their thoughts an effort, but not impossible. No matter how strong a person's will, it was never strong enough. There was always a way in if you wanted to find it.
But this girl . . .
She had the ability to not only keep him out of her thoughts, but to fight him off if he managed to break in. And not only that but she could keep herself shielded.
She had the ability to be invisible, which was something that he had never come across before.
She was an anomaly.
A beautiful anomaly, and it was because of this that Jamie found himself wanting to know her. Which was unusual because he had never, in his life, felt the urge to know a person.
But she evoked that feeling in him, along with a few others.
"Hey Sam." Jamie snapped himself out of his reverie to look at the dark haired girl who had just entered and was now walking towards the librarian's desk.
Sam? Jamie wracked his brain for a moment, searching through his memories, trying to place that name with her face.
But there were no thoughts that came to his mind, no memories of her at all. Which made the fact that he recognised her all the more irksome.
"Hey Elle," Sam replied with a polite smile.
"I didn't know you worked here," Elle said. Jamie gave her a scrupulous look and scanned her thoughts to confirm his suspicions.
This girl's mind was alarmingly simple to read, usually a human had at least one wall to break through. This girl, however, had none.
Jamie found what he was looking for within a matter of seconds, confirming what he had thought.
She was lying.
Elle had known Sam was working here and had come specifically to see her.
"I just started today," Sam replied. "Like, about ten minutes ago actually."
"Uh huh . . . So, how've you been? I feel like we haven't talked in ages," Elle said in an attempt to start a conversation with Sam. Though the way she had spoken made it appear, even to someone who was not currently inside her head, that she had an ulterior motive for wanting to know.
Within the girl—Elle's mind, there was no clear image on what the ulterior motive might have been, but within her he could sense a very strong need to know about Sam. What she had been up to recently, what she was doing right now, what her plans for the next day may have been.
Jamie shook his head and with a roll of his eyes wondered why it was that some people found the need to be that nosey.
"That's because we haven't. And I'm fine," Sam replied as if she knew the agenda behind the question, making the answer sound as convincing as possible.
"Are you sure?" Elle pushed in an attempt to gain some usable information.
"I'm sure. Is there something you need help with?" Sam asked, distracting the girl by making a quick change of subject.
"Oh, yeah. I have to do a history study on the Renaissance in Europe, so I figured I'd do it now so I won't have to do it later. But I know nothing at all about it."
Without a word Sam got up from her chair and walked out from behind the desk. "Okay, follow me." She wandered into the labyrinth of bookshelves. Stopping at a shelf that was close enough for Jamie to still see her, though he was sure from the lack of attention she had paid him that from where he was she still could not see him. Sam searched the shelves for a moment, then pulled out a book and handed it to Elle.
Elle looked at the book incredulously, turning it from front to back. She gazed up at Sam. "Are you sure this is the right one?" she asked. "You didn't even check it."
Sam stared at her blankly for a moment. Then took the book out of Elle's hands and held it on its side so that Elle could see what was written on the spine. "It's called 'The Renaissance in Europe', I think we can safely assume it's about the Renaissance . . . in Europe."
Elle took the book out of Sam's hands and ran her fingers over the words on the spine. "The Renaissance in Europe could be the name of a novel," Elle stated, then looked at Sam and asked for a second time, "Are you sure it's the right one?"
"Are you serious?" Sam asked, as if she really couldn't believe what Elle was saying. Jamie tried not to laugh at Elle's lack of intelligence. Unsure as to whether or not she was actually as idiotic as she feigned to be or if she was simply stalling for time to come up with another lie, or way to get the information she wanted from Sam.
Elle nodded, indicating that she was indeed serious. Sam pointed to a label on the shelf. "We're in the history section," she stated.
"Things get put in wrong places all the time."
Sam stared at Elle for a moment, as if assessing her sincerity. Then she took the book out of her hands, opened it and read, "The Renaissance is a period in European history from about the 14th to 16th centuries regarded as marking the end of the Middle Ages and featuring major cultural and artistic change including the decline of Gothic architecture, the revival of classical culture, the beginnings of modern science, and geographical exploration—" Sam looked up from the book. "Are you convinced that it's about the Renaissance yet, or do I need to read the whole thing?" she asked mockingly. "You know, just in case they put the wrong pages at the start."
Jamie tried to suppress his laughter. Elle snatched the book out of Sam's hands. "There's no need to be so nasty," she said, then turned and walked away from the shelves back to the librarian's desk.
Sam sighed tiredly and followed her.