Chapter 13
“Alright, spill, what happened to you?” said Liz. She was sitting on the bed with her legs crossed. It reminded me of a little kid waiting anxiously for a story to be read to them.
“You know that blond vamp that threatened Erik and I at the café? Well she attacked me as I was making my way back to the apartment,” I confessed. Liz’s eyes widened as she took in the news. Then she turned to glare at Erik.
“This is your entire fault Erik, if you hadn’t left Damien all alone this would not have happened,” Liz yelled at Erik. Erik glared back at her not caring that she was angry and blaming him.
“I told you, I had an important thing to do,” said replied Erik defensively.
“Its no one’s fault, the vamp was determined, she would have still attacked even if Erik stayed at the club,” I defended. Liz paused in her attack of Erik and then nodded, a bit calmer than before.
“So how did you get away? Is she dead?” asked Jordan curiously. I shook my head.
“No,” I said slowly, “she isn’t dead.” Liz opened her mouth to ask more but Jordan elbowed her to be quiet sensing I didn’t want to talk about it. Why was I unwilling to tell them the whole story? I completely trusted them but yet something stilled my tongue. I didn’t want to tell them about Alexandria because there was no doubt that they would transfer their blame onto her even if I told them she had nothing to do with it. I couldn’t believe what my life had come to, my brother was missing and I was willing to lie to my friends for a vampire I didn’t even really know.
“I know you didn’t want to involve us in your problem, but I’m afraid that’s not something you can control. Jordan and I are going to help you find Tristan too, and it will be safer as a group if one of us has to go do some secret important thing,” she said shooting a look at Erik to let him know she was talking about him. Erik gazed at the ceiling as if looking at Liz for one more moment was impossible.
I sighed knowing there was no arguing with Liz when she was like this, I could either let them help me or forget about finding Tristan. Their help could be helpful considering I didn’t have a clue what to do now to find Tristan, I had absolutely no leads.
“Alright, so then what do we do?” I asked Liz since she was so determined to help me find Tristan. She wanted to help so she had to show she could come up with ideas. Deep down though I knew I was taking advantage just because I was unable to think of anything to find Tristan.
“Well we could try to find out where Tristan was staying,” Liz offered. I nodded my head.
“I didn’t think of that but how do we find out where he was staying?” I asked her.
“Well there is this hunter database that keeps track of hunters. It’s kept a secret and it’s entirely separate from the hunter government. It’s run by a few hunter dropouts and they keep tabs on important investigations and the people in them and there is a chance that Tristan was in an important investigation,” Liz said. I thought about it and nodded.
“Alright but how do we find out what they know? I bet even if we do find out where their base is located they won’t tell us,” I responded as I mulled over the information. Operations like that one don’t just give out information for free, to do so would defeat their purpose. Operations like those started up for only one reason, to gain money by selling information and to have leverage, should something come up where information was needed.
“I’m not sure, maybe we can bribe a hacker to get the information we need?” Liz suggested tentatively. I smiled encouragingly, that was actually a good idea.
“I can help with that,” Erik stated looking very pleased with himself.
“You know a hacker that can get through their security and extract information?” inquired Liz disbelievingly. Erik smirked at her. Liz had completely forgotten that she had been mad at him only moments before.
“Better, you don’t need bribe a hacker when we already have one. I can hack into their network easily,” replied Erik. All of us stared at Erik in surprise.
“You’re a hacker?” I asked. I did not believe our luck.
“No, I skip school to do something more useful with my time, I volunteer at food banks and read to the blind,” he retorted sarcastically. “Do any of you have a laptop I can borrow?” Liz wordlessly reached into her bag and pulled out her red laptop then handed it to Erik. “This will do nicely,” he told her after he had finished inspecting it.
Erik set the laptop on the oak table in our room and turned it on filling the room with the noise of its soft hum. The glow of the screen filled the dimly lit room. He took headphones out of his pocket and pulled them in to the computer.
“The database’s name is Raysel Inc. Raysel is an anagram for slayer. They were too lazy to come up with a name so they switched around letters in the word hunter and added Inc. to the end, aren’t they geniuses?” explained Liz.
Erik nodded probably not even listening. He put the headphones over his ears blocking out all sound then got started hacking into the networks, his fingers flying over the keys.
“How about you two go get some food and I’ll stay here with Erik, who knows how long it will take to hack a very secure network?” Jordan said to us probably guessing I needed food. We nodded in unison then left the room.
“Let’s just go to the restaurant in the hotel, I don’t very much feel like going far for food,” I suggested to Liz.
“Yeah, sure, we can just charge it to my room. I just have to say I’m glad you let us help, I was really worried when you disappeared,” Liz admitted. “I only wish you would tell us the whole truth.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked her pretending I didn’t know what she meant. Liz sighed and I tensed up waiting for her next words. What did she suspect?
“I’m talking about you not telling us everything that happened when you went missing. We all know you’re keeping something from us, and who’s to say that information isn’t important for us to know? We are a team; you can’t just decide to not tell us things, that’s not what a team does,” she argued.
“So basically what you are saying is that because we are a team we can’t have privacy? Why aren’t you asking Erik what made him leave the club?” I replied to her in a furious tone. Liz didn’t reply, that infuriated me even more. “You know what, just forget, I’m not hungry,” I said spinning around and walking in the other direction leaving Liz alone.
I couldn’t believe she couldn’t just let me keep some things to myself; I was perfectly capable of dealing with things alone. I couldn’t go back to the room so furious and without Liz so without thinking I ended up pushing open the door to the roof top. I breathed in the fresh air and leaned against the railing of the roof looking down at the miniature looking cars and people.
Despite being mad at Liz I was madder at myself for how slow my rescue attempt was going. I had found nothing out except for the Tristan was last seen at After Life two days ago. I clenched my hands around the cold chipped red painted metal railing as I thought of what might be happening to Tristan even at this very moment.
I didn’t know how long I spent on the roof before someone finally found me, the sky hadn’t even darkened yet and it was still the same light blue it was when I came up here. I had long forgiven Liz for prying and felt guilty when I saw that it wasn’t her but Erik that had found me.
“It kind of feels like our roles are reversed doesn’t it? You’re on the roof this time and I’m the one that found you when you didn’t want to be found.” when I didn’t crack a smile he went on. “I managed to hack into Raysel Inc.’s network and discovered where Tristan was staying although there was no more information on what he was doing,” he explained.
“That’s great, let’s go.”
“Actually, Liz and Jordan left to search Tristan’s apartment after you were nowhere to be found,” he told me avoiding eye contact.
“What?” I demanded. My anger returned, although this time it was worse. How could they not have taken me along? Tristan was my brother hence my responsibility to find him.
“They couldn’t find you so they went to check out this lead by themselves, I’m sure they’re capable of doing a good job and it will make them feel like they are helping you.”
“But what if they miss something important?” I inquired. Erik laughed almost humorously.
“They won’t. They will be alright and they know what they are looking for,” assured Erik.
“You’d better be right or I’m holding you responsible.” This time his laugh was more real.
“Yeah, yeah,” Erik replied rolling his eyes. “Now let’s go inside where it’s warm and eat something, I’m starving.”
“Good idea, I was starving when Liz and I went to get food, now its way past that.”