Birthrights (26 page)

"Okay, great!" Caislyn called, "who is it?"

Jaxon ignored her for a moment as she answered the
door. "Hey, we're closed right now. I'm sure if you come back
during posted business hours we will be able to help you."

"Edgar Whitney, of Whitney, Bryce, and Jones," the
stranger began to introduce himself, but Jaxon interrupted.

"Look, man, listen, we are closed." Jax was trying to
be polite, because she didn't want to chase off Caislyn's source of
income, but this man didn't look like he was going anywhere.

"Ma'am, is Miss Vadoma home? I have papers she needs
to sign regarding her parents."

Jaxon was a little taken aback by that. "Her
parents?"

"I've been trying to reach Miss Vadoma, however;
she's been quite insistent that she not go along with her parent's
wishes. You understand, I know it is not a pleasant situation, but
I am obligated by law to present this information to her."

Jaxon just stared at the man as she yelled back over
her shoulder, "Caislyn!"

Caislyn yelled back, "What? I'm almost finished
here."

"Umm, I need you for a minute, please." Jaxon gave a
pleasurable smirk to the man before her then she continued, "some
old pompous dude spouting crap about the law to me!"

"What?" Caislyn yelled as she came out of the back
room headed down the store to the front door. Then Caislyn noticed
who it was. "You!" Caislyn was seething at the sight of him and
before anyone could say anything she flung her wrists out and the
front door of the shop closed in the man's face. "Go away, you old
fool. I already told you my parents are not dead!"

Jaxon's eyes widened as she saw the fiery side of her
friend that was usually well hidden. "Umm, what's going on?"

Before Caislyn could respond Mr. Whitney began
talking exceptionally fast, "Miss Vadoma, this was what your
parents required me to do. I have no other recourse, you see.
Please, read the papers." Mr. Whitney slid the papers through the
mail slot on the door and walked away at a rather brisk pace.

Jaxon caught the envelope as it slid through the
slot. "Well, it came through okay, so I guess it isn't
dangerous."

"It's plenty dangerous! It means my parents have
officially been declared dead."

"What?" The shock that was evident in Jaxon's voice
didn't compare to the look she was giving her friend.

"Apparently my parents set up their last Will and
Testament to reflect them being missing for any length of time too.
If they were to be missing for more than a year, then they should
be legally declared dead, so that I could inherit their estate. I
know they just did it to protect me, but I refuse to look at papers
that say they are gone."

Jaxon understood what her friend was going through,
having lost her own parents and having to deal with the aftermath.
"Cais, just because they left everything to you this way doesn't
mean you have to give up hope of finding them. Come on, I will read
through this stuff with you, and we can figure out how to get Seth
here to drink the potion."

Caislyn and Jaxon went to the back room again and
began going through the papers. Caislyn was shocked to learn that
her parents owned properties all around the world and now she owned
them too. 

"This is a bit much to take in." Caislyn said, "I
never knew they owned so much."

"Wow," Jaxon began, "well, damn. At least you know
now that you don't really have to worry so much about keeping the
book store open regularly. You're pretty much set for life with
what they left you."

"Yeah," Caislyn said distantly. She wanted to change
the subject so she put the papers up on one of the shelves and
reminded Jaxon that they had other things to take care of. "Now,
all we need is to call Seth here and fix him some tea." Caislyn
said satisfied with their creation.

"What do you mean? Like do a spell to call him here?"
Jaxon asked curiously. 

Caislyn thought a moment, "Well I suppose we could do
that. I do have a spell for that, but I was thinking just call him
on his cell phone."

"Oh, yeah. That's pretty simple. I can do that."
Jaxon said as she pulled her cell out of her pocket. "I think I
have his number somewhere…"

Her phone jingled as she started looking for Seth's
number. Jaxon looked up to Caislyn, "Well that's weird. It’s
Seth." 

"What's up Stalker boy?" Jax answered
good-naturedly. 

"I am not a - never mind. You and Caislyn need to be
very, very careful. This whole mess about the prophecy has gotten a
little out hand. I'm going to take care of it soon, though. But I
would suggest the two of you stay there until you hear from me
again."

"What do you mean? What happened?" Jaxon asked
suddenly serious. She put Seth on speaker phone so that Caislyn
could hear as well.

Seth paused a moment, "That vampire Frank told people
about how you kicked his butt, Jaxon. So now there's speculation,
but I'm going to handle it, there's nothing to worry about. I would
just suggest that the two of you stay in until you hear from me.
That way there's nothing more that can happen."

Caislyn and Jaxon shared a look before Caislyn spoke.
"Seth, this is Caislyn. I think you should come over and talk to us
in person about what happened. I'm a little confused by it
all."

"I agree Seth. You just come here and we can talk
about it. See you in a few." Jaxon said and disconnected the call
before Seth could make another excuse.

"Cool. Let's go get some tea brewing before he gets
here."

About ten minutes later, Seth rang the bell at the
front of the bookstore announcing he was there. Caislyn checked the
video from the apartment and released the lock. "It’s open." She
said into the mic. "Wow, he doesn't look too happy to be here."
Caislyn giggled as she warned Jax of Seth's mood.

With a quick knock on the apartment door, Seth
entered, his face showing his cloudy mood. "I really do not
see the reason for me to be here. As I explained on the phone
-"

"Oh just sit down and take a load off, Seth. Here
have some tea. It will help relax you. Trust me, you need it. I can
feel the stress just pouring off of you and its bringing down my
mood." Jaxon rambled as she led Seth to the chair he always sat in
and ushered him into it.

Caislyn brought in three mugs of tea, and handed Seth
the one she had specially prepared for him. She set the tray down
on the table and grabbed her own mug so that he would not get
suspicious. 

Jaxon sat down on the couch beside her roommate and
also grabbed a steaming mug. "I absolutely love this tea. It does
wonders to help you relax."

Seth sat in the chair holding his tea, looking rather
annoyed. "As I said, there was really no reason for me to come
over. It’s not that big of a deal." 

"Obviously it was since you felt compelled to call us
and tell us not to go outside." Caislyn said as she drank her tea.
"Besides, what if your master plan went wrong and we didn't hear
from you again? I mean I have supplies, but I don't have the
forever kind of supplies in that case." Caislyn was purposely
rambling to try to give Seth more time to consume as much tea as
possible.

Seth sighed and took another sip of tea. Caislyn had
a point but he wasn't about to share everything that happened with
the girls, especially the part about Frank's demise.

Jaxon shared a look with Caislyn then decided a bit
of truthfulness might be a good idea. "Seth, honestly we wanted you
to come here because we need to talk to you. We don't feel that
you've been completely honest with us. We think you know more than
you are sharing with us."

Caislyn's eyes grew wide for a moment as she didn't
expect Jaxon to come out and call the vampire's bluff. She hoped
Jaxon knew what she was doing.

Seth looked at both the girls. He didn't really know
what to say so he drank more of his tea to give him some time to
think of an excuse. "What makes you think I'm not telling you
everything?"

Caislyn spoke first, "It’s just a feeling that we get
Seth. And usually I'm pretty accurate on my gut instincts. What
happened today that made you call us and tell us to stay
inside?"

Seth had no intentions of telling them of the events
he had over the last few hours, but he found he couldn't lie to
them. Instead he chose to give them a very watered down version of
what had happened. "I left here and called my employer to see if I
could find out more about Frank. Then I went to see Ve, where I was
able to find out information about the Seer, but I still didn't
know who was behind everything until I ran into Frank. Once I
handled Frank, I decided that the best course of action was to go
to the Council directly, but they have already called an Emergency
Meeting of the Regional High Council for tonight. I have been
commanded by the High Council to report on everything I know." Seth
shook his head slightly when he realized that even that version had
given them far more information than he wanted to share. He drank
more tea to keep himself busy.

Jaxon and Caislyn sat in shocked silence at the
admission Seth had just given them. It took them both a moment to
process everything and ask him more questions.

"Who is your employer?" Caislyn took the lead in
questioning. 

"Marc Pithview." 

"Marc owns the galleries." Jaxon explained to
Caislyn. "Who else do you work for?" 

"No one." 

"Why did you go see Ve to find out more information
about the Seer?" Caislyn took over again. 

"Because you had seen the Old Seer outside of Ve's
place; therefore, Ve had something to do with the Seer." 

"And what did he have to do with the Seer?" 

"Ve had offered to help hide him, but in the process
of getting the Seer back to his place the Seer was
taken." 

The girls looked at each other with surprise. "By
whom?"

"Melina." 

"Who's Melina" Jaxon asked never having heard that
name before.

"She's a witch Marc hired to do a job for him. But
she apparently screwed up and that's why he had me watching
Caislyn."

Caislyn paled as she recognized the name of the witch
Seth had mentioned. She put her mug on the table and wrapped her
arms around herself as the memories of the night her parents
disappeared assaulted her.

Jaxon didn't have to see Caislyn shut down and close
herself off to know that Melina meant something big. She felt the
overwhelming change in Caislyn's energies. "Cais, who is
Melina?"

Caislyn ignored the question for now. She had more
important things to think about. She dumped a small vial of liquid
in Seth's tea, not caring if he saw. "Please, drink up; we can't
have you walking into a Vamp Council meeting telling them
everything you know."

Seth understood then what the girls had done. They
had used some sort of truth spell on him which was why he divulged
so much information to them. He simply nodding a knowing look at
Caislyn and drank the remainder of his tea. "We will talk about
that later," he said as he got up to leave. "Stay inside, too many
people know too much right now and you are both in
danger. Stay upstairs where the wards are strongest. I will come
for you when the council meeting is over. I have a plan."

After Seth left Jaxon tried again, "Cais, who is
Melina?" 

"She's dead! That's who she is. That double-crossing,
power-hungry bitch!"

"Well, that clears things up."

"She was working with my parents on whatever they
were researching." She thought back about the night her parents
were taken and the visions she had. "My mom tried to protect her
before she was taken."

The betrayal was evident now, as Jaxon hugged
Caislyn, "We'll get her. We need to practice some things I have
been thinking about before we go infiltrate this vampire council
meeting to rescue my stalker."

That definitely snapped Caislyn out of her memories.
"What?"

"If Melina was working so closely with your parents,
don't you think she would have picked up on you being a little more
than a witch?" Jaxon thought about that a little. "Maybe not, but
just in case, it seems to me that if Melina knew, she was
double-crossing your parents already, she had the Seer and no
telling what he told her, and God only knows what this Marc
Pithview, supposed gallery owner, knows. And Frank saw me do what I
did, which means they will probably make him testify too. Seth is
in trouble and he's never let us down when we needed help. We need
to get there and pull him out. In order to do that, we have to
figure out how the hell you teleported before."

Caislyn sat in awe for a moment wondering how her
friend had pulled herself together so well under pressure while she
felt like falling apart right now. Then, she noticed it. Jaxon's
eyes were a bit darker and her body seemed too calm. "Jax?" Caislyn
questioned. "Are you vamping out right now?"

"Just a little. But only enough to take the edge off
and keep a shield up so I stop feeling what you're going through."
She gave her friend a sympathetic look, "Look, I know it's hard. I
would sit here and cry with you all night over everything that has
happened to you, but we just don't have time for it now. So, I say
we act now and cry later." 

"I don't know how to teleport."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, right down to business." Jaxon told
Caislyn to think of being downstairs in the bookstore and see if
she could make it happen.

Caislyn did as directed.

"Well, obviously that didn't work." Jaxon said after
a few minutes.

"I felt a little tingle every time I tried, like my
body wanted to go somewhere, but I didn't have a big enough battery
to power the trip." Caislyn said. At the quizzical look on Jaxon's
face Caislyn said, "What? I don't know how to explain it. That's
the best I could do."