A poison. If that monster had gotten her, even if she had managed to escape by herself, she would have died anyway if not for Alex. It would seem he had saved her twice in one day, even if one was ultimately by extension. And, even though he would heal quickly, he had been hurt in the process.
“Thank you, Alex,” Victoria said quietly. She took a slow breath. “So, the attack’s tomorrow night, right? Is there anything I can do to help? If my aunt and uncle found out I knew about that and didn’t do anything, I’d never hear the end of it... I should call them,” she added, her voice turning dark as she continued. “Let them know I’ve lost my phone.”

Alex thought for a moment. "There might be something you can do, that would keep you safe, and allow you to help." Alex said, and he nodded. "Here, use my phone. I should discuss my idea with Illyad, we might just need you for something." He smiled, handing her his phone.
He wasn't sure how much it would make sense for Victoria to do the job he had in mind, but it was better than nothing, she would be being helpful, and it might just keep her out of harms way.

“Safe” and “helpful.” Two of Victoria’s favorite words at the moment. She instinctively flinched back when Alex handed her his phone, her heart beating a little quicker. She returned his smile with one between wary and apologetic.
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” She sat cross-legged, took the phone, and opened the dial pad, thankful that her guardians’ numbers were ones she had had the foresight of memorizing. Not that she had many numbers in her phone anymore to even need to memorize. “I shouldn’t be too long.” She gestured to the phone with a flick of her wrist. There isn’t much I can tell them, she added to herself dismally.

Alex nodded and left the room to discuss the ideas he had with Illyad, who was currently sat in the kitchen, waiting patiently for the pair to finish.
It seemed Illyad had been somewhat bored while he wasn't needed, as he had changed his clothes, re-organised his cupboards and made a pot of tea while he had been waiting.
"Ahh, finally. Are you two finished? We should probably discuss battle plans." Illyad asked Alex.

"Actually that's what I need to talk to you about. I've had an idea on how we can utilise Victoria during the battle."

Victoria typed in the number for her aunt, and paused with her thumb over the call button. She took a couple breaths, getting the story she would tell straight and making sure she would sound as normal as possible. The last thing she wanted to do was arouse any kind of suspicion.
As confident as she could be about the matter, she put the call through and brought the phone to her ear.
It rang a few times, and for a moment she thought, to her relief, it would go to voicemail.
“Hello?” her aunt’s light, airy voice came through the speaker, making Victoria’s shoulders slump.
“Hey, Aunt Cass. It’s me.” She gave a small smile, hoping the action would echo in her voice.
“Vic!” Aunt Cass’ exclaimed in her overly cheerful way. “It’s good to hear from you. I tried to call earlier to see how classes went, but I only got your voicemail.”
“Yeah, I sort of lost my phone.” And my wallet. And my purse, she added silently with a scowl. If she lived through the next couple days, rebuilding the collection of various cards in her wallet was going to be a pain.
There was a short pause, and Victoria imagined her aunt raising her well-groomed eyebrows.
“I don’t think you’ve ever lost a phone in your life!”
“I figured Uncle Frank had that covered for all of us.” A genuine small smile pulled at the corner of her lips.
Aunt Cass laughed. “How in the world did you manage to lose it?”
Victoria took a deep breath. “I ended up going out with a couple people I met, and accidentally left it somewhere,” she said carefully, hoping her aunt would not notice the slight raise in pitch in her voice, or the hint of fear and venom she could not repress when she said ‘people.’ “No one turned it into lost-and-found.”
“You’re making friends?” Victoria frowned irritably at the shock and excitement in Aunt Cass’ voice. If she only knew who she had called ‘friends.’ “And on your first day! That’s great, honey! I’ll call Verizon and get things sorted out. Can I call this number back when I have that settled?”
“I’ll have to check with Alex.”
“Just text me if there’s a problem, then.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
“No problem. I’ll talk to you later, hon! Love you! Oh, and tell Alex hello for me.”
“You too. Will do. Bye.” With a relieved sigh, Victoria ended the call. She placed the phone on the carpet beside her and bent over, placing her head in her hands.
She was accustomed to telling half-truths and withholding certain bits of information from them, but she always tried to do so as little as possible. And she had the feeling that this would be the first in a long chain of lies she would be telling them, even if the story of her phone was still a redacted truth.
After a moment, she straightened, picked up the phone, and went to the kitchen, where the pleasant herbal scent of tea lingered in the air. Not wanting to interrupt any conversation, she paused in the doorway.

"-if you could get it in here, or even in my apartment, then she could warn-" Alex stopped talking when he noticed Illyad nod behind him, and when he turned he noticed Victoria in the doorway. "Oh! Victoria! We were just discussing how you could help us in the upcoming attacks." He said, sounding more calm about it than he felt. "I was just saying to Illyad that if he could generate a mystical map, pinpointing all the supernaturals in the area, you could warn us about potential problems as we start our battle. It would be complicated, but I think it's possible."

"Would you like some tea, Victoria?" Illyad asked, politely.
You're overwhelming the poor girl He mentally told Alex, scowling at him as he did so.

Victoria stared at Alex for a moment, then blinked before looking to the floor tiles. “You can do that? Track all supernaturals in the area? How?”
All the supernaturals. From dealing with four, to an indefinite number. Fantastic plan. She exhaled slowly, unsure if she liked the idea of knowing where they all were and how many lurked around the town, or loathed it. A large part of her didn't want to know how many of her neighbors and classmates were supernaturals.
But a lot of them are "new age," she reminded herself.
She glanced to Illyad as he offered her tea, her look questioning as he scowled at Alex. She hesitated before answering, the overly suspicious voice ever nagging at the back of her mind warning her against it.
“Sure,” she said slowly. “Thanks.” Remembering the phone in her hand, she took a step closer to Alex and handed it to him. “Do you mind if my aunt calls your number back? She’s going to sort things out on her end, but needs a way to contact me.”

Illyad nodded. "I can, but it takes a lot of concentration. Supernaturals have a unique identifier, kind of like an energy they radiate. Magic makes almost anything possible, dear." He poured her a cup of tea and handed it to her. "If my concentration is on locating all of the supernaturals, I can't focus on contacting our defenders to warn them of any incoming attacks, which is why you could be very useful."

Alex put his hand up. "Sure she can, and until you get a new phone you can keep hold of that. It's not like I use it that much." He shrugged.

“Oh,” Victoria said to Illyad’s explanation.
She watched him pour the tea, then took the mug with a soft, “Thanks,” directed to both him and Alex. She sat the phone on a drawer chest with multiple small drawers beside her, a line of opaque canisters with wooden spoons situated on its top. She gripped the mug in both hands, letting the heat of the steaming liquid inside warm her palms.
“If I don’t get a chance to get a new one, though,” she began, looking into the liquid’s pleasant shade of light gold, “we’ll need some way of contacting you, won’t we?”
We. It felt odd using that plural now to included supernaturals.

"There are other means of contacting me." Alex said, with a discreet nod toward Illyad. "Plenty of supernaturals have a mild telepathic ability. I actually honed mine so myself and Illyad could communicate more effectively. He's still much more adept than me, though."

Illyad smirked. "I'm a user of magic, it's a natural gift. Telepathy isn't something that comes naturally to vampires... Or at least not as much as warlocks and magi." He shrugged. "Still, moreso than the average human." He looked at Victoria. "I wonder what your telepathic potential is..." He mused, before pouring himself a cup of tea, methodically adding milk and a small amount of honey to sweeten it.

Victoria stared at Alex for a moment at the newest supernatural revelation. They can use telepathy... She turned her attention back to her tea with an uneasy expression.
“Can you do that with just other supernaturals, or anyone?” she asked, trying to make the question sound as innocent as possible before taking a sip of her drink.
She glanced to Illyad at his pondering. “I’ve never read anyone’s mind before, if that’s what you want to know.”


Luc paced Jevan’s study, an impatient scowl etched onto his pale features. He pulled his most recent burner phone from one of his coat pockets and checked the time yet again. At long last, the door through which Jevan and Nyaira had disappeared opened and the two came out.
What looked like a brass pocket watch engraved with silvery vines dangled at the end of a chain in Nyaira’s hand.
“Iz zat it?” Luc nodded to the pocket watch as Nyaira sauntered to him.
Nyaira nodded with a darkly satisfied smile, and gripped the watch. "It is, mon cœur." She opened it, revealing a compass with runes in the place of the cardinal directions. The needle swiveled around a few times beneath the glass as if it could not quite make up its mind which way it should point.
“She’s likely under a protection spell or two,” Jevan said lazily, looking over Nyaira’s shoulder at the compass. “As long as whoever’s protecting her doesn’t have stronger magic than mine,” he smirked at the mere thought, “it’ll sense her once you’re closer.”
“It ‘ad better, with ze time it took you.” Luc took the compass from Nyaira’s hand and examined its face before handing it back to her.
“You can’t rush perfection!” Jevan returned to his desk as the wall swallowed the door. “Now, if that’s all, I have work to get back to. Manfred will get you wherever you need to go.”
As if he heard his name, the sleek-looking butler held the remaining door open.
The vampires headed toward the exit.
“Oh, Luc.” Jevan reached into a drawer at his desk as Luc turned to face him, a hand lightly on Nyaira’s shoulder. “Before I forget.” He brandished a wide brass cuff, a series of swirling runes carved into the metal. He tossed to Luc, who easily caught it. “The enchantment on it will last about eight hours once you put it on. I should hope that’s enough time for you to do what you need.”
Luc snorted, pocketed the cuff, and hurried out the door, ushering Nyaira ahead of him.

Alex shook his head. "Supernatural's trained in telepathy can only push thoughts into the heads of others, they can't read minds. With the exception of people like Illyad here. But generally speaking people can only pick up those thoughts if they're trained to do so. Regular humans do have the capacity to pick up thoughts being sent to them, but most of them aren't trained to do that." He shrugged. "Probably safer that way to be honest."

Illyad sipped his tea loudly, looking at Victoria as if scanning her. "I would imagine training you would be a breeze. You have the ability to see supernaturals, which is, generally speaking, not a human ability, it wouldn't surprise me if you had some mild psychic abilities, too." He smiled. "If you ever want some training, please do let me know. I would be interested to discover your hidden talents."

Unsure which was worse, the temporary thought that all supernaturals could read minds, or just a few like the man she stood in the kitchen with. Victoria hid her frown with another, long sip of tea. She nearly choked on it when Illyad mentioned other “psychic abilities.”
Victoria stared at him a long moment despite the hair prickling on the back of her neck at knowing what he is. She could barely stand the ability she had. The last thing she wanted was to add another one to that.
“I’ll... think about it,” she said slowly, stiffly. She looked to Alex, eagerly changing the subject. “What do we need, then, to keep an eye on everything?”

Alex shrugged. "Illyad can conjure up a magical map, essentially tracking everyone. He's gonna need to focus on other things, so you could keep an eye on it, and let us know if someone undesirable is approaching." He thought for a moment. "Preferably, we would give you a temporary psychic link to me, so you could let me know if stuff is happening, but if you would prefer not to, then Illyad should be able to handle messages."

Victoria looked into her cup as if its contents might be hiding a better solution to sending messages. Alas, the artificial light of the kitchen glinting off the tea’s surface offered only the promise that her next sip would be as tasty as the last.
“I have until tomorrow to think about that, too, right?” she asked into her drink. “Where are we going to keep an eye on things from, anyway? Here, or somewhere more central? Unless ‘here’ is central...” She let the thought trail off as the realization that she had no idea where “here” was hit her in full.

Alex shook his head. "It doesn't really matter where you are, but here would be the safest place for you, really. The only other place that could offer you safety is my apartment, Illyad has been working on some wards there as well. Your safety is vital in this. I don't know what they need you for, but they are coming after you for a reason. And yes, you have until tomorrow to think about everything."

Illyad simply watched the exchange, contentedly sipping his tea and observing. He had always been fascinated by interaction between humans. And Alex was as close to human as one got, without truly being human.

“Wherever you think best, then,” Victoria said. Though both options for a safe haven made her want to cringe, she only leaned lightly against the drawer chest. She turned the cup in her hands anxiously as Alex continued. They need her for something. And whatever it was, it could not be good.
“So, where are we, exactly?” she asked, not wanting to think about the two who had abducted her. “I mean, are we still in the same city?” It dawned on her that she had not so much as looked out a window, so she glanced to the nearest one, but curtains blocked her view of whatever lay beyond the kitchen walls.

Alex chuckled. "Illyad is very secretive about his location. Even I'm not allowed to know where we are. And to be honest, it's better that we don't know." He said, sighing. "The more useful information you have, the more you'll be targeted, by more people. At least at the moment, the only people who know about you are Nyaira and Luc, and they have secretive personalities, so it's unlikely they've told anyone. You're only a target to them, if we can get them out of the way, you'll be safe again."

Victoria scowled as Alex began speaking. She raised her eyebrows at the prospect of it being better to not know. And that the location of Illyad’s home was “useful information.”
“You’re famous for being involved in all this, I take it?” she asked Illyad. Then the last of what Alex said sunk in, and she frowned. As much as she would love to not have to worry about Luc and Nyaira, she could not help but wonder what, exactly, Alex might have planned for them. “And by ‘out of the way,’ you mean...?” She let the question trail off.

Illyad chuckled. "Infamous, my dear. I've been battling these people almost my entire life, it's only natural that I'd make somewhat of a name for myself. And even magic can't erase memories." He shrugged. "Perhaps, one day, I'll be able to lead a peaceful life, but for now, paranoia is my only saviour."

Alex sighed. "I don't necessarily mean to kill them, that's a worst case scenario. Luc may be a psychopath but he's not stupid. He's highly intelligent, which can make him open to negotiations and reasoning, but also very difficult to reason with. He has his own ideals, his own ideas, his own reasons for wanting what he wants. He can be very... persuasive."