The Hunter

Chapter Twenty Three - The Blood-father's Office

He waited for about another hour, until the sun was bright and furious and even the bravest of vampires were resting in their coffins, hiding from the light, its rays that could kill. Thankfully there were no proper windows, stained glass and too high to cause Theo any problems as he stuck to the back wall, walking towards the office quickly. There was not a vampire in sight, even in the darkest parts, Theo was glad for that, he did not want to get caught by the vampires who were for some reason, still awake.

Carefully, he opened the door, pushing it open very slowly. The blood-father was not there, the place was quiet, beautifully silent, apart from a light snoring coming from his coffin at the back of his office. Theo shrugged that off as he stepped towards the doorway, ready to step inside. A hand grabbed him, pulling him away, holding him against the wall. It took Theo a few moments to finally recognise him, Roman. Theo tried to fight him off but Roman was older, significantly stronger. He held Theo there, signalling for him to be quiet as he looked into the office.

Roman stepped inside first, there as a lookout to make sure no vampires would enter. Theo was confused, he was so sure Roman did not want to get involved, sure he would not help. He guessed had been wrong, gotten him wrong and was of course, grateful for his help. He did not know exactly what Roman was offering but he guessed as Theo also walked into the office and began rifling through the desk drawer. There was not much there, a few personal things from throughout the ages but nothing that would help Theo, or Lewis's memory.

He found another drawer, filled with rubbish but even without focusing, he could see there was something wrong, very wrong with the drawer. Theo looked through the stuff in it, various papers but there was not much there, just documents about vampires, hunters, various people who were unfortunately being tracked for one reason or another. He had brief look at the names, looking for Lewis's or anyone's that he recognised, the rest of the names were not interesting to him at the time, he was after evidence, not gossip.

He opened another cabinet, searching through as Roman helped keep everything tidy looking, while looking out for the others, in case anyone was daring enough to be up at that time. There were hours left before sunset, before vampires would be up and wondering, catching the pair red-handed. Theo ferreted around in drawers and cabinets, looking through documents, at names and surveillance. One name struck him, like a bolt of lightning that only created a rush of anger. 'Micah'. Why did the blood-father have a file on him? What was so special about him?

He pulled out that file, hoping to 'borrow' it for a little while. He hoped it was because he was dead, but there was not one for Marcus, and he had gone. Confused, Theo mustered the courage to walk towards the coffin, thinking perhaps he put the documents in it, but he could not open it, his fingers just danced on the lid. Roman grabbed his hand, moving it away quickly. He pushed Theo outside, still holding Micah's file, he was forced to keep watch as Roman shut the door, Theo was not sure what Roman was doing, he did not ask or want to know the answer, guessing that Roman did not want him to know either.

Theo trusted Roman, whatever he was doing, he bet it was not dangerous or wrong, he instead guessed he was looking with his well-trained eyes, his powers costing a lot less energy than Theo's, he could last a lot longer with his vampiric eyes, unlike Theo who could only last minutes. Theo swung the door open, panicked but he did not care, he just watched as Roman looked around the room, his eyes an unusual sapphire blue, beautiful. He pulled a large painting off the wall, sighing quietly at the lock, difficult to crack, even harder to break. Roman tried yet could not break it, the wheel burnt him, made of silver... whatever it was inside, he was not meant to find it, no one was. 

He looked around to see if he could find the combination, but he could not find anything, instead he signalled for Theo to turn around as he tried many combinations, guessing everything. Finally, one worked, it felt like forever and Theo turned around and Roman swung it open, he glanced in, picking up a large, thick file, barely aged with no name on it, he picked it up, handing it over to Theo as he shut it, put the painting back on and left. Theo felt bad for taking the files, but he needed them, and he was willing to face yet another punishment, hiding Roman's involvement.