Epiphany [mxm]

CHAPTER 3

A deep frown marred Adam's face as he took another sip of his dark black coffee and leaned his tall imposing figure against the wall. Since the declaration of the global state of emergency he had barely gotten a wink of sleep. "Have you memorized all the dossiers, I've send you?" Louis questioned as he entered the room and dropped another stack of books and folders on the dark cherry wooden table. "Barely." Adam murmured in response as he glanced with annoyance at the new stack. Normally he would treat his 'brother' with more respect but his patience was wearing thin. Louis nodded, seemingly unfazed by Adam's brazen tone.

"Make sure, you remember all the dossiers." Adam groaned as he put his pristine white mug down on the table and reached for one of the white tablets on the table. The device held several dossiers of members of the Varacolaci lineage. Some dossiers including detailed pictures, sketches, portraits and descriptions of the individual's appearance, past and position in the intricate hierarchy of the Varacolaci lineage. Other dossiers including merely a name. It was not much to work with. Adam's eyes scanned for the hundredth time over the dossiers. To make matters worse of all the Kudlak that they had managed to acquire data on, only one individual was could be positively marked as 'active'. It was therefore questionable if the other individuals in their database were still in existence, which made this so called target focus research much more troublesome than what it needed to be. How could they even target individuals if they were unaware of their appearance and in addition didn't hold any form of confirmation of the individual's current existence? For all they knew the specific Kudlak could have returned to dust ages ago.

Adam's tired eyes stared at the picture of the only individual which they were able to confirm as 'active'. Erzesebet Bathory, a consort of Vladimir III Dracul and the woman that all of them had seen sitting lavishly on the lap of the escaped prince in the security camera recording at the Stasava facility. Her dossier was filled to the brim, the thickest dossier in the pile of folders by far and the one taking up most of the memory on the tablet. The dossier was mostly filled with portraits and photos, though the portraits from the 1500s merely hinted at her appearance and barely did it any justice.

The more recent photographs however showed a beautiful woman in her late twenties with wavy dark brown hair, a long oval face and a long striking nose bridge. Adam glared as he looked at her doe-like hazel eyes, he didn't understand why but he really disliked those eyes. "He has seven consorts in total," Louis mumbled thoughtfully as he glanced at the interactive screen on the far-right wall in the room. The screen showed the picture of Erzesebet in the top left corner with her name typed in black block letters underneath. Under Erzesebet photo a painted portrait of a woman with a small face, short pale blonde straight hair and a button-nose was shown, with the name Anna de Coligny underneath. A woman that according to her records had brought her five innocent daughters with her on her path of destruction and death.

To the right of Erzesebet's photo was a black square with the name Adil under it. No last name, nothing. He was one of the two consorts they had no information on at all, except for his name. Underneath Adils' name another black square was shown this one had no name at all. According to their records, Vladimir III Dracul was supposed to have seven consorts. However over the past decades nothing had been found regarding the mysterious seventh consort despite continuous efforts.

Underneath the second black square, a black and white photo was shown of a couple during the Victorian time. The woman to the left was a human and of no interest to the Order however the male at her side who was dressed in a close-fitted white shirt with cuffed sleeves and a black necktie made out of silk was another story. His broad shoulders gave a lasting impression and his striking cheekbones and intense stare seemed almost scorching. Ambrogio Caro, according to their records he was the oldest and the first consort of Vladimir III Dracul. He had however not been seen since the late 1800s.