October 21, 2002 – 09:00
"High Mage Finnas himself? Thank you for doing that. I just got back from Timmins, where the prisoners I found had been taken from. I couldn't just leave them in the middle of no-man land, they were weak from massive blood loss. I lightly hypnotized them and they'll wake up by their front porch. After I find Audrey, I'll need to have that tunnel destroyed and find out why in gods world there was a tunnel linking an elemental school to a blood den," said Coralis.
"Want me to go with you to Chicago?"
"Sure, if you want to. Frank is on his way here and I don't think the father will show up. Just in case he does, I'll set up a ward that would prevent any elemental from entering the house, except us and Andrey."
About an hour later, Coralis and Sebastian landed behind a dumpster by the back entry of The Bloody Velvet. As expected, the club was empty at this time. She was about to pull out her phone to call Veronica when one of Charlie's guards walked out from the kitchen door.
"Blue Thunder! It's been a while! I don't think anyone is awake at this time, are you here to meet with someone? Can I offer you something to drink?"
"BLUE!" said Veronica, coming from their service elevator. "Hey, Sebastian!"
"Oh, sorry Veronica, didn't know you were awake, you aren't usually at this time."
"She called me when she was on her way here and for future reference, if she ever comes here unannounced needing to talk to me, wake me up. And yes, please, get us something to drink. We'll be in my suite."
"Sorry for interrupting your beauty sleep," said Coralis, once they were into the elevator.
"Why are you apologizing? I wasn't joking with Charlie's guard. For you? I'd have his head if he'd have sent you back home or something. You know my sleep schedule, you wouldn't come for me when I'm asleep without a valid reason. If your protegee has been kidnapped and your trail ended by a blood den, better believe that I wanna know all about it and will do anything I can possibly do to help."
A few minutes after they sat in Veronica's living room, Charlie's guard came out of the elevator carrying a tray with three glasses of red wine, and the bottle in the middle.
"Thank you Gontrand," said Veronica as he placed a glass in front of everyone, and the bottle on the coffee table. "I'm sorry, I didn't ask you what you wanted. Do you prefer coffee?"
"Hmm no, it's fine. With the night I had, wine is welcomed."
Gontrand left and Coralis told Veronica about what she saw at the blood den and how she got there. She also handed her documents she grabbed there after she killed all vampires in the building, before burning the place down.
"See, that's also why my family loves you so much. I recognize that logo here, that's the Waldorf clan," said Veronica, pointing to the corner of a letter she was holding. "I remember Charlie talking to our father about that group, a few years ago. They have been causing us a lot of trouble in the past. If you weren't currently in a relationship, I bet you my father would try to hook you up with Charlie."
Sebastian nearly spit the sip of wine he had in his mouth.
"You know them? Where can I find them?" said Coralis.
"A few years ago, they tried to do business with my family, but Charlie convinced my dad against it, arguing it was a scam. He didn't trust them. Whenever they were in town, police would find human bodies drained of blood across town. You finding two humans locked up there against their will isn't surprising, they aren't the type of vampires my family wants to do business with, they're more Lucas' type. I don't know where they're based at the moment, but I can find out."
A few hours later, they were on their way to Cochrane. Veronica was holding tight to Coralis.
"You know that you didn't have to come, right?" said Coralis.
"Are you kidding me? I'll get over my discomfort about travelling at high speed while hanging in the air like that, even if I KNOW that a fall from this height wouldn't kill me. Do I need to remind you that not only you have saved my brother's life AND basically decimated the clan that came after us, and by the way, none of Plurio's spawn ever woke up, you're also handing us on a silver platter another clan that tried something shady on us?"
"Does Hendrick still refer to her replica as the Vase of Blue Sky?" said Sebastian.
"Yes, he still does. I should have taken you to our dungeons, I think you need to see the facial expressions on the vampires whose blood vessels you froze. It never changed, and it's been 8 months."
"We're talking about the vampires you found around Chicago, right?" said Coralis.
"Yeah, those Hendrick found around town or were brought to us are piled up somewhere in our dungeons, but there are a lot more in London."
They landed in the woods behind an isolated warehouse late afternoon. Sebastian spotted a camera pointing toward them and pointed his wand toward it to deactivate it. All doors were locked and Coralis couldn't sense any lingering elemental energy.
"This place smells like vampires, but I can't detect any elemental presence," said Coralis.
"Neither can I, but if coven witches have spelled the tunnel and blood den to dissolve all energy, bet they did it here too," said Sebastian.
"Let's go check inside. Even if your protegee isn't here, we can find out where she can possibly be. The kind of vampires who operate this place are like your coven witches, they're the cockroaches of our kind. I want them destroyed as much as you do."
Veronica kicked one of the back doors open and beheaded the first vampire she saw.
"Can you please tell us if you saw a 10-year-old female around here?" said Sebastian to a vampire coming their way.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said and Veronica beheaded him with her bare hands.
"Remind me to not piss you off," said Coralis.
"I can say the same to you, sis, that's why we love each other," said Veronica as she pulled her sword out.
They searched the warehouse, killing everyone they saw. They found a lab, but Audrey wasn't there. In the director's office, they found a ledger book. Coralis studied the entries and found one under the name Glozo, with an address written next to it.
"It's near Deux-Montagnes," said Sebastian.
"Let's grab any documents and samples we find before we get out of here and burn this place down. I'm sure you want to know all about the type of lab they have here. We'll make a stop in Ottawa to call Lizzy from a rooftop and to grab something to eat, before heading to that address," said Coralis.
"Damn right I do, so does Father and Charlie."
They set the building on fire and Veronica took a picture of it while it was burning. The three of them were covered in blood.
"All right, we're done here," said Coralis.
"I'm going to frame that picture and anonymously put it on Charlie's desk."
"You sure you can keep it anonymous? He's the one who gave us the address of this warehouse."
"No, you know I can't, but I want to see his reaction when he sees it."
"If I didn't know any better, I'd think there was something between you two," said Sebastian. "Hmm I barely have any blood on myself, guess I'll be the one to get food."
"Don't worry about me, this place was loaded with blood bags. I grabbed a few," said Veronica, pointing to a bag next to her on the ground.
They took off and landed on the first skyscraper they saw when they entered Ottawa's city limit. Coralis pulled her phone out of her cloak and dialled Frank's phone number.
"We're about to get something to eat, and we'll be heading to an address near Deux-Montagnes. We should be there by 10."
Frank had her on speakerphone.
"You think she's there?" said Louis.
Coralis could hear Lizzy sobbing softly in the background.
"Possibly. It's an address associated with her father's family. If she's not, I'll be able to narrow down where she can possibly be and who we're dealing with."
"Send us the address, please," said Louis.
Meanwhile, somewhere north of Timmins, Mousse Glozo received a phone call from the friend who sent her the video footage of the blood den.
"Blue Thunder is still on your granddaughter's trail. Princess Veronica and another mage are with her. Blue Thunder is one thing, but I can't have Princess Veronica snooping into my business."
"That's impossible. Dwayne assured me she wouldn't be able to follow him."
"I just watched them coming out of one of our labs before it caught on fire. They killed everyone in there. One of my business partners went to check on it and confirmed that the lab had been burned down to the ground, with nothing left of it. They found the ledger book, so they got your address, and many more. Put a stop to this, or we end your family."