There was a chair directly in front of the frail Vampire woman. I figured the Guardians had put that there for me. The quarters were so cramped, I had to straddle her boots to sit down, but she didn’t budge, only watched me sit across from her.
I realized now that I’d seen the same visions again, all in a rush, when she’d contacted me in the tree. Sitting there across from her now, more images flashed into my mind. I saw more of her Resurrection, the life she’d lived since that night so long ago, and then I caught flickers of the destruction she was certain was to come. I saw the portal, saw a shape exiting into a sandy desert landscape, but I couldn’t tell who or what it was. I took a deep breath and tried to relax, waiting for Mina to speak as I fought to put the images out of the forefront of my mind. I wondered still what she could see when she reached into my head.
“You are pretty, beautiful, just like her,” Mina said. She smiled at me, and a flicker of fear went through me at how hideous it made her wrinkled face look. I recovered quickly and tried to figure out who she was talking about. Could she mean my sister? Had she caught a look at her earlier? Or maybe one of the other members of our team?
“Her hair was blonde, though, not brown like yours. And it was her right eye that was unchanged. Yours is your left, isn’t it?”
I didn’t understand how she knew which of my eyes had changed since I was wearing my contact. I stared at her in disbelief as she began to laugh. “I know, I know. Don’t think none of us can see in, child. A window works both ways.”
I was shocked. I had no idea how to reply to that at first. I puzzled over her comment for a moment before I finally just asked, “So… you knew? Knew what I was? When… I contacted you?” Why had she not tried to stop us from coming then?
“No, not t’other night,” she said, shaking her head as much as she could with her restraints. “Not till you arrived here, and I had more time to study you.” Her words were chilling. Had she seen me standing in the tree the entire time? “But I see you now, child. And I know you see me.”
I could tell she had chosen her words carefully, and while I wasn’t quite sure exactly what she meant, I understood that each word she spoke was important. I waited, thinking she’d continue, but when she didn’t, I asked, “What did you want to tell me?” I hoped that whatever it was, it would be helpful to the team, that the visions of carnage I’d seen flickers of in my mind’s eye could somehow be prevented. I wasn’t frightened at that point about what had come through the portal. I had faith that my team could defeat it, but any help Mina could offer would be accepted. I wished there was something I could do to help her, though. I knew already, without even asking, there was no way Aaron was letting her walk out of there alive, even if she promised to come back to headquarters and be imprisoned. I couldn’t read his mind, but that was certainly the message I’d gotten when I’d walked in here.
I felt that Mina knew it, too, that her moments on this plane were numbered, so I was surprised when she said, “First, a little help from you.”
Immediately, my IAC flared up with messages from my sister, Aaron, even Elliott, not to bargain with her. I shut them out. They needed to trust me with this, let me handle it. I’m sure that was difficult since I am just a little girl in their eyes, but they’d seen me handle Gibbon. That should’ve gotten me somewhere. To Mina, I said, “I don’t think I can save you.” The words were painful coming out. I had seen, in my mind, this woman had killed, and I got the impression not all of her victims deserved to die, but here she sat before me, a frail looking old woman, and the thought of someone coming in and ripping her head off in a few minutes literally made my stomach cramp up. Like a lost puppy following me home from school, I suddenly wanted to save her, even though I knew my mother wouldn’t let me keep her….
“Not me,” Mina said, and while I was curious as to what she meant, I was somewhat relieved that she wasn’t trying to bargain for her own life. I waited for her to finish. “My daughter,” she said with conviction. “I want you to save my daughter.”
I looked around the tiny space, my eyes cutting through the darkness and saw no one. I knew if Christian had been aware of any other Vampires inside the RV, he would’ve said something. I also thought it odd that Aaron’s X-Ray vision hadn’t picked up on anything, but then, maybe he hadn’t been using it since the place seemed secure. “Where is she?” I finally asked when my efforts were exhausted.
Mina made a tsking sound with her tongue before she said, “Not yet. Tell me you’ll help her first.”
Once again, I heard a dozen voices in my head telling me not to promise anything, but I shut them all out. They weren’t sitting here now across from a woman—not a creature, a bloodsucker, a murderer—a woman begging for the life of her child. They didn’t understand these people the way that I did. Without hesitation, I said, “I will.” The voices grew quiet. I took a deep breath. “Is she… the one you spoke of?” I had seen the images before, the other day, of a girl with blonde hair. I remembered it now. Could that be her daughter? And was she a Hybrid like me?