Chapter 10A presentation

"Good evening, gentlemen. We are about to begin."

The man speaking wore, predictably, a lab-coat but didn't look in bad shape. Perhaps around forty with a youthful face but graying hair around his temples. Perhaps a doctor, or a professor. Entering the room were almost exclusively men, wearing various types of suits, including police and business.

The doors were closed, locked and the lights turned off. The tell-tale sound of a digital projector filled the room and, not long after, the sight of it as well. It wasn't a pretty sight. Several pictures that looked like they were taken from a police report. They displayed a girl severely wounded, dead probably. Blood on the ground, the walls. At first glance it looked like a victim of, perhaps, an escaped lion. However, it was in the big city and something about it felt off.

"Take a good look, gentlemen, it is not often that we have the... opportunity to view results of an attack. Most attacks leave either very well hidden traces or even none at all."

He motioned for the next slide to show, it displayed the same scene, from a little further off. Another girl was standing there, next to the victim on the ground. It looked quite fuzzy as if the image had been up-scaled from a bad-quality cam at quite some distance.

"This is around the time of the emergency call. From what we could piece together, this person did not hurt the girl but rather chased of the assailant. However, both are undeniably vampires."

"Is there any evidence for this?"

The speaker smiled. "Lack of footsteps. Not many people are able to climb walls without leaving any traces. Especially if their hands and feet are bloody. The police found some traces on the roof, matching the ones on the ground."

"Carry on."

"Thank you. Now, we've of course traced the family as well after their... passing." The slide changed again, showing the horrors of a family slain with a complete lack of any humanity. Some people in the audience gasped audibly, most just stayed silent.

"The same girl who was at the scene showed up there as well. Only to take the girl who was, for some strange reason, unhurt by the vampires that had slain her parents. As you can see, they were quite literally ripped to pieces. Forensic investigation has shown that they were not mechanically ripped, or cut up some way. Again indicating extremely strong 'humanoid' presence, in other words: vampires."

"And the girl?"

"Strangely, the girl brought her to a detective after a while and he adopted her. She's actually studying with the police and has shown interesting insight. Despite her young age, only sixteen now, she has topped most of her classes with no obvious cheating going on. Even if she did cheat somehow, that in itself would be admirable."

"Very good, but why is this all relevant to us?"

"The vampire girl is, she is, shall we say, surprisingly adept at infiltrating our facilities and disrupting our plans. Now that Jason is gone, and most of our ties with him and his organization are gone, we have to adapt."

"Get to the point."

"Well, there has been rumor of a vampire killing others of their kind if they turn evil. And this girl, we believe her to be Amy Taylor, daughter of Jason, shows all the signs of willing to do 'good'."

There was a lot of murmuring in the room. "Are you telling us you want to... use her?"

The doctor shrugged. "Yes, at the very least she will guide us to groups of vampires. And if we're lucky we might even get her to kill some of her own. There is some circumstantial evidence that she's slain the attackers of the family, burning them to ashes."

A man, dressed somewhat religiously stood up, slamming his fist on the table. "This is preposterous, we will not deal with demons. Do you wish to become one of them? Their petty squabbles are their own, we will most definitely not choose sides!"

"Father, please, calm down. I know the origin and values of the Abbey and I have no intention of changing that. I merely propose that we learn to use new weapons, evolve as the world does around us. We do not want another Isabel incident."

The father sat back down. "Even so."

"Gentlemen, we've lost almost all our assets. We no longer possess any magical aid nor do we have strong financial backing at our side. It is time to admit those defeats and learn from them, becoming stronger than before."

A man stood op and nodded. "Before we continue to hear your plan, I will ask everyone if they can stand behind this. Leave the room for now, please. We will call you in when we're done."

The doctor left the room as requested, standing in the soberly lit hallway with a gentle smile on his face. He knew that most of the men would be behind him. Some of them were old-fashioned and ignorant, but most saw the need for advancement. He already had set some things in motion to aid his plans, there was no doubt that they desired his help.

He'd given everything, dedicated almost this entire life to the Abbey, and he wasn't about to give up now.

And neither would it give up on him. He just knew it.