Right after Adeline finished her meal, she got a call from Alastair.
"Yes Alastair? What is it, boy?"
"I'm not a boy anymore, Adeline. I've already grown up."
Alastair's voice protested from the other end, before Adeline sharply cut him off.
"Well, listen up, boy, I'm still busy at the moment, so get straight to the point. Or do you want me to call up your uncle so your uncle will give you some serious talk?"
She could hear Alastair pause and take a deep breath.
"What are you pausing right there for, boy? I thought you're about to tell me something? It better be important."
" A source reported back to me that a certain vampire named Lauren Xavier, the sister of a deceased elite vampire named Elyse Xavier, just got reincarnated from death. I really mean it. Literally. According to eyewitnesses on the scene, what seemed like a goblet flashed in the skies moments before Lauren got reincarnated. "
" I don't see why some random reincarnated vampire I don't even know is important news. You know vampires got a lot of tricks up their sleeve, and immortality is one of them. I'm not surprised. But the appearance of that goblet is uh, somewhat troubling. It's a mythical goblet I've been hunting for so long. Keep me posted on further updates, and await further orders till then. I'll' hang"
Alastair, sensing that Adeline was about to hang up on the other end of the call, interrupted Adeline.
"Whoa, wait, Adeline. I'm not quite done yet. You don't see why the reincarnation of Lauren Xavier is something important? Let me fill you in. Lauren Xavier is the sister of Elyse Xavier, and both sisters know that us witches are the ones pulling the strings behind the backs of that Bancroft girl. Lauren may be just an ordinary vampire for now, but she is one dangerous vampire. She may be starting to plot her revenge on that Bancroft girl now, and thinking how she can get even with us witches for the death of her sister. "
" Now, that's some interesting news. I want you to keep a constant watch on that girl. Report to me on her actions, and take actions only when absolutely needed. "
"Yes, Adeline. I will."
Alastair hung up on the other end, leaving Adeline in the silence of the darkness once again, accompanied only by her thoughts.
So the Holy Grail showed right before some vampire. Not just any other vampire, but a vampire who knew that it's the witches pushing the buttons of Alice Bancroft. How troublesome. There must be some way or another to deal with this Xavier girl, whoever she might be. I won't give up on obtaining the Holy Grail and the Philosopher's Stone, no matter what the cost is. I've already spent too much and paid a heavy price to quit halfway, when I'm now nearing my end game.
Adeline thought to herself.
Then Adeline remembered she's supposed to meet with her target in a few days.
Although she's confident about the success rate of her mind reader potion, she knew that there was still a slight chance of her plan getting blown to dust the moment the male warlock suspects a thing.
But she isn't the slightest bit concerned, as she already prepared a backup and a fallback just in case the situation spirals out of control, or even in the worst case scenario, a fight between the warlocks and witches on both their sides break out.
Adeline smiled a sly and foxy grin, knowing that sooner or later, both the Philosopher's Stone and the Holy Grail will fall into her hands.
And if she manages to obtain both, she'll obtain the power of immortality, and go against the rules of heaven and nature at will, which in turn will give the witches further advantage over both vampire hunters, the werewolves, the vampires, and the Church.
Now that her tasks at hand are done, she went back inside her house, and went straight to her attic.
It is not your typical old,dusty and spooky attic with cobwebs that looked like it came from a horror movie.
It is modern and state of the art, with a plain white tiled floor, white walls, and was well ventilated.
It is also kept clean.
What's stored in the attic are items that reminded Adeline of her past, which she'll never forget, despite her best efforts.
She picked up an old picture of her together with Hyperion Fletcher.
It was to be their last picture together, as a sudden turn of events caused her to lay a hand on the death of her long-time boyfriend in a moment of impulse, rage, and jealousy.
In the picture, the two went out of town together to go swim in a beach, and both of them were in their early twenties back then.
It was to be one of their last moments together, as the sudden turn of events will turn her life upside down forever.
Right after they returned to Fayetteville, a mysterious girl suddenly showed up.
A string of vampire and werewolf deaths mysteriously occurred in the outskirts of the city, causing the werewolves and the Vampire Council to go into an uproar.
They weren't just ordinary werewolves and vampires, but elite ones at that,causing the werewolves and the vampires to be placed on high alert.
She had no idea back then that not even the witches were safe from the clutches of this mysterious vampire hunter girl,who apparently seemed to have come to the city totally prepared.
And the last one to fall was Hyperion, and it drove the witches into a frenzy.
A hurting Adeline immediately realised her mistake, and teamed up with Oberon, then they took matters into their own hands without consulting their parents.
They placed a vampire spy on the mysterious girl, and discovered that she had the help of at least three more vampire hunters.
With painstaking effort, the two of them managed to have the girl's vampire hunter assistants killed after an extremely tough and brutal fight,but at the cost of the lives of a few elite witches, and some vampires and werewolves.
News of what they did eventually reached their parents and the mysterious vampire hunter.
Adeline and Oberon weren't around in Fayetteville and didn't answer calls when their parents had to take action.
Word reached the two that the mysterious girl, who turned out to be a vampire hunter, ended up almost getting caught in a corner of a dead end in a dark alley after a wild car chase all over Fayetteville one fateful night.
But instead of allowing herself to get caught and interrogated, the Vampire hunter girl smirked, pulled out a caliber 45 pistol, then shot herself three times right in front of the chasing vampires, before crumpling to the ground, lifeless.
When Adeline and Oberon returned, the situation between them and their parents was so intense that they had a shouting match with their parents, and both of them ended up breaking things in their respective houses.
Both of them avenged the witches and avenged Hyperion, but the damage had been done.
It was a costly victory.
Elite vampires, witches and werewolves were killed in the effort to subdue and kill the vampire hunters.
It also pained Adeline to know that Hyperion cheated behind Adeline's back, and had a child with another witch. That child was Alastair Reynolds.
And knowing that information was the reason that caused Adeline to reveal that Hyperion was a warlock in a moment of carelessness and impulsiveness.
Adeline returned to the present, and placed the picture frame back to where it stood, then she picked up Hyperion's spell book, which she kept in good condition.
Rodrick Cain, a 39 year-old male vampire hunter who happens to have contacts with the local parish in Fayetteville, examined the potion ingredients he obtained as a gift for his target, a certain warlock who happened to be a close friend of the Flamel family.
He also sent over an expensive gaming smartphone bugged with spyware apps as an advanced gift to that warlock.
He didn't know how on earth he managed to obtain vital information about the close friends of the Flamel, knowing that they are highly elusive and secretive.
Could it be a blessing from the heavens, or some answered prayer, that he managed to track down a close friend of the Flamels, and a warlock at that?
He didn't know the answer to that one question, which bugged his mind for so long.
But he is for sure, certain about one thing.
That he will exact justice for his long dead wife, who was killed by a werewolf in cold blood, with the remains of his wife never to be found.
And he'll do whatever it takes to find out the exact identity of the werewolf, and kill that werewolf for good with whatever means he could use.
He still remembered that day clearly, and it will forever haunt his mind. He also clearly remembered the features of the werewolf.
It was a cool and windy evening. They were out in the woods somewhere in North Carolina,camping, and unwinding in nature from the stress of their hectic workweek.
It was a full moon that day.
It was already deep into the night, around one or two am in the morning.
Rodrick and his deceased wife sat outside their camp, happily talking and roasting marshmallows and hotdogs while sitting beside a campfire, oblivious to the howling sounds of the wolves that could be heard from the distance.
As they were talking, Rodrick hushed his wife, sensing footsteps of what seemed like a werewolf fully transformed in wolf form approaching closer and closer, until both of them could clearly see the figure of a black wolf in a crouched position, staring at his wife with hungry eyes, the wolf's jaws bared open, with saliva drooling from its mouth.
This is no ordinary wolf, he thought back then. This must be a werewolf, and a male one at that, seeing that this wolf's size perfectly resembles that of a medium built human,even in full wolf form.
He motioned for his wife to hide behind his back, and whispered to her to stifle her screams, or else she'll alert the other wolves lurking nearby.
He grabbed hold of his fully loaded rifle with a silencer, and prepared to aim at the werewolf.
But the werewolf beat him to it, and pounced at his wife before he could react.
He stood there, transfixed in a mixture of shock, horror and revulsion, his fingers fumbling on the trigger as he watched the werewolf bite his wife, and kill his wife before eating his wife raw, right in front of him, flesh, bones, and all, leaving only the clothes and his wife's underwear untouched.
He would have ended up as the next meal of the black furred werewolf, had he not recovered from what he just witnessed, and managed to aim a few bullet rounds, and injure the werewolf, making the werewolf roar in pain and hastily retreat back into the dark corners of the woods.
A badly shaken Rodrick hightailed it out of the woods back into his car, and reported it to the police, who brushed it off as just another wild animal attack,and closed the case, since no leads were available.
Since then, he has devoted his spare time into becoming a vampire hunter in the hopes that he will one day catch and kill the werewolf who killed his wife.
He's also not a pious and religious person, being more a secular atheist, so he got surprised when his contacts among the Roman Catholics in Fayetteville told him that some local parish priest wanted to see him and ask for his assistance to obtain the Holy Grail and the Philosopher's Stone.
So he went and met up with the local parish priest.
He had to endure listening to religious speech for a few minutes before finally getting impatient and demanding that the priest get straight to the point, or he won't help the Church at all.
The priest told him that both items are not just mythical items, they exist in the real world, and that they are currently in the hands of the Flamel family
The priest also gave him a lead on someone related to the Flamel family, and promised him of the Church's backing if he agreed to help them.
He accepted since the reward for both the items were huge, and he cared nothing about how the Church would use both mythical items anyway.