We ended up leaving just after dawn, going to see the closest coven, the Brando coven.
Which were in the center of London, not even a mile from Buckingham palace.
Sitting in the driver's seat of Julius's 1930 Lagonda 4 seater.
"Why am I in the passenger seat of my own car?" Julius asked, turning his head to look at me, the wind swirling his hair around as we weaved through traffic.
"because you drive like an old woman." I said playfully, pulling hard on the wheel to take a corner about ten miles over the speed limit.
"Geez!" Julius shouted as the back tires skidded across the concrete.
"Relax, would ya!" I said as a laugh escaped my mouth.
"hey! Over there." Julius shouted, pointing to a large four story brick home.
Smashing the brake, the car came to a careening halt.
"Adam, if there is anything wrong with my car after this, you are buying me a new one." Julius scowled.
"Relax dear. You know he's good for it." Jane said, a small smile gracing her face as she leaned forward in the back seat.
"Trillionaire." I heard Edward murmur from behind me.
"Right!" I interjected. "This their home?" I asked, putting the car in park and pulling out the key.
"Yes, that's their home. There's five of them. We don't know if any of them have powers." Julius said, turning in his seat to look at the home.
"That's fine." I said, opening my car door and pulling the lever for the chair to move forward so Edward and Jane could get out.
"Vampires actually having powers is quite rare."
Slamming the door shut, I adjusted my suit jacket before stepping onto the curb.
"Is there anything I should know about them?" I asked as we approached the home.
"They were all turned in the Victorian era…" Julius said, turning to look at me.
His expression told me everything I needed to know about how he felt about them.
"okay." I said, taking the few steps up until I was at the door.
"They know we are here." Edward whispered from the back of our group. "They are confused as to why Jane and Julius are here, as well as who Adam and I are."
"How useful." I chuckled, knocking on their door.
"Just remember the plan, Edward." I said, turning to look at him.
He nodded his head.
"good." I said, just as the front door was opened to reveal a tall skinny man with shoulder-length brown hair and one of those weird curly mustaches.
"Good evening, sir." I said in my best upper crust British accents, with a smarmy look on my face.
"Evening." the man said in a higher pitched voice.
"If you would be so kind, we would like to ask you a few questions." I said, an insincere smile on my face.
The man looked at me for a moment before looking past me at Julius and Jane.
"It would be in your best interest to spare some time for him." Jane said, her voice like honey as she spoke to the man.
His blood red eyes lingered on her for a moment before they shot back to look at me.
"very well." He said, backing away from the door to let us in.
"I am most thankful." I said cheerily as I stepped through the door, quickly followed by Julius, Jane, and Edward.
As I stepped in, I saw four others standing in the foyer.
I ignored them and their reactions to me as I looked around their rather impressive home.
"I see all of you are still living in a bygone era." I said, changing my accent back to my more normal American.
The other four vampires were three men and one woman.
The men were all wearing more modern clothes while the woman wore a gray dress straight from the Victorian era.
The three men all had longish hair and clean shaven faces, all with brown hair, except for the woman who had blond hair.
"It is what we are most comfortable with." The woman said, raising her chin to look down her nose at me.
"That I can understand. But you do know there was something called electricity that was invented quite some time ago. I believe it was on the rise in popularity when all of you were still human. Live how you like, but why make life harder on yourselves?" I asked, turning to look at them.
The woman raised an eyebrow at my comment, clearly unamused. "We prefer tradition. After all, it is the essence of who we are," she retorted, her voice dripping with disdain.
"Tradition is a lovely thing, but it can also be a cage," I replied, glancing at Edward.
He was already scanning the minds of the other vampires, his focus intense. I could tell he was searching for any hint of hostility or knowledge about the recent attack.
The woman grimaced.
"Who are you to question how we live, human?" The woman snarled, her fangs showing as she spoke.
"He's someone you really don't want to anger." Jane said behind me in a calm, level tone.
The woman turned to look at Jane, the sneer still on her face, but was interrupted before she could speak.
"He's human. What could he possibly do to worry us." One of the other men standing by the woman asked, stepping forward.
"He wouldn't need to do anything," Julius chimed in. "Me and my mate here would be enough to kill all of you before you had time to process the fact that your heads were removed from your bodies. But I suppose we might as well tell you," Julius said, crossing his arms over his chest. "His name is Adam. He's the first man…" Julius said, dropping my name like a nuke.
The room went silent for a moment before the woman let out a loud laugh that echoed off the walls, shortly followed by the others.
"Adam…The first man." The woman said through fits of laughter.
I turned to look at Julius.
"Can I do it my way now?" I asked.
He let out a sigh, looking at the group of vampires who were still laughing.
"Why not." He said with a shrug, exasperated.
Grinning, I turned to the vampires who were looking at each other, wiping fake tears from their eyes.
"Time to do this the old fashioned way." I said with a grin, the vampires not hearing my words.
I disappeared with a snap, my movements so fast it displaced the air where I had stood.
I appeared holding the woman by the throat and off the ground on the other end of the foyer. The laughter now gone from the room as Julius held the other vampires still with his telepathic ability.
"We could have done this the nice way!" I said, squeezing hard on her throat as she looked down at me, panic now filling her eyes.
"but no, we had to do it this way." I said, my eyes growing colder with every second.
"I'm going to ask this once. And one time only. What do you know about the attack on Jane and Julius?" I asked, my grip loosening just enough for her to answer.
"Nothing!" She managed to get out through gritted teeth.
Turning my head, I looked at Edward, whose eyes were narrowed as he focused on the woman.
"She knows something but is trying to cover whatever it is up with other thoughts." He said, looking at me.
Turning, I looked at Jane, I spoke.
"Do your stuff. Maybe that'll help loosen her lips and thoughts." I said, turning the woman in my grip towards Jane.
The woman must not have known what her powers were because she looked right into Jane's eyes as she said that magical words.
"PAIN!" Jane said, her voice now hard.
In a millisecond, the woman started to scream and convuls as the fiery pain washed through her.
Grabbing hold of the woman's hands to keep her from scratching me, I watched her twitch for a few moments before speaking again.
"All you have to do is tell us, and all of this can stop!" I said loudly so all could hear me over her screams.
"Next time I have to ask, I'm going to start killing the members of your coven!" I said, just as Jane released her from the pain.
"Speak!" I yelled.
But she remained silent.
"So be it!" I said, not needing to turn as I heard the tearing of stoney flesh, as Julius telepathically tore off one of the male vampire's heads.
"PAIN!" Jane again said, sending the woman into convulsions again.
"You don't even have to say it, just think of it, and we will know!" I shouted as the woman screamed.
"NOOO!" She screamed.
"I got it, Adam!" Edward said, his eyes growing wide as he sorted through whatever the woman let slip in her mind.
The woman stopped convulsing as Jane released her from her gaze.
Turning to look at Edward, I raised a brow.
"What is it?" I asked.
"It seems most of the covens here in England have banded together into a coalition of sorts to get rid of Jane and Julius." He said, turning to look at me.
"What!" I exclaimed in astonishment.
"Something about how they will have free reign over the country since the Volturi don't come here." Edward said, raising one of his brows.
I couldn't stop the scoff that escaped my lips as I listened to his words.
Turning to the woman, I shook her hard.
"How stupid are all of you. They are the reason the Volturi don't come here!" I said, tightening my grip on the woman's neck, "kill them and guess who's coming…the Volturi, you knumbskulls!" I said, shaking my head as the woman snarled at me.
Tuning to Edward, I spoke.
"Did you get all the covens involved?" I asked.
He slowly nodded.
"I think so." He said with a shrug.
"It doesn't matter. You probably got most of them, which should be enough to dissuade the ones you didn't get from ever trying something like this again." I said, slowly turning to look the woman in the eyes.
"Sorry about this." I said with a wide smile as I slowly started to add more pressure to my grip on her neck until cracks began to appear.
Then, like a rock under a compressor, her head separated from her body, sending both clattering to the polished wooden floors.
Glancing down at her body for a moment, I turned to Julius and nodded, giving him the go ahead to kill the others, which he did with a lazy motion of one of his hands, twisting the heads off the other vampires.
"Looks like we are going to have a busy few days." I said, rubbing my hands together, removing the crystal dust left on my hands from the woman.
"Yes, but we should act against the other covens in one sweep, not giving them time to disburse." Jane said, stepping closer to Julius, grabbing hold of one of his free hands with her own.
"Yes. It should be early in the morning. After all of them are home after their night hunts." Julius added.
I nodded.
"So tonight we plan, and tomorrow morning, we act. Going from one guilty coven to the next." I said, turning to look at Edward.
"How are you holding up, kid?" I asked.
He nodded, not seeming bothered by what he had just witnessed, but I knew how good he was at hiding his emotions, so Ibmade a mental note to ask again later.
"What do we do with the bodies?" Edward asked, changing the subject away from himself.
'definitely need to ask again later.' I thought as I went along with his change in subject.
"We burn them." I said, turning to look into one of the large rooms connected to the fourier.
The room I looked into was a large plush sitting room with a large fireplace that was lit.
"Me and you will put them into this fireplace. Julius and Jane, you two will put three of them in the basement furnace." I said, taking off my jacket and rolling up my sleeves.
Later that night after a long planning session with Julius and Jane where we planned tomorrow's activities, I decided to get some fresh air on one of the castle's balconies, to get some of the night's fresh air.
As I closed the door behind me, I spotted Edward leaning against the stone wall of the balcony.
Not saying anything, I leaned against the wall a few paces away from him.
"Long day?" I asked, looking up at the cloudy sky, unable to see the stars.
I heard the rustle of fabric as he shrugged.
"Yeah." He said simply.
I turned to look at him.
"You know that what happened today won't be the last time." I asked.
He nodded his head.
"I do." He said simply.
I nodded, "good." I said, letting Edward deal with how he felt about killing other vampires on his own.
I just wanted to make sure he wasn't falling back into his dark self again.
I looked back out into the night, caughting sight of the castle's chapel.
"Hey…you wanna see something?" I asked, looking at Edward, who turned to look at me.
"Sure." He said, pushing himself off the wall.
Smirking at him, I said, "Then follow me."
Jumping over the wall, I plummeted three story's to the ground, rolling as I hit the bottom, jumping back onto my feet as I looked up at Edward, who was looking down at me from the balcony with a raised brow.
"You can do it." I yelled up to him dramatically as I gave him a thumbs up.
Shaking his head, Edward disappeared from the balcony for a moment before I saw his blurred figure come shooting away from the balcony.
"There ya go!" I said with a laugh as Edward hit the ground running.
"That's one way to do it." I said with a shake of my head.
Walking towards me, Edward spoke.
"So where to now?" He asked.
"This way." I said, turning towards the Chapel.
Reaching its old wooden door, I pulled on the metal hinge, opening the door with a slight tug.
Stepping in, I saw it hadn't been changed since its creation so long ago.
"I've missed this place." I said as Edward closed the door behind him.
"This is what you wanted to show me?" He asked, confused.
I shook my head, walking down the middle of the church to the large stone altar.
Stopping, I pointed to the carved engravings on the side of the altar.
"Read that out loud for me, would ya." I asked as Edward stopped beside me.
"In perpetuum uniti, in perpetuum memorati, in perpetuum Gray," He said, deciphering the words in his head. "Forever united, Forever remembered, Forever Gray." He said slowly.
"Do you know what this is?" I asked, Gently putting my hand on top of the smooth polished stone.
He shook his head.
"This…is the family crypt." I said, using the one hand I had on top to push the top to the side.
"It's time to meet your very great grandparents." I said, dropping down and into the crypt.
Hitting the bottom, I quickly moved to the side as Edward soon followed.
Wafting my hand in front of me, I fanned the clouds of dust away from my face.
"It seems I have to do some cleaning down here." I said, turning to look at Edward, who was turning his head in all directions.
"Come on." I said, gesturing for him to follow.
"They are all the way at the end." I said, starting the rather long walk to them.
As we walked, I pointed out each stone coffin that had a person carved into the top, telling Edward about them, and who they were.
"I planned, with your consent of course, to have the Grey's who died in America be brought here to be laid to rest. From your mother onward with their wives or husband's." I said, turning slightly to see Edward's reaction, which didn't disappoint.
His head snapped to look at me.
"Really!" He asked loudly, his voice reverberating off the stone walls of the crypt.
I nodded.
"If we never would have lost track of them then they would all already be here…but we did." I said, giving Edward a sad smile.
"I had the crypt expanded for more to be added. So we have more than enough room down here." I said as we finally reached the tombs of Oliver, Gérard, and their wives.
Pointing at Oliver's tomb, I explained.
"He is your great, however many, grandfather,Oliver," I said, then moving my finger to his wife. "And she is your grandmother, Emma." I said, watching as he moved close to the carved stone figures of them.
"And these two," I said pointing to the other tombs, "Are your great, how many ever, uncle and ante. Gérard and Isabel." I said, stepping closer to the tombs myself to get a look at them.
"I kinda look like him." Edward said as he looked down at the carved figure of Oliver.
Turning my head slightly, I had to agree as I looked at the carved face then Edward's.
"Hmm…you actually do." I said, amazed at just realizing.
Of course, they didn't look exactly the same, but you could definitely see the similarities.