Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Damned ❯ If All Goes According to Plan ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter 10: If All Goes According to Plan
If it was not for the fact that I was not always fully aware of my surroundings, I might not have even noticed Cassandra opening the car door. I could not feel the energy surrounding us as it usually did. I could not feel her aura meshing with mine as our energies struggled to bind together. I sat up, hoping that I was on a wrong frequency but that she would have felt me. As I walked sullenly home having figured out that she could not feel me any more either; I grew concerned.
Why was it that we had been connected for many months, before we even really spoke to each other – and yet now, we were here, unconnected again? It made no sense. I struggled to find reason in this new development. If we were no longer cosmically bound than something must have changed. Had she learnt what our bond was? Had she broken it? Was it always destined to be broken?
I thought idly about what must have changed and I could only come to one conclusion – but I did not want to admit it. The only logical reason for the sudden release of the connection was the fact that I had sworn my allegiance to Menoch. When it came down to it I had broken our bond. I was in love with my natural enemy – but I had still chosen my clan. I would always choose my clan. That is why the bond was broken; this had to be the reason. We were connected just the day before and then it was gone. There was no other possibility. I had chosen my allegiances and whatever presence had bound us together severed it as well.
So it was settled then. It was over. I trudged up the stairs. That was that.
“Ah, Connor, just the vampire I wanted to see. Come in to my office please.”
I followed Menoch into his office which was in a chaotic state currently. There were papers and books scattered everywhere. I had never seen him so disorganized. I chose to sit on a chair that was not littered with junk.
“Yes, my office is disgusting at the moment.” Menoch announced, pointing out all of the mess. “I have been researching counter attacks for binding spells. That is how they get you, you know, those little witches. They bind you to the earth and then you can’t move so they can just take their time stabbing you. I’ve been trying to figure out if there is a way to block it – apparently only a very skilled witch can block it. Figures. Vampires just have to run for it. Well we are far from running.” He seemed to be talking more to himself than to me; I allowed him to ramble on.
“Now, I have obtained a schedule of their coven meetings. They have them every month and all of the elders are there, including the prophesized one. But, there next meeting is tomorrow and we are not prepared for this kind of large scale attack in such a short amount of time. In addition, I do not want to wait a month. Yule is in December but I do not wish to wait that long either. Ideally we should have gone during Samhain but they were strongest and would have expected it.”
“Menoch Sir, I hate to interrupt but I thought you had a date set. Was I mistaken?” I was sure that we were going home next week.
“I was going to raise an attack for their coven meeting for tomorrow, but I do not like that idea either. I would really rather kill the prophesized one first, before we attack. It will just make it that much easier.”
I swallowed hard, trying not to show my emotion at his cavalier talk of killing Cassandra… the huntress. I changed the subject, “So, what have you decided?”
“I am still not sure what the right course of action is. I can only think to wait for Yule.” He did not seem to enjoy this idea.
I thought about what we could do and then suddenly I remembered something; a conversation I had had with Cassandra ages ago, something she had said in passing. “The reunion.” I announced.
“The what?” Menoch asked.
“The coven is having a giant reunion. It is next weekend I believe. Every clan in New England will be there. It will be much more than we are prepared for; but it is soon, and it is unexpected.”
Menoch appeared to be thinking it over, but I could tell from the smile that lit his face he had already decided. “That is marvelous my boy! Marvelous. We will attack at dusk; a befitting time for us! We need more troops. I would like you to call Svetlana and Maurice. Get them to rally their troops and to be here for the uprising. I must get in touch with DeMarcus and Medea my love,” Medea bounced into the room like a collie ready for duty, “please do get in touch with Lincoln and Mercedes we are in need of their assistance as well.”
“Sure thing Menoch!” she sprinted out of the room.
“I’ll work on getting those contacts in.” I said, preparing to retreat to my room.
“Good. Good work son. I know I gave you a hard time about the huntress, and your new diet…” that was Menoch’s version of an apology.
“I know.” Somehow that was enough of an endearing moment.
I went to my room and began making phone calls. Svetlana’s clan was always in for a battle of some kind while Maurice was more skeptical. He did not believe we could finish our preparations in such a short amount of time – nor could we take on so many powerful witches at once. He was more in to the slow infiltration method; but then, he had been doing that for nearly three hundred years and look how far he had come. He was still a nomad hiding in the south of France somewhere. Eventually I convinced him that this was best for the whole population.
With two more allied clans I felt better about the uprising; but something still plagued me about it. I could not decide what had me so… anxious? Was anxious the emotion I was experiencing? It must have been all of the excitement of planning the attack. Surely it was not regret.
~~
I had been working on my reflexes, the only defense we had against the vampire hunters. There was still no way to block the binding spell – and I was almost beginning to fear it. Almost. I could probably break a binding spell if I were to be stupid enough to be caught in one. But that was time consuming and we would have no time to spare on the night of the attack.
From what I could gather in my research, and from what Cassandra let slip, the spells come at the victim in a tangible blast. If one focuses their energies on these blasts they can easily be dodged. Therefore, our training went something like “run”… “dodge”… “attack”… “run”… “dodge”… “attack”… and so it goes. I felt ridiculous running in my backyard from foam balls Medea threw at me, but the training was necessary. If the witches were in top condition we could only return the favor.
“Menoch,” I called, seeing him at the doorway. “Are you not training?”
“I have been alive far longer than you Son. I am quite capable of dodging.” He smiled, picked up a ball, and hurled it at me. I dodged. “Very good.”
I watched as he walked back inside. Turning to Medea I smiled and said; “Your turn to run.”~~
It took a lot more to plan a battle than I would have thought. In my naivety I believed you find a common enemy, gather, attack. While this was the essence of the plan there was a lot more going in to the mixture than simple maneuverings. Since our house was headquarters we had almost sixty five vampires staying in our house, most of them were just a hindrance, but select few were very helpful in the planning process. DeMarcus for example was very useful as he had been through a few of his own skirmishes.
We had followed the coven to their monthly meeting of elders and discovered that their reunion was to take place on the following Saturday at three in the afternoon; now we could set forth a plan. Which we had. We would already be at the assigned location of the reunion and we would attack as they prepared to leave. They would cast a circle at dusk, to welcome the night and celebrate the light that was leaving. We would attack while they were vulnerable. It was a low blow for sure, but it would work to get as many of them out of the way as possible. Once they started to throw binding spells our numbers had the potential to drop quickly.
I scoped out the lay of the land that we were to be attacking on. It was fairly level, not much surrounding the area except the ocean; but it was a secluded part of an island. It was well covered so unsuspecting towns folk would notice nothing. It was exactly the kind of operation we were looking for. How perfect.
Now all there was to do was get through one hundred and sixty eight hours and we could attack and finish this business with the hunters. It was time this war ended – either they needed to die, or we did.