2 Chapter 1 Part 2

Okay, now they were really scaring me. First everyone shows up. Second, everyone shows up IN THE TRAINING ROOM. Third, BOTH the Inquisitor AND the Consul are here. And now they're asking me to SIT DOWN?

"Uhh, no thanks. It's been awhile." Everyone had come in the room by then. And everyone here with the exception of the teacher would know what I'm talking about.

There was ill concealed sadness in my mom's eyes. But she, like everyone else, just nodded and sat down.

The Inquisitor started. "Last week, the Chicago Institute captured a vampire." He hesitated. Right. So? He must have seen my impatience in my expression because he hurried on. "This vampire wasn't normal. He was faster than any other vampire. And very, very, VERY strong. He crushed the holy manacles that were put on him and broke the jail doors in the Silent City. He could utter the name of God easily and killed quite a lot of shadowhunters. It was only after we surrounded him with a ring of fire on the floor did he stop killing." He paused again, as if to let the information sink in and let me ponder upon it. I needed the pause.

Holy manacles didn't work? Name of God could be take? How many did he kill? And for the Inquisitor to emphasis on the very strong, he must be quite strong. But a ring of fire seems to stop him.

"We put manacles with runes of strength and made of adamas on him." The Consul took over. "Those seemed to work. It was very difficult to question him. We couldn't harm him at all. His skin was tougher than diamonds, we couldn't cut him with steel or any natural metal, but adamas seemed to work, because our Seraph blades could. But our lack of success seemed to amuse him. He gave us a bit of information.There were more vampires, I suppose, because he did drink the blood of the ones he killed, like him.

"The manacles held till the morning. And till then, he didn't sleep. When he could break them, he ran towards the sun. The shadowhunters following him stopped before he went outside, but through the window, they saw that he could stand in the sun. It had no effect on him. Not one that could harm him."

"What do you mean not one that could harm him?" Rj asked. I had forgotten that other people were there as well.

The Inquisitor replied, "The shadowhunters that saw him said that he sparkled, like a pure, 50 carat diamond in the sun. He sparkled all over apparently."

Hmmm, so a sparkling vampire that's super super strong and fast. And I suppose that when the Consul said the shadowhunters followed him, they used speed runes. But why are they telling me this? But it seemed as if the Inquisitor wasn't done.

"We told all the Institutes to take care and to look for these type of vampires. They could be anywhere, as they looked human enough if you disregarded their eyes and the fact that they sparkled in the sun. They are what could be described as good-looking. According to an Institute in Oregon, in a small town, there was a family of 7 that was rich. The father was a doctor that could cure almost anyone. He had a good income and all of them were good looking. In fact, according to the nurses the doctor was so good, he should have been in a big city. They had 5 children, but all were adopted. But surprisingly they all looked alike. All had gold eyes, bruises under their eyes as if they couldn't sleep, and pale. Very pale. The family was rich, the kids were smart, with good grades in mundane schools. And they never seemed to grow old either. But one day, they just packed up and left. And nobody could remember them much either, the kids didn't make friends in school."

How odd. Human ish looking vampires. Well the normal vampires are human looking too, but still different. The normal ones look diseased, weak, even more so when they don't feed for a while. These ones didn't apparently. And adopted children? They must be infertile. They lived in Oregon, small places. Obviously, given their...'situation.' Gold eyes? What in the world? Normal vamps keep their mundane eye colors. And I supposed they want me to check this out, given my "extra angelity" or whatever. But it's not their fault, I guess. Normal shadowhunters didn't last very long at all according to them. Maybe I can track with the other runes that no shadowhunters know, well, not including my mother.

"Right. But why did you ask for Isabella, Dad?" asked Aunt Izzy. I had another pang, one that I had every time someone, anyone, said my full name. I was named after my aunt, Isabelle. It's kinda weird. It was Mom's idea of course, and Dad was horrified. But that didn't stop Mom, it never does.

The Inquisitor's and the Consul's expressions suddenly became very lost and uncomfortable. 'They're almost embarrassed,' I thought, 'Almost.'

The Consul cleared her throat. "Well, you see, we wanted, we were thinking...." She couldn't continue. Dad, of course, got it immediately.

"You want my daughter to do this?" He asked in a VERY calm voice. Something about that tone made me almost scared, made me wish that I was never on that side of the tone. He was very, very, VERY angry. It was the only time he was THAT calm.

I looked around and saw that Mom, Aunt Izzy, Uncle Alec, and Rj, all had similar expressions of rage, disbelief, and horror. 'Angel Raziel, I'm not THAT bad at hunting and tracking you know.' I thought petulantly.

"NO! HELL NO! THERE IS NO WAY IN THIS WORLD YOU ARE LETTING MY DAUGHTER DO THIS! NO F**KING WAY AT ALL!! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA, ANY AT ALL, HOW DANGEROUS THIS IS? YOU EXPECT A MINOR-A MINOR!!- TO TRACK THEM?" Mom let out a stream of curses, all of them aimed at the two Council members. They now sported very uncomfortable expressions, almost as if they finally understood what they were aiming at, what they were asking. But suddenly, I WANTED to do this. I WANTED to be the ones who tracked them. I HAD to go find them. It was suddenly a matter of life and death. It was as if something was pulling me in a certain direction, like a string, like when you used the tracking rune. But that was strange. I hadn't used a tracking rune in a long, long time.

I was rudely broken from my musing as I registered the fact that everyone had stood up now, with murderous expressions on their faces. All of them were shouting things at them. I almost felt sorry for those two. Almost. After all, they were only doing this to make sure the rest of the Shadow world would be safe. And, there was something pulling me to do this. I guess I've let granddad and the other woman suffer for long enough. 'Time to butt in Miss Super-long-enormous-too-many-last-names.'

"ENOUGH." My voice was loud and clear. Everyone fell quiet. "I'll do it." I didn't explain my strange feeling. They didn't need to know, Angel knows what they would do with THAT information. The Inquisitor and the Consul had expressions that contradicted with each other, relief, sorrow, thankfulness, apologetic.

All of a sudden, everyone was talking to me, over each other, their voices getting louder by the second.

"WHAT? NO YOUR - "

"HELL NO - "

"IZ, SHUT UP, YOU'RE - "

"ISABELLA, YOU'RE NOT DOING - "

"Bella, no. You could ge - "

Dad wasn't talking. He was just quiet, had a clear expression, like he was thinking. Pondering. About what, I couldn't tell. I tuned everyone else out. And looked into his eyes. I tried to let him, make him see how much I wanted to, HAD to do this. And looked at me for a good, long minute. And nodded.

I could feel myself relaxing in relief. He accepted. My daddy had agreed to let me go. Now, I only have Rj, Uncle Alec, Aunt Izzy, and a very pissed off Mom left to convince.