The Lost One

Chapter 2

Watching the clouds go by in the window of the jet I wait for the captain to tell me we landed. I'm interrupted of my cloud watching by a  you flight attendant, " Hello Miss. Schmidt, would you like any wine or anything to snack on? " I stared at her for a minute wondering why she interrupted me, I could tell my staring was making her uncomfortable when she started shifting her weight. She never broke eye contact with me though despite her obvious discomfort, I was impressed. Deciding to finally rid her of her discomfort I finally said to her, " Yes,  I would like a pink wine. That will be all." I turned back to my window dismissing her, I heard her walk away to retrieve my wine.  

My mind is racing with thinking about all the different possibilities of why my father has called me home. It could be anything from just a simple celebration of the destruction of a coven to a business meeting with another coven and he just wants me there as his daughter so we appear as a unified front. I hate those meetings, I have to be forced to pretend with my brother Ryker that we get along so well. That would be the only thing me and my brother would agree on, our hate of those meetings. When the flight attendant finally returned with my wine she asked if I needed anything else and I dismissed her with a wave of my hand.

Starting with getting onto the jet to fly home till getting off the jet to return to school, I must be this uncaring Lady of the Albrecht Household. My last name in the human world is Schmidt but when I return home I am Lady Vanessa Albrecht daughter of the coven leader Elias Albrecht. I hate acting indifferent to the staff and coven members when I am home, it doesn't feel right. I would prefer to get to know the staff by name and know about them as people, my aunt Anja believes otherwise and drilled into me about the importance of not communicating with the staff other than for coven needs, work, or my needs.  I sip my wine as I ponder on home and wonder who on the staff has been replaced this time round, many of our staff members tend to be replaced every time I return home. Some have remained and have been loyal for many years, but others don't last as long and are either fired or killed- depending on their actions.

Some staff members are spies for other covens so they can find our weak points but usually me or Milo sniff them out real quick. If they use any sort of electronic service to communicate with their coven leaders we end up seeing what information their leaking. We fix and change things in the coven depending on the information they leak so if they do decide to attack they fail. If they are using hand written letters or anything of the sort, we have cameras in every corner of the castle. The exceptions are in the coven leaders families chambers, coven members are aware of this and choose wither or not they want to live in the castle or choose to purchase a home close by. 

We don't go snooping through the cameras to invade people's privacy, we hardly use the them. They only time we go through the footage is when we suspect someone of betrayal. Maybe this is why my father calls me home, so I can help find the traitor. I felt the plane dip forward a bit signaling that we were starting to descend, not a minute later the intercom comes on with the captains voice. " We are starting our descent and would ask that you put on your seat belts and we will land shortly, thank you." I watched as the airstrip came into view and I waited for the jet to land.

When the jet finally landed I got up and walked out the door and down the stairs, I'm surprised to see my brother Ryker waiting for me with two other guards at the car. I immediately knew something was very wrong if he was here to greet me. I hurried over to him and started shooting off questions, " Bruder, warum bist du hier? Ist der Coven in Ordnung? Geht es dem Vater gut? Was ist los? " ( Brother why are you here Is the coven okay? Is the father doing well? What's happening?) He put his hand up to silence me, I knew to stop talking. If I disobeyed my brother the consequences would not be pretty. In the coven the men were in charge and if you did not listen to the males in your family or even the males outside of it you will be punished. 

He spoke looking at me , "Vater geht es gut, genauso wie dem Zirkel. Wir haben zwei Gäste aus dem Eldenmeyer-Zirkel. Sie verdächtigen uns des Tresons." (Father is fine, as is the circle. We have two guests from the Eldenmeyer coven. You suspect us of treason. ) I hiss at his statement. Father would never commit any treason. Everything we do is within our laws and every time we make a decision we make sure it is within those laws. "Wovon verdächtigen sie uns? Vater bricht niemals Gesetze." (What do they suspect us of? Father never breaks laws) I ask him wondering why they would come to our coven. He shakes his head, " Nicht einmal ich weiß, Vater wird diese Informationen nicht weitergeben. Er ist sehr geheim." (Not even I know, father will not divulge this information. He is being very secretive about it.) I think for a moment before asking him, "Denken Sie, dass es etwas mit den Gesetzen des North American Council zu tun hat?" ( Do you think it has something to do with the North American Council's laws?) 

He shakes his head, "Ich bin mir nicht sicher, Vanessa" ( I'm not sure Vanessa). Done with this conversation Ryker opens the car door and waits for me to get in, one thing about Ryker is that he's always a gentleman even if he doesn't like you. I get into the car, on the way to the castle the car was silent. I could tell the Ryker was anxious, he wouldn't never admit this of course. I learned when he tapped his fingers he was annoyed or anxious. I didn't say anything to try to make him feel better, he would just get annoyed with me. 

When we finally pulled up to the castle Ryker got out of the car and I waited as he walked around to open my door. He offered me his hand and I took it and he lead me out the car, he put my arm on his elbow and we walked through the front doors. When the doors opened the inside was a whirlwind of our staff with Aunt Anja standing right in the middle of it. The staff were cleaning and bringing out different decorations at Aunt Anja's request. When the doors opened Aunt Anja turned around and nodded her at Ryker and continued her work, me and Ryker walked through everything and headed up the stairs and towards father's office.

We stopped at father's door and we both stopped and wiped off imaginary dust and looked at each looking to see if either of us missed a speck. We both nodded to each other confirming we looked presentable, Ryker knocked on father's door and we waited for him to give permission for entry. "Komm in meine Kinder." (Come in my children.) Ryker opened the door and held it open for me to walk through, sitting at his desk was the great Elias Albrecht. He was staring at us with his bright blue eyes and a scowl on his face. He almost never smiled except for rare occasions, he had the dark black hair that all the Albrecht's had. He looked like he was barley over 30 but really he was almost 1000 years old. He kept a slight stubble and always kept it neat, never letting it grow. He had a chiseled chin and his nose was slightly hooked and a bit crooked nose. He was lean and had some muscle behind the sleeves of the suit he was wearing.

Despite how charming my father looked he was anything but, instead of greeting me or my brother or even asking how I was he went straight to business. Instead of speaking in German like we do in public in his office we speak in English because of the sound proof walls. My father starts speaking, " My daughter I have called you home because we are being accused of treason." I nod my head at him already knowing because Ryker had explained that part to me, " Yes Father Ryker has explained, but I don't understand why. What laws have we broken father? We always double check them before we do anything as a coven." He nods at me, " Yes my daughter that is true. The trouble is that we follow the European Laws, a new law has been introduced and has been voted on by the North American Council. The Law states after 100 years of a coven being on North American soil they will have to follow their laws as we live in their territory. They are going through each coven and have decided anything within the last 5 years will be held accountable for their actions. Some covens have broken laws even that their home councils have set. " I nod my head. This is different our coven has been here since World War I. My father did not like where the war was heading so he made the decision to move our coven to America.

I finally ask the question me and Ryker were both dying to ask, " Father what law have we broken?" he was stared at me and turned his gaze to my brother and then back to me when he finally sighed. " My Tochter  the law we broke was when I made you. In North America the law is that no one can change a human unless they are fated mates. This is the law we broke." I was speechless, I didn't think that this was what we had done wrong. Ryker immediately turned and sneered at me, " This is all your fault! If you were never reborn we wouldn't be in this mess." Father snapped his head at Ryker and told him, "Genug ( Enough ) Ryker, you will not disrespect you sister this way. It was not her fault, it is I that made the choice to change her." My brother turned his head to look out the window and clenched his jaw.

I looked to my father and asked, " What are we going to do?" He had a thoughtful look on his face for a moment before finally speaking, " Well my Tochter  I'm just not sure there is a way around it this time. We could ask for a hearing with both the Europe and North American Councils and hope they will see that we broke no laws."