Snippet #1747926

Kathrine hung on to every word that came from Marcus's mouth. This was normal, however. She couldn't remember a time where she was ever careless about what he had to say. With her left elbow on the table, her head tilted into the gentle hand that rested on her jaw and the edges of the bandage that covered her eye. She casually ignored the smoke that swirled in the air in front of them, a product of the cigarette Marcus lit up earlier. Kathrine had never formed a habit like that, but when stressed she would throw down her dignity and beg for one if she had to. Thankfully, it had been a little while since she'd been that highstrung. Though, she had stolen one of Ryan's when Marcus had decided to capture the vampires that she had suspected of following him. A lot could go wrong when someone's outnumbered. She was just glad to hear the news later that night that he'd been successful, so she could relax again.

"There is a new place in town which we can go to to gather information, and it is most likely that some vampires will go their. It's this new goth nightclub downtown, perfect place to attract vampires..." Excellent! Kathrine grew excited. Though "goth" wasn't necessarily her favorite scene, she found that with the right clothes and makeup, she fit in pretty well. Sometimes she felt used though; she knew a lot of people just came up to talk to her about her covered eye. Bring on the pirate jokes.

"...I have already made reservations for three..."
Kathrine immediately clenched her teeth. She held eye contact and tried to keep the conversation going. She knew exactly who was going, she didn't need Marcus to explain. The reason why he'd bring a defenseless human on business is unknown to her. Emilia is going to be nothing but deadweight. Nothing but another body bag to fill should something go wrong. She wanted to spit these words at him but refrained. As much as it infuriated her, she knew Marcus cared for her. Which meant Kathrine had to acknowledge that. For now, at least. Until Kathrine finally got her chance to show him she can be more than a business partner.

It took an effort to relax her jaw enough to relieve the pressure off of her teeth while he went through the standard instructions. Be extra careful with humans around, she'll be doing work on her own since there's a third party member, inform him of anything she learns, blah blah blah...

Jasper entered the room and placed a black case onto the table surface. Marcus thanked him as he left the room again, and then explained the equipment inside after opening it, though Kathrine had recognized all of it. The only thing she hadn't been aware of was what wood the stakes were made out of, which Marcus explained as the list greeted them in order. Finally swallowing her disgust over the third reservation, she admired the weapons in front of her, and the credit card as well. A hint of sincere pride crossed her heart for Marcus--he got things done, and he got them done thoroughly, going so far as to make sure the legalities of carrying these weapons were in order. "Thank you, Marcus. My own number of knives and stakes are growing increasingly small these days. I guess that's a good thing though. It means they're being used."

Though irritation still lingered in the back of her mind, she couldn't help but grin as Marcus finally acknowledged her scavenger bird comment. He placed the rest of the pie in front of Kathrine, with a cake cutter resting in the pan. Though her hunger was beyond dull after the dinner Jasper had served her, she cut a thin slice of pie and slipped it onto her plate. A coke slid her way, and it opening with two metal clicks and a lot of fizz. She took a few swigs while Marcus noted outloud that Kathrine hadn't been eating or sleeping as usual. It was true, especially when it came to sleeping. Her mind was growing increasingly busy with the rise of vampire activity and how she would go about her own plans, and many nights went without sleep. The result was darkness under her eyes, and a mentality not quite one-hundred percent. The caffeine she was drinking daily probably wasn't helping, she thought as she set the cola down.

He offered her his house for the night, and she silently accepted. It was a victory every time she was invited to stay the night, in a way. Kathrine had yet to see or hear of Emilia staying the night. And if she ever was, it was better Kathrine didn't know. Those were facts she had no interest in knowing--it would only make her anger-fueled emotions unfairly turn against Marcus as well.

Her thoughts were interrupted as he mentioned, "you should really consider my offer of working for my company, being in closer proximity would be better for our plans..." Kathrine nodded in agreement, knowing it would be better. He wished her goodnight and walked away while she wondered to herself why she hadn't been thinking about his offer. He'd mentioned it about half a week ago, and somehow her mind had avoided the subject completely. It wasn't that she planned to say no, it was that she hadn't even considered it yet. She knew it would be a whole world of benefits though, with little to no downsides. Kathrine decided she would agree to his offer tomorrow. It was time for heavy thinking to be done with tonight; at least for Kathrine.

When she finished the thin slice of apple pie, she walked towards the sink to rinse off the plate before being stopped by Jasper, politely taking it from her and saying her would take care of it. She thanked him, took her cola and left the kitchen. In the den of Marcus's large home was a laptop that rested on a coffee table. It served as a family computer, and she assumed Marcus had another personal computer somewhere in the house. Kathrine really didn't like technology all that much, but it would be too difficult to do what she planned to tonight.

Bringing up familiar websites and search engines, she searched both names of Chris and Dana Turner. Kathrine wished her last name wasn't so popular, maybe this would be easier. Or perhaps there would be the same list of results: nothing.

Kathrine didn't own a computer. Ryan had a laptop, but she never used it. She didn't want to know what was on his computer. Maybe it was because she wasn't experienced with using them, but she would have thought that she could get more information about her adoptive parents adopting her so many years ago. She even knew their password to the website of the service they had adopted her through, but the most information she got out of it was the name Kathrine was given at birth, her birthday, and the day she was adopted. Somehow, her biological parents had their names listed as withheld throughout the entire process. The official papers, the websites, everything. And there were no signs that she had a sibling.

In other words, tonight's search was a failure of the usual. Kathrine closed the laptop and leaned her head back against the cushion. If she wanted to learn who her family was, she was going to need hired assistance. Or at least someone who knew how to track someone down.