Marcus leaned against the back of the sofa, elbow resting on the arm, finger at his temple, thumb at his chin, staring at the opposing wall, an open book in his lap. He was frustrated with himself, and the direction things had taken. He’d lost what was most important to him, lost the chance to redeem himself, and felt as though control in general was slipping through his fingers. While not one to fly into an outburst, he was still upset.
Stupid. He wasn’t used to making mistakes. Typically, everything he did was calculated and thought out well before hand. Now things were out of control, and he felt as though he needed to reign it in. It would be tough, with people equal to or stronger than him around. Still…this was his project, his foresight…no one would take that from him.
He cast the book aside; it bounced and landed on the hardwood floor with a loud thunk. Standing, he went to his bedroom, and retrieved some of his more recent, personal journals, and flipped through them, in an effort to pinpoint when things went wrong. Others in his clan have tried to change the past – maybe, with enough effort and calculation, he could change things. Eventually, he got to the passage where he was informed that Brandon was involved with his progeny, Jett.
Scowling, he moved on, though it crossed his mind briefly to hire David Talbot to take care of Brandon. The thought amused him, though he dismissed it, being unable to assure anything would not be traced back to him. He closed the journals and put them back in the safe, remaining in contemplation. He half expected Jasper to drop in right then and be a general nuisance, as per usual, offering the world in exchange for favors or something more. He had to tread carefully around him, he felt. Who knew when he was watching or about to pop in?
He picked up his laptop before heading into the dining room. A mental list was all well and good, but a physical list would make a helpful reference, he’d decided. Sitting down he opened up the machine and pulled up a blank document, and began to list everyone in town, what he knew about them, and how best to deal with them or figure out more about them in order to deal with them, should a situation arise – without Jasper’s assistance.
Perhaps he was being paranoid – but he didn’t survive as long as he had without being suspicious of others. So he wrote. He began with the younger vampires in town, just to get a list of all of them organized. Next, he listed the older ones – Brandon, Petra, Vince – those would be the most difficult to deal with. Once they were listed and notes made, he moved on to the other creatures in town; Jasper, David, and the various ghouls – Adam, Chance, Deacon, Jett, Jim and Nikolai. There was someone else who knew about them. One finger tapped the table as he thought, trying to place it. As he went over the people he saw night to night, he wrote down Greg, and then after a moment, wrote down Trish, since she also knew about vampires.
Highlighting the last two names on his list, he mulled over how to best gain their loyalty. Greg had been loyal for a few years now, and was unlikely to sway, but he wasn’t terribly sure about his granddaughter. Perhaps he should strongly suggest she be ghouled, just incase. That project aside, he moved on to ways he might be able to win Jett back. It was a regular thing to think about – where he’d gone wrong with him and how possible to get him back.
Then it struck him – there was someone from his past he’d cared for deeply. What if, by some coincidence, she were still alive somehow? That would win him favor for sure, he felt. Encouraged, he turned back to the computer and started pulling up any information he could find on the name he was looking for: Jacqueline Dubois. He even planned to go so far as to contact vampires he’d known from that era and see what they knew of her. It’s not like she would have been unknown – she and her husband had been quite wealthy.
Any scrap of information he saved, then sending email out to those he still kept in touch with to ask for their help. From there, all he could do was wait.