THE ARCHAEOLOGIST...

THE ARCHAEOLOGIST...
June 22nd, 2011
I am back home now. Going back a few nights though, Rhoan and I walked a bit after leaving the library and then said goodbye. Which left me free to run back to Valentina's house and visit for a bit. Tristan was out of his room and sitting in the living room with Max and Anastacia. It really was good to see him out....and not screaming. I stayed for another day and then said my goodbyes. Nothing fantastic happened on the plane ride home, nothing as bad as the first time anyway. I did see a couple ghosts but these ones obviously weren't out to torture me.
It felt great to be home again, well, I was home alone. Sure there was Jordan not far away at her house but Alec and Faine were off with the Cullens doing....something. I could have gone and visited my niece, it would have been the nice thing to do, but I didn't want to let Jordan down with not having any new information.
I decided that I might as well suck it up and visit my beautiful niece. One knock on the door and Jordan was standing there.
"Oh, I'm glad your back! Good trip?" She asked as I came inside.
"Mmmmm not really." I told her about Tristan and then about my quest for information, "The one book I wanted was missing, and I think it held the key to Sophia."
"Well I just found out that Sophia is a witch and that her father wants to kill her-"
"Josh?! Well, I knew Josh could be grumpy but I didn't think he would want to kill her!" I joke. Jordan lightly shoves my shoulder.
"Not that father, her biological father."
"Oh, eww. But hey, you seem to be taking it well, Sophia being a witch and all."
"Yeah, well, I kind of don't know exactly what to do. Jez described this darkness inside Sophia and her father and I really don't like that."
"My niece could never be dark." I say smiling as I sit on the floor next to her. She giggles and smiles.
"You know, you visit with her and when she falls asleep I'll talk to you."
Jordan leaves me alone muttering something about coming in second to the baby.
"That's right. Nobody cares what you're worrying about. Its all about the baby." I laugh.
I tickle Sophia's chubby legs and play with her stuffed animals. And I help her fall asleep with a fairytale that I grew up with, I guess that's goona be my thing; telling stories.
Sophia had just fallen asleep when I started to feel this pounding in my head, right behind my temples. It wasn't like I was hearing a sound, not even like hearing a victim's heartbeat, it was just this terrible pressure. I stood up and went to find Jordan, it was getting worse and worse!
I find her washing dishes in the kitchen and decide that standing isn't really okay. I pull out a chair and sit down.
"Gabriel?"
"Shhh. Sound bad. Quiet good." It really hurt even more when there was noise. Even the constant sound of water from the faucet became too loud.
The room started to blur in front of my eyes and then there was this crystal clear image in front of me. It was Rhoan's ghost.
"I am so sorry that I had to leave you like this. We had wonderful times together and I will never forget them. I want you to move on with your life, but please know that I love you." He said before disappearing.
I closed my eyes, that might have been one of the freakiest things ever, and I have seen A LOT of freaky things in my life time! And did he really just say that he loves me?! Why me? I'd only known him for a day! God, this brings back the 'is he gay' question. Why do I attract the oddest people?!
The pressure in my head slowly went away, it must have showed on my face because Jordan was talking again, "What happened? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. I saw a ghost...of this kid I met on the plane to London. Apparently he died and he loves me."
Jordan wasn't expecting that, hell, I wasn't expecting that! She looked kind of...shocked.
I was fully recovered, no head ache now. Jordan's cell phone beeped so she went to check it. In the second that she was gone, I had a feeling that things were going to change, I didn't know how or why....then.
"Uh...its for you." She says surprised. I grab the small device from her and read the tiny screen:
FROM: UNKNOWN
Meet me at le Cafe. Now.
R

I deleted the message and handed Jordan back her phone. R. Rodrick.
"I have to go." I was up and out of my chair.
"Wait. Sophia and I will come to."
"No!" I practically screamed.
If Rodrick knew Jordan's number and that I was with her, then he knew about the rest of my family. He was close enough to sense who I was with, to close. Especially too close to Sophia.
"Take Sophia to the main house, you shouldn't be alone. I'm going to go sort this out, I'll be back as soon as possible."
Jordan nodded. I waited for her to grab Sophia's baby bag and of course Sophia. Then I ran with her to the main house just to make sure she got there safe. Rodrick wanted to meet in town, it seemed a bit odd of a place for Rodrick but I wasn't in a position to ask questions.
The sun was out, dangerous for us vampires, we could risk exposure and the humans were busy bustling around. I was waiting outside the cafe, looking for Rodrick but instead I got a dead person.
"Hello! You, sir!" A voice called. I turned around and there was Rhoan sitting at a small table.
He waved me over, I came by quicker than I should have.
"What the hell are you doing alive?!" I whisper loudly as I sit across from him.
"Well, aren't we all? I never died, what are you on about?" He asks.
I put my head on the table, "I saw your ghost. You told me you died and that we shared great moments and you love me." I think that headache was coming back.
"Oh, wow. I'm so sorry. I sent the wrong message to the wrong person. I don't fancy you, I'm straight as a pencil."
"Whoah, whoah. What do you mean you 'sent the wrong message to the wrong person'?"
"Come on, man, you knew something wasn't right about me same as I know you aren't mortal."
I was on edge now, who is this guy?! What does he know?!
He pulls a book out of his bag, "Still looking for this?"
It was the missing book from the library in London.
"Wh-but-how?" I started flipping through the pages.
"How about you order a drink and we talk about this?" I agreed and ended up with coffee.
I finished the book quickly, a few useful things but nothing grand.
"This is the book you need," Rhoan pulls out a book no bigger than his palm.
I was about to say that I need a magnifying glass to read that when Rhoan passed his free hand over it and it became infinitely larger.
"How?" Was all I could manage.
I reached for the large book but Rhoan snatched it from my grasp.
"This holds all the secrets of our world, all of the myth and legend which is real."
I didn't have to ask if he was telling the truth, I felt that he was.
"You said you were an archaeologist! You lied to me." Not like I was goona cry about that or anything.
"No, that's not a lie. I work for the secret Order of the A.R.C.S. Archiving Real Creatures Secretly. Arcs. Hence I am an ARChaeologist."
This strange logic did make sense. But I still wanted to know why he was following me and how he got Jordan's number.
"Well, what does your secret Order do?"
"We're an ancient group that has been observing the supernatural world for a very long time. We never harm anything or anyone unless it becomes necessary. Our job is to learn all we can about your world and to catalog all the creatures in it, we also try to preserve the races."
This had a thought forming in my mind. If Rhoan knew all about demons and vampires, then would he know its weaknesses?
"Rhoan, how did you know the phone number of the person I was with?"
He looked at me like I was stupid, "Anybody that knows how to use technology could do it...and it doesn't hurt that I have special powers-"
"Powers?!" Again, I received that 'are you stupid?' look.
"I can see people's auras. For instance, I knew where you were because of your aura."
"What does it look like?" This really wasn't my area of expertise. And if you had asked me about this 621 years ago, I would have said it was a scam.
"A deep purple with spider webs of black. But something in that house must have made you happy because I saw sparks of yellow."
He was talking about Sophia, I knew it.
"What do you want?" I finally said rather rudely.
"I'm not after you. I'm after what's in that house."
The hair on my neck stood up.
"You said you don't harm people."
"I don't. But whatever is in that house is very dangerous. For you, for itself. Its aura was...black! Its dark. Very dark." He warned.
Just like Jordan said, there is a darkness inside Sophia.
"That dark thing happens to be my niece."
He was about to apologize for what he had said but I continued on, "We recently found out that she is a witch and her father was a very powerful demon, of what kind we don't know."
It was as if everything fell into place, Rhoan had a look of understanding and began flipping through the book. The important book.
Finally he stopped and turned the book for me to see. The writing was small with yellowed pages. Some of the words were even in Latin, this thing looked damn old. From across the table Rhoan pointed to a line across the top of the page:

Incubus- Cerca 2400 BC
Male demon that takes the form of a human and impregnates women. The child of such incidents will usually become that of its father, or a succubus (female demon). Such demons are usually created within the dreams of the one being assaulted. Incubi are the sons of the devil.

Underneath this small description was a drawing, an scary drawing, of what the demon form of an Incubus looks like.
The next two pages were serious accounts of Incubi attacks.
"So....you think my niece is an female demon?!" This didn't make much sense to me.
"No, no. I think she's part demon-" He tried to explain, "Look, can I just speak to the mother? All I want to do is help."
At the point, I would have definitely said yes! It would be very useful if Jordan and I could get a look at that book, maybe we'd learn more about Sophia.
I agree to let Rhoan come back to the house and ask to borrow his phone. I send a text message to Jordan:

Go back to your house. I'm bringing help. Do whatever you need to make yourself comfortable, we have big news.
Gab

Since Rhoan was only human we had to take a taxi up to the house, which, I made him pay for. We walked up the steps to Jordan's front door and knocked. She came without the baby.
"Gabriel, what's going on?"
I would have introduced Rhoan, but he introduced himself.
"-would you mind if I came in a spoke with you?" He finished.
Jordan looked at me and I nodded. "Special powers" or not, I had a feeling that Jordan and I could definitely over power him if he wanted to harm Sophia.
We walked into the kitchen, far away from Sophia, and sat down. Rhoan didn't waste any time, he dove right into the story.
"Your daughter is part witch, but that isn't all. The darkness inside her makes the other part demon." He stated bluntly.
I was still processing and Jordan was just having a hard time grasping all of this.
"A-a demon?!"
Rhoan pulled out the book and made it big again-
"Wait. Who are you? How do you know this?" She asked.
He gave her his whole speech on being part of the Secret Order of the Arcs. Then he opened the book back to the Incubus page and showed her.
"That's your daughters father." He said.
"The devils son?!"
"Yes. Mind if I see the baby?" He asked as he stood up.
Jordan was still shocked but she wasn't going to let Rhoan in a room with Sophia without her there as well. Up we all went to Sophia's room where she had just woken up.
"Hello, baby girl." Jordan smiled as she brought her out of the cradle.
I saw Sophia's eyes do that crazy darkness thing and I felt right about bringing Rhoan here to help.
"Yup, she's definitely part demon."
"What can we do about that?" Jordan and I both asked simultaneously. I was just as concerned about all of this as she was.
"Perform an Exorcism." Three words that made me feel like I was back in the dark ages, "We can call it a baptism if that makes you feel calmer." Rhoan really thought we were stupid. I understand it though, two beings part of the supernatural world that don't know a thing about the world they are part of!
"Would it hurt her? What exactly does it do?" Jordan looked desperately into her daughters eyes and stroked her light brown hair.
"It might hurt a little," I could tell he was lying, it would probably hurt her a lot, "but it would be worth it! Getting rid of the darkness inside her will make her invisible to her father, she'll be like another human child, except for her witch powers. Her dark side is like a neon sign above this house, not just demons will be attracted to it, all dark creatures will."
"I want to do it then. Just let's wait until my husband gets home as well."
"Good, I'll go set everything up." Rhoan said happily.
"Can you...do that?" I ask.
"What do you mean?" He replied.
"Gabriel is right. Don't you have to be a priest?"
"I took an online priest course. I'm fully certified...just without the limitations." He winked.
Oh, he meant being with women and all. Online priest course? Huh, never thought that would be useful.
Jordan and I exchanged a worried look as we heard Rhoan preparing downstairs.
-Gabriel