The Vampire's Apprentice

When Alain awoke the next morning, it was to a mind full of uncertainty. Initially, his plan had been to pursue the lead the book had provided them, but now without the book, they didn't exactly have anything to go on in that department. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Az's sudden, unexplained animosity towards the book was still very much present.

Much as he hated to admit it, they were going to have to focus their efforts elsewhere for now.

The only question was where, exactly.

With a groan, Alain rose out of bed and began to pull his gear on. Given that nobody was at his door yet, he could only assume that Az and Sable were either still resting, or that they'd seen fit to let him sleep in a bit.

Part of him sincerely hoped it was the latter, even though he knew it was a slim chance at best. He wasn't sure exactly what their sleep schedules were supposed to look like, but whatever the case was, they always seemed to go to bed after him and somehow wake up before him every day.

"Fucking supernatural people…" Alain grumbled as he slung his Winchester over his shoulder and stepped out of his room to start his day.

And the moment he did, he was nearly bowled over by a short, blonde-haired woman charging past him.

"Whoa!" Alain exclaimed, swerving to the side to avoid her. "Everything alright, Miss?"

At the sound of his voice, the woman paused, then turned around to face him. Immediately, Alain was taken aback by her appearance. She was somewhat tall, about five-foot-eight, if he had to guess, with sandy-blonde hair done up in braids. She had bright green eyes, and her face was pockmarked with freckles. The two of them stopped and stared at each other for a moment before she let out a gasp.

"It's you…!" she managed to get out. "It's really you!"

Alain brought a hand up to rub at his beard, confused. "Yeah, it's me. Who are you?"

If the woman heard his question, she didn't seem to care enough to respond to it. Instead, she took a step forward; Alain took an involuntary step backwards as she advanced on him.

"I wasn't sure if I'd actually found you here," she told him, her voice quiet. "But here you are."

"Here I am," Alain ventured. "Care to explain why you were looking for me?"

"I didn't think I'd actually find you here. I mean, I'd heard the rumors of a gunslinger traveling here with two vampires, but-"

"Lady, please," Alain said, exasperated. "Please just answer my question as straightforwardly as you possibly can. Who are you, and why are you looking for me?"

That seemed to snap her out of the trance she'd fallen in. The woman blinked, a confused look crossing her face, before she pulled back, a faint blush dusting her cheeks with red.

"…I'm Danielle Silvera," she offered. "I came looking for you because I wanted to hire you."

That got Alain's attention. After all, he wouldn't say no to a well-paying job.

"Okay," he said. "What's it worth to you?"

Danielle bit her lip. "...I can't pay you anything up-front… or immediately after, for that matter."

Alain glared at her. "Look, if your sole intention in coming here was to waste my time-"

"No, no!" she protested. "I can pay you, just… it'll take a while. Please, won't you at least hear me out?"

"Sorry, lady, but this sounds an awful lot like charity work to me," Alain said as he reached into his pocket for a cigarette and placed it between his lips, then went back for a match. "Now, I'm willing to reduce my prices by quite a bit for a good cause, but I don't work for free."

He turned and began to walk away, lighting his cigarette as he did so and taking a drag on it. Just as he reached the stairs, however, Danielle called to him once more.

"My father is a United States senator!"

Immediately, Alain froze, choking on the puff of smoke he'd just inhaled. He coughed and sputtered for several seconds, the cigarette falling from his mouth and onto the ground below as he doubled over and pounded himself in the chest, desperate to stop his own coughing. Finally, after several seconds, the coughing fit tapered off to a point where he could actually speak again. Once he'd recovered somewhat, he stood up straight and looked at Danielle with pure shock etched across his face.

"I'm sorry, did you just say-"

"My father is a senator," she emphasized. "For the state of Louisiana, specifically."

Alain couldn't help but scowl. Somehow, it all came back to Louisiana. Still, he tried not to let his displeasure show.

"Okay," he said. "And why are you seeking me out?"

"Because my father, despite his status, is also currently missing."

Again, she had his attention with just a few words. He gave one final cough to fully clear his lungs before shaking his head and turning back to her.

"And you want me to find him?" he asked. "Why is that? There are plenty of people out there who could do that – actual detectives, private investigators, probably some governmental organization… why come to me?"

"Because I don't think my father went missing because of something normal, if you catch my drift," she emphasized.

Alain nodded. "Yeah, I'm following. So, what makes you think the supernatural is involved with this?"

"Because, over the past few months, after what happened in New Orleans, my father started to get really heavily into the occult."

"I'm not surprised. Plenty of people started getting involved with it after New Orleans-"

Danielle suddenly shook her head, cutting him off. "He wasn't involved like you think he was," she insisted. "My father was heavily involved with the archdiocese of New Orleans, and he was the head of the local Knights of Columbus chapter there."

Alain blinked. "...He made it out of New Orleans? Not many did."

"He wasn't there at the time, he was in Washington DC," Danielle emphasized. "In any case, he saw what happened in New Orleans and was horrified. Even more so when the Veil was finally lifted not long after, and he became aware of what lurked in the shadows. He became a very outspoken critic of the supernatural in Congress, as you can probably imagine."

Alain blinked once more. "...Alright, I think I'm following you, here. Correct me if I'm wrong – you seem to think that he went missing because of his views on the supernatural, yeah?"

Danielle nodded. "Exactly."

"Admittedly, that's probably a fair assumption to make," Alain confessed. "I doubt he'll have made himself any friends among, say, the Tribunal, if he was constantly bloviating to the rest of Congress about how much he hated the supernatural or how they needed to be stopped or something. And that's why you want me to look for him, isn't it? You think something supernatural is responsible for his disappearance, and you don't trust someone to find him if they aren't already exposed to that world." He paused, then looked back over to her. "How am I doing so far? Does that sound about right?"

"That's… actually just about dead-on," she admitted. "Though, there is something else."

"Name it."

"You were at New Orleans," she said.

Alain let out a tired sigh. "I was. Believe me, I know."

"That makes you the single most qualified person to find him. I don't know anything about what really happened there, at least what's beyond the public record, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the Tribunal were responsible for the whole thing."

Alain shrugged. "You'd be half-right. Parts of the Tribunal were responsible – really, just the eldest member… and, I suppose, one other member, though I don't hold it against her, since she was brainwashed at the time. Besides, I've gotten to know Thorne a bit since then, and she's got a good head on her shoulders…" He trailed off, then shook his head. "Anyway, I think I've heard about enough, save for one last thing."

"Name it," she said.

"What kind of pay are we looking at if we do manage to find your father?"

Danielle put her hand on her hip. "A United States senator owing you a favor isn't enough?"

"It's nice, to be sure, but I can't put a favor in my bank account," Alain pointed out. "So you'll have to sweeten the deal a bit beyond that."

"Fine," she hissed. "My father, as you can imagine, has deep pockets and connections. And beside that, the government has put out a reward for information leading to his safe return. They're offering a thousand dollars for any information that leads to him. I imagine that if you actually manage to bring him back yourself, we could sweet-talk them into doubling it."

Alain let out a low whistle. "Two grand isn't bad, I'll admit that much… especially if that favor is still included. Alright, you've got a deal. Now let's shake on it."

With that, he extended a hand. Danielle stared at it with uncertainty for a moment before accepting the handshake.

XXX

A short while later, and Alain was down in the tavern, enjoying his breakfast, when Az and Sable came marching in. They spotted him almost instantly and made a beeline for his table, taking a seat across from him.

"You both will be happy to know that I got us a job," Alain informed them as they settled into their seats. "And now, it doesn't involve the book, Az."

Az's eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything. Sable, meanwhile, stared at him in surprise.

"You got a job for us already?" she asked. "How?"

"Admittedly, this one found me, not the other way around," he said. "Apparently, some woman has been tracking us for the past few days. She lives in a nearby town, and upon hearing we were here, well… she went digging."

"What's the job?" Az asked, impatient.

"I was getting to that," Alain replied as he swallowed a mouthful of scrambled eggs. "Let me put it this way – how would you both like to do your civic duty and help rescue a United States senator?"

Across from him, Sable and Az exchanged a glance with each other. "...You cannot be serious," Sable told him.

"Oh, I'm serious," Alain replied with a nod. "Moreover, this one's got a real payday attached to it. The federal government is offering a thousand dollars for information leading to his return, and his daughter – the one who gave me the job – thinks we'll probably be able to talk them up to at least double that if we can bring him back ourselves. Not to mention that he's going to owe us a huge favor afterwards, and I don't know about you, but having a senator in my back pocket sounds like a pretty good deal to me."

Again, Sable and Az exchanged a glance with each other before turning back to him.

"We're listening," Az said.

Alain grinned. "Thought you might." He hurriedly finished his breakfast, then pushed his plate aside before clearing his throat.

"Alright, so we're in Bandera right now," he explained. "The senator, Samuel Silvera, was last seen in San Antonio – according to his daughter, Danielle, he was coming into town to see her for a few days but had to stop in San Antonio for business first. Trouble is, he stepped off the train in San Antonio and never showed up to his destination there."

"Sounds interesting," Sable commented. "So I take it that's where we're headed next?"

"Unless someone has a better idea?"

Neither Az nor Sable had any arguments. Finally, Az crossed his arms.

"I suppose it's time we do our civic duty, then," Az announced. "To San Antonio."

"About that," Sable said. "How are we supposed to get there? If I remember right, that's quite a distance away; I doubt we'll be able to walk or even take a carriage there."

Alain smirked at her, and she glowered at him. "Don't say it."

"Okay, I won't say it. But you know what it is regardless."

Sable scowled at him, and Alain's smirk widened.