by S Mays
A moment later, the werewolf flattened the door and padded into the room, sniffing the air and searching for her. Jessica flipped through her belongings, praying Casca was where Adrianna had said she would be. The werewolf leapt upon her prey, crushing Jessica against the lockers, which caved in slightly. The beast snapped viciously at her face, forcing her to raise her arm to protect herself. Powerful jaws clamped down on her arm, digging deep into her flesh and cracking her bones. Jessica screamed in pain. The werewolf slowly chewed on the arm, relishing her prey’s anguish. Blood gushed down her maw and splattered on the floor. The world around Jessica spun as she felt herself beginning to black out.
“C-Casca…d-dissect,” she managed to say. The handle in her hand activated, sending the blade of the weapon straight through the heart of the werewolf. The werewolf blinked several times, releasing her arm. Grabbing her chest, the werewolf fell back, toppling over a changing bench that was bolted to the floor. She writhed for a minute before she died.
Jessica’s vision blurred as she lost consciousness. Bilford suddenly appeared in the room and rushed to her side.
***
“No, no. This will not do at all,” he muttered, looking at her crushed arm. His staff appeared in his right hand, its runed surface blindingly bright. “Temporalis suspendorum!” he boomed, his voice thundering throughout the room. Everyone in the facility froze as time stopped completely. Adrianna stood in mid-stride just outside the doorway, in front of several security agents. The crowd in the arena sat motionless.
“My dear girl, you performed marvelously. But this…” Bilford said, looking at her wound. Despite his inability to use chi powers well, he was at least able to partially see into the spirit realm if he tried hard enough. His spirit vision had almost no range and no focus, but it would let him see what he needed to at the moment. Looking at her arm, he saw her weak aura starting to darken around the bite. She was infected.
“Damn it to hell,” he said. “I-I have no choice.” A small blue glowing portal opened beside him. He reached through. Back at the Farm, his arm appeared out of a similar portal into the vault in the medical ward. Ice instantly coated his hand, causing him to inhale sharply. He whispered a small cantrip against the cold, enveloping his hand in a warm protective layer of magic. His arm came back through the portal with a small silver canister.
“Your mother developed this serum before she died. It was going to change the world — a potential cure for the supernatural infection. She never tested it on humans, and her research was partially destroyed in a fire,” he said as he opened the canister. It was empty. Panicking, he reached through the portal again, but there was nothing remaining in the safe. “Jake, you didn’t…” he said, then put the canister back and closed the portal. Looking at Jessica’s wound again, he could see the lycanthropy infection receding. Jake must have inoculated her with the Universal Cure earlier in her life. No wonder he refused to send the sample to be analyzed. His time freeze spell was starting to weaken. Outside the door, Adrianna had begun to move in slow motion.
Bilford said a quick prayer and kissed Jessica on the forehead before teleporting away just as time in the building returned to normal. Adrianna ran into the room, weapons drawn. The werewolf had begun the slow change back into her human form. Medics arrived a moment later, loaded Jessica onto a gurney and rushed her to the infirmary.
***
“What do you mean, there is no infection?” Adrianna asked incredulously. “She was bitten by the werewolf. There are teeth marks on her bones, for Christ’s sake!”
The doctor pointed at the readouts from the Spectral Analyzer. “There is zero evidence of infection. Somehow, this girl is immune to it. We’ve taken a sample of her blood for analysis, but so far, we’ve been unable to determine the cause of this phenomenon.”
“I have never heard of such a thing,” Adrianna scoffed. She looked at the young woman on the monitor. Could it be holy intervention? Magic? She left the office, determined to find the reason for Jessica’s immunity.
***
Bilford, Sam, and Faith were sitting in chairs around the room. Bilford approached Adrianna as soon as she entered.
“What is the diagnosis? Is she going to be all right?” he asked, worry in his voice. He prayed the serum had worked completely.
“Yes, we’ve repaired the damage to her arm, although two of the bones required alloy rods. She will need a lot of physical therapy.”
“What about the infection? Does she have it?”
“No. For some unexplainable reason, she was not cursed.”
“Thank the Lord,” Bilford said, collapsing into his chair. Faith and Sam exchanged smiles.
“I knew it. My prayers told me she was destined to become a Stalker. She is a Stalker, correct?” Faith asked.
“Yes, the Synod has declared that she fulfilled all terms of the test. They were extremely impressed with her performance. She has now attained the rank of Stalker. Does anyone in this room have any theory as to why this girl is immune to supernatural infection?”
Everyone looked to each other, unable to produce an answer. Bilford simply shrugged.
***
Jessica woke up the next day, still heavily sedated. Her grandfather’s was the first face she saw. “G-Grandfather? Did I…succeed?”
He chuckled, moving a strand of hair from her face. “Yes, you gave a legendary performance. They will be talking of this test for decades to come. You displayed both martial prowess and wits. The very characteristics every Stalker needs.”
“Girl, you kicked a whole lotta ass!” Sam said, stepping closer. “I ain’t never seen anyone do anything like that. Well, except for myself, of course. Did I ever tell you about —”
“You’ve made me very proud to be your mentor,” Faith said, gently taking Jessica’s free hand. “I am not sure if I could have done what you did.”
Jessica attempted to rise but fell back. Every inch of her ached.
“Now, don’t move. You are black and blue all over, and covered in cuts — and your arm is a mess. You’ll be here for at least a week, if not longer,” Bilford said. “We’ll take you back to the Farm, and you can finish your treatment and rehabilitation there once you’ve been cleared to leave.”
She looked at her arm. It was encased in a portable metallic tube. Sensors monitored the healing process while LED readouts relayed the information to the medical staff. Heating and cooling elements activated as needed to speed the healing process. “I was bitten by the werewolf…”
“Er, it seems to be some sort of miracle. As you and Faith said, you were destined to become a Stalker. There is no hint of infection. They’ve tested you several times,” Bilford said.
Her grandfather knew more than he was telling, but this wasn’t the place to discuss what it might be. A thought suddenly occurred to her. “Has Father been informed of my results? That I will be a Stalker?” She wanted to see his discomfort at being proved wrong. He had wanted to keep her safe and hidden from the world, but she was now his equal.
Her grandfather cast a sideways glance at Sam. “About your father — there is…an issue.”
“What has happened? Why are you acting so strangely?” she asked, looking from one person to the next.
“Your father…has disappeared.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
It took the combined efforts of Sam, Bilford, and Hilda to keep Jessica in the medical ward after they arrived at the Farm. Even then, she was up and about in days, using her newfound authority as a Stalker to attempt to find out what had happened to her father. The details were sketchy, and the report was incomplete. He had disappeared, along with the shipment he had traveled to protect. Then there was the confounding lack of cooperation from the California branch who had been in charge of assisting him.
In the interim, her grandfather had assumed the title of Overseer of the Farm. In centuries past, he’d held the position before, but her father had told her that Bilford found himself uncomfortable in
the leadership position. “I’d like to enjoy my old age at some point in my life!” he said repeatedly when asked to assume a position of authority. He had made an exception in this case, if for no other reason than to assist Jessica’s investigation.
Faith helped as well, since she was in another California branch. However, weeks of work returned nothing.
Jessica never stopped searching for her father, but her new duties as a Stalker required her to spend less time on her personal investigation. She frequently left the Farm for days at a time, investigating supernatural occurrences and assisting other branches. She would travel to both big cities and small towns in Virginia and the neighboring states, sometimes infiltrating secret organizations or simply assassinating creatures as needed. Her strength grew, along with her knowledge and chi powers. Her hatred of the supernatural also grew, as she held them responsible for the loss of those she had held dear. She saw her fellow soldiers at the Farm cut down in battle over the following years. Her reputation for ruthlessness traveled throughout the Underworld. She showed no mercy to her enemies, seemingly taking out her frustrations on them. Her foes sometimes referred to her as “the Daughter” because she was the feared daughter of the legendary warrior, Jake Luvkrafft. She considered the title both annoying and complimentary. She wanted to be known for her own accomplishments, not for those of her father.
The Farm’s research center was shut down. The technicians who had worked under her father were transferred to other projects. Jake was extremely paranoid and had kept much of his research in his head. The rest of it was encrypted. The Order had the ability to manufacture new particles, but no one could determine how to bond the weapons to new users. After the death of a volunteer, the program was shuttered until more research could be done or her father was located. The few Stalkers and Slayers who had been armed with the weapons continued to use them without issue. Jessica’s proficiency with Casca increased until the weapon almost became an extension of her.
Still, she was unsatisfied. Her primary skills as an investigator and assassin were of no use in locating the one person she wanted to find. It was as if he had vanished off the face of the planet.
***
The Order considered her father’s disappearance a closed case. It was assumed that he had been ambushed and his body disposed of at sea. Jessica continued the investigation on her own but made no progress. That changed the night she was investigating the death of a homeless woman in Richmond, Virginia.
Evidence on the body indicated the perpetrator was most likely a vampyr — a human who had just been turned by a higher-level vampire. These creatures lived in agony for days while their bodies transitioned between life and undeath. Their hunger overrode any humanity they had left, causing them to attack indiscriminately. After a period, their lives faded completely, and they transformed into minor vampires. Their intelligence would return, their pain would subside, and their strength would grow.
She’d tracked the murderer to an abandoned building. She set up a stakeout and waited for her suspect to return. She was dozing in the rented car, attempting to stay partially alert, when someone knocked on her window. A young boy on a bicycle motioned for her to roll down her window. She waved him away, but he refused to leave. Reluctantly, she lowered the window.
“I am very busy right now, and I don’t have any money to give you. Please go bother someone else,” she said, yawning.
“Look, lady, I’m just supposed to give someone named Stocker Jessica or something this. Rude!” the kid said, handing her an envelope. He pedaled away but raised his hand and gave her the middle finger over his shoulder.
She watched him go in her mirror and considered chasing him down. No one should have known where she was. She opened the letter and gasped. She recognized her father’s handwriting.
Dearest Jessica,
I am sorry. I am sorry for doubting you, and I am sorry I have not been there for you for the past few years. I had my reasons, and I cannot divulge them to you at this time. However, I need your assistance now. I’ve been working on a secret project for the Order, and I require my backup files and notes. Please bring them to the address below on April fifteenth, and I will explain everything to you. We will be reunited. It is important that you do not involve or tell anyone else about this. It is a level one top secret project. The Order has been infiltrated, and you can trust no one. My life depends on you coming alone.
Love,
Your father
The address given was in Nashville. A strange meeting place. Handwriting could be duplicated, but the writing sounded like what her father would say. He didn’t want her to inform anyone in the Order, but he wanted her to bring top secret research to an unsecured location? Years ago, he had had a theory that the Order had enemy spies working within it. It was the reason he had been so secretive about his research. Still, he would not have disappeared for years without contacting her or her grandfather in some way. She put the note aside, as her target had appeared. The small figure looked around before diving through an open window in the abandoned house. She exited the vehicle and made her way around to the back of the building.
The back door was locked and boarded up. She looked up at the second floor and noticed an open window above the roof of the back porch. She leaped up, grabbed the edge of the porch, and pulled herself up to the low roof. Evaluating the room, she willed her chi into her infrared contacts. The vampyr would still give off body heat until it had fully transformed. The room was empty. Stepping over the windowsill, she entered the room and winced as the floor creaked. Pausing, she listened. A bump from downstairs indicated the position of her target. She looked around her current location. She was in a bedroom, most likely a young child’s at one time. Now, it was covered in dirt and mold. A rat scurried into an open closet. Walking lightly, she analyzed the hallway. Part of the floor was missing, which would allow her to see downstairs, but she would have to be careful of the rotted wood around the hole.
Inching forward, she stopped any time she made a noise. Leaning down, she looked through the breach in the wood floor. Shadows moved from the right. The flooring in that room was linoleum. It’s in the kitchen.
She debated leaping over the hole and proceeding down the steps at the end of the hall, but if they were in the same condition as the floor above, she’d either fall through or alert her foe. Testing the exposed wood beam at her feet, she deemed it solid enough to hold her weight. She slipped through, lowering herself down. Her feet dangled several feet above the floor below. As she let go, she hoped she didn’t crash through the wood into the basement.
She landed with a nearly inaudible thump and waited. Her target stopped moving. She slid back against the wall, holding her breath. Her prey moved to the doorway, peering out into the decrepit living room. Its long shadow stretched across the floor. It sniffed the air, grunted, and returned to the kitchen. She inched down the wall until she was lined up with the edge of the door. Holding her breath, she slowly looked around the corner.
The smell of decay slammed into her nostrils like a hammer. Blood streaked the black and white checkered floor. A small figure was hunched in the middle of the room, feeding on something. Focusing her vision, she saw it was a petite arm. Although vampires could eat any human food, they subsisted solely on fresh blood. They could only sustain themselves and heal using the blood of other living beings. A vampyr was a confused creature, one that tried to satiate its hunger with anything it could find. Eventually, they would gain enough intelligence to realize they needed blood. That was, if they were allowed to live long enough to do so.
Jessica silently slipped into the room, drawing a silver and wood stake from her belt. Standing behind the creature, she realized how small it was. Suddenly, it whirled around and leapt back away from her. It was a child…perhaps nine or ten. The creature bared its fangs at her and hissed. Tinted yellow eyes regarded her with fear and anger. Blood smeared what had been a young boy’s face. Jessica paused. She’d killed many
supernatural creatures, but never a child. She faltered, unsure of her next action. The vampyr noticed her hesitation and crouched to attack. She stepped back just as the creature pounced on her. Her warrior instincts and muscle memory reacted automatically. The stake drove precisely through the child’s heart. Jessica twisted, avoiding the creature’s razor-sharp claws and fangs. It fell flat on the floor, where it writhed and cried for a few seconds. One final whimper escaped its lips before it went still. She bent over the body.
It was wearing blue pajamas with superhero images. She flipped the body over and retrieved her weapon. Its face was frozen in a look of pain. A deep pang of guilt stabbed at her heart. What’s wrong with me? She’d never felt guilt at killing a creature of darkness before. Before she knew it, tears had formed in her eyes. She violently wiped them away. The vampyr’s skin began to flake as the flesh and muscle slowly dissolved into dust. The more powerful and advanced the vampire, the more violent the reaction to their death. Five minutes later, a blackened skeleton remained. She waited, hoping the body would disintegrate completely, but it wasn’t going to. “Command, I need a cleanup crew at my location,” she said into her earpiece. After casting one final glance at the remains of the boy, she exited through the open window he had entered through. She cursed whatever abomination had done this to an innocent child. This was why the Order existed — to protect innocents from the darkness that would prey on them.
***
She spent the next few days analyzing her course of action. She could have a squad ready to meet her at the location, but her father’s note said she must come alone. She made a few inquiries with some of her contacts to see if she could find anything about a secret research branch, but nothing turned up. She stopped asking questions when she started to attract too much attention.
She decided she would attend the meeting, but she would scout the area beforehand. If it seemed like a trap, she would call in a squad. It would take twenty-two minutes for one to arrive. She didn’t want to ready one in advance, just in case the statement about spies was true. If she asked for squad backup before she left, she would have to answer questions about her mission, and that could alert the wrong people. It was risky to go in alone, but she could see no other option. That didn’t mean she couldn’t prepare a battle plan.
