“How do you know he’s full-blooded and powerful?” D-0008 questioned.
“We caught him in action. Our cameras recorded less than thirty seconds, but from what we observed, he’s no ordinary vampire. He has connections to one of the biggest vampire covens in the world, possibly what they call a Court, which is the main network and overruling body.”
DH-3 gestured toward a projector, and his direct report reached across the table and flipped the switch. On the darker side, the projector displayed a video clip.
The images on the screen were from one of the botched missions. All Elaina made out were flashes of yellow and white as gunfire blazed on the screen. She made out commands from former unit members as they tried to apprehend the vampire. The vampire itself appeared as one black shadow shifting from one place to the next as it attempted to avoid being wounded. The bullets and arrows were poisoned and could weaken any vampire. All that was required was one clean shot to a major organ or artery. In what seemed like a ten seconds, the gunfire receded, until finally, there was silence. And then the vampire looked right at the camera and the visual went black.
“The van and trackers were reduced to ashes by the time a recovery unit discovered them,” DH-3 explained.
“Damn,” D-0008 whispered.
“Here’s a still shot where you can see his face,” DH-3 spoke as his direct report manned the controls of the projector.
Elaina swallowed and leaned forward in her chair.
The picture was fuzzy, but she could still make out his features. He was tall and slim in physique, and although she could not determine what he looked like, she noted that he had a prominent jawline and a defined facial structure. His hair was dark, maybe black. And it was long, hanging way past his shoulders.
“It’s the only clear image we have of him. This is the Dresdan you’ll capture and drain. You’ll be assigned a van with a vault strong enough to hold and kill him. The mechanism inside the vault will puncture and drain him while he’s inside. The problem is getting him into the vault. You’ll have to weaken him, and that’s something the last units assigned to the case failed to do.” He pointed to the highly classified manila folders. “I suggest you study the contents, notes, and observations provided by both myself and the previous trackers. This will provide useful information into what has worked and what hasn’t worked.”
Elaina took the folder.
“Other questions?” DH-3 asked them.
No one said anything.
“Do you accept this assignment?”
“I accept this assignment,” D-209 said.
“I accept,” Elaina chimed in.
All four members of her unit accepted. Declining wasn’t an option, and she almost wondered why the District heads always ended with that question. She supposed they were trying to get rid of the weak links early in their contracts, which is something the District heads were known for. Her unit was literally being thrown to the wolves…er…vampires. She didn’t know about anyone else in her crew, but she planned to bounce back a victor.
***
Elaina’s unit left the conference room to grab lunch before their scheduled afternoon meeting to go over the folders and devise a plan. She’d declined their invitation to sit and eat with them at the local diner. There was a spot by a shaded tree at a nearby park that she liked to sit under while eating her sandwiches. She figured she’d clear her mind by enjoying a few chapters of a crime thriller novel she hadn’t gotten around to reading during the series of intense training sessions.
After swinging her tote bag over her shoulder, she exited the conference room. As she was walking down the corridor, she spotted the young lab tech who’d given her the injection the other day. On instinct, she took a hard left turn and approached the lab tech with a million questions racing through her mind.
“Wait!” Elaina called out.
The lab tech spun around, surprised. Recognition set into her facial expression and she backed away slowly, turned, and half-walked, half-ran in the opposite direction.
Elaina couldn’t let the lab tech get away without knowing what had happened to the infected girl and she rushed after her into an unfamiliar area of the building.
She finally caught up to the lab tech halfway down the corridor. “I just want to ask you something,” she said.
The lab tech clutched her clipboard to her chest. “What?”
“What’s wrong? Why do you look so scared? I’m not going to hurt you,” Elaina assured her.
“You’re a tracker,” the lab tech whispered.
“And…?” Elaina was a little confused. Actually, she was more than confused. “We both work here. Do you think I’m going to hurt you?”
The lab tech’s posture was rigid and she gave Elaina a silent look. “You were chasing me and you’ve been trained to kill. I thought…” She shook her head. “Well, I don’t know what I thought.”
Elaina narrowed her gaze. “You helped me the other day with my injection.”
She nodded. “D-33. I remember you.”
“Then you also remember what happened with the infected girl.”
The lab tech turned swiftly.
Elaina caught her by the arm. “What happened to her?”
“Look, you shouldn’t be here,” The lab tech looked over her shoulder. “They’ll punish you.”
“Punish?” Elaina felt the bridge of her nose wrinkle.
“You’re not authorized—”
“Look,” Elaina urged. “Just tell me what happened to the girl the other day…the infected girl from Level E, Station B1?”
“She died, okay?” The lab tech shrugged her arm out of Elaina’s grasp.
“Okay?” Elaina shook her head. “No, it’s not okay.”
“She was infected.”
“How?”
The lab tech paused and then parted her lips slowly. “She wanted to die.”
“Why?”
“She wanted to end her contract. I have to g—.”
“Why wasn’t anything done to help her live?”
“She was labeled a risk to the District and the mission. She asked to be relieved of her duties.”
Elaina stiffened her posture. “Asking to be relieved of duties, doesn’t sound like a wish to die? So which is it, did she want to die or did she want help?”
“I was told she wanted to die when she came in with the infection.”
“Which level did she work on?”
“A. Look, why are you asking me this?”
“A? Level A is where all the files are kept. Level A employees rarely ever come in contact with vampires,” Elaina replied. “Did someone deliberately poison her?”
“I don’t know anything.” The lab tech shifted her gaze to the floor. “I have to go. I shouldn’t be telling you this. I wouldn’t repeat this to anyone or something will happen to you too,” she warned.
The lab tech turned and dashed off down the hall, disappearing through a set of metal double doors. Elaina stood there for a couple minutes, lost in a sea of overlapping thoughts.
* * *
*** Chapter 9
Any assignment involving a stakeout was an assignment Elaina sought the most. Even before she’d joined District 5, she enjoyed people watching. She observed what made people tick and grow angry and what made them overjoyed and happy. People she couldn’t read piqued her interests the most. Oftentimes, she found that those were the individuals who had more than the current state of affairs on their minds. Kind of like she did right now…
Had she made the right choice with her life?
Although she felt a sense of pride in knowing that her job kept murderers off the streets, was this really her purpose?
With sixteen years of being homeschooled and directed by her devoted mother behind her, one would think she’d know exactly what she wanted. But that was far from the truth. Not interested in the big-time Ivy League colleges that had sent her solicitations to apply, she’d attended a local community college instead
. Had even changed her major four times in the three years that she’d studied there.
First it had been computer science, since she didn’t really want to deal with people on a daily basis, and then it was physics because she’d always been interested in learning how to preserve the Earth’s natural resources. Then, one Thanksgiving, she’d talked with her parents over turkey and dressing and they’d mentioned that a prominent university had sent home a flyer about recruiting students for their new Genomics program. They told her how the program had recently added a research and study group on the history of vampires. By that time, most adults knew they existed. There wasn’t much the authorities could do to keep their existence a secret since rogues had already begun to prey on and kill humans.
Since her dad was on a first-name and friendly basis with the professor at the university the flyer had come from, getting in was rather easy. Of course, her perfect GPA score at the community college spoke for itself, but sometimes it was whom one knew that counted.
Her professor, Arnold Wade, had strong connections with District 5. He may have even been on the payroll in addition to his employment with the university, but he’d never told Elaina anything about it. Within months, a District recruiter approached Elaina with a lucrative but risky job offer.
Eventually, she’d get to work in the labs and use her Genetics research studies, but first she’d have to work her way up.
She was given a choice: clerical or front line duties.
She’d never liked being anyone’s assistant. In fact, she aspired to be a leader. Working her way up from the front line seemed the best path for her.
“Elaina…Elaina, do you see him from your position?”
D-209’s voice jolted her back to reality, and she blinked twice and trained her gaze back on the dilapidated warehouse across the street. She crouched lower behind the bushes and scanned the area.
“Fuck…I don’t see a thing,” she said, cursing herself for drifting off in thought.
“It’s him, dammit,” D-57 said. “I can see him on my side from inside the van.”
They could communicate with each other via mic on a designated channel.
“This is our chance. It’s been almost a week. Fuck it. We have to do this,” D-209 said. “Are y’all ready?”
Elaina was about to admit her mistake, but that’s when she saw the vampire and another suspect near the corner of the building. It was about an hour past midnight, so the area was obscured in darkness except for a few faulty lamps up the road, shedding some light on the scene.
You couldn’t make out his companion at all, but there was a fifty percent chance that this was their vamp. They’d tracked a source to this very location where several drug and other criminal busts had gone down.
“Elaina?” D-209 urged. “Got my back?”
D-209 was the first shooter tonight, which meant he would pull the trigger while the others spotted.
She checked the tightness of her clip at her side and reached down to make sure her weapons were still strapped tautly to her boots. “Yeah.”
“He’s turning…he’s turning around…” This came from D-57 in the van.
“I’ve got a shot,” D-209 whispered. “I’m going in—shit!”
After the first shot had rung out, the vampire swung around, startled. A second shot was fired, but it hit the ground near the vampire’s boot instead of him. Dust rose up, but the vampire had long since shifted from that spot.
D-209, aka Danny, had lousy aim. She could have done better than that. Now the vampire knew someone was on to him. And she certainly wasn’t going to stand there in the shadows and let it kill her. She came out of her hiding place and covered for Danny as she was instructed to do.
“The vamp’s assailant got away,” D-57 reported from the van. “The fucking roof…vampire suspect on the fucking roof!”
Elaina dodged behind a broken down rusty car in the parking lot, gripping her gun tightly. The air whipped tightly across her face and rushed through her ears, making it hard for her to use her sense of hearing to track the vampire.
Vamps usually made swooshing noises as they fled past their victim, or, in this case, their threat.
“D-0008, come in,” D-209 urged. “0008?”
“He’s…got…me. Roof…” D-0008 didn’t sound so hot as he rasped across the channel.
“Oh, shit,” D-209 exclaimed.
Suddenly there was a loud thud. Elaina shot up from behind the van, weapon aimed to fire. The vampire had jumped from the roof onto the ground with D-0008 by the neck. His feet were about three inches off the ground as the vampire held him high but positioned strategically in front of his own body.
“Why are you hunting me?” the vampire asked. Its eyes blazed red. A common trait in the most powerful Dresdan, and the color only came out when they were mad or high on emotions.
“Drop him, vamp!” D-209 ordered.
“That’s not how it works. You came for me. This is the problem you created,” the Dresdan said. Long black hair floated in the wind, gracefully, yet the creature held D-0008 with inhuman force that turned his face white.
D-209 fired a warning shot near the vampire.
It laughed. “What a fucking waste! You’re garbage.”
In that instant, the van came plowing across the parking lot, nearly swiping Elaina as it hit top speed. Apparently, it wasn’t fast enough for a vampire. The creature shifted out of the way just in time, but D-0008 never made it.
Elaina cringed and diverted her gaze from the carnage. She took that moment to open fire after the vampire.
“Go, go, go,” D-209 urged as they followed the vampire to the dilapidated building.
Elaina led the way, every one of her senses on alert while D-209 followed far behind her. There were no lights inside. The only thing that greeted them was the smell of dirty motor oil, engine grease, and rust.
D-209 fired behind her and only succeeded in busting through a row of paint cans.
“What?” she yelled at him, startled.
“I thought it was him,” D-209 said.
“Control yourself. Aim to kill. Don’t just shoot in the air aimlessly. You’re giving us away,” she warned.
“Fuck that. That thing isn’t going to kill me.”
“Shut the fuck up before you give our location away.”
“I can hear you two,” the vampire drawled from a location unknown to Elaina. “Amateur assassins. They send you all the time, knowing you’ll die.” The vampire laughed.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Elaina taunted.
“I love the way you sing to me, human,” the vampire said. “I just might.”
His reply made Elaina feel uncomfortable. Not afraid, but uncomfortable. That was odd, given that her life was on the line. Fuck her comfort, she wanted to get out of here alive.
“Do I need to ram the place? Jake’s dead, man,” D-57 reported, his voice muddled, yet came through as panicked.
“W-we’ll h-have to abort,” D-209 stuttered.
Elaina couldn’t turn to give him the side-eye with her motivation still centered around finding their target, but she said, “No fucking way! We finish this. Come on out, vamp.”
In a turn of events that caught Elaina off guard, the vampire came to a screeching halt right in front of them. A bullet blasted Elaina in the leg, and she cried out. She had no idea who’d shot the bullet until D-209 shoved her right at the vampire.
“Take her!”
He dashed out of the warehouse and left her there in the darkness.
The vampire had a stronghold on her arm, and when she raised her gaze to confirm her dilemma, his eyes flashed red.
A scream caught in her throat, and her life literally flashed before her eyes. Fear. She hadn’t felt it in a long time. Someone had the upper hand against her, and that had provoked her fear.
“I’ve come out,” the Dresdan said. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”
Elaina opened her mouth, but no words
left her lips. She heard a motor rev up outside and some tires scraping the dirt. Her heart dropped when she realized what had just transpired. Where her heart seemed absent, anger rose in its place.
Her leg burned like hell where D-209’s bullet had grazed her. Good thing the bullet wasn’t poisoned. She would have been out like a light…and probably the vampire’s snack by now.
“You are too beautiful to be my executioner,” the Dresdan drawled. His accent was foreign and exotic. She could tell English wasn’t his native language.
Elaina examined him. He looked different up close. Almost like a man. Almost human. He was…striking. Handsome. Yet, lethal and deadly.
The Dresdan turned her so that she was facing away from him and brushed his nose against the bun secured to the back of her head. He then sniffed behind her ear.
“Your blood smells like sunshine. Funny…sunshine is the thing I detest the most, yet it is the thing I most want to conquer.”
“I am no sunshine, vampire. Let me go,” she finally said.
“You came for me, beautiful.” The Dresdan inhaled deeply. “Your blood flows freely like an evening shower. Just an inch more and your colleague would have killed you.”
He was referring to the bullet that had grazed her leg.
“If you’re going to drink me, you might as well go ahead and kill me first. Don’t play cat and mouse with me. I don’t play nice,” she shot back at him.
He chuckled deeply. “I work for my meals, sunshine. And I don’t prey on the weak.”
Weak. That word didn’t resonate with her. She didn’t like being called weak, but she held her tongue. She’d much rather have the vampire believe she was weak and decide she wasn’t worth it, than come to the conclusion that she was strong and hunt her down for the kill.
“What will you do to me?” she asked.
Aspen Valley Wolf Pack (The Complete Series) Page 76
