The Fall of Witchcraft

by Claudia Silva

  “It’s fiction.”

  “In movies, vampires are always the bad guys and they kill them at the end. Who would want to go see a movie like that?”

  It seemed to have worked because Rebecca shrugged in frustration. “Fine. We’ll see what else is playing. But, we’re going out; I need to get out of this underground city.”

  Not that he wanted another topic to argue about, but he could help himself. “We get out almost every day. Don’t say you never get out of the compound,” he pointed out.

  “We go on missions and we go fight werewolves.”

  “Which is the best part of being a werewolf hunter,” he added.

  Narrowing her eyes, Rebecca said, “And as much as I've been proficient at it, I also have other interests.”

  “You are very proficient at it,” he agreed. “Besides, I thought you liked it now that you found your calling.”

  “For the love of God, Dylan,” she let the fork drop on the plate with a loud clank. “It’s our day off, we should go out and enjoy life. We can’t be working all the time, we’d go insane.” No, he wouldn’t, he thought. Rebecca rolled her eyes at the face he made. “Well, we’re going to go to the movies and to lunch and that’s final.”

  “Yeah, that’s fine.” He had no choice but to agree.

  Without expecting it, his phone beeped. It had been on the table next to his plate. Dylan glanced at the screen.

  “It’s Josh.” Agent Josh Watters was a human FBI agent who worked in the agency’s main offices above them. He was the director’s right-hand man who served as a liaison between the vampire agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

  The look on Rebecca’s face was scary as she looked at him in contempt. “Do not answer that. Do not dare answer that.”

  There was another beep, this time, from Rebecca’s phone on the kitchen counter. “It’s from Lucius,” Dylan stated knowing Rebecca could read the message on his screen.

  “It’s our day off,” she reminded him. Why wasn’t Rebecca even interested in responding to the message? “They can find someone else to take care of this, whatever it is.”

  Dylan ignored her. When the message went unanswered for a few seconds, another one came. And another. “It seems to be an emergency.”

  Before Rebecca could protest any further, his phone rang. Dylan looked from the phone to Rebecca and back to his phone. Rebecca’s quiet message was clear, do not answer it. After a few rings, the phone became silent again. They both looked at it for a few seconds and were startled when Rebecca’s phone was the one to ring this time.

  “No,” she whimpered, giving up and standing to take the phone she didn’t want to answer. “It’s our day off.”

  “Are you answering?” Dylan asked, hopeful.

  Closing her eyes in defeat, she pressed a button to accept the call. “Sawyer,” she said, her voice firm and confident. Dylan could hear Josh on the other side loud and clear. It was an emergency, and it involved the witches. They needed their help. Victoria herself had called Lucius, which meant it had to be serious. After Agent Watters ended the call, Rebecca said, “You got that?”

  Dylan nodded. “Are we going?”

  Lowering her head, Rebecca turned to look at the last of the omelet on her plate. “I guess.” Then, under her breath, he heard her say, “Sometimes I just hate this place.”

  Ignoring her, Dylan led the way to Lucius’s office.

  October 19th, 2000

  10:37 A.M.

  Rebecca entered the elevator from sub-level five with Dylan by her side. By now, she was used to the clean metallic cube that functioned as an elevator. There were no buttons and no imperfections of any kind inside the box; this allowed her to see her reflection on the metal like a mirror. She had dressed out of her pajamas and into matching gray slacks and jacket, with a purple button-down shirt. In the year she’d been a vampire, her hair had grown longer, and she'd gotten used to tying it up behind her neck whenever going on missions. She used to want to cut her hair as short as it had once been, but she was enjoying the change and she now meant to let it grow. The length of her hair didn’t interfere when hunting werewolves, she'd found, and it made her look more like she meant business.

  It was Dylan who called out to the elevator’s voice recognition system, asking it to take them to Ground Level. A green light marked G1 appeared on the top of one of the metallic walls where there had been nothing but metal a second before.

  As the elevator moved, Rebecca’s thoughts were still on all they could've done with their day off and how it'd been ruined by a call from the main office. How important could something be that the other eleven werewolf hunters couldn’t take care of?

  The elevator door opened again as it reached its destination. The now familiar werewolf smell filled the air reminding them that William Woods now lived in the agency's top floor, sharing a space with the vampires. Rebecca wondered what the others thought about the werewolf that now called the compound home, if he was safe around the rest of the vampires, or if he should fear for his life. For now, he’d settled in a room on the second floor of the main building.

  Dylan didn’t even mention him or the uncomfortable scent when he stepped out of the elevator and led the way to the conference room - perhaps he was getting used to its presence. Or perhaps he’d found it was pointless to complain any more than he already had.

  Rebecca followed him down the hall, thinking about his hairy and unusual friend living above them, and trying to imagine what he did all day in a room he refused to leave unaccompanied out of fear of being hunted down by the rest of the werewolves that roamed the Earth. So far, Will only talked to her and Dr. Stevens, the psychiatrist, no one else there showed any interest in starting a relationship with him. Rebecca even ventured trips outside the agency with him. It wasn’t like he was a prisoner. He could've come and gone as he pleased - they had assigned him a car by Lucius's orders, too - it was more he feared to step outside the heaven the agency provided. The director had mandated he wore a special collar on his neck; with it, the vampires could track Will's location or send an electric shock down his body if he misbehaved - there hadn't been a need of that. Rebecca didn’t understand why he still had to wear that collar, she doubted Will would ever attack the agency, but the order came straight from the director and she’d learned not to act against a direct order.

  Wearing a collar was a small price Will paid to remain in the vampire agency and away from his own murdering kind. It didn't seem to bother him anymore.

  There wasn't time to pay Will a visit that morning as they both reached the conference room in a haste. Lucius was sitting on one end of the table, with many other agents, all vampires, surrounding him. Some sat, some stood. It was Mitchell who caught Rebecca’s attention as he pointed to the map of the United States they had recently added to the wall.

  “… we’ll keep looking,” he was telling the director in his deep voice.

  The director nodded, his chin resting on his entwined fingers as he listened to the others. “We still have a long road ahead of us,” he sighed.

  Mitchell was a werewolf hunter, one who had lost his partner to the werewolves when Will had appeared looking for asylum. Since his partner's death, he worked alone trying to find the senator Will claimed was a werewolf himself - the orchestrator behind the werewolves’ organized attacks. The black-skinned vampire was tall and decisive. Rebecca could see the purpose in his black eyes as he spoke, and she wondered if he’d gotten over the death of his partner and if blamed Will for it.

  “I am leaving for Minnesota tomorrow morning,” Mitchell announced.

  Lucius’ head moved in agreement, his gray eyes tired, his angular face somber. “Yes, Patrick and Martin will meet Senator Robinson and Senator Avery today.” He was referring to two other werewolf hunters Rebecca knew by reputation only. “Perhaps we should add more agents to this mission. There are, after all, a hundred U.S. Senators and we are not accomplishing enough.”

  Rebecca lo
oked at the map on the wall, it had marks on the states where the vampire agents had met those senators as they tried to find the one who had werewolf blood running through his veins. For vampires, it was easy to identify a werewolf by their scent. They could tell them apart from regular humans if they got close enough. The same applied to werewolves, who could smell a vampire coming by the singular scent of their blood.

  When Will had come seeking asylum weeks ago, he had told them The One, the werewolf mastermind Dylan and the others had been searching for years, was a U.S. Senator. It was too late for him to run in the current Presidential election since it was less than a month away, but they believed he would attempt to run for President in four years time. If this werewolf became president, he would have access to the vampire agency’s secrets. For years, this classified information had passed from President to President. Lucius and his vampires needed the President’s support to let them work under the umbrella of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It allowed them access to many resources that made hunting for werewolves possible. So far, every President who had sat in the Oval Office knew about the existence of vampires and werewolves. Each one of the had been surprised - and even terrified - after the revelation, but had chosen to be supportive of their cause. They all understood how necessary it was to back the vampire agency after Lucius opened their eyes to the world of the supernatural.

  If a werewolf ever became President, everything would change for the vampire community. Not only would the enemy have access to the agency’s members, but to every vampire that lived a regular life across the United States in secret. They couldn’t let that happen.

  The director of the vampire agency turned to Isaac and Vanessa. They were both standing behind the table. “I would like the two of you to get with Agent Watters and find out when any of the remaining Senators have an opening for security personnel and join it.”

  “Yes, sir,” replied Isaac. If all they had to do was get close to the senators to see if they caught the werewolf scent, then the easiest way to get close to them without attracting attention was to pose as one of their bodyguards. “Come on, Vanessa,” Isaac asked her to follow him out of the room.

  Rebecca watched them leave. Mitchell left with them. Looking around, she counted three vampire hunters and two werewolf hunters still in the conference room.

  “Please, agents, take a seat,” Lucius commanded to his remaining audience.

  The seven of them sat around the table expecting to hear their assignment. Rebecca didn’t doubt they had all gotten the same message they'd received earlier. Something about an emergency with the witches.

  “This morning,” the director began; he looked at the three women and four men that surrounded him. “This morning I received a most disturbing call from Victoria Palmer.” He didn’t need to elaborate, everyone there knew who Victoria Palmer was, the Head Witch of the Twelve American Covens. Lucius continued, “As you know, it is our agency that contacts the witches requesting their services. We often require their help to complete a few tasks we are unable to perform ourselves. We use their teleporters to move around when time is of the essence, we use their ghosts as spies, and their deleters to erase the memories from innocent onlookers as we do our jobs.” The entire room nodded in agreement, waiting to learn the purpose of the meeting. “It appears something is happening to the Covens, as we speak,” Lucius announced.

  “What's happened, director?” a vampire hunter Rebecca knew as Melinda asked, sounding concerned.

  Beside her, Dylan sat motionless waiting with the rest to find out why they'd been summoned.

  “Victoria has lost communication with seven of her Covens.” The vampire agents shifted in their seats after the director revealed this information. “Not only that - I, too, have been getting reports from our own out-of-state agents about their inability to contact some of the witches since yesterday morning. I found it odd, of course, but didn’t think it was cause for alarm. I know the witches have their own agendas. They are not at our beck and call.”

  “Sir, did the Head Witch send teleporters to find out what's going on?” asked werewolf hunter, Thomas Reed. “It’s the fastest way to gather any information.”

  Lucius closed his eyes as he replied, “There aren’t many teleporters Victoria could reach and she has asked them to stay safe; off the grid. Therefore, she has asked for our help. I have offered to check on these seven covens in case there is any danger for her witches.”

  “Danger?” Rebecca asked.

  “Not only have these seven Covens gone dark, but there are also several other witches from the remaining Covens unaccounted for.”

  “What does that mean?” Marian, another werewolf hunter, asked.

  “That, my dear, is what you are going to find out,” the director revealed. “Each of you must travel to one of the seven Covens I speak of and find out what has happened. Once you have any kind of information, you will report to me. In the meantime, Victoria has sent out an order to the rest of the Covens; they each need to meet at their headquarters and be ready for an attack.”

  Rebecca didn’t know what to think. Who could attack these powerful witches who have existed for centuries in secret? The traitor - Will had mentioned that, too. Although, could one witch be powerful enough to defeat seven witch Covens? That sounded impossible.

  The director stood up ready to dismiss them, “Josh is now preparing reports for each of you. Sean is booking up your flights. I want you to leave within the hour. No time to waste.”

  A round of yes, sir was heard around the room. After all vampire agents were dismissed, Rebecca stood up to join them in the main office to receive her documentation.

  October 19th, 2000

  11:02 A.M.

  “I don’t get it,” Rebecca said after they'd driven in silence for a few minutes. She rested her head on her palm, her elbow on the window’s edge. Beside her, Dylan kept one hand on the wheel as he drove between tall trees.

  “What is there not to get?” he replied with a question.

  “I thought witches only had one power. Don’t they?”

  Dylan paused. For a moment he thought Rebecca was about to complain their day off had been ruined. The old Rebecca would have, that was for sure. This new one didn’t seem to care that much about the little things. “As far as I understand,” he finally replied.

  “So, if one can teleport, they can’t tell if someone’s lying.” She stated it as a fact, not a question.

  “It’s what I’ve been told since I met them.”

  It was Rebecca’s turn to hesitate. What Dylan wouldn’t give to know what she was thinking. He had a lot of great abilities, but reading people’s minds wasn’t one of them. Not even the witches had that power. Next to him, it looked as if Rebecca was contemplating all the possible scenarios, but for what purpose? He still couldn't understand.

  “There’s a traitor, though, right?” she started again after a while.

  “That’s what your new best friend says,” Dylan began. “Unless he’s lying.”

  “Or, maybe he was uninformed,” she turned to look in his direction. Dylan raised his eyebrows to show he didn’t quite join her in that thought. “Whatever. I want to figure out what’s going on with the witches, I don’t want to talk about Will.”

  “Wonderful,” he muttered. Lately, it had been Will-this, Will-that, and frankly? Dylan had had enough. What was so great about a werewolf, anyway? For one, he stank, and then… it was like he was forcing his way into their lives. He didn’t need some weakling trying to get sympathy from anyone, much less Rebecca. Dylan had chosen her. He'd gone to a lot of trouble to get her to become a vampire and a werewolf hunter. Did no one appreciate his efforts?

  It didn't look like Rebecca cared about any of that, nor was she aware of his thoughts, either. Instead, she seemed to keep trying to figure something out, her mind clear of thoughts of Will and Dylan’s silent feud.

  “Ok, listen,” she began, but let the sentence hang. Ever since she ha
d acted like a real werewolf hunter, she seemed to have become more independent, surer of herself. She always had new theories and opinions about everything. In fact, he could even describe her as bossy. Sometimes, Dylan couldn’t decide if it was for the better or worse. Deep down he knew it had to be better, although it'd been nice when she'd waited on his every word to act. His opinion had mattered more before when everything about their world was new to her. Now, he was just, well, one more fool standing in the way of what she wanted to do.

  It shouldn’t matter what he thought about the whole situation, what mattered was she was with him, and somehow, she still liked him despite all of his imperfections. He liked her for that.

  “I’m listening,” he said after she said nothing else after getting his attention.

  “Something doesn’t make any sense to me,” Rebecca began anew. “Before yesterday, everything was fine, and then suddenly seven covens go dark?”

  “We don’t know if everything was fine before yesterday.”

  “It must have, because if I were the Head Witch I would worry if I lost communication with just one of my Covens. And as I understand, the witches help the agency on a daily basis. Right?”

  “Not on a daily basis, no. But frequently, I agree.”

  “That’s not the point,” she insisted.

  “What are you getting at, then, Becca? I don’t understand.”

  His partner shifted in her seat. “Could a teleporter surprise seven Covens, do you think?”

  Dylan thought about the scenario, trying to understand what Rebecca was trying to make sense of. “Uhm, I guess… although they lose energy every time they make a jump, so I doubt one witch could be able to silence seven Covens in one day. Then again, maybe she started sooner. Or maybe it’s more than one traitor and we don’t know about it.”

  Listening, Rebecca seemed to make mental notes. “Maybe. What about an empath? Empaths only function to tell if someone’s lying… they wouldn’t be able to incapacitate seven Covens, could they? I mean, there’s about a dozen witches per coven.” Rebecca seemed to remember everything they'd discussed the night they held Will prisoner, the night he shared his story in hopes the vampires would accept him into their fold. There, she had learned about the witches. She continued. “Seven Covens gone dark. About twelve witches per Coven.” She did the Math, “That’s about eighty witches. Who would have the power to incapacitate all these witches?”