Night Blessed
Author:© WebNovel
Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Awakening
I studied the body that was laid out on the ground before us, fighting with the anger that threatened to overwhelm me. Another day, another dead human.
I had been selected to work for the government at age sixteen. Since I was twenty-four now, to say that hunting down undead killers was getting old would be a vast understatement. No, that's not true. The one part of my job that I actually enjoyed was bringing those filthy bloodsuckers to justice. What was getting old was having to see dead body after dead body.
"Hey, Emily," a deep voice said behind me, drawing me out of my reverie. "Come here and check this out."
I turned to face Duncan, a member of my team and foster-brother, if you wanted to get technical about it. We'd been siblings since we were both thirteen, and even though he'd gotten taller and his blonde hair brighter, I could never escape seeing my brother, and sometimes my friend when we were on a case. He was always waiting over my shoulder for the one mistake that would end me. I followed his blue eyes to see a speck of white that seemed brighter against the dark asphalt on the road.
I walked over and squatted next to him, careful not to touch the ground next to it, which would still be considered part of the crime scene. My dark brown hair blew in the wind as I leaned in closer to see what he was pointing at.
"Is that–"
"Part of a vampire fang?" Duncan interrupted me with a grin. "Why, yes. Yes, it is."
I stared at the fang, flabbergasted. This was a first. Vampires had many abilities; fast healing is one of them. They could regrow just about anybody part that got lopped off, except their fangs, apparently.
"Well," I said after a long pause. "This should make our guy pretty easy to find."
Duncan smiled at me as Andrew, our other team member, walked over to see what we had been studying for so long.
"That is disgusting," he said after a moment.
I grinned up at him, not for the first time noticing his looks, a stark contrast to Duncan's. He was tall as well, but that was where their similarities ended. Where Duncan was light in coloring, Andrew was dark: dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin. Add in the black shirt and pants he usually sported, and he nearly blended in with the shadows.
"It is," Duncan agreed with a shrug. "But it sure will make this case a lot easier."
I looked back at the body. It was that of a handsome young man in his twenties. His whole life was ahead of him, and it was cut short by a member of the undead. I studied him, fighting back the frustration and the sadness that threatened to take me over. He was exactly the type of human that the vampires went after. Young, handsome, and at one point he'd been full of the two things the vampires lusted after more than anything: life and blood.
Vampires had been hunting humans since they came into existence, whenever that was. And humans had been none the wiser, for the most part. Meanwhile, they were being hunted in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. There wasn't an end in sight for a very, very long time. Until now, that is. Now there's me and my team. For the last eight years, we had worked tirelessly to find the vampires killing humans without abandon and brought them our own brand of justice – a nice stake to the heart.
"What else do we need to do to put this scene to bed?" I asked, my voice hard. I wanted to get to bed myself. Vampires could never find it in themselves to be considerate and kill people in the early hours, so I could actually get some sleep. No, they had to kill in the middle of the night, so I would inevitably get the call at 2 a.m.
"We're waiting on the crime scene people to be done," Duncan said as he walked up to stand behind me. "Then I'll order everyone to clean up and we can head out."
"I can do it," I said through gritted teeth. Leave it to Duncan to try to take control of the situation. "I am the captain, after all."
"Of course," he said patronizingly before he walked to the other side of the alley. It was a low blow for me to remind him of my job title. He'd been trying for it for years, to no avail. Turned out that genetics was a bigger deal to the government than one might think.
I had turned away from the scene when I felt a distinct shiver run down my spine. No, not a shiver. It was damn near a convulsion. My hazel eyes danced around the darkened alleyway, looking for the source of the feeling, but there was nothing.
Shaking my head, I turned back to my team, who stood to the sidelines, watching the crime scene investigators finish up.
"Okay, we need to finish this up quickly before the actual cops catch wind of this," I said loudly so the alleyway could hear me.
Sure, the regular police couldn't touch us with our credentials, but they always slowed down the process. It was easier to skip over it completely and be on our way. Plus, with the feeling sliding up and down my back, I couldn't seem to shake the need to be out of here. Now.
"You heard her," Duncan said in a booming voice. "Let's move out!"
I stared at him for a moment before turning away to ensure everyone was listening. I tried not to let him get to me. Truly, I did. But Duncan always seemed to find a way to control every situation. I knew he couldn't help it, not with our upbringing. And really, he had always been the smarter choice for captain: smart, steady, and capable. It was just his bad luck that my bloodline trumped his.
Andrew stood next to me, a smirk on his face telling me that he knew exactly what was going on and how much it bothered me. He bumped his large arm against mine.
"Just think of the nice nap you're going to get when we get out of here," he said with a knowing grin. I never could hide my grumpiness from him.
"Truer words were never spoken."
Suddenly, I felt the shiver down my spine again, making me uneasy. Where was it coming from? My senses never steered me wrong. Something had to be out there.
"What's wrong?" Andrew asked, eyes shifting to find the sudden change in my demeanor.
"I don't know," I said slowly. "There's just a feeling I can't seem to shake."
I looked up and down the alley, still seeing nothing that could make me feel like I had a ten-volt battery attached to my spine. I glanced up, checking the tops of the buildings around us, and froze. A pair of bright blue eyes stared back at me, and I felt myself begin to breathe faster. I couldn't tear my eyes away from them, as if they were frozen on that one sight alone. I couldn't make anything out aside from the two orbs staring back at me in the dim lighting. The eyes seemed to watch me closely, waiting for my reaction as they danced with amusement.
"Emily, we're ready to go," Duncan said next to me, startling me out of my daze. "What are you staring at?"
His gaze followed mine to the rooftop to see nothing there at all. As if I'd imagined the whole thing. I shook my head and turned to the rest of the team as they began to load the body into the van.
"Nothing," I said quietly. "Nothing at all."
But I couldn't shake the feeling that those words couldn't be further from the truth.
Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Differences
The office for our agency, Supernatural Secret Services, was located on the 25th level of the government high-rise. This made for a long elevator ride, and today, a very silent one.
I was still annoyed with Duncan for trying, yet again, to lead my team. Duncan was annoyed with me, probably for not letting him entirely take the lead and Andrew never was a man of many words. In the two years I've known him, he'd never bothered to fill in the quiet times with useless chatter. This was one of my favorite things about him. Particularly today when my mind was still reeling from the mysterious eyes at the crime scene.
What was it about those eyes that unsettled me so much? With my extra senses, nothing was able to creep up on me as those eyes did. But there was something about them that I just couldn't seem to shake, no matter how hard I tried. Finally, when the elevator doors dinged open, I let out a small sigh of relief.
The sounds of the office washed over us as we slipped around the multitude of desks that were shoved into a small, open area. Each desk was full of our coworkers typing away and chatting on their phones. They were the people who shuffled through the many phone tips we received to give us the cases we needed. Not every dead body was the work of a vampire, after all. They dug through all the facts and managed to give us only the legit cases. How they figured that out, I had no idea.
I began walking to the team's private office, picturing the nice comfortable couch that was calling my name when I heard a door swing open.
"Thompson!" A deep, rumbling voice called out over the chaos. "Get your butt in here, now!"
Duncan and Andrew gave me sympathetic glances as I grimaced before changing direction and heading to the boss's office. I made my way across the large room, doing my best not to drag my feet along the way. I didn't even need to look at the doorway to see that Bobby had already gone to stand behind his desk.
I walked in and sat in a chair stationed in front of his desk, finally raising my eyes to meet his steely gaze. He was a tall man, around six feet, and bald, though I knew he shaved it rather than admitting defeat to nature's curse of hair loss. His gray eyes stared me down for a moment before he finally sat in his chair.
Many would think he was being chivalrous in allowing me to sit first, but I knew how he worked. It was all a play for control to him; a way for him to show his dominance, though it was always unnecessary. Being a measly 5'2" he would always be able to look down his nose at me. And he'd always be in control.
"Emily," he began, leaning back in his chair to cross his arms. Not a good sign. I began steeling myself for the tongue-lashing I was bound to get. "Walk me through your most recent case."
Seemed innocent enough, but I knew he was just waiting for me to put my foot in my mouth. That was the thing with Bobby. He couldn't wait to see me fall.
"I received a phone call from Duncan at 0250 reporting a male victim in an alley off of Division Avenue." I opened my mouth to continue when he waved his hand at me, signaling me to get on with it.
"We arrived on the scene and evaluated the body. He was a young male, late 20s, with two holes in his neck. There were signs of strangulation and he had been completely drained of blood."
"Yes, I know all that," he said sharply, annoyed. How was I supposed to know that he already had all the information? Had he not just told me to walk him through it? I shoved my own annoyance down, knowing that if he saw it on my face, this conversation would only get worse.
"I want you to tell me what you saw on top of the buildings before you loaded up the body."
I froze, wondering how in the world he'd caught wind of that. I hadn't mentioned it to anyone there, and it's not like I'd stood there staring for minutes on end, had I? Bobby's face darkened as the seconds ticked by without me answering.
"Sorry, sir," I said, shaking myself out of my reverie. "I thought I had seen something on the tops of the roof, but I wasn't sure. When I looked again, whatever it was, was gone."
"And what made you look up there in the first place?"
"I…" I hesitated for a second and watched his glare deepen. "I sensed it."
There it was. The abject disgust that I'd been waiting for since this conversation had started. One mention of my abnormalities and any amount of progress I'd made with the guy flew out the window. It had been this way since I was three years old. Shivering on his doorstep next to a caseworker from social services as she introduced me to my new father. To say he hadn't been pleased was an understatement.
"Obviously I was wrong," I began, only for him to wave another hand at me.
"If you think you saw something, then I believe you." The way he said it made me pretty sure he didn't believe me at all but wanted to change the subject. "As the leader of your team, it is your responsibility to investigate such instances. Standing in the alleyway, staring at the darkness, isn't doing anyone any favors. What if it had been the murderous beast who just got finished killing the poor boy? Hmm? What then?"
I shrugged. Was there a chance that he was right? Sure. But I didn't get the feeling that the creature, whatever it was, had been malevolent. The eyes had seemed to find the whole situation amusing. It wasn't a vampire who had just gotten done killing a man, that much I knew for sure.
"You were put in your position because of your bloodline. You have more abilities than any other human in the world. But if you get sloppy on the job, I will take that position away from you. To hell with what the higher-ups have to say about it. You remember that."
"Yes, sir," I mumbled. It was what was expected of me at this junction. Take the lecture on my chin and keep going.
"I took you in as a child because I believed I would be able to use your abnormalities to help the human race. Not so you could be lazy and ignore your gut. Not many foster parents would have put up with you."
I nodded, letting the words wash over me. I was used to them by now. After twenty-one years with the man, I should be. He may be my foster father, but that didn't mean he loved me. The exact opposite, actually. The man could barely stand the sight of me. It was beyond me why he'd insisted on me working for him when he could have washed his hands of me when I turned eighteen.
"I want you to get out there and do your damn job. Half-vampire or no, the second you're no use to us, you'll be out on your butt. Don't you forget it. Now get out." He said, pointing a thick finger at the door.
"Yes, sir," I said, allowing a bit of my own steeliness into my voice. I was so sick of being treated like trash just because my mother decided to procreate with a vampire. Bobby's glare darkened even further as I stood.
"Get. Out." He said menacingly and all I could think was that maybe vampires weren't the only evil creatures on this planet. Maybe I should find the owner of those eyes and find out.
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