“Gillian, it is your job, no — your duty, to see to it that this girl chooses E.V.I.E. versus working alone. Are we clear?”
“If I coerce her into working with us, for us, doesn’t it make her choice moot, not really her own choice?”
“Would you rather this vampire continue to murder multiple souls at will? He’s escalating, Gillian. I don’t need to explain this to you, you are already aware. He’s escalating, and our people haven’t been able to even track him, much less contain him.”
“I know that,” Gillian answered, her tone flat as she managed to keep her tone under control.
“Solange De’Mers has more talents than just being a master of martial arts — she’s got witchery on her side. One is not descended from the most powerful coven in the Americas without having a mastery of witchcraft as well. Her bloodline, along with her mastery of the martial arts she so readily excels at, is what put her on our radar. We need this girl,” Jude exclaimed passionately.
“I’m trying. But you can’t push too hard. She is still legally a minor. And Marceline will cut us off before we even get a chance for a meeting with her.”
Jude thought about the issues rattling around in his brain, and pursed his lips before deciding to just say it. “We have a clean up crew on site in Venezuela this morning. Almost an entire village wiped out. Every man, every woman, every child down to even the babies were killed. Those he fed from were the lucky ones. Some just torn in half and strewn across the rooms, not even bled first. They were just viciously torn apart, murdered. For what reason? Why would he do that? There was no reason to kill the babies. They couldn’t possibly speak of what they'd seen. What is the reason?”
Gillian closed her eyes and offered up a quick little prayer for the souls of those that had been slaughtered during the night, when her biggest problem had been trying to figure out how to reach Solange De’Mers through her obstinate great-grandmother.
“Did he leave any of them alive this time?” Gillian asked.
“Same as always whenever one fits his type. A tall, thin, brown-haired girl with sad quiet eyes. He raped her repeatedly, then forced her to feed from him. But this time, he spoke to her. He left her alive this time. He kept telling her that he’d searched for her for years, and now that he had her, his mouse, he’d make sure that she was not left hungry again. When the girl objected and vomited up the blood he forced down her throat, he became enraged and almost tore her throat out with his fangs.”
“Oh my God,” Gillian whispered.
“He kept feeding from her, then feeding her from himself, until he finally seemed to see her through clear eyes, realized she wasn’t his mouse, and threw her against a wall in a fit of anger before disappearing and leaving her for dead.”
“Is she still alive? Can we speak to her? Did his actions ultimately kill her?” Gillian asked.
“No, we can’t speak to her. She was near hysterical, not fully understanding all that had happened to her. After we got all the information we could from her, we ended her. We had no choice, he’d turned her. And if she is infected with whatever virulent psychotic nature he’s harboring, we cannot afford to wait until she succumbs to it. It is best if she is eliminated now, rather than having to search her out again later if she begins to mimic his behavior.” Jude thought about the fact that he’d had to give the directive to kill the girl that had just been savaged by a vampire. It bothered him, but not as much as allowing her to walk away would have bothered him. “For what it’s worth, she didn’t know it was coming, and it was painless — we are not monsters…” he added when explaining that they’d had to kill her.
Gillian took a deep shaky breath. This was the part of her job she hated the most. The necessary disposal of innocents who’d been turned through no fault of their own. They were not willing participants, yet they had to be terminated in order to keep human civilization safe. Or at least as safe as it could be.
“He’s escalating, Gillian. Every single attack is becoming more violent. He is becoming more unhinged. We need Solange De’Mers on our side. Perhaps her magics can help us locate this vampiric pestilence and remove it from the face of the earth. We’ve tried all else and just simply cannot locate him.”
“I’m trying, Jude.”
“Try harder,” Jude insisted.
The line went dead and Gillian dropped her phone into her lap. Most days she was proud of her job, of her path in life and the way she personally helped keep the world just a little bit safer through E.V.I.E.’s observation and eventual elimination of vampires moving freely among humankind. But today, she got no satisfaction from it. Today, she mourned for the souls lost overnight, when a clearly insane vampire had gone on a rampage and killed all in his path.
Chapter 5
Eighteen months later.
“Excellent, Solange. Very good, child. Now, let’s try it again,” Marceline encouraged.
Solange lifted her double-sided Japanese blade and rushed across the room, tossing it away as she went to symbolize it being removed or lost during battle. She didn’t pause in her movements, instead she continued on, positioning her hands and arms as though they still held the sword, until eventually, one appeared there. Not of the same type she’d tossed aside, but one of light. This sword was blue and it shimmered like the northern lights in the sky. Solange gripped it, but not too tightly so that it wouldn’t be split into two and become two separate weapons. She just needed the one. Just the one was easier to handle than two, at least of the magical kind…
Solange held the shimmering sword just tight enough and ran at the human-sized practice dummy that had been set up in the ballroom that had become her practice studio. She plunged the shimmering blade into the dummy and after an initial high-pitched hum, the dummy burst into flame at the point of impact. Without turning, Solange flicked her fingers this way and that, causing other, smaller bladed weapons to leave their places on the walls and plunge themselves into the dummy as well. Then she closed her eyes, leaving her hands at her sides and used her mind — only her mind — to bring her katana sword back to her. As it lifted off the floor where she’d discarded it and hurtled through the air toward her, Solange simply raised her hand to accept it and seemingly effortlessly wrapped her fingers around it and held it relaxedly at her side.
“Excellent, Solange. You are mastering your powers in such a way I’ve rarely before seen. I am very proud of you.”
“Thank you, Grandmama.”
“Have you been practicing your cloaking spell as I taught you?”
“Yes, ma’am. I practice it regularly. So much so that I often find it running through my head without a conscious thought from me to start it.”
“That is as it should be. No one — not a single living person — should ever know of that which you keep cloaked. It could be seen as a weakness, a way for some — if they chose to, to be able to take advantage of you. A reason to do you harm. That cannot be allowed, no other, ever, should know of it.”
“I know, Grandmama. Only we know, you and I.”
“And your talisman?” Marceline asked.