It was about midday on Wednesday. It had been three days since I was with the Chasses. I wanted to go back there so badly, but I had to keep my fake routine. I was supposed to be at work. They thought I was working a construction job, so I couldn't just come over when the rest of the world was working in the middle of the day. So, I sat in the factory alone and miserable.
My mind stayed far off, reliving the memories from my time with them. I had gone over to their house every night just to check on them. I had to make sure that they were okay, especially after my run-in with the vampires and that one escapee; fuckin' coward… ran like a bitch.
I couldn't stop picturing the blonde vampire that eluded me, finding them by following my scent. Every night since, I stayed in the woods that lined their neighborhood, watching them from a distance, guarding them in secret from any unannounced visitors.
I couldn't stop worrying about them. I knew that they could probably defend themselves if attacked in their own home. There was silver everywhere. Nothing could get them, let alone even get close, but I still worried.
When I thought about it, I had only been with them twice, but they still treated me like family, at least what it felt like around family. It was all because I knew their big family secret and accepted it, asking to know more. Shit, Frank wanted to induct me in as a full-fledged hunter already, even come to work for them. I laughed at the thought, but lingered on it.
I waited patiently in my dank lair, wishing I were in their home. The smell of the ancient factory was musty and decayed… a far cry from the smell of candles and cooked food of the Chasse home. I remembered Autumn's hair, the way it smelled after she had showered on Sunday. God… I just wanted to be back in their home. I just wanted to feel accepted again, like I had friends. I wanted Autumn to look at me again, the way she looked at me all those times in her house.
It was around four-thirty, and I had waited long enough. I pulled out my newly acquired cell phone and selected Carter's number, which I had programmed in already. It was the only number I had saved. I know… pathetic, but I was resurfacing in the living world. Contacts would take time.
It rang only three times before he answered.
"Hello?" Carter's familiar voice chirped in my ear.
"Carter, it's Sam," I said.
He was silent for a moment as he realized who he was talking to, "Sam, what's going on? I haven't heard from you in a few days," he said, wary that I wanted nothing to do with them.
"Yeah, sorry… work, you know how it is. My day job doesn't allow me much time to go hunt the creatures of the night. Not if I want a check, anyway," I laughed. If only it were true.
He snickered, "Yeah, I didn't think they would."
"What's been happening? Anything new come up since Sunday… you know, about what Jane told us?" I asked feverishly.
He answered quickly, "Actually, I'm going to check something out in a little bit. You want to come?" There was excitement in his voice; a restrained anticipation.
"Yeah, definitely," I agreed quickly. I wanted more chances to pick his brain about the things I had read in the bestiary.
"Good," he said. "Can you meet me at my house? Or, I can pick you up if you need a ride."
My solitary nature wanted to take the tunnels out to his part of town, but I couldn't keep showing up out of nowhere, no car or ride anywhere in my wake. I hadn't solved that problem yet. They'd start wondering how I got to their house, and it might tip them off enough to start digging. I couldn't have them learning anything about me. Not the real me, anyway.
"Could you pick me up from where you dropped me off Sunday night? As long as it's not a problem…"
"Not at all. I'll head there now. I should be there in twenty," Carter said.
"Sounds good. I'll be there," I said, then shutting the small flip phone.
I paced anxiously through the dim corridors of the old factory. I couldn't stand still. I felt like a kid going back to school for the first day after summer vacation. I wondered if any of the Chasse's had changed since the last time I saw them? If they thought about me since I left, or if they'd treat me like they did before?
They treated me like family, as one of them. It was foreign to me after the last two years. I had to be better this time, to act like an average person. I had barely said two words the first night with them, and the second day, I hadn't said much either, except to Autumn. I was very observational now, always taking everything in, looking for hidden truths. That's how I found my prey, but I couldn't be like that with them.
The thought of Autumn made me get even more nervous. I wanted to see her again. I hoped she'd be there.
I went for my jacket, throwing it over my hoodie and making my escape from the factory and all it represented. The cold, dark walls that trapped me were no more, and all that waited for me now was warmth, friends, and possibly… family. I hoped.
I had all of my essentials: my cell phone, my silver blade, my jacket, and the monster. It skimmed just beneath the surface of my consciousness, waiting, ready to be summoned. It wasn't clawing to get out. It had been like a bear in hibernation after so many kills the past week. It felt… amicable, which was odd.
I continued pacing, thinking about what I was doing, what I was risking. I started to fight myself, teetering on the edge of my decisions, but then I stopped. I liked what I was feeling, and I didn't want to fight it anymore. I was turning into a selfish beast.
I started making my way downtown. After about fifteen minutes, Carter pulled to a stop against the curb of a semi-busy street. The window to the black Suburban rolled down smoothly. Carter looked across the small distance to me, waving me over to the car. I sprang forth from a light post where I waited, jogging over to the passenger side. I opened the door and slid into the seat, taking a deep breath to prepare myself for any knee-jerk reactions by the monster. Being around humans was never one hundred percent easy, no matter how recently I killed, so I was still cautious.
"You had us nervous," Carter said, pulling away from the curb.
I wrapped my seatbelt around me and craned my head to the back. It was then that I noticed that there were others in the car. Their scents hit me at the same time I saw them.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Autumn and Clara were sitting right behind us in the middle row. Autumn was silent, but she was looking up at me, smiling. Her dark chestnut hair was pulled back tightly in a couple of fancy braids. It seemed more tactical, especially since Clara's was similarly done.
"We didn't think you'd come back after you left Sunday," Clara jested. "We thought the werewolves were the straw that broke the camel's back."
I smirked at the thought, like I could be scared away. Not likely.
"No, I'm good. Just had to make a few appearances at work," I laughed.
"Well, whatever the case," Carter spoke, "we're glad you came back. It's hard to find people like you, who aren't too scared to fight. But, you always have the choice if you decide that this isn't the life you want." He said halfheartedly like it was something he never hoped for.
I nodded, "Thanks, I appreciate it."
We were all silent for a few moments. It wasn't awkward, it was just peaceful. I had a stray thought.
"What about the rest of you guys? The actual family, do you have the option to… leave all this? If that's what you want?"
Carter's look was a strong one, a proud one.
"If someone in our family wanted out, to live a normal life, we wouldn't stop them. We all have the option to leave, we just don't," he said.
"Why?" I asked, actually confused.
Why would they risk themselves, their family, and their friends to fight monsters? I wouldn't risk what I left behind in Dallas.
"Since we know the way the world actually works, we do what we have to do to stop bad things from happening," Carter said. "Since I know, I have to use what I know to stop them. I can't let anything happen to my family, and that's why I do it. I know what's out there, so I fight them because I know the truth. I fight for my family."
"We all do," Clara added. Autumn nodded along to her statement.
"Since we know, we have a responsibility to do something. Ignoring the fact of what actually exists wouldn't change the truth. Things are out there, looking to kill. So, we train, we hunt, we kill to protect ourselves, our families, and others we can help." Carter smirked, "Besides, once you know what exists, it's kind of hard to live a normal life. Something is always out there, lurking around a dark corner."
"No matter how much we want a normal life for ourselves, the fact remains, this is the real world. When you accept that, then you can embrace the life we lead," Clara said.
I understood them better now. Just doing nothing wasn't an option for them. If I had known about this back before I was turned, I probably would have done everything they were doing to keep my family safe… just less efficiently. If that meant learning how to hunt and kill monsters, then so be it.
"So, how do you keep everyone safe? I mean… wouldn't something be able to track you to your house?" I could track by scent, it was easy. What stopped a curious monster from following them home? It was the fact that I had let a vampire slip through my fingers that made me ask this.
"We don't leave any survivors," Autumn spoke quietly, looking out her window.
Carter piggybacked off her statement, "The silver bombs we use weaken their senses. That is our main method of attack. Once we disorient them with silver, we take them out quick, no hesitations."
"Like the other night?" I asked.
"Yes, but usually, we are much more… coordinated. We weren't sure about those three being there, and we really didn't plan on you being there either. We just wanted to see if any clues presented themselves. We only acted when we saw you. They would have killed you if we hadn't intervened," Carter said.
If I had stood there and let them try, it would have been unlikely. They wouldn't have been able to hurt me. Even I hadn't done that yet.
"If something does evade us and tries to follow us home, we have a series of barriers that we use to lose anything that is following our trail." Clara chimed in.
"What do you mean?" I asked, intrigued.
"We have distortion zones. They're areas that the creatures can't go near. They make them… hazy. It dulls their senses and puts a kind of fog on them to blur and confuse their senses. We use them to our advantage, navigating through them to make it home safe. But, usually, we can kill them all in a single fight when we're out on a hunt, so those are the last resort."
"What are they? How do they work?" I wondered if they'd work on me.
"Silver imbued arrays mostly, but a few are specialized. Certain creatures are weak against other things, as well as silver. Silver is the one thing that affects them all, and the most powerful. We use these materials to line buildings and structures around the city to create these zones."
Clara chuckled, "Our day job. It pays quite nicely, too."
Carter could sense my thoughts, "That's the family business. We own and operate a construction company of our own, but we focus mainly on the restoration of older buildings. That's how we can get away with lining places in trace silver and creating more of these zones."
Then, I realized what Frank meant.
"Oh… I see it now."
Clara laughed when I understood, "Yeah, we were all looking at you as the perfect addition to our family. You killed a vampire like it was nothing, and you just happened to work in construction." She patted my shoulder from behind, "It's like you were sent to us."
"So that's what Frank meant the other day?"
"Yeah," Carter nodded. "It's an option for you… If you want…" He let it hang.
I glanced up at the rear-view mirror. Autumn eyed me intently, trying to read my thoughts. Her gaze lingered on me, waiting to see what I would say. If I said anything.
I nodded, taking it all in. "So, how would that play out if I came to work for you?"
I couldn't believe what I was saying. The part of me that usually reined me in was nowhere to be found. I was falling in deep with the Chasses. I wanted to be with them, talk with them, learn from them, and protect them. The short time that I knew them was intense for me. For them, I wasn't sure what it was like, but I had been alone for two years, so this was all hitting me a lot harder than it should. I was starting to… care for them.
"Well, if you came to work for us, we could have you doing a lot of different things. The company, CWT Construction, does many different things, but everything we do is a way to keep fighting the monsters. All of our earnings go towards keeping our operation funded. But there are always other things that come up that we could have you do. More day-to-day stuff."
"Okay…" I agreed, mainly to myself. I already made up my mind. Fuck the consequences.
Autumn's eyes were wide in the rear-view mirror, waiting for me to continue.
"As long as you'll have me, I'll join up."
Clara pulled out her phone and started texting, "Frank is gonna be so excited. He hasn't shut up about you since Sunday."
Autumn was looking down in her seat, her posture hiding her face from the mirror. I wondered about her thoughts. Did she want me around more? Maybe I was an intruder on her life, and she was just polite. Perhaps she could sense something was wrong with me.
"We can work out the details later," Carter said as we came to a stop.
We pulled into the parking lot of a small, standalone building. It had neon signs hanging in almost every window, but they were off. No light escaped through the cracks in the blinds that hung in every glass panel. It was dark and apparently closed.
Carter turned in his seat. "You two stay here and cover the door, monitor the radios, and listen for back-up."
Autumn and Clara nodded. Clara half crawled over her seat and pulled a duffle from the very back.
"You're coming with me," Carter said. "There is someone I want you to meet."
I looked back towards the entrance of the small building. There was a sign above the windows that read, Martin's Bar and Grill.
Everything clicked in my mind. This was the vampire, Martin's place. This was where Carter and Frank went on Sunday.
Carter piled out, and I followed, walking with him to the door. Clara and Autumn sat in the back of the car, loading two small handguns from the duffle bag.
We paced to the front door, and Carter pushed through it without hesitation. There was a small entryway with corkboards hanging from the walls, and flyers for all kinds of events hanging from them. That little space was blocked by a locked set of double doors at the end. Carter reached into his pocket and pulled out a small key. He slipped it into the lock and then pulled the door open.
"I'll introduce you, but let me do the talking. Just stick beside me the whole time, and we'll be fine," Carter said.
I nodded.
"Team one, team two… radio check," he spoke into his shoulder.
"L-C, how us?" a voice replied.
"L-C," Carter answered.
We stepped into the shadow-filled room and walked towards the back. I followed Carter's lead, but I was listening to everything; every shift in the air, every snap, and tick of the surrounding building. We passed through the stacked chairs and tables through the swinging double doors, and into the kitchen. It smelled like fried food and cigarette smoke. For some reason, the scent reminded me of a bowling alley I went to as a kid.
At the very back of the kitchen was a narrow hallway, and at the end of the corridor was a thick metal door. Carter put his hand up to me, stopping me at the entrance of the short hallway. He continued down to the thick door, slamming his fist into it three stern times.
He backed up and waited for only a few seconds. The metal door clicked and thudded, locking mechanisms tumbled around inside the framework of the metal slab. A long squeal came from the rusted hinges as it was slowly pushed open.
A figure came out from the shadows behind the door. He was a black man of medium build with short, dark brown hair. He looked physically young, but something in his dark brown eyes seemed older and tired. He didn't look surprised by our presence.
"Carter…" he said in a surprisingly friendly tone.
"Martin, how are things?" he replied.
So, this was Martin. This was who he and Frank went to see the other day after our morning with the werewolves. He was young-looking… fit, like a boxer, even.
"Everything is fine with me. But I can see that you've been recruiting," Martin eyed me. "It's been a while since you've found a new one."
I could smell his blood. It was a similar stench as the other vampires, a mixed bag of crimson lifeforce, except his was slightly different. Something… not human, lingered in his blood. I hadn't smelled this on any of the other vampires. Theirs was like concentrated crowds of humans bottled up into one person. Yet, he was different somehow.
"It sure has. Martin, this is Sam. Sam…Martin," Carter introduced. "We met him on the night we went to the warehouse. He killed one of them," Carter said. "Thanks for the tip, by the way."
Martin flashed a swift look of disbelief, but it faded faster than it appeared. He had a toothpick in his mouth that he moved from one side to the other now and then as he spoke. I smelled blood on it.
"Interesting," he said, eyeing me up and down. "It's nice to meet you," he reached out to shake.
Carter looked at me and nodded, giving me the, it's safe, nod. I played along, trying to act like I thought a normal person would. I slowly reached for his hand and shook, not using too much strength to give myself away as anything other than human. I even added a little shakiness to it for extra clues to my supposed fear.
Martin smiled, trying to ease me into the situation. "That's impressive, killing one of my kind. You sure you've never fought one of us before?" he laughed, yet a serious tone lay beneath his words.
Actually, I hadn't, but since my first run-in, I had killed three others.
"Nope," I laughed nervously, playing the part.
Was it that hard to kill a vampire if you were an untrained human? It seemed a far stretch for me, but then I had to remember how weak I used to be as a human. IT was hard to make a good comparison.
"We came to talk to you on Sunday, but you weren't here."
"I'm sorry, I was out… preoccupied with a few things."
I wondered what. They seemed friendly, strained, but friendly.
"I need you to look at something, see what you can make of it," Carter said.
Martin raised his eyebrows. "How can I help?"
"Detective Ames gave me some pictures of a crime scene. It was very unusual. It looked like an animal attack, but there was also arson." Carter handed him the pictures with no fear of getting too close to him. Martin showed no signs of attack. "I talked with Jane about this before coming to see you on Sunday. She said that she has seen bodies similar to these before, out in the woods. She says it's none of her pack, that it's something else."
Martin slowly examined each picture and then shuffled to the next. He eyed them curiously as Carter recounted the last few days of investigation, which led to nothing.
"Jane says that she found bodies like these in her woods?" Martin asked.
"Just a few times over the past two years, but she said that they had to be from the same thing that killed these men," Carter pointed to the pictures. "The carnage was identical to her."
Martin was silent, weighing things in his mind. He knew something. I could read it like it was written on his forehead.
"You know…" Martin stopped to think. "I've heard stories over the past few years, rumors really, of someone ripping through people like a wild animal. It is unusual. I've heard vampires that come in here talking about it from time to time. People would just go missing, or they'd turn up somewhere far away, ripped in half, or shredded beyond recognition."
"Like these men here?" Carter asked, pointing to the pictures again.
"Exactly like this. At least that's the story anyway. I've never heard of any concrete evidence like this…" Martin motioned to the photographs. "But, there has never been anything like this arson. Why would a creature kill all of these people and then burn it down? It brings too much attention to our kind. There are consequences for things like this…"
"The police don't know what to make of it. To be completely honest, neither do I. After all of the time I spent asking around this week, I feel like we are just chasing a ghost. No one knows anything; the Wicklows, the other gypsies, the werewolves, none of my other contacts from your world… nobody," Carter was at a loss. "I haven't spoken to Annabelle yet, but you know her. She'll reach out before I even have the question."
Shit, I was at a loss. I didn't know what Carter had been doing all week, searching for clues, searching for me. I wondered who all of his other contacts were.
"And Jane says that it was no one in her pack? She knows this for certain?" Martin asked to double-check.
"She's sure. Look here," Carter directed Martin's attention to a particular picture. "None of these bodies were fed on, just killed. If it were a werewolf, they would have fed on at least a few of them."
Martin nodded slowly, "She's right…" then went silent. He examined every picture again with this new revelation. Something flashed across Martin's face.
"What is it?" Carter asked.
Thoughts and memories were turning in his eyes. Finally, he looked back at us.
"I used to never give these stories too much thought, but…" he trailed off. "Something happened here the other night, with another vampire." He shook his head, leaning against the wall, shifting his toothpick. "Why didn't I see it sooner?" he berated himself quietly.
"What do you mean?" asked Carter.
"I don't think that these incidents are unrelated."
"What happened?"
"A vampire ran in here the other night, clothes torn and spattered with blood." He replayed the memories through his words. "He was running from something. Something that he said killed two other vampires that were with him… instantly, like they were nothing."
I could hear Autumn or Clara saying something on the radio, probably just talking to each other about what was being said.
"I've rarely seen a vampire running scared, not since the late eighteen hundreds, back when we hunted our own kind. This boy was scared. He said that something fought all three of them in an alley, right as they were about to feed on a girl."
Shit… it was me… again. The vampire that escaped me the other night had fled to Martin's. It was probably looking for safety in numbers. I should never have let him escape.
The monster moved inside as I remembered the helpless human girl running to stay alive. Flashes of tearing through those assholes clouded my mind. It felt good.
"He said that it ripped through the other two like they were mere humans. One of them was trying to fight it off, but it just powered through him. He said he could hear the bones snapping under the creature's attacks. Then it lunged into the other one and tore his head from his shoulders. He said they never had a chance."
"What can do that to three vampires? Are they sure it was only one… person?" Carter searched for a word for the unknown killer.
"Yes, just the one. He said it was unstoppable; he actually used the word. This is the strange part, though. He says that it fell from the top of a building, landed right in between them and the girl they were going to kill, and then it attacked. It threw him like a ragdoll into a brick wall, and then started on the others. That's how he escaped. It was busy with the other two."
"Did he get a look at it, its face?"
"Not a good one. He said the man wore a hood over his head, and it was dark, so he couldn't make out much. But… he did say that he saw the eyes during the attack. He said they were completely black."
"Black…" Carter was visibly shocked and confused. "I've never heard of that before," Carter said, trying to recount everything he had ever read from his bestiaries.
"Neither have I…," Martin spoke ominously, "and I've been around for a while." Martin shrugged, "There's something else too. He said that its claws were different. They were longer than anything he had seen, more like talons. They were just as black as the eyes."
Carter put the pieces together, "It's the same thing, it has to be. Jane said she could tell that whatever killed those men she found in her woods had longer claws than any werewolf. It has to be the same thing… but what is it…" Carter trailed off, confused and deep in thought.
"I can't say. This is new to even me. I know that's not usually the case, but I don't know," Martin said. "There are a few things I can look into, but it will take some time and serious effort." He looked a little unwilling about the last part.
Carter nodded, "Okay. We'll do our own investigation, run through our usual channels to see what we can find. This thing had to come from somewhere, so someone has to know something."
"Be careful," Martin warned. "This isn't our only threat. The vampires know about the kills at the warehouse."
Carter looked up sharply. "What?"
"They don't know who killed them, obviously, or how the location was discovered, but they know that they're dead, all four of them."
Carter nodded, relieved, but then looked at Martin in confusion, "You mean three…"
"I told you three, I know, but I found out later that there were four. I was relieved when I heard that all four of them had been killed."
"What are you talking about?" Carter and Martin stared back and forth at each other, confused. "There were only three; I killed one, Frank killed one, and Sam killed the last." He looked at me as he recounted my assist.
I did kill the last, but I also got the one who hid. Yet another clue I left behind.
"I don't know how, but there was another, and he's dead too, on the very same night as the others."
"How do you know?" I asked, intrigued.
"Vampires… we can sense others in our bloodline, especially generationally close ones; made by the same vampire, if you will," he put in layman's terms. "Another vampire in their bloodline came here, asking questions. He said that all four of them had been cut from his senses. That's what happens when they're killed; they can't be felt by others in their family."
"Well, we only killed three. If there was a fourth, then he died by someone else's hand."
"Interesting… I'll look into this as well," Martin said.
"We'll take our usual precautions. I'll wait to hear from you."
"Always a pleasure, Carter," Martin said, then looked to me again. "It was nice to meet you, Sam. I hope to see you again."
He shouldn't hope for that. He had just entered into my realm of possibilities. If I needed a kill and had chosen no one else, he would do. I felt no pangs of guilt for killing a vampire, none at all.
"Same," I nodded and backed out with Carter.
We exited the building and were walking back across the parking lot. Carter and I hopped into the Suburban, and Carter took off.
Clara spoke as soon as we got in, "What do you think?"
"I don't know," Carter spoke, but stared off through the windshield. "Something is out there, but we don't know what it is or why it's killing."
"It's killing humans and monsters, both. What would do that?" Autumn spoke from the back seat.
"We need to get everyone together. If it's real, then that means that all of the stories are true, and it has been killing for a while. That puts it in our wheelhouse. We need to know what we are dealing with," Carter started making plans in his head.
Fuck… this was bad. I just found this group that accepted me, and I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay with them. I wanted to have friends. But I was going to have to make a decision, and very soon. I had to decide if I was staying or going.
"So, what do we do now?" I asked.
"We're going home," Carter answered.
I looked to the back and saw Autumn looking at me intently. She gave me a soft smile. Autumn looked at me like I was made of glass. She didn't want this new, unknown threat to scare me away. If only they knew the truth. Then it would be the other way around.