by T S Paul
Alukah spoke, his voice filling the room. “We have only told them what they should know. The details of the Purge are limited to the executive council only.”
“Well, that’s freaking stupid. We’re going to have the same issue as last time.” Ana pushed her chair back and stood up. Raising her voice, she spoke, “The Purge didn’t happen in just one day. Do any of you honestly believe that a single spell could wipe out so many of us?”
“Aeliana no!” Alukah cried out.
Ana ignored him and turned slowly catching the eyes of many of the much younger Vampires. “The elephant in the room is this. If you die, so then do all of your children and their children's children. It is a really nasty chain reaction.”
Moving away from the table, Ana walked the room. “It was the early twentieth century. Communications were very basic at that time. It could take weeks for information to transverse the world.”
“The Elder who participated in the great spell the Brits were constructing was a contemporary of my Master Alukah. He’d lived for several thousand years spreading his bite and his personal kingdom far and wide. When the spell triggered, he was the first to die.”
Ana continued to walk until she arrived behind her Master’s chair. “Think of a string of firecrackers. You light the fuse on the first one, and it pops. Then the second in line pops as well, and the chain reaction starts. Violently the chain begins to bounce and jump from side to side as additional parts explode. Maybe a chunk of the main chain will break off and explode elsewhere, but it will explode regardless of where it is. The Elder’s line was that string of firecrackers.”
“He died and those he sired died as well. When you are thousands of years old, keeping track of those in your direct line is almost impossible. Knowing this could even happen is why some of the Elders have limited themselves when it comes to children. So his children died along with him leaving holes in the chain of command all over the world. Cities were without leaders and enforcers. It was chaos. In the madness that ensued, many saw an opportunity and tried to take advantage. They killed their immediate supervisor and reached for the brass ring of command.”
Ana ran her hand across Alukah’s shoulders and resumed her walk. “In my capacity as a technician for the FBI, I looked at what records the humans had on us. They found very few survivors in our cities. Under examination, none of them spoke up and explained their survival. They couldn’t have. It was a secret after all. Humans may have started the Purge, but we, ourselves, finished it. Our bloodlines did us in.” Ana stopped behind her chair at the table.
She looked down the table to Jiangshi and Alukah. “What would happen to us all if Edimmu were to die?”
Jiangshi gave Alukah a sharp look but said nothing. It was Clearchus who spoke. “Edi who? Now you’re just making things up. Do you honestly believe this drivel she’s putting out?”
Anastasia Romanov and Varro were silent. They and the rest of the Elders watched Ana through slit eyes.
“Clearchus, be silent,” Jiangshi demanded of the much younger man. “How is it you know that name?”
Ana stared at the Chinese Vampire and smiled. “I do my research. What would happen if someone tracked him down and killed him?”
Varro cleared his throat and spoke at long last. “It would be the end of everything and everyone. He is the oldest Vampire we can identify from the myths and legends of the world. Edimmu is the reason I was sent into Persia thousands of years ago. We wanted to find him and prevent something like this from happening. I searched for centuries but found no trace. He is either gone from this world or hidden so well that there is no trace.”
Clearchus spoke up again. “How can he be gone and not dead? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“She has a point. Something we have encouraged without realizing,” Jiangshi spoke to Alukah.
“I agree. We were wrong to allow ignorance to creep in. So much was lost during the Purge. Our history and our friends. What shall we do with you, Aeliana?” Alukah asked.
“Let me go home. I will still follow the agreement of two months a year that we set down. It’s possible that my team might be able to avert some of this doom you have seen. We have done it before, at least let me try,” Ana pleaded.
Alukah stared at her for a long moment. All around the room the younger Vampires stirred and muttered to each other. Finally, Jiangshi broke the inner council’s silence. “Go. We cannot stop you regardless. May the Goddess protect and keep you, for we will not any longer.”
Ana left the room without a word, the door slamming behind her.
Jiangshi looked at Alukah and nodded. The much older Vampire Royal sighed, “Contact the ambassador. Tell him the Vampire Nation refuses his offer of support. If they come, we will go it alone if we have to.”
“Master, is that wise?” Varro asked him.
“The Dragons were here before and were driven off. Everything old is new again it seems. They can be defeated. This I know, since I was there last time,” Alukah stood and looked around the room.
“Marshal your resources and prepare the cities to ride out the storm. Varro and Jiangshi will coordinate our forces.”
Varro looked sharply at his Master. “Are we to open up the sealed cities now?”
Alukah shook his head. “Only if required. Some secrets are best left buried. Inform our operatives out among the humans to return to us. It is their time to choose who they serve and who they will die for.”
<<<>>>
The last thing Claire Burton remembered was climbing out of her car. Her night shift job was over at four. She usually took highway forty to her home out by Parkers Crossroads, but tonight she stopped at the local all-night coffee shop to get a double latte. Monday’s were hell, and this was the first of the month. So much to do so little time. At least that’s what her mother used to say. The parking lot was empty when she stepped out of her car, but there wasn’t anything unusual about that. She never noticed the man sitting on the edge of the parking lot.
“Do you know that in ancient Roman times crucifixion was used to degrade and embarrass criminals?” The voice was so close Claire could feel the speaker’s hot breath on the back of her neck. A rough hand was holding her in place as the man tied her hands together.
Claire tried to scream, but there was a rubbery mass that tasted of sickly sweet burnt orange in her mouth. Struggling, she found herself unable to move an inch. Even opening her eyes was hard. Something was holding her eyes shut and blocking out almost all light. Squinting she could see a blocky rectangle in front of her along with sandy soil.
“They would nail their victims to a cross piece or diamond shape secured to a beam or tree. A small step would be provided, but the weight of the person's body would pull them downward. Roman soldiers would break the bones below the knees to further humiliate and cause scorn. Personally, I think it was to ensure that they couldn’t get away.” The voice was harsher now. Like that of a man who’d smoked his entire life.
The sound of a tarp flapping surprised Claire, causing her to squeak out in surprise. She thought she might be inside a tent of some sort.
“Time to meet the world, sweetness.” The gruff sounding man almost sounded happy. The darkness vanished as the man removed the tent fabric.
The chilled air of winter caressed her skin as wind traveled across her body. It was this moment that Claire discovered she was completely naked. Struggling she tried to break free in panic.
“Not yet, sweetness. The Gods must see their offering first.”
There was a sudden jerk and the momentary bump as she felt herself being carried somewhere. She could feel her body sway this way and that as the man carried her for what seemed like hours. Then all her senses came awake as she was slammed down suddenly.
The post she was tied to slammed into the ground making every hurt on her body ache in the cold air. Claire could see glimpses of light around the edges of her vision. When she was thrown forward, the blindfold slipped just a bit from he
r eyes.
“Sorry for the pain, sweetness. It will be over soon.” The man’s voice seemed close but not. She could hear him moving about dropping things that sounded like wood at her feet.
Claire felt her tears roll down her face. She was never going to get loose, and this monster was going to hurt her. The rubber thing in her mouth tasted like some sort of liquor. The taste reminded her of Christmas and happy times. It made her light-headed and sleepy. So sleepy she didn’t feel the icy cold liquid gushing over her body until it was too late.
“My Goddess likes her offerings cooked.” There was a faint click of an old-fashioned lighter closing. The man’s words didn’t register at first, but the heat from the fire did. Claire couldn’t even scream through the gag in her mouth before the flames took her.
“Thank you for your blessing. Enjoy your feast.” L J climbed astride his motorbike and started it up. The put-put-put sound could be heard as he drove out of sight.
Three local high school students found the smoldering bonfire an hour later directly behind their rural bus stop site.
Chapter 5
The files from the Director were beyond grisly. Five women burned alive in five Western states so far. The fifth was found just yesterday. As a team, we were already on the road before we started breaking down the assignment.
“How sure are they that the UNSUB is in Jackson?” Chuck asked. We were sitting at a rest stop on U.S. Highway 81 south.
I pulled out the map from the file. “Pretty sure. All of the documented cases are in a straight line leading to Jackson. And now there’s this new case. The body of Claire Burton was found on the edge of town in a semi-rural area. It was directly behind the school bus pick up for that area. A group of children found the remains.”
“But why would he still be there? With all the other kills he moved on or at least seemed to.” Chuck flipped through the folder to the timeline.
I nodded. “True. But what the BAU didn’t know, and we just found out last week, was that the UNSUB is a suspected shifter. Each and every one of these kills took place either outside or close to Pack areas. The humans didn’t even think to include that in their research of the area.”
Pulling out her own map, Cat squinted as she concentrated on it. Very slowly, her head nodded forward. “Is this why we’re on this? Do they think he’s a Were or a wannabe?”
“A Were. If you look at the autopsy of the second victim Caroline Buttner, a three-inch claw was used to cut her throat. The initial autopsy concluded it was a mercy killing. That our subject killed her to put her out of her misery. They spent a week looking for a boning knife, but after the third kill knew it was a claw. He used a single claw, possibly an index finger or thumb. The angle is wrong for any of the others,” I replied.
“Why didn’t the BAU suspect a Were before?” Chuck asked me.
“Speciesism or racism might be the cause. Dad thinks this sort of thing happens because we do such a good job policing our own people. Very few Weres with mental issues slip past the first pack gathering,” Cat answered.
“That makes a certain amount of sense. I know that my first gathering it was all I could do to keep the alpha out of my head.” Chuck unconsciously rubbed his forehead.
“Alpha’s have that power. If I concentrate hard enough, I can see every memory and even control a pack member’s actions. It is the primary reason that in a true alpha fight for pack control the combatants are refereed and always to the death. Historically, there have been a few cases where the loser made a pack member kill after he lost the fight. It’s either total control or death. We kill our own. Not something the human authorities have ever been happy with. But there are a lot fewer crazies because of it,” Cat pointed out.
“And that is one reason they never consider paranormals for most crimes, trolls rarely set people on fire and Vampires barely show up on anyone’s radar. Agatha, did the BAU at least come up with a profile before they bailed?”
I looked at Cat and shook my head. “Sort of. As soon as they figured out he was a Were, they stopped investigating. I’ve got their beginning research and notes, but nobody would go on record with a complete profile.”
“That sucks. Why do they have to be like that?” Chuck asked.
“Blame John ‘Duke’ Tracy for that one. They profiled and chased him down and caught him in his home outside Chicago. He’d been posing as a magician for kids parties. While he was there, he would case the place and later kidnap a child. He was in the basement of his home when the SWAT team broke in,” I told him.
“What happened?” Chuck asked.
“He was a Beta. A crazy one at that. The pack he belonged to was old. One of the oldest in America, actually. The Alpha was in failing health, but Tracy eliminated any potential rivals before they could make a challenge to him. Tracy wanted the old man to remain in charge because he couldn’t read him. So, when the cops broke in he changed and attacked,” I told him.
Cat shook her head. “Biggest Were incident in history. Eight policemen heavily armored in tactical gear and three BAU in light armor against one pissed off Werewolf in his own den, in the dark. They didn’t stand a chance. They had no idea Tracy was a Were, and no one was armed with silver. It was a massacre.”
“You have to remember this was when Weres outside of the reservations were considered to be illegals. They would shoot on sight rather than try to arrest them. Standard practice for almost all law enforcement in those days. As much as they sucked, the reservation system really did protect those Weres that participated in it,” I replied to Cat and Chuck.
Cat hung her head and slowly shook it. “At a horrific cost, though. You should hear my dad sometimes bitch about it. Water under the bridge and all that. What sort of profile did they leave us?”
Leaning over, I grabbed a large file off the floor and opened it up. “One of the Bs brought me this. The first victim was found in New Mexico out in the desert. Her name was Michelle Jerge, she was a stripper on her way home to Las Vegas. Local police found her car sitting on the side of the road abandoned.”
I pulled out a picture of a beat up blue sedan. “Interstate Highway 40 runs between Albuquerque and Amarillo. They found this smack dead in the middle. It was out of gas and empty. Just another piece of junk on the side of the road. That was until they found the burnt remains of its owner. The BAU marked this as the first kill but added that he may have killed before.”
“Do they know where and how?” Cat asked.
“No. The lead agent only theorized on that because the technique of the kill looked practiced. The killer was way too clean for this to be his first time out. The second identified kill was found outside of Amarillo, Texas.” I pulled out more crime scene pictures.
“Any relation to the first one?” Chuck asked as he typed. A large map of the southwest popped up on the main screen.
“Other than the method of death, no. Her name was Caroline Buttner. Her listed occupation was that of a school teacher, but according to records, she was working as a file clerk for a local bail bondsman. That might be something for you to dig into, Chuck. There isn’t any research included in here.” I tapped the file in my hand.
“She was found in plain sight in the middle of a parking lot. The local coroner placed her time of death at three in the morning. Surprisingly, no one reported the fire. The third victim was a waitress named Tammy Chase. She worked at the local Cheese Bucket in Oklahoma City.”
“I’ve eaten at a few of those. My dad used to take my brothers and me every other weekend to the one near our house. They make a good omelet there.” Smiling at the childhood memory, Chuck spoke up.
“Lucky. I never went anywhere outside of Briarwood as a kid. Remember they were all scared of me back then. But I’ve been in a couple of them since then. I like how the menu is pretty much the same everywhere. This was our killer’s boldest move yet. Tammy died within screaming distance of the local police, west of the city,” I replied.
“Ouch. And nobody
heard or saw anything?” Cat asked.
“No. This was in one of the suburbs near Interstate Highway 40. This death was how the UNSUB got his name as the Highway Killer. News media reporters aren’t all that dumb. They noticed the FBI involvement and the relationship to the highway. Number four was found inside Lake Eufaula State Park. Park rangers responding to a report of a wildfire found the smoldering remains of Shelly Bally,” I answered.
“Still along the highway.” Chuck highlighted the park on the map.
“Yes. About this time the forensic techs in Oklahoma found a cigarette butt near the burn site. While it wasn’t in the system, it did show signs as having come from a Were. Like magic, the BAU dropped the case and reassigned it to us. They classified it a Rogue case.” I shook my head and handed the files to Chuck.
Cat held her hands up. “Why us? A single butt could have come from anyone. There are Weres all over the place out West. How were they so sure it was one of us?”
“Supposedly, one of their ethnographers pinpointed what they called Were concentrations near the burn sites. According to what they told Director Mills, this proved that the killer was one of us, a paranormal. She told them to stuff it.
Did you know that there are no paranormals in any part of the BAU? According to Madeline, more than three hundred Weres and other paranormals have graduated from Quantico since it was converted to an actual school, rather than just a training facility. Most are still with the Bureau in one form or another. Our sister Agencies like the Coastal Sea Scouts, Border Enforcement, and Internal Security recruit directly from the Academy. Not the BAU.” I looked at my team and smiled. Both of them were studying the files.
“The spacing is off for the kills. Before they quit, the BAU theorized that the killer was living in the area each time. If he’s a Were, he might be pack hopping or living as an independent. Now we have a fifth murder. It follows the highway and is in a town that we three know for a fact has Weres in it. We’ve met them.”