by C. J. Pinard
“All’s quiet on the supernatural front,” Tony said, grinning.
“Good to hear,” Jonathan replied. “But they won’t stay that way for long.”
Thomas looked confused. “Why’s that, boss?”
“Oh, the supes can’t stay hidden. They always screw up, and when they do, we’ll get them.”
Tony smiled. “That’s right.”
“So what did you tell the Justice Department?” Jonathan asked, suddenly curious.
“The truth, mostly. We were hanging out, having some drinks, and vampires came in and I shot one and killed it as it fed on a human. Then when the other two showed up, I warned them to leave San Francisco and they did.”
Jonathan chuckled. “You shot her?”
“How else was I going to explain it? They can’t know about us at all. Agreed?”
Jonathan nodded. “Agreed.”
“Well, I better get to work. I have a date tonight with a hot blonde babe.” He winked.
Jonathan raised an eyebrow, and Thomas looked at him.
Tony again grinned wickedly and closed the door as he left.
∞∞∞
Adam Swift and Tony Bianchi walked through the front door of the San Francisco Police Department’s interrogation block. They were greeted by the BSI’s department liaison, Richard Johnson.
“How’s it hangin’, boys?” Richard asked, slapping Adam on the shoulder.
Adam smiled and used his smoldering cigarette to point to Tony. “Richard, this is our newest agent to the San Francisco field division, Special Agent Anthony Bianchi.”
Tony put his hand out and Richard pumped it up and down. “Nice to meet you, Anthony.”
“Call me Tony, please.”
Richard nodded.
“Can I call you Dick?” Tony asked with a slight smirk.
Richard shook his head and narrowed his eyes at Tony. “Not if you expect me to answer.”
Tony laughed. “Okay.”
“Right this way. We’ve got him in room three,” Richard said, leading the way down a sterile-looking hallway with white floors and walls, and gray doors lining its corridor.
Tony and Adam followed. Adam blew a stream of smoke out of his nostrils and Tony winced as it passed under his sensitive nose.
As they approached door three, Detective Johnson opened it with a key attached to his belt and ushered them in with a flourish.
They walked into the room and saw the lone man sitting at a plain white table. A single bulb hung from a chain suspended above the table and it swung slightly.
Adam looked at the man. He was a thin, pale man, his dark hair was slicked back, his eyes blue and bright, but bloodshot. His hand wobbled as he tapped a cigarette onto an ashtray, the only item on the large white table. He put the cigarette up to his lips with a shaky hand and glared at the two BSI agents and one detective as they walked in.
“Mind if we sit?” Tony asked the man.
He gave a curt nod and continued to stare at them.
“Edward Newman, correct?” Adam said, setting a thin manila envelope down on the clunky table and opening it. He set his cigarette in the ashtray.
“Yeah, call me Eddie,” the man answered.
Tony sat next to Adam and just listened.
“Very well. I’m Special Agent Adam Swift, and this is Special Agent Anthony Bianchi, we’re with the Justice Department. And this is Detective Richard Johnson with the SFPD.”
Edward nodded, but said nothing.
“So, tell us about your time in the war, Eddie,” Adam said.
Edward blew out a breath. “Well, I was going to college when I got drafted,” he began. “I didn’t want to go, but you know, I was of age and all that. I was only nineteen so I guess they needed men and I had to go.”
“Go on,” Tony said, making notes on a small notepad he’d produced from his suit jacket.
“Well, I mean, what can I say about war? It’s ugly. I wish I’d never gone, but it’s not like I had much of a choice.” He pulled the cigarette up and took another long drag from it, the nicotine seeming to calm him.
“Did you see anything… unusual while you were in France?” Adam asked.
Edward snorted. “I don’t think watching people get their body parts blown off would classify as normal, so unless you have all day, you’re gonna have to be more specific, Agent Swift.”
Adam nodded. “Fair enough, let me rephrase. Did you ever see anyone get killed and come back to life?”
“Why don’t you tell me why you’re asking me these questions and it might make it easier for me to answer.”
“All right,” Adam began. “We need another liaison for the Justice Department here in the SFPD and we hear you’re interested in police work.”
Edward narrowed his eyes at the agent and crushed out his cigarette in the ashtray, then leaned back and folded his arms over his skinny chest. “What has that to do, exactly, with me going to war?”
Richard Johnson slapped his palm against the table. “Cut the bullshit, Newman! Just answer the damn questions. We ain’t got all day here, you know.”
Edward put his hands up in surrender. “Shit, man, calm down. I just want to know why the Justice Department is so interested in what I saw while I was in the Army when I thought I was here to interview for a job as a cop.”
Richard stared at him for a minute, then measured his words carefully. “Because I was you three years ago. Brought back from war, torn up both inside and out. Not sleeping, not eating, nerves shot. Not because of the normal horrors of war, although those were bad enough. No, it was from seeing men get shot in the chest or the head and not die, or even leave a scar for that matter. From seeing a grown man turn into an animal right before my eyes, and then watching that animal, be it a wolf, a large cat or whatever, drag my dying servicemen off to safety and then jump right back into the melee and rescue more men – as an animal.”
Edward’s mouth was open. “I thought I’d imagined that shit, man. Thought maybe I wasn’t sleeping well or they were lacing our food with some kind of drug or something.”
Adam shook his head. “No, son, you most certainly did not imagine those things. Those were vampires and shapeshifters you saw, and this is why you have been chosen to be a liaison between SFPD and the Justice Department. Richard here, he is our other one. He also went to war and saw the same things. Unexplained things that probably made both of you feel as if you were losing the plot. Am I right?”
Edward nodded. His body visibly relaxed and a small smile spread across his pale face. “I can’t tell you how relieved I feel. I thought I was going crazy. I’ve been having nightmares. Vampires, you say? Like in the horror picture shows I’ve seen at the theater?”
“The very same,” Tony answered.
“Do they drink blood?” he asked.
“Yes,” Richard replied.
Edward put a hand to his mouth and looked down at the table. “One night we were camped out in a ditch. I was sharing a tent with another guy, Jack something or other. I had fallen asleep, but I woke up when I heard a moan. I looked over and saw another soldier lying on top of Jack. At first I thought they had some freaky queer thing going on, but as I had one eye open, it seemed this other soldier had his mouth to Jack’s neck. It was then I saw blood running down from his throat and pooling on the blanket under him. I remember gasping and the other soldier heard me and left the tent so fast, it looked as though he had disappeared into thin air. The next morning I chalked it up to a bad dream, but as Jack was folding up his bedding, I saw the blood on his blanket. I was horrified, man. I refused to believe what I’d seen. I had too much else to worry about. I mean, Jack didn’t have no marks on his neck or nothin’.”
Adam Swift nodded as Tony jotted furious notes on his notepad. “Definitely vampire.”
Edward swore under his breath.
“I saw similar things too, man,” Richard said, tapping an ash into the communal ashtray.
Edward pointed at it. “Can I bum a smoke?”
Richard quickly pulled an entire pack out and slid it over to Edward. “Keep it.” He also fished a matchbook from his shirt pocket and pushed it toward Edward, who was already sliding one from the pack.
Edward cupped his hand around the flame as he lit the cigarette. “So I have a question,” he said, blowing smoke out of the side of his mouth.
“Go ahead,” Tony said, trying to stifle a cough from all the bluish smoke circulating in the small room.
“So if these… monsters have these powers – shapeshifting and eternal life, and apparently great speed and the inability to die, what in the sam-hill are they doing fighting in wars? I mean, seems they could do just about anything they want.”
Adam nodded. “I was thinking about that too. I think some of them feel like they may owe some sort of penance to humanity. They take lives to survive, but feel if they try to save human lives in other ways, it somehow negates the killings they commit to survive.”
“That’s right,” Tony interjected. “We captured a vampire once when I worked in the Seattle office, and he said something along those lines. He had fought in both the Civil War and the Korean War. Claimed he did it to make up for his past sins. He said he felt he could be an asset to the military with his abilities.”
“So what happened to him?” Edward asked, intrigued.
Tony smiled. “We verified his story, then we let him go.”
“Why didn’t you kill him?” Edward asked.
“We don’t kill these creatures,” Adam said. “Unless we catch them taking a human life, or of course in self-defense we can, but otherwise we do not.”
Edward’s eyebrows went up. “So you just let them go?”
Tony nodded. “A lot of times, they don’t kill. They drink blood or they hunt humans without killing them. We don’t know much about them, but when we capture one, we try to get information about them.”
“Interesting,” Edward said, drumming his fingers on the tabletop.
Tony folded his hands on the table. “So do you think you would be interested in this job? Along with your salary from the SFPD, you will receive a small salary from the DOJ as well.”
Edward nodded. “Yes. I’m very interested in this. I’m curious to learn more about these creatures. What would I have to do?”
“You just report to us anything strange that comes across your desk,” Adam said. “We will investigate it, along with the SFPD. But discretion will be of utmost importance. Only you and Detective Johnson here can know about it.”
“That’s it, just he and I will know about this?”
“Our boss, Sam Brown, he’ll know we’re working with the Justice Department, just not in what specific capacity,” Richard offered.
Edward nodded, then smiled. “When do I start?”
Chapter 5
Anthony Bianchi and Adam Swift parked the car across the street from Golden Gate Park and got out, walking across the street as the sun sank low along the San Francisco skyline. The wind was icy and it swirled around them as they walked quickly through the massive black iron front gates of the park and began quietly walking a hiking trail through the park.
“So what are we looking for, exactly?” Agent Bianchi asked as they walked along the trail.
“Shifters. They like to run here. The trees and darkness provide them enough light from the moon to run free. They’ve been spotted here and in the Sutro Forest.”
Tony looked him quizzically. “Where’s the Sutro Forest?”
“Here, in the city,” Adam replied.
Tony raised his eyebrows. “There’s a forest in the middle of San Francisco?”
“Yeah, it’s not that large, but it’s there,” Adam replied, chuckling.
“Interesting.”
“Shh!” Adam said, putting a hand up.
Tony froze in his tracks. The night was now dark, illuminated by only a half moon, which caused even the shadows to have shadows. The trees and bushes along the park were eerily still, especially since it had just been windy.
From the corner of his eye, Tony spotted something blur by him in the shadows. He took off in a sprint toward it, using his enhanced eyesight to track its movements. Adam was on his heels, huffing and wheezing as he ran.
Tony crept up and saw it disappear behind a large redwood tree with nowhere else to go. He still couldn’t see exactly what it was, but its shape looked more of a human than animal. Once Adam caught up to him, he squinted into the darkness, then back up at Tony.
“What? Did you see something?” Adam panted.
Tony nodded, his eyesight and hearing fixated on the tree ahead of him, like a dog tracking its prey.
“I don’t see nothin’,” Adam said.
“Shh!”
The creature darted out from behind the tree at unnatural speed and Tony gave chase, leaving Adam in his dust. Tony chased it all the way through the park, darting between bushes and tree stumps until it came to the park’s gates and sped through them. Tony pursued it into the street, almost getting hit by a car. Adam, to his credit, was trying his hardest to keep up.
The creature darted behind a nearby two-story building. Tony ran up to the building and placed his back along the building’s edge. Adam showed up a minute later, and Tony put his fingers to his lips to silence him. Adam nodded.
Tony inched along the building with his gun drawn and peered around the alley they believed the creature was trapped in. Not seeing it, Tony crept into the alley, keeping his back to the wall of the building. Adam followed, also with his service pistol drawn.
A lone orange street light illuminated the alley. Adam was having trouble seeing, but Tony was not. He could clearly see that the only things in the alley were two dumpsters and four sacks of trash. At the end of the alley was a tall cyclone fence. Just as Tony was heading toward it with the intention of scaling it, the creature jumped down from the top of the building and landed on Adam, causing his gun to go skittering away down the alley.
“ARGH!” Adam yelled.
Tony turned around as the man had Adam flat on his back. He was throwing punches, to which Adam was unsuccessfully trying to block with the palms of his hands.
Tony grabbed the man off with one hand, and as he looked into his face could see he had no whites at all to his eyes, and his fangs were out.
“Bloodsucker!” Tony grabbed him by his lapels and threw him to the ground, and with speed quicker than should be humanly possible, sped over to the vampire. Before it could get up, Tony twisted its head with a sickening crack. The vampire lay dead, well, temporarily dead, on the ground.
Adam got up, and was shaking as he brushed himself off. “How in the hell…?”
Tony said, “Let’s go before it wakes up. Unless you want me to kill it.”
“How? Shooting it won’t kill it, just like breaking its neck won’t,” Adam said, his voice hoarse and shaky. He had a black eye and a trickle of blood running down his mouth. He wiped it away with his thumb. “That sucker hits hard.”
Tony grinned at Adam and walked back over to the vampire. He twisted his head again with such force that it separated from the neck. Blood squirted out of the arteries and spilled in a fast moving puddle of black on the gray concrete. Tony held up the lone head by its hair and looked at Adam.
Adam stood there with his mouth open. “That’s not possible,” he breathed.
Tony tossed the head into the dumpster and wiped his hands on his pants. “Adam, we need to talk.”
∞∞∞
The two BSI Agents were in the waiting room of San Francisco General’s emergency room, waiting for Adam to be seen by a doctor. He had an ice pack held against the back of his head.
“I told you, I don’t need to see no doctor,” Adam said, wincing at the cut on his lip as he spoke.
“Oh, but you do. I know the busted lip and black eye will heal, but I’m worried about that goose egg on the back of your head. That… thing was pounding you pretty hard.”
“Thanks,” Adam muttered.
Tony smiled. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
“No. Look, we have to go dispose of that body in the alley. We can’t leave that there for SFPD.”
Tony shook his head. “There won’t be a body. As we were leaving the alley, I saw the body turn to ash. There is only clothing left and a huge pile of ash both on the ground and in the dumpster. It’s like nature’s own disposal system.”
Adam looked around to make sure nobody heard, then glared at Tony. “So you gonna tell me, first of all, how you’re so strong, and second, how you know so much about vampires? Your comment to Edward and Richard didn’t go unnoticed. You said you dealt with them in Seattle.”
Tony took a deep breath. He was wondering how long he’d be able to keep this from Adam. When he was working for the FBI in Seattle, they didn’t work on supernatural cases, so aside from the occasional suspect chase, nobody could really tell Tony was more than human; special and powerful. He thought he owed it to Adam to explain what he was and how he had become that way. After all, if he was open-minded enough to believe in vampires and shapeshifters, hopefully he wouldn’t be too disbelieving of what he had to say.
“How old would you say I am, Adam?”
Adam’s eyebrows bunched together. “Well, that’s an odd question. What does it have to do with the fact that you’re as strong as Superman?”
“Humor me,” Tony replied.
“I don’t know. Thirty?”
Tony smiled. “I’m seventy-five years old. I was born in Italy in 1871.”
“That’s not possible. You’re not a vampire, are you?” He shrank back from Tony.
“No, I’m simply called an Immortal. I belong to a very small, elite sect of people who police the supernatural. I think it’s great the United States government has decided to do the same, but you must know, we’ve been doing it a lot longer.”
Adam shook his. “How hard did I hit my head?”
Tony laughed. “I’m serious. We’re granted immortality by a group of sylphs who inhabit an island in the Gulf of Mexico.”
“What in the hell is a sylph?”
“It’s sort of a faerie, if you will. Almost like a sorceress. They have an elixir we take every five years to keep us from aging. Also with that comes one special power.”