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