Who Are You Calling a Vampire?

WHO ARE YOU CALLING A VAMPIRE? BY MANDI CASEY Chapter 1 Walking through the unlit back hallways of the hospital to avoid anyone seeing where she was going with her coat; Katrina Drogan, emergency room nurse, was going for a cigarette break in her special spot. As she went out the sliding glass doors to the park she looked up. The sky was black with only a few twinkling stars, the air was chilled but fair in comparison to the usual temperature of a Wisconsin night in February. Kat spotted her usual hideout, an unmarked door with a cement step for her to get off her feet for a few minutes. She sat down on the cold cement, closing her eyes for a moment of relaxation. Hopefully, tonight she would meet the man of her dreams and on her birthday next week he would propose to her with a giant rock and they would live happily ever after on a deserted island. Nope, just another birthday and no man to share it with. Carmen would take her out to eat at a ridiculously expensive restaurant, they would end the evening drinking too much alcohol and collapsing at either her place or Carmi’s, waking up the next morning with major wicked hangovers. It was their ritual, which they did the same for Carmen’s birthday. Usually her friend’s was celebrated on the day after her birthday though, Carmi was forced to spend the day in her father’s private jet flying to and from his estate in the ultra-exclusive Chicago suburb. That was Carmi’s dad, always busy, never able to spare a moment away from his multimillion dollar empire to visit his daughter; she had to go to him. Dialing Carmi’s number, Kat took out her cigarette and lit it while she waited for the phone to ring. “Hola, Ms. Drogan,” Carmi answered. “Hey, I have three hours left of my shift and then I’ll run home and get ready. Where do you want to meet?” Kat answered her friend’s greeting. Carmen said, “Why don’t we meet at the club? I’ll leave your invitation at the door. I’ll be there around twelve-thirty and scope out the situation, grab us a booth or something if there’s anything open.” “That’s fine, I have my outfit set out, all I need to do is go home, rinse off the grime of the unhealthy, and meet you there.” They hung up as Kat took the last drag of her cigarette, dropped it on the cement and stomped it out. She finished dousing herself with the fabulous new body spray she found at the local Body Brilliance store and turned to walk back towards her shift that would never end. Ok, that was odd, now the kid inside has me hearing things too, she thought. “I’d better get back inside, someone is bound to have come in from somewhere, needing something,” she said out loud to herself as she stood up on the cement. The male teenaged patient inside was being treated for what the doctors, and Kat, assumed was hallucinations from a street drug. Kat figured the patient had her spooked, saying that men were outside waiting to kidnap him. Then she heard it again, except this time it was definitely not paranoia from the patient inside, she really did hear noises coming from the bushes at the end of the building not five feet from where she stood. It sounded like a big animal trying to be quiet and sneaky but was sucking at it. And then she saw it, or him, rather. She froze in place, unable to move as the noisy thing in the bushes materialized into a man. He slowly approached her; Kat couldn’t move a limb out of fright. He wore military-like super stealthy wear, accessorized by night vision goggles, and camouflage paint covering his face. He was also carrying a gun made for distance shooting with a scope on the top. His complexion was very pale. Apparently, the patient inside wasn’t wrong after all. There was someone out here who looked like one of the men he described. Maybe she should have listened to him better. Kat was still immobilized as sneaky armed guy approached. She didn’t flinch when another, even bigger, sneaky guy came out of the bushes and put his finger to his lips signaling her to be quiet, not wanting her to give his position away. The newcomer moved quicker and more quietly than the first. New guy took a leap and tackled the first guy. When they both thumped to the ground, Kat was unfrozen. She took off running for the door, dropping her badge before she could scan it to unlock the door. She looked to her right where the wrestling duo were last and realized she was alone. She didn’t know how she knew, but she sensed they were both gone along with the danger that came with them. Kat decided to get the door unlocked and her on the other side of it in case either of them decided to come back. Viktor paced back and forth in front of the Council members. He couldn’t believe what he saw tonight. While doing his nightly rounds around the city, he spotted one of Malice’s soldiers. Why in the hell was he after that mortal woman? Who was she? And why did those blue scrubs make her look so damn hot? He usually didn’t find mortal women appealing, they wouldn’t be around very long and there was no sense in either of them developing feelings for each other. But this woman was different somehow. When he jumped on the soldier and tackled him back into the bushes, he sensed it. The difference. He didn’t get the clearest look at her, but he knew she was exceptionally beautiful, and she had the sense to go back into the hospital for protection. Unfortunately, because of her perfume he couldn’t place her origins. “I’m telling you, that female felt different. She is definitely not human, but the scent of the Hunter stalking her and her perfume made it difficult to tell for sure,” Viktor spewed out. He was confused why Hunters were following her, and what made them approach her now? She wasn’t anyone of importance the Council was aware of, so who was she, and what did they want with her? Well, he told himself, since tonight at the hospital was a bust, not giving him much information, he would find her again and make her tell him what he wanted to know. David, a human member of the Council, and the sensible one, explained in his usual casual manner, “Viktor, you were probably confused by the Hunter and didn’t get a real good beat on the girl. She’s probably just an ordinary no-body and I wouldn’t give her a second thought. You have more important things to deal with, such as protecting your family, finding a mate, and finding out what the Hunter’s are up to.” “Ok, I get you Dave, but I still think there was something unusual about that girl, some weird vibe she gave off, I don’t know. So, tomorrow night, we need to start talking about strategy, we need to find out what the Hunter’s new project is, what all the commotion and their activity has been for lately, whatever it is we need to stop it.” “Meet me here at two. I have something I need to do.” Viktor said as he headed down to the bottom of his mansion where he and his family have lived for centuries, unless they were under direct order of the royal family, then all hell usually broke loose and their regular everyday lives were completely changed to suit the needs of whatever royal family member was out of the safety of the palace, that’s where he and the Council came in. They were the royal family’s personal security force and escort. “Yeah, sure you do Viktor, just remember, you have important things you should be focusing on right now, not some girl. Malice is planning something, there’s been way more activity and sightings reported of Hunters than usual, that’s what you should be focusing on,” David lectured Viktor as he lit the fire in the large black granite fireplace. Of course they both knew when Viktor said he had something to do he was going to check on the woman, more specifically, he was going to see why he was so instantly drawn to her, and what that weird vibe was she wore like a second skin. He was almost sure what he sensed came from her and not the Hunter.