A wolf howled in the distance as
Angelina tucked a strand of her unruly, wavy, blonde hair behind her ear. She paused a moment looking around the area
double checking that she was alone before entering the old abandoned warehouse. No one was permitted to leave the city
boundaries by themselves for their own safety and protection. The warehouse was located just outside the
walls. She had snuck through a cracked
part of the wall she had discovered a few weeks ago during her daily run. The crack was so narrow, that she had barely
squeezed in between the gap.
The building had at one point been
used for scientific research but an explosion over 30 years ago forced the
research team to close it down. Now
abandoned with no electricity running through it anymore; the only source of
light she had was from the full moon outside.
It shone dimly through the big windows that were now broken from years
of neglect. She didn’t want to bring a
flashlight because it would have drawn too much attention. The warehouse had now become the perfect place
to find what she was looking for. She
waited a moment as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Even though she still couldn’t see as well as
she would have liked, she knew immediately that she wasn’t alone.
“She’s
mine,” a tenor voice echoed in the darkness.
Angelina spun towards the sound.
Clenching her hands, she tried to keep them from shaking. Thrill mixed with fear filled her making her
heart beat faster. Slowly, the man who
had spoken emerged from the shadows. He
didn’t appear to be much older than Angelina.
He wore a pair of tight dark blue jeans with a flannel button down shirt
tucked into them. A big gold belt buckle
caught her eye. On either side of the
‘cowboy,’ two women slinked out. They
both had blonde hair.
The woman on his right had her hair
cut short in a pixie style. She also
looked about 23 or 24. She had pale blue
shorts and white tank top. On her feet
she wore strappy wedges, perfect for the end of summer heat.
The woman on his left however had
long hair and she had pulled it back into a pony. She looked older than the other two, most
likely in her mid-30s. She wore black leather pants and a tight shirt to
match. On the base of her neck was a
thick choker.
Though they looked and dressed
completely different from each other; they all had one thing in common, they
all looked hungry. Their irises were
just as black as a moonless night.
“Who are
you?” Angelina managed to ask surprising herself by the tone of her own voice.
“Who or
what,” the man began, “do you think we are?”
Staring at him blankly she took a step back. He cocked his head slightly waiting for her
answer. Angelina’s gaze dropped to his
lips as they formed a wicked smile, exposing his white teeth. His upper canines slowly grew to a sharp
point.
“Vampires,”
she whispered in unbelief. “You exist?”
she asked swallowing hard realizing their plan.
His smile widened. Angelina
glanced around, “Maybe this wasn’t the best time to come here,” she chuckled
nervously. All 3 of them glanced down at
her neck.
The woman on his right deliberately
licked her lips, “Let’s get on with it.
I’m hungry,” she moaned.
Angelina
took one more step back, slamming into a wall behind her. “Well it was nice meeting you all, sort of.”
The other
female attacked. Angelina dodged the vampiress’s
swift advances. Angelina’s demeanor
changed from scared prey to overwhelming laughter in an instant. “One thing is for sure, you nitwits are so
predictable,” she said rolling her dark grey eyes. The air around them all grew thick, anger now
filling each of her attacker’s eyes. The
woman that was ‘hungry,’ now charged.
Angelina grabbed her arm and then swung the female vampire into the wall
that up until a moment ago Angelina had been cornered into. Pulling a dagger out from under the back of
her shirt Angelina swiftly pierced the vampiress’s heart.
An ear
shattering scream filled the air. The
woman disintegrated into dust right before Angelina’s very eyes. The other two vampires stood frozen
momentarily in shock. They glanced at
each other than at Angelina. Together
they stormed towards her pinning her down.
Yes, do bite me and see what
happens, Angelina thought as she smiled to herself. She had dosed herself heavily with Locine
before she had left that morning.
It was a terrible way for a vampire
to go. The drug would destroy their
desire to eat. Essentially making the
loathsome creatures die from hunger, and she didn’t feel a bit guilty about
it. Her job was to protect her
people. The best way for that to happen
was to take as many of them out as she could.
“FREEZE!” a deep masculine voice
shouted. Angelina not only heard the
word with her ears, but it also rang so loud in her head she did just that, she
froze from pure shock. The smile faded
from her lips. Her eyes darted towards
the far corner of the room where the exclamation had come from. The creature who had spoken had up until that
moment covered his power from her, a power unlike anything she had ever felt
before as an Ultorum. He moved towards
them. She couldn’t see him do it but she
did feel him. Her body tingled slightly
as if he had just brushed up against her.
“She has Locine in her veins. I
can smell it,” he continued his tone even, flat, as if he was bored. Angelina cursed to herself.
“Seriously?”
the woman cried out frustrated.
“Damn it-,”
the cowboy swore. He glared at her then
with one purposeful blow he knocked her out.
When she came to she found herself in an alleyway back in the middle of
Midway. How she had gotten there she
didn’t know. She was far away from where
she had been previously. She rubbed her
head surprised she had even awoken in the first place.
“Angelina?”
a frantic call cried in her head.
“Yeah
Spence,” she answered still rubbing the spot where she had been hit.
“Oh my
goodness, whew,” he replied relieved.
“We thought we had lost ya there for a while. Your boyfriend over here has been freaking
out. He was just about to send a
squadron to your location. Frankly he’s
been getting on my nerves.” Angelina
pictured Spencer glaring at Michael as he spoke, “He hasn’t left my office in
hours. He just kept walking back and
forth, and back and forth again, asking if I had heard from you like every five
minutes,” the annoyance in his voice was very obvious. Slowly, she began to stand trying to ignore
the pounding ache on the side of her head.
“You didn’t go out on your own again did you?”
“No,” she
lied, “and Mike’s not my boyfriend.” An
older woman that was walking by looked at her wildly. “Ultorum,” she almost shouted from
aggravation. The woman glanced at her
grey eyes, huffed, and then walked away.
Ultorum is
Latin for avenger. To the general public
Ultorums are thought of as a higher trained Police Force. They are a specially trained tactics and
analysis team. They observe and keep the
city or town for which they live, in-order.
However, there are certain differences between Ultorums and the regular
Police. First most are trained from a
younger age. They are found and brought
to train during their senior year of High School. A few select even brought sooner. Until Angelina, they had always been spotted
by their intensely green eyes. Second,
they are stronger and faster than their partners. Third, they fight the supernatural, namely
vampires. The general public had no
knowledge about the third part. If they
ever found out mass hysteria would inevitably follow.
“Don’t lie
to me Ang-,” Spencer warned. Angelina
rolled her eyes, “And don’t roll your eyes at me, I know you are.”
“Okay, fine
I’ll try not to roll my eyes at you,” she shot back sarcastically.
“Ang,” he
sighed, “the boss ain’t gonna be happy about this. That’s twice in a month.”
She nodded
her head in response her shoulders slumping slightly, “I know.”
* * *
The
Ultorum’s Agency was a two story building comprised of a small infirmary, a gym
with male and female locker rooms, and a communications room all on the first
floor. The second held three classrooms,
the general office area, and then the Chief’s office just beyond that.
When
Angelina arrived she immediately ran up the stairs and headed towards the
Chief’s door. Noticing it shut, she
paused by the main classroom where everyone received their first hour of the
seven hours of training. The students in
the room were all between the ages of 17 and 18. Angelina smiled remembering her first
days. It seemed like such a long time
ago, a lifetime. “The thing you need to know about vampires,” Mr. Ling, the
instructor, began, “is that they do exist.
In fact, you may have even been used by them without even realizing
it.” His receding hair line was the only
evidence that he had aged. He even wore
the same glasses he had when she was in his class. “They have telepathic abilities that make you
believe, do, and remember what they want you to. They can heal any bite they create so the
next day you have no recollection of what took place.
“When you
see them you might be surprised. Apart
from their eyes they will look exactly like us.
There isn’t some kind of magical power that changes the appearance of a
person when they become one of the affected.
Nothing makes them have taut, sexy bodies with rock hard abs and perfect
hair, like a creature out of some kind of romance novel. That is unless, like us they have worked for
it.” Angelina laughed to herself; she
knew that for a fact. In the 4 years she
had been an Ultorum in the field, she hadn’t found a single attractive one yet.
“ANGELINA!” the Chief yelled. She jumped in surprise. Bowing her head again she headed towards his
office. “Close the door,” he
commanded. Without hesitation she
obeyed. His office walls were covered
with awards he and his team had received when he was an active field
agent. His desk (one of the few pieces
of furniture in his office) was almost completely bare except for a plaque that
held all the names of those Ultorums who had lost their life for the cause and
a thin tablet that was his personal computer.
He was an
average sized, middle-aged man. He still
had a good thick head of hair, though it was beginning to turn grey. He often wore button up shirts and slacks to
work sometimes he would even include a tie.
However, today he adorned a faded navy polo shirt with a light pair of
khakis.
He waved
his hand towards the chairs that sat on the other side of his desk. “I don’t get you,” he continued slightly
cooler, “how many times do I have to tell you this Ang?” Angelina frowned slightly as she sat down. His red face looked as if it might explode, a
vein in the middle of his forehead had begun to throb, “YOU are supposed to go
to YOUR post and stay there until your relief arrives. After that you are supposed to head BACK here
and report to me. Not disappear for
hours on end; going who knows where for who knows how long after your shift has
ended.”
Angelina
took a moment before responding; “Whatever happened to equal opportunity then
chief?” she questioned quietly. “Ever
since what’s her face died in London, you took me off my team and now
continually station me to the stupidest part of the city.”
“It’s not
the stupidest part,” the Chief interjected.
“Really,
the Town Hall isn’t the stupidest part?”
Angelina crossed her arms defiantly, “Then please enlighten me on the
location that is worse to protect than the one where, if our enemies were to
invade, they would have to kill everyone in town to even get there. Not to mention sending me there in broad
daylight,” she emphasized by waving her hand towards the glass window.
The chief
cleared his throat. “I know that you
ranked number one on most of the exams, and broke most of our records but,” he
hesitated. Angelina knew what was
coming. She couldn’t even count how many
times she had heard the next bit before.
“You are different, special in so many ways. I mean even your eyes are different than
ours.” She locked gazes with his light
green eyes.
“Oh so that’s it,” she mocked knowing she was
pushing the boundaries. If possible his
face turned redder, almost purple. “It’s
not because I am a girl, well that’s a relief.”
“Well, you
are one of the few that are. Stephanie
hardly even goes out as a field agent, yet you never hear her complaining. Liz, the only other female potential for
years to come, is in training and if
she passes she’ll probably relieve Spencer at that time. You
however bring an opportunity that no one, and when I say no one I mean no one,
else can. That being said yes, it is
from your eyes. If you and one of the
other Ultorums…say Michael-”
“What?” she
demanded cutting him off, “What if I don’t want to just stop everything, marry
an Ultorum and become a mother? Am I
just supposed to roll over just because everyone thinks I’ll bring in the next
generation of protectors? All my life
after you and mom found out my own ‘potential’ everyone who knows anything
about what we do or who we really are, has told me that, ‘that fact alone
should make me proud’.” She deflated
slightly, “You of all people know me…you know that I can’t just like lie down
and let everyone tell me who I am or what I should do. So why can’t I be treated like an equal?”
“To be
honest sweetheart, I don’t want to lose you,” he countered softening a little,
“And you are right. I don’t want to lose
the possibility of having more Ultorums like you. Not only are you faster, stronger, and,” he
cleared his throat, “obviously more spirited than most around here but you can
also blend in. Imagine the possibilities
if there were more Ultorums like you, men and women that would be able to blend
into their environment and not be spotted a mile away. You can’t blame me for wanting the best for
our future.” Angelina’s head dropped in
submission; she knew that was the end of it.
The Chief, her father, had made up his mind.
“Your right
sir, I’m sorry,” she muttered after a moment of silence.
“You are
dismissed,” he waved her out. She got up
to leave, “And,” he quickly called out, “if you ever decide to go out on your
own again, I will personally kick you off the division…permanently.”
