The next place I go is to the Police station, assuming Officer Denault works in the same town the vampire was first sighted. Many Hunters go into police stations for information regarding contacts, so it wasn't abnormal.
A lady at the front desk with dark hair and bright red lips sits behind the desk, "What can I help you with, hun?" she pops her gum.
"Im looking for an officer Denault. Is this the station he works out of?"
She chews loudly on her gum," Yeah, why?" She pops it.
I swallow hard, how is it all I get today are the people I can't deal with? "I hear he's In charge of a vampire hunt. A vampire that goes my the name-" she pops her gum again, "Fletcher."
She stares at me with a board expression, as she chews her gum with an open mouth, clomping it like a hippo would. "Yeah, we know about Fletcher. Everyone in the area knows of Fletcher." She pops her gum, "After he slipped through the fingers of over two dozen officers, Dan was taken off the case. Hell, everyone was taken off the case. No one is allowed to go near that area, but Dan took patrols as close as he could get, being taken off the case, but he never really gave up on catching the blood sucker."
She pops her gum again. Every ounce of patience I once had snapped, and with lightning fast reflexes I snatch the gum from her mouth and smear it onto the paper work neatly organized on her desk. "Learn some people skills." I spit out, and walk from the room, pissed. Why on earth would they allow someone like her at the front desk? At least she was helpful.
I flick my long, straight black hair behind my shoulders and jump into my jeep. Seething. I head toward downtown, and park in the busiest area. The sun was high in the sky, but the graying clouds were threatening rain.
People seperate as I walk down the sidewalks. Anyone who knew what a hunter looks like jumped out of my way as if they were scared of me. Their fear was correctly placed, but I had no intention of hurting anyone. But, I could name quite a few hunters that took pleasure in hurting civilians. David, a man whom I graduated with was probably going to be one of them.
As people part ways I am brought almost face to face with a police officer with the name 'Denault' written on it. I smile at him, "Just the man I was looking for."
His body stiffens and his face pales as his eyes flicker across my body, from my knives to my sword. I could see the confusion on his face as to why a hunter needed to talk with him. But, before I could say anything, he says, "About that Fletcher case, right?" as understanding floods across his face color coming back.
"That's right," I say, matter-of-factly, "I am on his trail and plan to take it out before the sun sets tonight."
He barks out laughter, then seeing my sober face, pauses mid laugh, "Wait, you're serious?"
I nod, "I've killed more than a dozen of them before, and graduated top of my class at Hunter academy, the greatest college for aspiring hunters. My father is a Gold Licensed Hunter, there's nothing I can't handle."
He stares at me for a moment, "You know what the rumor is about him, right?"
I nod, "I've been hearing a lot of nonsense about it being a Royal. But, the Royals always stick together. If the Royals were up north, anywhere near us, we would know about it."
"Look, I don't know how or why," Officer Denault says, leaning in close, urgency in his voice, "But If Fletcher isn't a Royal, then Royals must be gods. I took a group of ten men and not only did he slip away, but he bit six of my men, hurt another four and we didn't land a single hit on him!"
"You were untrained." I say, waving a hand in dismissal.
"We were played with! Like a cat and a mouse. All of the men I brought had high scores when it came to Hunting basics. Each of them knew exactly what they should have been walking into, and still it was no fight. My captain says I am delusional and took me off the case, but no one has been assigned to it since."
"I've been assigned." I say stubbornly. I was getting sick and tired of people telling me that I couldn't kill a single blood sucker. "Is it still at the burned down building just north of here?"
He purses his lips, but nods, "Last I knew."
I don't look back at Officer Denault as I walk away. I was tired of people telling me what I can and can't do. It was impossible to have a Royal this far up north. The Royals 'governed' the southern area of what used to be the United States. After the war between the humans and what we called the monsters, what was known as the United States was split and contact with the other counties to the south was severed. Most of history died with the plague that hit before the war. It was one thing after another. First came a disease that wiped out a good sixty to seventy percent of mankind before we found a way to stop the spread.
Devastated by the loss of life, our ancestors tried to re-group in cities where they expected people to gather. Monsters, especially vampires, found it much harder to hide due to their blood lust. When the human population originally exploded, vampires thought it was safe to increase their own numbers and even though we still outnumbered them after the plague was stopped, there wasn't enough to quell their blood lust. Whereas before it was easy to hide and feed, it became almost impossible. We still outnumbered them, one monster to every hundred or so humans, but it became much harder to hide once they started to go insane with Blood Rage.
Soon, people were going missing or found dead once or even twice a week. Just as we were picking ourselves up from the plague, we fell into war with things we didn't know how to fight. It didn't take long to find out that the things we were fighting were the monsters from legends. We learned quickly that some of the things from the legends are correct. Some, however, were not.
For instance, it was true that a vampire can be hurt by wood. But, that didnt mean nothing else could hurt them. Anything that was once alive could injure or kill a vampire. Bone, wood and ivory are what we usually use when fighting a vampire. Although other things can hurt them, the wounds never stay open and heal within minutes. Only wounds made by wood, bone or Ivory can kill them and it took much longer for those wounds to heal.
Werewolves were much more simple, but harder to kill. Anything could hurt them that hurts us, but they can take a lot of damage before going down. Although I can fight them with the same bone sword I use against vampires, it takes a lot longer to kill them. They're like tanks. I've only fought one once, and after multiple slashes, multiple gunshot wounds, losing an arm it took being thrown off the eighth floor to finally take it out and still it took a couple minutes for it to finally die instead of being killed on impact.
After killing a werewolf, a vampire, even a high ranking one, couldn't be that hard. I was practically famous in Hunter Academy when I took out the werewolf that was passing through, killing livestock heading north. Many hunters had gone after it since it was first spotted in New York.
I walked north until I made it to the building suspected of housing the vampire. It was obviously burned, but it looked like most of the damage was on the bottom floor. The siding of the house around the windows was charred black and was boarded up. The front door that was once boarded hung loose, ripped free from the frame on one side. The grass was just beginning to grow from the ashes closest to the house. The farther away, the more beautiful the grass, as if the ash had somehow brought new life to the lawn. Moss grew on the front steps, and on the sides of the building along with different types of Ivy, making their way to the second floor.
The place didn't smell like ash, and it was quite obvious that it had been quite some time since the fire had taken away someone's home. Possibly before the war. I slide my sword from its place at my hip, and make my way to the front door. It hung from only one hinge and was easy to open. It barely makes a sound as I swing it open with one hand, my sword in the other.