The drive was long.
Chicago was a city after all, with a very active nightlife. Back in my rookie days, I had some night shifts which really made hunting a whole lot harder. But since making detective my hours are more flexible so to speak.
"April I'll go in alone. I need you for backup if anything goes wrong."
It wasn't a complete lie, I really did need her as back up, but I mostly needed her to stay behind because of Porthos warning: The Darkness and its powers are very alluring to witches. Which meant April would have to stay behind, and she would probably end up slowing me down.
It was an old abandoned building complex as per usual. For once can't someone set up base near a pool or on a nice warm beach? No, they always choose the obviously abandoned building. Well this guy certainly gets a 0% score on the creativity card.
I did the usual, checking for alternative exits making sure I'd have an easy escape route.
Before I was even through the back door something hit me. It wasn't physical, it was magical. My frame of sight started to fade, slowly going black.
I found myself back in a place I'd long forgotten.
It was my senior year in high school. April had just had her first premonition about the death of one of our classmates. He was drowned in the locker room. The police ruled it as a suicide, but April and I knew better. We took it upon ourselves to find out and stop whatever was doing this. We broke into the school early one morning. The only door into the locker room was locked and I wasn't that advanced that I actually knew how to pick the locks, yet.
Luckily for us, there was an open window, but this meant that only one of us could go in.
"I'll go in," I said dryly, preparing to climb through the open window.
"No way. Let's settle this the good old way." April said, smiling.
"You're kidding right?"
"Nope, dead serious." She simply replied by tucking her arm behind her back.
I sighed and followed her lead.
"One" April began counting.
"Two. Three."
We revealed our hands my fist was folded into a bundle and April's hand was in the form of a scissor.
"Ha!" I exclaimed.
"Rock beats scissors. Suck it!" I said throwing my backpack through the window. I followed, almost falling through the window but stuck my landing. I reached for the handgun I had stolen out of Jay's safe, using my birth date for the lock combination was probably not the smartest idea on his part.
I took out the EMF and it started to make little slow beeping sounds.
The EMF meter works off of an inductor which senses an alternating or changing magnetic field and thereby induces a small voltage. Spiritual pressure is picked up as a change in the magnetic field, and the presence of a spirit should set off the EMF signal, theoretically. I've never used one before.
"I feel like some kind of treasure hunter," I complained loudly.
"Just do it," April's muffled voice said from the outside.
I slowly walked around the locker room, and then made my way towards the showers. The EMF pace was still a slow beeping sound but started to accelerate as I got closer to the showers.
"This thing is going crazy. You know what's next right?" I said.
A sudden sharp pain went through my head like a thousand needles sticking into my skull followed by howling or crying of sorts. I fell to the ground clutching my head tightly. It was like nothing I have ever felt before.
I slowly stood up. I felt a hand lightly on my shoulder. I felt a cold prickle across my skin.
I turned around slowly.
I faced a teenage boy not much younger than me. He was surrounded by a grey cloud of Darkness, almost like an aura. He had pale white almost see through skin. There was blood dripping down his arms.
"Wow someone got a little too close to the razor." I sarcastically commented as I took a step backward. I used sarcasm to mask my fear.
Hopefully, this ghost had a sense of humour. He gave me a sinister smile and flung me into the wall. Pain erupted from my right arm.
I pointed the Calibre towards him and shot. He disappeared. I stood up as quickly as I could, which was in fact very painstakingly slow.
I ran towards the window; I was flung back once more, but this time landing away from the gun. I gave out a cry of pain. Some spirits had telekinesis, it all depended on how much spiritual pressure was built-up.
He slowly started walking towards me, watching me, his face twisted in a sinister smile. I heard a shot and covered my head and he was gone.
April was standing behind the spot where he'd been standing, shotgun in her hand. She ran towards me and helped me up.
"How did you get here so fast?" I managed to force it out.
I was slapped out of my dream, when a wave of ice-cold liquid hit my body. I opened my hazy eyes.
"April? What happened?" Water was dripping from my hair.
"I waited for an hour just like you said." She said, looking down at me.
"Where did you get ice-water? I asked, I was completely perplexed. "Never mind, don't answer that." I slowly stood up.
"Alex, your arm!" April exclaimed. I looked down, my right arm had a deep cut, blood was gushing from it, just like when April and I had faced that ghost. I tore off a piece of fabric from my shirt and tightly wrapped it around my arm.
"What happened?" April asked curiously.
"Not sure, but I was dreaming of the day we saw our first ghost. Do you remember it was right after your first premonition?"
"Yeah I remember." Her eyes widened in fear.
"You got the cut from your dream? That's creepy."
"Must have been a spell or some..." I was distracted by the movement behind April.
They were heading towards us, at least five of them. Wights.
There were different ways to kill a Wight, my best bet would be decapitation, fire or one shot in the head, two shots in the heart. Double tapping is a very important rule for all hunters to remember.
"April, don't freak, but there are Wights heading our way." She sprung around. I started aiming my gun. Before I could shoot, the Wights went up in a blazing glory of fire.
"Well, that was awesome; when did you learn to do that?"
"Just now I guess." She replied almost as stunned as I was.
"Well keep it up we have to get to whoever's doing this before they make a getaway."
We hastily started making our way further into the building. April cast a shield around us that would keep all incoming spells at bay, but of course there was a catch: it would only last for fifteen minutes. There were a few more Wights on our path, but I shot them down without hesitation.
The perp had to be here somewhere. The basement would be my first guess. Again, bad guys have zero creativity when it comes to stereotypes. The building had a boiler room slash basement area which we located rather quickly. I walked down the stairs into the basement which had a few candles lit, illuminating the room just enough for me to see the horror.
Three girls, dead. Markings engraved into their heads. It looked like they were eaten alive.
Cries filled my head.
"Thank you for bringing me another."
A man stepped out into the light facing us. I pointed my gun at him. Even in the dark basement, I could still see his dark, evil aura. All the Wights had a dark grey aura but his was an obsidian black.
He had frail grey hair; pale almost sickly-looking skin, his eyes were sunken into their sockets. I saw his lips move, but nothing happened.
Thank you, April.
"See your spell isn't going to work on us." I replied snarky
He smiled; an evil, crooked smile revealing dark almost black teeth.
"You've been making my work hard for me, detective Da Silva."
I looked at him shocked.
He gave out a hard, harsh laugh.
"Shocked that I know who you are? I heard you were looking for me. Well, here I am. The Necromancer at your service."
"You call yourself the Necromancer? That's pretty self proclaimed and very very sad" I replied unphased.
"It was bestowed upon me many eons ago. A name I have undoubtedly earned as a young detective."
He was stalling us. No doubt knowing April's shield would only last another five minutes. Even with all her magic, her powers still had limitations. I needed to act now. He turned his cold gaze towards April.
"You can feel it can't you? The Darkness, it beckons you?" I glanced over to April; I could see she was intrigued by his words.
Porthos' warning played through my head.
"April, no, don't listen to him!" I said trying to get her to look away from him, but she seemed to be already gone.
I lowered my gun and stepped in front of her. Her eyes were glazed over like she was in another place. A small smile crossed her face.
"Your friend is long gone, Miss Da Silva, and with her the shield no longer protecting you. I must say killing you will bring me fortunes beyond my wildest dreams."
"April! Fight it April!" I turned to face my tormentor, I stood protectively in front of April shielding her with my body.
"What do you mean fortunes?" He circled me like a predator would circle its prey.
"There's a bounty on your head. Every creature, mage, warlock is coming after you, my dear. The Voivode wants you dead."
The Voivode, who was also known as Nikolai. I've heard some creatures call him that before.
"I must be doing something right then," I said, shooting at him. He diverted my shot just like I thought he would. I lunged forward, and hit him point blank in the face, knocking him out.
"Not so strong without your magic," I commented looking down at the now passed out Necromancer.
"What happened?" April asked, looking around.
"April!" I said hugging my friend.
"For a moment there I was sure I'd lost you to the dark side. We need to tie him up."
"Uhm, yeah I have some rope in my duffel bag in the car." She replied, rubbing her head. She retrieved the rope and crystals she brought with.
The crystals formed an invisible cage around its subject rendering them powerless. How? I would never fully understand. It's not like there's an exact science to witchcraft.
We placed the crystals in a circle formation around him. After we were sure he was powerless and trapped, we rounded up all the dead corpses and set them on fire.
You could never be sure, unfortunately that meant we also had to burn the bodies of the three young girls. I said a silent prayer before April lit them up. We watched the flames engulf their bodies for a second then I turned my focus back to our friend the Necromancer.
I retrieved a bottle of drinking water from my duffel bag and splashed some water in his face.
"Wakey, wakey," I said standing over him.
He looked down at his restraints and smiled. "You really think this will hold me?" He tried to use magic; I couldn't help but laugh.
"Can't do magic? What a shame." I still had my gun in my hand, but I was now casually waving it around.
"For someone so old I'd think you'd know about the power of crystals," April commented looking at the old man. He looked at April; his smile was now replaced by anger and humiliation.
"It won't be long until they come for you." He said, looking at me.
'They' I assumed were Nikolai's henchmen.
"Well, we better get started then."
Torture wasn't really my style, but this guy deserved every agonizing second of it. And April certainly enjoyed it a little too much, seeing those witches really unnerved her. He lost a few fingers, imagined his worst fear come to life and after ten minutes of torture, he told us why he did it, but something didn't feel right. His story seemed too bizarre to be truthful. I had a feeling that this was merely the start of something bigger to come.
He used the Wights to track Witches, he would then absorb the Witches powers through some insane rituals which included him removing their eyes and eating them. I'm quite sure there were more sanitary ways to get their magic, but that's beside the point, at least I had some solace knowing these girls were completely oblivious to what was happening to them.
He even went as far as to say that the witches were drawn to him because of the Darkness and that he did us all a favour by killing them. Half an hour later he was in cuffs rendering him mortal and on his way to the Asylum. This was not the end of it, and I was certain that there was more to the story. But for now, at least there would be no more Wights. It was specialized iron cuffs with some magical markings that were used on witches in the Salem Witch trials.
We didn't stick around to see if Nikolai's henchmen showed up. I think I've had enough epic battles for one night.
When we got home, April disappeared into the bathroom and returned with a bucket, towels, our first aid kit and a lighter. She placed the bucket next to me then went back to the kitchen. She returned with a bottle of Vodka. She sat facing me.
"Think of rainbows, think of rainbows!" I gently told myself.
"Okay I'm going to count to three then it'll hurt." I shut my eyes.
"One!" Then she poured the alcohol onto my wound, I gave out a soft moan.
"Where the hell did you learn to count?" I asked anger flaring up.
"It's called the element of surprise. Now hold still." She pierced my skin with the hot needle.
"That was actually really easy," April commented, continuing to stitch me up.
"Don't say that, if you say it was easy something will inevitably go wrong proving that it was easy for a reason." I said looking down at my arm.
"You're overthinking it Al, just take the win."
"Ouch!" I exclaimed as the needle pierced my skin.
"Oh, stop complaining you big baby." She simply commented.
It took about fifteen minutes to finish. Even though I complained April was getting really good, she was always stitching me up after battles, she could be a qualified nurse by now.
"How's your arm? "April asked, a broad smile filled her face.
I sarcastically replied, "It's awesome."
I decided a hot shower would be best after an exhausting day.
When the warm water collided with my skin it was like magic, it calmed every muscle in me; the smell of lavender surrounded me. My moment of peace was interrupted by a stabbing pain in my arm.
My stitches were ripping out like they were being forced out by my skin.
I cried out clutching my arm, seconds later April was in the bathroom.
"What is it?" she asked, concerned, filled her voice.
"My stitches!" I shrieked.
The pain stopped, my stitches were out and there was not even a hint of a scar. I got out of the shower and wrapped myself in a towel. I looked at April, her eyes filled with utter shock and fear. She took a closer look. She rubbed her finger over the spot where my wound used to be.
"Amazing, not even a scar." I quickly tucked my arm away.
"Thank you, captain obvious, must be some crazy after effect of the spell." I knew it wasn't the spell because this wasn't the first time one of my wounds mysteriously healed, the other day I cut myself shaving by the time I washed off the blood there was no wound. What was happening to me? Was I becoming the monsters I hunted?
"Yeah, it must be." She replied. I could hear in her voice that she was unconvinced that this was just some aftereffect of the spell.
"Now can I please get some privacy?" I asked, changing the subject.
Without another word she left.
I got dressed and headed straight for my bed.
For once my subconscious didn't haunt me with the death of Jay; instead, it decided to use another method of torture altogether.
It was my prom night; Darren and I had been dating for a few months. I opened the door and there he was my boyfriend Darren McCartney.
My heart leaped at the sight of him. He looked picture perfect, like someone who just stepped out of an old classic Hollywood movie. He wore his billion-dollar smile with a jet-black tailored tux. He looked at me, his eyes filled with admiration.
This made me flush red. I was wearing a long strapless dress; made from a dark green soft, flowy material. The dark colour stood out against my pale skin. My usually blonde curly hair; was straight and smooth.
Darren pulled me towards him, embracing me in a kiss; it was sensual and breath-taking. When he finally pulled away, I felt disappointed that he'd ended our perfect moment. He smiled down at me,
He handed me a small box.
"I know you're not a fan of flowers." He commented as I unwrapped the paper. It was a box of Skittles. Could this moment be more perfect? At that moment I realized I loved him. I smiled up at him.
"I love you, Alex." He said looking at me with love in his eyes.
I embraced him "I love you too. And you're early"
"That's only because we have one stop before we go to prom." He said, leading me out the door. He took me to the same spot, where he took me for our first date.
A remote place in the town park.
There were candles everywhere, in the middle of it there was a blanket and a pizza. I recall mentioning that this was my idea of a perfect date.
"What's all this?" I asked, placing my hands on my hips. "It's your perfect date." He said smiling, pulling me towards him. He cupped my face in his hands.
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the Darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date."
Usually, I would've kicked his ass for using a William Shakespeare quote on me. But at this second? It was perfect. He was perfect.
"I was half expecting an original poem, but I'll settle for Shakespeare" I commented looking into those beautiful unique eyes of his.
"Next time." He replied softly.
He moved in closer.
His lips gently touched mine.
My dream was interrupted by my alarm blazing in my ear. This was the first time in months where I slept through the night. I felt hot everywhere. All the feelings I thought were long gone hit me like a brick in the face.
Do you ever recover from something like that? The love of your life betraying you, I know I was only a teenager, but I loved him, and I've never loved anyone like I loved him. But Darren always was a wolf dressed in sheep skin.
With a heavy heart, I started getting ready for work.
I looked at myself in the mirror, my deep blue eyes staring back at me, my ash blonde curly hair now pulled back into a ponytail. I wore the usual. Black pants, with a dark blue top, paired with a black jacket.
Here we go.
"Wow. I'm surprised you slept this late?" April asked looking up from the paper. She wore a red top that hugged her curves perfectly; paired with a black pencil skirt and black stilettos.
She looked breath-taking as always.
"And it did you no good." She commented.
I sarcastically smiled, getting myself a cup of coffee.
"I had a dream about prom."
"Prom? Been having a lot of trips back to high school," she replied
"It's only because of Darren."
"Darren? What about Darren?" She asked, surprised.
"Oh, did I not tell you?" I asked.
"Tell me what?" She was sitting on the edge of her seat, literally.
"I saw him yesterday and punched him. Oh, and he also left me this." I said picking up the box of Skittles.
She looked at me with excitement in her eyes.
"He remembers. You have to admit that's kind of sweet."
"You're not actually buying into this crap, are you?" I said throwing the box into the dustbin.
"Call me crazy, but yeah. He tried to explain what happened a million times. You left without getting the whole story." I looked at her shocked.
"Crazy!" I shouted, throwing my hands in the air.
"What?" She asked, confused.
"You said call me crazy, I'm calling you crazy. No, I'm calling you insane. You're insane to think I will ever give Darren the benefit of the doubt. And, by the way, your coffee sucks." I said walking out the door.
"You know I'm right!" she shouted after me.
All that magic must've gone to her head. I needed a strong cup of coffee to wash down all the crazy. I started walking down the street; the atmosphere was filled with cold, icy Chicago air. I always loved the cold weather.
Beautiful but deadly.
"Coffee black, three sugars?" Darren said standing in front of my Le Morsel.
I immediately turned around and started walking away.
"Al! Common, just give me ten minutes." I sprung around.
"Don't call me that!" I grabbed the coffee and donut out of his hand and stormed off. After last night, he must've learned his lesson because this time, he did not follow.
I was welcomed into the precinct with claps and cheers. Everyone congratulated me on what a good detective I was. Although I felt as if the detective in me missed something big.
The rest of the day was filled with paperwork. Who ever thought taking down bad guys required so much paperwork? Having no more open cases gave me time to focus on something else.
Nikolai. He had now placed a bounty on my head which meant I was getting on his nerves.
Keeping track of him was nearly impossible. Nearly. I had other ways of gathering information.
I grabbed my keys.
"I'll be back in a bit," I told the desk lieutenant. She just shrugged and continued reading her exotic romance novel.
I drove out to where I knew some vampires nested. They were kicked out of the 'kingdom' as they call it, for not being worthy.
I tolerated them for one reason and one reason only, intel. It was the middle of the day which meant they were asleep. I took out my stake crossbow; it was customized to shoot small silver stakes instead of arrows. I also had normal silver stakes for backup.
One thing I've learned over the years when in doubt, use silver.
Some say after Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, and that God therefore cursed silver. Making it deadly to most evil creatures, but like most things in life, there are some exceptions to that rule.
I also have other means of persuasion in the form of holy water; It's some witchy herbs mixed in water blessed by someone holy like a priest. I knew a guy who helped me out from time to time.
I walked up to the entrance and knocked, yes, I know knocking. Cries filled my head, my early warning system. After a few moments, Jared the 'bodyguard' vamp opened the door. He was the muscle of the gang.
"Detective. Ronan is asleep." He simply commented in a deep resonant voice. I pushed past the piercing pain the cries were giving me. There was a black aura surrounding him.
I smiled.
"Then wake him up, we have business to discuss." He complied knowing I was the only reason they were all still alive. I supplied them with blood bags; if they were to hunt in Chicago, they'd be hunted down and killed by Nikolai's henchmen.
Seconds later Ronan emerged looking paler than usual. Also surrounded by darkness which was normal for Vampires. The vampire aura was slightly different than that of any other supernatural I've come across. It had a slight red tint to it.
"Come in Detective." He simply said.
He was the leader of this pack of outcasts. He had sandy blonde hair and a slim figure. He also wasn't that much older than me. Give or take a few hundred years. I followed him down the dark hall to the end where his 'office' was.
"What do you want Alex? And here with weapons, really? I thought we were friends."
I stepped forward. "First of all, we're not friends. If I even get a whiff of death from anyone in your merry band of misfits, Nikolai won't be your biggest concern. Is that understood?" I asked coldly.
Even though he did not show any fear, I knew he feared me. I had a reputation, one that made me kind of a self-proclaimed badass. He simply nodded in reply.
"It's been two weeks since I last heard anything about Nikolai. Did you know about the bounty on my head?" I asked.
He smiled.
He's been playing me this entire time, his body shifted slightly. He was just waiting for me to walk into the lion's den. Of course, the vampires have been trying to gain favour with Nikolai again, I'd thought after years of exile they would give up, I was clearly wrong, I also overestimated my own reputation.
I clenched my crossbow tightly ready to fight my way out of this nest.
"So, what did he offer you for my head, a way back into the Kingdom? Freedom to hunt?"
He looked surprised, probably didn't expect me to know about the bounty on my head.
"All of the above, but I would gladly kill you for nothing!" He shouted.
A set of arms grabbed me from behind tightly, squeezing me. Jared.
I took it back to old school defence class; I stepped on his foot as hard as humanly possible. I took the 'holy water' out of my coat and threw it on him.
He gave out a shriek of pain.
I didn't waste any time. I took out the stake and drove it into his heart, which was an art in itself. Stalking someone meant to go through the chest cavity, which was hard. Really, really hard.
When he was down, I turned to face Ronan. He had at least twelve other vamps in the house, fighting my way out wasn't an option.
Behind Ronan, there was a blackout curtain. I shot him a few times with the crossbow manoeuvring around him.
The other vamps were now filling up the room, my queue to leave. I grabbed the curtain tightly and tugged it as hard as I could, the entire room filled with sunlight, burning the hell out of the vamps, including Ronan who was standing too close to the window.
The rest of them retreated to the shadows.
I glanced back before making my escape. Ronan was now a pile of ash.
Oh, Ronan you poor gullible idiot, Nikolai probably would have killed him anyway.
I jumped through the window breaking it into millions of pieces. Glass shards cut lightly into my skin. Which immediately healed leaving only dried blood.
*********************************************************
So, Nikolai was going on the defence which meant my life was about to get a lot more complicated. I needed help, unfortunately, the only person I know that can give me inside information about Nikolai is literally the last person on earth I wanted to see now.
I went back that night to finish off the rest of the vamps; the place was abandoned.
They were gone, scattered in the wind, no doubt knowing I'd come back.
I always knew this unholy alliance was going to bite me in the ass. Pun intended.
I didn't even realize how late it was when I finally got home. April practically attacked me as I entered.
"Alex! Where have you been? I've been trying to call you for hours!" Her eyes were puffy, a tell-tale sign that she'd been crying. One thing that never changed April has always been very emotional. I closed the door behind me.
"April I'm fine, I was working."
"I called the office; they said you left this morning around 11. With Nikolai putting the bounty on your head, I was so worried Al!" She started sobbing, her hands trembling.
I embraced my friend.
"I was working on trying to find Nikolai. I'm fine, April. And you know I'm not that easy to take out." I said, smiling comforting her.
April's power was connected to her emotions and sometimes they got out of hand, leaving only destruction in her path.
I've had front row seats to most of those episodes and let me tell you it's not pretty. See you get two kinds of witches: those who are born with power and those who become witches through black magic.
April's the first kind.
Those who are born with power also have a small advantage over those who aren't; they have active powers such as telekinesis, empathy, telepathy, power over the elements, molecular immobilization, molecular combustion and much, much more.
A born Witch ascends into her powers when the host is emotionally ready for the responsibility. At first, they receive an abundance of power, after a few agonizing months the host is left only with the powers she or he was meant to have, that was nature's twisted way of preparing them or something.
Most witches only have two active powers.
See that last part, the part was after a few months the witch gets her true power. . . that never happened to April, leaving her with too much power to handle.
With that said, keeping April calm was part of my full-time job. She even started drinking mood stabilizers and antidepressants which helps for the most part.
"Just to be safe I'll take it easy for a few weeks." She looked at me and smiled.
"Thank you, Al! I don't know what I'll do if I ever lose you."
"Let's never find out. And I'm getting help." She smiled knowing what getting help meant.
"You're going to talk to Darren?"
"Yes, I'm sure he'll be at Le Morsel tomorrow morning."
"It's sweet that he's trying so hard." She replied.
"Yes, it's not strange or stalker behaviour at all, following me around, always showing up at places, no that's normal, and you used to hate Darren why can't we go back to that?" I replied
"I did not hate him well I did, but after you left, he was there, and I know you think he's responsible for Jay & Adam's deaths, but he wasn't Al." She said, pleading.
She loved reminding me about the time I went AWOL for a year or so after Jay was killed. I went on a killing rampage; killing and hunting everything I could find. She and Darren apparently bonded during that time. I however did not wish to become friends with Darren and was not as forgiving as April.