Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Preventers: When Vampires Attack ❯ Chapter 12

Amy shifted on the hard seat to lean heavily against her door, although by now both bottomcheeks seemed to be equally battered and bruised. Through sleepily half-lidded eyes, she watched the juniper and tall conifer trees crawl by the window to fall back behind Juan Haverez's SUV. It was much darker in the forest than it had been in town; the sun wasn't up yet, but the early morning sky had already begun to lighten in anticipation when they had left the apartment building a few minutes earlier. Just thinking of dawn made Amy groan. She wished she were heading to bed right now, climbing beneath the cool linen sheets to snuggle up against Wufei. Hell, she'd rather be cleaning the nightclub's toilets than riding in the back seat of this SUV. Because at this moment this SUV was headed for a crime scene, the victim of a murderer that Amy wished she had never heard of.

Haverez's dark eyes flashed in the rearview mirror as he peered at his passengers. "Almost there, now. I'd go faster, but this isn't exactly a freeway we're driving on." As if proving his point, the vehicle lurched over another exposed root.

Duo barely saved himself from cracking his head against the front passenger door, which was more than Amy could say for herself. It did serve to wake her up, though. "Yeah, well, I have a feeling the body will be waiting patiently for us." For once, Duo's quip was less than lighthearted. When he twisted around to survey his colleagues, his shadowed violet gaze was flat and somber. His eyes traveled from Stacie to Wufei to Amy, then returned to Stacie to offer her a grin that only touched his lips.

A weak blue glow filtered in through the windshield for a moment before it faded out to leave them with only the pale bouncing illumination of the SUV's headlights. In another moment it reappeared, stronger this time, and just as readily disappeared. Everyone craned their necks expectantly as Haverez rounded a gentle turn in the old logging trail and a small clearing came into view. Four police cars were parked here, their sirens off and lights on, illuminating the surrounding forest with the glow of their flashing blue strobes. One cop stood attentively by his car, wireless CB in hand. Wufei rested a hand on Amy's thigh. At least he didn't pat her. She wasn't sure she wanted to be touched just now. As it was, she was eerily aware of the second mark, which lay quietly beneath his fingers.

The SUV slowed to a stop. Despite his leg brace, Haverez was the first one out. He procured a large yellow flashlight from beneath his seat and approached the policeman with a slight wave. They spoke in rumbling undertones as the Preventers piled out of the SUV to join them. Amy examined the clearing with a wary once-over. The forest was eerily silent, somehow devoid of all natural sound. The dappled blue light reflected on leaf and tree gave her the impression that they were underwater-a thick and stifling sensation that left her throat dry. Unbidden, an image of Mikael's blue eyes floated in her vision, as they had when she received the second mark. Amy squeezed her eyes shut and swallowed hard, forcing her hand away from the first mark on her arm.

"Okay, guys, we're clear to go." Haverez motioned for them to follow him up a small game trail. The policeman anchored himself to his car and spoke a few words into the CB radio, never taking his eyes from the surrounding forest. He was either very brave, stupid, or trusting to allow himself to be stationed back there alone. And hadn't he ever seen any thriller movies? First rule was to never, ever get caught out by yourself. Of course, the second was to keep all your clothes on; so he just might still be safe after all.

No one spoke as they made their way through the woods. As the strobe lights fell away behind the foliage, Haverez switched on the flashlight to bathe their path with a generous oval of light. The looming pine and fir trees seemed to be both ally and enemy in the darkness behind them. Amy gave up trying to look everywhere at once, instead choosing to focus on the beam of light that continued to lead them deeper into the woods. She racked her brain with the information Haverez had supplied to them on the short ride here.

The victim was another young girl: about Laura's age, coloring, and build. But while Laura had been the daughter of the President, this girl-Alyssa-was an army brat. Her mother, a lieutenant stationed in Alben, didn't even have enough rank to shake a stick at. However, these two most recent murders had the most in common as far as the experts could tell. Both girls were similar in age and appearance, and Alyssa's mother was one of Laura's father's many armed guards. But Alyssa's mangled body had been found outside, like the other five. No. The other seven, according to Avyth. In any case, none of the previous murders had had more than that in common.

A wild thrashing broke the silence of the forest. Someone or something big was out there. And as the sounds grew louder it became apparent that it was coming at them, and fast. The small group froze as one, staring into the depths of the underbrush as Haverez swung his flashlight toward the commotion. The Preventers bristled visibly, steeling themselves in anticipation of the confrontation that seemed to be galloping right toward them. Dead branches, pine needles, and juniper boughs cracked loudly, trampled beneath quick feet. Angry shouts rose up in their wake, muffled by the thick foliage. Even as Amy channeled a thread of Fire into her hand, she saw a similar spark appear in Stacie's and a hazy green miasma form around both of Duo's clenched fists. Wufei shifted his weight, crouching slightly to scan the surrounding darkness with sharp eyes.

The sharp crackle of the underbrush preceded the attack-which turned out to be less of an attack and more of an accidental-stumbling-upon. A young man tore out of a patch of juniper, limbs pumping for all he was worth. He seemed unaffected by the scant underbrush between him and the Preventers. He plowed through the sharp branches, seemingly mindless of the way they whipped at the skin that was exposed between denim leggings and the tops of his sneakers. For a moment, it seemed that he would plow on through them as well.

Amy anxiously fed more energy her small spark. Should she stop him or let him pass? He was being pursued by something, but who was the bad guy, here? If some guy had accidentally happened on the murder scene or the killer….

Haverez shouted wordlessly and aimed his flashlight into the runner's face. Blinded by the sudden light, the man stumbled and swore sharply. Nay, now that he was in full view, Amy could see that he was at that awkward age between boy and man. But he looked like he would be more at home in a gang than a high school classroom. His clothes were ragged and dark, a tee-shirt and long baggy shorts. A black bandana circled his forehead to hold back spiky brown hair that ended in a slender rat-tail. His face, contorted against the blinding beam of light, was pocked with scars of dubious origin.

"Get outta my way!" The boy threw his arms up in front of his face and ducked to one side, attempting to skirt the small party at the last moment. He connected with the unyielding heel of Wufei's hand. Amy winced. Right in the solar plexus. That should take care of him. On the off-chance that he hadn't been successfully persuaded to stop running, she fanned out to one side, mirroring Stacie and Duo as they did the same on the other side. If he was actually good enough to slink away from Wufei, they'd try to make life difficult for him.

Instead of crumpling into a breathless heap, the boy merely doubled over Wufei's arm. He snapped his head back to glare up at the Asian man. Then he twisted around Wufei's hand, lightly and gracefully dropping to the ground to strike at his legs. Metal glinted wickedly just outside the narrow beam of Haverez's light.

Wufei swept back a step, just avoiding the crippling bite of the switchblade. He eyed the boy with palpable contempt, partly to irritate his opponent into making silly, open attacks. But the boy was back on his feet only a moment later, torn between staying to deal with this human barrier and slipping away elsewhere to escape his pursuers, who were drawing closer. Wufei made his choice for him. The Asian darted to one side and grunted sharply as he kicked out at the boy's kneecaps.

Apparently, the boy wasn't all that green. He barely moved, but completely avoided Wufei's attack. Throwing a frantic glance over his shoulder, he swiped at Wufei's leg with his switchblade. But the kick had already been redirected, sweeping to the needle-strewn ground in a graceful arc. Wufei stepped inward, directing a knife hand at the boy's face, which threw the boy off balance as anticipated. Wufei took advantage of the resulting weight shift to repeat this with his other hand. As the boy darted to the left this time, Wufei swung his left hand around again to neatly spear his throat with rigid fingers. Or so he had intended.

The boy literally oozed back away from Wufei's strikes. Amy blinked. In the darkness it was hard to tell, but she was sure he shouldn't have been able to move like that. Haverez had averted the flashlight slightly, so as not to inadvertently interfere with Wufei's concentration. Amy missed her temporary night vision sorely, but she would bet anything that Wufei could have used it more. Although fighting in the dark had not seemed to hinder him one iota when they had first met in Sally Po's apartment.

Now, the two danced across a bed of pine needles, the boy finally answering Wufei's strikes with steel. The blade gleamed dully from the shadows; Wufei seemed to have no trouble following it. As the two exchanged blows that never fully connected, the boy's pursuers finally crashed onto the scene. Three police: guns out, eyes sharp, chests heaving. Comparing the noise they created to that of their quarry's was like comparing a herd of elephants with a nancing gazelle. It was impossible to miss. They certainly attracted the Preventers' attention. Wufei and his opponent awarded them wary glances as well.

Panting, the policewoman leveled her pistol on the boy. Her male counterparts acted in suit, although their aim looked substantially shakier as they fought to catch their breath. "I don't want to shoot you. Put the knife down and your hands up."

The boy growled and slashed at Wufei, then flew past him as Wufei wove to avoid the strike. The growl rose to a roar as he ran at the police, switchblade at the ready by his hip. The policewoman cried out and pulled the trigger. The boy jerked as though he had been punched in the shoulder, but continued to cover the distance between them. As the sound of the first gunshot died in the air between them, a second rang out, this one from the policeman to her right.

The boy jerked again and stumbled. His pace slowed slightly, but not enough. What was this guy made of? One-hundred percent steel balls?

The policewoman motioned her companions to stand ready. "I don't want to kill you. If you don't drop the weapon, I'll-"

The boy crouched back, tensing like a coiled spring before launching himself into a leap. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The woman leaned back, falling away from his attack while trying to keep the handgun aimed at him. In his mid-air flight, the boy now coiled his arm back, shifting the switchblade in his white-knuckled grip. Amy took a step back toward Wufei, her eyes locked on the scene in horror.

Suddenly the forest was illuminated by a wash of green light. Amy had already begun to make a run for Wufei when it flared up. She dropped to her knees beside him and cast a stunned look at her companions. Duo and the airborne guy were glowing. It wasn't all that difficult to guess the source of the light, as Amy had seen the same green miasma both concentrated on Duo's fists and taking form as his otherworldly scythe blade. But she'd never actually seen him use it like this. The boy's eyes rolled back into his head, leaving the whites to gape blankly ahead as his flight became a fall. The switchblade dropped from his limp hand before he landed on the policewoman; even still, she cried out again as their bodies made contact. And she fired her pistol.

The boy's mid-section erupted in a spray of blood and fleshy chunks. Amy heard herself yell something as Wufei grabbed her hand to help pull her to her feet. Her face felt warm, then cold in the early morning air. The fingers she raised to her face came away tinged with red. A shocked glimpse at Wufei showed him to have been showered with a fine smattering of blood as well. Fighting back the tightness that tried to grip her eyes and mouth, she raked the back of her fingers across her face in an attempt to scour the blood off. Wufei gave his face a fleeting pass with his forearm.

Everyone stared at the body and the policewoman, whom it seemed reluctant to liberate. As she tried to push the body from her, her fellow officers remembered that they were not alone. With a start, they trained their guns on Duo and Haverez, who were the easiest targets due to their respective illuminations. "Hands up. Don't move. Who are you?"

Luckily, someone still seemed to have a head on his shoulders. Haverez immediately directed his flashlight onto his own face, squinting into the brilliant light. "Guns down! It's Juan Haverez. I have the Preventers with me. We're here to look at the body."

Pine needles crunched softly beneath Duo's heels as he approached the policemen, tendrils of green energy faintly wafting from his raised palms. Reaching out to briefly clasp his shoulder, Stacie sprinted past him and helped haul the limp body from the policewoman. With the help of her fellow policemen, she shakily rose to her feet and absently brushed at the bloodstains on her uniform. All eyes were on the young man's body. It was still enveloped in a cocoon of Duo's netherworld energy. Lying on its ruptured back, the damage didn't look so bad, although dark blood continued to pool beneath it. The whites of its eyes stared steadily upward.

Wufei cleared his throat. "Maxwell, what did you do?"

"Stopped his heart." Duo eyed the body blankly and slowly rubbed his left forearm. "I was gonna release it again before he kicked the bucket, but I guess it's sorta too late for that now."

The policewoman pulled away from the supporting grasp of her comrade and moved to stand over the boy, eyeing the body dispassionately as Stacie knelt to examine it. "Thanks. My bullets didn't seem to be doing a good job of deterring him." She already seemed to be steadying her nerves most successfully. And she'd given up on brushing the blood from her clothes and short blonde ponytail. Grimacing, she locked her eyes onto Haverez and pointed back the way she had come. "He was found by the murder scene, cleaning his hands in the river…."

Stacie yelped, drawing every eye immediately, and three handguns as well. She craned her neck up to arch her eyebrows sharply at Duo. "He's a vampire!"

"What?! Are you sure?" One of the policemen, a middle-aged man with short dark hair, holstered his handgun and slipped past his comrades to kneel beside the body. "How can you-? If you're right, you'd better…" he squinted at Duo, spinning his finger in the air as he search for the phraseology "…jumpstart his heart again. This could be a perfect opportunity to hold him for questioning."

"What?" Duo pranced backward a step and stared at the body with revulsion. "Excuse me, but she just blew his liver and spleen all over the woods. I think his heart would be the least of his worries right now."

Stacie grabbed her husband's pantleg, reaching directly over the body to look up at him. "Actually, I think you put him into torpor when you stopped his heart. As long as these guys used normal bullets-" she eyed the police in askance and received nods of affirmation "-he should be able to start healing again on his own if you just let the blood start circulating again."

"Not enough time, Stace." Amy pushed herself away from Wufei and approached the body warily. Last time she'd been this close to a non-Conan vampire… "If he couldn't level Wufei with his first attack, he's not going to be powerful enough to heal all that quickly. He'll need a lot of blood to replace the…meal…he lost."

Stacie glared at the body as if it were the boy's fault for being too weak. "True, true." She glared some more. Then her eyes lit up. "Conan!" She snuck a wary glance at the policemen before fixing a pointed stare on Amy.

If Stacie was trying to form a telepathic link between herself and her friend, it seemed to be working. Since the police were so dead set against vampires, they might not react all that amiably if they learned that the Preventers team had just been in contact with one. Amy avoided looking at them, slowly nodding at her friend as Stacie's idea dawned on her. Conan could be just what they needed…. Amy remembered him mentioning something about a vampire-to-vampire transfer of power or strength. If he could somehow transfer energy to this guy, enough to help him heal quickly, they could be looking at the answers to this case.

She turned to Haverez. "Can you get this guy to the hospital, or police department, or something? I think we can get answers out of him after all." Amy grinned at Stacie.

Duo flared up with green energy momentarily, as though he were stretching his metaphysical muscles. "I'm gonna have to go with. So I'll be close just in case you need this guy doped out again or something."

The policewoman nodded and slipped her pistol into the holster at her hip. "We'd better get him sent off immediately. Do you mind passing up on your chance to see the fresh scene?"

Duo made a face. "Oh no, I'm perfectly fine with that." He grinned at Stacie. "Think you'll survive seeing that icky icky mess without me?"

Stacie drew herself to her feet, bristling cutely. Duo chuckled throatily and tousled her hair before kissing her. She warmed up to the kiss, but stuck her tongue out at him as he withdrew. He affectionately replied in suit before he turned back to the body.

The policewoman fingered the flap on her holster as she approached Haverez, leaving the vampire to Duo and her comrades. She extended a hand, which he shook formally after shifting his flashlight to his left hand. "I'm Tara Mercer. Thanks for your help back there." Her tight smile was directed toward everyone. "I can take you on up to the girl. To her body." She sneered over her shoulder at the vampire.

Haverez nodded deeply. "We would appreciate it. I don't know what we could find that the police have not already discovered. I thank your precinct for allowing the Preventers to work on your case."

Mercer shrugged. "We can admit it when our hands are way too full. And since the President`s daughter was a victim as well…. Well, the case sort of transcends precincts and departments, wouldn't you say?" Still, she didn't look any too happy as she turned away. "Everyone who's staying, follow me. We're going to have to wrap this up before too long. They're predicting rain this morning."

Amy squatted beside Duo, who was eyeing the body thoughtfully. "I think you should keep him in torpor until someone can get an IV feed of blood into him. He shouldn't give you any trouble, but as long as you're around and prepared to stop him again, you'll be fine."

The dark-haired policeman shot Amy a disgusted look. "A blood transfusion? For a vampire?"

"You want to keep him alive, don't you? I thought you wanted him for questioning." Amy glared. "Just use a drip bag, any type. I doubt he'll be picky."

His repulsion didn't lessen one iota. "I don't think anyone will clear that. Who would want to waste blood on this…thing?"

"Oh good lord!! I'll do it!" Stacie hovered menacingly, planting both fists on her hips. "Just get one freaking drip bag in him until we're done here, and then I'll donate some of my blood to get him working. Okay? Everyone fine with that?" Her glower dared the policeman to argue. He didn't. "Good. Now let's get the hell moving."

Mercer averted her gaze from the bloodied body, her expression every bit as disgusted as her comrades'. She shook her head and managed to school her face into a neutral, if stony, expression. "Let's go."

Mercer led Haverez, Wufei, Amy, and Stacie up a tree-strewn knoll, where two more armed policemen met them with flashlights and drawn handguns. When they recognized Mercer they let their pistols hang at ease, although they scanned the surrounding woods with suspicious eyes. The blood on her clothes must not have sat too very well with them. "We heard gunshots. You catch him?"

"Yeah. He's back there." Officer Mercer jabbed a thumb back over her shoulder. "It's a vampire. They're taking him in for questioning."

The policemen pointed their flashlights down the knoll to watch the Duo and the other two men heft the vampire's body and begin carrying it back toward the cars. Amy hammered down the urge to run back there and accompany them to the hospital. The encounter with the boy-vampire had shaken her, made something snap inside of her, like waking from a dream. Somehow Alyssa's body, waiting beyond the glow of the flashlights, didn't seem as scary anymore. She threw her determination to the sticking place and skittled after her companions, heading for the body.

They really didn't have that far to go. As they topped the knoll, the patchy buzz of voices and radio static greeted them. Someone had brought in a small generator, which was powering three brilliant spotlights. Alyssa Wright's petite body lay within the pool of light, torn flesh glistening with congealing blood. Amy felt her eyes lock onto the body. In an instant, she was thrown back into the numbing nightmare to contend with the strange feeling that she was not really here, seeing this. Forcing herself to swallow around the ginormous lump in her throat, she began to descend the knoll, her eyes never leaving the bloody mess below.

Not the brightest move. Her foot caught on something before she had taken five steps. Exposed root, jutting rock, it didn't matter what it was; it sent her tumbling down the decline in a flurry of leaves and needles. Amy grit her teeth and squinted against the flying needles, digging her palms into the earth to slow herself. A meter later, she skidded to a stop, facedown at the base of the knoll.

Whee. Amy felt every drop of blood in her body creep into her face as she realized that everyone must have seen her merry flight. So much for making good first impressions with the Alben police force. She groaned under her breath and raised her head to spit needles and dirt from her mouth.

Alyssa beamed back at her. Amy would never figure out how she managed to end up standing two meters away in just under .2 seconds. But in that amount of time, she managed to scrabble to her feet and warp both space and time to get away from that bloodless smile. A quick glance about the area told her that the Alben police were not impressed by her amazing feat. Their steady gazes barely masked underlying enmity. Amy shuddered and glanced at the severed head once more before turning her eyes to her partners.

Wufei and Stacie maneuvered the slope with a great deal more grace than Amy had, although they nearly matched her speed. Upon reaching her, Wufei clasped a hand onto her shoulder. But his eyes were for young Alyssa. Amy really couldn't blame him.

Although she did not possess Laura Asano's pageant queen beauty, Alyssa definitely fell into the "pretty" category. Her smile seemed more timid, her lips less full, her gently curved features longer, the girl was a looker. The only thing that pretty face really lacked…was a body. That lay a few paces off, the focus of the three spotlights.

Haverez sidled down the hill, carefully choosing his footing. Hazel eyes locked on his leg brace, Mercer followed slowly, as though she was babysitting him. At the bottom, Haverez gave Alyssa's disembodied head a perfunctory glance before continuing on toward the body. Stacie and Wufei followed, throwing uneasy glances over their shoulders as though worried that the head would sneak up on them from behind.

Amy frowned and made herself sidle closer to the head, dragging her heels uncertainly. Alyssa's head had been separated above the neck, just below the girl's smooth jaw line. The needles beneath her were smeared with blood, but not all that much. Perhaps she had died before decapitation, or maybe her head had stood vigil elsewhere before being transferred to this spot. If that was so, why here? Why not a few centimeters further that way, or this way? Curious, Amy craned her neck back, looking into the treetops. Above her, the boughs parted slightly to allow a glimpse of the pink-tinged grey sky beyond the forest. If this had been done at night, when the moon was up…. Amy lightly covered her mouth and nose as she knelt beside the head. This girl's face might have been bathed in moonlight a handful of hours earlier.

She flipped through the cobwebbed filing cabinet that was her mind, searching for the correct recollection. Laura Asano's head had been resting on a windowsill, turned to catch the moonlight full in the face. Come to think of it, the window ledge had been relatively clean, or at least not as bloody as one might expect. Amy frowned and tried to shoulder past her unease as she leaned down further, squinting at the base of the head. How had it been detached?

A smattering of moisture dripped onto her face. Amy winced slightly before turning her eyes skyward again. A drop of rain hit her squarely between the eyes. Damnation….

Dragging the back of her wrist across her face, Amy pushed herself to her feet and slowly made her way to the bloody mess that was now lovingly referred to as "the body." It was positioned on its back, arms loosely at its sides and legs slightly splayed. It lay facing away from the head-or as well as it could face without one. As she approached the bloody stump of a neck, Amy felt her stomach go queasy. She made herself overlook the gaping wound and exposed vertebra, instead focusing on the three vampire nips off to one side. And her breath caught in her throat.

Mikael sighed softly, wiggling his foot around in his boot to comfortably reposition it. "Ah, now I hunger." His eyes danced with sadistic amusement as they fixed onto Amy. "Know that when I feed on my eager victim, I will pretend that it is you in my arms instead." His teeth flashed as his lips parted in a laugh.

Amy felt the blood drain from her face. Mikael's words, spoken only hours earlier, slithered through her thoughts. She swallowed hard as she stared at the headless body. The clothes were torn, slicked against the skin under the weight of dark reddish-brown blood. Congealing blood. It could not be more than a few hours old.

"In the end, you will serve me or die. And know that if ever I must make the choice, I will not hesitate to kill you."

Rain began to infiltrate the canopy of trees, falling in large, erratic dropules. Some landed on Amy's head, slowly stretching to spill down the side of her face.

"I will pretend it is you."

Amy barely reached the edge of the clearing before she threw up.