It was just after dark in Los Angeles, in the middle of summer, and in a small library known as The Ancient Tome, an silver-haired gentleman was studying an leather book, dust particles sat around the edges of it’s midnight coloring, suggesting it was ancient. Only a small lamplight made any lights in the area, the rest of the library was shaded in darkness. Jethro Paxtron, sixty five years old and still a ruggedly, handsome man, with light emerald eyes. He wore a black suit, and a white shirt. Over the top was a black cloak, and red underneath it. Most thought he dressed very strangely, but he never cared for what others thought. He had been dressing a different way for years, standing out from the crowd.
“I know you are here,” Jethro spoke, as to the shadows themselves, an person appeared from the darkness, the light glinted off the steel of the sword in her hand, two icy blue eyes glanced towards the older man, preying, like an jaguar in it’s hunt, and walked slowly to him, an cold look, hardened by the past masked across her expression, her honey blonde hair tied into an ponytail with an few strands covering her forehead.
“You’re good, now fight,” the woman spoke in an cold tone, Jethro looked up and smiled towards her, looking unnerved by the sword in her hand.
“An fight? Against you? How could I possibly win, I am an old man and you can throw an fit man across the room without much trouble,” Jethro pointed out, grabbing the handle of his brown cane next to him, the straight stick, curving into an handle for him, two edges poked down further in an shape of an sword’s handle, Jethro jumped to his feet as the quiet woman jabbed her sword towards him, Jethro blocked the attack pushing the woman known as Mya off. Mya twirled in an circle, jabbing the sword again, Jethro jumped backwards trying to land an hit, the swords clanged together, Mya blocked the attack with her own sword, the two facing off each other.
“Getting tired? Think you can defeat me?” Mya snarled, her eyes glowering in the light, Jethro pulled the sword straight up, close to his face, two light hands gripping the handle.
“I fought vampires, demons, warlocks much tougher then you my dear, nothing I cannot stop,” Jethro informed her, widening his eyes, the expression of an madman showed, Jethro lunged another sword attack for Mya, who skillfully dodged once more laughing, she rushed at him causing Jethro to walk backwards, the two swords smashed against each other, trying to reach the other opponent, Mya finally forced the sword out of his hand, causing the old man to stumble, the floorboards shuddered when Jethro landed on his back, Mya’s sword pointed towards his chest, an blank and cold look on the woman’s face like an assassin going for the kill. The library was silent, heavy breathing coming from the two as Mya had Jethro’s life in her hands, one twitch and she could end it.
“Oh my dear, don’t kill me. I got an woman, who I treat as my granddaughter who will come after you with no mercy,” Jethro pleaded with her in an weak tone, it was another few moments but Mya smiled towards him, and Jethro chuckled, the silver steel of the sword withdrawn.
“Damn straight I will,” Mya responded, being the girl in question, from the outside it would seem an young woman preying on an older man, was the closest relationship in the inside, Mya was one of the first out of three others who joined Jethro’s team in fighting against the supernatural, an girl with the ability of super strength, alone in the world with no real parents, Jethro was the closest she ever had, and he had yet to pass on an legacy so Jethro believed it was enough that Mya looked at her like an grandfather.
Mya extended an hand, helping Jethro to his feet and walking over to an table with long piles of books stacked on each other, most were on the supernatural and usually found in the restricted section, only they could visit it. Jethro walked back to the table, clasping the sword back into the cane, an slight scratching sound could be heard as it went in. “Why are you still here anyways? I figured you went home ages ago,” Mya questioned watching the man sit down, grabbing an clear glass of water, his throat felt rather dry after that workout.
“Just some light reading my dear,” Jethro responded, allowing Mya to spy on the book he was reading, an yellowed page about an demon that feasted on human skulls, an gruesome picture was shown,”That’s light reading?” Mya teased him, tilting her head, wisps of her long hair fell across her shoulders trying to get an better look.
“Well, in my day I dealt with worse, so for me it is” Jethro replied, Mya smiled and shook her head, he was the few people she even smiled for. “Never a bad idea to research, we could end up fighting something like this,” Jethro answered.
“You know what, you have done nothing but sit here and research, every night. I am taking you out to a bar and buy you a couple of drinks,” Mya told him, lightly hitting her hands on the table.
“Really? I think you are just too young for my type,” Jethro joked, getting a scowl from Mya. “Alright, since you are paying, let’s head off to town,” Jethro answered, he rubbed his eyes with his fingers, realizing he was feeling a little exhausted, his eyelids feeling heavy, so he closed the book and walked out with Mya.
The City of Angels was bustling with people, still going on the night life, filling up restaurants, bars and clubs. An young girl of eighteen, with raven, black short hair, and round, emerald eyes red in the corner showing she was already drunk, and stumbling down an shortcut to home. She turned around a corner, giving out an small startled gasp, almost crashing into an man with a black leather jacket and jeans, he had no shirt on revealing an slim body, suggesting he jogged regularly, his eyes looked almost charming and were blue, his hair was spiked up. “Who are you?” the girl asked staring at him, her rational mind felt nervous seeing him standing there, but her eyes lingered spying his muscular body.
“Whoever you want me to be,” the man replied with a charming smile. “Most just call me Chuck. And who you?” the man asked her, coming to stand close to her. She smiled with a glint in her eyes.
“Holly, and I think I am the girl who will rock your dreams,” she replied, placing a hand on his bare chest feeling the softness of his pale skin, he smirked as well, placing a hand down on her hips, she had an mid cut shirt, only going halfway, an small black feline was printed on the front.
“You do look beautiful,” he replied, kissing her softly, moving his hands around her waist, kissing her along the neck, Holly moaned softly.
“That is fun, why don’t you come back-” Holly stopped when she saw his face had changed, his eyes had turned yellow, and his face was disfigured with sunken cheeks and bloated cheeks, fangs sprouted over his lips. “What the hell happened to your face?” Holly shouted in shock, surprised what he was doing, Holly wanted to run, to flee “Why can’t I run?’ Holly asked, her body refused to move, every muscle in her body screamed to run, yet she couldn’t move at all, like she was frozen in ice.
“Because vampires have extra powers now, started in Australia, and soon we all have it. My former self was able to paralyze with his saliva,” Chuck retorted, Holly’s eyes were widened even more. “Vampires?” but she never got her answer, he grabbed her hair, and sunk his teeth down into her precious flesh, draining her of blood, parts of the scarlet red trickled down his chin. Once he was done, he let her body fall to the ground. “This isn’t Twilight babe, we aren’t sexual,” Chuck remarked watching her fall, and licking her lips off his mouth. “The Vampire Master will love this.” he chuckled before walking away, leaving her body to be found later.
Mya and Jethro entered the bar named Gloria’s, run by an gorgeous Colombian woman named Gloria. The bar, as usual was hopping with many people, there was even a bridal party in the back. They walked to the counter where two bartenders were, including another member of the Heroes gang, Priya Rawaswami, an black haired girl from the exotic continent of India. She was wearing a rather revealing blouse, that showed off her cleavage and dark brown skin.
“Priya! What are you doing here, my dear?” Jethro asked noticing her, Priya gave them an wide smile, her dark brown colored eyes glanced towards them.
“Working, just landed a job yesterday, figured a night job I can keep an eye on any suspicious characters,” Priya explained to them. “What can I get you?” she added, grabbing two glasses and placing them on the counter.
“I will just have a Scotch on the rocks,” Jethro answered giving her one of his charming smile. “And I will just have a beer, I am buying so this old man gets out of the library, every now and then,” Mya added, she spoke in an louder voice, the patrons behind them had made it hard to hear, cheering, and drunken laughter echoed around the establishment.
“Hey, I am not so old I can’t break you over my knee,” Jethro informed her, Mya just smirked at him “You can try,” she joked, tapping her fingers against the counter.
“Okay, one regular beer and one scotch coming right up,” Priya answered chuckling, the ice clinked together inside the glass, and the golden liquid made an swishing noise, before filling the glasses up. Priya worked faster then an normal human could, her hands moving quickly to deliver the drinks, an supernatural power that made Priya faster then the average human. “So, Jethro I have been here for like two years, and I don’t know much about your past, were you ever married?” Priya questioned him, Jethro looked towards her, glancing at Mya before back at her, hesitating telling her much.
“There’s not much to tell, there was a woman in my life I cared deeply about, but she has long since passed. And I am content with the girls I like to see as my daughters,” Jethro answered the tone of his voice sounded low and almost broken, he was still rather quiet about the past, while he was often a chatty man, and light hearted, this was one of the things he remained quiet on. “Think I will take a seat, let us know when you are on a break,” Jethro suggested clearing his throat, before walking over to a booth with a lounge for chairs.
“He’s so quiet about it, I wish he wasn’t so closed about it, wonder what happened” Priya commented, Mya shrugged her shoulders, Priya’s hair moved against her shoulder as she tilted her head to Mya, “Come to think of it, you don’t really talk about your past either.”
"Well, I don't have much to talk about, and I don't really need to talk about it," Mya replied, half chuckling, she turned and went to join Jethro. "Wow, almost like they are really related", Priya observed, she turned to keep serving the other customers, but couldn't help to wonder about Jethro's and Mya's past, what happened that made them so closed about it. “The Master’s coming,” Priya was startled to hear an whisper coming from behind her, she shuddered swirling around to catch what had spoken, the patrons at the bar seemed too busy with their drinks, flirting with each other to have spoken towards her, leaving Priya to wonder if she had imagined it.
The sun rose above Los Angeles, and Dawn Slade another member of the heroes, was relaxing on top of a building, overlooking the city and watching the orange pink sunrise, with a cup of coffee on one side in the camp chair’s drink pouch, and a black and silver laptop on her lap. She would admit she did break the law by using her power go through walls, and up to the top of the place, it was an apartment building so she wasn't too worried. She took a sip of her double shot, caramel Mocha, and started tapping on the keyboard,she spoke every word out loud, so she could get it right in writing.
"The Agents were at a loss the suspect had now become the murderer, but he escaped, hiding somewhere in the city of Angels. They knew they didn't have much time he would keep killing everyone until he was done, and he was doing it so skillfully, like he plotted each death, and how to get away from murder. Dawn typed out loud, looking thoughtful as she went along. "Agent Ferguson, still trapped in the case knew her own time was running out, the murderer targeted her, and soon, anytime she would be alone, without her squad he would seek her out, and kill her. "There has to be something we are missing," Agent Ferguson cried out, her squad staring at the board and hoping they could see something, to help save her. Another Agent walked through, with a casefile in hand "So, it seems our killer he is becoming more bolder, went up to a man smoking at a bus station, and shot him from a hotel room across the stree,t" Agent Walker informed them.
"Can't blame him on that one, people who smoke near others are really jerks, my sister died from second hand smoking," Agent Jenkins replied, not that he thought smokers who do that should die, but aleast be punched in the face for it"
Dawn took a moment break, watching the sun slowly rise into the sky, it seemed a few hours had already passed, that's what writing was like, you looked down for a moment, and three hours already rushed by. “Wonder if I should scrap that last scene, might be a little controversial,” Dawn whispered staring at what she just written, it was only the first draft, she still had to edit it. “Or is it even good enough?” Dawn pouted, wondering how much editing it needed. As she set to write another scene vowing to come back, she heard an vibrating sound, Dawn frowned startled until she realized it was her mobile, an sleek silver Iphone 4, sitting on the armrest of her chair.
"Hello?" Dawn asked, "How's my favorite grandpa?" she joked with a smirk, she heard Jethro chuckling, he knew she was just teasing him, and never said anything about it.
"Fine, but it seems a case has dropped. Agent Smith found a body with two teeth marks, the police are dumbfounded by it.. But it's obvious, this girl was drained by a vampire, and the vampire attacks have been becoming much more bold lately," Jethro responded. "Are you able to come down, my dear?"
"Of course, will be down soon as possible" Dawn replied, snapping her laptop shut, shoving it into her royal purple, laptop bag, "Good, will have Mya text you the location, stay safe my dear," Jethro answered, with that the connection was lost, Dawn ran down the buildin going through walls, an strange sensation every time, her heart would leap as she lunged for the solid wall then she passed it, the first time Dawn had done it left her dizzy, now she didn’t notice as she rushed to the crime scene.
Agent John Smith was already on the case, being an FBI Agent, he was ahead of the curve, and often the one who told the group about the cases, they only had an limited time to see it before the crime scene became crowded. He was the last of the group to have joined, he had noticed Jethro and the others showing up at crime scenes over the years, some were cold cases so he investigated it and tried to get them in trouble, but eventually found out who they were and joined them.
He was standing at the scene itself, the body of Holly Clayson found and still being looked at by forensics, and his squad attempting to find more clues of course he was part of a squad and led a double life, it was rather more dangerous but he loved doing both seeing the look on someone's face when you saved them.
"Agent Smith, over here!" Jethro's voice called out, John flickered his soft, brown eyes towards the voice, Jethro had arrived along with Mya, John walked over to them, checking that no one was paying attention, he didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention to them. His partner, Agent Jaraeu was busy looking over the body. "Hey, so it seems we have an vampire attack again," John replied speaking softly, the sounds of traffic behind them could be heard, masking their conversation.
"Another one? They are becoming more frequent aren't they? Used to be only every few weeks we would even find a body," Mya commented.
"The vampires must be starving out, perhaps an overpopulation even," Jethro commented, placing his hands in his suit pocket and studying the body from afar. "Anything else you can tell us about it?"
"No, the body is an eighteen year old girl, young college student named Holly, she must have taken this as a shortcut, and was confronted by a vampire," John explained, he knew his squad would be on this for a while, but like most vampire attacks, would close it as a cold case, and believe a toothpick killer was out there. Dawn Slade came running up at them at this moment, her breathing was heavy having to rush most of the way.
"Sorry, got your call. What's this about a vampire attack?" Dawn asked, she glanced over at the body and looked slightly ill, while she was used to seeing this now, it still made her feel queasy more then it should.
"Well, that's what it is. A vampire attack" Mya commented, her tone slightly harsh, an scarlet blush crossed Dawn’s light cheeks. "There's not much else you guys can do here, the squad won't let you anywhere near the body," John replied, glancing over at the cops all over the scene. "Meet you back at the library and let you know?"
"Of course, keep us updated. Come along my dears," Jethro said to Mya and Dawn, before walking off, his black cloak bellowing behind him, the two girls glanced towards the body taking an final look and followed Jethro. John turned his partner staring curiously towards them.
"Agent Smith, who were they?" Agent Violet Jaraeu questioned walking over to him, she brushed the light ash blonde, strands of her hair out from her ocean blue eyes, John smiled slightly, he wished he could tell his partner everything, that it was an vampire attack. But he couldn't, Violet already had some stressful years ever since she lost an innocent against a suspect, it took her almost to the edge until she visited Australia, and came back feeling refreshed.
"No one, just bystanders who wanted to know what was going on. Let's get to trying finding out what happened hey?" John asked in a cheery voice before walking over to the scene, his partner watched him, her lips pressed tightly together, she knew they were more then bystanders he seemed to actually know them. John’s behavior in the recent years had gotten strange, disappearing more often, he didn’t even question most of the cases that happened. Violet wanted to find out exactly what he knew, and one day she would find out even if it was the last thing she did.
Channa Kanniah
