Finding Falcon

Chapter 3

The growing nest of vampires in Omaha was hardly a challenge for either of us. What we lacked in their supernatural strength and speed we made up for in experience, strategy, and good ole firearms.

Vampires could only be killed two ways: classic stake to the heart --wood or silver-- and by decapitation. But shooting them up with silver was an effective method of incapacitating them.

Gemini favored the approach of cutting off their heads; he had a weird attachment to a machete that he called Bertha. I, however; preferred a stake through the heart with a silver stake my foster father who'd believed my story of furry monsters and a Changed brother had made specially for me.

Both methods were equally messy, usually once killed vampires tended to explode into a pile of blood and gooey nastiness, but when I staked them I got to watch as their expressions morphed from anger to fear and then finally as the light died from their eyes.

And if I didn't hurry and get out of the way I ended up covered in vampire goo. Which tended to happen often too since the period between death and explosion was unpredictable.

We were already on the lookout for a new case to work, scouring newspapers and the internet for any stories that stuck out as strange when my phone rang. It certainly wasn't unusual for my phone to ring. Other Huntsmen we kept in contact with knew my story and sometimes called when they thought they'd chanced upon a lead about my brother. Or they called with cases they needed back up for or couldn't take themselves.

What made it unusual was when I answered and on the other line was simply heavy breathing, the sound of which made my skin crawl for no rational reason I could see. "Hello?" I asked cautiously, my eyes narrowed as I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

There was a low sigh on the other end and I could see a blood drenched muzzle as the jowls curled up in a toothy grin. My fingers tightened around the phone's slim design, and my vision became distorted with a red haze.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are Brynelle," a sinister voice whispered so low I almost couldn't believe I had heard correctly, "Falcon wants to play." At the mention of my brother's name I heard the snap as my teeth clenched together. The phones plastic made a sound of protest as my fingers curled even tighter and all I could hear now was the pounding of blood in my ears like the roar of a waterfall.

"What have you done with him?" my voice came out just as quiet as the monsters on the other side of the line.

"Come find us." His whisper was followed by a click as the line went dead. I stood rooted to the spot as a tremble began in my hands and legs.

"NO!" I finally screamed in protest, throwing the cell phone with such fury it shattered against the wall. "Noooo!" My violence had shocked Gemini into a rigid state, his back iron straight as he watched me with calculating eyes.

I couldn't bother to explain anything to him, I was beyond anything at the moment but senseless screaming. My hands raised to tear at my hair as a chaotic panic consumed me, my fingers curling in the burgundy strands. 

The very monster who had killed my parents and Changed my brother had gotten my number and after 8 years of silence had decided to toy with me. It was bad enough that he haunted my dreams and waking mind with those eyes that never seemed to look away and the blood of my family, but now he had started the ultimate game. 

There was no way I wasn't going after him, and that was surely something the beast knew and wanted. My breathing was erratic, coming out in rapid bursts, there was no way I could control it. The red haze filling my vision overwhelmed everything else. I had to go after him, there was no other option. But how could I find him when I had just destroyed my phone and turned it into shrapnel.

I was thinking of this singularly, completely forgetting Gemini's presence in my outrage. I turned on my partner with eyes wide and I knew from the way his lips pursed that they were certainly filled with the craziness I felt brewing like a storm inside me. My chest was expanding with violent energy until it felt like I was suffocating.

Gemini was silent as he waited for me to say something, his dark eyes wary. I felt like I had just run a marathon as I tried to slow my breaths. Finally, after struggling to regain my sanity and stem the rising panic, my eyes met Gemini's. "It was him," I whispered, and his face became an expressionless mask.

***

Uploads are every Saturday.