The Incandescent | Book 7 | The Fairy arc

Chapter 18 ~ The Case of the Murderous Redhead Vampiress

Mara sat alone at a table in her father's favorite bookstore, the Luminara.

Reddish orange ribbons encircled red roses in the doorway. Cheerful lights brightened the interior of the bookstore in rain or shine, providing a relaxing atmosphere. Today was steady rainfall, the perfect weather for reading a book. Warm summer was turning into cool autumn, becoming colder each day.

A crimson red mantle enveloped Mara as she enjoyed her favorite Monshalowan cake, a caramel puff pastry specialty with rose petals. Amaretto rose oolong tea included a vanilla bean stick. There was also a midnight blue éclairmelar with a delectable black chocolate custard filling, spun spiral pasta with smoked mulberry sauce, and a spiced black currant drink.

To the right of the plate was Mara's red comect device displaying the reason for the indulgence. An email message from her supervisor explained the need to return to work. Mara could hear the apology in the email as she read it a second time.

Hello Mara Decuir,

I dislike pulling you away from valuable time with your family, but we need you to impersonate a vampire on planet Mijoria. Her name is Trésora Martel. She is Mijoria's most wanted criminal. We have sent three private detectives, but she killed two and left the third one in a coma.

We are unable to capture her. The assignment escalated to a critical situation upon the loss of our detectives. After careful consideration, it is decided that you are the best candidate to handle this critical situation.

Your shapeshifting ability is needed for your next assignment, as well as your natural Iredescent ability to understand foreign alien languages. It will be a solo assignment. Details are enclosed with the email file attachment.

Again, my apologies. Please inform us soon as you can travel to Mijoria. We are dependent on you to arrest the vampires – the Mijorian term for a female vampire.

May the stars shine bright for you, Mara Decuir.

Mara sighed, taking another bite of her favorite cake. A Vanquesha, a villain, and a vampire. Perhaps the following assignment would encounter a vagabond or Vareshken, or better yet, some kind of vendetta or vermillion onion.

A vampire was like a wildcard. Hard to tame, even harder to capture. But Iredescents held an advantage via superhuman abilities and matching vampire speed in almost-instantaneous movement, another advantage that would help Mara in her next assignment.

Mara wasn't sure how to break the news to her father. She knew he would be heavily disappointed to learn she had to leave for an assignment.

Ireyna might give Mara some valuable information, since vampires used to live with fairies in the past.

Drave would be worried, and Erasmo would remind Mara to bring snacks.

But Mara felt no fear. It wasn't exactly confidence that she could take on the vampire, but more so, a driven self-motivation that she would take on the vampire.

Mara finished her cake before opening the email attachment, looking over the case files.

Pictures of Trésora jumped out on the screen, but Mara was unfazed, studying her appearance and committing it to her memory, so she could shapeshift into the vampire.

Trésora appeared younger than Mara, but Mara knew her true age was five hundred centuries. Trésora always wore a long white dress, elegant and medieval, with red ribbons bleeding down the long sleeves and tracing her hips. A dainty white crystal bracelet was on her wrist, along with matching crystal white earrings.