Midnight Sun

Chapter Three

2014 Copyright © A. M. Forest

All Rights Reserved

Magnolia walked casually through town, her gun hidden on her hip beneath her trench coat. She eyed the happy couples and families enjoying their Saturday together, unaware of the threat that lied in their flowery town.

She mentally groaned as a young couple, probably fifteen or sixteen, passed by. The girl chattering on and on about some type of shoe while her boyfriend nodded here and there, discreetly checking out ladies walking by them. As the two passed Magnolia, she glared at the boy as soon as they made eye contact, making him quickly avert his gaze and pull his girlfriend a little faster around the next corner.

Magnolia chuckled under her breath, smiling at their retreating forms when she sensed someone behind her. She rounded a corner into an alley and swiftly pulled out her gun before turning around, aiming the weapon in the face of a startled Agent Joseph.

His wide blue eyes looked so much like his.

"Maggie, are you ready?"

She glared at him. "Why are you following me?" She demanded, her gun steady.

"For goodness sake, Magnolia!" Joseph yelped, raising his hands in surrender. "Can you at least holster your weapon?"

"Answer the question, agent." Her command was authoritative, her expression just as fierce as her anger, her gun not wavering for a second as it trained on him. She was sure he feared her.

Joseph gulped, "I told you I was assigned to assist you, and since you weren't planning on including me in anything, I decided observing from a distance would be the best option in ensuring your safety."

Magnolia lowered the gun; her glare still in place as she hissed out, "Let me make myself clear: I don't care what your name is, where you come from, what branch you're a part of, or if you can even fight—if you get in my way, I will shoot you with no hesitation. I don't need you 'ensuring my safety'. I can handle myself. Got it?"

"Yes, Agent Haunt." He nodded, his shoulders sagging, "I understand."

"Good," she said, placing her weapon back in it's holster. A thought struck her, "How long have you been assigned to this town, Joseph?"

"I've been here for about two and a half years. Why?"

A smile appeared on her face, one that unsettled Joseph completely. "It seems you will be of some use to me after all."

~~~

After having Joseph give her a tour of the town, Magnolia found herself at the kitchen table with her laptop, looking up the local newspaper and those of nearby towns for any recent deaths.

For a large pod to live in a small town such as this, it'd have to have blood donors. If there weren't enough blood donors, there were bound to be bodies. Where there's a body, there's a blood trail leading back to the vampire who did it and thus the pod it belongs to.

Surprisingly, Magnolia found only one murder in the past three years; two months prior to her arrival, a body—later identified as Todd Waters, an ER doctor to the local emergency hospital—was found floating in the lake face down, lacerations to the neck. Since he was in the water over night, no one thought twice about the amount of blood missing from his body. The killer was yet to be found.

Magnolia sat back in her chair in thought. If only one body was found, why would the professor think there was a large pod present?

She opened up the paper file on the table and looked through the details again. She had to have missed something. When she spotted it, she immediately took out her phone and rang the professor.