Dance with Darkness - Ghost Dance

Chapter 5

I arrived at the Triple H headquarters that night, on time and perhaps even a bit early—much to Nakoma’s apparent dismay, as it seemed like she had been looking forward to reprimanding me for any tardiness.

“She’s here, Kamali,” one of the other Amethyst Team members, a short, short-haired redhead girl announced from the far end of room.

“Thanks Evanna,” the captain replied.  He gestured for me to take a seat at the oval conference table in the middle of the room we were in.

I sat down, painfully aware of Nakoma’s steely gaze in my direction, but the other hunters seemed more focused on the presentation that Kamali was about to start.  I stole a quick glance around, satisfied to see that today I had been able to match the hunter’s gym attire with some black sweatpants and a sporty top of my own.  Even Nakoma was somewhat matching them in her own way, projecting her image with braids, a plain cotton tunic cinched at the waist with a leather belt, and buckskin leggings.

“All right.  Now that everyone’s here, let’s start the briefing,” Kamali began, getting up to stand at the far end of the room, where a projector screen was set up.  “Most of us have already heard about the Decayer these past few months, but just to ensure we’re all on the same page, I’ll go over a brief history.”  I bit my lip to stop a scowl, able to read between the lines—they had to give the background story for my benefit alone.

“On September third, a nearly two-hundred year-old Russian vampire by the name of Afanasii Alkaev failed to show up at an event he was hosting in Vancouver.”  The first slide clicked into place to show the victim; a very muscular gentleman turned in his late-thirties.  “The next day his body was found.  As many of you are aware, vampires immediately dissolve to dust when they die instead of rotting on their own, so this was very unusual.”  The next few pictures were shown in quick succession—close ups of the vampire’s body, like the chest, or an arm, or a foot, but thankfully never the face.  All pictures showed the same thing: severe muscle wasting and horribly decayed flesh, rotting away to show bone.  Disgusted, I had to look away until they were over, replaced by a map of the United States.

“A similar killing occurred in San Jose four days later,” Kamali continued, pointing at the map, “and then one in Saint Louis and three in Chicago.  The killings continued to the East Coast, where there have been a total of five killings in the past three weeks.  The first two killings on the East Coast were here in Baltimore, but the others have been all up and down the Atlantic.  The Vampire Council has hired us to look into the cases and put a stop to the murders as soon as possible.  As you know, the American Vampire Conference is being held in New York next spring, and it would look bad if there were a slew of unsolved murders leading up to it.”

“So what do we know so far?” Evanna asked with a hint of annoyance.  It seemed that, in addition to her short hair and stature, she was a bit short on patience as well.

“We have yet to find a distinct connection between the victims, besides that they are all upper-class and theoretically very difficult to kill,” Kamali answered, “so any motives are still unclear.  Our San Francisco branch tried to examine the body of the Californian victim, but the body and samples decayed too quickly, so we still know very little.”

“Then what do we do?”  The hunter to my left, a muscular, tanned Asian man in his early thirties, spoke up.  “All we know is the Decayer is capable of killing very powerful vampires, but we don’t even know why or how.  Where do we begin our investigation?”

“We start with Nakoma,” Kamali said, turning to the ghost who was sitting calmly next to Evanna.  I tensed, expecting possession, but not a single glance was directed towards me, so I figured I was safe for the moment.  “She’s dealt with this kind of thing before.”