Supernatural Task Force: The Wolf and the Ancient.

Body in the Dumpster

Vamp clubs were dangerous. You could go in and not come out. You could come out completely different from what you used to be. It wasn't just the change of being turned into a vamp, you could be tortured, whether you were turned or not, and held prisoner and fed on. Vamp clubs were clearly marked, with warning signs, and that seemed to attract non-vamps rather than discourage them.

David flashed his bag to the bouncer. A muscular vamp who was watching the door, it was possibly a few decades old. From the bluish tint to it's skin, somewhat pointed ears, glittering eyes it wasn't that young, but not an ancient either.

Inside was the flash of strobes, rotating colored lights, and the glitter of several mirror balls in the ceiling. The crowd was a mix of teenagers, young adults, and young vamps. Most no more than ten years.

David circled past the dance floor, through tables lining the walls. There were older vamps here like the bouncer at the front door. A door leading to the back rooms was watch over by a male known in the vampire community as a Centurian. Meaning the vamp was over a hundred years old. Not in the ancient category, but powerful enough to stop someone like David if he wanted to. He didn't. Of course, David had an edge that ordinary mortals didn't have.

Through the door were a mixed bag of vamps, though none in the Centurian rank. Going up the stairs, David was challenged by two more Centurians, before he was allowed in the office. Inside the office were two female vamps of the young category, but stabilized. Not like the ones a they had found yesterday, who were still finding their way.

Behind a century old desk was a near ancient. Several hundred years old. Hispanic in origin. He didn't have the blue tint of younger vampires. His ears had lost their pointed shape. His eyes were black, like jet stones. Most old vamps like this one wore sun glasses to hide their disturbing eye color. It bothered even the vamp; who could seldom look in the mirror. If they saw their black eyes in a mirror they usually break the mirror. Which was why most older vamps didn't like mirrors.

"Teniente Rugby." Said the Vamp. "Como saber yo auxilio bajar?"

"You can start by speaking English, you've forgotten how to speak Spanish anyway." David said.

"Well, it's been nearly two hundred years." The vamp replied.

"Carlos, we have a unregistered vamp killing people." David got right to the point. "This would be someone who might gloat about his kills."

"If I learn about it, it's death sleep for him, until the authorities come for it." Carlos said, in a cold dispassionate voice. "I will send out feelers. We can't have this, the next thing will happen is that mortals will use this as an excuse to hunt us again. I will contact you Teniente Rugby."

With that they were out of the office, out of the club, driving home.

"Teniente?" Andrea sat in the passenger side as David drove.

"Lieutenant in Spanish." David explained. "Carlos was Spanish once, but I don't know what he is now. As he said, he hasn't spoken Spanish in two hundred years."

"Simple, Lieutenant, he's a vampire, has been for a while, as far as I can tell."

"I have to wonder how these old vamps stay sane, after centuries of life."

"As far as I can tell, they don't. Not sane like you and me, at least." Andrea replied.

They found body three the next morning. Someone had thrown the body into the dumpster. Found by a store clerk who was using the dumpster, about noon that day. This was an unnecessary kill, even a young vampire didn't need this much blood. It was a bus boy from a nearby restaurant who had taken out trash the night before.

"This isn't about blood anymore, this is a serial killer. We have to find this bastard fast." David said. "We will have to go through the regular police now, get them to set up bait. I hate to do it, but we'll have to stake out a few officers. In the meantime, I'll talk to Carlos and have all of the vamps in the city get together with our own cops to help hunt this bastard down."

"We haven't used human bait since the old vampire hunts at the turn of the century." Andrea said.

"That was before registration. We were luring out the killer vampires back then so that we could make an example of them. When the other vampires began to fall into line, we no longer needed to lure them out, and we began to register them. This is different, we are after a specific monster who is killing for pleasure."

"Still, we will be taking a big chance that someone will get infected." Andrea pointed out.

"A curable infection these days." David countered. "Besides, I plan to put some vamps out there too, hopefully not too close, but close enough."