NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16: “The Skull” – Part 2.
“Let’s see you are one Casey Rivers, according to your fingerprint and the pictures we have on file.” An Army officer sat across from his prisoner. “How did you get in here? We find you laying in the middle of the bay, knocked out.” He leaned forward, “You know breaking into a military base is a federal crime.” Just then a pair of men in black suits, with small earpieces came into the room. “You can leave. She is under our… care now.”
Looking oddly at the two men, the officer stood up. “Who are you? I am not relinquishing a prisoner until I see proper docu…” He stopped when the two flashed FBI badges, “What does the FBI want with a girl we found on the floor.”
“Look, Captain..” One man looked at the nametag, “...Joyner, that is classified information. We will be taking her at this point.” The man looked at Casey, “Well. It took long enough, but you will prove valuable to convince others of what we’ve watched for years.” He took off the handcuffs, “Pointless anyway.” He pulled out a small syringe full of a cream-colored liquid. “I already know we can’t inject you. However..” He walked up and squeezed Casey’s cheek and made her lips pop open and depressed the plunger. “Good girl.” He looked at his partner. “Neutralized. Let’s get her back to the Strode building.” The first agent paused, “Come to think of it, take the captain too. Get the other four soldiers that witnessed her as well.” He continued. “No trace.” His partner nodded and did as told.
Watching the whole scene from above, Sylvie noticed the subtle passing of the moon and sun blending over Casey’s messy strawberry hair.
-The eclipse. Shit…I need to stop her NOW!-
Sylvie snapped out of her short trance and in one swift move tackled Casey to the ground just before the vent.
“What the fuck?” Casey exclaimed and looked up confused at Sylvie.
Sylvie jerked her newborn vampire and girlfriend up from the roof and motioned for her to follow. Sylvie found another set of deep shadows and laid flat. “You can’t use ghost form, Casey.”
“Yes, I can…” Casey felt the anguish coming from Sylvie’s moonlit eyes. “You saw something didn’t you?”
Hearing the service door open, Sylvie did the best she could to hide from the flashlight beam that was coming towards them. “Yes, and it wasn’t good.”
“New plan?” Casey rolled behind a metal box, “Well think of something fast, that guy is coming.”
Sylvie rolled to the opposite side and also hid behind a sheet metal box making a loud noise of some kind. “Shift into your bird..I have an idea.”
Doing as she was told, Casey seamlessly turned back into her hawk form and looked at her mistress. Sylvie nodded and pointed to the top of the box. “Hop up there and let the guard see you.” Sylvie watched as Casey flew off then came back to land perfectly on the metal structure, garnering the soldier’s flashlight.
“Oh, a hawk!” The soldier pressed a button on his radio, “Rodriguez, it’s a hawk. A cool-looking one at that.” He paused, “What do you want me to do?”
A light Latino voice crackled from the other side, “Nothing. It’s just a bird. Stupid motion sensors going off all the time. Pointless things.” He paused, “Just get back down here, we will report it as normal.”
Nodding briefly, the soldier answered back. “Roger, I am coming back down. First I gotta get a picture.” He fished out his phone and started to tap the screen. “This is gonna be so co…”
Coming out of the shadows and reforming from the mist she’d become, Sylvie grabbed the unsuspecting guard and blew her breath right across his nose. “Hello there, can you tell me your name?” Sylvie asked while leading the man back to the service door.
“Private Scott Whitman, ma’am.” He purred lightly. “I was just up here because the sensors went off, and Sergeant Rodriguez didn’t want to come up.”
Sylvie motioned for Casey to follow as the two headed down the stairwell. “I promised I would tell you all my visions, dear-heart.” Sylvie walked with the man a little more. “I saw you helpless at a table with handcuffs on. You were being interrogated by some captain at first..”
Hearing the word ‘captain’ Private Whitman spoke up, “Captain Joyner. Good man.”
Walking in front of the young soldier, Sylvie put her finger over her lips. “Shhh, we don’t want to ruin the surprise for Rodriguez, do we?” She watched the soldier clap his hand over his mouth and start shaking his head. She resumed talking to Casey, “...Then two FBI agents came in with some white liquid, shoved it down your throat and claimed you were neutralized.” She paused, “It also sounded like the CIA knows about us as a whole.” She led the boy down to the guard area. “Whitman, can you buzz us in the room? We are a couple of dancers..Joyner hired us.”
Tilting her head, Casey frowned. “Dancers? That’s the best you could come up with?” She paused, “I take it that it was ghost form that caused me to get caught?” Casey licked her lips suddenly feeling very hungry.
Affirming Casey’s statement, Sylvie nodded. “Yeah, once your blood is used up..you’ll reform and be pretty helpless until the hunter within you wakes up and you go into a frenzy.” She paused, “From what I saw you hadn’t hit that stage yet.”
Whitman tapped his card against the flat panel and the door buzzed and allowed the three to enter. “Sergeant, this is…” He looked back at Sylvie.. “What do I call you, Ma’am?”
Sylvie didn’t have time to answer, as Casey hopped on the other man and drained him completely. Watching the man turn to dust, Sylvie shrugged. “That’s one way.” She looked over at Whitman and sat him down in the chair that his sergeant was in. “Do you know how to shut off the cameras?”
He shook his head, “No ma’am. I am only to watch and report.”
A little beep from Sylvie’s contacts and Code spoke up. “Schematics for this system are loaded.” Green lights circled once more and then the monitors seemed to go blank. “All sensors down and video on a loop. Query?”
Wiping her lips clear of the sergeant’s blood, Casey heard the AI talking. “I love that damned thing. I can’t wait to have my own.” She paused, “So we are clear to the box then?
“It would seem that way.” Sylvie paused, “Scott…” She looked at the young man, “...How many guards are there on shift tonight?”
Dreamy-eyed and blushing, Scott swallowed hard and answered. “About twenty since we received an important shipment today. A civilian one.”
Casey walked behind Scott, “Tell me, have you seen any men that look like FBI agents?”
Nodding briefly, the guard told Casey the room number. “66-Bravo, it’s got a secure entrance.” He grabbed a piece of paper and drew a crude map for the vampiress. “That should get you there. I had lunch with one of them, called himself Agent Mike Calahan.”
Clapping excitedly, Casey smiled at Sylvie. “Okay, you get the skull, I am going after these FBI dudes. You said they had some kind of liquid that kept me neutral?” She paused, “I think that is important to get so the others can possibly figure out what it is.” Casey sighed, “Do we have any chemists among us?”
Sylvie grabbed one of Casey’s hands. “I think we should really do this together. We work better together, if you recall.” She laughed and kissed her lover’s hand. “Splitting up never ends well in my experience.”