Bitten by the Vampire (Book 1 of The Troupe of the Veiled)

Kinnari slipped silently from shadow to shadow down the cold, dark, hard underground hallway. These hallways weren't as ornate as the hallways in the upper levels had been. These ones were painted a dull gray, that was echoed by the dull gray of the tiled flooring. Kinnari supposed that people who came from this level of wealth thought that a basement with concrete flooring was for the poor, even if the area was supposed to only be used for storage. Her slippered feet padded down the hallway and did not even make even a whisper in the corridor which would have gladly echoed the footfalls of any who passed down it. She paused every few steps to listen to the sounds of the mansion. To listen for the passing of the guard. She had been keeping time in her head to the next sweep. Kinnari had to make it down to make it past three more of the distantly spaced, and oddly locked doors, unlock the fourth door, and get into the office that was her destination before the guards turned the corner and started down this hallway in two minutes and counting down. That was if they weren't early. She wasn't all that worried about them being early. Getting into places undetected was her specialty and she had spent two weeks studying the schedule of the guard. She had been in the basement of the mansion all week without detection, but she could not use her regular methods this time. She needed to record the trip so that she would have proof of what was in the lower levels of the building. She was fairly certain that she had found the room that the entrance laid behind, but she knew nothing of what followed after that point. This was a quick in-and-out job. She would get in, gather the evidence that she was fairly sure she would find behind the office door, and get out before being discovered. That was all she had been hired to do. She would not be stealing anything or hurting anyone. That was not part of the plan, she would not be caught. The Collaborative had already lost agents on this mission. She would not be another lost soul. There had been reports of supers going missing. Originally the Collaborative had placed their own team of agents to ferret out the culprit, but after the team had reported that they were following up on a lead dealing with High Council Member Everton they had fallen off the face of the earth. That had been three months ago. The Kasprak Group had suggested her as a lone operative and the best fit for the Collaborative's need to find out what happened to it's agents and to dig up more information about the supernatural-trafficing. She had spent the last two months in their service shadowing High Council Member Everton. Compiling information on his every move.His every conversation, flirtation, and infestation. She had enough information on him outside of his home life that two weeks ago she felt the need to dig deeper into his home life. He had enough contact with two other gentlemen that she had placed their homes on her docket to search as well. But, all in due time. Everton needed to be the first investigated because he was the most likely to have clues, so he would be the most likely to reveal clues to the disappearance of the Collaborative's agents. So, he would be the first she would thoroughly investigate. So her she was deep in the bowels of the Everton Mansion. Her long dark hair was tied up into ornate battle braids. Her favorite way to wear her hair. She had life out the silver ornaments for this mission though, and tied the ends in simple black ties. She dressed herself in all black. Black, thick athletic leggings, black skin tight, long sleeved, short turtle necked top. Black gloves, black soleless slipper that honestly weren't much more than socks. A black face cover that only covered the lower half of her face and neck. The last item she had found, and stolen from, her father's fishing supplies. He had a ton of other colors and she knew for a fact that he would never wear the black one, especially outin the hot sun. Kinnari however, found it was perfect for blending in with the shadows. Not that she needed that much help with that particular skill, but her mother had always preached smarter not harder. Save your energy where you can. Kinnari finally stepped into the shadows in front her desired doorway.If someone had been watching her they would have noticed how one second she was clearly visible and the next she was swallowed by the shadows. Not completely gone, but easily passed over by an onlooker who didn't know she was there. She reached into the small black bag that hung across her body and pulled out a lock picking set. She slipped her tools into the lock, sprung the mechanism, and opened the door but didn't yet step in. She didn't immediately step into the room. She needed to first make sure she wouldn't trigger an alarm. Looking around with her night vision glasses, Kinnari noticed both an electric silent alarm system and a set of runic magic wards. Kinnari slipped into the room, quickly, yet softly shutting the door behind her. She burnt through the runic ward with not much more than a flick of her wrist, a lighter, and some magic words. She was shocked by how rudimentary these wards were. She then turned and set her sights on the electronic alarm panel. Here she would have to use a little preplanned trick. A device that she had made with the help of her older brother, Alessio. He was a bit of a tinker with a soft spot for Kinnari. He had put the little item together and she had helped to cast the enchantment on it that allowed it to shoot just enough of an electric current combined with a little magic into an alarm system to bypass the need to enter the code. But, not so much of a current that the alarm would short out and go off by default. She and Alessio had been quite proud of their work. A smile graced her face as she put the item to work yet again. Now that the security devices had been disabled, Kinnari made a slow sweep of the office space, being sure to go at a slow leisurely pace so that the camera in her glasses had the opportunity to record everything in the room at a frame rate that would be easy to review later. At first glance the room looked like a cozy little office with floor to ceiling bookshelves filled with leather bound antique books and beautiful antique nick-nacks. But, Kinnari could feel the magic that clung to every item in the room. It sang to her, making her blood feel like it was humming. It wasn't the uneasy buzz of ill used magic, but the buzz of ancient and unused magic. Like a room full of forgotten items. Magical items hated to be forgotten, but few could feel their life force to know that overtime they became sentient and craved a master to serve. She knew by the feel of the room that every book in the room was either a grimoire or a spell tome, most likely from a witch, wizard, or mage that had long since passed. That every nick-nack and ornament craved to fulfill the job it had been created for before being forgotten in this room of retired items. She felt the items sadness due to the loss of their original owners and purpose, and felt their need for a new job, a new master tug at her. Kinnari could also tell that these magical books did not belong to the Everton family line, because every one of them thrummed with the magical pull of a free agent, an unbound magic. However, that in itself was not proof of any wrong doing on the part of the Everton family. Grimoires could be bought legally at estate auctions where the deceased had not left behind any children, or maybe just not any magical children. If that was the case the buyer would most likely not have access the the ashes of the grimoire's prior handler and would not be able to bind the book to them. It was more likely that the Everton's bound grimoires were kept in a place of honor as no one but a member of the bound family could touch or read their pages. Kinnari shuffled through the desk drawers and found them mostly empty, hardly containing more that a couple of pens. It would seem that the desk was more for show than for any real use, or maybe it was just a place to lay a book while you read from it. She turned and made another slow pass of the room, wondering if she had made a miscalculation on the importance of the room. She had nearly made it back to the door when she felt an odd buzz of magic that pulled at her. She paused looking back over her shoulder across the room and felt the gentle buzz as it pulled at her again. 'One more pass can't hurt too much.' she thought to herself. Kinnari hummed under her breath as she made her second pass, slower this time. She ran her fingers over the spines of several books. She attempted to find the origin of the magical pull, until the magic of one grimoire seemed to jump out and give her a love bite, it snagged her attention. She pulled that one out from its place on the shelf and flipped it open. She allowed the pages to fall open at where ever they would. It opened to a spell made to reveal hidden objects. Kinnari huffed out a little laugh. "Is there something hidden in this room, little book?" she whispered to the grimoire almost lovingly. The grimoire seemed to hum a happy agreement back at her She felt it's happiness at being able to provide help. Magical items often called to her with the answers to questions she had, but usually the answers came in vague, loose translations of the information that she needed. This answer, however, seemed to be very pointed and straight to the point. She was pleasantly surprised by the directness. Kinnari read over the spell in detail. It didn't take much more than a little intention, the correct words, a pinch of rosemary, and a dash of juniper mixed and tossed. Kinnari had a similar spell in one of her grimoires, but hers required that the item had been stolen from her and that she knew what she was searching for. Luckily, she had both rosemary and juniper in her bag of tricks. She pulled out the ingredients and a little bowl, mixing them she recited the chant under her breath and continued through the process of sprinkling the mixture along the wall that pulled to her the most. A little gold statue of Harpocrates began to glow and vibrate in the right back corner of the room. Kinnari laughed and shook her head. She should have guessed as much. Harpocreates was the god of silence and secrets. She smiled down at little grimoire. "Thank you, little book." She whispered. She gave it a quick kiss and pet it down it's spine. The grimoire buzzed with a happy energy at he praise and thanks. Kinnari went to put it back on the shelf from where she had found it, but it gave her a different buzz this time. Almost as if it was upset with being put away. As if it didn't want to be separated from her. After a brief pause, Kinnari's hand changed direction and she tucked the book into her bag, and she felt the grimoire hum it's happiness through her bag. She would call upon the spirit of its prior owner when she got home to bind it to herself. It was a skill she had learned from combining her talents from her father and her talents from her mother. Kinnari decided that before she opened the secret door way to follow it deeper into the mansion, she would cover her tracks. She turned back the the entrance and double checked that the silent security alarm was still set to go off at the next entry. After she was sure that it was functional and ready to act she turned to the the location that the runic wards had been. She pulled paper from her bag and rewrote the wards.She changed their shape ever so slightly so that she would be the one to get the notice if anyone passed through this doorway. once she was finished she stood back and admired her work. There were very few who would notice the difference and she doubted anyone would look that closely. She also cleaned up the mess that burning up the prior wards had left. Her wards would not be able to be disabled simply by burning them like the original ones had been Kinnari returned to the hidden doorway, reached out and spun the Harpocreates statue. The section of the bookcase slowly moved forward then slid to the left, in front of the case that had once stood beside it. A rough cut staircase stood revealed, it descended deeper under the Everton Manor and its walls looked just as rough as the stairs themselves. It was as if the entire staircase and corridor had been dug by a man wielding nothing more than a small hand chisel. Kinnari peeked down the staircase and checked for booby traps. She found one that would cut her with razors right inside the doorway. She disarmed it, then reset it after she passed before she moved onward. She slowly crept her way down the stairs. Twelve steps further down she spotted a tripwire and calmly and carefully stepped over it. She made it another sixteen steps down before she found another trap. This time it was a step that would crumble when weight was placed on it. This one she hopped over. After going down what felt like two flights of stairs, she finally reached the bottom. The stairs opened up into a hallway with doors on both the left and the right. Kinnari was blown away by the sheer size of the underground compound. She had not expected it to be so large. She realized that there must be at least a second entrance, because there hadn't been enough traffic going in and out of the Everton Manor to account for the amount of staffing that would be needed for a facility of this size. Kinnari knew that she needed to make a quick decision. She didn't know how much time she would have until someone showed up. The Everton's may be out at a gala. She didn't know what the employees shifts might look like. They could be gone for the night, not to return until morning. Or, there could be employees who could be working away in any or all of the rooms that lay ahead of her. She decided that standing in the hall worrying about being caught only upped her chance of that exact event happening, she chose to enter the first door on the left. She peeked through the door that she had only just cracked open and saw that there was no one in this room. She slipped in and softly clicked the door shut behind herself, flipping the lock so the no one could walk in and surprise her. With that done she turned and studied the room she had entered.It looked to be some kind of lap.There were stainless steel counters all around the outside walls of the room and stainless still tables lined up in neat rows throughout the center. There was chemical working equipment sitting on several surfaces, and glass front fridges under several counters. She also spotted several drawers and filing cabinets. She headed for the filing cabinets, reasoning that they may keep hard copies of whatever this group of people are working on. She rifled through several files, slowly flipping through pages and taking pictures. Most of it was gibberish to her, but it might mean something to someone at the Collaborative. After several files, she rifled through the fridges, being sure to pick up vials for her camera to get a good look at. She then rifled through some of the storage drawers and found some hand written notes. She made sure to slowly flip through several pages before she put it back where she had found it. While the location of this lab was super suspicious to her, nothing she had found in this room looked particularly incriminating. The Everton's could probably explain away their hidden lab as a way to protect their intellectual property. They might also say that they are researching a cure for the world's cancer or something. Kinnari wouldn't know any different. She needed to move on from this room in order to find something more compelling to prove illegal activities, or maybe to disprove it. She was fairly certain the second wouldn't be the case this time. Kinnari peeked back out into the hallway to make sure she hadn't gained company yet. Upon finding the hall still empty she quietly exited the lab and headed to the second door on the left. She peeked into the room to verify that it was empty before she entered. This room had a completely different feel to it. It was sterile and clean. Not a speck out of place. two medical beds set in the center of the room. Even if the beds hadn't been adorned with restraints, Kinnari would have known that nefarious things had been done in this room. The death called out to her phantom half, pulled it awake. Made her restless. Unfortunately, Kinnari was pretty sure that 'having a feeling of death' would not pass as sufficient evidence to break open this case for anyone who was not a phantom. Besides, Kinnari wasn't planning on telling anyone that she was part-phantom. People tended to be a little creeped out by phantoms. She decided to move on to the next room in hopes of finding something a little more incriminating. She decided the first door on the right side of the hall would be the next room she would try. Before entering the room she checked her recording devise to make sure she hadn't yet run out of memory space. It looked good, so she cracked the door open and peeked inside. .