Whitestripe

Chapter 2

Rayne Whitestripe

Roberts was in our main H.Q. Office located in Washington State. We have smaller offices all over the world; however, the main office was in Washington. There was actually an office here in New York. I have to check in with them daily. I always end up going back to Washington, though to receive my next orders, or to be told that I would finally be able to go home. "3003 3323 1222 3432 In the name of Rakeyanne Schenders, give me history, parents' information, and address." I said, getting back on the subject. "Yes ma'am, you're welcome." The sarcasm dripped from his tone. Rakeyanne Schenders 123 N. Ecluaire Dr. New York New York. Parents: Rhonda and Kardinac Schenders are from California. Apparently, Rakeyanne came here to be a big Broadway star. Fell into drug addiction and s*x addiction and prostitution two years ago, in and out of rehab." Roberts explained. f**k. She had a family; we would need to take special precautions for this one. "Alright, my location is the alleyway between 2nd street and main, past the 200 block. Send the field spec......" I trailed off. The wind shifted in my direction. The scent of the vampire that I got off of the girl just suddenly drifted into my range. I knew where he went. "Rayne?" Roberts asked. I didn't respond. My brain was trying to analyze how old the scent was, how far away he was, and where I would go from here. "Rayne?" Roberts asked again with worry in his voice. "Send specialists, I'll leave a tracker for them to follow. I just caught a whiff of the vamp." I whispered. Even though I knew vampires could hear extraordinary, I just wasn't going to take the chance if this one was within earshot of me. I dropped a “tracking beacon” which was just a fancy small GPS tracker we carried to let the crew know where things were and I slipped down the alley following the scent, ran a couple blocks before it went up to the rooftops. Looking around, I made sure no one was watching and scaled the fire escape faster than Spiderman could. I have the speed and stealth of the vampire and agility from my feline. On the rooftop, I could hear and see better than I could down below on the streets, I just wish I could fully shift shape. I could hear and smell better in my feline form than I could as a human, even better than my vampire senses. Vamps have a great sense of smell. My were form has a much better sense than vamps do. I can partially shift, but it's not 100% as good as my full shift. I shifted enough of my nose and ears to smell and have expanded hearing. I smelled around, realizing that I had lost him. I hopped rooftop to rooftop, trying to figure out where he had gone and if I could pick up his scent again. “I wish I could fully shift.” I kept cursing to myself. It would be risky if he were watching me. It leaves me prone for about a few seconds, which, with the speed of a vampire, is all they need to do some serious damage to you. Plus, you can’t have a tiger jumping around rooftops without drawing attention.

I redialed Roberts to make sure he sent the field support to the girl after I shifted my face back to normal. I can't talk worth a damn otherwise. "Sorry, had my lead again, but lost it." I sighed. "If you caught all of the vamp's you lost, you wouldn't be up right now." Roberts teased. Truth be told, I was one of the best trackers around, which is why they took me out of my current assignment of making sure I’d found the few rogues terrorizing a small city in Florida to this one. Figuring who is turning humans and destroying those responsible. "Bite me." I grumbled,"says the vamp." Roberts quietly teased. Very few in Shadow knew of my heritage, only those on a “need to know” basis. Roberts was on the need to know in case I was ever injured or otherwise in trouble. Because of the vampire in me, if I were to call in injured, they would need to bring something more than just a needle and thread to sew me up. It wasn’t openly spoken of to everyone, I am a freak, and it would make people uncomfortable to be around. Honestly, I prefer it this way, less staring. I have nothing against my other half. I occasionally enjoyed the quirks of being part vampire. I don't drink blood, don't have to. I don't need the blood to sustain my body; I only need it when I’m deathly injured. Otherwise, my feline does that for me. I have only had to drink blood once. I didn't care to repeat that again. Too much like sucking on pennies. I have the speed, strength, and sight. I can see in pitch dark and tell what's living and what’s dead just by sensing their body heat. I shook my head, knowing that he couldn't see it.

A piercing scream echoed through the area. I swear it was so loud that Roberts even heard it through my Bluetooth. "Gotta go." I whispered and ended the call. Leaping across a couple of buildings, I edged closer to the alley in which that horrible sound came from. Peering down into the darkness, I saw a young female, late teens, early twenties, blonde, thin, probably going home from a date. She was being drained by a vampire. He was mid 30's ragged clothes, tousled hair, skinny. Unhealthily skinny. I crept back to get off of the building. I leaped off the side of it out of range of sight and hearing from the vamp. I had to get to the girl before she ended up a statistic like the other one. Shadow stepping, I pulled the darkness around me and crept to the alley. I wasn’t invisible, I couldn’t just magically teleport from one place to another. What happened was that I was extremely hard to see and hear. Shadow stepping was kind of like pulling an invisibility cloak over you. If you weren’t careful, you could still be heard and smelled, but it would take a very well-trained person to be able to spot me out in the shadows. The vampire was too young to pay attention to his surroundings or notice me as he fed. I launched myself at him from the side, I took him out in one quick motion, pulling my dagger from its sheath on my wrist, I brought it across the vamps’ neck before he had the chance to even look up.