PRELUDE

 

“Purebloods and sired alike can enter any place so long as it hasn’t been read over or protected by an incantation.”

September 2010

“Who the bloody hell are you?” Kate questioned the two suits she found standing in her living room. A familiar piece dangling from one of the suit’s hands put her on guard immediately. Holding the piece up, it was clear to Kate that they obviously knew who she was. Every instinct in her body told her to attack, but her mind was torn between her fiancé and curiosity as to what the suits where doing in her loft in the first place.

Patient rounds, Skills lab – which included cadaver dissection and a multiple car wreck producing severely injured victims – a full day in any medical intern’s book.

The highlight of Kate Bourbon’s day: her longtime boyfriend Gabriel Callahan’s sudden proposal. Never in a dozen lifetimes would she have imagined being proposed to in an Irish pub – even if it did happen to be his Uncle Patrick’s Pub (& deli).

A New England Medical intern’s lunch break is strictly 45 minutes. Figure in the 10 minutes it takes to walk from the hospital to the pub and that’s already a good deal of meal time gone. Gabriel had insisted Kate dine with him that afternoon and after his proposal it seemed well worth the missed meal. He promised the real celebration to be continued that evening when she got home.

“We know who and what you are Miss Bourbon and it would be wise if you heard us out before taking any rash actions.”

Kate disappeared in a blur which resulted in her reappearing and grabbing hold of the nearest suit from behind. He was in a fully compromised position, his neck exposed to her fangs. She would have sunk her fangs deep into his vulnerable veins if it weren’t for the object she felt dug deep into her rib cage. His speed had surprised her. He managed to get his weapon in position almost simultaneous with her attack. Kate was pretty sure he wasn’t a vampire but no one’s reflexes were that fast. “Or were they?” she thought. His partner smirked. “Miss Bourbon, we only came to talk and it would be in your best interest if you cooperated.”

“I’m listening.” Kate gave the suit in her grasp a shove. She thought she heard him snort. She relished the thought of hearing him beg for mercy as she ripped open his neck vein by vein. “Who knows, if I don’t like what they have to say I just might get to feast tonight.”

“As you may know, there have been a growing number of dead bodies surfacing with significant evidence pointing to what we can only assume are kills of vampiric nature.” One of the suits began. “We have managed to keep a large number of those deaths unreported. But there is only so many we can attribute to wild animal attacks.”

“That’s impossible.” Kate rolled her eyes. “There haven’t been any other vampires in decades.” Even as she said it she realized how foolish that must sound. Who knew how many could have and have assimilated with the general population. She had done it. So what was to say a few more, less inclined to violence, couldn’t have as well.

“We have evidence to back our theories. It is best, if you came back with us to headquarters.”

Kate fought the urge to laugh.  “Do they really think in the centuries I’ve lived I wouldn’t be wise to such unoriginal ambush ploys?”

“Props for trying boys, but – ” Kate felt like she’d just been staked, and while that is very annoying, it is hardly the way to kill a real vampire.

She recognized the image displayed on the agent’s PDA instantly. “We know you have been looking for this for sometime Miss Bourbon.” In the past few decades, Kate had seen many replicas of the sword which had been her greatest and most trusted companion throughout her colorful lifetime. Every fiber in her being told her the picture the agent had shown was in fact the original sword. The one time she left it behind, she returned to find it gone. It had been almost a century since it disappeared in the early 1900s. If she ever found the thugs responsible for stealing it, she vowed to rip them apart, slowly, limb by limb.

She didn’t know, or really care to know for that matter, how the suits had come into possession of her sword. All Kate wanted was to wield it once more. With those last thoughts, she agreed to return to the suits’ headquarters with them. In any case, even if they were to have any less than honorable intentions she would make sure they sorely regretted.