A Coven tale

Agent Smith

Thinking back, it is fear that is hardest to control. And hardest to mask. They can see it in your eyes, on your face. Smell it in your sweat. And if close enough hear it pounding in your heart. Especially the vamps. And I really hate the vamps, cocky arrogant bloodsuckers that they are. Don't get me wrong, I hate all the tainted, but vampires I truly despise. It takes a lot preparation to to survail or hunt tainted. Some can smell you, others can hear you, both can outrun you. And all of them can see better in the dark than you. That means showering with non scented soap and shampoo. No aftershave... or perfume if your a woman I guess. I draw the line at toothpaste though. If I'm going to get myself killed, at least my breath will be fresh. It also means you need to thing about your clothing. You want nothing that makes a lot of noise. Corduroy is out of the question for obvious reasons. And surprisingly, so is nylon. Somehow lycans can hear it quite clearly, don't ask me how. Perhaps someday I'll tell how I found that little tidbit out, but not today. Silk or cotton are best. How they can hear nylon but not cotton? Like I said, I don't know. Perhaps it's a natural fiber thing.

It was a little before 2:00am when I saw him. A werewolf, and like I thought, a young male, climbing over the wall. Careless. The scratch marks I noticed in the loop from days ago had proven correct. From this vantage point high in a tree four hundred yards down the road I could see it quite clearly. The new models of the night vision scopes worked great. And with digital capture too. It dropped down from the high wall and stood motionless in the shadows, likely listening. Then in a blur, it ran across the street and again stood motionless in the shadows. I could not see it clearly for the trees, but I thought it was looking back the way it had come. Did he listen and watch for pursuit from within? The tainted were stealthy by instinct for survival reasons, but normally didn't hide from their own. Well from their owncoven anyway. Then in a slow trot, it took off west down the back street. No sign of anyone or anything following it.

Just before dawn the werewolf returned. It seemed almost carefree as it came back up the street. It didn't bother keeping to the trees or shying away from the few working street lamps. I watched it and it actually did a short quick dance step! Well, well! Now this was interesting and perhaps to my advantage. There was only one reason why any tainted would sneak out from it's own coven, then dance it's way home. The same reason a normal human would. It was in love. But not one of it's own. So, was it a human or a tainted from another coven? Either way I doubt it would go over well. Would I be able to exploit this to our advantage? People were dumb and did stupid things when in love and the tainted were no different. And being a young male werewolf, it is likely not too bright to begin with. If he was a teen the hormones would already be rampant. Mix in the 'were' taint and he would be continuously on the edge. Stupid, on edge, and ramped up. The next phase started to form in my head. Once the sun was fully up, I'd pack tonights imaging and reset the cameras. In a few days myself or a fellow agent would retrieve them. If the male continued his little affair like I thought he would, I'd follow his trail as best I could. Sensors would be placed, cameras set up and coffee brewed for surveillance crews. If the soon to be unlucky lycan had a human love, we'd grab him there. If he was seeing a member of another coven...well we'd have to surveil them too. We had no intel on a second Coven in the area. Well when we get this tainted, I'll have to thank him in person.

Karma can be a real bitch.

The feel of the shotgun beside me was comforting. Silver really was effective against werebeasts. Silver bullets could kill a werewolf, but you had to be a damned good shot with nerves of steel. The last thing you wanted with several hundred pounds of claws and fangs charging you was a through and through wound, or worse, a complete miss. You had to catch them in the head or the heart to be truly effective with a single bullet. Thats why I liked my shotgun. Lousy range, but it would stop a charging rhino at thirty feet. At point blank, it can blow a hole the size of a pumpkin through an ogre. Trust me, I've done it. Not that silver has any special power against ogres, but one uses what one has in desperate times. More than one tainted has fallen to my over sized buckshot. I sat with my weapon of choice up in the rafters of this run down factory. A safety harness with a quick release and a coil of rope. I could be off the rafter and repelling down in less than a second. Due to the tainted's ability to smell, I was the only one inside. Fourteen other agents were hunkered down at various points outside. Lady vamp was the first to arrive, and her entrance almost spelt my doom. Careless on my part really. Never assume, never take anything as obvious. The problem with us earthbound creatures, is we sometimes forget to think ,and look up. Vampires are not strictly bound to the earth like us mere humans. We foolishly expected both to enter through one of the doors. When she entered through a window, not fifty paces from me, the whole operation was nearly blown. I clamped down on my sudden start and went through every training exercise I had ever done, studied, or even heard of, to slow my heart. How she didn't hear my pounding adrenalin overloaded heart, I'll never know. She climbed in through a window and was standing on the rafters level with me to my right. She stood still for several moments. At first I thought she knew we were there, but then she jumped down and landed lightly, hardly disturbing any dust. As much as I hate them, I have to admit, vampires really can move with such grace.

God help the modern priest that meets an atheist vampire.

Lady vamp had stopped screaming now that she was almost totally ash. Lover boy whimpered and spasmed in pain. Already the team was moving in, so I unclipped and repelled down to the factory floor. I kept the shotgun trained on the beast even though it looked like it wouldn't survive much longer. I had made that mistake only once and a partner now long dead had paid the price. The team was fast and efficient. Lights were broken down and packed away. The steel cable net was thrown over the critically wounded beast. Lady vamp was swept up, and her necklace was given to me. Her ashes would be later dumped somewhere, a fire pit in a national park, a landfill,or even mixed in with the cement for the foundation of some new building or other. We weren't worried, it was just dust after all. It took six agents to lift lover boy into the van. I directed and helped agents pick up pieces of the beast before we left. Most would be incinerated, but some would be used to mark a trail. A trail that would lead someone... or thing to the other new coven. And once the trail was found, a small explosion of silver nitrate would be triggered to recreate the scene of attack. Then, hopefully, the bigger coven, would literally, eat the smaller one. And of course, this would also give us a chance to see just how many members there are of this coven. to me, it is a win win situation. But first we had to get lover boy home.