Page 1 of Dragon's Desire

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KIERCY

What’s a girl like me doing in a place like this?Kiercy thought to herself as she strolled down the eight tunnel towards the 42 St Port Authority. Her curly, light brown hair, with blond highlights, bounced with every step. Her slight, yet curvy frame was mostly covered up by her long trench coat.

The sound of her combat boots created a dull thud with each step that didn’t echo far down the long tunnel. She pulled on her collar to try and bundle it more against the damp cold of the night, while she lifted her high cheekbones momentarily as she whispered an incantation to assist with night vision.

Her light brown irises glowed red momentarily, and the dimly lit subway station was suddenly very easy to perceive.

“This tip had better not be bullshit,” she mumbled to anyone close enough to hear… which nobody was.

Then she saw what she had come for. At the end of the tunnel, tucked into an alcove was a man huddled over woman. With her low light vision that spread into the infrared spectrum, she could see the woman’s heat was fading fast, but the man… had no heat at all.

“Vampire,” she hissed through gritted teeth.

She ran then, to catch up to them, but the vampire heard her approach and jerked his neck sideways to see her approach. He hissed like a cat, and Kiercy could see blood dripping from his fangs, down his chin. His pale blue eyes almost glowed in this eerie gloom, and pale skin contrasted sharply against his mop of black hair that hung greasily around his face.

“I didn’t realize it was BOGO night,” his voice was tenor, and smooth, but laced with insidious malice. “Won’t you join me for supper?”

He stood up slowly with limbs exaggerated, like an animal puffing itself up. At six foot three, he didn’t really need it as he towered over Kiercy.

If Kiercy was intimidated, she didn’t show it, but her hands drifted slowly down to the coat buttons at her waist. When she spoke her voice was strong, but lilting. “I’m afraid I won’t be joining you for dinner, but you’ll be joining me for a chat.”

“Oh, I do love conversation over food, but my meal is getting cold. As you seem to have fine manners, won’t you excuse me while I finish up? Then we can discuss anything you like, as long as it’s concerning your imminent death.”

Kiercy pulled hard against her trench buttons and they snapped open revealing her PEACE uniform. She cast her coat off and it fell to the concrete. The vampire recoiled and even took a step back as he looked to every shadow. He clearly expected more agents to descend upon him.

She laughed then, as his angst rose and fear pulled at him. “I’m sorry, I interrupted you. You were saying about my imminent death?”

“You think you won’t be dead soon, pig? I don’t see any backup for you. What’s a pretty little thing like you going to do against a vampire like me?” As he spoke, he took menacing steps toward Kiercy.

Fearlessly, she stood her ground and inserted the fingers of both hands into some silvered knuckles. The vampire froze in his tracks as the knuckles caught a bit of light and glinted. “I won’t be needing any backup to deal with you.”

Then the vampire lunged for her, no doubt thinking he could catch her by surprise and use superior speed. What he grabbed, where he saw Kiercy standing, turned out to be thin air, as though she was a ghost. He whispered, “A witch.”

That realization came too late as he looked to his right, silvered knuckles connected with his mouth. Right in the fangs. Kiercy could hear and feel the sickening crack of enamel breaking. The vampire rolled with the blow and brought a hand up to his mouth as he turned toward the subway station and ran.

Kiercy delayed her pursuit a moment as she observed the female victim, close to dying. She grabbed a radio, “I need medical. 42 Street Port Authority, the 8 tunnel, South. Female victim, vampire attack.”

“Willco, medical response unit enroute,” the radio answered.

“Agent Carrier in pursuit of suspect,” she secured the radio to her utility belt and whispered an incantation to hasten her legs. Even with her increased speed, the vampire was already in the station by the time she caught up.

He attempted to make the stairs, but she grabbed him by his coat tail and drug him back down. He landed at the bottom of the stairs in a heap, and narrowly rolled to the side to avoid a stomp kick to his head.

The thirty or so subway patrons began reacting to the fight. Some screamed at the sight of the bloodied vampire, while others broke out cell phones to live stream.

Pointing at Kiercy, the vampire appealed to the crowd. “This woman is harassing me, someone help! She’s racially profiling me and abusing her power.”

“Everyone stand down, this is PEACE business. This vampire was caught attacking a woman in the tunnel,” Kiercy’s voice was commanding and authoritative.

It had become a game of cat and mouse. As the vampire would jerk one way, and Kiercy would react, but his movements brought him ever closer to the track, and the screech of the subway alerted everyone it was about to arrive.

“You like tricks, witch? I have one for you,” he grabbed the closest two live streamers and pushed them onto the tracks. “Good luck with that.” And he took off for the stairs again.

Without hesitation, Kiercy jumped after them, even though the train was about to barrel into the station. The victims were painfully trying to stand up and collect themselves, but Kiercy commanded them, “Lie down on the ground flat. I can get you out of here.”

The looks on their faces indicated they didn’t understand the logic, but despite common sense, they complied.

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