Killers Of The Night

Author's Note: The sections between the ** ** are memories/dreams.

I arrive in LA two hours later. I get off the plane and find a man waiting for me. "Mr. Baltic?"

"Yes." He says squinting against the sun.

"My name is Raven. I am here to find your daughter." I say holding out my hand.

"You look to young." He says taking my hand.

"I am twenty-three. I have been hunting these monsters down for three years." I say.

"Well Mr. Valcheck said you were the best. Please let us go." He says gesturing to the limo behind him. The coffer opens the door for me. I get in and Mr. Baltic gets in behind and we drive off.

"First of all this is my show. What ever I say goes. I get half now and the rest when the job is done. Do you get that Mr. Baltic?" I ask looking in my bag on my lap.

"Call me Peter. If we are going to be working together for a while I would rather have you call me by my first name. May I ask how you got in to this?" He asks leaning forward.

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you want to be on first name basis then you should know my real name. It is Victoria." I say pulling out an old jewelry box.

"Why did you change your name?" He asks.

"The name Raven can strike fear where the name Victoria would only make them laugh." I say. I pull out a silver cross and hand it him. "Here wear this."

"These things actually work." He asks with of look of surprise on his face.

It repels them away because it is pure and they are not." I say. "I will live in your home for a week or so and learn about your daughter. I will then move in to an apartment for the remainder of the job."

"That will be fine. But I still want to know how you got involved." He says with a look of interest.

I take a deep breath and begin. "I did not do this all of my life and my name is not really Raven it is Victoria. I use to be a cop; I worked the night shift with this one guy. He had a wife and three children. One night I thought we were breaking up an attempted rape. I was very wrong. I saw one of those things up close for the first time ever. He killed my partner but left me to kill me later. The night of my partner’s funeral he came for me. I blacked out but when I came to he was dead and the man I work for was standing in the room. We walked to the cemetery and went to my partner’s grave. He rose up and went to kill me. The guy fought with him and I grabbed the knife and killed him quickly. Ever since that night I have hunted them down like they hunt us down." I say watching his expressions.

"Why did you change your name? It is so beautiful." He asks.

"It did not strike fear when I hunted. So I changed it to Raven. Victoria died the minute that knife pierced my partner's heart and killed him for good." I say looking right in to his eyes. "I could not bring myself to face reality for a day but then it kicked in all of the mysterious deaths. I joined his organization and was trained to use each of my sense. My sight has been more than perfect along with my hearing. I can hear things that not many people would notice. I am one of the ultimate weapon against the forces of the killers of the night." We sit in silence until we reach his home. We walk in, my living only with the basics were thrown out the window. The house was huge and beautiful.

"Just leave your bag there and come with me." He says walking to the left.

"The bag stays with me." I say following him. We enter his office, he takes a seat behind the desk and pulls out a suitcase and puts it on top of the desk.

"Your boss said you only take cash." He says opening it.

"I see he already told you our policy." I say closing the suitcase and pick it up. "I should warn you now if she is turned I will kill her without a second thought about it. I will try to bring her back to you safe and sound but I do not guaranty anything."

"I understand all I want to know is if she is dead, alive or one of those things." He says.

"You knowing that I can guaranty." I say. "Where is my room and hers?"

"I will show you. I put you right next to her room that are adjoined." He says leading me out the office and up some stairs. We reach two doors that are almost right next to each other. He opens one door and stands back. I walk in; the room is done in antique white. The furniture is light blue, the bed is a white canopy with a light blue curtain and blue and white sheets and comforter. The carpet is plush blue in color. My whole apartment could fit in this one room with the bathroom and kitchen. "The bathroom is right over here." He says walking over to one door. "The closet is right there." He says pointing at the door to the right of the bathroom. He opens the door to the bathroom. I look inside; everything is blue and white in here as well. I have not seen a bathroom that was so clean and in great condition for two years. I walk over to the door at the other side and open it. I walk in to another bedroom. This one looks like it was just used except for the fact of all of the dust. "This was my daughters room. I have kept it the same ever since the day she left. You can move anything you want."

"Don't worry I will put it back where I found it." I say walking over to the dresser. I pick up a small book and open it and skim the last few pages. It is a diary but it seems to be hiding something. There has to be another somewhere in the room. I pick up a silver frame with a young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes in a cheerleader uniform "I will start investigating in an hour. I would really like to take a nap."

"Jet lag." He says.

"No I ended my last kill at dawn and only got four and a half hours worth of sleep before getting on the plane." I say walking back threw the door in to the room I am staying in.

"Well then I will leave you." He says and leaves. I put my clothes in to the dresser and hang my coat over a chair for easy access. I take a stake and get in to the bed; I never sleep with out one a way from home, and close my eyes and fall asleep.

**
My eyes were hard to open but I finally got them open and stared right in to a pair of green eyes filled with concern. "I thought you might not wake up after that hit. Here let me help you up." He grabbed my shoulders and helped me to my feet. I looked around and the apartment was trashed.

"What happened?" I asked confused.

"My name is Jack but everyone I know calls me Jackal. What was in your apartment tonight was a vampire. He was the same guy who attacked your partner. He was here to bring you to the master." He said. "He is dead. I know this all seems strange but if you come with me to the cemetery all of that will change."

"Wait a minute, you break in to my house and expect me to come with you no questions asked." I said angry.

"Please this might mean life or death for you and your partners family." He said. I agreed because of that. We walked out of my apartment and went down to my car. We drove to the cemetery my partner was buried at. "Here you might need this." He said when we parked. He handed me a dagger with nothing on it. He pulled out another with a Jackal on it. We got out of the car and walked to Mick's grave.

"Why are we here?" I asked confused at why we were here.

"The master has had his eyes on you for a while. He sent that vampire to kill your partner and to bring you to him. He wants you as his bride. Now your partner is a vampire after the same thing to bring you to the master." He said as the ground on the grave began to move. A pair of hands appeared then seemed to push to bring up the body. Mike in his dress blues appeared in front of me. I was frozen to the spot I was standing. I could not move, Jackal went to attack but Mike turned and started to fight with him.

After a few minutes I thought of something. I took out the dagger and hid it. "Hey Mike." I said. Mike dropped Jackal and turned around. "You are looking good. I have never seen you look so good." I said, as he was moving towards me. "You remember the promise I made to you that I would keep your family safe. Well I am by doing this." I said then drove the dagger into his heart. He dropped to his knees then disappeared in some smoke. I looked over at Jackal getting up.

"What is your name?" He asked.

"Victoria." I said.

"How would you like to join my organization? We could rid the world of these things." He said walking over. "You would have to break all ties but you could still protect your friends family. You will have to change your name to something that they could remember and that could strike fear."

"Raven." I said.

"I guess this is a yes then." He said. I nodded.
**