Jaden awoke with a start, tasting blood in her mouth. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and, propping her elbows on her knees, held her head in her hands. It was another dream. Just like the ones before, the ones she could reveal to no one, dreams of mutilation and death, and feelings of sick enjoyment.
Why did she have such dreams? She wondered as the light from the late afternoon sun crept in through the curtains. Was there something wrong with her, some evil spirit that possessed her in her sleep? She stared down at her hands, thinking, wondering, probing her very soul.
The alarm clock rang, startling Jaden out of her stupor. It was an hour and a half before sundown; time to get ready for work.
She stood up, and walked across her tiny bedroom to the bathroom to shower. When she glanced in her mirror, she noticed a streak of blood down her chin. She must have bitten her tongue again in her sleep again – a more and more regular occurrence. Jaden wished, for the thousandth time, that the dreams, the biting, and the emotional problems would stop.
Jaden showered, dressed and ate without thought, or many thoughts that is. She was thinking of when Johnston got hurt, and the strange feeling she felt when she touched his blood. What was she? Why did she have such urges? Who was she?
Jaden tried to force the thoughts from her mind; she needed to get to Command Center; she needed to get to work.
Since she was eight, she has worked with the Organization. Starting out as a Junior Trainee, advancing a year ahead of everyone else to become a Senior Trainee, and then becoming an Apprentice, under the mentorship of Karol Jameson, one of the top female Agents. Jaden remembered the day that she lost the rank of Apprentice, becoming a Junior Agent. She was fifteen at the time, a full two years younger than the youngest of her peers. She remembered her father, the Chief Commander, beaming with pride as he presented her with her Junior Agent's Medallion. That was three years ago. Before she was promoted for acts of bravery; before she was forced to protect people old enough to be her grandparents, by herself; and it was before her father died in her arms, his blood flowing out of him, as the light faded from his eyes.
The rest of the late afternoon passed in a haze, she when through her usual motions in a trudge. Still dwelling on her dreams. As the sun was beginning to sink below the tops of the skyscrapers that lined the horizon, she left her apartment, dragged her feet down to her automobile, and drove off to the Command Center.
In the changing room, she accessed her locker by leaning her head against it, resting her hand on the fingerprint ID pad, and mumbling a pathetic "Jaden Korr". The door swung open; she pulled off the sweatshirt she had on over a black tank top, and began to pull on her under-armor. The under-armor had become more a necessity of late, as the League of Danall was expanding its territory again, so they often used weapons that would really hurt a human if it could reach the skin. Once she'd donned the under layer of armor, she began to wrestle the over layer of protective gear, which consisted of: a bullet proof and laser resistant padding vest; a utility belt that had its pockets full with grenades, various antidotes, various poisons to go with the antidotes, a ray gun, a small handgun and cartages, and a small first aid kit; a communication ear piece; and a neck brace that served as a microphone for the communicator and as a protection against vampires who got too close.
Jaden had just attached the heavy belt, when the door opened and some of the other Agents came in. one of them, a young man who'd graduated from the Academy in the same year as her, sauntered over to her and said in an undertone, "Jay, the Chief wants to see ya. Now."
Jaden looked up at him, a look of disbelief on her face. "Are you serious?" she asked, "can't it wait? I'm about to head out of here."
"Sorry Jay, but he said that he wanted to see ya before ya went out."
Jaden sighed, and slammed her locker shut. "I'm going," she said wearily. She headed off from the changing room to the Chief Commander's office. She hadn't been there for nearly fourteen months, but she would never forget the way to her father's office, even if it meant walking through the labyrinth that was the halls in the Command Center.
She reached the Chief's office after a near twenty minutes of weaving through the maze of hallways. She walked into the entrance, the secretary, a different one than the one she'd seen on her last visit, smiled and said, "The Chief Commander will see you right away, Agent Korr," nodding to the door, "you can go right on it."
Jaden nodded bluntly, and stiffly walked into her late father's former office. He glanced up from the notes he was writing and said, "Ah, good, Thompson found you before you left. I had hoped he would."
"Might I inquire for what reason I was brought here, sir?" Jaden asked, formally.
"Um, right. Well, as you know Jaden, tonight is the first class that the Academy Fresh Apprentices will have on coping with working in the field, and I was hoping that you could go there and maybe add some support."
"I thought that Karla Dawson was running the class. I don't see why I would have to go, she is a very competent teacher." Jaden replied, curious.
The Chief Commander looked at the paperwork on his desk, and said gravely, "Agent Karla may have been contaminated."
Jaden gasped, "when? How?" she asked, genuinely shocked.
The Chief rubbed his eyes and said, "Last night, as her partner says, they had heard a disturbance in a neighbor-hood, about ten minutes to the dawn, and they split up to block off the culprits, after a few minutes, he heard her scream for help, but when he reached her, there was a bite in her neck, no Vampire to be found, and she was bleeding unstoppably. There was a corpse of a woman nearby, also the prey of a Vampire. This afternoon, at about one o'clock, the wound unexplainably healed without a scar. We believe that she was contaminated at the scene, and she in currently in quarantine."
"So why call me here?" Jaden asked, though she believed she already knew the answer.
"We need a teacher," the Chief replied, "someone who can relate to the kids, one who can help them learn what they have need to know to be an Agent."
"But sir," Jaden protested, "some of the students may be only a year younger than me, if not the same age. How will they respect me if I'm having to look up to see their faces and when they know I'm younger."
"Jaden, you are a respected Agent for your deeds, and that is who they'll see. The Agent, full of wisdom and experience." He said kindly.
Jaden sighed, "how long to I have to teach for?" she asked, giving in.
The Chief Commander gave a sort of relieved smile, that he smothered almost before it completely formed, and said, "it would only be with this grouping: so three, four weeks tops. Then we will have found someone to replace Karla if she is not well by then. Your class starts in an hour and a half, and it is in Compound 3, section B2, room 127; you are dismissed." Jaden nodded her head, and turned to leave, "oh, and Agent Korr…" the Chief Commander called after her, she halted and turned to hear him say, "Thank you again."
She nodded again, and said, "you're welcome sir," softly, as she closed the door behind her.
Jaden, not wanting to have to walk, boarded the Center's Tran-Compound Shuttle, and rode it to Compound 3. She still had more than an hour until the class started, but it took her nearly a half hour just to find the classroom. It had been nearly four years since she'd been in the Apprentice classes. She'd forgotten how isolated the class was. If one was to look at a map of the Command Center, a large town in size, Compound 3 would be located nearly off the map. The Apprentices were kept away from the Agents and the Officers because if a Vampire got to an Apprentice, which was much more likely than one getting to an Agent or a Officer, then the Apprentice may be able to access information that could be lethal to The Organization. A case proven in history, when an Apprentice was influenced into nearly killing the Chief Commander. Nowadays, students seldom meet with Agents in private, and almost never with Officers.
Jaden halted outside the Apprentice Equipment Supply Office. She had an idea, but she'd need to change, and see if there was an Agent free off of Day Shift. She had the perfect way to see how good of Agents her new pupils would become.
The idea still fizzing in her head, she hurried to the Off Duty Station Lounge, where some Day Agents hung around at shift change. It was only a quarter of an hour after sunset, so some may be slow when changing. Just as she rounded the corner into the Lounge, she spotted the perfect person to help her. Seeing that he was about to walk out the entrance doors, she yelled out "Agent Green!" and ran to catch him.
Upon hearing his name, Tom Green, a graduate from a different Academy, but still a good friend of Jaden's, turned and, seeing it was Jaden, smiled. "Hey Jay." He said happily, "sup?"
Jaden, putting on a sly face, she asked, "you remember how I was your date to your sister's wedding?" Tom nodded, "well, you owe me, and I need a favor" she said, with a small smile…
