Jessica's hazel eyes followed the acidic green demi-fae's movements carefully, left hand locked around the hilt of her enchanted longsword. She hated these bastards nearly as much as they hated her own kind. But, sometimes it was a necessary evil, summoning the very creatures who would so love to tear vampire society limb from limb.
"One has spread the secret," the creature hissed, flinching away from the edge of the binding circle as she spoke that final word.
"Where?" the blonde Mystic asked. She sought government agents with this ritual, but hadn't expected such a reply, and she knew she didn't have all that much longer before she'd lose the circle.
"A motel in Swansdale. Room 211. Go now! She may know more than she seems…" And with that, the demi-fae vanished, taking with him whatever secrets he knew. Resisting the urge to growl, Jessica left the smallest room of her Corvidae Flats apartment, where she kept her fae altar, and pulled her phone from the table beside the door. She needed to find this woman and fast. Whoever she really was, she could be either an asset or a detriment.
But, honestly? Jessica wanted her.
Three hours after sending the files, Candice's phone was ringing. Not her cover phone – her phone. The one that meant she'd been right. Steeling her nerve, the blonde picked up the device with a deep breath and spoke. "Hello?"
"Agent Wilson, this is Agent Simmons," a friendly, accented female voice replied. "Agent Hill sent the files over. I've been going over the data and it is honestly astonishing. For four years – four years! That's a high number! – an entire society has been hiding right under our noses! Do you think you could bring us samples?"
"Don't remind me, Agent Simmons, and I doubt samples would be very possible. It is all real, though. I've seen this stuff with my own eyes. Hell, I'm damn sure I've even been a feeding victim."
"You've listed the possible symptoms as short-term amnesia, soreness in one or both sides of the neck, and lightheadedness?"
"Yes, that makes the most sense. And if it lasts over a period of time, say, someone's developed an interest, a person could develop anemia from being fed on."
Suddenly, and rather astonishingly, there was a knock at the door of Candice's motel room. She always had the Do Not Disturb sign hung on her door – a knock at the door from anyone but the manager was a problem. "Pentacle Teahouse tea delivery! A gift from an admirer!"
"Who's at the door?" Agent Simmons wondered, on the phone as she was.
"I am not sure I even want to find out the answer to that question," Candice replied, even as she made her way across the room to the door and peeked out through the peephole, even as her free hand, without the phone in it, reached into the mini-closet – which she'd turned into her personal, portable armory. For a moment, just a split half-second, her hand hovered over the grip of her Taurus Judge – one of her more personal guns - before she pulled the Ruger SP101 .327 Federal from its little cubbie and slipped it into the back of her jeans. "I'll call you back?"
"Yeah, of course!" Agent Simmons replied, before there was a soft click over the line.
This entire time, Candice's blue eyes studied the tall blonde who stood outside her door holding a plain cardboard box. Her plain white tank top was worn, well loved perhaps, but the pale blue peasant skirt looked brand new. She looked harmless enough. But then, so did Candice. Knowing what she knew now about this city, the petite agent wasn't about to be duped into anything she couldn't get out of. Still, she tugged a couple dresses in front of her guns and opened the door, until the chain caught.
"Hi, my name's Jessica. I work at the Pentacle Teahouse. Someone sent me over with an order of loose tea leaves for you, along with an infuser," the other blonde said, smiling gently. "Can I come in?"
"There's supposed to be a Do Not Disturb sign on the door," Candice muttered, glancing at the handle. The scrap of cardboard was gone.
"I saw one down the hall, on the floor. Maybe one of the neighbors pulled it down?"
She seems nice, Candice thought, as she unhooked the chain. "Yeah, you can come in. Set the box on the mini fridge." One hand remained on the Ruger in her back pocket as she moved to a protective position in front of her highly sensitive laptop, and the SHIELD files that sat next to it.
"Really like what you've done with the drab motel room standard," the other women replied, gesturing to the mess of papers strewn about on the bed and floor. Mostly insignificant information with maybe a scrap or two of sensitive data. "You been staying here long?"
"Four years. Got a long-term lease with the manager. You got some other reason to be here?"
Jessica grinned broadly, those hazel eyes of hers shining as she stepped closer to the other woman. "You know too much, honey. You're coming with me, to my apartment."
With that Jessica's long thin, empty hand wound around Candice's upper arm, just as she drew her gun, though it was useless. In a blink of an eye, they weren't in the motel room 211 in Swansdale anymore.
Now, they were surrounded by a small army of the dead. The Quarantine.
"Agent Barton, this is Agent Hill. I've got an urgent situation involving an agent you helped train. Harper Rock, Ontario, Canada. Agent Wilson may be in grave danger. She has incredibly sensitive knowledge concerning a localized situation."
"Candice is a big girl, Maria. Do you think she'd want someone to save her?"
"No, Clint. But she might need it."
"Where was she last seen?"
"In the old Gambondale district of Harper Rock. Now known best as the Quarantine. Chock full of zombies and other creatures that we don't want the general public to see. But she didn't walk in. She appeared there, with another woman."
"Just what I need, a teleporter. I'll let you know when I find her."
"Thank you, Clint. Transport will be there in an hour. And as always...be careful."
"Always am, Maria. Always am."
As he slipped the phone into a pocket of his pack, Agent Clint Barton took a deep breath and settled in to wait. Right now, he really didn't have anything else to do.