The team boarded the plane as the sun was setting, shades of violet painting the sky. By the time they took off, the sun had already set. The team got straight into things, wasting no time going over the details.
"In each kidnapping, there is no sign of struggle. Each woman went willingly with him to their demise. He clearly knows what he's doing, or else there would have been at least a little fight."
"He's a lady's man. He seduces them, brings them back to his place and then they aren't seen alive ever again. After he has his way with them, he kills them in brutal ways, it's his release. The victims have no connection other than age; all in their mid-twenties. Blondes, brunettes, dark skin or fair, with him it doesn't matter. He abducts them then brings them back to their homes to murder them. He gets off by killing them; nothing else could please him more." The team didn't go too far with the discussion, as they also had a meeting time carved out to go over the rest of the details.
The conversation was a dark one, and was short. The team was all too exhausted to go over the details any further, and they all dozed off to get as much rest as possible. The long plane ride relaxed Dylan's chaotic nerves, allowing he to get some much needed rest and to breath normally again. She didn't get much rest before they had to discuss the pressing issue. A shadow haunted Seattle, and Dylan's job was to find and eradicate it, not relax. Her job was a stressful one, and constantly kept her on her feet.
The team dropped off their bags and set up shop in one of the larger hotel rooms after collecting the files on their latest target. He seemed a nasty one, killing his victims in the most savage and inhumane ways. While Dylan worked to create a profile on him, she also worked to determine whether the serial killer was an inhuman enemy and required her inhuman side to deal with the threat.
The briefing seemed to last for a few long hours, the file on this latest sick-o so long she wasn't sure there was even an end to it. Dylan could tell that the morning rays weren't far from peeking over the horizon when they finally called it quits for the night. Washing her face with cold water, she took a good, long look at herself. Dark bags gave away her pure exhaustion, and worry lines on her forehead and cheeks were beginning to become permanent. A job like Dylan's was an extremely high stress job. She had seen a lot of 'early retirements' because they couldn't handle the stress. When constantly looking into a dark world, it was hard not to leave scarred. But luckily for Dylan, she was born in a dark world, so she was a little more resilient.
After letting the hot shower ease her tired and jet lagged muscles, Dylan slid into the sheets of her bed in silk pajamas, allowing the comfort of the materials lull her into a near sleep state. Unfortunately for her, her mind whirled with thoughts and theories of her latest case, and it took her nearly an hour and a half to fall asleep.
After finally catching up to her in that small hanger, he observed her silently in the form of a small barn owl. She entered the private jet with a small team of mostly men and two females. The idea of her surrounded by men practically drove him nuts. Allowing the wave of anger mixed with jealously to pass, he changed into the form of a small insect and landed on the plane.
The flight was longer than he expected, but he had been lucky enough to find a way inside the jet in the form of a small fly, which allowed him to listen in on any conversations on the jet with ease. There was a very dark conversation about their target, but it gave him a little more insight to her world. As she dozed, he fully took her in. She was beautiful, stunning. She had amazing facial features, thick and ruby red lips, luscious flowing hair golden hair. All of her stunning features, however, seemed shadowed. Her face was thin and full of lines, eyes bagged, and the rest of her body far too thin. This worried him. She should be taking care of herself, and clearly she had neglected to do so. What could cause her to allow herself to get into such bad shape?
Gavril analyzed the rest of her team, which consisted of four males and two females. The males all seemed well built, as if they could hold their own if needed to, and it was clear to him they all trained regularly. The females were both plain to him, nothing stood out among them except one thing that stood out among all of the team. They all were thin. Each person showed signs of major stress, and a constant stress at that. Gavril was careful to note this, and perhaps he would find an answer into why his lifemate was in such terrible shape.
Once the plane finally landed, Gavril followed her to her next location, which proved to be a very nice hotel. This time, he was a lot more careful to completely cloak his presence. She was scared of him, for some reason, and he needed to be a lot more careful with his approach. Dylan, he learned her name while on the jet, had already fled from him twice, and he was not about to let it happen again.
Gavril listened into the human's meeting that seemed to go on for hours. He now understood why they each looked so sickly; with such a taxing job it would be hard not to. Gavril knew that very well. He too hunted, though not in the same way they did. The monsters he hunted for so many a century were just as sick as the humans they did, if not sicker at times. The hunt left a big stain on his soul, and his heart had long turned black and hardened to the world. But this pain was for the men, not for his woman to experience, and now she was suffering because of it.
His observation of Dylan and the team was cut short as a familiar warning crept across his skin. The sun would be rising soon, and he needed to go to ground. He at least had the reassurance that she would sleep through most of the day. To be safe, Gavril added a few safeguards to the ones she had so cleverly woven.
The blaring alarm clock startled Dylan from her sleep, jerking her awake. She groaned before even opening her eyes. Her body ached everywhere from exhaustion. Dylan knew exactly what time it was; 4:30. She had half an hour to pull herself together before the team would meet and go to the latest crime scene, which was only a few days old now. Dylan also planned on visiting the morgue where her body was. She needed to see it up close, not just in the pictures.
The crime scene proved to be as brutal as described and pictured. Blood soaked the walls, and furniture was broken and thrown all across the room. It was clear the girl put up a fight, which was unusual for the victims. Dylan slowly walked through each room in the house, carefully examining each and every object in the room. Everything was always there for a reason, and she wanted to know the reason behind everything there. Each victim was kidnapped from their home, missing for one week before they turned up brutally murdered in their home. Each victim was female, in their mid-twenties and single, living on their own. This all sent up a red flag to Dylan, but the fact that the victims lived a week without being torn apart also confused her.
After fully examining everything possible, the team split up. Some of the team went to other crime scenes, others questioned any friends or relatives to the victims while Dylan went to the morgue. She made sure she was the one to see the body in person, and no one else. The body was ripped apart savagely, covered in deep scratches all over. Her throat was also ripped to shreds, which sent another red flag to her. There were a few major signs of a vampire attack, yet some of it wasn't adding up completely. Those deadlings couldn't handle being in the presence of a human being for more than a few hours without destroying them, let alone a whole week.
Sitting in a local coffee shop and needing the help of a strong coffee, Dylan wondered over the words the man she had fled spoke. Having never been raised in the Carpathian world, Dylan learned about her abilities by experience and a few lessons from her mother before she died while finishing off a deadling that nearly killed Dylan. Rhiannon had been very careful to keep her separate from the dark world in efforts to protect her, so Dylan knew nothing about their secret language. She knew about her abilities as a Carpathian and as a Mage, but nothing about her heritage or culture, growing up in her own little world. Hearing the names he called her though, was mesmerizing. The language sounded beautiful and exotic to her, and she would have loved to learn more if he hadn't frightened her so much.
"You've been staring at your plate for half an hour now. Come on Lany, what's up? Don't tell me this sick-o's got to you." Lany was the nickname Dylan had earned from her team. She looked up, pulled from her jumbling thoughts, and shook her head.
"Just trying to make sense of everything. He definitely is a twisted one." Dylan was good at hiding the truth from her team. She wouldn't call it lying, just hiding things from them.
"Come on, this one's a classic. Watched too many vampire movies as a kid and now he's mimicking them."
Dylan frowned, not sure it was that simple this time. "I don't know. It feels like we're missing something here, doesn't it?" Her partner, Nick, looked down and began picking food off her plate as she wasn't eating anything tonight. He didn't say anything, deep in thought as to what they were missing. Dylan didn't understand the timeline they had put together; somehow it was missing something.
The door to the restaurant dinged and Dylan looked up, opening her mouth to say something to Nick. Before she could get the words out, however, she was cut off by a familiar voice.
"You can leave us now." The smooth voice came from behind Dylan, and her heart skipped a beat, fear threatening to sink in.
A/N: So they still haven't gotten much time to get to know each other, and that's definitely something that will take a while with Dylan's lifestyle. To clear up why she doesn't know the Carpathian language (since it was brought to my attention over something mentioned in the last chapter) Dylan was never raised in the Carpathian world. She lived in almost a limbo, raising herself mostly. Her mother kept her shut off from her cultures since she felt it safer for her to be hidden in that way. So naturally she only knows the things she learned from her mother's few teachings or the things she has taught herself over the centuries. A language only spoken by the Carpathians isn't something she would know.
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