Author's notes:

Hey, I want to share the 2nd chapter with you. I must warn you that racism will be presented in the story. I will only use it to explain a certain aspect or threads of the story. I hope, you'll end up liking what I've written so far even though it's not much :D

PS. I'll try to finish the chapter as soon as possible. There's a chance that tomorrow it'll be finished.

PS. The story is intended to show a conflict within society, to show brutality, to show blood and gores.

Anyways, as always, thank you for everything, and see you next time :D

Changelog:
2021-03-09: A short preview was posted.
2021-03-15: A whole chapter posted (finally).

Schedule for the nearest future:
2. Betrayal (rewrite).
3. Until my last breath (next chapter).
4. Sometimes it's just better not to know (next chapter)/(possibly rewrite).
5. Exiled you say (next chapter).
6. Kiss the rain (next chapter).
7. Whispers in the Dark (new chapter)/(possibly extending beyond just 2 part story).
8. Story of one lost soul (2 next chapters)/(The war call|The heart not so cold).
9. Prisoner of Your Eyes (next chapter).
10. Black Diamond (2 next chapters)/(possibly finishing the story).
11. The rise of the Blood Moons' servants (2 next chapters).
12. Alone (2 next chapters)/(possibly rewrite).
13. Last Christmas (finishing up the story).
14. My home is where my heart lies (a long, possibly 10k + words chapter).

End of author's notes:

"Vayne. Vayne? Vayne?! Vayne! God damn it, Vayne. Wake the fuck up!" the man's booming voice pierced through the silence, making the sleep fading away.

"Aghh," Shauna Vayne groaned, trying to lift herself up from her desk. "What's going on, Taylor?" she asked, the remnants of sleep and exhaustion hearable in her voice.

"You're sleeping during the day. You're sleeping while at work. Doesn't it sound like a problem to you?" the man called Taylor allowed himself to ironise a bit. "It's the third time I found you lying asleep on that very desk. What's the fuck going on?" he asked much quieter.

"I've been here for the past 3 weeks," the woman uttered quietly, finally managing to stand up. "I'm nearly 24/7 in that very office. My body is exhausted currently," she added, looking straight into Taylor's eyes.

"You're looking like a shit," the man commented. "Have you taken a shower recently?"

"Pff, funny," Vayne scoffed, narrowing her eyes. "What do you want? If you came here just to irritate me, you better back off," she added in a venomous tone.

"Your current case was closed," Taylor announced. "The chief stated that there's not enough evidence to waste resources on that trail."

"What?" the surprised woman asked, staring at the man with her eyes wide open.

Taylor was a tall man who's parent had come to the USA from some part of South America. He was very tanned, muscular, with the skin marked by many scars. His hair was curly, jet-black, short. According to him, he rarely had taken any interest to do anything with it. Some of the other officers were arguing whether he was black or white. Still, he preferred to be considered Hispanic. As per usual, he had a grey tactical trouser on with a black tee, allowing everyone to see his dog tag. Whether it was faked or not, it did matter little to none for Vayne.

"You heard me," the Hispanic man replied. "The chief thinks that your case is irrelevant," he added, gesturing defensively.

"What's now, then?" Shauna asked, demotivated, placing her right hand over her face.

"There's a new case," the black-haired man started. "The chief wants us to work on it together. However, I don't think we'll be able to do much about it. It looks nasty," he provided a bit more pieces of information as soon as the woman fixated her sight onto him.

"Fill me in, then. What do I need to know?" Vayne asked, sighing heavily.

"Here," he said, throwing a folder onto the woman's desk. "All the information we have - are there. Read it, then find me. I have one more case to finish before I can focus on that madness," the tall man added before leaving the office.

With a dose of hesitation, Shauna reached out for the folder. It was surprisingly thick. Considering the fact that she had never heard out the case, it must have been new. As soon as the wrapper was opened, at least a couple of huge photos could be spotted. The woman pulled them out immediately, thinking that they might shed a bit of light on the situation. She regrated it quite quickly. As she had expected, the photo had been taken at the crime scene. They showed 12 dead men. All of them were members of some security company, at least based on the uniforms they wore. Each of them could be easily named 'black'. Whoever, or whatever killed them, it had not wasted an ounce of time. The pictures seemed as if they had been taken in the butchery store. The entirety of the shown floor was covered in a mixture of blood and gores. Even a single glance over the frames made the woman wanted to puke.

"Splendid, another freak is out in the open, taking pleasure in butchering people," Shauna allowed herself to complain for a short moment.

Then, she returned to the folder's content. She needed to know everything. Maybe, just maybe, someone's life would depend on her really soon.

For at least an hour, she had been reading the reports. It would not be an understatement if she said that every single line had frozen her blood with fear, at least to some extent. The bodies had been desecrated in so many ways. She felt pity for the person how would be tasked to tell their families about that incident. The killer made some sort of testing ground of them. The bite marks had been found on the men's skin. As if it was enough, it was just one of the many tools the aggressor had used. It was disgusting. The victims' flesh had been tanned, cut, bitten, torn to the shreds. Still, no evidence directly pointing at the oppressor had been found. It was some sort of madness.

She had had enough. With a low thud, the chair fell down onto the floor. Vayne did not care how her officer presented itself. With a low scoff, she grabbed the folder and her trusted gun, then left the room. The door was shut closed with a loud thud a moment later.

Her office was located inside the central operation base of RDT in Adementh city. Even though most people still called them 'police,' they were doing far more than the past police. The RDT was responsible for dealing with the cases associated with both humans and nonhumans. Vayne was of the few lucky officers that were only tasked with human crimes. However, based on what the folder contained, she was pretty positive that her luck was about to end.

With a heavy sigh, Shauna walked across her department. As per usual, the utter chaos ruled there. Dozens of men and women alike were talking, shouting, coming in and out. All of that created a cacophony of sounds that could easily cause a headache.

"Come on, Vayne. Don't let these fucker distract and irritate you," the woman uttered quietly under her breath. She loved her work - she really did. Still, her coworkers were degenerates, to say the least.

After a couple of prolonged moments, the woman managed to escape the hell – she got used to calling it 'work'. She needed to reach the upper levels of the skyscraper. The woman hated the fact that RDT decided to choose such a facility for their main base of operations. Still, it was way over her pay-grade to have any say in that particular matter. Even though there were many differences between Taylor and her, she respected the man greatly. After all, Taylor was one of the top dogs of the supernatural's department. The man had come across many situations which would most likely end the lives of other, less skilled officers.

One deep exhale was allowed by Shauna before she headed toward the elevator. Her mind must be clean, her nerves under control.

A somehow loud beep of the lift signalised that the piece of technology arrived. Without too much thinking, Vayne came in, quickly selecting her desired destination. The woman wiped her dried eyes before looking straight into the mirror.

Shauna Vayne was a 26 years old woman with long straight, raven hair. She got really rare eyes. The mixture of greyness and navy blue was filling her irises. That fact alone was making her intriguing yet dangerous. She was really slim. Some people considered her to be an anorexic due to that feature. The truth was that she was extremely slim yet athletic. She had inherited the noble facial features after her ancestors. Her cheeks were currently slightly dimpled due to the increased amount of stress she was faced with for the last couple of weeks. Still, she could be considered a beauty, not like the model beauty, but beauty nevertheless.

The raven-haired woman had always been the workaholic, a chaotic variant of a perfectionist. For her, it was usual to work overtime, deny herself sleep to try to finish her assignment. Even though the RDT did not force its employee to work a certain outfit on daily basic, Vayne knew better. She thought that her current position amongst society required her to work properly. Because of that, daily, she would go to her office wearing a suit with a matching shirt and a tie. Of course, it made her some sort of an attraction for her coworkers. It would not be an exaggeration if she said that most of the RDT staff would wear casual outfits – at least amongst the human department. She considered it the indignity of the post.

The elevator reached the requested destination faster than Vayne anticipated. The metal doors managed to open fully, and the second signal sounded before she returned to reality. It seemed that her mind was on the run. It was so difficult for the woman to focus on one matter for an extended period of time.

"Pfff, pathetic!" she scoffed deep inside her mind.

With yet another heavy sigh, she left the life. The very first thing she did afterwards was to look around. She had never been here before, that must be admitted. A single glance allowed the woman to notice at least one major difference. The human department of RDT mostly consisted of large open-space halls with the addition of a few small offices. While the supernatural department seemed to be divided into medium-sized offices for every single officer working there. In front of her, there were glass doors with a small terminal attached to them. To the left, there was an additional terminal with a wide display hanging on the wall. The screen was presenting some basic pieces of information that visitors would need.

After a moment or two of thinking, Vayne decided to use the wider terminal. She hoped to obtain more precise information about where to seek Taylor. As soon as she approached the piece of technology, the smart band on her wrist started to beep. On its tiny display, a 6-digits code showed. When she fixed her gaze onto the terminal, it asked her to provide a one-time code for privileges verification purpose. To some extent, it was to be expected, but it managed to surprise the woman.

After a couple of moments, the security code was provided by Vayne. The display dimmed out while at the very centre of it, the loading indicator appeared. The procedure took maybe a few seconds, maybe a bit more. In the end, the monitor returned to its original state, presenting her some sort of dashboard filled with tiles separating the content of the page. Locating the employees' cards section took the raven-haired officer about a minute. To tell the truth, the design of that dashboard was horrific. One of her closest friends was a software developer. Nearly every single time they would meet, she would repeat one sentence about designing the applications. "Keep it stupid simple. The more intuitive the app is, the better," Shauna heard her friend's voice in her mind.

"Bingo," Vayne whispered under her breath as soon as she managed to locate Taylor's card.

It appeared that he had been assigned the officed located at the very back of the department. To reach it, she would need to cross nearly the entirety of the floor. Without a better thing to do, she opted to download the level map to her band. The moment the process finished, her band once again started to beep. Before proceeding toward the offices' area, she logged out of the terminal. To her utter surprise, the glass doors already opened, as if waiting for her to come in.

The strong scent of men cologne hit her nostrils just a couple of moments after entering the area. The area seemed to be filled with it. Based on that fact only, the raven-haired woman could assume that most – if not all – of the department's employees were men. "Does it really matter?" she asked herself, deep inside her mind.

Within a couple of next minutes, the woman managed to reach the central part of the level. It was modelled to be a circle with the circle table at the very middle. All of the walls adjusting the open-space area were covered with displays, consols, boards. It was evident for Vayne that this area for used primarily for meetings, planning sessions. Currently, two men were standing in front of one of the many computers. One of them was Taylor. Shauna recognised him based on the outfit he had worn during the short visit earlier.

Without hesitation, she decided to go forward. After all, she was here only because of the case the man had thrown at her desk some time ago. Still, she felt uneasy about the second man. He was about a head taller than Taylor. His clothing consisted of a long greyish thin coat with many pockets, dark combat pants and combo boots. The skin colour of the unknown man was slightly darker than Taylor's. His long, straight, black hair was put into a ponytail. Even from a distance, it was evident that the man was muscular, combat experienced. Vayne felt as if the taller man was surrounded with a leadership aura, confidence.

When the raven-haired woman was only a couple of steps away from the men, she stopped, coughed once to gain attention. As it was to be expected, two officers turned around nearly instantly.

"Oh, finally you're here," Taylor said as some sort of greetings. "As I said, Lucian, it's the officer who can help us with that case," he added, talking toward his companion.

"You are awfully ill-mannered, Taylor," Lucian pointed out with a deep, rich voice. "Miss Vayne, let me introduce myself properly. I am Commander Lucian Brown. I am the leader of this department and, unfortunately, the boss of this ill-mannered man, who stands next to me," he introduced himself with a slight bow of his head.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you in the flesh, Sir," the raven-haired woman replied nearly instantly. "I've heard many stories about your carrier. I must admit that you're quite a mystery even for RDT," Shauna made a comment.

"It is true," the commander agreed. "I like to keep my secrets with me. Anyways, we have a case to solve," he changed the topic swiftly.

"Yes, we have," Vayne repeated after the tall man. "Can you tell me something more about it? I've read the files Taylor gave me earlier today. Still, it feels odd. It feels as if we don't know anything," she provided her point of view.

"I would agree with you, Miss Vayne," Lucian replied. "The scene looks like a butchery. At very first glance, one could say that it is the easiest case of all time. We found desecrated butcher bodies. It could lead us to search for people who suffer from strong mental disorders. Yet, I am not entirely convinced that" the man added a couple of more pieces of information.

"It wasn't done by man," Taylor said. "I can hardly think about anyone who has such a desire for blood and suffering," he added with a hint of disgust hearable in his voice.

"Do we have any autopsy reports? Has it even been commissioned?" Shauna asked after a few seconds of silence.

"No, we do not have. As you might know, our city's current governor had issued an edit that lowered our budget. More than that, to access the additional resources, we are to contact the council," the commander explained.

"Who's in charge of making such a decision?" the raven-haired woman asked, sighing heavily. "Of course, I forgot about that," she added inside her mind.

"Any member of the council can provide us with the needed funds," Taylor said. "However, the only one who's currently in the city is the head of the council," he added with a hint of fear.

"Can we contact him?" Shauna asked immediately.

"Not him, her," Lucian corrected the woman. "I can make a call. However, I doubt that I will be invited to the meeting," the tall man added.

"Without an autopsy, we'll not go much further," the raven-haired woman pointed out. "We need to talk with the leader of the council. Otherwise, we can just close the case. All we know is that there was only one killer. All of the victims were killed one by one."

"I hate the fact that you're right," Taylor whispered. "I feel uneasy about the council's leader, and you should too, Vayne," he added.

"Why?" the woman asked, surprised.

"Because she is a vampire," Lucian replied. "Taylor is afraid of vampires. He refuses to deal with the cases associated with them. And… it seems that he thinks that your experience with them, your past, will block you, to some extent," the commander provided a further explanation.

Shauna allowed herself to be silenced for a couple of prolonged moments. Her mind was flooded by the memories cast away, bounded to the deepest part of her consciousness. The memories of that awful day came back with doubled strength. Images of her family being killed in front of her eyes returned. The woman felt as if she was reliving these moments once again. A lone tear rolled out of her eye. She wiped it up immediately.

"We're here to save people, to make them as safe as possible," she spoke after a moment of silence. "Even if these memories still hunt me in my nightmares, I need to overcome them. I chose this job to help people. And… if I'm too coward to fulfil my plages, I'm not worth anything," she added in a whisper-like manner.

"I feel like you are too hard for yourself," Lucian sounded. "However, I agree with you. To fulfil our job, we need to overcome our own traumas, our fears."

"I won't go to meet her," Taylor said upright. "I don't want to participate with the case with vampires," he added to backup his previous statement.

"I will not force you," the lead officer replied. "However, you are putting Miss Vayne in a very uncomfortable position. After all, she is not the part of the supernatural department compared to you," the man pointed out in a cold tone. "Miss Vayne, would you take up this challenge and become a new member of my team?" he asked formally, focusing on the raven-haired woman.

"Sir, please drop these formalities, these titles," Shauna replied immediately. "I'm an officer of RDT. If you want me to be part of your team, you'll have me in it," she added right away.

"I hoped you would say that Vayne," Lucian responded. "I will make an appointment for you," he added, reaching for the mobile straight away. "And before I forget," the lead officer started. "Taylor, give her access to our databases, boards, resources," her ordered his protégé.

"Right away, Sir," Taylor replied without enthusiasm. "Come with me to another terminal," he said toward Vayne.

They headed toward the terminal that was located at the opposite side of the open-space area. The display attached to the piece of technology was huge. Shauna would guess that the monitor was at least 67 inches wide, but she could be wrong. The measuring by sight was never her strong side. As soon as they reached it, Taylor began unlocking the computer and logging in.

"Could you read the serial number of your band, please?" he asked, not sparring her even a single glance.

"Sure," the raven-haired woman responded. She lifted her band, then clicked a couple of times to access the settings menu. "67971b4daa43fff53fe63520dae72f77fd6d1362."

"Ok, give a few moments," the man said. "I queued some files to be sent to your band - mostly certificates, keys, you know, security stuff. It should be done in less than a minute. After that, you're free to access our resources," he explained, still continuing to talk without an ounce of enthusiasm.

"Do I need anything else?" the raven-haired woman asked, checking the piece of technology wrapped around her right wrist.

"I don't think so," Taylor responded, grumpy.

"Vayne, the council's leader's secretary, wants to speak with you," Lucian sounded. "She agreed to arrange the meeting. However, the secretary wants to talk with the person who will be attending it. Before you ask, she disagreed for me to handle the meeting," he added with a scowl all over his face.

"Fair enough," Vayne sighed heavily before taking the phone from her new boss.

The woman allowed herself to sit beside the round table. The truth was, she needed a bit of time to calm down her nerves. After all, she had been just promoted, and yet, here she was. About to talk with the secretary of the single most important person in the city.

"Are you still with me, Miss Vayne?" the pleasant voice came from the mobile.

"Yes, of course," the raven-haired woman replied as soon as the surprise faded away. "I'm sorry, I needed a moment for myself," she provided an additional explanation.

"Nothing happened, Miss Vayne," the secretary assured her cooly. "I was informed that you're new here, so please, take your time," she added. "Shall we address the matter of the appointment?" the woman asked a moment later.

"Yes," the raven-haired woman replied, unconfidently.

"Splendid," the council leader's protégé exclaimed cheerfully. "Mister Brown informed me that you'd like to ask Miss Tepes for the additional resources for RDT. Do you have time now?" she asked.

"Why?"

"Miss Tepes informed me that if the matter is crucial for your operations, the meeting can be arranged now. I'll have a driver sent to your main base within the next 2 minutes. He should arrive in less than 30 minutes," the secretary flooded Vayne with information.

"Of course," it was the only thing Shauna was able to utter back.

"Splendid, see you soon then," the woman bid her farewell and hunged up the call in the very next second.

The confusion was visibly presented all over the raven-haired woman's face. As soon as she put down the phone, her new boss walked to her.

"What did she say?" Lucian asked immediately.

"The meeting is today," Vayne exhaled heavily. "The driver's already en route to pick me up," she provided a bit more information.

"Ehhh…," the tall man sighed. "It seems that there is no rest for the wicked. There is a job to be done, Vayne. I count on you."

"I'd love to say the same about myself," she whispered, slowly standing up. "I need to get ready," she added, excusing herself from the briefing room.

"Take your time, kid," she heard Lucian's voice behind her. "There is a lot of things that depend on that meeting. Just proceed slowly," he gave her a hint.

"Of course, Sir," Shauna replied emotionlessly. "I'll make sure we get this money," she tried to sound confident, but even she knew that she failed miserably. The department leader spotted that without a problem, but he did not utter a single word more, allowing the woman to leave the floor.

"It's really high time for me to face the demons of my past," Vayne whispered softly inside her mind.