***

“Zea, we have to go now!” shouted a dark skinned man with haunting golden eyes. The moonlight highlighting his chiseled face which matched his tall and built frame. He waited for a response from the agent, not sure if she heard him above the sound of the helicopter repellers.

Zea was staring out of the helicopter open doors, looking at the Barclay’s bank from above.

“Zea!” repeated the man.

“I heard you, Robert. I just want to see this first,” shouted Zea. In her hands was a remote. She pushed the red button.

A few seconds later, the bank exploded in multiple spots.

“Was it necessary?” asked Robert.

Zea shut the helicopter’s door and turned to Robert. “Someone told me Elizabeth should make her explosions bigger,” she said.

Robert shook his head. “We wasted time!” He turned to the pilot. “Go now. Fast!”

The pilot acknowledged and sped the helicopter away. Twenty minutes later, they landed in a secluded small airport. A running private jet was waiting for them.

They exited the helicopter.

“It was not easy getting this,” said Robert as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it up. He took a puff. “Elizabeth had to shuffle a lot of stocks and, possibly, threaten a billionaire’s son. This is sloppy. Very unlike you.”

Zea said nothing.

“There’s a dark room in there where no sunlight can touch you. Has a nice bed,” said Robert before he stopped.

Zea nodded. “You aren’t coming?” she asked.

“Elizabeth pulled me out of my mission to clean up your dumbass shit. I suggest you stay out of Europe for a while. They got your face all over the news and internet as a terrorist,” said Robert.

Zea’s jaw cracked. The EC had their hands in everything these days. “Make sure Peter’s will gets fulfilled,” she commanded.

Robert nodded. He flicked a piece of his cigarette off. “You mean destroy the vampire poison source. Now get the fuck out,” he said.

Zea eyebrows twitched before going up the stairs into the private jet. Once inside, the jet wasted no time. She felt it move.

In the back, was a room with a bed. She went there and flopped onto the bed, noting that her shotgun was strapped to the wall and regretted not taking it with her before she entered the bank. She had left with Peter in case he needed it. Like it mattered in the end. He was dead, and it was very much her fault.

The jet rumbled as she sped down the runway.

Vampire poison she knew only the EC had it. After all, she was the one that gave it to them after she found it in one of Hitler’s labs during World War II. Another distant voice in her past echoed, a woman with a Japanese accent:

It nearly killed you! Why are you giving it to them?

The popping in her ear and the sudden jolt signaled that the jet went into the air.

Zea turned over and stared at the jet’s ceiling. She touched her face, it was still burned. She recalled the many regrets and failures in her life. Compared to her successes, she wondered why anyone would think of her as anything other than a loser?

A buzzing had her reaching for her phone in her pocket. The call was encrypted but on the locked screen on her phone was the name “Elizabeth R.” She put the phone to her ear. “Yeah?” she answered.

“How are you feeling?” asked Elizabeth.

“Crap,” Zea replied.

“I read the reports. It was his choice,” said Elizabeth.

“I knew it was a trap. I should’ve just left it be and returned to the states. He would be alive right now.” Zea was silent for a moment. She took a breath. “If I hadn’t given the EC the poison formula--”

“You, like Peter, trusted them. They betrayed. Same damn story. Look, it wasn’t in the cards for you to save him. However, it wasn’t for nothing. We now know the EC is utilizing the poison and sharing it with the Sisters of Dawn coven. We just need to get a sample and destroy the source,” assured Elizabeth.

“You didn’t just call me to regurgitate Robert’s mission, did you?” said Zea.

Elizabeth sighed. “No. We actually have a problem.”

“Problem as in that damn scroll?” asked Zea, bitterly.

“Maybe. It’s being researched right now. I am calling you because we have an outsider problem. One of our suppliers told me an outsider vampire has been buying blood from him,” answered Elizabeth.

“What’s the problem?” asked Zea, annoyed. She would think they would have taken care of one punk vampire. “Is the vampire a First?”

Zea almost snarled saying that last word in her question. A First was a vampire that was not created from another vampire. They are regarded as the creme of the crop of vampire society. They were also incredibly dangerous and one of them nearly decimated her entire elite agents.

Elizabeth scoffed. “Like they will dare cross the ocean for us. This vampire is... better to see her for yourself. I am sending you a video. Put me on speaker.”

Zea pulled her phone from her ear and, putting her phone on speaker, played the video. It was a short clip of a black haired woman with an unusual swooped up bangs entering the blood bank through the front door. The woman was dressed casually in shorts and white t-shirt with the Golden Arches logo.

“And am I supposed to recognize her?” asked Zea. She was confused as she had never seen this vampire before in all of her life.

“Look at the time,” said Elizabeth.

In the corner of the video was a time of 12:45 pm. Afternoon. Zea was speechless. She replayed the video, zooming in at the door. No doubt sunlight had hit the vampire full on but that was not possible? She of all people should know. Unless? she thought.

“Many times she has bought from him. All in the afternoon and one time at night. Our supplier didn’t want to contact us until he could confirm. He even made her wait in the sun for two hours,” continued Elizabeth.

“A vampire that walks in daylight,” said Zea slowly even though she felt her heart thumping madly, but she maintained her composure. “Is she an EC?”

“No as far as we know. Anyways, I kept this away from others. Right now only you, me and that supplier knows,” said Elizabeth.

Zea narrowed her eyes. She got the drift. “You suspect we have a mole in our midst?” she asked.

“For some time. When you land, I want you to track Aric in the shadows but don’t strike. I want to see how deep this goes. I will personally keep an eye on our daylight walking vampire,” said Elizabeth.

“Of course. See you soon,” said Zea.

She hung up and tossed her phone somewhere on her bed. She tucked her hands behind her head before closing her eyes. With everything that had transpired, she couldn’t help but feel that it wasn’t a coincidence. Something was brewing.