The yellow lights in the ceiling flickered intermittently, as if on the verge of going out at any moment. Pam crossed her fingers and hoped that would not happen. The bare concrete hallway was dank, grey, and long, so long she couldn’t see where it ended. She felt her heart beat faster as the narrow tunnel went completely dark for a moment. Dr. Brown hadn’t given her any more instructions beyond finding the intercom, nor had he warned her of any impending power outages.

It was eerily quiet, the sound of her own footsteps reverberated like snare drum beats against the cinder block walls.

Finally, the hallway veered right and Pam was greeted by a very tall, very big, black man. He stood with his arms crossed and had long pulled back dread locks and a goatee. He was dressed casually, in jeans and a black t-shirt, with the alert demeanor of a body guard. He looked like a linebacker poised in the middle of the hallway. Since preternaturals were not allowed in pro sports, Pam assumed he was the clinic’s muscle. The quick way he sized her up for potential trouble gave it away instantly.

“Hi,” she waved, “I’m Pam.”

The big guy’s eyebrows went up and he looked her up and down, as if to say, “You’ve got to be kidding me?”

“Devon,” he replied in a rich tenor, “Dr. Brown’s assistant. Follow me please.”

Pam barely had a chance to acknowledge him before Devon turned on his heels and led the way toward a more brightly lit room down another hallway. She spent her time following Devon wondering what kind of preternatural he was. He had the gruff demeanor of a vampire but the same could be said for very strong lycanthropes. She pictured him as a sleek Werepanther and the striking image she had conjured gelled nicely with Devon’s effortlessly contracting muscles. It was rude to ask a preternatural what they were, it had racial connotations to it and some were sensitive about stereotypes.

Pam came back to herself as she realized they had been walking for what felt like an eternity. She bit her bottom lip in a tell tale sign of worry…how would she ever find her way around this place?

As if by magic, Dr. Brown appeared out of some hidden corner and greeted her warmly.

“Pam,” Dr. Brown said in a sing-song voice, “I’m so glad you’re here.”

She tried to reconcile this Dr. Brown with the Dr. Brown whom had threatened to have her memory erased by a vampire just one week ago. Rather than reminding herself of that particular unpleasantness, Pam smiled back at her mentor.

“Glad to be here, Dr. Brown.”

He beamed a larger smile back at her, “Wonderful. I see you’ve met Devon.”

Pam looked back at Devon and nodded her head.

“He’s the clinic’s enforcer. We’re technically neutral territory, meaning any preternatural feuds have to end at our doors…but sometimes the patients can be…forgetful.”

Pam raised her eyebrows in response, “I can only imagine.”

Dr. Brown’s now tight smile did nothing to reassure her, “All right then. Let’s give you the grand tour. Over here are the three consult rooms, behind you to your left is the operating room, around the corner here is a set of stairs that leads up to the meds closet. Downstairs you’ll find a bathroom, small refrigerator and a cot.”

Pam surveyed the area and found it to be surprisingly small. She sincerely hoped there were not a whole lot of major emergencies in the preternatural community because this clinic was not equipped to handle them. It was a little larger than her apartment, but not by much. However, the medical equipment was very modern and it contrasted brightly with the shadowy surroundings of the clinic.

“I’m expecting my first patient of the night any minute now, so I’ll take this opportunity to go over what you can expect here,” Dr. Brown said.

“Many of my usual patients are the victims of Genesis 9 attacks. However, I do get a few call outs to tend severe injuries in the Vampire Court, Elite Dens, alpha fights, or child births…as few and far between as those may be. It is highly unlikely you’ll have to leave the clinic but understand that it may be necessary if I’m out and there’s an emergency.”

Pam bit her lip in response; it was an old habit she could never seem to break.

“If,” Dr Brown emphasized, “you have to leave the clinic while on duty, lock the doors and Devon will come with you in case there’s trouble.”

Pam took a quick peek over at Devon, who was looming over a computer in the far corner of the open room.

At her questioning look, Dr. Brown chuckled, “He also happens to be our IT expert. He does IT consulting during the day you know. Devon takes care of all the databases, patient files, pack dues…he’d go crazy standing around here all night waiting for a fight.”

Pam laughed a bit at his statement but it was cut short when she heard fast footfalls approaching from behind. Turning around, she saw a little girl with flying red pig tails rushing up to them at full speed. Pam was surprised to see a child, vampires and lycanthropes had an extraordinarily hard time breeding amongst themselves. It was possible the child was half human…

The girl’s mother followed behind her, moving in the fluidly graceful way of the preternaturals. Her daughter had the same shade of scarlet red hair but the mother’s was very long, falling in undulating waves to her waist. She looked like no soccer mom Pam had ever known. The expressionless woman was dressed to the nines in black slacks, a figure hugging tan leather blazer, and a pair of high heeled stilettos that put Pam’s two inch boots to shame.

“Dr. Brown!” squealed the little girl.

“Hello there Ella,” Dr. Brown gushed, “You look so much better.”

“I am. I am!” Ella replied.

It was about then that both Ella and her mother noticed Pam smiling down at the girl.

“Is this the human doctor you told us about?” said the mother in a neutral tone.

Dr. Brown came over and led Pam toward the vampire.

“Ellandra, this is Dr. Loftin. She’ll be helping me in the clinic from now on.”

Pam directly met the vampire’s brilliant sapphire gaze and waited for the inevitable response. Vampires can perform mind influence with their eyes and humans are generally susceptible to their tricks if one were to look at a vampire directly. Ellandra quickly found out that Pam was one of the .01 of the human population impervious to vampires’ mental persuasion.

“Is this why you chose her?” Ellandra asked, “Because she cannot be swayed by vampire tricks.”

Dr. Brown gave a slight nod of his head, “It was not the only reason, but yes, it is a very convenient trait to have around here…if you’re human. Why don’t you go into Room 1 and I’ll check up on Ella?”

Ellandra smiled at that and then told her daughter to come along. Ella had been ogling Pam the whole time and was finally torn away from her staring when Ellandra drug her away in annoyance.

Ellandra called back to Pam, “Nice to meet you Dr. Loftin.”

Dr. Brown started to follow his patient when Pam wondered aloud, “Ella acts like she’s never seen a human before.”

Dr. Brown sighed and added, “She hasn’t, not since she was 9 months old.”

Pam was surprised, “I know vampire children are rare, but I had no idea they were kept sequestered until they were of age.”

“They never used to be,” Dr. Brown explained, “But she and her father were attacked by Genesis 9 when she was a baby.”

Pam’s mouth opened in shock. Ella was indeed a very rare trueborn vampire. Then Pam was overcome by the horrible realization that Genesis 9 would attack a baby, one that should have been assumed to be half human.

Genesis 9 is supposedly a non-profit lobbying group that has been around since the 1980’s; it believes preternaturals are the spawn of Satan and should be exterminated without mercy. The surface organization was run like any other interest group but the true workings of Genesis 9 were closer to a private army. Rumors had been circulating for the past ten years about their murderous “midnight crusades” on preternaturals. The federal government has yet to conduct a full investigation on Genesis 9’s status so it remains a highly structured underground military that secretly recruits soldiers on the side. It was a not so clandestine fact that significant politicians with power in Washington sided with Genesis 9 and were reluctant to label the society as terrorists.

Every preternatural has a weakness, which Genesis 9 sought to exploit, but as a whole, preternaturals are a pretty hard group to kill. Vampires are of course immortal, but can be killed by beheading, silver poisoning, or a wooden stake through the heart. Before 1937 it was possible to kill vampires with sunlight, but ever since Norway’s serendipitous creation of the Dawn vaccine, vampires have been able to walk in daylight. It’s a standard vaccination given to every vampire upon successfully turning and lasts until true death.

Lycanthropes are mortal but have extended life spans and possess incredible healing abilities. They can also be killed by the same methods as vampires, with the exception of an extreme reaction to wood. A wooden stake through the heart of a werewolf might not be a fatal blow, if it could be pulled out in time.

Both species were supernaturally strong, and despite a fairly extensive integration with human society, retained much of their distinctive customs and practices. The Vampire Court and lycanthrope Elite Dens were bastions of ancient ceremony and medieval sensibilities. Humans did not interact at all with those particular preternaturals; weakness of any kind was not welcome whatsoever. Nevertheless, due to the nature of the diseases, and technically vampirism and lycanthropy were diseases, the population ratio of humans to preternaturals was shifting. Many of Pam’s own generation were clamoring to become immortal or inordinately strong and all it took was a simple vampire bite or a bloody scratch from a lycanthrope. Sooner than later, humans would be outnumbered. Genesis 9 was trying to counteract the balance of power, not that it made what they did excusable in Pam’s mind.

Coming back to herself, Pam asked, “What happened to them?”

Dr. Brown lowered his voice, “There was a raid on the harbor. Ella’s father was staked in the back as he ran to protect his daughter and his heart was pierced. Ella was only saved because he landed on her and the mob didn’t see her in the confusion.”

“Then why is she here?” Pam inquired.

Dr. Brown’s voice dropped to a fierce whisper, “Because the bastards leafed the area before they left, just in case there were any survivors.”

Pam suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if Dr. Brown was blaming her for what happened, although it was clear that he wasn’t. It was obvious he didn’t judge all humans based on Genesis 9’s ignorance, but she couldn’t help feeling embarrassed by her species.

“Excuse me; I better go check on her now,” Dr. Brown said while turning toward the consult room.

Pam swallowed loudly as she imagined how terribly painful it must have been for Ella. Pam had read reports about how Genesis 9 used silver leaf ground into minute dust particles as a mass extermination method to induce blood poisoning in preternaturals. She imagined it would feel like suffocation from a corrosive gas, a nearly indescribable pain. She now understood why Dr. Brown’s clinic was so important to the preternatural community and not just for the unknown horrors of the Vampire Court or the mafia-like machinations of the Elite Dens. What child would want to go to a human hospital after living through an experience like that?

Looking around the clinic, Pam decided to work out her nervous energy and asked Devon if there were any more patients due to arrive tonight.

“Not until 2:00 a.m.,” Devon responded.

Pam turned her eye toward the less than sparkling surroundings and decided to make good use of her time.

Raising her eyebrows in question, Pam asked, “Can you show me where the cleaning supplies are?”

The right corner of Devon’s mouth quirked up in a blink-and-you’d-miss-it smile. Pam had passed some kind of test but she didn’t get much of chance to dwell on her newly acquired gold star.

Devon asked her to follow him down the stairs and then suddenly four hours flew by. The place was not quite up to sparkling standards but Devon and Dr. Brown had wholeheartedly appreciated her work and it was then that Pam knew she would fit in around here just fine.

Aster Professional Building

Genesis 9 Regional Office

Baltimore, Maryland

Barbara Bennetts slammed the phone down on the receiver with a bang. She was not pleased with the new game plan handed down from Washington. Barbara was not a patient person; she wasn’t the youngest Regional Director in all of Genesis 9 because of a “wait and see” attitude.

Quentin Novak, her deputy and “on the ground” manager, knew to keep his mouth shut when she reacted like this.

“Washington wants to put a hold on the operation.”

Quentin’s response was to lift one eyebrow up in question.

“That damned idiot Gary thinks we need to put some time between the Baltimore Op and the Seattle raid. And, since Ramona’s been screwing Gary since the company Christmas party, guess who’s operation is suddenly first priority?”

“Seattle,” Quentin answered in a dull monotone.

“You bet,” Barbara confirmed with a quick slap on the desk.

“This puts Epsilon on hold for what… 6, 8 months?” Quentin wondered aloud.

“Try more like 9 or 10,” Barbara clarified, “Gary says our feds will only cooperate if we have no more than three major ops a year and we’ve already had ones in Boise and Austin. So, it looks like we won’t be able to get Epsilon going until February of next year, at the earliest.”

Quentin’s steely grey eyes pinched a little when he asked, “Should I pass this down the ranks?”

“I’ll take care of it,” Barbara’s responded while catching the time with a flick of her bony wrist, “You better go get ready for the recruiting session down in Somerset.”

Her deputy left with a curt nod of his shaved head and walked out of the office, shutting the door behind him.

Barbara sighed as she turned to stare out her window, squinting at the water glinting in the sunshine. She had wanted to initiate Epsilon no later than August. Quentin had formed a battle ready army and they were itching for a fight beyond the surgical stakes and killings. Barbara wondered how this new timetable would affect the operation’s stability.

At first it had seemed the pushback would be detrimental to their plans, what with undercover and strike teams already in place, but there could be an upside to this predicament.

As Barbara’s epiphany came to light, her slim fingers began to fly over the keyboard. Operation Epsilon would occur in February, as Washington had decreed…but it would be ten times bigger than before. It would be a raid like no other city has seen since Genesis 9’s inception. The preternaturals would be methodically eliminated, and it would be her plan that made it real.

A thin smile played across Barbara’s face…she would go after the source of preternatural power and protection, the only ones who fought back against Genesis 9’s systematic extermination of their species, the Vampire Court and the Elite Dens.

And when the preternaturals were without their strongest defenders, the devil’s spawn would fall, completely at the mercy of their sacrosanct conquerors. Her heart sped up in the anticipation of a true believer in her cause. There is no mercy in hell.