The Chronicles of Rowan Ashfield Ch 1

Chapter I



"Evening folks." The couple had their back to me but they turned around at the sound of my voice.  I already had badge in my right hand and flipped it open easily, the muscle memory of practiced move kicking in.

"I'm officer Rowan Ashfield of the SUP department. I need to check your licences as part of the human/vampire interactions acts." The woman of the pair looked confused, no doubt wondering why there was a "soup" department of police. The man, a tall attractive brunette who looked like the sad brooder type rolled his eyes, his frustration apparent. Since he was the vampire, he was the one who would be in trouble with the laws and had a lot more to be concerned about than the woman did.

"Can't you just let us off with a warning? We caught a late showing of a movie and I'm just taking her home." Blue steel asked asked, the annoyance he felt seeping into his otherwise polite tons.

“Well, I’m sorry but it doesn't work that way. I'll need to see your cards."

"It’s just, we were already checked tonight. Like I said, it was just a mistake, we lost track of time.” This was a blatant lie; I’d just watched them leave the club together, but I stayed silent. He was just digging the hole deeper for himself.

"Sir, I still need to see your card. " I replied trying to keep my voice calm but stern.  Blue scoffed and rolled his eyes before pulling out his wallet and digging through it for the card. Pink Hair stood there watching in silence as he pulled out the card and handed it to me. Just as I reached out to get it, the card fell from his hand and fell just out of my reach to the ground. I shot the man an “are you serious?” stare before  moving my hoodie to show my gun.

“No games,” I warned as I carefully leaned down and grabbed the card. Blue was a good boy and stayed still as I stood up.  It looked like this was going to be a routine stop after all.

The card had his picture, and the name "James Doland" next to it along with his age, which read "47."

“Huh. I thought you’d be older. You’re practically a baby bat like me,” I commented, a small smile on my lips. James didn’t seem to find it as amusing as I did, and I cleared my throat, pulling myself back into “professional” mode

"Does she know?" I said as I pulled out my phone to scan his card.

“Yes, of course." James snapped as the phone loaded. I turned unaffected to the woman who now stared at me nervously.

"Do you know what he is?"

"He told me, but I'm not afraid of him. He’s a vegetarian vampire and whenever I let him feed off me he's always gentle. He's my soulmate." I looked up from my phone to see if she was joking about her beau being a “vegetarian”. She seemed serious and I could feel all the things I wanted to say bubbling up inside of me. I hated having to be so polite in front of sheer stupidity and not comment on it. Instead I stared at her before giving a fake smile and replying "Of course he is."

"Can we go now? You heard it from the girl herself. Is that enough for you?!" I was about to answer when my phone beeped and flashed red. The ID had been fake. I pulled out my gun just as James grabbed the girl and bared her throat, his fangs revealed.

"I'll kill her."

"I thought you were soulmates." I said with mockingly as I put my phone into my jeans and my left hand joined my right hand to hold the gun. James growled and pulled her closer to him and the girl whimpered.

"Jaaames?"

"Shut up!" we both shouted at her, eyeing each other after.

"Let her go. Or don't, I'll shoot you both either way."

"What?!" the girl shrieked gaping at me in horror. James smirked, and I had to resist the urge to shoot him in his smug face.

"You won't shoot her, if you were going to you would have done it already."

"Well I would like to avoid shooting her. She’s not worth the all the paper work, but I don't really care. Just as long as I get you." I said matter of fact, clicking the safety off. "So choose: I shoot her and then you or I just shoot you." James growled at me and shoved her away from him to run away. She wailed like a lost child as she fell to the ground, grabbing onto his pant leg and making him stumble. I smirked at the scene as I shot James in the leg. He howled in pain and stumbled before finally collapsing. I stalked over to him and planted my foot on the middle of his back with all my weight so he wouldn’t get up again. I aimed the barrel of the gun where I guessed his heart to be and fired five times. After the echo of the last round died down I heard the telltale raspy gasp from the man and removed my foot from his back. No sooner had I moved away from the body it combusted, the orange flames consuming the corpse before dying out almost as quickly as it began. The girl gaped at where her precious James had been moments before, then turned to me enraged

"How could you?!"

"He just used you as a hostage you idiot, why are you still defending him?" I shouted back, clicking the safety back into place and putting my gun away. The girl rushed at me and tried to hit me in her blind anger. I easily dodged her pathetic attempts and used the momentum from her punch to swing her body into the building wall behind me. She hit the bricks headfirst with an audible thump and crumbled to the ground as I rushed forward to catch her. I supported her shoulders and slowly lowered her down to a sitting position on the ground.

“Sorry, I kind of overshot that strength-wise, I didn’t mean to throw you that hard, just enough to knock some sense into you.” The girl looked up at me with distant dazed eyes for a few moments before bursting into tears.

“Oh jeez…” I huffed. The last thing I needed was to play therapist with some stranger crying in an alleyway, even if I did just kill her man. I sighed and plopped down on the ground next to the girl.

“What’s your name?”

“Kate,” She sniffed.

“Okay Kate. Everything’s gonna be fine, you’ll find a new man, hopefully a fellow human this time and this guy isn’t even gonna matter after tonight.”

“But…I really liked him. He was really a nice guy, and I thought…I mean I really thought he cared about me.” Kate whimpered as more tears leaked out of his eyes.

“Been there and bought a t-shirt, dude.”  I joked hoping the humor would ease the situation and make her feel better.  She wiped her tears away but more replaced them while I sorely wished I had some tissues or even a napkin on me.

“Think of it like this. He wasn’t meant to be and now you can spend your time on something or someone more worthwhile. It’s like clearing the clutter from your life.”

“Yeah… I guess,” Kate said in a glumly resigned tone. I sighed and wracked my brain for something more helpful to say. 

“Well…” I started hoping something helpful would come out. “Um, the thing to keep in mind is…uh...that your life, in the grand scheme of things…” I drifted off, the train of thoughts running out of steam.  I turned away from the girl and stared at the ground. Giving up and staying silent seemed like a better option than rambling on hoping something that sounded good would come out of my mouth. The growing silence started to feel like a wet blanket, getting heavier the longer it lasted. Unable to stand it any longer I blurted out;

“Look I’m sorry about what’s-his-name. If you would like, I-I could erase the memory of tonight events or something? I mean, it won’t help much since you’ll still remember him and stuff, b-but, maybe you’ll feel less shitty?” I offered. Kate sniffled and looked at me nodding her head.

“You could do that?”

“Yeah, and since I kinda have to erase your memory of this event anyway, it’s two birds and all,” I said with a shrug as I gently placed my hand on her chin and directed her to look into my eyes.

“You ready?”

“Yes”

“Okay. Try not to blink.” I waited a few seconds for her pupils to dilate, indicating she was under my influence.

“Kate?” I asked

“Yes?” Kate responded in a monotone voice.

“You will not remember the events of the past 20 minutes. James is gone. You don’t have to worry about him. Move on with your life and find what makes you happy….” I paused to think of anything else that could be said. “So… uh…go home now.” With that, I let go of her chin and stood, brushing off the back of my pants. I offered Kate my hand which she took with a polite smile and helped her to stand. As she walked away from me I sighed with relief, glad the situation was resolved and I could get on with my night. I checked my watch and groaned. I was barely an hour into my shift and the night was just beginning.





                                                                                              ***





It was rare to have more than one incident to report while hunting. Even when I caught supernaturals around humans after hours, I usually let them go if they had no prior record and didn’t seem likely to hunt or stalk a human that night. I wasn’t like a lot of the people in the department who racked up tickets and fines to make their reports look busier than it should be. It just didn’t seem right to bother people who weren’t doing any harm or had actually lost track of the time. Not to mention all the supernatural tourists who, despite regular announcements of regional laws, manged to forget the rules about curfew. It just didn’t pay to be a jerk who stuck to the law no matter the circumstances, nor did it make sense to me to treat every case as though everyone were guilty.

  After the earlier incident, I figured I was in for an easy if slow night. Maybe I’d even be able to get off early if things stayed quiet enough.

As I turned to walk down a quiet street  and spotted several homeless men settling into their spaces for the night, I couldn’t help but feel sorrow for the people in such a position. It seemed as though there wasn’t a solution besides giving loose change to help these humans, at least none that had been offered by those with the power to change things in the city. It didn’t help that those already in such a desperate situations

were also preyed upon by supernatural beings who were opportunistic and felt as though they could get away with it. I dug into my pocket for my wallet and gave the men each a single dollar, glad that I’d had an equal amount to give them. They thanked me as I walked by, one man with a grey and blue stripped hat even bowing slightly to me. I silently hoped they would be alright and tried to push myself back to a hunting mindset. 

“Gotta stay sharp,” I muttered to myself, cracking my knuckles for emphasis. I walked back into a more populated part of the lower Manhattan area, watching people my age-and likely older-hitting the many bars that the area was home to.

It occurred to me as I passed the windows of several bars that I should be out like these people were, laughing with friends, drunk on various alcohols and excitement for what the night held. I wouldn’t even remember the last time I’d been in a bar with friends other than co-workers after a long shift. Those moments were always less fun because they quickly became a competition over who had the worst night, or scar or the craziest thing one had seen while hunting.

I pulled my jacket around myself, suddenly feeling chilled. Who was I kidding? I was a hunter for the supernatural police, which didn’t win me many friends withing the community. There were no warm and happy alcohol-filled moments amongst friends in local bars, human or otherwise. I was lucky to get into the bars that would have me.

The sound of a crashing noise snapped my focus back to attention. The noise had come across the street where a divergent path lead to what I assume was an isolated alleyway. I froze and listened keenly waiting for another noise when I heard a yelp and the sound of a struggle. Grabbing my gun, I broke into a run, checking the street for on coming traffic before continuing to race towards the alley. As I entered the low lit area, I realized it wasn’t an alleyway, but a side street, which was a common occurrence in lower Manhattan. Not that it particularly mattered, but I had hoped I would be able to corner whoever was involved in this fight. Now I would have to hope they wouldn’t just take off in the opposite direction to avoid arrest. I moved forward silently, taking big but careful steps as my eyes darted back and forth, hoping to spot the source of the sounds of distress. I slowed my pace, still moving down the street but waiting for the sound of more struggling or...some sign there were people there. I was expecting voices or the sound of movement but what I heard next sounded like a burner on a stove being lit, only louder. Before I could advance on the sound there was a horrific and extended scream. I immediately raised my gun into a ready position and flicked the safety off, trying to decide if I wanted to seek out the source of such a bloodcurdling sound. The hairs on my neck raised and I felt a heightened sense of my surroundings, almost like the calm before the storm. Just as I reached the corner of the street, a man bathed in an orange glow and flailing around wildly as he screamed darted into view. Had I not had training to combat hair-trigger responses, I would have shot him on sight. Within seconds, I realized the orange glow was fire and the man was still screaming as he ran past me.

“Stop drop and roll, idiot!” I couldn’t help but shout at the man as he ran erratically through the alleyway.  He didn’t get much further than ten feet away  from me before he collapsed to his knees and fell forward twitching slightly as the fire burned. I started to take off my jacket to help the man, once I realized he wasn’t rolling on the ground as I’d instructed. He wasn’t even screaming or moving anymore aside from the twitches his body was making, and it dawned on me with a sinking feeling that it was most likely too late for this man. I watched as the flames continued, his skin splitting and crackling from the heat. Turning away  from the ghastly sight as the smell of burnt flesh hit my nose, I prepared myself to face whatever had set this man on fire to such an extent.

Swallowing hard, but determined to face whatever I needed to before it caused more damage, I checked for the extra rounds in my pocket. Once assured they were there, I took a deep breath and peeked around the corner, my finger primed and ready to pull the trigger should  anything come at me. The smell of burning plastic hit me first, and I wrinkled my nose in disgust, trying my hardest not to breath it in. It was better than the smell of cooked person behind me at least. There was nothing in sight beyond the grey garbage bins from some bar as I scanned everything in clear view. There hadn’t been sounds of running or even walking so I knew whatever I was looking for hadn’t run off. A discomforting queasy feeling filled my stomach, as it often did when things didn’t feel right. Stepping around the closest garbage bin to see if anyone was hiding, I couldn’t help but feel tense, like waiting for a jack-in-the-box to spring and knowing it could happen at any moment.

I pushed myself to breathe, trying to exhale the nerves and inhale a sense of calm instead of the smell of the day old garbage which mixed in with the plastic smell. I rounded the second garbage can, expecting to see someone or something pop out at me to attack. Instead of some creature or person crouched and ready to attack, there was a guy sprawled out on the ground. I first spotted his brown and black sneakers, the left one pointed up and off to the side while his right one was lying almost flat on the ground, the leg bent inward as though the man had hit the ground on his right side first. I stared at him for some time, unable to process what I was seeing, though my gun was still pointed in his direction. Was this a trick to catch me off guard? Was there another person waiting further down the alleyway or would this man spring up to catch me unaware as I tried to assess his injuries?

“Okay, listen up,” I said, pointing my gun behind me and into the a ground and firing once into the nearby walla.

“Now you know I'm armed and prepared to shoot. I am an officer of the SUP department, so do not play games with me, because it will not end well.” I waited for the threat to sink in, while I scanned the alleyway for any further sounds or motion. The silence continued and I continued to stare at the body before me, even turning on the mounted light on my gun. I noticed wisps floating away from the body and disappearing into the shadows, only visible within the light of the mounted light on my gun. My brows furrowed as I stepped forward to inspect the man under the light. He was in his thirties, definitely not human from what I could tell and his jacket had melted to his shirt and was the source of the wisps of smoke coming off the man. His face was slack and looked mostly peaceful, the exception being his slightly bruised lip.

“Uh sir?” I didn't want to step too close, though I knew I couldn't just leave him there either. I let my left hand hold the gun and drop to my side and I inched closer.

“Dude...uh, sir, can you hear me?” Still nothing.

I crept forward, squatting next to the body and reaching over to see if I could feel a pulse.  In an instant, he gasped at my touch, grabbed my hand and sat up, eyes on mine. I jumped back in surprise, my free hand immediately swinging forward with the gun ready to fire before it  occurred to me he wasn’t moving to attack me. The man sat staring at me while I watched him, gun still pointed at him and ready to shoot should the need arise. In the beam of the mounted light, the man’s brown hair stood out radiantly, particularly the parts that had been disheveled from how he’d laid on the ground. We stared at each other for a few moments, each trying to read the others’ face, before he finally spoke.

“Who are you?” My eyes widened as I realized that he was English, though his words were so softly spoken his accent itself seemed like a whisper. The man’s dark eyes flickered back and forth from me to the gun several times as though he was trying to figure out what kind of trouble he was in.

“I’’m-”

“Where am I?” He interrupted, turning his head to look around himself, blinking as though he were stunned. I opened my mouth to speak but paused, my brow wrinkling as I regarded his words.

“You don’t know where you are?”

“No…” He drifted off as he spoke, and his accent was more distinct this time, the pronunciation of ‘no’ drawn out as though there was an e at the end, not short the way an american would have said it.

“ I can’t remember….” He trailed off, looking down as though he were trying to search for anything to help him. He looked down at his free hand, which I now realized were releasing wisps of smoke like the rest of him.

“I don’t remember what happened,” He finished, a quiet panic building in his eyes as he looked at me.  The urge to scoff in frustration was overwhelming me and it was a struggle to keep a neutral face in front of this person. I’d been counting on this man to tell me what had happened, not the other way around. It was like searching for a lost puzzle piece and finding a piece that belonged to an entirely different puzzle.

I sighed, unsure of what to do and slowly becoming aware of how warm the man’s hand-which still gripped mine- was. Though the stereotype was that vampires were cold as ice, they felt more like room temperature water give or take a couple of degrees. He was about 90 degrees, if not more than that. Coupled with a strange prickle I felt from the man’s aura, It was difficult to make out what kind out Supernatural creature he was. He didn't look like a Were, though one could not always know a Were by sight, nor did he feel like a witch or demon. Concerned by the strangeness of the situation, I turned back to the man who was feeling around his head and muttering to himself, and cleared my throat to speak.

“Sir, I know you don’t remember…much, but do you know why your hands and clothes are smoking like that?”

“No…” he looked at both his hands, his face changing from general concern to slight panic.

“Do you remember your name?”

“My name…?” The man asked, his light brown brows furrowed as tried to remember. His eyes widened and he looked up at me, going into full panic. “My name….I...” He paused, starting to hyperventilate.  “I don’t know…why don’t I remember? Why don’t I remember!” The man grabbed for the hand he’d just released with both hands and it was a struggle to not freak out and wrestle out of his grasp. I did not like to be touched by most people, let alone strangers found lying in an alleyway.

“Okay, just remain calm. Something must have happened to make you forget your name,” I said, looking around to see if I could spot any clues to what happened. “Whatever happened, it probably has something to do with why your clothes are smoking,” I said, noting several medium scorch marks on the ground next to him. Whatever had happened, fire had been used at one point, probably summoned by magic which made this whole case strange, even for supernatural stuff. My attention turned back to the man who looked as if he was starting to come undone. I wiggled my right hand out of his grip and touched his shoulder, trying to keep him calm.

“Hang on, I’m gonna call for an EMT. They’ll help you—”

“No, please, don’t leave me!” His panic was palpable now and it was all I could do to keep him from grabbing onto me again.

“I won’t leave you, I’m literally not allowed to anyway,  but I need both my hands back though if I’m gonna get some you any help.” The man let go of my hand slowly, as though not sure I would actually stay with him and I stood to pull out my phone to call the Sup emergency services. I wasn’t even sure they were trained to handle a situation like this, but I knew he would be in better hands than mine.