Ryder didn’t quite cover his surprise at Crow’s knowledge. “Not exactly. There was a...change of leadership and the agency was reenacted under the Homeland Security act. The department has been functioning in various capacities since 1910.”
“Hunting vampires?” Jean asked.
“We don’t hunt.”
“Oh, are we back to lying already? That’s no fun,” Crow said.
“We don’t hunt to kill or eradicate, though, yes, there is a history of that in the early days of the agency. There are splinter groups who cling to the idea of human superiority and purity. Groups like the vampire hunters who came to town.”
“Splinter groups,” Myra said. “Are they a part of the Department of Paranormal Protection?
“No. They are unsanctioned. We take every action possible to shut them down.”
“Every?” Crow asked and even though no one had brought it up yet, we were all wondering just how black ops his black ops agency was. Would they kill the members of the vampire hunter group?
“There are rules and orders we follow,” Ryder said. “We try to respect our nation’s laws.”
“But you kill people.” The way Crow said it, and the way Ryder didn’t react to it, was answer enough.
“Okay,” I said. “You are cleared to use deadly force if necessary. That’s not that different than what we do on the police force. Those men who were in the bar before Sven was killed were part of a dangerous splinter group, right? Not just a group of friends who decided to become ghost busters?”
“We—I hadn’t thought so. They are in good standing with the department, and weren’t out of their rights to put eyes on the inhabitants here.”
“You work for DoPP?” Jean asked. “Or with them?”
“Neither. I’m...freelance.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“I’m the local boy, know the town, know the people in it. Educated. The agency is always on the lookout for people they can hire to be liaisons if a sighting is confirmed.”
“Sven’s death was a sighting?” Jean asked. “No, wait, those splinter group guys were here before Sven died. What made them think vampires were in town?”
That was a very good question.
We all waited silently for Ryder to answer it.
“There was a boat that capsized a couple years back.”
I knew exactly where he was going with this. We’d tried to squash the story, spin it so the wider news stations didn’t pick it up. We must have missed something. Or Ryder’s group had good ears and caught the gossip and statements that the survivors shared with friends and family.
“Eight tourists on board,” he continued, “all of them non-swimmers. They reported their rescuers dove to save them, eyes glowing in the dark water. Said they had incredible strength and agility, including one who dragged two unconscious people up from the deep at the same time.”
That would have been Chris Lagon, our local gill-man, who was our go-to guy for water recovery. He was not a vampire, but yeah, the other rescuers were vamps.
“They said the rescuers didn’t seem out of breath even though they weren’t wearing any breathing gear. One kid said she could hear her rescuer talking to her in her head. Sang her a silly song as they headed for the surface.”
That probably would have been Ben. He had a way with kids, and keeping people calm in tense situations.
“They said they walked on water.”
Crow snorted.
Non-breathing, telepathic-singing, and eyes-glowing? Yes. Walk on water? No.
“Vampires aren’t really known for their deep-sea-diving abilities,” Myra noted.
“Sure,” Ryder said. “But mortals aren’t known for glowing eyes and not having to hold their breath under water. That meant my organization took notice.”
