The killer started, as all serial killers do, with one murder...

...in this case, a double homicide.

For all intents and purposes, the victims were ordinary citizens; young lovers, set to marry in the near future -a bright future. But someone hadn’t seen it that way. Local police had found them in a cornfield -the youth had been decapitated, the mouth stuffed with garlic cloves, his heart removed with almost ghastly precision. The girl had been mutilated in much the same way except that the killer had not removed her heart, seemingly contenting himself with carving the word “traitor” on her bared chest.

There was one more detail.

One that even the most zealous reporters had not learned.

Both victims had been drained of blood.

It was the first incident, but it was far from the last.

The victims that followed, all of them couples, were brutally murdered in the same manner -the killer did not seem to care about race or creed or whether the couples were heterosexual, homosexual, or lesbian. He (for it was determined that most serial killers were male) appeared to care for only one thing...a thing of which a mere handful of the general population could know,
let alone believe: one member of the seemingly average human couple was always...a vampire.

“I don’t like this. I don’t like this no-how.”

Napoleon Solo sighed aloud and swallowed the urge to tell his partner to keep his trap shut. From the moment he and his partner had been briefed on their new assignment, the man at his side had been nothing but a muttering bundle of nerves -that Benjamin Kowalski continued to voice his objections in that thick, grinding Bronxite accent of his didn’t help. “For crying out loud, Ben -you *know* that there’s no way they wouldn’t have gotten involved eventually. At least, this way, they’re working *with* us instead of *against* us.”

Kowalski cursed under his breath before meeting his superior’s eyes. “That may be, buddy-boy, but I *still* don’t like it. These people scare the shit out o’ me and I do *not* trust them as far as I can spit them.”

Solo didn’t bother to answer, concentrating instead on the electronic board that indicated incoming flights. It wasn’t like *he* wasn’t nervous, but as the newly-appointed chief enforcement agent of UNCLE, he could ill-afford to admit it.

Especially in front of his nervous junior partner.

U.N.C.L.E. -the United Network for Control and Law Enforcement- was an organization responsible for dealing with certain matters of terrorism and international espionage. That was their “public” face. Unknown to the most of the general population, they were also the modern face of an ancient knighthood responsible for helping to maintain the secret, sometimes fragile,
400-year old truce between humans and vampires.

The “Covenant” was an agreement of which needfully few were aware. For most, the cousin species known as “vampires” were but the stuff of dark fairytales and bad theater -and that was the way that that secretive people liked it. The Covenant had put an end to ages of bloodshed on both sides of the conflict -it allowed the knighthood now known as “UNCLE” to monitor and maintain the peace, and for Earth’s two dominant species to punish there own -it was also an agreement that was coming close to falling apart.

A serial killer had seen to that.

Human did not kill vampire, and vampire did not kill human -that was the peace...but someone was killing both. For the first time in centuries, sides were being drawn and accusations being hurled. Such was the outrage amongst the shadow people, that one of the oldest and most powerful vampire clans had insisted on sending one of their own investigators, their “best” was the
claim, to “assist” in UNCLE’s investigation -it had *not* been a suggestion.

Though the knighthood now known as UNCLE had never actually worked hand in hand with any vampire clan -the order was given...and two UNCLE agents, Napoleon Solo and Benjamin Kowalski, were now waiting in La Guardia’s arrivals’ area for their honored “guest”.

“An’ I’m *telling* you-” Napoleon grimaced as Kowalski’s muttered whining reached a pitch that was beginning to grate on his nerves -he had never understood how the younger agent had made it to the security level where an UNCLE operative was made aware of the hidden nature of their organization...the young agent looked about ready to have a nervous breakdown. “Ben...” the elder agent said finally. “Just calm down, okay? I’m sure our guest has no designs on your jugular.”

Benjamin Kowalski turned a unique shade of green.

It was then that a low, accented voice interrupted the UNCLE agents’ tête-à-tête. “Excuse me, but you are the UNCLE agents here to escort me to your headquarters, yes?”

Napoleon’s sharp intake of breath was audible even amongst the din of voices in the airport’s arrivals’ area -he had trained for this moment ...prepared for it...but even *he* could not suppress the innate reaction of one who had never met a vampire face to face; the urge to look away and yet, the inability to do so as ice-blue eyes met his. “Ah yes...” he croaked finally. He extended a hand in greeting, wincing at the other’s chilled touch. “I am Napoleon Solo -Chief Enforcement Agent for U.N.C.L.E.” He gestured to the paling Kowalski. “This is my partner -Benjamin Kowalski- and you, of course, are-”

“Kuryakin.” A slight smile parted the lips of the pale, blonde visitor ever so slightly, revealing the sharp canines within. “Illya Nickovetch Kuryakin.”
 
 
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