The Ancient One

Chapter 3

  Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., August

"Jake, it ran into the alley!" Mark yelled over his shoulder. The entire team was in pursuit, several wielding crossbows, the rest with light cannons, all with crosses.

"That alley is a dead end," Jake said, excited at the prospect of taking the creature down. He knew they had their prey cornered. Of course, a cornered animal could be incredibly dangerous, which he also knew. So did his team.

Slowly, they advanced into the alley. Eyes and ears were hyper alert, trying to make out the slightest sound or movement.

Jake rather unexpectedly found himself flat on his back, pain lancing his left arm. The creature was on top of him, its mouth against his neck. Before the creature bit, he felt the jolts of the cattle prods, several of them. Even the vampire was unable to fight through the amount of power being sent through its body. In addition, it was being attacked by light cannons.

As it rose up, angry and in pain, a crossbow bolt stuck into its chest. It fell, but it was still breathing.

Its life slipping away, the creature whispered, "Your time comes, hunter. An ancient one is coming, and she'll fix you." That was the last breath for the creature.

"Doc!" Mark called, helping Jake up, once they'd removed the dead vampire.

"Why do they always tackle me?" Jake said, as the doc got over to him.

"That's the price of fame, I guess," the old doctor said, as he examined the slash on Jake's arm. They'd done this enough times, Jake didn't even flinch at the more sensitive touches. Shelby was a good field doc, and had stitched and patched Jake up more times than he cared to think about.

"You need three days to let this heal, without any interaction with vampires. That means you stay home. Understood?"

"Alright, doc." Jake gave him a half smile.

"Jake." The doctor's voice had grown firmer than it already had been.

"I'm on injured leave until Thursday. I promise to be good, Shelby."

"I'm going to hold you to that," the doctor said, putting his stuff away. "And don't flex that arm," he added, as Jake was about to do just that. Jake smiled and relaxed his arm. The doctor thrust a sling at him, but didn't say another word.

Like a good patient, which he wasn't, he unfurled the cloth sling and stuck his arm in it, looping the support strap over his neck. He figured he could give the doctor this little victory, for at least a day, maybe two. He knew there was no way he'd be able to wear the thing all three days, though, and he was pretty sure Shelby knew it too.

"You know Shelby, it won't be hard for him to stay inactive considering how few vampire sightings there have been lately," Mark said.

"What is the deal with that, anyway?" the doctor asked.

"We don't know, but there have been very few sightings, and most of those have been in groups of four to six at a time," Jake said. Idle chat continued as they finished cleaning the area.

Jake went home after that, and straight to sleep. His sleep wasn't as good as it could have been, as he occasionally rolled over on the sore arm, which would wake him up. He did sleep though, and well into the morning.

"Uncle Jake," Sam called through his door, just before noon.

"Yeah?" His reply was a little delayed. He'd already woken up, but wasn't ready to actually get out of bed.

"Can you take me to the mall? Mom said I could go hang out, if you'd take me."

"Give me a little bit to get ready."