Age Of Blood

Chapter 6

August 27th, 2013

Clemente Quinn Parker

Parker flipped through her files, frustrated and fearful at the same time. She had skipped breakfast and went straight to her office to continue searching. She was looking for the addresses of known vervain suppliers, trying to find out where HYDRA might have gotten theirs from. Cutting off their supply could only be accomplished by killing...finding the source. Parker and Claudia's office received monthly packages of vervain from their supplier in New York but there were other emergency ones too.

"Salvatore, Beck, Quentin," She whispered the names of the suppliers as she jotted them down. Her phone rang, distracting her from her project. 

"Hello, this is Clemente," She said immediately, not bothering to look at the caller, but the voice of her best friend over the line clued her in.

"Where are you?" Claudia fired, her voice sounded like barking over the phone, "There are two dead bodies that the police are looking at and my partner is missing." Parker immediately stood up and pulled her phone away from her ear to look at the time. She groaned before she held the phone with her shoulder to her ear.

"Why did nobody call me?" Parker complained as she grabbed up her brown leather jacket and her keys before she walked out the door.

"Well, yesterday was stressful, I wanted to let you take a break," Claudia sounded so sincere and Parker smiled at her bestie's kindness, "Then I realized I'm lazy and you should do all the work." Parker pursed her lips and shook her head while she locked her apartment.

"So hurry up...and sweetie, make sure you're not in pajamas again."

Let's just say Parker was even more late after that phone call.

~~~

Parker lifted the tarp cover off of one of the bodies, searching the neck before she laid it down again. There were bite marks on both of the victims, left in an alley not far from where Parker had been attacked. The neck wasn't ripped, a less forceful and more controlled bite. Parker highly doubted this was the sister, as she showed signs of being more ripper-like.

Claudia was arguing with one of the police officers, when she gave up and flashed the S.H.I.E.L.D. badge, making the policewoman back off.

"Gosh, if I wasn't 500 years old I would have strangled her," Claudia said as placed her hands on her hips and scrunched up her nose. Parker raised an eyebrow, before she turned back to the crime scene.

"Mire a su alrededor y vea si los ojos están sobre nosotros," Parker said quickly in Claudia's native language, Spanish. Even though Claudia was born in Spain around 500 years ago, she had spent most of her afterlife traveling Europe, and knew countless languages. Claudia perked up and subtly surveyed the area before she walked closer to Parker. She took out her phone and made it seem like she was focused on something else before responding. When Parker and Claudia wanted to talk about the vampire business, they usually spoke in French and Spanish so no one could understand. Kind of dumb, but it made the both of them feel like they were in a spy movie.

"Qu'est-il arrivé? Vous avez agi bizarrement depuis hier," Claudia responded in French, a language Parker knew very well from her mother. Parker crossed her arms, eyes narrowed and focused on the unmoving bodies.

"Espías en S.H.I.E.L.D.," Parker said with a clipped tone as she bit her lips in frustration. Claudia put her phone away and motioned for Parker to follow her to the car. She opened her truck, and quickly looked to see if all the police officers had left. She reached in and took out a tank of oil and a lighter.