Resurrection

Familial Bond

Familial Bond

On the night of her first real job, everyone gathered in the briefing room for the latest Intel on their target. Jones took position in front of the projector screen. Shafira switched off the lights.

"Our target is familiar to us. Even you, Nelson," Jones began.

"What?" Annabel asked, confused. "How could I possibly know them? The only supernaturals I know are you guys."

"He's familiar to you, because the samples you were testing came from an identical symbian to the one he carries inside him. Surveillance managed to intercept a call he made to a brothel we believe he takes his victims from. We'll split into two groups: Shafira, you're attending the meeting. Annabel, you're on the street outside the meeting point. The rest of us will be watching from the hotel across the street."

Annabel dressed in the clothing she wore the night the S.I.T. brought her in, with the addition of leather knee boots she borrowed from Shafira and a few weapons Jones insisted she take. She knew they'd be useless against their target, but took the shotgun and pistols anyway. Shafira's choice of clothing helped ease her apprehension.

Shafira stopped the car on a layby in the middle of nowhere and turned in her seat to face Annabel. "We've thirty minutes to kill until the team are in place. Want to tell me, off the record, what really happened at the training house?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't be coy Annabel, I found Brown's body. There's no one here but you and me, no cameras or surveillance. What happened?"

After a brief hesitation, Annabel replied, "The floor collapsed."

"I'm not talking about the floor. I need to know if Brown's missing kidneys was your doing or someone else's."

Annabel remained silent, choosing to stare at her clasped hands rather than meet Shafira's gaze.

"I take it from your silence that it was you. If it makes you feel any better, I get the same cravings you do."

"Have you killed? Felt as though your body's been taken over by something vicious until an unnatural hunger is satiated?" Annabel asked, in a whisper.

"Almost. My mother, Captain Jones, was there to stop me. Our body's aren't fully human, Annabel. I was born this way, you were made. You and I need a hormone that the human body produces in order to survive. Exercise will release enough of our own for normal day to day living, but when we exert ourselves excessively, we need a boost."

"And how do you get your boost?"

"Epinephrine. It's an artificial hormone that's chemically identical to adrenalin, if lacking somewhat in potency, but it does the job."

"I take it you haven't told the others or we wouldn't be having this conversation?"

Shafira grinned. "We're family and family stick together, no matter what."

"But isn't the person we're hunting family too?"

"It's not a person, so, no. The man we're looking for is a host for an alien symbian, which is nothing more than a parasite hitching a free ride."