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Romania, three months ago
“E UN VAMPIR. Doamne Dumnezeule, ai milă de noi.”
Dr. Duclan Davis turned his gaze to the small group of villagers standing around him shouting with fright in their voices.
“What did they say?” he asked Detective Cosmin Dumitrescu who was standing beside him.
“They say that this is a vampire's work."
“A vampire's work?" Dr. Davis muttered as he returned his gaze to the dead man's body lying in front of him.
He kneeled to get a closer look at the corpse. "Well, that must have been a one-toothed vampire; there is only one hole in this poor man’s neck. Here it is. Can you see?” He pointed to a small wound with his finger.
It had been only a couple hours since Duclan landed in Romania, the strong coffee he had at the Bucharest airport did not help him keep his eyes open during the ride to Arefu Village at Mount Cetatea; however, the power nap he took did recharge his batteries.
A few hours ago, he was enjoying a deep sleep at his house in Washington D.C. when his phone rang, a familiar voice on the other side of the line urged him to wake up. It was his mentor and world-renowned genetic engineer and researcher, Akio Sato, who ordered Duclan to pack his stuff for a trip overseas.
He had been working with Akio Sato for more than two decades. Dr. Sato was a brilliant scientist who was world famous for his studies on infectious diseases. Before he turned forty, he could have won the Nobel Prize for his research on human genetic mutation if his assistant, a man he had loved as his own son and mentored for years, hadn’t stolen the research and published it as his own. Utterly heartbroken, Akio Sato withdrew from public life and dedicated his science to organizations that worked off the public radar. It was during a research trip that he spotted Duclan Davis in a small rural village in Marshall County, Indiana. Amazed by the young man's curiosity about genetic mechanisms, Akio Sato took the young man under his mentorship and paid his tuition to MIT, hoping that he had found his new adoptive son and the true successor to his brilliant scientific legacy: a legacy that remained invisible to the public. But it was well known to those with the power to pull the invisible strings that ruled the world.
Dr. Sato knew where the real power lays: behind the scenes, under the spotlight, in the darkness of secret sects and shady organizations. Duclan was always by his side. He had become a respectful scientist himself, dedicated to their science and devoted to his mentor. Duclan was the one Akio Sato called when the Romanian branch of the Order of the Black Rose asked for his help investigating the weird incidents spreading across the rural country.
Dead bodies had kept being found scattered around the countryside for months, but it was the state they had been in that had alarmed the Romanian authorities. All bodies had been found drained of their blood, their skin snowy white, their eyes wide open, as if the face of death was the last thing they saw. It didn't take long until the rumors spread among the superstitious villagers. Vampires had taken over. Dr. Davis could not blame them. Dracula's castle was only a few miles away. These people had grown up listening to the tales of the most famous vampire of all time. Well, maybe besides Edward Cullen, he thought.
“This guy looks as if his blood had been drained out of him,” he said while putting on a pair of latex gloves. “How long do we have until your coroner arrives?” he asked Detective Dumitrescu.
“It’ll take him a while. I sent him to examine another dead body a hundred kilometers away from here. And there is no other coroner from a nearby precinct available. It’s not difficult to figure out that something abnormal is taking place. And when abnormal things happen, who you gonna call?” Detective Dumitrescu asked, stroking the ring with the oval black stone he was wearing.
“The Order of the Black Rose,” Davis cracked a smile. “You know, after all these years, I still find it difficult to digest the level of influence the Order has achieved in all governments worldwide.” He leaned closer to the dead man’s neck.
“Well, you shouldn’t. It’s a four-centuries-old organization we’re talking about. You know, Dr. Davis, everything happened so quickly that I didn’t think to request to see your ring.”
“Well, you should have asked, Detective,” said Davis, palpating the victim’s dry wound.
“When I called our headquarters in Malta this morning, I was told that a scientist would be sent from Washington, but I wasn’t told whether that scientist was a member of the Order.
“Very careless of you, Detective,” he said while scrutinizing the wound.
“I was only told that Dr. Davis was on his way here.”
“And he was indeed.”
“Anyway, when we met at the airport, I didn’t notice if you were wearing the black ring all the Order members wear. You know, with all this rush, I failed to follow the standard procedure the Order commands. Very irresponsible of me,” said Dumitrescu.
“Don’t be so harsh with yourself, Detective. Could you please give me a hand with this? I need you to put your fingers in the wound and press it tightly while I examine his eyes.”
“Sure,” Dumitrescu said and knelt over the corpse. He placed his fingers as Davis told him. “I would appreciate, though, if you don’t report my flub to headquarters.”
“You don’t need to worry about that, Detective,” Davis said softly. “You have more serious things to worry about.”
Detective Dumitrescu’s eyes opened wide, but it wasn’t Davis’s words that caused his surprise. It was a sharp pain that struck his back, causing a fiery burn through his heart and abruptly cutting the line of his life.
“See you at the other side, Detective,” said Davis as he got back on his feet, a knife with a bloody blade in his palm. He pulled off his latex gloves and, after he rubbed the knife in them, put them back in his pocket.
“Oh, and here is the ring you were looking for.” He showed off his ring finger as he kneeled over the detective’s dead body. “But it wouldn’t have made much difference for you if you had seen it earlier.”
Dr. Davis glanced at the two bodies lying in front of him one last time, took a deep breath, and ran off the shanty. “Run! Run! Go away!” he shouted, moving his hand frantically at the crowd gathered outside. “Vampire! Vampire! Run!” Watching the panicked villagers scattering away, Dr. Davis slowed his pace and turned back into the shanty. After he piled up the two dead bodies, he took a lighter out of his pocket and set fire to them. As he put an unruly curl back in its place, Dr. Davis turned his back to the growing fire and stepped out of the shanty slowly.