Chapter 86

London, England, 1889
Jamie had only been in London a few days, but he already felt immersed in the new case Jordan had assigned him to. For the past two years, he’d been spending most of his time in Boston, but every once in a while, he’d be sent out to help hunt down a Vampire in instances where his medical expertise could be of assistance or when there was a primary threat that might involve serious wounds to the Hunters involved. In this case, he had been requested by name. His reputation had preceded him, even across the pond, as they say, and Ward, the leader of the team in London and most of England, had asked Jordan if Jamie could be spared. It had taken some convincing, but eventually, the Guardian Leader had given in and sent the Healer to work on this unusual case.
The first couple of days, Jamie had been focused on getting brought up to speed by Ward, local authorities, and medical doctors. Apparently, someone was killing prostitutes in a seedier area of London, known as Whitechapel, and there was reason to suspect the murderer might actually be undead. While Jamie didn’t like to jump to conclusions, now that he’d had the opportunity to look at all of the evidence himself, he thought it worth investigating. If this was the work of a vampire, however, he was certainly very different than any monster Jamie had ever encountered before.
He sat in a spare office Ward had assigned him in their headquarters overlooking Hyde Park. He had yet to meet every member of the extensive team, though he had met a few of them over the last few days. One in particular made him very nervous. An experienced Guardian with the type of leadership skills that instantly showed the moment he opened his mouth, Jamie readily admitted to himself the man intimidated him. Thoughts of sitting around a table discussing his findings with the rest of the team, a group of strangers for the most part, had Jamie’s stomach churning. The thoughts of meeting yet one more group of people made him uneasy. Every time he went on a new assignment, he had to start over, and he still wasn’t used to the judgmental stares his age always brought. “How can he be a physician when he looks like a baby?” their stares would say. “Can someone who’s only been doing this a few years really know what he is talking about?” Perhaps their critiques wouldn’t sting so much if he didn’t ask himself the same questions every day.
A tapping at the door took him away from the photograph he’d been studying. The photograph was the most recent victim who was a confirmed kill for this guy, Jack the Ripper, they’d taken to calling him. Mary Kelly, a twenty-five-year-old prostitute, and been brutally mutilated, her organs taken, her body splayed open. While it didn’t seem like something a vampire would do at first glance, the fact that they’d had confirmation from another Vampire that Jack was one of them, and there was evidence that at least a few of the suspected victims had puncture wounds on the neck, hidden by slashes, a tell-tale sign of a vampire, not to mention less blood than expected on earlier victims—though Ms. Kelly’s photo stood in contrast to that rule—nevertheless, Jamie agreed the Ripper was likely undead.
“How’s it going, Doc?” Ward asked, a reassuring smile on his face. “You have any questions before we meet with the rest of the team?”
“Nice to see you, Ward,” Jamie replied, standing. “I was just going back over some of my notes. No, I don’t think I have any questions. Just eager to hear what the rest of the team has to say.” He hoped his smile looked more confident than he felt.
“Very good,” Ward nodded. “Let’s be on our way then.” The older gentleman made a sweeping gesture with his hand, and Jamie gathered his file and followed him out the door.
When they entered the conference room, no one else was present. Jamie took the seat to Ward’s right, and the leader took his position at the head of the table. “Now, you’ve already met a few of our team members, the most important ones,” Ward said quietly. “I don’t want to waste time introducing everyone, so I’ll give you a briefing now.”
“Sounds fair,” Jamie replied, thinking it odd that the leader wouldn’t just go around the table once they were all settled, but this was not his jurisdiction.
“There are two ladies. Berta is a Guardian. She’s German. You’ll know her when you see her. You’ve met Vicky.” Jamie nodded. He remembered meeting the beautiful, blonde Hunter the day before. She’d been with the other fellow, the one with the striking blue eyes who looked at him like he was an insect. “Then, there’s Edmund, a newer Guardian, Frank, an old son-of-a-bitch who’ll do whatever it takes to get his bloodsucker. He’s a Hunter with a cockney accent, which I still can’t understand. There’s Harvey and Paul, both Guardians, both experienced and reliable if not particularly innovative. And then there’s Georgie, Mike, and Carlo. They don’t say much. They’re all three Hunters, mostly from around here. They haven’t been particularly involved in this case, though I’ve sent them to talk to the cops and things like that.”
“Right,” Jamie nodded. “And then—whose the other gentleman? The Guardian I met the other day with Vicky?” He wanted to add, “The one that scrutinized me with his eyes until I doubted my own work,” but didn’t bother.
“Oh, yes. That’s my best man,” Ward replied. But before he could elaborate, the door opened, and a stream of team members came in, already in conversation. They took their spots around the table, and Jamie nodded hello to each of them as they addressed him, feeling slightly out of place.
The man in question sat right across from him, and it didn’t surprise Jamie to think he’d take such a prominent place. The girl, Vicky, who caught Jamie’s eyes and smiled, sat down next to the other fellow and they whispered to each other, eyeing the woman at the end of the table, Berta, Jamie recalled, who was talking rather loudly. Her German accent was certainly noticeable.
“All right, everyone, let’s quiet down,” Ward insisted, and within a moment everyone was silent. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, and I don’t want to waste any time. I know some of you went out into the field last night, so I’d like to hear what went on.”
“Have we got a story for you!” One of the gentlemen further down the table chimed in, and Jamie leaned over the man on his right, whom he thought must be Harvey, to listen in. The cockney accent of the speaker let him know he was likely Frank.
“We were doing our rounds, as usual, nothing out of the ordinary, when suddenly I get that feeling in my gut, like somethin’s amiss. And this ain’t one of those regular flip flops either, mind you. My stomach is screaming an alarm.” Frank surveyed the table, as if he were looking to make sure he had everyone’s attention, which he did.
His pause had lasted too long, and he’d lost his opportunity. Berta jumped in and continued the story. “So we turn down a narrow alleyway, and at the other end, we see the outline of a man, standing in the shadows, silhouetted by a nearby gaslight.”
“He’s wearing a top hat and cape, just as the eyewitnesses have described, and when he sees us, he takes off running, like he knows he’s been caught,” Frank continued.
The more excited Berta became, the harder her German accent was to understand, but Jamie listened in carefully. “We gave chase, but he was fast—much faster than anyone we’d encountered before.”
Nodding, Frank added, “I’m no spring chicken, and Berta’s more strength than speed.”
“Eventually, we turn the corner and see him leap up and over a tall stone wall. By the time we got there and reached the top, he was gone.” With a shrug, Berta concluded their story.
Jamie caught a confused expression on Ward’s face. “And you think this was our man?”
“Absolutely,” Frank assured him. “We retraced our steps, and once we got back to the original alleyway, we discovered something we hadn’t seen in the first place because it was dark, and we were focused on the Vampire.”
The man sitting next to him, the one Jamie believed to be Harvey, asked, “What was it?” The entire table was quiet as everyone listened intently.
Clearing her throat, Berta quietly replied, “A woman.” Vicky, the Hunter sitting across the table, gasped. They were all thinking the same thing, Jamie was sure. “She was on the ground, in the shadows. She was still breathing, but her neck was bruised. It’s as if he strangles them before he feeds, then he dismembers their bodies to leave little trace of their true wounds.”
“Why would he do that?” Jamie wasn’t sure who the man who asked the question was, though he thought it might be the newer Guardian Ward had told him about, Edmund or something-or-other. He seemed to be asking no one in particular.
Jamie heard Ward let loose a loud sigh and turned to see the Leader was actually staring right at him. “Dr. Joplin, do you have a response to that?”