Chapter 1

At the first glance, John appeared as normal as everyone else. He was in the thinner side, although there appeared to be no fat at all in his body. He was bordering on the skinny side, but the powerful cords of muscle that rippled under his skin with every small movement belied the word.

His facial structure had a vague Scandinavian look. His nose was straight, his eyebrows prominent and eyes deep in his head. He had a strong symmetrical jaw and thin lips. His hair was grayish light brown, or other indeterminable color. However, the first hint that John was not a Norm, was that his eyes were yellow and the pupils were more reptilian than human, when seen in correct angle they glittered like cat's.

The second hint, which usually was the first one that alerted a potential mugger that they had swallowed too much this time, was his teeth. When John smiled - an expression you did not wish to receiving end of - one was displayed of rather impressive set of canines that certainly did not belong to a vegetarian species.

The third hint was his movements that were that of the proverbial cat. He glided noiselessly regardless of the surface, and his movements were smooth and controlled. He appeared to be fully aware of his surroundings, he could sometimes be seen grabbing something without looking where it was located. Only one of the examples that he was more in tune with the world around him than the average Joe.

But despite all these peculiarities, John appeared absolutely normal. People rare took any notice of him in a crowd or even when alone. In fact, people rarely seemed to notice him before he was standing next to them, if even then. He was like a shadow, and people rarely took notice of him or his passage. It was as if he wasn't fully in this world, it was as if he was a ghost.

While John's life could hardly be called boring, it bordered on the verge of predictability. If not counting the times when he was assigned an mission, he knew exactly what his day would consist of. Due the intensive training and conditioning, the missions were disturbingly accurately executed. Even the element of surprise was anticipated in his plans.

John remembered very little of his childhood, and lately he had started to suspect that he never had any real childhood. He'd known all his life he was different from everyone else, but last few years he'd become even more painfully aware how different his life was from average. He couldn't remember anything about his childhood, the oldest memory he had was when he was already an adult and was on a mission. He had no idea of his age, he could be anything between 30 and 100 for all he knew.

What childhood he had acquired was from books. He was avid reader, bordering on obsessive, and he had read literally tens of thousands of books of almost any subject imaginable. When the weight of his life was too much, he read fiction - science fiction or fantasy - and for a day he would live as somebody else and someone else's life.

He shrugged off his contemplations. Busy mind and idle body was impeding disaster. John instinctively knew that if he contemplated his life too much he would consciously realize how hollow it truly was.

But it was all he had.

As his target stepped on the alley, John shut off all unnecessary thoughts and centered himself on the target. The man was vampire, the erratic rhythm of his heartbeat, the lack of breathing, the sickly skin and thinning hair were dead give away. Not to mention the smell.

By all appearances, the vampire had been reanimated for a longer time. Perhaps even fifty years. He was long due death. John followed him noiselessly in to the alley and pulled out his two SOCOM pistols equipped with two long suppressors, he didn't need to attract too much attention with loud gunshots.

The Special Forces never might have enjoyed the gun because of the size, but it was perfect for John. It was uncannily accurate, and had enough stopping power to be useful. It was the smallest gun that was suitable for his prey and the only option for a discreet weapon.

As the vampire's excellent senses heard John's heartbeat approaching, it started to turn. John nodded in recognition of the vampire's skill. Most would not have heard him yet. Without any further ado, John proceeded to empty both guns at the target.

His left hand aimed at the neck, joints, spine and the major arteries while his right hand emptied six bullets in to the general area of Vampires' head and six to heart. As the nearly headless corpse fell to the ground, John swiftly replaced the clips and put his weapons back to their holsters watching the body carefully for any sign of reanimation.

He knew there was no possibility of any reanimation, but it always paid to be sure. His mentality evident in what many would term 'excessive overkill'. Once he replaced the clips, he pocketed the two empty clips. Then he turned and walked out from the alley and disappeared in to the crowd without anyone taking a notice of the young man dressed in black coat, with piercing yellow eyes.

"This is unacceptable!" A man in gray suit said. If the fact that he looked like a long dead bleached corpse would not be noticed, his dry dead skin would give up his condition. The whisper of a voice that he spoke with, told of extensive age. "We have yet to know who it is that hunts us down so. All evidence points out to a single operative. The MO is same in all cases, except in those where it would have not obviously worked. Everyone we've sent after him have been found afterwards"