~ Knight's Blood: The Hope Of Humanity ~

by

Jason Leary

Alexandra Blood brushed a stray lock of bright red hair out of her face and behind her ear as she waited patiently in the back corner of the coffee shop for her order. Out of the corner of her eye she could still see the man who had been following her for most of the day. She may not have recognized him, but she recognized his nondescript clothing, and knew instantly who he worked for. To most people he would appear to be an average business person, but Alex knew it was all an illusion, a carefully cultivated image to keep those less observant from asking too many questions. But once you knew where the seams in that disguise were, they were easy to detect. To Alex it was obvious he was Legion from the top of his neatly groomed hair down to the high polish on his black loafers. Although night had begun to fall she wouldn’t have had any trouble picking him out of a crowd. As far as she was concerned he might as well have been wearing a flashing neon sign.

What she was unable to figure out, however, was what he wanted with her. She hadn’t had dealings with Legion for more than eighteen months. When they parted it hadn’t been on the best of terms.

Legion was a secret government organization that policed the supernatural activity in the world. Mostly they dealt with the occasional Vampire clan or Werewolf pack. They were entrusted with keeping the dark forces at bay.  However, when a situation arose that they were either ill equipped to handle, or the United States government was reluctant to take sides in, they turned to specialists known as Knights. Once upon a time Alexandra Blood was best of that elite group.

But that was a long time ago, she reminded herself, as she felt the cold silver of the crucifix dangling from her necklace resting on the subtle, but visible scar which ran over her heart and between her breasts before disappearing beneath the soft fabric of her red satin lined black corset.

As far as Alex was concerned, Legion was a sinister name for an even more sinister organization. It was a name that had been carefully selected within the corridors of power in Washington and the biblical undertones had not been lost on anyone within the organization or those they hunted.

In one of the stories related in the Bible in which Jesus performed an exorcism, he asked the demon for his name. In response the demon sneered and replied, “We are Legion”, meaning, “We are many.”

In Alex’s estimation the adoption of the name Legion for the organization tasked with the duty of protecting the world from the forces of the supernatural was an unnecessary taunt. She understood the meaning behind it, “You may be many, but there are many standing against you,” but she couldn’t shake its demonic and sinister origins. If she were completely honest with herself she’d have to admit that the darkness of the name had rubbed off on the organization it represented as well.

She was reminded of an old saying, if power corrupts; then absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Alex couldn’t imagine what anyone in Legion could possibly want with her. She would have thought that with the bloody way she had ended her involvement with them no one even remotely associated with the organization would want to have anything to do with her. And yet, here this man was, watching her from across the street while pretending to nonchalantly read the newspaper he held in his hands. Blood was no amateur, no matter how much Legion wanted her to be, and this also was not the first time she had been followed. It was painfully clear to her that each time he glanced up from his neatly printed page and into the darkened windows of the coffeehouse he was checking to make sure that she hadn’t moved, reacquiring his quarry.

Blood knew she could’ve lost him easily if she had wanted to, but she also knew that this man posed no threat to her. Not to mention, there was something that she wanted more than her privacy. She wanted answers. If Legion had become interested in her all over again there had to be a reason for it and she intended to find out what it was.

Besides, a smile spread over her blood-red lips, this could be fun.

“Alex.” The young man behind the counter called her name. She stood, crossed to the countertop, claimed her coffee, and headed back out onto the quickly darkening city streets.

She made her way along the sidewalk, weaving in and out of the foot traffic, luring her prey to follow as she took a sip of her iced coffee. Although it had been almost six months since she had used her training she discovered that her abilities hadn’t waned in the slightest. She could feel the man keeping pace with her, careful not to take his eyes off of her.

None of this was making any sense. Legion knew about the training she had been given. They knew how competent she was and yet they sent this man who was obviously inexperienced and had no idea what he was being put up against. It was like sending a fly to catch a spider. The only reason could be that they wanted her to know that she was being followed. But why?

Calm and collected, Alex stopped outside the window of one of the fetishist shops that peppered the streets of downtown. She pretended to study the black leather bondage outfit in the window, but in reality she was using the darkened interior to create a more defined reflection in the glass and get a better look at who was following her. Again, he stopped a comfortable distance away, opened his paper, and proceeded to act as if he was reading the articles.

Like most of the agents employed by Legion everything about him was average. Average height, average weight, average body type. There was nothing about him that would draw undue attention. Ironically that was the very thing that had tipped Alex off to him in the first place. She took another drink of her coffee as she narrowed her eyes and focused in on his face which looked as though it was actually turning red from embarrassment. This brought an evil smile to Blood’s lips, my God; I’m going to eat this man alive!

With her plan formulated, Alex turned and proceeded down the street, checking reflections in the store windows every now and then just to make sure he was still on her tail. She walked several blocks before the crowd finally thinned and she decided to make her move. She quickly turned and entered the alleyway.