London, England, 1888London was much different than the peaceful rolling hills of Killarney, and while from time to time, Aaron missed the life he’d left behind, joining Ward’s team in London ended up being the best decision he could have made at the time. Now, over forty years after he’d left his home in Ireland, he was finally beginning to feel as if he had the hang of being a Guardian, though he was still learning.Sitting in an office with a decent view of Hyde Park in the distance, he went over the notes Ward had provided him regarding the recent incidents in Whitechapel. None of them were quite certain how many victims they were looking at since the area had a reputation for being an uncouth slum, but with the recent demise of a young woman drained of most of her blood with slashes across her neck, it became clear that it was time for Ward’s team to take action.As usual, the facts in the press were not at all reliable. Wa

Ward was back in the office the next day, and he had a bit more information to share, though not much. He called the entire staff into the conference room to meet at nine o’clock sharp, and despite the fact that they hadn’t gotten in until nearly 3:00, the time was no problem for the teammates who rarely slept anyway.There was a total of ten individuals on the London Team as it was referred to. Over the last forty years, Aaron had watched as the two good Passels, the Hunters and Guardians, began to organize themselves to better fight the evil Vampires. Though technically, the job of the Guardian was to protect whichever of the other two Passels needed protecting, Aaron could never even fathom a situation where he’d need to protect a Vampire.With better organization came a more concentrated battle effort, which also required funding. Several sources supplied the money to operate their organization, but the primary sources were governments that realiz

Aaron found the Vampire’s comment that the Ripper wouldn’t be outside on a night like this interesting but didn’t pursue why that might be. He had more important questions to ask. “Did he do that job before Christmas? The strangulation?”“Nah,” came the reply. “That drunk done herself in. Not his callin’ card.”That was just as his team had suspected, and Aaron moved on before the answers stopped coming. “What about the day after Christmas?”“Yeah, that’s him. Papers ain’t think so, though. Neither do the coppers much. He’s switchin’ it up now. You’ll have a hard time tellin’ the difference.”“Why?” Aaron asked. “Why switch it up?”“Why not?” he giggled, and for a moment Aaron thought the maniacal, highly disturbing laugh might be back, but he reined it in. “Coppers is too close. Gotta put

While the rest of the team continued to pound the pavement of Whitechapel, Aaron and Vicky volunteered to go through the paperwork supplied to them by the local police documenting each of the nearly one hundred suspects they took seriously. There were a few hundred more that were dismissed, and while Aaron was a bit apprehensive of taking anyone’s word for it, he did trust the members of their own team who also worked for the police department to make accurate recommendations.The job was simple at this point; look at each suspect and add medical practitioners to a narrowed list which the team would then more closely examine. However, as Aaron and Vicky began to go through the pile of documentation, they realized the task wouldn’t be as simple as first imagined. Some of the suspects had no career noted or the information was so incomplete, it wasn’t clear whether or not they could potentially have a background involving some sort of medical experience.

Aaron didn’t give up. He knew he was faster than most Vampires, and there was still a chance he could catch the Ripper. Without another thought, he gave chase, tearing down Water Street as fast as he could.Soon, it became quite certain where Jack was headed. Even though he zigged and zagged a few times and was still a good block and a half ahead of him, Aaron could tell he was headed for the bridge. Toward what end, he wasn’t certain. Perhaps if Jack knew he was still being followed, he thought he could lose him in the water. Thoughts of plunging into the East River were not particularly inviting, but after three years, this needed to end tonight.It was past 2:00 in the morning and there were very few people in sight as he followed behind Jack who, despite constantly checking over his shoulder, had given no indication that he was aware that Aaron was still behind him. He seemed to have slowed his pace a bit, as if he was calculating what to do next. The f