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From The Paranormal Case Files of Bishop Kincaid:
The Rembrandt Strategem
Chapter Three
“A Trip to the Morgue and an Exchange of Information”

It was half past seven when Bishop, Keeley, Gant, Orrin, and Dani arrived by rocket car at the Medical Examiner’s office. Freshly patched up with shower and clean clothes, they all walked down the halls of the old building. Lime green walls and stained, dark brown floors made up this place, and the mood there was always depressed and creepy. The Chief Medical Examiner was no exception to the rule, for she looked twenty-five, but in truth, had lived for a couple of thousand years.

“In trouble again I see.” the girl said, opening her arms wide for a hug to which Bishop responded. Bishop kissed her on the cheek, and replied, “just another day in the trenches, “what’ve you got for me?

“It’s a mess, I can tell you that. There’s a bunch of stuff going on here that I’ve never seen before. Remy Tober was a true work professional. She was a “sun worshiper”, one of the rarest of Vampiri who could walk around in direct sunlight and total darkness without consequence. Her skin, a beautiful pale white, and her green eyes made her very special and sought after by both humans and paranormal.  She was very aggressive when attacked, and quite strong when needed to be. Remy had long since been awarded her permit to live and work within normal city parameters. An avid student of Buddha, she also held various scientific degrees on paranormal DNA distinction and the human genome matrix. She had led a quiet but fulfilled life.

Explain, please,” asked Bishop. Remy led them into the exam room.

“Take this one, you know, the one that almost killed you in your own sanctuary. After whatever process was used to make it invisible, you can all see that the deceased is Moraturi. Moraturi normally has human-like pupils, yet this one did.” Remy motioned for everyone to surround the table. Gant, scared of death, stood back.

“Look at the chest. Moraturi have two hearts and two livers that provide better support for the vast amounts of blood they need to survive. This cadaver isn’t any species of Vampiri. This body is human. Now, however you cut along the lower back, you can see no trace of the typical blood clotting that Moraturi species always has here in this region. This human was made up to look like a member of the Moraturi clan.

Remy covered up the cadaver and walked over to another table where the body of a Cowlin man-bat had been examined the day before. The others followed. Dani began taking notes on Remy’s explanation of inconsistencies in the bodies.

“Not for publication until this is finished, understand? No repeats, okay, darling?” Bishop looked at Dani with serious intention and she silently nodded her head in acknowledgment. Remy uncovered the corpse. 

“The heart that you ripped out of this one’s rib cage doesn’t contain any extra valves or bone tubing that would lead up from the heart into the lungs. This body is human, and somehow both were infected or altered, but how is beyond me.” Remy looked at Bishop who asked, “We all know that Moraturi can’t spread or infect unless they breed within their own people, so are we dealing with a new kind of Vampiri, maybe one that keeps itself in disguise?”

“No, doubtful. They would have been discovered by now. It’s the human-like pupils, plus, this one here has green eyes. Very, very strange. I’m the last of the Silent Ones. There isn’t any more of me, I’m sure of this. Genetics aside, I don’t see how any human with green eyes could possibly shapeshift or turn invisible. One maybe, but two? The Silent Ones were never able to infect human DNA, they were like the Moraturi in that aspect.  “Suggestions or opinions?” Remy asked.

“Are you sure you’re the last one?” asked Keeley. 

“Yeah…are you?” asked Orrin. “The Vampiri who attacked me inside the Livingston Museum yesterday had the same kind of pupils. Even in my camouflage mode, it still was able to see me. I barely escaped.”  Bishop glanced at Orrin for a moment. His eyes squinted in a look of bewilderment. He then turned back towards the table.

“I’m sure there’s a connection between Gustav’s original formula and what’s happening now. Trouble is, how does it connect?” He mused to himself for a moment, before asking Orrin, “Tell me again how your camouflage works.”

Orrin began telling the group about how he had found Gustav’s original papers and applied his best knowledge in chemistry to create a “low spectrum light refraction”.

“His work called for the bones of a jade dragon. I never found any kind of evidence of one has ever really existed. Sure, the myths spoke of them and their humanoid counterparts, but not all myth is an actual depiction. I was satisfied with just achieving what I did. I’m not sure how Gustav created his invisibility. All I’m able to do is refract my environment so I fool those who are staring directly in front of me. You know, Boss, that I can be seen if someone looks at me from the side. If they look hard enough, they see my form. Luckily, people, these days don’t pay enough attention to what’s in front of them to notice me. I play a sleight of a hand card trick with a person’s line of sight.”

“We know, Orrin. I was just wanting Remy to understand your ability.” Bishop turned around to Dani and asked, “There was one human other than Gustav who had created invisibility. Didn’t he go crazy and jump to his death a couple of years ago?”

Dani responded, “Winston Powell was his name. He was a chemist who managed to become transparent. The story was that he hadn’t solved the issue of “no light in the eyes”, due to the aura around him. He killed his girlfriend and caused extensive damage to a local inn. His body was found weeks later at the bottom of the cliff.”

“Sir, if I may?” asked Flask. “If I’m not mistaken, don’t the Silent Ones all have green eyes as they are related to Remy’s ancestors?  If we are to assume the simplest explanation to be the correct one, regardless of its improbable nature, or calculation of such theory not existing due to its plausibility, how can we then assume that we are overreaching our thinking by not going with our instincts and applying Occam’s razor theory of simplicity?” Flask, who would rather be back at the mansion performing his housing management duties, was at times quite creative and brilliant. His uncanny knack for reading his environment earned him his place within the Bricklayers.

“Shouldn’t we investigate the illogical and from that, find the logic behind the absurdity?” he added, spying Gant, who had spilled some ink onto his vest.

“He’s such a barbarian,” he whispered to himself.

Keeley interrupted. “If I’m not mistaken, the stories, taken from old religious texts mention that the Silenced or the Silent Ones were the offspring of the jade dragons and that they were one of the first paranormal genetics on the earth,” Remy interjected.

“Let me explain.” According to my clan’s history, the Silent Ones were the first Vampiri to appear on this planet, that much is true. Unlike the myth that has become distorted and exaggerated over time, the truth is that the Silent Ones eventually become Nosferatu. Once that happens, due to immense passage of time, what they once were becomes something else entirely. Once you become Nosferatu, you have no desire to do anything but linger in the underground sewers and caves and contemplate your past lives and experiences.  I’ll be like that someday.” Remy sighed, then added, “I’m not looking forward to it”.

She continued, “The creation myth taught to me ages ago spoke about how the universe spewed forth the green spirals which spread outward, creating all that came to be. The tales of the fallen ones who left the sky and mated with human women and men and their transformation into the jade dragons…even I don’t know how true or false all that is. I was told as a child that my ancestors hated their creation and like others before them, namely the titans, giants, succubus and the mermaids. My ancestors never had a clan name but took the name of “The Silent Ones” after taking a vow of quiet repose. They were a religious order and over time, took to the task of hunting down one dragon after another. Vengeance would become their god. 

“All I can say is that you take this with the smallest grain of salt. you can muster. Once there were one hundred seventy thousand of us, but we quickly dwindled down to seven thousand, and then to our present-day extinction. Well, minus me, I suppose. My clan let themselves become extinct. Reproduction was against their belief, but I was born out of sin. I don’t remember my mother as she disappeared, but my adopted father took me away when I was just a child to live with a human shaman named Merlyn, who dwelt in a mystic kingdom located near the holy waters of the majestic sirens.   I was just in my early life when the last of my kind fought alongside Arthur at the fall of Camelot. They took a last stand against the only two dragons left. Arthur and Mordred died next to each other on the banks of Avalonia, where Morgana the witch tried to release the one called Lilith from her eternal cycle of reincarnation, which over time was her prison…her birthright and her memory dwindling as a dream, a longing never to be.”

“If you’re related to the dragons, can you also turn invisible?” asked Dani.

“I was born with the gift but lost the ability over time. I used to play hide and seek with the local trolls. I was never good at it, so I stopped using it. The jade dragons were mystically aligned and had fantastical powers. If the stories are true, then it would be logical to assume that aspects of those abilities would still be prevalent in the DNA preserved inside the bones of such creatures. Hence, it would be possible to gain invisibility if you had the knowledge to isolate the DNA strand.” 

Remy walked over to a counter and took a drink of what appeared to be blood.

“Type O, synthetic Gazelle blood, really good stuff,” she said, giving a smile towards Gant who scuttled his body back a few steps further behind the group.