F5

Three hours past midnight the bombs went off. The night sky lit up with yellow and rained down with fire. The few people that didn’t die in the blast were left to fend for themselves when a cloud of toxic dust settled over the town.
My mother was in that town when it was bombed. My name is Esmerelda White. I was not with my mother because I was on assignment. I work for WIND; World Institution for Nonhuman Defense. I am an F5, the highest ranking agent.
Which means I am dead.

The smell of hot water and soap hung in the air even after the showers were turned off and the men taking them gone. This is where I go to relax when the stress of my job becomes too much for me, and where I was when Oliver found me. My boss, Oliver, was an ex demon from hell. He exiled himself seven hundred years ago, when he fell in love with a beautiful human named Selena. He had refused to do the Devil’s work, and he and Selena had planned on running away together. Unfortunately, the night they were to leave, Selena fell among some bad gang boys. A group of unruly vampires, these boys drained the blood from Selena’s body. No one knows what happened when Oliver found out, but soon after he joined WIND. He quickly became the head man to protect nonhumans from humans, and vice versa. He was the man who found me, walking the streets when I was five; and took me in under his protection.

Oliver’s bright blue eyes, which turn the red of the demon inside him when angry or passionate, focused sadly on me as I sat in the middle of the shower room, reports and files scattered about me. One look at the old man’s troubled expression told me something was wrong, and I quickly jumped to my feet.
“Esmerelda,” Oliver started slowly, sadly. “Something tragic has happened in Savannah”
He paused for a moment and licked his chapped lips.
“Someone or something has dropped a bomb, which killed thousands of people. Those that survived are now at great peril of a large cloud of toxic fumes that hovers over the city.”

My expression must have worried Oliver, for he put his hand on my shoulder.
“We received a call from Victoria about an hour ago. She said she was fine, and she and others had found an underground building where they will be away from the fumes. But I don’t know how long it will last. As this is a delicate situation, I must caution you. The institution really needs you on this case. You are the only one who can go into the city without any consequences. But if it’s going to bother you, I cannot allow you on the case.”
I took a breath and nodded.
“Oliver, I am not a child anymore. I can take care of myself. Just tell me where my mother is, and I’ll find them.”
With that I walked out of the shower room, ran up to my office, and cried.

When Oliver found me, I was without family. Truthfully, I never had a family; not until Oliver found me and asked Victoria to take me in.
I was never born, so I never had a mother of my own. I am one of the rare cases where a child dies before it is even conceived. Or at least that is what Oliver tells me.