Marvel: The Awakened One

Katherine’s intel was impressively thorough.

And Hawk remembered it clearly.

Deacon Frost didn’t live alone either.

Just like Ellani—who’d been sleeping in his church—Deacon Frost lived at his own headquarters.

To be precise, a high-rise tower.

And not just any tower. This wasn’t a solo operation. The elite vampires of New York’s Council of Elders all lived in the same building as Deacon Frost.

The charitable interpretation? Deacon Frost shared the hardships with his fellow vampires.

The realistic interpretation? The guy was paranoid as hell.

After all, his ambitions to replace the thirteen pureblood vampires of the Council weren’t exactly new. He’d been quietly building power for a long time.

By now, he’d become a force to be reckoned with.

He was just waiting to finish translating the ritual to summon the Blood God. Once he did, he’d reveal his true ambitions and overthrow the thirteen purebloods once and for all.

Too bad—

His dream was about to go up in smoke.

Because Hawk had entered the game.

But!

Hawk didn’t teleport directly into Deacon Frost’s vampire tower after leaving the church.

Not because he didn’t want to. Not because he couldn’t.

But because... Hawk materialized on the perimeter of the vampire tower. He looked at the dark, unlit building in the distance, then at the suspiciously empty street before him. He raised an eyebrow, then reached out toward the empty air in front of him.

The next second, His right hand passed through the air like it wasn’t even there.

At the same time.

DING!

”Ma’am, someone just breached the perimeter shield.”

”What?”

Sharon Carter—currently standing near the vampire tower, leaning against a S.H.I.E.L.D. command vehicle, strategizing how to breach a building containing an unknown number of vampires to rescue Eric Brooks—heard the alert and immediately rushed over to the agent manning the perimeter sensors. She looked at the computer screen.

What she saw:

A dome-like energy barrier displayed in 3D animation, covering a two-hundred-meter radius with the vampire tower at its center.

Just moments ago, one section of the shield had registered a disturbance.

But now...

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who had called Sharon over looked at his own screen and blinked in confusion.

”It’s gone?”

”It was right here.”

Sharon frowned.

Just then.

A voice came from behind her.

Hawk, standing behind Sharon, leaned in and followed her gaze to the computer screen. ”What’s this? Some kind of perception-blocking field like Wakanda’s?”

Sharon heard the familiar voice and instinctively whipped her head around.

BONK!

”Sss—!”

Sharon clutched her forehead—which had just collided with Hawk’s chin—and sucked in a sharp breath. But her expression shifted to pleasant surprise as she looked at Hawk. ”Hawk! What are you doing here?”

Hawk smiled faintly.

”You didn’t know?”

”Did something happen?”

Sharon continued rubbing her forehead as she looked at him.

Hawk studied Sharon’s expression—which didn’t seem fake—and raised an eyebrow. Then he looked at the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who had already surrounded the vampire tower, and at the vampires inside the building who were baring their fangs through the windows, locked in a standoff with the agents. He turned back to Sharon.

”What are you guys doing here?”

”Eric Brooks!”

”He’s Blade—kind of an off-the-books S.H.I.E.L.D. asset. We intercepted intel that the vampire leader in there, Deacon Frost, is trying to summon the Blood God to wreak havoc on the world. So we teamed up with Blade to stop him. But yesterday, Blade went dark. We think he’s been captured and is being held inside.”

Sharon explained quickly while still rubbing her forehead. Once the pain subsided, she lowered her arm and looked at Hawk with curiosity. ”Anyway—what brings you here?”

S.H.I.E.L.D. kept tabs on Hawk, but not with the same intensity they’d used on Bruce Banner.

After all, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s relationship with Hawk was excellent. Director Maria Hill, Commander Victoria Hand, and New York’s top S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter all wanted to keep it that way.

So S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t maintain constant surveillance on Hawk.

They only sent Sharon an alert when their satellites detected Hawk’s energy signature flaring up.

And whenever Hawk and Gwen were in the same city, they didn’t even bother assigning anyone to protect Gwen.

Only when Hawk left New York would S.H.I.E.L.D. agents appear—and even then, they’d protect Gwen without disrupting her normal life.

The whole approach was built on maintaining distance.

On regular days, Sharon would just hang out with Gwen, grab coffee, go shopping—that kind of thing.

But about two weeks ago, Sharon had gotten busy.

Because Blade—their off-the-books asset—had passed along intel that Deacon Frost, leader of New York’s Vampire Council of Elders, seemed to be collecting the Book of Blood.

She didn’t know why, but her gut told her New York’s vampires were planning something big.

So Sharon genuinely had no idea why Hawk had shown up here tonight.

Still—

Sharon joked, ”Don’t tell me you’re here to help us out.”

Hawk met Sharon’s gaze—joking, but with a hint of hope underneath—and smiled.

”George got turned into a vampire.”

”?”

A question mark appeared above Sharon’s head. The smile on her face froze.

Hawk shrugged.

”The ones behind it were Blood Apocalypse. And the real mastermind behind Blood Apocalypse is Deacon Frost. I just finished wiping out Blood Apocalypse, so I came here next.”

”Didn’t expect...”

Hawk smiled at Sharon.

”What a coincidence.”

”Holy—!”

Sharon snapped out of her shock and looked at Hawk.

”I’m sorry, we should have—”

”How is any of this your fault?”

Hawk cut her off before she could apologize. He smiled. ”You guys didn’t do this. And honestly, George becoming a vampire isn’t all bad.”

Sharon blinked.

Hawk smiled faintly, looking at her. ”At least now Gwen won’t have to worry about George getting hurt on the job someday.”

After all, human George was fragile. And he had this habit of personally leading operations on major cases—smuggling busts and the like. One stray bullet from some random perp, and it’d be game over.

But vampire George? No such concerns.

George wouldn’t even need a bulletproof vest on the front lines anymore. Hell, he could be the bulletproof vest for his fellow officers.

As long as he didn’t mind exposing his vampire identity, of course.

Bottom line.

Human George—glass cannon.

Vampire George—tank build.

Gwen would never have to worry about George suddenly dying again.

So from a certain angle, George becoming a vampire was actually a good thing. Because now Gwen only had to worry about one person. She didn’t have to split her concern between Hawk and her father anymore.

Hawk thought this to himself.

Sharon’s expression turned strange after hearing all that.

Hawk glanced at her face.

”You’re not thinking I deliberately let George get turned into a vampire, are you?”

”What? No, of course not.”

Sharon blinked, then caught herself and shook her head vigorously.

Hawk raised an eyebrow.

”Really not?”

”Really.”

Sharon pressed her lips together, expression serious as she looked at Hawk. She changed the subject. ”Wait, that doesn’t add up. We’ve had this place surrounded since this afternoon. Deacon Frost and his vampires haven’t had any chance to leave.”

Hawk shrugged.

”This happened a week ago.”

”A week ago...”

Sharon’s eyes widened again at that answer.

Hawk glanced at her expression and immediately knew what she was thinking. ”Don’t look at me. A certain someone wanted to play detective games. Then it blew up in her face tonight. I only stepped in half an hour ago.”

Sharon’s expression cleared with understanding.

No need to guess. That ”certain someone” was definitely Gwen.

That made way more sense.

She’d been wondering. Given Hawk’s temperament, if George had been turned into a vampire half an hour ago, then half an hour later, every vampire in New York would have been scrambling to find the culprit themselves.

If they didn’t want to be exterminated, that is.

Sharon thought this through, then turned to look at the vampire tower surrounded by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. She looked back at Hawk.

”So... should I pull my people back?”

”Go ahead.”

Hawk noticed the flicker of excitement and anticipation in Sharon’s eyes. He smiled. ”Honestly, even without all this, if you’d just called me, I would’ve come to help anyway.”

Sharon waved over her assistant to relay the order for the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to withdraw from the vampire tower. She shook her head.

”I thought about calling you.”

”And?”

”They’re just vampires. Calling you in felt like using a nuke to swat mosquitoes.”

”Someone else thought the same thing at first.”

Hawk’s lips curved at Sharon’s reasoning. ”Then she crashed and burned. And it looks like you guys hit the same wall.”

Sharon met Hawk’s gaze and let out a bitter laugh, then took a deep breath.

”From now on, if something comes up, I’ll call you first thing.”

”No problem.”

Hawk smiled. ”If anything happens, call me. Or call Gwen. The moment I know, I’ll be there.”

Sharon nodded.

”Thanks.”

”Don’t mention it. That’s what friends are for.”

Hawk said this casually, then looked toward the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who had received their orders and were now withdrawing from the vampire tower entrance.

Sharon remembered something.

”Oh, Hawk—there’s someone inside. Well, not a person exactly. A vampire. Actually, not quite a vampire either. He’s...”

”Half-human, half-vampire. Eric Brooks, right?”

”...Yeah. He’s—”

”One of yours.”

Hawk came back to himself and chuckled. ”Relax. I won’t kill him. Assuming he’s not already dead.”

Sharon made a sound of acknowledgment, then watched as Hawk started to move.

”Wait, Hawk.”

”Something else?”

”Yeah.”

Sharon nodded, looking at Hawk. She clasped her hands together, eyes pleading. ”It’s nighttime. This perception shield—the research lab only managed to replicate about seventy percent of its functionality. Please try to keep the noise down? If things get too loud, cleanup’s going to be a nightmare.”

Hawk looked at Sharon’s expression and shook his head with a smile.

”Fine. I’ll do my best. Anything else?”

”Nope. Be careful, Hawk.”

”Don’t worry.”

Hawk smiled, turned, and stepped forward.

He vanished from Sharon’s sight in an instant.

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