The Chase I

　　Irena’s POV

　　I dropped the camcorder suddenly, I couldn’t feel any strength in my arms or knees, I realized that as I found myself needing to take a seat on the edge of my bed.

　　It was hard to believe, things had been going so well, Maximus was dead, Alexey and I were happy, everything seemed to be going so well, and now this, someone was bold enough to abduct Magnus and Alexey?

　　”When I find the bastard who did this I'll make you suffer!” I shrieked as I threw the pillows from my bed, and tore up my entire room in anger and frustration.

　　The crazy scenarios began to surge through my head, the theories began to form, but nothing seemed to stick, nothing seemed to make any sense.

　　”I have to get to the bottom of this,” I thought aloud as I collected myself and proceeded towards the phone, I needed to assemble my vampires, this was a top priority situation and I needed all the help I could get, and so I called up Carlos and Monica and asked them to;

　　”Assemble every last vampire under my district and have them meet me at my house as soon as possible,” I instructed with urgency in my tone.

　　”Right away,” Carlos responded, ”Irena?” he called out just before I could hang up. ”I’m sorry, we'll find them and the bastards who took them,” he finished with a voice of reassurance before I hung up the phone.

　　In less than thirty minutes my house was full of vampires undeniably loyal to me.

　　I took a glance across the room, I took note of every face I saw, it was obvious, every one of these people would lay down their lives in a heartbeat if I gave the order, and it may very well come to that.

　　It was reassuring to know that if it did I wouldn't be alone.

　　”Listen up!” I ordered in a brusque tone, drawing everyone's attention to myself and quitting all the whispers that filled the room only moments earlier, ”As of tonight, we're at war!” I announced to the room causing the whispers to stir up once again.

　　They whispered amongst themselves for a few seconds before calming down again.

　　”I don't know who we're at war with, but whoever the sick cowardly bastard or bastards are, they've taken Magnus and Alexey, this must be punished,” the crowd echoed their support and swore their fealty to me as I continued to address them.

　　”They came after one of us, they've come after all of us,” I continued as sounds of their support grew louder.

　　”We’ll find these cowards however many and destroy them, and we'll save Magnus and Alexey, so go out there as far as the world takes you, exhaust all your contacts, shake every tree, turn every stone, if you find then you report back to me and we coordinate our attacks, that'll be all for now, dismissed!” I announced as all the vampires dispersed in the blink of an eye using their vampiric speed, in a matter of seconds all the vampires in front of me, at least fifty if they had cleared out of the house until it was just me.

　　A moment to myself, I could shed a tear, I wanted to, I almost did, I was worried.

　　Magnus my partner, my confidante, my best and oldest friend and Alexey the only man I've ever loved, both gone, both taken, both in the clutches of my enemies enduring God knows what, and simply because of their association with me, I was sad, I was angry, I was worried, I had to find them, so I couldn't cry, there was no time for that, none at all.

　　”I need a drink, there's always time for that,” gosh, I sound like Magnus, I asserted as I made my way to the bar.

　　Then suddenly it hit me, Carlos could trace the origins of the camcorder, we can track them if we start there.

　　And so I called Carlos and gave him the camcorder to get started.

　　”And now for the hardest part, sit and wait, someone will turn up with something soon enough,”

　　It didn't take long before Carlos came up with several useful pieces of information. Slim leads to start, but a lead nonetheless, and if we pull on all the threads, one of them will lead me to Magnus, Alexey, And the next fucking bastard I'll murder.

　　”The camcorder was assembled using parts from different devices, so essentially it was custom made for its purpose, it's actually quite fascinating really,-” Carlos began to get sidetracked.

　　"-Stay true to the point Carlos,” I scolded, on a normal day his nerd rants are cute, today isn't a normal day.

　　”Sorry,” he apologized as he continued.

　　"Normally, it would be impossible to track, but I've seen this craftsmanship before, this was done by Cheng Lu, he's a master at this kind of stuff and I know exactly where to find him,” he asserted with a smile on his face.

　　I assembled a few of my vampires and Carlos led the way to Cheng Lu’s warehouse.

　　We arrived at the warehouse, it had a huge neon sign that said ’Lu’s’, we made our way in to find only one person, a Chinese man in his early to mid-seventies seated at a table hard at work.

　　”Are you Cheng Lu?” I asked him, causing him to look up from what he was doing to meet my gaze.

　　”Who’s asking?” he questioned in a suspicious and reserved tone.

　　”My name is Irena,” I asserted, as I gestured for the camcorder to be presented by one of my vampires.

　　The look on Lu’s face changed dramatically to one of pure dread.

　　”Please, I haven't said anything, please, I did everything you people have asked of me, please don't hurt my family,” he begged to cower.

　　”Calm down Mr. Lu, I'm not with the people who threatened your family, I'm trying to stop them,” I assured him as I took a seat beside him.

　　”Listen, miss, I don't know you, but the men who commissioned that camcorder are very dangerous, say you stay away from them,” he advised as he turned on his chair to face me.

　　”Don’t worry Mr. Lu., I promise you I'm infinitely more dangerous and I'll make sure nothing happens to you or your family,” I assured him as the expression on his face shifted from terror to hope.

　　”Now tell me, who commissioned the tape?” I inquired as I stood up preparing to leave immediately with whatever information he would give me.

　　”There were three guys, but the man who seemed in charge, they called him Ricardo, he was missing his left ear, but that's all I know, I promise,”

　　”Thank you, Mr. Lu, you've been a huge help, these men will stay here and ensure that you and your family will remain unharmed,” I gestured as four of my vampires stepped over to Mr. Lu’s side of the room.

　　”Thank you so much, Miss, thank you,” he appreciated with his head bowed, as I made my way to the exit.

　　”Carlos, get on the police database and find me this Ricardo who's missing his left ear, I have a few questions for him,” I instructed.

　　”On it,” Carlos responded as he got out his phone and got the hacking.

　　We had just gotten to where our cars were parked when suddenly a car full of armed men drove by as they opened fire on us, they only managed to hit one person but it was evident from the way he died, they were armed with silver bullets.

　　”Who the fuck were those guys?” Carlos questioned as he got up from where he had taken cover.

　　”Let's find out!” I asserted as I hopped into my car and chased after them, my vampires quickly jumped into their vehicles and followed.

　　The chase was heated and carried on for some time, we were all going as fast as our cars could go.

　　The shooters had no intention of slowing down or being caught, they maintained their speed occasionally peering out of their vehicle to fire more shots.

　　But I would not be so easily thwarted.

　　We were all so focused on our immediate tasks, the shooters, on getting away and my vampires and I, on making sure that didn't happen.

　　What happened next was completely unexpected, as they made their way to the next intersection up ahead completely ignoring traffic and other vehicles, they found themselves almost free.

　　“No, they’re going to get away,” I fumed when suddenly a huge truck that no one saw coming, rammed into them from the side causing a huge accident and ending the chase.

　　I hopped out of my car immediately and made my way to the crash site and at first glance, it seemed bleak, they all looked dead, it seemed like this entire chase had been for nothing when suddenly;

　　“Help me, please,” one of the men groaned as he stirred, he was the only one still left alive. I bent down to where he was and peered into his mind looking for information on who sent him and why they did what they did.

　　‘Ricardo isn’t going to blow a fuse,’ he thought as he drew his last breath and died there.

　　Ricardo again, the man who’s missing an ear, he sent them.

　　“It’s high time I pay this one-eared Ricardo a visit,” I decided as I got back up to my feet, just then the rest of my vampires arrived on the scene.

　　“I’ve got something!” Carlos announced still on his phone as he approached me while some of the other vampires immediately went to work cleaning up the mess.

　　“Ricardo Perez, aged, thirty-two, lost his ear in a prison brawl, and is a known associate of Fabian Ruiz,” he read off of his screen.

　　“Fabian? So Fabian is behind this!” When I catch that greasy-haired motherfucker I’m gonna rip his tongue out through his ass.

　　“Where’s this, Ricardo Perez now?” I inquired as we walked towards my car.

　　“I just tracked his socials and got a read on his location,” he stated as he looked up at me from his phone.

　　“Good, then lead the way,” I ordered, prompting Carlos to hop into the driver’s seat of my car and we drove towards Ricardo Perez with the rest of the vampires following closely as the radio played the news.

　　“Another five thousand people have been found de-,” I interrupted the lady on the radio to put on some music as we zoomed past cars, I wasn’t in the mood for the news.

　　We got to an abandoned building and right off the bat we knew we were in for a fight.

　　The roof of the building was lined with armed men at the ready equipped with automatic weapons that were no doubt armed with silver ammunition.

　　This wasn’t going to be easy, we couldn’t just rush them, we would lose too many lives, we needed to be clever and cunning, like the predators we vampires are.

　　Luckily it was slowly turning nighttime, and the cover of darkness would give us the advantage we needed, vampires thrive in the dark.

　　We made our strategies from just beyond the range of the shooters and as the last bit of sunlight dissipated from the skies, I gave the order to attack, and attack we did.

　　We systematically took out every shooter quietly, incapacitating them before they even knew we were there, I had one mission on my mind, find Ricardo Perez.

　　As I burst through from room to room, avoiding the blind and frantic shots of panicking shooters who had realized that they were in over their head, I finally made it to a room with at least ten armed men who had their guns armed and ready pointed at the door, but one quick glance at the room and I realized, these men were armed with night vision goggles.

　　And so the dance began, with claws and fangs bared I skidded across the room, gliding from one man to another, snapping necks and ripping out hearts as I dodged bullets until there was only one man left.

　　A short hairy man who stood at the end of the room missing an ear, repeatedly squeezed his trigger even though he was out of bullets, he was face to face with the worst monster he had ever seen, I guess the fear would do that to you.

　　“You must be Ricardo Perez,” I confirmed as I made my way toward him.

　　I could’ve simply read his mind and get the information on Fabian Ruiz that I needed, but I wanted to make him suffer.

　　“Tell me, Ricardo,” I sneered as I drew closer, my hands and clothes soaked and dripping from the blood of his men. I must’ve cut a very horrific figure, because I noticed he pissed himself, that would be the least of his worries though.

　　“Where’s your boss, where’s Fabian Ruiz?”