The Chase II

　　Irena’s POV

　　Ricardo screamed in pain as I plunged another red hot eight inch needle into his knee increasing the count to thirty, thirty-somethings were sticking out of his knee, directly embedded into the concentration of nerves there along with several other, clasps, screws, bolts, and contraptions extending from various parts of his body, I had him chained up on his feet with his legs spread apart and his arms spread upwards so that his body formed an X.

　　He had given me the information I needed but I decided to torture him a bit longer.

　　“Please, I’ve told you everything, please no more,” he managed to muster through a bloody mouth that had about six teeth left.

　　“Oh I know, but you deserve this, and sadly I have no more time left to play with you, but I’ll leave you in very capable hands,” I promised as I left him in the room with three torturers and as I closed the door behind me, his screams resumed, filled with agony and terror.

　　Now to find Fabian Ruiz and make him pay for even laying a finger on Magnus and Alexey.

　　I had to travel to Mexico, that’s what Ricardo had told me right before I removed the third finger.

　　Fabian was holed up in Mexico and I had to find him.

　　There was no time for formalities, we simply compelled our way past every barricade until we boarded a plane and zoomed off to Mexico.

　　As the plane entered cruise altitude, I felt myself begin to doze off, it had been days since the last time I slept since the night I had the nightmare, that night that sparked this cat and mouse war I am now fighting with Fabian. I thought to myself as I uncontrollably dozed off.

　　I found myself in a large hall full of people, all just minding their businesses. It seemed like something of a community as I looked around, then suddenly within the blink of an eye they all lay dead, bled dry of all their blood.

　　I couldn’t understand what I was seeing or what any of it meant then suddenly I was back in the hallway that I’d had so many dreams of before, and once again I was faced with multiple paintings depicting horrible events, a few of them seemed familiar, the plagues and wars that ravaged human history, so vividly captured in paintings

　　Paintings that came alive if I looked at them long enough.

　　And then it seemed like there were paintings that depicted mass deaths from the modern era, things I had no memory of ever witnessing, thousands of dead people spread across the streets completely drained of all their blood, as humans did battle with vampires.

　　It didn’t make any sense, none of it did, I made my way through continuing despite the strange feeling that I was being watched until I came to the end of the hallway once again and there it was.

　　That same Van Gogh style painting depicting Alexey being accused by shadow creatures as he screamed out in agony, I could still hear his screams, I could almost feel his pain, but this time something was da different one of the shadowy creatures that tortured Alexey had some sort of puppet, and it used that puppet to torture Alexey.

　　The puppet bore a creepy resemblance to Fabian Ruiz.

　　Then suddenly my attention was drawn from the painting to the sounds of a woman cackling from behind me.

　　I turned around to find one of the shadow creatures lunging at me with a screeching sound that seemed to come from its mouth and then suddenly,-

　　I woke up back in the plane just before it landed.

　　I don’t scare easily, nor do I scare often, but this was one of those rare occasions where it happened, I could feel my hands trembling.

　　Whoever my real enemies were, the people ordering Fabian’s steps, they were bad news and I had to find and free Magnus and Alexey before it was too late.

　　As we made our way out of the airport, there didn't seem to be as many people as expected out and about in the streets, no lights or loud music, it didn't seem like the Mexico I knew.

　　"These monsters are killing us all, bleeding us dry of our lives, it's the end times!" A voice barked loudly as I noticed out of the corner of my eye, the voice came from some roadside preacher spitting propaganda about the end times.

　　Completely unimportant and beneath me, I have to find Fabian Ruiz.

　　Since we were in Mexico, I enlisted the help of Pablo who arrived with another group of Vampires, and together we made our way to the hideout that I extracted from poor Ricardo.

　　But when we got there, we learned quite quickly that it was some sort of trap.

　　Fabian's men opened fire on us from their base raining down silver bullets, but we had guns of our own and so we returned fire.

　　The shooting lasted for a while and neither side was making any progress.

　　"Pablo, you and your men continue to draw their fire and return fire, allowing us to flank them and take them from behind," I instructed as I gestured for my orders to be followed.

　　"Si boss! You heard the boss, let's smoke those puta madres!" Pablo exclaimed as their rate of fire increased.

　　A group of us made our way around, keeping our heads low and surrounding the building before bursting in through the back.

　　The fuckers weren't expecting that and so we prepared to slaughter them but they had a surprise of their own.

　　One of my vampires charged at one of Fabian's goons and punched him across the jaw hard enough to send his head flying but that didn't happen, instead, the bastard took the punch and staggered backward a little bit before recollecting himself and then he threw a punch of his own, it was so hard that it cracked my vampire's jaw out of place.

　　Then he pulled out a silver dagger and plunged it into his heart, killing her on the spot.

　　"What the fuck?" I exclaimed as the fighting raged on.

　　It was clear that Fabian's men had been physically boosted through some sort of mystic arts.

　　This wasn't going to be easy.

　　The fighting was intense and lasted a long time, it was hard enough fighting them when all they had were silver bullets, but now they're armed with various silver weapons and the strength to use them in a fight.

　　They were faster and much stronger than any normal humans and they were far more resilient, it took too much for my vampires to kill them, it was all-out war, bodies were dropping from every angle.

　　I walked through the Halls of the building evading attacks from my would-be assailants and returning the favor by killing them instantly.

　　The fighting was difficult for normal vampires, but not for me, this was barely a challenge for me.

　　Some hours after the fighting started, Fabian's men started to slow, and weaken, and a few moments later they began to puke blood.

　　Whatever gave them their boost had run its course and now it was taking its toll on their bodies.

　　They rolled and thrashed in agony as they kept on puking blood, it was hard to hear with all the cries of pain but I managed to pick out the leader through the sound of his thoughts.

　　He was writhing around in pain as well, overwhelmed by the price he had to pay for a few moments of power.

　　I bent down beside him and peered into his mind to find Fabian Ruiz as it was clear that he wasn't here.

　　But his mind was blank, it seemed like all of his memories had been wiped away, except for the price of a map and instructions on how to get to the next piece.

　　This was clearly the work of someone very adept at the use of the arts.

　　What kind of foes was I dealing with?

　　There was no time to contemplate. I gave instructions, and we immediately sprung into action heading for the next location.

　　"This just in, another eleven thousand bodies found-," I interrupted the voice on the radio, turning it off so that I would be able to think.

　　Fabian Ruiz was clearly working for someone, he kidnapped Magnus and Alexey to lure me here, and has armed his men with silver weapons and even the arts.

　　So why doesn't he reveal himself?

　　Why does he hide from me?

　　What's his endgame?

　　What's he playing at?

　　I thought to myself as we arrived at the second location.

　　We made our way towards an abandoned mansion and from outside the building I could hear them, Magnus and Alexey screaming in pain being tortured.

　　Without hesitation, I rushed into the house leaving everyone else behind and made my way to the basement where the sound originated from, but all I found was a tape recorder playing the sounds of their screams and a note from Fabian that simply read 'gotcha', the soft beeping sound of a device sitting in the corner of the basement caught my attention and when I moved closer to look at it, I found a bomb with a note stuck to it and the timer on five seconds left to the explosion.

　　I barely had enough time to read what was written on the note when suddenly there was a huge flash of light and a deafening boom as the bomb exploded leveling the house around me.

　　I clawed my way out of the rubble to the sighs of relief from my vampires who had watched helplessly as the building exploded, a few of them had even been caught in the blast.

　　I walked towards them as the burn I sustained quickly covered up and healed until there was nothing left to show for the explosion but charred clothes and Ash from the building.

　　"I'm going to rip that bastard to shreds!" I sneered as I stood in front of my vampires, the fire from the explosion had burnt off my clothes and left my body exposed and naked.

　　I caught a few eyes staring and they all quickly averted their gazes.

　　Monica rushed to my side and covered me with her leather trench coat.

　　"Are you okay?" She inquired, her voice full of concern and worry.

　　"Worse shit has happened in my long life," I stated as I took the jacket and draped it over my shoulders so that it covered me up well enough.

　　This was becoming increasingly annoying, but now we had the next location and no choice but to go to it if I ever wanted to see Magnus and Alexey again.

　　And so once again, like rats chasing after cheese, we gathered our forces and went on the road.

　　It didn't seem to make any sense.

　　How was the bomb so perfectly timed, how does Fabian manage to stay two steps ahead of us, what am I missing?

　　I pondered on and on trying to grasp at the straws I was presented with in the situation.

　　We arrived at the third location to find another set of Fabian's men waiting for us.

　　We were in for yet another fight.

　　The fighting started and it was clear that these men were also enhanced somehow, not that it mattered to me, after being caught in a literal explosion, I was pretty pissed and had no patience, I practically ran through the entire base killing everyone myself in a spectacularly gruesome fashion,

　　Making my way through as my vampires watched in awe.

　　This is the true form of a very pissed-off Irena Queen of Ursula.

　　And when I get my hands on Fabian Ruiz, he would feel every bit of my bitter rage!

　　I cleared out the base, this time before they even ran out of their juice until there was no one left but their leader.

　　As I made my way to him, he stood frozen, petrified by the power that had just been exhibited before him and so I met his gaze as I stood face to face with him and took the bit of information he had and moved on to the next location.

　　Nothing seemed to make sense.

　　But I was certain of one thing.

　　When I get Fabian Ruiz in my clutches I'll make him rue the day he was born.