“What smell?” Thomas asked, as Aimee got the green light and made a left turn.

“The faint blood smell - but a little less irony than usual, and more foul.” Caroline looked around and said: “The whole street smells like this.”

“Smell of blood, you said?” Aimee found a spot just on the opposite side of the street from the coffee shop: “Could it be that your heightened sense of smell is picking up the scent no one notices? This is not exactly a peaceful neighborhood.”

“Yeah, or something else.” Caroline’s frown remained on her face as she hopped off from Aimee’s car: “Jason, what do you think?”

“I am sensing some faint remnant of unclean energy.” Jason’s pupils flashed in silver as he looked around: “But it’s way too unclear to pick up, or trace anything.”

“Then we can talk about it later.”Aimee locked the car and said: “Let’s go.”

“Aimee, Thomas, thank you so much for coming.” Detective Lee was having a cup of extra black coffee, and his partner Detective Kuhn was having a donut coated with dark chocolate. Both of them had dark sagging eye bags.

“And, who are these with you?” Detective Kuhn took a bite of his donut and asked.

“This is Ms. Caroline Baker, and this is Mr. Jason Lin, they are paranormal consultants for SFPD. I’ve told you about them before.” Thomas said.

“Ah, I remember them, my friend told me they provided them a lot of help, until - ” Detective Lee’s face dimmed for a brief moment, but he quickly put his smile back on: “Thank you very much for coming to our aide, we could really use the help from someone with your expertise.”

“So, update us on the status.” Aimee said: “We already know that the daughter of some local politician was abducted, possibly already dead. And we know that there is evidence of dangerous cult activities. Anything else?”

“Okay.” Detective Kuhn took out a pretty thick folder and pushed it across the table: “Detailed case information is in here, the captain is okay with us sharing this with parties that we are consulting, but he doesn’t have to know that you know it. Is that clear?”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Crystal.” Aimee pulled the folder towards her and started reading.

Thomas leaned over and read with Aimee: “The news said that there are five victims. But according to this list here, there’s much more than that, how many ...”

“Twelve, maybe more.” Detective Lee shook his head and said: “These here are only the ones that are confirmed - their bodies were found fresh, and the forensics team were able to confirm that their blood was almost completely drained. There were also a couple of bodies found in street ditches and lakes and ponds, they were all decomposed to different extent, but our forensics team were able to find some evidence of their blood being drawn before their bodies were ditched.”

“And just like your notes mentioned - some of the victims showed symptoms of being drugged with narcotics and psychedelics.” Detective Kuhn said: “We were able to find one of the potential locations harboring the suspects. But when we tried to raid the place, we were faced with heavy counter attacks and lost five officers in that operation. These suspects, just like you told Lee, have special gifts, enhanced speed, enhanced endurance and strength. We came prepared, but we were not expecting something like that.”

“Vampires.” Jason scoffed then sighed: “What made them think they are able to do this?”

“What? Vampires?” Detective Lee stared at Jason and Caroline for a while, then turned to Aimee and Thomas: “Are you serious?”

“Actually - Aimee, before you and Thomas resigned, you got bitten when you were backing up two officers right?” Detective Kuhn’s eyes lit up and asked: “Was that - ”

“Yes.” Aimee and Thomas acknowledged in unison.

“From what I’ve read and learned, the easiest thing one can do to combat them would be to coat your bullets with silver.” Caroline said: “They won’t burn their bodies down with just one scratch or bullet wound like in the movies. But they will suppress their natural healing abilities, their special magical powers, and serve as some kind of acute poison to their physiology.”

“Mr.Lin.” Detective Lee scratched his head with an embarrassed look: “You’re overestimating how much funding we have, and how easy it is to pull off a sweeping gear upgrade like this.”

Detective Lee, Detective Kuhn, Jason and Caroline all went silent in an instant, for a brief moment, only the sound of Aimee flipping through the pages in the folder came from their table.

“Would you like some drinks as well?” just this moment, a waitress came over to their table and asked with a bright smile.

“Just a Cappuccino. Thanks.” Jason said.

“Can I get a refill?” Detective Lee handed his cup and asked.

“Sure.” the waitress nodded, then turned to Caroline, Thomas and Aimee: “And you? Any drinks you’d like?”

“I’ll have a Cappuccino as well.” Caroline nodded.

“Not for me.” “Not for me.” Aimee and Thomas were still focused on reading the files.

“Sure, coming right up.” the waitress took away Detective Lee’s cup and headed to the kitchen.

“Detectives, do you mind letting us take a look at your guns?” Caroline suddenly thought of something, and just asked without much hesitation.

“What?” Detective Kuhn and Detective Lee immediately became nervous and defensive: “Why would you want to do something like that?”

“Don’t worry, I just want to help you.” Caroline nodded and patted Jason on the shoulder: “Jason here can help you with this silver bullet business. ”

“Nice! I haven’t thought of that.” Jason nodded and said: “Detectives, whenever you’re ready - I can help you with that.”

“Hey, Lee.” Thomas raised his head with a frown on his face: “Tell me about what you’ve found about bleeding daggers and the cults.”