Mike immediately calls the group to let them know that “Mary” has shown up at the orphanage and he's on his way there. The rest of the group also head toward the orphanage. On the way there, Zeke's police scanner picks up report of a fire at the orphanage. He tries to call and warn Mike, but Mike's not answering his cell phone while speeding his motorcycle to the orphanage in the rain.
Mike is the first to arrive and sees that emergency services have just arrived. Also, the children have been escorted out of the orphanage and are standing in an empty parking lot across the street. Mike circles around back and sees that the police haven't yet had the chance to set up a full cordon. He sneaks over the back fence to the rear doors by the dumpsters. However, he finds the doors locked. Looking around, he gets lucky and notices that one of the windows is not locked. He uses it to climb in.
Zeke arrives and parks down the block. He casually makes his way up to where the police have started blocking off the street. While everyone is busy, he manages to slip passed and make his way by a fire truck. He's able to snag an emergency oxygen mask while the fire men are busy getting ready to enter the building. He notices that there's no sign of a fire nor any smell of smoke. Sonia arrives just as Zeke snags the mask and notices him doing so, but no one else seems to have. As Zeke slips back outside the cordon and starts heading around to the side of the building, she joins him.
Kayla arrives and parks around back. The police have not made their way around there yet but appear to be on their way. She rushes over and decides to hop the fence. However, just as she reaches the top of the fence, a police cruiser coming around back to start setting up the cordon there, happens by. The car stops and it's spot light swings around just as she drops to the ground inside the fence. The officer gets out of his car and orders her to stop, but she decides to make a run for it. The officer calls in for backup.
As Julian arrives, he sees a shadowy female figure running toward the orphanage and surmises it's Kayla from the way she's dressed. He also sees a second police car pull up and both officers start heading for the back gate, guns drawn. Thinking quickly, he quietly makes his way over to the second police car and slips into the driver's seat. He guns the engine and takes off, flipping on the siren and clipping the first police car on the way out. Both cops are momentarily stunned in disbelief but quickly recover and make their way to the first car to give chase.
Inside the orphanage, Mike finds he's climbed into the girls' ward and starts looking around. The wail of the fire alarm is deafening but as he leaves the girls' ward and looks across the hall into the boy's ward, he sees a tall pale blond woman holding Tom the janitor in one hand. Mike can see that her fingernails are actually claws partially dug into Tom's neck and that she has her other hand behind her back.
Now that the police are distracted, Kayla notices the open window and climbs in. Mike has already left the girl's ward, but she can barely make out the sound of voices over the sound of the alarm. She hears a woman's voice order Mike to put down his machete. She also expresses annoyance that Mike's been sniffing around her “larder” the past several weeks.
Sonia and Zeke get around the side of the building in time to see the second police car speed off in pursuit of Julian. Taking advantage of this fortuitous event, they start looking for a way into the building and notice the open window. They climb in, and notice Kayla peeking around the corner at something outside the room. She does not notice their entrance.
Julian, meanwhile, leads the police on a high speed pursuit through rain slicked streets. Fortunately, he's able to stay ahead of them without wrecking. However, he hears them calling for backup and blockades over the radio and knows he can't evade them forever.
After Mike drops his machete (being unwilling to risk Tom's life), the woman sniffs the air then demands that Mike's friends reveal themselves. Zeke steps out from where he, Sonia and Kayla had been peeking around the corner. He warns the woman that there is no way he'll let her leave with her victim. Sonia can sense that the woman is a vampire and that there is something about the way she “feels” that reminds her of Ana Silivasi (Sonia's mother). She can also smell the child the woman is hiding behind her back.
After hearing Zeke's warning the woman tells Zeke that she'll let Tom go only when her own escape is secured. She also let's Zeke know that her “servants” were never supposed to attack him and that they had been properly disciplined for their actions. She then sniffs the air again and states that the other person hiding should also reveal themselves. Sonia steps out and the vampire smiles. She refers to Sonia as her sister and tells her that their mother never told her to expect relatives in Vibora Bay. She then demands that Zeke and Sonia give up their magic rod and crossbow respectively. Kayla remains in hiding in the girl's ward. Both reluctantly comply.
Sonia informs everyone that the vampire has a child behind her back. The woman reveals the child, his unconscious form dangling negligently from her other hand. This sight enflames Zeke and Mike even further and Mike decides to reveal his angelic form. They reiterate that they'll never let her get away with her victims. Sonia, however, has decided that negotiation is going to get them nowhere and takes action. She hurls a straind of garlic bulbs at the vampire but her attempts to hide her actions throw her aim off and they instead bounce off the back of Zeke's head and to the side of the room, out of range to affect the vampire. In the mean time, Kayla sneaks back out the window to circle around the orphanage and sneak up behind the woman and cut off her escape. The vampire, states that its time for her to leave as the firemen will be entering the building at any moment and none of them want to be present when that happens. The questions would be far too awkward for all concerned.
Zeke and Mike keep looking for a way to make a move without getting a hostage killed. Sonia can tell that the vampire is getting ready to make her move, but she can't tell if it will be to throw the child or rip out Tom's throat. Just as she starts to warn her companions, the woman does rip into Tom's throat and drops him to the ground while retreating back into the boy's bathroom with the boy in hand. Mike and Sonia each rush to get their weapons while Zeke rushes to aid Tom. After grabbing his machete, Mike charges past Zeke and into the bathroom. He barely manages to react in time to catch the child that is hurled at him. When he looks up, the vampire has vanished. Kayla gets to the bathroom window in time to see a confused Mike standing there with an unconscious child in his arms.
Julian's chase with the police continues as he weaves his way down alleys and side streets. Fortunately it is after midnight so there's no real traffic to get in his way. As it is, however, the police car and a few random parked vehicles will be needing new paint jobs. Julian realizes that the neighborhood he's in has a side street that used to lead directly into the swamp but was blocked off years ago. He turns down the side street and crashes through the barricade at the end of the street and into the swamp before the pursuing police realize what's happened.
Zeke tells the others to get out of the orphanage as they hear the firemen coming in the front door. Mike leaps out a window, crashing straight through it. Sonia swiftly follows. Kayla sees the two and joins them in leaving. The firemen are shocked by what they see: Zeke holding closed the slashed throat of the orphanage's janitor and an unconscious child on the floor next to him. They rush forward to deal with the victims and as soon as they get there, Zeke leaps up and follows his companions out the window. Fortunately, the police are in complete disarray due to Julian's distraction and the four are able to quickly get away.
Julian ditches the car in the swamp and does his best to remove all evidence that would lead forensics back to him. He also breaks free the shotgun and breaks into the trunk to get the first aid kit, emptying it of any drugs he can find. He wants to make it look like a crime of opportunity to try and get the gun and drugs. While he's cleaning up the car, he gets a call from Zeke but he doesn't respond until he's done with the vehicle. He then asks for someone to come pick him up as his truck was left about a block away from the orphanage.
Friday, June 13
Mike visits Tom at the hospital. He's stable but not taking any visitors. Mike learns that he's the only one to visit Tom so far.
During the day, Friday, Julian is warned to keep an eye out for a fugitive in the swamp who had stolen a police car and taken the shotgun out of it. He also hears odd rumors about what happened at the orphanage. He does a bit of subtle inquiring about the orphanage event and learns that the janitor and a child were attacked. The firemen had given a vague description of a man that could resemble Zeke or any number of other random people However, the janitor and child both described a female perp.
Zeke and Sonia go back to the warehouse to continue questioning Nigel. He's in bad shape, having been left tied to a chair and without food, water or bathroom breaks for over twelve hours. He's also managed to dislocate his shoulder in an attempt to escape. Zeke is not very gentle about it when he resets the shoulder. Nigel makes vague threats and refuses to believe it when Zeke says that they've already met the man's “mistress”. However, after giving him some water and tending to the dislocation, they leave him alone again because they know he won't stand up to heavy interrogation in the shape he's currently in.
When Kayla gets home from work she gets into an argument with her sister about her having gone out from the safe house to get lunch earlier. She also demands to see her sister's cell phone to make sure she hasn't been making an calls. Instead, her sister storms off to the other room, slamming and locking the door. Kayla calls Zeke for advice, who tells her that she's not doing enough to scare her sister into recognizing how serious the situation is. He assures her that a few minutes with him and she'll realize just what kind of scary things are out there. Kayla's a little unsure of this advice. Especially since the last time she had this big a fight with her sister, she had attempted to run away and go back to their father.
That night, Kayla sneaks into her sister's room and checks the cell phone. The call history, text messages and outgoing call history have all be cleaned out. Kayla's now convinced that her sister has called her boyfriend while they're hiding out from the vampire.
Saturday, June 14
The following morning, Kayla's sister doesn't wake up when she makes breakfast. Then, as it approaches noon and her sister still isn't up, she begins to worry. When she goes in and tries to wake her sister up, the girl is unresponsive. In a panic, Kayla calls Zeke and Julian who comes over to check on her. Eventually he checks for magic and gets a sensation of demonic torment magic. When he attempts to magically shield her the pressure against the magical shield is on the wrong side. At first Zeke thinks that this is caused by the girl's latent psychic powers working against her but Julian realizes that there's been nothing demonic about the girl's powers before and Zeke's ward only works on demonic magic. Zeke checks for demonic possession and encounters a familiar feeling demonic presence. It takes him a moment but he realizes it's the half-oni sorcerer they'd encountered a couple weeks ago.