Chapter 1

It wasn't often that Judy Hopps hated her job, oh it did happen from time to time but very few and far between in the 4 years she had been a part of the ZPD. Four years of scraping and scratching for every shred of respect and acceptance from her co-workers after the Mammal Inclusion Initiative. Four years of clocking almost record breaking amounts of everything from parking tickets to range time with every type of firearm provided, staggering amounts of over-time and time in the sparring ring…all to find herself here…bleeding out in a graveyard after having damn near her entire shoulder blown off.

The morning had only been mildly better in her opinion, not getting more than a couple hours thanks to her loud neighbors Judy had barely been able to drag herself out of bed into the shower. Of course this was also the day the water heater decided not to work and left her having to chatter through a frigid rain of low pressure ice water. Returning to her room had revealed her door locked and her on the wrong side with no key, groaning to herself all the way to the landladies office clad in a wet and cold towel had not improved her mood and neither had the old armadillo's admonishments about losing keys and the irresponsible youth of the day. Quickly sprinting around her shoebox of an apartment to get ready left Judy with a stubbed toe, messy room, mostly dried but un-brushed fur and en empty stomach. After nearly getting trampled trying to get onto the 3 minute late train and having to be squished between taller mammals due to lack of seating or standing room had only further soured her mood which left her firmly in the "Pissed Off" side of bad moods. Screeching to a halt after sprinting up the stairs to the ZPD and nearly running into the reception desk left her with a countdown of 15 seconds to get to the Cat's Cradle in time for the morning briefing, a fact some of her co-workers loudly reminded her of with a sports game type countdown.

Chief Fangmeyer was not a mammal to mess with on or off the job. She fought her way to the top of the ranks in a time when female cops were looked down on and female predators were openly sneered at. Seeing a bunny in uniform had at first irritated her a little, not only was the bunny small and fluffy but also excessively perky and optimistic. Two years into the bunny's career Chief Fangmeyer had to grudgingly admit she was at least partially mistaken on the rabbit officer, she had accomplished and surpassed many challenges the chief had tried to break her with. Un-reasonable amounts of paperwork and parking tickets, giving her the worst shifts and most unruly of partners (more as a punishment to them than to her) all while wondering if that day was going to be when she had to sign one of two pieces of paperwork in her desk, either an officer resignation packet or death benefits packet. Hearing the countdown while in her way to the morning briefing left her with a small amount of curiosity, seeing said over-achieving lagomorph standing at an almost painfully rigid attention in her usual seat and trying to conceal her rapid breathing and nervousness clued the chief in almost immediately. Seeing a few bills be passed discreetly between her larger officers simply sealed the deal, oh she was well aware of the various types of in house gambling that was done, betting pools and wagers and the like were common place and as long as they stayed in the lower denominations and were subtle about the chief had no problem with them.

The morning had not gone much better for Judy after the chief had walked in, ignoring the muttering around her and the money changing paws Judy simply hoped to get through the day in one piece. Being assigned to RFD (Rain Forest District) foot patrol was certainly not a cherry on top of her day, more like a rotten apple between the eyes and the days prospects were not improved by the revelation she would be partnered with not only Clive Hoofstadt, a zebra that thought he was Gaia's gift to equines but also with Billy Swiftail, a cheetah who was only barely this side of being a predator supremacist and made no real attempt at hiding it. Either one of them was bad enough but having to deal with them both on foot patrol in the wettest district during the heat of the day and during the wettest time of the year was almost enough to make Judy consider committing double homicide.

'Maybe it won't be that bad, maybe they will behave and this day can just be over with' It had been that bad and worse. Between Clive getting distracted by practically every equine with a pulse and possibility of breeding and Billy slipping anti-prey sentiments in between just about every other word Judy was about ready strangle herself with her own ears…or throw the two of them off a bridge. Judy had never been so happy to hear a call from dispatch telling them to check out the local cemetery.

"Local Cemetery" might be a little misleading though being the largest and oldest boneyard in Zootopia. Acres of every post-mortal coil marker imaginable above and below ground made for a rather creepy and large area to search through. Everything from humble markers inlaid into the ground with little more than a name and date to remember the mammal to grandiose tombs and mausoleums could be found. Home carved decorations and quotes laid next to borderline temples adorned with masterfully done statues. Under and over the earth the final resting places sprawled in every direction with gravel paths leading a long and twisting road through them all.

"I'm just saying there would be less crime there were more predators on the force, criminals would be less likely to commit crimes if they knew they would be run down by something naturally built to do so" Came the voice of Billy from between the gravestones.

"And I'm just saying we don't need more police brutality and intimidation charges and accusations flying across the evening news from your kind and I personally don't need you to be scaring away all my potential conquests" Replied Clive from somewhere around what looked like a miniature Catztec temple.

"Aren't you married or something Hoofstadt" Judy called from between the towers of apartment like rodent graves, seeing as how she was the only one small enough to get between them.

"Technically, but it's more of a cul-d-sac relationship" Clive called back.

"What the hell kind of relationship is that?" Asked a thoroughly confused cheetah as he leaned against a grave in the shape of a winged buffalo.

"Like a cul-d-sac it's only open on one end meaning he can sleep around but she can't, or at least that is how he sees it." Judy threw out with undisguised disgust.

"HA trust the bunny to know about open ended relationships" Billy jeered while looking at a shrine like grave to some long dead mammal.

"Yeah, how long many at that noise complaint we went to earlier do you think were spoken for?" Clive asked with a shit eating grin, referring to earlier in the day when they had been sent to an apartment party on a noise complaint due to loud music.

'We end up walking in on a bunny orgy and suddenly I'm back to being a stereotype bunny' Judy thought to herself as she grit her teeth and slipped her dart gun back into its holster, reminding herself that shooting them both in the face would look poor on her report.

Making their way through the graveyard the three mammals called in that searching the whole place would either take multiple teams or the rest of their shift and after getting told that they were to search the whole graveyard and report back at the end of their shift the three brought out their flashlights to combat the oncoming dark and steeled themselves for at least a couple more hours of each other's unfortunate company.

"This is such a waste of my time" Grumbled Clive as they closed in on the main building of the graveyard. The building had originally been much closer to the city proper but time and dead mammals had used up all the space behind it, and then around the sides until graves had started popping up in the front yard. Not many wanted to live or do business very close to such a place so acquiring the land in the surrounding area had been simple enough. The three mammals had decided to end their search and shift at the building when they realized how dark it was getting, not wanting to be in a graveyard to long after dark the trio felt a cursory search of the area just so they could say they did if asked was prudent.

Walking up to the door and getting ready to open it Billy stopped ramrod straight, ears up and alert, eyes wide open.

"Hold on, I smell something *sniff sniff*, there is a definite smell of blood in the area…fresh too." He stage whispered giving a few more sniffs. All three pulling out their dart guns and giving the immediate area a more thorough look left them all back to back in a sort of triangle with Judy furthest away from the door.

"Hopps, you hear anything moving?" Clive asked as he scanned around the area with his flashlight and gun held at the ready.

"No, nothing except some leaves in the breeze and…wait…a dripping sound maybe, it's hard to tell exactly but it's coming from inside the building." Judy responded turning slowly to listen more closely to their surroundings. Billy, being the closest to the door carefully opened it and slowly peered inside.

The sight that greeted him was enough to turn his stomach to lead and blood to ice. Backing away slightly so the other two could get a look revealed why. Blood…everywhere…floor, walls, ceiling…puddling in the carpet and dripping from messages written along the walls. Entrails swaying from chandeliers and limbs thrown haphazardly across the entire front room and beyond. In the center of the carnage, stood a single mammal…a yak, with close cropped fur and well-polished horns wearing what looked to be at one time a rather well tailored suit. The fact that the suit and the yak were currently dripping blood had all three officers training their weapon on him, the fact that he was smiling while holding what looked to be a dead otter in his hoof caused them to realize he was most likely the culprit of this massacre…the fact that he was smiling with a mouthful of fangs more suited to sharks or large predators had them backing up slightly.

"Oh I say, how lovely of you to join me…I'm afraid you missed the funeral but fear not it was a thing of beauty and many a tear was shed" the yak spoke with a slight accent tinted with mockery.

"Won't you stay though, I'm sure everyone is simply dying to meet such upstanding officers" He continued as he began to approach. With a click of his hoofs, what looked like dead bodies splayed out across the room suddenly began to twitch and rise.

"FUCK THIS!" Shouted Billy as he and his comrades began to unload their weapon into the yak, not noticing the family of lemmings coming in from the side. With uncharacteristic growls and faintly glowing eyes Billy found himself buried under a wave of tiny fanged mouths as they tried to eat him alive.

"OH SHIT BILLY!" Shouted Clive as he heard his fellow officer go down, looking over to his right to see what he could do to help gave the caracal cat hiding in the shadow of an overturned chair the opportunity to pounce and sink its fangs into the zebras neck.

Judy was never more thankful for the small but sturdy armor plate she wore on her upper body than she was then. Panicking at the sudden attack Clive lashed out instinctively with his back hoof and clipped Judy hard enough to send her flying away from the mayhem.

"HOPPS RUN GET REINFORCMENTS!" Billy shouted as he threw the little balls of furry hatred away after another, taking pot-shots where he could. Seeing her fellow officers in trouble had Judy about to sprint back into the fray, pains in the ass they may be but they were still officers, brothers in blue. Seeing they yak calmly stomp a hole through Billy before he could get up and casually reach out and tear Clive's right arm off and swat him away with it though convinced her there was nothing she could do. Backing up quickly while keeping her eyes on the steadily approaching yak, Judy swiftly re-loaded her pistol all while cursing the apparent ineffectiveness of the two dozen or more darts sticking out of the yak's chest. Hearing a twig snap behind her had Judy glance over her shoulder only to see even more shambling corpses appearing from between the grave stones and mausoleums. Turning back she had just enough time to register the thought that she might not make it out of this when the yak blurred and appeared directly in front of her, grabbing her by the wrists and lifted her up at arm's length in an almost cruciform pose.

"Well aren't you the saucy little thing" the yak crooned as he gazed at her while she struggled in his grasp, kicking as much as she could and flailing trying to get any kind of leverage or opening to escape.

"LET ME GO YOU ASSHOLE!" Judy shouted as she stopped struggling so as not to wear herself out should the opportunity arise to flee.

"Oh I don't think I will after all, I could always use a little bit of meat like you after all, I've heard rabbits can be rather stretchy…let's see now, live bed warmer or dead soldier…hmm, well why not both actually!" the yak said as he leered at her in a decidedly disturbing fashion.

"I can simply keep you alive for a bit and when you're either to worn out to be of use or I get bored of you I could just change you like I did your little boy-toys." So saying Judy glanced over his shoulder at her fallen comrades…that were slowly walking closer to them.

"B-billy? Clive?..." Judy said lowly as she watched her former companions approach, missing right arm and hoof shaped hole on full gory display.

"HA they belong to me now, they will serve me just as you will in days to come" the yak mocked as he watched her ears go limp and eyes begin to water.

"Well, aren't you the textbook definition of creepy" A new voice sounded from somewhere off to the right. Both the yak and Judy looked over at the intruder and were mildly surprised at what they saw. A fox stood there, a red fox with green eyes glinting behind a pair of round sunglasses the color of a sunset and a wide smirk containing just a bit too many teeth, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and gloves with a blood red tie and greatcoat with a wide brimmed fedora to match.

"Hold on, hold on…you are really sitting there, telling me that not only do you run a secret organization…in MY CITY…but that your organizations job is to find, track and hunt monsters is that what you are telling me?" Asked Chief Fangmeyer as she gazed across her desk at the rather portly cheetah and fairly attractive gazelle sitting calmly while smoking a rather expensive smelling cigar.

"*Sigh* Yes, for the second time our sources have found and tracked a vampire to a cemetery in the Rainforest District, our latest reports show that it was seen following a funeral procession meaning all of the mourners are most likely dead and re-animated as ghouls by now" Gazelle sighed out through a haze of sweet smoke.

"Yes ghouls, tell about those again if you would" Chief Fangmeyer asked with only a barely discernable tone of derision. Chomping slightly at the end of cigar at the tigress before her Gazelle sighed, almost wishing to be in front of the Round Table Conference instead of here…almost.

"Ghouls are what happen when a vampire bites a non-virgin mammal or one of the same sex, they die and are re-animated as mindless feeding machines much like zombies from pop culture movies. The differences are that they can't be killed with a simple headshot unless it is from a silver bullet as we have discovered that it is in fact a type of virus that re-animates them. Headshots with regular guns will irritate and potentially slow them down, body shots will do nothing at all and it must be silver, as silver is naturally anti-microbial and anti-viral."

Pinching her muzzle to try and relieve the headache she could feel coming on the chief leaned over and pressed a button on her intercom.

"Front desk, could you send up the Green Team…and a bottle of aspirin." The chief asked tiredly, thinking this gazelle was just some new form of nutcase that wandered in and hoping the Low Threat Response Team could either get rid of her or better yet take her to a psych ward.

"Uh chief, we lost communications the team sent in to investigate the cemetery sightings after they missed their check-in call" came the voice of the desk sergeant over the intercom.

"Chief you have my sincere condolences on the loss of your officers" Said gazelle as she heard the report and determined instantly what must have happened. "Don't worry though, we have already sent our best agent to the scene to clean up this mess, this should all be over in a couple hours at most."

"Quiet you, they aren't dead until I have seen the bodies, Dispatch send the two closest cruisers we have in the area to determine what is going…and what do you mean you sent in YOUR agent, you sent personnel into a potential crime scene without authorization?" The chief asked incredulously. "Just who do you think you are and who could you possibly send in that would do better than trained officers of the ZPD?!" Chief Fangmeyer asked with her voice rising in anger at the end.

"Who do I think I am?" Gazelle asked quietly. Standing quickly to look down at the tigress before her Gazelle answered in a voice that carried as much steel as the sword the chief now saw at her waist. "I am Sir Gazelle Integrus Von Hellsing, last surviving member of the Von Hellsing line and as such last defense Zootopia has against the creatures of the Pit and Purgatory. I am the Wall that stands against the tides of those who would seek to send our world into chaos and damnation. Send as many officers as you please to the cemetery, they will be little more than food to the ghouls or worse, be changed into vampires themselves" Snorting in irritation as she turned on the chief Gazelle motioned to her cheetah butler that they were leaving.

"WAIT A MINUTE, you never answered who you sent to the graveyard, just who is your 'Agent'" The chief asked in mild surprise that a gazelle who was at least a head shorter than her and who weighed probably less than her warm-up bench weight could make her feel like a spanked kitten.

Grinning suddenly in a decidedly disturbing way Gazelle answered "Mammals make very poor vampire hunters, they are weak, corruptible and slow…the best way to deal with a vampire is to use another vampire of greater strength. We just so happen to have such a creature." Without a backwards glance at the chief's confused expression Gazelle and her butler both swept out of the room.

"Just who do you think you are good sir?" Asked the yak still holding Judy out at arm's length.

"SIR PLEASE RUN AWAY THIS IS A HOSTILE SITUATION!" Yelled said bunny as she resumed her struggling and now trying to warn away the newly arrived 'citizen'.

"Oh I can see just that just fine little bun, as for who I am well…don't fear, I'm only the reaper" The strange fox said as he began casually strolling towards the two of them.

"The reaper, really? Gaia save me this is pathetic…Kill him and make it bloody" The Yak laughed as he gave the order and Judy screamed for him to even louder as a wave of ghoulish mammals rushed the newcomer. The yak laughed as he spun Judy around to watch the carnage by simple expediency of acting like he was giving her a hug and holding her close to his cold dead chest. Judy watched in terror as the ghouls tore into the fox, biting entire mouthfuls off at a time and not even bothering to chew, simply swallowing. Limbs ripped from the sockets with slurping snapping sounds that seemed to echo around the small area. Blood flew and spattered across gravestones and tombs, skin tore open and all the while…the fox never made a sound.

After it was all over and the ghouls backed away from the bits of bone and remaining gobbets of pulped and mangled muscle and organs the yak began to laugh. Judy felt it begin silently in his chest as she her eyes began to mist over at the horrible fate the newcomer had suffered, and at the fact that she could do nothing to prevent it. The yak's laughter grew from a chuckle to a full throated belly laugh.

"HAHAHAHA YOU HONESTLY THOUGHT YOU COULD STAND AGAINST ME?! AN IMMORTAL VAMPIRE WITH AN ARMY OF GHOULS AT HIS COMMAND, YOU PATHETIC FOX!" never seeing the red glow beginning to blossom from the mangled remains. Judy heard it first even with her ears down over her face, laughter…not the harsh braying type of laughter coming from the monster that held her captive but laughter as deep as the ocean and as smooth as aged whiskey over velvet. The laughter grew, much as the yaks had, from a simple giggle and chuckle to a laugh that should have been impossible coming from a throat that had been ripped open to the spine.

The yak and Judy both looked on in amazement as the bloody corpse began to dissolve, and with a great rending sound the bodies of all the ghouls that had attacked were torn asunder from the inside out in great waves of blood and shadow. Gouts of dark crimson and something that could only be described as the absence of all possible light flew into the air only to arc back towards the body of the fox that was now beginning to move again. Bones knit back together, limbs re-grew from ash and shadow, skin flowed like water and fur burst like grass in spring. Within seconds the fox stood tall and whole once more, only this time he was also holding a gun, a gun that fired actual bullets in one hand and steadying it by resting it in the crook of his opposite arm.

'Where did he get that thing? Guns are almost entirely illegal in Zootopia and none that big are sold to mammals of his size…the damn thing is as big as my leg for cheese sake!' Thought Judy in astonishment as she hung limp in the yak's grasp. With a grin full of far too many teeth the fox opened fire. Heads burst in showers of dust and bone to either side of the yak and Judy, spinning with a look of maniacal glee the fox began to rapid fire into the crowd of ghouls seemingly without care of his aim. Dust exploding at every pull of the trigger and a rapidly thinning crowd of shambling corpses soon proved that he was in fact aiming, just aiming so casually as to make it seem second nature.

Soon the only things standing in the small courtyard were the yak, fox and bunny.

"H-h-how is that possible, how could you possibly all of them?" Stammered the yak as he began to feel the fear that only comes when facing an imminent and painful death. Grinning the fox calmly reloaded his gun and with a smirk, bit down on the slide and used his teeth to cock the slide.

"The silver medallion of Hamchester's cathedral was melted down and cast into these 13 mm incendiary rounds, when I shoot something it has the good sense to stay down, now, care to test that immortality claim?"

Panicking at thought of dying for good the yak quickly shifted one hoof up to Judy's throat.

"Now let's not be too hasty, this is the last one alive, wouldn't you like to save her. You could simply say I got away in a bit of confusion" The yak proposed with a desperate note in his voice. Smiling the fox simply lifted the gun and rested it on his elbow and took aim.

"Tell me Blue Bunny, are you a virgin?" queried the fox as he zeroed the iron sights of his gun on the yak before him.

"Huh?" Mistress of articulate responses Judy was not, especially when she had some psychotic rapey ungulate holding her to his chest with a hoof around her throat after slaughtering a building full of mammals and her partners, temporary though they were.

"I asked if you were a virgin, ANSWER!" yelled the fox without ever dropping his aim.

"YOU BASTARD!" Yelled the yak in sudden understanding of what the fox was asking and why.

"YES I…"

*BOOM*

Blood bloomed like a sanguine firework out the back of the homicidal yak, crimson flew from Judy's shoulder. Pain followed seconds later though it felt like an eternity. With a sound like a sheet snapping in a high wind the fox was there, standing over her dropped form with an arm cocked back and hand rigid. With a palpable sense of glee the strange fox drove his hand forward like an arrow loosed from some celestial bow and drove it through the yak's chest and out his back, clutching the shredded remains of the mammal's heart. Giving the yak a smirk the fox crushed the vital organ with contemptuous ease.

"Well I suppose that's taken care of, time to…huh?" the fox looked down as he started to walk away and saw a tiny blood spattered paw clutching the hem of his duster in a vice-like grip.

"Can I help you Carrots?" He asked with a sense of amused curiosity at seeing this rabbit with an arm nearly blown completely off, heart nearly visible through the hole and madly pumping away her vital essence grab his coat like she could stop him.

"Y-y-your *HUrk* under a-a-aressSST *HIISS*" Judy tried to put as much authority as she could into it but could tell she failed when not only did she end up hissing in pain at the end but the fox began to chuckle. Seeing the edges of her vision beginning to dim she nearly missed when he knelt down and pulled her closer to himself.

"You are a rather interesting rabbit aren't you?" The fox said softly as he gazed down at the bleeding bunny in his arms. "I had to shoot him in chest and unfortunately you were in the way, I'm sorry but there isn't any time to get you to a hospital and even if there was you wouldn't make it." Using her one good arm Judy slowly and painfully pulled at the stiff protective collar to her uniform and tilted her head to the side slightly all while looking the fox in the eyes as best she could.

"Hmm, very well little one…just remember, the choice was always yours." And with that Judy passed out from blood loss, but not before feeling pinpricks of ice and pressure at her throat.