As I walked into the one bedroom apartment, I was disgusted at the sight I saw. A young girl who looked only nine or ten lay naked on the floor. She had stab wounds to her neck, arms and thighs just like the other victims. Her mouth was split almost to each ear, and her fingers had been removed. Before anyone said anything to me I headed towards the bathroom, when I opened the door I saw the signature that confirmed this was the work of the Blood Countess. The bath tub was filled with blood, foot prints were leading out of it until the countess had gotten herself dressed again. I put on my latex gloves and dipped my fingers in the tub, the blood was still warm; we'd missed her again.

"That's too much blood for one body." Melissa Fletcher, the chief of CSU told me.

I nodded, "The second victim is always dumped somewhere else."

"We haven't got an ID, just like the others she's a Jane Doe for now. She's much younger than the others." Melissa paused and looked at me, "That's seven girls now, and eight if there's a body dump. Olivia, we will find her, won't we?"

I looked at Melissa, a mother of two young girls herself; "We have to." I said softly, I wasn't one hundred percent sure myself yet, the Countess seemed to be two steps ahead of us all the time, I know I had doubts, so did everyone at this point. The city was running scared and the Mayor had put out a press conference telling parents to keep their daughters safe, only right now, it didn't seem to be working. "You're the best Melissa, if anyone can help nail this perp, it's you!" I gave a small smile and walked out of the bathroom.

"This doesn't look good." Ava Mayfair, my partner of nine months told me.

"Murder never looks good." I replied, "What did Callie have to say?" I asked.

Ava had been talking to Callie Rosa, another member of the CSU team; "Not a lot, the same as the other scenes, everything is in it's place apart from the body, no prints, no fibres, no nothing."

I sighed softly, I was now running on empty. I hung around the scene until Melinda Warner arrived, she arrived, took one look at the body and knew instantly who was responsible. "The Countess?" she half asked.

"That's my guess." I said softly.

"In all my years of being an M.E, I've never been more desperate for a case to close. I don't know how many more young girls I can take on my table." Melinda looked at the young girl's body and sighed softly. "She's been tortured, and there does seem to be fluids around her crotch. I'll let you know as soon as I have anything."

"Thanks." I said moving the hair from my face.

"Looks like you could go home and sleep." she smiled.

I smiled back, "Sleep... What's that?"

"I won't know anything until the morning, I'm still working on Alfie Roman's body. I'll do the autopsy in the morning."

"Call me as soon as you've done it." I looked at Ava and gave her a small wave, she caught up to me .

"I am so ready for this case to be over with." she looked as tired as I felt.

"You're not alone." we walked down to my car parked outside the apartment building, "You need a lift?" I asked.

"No I'm good. I don't live too far from here, I'll walk it." Ava smiled and before I had the chance to insist on giving her a ride home, she was walking in the opposite direction.


I turned up at the crime scene feeling more tired than usual. I had just finished a fifteen hour shift, then slept for three hours before Cragen called me. I was starving and in desperate need of a coffee, I gave my details to the uniformed officer and made my way down the dusky alley. I was alone, my new partner Ava Mayfair was on her way, I guessed she'd been as tired as me because it took her three phone calls to pick up the phone. I looked at the body, the young girl was about seventeen, eighteen at the most with blonde hair and green eyes. She'd been stabbed, she had all the same markings as the young girl only hours ago, but much more severe.

"Sorry I'm late Olivia," Ava said softly, "Oh God, she's so young."

I looked at Ava, "I know." I agreed. I looked at Warner who slumped down the alley, she looked as tired as I felt.

"Hi Olivia." she greeted me.

"Hi Melinda." I said back, I watched as she looked at the body and searched it for ID.

"No ID, first look I can tell you this isn't your primary crime scene. She was moved here, she's in rigger, she's been dead about five hours." Melinda looked at me and sighed softly. "Such a waste of life, she looks like she's been drained of blood."

"Do you think this could be ritualistic?" I asked, I had to ask even though I knew it was.

"It's possible, there are so many rituals out there and a lot of them involve blood and human sacrifice." she informed me, I looked at her and nodded as I made a mental note of what she had said.

"Thanks, call me when you've done the autopsy." I smiled a very tired smile and headed over to the CSU chief, Melissa Fletcher.

"Olivia, I'm sorry, I don't have a lot yet." Melissa smiled at me, it was six A.M and she looked bright eyed and cheerful.

"What do you have?" I asked.

"Like Melinda said, this is a secondary crime scene. Our guys are searching around the alley and surrounding streets for anything significant, but right now we don't have an ID. The clothes she's in now are not hers by the looks of it. You can understand a shirt being too big, but the pants are three sizes bigger than she is, if she walked, they'd fall down."

I made a mental note of what Melissa was saying and storing it for my pre-report back at the precinct. "That's all you have?" I asked feeling disappointed.

"Sorry Liv, that's everything. Alleys are like hotel rooms, even at their cleanest, they're still filthy."

I nodded at Melissa, she was good at her job and always pulled through for me so I knew she would do her best, because in all honesty, she was the best. "Call me." I said, she nodded back.

"I will do. Liv, take this." she handed me her coffee, "You look like you need it more than me."

"Thanks." I laughed, I took the coffee very thankful for it. I looked at Ava who seemed like she was falling asleep. I handed her the paper cup; "Drink up." I smiled walking towards the car. Ava Mayfair is nothing like Elliot, she's calm, collected and very patient. I looked at Ava how I imagined I was at twenty five, passionate about the job, still able to work two shifts one right other.

"Are my eyes red?" she asked me.

"No, they're blue." I smiled as I got in the car.

"I'm so tired, seriously I feel like if I blink one more time I will end up falling asleep." Ava finished the coffee I'd given her.

"I know the feeling, I've been doing this for fourteen years today! I suggest a squad room coffee, we won't know anything until we get an ID. I'll call Melinda when we get back and see if she's got any fingerprints we can use to identify the victim."

"Sounds good to me, I might grab a power nap in the crib. Thank God Munch isn't in, last time I tried to sleep in the crib he snuck in and started making animal noises."

I laughed, "You're still a newbie. We have to put you through your paces."

"I've been here for nearly a year." Ava said as she cracked a smile.

"Yeah, but you're still the newest member of SVU, that still makes you the newbie." I raised my eyebrows at her as she laughed, I pulled away from the crime scene, I was the designated driver because Ava didn't have her license. The drive back to the one – six was quiet because Ava fell asleep, I looked over at her and smiled, a part of me felt maternal towards her. I didn't know her story, but I could tell by her eyes she held secrets she'd never told anyone. When we got back I woke Ava up, I got out of the Crown Vic and waited for the very sleepy Ava.

"Can I go back to sleep yet?" she asked resting her head on my shoulder as we walked.

"We're almost there." I said, "Take a deep breath, you can smell the coffee!" I walked Ava up the stairs, we entered the one – six, Ava went straight to the crib and I made my way to my desk. Cragen was making coffee, he brought some over to me and pulled up a chair.

"How's she doing?" he asked.

"She's doing good. She's got the knowledge and intelligence to do the job, but no one told her when she signed up that sleep deprivation came with the job."

Cragen smiled at me, it was rare to see him smile, specially lately, we'd lost Elliot and gained three new detectives. "How was the scene?"

"Other than a body, there was nothing there." I sighed softly, "The vic was young, Warner thinks she's been drained of all her blood, could be ritualistic, other than that, we have nothing."

"You need help?"

I looked at Cragen, he was being unusually helpful. "Sir, as thankful as I am, is everything okay?"

I saw his face screw up slightly, "Susan is sick, she was diagnosed with cancer a few days ago, she's not doing very well." I watched as sadness filled his body, he hung his head lower. Cragen had been married to Susan for just over year now. She was the light of his life after Marge, honestly, I'd never seen a couple so in love. They really are perfect together, my heart went out to Cragen.

"Is it terminal?" I asked softly. He nodded yes, I put my hand on his arm for comfort. "I'm so sorry." I offered.

"There's nothing anyone can do, I should be spending time with her, but I can't face being in the same room with her. The one person I love and I'm watching her die slowly, and painfully. It's the hardest thing I've had to do, I'm just waiting." he paused, "I'll get on a computer and work with you on this one. Tell me everything you know."

I logged on to my computer and opened the internet, "Her blood has been drained, she's been stabbed several times, all in main arteries. Her body was moved and dumped in the alley, we were called because she wasn't wearing underwear, but until Warner confirms rape, we don't know what's going on. That's pretty much all we have."

"I'll have a look in the database and see if anything comes back as a possible match. If all we have is blood draining, we're going to be here a while."

I agreed and started looking up different blood depletion rituals, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was. There were pages and pages of varying rituals, some Satanic, others were vampire cults, but the end of three pages on Google, my mind was well and truly overloaded. I picked up the phone and called Warner. "Hi Melinda." I started but was interrupted.

"Olivia, I was just about to call you, can you come down?"

"I'll be right there." I said. I looked at Cragen, "Warner wants us to go down, you want to come?"

"Yeah. I have a few old cases that have caught my attention, but nothing that stands out. Most of these cases have been solved and the perp is in jail."

I went and woke up Ava, then we went to see Warner. Cragen looked at the body, he often looked at our victims like he knew each and every one of them. "Have you got her prints?" Cragen asked.

"I'm running them now, but nothing has come up yet. Cause of death was exsanguination, she was stabbed multiple times all in her main arteries. I hate to say this, but the wounds themselves seem to be done almost surgically, like the perp knew where which arteries would cause the most blood loss."

"So we're looking at a professional." Ava said softly.

"We're looking for someone that's had medical training at least. She's lost almost all of her blood, she's been drained from head to toe. She's been stabbed in the axillary, aortic arch, the deep femoral and the superior mesenteric. They're the wounds that caused her to lose most of her blood, then your guy attacked her randomly stabbing her torso. From what I can tell, she wasn't raped but she has been mutilated. She was a virgin, it's a miracle her hymen wasn't broken during the torture."

"Any luck I.D'ing the young one?" I asked looking over at the slab seeing a very small, short white bump on it.

"No luck yet, we're waiting for missing children's reports to come in, all we can do is hope for the best." Warner told me.

I looked at the young girl feeling my heart ache for her. She had barely lived her life and it was taken away from her. The computer behind me started beeping in the background, I turned around, "Looks like we've got a hit." I walked over to the computer and looked at it. "Julie Meddler, sixteen years old. She was in a car with her dad when it crashed. Her dad was drunk and died at the scene, she tried to take the blame for the accident, she said she wanted to make sure his name was clear in death." I took a minute to respect the young girl, then turned back around. "Her mother still lives in their family home, Ava lets go and break the news."