Abe had barely closed the car door behind Katya when a very familiar woman came up from behind them. He tried not to let the surprise show...and failed miserably. "Jo!" he exclaimed, chuckling more out of nerves than good humor, "what a pleasant surprise!"

"Abe," Jo greeted him, "I'm glad I caught you. Do you have any idea where Henry is?"

"Henry?" asked Katya.

"My roommate," Abe explained. "This is Jo Martinez, his partner."

Katya frowned, not wanting to make assumptions. "Partner? I thought your roommate was a medical examiner."

Jo tried to clarify things by introducing herself. "I'm Detective Jo Martinez, NYPD. Doctor Morgan and I often work cases together." She turned her attention fully back to Abe. "We're *supposed* to be working a case together right now," Jo explained to Katya while never taking her eyes off of Abe, "but Henry seems to have run off with the evidence."

"Well, I don't know what to tell you, Jo," Abe countered, trying to sound casual but failing to sound anything but terrified, "but I don't know where he is."

"You don't?" asked Jo. Abe shook his head...and Jo wasn't buying it for a second. "You're lying, Abe. Where is he?"

Katya put her hand on Jo's arm, forcing the younger woman's attention in her direction. "Detective Martinez?"

"What?" Jo spat out, none too happy to have her showdown with Abe Interrupted.

"Abraham does not know where Henry is," Katya instructed Jo calmly.

Jo's reply was hypnotic, devoid of all emotion. "Abraham does not know where Henry is," she repeated.

"This trip was a waste of time," Katya continued.

"This trip was a waste of time," repeated Jo.

"You will simply need to look for him somewhere else," Katya concluded, breaking the connection between them.

Jo shook her head, blinking away the disorientation as her mind returned to the present. "Uh...sorry about that, Abe," she apologized. "Henry's probably just on a dinner break somewhere. I just...I'll go look for him at that pub by the morgue..."

Abe had to forcibly cover his mouth to keep from laughing lest he break the 'spell'. Once Jo was well out of earshot, however, he let his voice speak up again. "Ekaterina?"

"Please, call me Katya," Katya replied, trying not to be *too* pleased with herself.

"Okay, Katya. I've said and thought a lot of awful things about your kind in the past..."

"Yes?"

Abe opened the door to enter the basement. "I take 'em all back. Let's go."

"Agreed," said Katya. "I fear our window of opportunity is growing smaller by the second."

#

Michel had joined Henry and Lucas in the basement lab, helping with some of the parts of the autopsies that required more force. He sensed Katya's entrance into the building before he ever laid eyes on her. "Ma chatte," he called out to his friend, "You should see this. I have been helping with the...comment l'appelle, Henri?"

"Autopsies," Henry replied.

"Yes!" Michel exclaimed. "I have never seen the human body from this perspective, ma chatte. Fascinating, simply fascinating..." Katya chuckled, enjoying her old friend's exuberance.

That laughter got Lucas' attention almost immediately. He looked up from the body that Michel had been holding open for him. "Are you...are you another vampire, like Michel?"

"I am," Katya replied in greeting. "Ekaterina Fallon, at your service."

Lucas shook his head, chuckling in amazement. "Wow..."

"Have you found anything, gentle..." When Michel glared at Henry he changed his question mid-stream with a sigh. "Forgive me. Gentle-beings?" Michel gave a nod of approval.

"Beings?" asked Lucas.

"Most vampires don't like being called men or women, since we're technically not human," Katya explained. "Beings is a good generic term to use when you are unsure."

Lucas nodded, mouthing a silent "oh" before turning to his boss. "This is way more than what you said in the prelim, doc."

"Really?" asked Henry. "How so?"

Michel and Lucas shared an unspoken communicative glance before Michel decided he was the one who should give the explanation. "My friend, when a vampire feeds, they take the blood and *only* the blood. Whatever killed these children took...everything. If this being is a vampire it has some sort of mutation I have never seen before."

"I have," Katya declared grimly.

Michel turned to his old friend. "You have seen this type of kill before, ma chatte?"

Katya nodded. "The beast we are hunting is a Jiangshi."

Lucas' eyes widened when he realize that *he* recognized the name. "A Jiangshi? We're hunting a real, live, Jiangshi?"

Henry frowned. "You have heard of this Jiangshi before, Lucas?"

"Are you kidding?" Lucas exclaimed. "Midnight Vampire, Encounters of the Spooky Kind One *and* Two, Mister Vampire...yes, I am something of a Jiangshi cinéaste..."

Henry rolled his eyes, embarrassed by the arrogant display of ignorance by his assistant. "Please," he insisted, cutting Lucas off, "Katya, please, continue. What is this Jiangshi?"

"Jiangshi are creatures that combine the most lethal characteristics of the vampyr and what your culture calls zombies. But instead of feeding on simply brains, a Jiangshi will devour every single thing about a person that gives them life."

A spark of inspiration fired into Henry's mind; he raced across the room until he was standing just behind the last body he was examining. One lift of the corpse's head confirmed all of his darkest suspicions. "My God..." he gasped.

"What is it, doc?" asked Lucas.

"Lift up Miss Benson's head over there, will you? Tell me what you feel." Henry's voice trailed off as he got lost in his own musings. "Or rather, what you don't feel..."

Lucas obeyed his mentor's instructions. He lifted up the head of the corpse he was working on...and nearly dropped it, stunned as his discovery seemed to match Henry's. "Her brain...her brain's just *gone*! How the hell could a zombie have eaten her brain when there's no entry wounds in the head?!"

Henry kept an eye on Katya for confirmation as he gave voice to the theories running through his mind. "I suspect, Lucas, that the brains are not simply gone. They're dehydrated to the point of near non-existence?" When Katya nodded, Henry then continued, "the Jiangshi is somehow taking the brain fats and grey matter, isn't it?"

Katya nodded. "A Jiangshi feeds first on the chi of its victims to drive them in to a more compliant and comatose state. Once it has absorbed that energy, the victim is essentially what you would call brain-dead. From there, feasting on the rest of the body is a simple proposition."

"How long would that take?" asked Michel.

"It could take a day. It could take a week..." Katya switched over to telepath communication with her old friend when she got wind of what the older being was thinking. My friend, are you *sure* about this?

It fits the evidence, does it not, ma chatte, Michel countered. You can see as much for yourself...

A discretely placed, throat-clearing cough caught their attention. "Not everyone can read minds, you two," Henry warned Michel and Katya.

Lucas' eyes were threatening to fall out of his head. "You guys can read minds?"

"Only the minds of...certain types of beings," Katya explained patiently. "But it is often an efficient way for two vampires to communicate."

Lucas swallowed nervously. "Can you read *my* mind?" Katya shook her head.

Determined to bring everyone's focus back to the case, Henry spoke up quickly. "Do you have something to share with the rest of us?"

Michel swallowed hard. "Mon ami, I believe our true enemy may be a vampire Mage."

Lucas found himself on suddenly unsteady legs. "Magic is real, *too*?"

"Easy, Lucas," Henry guided his assistant into a chair to help with the obviously oncoming panic attack. "Deep breaths." He then turned his attention back to the vampires. "Why do you think this might be a vampire Mage, Michel? I thought your kind did not possess such capabilities."

"I did as well, before now," Michel agreed.

"It is a combination I have not seen in centuries," agreed Katya. "But a Jiangshi has no mind of its own. It is a being that is usually created by a Mage of great power and a truly dark nature. Plus, the primary food of a Jiangshi is the chi of its victims, not the blood. A vampire Mage could, theoretically, use a Jiangshi to lure its victims into compliance, take the blood, then leave the rest for the pleasure of the Jiangshi."

"Like giving dog treats to a puppy for good behavior," muttered Abe.

Katya nodded. "Yes, that's it, exactly."

"How would we find this vampire Mage?" asked Henry.

Katya paused for a moment, thinking over the matter carefully. "A Jiangshi will always return to its master at dawn, since daylight is as toxic to its kind as it is to mine. I suppose the most prudent course of action would be to find the Jiangshi's hunting ground and follow it home."

"So you guys are just going to search all of New York City?" asked Abe. "That sounds like it would take a hell of a long time, even for a vampire..."

Lucas spoke up, cutting off Abe's argument before it had a chance to pick up steam. "Covenant House."

"Covenant House?" asked Katya.

"Most of these victims are runaways," Lucas explained, "and Covenant House is a group safe house for those kinds of kids. If that's what the Mage is sending the Jiangshi after, then Covenant House and Port Authority are the two most target-rich environments in the city. And they're right next to each other."

"Then that is where we will go," declared Henry.

"I am sorry, old friend," said Michel, "but I cannot join you in such an endeavor."

Henry paused in putting on his coat before he caught up to Michel's logic. "A pre-dawn surveillance mission would mean that you would have to come back in the full light of day. Forgive me, old friend. I wasn't thinking."

"I'd like to stay here, too, if that's all right with everyone," Lucas spoke up in a voice that still seemed a bit shaky. "I have a million questions..."

Michel smiled...an unnerving, fang-revealing grin. "I will be happy to answer any questions you have, my boy."

Henry chuckled while Lucas swallowed nervously. "It's quite all right, Lucas. The first thing you should learn is that most vampires do not survive on human blood. They have very strict rules about it."

"Rules that this ublyudok has broken time and time again," Katya agreed, her face set in a grim mask of determination. "Which is why we must do what we can to stop him. And quickly."

Abe jangled the keys to his car. "Then I guess it's time for us to get a move on, Henry. We're burning moonlight."

Henry nodded, following his son out of the basement...only to discover, to his surprise, that Katya was also following him. "You're coming with us?" asked Henry.

Katya nodded. "I do not have the same problems with daylight that most of my kind have."

"Now that is a story I would be interested in hearing," Henry suggested.

Katya gestured toward the top of the stairs. "I shall tell you on the way."

#

"Can we come by and talk to you about it tonight? We can? Thanks so much, Jess. I really owe you for this one." Jo hung up the phone and turned to her partner, clearly excited by what she had heard in her phone conversation. "That was Jessica, one of my CI's. She just got a job running the night desk at Covenant House."

"And?" asked Hanson.

"And every one of our vics has passed through the place within the last three months."

That was all Hanson needed to hear. "Let's go."

#

"Thanks, guys. We'll go check it out tonight. Hey, we'll be seeing you Saturday night for dinner, right? It'll be nice to see you, too. Okay, bye." Ryan hung up the phone and turned to his team. "That was the kids at Covenant House again."

Hearing who was on the phone caught Castle's attention immediately. "Did another kid go missing?"

Ryan shook his head. "No, everyone's still accounted for that they know of. But apparently there's an, and I quote, 'ancient old car' with three people in it that's just parked itself outside of the shelter. According to Nick, the three people are an old guy behind the wheel, a guy who seems to match Grumpy's description of Henry Morgan..."

"And?" asked Esposito.

"And I think Katya might be with them."

"Katya?" asked Beckett. "What's Katya doing working on this? Without us?"

Castle got up from his desk. "Anyone else care to go find out?"