The young man made his way to the men sitting at the table.

"Good evening, gentlemen," he said.

"We're busy," one said.

After flashing the money he pulled out of his pocket and showed to them, he said, "I'd like to ask you a few questions."

One of the men smiled and said, "Well, why didn't you say so. We love to meet new people."

The man speaking stood and gestured, "Step into our office."

A man opened the creaky iron gate for them and they exited the club. Vicki found her way to the bar and the bartender, dressed in a chain shirt to which Vicki just shook her head, said, "Hey, can I talk to you a minute?"

The bartender ignored her and continued to work. Impatiently, she yelled, " 'scuse me?"

He turned and she nodded as if to say 'about damn time."

Out back, the young man stood in the alley with the two thugs. They were smug and full of themselves and thought they had an easy target. Little did they know this young man was extraordinary and they would find themselves in a jam before the night was over.

Holding up the money, one thug said, "This is better. So, what do you wanna know?"

"They say the waiter that was killed the other night had a problem with you guys," he stated rather than asked.

The short haired thug said, "Well that's a more expensive question."

The young man brought out more money and the thug shrugged, "Said we were bother some girls, got us kicked out."

Nodding, the young man said, "That would make some people angry at them."

"Angry? Try pissed," the thug smirked.

"But you didn't kill him. You're unpleasant, but you're not involved in the kind of evil that killed him."

The thug suddenly didn't like the idea of being considered less then tough and he laughed, "How the hell do you know what we?"

The young man turned to leave and stated, "We're done here."

The other thug, who'd remained silent throughout the short conversation put his hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"You know we done a lot of talkin' for you pretty boy," the main thug said, "I think we deserved a bonus."

He smiled and said, "I'll give you something you don't deserve…a warning."

The thugs laughed and began to attack him but quickly got nowhere. Vicki on the other hand was trying to get somewhere but having little luck.

"Ian worked a normal shift, picked up his check and headed home," the bartender told her.

Frustrated, Vicki pressed him, "Is that the best you can give me?"

The bartender thought a moment, then added, "There were some guys he had a problem with."

Just then, the same waiter the young man talked to came to the bar and the bartender asked if the guys were there tonight.

"They went outside with that guy," he told them.

"What guy?" Vicki asked.

"Pale, black suit," he said.

Vicki looked behind her, "That sure narrows it down."

He added, "Pretty boy, long hair."

"Where's outside?" she asked. They pointed and she headed that way.

When she got to the gated area, the man touched her hair and said, "You don't want to go out there beautiful."

"Yeah, actually, I'm pretty sure I do," she told him.

He touched her hair and shoulder again and told her, "You and me should dance instead."

Vicki then jerked his arm from her, punched him in the jaw and landed a hard one to the gut sending the guy to the ground.

Stepping over him, she said, "You picked the wrong dance partner."

When she exited the building, she extended her asp and asked the thug with the long hair who was now staggering to stand, "Who did this to you" as she looked up and down the alley.

He shook his head and said, "I..I don't know."

Again, Vicki felt something and for a reason she couldn't explain, she looked up but saw nothing. She thought something should be there, she felt it should but there was nothing.

The young man watched over the edge of the building and frowned. Looking to the east, he saw it was time to get home before it would be too late for him. As he entered his condo, Greg to doorman noticed his hand was badly burned.

"You okay Mr. Fitzroy?" he asked and jumped up from his post.

Putting his hand behind his back, he said, "I'm fine. Cooking accident at a friend's." Quickly, he headed toward the elevator.

"You want me to call someone, that looks bad," he offered.

"No, thank you," he said firmly. Greg looked at the front page of the paper he was reading. The latest victim of another 'vampire' attack was a business woman in a parking garage.

"Hm," he said to himself.

The next morning, Vicki sent Coreen home to change for school and assured her if she needed anything, she was only a phone call away. She decided to interview a food vendor that might have pertinent information.

"Look, if it was up to me, I wouldn't say nothin' to nobody but she said it might be important to finding this guy," he declared.

"Anything might help," she smiled.

"I'm not sure I saw anything but I was working the block next to the park," he started, "then I see something drop out of the sky and this is where it starts to get messed up."

Just then, Vicki's phone rang. Looking down, she saw it was Mike and rejected it for the third time in less than an hour.

"Sorry," Vicki apologized as she turned her phone to silent, "go on."

"It started out as birds or bats and as it started to get closer to the ground, it kinda came together and took shape as it dropped over the treetops."

"What kind of shape?"

"I don't know, like, a guy. It was flappy, like it had a long coat or somethin'."

"So what happened next?" Vicki asked. She felt her phone vibrate yet again but didn't look this time, she knew it was Mike without looking.

"Ya see, this is why I didn't wanna say nothin'" the man was exasperated, "I heard screams, then the cops showed up."

Vicki filed the information away and said, "Thanks, you've been a great help."

The man called to her, "Hey, if this thing is a vampire, you'll need holy water. That's what the wife says."

Vicki waved over her shoulder and shook her head, "The wife says holy water and I say holy shit…"