Le-Gasp! An early chapter. So...people mentioned that L would be upset over Near's death, yeah, I'm biased and therefore he doesn't really react to it all that much. Sorry for the lack of empathy.

I'd like to thank Imperitrici Vicssitudinis, bookgirl98 and Yin Niy for the reviews and all who have faved/followed.

Chapter 24: L POV

A few months later…

L wearily read over another pile of police reports, the same sentences jumping to the forefront of his mind. Strung up in a parody of Christ impaled on their own stakes. Blood drained. Hunters had been turning up for months now, ever since the discovery of Teru Mikami and Near's bodies within one of the main parks located near the police station. Hunters went out on hunts, only to vanish and appear disgraced in public areas, the killer obviously wanting the attention and they got it in spades. The media having caught wind of the deaths had taken to calling the killer Kira, and many had begun to worship the killer online due to the simple fact that humans were sheep. It was aggravating L like nothing else. That isn't to say that only hunters were being targeted. Many vampires had begun turning up at the same time, their deaths were harder to find and aside from the blood loss nobody could determine the cause of deaths.

It had also been six months since anyone heard or saw Light Yagami. His family went into an immediate frenzy, calling on hunters from cites all over the world for news on their missing son. The police filed him as a missing person, nobody was willing to put forth the idea of Light being taken by vampires. Then Near's body had been discovered by an early morning jogger. Throat torn out and blood drained, obviously the work of a fledgling vampire, but the cause of death threw everyone. Near was a prince, and for him to have been truly killed he would have had to of been staked with a silver stake and set on fire. There wasn't even a trace of holy water in his system. Mikami was found the following day in a similar state. At that point everyone was expecting Light's body to be discovered, that never happened, instead the body of a young blonde girl Misa Amane had been found blood drained. Her death was the prelude to the wave of deaths that kept the police force on their toes. For every night there was another body to be discovered. Commotion within the station drew L's attention as raised hurried voices and phone calls alerted those upon the floor to another Kira attack. Mogi, Aizawa, Matsuda and Soichiro came together, each grabbing their coats and weapons.

"Are you coming Ryuuzaki?" Matsuda asked as he hurried after his colleague's.

Turning away from the hurried movements of the police, L focused on the small pile of files left on his desk. "Why bother, the kills are all the same. Vampires and hunters left one at a time in the same position. Nothing to tell us how the vampires died and that the hunters died from blood loss. There's never a trace left at the crime scene and no witnesses." It was all so enraging to have someone taunt him like this, and more importantly, L was still searching for a certain young Hunter who appeared to have vanished off the face of the earth.

"You didn't hear?" Matsuda looked shocked for a moment before ploughing on. "There's three victims this time and a message."

This caught L's attention instantly, eyes focussing in on Matsuda. "A deviation in the kills?" That was unexpected, up until that point there was only ever one body a night. L got to his feet and walked towards the still gathering officer's, Matsuda trailing behind him as they walked out to the police cars; lights flashing red and blue stains across the surroundings. L chose the car driven by Soichiro, Matsuda sitting in the back as Mogi and Aizawa followed behind them in a second car. "I take it that the coroner is already on scene?" L asked as he watched cars pull aside to allow them right-of-way.

"We have reason to believe that the perpetrators are still in the area, we've sent out a member of the K9 unit and have police searching the area. Not that any of that will help against a vampire, but we need to keep the public ignorant to such things and it seemed to be the best course of action." Soichiro came to a stop, the police car blending in with the other emergency vehicles ringed around a library. Hurrying from the car they made their way towards the police tape barrier that kept the press from crossing onto the scene and contaminating evidence.

An officer intercepted the small group before they made much progress, a weary but determined look on his face as he approached Soichiro. "Sir, I would like to warn you before you go any further. The victims, they all appear to share the same characteristics of you and your family. We checked though, they aren't related to you, but the similarities are quite confronting." The man allowed them to pass without another word, Soichiro's face had darkened during the talk and he now walked briskly towards the scene.

The first thing L was aware of was the coppery scent of fresh blood, the next were the three bodies hung up mirroring their predecessor's poses. Every one of the three bodies resembling Soichiro, Sachiko and Sayu right down to their clothing styles. Written in large bloody letters that stood out crimson against the marble white of the library were the words 'Back off'.

"I think it's obvious that Kira knows enough about your family to consider you a threat." Aizawa stated, circling the bodies whilst everyone eyed the blood warning. "It's not very subtle either, it's obvious that whoever it is wants you dead if you don't leave them be."

L tuned the chatter out, thoughts swirling as he looked upon the three bodies, a feeling of nausea swirling within his stomach. There were only a handful of people who were aware of Light's disappearance, the police, L and the boys and Light's family. Of those who knew about the situation, even less of them knew enough about the family to be able to find similar looking substitutes. That left only two options, Beyond who had spent months watching the family; which was the preferable choice, or Light himself. There was never a body perhaps that was because there was no body to find. Nobody had been willing to take into account that Light may have been turned into a vampire, either completely believing that he had run away or the darker notion of being dead. Though it would have been just like Beyond to turn a Hunter into a vampire prince. 'Though if that's what's been done, just how dangerous is Light compared to an average prince?' The dozens of drained vampires and hunters were more than enough evidence as to his strength, and that didn't take into account the bodies they didn't find. The other issue was the fact that Light had been consumed by blood lust, that was obvious the moment a third body turned up on the third day, vampires who had their wits about them didn't need to feed every night, only those who turned rabid did. Beyond must not be controlling Light as a sire should, in fact, he was probably encouraging the killing spree. The sick feeling caused L to bring his thumb to his lip in an attempt to distract. The questions now were, could Light be saved? And should L tell the Yagami about the fate of their only son?

…