This isn't the New York of Broadway and flashing lights. No Times Square or Rockettes dancing in a row. This street is dirty, grungy and all too connected to the subway that brings the trash in and takes it back out again.

It's also the exact place that Hannibal King had decided to get a cup of coffee. He seems so much older these days. The long scars on his neck and cheek are pale slashes that would be hidden by his beard except that the hair around them is also scarred with trails of white.

"Coffee?" The waitress asks and he nods as he slides into a seat.

"Strongest you've got."

"Honey, any stronger and we could cauterize ulcers."

"That should do it."

He accepts the coffee cup and drinks it like it'll be his last.

"Got another cup of that?"

"Sure." Hannibal gestures to the waitress and turns perfunctorily towards Blade. He's not the only one who looks older. Two years have marked them like twenty. "I didn't expect you back so soon."

"A lot less vamps than I thought."

The waitress handed over the second cup with more than a little trepidation until Hannibal slid her a hefty tip. Blade had that impression on people these days. His tattoos were even more extensive and starting to take on a very dark look with the black threaded with crimson lines. Although his weapons were invisible under his coat, he still moved with the carriage of a hunter.

Hannibal took another drag and agreed silently with the waitress. The coffee was caustic enough to warrant a warning label.

"It's getting that way in a lot of places. Less vamps. Less problems. I've never seen anything like it."

Blade makes a sound halfway between a growl and a sigh as he tastes his own cup. "Better than your brew."

"Another thing I never managed to master." There is a slight hint of the old joviality but most of it is gone, subdued beneath the events of the last two years. "What's the news on them?"

"There is none."

"No leads?"

"None."

Both men consider this for a moment.

"So all the vamps in the world don't know a thing? No leads. No information. They bring back the world's oldest vampire and he just vanishes?"

Blade shrugs slightly. "He's got to be somewhere."

Hannibal gives a sharp laugh. "Maybe we're wrong. It's been two years, Blade. Maybe she's dead. Maybe they both are."

"No." Blade's eyes never waver from their fixed point on the wall across from him. No twitch of emotion or response, he's moved beyond all of that. "I'd know."

Hannibal slides the empty coffee cup away from him. His voice deepens slightly as he speaks. "I thought I'd know when Abby died. But I didn't. Didn't even imagine that was why Calder had come to the hospital. Shit, I should have known. But I didn't." He pauses suddenly, caught in the memory. "Blade, could you be wrong? It's been a long time."

"She's alive."

"Then we'll find them. And figure out what they've done with all the vampires. At this point we'll have ashed them all by spring."

Blade seems deep in thought. He doesn't move even though Hannibal has gotten up and is ready to leave.

"What are you thinking?" Hannibal finally asks.

"Two years and no uber-vampires. Nothing but the suckheads we've always seen. And now, they're disappearing. Where are they going? What is Drake doing with them?"

Hannibal doesn't know either. He shrugs helplessly. "Come with me. I've got something to show you."

Blade nods and stands. His half drunk coffee is left behind, the brew so dark that it has left stains all along the rim. It reflects the light in concentric ripples as the two men step back out into the New York night.

This is a new type of Nightstalkers headquarters. It looks like it has actually been used for legitimate purposes within the last ten years, a step up from they've had recently. Johnny and Calder look up from a piece of welding as Hannibal and Blade enter. Both men raise a hand in welcome but Blade is immediately focused on what Hannibal has found.

A Dodge Charger.

Blade almost smiles.

"Where'd you find it?"

"Its former driver felt a sudden urge to go out in the sunlight." Hannibal shrugs. "It'll need a bit of work." He tosses the keys to Blade with a grin. "You can argue with Johnny about it."

"Nice."

"Well, I'll let the two of you get acquainted." Hannibal leaves Blade to his vehicular contemplation with a smile. It's not often that either of them find something that makes them happy. Not often at all.

Hannibal is running. The vamp in front of him skids around a corner and he hits the same patch of oil and almost goes down. He puts on a sudden burst of energy and tries to catch hold of the vamp's jacket. This time its enough and his fingers clutch the material and he drags them both to a halt.

One punch to the vamp to stun him and Hannibal shoves a sizable stake through one thigh. The vamp screams and tries to get away as he starts smoking.

Between deep breaths Hannibal pushes it further in. "Yeah, how's that? Making me run at my age."

"Fucker!" The vamp screams. "Oh, fuck, that burns!"

"So answer my questions and," he needs another deep breath. "I'll take it out."

"Fuck you!"

"I haven't started yet." He smacks the stake and the vamp screams. "Okay I'm ready. What do you know about Drake? Where is he?"

"Drake?" The vamp squealed. "Him? Nothing."

"Cut me some slack. I know you know where he is or have heard about it. He's well guarded. What does it matter if you point me in the right direction?"

"I can't." Another scream as the stake goes deeper. "I can't!"

"That's one of those words that's not really in my vocabulary." Hannibal reaches around and grabs another stake. He doesn't really want to have to use both of them, even though the silver content is low, more than one has a tendency to ash vamps.

"I don't know. Someplace warm!"

"Someplace warm. Could you be a little more specific?"

"I don't know anything more specific!"

Hannibal shrugs, he's used to getting nothing out of these little chats. With his free hand he pulls his electronic pistol and fires a UV dart into the vampire. The vamp screams as the light bursts free inside of his chest and ashes him from the inside out.

Hannibal brushes off the knees of his jeans as he stands. He glances back. Blade is fighting with the last of the vamps, a wannabe sword fighter who lasts as long as it takes Hannibal to resheathe the stakes. Not very long at all. Blade sweeps through the vampire's abdomen with one straight move. Ash and flames spark briefly from the vampire as it dies.

"Anything?" Blade asks.

"Nothing worth knowing. Someplace warm was all he knew."

"Well at least he wasn't vague."

Hannibal sneaks a look at Blade trying to see if he was making a joke. Even looking he can't quite tell.

Blade sneers. "I didn't even break a sweat."

"Well next time you can chase the asshole down the alley."

"That's what you're here for." Blade has fun goading Hannibal. The two men most unlikely to ever work together, and here they are thrown together by the absence of the women they loved. Stranger matches have been made, but not very many on the amount of blood that was spilled between them. Although Abby is dead and Meg long since kidnapped, the ghosts of the women still hover next to them and they both can sense it and it binds them together.

"It's a lead." Hannibal offers.

"Tell the others to start looking."

Hannibal nods and wipes his forehead. The sweat isn't really as bad as he thought it would be. It wasn't a very long alley. "We'll find her."

Blade nods. "We will." It's a promise.