"F$k…Me…Up-Side-Down.." King said, as they heard the commotion inside the building and saw the hell-dogs that were still on the roof.

"Colourful," Kevin said wryly, his attention likewise riveted.

"Are you still in the building?" Abby asked, her fingers pressed to her ear-piece. "Stay there, keep everyone inside, it's dangerous outside right now."

"Mass extermination, you up for it Blade?" King asked.

"I'd suggest a bomb," Kevin said, "but Caitlyn might be inside."

Blade smiled sinisterly. He got out of the car and opened the boot. "UV bomb," he said with a smirk. "Not as effective as Day-star, but still a good party trick, no harm done to your friend."

He walked a few steps toward the warehouse, pulled the pin and threw the device through the open doors into the warehouse.

A few seconds passed.

"Uh, Blade," Kevin said, "it didn't w-" He was cut off as a bright, light with a pale blue tinge seemed to explode out of the entrance and the open windows, not doing any visible damage. The dogs on the roof escaped its effects, but Blade jumped up to deal with them.

"Lets go get those people," Abby said. "Caitlyn 'll know we're here once we're close enough, she'll track us down."

The Nightstalkers headed off toward the building. Inside, they found the sprawled receptionist behind her desk. Kevin knelt down to check her. King shot at the smoke alarm, effectively killing the annoying sound it had been making.

"She's breathing," Kevin reported. He noticed the tattoo on the back of her wrist and he let her fall. "She's also a familiar."

"Is she wounded or something?" Abby asked. King leaned over for a closer look.

"Gunshot wound to the arm, but I doubt that made her unconscious, and there's no head trauma." King said, with a puzzled look on his face.

"Caitlyn," Kevin explained, standing up straight. "You know how we always say that she's more human than vampire?" he ran a hand through his hair as he explained, a gesture of his discomfort with the subject. He knew that Caitlyn preferred to be thought of as a human. "Well, she's kind of an energy vampire. She can suck it right out of you, but she doesn't have to wound you to do it. It apparently makes her magic easier to perform, and it's a quick way to rejuvenate herself. She usually doesn't need to do it, so she must have been doing a lot of magic tonight."

"Has she ever done it to anyone other than a familiar?" Abby asked, a little concerned.

"No." Kevin said. "Well… Once on me when she needed to do a huge explosion, but she asked for my permission first. I don't think she can do it on non-humans, though. You can recover fully, it doesn't leave any bad side-effects except for a brief weakness."

"Well, no problem then." King said, brushing his hands as though dusting them off. "Let's go track down Caitlyn's refugees. They said they were in the ducts somewhere. Keep an eye out for Caitlyn too."

"'Might wanna use these," Kevin said, breaking open a locked drawer to reveal key cards. He handed them out. "I'd suggest not using the elevators in case there's still a vamp or familiar at the switchbox. With that in mind, I call this, the second and the third floor."

"Fourth and fifth." Abby quickly piped in.

"Aww hell," King groaned. The last three floors were his.

"After you, King," Abby said with a smile. "You might want to get a head start."

King shook his head in disgust as he jogged across to the stairwell, already opened thanks to Caitlyn. The other two shared a quiet chuckle before following. King called back to them, "I guess you've got the bottom floors as well, Kevin."

"What?"

"There are at least two basement levels too," King said with an evil grin "and since you seem to want the lowest floors, they're yours."

"Damn."

The third floor had yielded only a few vampires on computers at their desks. Their floor hadn't been locked down and they'd been ordered to continue working. They got up to stop Kevin as he appeared in their cubicles, but each received a bullet in the head or the chest.

He had decided to take his highest floor first, so once he'd finished each floor he'd only have to go downward. He went down the stairwell and opened the door leading to the second floor. The dark hallway greeted him. The light switches were at his end, so he flicked them on. When he looked in the offices and other rooms he noted all the sheeting covering the windows; there hadn't been any on the third floor, or at least they hadn't been shut.

He silently walked to the room marked 'storage closet', and found the room with all of the unconscious people in it. They had heard from Henry that Caitlyn had rescued as many people as she could from this room. There was nothing that Kevin could do for those still left behind.

He was sighing softly when the gun he held at his side was wrenched from his grip by an attacker behind him. He turned to see Nick as the vampire swung a punch at his face. Kevin went down hard, and shook his head to try and clear away the stars now hovering around it. Nick took one of his ankles in his massive fist and swung Kevin off the ground, letting him go so he crashed into and knocked over a few of the bodies.

Nick removed the ammunition from the hand gun and threw it aside as he stalked toward Kevin. Kevin reached for his other gun but it too was wrenched from his grip and Nick hit him again, causing blood to run from a split lip. Nick wrapped a hand around Kevin's throat and lifted him into the air, taking him over to a wall to push him up against it. He leaned forward and licked up the trail of blood on Kevin's chin.

"Ugh," Kevin grunted with disgust, using both feet to kick Nick in the guts. The vampire stumbled back, letting him go. "No thanks, you're not my type."

"But you're mine," Nick said with a creepy grin as Kevin tried to side-step away, "I like the pretty-faced ones."

He ran at Kevin, who grabbed his arm and flipped him over his shoulder. Kevin pulled up his pants leg and took out his knife. He couldn't see where Nick had thrown his second gun. From the ground Nick kicked Kevin's legs out from under him. Both men scrambled back to their feet.

"Come on!" Kevin challenged, his knife out in front of him.

Nick grinned and lifted Kevin's gun up, aiming it at Kevin's stomach. "How long would you like to endure bleeding to death?" he asked.

'Uh oh,' Kevin thought.

A shot rang out, but it was Nick who staggered. He ran as more shots were aimed in his direction. Kevin ducked to the floor as Nick wildly shot behind him as he darted from the room. A few of the 'donors' were hit, but Kevin was all right.

"Help us out of here, man," a voice said from the vents.

"Who are you?" Kevin said, gathering up his fallen gun and retrieving the bullets.

"I'm Jack," the voice replied, and Kevin could just make out the guy's face. "Your friend shut us in here. We had gone further in, but I came back when I heard the fighting. I thought it might have been that girl, Caitlyn."

Kevin reached up to the edges of the cover, running his blade edge behind to loosen it. "How long ago was she here?"

"Maybe thirty minutes ago," Jack answered, pushing on the cover from the other side. "She figured she was keeping us safe in here."

"I'm betting you didn't see what was outside," Kevin said as they pried the cover loose, "but trust me, you were." He put his hand up to his ear. "Abby, King, I've got the people Caitlyn freed, we're on the second floor." He paused and tried to look past Jack into the venting passage. "How many are there with you?" he asked Jack.

"Nine of us are awake, but there's one in here that there wasn't time to revive."

Jack climbed down and called back to the others. "Come on out."

One by one the other eight people emerged from the vent, Henry and one of the women pulling along the plastic wrapped girl. Kevin went to retrieve his gun and its ammunition.

"This one's pulse is fading," Henry said, as Jack helped to set her down on the floor. "She's been away from the machines for too long, and being in a coma, her body can't function on it's own."

"Well, Caitlyn's not here," Kevin said apologetically, "I don't know where she is, she can't save her."

"You mean you can't do what that other girl did for us?" Damien asked, and Kevin shook his head.

"Should we hook her back up?" a woman asked.

"It might be kinder to let her go, rather than prolong her existence here as an unwilling blood donor," Kevin said. "She can't feel anything, her brain is already dead." He looked around at the rest of the suspended people. "Our normal policy is to unhook them and let them die peacefully. Caitlyn's the only one of us who can bring them back, but we have no idea where she is, she might not get back in time before the vamps come back to retake their building. There may never be a rescue for these people save what we can do for them."

Kevin looked around the room and spotted a hidden drawer disguised as a wall panel. He soberly approached it and found the catch, lowering it to reveal the controls within. He sighed and put his finger to his earpiece to improve the reception. "Guys, has anyone seen Caitlyn here?"

He received only negative answers. He glanced back at the people who were already saved. One by one they nodded, and Kevin flipped off all of the switches, cutting the power to the life support systems.

"Rest in peace." Jack said.

Without another word the group left the room, and Kevin escorted them from the building.