The following occurs in December 3450

Chapter 5

December 13th, 3450. The day before my world was destroyed when I found out that Madeline Hudson was kidnapped. How could anyone grab a child from her home and vanish without a trace? My theory was that there had to be someone that had the Hudson family under close surveillance in order to know exactly what time to grab Madeline and what area of the house would be available to make an escape. That night on December 13th I discovered that there was absolutely no finger prints of the kidnapper found in Madeline's room or anywhere in the house. This revelation led me to believe that the assailant used gloves in order to ensure that no prints would be discovered by the police. However I did not have a name of a person who would grab a child in the dead of the night. Could it be a close relative of the Hudson's? This was a possibility as the assailant apparently knew the exact location of Madeline's bedroom. That night I returned to the Hudson residence and discovered that the police was now being assisted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.). I used my heightened sense of hearing and discovered that the police and the FB.I. had no leads in the case and no suspects. Madeline's parents were clearly distraught and many federal agents tried their best to reassure them. Suddenly there was ringing on the highly advanced headsets that replaced telephone receivers at the time. Mr. Hudson would be the first one to answer it. My sense of hearing would soon pick up the conversation.

"Hello?" said Mr. Hudson.

"Is this the Hudson's residence?" said the voice of what appeared to the distorted sound of a male.

"Yes," replied Mr. Hudson.

"I'm calling to let you know that I have your daughter."

"What?! Where is she?"

"Now before we get hasty its best that I let you know something very important. The moment you answered your headset I've set a deadline for you and your wife."

"What deadline?"

"A seventy-two hour deadline. In seventy-two hours I want exactly 100,000 delivered to me. I'll be calling again in two hours to give you specific instructions in how to deliver the money, but I would like to make something perfectly clear. Any refusal or inability to deliver the money will result in you taking responsibility in the unfortunate death in your daughter."

"Listen, please. I….I don't know if I could give you that kind of money."

"100,000 in seventy-two hours is to be delivered, Mr. Hudson. No exceptions." With those words, the phone hung up and I sensed the shortness of breath in both Mr. Hudson and his wife. A ransom? This world is rotting so quickly! A man would climb mountains and walk the deepest valley to take what doesn't belong to him for simple sum struck the heart of me. Anger manifested within me and anger soon turned into rage. During this time New York City and all the cities across The United States were considered the safest with criminal acts virtually ceasing to exist. Madeline's kidnapping would be the first in nearly a century. So scarce were kidnapping cases that the authorities were inadequately equipped to deal with such cases. Immediately I was reminded of one particular kidnapping in the last years of the 20th Century. Heather Hume, five years of age and a native of Glasgow, Scotland was kidnapped, rapped and drained of her blood. It seemed as if history was repeating itself. I could not allow that to happen again. Not only was Madeline's life in the hands of her parents, the police and the F.B.I., but her life was also in my hands.

I crept towards the Hudson house and in a single bound I jumped in the air and landed on the roof. I sat there crossed legged and waited patiently for the two hours to past for Madeline's kidnappers to call once again. Two hours had finally past the sound of the Hudsons' headset ringed. From there I heard the kidnapper's instructions. "You are to go to your local bank online and make a withdrawal of 100,000. I'll then contact you by e-mail where you are to send the money into my private online account. I'll be calling again within these seventy-two hours to give you directions on where to pick up your daughter."

"How can you assure me that you won't hurt my daughter?" said Mr. Hudson. Suddenly through his headset I heard the screams from a girl I knew all too well. "Daddy! Daddy!" It was Madeline. Her screams reflected the sheer terror and helplessness she was in. I just wanted to reach out to her and grab her from the clutches that held her but she was out of my touch. "I guarantee that no harm will come to your daughter, Mr. Hudson," said the distorted voice of the male caller. "But if you make any contact with the authorities you'll never see your daughter again. Just so to let you know, I'm watching your every move. You have seventy-two hours to do exactly what I say, starting now." With those words the caller hung up and the loud sobs of Mrs. Hudson became present. I sensed the willingness of Mr. Hudson in delivering the money. I thought it was very foolish of him to make such a decision. I wanted to know did this kidnapper know how to contact the Hudsons. Where was he calling? If the Hudsons delivered the ransom that would have meant that the kidnapper would win. I needed to do whatever I could to locate the kidnapper immediately.

The following night I prowled the streets trying to pinpoint a possible suspect. To do that I needed to first examine what I knew thus far. At around 8:30p.m on December 12th when Mrs. Hudson put Madeline in bed. Mrs. Hudson left her daughter for ten minutes and when she returned Madeline was gone. No mere human can grab a child who weighs approximately 60 pounds and move at the speed of light. I needed to return to the scene of the crime to perform my own investigation. I arrived at the Hudson household in five minutes from lower Manhattan. I expected Madeline's parents, the police and federal agents to still be present. To my surprise, they were gone. Suddenly my ear picked up the sounds of mechanic humming five feet away from me. In a single bound I jumped towards the rooftop, landed on the surface and spotted what my inhuman sense of hearing picked up. It was a surveillance droid that the authorities used to guard crime scenes or places where the highest levels of government held their operations. Though small it carried deadly weapons that were designed to eliminate any intruder it spotted. Such a machine would stand no chance against me, but I would waste no time against small pathetic waste of steel and wires. Further more, I could not risk being spotted for my presence would give the impression that I was somehow involved in the kidnapping of Madeline. I crept around the back slowly and approached the automatic door. Using a small, portable computer, I hacked into the security systems, deactivated the alarm, obtained the security number and unlocked the door. I slipped through the door and found myself in the kitchen. I walked slowly through the house and with a heightened sense of smell I sniffed all around trying to pick up whatever scent that the kidnapper may have left. I could not walk all the way throughout the Hudson household. All law enforcement agencies were equipped with devices that could pick up the D.N.A. that was left from the heels of a stranger that broke into the houses of his victims. I looked towards the ceiling and in a single bound I jumped towards the ceiling, outstretched my hands and stuck on the ceiling. From there I began crawling on the ceiling in order for my D.N.A. not to be picked up from my footsteps on the floor.

I kept crawled through every doorway upside-down until I made my way to a small bedroom that was at the eastside of the Hudson household. There was absolutely no doubt that it was indeed Madeline's bedroom for her scent was very strong. I crawled towards the walls and knelt sideways to pick up any different scent that could be present. I kept sniffing until I picked up the scent of one figure: one male, around his mid-thirties, possibly standing over six feet tall. I stayed in my kneeling position for about ten minutes until I picked up not one, not two, but three more figures that were present that night. Two were male and surprisingly one was female. I found it shocking that four persons would enter such a small house without alerting the Hudsons and then vanishing without a trace. It could not be possible for any human to accomplish. As I thought it about such a scenario I sensed the presence of the droid inside of the kitchen moving at fast towards the bedroom. The moment it entered the room I jumped towards the ceiling and landed softly on the surface and watched as the droid hovered around scanning the entire room. The only place the droid did not scan was the ceiling. It hovered away and after about ten seconds I began crawling away from Madeline's bedroom.

As I crawled back towards the kitchen the droid suddenly sprung up in front of me. Though it was directly in front of me its red iris was turned away. Slowly it began turning its iris in my direction and at the same time I began shifting aside out of its presence. Its iris was now in the direction were I had been and I was now directly behind its iris. It hovered there for about fifteen seconds and soon began hovering its way towards the living room. As it hovered away I began crawling back towards the back door where I made my entrance. I landed softly on the floor, opened the door, slipped through the doorway and found myself back outside. After using my hacking equipment to lock back the door I crept towards the front of the house and in a split second I spotted another droid hovering into my direction. In a single bound I jumped towards a nearby tree. Unfortunately, the moment I landed on one of the tree branches the entire tree shook. The droid was then alerted and its iris was focused upon the tree where I landed. I then heard a mechanical hum that started faintly and began to grow each passing second. In a split second the droid fired a red laser at my tree. I jumped out of the tree just in time before the top of the tree exploded into leaves and branches. I landed on the roof of the house at the right of the Hudsons' residence and continued jumping for miles until I arrived back into Manhattan.

All through the night I prowled the rooftops of Manhattan's massive buildings. During this time I tried to analyze the whole situation. I had to come up with a conclusion quickly for Madeline's time was running out. I had a clear idea who the culprits of this kidnapping were: three men and one woman. How could four people break into a small house without alerting the occupants inside? There is only one way this is possible: vampires had to be responsible. The vampire possesses speed up to 400 miles per hour and he can run so quietly that its victim would not be aware until it was too late. Whenever the vampire moved his body would not cut through the wind virtually making him invisible whenever he moved at high speed. The vampire's undead body also made this possible for he was as light as a feather. It was a possibility that the assailants were also equipped with the same hacking equipment to break through the alarm systems. After my analysis there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that those in the midst of the vampire race were responsible for Madeline's kidnapping. What baffled my mind was the vampire's request for a ransom in return for Madeline's safe return to her parents. Though many among the vampire race sought dominion over the races of this earth, few sought financial power. Surely kidnapping for ransom was rare among the vampire race. I needed to gather whatever information among these bastards, for Madeline's sake.

I jumped from rooftop to rooftop and scaled from building to building in search of my first suspect. This suspect was the leader of a vampire group known as The Winds of Eternity. It was made of 300 mostly young female vampires that operated in small cells all across New York. Its leader was Alexia Dakin a 1,700 year old pureblood. Growing in her teens she became obsessed with staying young. At age fourteen she underwent a risky surgery that halted her from growing into an adult thus enabling her to continue her days on earth in the body of teenage girl. As the years passed Dakin traveled the world seeking companions who were willing to live for eternity at the primes of their youth. She found their companions in five girls. The first was Vanya Bermel, 860 years old who became a vampire at age thirteen. The second was Devan Hallet, 756 years old who became a vampire at age fifteen. The third was Fran Ingles, 645 years old who became a vampire at age fourteen. The fourth was Karris Meier of Germany, age 815 who became a vampire at age twelve. The fifth and last was a former native of Haiti and Dakin's second in command, Erzulie Roux. She was the daughter of a French slave master and a female African slave. During the days of slavery in Haiti she became a vampire at age sixteen. She would eventually meet Dakin in the last years of the 19th Century and the two would be the founding members of the Winds of Eternity. They often guised themselves by pretending to be school students attending several schools across the United States and I would be aware of them whenever they stopped at a coven that was owed by one of Dakin's closest allies. The coven was named The Sons of 1785 in reference to the year 1785 where the vampire rose to prominence all across Europe and parts of the United States due to a collective effort by many vampire clans to increase their numbers by attacking dozens of unsuspecting towns and villages in a campaign known as Pestilence. Many humans had fallen victim to the vampire's clutches and those who survived had assumed that it was a devastating plague that struck their loved ones. The membership of the coven was over 50,000 that had spread across the United States and the Eastern Hemisphere and its leader was Victor Svarog who was a key asset to the Pestilence campaign.

I tracked Dakin and her group down to the very coven where Dakin and Svarog discussed their plans. I was pitched on top a building that was across the street from the building that served as one of the coven's base of operations. It had seemed that my timing was perfect for I spotted Dakin, Bermel, Hallet, Meier and Roux leaving the building and walking down the street. I jumped from building to building until I caught up with them near an alley. I waited until they walked between the two apartment complexes. After they made their way in the alley I jumped from the roof of the building and landed right behind them. "Isn't tonight a school night?" I said.

"Why don't you just eat my pussy, bitch?" said Hallet.

"Yeah. Fuck off," said Bermel.

"Did you come to fuck with us again?" said Meier. "You think just because you have that sword and you're the big time "Bride of Dracula" that we're supposed to piss our pants?"

I rushed towards Meier and brought the blade of The Final Dawn close to her neck. Immediately I sensed the fear taking over her. "No. But you should at least be humble and hear what I have to say first," I said.

"Alright, then," said Dakin. "How could we be of service to the great "Bride of Dracula"?"

"Last night there was a kidnapping," I said. "An eight year old girl was grabbed from her home by four individuals and they are now demanding a 100,000 ransom."

"C'mon, Mina," said Bermel. "You know goddamn well how we roll. Unlike you we don't give a flying fuck about what the humans get themselves into."

"I'm fully aware of it," I said. "I know it's a waste telling you that this girl has only seventy-two hours to live. But not only is she at risk but you also have placed yourselves in a terrible predicament as a result."

"Mina, are you telling me that you think that we have something to do with that?" said Roux.

"Unless you are willing to tell me who else is responsible," I said.

"Mina, honey, we wouldn't waste our time with a little bitch like her. We only reach to those in our age groups," said Dakin.

"Don't you mean kidnap and murder?" I said.

"Whatever. Besides an eight year old girl wouldn't be a good asset."

"I know that covering for someone, Dakin. Spit it out!"

"Me? Covering for some prick? I don't see the benefits."

"I'm not stupid, Dakin. You have associations with five covens in this city. You know all of the operations that they run. You yourself got involved in their operations and you know the names of their leaderships."

"True, but it doesn't mean that I'll waste my time grabbing some kid for 100 grand."

"Maybe, but I'm sure you know who's that desperate."

"If you're thinking about Vic then you should get your head out of your ass," said Hallet. "Kidnapping for ransom is not on his resume. Who knows? It was probably the humans. You know how they'd anything to make a fucking buck. Fuck 'em."

"For your information I was at the crime scene and I've calculated that this girl was grabbed at the speed of 2.5 seconds by four individuals," I said. "No human could move that fast and you know it."

"Hey, the humans are always throwing away money on these shitty scientific programs to make their race faster and stronger," said Bermel. "You can't expect us to be the only ones capable."

"There was no presence of human D.N.A. in that house other than the girl's parents," I said. "Do you have any other explanation?"

"Do you really wanna know who I think could be responsible?" said Dakin? "Think way back in the year 1990, Glasgow, Scotland. I'm not sure if you were aware of it but the people responsible for kidnapping, raping and eventually murdering a five year old girl were members of the group called The Realm of Sheol. They're always in the business of kidnapping to make new recruits. I heard that they've just set up shop in New York. Their leaders name is Jacob Vidor and he's mostly in the clubs and at that penthouse complex in Manhattan, but I'm sure you'll find him in that big house at Long Island on 76th Avenue, King Street. Knowing you, I'm sure you wouldn't mind taking off a few heads." With those words Dakin and her associates jumped away from my presence and though they were very fast I spotted them jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

After so many years where the kidnapping of Heather Hume haunted me I've finally uncovered the identity of those responsible with help from an unlikely source. Dakin and her crew were clear but I would always keep them in my sights from that moment on. I had to make haste to Long Island for Madeline only had 48 hours left.