Chapter 5

Author's notes: Appreciate all of the positive reviews and private messages following the posting of chapter 4 – Thank You! As you may have seen, I started working on a second Chicago PD story, but should be able to keep both stories going at a decent pace. As always, reviews are very welcome! Enjoy!

Inside Erin's car, South Side of Chicago, Illinois
15 January, 2014 - 22:56 CST

"Turn left there," Jay directed, pointing at a small side street while holding his cell phone to his right ear. After Erin made the turn, he listened to the voice on the other end and nodded. "Should be coming up towards the end of the block."

As the car made its way through the darkness, they spotted the black Dodge Charger parked on the side of the road. "We found it, Jin," Jay spoke into the phone. "Thanks for your help, man!" Closing the phone, Jay pulled out his gun as they were slowly pulling up to the car in front of them.

Erin put the car in park without shutting off the engine, pulled out her own gun and nodded at Jay. "Let's nail the bastard!"

They both got out of Lindsay's car and slowly approached the parked vehicle, weapons aimed in front of them. They both flipped on their flashlights when they simultaneously swung around each side of the car, illuminating the inside of the Dodge and showing that it was empty.

"Clear," Jay said from the passenger's side.

"Clear," Erin responded, lowering her weapon. Looking into the car, there was nothing suspicious she could see. In fact, she was surprised by how barren the car was – no objects on the backseat, no pieces of paper, nothing in the cup-holders, nothing personal at all.

"What do you want to do," Jay asked her. "Stake it out and wait for him to return, or go looking for him."

Erin looked at him and shook her head. "Knowing what he did to Nadia, I am not going to wait around for him to assault someone else. He's around here somewhere. Let's go and find him."

Succubus Club, Chicago, Illinois
15 January, 2014 - 23:02 CST

The Succubus Club was massive. Set in an old multi-story industrial warehouse, it was actually divided into several distinct areas, with the primary dance floor and seating space taking up most of the ground floor. Elevated walkways led to hanging platform dance areas and to private VIP areas on higher levels.

Standing on one of the catwalks above the main room, he was holding on to his drink while scanning the moving mass of hundreds of clubgoers below him for his target. The air was heavy with cigarette smoke, and booming club music reverberated off the walls and made the metal catwalk vibrate with each thump of the bass.

Tapping the side of his jury-rigged Google Glasses, he switched on the infrared spectrum overlay to scan the people below and around him. "Holy shit," he cursed under his breath as he surveyed the crowd. There were at least a dozen vampires present, their lack of body heat easily making them distinguishable from the humans.

This is so not safe, he thought to himself. I should get out of here.

Trying to casually walk down the metal stairways without drawing any attention to himself, he continued to scan the crowd in front of him. As he reached the ground floor, he spotted the female vampire he had seen on last night's security camera recording – she appeared to be barely 18, was dressed in a revealing outfit and was laughing as she dragged a young man towards the exit. Perfect. Reaching for the MP5K submachine gun concealed under his black leather duster, he followed them out to the street.

Inside Erin's car, South Side of Chicago, Illinois
15 January, 2014 - 23:12 CST

Jay could feel Erin's tension building up as they were cruising around the area looking for the suspect. She had stopped talking, which usually was not a good sign, and he could tell that she was holding the steering wheel more tightly than she normally would.

"Come on," she muttered under her breath. "He's gotta be here somewhere."

They were going down one of the side streets when Jay all of a sudden spotted what looked like sparks on the street one block in front of them. "Woah, did you see that," he asked Erin.

"No, what was it?"

Jay shook his head. Did I just imagine that? Unsure about what he saw, he shook his head and said, "I don't know. Maybe it was nothing."

As they reached the next intersection, the traffic light was about to change to red and Erin floored the accelerator to cross the intersection in time when all of a sudden the street in front of them erupted in yellow sparks as a young women jumped across the width of the street barely 20 feet in front of them and disappeared into an alleyway between two buildings. Even inside the car, the sound of bullets being fired from an automatic assault weapon could clearly be heard. Out of the corner of her eyes, Erin saw a man in a black leather duster run out onto the street directly in front of her car, a small submachine gun in hand and firing after the woman in the alleyway. Before she could react, her car smashed into him, sending him airborne.

You feisty little bitch, he thought as he was chasing her. She was fast and he had a hard time keeping up with her. When he realized that she could get away, he aimed his MP5K at her and pulled the trigger. At a fire rate of 800 rounds a minute, he emptied the first clip with one squeeze of the trigger. Putting in a new magazine, he saw her jump across the next cross street and duck into an alleyway. Determined to not let her escape, he raised the weapon again and fired as he was in a full run trying to cross the street. He was so focused on the vampire that he did not see the car coming at him until he was squarely hit and thrown across the street, smashing into the windshield of a parked car.

Coming to a screeching halt, both Erin and Jay shook off the surprising turn of events and jumped out of the car, weapons drawn. The man they hit had landed on a car to their left, but was already in the process of rolling himself off the hood and come to his feet on the sidewalk. He seemed slightly disoriented, but still had the submachine gun in hand, pointed at the ground.

"Chicago PD," both Erin and Jay screamed as they pointed their guns at him.

"Drop your weapon. NOW," Erin yelled at him as he looked up and stared at her. "Drop it now, or I swear I will drop you." Her voice was steely and cold, but her heart was beating in her chest like crazy both from the adrenaline and the realization that she was staring into the very face she had been looking for.

He looked at her and Halstead and, after a brief moment, tossed the gun to the side before slowing sinking down to his knees while lifting his hands in the air. "You're making a mistake."

"Shut up and get down on the ground," Halstead yelled him as he approached him from behind. When the suspect did not move or follow the order, he stepped closer and kicked him in the back to push him to the ground. "The only mistake may be that we did not get you sooner," Jay said as he put cuffs on him. "You're gonna go away for a very, very long time."

District 21 Police Department, Chicago, Illinois
16 January, 2014 – 02:18 CST

Jay pushed back his chair in the interrogation room, jumped to his feet and swiftly walked around the table to get right into the suspect's face. "I've had it with you. We know you were at the hospital. We just caught you trying to kill someone with a military-grade assault weapon."

The suspect just stared at him unfazed.

"You better start talking, or I will lose my patience," Jay said threateningly.

Erin watched the exchange from across the table, feeling extremely frustrated. The guy had not said a word since they cuffed him. And for some reason that she could not articulate, she felt like he had more control over this situation than they did. She was about to interject herself into the staring match between Jay and the stranger when the door to the interrogation room was pushed open, revealing a tired looking Sergeant Voight. "Voight," Erin said surprised.

Jay backed away from the suspect, caught off guard. "Sarge."

Voight stared at them and then settled his gaze on the suspect. After a few seconds, he said, "Lindsay, Halstead. My office. NOW."

He took a step outside, waiting for them to get up and exit the room. Erin and Jay exchanged a confused look and walked past him towards his office. Voight kept staring at the suspect until Erin and Jay had left the basement and were on their way upstairs.

"Hank," the suspect said, nodding a greeting at the officer.

Nodding at the suspect, Voight answered, "Xander. It's been a while."

"What is going on here, detectives," Voight asked them as he marched into his office and plopped into the chair behind his desk. "I get a call from the night desk telling me that you brought someone in without bunking him for the night? Then I come in and see you interrogating a suspect not related to any case we are working. Care to explain?"

"Assault with a submachine gun, almost killing a young woman. Also suspected of attacking and almost killing another woman who was a witness on one of our recent cases," Erin started explaining.

Voight nodded and studied his two detectives. "Has he given you anything?"

Both Erin and Jay shook their head. "Nothing. Said we were making a mistake when we arrested him. Since then, nothing. Refused to give us prints, as well."

"Halstead, go and lock him up for the night. We'll pick this up tomorrow," Voight ordered. Jay nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him.

"Now, you wanna tell me how you found this guy," Voight questioned Erin.

Erin studied Hank's face. I know that tone of voice, Erin thought. He's annoyed. In a bad way. Something's bothering him, and I get the feeling I'm walking on thin ice here. "We got lucky on our way home."

"That a question or a statement, kiddo?"

Erin bit her lower lip. The way her voice sounded, it could have been either. Taking a deep breath, she said, "What's really going on, Hank?"

Contemplating whether he should tell her, he decided that she had a right to know. At least a part of it. "Remember how you asked me a couple of weeks ago how many cards I ever gave out?"

"I do," Erin said. "You gave out nine, and three of them came back."

He nodded at her. "That's right. You were one of the three. The guy downstairs was one of the other two."

Author's notes: This took a little longer to get out than I wanted to - work's been crazy lately. Next I'll be working on wrapping up chapter 3 of "To Wish Impossible Things."