Five months, one day, seventeen hours, and two minutes before Sententia.
Just before dawn a silhouette showed black against the sky line. Kraken balanced on the rungs of a water tower and tried to blink sleep out of his eyes. It had been a long week. He'd chased down at least thirty leads that had all been dead ends. All Kraken had to show for his efforts were a few fresh scars. All in all the whole thing had put him in a foul mood. Well, fouler then usual anyways.
The week had started out bad. First the Hospital had caught fire which led to it closing down, making it impossible to get health care. Small clinics were having a hard time keeping up. Then a series of kidnappings had come to Lupo's attention, who had brought it to Kraken's. Apparently women had been kidnapped for fifteen years all around the City area. Kidnappings happened all the time and they had seemed nothing more then the run of the mill unsolvable crimes. Recently all the women had shown up again, in one place no less. As corpses.
Construction workers had found them in the foundation of a building. They weren't just any corpses though. These ones were drained out husks. It reminded him of when he'd gone into the Tunnel of Terror when he was twelve at the local fair. This might seem like a weird things to compare, but there was a connection. Both places had mummies everywhere.
The second he saw the bodies he thought of a vampire. There had been no bite marks on the necks though. Deciding to keep the possibility of a vampire in mind he told Lupo that he'd look into it. That had been at the beginning of the week and nothing had happened since then. If Luck was a Lady then she was a bitch. At least for him anyway.
He'd been patrolling the rather shadier part of the neighborhood for hours. It had become obvious that nothing was going to happen though. He'd just have to jack it in for the night. Stretching his sore muscles he got ready to leave. Then he saw some movement that caught his eye.
A woman had pushed herself flat against the wall, looking around almost furtively. Two men were surrounding her, one in the not-so-casual lean against the wall. At fist Kraken had thought that there was some 'business' going on and thought nothing of it.
Then he realized that what the woman was wearing was way too covering for her to be a prostitute. Not only that but her hair was too short and combed in a way that obscured her face. Smirking to himself he started to slowly scale down the wall and make his way over.
"So all I'm saying," one of the men said in a menacing way, "That you should come with us."
The woman hissed something under her breath. Both of the men laughed.
"Look lady," the other man said, "We can do this the hard way, or the easy way. Which do you prefer?"
The woman threw her hand out revealing a can of mace. The first one got a full blast of it in his eyes and howled in pain. In spite of himself Kraken was relatively impressed. He didn't know that anyone could get mace anymore. This woman had obviously decided to break the law and get it anyway. Nice.
The next man was smart and ducked the onslaught of the chemical burner. He grabbed her ankle and jerked it. The woman cried out. The man quickly got back up and stepped down hard on her ankle. The woman gave another cry. Kraken was almost there.
"Little bitch," the man snarled before stomping down on the ankle again.
Her foot by this time was facing entirely the wrong way. She looked up again, as if trying to get out, before collapsing unconscious on the pavement. Her head hit the pavement hard. That would bruise. Straightening his jacket the man looked to his comrade, still howling in pain.
"That's how it's done," he said smugly.
"No," said Kraken as he dropped down, "This is how it's done."
The man turned around to get a face full of knife. Shouting angrily the man pulled a gun out. He was just about to fire when Kraken's fist made it through his rib cage. With a gurgle of blood the man collapsed on the pavement. Kraken wiped his hand on the man's jacket.
He turned around to face the other assailant. Kraken blinked in surprise. The man was running away. Cowardly bastard.
"Get back here!" Kraken growled.
He was just about to run after him when he heard a soft moan from the woman. Abruptly he stopped. That woman wasn't going to get far on that foot and this was a very bad part of town. He wasn't going to be able to go after the man and save her. He let out a growl of frustration. Damn him and his bleeding heart.
Leaning down he got ready to pick up the unconscious woman. As he did so her hair shifted and he got a good look at her face for the first time.
"Vanya?" he whispered.
Luck really was a bitch.