Within just about twenty minutes, an ambulance arrived at the front gate of the apartment building. Four EMT workers went in and took the still twitching and trembling man away. Aimee and Thomas insisted that the man remain cuffed and that they escort the ambulance when they’re done with the preliminary check of the apartment. 

 

“Teeth in the sink.” Aimee took a few pictures of the bathroom: “I feel like this is gonna be some kind of trend - have you read the case files from SFPD on their missing lead forensic scientist? ”

 

“Yeah, I am pretty sure you’re the only one who’s not involved with the case reading it.” Thomas bagged the syringe, broken tooth and folded paper with residual power as evidence: “What’s it said?”

 

“When they entered her apartment to see if they could find any clues, with Jason and Caroline. And they found her freshly removed teeth in her sink, as well as her hair and pieces of her skin.” Aimee came out from the bathroom and said: “I wonder if it was the same case with Dr. Nguyen.”

 

“Speaking of Jason and Caroline. Do you think we should ask them for help on this?” Thomas asked when he opened another drawer and found some messily folded up store receipts in it.

 

“They did seem knowledgeable enough regarding things related to the occult. At least they seemed more helpful than the other previous consultants the SFPD had. But this is way too dangerous for civilians - we’re talking about actual vampires here.” Aimee sighed as she was ready to head out the door: “Let’s go and come back later - I am worried about the guy. If he actually turned, one pair of cuffs might not be enough.”

 

“Let’s go.” Thomas sighed and followed Aimee: “But regarding Jason and Caroline - they seemed to know a few things about vampires, no? I mean they didn’t seem too surprised when we told them about it.”

 

“Yeah. But they’re still civilians, hell, I am not sure even the normal feds can handle this.” Aimee sighed.

 

“Maybe we could call Gar - ”

 

“Bang!” their conversation was cut short by a sudden vehicle crashing sound from just outside of the apartment building.

 

“Shit!” Aimee took her gun out and started running towards the entrance of the building.

 

When both of them got to the outside of the apartment building, they saw that the ambulance was knocked over to the side of the road not that far away from their car, its backdoor open wide and the medical trolley and the handcuffed man on it were gone.

 

“What the fuck - it was only a few minutes!” Thomas rushed to the side of the ambulance to check on the EMTs and the driver.

 

“What happened? Where’s the man?” Aimee held up an EMT that was lying on the side of the road and asked.

 

“Some freaking truck hit us...” the EMT seemed startled but was not badly hurt: “It was a black truck, they came and took him away.”

 

“Did you happen to get the plate?” Thomas asked another EMT, who was also scared but not terribly injured.

 

“No… I just know that it looked weird.” the EMT’s arm was hurt and Thomas could see it was swollen due to some impact injuries.

 

“Let’s call this in.” Aimee sighed.

 

----------------------------------------

 

“What did these men look like?” before being put on another ambulance, Thomas and AImee asked the ambulance driver, who was injured the least: “And did you catch the plate?”

 

“No! No… I just remembered they were wearing these jackets with some kind of weird symbol on it, it looked like a knife with blood on it - looks like they also had it on their license plate.” the driver shook his head with a confused look on his face: “To be honest, I’ve never seen anything like this - who the hell attacks an ambulance like that? ”

 

“I’ve already requested for security camera and traffic camera footage around the area. We’ll find them.” Aimee gently patted the driver on his shoulder: “If you could think of anything, please don’t hesitate to contact us.”

 

“Thank you, detectives.”

 

“So, what do we know about this symbol of a knife with blood on it? Is it some kind of new gang symbol?” when the scene was being cleaned by technicians and other staff from SJPD, Thomas asked Aimee.

 

“Yeah, I just found it - but I am not sure it is the one we’re looking for.” Aimee showed Thomas her phone, there was a tattoo on her screen: “This is the symbol of the Bleeding Daggers, more of a cult than an actual gang. They used to operate in the greater Los Angeles area, there’s no record of them ever being in the bay.”

 

“Used to? Are they defunct now?” Thomas frowned: “Can you send that to me?”

 

“Yeah. From what I read in the database - they went defunct at least a decade ago. Most of the cult members were dead from some gang street war, their main center of operation was completely ruined in a gas explosion.” Aimee shook her head and swiped on the web page: “And apparently they were operating in some kind of local haunted house.”

 

“Hmm, looks like they were the centers of a lot of urban legends as well.” Thomas searched for related information on the Bleeding Daggers and said: “Human sacrifice - dark magic - demon worship and… blood rituals? You think this could be related? This being a cult of blood suckers?”

 

“So it could be some last surviving members.” Aimee nodded: “It’s a good theory - if the drainer was actually a member of this cult, the surviving members came to the bay and continued their operations. We could check on old cases from Los Angeles and see if they had any similar cases, and maybe dig up some more information regarding the Bleeding Daggers.”

 

“Okay, should we ask Jason and Caroline about it? This sounded like something we could use some help on.” Thomas asked.

 

“Let’s dig into our database and files first.” Aimee sighed: “I have a really bad feeling about all of this.”