“Oh god, where do I start?” Detective Lee rubbed his temples as he answered: “Several ritualistic killings, some of the victims are included here, because the victims seemed to be drained of their blood first and then placed on an altar. So we know that there is at least some kind of cooperative relationship between them and the actual drainer.”

“They certainly do, I still remember that vampire we tried to capture before we resigned.” Thomas scratched his jaw: “Some men with the symbols of Bleeding Daggers cult took him away when we called for an ambulance.”

“Also, here’s another connection.” Detective Kuhn said: “We found through some of the victims’ internet browsing history and social media records, that they were lured into some sort of new age cult and were arranging to meet up with their ‘referrer’. We will be setting up stings, but we need to study the profiles of the victims first. From the current looks of things, they are targeting young, single, and financially troubled individuals who appear to be suffering from anxiety or depression, mostly women, and some young men.”

“Here’s your coffee.” the waitress brought back three cups, one tall and black, the other two shorter and have cute decorations on them: “Black coffee refill for you, sir; Cappuccino for you two. Enjoy.”

“Thank you.” “Thank you.” Jason and Caroline each took a shorter cup.

Jason smelled his cup before taking a sip, and found that his Cappuccino was giving off a strange scent. He then immediately raised his hand and warned the others: “Hold on! Don’t drink yet!”

“What?” Caroline and Detective Lee’s arms froze while they were about to drink from their cups.

“This coffee smells weird. Give me a second.” Jason looked around and silently cast a True Sight Spell on himself, and at the same time concentrated his Xuanli on his nose. With his two senses enhanced under the influence of the spells, Jason could see that there was something light yellow glowing inside of his drink. When he took the cups from Caroline and Detective Lee, he could also see the same thing: “That is no ingredient for coffee, someone drugged our drink.”

Detective Lee and Detective Kuhn stood up immediately and headed to the counter. There was no one there, and the waitress that just served them drinks was nowhere to be seen. Caroline and Jason rushed to the outside of the coffee shop and looked around, but they could not find the “waitress” that served their drinks or anyone suspicious.

“Caroline! Jason!” Aimee came out from the front door of the coffee shop and called out: “Come back! There’s something you’ve gotta take a look at!”

The owner of the coffee shop and the young barista, they both seemed to be frozen in their daily motion without noticing anything - even though they were shoved into the storage room with legs closed and arms tightly stuck on both sides of their bodies and placed beside the shelf in a tilted position like one would put a long bag or a broom, they both had a smile on their faces as if they just saw something cute or funny.

“What happened to them?” Aimee looked at Jason and then Caroline: “We found them like this - their bodies are entirely stiff like they’re dead, but their body temperature feels normal and they’re still breathing, just very slowly.”

“I think we should call this in.” Detective Kuhn said: “Whoever that ‘waitress’ is, she’s clearly targeting us. And she must have come into the shop some time between our first orders and you guys coming in.”

“Wait, I don’t think we should do that just yet.” Thomas stopped Detective Kuhn and turned to Caroline: “Can you fix them?”

“I can try. But I am not sure if my spell will work, since I’ve never tried them in this kind of conditions before.” Caroline thought for a brief moment and said: “Jason, can you take a look at them and tell me what seems to be the curse or spell?”

“On it.” Jason extended his right hand at the owner of the coffee shop, his palm turned silver, and shortly a beam of light shone from the center of his palm and onto the face of the coffee shop owner.

When the beam of light hit the coffee shop owner’s face, small streams of silver energy came off from the beam and flowed into his body. Some of the streams flowed through the veins, some of them flowed through the skin and soft tissues, and some dived deep and flowed into his meridians. Before long, these streams of energy circled back and seeped through the coffee shop owner’s skin and came back to Jason’s palm like tiny silver liquid droplets.

Before long, Jason retreated his hand and nodded at Caroline: “They are under some kind of simple paralysis and numbing curse. I think your ‘Inner Fire of Three Suns’ should help.”

“Good.” Caroline nodded, then placed her hands on the coffee shop owner and the barista’s left chests.

Warm wind blew from both of Caroline’s hands, and the faces and necks of the two victims of the curse turned slightly red, as if they were experiencing heat from a close outside source like the sun or steam from a sauna. Their breaths started slowly pacing up and sweat started to come out from their foreheads and arms.

Thomas kept nodding as he watched Caroline’s spell take effect - he could not tell the details yet, but it was clear to him that Caroline sent a stream of gentle but potent energy into each of the victim’s hearts, which then flowed through the victims’ bodies and diffused or burned away the curse. It might look simple for an outsider, but as someone who has crossed over to the magical world, he could really appreciate the meticulousness and usefulness of this spell.

The owner of the coffee shop and the barista came to themselves shortly after Caroline retreated her hands. They started coughing and retching right away, and if it weren’t for Thomas and Detective Lee standing by their side, they would have fallen right onto the ground.

“Are you okay?” after calming the two victims down and letting them rest to a steady state, Detective Lee asked the barista, “Do you remember what happened?” 

“Some - some girl told me she was your friend and wanted to buy you drinks.” the barista hesiated and seemed to be having some trouble recalling what went on: “She - I took her order. But then - but then your friends came in and she asked if she could borrow my uniform. I said no - then I don’t remember anything, not even what she looked like ”

“I don’t remember what she looked like either.” the owner of the coffee shop gave the same answer when asked about this mysterious girl.