The man from the room service didn't bat an eye seeing the blood and Sarah's injuries when he brought up Blake's breakfast. The MAGE's wallet was bottomless and even if the thought itself that money can buy silence over every situation was concerning, it came in handy.

The order included coffee, eggs, bacon and toast, orange juice and half a litre of pig blood for Sarah. There were a very few animals that vampires could feed on, and after humans, pigs were the second best.

'Sorry I can't give you more,' said Blake, handing the bottle to her.

'You saved my life, Cornelius,' smiled Sarah. 'You did enough. Are you sure you are going to be alright?'

Blake was still light-headed and somewhat disoriented, but he hoped the big breakfast would help, so he nodded. Sarah picked up the blood-stained sheet from the carpet and wrapped it around herself because the remains of her clothes weren't fulfilling their purpose anymore, which she noticed from the room service-man appreciative looks. Blake probably didn't even notice it: they were so unquestionably friends and nothing else that even if Sarah was interested in men, the idea of anything romantic between them would have seemed impossible.

They sat on the bed, the man with his tray, the woman with her bottle.

'So… Zelezny? But how? And why?' asked Blake.

'His daughter called him because she was worried for her friend, so he went down there, saw George Clarke being kind of violent, and he snapped,' explained Sarah. 'As for the others… He is a detective, he had access for all the information he needed. Probably that's why he became a police officer in the first place. I assume his father or mother was a cop, too.'

'And also a gargoyle, I guess…' said Blake. 'How do they work? Never heard of them.'

'He might be the last one…' answered Sarah, taking a sip from the bottle, then shivering. 'I hate this… So I believe he is one of the last ones. Apparently, there were more back in the middle-ages around this part of the word, but they have had a misunderstanding with the Church. They were punishing the wrong kind of sins, you see, and the Church got enough of gargoyles massacring their priests.'

'The same old story,' nodded Blake. 'So they killed them?'

'They tried,' answered Sarah. 'Some of them lived, and here we are.'

'So they can be killed, that's good to know,' said Blake grimly.

'I don't know if they can't be killed while they are in their monster form,' shook her head Sarah. 'According to the legends they either die if sunshine gets them or they turn into stone until the next down. I think they might be vulnerable in that state, like a normal statue.'

'So we better make our move while the sun is up. Are you up for it?' asked Blake, looking over her.

'Give me a few more hours,' she said. 'You should rest, too. Then we are going early in the afternoon, that will give us hours before the sun goes down.'

'I just don't know why,' said Blake then. 'He is a police officer. He swore an oath.'

'He swore to protect people, and he is doing it, as far as he is concerned. Let's be honest, nobody will miss most of the people he killed… A guy who liked to beat up his wife, sexual predators, escaped murderers…'

'Yes, but this isn't the way. We have laws. We are the law, damn it. This job is supposed to be clean, you know? And he twisted the meaning of it.'

'But he also didn't, in a way,' pointed out Sarah. 'We aren't the law, Cornelius. We are revenge. If someone breaks the law, we bring them to justice.'

'The justice of the society, not our own,' obstructed Blake.

'In a perfect world, yes,' said Sarah. 'But not in this one.'

Blake sighed. This argument was as old as their friendship, and none of them ever won it.

'We should get some rest,' he said and despite the huge mug of coffee he just drank, he was sleeping in minutes. He woke up a little after two o'clock. Sarah looked much better, partly because she had a shower and changed her clothes, but still. She moved much more carefully than usual, but she said she was ready for whatever was coming.

'I think he won't go down without a fight,' said Blake, putting a wand into the inside pocket of his black suit jacket.

'Probably not,' nodded Sarah. She wore a long-sleeved, black top tucked into a long, red skirt. She didn't have any weapon: vampires rarely needed it.

'We need to arrest him somewhere where there are no civilians,' added Blake.

'Yes, but it can't be the precinct where he works, either, his colleagues would arrest us instead.'

'Let's arrange a meeting somewhere remote, then,' nodded Blake.

'Won't work, he is going to be suspicious,' shook her head Sarah. 'I know! You are going to call him, saying that I am missing. He is going to think that I bled out somewhere and he could take you out, too, because you are alone. We just need to put the meeting close enough to dusk so he'd think he can stall long enough. I will hide, he will walk into the trap and that's it.'

Blake took a few seconds to think the whole plan through.

'Risky,' he said. 'But it could work.'

He took out his phone and took care of the bait. Zelezny agreed on the meeting.

'He sounded kind of scared,' Blake told Sarah after he put away his phone. 'Or more like genuinely concerned. Let's go, I want to check out the place before he gets there.'

Blake left the hotel seemingly alone; Sarah followed him jumping rooftop to rooftop, hiding in the afternoon shadows. The meeting was supposed to take place in a small, basically nameless park, where Sarah was "last seen". They figured because of the rain the park will be deserted enough. And even though there were a few dog-walkers or joggers, the place was mostly empty. Not ideal but close enough.

A few minutes after the time they agreed on, Sarah came in on Blake's earpiece.

'He is late.'

'Yeah,' answered Blake. 'Makes sense. Easiest way to buy some time. Let's just wait.'

Almost ten minutes went by.

'Dusk is in 32 minutes, Cornelius,' said Sarah. She was up in the crown of a taller tree right behind the bench Blake was sitting on. 'We should cancel the operation. Even if we got him, we won't have time to bring him in before he turns.'

'We will knock him out,' answered Blake. 'As far as we know he is changing on purpose. He won't be able to do that if he is unconscious.'

'Too risky. I say we…' she cursed in German. 'He is here. But we have got a problem,' she said. 'He is coming to your way, but he brought Novak along.'

'It's okay,' answered Blake. 'Be ready.'

Blake got up to meet with the two detectives. There was nobody around now: perfect timing. Only, if Zelezny wanted to make Blake disappear the same way he tried with Sarah, why did he bring Ema Novak? It didn't make any sense.

'Agent Blake,' nodded Novak. She was professional as if Blake didn't ask her out last night. 'I'm sorry to hear about your partner.'

Blake nodded back. His brain worked overtime.

'Missing person not my jurisdiction, usual,' said Zelezny. 'How I can help?'

Blake gestured towards the bench, and they all sat down.

'I have a reason to believe that Agent Berger had found a lead,' Blake improvised. 'Miss Vesely recalled seeing some kind of monster with claws and leather wings. Last time I'd heard about Sarah she said it was a creature named gargoyle. They were native around here once and legends say they aren't gone just yet.'

'My grandmother used to tell stories about them,' said Detective Novak. 'Until my mother had a fight with her because I've got nightmares from them. They are supposed to be like humans in the daytime, right?'

Blake nodded and noticed that Zelezny went very pale. Good.

'Agent Berger thought she figured out who our killer-gargoyle was, but she wanted to check out one last thing. It was almost 24 hours ago and I cannot get in contact with her ever since.'

'Then need tell to missing person-guys now!' said Zelezny. 'They search city, finding your friend.'

'There is no need for that,' said Blake. 'I know who the gargoyle is, too. We are looking for a person who has access for criminal records, whose family lived around for a long time, who had personal connections for some of the victims.'

Ema Novak's pretty face showed the signs of epiphany, then her expression went very dark, very quickly.

'No,' she said, jumping on her feet, unwillingly reaching for her gun. 'No way. Honsa?'

'Not me,' he said, but he was up too, with his wand pointing to Blake's face. 'He lying.'

'Detective Honsa Zelezny,' said Blake looking into the man's eyes. 'You are under arrest for manslaughter and the attempted murder of a MAGE-agent. You have the right to remain…'

The curse blew away most of the bench. Fortunately, Blake leapt aside in time, and as he rolled on the wet concrete footpath, he drew his wand.

BANG!

Ema Novak aimed at Zelezny's leg, but the bullet bounced off of an invisible shield the man brought up. The same shield protected him from Blake's spell, too, which tried to swap his leg. Then before Novak could have shot again, Zelezny hit her with a curse that knocked her down. The pistol disappeared in the tall grass next to the footpath.

Their duel was quick and brutal. Zelezny was a worthy opponent, fast and imaginative, resourceful. Only, Blake never planned to play fairly in the first place: Sarah jumped down the tree she was hiding on, like a perfectly silent shadow made the few metres between them and before Zelezny could have even understood what was going on, Blake broke his shield-spell and Sarah hit him on the head from behind. Zelezny went down like a puppet that had its strings cut. The fight was over.