Theodore was definitely not in great shape.

Electrical burn marks covered almost a quarter of Theodore’s body which Xiaoye mentally admits was pretty chiselled, some fresh from battle, others in the process of healing. There were also a number of claw marks and one nasty bite on the left shoulder, most likely courtesy of Farhan, though one appeared to have been made by Weijin’s sword. Theodore’s bloodied face wasn’t spared either: His right eye had swollen to the point where he could not open it, and a piece of his left ear was gone.

On the funny side, he was literally wearing a police outfit, though it was now badly damage. Talk about exchanging insult for injury.

But Xiaoye knew that Theodore was still a dangerous person. One half-hearted flick of his hands and Roderick would be lucky if he dies with his head still attached to his shoulders. Subtly glancing behind her, she could see Jason standing in front of Van Schilt, having picked up Xiaoye’s discarded shotgun but not aiming at Theodore since both Xiaoye and Roderick were in the line of fire.

Sounds like a negotiation is required. And Xiaoye isn’t exactly good at negotiating. But she knew Lucas was arriving at any moment. She needed to stall, so she took a deep breath and looked right into Theodore’s eyes.

“Theodore.”

“Sergeant,” Theodore replied as he maintained his grip on the back of Roderick’s neck.

“Thought you were a nice fellow. Guess I suck at judging people.”

“I was, until shit happened, though I’m sorry we’re in this situation right now.”

“Aye, I was hoping not to draw this gun at you personally… Help me out here. I don’t know if you’re calm now or just good at hiding the fact that you’ve erupted.”

“True. I don’t look as fierce as I do in my true form. But, yes, I am very mad right now. Why do you have to get in my way?”

“Maybe, but so am I. You disguised yourself as a local police officer to kill someone, then you tried to kill a child monster for witnessing your actions, nearly killing two good friends of mine, then you killed an innocent man whose only crime was selling you that costume.”

“Anything goes when vengeance is the goal.”

“There’s a pretty bold line between revenge and murder, you daft cunt. You’ve crossed that line long ago.”

“And what do you know about that?”

“Trust me, I paid the price for revenge a long time ago. You know what I am, right?”

“A cambion. Those horns were a dead giveaway.”

“Then you know that this beautiful choker around my neck is a Prayer Shackle. A special one, though. Blows my head to pieces if I step out of line.”

“So you’re a bitch on a leash.”

“And you’re a rabid dog about to be put down. You are aware that you’ve been declared a Kudlak, right? And you just killed a Krsnik. They aren’t going to stand for this.”

“Is that supposed to be a threat? You think your trigger finger is faster than me?” Theodore asked, clearly confident that he could kill Roderick before a bullet was fired.

“I don’t think you want to test that theory out with a silver hollow-point 454 Casull being fired from a gun with its barrel literally pressed against your jaw. I can turn your noggin into mince for haggis before you even try to break his neck,” Xiaoye replied, emphasizing certain words to ensure her opponent knows what she’s willing to do.

“Huh, alright, that actually sounds like a legit threat. Fine, I’ll let this kid go, but only if you hand Van Schilt over to me?”

“No. We need him to bring justice to the seventeen victims of that clinical test scandal last year… Including your wife.”

Those words definitely startled Theodore, but he did not let go of Roderick, who for some reason was now staring blankly at the other side of the road.

“What, you’re going to charge him in court? With his fancy lawyers and bribery?” Theodore asked, his anger starting to return.

“Look, Van Schilt was investigating the whole scandal. He’s found out the truth, but if you kill him, the whole case goes poof. He’s the only one who can help bring justice for your wife and all the other victims. You’ve been bamboozled into trying to silence him.”

Theodore looked at the cowering Van Schilt and snorted in disgust.

“The evidence I have here says otherwise,” the pricolici replied as he removed a torn up belt pouch around his waist and tossed it at Jason’s feet, who glanced at Van Schilt before grabbing it.

“Xiaoye, if he tries anything funny, blow his head off,” Jason said before placing the shotgun down and opening the pouch, quietly reviewing the contents.

After what felt like an eternity, Jason placed the contents back in the belt pouch, gave a sideways glance at Noel van Schilt and then turned towards Theodore while shaking his head.

“Rage and fear appears to have blinded you, made you easy to manipulate. Though those e-mails you’ve shown me looked real, if you’ve actually been observant, you would have noticed something off about it.”

“And what’s that?”

“While trying to find evidence, we got access to Noel van Schilt’s e-mails, and he types with British English. However, these e-mails you’ve been provided with are worded with American English. The pictures look very convincing too, but I did major in digital art before transitioning to law and this looks fabricated. Pixels don’t match certain spots. You should have gotten someone tech-savvy enough to examine these pictures and e-mails before jumping to conclusions,” Jason said as he picked up the shotgun once more.

“What the hell do you mean? No, you’re lying.”

“We can get this scanned by the techs back at the station if you don’t believe me. In fact, I’ll bet my neck on it. What about you, Mr Stonescu? Willing to bet that you’ve needlessly caused grievous harm and death over false information?”

“But, but all those evidence-”

“Let me rephrase my team leader’s words: You’re glaikit,” Xiaoye retorted.

Xiaoye took note of Theodore’s rising anger and confusion, starting to be come worried about Roderick’s well-being as the latter’s neck was still in the pricolici’s grip, but then she noticed Roderick glancing at her while tapping one finger against his chest, and that he was looking right into her eyes, almost as though he was trying to tell her something.

Tapping. Tapping. Drawing a line. Tapping again.

Roderick was sending a Morse code to her.

Not looking away from the pricolici, Xiaoye did her best to subtly glance at Roderick as he repeated his message and was shocked to see what it was: I am going to stab him.

No, you better not do something that risky, Roderick, Xiaoye thought to herself as she watched him took out a small survival knife and made a cut on his thumb which he then used to smear blood all over the blade.

The she remembered. Roderick was immune to vampiric bites. As an immune, his blood was toxic to them. He was going to disable Theodore, but to do it, Theodore needs to be distracted. And at the moment, the pricolici was clearly struggling to accept the fact that he’s made a huge, irredeemable mistake.

“Theodore, you heard the man. Stop this rampage before more lives are lost,” Xiaoye said to the pricolici.

“No… That’s impossible… All the evidence, all the things I did,” Theodore mumbled to himself.

“You need to pay for your actions. The law is the law, especially here in Singapore.”

“But I killed that store owner… I attacked that officer’s home… No, no! The evidence is right there! Right there! You’re telling me that all this was just a set-up? This is a trick, yes? You’re trying to confuse me, guilt-trip me, trying to protect him!”

“Haxe gave you that information, right? You believe a black hat hacker from the Dark Web with a reputation of playing both sides and blackmailing people over your own colleague and the cops? Do we look like the CIA to you? After everything you’ve done, stop being in denial!”

“You have no idea what Linda meant to me! She accepted me for what I am! Are you aware that pricolicis are hunted for sport? They call us hybrids when we are just vampires with wolf-like features! But Linda, she was a human and yet she showed no fear or disgust, nothing. She wanted to know more about me, and never in my life would I expect to fall in love with a human. Then these bastards took her away from me!”

“And they sent you to kill the one person who has the power and evidence to expose them! Are you trying to avenge your wife or bury the truth?”

“Don’t you dare talk to me like that! You don’t know what it’s like to lose a love one!”

“My ma got burned to death by a woketard politician trying to justify his anti-Asian policies! I hurt a lot of people during my hunt for him and it was in this country where I ended up cutting him down! Damn right I know what it’s like!”

“Then why are you getting in my way! You don’t care what happens to him?” Theodore threatened as he began to squeeze Roderick’s neck while assuming his true form once more, gaining height, muscle mass and fur around parts of his body as he did so.

“You’re the one who doesn’t care! In fact, you’re just using the excuse of avenging your wife to kill people! Innocent people. You broke into Lucas’s residence to kill Inna, you broke my colleagues’ bodies because they tried to stop you-”

“Your colleagues got in my way! They stabbed me! They tried to kick my skull in!”

“Of course they did! You broke into their fucking house in the middle of the night with murder on your mind! What were you expecting from them, milk and cookies? And what about Jin Shu Wei? He sold you that crap you’re sporting now, right? Pretending to be one of us? You’re just like me, a murderer. Oh, I’ve murdered more people than you. Sure, that’s because I fought in the bloody war, but that doesn’t exactly justify things, you know? But you, you don’t even have the guts to admit he’s just another killer!”

Roderick received the signal loud and clear.

Theodore screamed as Roderick plunged his survival knife into the pricolici’s guts, and Xiaoye took the opportunity to fire one round into his arm. The damage was brutal: Theodore’s shoulders and upper arm pretty much exploded, bones sticking out of flesh as he dropped Roderick onto Xiaoye. Immediately, the two began scrambling away from the pricolici as he quickly regained his balance but now staring at them both with rage that made even Xiaoye panic, using his one remaining hand to actually lift their wrecked patrol car off the ground, staring at Xiaoye and Roderick and then at Jason and Van Schilt, wondering who he should kill first when his other hand exploded as well, leaving the pricolici stunned right before the patrol car landed on and pinned him to the ground, causing him to throw up some blood as his ribs were fractured from the impact.

Xiaoye and Roderick stared at the carnage, then at each other before turning to their left to see Lucas standing in front of a patrol SUV cocking the sniper rifle he took from his partner with a blank look on his face.

“Nice shot,” Roderick commented once he snapped out of his daze.

“I missed,” Lucas replied nonchalantly as he walked over to the pinned pricolici and, to everyone’s shock, pressed the barrel of the sniper rifle right against his temple.

“Hey, hey, Lucas, think it through, we need that bloke alive,” Xiaoye urged as she stood up, wondering if she can tackle Lucas away in time before he pulls the trigger.

“Lucas, put that rifle away from his head, please,” Jason said as well.

“Yes, officer, please, don’t kill that man. He needs help, not a bullet in the head. He’s gone through enough,” Van Schilt, who had spent the whole time pissing his pants, finally regained enough of his senses to speak up.

Oh, shit, he’s really going to do it, Xiaoye thought to herself as Lucas did not seem to budge despite his colleagues’ pleas, instead bending down and staring Theodore in the eyes before uttering three simple words.

“For my family.”

“Lucas, no!” Jason yelled.

The gunshot never happened. Xiaoye stared in stunned silence as Lucas grabbed Theodore’s right shoulder, the one that Xiaoye’s bullet had partially destroyed, and began encasing it in ice with his freezing touch. The pricolici was also watching Lucas in disbelief: He, like Xiaoye and her colleagues, had thought Lucas was going to kill him. Once he was done, Lucas tended to the pricolici’s other arm which was now missing half its hand thanks to his sniper shot, encasing it in ice as well.

“Now you won’t bleed out before we charge and hang you,” Lucas said to Theodore before backing off, sniper still aimed at the pricolici but the finger away from the trigger, and all Theodore could do was let out a defeated sigh and silently motioned with what’s left of his arms that he wants to surrender to them.

“You heard that, Krsniks? Teodor Stonescu has surrendered to mortal law enforcement. He’s in our custody now. Call off your execution,” Lucas said out loud to two figures that had shown up in the distance, both of whom seemed to nod before disappearing.

“Who’s he talking to?” Roderick asked Xiaoye, having not seen the figures.

“The Krsniks. Amirah did say that two of them took off after Theodore when he began chasing us, but I guess Lucas was a tad quicker.”

“Huh, I thought I would see them in person…”

“Picture this, then: Trenchcoat-wearing vampires with their heads concealed in Daft Punk-styled helmets and cool swords,” Xiaoye replied as Jason approached them.

“You sure he’s supposed to be psychopathic?” he asked Xiaoye while pointing at Lucas, but all Xiaoye could do was shrug and reply: “Seventy-five percent, as Ajibade likes to say.”

“Seriously, I’m starting to feel like the odd one out of this little group,” Jason said in half-jest as he shook his head.

Xiaoye watched as other officers arrived on the scene with the fire department and medical services and finally lets out a sigh of relief, falling on her back as she did so.

Grey Team’s first case didn’t end the way they expected, but at least it was finally over.