Midnight shook her head and said “Nerves…sorry I can’t help it…” Bane chuckled and said “you truly are a mother hen aren’t you. He will be fine. Both of them will”

She sighed and stopped and sat by Scarlet and put her arm around the pixie. Iris was cursing softly as she tried get Dante’s bleeding under control.

It took what felt like half an hour, but the bag was eventually filled to capacity with Matias's essence. He blessed whatever higher power allowed this to happen, because now he was beginning to feeling queasy, his vision beginning to look like watercolors. With a soft exhale, he closed his eyes tightly and opened them wide. It helped a bit, his vision now veering towards acrylic expressionism.

"I really hope I don't have to do this again any time soon," he grumbled, leaning back as the pins and needles were beginning to subside.

Bane moved and carefully pulled the needle out. “I don’t think you will mate. Because now that his out, he can feed more freely. It will help a lot”

Iris looked over and said “bring it here Bane. We will have to inject it straight. Hopefully Matias is clean of anything”

Midnight sighed and rubbed her eyes, looking better now the needle was out.

Matias's face reddened in almost an instant, the blood he had left over rushing to his head in a sudden burst of rage.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" he hissed, his fist tightening. "I wrap it when I do it, alright?!"

He folded his arms and threw his head up, grumbling at no one in particular.

"Anyway... I'm gonna lay down myself. So damn tired from everything..."

Iris looked up with her eye brow raised. “I was talking drugs, Matias…anything by blood and sex doesn’t affect vampires. But that’s good to know for the future…” Bane groaned as Scarlet covered her mouth to keep from laughing.

Midnight nodded and said “you can use my room to get some quiet…”

Matias felt his teeth gritting, nearly to the point of fusing together. With a growl, he forced his body to relax itself so he looked less homicidal.

"Well I don't do those," he said, "unless you count escitalopram. Anyway, I'll take your advice, hope he likes the blood. Gooooooood fuuuuucking night."

He staggered for a moment as he rose, but he was able to quickly recuperate to walk towards the door and leave. He stood in the doorway for a moment, his mind fading on where Midnight's room was. Luckily, it was right to his left, so he heaved his body over to that door. It was like he was hit with some kind of spell as soon as he passed that doorway; his legs gave in, and he waddled pathetically towards the bed and fell right on top of the wrinkled sheets, face down.

"Mrph..."

He rolled into a more comfortable position, choosing to stare at the ceiling for now.

Bane watched him leave and said “I didn’t think he would do that before today…” Midnight smiled and said “there’s a reason…he is fated to be with us…”

The night was long trying to help Dante recover. The blood helped a lot but it was still long hours with Iris working on Dante bane helping. Midnight waited till Scarlet fell asleep on the bed then slipped out.

She limped to her office since he was in her room. She sat at the desk, flinching at her wound then got to work on the case at hand. People were still missing. And she needed to get a lead with the new information. So along with the others she stayed up all night.

As the night encroached, Matias's drowsiness grew with it. Soon it would be totally dark, and his body was now one with the mattress. Despite all this, the one thing that succeeded in keeping him somewhat awake was his unfamiliarity with the upper level, let alone this house. He started to ponder whether or not he locked his front door before he left it alone like that.

The loud thunk on the ceiling didn't help.

He was stirred from his REM by the repetitive noises from above. They stopped after a few seconds, but it failed to ease him. Now he was stuck staring at the ceiling, almost expecting something to burst through and kill him... but nothing of that sort happened.

Just some clicking afterwards.

The machine wolf was laying on the floor not far from the bed, his guardian for the night. Iris was still working on Dante and bath Bane and Scarlet had passed out

Midnight was still working in her office, working the case.

No way.

Matias had grabbed his hair by the handfuls at this point, still staring at the ceiling. There's no way that's him, he thought to himself. He tried his hardest to remain as quiet and still as possible to feign himself not being here, but someone else's voice chose to break the silence.

"The chief's gonna kill us," a distant, gruff voice snarled, "I don't see that thing anywhere..."

"Keep looking," an equally distant, more nasal voice chimed in, "I'd rather we bring some of the tech back than none of it. Look, we can ask whoever lives here."

"Are you slow? Look what time it is. They're sleeping."

"Sheesh, just a suggestion..."

The voices grew closer and closer. As much as he wanted the intruder gone, Matias wanted these guys moreso.

Prayers answered.

A gunshot ripped through the silent air and was followed by a grunt and a thud.

"WHAT THE FUCK?! Wh- Where?!"

Another one, followed by a short scream. Now the only thing Matias could hear was the beating of his heart directly in his ringing ears. Was he next?

Silence.

Didn't look like it.

Midnight looked up when she heard the shots. She jumped up and ran to the window to open it and to look out. She looked for what was going on as she opened the window.

Bane shot up and Iris looked up from Dante. “What was that?”

Almost as if automated by everyone's movements, Matias pulled himself from the bed, difficult as it was. He had to stretch and crack his bones before he even found the motivation to hobble over to the window.

Laying on the ground were two bodies belonging to one dead police officer each. As if carbon copies of each other, they both laid face up with a bullet wound right between their sunken eyes, their weapons sprawled beside them. It was a morbidly tranquil sight until a shadow zoomed past the windows from above and crashed down below. A vespine shape quickly took form and shut its wings.

Matias growled softly, then turned. He could have sworn that he heard someone's voice earlier. Was everyone awake right now? With a huff, he stepped out of the master and rushed to where he presumed everyone else was.

"Did you guys hear that?" he asked the moment he stepped through that door.

Bane was loading his pistols when Matias came in and nodded. “Yes we did. I’m going to check it out now. Wait, wasn’t the boss with you?”

Iris looked up and said “she’s alone in the house? I thought she had gone to bed”

Midnight was opening the door to the back yard where the thing had crashed. She had a short blade in hand as she moved towards it. “Hello? Are you alright?”

Matias's eyebrows rose considerably.

"Uh... I thought she was with you guys..."

He paused, Midnight's voice cluing him in on her whereabouts.

"Ay, esta niña..."

As quickly as he came in the room he left it. His feet guided him down the stairs with quick precision, then took him to the house entrance. There was no Midnight in sight, however, so he let out a cuss before darting elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the bug had just got done approaching one of the corpses when Midnight appeared. Its head turned, its red eyes bright and piercing. What looked like a perfectly functional assault rifle at its hip was quickly whipped up and pointed right at Midnight without hesitation. It could have chosen to kill her right then and there, but it instead chose to stare her down, its finger right on the trigger but not pressing it.

Midnight didn’t show an ounce of fear as she said “this is my home…I ask why your leaving dead bodies on my lawn” she moved her free hand, the shadows reacting and started to gather around the bug but hiding till it was he right time.

Bane ran after Matias, sniffing the air and said “Matias, backyard,

One of the bug's antennae flicked at the shadows' presence, making it look around for a moment. It kept its eyes on Midnight afterwards, however, taking a single step forward and huffing out a steady flow of smoke.

Matias arrived to the backyard as told at that very moment. Past Midnight's shoulder he saw the firearm and let out a short, garbled stammer.

"Seriously, boss?!" he hissed, running in front of her. "How many times do I have to tell you that you can't be putting yourself in these kinds of situations right now?!"

The bug didn't move. Not its head nor its gun. It was a tall, angry statue.

Midnight glanced at him and said “I have this handled…I didn’t want to make things worse for the others inside…” Bane made it to doorway and pulled his pistols up and aimed.

“You guys alright out here?”

Matias was about to shout again when in came Bane. He flinched when he saw the barrels of his guns before realizing who they were actually for. It almost made him forget about the even bigger barrel pointed towards him right now.

"God dammit," he snarled, "of all things to happen now..."

He turned towards the bug.

"What the hell do you want? How did you even know I was here?"

The bug stared him down for a few seconds, breathing heavily. It seemed to glance at Midnight and then Bane, each for about as long, before lowering its gun and then suddenly opening its wings.

"Oh no you don't," Matias hissed, "You're not getting away again!!"

He lunged at the creature as hard as he could, nearly knocking it over. With the sudden movement its finger pulled on the trigger and released a powerful bullet that punctured Matias in the shoulder. The man screamed as he stumbled back and held the afflicted area.

"MY MOTIVES DO NOT CONCERN ANY OF YOU," the bug signed after setting the gun aside, "SO I RECOMMEND LETTING ME DO MY WORK BEFORE MORE OF YOU GET HURT."

Midnight snapped. She waved her hands and shadows wrapped around the bug once more and tightly bind him into place. She was in its face within a moment and said “I told you not to harm my team…now you lose your chance to talk your way out of this…”

Bane walked up and knelt down by Matias, checking the wound. “Hang on mate I got you”

Midnight's hand movement signalled the bug to anticipate, but even that didn't save it as it was crushed under the shadow's binds, squeezing out its breath. It could feel its shoulder guards biting into its flesh, and its ribs were a hair away from fracturing. Despite the serious pain it was in right now, however, it managed to lower its head when Midnight approached, glaring deeply into her eyes without its own even emoting at all.

Matias was no better. The pain had caused him to fall to the ground and grasp at the burning, bleeding wound. There was a hole on the other side of him that burned equally strong, but there was little he could do as that fire raged on– except yell out curse after Spanish curse as he rolled back and forth on the ground to try and distract himself.

"I'm fine...! Ohh, god! I'm, rrrggghh!"