I

"Little Miss Sunshine"

Things were starting to turn the corner for Mick. He and Beth were starting to adjust to their mismatched situation. Bu they had decided that their love for each other was the only thing that mattered, at least for the time being. They would worry about decision making later on. He should be extremely happy except for one single detail, he couldn't get his mind of what Coraline's brother had said. She would be punished for turning him without permission, for stealing the cure to give it to him. He couldn't stop thinking about this mysterious sire and the petrified look in Coraline's face when she realized she would be taken back to him. He was worried of what would happen if punishing her wasn't enough and they decide to come for him too. He needed answers and someone out there must have them. He and Josef had been moving all their contacts and searching beneath the rocks for information or the whereabouts of Lance and Coraline but so far they had come up empty.

"They couldn't have just vanished into thin air, someone has to know something!" Mick yelled at Josef, impatient.

"We have looked everywhere, we have asked everyone we know and no one know a thing" Josef replied without losing his cool.

"So we just sit here and wait for them to come and get us?"

"You're over reacting. I think he just wanted Coraline and now he has her, end of the story." Josef got up from the couch and walked towards Mick's secret blood stash. He poured some in a glass for him and then served another drink for his friend. Mick drank it all in a single sip. The blood mildly quenched his anger, just enough so he could get his ideas in order.

"You said we have asked everyone we know, but we haven't." Josef let out a huge sigh. His whole body tensed up.

"You wanna call little miss sunshine? Go ahead; maybe she'll talk to you. She sure as hell is not talking to me." He finished his drink, poured himself another one and stared at the blood stirring inside the glass for a while. He put the drink aside, suddenly he wasn't thirsty anymore. "Well, I gotta run. I'm still fixing that whole assassination attempt aftermath mess. Let me know if it works out."

"Aren't you coming?"

"No, thank you… But tell little miss sunshine I said hello."

Back then, when Coraline abruptly introduced Mick to the vampire world, she also introduced him to her vampire connections. Coraline had brought him to one of Josef's parties, the first one he would attend as a vampire. There was music, laughter, vampires feeding on willing humans… you could taste the euphoria in the air and Coraline seemed happy being at the very center of it. Josef appeared in front of them, dashing and always playing the gracious host. And then there was her. She was this skinny girl, with golden hair decorated with a white flower clip dancing on top of the coffee table. She was barefooted and she kept twirling and twirling almost as if she thought that way she would somehow fly, the skirt of her emerald green dress ruffling as she did so. Coraline beckoned her and she climbed down of the table and swiftly speed her was across the room to them. She smiled at him as if she had known him forever. Her name was Luciana Rossi, she had been with Coraline for almost three hundred years and as conceited as she was, she thought Luciana was completely devoted to her. But Mick new better, she had seen it in Luciana's eyes when she looked at Josef; it was he who was the object of her devotion, not Coraline and later on he was to confirm his suspicion. He could see that Josef cared for her too, but not in the same way Luciana did.

Off course now she went by Lucy Ross and that devotion for Josef was long gone. About thirty years ago they had gotten into a fight and she had left LA severing all ties to Josef, but not to Mick, so he knew exactly where to find her. Over the years he had asked both of them what had happened but both refused to answer him. Whenever he brought up the topic over the phone, Lucy would get defensive and avoid it or she would make up some excuse and hang up the phone. Josef on the other hand would become rigid and he would always have that distraught look in his face, the same one he had shown that night. But in truth if anyone knew anything about the royal vampires it would be Lucy, and that's where he had to go with or without Josef.

The huge mansion in Pasadena was no surprise to Mick. After all that time with Coraline and Josef some of that ostentatious way of living had to have had rub onto Lucy. There were bright lights coming out of the house, bright beams of white light shot up to the skies and exploded into streaks of purple, cyan, emerald and magenta. He entered through the gardens, surfing a sea of people jumping up and down to the sound of dance music and at the center of it all, standing on the center of it all was a small stage where a DJ was mixing live and next to him was Lucy. She was jumping along, her right fist up in the air. She saw him and smiled before speeding across the gardens and into his arms; he was not expecting that kind of welcome from her.

"We need to talk; can we get away from all of this?" She looked at him baffled.

"Sure, follow me."

She led him into the house and up the stairs. They walked into her study and she locked the door behind them; as soon as she did all the music seemed to fade away and there was only silence.

"Well then? I haven't seen you in twenty years and now you show up here with that grim look on your face."

"Did you know? You did, didn't you? Who else would she have gone to for help if not you?"

"Help who? What are you talking about?" No. Lucy had no idea. She listened to Mick's recount of the the events that had happened over the last few weeks. Coraline was alive, she had been alive and hiding for twenty two years and suddenly she had stepped out of the shadows to reclaim her husband. Lucy felt a sting in her stomach; it was a feeling all too familiar to her it had accompanied her for most of her life as a vampire.

"Where is she now?" She asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

"I don't know. That's why I need your help." Lucy walked towards Mick and gently stroked his face. She always looked so frail and yet she was no such thing. Back then Coraline used to put her in cute dresses and do her makeup; she always looked like a doll, Coraline's doll. Even now, wearing ragged jeans and a sheer grey tank top and messy hair, she still looked like a porcelain doll.

"Why would you want her back? So she can drag you back into her insanity? Come on Mick! Things got better for everyone once she was gone. Maybe it's best not to go looking for her."

"I'm not trying to find her. But I want to be ready; I need to know everything I can about them."

"Them?" Lucy froze. A shot of fear ran across her face and Mick realized she knew exactly who he was talking about.

"Tell me everything you know about Coraline's brothers." She looked away. She knew something, maybe a lot.

"They're dead and gone, let them be." She tried to avoid the topic but Mick would not let it go.

"No all of them, Lance is here. She also had that horrified look on her face when she saw him. He came for her. I need to know about them, I need to know if they are a threat…"

"No you don't! I won't! You need to go…"

"Lucy…"

"Just go!" she yelled at him as her whole body shook in fear. He got up from his seat and started walking towards the door but stop to look back at her. She had her back turned at him; she didn't want him to see. She had fought so hard to leave all of that behind her she cannot allow it to come back.

"Josef asked me to give you his regards"

"Tell him to shove them up his ass." She coldly replied without looking back.

She didn't rejoin the party after Mick left; she wasn't in a festive mood anymore. She thought it was over; Coraline, Cinthya and her had made sure it was over. After two hundred years she had believed as long as she never took a step in Europe ever again she would be safe. She opened a secret compartment on her desk which revealed a hidden freezer full of blood bags; she viciously bit down on one and then three others. There was blood everywhere; it almost looked like her feeding frenzies from her early vampire days. But it didn't do much to placate the rage she felt inside, that sort of rage that comes up from being scared beyond reason.

The music sounded different, the beat was off. But then she realized it was not just the music she heard, it was screams. She ran to the window and looked outside; people were still dancing just as they had been before and yet something was off. She broke through the window and landed on the grass, she figured that at that point people would be too drunk or too high to actually believe she had dropped 50 feet and has landed on harmed, if anyone had seen her she was sure that by the next day they would believe it all to be a hallucination. She could smell the blood and something else… the stench of decay. It didn't take long before she found the body, drained of blood and tossed onto one of the garden's darkest corners. Beautiful young girl Lucy thought, she could still smell the vampire that killed her on the golden waves of her hair, which meant that he or she was not far away. She pushed her way across the sea of people following her vampirc sense of smell back into the house where the front door was wide open. Whoever had been the killer had managed to get away and for now it wasn't in her best interest to give pursuit, since she had a dead body lying on her back yard. She leapt to the second floor, it was faster than taking the stairs, and went back into her study to call the cleaners.

She decided it was best to shut down the party and make sure the house was empty by the time the cleaners got there. As drunk and high as her guest were it was better not to take any more chances than the ones she had already taken that night. She ushered the people out herself to make sure no one would stumble upon the body by chance on their way out. Once she was all the people had left and the big house fell silent she went back to the spot where that poor girl was left. Without the noise and the people she was able to inspect it further. She was young, didn't look older than twenty, and even in the paleness of death she looked beautiful. And then she noticed the dress she was wearing, a long creamed colored seventeen hundred's era gown made of flower patterned fabric and with pink lace decorating the sleeves. That dress didn't belong to the dead girl that was wearing it; it belonged to a different dead girl one that had died a long time ago; one who also had porcelain skin and golden waves in her hair. She recognized the dress because once, two centuries ago to be exact, that very same dress had belonged to her. She backed away in panic; the dress, that particular smell. This was a message, it was specially staged for her as a warning or perhaps an omen of what would happen. That was, of course, if she let it happen.

"So, did you see her? How… how is she?" Josef asked, sitting behind the desk in his newly remodeled office. Mick was sitting in front of him.

"Well she lives in a huge mansion where she throws loud parties. Does it remind you of anyone?" Josef smiled faintly, almost as if he was proud.

"Does she know anything of use?"

"She knows a lot but she's not talking. She kicked me out as soon as I mentioned the brothers. You should have seen her face, she was frightened Josef."

"It's hard to believe she would be frightened of anything." There it was, that distraught look had found his way back into Josef's face. Mick knew there would be no answer, as it had never been an answer for the numerous times he had asked before. And yet he had to ask once again.

"What happened between you two" Josef got up from his seat visibly uncomfortable. "You guys were close as it can be. She lived with you, she helped you built your empire, she…" Mick stopped himself before those final words left his mouth.

"Go on." Josef got up from his seat, walked towards the window and stared at LA's night sky. Josef please he could still hear her say, he could still see her eyes pleading with him and the hate he had seen in them the last time he had her in front of him.

"She loved you and…"

"And now she hates my guts. That's all there is to it." He coldly replied "Now I imagine she found herself a generous benefactor since she hasn't taken a penny from me in the last thirty years." Mick's phone rang, he checked it and the swiftly put it back in his pocket.

"It's Lucy; she wants to meet me at my apartment."

"You'd better go then, should be interesting what she wants to say."

She waited for Mick on the roof of his building. By the way the people beneath were acting she guessed the night must have been cold; but she couldn't feel it, she couldn't remember how it felt to be cold or warmth. She wished she could, she wished she could feel alive again.

"Lucy" Mick called. She stopped looking out into the busy streets and turned back to face him. She wasn't sure if she was ready for it, but it was time to make a stand.

"I will tell you everything you want to know with one condition" She said. "Help me get rid of them, for good this time."