Hi I posted this story some time ago and removed it.. I'm sorry but I had to made some few changes. No I'm ready to repost the chapters and end this fiction for my dear readers who deserve that!

I hope you'll forgive me that!

Chapter 1: New family members

There it was, the door number 5 in front of her. It had been one month since her kidnapping and now she was standing in the corridor trying to open the door.

Beth had spent the last month at Mick's apartment because of the turning. Yes, Beth Turner was now a vampire and her sire was dead. Everyone had thought that she was dead, herself included, but a sudden terrible sensation of thirst had grabbed her body. She had opened her eyes and had seen Mick talking to Josef, the first one who had seen her face, that new face which had taken so long to accept. That night had been horrible for many souls.

She put the key in the lock and opened the door. The place seemed new to her. Last time she was there, she'd been a human and been sad, really sad because of Mick. Now she was a vampire who rediscovered her home. She smelled the place and noticed that someone had cleaned the apartment. Josef, she thought with a smile. She walked in the living room and put her bag on an armchair. Outside, it was almost morning. Beth went to the window and looked at the sky. She was presently someone living at night, but she wasn't too tired to look at the sky in the early morning. Through the blinds she could see an explosion of colours; light blue, yellow, pink, white. Nothing in common with the dark sky of the night.

She began to feel tiredness through her whole body. She turned to the door of her bedroom, the place where Coraline had taken her. She slowly opened the door, her heart beating fast. The hand on her mouth… "Hi Beth, I'm back for you"…

The place was completely different and it caught her breath. Instead of her bed, she could see a strange furniture with a dark red velvet cloth covering it. On the left, there was a white couch. Beth went to the material and pulled it off slowly. She discovered a freezer, exactly the same as Mick's, the one where she'd slept in during the first night as a vampire.

He was holding her as he opened the door. She had that awful feeling running through her body. She could feel everything around her; the scents, the sounds, just like when she had taken black crystal. But this was worse. As a vampire the sounds and the scents were dazing her. She couldn't stop them, like she could do with B.C. Thirst, she was terribly thirsty. Mick placed her on the armchair and went to the kitchen. He came back to her, who was looking at him with wild white eyes. She was hungry, she was afraid, she was lost. She took the bottle filled with blood in her hands. She looked at it and smelled the scent. It was new for her, she was holding blood and it smelled tasty. She drank it and she felt the liquid filling her body. It was her very first mouthful of blood. She didn't have time to think if it was a good thing or not. She was hungry. Mick was sitting next to her, caressing her hair.

The first two weeks at Mick's had been difficult for her. She had discovered her new face in the mirror of his bathroom and had hated it. She had understood what Mick felt when he was talking about a monster. She'd thought of herself at the same way.

Her first time in his freezer had been a strange feeling. Mick had told her that she needed to rest. It had been the first time she'd seen this room. The freezer, his, for her, the vampire. He had left her alone, so she could take off her clothes. The feeling of coolness on her skin had been strangely perfect. Her body had felt nice for the first time since her turning.

Beth left the soft red velvet material on the floor and opened the top of the freezer. The coolness came out of it, making a cold fog in the room. The fog came in contact with the skin on her face, which made her feel better. Josef had thought of everything; she had many things to do, but for now she needed to sleep.

Some hours later, she slowly opened her eyes. It was her first sleep in her apartment. Mick wasn't there to say goodnight, but in a way, Beth needed to be alone. She went to the bathroom and took a cold shower. The touch of the water made her forget what she was. She let herself lost in the good feeling.

She went out of the shower and stood in front of her mirror. Her reflection was opposite of her. Beth looked at her face, her human face. Then she felt them, her fangs. She opened her mouth and saw them in the mirror; those two ivory fangs, standing perfectly next to the other teeth, like if they had been there from her birth. But they'd appeared one night and she hadn't expected it…

She felt her lips on her neck and her fangs piercing her flesh. Her whole mouth was on her skin and Beth could feel the blood running out from her body. Slowly she felt that she was losing consciousness. Her mind wasn't clear, but she felt her body heavy on the floor in her arms. Everything around her was only senses: sounds, scents and her heart. This living heart beating in her chest. Thump-thump…thump-thump… Its sound was louder in her ears until she could only hear it…thump..thump…thump..thump… But as she felt weaker and weaker, the sound was louder and louder. The rhythm that had used to be fast and regular was going slowlier …thump ………thump… …..….thump………thump… The beats were now sparse, loud and it almost hurt in her chest, like if it wanted to warn her that life was leaving her…thump…

Everything became suddenly just silence and darkness, a void surrounding her. Then she felt something strangely warm on her lips; three small touches of warmness coming from the darkness. Her first reflex was to lick them. The reaction was instantaneous; the warmness came in her mouth and gave her a strange feeling of life. The muscles in her mouth reacted to every new sensation. The taste buds woke up from their dead sleep and were ready for more.

Then she felt some skin against her mouth and she opened it to drink the warm liquid. It filled all of her body; she could feel every veins in every part of her body becoming thicker with this living liquid. Coolness left her limbs and became warm again. Somehow, she felt every pore of her skin breathing the air. The hair on her arms stood up, feeling life coming back. Her body was completely warm. The warmness calmed her down and this time she lost her mind in a sweet dream, nothing like the first sensation of void.

She was now standing there, in her bathroom. The turning had happened a month ago, but she still remembered all the feelings as though it was the day before. She'd never thought that Coraline was thinking of turning her. She'd always thought that Coraline wanted to kill her. But after that, she'd understood Coraline's words; she'd wanted Mick to choose between two vampires and not between a human and a vampire. What a mess.

Beth saw her reflection in the mirror and touched her fangs with her tongue. She was hungry. It was around 9:00PM and it was the beginning of her first day at home. She left the bathroom in her towel and went to the kitchen. As an habit, she opened the fridge, without thinking that maybe it was empty. As she opened the door, she smiled. The fridge was filled with bottles of blood.

The first weeks at Mick's appartment she'd consumed Mick's blood that he got from the morgue. She couldn't say if she liked it or not because it was the only kind of blood she had tasted. Everyday, Mick was standing in the kitchen waiting for her to wake up and come to eat. He gave her a bag full of blood, trying to change the type. It was kind of him, she had thought, because he was trying to help her to choose the one she liked best. But for her, it was just blood. She was happy to be with Mick, because he didn't feed from freshies, and Beth couldn't think about feeding from a human. So it was perfect for her to drink from bottles as if it were some kind of juice. She was scared only about the idea of putting her fangs into human flesh. It reminded her too much of her turning.

After the first week, she could taste the difference between the bloodtypes and the one she liked most was B-negative. She wasn't thinking that what she was drinking was blood; it had become natural for her to drink blood. She could smell the scent from the stairs as she went down, and just this made her smile. She liked it and enjoyed it. So during the second week, when Mick told her that he was going to take her outside, she wasn't really worried. He had waited till she had fed first.

They took the elevator and went to the mercedes. Beth was then confronted by thousands of scents that surrounded her. It reminded her of the night she had taken B.C; that night she had felt all the people around her, the air on her skin. She could feel the same things as a vampire, but there was something different though. As the car drove, she didn't notice a big difference. But as Mick stopped the car and opened the door for her, something strange surrounded her. The scents were new; they had something attractive and bewitching. She could smell sweat, perfume, skins, everything: humans.

The car was parked in front of Josef's building. Someone came to the car to drive Beth inside. She could smell that he was like her, a vampire. His scent was different; she smelled the same thing that she had smelled on Mick. A cold power and something on the skin that told her brain that he wasn't to be eaten. As she followed the car, she noticed that Mick stood outside, next to his Mercedes. He gave her a sign to keep going inside.

As she came in the office, she discovered this place in a new light. She could smell Josef in a different way. He smelled powerfull, ancient. A respectful scent emanated from him. The office had then new windows, but the scent of the smoke was strong. She hadn't noticed that when she was still human, but as a vampire, she could smell the difference.

Josef smiled at her. He could feel that she was discovering those things for the first time. He made her sit on a good chair.

"Well, how does it feel to be a vampire, miss Turner?"

Still trying to be funny, she'd thought.

"I didn't choose to be a vampire, so I guess, it's not that nice. But I'm working on it."

"No you're right, you didn't choose it. But you were hoping that he would turn you one day, weren't you?"

Something strange happened in her body. Her feelings flew stronger in her blood, through her veins. Old feelings like shame or like here, blushing, were strangely increased. She could even feel that her eyes became iceblue. It made Josef laugh.

"It's okay Beth, you're reacting so strongely because you're a fledgling. You'll be used to it, believe me."

In a way, seeing Josef laughing at her, made her forget the tragedy of her new situation.

"So, how is Mick as a sire?"

"Well, he's doing good I guess."

Josef's face turned suddenly from amused to worried, even concerned. "How is he?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, his old sire, ex-wife turned you…"

"Yes" said Beth in a low voice. "He's very kind. I think he's sort of relieved."

"Yes, that's because you're not dead."

Silence came between them for a few seconds, until Josef broke it with a happy voice.

"What about some refreshement, miss Turner?!"

"Uh?"

Before Beth realized it, she was ambushed by a strong scent. Something she had never smelled before. A scent that came directly to her. It flew inside her nose; the hair were brushed by the scent which continued its way inside the mouth and awoked her taste buds. She felt the desire of blood. A sudden urge to drinking warm blood. She turned her head and saw the source of this sensation. A human was just now coming in the office.

A man was standing under the arch of the entry. A minute later a woman, also human, stood next to the man. As Beth saw them, she could hear their blood running in their veins. The scents were tickling her nose and she heared their two hearts beating in rhythm. Something happened to her that she couldn't controle. She felt her eyes changing in colours and her fangs sliding down in her mouth.

Josef felt the change of attitude in Beth and understood what was happening to her.

"These are the first humans you've seen, right?"

His question woke Beth up from her reverie. She realised what was happening to her. She wanted to taste their blood. For the first time, she wanted to bite them. It wasn't anymore something horrible to her. It was the opposite, she wanted to pierce their flesh with her fangs and feel the blood running in her mouth, then through her body, like she had felt when she had drunk Coraline's blood. She shook her head to throw this desire away. She looked at Josef and saw that he wasn't worried.

"I guess he hasn't brought you any freshies."

"No and I didn't want him to either. But when I smell them now, I feel the opposite."

"That's natural Beth. You're a vampire and vampires feed from humans." Josef paused to think of the right words. "I understand that you don't want to bite them after how you were turned. So I can propose to you something as a transition." He saw that Beth was listening to him with interest. "What I mean, is that you can drink fresh blood in bottles instead of that stuff he's buying at the morgue. So when you'll be used to your new powers and strong enough to controle them, then you can try to drink directly from a freshy."

It was exactly what she needed to hear then. Josef had given her a future with hope and since that day he was sending her bottles with fresh blood. After all, fresh blood was better than the stuff coming from the morgue. Mick understood her and let her drink the one she was receiving from Josef.

As she took a bottle from the fridge, she smiled. She was one of the luckiest vampires in L.A, because she had two sires taking good care of her. Before she closed the door she noticed a piece of paper on one of the bottles. Josef had written on it: "It should be enough for two days. Call me when you'll need more. Don't forget to buy a proper fridge to hide those bottles. Call this number and tell them Kostan is sending you."

Beth closed the door of her fridge and put the note on the table. It was a good thing Josef was there to think of everything. She realized the reality of her new situation as a vampire. If she'd been prepared, maybe she would have thought of all those things: the freezer, a hidden fridge, blood, etc. But she hadn't been prepared and she knew that Josef was doing all that stuff because of that. Since her first visit to him, he'd shown that he wanted to take care of her. What he'd said then about her wish to be turned by Mick wasn't wrong. Beth had thought about that many times, and maybe then it would have been easier for her, to prepare herself with her new life. Mick would have been prepared too and would have explained to her how to live as a vampire.

It was pointless to think of that; she was a vampire and Coraline was the one who did it. She had to live with it and go her own way. She wasn't alone, Mick was there and Josef too. Josef had helped her in so many ways.

When she came back to the Mercedes, Mick was still there, waiting for her. He smiled as he saw her approaching. She was nervous and didn't know how to tell him that she'd tasted fresh blood. They sat in the car and drove back to his place. Beth was staring at Mick, trying to find the right words to tell him that she wanted freshblood. It wasn't necessary, because Mick knew that already. He knew that Josef wanted to help her in his own way. That was the reason why he'd driven her there. He went to his kitchen and opened his hidden fridge, took a bag for him and a bottle. He went to Beth who wasn't sitting on the couch, nervous.

"Here for you." Mick gave her the bottle and she could smell the delicate scent. It was fresh blood. She looked at him surprised.

"When you were talking to Josef, one of his men came to me with a note that explained that Josef had sent you some bottles of fresh blood."

"Did you know that he wanted to have me taste fresh blood?"

"Yes, I wanted you to see all the ways to be a vampire and you had to meet humans in a safe place. Josef is quite good with that and he wanted to help you. I think he likes you more than he'd like."

Seeing Mick smile made Beth relaxe. She smiled in return and took a mouthfull of freshblood. Mick saw that she was apreciating the taste.

"Is this alright for you, Mick?"

"Of course. I want you to feel good as a vampire. I don't want you to take the same path that I followed these last years."

The day after, a huge package came to them. It was a new freezer. Of course it was Josef who had sent it to Beth. There was no notes, but it wasn't necessary; they knew that it was from him. The next days she drove alone to Josef's. They talked about what she had to do as a vampire and he helped her to controle her powers. It was so new for her and he exposed her to the sounds from the city. The first time it was horrible. The sounds almost made her head explode. He taughed her how to controle the sounds, how to pick one and concentrate on it. He let more humans come in the office and taughed Beth how to controle herself around them. Back at Mick's she did the same exercices with Mick who saw she was progressing quickly. So by the end of the month she was ready to go back in town and live among humans. She made some calls. She decided to quit Buzzwire; the new boss was horrible and the work was completely different from what it was when Maureen was still alive. When everything was ready, she wanted to go back to her home and live alone.

She was finishing her bottle. She was back home and it felt good. She needed to be alone and try to figure out how to live as a vampire without Josef or Mick to help her. Beth was independent even if she was a vampire. As she came back to the kitchen to wash the empty bottle, she noticed that her answering machine had a lot of messages. Twenty actually. She listened to all of them. Some were from her old boss at Buzzwire before she'd quit. Others from her friends, publicity and two that held her interest. She cancelled the eighteen messages but listened again to the two messages that were important. They were messages from Benjamin Talbot.

The voice machine said from Monday 3th September at 8:00PM. It was three days after her turning. Then she heard his voice which was initially nervous:

"Uh Miss Turner, this is ADA Benjamin Talbot. I called you some days ago about the baby case. I want to thank you first for sending me St-John; he really helped me with the rapport. Call me when you have some time. I know that you quit Buzzwire, and I may have a job for you."

So Mick went to Talbot after all. When she had told him, he wasn't okay with that. But that was before Coraline had kidnapped her again. Obviously he'd felt guilty.

The second message was way more interesting. From Thursday 30th September at 8:30PM; two days before her return home.

"Miss Turner, this ADA Talbot. Well… uh… I haven't heard from you for a while… a month actually. Uh… I have something really important to show you. It would be a work for you and I really need your help here. Please call me."

***

Josef was sitting in his newly decorated office, all alone. Many things had happened these last few weeks. He would never have known that his life was going to change so much.

He was standing in front of the large window, looking outside. It was late at night, but all the lights were on. It was so difference from the time when there wasn't electricity. Then he could see the stars and it was the moon that lit the earth.

Why did I save Coraline that first night? Things would have been like before. He hadn't seen Mick for a long time. It was even more difficult now that he was his sire. It had increased their friendship.

The city was still moving and the vampire stood at the top of his building, observing how a human's life could be so insignificant to those people living their pitiful lives, without thinking of the very meaning of it. They killed each other, destroyed their own world without even considering it. He'd always thought that vampires were superior in their acts and thoughts. But what happened a month ago, had shown him that vampires weren't so different from humans. After all they'd been humans before they had been turned. What he'd seen happening with Coraline proved that vampires had also this awful thing that one calls « human nature ».

Josef was still thinking when a smile appeared on his face. "Hey man. It's been a long time."

"Hi Josef. Yeah it has. How are you ?"

Mick was standing in the middle of the room and went to the window where Josef stood. They were now both looking at the city.

"I'm fine. It's good to see you again Mick."

"Yeah, it's good to see you too."

Josef put his hand on Mick's shoulder and walked outside the office. Mick followed him. They went to a room upstairs where all the walls were made of glass. They sat in the middle of the room on white couches. The night and the stars were surrounding them.

"I'm sorry for everything Mick." said suddenly Josef.

"It's okay Josef. I was wrong to react that way. After all you're my sire now."

"Yeah" said Josef smiling. "You have to respect your father."Mick smiled in return. "Since you brought that up, I want to share a few things with you. After all we haven't talked about that yet and I guess Coraline didn't tell you much."

"She had explained the basics… but no, not much."

"Well now you have entered another powerful bloodline and we have a kind of role in our society…But what I want to tell you about now is why I saved Coraline, because it has a direct connection with my sire." Mick said nothing, listening closely to Josef.

"My sire died a long time ago. His name was Friedrich Wallenberg. Coraline'sire and mine knew very well each other. They weren't friends but they had a mutual respect even if they didn't share the same definition of vampirism. Richelieu took care of the french royal family to control the policy of the country and of Europe. Mine was more for standing aside and observing the evolution of the world.

The important vampire's families never meet, only when there is a big crisis. Now, one time in the middle age, a long time before I was turned, many vampires were killed. The oldest vampires met and decided to join their forces to find a way to protect themselves against the human's attacks. It was a terrible genocide, they had to do something to save our race. So they fought back. It was awful; many people, both humans and vampires died. In the end, the humans understood that we were stronger and made a deal with the vampire's chiefs, who decided that we had to live in secrecy.

Then came the reign of terror in France, or the "French Revolution". It was first a battle between poor people who wanted more food against the rich ones. But one day, by accident, they discovered our existence. They had taken some aristocrats, tried to kill them and saw that they wouldn't die. They discovered the existence of vampires. That's how, a social revolution became a genocide. They thought that all vampires were rich, so hopefully some poor vampires were safe. But Richelieu was in a great danger with all the kings and queens he had turned. So my sire came to France to help him. We were in Austria then, under the protection of the empress Marie-Thérèse.

He knew how to help him, and didn't go there alone. A scientist vampire was with him. They arrived in Fontainebleau some months before the farmers went to take Louis 16th and Marie-Antoinette in Versailles.

The scientist had found a way to make vampires temporary human, the cure." Josef paused and looked at Mick who was surprised. Coraline had told him that the cure had made it appearance at that time. But she didn't say that it was Josef's sire that had brought it to France. It meant that Josef knew the existence of the cure from the beginning. Of course he knew, he was 400 years old… How could he have been that stupid! And of course Josef had kept the secret because he knew how he would have reacted. But that was month ago, and now Mick was happy as a vampire…

Josef was observing Mick's reaction and saw that his friend wasn't angry, so he kept telling his story. "So, they made some cure and gave it to Coraline's sire. My sire sent me a letter telling me everything and added that Richelieu was in debt to our bloodline. After he received the cure, Richelieu gave it to Coraline and her brothers. But as he was going to Versailles, he received a note saying that Louis 16th had been taken. It was too late to save them. Richelieu let the King and his wife die because if he had helped them, he would have also risked the rest of his bloodline.

My sire was on the way back to me, when he was stopped by a group of farmers who saw that he was a noble on his way to Austria. At this time there was almost a war between the two countries. So they tested him by burning his hand. He hadn't had time to take the cure earlier, so they discovered that he was a vampire and decapitated him. And Richelieu's debt came to me.

When I heard that Lance came to L.A to find Coraline and bring her back to France, I knew that Richelieu was going to kill her. So I decided to use the debt and save her. You know the rest…"

Mick was completely surprised by the story. That was the first time Josef told him something from his past and realized that he was part of this story by entering this bloodline.

"I understand. Sires and fledglings have a special bond… and your family has an old contact with Coraline's. I don't understand why she never told me about it…"

"Well, now that you're part of my bloodline and you have to know who we are, and the duties we have mutually and against the family. I won't be like Coraline and keep you outside our long history."

Josef paused and looked down. He looked back at Mick, his eyes were full of sadness.

"Mick, I had to kill her. I'm really sorry. This whole thing, Beth being turned, Coraline's death… it's my fault-"

"No Josef, it isn't your fault."

"It is my fault, because I saved her 23 years ago, when she kidnapped Beth."

"I know that you saved her… I understood that when you discovered us in my appartment… I understand that you and Coraline had a long history together, and I completely understand why you felt that it was your duty to kill her. She went too far. We thought that she had killed Beth, we couldn't have known that she wanted to turn her. And even that, is something I have difficulty excusing. Coraline did all those things because of me and I know that I'm partly responsible for Beth's turning. But I have to live with that."

Josef kindly smiled at his friend.

"You know, she doesn't think that you're responsible."

"Yes I know. I just don't understand why."

"I do."

Mick looked surprised at Josef who had a large smile on his face.

***

The place was dark, because of the lack of windows. The walls were made of big stones. It was very cold, but as a vampire, he didn't care. On the contrary it was quite nice. It would at least have been nice if he wasn't being held as a prisoner.

The most important thing right now was for Henri was to find a way to go away from this place. He had to get to L.A as fast as possible and warn them of the imminent danger.