Ok, I know this is gonna be strange. I was surprised this idea came to me and even more surprised how anxious I've been to write it. I have two other one-shots I am working on that had to take a backseat to this b/c the muse was just screaming at me.

I love vampires. I've always been obsessed with them. This past year a new show called Moonlight aired on CBS. It's a great show about a vampire who falls in love with a mortal (I know typical). But, this world is now going to collide with 24. This is completely AU and not really a x-over as much as a collaboration of the two worlds. I'm pretty much taking some characters from 24 and putting them in the Moonlight world. Like I said, I know it's strange but I hope it comes out well and entertaining.

This is also my first attempt at writing anything longer than a one-shot. So, updates may be very slow but bare with me.

PG (NC-17 later) - 24/Moonlight collaboration - T/M - Completely AU

Chapter 1/?

He stood on the ledge of the building on East 4th and Pine looking down at the people moving below. It was dark, nighttime and the streets were busy. The sounds and smells of the bustle below wafted to him and he breathed it all in. He felt alive when he was able to stop and feel the energy from the people around him. He hadn't felt alive in such a long time. That is of course, till he met her.

Isn't that what they always say? Any story worth telling always begins with a woman?

Tony Almeida chuckled to himself and continued to wait on the edge of the building he'd been leaning against for about three hours now. This became part of his daily routine. After helping Mick with whatever he needed, Tony immediately followed her. He hated thinking about it like that. It made him sound like a stalker. He was just protecting her, watching over her.

Yeah…right…

It had started out innocent enough. She had been walking home from work one night and came upon a mugging. By no fault of her own she'd entered the wrong place at the wrong time. He still remembers being surprised that she hadn't ran. She pushed down her fear and attempted to help the old woman who two thugs had been holding against a wall. She'd put up a good fight too, until one of them had pulled out a baton and knocked her out cold. Against his better, judgment Tony interfered. Josef was always telling him and Mick not to get involved. But, Tony just wasn't the type of guy who could let someone hit a woman.

Needless to say he was the last thing either man had ever seen.

After going around the corner to inform a store clerk to call 911, he checked on both the old lady (who had passed out) and would be girl-hero. He was amazed and a little worried to find she hadn't been knocked unconscious only dazed. That wasn't good news for him.

"Oh…God…my head…" She tried to sit up but he easily pushed her back to lie on the ground.

"Easy. That's quite a bump ya have there."

She slowly opened her eyes and tried to focus. She was looking around, taking in her surroundings with a confused look on her face. The minute she met his eyes though, he knew she'd seen him do more than he could deny. He had to get out of there, fast.

"You…did you…?"

"I've had someone call 911. The cops should be here shortly. Just stay here where they can find ya." He rose swiftly and made his way around the corner and up to the ledge of the building just before she followed him.

"But I wanted to thank…how…where did he go?"

Tony stood watching her look around for him. The more he watched her, the more he wanted to keep watching her. There was something about her. She had an air that seemed to pull him to her like a magnet. It also helped that she was stunning. Her long reddish brown curls made his hands itch to bury themselves through their mass. Her skin was pale with a tint of blush from the fight she'd had before. And her eyes, God her eyes. They were a beautiful deep brown with a touch of Asia for good measure. She was exotic and he couldn't get enough of her. She was dangerous.

Which brings him to why he's standing on a building at 11:30 pm on a Friday night. Ever since he met her, he's watched her, followed her. He tells himself it's because he's watching out for her safety. She isn't the kind of woman to go looking for danger but she doesn't live her life in fear either. He denies it to himself but deep down he knows that if something were to happen to her, he isn't sure he could live through it. They are connected, even though they don't even know it.

A long time ago he would have laughed at such a superstitious notion. That kind of thing would have reminded him of romantic tripe. There is no boogey man. There are no creatures out to get you. There are no cosmic forces balancing and connecting life.

Wow, had he learned he was wrong the hard way.

A soft laugh breaks his thoughts and he peers below at the three women leaving the club. He watches them exchange goodbyes as two of them get into a taxi. The third woman watches them pull away and turns to head in the opposite direction towards home. She has a small but nice apartment three blocks away. He's been there multiple times in the past two months. She looks up from time to time, stopping to view the tops of the buildings like she's searching for something. He makes sure to always be just out of sight. It only takes a few moments before she starts her way towards home again; her on the street below, he on the roof above. A light breeze brings her scent to him. She always wears the same perfume, something musky with a touch of sandalwood. But the scent that entices him the most is of her. Her life. She smells of oranges and cinnamon. It's like nothing he's ever encountered before and he wants to drown himself in it. He knows he's a heartbeat away from falling in love with her but he can no more stop it than he could stop his existence.

If he were anyone else, he'd have approached her the very minute he saw her. He would have asked her to dinner, to a movie, to anything she desired as long as it allowed him to be in her presence. He would have done anything in his power to make her his. He would have given her his life.

But he can't do that. Not now, not ever.

Tony Almeida could never give his life to another because he doesn't have one.

Because Tony Almeida is a vampire.