Standard Disclaimer Applies: They characters are not mine they belong soley to Ms. Frost. The plot and Docter Drake are my own.
A/N: I started this story before I read the third book, and then added Vlad as soon as he was introduced, so there is some inconsistencies as I went off of the way that Bones felt for Vlad, not the way Cat and Vlad ended up as friends
After the Grave
Cat was sitting in yet another bar getting ready to lure a vampire to his death. This time it was a newbie vampire that was cutting his fangs into twenty-year-old blood. The vampire was two years dead and had cut down ten women in the last month.
Cat was tired of sitting on the barstool, she had been there for two hours and he still hadn't showed up. The bartender was giving her strange looks as she had downed almost a whole bottle of gin. Juan and Bones were waiting a block away so the vampire wouldn't get spooked if he felt their power.
Dave was sitting at the end of the bar watching Cat's back, and Cooper was across the room slouched in the corner booth.
"Hello, there." Cat turned her head to see an athletic looking twenty something year old that reeked of vampire.
"Hi." Cat smiled flirtingly.
"Jason." He said holding out his hand.
"Katerina." She told him, not using her usual alias of Cat in case he had heard of the Red Reaper.
"You here will anyone?" Cat watched his eyes focus in on her hair, watched him take in that it was red. The guy appeared ballsy enough to care that she could be the Red Reaper or he was new enough that he didn't know better.
"Nope, not at all." Cat said shaking her head.
"Well then how about I get you a drink." Jason said nodding toward her empty glass.
"I think I might have had enough already." She said even as the bartender poured her more.
"How about I give you a ride home then?" Jason said smiling belying his intentions to kill her once he got her alone outside.
"Umm, yeah I guess that would be better." Cat said downing her glassful of gin and stood up wobbling for effect.
Jason slipped his arm through her and led her to the door. Cooper and Dave got up and quietly followed them out.
As they reached the side of the car Jason shoved her against it.
"You're the one they call the Red Reaper, aren't you?" Jason said keeping her against the car even though she struggled.
Cat tried to push against the vampire's hand but it didn't budge. She couldn't believe this two-year-old was holding her down one handed as if it was nothing. She should have been able to swing around and take him out. She had done it hundreds of times in numerous bar parking lots and the vampire had never over powered her. The kind of vampires that could overpower her didn't frequent the bar crowd to get blood.
"So Reaper," Jason said grinding her head further into the car. "Not as strong as they say, hmm?"
She heard Cooper swear as he jumped on Jason. "Son of a bitch isn't moving." Cooper cursed, as he tried his best to get Jason to move.
"Damn, he's not budging." Dave said as he tried to pull Jason's are off of her.
Jason stood there laughing letting them struggle against them.
"Cat," Juan called as he swung at Jason, who went flying in to a car parked several spots away.
"Damn," Cat said rubbing her head, "I couldn't get him off of me."
"This little sod?" Bones asked picking up Jason and restraining him. "He shouldn't have been so much trouble."
As Bones went to bring Jason over to the capsule the younger vampire broke free of Bones' grip. "Bloody hell." Bones swore as he grappled to get another grip on him. Juan came up from behind Jason and together the two of them got him into the capsule.
"Let's get this to Don, now." Cooper said pushing the capsule into the back of the truck.
"Let's hope he can't break out of there." Juan commented as he helped him.
"I've never seen a vampire, especially a newborn that was so strong." Cat said looking at Bones, hoping he could explain.
"He shouldn't have been that strong, luv." Bones told her.
OoOoOooOoOoO
"So you're telling me that you don't know what happened?" Don questioned from behind his desk.
"I've contacted Mencheres; he said he has never heard anything of the like." Bones told them.
"Are the blood results in yet?" Don asked swinging his gaze to Cooper.
"Not yet, sir."
"So you've got nothing at all?" Don tried again.
"No matter how many ways you ask it, Don we don't know why this vampire was so strong." Cat told him, her hands on the edge of his desk her weight on them as she leaned toward him on them. "We only have a week left till I'm outta here, Don." Cat said feeling the need to remind him that she had put in her resignation.
Don nodded, pulling on his eyebrow. After a dreadful couple of days where she thought Bones was dead she decided that she had had enough of working for Don and wondering if a vampire was going to try to take Bones away from her again.
"What is taking so damn long on those blood results?" Don asked again, he had already tried to talk Cat into not leaving but whatever he said she ignored him.
No one answered his question, Dave merely shrugged his shoulders.
The door to Don's office opened and Don was ready to flay the messenger for taking so long on getting the results. But it wasn't the pathologist that walked through the door, it was Vlad.
"What the hell?"Cat started.
"Catherine, it is good to see you too." Vlad told her giving her a mock bow.
"Well, Drac I thought we had an agreement that we would each call the other by their name?"
"Of course, of course, Cat. Mencheres merely thought that I would be able to help, but I must admit that I am at a loss as to what would give strength to this vampire."
"So you decided to come and make a bother of yourself anyway?" Cat asked sarcastically.
"I was told you had trouble keeping the vampire in line," Vlad said, an eyebrow raised. "I came to offer some help."
"Help?" Cat repeated. "You?"
"I'll do my best." Vlad returned.
Before Cat could respond to that, Don stepped in. "How about we go find out what is keeping the results? Then we can find out if we actually need outside help."
Cooper and Dave followed Don out of the office, leaving Bones to usher out Cat who was still glaring at Vlad.
Cat entered the lab behind Dave and was surprised to find that the pathologist was in the lab working despite how late it was. In fact it didn't look like Doctor Drake was in anyway ready to go home. Samples were out, some were under microscopes, various contains littered the counter. And music was booming throughout the room at what had to have been the loudest volume setting.
The volume was enough to block all sound to Cat's ears so she knew that it had to have been deafening to the vampires. Cat didn't know how it was affecting Dave, but the music didn't seem to bother Don and Cooper.
Don walked right on over to Leslie Drake resident pathologist, who had been hired because the government likes the best working for them. Leslie wasn't someone that Cat hung around, the only time she ever saw the brunette was when she had her blood drawn. Despite how young Drake looked Cat knew that the doctor had to have been practicing long enough to have made a name for herself.
Don hit the button on the radio so that conversation would be possible. "So Leslie what have you got on that vampire's blood?"
"It's irregular." She told him without turning from the microscope she was looking in.
"It made him stronger." Don said hoping to get more info out of her.
"It made him dangerous." She responded finally turning around to look at them. "Oh good, an audience."
"Why is it different?" Vlad asked her.
"For some reason instead of drinking blood this one decided to inject it directly into his veins. The rush of temporarily new blood cells gave him a boost in power. For how long this boost lasts I don't know, but it gave him the strength that would equal Mencheres' or a vampire equally as old."
There was a scream a split second before the alarms sounded through the base. The sound of running echoed along with the blare of the alarm.
"The vampires escaped." Bones told them. "Vlad, Juan and I will try to get him into another capsule. Dave, Cat stay here and protect the humans."
Cat tried to argue but Bones was already gone, racing toward Jason, with Vlad and Juan on his heels.
"Since when did human become an adjective?" Leslie asked as she moved bottles around and put others away.
Cooper watched her, "You're not worried about the vampire that's loose?"
Leslie just smiled at him, "I can take care of myself."
Shouting sounded in the hallway, none of it sounded victorious as people rushed past the lab door.
"Should we be fleeing as well?" Leslie asked as a man in a bloodied lab coat went hobbling past. "Because I really don't want to end up like that guy."
A body was then thrown across the doorway, "Juan." Cat cried out and went to go help, but Dave caught her by the wrist. When she turned to give him hell he only shook his head.
"They can take care of themselves."
A very angry vampire then followed the body, the people in the lab froze as it turned its green eyes on them. Jason grinned and leaped into the lab, Cat and Dave met him mid leap. Jason easily knocked them out of his way.
"Well, it looks like the effects of the human blood are still working its way through its system." Leslie stated making a note of it in a notebook.
Cat got up and shook her head, trying to clear it after getting knocked in to the wall. She intercepted Jason before he could reach Cooper and Don. If she got knocked down like a fly again he would tear them apart.
Jason's green eyes flared brighter as Cat squared off with him. Dave was up again and went charging for Jason, the two of the knocked into a lab bench knocking it over and scattering the contents all over the floor. Bottles crashed, notes were flung all over, and a syringe went rolling, stopping as it rolled into Leslie's foot.
"Hey," Leslie shouted picking up the syringe, "Take it outside."
Don pulled her back, making sure that she was behind both himself and Cooper. "Shut up." He hissed at her.
Jason pinned Dave, and Cat jumped him from behind, ramming a stake into his back. Jason froze waiting for Cat to twist it.
"Do we want him alive?" Cat asked Don, she turned her head to see if he gave confirmation and Jason knocked Cat off of him.
"Yes, kill him. We have a blood sample, kill him." Don shouted a stake of his own out and ready.
Jason was trying to get Cat's stake out of his back without shredding his heart at the same time. Dave was back on his feet behind Jason but he couldn't get a hold on the stake.
"Move over." Leslie demanded pushing Don back. "I can take care of myself."
Cooper tried to grab for her but missed her wrist as she headed directly for the vampire. The syringe still in hand, Leslie stuck it into him and depressed the plunger.
"What are you crazy?" Dave asked her, still trying to grab hold of the stake.
Jason stood there frozen, and then went down to his knees clutching at the syringe. Jason growled at her and pushed her away, slamming her into a wall.
Jason spasmed as whatever was in the syringe coursed through his veins, finally falling facedown, truly dead. That was when Bones and Vlad came rushing back in.
"What happened?" Vlad asked moving over to Jason's body.
"Where's Juan?" Cat asked as she made sure that Bones was alright.
"Juan is fine, he is just finishing the round up. Jason let the other vampires loose as well which stalled us from getting to him." Bones told Cat.
Vlad flipped Jason over, "A stake did not do this."
"No Leslie did something." Cat explained.
"Where is …?" Bones started but stopped as soon as he saw her unmoving on the ground.
Vlad pulled out a knife and stuck himself so that he could revive Leslie. He moved over to her and went to turn her over.
"Got them all." Juan exclaimed as walked into the lab. "Oh." His face fell as he spotted Leslie on the ground. "What happened to her?"
"She killed the vampire but he got a last whack before he went down." Cooper filled him in.
Vlad turned her head a little so that the blood would fall in.
"No, no. I'm okay. I don't need the blood." Leslie groaned. She pushed herself up much to the surprise of everyone else in the room.
"You took quite a hit you'll heal faster with the help of my blood." Vlad told her slowly, in case she didn't understand.
"Thanks, but I'll be okay." Leslie told him again and sat up leaning against the wall. "I examine blood for a living and I've seen yours, I definitely don't want to drink it."
"What did you hit him with? It killed him in seconds." Cooper asked.
"Silver nitrate, it's very soluble." Leslie informed him.
"You just injected him with it?"
"Yeah it went right into the blood stream which eventually gets filtered by the heart. Even though his heart no longer beats the blood is still moving through the body in order to bring oxygen to the muscles to move them. Being dead means you don't need oxygen to survive, but your muscles still need the oxygen to move your muscles. Your body just requires less of it." Leslie completed her impromptu lesson on vampire biology.
Vlad got up from where he had been crouched next to her and moved himself to the other side of the room.
"You seem to know a lot about vampires." Bones said.
"Scared?" Leslie asked with a smile. "Don't worry I'm just a lab geek. But I do know that a two year dead vampire doesn't just up and decide to inject human blood directly in his veins. Someone must have put the idea in there."
"You think there are others?" Juan asked.
"Don't you watch TV? There's always more than one."
"I can contact Mencheres see if he has heard anything about it." Bones told them as he exited the room. Vlad followed him out, sending a glance at the syringes that were on the counter as he went.
Cat smiled, "Finally something that scares the older vampires. How did you ever think of it?"
"Underworld, they make the bullets liquid silver so the werewolves can't dig them out, so I thought why not do the same for a vampire?"
"Yeah, that's creepy." Juan said as he and Dave each grabbed an arm of the downed vampire and pulled him from the room.
Cat left soon afterwards with Don, leaving Leslie to clean up her lab.
A/N: I tried to keep things the same, please let me know if they are things that are really really out of character. Questions are welcome, reviews are encouraged, and if there is something you want to see happen I enjoy seeing your ideas.
