BLOOD MOON

A/N AS ALWAYS ALL CHARACTERS APPROPRIATED (AND IN SOME CASES BITTEN) COMPLETELY AGAINST THEIR I ALSO TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO WISH EVERYONE A SAFE AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

"Would somebody ….anybody like to explain to me how the heck we can lose a body? A dead body I might add" Mac Taylor addressed his entire team who were now assembled in the conference room "I mean it's not like she could just get up and walk away now is it?" He growled.

"I can't explain it Mac" Sid Hammerback spoke up first "She was definitely there in the freezer" He insisted "but when I went to begin the autopsy she was gone….."

"Maybe someone mistakenly switched her with another corpse we've been inundated just lately with this spate of wild animal attacks…." Lyndsay pointed out.

"I'm not a complete idiot Lyndsay I already thought of that" Sid rolled his eyes.

"Maybe you looked in the wrong freezer did you check them all" Danny jumped to his wife's defence.

"And again not a complete idiot" Sid harrumphed "Checked them all twice".

"A woman can't just vanish into thin air…." Hawkes interjected.

"That's just what she's done" Detective Don Flack jr said entering the room "Mac the ID card she had was fake there is no Stella Bonasera registered as living anywhere in New York State in fact the only record I could find for anyone with that name was a 150 year old birth certificate" He told the team.

"Well this just keeps getting better and better doesn't it" Mac rubbed his eyes tiredly "What about the address on her ID card?" He asked.

"Oh well someone has a sense of humour it's a funeral parlour" Flack replied "A definite dead end you could say."

Mac was desperate, he had to find her no matter what he couldn't bear to think he'd never see his Princess again "We search the entire building from top to bottom…..no one leaves till we find Miss X is that clear" he ordered.

"Yes Mac" they chorused back.

"What's up with Mac?"Sid hissed to Danny as they filled out of the room one by one.

"Dunno" Danny admitted "He's been acting funny ever since we found her."

Two hours earlier…

It wasn't unheard of for Mac Taylor to be pounding the mean streets of New York well after midnight in the name of duty not unheard of at all; tonight was one of those occasions. He'd had a call out at 1.30 am to Central Park the body of a young woman had been found lying in a flower bed no obvious COD natural or otherwise and so CSI had been called in to investigate. The area had already been cordoned off when he arrived to find Don Flack and Danny Messer were already waiting for him by Flack's car.

"What have we got Flack?" Mac asked his friend.

"Names Stella Bonasera PI, aged 36 she lives in Manhattan and apart from the small detail of being dead is in perfect health" Flack told him.

"No signs of assault, no wounds of any kind and the ME can't find any signs of a drug overdose or poisoning" Danny confirmed "At least it's not another animal attack" He shrugged.

"Lead the way then" Mac smiled to his colleagues.

Down through the years Mac had seen all kinds of nasty, things that people did to one another which would turn the average Joe's stomach in a heartbeat but nothing prepared him for the sight of Stella Bonasera "She's perfect" He said thinking out loud.

"Perfect?" Flack raised an eyebrow and again Danny just shrugged.

She was tall nearly as tall as Mac himself he guessed with a dancers' physique and an unruly mop of caramel coloured curls, she had the most beautiful green eyes Mac had ever seen and her lips were a tender cherry red. Her light olive skin was silky smooth and suggested she may well be of Mediterranean descent to Mac. She was dressed in a black trouser suite and a low cut green silk blouse which Mac thought matched her eyes there was a pair of black sun glasses in her hair and she had on a pair of well worn black high heels on her feet. Bathed in rose tinged moonlight she was surrounded by a mixture of bluebells, daisies and buttercups she looked like she was straight out of a fairy tale to Mac.

"Sleeping beauty" Danny muttered under his breadth.

"Yeah" Mac agreed softly "She sure is."

Kneeling down to begin his examination made Mac feel like her Prince Charming for some reason truthfully if they had met under different circumstances in another lifetime then he would have happily applied for that particular vacancy.

"Odd" He murmured noticing a small hole in her jacket just above her left breast.

Gently unbuttoning her jacket he found an identical hole in her blouse if he didn't know better he'd swear they were bullet holes but there was no blood on her clothes.

"Super moths?" Danny joked besides him.

The next step was to unbutton her blouse but Mac hesitated suddenly feeling embarrassed at the idea; pull yourself together man he berated himself you've done this thousands of times before.

"You Ok Mac want me to do this?" Danny asked concerned.

"Touch her and die" Mac mumbled back..

"What?" Danny asked bemused.

"No" Mac said both loudly and firmly no way was any other CSI examining his Sleeping beauty, his Princess. Gently Mac undid her blouse and slid the silky material to one side to examine the left half of her chest. Nothing absolutely nothing no bullet holes, no blood not even the faintest trace of bruising was visible to the two CSI's just the black silken strap of her bra, Mac hurriedly redid her blouse and jacket he couldn't bear to let anyone else see her like this exposed.

A desire he couldn't fight or understand to touch her bare skin overwhelmed him and Mac trailed his fingers upwards to touch her neck where her pulse should be. To his fingertips she felt like pure velvet even through the latex gloves he was wearing, it felt incredible like pure primordial energy had surged through her into his body urging him on.

"You Ok Mac?" Danny Messer asked for the second time that night.

"Sure Danny" He nodded barely aware of his friends presence at all.

Tenderly Mac tilted her head so that the right side of her neck was visible to the two men she was so close to him his lips were almost brushing her skin and he longed to do just that. Quite bizarrely he could swear he heard her call out his name but that was impossible she was dead he knew that. With that admission cold reality snapped in and he shook his head to clear it after all he should under no circumstances be getting all hot under the collar over a corpse no matter how lovely.

"Mac look" Danny pointed to two tiny scarlet pinprick sized scars on her throat.

"What the heck?" Mac did a double take "Who are you Stella Bonasera?" he wondered out loud.

Hell's teeth she hated being dead sometimes; so technically it was an occupational hazard so to speak didn't mean she had to like it right? Ok so the first few times it hadn't been so bad but the novelty of the situation soon got old especially when it usually entailed been pawed by some spotty intern down at the local ME's office; worse still trying to beat a graceful retreat in nothing but your birthday suite and a strategically placed bed sheet yep being dead was a real pain in the butt sometimes. Tonight was going to be a long haul Stella thought wearily there were Cops all over the place so nothing she could do but lie in state till she could sneak away into the night hopefully unnoticed good job really that Dampires didn't need to pee wasn't it? The Irony of the situation didn't escape her though in that if she'd revived two lousy minutes earlier she wouldn't have been in this mess. She had been following a lead on Kolovos she'd tracked him here from Greece; something big must be going down for him to return to New York after all these years. That's when she'd seem him Sebastian Diakos Kolovos' right hand ghoul; he'd been out picking his boss up a Chinese takeout (an exchange student from Shanghai) unfortunately Diakos had seen Stella too. She had been chasing the little bloodsucker through Central park when he'd sucker punched her metaphorically speaking that is.

She had him cornered in a small flowery glade well of the beaten track his ass was definitely hers when he'd pulled out a gun.

"What? You expect me to fall down and die laughing" She'd quipped.

"Yes actually" He retorted and fired.

Wooden bullets….Who ever heard of wooden bullets? Well obviously Kolovos and his cronies had because the next thing Stella was aware of was finding herself lying on her back slap bang in the middle of a flower bed with two newly acquired bullet holes in her chest and Diakos cackling as he scampered off into the night. Now the wooden bullets hadn't actually killed her (thanks to the more human aspects of her DNA) but they had stung like hell not to mention the fact Diakos had ventilated her favourite green blouse the one she'd bought because it went with her eyes. If Kolovos thought that she was angry before now she was well and truly pissed. Her body began to rejuvenate another five minutes or so and she'd be whole again; she could feel her body begin to stir so she counted off the time in her head 5….4…3…..

"Oh my God!" somebody screamed out loud.

"Oh f***k" Stella yelled inside her head what were the chances that anyone would be out walking the dog in central park at this time of night anyway?

All hell had broken loose shortly after that and now the CSI's had arrived to give her a once over it just wasn't her night at all was it? Well since she was here for the duration she may as well have some fun she decided; if they were going to investigate her than she would repay the favour and investigate them after all turn about was fair play. Firstly there were two of them both men; the younger one was wearing glasses and had a Brooklyn accent the older one had called him Danny and he seemed to be the joker in the pack but it was the older man who interested Stella more. Quieter than Danny he had short dark hair and the deepest ocean blue eyes that seemed to draw Stella in completely; something about his baring shouted military man but Stella felt sure that he was a thinker too even if she could find no rational reason why. Then he had called her perfect and she could have sworn her heart had skipped a beat if she hadn't known better. Mac the other man called him as he kneeled beside her all Prince Charming like and under different circumstances boy would she have liked to have been his Cinderstella.

His touch was both deft and tender not the usual grope she received in these situations; when he undid her jacket then her blouse she felt the oddest sensation like electricity running through her empty veins. Mac had redone her clothes but she didn't want him to stop touching her and as if on cue he had continued allowing his fingers to run upwards till he reached the spot where her neck met her right cheek. Gently he'd cupped her right cheek in his hand and tilted her neck towards himself and Danny any closer he'd be able to touch her with his lips the way her father's kind did and for one moment she wished with every fibre of her being that he would.

"Maaaaaaaaaaaaaac" the name echoed through the chambers of her mind calling him nearer to her so close she could hear his heart beating in his chest, smell the sweet blood pumping through his veins, Mac's heart was beating fast and getting faster.

Mac jolted away from her sweet biscuits! He had heard her calling his name she was certain and that shouldn't be possible even given her unique pedigree no human should be able to do that hear her innermost thoughts that was gift reserved for only one being the person she would one day choose as her blood mate her heart true. She had to stop this and stop it now; she had sworn long ago that she would never give in to her Father's curse and drink human blood she took control over her Vampire side forced it to the back of the deepest recess of her mind she was supposed to be a cadaver after all not picking up men especially human men even if they had the most adorable smile.

It had taken almost two hours before she had found herself alone again, well perhaps alone wasn't the best description for her current status since she was lying in a freezer awaiting her autopsy surrounded by a dozen other bodies. From the smell of blood on (lack there of in some cases) she could detect which ones were Kolovos' handiwork a pure blood Vampire drained every last iota of blood from their prey it was far to precious a commodity to waste and Kolovos was nothing if not thorough in his work. Out of her twelve companions she could smell just four had blood remaining; Kolovos had been a busy boy and she had to get the hell out of here and stop him. The room outside was silent at last; coroner guy Sid something had finally left to answer the call of nature in this case it was a good job humans did need to pee she grinned to herself. There world outside her freezer was silent her Vamp enhanced hearing could not so much as detect a mouse breathing for one brief moment she was disappointed.

Stella had hoped to have seen Mac again it made her feel fluttery inside thinking of him.

"Stop it Bonasera" she chided herself "Gotta get out of here remember? Save the world from Kolovos etc this is no time for dating" but dang if that fluttering didn't start again.

Ok definitely a good time to leave she conceded before all this fluttery stuff got out of hand and she did something silly like fall for the guy, she gave the freezer door a little love tap (who would notice a dent or two anyway wasn't like the next occupant was likely to complain was it) and slid out. She wrapped the white sheet covering her around her body toga style and headed for the nearest exit; first things first she needed to be re-united with her clothes after all she could hardly wander around New York dressed up like something out of a Wonder woman comic could she? Stella reasoned even if she did look damn good in white.

So she wondered to herself "If I were a CSI what would I do with a cadaver's personal affects? Evidence locker of course!" She snapped her fingers in a eureka moment only one problem where the heck was the evidence locker?

"Hey buddy" She tapped politely on the nearest occupied freezer door "I don't suppose you know whereabouts the evidence locker is at all?"

Mac Taylor was so far past desperate in his quest to find the missing Miss X that he didn't think there were words in the English language adequate enough to cover how he felt. His team had checked everywhere a body could possibly be then Mac had double and in some cases triple checked where his people had searched to find nothing a big fat zero. Mac was perilously close to all out panic and he was an ex- marine damn it! Marines did not panic period even ex ones. There was only one place left to check the evidence locker even if it was physically impossible for anyone to gain entry with out the correct entry code which only Mac and his team knew.

"I'll go" Lindsay had volunteered.

"No I'll do it" Mac had almost snapped if he didn't get out of there soon he would have been on a murder charge himself. He had to do something anything to find her; Stella Bonasera if that was her name at all had invaded him mind, body and soul totally and completely. Was it possible he wondered as he walked along could she still be alive? He'd seen those dents in the freezer door they all had; had she made them somehow? If so that meant the mysteries surrounding her had deepened once more and he had to know the truth because he was falling in love with her he was sure of it.

Fortunately the guy three freezers down had been able to give Stella directions he'd seen one of those fly on the wall cop show things on cable and the evidence locker had proved no match for Stella's vamp enhanced strength yielding its treasures almost immediately. So now fully dressed not to mention rejuvenated Stella cautiously peered around the corner quiet as the grave so far so good she smiled to herself time to beat a graceful retreat. With both supernatural agility and guile she crept along the corridor but being so preoccupied by her exodus she didn't notice the elevator door by her side slide open by the time she did it was too late and he'd already seen her.

He stared at her and she stared back his heart seemed to somersault inside his rib cage "But…..that's wonderful you're alive" Mac beamed.

Damn there went the fluttering in her stomach again and it seemed to be spreading to her chest she had to think fast. Motivated self preservation kicked in "Forgive me" She told him and shot off without saying another word.

"No wait please don't go!" He yelled and gave chase.

They were outside the lab now but still running and boy was this woman fast Mac panted; he was super fit ran twenty miles each day before breakfast but he could barely keep her in sight never mind catch her up but if he had too he'd chase her through every street and alley in New York if necessary. He spotted her turn right into an alley behind a Bodega and followed suit to his surprise and admittedly joy Mac found she had stopped and was standing with her back to him.

"Hey" He puffed "Why did you run?" He asked finally catching her up and stopped dead still when he saw who or what she was looking at and it made his blood run cold.

He'd seen their kind before once many years ago when he'd been a much younger man; suddenly a lot of things about Miss X made sense. They called themselves the Night kind but to most people they were known simply as Vampires the movie stereo types complete with red glowing eyes and blood dripping from their fangs then again Vamps were not really renowned for originality he supposed. Mac counted six of the creatures standing in front of them in a semi circle and then one stepped forward a male.

"Stella Bonasera" He said to Miss X "Long time no see and you've brought us a snack how very thoughtful of you" He grinned exposing a particularly brutal pair of fangs.

"Stay away from him Kolovos" Stella moved in front of Mac protectively "He's not for you" She hissed.

"Make me" The one called Kolovos taunted and Mac was suddenly away of more company calling he and Stella were surrounded by the vamps as they formed a circle around them and began to move forward. Stella's eyes had begun to glow red too he realized and she had acquired two small fangs from somewhere and up above them the moon seemed to turn a deep crimson hue…..

To be continued…

A/N MORE STELLA OF TANGLEWOOD/VENGENCE MINE ASAP I PROMISE.