Enjoy!

Chapter 1: The beginning of everything

Police Chief Mateo Ramirez was not having a good day. He hadn't gotten a good night's sleep due to his old injury acting up. He'd spent the night tossing and turning, trying to find the perfect, painless position to sleep in. But, he hadn't been that lucky. Then, just as he had managed to find a good spot, and his leg had gone numb, his alarm rang, waking him and his wife. She'd gotten up without a word, simply giving him a pat on the shoulder and a soft kiss on the lips. He had had one too many sleepless nights after his injury, after all.

But, that wasn't the end of the misfortune for Mateo Ramirez for the day. Far from it. He got stuck in a traffic jam on his way to work. Next, his coffee spilled when he bumped into one of the new recruits in the lobby. Then, he found out that he didn't have a change of shirt, like he usually did, and had to borrow his old partner's, who was a couple of sizes bigger than him. And now, as the time was nearing six in the afternoon, he was sitting at his desk, looking at the received emails with a troubled look on his face. He wished, for once, that he was still drinking, so that he could take a swig of something strong and simply forget about the unease in his stomach.

A knock sounded at his door, and before Mateo Ramirez could say anything, the entrance opened. In came a man in his thirties, fairly tall, wearing a regular police officer's uniform. He marched into the office like he owned it, waving his long, muscly arms about and rambling.

"She's nuts." The man finally settled upon. "I mean, she's crazy." Then, he pulled out the chair in front of his Chief's desk and sat down with a huff. "She started a fricking car chase. At three in the afternoon." He waved his arms about once more. "Who does that? In Dallas? At three in the afternoon?"

"Please, do sit." Chief Ramirez dryly said to the man, reaching for the travel mug on his desk. He took a long drink of his coffee, which had gone cold somewhere in the last four hours, as he blatantly ignored the complaints of his new detective. "Harris." He finally put a stop to the complaining. "This is not a shrink's office. If you want to speak to one, that can be arranged. As for working with Detective Soto… You'll get used to her."

"I'll die before I get used to her, Chief Ramirez!" Recently made detective Harris exclaimed, still waving his arms in exasperation. "She's as insane as they come. I don't even know how the crazy woman made detective."

Chief Ramirez slammed his open palm onto the surface of his table, now glaring at the man sitting on the other side of his desk. "Now you listen to me, Harris." Began the Latino man, his eyes flashing in a rare display of rage. It was then, that you could see just how dedicated he had been in his early days, climbing up the social ladder, all the way to his current position. "Soto may be a God damned crazy woman, but she is the best God damned crazy detective which you will find in the state of Texas. I am giving you, here, an opportunity to learn from the best." Then, seeing that he had properly frightened the recently made detective, Chief Ramirez leaned back in his chair with a small, agitated huff. "Do you want to learn from Soto?" He asked after a few seconds. "Or should I reassign you to Montgomery in narcotics?"

"No, Chief." The young detective immediately replied. "I'm glad to be able to shadow Soto." He grumbled, getting up. "I'll do my best not to get killed while doing so." And then, recently made detective Harris was out the door.

Chief Mateo Ramirez leaned back in his chair, enjoying the way the back tilted, making his position all the more comfortable. "Ungrateful cabron." He mumbled into his chin, grabbing his coffee mug. After a sip, he placed it back down onto his desk, grasping for the mouse on his desk. He moved it left and right, waking up his computer, and then frowned as soon as he saw the open email. Right, he had just gotten that thing to brighten up his day. With another sigh, Chief Ramirez dug through his pockets for his cellphone, dialing a number from his speed dial.

"What's wrong?" His wife picked up. Her tone of voice was worried, as always when he called her during his work hours.

"I'm fine, darling." He answered, his voice calm. He heard her let out a sigh, before the distinct sound of the hospital intercom came from her end of the line. "Everything is fine here." Chief Ramirez assured once more, now fiddling with the pen on his desk. "I was wondering if I could ask a favor, though."

"So, you will be costing me both my sleep and my break today? Aaah-ah! Dios mío!" Chief Ramirez could hear the smile in his wife's complaining voice and he couldn't stop his own little grin.

"I promise that I will make it up to you, Paulina." He said, clicking the pen on and drawing little doodles on his notepad. "You know that new restaurant on 3rd? We could go there this Friday? Just the two of us…" His wife laughed, interrupting him.

"We'll see. I have work, too. Remember, Mateo?" She told him with a sigh. The Chief stopped moving his pen, making one large dot in distaste. With him working in the police department and his wife at the local hospital, they could rarely manage to synchronize their schedules enough to go on a proper date. And, when they did, they would almost always be interrupted by a ringing of one of their cellphones. "What do you need?" Paulina asked gently, breaking him away from his thoughts.

"I was wondering if you could bring me a clean shirt?"

It was a few hours, a dozen reports, two more disgruntled officers and a clean shirt later that Chief Mateo Ramirez's phone rang. He picked it up automatically, not halting his typing on the keyboard.

"Ramirez." He said, the phone receiver in between his ear and shoulder. The female voice from the other side, the young intern from a neighboring town of Glen Rose, made the Chief halt in his typing immediately. "Send them up." He instructed the young girl, looking around his office and his desk. As soon as his phone receiver hit the base, Chief Ramirez started arranging the random things in front of him. He was just tossing his last bunch of messy files into the top drawer of his desk when a knock on his door sounded.

"Come in." Instructed the Chief, taking a deep breath and quickly smoothing down his clean, pressed, new button up. For a moment, he wondered if he should welcome them standing. Surely, that would be more welcoming. Then again, he would seem uncomfortable in his own office. He couldn't have that. Gritting his teeth, the Chief sat back in his chair, just in time to see the door open.

You could practically hear the silence in the room as three people entered. The first one was a tall man, with wide shoulders and alert eyes. He entered the room like he owned it, cowboy boots clanking as he walked, taking long, purposeful steps. He surveyed everything around him before finally looking at the Chief in his seat behind his desk.

The next person to come in was a woman. She was obviously of Latina descent, with her medium length, jet black hair pulled partially back, leaving her face completely open. She walked with a grace and calmness which promised both pain and wonder. Chief Ramirez could easily tell that her clothing, in black, white and grey was quite expensive and most likely bought in one of the numerous luxury, designer stores. He could hear his wife's voice in his head already, commenting on the seemingly professional, yet still alluring choice of the woman's attire.

The final person who walked in took some time before entering, as he had probably been taking in the wall of the fallen police officers right next to the Chief's office. The first thing which Chief Ramirez noticed was that the last man was in fact, not a man at all. He was a boy, a teenager. And, Chief Ramirez wouldn't give him more than eighteen years under his belt. The youth walked in with a strange sense of calm, yet his eyes held a fair amount of curiosity as he looked about. It was completely different from the first man, who had been searching the office for threats, with a sarcastic smirk on his lips. The teenager was dressed surprisingly simple, in a manner which betrayed his age and nature. Chief Ramirez knew right away that this person was not a teenager at all.

"Welcome." Mateo Ramirez greeted, hand extended, jumping on his feet now that he was being stared down by the tall, muscular man in a cowboy hat who had entered first. Even when he stood, he was still shorter than almost all of his guests. It was only the teenager, who had entered last, who was at his eye level. "I am Mateo Ramirez, Chief of the Dallas Police Depar-"

"We know who you are, Mr. Ramirez." Stated the woman in her accented voice. Despite the fact that she'd interrupted him, her statement didn't seem to be meant as an offence. "I am Isabel Beaumont, First Lieutenant of Area Nine." The woman, Isabel, ignored the extended hand which now migrated from the first person to enter towards her. Chief Ramirez nodded a couple of times jerkily, letting his hand fall to his side and wiping his palms on his trousers. Suddenly, he felt nervous at the silky voice of the woman in front of him.

"Feh." Huffed the tallest person in the visiting group, still staring the Chief of police down.

"This is my associate, Stan Baker, Second Lieutenant of Area Nine and our Sheriff, Godric." Isabel kept introducing in her alluring, slightly accented voice. Chief Ramirez stepped away from the man, who he now knew was named Stan, finding that he would much rather deal with the seemingly teenager Sheriff of the city. The deceptively young looking man in question had refocused his attention from the wall of books as soon as he had been introduced, and Chief Ramirez found the Sheriff staring at him with grey, inquisitive eyes. For a man who'd worked on a number of cases in Dallas and seen criminals and victims and traumatized police officers and looked them all in the eye, Chief Ramirez found the seemingly young man's gaze to be quite unsettling. Even without knowing the age of the vampire standing in front of him, he could tell that this person had seen more than any one man should and lived to tell the tale.

"I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, Chief Ramirez." The Sheriff finally spoke in his own accent, which the Chief couldn't place, walking towards the only human in the room. He extended his hand, much to the surprise of all the people present, and grasped the Chief's own, which has risen out of habit, in a gentle, but cold handshake. "I'm looking forward to the future cooperation of our departments."

"Of course." Nodded Chief Ramirez, forcing his body to relax and his lungs to breathe. He was no sympathizer or vampire hater, and he certainly had no fear of death. But, being in a room with three of them at the same time, alone and quite aware of what their abilities could be, Chief Ramirez was reminded of the numerous life and death situations he'd been in throughout his career. "Please, sit." He motioned to the chairs in front of his desk to the three vampires, who were standing a bit too still and a bit too stiff for his liking. "Shall we discuss the terms and details of our cooperation?"

Sheriff Godric nodded with a small smile and sat down, his lieutenants following suit.

Suddenly, the vampire Sheriff stopped talking. Mateo Ramirez gave him an inquisitive look, not really sure what he'd done wrong. After all, they had just had a long discussion, almost the whole night through, and frankly, he'd found this man, no, this vampire, Godric, quite likeable. That was, if you ignored his Second Lieutenant, the vampire who'd kept tossing glares left and right, along with scoffing at almost everything that they managed to agree on. The other Lieutenant, Isabel, she'd left nearly half an hour after their meeting had started after receiving a quick phone call.

"Sheriff?" Asked the Chief tentatively. Despite the fact that he'd been talking to this, seemingly young, vampire, the Chief had read a number of brutal reports and even seen some of the nauseating pictures from the crime scenes of vampire aftermath.

"Forgive me, Chief Ramirez." Godric replied, turning his pale eyes back to the Chief in a motion which was a bit too calm and measured for a human being. "It seems that we've stayed for too long. Dawn is approaching and my associate and I will have to take our leave at this time." The other vampire stood, mumbling something under his breath, which Chief didn't doubt was against the only human in the room, and headed for the door. Godric stood as well, pushing the chair back towards the desk.

"Oh!" Chief Ramirez realized, jumping to his feet in an instant. "Of course!" He nodded, rushing around his desk to meet the slowly moving vampire Sheriff. He grasped the vampire's hand in another handshake, which earned him one more scoff from Stan. "It has been a real pleasure discussing our future arrangement, Sheriff. I will be sure to send you a list of possible candidates as soon as possible." Chief Ramirez almost bit his tongue when he realized he'd repeated the same word two times in his nervousness. If his wife had been there, she would've undoubtedly teased him.

"It has been mine, as well." The vampire Sheriff replied with a small smile, allowing the human's warm hand to squeeze his cold skin for a second longer. "I will be looking forward to the list which you will send." And with those words, Mateo Ramirez, Chief of Dallas Police, was left standing in his office alone.

"Damn." He cursed, rubbing a hand over his face. With a sigh, he gathered his things, too tired to keep working. He would need to sleep on it before he started making decisions regarding this new thing which the vampire Sheriff had been strongly suggesting. He would need someone open-minded. Well, enough open-minded to work with vampires. Perhaps someone from the new recruits from the Academy.

No, Mateo Ramirez shook his head as he grabbed his suit jacket and threw it on. He couldn't send the Sheriff an inexperienced, snot-nosed greenhorn. That would just look bad for the department. He should send someone with experience. Someone who can work the system and know the process well. Someone who can sift through files and evidence with precision. He definitely needed someone of detective quality.

As he locked the door of his office, detective Soto's grinning face appeared in his mind. That woman was nothing but trouble, but she was, really, the best of the best. Though, sending her to the vampire Sheriff would really hurt his homicide division in the end. That wouldn't do. Perhaps someone she'd taught personally?

As Mateo Ramirez descended the stairs, rather than using the elevator, as his wife always berated him to do, he began thinking back to the time when detective Soto had been merely Rosalina Soto, a graduate of the Academy. She had been one of the most troublesome, even back then, but, because of different things. She pointed out the detectives' mistakes or would guess the perp from listening to big case tapes on her own time. Generally, she'd been a pain in his rear for the most of her career.

But, he still couldn't forget that picture on the day when he'd given her the books to study for her detective exam. She'd been too young and too bold, yet, he'd known that she would make a great investigator. She'd smiled a full smile back then, showing two rows of straight, pearly white teeth, a sight which wasn't seen too often, and her dark, almost black, eyes had brightened so much he'd thought that she would cry tears of joy. And then, she'd proceeded to hug him tight and run out of his office, long, wavy black hair trailing behind her. He'd known that day that she would make detective, no matter what, and that she'd be a fine one, too.

"Bye, Tasha." Mateo Ramirez told the young intern from Glen Rose who was snoozing at the front desk now. She jumped, alert, and formally greeted him and wished him a good night.

Godric rose from his sleep early. With a small sigh, he went about his evening routine without paying much mind to it. He checked his phone, a silly gadget his progeny was surely a bit too fond of, and headed towards the living room of his nest. He placed his cell down, looking out the large windows and watching the sun slowly fade behind the Dallas skyline. It had been a few centuries since he had begun rising before the night began, but, it wasn't until the modern age that he had had a chance like this, to sit and watch the actual dusk. It was a wonder of the world, truly, this modern technology.

He stood there for a moment, looking at the sun, imagining, remembering. It had been such a long time ago. He was ancient, after all. He almost couldn't remember the feel of the sun's rays on his skin. The sweating during a run in the lit-up woods. The laughter of the children playing in the creek. The excitement of the men going on a hunt. The warmth of the fire by which he sat. He could remember it, though. Vaguely, but it was there. Like a memory from a dream, or a dream of a dream. He wasn't even sure if he would recognize the faces of the people he'd spent his childhood living with. But, he knew one face which he would most definitely recognize. That face haunted his dayrest every time.

An alert sounded from somewhere in the house, a beep from a machine, and Godric looked away from the window. As he slowly walked, at a human pace, towards the source of the noise, he felt the sunlight leaving his form, no warmth, just light, as it finally set down behind the horizon. Night had begun.

He sat down behind his computer in his office, opening it and sifting through his mailbox. It was a wonder, truly, this new century. All the things they'd thought up. Truly, a wonder. His Child had been ecstatic to send him a number of letters as soon as he'd made an address for himself. No, not letters, the vampire corrected himself, electronic mail. How silly they seemed, all of the new names for old things which appeared every decade or so. He'd never had much trouble understanding them throughout his years, but, he'd never really bothered with learning them and using them himself, either.

"Has the human police sent their portfolios?" Isobel asked from behind him, and Godric was certain that she hadn't even peeked over his shoulder to the mailbox full of alerts. He didn't really like opening mail. Only the important ones. Besides, why would he want to contact a hot teenager who was interested in sexual intercourse?

"Only just." Replied the Sheriff. "It was fast work, for them." He mused, opening the desired message. There was a short note which he skimmed through taking in the information that the Chief wanted to meet with him when the vampire had the choice narrowed to three officers, and finally, at the bottom, Godric saw the portfolios. He clicked the appropriate buttons and opened them at a human pace, always a tad hesitant on the machine of the new age. It was logical, yes, but foreign to him. He preferred paper copies of everything.

"Here." Isobel had vanished and reappeared by his side. She placed the paperback portfolios on his desk and Godric shut the laptop, pushing it away. Yes, he liked this much better.

"Join me, will you?" He asked, yet, demanded in a soft voice. His second in command sat down on one of the comfortable sofa chairs in the office and waited. The vampire Sheriff slowly sifted through the pages, looking over the information provided. "I like these." He finally decided, handing four portfolios over to Isabel. "Do a thorough search on them, would you? I want to know everything."

"Yes, Sheriff." Isabel rose, taking the papers.

"I will be looking forward to hearing your opinion." Godric smiled before the woman vanished from in front of his eyes. He looked down, taking in the pictures of the people he'd chosen. Two men and two women, all fairly young. He hoped that this would work, truly.

"Have you ever thought about it, detective Soto?"

She trembled at the tone of his voice. It was interested, almost amused, seemingly caring, yet terrifyingly cold. She knew that she could run at any point. Run. And never see him again. Pull out her gun and shoot him. She should've shot him ten times over now. He was a monster, after all.

"What do you think about it, detective Soto?"

He asked and she grit her teeth, clenching her hand. She thought that he was a crazy son of a bitch, that's what she thought. That he should be locked up in a goddamn facility and forced never to see the light of day again. She thought that he was delusional.

"Is it worth it, detective Soto?"

She didn't look up at him. Instead, she stared at her service weapon on the table. Two inches. She needed two more inches and then she could snatch it up. She needed that gun. She wasn't going down like this. Not without a fight.

"Is it worth the pain, detective Soto?"

She closed her eyes, an image flashing behind her eyelids in the dark. A young man, barely in his twenties, behind the steering wheel. He was slumped forward, neck at an unnatural angle and eyes wide open. Wide open brown eyes staring right at her. You. You. You. It is your fault. You did nothing. You chased. You chased. Why did you stop?

"Do you want it to stop, detective Soto?"

He asked her, cold hands coming around her shoulders, embracing her slowly. She shivered, but bit the inside of her mouth and stayed strong. She wouldn't give in. She wouldn't give him the pleasure. He was staring at her. Brown eyes. Wide open. Someone's son. Someone's lover. Someone's brother. It was her fault. She didn't stop. She just couldn't stop. It was her goddamned fault.

"Do they haunt you, detective Soto?"

He asked her softly, gently, right next to her ear, like whispering to a lover. His cold hands gave one last caress of her arms and he pulled away, taking the coolness with him. She was left burning, numb, alone. She was so alone. And he wouldn't stop staring. Just sitting there, on her own couch, across the room, staring. He was dead and sitting there. Dead. His eyes were dead. Wide, brown eyes. Dried blood matted in his curly, sandy hair. Neck bent unnaturally. He was staring at her. You. You did this. True. She had done it. She just couldn't stop.

"Would you like me to help you, sweet Rosalina?"

She reached forward, grabbing her gun.

BANG!

That's all folks!

If anyone wants to beta this, feel free to ping me :)

Some info about the story:

Length of story: Will have multiple chapters, not sure how many
Length of chapters: Each will be 4k words or above
Frequency of updates: Irregular (quality over quantity; also depending on feedback – reviews are food for the soul)
Pairing: Godric/OC
Rating: T (It will get a bit gory and there probably will be a few intimate scenes later on, proper warnings will be at the beginning of the chapters)
Timeline: Starts before Godric is introduced in the True Blood timeline, will follow through it, though

See you next time! :D