What if Beth had been a year older, and had vaguely understood what she was seeing when Mick rescued her. Would she have recognized him when she saw him at the crime scene? If she had, how would things have been different? Oh, and a thank you to Evilous, she helped reread this, and she helped me come up witht he title, so thanks.

This is my first fan fiction ever, so I'm a little nervous, the only one I'd writen before had a bad response, and I don't count that one.

Beth is 27, she had just turned 5 when she was kidnapped.

Ok, usual disclamer, this is not mine, I recieve no profit from this.

Chapter 1

"It could work Mick; you, me, and baby." The scary woman with the strange teeth was talking to the man, Mick, who had come.

"No, I'm not gonna let you hurt that girl. I can't let you." He seemed to know what was going on, who the woman was.

The woman pushed her out from between them sp she could push him, hard. He slammed against the wall, he looked up, and then his eyes and teeth went strange, he attacked the woman. They fought, only stopping when he pinned her beneath him, and she went strangely still.

He walked over to her, and she shrunk back, he knelt down to her level. "Come on, I'm gonna take ya home." Mick's eyes were normal, and as he spoke, she could see that his teeth were too. His eyes were a deep, comforting hazel. He held out his hand, and, slowly, she took it. He picked her up, and walked over to the table.

He picked up the lamp, and threw it onto the floor, flames shot up, as he left the room, shutting the door firmly behind him. The woman was silhouetted by the flames as they rose up, engulfing her. Mick turned her face away from the sight, shielding her with his body.

He took her home that night, her mother had been overwhelmed, she had thanked him over, and over, but he left almost immediately. He only stopped to make sure that she was all right, and then he left.

Beth woke up, slightly disorientated; she hadn't had that dream in months. I usually only happened in the fall, or when she saw someone who looked like the man who had saved her, or 'the scary woman'. It was spring, and she couldn't recall seeing anyone who had looked like either of them. 'Oh well.' Beth got up, and started getting ready for work.

Just as she was heading out the door, her phone rang. She hurried over to it. "I'm about ready to-"

"Leave?" it was her boss Maureen.

"Oh hi, and yes."

"Good, listen I need you to head over to the fountain in the square, we've got someone in it."

"What's so-" Work was going to be boring.

"They're dead."

"Oh! Now that's more like it." Work wasn't looking quite so boring now.

"And I want you to do it live this time, you need to get used to-"

"Are you sure I'm ready?" Beth had to ask."

"No, but you're going to do it any-"

"I'm on my way."

Beth." Maureen tired to talk, but Beth kept going.

"How do you want-"

"Beth!"

"What?"

"Just do it the way you normally do, now get you're butt over there."

"Heading out the door."

"Good." And she hung up.

Beth placed the phone back in it's cradle stood there for a second, then. "Yes!" She ran out the door, barely stopping to lock up, before racing to her car.

As she drove, she pondered the dream. There was nothing she could think of that might have triggered it.

Her arrival at the crime scene halted her thought for later. She hurried out of her car, and over to Steve, who was waiting for her.

"So what's going on?"

"Some girl's dead in the fountain, other that, no clue."

"Ok, here we go."

"Alright, action."

"A promising life cut tragically short, tonight a killer is on the loose. This is Beth Turner for Buzzwire."

"Cut." Steve gave her a thumbs up. "Really, I was ok?"

"Oh yeah, I mean no one will even know it was your first live webcast."

"We gotta get a shot of the body."

"Na, the cops won't let anyone get close."

"I'm not leaving with out my money shot." They look at each other. "Oh my god did I just say that?"

"Yes." Steve nodded his head.

"I've become a news whore overnight."

"Not overnight."

A car door slammed, and Beth turned her head. "Lt. Carl." She headed over to see him. "Carl, what can you tell me?"

"Uh, let's see Beth, nothing."

"Come on, I was first on scene. Who fed you the location of the 7 10 freeway shooter?" Beth prodded, trying to get him to tell her something.

He turned around, and looked at her for a second. "Alright fine. We think she was a Hearst College student, she had their mascot tattooed on a very discreet part of her anatomy."

"From or back." Carl was distracted by some people coming up with cameras.

"Not these guys, get these cameras outa here."

Taking advantage of his distraction, Beth slipped off her shoes, and walked toward the body.

As she got closer she noticed the girl was wrapped in a pink fabric, and that she had two puncture wounds on her neck. As she saw these, Beth sharply drew in breath. Her dream flashed into her head. Beth shook it to clear the images from her mind. Quickly she took some pictures with her phone, and left the scene, somewhat shaken.

She walked away, thinking. How could she have known that this was going to happen? Quickly opening the picture up, she looked at them closely. It wasn't a bite mark, it couldn't be, it wasn't messy enough.

Once she was old enough to research without her mother looking over her shoulder, Beth immediately began looking up vampires, how to kill them, what hurt them, what helped them, everything she could think of. She knew that not all of them could be bad, the one who had saved her, Mick had obviously not wanted anything to happen to her. If him saying, "I'm not gonna let you hurt that girl, I can't let you." Hadn't proven that well enough, the fact that he had shielded her from seeing what he had done to the woman, and then had taken her home, had.

She turned it off, and put it back in her pocket.

She kept walking, thoughts racing through her mind. Who was it, why were they making it look like a vampire had killed the girl, did they know vampires existed? Beth shook her head, trying to focus on her report, but her mind wouldn't listen. She couldn't get her thoughts to think of anything but the girl, or her dream. How could she have known that this was going to happen?

Beth looked around, trying to see if the killer had left anything behind? Nothing seemed out of place, but that didn't mean anything, she could be missing something obvious. Giving up on finding anything, Beth looked to see if anyone suspicious was standing around. No one that she could see, but there was a guy standing under some trees watching her. She walked toward him, he didn't move. She went up to him, trying to see his face.

"Yes." He said, and only Beth's practicing kept her heart steady, he would have heard if it sped up. It was him, the one who had save her, it had to be, she recognized his voice.

"Do I know you?" She asked.

"You tell me."

"You're a cop right?" She had to pretend she didn't know who, or what she was until she could get him to trust her.

He smirked, and shook his head slightly. "No."

"Reporter?"

He shook his head again, looking slightly amused. "Nope."

"I'm sure I've seen you somewhere, you look very familiar for some reason."

"Well, maybe I've just got one of those faces."

"No it's not that. It's like you're from a dream I had when I was younger, that I've half forgotten, or something." He looked wary at that statement, but didn't say anything. Beth remembered she was supposed to be covering a story, so she quickly came up with something to ask him. Ok, which do you like better? 'Vampire slaying rocks LA'" He responded just as she thought he would.

"There's no such thing as vampires."

"Well, I know that, but I don't think the girl in the fountain would agree." She turned around to look back at the crime scene. "I mean wouldn't-" She turned to look back at Mick, but he wasn't there, she looked around, but couldn't see him, where had he gone. She wasn't surprised by the speed with which he disappeared; it just proved that she was right in trusting her instincts with what was fact, and what was true with vampires. Some of the things people came up with were so unbelievably, it wasn't funny. Seriously, how could they turn into bats that just made no sense whatsoever. Nor did the idea that they would burst into flames the moment they walked into sunlight. They would be way to noticeable then, everyone would know they existed, and they would have died out long ago.

Beth shook her head, and walked back to Steve. "I think that's all we're going to get out of them for now, you might as well head back."

"Where are you heading off to?"

"I think I'm going to try and find the girl's car."

"Um, who said she didn't walk here?"

"No one walks in LA."

"Well, I'm just saying-"

"I'm going to look anyway." Beth helped him carry everything to his van, and then set off for the parking garage. She searched for a car with a parking permit for Hearst College, finally she found one. She took a picture if the permit, and noticed something hanging from the review mirror. It was a black bet. She had seen it several times while searching for information about vampires. It was an Egyptian hieroglyphic; an insignia for an ancient blood cult. So, the girl had either had an obsession with vampires, had know they existed, or been in a blood cult. Something told her that it was important, and she had long ago leaned to trust her instincts. Meeting Mick earlier had only strengthened it.

She took a picture of the hieroglyphic then sent copies of the girl's body to Buzzwire. She dialed Mo's number, and waited for her to pick up.

"Maureen for Buzzwire speaking."

"Hey, it's Beth, I just sent you some pictures of the girl's body. I'll be in later I've got an idea. I think I'm going to head over to her house to find out some more."

"Don't think, go. Mama needs fresh content."

"I'm on it." Mo hung up, and Beth headed back to her car. She called Sam.

"Hello."

"Hey Sam, it's Beth, I need you to find someone's house from a parking permit."

"Ok, give it to me."

"I'll send you the picture." She sent it, and waited for Sam to find something.

"Ok, I'll send you the apartment address."

"Thanks Sam."

"You owe me one."

"Yeah, I know."

"Good, see ya."

Beth pulled away from the fountain, and headed over to the address Sam had sent her. The cops were already there, she would just have to wait. She pulled out a book, preparing to read the time away. Just then a Mercedes Benz pulled up, dark green, and Mick was in the driver's seat.

Ok, so tell me what you think. Oh, and on a different site Moonlight Fans, I have this ff on there under a different penname, PhantomPhoenix, but that one was already taken on this site, so I used this one.