Nearly blind with tears, Beth half runs, half stumbles up the hallway and pounds the down button on the elevator furiously. "C'mon, c'mon, hurry." She hears gears hiss, and looks back over her shoulder towards Mick's apartment. Nothing was happening; the door hadn't even closed. The elevator dings and the doors open under her hand. She darts inside and punches the garage floor button and the doors closed button simultaneously. As the doors finally slide shut, she leans against the wall shaking with relief at her escape. I can't have just seen that, I can't. What WAS that? He didn't say that he was a vampire, there's no such thing as vampires. And what was the other one, the woman with the frigging wings! Wings? Vampires? I've got to be completely mad. This whole night didn't happen, I'm dreaming, having a nightmare. I have to be.
The elevator dings to a stop and Beth jumps, startled out of the jumble of thoughts chasing around her head. She pulls her keys to the Prius out of her pocket and walks quickly to her car. Hands still shaking, she can barely unlock it with the remote. It's not real, none of it. It can't be. She opens the door and chokes back a sob. Mick's gun is sitting on the passenger seat in mute testament to the events of the past twenty-four hours. Oh my God. Beth closes her eyes and tears run down her cheeks. Mick? But he saved me…saved Julia. He can't be a vampire. There's no such thing as vampires. Is there? Is there?
She jams the key into the ignition and the electric motor silently comes to life. Beth shifts the car into gear and then pounds the accelerator so hard the second engine coughs and struggles to ignite. She drives almost blindly towards her apartment, then changes her mind and cuts across three lanes of traffic to head to BuzzWire. It was just after sunrise on Saturday, there shouldn't be anyone there. Everyone tended to work from home until afternoon most weekends and she needed the high-speed server. She had research to do.
"Mick," Hawk had slid down against the door to sit as Mick recited the events of the past few days, "I can't believe your sorry run of luck. It's almost as if something wanted Beth to find out."
"I know!" Mick's voice cracks. The blood is helping offset the effects of the silver's poison but he still felt feverish. He glances towards Hawk, who is slumped into an untidy pile of silvery-grey feathers with her head on her knees.
Hawk looks up at the harshness of his voice, "You've got to get that silver out of you. I can help, if you want."
"Actually, you'd better leave." Mick bites his lip. "I called a friend from the car earlier. He's probably almost here. I don't know how he'd react if he saw you." Well, I guess I do. And it wouldn't be pretty.
"Oh. Another vampire?" Hawk pushes herself up from the door and stands. She fluffs the feathers out on her wings and shakes them back into order.
Mick stares at her, mouth drooping open slightly. "I'm sorry. That's just so…"
"Weird? Creepy? Freakish? I know, believe me. I've been living with it for the last eighteen years and I still can't get used to the idea." Hawk bends over to retrieve Mick's shirt and pants she'd dropped earlier and walks over to toss them on the sofa.
"I was thinking more along the lines of impossible." Mick offers her a very slight smile. "I think it would be cool to be able to fly."
Hawk gives him a measured look. "It is. Cool to be able to fly. But as far as impossible goes, you don't know the half of it."
"I bet." Mick returns Hawk's gaze, thinking. "Can you find Beth? Maybe…follow her, make sure she's okay? Like how you knew I needed help, before? She was so scared."
Hawk raises her eyebrows at him. "I can't control those visions. I'm not entirely sure why I get called to some people and not the thousands of others that need help every day."
"Oh." Mick sighs, feeling sick with worry. If she completely loses it and tells someone…Josef will kill her himself. Or try to make me do it. Even if she keeps quiet I worry that she might crash her car or something…she was so freaked out. So scared.
"Maybe there's something I can do." Hawk takes a deep breath. "What does her car look like, and where exactly might she go?
"Mick, buddy, the scrapes you get yourself into are legend." Josef pulls units of blood from the refrigerator in his office and unceremoniously stuffs them back into Mick's leather bag. He looks at several crystal bottles also chilling in the sleek stainless appliance and purses his lips. "I guess I can bring along a bit of my own stock. It won't hurt to be generous." Much more carefully, he slips two bottles into the leather case, arranging Mick's bags of retail blood between them as a cushion.
As he waits for the top of his convertible to raise and click into place, he pouts at his watch. "I should be going to my freezer, now. Why do all the emergencies have to happen in the morning?
Josef pulls into the parking structure below Mick's apartment. As he makes the turn, a silver Prius squeals past, nearly hitting him. "Watch it, lunatic!" He yells at his rearview, and shakes his head. He watches as the little car peals out with complete disregard to traffic and accelerates away. "Idiots. Think of how much blood they are going to waste when they squish themselves out on the street."
He parks and approaches the elevator, pushing the button for the penthouse. He sighs again, feeling a little bored and wishing he was back at home settling into his freezer for the day. Rather than heading up to cut a bunch of silver out of my idiot friend. At least he managed to prove his innocence and kill that psycho without exposing us all. That damned idealistic streak of his is going to be the death of me.
"You can what?" Mick stares at Andy with complete disbelief writ large across his face. He pulls back a little from her, and Andy sighs.
She eyes Mick, the irony of his reaction making her shake her head. "I believe we covered this already."
"But…" Mick blinks, takes a breath, blinks again. "That's…"
"Impossible?" Andy looks down at him, one eyebrow raised.
"No. Weird, creepy, and freakish!" Mick grins up at her, beginning to recover.
"Yeah." Andy smiles back, "But useful."
"I'd say." Mick cocks his head, listening. "Wait. I think I hear the elevator. You've got to go. Now!"
"Okay." Andy turns towards the door.
"No. Not that way. Do that disappearing thing." Mick sits forward urgently. "I don't want to have to explain you to Josef right now. He won't take it well."
"I won't take what well?" Josef pushes the door open and steps gracefully into the apartment.