*Ben's office*

Beth walks in with Carl, who is carrying the huge and obviously heavy box and putting it on a table. Beth has closed it with brown tape.

"Thanks Carl, you're a star."

"No problem. See you at lunch?"

"Noon at the precinct and we'll go over the case."

"See you then."

She's all smiles and friendly warmth to her friend, but as soon as Carl leaves her eyes switch to pure rage. Without knocking she pushes open the door to Ben's work area.

"Whatever happened to knocking." He sounded grouchy.

"Explain to me why Ophelia dropped a huge and heavy box with your stuff off at my door yesterday evening."

"She did what? No matter, that is between me and her."

"It stopped being between you and her when that box landed on my kitchen table, with the express request to deliver it to you."

"I'll talk to her, now can we please go back to our jobs?"

"No you won't, because she also told me, rather menacingly I add, to not let you anywhere near her."

Ben looked at her, hurt obvious in his eyes.

"What else did she say?"

"Only that she'd render you limb from limb if you came near her. Which I'm pretty sure she could if she really got angry enough. And something about a Claire being right. Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this Claire has something to do with that box."

"It's not what it looks like." Ben sounded annoyed now.

"Well what is it then Ben? Because right now with what little info I have is that you two broke up over a woman called Claire. Are you cheating on her? Because if you are then I won't try to calm down a whole group of very angry vampires. Apart from a brother she has 5 very nasty uncles and grandsire. And let's not forget all the unpleasantness Celia will inflict on you."

"Goddammit Beth!" he slammed his fist on the desk, sending some papers and an empty mug flying, his eyes wolf like. "You know me, I love that girl, I could never cheat on her, but if she believes that's the case and stays away from me then that's what she's more than welcome to buy. She'll be safe if she's not near me."

"You know Ben, right now I don't want to be around you, I'm going to be working from the morgue for the rest of the day. Don't call me unless it's about work. Or when you've figured out that you can actually share with people that are your friends."

He watched her stomp out, grabbing files and her purse on her way out, his brown eyes sorrowful.

*fade to Guillermo's office*

Mick was sniffing the dead body on the table, covered in a white sheet entirely.

"Silver."

"Yes he was shot with silver bullets and his throat slid with a silver blade."'

"But he wasn't one of us."

"Nope, no scent of decay on him what so ever."

"This degree of mutilation, he was tortured."

"Post mortem."

Mick frowned and looked at the corpse thoughtfully.

"Do you have any way of finding out whether this was a werewolf?"

"'Fraid not, I don't have a genetic reference sample."

They both looked up when they saw Beth walk in, struggling with coffee, files and her purse.

Mick hurried over and held open the door for her.

"Thanks. Hey you."

"Hey. Guillermo, if you don't mind I'm going to set up shop here today, I can't be around Ben right now."

"What did he do?" Mick looked suspicious with narrowed eyes.

"Well apparently your sister and him broke up."

"I figured as much."

"Well he confirmed that Ophelia indeed thinks he's cheating on her."

"I knew it, that bastard!"

"Filthy dog!" Guillermo added.

Beth was making shushing motions at them both, trying to keep two angry vampires from going to teach her boss a lesson right then at that single moment. "Ben claims that he's not cheating, and that he needs her out of his way for her own safety."

"And you believe him?" Mick was angry now.

"Frankly I don't know what to believe Mick, but I'm inclined to give Ben the benefit of the doubt. Where is Ophelia now?"

"At class I think."

"Ok well I'm meeting Carl for lunch, hopefully he can tell me more. Can you watch out for your sister?"

"Do you even need to ask?"

She paused and smiled warmly at him, looking into his slate blue eyes "no, no I don't."

*fade to Hearst college*

Ophelia was leaning against the wall, waiting for a class to end and students to come out.

"Hello Daniel…" She pulled him along by the arm to a quiet corner.

The boy shook himself loose and narrowed his eyes at her. "What do you want St-John?"

"I want to know what's going on in the were nation."

"That's none of your business."

"Specifically I want to know about a bitch called Claire. You're bound to know her, tall, pretty, supermodel like, hangs out with my ex."

"At least, Talbot saw the light dumped you."

"Such bravery to someone that can hand you your ass in pieces. You do realise that those cameras aren't recording right? And that there's no one here to save you."

"You're too big on your precious secrets to harm me here, vampire." The way he said it, it was clearly meant as an insult.

"You know, pup, maybe I don't give a fuck about secrets right now. Maybe I just want answers. Hell hath no fury and all that jazz. And my scorn is pretty unmatched once I get started, so spill."

She leaned in, her eyes black and her face pale. Daniel gasped.

"There's hunters around."

"There's always hunters around."

"Not like these, The Herne Society, they kill werewolves for their teeth, pelts, you name it. They're highly skilled, worse than your worst enemy the Legion."

"What a fucking joke, these people have obviously no understanding of the wild hunt from the Celtic times."

"Wait 'till they start hunting you. Last time I checked the eyes of an oracle were really quite valuable. Maybe they'll leave us alone if we trade you huh." He spat back, growling.

She looked into his wolf eyes and smiled, it was an evil, cold smile.

"You could always give it ago, I'm sure my family would love to hear about your clan making threats at me through you. I don't stand alone remember, and I am my grandsire's granddaughter, keep that in mind."

She walked away, leaving him there. He noticed the red lights indicating the cameras coming back on flicking along behind her as she went.

*fade to an old Victorian house, there's a gathering inside, Ben and Claire are both taking part of the argument, seated around an old mahogany table.*

"I say we find them and strike at them before they sniff us all out." A heavy build thirty something guy says, pounding his fist on the table.

"I say we go underground." Another man adds.

"And what about those of us with public profile jobs? If we go underground it will raise suspicion."

"Pray tell Benjamin, what is your job contributing to this investigation? You're not any closer to finding these butchers than we are."

"No all he did was get vampires on our trail." Claire said dryly.

"They won't be a problem."

"Yes they will…"

They turn to see Daniel in the door opening, with an older man.

"I think you should listen to my son." He sounded angry.

"Ophelia St-John cornered me after class today."

There were quite a few accusing looks at Ben.

"And?" Claire asked.

"She well…" he hung his head in shame.

"He told her what we're facing." His father sounded dark.

Cries of outrage filled the room.

"What did she say?" Ben asked.

"She seemed to be amused. I told her that it wasn't a laughing matter, that maybe we'd trade her for us." He looked at his feet.

"You did what?" Ben's voice promised nothing good, and his face was fully wolfed out.

"I didn't mean it! I just wanted her to back off."

"And did she?" an elder woman who seemed in her sixties asked. "Or can we expect some very angry, ancient and powerful members of the Duvall family to appear at our door soon, adding to our already significant problems."

"I'm sorry Elder Talbot, she did threatened to set her family loose on the clan."

A few of the men stood up from the table.

"Sit down." The woman spoke again, and they grudgingly obeyed.

She looked at Ben. "Benjamin I know you wish to keep her out of this, but the girl clearly has other ideas. You're going to have to speak to her, before she contacts her blood."

"I don't think that's such a good idea."

"It wasn't a request. Find her, and talk to her, keep her from getting the Duvall clan involved."

"Yes mother."

"Now please."

He nodded and stood.

"Claire, go with him."

"Ow mum come on." She complained.

"Now! Keep an eye on your brother. You know he's not thinking straight when that girl is concerned."