The wonderful shows Moonlight and Veronica Mars are owned by companies and people other than me. They are just places I go to play.

This is a Moonlight / Veronica Mars crossover. It follows Possession, which followed Who Are You?

This takes place a couple of years after Possession.

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The present

It's six in the evening and Grant Stillman is in his lab at Kostan Industries. As soon as the sun sets more often than not this is where Grant can be found. He came to work for Josef twenty years ago and never regretted a minute of it. Grant has the scientific intellect and unending curiosity to do pure research. Josef has the money to fund it. Over the years, Grant has come up with some very profitable drugs that have gotten FDA approval. Never let it be said that Josef doesn't appreciate results. He likes results and likes to reward people for a job well done. From the first patent issued for Grants work, Josef gave him a percentage of the profits that came from the drug sales. To say that it was profitable for both of them was an understatement. Over the years Grant became rich enough he could easily have left Josef's employment and struck out on his own. The thought never occurred to him. He has no head for business and no desire to find one. Josef affords him the thing he loves in his work the most, the freedom to go wherever he wants with his research and never have to worry about equipment or any of the mundane challenges his colleges have to contend with on a daily basis. In addition, because both he and Josef are vampires there is never any rush for results. Josef is a patient employer; they both can afford to be. Josef lets him do and go where he wants with his research and he is as happy in his work as any man could be.

Josef and Grant have an understanding and an appreciation for the others talents and over the years they have become casual friends. Both men are the proverbial type A over achievers so the friendship never got much farther. In addition, Grant has responsibilities that Josef does not. He has a daughter to care for. No one of course knows that she is his daughter; vampires don't have children. When she was growing up, he kept her hidden. She believed herself to be a foundling. Once she was turned, he presented her as a fledgling whose sire was a friend that was killed and out of friendship, Grant is caring for the girl. No one knows the truth, not even Sydney. She was twenty-three when she was inadvertently turned. She is now forty-two. When Josef first hired Grant, he had held his breath hoping that Josef's vetting wouldn't reveal Sydney's identity. Luckily in those days it was easier to fake the documents and have them pass scrutiny and once he had his first success there was never any worry that anyone would look at him to closely again. Life is good.

He knows with some guilt that he probably isn't the best father, but he loves Sydney and did his best with her. Her mother had been a frail human he loved very much but childbirth had been too much for her and she had died giving Sydney life. She knew he couldn't turn her without endangering the baby she carried and she forbid it. He accepted her wishes. Sydney was a wild child but she had a good heart. Unfortunately, she has some impulse issues. She tends to not think things through and it has come back to bite her on more than one occasion. She has managed to stay one-step out of the clutches of human law but he is afraid that if something doesn't force her to change her ways, it is only a matter of time before the law catches up to her. He doesn't know what he will do if that happens. They will both have to disappear and that is getting harder and harder to do in this electronic age. Maybe Josef would set him up abroad and let him continue his work. He loves his adopted country and he hopes that will never come to pass. One would never know that Sydney is forty years old. She has the face and body of a twenty year old and will forever. Unfortunately, she also has the zest for life and judgment skills of one also. It frustrates him that she never seems to learn from her mistakes.

Then one day a couple of years ago, Josef came to him with two vials of blood. "Grant I wouldn't interrupt your work if this wasn't very important and something I could trust to just anyone. I have two samples of blood. I need you to do a DNA test on them and tell me if they are related." Grant smiled. It was such a small request and he would never refuse Josef anything so simple.

He shrugged. "Certainly Josef. Come back in a couple of days. I should have the results for you then."

He watched as Josef turned on his heel and left.

Grant prepared the blood removing what he didn't need and then ran them through the analyzer he had in is lab. Out of curiosity, he put the blood on a slide to look at it up close. He looked into the microscope and stopped breathing. He stood up and rubbed his eyes and then knowing he would see the same thing, he looked at the slide again. He had seen this blood, with these anomalies in them before. This blood matched Sydney's. When she was still human, he had taken a sample of her blood and preserved it in hopes that when the technology caught up with him, he could analyze it to his satisfaction. Once he went to work for Josef, it didn't take long for the cutting edge technology to be available to him. He desperately wants to understand what if anything made her different from other children. He tried and tried to discover the secret of her conception but with her mother deceased, it was impossible to even guess how his miracle child came to be. Grant was excited; there was more than one child like Sydney. He wanted so much to know the identity of the child and father but then it struck him, in order to acknowledge what he had seen he would have to reveal Sydney's parentage and he wasn't willing to do that, not even to Josef. With a heavy heart, he told Josef that the blood was of father and son, and that there were some anomalies in the child's blood, and that most likely he may turn automatically upon death. Grant was vague and cloaked his meaning in scientific jargon but he wanted to try and give Josef as much information on whoever this was without revealing what he knew.

Grant started to pay attention to the rumor mill, not something he had ever done before and tried to find out any hint that there were whispers of a child out there of Josef's or any of his acquaintances. Grant cultivated a casual friendship with one of the building gossips. It was almost intolerable to listen to the prattle but if there was, any hint out there, of who the blood belonged to he had to know who it was. Unfortunately, nothing ever came of it and he was stuck on occasion listening to the awful incessant chatter of the gossip.

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Mick starts to knock on the door and stops. He looks at Josef as both of them sense the same thing, intruders of the vampire variety. They lose the human exteriors and let the predators that lurk just under the surface loose. Fang and talon will be met in kind. They rush through the door and see two vampires throwing things all over the house and doing as much damage as they can. Mick senses they are very young. He wonders if they were once friends of the occupants of the house. He watches them glance at each other and scramble for the open sliding door that leads to the back of the house. Before Mick can blink, Josef has sprung and is on one of the intruders. Mick makes a move for the other one with deliberate intent. The two go at each other, the younger with fear and panic the older with precision. Mick is trying to subdue the intruder without killing him. Without looking, he knows Josef has killed his quarry. Mick watches in stunned silence as next Josef turns his attention to the vampire Mick is trying to subdue. It is clear in seconds that Josef has no such intentions. A fully vamped out Josef in full fury dispatches the vampire in seconds. Mick realizes quickly he couldn't have stopped Josef if he'd even had the time. Josef looks up at him. Mick can see Josef trying to reign in his vampire and slowing managing to get a handle on his anger. "What the hell were you doing? What is wrong with you? Are you getting squeamish about killing even the bad guys now?" Most of this comes out in a growl. Mick can feel Josef is about to go into a rage again.

Mick takes a step back. The emotions rolling off Josef are something Mick never thought he would see. Josef never lets himself get this out of control. This, Mick thinks for the first time is really, what a four hundred-year-old vampire is really like. This is worse than when Josef was sick. Even as angry and out control Josef was at the time, the illness and Veronica's lack of panic kept Josef in check, but these two exuded nothing but panic and fear adding to Josef's overwhelming predator sense to protect his family at all costs. The power, rage, and fury are almost overwhelming to the younger vamp. Mick looks at Josef a bit warily. Trying to gauge how he can keep Josef from going into another frenzy. "I was trying to keep him alive so we could ask him some questions. You know, find out why the two of them were trashing Logan and Veronica's home." Mick looks down at the two dead vamps. "Not much chance of that now."

Jose falls silent and turns some of that anger inward as he senses the wariness on the part of his friend. One of the last things he wants to do is have Mick stop trusting him or worse yet fear him. Their age difference has always made it an imperative that Josef keep his darker, more powerful side in check around Mick. Josef knows he is one of the oldest vampires Mick has ever had any close contact with other than Coraline and her brother Lance. The last thing he needs is for Mick to view him like he does those two. Josef also sees that of course Mick is right about keeping the intruders alive. Josef remembers this is exactly why he always has Mick handle these things. Josef closes his eyes and pushes the anger down. "Sorry about that. I didn't think. All I can think of is what's happened to Logan and Veronica."

Mick nods. "I know. I don't think they are here. Let's see what we can find."

Josef and Mick silently walk through the wreckage of Logan and Veronica's house. They both reach out for the sound of a heartbeat or the smell of human blood, anything to lead them to the pair, but neither vampire with their hyper senses can pick up anything but the smell of three vampires, one of which was already gone by the time Mick and Josef got there. Mick watches Josef, he can feel the barley-contained fury and fear that is rolling off of him. The fury that someone would dare to attack his son, the fear that they succeeded and Logan is dead. The emotions Josef is throwing off are so intense; Mick can barely concentrate on the task at hand. "Josef, there's no sign of either of them in here, I'm going outside and see if I can find anything." As soon as Mick walks around to the back of the house, he senses and then sees Weevil face down in the grass with a stake sticking out of his back. Mick yells for Josef and quickly pulls the stake. Josef is by Mick's side in the blink of an eye. Mick helps Weevil up.

"What the hell happened? Where are the kids?" Josef growls out.

Mick can see that Weevil can barely speak. "Come on, they didn't find the fridge in the house. We'll get something in you, so you can tell us what happened."

Weevil stops and bends at the waist and looks up at them, the pain visible on his face. He holds up his hand. "No. There's no time. Logan and Veronica weren't here when the house was hit." He chokes out. "They went down to the beach house to wait for you there. You better get down there and make sure they are okay."

Josef is already heading for the car. Mick starts to follow but glances at Weevil. "Are you going to be alright?"

Weevil waves him away. "Yes, just go."

Mick takes off after Josef and hops in the car as Josef speeds away from the curb. The beach house is twenty minutes away. Mick flips open his phone and makes a call. "Beth, lock everything down. I'll call you back as soon as I can. I love you."

She hears the urgency in his voice and knows he doesn't have time to answer questions. "I love you too. Be safe." She hangs up the phone and hits the emergency switches by the front door. Beth walks over and picks up Shannon who is now walking. "Daddy will be home safe and sound. He wouldn't dare leave us alone. He has Josef with him. Those two can take on anything." She moves to the overstuffed rocker Mick bought her and proceeds to read to Shannon.

Next Mick calls Logan's cell but there is no response. He tries Veronica's as well and just as he's about to close the line he hears her answer. "Mick?"

"Veronica it's an emergency. Where are you and is Logan with you?"

"Yes, we're both here, at the beach house. We were just about to go down to the water and have a small fire. We thought you would be here by now. Mick, what's the matter?"

"Do you have any weapons with you?"

"Of course. We have the handguns in the safe in the bedroom. Hold on a minute." Mick hears Veronica relaying information to Logan. "Mick, we'll both be armed in a minute. Are you in the area? Should I call Weevil? He's at our place. We got tired of waiting for you and he was supposed to tell you where we went."

"Josef and I are about ten minutes away, although more like five the way Josef is driving. Don't call Weevil he's hurt. He's going to be okay but he's probably out of commission for a bit. V, I think you need to be prepared to leave town for a few days. Can you leave with what you have at the beach house? Is there anything back at the house that you or Logan have to have?"

"I don't think so, but I have stuff going on, I've got a couple of cases to finish. I can't just leave town."

Mick glances at the set of Josef's jaw and knows he needs to give Veronica and Logan a heads up. "Veronica, we'll explain when we get there but I don't think this is up for discussion until tomorrow or the next day at least. Do you know what I'm saying?"

He hears her sigh. "Yes, Josef is on a tear."

"With good reason. Please just let it go for a day or so. When we get to the beach house, you can call your dad and tell him you guys are going to L.A. to stay with Josef for a couple days. Please?"

"All right. How much longer are you going to be?" she asks.

"We just pulled up out front."

They jump out of the car and Logan opens the door for them. Josef hugs his son. His relief at seeing him and finding him alive is palpable. "Josef, it's okay, I'm okay."

Josef loosens his grip on Logan. "Sorry, when we went to the house I really thought the worst. Your place was hit, it's completely trashed. Weevil was in the backyard staked. Until we found him we had no way of knowing you weren't in the house when it was hit."

They follow Logan into the house. "Did I hear something happened at the house?" Veronica asks as she sees the two men enter the room behind Logan.

"It's trashed and Weevil was in the backyard staked. Speaking of which, I should try and call him back and make sure he's ok, now that we are here." Mick walks away from the group to call Weevil.

Veronica looks at Josef. "Weevil was staked. So, that cat is out of the bag. It's about time." She looks at Logan. "You don't look too surprised. You knew?"

Logan shrugs. "I had a hunch. I realized a while back that I could sense them. At first because Mick is always with Josef, I thought it was just Josef I could sense, then when we met Vanessa and Ashley, I knew it was all of them and I also realized I was getting the same vibe from Weevil."

Josef and Veronica look at him surprised. "You never said anything." Veronica points out.

"I know, but I'm sort of shooting for normal here and that's not normal." He looks at Josef somewhat sheepishly. "Also, I thought if they weren't telling us about Weevil that there was a reason so I just went with it."

Josef shrugs "I was afraid if you knew you wouldn't trust him as much and hesitate to call him for backup."

Logan turns back to Veronica. "You don't seem too surprised yourself."

Veronica looks at him and smiles. "Yea, but that's just my superior observation skills. Once I knew what to look for it wasn't that tough. Plus I used the infrared glasses on him."

Josef sees the broad smile on her face. "I used them on everyone I know. I was hoping Kendall or Madison would turn out to be vamps and I could get Josef to kill one of them."

Logan laughs and gives her a hug. "That's my girl, vengeful to the end."

Josef looks from Veronica to Logan. "Are you ready to go? I'm not sure yet whether it makes more sense for you to stay at my place or Mick's but you have to leave town until we can figure out what is going on." Josef sees the reluctant look on Veronica's face. "Please don't argue with me about this."

Mick rejoins the group. "Weevil is better. I talked to one of his biker buddies that know what he is. Weevil managed to call them and they came and got him. He's in his freezer, mainlining blood. He did manage to call Angelina. He told her to remove the two vamp bodies we left behind."

Josef makes a mental note to drop some cash on Weevil and his cleaner. He turns his attention back to Veronica. "Really I don't want to fight with you on this."

Veronica smirks at him. "And I don't want to fight with you either, so you and Mick and Logan and I are going to sit down for two minutes and you're going to listen to me for once. Then if I haven't made my case, I'll go with you, no argument. Agree?"

Josef lets out a small growl but he knows in the long run listening to what she has to say will be faster than if she digs in her heals. "Alright, at least pour me a drink, half and half."

"There isn't any fresh blood in the fridge so unless you brought some you're out of luck."

"We did. I'll run get it." Veronica puts the drinks on the table and Mick quickly returns and splashes both drinks with blood.

The two men sit down at the kitchen table. Logan grabs himself a beer. V stands and watches the three of them. "First off, Josef, I agree with you. Logan needs to leave town."

Logan starts to interrupt and Veronica holds up her hand. "You'll get your turn."

He crosses his arms and watches her as she continues. "Josef, if I know you, you drove down here in the Ferrari."

Josef nods. "Of course."

"You can only get two people in that thing to start with so I think you should take Logan and go back to L.A. We all agree that he's most likely the target. If Logan is safe, we next have to identify the threat. I think Mick and I should stay here and work on finding out as much as we can before we follow you to LA. Mick knows Vamps and I know Neptune. I'm guessing that you didn't have any time at the house to take a good look to see what you could find out before you came running over here. Once we find out as much as we can then we'll follow you back to L.A. in Logan's jeep."

Veronica sees the look on Josef's face and she figures he's about to object but before he can, Mick interrupts. "I think she's right. Josef, we need to see if we can find out who's behind this and I need to take a look while the scene is still fresh I need to see what I can find out here in town. I also need to talk to Weevil once he's up and moving again."

Josef sighs. "I know. I hate it when she's right."

Mick continues. "I have one condition though." He looks at Veronica very sternly. "When I tell you to do something you don't hesitate, you don't stop to ask questions, you do it, and you do it right now. These are vamps and I can only protect you if you do what I tell you. Can you do that?"

Veronica nods.

Logan stands up and faces them. "Then I'm not going either."

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One more in the can.