Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own Moonlight, anything that occurs in this fanfic from the show, or any of its characters. I do, however, own this plot and any characters I decide to throw in. Yayz!

Rory and Mick pulled up in front of Rory's apartment building. Rory couldn't help but feel slightly nervous; after all, she hadn't encountered another vamp before now, save Mick and Jeff. She was also a little curious as to why this Josef would offer to renovate her place like this without thought of payment. Mick insisted that it was because Josef, being the oldest in the area, felt a responsibility to look after the younger vamps, but Rory wasn't so sure. From what she'd heard about Josef from Mick, Josef was a businessman, and any good businessman would never do something unless he thought he could make a profit.

Mick and Rory stepped out of the elevator onto the floor where Rory's apartment was located. Rory was surprised to see that the door to her apartment was already open. As they got closer, Rory could see a man standing just inside the doorway.

"Hey Josef." Mick said, walking up to the man and shaking hands with him. Rory stood in the hall just outside the door, watching as the two men exchanged greetings. Rory couldn't help but think that Josef was handsome. He was tall and well built, with blond hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a stylish black suit that could have easily cost upwards of $3000, and he carried himself with an air of superiority.

"And this must be Rory, right?" Josef asked, reaching out his hand. Rory accepted the offered hand.

"Yeah." Rory said simply. Josef locked eyes with her, as though searching for something. Rory smiled politely back and conducted her own search of Josef's eyes. She found that, despite the fact that he gave an impression of being manipulative and self-centered, there was also a barely recognizable kindness in his features. Although Rory was sure that, if he wanted to, Josef could easily rip anyone limb from limb, the kindness she detected was enough to put her mind at ease. She found that, even though she wasn't too fond of his obvious arrogance, she found him to be somewhat likeable. And she'd barely even spoken to him.

After a moment, Josef's vague smile widened and became, to Mick's utter bewilderment, warm and accepting. Mick had never seen Josef take to anyone so quickly. Even during his own meeting with Josef, it had taken Josef about an hour or so to really warm up to Mick. And that had been the fastest Josef had ever warmed up to anybody. Until now.

After a silent, somewhat tense moment Josef, smiling widely and still not taking his eyes off Rory's, snapped his fingers. "Donovan."

"Yes Mr. Konstantin." Replied a short, greying middle-aged man who had come running at the snap of Josef's fingers.

"Kindly show Rory the adjustments we've made to her apartment, would you?" Josef addressed the man without breaking eye contact with Rory.

"Of course. Please follow me." The man said, turning to Rory. Before finally breaking eye contact with Josef for the first time in several minutes, Rory silently nodded to Josef, her own smile becoming warm and wide, and turned to follow the man who was now leading her into the kitchen area.

Josef turned to Mick and gestured for them to go out into the hallway. Mick followed Josef, a somewhat quizzical expression on his face, and Josef closed the door to the apartment behind them, leaving them in privacy. Josef turned to Mick and smiled. "I like her."

"What do you mean, 'you like her'? You don't like anybody!"

"Not true. I like you."

"Yeah, and it took you quite a while to warm up to me. How can you say you like her after five minutes?"

"I just can. You know Mick, of all the people I've met in my four hundred years, I can count on one hand the number that haven't been intimidated by me during the first meeting. Even you were slightly intimidated when we first met. But her…" He paused, allowing himself a smile. "…She wasn't intimidated in the least. I can't help but admire that."

Mick couldn't help but let an amused grin cross his face. "But Josef, I thought you enjoyed intimidating people."

"Oh I do, don't get me wrong. There's no greater pleasure in life than making people respect you because they fear you. But you can't help but like the select few that can look you in the eye without the slightest trace of fear. I mean, despite your initial intimidation upon our first meeting, you're in no way, shape, or form intimidated by me now, and I respect that. You're not afraid to call me on my bullshit. Why do you think I've hung around you for this long? I respect her for the same reason; because she's not afraid of me."

Mick just smiled. Even after all these years, he was still trying to figure his friend out. Just when he thought he knew everything there was to know about Josef Konstantin, something like this would come way out of left field and smack him across the face. Life was never boring when you were around Josef Konstantin.

"Anyway," Josef said, abruptly changing the subject and taking on a serious tone. "That's not the only reason I brought you out here to talk to you. I know you've been investigating the recent hunter attacks. I want to know if you've made any progress."

Mick thought about telling Josef of his suspicions that Seth was the hunter, but something held him back. He knew how the situation would play out if he did tell Josef. He'd tell Josef that he had suspicions, but he had very little evidence to support them. Josef would tell him that it didn't matter how much evidence he had, that if he had suspicions, he should kill whoever he thought was behind it. In Josef's mind, it would be better to kill ten innocent people than to let the guilty one escape. Mick didn't exactly share these views.

"Not much." Mick said. "This guy's good. He never leaves much to go on." Mick decided that, if and when he could positively prove that Seth was the hunter, he would tell Josef when the time came.

"I see." Josef said. He could tell that Mick was holding something back. "Well, if you get any leads, you know what to do. Waste him. This hunter's a threat to our society, to our secrecy. We need to get him off the street."

"I know." Mick said simply. There was a tense moment of silence as the two just looked at each other. Then Josef smiled, slapped Mick on the arm, and gestured for them to go back into the apartment.

Rory was standing in her bedroom with Donovan, who had just finished showing her the private refrigerator that had been installed in her kitchen. The fridge, which already came stocked with pre-packaged blood, had fascinated her and she had spent about five minutes examining it. It was operated with a special remote, and when it was opened, it would rise up from within the kitchen counter and open automatically. When it was closed, it would descend back to its hidden place in the counter. It was discreet, and if one didn't know it was there, they wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary at all. Rory mentally wondered how much the fridge system alone would have cost. It must have cost a fortune, she thought to herself.

Just as Donovan was about to show Rory the modifications that had been made to her bedroom, Josef and Mick entered.

"That'll do, Donovan." Josef said, and Donovan nodded and left the room. From on top of the small table beside her bed, Josef retrieved another remote. "This is where your icebox is located." He pushed a button on the remote and Rory's bed was automatically rolled to the side by some sort of mechanism. Then an icebox rose up from the floor where the bed had once been. There was a clicking sound as the icebox stopped and automatically locked in place. Josef looked over at Rory and grinned at the astonished look on her face.

"Cool, isn't it?" he asked quietly.

"It's amazing!" Was all Rory could get out. She turned to Josef. "Thank you so much. I mean, it's all just wonderful. I just don't know how I can every repay you."

"Think nothing of it. Call it a gift, from one vamp to another." Josef replied with a smile. He looked at his watch and cursed under his breath. "Well, I wish I could stay longer, but I've got some business to attend to. I do, however, have time for one celebratory drink."

Josef snapped his fingers again and a young man, about twenty-five or so, came bustling over with a glass of blood for Mick. A young woman of about Rory's age also walked over. She offered her arm to Josef, who smiled and allowed his face to change. Rory was startled to find that the young man who'd brought Mick his glass of blood now held out his arm in front of Rory. Rory looked up in alarm, unsure as to how to proceed in this situation. Seeing Josef, it dawned on her what she was supposed to do. Josef was looking at her intently, as though wondering what the problem was. She smiled sheepishly at him and tried to explain.

"Um…well, you see…it's just that I…" She tried to find a way to explain her apprehensions without offending Josef. A look of understanding crossed over Josef's face and he chuckled.

"Oh, I see what it is." He said smiling, "Mick here has got you trained to eat that pre-packaged waste, right? Well, I should have guessed as much." He said with a laugh. He instructed the young man standing in front of Rory to get her a glass of blood, which he returned with only a moment later. Seeing that everybody was happy with the arrangement now, Josef made a toast. "To the beginning of your immortal experience." He said, nodding to Rory. Rory and Mick raised their glasses and downed them. Josef bit down on the wrist of the young woman and drank heartily. Only Mick seemed to notice that Rory looked pointedly away at this.

After a few more minutes of conversation, everyone said their goodbyes and, after handing Rory the key card to her front door (Josef had also had some extra security equipment installed) Josef left. After some debate, Mick decided that it would be best if Rory spent one more night at Mick's before coming back to her apartment, so Rory accompanied Mick back to his apartment.

It was about nine o'clock p.m. when Rory and Mick arrived back at Mick's apartment. Mick had been up almost all night the previous night and all day that day, so by that time he was thoroughly exhausted. He dropped his remote key on the table and, after pouring himself a glass of blood, went into his room and climbed into his icebox. Rory followed Mick's lead and, after downing a glass of blood, went into the guest room and climbed into her own icebox.

Unlike Mick, Rory wasn't able to sleep. She turned over and over trying to find a comfortable position, but no matter how she tried, she wasn't able to sleep. She found that all of her thoughts came back to one thing: Seth. She couldn't believe that he was a hunter. In her mind, such things were impossible. She also couldn't stop thinking about how good it felt to be around him. After about an hour of attempting to sleep and failing miserably, Rory made a decision.

After hurriedly dressing, Rory crept downstairs. When she reached the bottom, she stopped and listened, almost sure she'd heard something. She waited like that for five minutes, and after hearing nothing more, she grabbed the remote still sitting on the table and left the apartment.

Seth was sitting watching a movie when he heard a knock on the door. Looking over at his clock, he couldn't help wondering who would be knocking on his door at eleven o'clock at night. Grabbing the metal baseball bat he'd kept behind the door for nearly a month and peeked through the peephole. He nearly dropped the bat when he saw who was standing behind it. He couldn't believe his eyes. He quickly placed the bat back in its place behind the door and opened it.

"Hey." Rory said.

AN: Yes, another one of my evil cliffies. You'll get used to them after a while; it's just my writing style. (Grins Evilly). Anyway, so I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thankfully, it was a lot easier to write than my last one. My muse came back and, after I promised her three weeks' paid vacation, she's once again turning out excellent ideas. As usual, thank you all for reading and for your wonderful reviews. Luvz, Cat.