THREE WEEKS AGO
Beth keyed into the apartment she now shared with Mick. Long before she'd moved in, he'd bought a bed for the times she stayed over and by the time he asked her, she was already sleeping at his place more than her own. Despite that, it had still been a surprise to her when he asked her – a wonderful surprise of course.
They'd been living together for months and yesterday was the first day, even since before she'd moved in, that she hadn't seen or spoken to him at all. It was one day, but it still upset her and made her miss him. She figured he'd gotten caught up in a case and couldn't come home, or call, or answer the dozens of voice, text and email messages she'd left for him. She hadn't left them because she was jealous or needing to know where he was every moment of the day; it was just so unlike him.
The last she'd heard from him, he was going to follow-up on a lead and then come home. He hardly ever broke a promise or date with her – even if it was just a date to chill on the couch. On the rare occasion that something did take him away, he always let her know; but there had been nothing. She'd refused to let herself worry though. He was a vampire. He could take care of himself.
Right?
As she stepped over the threshold into the apartment now, however, and shut the door behind her, she couldn't stop herself from really worrying. She moved slowly through the main room and lowered herself into the chair. The apartment felt… empty. How she could tell that when she'd only seen the living room would be anyone's guess, especially when she lived with a vampire. No, Mick still wasn't home; she knew it. She leaned forward, her elbows resting on her knees and her large bag forgotten on the floor beside her. Before she could even get comfortable, she was standing again, pacing and chastising herself.
"Come on, Beth. Mick's probably waiting for you upstairs." Of course, the fact that she had said it out loud was proof that she didn't really believe it. If she really did think that was what he was doing, she'd be running up those stairs with a grin; not standing down here, convincing herself of it so his supersonic vampire hearing could listen in.
She looked around the living room, searching for any sign that Mick had been home since she'd last seen him. Nothing seemed out of place, though. The book he'd been reading the other night still lay on the coffee table. They'd been longing together on the couch, he reading the book, she going through her notes; just spending a normal night together. She knew that when he was alone, though, he preferred to read in the leather chair by the book shelf. Of course, the fact that he hadn't read any more of his book meant nothing, but she'd hoped it had moved. It would have meant that he'd at least been home; that he was okay.
Of course, then the questions as to why he hadn't returned her calls would have started. Was he tired of her? She was only human after all and they'd had no serious talks about their 'future' or how long that future would be. But he could have said something to her; she would have understood. She would have been heartbroken, but she would have understood. Shaking her head, she tossed that thought from her mind.
"One thing at a time, Turner."
After going through every room in the apartment, looking for some sign that he'd been there or a clue as to his whereabouts, and finding nothing, she approached the grey door, behind which was Mick's freezer room. With her hand on the door handle, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, hoping she would open it to find Mick innocently sleeping in his freezer. Of course, there had been no such luck. The room was bare of even a change of clothes and the freezer was empty. She remembered the many times she'd been with Mick in this room… a simple goodnight or good morning kiss leading to so much more upon the clear glass of the freezer.
There was only one room left to look through; she knew now what she would find – nothing. Even if he HAD been waiting in there for her, he would have come to her or called to her by now, wondering why she was talking so long. Beth walked into the empty room and pulled back the covers of the equally empty bed that she'd made before leaving for work, which had been the reason she'd been running late. Without even undressing first, she crawled into the bed as the sun started to peak over the Los Angeles skyline, pulling the covers over her. She closed her eyes and breathed in Mick's scent that still lingered on the sheets and pillows. He could not spend the days in bed with her, but often lay with her until she drifted off, arms wrapped around each other, not to mention the other… activities… that they often participated in the large bed.
As she drifted off, she hoped that when she woke it would be with Mick by her side, asking about her nightmare and telling her she was silly for worrying. Tonight he would be here and ease all the worry and fear from her, like he was always so good at doing.
That hadn't happened. Despite her worry, she really had hoped he was just tied up with a case, but she'd woken alone and gone through the entire apartment in reverse order to find it all just as she'd left it before going to bed. Her inboxes were all just as empty and Mick STILL wasn't picking up his phone. There was no way he would let her go so long without at least leaving her a message. Something was wrong; there was no denying it any longer.
Something was wrong and Mick was in trouble. How was she supposed to find him? She was only human after all and it wasn't as if she could exactly go to the police. That only left one person and that thought was what had brought her here – to the steps of the Beverly Hills mansion as the sun set.
Kept waiting only for a few moments, she was let into the house and its massive foyer, by the doorman that she had come t know quite well over the years – had it really been 'years' since she'd known them both; since her whole world and everything she thought she knew about it changed? It had, and while full of danger and some sadness, she would not have traded those years for anything and she hoped there were still many more to come. After being told where she could find the vampire of the house, she made her way through the maze of hallways and rooms to his home office. She rounded the corner only to find him… busy.
"Oh, Josef, Sorry, I…" Despite those words, she didn't turn or avert her eyes. She was unable to. She knew he had to have known she was coming. Even though she hadn't called to arrange this meeting; even if she hadn't been announced, Josef would have caught her scent as soon as she entered his house and been able to follow that scent as it travelled closer to him. Obviously he meant to annoy her, or perhaps through her off track – did he know something about Mick?
While she SHOULD be annoyed, or worried that he was trying to hide something… she wasn't. Though she should turn and give the couple some privacy – though neither seemed bothered by her presence – she did not. She only watched on in silence as Josef delicately held the woman's wrist up to his lips, drinking from her as his white vampire eyes turned to his new guest. The dark skinned woman that she had seen around his house several times in the past didn't even seem to know they had company. Her eyes were closed and her head thrown back. Beth could see her breaths come in short gasps and she whimpered and moaned as Josef's lips and tongue worked to draw the blood from her and make it as pleasurable as possible, smiling around the bite at the reactions of both women.
A random thought entered her mind. She wondered why Mick had never feed from her, aside from that one time in the desert soon after they had met. When they'd first become a couple, he'd warned her about some of his… needs and she'd been prepared for them, but still he'd never bitten her. Even in the throes of their most passionate encounters, he'd managed to control himself enough to bite himself instead of her. It made her feel so conflicted – did he love her so much he always had enough sense to protect her? Or was she not enough for him? Perhaps he simple didn't lose control around her because she didn't turn him on enough, didn't please him enough. Because how could anyone need protecting from what the woman in Josef's arms was obviously experiencing? It was yet another question she would have to ask Mick.
… And that thought was what brought her back to the reason she was here; she had to find him! As if hearing her thoughts, the playful look on Josef's face disappeared and he pulled away from his freshie. He cleaned her wound with a flick of his tongue as she whimpered in disappointment at the loss of his fangs and mouth. With a few whispered words and a smile, she was dismissed and Josef finally turned to his guest, flicking a drop of blood from the corner of his mouth with his tongue and straightening his jacket as his eyes cycled back to their warm, whiskey brown and his fangs retracted.
"Beth, what a pleasant surprise, though I have to say I AM surprised to see you here alone. Mick better not beat me up for being alone with his woman, not that he could of course." He gave a self-satisfied smirk and adjusted his tie proudly.
"Josef… Mick's missing."
VvvV
He'd definitely been playing with Beth as he felt her walk through his house. Hey, he'd been hungry and he did feel the need to test the human from time to time. He had to make sure Mick had the best, and as his friend hadn't yet decided what he wanted for his future, for THEIR future, he wanted to know that Beth was the right one for Mick. The reaction he got form her when he was 'caught' was just what he was looking for. She'd changed a lot in the last year and a half. But as he continued to tease her, he felt the change in her and knew it had nothing to do with his little show. He sent the freshie away, turning all of his attention of the blond.
And he was blown away by what she said.
"What do you mean Mick's missing?"
Her shoulders slumped and he could feel the defeat coming from her. She'd clearly been hoping he would tell her where he was, or at least that he was alright. Whether he would have told her anything was debatable, but the fact of the matter was that he really had no idea where his friend was, or that he was even missing. Beth lowered herself into one of his easy chairs, tears glistening in her eyes.
"He called Friday night to say he'd be home after he followed up on a lead, but he hasn't come home. I thought maybe… he'd just got tied up on a case, but he hasn't even called… Josef, please, do you know anything?"
He sat down in the chair next to her, keeping his carefree look on his face, trying to put her at ease. Of course, putting humans at ease wasn't really something he had a lot of practice with. Turning them on, yes, though of course not with Mick's girl.
"I'm not Mick's keeper, Beth. He doesn't, like, tell me everywhere he goes. If he did, I'd give him a curfew."
Not surprisingly, the snark didn't put Beth to ease at all. The fact of the matter was, though, that Josef didn't know what to think. It was definitely NOT like Mick to leave 'His Beth' out in the cold like this, and if Mick had been caught in something vampire related that was this involved, Josef would know about. He'd quickly come to the same conclusion Beth had and he didn't want her to see how worried he really was.
"Josef… please…" her tears, as she looked at him pleadingly to tell her everything was fine, threatened to spill.
He placed a hand on her shoulder and looked at her with that penetrating stare. Growing more serious, but never losing his trademark smile, he tried to put her mind at ease. "We'll find him, Beth. I promise."
VvvV
Josef and Beth talked for a bit longer; he was still a lot more optimistic than she'd expected him to be. Regardless, he'd promised to get 'his people' on it. She wondered, as she slipped behind the wheel of her car, if Josef was hiding something from her – whether good or bad – and just trying to appease her. She was usually pretty good at figuring out when people were lying to her or hiding something, but how do you read someone with 410 years to perfect the art of lying? Especially when you were only human? The answer was – you didn't, and because she couldn't figure out if he was actually going to help her, she decided she had best launch her own investigation. One thing she knew – Josef was the kind of person to tell her to butt out if needed and hopefully if they both got 'their people' on it, they'd find Mick twice as fast. Or at the very least, Josef would be forced to tell her what was going on.
Still sitting in the driveway, Beth pulled out her phone and dialed a, now familiar, number. It was almost to voice mail, she was sure, before someone picked up, a blast of music could be heard in the background for a moment before it was silenced.
"Beth, it's been a while."
"Hey Logan."
"Hey, Mick isn't with you, is he?"
Beth frowned, perhaps calling Logan would prove even more helpful then she'd first thought. "No, why?"
She could hear the computer-geek tapping away on a keyboard and could almost hear his own frown in his voice. "Well… I found some more information on that case he was working on, but he hasn't answered any of my calls." Beth closed her eyes. She was right. Mick was missing. "Beth?"
She turned the car on and started to pull away from the mansion. "I'm coming over, Logan."
"Oh… um… okay…" But Beth had disconnected the call, tossing the phone into the passenger seat before she heard his reply.
VvvV
With a buzz, Beth was quickly let into Logan's basement and he actually met her at the door. Even he knew not to keep a lady waiting. He looked behind her before letting it shut – whether it was to see if she was followed or to see if perhaps Mick was behind her she didn't know.
"Beth, what's going on?"
She leaned against the wall, her eyes scanning the monitors on the table as if Mick's location would jump out at her. She sighed and turned to the vampire. "When did you last talk to him?"
"I don't know, Friday I guess. Why?"
"That's the last time I heard from him, too. I need you to help me find him."
Logan's eyes grew wide in shock and he sank into a chair. "What happened?" Beth only looked at him with a raised eyebrow that could only have been learned from Mick and Logan waved off his own question with his hand as he turned to his computer. "Right, right. What do you want me to do?"
Beth sat in the chair next to him, turning to the computer expectantly as well, even though they'd yet to get to work. "You said you talked to him on Friday and that you had more info on the case he was working on? Give me all you've got. And track the GPS on Mick's phone and car; see if we can locate him that way."
Logan gave half a shake of his head. "Beth, I don't know if that's such a great idea. I mean, if this case is why he's missing and something happens to you too, he'll kill me."
"He can't kill you if we don't find him."
He furrowed his brow. "So does that mean we want to find him or not? Okay, okay…" With that, he was pounding away at his keyboard, simultaneously dialing Mick's phone and running a search on his license plate, both, strangely, memorized.
"I'll pay you…"
He turned to her quickly. "No way! This is Mick. Totally on the house." Still looking at her, he pointed to one of the screens that had already brought up some results. "No go on the cell, he must have it turned off. GPS on his car: also nadda and there's nothing in the police database for it." Beth's face fell at the news. She figured that would be her only hope, their only lead. He smiled and held up a finger. "But…" he picked up his phone and his thumbs flew over the onscreen keyboard. Moments later, Beth's own phone trilled. "That's the location I sent him to – the last place I knew this guy – Thomas McKay – had been." He shrugged. "Hopefully it'll help. I also emailed him a bunch of information. Do you need me to resend it?"
Beth shook her head, looking over the text. "No, I can get it. You said you had new info?"
"Yeah, the guy had a weird message on his machine; Mick wanted me to track it down. I actually don't have much on it – it was a disposable phone. I'm still working on it."
Nodding, Beth stood. "Okay, sounds good." She started toward the door and then turned back. "You're coming with me."
"Um… wha… okay."
VvvV
Logan acted as if he hadn't been out of his basement since the whole Emma and Jackson debacle… or even talked to a girl since then. He talked Beth's ear off throughout the entire drive. In between giving directions to the phone booth he'd sent Mick to, he talked about, well… almost everything; Guitar Hero, World of Warcraft – and how he'd totally 'pwned' Mick in their last raid – and some technical facts about just how he'd gotten the information Mick wanted. Beth didn't really understand most of what he said, but she let him ramble on, even if she contemplated tossing him out of the car once in a while. She figured he was probably just as worried about Mick as she was and trying to keep his mind of it… and as she tore him away from the Xbox, she could hardly complain too much.
As they pulled up to the parking lot next to the phone booth the car's headlights illuminated the green Mercedes that was somehow still parked in the alley. She grinned. It seemed bringing Logan was a good idea; he could help drive the cars back home… and maybe calm down enough to give her a bit more information, aside from his paladin's stats.
Beth parked the car and started to get out. She turned to shut the door behind her and noticed Logan still sitting in the seat, making no move to leave. She nodded to the door. "Let's go, Logan. I need your… vamp senses."
With a sigh, Logan nodded and then got out of the car and joined Beth on the other side. She looked at him expectantly. "What?"
She waved a hand in a shooing motion. "Do that vamp sniffing thing."
He looked at her, confused. "Vamp sniffing… oh!" He scratched the back of his neck and in the beams from the headlight, she saw him look at her sheepishly. "Uh, you know Beth, that's really something we have to practice, and I… well… it's not really very useful in my basement."
"Can you please just try? Anything, Logan."
Nodding, he walked a few steps away from her so he couldn't feel her hovering quite as much. He'd seen other vamps do it, on the odd occasion he actually went out, but it really had been a while since he'd had any reason to try it himself. He closed his eyes and turned his head into the light breeze and took a deep breath. His brow furrowed as he concentrated harder, trying to work through all the scents that lingered on the corner and in the alley – which weren't very pleasant – to try and find the ones that had been there at the same time Mick had. Finally he shook his head and gave up, turning back to Beth with an apologetic expression.
"I couldn't 'see' anything like Mick can – he has it down to a fine art – but I did feel… I think someone was able to take him by surprise."
"How could anyone do that to a vampire?"
Logan shrugged. "Well… if he was really concentrating on what he was doing he might not have sensed anything, or if he was reliving a memory from when this guy was taken he could have thought that he was sensing that danger."
Beth nodded and sighed in frustration. "Well, thanks for trying."
"Sorry…"
"It was worth a try. Let's see if Mick or his attacker left us anything."
They spent half an hour searching the phone booth and surrounding alley, Logan using his vamp senses and Beth using her reporter and investigator eyes and instincts. Finding nothing, Beth made her way back to her car and, crossing her arms on the roof, she rested her head on them, trying to compose herself. As the minutes had ticked on throughout their search, she'd gotten more and more frustrated, more depressed. If they couldn't find anything here, in the last place they knew Mick had last been how would they be able to find him?
"Mick… where are you?" Those first two days he'd been missing, she'd been worried. She'd missed him so much her chest ached, but she still had hope – hope that he'd just gotten tied up; had simply been too busy and forgotten her. Hell, even if he'd decided to run off with some other woman, right now, it would have been okay; at least he was safe. Of course, this was Mick and that just wasn't in him.
Now she knew that something was wrong; something had happened to him. He was in trouble and she could do nothing to help him as he had helped her so many times in the past. She could only wait and hope and pray that some miracle brought him back to her. As she stood there, leaning against her car in the darkened corner, she started to cry.
After a moment, she felt a tentative hand on her back and she stiffened for half a second, forgetting that she was here with Logan. She straightened and wiping her eyes, embarrassed at having an audience – especially the geeky vampire. "Sorry." It was now her turn to apologize and Logan's to reassure.
"Don't be, Beth. We'll find him, you know. I mean… it's Mick… and you talked to Josef Kostan already right?" She nodded. "Well, I'm sure he's working on it, too." He fidgeted for a moment, clearly just as uncomfortable at the moment as Beth was. Thankfully, for them both, he had something to distract her with. "Hey, come look at this."
Beth sniffed and wiped a final tear away before following him to Mick's car. "His car was unlocked, but there was nothing useful inside – no keys and he must have his phone with him. But I found this over by the garbage." He reached into the trunk and flipped open the flap of the messenger bag that he had found and put in there before walking over to Beth. She reached in and quickly flipped through the contents before looking back to Logan with wide eyes.
"This is Tom's bag." Logan nodded, obviously quite pleased with himself that he'd found something so important. "We need to get this home and look through it. If this is here… maybe this is where Tom was taken as well. Mick's disappearance must be related. Maybe the answer is in here!" For the first time since she'd realized Mick was gone, she grinned. Finally she had hope.
"Well, what are we going to do with Mick's car? Call a tow truck?"
Beth shook her head. "No. We don't know what's going on yet. Unless you know a discrete, vamp or vamp-friendly tow truck driver, it could bring too much attention to… whatever's going on here."
"But… no keys?"
Now, she raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "You're a hacker and you don't even consider 'hacking' his car?" Logan looked completely clueless. "We're going to hotwire it, Logan. Well, actually, I am." She tossed her own car keys to Logan. "Mick will be angry enough that I screwed with his car. He'd be furious if I let anyone else drive it. Sometimes I swear he treats this thing better than he treats me." That was a complete lie, of course, but Logan's discovery had brightened her spirits considerably. She was energized and ready to follow the clues.
"Um, okay…" Logan easily caught the keys from her and before he had even reached her car, Beth was seated in Mick's driver's seat, pulling wires out from under the dashboard.
VvvV
It was only after Beth left his office and he felt her move out of his house that the carefree expression on his face disappeared. He sat down in a chair. He was shocked and surprised that he'd been able to carry on the false bravado with her for as long as he had.
He'd tried to tell Beth that everything would be okay; that Mick was fine, resourceful. But the fact was… Josef had no idea where Mick was or, until Beth came by, that anything was even wrong. It didn't worry him that he didn't know where Mick was. He may be head of the community in LA, he may have been friends with Mick for over 50 years, but he really wasn't Mick's keeper. No, it was the fact that his friend hadn't contacted Beth that let Josef know something was wrong. There was no way Mick would have gone this long without letting 'His Beth' know everything was okay. Even if he had to go deep undercover, even if he had to send the message through someone else, the only way Beth would not have heard from him by now was if something was wrong.
Mick was missing, possibly dead – though he would never say those words aloud to Beth. So many thoughts ran through his head that Josef could hardly keep track of them all. No cleaners had reported recovering his body. What if his body were found by human authorities? Was it some vamp that just had a beef with him – he really did get in the way sometimes with his boy-scout, humans-are-more-than-food mentality. It could be a human who knew about and was hunting vampires - a personal vendetta like Lee Jay, or the start of another Reign of Terror. Maybe it was just some random human who got the better of Mick, only to find out afterward what he was.
He had to track the vampire PI down and find him… dead or alive. But those weren't reasons why he needed to find Mick. Mick was his friend; his best friend, his only friend. As Mick had himself said – he was the only friend Josef had that didn't' just like him for his money. That was the way it had always been. Throughout his long life, he'd never had a friend like Mick – someone who liked him for him and not his power or money or influence; someone he could talk to about anything if only he'd let himself. He remembered back a couple of years… to when Mick had thought he'd died in that office explosion. As he'd waited inside his friend's apartment, he'd easily heard Mick talking to Beth in the hallway, feel the emotions coming off the younger vampire – the pain and sorrow and loss. Mick may have been centuries younger than himself, but no matter one's age, loneliness was never something one could look forward to. Mick may not have lived with that loneliness as long as Josef, but eternity was a long time and good friends really were hard to find.
He got Ryder on the phone – who was back from South America and not going by 'Ryder' anymore – to start seeing what he could dig up and then headed over to Mick and Beth's Apartment.
VvvV
Beth broke several traffic laws on her way back to the apartment – even Logan had trouble keeping up with her – but they were finally sitting around Mick's dining table, Josef included. He'd been waiting for them when they'd returned to the apartment, drinking a glass of Mick's blood as if nothing was wrong. Beth should have been infuriated, but she was too interested in the contents of Tom's bag to care. She was actually pleased that he was there to help. They all gathered around the table to start sorting through Tom's notes, calendars and everything else they'd found in the bag.
Tom had been researching a string of disappearances and murders in the city over the last year. There wasn't much to go by in his notes, but it was clear he'd been trying to dig up as much as he could. They'd all – aside from Tom himself – been throwaways; people no one would miss, runaways, transients. Bodies turned up all over the city with no clues to help investigators, though no one, aside from Tom, had been too interested in investigating what they obviously thought was 'trash being taken out'. Much like they hadn't been interested in doing anything about Tom.
Josef took a break from looking through the notes he'd been 'assigned' by Beth and studied the other two people around the pine table. He'd only worked with Logan once before but he knew Mick was pleased with the younger vampire's work and trusted him. Not only that, but he'd obviously been helpful to Beth in just the last few hours, so Josef had no intentions of asking him to leave; besides three pairs of eyes would help more than two. Not only that, he could feel how worried Logan was as well. Josef hid a smile. Mick may prefer to be 'alone', and say that he only had Josef and Beth in his life, but Josef knew that was far from the case. Mick had friends, even if the brooding vampire refused to admit it.
But he had enemies too; a lot of them. Which one was responsible for taking his friend? His attention turned to Beth. She looked over the files and he could see that she was pouring all of her energy into the investigation mode he'd seen her in so many times before. Anyone else would be surprised that she was so calm, so able to be in charge. Josef knew, though, that she was just trying to keep from falling apart. It wasn't his vampire abilities that told him this – not the scent of fear that came from her; or the freshly shed tears dried on her cheeks; or the tremors, so slight a human wouldn't notice them, that shook her body whenever her mind started to drift to thoughts of Mick. No, it wasn't these things that told him; it was just because he knew Beth. He knew she loved her work, but she loved Mick so much more. He knew she needed to keep busy when things got to her.
The day Mick first met Beth – the scared little girl taken by his estranged wife – his life had changed. He'd been a bit too obsessed with her for Josef's liking. Years later, when Mick finally made himself known to her, Josef had thought it a mistake and not only because of his own experiences loving a human woman. He'd quickly realized, however, that maybe it wasn't so bad. Somehow, she seemed to make Mick accept himself and what he was more and despite her obvious misgivings at first – though she'd never admit it – she accepted all of him as well. Perhaps that was why she worked so well for him; she had obviously thought about it all and still wanted to be with Mick
Unfortunately, that wouldn't happen if they didn't find him; but before he could go back to looking through the notes in his lap, Beth Spoke up.
She looked up at Josef as they looked over everything. "This is too much of a coincidence. These cases seem to have nothing to do with Tom's disappearance but the police treated it exactly the same. They have to be related and someone must be pulling some strings." She looked down at Mick's own file on Tom and the photo of the couple staring up at her. "We don't know how long these other people were missing, but Tom hasn't turned up yet. Maybe there's still time to find him." As well as Mick, Beth thought to herself. He may be a vampire, but if he hadn't come back yet, someone had to know what he was and how to hurt him… or worse. She left that final thought unspoken, but all of them shared it.