Chapter 10
Ella had been thrown into more boxes; she got back up to her feet once more, rubbing her head slightly.
"I don't have time to play games, Benson. You're the one who wanted to finish this," Ella said, looking around the warehouse, carefully.
"Who said I'm playing?" Benson said, dropping down from a catwalk.
"I'm done with this; it's going to end tonight Benson,"
"Good to know because I'm done playing too," Benson said, hitting her again.
Ella got up and got a few more punches in, wondering where she put that stake. Somewhere between the garbage bin and the back of the warehouse she had lost it. She didn't pack and spare which she realized, now was a very stupid thing to do. Especially if Benson had gotten a hold of it.
"Looking for this?" Benson asked, holding up the stake
"Yeah, how did you get it over there," Ella said, throwing a few punches attempting to get the stake out of his hand.
"Yeah, well I have it now, and I'm going to use it," Benson said, trying to get a good aim at Ella.
"No your not," Mick said, jumping down from the catwalk just as Benson had done earlier.
"You should stay out of this. This isn't about you; it's about me and her," Benson said, looking at Mick.
"Yeah, I should, but I'm not going to," Mick said, punching hard enough to get him to drop the stake.
Ella swooped in and grabbed the stake before Benson could recover and plunged it into his back.
"Good night Benson," Ella said, watching the vampire fall helpless.
"What no hug?" Mick asked, looking at Ella.
"No, you got a lighter?" Ella asked, looking at Mick.
He hand it to her and watched as she carefully lit him on fire. She smiled that was the end of that story.
"Thank Mick," Ella said, as the walked towards the front of the warehouse.
"You looked like you needed help,"
"I did, you came at the right moment. I couldn't get enough leverage on him,"
"Yeah, that's the plus side of begin tall,"
"Josef disappear?" Ella asked.
"No, he's around,"
"I could have saved you too," Josef said, coming out from the shadows.
"Yes, but to quote you I'm a lover not a fighter," Mick said, looking at Josef.
"There was that one time with Beth…" Josef said, going off.
"Yeah, One," Mick said, rolling his eyes.
"Besides I had to call someone to move one of the cars, because I can't have two of my cars sitting in an alley,"
"I shouldn't bring this up, but I'm going to. You told me not to call the D.A, and not to make that appointment to meet with him, well I did it anyways, I haven't gotten a return call, because well it's was one in the morning when I called. But I still want to know who put that list out and why," Ella said,
"You have this annoying habit of doing what your not suppose to do, why is that?" Josef asked, looking at Ella.
"Ah, Josef I should be asking you that question. Remember when you office blew up and you still went back there even after I told you not to?" Mick asked, looking at Josef.
"I had to get something of importance," Josef said.
"And now you know how I felt," Mick said, looking at Josef.
"Okay, then Ella is behaving like you then," Josef said, giving Mick a look.
"I am?" Ella asked, confused.
"Yes, your about to do something stupid," Josef said.
"Am I? I don't think it's really all that stupid, you want to know who sent the list out, and you have to go to a source to find out. If they know who that's a brilliant plan if they don't then, you play private investigator until you find what you need," Ella said, quickly.
"I'm starting to think that both you and Mick have death wishes. Leave it alone,"
Ella had arrived back at Josef safely, and had taken a shower to get all the grim off. She felt like crap, but that was to be expected, after all a 200 year old vamp decide he wanted to have a grudge and kick the crap out of her, She had turned the air conditioner on to ice cold so she wouldn't have to use a freezer, she sighed, and climb into bed.
But her mind would not let her ease herself into sleep; it kept nagging her over and over again. Was Josef right? Was her behavior a bit rash? Perhaps, but she was partly going after it to ensure Josef and the rest of the vampire population of L.A were safe. She wasn't doing it to be stupid, after all she was an unknown in the city of L.A. and the D.A wouldn't question her. She still felt something else nagging at her, but she was trying to push that back where it had been lying docile.
This was why she often was a continent away from Josef, because the same old emotions always came, she had already talked to Josef about it and they didn't matter. She been trying to tell herself that for years, but like every other female in the world, she had to admit, he had her good. She felt like a school girl at times, but at other times like tonight she felt like he cared. It made things complicated, half the time he didn't care what she did, other times he cared. This had been going on for 150 years, so she was use to these feelings, but right now she wasn't sure what she was feeling. She turned over in her the bed again, annoyed.
"What do you want, Josef?" Ella asked, not even bothering to look at the doorway.
"Why do you always assume I want something, I can't just talk to you?" Josef asked.
"You can, you just usually don't,"
"I didn't mean to call you stupid, you are sometimes," Josef said, walking into the room.
"I know, but I also tend to get passionate about things, I can't help it that's how I am, and that sometime leads me to do stupid things. But as you saw tonight, I don't take crap from anyone. But you've known this for years, you know me," Ella said, sitting up to look at Josef.
"Here's the thing Ella, yes I've known you a long time, but what I'm not understanding is why, despite the fact that your name isn't on that list, you still want to go and look into it. You don't get along with half the vampires on that list," Josef said, sitting down on the bed.
"It's not about the vamps I don't get along with on the list, and it's about protecting the community, but it also about protecting something I care about, and that to me seems like a reason to go after it," Ella said, looking at Josef.
"And what do you care about on that list, and don't give me the community answer, because that's a lot of bull and you know it."
"You don't believe that I'd want to protect the community?"
"In all honesty, no I don't believe that Ella, because you spend you time half a continent away, so I don't see how you could possible even have an iota of a care,"
"Would you believe me if I said it runs deeper then what you see on the outside?"
"You care about the community?" Josef asked, looking at Ella.
"No not that! Me caring about something on that list,"
"See this is where I start to get confused, because you never name names,"
"You're an idiot," Ella said, giving Josef an annoyed look.
"I'm an idiot? Do I need to make a list of the things that make you an idiot?"
"I'm not talking about in the sense of stupid things I do, I'm talking about in the sense that you do not understand what I'm talking about,"
"You haven't really given me a straight answer so I don't see ho-,"
"No, just shut up and listen, don't say a word till I'm done," Ella said cutting him off.
Josef gave her a look, but didn't say anything, no one had ever really told him to shut up.
"I didn't think I'd have to say it, but I guess I do. For once in my undead life, I'm going to say exactly how I feel and get it out there. Look, I know we've been over this a million times and we've both said it can't work. But like one of your little groupies, I've been hit and hit hard. Your right I don't give a hoot about the community, that's the last thing I'm thinking about. What I do care about is you every time we talk about this I get more serious about it. You say that neither of us can commit to anything, that we don't have a thing, have never had one. But what it comes down to is this. I…."Ella said, taking a deep breathe, after years of waiting she was about to finally say it and it scared her, but she needed to do this now. "I love you," Ella said, getting out of bed and walking out onto the balcony, clearing her head.
Without even saying anything, Ella realized Josef had disappeared on her. She felt her heart sink; she shouldn't have opened her mouth. But she had to, she just had to.