Hi, I know I've had very little of Greg on the last few chapters, I really wanted to contrast Nick's transformation over Greg's to see how it affected them as vampires, but the story will start to move on a little faster after this chapter and we will have some more of Greg Sanders starting now.
Greg stood staring as the woman opened the door for her last costumer to leave; calmly he crossed the street, ignoring the moving vehicles that had to swerve to avoid hitting him.
"I'm sorry, but we're closing now" he heard the woman inside say when he entered the small shop.
"If you want you can…" The woman stared at him with shock, "Ave Maria Purisima" she whispered in her native tongue, "How did you get in?" she asked.
"This is not a home" he replied, a smile forming on his face, "I don't need permission to enter"
"That is not what I meant" the woman said as her shock turned to anger, "And you know it!"
"Oh! You mean that?" he pointed at a talisman hanging over the door, "Nice little trick by the way, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve too"
"What do you want?" the woman said as she held her hand out towards him.
"What I want" Greg calmly walked up to her until the woman's hand was on his chest, "What I want is you!" suddenly his eyes turned red as he took a bite out of the woman's neck.
"Mami!" Greg let the body slump to the ground as he moved to the back of the room, on a corner behind some curtains a little girl sat shivering in fright, "Look at what we have here" Greg smiled as he approached the little girl, "Dessert"
"No!" the girl shouted. Suddenly the curtains flew up out of the walls and windows and begun to twist around Greg, tying his arms against his chest and lifting him up onto the ceiling.
"Enough!" Greg's voiced echoed through the room as everything stood still. The curtains fell softly to the floor as he stepped calmly up to the girl, "You're a feisty one aren't you? And quite strong for your age; certainly stronger than your mother was" he said, causing the girl to cry. "Don't worry, you'll be with her soon enough"
Nick finished making the sandwich then in a blink of an eye was standing by the stairs as Sara walked down to the first floor, "Breakfast" he said as he handed her the plate.
"Oh, um…thanks" she took a large bite and was about to swallow when all of a sudden Nick rushed out of sight; in the blink of an eye he was by her side again.
"Milk or juice?" he asked as he held up both bottles.
"Jui…" She hadn't finished the word when Nick was gone and back again, this time with a glass of orange juice in his hand.
"Thanks" she said. She finished the meal as fast as she could then opened the door, "Okay, I'll see you…" suddenly Nick was at the top of the stairs.
"Later?" she looked at him confused.
"The light" Nick said as he pointed at the bright rectangle on the floor, "It hurts"
"Sorry" Sara said as she quickly closed the door.
Nick was by her side now, "Have a good day" he kissed her softly.
"You too" she smiled, "Are you sure you'll be all right here by yourself all day?"
"It's not like I can go anywhere" he said looking at the door, "Besides, Caroline said she'd come by later today, I'll just watch some TV until she then"
Sara opened the door slowly and Nick stepped away slowly as the light inundated the hallway. Once she was gone Nick walked in to the living room and frowned. "Damn! Now what am I supposed to do?"
Sara had left the window open and light inundated half of the room. Unfortunately for Nick, it was the half with the TV and remote.
Katherine was lying on a large red couch placed at the center of a large warehouse that had been decorated on the inside in the style of an upper class Victorian mansion. Around her she had five serving girls, and seven armed men or "goons" as Greg liked to call them. She had just finished feeding off of one of the girls when she saw Greg walk in.
"How'd it go?" She asked.
"Two for one special" he threw a duffle bag to one of the girls and sat beside her, "Put that with the others" he ordered then turned back to Katherine.
"How many does that make now?"
"Fifty three" he replied "and I still have a lead on another two here in Vegas" he leaned in to try and kiss her.
"And the book?" she asked coldly.
Greg realized she wasn't in the mood and turned away, "Still looking, it'd be easier if I had access to all my old files in the lab"
"Why don't you go get them?"
"If I set foot in that lab, I'll end up with more holes than a slice of Swiss" he sat pondering for a minute, "The place never closes, there's always people on duty"
"We need that book" Katherine stood up and walked up to a French dresser, "we have all the ingredients, all we need is the spell"
"And me" Greg added.
"And you" Katherine smiled, "You're the most important part"
"So you admit I was special?" he lifted an eyebrow, "I wasn't just a random guy walking into an alley?"
Smiling she walked up to him and sat on his lap "Let's just say you were a happy coincidence"
"Coincidence, but no accident" he added.
Slowly she placed her lips close to his, "Definitely no accident" she whispered as she began to kiss him passionately.
It was near noon when Caroline arrived, of course by then Nick had already managed to tie together a broom and a mop and used them to reach for the TV remote.
At first he had considered exercising, but soon realized exercise was a waste of time when you could do 1500 push ups in under a minute. He watched TV for a couple of hours, by then the hunger was really starting to get to him. He made himself a sandwich then left it on the table without even a bite; he then tried to lure the neighbors cat in through the window with a piece of ham but the animal seemed to sense his intentions and ran off in the other direction. He had no choice but to sit by the front door and wait for someone to arrive.
And finally Caroline did. He was happy to see her of course, but he was even happier to see the blood bag she had brought from a blood bank. Eagerly he ripped the top part open and drank it all in a matter of seconds.
"Feeling better now?" Caroline smiled as she watched him lick the bag clean.
"Yeah" he replied as he wiped his face clean and licked his fingers. "I never thought I'd ever be so hungry…or that I'd enjoy the taste of blood so much"
"Don't get too used to it" Caroline replied, "After tonight you'll be feeding mostly on animal blood"
"What's that like?" he finished cleaning himself.
"The hunt can be a little fun, but it can also be frustrating" Caroline begun rummaging through her bags, "Blood doesn't taste as good though. And you will be weaker than if you fed with human blood"
"But it will keep me from becoming like Greg?"
"Yes" she tossed him some clothes, "Here, I brought you a change of clothes from your house"
"Thanks" Nick smiled, recognizing his old training sweat pants and hoodie, "But how did you get in? I thought we had to be invited?"
"Technically you're dead" She replied, "So your house has no owner"
"It's good to know I can go into my own house" he looked out the window, "Or at least I will, once the sun sets"
"Yeah, that can be frustrating"
"Aren't we supposed to sleep inside a coffin or something during the day?"
"Are you tired?"
"No"
"Then why would you want to sleep?"
"I fell a sleep last night" Nick added.
"We still sleep, and dream" she sat down next to him, "Just not as often"
"Do you miss it?" he looked at her, "Being human?"
"I'm not sure I remember the difference" she replied
"How old are you?" he frowned, "as a vampire?"
"I was sixteen when I died" she said glumly, "I've been sixteen for two and a half years"
Nick felt sad for her, she seemed like such a wise and all knowing girl, he never imagined she was truly that young. "I…I'm sorry"
"It's ok" she smiled, "Like I said, I can't really remember how it felt to be human. Although I can remember that I wasn't a very nice person"
"Well, you're a very nice vampire" he said as he placed his arm around her.
"Don't start getting all fatherly on me" she said jokingly as she pushed him away.
"I know, I know; you're older than me…vampirically speaking"
"And don't you forget it" she laughed.
"Sara!" Katherine shouted as she walked up to her, "Anything you want to tell me?"
"What do you mean?" Sara frowned not sure of how much Katherine really knew.
"I mean Nick!" she slammed the stack of files she was carrying on the desk to make her anger more evident, "You took him out of the medical center"
"he got better" she shrugged, "he didn't need to be there"
"Got better? How did that happen?"
"I sort of…got a vampire to help him"
"You got a vampire to help him?" she repeated, "And did you ever think to ask me about this?"
"I didn't need to ask you, I did it for him! I owed it to him!"
Katherine took a deep breath, "I guess what matters is that he's ok right"
Sara looked away.
"He is ok, right?"
"I suppose that depends on your definition of…"
"What happened Sara?" Katherine was getting even more annoyed.
"The only way to bring him back was to make him a vampire"
"You did what?" Katherine placed her hand on her forehead.
"They're not all like Greg, some of them are…"
"I know they're not all like Greg" Katherine interrupted, "I've met several of them before. That doesn't mean he won't be"
"He's not, he can control himself"
"We can't know that for sure, how do we know that in the heat of the moment he won't accidentally bite someone's head off?"
Sara wished Katherine had used another choice of words, "I know he won't" Sara said confident. "He's your friend, I know you want to see him, to believe he´ll be strong enough to control it"
"I do" Katherine placed her files under her arm and shook her head, "I really wish I could take that bet, but the stakes are too damn high" she begun to walk away, "If I have even the slightest reason to believe that he's a danger to anyone, I swear I'll have all of Las Vegas PD looking for him with a stake on their hands!"
"Nick is your friend" Sara said before Katherine could leave.
"Nick Stokes is dead"
Nick ducked, a few feet away he could see his future victim, slowly he counted to three the swiftly pounced over his prey, his eyes turning a dark red as he bit on to the throat ripping the skin as his fangs made contact with the veins.
"Well done" Caroline clapped as she approached him, "of course wild sheep are nowhere near as fast as a coyote or a hare"
"So, I'll just keep eating Sheep" Nick said happily as he wiped the blood off his mouth.
"Sure, and what will happen when someone notices all the sheep are dying?" She held her hand out to help him up, "it's not just humans you have to watch out for, you also have to take care of yourself. Exposure is a big No No" the two of them walked up to a car by the road as they continued talking. "Being around people that know your secret, you can get confident, even cocky and start showing off. But we're creatures of the night, we were meant to live under the radar"
"Are we done here?" the two of them turned to look at the young man sitting in the driver's seat of the car.
"Yes Robbie, we're done" Caroline replied, "You know what to do" she looked at Nick.
The two of them got in the car with him then Nick turned to stare at him in the eyes, "Robbie, you're going to take us to the same place where you picked us up earlier tonight"
"What about walking in the sunlight?" Nick asked, "Are you going to teach me that trick?"
"It's not something I can teach" Caroline showed him her ring, "You need a special talisman made by a witch"
"Get out of here…really? A witch?"
"You spent the last hour and a half hunting a sheep to drink it's blood because you're a vampire, and you're surprised witches are real?"
"What else is real, don't tell me werewolves…?"
Caroline nodded, "Friends with one"
"Anything else?"
"Not that I know of, but that doesn't mean there aren't other things"
"I feel like there's a whole new world I didn't know existed"
Greg smiled as he gave his orders, it had been a long time since he'd last seen his fellow CSI; soon he would have what he needed to find the book, now all that remained was to get the two remaining witches. "You have your orders" He said as he finished his compulsion, "Now go"
Calmly Greg walked down the parking lot then stopped, "What do you want?"
"Klaus is not happy with what you're doing" A hooded figure emerged from the shadows, "You will stop"
"I don't take orders from werevamp" Greg said calmly, "or his pet"
"I'm older than you! Show some respect!" the figure said as he grabbed Greg by the throat.
"Older" Greg smiled "not stronger"
Suddenly the figure was sent flying against a car at the far end of the parking lot.
"I subdued Katherina" Greg walked calmly towards the figure lying on the ground, "what makes you think I can't take you on Stefan?"
"Katherine is a slave to no one!" Stefan replied as he forced himself back on to his feet, "Her loyalties lay with whoever holds the strongest card"
"And as of now" Greg smiled, "That's me"
So, how are you liking the story so far, please review and let me know what you think. Yes, I'm talking to you. Don't make me use my compulsion.
