Chapter 21

"So tell me, Mister Black, you have been working at this hotel for how long?"

"About a week," Freddie answered nervously, the palms of his hands starting to sweat a little.

The other monster - a fly who buzzed on the spot - nodded and wrote down some notes to look back on later. "I see. How exactly did you come by this job?"

"My uncle heard that they needed a chef," The red-head said slowly. I need to relax! "So he applied for that job...and he managed to get me a job too. At first I was meant to be helping him cook, but then...uhh...we found out I couldn't cook."

Smooth, Freddie, really smooth.

"According to your record, you've had at least fifty jobs in the last fifty years. Why so many?"

"I lost them," Freddie admitted sheepishly. "Well, some of them I lost...some of them I kinda had to quit, 'cause we had to move... Does that make sense?"

The fly just eyed him, clearly not impressed by his clumsy answers.

"We had to move because of humans!" Freddie added, unable to stop talking. "Well, sometimes it was because of humans, other times because we couldn't live in a certain place any longer... You know when you live somewhere and it's not right? We had that sometimes."

I am a giant idiot.

The fly scribbled some more notes down. "Uh-huh. Now, I'm sure that you are aware of the accusations being held against you - you received a letter, correct?" The young vampire nodded. "Before I watch your behaviour from afar, I'd like to hear your...shall we say 'defence; against the points made."

"A-Alright." Freddie quickly thought hard, trying to remember the things mentioned on the letter. "It's a long story, really..."

"Let's start off with...your work," The fly decided, squinting at a piece of paper in his hands - he obviously had a copy of the letter for reference. "Apparently the quality of your work has been decreasing over the past few nights. Care to explain?"

"Okay, fine," The red-head agreed worriedly. "I haven't really been doing a lot of work lately - but I have a good reason! See, my...friend's been...uhm...having a really difficult time. I-I'd rather not go into specific details, but she was rather upset about it so I was looking after her until she felt better."

"Would this friend be the minor mentioned in this letter?" The other monster asked, looking down at it again. "Let's see...apparently you have an inappropriate relationship with a young child that you're of no relation to." The fly didn't look too impressed and eyed the vampire coldly. "Tell me, Mister Black, how did you come to know this child?"

Just tell the truth - you've done nothing wrong. "I met her while I was doing the waiter job," Freddie answered, his voice surprisingly calm. "She was too tiny to reach the food she wanted, so I helped her get it...I guess she took a liking to me or something, because a few hours later she came running into the kitchen and begged me to play games with her."

"What games?"

Oh jeesh...he thinks... "Hide-and-Seek. Bat-tag. That kind of thing."

The fly wrote this down before continuing. "And what about this second point: violence towards a minor. This wouldn't be the same minor, would it?" Freddie shook his head quickly. "Then who is it referring to? Do you have any explanation for why this complaint was made?"

"I know who it is," Freddie said quietly, giving a small nod. "I...I was defending a girl from him."

The fly tilted his head sideways, somewhat intrigued. "Defending a girl?"

"Yeah. Uhmm...he had this girl with him...I could hear her crying for help from the hotel, so I went to look to see what was going on...and..." He stopped talking, suddenly feeling anger bubble up in as he remembered what had happened that night in the forest.

The monster from the Council didn't seem to notice this and instead continued his questioning. "And what?"

"This...this guy was pinning L-...some girl to a tree...you know, as if he was going to...you know."

He didn't want to bring Lucy or Mina's names into this - the best thing he could do for the two of them was stop them from being more stressed out, what with everything that was going on at the moment. However, he certainly wouldn't have minded bringing Damien's name into this: the sooner someone dealt with him the better. Unfortunately, Freddie wasn't really sure what his name was - he didn't want to say the wrong name and bring an innocent monster into this mess.

"So you attacked the boy to stop him from attacking someone else?" The fly asked, voice suddenly a lot less angry and mean; hopefully he was starting to think Freddie was innocent. "That changes things. Do you know the girl's name?"

Freddie shook his head hastily. "No, I don't. As soon as I hit the guy she ran for it."

A little white lie never hurt anybody - in fact, this one would be better for all of them involved.

"So, how do we test this?"

Serena gave her a confident smile. "A simple spell. I have my wand in my pocket just here - you need to relax or it won't work."

Mavis nodded, taking a deep breath to calm herself. She severely hoped this spell had worked; she didn't want to have to use Johnny again in the way she had. The thought of what she had done - knowing that he had trusted her - make her feel sick to her stomach, and she was in no hurry to do what she had done again.

Serena pulled her wand out and whispered a spell that made the end glow with a silver light. "The light - once I've given a final incantation - will change colour, depending on what the result is."

Mavis wanted to question which colour the light would go if it had worked but didn't have the time; within seconds the witch had touched the tip of the wand to the vampire's stomach, staring down at the light with wide eyes.

What she said next, Mavis couldn't make out - it sounded like a different language, and she couldn't identify any words that sounded even remotely English. Regardless, her eyes were immediately drawn to the light, the anticipation building up in her in an almost unbearable way.

The light stayed silver for a moment before it started to ease into another colour - seconds later, it had gone a blue colour.

Serena gave a large smile. "Yes...very good..."

"What?" Mavis asked urgently. "Did it work?"

"Yes," The witch said slowly, eyes bright as if she had seen something she liked. "It did. And now we plan out the next stage."

This was it. There was no going back.

Lucy could only gape at her younger brother, utterly astounded by the information she had just received. Jack just sighed, rubbing at the back of his neck worriedly.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Nope. I wish I was, Lu, I really do."

Lucy sat back on his bed, leaning against the wall and shaking her head in horror. "I can't imagine," She whispered softly. "Imagine seeing your father murder your mother...murdering others... And then she had to live with it too, knowing that it was her father's fault that so many other children were orphans..."

"Yes," Jack agreed slowly, nodding. "That is rather sad, but can't you see what else this means?"

She clearly didn't, judging by the blank expression on her face.

The vampire boy gave an annoyed sigh and started gesturing wildly so that his sister would understand. "Think about it: ever since she got here she's had a thing about Dad, right? Well, he used to be human, just like-"

"Just like her dad," Lucy finished, utterly astounded. "So that's why she kept complaining about him and saying he was dangerous - she's scared that he'll do what her dad did hundreds of years ago."

Jack sat down next to her on the bed, biting his lip. "I feel kinda bad for hating her, now that I know what she's been through."

There was a long, uncomfortable silence between the two siblings as they both digested this news separately and tried to make sense of it.

Finally, Lucy lifted her head, looking rather guilty as she spoke. "You don't think...you know... You don't think that Dad would try anything like that, do you?"

Jack stared at her out of shock. "No! Of course he wouldn't! He...He wouldn't, Lu! We know him, he wouldn't hurt a flea!"

"But everyone probably thought that about Jackson Harker too," The red-head stated. "And then look what happened; he murdered hundreds of people in one night because he was driven to insanity... It was probably the stress of losing his humanity catching up with him."

"Dad isn't like that," The dark-haired vampire said firmly - he was determined to be right. "You know what Mom and Dad say about it: Dad practically begged Mom to change him because she was scared, wasn't she? They both knew what was going to happen-"

"So did Jackson and Marianne," Lucy argued softly, looking rather upset. "He asked her to bite him and she agreed - they both knew what was going on then."

Jack shook his head; he had decided immediately after hearing this story that their father was nothing like that. "Lu, Jackson and Marianne knew each other for six months - Mom and Dad knew each other for five years. I think that they had both thought this through beforehand."

Lucy sighed. "I guess you're right there...I just can't help but worry. I mean, with the stress of losing the baby and everything...what if it does something?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, what if it does something to their...their mental state?" The older vampire pointed to her head weakly for an example. "What if it makes them both so depressed that...I dunno...Dad suddenly goes crazy like Jackson did? What if he suddenly regrets everything-"

"He wouldn't!" Jack interrupted sharply, angry now. "Dad loves us! You've seen him, you've seen how he acts around Mina especially! He wouldn't do anything like that!"

Lucy huffed. "I'm sorry, but I'm just trying to think of the worst case scenario - just in case it does happen and we have to sort it out." She climbed off of his bed, heading for the door.

Jack watched after her with wide eyes. "Where are you going?"

"I need some air to think," She replied, opening the door and shutting it loudly behind her.

Only one person would understand and, rules or no rules, she was going to see him.

Freddie gave a yawn as he watched the trees in the forest sway; he'd come outside for a break from the council member following him around and asking other guests various questions about him, and he was now sat in a deck chair by the pool watching the stars shine brightly in the sky.

So far, he thought that this whole inspection thing was going pretty well. Okay, sure, so some people were probably going to complain about his lack of work as of recently, but besides that he usually tried to be nice and polite to the guests.

For the time being, he could only wish that his politeness and kindness would have paid off.

After a few minutes of watching the world go by, he heard the pool door open and close - someone else had also come outside. Hmm...probably that fly or something checking up on me. Freddie swivelled around in his chair, peering through the darkness to see who had come to join him.

He was quite shocked to see Lucy standing there, looking paler than usual and as if she was going to cry at any minute.

"Hey," He greeted quietly, standing up quickly and taking a few steps towards her. "A-Are you okay?"

Lucy moved closer too, sniffling quite a bit as she rubbed at her eyes. "It's...It's been a long night."

"Tell me about it," Freddie agreed awkwardly, sticking his hands in his pockets and feeling stupid. "You know, what with the council people and stuff..."

And suddenly he found that she'd thrown herself into his arms, wrapping and entwining her body with his tightly. For a moment, Freddie gladly reached up to hug her back, to stroke her hair maybe and tell her that it was all going to be alright...

But then he remembered that she was a minor, and he couldn't.

"I wish I could help," He muttered guiltily before sighing. "I just dunno anymore..."

Lucy pulled away enough to look at him properly; there were tears in her eyes, and it was clear that she was trying her very best not to cry in front of him. "Don't leave me," She mumbled, moving her head closer to his...

And, oh God...there it was. That zing that only occurred when her skin brushed against his, when their lips met...a nagging voice in the back of his head admonished him and screamed for him to pull away in case somebody saw: he was in enough trouble as it was, he couldn't afford to be brought into even more...

But the main part of his brain was screaming for him to kiss her back, so he did; he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer to him and relaxing into the kiss. There was comfort in feeling her lips pressed against his, telling him that it was all going to be alright because she was there with him and that just made everything perfect.

For the moment, there were no others: it was just them two, united and complete.

Thanks for the reviews, guys! :3 Christmas is just a week or so away! :D