Chapter 21

3:30 am

Beth, Elaina and Lorenza had finished their shopping. Elaina and Lorenza had found dresses for the sending but while Lorenza and Beth had found dresses for the commitment ceremony, Elaina was having no such luck.

"I know exactly what I want in a dress" she sighed "sadly none of the dresses we saw fit the bill".

Lorenza looked at her in amusement "your hilarious….this one has two shoulders….the strap is too long….i don't like the bow….why is the split so high? It's a dress!"

"Its not just a dress, but the dress. The dress I make my first ever guardianship of love speech in, I need the confidence boost okay?" Elaina retorted.

"Don't worry" Beth soothed "we can still look around, you have the best part of a week".

The girls got into the car. Beth felt completely worn out; she had managed to keep herself going when they were in the shopping centre but now it was way past her bedtime and she was in desperate need of sleep.

No one will mind if I sleep here she thought allowing her head to rest back against the car seat.

Elaina started the ignition and the engine rumbled to life. Shifting the car into gear, she was about to move when they heard a mini explosion from the exhaust and smoke rose from both it and the engine.

All three women immediately bailed out of the car. Lorenza went to inspect the damage " yep here your problem, someone thought it would be funny to shove a bag of jelly beans into the exhaust".

Beth and Elaina looked at each other and shook their heads, that was simply too gross for words.

Mick was working out at home. It had been a quite evening and he had nothing to do but a few reports since he had come back from Josef's.

He was working on his upper body at the minute; press ups on the hands, knuckles and finger tips. He knew Beth liked his arms and whatever his Beth liked, he aimed to provide.

He was interrupted by her phone ringing. Elaina.

"Hello?" he answered.

" Mick, I need you to come and pick us up at the Riley mall" replied Elaina down the phone.

"Elaina, really? You expect me to come out at past three in the morning and collect you?" he admonished.

"Yes. That's what big brothers do".

"Oh no. your not going to play that card with me missy. Why can't you call a cab?" he said.

"Okay didn't want to have to do this…." Elaina dropped to vampire hearing level " Mick I'm a vampire. And Beth is with us. The only human with us. If I have to wait for a cab or walk home, I might get hungry…"

"You wouldn't" Mick choked out.

"I dunno…" Elaina continued "the heart is willing but the fang is weak…."

"Okay, okay I'm on the way" he rushed.

"Thanks Mick" she laughed her voice returning to normal.

Mick stared at the phone for a moment and closed his eyes as he realised he had been played.

Throwing on a shirt, he hopped into his car and started the engine.

Even after all these years, she can still play you like a well tuned fiddle she thought as he drove, baby sisters! Who'd have them?

4am

Connie placed the last of her arrows into the bag and placed her cross bow on top of them. Laura sat polishing her sword.

Marie had the stake locked on her belt and was reviewing the blue prints one final time. There may not be time to take them out when they got there and the more they had committed to memory the better off they would be.

A nervous tension hung in the air as the clock officially struck 4 am. The girls looked up and met each others eyes. They nodded. Time to go.

Standing up, Connie led the way out.

Mick had met up with the girls and was now driving back into the city. He had tried to be cross when he had gotten there at Elaina but she had just pretended she didn't notice and had chattered away to him until he had no choice but to respond.

At the moment conversation had turned to Elaina's dress or lack there of one for the commitment ceremony.

"It won't matter" Mick said.

"Of course it will" Elaina replied "how could it not matter?"

"Because before you do the guardianship of love, Josef will be doing the wisdom of love speech that is given by an elder" Mick explained "and he has been giving the same one since he became elder in LA, just changes the names. With a semi decent speech, everyone will think you're great, no one will be looking at the dress"

"What if I'm awful…and crash and burn?" Elaina panicked "they'll say the speech was as bad as her dress sense!"

"It's a shame we couldn't find what you wanted? You seemed to have a very clear vision in your head" Beth injected sympathetically.

"Baby sister…" Mick began "why not make one? If you have an idea, why not make it? You used to design and make your own ballet costumes when you were starting out because you liked everything just so…why not turn your hand to it again?"

"it would provide you a cover story for why you've moved to LA" Lorenza nodded.

"I dunno…" Elaina said thoughtfully " maybe…"

Josef couldn't believe his luck. He was on fire tonight! Two more deals secured and a massive pay out was a delicious little bonus.

It was too late to call for a freshie so he poured himself a glass from a bottle and lit a cigar. Time for a breather he thought.

His thoughts turned to Mick and their conversation earlier. He smirked.

Never thought I would say this he thought but thank goodness for blondie.

She was able to do what Josef had never quite managed to do, make Mick happier with his vamp self. Plus having Elaina around seemed to be sealing the deal, Mick was an anti vampire no more.

Elaina. She flitted through his head and he smiled. They should do something nice over one of the next evenings; he had promised he would take her for a proper night out once she was more rested to celebrate rescuing the cleaners.

Every vampire in LA was due at the sending tomorrow night so not then. Maybe the night after he mused.

Finishing his cigar and draining his glass of blood, he returned to work. When the luck rolled like this, it was best to keep on rolling.

4:30 am

"Thanks Mick " Elaina cooed teasingly as she climbed out of the car.

Lorenza grabbed the bags and thanked Mick as well, albeit more sincerely.

Mick nodded and turned around in the drive way. With a beep of his horn he and Beth were gone.

"Almost sunrise" commented Lorenza.

"Drinks and then freezers?" Elaina suggested.

"Couldn't have put it better myself" Lorenza agreed.

Connie and the other hunters were in position. They just needed for the other guards to go away and it would be show time.

Marie was drumming her fingers over her stake; she was impatient to get started.

Connie spoke to her "remember, stay low when we start to attack. I know you need to get close with the silver stake but my arrows will be firing too and I don't want to hit you".

"No worries. I know the plan" Marie said.

Laura looked up and whispered "the first few guards are leaving…only about 8 left…still a few too many so we'll wait a bit longer…but should be any minute now…"

Logan arrived back from the arcade feeling refreshed.

Nothing like a few hours of goo zombies to put you in a better mood.

He grabbed a bottle of blood and took a large gulp before wiping the residue from his face.

I should head to bed he thought it's almost sunrise.

Before he went though he would have to see how his program was working against Josef's system of firewalls and trapdoors.

He was pleasantly surprised to see the screen said trace complete.

"ha ha Kostan" he crowed out loud " not as safe as you thought you were! Kalgrisen rules!"

He hit enter to bring up the results of the trace. He looked and looked again.

Crap crap crap he thought and picked up the phone to call Elaina.