Title: Power Play
Rating: R
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Universe: Creatures of the Night (Part 1)
Pairing: Morgan/Prentiss; JJ/Hotch
Genre: Supernatural/Drama
Summary: Tensions are running high when a vampire joins the BAU, but all differences must be put aside as the team investigate a series of suspicious werewolf murders. AU.
Author's Notes: Betaed by Windy City Dreamer.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Hotch watches as Emily paces the conference room. The revelation of her mother's involvement in this mess has thrown her, even if she's not ready to admit it.

'I've seen her maybe five times in the past century,' Emily says, answering the unasked question.

'You live in the same city,' Hotch counters, frowning. Emily hasn't lived here for long, granted, but long enough for her to have seen the woman that had birthed her.

'I generally try to stay away from the people that want to kill me,' she shrugs, finally sitting on the edge of a chair.

'Wait,' interrupts Morgan. 'She wants to kill you?'

Hotch, too, is mildly surprised. He had known that there was bad blood, no pun intended, but he hadn't know that the elder Prentiss was set on seeing her daughter dead.

'That makes two of us, right?' She's looking at Hotch now, dark gaze piercing his. He thinks of the scars on his neck; wants to touch them, but doesn't. An uncomfortable silence ripples throughout the room. This certainly explains some things.

'We need to question her,' Hotch says, getting it out as quickly as possible. 'If she or one of her followers is responsible for these murders, we need to know.'

Emily nods. 'For the record though, sir, I think it's a terrible idea.'

Hotch almost laughs. 'I'll agree with that one, Prentiss.'

'I'll make contact with the clan liaison,' announces JJ. 'Sevenish?' she asks Hotch, and he gives her a nod. Any time before sunset would show a tremendous amount of disrespect. He doesn't particularly care about what the vampires think of them, but it could go a long way in getting them to co-operate.

'Tonight?' Emily asks, frowning. Her reservations are less to do with the timing, and more to do with not wanting to see her mother, Hotch thinks.

'Tomorrow night's the full moon,' he tells her matter-of-factly. 'I don't want us to be on the outskirts of town when full-strength rogue wolves are running around the woods.'

In addition to that, he's fairly positive that Morgan won't let them do the questioning without him.

It's still several hours until sunset, so they use the time to go through the files of the clan members, profiling them. The more they can narrow the list down, the less time they'll be required to spend at the clan headquarters tonight.

For Hotch, any amount of time is too much.

***

Emily scans the list of names; people that come under her mother's command. No, she corrects herself. People her mother control. She doesn't recognize many of the names – perhaps a third, at most. Some of whom are more familiar than others.

For a vampire, clan membership is not mandatory, but it does show species solidarity. Emily herself has no clan, and no intention of ever joining one. The majority of them are cesspools of corruption; full of people that assume just because they have the power, they can do whatever they want. It's an unfortunate fact that most of the vampires she knows belong to a clan.

Every other member of the team is looking at the list; it had taken a warrant, and some phone calls from Hotch, because one trait that's common among vampires (aside from bloodlust) is privacy. It seems incongruent to Emily that they are so keen on guarding their secrets, and yet so publicly flaunt their powers.

She doesn't think she belongs in this world.

'Check the list for sorcerers,' orders Hotch. 'If your vampire had spell bands on his arm, then someone had to have put them there.'

'She's not very magic-friendly,' Emily finds herself saying. 'I don't think she would have let a sorcerer into the fold. Not even one who's turned.' How personal that particular piece of information is, she doesn't say. 'They'd most likely be depending on more underhanded methods. You can't trust anything she says.'

Hotch nods with a grimace. He knows. The scars on his neck had not been from play-fighting, after all.

Reid, who's a little further ahead of everyone else on the list, lets out a sound of disbelief.

'What's up, kid?' asks Morgan.

'Senator Richard Owens is a member of the clan,' he says, and there's a long, pained silence that somehow seems to echo.

'It's a matter of public record,' says Garcia, having quickly tapped into the database with a superficially choreographed dance across the keyboard. 'He isn't hiding it.'

Reid nods. 'It's just…'

'Surprising,' finishes JJ.

Senator Richard Owens, public favorite for the next President. Emily's met him once or twice, and he seems like a good person. It's definitely disconcerting to know that he's in her mother's posse.

'That's a little strange, isn't it?' comments Morgan. 'Guy's running for President, and yet he doesn't even head his own clan.'

'That would be a conflict of interest, though,' Rossi points out, eyes focused on the document. 'By being a low-level member of a neutral clan, he stands to gain the support of other clans, and humans alike.'

Emily scoffs. Neutral clan, her ass. On paper, maybe – and towards other vampire clans – but practically speaking, they're as ruthless and selfish as any non-neutrals. That's politics at work.

They add the Senator to their "persons of interest" list, and keep on reading.

***

It's almost three when they stop. There are limitations on the amount of weaponry they're allowed to take into a clan house; limitations on both number and type. The Prentiss clan is registered neutral, so they're limited to one stake gun, and half a dozen tranq darts filled with holy water. They've all got their service weapons, and Rossi has his field staff as well, but that's mostly for show.

Two hours later, they're waiting on transportation, and Morgan notices that Emily's pacing again. It doesn't take a profiler to know that she doesn't want to do this. She'll never admit it, and she'll make her presence known, but she's definitely not going to enjoy the night.

That makes six of them.

A/NII: Out of interest, if I were to start posting original fic at some location, would any of you be interested in reading it?