A/N-Ok, here you go guys, I think I'm actually getting the hang of this again, lol, let's hope it sticks.


Chapter 29

"Beth…did, did I just hear…"

Beth froze….damn it, he'd heard her conversation with Mick! "Jon…I…I don't know-"

"Damn it Beth! Don't lie to me! I know what I heard." He was looking rather excited rather than afraid, which confused her. "You know about vampires?"

Beth shook her head; she wasn't that stupid, nor was she going to give Mick away that easily! "Jon I don't know what you're talking about…it's just…a little…like….thing we do, me and Mi-my boyfriend we-"

"Beth come on, I know you better than that…or at least, I thought I did." He closed his eyes, and opened them again. Beth stared at him…his eyes now pale, the pupils had shrunk to pinpoints. "Now do you see?" Now he looked worried, as though afraid she would run.

"Oh my gosh! That explains everything! You never went to lunch with any of us…I never saw you eat anything…you only drank out of a bottle…it was colored…none of us could see what it was….oh damn, how could I have missed it?!"

"Um…Beth?" Jon looked worried.

"Yeah…" Slowly, extremely slowly, she pressed the speed dial to call Natasha.

"Um…that is…how do you know vampires…well…how do you know we exist?"

From the phone, Beth could hear Natasha's voice. "Hey Beth, what's up?...Hello? Beth...Beth answer me!"

Jon took a step back. "Who is that?!" His fangs were bared.

"A friend of mine…I…can I talk to her…please? You know you can kill me if I say anything bad."

"But…that's just I….I 'don't' want to kill you…"

"You won't have to, but the option is there in case-"

"Beth, who is that?! Why would he be killing you, Beth talk to me!"

Beth put the phone to her ear. "Natasha, it's ok, Jon would like to talk to you."

"Well he's gonna talk to me if he likes it or not! No one threatens my friends and gets away with it! Where are you, I'll come pick you up?"

"Tasha, it's ok, he had reason to."

"Beth, I don't care if he's Dracula himself; who by the way, doesn't exist as far as I know; he does not threaten you like that."

Jon gasped. "Let me talk to her."

Beth handed him the phone.

"No Beth! You give him the phone and he could hang up, Beth, don't do-"

"Hello?" Jon said. Bet could no longer hear what Natasha was saying, and had to settle for trying to figure out what was being said from what Jon said alone…it was rather aggravating.

"My name is Jon Cloy…Um…yes…how did you…Who…how do…I-" He broke off, his eyes widening. "Natasha?" He smirked. "Ok, I get it now…Yeah…Um…ok; will keep that in mind for next time."

Jon looked at Beth, who was looking quite unconcerned. "Um…she wants to talk to you." He held the phone out.

"Yes?"

"Beth, don't scare me like that again!"

"I'm sorry, but you were less likely to rip his head off the next time you saw him than the other two."

"All right, that is true."

"I figured you'd agree."

"So where is your…brooding half?"

"The morgue."

"Ah, you headed there?"

"Yes."

"Ok, bring Jon with you."

"Um…ok." She looked up at Jon. "Ok, I know you heard that, so go make sure you're ready cause I'm leaving soon."

He nodded, and went to sit in his van.

"Ok, anything else Tasha?"

"Nope, not that I can think of, once you get to the morgue and he sees Mick you'll be fine."

"Do they know each other?"

"Yeah, Mick's mentioned him a few times, helps him with some stuff."

"Ok, bye"

"Ok."

"And I'm sorry for scaring you…"

Natasha sighed. "It's all right."

"Ok I'll talk to you later, k?"

"Yup, sounds good to me. Catch ya later then."

"Bye." Beth hurried over to her car, stopping at Jon's van first, knocking to let him know she was leaving, then pulling out, heading for the hospital.

When they arrived several minutes later, Jon was looking around in confusion. "Ok, why did you bring me here? I know you said your boyfriend was here, but…I don't get why I had to come along."

"You'll find out in a minute. Come on, we're gonna go down the back way." She set off at a fast pace for the back. About a hundred yards away, she saw Mick step out of the shadows. She grinned, and ran the rest of the way.

"Hey."

"Hey, Come on, Guillermo's-" He paused, staring at Jon in surprise, then grinned. "Well, I was wondering when I'd see you again."

Jon shrugged, shaking his head. "When Beth said her boyfriend was at the morgue I didn't think anything of it. I never considered that it might be someone I knew." He turned to Beth. "You never said you knew this guy, what're you doin' hanging around a dark brooding fellow like him?"

Beth gave a half shrug. "I don't know, and besides, you never said you knew him either."

"Fair enough." He turned to Mick. "Ok, what's your excuse?"

"Well, half the same as hers, and half…I didn't want to share." Beth hit him on the arm, hard.

"Hey!"

"What?"

Beth shook her head, rolling her eyes at him. "Anyway, how do you guys know each other?"

Both of them looked uncomfortable. "Well…I'm about…ten years younger than Mick here."

"Ok."

"We share the same sire; she turned me trying to make him jealous."

Beth turned to Mick. "Did it work?"

Mick shook his head. "I was just glad she was leaving me alone." He shrugged. "I did eventually feel bad for this sucker though and helped him break ties." He winced. "Of course, doing that made her think I was getting him out of the way so I could get her back…"

Beth placed her hand on his arm. "It's ok Mick, she's gone."

He smiled dimly. "A fact I have you to be thankful for."

Jon looked at Beth in surprise. "Wait, she-no, Mick why didn't you tell me." Mick shrugged, and Jon turned to Beth. "Thank you." Beth looked confused, so Jon elaborated. "For helping Mick get out of that witch's clutches. I knew he would either find someone to help him out, or would someday kill himself trying to get away from her, I am very grateful it was the former."

"Oh." Beth allowed herself to blush this time. "Um…thank you then."

Jon smirked. "So why are we here?"

"The convenience store clerk, he was drained, I figured the body would end up here at some point and Mick was here already meeting Guillermo for something, so I asked him to check it out." She looked at Mick. "Did you get anything?"

"Yeah, the body was already here, that's why he called to tell me to get down there."

"So it was a vampire."

"Yeah, a newly turned one."

"A fledgling?" Beth frowned. "But don't sires control their turns to keep them from killing people?"

Mick nodded. "Yeah, for some reason this one isn't."

Jon frowned. "That goes against all rules we have though."

"Yeah, I know." Mick looked at Beth. "Do you know how much longer at the police going to be there?"

Beth nodded. "Yeah, Carl said night just before we talked, so I'm thinking they'll be gone soon. Why? Do you need to get down there?"

Mick nodded. "Yes, and preferably without the cops around so we can actually do things our own way."

"So how come you guys kept in touch after she was dead?"

Jon shrugged. "I liked reporting, only behind the scenes, and Mick liked the investigation and saving people. I let him know if someone needed help, or someone was kidnapped and the police seemed to be getting no where with the case, and if he got a juicy tidbit that would make for a really cool story, he left me know. It was a win-win situation basically."

"Ah." She turned to Mick. "So how come you didn't tell me you knew him?"

"Well…up until about…what was it, a week ago, I didn't even know you knew vampires existed, and the past week has gone by a bit…fast. I never got the chance, and truthfully, it slipped my mind that you knew Jon."

"All right, I guess that's an 'ok' answer."

"Yeah, yeah, can we get back to this crime scene? I wanna take a look around as soon as possible."

"All right, all right, come on, you big baby."

"No, it's just the sooner I get there, the sooner I can start looking for this guy, and that means there are less opportunities for him to find another person to snack on."

Beth wrinkled her nose. "Ok, I get the idea, let's go."

"Um…I'm gonna take a rain check on this one guys. Gotta get your report loaded onto the archives."

"Oh, sorry Jon, I totally forgot."

He grinned. "Hey, with this much excitement, I'll let you slide this time.

"Thanks Jon, I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Sure will." He got in his van, and drove off.

Beth turned to Mick. "Well, that was certainly an interesting revelation."

"To put it mildly. So what else did Josh have to say after I left?"

Beth frowned. "Talk about mood dampener."

"Why? What happened?" Mick was immediately concerned.

Beth rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "He wanted me to pick a contact outside the police force, to find Lenni."

"Ok."

"The only person I know who has any…experience in finding people is you."

"Ok, so…"

"He didn't want you on the case, something about conflict of interest." She huffed. "Ugh, I could have killed him."

"Why? What did he do?"

Beth bit her lip. "For some reason he seems to think something is wrong with you, cause I got mad at him and he went all…strange on me. Said he understood now and…" She paused. "Why don't you just do your 'smell the past' thing when we get back to your house?"

Mick smirked. "Cheater."

Beth gave a wide-eyed stare. "Pweaaaaase." She threw in her puppy face for good measure.

Mick rolled his eyes at her antics. "All right, come on; let's get over to that store then."

Beth grinned. "K, meet you there." She rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. The look of shock on his face as she pulled back turned her grin into a full-fledged smirk. She hurried to her car before he could react, and retraced her previous trip back to where she had just left.

As she got out of her car, Mick was already there, she smiled innocently up at him. "Hey."

"Don't 'hey' me; that was a dirty trick you played."

"Oh?" Beth knew her eyes were sparkling, reflecting the mischief she was feeling.

"Yes."

"Oh…well, you can pay be back later, like you said, the sooner you start looking for him, the less people he can kill."

Mick glared at her. "No fair using my own words against me." She walked up to him, slowly, and he watched her warily. Leaning close again, she whispered in his ear.

"And what may I ask, is your basis for comparison?"

Mick growled, pulling away. "Come on; let's find this guy…preferably 'before' you drive me insane."

"Fine." She pulled away, with just a hint of a grin.

She grabbed his hand, pulling him under the yellow tape with her. She went to go inside, but he stopped.

"No, wait…" He walked over to a book lying several yards down the street. It was lying in a pool of blood, almost dry.

"What is it?"

"It's the sire's, it's a book of some kind…looks like it has notes in it." Beth looked around; not seeing anything that looked like it could lead anywhere, she pulled out her phone.

"Mick, whoever was turned probably has a car correct?"

Mick thought for a moment. "Probably, the quick look I got of him off the dead clerk didn't make me think of a homeless person, so yeah I'd say that's a good guess."

"K, give me a minute."

She dialed Sam's number.

"Hello."

"Hey Sam, can you check the police records, see if there is an record of something happening, or a car being found on 1st and Main."

"Yeah, you're gonna owe me."

"Yeah I know, but someone's life could depend on this."

"All right, all right. Hold on a minute while I look it up."

"K, thanks.'

"Don't think me 'til after you pay me back."

Beth laughed. "Ok." Several seconds later Sam was back.

"Ok, there were no reports of a hit and run, no 911 calls, but there was an abandoned car towed from near the intersection."

"Whose car was it?"

"Um…it says it's registered to Dr. Jeffrey Pollock."

"Thank you, do you have his address?"

"Yeah, 2810 Hillside Drive."

"Thank you, I totally owe you!"

"Yeah, we established this at the beginning."

"All right, thanks I gotta go." She hung up and turned to Mick.

"Did you get all that?"

"Yeah, only problem is, we're also going to have to deal with the sire."

"Well can't we deal with him later?"

Mick inhaled deeply. "Yeah…it seems he was hurt, it doesn't look like he turned him on purpose and then left." He shook his head. "But we're still not sure if this is the guy…I'd feel better if we found the sire first."

"Ok, do you have any idea where he might be?"

"No, but I know who might." Mick

"Who?"

"Ok, I'm gonna talk to The Cleaner, see if she knows anything."

"Um…sure." Beth, shrugged. Who the heck was The Cleaner.

"I want you to stay with me; I don't want you wandering off on your own when we find her." Beth rolled her eyes, but didn't argue. She knew what was stupid, and what was just plain insane. Mick pulled out his phone. "I'm gonna have to find out where she is before we head out."

"Ok."

"Hey, Josef…yeah, look, just wondering, do you know where The Cleaner might be?…No I don't…it's for a case…yeah, that one I called you about earlier…I think she might be able to help me find the sire…k, thanks." He hung up.

"Ok, she's near 5th Ave last Josef heard, so let's head over there, it's on the way to Pollock's house."

"Ok, lead the way…and I'm not sitting in my car when we get there."

Mick frowned. "Beth, she's called The Cleaner for a reason, she cleans up after vampires who…aren't the most careful with their food."

Beth looked at him. "Mick, I'm a crime scene reporter, I've seen things at least similar to what she'll be cleaning up when we get there."

Mick sighed, but didn't argue again. "Ok, let's go then."


Well, tell me what you think, and thinks for reading, I should have an update ready in about two weeks, next week is my last week of school and then exams start, so I'll try to get one in next week, but I probable won't have a chance.

PP