As much as I wish it. Moonlight doesn't belong to me in any way shape or form. I like to come play in their sandbox.

It's been a while, but we'll give it a go. Not sure if anyone still is interested. I'll try to post a new chapter on Fridays. This takes place after Forever Werewolf. This story may turn into a kind of bridge. We'll have to see where it goes.

xxxxxx

Beth turns from the mirror. "How do I look?"

Emily smiles. "Like a fashion ad."

Beth scrunches her nose. "Can you see my guns?"

Emily shakes her head. "No, having that outfit altered was a good idea."

Beth laughs. "It was, but not my idea. Josef is always looking for ways for me to be armed."

"You look like a million bucks."

Beth scowls again.

"That's what you want, isn't it?" Emily asks

"Yea, it's so different from my other investigations." Beth replies

"Look, your hair, makeup, shoes, everything is perfect. Add in your jewelry and the right attitude, you'll fit right in." Emily says.

Beth snorts as Emily hands her a stake. "Find a place for this."

Beth laughs and slides into her purse.

"Minus the attitude you manage this every time we have a party. Go down and say good-bye to Josef and Mick."

Beth sees Josef at his desk. She knows he can sense her but he's so intent on his work she hates to bother him. "Josef?"

He looks up and sees her dressed to kill. "You look beautiful as always. Where are you going?"

"I know you're busy. I'm going out on an investigation and I'm wondering if I can borrow one of your cars? Not a Ferrari." She says in a rush. "I was thinking one of the Porsches or maybe that black Benz."

He squints at her and gets up. "Where are you going and what are you investigating."

"Hey Beth, you ready to go?" Billy, one of Josef's security guards walks through the door. He is wearing one of the tailored suits he keeps for working Josef's parties.

Josef narrows his eyes at Billy.

Billy looks at Joseph and waves his hands back and forth. "It's not what you think." Billy looks at Beth. "You said you'd explain to him. I do not need him looking at me like that."

Beth sighs. "Good grief. You're always going on about wanting me to take a bodyguard. I'm taking Billy."

Mick strolls in. He takes one look at Beth. "If I promise not to muss you, can I have a kiss before you go?"

She pulls him in, and he lightly kisses her cheek.

Josef relaxes but glowers at Mick and Billy as he comes out from behind his desk. "What am I missing?"

Beth drags him close smiling. "Don't muss me, right now."

He sees the promise in her eyes for mussing later. He returns her smile and kisses her cheek. "Now explain."

"I'm going to do a story on the counterfeit designer brands that are being sold all over town. To do that, I need to have a good working knowledge of the good stuff. That means spending time in the boutiques on Rodeo. Billy is a prop. He'll be my driver and my bodyguard."

"Mick glances at Josef and then says to Beth. "Josef or I could be your bodyguard."

Beth snorts and shakes her head. "No way. All it would take is watching me with either of you for two minutes. It's plain we're in love and sleeping together. That's not the look I'm going for."

Josef laughs softly. "She has a point."

"Now can I tell Jack you said I could take one of your fancy cars?" She asks.

"Of course." He squints at Billy. "Be careful."

Billy nods solemnly.

Xxxxxxx

Josef straps on his guns and turns as Mick comes through the door.

"I got a weird text from Beth." Mick says

"So, did I. She must have been in the middle of telling us how her day went when things went sideways. At least we know she's in Santa Monica, some little hole in the wall vamp bar, called Hyrum's. You armed?" Josef asks

Mick nods.

Josef brings up a number on his phone and listens to it ring. He hears the click and the cold "Yes."

"Beth is in trouble down your way. She's in a bar called Hyrum's. I'm at least 20 minutes off. Can you see about bailing her out?"

"Of course." The voice says.

"Thanks." Josef says to the dead phone line. The pair run for the Ferrari. "While I drive call Victoria. I don't know if there are bodies on the floor yet but if Beth is hurt there will be." Josef snarls.

Mick wants to know who Josef called but the look in his eyes doesn't invite questions. Instead, he makes the call to Victoria as they careen through the gates. Once that's done, he holds the Oh Shit Bar and tells Josef. "I'm going to try and call Beth."

"Good idea. If nothing else, she'll know we're on our way."

xxxxxx

Beth hears Mick's ring tone but can't exactly answer it. She glances over her shoulder and sees four werewolves fanned out behind her; fangs bared. She smiles over her gun barrels at the three meatheads standing in front of her. "My trainer makes me work on my marksmanship several hours every week. When I tell you I can put a couple of these silver nitrate slugs between your eyes, you should believe me. You may think you can get to me. I'm betting I can get the first and second guy and the wolves will get the third." The guy on the right starts to make a move. Mick taught her to always watch the eyes. People don't mean to, but unless they are professionals they'll lead with their eyes. Beth shoots him in the shoulder. He screams. Beth smiles coldly. "Those bullets are made specially for our kind, and I'm told they hurt a bit. Next one goes between your eyes." She hears a commotion at the door, but she doesn't dare take her eyes off the vamps in front of her. Billy enters the room with a woman slung over his shoulder. Beth thinks she recognizes her as the bartender. Next comes the bouncer from the front door walking haltingly. Behind him is a woman with short copper colored hair.

Penny takes in the scene. "Josef wasn't kidding. You're in kind of a pickle kid."

Beth scowls but her guns never waiver. "You here to help or give me shit?"

Penny laughs. "I'm here to help." Penny taps the bouncer on the shoulder. He drops like a bag of wet cement. She uses her vampire speed to do the same to the three facing Beth. Billy lays the bartender down on the floor next to the crew.

Recognizing another telepath Beth says. "Hey, you're going to have to teach me that."

"Nope. Hank will teach it to you when he thinks you're ready." Penny says.

Beth lowers her guns and turns to the wolves. "Thank you so much. I would have been toast without you."

The biggest one chuffs and nods her head.

"Maybe we could keep this between us. I mean there isn't any reason to worry Daddy." Beth says.

The largest wolf barks once and Beth watches in fascination as she sheds one skin for another. It's not quick or smooth but in the end a very naked woman is standing in the middle of the room. She walks over and picks up clothes off the floor and starts dressing. "Sorry Beth but if we don't tell Daniel and he gets wind of this mess some other way we're screwed." She turns to the other wolves. "Hey, you lot, get over here and get dressed."

Beth sighs. "I figured, but thought I'd give it a shot." Beth has a hunch to what is going on here but needs confirmation. She walks to each of the vampires on the floor and touches them on the head. She turns to Penny. "Every one of them is getting a permanent dusting or an incinerator. I guarantee it."

Penny nods. She read them easily and Beth is right. Every one of them deserves dusting.

The other wolves move into the darker corner of the bar to change. Their leader keeps watch while they are vulnerable.

Beth turns back to Penny. "You know Hank?"

"Yes, until recently we bonded over our dislike of Josef." Penny says. "I heard they'd patched it up and Hank is teaching you."

"If you don't like Josef, what are you doing here?" Beth asks.

Penny snorts. "Oh, my goddess. If mother found out, you were in trouble, and I did nothing when I could have lent a hand, she'd have my head. Especially when Josef was so worried, he broke down and called me." She laughs quietly. "I've heard a lot about you and your penchant for getting into trouble."

Beth frowns. "Hey this was not my fault." Then she breaks out in a big smile. "Mother meaning Vanessa?"

"The one and only." Penny agrees.

"From the sounds of it you know my name, but I don't know yours." Beth says

"Nice to meet you in person Beth. I'm Penny Lane."

Mick and Josef come flying through the door. Mick grabs Beth by the shoulders and looks her over. "You're okay." The relief is evident in his voice. Josef has his back to them, scanning the room for trouble. His gaze lights on Penny. "Thanks."

She barley acknowledges him.

Beth pulls Mick in for a hug. "I'm fine. I wasn't hurt."

Josef taps her on the shoulder. She turns to him. "My turn." Josef pulls her into a hug. When he pulls back, he looks between everyone in the room. "What the hell happened?"

Penny holds up her hand. "This is my moment to leave. The lugs on the floor will stay down for about an hour so if you want them immobile you better stake them." She frowns and points to the closet. "Children about."

Beth nods. "Yea."

"Hey," Beth takes a step towards Penny. "I have questions."

Penny laughs. "Ask Josef."

Josef shakes his head. "Or she could wander over to see you." He turns to Beth. "Penny owns an English Pub on the other side of town. It's why I hoped she could get her quick."

Penny rolls her eyes and heads for the door. "Most of the crowd ran when they heard the gun fire, and I chased the rest, but you might want to lock the front door."

Mick starts going through the pockets of the employees until he finds a ring of keys.

Behind him a voice says. "I'll take care of that. This whole scene is going to have to be gone over in case the cops get wind of it." She frowns. "This place is on the outer edge of the shipping docks so we might get lucky. I have a feeling they're used to a few stray shots around here."

Beth smiles when she sees Victoria. "Hey."

"Hey Beth. What trouble have you gotten yourself into this time?" Victoria says as she tosses the keys to one of her crew to lock up.

"Not her fault." Olivia says as she and the rest of wolves join the conversation.

"Thanks." Beth says. "The research I did today was tiring."

Mick studies her. "I thought you were going to be on Rodeo Drive. What are you doing in Santa Monica?"

"I was on Rodeo. That's where we started. Once I got what I needed I had a lead down here, which turned out to be a bust. I didn't find out anything new. This isn't my usual end of town, but I saw this big vamp standing in front of the door. I asked him about a place to get a drink. He said he was outside to keep out the humans. He told me to go on in. He said there are no humans allowed so if I wanted blood, it would come in a bottle. I was hungry so I figured I could get some blood and relax for a few minutes before heading home. I come in, I'm sitting her minding my own business and the waitress" Beth points to the closet.

Mick makes a move towards the closet door. Beth grabs his wrist and shakes her head. Give her a few minutes. She's young, and so freaked out I can read her without contact. She in real distress and not part of the creeps on the floor.

Mick nods and motions for her to continue.

"She brings me a drink and says some guy bought it for me. I told her to take it back and to bring me a glass of blood with a shot of bourbon. This is when I started texting you guys to check in. Two minutes later this guy," Beth kicks the staked vampire on the floor. "Comes over and says it's rude to return a drink."

Josef looks down at the staked vampire on the floor and frowns. He's lying on his side towards Beth so all he sees the vamps back.

Beth continues. "He's very insistent. I mean very." She looks at Josef. "And get this, he says he works for you. He claimed he is way up in the company. He said you depend on him so much that if I don't do what he says, you will get me fired from my job and run me out of town."

Josef snarls. He turns the guy over and stares down at him.

"You know him?" Beth asks.

Josef nods. "He's the head of marketing in one of the local divisions. Not anyone important."

Josef motions for her to continue. "I can see this guy isn't going to take no for an answer so under the table I pull my stake and hit send on the text."

Mick smiles grimly. He knows what comes next.

"He tried to grab me and before he could reach me, I upturned the table, came across and stuck the stake in his chest. He never saw it coming." Beth bends over, kicks him, pulls the stake out of the vampire's chest, and then plunges it in again. This time hitting his heart. She smiles as he turns to dust.

"Damn it, Beth." Victoria says. "That's way harder to clean up." Victoria looks at Josef and Mick. "You two need to teach her proper body disposal techniques."

"Hopefully this won't be a common occurrence." Mick says dryly.

"Beth, what's the rest of it? I know you wouldn't dust someone without more reason than that." Mick says

She points at the dust and all the employees on the floor. "The dust guy was paying the employees to help him pressure young female vampires into the back room. He was chaining them up and raping them."

"Not just vampires." Olivia says. "We were here tonight because they dosed four wolves with Ketamine. The first three wolves were part of the pack but on the outer fringes. Fringe wolves are usually some we've taken in who were abuse in some other pack. It makes them think no one will ever help them. The last woman was an integral part of the pack. In all cases they woke up in the woods in wolf form with no memory of what happened. Ketamine messes with werewolves' short-term memory. When her memory started to return, she told Angie what happened or what she thinks happened. Angie told Daniel, and we started investigating. That's when we found out about the other three wolves. This happened over a couple months. It took a while for the women to remember where they'd been during the time frame. The one place that they had in common was here. Daniel okayed a group of us to come here to see what was going on."

Josef shakes his head. "Why didn't Daniel call me or Mick? This is a vamp owned bar. We could have gotten to the bottom of this a lot faster."

Olivia shrugs. "We wanted to get proof. Something you would believe."

Beth can see how mad Josef is. "Calm down before you talk to daddy." She looks at Olivia. "We have ways of finding out the truth when it comes to our own that would have made this whole exercise pointless."

Olivia slowly nods. "You would have investigated on just our word?"

"Of course." Josef says exasperated. "Even if it was only happening to the wolves, this shit isn't something I'd ever allow to continue. Mick, me, hell even Beth could have gotten answers in no time."

Beth holds up a finger. "To continue. The wolves had my back. Between them and my magnums we held the meatheads off. Then Penny and Billy came in and she dropped them in about 3 seconds and then you showed up."

Josef turns to Billy. "Where the hell were you when all this was going on?"

Beth takes Josef's arm and turns him towards her and away from Billy. "When we got to the door, I realized I'd forgotten to change my shoes. I told Billy my feet were killing me and asked him if he'd go back to the car to get my flats. This is a vamp bar. I should have been safe. I'm your family. They should have known and at the least left me alone."

Billy continues. "When I got to the front door with Beth's shoes, the bouncer, wouldn't let me in. I told him I was Beth's friend and he shrugged. I think he was holding me up so they could get Beth into the backroom and then tell me she went out the back door. We were beating the crap out of each other when the redhead walked up and tapped him on the shoulder. He stopped mid punch and followed her like a lamb. She tapped the bartender and told me to bring her along."

Josef takes a minute to calm down when a door at the back of the room is thrown open. A dark-haired vampire with a VanDyke beard walks in. "What the fuck is going on and who the hell are you people?"

Victoria shakes her head. "You two are slipping. You didn't search the building."

"I'll remedy this in a moment." Mick growls. He moves before the vamp has a clue about what's going on and grabs the vampire by the throat. "Beth, can you tell if he was in on it?" Mick asks.

Beth walks over and grabs the wiggling vampire by the wrist. "Yes, he knew exactly what was going on." Mick holds out his hand and Victoria slaps a stake in it.

"You can't do this. You can't. My sire will have all your heads." He sputters.

Josef smiles coldly. "Who is this vampire I'm supposed to be afraid of?"

Xxxxxxx

Well one in the can.