Because I am a loner, and I have nothing to do in the holidays, I have stayed up and written this, just you for you!

~**~

Part Nine

Back at the wooden kitchen table, with floral pattern cushions.

"I'm from Circle Daybreak," Lock said. His eyes slid towards Frost accusingly, "I was sent here to investigate some unofficial vampire kills."

"All our kills have been passed through Circle Daybreak, and approved," Frost said quietly, but it was the type of quiet that came before the storm.

"What about Bradley Pine? I just got news of that on the plane here."

"Bradley was approved by Circle Daybreak," Amber said.

Lock turned, and looked at her gravely. "Bradley Pine has never killed a human in his life. He might have been on the edge, but he never technically broke any rules."

"Who cares? They're all monsters anyway." Everybody looked up. A thin girl walked into the room that I'd never seen before. She was in fact, very, very thin, which made her seem taller, or was that shorter? She looked like a fragile buttercup that could be blown away, whereas Laura looked more like a surfie-chick off Blue Crush or off a poster of Jetty Surf. Her skin was utterly pale, without the usual freckles to break it up. Despite her delicate appearance, she seemed very confident.

Lock was angry at her remark, "Just because some Night People abuse humans, doesn't mean all of us do."

"Yeah, and Circle Daybreak is doing so much to fight them," blond fluff replied sarcastically, and pulled up a chair.

"Killing is not the way to resolve anything. Circle Daybreak only do it as a last resort," his eyes followed her movements carefully, although it was more like prey watching predator than vice versa.

"Like we all haven't heard about you taking in Jezebel Redfern," she said, tossing her long hair back. Did I sense bitterness?

"You weren't too bothered when we took in the Cat."

Frost cleared his throat. "Back to the point?"

I didn't know who any of these people were (the Cat? What kind of name is the Cat? Like Catwoman or something? No doubt this thought was going through Laura's mind), but I heard blond fluff whisper, "But the Cat is different, isn't she?"

"Where's Dave?" Frost asked, as if to shut her up. Who the hell was Dave? Another one of the Scooby Gang? We were yet to have a Xander, perhaps Dave was a Xander.

Blond fluff shrugged. "Don't know. Couldn't make it, I guess." She turned and gazed intently at Laura and me. I had to resist the urge to fiddle, or do something to avoid her piercing grey eyes. She was creepy. I looked over to Laura, and I could see she was trying to ignore blond fluff completely.

"So you're the virgins," she said finally. I'm sure she meant it as a figure of speech.

"And you are...?" Laura asked, with an arched eyebrow. You had to hand it to her, she was the popularity queen. Well, ex-popularity queen. Long story, and also irrelevant.

Blond fluff broke into a sly grin, which made me like her less than I already did. "Anna will do." She turned back to the main conversation.

"You could have called us," Frost was saying to Lock. "Given us some type of warning." The whole thing sounded like UN negotiations between the US and Iraq.

"We didn't know what was happening. A completely normal group of slayers that had seemed to go renegade, we didn't know what the hell was going on," Lock said. "And we still don't know what's going on. All we know that you haven't approved for your last three kills." Lock stared angrily at Frost.

Amber stood up, "I've got the approval letters. I'll go and get them." And she walked out of the room.

Lock continued to glare at Frost, and Frost looked back coolly, but I could tell he was pissed off nonetheless. There seemed to be a lot of testosterone between them, not just because one was from Circle Daybreak and the other was a hunter. I was actually feeling pretty pleased with myself because I had understood the lingo. Although, I couldn't quite remember what Circle Daybreak was...I'd have to ask Laura. I was grateful that both of them could act professionally despite their personal differences. Somewhat professionally.

Amber came back and tossed a few papers on the table. Lock slowly broke off eye contact and picked them up. He started scanning through each one carefully.

"How many more people have you got with you?" Frost asked while he was still reading.

Lock shook his head without looking up. "I'm not stupid."

"I disagree," Frost said, which did make Lock look up. Frost gave him a charming smile. It was the type of smile that would charm the socks - and other items of clothing for that matter - off a person. If only he would point that charming smile my way.

Then it suddenly occurred to me. If Frost was smiling at Lock that way, he was GAY! Or at least bisexual. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the latter. It was like that Robbie Williams song: "All the best women are married, all the handsome men are gay..." Although, for all I knew, Robbie was talking about happiness, not sexual preferences. Handsome men would be happy right? Because they were handsome and all...

Lock shifted uncomfortably, and looked back down at the letters. At least he was straight without a shadow of doubt. He rubbed his temples, and flicked back some of the dark hair that'd fallen in his face. It made him look rugged and very sexy.

"Whoever forged these knew what they were doing. They're an exact replica of our usual letters." If I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine him saying instead, "Oh Jen, you're the only one that I'll ever love" in that sweet Irish accent of his. I imagined him saying more things, like, "Jen, you're the most beautiful girl in the world" or "Let's runaway to Paris and get eloped".

"Jen, why the hell do you have your eyes closed?" I heard Frost say. My eyes snapped open. Frost didn't have much of an accent (American accents were so common) but his voice was slightly husky - certainly not as husky as Amber's - with a tinge of male arrogance in it.

"You'd look great in a black suit with a silk shirt," I said dreamily, leaning on my right hand.

Frost stared at me for a heartbeat, but recovered well. He gave me a short flash of what he had just given Lock. I almost had a hot flush. Now pretty much everyone except for Laura - who was probably thinking the exact same thing - was staring at me. I blushed which made me go redder.

"Nothing," I managed to say, but the damage was done. Today was not turning out to be a good day for my pride or my reputation. A little voice inside my head said, 'What reputation?' but I told it to shut up.

Frost slowly turned back to the conversation, but kept his eyes on me. He had the nicest eyes, although Lock was giving him a run for his money. I noticed that his hair also fell into his face, more specifically, his eyes, and I wondered if that increased the sexy factor. It had to be some sort of cult secret that hot guys had going.

"Who picks up the mail?" Lock asked. "It's a PO Box address."

"What's it to you?" Anna said suspiciously.

Lock looked at her wearily. "I'm here, so we might as well figure out what's going on."

"Why don't you ask your Daybreak friends about it?" Anna suggested before Frost could say anything, and cocking her head to the side. "I'm sure they'd want to contribute." I suddenly felt sorry for Lock. He was here, all by his lonesome, with a bunch of people more or less against him.

"How many?" Lock asked, to my surprise.

"How many you got?" Anna said in an almost flirtatious way, but shut up when Frost looked at her. Damn, I wished I had that kind of glare.

"Two. I'm sure you've got at least two Daybreakers with you." Trust Frost to use something like this to his advantage.

Lock thought about this for a moment. "Deal. Tomorrow night. Two of yours, two of mine." He looked at Laura and me. "But I don't want them there."

"Done," said Frost, while Laura and me said "Hey!" in unison.

"Why don't we get a say in this?"

"Because," Frost said, and silenced us with a look.

Damn he was sexy.

~**~

And so the plot thickens. I love using clichés, as you may well have guessed by now.