A/N: Extended vacation. PARTY! On with the show.
Alan Epps couldn't help but stare at the young woman sitting across from him at the breakfast table.
"Are you one of Charlie's students, Rose?"
She lowered the newspaper she'd been reading to look at him.
"Alas no. I'm not lucky enough to have the privilege to stare at him for hours on end each day. I'm helping him and Don with a case."
Alan stared at her for a few more seconds before returning to his toast.
"Right, now do you always talk like that?"
"Only in the mornings."
"You dress very unprofessionally for a consultant."
"So?"
"Trust me nobody's going to be listening to you in that."
"Really?"
"Trust me they'll be too busy staring."
"It's not that odd."
"Not too much, but it's a bit revealing."
Rose's attire of choice for the day happened to be a black mini skirt, a blood red halter top and knee-high Doc Martins. Her hair was pulled back from her face by black combs.
"Good point, but its all part of my lesson plan."
"You sound like Charlie."
"Someone say my name?"
Charlie strolled into the dinning room yawning.
"It's nothing." Alan told his son.
"Good cause it's too early." Charlie stated as he continued into the kitchen.
"It's only seven Charlie. Try getting up at four every morning." Rose called after him returning to her paper.
"Why in hell would you get up that early every morning?" Charlie asked coming back into the room with a cup of coffee.
"Best time to go for a hike. Back home I went for a three hour hike every morning. Sometimes I was lucky enough to get some rabbits."
"You took a gun hiking with you?"
"God no! There's no fun in guns."
"Then how'd you get them?"
"I'll show you someday."
The three continued their breakfast in silence till Don got there. He walked into the dining room and started rushing Rose and Charlie.
"Guys we've got to go."
"Don, it's only seven fifteen," Charlie said gesturing to a clock on the wall, "Get a cup of coffee, sit down, and relax."
"How can I relax when there's some psycho killer out there preying on innocent girls! The sooner Rose tells us more the sooner we can get him."
"I wouldn't count on that."
Don and Charlie stared at Rose in disbelief.
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean!"
"Don language." Alan demanded.
"Sorry dad. But what do you mean?"
"Simple," Rose stated calmly, "I can tell you his weaknesses, I can tell you how to kill him, and I can show you how to defend yourself against him, but that doesn't mean you'll catch him. Jonathan may be insane, but that doesn't mean he's not smart as well. He can lead you into a trap so well designed that you won't believe it until he's killing you. This is nothing but a game to him, you must remember that. Human life is nothing but a game to him."
"Yeah and he's winning."
"That may be true, but we'll catch up. You have me now. I said it last night and I'll say it again he's changed the game because of me, not by much, but it has changed."
"How so?"
"He'll take more time choosing a victim. Before it was predictable, or at least it was to me because I know him. The girls will still be the same age and have similar likes or the way they dress but now he'll dig deeper into their lives. Before it was just pick and choose, seduce and kill. Now he'll probably stalk them until he knows they're the right one. Then he'll take them. Maybe he'll kidnap them, maybe they'll go willingly, who knows, but he will take them. She'll be reported missing. If not he'll let us know. Either way when we know it's him, he'll leave clues. All stating that she's alive and we just have to find her. With each clue we get closer and closer until we come to a place, deserted where no one would hear a girl's horrified screams every night. We'll find her, alive maybe, dead possibly. But it won't matter. He'll have broken her. She'll be nothing but an empty she'll of a person. Nothing useful to us. And then we wait and try again."
"You've done this before." Charlie stared at her, or at least what he could see of her, the whole time she'd kept on reading the newspaper, like she'd been discussing the weather or something.
"Yes. Jonathan stole someone I loved once. I won't let this happen again."
"How do we stop it then?"
"We break the rules of the game."
"How?"
"Simple, steal something of his."
"And we do this how?"
"You leave that to me. We should get going."
Don glanced at the clock; they had fifteen minutes to get to FBI headquarters.
"Shit!"
Rose stood up and grabbed the duffle bag that had been resting at her feet. For the first time that morning Don and Charlie had a good look at what she'd chosen to wear.
"You can't wear that!"
"I can, I will and I am."
"But…"
Don and Rose started to argue about her clothes. Charlie however just stared. She's got really nice legs… He thought absentmindedly. He stopped himself. He didn't need to get involved with anybody right now. Besides what about Amita. At this thought he looked at Rose again to find that she was looking at him and not Don. What about her?
"Look guys we're late as it is. Don just let her dress the way she wants."
"Fine. But I really don't need every man on my team drooling over you like Charlie is over here."
"I am NOT drooling."
Rose looked at the two. They we're arguing like children. Children who had their eyes on the same prize.
"Listen, I don't care. Never did, never will. Can we just go?"
With that Rose walked out of the room and towards the front door. Charlie and Don followed, still bickering. Alan just sat there thinking. He knew his boys, yes they fought. It would be stranger if they didn't, but this. This was different. The last time they'd fought about a girl was high school. Rose was attractive, but to see them fighting like that was strange. Childish really. This is going to be a very interesting case, he thought drinking his coffee, very interesting.
A/N: I really don't like putting a note in the middle of a chapter, I hate it when people do it but, hell, right now it's needed. From now on, until I saw otherwise or the end of the chapter, which ever comes easier, it still going to be in third person but from Rose's perspective, we learn a bit more about her and why she's doing this. M'kay thanks.
She didn't like it. Not one bit. Normally it was easier, fly into some random city, find Johnny, and beat him senselessly till he says he'll leave, actually leave then wait for him to start up someplace else. They'd done it thousands of times since the cult disintegrated. Him the vampire, she the hunter. This time he had to get the cops involved. This time he had to get the media involved. This time he had to call for the ritual. If Rose didn't get him soon, hundreds would die. New vampires would be bred. The City of Angels would become the City of Demons. It would be Rome all over again.
Rose looked at the two brothers sitting a head of her in the car. So young, so fragile. Their lives would be forever haunted by her visit.
"Nothing good can come from evil." She muttered sadly to herself.
"What Rose?"
"Nothing."
The sun was shining. Today she'd lecture and train. Rose would laugh as she'd try to teach the agents how vampires could get through the toughest security carrying more weapons than an army. She would show them how to close their minds to invasions. And she would be human.
"We're here."
"Yay."
Rose grabbed her bag and headed towards the entrance. Once inside, Don and Charlie led her back towards the conference room. Inside all the agents from yesterday were waiting. As expected they stared at her.
"Okay people," she said walking up to the board, "What do you know about vampires?"
She turned and faced them. Expectantly they still hadn't recovered.
"Anyone?"
"They're immortal."
"Very good, your name?"
"Sinclair."
"Thank you Sinclair. More often than not you'll hear that vampires are immortal, but they're not. Immortal means you cannot die. Gods, for instance are immortal. Vampires are called immortal because they don't age. How easily they die depends on how old the vamp is. Who thinks they know how to kill a vampire?"
"Silver bullet?"
"That's werewolves. Come on, hasn't anyone watched any vampire movies?"
"Wooden spike through the heart."
"Very good Charlie. Now in all honesty that would kill anybody, but that has to be the hardest way to kill a vampire. You have to make sure you completely obliterated the heart, then, of course, you have to sit there and wait for all the blood to drain out otherwise they might be able to recover depending on how old they are. Once all the blood drains out you should have something that resembles a cornhusk shaped like a human, pull out a lighter and set that baby on fire, should take about thirty seconds to completely burn up. Then you must remember to scatter the ashes."
"How else can you kill a vampire then?"
"Cut off the head and go through the same draining and burning process. Or you just burn them alive. That's always fun. What else do you guys know?"
"They can't go into the sunlight."
"Now you're really going to hate me. Even the weakest vampire can be in the sunlight all day. They're not even sensitive to the sunlight. That myth came from the fact that it's easier for vampires to travel at night. They can bend the darkness to hide them, but they can still go out into the day to stalk prey."
"They need blood to survive."
"Only the weak ones need to drink every single day. Vampires as old as Jonathan don't need to drink as much as he has been."
"Then why is he?"
"To scare you mostly. But there is something else; the act of drinking someone's blood is incredibly intimate. For vampires it's better than sex. For humans, it depends on the vampire."
"What does that mean?"
"Nicer, older vampires will not kill their prey. They'll take enough to satisfy them for a while and the person they been drinking from will feel groggy but not remember anything. If the vamp is nice they'll remember an intense pleasure."
"If the vampire isn't nice?"
"Pain. Okay we've covered immortality, how to kill, sunlight, and blood drinking. Anything else?"
"I've heard that vampires can shape shift."
"True they can. Jonathan's particular to crows and black wolves, but he can be anything."
"And what about the whole garlic thing?"
"Trust me if you ever try that, the only reason you'll live is because the vamp wouldn't stop laughing."
"They can use your minds to create illusions."
Rose looked at Terry. She could tell that Terry didn't like or trust her yet.
"True but only few vampires are masters at it. Jonathan is good but you tend to find pieces of the illusions that don't fit."
"What about Jonathan though, what do you know of his past?"
"Only that he was created sometime around the beginning of the middle ages by the leader of the cult. She favored him, made him stronger than the others when she made him, but in doing so made the worst mistake of her life. He was sadistic, or at least more so than the others. When she left Jonathan tried to take over, but Kale, the leader's first fledgling and love, destroyed the cult."
"Kale?"
Rose reached into her bag and pulled out the picture of the vampires again. She pointed to the vampire on the center figure's other side, opposite of Jonathan. He was taller with long blood hair.
"I don't know what happened to him after he destroyed the cult."
"Is there anything else you can tell us Rose?"
"Only that if you are stuck having to fight Jonathan, you have a better chance at trying to win a fight with someone who's got a gun and your unarmed. Jonathan will get inside your mind and try to find out what move you are going to use. If you get into that situation don't think and be calm."
"But how do we fight him?"
Rose looked at Don. He didn't really want to try and fight Johnny did he. He'd die.
"You fight him to defend yourself, not to win. You cannot beat him."
"We can if someone has a gun."
"That would be the stupidest thing in the world to do. His reflexes are so great he can dodge the bullets if he wanted to. He might just use his powers to direct the bullets back at you. And even if you manage to hit him and you do hit his heart, it won't do anything. Bullets don't hurt vampires in anyway."
"What about crosses?"
"Myth."
"Then how do we fight him?"
"With these."
Rose reached into her bag and pulled out a rather impressive dagger. The blade shimmered like silver.
"How in hell did you get that past security?"
"The metal detectors don't pick up this type of dagger, it's made from a very rare metal that only be found where Rome once crucified its prisoners. A blade like this takes years to make."
"What's so special about them?"
"Vampires are allergic to the metal. Even the tiniest cut from one of these can cause a vampire to go into a decade of healing sleep."
"Healing sleep?"
"When a vampire is wounded to the point where they can barely drink blood, they go into the ground and sleep. Maybe for a few days, maybe for years, but they always come out healed, stronger and deadly thirsty."
Rose looked around at the group. She could tell that this was making them nervous. None of them probably knew how to successfully fight with a dagger. It was the gun generation. And against a fighter like Johnny… they wouldn't last.
"Look, I can already tell that few of you, if any, know how to fight with these without killing yourself. I can teach you a few things that will keep you alive, but if you ever come up against Jonathan in a fight keep him at bay till you can get a hold of me. Too much blood has been spilt already."
The group looked at her. For many their thoughts were easily read in their eyes. Fear. Pure fear. For some though, like Terry, there was slight distrust. And then there was Don and Charlie. Don's eyes held respect. Charlie's, wonder.
"Alright men," Don started gaining the groups attention, "you heard Rose. But I want to be more careful, if you even see Jonathan, call for backup. I don't want to loose any of you. Now Rose, is there anything you need?"
"A place to teach and train."
"We have a gym downstairs."
"No, too many people."
"Well how about the roof?"
Rose looked at Terry; it was a good suggestion, if unexpected.
"That will do."
Thank you ever so kindly for all the reviews. It's nice to know that my destruction of our favorites show is loved. Now I'm going to need a little bit of help on the next chapter. I'm hoping to introduce Amita into the story but I was wondering you all would be okay with her having a slight out of character personality. Mostly against Rose. I have a slight plan for Amita later in the story but if it pisses you guys off I don't want to do it. So send in the reviews and opinions.