Misham was in far worse shape than I had anticipated. I made it to the hospital to find a lot of the nurses rushing around, I followed the chaos and saw a glimpse of Misham being operated on before the door was closed behind a doctor.

I went to push it open so I could demand what was happening but a hand on my shoulder stopped me. Sylvia's voice followed, helping calm my panic, "Let them work, Detective, that's the best thing you can do for him right now."

I let her lead me down the hall until we reached a familiar room. I sat in front of Daniella, Sylvia pulled up a chair to do the same.

"Why hasn't anyone done anything for her?" I asked. The main thing that was bothering me was Daniella was still on the same drip that the psycho had all the others on. "It could be poisoning her."

"True, but it is also saving her life."

"What do you mean?" I didn't know enough about medicine to understand and I hated it.

Sylvia thankfully was endlessly patient, "She has been on those chemicals for several years at the least if we were to take her off it so abruptly, as I mentioned before, she would go into shock, but even if that didn't happen withdrawal would certainly occur, she is being drugged after all."

That made sense, still I hated it, the fact she had to remain in the same position that she had been forced into for years, even after she was supposedly free. It was sickening.

Sensing this Sylvia continued "I am weaning her off it, very, very slowly and the physiotherapists and coming in once every three days to start moving parts of her body. However, I doubt she will ever walk again. I don't know enough about the brain to say, but from her physical injuries and the torture she endured in this mindless state, it is unlikely she will be anything but a shell, no better than comatose."

I swallowed hard and looked away from the limp figure in the chair. If her mind was broken I didn't think even the bite of a Vampire could save her.

I abruptly stood and began to pace. Sylvia let me, choosing to gaze out the window while we waited for news on Misham.

It came two hours later when a doctor appeared in the doorway and kindly informed Sylvia that the boy she had brought was in a coma.

I immediately raced to see him and was allowed in, luckily for everyone.

He was lying down, as pale as his skin complexion allowed him, the bed he occupied had the sheets pulled up under his chin and a machine continuously beeped to let everyone know he was still alive.

I turned to the doctor who had let me in, "What are you allowed to tell me about his injuries?"

The doctor sighed, obviously tired from all the work he'd done but began to speak, "You are the one who found him?" I nodded, and he continued "He has several infections and his heart is struggling to work with the blood loss and fighting against them, he needs a blood transfusion and even then, I am unsure when he will wake."

I turned to him confused "Then why isn't he getting the transfusion?"

"We don't know his medical history or even his identity, we cannot give him blood without consent from a parent."

"He doesn't have any, he's an orphan," The doctor looked a little unsure what to do now. I questioned him "Will he die, without the blood?"

The doctor nodded "It's likely. But I cannot get a bag to set up without a signature from a guardian."

"You can't?" I said incredulously "You just said he'll die!"

"I said it was likely." I shot him a furious look and was glad he looked a little ashamed. "There are protocols I have to follow, without a legal guardian of the boy and a signature, I can't access the vault."

I paused thinking over his words. "So you can give a transfusion, you are just not allowed access to the blood?"

"I- yes, that is correct."

"What's his blood type?"

Seemingly understanding where I was going he rushed over to check his files. "O Negative"

"You gotta be shitting me." I didn't know much about medical stuff, but I knew O negative only accepted an O negative donor, I was B positive.

I went into the hall and spotted Sylvia sitting in one of the waiting chairs, probably to give me some time with Olly. "Do you know anyone on staff with O negative blood and willing to donate now?"

She frowned "We have some in the back."

I shook my head "No we need permission from a guardian and all I know is Misham's an orphan he never mentioned who was looking after him before he was taken, most likely a foster home who haven't seen him in years, we need the blood from the source."

"I'll ask around, but I don't think many of the staff will like bending the rules I'm afraid."

"I have O negative,"

I nearly smacked into the girl who'd spoken and gave a surprised shout "Alli?"

"The one and only." She gave a sweeping gesture towards her arm, "Hear you needed some of my awesome blood?"

Deciding to question her late I gave her a relieved grin and pulled her into the room. "Hey, Doc we got a doner."

He'd already started setting up the equipment and motioned for Alli to take a seat whilst going through all the information she needed to know before doing the procedure. Alli didn't seem the least bit worried and after the medical jargon and signing was over, to say she had agreed to the process, she queried an eyebrow at me.

"So I came all the way from Kennewick expecting to find you beating off a mob with a broom, and instead you've gone gung-ho into another mystery and found yourself a kid to save?"

I chuckled perching on the edge of Misham's bed. I'd only known Alli a couple of days but she was already good company. "Seems like cases just fall into my lap."

Sylvia chose to enter the room then and sat beside Alli, I gestured to her "Sylvia here brought me to this kid's, sister. I wasn't expecting to find more people being drained of their blood, but I -"

"-Wait, wait- drained of blood? You're going to have to start from the beginning."

So while Alli was rapidly increasing Misham's chances for survival I went over everything that had occurred in the last 24 hours. She took it pretty well, before deciding to add some good news.

"Well I didn't actually just come to see you wielding a broom, we got the warrant for the hospital, I figured you would want to come and take a look at the medical reports, see if you could gain any answers from them."

"That's great, you could have just called though, you didn't need to drive 5 hours."

She gave me an annoyed look "I did call, your phone was off."

Oh she must have called in the morning when I still had it on silent. I gave her a guilty look "Sorry,"

She rolled her eyes at me, "Well please say you're coming back to the case, I know Dacian was complaining about you being moved onto, well this one I suppose, but I've looked at the reports and can't make heads or tails of it."

I chewed my lip thinking. The police force of Lincoln was now aware of the case and would be looking thoroughly into what had happened and who the culprit was, they didn't really need me. There was the other matter that I couldn't close this case, I knew it was a Vampire and hopefully, the guard would track them down and bring them to Italy for a trial, but I wouldn't be much use here.

"I'm coming back-" I gave Sylvia an upset look "The detectives here will take over, I Have to finish up a few loose ends in a Seattle case as well."

Sylvia nodded showing she understood "Thank you, Detective Adams, for all you've done. I hope that the serial killer case works out, and from the policeman on the phone, I hope more competent people like yourself are put back in charge."

I thanked her and was engulfed by an excited embrace from Alli, "Yay, you're rather fun to be around you know."

I gave her a look of disbelief, these past few days I had been incredibly stressed and short-tempered, not my usual self at all. "Well if you like me now, wait until I start being nice."

She snorted and stood up, the doctor announcing she was done. "Alright, I'm heading back now. I want to get back to those files before nightfall, you coming?"

"I'll take my bike soon, you go ahead, I'll meet you at the hospital. Thank you, by the way- for the blood."

She nodded and took her leave. The doctor had cleared out so I was left with Sylvia and Misham.

She didn't say anything at first just pulled me into an embrace, "I'll let you know if there are any changes in either of them. Do try and visit though, they say coma patients can hear what you are saying, and I know that Daniella can."

"I'll come as often as I can," I promised.

I made my way out of the hospital, thanking the Doctor who gave me a gentle pat.

I was just about to mount my bike, making a disgusted look at my dirty and wet socks when I got a phone call. What now?

"Hello?"

"Is this Blue Adams?"

"Yes it is, who's this?"

"Deputy Lock. We met a few hours ago."

My mind flashed to the man who'd barked out orders, and I was immediately worried, did something happens? "Are you alright, do you need something?"

"The operation is going fine, perimeter secured and victims being transferred to the hospital, however, I'm back at the precinct with 4 suspects who insist they were looking for you, they tried breaching our line but we caught them and brought them back for interrogation."

"Damn it." That would be the elite guard, I had almost forgotten about them

"I take it you know the people I'm talking about."

"Yes, I do."

"You'd better come down here, their statements are not painting them in a good light, if they want to be released tonight you'll have to smooth everything over."

"Thanks, Deputy, I'll be right there."

I hung up the phone and had to give myself a second to stop the laughter that bubbled up. The image of two teenagers and two slightly older men trying to explain to the police force that they 'had to go' into the blocked off area, was funny enough. Paired with the knowledge they were all badass Vampires who had to allow themselves to be arrested to keep up appearances, it was too funny.

Once composed I pulled on my helmet and headed to the station, trying to figure out some believable excuses for their appearance at a crime scene.

-IMMORTAL-

The entire situation got even better from then on.

Because they were, technically suspects the police had to put them in separate rooms and interrogate them. I got the privilege of watching from behind the one-way glass with an exasperated Deputy beside me, making a little sigh every time they answered a question.

Demetri was clearly trying hard to be convincing, but due to being out of touch with the present day, it wasn't going so well for him.

"Why were you heading back to the scene of a crime at 1:27Am today?"

"I was attempting to reach my queen."

Que another sigh. I sniggered, it was all very amusing for me and that served to only exasperate the Officer beside me further.

"Who are you referring to when you say 'my queen?"

"Blue Adams, grand Detective"

I was rather impressed that the interrogator was being so professional and attempted to keep getting answers in an orderly fashion from the Italian.

Alec's one not so much.

"The Queen is an old lady who I'm afraid to say doesn't reign over this land anymore. So I'll ask you again why you were in the Forest junior?"

Alec seemed to be looking around desperately very much out of his element. "Uh, my q- I mean Miss Adams called us and told us what happ-"

The officer clearly isn't believing a word of it "-The detective called you. Why? Huh, what's a young kid like yourself going to do against that Psyco? Unless it was you who did that to those poor kids?"

Jane evidently thought along the same lines as her brother and had explained their presence there, by stating I had called them, leading to a similar question of her age and relevance to the situation.

She reacted to the accusation decidedly less well than her brother.

"Maybe I did."

I smacked my forehead as soon as she'd said it, internally cringing at the effort it was going to be to get them out of jail before the next hundred years.

Felix was by far the worst, whereas the others had all been with a ballpark of a similar story, he for some reason thought it was better to make up a plausible story. Which would have worked if it didn't contradict so badly with the other three.

"-And so I took my brother and our younger cousins, and thought we should go on a family outing, the forest seemed as good a place as any."

"Why did your 'brother' claim he needs to 'see the queen?'"

"It was a game we were playing with the… kids."

I snorted. What a bunch of idiots, honestly they could take down an army of Vampires, and are some of the most feared beings of the supernatural world, yet they couldn't lie to a police officer. To think Sulpicia and Athenodora had tried to scare me away with these dorks.

I quickly realised I had to get them out of it when I heard the mention of a lie detector test. Yeah no, that would end in disaster.

I turned to the Deputy who was waiting with crossed arms and an unimpressed look, "I don't think they did it, Adams, but what the hell are they on? Do I need to run a drug test?"

I internally panicked, they didn't have blood so that was definitely not an option. "No, I'm so sorry. These guys are my mother's relatives. I was supposed to meet them in Kennewick but when I transferred here, I called them to let them know. I gave the rundown about where I was going, I didn't think they would show up at the crime scene, I'm sorry for the mix-up."

His glare softened "Want to explain the 'queen' business?"

"They're Italian and come from one of those old families, sort of people who know what cutlery to use with which foods. They started calling me that when I was younger because it was sort of normal, and my middle name's Regina- which I suppose is Italian, for Queen. It's just a nickname but they're weird about that sort of thing." I gave him a 'what can you do' smile, hoping my lying was a lot more convincing than their attempts.

He sighed again before picking up his radio "Alright let 'em go."

"Sir?" One of the interrogators clearly had reservations about that judgment call.

"They're Italian, come from Royalty or something, think they're top shit. Just a bunch of fancy kids, wrong place wrong time."

"Yes, Sir, Leading them into the lobby now."

"Thanks, Deputy,"

He nodded "Yea, yea. I trust you're handling the case for us now, we have it covered from here."

"Yes, I'm heading back to Kennewick. "

He held out my satchel. "Seems you left this in your hurry to save the kid, it has your badge in it, figured you'd want it back."

"Yes, thanks." I took his dismissal and hurried to the lobby. I only had to wait a few seconds before they were led through the door and told to stay out of trouble. I saw the relief in their eyes when they spotted me and I gave a cheeky wave. "You guys seemed to have a fun adventure."

Jane scowled, muttering a dark word under her breath but led them over to me and gave a brief sniff, her eyes scanning for injuries.

"I'm fine," I insisted.

Demetri stepped close and inhaled deeply. "I can spell the-"

I interrupted, still very aware we are in a police station "-How about we talk outside?"

Once we were away from prying ears Demetri voiced his concern "I can smell a foreign Vampire on you but I cannot tell where it's from."

The other Vampires looked as shocked at that as I felt "What do you mean? You can't track them, I thought you could track anyone?"

He gave a frustrated sound, "I believe my gift is being blocked."

Felix spoke up "Is that even possible?"

Alec shook his head "It isn't supposed to be, but it's possible that Vampire could have a gift of the ability to disable other?"

Jane nodded "Yes, we will have to consult the Kings, they will know what to do."

Demetri huffed, clearly annoyed that his nose was unhelpful to him. "It is like I can only smell them on you, not where they are or where they came from."

"Like a normal Vampire then?" Alec suggested.

He nodded.

"Well, you guys contact the Kings and tell them, I'll call them tonight as well to let them know how I am."

"We will probably be told to check the bunker for evidence and clues to aid in a trial against the Vampire. Will you be staying with us?" Felix asked

"No. I have to go back to my work as well. But you're far closer here than you were to Seattle, so it should be fine."

Felix looked doubtful but agreed, letting me go.

-IMMORTAL-

I met up with Alli at the hospital bare feet now, since I'd removed the offending socks. Grabbing the files, we went over a few together and she pointed out the similarities she'd noticed, having had more time to read them.

"From what I could see, most of the actual deep tissue damage, meaning the Hydrogen Peroxide was there longer and probably in a higher concentration, was around the hands and genitals. A few got it in their eyes, which it immediately started eating away at the proteins and causing cell damage, those that got it on their face lost their eyesight in at least one eye."

I shuffled through a few of the reports "That's very strange, why would it be concentrated around their hands and privates? Were they wearing clothing?"

"Yes everyone came in clothed, it's possible the chemical was injected and travelled to places of higher protein."

I shook my head "No it's a chemical not a virus besides there is no sign of an injection sight-" I tapped the desk in thought "-Did you find out what the doctors used to neutralise it? Or did they just wash it off with water?"

"It was too deep to just wash off, they used Sodium Thiosulfate, then water."

"Can you get me some?"

She looked confused "Why do you need it?"

I gestured to the stack of medical files in front of me, "Don't really want to end up like these people if I'm hunting the psycho who did this." I liked Marcus's terminology from our phone conversation, I'd never seen it as me hunting bad guys, and I wasn't always, sometimes it was a kid who ran away from home, but I found I quite liked the thought of hunting the sick person willing to destroy 56 people's lives.

"That makes sense." Alli rushed to get me the neutraliser and came back with a capsule of small white chips. "Put one of these chips into-" She held up a bottle that used to hold hand sanitizer, "This bottle, make sure water's in it first, let it dissolve, then put it on the area. If it's not able to be done using this much then you need to come to the hospital."

"Thanks." I took them from her.

"What are you planning on doing?"

"Well unless you have somewhere else to be, I was going to take a trip into town, I looked into the security footage and I saw that's where they came from, besides I have an idea what they might have been doing."

She jumped up, pushing the files into a pile and shoving them in my satchel, "Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

I smiled and ran after her, careful not to run into anybody. Alli sure did have a lot of energy and it was rather contagious.

I didn't bother to ask if she wanted to ride with me, seeing as she was already waiting by my bike, I simply handed her my helmet and took off.

I really did have my suspicions about what was going on, once I'd seen the medical reports it began to get a lot clearer and so once we made it to the beginning of the taller buildings I pulled the bike over and headed to a place that had caught my eye a couple of days before.

Alli dismounted and hurried after me, surprisingly compliant with the lack of information I was giving her, but it was just a hunch so I didn't want to say anything just yet.

Now that it was the night the city looked different, the neon signs were glowing brightly. I much prefer the chaos of the night to the strange mundanity found in the streets during the daylight hours.

I slipped into an ally, making sure Alli was close behind, we were getting into the dodger parts and as it was night time we were unlikely to run into a friendly face behind the dumpsters.

I stopped outside a door that was painted red and had an inconspicuous high heel drawn above the frame. I turned to Alli. "Okay, lose the badge."

"What?"

I figured she probably deserved an explanation so I moved a bit away from the door, "I was thinking about what you said when we first met the victims. You said, they wouldn't rat on their friends and then you mentioned they might be more than friends."

She looked confused "It was just a passing comment, not really a 'detective deduction'." She used her fingers to make quote marks in the air.

I grinned "Ah Alli you don't give yourself enough credit, given more time I reckon you would have come to much the same conclusion as myself."

"Which is?" She prompted

"The injuries predominantly affected the genital area, and the psycho who did it needs to have a motive for harming a bunch of people. Those same people were doing something illegal they wouldn't give up but claimed was a direct link to the motive."

"Prostitution?"

I patted her on the arm, "Sort of. Technically under the law, yes, but I suspect something less obvious, the police would have found a brothel. Now a sex club, well that's less likely."

"Sex clubs are illegal?"

"Yes, like I said, technically any paid-for sex is illegal, they people pay to enter the club with the intentions of having sex with another payee. They could get in some serious trouble for that… Which is why you and I need to lose our badges and anything else we could get caught with, we do not want to be turned away."

I removed my satchel and hid it behind the dumpster, knowing it wasn't the best place but I couldn't very well leave it on my bike, it would definitely get stolen. I hated that the papers were all in it but there was really nothing else I could do, it was a high possibility the person responsible for the last attack was intending to make their rounds to all the ones he could find."

"Wait, how did you know it was this place?"

"Oh I don't-" I stood up and held out my hand for her badge to put in my satchel "-But I found this one while I was walking, or at least I assume it's a sex club, I've never actually been in one. The point isn't to find the one that was attacked, that would be rather pointless seeing as it would not be taking any customers anytime soon, we need to find the one that's going to be hit next, and or hopefully the culprit."

"How exactly are we going to manage that?"

I held up the little bottle she'd given me and smirked, "We're going to test every club we find tonight. Hope you were serious when you said you didn't have plans."

I made my way over to the door and knocked.

"Yeah no plans," she mumbled

I pulled open a few buttons on the shirt I'd worn and stuck the bottle into my bra. My waist-high jeans with buttons coming down either side of my hips looked quirky enough. I turned to Alli and nodded at her hair which she had put into a ponytail, obediently she took it out and then pulled her top up, using the same hair tie she tied a knot into the shirt, just as the door opened.

A woman dressed in a bright red dress and matching lipstick created us, "What can I do for you lovely ladies?"

I could feel Alli start to get nervous, we couldn't very well ask to just join their 'sex club' in case we were wrong. I'd never even been into an actual club so this was bound to end horribly, still like I'd said I had a plan.

"Ashra Mickles recommended this place, my friend and I wanted to check it out." Ashra Mickles was one of the victims and I figured it was more about who you knew than what you knew in these places. It didn't really matter if the lady at the door didn't know who Ashra was, just saying the place had been recommended to us was a good way to skirt around stating what it was.

She looked us up and down apparently finding us good enough. She stepped aside and motioned to the desk at the end of the hall, "Jazzy 'll get you sorted, we take cash only."

Alli smiled at her as we passed getting one in return. "Everyone seems nice so far," She commented.

"I hope it stays that way." I didn't risk saying anything more as we approached the desk.

"Welcome to Chloe's Heel. The entry fee is $100 for 2 hours."

I mentally winced, if we were going to be visiting several of these tonight it was going to burn a hole in my wallet. I pulled out the money but just as I was about to hand it over Alli grabbed my hand stopping me. I shot her a confused look but she ignored it, instead questioning the guy.

"We were recommended this club and only want to check out the scene today, can we get a cheaper rate for a shorter time?"

He seemed to consider it "You're not allowed to get frisky with anyone if I let you in for 20 bucks each, half an hour."

"Thanks," I gave him the money and he stamped our hands with the time before he drew back a heavy red drape to his right.

We walked into the room a little dazzled, but I moved over to the side, back to the wall. First job was to learn where everything was. I took it in and saw Alli doing the same.

Neon blue light seemed to come from the bottom of the walls and the back of the red velvet couches that made up the centre of the room, in front of the couches was a sort of dance floor, similar to normal clubs but less populated and far dirtier dancing, or at least based on movies.

There was a bar further along the same wall people entered through and all along the other two walls were corridors that lead to more doors, where I assumed were rooms for the patrons to use.

I noticed that there were lights around the door frames which when went from blue to red and meant the person had used their time up. There was security at the beginning of the hallways which checked the time you entered and set the light on the room. Fascinating.

Alli pulled me closer so I could hear her, the music was quieter than in a club but loud enough to drown out others conversations. "How exactly do we test this club? We don't even know how they got the Hydrogen on everyone's skin, without getting it on themself?"

"Well, how do you think they did it?"

She looked around for a while. I had thought they might have smothered their hand in it when wearing gloves and then touched people, but that theory had no weight, first, no one would let a weirdo with a glove touch them and secondly, 56 people all around the same time were affected.

"Maybe he spiked the drinks?" She pointed to the bar.

It was possible but wouldn't explain the concentrated area. "I think we need to see how the rooms are laid out, maybe that will help us?"

"Crap, but we said we wouldn't fuck anyone? How are we going to get in?"

We could always have just lied to the security guard and risked being thrown out, but then they would become suspicious. "I'll just say I left something in one of the rooms?"

"That's a good idea, I'll keep a lookout for the usher."

I walked over to the hall and put my plan into action. "Um excuse me, sir?"

"Yes madam?"

I mentally cringed at the address "I was here a few hours ago, and realised I left my-" I mentally went through the list of small things that would be easy enough to hide on my person and embarrassing enough not to question, which was difficult in a sex club, "-...Fungal medication." He looked grossed out so I decided that was the correct move "-Yeah I know-" I gave a fake laugh "-Gross right, but it's not anywhere... you know-" I dropped my voice pretending to be embarrassed "Naughty." That did it and he quickly shut me up.

"Which room Madam?"

I pointed to one of the ones that the light was off, indicating no one was using it. "That one." He stepped aside and gestured me through with a disgusted look, "Thanks heaps! I'll only be a minute," He didn't seem to be listening, which is good for me.

I stepped past him, and looking back confirmed he was back to his position with his back to me. I approached the troll that lived either side of the hall and was just before the first door. Looking down on it I saw it was packed with wipes and other items, seemingly available if anyone wanted them.

I was about to move on when my gaze caught the small bottles of lube. Huh. Picking one up and pocketing it and continued to the door I had pointed at.

Pushing it open I shut the door quickly behind me. The room was fairly big but housed only a bed and a stand by the side. I pulled out the lube and checked over the container. It looked completely sealed to me. I twisted off the cap and found un-pierced foil showing it wasn't tampered with.

The longer I thought about it the more it made sense if someone one wanted to attack people having sex, or specifically paid sex, then they would spike the lube, it explained the location of the chemical burns, it also explained how everyone got it around the same time, what it didn't explain was how the culprit managed to take out some of the lube and replace it with Hydrogen Peroxide in enough tubes to get 56 people effected, especially in plain sight.

But then again, this was only one club, others could be set up differently. They certainly weren't getting this place anytime soon, the security was too tight. Pocketing the lube I walked out of the room and down the hall throwing the guard a wink before going to find Alli.

She was a little further into the crowd than I'd left her so I had to pull her aside to talk. "It's the lube."

"What?"

"The lube. Psycho number one is spiking the lube." I repeated.

"Shit, that makes sense."

I nodded pulling her to the exit "Yep, come on, this place is clean."

We stumbled out into the alleyway, a little thrown by the rapid change of atmosphere, it was also a lot colder now night had really begun.

Alli threw an arm around my shoulder and I picked up my thankfully still there bag. "Okay Blue, where to next?"

-IMMORTAL-

It was surprisingly easy to find our way to sex clubs once we'd wandered the streets, we found three more, and two random owners of apartments who just thought we were drunk and had told us to fuck off in a not so polite way. We had the formula down pretty well, using the same reason to get in, we only mistook one night club for a sex club, but it had been suspiciously hidden so it wasn't really our fault.

The purpose of visiting each one, wasn't so much to catch the guy or even test the lube, which we were doing, taking turns to rub some on our hands with the neutraliser ready if it started burning. The point was so we could see how each one worked and try to figure out who would be an easy target.

Places that had less security, or allowed people to stay the night without a time limit were at higher risk, and a couple had had lube dispensers in the rooms, which were able to be opened at the top to add more in. I suspected some system like that had been the ones our hospital attendee's club had used, it was far too easy to tamper with.

The problem still remained that we didn't know how our attacker was getting to all the lube stations within each room, without raising suspicion or interrupting everyone, because sure, they could have decided just to get all the empty rooms but from the moment of opening, almost 70% of the rooms available were immediately occupied.

Whilst I went and checked out the rooms Alli had started striking up conversations with people trying to see if anyone knew which club had suddenly been shut in the last few days, or if anyone knew any of the people in the hospitals.

I walked back into her, finally ringing some information out of a handsy blond girl.

"-Purple Medallion had a rough time lately, almost didn't come tonight but then I'd have missed out on meeting you." She ran her hand down Alli's face and smirked at Alli's flushed response.

Alli made a swift exit, "I'm so sorry, but my girlfriend's waiting for me, I have to go." She put her arm around me and I steered her towards the exit. Another clean one.

The reason I hadn't yet gone home to write a report on my findings were, I needed to figure out a way to catch the culprit without incriminating hundreds of people, firstly I thought the ones in the hospital had suffered plenty, without adding jail to that, and secondly, it really was a grey area in the law, I was technically risking my badge by not calling it all in but there was no way the Kennewick police force didn't know about the clubs, the reason they hadn't been shut down was the prosecution would take years and more would just pop up again. However, If I raised awareness of the clubs then the police would be forced to act, so, for now, I wanted to find a way to fix the problem without creating more.

Alli pulled me out of my thoughts "So the Purple Medallion was the one attacked. Think we should check it out first?"

"No, it would be closed until they can try and figure out who did it or the police catch them, they wouldn't risk it happening again. I suggest we go there tomorrow afternoon, see it in daylight."

She jumped on the bike behind me, "Afternoon?"

"Yep, you need to sleep at some point. And myself actually, I think I haven't slept since the night before I came here." I muttered the last bit to myself but she still heard.

"What? You came here on Monday! That's 4 nights, including tonight, how are you even functioning?"

I gave a weak chuckle and started the engine, "Curiosity?"

Our next location was recommended to us from one of the people Alli had rung information from, Hades Inferno. Very poetic sounding.

We arrived at the location our directions had led us too and I immediately groaned coming into view of the door. A whip ran over the threshold like one of the VIP barriers that were usually red and velvet. Brilliant BDSM sex club, obviously nothing could go wrong here.

Alli gave me a nervous look obviously thinking the same thing, "Do we need to keep going? We have covered a lot of ground."

It was true we'd done a lot more that I had thought we would, but I knew that since I now knew about the place I needed to go inside and check it out, just to see if it was different from the others and if it was more or less at risk, I didn't want to do it tonight but I also was aware I wouldn't want to do it tomorrow either.

I gestured to the bike, "Take it home Alli, I'll just finish scoping this one then I'll call a cab."

"Are you sure?"

I handed her the keys, "Yeah, I'm probably too tired to drive now anyway. You've driven a motorbike before though right?"

She nodded, "Don't worry I'll be careful."

I waved her off, "Take my satchel too and get some rest, don't wake up till noon at least!" It was already 3 in the morning after all.

"Yeah you too stupid, learn to look after yourself."

Normally someone telling me to look after myself was a great way to piss me off, but there was something about Alli that never came off as condescending or a reprimand, like a friend telling you how it is but not in a 'I'm better than you' kind of way. It was... nice, having a friend, especially one my age, I'd never had that before.

Shaking myself out of it I waited until I couldn't tell the sound of my bike apart for the other noises of the night, then I knocked.

Entering the club I was surprised mostly by how similar it was. Due to my past, I had an aversion to restraints of any kind, along with violent weapons, I would never understand how someone found being whipped as a turn on, I could barely think about it without picturing Misham's shredded back.

I took a breath and focused on my observations. The difference was this club didn't centre around one room and have many corridors branching from it, but rather it had several rooms making up the main areas, couches were everywhere and people dressed scantily, some in only leather straps, while others were dressed to the nines in suits.

Despite my aversion to some of the more advertised parts of BDSM, I understood that there were certain parts that appealed to most of the general population, like the act of dominance and submission, while some people vehemently despised the idea of subverting to such roles, I understood that much.

Wanting to control someone wasn't the point of domination, or at least that wasn't what I gathered from it, I always figured it was more about the intoxication that came with someone putting their trust in you and on the other side Submission wasn't about letting someone make decisions for you but letting go and trusting someone enough to protect and know what's best for you.

My mind flicked to when Marcus had pushed me to completion the third time and I ducked to hide my flush. Come on, I needed to focus.

Scanning the room I noticed that I was next to one of the bars, the other was diagonally across the two rooms that joined to make a larger open space. No matter how hard I searched I couldn't find anything that looked like it provided lube, which based on all the kinky shit around me, was definitely provided.

I decided to head into one of the strangely shaped alcoves which lead into other rooms. I found nothing there and moved to head past the front of the couches in the centre of the rooms. I took care to make an arch-like shape wanting to avoid the ladies and men sitting at the foot of the couches in harness and collars.

Despite not having a dancing area like the other clubs I had visited, a lot more people were standing and mingling about, so I should have suspected I wouldn't be able to get through the experience without being noticed.

A man with a leather vest and tight fitted pants stepped in front of me, "Hey doll, are you a sub or a dom girl?"

I cursed myself for not coming up with a cover before entering, I wondered if I could say neither, or of that would just get me thrown out. The decision was taken from me when a girl fixed herself to his side and assessed me with a purr, "Oh she's a sub alright."

Okay. Time to leave this conversation. I tried edging around the two only for the woman to gently grab my jaw.

"Oh don't go doll, we won't hurt you."

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope, this wasn't happening, logically speaking I was fine, but the touch of her hand and the setting of sex was getting to me, I could feel panic welling in my chest and I tried to turn my face and shake off her hand, but she stepped closer, the man following, he spoke this time, "We can take care of you doll."

I managed to stutter out some words this time, taking a step back, "No-no I'm good thanks."

"Oh Doll you clearly need someone to settle you down."

It was true in the sense that I could feel a tremor in my hands begin to take shape, despite knowing I wasn't in any kind of danger, the woman was just trying to play her role or whatever, I was in a place I didn't belong not the other way around, still, I took another unconscious step back right into a solid chest.

I was about to turn around and apologize when arms wrapped around me and a very familiar voice spoke up, "She has someone."

Caius.

I didn't know how he'd got here or what he was even doing but at the moment my mind didn't bother with those questions and I just slumped in his arms, my eyes fluttering as I felt my panic recede. It was okay now.

I heard the girl say something to Caius and then they moved on but none of it really registered, not until I felt a different hand brush up from my neck and gently grip the root of my hair grounding me.

"Come on Darling, time to go." It must have been Marcus in my hair, which he released after his statement and I opened my eyes to find him in front of me, he held out his hand and I grasped it, Caius moving so his arm was around my waist and I was leaning on him, they led me outside and I saw Aro waiting in a pristine suit next to a sleek black car.

I blinked, the fact they were all there was beginning to register and it must have shown on my face because Aro moved to stand in front of me and gave a brief explanation, "We heard what happened with the other Vampire Mi Cara ."

Oh. Nothing had really happened, or well not to me, but I suppose it would have worried them to know Demetri couldn't track them. "-was supposed to call." I absentmindedly remember I had planned too, I'd just got distracted.

Marcus hummed beside me and Aro moved to open the door, Marcus got in and I went in only to find myself positioned on Caius's lap facing the seat. I didn't complain, only buried my face in his neck and twisted my fingers into the hair at the base of his neck needing something to hold on to.

I felt strangely out of it, probably due to the lack of sleep and the roller coaster of events the past few days had been. If I was a bit more coherent I would have felt adrenalin race through me at the speed Aro was effortlessly speeding through the town, or perhaps I would have been annoyed, I was technically a cop after all.

We stopped and Caius pulled me out to stand in front of my apartment. Another mystery on how they knew where it was, and for another time.

I led them up and sat on the edge of the bed not sure whether they were going to say, 'I told you so', or simply tell me off.

After a few seconds of silence I flopped back on the bed, "If you guys aren't planning on yelling at me for being reckless, I'm going to sleep now."

There was an audible huff before I found myself under the covers and with Caius on my side. "We are not angry at you Amore, you called the guard which was smart. Foolish of you to go into the forest without them, but you didn't know it was a Vampire so-"

I interrupted "-I highly suspected."

I felt Aro and Marcus move to sit on the bed and saw Caius narrow his eyes, but I didn't see the point in lying. I'd made my choices, whether they could accept them, or not.

Aro questioned from behind me, "Then may we inquire as to why you went alone, with the knowledge an unknown Vampire was in the same vicinity as you?" I could hear a tinge of something, possible anger in his words and I understood why I would have hated to lose any of them. It was probably stupidly reckless and practically suicidal in their eyes.

Sitting up against the headboard I figured we needed to get the serious conversation out of the way first. "Because I thought it was a Vampire-" Caius looked like he wanted to speak "-Wait just let me explain." He snapped his mouth shut and nodded indicating he would listen.

"I don't understand a lot about you guys- Vampires, but I do know that you eat people. I know you guys specifically eat criminals and the worst of humanity, I don't, however, understand how and I've been trying not to think about it but I can't any more, I need to…" I let out a frustrated sigh and pulled my legs up running a hand through my hair, Bella's habit sneaking up on me "- I know I'm going to become a Vampire eventually, but I can't think I would be okay keeping a human and draining them for their whole lives-"

Aro's back went rigid "-The children were being kept? Not simply fed from?"

I shook my head "They weren't all kids, some probably in their 20s, I can't say for certain but I'm guessing they were all taken as kids and grew up being tied-"

My voice broke and I was pulled into Marcus's arms, I let myself cry, properly processing what had happened and a feeling of relief doused over me when I understood what Aro's reaction meant, it wasn't normal.

Aro obviously getting why I was upset spoke: "We have very few laws and only one we enforce, which you know is to keep our kind a secret, however, one of our unenforced laws is Vampires do not feed on children."

I was confused, why bother having a law if you don't enforce it. Caius bet me to the question by providing an answer. "We do not like taking the lives of young humans, it is unnecessary and wasteful as it would take two to fully satisfy a Vampire, however, it was never the highest of concern to us, we would stop it if we were aware of a Vampire feeding from children, but we do not go searching for lawbreakers on this occasion."

"You should,'' I mumbled into Marcus who gave a rumbling purr in response.

Aro gently lay his hand on my shoulder allowing me to pull away from Marcus and fac his next question, "I must ask Amore how exactly were these humans being continuously drained through the years without being turned to become like us?"

"They used medical equipment to take the blood, putting it in bags, and kept the people on IV's which gave them all the nutrients they needed to stay alive in a half-conscious vegetable state."

I heard Caius hiss and breathed out, it was okay, they don't condone this abhorrent behaviour.

Marcus seemed to realise that was where my thinking had gone and pulled me a little tighter into him, "Darling… Did you not inform us, because you were afraid this practice was something we did?"

I didn't say anything which was enough to answer enough.

"It is not." Aro said forcefully. I had gathered as much from their reactions but it was nice to have the confirmation. "Rest assured beloved, this Vampire will be found and put to trial, I believe some new regulations should be put in place in this new age."

"Really?" I was a little surprised they would change some of their Vampiric laws for me.

Caius scowled at the bed, "Whilst I have no love for Humans, torture is not abided of any being, particularly younglings."

"Thank you."

Marcus let me crawl back into bed, "And in turn Blue, you must agree to confront us with your fears, we cannot help if we do not know what is wrong."

"And we will not tolerate your safety being compromised " Caius added.

"Yes, I get it. I am sorry, I promise I'll talk to you."

Aro flashed beside me, "We are not unreasonable Amore. Rest now, we will talk more tomorrow."

I closed my eyes and fell asleep almost immediately.