Chapter Nine

The Past, the Present, and the Future

David Oxford watch as the plane slowly made its way in the hangar. He sighed and checked his watch, wincing at the time.

The plane finally came to an halt and the boarding ramp lowered. David watched as Claudia, his twin sister, appeared at the entryway. She saw him standing by the first vehicle and descended to the hangar floor. The look of disgust on her face basically answered the question he was about to ask.

"I hope you two behaved yourselves," he said as he gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Malcolm will be in no mood to settle petty arguments today."

Claudia sighed as she turned to look at the eight men and women deplaning. She watched them make their way to the waiting vehicles before looking back at her brother. "I hope you told Malcolm that he invited himself on the flight, and I had nothing to do with this."

David laughed. "Of course not. Why ruin the surprise? And when we're getting along so well."

Their gaze turned to the plane where one final figure stood in the doorway. He threw his black trench coat over his left arm as he turned the solid black orb of a right eye onto the twin siblings.

#

Hayley stared at an image of Dr. Ellis sitting at the table in the interrogation room on her desktop monitor. Several Chinese takeout containers were spread in front of him as he applied a hearty helping of noodles on a paper plate.

A hurried knock on her door pulled her attention away as she saw Allison standing outside. She waved her in, rising to her feet.

Allison entered the office, her face flushed with a mixture of anxiety and excitement. "You're not going to believe this."

#

The women walked into the office together, and Hayley's mouth fell open in shock at the sight before her.

Alexandra Sanders sat on the front edge of her desk, arms crossed as she regarded their entry in stony silence. She wore a Marine Corps tank top and jeans over high heel boots, her casual for the small patch she wore over her eye and the small splint on her right wrist, she looked none the worse for wear from her unfortunate assault less than twenty-four hours before.

Hayley glanced at Allison who gave her an awkward shrug in response. Hayley turned back to Sanders and took a tentative step forward. "Alex, what are you doing here? You shouldn't be out of the hospital."

Sanders smiled but did not respond, instead indicating for the women to take a seat with a simple nod of her head. They slowly moved over to one of the couches and sat down as she tapped one booted foot on the floor. "Ladies. Glad you're here. Let me show you something."

She uncrossed her arms and pointed a remote at the monitor on the side wall. It activated, showing a recording of Ellis and Beth Turner in the interrogation room. Both women felt their stomachs dropped at the sight.

Sanders allowed the video to play for a minute before moving to sit down on the couch across from Hayley and Allison. Once she was settled, she aimed the remote over her shoulder to pause the recording. The image of Beth exiting the room froze on the screen, as if mocking the two women.

"When Reneé called an hour ago and told me that one of my agents allowed two unauthorized persons to be taken into a secured wing of these facilities, and one of them interviews a suspect in an investigation the owner and president of the company, yours truly, is currently heading, my first thought was, 'No, that cannot be happening. Not when my most senior department head, my most trusted confidant, my friend, the one person who is suppose to know what I am thinking before I actually think it is running things."

Her eyes slowly flickered back and forth between Hayley and Allison as she set the remote on the coffee table, the smile still locked on her face. "So I want both of you to convince me with a reason why I should not have you walking the unemployment line right now, and it better be a damned good one."

#

"And here, here, and one more … here." Simone flipped pages one after another in front of Sarah at the dining table in her suite and indicated spaces for her pending signature. "I'll forward everything to the seller's attorneys in the morning."

Sarah signed each space with a flourish, causing Simone to smile unexpectedly. "You seem to be in a good mood today. Did you crack open a bottle of champagne before I got here?"

"What? No!" Sarah laughed as she handed her the pen. "I was just thinking about the wonderful time I had last night."

"Really. I heard that the night ended with a police raid of some sort at the Correspondent's Ball, followed by Alexandra Sanders being sent to the hospital. Sounds slightly better than the last time I was there."

"Oh, those things did happen, but what happened after is what I'm thinking about."

Simone gave Sarah a hard look, trying to determine what she could be keeping within. "Did you … have sex? With Josef?"

Sarah smiled and rose to her feet. She grabbed two water bottles from the table and guided Simone over to the couches where they both sat down. "When I woke up in New York, I first thing I wanted to do is see the man I came to know and fell in love with sixty years ago. Charles Fitzgerald. I … was wary at first. I've missed so much. Was I going to see Charles, or someone else?

"When I awoke in Mr. St. John's apartment from whatever it was that Malcolm Rehnquist drugged me with, the man I saw, it wasn't Charles. I saw someone else. I saw somehow who looked and talked like Charles, but instead, I met Josef Kostan."

Simone suddenly felt her mouth going dry. She reached for one of the water bottles and unscrew the top. "Sarah, please tell me what happened," she whispered.

Sarah placed a hand on Simone's knee.

"Nothing."

The bottle did not make it to Simone's lips. "Nothing?"

"Well, he apologized last night for wanting so much to protect me. But what I saw was the Charles I fell in love with at that train station so long ago. After that … we made out."

"You made out?" Simone could not believe what she heard. "That's it?"

Sarah gave her an apologetic look. "Simone, I honestly wanted more. I was ready to once again give my mind, body, and soul to Josef last night. But he turned me down because … of you."

The anger slowly building in Simone gradually faded to a sense of puzzlement. "Me?"

Sarah nodded. "Yes, Simone. Josef's in love with you. We were in his bedroom and I started to take off my dress, but he stopped me before I could undo the first hook. He then told me about how you and he had … something going on, but he wasn't sure where you two are headed. Why have you never told me about you two?"

Simone set the bottle on the coffee table. "I'm not sure where we're headed myself. And I really didn't know how to tell a recently comatose eighty-two-year-old woman with the body of a twenty-two-year-old that I have a thing for her former vampire boyfriend."

Sarah nodded. "Understandable."

"So, did Josef come out and say that he's in love with me?"

"Not in so many words, but I could tell. Josef comes across as the complete hard ass, but if he starts off a conversation about a person or an issue, he cares about that person or issue. Simone, sweetheart, just looking at him while he made up all kinds of excuses why we shouldn't be together and talking about you, I could tell he's infatuated with you."

Sarah grabbed Simone's hand. "So if you want him, now is the time to get him."

Simone gently pulled out of her grasp. "What about you? He turned on his best friend to save you. He practically watched over you for sixty years. He tried to turn you. You two have history together."

Sarah shrugged. "What do they sometimes say about history? It belongs in the past. I'm certainly his past. We're in the present, but you have the looks, the smarts, and everything else to be the future. The past and the future should never collide."

#

If someone had told me that mixing in the company of a bunch of vampires would be a normal occurrence, I would have looked at them like they were crazy.

Beth took a long look at the men and women seated throughout Mick's apartment. The red-headed Cleaner sat at the kitchen island with her chair turned away from an ogling Logan Griffin, while Guillermo stood on the other side of the island pouring glasses of blood from a large jug, shaking his head. Harper Ryan, the only other human in the apartment other than Beth, sat in one of the high back leather chairs by the bookcase conversing on her cell phone in a hushed tone, avoiding not too subtle glares from the corner where the raven-haired Cleaner and three of her associates stood.

Beth's phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out and signaled to Guillermo that she was going to Mick's office to take the call as she entered the passageway.

Once she was in the office, she connected the call. "This is Beth Turner."

"Beth, this is Coraline." The vampire's voice sounded annoyingly calm as usual. "It turns out I was correct in my assumption. Malcolm did have someone follow us. He was staking out Sanders Securities. Chances are they know by now that that Dr. Ellis is there."

"And if they know he's there, chances are they're going to make a move to either rescue him, or kill him." Beth glanced at the stairs leading upstairs to the balcony. "I'll call Allison."

"No. Malcolm will send others and they will follow him. The best place for him is an already secure location, which is where he is right now."

"A secure location with no vampires on the payroll, Coraline," Beth angrily stated. "They'll be slaughtered!"

"Your friend and the rest of the humans will not be harmed, Beth. I promise. I've already taken steps to see to their safety, but I will need one of the Cleaners on standby."

Beth stepped back and peered through the passageway. Redhead Cleaner was still seated at the kitchen island. She gave Beth a smile and a wave. "Uh, why do you need one of the Cleaners?" she whispered.

Coraline giggled.

"For a cleanup, silly."

#

"Thank you for seeing me."

Josef nodded. "You're my best friend, Mick. Of course I would come up to see you."

"And I see you took Beth's advice as well." Mick's pointed at the stake resting in Josef's right hand. "I don't trust myself, especially around you and Beth."

Josef's gaze fell to the thick chain leading from the wall to Mick's left wrist. "And is one decorative chain also Beth's idea? I thought you had more bracelets up here than Mr. T."

"I was fine when Beth came up here, though there was this … feeling, or an ache I had deep inside. I don't know if it's Malcolm, or someone from my past or what, it was a echo of a voice trying to tell me to kill."

Josef did not react to Mick's revelation. "Did you tell Beth?"

"No. I didn't want to freak her out any more than she is already. I suggested to continue restraining me for your benefit." Mick looked down at his shoes for a few second, rubbing his forehead with his free hand. When he looked back up, a smile was present on his face.

"It's gone now. I don't know what's going on, but I feel fine."

Josef did not drop the stake, but his stature gradually grew more relaxed. "Good, because I'd hate to have to put another hole in you. And speaking of which, are you finally healed?"

Mick nodded, rubbing his lower rib area. "I don't know why it took so long, but yeah. I'm healed."

"Good." Josef finally slipped the stake in a jacket pocket and took a long look at his friend. His first words caught in his throat, causing him to pause and start again.

"Mick, I want to say thank you. You are a much better friend to me than I am to you. From the bottom of my soulless heart, I thank you for the sacrifice that you made to guarantee Sarah's safety. I'm sorry that I did what I did. Betraying your trust. Our friendship. Jeopardizing your future with Beth. It wasn't my intention."

Mick held up a hand, cutting Josef off from commenting further. "I'd have to admit I was a little put off."

"You have every right to be."

Mick crossed his arms and paced as far as the chain would allow him. "Did Beth slap you?"

"As hard as she could. But her silent hate is much worse."

"Then you know what you have to do."

Josef sighed. "She barely talks to me now even though you're back. What makes you think she'll want to hear an apology from me now?"

"I don't know. Women like that kind of thing."

Josef smiled. "Very well. I will do that." He paused and walked over to Mick, hand extended.

Mick glanced down at Josef's hand and then up into his face. His own hand slowly raised to grasp it but instead of shaking, he used it to pull Josef into a back slapping embrace, which was heartily returned.

Mick could detect Beth's scent before stepped outside. The vampires turned as she appeared at the entryway, spinning a single key on a loop on her pinky finger. "You two made up?"

Josef looked over at Mick, who responded with a reassuring nod. He looked back at Beth with a smile. "I believe we did, Beth. I hope that you and I can make up as well."

Beth pursed her lips, as if she bit down on a sour piece of fruit. When she spoke, some of the earlier harshness was gone from her voice. "We're not there yet, you and I. Maybe when we put this whole … whatever it is to rest, then you and I can talk. But not now.

She glanced over at Mick. "We have some developments happening. Is it okay if we talk about everything downstairs?"

Beth tossed the key to Josef. He turned it in his hand as he eyed Mick carefully. "Yeah, we can talk about it downstairs," he said, reaching for the padlock restraint on Mick's wrist.

"All of us."

#

Malcolm glanced at his phone for probably the twentieth time in ten minutes, hoping that a call or text from Lucas would come through.

When he glanced at it again five minutes later, the realization that no call or text should be expected from the vampire ever again changed from casual thought to grim reality. He walked over and looked out of the bay window which overlooked a park below the new hotel they now occupy.

The door opened, and Malcolm detected David and Claudia's scent with the draft of air from the door. He started to smile and turn in greeting until …

No.

The smile faded quickly, but Malcolm was not angry. He turned and held out his hand to Claudia, drawing her close. "My dear. I missed you so," he said, kissing her on both cheeks.

His gaze turned to the gentleman standing behind David at the door. "Well, I find myself actually glad to see you, Lance."

The vampire smiled as he stepped forward. "Has my sister been misbehaving again?"

"More than likely." Malcolm turned to David. "Lucas hasn't checked in."

"If he hasn't called or texted, then we shouldn't expect that he's going to."

"My thoughts exactly, but our plans have not changed." Malcolm smiled as he clapped a hand on Lance's shoulder.

"In fact, with Lance here, our plans have been … enhanced."

#

"First of all, I want to thank you all for doing what you could in trying to find me, looking after Beth, and just keeping up with what you call normal in this city," said Mick, speaking to Guillermo, Logan, and the redheaded Cleaner, still gathered in the kitchen area. "I really do appreciate it."

He glanced over his shoulder at the other Cleaner and her latex-clad associates by the door. "What you guys did to me, dropping me off to Rehnquist like I was groceries? Pretty low."

The Cleaner shrugged, nonplussed. "Funny. It was the same thing I mentioned to Kostan. But we had a job to do, St. John. We did it."

Mick started to issue a stinging reply, but Beth quickly stepped in front of him. "Mick, do you remember Harper Ryan from awhile back?"

Mick reluctantly allowed himself to be guided away. Harley was standing by her chair, looking up at him in awe. "I have to ask, St. John. Do you do Cross Fit? Yoga? Pilates? You are still just simply stunning."

Mick smiled down at the woman. "It's nice to see you again, Ryan."

She leaned in close to Beth, whispering, "I must have fanned myself to death the day I interviewed him for McClane. I keep telling Magnus he needs to start setting up the database with pics of vampires, but he's afraid I'll turn it into my personal dating site like Plenty of Fish or Tinder."

Beth shook her head and led Mick over to the couch. "Coraline has been helping as well," she announced, ignoring the groans and exchanged looks from several vampires "In fact, she's been keeping an eye on Sanders Securities all afternoon to make sure that Dr. Ellis stays put, but she thinks that if they followed me over there and stuck around after I left, they may be casing it to break him out. Or worse."

Mick sat down. "Ellis is the doctor who was drugging me?"

"Among other things." Josef moved from where he stood by the staircase. "Somehow, he was able to wake Sarah from her coma."

Mick stared back at his friend in shock. "Sarah Whitley is awake? How?"

"That's a question best saved for later," said Beth. "Coraline is watching the Sanders building now. She says she has it handled, but I'd feel better if we can see what's going on over there."

The redheaded Cleaner gestured from her chair. "I could play that role. And I brought my spare outfit."

"Ooh!" Logan nearly fell out of his chair. "Can I come?"

"Wait a minute." The raven-haired Cleaner stepped close to the couch and gestured to Beth. "Why do we have a human giving us orders?"

Her counterpart rose from her chair and walked over to stand protectively over Beth. "Beth Turner is practically family now. She knows more about us here in this city than any other human I've ever come across, and she has never betrayed our secrets. Or a vampire."

Raven and Red stared hard at each other. Mick sighed and stood. "Look, no one is ordering anyone around, but I would feel better if someone is perched over my ex wife's shoulder on this."

"And she did say a cleanup may be needed later," Beth added.

Red gave Mick a smile. "Then it's settled. Logan and I will go and assist. If we need another hand, we'll give you a call."

As Red and Logan departed, Mick turned to his remaining guests. "Everyone else, get out of here. Get some rest. But stay accessible. If and when this hits the fan, we're all that stands between the city and Malcolm Rehnquist."

#

Alex Sanders poured herself a drink from her bar. "Well, I'm going to repeat everything you two told me. Condensed version, of course. The drugs have worn off, and I'm about ready for bed."

She turned and gestured to Allison, still seated on the couch next to Hayley. "You discovered the clue about about Victorville with Nate and Caddie. You also discovered that St. John and Turner were involved in a case prosecuted by your brother, and everything led to a hotel on the outskirts of the city. You called Turner, as she's familiar with the area. Did I miss anything?"

Allison shook her head. "Nope. You got it down pat."

"Turner calls one of her friends who subdues this doctor by herself, and in the process finds Mick St. John. By then you two were alerted of my attack, so you took charge of bringing the doctor here, while Turner takes St. John. How is our dynamic detective, by the way?"

"I don't know. Last I heard, he was still unconscious."

Sanders turned to Hayley. "You were made aware of the doctor's capture. Instead of taking charge of my operation, what were you doing?"

"I was watching over you. I didn't know if Rehnquist would be after you again or what, so I didn't let you out of my sight until I was made aware of what happened with her friends."

"Which would have been an opening for you to discuss termination." Sanders sat back down and took a sip of her drink. "But you didn't. Why?"

"Because the interrogation did yield some new evidence." Hayley pulled her cell phone out and reached over to hand it to Sanders. "We know that Rehnquist was staying at the Hardwick Hotel. Rented an entire floor and paid for a month in advance, but only occupied three rooms out of twenty-four. I showed a picture of Rehnquist to the desk clerk and he confirmed it. He, the doctor, and at least two other men were the only ones who had access to the floor. These are screenshots of the other men I was able to grab off of their security feeds."

Sanders took the phone and scrolled through the pictures. The steely gaze she had reserved for the women faded to puzzlement. "Are you sure he's one of them?" She showed Hayley a picture on the phone of a man in his late twenties, bald head and a neatly trimmed, solid black goatee.

Hayley nodded. "Why?"

Sanders wordlessly got to his feet and hastened to her desk where her laptop sat opened. "Police found a dead body on the roof of the building opposite corner of ours," she said, keying in commands. "They couldn't identify him. ID and passport is forged, but they showed a picture off of one of them online."

The interrogation room recording on the wall monitor was shrunk to cover one half of the screen. Occupying the other half was an image of the same man in the picture.

Hayley and Allison rose to take a closer look as Sanders said, "That character had a solid view of our front entrance and parking garage entrance. He was casing the joint."

"How do you know that?" asked Allison.

"Because he was decapitated."

Hayley whistled. "Wow. Someone went 'Game of Thrones' on him?"

Allison did not respond as she stared at both of images on the monitor carefully. "He was here for him," she said. "He was here for the doctor."

Sanders reached for her desk phone. "And thinking like that lets you keep your jobs another day," she said, dialing a number. She pressed the handset to her ear for a second and frowned.

Hayley walked over to the desk and watched as she dialed again. "What's wrong?"

"The phone. It's out." Sanders slowly replaced the handset on the cradle, completely confused. "Like the line was cut. But that's impossible unless…"

Hayley gasped. "Unless whoever our headless guy is working for is … already inside."

A loud thud in the office startled both women. They turned to look at Allison's still form in the floor, unconscious. Hayley took a step towards her and almost immediately fell to one knee. "There's … something … air conditioning … "

Hayley slumped completely to the floor just before Sanders could reach her. She managed to catch her head before it made contact with the coffee table. "Air conditioning?" she breathed, hurriedly looking around her office.

The white mist was clearly visible when she glanced over the doorway at the vent. Feeling the effects beginning to overcome her, she stretched for a blanket draped over one of the chairs facing her desk. Her good hand slapped against the armrest several times before she finally managed to grab it, but she failed to muster the strength to pull herself upright.

Her jacket was draped over the same armrest she held on to. She grabbed the jacket, pulling it off of the chair. It fell heavily on the floor with a muffled crack. She held it against her nose and mouth while reaching into a pocket with her injured right hand just as the door opened.

A dark-haired man of average height peered inside and saw her leaning against the front of her desk. He smiled and pushed the glass door opened wide, obviously not affected by whatever it was being pumped into the air conditioning system. "We got a live one in here," he announced, dusting his hands off against his dark blazer.

Sanders pulled her hand out of the jacket and pointed her pistol at the man who almost laughed. "I don't think you want to use that, miss. You might hurt someone."

"Yeah," she said, her voice muffled from behind her jacket. "You."

She fired her weapon, blinking instinctively due to the kickback. She felt her aim was true, as she was a confident, well trained shot.

No way she could miss.

When her eyes opened, the man was standing over her, his hand gripping the splint covering her broken wrist. "I think you need to drop the weapon," he whispered, applying pressure until she had no choice but to drop the pistol into his other hand.

Footsteps echoed outside the office, growing louder and closer until Malcolm Rehnquist came into view. He took in the scene before him until his eyes rested on Sanders. "Alexandra Sanders. You are by far the most resilient human I've ever came across," he said, lowering himself to a crouch beside her and pulled the jacket from her face.

He leaned close and held her face close until he could tell the mist was doing its work on her. "Normally, I would crush anyone who stands in my way, but you, my dear, you would make an excellent addition to the family."

Sanders tried to speak, but the mist's effects quickly overpowered her. Her head leaned to the left, and she slid to the floor in an unconscious slumber.

#