Thanks for all your support for a new story! I appreciate your reading and reviewing. Now, a little get together for some of our vamps.
Chapter 2
The lights were low and the music flowed softly through the vampire club, Blue Moon. It was nearly midnight and in a corner booth, Ewan and Sofia were sharing a drink to celebrate her birthday. He'd taken her to dinner at an exclusive restaurant, and then brought her to Blue Moon to meet their friends for a drink.
Megan and Ben were the first to arrive, and Simone came in next, without Josef.
"Hey, guys," Simone greeted them.
"Hi," Sofia responded. "Is Josef coming?"
Simone settled into the booth. "Yes, but he got caught on a call to Bangkok. I came over in the limo and it went back to pick him up."
Ewan smiled warmly. "We're glad you're here."
The waiter came with several ice buckets of champagne, and proceeded to pour them for the guests.
"I wanted to celebrate Sofia's birthday with all our friends." He looked with love at the human who had captured his heart. "To my lovely Sofia."
They toasted, and everyone offered birthday wishes to Sofia, who blushed becomingly. "Thank you," she said shyly.
They chatted for a few minutes, and Simone asked, "Where are Mick and Beth?"
"Oh, Mick had to work tonight and Beth went with him. They said they'd stop by later," Sofia said.
Ben shook his head. "Beth always loved that investigative stuff when she was at Buzzwire."
Megan smirked at her fledgling. "I think she just loves the investigator."
They laughed and caught up on what everyone was doing. "Ben and I are opening our office," Simone announced. "We've taken a space in Josef's building so the vampire clientele will be more comfortable."
"I'd love to see it," Sofia commented.
"Well, we really need to decorate before we get started," Simone said.
Ben looked at his partner, "Why? We've got a couple of desks and our phone lines."
Simone rolled her eyes. "Ben, we're not working for the taxpayers, like you were with the city. I told you we need to have an elegant office to impress our clients," she replied.
Ben said, "Looks okay to me."
"It's pretty bleak. I'd do it myself, but I don't have the time right now with the workload we have," Simone said.
Ewan said, "You know, Sofia's mother, Maureen, has moved to Los Angeles to start her interior design business here. Maybe she could help."
Simone latched onto the idea. "Does she know about us? I mean would she be able to…."
"Oh, yes," Sofia said enthusiastically. "She knows Josef very well. My mom was a donor before she married my dad. Josef's the one who put me through college."
"Ah," Simone said, relaxing at once.
"I'm sure she'd love to look at your office. She's done lots of commercial design when she had her studio up north. She's rented a house and is working out of there for now."
"I wanted to get her a studio downtown, but she's as stubborn as her daughter," Ewan said with an affectionate look at Sofia.
"I'm sure she'll tell us if she wants to do that," Sofia said. "I can have her call you."
"That would be great!" Simone said, with a wide smile.
"Just so long as she doesn't fill up the place with a bunch of wacky things," Ben muttered and got a small kick from Megan for his trouble.
"I'm sure she'll get your approval for anything she wants to do," Sofia said, hiding a smile.
"There, you see? We won't have to worry about it, and we can recommend Maureen to other vamps. The community can feel safe with someone who knows about us."
Ewan felt Sofia's happiness at this, and was pleased he'd made the suggestion.
"You don't need a secretary or something?" Sofia asked, almost wistfully.
"Why? Is there anything wrong at the ADA's office?" Simone asked.
Put on the spot, Sofia said, "Well, it's just that the new guy doesn't seem to think I can do anything besides get him coffee." This had been a sore point with Sofia since Ben left.
Now the former ADA asked, "That's Pete Samson, right?"
"Yes," Sofia nodded, "He's only interim, but he's trying to make a name for himself. He's not even letting me do as much as Beth. I feel like he wants to pat me on the head and give me a lollipop."
Ben felt responsible for having to leave his job so suddenly. "I'm sorry everyone is stuck because I had to resign." His emergency turning had left the ADA's department adrift and he couldn't help feeling he'd let them down.
Even though she wasn't a vampire, Sofia saw his guilt and said, "It wasn't your fault, Ben. When the new district attorney is elected, maybe it will get better."
"Well, we were planning on getting a couple of the freshies to work-share the receptionist duties, but we could use a paralegal investigator," Simone said, looking at Ben. "Right?"
Ben caught her drift, and replied, "Yes, we'll need someone to help in the office once we get a few clients lined up."
Sofia took a breath, "Really? You mean I could come to work for you?"
"I think that would be perfect," Megan said.
"It would still be paralegal work, but it would help us to have someone who knows about the community," Simone said.
"I'd love it!" Sofia said, almost jumping up and down in her seat. All the vampires could feel her joy at the thought.
"Okay," Simone said, grinning. "As soon as we get the office decorated, we'll get you started."
Just then Josef sauntered up to the table. "Is this a private party, or can anyone join?"
With her newfound happiness, Sofia said boldly, "Oh please sit down. Always room for one more."
Josef raised his eyebrows, feeling the satisfaction coming from everyone at the table. "So, what's going on?"
Sofia laughed, then four vampires and one human started telling him all at once.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Beth cuddled up to Mick on the bench seat of the Chevy Tahoe he had leased. Mick loved his old Mercedes Benz convertible, but it was too noticeable, and Beth's Prius was too cramped during stake outs. He'd gotten a black Tahoe, which was indistinguishable from thousands of others in Los Angeles when he needed to blend into the background. Tonight, they were watching for an accountant who had stolen proprietary information from his company. It was a change from the usual unfaithful spouse that Mick normally covered. Beth wanted to come with him, hoping there might be some adventure with this case.
Mick hugged her close, glad she wanted to be with him, even if he didn't think there would be much excitement.
"You're sure you're not bored?"
"Of course not. I just hope this guy has a mob contact or something."
He gave her a grin. "You've been watching too many episodes of the Sopranos."
"You never know," she said with a wink.
They saw the accountant go into a two story brick building in a seedy area of town, holding a briefcase. He'd been in there for about fifteen minutes when the man slammed out of the door, staggered and fell down, apparently hurt.
Mick's attention was on the man, and the others who swarmed out after him.
"Wait here," Mick said, his voice brooking no opposition. Too late, Beth was already out of the other side of the car with her gun drawn.
Shit, Mick said to himself, as he followed Beth. He caught up with her, and they hid behind some crates stacked around the building's door.
The man they were shadowing lay there, and they could both smell the blood. Mick heard a heartbeat, and knew he wasn't dead. Soon there were several other humans around him with guns trained on the accountant on the ground.
"Give us the rest of the reports. Where are they?" One of them barked, threatening the hapless human.
The man blanched, and couldn't speak. Mick stepped out of from behind a crate with his Sig and said, "Drop your weapons."
The men turned toward Mick, shifting their guns toward him. "Who the hell are you?"
"Your worst nightmare." Mick responded, keeping them all in his sights. He hoped Beth would stay back, but in the darkness, he saw she had moved behind the killers.
"I'm telling you to put down your guns. Let this guy go."
The accountant on the ground started to crawl away, and one of the gunmen turned to shoot him. Mick growled and tackled the human, disarming him. One of the others aimed his gun at Mick, and Beth flew from her hiding place jumping on the man's back, her fangs ripping out the side of his throat. Mick subdued the thug on him by snapping his neck neatly, as the third hood tried to run back to the building, shooting as he went. Mick was hit in the chest, but caught the man, killing him instantly.
"Beth," Mick whispered, urgently, "are you all right?"
"Yeah." she said, as she disentangled herself from the hood she'd killed, ignoring the blood that covered her.
The accountant they were following was lying still, and no longer had a heartbeat. Beth came over and looked down. "He's dead."
"Yeah," Mick was angry he wasn't able to save the man.
Beth noticed the blood on Mick's shirt. "You've been shot."
"Not with silver. Guess you get to pull out another bullet."
"You should be more careful." Beth frowned, her fear making her speak a little sharply.
"It wasn't silver, sweetheart, I'll be okay."
She put her hand on his chest. "I just wish you'd be more cautious."
Mick snorted. "This from the woman I told to wait in the car."
"Yeah, because that worked out so well the last time," Beth smirked.
Mick shook his head with a small smile. He could tell even with the blood on her, she was not injured and he scanned the area to make sure the shots hadn't attracted attention. "C'mon. we have to find that briefcase so I can get it back to his company. Then we'll call the Cleaners."
Beth followed Mick to the door of the building. She knew since some of the bodies had vampire marks, they couldn't call the police.
There were no lights inside, but with their vampire vision, they were able to find a small office in the empty space. There were some guns, and signs of human occupation. Mick found the briefcase, and saw it hadn't been tampered with. He didn't want to know what, if any, secrets it held. He'd just been hired at a hefty fee to return it to the rightful owners.
Beth searched around and said, "No one else is here. I'll call the Cleaners."
They went back outside, staying in the shadows until the Cleaner's van pulled up.
Annie got out, and Mick and Beth came to greet her. "Hey, you're working my turf tonight. Nice to see ya, Beth. Still married to this lug?" she quipped.
"Hi, Annie. Yeah, he'll do," Beth responded. She hadn't seen the Cleaner since their wedding, and none of the wedding guests knew about the debacle in Geneva.
Annie scented the area. "Looks like you guys made a mess."
"Couldn't be helped. They started shooting and I ripped up the one that was going for Mick, so we can't give this to the human cops," Beth replied.
Beth and Annie made a quick inventory of what needed to be done, including getting rid of any traces inside the building. Mick watched his wife with both pride and a little envy as Beth worked with Annie. Usually he was the one in charge, and it was a strange sensation to see Beth handling everything. She'd always be his wife, lover and childe, but he knew she'd be a force to be reckoned with when she found her place as a vampire.
When they were done, Annie motioned for her crew to start. "We'll be done within the hour," she said, reverting back to Cleaner mode,
Mick came up now and put his arm around Beth. "Send me the bill," he said to Annie and she nodded goodbye to them as he led Beth to the car.
Once they were in the Tahoe, Beth turned Mick toward her. She pulled at his Henley. "Let me see." The shirt had a bloody bullet hole, but Mick's skin had healed almost immediately.
"See I'm fine. we need to get cleaned up if we're going to meet Ewan and Sofia for a drink."
With all the shooting, Beth had almost forgotten they'd agreed to meet their friends at the club. "Are you sure you're all right?" she asked Mick.
"Yeah, as long as I don't have to go through any metal detectors," he joked. He drove them back to the loft and while Beth showered, Mick cut the bullet out of his chest and added it to the collection. He went upstairs to get a fresh shirt. He found Beth putting on some heels to match the little black cocktail dress she was wearing.
He shrugged out of his shirt and enjoyed her lustful glance as he donned another one. "Anything I can help you with?"
She moved closer to him and said, "Oh yeah, I'm enjoying the view," she purred. She walked up to him, swinging her hips delicately. Mick's vampire came out, wanting to follow through on her invitation, but instead, put his arm around her, "Let's go, we promised to get to the club for Sofia's birthday."
"Fine, but you owe me a rain check," she pouted slightly and stepped back, knowing he was right.
"Rain or shine, baby," Mick growled, softly.
Turning, she looked over her shoulder at him. "All right, the sooner we get done there, the sooner I'll have you to myself."
Mick chuckled and followed her downstairs.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Charles Duvall entered his brother's office after hearing Lance slam down the telephone with a shout.
"What is wrong, brother?"
Lance's eyes blazed silver and his fangs were out in anger. "Someone is sabotaging us."
Charles raised his eyebrows, and looked blankly at Lance. Since their sire's true death the rest of them, Henri, Louis, Pierre, Luc, and their sister Coraline left Lance to handle the family finances and security.
"What do you mean?" Charles asked.
Lance brought himself under control. He had taken over the family from their sire since he was the oldest of them, and he never begrudged his place. He was responsible for their family's reputation as the oldest vampires in France, and even though Charles took care of their real estate holdings, Lance was responsible for the money and investments. None of his other brothers took any interest in business. Henri was a painter, whose fine art was appreciated throughout Europe, Pierre immersed himself with Egyptian antiquities, Luc was a music producer in Paris, Louis spent his time working his way through the whore houses of the continent. And Coraline could be counted on only to cause trouble.
Lance scrubbed his hand over his face. He looked at Charles. "There have been problems with our investments."
"Oh?" Charles said, sitting down across from Lance. "What has happened?"
"Some of our companies have been bought out and we've suffered losses. Whoever obtained them will also lose a significant amount of money. We can't count on them any longer. There are also problems with some stocks. So far, we have lost a million Euros."
Charles frowned. "But our properties are still intact."
"Yes, but they don't provide the income we need. Has anyone tried to purchase them?" Lance asked.
"No, not that I know of."
Lance sat back thinking. "It doesn't matter. Unless we sell it, the property doesn't help us."
"Who would buy businesses at a loss?"
"I don't know. It could be the markets shifting, but I don't like it." Lance responded.
"What can we do?"
"Nothing. Leave it to me. I will find out who's behind this and take care of it."
"What will you do?" Charles said, a little alarmed.
"I'm going to see what our contacts know, and I believe our sister may be able to help." Lance said, shrewdly.
TBC
Lance doesn't know that trouble is coming, especially if he wants Coraline to help him! Next, Josef tries to find out about the formulas they brought back from Switzerland.