AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry for the delay on this one. Had two stories to finish up. Now that those are done, the updates will come faster for this story! I have also been working on keeping my POV's straighter a lot less confusing. Let me know if it is working out for you guys.

This chapter is a bit procedure heavy, but it gives the gang some insight into what they're dealing with.

I put in a surprise at the end that had been promised in the Moonlighting 1.5 story "12:04am Wake Up Call." See if you can guess what it is.

SORRY: I uploaded during all the problems and needed to re-upload the chapter a couple times to get through the glitches.

Chapter 10- A Web of Intrigue

45 minutes before:

Ben stalked in the back door of their hideout. He was carrying the limp bodies of both Zack and Carlos by their shirt collars. Each man had deep wounds on their neck that were still bleeding slightly and Ben had a lot of blood smeared on his face. He'd caught them surprisingly easy, and the feeling of the hunt had been intoxicating. I was right. This is fantastic!

Ben figured he should feel regret for what he'd done. It was usually an easy emotion to fake so people wouldn't get too antsy around him, but he was a vampire now. He was supposed to be a ruthless killing machine wasn't he? Besides, they'll forgive him when they wake up.

He paused when he distinctly heard talking coming from the main room, which meant that Adam and Sam were probably back. Won't they be surprised… Ben took a few more steps before he caught the scent of blood. A lot of blood. It was concerning seeing how Shawn was dead with a stake through his heart. It meant that something was wrong.

At the sound of the door shutting and his approach, Adam came around the corner. He was wide eyed and panic stricken. Ben had never seen the larger, easy going man in such a state. The look intensified as he spotted the bodies of his friends and the gore dripping from Ben's face.

Adam stumbled back in horror and turned to run. Ben dropped the bodies and was right on him. He tackled him to the ground sending both of them tumbling into the main room, knocking over a few boxes. Keeping a tight grip on Adam, who was struggling ferociously, Ben grew out his teeth. "It's gonna be okay man. Think of it like a shot! This will only hurt for a minute." He opened his mouth to bite down, but a low growling from his left caught his attention.

Ben's eyes shot up to see a very much alive Shawn with a dead Sam lying directly in front of him. That explains the blood I smell. He stood up quickly, grabbing Adam from the floor and keeping him in a tight grip so he couldn't escape, and looked at Shawn in both confusion and wonder. "I staked you."

Shawn's glare intensified. "Gee, I see becoming a vampire has given you the 'oh so special' ability to state the obvious. That's gonna be useful."

Lip curling in annoyance, Ben glanced down at Sam's ravaged neck. "What happened Adam." He loosened his grip on the other man and whispered in his ear. "If you run, I won't just catch you next time."

Adam nodded and stepped back from both vampires. Ben could see that Adam was at his own breaking point. He guessed seeing a friend killed in front of him and the others practically lifeless ten feet away was enough to send him into hysterics. Well, almost any man. He smirked.

"Sam was drunk… he pulled the stake out. He got loose and killed him."

Ben looked and sure enough, Shawn's right hand was free of the restraints. That would have to be dealt with soon, but the revelation that stakes didn't kill them was huge. "Maybe we can't die." He said, mostly to himself.

The statement caused Shawn to start laughing. "Don't be the cat from Hocus Pocus, of course we can die." He continued to snort obnoxiously.

"He's been doing that since he killed Sam." Ben assumed Adam meant the laughing.

Heading over to where he'd dropped Zack and Carlos, Ben bent over and brought them closer to Shawn, but still out of reach, just in case. The other vampire's feet and left hand were still bound, but Ben was at the point where he was done taking chances with him.

He saw Shawn glance beside him and caught sight of the bodies. A dark look clouded his features and he cocked his head as if trying to figure out why Ben hadn't killed them. Ben merely grinned at him and grabbed two empty pop cans from one of the tables.

"What are you doing?" Adam asked.

"Expanding our business." Ben replied, approaching Shawn, who was still watching him warily. "Zack is a good planner, but he never had the vision needed to move up in the world." Pausing, he gave Adam a shrug. "I had really hoped to get you with us man, but all the movies say vampires need a day person, and Sam…" He glanced at the body again. "He's unavailable."

Adam, getting his courage back stepped toward him "You can't be serious! You're crazy!" He pointed to Sam's body. "Look what the guy did! How can you think that they or anyone else would want to be that?"

Ben growled and got two inches from Adam's face. "Because we'll be GREAT! No one will be able to stop us! The power this gives… it's incredible!" He gestured to himself. "The robberies are just the beginning!" Whirling away from Adam, Ben took his knife out of his pocket and stalked towards Shawn. "Looks like you have another use after all."

When Ben was a couple feet away, Shawn's eyes instantly turned and his teeth grew out as he let out a screech so intense it caused Ben to drop the knife and flinch away. Shawn also reached out and swiped a clawed hand across Ben's arm as he backed up.

Yelling in pain, it took a moment for Ben to recover and see the smirk of satisfaction on Shawn's face. "I'll kill you for that." What the hell was that anyway? He asked himself.

"Oh look. The psychopath can be scared." Shawn chuckled darkly.

Changing his tactic, Ben approached Shawn from the back, where he wouldn't be able to reach him or do, whatever he just did to him again. "No!" Shawn screamed out as Ben pitched the chair forward, pinning him between the ground and the chair. Ben grabbed Shawn's free arm and opened a large gash to let his blood flow freely. Being weak already, Shawn couldn't fight off Ben for long and was unable to get his arm away as his new fledgling let his blood into the pop cans.

Ben glanced over at Carlos and Zack. He could actually hear their heart beats get even weaker. Having no idea if this would even work if they were dead, he chastised himself for letting Shawn distract him from what he needed to do. Ben also had absolutely no idea how much blood was needed, he decided to take as much as possible, and the fact that Shawn was getting weaker with each passing second was a bonus in his eyes.

When the blood flow slowed and Shawn was barely able to move, Zack figured he had enough and brought the cans over to the waiting bodies. He chose Zack first, because he'd been the first one bitten, and Ben had gotten a bit carried away with him.

He opened Zack's mouth and poured the contents down his throat. After a second or two, Zack started to swallow and as soon as he did his eyes opened and he grabbed the can out of Ben's hand, guzzling.

Ben smirked and moved to Carlos whose reaction was almost identical to Zack's. It seemed that as soon as a dying person got a taste of vampire blood, it imbued them with the insatiable thirst associated with vampirism. Ben thought it was very cool to watch. After they finished the blood, both seemed to go into a catatonic state, unmoving.

While Ben waited for the two men to wake up, he took the moment to retie Shawn's hand up and right the chair. He had to figure out a way to kill him, so there was no evidence to lead anyone to them. Grabbing the knife, he figured just draining him completely dry would do the trick. No blood, no vampire.

As he positioned the knife, Shawn groaned loudly and squirmed, making a pained expression. At the same time, Ben fell to his knees after what felt like jolts of electricity shooting through him, making his whole body hum. "What the hell was that?" He gasped and looked at Shawn for an explanation.

When none came, Ben snarled and repositioned the knife. As always, he wasn't expecting a straight answer out of the other vampire anyway.

Shawn stirred and opened his eyes before mumbling, "They're going to kill you for this. They'll find you and take you out."

Ben froze. "Who'll kill me?" This whole thing was getting weirder and weirder and was, for the first time, making him worry he'd literally bitten off more than he could chew.

Shawn shook his head and went silent, having passed out again.

Ben shook him violently, trying to wake him up. "WHO?" But Shawn stayed unresponsive. "Damn it!" Ben rubbed a worried hand through his hair.

"Zack said, if there's one there's more." Adam said in a shaky voice, his eyes trained on his friends. "If that's right, then he might have friends, people that could hunt us down."

"We need leverage then, and we need to get out of here. He never said how he knew we were here, maybe others know too." Ben reasoned. They couldn't leave all the loot though. It had taken them months to get this much and they'd need money if they were going to live forever.

As if on cue, Ben heard a voice call through the warehouse, one he recognized. It was the truck driver who hauled out items that they were able to sell. Zack must have told him to stop by after they met with the buyer earlier. He suddenly had a great idea, and knew exactly what he had to do.

Present:

Henry tried to keep himself together as Mick, Carlton and a pair of women clad in leather body suits talked and checked out the 'crime scene.' He had to think of it as a crime scene, because if he thought of it as 'the place where his son was tortured and may have killed someone' it would be too much to take and he had people he needed to be strong for.

Juliet was already in a daze, refusing to leave despite everyone's offer to take her back to his house. Maddie was out in the car, crying her eyes out. Gus had tried to break it to her gently but there was only so much spin you could put on the situation. Shawn was gone, and they had no idea where to start looking for him. They were back to square one.

Henry had always done his best to make sure his son was prepared for whatever life threw at him, lately he'd had to switch that up to un-life. He'd never had Shawn be so into his training and it was probably Juliet's support that had caused the switch. She'd been so good for his son and then came the news that against all odds, he was going to be a grandpa.

He should have known things were going too good.

"Henry!" Mick called to him, then gestured for Juliet to come in closer.

When they approached, Mick gestured at the women, it looked like they were about to get a proper introduction. "These lovely ladies are called Cleaners. They're going to take care of the scene."

Sure enough, people were already arriving to clean up the mess.

"What are they going to do to help find my son?" Henry demanded, not particularly caring that the people he was yelling at could probably kill him with their pinkies.

The women looked at him with neutral expressions. "That isn't our department. We are not responsible for finding one lost vampire. As far as we're concerned, since we were called no violation has been committed here."

Juliet's face scrunched in confusion. "What? Two people were killed!"

One of the women shrugged. "Accidents happen. That's what we're here for. We keep the peace, and our secrets."

Henry was about to say something when Mick stopped him and pulled him aside, "Henry, you have to understand, not all vampires are like me. Sure, most don't go around killing people, but only because it would be noticed, not because they care about human life. The cleaners understand that and to their job by covering up the mess."

"And you're okay with this?" Henry scowled.

"No, I'm not okay with it. My job is to save people. I call in the cleaners as a last resort. As long as Shawn or whoever has him isn't going around broadcasting our existence, they won't get involved."

Henry let Mick's words sink in. "So, if whoever has Shawn starts getting noticed, then they can do something about it? That's not very proactive."

Mick shook his head sadly. He knew the bureaucracy better than most. "No it isn't, but they are very capable at their job Henry, and they aren't appreciative of people questioning their methods. Especially humans. It's best to just let them do their job and stay out of their way for now. There's nothing more we can do here anyway." Mick gave him a sad look and turned to go talk to the lead Cleaner.

Looking over at Juliet, Henry saw she was talking to the other Cleaner. The vampire was stealing glances at the detective's pregnant belly, and Henry caught a look of longing on her face for a split second. Maybe they aren't as heartless as they appear.

"Juliet, let's go." Henry called to her. She nodded at the woman and approached him. Henry put his arm around her and felt her shivering. He stepped back and took off his jacket, putting it on her.

"Thanks." She mumbled.

"What'd she say to you?" Henry indicated the Cleaner Juliet had been talking to.

Juliet looked at her hands, "I asked her what would happen if Shawn didn't get blood long term. I figured she'd give it to me straight."

Henry didn't have to ask what the straight answer was. If she'd gotten it straight like Mick had explained to Henry, there were only two options. Get blood any way he can, probably by murder, or death.

They walked in silence the rest of the way out to the car and found Gus talking with Maddie in the front seat. Gus got out of the seat and let Juliet get in. She nodded gratefully and climbed in.

Gus walked up to Henry nervously, seemingly unsure of how he'd react. "I called the chief."

Henry stared off at nothing in particular. "That's good."

"Something is really bugging me though." Gus continued. Henry turned to him and raised an eyebrow, wondering what could be bugging him more than the situation they were currently in.

Gus didn't pick up on the gesture, "How did Shawn know to come here in the first place?"

It was a good question. Even as a vampire there were limits, and so far, barring the connection with Carlton, his son was not psychic. There had to be something that led him there. Henry looked around and spotted a car. "Is this the one you and Shawn saw outside the store?" He asked.

Nodding, Gus moved closer to the red beater. "Shawn chased it down and saved a kid from being hit."

Henry snorted with a half-smile at the tale and looked over the car. "That's it? He saw the car?"

"Yeah."

Henry walked around the car, trying to figure out the riddle. It wasn't particularly important at this point in the game, but he was curious and it let him take his mind off of things. After passing off a couple of theories, like his son somehow saw the car before and memorized the license plate, Henry's eyes settled on the tread of the tire. The closeness of the lagoon had given the ground a specific tint of clay red, almost like an iron ore pit. He then lifted his boot and looked at the mud clinging to his shoe. Bingo. It was just the kind of conclusion his son would jump to.

"The mud Gus. Shawn figured it out because of the color of the mud on the tires."

"The mud?" Gus looked around and sure enough, even in the darkness he could tell the ground around the area was mostly red. "That's messed up."

At that moment, Carlton and Mick walked up looking troubled. "We saved the information from the truck driver. We might be able to get a description of the vehicle once we find out more about him." Carlton stated. "I'll keep at it, you guys go home and get some rest. You look like hell Henry. You too Guster."

Both Henry and Gus protested but the expression Carlton gave them stopped all argument.

"Go home and take care of O'Hara. Lord knows how she's really taking this. Mick and I will do some digging. You have my word that I'll do everything to find him Henry."

Henry pursed his lips and nodded. He'd pick it up in the morning, right now he had other people to think about. "If you find out anything you call me." He poked Carlton in the chest.

"I'll tie up stuff here and meet you back at the college." Mick added and walked back inside.

The detective nodded. "I'll take you back to your truck Henry." Both of them walked back to the car, situating everyone inside.

The fact that they'd been so close weighed heavily on each of them, most of all Henry. If he hadn't been so stubborn in calling Mick, they may have made it in time. It was something he knew he'd regret for a long time. Longer if they never found Shawn. No, I can't think like that. He chastised himself. They'd find his son. Somehow, they'd find him. But in what state? He couldn't silence that voice, because he had a sinking feeling, that despite all his training, Shawn had reached the breaking point… after only a day. What if it took another day to find him? Two? Three? What would he be like by then?

I'm so sorry kid, this is all my fault.

Five Days Later:

Carlton stared at the road as he drove home from visiting Marlowe in prison. He was supposed to be ecstatic at this point, his lady was going to get out in a week. Albeit, on probation for a year or so, but still. The whole happy occasion was overshadowed by Shawn's disappearance and the fact that after almost a week, they still had no idea where he was.

The leads had looked promising over the first couple days. They'd gotten a description of the truck that was taken, and had found it abandoned two miles outside of town. There were a lot of blood stains in it, Shawn's included so they'd unquestionably concluded that he'd not gone crazy and run off. He'd been kidnapped.

That's where the leads dried up. There were no buildings around where it was left, no scent left behind to track. Mick figured it was because they got into another car after abandoning the rig. There were also no witnesses so once again, they were stuck.

The storage facility itself was registered to a person named 'I.P. Freely.' Carlton had raged on the owner of the property for being an idiot for about a half an hour.

Mick had been helping out intermittently and Morgan and company had been called, but beyond canvasing the area over and over again, Henry and Gus had that avenue covered already, there wasn't much else they could do. Carlton had said he'd call them when something concrete came up, which hadn't happened yet.

Juliet had officially gone on desk duty that week. The chief had insisted on it due to her emotional state, and the fact that she was getting on five and a half months pregnant. Chief Vick had also barred her from working on the case in the field, stating it was too dangerous. Surprisingly, his partner hadn't complained. She just quietly accepted the order. That alone was odd to Carlton, but when he'd passed her desk he saw she was researching past crimes associated with spider symbols.

He didn't say a damn thing.

As he got to the station and walked in, he saw a bit of buzz was going on and could smell excitement in the air. Wondering what was happening, he spotted Buzz and asked, "What is going on?"

Buzz beamed, "There's been a robbery."

Carlton didn't see why theft would warrant such happiness in a cop, and was beginning to wonder about the younger officer's sanity when his partner came up brandishing a piece of paper. "It's another one, the same spider symbol!"

Now he understood the excitement. It was the opportunity to find another clue. By now the entire station had heard of Shawn's disappearance and with all being aware of who had taken him, understood the importance of this robbery.

Taking the paper from Juliet he turned around to head to the crime scene, "Let's go O'Hara." He said without thinking. Pangs of sorrow hit him like a sledgehammer, originating from Juliet. He froze and turned around to see the defeated look on her face and realized what he'd said out of habit. "I'm sorry, I just…"

Juliet shook her head. "No, you go. Find him for me. I'll see what I can do here."

Giving her a curt nod, he gave his silent promise. "Don't tell Henry or Guster yet. I don't need them tromping all over the crime scene." He grabbed Buzz, "You're coming with me McNab."

"Yes sir." Buzz grinned and waved goodbye to Juliet who gave her own small wave.

"A mansion?" Buzz asked quizzically and turned to Carlton. "That's a bit straight forward for them, considering what they usually take."

"It's a museum now." Carlton corrected, but he agreed that the situation seemed off somehow. Usually they hit retail stores, but right inside the intricately carved double doors was the trademark spider graffiti. It couldn't be a copycat due to the fact that no one outside the police station knew about the symbol. The press had been down their throats about the robberies, but that and the fact that their head psychic was missing had been hushed up, due to obvious circumstances.

They headed upstairs to the curator's office and found forensics cataloging the damage to the wall where a vault used to be. It looked like something had literally pulled the vault out from the wall and taken it with them.

Carlton sniffed. There were a lot of people around, so he knew he wasn't going to get much, and true to form, the thieves had left the place almost immaculate, besides the stolen merchandise. "Has anyone seen the curator so he can tell us what else they took?" Carlton asked the room full of officers.

One of the forensics technicians replied, "He hasn't been seen since yesterday just before closing. The employees found everything like this when they came to work this morning."

Carlton grumbled in annoyance. "Someone see if they can track this guy down. We need information now." Just what I need. He thought storming out of the room. Tracking down someone else.

"Detective Lassiter." Buzz walked up behind him. Carlton had almost forgotten he'd taken him with. "Here's everything forensics has so far." Buzz handed him some pictures. He'd apparently forgotten them when he stormed out.

"Thanks McNab."

"I miss him too." Buzz said out of the blue.

Carlton looked up from the pictures. "What?"

"Shawn, I miss him too. We'll nail these guys and get him back, don't worry."

Any other day, Carlton would have dismissed Buzz's enthusiasm and optimism as delusional, but he needed a pick me up and decided to humor him. "Yeah."

He turned away, having humored him enough. Carlton didn't have time to stand around chatting. He had to get what they had back to his partner, before she got impatient and came down to the scene herself. "Stay here, let me know if they find the curator." He then headed back to the station with the evidence.

Once there, he and Juliet wasted no time pouring over it. A couple other weird things popped out at them besides just the vault being ripped out. It looked like they'd come in through an upstairs window, rather than the door. They'd had to have some kind of ladder or rigging to get up that far. The museum was in an affluent neighborhood with neighbors on each side. There was no way people could go repelling up a building and not be noticed there.

No prints had been found yet, which wasn't surprising since none were found at the other robberies either. They'd gotten some from the hideout but none had matched any in the existing database so it was yet another dead end.

Suddenly, Juliet made a squeak of surprise and grabbed another picture from one of the other robberies, comparing the two. Carlton saw they were both the spider symbol. He watched her study them for a moment. "What is it?"

"There's no way. Just no way...Oh God." She kept repeating and dug for more pictures of the spider.

"What O'Hara?" He ripped the newer picture out of her hand and looked at it. He didn't notice anything different, but his partner was starting to go into hysterics. He reached over and stopped her frantic searching. "Juliet. Stop. What is it?"

"The spider, it's different." She took a deep calming breath and pointed at the human skull, which comprised the main body of the spider.

Carlton looked closer and his eyes widened in comprehension. The teeth which had been regular, albeit creepy, on the symbols from the previous robberies… were now obviously pointed fangs. "Sweet justice. They're vampires?" he hissed quietly.

"It's the only explanation. Somehow, they got turned." Juliet whispered back.

His eyes flicked to the side, not wanting to say what he was thinking, "Um, do you think that Spencer-"

Juliet cut him off with a glare. "Don't even think that Carlton. Shawn would never ever do something like that. They had to have figured it out."

Giving in, and not wanting to upset her any more, Carlton rose from the desk. Mick had to know this, so did Gus and Henry. They had a group of potentially rogue vampires running around the area. He wondered why there weren't more bodies if that were the case. It seemed the more they found out, the less things added up.

"I'm going to go tell Guster, you give Henry and Dr. Spencer a call." Maddie had decided to stay around and was currently staying at Henry's house.

"Alright. I'll see you in a bit." Juliet stood slowly, still shaken up by the prospect that Shawn had turned a group of murderous thieves into probably equally murderous vampires.

He turned and stormed out of the station, he had to find Gus, quickly, before his partner beat him to the punch and the salesman heard it from a panicked and angry Henry. The last thing he needed was everyone panicking.

Gus pulled into the Psych parking lot after a long morning of searching. He needed to get something to eat, and after a week of sleepless nights, wasn't in the mood for going out again. Some cheese and crackers from the fridge were sounding like ambrosia to him right now.

When he hadn't been searching, he spent some time with Coraline. He hadn't cared what anyone said. She claimed she was a different person now and that was enough for him. He also knew how much of a hard time Shawn would give him if he were here about how many serial killers he'd fallen in love with over the years.

The thought of Shawn not being around to give him that hard time increased the gloom he was feeling and he tried to think of his delicious food waiting for him in the fridge, before he burst into tears from missing his friend.

He slammed the door as he entered, and made a B-Line to the fridge, before he realized how dark it was in the office. Gus could have sworn he'd left the blinds open earlier, hadn't he? Shrugging, he flipped a switch so he could see.

Light filled the small main office area. Gus let out a high pitched scream as he noticed someone was sitting on the couch and had been waiting for him to turn on the light, and that someone was Pierre Despereaux.

END

END NOTES: See! I promised and delivered! Despereaux to the rescue. Who better to catch a thief, than another better thief?