AUTHOR'S NOTES: Not much to say but I hope you enjoy!

There is some allusions to disturbing and gory acts so if you are sensitive to those kinds of things, be warned.

Chapter 13- The Truth Comes Out

"What's your name?" Carlton asked on the way to the station. He wasn't trying for small talk but the feeling and the scent he got from the human in the back seat was pure fear, not at all the calm analytical minded person he knew to be the planner of the thefts. After taking in the young man's appearance he figured they had caught the group's muscle… or formal muscle.

"Adam Peterson." He mumbled, looking down and fiddling with his necklace.

That was easy. Carlton was surprised he'd given in so easy. He narrowed his eyes and said no more. Soon they were pulling into the Sheriff's station.

All eyes were on Adam as he was dragged, none too gently by Carlton towards the interrogation rooms. Word had spread quickly from the dispatch operator that someone had been arrested in connection with Shawn's kidnapping. The detective had already radioed ahead to his partner and the chief so they were waiting when he arrived. He could feel his partner's rage from across the station and tried not to focus on it.

"Interrogation room one O'Hara. Everyone else is right behind me." He watched as Adam's eyes fell to Juliet's stomach, as most people's do when they spot a pregnant woman. "Don't even look at her you son of a bitch. Keep going." With another strong tug Adam was moving again.

Once to the interrogation rooms, Carlton fastened the cuffs to the metal ring and stood back. Adam was still staying quiet, not wanting to meet his gaze. He was finally able to get a better look at him now that things had calmed down. The man's eyes were sunken, probably from lack of sleep. One of them had a healing bruise on it, just starting to turn green around the edges. He didn't look like he'd eaten in a while either. Overall Carlton would say that Adam looked like a defeated man, in every sense of the word.

He shook his head. He had work to do, and certainly wasn't about to start pitying the guy. Walking out to the viewing area, he was surprised to see how packed it was. Mick, Beth, Gus, Juliet, Buzz, and Karen stood watching.

Buzz turned to him with a worried expression. "He doesn't look so good."

"Well then why don't you run and grab him something to eat then Mr. Bleeding Heart?" Carlton snapped and instantly regretted it. He did need to get Buzz out of there, but the newest Junior Detective didn't deserve to be yelled at. "Just… could you go get him something McNab."

Smiling sadly and nodding, Buzz left the rest of the group to watch Adam through the glass.

"Why aren't we in there busting his ass to tell us where Shawn is?" Gus demanded angrily.

Karen looked at him sternly. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that Mr. Guster."

"I'm not running into a potential next of vampires without some information. If they haven't killed Shawn yet, I doubt it will happen within the next five minutes. Get a grip Guster or wait in the lobby." Gus shot him a dirty look but remained quiet. "Are the cameras off?" Carlton asked the chief. The last thing they needed was to have this videotaped.

Karen nodded and stepped around Carlton to the door. "Yes. I did it myself." She turned to glance at Adam, shaking her head. "Detective, we both know that man couldn't have taken Shawn alone. Get something out of him and keep me informed." Concern for Shawn or not, she still had a station to run.

"Yes Chief." Carlton nodded and she left. He looked at Juliet. She was practically shaking in rage. That man had helped kidnap her fiancé. He doubted that she'd be objective about the questioning but the Chief Vick did promise that she'd be in on the interrogation if they got anyone. "O'Hara… are you going to be able to do this?"

Juliet nodded and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. "Yeah partner, I got it."

"Alright let's…" Carlton turned around as he talked and ran right into another person who hadn't been there a second before. He backed up and saw it was Pierre. "What the-? I told you to stay outside!"

"Beg to disagree detective. You told me not to be seen. I wasn't." Pierre smirked.

"Just move." He grumbled, pushing past the thief to go into the interrogation room.

Gus stepped forward, "I'm coming in too!"

Carlton spun around again. He didn't have time for this. "No. No Guster. O'Hara and I are the only people authorized to be in that interrogation room!"

"And me!"

"Damn it Guster…" Carlton cursed aloud as Henry came jogging up.

Henry pointed at Adam. "I'm authorized to be in there too detective, and so is any one of the consultants that I deem to be on the case." He motioned to Gus, "Gus, get in there."

Defeated, Carlton led the other three into the room to get some answers out of Adam, one way or another.

Adam hated himself. He'd never been a coward, not in his whole life. The past week had changed that though. He'd seen the most horrible things he'd ever seen in his life. His lifelong friends had gone completely nuts and didn't know how long he'd be able to stay sane either. He did know however, that if he didn't get back soon they would realize something had gone wrong.

He was tired, hungry and at the end of his rope. To make matters worse, there were more vampires. He'd hoped it was an extremely rare thing, because if they were all like his friends and Shawn… humanity was screwed.

A group of people came in the interrogation room then. He recognized everyone except the old man. Their expressions were accusing and full of hatred. Adam remembered something about Shawn being a psychic detective. Maybe these people were his co-workers, or even friends.

"Adam Peterson," The head detective stated, "This is my partner, Juliet O'Hara, one of our consultants Burton Guster and our head liaison of consultants Henry Spencer." Adam looked up at the older man. He had to be related to Shawn somehow. Thinking of vampires having family was weird.

Carlton continued, "Do you have any information on the whereabouts of Shawn Spencer?"

At the mention of Shawn's name, Adam let his head fall to the table. That was all the answer they needed. "He seemed like a good guy. A couple of my friends even talked about letting him go, till Ben started beating on him and we realized what he was."

"Ben huh? We gonna get any other names?"

Adam thought about it. Did he really want to squeal on his friends? They aren't your friends anymore. His inner voice told him, but he still shook his head. They weren't just friends. They were practically family and if what Shawn said was true, about people coming for them, he wasn't going to just give them up. He shook his head, knowing they wouldn't be convinced.

Henry moved forward angrily, Carlton was about to yell, and Gus looked like he wanted to punch him. Before any of them could do anything, Juliet stepped forward. "Please, if you could give us anything…" Juliet sniffed. "I- we need him back."

Adam's gaze fell to her stomach once more, finally getting that Juliet may not just be his co-worker after all. His father, his girlfriend… he wasn't looking into the faces of cops trying to find an employee, he was looking into the desperate faces of his friends and family. How the hell does a vampire have family?

Gus put his hands on Juliet's shoulders, comforting her. Carlton turned back and said sternly. "Look, we understand you don't want to get your friends in trouble, but you're in deep. If we don't find him, other people will come looking for you."

"Benjamin Larson, Zachary Tremere, Eugene Soto." Adam admitted.

"Eugene?" Gus made a face at the name.

"We call him Carlos."

Gus nodded, "Oh, right."

Juliet wrote down the names and left the room briefly to get someone to find some information about the men.

While they waited for her to come back, Gus walked up to the table and sat down on the edge, looking at Adam. "So what's up with the whole Las Arañas thing? Except for Carlos, you guys don't sound Spanish."

Adam gave a small nostalgic smile, "It's something Carlos came up with. Zack has always been quite the artist and one thing he was really good at was spiders so it became our symbol. Zack prided himself that the only trace of us that was left behind, was the spider." His smile disappeared slowly. "Zack added the fangs a couple days ago." Adam's eyes flicked to the detective. He had to know something that had been bothering him since meeting the man.

Carlton, standing with his arms crossed and leaning against a wall, picked up on the gesture right away, "What?"

"You're a vampire, right?" He asked. Carlton nodded. "Why aren't you like them?"

"What do you mean like them?" Henry asked.

Adam started to shake, he didn't want to remember. He'd survived the last week by shutting out all emotion, he was good at that. He'd had to do it more than once while beating someone up when he was told, but having to actually tell someone was bringing everything to the surface. "They- they killed people."

"More than just the museum curator? Why haven't we heard anything about this?!" Carlton demanded.

Henry sighed. "It's been less than a week. A lot of people wouldn't be noticed missing yet."

Adam nodded. "So far it was only that trucker guy and some vagrants, besides the man at the museum." He looked the detective in the eye, seriously. "They aren't going to stop."

Carlton leaned over the table, "What the hell happened this last week?"

"You sure you wanna know?" Adam didn't even have to ask. He could read it in the faces of all the people in the room. They had to know. "You've probably already seen our hideout right?" The others nodded, "Well, the shit hit the fan after Ben used Shawn's blood to make the rest of my friends into vampires, like him. Even if I'd been brave enough to try, couldn't have stopped him at that point."

Six Days Ago:

Carlos and Zack had woken up a few minutes after Shawn's blood had done it's work. Shawn himself had passed out from being drained once more. Both young men were less than happy with Ben and showed it by trying to kick the crap out of him. Unfortunately, both were half starved, being newly turned, and didn't put up much of a fight. Ben took the opportunity to put the unconscious trucker to use.

Zack and Carlos were reluctant at first, but the first scent of the fresh blood crushed all former human inhibitions and both fed ravenously. Adam, who had stayed with Sam's body, didn't see what happened, but he could hear them feeding. The growls, the screams, and the sounds of ripping flesh were too much and he'd ended up passing out soon after from the stress and shock.

The next thing Adam remembered was waking up in the cab of the semi. It was still night.

"Morning Sunshine!" Ben chirped cheerily at him.

"Where are the guys?" Adam looked around frantically.

"Dumb and Dumber? They're in the back I didn't want anyone getting blood all over the front. I mean, what if we get pulled over?" Ben laughed and Adam knew exactly what would happen if they got pulled over. Their rising body count would increase by one police officer. "We managed to grab some loot before we got out too." Ben continued.

Noticing the buildings and lights outside the window, Adam figured out they were still in the city. "Where are you taking us?"

Ben shrugged, "Out of town. There's a place I found on Google Maps that looks like it would work. An abandoned power station. How cool is that?"

Starting at Ben open mouthed, Adam didn't think that he was getting what the repercussions of what he'd just done would be. "Do you even realize what the hell you just did? You turned yourself and the other guys into vampires? Without knowing ANYTHING about it!"

"Shawn seemed well adjusted enough, and so what? It's not like we don't have all the time in the world to figure it out."

"God! Listen to yourself! He said there were people looking for him! What if they find us!? What if they aren't people?" Adam shouted.

Ben curled his lip and hissed. "You must really think I'm stupid. If they come looking for him, we got leverage. As long as he's alive, we have insurance, got it?"

Adam started looking for a place to jump out. He was sure the rig had to slow down for turns right? There was no way he was sticking around, watching people get killed, watching his friends turn into monsters.

"Don't even think about it." Ben growled. "The only reason I'm keeping you around is because you're useful as a human. I saw what sun does to us." Ben grumbled a bit about not being able to go out in the daylight before turning his attention back to Adam, "You run, I'll kill you in a second. You stick around, and we'll turn you eventually. We gotta keep the group together right? Oh, and one more thing." Ben lashed out with his right arm and Adam slammed into the door of the vehicle and cracked the glass with the force of the punch. "Think of that as payback for all the beatings you gave me."

Adam kept his hand over his eye and made himself small, getting as far away from Ben as he could for the rest of the trip.

The "power station" Ben boasted about was small. By small, it meant that it didn't take up three city blocks. A couple offices on the first floor with most of the power equipment in the lower floors and in a connecting building about fifty feet wide. Adam thought it looked like a modern Frankenstein's lab.

Adam was told to start unloading the loot as the other three investigated the car that was parked outside of the factory. It could only mean two things, homeless people, or partiers. Either way, Adam knew they stood no chance with three hungry vampires on their trail. He debated running one last time, but knew Ben would make good on his threat, and that Carlos and Zack probably wouldn't stop him since it was their lives on the line now too if anyone found them.

Shawn was groaning as he unloaded the last of the items, which mostly consisted of the jewelry from the last heist, that had gotten them in this situation in the first place, and some of the more expensive clothes and gold they'd procured.

Zack appeared behind him, almost seeming to know that Shawn was awake. "Did he say anything?"

Adam shook his head. "Zack, c'mon. You can't be okay with all of this! Let the guy go! Ben is crazy. Shawn might actually be able to help you guys. He seemed like a nice-"

"No!" Zack replied sternly. "Since we've been in Texas, it's always been us." He grabbed Adam by the jacket. "And it's going to stay us too. Ben may be crazy, but I trust him more than I trust some guy who I just met. Some guy who killed Sam!"

Adam felt guilty at that. Sam had been his friend too.

The vampire let go of Adam and took a few steps away, obviously trying to calm down. Zack was a good planner and leader because he liked control, and this whole situation was very very out of control. "We'll deal with this, just like everything else. So do your part, keep quiet and do what you're told got it?"

"I got it." Adam nodded, and Zack grabbed the back of the chair Shawn was attached to.

"We found some guys inside. You might want to hang out here for a bit." Then, he continued to drag Shawn away and out of the trailer.

Present:

Present:

Juliet returned sometime after Adam started telling them about the argument he'd had with Ben in the cab. Damn right people are looking for Shawn. She wanted to jump across the table and scream at Adam. Hit him and ask how the hell he could stand by and let his friends do that. Instead, her police training kicked in and she asked, "If they were so desperate to stay hidden, why would they chance on another robbery? Let alone two."

Adam leaned back, "They'd tried to ask Shawn questions again. Once they fed him, he seemed to come around enough to speak... but something was different."

Carlton looked behind him into the mirror, knowing that Pierre and Mick were watching from the other side. They both knew what had changed if Shawn had gone through what Adam said he'd gone through.

"His eyes, they'd changed. Not to the white you guys have..." Adam pointed to his eyes to accentuate what he was saying, "But there was something gone. When they couldn't get any answers from him, they started trying things out for themselves. For two days they did nothing but test out their speed and strength. They had enough people to feed on because they found four guys in their sweep of the place. Carlos was the one to say they should ration them... like provisions." Adam wiped his eyes on his sleeve. That had really hit him hard. Thinking of human lives like food to be rationed out. "They realized after a day or so, they needed to have cold to sleep. After they found that out, they stuffed Shawn in the hottest room in the place, an equipment room, as punishment for not talking."

Juliet gasped. Not only was Shawn starved, he was sleep deprived too. And they called him a monster...

"Zack had the museum robbery planned for months. He has a ton of ideas, but that was one that he thought would be too dangerous. With his new abilities, they figured it would be a cinch… and it was. They got in and grabbed the curator that was there, and brought him back to the new hideout. He didn't go fast."

Carlton could almost feel Pierre's smirk through the glass about being right that the robberies were all about testing their abilities, but he was too busy holding back his anger, doing his best not to tear out of the station and go looking for the power station himself.

"That wasn't the worst of it though." Everyone sat and waited for Adam to continue. It seemed to be hard for him to get things out. The young man was obviously disturbed after what he'd been through. Anyone would have been. "Two days after we switched places, Shawn broke out of the chair and ran."

Everyone perked up but it was Gus who spoke, "Shawn escaped?!"

Juliet was hopeful too, but their hope faded with Adam's next words. "No. He didn't."

Four Days Ago:

Adam had gone out for the day, he hadn't eaten in a couple days, and couldn't wait anymore. It seemed like the others had completely forgotten about any of his human needs since they no longer had any of their own. Adam had to walk, since they had no vehicle and the Semi had been abandoned the night they'd arrived at the power station, and it took him a couple hours to do everything.

He returned to a scene of chaos. The screaming and shouting could be heard from the front door and Adam rushed to the main room, thinking they'd been found.

All he saw was a pile of bodies with a screaming and writhing figure underneath. Zack, Carlos and Ben had dog piled on someone. Adam had assumed one of the humans had gotten loose, but when Ben went flying twenty feet back with a kick, he realized who was being held down. Somehow, Shawn had gotten out of the chair, and made it almost to the back fire door.

"Adam! Get something sharp!" Ben yelled and jumped back into the fray.

Shawn got an arm loose and claws found the flesh on Carlos' face, tearing a good chunk of it. Falling back and grabbing his wound, Carlos inadvertently let Shawn's other arm free and he was able to get a good hit in on Zack.

Adam scrambled to find anything sharp, settling on the broken remnants of what looked like some kind of copper coil. He didn't know if metal would work, but they'd find out. He handed the jagged piece to Carlos, who was just getting his bearings back as the gashes healed. Carlos saw an opening after Shawn finally managed to get the other two off of him. The makeshift stake sailed down and hit home, the slick metal easily penetrating Shawn's body and they all heard the clink of metal on concrete. The thing had gone all the way through.

Shawn went instantly still, the look of rage still frozen on his face.

"Son of a bitch..." Zack panted, smoothing his brown hair out of his face. "He shattered the damn chair to bits and got out."

Ben cast an accusing glare his way, "Where the hell were you? You are supposed to be watching him!"

"I got hungry! I do EAT you know!" Adam defended.

"So do we..." Ben growled and moved towards him menacingly. They'd all apparently gotten some pretty bad wounds trying to fight Shawn, and Adam realized he was alone with a trio of hungry vampires.

"NO GODDAM WAY!" Carlos shouted and pointed to Shawn.

He had his hand around the stake and was pulling. He'd already gotten three inches out. Carlos and Zack jumped on him, pushing the stake back in causing Shawn to let out a horrible screech of pain "Get something to tie him up!"

"Let's just kill him and be done with it! No one's come looking for him anyway." Ben spat, and Adam could swear that he saw pain, real emotional pain flash though Shawn's eyes.

"Just get something!" Zack yelled again.

Ben rolled his eyes and grabbed Adam by the scruff of the neck. "You're coming with me. Just in case I get hungry..."

Present:

Adam stared at his folded and cuffed hands as he neared the end of his story. "They starved him for two days after that. He almost grabbed me when I brought him the last body of the vagrant they'd found." He tried not to give away how horribly creepy the situation had been with Shawn sitting in the corner singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" one moment, then an instant later he had grabbed at Adam's sleeve. The only reason he got away was because his shirt ripped. "They've only gave him a couple corpses since then. None of them wanted him to get strong enough to escape again, not like he could with what they put on him."

"What did they put on him?" Henry asked tentatively. Not sure he wanted to know. It had to have been bad for Shawn to not have gotten out of it by now. He'd taught his son to escape almost anything.

"They took the left over braided wire from the rigging and interwove it in copper coils and chain... then put it around his neck. The rest of the chain was used as a leash, but he can't get far."

The room was silent. No one knew what to say. They'd imagined it had been bad, but not this bad. Feeding on the bodies at least explained why Shawn's scent was on the museum curator.

Adam shifted and looked at Carlton's watch, which was in his view. "Um, you guys might want to know, if I'm not back soon they're going to know something is up."

The whole story had taken about a half hour. It was true that they had to get going now. They had all the information they needed and profiles should be waiting for them when they got to the bullpen. "Alright, lets see what information they have on the rest of the gang." Carlton pointed to Adam, "We'll be back after we decide what to do with you. Don't try anything stupid or say anything to anyone not in this room. Clear?"

Adam nodded quickly.

Being closest to the door, Henry turned to open it. It swung inwards, revealing a very pale faced Buzz standing behind it. He was still holding the food that Carlton had asked him to get, and apparently forgotten about. By the look on his face... he'd heard everything.

END NOTES: This turned out to be harder to write than I thought! So hard to choose point of views when telling flashbacks. :)

Hope you guys enjoyed the glimpse of what Shawn had to go through, hopefully it explains why he was so... um, un-Shawn-Like in the last chapter.