AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Sorry about the wait for this one. Christmas obligations and inspiration that seemed to elude me are to blame.

Enjoy and I will do my best to get the next chapter to you asap.

Chapter 14- Crossing the Line

Mick watched, disgusted at what he was hearing. The others in the observation room weren't doing any better. Beth stood, her hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes. She'd always been very empathetic with victims when she was a reporter and he was glad she had never lost that since she started working for the District Attorney's office.

Pierre was better at hiding his emotions, but Mick could still tell the other vampire was angry. Really angry. He was frowning and had a contemplative look on his features, no doubt already thinking over ways to break into that abandoned power company without being seen.

The situation was 100% worst case scenario. Not only were there at least three rogues running around, but one of their friends had most likely gone feral because of a bunch of stupid, young and ignorant kids. Mick was already contemplating calling the cleaners, but he wanted to see how far gone Shawn was before he did anything rash.

Hungry was one thing, Mick had been hungry before. Once to the point where he'd hallucinated killing Beth… but he didn't. He'd kept his head. Shawn was still very young for a vampire though. Sure he had a strong will, and if he was just defending himself against his captors, that wouldn't be a bad thing. However, when a vampire goes feral, their human mindset goes out the window. The animal instinct takes over, and for something that is at the very top of the food chain, it isn't a good thing.

When Adam's story ended, Beth, realizing the ramifications of what had happened, turned to Mick. "You're going to go get him right?"

Mick nodded, "Yeah, we'll get him. It would be easier with Morgan's crew, but last I heard from Josef, they were in the Ukraine somewhere. I doubt he even knows anything about what's going on."

"Well, at least we have you, Pierre, and Detective Lassiter. Should be no contest against three newbies right?" Beth added hopefully.

Pierre, who had been silent for Adam's entire story, finally spoke up. "It wouldn't be a good idea for Detective Lassiter to go with."

"What are you talking about?" Mick asked.

Before Pierre could answer, Henry burst in the observation room, pushing a surprised looking Buzz McNab by the scruff of the neck, which was a feat because of how tall the officer was. Henry none too gently shoved Buzz down into a chair and stood menacingly before him, arms crossed.

"Damn it McNab! How much did you hear?"

Buzz opened and closed his mouth a few times, obviously trying to find his voice.

Mick looked back and forth between the two men, "What's going on Henry?"

"Buzz was spying on us the whole time." The elder Spencer explained.

"I wasn't spying!" Buzz defended, giving Henry an innocent look. "I was bringing food and you guys seemed busy… so I waited."

Henry glowered, "What did you hear?"

Buzz shook his head. Mick could see he was obviously distressed, which was the usual reaction to finding out vampires were real. As exciting as the prospect of vampires seems in movies, once it hits people that everything they know is wrong, there is an adjustment period.

"I don't know what I heard Mr. Spencer…"

Pierre interrupted, "In case you all didn't remember, we are on a bit of a time schedule here. Is there someone else who can explain the bats and the bees to the officer while we stage the rescue operation? Hmmm?"

As if on cue, Karen Vick walked into the room carrying a stack of papers, "Henry here…" She stopped as she noticed Pierre, who gave a small sarcastic wave. She turned slowly to Henry, "What is Pierre Despereaux doing in this observation room?"

Pierre shrugged while everyone else suddenly found the floor or the bare walls very interesting.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't see him, but he better PRETEND his way out of this station right now!"

Holding up a finger and squeezing past everyone in the tiny space, Pierre stated, "I'll be outside."

Karen watched him go through slitted eyes. "Now, as I was saying, I have the background of the names you gave me here. O'Hara and Lassiter also have a copy of th… whyisOfficerMcNabintheroom!" Karen finally noticed the confused and terrified police officer.

Henry sighed, grabbing the papers out of Karen's hand. "He was standing outside the interrogation door."

Karen shot Henry a look that could wither roses while grabbing Buzz's arm. "McNab, come with me," She turned to the remaining people in the room. "And you…go get Shawn." She turned around and pulled Buzz along, presumably back to her office to talk things over.

"Wow, that is one cool Chief you have there." Mick was surprised at how close she seemed to be with the group, while still trying to keep things professional. He knew it must take a lot of patience to deal with it every day.

"Tell me about it." Henry grumbled while looking through the papers quickly, before handing them off to Beth and Mick. "Let's go find the others. Then we can make our plan."

Henry headed out the door and Beth started reading the papers over Mick's arm as they walked to the main area, looking for the others.

Juliet stared at the information in her hands. Karen, angry and dragging a sheepish looking Buzz behind her, handed over the packet before going into her office and practically slamming the door. She didn't have time to think about how Buzz was going to react to the truth. That would have to come later. Now, she just wanted her fiancé back and she was holding in her hands the history of the men that had taken him.

All of them had apparently been from Texas, and all had a juvenile record, but Ben's was by far the largest. He'd been in the system a long time. Starting out with killing his neighbors' cat and the last thing before dropping off the map four months before was grand larceny. All of them had that charge on their records, even Adam. It seemed that was supposed to be their big score, but the report on it said they'd made a big mistake and had set off the alarm. Two of their gang had been caught at the store, but the remaining five, Carlos, Zack, Adam, Sam, and Ben had left town. They stayed off the radar until their reemergence in Santa Barbara.

"Got you…" She hissed through clenched teeth. Ben would be the one to watch out for, but Zack was apparently the brains and from what Adam said, they were almost expecting people to show up, or they would have killed Shawn days ago.

Juliet knew her hormones were making her emotional, but she had been through the wringer that week too. She missed Shawn. Missed his humor, missed the way he'd lay his hand on her stomach to feel their baby. She had to get him back.

Henry, Mick, and Beth walked up seconds later with grim expressions that Juliet figured matched her own.

"Where's Lassiter?" Henry asked, looking around for the other detective.

Juliet had seen him head off around the same time she saw the chief come through, but hadn't seen him come back. "I don't know."

Mick set down the papers and sighed. "We need to figure out what we are going to do with Adam. He wasn't kidding when he said they were going to miss him soon."

"What do you suggest then?" Juliet asked sarcastically. "We just let him go?"

Mick and Henry, who had obviously discussed this on the way over to her both nodded. "Yes. We need him to go in and keep pretenses normal until we can get what we need together. We'll need silver bullets and blood for when we get Shawn."

Juliet knew the plan was probably their best bet, but was reluctant to have one of the culprits, human as he was, running around. He might just decide to betray them and then Shawn would be screwed. "I don't know. What's stopping him from telling him our plan?"

"We don't have time, or another choice. Even if he does rat us out, we'll still be given more of a chance than we have keeping him and having the others take off." Juliet couldn't believe Henry was opting for this.

She shook her head. "Fine, I'll go with it. Carlton isn't going to like it though. I can tell you that much."

"He doesn't have to like it." Henry huffed. "He just has to go with it." He looked at his watch. "Let's go talk to Adam. We'll fill Lassiter in when he comes back."

"I'll can find Pierre and get some things together, it'll save us some time." Mick turned to Beth, "I'll be back soon." They shared a quick kiss before Mick left the station and the others headed back to the interrogation room to give Adam his ultimatum.

Carlton stepped out in front of the Sheriff's office. He spotted Pierre right away, standing under the shade of one of the blossoming trees out front. The thief was leaning against the trunk of the small tree, his arms were crossed and he seemed to be watching people as they went by.

Walking up beside him, he asked. "What are you doing out here?"

"Your fearless leader requested the absence of my presence detective. So I obliged." Pierre shrugged like it was no big deal, but Carlton had spent almost every day for the last seven years around Shawn Spencer and he knew a facade when he saw one. Pierre was obviously upset, but just really really good at not showing it.

Getting to the point of why he was really standing outside, in the shade, with his declared greatest nemesis, Carlton said, "I heard what you said to Mick outside the interrogation room. What gives you the right to say that I shouldn't go help get Spencer back?"

Pierre sighed, "I was truly hoping you were too busy to hear that." He turned to face Carlton. "I have to say I haven't been quite honest with my reason for being here."

Carlton's hand instinctively moved to his silver bullet loaded sidearm, fully expecting Pierre to go all Judas Iscariot on him. However, the other vampire merely turned and leaned against the tree again, seemingly unwilling to meet the detective's gaze for long.

"I came here to tell Shawn that I found out more about your bloodline while I was abroad." Pierre explained.

Carlton's eyes widened. "And you were only going to tell him?"

"You thought I was dead remember?"

Curling his lip and realizing he couldn't argue with that, he asked, "What were you going to tell him?"

Seemingly changing the subject, Pierre asked him his own question. "Tell me detective, how is your partner feeling today?" His eyes flicked in Carlton's direction with a mischievous gleam.

"That's none of your business! Now answer the question!" Carlton snapped, getting impatient.

Shaking his head, Pierre gave up, "Honestly, you are about as subtle as a battering ram." He rolled his eyes and faced him again. "You've been feeling her emotions, have you not?" The look Carlton gave him at the question must have been enough of a 'yes' because Pierre continued. "I saw you react to her pain on more than one occasion today."

"Okay, fine. I can feel her pain. What of it? Spencer can do the same thing. It's our gift. If you really did know anything about it, you should already know that." Carlton crossed his arms, starting to doubt Pierre's claim.

"Empathy isn't your line's gift detective." Pierre smirked, "It's merely a side effect of it. What you have is much more interesting than just feeling the emotions of those closest to you. Am I correct in assuming that it doesn't work on everyone?"

Carlton shook his head. He'd mostly been picking up Juliet, he got some anger from Henry in the interrogation room but nothing as strong as what he got from his partner.

"Your line, is very interesting and rather rare, despite what one would think." Pierre took a flower from the tree and started absentmindedly plucking the petals off the blossom. "From what I've found, vampires from your heritage always have more than one around. Always. It's instinct for you to form a group."

His brow furrowing, Carlton attempted to disprove Pierre's statement. "What are you talking about? It's just been Shawn and I for months!"

"Don't tell me you've never had the urge to turn someone detective."

Carlton's thoughts flashed to Marlowe, whom he promised to turn the same day he'd told her what he was. He'd even thought about what would happen if Juliet were a vampire. "No." Carlton lied.

"Uh huh. Well, the instinct is there, and from what I heard, Shawn didn't even think twice about turning you." Pierre pointed out.

"He did it to save my life."

"True, but there was a chance the ambulance could have gotten there right?"

Lowering his gaze Carlton grumbled, "I suppose so."

"Back to my original point then. Vampires from your line always have groups of fledglings and sires. Instinct makes it so. What I found out, is that each fledgling made, makes the group stronger as a whole. Over time, the bond strengthens and you can sense each other. If sensing your partner's feelings are any indication, it shows that this is not just limited to vampiric siblings, but people you are close to as well." Pierre grinned, "You're line, detective, are pack hunters."

"Pack hunters? That's ridiculous. There's no reason to do that anymore!" Carlton scoffed.

"Modern conveniences don't erase hundreds of years of evolution and instinct detective." Pierre explained. "You're from an ancient line. Pack hunting not make sense now, but two hundred years ago, even a hundred... it meant the difference between life and death."

Thinking back, Carlton remembered Lance's admission of knowing his line's gift and teasing him about it.

"I knew his line were like cockroaches."

"Aaron was never one to be alone."

"Aaron's line was one of the most powerful, but worst at the same time. I tried to be merciful by killing them at once."

All the pieces fit together in some sick and frightening way. He remembered how buddy buddy Shawn and Morgan had seemed, even after just meeting each other. His own feelings towards Shawn had softened as of late, but he'd hoped it was more of a side effect of their shared experience of fighting, and winning, against Aaron and Lance rather than some instinct to actually like the other man. Carlton hated it when he was reminded how inhuman he had become. He didn't want to be ruled by instinct and his need for blood. He was his own person, and was no way he wasn't going to go get Shawn.

He wondered if their "gift" worked both ways and if the other fledgling's presence made him stronger as well. He didn't share the information with Pierre, feeling it was comeuppance for the thief not being straight forward with him. Besides, they weren't friends, Carlton barely even trusted him anyway. "I don't care. I'm going with to get Spencer. You can either come with and help, or get out of the way." Carlton's eyes briefly flashed silver as he spun on his heels and stormed back into the Sheriff's office.

Pierre watched the detective go, sadly. He'd really hoped he wouldn't come, not just because it would make the other fledgling's harder to kill, but because he knew what they might have to do if Shawn was feral. It was unpleasant, and Pierre was surprised at how much the thought of putting Shawn down hurt.

You really should have left with me. Pierre remembered his offer to let Shawn come with him, but the psychic had refused, wanting to stay with his friends and family.

"Despereaux!" Mick jogged up to where he was, shielding his eyes from the sun until he got under the shade. "We decided to sent Adam back in to buy us some time. We need to get some supplies."

Pierre nodded, "That we do." He paused, knowing Mick was a lot more 'by the book' than he was, he had to ask. "Have you contacted the cleaners yet?"

Mick shook his head. "I don't want to until we know for sure."

Chuckling wryly, Pierre teased, " Mick... your sentiment is showing."

"I just don't want to believe it okay? Not until I see it for myself."

Pierre shrugged, but inwardly cheered Mick's dedication to his friend. "As you wish."

Adam tried not to shake as he walked back into their hideout. He hadn't wanted to come back, but the ultimatum they gave him was too good to pass up. If he helped them, he'd get a better deal when it came to his sentencing, if not, he'd be charged with each murder that his gang had committed. Five counts of murder, he'd never be free again. He'd asked what they would do with his friends, but their lack of answer and nervous looks gave it away.

Feeling bad he was betraying his friends, but realizing he had to save his own skin at some point, he'd reluctantly agreed and they'd gone over the plan. He was supposed to give his friends the information about the building they had sent him out to scope out, then find Shawn and let him know help was coming. They couldn't chance sending him in with any blood for Shawn, due to the fact that the others would smell it right away, so he'd just have to hope the man could hang on for a little while longer.

Zack was the first one to meet up with him. "What took you so long, you were supposed to come back an hour ago!"

Remembering the excuse they'd made up for him, Adam answered, "I had to get something to eat. I'm still human remember?" Remorse flashed through Zack's features before they went suspicious.

"Why is your heart beating so fast?" He circled Adam a bit, trying to figure out what he was hiding.

"Man, I ran all the way back here. Give me a break."

Zack seemed to buy it and stopped his pacing, "What did you find out?"

Licking his lips, Adam looked around for the others. Their plan to storm the place wouldn't work if anyone got away. "Where's Carlos and Ben?"

Shrugging, Zack pointed down the stairs. "Carlos is still out, and I haven't seen Ben since this morning...Why?"

Crap. "Just wondering if they needed to know this stuff too." Adam lied.

"They'll know what I need them to know. Now spill." Zack ordered and Adam went over what he'd found out and what he knew Zack would need to know from past experience.

Telling the information didn't take as long as Adam hoped it would, but it had the desired effect. Zack went instantly into planning mode and walked off, leaving Adam to slink off and talk to Shawn, if he were still capable of talking. The thing that worried Adam the most was having to get close to him.

He got to the end of the hallway and opened the door to the machine room. It had to be a consistent 80 degrees in there, and the smell was getting putrid. Days old blood and a man that hadn't bathed in a week combined with the heat made everything that much worse.

"Shawn?" Adam turned on the light, he'd tried to give Shawn the small mercy of at least having a little darkness, and looked around the room.

Shawn lay slumped in a corner about twenty feet away, unmoving. That hadn't happened before. Shawn was always at the end of his chain, waiting to be fed. Adam picked up a small bolt laying on the ground and tossed it at the still form. The piece of metal bounced off Shawn, but the vampire didn't stir.

Adam's heart jumped in his throat. Oh no! After all that he can't die now! Not thinking about the consequences, Adam approached and realized too late that the cunning vampire hadn't been dead... just playing possum. He was grabbed in an instant by the front of his shirt, staring into those terrifying light silver eyes. The vampire chucked darkly.

"Hey! Wait man! You have to know something!" Adam squirmed, but was unable to pull himself from Shawn's steel tight grip.

It had been too easy to lure the prey in. Way too easy, but Shawn was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, let alone a gift human. He chuckled at his own inner joke and enjoyed the frightened expression on Adam's face that much more.

"Hey! Wait man! You have to know something!"

Shawn cocked his head. Really...let's find out for ourselves, shall we? Sniffing deeply, Shawn caught a couple familiar scents. His family. His. Family. Shawn clenched his teeth and started to breathe harder as panic started to break through the haze of his starved mind. The only scents he'd ever gotten off Adam before, besides the other vampires, was the scent of people they'd killed. Had Ben finally followed through with the threat to murder Shawn's family if he kept quiet?

That had to be it, they killed his family and sent Adam in here to gloat about it. Everything he'd been hoping for, any chance of rescue was lost. Gone. "You killed them." His voice came out raspy and low. He could feel the blinding rage, sink into every fiber of his being, destroying every last inch of his rational self he'd been clinging to for dear life.

The change in his eyes must have been pretty visible, because Adam had started to panic more. "Oh God, you don't understand! Wait! They-" Adam's words ended sharply as Shawn savagely bit into his neck.

Shawn heard bones crack as he gripped the man even tighter, digging his fangs in deeper. He'd drink his fill, become strong again, and tear this place out from under the others. He'd ripping everything apart until there was nothing left, of them, or himself.

END NOTES:

Oops. Things aren't going according to the plan are they?

I had way too much fun writing that last part. :)