The suburban rolled to a stop outside the upscale apartment building. Helen shifted the car in park and turned to look at Will who was seated upfront next to her. Nikola, in back, leaned forward and asked,
"We sure those brats are still living here?"
"Henry checked, their current address is still listed as this apartment." Helen assured him.
"How are we going to play this?" Will asked.
"I'm thinking we should try and be polite and see if they'll just give it to us first," Helen caught sight of the looks both Will and Nikola were giving her and hurriedly added, "and if they refuse then we can get forceful."
"This is, of course, assuming they still have it…" Will added sneaking a cautious side glance at Nikola.
"Well I'm glad you're here to point out the obvious Dr. Expendable otherwise I'd be completely lost." Nikola said not hiding the snark in his tone.
Helen had a moment of déjà vu from the last time she sat here discussing how to approach things in this apartment. Mentally shaking her head she said,
"Alright, let's do this."
Five minutes later the three strolled up to Penthouse Two and Helen knocked on the door loudly. They only had to wait a moment before the door swung open and they found themselves face to angry face with Laura. She stood, one hand on the door the other on her hip and glared at them.
"What do you want?" She snarled.
"May we come in?" Helen asked in a tone dripping with honey, "We would like to ask you something…"
"Not interested."
And she slammed the door in their face as hard as she could and then they all heard the lock clicking into place and the sound of two dead bolts being snapped into place.
"So much for the nice approach." Nikola quipped.
"Now what?" Will asked looking at the others.
"Now we get forceful," Nikola said, "Stand back Helen."
Helen sighed and stepped back to stand beside Will who watched confused as Nikola went up to the door and put his hands on it. He carefully skimmed them up to a spot from a few inches above the knob. Then smiling to himself he made a quick, sideways flicking motion with his wrist and Helen and Will could hear the bolt going flying from his place and clatter off an inside wall to the floor. As footsteps and a loud call of "what the hell was that?!" sounded from inside Nikola repeated the action calmly and again the sound of the bolt was heard clattering inside. Then Nikola raised his hand to the knob and began to rotate his fingers and the unmistakable clicks of it unlocking could be heard. With a final flourish Nikola swung open the door to reveal Laura, Chad, and Darren standing there dumbstruck as the locks to their apartment was opened from the outside.
"Still no manners I see," Nikola sighed, "as Helen told you, we have something to ask. And now as you can see, we mean business."
Turning back to Helen he said,
"Beauty and brains before genius."
Helen nodded to him and stepped inside hiding her grin, Nikola following. Will stepped in, shut the door gently behind him and gestured inward saying to the three shocked people before him,
"Why don't you go on in."
They obliged nervously and all took a seat on the couch and Nikola and Helen took seats opposite them with Will standing in the space between the chairs.
"I see de-vamping you didn't have quite the affect I had hoped." Chad sneered.
"Keep talking like that sonny boy and you'll find out just what the affect was." Nikola snarled.
"Nikola we need him," Helen said then added as she saw the fear evaporate a little from Chad's eyes, "for now."
"Look what do you people want with us?" Darren spoke up hostility bristling in each word.
"I want to know what you did with my blood." Nikola spat.
Suddenly smirks broke out across the faces of all three young people and they visible relaxed. Instantly dread swelled in Helen chest and Nikola tensed and scooted to the edge of seat, but before he could snarl something at them Will said,
"If you're thinking of using that as some sort of bargaining chip, you'll have to think again. We don't make deals like that."
"Oh don't worry. We won't have to do any bargaining with you." Chad said mockingly.
"So where is it then?" Helen asked.
"It's so much where as it is with whom." Darren corrected.
In his mind Will put the pieces together.
"Whom did you sell it too?" He asked.
"You sold my blood!?" Nikola burst out angrily.
"Yepp. Got a nice price for it too." Laura smirked, leaning back in triumph.
"How could you have possible found anybody to sell it too?" Helen questioned, "You know nothing about…well about our world."
She finished lamely as she suddenly realized certain objects around the room were rattling. Will noticed it too and both looked at Nikola who was positively fuming at the prospect that once again these brats were going to thwart his plan. Before Helen or Will could say something to Nikola, Chad decided to answer Helen's question.
"Well we didn't have too. These people came to us, said they knew we had the blood and were willing to pay for it."
"Yeah and we aren't ones to turn down that much money, even if we have a ton to begin with." Laura smiled.
"Definitely not. I'm actually thinking of using my share to give those Med School parties a second try." Darren laughed.
That last comment sent Nikola over the edge. Suddenly three knives zoomed from the kitchen to hover just above each of the three insolent necks before him.
"Nikola what are you doing?!" Helen, horrified, leapt up to face the still seated Nikola.
"It's called getting forceful Helen," Nikola replied.
Laura whimpered from her prone position on the couch as the knife above her neck wavered slightly. Chad and Darren exchanged terrified glances. Then Chad said,
"We…uhm…dude let's…"
"I am not you're dude!" Nikola snapped.
"Killing them is not exactly what I meant by forceful Nikola!" Helen barked at him.
Turning his head Nikola smiled at Helen and gave her tiny wink saying,
"Oh but Helen, isn't this always how we deal with loose ends that don't cooperate?"
Catching on Will added,
"He has a point Helen, I mean, if they don't want to help we shouldn't treat them any differently than the others…"
"We'll cooperate!" Laura shouted hurriedly, "What do you want to know."
Helen shrugged as if to say, alright if they're going to play nice. Slowly turning his gaze back to the three terrified children before him Nikola grinned.
"No more games?"
They nodded carefully. Nikola lowered the knives enough from their necks that they talk without fear of accidently slitting their own throats.
"Now, tell us everything you know about who bought his blood." Helen instructed.
"Like I said, they just showed up at our door, three dudes, and said they knew we had the blood and that they'd pay us 7 million for it." Chad explained, eyes darting from Helen to the knife floating at his chest.
"I asked how they knew and they said that wasn't important, you know the typical cryptic answer." Darren added.
"That's all we know." Laura said quietly.
Knowing there had to be more Nikola raised the knives again growling
"Not good enough."
"That's all we know I swear!" Laura whined terrified.
"No wait! Wait!" Darren floundered.
The knives wavered again, and Nikola turned his cool steady gaze to Darren's face, boring into him. Darren gulped a little and then said,
"I walked them to the door, and I asked who they were, and they all looked at each other and one of them said tell Tesla, Magnus and her minions if they come looking for the blood that Druitt didn't kill us all."