Ladies and Gentleman, I give you an Anita Blake series fanfic! Of course this is a re-write from "The Scars on Our Backs"; it was once in first-person but it was so sloppy that it needed to be changed.
Disclaimer: Kala-Warrior18 does not own in any way the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, ownership and creator of such literature–Laurell K. Hamilton.
Property: Kala-Warrior18 has ownership of fiction characters in "Livin' Well" are Michelle Chapters and Nicole Blackwoods and future OC characters.
Enjoy the story.
Chapter 1: Livin' Well
The hot humid air would cause anyone to run to the AC; except one named Michelle Chapters, she found it quite pleasant. However, the air hardly did any justice to the rotting corpse lying on the sidewalk; or at least what was left of a corpse since most of the organs where gone, probably eaten.
"His name was Daniel Betters," Michelle's partner, Nicole, came to stand beside her with a vanilla folder opened in her hands; "He was a lycanthrope rat."
"Was a lycanthrope rat" didn't sound right to Michelle; he still is a lycanthrope rat…just a dead one. Eh, maybe she was being picky because of her being an officer for the Supernatural Justice Distribute (SJD). Mostly she was a pencil-pusher at "Livin' Well, Inc.," an industry of two legal officers. Her partner was Nicole Blackwoods or Nick as she preferred.
Sometimes, the situation was quite comical; listing the facts that a supernatural incorporation is called "Livin' Well, Inc.," only two women worked there and referred themselves as the male names "Mitch" and "Nick", or how "Blackwoods" fit in the working-line of dealing with the dark supernatural world. The last name Chapters, not so much.
"Age 22, 5'7", Hispanic, and worked at Guilty Pleasures. He arrived at the establishment at 6p.m. and left at 1a.m., he must have died sometime after that. Three o'clock at the most judging by the rigor mortis." Nicole said, passing Michelle the files of the said dead man.
"Was anyone with him at the time of the murder?" Michelle asked, blocking the sight of Daniel's bloody motionless body with the folder of his medical records. His papers said he was in good shape…once.
Nick (Nicole) sighed, "None that has been reported. All we have is Mrs. Gavins, an elderly of 65, who was just walking her poodle this morning when it ran off its leash, she then she found it by Daniels' body."
Michelle sighed too. Great, a murder with no witnesses meant a lot of paperwork. "Then we need a search warrant to investigate Guilty Pleasures and ask some of its employees if Mr. Betters had any odd contacts or behaviors."
"I already got a guy working on it."
Michelle raised an eyebrow at her skeptically, "You got one of them to do that? Willingly?" indicating with her head to the policeman behind them, who were keeping unwanted reporters or spectators from crossing the restriction tape.
"Yeah," she smirked almost in pride.
Well, that was a first. It wasn't that Livin' Well defended the supernatural that usually ticked people off, especially the police, it was more the men had too much of the balls to lend-a-hand to a woman. Yes the typical male vs. female world problem. Shouldn't that stage of immaturity disappeared at age five?
Michelle looked at Daniel's lifeless features: his face still held signs of youth but stronger it seemed, deep brown unfocused eyes almost rolled back into his head, short-cut black hair-he even had a goatee, and a tanned swimmer's build. He would have been cute if she ever met him alive.
Of course, one look at Nick and he would have never known Michelle existed.
Nicole was model pretty, capturing men with her beauty like flies to honey. At age 26, Nick's raven black hair was styled in short layers with highlighted blonde bangs sweeping to the sides, followed by a face of high-cheeked bones, the greenest aqua colored eyes and plump lips.; and though the career of an officer required some muscle, Nick had small feminine curves even when standing at a strong 5'5" in 1 inch heeled boots. She wore a maroon flared-collar button shirt, leaving a few undone to show the gold cross necklace and a small amount of tan cleavage, and a pair black-washed skinny jeans tucked into the black combat boots. She was like a fly to honey with her personality: funny, out-going, and had a great smile.
"No wonder the guy fell for her." Michelle thought annoyed, slightly envious.
Michelle then analyzed herself self-consciously: age 21, chubby, 5 feet tall, unruly curled brown hair reaching to her shoulders, and brown eyes. There's been a mishap or two about people assuming her age poorly, the worse guess was 16. Luckily she had the sense to not dress like one, along that her figure was a full C-cup bra and having some hips. Her style was average: a blue V-necked t-shirt, silver cross, blue pants, and white sneakers. She was nice and smart, just the boring professor smart, and incredibly shy.
They carried their weapons in hip or arm holsters out in the open for public eyes. There seemed no point in concealing them with a jacket because people expected an officer to have one. Nick pointed out it was because jackets were a hassle in hot weather and weapon check-out stations. Michelle laughed when she said that.
Michelle looked down at the 9mm Firestar hanging in her belt holster. Honestly, she thought it meant they could build a better trust with a client. Why give them the dying unanswered question if a weapon was on them, it just makes them scared for their life when the client needed help; if they had nothing to hide then their client didn't either. However, others didn't see it that way; they saw it as being mean, tough, and dangerous. So in order to not to cause a public disturbance, they had to wear visible police badges on certain crimes investigations. Nick thought that was a waste too, their guns said "we meant business"; Michelle almost agree with her, almost.
"You know he resembles somebody right?" Nick questioned bringing Michelle out of her daze.
"Yep." She replied after looking at Daniel, again.
Daniel looked similar to Rafael, another Hispanic and lycanthrope rat but royalty. Rafeal was the Rat King of St. Louis and one of their many clients. He was a nice guy which was all Michelle could say about him, he really didn't talk much about his "rat life" or his followers, also known as the "Dark Crown Clan"; other than that, he has a branded crown on his forearm.
"Do you want to wait to call him tonight?" Michelle asked.
Nicole shook her head. "Nah, like a band-aid you need to get it over with quickly."
"Such a poet." Michelle quipped.
Nick was about to respond when an officer came running over.
"Ma'am, here's that warrant you asked for." He handed over the slip of paper. He had blonde hair, blue eyes and looked like he was in his early 20s, he must be a rookie. Yeah, Michelle was young but she been doing this for 3 years, experience makes a difference.
Nick took it and smiled genuinely, such a talented actress. "Thanks."
The officer had a boyish smile and tipped his hat slightly, "No problem."
"Ronald!" They all looked at an angry and over-weight officer, who must be "Ronald's" sergeant. "Get over here! We got another call."
Ronald looked at the women apologetically before running to a squad car and driving off with the others in tow.
"Where's the call from?" Nick asked after she stopped one of the officers before he could leave.
The guy hesitated but saw the badge safety-pinned to her shirt then his gaze lingered at her shirt a fraction more before he looked at Nick's face, again. "Somebody called in that they found a body between 21st and Liberty Street." The officer said looking over his shoulder as another cop called his name and left.
"That's two miles from the Blood District. We better go or it'll be crowded with tourist." Michelle said.
They both walked to Nick's truck, a 2008 red Chevrolet Silverado with the logo of "Livin Well, Inc" in white on the doors. No one could miss it even in a toy store parking lot on Christmas Eve.
"Why do people find dead bodies so fascinating?" Nick asked, getting into the driver's seat.
"Is she talking about the actually dead body, zombies, or vampires?" Michelle thought absently but just shrugged her shoulders and closed the passenger side door.
There done. And may I say I'm impressed with myself! Wow, egotistical-maniac, right? Anyways, hope to hear your reviews and I look forward to the next chapter to share with you guys. :)