GODRIC

The sheriff remained silent for a moment as he processed the news his second in command had just brought to him.

A vampire was being held up at a police station. A human police station. And he was not just any vampire, he was the one responsible for the recent attacks on humans. The one Godric and his underlings had been tracking – in vain – for the past few weeks. And now the human police had arrested him before Godric could.

This was an unprecedented situation. Ever since the Great Revelation, assaults on humans had been outlawed by vampire legislation. He knew that many sheriffs didn't bother to enforce that law though, leaving humans to deal with vampire assaults. But this wasn't how things went in his area. He had always made it very clear that humans were to be left in peace, had always caught infringers, and had always severely punished them.

If the news were to spread that humans had succeeded where he had failed, that would be quite a blow to his reputation as a highly capable sheriff, and therefore to his authority. And anything that was bad for his authority on vampires was bad for the safety of humans.

- "How long does your source say he has been there?" he asked the Hispanic woman. Isabel had glamoured a few policemen in the various stations of the city, so that if they heard anything related to vampires, they would contact her right away.

- "He was just brought in by a police officer, sheriff." She answered. "In the Northwest district station", she added with her lovely accent.

- "Just one police officer? How the hell did a single human manage to overpower the vampire?" Stan exclaimed loudly.

The ancient vampire privately agreed, but he had no time to waste on conjunctures. He looked up to the clock on the wall. 1:00 am. There were only a few hours before sunrise, he needed to act quickly.

- "I am going to retrieve him and bring him back here. You two come with me. Isabel, you have every human who witnessed the event forget a vampire was ever there. Stan, there's bound to be video-protection in the station. Find the recordings of tonight - just tonight - and delete them. Then disconnect the cameras so no one sees us leave. Make it look like a failure in the security system," he ordered.

- "Yes, sheriff" his underlings answered, nodding their head in agreement.

And with that, they were off.

Luckily, the only human places where vampires needed an invitation to enter were homes. So they had no difficulty entering the police station. Godric glamoured a man who was standing guard into bringing him to the prisoner, while Isabel and Stan went to accomplish their own tasks.

The man brought him to the basement, explaining that a room had been installed there after the Great Revelation, with cells that couldn't be reached by sunlight. As far as he knew, however, the room had never been put to use until that very night.

When they reached the door, Godric instructed the guard to return to his position.

- "Be careful though", the man said in the neutral tone that humans had when glamoured. "Detective Park brought him in, and she's still here."

That surprised him slightly. She?

He opened the door, careful not to make a noise. The room was rectangular and rather small, but it certainly did look newer than what he had seen of the place until now. Five cells were lining the walls on the right side of the door. The corridor between the wall on the left and the cells on the right one was very narrow, and at its end was a single cell, in which he could see the unconscious vampire lying on the ground. A female human was sitting in a chair, facing the prisoner and was currently absorbed by something in her hands. Her body was preventing him from seeing what it was. All he could tell was that her long, shiny black hair was held up in a high ponytail, and that she was wearing a white T-Shirt. All Godric needed to do was get to her level, glamour her into giving him the keys, and leave with the vampire.

A second later, he was standing to her right. She jumped from her chair and, incredibly, managed to maintain balance as her chair toppled to the ground with a clank. Much like a cat, he thought.

And then his eyes were on hers, and surprise replaced amusement. He knew that face.

She was the girl he had met a couple of nights before, and who had seeked to help him out. She was carrying a gun in one hand.

She let out a surprised breath as she recognized him, and he saw uncertainty flicker across her face, but then her expression became suspicious, her muscles tensing ever so slightly, pointing the gun to his chest. Humans, he thought.

She didn't speak immediately. But then after a moment:

- "You. I did wonder whether you were a vampire last time we met… Who are you? And why are you here?" She still spoke in the same calm voice as when they had met, but this time there was a suspicious edge to it.

- "I am the sheriff in this area," he said simply.

- "The… You're the sheriff?" she repeated slowly, sounding disbelieving.

He frowned. It would make sense that she would be surprised to learn that vampires had sheriffs, since very few humans were aware of vampire hierarchy. Her question and tone of voice, however, rather indicated that she already knew that such position existed, but was surprised that he would be occupying it. Well, she wasn't the first one. He dismissed her last question, instead answering her second one.

- "I am here to retrieve this one", he said, allowing his eyes to rest briefly on the form lying on the ground "to justice amongst our own. Please, let me in his cell", he asked as he stared back into her eyes, reckoning it was time to glamour her and be done with it.

On the night he had first seen her, he had had the impression that glamouring didn't work on her. However, he had only used a fraction of his ability then, and some humans had a stronger mind, which needed more pressure to be manipulated. So this time, he pushed with all of his power. But…

- "No." Her answer was short, definitive, confirming what Godric had been suspecting. She couldn't be glamoured. Which was very problematic.

He remained silent, deciding on what to do next.

She didn't speak either, and for a short while the only sound he could hear in the room was that of her breathing and her heartbeat. Both were steady, he realized. It was one thing to stand your ground when confronting a vampire, but it was an entirely different one to remain quite so collected in such a situation, especially when you weren't expecting it. So she was either overly self-confident, allowing herself to believe that despite him being vampire and her being human, she could overpower him, or she had some outstanding self-control.

- "Please. I can assure you that he will be brought to justice for his assaults on humans" he said truthfully.

- "Murders," she corrected flatly. "Assaults do not end up with dead bodies."

- "Murders", he agreed sadly. "I understand that humans would want to deal with him themselves," he went on. "But your punishments do not affect us. Vampires are much better suited to deal with vampires."

She didn't answer, and he understood from her look that she wasn't ready to give up. And suddenly, he felt very tired of the whole situation.

His last option to retrieve the unconscious vampire would be to get past her by force, which he could do in less time that she'd take to realize he had moved. He didn't even need to kill her, only strike hard enough to knock her out, without any lasting consequences for her.

But he had come here to do what he believed was best for human-vampire relationship, and he hadn't planned on using force against anyone. Much less against someone who had been willing to put themselves in danger on his account on a previous occasion, without even knowing him, just because they believed he needed help.

Godric sighed inwardly, as he made his decision. Stan was so going to throw a tantrum.

GRACE

Grace blinked in surprise as he turned her back to her without a word, and started walking away from the door.

What the…?

She stared at his back, her hands lowering to her side, and she dropped the gun. Was he seriously just going to leave? Why would a vampire come in to claim a prisoner, and then just give up because she was there? He could have dealt with her in a heartbeat.

Just like he could have dealt with those thugs who had taken his money the other night. Yet in both cases, he had chosen to cave in instead of using violence.

Your punishments do not affect us. Vampires are much better suited to deal with vampires, he had told her. And now that he had said that, she knew it was true.

What Grace knew about vampires, she knew through what Han had told her. But he had only arrived to the US and settled in Dallas a few years ago, and had kept entirely away from his own kind, so he himself only had a very superficial knowledge of how vampires ran things in the country. He had told her all about vampires' abilities and weaknesses, but as far as the organization of vampire society went, he had only explained that each US State was ruled by a king, each kingdoms being divided into areas where sheriffs were supposed to enforce vampire and human laws.

So she had no idea how justice was rendered among vampires, but now it seemed obvious that they had to have trials and criminal penalties as well.

Grace rubbed the back of her neck, turning towards the prisoner, realizing that she may have acted rashly. What was she supposed to do with him when he woke up? He'd be hell bent on escaping. And since she had no idea how old he was, he may or may not be able to break through the cells. And the silver handcuffs would cause him suffering, but they probably weren't solid enough to hold him.

So perhaps the wise thing to do actually was to give him up to the relevant vampire authority.

She looked back at the space the vampire had just vacated. Power didn't depend on human age, Han had told her. Only years of existence mattered. And although there was no telling how long this one had been on earth, he had that unnerving, unblinking stare that certainly didn't belong to such a youthful face. Maybe he could be sheriff indeed. And his willingness to choose retreat instead of violence certainly played in his favour.

- "Wait!" she yelled as she broke into a run, hoping that he hadn't already super-sped out of the station.

Obviously, he hadn't, she figured as he reappeared in the door-frame just as she reached it.

- "OUCH!" She yelped in pain as she slammed against him, her forehead colliding with his chin. She stumbled backwards, tiny stars erupting in front of her eyes.

- "Sorry! I – er…?" her voice trailed away as she felt a hand land on her shoulder softly and hold her just strongly enough to steady her on her feet. Her heart skipped a beat, her face grew suddenly warm, and she jumped away from his grip.

Argh! So embarrassing, she thought, bringing her hands to her brow to massage the throbbing spot, conveniently hiding her face behind them. The last thing she needed was for the vampire sheriff to see her react like a schoolgirl under his touch. And she wasn't even attracted to him, he looked way too… unearthly.

Once she was satisfied that the blush had subsided, and that her heartbeat was steady again, she lowered her hands, and raised her eyes to his. She had never been this close to him, and now she could see that he had very unusual eyes – an astonishing green-blue-greyish colour. And she noticed that he was currently surveying her with a small crease between his slightly raised eyebrows, concern dancing on his features. Well Ok, he looked more human like that – and actually kind of cute.

And then, her blush was back on. Damn, what was wrong with her?

Shaking her head, she coughed into her hand to clear her voice.

- "Yeah, so… I think you're right," she said, not quite meeting his eyes. "Maybe it would be for the best if vampires were the ones to deal with him." She turned her back to him and went to the cell. She took the key out of her pocket, opened it and crouched over the unconscious body to retrieve the silver shackles.

When she faced the sheriff again, she was once more quite collected, and he had his unreadable expression back on.

- "I only have one thing to ask in return," she added, and she was pleased to hear that her voice sounded determined. "The detective in charge of the investigations is called Jefferson Davis. He's a ranking officer, as well as a very capable and reasonable man. You should get in contact with him and let him know about the rest of the…procedure. I think this case has proven that human and vampire law enforcement officers should actually cooperate, instead of investigating separately."

For a moment, he only stared at her with his head cocked slightly to the right, his transparent eyes locked with hers. She started chewing nervously on her lower lip, before chiding herself inwardly and forcing her expression to remain as cool as possible.

- "I will do that," he finally said. "I understand that this decision may cause you trouble with your superiors. It is a brave and wise choice to make, Miss Park".

Upon hearing that, she couldn't keep her eyebrows from flying into her hair, as her eyes widened in surprise. She had never offered him her name. So how on earth did he know it?

But before she found her voice again to ask, he had already collected the body and, as he reached her level, he gave her one last nod.

- "Until we meet again, detective"

She shook her head.

- "Let's rather hope that we never do" she answered, thinking that only another series of assaults and/or murders would bring them together again, something she certainly hoped wasn't going to happen. But then she realized it may be misinterpreted.

- "I mean –" she started explaining.

- "I understand what you meant, detective" he interrupted, and she saw from the infinite sadness that danced in his eyes for a brief moment that he did.

Uneasiness crept into her heart upon that sight, and she felt the need to find something comforting to say. But before anything came to her mind, he had walked away. And this time, when she reached the door, he was gone for good.