Chapter 15: Miss Kate

It wasn't until a few days later that they got a call from Lestrade. He had found enough information to conclude as to where Irene was. Sherlock and John had then headed over in a flash. Things weren't any better between them though; ever since that night it had begun to become more awkward. John being unable to even look at Sherlock for fear that the vampire might realize and for fear that he himself might break his strong resolve to not ever love a vampire. Sherlock on the other hand was for some reason scared to approach John for more than he needed to now, afraid that he might make the hunter go against his own morals more than he already had.

As they pulled up in the garage and got out of the car, John noticed the slight falter in Sherlock's step as they entered the lift. He knew it wasn't long before Sherlock would need to feed again. He could only imagine what it would feel like, Sherlock's hands on his body, his lips on his neck. John shuddered, his hand going to touch his neck as if to rub away that tingling feeling at the mere thought of Sherlock drinking from him. In this state of mind it was as if nature wanted them to get together, as their fingers met when they both reached to press the button to close the lift doors.

John's eyes flicked to Sherlock, gazes locking for just a moment as they stood, fingers still touching before he turned away, his cheeks heating up as he leaned back in the corner of the lift. 'This is nothing to panic about,' he told himself keeping his eyes downcast as the lift began to ascend.

The vampire could sense the flood of emotions rolling off John, fear, embarrassment and desire. John's cheeks had coloured with blush the moment their fingers had met and his current reaction was one that Sherlock had seen before in his experience of love. But he dismissed it quickly, John was a hunter, he despised vampires. He had killed his own sister to prevent her from accepting the change to be a vampire for her lover. John couldn't possibly be in love with him.

Sherlock held the door open for John as they entered Lestrade's office, it was evening now, about six or seven when they entered Lestrade's office. He noticed how Lestrade was dressed differently more covered up than the usual. Oh he could attest to the reason why, seeing Mycroft still in the office. Whatever went on between them wasn't his business but he knew his brother's appetite where Lestrade was involved.

"So, what did you find?" Sherlock asked, crossing the room and going over to the desk. Lestrade turned the computer screen and played a clip for him. A woman was holding onto the arm of another man as they came out of a building. Sherlock had no recognition of the woman. She was slender, her face still had the childish curves of youth she was in her late twenties. Her strong features said nothing about who she was.

"Who is she?" Sherlock asked, his eyes moving from the woman to the man now as the camera zoomed in on the image. There was something different in the appearance of the man however, the size of the suit for one, it seemed too big.

"I did a facial match for the woman, she goes by the name of Kate. Apparently she is related to Irene," Lestrade said, then he paused the video tapping the screen, "You see him? You see that man she's holding on to? He never shows his face for some reason."

"Never as in?" John asked looking at the screen.

"Never as in never. I've checked the surveillance cameras, they always head out at the same time but it's as if the man knows there are cameras watching him and he never turns. The camera's never caught a glimpse of his face."

"You suspect 'he' might be Irene," Sherlock stated, staring closely at the pixelated picture of the man. True…the stature and build seemed to match Irene's, a person could always change the way they walked and the help of clothes could mask even the most feminine of bodies. There was the slightest chance that this could be her, "But why does she dress like that?" Sherlock asked out loud.

"You forget she had connections to the Father," Mycroft added, "if that's the case you can assume Father will want to keep an eye on all of his children. So why else do you think she dresses up?"

"There's truth in that…" Sherlock said, looking to the footage again, "Where did you get this from?"

"Just this morning, off the surveillance camera in the vicinity. You know that apartment close by here? Yeah, this was taken at about 9.08 in the morning," Lestrade said.

"Shall we pay a house visit John?" he asked turning to the hunter.

"You don't know which unit she lives in. Do you?" John asked.

"One thing's for sure if she wanted to stay in hiding she wouldn't have put her own name on the register. If she's living with Kate over there, then we can be sure that the apartment belongs to someone named Kate. Which leaves us with the question of how many Kate's live in that building. We should be able to have dinner with her if we're lucky," Sherlock said.

"Okay and once we find her, then what?" John asked as they left Lestrade's office, once again on another mission.

"We get her to tell us where the Father is. Or how we can get to him," Sherlock said, pressing the button as he called for the lift.

They took the lift down in silence, leaving through the garage. Crossing through the back alley, they made it to the apartment building just around the corner. There was a woman at the desk who smiled at them as they entered and Sherlock smiled back. John stood close to him, listening as Sherlock asked for a Miss Kate who lived with her boyfriend. This wasn't going to work…John thought as he looked around the lobby, spotting the surveillance cameras. How had Irene, if it was indeed her, manage to get out without the cameras catching so much as a glimpse of her face?

"Thank you," he heard Sherlock say and then they were walking towards the elevator.

"Well?" John asked, the vampire showed him a piece of paper with a single unit number.

"She's the only Miss Kate with a boyfriend here," Sherlock said as he pressed the button for the eighteenth floor, "If Irene's as good as she used to be, she'd already have dinner ready for us. Probably even knows we're on the way up now."

"Are they both…vampires?" John asked, for some reason fearing that he might be the only human in their presence.

"I'm guessing yes," Sherlock said, noting the flitting emotion of fear across John's face, "Don't worry, she won't dare to touch you, you're mine." He said and he saw the slight smile on John's face. That show of emotion came quicker than he thought.

"Like that's going to help," John said, quickly stepping into the hallway when the lift had reached. Sherlock just had to go and say such things. It didn't bother John too much though; it in fact made his insides tingle just slightly with joy and that schoolboy's excitement when going on a first date.

"Here we are," Sherlock said as he stopped outside the door of the apartment number 196, "Well, here we go," he said giving another smile to John as he lifted his hand to knock.

But before his knuckles reached the door, it pulled open.

AN: Hello guys! Here's the next chapter! I hope i'm keeping to the updating schedule. Anyway, my projects are going to be coming to a close! And my two months break is coming soon! That means more JOHNLOCK stories! :) Okay ciao, see you guys in the next chapter.