Hey, I'm finally back. Real life has been crazy, and then I got a nasty virus that put me down for several weeks. But here is the next chapter and I'm working on the following one as well. Hope everyone has a good holiday!

Chapter 19

The flight to LA seemed brief, with Mick and Beth sitting together and Guillermo and James each on their cell phones. James was letting Annie know he was coming home, and Guillermo was checking on the status of the blood donation centers.

Mick had his arm around his wife and she was glad he was near. They hadn't discussed the vampire kidnapper who had been deposited in the back of the jet. The terror she felt during the kidnapping was too close. But now she asked, "When we get back, where will we take him?"

"To Josef's," Mick replied, shortly.

Beth understood. Josef didn't want the Cleaners involved, and neither did she. This was a private matter and she knew Simone would feel the same way.

Mick checked his watch, figuring they would be landing soon. They would put down at an estate outside Los Angeles that was owned by a vampire who had a private runway. With the incapacitated vamp in the back, they couldn't afford to go through customs. Once they removed the killer, the jet would take off again and land at the airport and go through the usual reentry process.

The pilot announced they were touching down, and the vampires prepared to get back to LA. The isolated landing field was well-lit and the jet came to a halt near several small hangars. Mick could see a Hummer and two SUVs waiting for them.

James was gratified to see the vehicles, knowing his security team was on the spot. Supervising the removal of the staked vampire into one of the SUVs, James was pleased to see his crew handling the luggage and making sure everyone was ready for the trip to Josef's compound.

Mick and Beth settled in with Guillermo to ride back to Josef's estate, and refreshed themselves with fresh blood provided by the security guards.

Even after the blood, Beth faded a little, leaning into Mick. He knew that the trip had taken its toll on her, though she would deny it. He leaned back and relaxed with her, letting her have some down time, knowing they would have some stress in handling the assassin vampire once they reached their destination. She said she wanted to be in on the interrogation and Mick couldn't deny her that.

It was almost dawn when they drove through the gates at Josef's compound and Mick gently woke Beth.

"Where are we?" she asked, disoriented.

"We're at Josef's, sweetheart. We need to hit the freezer and deal with everything tomorrow night."

It was a testament of Beth's fatigue that she didn't argue, but followed Mick, Guillermo and James into the house. Simone and Josef were there to greet them.

"Good hunting," Josef beamed at the group. "We've got freezers for everyone and the guards will take care of the prisoner."

Beth started at how he referred to the vampire they'd caught. Her anger rose a bit, and she looked at Simone who was smiling at her with satisfaction.

Simone hugged her friend, glad they were all back, safe and sound. "I'm glad you're here and safe."

With a slight grimace, Beth responded, "The guys wouldn't let me go on the hunt, so I was in the rear with the gear."

"Well, now that we have the scumbag, we can certainly be in on the questioning. I want to find out what he knows," Simone said with a growl.

Josef rolled his eyes. "All right, ladies, pull in your fangs. Everyone needs to hit the freezers."

Hale came forward and said, "Follow me, please."

Guillermo, Mick and Beth went with the butler, and Josef put his arm around Simone. "Come on, doll. Get into the cold and I'll be up after I make a few calls."

With a knowing smile, Simone kissed her husband, drawing him close. "How about I meet you in the bedroom?"

Josef's eyes flashed and he replied in a husky voice, "Good idea babe. I'll make the calls short."

She laughed and pulled away, going up the stairs at vampire speed. Josef shook his head and started to dial the phone.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The vampire who called himself Vincent was still staked and lying on the floor of what he thought was some kind of locked room. Since the vampires caught him, he'd been moved to a car and an airplane and now this room. He had no idea where he was, except the plane ride was not very long.

Vincent didn't know who his enemy was and cursed himself for returning to his old haunts in Mexico. After his last assignment, he had enough funds to go to Italy, near the Alps to retire for some years. But he had some business to tie up in Puerto Vallarta and returned for a week or two before departing. Then these vampires found and staked him.

His mind worked like lightning—one of the things that kept him safe for so many years. This capture must have had something to do with his latest commission. He went back over it in his mind and thought he had a slight scent of one of the women they trapped. If that was so, he knew had very little chance of remaining in his undead state.

Quickly, Vincent recalled the chain of events that led him here. The two other assassins involved were Trina and Celeste. He reviewed all that had happened in the kidnapping of the two women and the plot conceived by their unknown employer.

Yes, even the slight change of plan by Celeste could work in his favor. Feeling he could respond to the inevitable questioning, Vincent allowed himself to relax, hoping his captors would give him some blood soon.

The next evening, Josef, Simone, Mick and Beth convened in the mansion's spacious lounge. Guillermo had gone home to resume running the blood donation centers, but offered to be available if they needed him to assist with the questioning.

After a drink of blood and scotch, Josef said, "James has the vampire ready for us downstairs. Mick and I-"

"Wait a minute, mister," Simone stood up, pointing a finger at her husband. "You're not doing this by yourselves. Beth and I were the ones he took and we'll be the ones who question him."

Mick looked at Beth, who also stood, crossing her arms across her chest. She glared at Mick. "Don't even say a word."

Her husband threw up his hands in surrender. "Just let him live long enough to answer some questions," he commented wryly.

Josef gave a mock frown at Mick. "If you tell anyone how we caved to our wives, I'll have to kill you."

"Now babe," Simone soothed, going over and placing her hand on his chest, "You need us to show this scum that he didn't get away with anything. It's only natural that Beth and I should want to be there."

Josef replied, "You know if he doesn't talk it's going to get rough."

"Then we'll leave you to it," Beth said. She wanted answers but wasn't up to actual torture. She glanced at Simone and her friend gave a slight nod, agreeing with Beth's observation.

Seeing the ladies were willing to leave the tough stuff to them, Josef nodded. "All right, James has him restrained and he's been given some blood." He raised an eyebrow. "If you're sure…."

Beth and Simone glanced at each other, and Simone said, "We're sure."

Without another word, the older vampire led the group into the basement area. Mick was a bit worried about Beth's reaction, but he had to let her handle it.

They entered the cold basement room to see a rumpled vampire restrained in a chair with what they assumed were silver chains. His head hung down so they couldn't see his face. Josef nodded to James who swiftly pulled the stake from the captive.

Vincent felt someone inject something into his neck. Soon he felt the fresh blood coursing through him. At least they wanted to make sure he could talk, Vincent thought dryly.

He looked up in the dimly lighted room to see many vampires staring at him. Two women, two men and two who were obviously security guards. He let his head drop again.

Vincent scented the women and recognized they were the ones they'd confined and left out in the mountains. How had they escaped, and so soon? His mind worked frantically, while he kept his head down.

One of the women approached him, pulling his head up by his hair. He was met by a pair of crystal eyes, as the blond snarled at him. "Why did you take us?"

Vincent sneered at her, "Why should I tell you anything? I'm going to die anyway." This was the opening gambit in the game he was playing to try to secure his continued existence.

The woman let go of his head, and he saw her look uncertainly at the tall, dark haired vampire that hovered near her. He knew she was Beth St. John and she was very young. He was surprised the older vamps allowed her to take the lead with him.

Now, the blond male in a well-cut suit stepped forward. This vampire was old, older than Vincent and the captive felt dominance and danger coming from him.

"I'm Josef Kostan, Elder of this region. You made the mistake of kidnapping my wife and the wife of my best friend. We can start with your name," he said, flashing fang.

With a slight shrug, he responded, "My name is Vincent."

Josef walked around the captive vampire slowly. "All right. Now, you need to tell us who hired you to take our wives."

Impatiently, Simone asked, "What happened to Celeste? Why did you leave us in the forest?" She ignored the look from her husband. After all, they and agreed to let them question the vampire.

Vincent picked up on this immediately. So, these people didn't know Celeste was in on the plot. He could work with that. But he had to negotiate his life for what he would tell them.

"I'll tell you if you let me go."

The dark haired male snorted, and exchanged glances with Kostan. "You took my wife."

Vincent raised an eyebrow. "And you are?"

"Mick St. John, presently your worst enemy."

"Well, Mr. St. John and Mr. Kostan, I have no idea who these ladies are, and I have nothing against them."

The women looked surprised, and their husbands frowned.

Beth asked, "Then why did you take us?"

"That's information that I'll trade if you let me go."

"Not a chance," Mick snarled, pulling a silver knife from his jacket and holding it to the captive's neck. He was fed up with this sleazy vampire. "You tried to kill Beth and you're not going to walk out of here."

Vincent stared St. John in the eye and replied tonelessly, "Then there's no reason for me to tell you anything, is there?"

Josef stepped forward leaning down and letting his power out. He said with menace, "I'm over 400 years old. I've seen and done much, including how to extract information from my enemies. Believe me when I was through, they wished they were truly dead."

The captive felt a small shiver pass over the women and thought that could be leverage. He knew they were both young vampires, obviously not inured to the violence of their kind. Vincent made a split-second decision.

"Look, I'll tell you what I know, but it's not much. If you want to kill me after that…"

Simone moved toward the mercenary. "Why were you after us."

Looking up at her, he said, "We weren't after you. We were paid to take the other woman."

"Celeste?" Beth asked.

"Yes. You weren't supposed to be there. We were told she'd be alone."

Vincent saw the two women exchange glances. he took that as a good sign and continued, "When we saw you two, we had to do something."

"So you stuffed them in boxes and left them in the wilderness?" Mick exclaimed.

Allowing himself a flash of fang, the captive exclaimed, "What were we supposed to do? If we killed them we couldn't trust the Cleaners. We couldn't let the humans find them and we couldn't let them go because they knew we'd taken the other woman. We had to think of something fast."

"What happened to Celeste?" Simone frowned.

Vincent could tell they believed his tale and said, "There was another vampire that took her off in a van. I never knew who he was, his job was to transport her. I don't know what happened to her after that." He hoped they would believe this blatant fairy tale.

"Why were you there with a truck?" Josef asked, suspiciously.

Shrugging again, he said, "We needed a way to get into the convention center. We had some racks of clothes that we unloaded into the storage area. We had arranged for the woman to come down before the shows to look at the clothing."

Both Simone and Beth nodded, as this tallied with what happened on that day. Mick and Josef caught their wives' glances.

With a tilt of the head, Josef asked, "All right, let's go back to the beginning. Who hired you?"

Vincent could be completely honest about this one. "I have no idea. I was asked to come to a certain address, where I would be given fifty thousand American dollars to interview for a job. When I arrived, I found a room with a two-way glass and someone spoke to me through a microphone."

"Was it a man or woman?" Beth asked, quickly.

"I could not tell. The voice was electronically altered."

"Where did you meet this unknown?" Josef frowned.

"It was in Paris." Vincent was amazed at the reaction to his comment. The four vampires seemed electrified and stiffened, looking at each other. He wondered if he had made an error.

"Where," Mick asked, sharply.

"It was in the warehouse district, near the wharves. I came into the room alone, but I scented a male vampire, perhaps two hundred years old." Vincent was being completely truthful, and he could tell they believed him.

"Who was the other vampire that helped you?" Beth asked.

"She said her name was Trina." He didn't have any problem divulging this as he thought the woman assassin had many aliases. "We only met the day of the operation. She mentioned she worked for the Yakusa, so I think she may be from Japan." He was gratified that Kostan and St. John exchanged looks, and it was obvious they had figured out that information for themselves. Vincent felt his chances of survival had substantially improved.

Josef thought that for whatever reason, the captive was telling the truth. It wasn't much information but felt they needed to regroup to process what that had learned. He looked at the vampire with distaste. "All right, you survive for now. Think about anything else you can tell us. We'll be back later."

Josef nodded to his security guards, knowing they would provide blood for the prisoner and keep him under guard. He turned and herded his wife and Beth out of the room, followed by Mick.

Without a word they went to the lounge where fresh blood and scotch were available. After everyone had a drink, Josef asked, "What did you think?"

Beth responded, "I think he's hiding something, but since he's a paid mercenary, that wouldn't be unusual. I don't believe he knew who hired him."

"I don't either," Simone agreed.

"It was someone in Paris," Josef mused.

"Coraline," Mick growled.

Beth shook her head. "We have no proof. Maybe she could have done it, but we were all just in France and got rid of a lot of bad vamps. Could it have been someone over there wanting revenge? Or was it about Celeste?"

"He said they were after Celeste. They could have killed us but they didn't," Simone said.

"It doesn't get us much farther in finding out who hired him. I agree—I don't believe he knows," Josef said with disgust.

"So it's a dead end." Beth looked at Josef. "Have you been able to find out anything about Celeste? She said she had a fashion blog out of New York." She was still angry about the abduction, but after hearing what the mercenary said, was wavering about whether or not he should die.

Josef got up and refreshed his glass with some single malt. "I've got some contacts in New York who are trying to trace her. Since all we have is a first name and no good pictures, I don't know. Vamps change their names all the time and that could be her internet alias."

"We could get a sketch artist to draw her," Simone interjected.

Beth nodded. "Yeah, that might help. But what about Vincent?"

"He's on ice for now and we can see if he has any more to tell us."

Giving her husband a look, Simone asked, "Did you think he was telling the truth?"

Nodding, Josef said, "Yes, but I only care about who is out to harm us, and since he doesn't seem to know, we should get rid of him."

Simone and Beth exchanged glances. Simone said, "I know he's a hit man, but I'm not sure killing him would help anything."

Mick growled and Beth put her hand on his arm. "I have to agree with Simone. After all, they could have executed us, but they didn't."

"But what would he do if we let him go?" Josef asked, trying to keep calm. He really wanted to go down and rip the vamp's head off. His method was to never let an enemy live. They could come back later, and he wasn't over 400 years old by being compassionate.

"I wish there was a vampire jail," Beth muttered.

Josef brightened. "Hmm. That may be a possibility."

"What do you mean?" Mick asked.

"We could stake him and hold him for twenty years or so. That would keep him out of sight."

Simone and Beth both looked surprised. It would be better than taking the vampire's head, but Beth had an idea. She looked at Mick.

"You said you think it was Coraline."

Her husband nodded.

"Then why don't we have Vincent contact her, asking for more work?"

Simone spoke up, "No—tell Coraline that we've escaped and he's afraid he'll be identified."

Josef shrugged, but gave a little grin. If nothing else it will be entertaining. "If she is behind it, she might be caught off guard and let something slip," he said. He also had an idea that the others didn't need to know about.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next night the captive vampire was taken to a secure room, offered a shower, some clean clothes and a carafe of freshly-donated blood. He wondered what was going on, but figured if they planned to kill him they wouldn't care if he was comfortable. After he was done, he was taken to a luxurious lounge in the main part of the house. His escorts were obviously security guards heavily armed with what he suspected were silver loads in their weapons.

When he looked around, he only saw Kostan and St. John. Vincent would rather have the women there, as he thought they'd be more sympathetic. He was relieved when the ladies entered a few moments later.

Vincent sat in a club chair and saw Josef nod at the two guards behind him. they moved a couple of steps back. "You said you don't know who hired you," Josef began.

"No," Vincent responded, shaking his head. "I never saw anyone."

Josef nodded. "You must have contacted them at some point."

"Yes. I had an email address."

Handing him a pen and paper, Josef said, "Write it down." He would have Ryder and Logan try to find out who was at the other end.

Vincent complied, and handed it to Kostan. "I'm sure it's not traceable. These people were too careful." He knew he wasn't doing himself any favors but hoped by being forthcoming, Kostan would believe his story.

Mick took the paper, and texted Ryder the information. "I think I may know who hired you," he said.

Surprised, Vincent raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He glanced at the two women who looked grim.

Mick hesitated, so Josef took over. "There's a woman in Paris—a vamp. She has a long-standing grudge against Mr. St. John, his wife and me. We think she may have set up the kidnapping of our wives," Josef concluded.

Vincent looked down, trying to assimilate the information. He needed to stick with the story he told earlier. Peering up at Josef, he said, "I was told the target was the vamp from New York."

"You mean Celeste," Beth interjected.

"Yes. I was told about her, no one else." Vincent hoped that his emotions would convince the roomful of vampires of his sincerity.

Feeling unsure, Josef looked at Mick. "Do you still want to try with Coraline?"

"Yes," Mick said with decision. He didn't glance at his wife. He was positive Coraline was behind everything.

Josef said "Fine," and looked at Vincent. "You get a pass for now. We'll let you know what we want."

The guards took the vampire out of the room and Josef smiled to himself. He had a plan that he wasn't going to share right away with his friends, and especially not his wife.

TBC

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. More to come and Coraline isn't going to be happy. Thanks for sticking with the story, I apologize for the long waits between chapters, I hope to be able to post more often for the end of the story.

Best wishes for a Happy New Year!