CH3
Just to clarify, when explanations for things become important to the characters in the story that is when you the reader will find out as well.
Yes there is a reason why Castle is acting and feels like this, and when he is ready to tell someone that is when you will find out as well. It's how things work in my stories. I also try really hard no to leave any questions unanswered by the end of the story.
This story has 2 beta readers. One male and one female and they have both made it through chapter 21, I think.
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Kate went down to the refrigerators while Alexis went to see Solomon. "How are we doing?" Kate asked as she entered.
"Tests show most of it is laced with drugs; these three here are hooked on cocaine while these two are hooked on heroin," one of them explained.
Kate swore. "Damn it! Their blood useless to us. Even we can't filter out the drugs and the more we drink this stuff the more likely it is we will become addicted too." Kate cursed all drugs silently. The human race seemed bent on destruction and they were going to take the Vampire race with them.
"What about the other two?" she questioned.
"They are fine and we can break them down into individual bags. It will be enough for a few days. We already have several weeks' worth in the refrigerators," she was told.
"Well, finish the two good ones and dump the rest. We have no need to risk it at this time. I'll be with Solomon if you need me," she said, beginning to turn away.
"We lost two," one of them commented.
She kept her back turned on them. "Yes, seems the Lycans have a new round that can kill us with just one shot. We may all soon be going on the hunt." Kate walked away pissed as hell at this turn of events.
It wasn't bad enough that the Lycans still lived, even lived in New York, but to come home with tainted blood... It meant going outside the city to hopefully find fresh and untainted blood.
Kate went down to the basement. "We have a problem mom." Alexis spotted Kate as she entered.
"Show me what you have," she said, asking both Alexis and Solomon. Kate was back in control of this house.
"It's an injector round. It is some kind of irradiated fluid that mimics ultraviolet light. This glass container contains the solution. These thin bands are what hold the glass in place. Once the round enters a body, the bands shatter and penetrate the glass enclosure spreading the liquid inside."
"Both items are capable of withstanding the pressure of being fired, however I believe that it weakens them, making both more brittle allowing them to work on soft tissue."
"Get shot in an arm and lose the arm. Get shot in a leg and lose the leg. Get shot anywhere else and lose your life," Solomon explained.
Kate picked up one of the rounds and studied it closely. Things in the past when she was so much younger seemed so much simpler. Technology just might be the end of them yet if the drug infected blood didn't get to them first.
"Is there a counter to these rounds?" Her house only had 12 bedrooms and each room was double bunked, even her own. One male and one female in most cases except for her room and one other. Now they were down two men.
At least it might solve the problem of Alexis being hit on. The men and women may be sharing a room, however none of them were dedicated to the person they shared a room with. So long as there was no fighting involved, Kate allowed sex with whoever they wanted, except for herself.
"Body armor," Alexis said excitedly. "The round is weak and meant to penetrate flesh, simple body armor should stop the round. Might still lose an arm or leg, but at least you don't die."
"Alexis is correct, simple combat vests should keep the round from penetrating the body," Solomon confirmed.
"Time for some research." Kate smiled at Alexis, knowing that Alexis was the perfect choice. Kate knew Alexis loved to read and do research for just about anything. Kate had never understood why Alexis was hard wired to read and so willing to figure out anything. Still her dedication to these two things had served her and the house well in the past.
Alexis smiled. "I'm all over it." She practically skipped up to their room to get on the computer.
"That girl is the greatest thing to ever happen to this house. The stars were shining down on you the day you brought her to us all." Solomon was impressed with Alexis, loved her even.
"Don't ask me why I did it. There was something that told me she was special." Kate looked where Alexis had gone and felt a piece of her heart go with her, which in actuality was true.
"You two can accomplish anything, Mistress. This house will do anything and everything for the two of you. A few hundred years from now when she is an elder, you two are going to be unstoppable." Solomon swore he could almost see it.
"Perhaps." Kate started thinking. "Research these rounds and see what you can make of them. I can't understand how the Lycans were smart enough to create them." This was technology, something the Lycans weren't known for.
"I don't think they did. It closely resembles a tracer round as a basis for the round. Likely a human military research and design specialist created them using something other than a UV round. Chemical weapons or bio-weapons perhaps. I think it was originally designed to hold two smaller glass containers side by side and once both are shattered, creates a reaction of some type." Solomon was only guessing.
"Against what though?" Kate didn't understand why the humans needed such rounds. "Get to work on those rounds," Kate ordered and headed for her room. The sun was going to come up soon.
By the time she reached their room, Alexis was deep into one of the laptops doing research. Kate took the other laptop and went to bed with her back up against the headboard.
It took money to live in Manhattan, even for a vampire. Kate went over their bills and paid them after transferring some money from one of their overseas accounts. They may be vampires but they still had household bills. Home insurance, auto insurance, phones (24 of them, not including the house phone), Cable TV, Internet service, electricity, water, household items like soap, cleaning items, light bulbs, A/C and furnace maintenance, new water heaters, new roof, plumbing repair. Everything any house needed.
Kate did the math in her head easily. Even after paying the bills she still had $3.324 billion to play with. Still she figured it was time to increase their bank account. It never hurt to have too much money. She even had over $300 thousand in real bills, divided up between US currency, the Euro and Japanese Yen in a single safe down in the basement that only she and Alexis were capable of opening.
"Any luck over there?" Kate called out after closing her laptop and watching Alexis for a minute.
"So far all that I can find is available to the common public. They're probably still good, however what we are wanting is what the military is using." Alexis sat back in her chair dejected at what she was finding.
"You know the rules Alexis. Find me a military base that will likely have vests that isn't in the States," Kate told her. It was one of Kate's rules, they didn't steal what they needed from anyplace within their own country. It risked bringing too much attention to them.
The CIA didn't talk to the FBI and Interpol or even Scotland Yard didn't talk with the CIA or FBI. So long as they didn't cooperate with each other, Kate was free to strike where she pleased, free of having one agency start keeping track of what was happening.
That brought a smile to Alexis's face and she went back to her laptop once more.
Kate got out of bed and closed the interior shutters as well as the exterior, locking them in place on the windows and pulled the blackout drapes closed. "The sun is coming up, come to bed." Kate started stripping. She put on her night shirt, pulled back the bed covers, climbed into the bed, and waited for Alexis.
Alexis soon got into bed dressed similarly and snuggled in close to Kate who wrapped her arms around her. "Do you remember what the sun looked like? What it felt like?" Alexis asked, not sure she was remembering what it felt like correctly. Alexis knew from her research that the sun hurt humans and yet they still laid outside in it, possibly getting cancer. She no longer remembered what it felt like. Pictures only told you just so much.
"Go to sleep sweetie, we still have a lot to do tomorrow." Kate stroked her hair, knowing just how much she loved her and in moments both of them were dead, the second the sun hit the closed windows.
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Rick had stayed up too late last night and didn't get up until almost noon. He was hungry but couldn't make up his mind if he wanted lunch or breakfast. "I'll figure it out," he said to himself, thinking he would eat whatever he came across first that piqued his interest.
Turned out he had a hankering for New York style pizza, so with two slices of simple pepperoni and cheese and a soda he was sitting outside watching the world go by. A police cruiser with full lights and siren, followed closely by two with only lights went zooming by. And a minute later, an ambulance.
Unlike the rest of New York, Castle had an interest in what had happened. Unfortunately, it didn't sound like it was all that close, so he just sat there folding his pizza and taking a sip of his soda.
It did allow him to watch people walk by and wonder who they were, where they were going. Rick was pretty sure he was wrong most of the time which made him chuckle at himself.
When 2 muscle bound guys hurried past him, they got his attention. It wasn't their muscles, though they had them in spades, nor was it the speed at which they were walking, or the people they were shoving aside. No, it was none of those; it was the two big guns that they had tucked away that caught his interest.
They were both dressed a lot like bums. Their clothes were old, dirty looking even. Rick wasn't a weapons genius, but you didn't need to know a lot to know what an HK MP5 weapon looked like.
Rick was simply nursing his soda by now so he got up and hurried after them trying to keep them in sight. They seemed to know where they were going since they didn't look around at all.
They were, however, beginning to attract some attention with all the people on the sidewalks that were getting shoved aside to clear the way in front of them.
It was when they turned into a bank that Rick knew something bad was going to happen. He stopped and stepped out into the street between two parked cars, pulled out his phone, turned on the video capability of his phone, lifted it and waited.
Only seconds after they entered the bank, one or more of them fired his weapon on full auto. Rick couldn't tell if it was at the ceiling or at people.
He could see movement inside, just not who was doing the moving. Seconds later one of them fired his weapon on full auto followed moments later by the two of them running out of the bank.
One of them raised his weapon and started firing his weapon into the line of parked cars, causing Rick to fall to the ground as he watched the weapon start to point in his direction.
He could hear glass breaking and landing on him and the ground around him, the sound of the car next to him being filled with holes. Rick spun while lying on the ground and lifted his phone to look straight up.
Through his phone he saw the two of them leap onto the hood of the car behind him and the trunk of the car in front of him. They crushed the hoods down into the cars and leaped out into traffic.
Rick heard car horns sounding, tires screeching as drivers slammed on the breaks, followed by the sound of crunching metal as cars hit cars. He struggled to stand and lifted his phone looking for the two, but they were gone.
"What the hell was that?" He turned off his phone and looked around at the carnage. "Who were those guys?" He started an argument with himself debating what to do next. 'Leave and go home? Leave and go somewhere else? Stay and talk to the police and hand over his phone?'
It was the only damn phone he had. He might not see it again for months, if not permanently. And just where had those two gone? There was no alley for them to duck into and escape. All of the manhole covers were still in place. "Where the hell did they go?"
Rick thought he now had a real mystery to work with, so he started walking. It wasn't long before he heard the sirens of the police that were coming in response to what was likely a silent alarm.
He still had a couple of errands to do along with a new one because of what he had just seen.
"About 15 minutes." The pharmacist told him.
"I'll wait." Rick told him and started wandering around the pharmacy. It was only by accident that he happened onto the area that held aspirin. St. Joseph's baby aspirin. Rick picked one up. He hadn't planned on it, but he was here so he did. He knew he would buy it, he just didn't have to take them.
Rick soon had one of those small, plastic, shopping baskets and was dumping things into it. Toothpaste, toothbrush, Listerine, antiperspirant, shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, razor, after shave, hand lotion. It was only when the pharmacist called out his name that he stopped.
He paid for his selections. Suddenly Rick found he had a large bag full of stuff. He also didn't have much money left.
Next he went looking for the proper store. "This will do." It was a computer store that specialized in used equipment sold for half the original price or less. The trick was that they were all damaged in some way. Most simply had minor scratches on the housing.
He found what he wanted and left to go find an ATM to withdrawal the amount of money he needed.
He was now the proud owner of a laptop that was actually more powerful than the one he already had at the fraction of the price. Now Castle set off for a new destination and this time with a purpose.
And where he went was the New York Public Library. They had computers that you could use, or you could bring your own and use their internet connection. Once he was there, he connected it to their wi-fi and started downloading programs that he thought he would need. It cost him a little money and it also cost him some time. Then he plugged in his phone to download what he had recorded and then transferred all of that onto a flash drive, so he could take it anywhere.
Then came the fun part, watching what he had recorded over and over again. He even used one of his new programs to zoom in close and look at everything. Their hair style and color, their clothes and even their shoes. "Neither of them is wearing a belt." Rick moved in closer and moved down. "And no socks." Rick made a face about that one.
Next he moved on to the building itself. "Why this bank?" Rick switched to Google Maps and started looking around.
"It's not on a corner, it only has windows on the front wall. Is it the buildings across the street?" Rick kept looking around. "They jumped over the two cars that I was hiding between and went across the street. So what's across the street?"
"Fire escapes? Didn't see anyone on them at the time." He went back to looking at his video again. "Damn it, where did they go? …And why is it so quiet in here all of a sudden?" It was actually quiet like a library suddenly.
Rick raised his head from his laptop and looked around. He wasn't alone, but the place barely had anyone in it which made him look at the clock. "No wonder the place is empty!"
He wasn't tired and he wasn't hungry. "Might as well go home." Rick unplugged everything and started walking outside to look for another taxi to get him back into Brooklyn.
Rick started walking home and had almost made it when he found himself catching up from behind with a woman with long brown hair and very long legs. The skinny jeans only made her legs look even longer.
Rick caught up with her but kept his distance to one side, not wanting to scare her. "You're not lost are you? I can give you directions," Rick offered.
"Thank you, no, I know exactly where I'm going," Kate replied.
Rick took it as yet another sign and picked up his pace and walked off, headed for home. He didn't notice that Kate was right behind him and had matched his pace easily.
When he made it to the door of his building, it was only then that Rick saw Kate again. "You and your husband live in this building?" Rick held the door open for her.
"I wouldn't know, since I'm not married," Kate said, stepped inside, and waited for Castle. Kate followed him up the stairs.
"I hope you don't have far to go. The stupid elevators are still down." Rick turned his head to look behind him at Kate.
"No, not far, only the fourth floor. It's an easy walk," Kate answered still doing her level best to keep the smile off her face. Especially since Kate knew she could run up the stairs to the roof with no trouble, or simply jump there.
Rick opened the door for the fourth floor and let Kate go through first. He followed her down the hall, admiring the view all the way. It was only when Kate stopped at his door and turned back to face him that he became confused.
"This is my door." Rick said uncertainly.
"Yes, I know, I'm here to see you actually." Kate smiled at him.
He was lost, ever so lost. "Open the door, Castle." Kate told him.
Rick shook his head. She knew his name and he had no idea who she was and yet she was here to see him. Still he pulled out his keys and unlocked the door and pushed it open. "You first since you live here," Kate said.
He went inside and dropped his keys on the kitchen island. "Aren't you going to invite me in Castle, or do you expect me to stand out here forever?" Kate chastised his manners.
Rick turned around to look at her. "I… I… Come on in, please," Rick waffled. He wanted her to go yet wanted her to come in. JUST WHO THE HELL WAS SHE!?
"Thank you." She entered and closed and locked the door. She began walking around. "It doesn't look like you. It's too minimalist with clean lines, there is nothing in here that speaks about you."
Two of the walls were nothing but windows from floor to ceiling. The kitchen was tiny and took up one whole wall with a single chair at the island. The kitchen cabinets were dark while the fake wood floors were light in color. "What else is there?" Kate asked, not waiting for an answer as she headed for the bathroom.
Inside the bathroom Kate almost threw up. The floor and walls were all marble, it was bland and disgusting. The bedroom was even worse. "MY GOD! …It's full of boxes. Is this where he keeps himself? …What the hell happened?" Kate came here to make up her mind, and this wall of boxes did it for her.
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The answer to the guest question is - Kate is Bi and is not ashamed of it, she will gladly go either way. She was basically talking to herself about if she would be interested in a man who had been taking Estrogen since before puberty and now looked like a woman but still had her male anatomy. Would that interest her? Kate simply moved on before answering that question for herself. A little bit of both in one person. While wondering if with so much Estrogen in his/her system was he/she even still capable of getting an erection.