Blueeyeddevil06, thank you for being my beta!

Detective Ito grumbled to himself as he saw the name on the caller ID. He answered his phone as he walked into a quiet hall at the police station. "Please tell me this isn't what I think it is. I told you they needed to show up elsewhere for a while."

A very chipper sounding Usagi replied, "No, I didn't eat anything to excess."

"That's what you call it…?" He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration as his eyebrows knit. "Never mind. What is the reason you're calling? Please tell me it has a pulse."

"He does. Could you run an unofficial background check on a Chiba Mamoru? He's a med student." As she asked, she was watching him talk to Motoki and couldn't take her eyes off of him. One of the advantages of being a vampire was her enhanced hearing.

"You have to be kidding me!" he said, letting his annoyance show.

"Why?" She asked, suddenly taking her eyes off Mamoru and looking at her right hand, picking at her nails.

"I don't have to run a background check, I already have. I ran the check on him when he was hired on as the intern for our coroner."

"Oh good!" She said excitedly. "Tell me all about him."

"He's the one who did the autopsy after your last…indiscretion. That's not good."

"Why isn't it good?"

"How do you not get it? He's looking into the killing. He will ask questions that could lead to you and get me in a lot of trouble."

He couldn't see her roll her eyes, but she did anyway. "You can't get in trouble for this. If you think I would leave you unprotected, then I'm insulted. I didn't save your life as a child, only to destroy it now."

"Thank you," he said with real feeling. "I didn't mean to insult you."

"I know. Don't worry, that's all I mean."

"I'm a homicide detective. I'm a worrier now, by training."

"And I haven't made it easy on you. I'm sorry."

He sighed, "I sometimes forget that you've seen more than I have. Your youthful look throws me off."

She cast her eyes to the sticky floor of the arcade and sighed, "I've seen…It's truly sick what one human can do to another. I've seen things that would make your nightmares seem tame."

He gave in to her, he always had a soft spot for her. "What do you want to know about him? He's brilliant and our coroner, Yamato, raves about him."

"Is he seeing anyone?"

Detective Ito burst out laughing. "This is about a crush!?" It felt so odd to be talking to her about a boy. It felt like she was his grandmother coming to him, mentioning a guy she liked.

"It's not really a crush. Vampires…what's the word…? Imprint? No. There's a blood bond that is very much like what you would call soulmates. It has to do with one's blood calling to another. He can't feel the call of mine because he's human, but I can feel the call to him."

"It sucks that it's one-sided."

"Well, he might feel drawn to me, but he won't know why."

"I stand with what I said."

She shrugged, "He's destined to fall in love with me. It doesn't matter that I'm the only one who feels it now."

"Why?"

"I've lived for centuries. I've learned patience and the passage of time isn't the same for me as it is to you." Her eyes shifted and she looked over at Mamoru as he talked. Her blood promised her he was worth the wait.

Detective Ito sighed and nodded, "Yeah, I get that. I just want things to work out for you. I feel protective of you."

"Same. By the way, have you asked her out yet?"

"Who?" He asked, trying to pretend he didn't know exactly who she was talking about.

"Detective Hottie. You know, the dark haired Detective in criminal investigation."

He fidgeted despite his training. "She's not interested."

"She said no?! Is she crazy?"

"Well, I haven't asked," he admitted then rushed on. "But it's obvious."

"Detective Nyan is interested in you. Come on, take a chance and ask her out."

"Let me worry about my own love life for now."

Usagi side eyed the phone. "For now. Fine." She had no intention of staying out of anything. She knew how short a human's life was and she had every intention of helping him.

She let it drop for now though.

"Can you send over the information the background check pulled up?"

"I'd mention that it's incredibly illegal, but that would hardly stop you. I'll send it tonight."

"You're the best! Thank you."

He made his way back to his desk and dropped his cell on a stack of papers. He then let out a harsh sigh, ran his hands over his face in frustration, and sat hard in his chair. It wasn't the background check, the boy, or even the dead bodies. It was detective Nyan. He was crazy about her from the moment he met her.

He had been following a lead on a double homicide, and it happened to have a connection to a breaking and entry case she was working on.

Initially, he'd laughed at her last name and wondered who had the last name of Meow. Her first name was just as unusual, Luna. It was her beauty and intelligence that got his attention, though.

He decided to shift his focus onto something he could do something about right now. He read the pertinent details on Mamoru and memorized them. He wouldn't be able to copy the file without alerting someone. He planned to type it all up on his home computer tonight and email it to her.

He looked up and almost choked on his own saliva. Luna was standing there holding a thick case file and looking at him expectantly.

"You're researching the coroner's intern. Is something up?"

Damn, he didn't want to lie to her. That didn't stop him from doing it anyway. "No, I'm the one who ran the background check on him initially. I like to verify that nothing new has come to light periodically. He handles important cases and can compromise us if I missed something."

She snorted, "You never miss anything. It doesn't surprise me you're so thorough, though." He quickly decided he'd do just that. He would check no new charges or red flags popped up since he first ran the background check before he left today.

She then shifted and held up her file. "I was hoping for you to look over this. It doesn't fall into homicide at all, but I feel like I'm missing something."

He held out his hand, and she handed it over to him. "I'd be happy to look at it. Lucky for me, you're good at organizing a file, and I find them easy to decipher."

She blushed and gave him a tentative smile. "Thanks, that means a lot."

He tried not to seem so affected by the blush on her cheeks. He did try to be bold, though. "We could grab a conference room now and go over this together. Between the two of us, I'm sure we can see what's giving you red flags."

"That would be great!" she said brightly.

And now he realized he would be stuck in a room with her and have to try not to hit on his coworker at the police department. Crap.

When Artemis Ito got home at seven that night, he dropped his keys in the bowl on the entryway table, went to his bar, and poured himself some Sake. He took a sip then went and flopped on his couch.

Luna had been right; they discovered a hole in the investigation. Paperwork that had to be there. Some of it was required paperwork before the next step in the investigation could be made. The only possibility was that someone had taken it at the police station. That left theft, or someone was being bribed.

He took another sip and closed his eyes. Bribery. He hated a dirty cop. That sat funny in his stomach. Where was that line now? He was forced to confront that today. Was what he did for Usagi just as wrong? Wasn't he hiding a killer?

He was also mad at himself. He felt he made the most bone-headed stupid-ass dumb-fuck move he could make, he confessed to Luna. Damn, if he didn't trust her more than almost anyone he knew except for maybe Usagi. He wasn't even sure why.

Sure, she was hot, but no part of him believed he'd been thinking with his hormones.

Somehow he came to a place where he needed her to condemn him or accept him for the crimes he committed. Before he realized why he was confessing.

He looked down at his hands and sighed. "This had to be an inside job. There's a dirty cop here."

Luna nodded, "And I know who it is. It's Jiro."

"How…?"

"I've suspected him for a while. I've traced his activities, and he has connections to those protected by that information going missing. He's dating the guy's sister."

"Shit."

She shrugged, "Yeah, but he's dating three different women. He shouldn't be willing to break the law for one."

"Three?"

She laughed and nodded, "Somehow, they all think they're special to him."

He smiled, "If they all find out, prison might be a relief to him."

She held up her phone with a massive smile on her face and said, "And they all did today. I texted them each the evidence just now. By the time we arrest him, he might be willing to confess in order to get away from them."

"You're devious. I love that about you." Artemis froze. And shit, if he didn't just slip and let his feelings be known.

Instead of what he was expecting, she reached over and took his hand. "And I love how brilliant you are. Are you ever going to ask me to dinner?"

He closed his eyes, sighed, and then looked at her. "I can't. I'm not the guy you think I am, and being involved with me can lead to trouble one day."

"What is this mysterious thing you're talking about? I believe that I should decide what I'm willing to risk. I know things that would sound impossible to you."

That he laughed at, he knew a vampire that looked twenty and felt like a grandmother to him. He highly doubted that. "Not possible. Tell me one thing that surprises me, and I'll give in and tell you."

She decided to challenge him, "Vampires exist." She raised one eyebrow and gave him a triumphant look. "See, you think I'm ridiculous."

"The only surprise is that you know too."

"Whhaaaaaat?!"

"A vampire saved my life when I was a child. I've known about them for most of my life."

She blinked several times in shock. Then she narrowed her eyes, "You're mocking me!"

"You wanted me to believe you; I do, and now you're mad?"

"It's not like people believe in them anymore!"

He sighed, "The truth is I know a vampire. That's where the trouble comes in. She takes exception to rapists–as she should. She claims she's old-fashioned in her values and doesn't see the problem in killing them. I've hidden five deaths, and I know the coroner is looking into them. I'm not someone you want to be around! But trust me when I say I do believe in vampires."

"Five?" And damn, if that wasn't the very moment he realized he was an idiot.

He rubbed his hands over his face. "Yes. Five."

"How old is she?"

"Over four hundred years old."

He looked at her pleadingly, "You're going to go to internal affairs, aren't you? Please tell me and let me prepare myself. I promise not to run. I'll submit to the investigation."

She shook her head and said, "I have no intention of doing anything like that."

"Why?"

She shrugged, "Because I've hidden seven deaths."

"What?!"

And that was what led the two detectives to make a sort of criminal pact. He was pretty sure they weren't doing the right thing. Did that make them both dirty cops if the intent was to protect people? It wasn't like they were benefiting monetarily from any of what was happening.

Now he had to call Usagi. Luna wanted to meet her, and he knew she wouldn't object. After all, Luna was now his girlfriend and cohort.