Edited 3/9/24

Detective Artemis grumbled to himself as he saw the name that popped up on his caller ID. He answered his phone as he walked into a quiet hall at the police station. He figured this conversation would need privacy. "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."

"Is that what you're calling it?!" He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration as he knitted his eyebrows. "Never mind. What is the reason you're calling? Please tell me it has a sustainable pulse this time."

"He does," she replied in a perky tone. "Could you run an unofficial background check on Chiba Mamoru? He's a med student." As she asked, she watched that very man as he sat at the arcade counter and talked to Motoki. She couldn't take her eyes off of him.

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

"Why?" She asked, suddenly taking her eyes off Mamoru, looking at her right hand and picking at her nails. She didn't understand his frustration.

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

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

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

"Why isn't it good?"

Artemis shook his head in disbelief. "How do you not get it? He's looking into the killings. If you talk to him, he could ask questions that could lead to you and get me in 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, 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."

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

"And with my latest actions, I haven't made it easy on you. I am sorry."

"You're forgiven." He sighed, "And as for Mamoru, 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 frowned in thought, "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?"

He burst out laughing. "This is about a crush!?" It felt so odd to be talking to her about a boy. Especially since she was more like a grandmother coming to him and mentioning a guy she liked.

"It's not really a crush," she admitted. "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 my call to him —profoundly."

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

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

"I stand by 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 for you." Her eyes shifted, and she looked over at Mamoru as he talked. Her blood promised her he was worth the wait.

Artemis 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, pretending he didn't know exactly who she was talking about.

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

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 Luna 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 had every intention of helping him. She didn't save his life for him to waste any part of it.

She let it drop for now, though.

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

"I'd mention that doing that would be 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 the beautiful detective that had him tied in knots. He was really into her from the moment he met her.

At the time, she had been following a lead on a double homicide, which happened to have a connection to a breaking and entry case she was working on. It didn't take long for her intelligence and beauty to captivate him.

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

After completing all that, he finished and 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 if new charges or red flags popped up since he first ran the background check before he left today. That way, he wouldn't be telling her such a big lie.

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 sending up red flags for you."

"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. Internal Affairs was going to love this, he grumbled to himself.

When Artemis got home at seven that night, he dropped his keys in the bowl on the entryway table, went to his small 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. As he considered that thought, it 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? Was he a dirty cop? That question bothered him.

That wasn't the only problem; he was also mad at himself for what he did that day. 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 had told her about Usagi.

He remembered looking down at his hands and sighing. "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 someone that he has in rotation."

"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? And I should be the one to decide what I'm willing to risk. I know things that would sound impossible to you."

He laughed at her. 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?"

"Four hundred and seventy-two years old." He looked at her pleadingly, "You're going to go to internal affairs, aren't you? Please give me a heads-up 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 benefited 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, which he knew would please Usagi —she enjoyed intrigue.