It was high noon when Gus walked into the Psych office, dog tired. He'd spent most of the night and all morning standing in a line at the Buy More in Burbank to get one of the new StarLite cell phones. His buddy Chuck said he'd get him a great deal, and he had... but unfortunately didn't save him a spot in line and things got a bit hairy in the rush. However, after eight hours and one split lip, he’d gotten the phone.

            As he opened the door, he wasn't surprised to find the shades drawn. Shawn was most likely here and working, as usual. Besides spending time with his family, it seemed to Gus that Shawn immersed himself in work. He'd asked Shawn about it but he ended up getting a noncommittal shrug and said he needed to keep his mind busy.

            Gus had a feeling that it was more than that, a lot more. He shook the thought off, not wanting to think about it right now. Today was going to be spent at his desk, playing with every gadget, gizmo and app he could download.

            Just as he entered the main part of the office, he noticed Shawn sitting motionless on the couch with his arms on his knees, and his eyes closed. There was no way his friend was sleeping, because the only way he could sleep is if it was under 40 degrees. So Gus wondered what exactly was going on.

            "Shawn?" He asked tentatively as he turned on the office light.

            Shawn's eyes shot open. For the briefest instance, Gus saw white irises before a blink brought his eyes back to their normal brownish-green hue.

Rubbing his eyes, Shawn squinted at him, from the sudden glare of the illuminated office. "Gus? I wasn't expecting you back for at least another half a day..." Shawn rose and stretched, as if he'd been sitting a while. "From the sound of your last text you were about to take a machete to your fellow techies." He could see that Shawn had detected his injury by the subtle sniffs in his direction. "Looks like they won buddy."

            Gus snorted indignantly and sat down on the couch next to Shawn, admiring the phone. It had a bright blue casing, reminiscent of the Blueberry, and silver lettering scrawled in tiny letters on the back. "Dude, it was worth every bit of it. This has the most up to date technology of any phone. The camera is supposed to be state of the art too!" He immediately started putting in his new settings and selecting his home screen wallpaper. So many choices...

            Shawn took a look at the phone with a raised eyebrow before scoffing and leaning back against the corner of the couch. "Why did you even need a new phone? Your other one was just fine."

            He gave Shawn an annoyed look, "I still have it. I'm just going to use it as my Playa Phone."

            "Again with the Playa Phone." Shawn mocked. "In case you forgot, you have a girlfriend. You don't need a playa phone."

            Shawn went right for the jugular, as usual. Coraline and Gus had been officially going together for seven months and he'd never do anything to jeopardize their relationship. Plus the fact that Coraline, a centuries old vampire, could snap him like a twig if she wanted to.

            Giving indignant sputters as he knew he'd been beat, Gus ranted loudly, "You can't just let me have my dreams Shawn!"

            Shawn's shushing came too late, as a wailing cry of a cranky baby pierced through the office. The vampire winced at the noise, and Gus immediately felt ashamed for waking the baby up. He should have known Shawn was watching his daughter while Juliet was at work.

            "Aw Felicity..." Shawn baby talked as he bent down and picked up the small bundle of blankets. "Did mean ol' Uncle Gus wake you? Yes he did..."

Despite being made out to be the bad guy, again, Gus had to smile at the scene of his friend and his baby girl. She had sandy blond locks with a little bit of curl and puggy baby cheeks that Gus could say, without embarrassment, he'd pinched more than once. Her eyes were the spitting image of Shawn's own, and in the five months since her birth, they'd darkened to their permanent greenish brown hue. 

            Remembering his phone, Gus tapped the camera icon to catch the ridiculous face Shawn was currently making. He'd show it to Juliet as soon as he saw her. That, and he'd keep it as blackmail for later. Shawn hated being caught doing something cute.

He tapped the phone once more and the screen flashed as the image was captured.

            "Hey! No fair!" Shawn griped as he heard the small click of the artificial shutter sound.

            "Suck it Shawn." Gus grinned widely, knowing that his friend couldn't retaliate with his arms full of baby. He looked down to see if he'd managed to get the full kissy face Shawn had been making, but there was something wrong. "What the hell?"

            Shawn started to head over, curiosity outweighing outrage. "At least tell me you got her smiling." He leaned over to see what Gus was gawking at. His eyes widened and his mouth fell open in disbelief.

            Gus imagined Shawn's shocked expression mirrored his own. It wasn't every day you saw a flying baby, or what looked like a flying baby.

            Felicity was there, still wrapped up in her blankets. A gray button down shirt was also there, but any part of Shawn that wasn't covered in clothing... was completely gone.

 

-------------------------------

            "Thanks Strode. I'll come pick the bags up after my shift." Carlton Lassiter bid farewell to the station's coroner who'd been supplying him with the bagged blood he'd been drinking since being turned just shy of a year before. It was expensive, but since he didn't have to spend any money on food besides what Marlowe ate, it wasn't breaking his bank too much.

            Carlton let the doors swing shut behind him and he headed down the almost new hallways of the SBPD. The builders had used some of the original specifications from the old blueprints, but added on improvements like monitors in the corners for announcements, computer stations for visitors and new cells for the inmates. The records room, which had been completely destroyed by the explosion that had killed three officers and destroyed the whole building nine months before, had been narrowed down to a few computers and maybe one or two filing cabinets. He had to admit, he liked the additions.

 

            Looking up, he noticed Buzz McNab, who waved as he passed. Carlton gave him his own half-hearted wave as he continued on his way.

            As he walked, Carlton's thoughts, drifted to his wife. Lately she'd been subtly putting some pressure on him to turn her. It was a big move but he'd promised her when she was still in prison that he would. However, after what he'd seen Shawn go through the last few months, he didn't know if he'd be able to deal with it.

            Sure, Shawn looked and acted a lot like his old self, most of the time, but he couldn't hide how he was feeling from Carlton. It wasn't just because Shawn was his sire, it was the subtle shifts in scent, movement, and moods that tipped him off. It was a hell of a front the other vampire was putting up though, and if it worked for Shawn then Carlton wasn't going to call him out on it. For now.

            The detective trudged up the stairs and realized he was getting a bit weary from the sunlight pouring through the windows. Fortunately though, he'd been given his own office after the rebuild of the SBPD and he'd already pulled the shades down earlier and was looking forward to a little bit of privacy and shade.

            Carlton was almost there when a small commotion caught his attention and he saw Shawn and Gus rush into the station, ignoring the other officers and making a B-line straight for him. "Oh Christ what now?" Carlton mumbled and dropped his hand from the doorknob so he could address the two men approaching him.

            "Lassie!" Shawn called and jogged up to him. He was holding his baby girl so he wasn't going terribly fast, but his trot seemed urgent.

            When Shawn got within reach he thrust Felicity into his arms and Carlton had to grab her quickly. "Spencer, Guster wha−" His words were cut short when an extremely bright flash went off right in his face.

            By the time his eyes cleared, he saw that Shawn and Gus were huddled over a little bright blue gizmo. "Spencer I don't know what the hell that was but don't include me in your little practical jokes."

            A small laugh brought his attention to the baby and she was smiling up at him. For some reason she always found it funny when "uncle Carlton" was grumpy. Carlton vaguely wondered how something so adorable could come from Shawn and Henry's DNA.

            Apparently Felicity's better half of the gene pool had overheard him and wandered over from her desk. "Carlton what's going on?" She asked coming up behind him. She noticed her daughter and made little raspberries in her direction.

            Nodding in Shawn and Gus' direction Carlton grumbled, "Ask them. They're the ones flashing people." He realized what he'd said a moment after saying it and saw Juliet wrinkle her nose in mock disgust. "Camera flashes."

            Juliet snorted and rolled her eyes at him before walking up to her fiancé and his friend. Reluctantly, Carlton followed. He was mildly curious as to what had their attention so captivated anyway.

            "Alright what are you two up to?" Juliet smiled, but when Shawn looked up at her, the intensity of his gaze showed her it was no joking matter. "Shawn?" He angled, what Carlton now saw was a phone, towards them and on the screen he was able to see Felicity, his dark blue suit, but that was it.

            Carlton passed the baby off to her mother and grabbed at the phone, but Gus pulled it away protectively. "I'm not going to steal it Guster! I want to get a better look." Reluctantly, the black man handed over the phone. Carlton turned the device every which way and tried to see if it was just a trick of the light, but no... he just wasn't there. "What the hell is this?"

            "No idea." Shawn shook his head, mystified. "We just found out and had to see if it was the same with you."

            Furrowing his brow, Carlton asked, "What do you mean the same with me?"

            "Look."

            Carlton watched astounded as they swiped through at least thirty photos of what was apparently Shawn, but the only thing they saw was the objects he interacted with, and his clothes. Nothing more. Some of them were almost funny, floating objects and all, but the seriousness of the situation tempered the humor.

            "This is impossible." Juliet lowered her voice so the other officers around them wouldn't hear. "I thought vampires not showing up in mirrors and pictures was a myth."

            "It is!" Shawn stressed. "At least as far as I was told." He still looked unsure.

            Carlton guessed it was something they would have to ask Mick St. John, their vampire detective friend from LA, or Josef Kostan, a wise yet vain four hundred year old vampire and mentor.

            Suddenly, a disturbing thought occurred to Carlton as he watched them check out the pictures again. "Guster, what kind of phone is this?"

            "It's a StarLite phone. Newest on the market."

            "And how many of these are out there?" Carlton continued, hoping his theory was wrong.

            Gus snorted, "Please! This is the most wanted phone out there. Actually just came out this morning. By next week half the world is going to have one of these babies, and I have one of the first." He smirked smugly.

            Shawn's face went slack and Carlton knew his sire had just come to the same conclusion he had. "So, hundreds of people are walking around right now with a cell phone that makes vampires look invisible?" Carlton cringed as fear trickled through the air and Shawn's eyes paled. "We need to call them."

            "Call who?" Gus asked, concern marking his face as well.

            "Everyone. There's not much we can do about the phones already out, but we need to stop people from getting more. Maybe Josef could do something, get a hold of someone to stop this." Shawn balled his fists at his sides and closed his eyes in an attempt to calm down.

            "Shawn," Gus said slowly. "I know Josef has connections and all, but we're talking about the entire world. This phone is going to be everywhere."

            Carlton could tell Gus and Juliet were concerned that Shawn was over reacting, but he doubted they knew how important secrecy was to vampires. It kept both sides safe. Vampires safe from human hunters, and humans safe from vampires who would otherwise go on killing sprees but didn't because of their code. Now, all it would take for them to be ousted would be some schmuck taking a 'selfie.'

            "We can at least warn them." Carlton sighed. "Doing nothing isn't going to help anyone."

            "Oh my God, I have to call Coraline!" Gus grabbed his phone and quickly headed outside to make his call.

            "Spencer," Carlton got the younger man's attention. "You should call Morgan. Let him know what is going on. He has government contacts and he could do something too. I'll call the others."

            Nodding and coming back to himself, Shawn opened his eyes. He looked next to him at Juliet and his baby. "Things were going too good for us weren't they."

            The statement almost broke Carlton's heart. He'd gotten a lot more respect for Shawn since they'd been turned and his sire had been through hell and back, but still the blows kept coming. "I suppose so Shawn." Carlton spun around and headed for his office, before he could say something, God forbid, endearing. There was no time for sentiments right then anyway. Things were going to change fast, and they had to be ready for it. He had the sinking feeling that being a vampire was about to become more of a liability than ever.

            “Thank you for shopping Burbank Buy More!”

            Morgan Grimes doubted he could be heard above the throng of people crowding around the Nerd Herd desk. After the initial wave of customers clamoring to buy the StarLite cell phone, they all moved over to the store’s tech help desk where he was currently stationed, greeting people. Even though the whole store was a front for their spy business, it still needed to be kept up and he was still the manager and needed to make an appearance.

            Beside him was the leader of the Nerd Herd, his best friend Chuck, who was patiently explaining the new features of the phone to a customer. However, the co-workers next to him, Lester and Jeff, were currently showing off the phone's durability by smashing it against Jeff's head. Repeatedly.

            Morgan was doing his best to ignore them, and the hunger beginning to gnaw at his psyche. He'd have to head to their base under the store, they called it Castle, to get some blood soon. Standing out in near sunlight was really starting to take it's toll, not to mention being bombarded with scents and emotions from so many people was making him super anxious, and hungry.

            After greeting probably his thousandth customer of the day, despite being barely after 1pm, his phone rang. He looked down and saw it was Shawn Spencer. Quickly excusing himself and earning a puzzled look from Chuck, he moved to the enclosed entertainment system room for some privacy.

            “Hey there bud.” Morgan greeted his blood brother.

“Morgan. I really need to talk to you.”

As much as Morgan liked talking to Shawn, they were completely swamped, and he was sure that Shawn would understand. “Not the best time. We’re getting slammed here and I don’t exactly have a ton of privacy right now.” His eyes flicked to a family bringing their young children into the room to look around, and one of them definitely needed to be changed.

“Are you still selling the phones?”

Rolling his eyes Morgan groaned. Shawn must have seen Gus' new phone and wanted one for himself. “You really should have gotten here with Gus this morning. We’re almost sold out…” A very loud growl came through the phone. “Whoa! Chill dude we’ll probably get more if you want one that badly!”

“That’s not the point! You need to stop selling those phones right now! It's the camera, man! We don’t show up on it. It’s like we’re invisible or something.”

Alarmed by his intensity, it took a moment for Shawn's words to register and Morgan scoffed in disbelief. He then nervously eyed the family in the room with him. It really wasn't the place to get into this kind of discussion. He turned his back and walked nonchalantly out of the room before ducking quickly into his office before replying. “Invisible? Like, “vampires don’t have a reflection” invisible?”

“Yes. Exactly that.”

He couldn’t believe it. Josef had told him that with the age of digital photography vampires luckily didn’t have to worry about that anymore. Much to their relief. With social media, if vampires didn’t show up in mirrors or film, there’d be no hiding at all…

Then, suddenly, it dawned on him why Shawn was so upset. One picture could completely ruin them, let alone thousands of pictures. “Dude?! Do you know how many of those things we sold today!? How many of these people are still walking around the store with them?”

“They’re still in the store!?” Shawn exclaimed excitedly, “Get them! As many as you can! Say they’re defective, anything! Just don’t let them leave with those phones!”

Morgan bit his lip, he knew exactly what he needed to do, but didn’t know how much help it would be if millions of stores around the world were selling the cell phones too. “What about Mick and Josef, what did they say?”

“Lassie is dealing with them. Just please hurry. I’ll give you a call later.”

Hanging up, Morgan sprinted out of the office and straight to the store PA system. He knew just what to do.

Years ago, even before Morgan started working at the Buy More, there had been a simple word that was supposed to non-descript and innocent sounding as not to cause a panic in the customers if something were to go wrong. It had since evolved into a word that no one was to speak, ever, lest it cause a berserker frenzy among the employees leading to store wide chaos. It was only ever used in the direst of circumstances, when lives were on the line.

Times like this.

Morgan took a deep breath, and steeled himself for the inevitable backlash he’d get from Chuck and Casey, who he hadn’t warned. “Hello! Everyone! May I have your attention please!?”

Those who knew him best narrowed their eyes, figuring he was up to something. Others looked to him as their fearless leader, ready to do his bidding at a moment's notice. Though the Buy More employees were a fickle bunch, he'd earned their respect more than once. From that respect he gained a trove of loyal, yet sometimes hopelessly lazy, followers.

"Buy More employees... PINEAPPLE!"

---------------------------------

            Mick leaned back in his office chair, sipping a cup of blood and watching the news. It had been a busy couple of months case wise and he was enjoying the lull between cases. Truth be told he'd had more excitement in the last year than he'd wanted, but it all seemed to turn out alright, for the most part.

            He was just about to go see how Josef was doing when his phone rang. Seeing it was Carlton Lassiter, he answered it quickly. "St. John."

            "St. John, we have trouble."

            Mick took a moment to lament on the fact that his quiet days never really turned out to be all that quiet. "What's wrong? Is it Shawn?"

            Josef and Mick had gone out of their way to make sure that someone was keeping an eye on Shawn at all times. He'd been inches from going feral, and despite the fact that Josef decided to let him go home, they were keeping very close tabs on him.

            "No, it's not Spencer..." Carlton paused, "Well it is Spencer, but not like that."

            "Okay, what is that supposed to mean?"

            "You heard of those new phones they've been advertizing all over for the last two weeks, Starshine or something hippy sounding like that."

            "You mean StarLite?" He'd heard of the phones. Beth expressed interest in them, and Mick had half thought about seeing if Josef could use his connections to get her one early.

            "They don't show us, St. John. Camera, video, nothing! It's like we aren't there."

            Mick stood up from his desk and immediately turned on the news, searching for any proof that this was true and that their secret was out. A small voice in his head told him it was too soon, the phones had just come out that day, but even an inkling of their secret in the media was cause for alarm. "Are you sure? It isn't Shawn playing a joke is it?"

            "They're just as stumped as I am. Spencer and Guster came rushing in the precinct making a scene and somehow those idiots got one of those phones. We don't show up in picture or video. How is this possible?"

            Of course a detective would immediately want to know the how, why and the who, but Mick didn't have it. Silver in the photographic process and silver backed mirrors were the only reason that vampires historically cast no reflection. There was no reason a modern phone could cause that. Maybe he'd have to see if Josef could get his hands on one after all.

            "I don't know either. Digital photography doesn’t use silver… I’ll call Josef and we'll try to figure something out. Meantime, keep your ears open, we can't have a panic. Human or otherwise." If human's panicked it would be bad for vampires, but if vampires panicked it would only make matters worse.

            "Just tell everyone to be careful. Spencer is talking to Grimes right now and squaring things away on that end." There was a pause before Carlton asked, "Is there any way to halt their distribution? Some kind of emergency plan that vampires have in case something like this happened?"

            Mick thought of the cleaners, but even their operation was too small. Their only purpose was really to deal with the vampire population if things got out of hand. There weren't enough to deal with all the humans. Even if they called in all their human contacts there wouldn't be enough people to stop it. The more he thought about it, the more afraid he became, but he didn't want to worry the detective. Not yet anyway.

            "I'll see what I can do. Josef might be able to call in some favors and at least stop some stores from selling any more."

            "Good. I'm going to see what Grimes and the other tech-nerds said. Maybe they have some good news."

            "Good plan. I'll call you later." Mick said, and hung up before dialing again right away. He really should have been calling Josef, but he needed Beth. He could already feel the panic setting in. Coraline had told him about the vampire purges in the French Revolution, and saw the terror on her face as she recounted the mercilessness of the humans as they executed vampire after vampire.

            "Hello? Mick?"

            "Beth!" He tried to keep the shaking out of his voice. "I need you to come home. Something's happened. We're about to be outed."

            "We?" She asked, obviously thinking he meant them as a couple.

            "Vampires, Beth."

            “I’ll be there in two minutes.” Beth answered before hanging up. Despite the situation, his girlfriend's reply brought a smile to his face. He knew there was a reason he loved her.

 

-----------------------------

            As Shawn peeked around the corner, listening in on Carlton's conversation with Mick, he tried not to be angry that him going feral again was the first thing that came to their minds. He knew the others were still skittish about him, no matter how many times he'd told them that he was okay, or how many times he had to tell himself that he was okay. Hearing it out loud though, really put a damper on his already stressed out mood.

            Once Carlton was off the phone, he came around the corner, acting as if he'd just arrived. "Lassie, did Mick know anything about what's going on?"

            With a small scowl, Carlton shook his head. "No. St. John had no idea about the phones. He mentioned something about silver but it isn’t used in photography anymore. There would be no reason a digital camera wouldn't be able to get our pictures."

            Filing that information away for later he asked, "Is he going to talk to Josef then?"

            "Yeah, he's going to see if Kostan can do something to stop them."

             The older vampire did have a lot of business connections. He might even be able to put a dent in the distribution. "Ditto with Morgan. He can't do much, but he can stop people from leaving the store with them."

            Carlton pursed his lips and nodded, understanding. An awkward silence hung in the air between them until Juliet headed back over with Felicity and Karen wasn't far behind her, obviously having heard about the news. "Mr. Spencer, O'Hara just informed me about the phones. Is there anything I can do?"

            Shawn thought about it. Unfortunately it wasn't illegal to have the phones, so she couldn't arrest the owners... but she could keep an eye on them. "Chief, can you get a list from the stores in the area that sold these? Maybe we could, I dunno, watch them or something?" There really wasn't much they could do at that point, but maybe surveillance would keep his mind occupied.

            With an exasperated sigh, Karen said, "Besides being highly illegal and an invasion of privacy, I don't think we even have the man power to do that right now. I'm sorry." Shawn's face fell. So much for keeping occupied. "What I can do, is watch Felicity for you tonight if you need to go anywhere to discuss things." She reached out to the baby and took her expertly into her own arms. "Kyle loves having her over."

            The chief had her own baby boy shortly after Juliet, and the two children got along well. Shawn was grateful for the offer. "Yeah, that would work. We have a lot to talk about." He began to wonder how he'd tell his dad. The old man would probably find a way to blame him for this too though.

            "Alright then. You can drop her off in a few hours." She gave both Shawn and Juliet a reassuring smile as she put Felicity in his arms. "Until then, I believe my detectives still have some work to do."

            With a determined nod Carlton went back to his desk, but Shawn doubted he'd be getting any work done. If the vibes he was getting were any indicator anyway. Frustration and anger were the big ones, but there was also worry and fear.

            "Shawn?" Juliet waved her hand in front of his face. "Are you alright?"

            Blinking, Shawn looked at Juliet, and he didn't need to feel her worry and fear, he could see it plainly on her face. "Sorry Jules, I'm fine. Just tired."

            She pursed her lips like she didn't believe him, but she nodded anyway. "Well, maybe we could get some rest tonight with Felicity gone, it's been a while since it was just the two of us."

            Shawn leaned in and kissed her forehead. "You can be Vivian Ward from Pretty Woman, and I can draw you a nice hot bath..."

            Juliet blushed, but played coy and gave her daughter a peck on the cheek before joining her partner at their desks. He waited until she was gone before turning and heading for the exit. He growled low, frustrated at his lack of ability to do anything about the situation. "Hurry up and wait, eh Doodlebug?" Felicity merely smiled and cocked her head, blissfully ignorant of how much danger they were all in.

            I'll just have to wait and see what Gus heard from Coraline.

            He followed his friends lavender scent trail that led out the front door, easily spotting the blue car near the rebuilt hedges that separated the front parking lot and the main building. He quickly put on his sunglasses and headed for the shaded area. "Buddy! Any news?"

            "No. She didn't answer." Gus sounded worried, but Shawn figured she could still be asleep. It was barely afternoon, and unless she had any appointments, she would most likely be held up in her freezer. "How long do you think before people figure it out?"

            "The question is, how long before most of the other vampires figure it out."

            "What?"

            "C'mon man. If vampires found out that they could be found out with just a picture, what do you think most of them would do to protect their secret? Even the cleaners, they'd want to get rid of any witnesses."

            Gus scoffed in disbelief. "Shawn, that would only make things worse."

            "Worse is only the beginning Gus." Holding Felicity in on arm and snatching the phone away from Gus with the other, he flipped it over and examined the camera. Shawn thought back to Carlton's statement about what caused vampires to not be seen. His sneaking suspicions were confirmed when a small silver glint caught his eye when the camera reflected the sun back into his eyes. He blinked and moved the phone away, "I think the lens they used in this is silver."

            "Lemme see!" Gus snatched the phone back, and after looking for himself, decided the best thing to do was research it. "There's gotta be something about this on the website."

            "Don't you think it's a little weird to be looking up a phone on the phone itself?"

            "Shut up, Shawn." After a moment, Gus found it. "Listen to this: The Starlite cell phone has an innovative camera lens that takes clarity to a whole new level. The world's smallest digital single lens reflex camera makes your video and pictures come alive. Oh my God, you were right! It's literally a miniature, silver mirror!"

            "Aaaaannnd things just got worse." Shawn hung his head. "How can this be happening?"

            Gus put away the phone, still shaking his head. "Look Shawn, things will cool down. I mean, what are the chances that someone is going to catch a vampire on film anyway?"

            Shawn understood Gus' need to explain things, but the problem was that his buddy hadn't really seen any vampires besides their little group. Despite the aftermath of his forced fledglings, Gus still naively considered their race to be more like Mick, Coraline, and Josef. Even Lance, despite being a complete psychopath, kept things in their own circle; Secret and unseen by the human world.

            What Gus didn't know, and what Shawn's own fight with his instincts had taught him, is that given the right opportunity some vampires would tear down any social norms and plunge things into complete chaos just to be able to hunt humans as they see fit. Their secrecy wasn't just protection for them, it gave them rules to govern and control.

            The only question was, after being exposed, who would strike first; Concerned humans, or a rogue out for a good time?

            Shawn pursed his lips and pointed to the phone. "I'd say the chances are pretty good if we found out about it within the first three minutes. Things are about to get bad buddy, really bad."

 

            "In other news, the Burbank Buy More was evacuated due to what some are calling, a 'staff riot.' Sandra Playa is on the scene with some of the customers."   

            "All I remember is someone yelling something over the intercom and it became bedlam!"

            Carlton looked up at the television with a scowl. Leave it to Morgan to almost bring more attention to the situation than help fix it. Never the less, he did stop more of those godforsaken cell phones from being sold, and that was at least something.

            "Carlton, are you okay?" Marlowe sat up on their couch and looked at him questioningly.

            He hadn't told her about what had happened yet. He'd basically come home, gotten blood, and slumped down on the couch, turning the TV on. It wasn't something Carlton did often, and he knew it would raise his wife's suspicions, but he'd been too tired and worried to say much.

            "Baby, something happened at work..."

            It didn't take as long as he'd thought it would to explain the horrible position that they, and vampires in general had been put in. There was still a chance that things would smooth over. Maybe.

            The first thing Marlowe asked after he'd given her the rundown was, "How are Shawn and Juliet taking it?"

            Carlton smirked, his wife did tend to think of others before herself. "O'Hara and Spencer are using tonight to plan, and maybe tell his mother and father what's going on."

            Marlowe nodded. "Does this mean it wouldn't be a good time then?"

            The detective bit his lip. He had a feeling this was coming. "Marlowe, until this blows over, I think we should wait. I'm sorry but−"

            "No. No I get it. It's alright Honey Bear." She got up from the couch and leaned over to kiss him. "I'll see you before you go to bed." Their lips touched briefly before she walked to their room and closed the door.

            Putting his head in his hands, Carlton growled in frustration. She wanted to be turned, and he wanted to turn her, but it never seemed to work out timing wise. Things kept popping up and now, even to himself, it started to sound like he was making excuses not to.

            Damn it Spencer this is all your fault!

            Deep down Carlton knew it wasn't even close to Shawn's fault, but it was his own fears of what could happen to Marlowe if he turned her. Anyone with a brain could see that Shawn was barely holding it together, and even the thought that something similar could happen to Marlowe was more than he could stomach.

            Is that all we are? Just animals waiting until something happens that brings out our beast?

            He'd been asking himself that question since day one, but the day he and Shawn had to confront their first rogue in Santa Barbara, it really began to eat at him.

-----------------------------------------

Three Months Earlier:

            It had been less than a couple months since Shawn had come back, and Juliet had come off of maternity leave just a week before. She was still on desk duty, but had been happy to have something to do and said she was sick of all the guys fawning over her because according to her she was 'perfectly fine.'

            Karen Vick had still been on her own maternity leave, having her son only a couple weeks after Felicity had been born, so Carlton had been made Acting Chief once he'd assured her that he could handle it. Albeit, in retrospect he shouldn't have brought the subject up during her labor.

            He remembered the day had seemed almost blissfully... normal. Carlton had the office door open, so he could see what was going on in the bullpen while he finished up some papers. It was just past four in the afternoon, when Shawn had showed up with a smoothie for Juliet, and to let her know that Felicity was at his parent's house for the afternoon.

            "C'mon Jules! We haven't had any us time in weeks!" He gave her his best pout, while Gus wrinkled his nose at the innuendo.

            Carlton smirked, and figured he was jealous because Coraline had been out of the country for a bit, getting things in line so she could move most of her research back to the States. He was just going to get up and tell them to break up the love fest, and that his partner still had some work to do. It was the same old, same old, that almost gave him comfort that everything really would be okay.

            That's why no one had been prepared for the call to come in.

            "Attention all units: Person acting erratically at Paseo Nuevo shopping center on State Street. Be advised, subject may be armed and unstable."

            Carlton stopped at the door, listening for any more information. Shawn froze and was doing the same. Paseo Nuevo was the same mall that Zach, one of the gang members that kidnapped Shawn and turned himself, had killed three people at almost six months ago. Karen and The Cleaners had smoothed the situation over, but some of the families were still demanding answers and there was a memorial for the victims currently going on.

            Hundreds of people were there.

            Carlton didn't know why, but he had a sinking feeling that something was very wrong.

            "That can't be a coincidence." He stated, walking closer to the radio. "What is his description?" He was really hoping it was just a remorseful relative of one of the victims, who had too much to drink and was getting a bit unruly.

            A few of the other officers, as well as Shawn, Juliet, and Gus gathered around the dispatcher, who was looking decidedly nervous to have his boss staring him down. "Caucasian, 5'8", blond hair. According to the officers on site for the memorial, he's wearing a lot of leather, biker gear." Carlton saw Shawn physically relax. He'd probably been hoping it wasn't Adam and that the large, redheaded man was still somewhere in Timbuktu with Pierre Despereaux. Carlton could say he felt the same. "They also said he did say something about the murders being vam−"

            Before the dispatcher could continue, a transmission blasted through the radio. "Dispatch, he has a hostage!"

            Shawn and Carlton acted instantly, both turning around and running out the door for their respective vehicles with both of their partners right on their heels. Carlton didn't know how he'd called it, but it definitely had something to do with the murders. He and Juliet hopped in the car, despite his protests. "O'Hara I need you to stay out of this!"

            "No chance partner. Drive!" She smacked the dashboard.

            Gritting his teeth, he knew, that she knew, that they didn't have time to argue about this. "Fine."

            Gus hopped in his Blueberry while Shawn veered away and got in his green Charger.

            Carlton and Juliet got out of the parking lot first and both Psych cars were in quick pursuit towards Paseo Nuevo, only three minutes away.

            Oddly, when they pulled up, there didn't seem to be any panic yet. Patrons were still going about their holiday shopping, and there was a larger group hanging out at the side entrance where most of the candles were being lit for the memorial. Being in the middle of December, it was already almost full dark despite the early hour.

            Suddenly, there appeared to be a shift in the mood, a lot of shoppers were leaving very quickly, and the first screaming person exited shortly after. The mourners on the side were curious at first, but then more officers showed up and started to usher people away and secure the doors.

            Jumping out, Carlton went into 'Chief Mode' and pulled one of the officers over, finally getting a brief on the whole situation. "The memorial had just started, and this guy gets up, saying that vampires were responsible, and that everyone there was part of the food chain. A few of the relatives tried to get him quiet, some were rougher than others, but this guy... he tossed a two hundred pound man like he was a sack of flour and ran into the store."

            "No. No no no." Shawn grumbled and paced like a panther who's territory had just been invaded. Gus tried to comfort him but his helping hand was brushed off. The scents he was giving off were chaotic, caught between excitement and rage, but the detective couldn't have his sire going off the handle.

            "Cool it Spencer!" Carlton growled back at him and motioned for the officer to continue while Shawn tried some deep breaths.

            The officer looked nervously at Shawn before continuing. "After he got inside, he grabbed a lady who was Christmas shopping and backed himself into a corner. We can't get to him."

            "Alright. Back everyone out, but keep them close. I'm going in to negotiate." The officer nodded and radioed the plan to the other officers. He turned to Shawn, "Are you ready for this?"

            Shawn closed his eyes, and nodded. "I can do it Lassie." While Carlton readied his silver clip, Shawn addressed Juliet. "Jules, you and Gus stay here!" Shawn ordered, holding his fiancé's shoulders and looking her in the eye.

            "You've got to be kid−"

            "If he gets past us we need you to get him or keep him away from the civilians until we can get The Cleaners down here. The cops don't know what they're dealing with and a lot of them could get hurt if he gets loose." Finally understanding, Juliet nodded. "Good girl. Gus, keep her safe."

            "You know that's right." The men bumped fists and Shawn turned, indicating he was ready.

            They made their way through the crowd and were let into the almost deserted mall. Down the archway they could see a couple of officers keeping their sights on the suspect until they got there. "Lassie, you go from the front. I'll sneak up from behind and see if I can get the girl away from him."

            Carlton considered for a moment and agreed, nodding. "What the hell are we going to do once we get him? We can't take him to the station." This whole thing was way too public to brush it off as a 'drunk and disorderly.'

            "I don't know. You think maybe we'll figure that out when he doesn't have a woman by the neck." Shawn cocked an eyebrow at him, and pulled out a vial from his pocket.

            Carlton got a whiff immediately and groaned. "No... not that stuff again."

            "Would you rather him find out and announce to the whole force what we are, or do you want to get up in there right now like a super cop and save her?"

            The detective didn't reply. He simply took the dropper and put who drops on himself. Luckily, they found out they didn't have to practically roll in the stuff, just a dab would do it. Unfortunately it also messed with their own sense of smell too. "Aren't you going to put some on?" Carlton asked.

            Shawn put the vial in his pocket without putting even a drop on. "I need to be able to get a read on him. Besides, you're stinky enough for both of us."

            "I'm going to kill you." Carlton knew he'd smell for days no matter how hard he scrubbed. Last time Marlowe wouldn't even touch him until the stink had worn off.

            "Save that pent up rage for the rogue okay, buddy?" Shawn patted him on the back and ran quickly, and surprisingly quietly, up the stairs to the second floor.

            Stifling a growl, Carlton took his gun out and slowly made his way to the corner near the food court. Once the other vampire laid eyes on him, he quickly adjusted his position, addressing the new threat. The other officers turned and looked to him for help. The rogue had himself almost completely covered by the woman, and they had no shot.

            Stepping forward he stated, "I'm Acting Chief Carlton Lassiter of the SBPD. Let the woman go, and put your hands on your head." Carlton didn't recognize him at all, which was good, but he could definitely see the vampire was hungry, and very agitated. The rogues face was normal for the moment, but the silvery white bleeding into his eyes was giving away his state of mind.

            The hostage's life was hanging by a very thin string.

            "Chief? what do you want us to do?" One of the officers next to him asked.

            "You two go down the corridor and make sure he doesn't get past me. I'll try to talk him down." It was the only way to get them out of harms way if this went bad. They both quickly did as he asked, and stopped to usher a couple more scared patrons out from under the tables.

            Then, it was just him and the rogue.

            The other vampire's eyes narrowed, and his nose wrinkled in disgust at the cover scent Carlton had put on. "Stay back! I'll bleed her out if you come one step closer!" To make is point, his nail grew out and he pressed it right against the woman's jugular. She moaned in fear and he put his nose next to her neck, sniffing up the line of her flesh to her hair. Fear was like ambrosia for vampires, and it was just a matter of time before he snapped.

            Carlton knew he had to get him talking. "I know what you are. This doesn't have to end badly, let her go."

            That got the rogue's attention from the woman back to him. "You have no idea what I am, or what I can do. This place should be a goddamn shrine!" The rogue looked around in reverence. "Not to the cattle who were killed, but to the vampire that had the balls to show the world exactly what he was... what WE are."

            Mick and Josef had warned him that vampires like this were out there, searching for any reason to show themselves. It's why The Cleaners wanted to take care of it so quickly. Copycats were common.

            Vampire see, vampire do.

            "What are you besides a wannabe who crashes someone else's party?" Carlton knew he'd probably gone to far, but the little jerk-off was getting on his nerves, but he also had to be careful what he said with the woman right there. "How do you think this is going to end for you?"

            The rogue's smile was unnerving to say the least. "I'm going to show the world what we're capable of." He sneered. "Starting with you and the woman. Next, the whole town!" Carlton's grip tightened on the trigger. He didn't want to risk hitting the hostage, but in a second he'd have no other choice.

            Then, the rogue's demeanor changed and he sniffed the air, turning towards the darkness shadows of one of the food court pillars. From behind it Shawn stepped out, fully changed and pale with fangs showing. The hostage gasped in horror. "No! Please! Oh my God, don't kill me!"

            Carlton was shocked and furious. He'd been playing everything straight while Shawn had the plan to expose himself as a vampire the whole time. Damn it Spencer!

            While Carlton was still cursing Shawn's name, the rogue was still trying to assess whether Shawn was friend or foe. "Who the hell are you?"

            Shawn came closer and put his hands up. "Hey man, I'm just here because I smelled something was up." The rogue backed up further, protecting his meal. "I'm not here to take her. I've already eaten." Shawn grinned and showed his fangs. "I figured you could use a hand with the detective over there."

            The psychic's heartbeat was steady and calm. No doubt the rogue could tell it too. If Carlton hadn't known better, he'd say that Shawn was about to turn on him.

            "You can help me? You can help me show them?" The excitement in the man's voice was clear.

            "Yeah. Take'em out and show them who's really on top of the food chain. I was just waiting for someone with the same...agenda." Shawn moved closer, as if sensing the other vampire relaxing at his presence. "We could take the whole town. Really show them what we can do. That's what you want right?" Another step closer...

            Apparently it was one step too close. The rogue reacted and moved to bite the woman. Shawn reacted too, faster than the rogue he reached and grabbed the woman out of the other vampire's grip, only leaving a small chunk of her hair in his hands. Once safe, the now screaming hostage was pushed towards Carlton and he caught her. "It's okay. There are officer's down the hallway, get to them!"

            He wasn't sure if the panicked woman had understood what he'd said or not but she ran in the general direction that he'd pointed, which was good enough for him. Turning around Carlton saw both vampires struggling and screeching on the floor.

            "This is my town you crazy sonofa bitch!" Shawn growled, gouging a deep line of claw marks on the rogue's face and putting him in a headlock. A knee to Shawn's stomach forced them apart again before Carlton could enter the fray.

            Both detectives circled the cornered rogue. Their line's gift instinctively let each of them know how to move in tandem with the other to keep their prey secure and trapped. Shawn's teeth were bared, ready to attack, just waiting for the opportunity to tear the rogue to pieces for invading his town. The look in his eyes was akin to his look before he'd ripped Zach's head off with a chain and Carlton worried that they'd have to be cleaning up a body instead of wondering how to keep a live vampire in jail.

            The rogue roared charged at Shawn again, teeth and claws aimed to rip his face off. Shawn deftly dodged to the left, grabbing the back of the rogue's leather jacket and slamming him to the ground face first. "Lassie! A little help here!" He called from the angry vampire's back.

            Quickly grabbing the silver cuffs from the velvet case his pocket, Carlton latched them onto the rogue's hands that Shawn had wrapped around his back. As soon as the silver came in contact with the vampire's skin he screamed, cursing Shawn for betraying his own kind.

            "GAAH! You take the side of humans over us?! You deserve to be dusted mother fu−"

            Carlton had enough. He was stressed, and didn't have time to argue with a psychopath. His inner vampire burst through and he'd roared in the rogue's face. "Shut up!" The rogue went silent, surprise and terror on his face realizing just how outnumbered he actually was. Honestly Carlton surprised himself more with the display of authority.

            "Wow, Lassie I didn't know you had it in you." Shawn grinned, still holding the rogue down, and still fully transformed.

            Fury surged up at the boneheaded move Shawn had pulled. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you want The Cleaners to erase you? That woman saw everything!"

            "Relax Lass." Shawn wiped a bit from his face and a white base powder showed on his sleeve.

            Carlton gaped. "How−?"

            "Shawn!"

            "Carlton!"

            Both of them turned to see their partners running up to them along with at least a dozen officers. Juliet and Gus caught sight of Shawn's face and gasped. A few of the other officers saw too. It didn't help that the hostage behind them was yelling about vampires trying to eat her.

            "Shawn, what did you do?" Juliet asked, frightened at the repercussions they'd all face if anyone found out.

            With a knowing laugh, Shawn started wiping off  the white make up on his face, and the reddish tint around his eyes. "Claire's still had a bin of Halloween costume make up that hadn't sold. I saw it last week when we were here shopping with Felicity. Lassie distracted him, while I  put on vampire make up to get close to him."

            It was a good cover. Really good, and Carlton had to hand it to Shawn thinking on the fly like that. Now, no matter how much the man screamed about vampires short of changing into one himself (which Carlton and Shawn would never let happen) no one would believe him.

            Juliet hugged him tightly while Carlton leaned into his ear and hissed, "Now can I ask what we do with him?" They couldn't keep a vampire in jail for long. Someone would find out the truth.

            Juliet broke away and he shrugged. "Relax. I'll call The Cleaners and keep an eye on him till they get here to 'post bail.'"

            At the mention of The Cleaners, the rogue started to struggle again. "You think this is over! You'll see! Once they know what you are they'll kill you like the rest of us!"

            Playing dumb, Carlton pushed the man forward while holding him as tight as he could, "Sure whacko. Tell it to your lawyer."

--------------------------------

            The Cleaners had gotten there in two hours flat, and the rogue was 'extradited' to Los Angeles for other crimes he'd supposedly committed there. The SBPD was more than happy to get that loon off of their hands and didn't ask too many questions as he was hauled away, still screaming about vampires ruling the world.

            That's what got Carlton thinking. What if rogues weren't the exception, but the norm?

            Unfortunately, that meant he and his friends who lived and worked with humans were the freaks. That would also mean that the only thing keeping most of their kind in line was the fear of repercussions. In that case, it would only be a matter of the status quo changing to bring out the real side of their species. It was the same with humans on some level, but humans couldn't lift Buicks and slice someone in half from stomach to neck with their claws in one swipe.

            Vampires were bred to kill, and that's exactly what they'd do.

            It was a terrifying thought, for anyone, let alone someone wanting to bring their wife into that kind of life. "I can't do that to her, not now."

            With a heavy sigh, Carlton walked to his room to lay with Marlowe for a while before getting in his freezer. So far she'd been patient with him, and he hoped her patience would last because this situation was far from over.

-------------------------------

Two weeks later:

            "See Mick. See! 'I told you so' doesn't even cover this!" Josef paced, swigging his blood and randomly throwing his arm in the air for emphasis. "It's a catastrophe! We're finished. Ruined! We'll be hunted to extinction and burned alive!"

            He always was a nervous eater. Mick thought as he watched his friend practically tear his hair out watching the newest reports come in on the StarLite phones.

            Not even two weeks after the phones were released, despite the best efforts of the vampires with clout in the technology world, the dam had already started to break. Too many of the phones had gotten out, and when people began to use them, to Snap Chat, Twitter, and Vine it was all too apparent when people just 'didn't show up.'

            Everyone thought it was funny at first. Balls floating in mid-air and such. Then it was friends refusing to be photographed, news reports showing clothes moving by themselves, and people saying the "V" word.

            So far, the media was playing it up as an elaborate prank. Mick wasn't sure if some vampires in power were behind some, if not all of the covering up. Reporters would say it's some kid with too much time on his hands who thought it would be funny to fake invisible people in their videos. According to them, the other videos popping up of the same thing were just part of the fad, like 'planking' or the 'cinnamon challenge.'

            "Monkey see, monkey do." As he'd heard Josef put it when he'd seen a video of kids simultaneously eating bananas and drinking Sprite with horrible results.

            However, just this morning, a Buzzwire news broadcast had shown their network affiliate on scene complete with live video of the apprehension of a robbery suspect. No big issues there, but it was the video turned into them later that morning that showed the same apprehension, but two of the paparazzi were missing from the footage. Of course their cameras were there, and their clothes, but nothing else. They even had the time stamp from when the video was taken, and there was no way it could have been altered, at least that quickly.

            It had been playing off and on all afternoon, showing the side by side video of the disappearing young men that no one had been able to explain. Mick knew that they wouldn't ever be able to explain it, and it was only the start.

            "We just have to lay low for a while Josef. Let it run it's course. You know humans, people will get bored and it will die off." Mick hardly believed it himself, but it was better than spreading mass panic among a volatile species.

            Josef stopped his pacing, and put his drink down with a sigh, not meeting the private detective's gaze. "Mick, I love your sense of insufferable optimism, but I think in this case the only thing that will be dying off... is us."

Juliet’s eyes fluttered open, revealing darkness except for the slight reddish glow from her alarm clock. It read 02:30AM. She wouldn't have to be up for at least three more hours and wondered what had woken her. She had an ear for Felicity's cries, but she hadn't heard the telltale wail of a hungry baby.

             A quick glance to the closet and the empty freezer and she realized that Shawn wasn’t in the room with her. Juliet started to worry before her rational mind broke through her sleepy one.

            He must be with Felicity.

She smiled and closed her eyes to go back to sleep. If he'd gotten up to take care of the baby, and didn't bother to wake her, she wasn't going to look that gift horse in the mouth. Months of full time work and part time sleeping had been taking it's toll and she was exhausted.

Before she could nod off, however, she heard a faint voice, and it sounded like it was singing.

"It's so hard to get old without a cause, I don't want to perish like a fleeing horse."

She realized it was what must have woken her up, and the detective’s curiosity started to override her need for sleep. With a sigh, Juliet sat up and got her slippers on.

"Youth's like diamonds in the sun, and diamonds are forever…"

As she crept closer, she recognized the tune and smiled sadly. Her fiancé, the 80’s music archive that he was, would of course pick the perfect tune for both lulling a baby to sleep and lamenting about the situation they were in.

"Forever young, I want to be forever young. Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever?"

Rounding the corner, Juliet saw Shawn pacing back and forth in one of their fluffy bathrobes, singing softly to the bundle in his arms that was their daughter. He usually had to wrap her up extra warm so his colder skin didn't give her a chill. It was incredibly touching and she really wished that people would be able to see this and understand that vampires weren’t monsters.

Most of them anyway.

"Do you really want to live foreverrrrr?" Shawn’s voice cracked a little on the whispered high note, and it made her smile despite the sour tone.

She slipped up behind him, knowing that he knew she was already there, and put her hands around his waist, holding him while he held Felicity. "I liked that song."

"Sorry I woke you. I could hear her fussing in the other room all the way through my freezer." He turned to her and gave her a kiss before leaning his head against hers. "What are we going to do?"

"I'm sure things will tide over for now. The reports will eventually sto−"

Shawn shook his head. "No, I mean about our little nugget. What are we gonna to do when she grows up and realizes what I am?"

Juliet gave an exasperated sigh. Not at Shawn, but because she'd mulled that question over in her mind every day since she'd found out she was pregnant, and that Shawn was a vampire. The realization that if she wanted to stay with Shawn she'd have to become a vampire had crossed her mind as well, but she still had a few years to wait and choose. Felicity however, would soon start to wonder why her daddy didn't eat, why he didn't sleep in the bed with her mommy, and why there were bags of blood in the fridge.

Try telling a young child the politics and biology of being a vampire, much less the secrecy required. It was almost going to be impossible. The detective started to realize why Shawn was so upset. If all of this was going through her mind, it was hard to fathom what was going through his.

Her silence must have given him more time to think, because he shut his eyes tightly and pursed his lips. "Take her. I don't want her to see me like this, not yet."

It was hard to notice in the dim light, but his complexion had paled. He had been very careful to never let their daughter see him when he was like this.

"What if she's like me, and every time she looks at me she remembers that face." He'd reasoned to her.

Juliet took a hesitant step forward, "Shawn..."

"Jules, please." He took Felicity out of the crook of his arm and held her out. Before Juliet could take her daughter though, Juliet noticed that she was smiling and reaching out towards Shawn like it was a game. "Jules, c'mon! She's getting all wiggly!" He still had his eyes closed, and could not see what the baby was doing.

 "Open your eyes, Shawn."

"No. I can't."

"Look at her."

Shawn groaned and peeked out one half open eye. Felicity's smile widened and her grasping small hands reached for her father's face. Shawn tentatively brought her closer, wondering what she was reaching for, no doubt remembering the eye poking incident a month earlier.

Once close enough, the baby smushed Shawn's lips downward and started poking at his extended fangs, fascinated. "Eees unna urt ersel." Shawn complained, his mouth still open so his daughter could inspect his teeth.

Juliet laughed, "She'll be fine. I don't think her seeing you like this will be a problem after all."

A tear rolled down Shawn's cheek a second before he drew Felicity close and gave her a gentle hug. "How could I be lucky enough to have two amazing women in my life."

"She's just a baby girl, Shawn. Don't try and make her grow up too fast."

            As soon as Shawn pulled Felicity back from the hug, she went back to investigating his mouth. "I erd it oaf ays."

-----------------------------

            "Shawn, get in here!" Henry shouted to the kitchen, even though he knew he didn't have to talk in more than a whisper and his son would hear him. "Just because you don't eat doesn't mean the rest of us have to starve!"

            Said vampire appeared in the doorway with a large Jell-O dish, rolling his eyes as he set the jiggly food on the table. Henry, along with Coraline, Gus, Carlton, Marlowe, Juliet, Felicity, Madeline waited at the elder Spencer's dinner table for Shawn to sit down.

            The table was brimming full. Ham with pineapple, a large dish of mashed potatoes, green beans and some corn cobs filled the crowded table with enough to feed at least ten. However, considering only six were eating, it was technically food overkill.

            Mirroring his own thoughts, Shawn looked at the table and snorted in amusement. "Who you feeding? The Donner party?"

            "Very funny, Shawn." Henry deadpanned as he grabbed the toothpicks out of the ham. "Leave it to you to pick a group famous for eating people."

            "If the shoe fits..."

            Madeline gestured for their son to sit down. "Quit giving your father a hard time, he worked really hard on dinner tonight." Henry gave her a small smile of thanks and tried hard not to blush when she looked at him like that.

            He really had worked hard, though. It was the first time they'd been able to sit down together in over a month. Coraline was just back from France the day before, and with the baby and work, Henry had only seen Shawn when he wanted someone to babysit Felicity. Not that he was complaining, but it was nice to have some normalcy with everything going on as of late.

            On the other end of the table, Gus eyed the Jell-O warily, looking from Henry to Shawn and back again. "For Christ sake Guster it's strawberry!" Carlton almost shouted, "I can smell it from here."

            "I was just making sure." He said defensively.

            As if Henry would ever allow what he was thinking in the first place. "I'm not serving blood at the dinner table, Gus. I don't want my table cloth wrecked by your phobias."

            Shawn gave his friend a pained expression that Henry knew right away was fake. "Buddy, I'm hurt. I'd never spike your food."

            "Thank you." Gus went to take a bite.

            "If you were around to see it."

            "SHAWN!"

            Henry saw Juliet smile into her napkin and meet Madeline's gaze.

            "So Coraline, how was France?" Madeline asked, changing the subject. "I haven't been there in a couple of years."

            Taking a sip of her wine, Coraline nodded "It's great. Getting the lab packed up was a chore, but I missed the country side. It was nice to go home for a while." Being a 17th century French noblewoman vampire, Henry imagined Coraline had seen a lot more of France's country side than most.

            "Do you know where you're going to set up shop?" Marlowe asked. Henry listened intently, he was just as curious as to how the whole cure business was going.

            "Gus told me there was this empty warehouse downtown. It's actually just about a quarter mile from the police station, near State Street."

            The spoon Shawn was holding to feed Felicity clattered to the floor. Everyone's eyes turned to him as he bent over with a mumbled, "Sorry." and went to go wash the spoon. His action did not need explanation and Henry was more than surprised that Gus would recommend that warehouse of all places for Coraline to have her lab.

            "Well, it was empty, and the ownership would have gone back to the city if she hadn't bought it." Gus quickly explained, trying not to stare at Shawn's back as he stood at the sink.

            Of course it was empty. The damn bastard who owned it and made my son a vampire is dead. Henry was about to give Gus a piece of his mind when Shawn interrupted him.

            "No, it's okay." Shawn had turned around and was looking right at him. Henry pursed his lips tightly because he'd momentarily forgotten that Shawn didn't have to guess how he was feeling anymore, and probably picked up his anger all the way in the kitchen. "It's a good place, the obvious aside."

            He grunted in reply as Shawn returned to the table and sat down, pointedly ignoring Carlton's eyeballing and the uncomfortable silence that followed.

            His son then brought the food filled spoon back to the grumpy and hungry baby who was already reaching for it and whining pitifully. That girl is definitely going to have Shawn's appetite.

            "This ham is delicious Henry." Madaline broke the silence, "Did you use your mother's recipe..?"

            Conversation was light after that. The vampires stuck to the table wine as the humans dug into what was probably one of the best meals he'd made in a long time, in Henry's opinion anyway. The general consensus of the night seemed to be not to talk about the elephant in the room; The increasing news reports, the paranoia and the high tension everyone was under, human and vampire alike.

            Even skeptics were at least mentioning it in casual conversation. Even yesterday while shopping for dinner ingredients, Henry overheard an argument between two friends in the middle of the grocery store. One arguing it was a prank that caught on, while the other swore she'd seen one two years before, but just never told anyone.

            The elder Spencer just ducked his head and moved on.

            Knowing what he did, Henry could also tell which news stations were backed by vampires just by their lack of curiosity that other, more independent news networks, had on the situation. The way that they either vehemently denied the existence of vampires, or ignored the story completely gave it away pretty quickly.

            Besides the news reports and what he'd heard from Shawn, Henry realized he didn't know much about how the vampire community was handling things. He knew there was an organization that policed the vampires, but what about a higher authority than that? He doubted Shawn even knew. Carlton might, he usually was more interested in that sort of thing, but it might have to be a question he asked Mick when the other vampire called to see how Shawn was doing.

            Twenty minutes, a few stuffed stomachs and a very messy baby later, Henry could tell dinner was nearing it's end. The vampires' glasses of wine had stayed half full for a while, and even Gus was slowing down on his portions.

            Henry stood to clear some things off the table. "Anyone else want any green beans before I−"

            A knock at the door startled them all.

            "Were you expecting anyone else, Henry?" Carlton asked as he and Shawn stood warily.

            Henry shook his head, watching the pair carefully for any sign that something wasn't right. "No, Karen had something else going on, she's the only other person I invited."

            "Shhhhh!" Coraline, who was closest to the door sniffed and put her hand out to hush them. "It's a vampire."

            The statement sent everyone into motion. Carlton drew his gun, while Shawn instantly put himself between the door and his family. Henry motioned for Madeline to grab Felicity and to have them get into the living room with Juliet and Marlowe taking point in case anyone got past them.

            Henry gave Madeline a concerned glance before he grabbed the shotgun and stood by Shawn. "Open the door Lassiter."

            His own Gun at the ready, the detective reached for the door and pulled it open. Henry couldn't see who it was from the angle he was at. He nor Shawn had any time to react before Carlton made a choked noise of surprise and sped outside before slamming the door behind him.

            After a beat, Henry dropped the shotgun to rest at his side as he and Shawn shared a look of confusion.

            "Dad, what the hell just happened?"

---------------------------

            As he sped out the door, making sure to close it tight behind him, Carlton grabbed the two vampires by the arms and pulled them out of view and earshot of the house. He ended up dragging them to almost the other side of the garage. He'd be damned if Shawn would catch sight or sound of the two unexpected, and in his opinion; unwelcome, guests.

            "What in God's name are you doing here Despereaux?!" Carlton demanded and he glared at the man beside him, "And what in the blue hell makes you think that bringing him here is a good idea?"

            "Well, so much for a warm welcome." Pierre Despereaux shrugged off Carlton's grip and sneered. "I thought we were on better terms than that, or has the last year made you forget your manners concerning guests?"

            Carlton snorted, "Don't give me that bull. If you didn't want a reaction out of us, you would have called ahead."

            Pierre could have stayed away literally forever as far as Carlton was concerned. Josef's younger blood brother always seemed to bring trouble, or showed up when trouble was brewing.

            Pierre dropped the offended facade and gave him a smirk, "Touché detective." He walked around and put his hand on his companion's shoulder. "I didn't let anyone know I was coming because I know how they'd react to who I brought with me."

            "I told you we shoulda' stayed away. They don't want me here! Shawn doesn't want me here." The other man stressed.

            Carlton looked the young man over. Adam Peterson used to be a member of a gang of thieves known as Las Arañas. The very Las Arañas that had almost robbed Shawn of his sanity and his life. A fluke of fate was the only thing that had saved the once twenty two year old man and made him Shawn's newest fledgling.

             In the last eight months, his curly, scraggly red hair had been cropped short and slicked back. It gave him a dashing sort of look that was most likely Pierre's doing. The stubbly beard and mustache had grown out some and it was trimmed into a nice van dyke. If the detective didn't know better, and he did, his blood brother could definitely pass for an upstanding citizen.

            Oddly, despite being taller than him by a few inches, Adam seemed to wither at his intense scrutiny. The young man quickly stepped back and turned his gaze away. Carlton hadn't expected that reaction. Sure he'd threatened him the last time they'd spoken, but he hadn't made any overt moves to follow through with said threat.

            "Quit eyeballing the boy. You're making him uncomfortable." Carlton was surprised at Pierre's stern request, but apparently he'd been projecting more than curiosity at Adam.

            What is wrong with him? Does he know what I'm feeling already?

            There wasn't even an emotional blip on his own radar from his younger 'sibling' yet. Maybe Pierre taught him something different. He'd have to ask later. However, if Pierre's earlier warnings were to be believed, their connection would deepen sooner or later the more time they spent together.

            Since Carlton preferred never rather than sooner, he figured he'd try to get them out of there as soon as he could, even if it meant hearing them out. "What do you want Despereaux?"

            "I have some news from the other side of the world, and you're not going to like it." Pierre stated, looking uncharacteristically solemn. "News that every vampire who wants to keep breathing ought to hear."

            That's it? Maybe I really can get rid of them quickly.

            "Look, we already know about the phones. I imagine England is having it's own problems too. Mick said that the cleaners and people they have in the media will get a handle on it eventually." Carlton wasn't so sure, but he hoped it was true. It sounded more convincing when Mick said it.

            Pierre nodded sympathetically, "I'm sure they've said a lot of things, but after we saw a couple of vampires' heads on pikes we decided it was time to go."

            Carlton felt his stomach drop. "You can't be serious. This is the twenty first century, not the middle ages!" Mick and Coraline had told them about the French Revolution being a human run, systematic extermination of vampires. It was why the temporary cure was developed in the first place, but to have that happen now seemed almost surreal.

            Adam swallowed hard and stepped forward, "We were in Belgium. People were raiding houses. Using those phones to flush us out and cut people down. Some weren't even vampires."

            Oh my god. The other's need to hear this. Carlton acknowledged to himself. They won't want to, but they need to. How the hell am I going to just bring them in the house?

            "Okay Despereaux, but you know as well as I do that Spencer won't let Peterson within fifty feet of his house, let alone O'Hara and the baby." Carlton pointed at the younger man. "He needs to stay outside."

            Pierre huffed. "He can't wait out here. Perhaps inside the door? Shawn wouldn't let his fledgling stand outside in the sun all day, would he?"

            "What am I going to do Despereaux?" Carlton hissed quietly, "Look at Spencer and say, 'Oh by the way, here's one of the men who kidnapped you and stole your blood, but don't kill him, because he has something important to tell you?'

            "I suppose we could just leave. I'm sure you'll do alright for yourselves..." Pierre turned to walk away.

            Carlton knew when he was being manipulated, and wasn't about to give in, but something urgent in Pierre's tone made him concede. "Fine. Damn it, I'll do my best to keep Spencer on a leash while he's here, but I make no guarantees about my partner." He led them back to the front door. "This isn't going to go well."

            Sure enough when he opened the door, things were fine until Pierre, and finally Adam came into view.

            Shock, confusion, horror, and fear blasted his senses from all sides and Shawn visibly blanched before darting into the kitchen and out of sight with Felicity. Henry and Madeline followed closely afterwards with worried shouts of, "Shawn!"

            He thanked God that Shawn had been holding the baby when they came into the house or, if the rage radiating off of him was any indication, he'd have sent Adam right through the wall with one hit.

            As it was, Carlton's partner was one step ahead of her fiancé.

            "Who the hell do you think you are? Huh!? You aren't welcome in this house! Get out!" Adam winced as his back was slammed against the wall from Juliet's rush. Carlton managed to grab her as she was reaching into her holster, trying to free her side arm.

            "Cool it O'Hara. They're here to tell us something important."

            Juliet pushed herself away from him with a glare. "You can't be serious Carlton! You know who that is!"

            "Detective, please calm down. He's agreed to stay in the foyer while we talk." Pierre placated, and Adam nodded in agreement.

            "Well, I don't care!" Gus chimed in, looking mortified to even see Adam again. "He shouldn't be showing his face around here at all after what he did."

            Adam's face contorted in a snarl. "Hey! He killed my friends too!" A commotion from the kitchen, and a spike of anger from his sire spurred Carlton into action and he rushed to block the door as Shawn rounded the corner fully changed.

            "Spencer stop!" Carlton's breath wooshed out of him from the blow to his chest and he felt himself flying backwards. Wiry arms seemed to snatch him out of mid air and were the only reason he'd missed the couch. The momentum still brought him and Coreline to the floor on their backs.

            "Shawn no!"

            "Put him down!"

            "Oh my God!"

            As Carlton's equilibrium balanced and he looked up in time to see the 6'3" man a foot off the ground and Shawn with his clawed hand wrapped around Adam's neck. Pierre was apparently caught off guard as well; he was getting to his feet while rubbing his head where it had made a dent in the hardwood wall.

            "How about it tough guy?" Shawn put his face an inch away from Adam's. "You really think you can take me in a fair fight, or do you need to shoot me in the back?" His grip went tighter and blood welled up where his claws penetrated the soft flesh.

            Undeterred and just as pissed, Adam choked out, "How about I just rip your throat out. Wouldn't that be fair, Shawn?"

            "THAT IS ENOUGH!" All attention was on the elder vampire as Pierre had obviously decided the fight needed to end.           

            The surprised silence was broken by Felicity's frightened wail and it seemed to snap Shawn out of whatever rage had taken hold of him. He let go and Adam dropped to the floor, gripping his slowly healing neck as Shawn glared and backed away.

            Carlton could see that Shawn's hand's were shaking. He couldn't tell if it was from the adrenaline or if the other man was as scared as he was. The detective had expected a reaction, but not that one.

            "Are you alright honey?" Marlowe reached down and helped him off Coraline.

            He nodded, still keeping a wary eye on Shawn. "Yeah, I'm fine pumkin."

            "Lassie I'm−" Shawn faltered and turned to Pierre, "Despereaux I didn't−" He balled his hands into fists and stood there, defeated.

            "Shawn..." Juliet reached for him but Shawn shrugged her off. "Give me a minute." He quickly stalked through the kitchen to the back door. Carlton did his best to hide his wince in sympathy when Madeline backed protectively up from her son as he came through as she was trying to comfort Felicity.

            If Shawn noticed didn't react, he just kept on walking out the door.

----------------------------------------

            Stupid, stupid, STUPID!

            Shawn paced back and forth on the covered porch, gripping his hair and clenching his teeth. His footsteps echoed loudly on the old, worn wood beneath his Pumas.

            Remember what Mick said, they're watching you. You can't tip over the edge. You can't!

            Mick, hell everybody made it clear to him that if he messed up, it was his head. He'd barely made it through the test when he'd been feral. They didn't need to give him the first chance, and he definitely wouldn't get a second one. If he went that far again, he didn't even know if he'd want a second chance. A flame thrower to the face and it'd be 'problem solved.'

            It wasn't just the cleaners he was worried about though, it was what everyone had thought of him. How could he have done that to Carlton and Pierre? He didn't even remember crossing the room, let alone taking both of them down in the span of two seconds.

            Sure they'd understand why he'd gone after Adam. He was one of the guys that turned him into a wild animal in the first place, but what about the next time? It very well could have been his dad, or his mom... or Juliet. They wouldn't have just shaked it off like the vampires did.

            He could have killed someone.

            What about his mom's reaction with Felicity? Did they think he was a danger to his daughter? Was he a danger to his daughter?

            Shawn groaned at the thoughts racing through his mind. Just when things start to feel normal, the rug seems to slip out from under me. He didn't know why he was even surprised by it anymore.

            Hinges creaked and the back door opened. Shawn stopped his pacing to see Pierre step out onto the deck. Shawn immediately started in on him, "What the hell did you bring the sasquatch for Pierre?"

            He was still livid. Didn't the elder vampire realize how he'd react? Pierre's motivations had always been shady at best, but he'd usually seemed to have Shawn's interests in mind.

            Maybe that had changed...

            "Name calling? Really Shawn, you're reaching." Pierre raised his eyebrows.

            "Don’t even start with that!" He pointed his finger at the gentleman thief's nose. "He put me through a lot worse things than name calling and you just show up at my father's doorstep? Did you want that to happen? C'mon man!"

            Pierre pursed his lips, "Shawn, I realize there are some hard feelings between you and your progeny, but I imagine you realize he's going to be around a long time. You're going to have to talk civilly eventually."

            "I don't need you to remind me how long he's going to be living." Shawn leaned against the deck's fence. "You aren't the one who's got him in your head 24/7. I could tell something was wrong this afternoon, but I didn't know what it was until I saw him."

            "Surely you can control that by now, or you would have some very awkward evenings with Marlowe out of jail."

            Ew... not something I want to think about ever, again.

            Shawn hid his disgust with a scoff and turned to go down the porch steps and into the back yard. He needed to get away from the house, from everyone, including Pierre. It hadn't been helping that he was starting to hear voices from inside the house, and he didn't want to hear how concerned everyone was for him, again.

            "Is he going to be okay?"

            "Should we go out and see?"

            "You think Despereaux will even help?"

            "Hello, Adam right? My name is Coraline. I'm an old friend of Pierre's..."

            "There's been some problems in Europe." Pierre stated out of the blue, stopping him in his tracks and bringing his attention back outside the house. "Some very large problems."

            "We have problems here too Pierre." Shawn turned to face his friend. "99 problems, and my fledgling wasn't one... until you brought him here!"

            Pierre shook his head and approached him, despite the sunlight streaming above them. "I wish you could understand that I couldn't leave him behind. He wouldn't be safe there. None of us are. Not anymore."

            Shawn hadn't really thought what had been happening all the way across the ocean. It was all he could do to process what was happening with himself. He supposed he should have though, those phones were everywhere. It somehow made the situation much more spine chilling.

            Something in the back of his mind started to prickle. He felt like there was something he was missing. An important piece he'd completely glossed over while throwing the world's most well deserved Pity Party.

            With a huff of exasperation, Shawn paused and finally took the time to really look at Pierre.

            He saw the usually relaxed man was stiff and tense. He cocked his head and noticed other things as well; The seemingly always deliberate and poised thief was tapping his hand against his leg nervously and his gaze wasn't giving things the usual calm assessments that Shawn was used to. Pierre's eyes were darting and suspicious, as if actively looking for threats in all directions.

            He knew it wasn't because of the sunlight. It had been less than a minute since they'd been standing there. It certainly wasn't what he'd done to Adam, Pierre just admitted that he'd been expecting that kind of reaction. Something had the elder vampire, not just nervous, but scared.

            Pierre Despereaux was terrified. That in and of itself was terrifying too.

            His anger melted for the time being and concern took it's place. "What's going on, man? Tell me the truth."

            After a beat, Pierre asked, "Can you handle the truth?"

            Shawn couldn't help it. Despite his worry and stress, all it took was Pierre's sly smirk and 'A Few Good Men' quote to get him to break a small smile. "As long as I'm Tom Cruise and you're Jack Nicholson, yeah I can handle it."

 

Chapter 5 Rising Stakes:

Karen Vick trudged into the station bright and early. Most days it was by choice. You have to get going right away in the morning when you're the chief of a major city in California, let alone a city as interesting as Santa Barbara. Today however, it was because her baby son, Kyle, had decided that 3am was the new 7am and she and her husband had to adjust their schedules accordingly.

Granted, it wasn't as bad as when she first had Iris, but it was enough loss of sleep to take the wind out of her sails most days.

The mood of the precinct wasn't helping either.

It seemed that her top officers' stress with the vampire situation had trickled down to their co-workers and left them on edge and a little cranky. She'd have to figure out something soon to bring down the tension. SBPD grill off's were a favorite as of late, with the new courtyard next to the memorial.

She made a mental note to have some fliers made up when Buzz approached, looking frazzled.

"McNab, what is it?"

"We have a courtesy investigation for the Goleta Police department that just came through." He showed her the thick fax in his hand.

Chief Vick's face scrunched in confusion as Buzz flipped pages to the incident description. Courtesy investigations were rare, and only happened if the case was directly involved with the police station itself, rather than just an individual with ties to the station.

"What is it about?"

"It says a Sheriff Deputy was killed in the line of duty last night along with a pedestrian." Buzz sighed sadly and continued skimming the report.

"Why didn't we hear anything about this?" Karen asked angrily. Usually something like this warrants a phone call at the very least. For God sakes I know those men and women? Why did no one notify me? She took a deep breath. Buzz didn't deserve to be yelled at for another department's mistakes. "Does the report say how it happened? Who was it?"

"Deputy Hank Langley."

"Jesus. He was just a kid." Karen watched as her officer looked over the report, before all the color drained from his skin.

"Oh no."

"McNab? What is it?"

"The report says they both had their necks broken and their bodies were 'exsanguinated.' Drained of blood."

"Oh dear God." This was the last thing she was hoping to hear. "Were there any witnesses?"

He nodded, "Another pedestrian caught it on their cell phone. They were unable to identify the assailant because…"

"He didn't show up." Karen grabbed the report from Buzz and ran down the hallway to her office. The shoe had essentially dropped. So far, the 'invisible people' had been an oddity, maybe even dismissed as a prank, except to the fringe conspiracy theorists and over militarized zealots which were few and far between.

However, with proof of violence and a dead cop, things were probably going to be rapped up to DEFCON 4. She also had a sick feeling that once police officers enter the fray, the general public might follow.

What am I going to tell the others? It was sure to cause a panic, but she didn't trust anyone else with the case. Buzz followed her in, shut the door behind him, and started pulling the blinds in her office. Her hurried panic was already causing a stir in the precinct, and time was ticking on getting the team there and briefed.

"Thanks detective." She nodded at Buzz, and reluctantly dialed Carlton's number.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Adam, do you need to incessantly fidget right now?" Pierre chided, and knocked once again on the door in front of them, an annoyed scowl on his face. "Come on! I know you're in there!"

"I can't help it. I just feel… antsy?" Antsy almost wasn't the right word for it. The young vampire was practically jumping from one foot to the other. He'd felt jazzed since leaving Shawn's father's house the afternoon before. They'd gotten a hotel for the night after the conversation with Shawn had gone for a couple hours and they didn't dare ask to stay with them.

Honestly there was a lot to tell. It wasn't only the turmoil overseas, as nightmare inducing as that was, but they'd done some digging into their clan's past and, in Adam's opinion, that was the icing on the cake.

He'd given the rundown to the others in the house, the ones who would stay in the same room as him anyway. Adam had the distinct feeling that Shawn's mom and dad had eavesdropped despite the latter's refusal to even look in his general direction.

The weird feeling itself came on slowly, when he was in the middle of telling Carlton what they had found regarding their line's origins in Slovenia. The nearest he could come to explaining it to himself was as if someone had hit a tuning fork in his head. It became a thrumming hum that he tuned into that seemed to emanate from the detective.

He wasn't able to read if Carlton had felt it too, and wasn't about to ask either.

"Once you're away from the two of them for a while, you should even out again… I think." Pierre robbed him of his thoughts with his usual matter of fact-ness.

"You think?" Adam raised his eyebrows.

"I never claimed to be an expert on your line, Adam. Remember, your cousins weren't as forthcoming as we'd hoped." He banged on the door again. "This is childish! Open up!"

'Not as forthcoming.' was the understatement of the millennia.

The whole thing started a few months before, when Pierre had done some research on his vampire genealogy and traced the origins of Aaron's ancestry to a mountainous area in Slovenia. They'd found out that Adam was only a few generations, or turnings, removed from vampires called Volkodlak that the locals had likened to werewolves... and for good reason.

Adam had never seen anything like it. He was born and raised in the States and the culture shock he'd experienced when they went to the countryside of Slovenia was jarring. He'd thought that it was just Hollywood exaggerations to have townsfolk talk in hushed tones or slam doors in your faces just for mentioning the word vampire, but there they were.

Both men and woman they encountered on the streets would cover their children's ears and run the other direction once word got out about what the two outsider men were looking for. It didn't help their case that Adam was a head taller than most with flaming red hair, but Pierre had said the culture wasn't much different than some remote English towns. They were all wary of new people and each had their own superstitions that were unique to their part of the countryside. Pierre might think it was quaint but Adam just found it annoying the fourth time they were kicked out of a local bar and told never to return.

It seemed where here he'd grown up that the old tales and legends based on real warnings and experiences in the old country had been watered down until they'd become children's stories to scoff at rather than fear. With what he'd been through he now knew there was good reason to be afraid. VERY afraid.

Eventually a week or two into their trip, Pierre had found some hunters who spoke French and were willing to talk and share stories with him. The men had found some ravaged deer carcasses a few days before and pointed them in the right direction; ten miles outside of one of the smaller hamlets next to some mountainous areas. It had a lot of cover, and Pierre figured it was remote enough to have a few clans living in the woods.

It didn't take long to track them, but when they'd finally encountered the Volkodlak, they were fast, coordinated, and scary as shit.

There was no warning, absolutely none…

The Volkodlak hadn't followed them into the woods, hadn't cared what they were doing there, or been even just a little curious of Adam as he was from their line. They only cared they were there and were not welcome.

The attack was swift and instant.

One flew at him from the trees. Another from the side. Shrieks echoed through the valley, warning the others of their presence and they seemed to meld into the fray from the very earth itself. The brief glimpse he got of them he saw they were covered almost head to toe in animal furs and could tell why they were often mistaken for werewolves.

He'd ducked the one coming from above and elbowed the other in the face, spraying the area with foamy blood.

From what Adam could hear the Volkodlak were shouting in a language neither he nor Pierre understood but they could easily figure it out by the angry gestures… and the fact that all of them were out to murder the pair no questions asked. He pushed Pierre out of the way of one vampire that was set to take his mentor's head off.

He got the feeling they wanted to surround them and take them down. It took every trick and skill they had to stop themselves from being out flanked.

"What the hell is the matter with them!?" Adam called to Pierre while keeping ahead of a clawed hand grabbing for the back of his trousers.

He'd rarely seen the other with the silvery white eyes of their kind, but the sudden fight was enough to bring out the beast Despereaux usually kept carefully hidden.

"I get the feeling they don't like you!" He darted forward and slashed open the face of another vampire going straight for Adam,

"OH WOW. You think!" Adam screamed back as the clawed hand caught hold of his shoe and tripped him, ripping a gash in his ankle. He quickly rolled to his back to kick his attacker in the head with his free foot to loosen the beast's grip, "Get the hell off!" Pierre appeared behind him, got him to his feet by the scruff of his shirt, and told him to run.

He didn't hesitate. Adam turned and sprinted as fast as he could the direction back to town. The bushes and trees scraped his face but he kept going. He had no idea what the plan was until Pierre's roar had him almost covering his ears a quarter of a mile away.

After that, they weren't being chased anymore.

Pierre eventually caught up with him but they didn't stop running until they got back to the town, shaken but alive.

Unfortunately, they were still overseas when the StarLite situation hit the fan. The phones had a European release a week earlier than America so more phones got out there before the recall.

The situation turned on a dime once they figured it out. What was thought of as a funny vampire joke in the USA became the catalyst for a horror Adam, once again, thought only happened in movies.

The same men and women that had been cowering a month or so before were now armed and ready to take them out. The fear in the populace turned to outright anger and hatred and the countryside became a blood bath. Humans and vampires alike were being slaughtered with even the slightest suspicion.

All it took were for some of the higher ups; the government officials and town constables to have even a sliver of proof vampires were real and they had become the hunted instead of the hunter.

They'd fled Slovenia but like dominos from country to country the carnage followed. Adam was initially floored when no news reports had leaked out from any of the places they left but Pierre figured the officials had been paid off to keep things quiet, which was more disturbing in and of itself.

There would be no warning for other countries' vampires at all. They'd have no idea what was coming for them.

Both men knew it was only a matter of time before the same thing happened in the States so Pierre decided they needed to go to California and warn his family and friends about what was coming for them.

Having neither family nor friends, Adam agreed and just went along for the ride, as usual.

Bringing his mind back to the present, and the still closed door in front of them, Adam asked, "Do you think it's a good idea to even be here? Can't we just go someplace remote, stock up on blood, and wait this shit storm out?"

"Language. A gentleman finds other ways to get his point across." Pierre turned back to the door. "Couper la merde et laissez-nous entrer!"

He rolled his eyes at the name calling. He didn't know much French except the swear words. "Oh yeah. So much more couth." The sarcasm didn't get a reaction out of Pierre other than a scowl at the door. "The thing is, I just don't want to be around when people have reason to shoot me."

Pierre stopped and looked at him with mock seriousness. "Have you completely forgotten how useless guns are against you now or did you need further proof?"

Adam snorted, but he had a point. "Okay fine. Habit alright?"

Pierre turned to the door to give it one more try, only to see a very pissed off Josef, in a bathrobe, glaring daggers at them.

Pierre gave him his best grin. "Hello big brother. We need a place to stay."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

It was nearly noon by the time the crime scene was secured and processed. It seemed both precincts wanted to go over everything with a fine toothed comb, despite one not actually being able to do the investigation themselves. The unfortunate young officer's superiors hovered in the background as the forensic team finished up and finally let Woody through with his body bags.

Just in time too, both Carlton and Shawn had been tortured by the smell of the slowly decaying body for the last hour. It was a cloudy day, luckily for the two vampires, or they would have needed to find some shelter. As it was, Shawn had been prowling the edges of the scene in the shade, taking in the clues while chatting with Buzz and Karen.

Soft footsteps and the scent of peach shampoo made Carlton aware of his partner's approach. "What you think?" She asked.

"I don't know what to think, O'Hara. It could be just a coincidence, but I don't think so. Maybe another kook vampire trying to be a badass?" He almost didn't believe that himself. The whole scene stank of one thing; Fear. Fear from the officer, fear from the poor soul he'd tried to save, fear from the young man currently sitting a few yards away giving his statement for the eighteenth time that morning, and oddly enough, fear from the vampire.

Young, inexperienced, or just desperate? He couldn't be sure. The vampire was definitely a male, that much the witness saw, but as with all the other StarLite phones, the only thing the video showed was the officer floating off the ground seemingly lifted by a long-sleeved blue shirt attached to jeans, and arterial spray hitting the brick wall behind him.

"The witness said the perp ran when he was seen. If the vampire was desperate and hungry, wouldn't they have killed him too?" Juliet pointed out. "I mean, he killed both the pedestrian and a cop, what's one more witness?"

Carlton thought through her theory. It made sense enough. If the vampire had been on a rampage, he could have just killed the witness too.

"Unless he wanted to be caught." Shawn interjected.

Juliet and Carlton turned to see Karen, Gus and Shawn's approach. "What makes you say that Spencer?"

The thing was, vampires had one universal rule, secrecy. It was enforced by some seriously scary women too, at least in the US. He wasn't very knowledgeable about other country's rules but he was damn sure if there was a vampire out there determined to oust the rest of their species, you could bet he wouldn't be around for long no matter where he was from.

"I heard you talking," He explained, "and there's no way that vampire would have just let the kid go. There's something up."

"Why here? If you were going to expose vampires on purpose, why not do it in a big city? One that will get more of a reaction?" Karen asked, confused. Unfortunately for her, no one here had the answer.

"Hey!" Buzz stepped forward, followed closely by their witness. "Mr…"

"Sultanas." The young man corrected.

"Mr. Sultanas would like to know if he could have his phone back."

"I'm going to need to keep that camera for evidence."

"Wait… can't I just give you the video, and you give me back my phone?"

"No. We need to know it hasn't been tampered with, besides you could be working with the suspect, and edited him out of the video."

"That's ridiculous! I was walking by and saw the woman and the officer being attacked."

"And instead of calling the police or helping in any way, you decide to video tape the death of an officer. I ought to haul you in for obstruction of justice right now."

"No… fine. It's okay, take it." The man backed off. "But I better get it back! These are hard to find since the recall."

Carlton waved him off, having already heard his statement. "You'll get it back once we had some of our guys look at the footage. If we need you we'll call you."

The young man nodded and slinked off back towards the cruiser he'd been waiting in. The detective hated to give the kid a hard time, he'd had a near death experience and all, but there was no way in hell he was ever getting that phone back.

"Giving Good Samaritans a hard time again Lassiter?"

Carlton stifled a growl as one of his least favorite people in law enforcement walked up to him. Ed Cartwright, a lieutenant with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff. The man was a Jackass with a capital J.

"If you call obstruction of justice being a good Samaritan, you need to find a new line of work, Cartwright." Carlton sneered.

The lieutenant looked like he was about to say more, when he finally noticed a sour looking Chief Vick. "Apologies ma'am. We're just here to see if we can help see who did this to Hank." The man sounded sincere enough, but unfortunately that didn't stop him from being a jerkface .

"Thank you lieutenant, but I'm sure my team has it from here." She flashed a disapproving look between the two officers. "I'll catch up with you later, have to go talk to the Sheriff about what we found." With a last look and raised eyebrow at Ed, she walked over to the sea of tan uniforms.

Ignoring the pointed looks that he was not welcome, Ed nodded in the direction of the now covered bodies. "All this crap about vampires going around, and then this happens. Hell, you almost start to believe it."

"Well, there's a sucker born every minute." Carlton sneered. Buzz had to purse his lips and turn away, pretending to adjust his belt to keep from smiling at the pun, while remembering the levity of the situation at hand.

"Says the station with a psychic on their payroll," Ed chuckled. "I knew you guys were desperate for help, but c'mon." Shawn gave him a neutral look, but underneath the faux calm, he was seething, as was the rest of his team. "but hey, good to hear you got your station back. I heard it's nice."

Juliet nodded, "Yes. State of the art."

"I have a question though." Ed asked in almost a sing-song voice that put Carlton on edge. "Don't you think a real psychic would have known it was going to blow up in the first place?"

A dozen heads that had been eavesdropping on the exchange turned in anger towards the mouthy deputy, who seemed oblivious as he relished the look of rage on Carlton's face.

"You son of a bitch-" The head detective growled out. Those were his co-workers and friends that had been killed, each one of them ten times the officer this douche bag was.

Apparently the others around him agreed.

Finally, the deputy seemed to catch on that the circle of SBPD cops was tightening around him. "Hey, I was just messing around, no need to be so sensitive about it, guys." Reason fading farther and farther with each word, Carlton went to grab the man by his throat, but Shawn was already there, blocking his way to the lieutenant who'd started flinching away from him.

"Only an idiot wouldn't see that coming." Shawn said with a toothy grin, "Insulting dead cops at a scene of a cop murder isn't the brightest thing I've seen," Ed went to open his mouth in retort but was stopped by a finger to his lips. "but, you have to be as sharp as a bowling ball to not see your boss has been standing behind you this whole time."

Ed paled and turned to see Karen and his boss looking appalled at the absolute gall of making fun of her dead employees. Gus, who had jackal-ed away earlier in the conversation, did his best to look innocent. As if he hadn't been the one to bring the situation to the supervisors' attention.

As usual he was doing a terrible job of it.

Shawn wrapped his arm around the deputy's shoulder. "I see you set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public and far be it from us to interrupt such an important moment." He nodded towards their cars, and the group left what was sure to be a most epic sacking, or at the very least one of the most satisfying verbal lashings Carlton had seen in a while.

He wasn't disappointed, as he and Shawn could still hear the yelling two blocks away where they'd parked their cars, and not because they were vampires.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Juliet ended up hitching a ride home with Shawn from the scene, Carlton was heading home himself and Gus left in his own car, leaving the two of them to drive to Henry's to get their daughter.

Both were still worked up from the altercation with the deputy, but Juliet was the one having trouble curbing her frustration. "The nerve of him! I hope at the very least he gets suspended. All that at a crime scene where one of their own was killed."

"Agree to agree. It must be the water on that side of town." The two law enforcement agencies have always had what would have been considered a rivalry, especially when it came to their baseball teams, but when it came to protecting and serving it was the line in the sand that both agencies cooperated on. "Maybe he'll be on drunk tank duty for the next month."

"I'd feel sorry for the drunks."

They both flashed mischievous smiles towards each other, breaking the tension of the moment. He'd been on edge since the day before during his discussion with Pierre and after the altercation today he was practically seething. It would take a weekend of family movies with Juliet and Felicity to get the tension out of his jawline. He swore if he wasn't a vampire he'd have cracked some teeth already with how hard he'd been clenching his jaw lately.

Suddenly, as if to mock his inner turmoil, multiple brake lights and tire screeches at the intersection ahead alerted them to trouble. A few people were beginning to lean out of their cars to see what the hubbub was about.

"What's going on up there?" Shawn's eyes settled on the growing congregation of people standing in the middle of the street.

Juliet's eyes narrowed to slits as she tried to get a look herself. "I think it might be an accident."

Shawn quickly rolled down the window and poked his head out for a better view. Sure enough, the scent of fear hit him at the same time he heard the calls for aid. "Goddamn it!" Shawn cursed before hopping out of the car.

Juliet didn't even try to stop him, she already calling in the accident in on her cell phone before racing to the crash herself.

"Mommy! OW! Please!" A small high pitched voice squealed in pain.

"Get her out! Someone help!"

A growing group of people stood around the truck that was pinning down a little girl no older than five. Shawn could see the skid marks leading up to the large 4x4 vehicle next to the crosswalk that the child and her mother had been using. The driver of the truck was currently standing on the sidelines complaining that he didn't see her in time.

Shawn could hear the lie from a mile away. The man had been distracted and it was only dumb luck on his part that the child was still breathing.

As he approached closer, shouts of "Get it off her!" and "Don't move it!" caused chaos between any would-be-rescuers and he was barely able to get through to see the extent of the damage; The girl was completely under the car, and her leg had gotten stuck between the back set of double wheels. It looked like the front tires missed, but she must have fallen into the path of the rear. Any further the truck would have completely run her over.

As it was, it looked like at least her arm was broken. A quick deep sniff was enough to tell Shawn that she definitely had some internal bleeding too. If she didn't get help soon, she wouldn't make it.

The desperate mother stood crouched, holding her daughter's uninjured hand. She gazed up as he approached the vehicle, giving him and the rest of the bystanders a look that was pure desperation.

Shawn's heartstrings were thoroughly tugged, and he sprang into action. The worry of how much exposure he would get and the danger he'd put himself in melted away until only determination to save this little girl was left.

He had to help.

"Stand back!" Shawn reached for the mother and gently pushed her out of harm's way. as Juliet came up behind him.

Assessing the situation, he saw that the truck would have to be lifted straight off her, and her leg pulled out from underneath in order to get free and not injure herself further.

"It's okay. You're gonna be okay." He comforted the little girl.

"Shawn, are you able to do this?"

He looked back at Juliet. She knew him too well. She didn't ask if he wanted to do this, just if he could. Shawn had never lifted anything this heavy. He didn't even know if he could, but he had to try. "I can do it." he then turned to address the child. "I'm gonna lift now, it's going to hurt, but you're going to be strong for your mom, right?"

The small girl nodded slightly with a glance to her mom.

"Pull her leg out when it's off the ground, okay honey?"

"Got it, lift on three."

Please let this work. He bent his knees and grit his teeth, "One... Two... THREE! Aaaaaarrrrggg!" He shouted as the tires started to slowly lift. He pushed with all his might. As he got the tires slowly off the ground the other bystanders finally saw what he was trying to do, and joined in.

"EVERYONE LIFT!" A bystander shouted and grunts of effort came from all sides of the truck.

The back tires lifted faster.

Once they were high enough, Juliet pulled the girl's foot straight out from between the wheels and into her mother's waiting arms. "Okay down!" Shawn and the others let the truck down slowly. Cheers and woops filled his ears so much he didn't hear the mother until she about bowled him over.

"Oh my gosh, thank you!" The mother held Shawn and sobbed before turning her attention to her daughter. "Oh my poor baby!"

Juliet's phone rang and she hung up after just a moment. "The ambulance is a minute away. Are you okay?"

Shawn nodded absentmindedly but he was distracted, there were people in the crowd filming. However after a quick sweep of his gaze and he didn't see any of them with the StarLite phones. He pulled Juliet aside, "I think we're in the clear, the other people helping could explain how I lifted the truck."

"Shawn, you basically had the whole back of the truck in the air before anyone helped."

He was silent for a moment before he grabbed her hand to take her back to their car. "Let's just go get out of here huh?"

After receiving a few more pats on the back from the crowd, Shawn got into the car and they headed out. The drive was silent the rest of the way to their home. He didn't know what was on Juliet's mind but all he could think of now was the danger he could have put his family, and his friends in if even one person had one of those damned phones.

I have to be more careful. He tightened his grip on the wheel and thought about the attacks from earlier. The last thing they need is another screw up from me if there's another rogue around...

When Josef knocked on his door, Mick was worried, because his friend Knocked.

When Josef quietly sat down and put his hands on his head, Mick was beyond worried because his friend was quiet.

In fact, the old vampire had been sitting like that for at least ten minutes before Mick got up the nerve to ask what was wrong.

"Oh nothing. Just the end of the world."

There's the Josef I know.

"Hey Mick I was just going to..." Beth walked in dressed for a night out. She had a scoop and was planning on doing some undercover work that night. "What's going on?" Mick figured she'd pick up on the weird vibes Josef was giving off too.

"I dunno… what the hell happened?"

"Adam and Pierre came over last night. They stopped in Santa Barbara to see Shawn and Carlton to let his group know."

"Know what?" Beth sat down next to Mick on the edge of his chair. Mick knew she was hooked and there was way she was going to miss out on this.

The older vampire relayed what Pierre and Adam had been through including the encounters with the Volkodlak.

Beth's eyes widened and Mick's lips thinned in a grim scowl. "No wonder things went south so fast there if that's the type of vampires they've been living with."

Josef gave a non-committal shrug to Beth's statement. "Coraline and her family were almost exceptions to the rule at the time, they lived in high society and it's what got some of them caught."

Beth nodded, she'd heard what had happened during the French Revolution and vampire purge from Mick. He knew she would understand the hard times that lay ahead for them if that happened on a global scale.

According to Josef, after delivering the news, Pierre and Adam had only stayed long enough to rest for a few hours before heading back towards Santa Barbara. Apparently they were taking up the mantle of messengers between the two groups of vampires. It was smart because with the paranoia against vampires you never knew who could tap into your phones.

Despereaux was one of the oldest in the area next to Josef. He seemed to feel a kinship with Shawn Spencer and his fledglings, taking up the mentor role that Josef had done for him after Coraline had apparently died. Mick figured that was the only reason the thief was sticking around and not heading for the hills with his protégé.

I wonder if taking in orphans is a family trait.

Josef brought his attention back to the matter at hand. "Mick, if Despereaux and Adam are right, things are going to hit the fan here in the states. Sooner rather than later, and we need to be prepared."

"You mean your endless supply of fleshies isn't so endless?"

"This is no joking matter! The blood goes and so does our humanity. I don't think either of us could live with ourselves if we ate our girlfriends."

Shaking the thought away, Mick sobered and looked at Beth. Josef was right, they needed to start planning before the blood shortage hit, rather than in the thick of it. He dropped Beth's hand and stood up, leaning on the pier right next to his electric fireplace. Staring at the glass stones and concentrating on the way the fire moved seemed to make it easier for him to think.

He'd spent many a night staring at the fire, trying to work through a tough case.

"I can't help with the blood, but I can see what I can find news wise." Beth offered. "Maybe keep things quiet or have a heads up before a story breaks? That would give you guys some time."

Mick nodded. She had a good idea. "So what do we do in the meantime Josef? Go to the morgue and up our orders? Stock pile? If anyone gets wind that we're hoarding blood it could start what we are trying to prevent. Mass vampire hysteria."

Blood itself only kept for just over a month at a time, but if they got a steady supply it may just work if each kept to their needed pint per day, and didn't get injured. Though, with their group's tendency to do stupid, life threatening, heroic things, it was going to be tough.

Josef stopped and took a deep breath, staring at the ceiling as if coming to a conclusion that he knew Mick wouldn't like. "I know a guy."

"You know a guy?" Mick turned around and questioned.

"Look, if you want the details, he owns this club downtown. He's a little old fashioned but he caters to unique tastes like ours." Josef was pacing the room again. His friend obviously didn't want to go anywhere near this 'guy' but they didn't have much other options.

Beth beamed, "I love night club assignments, give me a half hour to get ready."

"But you're already…" Mick started but Josef shook his head. Beth was half ways up the stairs anyway.

"Believe me, you get more bees with honey with this guy and that Mick," he pointed his chin up the stairs, "is the honey."

"Nah, she's the bee." Mick winked, following her upstairs to get ready himself.

--------------------------------

Mick stared up at the bright sign as they approached the building. "Lux?"

Josef rolled his eyes and waited for the ushers to open the door. "It's a measurement of light, genius."

"I know what it is, but how come I've never heard of this place before?"

"Because you've had your head up your ass, that's why." Mick glowered at Josef, "Look, if you'd did something besides hang out with your girl and worry about newbies, you'd have realized that this is the hottest spot in town for the past two years!" Josef's voice was almost drowned out by the thumping music coming from just down the entryway.

Beth brushed the comment off and smiled as they entered into a large stone and wood room accented with bright Edison bulbs. The music was loud and energetic, as was the clientele. There were tables scattered around a dance area with a piano in the center.

Mick took in the atmosphere and was impressed. The whole place was an eccentric mix of modern and classical. At least he has some taste.

Josef's gaze was already scanning the room and fell on a large booth seat with five gorgeous women, and one man sandwiched in between them. "See I told you."

The man was the epitome of tall dark and handsome. He had deep chocolate brown eyes that almost looked as dark as his hair, a perfect tan to his skin (immediately throwing out Mick's theory that he was a vampire) and a wide, white toothed smile that probably drove women crazy.

The only thing his smile and dark eyes reminded Mick of was a shark.

He locked eyes with Josef as they approached and rose to meet them.

Even his movements were predatory. However, unlike vampires' feline grace, the man's gestures were almost serpentine. Like a cobra's dance that lulled you into a false sense of security.

Right before he struck.

"Josef Kostan. As I live and breathe!" Mick was surprised at the man's English accent as he swept up to the three of them, moving away from the brood of women he'd been chatting up. "Who might this be?" He asked addressing Mick, before turning back to Josef. "Don't tell me you're playing for the other team now. Half the lady's hearts in the city will be broken."

True enough some of the women behind them were already giving bedroom eyes to his friend. "You do have your charms Josef." Mick teased.

"This is Mick St. John. He's an associate of mine." Josef pointedly ignored the innuendo, and already looked like he had a mouthful of alum and they weren't even past the introductions.

He must have really gotten Josef's goat in the past. Mick figured.

The man's eyes had an unnerving sparkle of delight at the vampire's comment. "Oh, one of yours then?"

"No. Well, not really I−" Mick started but Josef stopped him with an elbow.

"Not one of mine." He interjected quickly with an unreadable expression. "Just an old friend."

"Oh…" He turned having noticed Beth, "Then this must be the lady of the hour." Her nosed crinkled in offence and she moved closer to Mick.

"I'm with him."

"What a pity," The man crooned, "So what brings you to my humble abode? Not the food I'd suspect?" He cocked his head to the side, obviously wanting to get to the point so he can go back to the gaggle of women who'd been not so subtlety grabbing at his hand for their whole conversation.

"We have some personal business to attend to, can we go someplace private?"

"Ah yes, well come right this way Josef." He pointed up the stairs at the edge of the dance floor. "Will the lovely lady be joining us?" The suggestive eyebrow waggle was enough to make up Beth's mind.

"I'll wait for you guys here, I have some work to do." She waved her phone at the trio of men.

Mick nodded and pulled her aside, "I think it's best, I don't trust this guy."

Beth smiled coyly, "You mean you don't trust him with me?"

"I don't trust him with me." Mick joked and turned to follow the two men up the stairs as Beth laughed.

While they climbed the first set of stairs, they passed the bar with what looked like a scantly clad dominatrix doing the serving. "Be a dear Maze and give the girls another round. I'll be right back down."

In a huge contrast between every other lady in the room, the black woman sneered at the man like she had a bad taste in her mouth but started making the drinks anyway. When Beth slid up the bar and started a conversation, the young lady immediately looked less annoyed and a lot more interested, in Beth.

He tried to hold back a bit of jealousy. Beth was one of the best investigative reporters he'd ever met, and she knew how to play her hand. If there was anything to be known in this part of town that bartender would probably know it, even if he hoped she didn't find anything.

"Coming Mick?" Josef asked from the top of the stairs.

"Yeah, I'm coming."

----------------------------------------------------------

Mick and Josef continued up the stairs to the penthouse. It was lavishly decorated in dark and mahogany tones with a balcony overlooking the city. Not unlike Josef's penthouse but with a classier, old-fashioned feel. The bed however, seemed to be the defining feature of the entire place. Raised up on a pedestal that overlooked the whole place.

Josef wasn't kidding when he said the man was a player.

"So, Mick St. John." The man went over to the bar and poured himself a drink, blatantly not offering one to either Mick or Josef. "How is the detective business?"

"How do you know I'm a detective?" Mick narrowed his eyes.

"Oh! Well, I've been dabbling in the detective business myself as of late."

You and everybody else. Mick felt like half the people he knew were detectives of some sort.

"I've heard your name around the precinct. You and your lady friend Beth have been on some high-profile cases. It's hard to miss." He smiled and slammed his scotch. "Tell me, doesn't it feel great to punish those ner-do-wells?"

He shrugged, "Bringing people to justice? Yeah, it feels pretty good."

"Oh, it seems we have a righteous man here." The man walked over, looking him in the eyes. "Now tell me, what is it that you desire?"

Mick felt his lips moving before he realized he was answering. "I want to be human again. I want to help my friends and keep my girlfriend safe."

"Oh, very noble. You're right Josef, he can't be one of yours." He gave the elder vampire a cheeky grin as Mick cleared his head.

"Who are you?" Mick didn't like being messed with and he was starting to re-think his original assumption that this man wasn't a vampire. "What did you do to me?"

Josef cleared his throat, seemingly unimpressed with the posturing and wanting to get their business over with. "You mind not messing with him? We're in a hurry."

Ignoring the elder vampire, he extended his hand with that same shark grin. "Lucifer. Morningstar. Pleasure to meet you."

The man's heartbeat didn't skip or falter at all. He was either the best liar in the world of he was really… "Wait wait, Lucifer?" He turned to Josef and gestured at the man, "Lucifer!? The Lucifer? Are you insane!?" He knew his friend was desperate but did not realize he was that desperate.

"The Lucifer, that has such a ring to it, doesn't it?" Lucifer snickered, "It's not very often I'm believed at first blush."

Josef quickly grabbed Mick by the arm and pulled him away to talk, "Mick, come on if there were any other way, I'd have picked it. Besides he owes me…"

"Not for long." Lucifer piped up behind them, taking another drink.

Lowing his voice Josef continued, "We need this. Think of the newbies, because he can get us exactly what we need to tie us over. No strings. Believe me I do not want to owe this man anything, which is why I helped him start out in the first place."

Mick grabbed his arm away, he realized Josef was right, but this was almost too much. "How? Why is he even he up here?"

"I didn't ask, I don't want to know. If I questioned everything weird that happened to me in the last 400 years I'd be crazy by now. Let's just get this done and get out. Trust me."

With one last defiant stare, Mick caved. "Alright fine."

"Great!" Lucifer clapped his hands, obviously hearing everything they were saying anyway, "I'll get in touch with the boys and procure you however much you need."

"Just a steady stream would be okay." Josef went off to talk logistics with Lucifer while Mick stood and tried to process the impossible situation he was put into.

He didn't have long to contemplate before the S & M bartender and Beth came hurrying up the stairs, "Mick! You need to see this!"

All three men's attention was brought to her outstretched phone that was flashing a Buzzwire news update about a double murder in Santa Barbara, where the killer drained two people of their blood and was not captured on film, because of a StarLite camera.

Buzzwire wasn't the crème de la crop of news channels but they often sent reporters like Beth that went straight to the personal source and getting the inside scoop. They had obviously sent one to talk to the survivor and from the looks of it, he definitely told them everything.

Lucifer came up behind Josef and Mick, putting an arm around each one, neither had the capacity to shrug it off at that moment. The shock sinking in was enough to short both of their systems. "So Josef, your order, would you like me to-"

"Double it."

"Done. Might I also suggest a bunker for the next ten years…"
-------------------------------------------------

Elsewhere, in Santa Barbara, Ed Cartwright and a few other Sheriff Officers sat at the local hangout for their department. It was a larger bar, away from the water that was owned by one of the Sheriff's relatives, so all the boys in tan got a discount when they dropped in.

"To Hank!" The men raised their glasses in unison to their fallen comrade. The young man had only been on the force a couple years, but that didn't matter to them. They were a brotherhood that watched each other's backs. Each one felt like they had really failed one of their newest members.

Ed had been put on a three day leave after his outburst at the SBPD psychic but he'd be damned if he missed this. At least his boss hadn't been able to make it. The verbal lashing he'd gotten would go down in their department's history forever. He knew talking about the old station crossed a line, but he was tired of Lassiter's smug face and let it slip. Then Shawn had to step in and rub it in his face.

The tequila he slammed burned his throat, but he hardly even noticed with the smoldering resentment he had towards the SBPD and their golden boys.

"So I heard Lassiter gave you a hard time and you got suspended." One of the other deputies asked.

Ed wasn't surprised or angry they'd gotten it wrong. Rumors abounded in the department, and he'd hadn't had the chance to clear things up yet. "No man, it was that Shawn Spencer. He got everyone riled up and the Sheriff heard me go off on him."

"Yeah, isn't he their little pet or something? Why do they keep him around anyway?"

"I heard he's banging Lassiter."

"No he's dating Lassiter's partner."

"Coulda fooled me."

A round of laughter burst from their party and died down to silence.

"I dunno, if you believe half of the cases he's solved for them you'd think he had super powers or something. Their solve rate is insane since he started consulting. Hell, maybe we should hire him."

Ed had enough. He'd stayed quiet mostly out of spite but he was sick of hearing about that fraud. "Why don't you guys just knock it off. I didn't come here to talk about Spencer, I came here to drink to Hank."

"Hear hear." They clinked their glasses together before one of the men across from him looked up and pointed towards the bar.

"Holy shit. I think that's not gonna work out Ed."

The rest of table looked up to one of the bar's television and it showed Shawn with a group of people lifting a one ton truck off of a little girl. "What the hell? Now he's got one more thing to brag about." Ed sulked.

"No look!" the Deputy said and waited for the replay. Sure enough, it showed Shawn by himself lifting the wheels of the car off the ground before the others had joined in. It didn't seem like the newscaster had caught it because it was only a couple seconds, but to their trained law enforcement eyes it was blatantly obvious that the SBPD psychic had just lifted at least 3000lbs two inches off the ground by himself.

"No. That can't be right. There was probably someone else on the other side helping."

"I didn't see any other legs." Ed pointed out, and it would take a mountain of a man to lift it even half that much. It took over 15 people to get it the rest of the way up."

"There is absolutely no damn way he did that by himself."

"He's just a showoff."

"What a tool."

"GUYS." One of the older officers slammed his hand on the table just loud enough to get everyone's attention, "I got no love for that psychic mumbo jumbo, but that man," he pointed at the TV, … just helped save a little girl. So drop it and let's just move on with our night."

Sufficiently cowed, the men nodded and mumbled their okays. The old timer was right, they shouldn't be mad that a little girl was saved, but that video just didn't sit right with Ed. There was something going on and he felt the need to get to the bottom of it.

Though his pride wouldn't let him admit to himself that his thoughts were still mostly out of spite.

In between their grumblings. They started to notice a man at the bar blatantly looking in their direction. It set the hairs on the back of Ed's neck standing up and every fiber of his being told him this guy was bad news.

Apparently realizing he'd been noticed, the man approached with an amicable smile.

Hello gentlemen. I heard from the bartender about yer friend today. My condolences." The southern accent wasn't too surprising to Ed with the way the man was dressed, but in this part of California they didn't get many Texas drawls besides at that western themed attraction outside of town.

"Is there something you need? This is a private gathering." One of the men sniped. Grumbles of agreement followed. No one seemed in the mood to talk to an outsider, especially one who seemed like he was about to sell them a used car.

Sure enough, the man handed Ed his card. "Well, I figured with how your friend passed, I may need to offer my services."

The man's name was apparently, Abel Sands. Ed had expected to see Undertaker, grief counselor, even caterer on the card. Instead in shiny black letters were the words, "Vampire Hunter".

"Are you freaking JOKING right now?" Ed stood up and the rest of the table with him, ready to lift the man up by his underwear and throw him out of their bar.

He put up his hands and stepped a few paces back from the group, but then pointed to the TV. "You saw the video. You saw what that man did and you think I'm still joking?"

The deputies stayed silent. Apparently the rest of them had the same feelings about it that Ed had, and like him… hadn't said anything.

"I'm just trying to get to the bottom of things around here before more people end up like your friend today."

"Well what do you want us to do about it?" One of the other deputies asked.

"Nothin' at all." Abel replied with a sly smile.

The older deputy scoffed. "What?"

"I said you ain't gotta do nothin', cept point me in the right direction. Y'all seem to know that man. Wouldn't be much to tell me where he works, who he hangs out with. I'll do the rest."

Sensing the collective unease at divulging a police consultant's personal data, Ed knew he wasn't going to give the man squat. As mad as he was about getting suspended and as much as he wanted Shawn to get knocked off his pedestal, Ed didn't want to be responsible for him or his family coming to harm by an unknown stranger. Especially with one of them being fellow law enforcement officer with a new baby. He put the card in his pocket nonetheless. "I'd say no offense, but I really mean all the offence in the world friend. We don't rat on our people to the likes of you."

One of the other deputies signaled the bar man to get the stranger out of there before they did it themselves, none too gently.

Abel nodded and backed up farther, "Alright, I can see you're still feeling in a way about this. I'll just tell you to wait and see then. If'in you want to protect the likes of him you'll have to deal with the consequences."

"What consequences are those?" One of the younger deputies asked nervously.

Abel just gave him one of his smiles, tipped his hat before turning and walking out of the building with the bar tender hot on his heels to make sure he left. "This town has gone to hell in a handbasket." The bartender quipped. "I'll get you guys another round on the house for having to deal with that tonight."

The deputies sat down, most shaking their heads, some thanking the bartender while others eyeballed the door to make sure he didn't come back.

"How do you know that guy isn't the one that killed Hank." The younger deputy asked. "He seems like a weirdo. Hank and this other guy drained of blood and this guy shows up as a vampire hunter? I don't think that's a coincidence."

"Well, unless you wanna go and arrest him for false advertising, we got nothing on him." The collective chuckle at his joke did nothing to ease Ed's nerves about the situation as they went back to their drinks and stories of Hank.

While the other men talked, Ed could almost feel the business card burning a hole in his pocket. The man was a whacko for sure, but other crazy things had been happening recently that couldn't have been caused by Abel. There's something going on in this town and he was afraid there may be more blood shed by the time it was over.