Time: Late afternoon, early evening of Friday, Oct. 25. (Consider this 2nd shift)
"Man, this sucks," Blair Sandburg murmured to his partner as they left Lieutenant Wu's office. "I guess it was too much to expect that they were going to let me ride along with you like in Cascade. What are we going to do, Jim? I have to be there to backup your senses..."
"Shhh, Chief, not here, not about that." Detective Jim Ellison made a quick Sign to him, the letter K. Kindred were around, and they didn't want to broadcast about Jim's sensory powers. He steered the shorter man over to his desk. "I think we can work something out with Sonny. Frank, I don't know about."
"Sonny?" Blair inquired, not catching the older man's drift. "Something you haven't told me, Detective?"
Jim sighed and powered up his computer as he sat down at his desk, Sandburg pulling a chair over to join him. He whispered back after checking around for people with missing heartbeats. None in the division room at the moment. "Yeah. Sonny's Kindred. Ventrue, I think. I'm not sure, I haven't sensed enough of them to tell the clans apart yet." The fact that he would be able to was a given. "At least he has the same sort of psychic feel and scent that both Dr. Carr and Julian have. Cash and Daedalus... different."
"That's amazing," Blair murmured back, excited. "So you can piggy-back the psychic stuff with the sensory? That's too cool, Jim. So if Sonny is Kindred... you think he can back you up, then, help, ah, Guide you?"
The Sentinel knew his lover well enough to catch the miniscule change in his voice at this last. "Sandburg, don't get all weird on me. You're irreplaceable, and you know that..."
"Okay, okay, but, like, this not getting to do my job with you is a bit of a blow, all right?" Blair shot back.
Jim turned and faced him, surprised. "We don't have to do this, Chief. Let's go home to Cascade, now."
His Guide all but leaped out of his chair, but he knew Jim didn't want a scene. "No, you've made a commitment here, we can do this. Let's ask Julian if Sonny can help us out." Blair started to settle down, wrapping his brain around this forced separation. "I'll take that adjunct professorship at Berkeley, then, I guess. We'll be fine."
"That's the spirit," Jim replied, reassuring his roommate with a touch to his arm and back. He then turned to his computer screen, logging in.
Blair watched Jim for a moment, then got up. "Well, I guess I'll be going then," he murmured, and turned to leave.
"Blair, wait..." Jim called out, but then swung his head around, sensing Kindred. As he looked, sure enough, Detective Sonny Toussaint was coming their direction, having just entered the division room. His partner, Frank Kouhanek, was talking with a new detective they hadn't seen before, a taller man with wavy blond hair and a ready smile.
"Good afternoon, er, I guess it's evening by now, Jim, Blair," Sonny greeted them cheerily. "You two have a minute?"
"I was just going," Blair quickly spoke up, but the other man was waving at him to stay.
"I need to talk to both of you," Sonny explained, then gestured toward one of the interrogation rooms. "We can talk there... privately."
Jim shot Blair a glance, and saw that he'd come to the same conclusion. Julian Luna had obviously had a talk with Sonny about them, perhaps foreseeing the difficulties with the police department over Blair's presence here. Jim wondered if Julian had told Sonny about his powers, which would have been breaking his promise to him.
In the room, Sonny closed the door behind them, and sighed, glad for the privacy at last. "We won't be overheard here," he explained, then waved them to seats around the table, taking a seat himself. "Gentlemen, I'm sorry about Wu - but it's department policy that no observers ride along with our detectives..."
"Blair's hardly just an observer," Jim retorted before Blair could. "He pulls his weight. And he's saved my sorry ass more times than I want to remember."
"But he's not a cop," Sonny replied, looking at them both. "Blair, I'm sorry, we don't have as much influence in the PD as we'd like to, unfortunately."
Jim straightened. "We. You mean... Kindred."
Nodding, Sonny relaxed back in his chair, folding his hands on the table. "Julian has told me about you... a little. I take it there's more..." He flashed them a grin, white teeth in his handsome dark face. "I know you can sense Kindred, some psychic thing, and you know about us now... and Julian has placed you under his protection. He's specifically charged me with the responsibility of looking out for you."
"We don't NEED looking out for," Jim replied mildly, though Blair beside him could see his tensing in the jump of muscle clusters in his jaw, the glint in his eyes. Internally, he was very glad that Julian hadn't broken his promise after all.
The Ventrue saw it, too. "There is still so much more you don't know yet, Jim," Sonny pressed on. "You have NO idea... "
"We're fine, man," Blair broke in, frowning. "You know, we're not entirely without resources ourselves."
Sonny nodded, sighing. "I know... but this is the way it is. I'm not only Julian's childe, I'm also Ventrue primogen, and I have to do this his way."
"You're the Ventrue leader?" Jim asked in amazement. "Dr. Anthony Carr... he's Ventrue, too, right? And Detective Bill Patrick?" Jim had met the square-jawed Patrick yesterday.
"You're good," Sonny admitted, nodding. "Yeah, they're my clansmen. Jim, your talent may help you detect Kindred, but if someone - not Ventrue - wanted to interfere with you, get a taste of you, they're going to do it. It will happen and you won't even have a chance to reach for that Dragon's Breath gun Cash had you pick up. So - you're going to ride with me. Now, if we happen to be in the Berkeley area, pick up a passenger sometimes..." He slanted a glance at the quiet anthropologist, grinning.
Blair perked up. "Man, I am so THERE! Jim, we're back in action!"
"You'd do that for us, go against department procedures?" Jim asked, amazed. "You could get in a lot of trouble..."
Sonny hooked a thumb. "So could Blair. I'm not just watching you, Ellison. Mister Anthropology over here has similar psychic powers to yours, I'm told."
"Yeah," Blair promptly answered, and got a look from his lover. "Well, to a lesser degree, but yeah. I can't detect Kindred quite like Jim can, though."
Jim smiled and subsided. "Thanks, Sonny. This will help. So if you're going to be with us, what's Frank going to be doing?"
A look of momentary panic crossed the Ventrue's face, instantly putting the Sentinel on the alert. "Frank will be mentoring another detective, a guy from Toronto," Sonny explained, his voice and demeanor turned a bit stony. [Yow,] he thought, [Julian mentioned that Ellison was persistent. How the hell do I keep him from questioning Frank about how different he already is? And finding out that Frank is preparing to be Embraced? Julian will NOT want these two beauties to know about that...]
Jim glanced toward the door. "That blond guy he was with." [And what's got YOUR shorts in a knot, Toussaint?]
"Yeah, that's the one. I think his name is Nick."
"We'd like to meet him," Blair interjected, wondering at Jim's curiosity.
"Okay," Sonny shrugged. [That's it, Jimbo, focus on the new guy, forget about Frank...] "Say, Sandburg, Jim and I have to head over your way - we can drop you off at the U for a while if you have any business there."
Getting up, Blair stretched and sighed. "Yeah, I guess I do now..."
Outside in the division room, Frank was talking earnestly to the new detective about procedures, showing him his new desk, when he spied Sonny leaving the interrogation room with Ellison and his anthropologist friend. "Yo, Sonny," he called over, "Come meet someone."
Halfway to the other side of the room where Frank and the other were, Jim Ellison stopped for a moment, wrinkling his nose.
"You coming, Jim?" Blair asked, as always attuned to the Sentinel's body language.
Taking a deep breath, Jim willed himself to calm down. [Things just keep getting weirder in this city,] he wondered as they approached, Then he nodded to the others. "Kouhanek..."
Frank shot a look at Sonny, but he couldn't speak openly here. [Damn, Julian told me not to talk to these two mortals.] Then he put on his best face, stuck out his hand. "Morning, Ellison, Sandburg..." He shook each of their hands and then gestured to the newcomer. "I'd like you to meet Detective Nick Knight from the Toronto Metro PD. Nick, Detective Jim Ellison and Dr. Blair Sandburg, who is an anthropologist."
Jim closed his eyes for just a second, willing himself some composure in the face of what he just sensed from this Canadian detective. Then he was all cordiality. "Hi, Nick, welcome," he murmured, shaking the man's hand. It was ice cold. He wasn't surprised.
Blair knew something was terribly wrong, but he had no idea what. Was this another Kindred? "Hey, there, Nick," he murmured, putting on his best front as well.
"Thanks, Jim, Blair," Nick Knight replied in an even baritone. He'd seen some subtle, odd body language from these two, but couldn't make any sense out of it. Mortals weren't able to sense vampires. "Anthropology? Funny place for an anthropologist in a police department," he added pleasantly.
"Well, not if you're doing research on closed societies," Blair began one of his favorite topics. "The social interaction is quite..."
"Sonny, we'll meet you in the car," Jim interrupted suddenly, his hand to Blair's elbow. After quick murmurs to Frank and Nick, the pair of mortals were gone out the door.
Nick shrugged. "Something I said?" But Sonny and Frank seemed just as bewildered.
"Probably nothing," Sonny commented. [What the hell was THAT all about?] He sensed nothing untoward from Nick Knight.
Frank scowled at the door, wondering just as much as his partner. [Don't tell me Ellison pegged this one for Kindred, too!] He glanced at Nick, who looked extremely normal to him. Sure, the guy had cold hands, but really... [Julian HAS to let me talk to them, tell them who they can trust and who they can't...]
In the elevator heading down to the garage, Blair asked the inevitable question of his lover. "Okay, Jim, and that was all about...?"
Jim laid a hand on Blair's shoulder, steadying himself. That had been a very bad shock. "Blair, Nick Knight is NOT Kindred. But neither is he human."
"WHAT?" Blair was taken aback. "Are you sure? He looked so normal..."
"He didn't have a heartbeat," the Sentinel explained. "But his body temperature was way too low for even Kindred, and he didn't smell like any Kindred I've encountered yet. Moreover, his, ah, mind felt different. I only hope he didn't detect that I could get a feeling for his mind. I don't think Sonny sensed him, which REALLY worries me. And there's something odd about Frank, too, something very subtle. I don't know, Chief, that really spooked me..."
"We'll ask Sonny, then, Jim, it's all right," Blair assured him, a hand on his arm. "You know, I've noticed something about Frank. He seems... preoccupied."
"Tell me about it..."
"So, should we call Julian?"
"Not yet," Jim answered. "I want to find out what Sonny knows."
Sonny joined them a minute later. "Hey, guys... ah, you left a little abruptly..."
He suddenly had a very tall, very gorgeous man in his face. "What is Knight?" Jim Ellison asked the Ventrue, his voice a bit sharp. "He's not Kindred."
"No," Sonny replied, bewildered. "He most definitely isn't. So he's mortal. What's the problem?"
Jim edged in even closer. "You can't tell!"
"Can't tell what? Jim, you're not making any sense," Sonny complained with a frown.
"Just tell him, Jim," Blair advised quietly, a hand on his lover's arm.
"Tell me what?" the Ventrue was getting worried now. [Just what the heck HASN'T my sire told me about these two?]
Jim, Protector mode engaged, told. "Sonny, *that* was neither Kindred nor mortal. His body temperature was much too low for your kind and he felt all wrong. Mentally, I mean." He still had to stick to their "psychic" cover story, even though it was only partially true.
Sonny stared at him, unbelieving. Then his brain began to work. "Oh, my God, Frank..." He dashed back toward the garage elevator.
Blair and Jim exchanged glances. Then they tore off after the Ventrue.
Sonny Toussaint, of course, was not thinking of the true vampires at first. There were all sorts of creatures to be reckoned with in the world, and this was likely one of them, a ghoul, probably. Who had sent it? Did they know about Frank or were they just trying to fit in, gain his trust? Then, he knew, remembering what Julian had told him on the phone about the vampires. [The guy's last name is different, that's what threw me. And if I let any mortals that Julian has marked as his own around *this* guy, it could be my head!] "Shit, shit, shit," he was cursing as Jim and Blair joined him in the elevator. "Hey, where the hell do you think you're going?"
"Same as you," Jim replied evenly.
"No, you're NOT," Sonny replied with a hint of menace, and let his eyes go silver a little. That got the mortals to hold up. "Let me deal with this. I can protect Frank."
"From...?" Jim had his foot in the door, and wasn't going to be dismissed easily.
"This is Kindred business, you let me take care of it," Sonny retorted.
"What is Knight?" the Sentinel persisted.
"Jim, let him take care of this," Blair was trying to say, but Jim wasn't hearing.
Sonny didn't have time for games. "Get off the elevator," he murmured quietly, backing up the words with a little mental push.
The mortals gave way. The elevator door closed with a bang of finality. Jim slammed his fist on the door two seconds later, about when the Kindred's mental influence expired. "Damn it! He did something, made us get off..."
"I'll call Julian... wait, Jim..." His big partner had started toward the stairwell. "Let's call Julian, see what he says first, please?" Blair begged him.
Jim Ellison halted, much to his relief. "Call, call." Then he kept on toward the stairs. "I'm going to go back up there, see if I can listen in."
"Wait!" Blair called out, dialing. "Jim, wait, you can do it from here... Just calm down and take a few minutes to concentrate. We're in the same building. You can do it..."
"Sandburg..."
"Ellison. C'mon, Jim." Blair punched the elevator button. No way was he going to climb nine flights of stairs if he didn't have to.
Fortunately, it was a quiet early evening and there were few interfering noises. Jim at first looked like he was just going to pretend to listen, just to shut up his partner, but then he was actively listening. He gave up just as the elevator opened. "It's no good, Chief, I don't know the building well enough. I need to know where to listen in. Are you going to call?"
Curiosity had gotten the better of both mortals by now, and they rode back up to the ninth floor, hoping that Jim could overhear what was going on. Blair did not call the Prince.
When Sonny burst back into the division room upstairs, he stopped short, gaping at what he saw. Frank Kouhanek, his very mortal but soon to be undead partner, was sitting on the edge of a desk, sipping at a cup of coffee, listening to Nick Knight, a true Undead, who was apparently regaling the other with the story of an unusual case about a haunted house, of all things, from Toronto.
They stopped the conversation and looked at him blankly. "Forget something, Sonny?" Frank asked after a minute.
The Ventrue primogen was counting slowly to himself, willing himself back into control. "You know what, Frank? I'm going to change my mind. Since I'm senior to you here, Lieutenant Wu said I could decide which of us works with Knight here," and Sonny cast a glance at the Canadian like he was carrying a noxious disease, "and which works with Ellison. So, I've decided I'm going to work with Knight. You can work with Jim Ellison."
Frank, instantly suspicious, narrowed his eyes at his partner over the unusual statement. [Shit, he knows Julian doesn't want Ellison talking to me. What gives?] "Not going to work," Frank countered. Nick calmly looked from one to the other, his arms crossed over his chest. "Knight here has to work the night shift and I've been, ah, contemplating a shift change. You *can* work days, so..."
[Of course he has to work the night shift,'] Sonny was thinking, still working on his cool. [Any touch of sunlight is going to fry his hide, don't you know?] "Frank, I think this is my call..."
"I don't think so," Frank countered hotly, getting into his face. "Where do you get off..."
"Excuse me," an amused Nick Knight broke in. "Why don't you to just take this, ah, private? Settle this somewhere else? I've got all this paperwork to fill out." He picked up a hefty stack of his personnel papers.
"Fine," Frank retorted, and gestured for Sonny to precede him to the interrogation room. It was, after all, a slow day. There were only about nine others in the room - and *they* were minding their own business, used to the Kouhanek-Toussaint spats.
Sonny cast a last glance at Knight, who had sat down at his new desk with that maddening little smile on his face, then preceded Frank to the other room.
Moments later, Jim and Blair arrived back on the ninth floor. Jim listened in before entering. "Nothing out of the ordinary here," he said, "I don't even hear them."
"Maybe they left?"
They entered the division room. Nick Knight looked up from his papers. "Oh, hi. Ah, Frank and Sonny went to the interrogation room to talk," he said pleasantly. [Mortals can be so entertaining,] Nick noted to himself. [But I must get to know these two better. My, but they're absolutely perfect...]
"We'll wait," Jim said, looking hard at the newcomer. [If he's not Kindred, surely I can ask him what he is?] he wondered, but thought waiting was best. He and Blair settled back down at Jim's desk.
In the interrogation room, Frank was on a Frank-rampage. "Look, I thought we were *buddies*, that even though I know about you now, you weren't going to pull any more SHIT on me..."
"Nick is not mortal," Sonny broke in, mustering all his patience. [Cash has NO idea what he's in for with this one.] "Nor Kindred."
"What?" Frank stopped the tirade, his finger poised in mid-air. "What did you say?"
Sonny pushed down the stabbing finger. "Frank, it's all right, I'm going to tell you. You're going to be one of us, there's no more secrets anymore. I said that Nick Knight is neither mortal nor Kindred."
"So this is supposed to reassure me?" Frank rolled his eyes. "Sonny..."
"Okay, okay. The truth is that Nick Knight is... a vampire."
Frank just stared at his partner. "Sonny... excuse me, but *you're* a vampire."
The other threw up his hands. "No, no, not like that, I mean a real one, what we Kindred call the True Undead. You said he has to be on the night shift? You're not kidding, he crisps in any sunlight. I'm surprised he's here *now* in fact, as the sun has only just gone down. Well, there are ways around it... getting a ride to work in the trunk of someone's car comes to mind, for that matter."
[I don't know whether to scream or beat up my partner,] Frank fumed within. "What do you mean a real vampire? They get more real than YOU? And why didn't you tell me this earlier?"
Outside in the division room, Blair was looking curiously at his partner. "Can you hear in there?" he whispered.
"Shhhhh," Jim cautioned. If he could hear, so might Detective Knight. It was a very interesting conversation. And he now understood about the stranger wolves in the spirit visions. But was Knight one of the same ones or just the same kind?
"Because..." [Because I didn't know, nincompoop,] Sonny wanted to say, but fell back on another story. Even Frank Kouhanek wasn't going to become privy to this psychic stuff about Ellison and Sandburg. "Because I forgot he would be using a different name, is why," Sonny finished smoothly. "Nick Knight and his 'master' were at Julian's house the other night, and he was introduced as Nicholas deBrabant. I wasn't there, but Julian called me to tell me how it went."
"His master, eh?" Frank muttered. "So how did it go?"
[Damn, you, Frank, you ask so many questions... good thing you're going to be Gangrel and I won't have to put up with more of this,] Sonny was thinking to himself. [Cash can HAVE you.] "Not good. How does Knight seem to you?"
Outside the room, the listening Sentinel was stunned. [The howling wolves in the spirit vision - that's what it meant! This Nick Knight and his... master... were at Julian's. Vampires versus Kindred? No wonder...]
Frank shrugged. "A very regular guy who doesn't drink coffee."
"He's strictly a blood-drinker, Frank," Sonny reminded him. "And apparently he blends in pretty well. Unless you were to invite him to dinner."
"And he gets his blood the way you do?" Which Frank didn't know a lot about but was as curious as hell to find out. [Cash, and I'm hoping it's you, we need to talk...]
Sonny was really getting tired of the grill. "No, I guess the wounds they make with fangs don't heal like ours do. Julian mentioned bottled supplies. I don't think they taste from mortals they way we can."
"Shit, Julian must love them," Frank muttered. "Well, if it's any consolation to you, I had Knight checked out already. I even spoke to his captain, a Joe Reese. He said Nick was all right, a good cop but a little...eccentric."
His partner passed his hand in front of his eyes. "Frank, you're defending vampires now. Are you hearing yourself?"
"Well, maybe I've learned not to jump to conclusions, finally!" Frank hotly retorted. "Something I'd like YOU to try sometime!"
[Sire, what DO you see in him?] Sonny asked himself for the tenth time as his partner stormed out of the room. [Guess I had to be there...]
The Ventrue stopped up short when he saw who else was in the room. Jim Ellison, touching his partner on the shoulder, stood with an impassive expression. "Ready to head on out, Sonny?"
Sonny looked at Nick Knight, patiently filling out forms. Frank had flounced over to his desk, which was now next to Knight's, pulling a file from his inbox to look at it. Ellison and Sandburg were halfway to the door. Somehow the entire situation had been defused and he had no idea why. Was Frank safe with the vampire?
One more way to be sure. "Hey, Bill," he called across the room to where his clansman was reading a magazine, feet on his desk. The big square Ventrue put his feet down with a clunk and came over. "Yeah, Sonny?"
"Your partner, Smith, he's out, right?"
Bill Patrick looked the situation over. Sonny was his primogen, which took precedence over any mortal rank either might hold. "Yeah, he called in."
"Good," Sonny sighed, "why don't you ride with Frank and Detective Nick Knight for me?
"Sure," the man grinned. He knew Frank was a protectorate of the prince's. Any chance to curry favor with the Prince stood him in good stead.
"Oh, great," Frank groaned. "Sure, fine, whatever." [Babysitting service,] he thought morosely.
Nick looked up from his paperwork to watch Jim Ellison follow his anthropologist friend out. [Wow... great ass...] He admired the grace in the tall detective's walk.
"Guys, wait up," Sonny called after the departing mortals.
"Jim?" Blair asked, wondering at his lover's expression.
"A lot more going on here than meets the eye," Jim murmured cryptically. "Tell you soon."
"Oh, great," Blair muttered. [Soon could mean in the next millennium... and an awful lot can happen in four years.]
Sonny had reached them by then. "I am so sorry about all that, man," he began as they entered the elevator. "Now, I know what you must be thinking..."
"You have no idea," Jim chuckled. When the door closed, he looked over at the Ventrue with a quirk in the corner of his mouth. "You going to call Luna or shall we?"
The Kindred looked at Ellison long. [Oh, shit...] "You're psychic."
"Something like that." Jim seemed amused.
"You know what Nick Knight is." [Julian is going to flay me.]
"A wolf with green-gold eyes," Jim replied, and punched the button for the garage level.
"Do you miss anything?" Sonny asked, exasperated.
"Not much," Jim and Blair said together.
"I'll call Julian," the Ventrue stated. [Sire, please, Bill will watch Frank and everything will be just fine, you'll see...]
In the back of his spinning mind, Sonny Toussaint reflected that if something did happen to Frank on his watch, Julian would not only flay him, but Cash would... [SHIT!]
He almost went back.
The End
