130Title: Blood Feud (1 of ?) Author: Lindyrb Rating: PG-13 Pairing: Mick/Beth Spoilers: Sequel to "Moonlight To Dawn" Disclaimer: CBS owns Moonlight. They've got all the neat stuff (like Alex's phone number...)
Summary: It will help if you've read "Moonlight To Dawn". This starts about a month after that story ends, so it's about 14 months from where the series is at currently. Mick, Beth and Josef are faced with solving a dangerous threat to their secret world, both from outsiders and maybe even from within... -
Sometimes you can go from 'life's good' to 'life sucks' in an amazingly short time. In the last month, I'd gotten the most amazing woman in the world to agree to marry me, put a rock on her hand that cost a couple years' savings, and gotten the Catholic Church to tell my ex to take a flying leap. All in all, it had been a very, very good month.
Then the break-ins started. At first, the cops wrote it off as just a robbery – a little cash taken and the place was totally trashed, but since it was a medical facility, they figured some druggies were pissed since they expected to find stockpiles of drugs. Pretty normal crime.Didn't even make the news.
But after the third clinic was hit in as many days, some of the more bizarre details found their way from the confidential police report to Beth by way of one of her nosy little snitches. They do have their uses…
Mick leaned back in his chair and looked at the cards in his hand. Two red queens, a red ace, a black king, and a lone three. He glanced at his friend across the table. Josef had the same sly smile he normally wore, so no hints there. The half-smoked Cuban in his hand was more for show than use. Josef said no poker game was worth playing without a Cuban and a scotch on the rocks. Mick could do without the Cuban, but gladly took a sip of the private label scotch at his side.
It wasn't anything official, but somehow every Thursday afternoon, Mick and Josef ended up in the small private room at Josef's house. It was easily the most casual and personal room in the house, unknown to all except his closest friends. Filled with comfortable furniture, a big screen tv, a small bar, and a card table, Josef referred to it officially as the study. Unofficially, he called it his 'inner sanctum'. Mick jokingly referred to it as The Bat Cave. Whatever the name, it was a private retreat where the two friends could just relax and be themselves. They'd watch sports, talk trash, and always, always find an excuse for a few hands of poker.
Josef discarded two cards, picking up his replacements and settling back, rearranging his cards noncommittally. As Mick reached for his glass again, his phone rang from its place on the table. Seeing Beth's photo displayed, he smiled and answered.
"Hey!"
Her response had a certain urgency to it. "Where are you?"
"At Josef's," he replied, sitting up straighter. "Why? What's wrong?"
"I've got something I think you both should see. I'll be there in fifteen," she said, quickly hanging up.
Twelve minutes later, Beth swept into Josef's living room in full blown investigative mode. Shaking her head to forestall any questions, she quickly dropped her bag and booted up her laptop.
"There've been a series of break ins in the last few days at various medical offices and Red Cross donation centers. At first the police just thought they were druggies looking for pharmaceuticals, but I don't think so. This afternoon I got some materials from a source," she said, pulling up some crime scene photos.
"In each case, there was a very distinctive m.o. The police now figure they either have a thief with a warped sense of humor or somebody with a mental problem. What's weird is that they tossed the offices, but the main target seemed to be the destruction of any blood stored there. At each crime scene, the cops found every pint of blood ruined and a note with a stake through it," she said quietly. Beth looked up to see that she had both men's full attention. "Every time the note reads the same…I've got a scan of the one from last night."
She pulled up a scanned copy of the note and turned the screen around so the other two could read the text.
Be ye doctors or lawyers
Detectives or priests
Drawers of blood or financial chiefs
All those who drink blood
And turn from the light
Ye strike at the innocent and feed in the night
Soon by blade, fire or silver
For blood will you thirst
Thus the earth will be cleansed of the vile vampire curse
Josef straightened up slowly, his eyes never leaving the screen. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
"Blade, fire and silver…he certainly hits all the nasty points, doesn't he," quipped Mick.
Beth nodded and moved around next to Mick. "And look at the first verse – it's so specific. Detectives and financial chiefs? Tell me that doesn't refer specifically to the two of you."
"We have community members in each of those professions," nodded Josef.
Mick looked from Beth to Josef and back to the screen in front of him. "Whoever this guy is, he knows us. And I'm not talking just about vampires in general." Mick looked at the others with a grim smile. "He knows us."