No Boundaries - part three (PG13)

User avatar
Shadow
Courtesan
Posts: 2636
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:09 am

No Boundaries - part three (PG13)

Post by Shadow »

Disclaimer: Moonlight is not mine and no copyright infringement is intended.









IN BETWEEN
sixteen and . . .






No Boundaries
part three




Mick had made plans to meet Esme tomorrow, and she wouldn’t be expecting him today. She might not even be home. But seeing Coraline had unsettled him so much, he'd found himself driving straight to Esme's house, desperate to talk to her now. The house was a small suburban rental, in far better condition than Elaine’s house, with a pretty garden in front, pale yellow paint on the walls, and a fenced yard in the back. Mick knocked firmly at the door, and then rang the bell. If Esme was home, she would probably be asleep in her freezer. It might not be easy to rouse her. When Josef needed to wake him, he always came into the apartment and banged directly on the lid of the freezer. Tyler had once flung the lid open, threatening to unplug it . . . .

“Esme! Please, I need to talk to you. It’s Mick St. John,” he called, and as he leaned against the door, he heard a dog bark inside. Tangent. Esme must surely be there as well; the dog seemed to go everywhere with her. Mick knocked again, and a moment later the door opened. Esme stood there, looking muzzy with sleep, her hair in a disarray of long red curls. She was barefoot, wrapped in an oversized bathrobe that made her look even smaller than she was.

“Mick?” She rubbed at her eyes, looking puzzled. “Weren’t we meeting tomorrow?”

“Yes. I’m sorry. It’s just that something’s come up, and I – I needed to see you today.”

He stepped forward and she flinched, taking an involuntary step back. He stopped in confusion, startled by her reaction, not wanting to intimidate her. Belatedly he realized how strongly his emotional turmoil must be affecting her. Esme was extraordinarily sensitive to emotional memories, far more so than any other vampire he’d ever known. The last time they’d met, just by touching him she’d sensed his connection with Elaine, and she’d known that Elaine was in trouble. What did she just pick up from me? My anger, my shock, my despair?

“Come inside, Mick. What in the world is going on?”

He slipped past her, waiting in the hall, and she quickly closed the door and led him to the living room. She pointed to a chair and disappeared into the kitchen. He sat down restlessly, looking up in surprise when he heard paws pattering across the floor. Tangent trotted up to him, not hesitating, and sat by the chair, pushing his head against Mick’s hand. Mick stroked the dog, still awed by his lack of fear, but even this couldn’t really soothe him.

“Here.” Esme was standing by him, holding out a glass of blood. He accepted it, realizing he really did need it, and gulped it down. Esme sat down opposite him, tucking her bare feet under her robe, and the dog abandoned him and went to lie by her chair.

Mick set his empty glass down on the small table beside him. He felt marginally calmer.

“Who is she?” Esme asked. “This woman who upset you so much.”

“How did you -- ”

“I sensed your memory of her when I opened the door. It was very strong. And very complex.”

Mick stared at her, starting to realize just how much she had sensed from him. Since she’d called it complex, his shock and anger over Coraline’s words must have only been part of it. Esme must also have sensed the confused, mixed feelings he had for Coraline: hate and love, guilt and fear, the bond of fledgling to sire, the strange way he’d been drawn to her even before she’d turned him . . . his unending horror at what she’d planned for Beth as a child, his dark worries about what her family had done to her, his guilt about the fire, his desperate sorrow over what she'd taken from him . . It was disturbing, knowing that Esme had seen all of this, but at least he wouldn’t have to explain very much to her. “Her name’s Coraline,” he said at last. “She’s my sire. And my ex.”

“She thinks you’ll go back to her. After . . .”

“After Beth dies.” Mick put his hands to his head. The thought of Beth dying suddenly seemed too much for him to deal with. Had she been right after all? How could they possibly cope with this? “Beth is . . . Beth is mortal. And I’m trying to figure out how to be with her.”

“Beth. Is she the woman I saw you with, the night of the earthquake?”

He nodded, not looking up.

“You’re in love with her. More than in love.” Esme sounded strangely wistful. What had she seen of his feelings for Beth? So simple, compared to what he felt for Coraline. Love and hope, exasperation and laughter, healing and forgiveness . . . a connection he would never be able to explain, forged in fire and strengthened by blood . . . a little girl reaching out for him without a trace of fear, a woman holding him in her arms, loving him without caring whether he was a vampire or not. How, how, could anyone believe, even for an instant, that Beth’s life didn’t matter?

“I knew it would be difficult,” Mick said. “I knew it would be complicated, that someday we’d have to figure out an impossible problem. When Beth starts to get older, and I don’t. But Coraline – she’s planning to just wait it out. As if Beth’s life is just an inconvenient detour, as if a mortal lifetime doesn’t mean anything.”

Esme didn’t seem impressed by this. “How else would she look at it? She’s a vampire, Mick. She’s bound to see a mortal lifetime that way. Haven’t you seen it that way yourself, when it came to other people?”

Mick closed his eyes. He’d told Beth himself that thirty years was no more than a heartbeat for a vampire . . . and Beth was only twenty-seven years old. “Yes. But -- ”

“There are far worse things she could plan, Mick,” Esme said, a little tightly, and Mick remembered, with a rush, what Esme’s sire had done to her, and how much more difficult and complicated things actually could be. Coraline wasn’t planning to try to kill Beth, or even to harm her. She wants me back, and that keeps Beth safe. Coraline was certainly aware that if she harmed Beth in any way, she would lose Mick forever, and she wouldn’t risk that. In fact, if it kept her out of Beth’s life, perhaps Coraline’s plan wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all. If. Mick wasn’t so sure she would really stay away. What else might she do, what other plots might she conceive? He couldn’t help imagining Coraline hovering near Beth with a camera, collecting photographs, enjoying the sight of Beth growing old while she herself remained young and beautiful. Would she even see Beth as a rival, considering her opinion of humans?

“Does it really matter that Coraline doesn’t understand the value of a mortal life?” Esme asked, more gently. “Most vampires don’t. But you do. And you must have thought of this before, when you fell in love with a mortal woman. Unless something changes, your lifetimes will be uneven.”

Mick nodded. Esme was right; this problem could be dealt with. It was only the same old dilemma, the difficult part of their relationship. It was nothing new. Coraline’s words had not actually changed a thing. “Yes,” he said. “I’ve thought of it before, over and over. I just let Coraline get to me. She has that – that effect.”

“It seems she hit a nerve,” Esme said mildly.

“Yeah. The uneven lifetimes. That’s what it all comes back to. We’ve been trying to live in the moment, but someday . . . someday we’ll have to decide what to do about it.” Beth’s words from last night still echoed in his mind: I don’t ever want to have to make that decision. But the moment she’d accepted his return, moving into his arms, she’d put herself back into that position. Someday she would have to choose – unless he chose for her, by refusing to consider one of the options.

“You might find that cure again. Find a way to make it permanent.”

Mick sighed. He didn’t believe Coraline would ever tell him where the rest of the cure was hidden, but maybe he should have tried to find out. “That’s what I want. But there isn’t much hope of it. And even if I found more of it . . . Coraline’s family controls it, and they want it kept under wraps. It wouldn’t be safe to use it.” Especially not for Esme. Coraline had protected Mick from the family while he was human, but even if that protection were to continue, it wouldn’t extend to Esme.

Esme nodded, looking thoughtful.

“I’m sorry,” he said awkwardly. “I know you wanted it too.”

“I did,” she said, “but now I’m not so sure.”

“You don’t want it any more?”

“Someday. But not yet. I’ve realized it’s not something I’m ready for. I’ve spent my whole life closed off from the world, and I don’t really know how to be open, how to take part in another person’s life. My sire is gone now, but I haven't changed yet. What use would it be for me to be human while I’m still hiding from the world? It’s going to take a long time for me to learn to be a part of it again, to step out from my sire’s shadow. Besides, I can do so much more as a vampire. My work can help people.”

“You could still help people as a human,” Mick pointed out. He shouldn’t encourage her, when it was so hopeless, but he couldn’t seem to help it. “You could train your dogs as actual search dogs, and work with them that way.”

“But only for so long,” Esme said softly. She was silent for a time, and Mick had no answer for her. He’d always guessed that she was trying to make up for at least as much as he was, if not more.

She cleared her throat, then, and pointedly changed the subject. “You and Beth can always go on as you are,” she said. “Human and vampire. You could share Beth’s entire life. And sire or not, I don’t believe you would go back to your ex-wife afterward.”

No, he wouldn’t, not even with the bond of fledgling to sire. Part of him would always love Coraline, he couldn’t help that, but he’d changed too much to ever go back to her. In fact, I don’t even know if I would survive, afterward. I understand what Jackson did better than I ever thought I would. “And there’s still one more option,” he said, a bit shakily.

Esme looked surprised. “You’d consider turning her?”

Mick swallowed, and met Esme’s gaze. He’d always been adamantly against the very idea of turning Beth, and she’d said herself she wasn’t ready for it, but what if she truly wanted it someday? When Josef had talked about possibly turning Simone, he hadn’t been able to keep from thinking of it. He’d been torn, horrified at the thought of inflicting a vampire lifestyle on Beth, but very well aware of his deep longing to be with her always. You think that’s what this is about? You think I’m gonna want to turn you? he’d asked her last night. And she’d answered, Wouldn’t you?

“I turned someone once,” he said at last. “Only once. And it was the worst kind of nightmare for both of us. I can’t do that to Beth. I could never put her through that.”

Esme nodded. She seemed to understand.

“But if there was any way it could happen without . . . without that horror, that darkness . . .” He stared at the floor, not daring to look at Esme. “I just keep thinking about Tyler. Tyler was happy. Becoming a vampire was the best thing that ever happened to him. His turning didn’t harm him; he didn’t end up with a vampire’s darkness down in his soul. He was a vampire but he was still human; in his heart he never stopped being human. If Beth could have that . . .”

“Mick . . .”

“If she wanted it . . . if it ever came down to it . . . would you turn her, Esme?”

Esme went pale. He knew he’d shocked her terribly. “Mick, you don’t know what you’re asking.”

“I do know. I know it’s too much to ask; I know that. But I think I know why Tyler was . . . the way he was. I think it was because of you.”

“Mick – he’s the only person I’ve ever turned. You can’t know that. It was probably just his personality, his mentality, the way he looked at life.”

“It could have been. But I don’t think it was. As a human, he never came to terms with the killing he did in the war. There was darkness on his soul then . . . and that carries across; you know it does. Unless you somehow learn a different way to live. Unless someone teaches that to you. Esme – you’ve spent your whole life, and it’s been a very long life, teaching creatures how to overcome their instincts.”

Tangent whined softly, and Esme and Mick both turned to look at him. Esme’s hand moved to touch the dog's head.

“I – I don’t know,” she whispered.

“I know you can’t answer now. But please, think about it. And if you decide you can’t do it . . . think about whether you could help me do it. If it ever came down to that.” He could hardly believe he was saying this, or even thinking it. What had changed, that he could even consider this a possibility? I think I’ve finally stopped hating what I am. He would never stop hating what he’d been, or the terrible things he'd once done, but what he was now was something different.

Esme was staring past him, her eyes haunted. His words had somehow wakened a deep pain within her. “Esme?” he said, suddenly worried.

“I should have done that, shouldn’t I? But I didn’t even think of it.”

“Done what?”

“I should have had someone else turn Tyler. So he’d be safe from my sire, from my family. I never thought to do that. If I had, maybe he’d still be alive.”

Mick crossed to her side, knelt by the dog, and looked up at her. “No. Even if you hadn’t sired him, they’d still have known how important he was to you.” And what in God’s name drove them to destroy everyone you ever loved? Why would anyone do that?

“Maybe not,” Esme said fiercely. “Not if I’d stayed away from him, not if I’d never gotten close to him.”

“He wouldn’t have wanted that,” Mick said. So many things Tyler had said and done, so many things he’d concealed, made sense now. He’d loved women, he’d admired them and enjoyed their company, but while Mick knew him he’d never gotten truly close to any woman. I lost my heart a long time ago, to a woman I’ll never see again, Tyler had said, and Mick had assumed he was talking about a woman he’d known when he was mortal. He’d never realized that Tyler had actually been talking about his sire. Not until now.

“You were lovers,” he said. He was suddenly completely certain of it.

“Yes,” she whispered. “I wanted to be with him always. But more than that, I wanted him to live.”

Mick had never gotten over the pain of Tyler’s death, had never understood why his friend had had to die. “Why did it happen?” he asked abruptly. “Why did your sire, your blood family, do this to you? Why did they kill Tyler?” He knew they hadn’t cared anything about Tyler himself; they’d murdered him simply to hurt Esme. Mick had tracked them, afterward, and with Coraline’s help he’d taken them all out, but that had still done nothing to ease his pain.

“Revenge,” Esme said. “For something that never happened.”

Mick shook his head, bewildered, and she took his hands in hers, closing her eyes. Suddenly he was falling . . . falling into the past, into rolling green fields surrounded by stone walls, dotted with grazing sheep and interspersed with little villages. He saw Esme, looking just the same but so obviously mortal, as she came to the manor house with her family. Her father was to be horsemaster to the lord, her mother seamstress to the lady, and Esme, though she would have preferred to help her father as she’d always done before, was to be the lady’s maid.

“The lady was so beautiful, so kind, and so very, very sad,” Esme whispered. “I didn’t know she was a vampire then, of course. In hindsight, I imagine she was turned against her will by the lord, and couldn’t bear what she’d become. One day, she set her rooms ablaze, to kill herself in the fire.”

Mick saw Esme running, terrified, toward the flames, to try to help . . . and saw her fall back in despair. She was still standing there, helplessly watching the fire, when the lord arrived.

“I suppose he must truly have loved her,” Esme said bitterly. “He thought I had discovered her secret and killed her, and he took his revenge on me.” The lord had attacked Esme, and Mick could almost feel the terrible wounds he inflicted on her body. And then, as if the lord felt this wasn’t enough punishment, he fed Esme his blood. After she turned, he set her loose. On her family first, then on her friends in the village, the girls she’d laughed with and the young men who’d caught her eye. Later, somehow, she’d found enough control over herself to run away, enough strength to change her life and go on. But her sire was always there, watching, waiting, making sure that no one she loved ever survived. Mick felt himself falling again, into Esme’s very soul as she felt Tyler die. The wrenching pain was more than he could bear . . . and then he fell into other memories, the first moment Esme and Tyler saw each other, the moment she turned him, the first time they made love, the day they parted forever . . . he was Tyler, then, and she held him close and kissed him, tears spilling from her eyes. He felt the terrible pain of their parting, the utter sadness of their last kiss. Esme’s mouth was so cool against his, so desperate, so loving. Then the connection faded and Mick slowly surfaced, himself again, and realized that Esme’s face was so near his that she almost was kissing him, and he was holding her close in his arms.

He broke away, staring at her in shock, completely dazed by the memories. “I . . . I’m sorry,” Esme said, putting a hand to her mouth. “So sorry. I didn’t know it would be so strong. I didn’t mean to do that.”

“How did you ever manage it?” he whispered. “How could you bear it, to live your lives apart?”

“It was worth it, to keep him safe. To keep him alive.”

“I miss him so much.” The memories had been so fresh, so strong; they had brought everything back to him.

“I know. But Mick . . . when I look at you, I can still see him. A part of him still lives. In you.”

Mick lifted his right hand to gaze at Tyler’s ring, and he slowly twisted it around his finger, deep in memory.

“You should go,” Esme said quietly. “I can’t control the memories when you’re here . . . they’re too overwhelming. But I have an answer for you.”

He looked up at her intently.

“I move around, Mick. I don’t stay in one place. But if you have time to wait for me to come . . .”

He nodded quickly. For what he was considering, there would be time. If Beth was ever in a life-or-death accident, a dire emergency, he still had no idea what he would do.

“If she ever wants it, from me, and tells me so,” Esme said, taking a deep, shaky breath, “then I’ll do as you’ve asked.”

















Beth closed Ben’s office door behind her, wishing very strongly that it wasn’t a glass door in a glass wall, and cautiously sat down at his desk. If anyone came in or saw her, she would only be looking for a file she needed. In fact . . . Emma’s file lay on top of his desk, ready to hand. She opened it, so she could pretend to be studying it, and then glanced over the rest of the desktop. The desk was clean and tidy, and no other files were out. She didn’t see any personal items either, no photographs, notes or letters. He didn’t even have a planner on his desk. But wait – had he logged out of his email? He’d been distracted, and then he’d been late. Maybe he’d left that open.

She checked, and smiled. In his hurry to get to his meeting, Ben hadn’t logged out. She glanced quickly over his current email. It mostly looked official - messages from other district attorneys, from police detectives, from the mayor’s office – but there were messages that looked personal as well. Would it have been the same three years ago? Could Ben possibly have had the same email address for that long? Beth had friends who had kept theirs for much longer than that - and as it turned out, Ben had kept his that long too. She scanned back through his mail until she found entries for February 2005. That was the month he’d dropped out of sight. Glancing nervously over the monitor at the mostly-transparent door, she scrolled down the entries.

As before, there was lots of mail about cases, the only difference being that most of these were from other lawyers. There were also casual messages. A note from his mother, and one from his girlfriend – no, his fiancée; the note was about an upcoming engagement party. Beth stiffened, a sudden thought crossing her mind. I’ll never be able to let my mother meet Mick. She couldn’t even tell her about him. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to let the hurt pass through her. Normal couples had engagement parties, and introduced each other to their parents. Well, she and Mick weren’t a normal couple, and they simply couldn’t do the same things. There was no sense in getting upset about it. Anyway, these things didn’t always work out even for normal couples. Ben’s fiancée had written forever yours, Sarah, at the bottom of her note, but it hadn’t been forever for them, had it? Ben certainly didn’t seem to have a fiancée or a wife now.

Beth felt a twinge at the name, and couldn’t help thinking of Josef’s lost love, but she didn’t have time to dwell on the coincidence. She scrolled on through the messages, and suddenly their content changed. Someone at Ben’s law firm had left him a condolence message: We are very sorry for your loss. Let us know if you need to take a leave of absence. His mother had also written: Ben, how are you doing? Your father and I are so worried about you. Oh, poor Sarah. It’s such a tragedy. Have they found any trace of the man who killed her? Whoever did that needs to pay.

Beth stared at the message, her eyes widening. God, Ben’s fiancée had been murdered? No wonder he’d dropped out of sight. She felt horribly guilty for looking through these ever so personal messages. But still . . . she had a very uncomfortable feeling about this. How did Sarah die? Beth thought of the strange way Ben had always looked at Mick, the way he’d interrogated him at the Fordhams’ house, and she was afraid she might already know. Calm down, Beth. Don’t be paranoid. She hunted quickly through the messages again, looking for Sarah’s last name, but she couldn’t find it mentioned anywhere, not even in the woman’s username. Well, she could certainly still find information about the murder, using the location and date – it would just take a little longer. But she could do computer searches much more safely at her own desk, and she’d been in this office too long already. She quickly logged out of Ben’s email, so that he’d think he’d done that himself, and started to get up. But what if there was some clue in the desk drawers? She sat back down and quickly checked them; the top drawer held the usual assortment of pens, paper clips and staples, but the bottom drawer was locked.

She took a deep, shaky breath, got out her tools, and set to work on the lock. She was getting pretty good at this; it didn’t take her long to get the drawer open. The first file folder was labeled Current, and Beth found a large black envelope at the front of it. She opened the envelope and took out a stapled sheaf of papers.

It was a list of names. An odd list, normal-sounding names mixed with the names of a few historical figures. Richelieu and de Sade? There was a note in the margin in Ben’s handwriting: What the hell?? What is this, some kind of weird reminder? Male voice on phone. Still . . . Olivia? Beth couldn’t make any sense of the note. She flipped to the second page, and then froze. Halfway down the page she saw the name Mick St. John. Josef’s name was on the third page, and Mick’s appeared again on the fourth. On the same page she saw Coraline Duvall. Beth’s heart was racing in panic . . . was this a list of vampires? How could Ben have such a thing, and why? She turned to the last page. The last three names at the bottom of the list were Logan Griffen, Josef Kostan, and Mick St. John. Beth tore her gaze away from those three names and looked at the top of the sheet, and her heart nearly stopped. Emma Monaghan. Jackson Monaghan. Both names were neatly crossed out. A little below that she saw another crossed-out name, Pierce Anders.

She leaped up, tucking the list back into its envelope, and rushed to the door. Cautiously she went out into the hall, the envelope in her hand, and headed as calmly as she could for the copy machine. Theresa Novak passed her in the hall, giving her a disdainful look, but she neither looked at the envelope nor spoke to Beth. Reaching her goal, Beth took the list from the envelope, pried the staple loose, shoved the document into the machine, and set it to copy. More people walked past her, talking about Emma, about other cases. Beth couldn’t understand anything they were saying. Trembling, she grabbed the copied sheets and the original document, and went back to Ben’s office. She found a stapler in Ben’s tidy top drawer, carefully lined up the pages of the original, and stapled it as close as she could to the existing holes. Clutching the copy, she put the original, in its envelope, back exactly where she’d found it. She glanced quickly at the rest of the Current file, and then at the other files in the drawer. Oh God. There was a file labeled Mick St. John. She was leafing through it, numb with shock, when she saw someone approaching the office. She closed the file, slammed the drawer shut and locked it in one motion, holding on to her copy of the list and bending over Emma’s open file on the desk.

“What are you doing in here?”

Theresa Novak again. Beth only halfway managed to control her flinch, and tried to keep her voice from shaking. “I had to copy some material from Emma Monaghan’s file,” she said, straightening the papers in the folder. “Ben wants background on both her and her husband. Say, you’re going to check out the house, aren’t you? Can you let me know if you find anything significant?’

Novak was frowning, but she always frowned at Beth. She’d been close to Josh, and she believed that Beth had treated him badly. Which I did. But this was no time for her old guilt to resurface. Beth gave Novak a false smile – again, that was only normal – and waited for her answer.

“I suppose,” Novak said grudgingly. “As long as you reciprocate. Are you done with that file? I need it.”

Beth relinquished the file and walked past her into the hall, the copy of the list clutched safely in her hand. When she reached her own little office, she closed the door and collapsed into her chair, trembling.

Why does Ben have a list of vampires?

Does he
know it’s a list of vampires?

Why does he have a file on Mick?

Where in goddamned hell did he get that photograph?

What is going on?


Mick was on the list at least four times, maybe more – she’d only had time to scan it quickly. Why? The list was obviously a very new acquisition of Ben’s, but he must have been compiling data about Mick ever since he’d arrived in town. He certainly suspected something. So why hadn’t he done anything? Beth shakily got out her phone and called Mick. No answer, of course; he must be asleep in his freezer. She’d have to go to him and wake him up. But wait, maybe she could reach Josef; with his business he tended to keep more human-type hours. She left Mick a nearly incoherent message, and called Josef.

“Beth! It’s not every day you call me. What’s the occasion?”

“I need to talk to you. As soon as possible.”

“Oh?” The cheerfulness had fled from his voice. “I’d really prefer not to keep going behind Mick’s back, Beth.”

“What? Oh. Oh, no, this is nothing like . . .” She was stammering. Oh God, the photograph. I killed that man for nothing. “I need to talk about this to Mick, too, but I can’t reach him. He must still be asleep.”

“What’s going on?” Josef’s voice had changed yet again, and he was now deadly serious.

“I can’t talk about it on the phone. Look, can I meet you at Mick’s place in . . . in about twenty minutes?”

“I’ll be there.”

Beth put her phone away and tried to calm herself enough to think. She’d planned to start searching for information about the murder, but it suddenly seemed like a really bad idea to do the search from here, on a police computer. And with the other things she’d found, maybe it didn’t even matter. She’d planned to complete a vampire-free report about Emma and Jackson, so that no one else would be assigned to do it – but she simply couldn’t take the time. The images from the file, the names on the list, were overwhelming her. She grabbed her bag, stuffed the copied list into it, and hurried out into the hall.

She took only enough time to write a note for Ben, telling him that she was out doing further research on the Monaghans. She went back into his office and put the note on his desk, horribly aware of the file on Mick that was hidden, only inches away from her, in the bottom drawer. Then she fled the building.

















Beth scarcely remembered making her way to her car, or driving to Mick’s apartment. She was simply there, pounding on his door, suddenly afraid that something had happened to him. Why hadn’t he answered her call? Maybe he wasn’t in his freezer. Maybe he was gone, forever . . . She pounded on the door again, panicked. Why hadn’t they thought to exchange keys? Damn his apartment security; he’d enhanced it so much since the break-ins, she’d never be able to get past the door. She was pulling her phone out of her bag, to try calling him again, when she heard Mick’s voice behind her. She spun, and almost sobbed with relief when she saw him. He was alive, he was safe. As he came up to her she flung her arms around him, frantically holding him close, feeling his startled reaction before he wrapped his arms around her in turn.

“Beth, what happened? What’s wrong?” He pushed her away, far enough that he could look at her face. His worried gaze roamed to her throat. “Did someone see the bite? Is that what happened?”

“No. No, it isn’t that.” She tried to steady herself, and noticed that he didn’t look well himself. He almost seemed pale, and his eyes looked haunted. “It’s something else. I tried to call you, but I couldn’t reach you.”

“Oh no, the phone. I forgot to turn it back on. Beth, I am so sorry.” He quickly keyed open the door and gently guided her inside. “What is it? What did you need to tell me?”

“It’s s-something I found in Ben’s office. I have to tell Josef too; when I couldn’t reach you, I called him.”

“Speak of the devil,” Josef said amiably. He’d appeared as if from nowhere, and he closed the door behind them. “So what’s going on? You both look like hell.”

Mick glanced from Josef to Beth, looking even more distressed. “There are some things I need to tell you, Beth, but I think you’d better go first. Come on. Sit down.” He settled her on the couch and sat beside her, his arm steadying her. She pulled the copied list out of her bag and handed it to him mutely.

Mick’s eyes widened as he scanned the first page, and sudden fear crossed his face when he reached the third. Josef sat down beside him on the couch, his expression grim, his brow furrowed. Together they looked through the entire list, and then Mick flipped it back to the beginning.

“Where exactly did you find this?” he asked, his voice very tense.

“In Ben’s desk drawer, while he was out at a meeting. It was locked up in a file labeled Current.

“Is this his writing on the front page?”

“Yes.” She looked worriedly from Mick to Josef. She’d been so panicked, she hadn’t thought of what Josef might do. Why hadn’t she considered the possibilities? Would he immediately go after Ben? In spite of everything, she didn’t want that.

“Do you know who this Olivia is?” Josef asked. In contrast to Mick’s, his voice was strangely calm. It frightened her a little.

Beth shook her head. “I have no idea.”

Mick brushed his hand across the top page, over the handwritten note. “It doesn’t sound like Talbot really knows what this is. But where the hell did he get it?”

“Maybe Emma made good on her threat,” Beth said hesitantly. “You said she was capable of it, Mick.”

“No,” Josef said. “She didn’t create this list.” He sounded utterly certain.

“How can you be so sure?” Beth asked.

“For one, her name is on there, and Jackson’s. And they’re crossed out, at that. But mostly I’m sure because of the historical names.”

“I thought . . . maybe they were vampires too.” Though that didn’t actually make sense, did it? If the Marquis de Sade really was a vampire, and alive today, he wouldn’t be using the same name.

Josef gave her a false smile. “Well, I suppose they could be. Elizabeth Bathory, now . . . I wouldn’t be surprised. But every other name on here is the vamp’s current name. No Charles Fitzgerald or Joseph Konstantine here.” Beth nodded; this only confirmed her own thoughts.

“Then what do they mean?” Mick gave Josef a sideways look. “You know, don’t you?”

Josef took the list from Mick and examined it again. “Well, it still doesn’t make sense,” he said, “but that’s the way hunters talk about vamps among themselves, when they’re sharing information. They don’t use the word vampire on anything that could be seen or heard by a third party. They call us Caesers or de Sades. It’s a signal from one hunter to another that vampires are under discussion.”

“Then this is a hunters’ list,” Beth said. “But how in the world could they get so many names?”

“They couldn’t,” Josef said bluntly. “That’s why it doesn’t make sense. A hunter could come up with one or two names, maybe, and pass them around. But there must be a hundred names on this list. There’s no way a hunter could find out so many. And if they had, more of these vamps would be dead already.”

“Some of them are,” Beth pointed out. “Pierce Anders. Emma and Jackson.”

“Donovan Shepherd, too,” Mick said, flipping back to find the page. His face was full of concentration, as if he had something almost figured out. “But none of these vamps were killed by hunters. They were killed by other vampires.”

“Yeah. Mostly by the Cleaners, at that,” Josef muttered.

“That’s it. Josef, that’s it.” Mick quickly went back to the end of the list. “I’m the last one on here. I called the Cleaners yesterday evening, to set up the meeting to get Emma out. When did you last call them, Josef?”

“Yesterday afternoon, to report Emma's arrest. Right after you called me about it." A speculative look was forming on Josef’s face.

Mick brought his finger back to Logan’s name. “Logan called the Cleaners last week when Elaine disappeared. He panicked, and he was afraid something might have happened to her.”

In spite of the tension and her fear, Beth felt a spark of curiosity. “Elaine?”

Mick glanced up at her with a guilty expression, but before he could speak, Josef cleared his throat and said, “She’s Logan’s girlfriend.”

Logan has a girlfriend? Beth supposed she shouldn’t really be that surprised, although she’d never seen any sign of a woman in Logan’s life. Mick nodded, confirming Josef’s words, but then said, “Elaine is more than just Logan’s girlfriend, Beth.” Beth saw Josef raise his eyebrows . . . what was going on here? Mick went on, “She’s a part of my life as well. I’ll tell you all about it just as soon as I can, okay?”

Beth nodded, feeling completely bewildered. What did he mean, a part of my life?

“Okay,” Mick said, returning his attention to the list. “And Guillermo is on here several times; he calls the Cleaners all the time about stuff that comes up in the morgue. The only thing is, Elaine’s on here too, early on. Why would that be?”

“She probably checked in when she came back into town, Mick.”

“Damn, she probably did. Though it’s more than she ever did for me.” He frowned at Josef. “The Cleaners aren’t supposed to keep records of the vamps who call them, but something tells me they actually do.”

“They keep internal records,” Josef said very quietly. “No one else is ever supposed to see them.”

They all stared at each other. Beth said, “But what about the historical names? You said that was a hunters’ mark. Do you mean that somehow hunters got hold of a Cleaners’ call list? How could that happen?”

“It could happen if one of the Cleaners betrayed us,” Josef said, his voice so cold it sent shivers down Beth’s spine. “And if that’s so, taking out Talbot won’t do us a damn bit of good. Hell, there may be no way to contain this, and this is huge.”

Beth’s head was spinning. Cleaners’ lists, hunters’ lists . . . why would Ben Talbot have access to any of them? She felt strangely relieved that no one seemed to think going after Ben was a good idea. But why was she relieved about that? He was after Mick, wasn’t he? Or is he? He’s been collecting information about Mick for a long time now, and he hasn’t taken any action at all. “There’s more,” she said, putting her hand on Mick’s arm. “I found out that Ben’s fiancée was murdered, just before he dropped out of sight a few years ago. I haven’t been able to find out the details yet, so it may have nothing to do with this, but if it was a vampire who killed her . . .”

Mick and Josef glanced at each other, both looking deeply troubled, and Beth knew she didn’t have to finish her sentence.

“Mick, Ben has a file on you, too. I didn’t have time to copy it, but . . .” she swallowed hard. “He has a copy of – of one of Dean Foster’s photographs, showing you getting hit by the car.” The horror of that fact shot through her again, the realization that she’d had Foster killed for nothing. But she couldn’t dwell on that, not now. “He has a copy of your birth certificate from 1922, and a citation for a Purple Heart given in 1944. And – and more photographs. The same picture Julia had in her book about Lee Jay. Photos of your wounds, after Lee Jay shot you. Pictures of you at Josh’s funeral.”

Mick looked utterly shocked, but Josef was listening intently, and he seemed to have detected a pattern in what she’d said. “Huh,” Josef said. “Talbot must be one very confused guy right now.”

“How do you mean?” Beth asked.

“It’s all mixed together. He’s got evidence that Mick is human mixed in with evidence that he isn’t. And aside from that one Foster photo, he really doesn’t have anything at all. Logan fixed up your records, didn’t he, Mick?”

“Yeah,” Mick said, still looking dazed. “They should hold up pretty well.”

“Then the birth certificate and the Purple Heart citation are your grandfather’s, he has a photograph of your dad, and the rest are proof that you can get injured. That part isn’t as bad as it seems at first glance. This list, on the other hand, is real trouble. We need to find out what’s going on with the Cleaners here in L.A. Maybe get someone in from outside.”

“Shouldn’t you all get out of here?” Beth said worriedly. “Everyone on the list, at least?”

Josef looked troubled. “A mass exodus isn’t a great idea either. But we do need to start warning people. Talbot doesn’t seem to know what he’s dealing with, but there’s no telling how far this goes.”

“Elaine,” Mick muttered, pulling out his phone. “I’ve got to warn her, and she can get me in touch with Marguerite, too.” He dialed a number, waited, and said quickly, “Elaine, it’s Mick. Call me back. Please, just as soon as you can. It’s an emergency.” He sent a text to follow up, and stared nervously at the phone, running his hand over his face. “Damn it, she never answers calls . . .”

“Marguerite?” Josef asked mildly.

“A Cleaner I know in New York. She owes me a favor.”

Josef nodded. “Marguerite Gerard, right? I’ve heard of her. She have anything to do with what happened to you there?”

“Yeah. And she’s also the one who got me out of it, so back off. But she owes me, and we can use that. The only thing is, I don’t know how to get in touch with her. Elaine does, but . . .”

“I can find Marguerite,” Josef said. “I’ll get on it. And I’ll start putting together an evacuation. Logan can help with that.”

“He’s probably still asleep,” Mick muttered. “Elaine probably is, too.”

“I know where Logan lives. I can break down his door if I need to,” Josef said.

“I’m going after Elaine.” Mick quickly got to his feet. “There’s no telling when she’ll get that message.”

Elaine again. Who was this woman? She seemed to be all that Mick could think about right now. Beth caught Mick’s arm and stood up beside him. “I’m coming with you,” she said firmly.

Mick hesitated, as if he wanted to tell her to stay put, but then he nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Beth followed him out the door, feeling that she was caught in a whirlwind. Only hours ago she had been lying in Mick’s arms, and she’d been happier than she’d ever been before in her life. How had all of this crept up on them, to suddenly explode without warning? Keeping their secret is the most important thing. And now, it looked as if that secret had been blown wide open. She reached out to take Mick’s hand, looking up at him, and his fingers tightened around hers. Then he seemed to sense how terrified she was. He pulled her closer to him, putting his arms around her, and he stopped for a moment to draw her into a tight embrace. “It’ll be okay, Beth,” he whispered. “We’ll get through this. Josef has been through things like this before. He’ll know what to do.”

“Please, Mick, let’s just drop everything and go. Whatever Ben knows about you, it’s too much. He’s looking at you more closely than he is at anyone else. You should just disappear.”

“I will. I just have to get Elaine out first. Then I’ll go.” He kissed her, ever so gently. “Will you come with me?”

“Of course I will.” She put her head on his shoulder, holding him tightly. “I won’t leave you, Mick. I won’t ever leave you, no matter what happens.” She realized that it didn’t even matter to her who this Elaine was, or what she meant to Mick. It didn’t matter that he’d never told her about someone who was obviously so important to him. I love him, heart and soul. I would give up anything for him, do anything for him, forgive him anything. Once she left with Mick, her whole life, everything she’d ever known, would be lost. But as long as Mick was safe . . . she didn’t care.

But will he be safe? she wondered, as they hurried down to the parking garage. Oh God, what does Ben know?











-
Last edited by Shadow on Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
seamus3333
Freelance freshie
Posts: 207
Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2009 10:51 pm

Re: No Boundaries - part 3 (PG13)

Post by seamus3333 »

Ah, the plot thickens! (I'm with Beth, who is Elaine?) Is there really a spy among the cleaners? Did Mick have something to do with Ben's murdered fiance? Was she lunch in in his bad ole days? Season 2 begins. Great chapter. :clapping:
Image
jen
Cleaner
Posts: 6411
Joined: Mon Apr 20, 2009 12:11 am

Re: No Boundaries - part 3 (PG13)

Post by jen »

This is so engrossing!!!

Mick is finally starting to consider what before was unthinkable to him--Beth one day becoming a vampire. He no longer views himself as a monster. He has managed to move beyond that and now a new set of problems have presented themselves.

Esme is so wonderful. She would make a wonderful sire for Beth.

Looking forward to the next chapter!

Thank you, Shadow!

:hearts: :flowers: :hearts: :flowers :hearts: : :flowers:
Mick and Beth--two of the lovely faces of Moonlight
Image
Beautiful banner by the Fabulous Phoenix
User avatar
wpgrace
100% Moonlightaholic
Posts: 16429
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2009 2:25 pm

Re: No Boundaries - part 3 (PG13)

Post by wpgrace »

AWESOME!!!!! :clapping: :clapping: :clapping:

Happy happy happy to have more Esme! :happysigh: :hearts: And backstory at that. :twothumbs:
She and Mick together are so fab... she adds such dimension to him! He just blooms around her. She pulls him out of his own head. She is such a worthy counterpart to him... and it makes such sense there would be another one such as himself. Lovely lovely lovely scene.

Beth at the office... Wonderful scene! Unique and riveting. Loved the detail with our Copper-friend, who, turns out, is rightly suspicious of our Beth... :snicker:

And I LOVE your direction with the list! Complex, thoughtful, a wonderful mystery. :cloud9:

And it's been awhile since I told you... you have SUCH a skill with the rythm of building a story, but also an equal skill with the beautiful, mellifluous telling of it. Well done... and yay for us! :hyper2:
Image
Banner by redwinter101. I miss you, Beloved.
Awesome avatar by the awesome, clever, and gracious Lilly.

If you read a lot of books you are considered well read. But if you watch a lot of TV, you're not considered well viewed. Lilly Tomlin

Grateful to Alex for Mick, Andy, and McG. :)
User avatar
allegrita
Moonlightaholic Admin
Posts: 45961
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2009 9:22 am
Location: Snuggled under the brown afghan, watching the fire

Re: No Boundaries - part 3 (PG13)

Post by allegrita »

Oh, Shadow, this is amazing! I don't have time for a worthy response right now, but I wanted to tell you how much I loved this chapter, and how perfect I think your interpretation of the List is. It makes great sense--it even incorporates the multiple names! Thank you for coming up with such a reasonable explanation for it.

I loved the scene with Mick and Esme, too... and it makes me realize I need to go back and reread In Between from start to finish, because a few details have gotten mixed up in my memory. What a wonderful prospect... :hearts:
Image
User avatar
Shadow
Courtesan
Posts: 2636
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:09 am

Re: No Boundaries - part 3 (PG13)

Post by Shadow »

seamus3333 wrote: Did Mick have something to do with Ben's murdered fiance? Was she lunch in in his bad ole days? Season 2 begins. Great chapter.
Ohhh, great thought . . . but it only happened three years ago, so hopefully Mick was reformed by then . . . ;)
Thanks so much, seamus!
User avatar
Shadow
Courtesan
Posts: 2636
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:09 am

Re: No Boundaries - part 3 (PG13)

Post by Shadow »

jen wrote:This is so engrossing!!!

Mick is finally starting to consider what before was unthinkable to him--Beth one day becoming a vampire. He no longer views himself as a monster. He has managed to move beyond that and now a new set of problems have presented themselves.

Esme is so wonderful. She would make a wonderful sire for Beth.

Looking forward to the next chapter!

Thank you, Shadow!
Thanks Jenna! Given all the turning references in Sonata, it seemed as if Mick as well as Beth would be starting to have some thoughts in that direction.
And I'm really glad you've liked Esme here! :flowers:
User avatar
Shadow
Courtesan
Posts: 2636
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:09 am

Re: No Boundaries - part 3 (PG13)

Post by Shadow »

wpgrace wrote:AWESOME!!!!! :clapping: :clapping: :clapping:

Happy happy happy to have more Esme! :happysigh: :hearts: And backstory at that. :twothumbs:
She and Mick together are so fab... she adds such dimension to him! He just blooms around her. She pulls him out of his own head. She is such a worthy counterpart to him... and it makes such sense there would be another one such as himself. Lovely lovely lovely scene.

Beth at the office... Wonderful scene! Unique and riveting. Loved the detail with our Copper-friend, who, turns out, is rightly suspicious of our Beth... :snicker:

And I LOVE your direction with the list! Complex, thoughtful, a wonderful mystery. :cloud9:

And it's been awhile since I told you... you have SUCH a skill with the rythm of building a story, but also an equal skill with the beautiful, mellifluous telling of it. Well done... and yay for us!
It is wonderful to know how much you've liked Esme! And Ben was indeed quite right to be suspicious of our very nosy Beth. :biggrin: So glad you like the explanation for the list, too.
And what a delightful comment about the writing, Grace . . . thank you so so much! :rose:
User avatar
Shadow
Courtesan
Posts: 2636
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:09 am

Re: No Boundaries - part 3 (PG13)

Post by Shadow »

allegrita wrote:Oh, Shadow, this is amazing! I don't have time for a worthy response right now, but I wanted to tell you how much I loved this chapter, and how perfect I think your interpretation of the List is. It makes great sense--it even incorporates the multiple names! Thank you for coming up with such a reasonable explanation for it.

I loved the scene with Mick and Esme, too... and it makes me realize I need to go back and reread In Between from start to finish, because a few details have gotten mixed up in my memory. What a wonderful prospect... :hearts:

Thanks Alle, and it's so great you thought the explanation for the List made sense! For that I wanted to work with what they actually showed us on screen, repeated names and all, but they sure did make it a challenge. ;)
So glad you liked the Esme scene too. And that you're thinking of re-reading In Between . . . how delightful! :cloud9: :cloud9: :cloud9:
User avatar
francis
100% Moonlightaholic
Posts: 11556
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2009 9:45 am

Re: No Boundaries - part three (PG13)

Post by francis »

This is such an awesome story, so well told. I love how Esme and Mick are there for each other even when it's painful for both. She would be a great sire for Beth, should the occasion arise. Beth is so brave when she copied the file, but this revelation has Josef and Mick and the whole vampire nation spinning now. I'm so glad he's taking Beth with him. Will they really have to relocate, vanish from L.A.? I can't even imagine what this entails.
:hearts:
User avatar
Shadow
Courtesan
Posts: 2636
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:09 am

Re: No Boundaries - part three (PG13)

Post by Shadow »

Francis, I'm really glad you liked the Esme/Mick scene . . . I can't resist bringing Esme back from time to time, and it was so easy to imagine Mick coming up with this scenario.
Thanks so much!
User avatar
susieb
Logan's WoW nemesis
Posts: 534
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 8:52 pm
Location: Right here feeding my inner vampire

Re: No Boundaries - part three (PG13)

Post by susieb »

Ooooooh..... this is so GOOD! :heart:
Susie

Image
Sometimes the past doesn't catch up with you, it haunts you.
User avatar
Shadow
Courtesan
Posts: 2636
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:09 am

Re: No Boundaries - part three (PG13)

Post by Shadow »

:yahoo: Thanks Susie . . . and so good to see you here!
User avatar
maggatha3
Ancient
Posts: 4853
Joined: Thu Jan 13, 2011 8:06 am
Location: Βack to Greece....
Contact:

Re: No Boundaries - part three (PG13)

Post by maggatha3 »

Shadow, that was an amazing chapter. :rose: Mick's meeting with Esme was full of revelations, both for Mick and for us. And so full of little meaningful details ;Esme brings much so many painful memories for Mick, he even thought of Tyler opening the lid of his freezer that day he had met Elaine, when he arrived at Esme's place. And Mick is a living part of Tyler for Esme as well. Those two have a very powerful connection, I never could imagine a visit with Esme would be more powerful a scene than one with Coraline.

Beth is absolutely amazing. What I was thinking while reading and rereading her actions and thoughts in this chapter is that Beth gave Mick, what he couldn't give Coraline :her unconditional love and devotion.
-It never ends well...
-Never?
Image
Gorgeous avatar by our talented Lilly .
Banner by the amazing friend Hot Micks!!! .
User avatar
Shadow
Courtesan
Posts: 2636
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:09 am

Re: No Boundaries - part three (PG13)

Post by Shadow »

So glad you liked the Esme scene, Maggatha! I've had that scene in mind for quite a long time, but somehow it never quite fit into any of the intervals - seems it needed to go here, after all the intense discussion of turning in Sonata.

Love your thoughts about Beth . . . I felt like that really happened at the end of Sonata, that she made the choice to be with Mick on whatever terms. (And Coraline wasn't much for giving Mick choices . . . )

Thanks so much, my little courtesan! :hearts:
Post Reply

Return to “No Boundaries”