Wow! You weave an elegant tapestry, Shadow, bringing the individual episodes together seamlessly. In this chapter, you've filled in so well the missing hours between the time Beth learns Mick's secret and her returning to talk with him the next day.
Mick's reaction to Beth seeing him a vampire was first about what she'd think of him - not so much worried about keeping his promise to Josef as fearing her thinking him the monster he believes himself to be. When she tries to take care of him, he realizes that she's now in danger if Josef finds her in his apartment. He begs her to leave, and reluctantly she does.
What I loved about your take on this is that she
is reluctant to leave; she's not afraid of the vampire before her, but she's not sure why. While Mick wants her to go, for her own sake, he fears that she'll never return, a fear he confronts when he goes to the station.
When the cab pulled up at the station, he saw Beth on the sidewalk, walking alone toward the parking lot. He watched her from the window, from a distance, just as he had done for so many long years. How can I go back to this? Now that he’d talked to her, laughed with her, held her in his arms – now, watching her from a distance was almost too painful to bear.
There are just so many interactions beyond Mick and Beth here that you capture so well. Josef tending to his friend's injuries, scolding him as though reassuring himself that Mick wouldn't die.
“Four hundred years I’ve been a vampire, have I ever been shot with a silver bullet? No, not once. And here you are with a goddamn collection. Told you you were off your game.”
The entire interview with Carl and Josh was great...already, Josh's dislike of Mick is evident, but he's willing to end the investigation to protect Beth. Again, the attention to detail about the shotgun pellet wounds not healing due to silver works to Mick's advantage to show that he'd been attacked by Lee Jay.
The impact of the silver on Mick's system was very detailed and actually makes sense when thinking about the scene in BC, when he gets silver on his hands. But it's the effect on his senses that I found intriguing; things he should normally be able to sense, he can't very well, while others are nearly overwhelming. And who was the person Josef lost to silver? Those memories are brought to mind and Mick picks up on them.
Even more intriguing is Elaine. Need to keep reading.
This is a wonderful story, Shadow
