Moonlightaholics

This is also an old story that I am going to re work. Enjoy.


Memories and Mistakes
By Ella713
Rated PG

Chapter I
Beth began to grow quite fond of Isabelle. She still very much missed Sarah, but she didn’t want Josef to be alone. And Isabelle was actually better suited for him in ways that Sarah was not. Beth really enjoyed their weekly get togethers. Tonight they decided on Trivial Pursuit and martinis! With the combined ages around her totaling 790 years, Beth knew she didn’t stand a chance!
Isabelle read a question aloud to Josef (who was winning)
“The From Hell Letters received by George Lusk were pretaining to what famous London Crime?” Josef froze and was silent for a long time as if lost in a memory. A very bad memory. He slowly got up from the table.
“I’m going to get a little air” he said and stepped out on the balcony. They all looked at one another. Mick stood up and went to talk to Josef.
“Josef. Are you alright? You looked a little spooked in there.” Mick asked carefully. Josef didn’t like to talk about the past very often so Mick knew not to press him.
“I’m fine. It’s just that question kind of threw me.” He said taking a nervous sips of his drink.
“Okay. I’m here for you. You know that?” Mick asked.
“Yeah. I know. Listen, I’m just going to head home. You don’t think Beth will mind?” Mick had to laugh. There was a time when Josef wouldn’t have cared what Beth though. But now, things were different. For all of them.
“No. Of course she won’t mind. We’ll get together another night.” Mick said as he followed him back into the apartment.

After Josef left and Beth was cleaning up, Mick walked in the kitchen to help.
“That was really weird the way Josef reacted to a Trivial Pursuit question” Beth mentioned while loading the dishwasher.
“What was the question again?” Mick asked out of curiosity.
“It referred to the From Hell Letters that were sent to George Lusk. It was about Jack the Ripper” Beth said. Mick stopped wiping the table and looked at her. “Do you know why that would upset him so much Mick?”
“I have no idea. I know Josef was around during that era, but I don’t know if he was in London. Josef doesn’t talk about his past that much. Hell I just found out about him and Jean Harlow!” Mick chuckled at little. Beth turned around to face him.
“What if Josef knew Jack the Ripper?” Beth asked with wide eyes, her reporter instincts taking over.
“Babe, come on! This is Josef were talking about” Mick said. Then he thought…..exactly. They were talking about Josef.
Letting her imagination get the best of her as always, Beth decided to do a little research. She couldn’t imagine that Josef who was a vampire during that time letting Jack the Ripper escape justice. But then again, Josef did make references to how bloodthirsty those days were. Just because he’s different now doesn’t mean he was back then. Beth had to remind herself to tread very lightly.

Isabelle came over to Josef’s apartment the next night. As they lay together in his large bed she turned to him.
“Tell me Josef. What bothers you so?” Josef gave along sigh and pulled her over to lay her head on his chest.
“Isabelle. I was reminded of something I wanted to forget”
He said no more and Isabelle let it go. Sarah would have begged and pleaded until he gave in. Isabelle wasn’t that way. You told her what you wanted and in your own time.

Beth went to Buzzwire occasionally to see old friends. But Sam was the one she visited most often. Sam (short for Samantha) was a small young woman with hacking skills that almost rivaled Logan’s. But then Logan was a force unto himself! Beth talked about her new job at ActionNews and Sam told her of the uselessness of the new owner.
“Okay Beth, what are you working on?” Sam said rolling her eyes.
“Why do you say that? Maybe I just wanted to take you out to lunch and catch up”
“Sure! Again what are you working on?” she asked again.
“Okay. Look, I was wondering if you could get into the Metropolitan Police Files.”
“Not a problem. What file are you looking for? The dates? And the name of the officer…. or bobby as the case my be who was in charge at the time.” Beth held her head down slightly.
“James Monro was the head of the department at the time and the year was…..1888” she said slowly. Sam looked at Beth for about five seconds.
“Ok, so it’s a cold case” she said as wrote down the information with a smile on her face. “I’ll have it by tomorrow. Is that soon enough?”
“Sam that’s perfect!” Beth gushed.

The killer chose his victim well. She was young perhaps 19 or 20 years old. Too young to be in this line of work, but of course he had known some women who learned the trade as young as 13 or 14. But he did have morals….somewhat. Her hair was artificially blonde and you could see the dark roots showing through. She actually would have been pretty if she scrubbed off all the make up, but he had never understood the female desire to cover up what was already perfect. She whispered desired promises in his ear, well schooled in the pitch. He slipped her a $100 bill. She neatly tucked it away and led him to her dirty studio apartment.
Once upstairs behind closed doors she began to take off her clothing. He quietly stole up behind her and with one quick slice, she fell to the ground.

“Early this morning the police made a gruesome discovery. The body of a young woman was found slain in her apartment. The woman whose name has not been released was said to have been a known prostitute in the area. There appears to be no motive for the crime but the police are not ruling out that this may have been the work of a “john” or her pimp. This is Beth St. John reporting for ActionNews”
Mick loved watching his wife on screen. Since becoming a vampire she had become even more beautiful and luminous. But he thought about the story she was reporting. That was some coincidence that they were just discussing Jack the Ripper and then two days later a prostitute ends up being murdered. But this was L.A. and these things unfortunately happened a lot.

Beth was at home working as usual by the time Mick got back.
“How did it go?” she asked standing up to kiss him.
“Fine. The perp confessed to Carl and led us straight to the body. It doesn’t really help the wife too much but at least she knows what happened. So how was your day?”

Of course, Mick loves watching his Beth work....

And it would have to be disconcerting to Josef to hear of Jack, especially if he knew the guy.....

The slightly different chemistry is intriguing.

I do have one question and you may have addressed it directly and I tend to read fast and so can miss details. Is Isabel the lead cleaner played by Claudia Black in Sonata?

This is a fascinating question--how about some of the high profile crimes of history (and Jack the Ripper is at the top of that list) How could our Moonlight vampires play into the equation? We know Mick wasn't around unless there is a major revision of canon in the works, but Josef could have been a participant in some major historic events.

Looking forward to more!

Thank you!

Jenna

Jen, to answer your questions; the cleaner I had in mind when I wrote Isabelle as a character was more the cleaner in Dr. Feelgood since she seemed a bit more stern in her demeanor. As to your other question, since Josef is my favorite character, I tend to put him at center stage most of the time. And him being 400 years old, you can usually pull out a lot history to interject his character into. I hope you all like this story!

Great start. I hope it's not Josef who killed the prostitute in some kind of remembrance of old days. It could be a trauma he feels compelled to re-enact, but he's not a sociopath, is he?

“Well, you heard about the murder right?” she asked and Mick nodded. “The cops are being very hush hush about it all, but Carl finally told me that this was the third prostitute to be murdered!” Mick looked at Beth stunned. He couldn’t believe that Carl would sit on information like this and not inform the public. “Hold on!” she said “I know what you’re thinking but LAPD didn’t even know about the other two murders because they happened in San Francisco. It wasn’t until they found this body that the Chief of SFPD called Carl”
“So are they thinking a serial killer?” Mick asked not wanting the answer.
“The wounds on the victims are identical. Done with the same weapon. They definitely think it’s the same guy. But Mick that’s not all. They way these women were killed is in the same manner as Jack the Ripper.”
‘Are you joking? Someone is recreating the Ripper murders?”
“Yeah and they’re and doing a damn good job of it. It’s almost like someone studied the original case files. Anyway, my hacker pal Sam got me into the Metropolitan Police case file archives and this is what I’ve downloaded so far. The Ripper files are huge! I mean they had so many suspects.” Beth said passing the list to Mick.
Mick studied the list and one of the names he was sure he had heard mentioned before, he just couldn’t remember where. Just then Beth’s phone started to ring.
“Beth St. John.” She said
“Mrs. St. John you are in danger” the voice said.
“What do you mean I’m in danger?”
“They are watching you now” and the call ended. Beth looked at Mick.
“Please tell me you heard that?” she said in a panicked voice.
“Yeah. Come on. Let’s go see Logan”

Logan was a solitary vamp of almost 75 years and he was technical wizard. Well, to call him a wizard was a bit of an understatement. But if you needed a call traced and you wanted it done quickly other than going to the CIA, Logan was the best there was.
Mick rang Logan’s buzzer and knew that he heavily involved in some video game because his voice sounded annoyed when he answered, but as usual when he saw Beth he immediately forgot why he was annoyed in the first place.
“Logan we need to you trace a call” Mick said handing him the phone.
“How soon” he asked
“Now. We think someone is coming for Beth” Mick said. Logan looked shocked for moment and immediately got down to work. He was silent and his fingers moved quickly over the keyboard, then he looked up.
“Got it!” he said with smile. “Whoever this ass was has a London cell number” Logan said as he wrote it down. “And it belongs to a Hargrove Eddleston. I’m doing a search on the name and flights to the U.S…….and there! He arrived in Los Angeles from London last night!” Logan said. “Give me a little more time and I’ll find out where he’s staying” Mick slapped $100 in Logan’s hand and he and Beth left.

Josef and Michael were working late. Josef had handed over his duties as Sheriff to Isabelle who all involved thought was better suited for the job, so he could focus on his company which he thought should be his main priority. His attention was turned to the television set overhead.

“Police have confirmed that a fourth body has been found. Julie Kennedy age 25 was found this evening by an on duty security guard around 7pm.” The voice was saying. Michael who had no interest in the news or anything other than finance glanced at Josef.
“Mr. Kostan? I said that….” He stopped and turned to look at the television. “Looks like L.A. has its own Jack the Ripper” he said casually and returned to the work in front of him. Josef turned off the television.

Beth opened the door for Isabelle who was carrying a sleeping Gabriel in her arms. She tucked him into bed and walked towards Beth.
“I think you may no longer need my efforts. Gabriel I think is adjusting quite well to being around humans. He will give you no more trouble” she said.
Beth smiled.
“Isabelle I can’t thank you enough for this” she began to say.
“That is not needed. Gabriel is a lovely little boy. I am very happy for you and Mick” Isabelle was turning to leave.
“Isabelle? Can I ask you something?” Beth asked as she led her to the sofa. “This thing with Josef. Has he told you what’s going on?” Isabelle shook her head.
“Whatever it is he is not ready to tell”
“You’ve been with Josef for over 300 years. What do you know about him? I mean where he came from? Who turned him?” Isabelle turned to look at Beth.
“His father turned him” she said. “I thought you and Mick knew” Beth stared at Isabelle in surprise.
“No. And I’m sure Mick wasn’t told”

Ooooh -- this story is VERY intriguing! I can't wait to see where you go with it. Josef is obviously really upset and affected by something about the Jack the Ripper murders, but I just can't find it in my heart to believe he's the murderer. Maybe he knew him, though... and maybe Jack was a vamp, and he's come back...

“This is what I know. His father was of noble birth. George Lowell Fitzgerald of Kildare, He disgraced his family when he fell in love with a known heretic. She bore him 2 sons out of wedlock. Arthur and Charles.
During the time of the Anglo-Spanish war his father enlisted. After some time they got word that he died. When he was 28 his father re-appeared.
He turned his own son and disappeared never to be heard from again”
Beth put her hand to her mouth.
“Oh my God! How could he do that to his own son?”
“That I do not know. I do not think even Josef knows” she said sadly.


Logan had found the hotel where Eddleston was staying and Mick was parked right outside waiting him. Logan had also done a complete background check. Hargrove Eddleston aged 60 an already retired Professor from Oxford where he taught Sociology and Anthropology. He was respected and well liked in the academia community. So why would he come all the way to the States to warn Beth that she being watched? Mick hated it when things just didn’t add up. Usually because it meant that something horrible was about to happen.


The next night Beth had just finished her follow up story on the fourth murder. She was tired and anxious to get home. She went into her office to gather her things when there was a soft knock at her door. And older gentleman peeped his head in.
“Mrs. St. John.” He said. Beth immediately recognized the voice. It was the man who had phoned her! Beth stood up ready to handle the situation.
“I must speak with you. You are in grave danger.” He said. Beth sat down slowly.
“Okay. Have a seat. How am I in danger?” she asked.
“Your curiosity, I’m afraid…..” he stopped and began to go through a large red well folder he carried. “You got into the Metropolitan Police archives and researched the Ripper case”
“Yes so? I’m sure lots of people have”
“But none had been able to uncover the entire file before. You now have information that certain people in Britain do not want you to have. And they will kill you to keep that information buried. What you do you know of the Freemasons Mrs. St. John?” he asked
“Not much. Ancient Secret society mainly believed to instrumental in the church and Parliament” she said.
“My dear that is just the tip of the iceberg.” He said handing her the file.

“I have risked my life coming here to warn you. But this file has caused so much harm over the years, I could not see anyone else being destroyed over it” he said “The Freemasons are the world’s best secret keepers and anyone getting a hold of any of their secrets must have their throats cut. Until two days ago I was their master archivist and now like you, I will be hunted down.”
At that moment Mick came walking into her office. Beth stood up quickly.
“Mick, I want you to meet Hargrove Eddleston” Beth. “He was just explaining to me about the danger I’m in”
“Well now he can explain to me!” Mick said in anger. Beth leaned towards Hargrove.
“What does this have to do with Jack the Ripper?”
“Did you read the suspects list?’ Beth nodded.
“Yes. But..” Beth started to say.
“Fitzgerald” Mick said. “George Fitzgerald” Hargrove nodded.
“After Prince Albert Victor, George Fitzgerald was the second suspect. Both were high ranking Freemasons. When it became apparent that the Ripper murders were committed by a mason, that is when it became political. The masons stepped in and had their people work the case. The Chief Inspector was a mason as were a number of the detectives on the case. No one would ever know the identity of the ripper. The masons made sure of it”
“So you think it was Fitzgerald?” Mick asked. Hargrove nodded.
“Yes, I know it was Fitzgerald. And he was killed for it. By his own son Charles” Beth finally understanding who they were talking about turned to stare at Mick.
“It’s Josef” he said to her softly.

Ooh!

“Josef…I mean Charles killed his own father?” she asked.
“The other masons demanded that it be done. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep the Freemason Society out of it.”
Mick was having a hard time grasping the whole story. He knew his friend had a long and complicated past, but this was just too impossible to believe.
Mick turned to Hargrove.
“You’re going to stay with us until this all of this is settled” Mick said.
“You two have been most kind but I am afraid that now that I have divulged the secrets of the society, my days are numbered. But you may still have a chance to get away!”
Mick and Beth looked at each other.
“I think we’ll be fine Professor” Mick said with a smile.
“Yes. Mick can be very uh….convincing” Beth said with a chuckle.

When they got to the apartment Isabelle was just coming out of Gabriel’s room.
“Oh Isabelle! I am so sorry to have kept you waiting. Isabelle smiled.
“I took him out for a little snack” he should be fine until the morning. I will be here at 7am. She said. Beth looked at her.
“You mean you still want to watch over him?” Beth asked
“Beth, we all must stick together. And now there is another I must go to” and she walked out the door.

Josef sat staring into space for a long time. Could it be that his father survived? He thought. Josef remembered it all clearly.

He had just turned 30. Charles had planned to enlist and fight for England as his father had. The French had just seized ships in the English Channel and England was now at war. He was having one last celebratory night out with his friend Gerald. After wandering from on tavern to the next Gerald had begged off to go home to his wife.
“Always home to the wife when things are just getting good” Charles joked
“Aye Charles! That’s what you need. A good woman to settle ye down” his friend replied.
“Not for me! I’ve a world to see!” Charles said as he wondered to one last tavern before heading to his bed sit for the evening. He did not notice the older man following him. It wasn’t until he left the last pub that the man approached him.
“Charles” he said softly. Charles slowly turned to face the man. But that was impossible! It couldn’t be!
“Father?!” Charles crocked out.
“Yes, Charles, it’s me” Charles ran to the man and hugged him tightly.
“Father, you don’t know how long I’ve prayed that you were still alive!” he said happily!
“How is your mother?” he asked. Charles held his head down.
“She has passed on father. It has been almost a year now” His father reached out and touched his shoulder.
“She was a beautiful woman, your mother” he said. Charles looked up at his father. He looked exactly the same. But of course that couldn’t be. He had to have been in his fifties or thereabouts.
“Come father! I insist you stay with me. I have a bed sit just up the road. I can not wait to write to Arthur! He will be so very pleased!”
Charles took his father to his bed sit. They had a dram together. His father told him of his life in the war and the injuries he had endured. He told him of waking with no memory and kind family that took him in. And how one day everything came rushing back to him, so he set forth for Ireland, only to find that their home was no more. But heard of news that both his sons were living in London. Charles listened and silently thanked God for the miracle he produced. And that was the last thing he remembered.
He awoke two days later with an unquenchable thirst. He drank everything he could find. Water, whiskey, his very own cologne!
There was an urgent knocking on his door. He opened it to see his friend Gerald standing there.
“Charles, where have you been? Everyone has been worried about you!” he said walking into the room and closing the door behind him. “Are you ill man?” Charles stared at his friend. The veins in his neck. It was almost as if Charles could hear his friend’s blood swimming through him. Before he could stop himself he threw himself onto Gerald tying to taste what he so very much wanted. And needed. Gerald fought wildly but Charles found that he had the strength of a dozen men. He drank and never in his life had anything tasted so good. He looked at his friend lying on the floor. What had done? What had he become? And then he knew. His father had turned him into a monster! And now he had preyed on someone very dear to him.

Eeek! Josef should be more sympathetic to Mick, if he had a turning that awful.

What an awful turning for Josef! He killed his best friend. I wonder how he managed to keep sane, not go rogue.

Josef didn’t like remembering. He hated the vile images that Victorian London brought to mind. But Josef could see it as if it were yesterday. The stench of booze, human waste and so many unwashed bodies packed into that tiny little city. As he stood going to pour himself another stiff drink, there was a knock at his door.
He knew it was Mick before he even opened the door. Mick came rushing in with Beth and an old small stopped over man.
“Josef we need to talk” Mick said.
“Okay…..what are we talking about?” Josef replied.
“George Fitzgerald. Your father” Mick said staring right at him.
“So, you know. Ok. What do you want me to say?”
“Josef” Beth pleaded “We need you to explain everything to us. It may be a matter of life and death. Mainly mine!” Josef looked over at Hargrove.
“Who is sitting on my sofa?” he asked
Mick turned around forgetting that the professor was with them.
“Look professor, you need to stay right there. Don’t answer the door, the phone, anything! You got it?” Mick said as he and Beth followed Josef into his office.
“Josef, Beth let her curiosity get the better of her and started digging into the Ripper case. All of a sudden the professor out there is telling her she’s in danger from the Masons! What the hell is going on?” Mick asked.
Josef held his head down.
“Shit!” he exclaimed. “Well one thing I do know is that if you have those sneaky little masons twits after you then you are in trouble. They slink around like little ninjas trying to keep their pathetic little society a secret from everyone. And they will do whatever is necessary.” Josef explained.
“Beth and I will take care of the masons. Tell us about your father”
Josef took a gulp of his scotch.
“My father was Jack the Ripper….I knew he was a vampire, obviously, but I didn’t know he was the Ripper until Harrison Pettigrew, a vampire I met when I was first turned told me when I returned to London. He told me that many vamps knew his identity and they were all becoming nervous about the attention. The Freemasons were willing to pay an enormous amount of money to the person or persons who could stop him. Of course being his only living son, it was expected of me. I found my father and shot him with silver then I staked him and set fire to his body.”
“Is there any chance that he could have survived? I mean I thought I had killed Coraline in a fire and she turned up alive” Mick said.
“Mick Coraline was over three hundred years old. My father had only been a vamp for 20 or so years. He didn’t survive.”
“I don’t get it. The Ripper murders were so long ago. Why would the masons care at this point?”
“Mick my father was perhaps one of the highest ranking Freemasons of his time. If that information were told to the world people would begin to wonder what else they were hiding. They won’t take that chance. They have sinned too much. Where does the old guy fit in?”
“He contacted me and told me that the masons were watching me.” Beth explained. “He was the mason’s chief archivist”
Josef whistled.
“Well, he’s dead where he stands. Hopefully not in my apartment” he said
“I’m going to take Beth and the professor to the cabin. We’ll try and lure the masons there. It’ll be secluded and Beth I can….contain the situation so to speak” Mick and Beth turned to leave.
“Be careful” Josef called to them. “These men are dangerous in spite of being mortal”

Mick and Beth got the professor into the car.
“We are going to a safer place away from the city.” Mick told him.
“No place is safe” Hargrove said as he slowly shook his head.
Mick and Beth smelled all around them. Hargrove was right. They were surrounded by at least 4 or 5 men.
“Get down!” Mick hissed to the professor. “Lock the doors and stay down!”
Mick and Beth stood and waited. “Don’t let them get to the professor” Mick said to Beth. She nodded her head.
Two men jumped out of the darkness and threw themselves on Mick. One man pulled out a long knife and shoved it deeply into Mick’s side. Mick grabbed the man’s arm and broke it. He then twisted the man’s neck. The snap echoed through the air. Mick slowly pulled the blade out. The other man stood frozen not believing what he saw.
“What are you?” he choked out with terror in his eyes. Mick walked over to him and sank his teeth into his neck. Beth could feel the other men approaching her. She jumped into the air and into a large tree above the car.
The men looked around frantically. Beth descended upon them. With one hard blow she shattered one man’s jaw and he fell to the ground. The other man came towards her. She slammed her fist into his chest and ripped out his heart. She turned to check on the professor and she saw that the door of the car was open. And the professor lay back in a pool of blood. His throat slashed from ear to ear. The Freemason way of securing silence.

The past always catches up with you when you live forever. That was the one bad point of being a member of the undead. Of course Mick could think of many many others, but for Josef it was just this one.

Josef turned the moment he smelled the decay. But it was a second too late. He felt the stake pierce his stomach silencing his scream as he sank down onto the floor.
“Well! Charles Fitzgerald! You don’t know how happy I am to finally find you after all these years” he heard a voice say. Josef slowly opened his eyes.
“Aren’t you going to say hello? Oh, I guess you really can’t.” the man laughed. “Why don’t I just replay the monologue going on right now in your head” he teased.
“Goodness Gerald! My old friend! I thought I killed you!”
“No Charles. You didn’t. Instead you turned me which some would say is worse than death.”
“Oh Gerald. I am so sorry. I wasn’t in my right mind”
“Charles. I wish I could say I forgive you. But I don’t!!” he laughed. “Is that what you’re thinking?” Josef lay still on the ground unable to move. Unable to speak. Gerald slowly walked around his body.
“I suppose I owe you and explanation. Very well…..you see when you attacked me, you may not have noticed that I was fighting back. Managed to bust your lip even. Of course you can guess what happened after you left. You’re blood in my mouth. You ruined my life Charles! I woke up not knowing what had happened, not understanding what I was. All I knew was the thirst. I killed almost everyone in your building just upon awaking! Then going home to find that I would now be hunted by the police. Never to see my precious Margaret again! She was with child Charles! My child! They both died in childbirth! The strain of the pregnancy and the publicity surrounding the murders I committed killed my wife and my daughter! And it’s all you fault Charles. Oh, I’d get my revenge though. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when you came back to London! Your father and I were having such a grand time until you returned. Then of course there was that business of those unfortunate murders. I’m so sorry. I just couldn’t help myself. And let’s face it. They were just prostitutes after all. But pinning the crime on your father I think was a stroke of brilliance! No one really cared about the murders at all until the Freemasons started getting spooked. After they blew everything up to the media even giving me a cool murder name! Jack the Ripper! Well, the rest was easy. You killed your own father! But honestly Charles, he had it coming didn’t he? I mean what kind of bastard turns his own son?!” he laughed still walking around Josef taunting him.
“Then of course you disappeared. Oh, you were good Charles. I spent hundreds of years trying to find you. And lo and behold, I’m flying from Rome to New York and pick up a copy of the Times and what do I see? You! With a delectable French beauty on your arm no less, at an art fundraiser. I knew it was you. And then to find out that you had a new name. Josef Kostan. And a huge financial empire! You always were the smart one weren’t you Charles? In any case I thought about how much fun it would be to re-create a little bit of Victorian London for you. I did a pretty good job don’t you think?”
Josef felt the point of the stake near his heart. The pain was searing. But he knew that help was on the way. He could sense Isabelle watching from nearby. And Mick was in the next room. All he had to do was keep Gerald talking and bragging.
“Wh…..what do you want?” Josef whispered to him.
“Want? You think I want something from you? I don’t want anything from you Charles! You took everything that I loved! The only thing I want is your head!” He said walking around looking at all of Josef’s samurai treasures hanging on the wall. “And you have provided me with so many weapons for your destruction! Ahh. Which one shall it be?” he joked briefly touching each one before deciding.”
“How about this one?” he heard someone say behind him. Gerald turned quickly around but saw no one.
“Or this one?” a different voice called out to him. Gerald looked all around and saw no one.
“Who are you?!” Gerald screamed. He turned towards Josef walking toward him to finish what he had come for. He turned at the moment he heard the swish of the blade. And his head fell to the floor. Isabelle ran to Josef and pulled out the stake.
“Oh! My dearest one. Are you alright?” she asked running her hands over his face.
“Unfortunately, I’ll live” Josef joked with a slight grimace.

Josef was lying on the sofa drinking a glass of blood to speed the healing.
“How did you know?” Josef asked. Mick chuckled.
“We didn’t. That was Isabelle’s “spidey senses” link to her sire. We called her for the clean up of the masons and the professor. She sensed that you were in trouble” Josef looked over at Isabelle who had Gabriel on her lap.
“My warrior woman” he whispered. “Why is Gabe here?” he suddenly asked seeing his godson for the first time.
“We needed a very strong vampire.” Isabelle shrugged. Josef stared at her and Beth.
“Are you two insane?! He’s only 2 years old? What did you think a child could do?”
“Actually” Beth said. “It was Gabriel who took off the vamps head. You should have seen him Josef! That guy never knew what hit him” she said with a smile. Josef put his head back and laughed. He held his arms out to Gabriel who waddled towards him. Josef picked him up and gave him a hug.
“Thank you” he whispered to him.
“Jo-suf” Gabriel said loudly. They all turned to look at him.
“Did he just say my name?!” Josef asked with surprise.

For the first time in many years he felt like he was with family. And he knew that he would do everything in his power to keep them all safe.


The End

Great story. I wished you had taken a little more time to explore it, it felt a bit rushed.

One gripe I have is the timeline. Josef's father couldn't be so young in vamp years, because the Jack The Ripper murders happened in 19th century and Josef was turned in the 17th century. So his father had to be at least 200+ years old. Maybe it was a typo.

Eeeek! francis thanks for pointing that out to me. Yes Josef father is turned 220 years not 20 years. Sorry for the confusion. I was trying to remember all the details of the story but it was hard for this one since so much history was tied in with the original story I worte. I'll do better with the next one. Thanks for the input.