Blood Work Ch 04

Supernatural Affairs Division

Chapter 2-2

Persephone's POV

As my eyes jolted open, I felt the pull of the sun weakening as it set in the west. The first thing I saw upon opening my eyes was the dark velvet lining of my coffin away from home. Smiling, remembering the night before and mine and Isabella's late night that had us barely making it inside the chamber before the sun rose. Unclamping the lock and slipping the lid I stepped out of my resting place with ease landing on the stone floor of Alexander's chamber, the three other coffins in the underground room all remaining empty. Palladius, my oldest sibling in the blood, was at his own residence and Alexander and Isabella were capable of rising far sooner than I. Closing the lid back over my coffin I took a second to pick up the pile of clothes that had been folded and left on the side table, most likely by Alexander, and quickly threw back on my shirt and pants intent on changing once I got upstairs.

While the temperature held no effect over me in death I still noticed the clear change as I excited the chamber sealing the door behind me, having never been inside one as a human I could only imagine the chill within would be almost unbearable. Exiting into the parlour I found Isabella having already changed into a new suit for the evening perched on the end of the sofa, her thrall Sabrina asleep at her side.

"You already fed then Isa?" I asked, grabbing my phone from my pocket and texting Sebastian while sitting across from her.

"The pleasures of rising earlier, you're getting later though we still have fifteen minutes to sunrise."

I shrugged, the change so gradual over the decades it was hard to notice. The parlour itself held no natural light to be able to indicate the time of day, no windows were present in the room or the corridor leading to the rest of Alexander's estate. Checking my own emails I saw a slew of emails come through from Jehan giving me rules to follow while working with the humans, helping them, but not too much. As I heard footsteps behind me I closed my phone, I could learn as I went.

"Did you rest well, childe?" Alexander asked entering the room, the long shirt and pants almost forming a cream robe around him as he sat beside Isabella and her thrall.

"As always Sire, have you already heard of the new assignment I've been given by our wonderful Justiciar."

A small smile slipped on his face, clearly enjoying the situation.

"Yes, Isabella filled me in on some of the details. Solving crimes instead of committing them, has the justiciar ever asked someone to go against their own nature so?"

Isabella chuckled at his comment, her thrall fidgeting before returning back to the bliss of Isabella's venom.

"Enjoy laughing at my expense, I've just been sent a five hundred page rule book for how to act around them and I have exactly." Pausing, I checked my phone before continuing. "83 minutes before I'm expected at the station."

"Well at least we're getting our tithes to the Justiciar removed for the bloodline." Isabella added.

"Between this, and your work with the council Isabella, we deserve far more than that." Alexander added reclining into his seat.

"Well I'm not sure if they'll add dental but I have been given a stipend from the council to use 'in the pursuit of team cohesion'." I added hearing the human entering the room.

Sebastian had been my thrall for five years now, and while he had been the heir to a rather wealthy accountancy firm, he lost access to that when he decided to begin associating with vampires, more specifically, me. He was tall and slender and the shaggy black mop of hair almost made him look innocent rather than goth.

"You're working with the police now?" He asked with a smirk on his face coming round to sit beside me.

"How on earth do you already know?" I asked turning to him

"Sabrina texted me earlier, never thought I'd see the day but honestly growth is good, even past a hundred." He added another small chuckle from Isabella.

"Turn." I demanded coldly, but my authority was lost. He kept his smirk on his face as he sat forward and turned from me, baring his neck. Threading my fingers through the hair at his neck I used the grip to pull him into me as I felt my fangs slip from their sheath. The room was silent but for his and Sabrina's breathing, and a soft moan from Sebastian as my fangs broke his skin. Immediately I was hot with the rush from his blood flooding my mouth, pulling my fangs from his neck. I felt him fall bonelessly into me as the venom took hold of his mind. I could feel the warmth of his blood spreading through my body, reinvigorating me and making up for the fact that I struck out twice last night. Eventually as I felt his pulse weaken ever so slightly I stopped drawing more blood and allowed the wound to heal with a few licks, finally pulling from his neck as he curled into my side riding out the last of the venom.

Opening my eyes from the feeding I saw Isabella watching me like a hawk, her own eyes sharing the same ethereal crimson hue I knew my own would be reflecting, Alexander while clearly engrossed was less affected by the display.

Laying Sebastian against the sofa and rising I grabbed the pile of clothes left from the night before.

"Right I'm off to get changed then head over and see what I'm going to be investigating."

Alexander rose with me. "I think I'll go feed myself, I don't think I'd realised how parched I'd gotten."

"Well don't get caught or I'll be locking you up in a cell." I added heading for the stairs.

Alexander laughed heading for the front door now the night sky was painted with hues of purple and black.

"It wouldn't be the first time."

I'd decided to walk assuming if we had to go anywhere the detectives would be driving and so went for a stroll to the station. For a human the walk would have taken over an hour, but dipping into a vampiric sprint every now and then when away from prying eyes cut the time down to just over fifteen. It was another warm evening and a quiet one at that, the amount of humans out after dark had cut drastically after the reveal and the roads leading to the police hq were silent.

Arriving at the entrance I entered the building without any of the issues a private abode would cause for me and walked to the front desk. The tanned woman behind the counter turned to me with a smile although looking confused at the leather jacket t shirt.

"I'm here to work as a consultant for the supernatural affairs division. I think I'm asking for a Phillips?"

Her eyes widened as I spoke, realisation dawning on her.

"You're the." She cut herself off, blinking before nodding. "I'll call him down right away, please take a seat." She gestured to a row of seating by the door. I nodded simply and went over to them. Even from the seating I heard as her heart raced, the phone rang once before being answered, the gruff voice on the other end coming through slightly muffled but her whisper in response was clear as day to me.

"The vampires here chief, I'm the only one in the lobby, I'm sorry to be unprofessional but please come quick."

He responded something brisk and the line cut, I heard her walking around in the back office before returning and giving me a weak smile. I grinned back but waited. In a few moments I heard the elevator whir to life and the doors opened not long after revealing the mountain of a man. His grey hair was cut close to his head and he had no distinguishing features on his face, aside from the slight scowl.

"Annabelle, did you give our visitor a guest pass?" He asked and she returned to the desk weakly handing a lanyard to him.

"No sorry, just got it now, chief."

He grabbed and walked over to me, standing before he held out his hand as he spoke.

"Police chief Phillips. I never got a name for you but I assume you're from the Elsee council?" He asked to take my hand. His hand dwarfed mine and the squeeze in his shake clearly showed he was trying to assert some dominance.

Putting pressure into my thumb as we shook hands I saw his face almost crack into a wince as I spoke. "Persephone Konto. I'm not registered with the British government, but I'm sure you're aware that as part of the agreement to work with yourself that I will remain as such."

I released his hand and saw the hesitation as he thought about rubbing it before responding. "Understood, wear the lanyard at all times so everyone knows you're supposed to be here and follow me."

I nodded, placing it round my neck and followed him, unsurprisingly he was heading for the stairs this time and I followed him up three flights of stairs hearing his breathing grow slightly faster as I remained at a steady level.

Entering the main lobby I saw the glass labyrinth around us, two humans sat in an enclosure to my left staring at us and Phillips proceeded without hesitation to the right. Focusing I made sure to start breathing and blinking myself, attempting to move more instead of sitting unnaturally still as most of the undead did, all in an effort to put them a bit more at ease.

Turning the corner I continued to take in the office, the fluorescent lights beamed down on me with an intensity that made my skin itch, and the entire office had an overwhelmingly citrus smell from its cleaners no doubt. As I saw into the final office with two heart beats within though I cracked a smile seeing the blonde detective who had run out of the club the night before. She noticed me not long after and I heard her exclaim her shock before laughing startling the other detective who turned to me with a deer in headlights look. He was tall and well built but in a similar way to the chief before me only in a smaller packager, but he did little to draw me away from his partner, Georgia. I could see the blush creeping onto her cheeks as Phillips pushed open the glass door.

Entering the room I was glad the lights were dimmer in here than outside, but given the glass walls it made little difference.

Phillips coughed before he spoke. "Detective Khatri, Detective Stoffat. This is the consultant that's been sent to help you on the case, her name is Persephone Konto. Fill her in on the case details, if you have any issues or need anything call me or leave a note on my desk." He turned to me before he continued. "This office is under constant surveillance and if anything happens to either of them because of you, being unregistered won't stop us from finding you. The agreement means that both detectives are under the council's protection and you'd do well to remind anyone you should introduce them too of that fact, understood?"

He continued to glare at me waiting for a response and I gave him a mock salute.

"Loud and clear captain."

He clearly didn't appreciate the comment and nodded once to the detectives before leaving.

Looking at them neither looked excited to speak up, I could hear the detective Khatris heart starting to beat quicker and Georgia refusing to make eye contact. I stepped forward offering my hand to the new detective first.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, detective Khatri right?"

He looked to my hand for a second before reaching forward and giving it a loose shake.

"Yeah, what should I call you?"

"Persephone's fine." I responded by letting go of his hand and he just nodded looking back to the board. I turned to Georgia and my grin seemed to cause the blush to return.

"And Georgia, pleasure to meet you again. Safe to assume the investigation you had to run off was for this department?"

"You know each other?" Detective Khatri asked, turning back to us.

Georgia paused, taking a deep breath before opening her eyes and giving me a determined look.

"We met yesterday. And Persephone it's nice to see you again, but at work please call me Detective Stoffat."

I nodded, holding my hands out. "Understood. Regardless, no use in sitting around you're clearly already working on something. Tell me what you've got."