Writer's Note: This was another query on the Vampire Sisters' Unanswered Questions Board.

General Audience

Mick/Beth

EPIPHANY

Mick cradled the child until she fell asleep then gently put her in the passenger side of the Mercedes. He drove on, putting miles away from the fire and Coraline's death.

The rational part of his brain was back working but the vampire continued to lurk. Thank God he was a vampire and yet …. He was even more of a monster now for he had caused this child's nightmare. Coraline. Impatient, wanting to return the child as soon as possible to Helen Turner, his blood called out to go back to her.

She was his sire.

But no, she was dead. No vampire could have survived that lamp oil fired blaze. Surely she was ashes by now.

He would have to confess it all eventually but for now, he would keep it to himself.

Four-thirty a.m. Still Helen was up, lights on throughout the two story house starkly white in the moonlight. Poor woman, Mick guessed she'd not slept since the kidnapping. What were the chances of her picking the one private detective in the world who could have located her daughter and brought her home? Did she have some inner sense about him? He doubted it but still … Josef would say the odds were one in the millions. And Josef would definitely know the odds.

Mick didn't have to knock, as the door flew open. No questions were asked per his agreement with her. All she was to tell the cops was that her child had been returned unharmed. Possibly a relative or childless mother who had become remorseful. Mrs. Turner would be adamant in never disclosing the details. Mostly because she would never know them.

But Mick mused, he would remember them until his dying day. Every evening upon awaking, his mind would tell him he had killed his lover, his wife, his sire.

What could he do now with his life as it stretched out to eternity? Continue partying with Josef, tasting the freshies as they came and went? Never finding love, never again being loved. Why go on?

Then it came to him, just as he was falling asleep in his newly reconditioned freezer. Little Beth. He would see that she was once again and forever safe. It was the least he could do for what he and Coraline had wrought. Yes, he was good at his detective work, good at never being spotted, lurking, photographing his subjects. He would make sure that throughout her life she would never again be threatened by his vampire world.

At the end of this incredible night, in 1982, this he swore.