“Hello Schuyler. It’s always a pleasure to see you.” The Detective said as he walked into the interrogation room while Schuyler’s green eyes scanned him up and down as she took a deep breath and let out a sigh.
He was always such a beautiful sanguinarian to her, standing at a formidable six foot one with soft short brown hair with short brown tendrils on top. She didn’t allow herself the luxury of taking in his broad shoulders or his defined taunt body like she wanted too, instead she focused on his face. His beautiful blue eyes that always reminded her of the sea, that really saw her in a way no one else would or ever could. His strong jaw covered in five day’s growth of beard but still neatly kept. That was his way now, though it had not always been so.
She remembered a time long ago when his hair had been platinum blond and he couldn’t grow a beard if he tried. His nose had been too big for his face and he was more tall and lanky than tall and defined. He had been in a boy band then. However that was another century ago and it wasn’t who he was now. No, now he was a Detective, that century ago long forgotten and behind him now.
“It’s always a pleasure to see you too Detective Timberlake. Oh, and I’m not saying anything until my lawyer shows up.” Schuyler said as she popped her feet up on the table.
“Go ahead, make yourself comfortable. Where were you last night, Schuyler?”
“I don’t know. Where was I last night, Justin?” Schuyler asked as she cocked her eyebrow and blew Detective Timberlake’s partner a kiss.
“I understand Schuyler, that you and Detective Timberlake have a history but now is not the time to be playing games with us.” Detective Russell said as Schuyler merely smirked at her.
Detective Beverly Russell wasn’t like Schuyler and Justin. She’s a mundane, a human, a mortal. Justin’s little puppy but she’s not a familiar. Sometimes Schuyler felt Beverly’s need to be more to Justin than what she was already. A mundane yin to Justin’s sanguinarian yang. She was a short five foot two inches with short blond hair that was cut into a pixie hair cut that accentuated her facial features. While Schuyler could admit she was cute for a mundane that didn’t mean she wanted her anywhere near Justin.
“I’m not playing games Beverly! Justin, am I playing games?”
“Schuyler,” Justin said with a sigh as he rubbed his face with his hands out of frustration, “We found your mark on this guy’s neck,” Justin said as he threw pictures of a dead man across the table.
Schuyler was drawn to the left side of the man’s neck where there was a X made from the man’s blood. She wouldn’t deny that it was her mark or that she did kill him, at least not to Justin. He knew her better than anyone even though he pretended not too.
“And?”
‘And…you’re the only vampire that leaves that mark…’ He thought with a smirk, knowing only she heard him.
Beverly hated it when he did that. She knew he was sending thoughts to Schuyler, thoughts only Schuyler could hear. It was confirmed when she saw Schuyler soften and smile coyly at Justin. There was too much history between them for Justin to be impartial.
“Detectives, you can quit questioning my client. All you have is a mark on the guy’s neck. Unless you have more evidence you can’t keep her here.” Mr. Lewis, Schuyler’s lawyer, said as Schuyler stood up.
“We will find more evidence and we will hunt you down.” Beverly hissed as Schuyler walked out of the room.
“Maybe you should join the slayer’s club Beverly.” Schuyler said as she passed Justin, ‘Why are you ashamed of what you are? Hiding behind your badge like a damn leech,’ She thought as she met his blue eyes.
‘Why are you proud of what you are?’ Justin thought as he met her gaze.
‘We cannot change who we are, why run from it?’ Schuyler thought as she headed down the hall with him by her side.
It was always like this between them. Every century they would find each other again after spending decades apart.
‘Did you kill that man? Just between us…’ He thought, secretly knowing that she did.
‘Justin, it was my mark. He tried to shoot me! Was I supposed to stand there and be killed? Or wait for the glorious VPU to show up like knights in shining white armor? There are ways to kill a vampire, you know?’ Schuyler thought as she stopped in front of the police station’s front door.
‘Self defense? You need to prove that Sky. Beverly wants to put you away. Keep in touch.’ Justin communicated silently as he opened the door for her.
‘Beverly wants a lot of things,’ She thought as she threw him a pointed look, ‘Don’t shut me out. I miss you,’ She communicated as she allowed herself to caress his cheek before walking away and out the door.
“I miss you too.” Justin mumbled as he turned around and bumped into Beverly.
“You know, you always let your emotions get in the way when it comes to Schuyler. She’s a killer.” Beverly stated as she walked to her desk.
“She’s not!” He shouted, not quite sure how to explain Schuyler to Beverly, “S-She…it’s complicated,” he stuttered while Beverly eyed him, “Listen, I get that you don’t like her but she’s not as bad as you make her out to be. You’ll never understand us because you’ll never be one of us.”
Beverly balked at his harsh words before taking a seat at her desk. She shuffled papers and folders, her hands shaking as he stared at her. His words hurt her more than she would care to admit. Maybe because she wanted to be one of them, if only to be with Justin.
Justin stalked to his desk and opened his desk drawer before slamming it shut and resigning to searching through the folders on his desk. He knew he shouldn’t let Schuyler in but it was so tempting. He also knew he shouldn’t let his partner get to him, but she just didn’t understand what it meant to be a vampire. She didn’t know what it was like to be hunted down like an animal, to have people judge you because of something you were born with.
He sighed as he looked through Schuyler’s folder, her mark was on at least 200 guys. Of course she was just feeding or defending herself, but that’s why VPU existed. So that vampires and mundane could co-exist in peace without things like this getting out of control. Feeding like Schuyler was was against the law!
‘Why do I worry about you so much Schuyler?’
Schuyler could hear his thoughts. She could feel his faint heartbeat. She just couldn’t bear to answer him. She had hoped that with time he would have come back to her but he didn’t. Instead he had joined the VPU on some personal quest of his, thinking he would actually be doing some good for his kind. She sat alone in her taxi cab as thoughts of Justin continued to flood her mind. It was pointless to think about him, to love him like she did. He had turned his back on the coven and she had followed him, following her soul mate, her eternal love. Then he had turned his back on her, leaving her alone with her grief. He hated what he was and she loved what she was.
“Ma’am, we’re here.”
Schuyler reached into her pockets, pulling out a wad of cash before giving the cabbie a fifty and getting out. The minute she stepped out of the cab she could feel that something wasn’t quite right. She could feel another vampire presence, which wasn’t unusual but this one was not friendly. It caused a feeling of dread to settle in the pit of her stomach, her thoughts immediately transferring to her human conduit, Candice.
Candice was a young twenty-five year old human mundane who’s family had served Schuyler’s vampire family for many many years. She was Schuyler’s one true friend and she relied on Candice more than she would care to admit. Candice was a conduit which meant she handled all of Schuyler’s requests, which mainly consisted of errands that were vampire-related. Schuyler wouldn’t know what to do without her so when she couldn’t hear Candice’s heartbeat panic set in in a suffocating manner that she momentarily lost her breath.
She entered the old brownstone apartment building that housed modern day lofts, some of the best in the city, even though the outside looked like it was falling apart. She had shared this place with Justin before he left. It didn’t feel right to her to leave it when it held all her memories of him.
He had bought it for them in the last century when he was a famous popstar and the allure of the city had called to him. If she wasn’t filled with such panic she would have laughed at the memory of an aged Justin willing the loft to himself. That’s what no one understood, many times they would be stopped on the street and someone would say, “You look just like that Justin Timberlake guy,” and Justin would say, “Yeah, he’s my great-grandfather,” because vampires don’t age, unless they want too. She, like Justin, had chose to age before returning to their fifteen year old selves and aging again. They learned it was easier to blend in that way.
Schuyler shook her head to clear away her thoughts of Justin as she took the stairs up to her loft, not bothering to wait for the elevator. She just didn’t have the time. She used her velox power to bound up flights and flights of stairs in a manner of mere seconds, knowing time was of the essence if she was going to find Candice.
Schuyler let out a defeated sigh as she approached the loft only to find the front door open, well not necessarily open, more like torn off the hinges she realized as she stepped closer. She squinted as she made her way into the loft unable to see her surroundings only what was in front of her. From what she could tell everything was it’s place, no sign of a struggle. It was almost too clean. Schuyler ran from the kitchen to the living room, then from the living room to the bedrooms all the while yelling at the top of her lungs for Candice, sobbing by herself when she couldn’t find any signs of her, not even some measly residual energy. There were no signs, no clues…nothing.
‘Justin…I need you! I need you NOW!’ Schuyler silently screamed.