Who's to judge?

Chapter XXV

After a few weeks, news spread about a doctor who had several vampires on his conscience and who was therefore put behind bars. A certain psychiatrist named McKenna had testified against him. She told what he had made her believe and therefore had led innocent vampires to certain death. But since she did not know about it, she was not allowed to be arrested for aiding and abetting.

In a back room of the doctor's office, they found stowed fangs and vampire blood. As he himself disclosed, it was used to kill the vampires. The vampire corpses found were examined and it was confirmed that blood poisoning was the cause. Many rich vampire families thought that the doctor should pay for all this, but the authorities didn't agree. He would remain locked up for life, that's all the vampire families got. While all this was going on, four tired vampires took a long break.

Valerio and Leroy's house inexplicably caught on fire, thus extinguishing everything inside, the two were thus able to buy a real house and moved in immediately. They lived on the outskirts of town, away from everything and everyone. Talon and I decided to leave the city.

We wanted to make a new start, to get closer again, so we went traveling. It was difficult to say goodbye. Valerio made us promise them that as soon as we got tired of traveling, we would return. It warmed my heart to know that we meant something to him. He wouldn't give us a hug, though.

I never thought my life would take such a turn. That I would solve a murder had never been on my bucket list.

"What are you doing, kitten?" asked Talon as he got out of the shower.

I was sitting on the ledge of the open window of our little room we rented in some town. In my lap was a notebook in which I had been writing until my vigor had taken me out of my trance.

"Are you still writing in your diary?" he quipped. He came over and gave me a kiss on the forehead.

"It's not a diary, it's my memoir," I countered with false irritation. He wrinkled his nose. "Your memo-what?"I laughed, then raised my pen and said, "That's coming in, too. "All the lights are not burning in my beloved's head"."

He looked at me indignantly, but his scent sweetened as he said delightedly, "If you call me beloved, you may write what you like."

He then sauntered over to the bed, sat down and, while drying his hair, picked up his cell phone. I turned my attention back to writing, but winced as Talon took a startled breath.

"What's wrong? What happened?" I asked, startled. "He called three times." he said as he stared wide-eyed at his phone. "When?" I asked, with anxiety rising. Talon lifted his gaze and replied, "Two hours ago."

I stood up abruptly and asked, "What do we do now? Call back?" Talon shook his head. "It's too late for that now."

I was in denial until I heard a car pull up on the street outside. I dared to look out the window and saw an angry man stomping into our building.

"Is that him?" asked Talon to me. I nodded. I smelled his scent as he ran down the hall, then stopped at our door. He didn't need to ask for entry since we had already given it to him once.

The door opened and the strong smell of burning flooded in.

"Vale, what a surprise!" greeted Talon delightedly to the fullblood. Standing in our doorway was Valerio. His face showed a mixture of worry and anger.

Since we had left town, the fullblood or mixed called at least once a day. It was probably his way of showing us that he cared, but when we missed the call, something like this often happened. We never knew how he found us, but he did it every time.

""Vale" sto cazzo! I thought something had happened!" the angry Italian hissed at us. Behind his back, the fluffy redhead emerged, smiling apologetically at us. Leroy's braces gleamed on his teeth.

"I tried to calm him down, but he wouldn't listen," the young mongrel said. He then stepped inside and looked at the room curiously. "Nice place you have here." he then said. "So nice you forget to look at your cell phone." the fullblood bitched. I couldn't help but smile in amusement.

"There's nothing to smile about." grumbled Valerio at me, lightly ruffling my hair. "We've come all this way and you're not offering us anything? I hope you don't all treat your guests this way."

Today he was merciless.

Talon patted him on the shoulder and said, "We treat all our guests well, but you are not, you are intruders."

The mixed laughed and a smile flitted on his vigor's face as well. "Is there a reason you two showed up?" I said and all heads turned to me. Leroy beamed and said, "Well, we got an invitation to dinner and they asked us if you were coming too." I was delighted by this news, but I looked questioningly at Talon. He didn't quite like it, he was worried because we were wanted by the government. Me for the incident at the precinct and him for getting me out of there.

I gave him a reassuring smile and he nodded. Everyone nodded in satisfaction. Talking loudly and grumbling, the three men walked out the door. Before I followed them, I went back to the window ledge and picked up my little notebook. With a small smile on my face and a warm feeling in my heart, I folded it closed and left.

They drove us to a small cafe that was still inside the town we were currently hiding in. I realized pretty quickly that it was run by vampires because someone was standing in front of it to give entry to the patrons.As we entered, I immediately smelled who was waiting for us. The sweet vanilla smell mixed with the sniffing bitter smell.

"There you are, I was beginning to think you had stood us up!" quipped Kalma. The boss, who had his nose in the menu, was also looking at us rather reproachfully. "Glad you guys could make it," he added pointedly. Snarky as always, but that was how I liked him best.

We all sat down while Talon said, "Well, we could have been warned." He then looked directly at Valerio with a challenging grin on his lips. Valerio countered with flipping him off. The boss laughed softly and said, "Ah, the Italian charm."

This made Talon laugh out loud, even Leroy chuckled slightly, only Valerio played stuffy for a moment, but it quickly passed and you could see slight smirks on his face.

We then talked for a long time about trivial things. The boss asked how we were doing, we asked how things were going with them, and it turned out that since I had left the station, a lot had changed.

Kalma, by order of the boss, was no longer kept in that cell and he was treated like a colleague, at least by most of them. He was also finally allowed to go visit his family again, he had told us that his brother had started crying when he first went to visit him. After everything that had happened, he seemed happy with his life, but that was true for everyone. We had overcome a lot, like all that was to come, but we are happy, and in the end that's what counts, right?