The soft jazz played in a small shop and it was coming off a vintage record player that was sitting behind the counter. The shop was filled with occult items, but all of it was harmless, and real stuff was hidden in a locked basement. This little store was called ‘Nightshade Inc.’ and it was owned by Ophelia Ashwood.

Ophelia was behind the counter working on some paperwork dealing with her small shop and in the back of the shop on a red luxurious vintage couch was Diamond, asleep. The shop front door opened, making the shopkeeper bell ding and made Ophelia look up with a smile, “Sorry but we are about to close today.” She said as sat up straight.

“Well I’m not here to shop.” Chris said as he walked up to the counter. He had a folder in hand and he was now wearing a standard police officer winter coat. The coat had dark gray fur lined collar, the main color of the coat was dull dark blue and the second color was black  and on the back was ‘POLICE’ in white lettering.

“How can Nightshade Inc. help the police this time?” Ophelia asked as she held out her hand for the folder in Chris’ hand, which he handed it over to her. She opened up the folder and quickly scanned the contents of the folder. “Dried up body…and that's it?”

“Where the body was found is between two vampire covens branch homes.” Chris said and Ophelia made a simple ‘ah’ sound while handing the folder back. “And I want to interview the heads of each home but mama didn’t raise no fool either.”

“Well lucky for you, I have someone who isn’t busy and can keep you safe.” Ophelia said and leaned back in her seat to look to where Diamond was lying. She saw Diamond shift before getting up and made her way to the front.

“Ears were just burning, eh?” Chris asked when he spotted her and his eyes locked on and started staring at her arms. She figured he was staring at the spiral burn mark on her right forearm or maybe it was the bullet wound scar on her right bicep or the one on her left shoulder. She went grab her coat on the hanger behind the counter and she felt Chris’ eyes more focus on her back now. The compression shirt that Diamond wore was backless and showed all the whip scars on her back. 

“You know it’s rude to stare,” Diamond hissed as she looked over her shoulder to him and Chris quickly looked away seeing her eyes glowing.

“Sorry, I’ll wait for you in the truck.” Chris quickly said before leaving the store and Diamond snorted as she put on her coat. Diamond stopped in the middle of putting on her coat as she felt Ophelia’s disappointed gaze.

“There is looking than there is staring and gawking,” Diamond said and finished putting on her coat. “I don’t like being gawked at.”

“Any normal being would stare and gawk at your back scars.” Ophelia said as she grabbed a backpack under the counter, tossed it to Diamond and Diamond caught it was easy. “Remember to play nice, you’re his bodyguard and partner in this case.” Ophelia pulled a cigarette box from suit jacket and put one of the cigarettes in her mouth.

“If you’re going to smoke, do it in your office.” Diamond said as she walked out of the store and heard Ophelia let out a small giggle as Diamond left.

The winter air hit Diamond’s face and as she sighed made a pillar of fog come from her mouth. Diamond’s scars that were exposed to the cold air were slightly sore and caused to feel more aggravated. She spotted the black truck that Chris drove and she got in the passenger side seat.

“We are going to the closest coven house first, it belongs to the Bonedust coven” Chris said and handed Diamond the file that Ophelia already read through. 

Diamond opened up the file and saw black hair caucasian woman and she was dried up like some kind of mummy. “The other house is owned by the Red Mist coven.”

Diamond closed the folder, put on her seatbelt before Chris got the truck into traffic and she shifted in her seat to be more comfortable. “Dad said the Red Mist is a bunch of stuck up snobs. Let’s see if he’s right.” Diamond said as pulled out some beef jerky from her coat pocket.

The truck turned into a parking lot that was in front of a biker bar and he parked close to the entrance. Diamond shifted in her seat to remove her coat before exiting the truck with Chris, “Expecting a fight?” Chris asked as he walked in front of Diamond.

“Always expect a fight when walking into a vampire coven or therianthrope den.” Diamond said as they walked into the biker bar.

Inside was a typical looking biker bar with a darts game, pool tables, and a bunch of bikers enjoying drinks. Diamond noted most of the bikers in this bar, their eyes were fully black and not getting drunk off the beer they were drinking. 

Chris walked up to the bar with Diamond following behind her and none of the bikers paid attention to them entering or going to the bar.

“What can I get ya, officer?” The female native american bartender asked. She had short wild bright orange hair, pale green eyes, and a scar just under left eye. She was wearing black tight shirt and a pair of torn blue jeans. 

“The head of the coven branch, I need to speak to them.” Chris said and the bartender pointed to a pool table. “Thank you.” Chris turned to head to the pool table and Diamond and bartender gave each acknowledgement nod to each other before following Chris.

Diamond and Chris stopped at the pool that had three people, one woman and two men, at it and one of them left when both of them got there. “You want to talk to me.” The woman said and walked around the pool table to stand in front of the two. 

She looked to be of latino origin with deep red hair in a wolf cut, her eyes dark gray that locked on Chris, and her ears were pointed. She wore a pair of tight black jeans, a pair of biker boots and a biker vest with open showing she wasn’t wearing anything under it besides a gold ring on a necklace. “I’m the head of this branch and you can call me Scarlet Reyes.” Scarlet said. “This is my second hand, Javier.”

Javier was a young male that stayed and he looked to be latino origin as well. He has short messy black hair, his eyes were pure black. He was wearing baggy blue jeans, biker boots, a loose white shirt and black leather coat. He gave the two a small wave and leaned on the pool stick he was using before.

“Mrs. Reyes, we are here because of a dead body being found nearby.” Chris said as he glanced around before his eyes locked with Scarlet’s eyes again. “The body was drained, so I have to ask, how many essence drinkers do you have here?”

“None in this branch, there is a reason why our coven is called Bonedust.” Scarlet explained. “Majority of us are bone eaters, I myself am a flesh eater.” She leaned in with a devilish grin, “I can happily sh-” Scarlet cut off when Diamond let out a low and loud rumbling growl in her throat.

The growl more than just stopped Scarlet’s words, everyone in the bar went quiet, and felt like everyone was holding their breath. Scarlet even moved back with hands up and Diamond noticed Scarlet placed herself between Javier and Diamond. Chris slowly gently touched Diamond's shoulder with his fingertips and Diamond stopped the growling. 

There was a loud silent sigh of relief when Diamond stopped growling, “Thank you for your time, Mrs. Reyes.” Chris said and was about to turn around but stopped. “Oh and have you filed a section 1-324 paperwork yet?”

“No, we don’t know if she is going to be nesting here or at the main house,” Scarlet said and slowly lowered her hands. Chris nodded before leaving the bar and Diamond followed him outside.

Once outside Diamond looked at him, “Section 1-324 paperwork, what does a pregnant vampire paperwork have to do with this case?” Diamond asked as she opened the truck’s passenger door.

“There were packages of baby diapers and toddler clothes in the corner of the room.” Chris said and got into the driver’s seat. “Vampire babies tend to grow fast after birth. So what was the growl for, she was just flirting.”

“A test for the whole coven.” Diamond said and Chris nodded. “All the coven knows how to handle and respect therianthrope, none of them looked into mine or werefox behind the bar eyes. They also hold great respect for Mrs. Reyes, let her handle a growling therianthrope and waited for her orders.”

“Meaning lying about how they feed is off table,” Chris said and started to truck. “Bonedust coven also has a good reputation for not causing problems too. Also next time, little warning if you do that test again, please.”

“Fair enough,” Diamond said and put on her seatbelt. “I am going to do something similar if it raises with the next coven too.”

“Thank you for the heads up.” Chris said as he started to back up the truck. “Because I didn’t want to restart my heart once again.”