The sun slowly peaked over the horizon and lit up the freshly snowed city, causing the snow to sparkle and shine like diamonds. That same sunlight peeked through curtains of the bedroom in the loft of Diamond’s apartment and the small beam of light hitting a slumbering Diamond.

Diamond was laying on her side on a king size bed and she felt Alex’s arms wrapped around her waist and their head buried the nape of Diamond’s neck. She let out a low grumble as the light hit her face and opened one eye to look at her alarm clock that rested on the side table beside her bed. 

Seeing the time Diamond let out a sigh as she shifted in Alex’s arms and was now facing Alex. “I know you're awake.” Diamond whispered and Alex shifted to kiss the bridge of Diamond’s nose. “So how long are you staying this time?”

“Forever.” Alex muttered and moved to kiss her ear but stopped when Diamond let out a small growl out her throat. She could tell Alex was telling the truth but didn’t like it when they didn’t explain. “I’m fully retired with a captain ranking after my last mission.”

Diamond paused and moved to tap the forearm that had wrapping covering the new acid burn scar. “When you got this new scar.” Diamond said and Alex gave her a small nod. Diamond snorted, “You were always slow to react to enemy attack.”

Alex chuckled and buried their face into Diamond’s neck. Diamond felt relaxed with Alex and felt a soft smile form on her face from their kisses to her neck. “I’ve missed your taste.” Alex whispered.

Diamond blushed but sighed, “I missed you too but I have work.” Diamond shifted to get out of Alex’s grip and Alex whined from it. “You should have called beforehand and I would have taken time off.”

Alex let out a small whine but loosen their grip and allowed Diamond to get out of the bed. Once out of the bed Diamond’s movement caused loud clicking, cracking, and popping sounds came from her bones and they got even louder when Diamond started to stretch.

In the corner of her eye she could see Alex’s face and all of displeasure in hearing those sounds coming from Diamond’s bones. Diamond knew Alex disliked the sounds of her bones in the morning but knew Alex would enjoy the view once sounds stop as Diamond was only in a pair of black panties.

She let out another loud sigh as she rotated her head making more loud pop and cracking, “Every morning.” She muttered and paused as she caught her reflection in the full length mirror. She shifted to face the mirror and her fingers resting on top of the claw scars on her stomach. Her mind started to drift before snapping back when Alex wrapped their arms around her.

Diamond felt Alex’s chin on top of her head and it was easy for Alex to do that as they were six feet and three inches tall. “It wasn’t your fault.” Alex whispered and Diamond felt Alex place their hand over her hand. “Come on, you need to shower before heading out~” Diamond smiled from Alex’s flirting and didn’t fight them when Alex dragged them to the bathroom.

Diamond was walking down the street and the walk was allowing her to put on her public face. She hardened her expression, making it almost impossible to read by others and cold air didn’t truly bother her this morning. Diamond stopped in front of a mixed used-building and the sign over the front door was ‘Nightshade Inc.’.

As Diamond entered the shop soft jazz played and the music was coming from a vintage record player that was sitting behind the counter. The shop was filled with all sorts of occult items, but Diamond knew that all of it was harmless, and real stuff was hidden in a locked basement.

“Welcome back, Diamond.” Ophelia Ashwood said from behind the counter and she didn’t look up from the paperwork she was working on. Her skin was dark chocolate skin tone and it was enriched by her bright blonde hair that was tied in a loose ponytail.

“Hello, Ophelia.” Diamond said as walked up to the counter and her eyes scanned Ophelia’s face. Just like any other vampire, Ophelia was beautiful, even with claw scarring over her right golden eye, and making her blind in that eye. “Any new cases for me?”

“Nothing for this morning,” Ophelia waved her hand before pausing. “Actually I have some supplies coming in and I would be happy if you help bring them in, when they come in.”

“If I don’t get a case then I will help.” Diamond said as walked towards coat hangers. Diamond started to take off her coat but stopped as she saw Ophelia’s head jerk up and staring at her with a sly grin.

“Someone is very happy~” Ophelia cooed and her grin grew bigger. Diamond narrowed her eyes and snorted at Ophelia using her power to get a deeper look into her emotions. “I know it wasn't from the last case, it was taken from you by the drug unit…and this glow is too bright be fr-”

“Ophelia,” Diamond let out a very low rumbling growl and leaked out a bit of her magic. Diamond hid the fact she was druid born and she could get away with small magics to make herself scarier than normal. The magic she used caused the temperature of the room to drop a few degrees and people just thought it was Diamond's natural enrage aura causing it.

Ophelia waved her hand in defeat, “Sorry, I’ll stop,” She said and Diamond retracted her magic. “It’s just so teasing to see how you are emotionally under that stone face.” She was about to point at Diamond but stopped as she probably remembered most werebeasts and native americans don’t like pointing with fingers.

Diamond may not know much about her native american culture but she still didn’t like being pointed at because pointing is a key point of vampire spell casting. While werebeasts magic use the eyes to aim their magic, and vampire magic users have to use their fingers to aim their magic.

Diamond got her coat off her shoulders when Chris entered the shop and glanced at Diamond then his full focus was on Ophelia. Diamond grunted as put her coat back on her shoulders and walked over to Chris. “Got a case and it looks to be a supernatural kill.” Chris explained to Ophelia and Ophelia just let out a huff.

“Alright, guess I’ll deal with that delivery." Ophelia huffed in joking fashion before waving them off. Chris gave her apologetic nod and Diamond followed him outside to his truck.

Diamond hopped into the passenger seat with ease and Chris got into the driver side once a few cars went past. “The body was found in an alleyway and over radio it seems to be the victim of a blood vampire.” Chris explained as he shifted the truck to drive.

“Victim of a blood vampire, means the body looks like someone drank it dry.” Diamond said as she clicked her seatbelt on and Chris let out a small grunt of agreement as he got into the flow of traffic.

Chris parked the truck behind a police car and both of them got out of the truck. Diamond glanced around the crowd of people forming behind the police tape and the majority of them were humans. She found humans to be the most curious of the three races and it wasn’t too surprising for a group of them to gawk at police at work.

Diamond followed Chris under the police tape blocking the alleyway and both stopped at the body and Officer Belle Hiver guarding the body. 

Belle was both a cleaner and police officer and rocking on the balls of feet. “Morning,” Belle said as she noticed Diamond and Chris walk up to her. Belle’s green eyes locked onto Chris and Diamond could smell Belle’s uneasiness about something.

“Morning,” Chris said as Diamond ignored their small talk as she looked over to the body. The body was of a middle aged woman and she looked pale from blood loss clearly from the large bite mark on her neck.

Diamond bent down and took a deep breath over the woman but her nose picked up nothing but alleyway and woman’s corpse. She shook her head and tried once more to pick up different scents but nothing different.

“I couldn’t pick up a scent either.” Belle commented and Diamond stood up straight. “I would say scent erase spell but that would cover up all scents in the area.”

“Maybe a magical item that erases the scent of the wearer?” Chris suggested and Diamond started to walk around to see if could pick something out of place. She stopped at the police tape that was fifteen feet away from the body and looked back at them.

“Anything else on your radar, Diamond?” Belle asked and glanced back at the body. Chris bent back down to check something and Belle joined him in what he was looking at.

“You better not be touching that body, officers.” Nix’s voice said as she was allowed to pass the police tape with a gurney and Diamond followed Nix.

Both Belle and Chris bolted up, “We would never do that without your permission or good reason.” Chris quickly responded to Nix. Both of them moved out of the way of Nix and she parked the gurney beside the feet of the body.

“Good, don’t want another body in this alleyway.” Nix said as looked at the body and put on gloves before bending down. She started to pat down the body and looked for some kind of identification. “Odd, no identification…”

Chris tilted his head to the side, “Her clothing looks familiar…like a uniform with that apron.” He pointed out and made both Diamond and Belle pay more attention to the woman's clothing.

Diamond finally noticed the woman was wearing black pants, an off white polo shirt, and black apron. There was a faded logo on the apron pocket and Diamond’s eye dilated as she recognized the logo. “A Beast Stop.” Diamond said.

“A Beast Stop?” Chris asked with his brow climbing up. “I’ve never heard of that shop in this city.” Diamond took pause from Chris’ confusion at first but quickly recalled that Chris had only been living in Wacksqueslia city for a year. 

“Really? You’ve been here a year and no one has ever said ‘A Beast Stop’ in your ear shot?” Belle asked and Chris narrowed his eyes on her. “It’s any gas station that has almost everything a werebeast who had an accidental shift and they don’t care if you walk in nude.”

“Oh, we call those ‘Shift & Eat Shop’ back in my old stomping grounds.” Chris said and Diamond pulled out her phone to look up the closest gas station from where they were. 

“That makes sense, every place has their own names for places like that.” Belle and Chris started to have small talk with Belle about other oddities about different nicknames for places but Diamond tuned them out. 

After her phone finished catching up with typing that she found the closest gas station and it was only walking distance from the alleyway. Diamond shoved her phone into her pocket and turned around to walk under the police tape.