Diamond groaned as her phone rang on the side table beside their bed and she felt Alex reach out to grab the phone. Diamond let out huff but didn’t stop Alex from grabbing her phone and answering it. 

“Hello there?” Alex asked in a grumpy tone and Diamond opened one eye as she listened to the call. With their heightened senses any werebeast or vampire could easily hear people over the phone as if it was on speakerphone mode.

“Uh, This is Chris Quinn, is Diamond Silvervine there?” Chris’ voice said over the phone and Diamond let out a small grunt sound to Alex. Diamond’s eye glanced at the clock on the side table and saw it was eight in the morning.

“She’s listening and not happy.” Alex said as they shifted to be sitting up, allowing Diamond to sit up as well.

“That’s nothing new,” Chris said and Diamond let out a growl from Chris’ words. “Heard that one, anyways I got two vampire covens in the area of our crime scene.”

Diamond gently took the phone from Alex and got out of the bed, “Need me to play bodyguard while you try to trick them into giving a list of the blood drinkers in their coven?” Diamond asked and started to stretch to make her bones making loud clicking, cracking, and popping sounds.

She could sense both Chris and Alex worrying from the sounds, “I’ll pick you up in fifteen minutes or so.” Chris said and Diamond hung up without warning. 

Alex had got out of the bed and kissed the top of her head, “Duty calls and no shared shower this morning.” Alex whispered and Diamond sighed as nodded. 

Diamond clicked the passenger seatbelt and felt Chris’ eyes on her. “So…”

“None of your business and it’s best if you ask no further question or else.” Diamond growled and Chris sighed as a sign of him backing off. “Which coven are we going to?”

“Bonedust and Red Mist,” Chris said and tapped a folder between them. Diamond picked up the folder and opened them up to look into them. 

“Never heard of Bonedust but Red Mist has come across my path before.” Diamond said as she scanned the sheet. The locations told Diamond that both covens were branch locations and not the main coven buildings. “Branch covens, makes sense that area is more industrial than residential.”

“We will be going to Bonedust first, I got some info that they are more cooperative.” Chris said and Diamond nodded. In hearing this information Diamond figured that is why she never heard of them, it meant they didn’t cause trouble for the law.

Diamond kept reading and was quiet for the rest of the drive to the branch coven, but she could feel Chris’ want to ask many questions. Once there Chris parked close to the exit and the building looked like a modern biker bar with a fighter gym attached.

“We are here,” Chris said and both of them got out of the truck. Diamond noticed the parking lot was cleared of snow and she spotted the bobcat tracks leading to the back of the building. “I don’t have to tell you to behave.”

Diamond raised a brow and slipped her hands in her coat pockets. Chris chuckled and led the way and Diamond scanned the area as they entered the building. She didn’t find anything out of place and found this place could easily be mistaken for a normal biker bar, if it wasn’t for a warning plaque on the door about it being a vampire coven.

Inside was a typical looking modern biker bar with a darts game, pool tables, and with it being early in morning there were only a handful of bikers there. Diamond quickly glanced around at the bikers and could see all of them had pure black eyes, Bone eating Vampires, or more commonly called Ghouls. 

Diamond remembered that it was common for the public to call blood drinking vampires just as Vampires, while bone and flesh eating vampires got the nickname Ghouls, and vampires that feed on emotions got the unfortunate nickname Succubus or Incubus. Diamond silently felt bad for Ophelia and her sisters as all them feed off emotions and it chafes them whenever they get called a succubus.

Chris walked up to the bar counter and the native american with dark brown braided hair behind the counter raised a brow, “What can I get ya, officer?” She asked and Diamond glanced at her name tag, it had printed on it was Emma Foxtrot. Her pale green eyes with black sclera flicked to Diamond and quickly in fear looked back to Chris the moment she saw Diamond.

“The head of the coven branch, Scarlet Reves, I need to speak to them.” Chris said and Emma used her chin to point to a pool table. “Thank you.” Chris turned to head to the pool table and Diamond gave Emma a small nod before following Chris.

They walked up to the pool table that was pointed to and there were two people playing at it. One was a hispanic woman with bright red hair that had a wolf cut and the other was a young hispanic man with messy black hair, both had pitch black eyes.

“So what can I do for you, officer?” The woman asked without taking pause from the game, clearly this was Scarlet Reyes. The young man whispered something in Spanish, which Diamond didn’t speak, and that made Scarlet take pause.

Scarlet put the pool cue she was using on the table and turned around to face them. Diamond watched as Scarlet’s eyes locked on her and gave Diamond a polite bow in acknowledgement before looking towards Chris.

“We are here on a case, a murder case, a young lady was found with half her blood missing.” Chris stated and Scarlet nodded to his words. “Your branch coven is close by and I would like a list of all your blood drinkers that roost here.”

Scarlet crossed her arms and Diamond could see her tongue poking her cheek and moving around for a second before resting her butt on the pool table behind her. “Legally I can’t give you that without a warrant.” Scarlet finally said and let out some small tongue clicks.

Diamond didn’t like the clicking and her instincts were telling her it was some kind of insult. So she let out a low rumbling growl and leaked out some of her magic to chill the room like she did with Ophelia. Diamond could feel the fear spike in everyone in the room and she noticed Scarlet had moved in front of the young vampire.

Scarlet moved her head to the side and up to show her throat to Diamond. “Diamond, that’s enough,” Chris said and gently touched her shoulder with tips of her fingers. Diamond let out snort before drawing back her magic quickly so no one figured it was magic and glancing away with a shake of her shoulders. 

Scarlet relaxed and her face turned to look at Diamond, careful not to look into her eyes, “I apologize, I forgot at times that some werebeasts see tongue clicking as an insult.” Scarlet said and nodded to Diamond. Diamond just let out a small huff and her attention fell a bit of baby stuff in the corner.

“To be fair as well, we are in the heart of a vampire coven and that does tend to make any outsider werebeast on edge. I also understand if you can’t give a list of blood drinkers in your branch unless...” Chris said and Diamond looked back to Chris. She saw something on his face and couldn’t figure what he was thinking at that moment.

Scarlet had returned looking at Chris and a smile spread across her face, “I have little deal in mind, a simple one and one I think both of you will like.” She said and glanced behind them. Both looked at what she looked at and it was a glass door with the logo of the gym next door. “We run a legal fight club next door.”

Chris raised a brow, “So one fight and we get that list?” Chris asked and Scarlet gave him a nod. “Are you down for a fight, Diamond?” Diamond tightened her fits in her pocket to relax tension in her body and gave Chris a solid nod of agreement.

“Good, Emma dear, can you tell Jasper that he volunteered for a fight.” Scarlet said with a sly smile but Diamond felt the smile was aimed at Emma. Scarlet turned to the young man and whispered quietly enough only Diamond could hear, “James, get the list ready.”

Diamond heard Emma hop over the bar with ease and hurry through the glass door to the gym next door. Chris turned around and Diamond moved to be behind him while glancing back to Scarlet, who followed them. Diamond did notice the man named James, headed towards a door next to the bar and had staff only sign on it.

The gym they entered was typical for a boxing gym with punching bags, dumbbells, other weights, and boxing rings but the main difference was in the centre of the building. It was a circle fighting ring that had sand for flooring and the size of it was slightly bigger than a boxing ring. Around the ring was metal guard rail and they were waist height.

They stopped at the edge of this ring and Diamond slid off her coat to hand to Chris. Chris did take the coat but grunt from the weight of it, “Geezz, what is this made out of?” Chris asked and quickly adjusted in handling it. Diamond could see it was sudden weight was a problem as Chris easily held her coat with ease now.

“There’s chainmail in between the lining.” Diamond said and Scarlet nodded to her words. “Chainmail can stop semi shifted werebeast claws but not true form claws.”

“I heard most cleaners wear some kind of chainmail in their clothing.” Scarlet said as she rubbed her chin. “Cops don’t wear it because it may stop claws but can stop kinetic force from a punch of vampire or werebeast.”

“And bullet proof vests are better at dealing with guns.” Chris said and lightly tapped his hoodie. Diamond knew Chris was wearing his vest under his hoodie by how his hoodie rested on him and she saw him when he wasn’t wearing his vest.