Prologue.

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Las Vegas, Nevada

January 4th, 2009

Tessa DeAngelo was not jealous at all. Nope. She was pure glistening goodness and filled with nothing but happiness as she watched the limo pull away. The newest members of Division Eight, Zeven and Harley, were leaving for their weeklong honeymoon.

Okay, yeah, she was absolutely green with envy. She wanted that sweet happy ever after just as much as the next Disney princess. It just wasn't likely to be in the cards for her… at least not any time soon.

She looked around for the rest of her team. Deven caught her eye first. He hadn't bothered with a suit but was dressed up more than usual in a dress shirt and black jeans. His hair and beard were neat enough, but he still somehow looked a little bit wild. He and Quinn were beside the car chatting intensely. Knowing Deven he'd be pushing to get on the road right away. As if Albuquerque might disappear before they got back to headquarters.

She slipped inside the little Vegas wedding chapel to gather up the few things they'd used to fancy up the wedding and make it a tiny bit more personal. Looking around, there really wasn't much. A small complimentary bag of mementos was sitting on the bench in the front row. And the bouquet, which Harley hadn't even thrown.

She reached for the bag--

And froze as an icy shiver raced down her spine. The annoyingly gross feeling wasn"t exactly welcome. It was the icky heads-up signal that she was about to get a vision.

She shook her head. Of course, the visions were a blessing. Her ability to see into the world"s secrets was more than just handy. They could be lifesaving, especially in their dangerous line of work. But if she took the time to sit down and focus on that thread of magic, then she"d be completely immersed in that spine chilling yuck.

Nope. Not happening. Thank goodness she had a backup plan.

She settled onto the bench and pulled out her modified cellular phone. Not only was she using a top-of-the-line model, but she"d tweaked it quite a bit and designed a special program into it. Unhooking a safety pin from her phone strap, she stabbed it into the pad of her thumb and squeezed a drop of blood onto the small screen of the phone.

With a lot of obsessive independent study, she"d managed to discover a programing code that translated her magic into usable data. Not long after that, she"d created a computer program using that code and installed it onto the phone which allowed her to access her visions in a far more meaningful way.

It was still her magic, but it was organized into a science that she could use more easily.

The tiny black screen swirled into a purplish smokey pool. She added a second drop of blood and then a third. Each one contributing to the magic that projected her visions into useful data. As she squinted at it, the images slowly came into focus.

A church... This one? No, another but remarkably similar.

A pale man, thirties, dark hair in a crew cut. He had a plain looking face except for shining wild eyes and deadly looking fangs. A vampire, but not one she recognized. And he also wasn't the killer that Division Eight was currently hunting. Not that she could tell that from the image. Instead, it was her more intangible instincts that told her that he was someone new.

But there probably was a connection. Her focus was pretty good most days and if she was having a vision now then it was likely related to the crazy vamp that they'd been chasing for more than six months.

The image changed, shifting through several different scenes. Just flashes but it was enough. "Aww, shit."

She could get glimpses of the past, present or possible futures. To tell them apart she often had to rely on instinct alone. The future ones were always the trickiest. And this was going to be one of those.

The flashing, swirling images changed again and again. Faster and faster. She pieced the details together with a lot of huge holes. The vampire was a big baddie. He was going to go on a killing spree across the country. Dozens, possibly hundreds, would die. He was strong and violent. He was connected to their case and would be their problem to handle.

The slight ache of her head amped up with each flash until it left her lightheaded and dizzy.

* * *

Deven Ochoa glanced up the short aisle to where their agency's resident computer nerd had gone to get their things. "Hey, Tess? You ready to go?"

The new girl was sitting on the front bench but mumbled some kind of response before standing up. She took one step into the aisle and crumpled to the floor.

"Oh shit." He ran to her side. Even though it was only thirty feet or so, she was already standing up by the time he reached her. "Easy now."

She gave her head a little shake, settling her honey blonde hair around her shoulders. "I"m alright. I was just a little dizzy."

"Sure, sure." He kept his hand under one slender elbow. "People fall down all the time. You handle gravity just like a fucking rockstar."

She snapped her phone closed and shoved it into her pocket. She pulled her arm from his grip. "Seriously. I"m good." She said this while dusting off her slacks and neatening her blouse over her slim body.

The act wasn"t convincing at all, but she was the queen of stubborn independence.

"Grab that bag and the flowers next to it. Let"s pick up some food on the way. Maybe if I get some calories in me, I can stay upright."

He chuckled. maybe she really was fine. And some nutrition wouldn"t be bad for any of them. She wouldn"t be hurt by adding some meat to her bones. Even if she was almost as tall as him, she only weighed in at a hundred and thirty-five tops. He picked up the bag. The small bouquet of flowers, he held out to her. "Didn"t we bring more with us?"

"We added the decorations on the ends of the benches, but the church said we can leave those if we want to."

He glanced at the elaborate ribbon and flower decorations that the girls had spent hours making. "I can gather them up."

"No, don"t bother. We don"t have a use for them anyhow."

It was a shame to leave them behind after all the work they had put into them, but she was right. They didn"t have any use for the frilly things in their agency. Not that they wouldn"t fit in. Quinn"s Victorian style home was filled with patches of frills, lace and flowers. The agency worked out of that house, and it was all he could do to keep Quinn from decorating their offices with his overdone tastes.

"You"re thinking about how adding more bows or blossoms to the house might make it explode, aren"t you."

"You know it."

"Of course, it was Quinn who came up with those extravagant designs. Harley wasn"t planning on more than a basic bouquet and that"s it."

"Yeah, sounds like him." He and the old man had just about complete opposite tastes in damn near everything. But somehow that had always made their life together... comfortable. He hadn"t even considered how inconsistent it was until his brother, Zeven, had entered their house for the first time.

Tess smacked his arm. "Quit grinning like that. It"s creepy."

He forced his face back to calm even though he was pretty sure it hadn"t changed all that much. Still, he knew that if he did smile broadly or laugh it twisted up the scarring on his cheek.

"What are you even thinking about?"

"The first time Zeven saw the way the house is decorated."

"Oh yeah. Damn, that was worth a laugh. I thought he was going to die. Maybe he would have, if Harley hadn"t liked it so much."

"True." Harley had taken one look at the over decorated private den and immediately started touching each of the elaborate decor pieces. Over the years he"d managed to tame it down to corners and mantles, but that den was still way too much. Like it had exploded French granny all over the place.

"I suppose my own reaction wasn"t too different. It is an unexpected surprise. Almost like getting a glimpse of Quinn"s secretly romantic side."

That was one way of thinking about it. And not at all wrong. Outside of their home, Quinn came off as a serious workaholic. But inside that old Victorian mansion his true self showed in every inch of it. He was complex, ancient and maybe a bit romantic. What else could they expect from an eight-hundred-year-old vampire who chose to protect the world from the paranormal villains of the world?

And he was waiting for them beside the car. "Come on, kids. Let"s head for home."