Amelia & Andrew: The Diamond Legacy Ch. 04

I was in the group of officers that went to New York City after nine-eleven and spent two months at ground zero. Three years ago I was sent to Quantico for three weeks of training on how to properly use a criminal investigative analysis tool. By the way, I like the simpler term profile.

Diamond was my fourth task force that I was a part of and the second that I led. The first one was the Victor Robles case. He raped sixteen women and murdered seven of them. The youngest victim was seventeen, the oldest fifty-three. All of them were brunettes under five-five and overweight. It took six weeks and a lucky break to catch him.

He was in the process of raping another woman when her boyfriend stopped by for a surprise visit. Robles jumped off the balcony when the boyfriend chased him and in the process; twisted his knee. That was the first time that I worked Lisa. Anyway, we contacted all of the emergency rooms and clinics and asked them to report if any males in his age bracket came in with a knee injury.

Three hours after the alert went out we got a call from Harbor Hospital. They had a man who said that he had accidentally fallen from his balcony. We busted him and he's sitting on death row. It's too bad that she's gone. She was a good cop and a good friend. Enough about the past." Andrew said. "What would you like to do in the future?"

"Go to Egypt and see the sphinx and pyramids up close." Amelia replied without hesitation.

"I would like to go to Europe." Andrew replied. "And I've always wanted to go on one of those photo safaris in Africa."

"Excuse me." A vampire from the next table said. "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. How nice it is to be in love and to make plans for the future. If you don't mind a little advice from an old vampire, stay out of the Middle East until you are a little older. The head enforcer there is a real bitch and would insist that you are there to cause trouble. She would make your life a living hell. She's been the lead enforcer of that area for close to.... Umm let me think... Charles gave it up in twelve-fifty so that's... umm. What year is this anyway?" he asked.

"Twenty-twelve." Andrew replied trying to contain his chuckle.

"So that makes it seven hundred and fifty years." The vampire mused. "Please excuse my manners, I am Amsu."

"I'm Andrew and the lovely woman with me is my mate Amelia." Andrew said offering his hand.

"I am pleased to meet you." Amsu said as he rose from his seat and kissed Amelia's hand. "Young man, you are very lucky to have such a rare flower as your mate."

Amsu studied them for a moment. It was obvious to Andrew that he recognized them.

"You are the two new vampires that Charles has been anxious for me to meet." He said. "You are the ones that were created by Diamond. You managed to kill a rabid ancient vampire while you were still human. I am honored to meet you."

Emma approached Andrew and Amelia's table. As soon as Amsu saw her he stood, picked her up and hugged her.

"Emma! It's so good to see you!" He said excitedly.

"Amsu! When did you get here?" Emma asked as she returned the hug.

"I've been here for about an hour." He replied. "I haven't seen your father yet. I last spoke to him on Tuesday when he told me about the whole Diamond fiasco and Andrew and Amelia. I'm still a bit upset that he didn't tell me how pretty Amelia was. He knew that I was heading this way; we have some details to discuss about Diamond's assets. Plus I think that he wanted he wanted me here when Vladimir calls."

"Have you met Andrew and Amelia yet?" she asked.

"I just had the pleasure." Amsu replied. "They were talking about going to Egypt to do some sightseeing. We were just starting a good conversation when you came in. Where is that scalp happy husband of yours?" Amsu asked teasing her.

"He never took any scalps." Emma replied chuckling, "wrong tribe."

"I know." Amsu replied." I just love getting you riled up."

"Are you going to need a room?" Emma asked.

"If you have one available. If not; then I'll take your father's room."

"I have a room available." Emma replied as she rolled her eyes. She turned to Amelia and Andrew. "Your room is ready. Agatha is finished with Catherine. Her confirmed due date is September."

"Amelia, isn't Catherine your number one?" Amsu asked confused.

"Yes she is and she's pregnant." Amelia replied her voice filled with excitement.

Amsu shook his head in disbelief.

"You young kids move way to fast." He said. "Emma, how long have your parents been doing the same dance? Everyone knows that they're mates; but those two are still courting each other."

Emma chuckled as she replied. "They say that they are going to mate on January first, twenty-thirteen. They also said that they would stay in bed all day December twenty-first just in case."

Amsu roared with laughter.

"Oh come on!" he said. "They're staying in bed all day just to fuck. It has nothing to do with the end of the world."

"Thanks for an image that I definitely didn't want in my mind." Emma said cringing. "Come on Amsu no kid wants to imagine their parents fucking like that." She added.

"Then I'll switch to a subject that you're more comfortable with." Amsu replied. "When are you and the scalp hunter going to have kids?"

"Subtlety isn't one of your gifts." Emma replied laughing. "Let me guess, you want to spoil the child like you tried to spoil me." Emma's eyes lit up with laughter as she looked at Andrew and Amelia. "Poor Catherine! You two are going to spoil that child rotten and god help her if it's a boy."

"I can understand that Amsu feels a link to you because he sired your father; but why would he be concerned about my number one's child?" Amelia asked.

"Diamond was sired by Amsu about three hundred years after he sired father." Emma replied.

Amelia's eyes widened as Andrew stepped between her and the rest of the group.

"I am not looking for retribution." Amsu said when Andrew moved. "If anything, I'm thankful that you put her out of her misery. She lost her humanity and became a cruel and vicious predator murdering without remorse. Her only joy in life was to cause others the pain that she was feeling.

Please don't misunderstand my next question, but how did you defeat her? She was one of our best ubertas venators. She had centuries of training and practice of hunting rogue vampires. She should have been able to use compulsion on both of you and feed from you at will, so how did you do it?"

"Let Amelia go see Catherine and I'll be more than happy to tell you everything that I remember." Andrew replied.

After sending Amelia off with a quick kiss, Andrew began his story.

"I was a Baltimore City detective and was handed this case..."

Two hours later, the story was finished. He admitted that given the fact that he and Amelia were human; he couldn't fathom how they even stood a chance against Diamond.

Amsu closed his eyes in silent prayer for his second oldest parvulus. He had spent over two-hundred centuries teaching her how to master her abilities and training her to hunt rogues. Not that he would ever admit it, but in many ways; he was more proud of her than Charles.

Diamond had been a street urchin who had tried to steal his purse when he was in Rome. He almost turned her over to his guard, but something about her eyes captivated him; and he turned her. Theirs was never a romantic relationship as he considered her a daughter. He would carry the regret of preventing her from going rogue for the rest of his days. His hope was that he would be able to find some measure of peace on the other side.

Amsu pulled himself together before he spoke.

"She wanted to toy with you." He said sadly. "She didn't consider you a worthy opponent and she paid for her conceit with her life. I hope that she is at peace and you my young friend use her story as a lesson."

"What's your story?" Andrew asked.

"As I said, I first saw Didiana or Diamond as you call her in Rome. I grabbed her hand as she tried to steal my purse." Amsu said. His voice was almost hypnotic as he spoke. "I was about to call the guards when I saw her eyes. Even though they held fear, there was a strength and fire about them. I compelled her to follow me and turned her that night. Over the next two centuries, I made sure that she received the finest education available and that she knew how to defend herself with a blade and her hands. To everyone who knew us, she was my daughter; there was never a romantic relationship between us.

When she wasn't on a hunt, she would spend time with me and we would travel the world seeing the sights. Eventually she found someone that she wanted as a mate, but he was human. He refused to change until after he completed his service to his country. You see, he was in the Marines. He lost his life in Vietnam in nineteen-seventy-two.

After that Diamond withdrew. For almost twenty years after his death, she went on mission after mission hunting for rogues. My biggest regret is that I didn't intervene sooner than I did. I thought that it was her way of working through the pain and coming to terms with her loss. At the turn of the century I received word that she had stopped taking missions and that she had fallen off the radar. I had friends looking for her, but I would only get reports of occasional sightings until a year ago. She was seen in former eastern bloc countries openly killing and leaving a trail of bodies behind her.

I asked the ubertas venators to find her ad bring her to me so that I could save her; but she disappeared again. She reappeared in Canada, was there for a few weeks and then moved on to America. By this time, her behavior was much worse. She was openly taunting the human law enforcement.

You have no idea of what it took to keep the human law enforcement community from finding out that she wasn't just some local psychopath. I still held hope that we would find her and bring her back. That hope was dashed two weeks before she arrived in Baltimore. A group of ubertas venators caught up with her and gave her my message. In response, she killed all but one of them. She only left him alive so that he could deliver a message.

Amsu stopped for a moment and then continued.

"She told him to tell me and everyone else that she would kill anyone who tried to bring her in. That was when I knew that we had lost her soul and that she had to be put down. You know the rest of the story. Diamond was like a daughter to me so you will have to have to forgive me if I choose to remember her as the good person I loved and not the monster she became."

"I'm sorry." Andrew said quietly. "But we had no choice. She killed two cops and left behind forensic mysteries that aren't going to go away. For one, the coroner still has Diamond's corpse. Second, the anticoagulant was identified as a highly concentrated form of saliva found in vampire bats."

Amsu grimaced.

"I wasn't aware that the humans found out about the venom. That is of great concern to me. Diamond's corpse should be of little value to them as it will decay quickly."

"I hope so." Andrew replied. "But if I know Doc Lassider, he would have wasted no time in performing the autopsy. Not only that, the FBI would have the files because a federal officer died during the case."

Amsu blew out a frustrated breath.

"This is most distressing." Amsu said. "If he managed to autopsy her before she decayed he would confirm that she wasn't human. I assume that they would have preserved tissue and fluid samples?"

Andrew nodded.

"If he sent copies to the FBI they could run tests not normally run and they have tests not available to regular law enforcement. If they find out that her DNA isn't human; they won't stop until they figure out what it is.

Amsu swallowed hard. "This is not good." He said. "Charles will need to look into this immediately. How long does it take to take to get the results back from DNA testing?"

"That depends on the test." Andrew replied. "It also depends on which lab he used and how backed up they are. If he wanted a rush, and he more than likely did because this was a high priority case; it would be two weeks to a month before the results were back. He probably used the FBI lab which means that the feds will have the results first."

Amsu pulled out his cell phone and began speaking as soon as the person on the other end picked up.

"Charles? Amsu here... we may have a problem with the Diamond situation... yes... the humans analyzed the saliva and may have gotten a viable tissue sample from Diamond."

There was a moment of silence as he listened to Charles' response.

"You were aware and someone is already handling it? I apologize; I should have known that you had the situation under control... I was just talking to Andrew. Yes they're here...that was the plan but they thought Catherine was ill...No she just has the one --hundred and forty day flu...Yes she is pregnant... she didn't know that she wasn't taking in enough blood... Charles slow down. Agatha has already seen her and Emma is making sure that she is being taking care of... yes, hold on; I'll ask him."

Amsu covered the mouthpiece of the phone and spoke to Andrew.

"Charles would like to know if you and your mate will be available around ten this morning."

Andrew looked at his watch. It was just after six am.

"Amelia." He called telepathically, "Charles would like to meet with us at ten this morning. Is that okay?"

"That's fine." Amelia replied. "I'm going to the room to take a shower. Try not to be too much longer. You need to clean up and we need to get some breakfast."

Amsu could see that Andrew was communicating with someone telepathically. Sure that it was Amelia, he waited.

"Ten is fine." Andrew said. "I'm going to go to the room, get cleaned up and take Amelia out for breakfast. We'll see you at the meeting and it was a pleasure meeting you."

Andrew held out his hand to Amsu.

"The pleasure is al mine." Amsu said shaking Andrew's hand. "I look forward to getting to know the two of you better."

Amsu turned his attention back to the phone.

"Charles... yes ten is fine... I'll let Emma know... I'll see you at ten.

********

Andrew found Emma behind the bar taking stock. She stopped long enough to tell him how to get to his room and hand him the electronic key needed to access the elevator. Out of habit, she informed him that the key would be deactivated once they were gone. She bid him a good night commenting that if she didn't get a few hours rest; she would be a total bitch.

Andrew thanked her and went to the room. It was a large room that had a furnished sitting area with a large flat screen TV. There was also a small kitchen area complete with a fridge that was stocked with blood. There were two doors that led off the main door. To the left was a small furnished office and to the right, was the bedroom. The bedroom was large enough that it had a king sized bed and two armoires plus a walk in closet. Their luggage was lying on the bed along with a note.

Dear Sir,

This is to inform you that all of your firearms have been placed in our vault for safekeeping. We hope that you understand that we do not allow firearms in the club or in the guest rooms.

If you have any additional items that you would like to place in the vault, please call security. If there are any questions regarding out policies, please contact management. To do this; please use the house phone and ask for the office.

Also take note of the second page. It will inform you of the wide variety of services that we offer our guest. We hope that you enjoy your stay and thank you for choosing us.

The management.

P.s: We took the liberty of plugging the refrigerator in your vehicle into a power source in order to preserve the battery.

Andrew read the note and then began to unpack while Amelia finished her shower. Once she was finished, Andrew grabbed a quick shower. They quickly dressed and went to breakfast.

After ordering coffee, eggs and bacon with orange juice for Amelia and tomato juice for him, Andrew told Amelia about his talk with Amsu and what he learned about Diamond. After they ate, they still had an hour before the meeting. They decided to take a walk around the neighborhood to kill some time.

As they were leaving, they ran into Amsu who was on his way to breakfast.

"Good morning!" he greeted with a smile. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

"Good morning." Amelia replied. "We've just finished. We were just going for a walk before the meeting."

"Then don't let me delay you." Amsu said as he shook Andrew's hand. "I shall see you at the meeting."

Andrew led Amelia out into the morning light. It was a bright, but slightly chilly early spring morning. The city was just beginning to come to life. They joined hands and began to walk up Water Street with no real destination in mind.

Neither of them spoke as they slowly walked enjoying the quiet companionship of their early morning walk.

"We're being followed." Amelia said telepathically after a few minutes into their walk. "I can feel them but I don't know where they are yet."

"Are you sure that there's more than one?" Andrew asked.

"I just started feeling them and yes there's more than one; but I don't know how many."

Andrew couldn't feel them but trusted Amelia's instincts.

"Can you tell if they are Vampire?" He asked,

Amelia closed her eyes for a moment trying to focus on their followers. After a moment, she had a clear picture of their pursuers and their intentions.

"There are four maybe five of them. They are waiting by the alley for us. They plan to rob us and are armed with knives. The leader has a katana."

Andrew readied himself as he telepathically spoke to Amelia.

"I want you to get behind me just as we reach them and watch our backs. I'm willing to bet that they have someone shadowing us. I'll try to keep them on me while you get control of the guy with the sword. If you can; have him attack the others."

"I'll do my best." Amelia replied.

Just as they reached the Alley, five vampires appeared before them. The vampire in the middle had a katana and two others had wicked looking daggers. Two other vampires blocked the way to the street. One had a butcher knife and the other had a kukri.

"My my, what do we have here?" The vampire holding the katana said. "A pair of parvulus out for a romantic walk. How nice. I hope that you have your wallet with you. You have to pay for the privilege to walk our streets. If no wallet, maybe your sire is willing to cover for you."

"I have no money." Andrew replied. "And our sire is dead. Unless you want to join her, I would suggest you leave."

"Well then," The leader sneered. "I guess we'll just have to take it out of her ass rig..."

Before the leader could finish his statement, Andrew had his head in his hands. Before the others saw him move, he threw the leaders head at the vampire to the left of him. Andrew grabbed the one to his right by the throat and threw him to the ground. The vampire to the left of Andrew had recovered and stabbed Andrew in the side of his neck. The blade went in about an inch but managed to nick the jugular vein.

Andrew felt the sharp pain and then the felt the hot blood as it pulsed from the wound. He looked at the vampire that stabbed him with glowing eyes. Seconds later, the vampire burst into flame. He screamed in pain as the flames quickly engulfed him. The vampire fell to his knees, screamed one last time and was claimed by the flames. The Vampire that Andrew still had a hold of began to beg for his life.

Amelia was surprised by Andrew's sudden attack. She quickly forced her mind into the minds of the two vampires that were blocking their way to the street and took control of their minds. She sensed another vampire coming up from behind them and ordered the two that she had control of to subdue him. She had just turned to face the new threat when she felt Andrew's pain. She turned in time to see the vampire that had stabbed Andrew burst into flames. She heard the last vampire that Andrew had engaged pleading for Andrew not to kill him.