Uncle Josef
Title: Uncle Josef
Rating: PG-13/R
Warnings: language, sexual content,violence
Pairing: Mick / Beth, Josef/Simone
Genre: Romance/Humor/Violence
Spoilers: post-series
Summary: The mysterious murders of two vamps send Mick, Josef and their ladies to Tulsa, where they receive much more than they bargained for. 16th in my post-"Sonata" series, but you don't have to have read the others.
Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended.
A/N: Welcome to story number sixteen in my post-“Sonata” series! While you don’t have to have read any of my previous stories, I sure wish you would. This story picks up a thread of my old fic “Road Trip,” the part where the gang visits Tulsa, OK (If you’d like some background info before reading this, or a quick refresher, read chapters 6 through 9 of that fic. Just click on my name and scroll down to a list of all my fics). Again, not necessary that you read my old stuff, but you still should know the basics for what I have written since.
This story takes place about two years after the actual show ended. Mick and Beth are engaged, and Beth is now a vampire (she has the gift of seeing people’s auras-isn’t that cool?!). Josef and Simone are married, and she too is a vampire now. I’ll give you newbies enough background information along the way so you can catch on to what’s been going on with my favorite vamps, so hopefully it will still be an enjoyable reading experience. And now, without further ado…
Uncle Josef, Chapter 1
MICK
“Okay, Mick. Choose your weapon,” said Josef, his voice ominous.
I looked at the two choices before me, uncertain which would do the most damage, which would get the job done the best, and I hesitated. One was certainly more stylish and more beautiful than the other, but could looks be deceiving with these things?
“I can’t believe it’s come to this,” I said, shaking my head. “I mean, we’ve had our differences before, Josef, and normally we could just talk things through. Or maybe I’d beat the crap out of you and get on with my life. But this…don’t you think this is taking things just a little too far?”
“Quit being a pussy, Mick, and choose, or I’ll sure as hell choose for you! Let’s settle this like gentlemen, and not get our hands-or Armani-bloodied for a change.”
“You’re just saying that because it’s usually you on the receiving end. Alright, then…I choose…the Lamborghini.”
“What?” He said in surprise. “You’re gonna let me drive my Ferrari, a vehicle that’s almost like an extension of my own dick. Not a wise move, my friend.”
I shrugged. “If you’re going to race me, it doesn’t matter what vehicle you have. There’s no way I’m cutting my hair, so there’s no way I’m losing this race to you.”
We stood silently, eyeing each other angrily. Josef had discovered some old military pictures of me, before I’d been turned, with short hair. He’d known me back in the fifties, of course, right after I’d met Coraline, when my hair was considerably shorter than now, but he’d decided I would looked even better with a crew cut. So for the last two weeks, every time I saw him, he hounded me about getting a haircut. He’d sent every hair expert to my apartment, from an old-fashioned barber to his own, top dollar stylist. Still, I refused. It was my hair. It was my look. And it certainly felt wonderful with Beth’s fingers running through it; I’d never heard any complaints from her. Not even my best friend was going to take that experience from me.
“What, you think you’ll lose your powers, Samson?” Josef said snarkily.
The evening breeze washed over me, and I inhaled the smell of gasoline and motor oil. Josef had rented the LA Raceway for us to settle this like gentlemen, providing my choice of the two fastest cars from his well-stocked garage. If I lost, I’d get a haircut. If he lost-no blood from freshies for six months. I figured that was the length of time I’d need to re-grow my hair back to its current length.
“You think your stamina will lessen if you don’t drink freshie blood?”I shot back.
He snorted. We were back at the impasse that had brought us to this racetrack. “I’ve gone without before, with no complaints from Simone, I might add.”
“You realize this is the stupidest, most overblown way to settle an argument that you’ve ever come up with?”
He grinned his mischievous grin. “Sounds like fun though, doesn’t it?”
As I looked at the blue Lamborghini Aventador, I couldn’t help but agree. He never let me drive any of his cars-ever. His usual excuse had been that he’d seen the car I drove, and while it was cute and all to be living in the past, he felt I wouldn’t know the first way to handle something post twentieth century. But I couldn’t lie-it was every man and male vamp’s dream to be put in control of a hot car and given free rein on a racetrack, and I’d be a fool to pass up this experience. Besides, the Lamborghini was the most beautiful car I’d ever seen, and my hands fairly itched to take the wheel.
“Yeah, and it’ll be really fun when I whip your ass and you’re getting weekly deliveries from the blood bank,” I replied.
“Not gonna happen, Mick. But hey, I’ll keep a clipping of one of your curls in a locket around my neck if you like.”
“Get in the goddamn car, Josef.”
He laughed almost gleefully, and I knew he thought this whole thing was in the bag for him. What he didn’t know was that I’d had some experience on a racetrack, once upon a time. Not in a car as expensive or as powerful as this one, but I’d dabbled in amateur stock car racing for awhile when Josef was living overseas back in the seventies.
We zipped on our fire resistant jumpsuits and reached for our helmets. We would easily survive a crash, but fires were certainly not a vampire’s friend. Just then, Beth and Simone came to give us a rousing sendoff.
“You realize how ridiculous this is,” Beth said to me, looking up into my face, her bright blue eyes clouded slightly with worry.
“Yes,” I said. I reached up to brush aside the windblown blonde hair from her forehead. “We’ll be fine though. Josef has to constantly prove his masculinity, or else he loses sight of it very easily.”
Josef shot me a dirty look, but then he was so wrapped up in kissing his wife that any snappy comeback was momentarily forgotten. I smirked, then turned my attention back to my adorable fiancé.
“Speaking of masculine-the overalls look is totally hot.” She fingered the zipper at my throat sensually.
“Well, don’t I get a good-luck kiss too?” I asked. Before she could reply, I leaned down for my lady’s favor. It was always fun kissing a smiling Beth.
From the stands came catcalls, whistles, and shouts of annoyance. Our cheering section. Logan and Guillermo were the noisemakers, and Daryl the impatient one.
“Carrie and I didn’t come to watch a chick flick! Get in the blasted cars and show us some real action!”
He is joking. Take your time, mon aime. And be careful. This came straight from Carrie’s mind to ours.
Josef and I abruptly stopped kissing our ladies (it’s very disconcerting to be kissing one woman and have another’s voice in your head) and turned to the small crowd with a wave. I knew the final wagers were flying, but I wasn’t sure who exactly was betting on me. I looked over at Josef.
“You ready to eat my dust?” I asked with as much bravado as I could muster.
“It’ll never happen. Kiss your Jheri Curl goodbye too, and let’s get rollin’.”
Beth kissed me quickly once more on the cheek, shook her head in amused resignation, and went to join our friends on the bleachers. Simone was the designated flag girl, and as we donned our helmets and got into our cars, she stood between us at the starting line, her long hair whipping around her face, green flag at the ready. We both gunned our engines in adolescent displays of our driving prowess, and waited for the flag to drop. When it finally did, I felt a grin of exhilaration split my face as we peeled out and began the race. The small crowd cheered and Simone’s excited laugh carried us forward down the track.
The Auto Club Speedway’s sports car course snaked around two and a half miles with twenty-one turns, designed to test the skill and control of the driver. The first lap had me straining to get a feel for my car and the course beneath me, and my confidence waned a bit as I glanced over at Josef, who appeared to be completely at ease and thoroughly enjoying himself. We stayed neck and neck at first, and I had the sinking feeling he was just toying with me. The red Ferrari 458 roared past me as we began lap two, and I realized that play time was clearly over.
Lap three, and he was still ahead. “Had enough?” his voice crackled through the speaker in my helmet.
“Just getting warmed up,” I claimed, suddenly pouring on the speed and overtaking him. We turned a tight corner and nearly collided, but I quickly righted myself and kept the lead for the rest of the lap. As we passed Beth and the others, she was standing and cheering, and blew me a kiss as we sped by. Seeing her spurred me on, and we began lap four with me and the Lamborghini still in the lead.
“Had enough?” I threw Josef’s own words back at him.
“Nah. Just letting you get that winning feeling before I crush your confidence into the asphalt.”
I laughed. “Right. Don’t hold back, Josef. I think I can take it.”
“Okay. If you insist…”
That was the last time I saw his headlights. As we maneuvered the final lap, Josef gave it all he had, and I watched from a good distance the Ferrari speeding past Simone and her checkered flag.
“Shit.” I murmured, coasting to a stop. Josef’s victory howl threatened to burst my eardrums. I climbed out of the beautiful car and ripped off my helmet, glancing over to where Josef was receiving the accolades of our friends. I tried to avoid noticing whose money changed hands with whom. Beth wandered over to me and encased my heated body in a cool hug. She reached up and touched my hair.
“It’ll grow,” she said, a smile in her voice.
I chuckled. “It’s not the hair I regret. It’s hearing him gloat for the next six months.”
I walked back to Josef and the others, Beth’s shoulders beneath my arm. Josef turned to me, his face glowing so brightly you could steer a ship by it. I reached out a hand in acquiescence, and he shook it with more humility than I expected. My other friends grew quiet, wondering how hard I was going to take this. I almost laughed at Logan’s tense face. Good Lord, it was only hair.
“Good race, buddy,” Josef grinned. “You had me scared there for awhile. I hate bagged blood.”
“Congratulations, Josef. I will accede to your conditions. Name the time and place.”
“Hmmm…hadn’t really thought that far ahead,” replied Josef, and I knew from his expression he was lying out his ass.
Daryl laughed, touching his own crew cut that he’d worn since his Navy days. “You could use my barber.”
Logan came up to me and patted my shoulder consolingly. “I was so rooting for you, dude. I know just how you feel though. Stacy would kill me if I cut these silken locks of mine.”
“More like dump you,” said Guillermo. “That’s probably the best thing you got going for you.”
“Hey!”
It was the first time I really noticed that Logan and I had similar hairstyles. Suddenly, the idea of getting a haircut seemed like a good idea after all.
Carrie smiled at me warmly. Maybe you will like it better. Less care. And we’ll be able to see your handsome face much better.
“Alright,” I said, suddenly feeling like we were at a funeral. “I’m not dying, for God’s sake! Josef won fair and square. But that race was totally worth it. Did you see me out there? That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever driven.”
Beth looked up at me wickedly. She had such a dirty mind. I dropped a kiss on the top of her head and laughed. “Well, almost.”
Everyone was smiling and continued to rib me and each other. Plans were made to meet up at Daryl’s bar back in LA, and Josef asked for volunteers to drive the Lamborghini home. He immediately discounted Logan, but said Guillermo could, which left Logan pouting all the way back to the parking lot; he’d be driving back alone. Josef and Simone were about to get back into his Ferrari when his cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID with a grin and held his hand up for Beth and me to wait.
“This is Kostan,” he said into the phone.
JOSEF
I was ecstatic that I’d soundly beaten Mick in the race, but, to tell you the truth, it was really way too easy. I was a much more experienced high-speed driver than he was, and honestly, it was the best excuse I could think of to get back on the racetrack. I didn’t really give a shit what his hair looked like; it was just fun annoying him. And now, I’d have even more fun watching my best friend’s cherubic curls fall to the floor around him. When you have everything, you have to make your own entertainment.
The phone call came as a total surprise. It was John Deerling, caretaker of my house in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He and his wife, Diana, were also vampires, and lived there with their adopted vamp daughter, Lily. I’d known those people nearly a hundred years, and they were not only trusted employees, they were my very good friends. Eternally four-year-old Lily even called me Uncle Josef. That’s why I smiled when I saw who was calling.
“Hey, John!”
The voice on the phone, however, was unfamiliar to me. It sounded like an older woman, her accent vaguely Eastern European, though so faint she must have lived in the States for many years.
“Mr. Kostan, this is Antonia Korzha. I am young Lily’s nanny.”
If I still had a heart, I knew it would have stopped beating at that precise moment. There was definitely something terribly wrong with the tone of this woman’s voice.
“Yes…I remember them mentioning you. What is it? What’s wrong?” I asked, trying to sound calm. Simone put a hand on my arm, and Mick and Beth walked to stand by me and the Ferrari.
“Oh, Mr. Kostan. They’re dead! They’re both dead! Mr. and Mrs. Deerling!”
“What! Listen, lady, you’d better start from the beginning and don’t leave one fuckin’ thing out!”
The woman was obviously crying now, but she sniffled and began to explain. “They were expecting me to watch Lily tonight while they went out. When I got here, I found them, dead in their bedroom…their heads…oh God-the blood!”
“And Lily? Where the hell is Lily?” I hadn’t felt this scared in a long time, and I could feel myself starting to shake with rage.
“I found her hiding under her bed, totally untouched. She heard the bad men come in, she said. There was a lot of shouting, fighting, and then she heard her mother crying and screaming. Oh, God, the poor child must have heard everything! She’s beside herself, and keeps calling for her mama.”
My mind was racing. What to do? What to do? “Okay, Antonia, you take Lily to a hotel right now. Pack for several days. Don’t call the Cleaners, don’t tell anyone you’ve gone. Leave everything as it is. You call me back when you are settled. I’ll be out there in a few hours on my private jet.”
“I’m afraid, Mr. Kostan,” she said shakily. “Mrs. Deerling, she told me to call you if ever I had a problem and couldn’t reach them. But what if they come back? I’m afraid to go outside.”
I tried to make my voice sound composed now so the woman would calm down and not be so upset that she couldn’t think straight enough to take care of Lily. “If they were after Lily, they would have found her and done the same. They’re likely long gone, because whoever did this must know who the Deerlings worked for, whose house that is, and weren’t going to stick around to face me. You’re a vamp, right? You can protect Lily. I’m depending on you, Antonia, just like John and Diana did. You did right by calling me. Just do as I say, and you’ll be fine.”
“Alright, Mr. Kostan. I’ll protect Miss Lily with my life, I swear to God. I swear to you.”
“Good. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
I hung up the phone and speed dialed my pilot, giving him our flight plan. We’d leave within the hour.
My wife and friends looked as horror-struck as I felt, having obviously heard both sides of my intense conversation.
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered, closing my eyes as the fear and pain threatened to overwhelm me.
“I’m coming with you,” Mick said. “I’ll help you find the bastards who did this.”
“We’re all coming,” Simone stated. I pulled her into my arms and held her tightly, breathing in her comforting, familiar scent.
“When I catch who did this-“ I began.
“Get in line,” said Beth quietly, meeting my eyes with the determination I always admired in her. I looked around at my wife and friends, and couldn’t wait to get back to Tulsa.
Hang on, Lily, I thought desperately. Uncle Josef is coming.
A/N: Hope you like this set-up. It won’t be all angst, I promise. If you'd like to read more, please follow this link:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7021363/1/Uncle_Josef_A_Moonlight_Story