Disclaimer: I do not own Moonlight

Irresistible Fate

Prologue: The Witches

"Shit!" Mona winced as a green glass bottle smashed against the wall. Her sister's cursing made her let out a deep sigh. Apparently there hadn't been any satisfying results.

"Is all that really necessary?" she asked. Andy glared over her shoulder at her calm older sister reclining on the motel bed. They could have passed for twins except Andy was taller and her nose was less pointed. They both had shoulder length brown hair and blue eyes. Well, Mona used to have blue eyes.

"It makes me feel better." Andy turned her resentful gaze back on the glass and made a brief gesture. The broken pieces turned to smoke, gradually moving out the open window.

"I'd prefer you didn't use magic frivolously. We need to conserve, remember?" Mona fumbled a little as she reached for the glass on the bedside table. "Here," she said, holding it out to her sister. "Try again."

"There's no point," Andy snapped. "I'm useless at scrying. You have the better eyes." A tense silence fell over both sisters as the meaning of those words sank in. Mona raised her hand and waved it in front of her face. The blackness that made up her world remained. No change.

"I used to have the better eyes," she murmured. "But it's not just about vision, it's about patience."

"Another thing I don't have." Andy sat on the end of the bed, her temper cooling. One look at her sister's white, blind eyes worked wonders on her impulsive nature. "Mom would be ashamed of me."

"Don't be ridiculous," Mona said, sitting up straighter. "You've tried your best. I just hoped…"

"Hoped I wouldn't be useless," Andy put in.

"Hoped we might get lucky," she corrected, frowning at her sister's defeated tone. "Still, we aren't out of options."

"Oh, aren't we? I can't scry for her, we can't sense her magic because of all the New Age practitioners clogging up the works and we haven't been able to find her on the street for months. How are we not out of options?"

"We'll just have to do it the old fashioned way," Mona said. "Detective work. We need to find out exactly what she wants. It follows that if we get to what she wants, we'll find her."

"We know what Naomi wants," Andy pointed out. "More time."

"That's true but I think there's more to it than that." Mona chewed her bottom lip as she thought. "After all, we're in Los Angeles. This place is bristling with vampires. She could have picked one of them out when she first came here, scammed them and taken what she wanted."

"I think I'm starting to get your point," Andy said, her expression of doom lightening. "There are a few hundred vamps living in this city. Why didn't Naomi snatch one?"

"Maybe she wants more than just a few decades to burn. The majority of the vampires here aren't very old. I'd be surprised if there were twelve over one hundred years." Mona got off the bed, cautiously touching the bedside table to make sure she wouldn't bang into it again. It was more difficult to pace these days but it was still the best way for her to think.

"So she wants an old vampire. Don't they move around a lot? How can she be sure there's one in L.A.?" she asked, watching Mona's precise steps. She'd memorized the steps she needed to take in order to maneuver around the room. It was good that she was adapting but at the same time it hurt. Andy didn't want her sister to have to learn to live with a disability. She wanted it gone. To do that, they needed to track down Naomi and stop her from hurting anyone else.

"There's probably one that's made this his home for more than ten years, even if his presence wasn't felt during all that time. Naomi's wretched but she knows the smell of death. It wouldn't be too difficult for her to find an older vampire."

"What's taken her so long to get him, then?"

"Think about it, Andy. An older vampire isn't as foolish as a young one. Naomi would need a different plan. That would take time and research. She loves to toy with her prey and she wouldn't break her pattern just because she had a coven of witches on her trail." Andy thought about that for a minute.

"She'd need to know his weakness," she murmured. "Six months ago when there was that power surge in the hospital but we couldn't find Naomi, do you think she's granted him a favor he doesn't really want?" Mona paused.

"You're going to have to explain the logic there."

"Well, what would Naomi be doing in a hospital? It has to be connected to this vampire's weakness," Andy pointed out. Her sister grinned.

"That's perfect. So we have Naomi at a hospital, probably taking the next step in her little game to reel her vampire in."

"And since vampires don't usually frequent hospitals, this has to connect to a human," Andy said, getting excited. They were finally making progress. Mona nodded slightly.

"The problem is, we can theorize all we like but we don't know anything concrete." She sighed. "I think we need help."

"What kind of help? It's not as if we can go to the police with all this," Andy protested. The idea was laughable. They'd either be locked up for drunkenness or sent to an insane asylum. Neither prospect was appealing.

"No, not the police," she murmured. "We need to keep this much quieter than that. Can't have the general populace knowing that an evil witch roams the streets." Andy ran her tongue along the edge of her teeth, thinking it over. Then she smirked.

"I guess we'll be needing a private investigator."