[BadWolf & Echoedlove]

[EchoedLove]

Blaise Carmichael made his way slowly into the large building, readjusting the suit that he put on in the early morning that day. It was rather uncomfortable since at his old job he didn't usually wear one. That was before he had been promoted and then asked for a transfer. He was getting tired of living in the same area and seeing the same things everyday. Blaise was definitely in need of a change of scenery. He was finally a*Lieutenant and was starting his new rank at another branch.*

He was greeted by a young woman who was obviously also a vampire based on the red eyes. After explaining why he was there and who he was, the young woman lead him farther in the room and towards where more people were moving around, going in and out of rooms quickly. "I'm going to hand you over to Mr. Mathews," the woman said nicely as she introduced him to another vampire. He looked to be in his twenties, just like Blaise, but the new vampire knew he was probably much older. "Hello Mr. Carmichael. If you follow me this way," he said motioning Blaise in one direction. He showed him to his office and told him everything he would need to know. "You're partners name is Atticus Trancy," he added before saying goodbye and heading out of the small room.*

It was strange to think of how Blaise had ended up in the position he was in. About 40 years ago he had been bitten by a vampire who was obviously in need of some fresh blood. When he had first came to, he was pissed and couldn't believe what was happening to him. This was the shit from stories. It wasn't supposed to really happen. As he worked to figure out how to live his life, he met some people who were very willing to help him. As vampires and werewolves started to come out, he was finally beginning to accept his fate and that this wouldn't change. He joined into the force to feel like he was still making a difference in people's lives. Protecting them. He set some of his stuff down and looked around the small space he was now stuck in.*

[Bad Wolf]

The night had started off like any other for Atticus Trancy, Sergeant of the local police department. He'd awoken in the basement of his home, where he'd set up his bedroom free from any chance of being caught in sunlight. His breakfast had consisted of some bagged blood--vampire blood, obtained through means he'd never discuss with his coworkers--and he'd dressed in his usual style of a button-down shirt and black pants before driving in to work for the night. Night shifts were the norm for ones such as him, but there were some vampires who worked during the day. They just had to wear those funny-looking protective suits that he'd never be caught dead in. They looked so...tacky. He couldn't imagine trying to fight in one of those.

Upon parking in his usual spot in the parking garage next to the police building, he slid out of his car to head inside. The woman at the front desk was human, and she gave him a small nod of greeting as he entered. He returned it with a smile, and he continued past her in the direction of his tiny office. He'd been on the force long enough to have one, even when sergeants usually didn't have private offices.

He'd been expecting his office to be empty, but this evening it appeared that something was quite amiss. There was another man in there. New, considering that Atticus had never seen him before in his life. His heterochromatic eyes narrowed slightly in confusion, and he slid open the door before stepping inside.

"Can I help you?" he asked tentatively. He hadn't been informed that there would be a new person around the department tonight, and he certainly hadn't been told that this new person was to be his partner. That information would come as quite the surprise to him. Quite the unpleasant surprise. His previous partner, though, had been a human. The woman had been murdered on the job a few weeks ago by a werewolf they'd been trying to arrest. Atticus still blamed himself for her death, but he'd never brought up his feelings of guilt. Everyone had already assured him that it wasn't his fault. It was his prerogative to not believe them.

[EchoedLove]

Blaise slid off the restricting black jacket that matched the dress pants that he was wearing. He ended up just being in a white shirt with a dark red tie and black dress pants. It was a lot more comfortable and he didn't think that he would have to worry about anyone showing up in his office anytime soon. He expected that he was going to be alone until they got a partner for him. It was a shock when suddenly the door was being opened to the room. Blaise turned to check and see who was coming in to the room now, he had planned for it to be the same man who had shown him into his room. Strangely it wasn't the man that had brought him to the room, nor was it the woman from earlier either, but another man that he was sure he hadn't met yet.

He tilted his head at the questioning tone and furrowed his eyebrows down. Glancing to the other desk in the room he realized that there was stuff on the desk, that he had just overlooked in his daydreaming. "I'm Blaise. Blaise Carmichael. Are you the one that the other desk belongs too?" he asked as he pointed over to the desk in question. He put out his hand towards the other male. If he was going to start working with him, then Blaise figured it would be best not to start off by being hostile. Although, he was always a little suspicious of his partners when just meeting them. He had previously been working with another vampire, but when he got the promotion they informed him that he would have to switch partners. Since this seemed like the perfect time to just switch branches Blaise decided that he could switch. Either way he would have to work with someone new.

[Bad Wolf]

Atticus was giving this newcomer a once-over, scrutinizing him with those odd eyes of his. He knew that his family's eyes were unique among vampires. It wasn't a trait of natural-born vampires. He'd never met another natural-born vampire--or, God forbid, a former human--with eyes like his. Not unless they shared the blood of his father's side of the family.

"Yes, that's mine," he answered, striding over to the desk in question. He sat down behind it, continuing to gaze at Blaise with a slight hostility. "And I'm Atticus Trancy, in case you didn't notice the cards." There was a stack of business cards on his desk, with his name printed very obviously on them. Along with his rank of sergeant.

He pulled out a file from his desk. It was a case he was currently working on, involving a gang of werewolves that had been causing some trouble in recent months. The werewolf that had murdered his former partner had been a member of that gang. They'd found out about the gang's activities from that werewolf, in fact. The chief had tried to get him off the case considering that his partner's death was a part of it, but Atticus had refused. He wasn't going to let that gang to unpunished. Besides, he had other lives to save. He wasn't going to just pass this case off to someone else. He needed to see it through to the end.

"Were your parents vampires?" he asked. It was a typical question of his whenever he met another vampire. Unless he was trying to arrest them, or otherwise didn't care about their heritage. With his work partners, though, he preferred to know how pure their blood was. There were no other natural-born vampires in the department, and he was hoping he'd finally have someone else on his higher level of importance. If Blaise was one of the other pieces of trash around here, Atticus might very well get the man kicked out of his office. How dare the chief give that deceased partner's old desk to a lesser vampire?

[EchoedLove]

Blaise glanced at the business cards that were pointed out to him on the others desk. He hadn't been paying much attention to what was in the room. It made him feel rather stupid that he hadn't noticed any of that before. When he had first arrived he had expected it to take a little before he would have a partner. Something must have happened for this guy to be free so quickly and able to be his partner. It almost made him worried that he was ending up with someone who had obviously come from just having a previous partner.

Going to sit down, Blaise tried to readjusted his tie that had been slightly off center in his excitement to get rid of the annoying jacket that he had been wearing previously. He fell back into his chair and rested his hand in his palm with his elbow against the desk. His head tilted to the side as Atticus asked about his parents. His eyes were just a light red which he didn't think was all too different from other vampires. His new partner though, his eyes were so much different. Blaise had never seen someone with eyes like his. "My parents? What do they have to do with anything?" he asked somewhat suspiciously. "But to answer your question, no they weren't," he said confidently. He hadn't been embarrassed about being turned for a long time. It used to bother him a lot and he would try and avoid the question for as long as he could.

[Bad Wolf]

Atticus rolled his eyes at Blaise's reply, clearly not liking it at all. Without a word to the other vampire, he stood and made his way out of their now-shared office. He was going to have a little chat with the chief. This needed to be rectified. Didn't the man know by now that Atticus didn't partner with vampires who were not natural-borns? The chief himself wasn't a vampire, and therefore he was not subject to Atticus's well-known racism. That being said, the chief often told him to can it when dealing with other cops. This, however, was not going to stand. Just what was the chief playing at this time?

His talk with the chief was short and very irritating. The end result was Atticus slinking back into the office, looking irritated and tense. The chief had told him to suck it up and deal with it. Furthermore, this new partner of his was of a higher rank than him. That really pissed Atticus off, and he wouldn't even look at Blaise as he sat back down at his desk, defeated.

[EchoedLove]

Blaise blinked somewhat confused as Atticus stood without a word and walked out of their office. He knew from the moment that the question came out about his parents that it wasn't going to be a good response that he got from the other male. No one asked about someone's bloodline without having a motive. He waited patiently starting to look through the drawers and decide on where he would put all of his things. Grabbing his things that he had brought in here, Blaise began to put them away in the drawers that he decided to keep everything in. Well whatever was going on with his new partner he knew that he was not about to move offices and this had better be his desk after he put everything away.

He was still working on putting the last few things away that he would need like pens and pencils into the drawer right above his chair when Atticus decided to come back in. He gave him a quizzical look as he looked so tense and didn't say a word to him. He wasn't sure whether to be offended or to laugh at the actions of the vampire. "What's wrong, partner?" he asked putting emphasis on the last word. "You took off before I could ask about your parents? Are they vampires?" he questioned. He continued to watch his new partner as he let his lips tug up into a smirk. He knew that changing branches would be fun. Standing up he moved to take one of the business cards off the desk and raised an eyebrow as his eyes landed on the word "sergeant". "You're only a sergeant?"

[Bad Wolf]

Atticus was less-than-pleased with the attitude that his new partner was showing. Not only was he of a higher rank than Atticus, but he seemed to want to lord it over him, too. That was going to make things miserable for Atticus. More so than they were already going to be, considering that he had to work alongside a lesser being.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, they are," he answered haughtily, trying to take back the authority that he felt had been stolen from him. "My family has consisted of nothing but vampires for generations. I am of a line that is as close to pure as one can get." He sounded very proud of his heritage, and he definitely looked down on those of what he considered to be lesser blood. He left the matter of his rank unremarked upon. Obviously he was a sergeant. The card said so.

[EchoedLove]

Blaise almost laughed at the tone that Atticus took on while he was talking about his family, it was barely choked back and was probably still distinguishable as the beginnings of a laugh. This was obviously one of those "pure blood" vampires who considered themselves greater than others. Atticus had it right when he was saying that he was the closest one could come to being pure blood, because no vampire actually was these days. At least none that Blaise knew of anyway. He took a step back from Atticus's desk after dropping the card back onto his desk.

"Is that any way to talk to your superior?" Blaise asked cockily. If this other vampire was going to hold something, that Blaise honestly couldn't care less about, then he should expect him to hold their ranks over each other. "Also, somewhere along your line someone wasn't born a vampire. You said so yourself, so what really makes you any better?" he asked as he went back to sit at his desk. Giving a big sigh, Blaise shook his head and looked back to his new partner. "I think we started off wrong." Your fault, he added in his head. "I won't hold my rank over you if you stop acting like being pure blood actually matters."

[Bad Wolf]

Atticus was greatly angered by Blaise's flippant attitude toward his family history. His hands clenched into tight fists on his lap, and he was sorely tempted to punch the hell out of this man. Doing so would only result in legal troubles, though, so Atticus forced himself to keep still and moderately calm. Even when he'd love to strangle Blaise.

"I'm better than you because the human blood in my family is so distant that it doesn't matter anymore," he hissed. "It might as well not exist. You cannot say the same!" It went without saying that he wasn't going to drop the pureblood thing. It was something of very great worth to him, and asking him to put it aside was like asking him to cut off his own hand. It wasn't going to happen.