Being back to work was something Doctor Vheric had been looking forward to for a long time. He had previously began working at this very hospital but left suddenly, noting an extreme family crisis as its cause. He had seen few patients and had made fewer friends, but now that he was back in town it would be nice to alleviate the boredom and stress of nothing to do by jumping back into what he was good at and what he found joy in doing. But certain changes had happened while he was away, the hospital board had almost completely new members, so when he attempted to reapply for his previous position, he found resistance and blind authoritative bureaucracy. But being short staffed and over budgeted played well for the good doctor, he was let back on the staff on a probational period. And he had no intention of giving them any reason to doubt his commitment and passion for his job.

All the passion and dedication aside, Edward was a lycan, a were-panther to be precise, and that isn't exactly something that goes over well when your hands are half a foot deep into someone's chest. But he had hidden it well enough up until this point, but caution was the name of the game. And with the committee of bloodsuckers riding him like a tripple crown jockey there was no room for mistakes.

Edward started his day like anyone else would, a shower, to much coffee that would be considered healthy, and a sparse meal consisting of more grease then what was needed. 'Hey I'm a doctor, I tell people all day long to be healthy and eat right, I'm not about to go home and pull the same crap on myself, besides, not like I'm going to get heart disease after all'. Cynical and sarcastic, just about every sentence that came out of his mouth was. Unless there were those serious times, like trying to tell someone that there daughter had just died on his table, was kind of hard to think of a joke at moments like those.

But on this morning, doctor Vheric was having to explain a different kind of situation to the parents of one of his younger patients. Edward sat at his desk, hands folded a crossed the firm dark wood top, staring blankly at the three people seated in front of him, a mother, large red hair, and an even larger red face, and a father, hands slipped over his face to cover his appearant shame, and a sixteen year old kind, sitting like nothing in the world could possibly be wrong.

"I'm sorry could you possibly run that by me one more time?" doctor Vheric begged, his face slouching into one of surprise and confusion.

"Its like an ant-eater, I want it gone, I'm tired of getting teased by girls every time I whip it out, I mean, there's no way I'm getting any kind of head with this thing." the boy remarked again, same nonchalant attitude as when he last said it.

Edward sat back in his seat, trying to hold back the laugh that was beating up out of his chest. Taking a few moments to calm himself he opened up his appointment book, smiling from ear to ear. "I'm one hundred percent booked up until the middle of next month, if you want I can pencil you in then." he said, lifting a pen from his pocket.

"That's fine" both the boys parents chimed in, standing up quickly. They clearly wanted to be done with this situation and meeting and Edward couldn't exactly blame them. But the boy didn't seem to agree, but whats done is done. When they parted ways He very quickly shut his door and erupted into a fit of school boy laughter, the kind of laugh where you double over some and put one hand on a chair or desk to steady yourself.

Good times had by all in his opinion. It was getting that time of his colorful day to do his rounds, and for the first time in a long time, he was nervous about it. He thought he would just jump back on the horse and still know how to ride, but now that he was back to this point, he couldn't help but feel a little withdrawn. Maybe even scared to a certain degree. But it was his job, and he wanted to do it. He ran his fingers over his lips repeatedly, walking down the long white corridors of the small hospital, a clipboard folded beneath his right arm, and a file opened, nose buried deep inside of it.

Terrance "Terry" Marco animator, former marine, occasional waiter, scourge of the local rat population was having a migraine. His purple bangs were hanging loosely over his eyes, while his reading glasses along with a silver cross hung around his neck.

Ever since he moved to Miami his migraines were getting worse. Usually they were his sign to go and raise something and spare his neighbors of animated fly's, rats, and other vermin. But this was somehow different.

He passed a couple with kid; the youth was probably around sixteen or seventeen. The mother shot him a fleeting glance, probably disapproving his hair color. The father seemed to busy lecturing the kid about something. He did manage to make out the words "Penis" and "Embarrassing" before they disappeared behind a corner.

Then it hit him again. As if someone took a sledge hammer to his brain, his skin felt as if it tried to crawl off him sending chills down his spine. That explained it. Somebody was raising something.

The only thing that seemed to be strange was that he was standing in near vicinity of the animating in other words somebody was busy in the hospital. The sense of the dead washed over him again forcing him to lean against the wall as sweat drops formed on his forehead.
Footsteps startled him causing him to jump. He bumped into somebody causing him to trip, he remembered grabbing onto the sleeve of the individual and the image of paper flying around as he tumbled towards the floor.

"Yes Richard I can handle showing someone new around" Adriana admitted to her boss. Richard smirked at her, "Well we all know what happened to-" He didn't even get to finish before Adriana was glaring at him. If looks could kill, Rich would be a dead man right now. She clenched her teeth, she didn't need to be reminded of one of her first days on the job and dragging around Harrison. Through clenched teeth she tried to control her temper, "And he should have listened to me or he wouldn't have ended up dead."

He put up his hands in mock surrender and let out a chuckle "Easy Adi, this guy is only in town for a week or so and its his last night, a business trip from LA to learn a bit more of what we are doing here down south. Just show him around and all will be dandy." Adriana hated when he used her nickname, usually reserved for Gabriel's use and her friends. "Can do" she said as she turned to leave the office.

Rich wasn't such a bad guy, he just enjoyed bringing up things that should stay in the past. Determined to not let him ruined her day, she walked to her office and awaited Mick Anderson. She only had one file on her desk, so there wasn't much to show him on the 'zombie raising front' but she could give him a tour of the town at least.

A rap on the door brought her from looking at the file, another disputed will, but this one had a bit of flavor to it. Apparently the wife and mistress didn't agree. Imagine that she thought but put it aside and with a loud enough "Come in" for the person on the other side to hear as she straightened the various office supplies on her desk. Perfectionist? Sometimes.

"You must be Adriana" a smooth voice from the newly opened door cooed. "I am, you are Mick I assume?" He nodded. He was a typical West coaster. Tall, blonde, too tan. At least the people in Miami looked natural, this guy was bordering on orange. "Nice to meet you. Since the sun has almost gone down, if you would like we can head straight out and get down to business. She could feel his eyes studying her and she put more emphasis on business than was needed.

He nodded and she grabbed the file, happy to be out of her office and into the salty night air that came with living so close to the warm ocean. "My car is parked right over there..." she pointed and began digging into her purse for her keys. She heard a small muffled "Women" from behind her and used all her willpower not to turn around and smack him one. He was the arrogant kind of guy that just didn't quite pull it off to be charming and instead came off as an ass.

They climbed inside her car and she took the time to point out a few sights. They arrived at the cemetery not a moment to soon for Adriana. She smiled and laughed at his jokes and secretly prayed for him to get bored and leave. Or jump out of the moving vehicle...she had a dark side, who knew?

She instructed Mick to wait outside the circle near the widow and mistress with their lawyers too. The raising was going well up to the point where she cut her wrist to offer her blood. She swept the knife at a wrong angle and cut a lot deeper than she should have. Keeping it all inside until after the business was concluded, she gritted her teeth and bore it until they were satisfied. The wound was still running freely when she put him back in the ground. Not good.

She wrapped a paper towel around her arm to add some pressure and bit her lip in order to not make a cry of pain as she did. "So" she forcebly grinned and tried to look happy. "How was it?" He looked back at the grave and then back to her. "Well it looks like there are a lot of people to make a buck off of in ol' LA. I thought Rich was off his rocker, but you guys are gen - u - ine" he whistled. "Thanks Miss Raggio. I will hop a cab back to my hotel." Adriana hoped she hadn't looked too pleased when he said that, but said goodbye and climbed in the car to head off to the hospital. "At least it was on a slow night" she said trying to not get blood over her black slacks and white shirt.

Walking into the hospital she went up to the counter and asked for Justice, and to her surprise, she wan't employed there anymore. "Great the only Nurse or Doctor I know doesn't work here anymore." she muttered. "Well I think this is pretty urgent, I have lost a lot of blood and took my time getting here..." The nurse just shook her head "Sally" the nurse said "please take this young lady to a room."

Adriana smiled appreciation and felt a little light headed. The wound was still bleeding. "Just great" she muttered. Nothing like putting yourself in the hospital for stupidities sake. "The doctor will be right with you" the nurse said after giving her a more suitable temporary bandage. She had not succeeded in keeping her white blouse from getting blood on it and she wondered how much bleach it was going to take for it to be white again.

The room spun quickly around and he found himself laying on his chest, his hands and feet spread like a starfish as he caught himself roughly on the smooth tile floor. Pushing himself up quickly he was just in time to see the last piece of paper hit the ground, his eyes furrowed and he glared at the young man who bumped into him. Reaching down he grabbed the man under the arm and lifted him to his feet, leaning him against the wall he brushed himself off and proceeded to stare, in a word, fumingly, into his face, not bothering to speak, maybe the glare would get the idea a crossed if not, he was sure he could come up with something to utter here and there.

Walking back a step or two he bent at the knees and began to scoop up the loose and now scattered papers of one of his patient files. After a few moments of uninterrupted cleaning, something which he noted was not in his job description, he stood tall and strode down the hall again, "Check in, is DOWN the hall, try not to bump into someone carrying a large box of scalpels, wouldn't want you to trip fall and ruin those good looks of yours" he turned the corner just as his final words left his lips. "Just what I need, circus folk bumping into me every two minutes, least he wasn't shouting about how much he hated his penis."

He got a snicker from a nurse that pulled up beside him, taking the now jumbled file from beneath his arm and handing him a new one, a slightly lighter one, which was either A ) A terrific sign of things to come, or B ) Jenny-B surfer girl just found a new and interesting place to store her surf board and it was Edwards job to remove it.

He stopped and took a few glances over the top sheet. "This is just simple stitching, get Doctor Yamaha or one of the interns to do it." he pressed the file back into the chest of the nurse only to have it pushed back into his. The snotty little thing gave the sweetest of replies, "If you think I haven't tried then your the dumbest smart guy here doc." And now even the nurses are uppity. God bless medicine.

He quickly swooned into the room, trying to speak quickly without interruption, he hated walking in and being berated by people who seem to know how to do his job alot better then he did, and yet he was the one always fixing things, imagine that. "Hi Adriana, I'm Doctor Vheric I'm gonna be looking you over a bit real fast if that's Ok with you." of course he didn't wait for an answer, slipping on a pair of latex gloves he snapped them on each wrist and stepped over to the uncomfortable bedside where the young lady sat. He lifted up her arm a bit forcefully and stared down at the bandaged wound. "Suicide is not the way, and besides swallowing a bottle of tylenal is a much cleaner way to do it, think of the maids of the world." he slipped the bandage upward some, just enough to expose the cut and watched as a single thick red stream slipped down the cut and into her palm. "yummy, kitchen knife or piece of glass?"

As with most cuts he saw he had the vaguest inclination to lift it to his lips and lick it, he learned a few months ago about most larger cats habits and instincts about wounds, hunting, those sorts of things, and licking wounds was a good way of keeping infection at bay, unfortunately if some sorority girl skinned her knees by trying to get her grades up with her professor and he was licking them well, he might now have his job for to long.

He slipped off one of his gloves and wrapped his hand around her throat, his eyes turned up to the ceiling as he counted the rythemic thumps and bumps of her heart, it was a mock practice he still had to do, simply hearing her heart beat without checking it wouldn't make much sense if he was caught, better safe then sorry after all.

There was a crash and Adriana felt the cold power that reminded her of her own. If she wasn't bleeding so much she would have walked out of the door to see what had happened. Maybe after she got stitched up. She was still peering forward to see if she could identify who belonged to the power when the doctor came in.

He had the hum of energy of a lycan and smiled up at him. The smile soon dissipated as he didn't even wait for an answer. She knew he didn't need to hear a simple yes to him taking a look at her arm, but at least it would have been polite. She closed her mouth seeing that he wasn't going to listen to her answer anyway. "It wasn't suicide" she resisted the urge to pull her arm away from him and tried not to glare. "It was an accident. I was working thank you very much" she said curtly before his hand was up and taking her pulse. "It was a scythe. I raise zombies and need my blood for it. I was a little distracted and cut too deep."

There was no reason for her to have to explain herself, but she was on the defense as soon as he made the assumption that she would take her own life. "Plus thats the unforgivable sin" she added as if it would erase every doubt in his mind that she would even consider it. "Did you know Justice? She was a nurse...like you..." she regretted not being able to see her more often and now she had up and moved. Hind sight is 20/20 right? Even though Doctor Vheric didn't seem very personable, it was in Adi's nature to try and be conversational. Plus if she got out of here quick enough she could follow the power she had felt from outside the room and meet a fellow necromancer.

He sat down leaning against the cold wall. His shirt was soaking wet, form his sweat. But at least his headaches stooped. He didn’t mean to bump into the guy, doctor or whoever he was but he had accidentally. He was only grateful that he wasn’t his patient then if all of them got a death-glare like that.

It took him a moment to notice that who ever was performing the ritual had stopped. He or she had probably completed the ritual and moved on. Good this gave him some time to catch a breather. He usually wasn’t this sensitive to the necromancy of others but he had overexerted himself recently and that made him to things, weak and susceptible. He took a long breath.

As his head cleared he noticed the residue. Whoever it was that had performed the raising was near, probably on the same floor. He stood up and walked towards the part of the hospital that took care of emergency patients. The residue of energy was getting stronger. Heck he was probably standing only a few feet away.

He had to confess that he felt curios about this other necromancer it wasn’t every day that he met one. But with all this commotion, nurses running around, people getting bleeding etc. it would make locating that person problematic.

Slipping onto the small sitting stool that all doctors seemed to have, he wrote down afew notes onto her chart, nodding from side to side as she spoke, a nurse popped in with a tiny knock, a bubbly little frat girl doing her internship, Edward frowned and felt his stomach turn, it wasn't the frat aspect of the nurse that upset him, but her general attitude toward medicine, she hated doing real work and was more here just to meet and marry some surgeon, stepping up and in front of the nurse he took the sewing supplies from her hands and gave her a shove back out the door wordlessly. "Look I'm glad you found Jesus and everything miss Raggio but still, dont lie to me, even if you were a 'zombie raiser' slicing your arm like that would be a far to dangerous and stupid way to draw the necessary amount of blood." he quickly sat back down and slid over to her in one smooth motion, parting her legs and slipping in close to her body.

Clearing his throat he removed the bandage partially, the bleeding was slowing but only because most of her blood had hardened into a mock scab, this was a healthy response, meant she didn't knick any arteries. "Looks like I'm going to be sewing you shut." he got his tools ready, and made sure to keep his eyes from hers, if she was a necromancer, which he was pretty sure she was, he didn't need her to get onto his lil secret. Best keep her talking eh? "And unforgivable sin? People die and get scooped up by god and you snatch em back for afew hours, and you don't think that would get the big invisible man in the sky abit peeved? I mean, if I had to choose which sin I commit, I would take my chances with the slitting of my wrists"

Usually Adriana wouldn't have been so agitated by just one person, she would try and be friendly but she was hurt and so she was not feeling very happy go lucky right now. "Look I was a little distracted and the knife slipped" she said her tone becoming heated though not raised so she didn't grab any more attention. "I didn't mean to cut so deep." Adriana gave out a huff and then rolled her eyes "I don't need to prove myself to you" she spat.

He scooted closer to her and removed the bandage. She had finally stopped bleeding, Yay she thought. "I don't bring back the soul, its impossible. I bring their body and part of their mind so technically I am not taking anything from God" she sounded defensive even to herself. She turned her gaze away as he got the tools ready for her stitches. "You didn't answer my question. The nurse I had seen before she was like you." Adriana went out on a limb and lowered her voice to just above a whisper leaning in toward him. "Are you...a cat person too?" She knew enough lycans to know being in this field wasn't very accepted so anyone who could have heard her could assume she was asking if he liked kitty cats instead. She was smarter than she looked...sometimes.

Her thoughts went back to the thread of power she felt in the hallway. It was a chance, but she extended a tendril of power out to find the source of what had hit her. "Is this going to take very long?" It was rude and impatient, but she was very curious about another necromancer in town.