The City of Rain
Title: The City of Rain
Fandom: Blood Ties
Category: Slash. Mike/Henry; TVverse
Spoiler: for the last episode (Deep Dark?)
Wordcount: 6,820
Summary: “If I can’t have her, she can’t have you, either,”
ETA: Now beta-read by luvinmike. Thank you!
Disclaimer: Not only Blood Ties and Mike and Henry aren't mine. The Sentinel and the City of Cascade, Simon Banks and Jim Ellison, Forever Knight and Natalie Lambert aren't mine either.
A/N: I used characters from other series in this, Jim Ellison and Simon Banks from ‘The Sentinel’ and Natalie Lambert from ‘Forever Knight’. I still wouldn’t call it a cross over. They are just guest stars. I made Henry relocate to Cascade instead of Vancouver, and relocated Cascade to Canada. So now Cascade is a fictitious city in Canada, instead of the States. While researching for this story, I found out that Christina Cox played Jeanne d’Arc in an episode of ‘Forever Knight’. That’s actually where I knew her face from! I loved that episode. There is also a Canadian ghost town that was called the City of Cascade. It’s fascinating, what you can find on Wikipedia. Now I’m posting this and going to sleep. Crap, it’s 5 am again.
1.
Henry had packed his last bags, burned his bridges, told his editor he was taking a hiatus, said goodbye to his friends. There was just one thing left to do.
One cold winter evening he followed Crowley home from work. It was really the easiest way to find out where she lived. He waited until she had sent her nanny away and put her daughter to bed. Since he had learned from Vicki the art of lock picking, he let himself into her house. He found Crowley in the kitchen, putting butter on a bagel, a weirdly domestic scene. He wasn’t quite sure what he had expected from Celluci’s alleged harridan of a boss. She saw him, gasped, and sent one half of the bagel flying.
He raised his hands to show he was unarmed. “Calm.” He said.
She calmed down and stared vacantly into space. Henry was glad that she was susceptible to his suggestion. The situation might have become uncomfortable otherwise. He walked around her kitchen counter until he stood beside her. “You will give Detective Celluci his job back. He is an excellent detective. You know that.” Then he paused, an idea in mind. It would be a petty and utterly despicable thing to do. He continued his way around the counter, thinking. “You do not like him however,” he spoke slowly. “Would it be possible to get him transferred to Cascade, BC?”
“Yes,” answered Crowley, “maybe on an officer exchange program. But it would be very hard to do, a lot of legwork and convincing.”
“Do it,” Henry said. “And only give Celluci his badge back if he agrees to the transfer. You will not remember this conversation.” He left the house, too fast for human eyes to see, and took a walk under the cold night sky.
2. Three months later
Mike was bored, bored, bored and depressed. After two months in Toronto doing nothing, he could only take so much rest and relaxation. He’d tried to go sightseeing in Cascade in his first week in the new city and to unpack what little he’d brought from Toronto with him, but he frequently just stayed on his couch, and the boxes unfortunately refused to unpack themselves.
He had almost not taken the job. He’d had to decide between his city and a badge. He could have worked with Vicki - but whom was he kidding? He loved Vicki, but he didn’t really want to work her weird cases with her, especially if she was still pining after her vampire. And he would take a normal homicide or kidnapping over exorcism any day of the week. Exorcism was for priests, not cops. More often than not, Vicki was the anvil that was tied to his ankle and pulled him under.
The next day he knocked on the door of Simon Banks, his new boss, Captain of the Major Crimes unit in Cascade. The Captain opened the door and greeted him politely. “Welcome to Cascade, Detective. Captain Crowley had only nice things to say about you,” Banks said.
Mike was taken aback for a moment. “Really?”
Banks chuckled. “Well, she did say you had strange working habits, consorted with Pis, and attracted - how did she put it? - unusual cases.”
Mike looked sheepish. “Guilty as charged.”
Banks smiled broadly, his gold-rimmed glasses gleamed in the dim light of his office. “Don’t worry, Detective. I have just the person to partner you with. I have to warn you though. He lost his partner eight years ago and since then he’s had slight problems adjusting to new ones. He’s been going through partners as if they were t-shirts.”
“I see.”
Banks smiled again. “This is not supposed to be some sort of hazing,” he clarified. “I really think you two might get along well. I just want you to try for a while, and look over his odd idiosyncrasies. If it really doesn’t work out …” he shrugged.
“Okay.” Now Mike was curious.
Banks handed him his new gun and badge. Mike couldn’t help but feel a little giddy, holding a badge in his hand again for the first time in over three months.
“Ellison!!” Banks bellowed. Mike twitched and almost covered his ears. The man who stepped into the office was around 1.85 metres tall, balding, around 50, but in excellent shape and had laser blue eyes. His expression was sullen and distrustful.
“Ellison, this is Detective Mike Celluci from Toronto. Celluci, this is Jim Ellison,“ Banks introduced them.
Ellison looked Mike over before shaking hands.
“I trust that you’ll introduce the Detective to everything and work well together, Ellison. Now off you go! Catch me some criminals.”
Mike followed the other man out of the office. “So, what do we do first?”
“You’re done with all of your paperwork, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then we’re going to the morgue.”
Mike spent the next three weeks with blessedly normal detective work. They cleaned up most of Ellison’s caseload together. Ellison could be strangely intense, bordering on obsessed. More often than not he had the temper of a wild beast with a sore paw, but Mike had learned early that a box of donuts would work wonders on the mood of the other man. And if he seemed a little strange sometimes and kept some secrets for himself, Mike didn’t call him on it. And Ellison returned the favor. He never asked Mike why he had fallen out with his boss back in Toronto or why he was sometimes brooding over beer and Chinese food. The other detectives of Major Crimes Mike worked with from time to time seemed strangely tolerant as well. Mike wondered about them, especially the Captain. Sometimes he thought they were sharing some kind of secret, a hushed conversation in the break room here, people sneaking out of the squad room on strange and unspecified assignments there. But he never asked any questions. He figured he would find out eventually or maybe even go back to Toronto and it wouldn’t be important anymore.
***
It rained all the time in Cascade. If you had to walk any distance, you got wet. It was cold, too. But Mike liked it, people hushing along the streets, not because they were in a hurry to get somewhere, but because they were in a hurry to get out of the rain. There was a difference. He loved the streets gleaming with water, especially at night, when they reflected the lights of the city. He still loved the perpetual rain after three weeks. Maybe he wouldn’t anymore after three months, but Ellison assured him that sometimes it didn’t rain.
The rain could be hard on crime scenes, though. It tended to wash away any evidence. It was one such rainy crime scene where Mike’s lucky normal cases streak ended. Dr. Lambert turned the victim’s head to the side with a gloved hand and there they were, four neat puncture wounds. Mike cursed. Ellison looked at him strangely. Then he proceeded to scan the walls and surrounding buildings as if looking for something, as if he had scented something on the air.
Later they went to see Dr. Lambert in the morgue. Mike had already met her a few times and liked her. She was, like him, a refugee from Toronto. She’d been in Cascade for eleven years and was an excellent coroner, even if she lacked Rajani’s sense of black humour. She was currently standing over a body performing an autopsy. Her long curly hair was streaked with grey and bound at the back of her neck with a simple clasp. She smiled at them as they entered.
“Well, gentlemen,” she said. “This body is really completely drained. Cause of death: blood loss.”
“Dammit!” cursed Mike.
Ellison looked at him strangely. “You’re not surprised.”
Mike looked back at him with raised eyebrows. “You don’t seem surprised, either.”
“Okay, now we’ve established that we’re both not surprised. But the real question is …” Ellison turned towards the coroner, “why is Natalie not surprised?”
She just smiled enigmatically and shooed them out of the morgue.
“So … it’s what? A vampire?” asked Banks when they explained the victim’s condition to him.
Ellison said nothing. He just stared stonily ahead, his arms behind his back. Mike looked at him out of the corner of his eye and opted to hold his tongue too. If Ellison didn’t say anything, why should he?
“You’re kidding me, right?” Simon didn’t really sound surprised, just resigned.
“You’re taking this awfully well, sir,” said Ellison gently.
“Well, we’ve been through some weird shit.” Banks and Ellison grinned at each other. Then Banks shooed them out of his office. “Let’s keep the press out of this,” he said before closing the door on them.
Mike didn’t know what to make of this conversation. He wasn’t quite sure if he had gotten it. His ears were ringing. He didn’t really want to broach the subject with Ellison. Ellison obviously didn’t either. They just sat there and didn’t say anything, didn’t look at each other, for almost half an hour. Then Ellison’s jaw twitched and he asked Mike if he was also feeling like coffee. Mike approved wholeheartedly.
The drained victim hadn’t carried any identification, but after two days of legwork she turned out to be one Mercy Franks, a Vancouver model. Mike didn’t feel good about this at all. It was way too reminiscent of another dead model case. Ellison refused to give up on the case, but they didn’t really have any leads. They didn’t even have any info on the last two weeks of her life. Mike felt conflicted about pursuing the case. On one hand, he wanted to catch the felon (vampire). On the other, it just couldn’t lead anywhere. If they found the vampire, what would they do? How would he explain it to Ellison? And most important - how would they manage to not get themselves killed, for God’s sake?
He was walking the short distance from his car to his home, lost in thought. For once it didn’t rain, a short lull in the downpour.
Suddenly somebody stood in front of him, pretty and pale with a mane of black curly hair. “Christina!” Mike’s heartbeat doubled. He’d known it. He’d suspected. But he didn’t really think she’d pay him a visit.
“Detective, long time, no see. I certainly wouldn’t have expected to meet you here.” She walked around him.
He had to fight to not turn with her, to keep her in his sight. But it wouldn’t have done him any good.
“What a pleasure,” she said, before she pressed him against the wall with one hand and grabbed his wrist with the other, dragging his sleeves up and biting into a vein. It was so fast that Mike barely felt anything but shock. Strangely it was almost painless. It was a lot gentler than that one time Henry had bitten him. Through the increasing fuzziness and the strange magnetic drawing pull of the feeding, he was still aware that he was in deep shit. Maybe he would be the next bloodless victim on Natalie’s table. But something leapt at her and pushed her deeper into the alley, into the shadows, away from him. He could just see it from behind lowered lashes. They sounded like cats fighting, like really big, angry cats. He heard hissing and growling, the sounds of bodies hitting the wall and eventually of bones being broken. Then it was quiet for a few minutes.
Mike breathed deeply, fought of the dizziness, and gathered his strength to go home. But before he could actually detach himself from the wall, Henry stepped out of the shadows. His ripped coat and shirt belied his cool and collected expression.
Mike groaned. “Why can’t you two be in another city?”
Henry was directly in front of him now, their bodies almost touching. Mike didn’t know how that had happened. Henry took Mike’s injured wrist, with its neat, only slightly bleeding holes and drew gentle circles over it with his thumb. It was hypnotic. The wounds stung slightly every time he passed over them. Then he put the thumb to his lips, his eyes going black, and licked the few stray drops of blood off.
“I really can’t leave this on you. I’m sorry, Mike.” And he actually looked sorry.
“That’s a first,” Mike said. And then the vampire bit his wrist, directly into the bite mark Christina had left, as if to replace it with his own. It still didn’t hurt. It felt kind of pleasant, even as his breathing and heartbeat started to falter. His body grew warm. He fell into an endless black vastness.
3.
Henry didn’t feel like working. And for once he thought he didn’t have to. He had enough money to last him a few lifetimes. He had a safe, comfortable home. And it wasn’t as if he had to pay rent or pay for food for that matter. He had told his editor he was taking a sabbatical for an indefinite time. He’d spent the last few months either in bed or hunting. He was taking a vacation. He was entitled after fighting evil for a year and being dumped by the love of his life for a demon and a mortal.
He’d tried to paint for recreation, but inspiration was eluding him. He had tried to portray Vicki but cut the painting up in a fit of rage. He still loved her and trying to cut that part of himself off wasn’t really good for him. But he knew she didn’t love him enough. She loved him, but she didn’t love him like he loved her. She loved her responsibility more, her fear of the unknown, her conviction that it wouldn’t work between them, her reservations, Mike. A sinister smile appeared on his face.
Mike was his only real vice, a souvenir from his time as a demon hunting PI. He had taken Mike with him to this new city like a postcard, pettily taken away from his intended love who had rejected him. And it had been ridiculously easy. He started feeling a little bit better when Mike moved to Cascade after over two months. He felt guilty too, but not too much. He watched the detective, in his home, when he went shopping after dusk, and later at crime scenes and working, when he had a late shift. It was strangely soothing. He had to keep his distance though, especially around Celluci’s new partner. He was quite surprised when he noticed Jim Ellison. Fate could be a sarcastic bitch sometimes.
One night at a crime scene he was a little bit to close when the wind picked up and Ellison raised his head, scenting the air. Henry sped away from the scene fast. He wasn’t in any mood to meet the detective, or Mike, for that matter.
A month had passed. Henry was lying in front of the TV watching the late night news. He was thoroughly bored. There was nothing more boring than the news, recounting the same small catastrophes and the ugly things humans did to each other over and over, year after year. The only thing that changed was how lurid the media coverage got. He put his coat on and went out.
After a few hours of drifting aimlessly across the city he ended up following Mike home from the police station. He thought sometimes - as he did now - that he should want to drink Mike’s blood, or maybe even to vamp him, sleep with him and make him forget again, but strangely he didn’t want to. He was content just watching him for now. Maybe another time.
He felt a faint tugging on his consciousness, the presence of another vampire. He looked around but didn’t notice anything suspicious. He gathered the shadows more tightly around himself and watched Mike closely, apprehensively. He was the only human being out on the street in over a kilometre. Then he saw it, something speeding along the street too fast for him to recognize the face. It came to a halt in front of Mike. Christina.
Henry growled and jumped down the building he had crouched on. Christina had strayed into his territory one time too often. The bonds between lovers and between sire and child only went so far where territory was concerned. He heard her talk to Mike, but obviously she wasn’t in the mood for small talk. Christina could be somewhat impatient. Suddenly she did something that was so abominable that he could only hiss, blind with rage, for a few precious seconds. She bit Mike.
Henry sped across the street and ripped her away from him and smacked her into the next convenient wall head first. “How dare you!” he said subvocally. She stood and growled at him, her teeth and lips still red with Mike’s blood. He wanted nothing more than to tear it away from her, to seize her neck and drink all of her blood to get it back. They fought for their lives, as often happened when vampires met. One city just wasn’t big enough for two of them. He broke a few of her ribs and her right arm. She broke his collar bone. Then she managed to flee. He hissed after her. He felt that she had left the vicinity, at least for the moment.
He wandered back into the light where Mike was still slumped against the wall. He felt his collarbone mending itself. He just wanted to check on Mike, to see if she had taken so much that he needed a transfusion. His heartbeat was slower than it should be. The scent of his blood filled Henry’s mind. He was calming down from the fight and now he was ready to feed, to speed the healing process along. He knew what Mike would taste like. The memory of the time he had fed from him was suddenly fresh and clear in his mind, aided by the scent. He drew his thumb along the bite mark. Mike watched him with huge eyes and made no attempt to pull away. Henry tasted just a few drops of his blood and there was no going back. He had to have more, just a little bit, to taste him properly again. He also just couldn’t leave Christina’s bite mark on him. It was an insult.
He bit the same place, erasing her mark. Mike’s blood flowed sweetly over his tongue, his taste so familiar, bringing life with it, better than anything he had tasted in a long time. Everything else faded away. He instilled a languid, calm pleasure in the other man through their connection. He didn’t want to hurt him. He would stop really, really soon. That’s what he kept telling himself. But he couldn’t. He gorged himself on Mike’s blood right until the detective lost consciousness and he had to catch him.
He was distraught when he noticed what he’d done. He’d taken too much. He swooped Mike into his arms, supporting him carefully, and sped to the next hospital, following the faint but vast throb of pain that emanated from any structure where a lot of people suffered. He laid him in front of the entrance, took a perch on the roof of another building, and waited anxiously for somebody to come out and help the injured detective.
Then he waited around for some tests until those people finally figured out what was wrong with Mike and gave him some blood. Maybe he should have left some obvious wound on him. He calmed down when Mike’s heartbeat settled into a normal rhythm and he fell from unconsciousness into a natural, deep sleep. Shortly before dawn he had to leave.
***
Jim and Simon looked out of Simon’s office into the squad room at the tired, slumped figure at one of the desks.
“He says he doesn’t remember anything.”
“He’s lying.” Surprisingly, Ellison’s voice didn’t hold even a trace of disapproval. Simon was glad to see that Ellison had taken a liking to his new partner and they worked well together.
“Why?”
“Maybe he thinks we won’t believe him.”
Simon chuckled. “If he only knew.”
“I don’t know, Simon. I have a feeling the secrets he keeps are even bigger than ours.”
They watched the blond in the squad room. “Okay,” Simon said finally, “let’s see the recording from the surveillance camera.”
Jim passed him the jewel case with the disc. Simon fast-forwarded to the point where Celluci had suddenly appeared in front of the entrance to the Santa Lucia Hospital out of thin air, shocking two of the nurses.
“Stop!” said Ellison.
Simon pushed the button and looked at the screen that displayed a faint, vague dark shape above Celluci’s body. “What’s that?”
“It’s a person. See that?” Ellison pointed to a lighter colored streak. “It’s a face.”
“A vampire?”
Ellison didn’t say anything for a minute.
“Yes. What else would it be considering we have a victim drained of blood in our morgue?” he forced out between clenched teeth. “And see those?” He pointed to Celluci’s wrist on the screen. “There are four puncture marks, exactly like on our dead model. They are gone now. And the hospital couldn’t figure out how he’d lost so much blood. But they were there.”
Simon narrowed his eyes. “No, can’t see them.”
Ellison gave an annoyed sigh.
“Anything else?”
Ellison hesitated. “I could smell them on him.”
“Them?”
“Yes, two of them. They don’t smell like anything human.”
“What do they smell like?”
Ellison stared off into the air, and Simon was afraid for a moment that he’d zoned out. “It’s indescribable,” he said, his voice low.
***
The next night Henry went straight back to the hospital, but Mike wasn’t there. He was a little worried. He was sure Christina would target Mike if she hadn’t already disappeared from the city.
He heard Mike’s heartbeat when he approached his home. He also sensed the two plainclothes major crimes detectives in an unmarked car across the street. Henry had to smile. He was touched by their attempts to guard Mike, no matter how inadequate. At least Mike had people who cared about him. Henry would have to send Captain Banks some cigars or something.
Fortunately, Ellison wasn’t in the car. He walked up to it and put a compulsion on the officers to not see him, just in case. He fed on one of them and went up to Mike’s apartment.
Mike was lying in bed and sleeping. He still looked pale and tired, but his blood flow and heart sounded healthy. Henry just looked at him for a while. It was soothing to see him like this, relaxed, one arm stretched above his head, his hand slightly curled. His head was turned to the side, exposing his delectable neck to Henry’s gaze. The bite mark he’d put there once had long since faded. Even as deep as it had been, it had only stayed for a few weeks. Henry felt an overwhelming desire to put it there again. His fangs tingled with it.
Mike felt his presence and woke. “You again,” he said. “Did you come to finish what you started yesterday?”
Henry sighed. “You should know me better than that.”
“You put me in the hospital!”
Henry knew that wasn’t meant as a thank you. He growled at Mike with teeth and started pacing. “I’m not in the best of moods right now.”
“Yeah, that’s obvious.”
Henry got into Mike’s face. “Do not anger me, Detective.”
“Or what?” Mike challenged.
Henry lost his slippery grip on his emotions and did what he’d wanted to do since he’d entered the room. He bit the annoying detective even though he was recovering from blood loss, even though he had the blood of strangers running through his veins to replace what he and Christina had taken the last night. Mike gave a heartfelt moan and sank back onto the pillows. Fortunately Mike didn’t taste quite as good after the transfusion and Henry was able to stop sooner. He compelled Mike to sleep. He smiled evilly when he found Mike naked under the sheets. He got him dressed, packed clothes and a few other things, and took him home.
4.
Mike woke up on a cold stone platform, fortunately not naked, but still annoyed. The room around him was huge. He didn’t see a single window. The stone walls and floor in black, dark greys, and muted reds, the ornamental pillars and the lack of light made it look cavernous. The room looked like a temple and it freaked Mike out. A few friggin’ torches were spaced wide apart on differently coloured panels in the walls. But they neither reached the ceiling nor the far wall that lay in shadows.
Slowly, apprehensively, he stood and searched for an exit among the pillars. Of course it had to be in the wall that lay in total darkness. Dammit! He felt his way across the expanse of the room and found the exit after a minute, when his eyes had adjusted to the dark.
In the hallway he saw a light on the right side. He went in that direction, slowly feeling along the wall. He could see well enough now, but was still apprehensive. One thing was sure. This was totally not Christina’s style.
He reached another hallway, this one better lighted. It looked like a cross of an apocalyptic mystery thriller set and the nightmare of a deranged architect. Flowing water separated the hallway into six evenly spaced parts. The huge fountain the water came from looked way too much like an upright altar for Mike’s taste. He cursed, took the first door on the left side, and hit pay dirt.
The room didn’t look much different from the other ones, but it did hold a gigantic flat bed with midnight black satin sheets and a forlorn looking easel with a single empty canvas on it. And on the bed lay Fitzroy, stretched out like a cat, partly on his belly and partly on his side, his hair fanned over the foot end of the bed.
“Don’t you think this is a little melodramatic? What, couldn’t you find another condo?” Mike said. He was secretly relieved to see the vampire, even if he wouldn’t have ever admitted it. At least it wasn’t anybody else.
Henry slowly opened his inhuman black eyes, and raised his head. There was no expression on his face. He looked cold and distant. “I inherited the digs from the vampire who took over Toronto from me,” he said. “You don’t like?”
“That vampire ever heard of electric light?” Mike moved slowly closer to the bed.
“There is electric light. Didn’t you find the switch?”
Mike had bowed down and they were almost nose-to-nose now. Henry’s expression freaked him out. He looked like he’d gotten his heart broken. He looked depressive. But his depression had a definitely dangerous edge to it, sharp like a knife. “It was you! You got me here, didn’t you?”
Henry just looked back at Mike out of black eyes, as deep and unfathomable as the ocean at night. Mike had just started to get antsy and was about to pull back when Henry grabbed him and had him deposited on the bed under him in less than a second. Mike gasped belatedly and wondered how he didn’t have whiplash. Henry’s hands were like steel bands around his arms. Mike knew he would have bruises from his grip. But he also knew Henry could have hurt him a lot more if he’d wanted to. He started to think that he was in serious trouble after all.
Henry smiled slowly. Mike was creeped out and turned on in equal parts.
“If I said yes, what would you do?” Henry lowered his mouth to Mike’s neck, almost touching the skin. Mike couldn’t help but turn his head to the side, baring his neck. Henry’s hunger called to him. It was one of his stupid mind tricks. Henry placed his lips against Mike’s skin as if in reward, the most fleeting of brushes, and sent fire down his arteries and down his spine. He moved away again. “Yes,” Henry said. He kept placing barely-there kisses on Mike’s neck and jaw.
Mike couldn’t think, he just felt. It took a while before what Henry had said penetrated. “Why?” he croaked.
Henry slid his hands down to Mike’s and intertwined their fingers, drawing his arms up until his hands lay beside his head. He moved his head again, his hair tickling Mike’s cheek. “If I can’t have her, she can’t have you, either,” he whispered into Mike’s ear. He let go of Mike’s right hand, tipped his head back with one gentle finger, and kissed Mike’s lips.
“You have a strange way of dealing with competition,” said Mike.
Henry just continued kissing him. His kiss was like a drug, sweet and necessary, but poisonous. Mike wanted to resist, to push Henry away, but he just couldn’t. It felt too good, like fire running into his body through his lips and along his nerves. He shuddered with the pleasure. He became hungry for Henry’s taste. It wasn’t long at all before he just gave in. He moaned into the kiss. “More, more…” he whispered against Henry’s lips and Henry obliged and laid him out on the bed like a buffet, tasting him from head to toe while Mike moaned and writhed under his hands and lips. Mike’s own hands ran over every bit of Henry’s skin he could reach.
Henry groaned and stretched approvingly under his touch. Finally Henry reached the part of him that screamed most for his cruel and wonderful mouth and sucked him. It was delicious. Pleasure ran in waves across Mike’s body, leaving him wrecked, while he clawed the sheets and gasped. Just when he thought he couldn’t take it anymore, Henry growled around him, pulled off, and bit into his thigh. Mike came so hard he almost passed out.
***
Later Henry brought him Chinese food, but also bread, cheese, butter, meat, fruits and other necessities, like beer. He showed him where the kitchen was in the enormous dark stone maze/tomb Mike had dubbed the ‘Temple of Night’ in his mind, not that he would ever tell Henry. He also showed him some of the mysterious, hidden light switches. Mike chose to eat on Henry’s bed since he hadn’t seen anything resembling a table or chairs.
“You can go anytime,” Henry said. “You are not locked in.” He smiled evilly. “That is, if you can find the exit.” His face turned serious again. “I would not go anywhere if I were you, however. Christina will search for you. She would kill you just to spite me. And if you stay after dawn, I’ll have to tie you to the bed for my own protection.”
“What, you don’t trust me?”
Henry smiled at him, amused. “After you turned me over to a crazy vampire blood drinking inquisitor? No.”
“Aww, you hurt me. I thought we were past that.”
Henry disappeared for a while and came back with a set of heavy chains. Mike jumped out of bed. “Oh no! Is this how you treat all your house guests?”
Henry advanced with the chains. “If they want to stay the day.”
“Stop that!” Mike drew away from the other man.
Henry just looked at him with a dark smile and let him go. He placed the chains on the bed. “You want to play? We can do that. I am a predator. I like to play with my prey.” He swept the takeout cartons off the bed.
Mike tried to evade Henry but he was no match for the vampire. And he also had to be careful not to step into any Chinese food. Henry had him chained to the bed in less than five minutes. Then he kissed him softly. “Be good, and you won’t regret it,” he said.
“You’re just doing this for fun, admit it!” complained Mike. He tugged on the chains, testing their strength. They were long enough that he could move around the bed freely and was comfortable. Henry just smiled, took his clothes off, and curled up in a corner of the bed before dying for the day.
Mike lay there for a while, just watching his back, before he rolled over and snuggled against him.
***
Mike woke to another blowjob. At least that’s what he thought at first. He opened his eyes reluctantly and looked down at the messy bed head in the vicinity of his hip. Then he realized, that Henry was slowly drawing blood from his wrist. It just felt like sex. It was the fourth time in about three days. Mike thought he should start being concerned about the amount of blood still left in his body. “Hey, do I look like a pacifier to you?” he said.
Henry disengaged himself carefully from his wrist and licked the wound closed with that sinful tongue of his. “Well, you pacify me, so …”
Henry raised himself on his elbows and watched Mike hungrily, his gaze hot. A shudder ran down Mike’s spine. Henry started to purr, actually purr, like a cat.
He slowly crawled up Mike’s body on hands and knees. Mike didn’t dare to breathe out of fear that it would destroy the mood. He was so sensuous. So drop-dead gorgeous, sexy, terrific in bed. Mike couldn’t understand how Vicki could give this up. Was she insane?
Henry had reached his mouth and licked Mike’s lips. Mike moaned, granted him entrance, and wrapped his legs around him. He could feel Henry’s body warming against his. He thought it was an effect of the sex.
The chains dragged coolly over their bodies wherever Mike chose to stroke Henry’s warming skin. He tried to feel the pulse in Henry’s neck with his fingertips. Henry arched his neck obligingly and Mike followed with his mouth. His pulse was definitely faster than when he was just lying down. He bit the spot gently and Henry moaned, grabbed his chained wrists, and pressed them down into the bed with one hand. Not that he had too. Mike was totally willing, more than willing. He rubbed off against Henry, who thrust down. Then Henry eased off and Mike felt cool, lubed fingers at his hole. He whimpered and tried to get them deeper.
Henry laughed somewhere above. Mike tightened his legs around him and dragged him down to kiss him, feeling his fangs against his lips and tongue. It made him go crazy. Henry let go of his hands shortly and entered him slowly, still kissing him. Mike was deliciously stretched by his cock. He wriggled in Henry’s lap, getting used to the feeling of being filled. And then Henry started thrusting, hitting that one perfect spot over and over. Everything dissolved into divine almost unbearable pleasure, thrust for thrust. At some point he felt Henry’s fangs slide into the flesh over his heart, only to heighten his lust even more. He was drawn tighter and tighter between the points of pleasure in his body until he came in an explosion, and came again, and again. He didn’t even know how this was possible. Afterwards he was nothing more than a shuddering, limp dishrag. Henry nuzzled him contentedly and purred.
***
“So, you spent your nights in this atrocious labyrinth doing what? Brooding? Sulking? Thinking about Vicki?” Mike asked later, when they were cooling down.
Henry laughed out loud.
“I’m only asking, because I have to spend some time here, too, you know?”
“There’s a TV room somewhere, with a PC and a bar, if you can--”
“Find it? Can’t you just show me?”
Henry smiled. “I’m getting lost sometimes, too, you know. This structure is pretty complex. The only one who can really find her way around here is the charlady.”
“There’s a charlady?”
“Sure. Cleaning this thing is a fulltime job.”
“What kind of crazy vampire lived here, anyway?”
“Oh, she’s not crazy. She’s actually very astute.”
They lay there quietly for a while. Mike could feel that Henry was lost in his thoughts. Then the vampire asked him a question. “Do you still love Vicki?”
“Of course I love her. As a friend.” He stared up at the ceiling, thinking. “I really loved her, but I guess our relationship was just too volatile. I mean, she shot me. And it wasn’t an accident. Can you imagine what it feels like, to be shot by your lover?” Mike chuckled.
Henry looked down at him and smiled.
“I still loved her for a long time after that, but she just kept hurting me. And sometimes, if you keep getting hurt, you have to just let go.”
“I guess we have that in common.” said Henry as he placed his head on Mike’s shoulder.
After a while Henry got up.
“Where are you going?”
“Out. I have to kill Christina, remember?”
Mike sat up. “Are you sure you can take her?”
“Why? Are you worried?” Henry crawled back on the bed, half-clothed and kissed Mike’s forehead. “That’s sweet.”
“You don’t have to fight her. I could just stay here and hide. I mean, she’s your mother.”
“No, she’s my sire,” Henry corrected. He gave Mike another kiss, this time on his lips. “And you don’t really mean that. Besides, it’s not just about you. I can’t tolerate another vampire in my territory.”
He went and came back for two more nights. Mike was actually worried sick during that time. Then Henry came back with a triumphant grin on his face and bloody and ripped clothing, that spoke of how hard the fight had been. Mike kissed him thoroughly, feeling his fangs against his tongue. Henry growled and pushed him back breathlessly. “Mike, stop. I’m hungry.”
“So?” Mike reached for him again.
Henry evaded his grasp. “I can’t feed from you again. I already took too much in the last few days. You’re really pale. Another transfusion wouldn’t hurt you any.” He kissed Mike’s ear. “You can go home now - or to the hospital. Or maybe you should go to that nice Dr. Lambert. You can tell your partner that that model case is solved.”
Mike drew him back for one more kiss. “Why don’t you tell him yourself?”
“It would not be good if your partner saw me, Mike. It wouldn’t be pretty.”
“Why?”
Henry started turning away.
“Damn it! He’s not human, is he?”
“That depends on your definition, I guess.” Henry’s voice floated back in the darkness of the hallway.
“Great. Why do I always attract the freaks?”
Henry was back beside him in a flash and growled into his ear. “Do you want me to bite you after all?”
Mike blinked. “Is that a trick question?” He placed a hand on Henry’s cheek. The vampire leaned into the touch. “Will you be fine?”
“Yeah, I’ll just bite the charlady.” Henry started down the corridor.
“Is that part of the service?” Mike called after him.
Henry turned back and grinned at him.
***
After a visit to Natalie, Mike went to the squad room to look through the case files on his desk. A few days gone and a little bit of blood loss and he was totally off his game.
Suddenly he became aware of eyes on him. He turned around. It was Ellison, of course. No other human being actually had a gaze that burned itself into your back. “Umm, that model murder seems to be solved,” he said.
Ellison just nodded and kept staring at him consideringly. He seemed to see right into him. Mike had the feeling his partner somehow magically knew everything he had been up to the last few days just by looking at him. Mike felt pinned to the desk by his clear, electric blue eyes. He blushed.
***
Two weeks later they were hunting a serial rapist down the alleys. Why did they always have to run? Mike was getting too old for this crap. And Ellison was really in way too good shape for his age. “You go this way. I’ll try to cut him off,” Ellison said. They separated.
Mike ran after the man. The felon turned a few corners. After one of them Mike lost him. Ellison came from the other direction. They looked around mystified. Ellison looked up.
Their felon fell down from the fire escape and landed between them. Ellison picked him up, grabbed his head, and tilted his head back. He smirked. “Looks like a gift. I believe it’s for you.”
Mike bent over and looked at the felon’s neck. There were four neat puncture wounds, already healing.
“Beats a bunch of flowers, if you ask me.” Ellison said, still smirking.
Fandom: Blood Ties
Category: Slash. Mike/Henry; TVverse
Spoiler: for the last episode (Deep Dark?)
Wordcount: 6,820
Summary: “If I can’t have her, she can’t have you, either,”
ETA: Now beta-read by luvinmike. Thank you!
Disclaimer: Not only Blood Ties and Mike and Henry aren't mine. The Sentinel and the City of Cascade, Simon Banks and Jim Ellison, Forever Knight and Natalie Lambert aren't mine either.
A/N: I used characters from other series in this, Jim Ellison and Simon Banks from ‘The Sentinel’ and Natalie Lambert from ‘Forever Knight’. I still wouldn’t call it a cross over. They are just guest stars. I made Henry relocate to Cascade instead of Vancouver, and relocated Cascade to Canada. So now Cascade is a fictitious city in Canada, instead of the States. While researching for this story, I found out that Christina Cox played Jeanne d’Arc in an episode of ‘Forever Knight’. That’s actually where I knew her face from! I loved that episode. There is also a Canadian ghost town that was called the City of Cascade. It’s fascinating, what you can find on Wikipedia. Now I’m posting this and going to sleep. Crap, it’s 5 am again.
1.
Henry had packed his last bags, burned his bridges, told his editor he was taking a hiatus, said goodbye to his friends. There was just one thing left to do.
One cold winter evening he followed Crowley home from work. It was really the easiest way to find out where she lived. He waited until she had sent her nanny away and put her daughter to bed. Since he had learned from Vicki the art of lock picking, he let himself into her house. He found Crowley in the kitchen, putting butter on a bagel, a weirdly domestic scene. He wasn’t quite sure what he had expected from Celluci’s alleged harridan of a boss. She saw him, gasped, and sent one half of the bagel flying.
He raised his hands to show he was unarmed. “Calm.” He said.
She calmed down and stared vacantly into space. Henry was glad that she was susceptible to his suggestion. The situation might have become uncomfortable otherwise. He walked around her kitchen counter until he stood beside her. “You will give Detective Celluci his job back. He is an excellent detective. You know that.” Then he paused, an idea in mind. It would be a petty and utterly despicable thing to do. He continued his way around the counter, thinking. “You do not like him however,” he spoke slowly. “Would it be possible to get him transferred to Cascade, BC?”
“Yes,” answered Crowley, “maybe on an officer exchange program. But it would be very hard to do, a lot of legwork and convincing.”
“Do it,” Henry said. “And only give Celluci his badge back if he agrees to the transfer. You will not remember this conversation.” He left the house, too fast for human eyes to see, and took a walk under the cold night sky.
2. Three months later
Mike was bored, bored, bored and depressed. After two months in Toronto doing nothing, he could only take so much rest and relaxation. He’d tried to go sightseeing in Cascade in his first week in the new city and to unpack what little he’d brought from Toronto with him, but he frequently just stayed on his couch, and the boxes unfortunately refused to unpack themselves.
He had almost not taken the job. He’d had to decide between his city and a badge. He could have worked with Vicki - but whom was he kidding? He loved Vicki, but he didn’t really want to work her weird cases with her, especially if she was still pining after her vampire. And he would take a normal homicide or kidnapping over exorcism any day of the week. Exorcism was for priests, not cops. More often than not, Vicki was the anvil that was tied to his ankle and pulled him under.
The next day he knocked on the door of Simon Banks, his new boss, Captain of the Major Crimes unit in Cascade. The Captain opened the door and greeted him politely. “Welcome to Cascade, Detective. Captain Crowley had only nice things to say about you,” Banks said.
Mike was taken aback for a moment. “Really?”
Banks chuckled. “Well, she did say you had strange working habits, consorted with Pis, and attracted - how did she put it? - unusual cases.”
Mike looked sheepish. “Guilty as charged.”
Banks smiled broadly, his gold-rimmed glasses gleamed in the dim light of his office. “Don’t worry, Detective. I have just the person to partner you with. I have to warn you though. He lost his partner eight years ago and since then he’s had slight problems adjusting to new ones. He’s been going through partners as if they were t-shirts.”
“I see.”
Banks smiled again. “This is not supposed to be some sort of hazing,” he clarified. “I really think you two might get along well. I just want you to try for a while, and look over his odd idiosyncrasies. If it really doesn’t work out …” he shrugged.
“Okay.” Now Mike was curious.
Banks handed him his new gun and badge. Mike couldn’t help but feel a little giddy, holding a badge in his hand again for the first time in over three months.
“Ellison!!” Banks bellowed. Mike twitched and almost covered his ears. The man who stepped into the office was around 1.85 metres tall, balding, around 50, but in excellent shape and had laser blue eyes. His expression was sullen and distrustful.
“Ellison, this is Detective Mike Celluci from Toronto. Celluci, this is Jim Ellison,“ Banks introduced them.
Ellison looked Mike over before shaking hands.
“I trust that you’ll introduce the Detective to everything and work well together, Ellison. Now off you go! Catch me some criminals.”
Mike followed the other man out of the office. “So, what do we do first?”
“You’re done with all of your paperwork, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then we’re going to the morgue.”
Mike spent the next three weeks with blessedly normal detective work. They cleaned up most of Ellison’s caseload together. Ellison could be strangely intense, bordering on obsessed. More often than not he had the temper of a wild beast with a sore paw, but Mike had learned early that a box of donuts would work wonders on the mood of the other man. And if he seemed a little strange sometimes and kept some secrets for himself, Mike didn’t call him on it. And Ellison returned the favor. He never asked Mike why he had fallen out with his boss back in Toronto or why he was sometimes brooding over beer and Chinese food. The other detectives of Major Crimes Mike worked with from time to time seemed strangely tolerant as well. Mike wondered about them, especially the Captain. Sometimes he thought they were sharing some kind of secret, a hushed conversation in the break room here, people sneaking out of the squad room on strange and unspecified assignments there. But he never asked any questions. He figured he would find out eventually or maybe even go back to Toronto and it wouldn’t be important anymore.
***
It rained all the time in Cascade. If you had to walk any distance, you got wet. It was cold, too. But Mike liked it, people hushing along the streets, not because they were in a hurry to get somewhere, but because they were in a hurry to get out of the rain. There was a difference. He loved the streets gleaming with water, especially at night, when they reflected the lights of the city. He still loved the perpetual rain after three weeks. Maybe he wouldn’t anymore after three months, but Ellison assured him that sometimes it didn’t rain.
The rain could be hard on crime scenes, though. It tended to wash away any evidence. It was one such rainy crime scene where Mike’s lucky normal cases streak ended. Dr. Lambert turned the victim’s head to the side with a gloved hand and there they were, four neat puncture wounds. Mike cursed. Ellison looked at him strangely. Then he proceeded to scan the walls and surrounding buildings as if looking for something, as if he had scented something on the air.
Later they went to see Dr. Lambert in the morgue. Mike had already met her a few times and liked her. She was, like him, a refugee from Toronto. She’d been in Cascade for eleven years and was an excellent coroner, even if she lacked Rajani’s sense of black humour. She was currently standing over a body performing an autopsy. Her long curly hair was streaked with grey and bound at the back of her neck with a simple clasp. She smiled at them as they entered.
“Well, gentlemen,” she said. “This body is really completely drained. Cause of death: blood loss.”
“Dammit!” cursed Mike.
Ellison looked at him strangely. “You’re not surprised.”
Mike looked back at him with raised eyebrows. “You don’t seem surprised, either.”
“Okay, now we’ve established that we’re both not surprised. But the real question is …” Ellison turned towards the coroner, “why is Natalie not surprised?”
She just smiled enigmatically and shooed them out of the morgue.
“So … it’s what? A vampire?” asked Banks when they explained the victim’s condition to him.
Ellison said nothing. He just stared stonily ahead, his arms behind his back. Mike looked at him out of the corner of his eye and opted to hold his tongue too. If Ellison didn’t say anything, why should he?
“You’re kidding me, right?” Simon didn’t really sound surprised, just resigned.
“You’re taking this awfully well, sir,” said Ellison gently.
“Well, we’ve been through some weird shit.” Banks and Ellison grinned at each other. Then Banks shooed them out of his office. “Let’s keep the press out of this,” he said before closing the door on them.
Mike didn’t know what to make of this conversation. He wasn’t quite sure if he had gotten it. His ears were ringing. He didn’t really want to broach the subject with Ellison. Ellison obviously didn’t either. They just sat there and didn’t say anything, didn’t look at each other, for almost half an hour. Then Ellison’s jaw twitched and he asked Mike if he was also feeling like coffee. Mike approved wholeheartedly.
The drained victim hadn’t carried any identification, but after two days of legwork she turned out to be one Mercy Franks, a Vancouver model. Mike didn’t feel good about this at all. It was way too reminiscent of another dead model case. Ellison refused to give up on the case, but they didn’t really have any leads. They didn’t even have any info on the last two weeks of her life. Mike felt conflicted about pursuing the case. On one hand, he wanted to catch the felon (vampire). On the other, it just couldn’t lead anywhere. If they found the vampire, what would they do? How would he explain it to Ellison? And most important - how would they manage to not get themselves killed, for God’s sake?
He was walking the short distance from his car to his home, lost in thought. For once it didn’t rain, a short lull in the downpour.
Suddenly somebody stood in front of him, pretty and pale with a mane of black curly hair. “Christina!” Mike’s heartbeat doubled. He’d known it. He’d suspected. But he didn’t really think she’d pay him a visit.
“Detective, long time, no see. I certainly wouldn’t have expected to meet you here.” She walked around him.
He had to fight to not turn with her, to keep her in his sight. But it wouldn’t have done him any good.
“What a pleasure,” she said, before she pressed him against the wall with one hand and grabbed his wrist with the other, dragging his sleeves up and biting into a vein. It was so fast that Mike barely felt anything but shock. Strangely it was almost painless. It was a lot gentler than that one time Henry had bitten him. Through the increasing fuzziness and the strange magnetic drawing pull of the feeding, he was still aware that he was in deep shit. Maybe he would be the next bloodless victim on Natalie’s table. But something leapt at her and pushed her deeper into the alley, into the shadows, away from him. He could just see it from behind lowered lashes. They sounded like cats fighting, like really big, angry cats. He heard hissing and growling, the sounds of bodies hitting the wall and eventually of bones being broken. Then it was quiet for a few minutes.
Mike breathed deeply, fought of the dizziness, and gathered his strength to go home. But before he could actually detach himself from the wall, Henry stepped out of the shadows. His ripped coat and shirt belied his cool and collected expression.
Mike groaned. “Why can’t you two be in another city?”
Henry was directly in front of him now, their bodies almost touching. Mike didn’t know how that had happened. Henry took Mike’s injured wrist, with its neat, only slightly bleeding holes and drew gentle circles over it with his thumb. It was hypnotic. The wounds stung slightly every time he passed over them. Then he put the thumb to his lips, his eyes going black, and licked the few stray drops of blood off.
“I really can’t leave this on you. I’m sorry, Mike.” And he actually looked sorry.
“That’s a first,” Mike said. And then the vampire bit his wrist, directly into the bite mark Christina had left, as if to replace it with his own. It still didn’t hurt. It felt kind of pleasant, even as his breathing and heartbeat started to falter. His body grew warm. He fell into an endless black vastness.
3.
Henry didn’t feel like working. And for once he thought he didn’t have to. He had enough money to last him a few lifetimes. He had a safe, comfortable home. And it wasn’t as if he had to pay rent or pay for food for that matter. He had told his editor he was taking a sabbatical for an indefinite time. He’d spent the last few months either in bed or hunting. He was taking a vacation. He was entitled after fighting evil for a year and being dumped by the love of his life for a demon and a mortal.
He’d tried to paint for recreation, but inspiration was eluding him. He had tried to portray Vicki but cut the painting up in a fit of rage. He still loved her and trying to cut that part of himself off wasn’t really good for him. But he knew she didn’t love him enough. She loved him, but she didn’t love him like he loved her. She loved her responsibility more, her fear of the unknown, her conviction that it wouldn’t work between them, her reservations, Mike. A sinister smile appeared on his face.
Mike was his only real vice, a souvenir from his time as a demon hunting PI. He had taken Mike with him to this new city like a postcard, pettily taken away from his intended love who had rejected him. And it had been ridiculously easy. He started feeling a little bit better when Mike moved to Cascade after over two months. He felt guilty too, but not too much. He watched the detective, in his home, when he went shopping after dusk, and later at crime scenes and working, when he had a late shift. It was strangely soothing. He had to keep his distance though, especially around Celluci’s new partner. He was quite surprised when he noticed Jim Ellison. Fate could be a sarcastic bitch sometimes.
One night at a crime scene he was a little bit to close when the wind picked up and Ellison raised his head, scenting the air. Henry sped away from the scene fast. He wasn’t in any mood to meet the detective, or Mike, for that matter.
A month had passed. Henry was lying in front of the TV watching the late night news. He was thoroughly bored. There was nothing more boring than the news, recounting the same small catastrophes and the ugly things humans did to each other over and over, year after year. The only thing that changed was how lurid the media coverage got. He put his coat on and went out.
After a few hours of drifting aimlessly across the city he ended up following Mike home from the police station. He thought sometimes - as he did now - that he should want to drink Mike’s blood, or maybe even to vamp him, sleep with him and make him forget again, but strangely he didn’t want to. He was content just watching him for now. Maybe another time.
He felt a faint tugging on his consciousness, the presence of another vampire. He looked around but didn’t notice anything suspicious. He gathered the shadows more tightly around himself and watched Mike closely, apprehensively. He was the only human being out on the street in over a kilometre. Then he saw it, something speeding along the street too fast for him to recognize the face. It came to a halt in front of Mike. Christina.
Henry growled and jumped down the building he had crouched on. Christina had strayed into his territory one time too often. The bonds between lovers and between sire and child only went so far where territory was concerned. He heard her talk to Mike, but obviously she wasn’t in the mood for small talk. Christina could be somewhat impatient. Suddenly she did something that was so abominable that he could only hiss, blind with rage, for a few precious seconds. She bit Mike.
Henry sped across the street and ripped her away from him and smacked her into the next convenient wall head first. “How dare you!” he said subvocally. She stood and growled at him, her teeth and lips still red with Mike’s blood. He wanted nothing more than to tear it away from her, to seize her neck and drink all of her blood to get it back. They fought for their lives, as often happened when vampires met. One city just wasn’t big enough for two of them. He broke a few of her ribs and her right arm. She broke his collar bone. Then she managed to flee. He hissed after her. He felt that she had left the vicinity, at least for the moment.
He wandered back into the light where Mike was still slumped against the wall. He felt his collarbone mending itself. He just wanted to check on Mike, to see if she had taken so much that he needed a transfusion. His heartbeat was slower than it should be. The scent of his blood filled Henry’s mind. He was calming down from the fight and now he was ready to feed, to speed the healing process along. He knew what Mike would taste like. The memory of the time he had fed from him was suddenly fresh and clear in his mind, aided by the scent. He drew his thumb along the bite mark. Mike watched him with huge eyes and made no attempt to pull away. Henry tasted just a few drops of his blood and there was no going back. He had to have more, just a little bit, to taste him properly again. He also just couldn’t leave Christina’s bite mark on him. It was an insult.
He bit the same place, erasing her mark. Mike’s blood flowed sweetly over his tongue, his taste so familiar, bringing life with it, better than anything he had tasted in a long time. Everything else faded away. He instilled a languid, calm pleasure in the other man through their connection. He didn’t want to hurt him. He would stop really, really soon. That’s what he kept telling himself. But he couldn’t. He gorged himself on Mike’s blood right until the detective lost consciousness and he had to catch him.
He was distraught when he noticed what he’d done. He’d taken too much. He swooped Mike into his arms, supporting him carefully, and sped to the next hospital, following the faint but vast throb of pain that emanated from any structure where a lot of people suffered. He laid him in front of the entrance, took a perch on the roof of another building, and waited anxiously for somebody to come out and help the injured detective.
Then he waited around for some tests until those people finally figured out what was wrong with Mike and gave him some blood. Maybe he should have left some obvious wound on him. He calmed down when Mike’s heartbeat settled into a normal rhythm and he fell from unconsciousness into a natural, deep sleep. Shortly before dawn he had to leave.
***
Jim and Simon looked out of Simon’s office into the squad room at the tired, slumped figure at one of the desks.
“He says he doesn’t remember anything.”
“He’s lying.” Surprisingly, Ellison’s voice didn’t hold even a trace of disapproval. Simon was glad to see that Ellison had taken a liking to his new partner and they worked well together.
“Why?”
“Maybe he thinks we won’t believe him.”
Simon chuckled. “If he only knew.”
“I don’t know, Simon. I have a feeling the secrets he keeps are even bigger than ours.”
They watched the blond in the squad room. “Okay,” Simon said finally, “let’s see the recording from the surveillance camera.”
Jim passed him the jewel case with the disc. Simon fast-forwarded to the point where Celluci had suddenly appeared in front of the entrance to the Santa Lucia Hospital out of thin air, shocking two of the nurses.
“Stop!” said Ellison.
Simon pushed the button and looked at the screen that displayed a faint, vague dark shape above Celluci’s body. “What’s that?”
“It’s a person. See that?” Ellison pointed to a lighter colored streak. “It’s a face.”
“A vampire?”
Ellison didn’t say anything for a minute.
“Yes. What else would it be considering we have a victim drained of blood in our morgue?” he forced out between clenched teeth. “And see those?” He pointed to Celluci’s wrist on the screen. “There are four puncture marks, exactly like on our dead model. They are gone now. And the hospital couldn’t figure out how he’d lost so much blood. But they were there.”
Simon narrowed his eyes. “No, can’t see them.”
Ellison gave an annoyed sigh.
“Anything else?”
Ellison hesitated. “I could smell them on him.”
“Them?”
“Yes, two of them. They don’t smell like anything human.”
“What do they smell like?”
Ellison stared off into the air, and Simon was afraid for a moment that he’d zoned out. “It’s indescribable,” he said, his voice low.
***
The next night Henry went straight back to the hospital, but Mike wasn’t there. He was a little worried. He was sure Christina would target Mike if she hadn’t already disappeared from the city.
He heard Mike’s heartbeat when he approached his home. He also sensed the two plainclothes major crimes detectives in an unmarked car across the street. Henry had to smile. He was touched by their attempts to guard Mike, no matter how inadequate. At least Mike had people who cared about him. Henry would have to send Captain Banks some cigars or something.
Fortunately, Ellison wasn’t in the car. He walked up to it and put a compulsion on the officers to not see him, just in case. He fed on one of them and went up to Mike’s apartment.
Mike was lying in bed and sleeping. He still looked pale and tired, but his blood flow and heart sounded healthy. Henry just looked at him for a while. It was soothing to see him like this, relaxed, one arm stretched above his head, his hand slightly curled. His head was turned to the side, exposing his delectable neck to Henry’s gaze. The bite mark he’d put there once had long since faded. Even as deep as it had been, it had only stayed for a few weeks. Henry felt an overwhelming desire to put it there again. His fangs tingled with it.
Mike felt his presence and woke. “You again,” he said. “Did you come to finish what you started yesterday?”
Henry sighed. “You should know me better than that.”
“You put me in the hospital!”
Henry knew that wasn’t meant as a thank you. He growled at Mike with teeth and started pacing. “I’m not in the best of moods right now.”
“Yeah, that’s obvious.”
Henry got into Mike’s face. “Do not anger me, Detective.”
“Or what?” Mike challenged.
Henry lost his slippery grip on his emotions and did what he’d wanted to do since he’d entered the room. He bit the annoying detective even though he was recovering from blood loss, even though he had the blood of strangers running through his veins to replace what he and Christina had taken the last night. Mike gave a heartfelt moan and sank back onto the pillows. Fortunately Mike didn’t taste quite as good after the transfusion and Henry was able to stop sooner. He compelled Mike to sleep. He smiled evilly when he found Mike naked under the sheets. He got him dressed, packed clothes and a few other things, and took him home.
4.
Mike woke up on a cold stone platform, fortunately not naked, but still annoyed. The room around him was huge. He didn’t see a single window. The stone walls and floor in black, dark greys, and muted reds, the ornamental pillars and the lack of light made it look cavernous. The room looked like a temple and it freaked Mike out. A few friggin’ torches were spaced wide apart on differently coloured panels in the walls. But they neither reached the ceiling nor the far wall that lay in shadows.
Slowly, apprehensively, he stood and searched for an exit among the pillars. Of course it had to be in the wall that lay in total darkness. Dammit! He felt his way across the expanse of the room and found the exit after a minute, when his eyes had adjusted to the dark.
In the hallway he saw a light on the right side. He went in that direction, slowly feeling along the wall. He could see well enough now, but was still apprehensive. One thing was sure. This was totally not Christina’s style.
He reached another hallway, this one better lighted. It looked like a cross of an apocalyptic mystery thriller set and the nightmare of a deranged architect. Flowing water separated the hallway into six evenly spaced parts. The huge fountain the water came from looked way too much like an upright altar for Mike’s taste. He cursed, took the first door on the left side, and hit pay dirt.
The room didn’t look much different from the other ones, but it did hold a gigantic flat bed with midnight black satin sheets and a forlorn looking easel with a single empty canvas on it. And on the bed lay Fitzroy, stretched out like a cat, partly on his belly and partly on his side, his hair fanned over the foot end of the bed.
“Don’t you think this is a little melodramatic? What, couldn’t you find another condo?” Mike said. He was secretly relieved to see the vampire, even if he wouldn’t have ever admitted it. At least it wasn’t anybody else.
Henry slowly opened his inhuman black eyes, and raised his head. There was no expression on his face. He looked cold and distant. “I inherited the digs from the vampire who took over Toronto from me,” he said. “You don’t like?”
“That vampire ever heard of electric light?” Mike moved slowly closer to the bed.
“There is electric light. Didn’t you find the switch?”
Mike had bowed down and they were almost nose-to-nose now. Henry’s expression freaked him out. He looked like he’d gotten his heart broken. He looked depressive. But his depression had a definitely dangerous edge to it, sharp like a knife. “It was you! You got me here, didn’t you?”
Henry just looked back at Mike out of black eyes, as deep and unfathomable as the ocean at night. Mike had just started to get antsy and was about to pull back when Henry grabbed him and had him deposited on the bed under him in less than a second. Mike gasped belatedly and wondered how he didn’t have whiplash. Henry’s hands were like steel bands around his arms. Mike knew he would have bruises from his grip. But he also knew Henry could have hurt him a lot more if he’d wanted to. He started to think that he was in serious trouble after all.
Henry smiled slowly. Mike was creeped out and turned on in equal parts.
“If I said yes, what would you do?” Henry lowered his mouth to Mike’s neck, almost touching the skin. Mike couldn’t help but turn his head to the side, baring his neck. Henry’s hunger called to him. It was one of his stupid mind tricks. Henry placed his lips against Mike’s skin as if in reward, the most fleeting of brushes, and sent fire down his arteries and down his spine. He moved away again. “Yes,” Henry said. He kept placing barely-there kisses on Mike’s neck and jaw.
Mike couldn’t think, he just felt. It took a while before what Henry had said penetrated. “Why?” he croaked.
Henry slid his hands down to Mike’s and intertwined their fingers, drawing his arms up until his hands lay beside his head. He moved his head again, his hair tickling Mike’s cheek. “If I can’t have her, she can’t have you, either,” he whispered into Mike’s ear. He let go of Mike’s right hand, tipped his head back with one gentle finger, and kissed Mike’s lips.
“You have a strange way of dealing with competition,” said Mike.
Henry just continued kissing him. His kiss was like a drug, sweet and necessary, but poisonous. Mike wanted to resist, to push Henry away, but he just couldn’t. It felt too good, like fire running into his body through his lips and along his nerves. He shuddered with the pleasure. He became hungry for Henry’s taste. It wasn’t long at all before he just gave in. He moaned into the kiss. “More, more…” he whispered against Henry’s lips and Henry obliged and laid him out on the bed like a buffet, tasting him from head to toe while Mike moaned and writhed under his hands and lips. Mike’s own hands ran over every bit of Henry’s skin he could reach.
Henry groaned and stretched approvingly under his touch. Finally Henry reached the part of him that screamed most for his cruel and wonderful mouth and sucked him. It was delicious. Pleasure ran in waves across Mike’s body, leaving him wrecked, while he clawed the sheets and gasped. Just when he thought he couldn’t take it anymore, Henry growled around him, pulled off, and bit into his thigh. Mike came so hard he almost passed out.
***
Later Henry brought him Chinese food, but also bread, cheese, butter, meat, fruits and other necessities, like beer. He showed him where the kitchen was in the enormous dark stone maze/tomb Mike had dubbed the ‘Temple of Night’ in his mind, not that he would ever tell Henry. He also showed him some of the mysterious, hidden light switches. Mike chose to eat on Henry’s bed since he hadn’t seen anything resembling a table or chairs.
“You can go anytime,” Henry said. “You are not locked in.” He smiled evilly. “That is, if you can find the exit.” His face turned serious again. “I would not go anywhere if I were you, however. Christina will search for you. She would kill you just to spite me. And if you stay after dawn, I’ll have to tie you to the bed for my own protection.”
“What, you don’t trust me?”
Henry smiled at him, amused. “After you turned me over to a crazy vampire blood drinking inquisitor? No.”
“Aww, you hurt me. I thought we were past that.”
Henry disappeared for a while and came back with a set of heavy chains. Mike jumped out of bed. “Oh no! Is this how you treat all your house guests?”
Henry advanced with the chains. “If they want to stay the day.”
“Stop that!” Mike drew away from the other man.
Henry just looked at him with a dark smile and let him go. He placed the chains on the bed. “You want to play? We can do that. I am a predator. I like to play with my prey.” He swept the takeout cartons off the bed.
Mike tried to evade Henry but he was no match for the vampire. And he also had to be careful not to step into any Chinese food. Henry had him chained to the bed in less than five minutes. Then he kissed him softly. “Be good, and you won’t regret it,” he said.
“You’re just doing this for fun, admit it!” complained Mike. He tugged on the chains, testing their strength. They were long enough that he could move around the bed freely and was comfortable. Henry just smiled, took his clothes off, and curled up in a corner of the bed before dying for the day.
Mike lay there for a while, just watching his back, before he rolled over and snuggled against him.
***
Mike woke to another blowjob. At least that’s what he thought at first. He opened his eyes reluctantly and looked down at the messy bed head in the vicinity of his hip. Then he realized, that Henry was slowly drawing blood from his wrist. It just felt like sex. It was the fourth time in about three days. Mike thought he should start being concerned about the amount of blood still left in his body. “Hey, do I look like a pacifier to you?” he said.
Henry disengaged himself carefully from his wrist and licked the wound closed with that sinful tongue of his. “Well, you pacify me, so …”
Henry raised himself on his elbows and watched Mike hungrily, his gaze hot. A shudder ran down Mike’s spine. Henry started to purr, actually purr, like a cat.
He slowly crawled up Mike’s body on hands and knees. Mike didn’t dare to breathe out of fear that it would destroy the mood. He was so sensuous. So drop-dead gorgeous, sexy, terrific in bed. Mike couldn’t understand how Vicki could give this up. Was she insane?
Henry had reached his mouth and licked Mike’s lips. Mike moaned, granted him entrance, and wrapped his legs around him. He could feel Henry’s body warming against his. He thought it was an effect of the sex.
The chains dragged coolly over their bodies wherever Mike chose to stroke Henry’s warming skin. He tried to feel the pulse in Henry’s neck with his fingertips. Henry arched his neck obligingly and Mike followed with his mouth. His pulse was definitely faster than when he was just lying down. He bit the spot gently and Henry moaned, grabbed his chained wrists, and pressed them down into the bed with one hand. Not that he had too. Mike was totally willing, more than willing. He rubbed off against Henry, who thrust down. Then Henry eased off and Mike felt cool, lubed fingers at his hole. He whimpered and tried to get them deeper.
Henry laughed somewhere above. Mike tightened his legs around him and dragged him down to kiss him, feeling his fangs against his lips and tongue. It made him go crazy. Henry let go of his hands shortly and entered him slowly, still kissing him. Mike was deliciously stretched by his cock. He wriggled in Henry’s lap, getting used to the feeling of being filled. And then Henry started thrusting, hitting that one perfect spot over and over. Everything dissolved into divine almost unbearable pleasure, thrust for thrust. At some point he felt Henry’s fangs slide into the flesh over his heart, only to heighten his lust even more. He was drawn tighter and tighter between the points of pleasure in his body until he came in an explosion, and came again, and again. He didn’t even know how this was possible. Afterwards he was nothing more than a shuddering, limp dishrag. Henry nuzzled him contentedly and purred.
***
“So, you spent your nights in this atrocious labyrinth doing what? Brooding? Sulking? Thinking about Vicki?” Mike asked later, when they were cooling down.
Henry laughed out loud.
“I’m only asking, because I have to spend some time here, too, you know?”
“There’s a TV room somewhere, with a PC and a bar, if you can--”
“Find it? Can’t you just show me?”
Henry smiled. “I’m getting lost sometimes, too, you know. This structure is pretty complex. The only one who can really find her way around here is the charlady.”
“There’s a charlady?”
“Sure. Cleaning this thing is a fulltime job.”
“What kind of crazy vampire lived here, anyway?”
“Oh, she’s not crazy. She’s actually very astute.”
They lay there quietly for a while. Mike could feel that Henry was lost in his thoughts. Then the vampire asked him a question. “Do you still love Vicki?”
“Of course I love her. As a friend.” He stared up at the ceiling, thinking. “I really loved her, but I guess our relationship was just too volatile. I mean, she shot me. And it wasn’t an accident. Can you imagine what it feels like, to be shot by your lover?” Mike chuckled.
Henry looked down at him and smiled.
“I still loved her for a long time after that, but she just kept hurting me. And sometimes, if you keep getting hurt, you have to just let go.”
“I guess we have that in common.” said Henry as he placed his head on Mike’s shoulder.
After a while Henry got up.
“Where are you going?”
“Out. I have to kill Christina, remember?”
Mike sat up. “Are you sure you can take her?”
“Why? Are you worried?” Henry crawled back on the bed, half-clothed and kissed Mike’s forehead. “That’s sweet.”
“You don’t have to fight her. I could just stay here and hide. I mean, she’s your mother.”
“No, she’s my sire,” Henry corrected. He gave Mike another kiss, this time on his lips. “And you don’t really mean that. Besides, it’s not just about you. I can’t tolerate another vampire in my territory.”
He went and came back for two more nights. Mike was actually worried sick during that time. Then Henry came back with a triumphant grin on his face and bloody and ripped clothing, that spoke of how hard the fight had been. Mike kissed him thoroughly, feeling his fangs against his tongue. Henry growled and pushed him back breathlessly. “Mike, stop. I’m hungry.”
“So?” Mike reached for him again.
Henry evaded his grasp. “I can’t feed from you again. I already took too much in the last few days. You’re really pale. Another transfusion wouldn’t hurt you any.” He kissed Mike’s ear. “You can go home now - or to the hospital. Or maybe you should go to that nice Dr. Lambert. You can tell your partner that that model case is solved.”
Mike drew him back for one more kiss. “Why don’t you tell him yourself?”
“It would not be good if your partner saw me, Mike. It wouldn’t be pretty.”
“Why?”
Henry started turning away.
“Damn it! He’s not human, is he?”
“That depends on your definition, I guess.” Henry’s voice floated back in the darkness of the hallway.
“Great. Why do I always attract the freaks?”
Henry was back beside him in a flash and growled into his ear. “Do you want me to bite you after all?”
Mike blinked. “Is that a trick question?” He placed a hand on Henry’s cheek. The vampire leaned into the touch. “Will you be fine?”
“Yeah, I’ll just bite the charlady.” Henry started down the corridor.
“Is that part of the service?” Mike called after him.
Henry turned back and grinned at him.
***
After a visit to Natalie, Mike went to the squad room to look through the case files on his desk. A few days gone and a little bit of blood loss and he was totally off his game.
Suddenly he became aware of eyes on him. He turned around. It was Ellison, of course. No other human being actually had a gaze that burned itself into your back. “Umm, that model murder seems to be solved,” he said.
Ellison just nodded and kept staring at him consideringly. He seemed to see right into him. Mike had the feeling his partner somehow magically knew everything he had been up to the last few days just by looking at him. Mike felt pinned to the desk by his clear, electric blue eyes. He blushed.
***
Two weeks later they were hunting a serial rapist down the alleys. Why did they always have to run? Mike was getting too old for this crap. And Ellison was really in way too good shape for his age. “You go this way. I’ll try to cut him off,” Ellison said. They separated.
Mike ran after the man. The felon turned a few corners. After one of them Mike lost him. Ellison came from the other direction. They looked around mystified. Ellison looked up.
Their felon fell down from the fire escape and landed between them. Ellison picked him up, grabbed his head, and tilted his head back. He smirked. “Looks like a gift. I believe it’s for you.”
Mike bent over and looked at the felon’s neck. There were four neat puncture wounds, already healing.
“Beats a bunch of flowers, if you ask me.” Ellison said, still smirking.