Daysleeper Pt. II Ch. 11
Word Count: 2,360
Disclaimer: Vicki, Henry, Coreen and Mike are still not mine.
Part II
Chapter 11
“What goes through your head…” it wasn’t so much an inquiry but instead spoken out of wonder, Henry’s voice a mere suggestion. Vicki chose to remain where she was, not letting herself jump out of his grasp. The book in her arms sinking down onto the desk as the tension required to prop it up relaxed. She noticed the wind as it whipped around flinging branches against the window the stillness of the office a rare moment of quiet in a busy and vibrant city. The day had been long and taxing, besides it wasn’t like he wasn’t welcome at her neck. Henry was intrigued with her willingness to let him come so close after yesterday’s abrasiveness, the kiss he’d stolen from her still haunting his lips, enflaming him. The need that rose from it was like a gentle heat that burned away the memory of the random girl he’d found walking the alley next to an unopened club.
Vicki could feel his closeness as he ever so gently changed positions touching the tips of her hair. How much more could this moment be prolonged and where would it lead? In some shape or form they both thought this but didn’t dare think the other did as well. This moment only worked if Vicki allowed herself to pretend Henry wasn’t really there. The muscles in her shoulders began to relax as well as the painfully tender abdominal muscles as she drew a deep breath.
“Vicki, Henry’s here.” Coreen’s voice sounded overly loud in Henry’s ear, and no less annoying in Vicki’s peaceful moment. The tension was back in Vicki’s muscles as she cringed from her announcement. Henry hung his head when he saw Vicki pull away.
“Yeah ok Coreen.”
Henry took a second to compose himself, trying to hold his need back into the little box it needed to go so he could hold onto his mask of humanity for Vicki’s sake. Vicki tried not to think of what the woman in her dreams had said, or about the relief that flooded her body when he’d arrived, before Coreen had yelled his return. She straightened in her chair pretending like she’d been unaware that Henry had been hovering seconds ago. “So Henry you ready to go catch us some cheaters?”
No, Henry was not ready to let her go outside, nor was he ready to fight with her but at least he’d be able to have her to himself and take care of her. “Yes, shall we?”
Vicki tried not to smile, reminding herself there was nothing to smile about, she was only getting caught up on the enormous amounts of work she was now behind on. And try not to take note of the way his hand rested at the small of her back as they walked through doors, not guiding her but telling her silently I’m here if you fall I’m here.
They climbed into the car, and she started asking him into a corner he couldn’t yet see. “Have you fed tonight?”
“I have.” The royal formal mask was in place.
“Oh.” Was that regret in her voice? Henry hoped.
“Why?”
“Well since you’ve eaten this won’t be as fun for you as I’d planned. But what do you think of hunting again?”
“I’m not going to like this am I?”
“Alright so Coreen made this great chart and while its several pages long I only had her print out the ones that were clustering. Turns out that there were too many clusters to be ‘statistically plausible’.”
“Clustering? ‘Statistically plausible?’” He repeated as he turned the car on putting the heater on for Vicki.
“See there are several places that the cheaters all seem to come from, or work from whatever. Whenever there were commonalities, the list could be sorted out to identify the ones that had commonalities.” He couldn’t begrudge her good mood, yet he was irritated that they were going out at all when she should be in bed resting. Things seemed back to normal at least.
“So?”
“Now there are links to and in between some of the cases, at least the fact that the group that I hold in my hand has seven cheaters that all work in the same office area. Now five are past cases, and two are recent ones. I started out with this group because 1) they were the largest and 2) this company they all work for has a running tab for the employees so they can easily claim tax breaks at a local restaurant slash bar called the Winchester. So what I’m thinking is we go to the Winchester and all we need to do is find one bartender or several current cheaters and you vamp them interrogate them. Then hopefully a new connection and motivation to a previously lost cause.” Henry tried not to smile at her elaborate plan, he knew there was something bothering her deeply about the whole thing.
“And how is this supposed to be fun for me?” Henry couldn’t make it too easy for her.
“Did ya miss the part where you get to go to a bar?”
“Are you coming inside with me?” He caught her hand in his where it rested on the seat, looking into her eyes wondering if she was eating enough to gain her weight back.
“I would but see I’ve caused several of these cheaters’ divorces or at the very least separations.” She didn’t pull her hand away.
“Is that what you think? You were just doing your job.” Henry drove on to the address on the chart she’d shown him, still holding onto her hand, her soft hands as cold as his.
“Whatever, they won’t be happy to see me.” She pulled away her hand and looked out the window, watching the cityscape flash by them.
“Vicki it is not your fault they cheated, it’s just your job to catch them. If they knew cheating would ruin their marriage they should never have done it.” Henry could tell tracking down cheaters got on Vicki’s nerves and he hated seeing her be affected by so slight a cause.
“You aren’t defending them?” She whipped her head around.
“No they took a vow before God to stay true to one person. It’s not a covenant lightly taken.”
“Who are you and what have you done with Henry Fitzroy, Lord of Lechery, Duke of Richmond et cetera? Do you even suck blood anymore?” Vicki was back to her sarcasm.
“You don’t think I care about a person’s vows? Why?”
“I don’t know I just find it a bit odd that someone who gets as busy as you is defending marriage, and condemning cheaters. You’re not telling me that you haven’t broken up a marriage. I know you’ve helped break them up! You left your wife for Christina!” Vicki’s voice was rising, this chance was too easy for her and she wanted this fight, wanted to feel whole again not like the fragile sick person everyone had been treating her like lately.
“Yes I was married and it was arranged. Love had nothing to do with any of it.” Henry looked away. His voice quiet now all he wanted to do was get out of the car and away from this maddening woman, not wanting to fight her. “I have to feed to survive Vicki, it’s a choice but I’ve made it.” Henry could have gone on but he suddenly didn’t feel like talking about it with Vicki.
“And playing with your food is a choice too.” She was calmer but only because her chest had started to hurt her.
“We’re here, I’ll be going in now.” Ever the formal tone and it infuriated Vicki, There was something wrong with Henry’s head, had to be Vicki thought, for him not to see the irony, or contradictions in his opinions.
“Yeah except you’ll be needing the profiles and pictures of your targets.” Henry knew he couldn’t stay faithful to one person, he couldn’t just feed from person to person and discard them without thanking them for the gift of life that they were giving him.
Vicki believed that people when they loved each other enough stuck together, she couldn’t love a person and trust them with her heart only to know that she was going to be another notch in their belt. It wasn’t selfish it was fair, and why couldn’t Henry see that? When it came down to it Vicki was eternally a romantic and a commitment-phobe who believed she should be The One in another’s life. And Henry was a romantic eternal, eternally living and always bringing the romance, but he didn’t know the first thing about being committed to one person. It could never work. These thoughts and variations of which swirled around her mind as Vicki dozed off in the car.
She dreamt again of the blue forest.
“Why am I here?” She frowned at the beauty of the woods. It irritated her to have to be so preoccupied with matters of love and commitment.
“Why do you need an answer to everything? Are not some things allowed to merely be?”
“Fine then why me?”
“You really do not know Victoria?” Artemis took a deep breath, “Because you are me. The Virgin Huntress, lonely like the moon in her orb. You hunt as do I, you have strength but you are not allowed to love a man.”
“Yeah kinda too late for the virgin part and oh yeah... No one is going to tell me who I can and cannot love.” Vicki was angry why did she have to dream about these issues too?
“I did not say that you were incapable, but it is our lot to live without… satisfaction. And they called me a Virgin because I never married another.” The Goddess looked up at the sky, and Vicki caught sight of Orion again, his outline seemed to shimmer. There was something there that Artemis wanted her to know about but Vicki didn’t know what it was just yet. “There are other reasons as well but those will suffice for now.”
“But why?” Vicki couldn’t help the need to apparent in her voice, the sadness this information brought. Everything in the damned forest seemed like it was heightened and magnified, every emotion sharply felt refusing to be put away, the pain of the beauty threatening to bring out tears and she hated tears.
“It won’t be forever Victoria, and there are other ways.” Artemis came to sit next to Vicki.
“I never asked to be like you.” The words weren’t said so much as thought, like a reflex. “Besides it’s not like I have a choice.”
“I was not given a choice either. But would you trade all the lives you have saved for the life you would have wanted?” Her voices were sadder, stronger and all together more beautiful. Artemis looked into Vicki’s eyes with the sadness of many losses, the eyes of a huntress living the life that men were supposed to be living without the comfort of hearth and home to return to. Or at least the ones society meant for men to live, which meant they would never be accepted.
“I don’t know what that life would look like.” Vicki was glad this was just a dream because if anyone knew she thought these things it would probably destroy her. She tried not to think of what it meant to think herself so vainglorious as to be dreaming of a goddess that was taking an interest in her.
When Henry entered the bar he scanned the room for any of the subjects. The bar was a dark den with booths of green leather. They served the usual selection of beers and harder liquors designed to appeal to those who came to drown their office tedium in alcohol. There were also burgers and fries, fish and chips. To find a place to where others knew their name suddenly occurred to Henry. I’ve been hanging out with Vicki too long. That sounded corny even to me. But it was true there were a very few in the place that didn’t look completely comfortable, mostly ties were loosened, bartenders automatically serving before a word was spoken.
He spotted three of the cheaters immediately. Each and every single one surrendered information easily, but there was an odd resistance to his physical charms. Henry tried the full vamp effect on an especially young woman who looked like she knew several of the patrons though she was not on the list. She admitted to being much too young for the place, but she provided him with a wealth of information about who was dating whom. It turned out she was using her older sisters ID to get service in the place. Henry asked her one last question, “Why do you come here?”
“Because I want to live other lives, write stories with people I haven’t met yet. I can’t do that at home on my computer without plagiarizing. I need life experiences, and Starbucks isn’t my scene.” She was only sixteen and when she said that all the makeup she wore seemed to melt away, Henry saw an old soul who only lacked the experience. She was very convincing to the average person, her auburn hair worn in a bob, wearing a business suit that was a disturbingly good fit on her young figure. She even wore low highs like a woman who works all day would not a young fashionista would. Even the way she sat with her little laptop and her food there completely professional made him smile. He reinforced the vampiric command.
“You will keep yourself safe, and you will not take unnecessary risks. When you are ready, have come of age and are a writer look for Henry Fitzroy.” He knew she would look him up in another decade or so, she had the potential to be a great lover of humanity. And those were the ones who he suspected, that made the best vampires. Henry left, all the information in his head ready to be written down.
Disclaimer: Vicki, Henry, Coreen and Mike are still not mine.
Part II
Chapter 11
“What goes through your head…” it wasn’t so much an inquiry but instead spoken out of wonder, Henry’s voice a mere suggestion. Vicki chose to remain where she was, not letting herself jump out of his grasp. The book in her arms sinking down onto the desk as the tension required to prop it up relaxed. She noticed the wind as it whipped around flinging branches against the window the stillness of the office a rare moment of quiet in a busy and vibrant city. The day had been long and taxing, besides it wasn’t like he wasn’t welcome at her neck. Henry was intrigued with her willingness to let him come so close after yesterday’s abrasiveness, the kiss he’d stolen from her still haunting his lips, enflaming him. The need that rose from it was like a gentle heat that burned away the memory of the random girl he’d found walking the alley next to an unopened club.
Vicki could feel his closeness as he ever so gently changed positions touching the tips of her hair. How much more could this moment be prolonged and where would it lead? In some shape or form they both thought this but didn’t dare think the other did as well. This moment only worked if Vicki allowed herself to pretend Henry wasn’t really there. The muscles in her shoulders began to relax as well as the painfully tender abdominal muscles as she drew a deep breath.
“Vicki, Henry’s here.” Coreen’s voice sounded overly loud in Henry’s ear, and no less annoying in Vicki’s peaceful moment. The tension was back in Vicki’s muscles as she cringed from her announcement. Henry hung his head when he saw Vicki pull away.
“Yeah ok Coreen.”
Henry took a second to compose himself, trying to hold his need back into the little box it needed to go so he could hold onto his mask of humanity for Vicki’s sake. Vicki tried not to think of what the woman in her dreams had said, or about the relief that flooded her body when he’d arrived, before Coreen had yelled his return. She straightened in her chair pretending like she’d been unaware that Henry had been hovering seconds ago. “So Henry you ready to go catch us some cheaters?”
No, Henry was not ready to let her go outside, nor was he ready to fight with her but at least he’d be able to have her to himself and take care of her. “Yes, shall we?”
Vicki tried not to smile, reminding herself there was nothing to smile about, she was only getting caught up on the enormous amounts of work she was now behind on. And try not to take note of the way his hand rested at the small of her back as they walked through doors, not guiding her but telling her silently I’m here if you fall I’m here.
They climbed into the car, and she started asking him into a corner he couldn’t yet see. “Have you fed tonight?”
“I have.” The royal formal mask was in place.
“Oh.” Was that regret in her voice? Henry hoped.
“Why?”
“Well since you’ve eaten this won’t be as fun for you as I’d planned. But what do you think of hunting again?”
“I’m not going to like this am I?”
“Alright so Coreen made this great chart and while its several pages long I only had her print out the ones that were clustering. Turns out that there were too many clusters to be ‘statistically plausible’.”
“Clustering? ‘Statistically plausible?’” He repeated as he turned the car on putting the heater on for Vicki.
“See there are several places that the cheaters all seem to come from, or work from whatever. Whenever there were commonalities, the list could be sorted out to identify the ones that had commonalities.” He couldn’t begrudge her good mood, yet he was irritated that they were going out at all when she should be in bed resting. Things seemed back to normal at least.
“So?”
“Now there are links to and in between some of the cases, at least the fact that the group that I hold in my hand has seven cheaters that all work in the same office area. Now five are past cases, and two are recent ones. I started out with this group because 1) they were the largest and 2) this company they all work for has a running tab for the employees so they can easily claim tax breaks at a local restaurant slash bar called the Winchester. So what I’m thinking is we go to the Winchester and all we need to do is find one bartender or several current cheaters and you vamp them interrogate them. Then hopefully a new connection and motivation to a previously lost cause.” Henry tried not to smile at her elaborate plan, he knew there was something bothering her deeply about the whole thing.
“And how is this supposed to be fun for me?” Henry couldn’t make it too easy for her.
“Did ya miss the part where you get to go to a bar?”
“Are you coming inside with me?” He caught her hand in his where it rested on the seat, looking into her eyes wondering if she was eating enough to gain her weight back.
“I would but see I’ve caused several of these cheaters’ divorces or at the very least separations.” She didn’t pull her hand away.
“Is that what you think? You were just doing your job.” Henry drove on to the address on the chart she’d shown him, still holding onto her hand, her soft hands as cold as his.
“Whatever, they won’t be happy to see me.” She pulled away her hand and looked out the window, watching the cityscape flash by them.
“Vicki it is not your fault they cheated, it’s just your job to catch them. If they knew cheating would ruin their marriage they should never have done it.” Henry could tell tracking down cheaters got on Vicki’s nerves and he hated seeing her be affected by so slight a cause.
“You aren’t defending them?” She whipped her head around.
“No they took a vow before God to stay true to one person. It’s not a covenant lightly taken.”
“Who are you and what have you done with Henry Fitzroy, Lord of Lechery, Duke of Richmond et cetera? Do you even suck blood anymore?” Vicki was back to her sarcasm.
“You don’t think I care about a person’s vows? Why?”
“I don’t know I just find it a bit odd that someone who gets as busy as you is defending marriage, and condemning cheaters. You’re not telling me that you haven’t broken up a marriage. I know you’ve helped break them up! You left your wife for Christina!” Vicki’s voice was rising, this chance was too easy for her and she wanted this fight, wanted to feel whole again not like the fragile sick person everyone had been treating her like lately.
“Yes I was married and it was arranged. Love had nothing to do with any of it.” Henry looked away. His voice quiet now all he wanted to do was get out of the car and away from this maddening woman, not wanting to fight her. “I have to feed to survive Vicki, it’s a choice but I’ve made it.” Henry could have gone on but he suddenly didn’t feel like talking about it with Vicki.
“And playing with your food is a choice too.” She was calmer but only because her chest had started to hurt her.
“We’re here, I’ll be going in now.” Ever the formal tone and it infuriated Vicki, There was something wrong with Henry’s head, had to be Vicki thought, for him not to see the irony, or contradictions in his opinions.
“Yeah except you’ll be needing the profiles and pictures of your targets.” Henry knew he couldn’t stay faithful to one person, he couldn’t just feed from person to person and discard them without thanking them for the gift of life that they were giving him.
Vicki believed that people when they loved each other enough stuck together, she couldn’t love a person and trust them with her heart only to know that she was going to be another notch in their belt. It wasn’t selfish it was fair, and why couldn’t Henry see that? When it came down to it Vicki was eternally a romantic and a commitment-phobe who believed she should be The One in another’s life. And Henry was a romantic eternal, eternally living and always bringing the romance, but he didn’t know the first thing about being committed to one person. It could never work. These thoughts and variations of which swirled around her mind as Vicki dozed off in the car.
She dreamt again of the blue forest.
“Why am I here?” She frowned at the beauty of the woods. It irritated her to have to be so preoccupied with matters of love and commitment.
“Why do you need an answer to everything? Are not some things allowed to merely be?”
“Fine then why me?”
“You really do not know Victoria?” Artemis took a deep breath, “Because you are me. The Virgin Huntress, lonely like the moon in her orb. You hunt as do I, you have strength but you are not allowed to love a man.”
“Yeah kinda too late for the virgin part and oh yeah... No one is going to tell me who I can and cannot love.” Vicki was angry why did she have to dream about these issues too?
“I did not say that you were incapable, but it is our lot to live without… satisfaction. And they called me a Virgin because I never married another.” The Goddess looked up at the sky, and Vicki caught sight of Orion again, his outline seemed to shimmer. There was something there that Artemis wanted her to know about but Vicki didn’t know what it was just yet. “There are other reasons as well but those will suffice for now.”
“But why?” Vicki couldn’t help the need to apparent in her voice, the sadness this information brought. Everything in the damned forest seemed like it was heightened and magnified, every emotion sharply felt refusing to be put away, the pain of the beauty threatening to bring out tears and she hated tears.
“It won’t be forever Victoria, and there are other ways.” Artemis came to sit next to Vicki.
“I never asked to be like you.” The words weren’t said so much as thought, like a reflex. “Besides it’s not like I have a choice.”
“I was not given a choice either. But would you trade all the lives you have saved for the life you would have wanted?” Her voices were sadder, stronger and all together more beautiful. Artemis looked into Vicki’s eyes with the sadness of many losses, the eyes of a huntress living the life that men were supposed to be living without the comfort of hearth and home to return to. Or at least the ones society meant for men to live, which meant they would never be accepted.
“I don’t know what that life would look like.” Vicki was glad this was just a dream because if anyone knew she thought these things it would probably destroy her. She tried not to think of what it meant to think herself so vainglorious as to be dreaming of a goddess that was taking an interest in her.
When Henry entered the bar he scanned the room for any of the subjects. The bar was a dark den with booths of green leather. They served the usual selection of beers and harder liquors designed to appeal to those who came to drown their office tedium in alcohol. There were also burgers and fries, fish and chips. To find a place to where others knew their name suddenly occurred to Henry. I’ve been hanging out with Vicki too long. That sounded corny even to me. But it was true there were a very few in the place that didn’t look completely comfortable, mostly ties were loosened, bartenders automatically serving before a word was spoken.
He spotted three of the cheaters immediately. Each and every single one surrendered information easily, but there was an odd resistance to his physical charms. Henry tried the full vamp effect on an especially young woman who looked like she knew several of the patrons though she was not on the list. She admitted to being much too young for the place, but she provided him with a wealth of information about who was dating whom. It turned out she was using her older sisters ID to get service in the place. Henry asked her one last question, “Why do you come here?”
“Because I want to live other lives, write stories with people I haven’t met yet. I can’t do that at home on my computer without plagiarizing. I need life experiences, and Starbucks isn’t my scene.” She was only sixteen and when she said that all the makeup she wore seemed to melt away, Henry saw an old soul who only lacked the experience. She was very convincing to the average person, her auburn hair worn in a bob, wearing a business suit that was a disturbingly good fit on her young figure. She even wore low highs like a woman who works all day would not a young fashionista would. Even the way she sat with her little laptop and her food there completely professional made him smile. He reinforced the vampiric command.
“You will keep yourself safe, and you will not take unnecessary risks. When you are ready, have come of age and are a writer look for Henry Fitzroy.” He knew she would look him up in another decade or so, she had the potential to be a great lover of humanity. And those were the ones who he suspected, that made the best vampires. Henry left, all the information in his head ready to be written down.