Cause of Henry and Henry and….
All characters belong to the writers of Being Human SyFy and Blood Ties. I own nothing and write only for entertainment. No copyright infringement intended.
Rating: not suitable for minors. At least age 16.
Location; from Boston to Toronto, Canada.
Characters: Henry Durham, Aidan Waite, Josh Levinson, Sally Malik, Henry Fitzroy, Vicki Nelson, Dr. Rajani Mohadevan and original male and female characters.
The story takes place after Aidan was resurrected from his grave and the vampire flu epidemic is at its worst.
Chapter 1
The night was dark and the front lights of the cream colored Volvo pierced through the heavy fog which seemed to crawl over the highway like a liquid white mass. Aidan was staring through the windshield with narrowed eyes. Even for him and his vampire eyesight it was not easy not to lose track on this road.
They were driving from Boston to Canada since hours.
The flu had wasted the city and its urban areas and to get blood that was untainted had become a problem. The epidemic had overrun the human population who provided themselves with a vaccination or simply fought it down. Strangely the virus had spread over to the vampires by drinking or contact with blood from sick people. Despite the word that a vampire could not get inflicted by sickness or death itself, it had developed a deadly threat for them. Some of them, who were of more mind when it came to science, discussed if the virus was a mutation within vampires that went to destroy their cellular structure and so causing sickness and finally death by dissolving into dust as if they had been staked usually.
Aidan couldn´t take his eyes from the highway but he heard the calm breathing of his son Henry beside him in the passenger´s seat. The navigation screen showed him a remaining distance of some 35 miles, which could become the same distance like from earth to the dark side of moon under the currently conditions.
This was a travel out of sheer desperation. Not that Aidan had any hope to find a cure in general but he has had a long quarrel with Josh and Sally who had tried to urge him in staying. Josh himself couldn´t offer a possibility to stop the epidemic. He was a nurse, no scientist, who was educated in genetic engineering or development of vaccines. Most of the vampires in and around Boston had died or run from the town and the whole area as in old times of the plague. After a dispute about staying or running that had spread over two weeks, Aidan had decided to take his son with him in order to save both lives until a cure was found.
Finally Josh and Sally gave in, recognizing that taking refuge anywhere far from Boston was the best in the moment.
The miles ran through under the wheels and the monotone sound of them on the moist asphalt had lulled Henry into a semi-sleep. Aidan was concentrating onto the lane and after a while a coughing sound let twitch him. He reduced the speed and shot Henry a closer look.
"What´s up, Henry?" Aidan sounded more than concerned.
Not him!
Not my son!
The thought let his mind tumble over.
Henry answered his look. He shoved himself up a bit in his seat and shook his head.
"No...nothing. Just choked on my own saliva..." Henry mumbled and he cleared his throat.
Aidan´s view was full of doubt, but he told himself not to turn up on it. He had gotten overly nervous since the plague had spread around humans and vampires the last few weeks.
"...kay..." Aidan mumbled and tried to concentrate onto the road again. The car navigation showed some 5 miles to Toronto.
They would find any shelter amidst such a large town, hopefully far away enough from Boston to be safe from the disease, he thought. When he drove the car up onto the highway that would lead them through the city, Aidan went on after a long pause.
"I got us this little hotel near…what is it...near Queens Park Crescent. Nothing famous, just simple...we can stay there among a herd of students for a while as a base of walking the streets in search for some clean blood...Maybe I should get us food from a club..."
"That won´t be safe..."
"Or hang out at the hospital´s back yard, waiting for guys coming out of the blood donor department"
"May..be..." Henry yawned and his voice trailed off when he sank back in his seat. Aidan watched him with knitted brows.
Was Henry simply tired or was something really going into the wrong direction with him? To calm his concern Aidan kept up with the first option. Henry had survived decades, against all odds and he had lived in the streets for long, hiding, surviving. He knew how to be careful. The fog inside the city of Toronto wasn´t less than outside. Probably the nearness to the giant Lake Ontario was the reason. The dim light despite the lamps in the streets reminded Aidan of London. He had been there as a kid before his father settled over to Massachusetts. He allowed himself a short moment of memories of the overcrowded city of his childhood, before he turned right into the smaller Baldwin Street. The street was empty at this time but for a few pedestrians. The weather was no invitation for a walk and he hoped that fog wasn´t the standard for Toronto.
"I don´t wanna roam Toronto like the grim Reaper or this mad guy from Stoker´s grace...Dracula. The only thing I won´t need is a waving velvet cape! And a hissing!" Aidan bared his fangs and let out a hissing gnarl in a copy of Lugosi. Only his hands fixed on the steering wheel kept him from bowing down and to spin an imaginary cape.
Henry shot him a skeptical look, shook his head and let himself sink back into his seat.
Huron Street, Nelson Investigations
Vicki closed the file and put down her glasses, her fingertips massaging the base of her nose. A gesture she always did when her weakening eyes grew tired. Since the diagnosis of a progressive Retinitis Pigmentosa ward her off from the Police Service, she worked as a private investigator.
"Shall I stay in the office, Ms. Nelson or can I...?" a girl or rather young woman asked her while she set down the hot cup of tea in front of her boss. She wore a mini skirt with a red tartan design and Vicki watched critically how the material draped tightly around her hips. Her legs where covered by black lace tights and the heels of her shoes were some four inches high. Vicki wondered how her assistant could walk around on them the whole day and parts of the night. She herself preferred booties with a flat sole. Way better when it came to hunt down a villain.
"No, it´s okay, Coreen...You can leave now. Henry will come in soon..." she looked at her watch; "...sundown is ahead but I don´t think he can make use of this thick fog. No UV protection! Sadly. Sometimes I wish it would be different..."
"Thank you Ms. Nelson. Then I can go to the club sooner. But you should not complain about Henry...he does what he can to help you. He´s such a nice guy, Ms. Nelson and you should really sometimes be somewhat more..." Coreen answered with a smile. Before she could went on, Vicki interrupted her;
"Be somewhat more...what? More...open?" Vicki watched her with knitted brows.
"For example! Henry...he always tries to...convince you to be a bit more...uhm...a bit more receptive for his charm, Ms. Nelson. If...you ask me...I mean, if he would ask me for, I would say Yes without even thinking about it!" Coreen shot her a grin, her hand at her heart.
"Do you try to suggest I shall say Yes, only to be pulled into his bed...like his meal-on-legs?" Vicki´s voice sounded pissed.
"Ms. Nelson! Henry would never look at you as a simple meal-on-legs! I really don´t understand how you can mistake his courtship as a sourcing of...food? Oh my god! He loves you!" Coreen stared at her in pure disbelief.
"We still had this theme a short time ago. I told you; a half blind PI and a vampire! That won´t run well!" Vicki protested and set the cup of tea back onto the table where she barely missed the pack of files in front of her.
"Damn eyes!" she cursed to herself, then directed to her assistant; "Look, this is the damn evidence! I can´t even manage this damn cup without spilling the tea!" She resigned with a sigh and turned her view to the window where the sunset now progressed but they hadn´t seen any sun since two days because of the persisting fog. The grey vision added to her mood.
The last case had been a guy cheating his wife. This nerd hadn´t tried to hide it a bit more and Vicki had felt no pity with his wife. The woman had been walking through her life blindfolded, didn´t recognize all the small hints that her matrimony had gone down the drain long ago. Vicki couldn´t understand how blind she had been. She never would have allowed a man to betray her like this. But his wife had simply been stupid. She earned no better.
Coreen watched her boss, then, when Vicki gave her a nod, she smiled slightly.
"Good night, Ms. Nelson! And take a rest...Henry wouldn´t like it when you would become ill because of being an investigationholic!"
"Investigationholic?"
"Yup!" Coreen closed.
Damn, her assistant was very creative with generating new vocabulary. Shaking her head she looked at her, bit her a good night and Coreen left. The door fell shut with a soft pong.
Some streets ago from Vicki´s office, a man in a leather jacket strolled along the sidewalk, watching the people who were waiting in front of the entrance to a club. One from a lot of clubs in the university district. The mostly young guests elbowed their way through the entrance where a guard checked their ID´s for the appropriate minimum age of 21 because the club served alcohol.
Aidan sucked up the smell of warm bodies. The promise of nutrition. Blood. The expectation let rise his hunger. He hadn´t fed in a while but he had to be careful now. Point one; he was in another city, didn´t know the level up to which people were willing to give in into blood-letting. Boston has had his blood dens where it had been so easy and safe to feed. The plague had not only changed this but wasted Boston in an unimaginably way. Point two; he didn´t know anything about a potential threat that was probably hiding within these bodies. No information had come down to Boston about any spreading to cities in a large distance. What doesn´t mean that it was safe. Simply a lack of information. He could only hope for a safe shelter and source for him and his son. They had split up this evening to make a feeding relatively safe. Not so good to act as a pair and then to be caught up amidst a feeding in a dark back yard of a club or house.
When the guard had checked Aidan´s ID, he entered the dimly lighted club. It was rather dark than anything. Tables and seats arranged along the walls in half round alcoves, the center of the main room was made up as a dance floor. Spotlights painted their colorful patterns on the ground and the dancing guests.
The music was loud and Aidan had to adapt to it. It was a strong difference to the silence of the last 15 months which he had spent grounded. He walked over the dance floor when the DJ finished a song and some of the guests went back to their alcoves again. His eyes adapted to the semi dark and the circling lights very fast. Inside the club the air seemed to vibrate from heat, the heat that emanated from the bodies of the dancers. A mixture of perfume, sweat and blood that he could almost smell through the skin. When he reaches one of the alcoves the smell of blood grew more intense. By instinct he followed it and he saw a young woman sitting on a seat. She was wearing high heel sandals and one of it was shoved under the table. She sighed and her left ankle was lifted onto her right knee. Her fingers felt for the bow of the ankle and Aidan saw that a scratched blister was the reason.
"May I help you, Miss?"
"Ugh. Guess not...really...", she mumbled while she tried to suck up some liquid from the blister with a tissue; "This damn strap! These things had cost me a lot...only to ruin my feet the first evening I´m gonna dancing!" She looked up and shot Aidan a smiling view. Her lips were softly curved and she wore a lipstick in a restrained red tone and some decent rouge on her cheeks. All to flatter her beautiful face. Not one of these girls who buried themselves under layers of make-up in garish colors and styling.
The decent make-up made her look natural.
"You should not do that..." Aidan directed to her ankle.
"What?"
"You should not use a tissue to suck this up. Small particles of this material may cause a slight inflammation that delays the healing..."
"Are you a doctor?" She said smilingly and let the tissue drop. Aidan sighed, bit his tongue. The slight smell of the blood made the animal rising within him. The animalistic side of a vampire. God, he hadn´t fed in a while and now he had to keep himself back. Get that under control or you will go right for her wrist or her throat, he commanded to himself. He brought his face under control, smiled at her.
"No. No doctor, just a nurse..."
"A nurse! Did they hire you for this job?" Obviously she thought him to be part of the club´s staff.
"No. I´m in for some fun...I´m off shift now and try to relax a bit..." Aidan took the seat beside her and carefully grabbed her ankle to check it.
"You gonna have a band-aid?" she asked.
"No, but I will get you one. They should have it." Aidan rose from his seat and went over to the bar. He waved to the waiter and the man nodded, came over to him.
"Two cola please..."Aidan ordered ; "And do you have a band-aid for my girlfriend? She scratched her ankle..."
"Yeap..." the waiter filled up to glasses with Cola, putting them on the bar and then he dived under the counter. When he came up again, he reached Aidan a band-aid.
"Would that do?" he asked.
"Yes, thank you. How much?" Aidan directed to the glasses.
"Eight bucks. Band-aid is for free..."
"Nice service..." He paid and took the Cola and went back to the young woman.
Aidan bent down and taped the band-aid over the open blister on her ankle, set her foot gently down to the ground. Carefully she slipped back into the sandal and smiled.
"Thank you, you are so kind..."
"You´re welcome! Wanna drink something? I ordered us some Cola. Little refreshment. I´m gonna need that right now. The shift was strenuous..." Aidan answered and he bent nearer, inhaling her scent. It was tempting but he kept himself back.
When they would be outside there would be time enough to care for his hunger, he thought. The club was crowded and it won´t be good idea to feed in here. Too much witnesses. The risk was too high that anybody could be approaching just in the wrong moment.
The woman sipped on her glass and Aidan drank too.
He could manage some stuff by experience, had tried this and that. As long as it didn´t contain any specific herbs like juniper or garlic his body could cope with it in small amounts. Cola was a mixture of water, caffeine, sugar and aroma...nothing dangerous.
The DJ put on some new music and Aidan took advantage of the situation.
"Any minds if we dance? Do you think your ankle can handle this? Only one dance?" Aidan suggested and the woman nodded. She rose from her seat and Aidan grabbed her hand, led her to the dance floor. It reminded him of his human days when he had begged a lady for a dance on a ball in one of the better houses. As an soldier in uniform he had access to the society of Boston, in the trail of some highly-decorated officers. Aidan had reached the level of a Lieutenant. Not that bad for a man descending from a family of a pressman. His father had founded a printing office. And Aidan had wanted to succeed him in it. But the war and Bishop had made his plans going down the drain.
Aidan and the woman were moving over the dance floor and he fell into the rhythm easily. Step by step he came nearer to her, laying an arm around her hip, the other around her shoulder. Obviously she didn´t mind and he bent his head to her shoulder. Her smell was tempting. He felt his fangs itching to fall, bit down hard and kept his lips closed until he felt them retracting again.
Wrong moment.
"What´s your name? For sure not Nurse...!" She laughed gently, lifted her head to look in his face. Fortunately Aidan had brought his facial expression back under control.
"Aidan." And before she could ask more he went on;
"And what is yours, honey?"
"Isabel. My mom called me Isabelle. That´s French. My mom is from France...we came over here before I was born..."
"And your daddy? Is he from France too?" Aidan replied and gently maneuvered her slightly in direction of the back side exit that lead to the court outside. Probably. But mostly the clubs had exits to the back yard. Guests tended to go outside for special purposes. He smiled on the inside and it was shining through, giving his face such a trustworthy expression.
He knew pretty well about the effect he could have on women if everything was going well. Beside compelling them.
"My daddy is from here. His parents came over here from England in 1941...They left cuz of World War 2..."
"So they were refugees?"
"Uhm...partly. Their home in London was destroyed and my Grandpa was afraid for his five children. So they decided to leave..." She tilted her head to the side, licked her lip and looked into Aidan´s eyes which stayed human. When he smiled at her confidentially, Isabel laid her head against Aidan´s shoulder and he closed his arms around her more tightly. She cuddled into his embrace.
Slowly they had arrived the back exit and Aidan whispered into her ear;
"Wanna go outside for a moment? It´s pretty hot in here..." his voice became a bit more suggestive, compelling.
"Oh...yes...let´s get some fresh air..." She willingly turned over a bit, hooked under and opened the door by herself. Aidan was all too willing to simply follow her.
That went on better than expected.
Outside the club the air was fresh and cool and she shuddered a bit. Aidan put an arm around her protectively. Her head sank onto his shoulder and he softly kissed her neck under the right ear, felt her twitch and she giggled softly. She seemed to feel comfortable with him. He kissed her again and she lifted her head a bit, presenting him the side of her throat.
Was she probably used to vampires on a regular base?
Was there any blood den here in Toronto? I should find that out, he thought for a second before he licked over the side of her neck, trailed down from her ear to her cleavage and up again.
Her scent was amazing, tempting. She moaned softly when it tickled a bit. His tongue was warm and soft and velvety and he leaked up and down. His lips split and his fangs dropped, his eyes slowly turned bled black. Aidan kissed her again before he pressed the tips of his fangs with soft pressure on her skin.
Only shortly before they would break through the delicate skin of her throat. His hand went down to her butt, his fingers felt for the tight line that led to her most sensitive point. His touch distracting her from what went on at her throat. Her pleasure would shade the moment he would bite down...
Isabel twitched and he felt her legs opening a bit, giving him better access when she leant into his embrace...
Aidan breathed deeply and put more pressure onto his fangs, inhaling her scent. She moaned again when his fingers pleasured her and he...
A hand grabbed his shoulder with raw force and he was brutally separated from Isabel. The next moment he was whirled against the moist wall of the club.
"WHAT...?" he cursed.
He was answered by a loud growl.
Aidan´s head was humming and he pushed off the wall with both arms, going for the one who had attacked him.
"What the hell is going on with you, Henry?" he cursed when he moved forward. Why did his son...? Disturb his feeding?
The light in the court yard was barely lighting the whole back space and the figure in front of him looked like...
...Henry.
A slightly younger Henry. The hair only a bit longer, a bit more curly caused by its length. Before he found time to wonder about what his eyes showed him, hands grabbed his shoulders again and pushed him against the garbage can with such force, that his shoulder seemed to crack under the collision.
"DARE YOU!" his attacker shouted at him and Aidan pushed himself forward, ramming his bent head into the chest of his opponent.
A deep groan, followed by a dark growl answered his counter attack and Aidan threw himself forward, his fist hit the side of the head, made his attacker stumble back and falling to the ground. With preternatural speed he was up onto his feet again and the next moment hands closed around Aidan´s throat, pushing him backwards again. Aidan closed his fingers around the other´s wrists, pulling with full force. He went forward, fangs bared, growling like a wolf. The grip around his throat broke when Aidan managed it to free his throat. He turned his hand, pulling the wrist with him and a scream answered his movement, when he felt the wrist dislocating.
"RUN! RUN ISABEL!" Aidan shouted at his woman who stared at both of them with eyes widened in fear. "RUN, Isabel. Get out of here!"
Within a moment the right hand of the other was out of action but his opponent seemed to be beside himself with rage. He jumped forward, fangs bared, eyes bled black. The left hand closed under his throat, pressing down onto his Adam´s apple and Aidan went short with breath. He growled when nails broke through the skin and for a split second he saw white fangs glistening only inches from his face.
Four fangs.
In the upper jaw.
Josh had four fangs in werewolf state. Two in the upper and two in the lower jaw.
Distracted for a moment Aidan lost his balance and the other vampire took advantage of it. A mere second later Aidan was lying on the ground, back down, the other one kneeling on his chest with one leg, the other leg on Aidan´s left arm. He seemed to have such strength that he was able to hold him down by this with only one hand to support him. Aidan tried to rise, to throw the other vampire off his chest but a left-handed hook hit his right temple with such force, Aidan went dizzy for a moment.
He fell back and stared at his opponent, breathing hard. The fact that he hadn´t fed since days in an attempt to avoid tainted blood, had weakened him contrary to his normal strength when he could feed regular.
Aidan tried to relax a bit so that he would be able to breathe better, releasing his chest from the weight of his attacker. The face of the other one hung directly over him and he hissed through his teeth;
"Wherefrom do you know my NAME?" His face distorted with rage. His breath streamed over Aidan´s face in short gasps. Obviously it had cost his opponent some effort to fight him down.
At least! Aidan thought with some satisfaction. He seemed not to be invincible when also in the moment he definitely was the stronger one. When he would catch his breath again he would be able to make use of a moment of surprise to get the upper hand again.
Only a moment.
His head was pressed down hard onto the wet asphalt. The grip of the other vampire was merciless and his head lowered a bit more, his voice rising when he repeated his question impatiently.
"From WHERE do you know me? Answer or I will smash your throat! Who are you that you dare to hunt in my territory?"
"Name..." Aidan choked under the grip. He coughed. "Name! I mistook you...for...some...one else..." he brought out with effort. His voice hoarse.
"You have mistaken me for someone else? Who?" he put force in his voice, his brows knitted and the pressure onto Aidan´s throat rose a bit for a moment, just to make sure who was the stronger one now.
"Must...not...tell...YOU!" Aidan choked and he tried to move but the grip was merciless and when he tried to move, it let a pain rise in his whole head. His temple pounded in the rhythm of his heartbeat.
"I could have killed you easily!" the vampire hissed into his face with disgust.
Aidan tried to watch over to the side, out of the corner of his eye. The place where he had left Isabel or more correct, where they were split by the attack.
Isabel was gone. Fortunately. Got herself out of here safely.
Fighting vampires.
Not the thing you wanna get involved with on an evening that had begun so nicely.
His evening wasn´t nice anymore. Not for Aidan.
"WHO. ARE. YOU?" the other one forced onto him, his grip growing harder for a second. Simply to give more weight to it.
"Wha..what is..that...terri...tory thing?" Aidan brought out with some effort when the grip gave in a bit so he was able to speak in a low voice.
"You crossed the border to Toronto without my permission! This city is mine! Whoever you are, vampire!" the other one hissed at him, his face a mask of anger.
"Where...I come..from...no...no territo...ry!" Aidan pressed out.
"I didn´t allow you to enter Toronto!"
"Strange...I...not...gotten...burn up!" Aidan replied, his half suppressed voice even able of dripping with some cynicism.
Aidan had some time to study his enemy more closely.
The facial features let him look like a slightly younger brother of his son. Curly hair framed a face that seemed to be not older then some twenty-two, twenty-three years. But this could be deceiving. Aidan himself was more than 260 years old and he looked like mid-twenties. Black eyes were hiding any natural color and Aidan wondered which it would be. The poor light was shading colors, even for him but what he got, his hair must have been light brown.
But the most astonishing fact was his set of doubled fangs in the upper jaw. Canines and the first and fourth incisor were impressively sharp and prolonged. Aidan had seen them drop, so he should be able to retract them too.
Definitely he was of another species of vampires, if one could call this different species, than him. Aidan had never before met any other species of vampires. But if there were turned and pure-bred werewolves, why not different types of vampires. Maybe he was pure-bred some way or another.
"You didn´t answer any of my questions! " the other reminded him in an angry voice.
"I don´t have to! I don´t care for your territory thing!" Aidan growled.
He choked and coughed when the pressure onto his throat rose again,
"You should care for!" it underlined his opinion about his uninvited intruder. "Last time! Who are you and where do you come from that you dare to walk my streets?"
"I´m from...Boston!" Aidan brought out half choked.
"WHO. ARE. YOU? Name! You should have one!"
"Won´t tell...yo..." The pain told Aidan that was the wrong answer.
What for? Maybe he should give in before this vampire would crunch his larynx, he thought.
"...kay..." Aidan choked. "I´m Aidan..."
"And more? Aidan who?"
"You won´t know me...I´m...sure..."
"That will show up itself! Who are you? The weight on his chest moved slightly.
"Aidan...Waite..." He fought for breath and when he could breathe again, he went on; "I´m coming from Boston...as...told you...I fled from a plague!...Just...wanna...be safe he..."
The other vampire jumped back, hissing, letting him go and stood some feet away from him suddenly when he heard the word plague. His face with a hint of fear.
Plague.
"You dare gonna spread a disease in here!" he shouted at Aidan.
"I don´t spread any disease! I´m...healthy! Aidan protested and tried to sit up. After a few moments he managed it to sit up with a groan. His head hurt like hell from the onslaught.
Aidan managed it to rise upon his feet again, shaken as he was. In annoyance he stared at the other vampire who now stood in some safe distance from him. As if he was afraid to catch some unknown disease.
Aidan felt not totally steady on his legs. But he moved forward now, determined to finish this now. No vampire-any-who simply handled him like crap. Territory! He walked forward, his face grim with determination. He got his fists ready either to attack or to defend himself when the other would start a new fight. His head was humming from hitting the ground and from the attempt to almost strangle him.
But he put this aside now.
"Who are you that you are gonna friggin acting like king anybody? I´m a free man and I can walk wherever I want! What is that crap with a territory, he?" He came nearer and the facial expression of the other vampire switched back to anger.
"YOU are the one crossing not only this, but every border by hunting in my own territory and then to have the arrogance to put my founded right into question! I should have killed you right away the first moment I had you down with your face in the mud!" the other vampire rose his fists and with preternatural speed landed a hard left handed hook that made Aidan stumble backwards. Aidan growled and threw himself onto his opponent, driving him backwards again.
Within a second Aidan had him on the ground and when he grabbed for the pale throat under his fingers, going into a strangle, anything hit him on the head from backwards and his lights went off. Aidan fell flat on his opponent who rolled him off to the right side, jumping up onto his feet again.
"Is it me again to save your royal butt, Henry? " a woman asked with some amusement in her voice.
"I would have had him ready a few moments later, if you would have left something over for me!" the vampire smirked at her.
Vicki looked down on the man who seemed to be unconscious.
"Who´s that man that you got trouble with him?"
"Getting trouble with him? More correctly; going into trouble with him! Vicki…I´m really…!" he began.
"Who is he? Normally you get people down without any problems, the only case…" Vicki began and crouched herself down beside Aidan, checking him for an ID as long as he wouldn´t wake up again.
"He´s a vampire! He came to Toronto without my definite permission or invitation! He´s nothing but an intruder, up to hunt in my territory!" Fitzroy´s voice was dripping from anger and contempt.
"Don´t ever tell that Mike! He´s sated from the last time some vampires were up to give you their regular visit. First Christina, and then in her footsteps; Alexander, her fledgling."
"You´re right Vicki! I had been too unaware over the last months. Things were going well for me and with my territory and I kept no special guard on it. It´s my fault!" Fitzroy confessed while he watched Vicki searching with professionalism through the pockets of the other vampire.
"He will get a real fine bruise. You´re having a strong left handed hook!" Vicki grinned when she watched a broad bruise developing where Fitzroy´s fist had hit Aidan´s temple.
"I have had some training, Vicki!"
"Especially since you walked along with me, Henry."
"With you along, my life became a bit more…adventurous and varied…"
"I got you away from your desk! That´s it. No more the calm life of a five-hundred year old graphic novel artist!" She grinned and opened the ID card.
"Hm…let´s see…who we got here…!
"Does his ID fit with what he has told me?" Fitzroy asked and bent over Vicki, taking over her Mag-lite. Because of her bad eyes she used a large sized lamp, which in case of an emergency, could be used as a weapon instead.
"Hm, he is a Waite, Aidan Waite from 3638 Mayford, Boston, Ma. His driver´s license, a credit card from a bank in Boston and…oh, what do we have here…? An ID-card from Boston Suffolk County hospital! Verifies him as a nurse! Henry…you nearly killed a poor nurse!" Vicki sounded accusingly.
"Nurse! Maybe he is, but foremost he is an intruding vampire. I will call Augustus! Maybe he knows of any Aidan Waite from Boston…"
"Okay, Henry…but maybe he´s simply any vampire, a newbie with no territory! Or think about Mick from L.A. They don´t live in separated territories. They have a community, a thing your royal brain would never accept, Henry!"
She watched Aidan intensely, searched for any signs of a reawakening consciousness but Henry´s left handed hook had sent him deep into the land of vampire dreams. Whatever dreams vampires may have, she thought; if this Aidan ever dreamed. She noticed that Henry had carefully wrapped his left hand around his right wrist.
"You gotten hurt?" she asked.
"He dislocated my wrist…" Fitzroy gnarled through clenched teeth and felt for the swelling wrist.
"Gimme your hand!" Vicki ordered and hesitantly he reached her his wrist. "Okay. Relax, Henry…!" Vicki felt for the injury, took a deep breath and concentrated herself onto the task. With one movement she pulled and turned at the same time and with a distinct snap the hand went back into the correct position while Henry answered her action with a barely suppressed scream.
"Na…"
"Thanks…!" he gasped and wiped his hand carefully.
"If we would have waited until we would reach Rajani, it would have become worse and more painful. Unless she would have shot you some morphine…" Vicki grinned.
"No. I really got enough morphine not all too long ago, Vicki. That will do for the next few centuries!" he brought up into the game the fact, that he had become very sick after Mike had shot him by accident and a damn witch had tried to kill him, taking advantage of his former condition.
"You should bandage it and take a good gulp of blood to heal…"
"Thanks for the recommendation, Dr. Nelson!"
Vicki smiled and slipped into a pair of surgical gloves like the police used them for investigations. She pulled up one of Aidan´s lids and saw a black pupil.
"Okay…vamped out as it looks. He has…" her left thumb and index finger pulled up his upper lip.
"Vicki!" Henry warned her. What if this Aidan came back to life out of a sudden.
"That won´t be the first time I would have been bitten by a vampire, Henry! Still forgot?" she reminded him of the fact that he had drunken from her more than once.
She went on with her examination.
"…kay. He has only two fangs. Definitely not your species and his eyes are bled black. So he´s none of the L.A. vamps…they get bright ones.
"Be careful, Vicki!" Fitzroy repeated when she went on without hesitation.
"Why? What´s up? You have sent him to Vampy Dreamland thoroughly!" she replied his concerned words.
"Be careful! It´s earnest, Victoria!"
The Victoria let her turn around her head to watch him closer. Because of the RP she couldn´t watch him out of the corner of her eye, made him getting her full attention now.
"Why?" she only asked.
"He told me something about a plague that is spreading in Boston, Vicki! Plague! That means pestilence!"
"I didn´t hear about any outbreak of pestilence in Boston. That isn´t so far and the Canadian Health administration would have taken care of it! Believe me! You know what went on here some twenty years ago, when in India they had an outbreak of the plague! They weren´t far from chasing all these poor India immigrants into an isolation area!"
Vicki felt for Aidan´s lymph node at his throat.
"As far as I can say it; not swollen, not hardened. His skin is rather cold, I think he hadn´t fed for some time…okay, he…oops, he is coming up again!" Vicki stood up and brought herself a few steps backwards into some safety distance.
A vampire, awakening and hungry, wasn´t kind of calculable.
When Aidan opened his eyes with a deep groan, his hand went for the backside of his head by reflex. He felt for his temple and when he brought his hand in front of his narrowing eyes, he sighed when he found them free of blood. Good luck no open wounds.
Fitzroy readied himself for another fight but obviously this Aidan was a bit too weakened for further actions.
Aidan sat up with a moan and stabilized himself with one arm. Carefully he pulled his legs under his body, kneeling and then rising up to finally standing in the dark courtyard.
"God! Who is this woman? Or please tell me there´s a cement mixer running! Outside my head!" he mumbled. His look turned over to the other vampire and the woman beside him, checking for a weapon that really could become dangerous for him like a stake or a sword.
But there was none, for the moment. A stake could simply be hidden under a jacket or coat.
Aidan liked to play rather carefully now when he stepped back in direction of the club. The woman stepped into his path.
"Stop!" she demanded, "So simply we won´t let you run! You got in a fight with my partner and…"
"You tried to split my head!" Aidan countered with a low growl.
"I had to come to his help! That´s what you also would do for your partner or friend!"
"My son…" Aidan brought in with a whisper.
Vicki looked at Henry, then turned back to Aidan.
"You´re having a son? How old are you?"
"Yes! I have had a son! And I have had a wife once. And now I have a son and to make sure, that you can´t think you´ll get me over so easily…YES! I´m not alone in your town! He´s with me! We came over here in the hope to find some shelter. This city of yours has two millions of inhabitants! Don´t you think that would be enough blood for a few of our kind? In Boston, where I came from, there had been dozens! Not only one or two!" Aidan had been gaining momentum now.
He was determined to stand his field.
This wasn´t the first time, and won´t be the last one, that he was confronted by any hostile vampire. He knew how to handle it.
Fitzroy stared at him, then he turned his head to Vicki, directing to Aidan with his still pounding finger; "He called me by my name! Wherefrom does he know?" Then he went face to face with Aidan despite the fact that his hand was still injured and would be a handicap in a new fight. But what for?
"Wherefrom do you know my name?" His voice insisting, his eyes bled black, fangs bared. His whole figure showing the royal blooded vampire prince he really was.
"What? Henry…? What does confuse you so much about it? I told you, I had mistaken you for Henry, my son, when you suddenly…disturbed my moment with the young lady!" Aidan spat at him and made a step forward, his tall body towering a bit above the other vampire.
This Henry seemed not to step back, obviously determined to stand his field too.
"So what is your name beside Henry?" Aidan demanded and his voice got back a touch of self-confidence. It was difficult to calculate the situation and this woman added to a slight feeling of uncertainty. Obviously she wasn´t his blood donor but some partner, despite the fact that she was human, definitely human. He could smell her mortal blood under the skin.
"Fitzroy. Henry Fitzroy! And this city belongs to me and I´m the one to decide whom I will tolerate and whom I won´t!" The eyes of Fitzroy bore into Aidan´s.
Aidan felt the urge to bring some calmness into the discussion. He won´t give in an inch but maybe there could be made some certain degree of equilibration among them. So far they won´t go right for the others heart with a stake.
He hadn´t come to Toronto for this city becoming a resting place for his ashes.
By the name being completed, Aidan´s mind tumbled over. There was something in the dark corner of his mind, from his young and mortal years. Something that was connected to the name Fitzroy. His face tensed when he tried to figure it out, Then the memory came back of something, a story, his father once had told him. About the royal family of the Tudors from mid sixteenth century; Henry VIII has had an illegitimate son, named after him; Henry, who must have died young and the royals used to accept a child born outside a marriage by giving him the prefix Fitz-. Fitzroy for a child of a royal. But this Henry Fitzroy had died under undefined circumstances.
Aidan looked at Fitzroy, allowing himself a short moment to study him. He never had seen any picture of an older Fitzroy. The only picture he knew from, was painted by Hohlbein- The older and showed a six year old child in an outfit of honor and value.
Fitzroy saw and felt the discrepancy in Aidan, his short hesitation. The face of the vampire was an open question. Then he seemed have to overcome it and asked;
"Henry Fitzroy. Are you the one Fitzroy who was born to Henry VIII…? What means…" Aidan didn´t know other than taking refuge to an expression that was not impressive but showed his helplessness, uncertainty for the other one. "…you would be way older than me…"
Fitzroy stared at him for a moment, his brows knitted, then a smile relaxed his tensed features.
"Yes. My father was Henry VIII. I wonder you know about the fact, which is rarely known by anybody and the less take even notice of it. My lifespan…the mortal one…had been rather short. I was turned at age 17."
Aidan nodded and to the surprise of Fitzroy he started to walk around slowly in the back yard, well aware that both, the vampire and the woman, were watching him on guard. Fitzroy and Vicki kept silent until Aidan finally stopped in front of them and he addressed himself to Fitzroy.
"Listen…okay…we can go on as before. It won´t be the first time I would have to fight…but we came over here for refuge…" How far could he go with explanations without giving himself a vulnerable side, into which Fitzroy would cut without mercy, taking advantage of a moment of weakness? When the face of Fitzroy stayed calm, showing no hostile attitude, he went on;
"…we are here because things over the last time went very wrong for me…and now Boston´s vampires are dying by a kind of…flu. That was the reason when I simply decided to take my son and to leave Boston for any other place where we would have a chance to simply survive. Not less and no more! I don´t want to be at war with anyone here. I´m not used to such things like a…territory. Where we came from, vampires had been living in a kind of community with a selected leadership… But everybody is dead or fled in an attempt to survive anywhere…"
Aidan took a breath and relaxed a bit, now, that the situation had come to some balance, away from pure physical fight.
Fitzroy kept silent for a moment that became longer and longer, giving Aidan the possibility to add to what he had said. Aidan went on, and if only to break the uncomfortable silence between them. He outstretched his hands, palms upwards as if to make clear that he was holding no weapons;
"We simply want to stay at a place where we can…so to say…catch our breath. If you are uhm…afraid for your territory…we won´t endanger your safety, your secrecy…if it is this…what you´re afraid of! I and my son…we don´t kill when we feed. No corpses. No police involvement. Boston had been a hidden…society." Aidan tried to beg for good.
"Why for example, don´t you simply stay outside in the woods, feeding on animals you gonna catch?" Fitzroy´s voice had gotten a sharp touch. The imagination of two vampires hunting, feeding in his area must have led to it. His eyes pending to turn pitch black again.
Fitzroy felt his fangs itching to fall again which he had retracted only a few moments ago.
Aidan´s mind cringed at the imagination of him and Henry running through the woods, hunting down animals of all kind like Josh did, when he had turned werewolf on full moon.
"We…I beg your pardon…we are not used to hunt down poor animals like a werewolf! " Maybe this blood would be clean at least, he thought but didn´t mention it. Fitzroy looked as if he was in panic that they themselves could spread this fatal flu in his hunting ground.
"We don´t want much and don´t need much. I have starved long enough to learn how to keep control while feeding!" Not necessary to mention that he had starved for 15 month recently.
Aidan kept silent now, looking at Fitzroy and the woman who obviously was his partner or anything equal. Maybe his mortal love. Maybe she was both of it.
Vicki kept silent too. This was Henry´s task to cope with the situation. It was his territory and his city. Mike would be very amused, she thought bitterly, when he learned to know, and if only by accident, that Toronto again had become a meeting point for homeless vampires. Not to talk about health aspects. She shot him a look from the side to what he she had to turn her face to him. A fact, that won´t escape Aidan. He would know directly that something was wrong with her eyes. Human beings didn´t turn their whole face to watch out of the corner of an eye…
The situation was uncertain and this seemed to be the wrong moment to show any slightest weakness in front of an unknown vampire.
"Okay." Fitzroy took up the word. "You can stay for two days and nights in Toronto. If you need to feed keep north of St. Claire and west of Dufferin Street! Would I meet you outside the designated area you would regret it like nothing before in your life!" Fitzroy warned him. His voice putting force into it, simply to make sure he won´t hesitate to let become his warning the truth.
"Vicki!" he directed to her, indicating her to step out of the way.
Vicki stepped beside.
Aidan sighed, now that the way back to the club was no longer blocked.
"Thank you, Fitzroy…only…"
"What else?"
"Our hotel is lying…within the area you restricted as your own…so…what´s about?" Aidan tried.
"You can stay there in the name of God! But don´t ever dare to touch anyone, the less to feed from! I won´t hesitate to kill you! Did you understand this?!"
"I have well understood…we will accept the rules! I don´t want to be at war with you, Fitzroy!"
"That means that you will have left after these two days! Would I get you in Toronto after this time, I´ll kill you too, Aidan Waite!" Fitzroy closed.
"Okay." Aidan bent shortly in a gesture out of the past, nodded and turned around to leave the back yard without haste but fast enough to get as much space as possible between him and Henry Fitzroy.
Vicki and Henry looked after him, when he disappeared in the club.
A cheap hotel at Baldwin Street
The light was dimmed down to a minimum when Aidan entered the simple hotel room he had hired for him and Henry.
Henry was lying on the bed, his eyes closed and he barely opened his eyes when Aidan appeared beside him.
"I have news for you, Henry! We aren´t all alone here in Toronto, the less free to go where we wish. Henry?"
Aidan looked down at his son who barely reacted to it.
"Henry…what´s going on? Do you…"
"I…I don´t feel…well…" Henry mumbled.
"Are you hungry? Didn´t you feed?"
"I fed from the bag in the fridge…but…" he stroked over his arms and his face tensed slightly. "I´m kinda hurting all over…"
"That´s the hunger. You starved way too long!" Aidan tried to calm himself, tried not to raise the horrifying suspect it suggested. He reminded the moment he had met Henry in the alley when he had shouted at him; I´m starving! He had been so desperate...
Like him.
"No, I know the feeling of starving. It´s anything else…!" Henry mumbled, his lids half closed when he turned his head to Aidan, who bent down to him, his heartbeat speeding up. He felt for the skin at Henry´s throat. It was cool. Aidan had seen his son in a fever when Josh and Atlee had set him free from the hook in the cellar of Mother´s lair. Cool skin; no fever. No fever; no infection.
"Dunno…only…I have fed an hour ago. From the fridge…not outside…" Henry added. He felt somewhat tired and the hunger had gone, but he felt slightly uncomfortable. It wasn´t a tingling and piercing like from hunger but anything more like his nerves in his skin were hyper-sensitive when he touched his skin.
"You…you have any pain?" Aidan asked, his voice more than full of concern. He tried to hide it but when Henry was not totally sleepy he won´t miss it. "…in the muscles? Pulling, hurt like from exhaustion?" Aidan checked the symptoms of a beginning flu as a human would feel them. He didn´t dare to think about the consequences now, tried to say to himself that Henry hadn´t fed for a while and that he maybe was simply exhausted, tired from the events before.
"No pain, no pulling…only the skin hurts slightly when I wipe over it and the blood didn´t warm me up as usual…maybe you are right and I should simply rest a bit, should try to sleep and tomorrow it´ll be better…" Henry tried to calm and assure himself. He wrapped the blanket around him more tightly and closed his eyes.
A long moment Aidan looked down at his son, uncertain what he should do.
Fitzroy had given them two days and nights to disappear from his territory. To decide where they would and could seek shelter anywhere else but here. Sure, he hadn´t known anything about a territory´s owner and a 477 years old vampire...that went near to the Family´s leaders.
Vicki looked at Henry with knitted brows. His face was stern and he was standing in the dim light, his fists grounded into his hips. His view was fixed onto the back yard door through which this Aidan had disappeared.
"Henry…what do you suppose to do now? Mike would be going for your throat, or more correctly, for your heart when he learns to know that you´re hiding the fact that other vampires are hanging out in Toronto!"
"They will leave within two days or nights. Mike won´t get any trouble with them! I´m not in telling him. You pretty well remind what was going on when I mixed him up for help with Christina and this poor dude Alexander! He won´t go with it! Like he didn´t last time, Vicki…."
"But do you…" Vicki directed into the direction into which Aidan left; "…believe this guy? You should know better, Henry! Why are you willing to believe him, that neither he nor his son would cover Toronto with corpses within 48 hours!? Do you simply close your eyes to the fact, in hope it won´t happen? Henry! You don´t even know him by name. You said that you would have to call Augustus for information! That means, these guys appeared out of nowhere, like a meteor from the sun!"
Vicki couldn´t understand why Henry was so ignorant to the fact, that they were shortly before new trouble getting smashed right into his royal bastard face. Tried he to ignore it, just in case to be left in peace?
"Don´t ask me, Vicki! I don´t want to have Mike involved again. You know his reaction!"
"Yeap! I know his temper and his resentments against all…others…of your kind and it is…" Vicki began in a warning tone. But Henry didn´t let her close, stepped right into her path with a harsh voice, what dripped from bitterness.
"Not only against others, Vicki! Have you forgotten what Mike had initiated against me, when Christina…"
"Are you gonna count up now against each other, Henry? That´s really the right moment, just if you didn´t mention it!" Vicki countered and stared into his slightly blackening eyes that sparkled with barely hidden anger.
"I didn´t mean that I would trust them. I can only hope he will stay with this deal. Otherwise I´m gonna care for it by myself!" Henry stated. "As I have ever done since the time I had been turned!" he added.
With this, the case seemed to be finished for Henry. By now. Vicki could read it in his facial expression.
"Only to verify it again, Henry…"
"What else?" he sounded pissed.
"I´m at your side Henry! I stay with you. If you would be getting into trouble, I will help you.
"I know." He closed shortly. Henry turned over and stepped forward, waved Vicki to follow him.
"We can leave now! We have another case to solve, Vicki." His smile was short and barely visible. Vicki could understand how much the new situation was gnawing at his mind and most of all, at his temper.
Henry was, as usually when it came to preternatural cases and Mike, balancing on the blade. She put all her hope into it that this Aidan and his progeny would keep their word, causing no trouble. Vicki felt some…attraction was, as long it didn´t come for Henry, a word on the edge…for vampires. Mick was a nice guy like his companions. There were dangerous ones out there. But she was reluctant in killing vampires if not absolutely necessary to protect herself or Henry or one of her friends…
Then Vicki would be the fiercest opponent one could get.
tbc