Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampires, Alternate Universe - Magic

Pairing: Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams

Spoilers/Warnings: possessive!Steve. Spoilers for this story range to 2.10

Author's note: The vampire mythology I use is influenced by The Lair, The Vampire Diaries and Moonlight but is pretty much a general mishmash of random vampire lore. Hopefully it's all understandable!

Originally published (on ao3): March 2013

Sequel to 'Seeing a Light (a face in the crowd) and None Like You (You Shine so Bright), When I Stand This Close (It's Almost Blinding) and Glow 'verse interlude 2.02. Best to read these ones in order.

It turned out, there was another reason the Governor had been happy to add to Five-0's complement. Denning had already been approached by IA and Captain Fryer with an idea to take down a major player. This guy, this vampire, was a special thorn in the side of HPD because he had been one of them once. After he was turned, he followed his as yet unknown sire into a different line of business. This asshole, Frank Delano, saw it as being more life-affirming for someone immortal - the danger, the thrill… the money.

The only way to follow through and get the evidence they needed was to put someone undercover. The best person would be from Five-0 considering their reputation and the Governor stepped in to order them to help out. Whether Steve liked it or not, they were going to be doing this favor for IA, for HPD. He'd argued it would take say from the work they really did, but the Governor wouldn't hear anything of it. Five-0 was his task force, and if they were needed to take down a major drug player from the inside, then that's what they would do, even if it did take considerably longer than they were used to.

The team met with Fryer to discuss how it could happen. Steve was out straight away. As much as he would have liked to take on the task to save his people from doing it, he was just exonerated of a major crime so there was no way anyone would believe him. Chin was also out because he'd known Delano when he was training. Chin was older than Delano, with Frank being turned in the seventies, and Chin had been in the same precinct as him for a time. Chin was too good a cop, too loyal, for Delano to believe he would go against 5-0.

Fryer had first assumed Danny would be the one for the job but both Steve and Lori vocalized their misgivings before Danny could open his mouth. Fryer wasn't in the loop, so he had no knowledge of Danny's magic. He did know of the relationship with Steve, as everyone did, and could tell there was no way he would allow Danny to be involved. Even if Fryer wanted Danny to do it, he wasn't getting him.

Kono was chosen.

Chin wasn't happy. In fact, he was very vocally unhappy. Kono was close family and his own vampiric possessiveness reared it's head. Danny shot Kono a sympathetic look, but in the end, Kono had been chosen, had agreed, and then they were watching her on television being accused of taking bribes and stealing money from the asset forfeiture locker. It was all an act, but it hit hard to see her being accused of something she didn't do.

After about a month, and Chin taking a few visits to check on Kono while trying to be convincing for her cover, Kono had an in and she met with Frank Delano.

During this time, Five-0 continued to work on cases without her, and Danny began to learn more about magic. To say he wasn't a fan was a bit of an understatement. White had pretty much decided to run the retreat on Mount Tantalus like a High School, and Danny had had enough of that when he was 16. Now he felt he was back in class, being lectured to on an almost nightly basis and being given homework.

Steve always drove Danny up, and always waited either outside or in the kitchen of the large house while Danny was sequestered away with White. Lori joined them and Steve always seemed frustrated that she was sharing a part of Danny's life that he wasn't included in. But the Guild were secretive and of the high-and-mighty opinion that unless you had magic, you couldn't understand what it was like, what it was, or how it felt. They didn't explain themselves to anyone and they weren't going to start with Steve.

Danny tried to explain things to Steve, tried to include him. Despite what was probably against Guild protocols, he would tell Steve what went on behind the closed doors but he could freely admit that he was becoming more vague about it the longer it went on. The problem was, he was tired of doing it. He worked long hours with Five-0, White was taking up more time than he'd originally planned for, Lori was taking him aside during free moments at the office, and at the end of the day, he still had a life away from it all. He had Grace, he had Steve, and tending to both of their needs as a father and a partner were beginning to tax his full schedule. The last thing he wanted was to hurt the two people he loved most in the world. The very last thing he wanted was to spend less time with them - quite the opposite in fact. Both of them needed him, in their own ways, and he had to have the time to be there for them.

He felt so strongly that one night at the retreat, he'd blown a gasket. Frustrated that he wasn't moving along as quickly as White and Lori wanted, he ran out of the room where he'd been trying, and failing miserably, to finally use some actual magic. He stormed into the kitchen area where Steve was waiting with a tablet computer and a blood pack and had actively shoved one of the rather flimsy chairs across to the wall with a growl.

White and Lori had followed him in, their voices raised while trying to get Danny back to what they had been doing, but Steve had simply gone to Danny and bundled him closer, a hand soothing at the back of his neck, the other rubbing gently up and down the middle of his spine. Danny, hands bunched in the sides of Steve's shirt, had taken deep breaths and calmed himself down. There was no use getting angry, and if he was unable to do what they wanted maybe that was a sign that he wasn't this key thing, he didn't have some stupid destiny that was completely vague, and maybe he'd get his life back.

It was ridiculous, anyway. They wanted him to channel his own magic through his body in a way that would make his light visible to everyone, like a firefly. He'd yet to master the ability to see base magic automatically, so he'd been completely hesitant to think he'd be able to make his own hidden magic do anything. He'd yet to understand how magic was supposed to feel, his brain continually telling him that it was nonsense, that it was too big of a change in his life. Yet, his heart told him something had changed since coming to Hawai'i and it wasn't just the heat of the sun and the Aloha spirit.

He pulled tightly into Steve, inhaled the scent of sweat, gun oil, salt water and everything that reminded him of Steve after a long day, and cleared his mind of the stresses on his life. Just for a moment. For just a moment he wanted to stand in Steve's arms and not worry about Hesse, Five-0, magic, vampires and anything else that lurked in the shadows or pierced the light.

"Danny?" He heard Steve's voice, clear as a bell but with a distant echo behind it.

It was ridiculous, right? He was a human being, not an insect, and he wasn't wired electrically so producing light shouldn't be possible and was it just him or was the room getting hotter?

"Danny, what…?" He heard Steve again and responded this time when he realized he no longer felt Steve's arms as tightly around him as they had been. Planning on protesting the loss, he opened his eyes to see the look of wonder on Steve's face. He looked down and saw for himself how he was actually glowing. He lifted his arms to get a good look and saw what seemed like waves of golden strands pumping through his veins like blood. His core and chest radiating light through his shirt. And heat, there was heat. He felt a warmth but it wasn't unpleasant, it was the perfect temperature and comfortable, but the warmth felt almost emotional. The heat wasn't just that of a welcoming hearth on a cold night, but like the warmth you found in people you loved and it was somehow comforting.

He looked up at Steve again, who seemed awed by what he saw, he turned and saw Lori, jaw dropping, and White looking pleased and possibly calculating, like Scrooge counting the coins he had squirreled away. Danny didn't appreciate being looked at like a valuable commodity. He didn't appreciate being looked at like a sideshow freak.

He turned back to Steve. As much as he liked being seen as the only thing in the world that mattered, he couldn't handle it right then. So he did the only logical thing - he freaked and bolted out of the room.

Moments later, he was outside and standing by the car, which he couldn't drive away because Steve had the keys. He looked at his arms again. The light had faded. It had happened slowly as he left the other three. He didn't know how he'd created it, nor how he'd got rid of it, but he was both glad to be back to normal and found himself missing the warmth it brought him. Looking down at himself, he could still see something faint around his chest, his shirt muting the warmth, but maybe it was still there.

"That was amazing," Steve said from behind, voice quiet, still seemingly filled with wonder.

"Is this what you see?" Danny asked, before turning back to face Steve and gesturing at his chest. "When you look at me you talk of a light, of a glow? Is that it?"

"I don't know what you see in yourself Danny, but what I see is… beautiful." Steve took the remaining steps between them so he could run his hands lovingly down Danny's arms. "You always give off this electricity that draws me to you. It's been like that since we met, but tonight? That was like you cranked up the wattage." He leaned down and kissed Danny. It started gentle but quickly became more desperate on Steve's end, like he was trying to take some of that light into himself.

Danny was able to pull back enough to breathe and speak. "The light attracts you?" he half-joked.

"Like a moth to a flame." Steve smiled as he ran a free hand over Danny's heart, his fingers picking out each of his ribs despite the shirt he wore. "But seriously, it's always there. It's not about being turned on by it, I just… as attractive as it is, I know I'd love you with it or without it. It's a part of you and it's beautiful, alright?" He leaned down further and placed a gentle kiss on Danny's shirt covered heart, where Danny registered that faint glow. It was odd to see something there and yet not there at the same time, but now he thought he was seeing what Steve had from the beginning. Whatever had just happened, he seemed to have finally connected with the magic inside of him. That scared him, despite the comfort it provided.

"So let me get this straight," Joe's voice surprised them both out of the tender moment, both of them turning to the side where they could see him in the low light of the evening. Danny saw the light in Joe too and was taken aback for a second. "You're a vampire, but you've been able to see Danny's base magic? First, that's not supposed to be possible. Secondly, why in the hell didn't you say anything?" He may have started quite calmly, but evidently he wasn't very happy with them, going by how he raised his voice at his last question.

"We didn't think it was important, sir," Steve answered, a hand on Danny's arm tightening.

"Vampires can't practice magic. They're the only supernatural being we know of that can't see it. It's supposed to be like being color blind, and yet you're standing there telling me that the fact that you can defy science is unimportant?"

Joe simply watched for a moment as Steve kept Danny close, at the way Steve was poised for whatever might happen and was making sure Danny was protected. Then he just said 'huh' as he came to some sort of conclusion. "There's more going on here than I realized. We seem to have been more wrong about this spell than even we knew."

"What does that mean?" Steve asked.

"I know you're the key, Danny. The way you just lit up proves, I should think once and for all, that you have strong magic and can control what's inside. But the key was always just a half of the spell." He stepped closer. "I should have seen it sooner. The fact that a vampire placed so much value on someone magic, considering the history of the two factions. Romeo and Romeo ideals aside, I should have seen it sooner."

"Can you skip to the punchline, please?" Danny asked, frustrated again.

"The protector." As Joe said it he looked between them both as if that was a good enough answer, but Danny just looked up at Steve confusedly and then back at Joe and shook his head lightly.

"The spell was to have one person be the key, but the other component was something akin to a protector. 'One of our own' who would, well, be there when needed. Protector, guardian, bodyguard, caretaker… the translation was always vague, the Witch was never clear on that point. All we really know is that they're supposed to stay together."

"So what you're saying," Danny began slowly, looking back at Steve, pointing between the two of them, "is that when I moved to Hawai'i, this whole thing, what? Activated? And Steve and I meeting…?"

"Destiny," Joe finished for him.

"Ah, hah," Danny smiled. He laughed, in fact. "Now I know I'm have a nervous breakdown because for some cosmic destiny to have been at play, it handed me heartache, divorce, relocation to somewhere I actively hate. And Steve? He got the murder of his relatives. Destiny is a real piece of work."

"Everyone experiences loss, everyone goes through some kind of pain in their lives," White said. "But at the other end of that you met each other. And from what I've seen, you're pretty happy."

"See, that's where you're wrong. I'm not happy. I have a daughter I love but barely get to see, I have a job where I get shot at on a regular basis, I have a car I never get to drive, I have a clingy vampire who barely lets me out of his sight, and lately, I've been studying magic to an extent that I'm continually exhausted from trying to juggle my family, my job and whatever the hell this is. I'm surprised I even have time to sleep, or eat, or go to the bathroom, OR BREATHE!" Danny finished his rant on a yell directed not just at Joe White but at the cosmos.

He rubbed a hand over his face as silence descended on them, both Steve and White unsure what to say to him. As he dropped his hands back to his side he felt a small wave of dizziness. It wasn't distinct and it was over as quickly as it started but Steve already had a steadying hand out for him.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine, just tired," Danny grouchily replied.

"Magic is like that, it takes up a lot of energy, you need rest so we'll call it a night for now."

Danny leaned into Steve more, his tired brain just letting Steve take over and he missed what Steve and Joe were saying but could tell the difference in their voices. He didn't like the thought that he was being talked about, just as much as he was beginning to feel like decisions were being taken out of his hands. He pushed back a little against Steve's chest, "Okay, I'm done."

He held his hands up and paced away from them.

"It's okay, Danny. Director White said to take a couple days off so long as you kept up the basic exercises." Steve followed after him.

"No, Steve, I mean I'm done. It's over. I don't like doing this so I've made a decision regarding my own life. No more magic."

"I'm afraid that's not possible, son." Joe intervened.

Danny rounded on him. "Like hell it isn't! You don't run my life, the Guild doesn't run my life, it's mine, okay? It's my life, and I want it back."

Steve grabbed Danny by the arms, forcing him to face him and looked directly into his eyes, "Danny, it's okay, calm down, you're tired, you just need rest, let me in…"

Steve trailed off, his voice soothing to Danny's ears and he felt his breathing fall in line with Steve's. He was right, he was tired, so very tired.

"That's it, just calm, breathe with me…"

Steve was right, he needed rest and Steve was there to make sure… no, no no!

He hadn't realized he'd pitched forward to Steve's shoulder but he reared back with anger. "No, Steve, don't you dare use that Influence shit on me either. I am not a perp you need answers from. I won't be controlled by anyone and that applies to you, too. Now hand over the car keys because I am going to drive my own car home."

Steve was about to argue but he handed the keys over and let Danny move away from them and over to the car where he then braced himself against the door, head bowed, feeling like slapping his own face to wake himself up for the drive.

A moment later, the keys were plucked from his hands. "You can drive tomorrow if you want, but tonight, you're more likely to fall asleep at the wheel. Just a suggestion." Steve's voice was calm and somewhat contrite. He put a hand on Danny's hip and guided him around to the other side of the car. "Come on, let's get home."

The next morning, Danny woke with very little memory of the car ride home. Nor of getting into the house or up to bed. He turned to see Steve was already awake.

"What time is it?" His tongue felt like it was sticking to the top of his mouth.

"About seven."

"You don't look like you've been swimming."

"I decided not to. Thought I'd enjoy a little more time in bed with you."

Danny leaned up on his elbows. "I thought you'd decided that it was fine to go out so long as you did one of those perimeter checks on your way."

"I did. I do, I just wanted to stay here. Be with you, take a day off and relax…"

"We have work," Danny frowned.

"Boss says we can take a day."

"You're the boss."

"And I'm very understanding and plan to turn a blind eye to us not showing up at the office."

"Steve-"

"Hear me out," Steve began. "Last night you said you felt like everyone was controlling your life, I don't want you feeling like that, so today it's up to you. A day off to do whatever you want." Steve's hand reached out and played in Danny's chest hair.

Danny sat up, Steve's hand falling to his side. "Okay, thanks, Ferris, but I want to go to work." He smiled at Steve then tossed the sheets back and moved to get out of the bed, but Steve's hands reached out and grabbed him back down against him. "We have responsibilities, Steven. I'm all for having fun and relaxing, but we do that after what we get paid to do."

"How about we compromise?" Steve suggested.

"What did you have in mind?" Danny turned his head against Steve's.

"We can go in late. An extra hour isn't going to make a huge difference." Steve mouthed over Danny's shoulder, up and over his neck and cheek.

"And I repeat, what did you have in mind?"

Steve grinned against Danny's lips, letting his kisses answer for him.

"Wait a minute," Danny pulled back and narrowed his eyes at Steve while a memory from the previous night surfaced. "Did you CARRY me into the house last night?"

They were locked into an investigation before they could enjoy their late start, and Danny's problems with the Guild immediately took a back seat. The murder of a well-liked sports coach that spiraled out to money laundering took all their attention.

Somehow, ducking for cover while Carl Joiner was killed in front of them turned out to be a good thing as far as Steve was concerned. Sure, Danny's tiredness slowed him down and Steve had to call his name twice to get him to cover behind the Camaro, but it jolted Danny to his regular self. Though the smaller man had been quieter while they stood on the roof top 600 feet away, trying to put together pieces of a mystery, the car ride back had elicited a rant from Danny, about proving that yes, he did get shot at on a regular basis and yes, it was all Steve's fault.

After Danny had worked out the money laundering angle, they got the call that Kono had been involved in a shoot out with Chin and Lori at the hotel Joiner's wife was hiding out at. Although they knew she was undercover, they'd had no intel to suggest she was going to be involved in this case.

They didn't have time to work out the story. They had to play this out properly and it wasn't long before they had her in their interrogation room, sitting in the one seat that none of them should ever be in. Chin hit the roof when they finally got some more detail out of her and Fryer over what exactly she'd been up to for the past weeks. They knew going in that the undercover work would be dangerous but they didn't expect her to be driving around town with a dead body next to her, while also an accessory to murder.

Steve happily joined in with Chin, both of them determined to rip Fryer a new one while Kono steadfastly stood up to them, wanting to get the job done. But as far as Steve was concerned, what she was doing was wrong. She was only a year out of the academy, she was too green for this kind of work. He'd tried to say that back when she was chosen for the job; Fryer determined to use Five-0, thinking it was the best bait for Delano, and yet it could only have ever been Kono.

Because Steve and Chin wouldn't work. And Steve couldn't let Danny do it. He couldn't.

The guilt weighed on Steve.

He'd sent in a young cop, inexperienced at deep undercover work, when Delano would have believed Danny if they'd wanted him to. Sure, Steve had said Danny couldn't, because of the knowledge of their relationship, and how Delano wouldn't believe that Danny would go to that dark a place when he had Steve and Grace to support him. But Danny had it in him. He could have walked away from Steve this past month, he could have suffered not being able to tell Grace and Rachel the truth on their return from England. He could have done all that and he would have; to have spared Kono.

But Steve couldn't do it. He couldn't let Danny go to that place, not to the darkness, not when he knew what light was inside him. He felt pained just to let Danny go anywhere on his own, let alone on something so dangerous. And to top it off, Delano was a vampire. As far as Steve was concerned any vampire going near Danny had him to answer to, innocent or not. He'd taken long enough to get used to Chin's smell around Danny, even if he was Ohana. To think that anyone would risk Danny in an undercover op against a vampire was inconceivable to him. He wouldn't entertain that thought for a moment.

Which meant Kono.

It didn't matter to Steve that Lori would never have let Danny do it either. The Guild wouldn't have let him because he was important to them: more important than a three year HPD case to catch a ring of dirty ex-cops. who were also mostly vamps. All that mattered was that they got Kono out of this now, and he'd be giving her as much time to surf as she wanted, hell he'd buy her a new board.

All of this meant there was no choice for Fryer: Five-0 were going in to back her up.

Gearing up, he watched as his team donned their vests and decked themselves out with all the weapons they'd need. Kono was down, the assignment was taking its toll on her but she was professional and she knew her mark. Despite Steve's desires, she would have to go in on her own, and do her best to get a signal to him. She'd said he was the best back up she could hope for and that eased his mind, but only a little, as he worried that he had to live up to that now.

He turned his head, seeing Danny in his gear, and he was so very tempted to tell him to take it off and stay behind, but he couldn't do that. He knew he was overprotective of Danny, he'd been aware of it for a while. Sometimes Danny had to be the one to rein him in when he couldn't do it himself. Now, after White's revelation, he felt like he had the reason for it.

It wasn't just because he was a vampire with heightened emotions and heightened territorial behavior, but also because he'd somehow been given the role by magic; or by the witch who created the spell. No matter. Since he'd never felt like this for anyone before, he was more willing to believe it was meant to be than Danny was. He'd been alive a long time, and though jaded, he was willing to give the idea of it being fate a chance, because if magic existed, then why couldn't it have more control over their lives than anyone knew?

He saw Lori looking at Danny. She too seemed concerned that he was going on this mission. They'd been in plenty of scraps since she'd joined the team, and they'd all been in danger of getting hurt because of the nature of the job, but Delano was bad news on a bigger scale. And being a vampire, he worried Steve's possessive streak.

Steve tilted his head back, looked at the ceiling and took a breath. He would not coddle Danny right now, it would just piss him off, and he needed everyone on their A game for this.

He felt Danny's pat to his kevlar covered chest, "Come on, time to move out."

None of them were happy while they waited in the van. Chin's idea to use Kono's cell had wielded results and they knew where they were headed - to a bank branch to get the money that Delano had stashed with Joiner. They moved in carefully, Chin getting closest but holding back for fear of Kono's safety. Steve took charge, keeping tabs on the muscle and Danny took the higher ground across from the bank. He did it without argument for once, but he knew what was going on - Steve was protecting him, sure, but Chin wanted to be as close as possible to Kono. That was understandable. Steve had to lead it because that was what he did. Tactically it was the right move, and Danny didn't have a problem with that.

Lori was nearby, also on higher ground, on a foot bridge nearby. SWAT was ready, the streets were cleared. They had very little idea what was going on inside.

"Guy on the street is getting curious, he's taking a walk guys, he's taking a walk." Steve barked into his comm.

"We're sending patrols up the street. There's no way to call them back before he sees them," Danny offered.

"We've got about 20 yards before he's on them," Lori added.

"He senses heat, we got a bank full of hostages." Danny didn't like where this was going.

"Hold your positions, do not engage." With that, Steve was off at a run, his aim to intercept the guy before he could warn anyone. Danny caught him in the scope of his weapon and watched the whole thing go down. Steve vented some of his pent up aggression with an elbow to the guy's face.

HPD moved in. SWAT, Steve and Chin took the lead, weapons raised. They'd heard gunfire from inside and moved in, wary when Delano came out with Trisha Joiner as a hostage. Danny came flying in from the side when Steve was shot at, the police cruiser in front of him taking the brunt of the weapons fire, but seeing Steve in danger brought him out from his cover. The situation was over quickly, somehow. Fryer got in the shot that took Delano down, but being a vampire, it wasn't going to be fatal. As Fryer stood over Delano, injured and bleeding on the ground, he shot him again, but he didn't aim for the head, he aimed for the heart, the war of whether to kill him or see him in court playing out for all to see, but he settled on making sure Delano went to prison for the rest of his very long life.

As the dust settled around them, Danny did his best to calm Chin's nerves as they waited for Kono to be cleared from the building. He'd had plenty of experience in talking Steve out of doing stupid things. He applied all his ability now into making sure Chin didn't go off the deep end with worry. As Chin looked up and saw Kono, arm injured but walking steadily out of the bank, he patted Danny in thanks and rushed over to hug her.

Steve came up beside Danny, an arm going haphazardly by Danny's waist where he was leaning on the car and smiled at him. "Nice technique," he nodded over to Chin. "Feels like I've seen it before."

"Up close and personal, babe," Danny answered. "At the end of the day, you vamps are all alike."

"Being protective isn't a bad thing, Danno."

"No, no it is not." Danny lightly patted Steve's chest, letting Steve take the win, even though he could argue back about appropriate levels of protectiveness. "We know you mean well."

Steve's eyes caught someone else and he pulled away from Danny to walk away. Danny watched as Steve went over to Fryer by another car, and he listened in, in case he needed to intervene.

"Hey, Fryer."

"Yeah," Fryer leaned back from the cruiser to look at Steve, who was winding himself up. The punch wasn't unexpected. Steve was really rather restrained in the circumstances, surprising Danny. He could only hope that his presence was, on occasion at least, rubbing off on Steve.

"Nobody messes with my team. No one goes behind my back to the Governor. Alright?"

The threat was obvious. Fryer licked the blood from his split lip and glanced over at Danny, before his eyes hardened on Steve. "Duly noted, Commander."

Steve looked around himself, noting the other officers watching him, then backed off with a curt nod. He walked over to where the team were milling around and moved between them. He beckoned for Danny to come closer, which he did.

"Let's go home," Steve said.

Danny put his hand on Lori's back, motioning for her to go ahead. Steve mirrored the movement on Danny's own back, but strengthened the hold with each step, keeping Danny close to him. The grip on the back of Danny's vest was comforting in its own way.

"Just out of curiosity," Danny started, as they walked away back to their own cars, "do we have any idea who Delano was working for yet? I know he's a big catch, but there's bigger out there according to Fryer."

"I may have an idea," Kono said. They all looked over to her. "I just don't think you'll like it."

Danny saw Steve's face harden, his lips purse together and Chin rolled his eyes as he turned his head to the side wearily. Danny just took a deep, resigned breath. " Hesse?"

"I think so," Kono said with a slight uncertainty. "I don't know for sure, but I did overhear a conversation before when I was getting in. It was about Five-0. Fryer was right about my involvement with the team being a draw. I don't think Delano really wanted me there, I think he was told to."

"That would make a twisted kind of sense," Chin said. "Hesse would think of it as adding insult to injury if the ex Five-0 member began working for him."

They stood by their car doors, digesting the information. Steve moved closer behind Danny, his hand moving from his back to his shoulder, before sneaking over and down onto Danny's chest, while he leaned his head against the side of Danny's head, breathing in slowly.

"It doesn't mean Hesse is back in town," Danny said, reasoning. "He could easily be pulling the strings from afar."

"Victor Hesse has ties across the world," Lori stated the obvious, but it was worth reminding everyone. "There have been rumors at the Guild for years that he's not even the top of the food chain either."

Steve turned puzzled eyes to Lori. "I've been chasing him for 200 years, I've never seen him report to anyone else."

"I said it was rumor. Certain sections of the Guild have been involved in conspiracies for so long that they see them everywhere, but they always point to an encounter Hesse had with a family in 1922, in Russia, as a reason for it."

"He fed on them, they had magic, I already know about that one," Steve said, not seeing the connection, except that Hesse had dared to feed on practitioners and the Guild would never forgive him for it. They wanted him dead.

"Yes, but one of them was a witch. He was hunting a witch, we just don't know which one because he killed all his witnesses. To this day we don't know how a vampire alone could subdue a witch. It shouldn't happen."

"So you suspect he had help?" Danny asked. To be fair to the Guild, it was logical.

"That's the theory."

"So why think he's working for someone?"

"Because a vampire can't kill a witch," As Lori spoke, Danny flicked his gaze to Steve at the insult, seeing the grim look on his face. He put his hand onto Steve's where it rested on his chest. Lori continued, "not that a witch would have much luck killing a vampire either unless they could match their physical strength. It's like they cancel each other out in many ways. It didn't make any sense that Hesse could go up alone against a whole family of practitioners, one that was a witch, and walk away from it leaving them all dead."

Steve stayed silent as he held onto Danny, grudgingly admitting with a nod that Lori had a point. He finally pulled back enough to open the passenger door for Danny to get in. "It makes no difference. Whoever the bigger hitter is, if he does exist, he's not my problem."

"Please don't say things like that," Danny asked of him, hands held together in front of himself.

"It's true," Steve shrugged, "Hesse turned me, orchestrated the murders of my friends and family, wants to get to you to hurt me even more. I'm sorry but until anyone else pitches in to help Hesse, I'm going to assume it's all his doing."

"Why are you still talking? Shut up, Steven. You're laying down jinxes over this whole thing and now I'm going to be in no way shocked when some new monster comes and attacks us in the night and it's going to be all your fault."

"You don't believe in jinxes, Danny."

"Why the hell not?" Danny spread his arms out, taking in the rest of the team, Chin and Kono exchanging the wry smiles they always do when Danny revs up for a good rant at Steve. "People have sworn by the jinx for centuries. You better touch some wood, is all I'm saying."

Steve smirked, Danny knew it was because of the 'wood' comment but Steve let that one go to bring up another issue. "You don't believe in destiny, or fate. So why should jinxes be any different."

"Because," he faltered for a second, but came up with an answer before Steve could say anything else. "Because a jinx is a short term thing, like coincidence. Destiny? You're asking me to believe that nothing I've done in my entire life was really my own choice? That magic has been involved every step of the way without my knowing, or my consent? I have free will, buddy, I make my own choices."

"Yes you do," Steve agreed, crossing his arms, his body crowding Danny into the open door of the car. "But destiny can still exist. There are many ways to get to the same endgame."

He pushed Danny down and in, not letting him retaliate in front of everyone. The argument they were about to have might get personal, so Danny did agree that taking it out of the public eye was best. He continued to scowl though as he pulled his seat belt on and watched the team scatter to their own cars. Steve folded himself into the drivers seat and started the ignition.

"Are you saying you believe what they're feeding us?" Danny asked, curiosity winning out over frustrated rant.

"I'm saying I'm keeping my mind open, is all." Steve replied.

"This is because of the protector-bodyguard thing isn't it." Danny squinted as he turned in his seat to see Steve as they began the drive back to HQ. "You like it. You like having a shiny new excuse to keep close to me."

"It does explain things rather well."

"What explains things is the fact that you are crazy. Two hundred years will do that to a person and I'm sure you've got your reasons as to how you came to being so nutty, but that's always been reason enough for me before."

Steve smiled, "Because you love me."

"What?"

"You reason away my so-called crazy because you love me. And just so you know, I love you, too."

Danny cleared his throat, turned back to face the road and rested an elbow by the window.