A/N: My first of two entries for the CFPromoter's Castle Halloween Bash. For those who wanted something a bit vampiric.
"You idiot," she hisses as her hands pound over his chest, willing him to open his eyes, to breathe, to live. "Castle, please. Please don't die because of me."
If she could cry, her tears would fall to his cheeks, mingle with the blood staining his skin and the cemetery grass, but the sobs that build in her throat are dry, soundless, and she knows there's no other choice.
They rush him into an ambulance and no one bats an eye when she hops inside the bus and takes a seat beside his unconscious figure. He's fading, she can sense it, feels the beats of his heart slowing, feels the presence of his life draining away with every passing second.
Hypnosis is not something every creature of her kind possesses, but she's one of the few lucky ones, and as soon as the ambulance starts to move, she snags the paramedics gaze, wills him to sleep.
The EMT slouches against the wall of the van and Kate springs into action. She would never wish this fate upon anyone, let alone the man she… the man she loves. She doesn't want to do this to him, doesn't want to do this to his family, but he jumped in front of a bullet for her and she can't let him die. She won't.
She takes a deep breath despite the fact that it makes no difference, and leans in close to him. It won't be easy, fooling the hospital staff, fooling everyone. It took her years to master this life, to become an expert at being human again without drawing suspicion, but he's smart. He'll learn and she'll be there for every second, for every hardship and moment of agony.
"I love you," she whispers against his ear, pressing a quick kiss to his jaw, inhaling the comforting scent of sweat, oil, and aftershave that she's always associated with him. She'll miss it. "I love you, Castle. And I'm so sorry."
The fangs protrude from where her canines should be just as his heart stops.
Kate quickly tugs his shirt to the side and sinks her teeth into his flesh.
He wakes thirsty. He doesn't even know exactly where he is, but his throat is on fire and his chest is sore.
"Rick?" He forces his eyes to peel back at the soft sound of her voice, the gentle touch of her fingers dusting along his forehead. She's always so cold, but for once, her touch is warm.
"Kate." His voice cracks over the single syllable of her name, but the golden pool of her eyes brightens at the sound of her name
He watches her reach past his hospital bed and retrieve a styrofoam cup, offering the straw to his chapped lips. He's expecting water, but the flavor that bursts along his tongue is an odd mixture of strawberry and… something metallic?
"You brought me a smoothie?" he asks once at least half of the serving is gone.
She hesitates, but nods and slowly returns the cup to the table.
"Castle," she murmurs, her long slender fingers curling around his and he automatically clings to her, grips a little too tightly as an echoing memory of sirens and screams and whispered words from her lips flicker to life in his head.
I love you.
"I heard you," he says suddenly, the memory of her words flashing through his mind with startling clarity, clearer than everything else. "You - did you mean it? What you said?"
He watches the line of her throat as she swallows, but the smallest of smiles still graces her lips.
"Yes," she admits, taking a careful seat on the edge of his hospital bed near his hip and holding his hand in her lap. "But I have to tell you something."
The brilliant happiness that had spread through his chest falters and he tries to brace himself for the inevitable bad news.
"Do you remember anything else?" she questions, smoothing her thumb along his knuckles in a soothing rhythm while he tries to think past the wonderful notion that Kate Beckett loves him.
"I… was shot?" he murmurs, glancing around the room, taking note of the wires protruding from his skin and the heart monitor beating beside the bed. "At Montgomery's funeral. They were aiming for you and I tried to save you. Then… then my chest was on fire and you were telling me to stay, that you loved me, then it's… it's all black."
He squeezes her hand when her face starts to crumble, twining their fingers as she ducks her head and uses her hair to hide the torment claiming her expression.
"Castle, you - you didn't survive," she rasps.
His brow furrows, his concern for her spiking. Clearly, she's wrong.
"Kate," he murmurs softly, tugging her closer. "Look, I'm right here. I'm alive-"
"No," she moans, abandoning the hand in her lap to place her palm at his chest. "You're not."
He still doesn't understand, but she presses down on the sore spot on his chest, the spot where he suspected a bullet wound of some sort would be.
"Listen to your heartbeat. Not the monitor."
Castle doesn't argue and closes his eyes to focus his attention on the steady rhythm in his chest, but… he can't hear anything. How can he not have a heartbeat?
"Castle, you've always suspected… you've always known I was different," she whispers, withdrawing her hand from his chest. "And you weren't wrong."
Panic flares in his chest like a tidal wave, a poor substitute for the missing cadence of his heart.
"What are you?" he whispers, reclaiming her hand even as an instinctual part of him warns that he should probably be wary of her, that he should fear her. "And what… what am I?"
He watches her bite her lip, her regular bad habit, but something's different this time. Pearly white fangs pierce the corners of her mouth.
"Oh my god."
"Please don't - well, I can't ask you not to freak out. But just let me explain?"
He nods because what else is he supposed to do? The woman he's been in love with for the past year is a vampire and it appears that he might be one too.
"You were dying. If I thought there was a chance the doctors could have saved you, I swear I wouldn't have done it, but I could sense you leaving and I - I'm so sorry. It was selfish, but I didn't want to lose you, didn't want your family to lose you."
His eyes widen and for a second, he wonders - hopes - this is just a dream, a hallucination due to the drugs coursing through his system.
"You… turned me?"
Her fingers skim the neck of his hospital gown until she gently tugs the fabric down. She brushes her thumb over two perfect puncture wounds beneath his collarbone and he gasps.
"I'm - Kate - my daughter-"
"She'll be okay, and so will you," Beckett promises him in a voice he's heard her use countless times at the precinct to reassure a victim's family when she's at her most determined. "I promise you, Castle. I'll get you through this."
Her hands cradling his face should not bring him such quick comfort, but he relaxes automatically under the soft touch of her palms.
He's always thought of vampires as monsters, fictional bloodsucking demons that roam the world preying on innocent human beings for meals. But the woman sitting beside him is not a monster, never has he seen her as anything but extraordinary since the day he met her, and he has so many questions, so many fears, but when Kate tells him she'll get him through this, he can't help but believe her.
"So how old are you again?" he quips as they stroll through the woods of her father's cabin.
Kate rolls her eyes and bumps his side. "Four hundred. And three."
"And you always teased me about my old age," he muses. "But it's fine, I don't mind being involved with an older woman."
Beckett huffs, but allows him to lace their fingers and tug her in closer against his side. He's asked her an endless amount of questions over the last month, questions about their kind, about her life specifically. He knows everything now, every piece of her story given away, and she had worried that once he finally knew every detail, every truth she has ever hidden from him, that he would be repulsed by her.
But while this new reality has unsettled him at times, Castle's fascination has risen high above any doubts or short-lived sorrow. He's aware he will outlive his mother, his daughter, everyone he cares about. He knows all of the precautions they're forced to take in the daylight and how to restrain himself around humans and the always enticing scent of blood. And by some miracle, despite this dark new world she's forced him into, he's happy.
And he loves her back.
"One more question."
"Castle, we had a deal. You've already asked your ten for today," she sighs, resting her head on his shoulder as her father's cabin comes into sight. The secluded area has worked as a perfect place for his recovery, for his training. His mother and daughter stop by for a visit every other weekend, eager for his return to the city, or at least for his relocation to the Hamptons for their usual summer getaway, but even with Kate's encouragement, he still wants another month in the woods with her. "Besides, what else could you possibly need to know. You've asked me everything imaginable."
"I haven't asked this one. C'mon Beckett," he pleads, gently squeezing her hipbone when his arm wraps around her waist. It surprises her, how gentle he can still be even with the gift of superhuman strength.
"Fine."
"Was there a supernatural kind of connection between us?" he asks, stopping them just before they can reach the front porch steps, eager anticipation shining in his eyes. "Did you feel an instant pull towards me the first time you laid eyes upon me, like you'd finally found your one true love after four hundred years?"
Kate laughs, loud and uninhibited as she shakes her head at the ridiculous fairytale-like assumptions he sometimes has about vampires. The knowledge he's retained from movies and books isn't always horribly off, but no author or filmmaker has ever learned their kind well enough to accurately depict their existence.
"Hey, it's a legitimate question," he insists.
"Do you not remember our first year of working together, Castle? Did it really seem like I thought I had just found my one true love?"
He shrugs. "Hard to tell, you weren't much of a sharer back then."
She scoffs, but she's still smiling.
"No, the way we love is just like anyone else on this planet. There's no magical connection or destined betrothal," she chuckles as she untangles their hands and slips her arms around his neck. "I love you because you're you. That's why I've always loved you."
She knows it has to be in her head, but his entire face seems to brighten at the words. They've been together for the past month, taken that next step in their relationship that she swore she would never allow to happen with him, but she hasn't uttered her love for him so blatantly since he awoke in the hospital.
"Good," he grins, pressing a kiss to her forehead before staking a brief claim to her lips. "Since you're stuck with me until the end of time and all."