Never Tempt a Witch
-One Shot-
It's not something you'd know, not until it happens. But apparently cat-people didn't share the same opinions of vampires that house cats did. Henry Fitzroy was currently finding this out all the hard way, horrible pun intended.
Halloween brought out the worst in many a crowd, and this rule was extremely applicable to the supernatural crowd. Witches love Halloween, or more over, Samhain. It's one of those unwritten laws of nature, or something.
It also seemed that some witches held grudges.
Yeah… grudges…
~ Henry + Mike ~
Henry sat in Vicki's PI office watching the sleeping man, laid out on the couch, from the new leather armchair addition to the waiting room. Mike had been out cold since the witch's spell hit him in the dead center of his chest. It was all a bunch of green and gold sparks, and the last sound they heard from Mike since then was a low pained groan as he slumped to the ground unconscious.
He's been out for two hours now. Vicki was worried, as was Coreen. Henry… well, he'd never admit it out loud, but he was worried about the detective as well. The girls were out looking for the witch, who ran off as soon as the spell had hit it's intended target, and Henry had been left in charge of guard duty. It was, after all, his fault that Mike was in his current state. The witch was mad at Henry for spurning her after a one-night stand. If it weren't for that, Mike wouldn't still be out cold on the couch…
Unable to stare at Mike any longer, too bogged down by the guilt eating away at him, Henry got up and headed into the small adjoining kitchenette. Coffee? Coffee… Coffee seemed like a great idea. It gave him something to do other than stare at the peaceful sleep smoothed planes of Mike's face.
~ Henry + Mike ~
Mike felt like he was going to be sick. The nausea was so strong it pulled him from his dreamless sleep and had him rolling off of his bed retching dryly. Not his bed, his mind supplied as he gagged over nothing. His body was burning up. He was on fire! A moan climbed up his sick constricted throat, and it sounded so pitiful to even his own ears as it left his panting mouth.
He'd never felt this bad, ever!
Sickness rolled in his empty stomach as he continued to gag. Then hands were touching him, rubbing his back soothingly and petting at his sweat-dampened hair. Not Vicki. These hands were big, with long slender fingers. Whose hands? There were words. His name maybe, but he couldn't hear them very clearly.
Sweat rolled down his face as he began to shiver. Not sweat… They were tears. He was crying? He hurt so badly… He was dying… But he wasn't ready to die yet. He still hadn't given Fitzroy a piece of his mind about the whole 'courting Vicki' situation.
~ Henry + Mike ~
Henry had zoned out, eyes trained on the coffee as it ran from the percolator into the dingy coffee stained glass pot. He didn't allow his mind to wander as he let the fresh brewed scent wash over him, drowning out Mike's own weak scent that hung heavily in the air throughout the whole floor.
A sound came from the sitting room that sounded almost like a gasp of his name, but Henry ignored it, disregarding it as nothing but his own imagination. It was the sound of coughing and wheezing that drew him to the couch in under a second. Mike had rolled himself off of the couch and was currently on his hands and knees dry heaving. Henry moved around the couch to crouch down at his side, hands hovering, afraid to touch.
Mike was shivering violently, his clothes and hair looked damp, and all visible skin was covered in a fine sheen of sweat. How had he gotten this bad in such a short amount of time? Henry hadn't even been in the kitchen for more than five minutes!
Not being able to stand the sight any longer, Henry touched a hand to Mike's back and forehead. The man was burning up!
"Mike!" Henry hated how desperate the name sounded as it left his lips, but that didn't stop him from chanting over and over again. But it didn't seem like Mike could hear him as he continued to cough violently.
~ Henry + Mike ~
When Vicki and Coreen finally returned, they returned empty handed. They couldn't find the witch. It was like she had vanished into thin air, leaving no traces of herself behind.
As Vicki opened the frosted glass door to her office the first thing she saw was Henry. He looked tired, that was a difficult look for the eternally youthful man to pull off, but the eyes he lifted to meet hers were almost sleepy in their haziness. A tired Henry, but no Mike… Mike wasn't on the couch where they had left him over three hours ago in the vampire's care. Vicki immediately hoped for the positive.
"Henry, where's Mike?" Vicki asked slowly, as Coreen closed the door behind them.
Henry nodded down to his lap, where a black fuzzy lump sat stationary, before slowly lifting a finger to his lips in the universal sign for 'shhh'.
Vicki stared. Mike? Black cat? Really?
"I didn't think cats liked vampires very much…?" Coreen said softly as she knelt down to inspect the fuzzy black ball that was apparently Mike.
"It's Mike… He always has to be difficult and contrary," Vicki murmured as she gave Henry a grin that he did not share. The vampire looked away from her and refused to even look down at the itty bitty kitty napping in his lap.
~ Henry + Mike ~
"Cats aren't supposed to have caramel, Coreen…" Vicki chastised as her assistant set one of the caramel apples they had bought from the street vender on the corner on the floor for Mike. Neither of the two headed her word's; and the young woman was grinning and cooing over Mike as he tried to demolish the sticky apple even though it was easily bigger than his little fuzzy black head.
Both women looked up in the direction of the door at the sound of it opening. It was Henry. He looked equally frustrated and relieved.
"Any luck?" Vicki said, glancing over at Mike who had yet to even notice Henry's arrival.
"Yes, some." Henry said, shedding his thin leather jacket and placing it on the coat rack. "I found the witch. I apologized… She 'somewhat' forgave me…"
"And…" both women prompted as Henry moved towards the leather chair he had claimed as his own.
"She said it would wear off in time." He sighed as he sat, eyes closing as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "But…"
"But…?" Coreen looked just as worried as Vicki when she prompted for him to continue, but Henry wasn't even paying attention to them anymore as his eyes opened and narrowed in on Mike and his half mauled apple.
"What is that?"
"Oh! A caramel apple!" Coreen giggled, momentarily forgetting there was a 'but'. "He loves them!"
"Cats aren't supposed to have caramel, Coreen…" Henry spoke slowly. As he said this Mike lifted his sticky little face away from the apple and looked straight at Henry with wide blue eyes, tail flicking as if he had just noticed the vampire's presence. There were a few more licks to the caramel coated apple before he bounced over to Henry who reached down for him as if all this was normal. Which, after five days, it was... Second only to caramel, Kitty-Mike liked Henry the best.
"That's what I told her…" Vicki said, eyes narrowed at the vampire who was running careful fingers through Mike's fur trying to avoid the sticky mess he'd made. She hadn't forgotten about the elusive 'but'. "Mike's Mike no matter what form he takes… Anyways, that aside, 'but…'?
"Um… yes… there may be… some side effects…" Henry said slowly as he lifted his eyes away from the cat in favor of steadily looking at Vicki.
~ FIN ~