"Do you even have to ask me that question Nikola?" Helen's smile was beatific as she took another sip from the Riedel crystal goblet, the red liquid coating the side of the bowl and drawing back into place leaving subtle transparent red legs as she set it on the table in front of her and Nikola. He had drawn up his lips in a half smile, half sneer, as he pondered the implications of her unsaid answer. Who would she have chosen if the deck had not already been stacked in her favor; her protégé or her millennial traveling companion? He wasn't completely comforted by the answer he came up with.

"I have so many more things to offer than your young William."

"Do you now?" The polished accent never ceased to send a chill down his spine when she spoke. It was elegance made audible, and far more pleasing than the rough talk of the Americans he found himself surrounded with, or the guttural Serbian he remembered from his youth.

"I have centuries of experience," he began.

"Experience at what? Getting the both of us into trouble?" She looked at him with raised eyebrows, questioning the sense of his statement.

"Now Helen, if you want to get into trouble with me, all you have to do is ask." His eyebrows went up and he grinned at her in that way he had, suggesting far more than his words. She sighed, letting her shoulders visibly fall.

"Nikola, can we have any conversation without you falling into those innuendoes?"

"Of course we can Helen." He edged closer to her on the settee, smiling.

"And what kind of conversation would that be?"

"The one where you try to seduce me."

"Nikola!"

Part of her wanted to smack him, but she knew, for one, that it wouldn't be of any use, and two, that he might actually like it.

"It's been a long day Nikola and I'm going to bed." She stood, intent on leaving him behind to amuse himself with his charm.

"Ah, but I haven't brought my pajamas Helen, whatever shall we do?" he stood rapidly to block her way to the door.

"I'm going by myself Nikola." And as she moved around him, he reached out and caught her hand in his.

"But that isn't what you really want, is it Helen?" He spun to face her again.

"It most assuredly is." And she tried to pull her hand free of his grasp, but he held on, actually twisting his own wrist upwards, bringing her hand with it.

"Why?" He asked, looking right into her eyes, watching her breathe through parted lips.

'Why what?"

"Why do you continue to reject me Helen? What are you afraid of?"

"Certainly not you." She matched his stare with one far more formidable than his doey eyes.

"I begin to wonder some days Helen." He brought their clasped hands up to his lips, not quite touching them, but leaving only just enough room that she could feel his warm breath on her skin. It made her shudder, which only encouraged him to continue. "Why not me? I know you better than anyone else alive."

"You give yourself undeserved credit."

"You work so hard to keep me alive Helen, through the transformations, through the gifts of the source blood, through the viruses, and villains. One might think you actually felt something for me." She could not watch his lips as he spoke to her; they were still hidden by their hands, her hand, that she had not pulled away.

"I do feel something for you Nikola." She whispered, "You are my friend." But her tone wavered.

"Would it be so terrible Helen?" He left a pause, filled with nothing but the sounds of the two of them drawing breath. He imagined he could hear her heartbeat, and emboldened by that, and holding her eyes, he brought her hand right to his lips and kissed it gently, then released it. "If I were to kiss you?" He sought the answer in the way she looked at him, and the way she responded. He was not disappointed.

"Nikola," the word, his name, was a whisper, an utterance of the heart and not the mind. It was glorious and he closed the small gap between them, reaching this time, not for her hand, but for the smooth skin of her cheek, brushing it with three fingertips, feeling her bend to his touch, just subtly, nothing he might ever have noticed were he fully human; but of course he wasn't.

"I have loved you since I first laid eyes on you, since you first touched my skin and gave me the blood, made me one of the five, made me one of you." He turned her head, just slightly with his fingers, watched her eyes close, and pressed his mouth to hers, feeling the longed for softness, tasting the warmed breath on his tongue, clutching her body around the waist and pulling it to his. Kissing her with the invitation for more.

"Nikola, please?" He did not stop to explore any implications of her entreaty, if it was to stop, if it was to question, or if it was to beg, he simply chose his own interpretation and crushed his body to her, forcing his mouth over hers again, parting her lips and driving his tongue into her mouth to seek out the same. He only knew he had done right when her arms wrapped around his back, maintaining their embrace; and by the fact that she hadn't tried to bite him in his zeal.

The force of her mouth against his was as strong as the reverse, and the grinding of the vermillion was echoed in the dance of her hips. For an instant, just a moment, Helen let herself be completely enveloped in the now. When she finally had to pull away from him she had to drop her head, and draw deep breaths, her hands traced around to his chest, elbows locking, palms flat, keeping him at a distance from her as she restored that nature she had withdrawn into for so many decades; the one that would not be hurt again.

"We cannot do this Nikola." She spoke to the floor, a rare moment of insecurity in her own resolve, preventing her from looking into his dark eyes again.

"Of course we can Helen." He tried to coax her, feeling the longed for goals finally within his reach.

"It isn't that simple Nikola."

"What is so complicated? You are a woman, I am I man. I desire you beyond anything else in this world. And I believe you desire me as well. Perhaps not to the same degree, but I am willing to overlook that. Now, come, let me take you to bed finally, and make love to you."

"Nikola, stop!" There was no misunderstanding that command. The old Magnus was resurfacing and Nikola cursed his fading luck.

"What?" He sounded quite annoyed, feeling his one shot slipping away.

"There is too much at stake."

"What, that we'll be discovered, by your Bigfoot manservant, or your HAP, Heinrich? Or worse, by William? Do you really think I am incapable of being discrete?"

"Of course you are Nikola, you're an egomaniacal, narcissistic Vampire."

"You flatter me Helen."

"Never the less."

"So if I could keep my mouth shut you'd sleep with me?"

She sighed, looking at him with a pursed smile.

"We're better off as friends than lovers Nikola." The words cut him.

"Can't I be the judge of that?"

"Not tonight."

It took almost everything she had to walk away from him just then, and Helen's head continued to pound and her heart to race even when she was well down the hallway and around the corner from the study she had left him in. She stopped for a moment, took a deep breath and considered turning around. But common sense, and the reality of her situation took control, as it always did, (even if it had been a little late in coming that evening) and she continued on to her bedroom, alone, and unmolested, and just a little sad.