Annotation: No copyright infringement intended. All characters belong to Syfy and the writers. I´m just writing for fun and I make no money with it.
When Henry left the place where Aidan had taken him to recover from the almost deadly punishment by Suren, he had lost his former refuge by betrayal. As Suren´s human lawyer had bought the orphan refuge from badass Mickey to get rid of Bishop´s childes, cleaning Boston up for Mother´s return, Henry by now had no place to put his head on. He walks through Boston, uneasy where he shall stay for the next time. There are no humans known by now from whom he might ask for shelter. After getting lost of all he once had; some money, all his belongings...but for his life, his situation turns out to be worse than it had been the moment when Aidan had banished him from all in the 30s.
Where to go? Henry has to make a decision as the Halloway Hotel is the last place he wants to stay at...
Set after the end of Being Human´s Season 2, episode #9 When I think about you, I shred myself, after Henry left Aidan and Josh outside their home. One shot which events are belong to my story There are no such things as vampires out there. (Being Human crossover with Crossing Jordan) I´ve separated it from it to keep things a bit more straight.
Josh´s House
Henry climbed up the stairs and stopped before the door with the large glass window in the upper half. By now there was no stepping back. Henry sighed, preparing himself for the moment when the door would be opened. He pressed the button of the door bell. Inside the bell rang. He waited and when nothing happened he tried it a second time.
Inside the house he heard footsteps tromping down the stairs.
The door was opened and the man he had met yesterday morning outside the house, stood in the door frame.
"Hi...Josh!?"
"Hi, Henry..." Josh didn´t sound convinced. He was somewhat skeptical to see him again. "What´s up?"
"May I come in, Josh?" Henry stretched out his hand and Josh took it firmly. His eyes went down to the surface of his skin. He studied him closely before he stepped back one step.
"What do you want here, Henry?" Josh wasn´t happy to see him again after what had happened in here that night.
"Is Aidan at home? I would like to speak with him...uhm, I...uhm, I have important information for him. Something occurred last night...", he began, feeling that Josh wasn´t utterly hostile but skeptical.
"Yeah! Two cases of death occurred in my house and you were mixed up into it!"
"Didn´t Aidan tell you what happened? I...I didn´t...kill them..." Henry searched for Josh´s understanding. He needed him to keep contact with Aidan.
"I know." Josh answered brusque. His face torn between uncertainty and sympathy. He had seen him at his worst. No one deserved such a punishment.
"Will we talk outside here?", Henry asked and made a step forward without forcing the situation. Josh had let him in, invited him in the day when Aidan brought him home. He had access to the house now until Josh would uninvite him.
What could happen if he became angry.
Josh saw that it would become uncomfortable to go on outside the house. Reluctantly he stepped back to let him in.
"Come in. Aidan isn´t at home in the moment...I think he´ll come later. His shift at the hospital starts in two hours..."
Aidan walked down the street, his hands shoved in the pockets of his hoody, hood over head, so his face was barely visible. He directed his steps out to nowhere, not noticing where he walked along. Too much had happened the last few weeks and only days backwards when suddenly Henry had reappeared on the scene after eighty years of silence. He had thought him lost, either lost in time and space, maybe still dead, or, like it had shown, he had survived by hiding under the surface or like Aidan called it; flying low under the radar…
His wish to be accepted back into the Boston Family, obviously out of a sudden, had led him to search for his Sire. Maybe Henry had become tired of hiding, tired of fleeing all the time. Aidan wasn´t sure how to handle his son´s wish. He knew all too well the problem with the orphans, Suren wanted it to be solved to get free road for her mother´s wishes and her reputation.
Aidan felt pretty terrible about tricking and the way of treating with the orphans, he didn´t feel any aversion against them, never has had any problems personally with them. But Suren had forced the decision onto him either to save the orphans or his son!
That had been the worst tricky way and he could loathe her for it. Himself being a vampire it hadn´t been like hunting them down and deliver them to final death like a freaky Van Helsing. He loved his son, his heart blood and would never have preferred them over his son, but he knew he had killed his own kind out of fucking political reasons and not out of hatred. Had turned them over to their doom out of Suren´s will.
Political reasons had often enough led to the doom of whole populations. Since the last war, WW2, he had hoped that this would never happen again. And now he had played even this way. He despised what he had been forced to do.
It had been so unfair.
And like it hadn´t been enough Suren had punished him as well as his son by flaying Henry. Not only nearly killing his son but tormenting him as well when he was forced to bring in two living human beings to feed Henry to heal him. Cut off from his sources on the hospital, for sure Suren has had her fingers in this pie, it was nearly inevitable to end up disastrous.
He had gone to lengths to save his son. Like always when it came to decisions, irrespective of his long lived existence experience, he tended to act on a gut level.
Aidan turned his thoughts over and over again and when he finally reached the hospital entrance he stopped dead in his tracks, stared up the front and became aware where he was. He let out a harsh breath, tried to relax a moment and then looked onto his watch to find out it was way too early for his shift.
Undecided he stood there, let the patients and visitors pass by and when he turned his head by a sudden noise from a motor, he saw the bus stopping nearby. A group of passengers exited and spread over the sidewalk to walk anywhere or over to the hospital´s entrance.
He felt not comfortable with others in the moment, turned abruptly onto his heels and walked away.
Rain began to fall and changed the sidewalk stones into a glistening surface that mirrored the street lamps and the headlights. His feet made low noised plashing sounds when he sauntered around, his instinct leading him towards home.
As a matter of habit he didn´t make an attention when he finally stepped up the stairs of their house. His hand touched the doorknob and he opened the door. His nostrils widened when he suddenly caught an all too familiar scent.
Slightly of dried serine and a hint of wounds.
Aidan was familiar with these kind of scents from his work in the hospital. As a vampire he could smell them on lower levels than mortals. Equal to the olfactory sense of a dog. Or…
…a werewolf.
His alert bells rang and he stepped into the kitchen, his nose showing him the way.
He wasn´t wrong.
At the table sat...Henry.
In the same dressing he went off the morning after Aidan had brought him in in the attempt to save his life. Obviously Henry didn´t have time or simply the possibility to change into other clothing.
Aidan didn´t feel so glad to see him here. He wondered why he had come back so early, and why Josh had let him in again after what had happened in his house. He thought Josh to be angry with both of them, at least with him by compromising his house with…urgh…two cases of death.
"Hi, Josh…hi, Henry…", Aidan greeted them, his mood depressed like the folds of his soaking wet hood.
"Hi, Aidan…", Josh´s answer wasn´t much better in tone. What wonder, Aidan thought. When he looked into the face of his friend he saw that slight disappointment he usually showed when a day went out of hand.
"Had a bad day, Josh?"
"Don´t ask me! Ask him!", Josh directed to Henry.
"He looks much better. So what should be wrong with him to ask for a bad day?" Aidan saw that Henry´s wounds were completely healed, even the slight remaining abrasions had gone. His skin looked intact and normally colored in difference to the morning when his hands and face had looked delicate and in parts in color of rose where deeper wounds were only slightly sealed over.
Josh rose his head and stared at Aidan.
"So you know nothing of what happened yesterday in the evening in a freekin´ alley at Dorchester?"
"You mean the dead banker?"
"Exactly him! Seems you guys are gonna get a lot of problems in the next time! It shit the hell out of it! They brought it in the news! You better look TV instead of hanging around with dead companions…!" Josh urged.
"Who´s hanging around with dead things, eh?" Aidan´s tone went pissy. Tipping on the fact that Josh shared his house with a ghost; "Me and Henry, we´re undead! Forgot?" He stared at Josh, his fist closing so hard around a cup it nearly broke.
"But you´ll be really dead soon when they start to hunt down all of you. Folks and farmers with mist forks and torches and nice cut stakes!", Josh spat at him and rose from his chair, shoving it back so brusque it hit the corner of the kitchen cabinet.
"And when they are ready with you they would look for the next one to focus their hunting instincts on! And that would be me, Aidan!"
"Not if you don´t turn right in front of them! You have no hairs growing in the palm of your hands! So what about are you gonna be afraid of?", Aidan grabbed him by the arm, tore him towards the door to the living room and his face was stone when he allowed Josh to free his forearm from his grip. His wet hair hung into his face and with one hand he shoved it aside.
Josh went angry and he didn´t make any attempt to hide it in front of the visitor. His voice became low but intense.
"You urged me to let him in." He directed over to Henry who still sat at the table, viewing the men who seemed to go into a cat´s and dogs. "I told you, that we normally don´t do that. Especially since Bishop tried to make his access in here when he impaled you even for the price of goin´ fuckin´ crispy! I sat up the rule: no further more vampires in here. For our own safety. What could go on when we would let in a vampire by free will? You are gonna vouch for him? He…"
"He´s my son, Josh! My own blood!" Aidan shot at him, his voice rising. He very well understood the fear of his friend, the fear of tearing in all kind of mischief. Henry with his preternatural hearing didn´t need such level, but what for?
Josh stared at him, not afraid of the now blackened eyes, the visible fangs. He fought for breath, brought out:
"I broke my rules for you! Cause it´s your son! That´s the only reason why I made this concession! For you and because he rose my pity. Cause I can´t damn jump over my damn nurse-caring-for shadow!"
Josh broke free from Aidan´s side, stepped around the table again, his fists pressed to the surface with the table cloth when he stared at Aidan in despair.
Aidan felt Josh was near to break out into tears. Felt his discrepancy; to be torn apart between his trust into Aidan and the fear for becoming a target to everyone of bad will. He once had nearly lost all what had once a value in his life for to come over here, search a refuge and make a new balance with his fate of now being a werewolf!
But now it looked as if he was going to get lost of all of it again. For the second time in his life!
Josh stepped around in the kitchen, circling around the table like a caged animal, in nothing such equal as to a wolf. The very wolf he became at every month´s Full Moon. Aidan followed him with his eyes, aware of any explosion to come sooner or later.
He had no doubts about his friends temperament. After all he had seen him changing into the werewolf in the hospital´s cellar room. Had rescued Josh´s sister from him when the door eventually fell closed from inside, locking her up in the same room with poor Josh.
The only thing that for the moment would be certain was the fact that Josh couldn´t turn werewolf now because it was towards New Moon. He silently grinned with determination and stepped into Josh´s path. Aidan grabbed for his forearms, a thing only he could dare when he was in such mood, and stopped him. Josh nearly running into his chest.
He caught him, looked straight into his face and his voice became a whisper. Calm and with that manipulative timbre.
Aidan wasn´t certain it would work on him, but better try it…
"Josh! Stop!" he demanded. Heard Josh breathing with surprise, felt the forceful body resistance weaken and the lids over those soft brown eyes opened and Josh looked at him. His mouth slightly opened as if to speak.
"Josh!" Aidan´s voice was calm, soft but nonetheless manipulative. "Josh, calm down, please!" He gave him a bit of space for breathing, waiting, then went on; "Please, Josh! No one will be gonna die this night! All is safe and no one will harm you nor us or Sally…" He indicated with a nod of his head to the direction where Sally had entered the kitchen door frame.
She stood straight. Her beautiful eyes wide with sorrow. Quite not sure what was going on in here. And why. But she kept quiet, simply studying the scene with the three room mates. Naturally it were two but since Aidan brought Henry in she accounted him as a room mate too.
Existence itself was difficult enough when you simply couldn´t handle such easy things like doorknobs and trash cans.
No need to complicate it additionally by participating in human…urgh…vampire/werewolf affairs.
Henry had slowly risen from his seat, about to leave for good.
Josh and Aidan went into dispute because of him. His presence in the house. The house he by now saw as a piece of freedom and a refuge, far from Halloway Hotel with its omnipresent vampires. He knew that it meant only a few words again to uninvite him and send him off and he knew how thin the ice was he walked on.
Aidan´s face turned around to him by the nearly inaudible sound Henry had caused. Eyes bored into each other.
"I better go now…", Henry began, his voice all control, his face stern.
"You´re staying! Right in here!" Aidan demanded, one hand outstretched as if to grab Henry by the shoulder and forcing him down on his seat again. What didn´t happen in reality.
Vampires were all manipulative even with their own kind, but they were no Darth-Vader-Dark-Jedis.
"Please!" Aidan added all but curt.
Henry sank down on the seat again. He let out a harsh breath, definitely feeling uncomfortable. He didn´t want to be in a quarreling. His fingers clung to the table edge until his knuckles went white.
His knuckles went white when he clung his hands to the edges of the table, despairingly searching for a hold before his whole body reared up under the all excruciating pain and his screams made the walls quake. The knife went under his skin and…
Henry choked and began to shiver like in a fever and his mind seemed to cringe by the memory.
Aidan heard it and turned his face, his eyes becoming wide with astonishment when he saw his son in a state he didn´t know what it came from.
"Hey, Henry! What´s goin´on? You all okay…?"
Henry looked awful.
His face which he tried to control, was slightly trembling under the strength which he tried to apply for control. But it was kind of useless. Events had been way too nearby to overcome by sheer denying.
What the heck was going on? As if he hadn´t problems enough with a fear stricken Josh it now seemed to spread over to Henry.
Friend´s/werewolf problems ahead.
And now also vampire problems.
Aidan moaned, looked down onto Josh who seemed finally to relax a bit. "At least one…", he mumbled and after making certain all was sure with him, he let go Josh and hurried over to his son.
Grabbed him by the trembling shoulders and stared in the face that was contorted with…fear.
"Hey, Henry! What the hell is on the road with you…?" His view all sorrowful.
"I…I can´t…", he stammered hoarsely.
"What can´t you…? Hey? Tell me…!" Aidan urged.
Henry tried to rise, to turn away from Aidan but he didn´t let go now. Not before he would be provided with an answer. He had a damn right to know what was going on with his son…
"Henry!"
"I can´t…tell you. Please let me…alone…", his voice sunken down to merely a whisper.
Aidan felt sorry for him and his face became soft when his hand cupped Henry´s chin and lifted the face of the younger vampire to look into the blue eyes that now went wet with tears.
Henry felt a thumb stroking over his cheek bone, wiping away the salty drops. He breathed hard, his shoulders slightly trembling under Aidan´s hands.
There was so much pain in the face that Aidan became afraid for the reason.
"Tell me! Please, Henry! There´s nothing to hide…" Clearly his son was suffering from a hidden strong problem.
Henry tried for to make himself free from his Sire for the last time and then gave in. He shuddered, sighed and slowly exhaled before he whispered anything.
Even inaudible for Aidan. "Henry, I have seen you at your worst! Don´t forget this! There is nothing in the whole world you can´t tell me!", Aidan urged and stroked his cheek with his hand.
"If I tell you, you would think of me as to be weak! So I…I don´t dare…"
"No one is weak when being honest! And I for myself never would think of you as being weak. You had been so strong! Remember! Now you can be weak without losing your strength!" he reassured him.
"I´m sorry…I´m so sorry, Aidan, but when…I can´t get rid of these pictures…the whole situation. I had been at Halloway Hotel earlier. I went there for a feeding…to get rid of the last remains of…the…", tears began to stream again and he sniffed when he pressed out the following words; "…the…skin… ning. I fed from a woman I knew…nothing uncommon but solely being in there…the pictures came back. I thought I could smell my own blood, hear my own screams breaking on the walls…"
Henry´s finger let go the edge of the table like he had burned his fingertips on a hot oven and he stared at them like at strange things. As if he couldn´t believe they were still there and intact again.
A picture shot to Aidan´s mind: Henry sitting on the edge of the bed upstairs, his bloody skinless fingers going for the blood soaked temple before helplessly sinking down again. Trembling, desperate. Ready for…
…dying.
Giving up.
Aidan caught for Henry´s hands, closed them in between his own and looked into the face of his son.
"I know, Henry…" God, he had found enough traumatized patients at hospital. Knew how disturbing such memories could be. Coming up again and again. Some never going rid of them until the end of their lives…
Henry was in a stream to let loose now when the walls had been broken and Aidan wouldn´t go for stopping him. He looked on his hands, buried within Aidan´s. Taking hold of him to make certain he could let go all of it.
"I…when I clung my fingers onto this table here…I was back in the very room of Suren, spread on that table and she was…I grabbed my hands into the edge to prevent from…screaming…but…" He shuddered; " I couldn´t and she grinned with that devilish satisfaction when I started to scream…before finally I lost consciousness…knowing she was still there. I can´t get that grin out of my memory…Once I had loved her…", he swallowed hard; " but for now…I can kill her right away…any which way. It wouldn´t matter to me to see her going into ashes out of those my very hands…" He looked at his hands then Henry looked into Aidan´s eyes, his view so desperate and so full of hatred for the woman he once fell in love with. Now he wasn´t able to explain to himself out of which reason he had fallen prey to her.
Suren had betrayed Henry, had betrayed him and everybody else around she came into contact with. She was a monster with a childish impertinence and still after centuries with immaturity. Mother wanted her to be a leader but in Aidan´s eyes she was at the farthest corner from it. Her incapability would always rise new problems then others had to solve for her to hide it from Mother´s eyes like, at last, the orphan problem!
And now this woman was confronted with a case of death that all of them could make visible to the public!
For sure Suren was the last one to be putted in charge with solving the problem and preventing a disaster!
And for sure Henry would suffer as often as he would see her. Now and for a time not to be foreseen. Aidan cupped his cheeks, stroked them with his thumbs and mumbled:
"Did you talk to anybody there about what you´ve told me now?"
Henry shook his head no.
"I would be mad to trust anybody of the other vampires. I survived and I didn´t want to get lost of my saved life. They would only wait for one to show weakness among them! You know them! I will have to live with my problems alone until they´ll disappear by themselves. We live long enough to go over with almost everything if we only have time enough!"
"You´re not alone! You have me and you can trust Josh as well!" Aidan´s voice became a whisper; " Josh is afraid, that our problems will spread over to him. But that´s nonsense! I talked to Atlee about the dead banker´s case and I think we´ll have to solve it! Going to keep Suren out of it at any price. It shows how uncertain she is to think about callin´ in the Council for it! It´s the worst she can do! The less people are involved into it -the better!"
"Aidan, I don´t want to hide there. I don´t want to stay at the House for a sleeping place and we lost our refuge by traitorous tactics. Where do I go now? On a freekin´ grave yard?"
"No. Stay here for a time until we have solved this case, Henry. Josh will give you some space…" He looked over to Josh for agreement, feeling uncertain about how this would turn out.
"Let me just have a word with you, Aidan!" Josh waved to Aidan to step aside and Aidan went into the living room with Josh.
"What is it, Josh? Any...?" Aidan directed to Henry with a thumb, his voice low despite he was well aware that they won´t be able to hide the conversation from Henry´s vampire ears. Josh´s face was stern when he sighed and came out with whatever was in his mind.
"You brought in two...Popsicle for him!" Josh´s voice was reproachful and Aidan knew it hadn´t been out of no reason. What had happened definitely had overstretched one´s borders of friendship. He had stepped beyond.
"Henry is my son, Josh! I couldn´t have let him die...!" Aidan defended himself. Josh got an expression of painful amusement.
"But you´re still aware that you tainted the only place I still have. The only one that was left over for me! Do I have to remind you that we decided to make this the place where we can honestly be what we are?! I hadn´t in mind that you would be that much yourself that this ends up with killing people in here in best vampire manner!"
"It was a terrible accident, Josh! I didn´t intend it! I´m...I´m so sorry for it, Josh!" Aidan sounded gutted. His face was a mask of inner pain. What could he say to Josh?
"You let him in, Josh...", his voice was low, full of guilt.
"Yeap, cuz you begged me to do so! And I did cuz you´re my friend, Aidan! Out of no other reason..." Josh gave back and Aidan knew that Josh had gone to lengths for him.
"In...in the moment, Henry has no place to go to. The situation has complicated since I met him for the first time after 80 years. I can...I will explain it later to you, Josh!"
"What can become worse? The situation is still complicated enough...since Henry got almost killed by whomsoever decided to skin him! Aidan, oh goodness, I´ve never seen anything worse in all my nurse time! I felt pity for him because nobody deserves such a punishment, out of no reason! That´s why I gave in, why I let him in even if he would die in here though." Josh shook his head in helpless turmoil. "I had no clue what I should have done, if so! Brush him up with a dust pan?" Josh stepped aside, his breath was heavy with concern and Aidan saw how it worked in his face when he thought over for a decision he felt able to live with.
At least for some time.
Josh didn´t feel so happy with it, but to be honest to himself, he thought that he should trust Aidan with it to keep Henry in reign...
Josh looked at Henry, the doubts written into his face, but Aidan was his friend he could trust in and when he would keep Henry within the rules... Maybe it won´t take too long until they could solve the dead man´s case and then Henry would leave again. Josh placed his hands on his hips. That at least gave him a feeling of calmness he didn´t have really.
"Okay! Okay...Henry can stay here...!"
Aidan looked at Josh, feeling a stone tumbling down from his chest when Josh gave his permission now.
"Where can take Henry his refuge here for a while?", he asked. There was a room upstairs that wasn´t used but Aidan didn´t want to ignore Josh, first of all he was the human owner of the house and he would be able to uninvite Henry with a few words and for the second; he wanted Josh´s consent with the presence of a second vampire in his house. Aidan had felt that Josh had been very worried about having a vampire around after what had happened not so long ago with Bishop, when he crashed inside, ready for a kill.
Josh had made clear that he had made an immense exception in definitely inviting in another vampire what meant to him that the house was no longer a safe place. For him, for Sally and or for Aidan. For Josh it was going to be a hard stuff to trust into one he didn´t know thoroughly. A vampire that had caused two dead girls in his home!
Josh eyes went beside, he looked uncertain, searching around to give himself time to think about it, then he turned back to Aidan and Henry who was waiting what was to come. Josh´s face showing the conflict within but finally he nodded a Yes.
"`kay, gim´him the room upstairs..." He directed upstairs, indicating the room next to the bedroom.
"Thank you, Josh. You´re doing me a great favor.", Henry said to Josh; "I promise you Josh, you won´t have any trouble with me in here...", he smiled, extended a hand and Josh took it.
Aidan bent near to Henry´s ear, whispered; "You know what he is doing for you, Henry! Don´t never ever forget that! Or I´m gonna beat the shit out of you!", he warned him with an icy smile. "No...feeding in here! Take your meals anywhere else! This is Josh´s home and not Halloway Hotel and he´s going to lengths for you...Don´t forget that, Henry!"
Henry nodded slightly.
"I know, Aidan. Be sure, I certainly know to appreciate it!" he nodded slightly and sent over a smile to Josh. Then he swallowed, let out a deep breath and after a moment he bent to Aidan.
"I´m sorry...I don´t like to ask you for...but...uhm...can you help me out with some...money...? I..uhm I´m broken..."
"I smelt that on you...", Aidan directed on Henry´s hoody and jeans which were beyond their best time. "This is your single set of dressing?", he whispered.
Henry nodded. "Since I lost my refuge I lost the few things I owned. Living by hiding is not what is going to equip you with all you need, Aidan! Not far from hanging around like the homeless."
"How then did you make it through all the years...? Aidan asked, his brows narrowing. He shot a look over to Josh who, for good luck, had gone into the living room. Not necessary to have him listening to them. This theme wasn´t the one to spread out like bush fire.
"This way and that way..." Henry shrugged his shoulders; "Nothing to become rich. Simply surviving anyway..."
Aidan realized that Henry didn´t have a good life since he had banished him from the vampire society after Suren freaked out eighty years ago. Certainly he had been hanging around anywhere with feeding becoming difficult if one didn´t have access to bagged blood or a pool of willing donors like The House offered. Always being on the run from the other vampires who won´t hesitate to kill him when coming close with him. Although only to please Mother.
"Where have you been all over the time, Henry?" Aidan closed his hands around Henry´s face, his thumbs feeling over the skin that became smooth and even by now. The last remains of cuts and abrasions had gone.
"Not in Boston. To dangerous, way too close to the Vampire Family. Since Boston became a large town it became much easier. The last few years I kept in contact with the orphans..."
Aidan swallowed hard. Not even the theme he wanted to warm up. Too much had gone wrong and he felt guilty for what he had done to these abandoned vampires. Henry had all reasons to blame him for. Suren had lured him into pleasing her, doing her a favor by solving the orphan problem she lied about to Mother. He hoped dearly Henry won´t be going to harp on it.
He felt his heart beating faster. For a profiler a sure indication that Aidan became nervous because he had to hide something from Henry. But they have had their dispute when they escaped from the room where the orphans were to be immolated. Not only in exchange for Henry´s life but to vampire politics.
I had been quite clear that these few vampires meant nothing to the capacity of such a large town like Boston. Some vampires more or less wouldn´t provoke problems when it came to feeding. As long as they won´t let their victims laying around more or less dead, open to public eyes.
By now anybody had laid out a vampire victim in front of the police, this way exposing all vampires to the public.
"Come on, Henry! We´ll go upstairs. I´ll show you the room where you can stay..."
"As long as I need?" Henry sounded a bit skeptical.
"As long as you won´t do things to rise Josh´s anger... prove yourself that you became a man one can trust to...", Aidan smiled and laid an arm around Henry´s shoulder, leading him upstairs.
Henry climbed up the stairs for the second time since Aidan had brought him in. For a moment his thoughts went back to that afternoon when he stood at the base of the stairs, his body trembling with exhaustion, his mind shaded by the morphine Aidan had shot him. He couldn´t remember wherefrom he had gotten it, only that it suddenly had been in his hands when he was drifting at the edge to unconsciousness by the all-over excruciating pain.
Aidan had been his saving angel, his knight in shining armor, coming for him to take him home wherever this home would be. He couldn´t even remember how he had made it upstairs. His mind on the border for going black out, the pain tilted just enough to enable him to move. Everything had drifted beside him like in a fog. Lights gliding alongside, sounds that reached his ears like from very far away. Aidan´s voice was the one thing he had clung to like a drowning man to a straw. When they had left Suren´s makeshift torture chamber Henry had thought he would never make it outside the house. Much less to reach a sanctuary. On their way to Aidan´s home he must have lost consciousness repeatedly because he couldn´t remember the ride from the Hotel to this house. Barely aware to be placed in the seat of a car and then a voice that urged him to get out of the car, supported by hands.
The world outside trembled, started to whirl around then toppled over. Hands caught him, prevented him from falling and his scream subsided by the lack of remaining strength.
Climbing up these stairs and then a room. A bed and Aidan beside him, trying to undress him. Screams and then the release of another dose of morphine. He must have slept a while when voices woke him from his drowsiness. What was to follow seemed to be out of a dream. He could only remember to drink blood. An immense amount of blood. Two women. Then kneeling on a rug with a corpse in his arm. More blood. Then he passed out only to wake up in a bed, shed in a metallic foil and Aidan hovering above him, telling him to sleep...
In between the soft and sorrowful voice of Sally. He had wondered a ghost would care about a semi-dead vampire but she was insistent and had stayed in the room with him like Aidan did. He had felt safe in there, knowing his Sire or father, who calls him Son, being there and waking with him through the hours of recuperation when the blood would heal him so far that he was able to leave in the morning.
Aidan opened a door for him and they entered the room.
"It´s a simple room. Bed, closet, a table and these chairs...Three Stars class if it would be a hotel room." Aidan smiled. "The window goes to the back yard. There are no immediate neighbors to this side. So you have some privacy. Bathroom is to be used with us...Not much, but..."
"This is way better than anything else I´ve had in the last years, Aidan. Kind of luxury in the relation to what I´ve sometimes had..." Henry smiled and let himself fall into the little chair. He sighed, folded his arms behind his neck and relaxed a few moments, sucked in the atmosphere of the small room. The last years he could not call a room his own, had spent his time in the streets or in a small cellar compartment or together with others in changing houses. Different houses of humans who tolerated his kind. Or tried to make their profit by selling invitations to the orphans for financial benefit. Always on the run and hiding from the Vampire Family.
"I only bet you not to take advantage of the situation, Henry. Josh is tolerating you because you´re my son and...I´ve acted as a guarantor for you, Henry! You´ve fed recently...here and in the Halloway Hotel...", he remembered him with a calm voice.
"I´m...I´m sated for the moment if you mean that. I won´t compromise the integrity of Josh´s home. What had happened before wasn´t my fault, Aidan..."
"I know and I don´t blame you for. This house is my and Josh´s sanctuary..." Aidan declared repeatedly.
"I...I´m not certain if I´m wrong with that, but when I was near to Josh I smelled a hint of...dog...on him! But here is no dog in the house. Dog or...something more wild...Like a wolf..." Henry looked at him, his voice careful as if not to affront Josh.
Aidan sighed slightly, chewing on his lower lip before he went on, daring to share a secret with the most trustworthy of his kind.
"Josh is different. No normal human being..." Better Henry would know before something totally unexpected would happen if they would meet at Full Moon. At Full Moon Josh seemed to act extraordinary and strange before he tried to seek distance to all other beings, preventing himself from killing someone unintentionally.
"We all aren´t normal human beings!", Henry stated.
"We are vampires, he´s a...a werewolf!" Now it was said.
"Werewolf! Ugh...That´s kind of...really different..." Henry looked astonished. "I mean...I´ve heard things like that but I´ve never ever met one by intention...Sounds like out of the fairy tales or the legends." He sounded thoughtful.
"So please don´t wonder or ask him for if Josh starts to behave strange or he is leaving in a hurry. Don´t try to stop him and keep away from him. When Josh transforms he becomes a wild thing...nothing in common to the slightest with the kindly man you learned to know. I don´t like the word but he transforms into a...monster..." Aidan sighed.
"You mean...into an animal, a wolf with fangs and claws, tail and fur...?"
"Exactly. Imagine a being with four legs in the shape of a wolf with..." How to describe it best? "Due to anatomy his shape has slightly that like a human in wolf form. You see a minimal remain of shoulders, back length of a human and the length of human legs. Not totally like the anatomy of a dog for example. More human but definitely not human! It´s difficult to describe if you don´t see it...So I guess you have never been down in the...arena...when the Elders set up one of those fights werewolf against werewolf?", Aidan tried to explain.
"No! I´ve only heard about, but I kept away from it. All I learned from vampires is that you should keep away from them under all circumstances, especially right before or at full moon. A pack of werewolves can easily hunt down a vampire and as I have been out there alone for a very long time..." Henry shook his head no.
Aidan remembered all too clear the caged channel when Josh was caught by the vampires to fight against another werewolf to please the crowd and the Dutch.
It had been terrible and only due to a trick Bishop had done, Josh was able to win over the older and way too much experienced werewolf opponent.
"Okay. So I should be careful...", Henry shook his head and looked at Aidan. With a smile he mumbled: "In selecting your room mates you always tend to search for the uncommon like it fits best to you..." He grinned.
"We are uncommon, Henry. At least in the eyes of the humans around us."
"Room mates: a vampire, a ghost and a werewolf. Looks like it´s the most uncommon apartment sharing community in Boston I would say."
"When it comes to live with a ghost: yes. I´m not sure if there are other ASC´s containing vampires together with werewolves..." Aidan couldn´t hide a sassy grin. He directed around the room.
"Make yourself comfortable here, Henry..."
Henry nodded and hugged Aidan; "Thank you so much...for the room, and for trusting in me..."
Aidan nodded and whispered: "I always did, Henry...!"
The End