Thank you very much for the reviews that you sent for my first chapter, I hadn't really considered continuing this, until so many folks asked me to. So here you have it, a little more angst and buildup.

Daniel

"No!" It screamed in his head like an alien entity (which of course it wasn't, totally different feeling, he knew that). "No! You are not letting this happen again Nikola. You are not letting her walk away from you!" She had left him in the study, staring out at the black sky, over the rooftops of the old city, a haven for so many abnormals, yet completely disguised to all but those in the know. He was an abnormal, perhaps one of the most ferocious of them all, Sanguine Vampiris, one of the most ancient. And he would not be denied again, not when he had felt her kiss, and seen her hesitation, she wanted him to chase her, or at least, he hoped she wanted him to chase her, because that was what his heart was urging him to do. A bent head, flexed fingers, a shuddering breath and he brought the Vampire aspect of his nature to bear, not to attack, but rather to track, to overtake, and to lend courage. It was a simple matter to take a different route, the whole mansion was a circular confluence, and pass her as she walked. He waited, leaned just to the side of her door, for her to arrive, resuming his human form, he did not call it his natural one, he hadn't quite cemented that decision yet, and it did change periodically. He could hear her footfall and he made himself look casual, and as charming as he could, even though his blood (human and Vampire) was boiling under his skin for her. She came around the corner.

"Nikola?" She seemed genuinely surprised to see him there.

"I'm sorry Helen, I just couldn't let you walk away like that." He didn't move to block her path, but tried to capture her eyes, to force her to deal with him.

"I can't do this Nikola."

"Can't or won't?"

"That isn't fair Nikola." She raised her brows at him again, spelling out her annoyance on her face.

"No, what isn't fair is how you are treating this." His newly stoked courage wasn't letting him back away.

"There is no 'this', there is you, and there is me, nothing more Nikola." Her insistence was strong, but not unbreakable. He could hear that in her voice, and the way she continued to repeat his name.

"But you know inside that you want there to be something more, just like I want it Helen."

He reached for her hands, grasping up the left one before she could withdraw them to wrap her core protectively; physically closing herself off just as she was doing emotionally. Her face darted around to the ceiling. She was looking for the cameras; he knew it.

"I ask you again Helen, what are you afraid of?" He guided her around so that her back was now facing the wall, she letting him move her, and boldly kissed her hand again, feeling the tremor there.

"You are making a scene Nikola." She said in clipped tones, speaking through clenched teeth.

He looked deliberately at the ceiling, he couldn't see the camera, but he knew it was there. He wasn't so terrible as to smile at it, or wave, but he kept Helen's hand wrapped in his.

"Then invite me in and no one will be able to spy on us."

Helen sighed deeply, and Nikola watched her chest rise and fall; she either couldn't make up her mind what to do, or she was expecting help to arrive at any minute and remove him by force. He took a chance on the former.

"Are you embarrassed by the thought of being with me Helen?"

"No." She whispered, again not meeting his eyes.

"Are you afraid that I will hurt you?"

She said nothing.

"You are afraid of being hurt Helen?" He softened his voice, understanding where her hesitance was coming from. She had lost too many loved ones over the years, family, friends, her daughter. All he wanted to do, truly in his heart, was to give her some measure of happiness, to ease that blackness. It likely seemed easier to her to not open up at all, rather than risk another void.

"I understand hurt Helen. You may not believe it, but I do."

"How can you understand hurt Nikola?"

"Because every time you reject me I feel it," He thumped a closed fist against his chest. "Because I love you, and I want you to love me."

"Every time I reject you?" Helen's eyebrows rose, and her voice became sharp. "Every time I reject you, you go out and find some companion to drown your sorrow in. So don't tell me about hurt Nikola."

If it was possible for the man to become paler he did just then, and he dropped her hand, stepping away from her, feeling quite cold.

"I have known you to be many things Helen, but cruel was never one of them." He said it bluntly, because his heart was suddenly feeling frozen, and though he had no desire to return the hurt he continued to speak. "Is that what you really think of me Helen?" He watched her practiced stern, efficient expression begin to melt to one of horrified realization.

"Oh, Nikola." She raised her fingers to her mouth as if she could take it back.

"Helen, you let everyone around you fall in love, William has a girlfriend, Biggy has his eyes on Kate in the most interesting crush I've ever seen, even Heinrich is having a baby, but you keep yourself locked away. Perhaps I don't know you at all." He drew in a deep, sad breath, "I won't beg," he told her, and turned from her, beginning to walk away.

"I will try not to darken your doorstep again." He spoke it to her, and to no one in particular. It was done.

"Nikola, please?" Her voice pleaded quietly, and he stopped in his tracks. His shoulders fell visibly from the sturdy set he had put them in, the frame he needed to finally leave her behind. But he could not turn around.

"I am so sorry Nikola, I should never had said those things, I didn't mean them, it was awful of me."

He let his head drop to his chest, finding himself staring directly at his shoes.

"You're right." She added.

Only then did he turn around to look at her.

"Right about what?" He whispered, looking utterly defeated just then to her eyes.

"Right about me." A heavy sigh rattled her chest. Perhaps she had known the truth all along and just suppressed it? Whatever the case, Helen Magnus had never dreamed that it would be Nikola Tesla who would bring her out of it and make her face it. She watched his eyes take her in again, looking for some further clue as to her motivation.

"I've held everything close to the breast as it were since Ashley died Nikola. It was the worst hurt I have ever felt. And when," she stuttered, "and when I had John back, the real John for those few hours, without the monster inside him I felt hope again, only to have it wrenched from me. I have such important work to do Nikola, you understand? If I fall apart what will happen to all these people here? How will we protect them? It is even more desperate now, now that the government has stepped in, now that we are on our own. If I can't lead," She suppressed a sob as she looked into his soft dark eyes, the beautiful liquid sheen drawing her into a desired safety. "If I can't lead what will happen?"

"Helen, nothing will happen to you. You are the strongest person I have ever known. But it is time to take a chance, time to be true to the beautiful soul within you." She felt his hand, not watching the movement, just feeling the warmth of his fingertips brushing up the tensed muscles of her right arm, arms she had crossed over her chest tightly.

"Nikola, I am so tired of feeling alone."

"You are not alone Helen, you will always have me." She let herself slump into his arms, just knowing that they were there for her. She kept herself from crying, but just barely. A wash of emotions coursed over her body, leaving her feeling weakened. When she was able to lift her head from Nikola's shoulder she found him looking into her eyes, no leering smile, no sparkling lechery, just Nikola, a face she had seen in dreams and nightmares for nearly two centuries. She could not help but smile back at him.

He had been ready to go, to walk away. He might love her, but his pride would not let him beg, not if she thought so little of his professed feelings for her, not if she thought that his offered love was simply a means to sex. But she had stopped him, and his heart had demanded it when he heard her voice. He was not without sympathy for her situation, and to hold her again was as comforting for him as it was for her. As he looked down into her eyes, brightened by the tears she was holding back he couldn't contain himself. He slowly brought his mouth down to hers again, kissing her carefully, just letting their lips match, forcing only the barest of pressure against her mouth, feeling as her hands encircled his waist, and then climbed his back, pulling his body towards hers, so that he could feel the rise and fall of her chest against his. He closed his eyes, and allowed himself to simply feel.

"Nikola? Please don't leave."