A/N: Thank you to all my readers and/or reviewers! As always, the disclaimer that I only own what was created in my own head.
Chapter 2
She curled up in a ball in the large bed and stared at the shadowy, dark closet. She knew the monsters were there, she could practically hear them hissing and snarling about how they wanted to eat her. Not even her Super Girl pajamas gave her enough courage to call out for help. What if the monsters knew she was awake and tried to get to her? Or tried to hurt whoever came to help her? Her heart thudded faster and faster and she grabbed her new bear.
"I-It's okay, Mr. Sheriff Sir," she said and hugged her teddy bear to her chest. Her eyes never left the partially opened closet. "I-I wont let them g-get you. Mr. Sheriff Sir said we were safe here, he wont let the monsters hurt you. He promised!" She hid her face in his soft fur and whimpered. She had to be brave for her teddy bear so he wouldn't be scared and start crying. She wanted to turn the light on, but was afraid to leave the bed in case the monster hiding under it got her. She wanted her daddy! She wanted her brothers! She wanted…she wanted….
She whimpered when the door opened and let in a wedge of light into the pitch black room.
"Are you okay, Alex?" came the soft voice of Ms. Isabel.
She popped her head up from under the covers and nervously watched the closet. "Ms. Isabel! I want Mr. Sheriff Sir! Please!"
Isabel stared, confused at the clearly terrified child. She glanced around, but there was nothing in the room that should frighten her. Yet she could smell her fear, and her tears. The fear increased the scent of her blood, and Isabel's fangs snicked down as her instincts rose to protect her. "Alex, your teddy bear is right next to you.'
"No, not Mr. Sheriff Sir. We want Mr. Sheriff Sir! My teddy is really scared! My teddy wants Mr. Sheriff Sir now!" she wailed, and clutched her bear closer to her as she rocked back and forth.
Isabel's lips twitched, even as she kept her amusement out of her voice. Although Godric had barely been around the child, it was obvious that he had made an impression on her. Frankly she thought the distraction from his work would be good for him. Lately he had seemed…odd. Disconnected. Listless. She was worried about him, but he had made it clear he wished to be left alone.
"The Sheriff is busy, little one. Can I help you?"
"No! My teddy wants Mr. Sheriff Sir!"
Isabel opened her mouth to soothe the girl. The Sheriff was on the phone with the King, and could not be interrupted for whatever childish fear she may have.
One moment she was alone, and in the next Godric stood next to her. "Isabel, what seems to be the problem? The King could hear her sobbing over the phone."
"Sheriff, Alex is upset and wants to see you. Apparently only you can help her." She smiled at the brief, uncomfortable look her Sheriff sported before he nodded, and walked into the room. Isabel knew she should leave, that she had duties to attend to, but she was interested to see what Alex wanted.
Alex buried her face further into her bear's stomach and sniffled. Teddy was very scared, and wanted to know where Mr. Sheriff Sir was.
"Don't be scared, he wont let them get us." she whispered into his fur. Nervously, she sucked on her thumb and tried to keep the tears from falling. She was brave and a big girl! Her teddy was scared, but she wasn't! A small sound made her clench her eyes tighter, and she hid under one of the large pillows on the bed.
Suddenly, she felt like a warm blanket was wrapped around her, and her chest weakly fluttered. She uncurled and nuzzled her bear. Mr. Sheriff Sir was here! She was safe!
"Child," came the soft, soothing voice from next to the bed. "I can smell your fear. What ails you?"
Her head popped up and she stared teary-eyed at him. "Mr. Sheriff Sir! You came!" she cried, and flung herself and her teddy from the bed into his arms. She clung to him, her teddy protectively smushed between them, and buried her face in his neck. The warm blanket feeling wrapped tighter around her, and she burrowed deeper into his neck.
She sniffled and wrapped herself further around him when his arms stiffly came up to support her weight. He smelled oddly familiar, and slowly she began to calm before her head shot up so fast she almost hit him in the chin.
"Mr. Sheriff Sir!" she cried out and tried to tug him forward. "You have to get off the floor! Jump onto the bed before they get you!"
Godric blinked and stared down at the clearly terrified child. Her heart beat so fast he was surprised she hadn't hyperventilated, and her scent was heavy with fear. Her red hair was mostly out of it's thick braid, and her face was flushed and tear stained. He had been shocked when she had jumped into his arms, and he ignored Isabel's amusement.
"Child, who are 'they'?" Carefully, he placed the small girl back on the rumpled bed.
Alex glanced nervously at the closet and bed before she leaned closer and whispered, "The tentacle monsters that live in the closet and under the bed."
Godric blinked, and his eyes cut to the dark closet, but he could hear no other heartbeat besides hers in the room. There were no other unusual smells besides that of her fear. A cursory index of all the different species of Supernaturals he had met in his long life made him realize that she was mistaken . "Calm yourself. There are no such thing as tentacle monsters that live in closets or under beds. You are safe, go back to your slumber." If the child knew that he was worse than any imaginary monster, she would not look to him for protection. He turned to leave, convinced that she would now easily return to her rest.
"There are!" she denied, and raised up her bedraggled teddy bear. "Mr. Sheriff Sir heard them, and was scared. I told him that you had promised that you would protect us, and wouldn't let the bad monsters hurt him! He wants you to make the monsters go away!" she said, and looked up at him with pleading, trusting eyes.
Godric internally sighed, but something in him couldn't resist the need to comfort the girl. It had to be her scent that affected him, he rationalized to himself. The king was expecting him to return his call, so the faster he soothed her the quicker he could get back to his responsibilities and away from her before he contaminated her.
"Alright child." he said, and ignored Isabel's muffled giggles.
When he moved towards the closet he halted when a small, warm hand wrapped around his. Shocked, he looked down into worried eyes.
Alex hesitated, and with a trembling hand held out her teddy bear. "D-Do you want to take my teddy to help keep you safe?" she asked.
His eyes trailed down to the offered toy, and then back up to the worried girl. His voice was very gentle when he answered. "No, little one, keep your bear. I will be fine."
He moved towards the closet, opened the door, and flipped on the light. "See, there is nothing here."
"It's because you turned on the light," she said stubbornly and clutched at her bear. Her teddy wanted Mr. Sheriff Sir to pick them up again. No way was any tentacle monster going to get them then! "They hide when the light is turned on. You need to put your teeth down to scare them. And growl. That's what my brothers always do when I get scared. They said that everyone knows that tentacle monsters are scared of vampires!"
Godric ignored Isabel's shaking form, and with a snick lowered his teeth. As he turned back to the closet, he really, really hoped that his son would never hear about this. Quickly he turned off the light, and half-heartedly snarled into the dark room. With fast footsteps he moved towards the bed, lifted the bed skirt and snarled again.
He rose from his crouch and nodded at the girl. "No tentacle monsters reside either in your closet, nor under your bed. Now, will you return to your rest?"
Her eyes were wide as they stared up at him and Godric realized that his teeth were still down. With a snick he retracted them, uncertain of her reaction, but her gaze looked at him as if he had fought a dragon for her.
"Wow!" she said. "Thank you, Mr. Sheriff Sir! You scared them all away really fast! It always takes my brothers a lot more time to do it, and they even have to go inside my closet and fight them! The tentacle monsters are really strong, and one time they even threw Bennett through the door! Are you older than my brothers?"
Isabel's choked laughter was still too soft for the girl to hear, and Godric briefly glared at her. "Yes, I am."
She gasped. "Older than my daddy?!"
He sighed, certain that her reaction would be the same fearful one as others who learned of his great age. "Yes, I am. Your family brought you to me because I am the second oldest vampire in this country, and thus able to protect you."
She stared at him, her eyes wide and her mouth open in shock.
The two vampires watched, unsure of her reaction, and Isabel felt a pang of disappointment. She almost jumped when her musings were interrupted by an excited squeal, and a jumble of words.
"Did you ever ride a dinosaur? Was it fun? What was it's name? Was it Ralph? Why does the mean one that eats other dinosaurs have really short arms? It makes it look silly, and if I was a dinosaur I would laugh at it, even though daddy says that that's not nice."
To Isabel's shock her always calm, always blank faced Sheriff slightly smiled!
"No," he said. "I am afraid I have never met a dinosaur. I am not that old, nor do I know why the Tyrannosaurus Rex had such short arms. Now, do you feel like you will be able to sleep?"
"Mmhmm," she hummed, and cuddled down into her pillows, her eyes already heavy. "Thank you for saving us. I am sa-tis-feed."
His lips twitched. "Little one, I promised you that you would be safe in my nest." He turned abruptly to his amused underling. "Isabel, when you are finished come to my office." With a blink, he was gone.
Isabel came over and tucked Alex and her teddy in snugly. "Do you feel better now?"
"Yes, Mr. Sheriff Sir made all the monsters go away, and my teddy isn't scared anymore." she mumbled.
Isabel smothered a laugh, and looked fondly at the little girl she suspected was going to make the next few weeks rather interesting.
"Ms. Isabel?"
"Yes?"
"Is Mr. Sheriff Sir married?"
The vampire blinked, and a highly amused smile spread across her face. "No, he is not. Why do you ask?"
"Me and teddy are going to marry him one day," was the sleepy response. "He's nice, and he smells good. My teddy bear thinks he's sad and needs us. I don't want him to be sad." She curled up into a small ball under the covers. "Do you think he likes me?"
Isabel's gaze sharpened. Perhaps…? It was much too early to tell, as this could be nothing, but if anyone deserved such a gift, it would be her Sheriff.
"The Sheriff is very, very old, Alex. I do not believe he dislikes you, but it has been a long times since he, himself, was a child. I daresay you confuse him."
Alex snuggled down further into her blankets and yawned. "Ms. Isabel, if I ask, do you think he would wait for me to grow up?"
Before Isabel could answer, the little girl's eyes slipped closed and she fell deeply into the land of dreams.
Godric sat out in the garden and stared up at the night sky. Everyone knew that when the Sheriff sat by the pond, that he was not to be disturbed. Much was on his mind, and his 'do not disturb upon pain of evisceration' aura was enough to make even Stan decide to go elsewhere for the remainder of the evening. Even Isabel had made herself scarce after she had finished tending to Alex. It would be dawn soon, but for once he was not interested in the large pile of work currently breeding on his desk.
He sighed, even with his eyes it was difficult to see the stars through the light pollution, and he missed their brightness. He longed for the days when he could travel for miles without seeing another being, when the air was clean and the wilderness spanned forever. Unfortunately those memories were also tied with the atrocities he had committed that now weighed so heavily on his soul. He had been the ruin of so many, had destroyed and ripped apart families and entire countries with only a chilling smile and a careless hand. He saw that same viciousness in the younger generation of vampires, and despaired that his race could ever evolve. The birth of a Fated Mate after so many years, the fact that the gods had decided that at least one vampire deserved such a treasure, gave him hope that perhaps not all was lost, even though he had no hope for his own redemption.
The sky slowly brightened, and he sighed when he realized that it was time to die for the day. Within seconds he was secure from the sun's harmful rays, and gratefully allowed his day sleep to pull him from his troublesome worries.
Just before he died, he had a random, odd thought; just why did the Tyrannosaurus Rex have such short arms? For the fist time in decades, he went to his day rest with a small smile on his pale lips.
The faint pull reached her even in her deep sleep, and Alex whimpered as she tossed and turned. Something was wrong….something hurt…the feeling slipped away and she rolled back over and curled around Mr. Sheriff Sir. The bear's soft fur against her cheek soothed her as she once again slipped into dreams of chasing butterflies through moonlit meadows with her daddy, brothers, and a laughing vampire Sheriff.
