Blood Ties Blood Bond pt 2.
Vicky helped Henry into her office, carefully stealing glances at him out of the corner of her eyes while he eased out of her arms and onto the couch. He still looked far too pale and his wounds, while no longer bleeding were still ugly gashes visible through the tears in his shirt. She'd given him blood immediately in the darkness of the park but he'd only taken enough to get him here. Vicky knew that he still hadn't forgiven her for doing magic using his blood, even if it was to save his life. It had changed something between them and she had no idea how to overcome it, or even if they could.
Henry sighed and looked up at her "So what's this new case about?" Even weakened he'd observed that little frown line forming between Vicky's brows when she looked at him and he knew that if he didn't distract her soon, she'd insist that he take more of her blood, an offer that he wasn't at all sure if he could refuse. By sitting on the couch he had most of the room between them, but he could still hear her heartbeat loud in his ears and see her throat move with every breath.
"I don't think that's important right now Henry," Vicky said, leaning against the corner of the desk. "You were just attacked tonight by some unknown demon, and a...a what? ...witch? and you want to talk about my case?"
"I think the currently popular term is 'wiccan' actually" Henry smiled, but Vicky wasn't fooled.
"That's not the point. We don't know if they were working together, what they're after...What exactly happened Henry?" When she'd first found him, Henry hadn't been in any position to explain anything and he hadn't been particularly forthcoming since.
Vicky couldn't get that image of him out of her head. She'd seen him injured before, badly injured but he'd always healed after he'd fed. Tonight the raw gashes across his chest were evidence that he could be seriously hurt. That even immortal vampires could die, or be killed-a fact that she was trying hard to avoid thinking about, almost as much as she was avoiding thinking about the wrenching pain she'd felt when she saw him looking broken and bleeding on the ground.
"There's really nothing to be done about it until tomorrow, so why not tell me about this 'special' case of yours?"
Vicky sighed resigned. She knew that there wasn't much that she could do to get Henry to talk if he chose not to and she was a little afraid to push the point. They had a very tenuous truce going on, and she didn't know if breaking it would help them work through things or make her loose him forever.
"It's actually something that Mike asked me...us...to look into." She hated bringing up Mike when things were already so tense between them, but it was the truth and Henry wasn't dumb, he'd had hundreds of years to hone his investigative skills after all, he would eventually realize that her former partner-and ex-lover-was involved. Better to have it all out in the open.
"Ah-and how is Detective Celluci?"
Vicky rolled her eyes, wondering if being obnoxious was a trait that men ever grew out of and continued.
"He's not exactly happy about this situation either, but they've got no leads and everything keeps turning up...well, strange." Vicky had noticed Mike pulling away from her lately too, which even though they weren't partners anymore, weren't lovers anymore, it still hurt to watch him turning to someone else and cutting her out of his life. They'd said they'd stay friends and they had, until recently.
Vicky glanced at Henry. Everything had changed lately.
"There've been all sorts of strange reports coming in, people going missing and then turning up days later murdered, animals are being killed and dumped. It all points to a serial killer, except for one thing. They're all drained of blood. Completely."
Henry sat up, his attention suddenly focused and clear despite his injuries. "Any marks on the bodies? Bites or scratches?" He would know instinctively if there was another vampire on his territory, but even the appearance of vampires had gotten him in trouble in the past. And if the media picked up the story of vampires stalking the streets of Toronto, especially so soon after last time, things could quickly escalate into a frenzy. He didn't fancy the idea of being chased out of town by fanatical hordes of people waving stakes and torches. Better to be on the safe side and investigate it thoroughly even if it did just turn out to be some run of the mill mortal murderer.
"None that Dr. Mohadevan can find. But there's also no evidence of how the blood was drained either. They turn up without so much as a hangnail, even the animals."
Vicky watched Henry lean back into the couch, his thoughts turned inwards, completely focused on the case. Sometimes she thought it would have been easier if after that first case together they'd said goodbye and gone their separate ways. She wouldn't have been pulled into this world of supernatural beings and witches who hunt demons-and possibly vampires-in darkened parks at night. But then she would never have gotten to know Henry, to care for him, and-she told herself resolutely- he is a good partner. Especially with how strange all her cases were turning out lately.
As the silence grew Vicky found her thoughts turning from the man in front of her to the one who called earlier this evening, at his wits end and having no where else to turn- and hating the fact. She could well understand why Mike was trying to untangle himself from this supernatural disaster waiting to happen. She understood the measures he'd taken to cover up their secrets, the reports he'd fudged and facts he'd left out. It was hard for an honest cop to continue to do that and not have it weight on their conscience. She just wished that it didn't mean that he was trying to distance himself from her in the process.
"Vicky?"
She jumped, surprised to find Henry behind her, his hand brushing back her hair.
"What?"
"It's almost sunrise. I have to feed and I want another look around Queen's park before dawn."
Vicky automatically tilted back her neck, exposing her throat to his eyes. She couldn't help the little jump her pulse did as his hand traveled, stroking from her hair down over her skin.
"I wasn't asking for an invitation...but thank you" Henry slipped away quickly and she felt the breeze of his passage on her cheek, and the empty space he left behind her.
"I'll just grab a bite on the way."
Trying not to be disappointed and to decide whether to be amused or not by that garish comment and the devilish smile that had accompanied it, Vicky lay down on the couch that Henry had recently vacated to try to get a few hours of sleep in before Coreen came in to start the days work.
Henry crouched down and ran his fingers over the depressions in the soft soil where the demon had attacked him and the girl tonight. He'd found a compliant meal easy enough in a night club not far from the park and after implanting a less then supernatural memory for their back alley tryst had made his way back to the park. As he'd hoped the area was mostly undisturbed-after all. He smiled; no one in their right mind would cut across a large swath of heavily treed park in the middle of the night. At least that is if they weren't someone who was an expert in the dark arts cunningly disguised as a harmless university aged girl with dark hair.
Her footsteps were unusually light, even with his superior night vision he had to look carefully to make them out. And there was a pattern to them that seemed to make it even harder to discern where exactly she had stepped.
Henry closed his eyes standing still in the night, trying to replay exactly what had happened earlier.
He recognized the spells she'd used; the power and control that it took to keep the symbols together and charged until the complicated binding was completed. It would be considered amazing enough for someone twice her age to have that kind of control and Henry didn't trust it even then. That much of power was almost always corrupting.
He realized that she must have pre-made a trap spell and held it ready, open on her palm which was hidden from sight in her pocket for when the demon attacked. The only question was, was it meant for the demon, or for himself?
Deciding that all he was finding was more questions instead of answers, Henry walked home through the park, enjoying the night and the freedom it brought. All too soon the sky would be lightening with day and he'd be forced to return home, to close the blinds of his bedroom and bar the daylight –and Vicky with it-out.
Jay opened the door to her apartment carefully, simultaneously turning the key in the deadbolt while letting the spell to dissolve her safeguards inside flow down her arm and into the hand that rested against the door. Without the spell whoever entered would find themselves stuck just inside the door like a fly in molasses, if they were strong enough to resist the killing force of it to begin with. It had saved her life more then once and she'd learned very early not to be sloppy when it came to guarding herself. Which was why exhausted as she was from the night already she turned and closing the door repeated the whole sequence again, resetting the safeguards that would protect her while she slept.
Dropping her bag on the floor she staggered into her very normal looking apartment, turned on the typical student floor lamp and cheap tv before walking past the-what was right now a very attractive looking couch and pushed aside the coffee table and rug that hid the trap door to the crawl space beneath the floor. It was the real reason why she'd taken this particular apartment. Not much to look at, the apartment hadn't attracted many interested parties even though it was close to campus, it was tiny even for one person, with concrete walls in a basement and almost no windows, but it fit her budget-which was small- and once she'd noticed the crawl space she'd been sold.
Pulling open the trap door she jumped down-there weren't any stairs-into the darkness below. It wasn't very large either, probably less then 10 foot square but it fit a desk, a small battery operated lamp, and a trunk and that was all she needed. Every available surface was currently filled and piled with her books-the more mundane english lit and fiction counterparts were upstairs completing the "student" look- but here were the hand bound volumes on demons, magic, fighting and defense from spirits and basically any other subject that might mark her as different.
She sat down in one corner, using the desk to lower herself slowly to the ground, where almost hidden from view there were a few blankets and a pillow, she carefully lifted the now darkened stone from her pocket and held it up before the light. She could feel the demon writhing within, pulsing and surging with power trying to break free from the innocuous looking black crystal. Running into it had been a surprise and had upset her plans slightly but all in all it wasn't a wasted night.
She looked down at the blood soaking through the cloth that was hastily bound around her wrist. No, not wasted at all, she thought.
