Henry ran into the room and skidded to a halt. Magnus and Tesla both took the opportunity the distraction provided to move, Helen standing up and stepping sideways to protect Nikola, and the vampire standing behind her.

Henry said, "Ah, hey Doc, I was coming to tell you . . ." He gestured at the gun in Will's hands.

Helen addressed Will. "Put down the gun. Nikola is innocent until proven guilty."

"His reaction to the photo is a clear admission of guilt!"

Henry sidled a little closer to Will. "Um, Will, you remember that the Doc has the same Source Blood as Vlad there, right? The vampire gun would probably seriously affect her too."

Will grimaced but kept the gun pointed at her and Nikola. "Get out of the way, Magnus."

"Will, I promise you I will get to the bottom of this. But we don't go around shooting people just because we suspect them of something." She stepped forward slowly.

Will's grip tightened on the gun. "Get out of the way, or I swear I will take out both of you."

"No, you won't. I understand how you feel, I know what I wanted to do to the Cabal when Ashley . . . please, just lower the gun, you can always shoot him later but you can't un-shoot anyone." Helen took another step.

She saw Will's trigger hand tighten and she was shoved roughly to the floor as Nikola lunged past her with vampire speed. But even he was too slow; Will pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened, except Nikola wrenched the gun away. Will tried to grab it back, but Henry wrapped his arms around his friend to hold him back and Tesla held the gun away out of reach.

Nikola held up his forefinger of his free hand and shook it at Will like he was a naughty child. "Ah, ah, none of that now."

Helen was up, brushing herself off. "Bloody hell, Nikola, you took an awful chance."

"Not really, you don't think I leave this thing charged, do you? And he wasn't gone long enough to charge it."

"You let me think you were in mortal danger!"

Nikola grinned at her. "And you did a great job defending your man, I'm very proud of you." He removed the dead power pack from the gun and thrust the weapon at Henry. "Put this away, will you Wolfgang?"

Henry let go of Will, took the gun and left to put it back in the armory. Will fumed and said, "This isn't over."

Helen took the power pack from Nikola. "I'll hold on to this. And Will is right, it isn't over. For now, Nikola, you are under house arrest."

The vampire stopped grinning, but he didn't look displeased. "So I just have to stay in this building and I don't have to go on missions?"

Will protested, "That's not a punishment, it's a reward!"

Helen went over to Will and put her hand on his shoulder. "It's not supposed to be a punishment; I just don't want him wandering off. We will get to the bottom of this."

"And if he's guilty? Are you going to execute him?"

Helen hesitated. What would she do if it turned out Nikola had murdered innocent people? "Let's cross that bridge when we come to it, shall we?"

Will pulled away from her. "I knew it. You aren't able to do anything to him. All right, Magnus, I'll give you a week. Then I take justice in my own hands, and believe me, I'll be better prepared next time." He stomped out, still tense with anger.

She locked the power pack in her safe and turned back to Nikola. "Now, why don't you tell me about the wine?" It certainly wasn't the most important thing they needed to talk about, but at least it would get him talking instead of just shutting down like last time.

Tesla fidgeted uneasily. "Well, you know Valentine's Day is coming up, and I thought we should have something special, so I bought few bottles of really good wine."

"Oh, you did it for me, did you? How many bottles, and how much, Nikola?"

He looked around the room as if there were something there that would save him from having to answer. But there was no escape. "Five. I only drank one."

"And?"

"Thirty thousand," he said with a wince. And then, knowing she would see the bill eventually anyway, added, "Each."

Helen sat down abruptly. "A hundred and fifty thousand dollars for five bottles of wine? Are you insane or do you think I am made out of money?"

"It's really, really, really excellent wine. And you just got a ten million dollar donation from that rich American computer guy."

"For saving abnormals and protecting humanity! Did you spend a half million on chocolate too?"

"I . . . I haven't gotten that far yet. I'm sorry, I guess it was a little expensive, but I really wanted to make you happy and I know you would enjoy it."

"Right, that's why you drank one already." She considered for a moment; then she said, "Fine. Return three bottles and give me the fourth, and I'll hold it until Valentine's Day. If you're very, very good, I might even give you a glass of it."

"Okay," he said in a properly chastened tone, and turned to leave.

"We're not done yet, Nikola. Come back and sit down."

He reluctantly did, and she added, "And by the way, you are reimbursing me for the one you drank."

"Aw, c'mon, Helen, I had to make sure the vintage was worthy of our Valentine's Day celebration, didn't I?"

Helen couldn't help but smile a little as she shook her head at him. He was incorrigible, but despite the annoyance he caused her, she would never want him to be boring, either. She was glad there was no chance of that.

"Let's talk about the photo. Will is not going to give up on it without a satisfactory explanation, and I can't really blame him."

The vampire leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs, and steepled his fingers. She waited while he thought.

Finally Nikola said, "All right. It's a very unpleasant memory for me, and I don't want everyone to know."

"I'll keep it on a strict need-to-know basis," Helen responded warily. This seemed far too easy after his previous emotional reaction.

"It was in the same general area that those killings took place, but it had nothing to do with them. The man in the photo was some sort of self-appointed vigilante abnormal hunter. I never learned his name. He figured out somehow that we weren't quite human and came after me and my friend Vera. She was also an abnormal, not a vampire, but nobody's perfect."

"What sort of abnormal was she?"

Nikola hesitated. "A HAP, like Heinrich."

"Go on." The hesitation made Helen fairly sure he was making it up as he went. But she wanted to hear the whole story first.

"He got to her when I was out. I found her with a stake through her heart."

"In her HAP form? They are very strong and agile, it would be difficult for a human to kill one with a hand weapon. And why use a stake?"

"No, in her human form. I surmised he made up some story to get in the house and surprised her, and used the stake thinking she was a vampire. Anyway, she was dead."

"I see. She must have been a bit naïve to allow a strange man in the house. I assume she didn't know what he looked like, or he never could have taken her unawares. Please continue."

Nikola shifted uneasily. "He found me in a park and attacked me with a stake too, coming up behind me. There were other people around so I just knocked him down, but he got up and came at me again, so I tossed him further into some mud and got out of there. That's when that photo must have been taken."

Helen just nodded and Tesla continued. "I was angry about Vera and he was obviously going to keep trying to kill me so I had to do something. The next day I let him find me again only this time I was aware of him so I led him into an area screened off with bushes. When he attacked me I killed him. I went a little crazy, made kind of a mess."

"There was no report of a male body from that time period."

"I emptied his pockets and weighted him down with rocks and tossed him in a nearby pond. The stuff from his pockets I buried in a trash can. So there you have it. That's why I was so upset when I saw the picture; it reminded me of the whole thing."

"What was Vera's last name, and what did you do with her body?"

"What is this, the Inquisition?"

"I want to verify your story to prove to Will your reaction to the photo had nothing to do with his mother's death."

"Okay, her last name was Chisolm and I buried her myself. She was a HAP. I couldn't allow an autopsy, so I really didn't have any choice."

"I understand. Thank you, Nikola, I will check this out. In the meantime, you are still restricted to this building."

"Okay. I'll see if I can get my money . . . your money back on the wine." He left.

Helen doodled "Vera Chisolm" on her desk pad. She would check it out, but she was quite sure Nikola had just told her a huge lie. The question was, why? She was afraid of the answer to that question, but she needed to find it, needed to know if the father of her son was a murderer. And if he was, then what?