(Chapter 7)
Neal slept the sleep of the dead, curled up completely underneath the heavy blanket on Mozzie's bed. Only the slight twitch of his eyelids off and on indicated he was alive as he lay there beneath the covers, his mind wandering. He dreamed his rose up out of his body, seeing himself as a lump beneath the thick comforter and rising up over the gazebo and out a nearby window till he floated over the top of Mozzie's building. He could see it clearly, glancing around at the city as the grayness surrounded and covered it much like a blanket. Rain continued to fall off and on but he couldn't feel it as he floated across the rooftops and found himself suddenly walking down a long white corridor. Neal looked around at the scene confused, his feet moving of their own volition as if they knew where he was going as he paused before a door and walked through.
A familiar figure lay on the bed in the room. He suddenly realized he was in a hospital as Neal felt himself walk closer to the bed looking at the sleeping form there, guilt filling him as he stared down at his friend and partner. The man who gave him a second chance to do right. The chance he threw away when he went after Machelli.
"I'm sorry Peter. Forgive me..."
"Neal?"
His friend although asleep spoke to him as if he'd heard him, Neal feeling worse as he knew the agent worried about him without reason and had been hurt because of his reckless impulsiveness. He had to fix this.
"Forget me, Peter... Please."
He touched a hand to his friend's forehead and repeated the words, his guilt and remorse at what had happened filling him. He watched Peter twitch slightly in his sleep, shifting as if struggling against something. He felt a resistance there and something in him he never knew he had pushed back.
"Forget me Peter... forget..."
Neal watched as the struggles ceased and Peter seemed to relax, his mind at ease he felt for the first time in a while. He moved his hand away and whispered his hopes for his friend to heal soon as he started to move away. He paused when the door opened and he saw Dr. Monroe coming in. The physician didn't see him of course, El waking and not seeing him either which was odd as he felt like the fly on the wall. He listened to them speaking around him when Peter said he didn't know Neal. The young man gawked looking around the room as he saw El and the doctor look dumbfounded. How could he not know Neal? Peter had spent three years chasing him and then the past two helping him to reform himself with the FBI. Neal was confused by the revelation as he thought back to what he had done. He had touched his friend's head and told him to forget... Jeremy had done something similar to him but he had fought back.
"No... Peter. Why..."
It hit him hard that he had messed with his friend's memories without knowing it. Could he reverse this? Did he want to? Maybe Peter would be happier not remembering. Neal wasn't sure what to do when he knew his future was dubious. He wasn't going to stay as Machelli had turned him. He refused to live this way if he could help it. He felt himself drawn back to his own body as he moved back out through the door without opening it and started down the hallway. He had barely left the room when something slammed him against the outside wall, holding him tightly as he struggled to move.
"Thought you could escape? Machelli knows where you are and your friends will not be safe. Stefan..."
He saw another figure there, a dark shadowy figure pass through the door that led to Peter's room. Neal struggled against Jeremy's hold but the other man was stronger.
"I'm surprised you figured out how to do this so soon. No wonder Machelli chose you. You even changed your friend's memories. It won't protect him. Stefan is in there to kill him. Perhaps he'll take his lovely wife too..."
Neal felt strength flood him, his vision turning red as he threw Jeremy aside till the ex CIA agent disappeared through the wall. He quickly rose and ran back into Peter's room to find El and Dr. Monroe worrying over his friend. Peter was seizing, Stefan standing over him with his hand literally stuck in his friend's chest.
"Don't!" Neal ran forward as he threw the other vampire aside and quickly grabbed at his friend's hand. He could sense the erratic beating of Peter's heart from whatever trick Stefan had pulled.
"No... Peter... don't. Please... El needs you. Fight back!"
The door opened as several nurses and interns entered to help with Peter as he started to settle down, his pulse and heartbeat slowly returning to normal. Neal watched with relief as Peter's body relaxed, his eyes fluttering open as he looked up and straight at Neal.
"Peter... honey, can you hear me?"
El was talking to Peter as Neal watched the nurses and doctor continue to monitor his friend. He should go he thought. This was all his fault. Peter wasn't safe... nor was El. Maybe he should check on June.
"Who's that?"
The room was silent as Neal watched Peter point at him. El turned to look where Neal stood and blinked as did Dr. Monroe.
"Who honey? Peter there's nobody there. Doctor... what's wrong?"
El looked at him as Neal watched Peter look at him, pointing.
"Him... he's right there. He has dark hair and blue eyes. Who is he?"
Neal stepped away, uncertain why this was happening. Was it a dream? Was it real? He didn't know as he felt himself drawn back to his body yet again. The pull was stronger now as he shifted from the room through the wall, Peter's brown eyes following him with wide-eyed curiosity. Neal went up through the ceiling from the hallway outside and back over the city till he found himself back inside Mozzie's hideaway, the gazebo below him as he slowly descended back into his now shifting form beneath the blankets.
"Peter..."
He whispered the name as he slowly fell back into a dreamless sleep, his body relaxing.
()()()
Neal woke up some time later, sensing the day turn to evening as his body began to rouse. There was some movement outside, a sound of someone running what sounded like a blender as he came to. The young man opened his eyes, remembering something of what happened in his dreams but uncertain of the exact details. He licked at his lips, feeling hungry but not for food as he pulled the blankets aside and was instantaneously on his feet. There was a certain scent drawing him back behind the fake park to where a partially opened door led to a small kitchenette. Neal made no noise as he entered the room and approached the figure there. He felt like a cat stalking a mouse as he grasped the figure and turned them around then hissed.
"Didn't expect that did you?"
Mozzie laughed as if it were all a game but the scent of garlic was making Neal sick as he pulled away and pressed against the far wall. He saw a look of worry on his friend's face.
"Neal? I'm sorry. Let me take this off. I didn't think..."
He shook his head at his friend, quickly leaving the room as he realized what he had almost done. Mozzie was helping him and he had tried to kill him. He couldn't stay here if he couldn't learn to control this thing he was becoming. Once he killed, he wouldn't be able to change back if that were even possible. He went back outside, well into the fake park that his friend had created and sat on a bench shivering. Neal felt so incredibly hungry as he had never felt before. The sound of a beating heart neared him and he turned to see Mozzie there.
"Stay away from me, Mozz. I don't want to hurt you."
Neal growled as he shrank away not from the scent of garlic this time, a wreath of the fragrant herb around his friend's neck, but from his own shame and guilt at not knowing how to control himself. Maybe if he waited for sunlight again he could just find a private place and melt away. So far the myth about garlic was true, why wouldn't sunlight?
"Neal, I'm going to help you. I told you that already. Here. Try this."
Mozzie drew slightly closer, handing him a tall plastic glass that was filled with something noxious looking but that smelled almost delicious as the scent filled his nostrils. There was a straw stuck out of the strange smoothie.
"I didn't know what to get you as this is my first attempt at vampire gourmet. If you don't like it, there are other options... well you know what I mean."
He had obviously seen the look on Neal's face, the young man nodding with a blush as he sipped tentatively at the mixture then promptly returned the cup to Mozzie, running to the bathroom to throw up. He wasn't sure what was in the drink but it had made his stomach ill as he finished being sick and flushed the toilet. He pulled himself up to his feet and washed his hands, face and rinsed out his mouth. The drink had tasted of death. It had nothing his body wanted except that it had reeked of blood. Mozzie was waiting outside for him as he exited.
"I'm sorry, Neal. I really thought... well I guess that discards raw meat. It was a steak I liquefied. Dead animals are out of the picture. I have one more option before you consider me as your next meal or the sunlight as your only escape."
Mozzie was reading him well as Neal nodded and followed his friend back to the kitchen. It was hard but he was able to keep himself from attacking his friend regardless of the garlic. His hunger pangs were growing by the minute so he hoped Mozzie had something for him.
"It's crass and your sensibilities will be turned off but it's all I could think of. Plus my friend Robby owed me a favor."
Neal watched as Mozzie pulled an IV pack of blood from an ice chest and handed it to him. One end held a plugged up IV connection tube, a straw of sorts when he thought about it. He pulled out the plug, drawing his lips around the tube and began to drink the cool liquid as it oozed from the bag. Slowly he felt his hunger pangs start to ease up as he continued to suck the liquid down till the bag was empty. His body felt better but still wanted more of the sweet liquid, Mozzie nodding somewhat reluctantly as he pulled out another bag and handed it to his friend.
"Go easy on this stuff. I don't have much of it and Robby was already going beyond friendship giving me this. I had to tell him my friend had a serious wound and bled out. I supposed it wasn't a total lie but these few bags could save several mortal lives."
Neal nodded, moving over to one of the benches to sit as he started to feel more himself again. He ended up only drinking about half of the bag. plugging it up as he felt better and replacing it in the cooler. Mozzie still had the garlic wreath on for his own protection as they sat on separate seats.
"In all your research, is there any way to return someone from where I am? Could I go back to being normal or will I have to stay this way, Mozz? I don't want to hurt anyone."
Neal wasn't sure what to think, his mind thinking of staying up till the sun rose. Would he never see another sunrise or sunset? He liked the night life but not like this.
"Neal... I already talked to June. She didn't understand it but she let me put garlic around the house. She didn't know it was garlic but it's hidden enough she will be safe. I also put some around the Burke's residence. I was lucky nobody noticed me doing the front. I used small bulbs but that should be enough. It will keep the people who did this from getting in. Plus there's the whole threshold thing."
Mozzie was smiling as Neal blinked at him.
"Threshold? I don't understand."
He watched his friend go into professor mode.
"Have you never watched Dracula or read it? Vampires have to be invited into a home. If someone has lived in a home long enough, the threshold is strong enough to keep out unwanted guests. They can't enter unless someone invites them."
Mozzie sounded awfully proud of that point till Neal made a gesture around the space.
"I was able to come in here without being invited. Are you sure that's a real thing or just myth? I was also able to get into June's through the terrace. I'm just saying..."
He saw Mozzie thinking about it but then he made an ah ha and slapped his leg.
"You've already been inside June's. You didn't need permission technically or so I think. We'd have to try getting you through the front but with the garlic..."
He stopped to think a moment before looking up at Neal again.
"And I pushed you ahead of me here which is an invitation of sorts. If I had gone before you then maybe it would have been different. It is a theory worth testing though especially if Machelli or his goons decide to come after you. I'll keep reading. Well work this out, Neal. Trust me."
()()()
Peter didn't understand what was happening as his wife and the doctor worried about him not remembering someone named Neal Caffrey. He was watching his wife and the doctor talk when he felt a cold chill in the air. Slowly the chill entered his chest, a faint wisp of memory coming to him but it was soon forgotten as he felt a tight squeeze of his heart. He started to choke, his body seizing as he felt his wife's hand on his arm and then she was pushed back as several people in scrubs came in. He fainted, his body frozen it seemed as the pain increased. He thought he heard someone laughing in the background, staring up through closed lids to see a figure there smiling malevolently down at him. He tried to think where he had seen the man before but then another man pushed the figure aside and the pain stopped, his chest loosening up as his heart started to beat normally again.
He could hear his wife calling to him but that man, the one who had pulled the other one from him still stood there, staring at him. Peter didn't know who he was as he opened his eyes and found the man was still there. He wasn't dreaming. His wife and the doctor were asking how he was but he didn't know what to say. The pain eased up but that stranger remained across the room staring at him with those deep blue eyes, a sadness there he didn't understand.
Peter asked them who the man was but nobody seemed to see him. El just shushed him as best she could as she gently caressed his hair and kissed him. He watched the man staring at him sadly a moment before backing into the wall and disappearing. It had all been so odd he thought that he must be dreaming as things seemed to return to normal.
"We'll have to do more tests. I don't understand what's going on. Maybe there's something we missed."
Peter felt the monitors and IVs removed from him as he was moved to a gurney and wheeled with El holding his hand to another room. He recognized the machines, a large MRI and CAT scanner in the room. He didn't like either one but something must be wrong if he was seizing up and seeing ghosts. El whispered to him softly.
"I'll be right outside, Peter."
He nodded, the nurses and interns helping him off the gurney and onto the MRI platform. It took a few minutes as they slowly eased him into the tube and then the scan began. He closed his eyes, listening to the noise around him and feeling it turn from the rattling of the MRI to another place.
Agent Burke...
He felt cool air across his body, the scent of soot heavy in the air. He opened his eyes and found dark eyes staring into his. Peter couldn't move, his body unresponsive as he stared up into those fathomless orbs. He was only vaguely aware of the scenery change, stone masonry all around him. Peter knew he had been here before. He heard a voice in his head, a pressure there that felt like his head was in a vice.
Tell me where your friend is. I know he came to see you.
Peter felt confused but his mind was like an open book, those eyes sifting through the pages. He felt another pain in his head as if the man with the dark eyes were angry about something. He winced involuntarily.
He's removed your memories of himself. Your friend learns more quickly than I could ever imagine. You will be the one who brings him to me. When the time comes, you will lead him to me. Now, sleep.
Peter felt his head nod in agreement, his eyes closing as the smell of soot gave way to the bland, antiseptic scent of the hospital and someone gently shaking him.
"Agent Burke... wake up."
Peter opened his eyes and saw Dr. Monroe looking down at him with concern at first then relief. The man was shining a light down into his eyes checking the movement of his pupils, his reflexes before turning it off.
"You're back with us. The MRI is showing something like what your partner Mr. Caffrey had when he was brought in. In your case, I'm inclined to think it's related to your head injury but I'll run a tox screen as we did on your partner. There must be a connection between both of your cases."
Peter didn't know what to say, his mind still blank on the name Caffrey as he simply nodded. He did remember the strange young man with blue eyes staring at him but didn't understand who he was. He could just see El outside the room beyond the glass. She look worried for him.
"You'll see your wife again soon. We'll draw some blood and see what comes up. This can't be a mere coincidence."
()()()
Three days had passed since he had escaped and Peter had been rescued. Nobody had asked him what had happened in that time and he remembered little of it till he had shown up on June's terrace. Now he was staying with Mozzie at one of his many secret hideouts. Neal paced the length of the fake park in Friday feeling a restlessness he had never felt before. There was a need in him he didn't understand. It wasn't hunger or thirst but something else. He wasn't sure what it was he wanted to do as he continued to pace about till Mozzie finally blocked him.
"If you wish to wear a hole in my floor to China, you're in the wrong part of the world. If you're hungry, just grab another bag from the cooler or tell me what's the matter."
Mozzie sounded concerned if not annoyed as Neal stopped.
"I don't know. I just feel... restless. I keep thinking I should be somewhere else. Something feels off."
He sighed, sitting the edge of the fountain and waving his hand idly in the cool water. Mozzie sat beside him, garlic free at the moment and apparently trusting him to behave. Neal didn't know if he trusted himself.
"Tell me what's wrong, Neal. I know that look."
Mozzie was tapping his foot impatiently, the noise bothering his now sensitive ears when he finally relented.
"I had an odd dream. Atleast I think it was a dream. It's been bothering me."
His friend's foot tapping stopped and he looked intrigued.
"Dream analysis. Well, tell me what you remember and I'll see which book we draw from... Jungian or Freudian."
Neal saw the excited look on Mozzie's face and nodded, drawing his mind back to when he was sleeping.
"It was sort of an out of body experience. I rose up out of my body and floated out of the building and across the city till I ended up at a hospital. I wasn't sure why till I entered a room by walking through it and found myself looking down at Peter. He was laying there sleeping, but his face looked tight. Somehow I just knew he was worrying about me."
He paused, trying to remember the rest as Mozzie apparently took notes, a pad and paper in his hands.
"He spoke in his sleep so I talked to him. I told him to forget me and touched my hand to his forehead. He was asking where I was. I could... sense his worry and I wanted to end it so I told him again to forget me and then he woke up. El and Dr. Monroe were there talking to him, asking him how he felt and he seemed ok. Then they asked about me as if I wasn't there and he said he didn't know me. It was strangely surreal to think I had made Peter actually forget me. I couldn't figure it out or why nobody could see me as I left the room."
Neal shivered at the thought of this all being real but he had been asleep. How could it have happened? It was just a dream.
"Interesting... a disconnect. Keep going..."
Mozzie was busily scribbling notes as Neal continued on.
"I left the room again by passing through the closed door. I had barely exited when someone attacked me, holding me down. It was McCoy. He held me while another one of Machelli's men passed through the door of Peter's room. I realized Peter was in danger and got loose, going back inside and found the other man with his hand literally in Peter's chest. Not a hole but just in his chest and Peter was seizing as if he were having a heart attack or something. El and the doctor were worrying over him unable to see the man but I could as I came back in and pulled the man from Peter and threw him out of the room. I took Peter's hand in my own, despite no one else seeing me, and suddenly he calmed, coming to and looking right at me."
Mozzie nodded, taking notes at a rapid rate as he motioned for him to continue. Neal licked his lips, his memory of the event clear as if it had actually happened.
"Then he pointed at me and asked who I was. I didn't understand because El and Dr. Monroe couldn't see me. He just kept looking at me and I knew I wasn't really there or El would see me. I couldn't understand how he could see me when nobody else could. I wasn't sure what to do so I left without a word, passing back through the wall as he watched. I floated back up over the city and ended up back here."
He stopped talking, standing up to pace again as Mozzie finished his scribbling and was silent a moment.
"So you were basically a ghost in the dream? That's not good. Those kind of dreams tend to mean bad things or so I've read. On the other hand... it could just be a fanciful flight your mind created because of your current condition or your worry for the Suit."
Mozzie was less than helpful with his analysis, Neal shaking his head as he stood and started to pace again.
"This isn't helping, Mozz. I need to know how Peter and El are. I need to find a way to change back or destroy myself. I'm not staying this way. I can't do this. I can't let Machelli win. You were right about him being the Devil, Mozz. I should have listened to you and Peter."
Neal combed a hand through his hair, looking up at a rafter high above him. He had the sudden need to look down on things. Suddenly he found himself up on the rafter sitting on the metal beam, legs hanging off. He looked down to see Mozzie turning in circles then looking up at where he was and paling. He felt a laugh fill his throat and he didn't know why but it amused him that he had confused his friend till he wondered suddenly how he had gotten himself up here.
"Neal... you're in the rafters. You're not a bat or a bird. How..."
Mozzie sounded freaked out, Neal feeling a chill wash over him as he tried to think how he had gotten up here. It had been suddenly and quick, his mind thinking it and then finding himself up here. He started to think back to his dream wondering if it was real as he figured out how to get down. He was feeling a bit dizzy from the height but a strange calm hit him as another part of his mind took over and he slowly drifted, light as a feather down towards the floor. He heard a thud as Mozzie fainted beside him.
"Mozz... hey... wake up! I... maybe I should go. I'm sorry. I didn't know I could do that till now. Mozz?"
The little guy finally roused, his eyes looking up with a strange wide eyed expression as he scooted away. Neal let him. He wouldn't blame him if he threw him out into the night. Maybe the sun would take him.
"Neal... before you go testing any new skills, tell me. Although..."
He saw a strange kind of thoughtful look come over his friend's face, the con cautiously moving closer.
"That was actually pretty cool. Imagine what you could steal with skills like that. Mad skills is what the kids call it today, I think."
Neal sighed, smiling. Good old Mozz. One minute he's telling you you're weird and then he's praising you for your weirdness. He was glad to have the guy in his life especially now.
"I'll leave if you want me to. I didn't mean to scare you... I just thought I wanted to look down at all of this. Get some perspective and suddenly I was there. It didn't really register how or when, it just happened."
He was still trying to process it as was Mozz apparently as he nodded enthusiastically and smiled like a kid meeting Superman.
"I wasn't even certain where you'd gone. I had to look around and then I heard the creak of the beam and looked up and there you were! I just sort of confused me for a minute. Human minds weren't meant to know of such things. Guess you could say it crashed from the unknown parameters. Blue screen of death..."
Neal held up a hand before he could go further with the PC analogies.
"I get it Mozz. So... can you do me a favor. I need to know if that dream was real. Maybe you could contact El and Peter and see what's up? I know he would have been taken to a hospital. He was hurt badly when I left him. I'm certain Jones or Diana found him but I couldn't stick around to find out under the circumstance."
He was pleading with his friend who nodded.
"Fine, just next time you do that, will you take me with you? I've always wanted to see Friday from above."
()()()
Neal gave Mozz all the information he knew of where Peter might have been staying. Dr. Monroe was there so it had to be the same hospital he had been at which had been Mercy Medical. Mozzie nodded, shoring up his nerve to go in and find the agent and see what was going on. When he asked about Agent Burke, the nurses said he had been release that morning. He thanked them, leaving quickly as his paranoia of hospitals got to him.
Mozzie took a cab from the hospital to the Burke resident, getting off across the street to check out the scene. There didn't seem to be anything suspicious going on from what he could see. There were lights on in the home and the garlic he had so carefully hidden was still in place from what he could see in the darkness. Finally he got up the nerve to cross the street and head up the steps. His hand rose and he quickly knocked on the door. A minute or two passed and he heard footsteps and then a slight dimming of the peephole before the door unlocked and opened.
"May I help you?"
Peter sounded sleepy, his hair and clothes a bit more rumpled than usual, his voice a bit raspy. There was a bandage across his left temple. Neal had said the agent had hit his head pretty hard but otherwise the agent looked ok. They stood there a moment, Mozzie finally answering.
"May I come in Suit? The night has eyes."
Peter blinked at his forwardness, glancing around as if for someone playing a joke on him.
"Do I know you?"
The agent sounded confused if not a bit bemused at him, starting to close the door on him till Mozzie finally shouted out.
"I'm here because of Neal."
He saw the agent pause, glancing at him curiously.
"Neal Caffrey? Everyone keeps asking me about him. I don't..."
Mozzie noticed the Suit sway a little as he moved forward to keep him from falling, moving into the house with him and closing the door.
"Suit... are you ok? Dammit! Neal must have done what he thought he did. Would explain why you don't know me."
He whispered the last part to himself, helping Peter to the sofa and sitting him down. The agent looked a bit bewildered, eyes dull and glassy.
"Suit... Uhm, is Mrs. Suit around?"
He saw Peter giving him a weird look till he realized why.
"Uhm Peter... is Elizabeth around? I need to talk to her. It's of a most urgent matter."
Peter shook his head, making an attempt to answer as he lay down across the couch.
"Out... getting food. Head hurts."
Mozzie watched the agent slump against the couch worriedly, wondering if he should call Neal but there was no phones in Friday or most of his homes. He sighed, trying to figure out what to do when he heard the suit mutter something.
"Can you... get me... a glass of... water?"
Mozzie nodded, getting up and heading into the cozy but stylish kitchen. He'd been here a few times with Neal and without, Elizabeth a more than gracious hostess. He had barely grabbed a glass and filled it when he sensed someone behind him.
"Suit... I mean Peter, are you feeling better so..."
He didn't finish the sentence as something blunt hit him across the back of the head. Mozzie crumpled to the ground, someone flipping him over as he saw the blurry form of Peter Burke crouched over him and then everything went black.
()()()
Peter looked at the odd little man in the peephole and wondered what he was selling so late at night. Either that or his co-workers were playing a joke on him. He opened the door and looked down at the strange figure. He was surprised the man seemed to know him, calling him "Suit" which confused him more although in a strange way it sounded familiar. Peter was losing interest in the little guy and started to close the door when he said something interesting.
"I'm here because of Neal."
Neal? He was confused. His wife and the doctor kept asking him about someone named Neal Caffrey. He looked at the little guy curiously, asking him about the person when his head started to hurt. There was a voice in the back of his head talking at him but he couldn't quite understand it.
"Suit... are you ok?"
He shook his head some, the little guy helping him inside as he felt dizzy and confused. He heard the door shut in the background and then he was sitting and laying across the sofa trying to ease the pain. The strange man was still asking him stuff, seemingly knowing his wife but he had no idea who the man was.
Thirsty... tell him you're thirsty...
The voice in the back of his head was whispering at him until he asked the little guy for a drink of water. Soon as he left for the kitchen, Peter found himself sitting up. His head still hurt but something else was going on. He didn't know what was happening as he walked over to the fireplace and picked up the poker, walking towards the kitchen as if he were in a trance.
He knows where your friend is, Agent Burke. I need to know where your friend is.
Peter felt his head nodding of its own accord as he walked in a trance towards the little guy in the kitchen. He had an odd feeling they'd met before but something kept him from remembering for certain as he snuck up behind him, poker up and ready to strike.
"Suit... I mean Peter, are you feeling better so..."
He watched himself as if in a dream strike the little guy across the back of the head. There was a dull thud of metal on bone and then the man collapsed.
Good, Agent Burke. Now... take him to the basement. We will get our answers to your friend's whereabouts soon enough.
Peter felt his head ache again as he tried to resist but the voice kept on.
Don't try to fight me, agent. You'll serve the purpose you were meant to soon enough. Now do as I say!
Peter winced, carrying the little guy through the basement door in the kitchen and down the stairs. His mind was mostly blank except for what the voice told him. A part of his mind was wondering why this Caffrey person was so important? He dropped the unconscious man on the floor, finding some cord he had for a long overdue project and used it to bind the stranger. He pulled some duct tape and pulled it over the man's lips at the voice's instruction.
Good good... you are a good listener. Your friend will soon be mine again and you will be free. Let's wait for that lovely wife of yours to come home. I believe she's heading up the stairs now.
Peter winced, resisting the voice as it mentioned Elizabeth. He didn't want to involve her as he collapsed to his knees in pain, his head aching worse than ever.
"Peter? Peter where are you?"
He could hear her calling as the front door opened over head. He fought the thing that was pulling his strings, collapsing to the floor in agony as it continued to try and control him.
Don't resist me Agent Burke. You haven't the will enough to do so unless you wish to die now and I have other plans for you. Now... go upstairs and greet your lovely wife.
oOoOoOo
Author's Note: Uh oh... Machelli is playing dirty! Stupid Vampires! What happens when Neal discovers Mozzie is missing now and Peter really doesn't know him? Read the next chapter (when posted) to find out. (dramatic music plays!)
