Henry moved with her as she said, "you always say that you want to know more about me more about who I am and how I became the way I am, right?"

"You know that I am interested in everything about you Vicki. Anything you choose to share with me." he said, as he moved close enough once more, to lay a hand softly on her arm. He closed his eyes, lifting his chin slightly as he drew in a long breath. She knew that he was breathing in her scent. When his eyes opened again his pupils were dilated consuming a good portion of the blue iris.

"Anything you choose to share." He repeated in a husky whisper as he met her gaze. She held it with her own for a moment as she could feel the heat building between them and then broke eye contact saying, "Ok then mister, get dressed and get your coat, we are going for a drive."

"You don't want to…to…open your presents?" Henry asked after a moment.

"Yes of course I do but when we come back, we have until dawn right?" She said.

He gave her a dazzling smile, and said, "That we do. Give me a few moments to change, and then we can go."

"I'll be right here." she said as she settled herself on the sofa and picked up the Christmas Carol again."

When they were in the elevator on their way to the lobby, Vicki leaned in close to Henry and threaded her arm through his. She could sense his slight discomfort at the confines of the elevator. His eyes had remained focused on the lit display of the floor numbers as they winked out while the elevator descended. He turned his head to smile at her.

"You don't like elevators do you? She asked.

He surprised her by freely admitting, "No not really, they are a little too confining for my comfort. I'll manage though. Here we are."

The door slipped open and Henry indicated that Vicki should precede him, as she emerged into the brightly lit lobby, with Henry at her heels, she heard a rather squeaky voice say, "Oh, good evening, Mrs. Fitzroy, and this must be Mr. Fitzroy, Merry Christmas Sir."

Shit, Vicki thought, Busted! She glanced at Henry, to see a bemused smile on his face as he crossed to the guard. Vicki continued to the door of the elevator to the garage and pressed the call button. She could hear the murmur of the vampire's voice behind her.

By the time that the elevator had arrived Henry was beside her once more. As the door slid open he followed her inside, saying quietly in her ear. "He won't remember that incident Vicki, he now thinks that he called up to the condo and I told him to send Victoria Nelson up. He also knows that I am not to be disturbed, by anyone but you, during the day."

"Yeah well, not all of us have those, 'powers of persuasion,' Henry, some of us have to resort to disguises, no matter how unlikely." She shot back, but her expression and the increase in her heartbeat, mitigated the implied insult.

The door whisked aside and they emerged into the parking level.

"Holy shi..I mean Jeez…it is really cold down here." Vicki said, as the frozen concrete chill of the parking garage hit her.

"We could always go back upstairs if you would like, Mrs. Fitzroy." Henry offered, with just the slightest touch of irony in his voice.

"No, no…Just let me hang onto you, Mr. Fitzroy, I'll be fine" she said snugging her body in against his side.

Henry put his arm around her and drew her closer still as they walked the short distance to where the Jag was parked. He wished that he had more body heat to share with her, and that thought, brought the acknowledgement that he would need to find an opportunity to hunt, tonight.

He opened her door and just for this evening, she slid into the seat, blessedly, without comment.

Once he had maneuvered the car out of the lot he stopped at the entrance to the street.

He looked across to catch her watching him, "Which way?" he asked with a slight lift of his brow.

"Oh, just start driving" she said, "I'll know it when I see it."

Checking the flow of traffic, Henry obligingly turned to the left and began to drive. After a few minutes of silence, Vicki finally had to ask "Aren't you curious where we are going?"

"Yes" he replied glancing at her, then adjusting the heat lower as the interior of the car was warmer now, "but I know you will tell me whatever it is you want to share, when you are ready, so I am just…enjoying your company."

She could discern no sarcasm in his tone; he was just saying what he felt.

How different is that than Mike? She thought. There is always, was always this competition thing between us, right down to who could get in the smartest comment. We were always harping on each other. Here I am, sitting next to one of the most dangerous predators on the planet, and I feel more relaxed and more myself than I can ever remember feeling.

She drew in a deep breath and said slowly, "When I was young, really young, like maybe seven or eight, before my Dad split, we used to do this thing. Oh, turn right here Henry" she instructed, directing him into an older residential area.

"Anyway we would do this thing after Christmas dinner, when we were all stuffed and the dishes were done, when it was dark. We would get all dressed up in coats and hats and scarves and get in the car and drive around looking at all the Christmas lights on people's houses. I know it sounds lame," she said as she caught Henry's eye, "But it is one of the best memories of Christmas I have from being a kid, sitting between my Mom and Dad in the front seat and each of us exclaiming over the lights."

She was quiet for a moment, looking out the passenger window at the decorated homes they were now passing. "It was always kind of magical…the lights, the dark…"

"Feeling the warmth of closeness and safety?" Henry volunteered.

"Yeah, that. Well I just thought that I would share that memory with you and that maybe we could stop and walk around and look at some of the displays. This might be the last time…" Vicki's voice faded to a whisper as she stopped in mid sentence.

"The last time," Henry said frowning, "the last time, what?" He guided the Jag to a halt against the curb.

Come on Nelson say it, just say it, that's what all this is about isn't it? She mentally shouted at herself searching for the courage to step off the edge of the precipice she had brought herself to.

Instead, she slid her seatbelt off and fumbled with the handle of the door, escaping into the night. By the time her door clicked shut, Henry was standing beside her on the sidewalk, his hand resting lightly on her arm.

"The last time…what, Victoria?" He asked again, listening to the sudden thundering of her heart. She is frightened, he thought. She is frightened and so I am frightened, what is wrong?

She drew in a shaky breath and he watched her as she pulled her own masquerade of calm, like a veneer over her features. Her eyes grew moist, glittering with unshed tears as she confided on the next exhalation, "The last time, I may ever be able to see them."

She stood defiantly with her chin trembling and her breath streaming white into the night air.

She was daring him, he knew, daring him to say the words that would allow her to drive him away.

Instead the vampire, smiled a slow, low smile and linking his arm through hers said, "Then I am doubly honored that you chose to share this memory with me tonight Victoria, shall we?"

Arm in arm they strolled slowly along the street, and at first, Vicki, tense after her admission was silent and Henry respecting her emotional turmoil, though the vampire roused to her conflicted scent, remained silent as well.

Eventually Vicki began to point out, this or that feature of the holiday light displays that glowed bright against the night. Soon Henry joined her in exclaiming over the simple beauty of a tall pine festooned with thousands of green fairy lights, the ostentatious display of a house completely covered, roof and all in net lights, or the magical sense of movement at the animated display of Santa's elves in their workshop.

They stood hand in hand in front of the life sized nativity scene that was constructed in the front of one house, Henry marveling at the ingenuity the home owners had displayed in transforming their overhanging porch into the softly lit stable, where the Christ child reclined smiling in a straw filled manger. Vicki, on the other hand, was wondering aloud, where they stored the two life-sized camels that stood behind the figures of the adoring magi, all the rest of the year.

When Vicki was eventually shivering in the night air and her cheeks glowing with the cold, Henry suggested that they might return to his condo for a hot drink.

He needed to feed, but he didn't want to force Vicki to wait for him while he took the time to hunt, neither did he wish, if he was honest with himself, to be parted from her. He weighed the hunger against his need to be with his love, and for now the hunger for her presence was stronger.

"Yeah a coffee would be good…and present opening." Vicki said with a wistful smile, as she linked her arm through Henry's once more.

"My lady, your carriage awaits you." Henry said and they started back to the car.

%%%% &&&&& %%%% &&&&&

Henry turned the key in the door of the condo, he was still chuckling over the story that Vicki had just told him. Who would of suspected the rotund Detective Graham of such antics? He thought, apparently the un-official Christmas party at "Flannigan's" was the opportunity for the hilarity of stress relief that law enforcement required.

He turned to look at Vicki who was still clutching her ribs and chuckling.

"The look on Detective Celluci's face when he opened it … must have been priceless. I am sorry to have missed it."

"Well yeah, the look was good, but when Mike knocked over the chair as he jumped up and…" Vicki dissolved into a fit of laughter again and helplessly leaned against Henry as they stood just inside the door. She laughed until the tears began to roll down her cheeks in a wet trail.

It was more than Henry could bear and without thought he leaned forward and lapped the salt of her tears from her cheek in one swift, smooth movement. The familiar saltiness merged with her scent made the vampire unruly and Henry, eyes closed, spent a moment tightening his control.

The laughter had died on Vicki's lips as she felt Henry's cool tongue against her cheek. She watched him close his eyes in concentration, and she felt warmth flush across her skin and a tightening low in her womb. Oh I want this she thought suddenly, I want this…

Vicki's forehead dropped against Henry's broad chest and she rested it there against his solid presence as she waited for the sudden pounding of the blood in her temples to calm.

Henry waited, stock still as she pressed her forehead against his chest, and he wondered if it pained her, he drew breath the ask the question, when she cleared her throat and straightening said to him, "So, how about some coffee and then those presents?

He took a single step back, indicating that she should precede him into the living room, but she shook her head saying, "No you go ahead, I'll make the coffee, I have a few things that I want to do.

Henry was standing in his habitual place by the windows, having opened the shutters, he had allowed the evening's calm to flow back around him. He was staring straight out into the night, completely aware of the living presence of his beloved behind him in the condo. She pervaded his every sense as she moved about in his sanctum.

He was filled with a sense of timelessness as he gazed out at the stars which flickered and danced behind the gauzy curtain of the under lit urban sky.

He hungered and yet his heart felt sated by her mere presence so close at hand. He half-turned at a small crash from the direction of the kitchen and his generous lips lifted slightly at the muttered curse which immediately followed.

His eyes were drawn to the glittering tree and the twirling and sparkling ornaments and though his thoughts drifted as memory after memory bubbled up begging for his attention, he tethered himself resolutely to the present, anchoring his consciousness to the gnawing hunger that unfurled within.

By the time that Vicki emerged from the kitchen, a tray balanced in her hands, on which rested the coffee, a single mug, a bottle of spring water and a large Christmas motif tin with a red looped bow on top, Henry was seated on the sofa one ankle resting on the opposite knee in the picture of studied relaxation and apparent comfort.

His smile when he looked up to meet her gaze was…angelic.

Let me help you," he said as he started to his feet.

"No, I've got it." She insisted and she settled on the sofa beside him after lowering the tray to the table top.

There was a moment of silence, and it was then that Henry made his 'fatal' mistake.

He asked innocently enough, "How did you find your mother, Vicki?"

In retrospect, he probably should have known better. It seemed like a harmless question and he was really quite unprepared for the curious change that immediately came over Vicki's face.

"How did I find my mother?" she mimicked him. "How is my mother? I'll tell you how my mother is Mister! She is dying to meet you, is how she is. I heard nothing while I was there except 'When will you arrange for me to meet this Henry, Vicki? Where did he get those lovely old fashioned manners, Vicki? What are his prospects, Vicki? When will you bring him to visit, Vicki? What are his origins, Vicki? Perhaps the families should meet, Vicki?'" she paused and drew in a quick breath before continuing.

"My God Henry, what the hell were you thinking, the flowers were bad enough, I probably could have talked that down, but the note saying that you were waiting anxiously to meet her…she is never going to let up. You don`t know her, she'll keep on and on until finally, finally she will get her way and I will have to introduce you."

Vicki had jumped up to her feet at some point during this outburst and was pacing up and down in front of him gesturing and turning sharply on her heel, occasionally pointing, well actually stabbing, an accusatory finger at him.

"I just don't know how I am going to prevent her from meeting you". Vicki ran her hands through her hair distractedly.

"Would it be so bad… if your mother were to meet me, Vicki?" Henry asked her quietly. "I mean, are you ashamed in some way, of our…friendship?" He finished slowly.

"What? No, of course not Henry, it's just…it's just…"

Henry`s brow lowered, and Vicki watched as his gaze shuttered. "I understand." he said briefly, paused and then continued, "I apologize if I caused you any embarrassment Vicki, I won`t…"

"Oh for fuck's sake Henry," Vicki said, exasperated now. "It's not you, it's her, you silly ass. She's…she's…"

"She is your mother Vicki. Is it so wrong for me to want to meet her?"

"No of course not Henry but once she meets you, once she sees you, she will want to know more and more. She'll start asking after you, asking about you, lots and lots of questions, some that I might not be able to answer, and I know Henry, I just know, that in the end…she will find out…she will figure it out."

"That I am vampire?" He asked her incredulously.

"You don't know her Henry, she is relentless. When Mike and I were…when we were together,

She just couldn`t leave it alone. She knew all about…"

"And what would happen?" Henry asked her suddenly, once more interrupting. "If she knew, what I am, what do you think that she would do?"

That stopped Vicki in mid-stride and she stared at him as he leaned forward, hands on his thighs as he looked up at her. She hadn't really thought past the idea of preventing her mother from finding out that she was involved with a vampire, to a plan of what to do if she did.

"I don`t know." She said after a long moment. "I don`t know what she would do. I really don`t know what she would think."

"So why are we worried about it right now?" Henry said equitably. "We can deal with it when and if, I ever actually have the pleasure of making your mother`s acquaintance."

Vicki sank back to the sofa again and looking him straight in the face said darkly,

"Oh you`ll meet her alright…and it may not be the pleasure that you anticipate."

Her glance was dark, but her voice was somewhat mollified.

Henry smiled slightly, feeling absurdly as though a crisis had be averted and making careful mental note to refrain from sending Marjorie any more gifts or notes, unless Vicki unduly delayed their meeting.

Vicki leaned forward to the tray and poured herself a cup of coffee, she lifted the water with an inquiring glance at Henry but he shook his head slightly so she left it on the tray.

She eased herself back on the sofa wriggling closer to Henry, and he lifted his arm to place it around her shoulder. They sat so for a few moments Vicki enjoying her coffee and Henry inhaling the faintly burnt, bitter smell of the black brew which had such a magically calming effect on his lady love.

"Will you light the tree while we exchange our gifts?" Vicki asked

It didn't take long to light the beeswax candles, in their brass holders that were clipped to the branches. I have to admit Vicki thought as Henry placed the last lit candle upright, the candles make for a beautiful soft and golden effect. At this close range the tree was more or less in focus and she could see the light glittering from the ornaments. "I have never seen a tree lit with candles Henry," she said, "It is really beautiful, and it is just so…so…you."

Henry turned and his smile flew straight and true, right into Vicki's heart. He picked up a largish rectangular package and replied, "And I hope that this will be so…you, too."

It looks like it might be clothing she thought but when Henry had laid it in her hands she realized it was far too heavy to be a garment.

"Happy Christmas Vicki," Henry said as he settled beside her, "open it."

Vicki began to carefully open the elegantly wrapped gift, but she eventually tore back the wrapping faster as her curiosity was piqued. There was a plain sturdy box underneath and when she lifted the lid she drew in her breath sharply.

"It's that thermal imaging camera that Coreen and I have been drooling over, Henry this is far too expensive a …"

"Please Vicki, you know I can afford it and with this technology, nighttime stakeouts will be…"

"Will still be possible for me" she finished in a whisper, as her hand rested on the camera.

"Exactly" Henry said.

"Thank you Henry, I love it. I was sure that you were the 'jewelry' sort of a guy." She said as she leaned across to place a sweet brief kiss on his lips, breaking away before he could attempt to deepen that contact.

Henry was relieved, when he had decided on the camera as his gift to Vicki, he had be unsure of what her response would be. He knew that the technology would be invaluable to her business by allowing Vicki to work at night more effectively, but he feared her normal angry reaction to any mention of her failing eyesight. He had hoped that her desire to work would override her resentment in regards to her disability and so far it seemed that was the case.

Henry reached into the camera box and extracted another small flat package wrapped in a silken blue drawstring bag. He held it out to Vicki saying. "There is no getting anything past Victoria Nelson PI extraordinaire, I am afraid I am the, jewelry sort of a guy."

"Henry, it's too much." Vicki said as she took the small bag from him. "At least open my present for you first." She handed him a flat rectangular package wrapped in tissue.

He frowned slightly in puzzlement, her scent told him that as soon as she had placed the package in his hands she had become frightened, he couldn't fathom why that would be but he could hear her heart rate ramping upwards. He didn't like it, and it made the hunger buck under his control.

She smiled at him, "Go on, and rip it open. I want to know what you think" she said lightly, her voice in absolute contrast to the sudden tension in her frame.

His nimble fingers had removed the wrappings in a moment and when he lifted the lid of the box, an inch thick soft cover book lay inside. His eyes settled on the cover. The title read, How Can I Help? A Practical Guide for Family and Friends of the Visual Impaired.

He felt the cool tears start in his eyes as he drew in a soft breath and he whispered a gentle, "Thank you, Vicki." He knew what the message was behind the gifting of this book. He thought that he might be able to hazard a guess at exactly what it had cost his "warrior princess" emotionally to so openly address her deepest fear… dependency. The message of trust she was sending him was clear, he was honored by her gift and the effort her admission had taken.

His eyes were moist when he met her gaze, her eyes widened slightly and then her body relaxed and the corners of her generous lips lifted. Again the slow building heat suffused her and Henry laid the book aside on the sofa as he slipped closer to her drawn forward irresistibly by the slow blush rising in her cheeks.

"Vicki, I…"

"You have another present," she said, once again retreating before his advance. She reached to the tray and lifted the tin. "They are from my mother." She said. "You see…how she is? These are her homemade Christmas cookies."

Henry lifted the lid on the tin and it was filled with what he recognized as round flat shortbread cakes.

"Marjory's Melt In Your Mouth Shortbread," Vicki said with a sardonic smile. "You know she is going to be waiting for a full report of how much you enjoyed them right? I'll just make up a story and tell her that you ate them all or something."

"Vicki, I certainly don't want to be responsible for you lying to your mother on account of my…disability." Henry said lifting a cookie from the tin and broke off a substantial piece which he popped into his mouth.

Henry almost never …ate. It was a long lost habit that it was simply easier to forget.

When he was first made, he had missed "human" food terribly; well truthfully it wasn't the food so much as the ritual of consumption. Like all of his kind, he was able to consume solid foods in severely limited amounts. It would not harm him, but his body could not metabolize it, and he lacked the ability to discern its flavor. The occasional salty olive from a martini, or in this case the small square of shortbread that was currently disintegrating against his tongue, were tasteless, incomplete memories from an existence lost nearly five centuries before.

He supposed that this ability was an adjunct to the masquerade, and indeed he had in the past, upon occasion, allayed the suspicions of some, by simply tasting a morsel and exclaiming how delicious was the flavor. More than once, he had been in a position where he had been forced to consume more than the limited amount his body could tolerate and the resulting cramping and nausea as his body had forcefully expelled the offending material had left him… disinclined to further indulgences.

Henry moved the "food" about in his mouth; it was true to its name, melting. It was not necessary to really chew it, though he did, for form's sake, make a desultory attempt, before by force of will alone, swallowing the whole grainy, flat tasteless mass.

"Vicki had watched the entire proceeding at first open mouthed and then with a puzzled smile.

Now she chuckled aloud as she said, "Henry, you should see your face. If you are going to "pretend" to eat, you should at the very least have more control over your expression, you look like I just fed you a tablespoon full of fireplace ashes."

Henry was a little annoyed that Vicki had so aptly interpreted his reactions and he replied stiffly, "Please give my thanks to your mother, as I… am forbidden contact, and assure her that I found…" Here he paused for a long moment while, throat working, he quelled his body's treacherous gag reflex, and then passing a knuckle over his lips continued, " You may truthfully tell Marjory that I ate the shortbread and found it…delicious."

Vicki was filled with a sudden tenderness, for the man before her and she leaned forward against him to press her mouth to his, as his arms came up around her, she teased with her tongue between his lips and he parted them to grant her access. She kissed him thoroughly and he responded to her, deepening the kiss, with a sudden intensity that jumped from his body to hers like an electric charge.

She could taste the sweet buttery richness of the shortbread, he had just eaten. She drew back for a deep breath, and as she looked into his face she saw something completely irresistible smoldering behind his eyes.

"I had this all planned" she said as she, by force of her body weight, pushed Henry back to recline on the sofa seat among the rustling discarded Christmas wrap behind him. She was working at the buttons of his shirt as she spoke. "I have a really sexy red negligee wrapped in a box for you," she said. As he raised an eyebrow, she paused to clarify, "well to give you…for me to wear."

She lowered her face to kiss him again and then pushing open his shirt laid her palms against his chest, in a gesture that was far more possessive that any amount of clutching could be.

"But now," she paused as Henry s shrugged out of his shirt and she tossed it theatrically away, "now I find myself just a little impatient."