Sherlock eyed the smartly suited man suspiciously before stretching both arms out and touching the door frame, blocking any way of access.

"I'm afraid you can't have John" Sherlock drawled to the mysterious man.

"Mr Holmes," The man scolded sternly." I need John."

The man started to gently push past Sherlock. The detective realised what the stranger was doing so his grip tightened on the frame, turning his knuckles white from the pressure.

"Well, I apologize but John's busy." Sherlock snapped sarcastically.

"Mr Holmes, please. I don't want to hurt you but I will if I have to."

Despite the man's warning Sherlock rolled his eyes. This man seemed too well brought up to start a scrap in the doorway.

The genius scoffed, "Yeah? Well you're going to have to hurt me to get to John."

The man sighed in exasperation before quickly hooking his hands under Sherlock's armpits and lifting him, without strain, as if he was made of paper. The sociopath was disgusted at the contact. The man started to walk forward so Sherlock's fingers slipped from the door frame. The man set the detective down onto his own feet and stared at him as the genius rubbed his hands which were going white from the pressure he was applying to keep himself there.

"Now we are out of the doorway I believe proper introductions are in order," The man held out a hand for Sherlock to shake but he just looked at it in disgust. The man lowered his hand with another sigh." So you must be Sherlock Holmes. I have read all of the files on you. I must say they are very impressive." The man put a heavy looking briefcase onto the floor. It had an emblem on it that Sherlock couldn't place.

"I'm surprised Mycroft let you read any of his files." Sherlock tried to make it sound as insulting as possible but curiosity tinged his voice.

"Mycroft?" The tall stranger asked, confused." One minute... Isn't he the one that works in parliament? Nosey bugger, I have to admit. He has always got his big nose in our business."

The stranger's posh English accent sounded strange saying disrespectful things like that about Sherlock's brother. Usually, the upper class types respect Mycroft and his position. Sherlock's brow furrowed.

"So, you don't work for Mycroft?" Sherlock questioned. This man might just be trying to get to John.

"Goodness, NO!" The suited man almost shouted. A look of disgust fell upon his features.

"Beware what you say. The flat is bugged." Sherlock warned.

"Don't worry, we disabled it. All Mycroft's men will be getting is static and they will believe that the problem is on their end," The man chuckled. "Alexander, by the way."

The man extended his hand again but this time Sherlock took it. It was stone cold. That answers a lot, Sherlock thought. Alexander saw realisation light up Sherlock's features so smiled at Sherlock.

"You're-you're a ..." The detective's voice trailed off.

"Yes, a vampire," Alexander cheerfully finished the other man's sentence."I was sent to help John by the vampires who keep order and peace and all of that nonsense... I would have come earlier but I was watching you through your brothers systems and was kind of hoping you would guess but..."

Alexander looked at Sherlock with a slight air of disappointment. He looked down at his watch before back to the confused genius.

"How long had it been since the last provider?" Alexander asked seriously, looking at the sociopath expectantly.

"Last what?" Sherlock was truly puzzled by this vampire terminology.

"Provider," Alexander said as if he was taking to a moron." When was the last time John drank blood" Alexander spoke like he was taking to a foreigner who spoke no English.

"I don't know. Probably about five weeks ago but I'm not certain. I think I may have made him use the last of his energy. He protected me against a criminal. I only just found out about him being a vampire after that but we were called to a crime scene a while ago, a woman had been drained of blood. I'm guessing that was the last time."

Alexander paled. His eyes widened and his mouth set into a disapproving line. He shook his head sadly. Alexander proceeded to pick the briefcase off the floor and head towards John's room. Sherlock followed the vampire as Alexander continued to speak on the way.

"I should have come earlier. He has left it way too long... again. This isn't the first time I have had to bring him around. He doesn't like feeding off humans but animal blood has almost no effect on us. He tries to avoid feeding as often as possible. That's why he has a job in the hospital where there is a large blood bank, stops him feeling guilty… Five weeks? That's impressive. Bad, but impressive never the less. He must have felt so ill before he fell unconscious. The average vampire can last three weeks with no blood. Although, it varies from vamp to vamp. The longest I've ever been is two weeks before I couldn't stand up. John just doesn't want to be a monster but we need the blood to fill our empty veins."

They had made it up stairs and Alexander was kneeling on the floor by John's bed, opening the briefcase. It was full of long dark bags. Full of liquid, blood, Sherlock supposed.

"It must have been difficult for him in Afghanistan with all those people getting shot and wounded," Alexander continued. Then the vampire started to chuckle. "He has his own bed!" He said like he couldn't believe it.

"So?!" Sherlock was getting annoyed with the happy vampire. His best friend was in a coma-like thing and Alexander was laughing. How dare he? Sherlock's mind fumed.

"We don't sleep! Wait, let me guess he has been eating food as well!" Confused Sherlock nodded in confirmation. Alexander laughed again. "Gross! He must really like you to be trying so hard to hide his true self. Food is vile. Blood, well now, that is something else."

Alexander had stopped laughing and had pulled out a large syringe. Shockingly large. The vampire looked up at Sherlock and smirked at his curious and partly awe struck face.

"We are not invincible but we have a very strong skin" The vampire told the genius.

Alexander proceeded to pierce the large needle into the dark bag and collected up some deep red liquid. He ran his fingers over the small hole after he withdrew the syringe then licked along his fingertips. Closing his eyes, he smiled in satisfaction and Sherlock could see two fangs descending. When the vampire opened his eyes a second later they darted over to the genius.

"That was just between us, okay?"

The detective didn't answer just stared at the vampire. The vampire moved the syringe until it hovered over an empty vein in John's arm before turning and looking expectantly at the sociopath path. He jerked his head towards the door. Sherlock looked confused.

"John is going to be parched when he wakes up and I don't think it will be water he will be craving so unless you want to become his next provider then shift it. At least outside the door but I would suggest further. I've tried to keep the blood fresh in dark bags; it stops the light ruining the taste but if there is a source of blood meters away that is still fresh and warm then nothing would be able to stop a craving vampire. Nothing" Alexander explained.

Sherlock grudgingly shuffled outside the door and halfway down the stairs. He would go no further. Just in case John needed him. John won't need me he has Alexander to help him. Jealousy raged through the detective. Why couldn't he help John, not that posh twat?

As Sherlock sat waiting, he wondered a why Mycroft hadn't noticed the strange behaviour in 221b then his mind flashed back to what Alexander said about disabling the cameras. Obviously, the vampires liked their privacy from an overweight politician so decided that if they wanted privacy to do vampirey things then they would get privacy to do vampirey things. Sherlock wasn't sure if vampirey was the technical term and vowed to find out.

He was starting to get bored when he heard a bedside lamp smash against the opposite wall. John must be awake. A flustered looking Alexander then slipped through the door pulling it shut behind him. His tie was loosened and his hair spiked out in awkward angles. Sherlock tried not to laugh but failed. Alexander sent him an unimpressed look while attempting to flatten down his hair with little success.

"Vampires aren't meant to sleep. It is so unnatural. This unfortunately makes waking up a pain. Quite literally, it is painful. We get headaches and suffer nausea. As a consequence we end up in a bad mood as you could probably hear a second ago... anyway I'm off. I have official vampire business to do. I suggest you leave him at LEAST ten minutes for him to recover and finish feeding. He won't be fully back to normal until his next natural feed which I suggest you make him take some time tonight. He might be a bit animalistic until then. Very protective and can get aggressive for example."

The man started walking back down the stairs before turning and saying up to the genius.

"Mycroft is on his way up. I can smell him. So you might want to come down and look organised. He must he worried about the cameras. I will get them reactivated as soon as possible. Just ignore any loud noises from John and don't let Mycroft know. I've spent enough of my time hiding it from him. Please don't spoil it." Alexander just turned and left Sherlock sat on the stairs alone.

He started to make his way into the living room when he bumped into his brother who had a furious expression painted on his face. Sherlock wondered what Alexander had said to the politician who he disliked so much.

"Sherlock? Why was Alexander Spruce in your flat and why did he look a complete mess?" Mycroft paused for Sherlock to answer but when he didn't answer he misinterpreted his brother's silence for embarrassment." Oh Sherlock, please don't tell me you are sleeping with him." Mycroft almost begged.

"Who is he, Mycroft?" Sherlock asked not bothering to answer his brother's question.

"He works inside the government. I don't know where but he just seems to always pop up and get in the way. I've had investigators working on him but apparently he his pretty high up because, officially, he doesn't exist. It's like he is top secret or something ridiculous. How did you contact him? I've spent days searching for that man."

Sherlock came to the decision that he would ignore his brother until he left.

Sherlock decided it had been long enough so began to make his way up to John. He knocked on the door and slowly pushed it open. He was shocked when he saw John crouching defensively over the briefcase that held the dark blood bags and hissing at the detective. His fangs were descended and his pupils were blown wide. Sherlock was suddenly very grateful of Alexander's warning of 'animalistic and aggressive'.

Blood dripped from John's fangs as the doctor crouched hissing at the detective. The genius stepped back out and closed the door.

Okay, maybe it hadn't quite been ten minutes yet.