Mike listened as Vicki spelled out her conclusions. The only thing causing the deaths of so many law enforcement officers was coincidence. The bottom line was they died the deaths they were intended to die, but much earlier than fate had planned because of an elven curse, which was broken when someone took the time to pay attention.

Mike pulled the phone from his ear and made a face at it before he spoke, "That's not the whole truth."

Vicki rolled her eyes and whispered, "You really don't want the truth."

Mike made a fist wishing he could punch something out and asked, "Were vampires involved?"

Vicki laughed out loud, "No. No vampires, creepy crawlies, hell hounds or demons were involved. It was a sad history that kept repeating itself until the answer was found. Henry and I took care of it. Speaking of Henry, he wants to talk to you." She handed the phone over to him as Mike started yelling, "Vicki, I don't want to talk to him."

Henry held it away from his ear as he walked with it into the other room as he said back, "Too bad. We've an agreement. The deaths have stopped, the guilty party has repented and there's nothing more that can be done. It's time to help Vicki and me."

Mike mouthed the word crap and Henry said, "I heard that," then he told Mike what needed to be done.

Vicki placed a hand on Henry's arm, he stopped walking and looked at her. He saw a determined stubborn look in her eye and asked, "What?"

"You're planning my death right?" He nodded and she added, "Well I have a say in how it happens." She took a deep breath and said, "Make it fast, furious, and fatal. I don't want there to be any question in anyone's mind as to the cause of death. Use my trick shoulder if you need to. It doesn't hurt being dislocated."

Henry placed his index finger in the dent of her chin and studied her face closely, "I've been meaning to ask, are your teeth capped?"

"Ya, gymnastics accident knocked out the six top teeth. They were all pegged back in place."

"They'll have to come out. The vampire changes needs to work with living cells."

Vicki put her hands on her hips, "Don't let me know when, or where. Do it fast. I don't want my mom to doubt for a minute I'm gone and I'd rather Celluci got the idea this is final too."

Henry kissed her lips as he said, "It's better to never try to go back. I broke a dear cousin's heart by telling him what happened to me. He died with hatred in his soul for what I had become."

***

Rajani Mohadevan had a printed list of questions in her hand as she stood in the dark morgue waiting for Henry appearance. She whirled around when she felt a tap on her shoulder and said, "Henry?"

"I'm here." He held out his hand for the list and read the questions. He looked at her and smiled with vampire teeth as he said in a deep hypnotic voice, "I'll have to kill you after answering all these questions. No one alive should be burdened with this knowledge."

Rajani pulled up to her full five foot height and said, "You promised to answer my questions."

Henry's eyes glittered in the darkness, "I'll answer the ones about what it feels like to be vampire. What happens after death, is the one mystery we can only know the answer to, after you experience it for yourself. "

Rajani felt the opportunity to really know the dead slip away but tried to make the best of it by saying, "Tell me what you can."

"You know vampires need blood from the living on a regular basis to exist. When we feed, we feel all the emotions a human feels including love, pain, and loss, but we give up a great deal when we chose vampire. Most of us are not even aware of the cost when we started down that path. With daylight comes death and everything stops. A part of each awakening is relearning and remembering. It's a constant fight to retain your identity, and those that loose the battle, become the monsters of legend. The vampires that survive the early years after turning, are careful to turn only those that have the strength to fight for their identity. There are great friendships among our kind, but for the most part, territorial issues keep us from living close to one another. True pairings are very rare but when they happen they last for as long as the vampires in question chooses to exist."

Rajani asked, "Is that what you and Vicki have, a true pairing?"

"I'm counting on it, but we need your help to give us the chance to find out."

"I'll help if you two agree to talk with me from time to time. I want to know as much as possible and perhaps I'll ask you to turn me."

"I can promise we'll keep in touch, as to your turning vampire, I can't see into the future."

"That's good enough. Tell me what you need me to do."

***

Standing outside Vicki's apartment door Henry placed his hands on her shoulders and said, "We are taking the final step to your becoming vampire. In the next few minutes I need to find and remove all evidence I ever stayed here. You need to make the place look like you just stepped out for dinner."

Vicki took a deep breath and nodded as he opened the door. Final arrangements has been in place since she and Mike became partners. They had made out wills that named each other executors of their estates. Vicki knew in her heart, that Mike would be good to her mother. She walked past all the things of her life without feeling regret of loss. She'd be like a ghost to her mother able to see and watch over her without speaking to her. It was so much easier walking away from things than she thought it would be. She turned around in circles trying to keep an eye on Henry as he moved at vampire speed placing everything back the way it had been before he moved into her closet.

"Henry stop moving, I want to talk to you."

"Make it quick, we don't have much time."

"It's real. This death thing. I don't feel connected to anything in this room. I don't want anything from here."

"These things around you are what defines you as human. Vampires have things so that they can pass in the human world but we don't have to have them. We buy what is necessary to create an identity when we're staying in the same place for a time. In this day and age, all you need is a phone and a credit card. There's a lose network of people that act as assistants to vampires. They are paid very well to see to all our needs. I'll tell you about them this night is done. Do you have what you want?"

Vicki opened her purse pulled out her asp, a fist full of cash, a credit card, cell phone, lock pick set, duct tape, note pad, pen and a cosmetic bag.

Henry raised an eyebrow at the pink flowered bag.

Vicki wagged it and said, "I didn't pick the bag out, but a girl needs some basics on hand. She never knows when a hot prospect might show up."

Henry laughed and said, "As vampire, you'll never need those basics because you'll be even more beautiful than you already are."

"How about shedding the five pounds that's been driving me crazy since I left the force."

Henry leered at her and said, "I find those five pounds delicious." He opened the door and she walked out not once looking back at the place she called home.

****

Vicki looked around and said to Henry, "Isn't this the alley where Coreen's boyfriend died?"

Henry nodded and said, "We've come back to the beginning of our story. It's rather fitting it we should end it where it began." He reached out and dragged her to the darkest part of the alley and slammed her against the wall deliberately causing bruises to form. He slapped her hard twice across the mouth knocking out teeth and filling her mouth with her own blood. She was too shocked to scream or fight back. She only saw the dark and gleaming eyes of a vampire. Henry brought his wrist up and used his own teeth to tear a huge bleeding wound into his skin. He pressed it to her mouth so that she was forced to try to breath through her clogged nose.

With full vampire force pounding against her mind he demanded she swallow and keep swallowing until he told her to stop. Vicki tried turning her head as his grip tightened around her arm jerking it out of its socket and pressed his bleeding wrist even harder.

His velvet voice tangled into her mind's thoughts, don't fight me my love , drink so that we can finish this. The velvet sound soothed and stroked her senses even as she felt herself dying from a lack of oxygen. She swallowed his blood along with her own. She kept swallowing and felt herself fade away as something started growing deep in her middle.

Henry felt the human Vicki slipping away as the vampire life started growing. When he judged the time right, he pulled back the arm holding her and gave a sharp blow to her temple with knuckle extended. Henry felt her sharp jolt of pain as her heart stopped and he let her fall to the cobbled stones like a rag doll. He left her purse but took the credit card, cash, and phone.

Walking away from the alley he placed a call, "Be ready. Remember, no one comes but you. Don't leave her side for a second."

Henry saw the beat cop on the corner and projected his will. The cop looked around, wandered down the alley, saw the small pile of rags and went to investigate. Recognizing her, he placed a call, "Detective Celluci I think I found your former girlfriend dead in an alley."

Standing at attention the beat cop said, "Yes sir. I'll stay right here. I'll wait until you get here before calling anyone else."

Mike wiped the tears from his eyes as he grabbed his jacket and called out to Kate, " A Body's been found in alley and it might be Vicki."

Crowley looked out her open door and yelled, "Thanks for telling me where you're going for a change."

Mike turned to face her, gave her an one fingered salute, then ran for the stairs to the garage and his car with Kate right on his heels.

Kate stood at the mouth of the alley as Mike stood over Vicki's broken body and saw the bruises, the asp clasped in her hand, bloodied mouth, and the dislocated shoulder where her purse usually hung. He didn't bother to hide his anguish as he said to her, "Why didn't you give them the damn thing? Why do you always have to fight?"

He looked at the crime scene and declared it appeared to be a mugging gone bad. The morgue van pulled up and Rajani Mohadevan got out with the tools of her trade.

Mike gave her a brief nod in recognition and said, "You don't usually make field trips."

Her eyes glistened as she knelt beside Vicki and replied, "For very special friends I make exceptions. She's special and I'll take good care of her and while I have her, she'll tell me what happened."

From the roof top, Henry watched the events unfold below him. As they were loading Vicki onto the morgue cart he felt the first prickles of dawn on the back of his neck and snarled in anger as he made his way to morgue.

He looked at the locker Rajani assured him was safe, then opened the air vent in the ceiling, crawling in to hide for the coming day. The first rays of the morning sun came through window as Rajani pushed the cart holding Vicki into her personal work area. "It's okay Vicki. You'll be safe with me. Henry is in the middle locker on the far right and I'll place you in the one next to him."

She patted the door where she thought Henry was and said, "Don't forget your promise. I get to talk to Vicki right after you greet her tonight."

Henry fought the dawn as watched while Vicki was gently placed on the sliding drawer and pushed into the darkness. He nodded a silent agreement to Rajani's remarks.

Closing out all hints of daylight Rajani brought Vicki's body to the examination area. Normally aides did the cleansing of the body after all forensic evidence was gathered, but Rajani did everything herself. The wounds were examined and documented. Missing teeth noted and small evidence bag with those same teeth logged. She then checked the wound on Vicki's right temple, measuring the width and depth of the indentation. She listed that as cause of death. As she finished up her external exam she decided that an examination of the internal organs wasn't indicated. All of her findings were documented on a camcorder. She was adjusting the sheet as the intercom notified her that Vicki's mother was here to see her daughter.

Marjory leaned heavily on Mike's arm as she waited for the the curtain to be opened. "My poor baby. I always thought she would be shot in the line of duty. She'd hate to know she died of a mugging."

Mike didn't know what words to say to her so decided on continuing to hug her.

Marjory looked at her daughter noticing how peaceful she looked, the bruises appeared to be fading and she was more beautiful than ever before. "What's next?"

Mike swallowed then said, "Vicki and I made wills a long time ago. We were on a really nasty case and we agreed to cover each other every possible way. I'll follow her wishes. She'll be cremated as soon as the body is released. Whenever you're ready there will be a small memorial service in your home town and the ashes will be scattered along the path where she used to jog. I'll take care of all the legal stuff that goes along with the processing of an estate."

Marjory let out a small sob then said, "You're like a son to me."

"I'll always be here for you and when the time is right, I'll have you meet my wife and son. You don't have to be alone if you don't want to be."

Mike took one last look at Vicki's body, said his good byes and gently guided Marjory way from the sad sight.

***

Even the hardest of days eventually comes to an end and with it comes the hope for a new start. Henry gradually felt his senses return one by one and he remembered. With the silence developed over years of practice, he eased himself down from the air duct and stood behind Rajani. With his mind he told her to take a break and come back to check on Vicki in fifteen minutes.

When she left the room Henry opened the locker door, slid out the tray, feeling the vampire in her fight its way to awareness as he watched and waited.

Her eyes opened and she rose up with her first breath in over sixteen hours. Focusing on Henry she pulled back her lips from newly grown fangs where the teeth had been and snarled, "You son of a bitch." She grabbed for him and he allowed her to pull him forward tilting his head to the side. She tore his neck open and drank her fill, then pushed him away.

He fell back against the lockers and slid slowly to the floor. She sat the rest of the way up and lightly dropped to her feet. She then sat down next to Henry, rested her head against his shoulder and said, "It's finished. I'm a vampire."

"Yes and during coming year, I'll teach you all I know about existing in this world and together we'll create a lasting partnership." He handed her some clothes and added, "Get dressed. Rajani will be back in a moment to ask us a few questions. Answer them honestly. Trust me, you won't be giving up any secrets."

Rajani walked back in and her eyes lit up as she saw Henry and Vicki sitting on the floor. "Ah you're both here. Good! Now we can talk."

The End

(or perhaps it is the beginning)