A/N This fic is now rated M for scenes of non-graphic sex. See end for more notes.
TEN
"A lot of these guys aren't my friends anymore, Doc." Kate looked sheepishly down at her feet. "I did steal from a lot of them."
"That's fine. I just want you to do your best and find out what you can."
Kate nodded, pulling on her riding gloves. Helen was letting her use the motorcycle for snooping around. "Hank won't tell me what's going on, but it's pretty big isn't it?"
Helen just gave her a grim sort of nod and looked meaningfully to Kate's hand piece. "Be careful and pull out the second you feel uncomfortable."
Nikola's hand trembled slightly as he raised the bottle of wine to his lips. He didn't really remember last night, and he had a sneaking suspicion his pale friend may have had a hand in that. Aureliano, Sybarite, halispirus vampirus…able to steal memories and genetic information through breath. How much silver mist had he stolen from Nikola to spare him?
That morning when he'd woken he stumbled by a mirror to see that his eyes were still black. It took more concentration and effort than normal to hide his vampiric features.
The most damning clue of course being that today he felt more alive than he had in decades. The world seemed sharper, brighter and more colourful. His sense of smell and hearing had heightened that he could pick out every soul moving in his Sanctuary. Most of all he felt a strength and power coursing through him…he felt like he was utterly unstoppable, some primordial force of nature.
The wine wasn't doing anything to dull his senses, and he knew he couldn't hide in the dusty, dim cellar forever. But he'd wait until he didn't feel so sharp, so strong...so good…
"I think she likes you, Ubuntu." Sherman laughed as the large, female moth head-butted Ubuntu playfully (which almost knocked him off his feet) and drooled on him happily. Ubuntu tried not to grimace as he wiped the slime from his face.
"She still feels affection for me that she did for her young." He flicked the mucus from his fingers.
Kelly chewed nervously on a thumbnail as she checked the other moths contained in the back of the van. "She shouldn't be so active under the sedatives I gave her."
Sherman wasn't concerned in the slightest. "Relax, Kelly, she's not causing nay trouble. Besides, we don't want them asleep for too long once we get to the park." Sherman threw his empty coffee cup out the van window and peered into his rearview mirror. "Hey kiddo! What the hell are you doing?"
Raymond was tucked in between the (now large) soft, white-furred bodies and napping contentedly. The low, gentle hum of the moths breathing was hypnotically soothing.
Kelly glared at Sherman as she checked the last of the straps. "Leave him alone, he was scared enough coming out here."
Sherman sucked in his breath noisily, eyes concentrating on the ground. "Doc told us live fire, not stunners. Not my fault the kid's scared of guns."
"So Doctor Tesla suspects we may face some harassment from this…White Hand?" Ubuntu had been asleep in his fevered coma when the New York operatives had found the painted symbol down in the sewers. While spooky, it had fled the immediate concern of most when nothing else that was strange had occurred. Only Sherman truly grasped the anxiety Tesla was feeling and believed it.
"We're not expecting any trouble," he said calmly but like he had to explain this several times already, "we've just got to be more cautious right now."
Kelly was gently unfolding the young moths' wings and feeling gently for their muscle growth. They had been kept longer than hoped, but luckily it wouldn't disable their ability to learn to fly.
"Jess, stop fretting." Sherman chuckled from the driver's seat. She glared at him again (Ubuntu discreetly looking away from a brewing fight), and snapped, "You're being a real ass today."
"She's not smarter than you," Sherman said patiently and Kelly looked away embarrassed. She busied herself with checking the moths' pulses. She mumbled grumpily under her breath, "Of course she isn't."
Raymond opened his eye a sliver and saw Ubuntu wink at him. He winked back and closed his eyes again so he could continue pretending to be asleep and not intervene.
"Lizards and scaly stuff," Sherman gestured uselessly with his hands, "it's just not your thing."
"Uh huh," Kelly replied tonelessly.
Never knowing when to shut up, Sherman brashly went on. "Sure it was a small, stupid thing you missed, but no one else knew that snake was just shedding. We're not scientists-"
"I am a scientist," Kelly said quietly with a very dangerous edge to her voice. Raymond let out a quiet, what he hoped would be convincing, snore and Ubuntu just remained as still as possible.
Sherman sighed, his patience running out. "Jess, I am trying to make you feel better-"
"Quit trying," she snarled.
"So you fucked up!" Sherman threw his hands in the air for a brief second before slamming them down on the wheel again. "Suck it up and move on. I'm telling you it wasn't a big deal, but I need you on your game again because you moping and second-guessing yourself or busy being mat at Tesla or new girl will screw us up more." Sherman had been angrily jabbing the dashboard with his finger to punctuate the end of his rant.
Kelly opened her mouth and shut it several times, angry but speechless. She finally settled for looking away and ignoring Sherman completely, hiding her face so he couldn't see how much that had stung.
Sherman must have picked it up though, because his anger dissipated just as quickly as it had come and he was left with regret. He drove in silence for a minute, slightly bashful and awkwardly drumming his fingers on the steering wheel as Kelly tried to pretend she was still examining the moths.
Sherman finally spoke up with a too-casual, "She's not prettier than you either, if you were worrying."
Kelly sneered back with a curt, "I wasn't," but was trying not to smile. Raymond and Ubuntu met eyes again and Ubuntu just gave a slight, weary shake of his head.
"Have you been feeding the birds?"
Katie looked up, startled, from the book she was reading and saw an old woman with a plastic grocery bag for a headscarf glaring formidably down at her. Katie looked around her and saw that a crowd of pigeons, like splashes of gray and white paint, had settled around her feet and the park bench she was sitting on.
"N-No," she stammered, unsure of how to react to his woman, "I just have my coffee." She held up the paper cup to demonstrate her point.
The woman glared at her suspiciously and finally said, "Don't feed 'em, they're flying rats!" before stomping away.
Katie sat back mildly stunned and then couldn't help but laugh to herself. Welcome back, Katie – proper New York fashion. With crazies in Central Park, cabbies that try to run people over and more artisan coffee on every corner than was really necessary. She closed her eyes and felt the sun warm her face. It was insane, but it was nice to be home again even if for a short while.
There was a flutter of wings and coo's, and Katie opened her eyes to see a slender man in an impeccable pinstriped suit striding towards her. The pigeons fled into the air and it was if he had arrived in a sea of birds. She smiled wryly as Nikola Tesla settled himself down on the bench beside her.
"I was wondering when I'd get an official audience with the Head," she said dryly. He smirked, tossing one leg carelessly over the other.
"It's a constant struggle shouldering all that responsibility," Nikola began, lifting a mischievous eyebrow, "a whole team of people trying to make me do work. Ugh."
Katie took a careful sip of her coffee, trying not to laugh. "Dr. Berkel did warn me about you."
"All of it true, I hope."
"A couple more days and the shadow naga should have recovered fully from her shed. The humidity levels were really inappropriate given her condition-"
Nikola shushed her with a wave of his hand. "Don't be boring, I'm not interested in discussing Sanctuary business."
She looked at him curiously. "Then what are you interested in?"
Nikola played with the collar of his shirt, his fingertips absently skimming the surface of the EM prison nestled in the hollow of his throat. He could see everything, every tiny minutiae, including that curious genetic defect she had in her eyes…a splinter of blue amidst a sea of green. A trait so very rare, so very telling…
"Have lunch with me."
Kate sped through the streets of Old City, the motorcycle eating up miles of road beneath her. She had already dropped in on three of her old contacts, and thankfully the clip in her gun was still full. She really didn't want to have to resort to that.
No one had really heard anything of what was happening in New York apart from vague rumours. Most of the Old City goons were too concerned with being Top Dog in town to worry about broadening their interests.
But Sal (Mehndi) had let her in on that he'd been approached by a couple of no-names for a contract on boats. Boats? It seemed odd, but the way Sal had described the men made Katie's sixth sense twitch. It may have been nothing, but her gut was telling her to follow up. Sal had turned down the work, he really didn't have the right connections to make it happen anyway, but he told her the Lam Brothers were.
As Kate made her way to the marina she felt her gun grow heavy in her mind. The Lam Brothers had hired her a grand total of once before as a freelancer. She really didn't have much in the way of clout or good history built up with them, and they didn't mess around. One wrong move and they might shoot her as she walked in the door.
Kate saw the docks and parked her motorcycle a safe distance away, out of sight. She saw the marina office where one of the brothers usually were, but the marina was disquietingly empty. Where had all the boats gone? There was only one small skiff still tied up at the docks. Kate eased her gun out of her holster as she made her way down, hugging cover. Well, if no one was home…
She barely registered an orange flash when there was a hand over her mouth and a knife to her throat. Reflexively, she brought her arm up to the slide under the hold and kicked behind her. Her foot didn't connect as the attacker disappeared and then reappeared again in front of her.
Her fun in his face, Kate's mind finally caught up to her movements and stunned, she said, "John?"
He looked just as surprised as her, lowering his knife hand. "What on earth are you doing here?" He strode urgently over, taking her arm and dragging them back into cover. They had caused a bit of a commotion.
"I could ask you the same thing," she hissed, ducking low.
He said nothing but motioned her forward and together they crept up to the marina office, making sure they weren't being watched or followed. Kate gave a surreptitious glance inside the office window. "There's no one inside."
John raised an eyebrow, the news didn't put his mind at ease. "Do you get the feeling, Kate, that everything is a little…"
"…too quiet? Yeah." Kate trained her gun on the door as John hugged the side and picked the lock. There was a click of the tumblers and he pushed it open.
The first thing that hit Kate was the smell. And then she saw Wilfred Lam sprawled on the floor of his office with his throat cut. Her eyes stung and she coughed into her sleeve. "Oh man…"
John's face was grim and he held out his arm barring her from entering. "I don't think we should step inside." He scanned the room, looking for something, and then pointed to the side of the desk computer. "There."
Slightly smudged, but stark white against the black monitor was a paint-stamped handprint. John pulled out a phone from his coat and took a picture of it.
Kate's eyes were still watering and she was trying hard not to look at the slain man. "You're telling me Genius is mixed up in this mess?"
John snorted, putting away his phone and carefully shutting the door. "He's no genius." John then took Kate's arm and teleported them away from the grisly scene.
Katie noticed that he didn't eat, but nursed glass after glass of wine. Though he never once gave the hint of being drunk. He didn't seem interested at all in her credentials but kept urging her to speak about her background. Growing up in New York…why she left for school…
They were sitting at the bar of the restaurant then, Tesla nursing an expensive bottle of red, and she was idly stirring the stick of her cocktail.
Katie noticed that his eyes were unfocused, and in the dim light of the bar they looked almost black. "…you don't care at all about my exchange in the Galapagos." Katie finally said, lifting a knowing eyebrow in answer to his mock-innocent expression. "So why am I here if you don't want to pick my brain?"
Nikola sipped at his glass, not disturbed at all by the sudden turn in conversation. Casually he asked, "What do you remember of your grandmother?"
Katie stirred the cocktail stick before lifting it up and sucking thoughtfully on the end of it. "Not too much to be honest…she died when I was younger, maybe about fourteen. She was happy in Maine, but I think she missed New York. She had many photo albums and scrapbooks she liked to show me when I came to visit."
His eyes were just slivers now behind a curtain of lashes. "Do you know anything of your great aunt?"
Katie frowned slightly and chose her next words carefully. She had an idea of what he wanted to know…but she wasn't sure where this was going. "My grandmother showed me pictures of her, yes…and of my great uncle Robert. She actually has old copies of Century Magazine, some of your exploits." Katie laughed a little self-consciously. "Of course at the time I didn't know you were a vampire and very much alive."
"I was very good friends with Robert and Katharine when I first came to New York."
"I know."
He could hear her heartbeat, the near imperceptible quickening of her breath. "How did you come by your surname?"
That caught her off guard, he could see her pupils narrow. "My dad's last name is Johnson."
Nikola nodded thoughtfully, a smirk curling around his lips. "So that is how 'Kate Johnson' lives again."
The growing flush on her neck and cheeks, the warm breath and beat of her heart…Nikola could smell Katharine on her, could hear Katharine in her ribcage, and he was being driven half-mad to know if she tasted like Katharine as well.
"You have," he lifted a finger, "a pigment defect in your eye. It's a very rare genetic trait. Your great aunt had it."
Her hand went up to her eye a little self-consciously, skimming the skin underneath it. Her heart was beating a little quicker now and her cheeks glowed pinker.
"You remind me very much of her."
"The White Hand." Will dropped the case file on the table and it made a huge 'thump'. "Serious movers and shakers in South America."
"And now it looks like they're muscling in on our turf," Kate said, idly flipping through the textbook-thick document.
Will flipped to some appropriate page and spread them out so everyone gathered could see. "They may be based in South America, but their dealings are international. They're a gang with a lot of power, more like a political terrorist cell. Their end goal is to be able to dictate international policy on a global scale for the betterment of their 'nation'." He jabbed an accompanying photograph in the file. "And they bankrolled Vuarez."
Vuarez, an evolutionary biologist and abnormal that had worked with the Asuncion Sanctuary in Paraguay. He had also orchestrated the brutal murders of several young women and an explosion of the Old City Sanctuary to draw out and abduct John Druitt. He was now very much dead.
"What is their abnormal agenda?" Helen asked.
"They don't follow Vuarez's philosophy on the human-abnormal relationship. They seem indifferent about it actually, but the White Hand is very interested in technology from Praxis. Anything that can give them a military or political advantage so their claims become legitimate."
Henry turned his laptop around so they could see the recent communication he had received. "And now they're in New York." On the computer screen were the pictures of the White Hand stamp down in the sewers of Penn Station.
Helen clasped her hands together and rested her chin atop. Her eyes narrowed as she thought, busily sorting through options and also trying to determine where her instincts were leading her. Finally she looked to Kate. "Do you have any old personas that could be active in the field?"
Kate blinked, unsure if Helen was really asking her for that. Helen sensed her reticence and nodded. "Bank accounts, driver's license, passports, identification – and any digital footprint on their servers."
"Maybe," Kate said and shrugged. "Honestly, I'll have to dig around. There may be one that could still be used, but it will take a bit of time to get her re-established again."
Helen nodded. A Grim sort of smile was spreading on her face again, one that said this was not a woman you anted to get in the way of. "It sounds just fine, Kate."
Henry could feel the creeping tension and intensity building in the room and it made the hair on his arms stand up. He looked nervously at Will and mouthed, "What are they talking about?"
She had been a little nervous at first when his teeth sharpened into fangs, but he showed her how he could retract them. He whispered promises into her hair that he would be gentle, even though the hunger within him was now like a molten core of magma, threatening to take control completely.
"This is…this is kind of weird, isn't it?" She gasped as she writhed beneath him, his hand roaming the soft planes of her legs.
He was a little breathless too as she jerked off his shirt. "Yes, it's very weird. Do you want to stop?"
"No." She shook her head and pulled him down over her, hands exploring his arms and neck.
He bent down and placed a trail of kisses on the soft skin behind her ear, where the walls were thinnest and he could almost taste and feel the blood beneath. Katharine liked him to pay attention there, it always made her spine tingle. She breathed the same way, the quickening rise and fall of her chest as he warmed her.
The feel of her bare skin against his was alarming and electrifying. A lifetime ago when it was in the dim confines of his workshop there was always a barrier of shifting lace, like the moving plates of the earth's surface, evolution and change on a shattering scale. His hands shook then and it was only with her sweet urgings that he violated her marriage.
He wasn't shaking or reticent now as he touched and stroked and sucked this free woman who smelt like Katharine, and breathed like Katharine and when he looked into her eyes with that splinter of blue he saw only Katharine.
She was willing and urging for him to take her, but as the points of his teeth scraped against her neck again he felt a shiver run through her. His Katharine had been fearless, she had never been afraid of anything. He soothed this one and kissed her slowly instead to show her it was alright and make her forget her fear in the rhythmic thrusting of their bodies. Then, when she was delirious with lust and need and lost, he bit her.
His tongue swirled around the small wound on her shoulder and he could feel her body temperature rise. She liked this, she found pleasure in the sensation, and he drank from her as he pushed them forward.
Like the taste of any human, he blood exploded on his tongue like a flash of light, surging through him with the raw power of a lightning storm and he felt like screaming as the brilliance hurt as well as nurtured. There was something else too, like the lingering final note of a perfume, and it brought him back to New York, back to Central Park, back to the Wardenclyffe tower, back to the lonely tear-stained letters of friends slipping away and a grave with a woman's name.
The elemental inside its immutable cage swirled and roared with delight.
When John appeared on the rooftop of New York Sanctuary in the dead of the night, it wasn't with the expectation of running into anyone. He felt himself jump a little then when he appeared four feet in front of Nikola, who had his elbows resting on the ledge and was peering at the city. John tried to shake off the discomfort of being surprised. He didn't move as fast as he used to…
"Scare you, old boy?" Nikola chuckled, his voice deep and guttural. John approached him cautiously, taking in the changes of the other man's face. Nikola's eyes were black and glistening, his features sharper and more sunken.
John felt the hair prickle on the back of his neck…he might have been slightly dulled but he never mistrusted his gut-feelings. He leant against the roof-ledge, eyeing his companion carefully. He could see the small blue sphere nestled under Nikola's throat, the black mass inside undulating and swirling anxiously.
"It's woken up." His voice was barely above a whisper.
Nikola's eyes flashed black for a moment before settling back into their cold gray-blue. "It doesn't sleep forever."
"Are you sure that EM shield of yours protects you from everything?"
Nikola considered him coolly before answering in measured tones. "Trust me when I say I haven't given you occasion yet to say 'I told you so'."
John took a step forward, his hand snaking out to grab Nikola's shirt. "If anything happens to Helen-"
John felt something sharp pierce and break the skin on his hand. Nikola had grabbed the offending hand and his grip was like a steel vice. Black talons had shot out his fingertips and John felt his own arm shake with exertion. The little twerp was much stronger than him.
"It won't," Nikola hissed before letting go of John's hand, lip curling with disdain. He turned his gaze back to the lights of the streets below and John vanished in an orange flash.
A/N If you're screaming, don't worry! This is still a Helen/Nikola fic :)