Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, they own me. Special thanks to Toby Whithouse and BBC3 for the playground.
Sincerest of thanks for all the enthusiastic reviews. I hope this next installment does not disappoint...
The second that Nave was out of sight, Hal relaxed. He blinked his eyes back to normal and retracted his fangs. He took a wheezy breath.
"Christ. I forgot how much that fucking hurts."
Alex, facing Tom with both their grips still firmly on Hal, pulled slightly back to look at him. He was grinning. Teeth bloody grinning.
She took a steadying breath and pulled back a little more. With ghostly adrenaline making her voice shaky, she cursed at him. "You're bloody mad. Fucking bloody mad. Jaysus, Hal," and with that she pushed off him.
"But I did persuade him to leave. Finally." There was a slight sucking sound with his words.
Tom was still gripping the vampire tightly. "Wot? You just did all that and got yourself shot on purpose? Are you mental?"
"You can let go now Tom."
Tom looked to Alex who had crossed her arms. She considered for a moment but then nodded. "Yeh. Go on."
Tom cautiously loosened his grip and Hal stepped away from him slowly. His hands reached protectively for the hole in his shirt.
"Think he got a rib." Hal lifted his shirt to look. The wound was already beginning to close and his breath was coming easier. The bullet had burned through a lung. Hal felt around to his back which was also wet with blood. "And he almost got you." He said to Tom.
Alex had known that vampires healed really fast, but she had never actually seen it. She needn't have been so tender over his damn head wound. Tom was watching him, still wary. Hal walked over to the bloodstained wall, looking for the bullet.
"So if I have this right – you weren't trying to get at his throat just now?" Tom asked.
Hal was running his fingers along the wall but he stopped to look at Tom. "Nave was going to shoot you. I can take a bullet a lot better than you can." He turned back to the wall, suddenly seeing what he was looking for. The bullet was embedded in the corner where the wood paneling met the concrete.
"Especially when the bullets are silver."
"You just did your evading-the-question thing. Wait – silver?" Throwing wariness aside, Tom went to look. Seeing the fleck of silver splintered in wood he was taken aback. "Now how could Mr. Nave have known about that?"
"He didn't," Alex had joined them in the corner, curious. Her hand came to rest on Hal's shoulder. "I watched Nave find that gun not half an hour ago in the house next door."
Mike Nave flung himself out the door of Honolulu Heights and down the walk as quickly as his feet would carry him. That thing ...he... wasn't human -
He looked back at the doorway to see if it was still after him – when he was brought to a sudden stop by someone blocking his path.
"Just couldn't leave well enough alone, now could we?" Castle had caught him firmly by both elbows. Without waiting for a response, he let go of one arm and dropped his hand into Nave's coat pocket. "I'll be taking this back, thank you." Castle slipped the pistol inside his suit jacket, and with a firm grip still on Nave's elbow he demanded, "now which one did you shoot?"
"Which? What – he came at me – he – it -"
"Yorke, then?" enquired Castle. "Well, that was a waste."
Nave, finally coming to his senses yanked his arm from the younger man's grasp. "What the hell was that?" Nave demanded. Castle merely leveled his gaze on Nave.
"That, my friend, is something very, very old." Nave looked to Castle, meeting the man's eyes, "and if you'll just come with me, I'll tell you all about it."
Nave gave a look up towards the house. There still wasn't sign of pursuit. At Nave's hesitation, John Castle asked a question.
"How do you fancy your job, Mr. Nave?"
Hal gingerly leaned against the wood paneling, feeling fatigue now that his quest for the bullet had turned up more questions. His skin had healed swiftly to stop the bleeding, but the internal damage was going to take some time yet.
Alex, on the other hand had brightened. "It could be them," she was visibly excited.
"Them who?" Tom asked perplexed.
"Them! The creepy men who stole my body!" The ghost had started to pace. "They're obviously keeping tabs on vampires and werewolves. Maybe they were using next door for that? Aren't you like, the only ones left around?"
"Certainly not," but Hal seemed to consider her previous question. "It does stand to reason that if they knew enough to clean up after the club, then they have probably come to know about silver."
"Could they really have been right next door though an' this whole time us not knowing?" Tom wondered. Looking to Hal who was seriously leaning now, he realised the vampire's bravado was fading. "Should you have a sit down?"
Hal glanced at him and then Alex before reluctantly giving an incline of his head, "That may be a wise idea." Using the wall for support he began to slide down. Tom reached out to lend him an arm.
"You're not healing?" Tom asked after getting Hal seated.
He grimaced, "Less than two pints of blood in fifty-five years. Doesn't go far apparently." Tom sat opposite, cross-legged on the floor. "Bones take longer, anyhow."
"Still faster than I'd have done. How did you know? That he had the pistol?"
Hal gave Tom a perplexed look. "Surely you must have heard it? He clicked the safety off when he was still in the corridor."
Tom shook his head. "Never had much use for guns. Didn't realize that's what it was. Knew he had it though. Is why I jumped him."
"Um - shouldn't we maybe go after him?" Alex asked, still standing.
"What for?" Tom turned to look up at her.
"In case he's in league with the Grey Men?"
"Do you really think that?" Hal asked wearily, like a professor with a troublesome student. "Quickly as he scurried off? I highly doubt it."
"Well I'm gonna look at least," she snapped at him before she vanished with a slight displacement of air.
Tom turned back to Hal. "We've got a more immediate problem. Your car wouldn't start. I'm gonna have to turn here."
Hal raised his eyebrows. "Truly? Probably shorted because you said she was old. She's sensitive, you know." The corner of Hal's mouth raised in nearly a smile before his eyes returned to seriousness. "Take the cellar."
"And what about you?"
"I'll manage, with Alex's help."
"You really back then mate?" Tom leaned forward, expectant.
"It would appear so." But he locked Tom with a deeply serious gaze." Though you shouldn't give up your guard, Tom. Ever."
"Yeah, right - I won't," Tom was grinning though and slapped Hal on the knee. "Good to have you back to ye'self. The other fella had terrible manners." Hal was about to retort but for the reappearance of Alex. She plopped right down on the floor with them, forming a triangle.
"No sign of him – not next door either. He didn't even bother to close up on his way out. How rude," and she made a ridiculous face.
"Alex – you still good for watching after Hal today?" Tom asked.
She looked to Tom. "You're gonna need the cellar eh? Since someone's car needs a swift kick," and she looked pointedly at Hal. "Where we gonna put you though? Locked in the bath?"
Hal rolled his eyes. "Being allowed back to my own quarters would be preferable." At a wary and hesitating look from Alex he added, "Look. If I wanted him dead, he would have been dead."
"Could have convinced me," Alex muttered.
"Naw. He's right," Tom looked to both of them. "We wouldn't have been able to hold him down if he wasn't stopping himself. Not after being shot. Only way to stop a determined vampire would have been to ghost him or stake him." Then Tom looked to Hal, "You were shielding me."
"And scaring the living fear of God into Mike Nave. But yes. He very well could have shot again."
"Think he'll be back after that?"
"With luck, he'll value his life more. But we can't be too cautious." Hal shifted position just enough to look up at the wall next to him, speckled with his own blood. "We better get this cleaned up. You'll claw through the wall otherwise."