The sun's demise triggered the return of the vampire; his consciousness flowed back into being on the wings of the dark. As it had been for far more than a hundred thousand nights, his body arched upwards from the sheets as he was suddenly once more in residence. His lungs expanded with his first indrawn breath of the dark, his first breath of life.
He knew at once that the weight of his despair had lifted. He was aware of its absence even as his eyes fluttered open and his soul coalesced behind his gaze. His despair had vanished; his Chosen was near…his Chosen.
As the day's paralysis faded, he turned slowly to his side, curling inward around the glow of pleasure at his center; his Chosen was near. Sorting through his memories of the previous night he heard her voice again and rejoiced, she said that she would be here, when I woke. He threw back the covers and rose.
Barefooted, he crossed the room and, hitting the button on the remote, watched the stainless steel shutters that provided his protection from the day soundlessly and slowly retract, revealing to his view the blue tinged dark of the early evening. Below him, his city already glittered with thousands of lights in the new made dark.
She was here, in the city below him. The day, that was her province, had drawn to a close. Now she would join him in the night, perhaps she was on her way to him even now, amidst the twinkling lights below. Chosen, his, his Vicki, a smile flitted across his face. Memory surfaced, his beloved's face as she looked fearlessly into his eyes across his prey's shoulder, this is what she needs to see, what she needs to know. Her touch, calling him back to her when he was lost to the blood, her touch calling him back to her calm gaze when he opened his eyes to her golden visage.
Daring much, he had withdrawn his fangs and he had asked her then, Come to me. Do you wish to taste as well? To taste what it is to be vampire…and though she had refused, she had thought; she had paused to consider.
Chosen, in all his long years he had never taken one such. There had been lovers who he held dearer than life itself. There had been friends that he held forever close to his heart, but never, never in all those centuries, had he given himself to a Chosen. How had she done this? How had she taken him to such depths of despair that he had welcomed the oblivion of the dawn and then in a single night had tumbled all his barriers? He had brought her close, would bring her closer still, as close as any human could come to one of his kind, save for those who were destined for the blood, those to be made Childe, childe…child.
That thought brought another memory, an infant lying cold and dying on a bloody mattress in a Strathcona hellhole. He felt again the beast's icy fury, his own rage against the Fates who would work such an injustice on an innocent. He had, in defiance of death, breathed his own life into the human babe, had given his blood to the child, and in so doing had made another…another foundling.
His generous lips lifted in an un-repentant smile, Augustus had been very angry with him, and yet he knew that the old man would eventually come round. There were too many years between them, too much history. In spite of Corie, or maybe because of him, in the end Augustus had agreed to foster the babe.
He felt his way gingerly along the new made link, gentle, gentle, ahh, he sleeps contentedly.
The buzzing of his cell phone vibrating across the top of his night table brought him back to himself. He crossed from the window to his bed, in a blur.
"Fitzroy," he answered from long habit.
"Henry? It's Vicki. We're outside your building. Call down, will you, and tell the security guard to let us in?" Then he heard only the sound of the disconnection.
Chosen…
***
"I just wanted to give him the heads up, Coreen," Vicki said as she closed the phone, "You know, so he is prepared when we show up at his door."
"Uhh, okay," Coreen responded, "That seems kinda more formal than in Toronto but…"
"Last night, he was pretty shocked to see me and well, to tell the truth, I don't want a repeat of that performance tonight when he opens his door."
They were buzzed in through the doors of the building into the lobby and crossed to Tanya who stood at ease behind the desk.
"Vicki Nelson and Coreen…" Vicki began
"Oh yes, Vicki and Coreen," Tanya smiled. "Mr. Fitzroy just called down to say I was to let you through without a problem; he is expecting you. I guess he liked the Birthday cake eh? All is forgiven now?" Tanya asked.
"Something like that," Vicki replied. She turned to regard Coreen sternly. The Goth stood quietly with a demure smile, rocking from heel to toe, as though she were absorbed in the pattern of the floor tiles. When she looked up at Vicki's voice, her face bore an unrepentant, who me? expression. It was all Vicki could do to not laugh out loud.
***
The door of the elevator slid back and they were met by the vampire, who awaited them in the atrium, the door of his softly-lit condo open behind him.
He moved first to Vicki, leaning close with a smile and placing a kiss on her cheek. Chosen. He breathed deeply of her scent and then turned to Coreen.
"Welcome to my new home, Coreen," he smiled boyishly, and the girl literally flew into his arms.
"I'm so glad, Henry," she whispered in his ear as he held her close. "I'm so…glad."
He tightened his arms briefly in recognition of her concern, and then stepping back away, made a slight bow and motioned that they should precede him into the condo.
There were several minutes spent in the obligatory tour of the condo, and Coreen, while she made suitable noises of appreciation, was carefully observing Henry's behavior. He stayed close to Vicki, very close, in a way that he hadn't, before. It was nothing overt and yet he seemed to need her proximity somehow. Vicki, for the most part, seemed to feel the same, and Coreen noticed that she touched him more frequently. Their hips touched when they stood at the window admiring the view; her palm lay on his back when she passed by him; she laid her fingers on his forearm to attract his attention before she spoke. Yes, she touched him a lot more, Coreen thought. She could sense that something rudimentary had changed between them and she was glad…glad for them both.
The conversation was easy and light and humorous, though Coreen could feel that things were not quite the way they had been when Toronto was Henry's.
"Vicki said that you have a roof garden," Coreen said when they had returned to the living room. "It must be awesome, to have a private sanctuary like that."
"It provides a very peaceful and private retreat for me," Henry said. "And the view is magnificent; would you like to see it?"
I saw plenty of it last night. Vicki thought of the heavens pouring down their grieving tears as she had seen just what her pride and fear had wrought upon the vampire. But she smiled at Henry's enthusiasm as he jumped up and showed Coreen to the spiral stair.
Vicki had to admit, as she emerged out on to the roof under the night sky, that the cool air, the rustling of the leaves and branches, and the sweet scents of the pale blossoms were striking.
She tilted back her head and looked up to the stars, faded points of light high above in the dark, remembering once when Henry had described how they appeared to him.
She moved to the railing to look out into the heavy darkness that hung over the water, her eyesight too poor, she knew, to pick up the subtle lighting of the water's surface. When she turned her gaze to the south she could see where the arm of the shore curved outwards, brilliantly lit with the lights of the city. As she stood watching the traffic streaming across the Granville Street Bridge, she could hear Henry and Coreen's voices behind her discussing something called "Cestrum Nocturnam," the training of the vines over the trellises of the garden, and the sweet mild scent of its blossoms.
Vicki closed her eyes, inhaling the fragrances around her, her heart contracting at the sudden thought that, sooner or later I won't be able to see any of this. Sooner or later, my sense of smell will be all that I…
Drawn to her, by the change in her heartbeat, Henry's arms came around her waist as he came up behind her. This was a liberty that he might not have allowed himself in the past. She could feel his presence behind her and for a brief moment she leaned back, against his strength.
"We should go inside, Vicki. You're cold and there are a lot of things to discuss. I have a few calls I need to make."
"You're right," she said, as she turned to him and he could see it, could see the sudden hunger in her eyes. It blazed out like the beacons that flashed over the dark water and it was just as quickly shuttered. "We should go in, there's a lot to talk about."
When they were seated again in the living room, Coreen set up her laptop on the coffee table and pulled up the video from the Parker drowning, at the Toronto Aquarium. Henry rose and came around to stand behind Coreen, arms folded across his chest.
"Rajani sets the time of death at around midnight, and we know that the salt water pools at the Aquarium are the only salt water facilities locally," Vicki explained.
"And your Mr.…Parker had salt water in his lungs?" Henry asked.
"Right," Coreen confirmed. "But we've been over this security footage like a thousand times, especially from 10:00 PM through to 2:00 AM and there's…nothing."
The frustration was clearly evident in her voice.
"Play it, Coreen," Henry asked. He leaned forward, resting his hands on the sofa back, behind the Goth, his eyes intent as he watched the screen over her shoulder. He had her fast-forward. "Stop it here," he said, and then pointed to the surface of the pool. "See here, this is the reflection of the moon shining on the surface of the water. It is full." He circled the wavering round shape with his index finger. "Can you reverse it a bit Coreen?" he asked. She complied and he watched intently. "Here, stop it here." He reached out to touch the screen again, "See here, the moon is just over half full. Now fast-forward again please…and stop here again. You can see that now we are past the section where the moon was full, and the cameras are recording a little more than half moon again. I would say that this security tape…"
"Was recorded at two separate times. They had the cameras record a pre-recorded tape while they drowned Parker," Vicki exclaimed.
Henry nodded, "That would be my guess." He flashed Vicki a smile. "I would also say that this suggests…"
"Someone on the inside, with the expertise to override the security cameras," Coreen finished.
"Well now we know how they did it, thanks to the Master of Moonlight here," Vicki smiled as Henry executed a short bow.
"I'll pass this info on to Mike. And speaking of Mike, he found Orion Gaelan on the Island; he spoke to him."
So you are planning to go to Vancouver Island?" Henry asked.
Vicki didn't want to be parted from Henry so soon, but she felt that she needed to follow up and meet with Orion Gaelan.
"Yeah, I thought we'd grab the ferry first thing tomorrow morning, I know that there is another Vampire on Vancouver Island, Henry, so I guess that that means that you won't be able to…"
Henry could sense her distress and it both warmed him and caused him pain. He cleared his throat and said, "Actually Vicki, following on our conversation in regards to Gillian last night…"
Coreen looked from Henry to Vicki and then back to Henry, her dark hair flipping back and forth as she shifted her head, curious immediately and picking up on the change in Henry's inflection.
"…when I returned home, I contacted Augustus," Henry said.
"Again?" Vicki asked, "I thought he was kinda pissed off at you about the…" she cast a glance at the Goth, "about the…you know."
"May I continue?" Henry asked with a sigh.
"Please," Vicki and Coreen said as one.
"I contacted the Community and asked them to arrange for a dispensation for me to travel to Victoria. I need to call back now and see if the arrangements have been made."
"A dispensation, like from the Pope?" Vicki asked her brows rising.
"You mean like permission to enter the other vampire's city, territory, whatever?" Coreen's gaze was guileless but brimming with curiosity. Henry realized that his Chosen wasn't the only one who would be learning more about him.
"Yes, but it is more complicated than gaining permission. A diplomatic safe zone is established and agreed to by both parties. It is inside that safe zone that the visitor, in this case myself, is expected to stay, which basically guarantees that the resident and the visitor never meet. Sometimes permission is granted to hunt in the prescribed area and sometimes not. In the latter case, volunteers from the Community will usually provide."
Coreen's eyes widened at this concept, but Henry was already continuing.
"In this way our territorial issues, can be managed…" his voice trailed off. I have just disclosed more details about the lives of vampires that most humans ever know, he thought.
He retrieved his phone from his drawing table and moved towards the bedroom. "This shouldn't take too long."
Vicki and Coreen looked at one another, each lost in consideration of how different the constraints on Henry's activities were than their own.
"I'm not a fucking vampire, Your Grace. I don't need your leave to travel to Vancouver!" Vicki remembered saying the words to an overwrought Henry on the roof in the pouring rain. She was shocked now to learn how close to Henry's reality her words had been.
They could hear the soft murmur of Henry's voice from the bedroom. Occasionally a word or a phrase would come through more clearly, and once they heard him say sharply, "That is most unusual," and then a moment later, "I'm not a newborn, of course I can handle it."
A few moments later Henry returned to the living room with his phone in hand. He looked less than happy, but he said. "I have been granted permission to enter the territory of the Victoria resident."
"So why no Mr. Happy face?" Vicki asked.
Henry crossed to the window to look out over the water and Vicki was sharply reminded of seeing him stand so back in Toronto. Eventually Henry spoke.
"Adrienna Morris is Victoria's current resident; she has been there for a very long time. She is very old, nearly twice as old as me."
"So she is very powerful," Coreen interjected.
"Exactly," Henry replied. And he shifted uneasily.
I don't like where this is going, Vicki thought. Another bitch vampire to mess with Henry. What? Fucking mommy-dearest Christina wasn't enough? No, now we have to have Adrienna.
"She has granted a dispensation for me, and the Community has made all of the arrangements, pending my agreement to her two stipulations.
"Which are?" Vicki asked. I definitely don't like how on edge Henry looks.
The first is that I refrain from hunting while in her territory. This is common and to be expected, especially because our territories actually abut each other. Augustus will have made other arrangements." He paused and then, glancing at his two human companions, continued. "Her second stipulation is more unusual. She is insisting on a face to face meeting between us."
"But I thought you said the whole idea was to maintain a…comfortable distance between the two vampires," Coreen asked, puzzled.
Henry nodded and began to pace up and down, in front of the windows. "It is," he said shortly, "But apparently Adrienna has been doing a little research into her new neighbor, and to paraphrase Augustus' young assistant, she wants to scope me out."
Vicki crossed to Henry and laid a calming if somewhat possessive hand on his arm. He clasped it with his own, bringing her knuckles to his lips in an almost unconscious gesture that Coreen's sharp eyes did not fail to miss.
Vicki's nerves went into overdrive at the vampire's evident discomfort. "So this more powerful, older vampire is insisting that you submit to a face to face meeting, confrontation, whatever, when you enter her territory," she growled out. Henry nodded.
"And when is this meeting supposed to take place?" Vicki asked.
Henry breathed out a sigh. "In less than four hours time."