Blood Drive Complete

by ItsClaStevOffical

I have tried over and over to upload chapters and it just will not accept them without loading code... So lets try this!

Prologue

If there was one thing Homicide detective Jane Rizzoli was sure of, it was that human beings were not the only people to roam the earth. Hiding under the guise of human form, mythical creatures lived among us.

Her first encounter with a Plasmadian (plaz-may-dee-an) had come right back when she was in uniform still, when she was a rookie cop on the beat, doing her best for the people of Boston.

When the call came over the radio to BOLO for two men wearing dark clothing and carrying what looked like a roll of carpet, she had her eyes and ears open. Thirty minutes later they ran right past her, chased by two other officers. Jane Rizzoli grew up on these streets, she knew most of them, so taking a chance, she darted off down a side street and took a sharp right. They stopped for all of a second and then ran at her. There was no time to think, no time to draw her weapon. She turned on her heels and ran for cover.

Her back had been against the wall. Two assailants had her cornered and were bearing down on her position as they desperately tried to escape the police search for them. She had her gun drawn, prepared to take a life for the first time if need be, when out of nowhere a man stepped closely to her. His presence felt warm and calming; she didn't fear him.

"Don't worry, I am here to help," he said with a devilishly handsome grin, his eyes glowing amber and gold. It was mesmerising to the rookie officer; she had never seen anything like it before. In a flash of movement, his great coat lifted into the air and he was gone.

She heard the blood curdling screams as the sounds of conflict echoed against the brick high-rise buildings that served to create the alley.

Peering into the darkness; her eyes trained on the lone figure that now casually strolled back to her.

"They won't bother you now, Officer," he said as he passed by like a shadow on the wall.

"Wait."

He stopped and turned, smiling at her.

"What did you do?"

He sniffed at the air. Walking back towards her, he leant in and inhaled her. "You are a woman of justice," he said. "A woman of honour."

"Yeah, I'm a cop."

He laughed and shook his head, "No, you're more than that." Before he could explain further, a shot rang out. He dropped to the ground, clutching at his side, and for a moment he looked as though he would pass out.

"Shit, are you shot?" She sprang around, gun aimed at the entrance to the alley. There was nobody there. "Mister? Are you…I need to call it in." She grabbed the radio and clicked the receiver. "Dispatch, this is 825. I've got a man…" She felt his touch on her arm. Her eyes followed the hand until she came to his face.

"I'm fine, I just need to…feed."

"825, this is dispatch. Can you repeat? Over."

"I'm fine, but I must…please, just take me home and I will be good as new."

She took him home and, on the way, she learned all about the people the storybooks call Vampires.

Chapter One

At nearly forty years of age, Detective Jane Rizzoli was tired. She needed something new in her life, something more than the perpetual go-around of find a victim, chase a bad guy.

The phone rang on her desk. Without even looking, she reached for it and picked it up, her eyes still trained on the images on the computer screen.

"Rizzoli."

"Ah Detective, so glad I caught you." The voice on the end of the line brought a small smile to her face. She leant back in the chair and checked that nobody else was in earshot.

"Paul, long time, no hear."

"Well, it's all relative really isn't it? Three months for you is like three hours for me." He chuckled, and her grin grew wider. "I was wondering if maybe you could organise a delivery."

"When?" She picked up a pen and hunched over the pad on her desk.

"Is tonight too soon? I'm just a little depleted since…"

She lowered her voice and cupped the handset. "Since I told you to stop killing criminals? Yeah, I imagine you are."

She could feel his smile. "I believe you said that I couldn't kill them unless they'd been tried and convicted. Of course, that makes it quite difficult to get to them."

"Ya don't say." Crowe walked into the room. If she didn't know better, she would swear he was a reptilian, but alas no. Just an asshole. "I'll see what I can arrange."

"Thank you, and please, do thank your mother. She is particularly sweet."

"Eww, get off my phone." She could hear him laughing as she slammed the phone down and shuddered. The last thing she needed was an image of her mother…and Paul.

The clock on the wall read 5:05 p.m. She didn't trust it, so she checked her wrist. 4:45 p.m. She had time if she was lucky. She texted the Doc, and then set about calling Frankie, Korsak, and Frost…and then her mother.

~R&I~

Dr Keegan Cross was as old as time, but he looked 52. And that's what his driving license said too. When Jane walked into the doctor's small surgery, she found her brother, Frankie, and her partner, Frost, already sitting in the chairs with needles in their arms, hooked up to the plastic bags slowly filling with fresh blood and plasma. What most people didn't understand, or had never been educated in, was that it wasn't the blood per se that was needed, but the plasma. Just a small part of it, made all the sweeter by the red cells that gave them their life source. White cells and platelets helped bring them the longevity they all enjoyed.

"You guys got here fast," Jane said as she slipped into the vacant seat beside them. Her sleeve was already rolled up, the vein exposed.

"We were literally around the corner, so…" Frankie shrugged. "Who called?"

"Paul," she said quickly as Keegan entered the room. "Hey, Doc."

"Good evening, Detective Rizzoli." He'd never once called her Jane. She gave up asking twelve years ago. "Thank you so much for once again organising this drive."

"Not a problem." She smiled and then winced as the needle pricked her skin and slid into the vein. Hot, rich and vibrant blood pumped into the bag. Frankie and Frost were almost done. Korsak had been held up at work and her mother hadn't yet replied, so Paul would have to make do with the three he was getting. It wasn't like they needed to feed three times a day, every day. Once a week was the absolute minimum; once a day was a luxury. Over the years, Jane and the Doc had cultivated a small group of people to take part in regular blood drives. Of course, most of them had no clue what the real reason was behind them. They just figured they were doing a good deed, and they were. The Plasmadians had turned themselves into useful members of society. They were the doctors and scientists, the innovators and explorers.

For years they had used the blood source of the underbelly, the criminals and those who behaved badly, ridding the world of their presence. In most areas of the world, they still did just that, in order to survive. But not here, not while Jane was around.

The doc came back to her, placed a small swab against her arm, and pulled the needle free. "Hold that for a moment," he said gently before walking away and adding her blood to the box containing Frankie's and Frost's. "I'll get it all packed up and ready for you." He smiled at her, and she felt that warm calming sensation flood her senses.

"Frankie, go check on Ma, okay? She didn't reply to me, just check she's alright," she said, standing and rubbing the tiny hole where her vein had bled.

"Sure, you gonna take that over now?" He nodded towards the package that Doc Cross now carried into the room.

"No time like the present. I'll see you both tomorrow," she said, taking the box from the Doc and heading straight for the door.

~R&I~

The other thing that had intrigued Jane was that most Plasmadians where very much bisexual. They had passed the need to breed; they lived each life for centuries, and breeding had become something that only happened once in a lifetime, their lifetime. So, sex was for pleasure and nothing more. Paul lived in Weston, alone for now, but many a man had passed through his bed during the time that Jane had known him.

It was an area most would agree was overpriced, but the richest suburbanites all wanted to live there. And that was true of the Plasmadians too, and why not? They'd had lifetimes of accumulating money and creating the perfect living environments. They bought houses, companies, and everything they would need as a collective, never staying longer than 15 years in one place without creating an illusion of age. Instead of dying their hair brown or red, they went grey and white. The art of make-up was learned quickly. They could give most Hollywood movie studios a run for their money with the way they could add laughter lines and wrinkles, subtle and barely noticeable. And with money, they could pretend they'd gone under the knife, but eventually people around them became too old to hide among, and so they would move on, someone else taking their place.

That was how it had happened with Paul. He had arrived thirteen years ago, replacing Ralph. Losing Ralph had been hard on Jane. He had shown her their world, protected her, and been a stable man in her life for nearly four years, but his time in Boston was up, and he was moving on to pastures new: an assignment in Rome that he was looking forward to. He emailed now and then, and once she had even gone to the homeland to visit him.

Paul was different to Ralph. It took a while for Jane to warm to him the way that she had done with Ralph, but in time, she learned that just like people, Plasmadians where all unique, and Paul grew on her.

The electric gates swung open slowly, and she edged her car forward until they were wide enough for her to just drive through, her headlights sweeping the drive as she took the bend that led up to the big house. She slowed as she noticed another car parked to one side, a sleek stretch limo with tinted windows and a driver whose eyes followed her. She pulled in and climbed out, her long legs taking the steps two at a time.

As usual the door opened before she reached it. The housekeeper, Mrs Didcot, smiled and welcomed her in, ushering her straight through to the kitchen. She took the package without a further word, and as Jane poured herself a coffee, she heard the cough from behind her as Paul got her attention.

She ignored him, as she usually did, and continued with pouring the coffee. It was hot, rich, and expensive, and Jane knew she would enjoy every mouthful just like she enjoyed the first. The moan that left her lips after the first taste was almost erotic.

"God that is good," she said, finally turning to find Paul standing in the doorway, just staring at her. "What?"

"Nothing, I just hoped you weren't wearing…" He held out a palm face-up so as to allude to what she was indeed wearing.

Looking down at herself, she frowned. "What's wrong with what I am wearing?"

"Nothing, nothing at all if you're just running around the streets of Boston chasing…" He stopped and inhaled a deep breathe. "It won't do for…Oh, just come with me." He turned abruptly and left the room.

"If I was you, I'd follow him," Mrs Didcot said, "We have a very special guest, it's an honour really that she's here."

Intrigued, Jane took one more sip of her coffee, placed the mug down, and moved towards the door. "I'll be back…for that." She pointed at the cup.

She found Paul waiting for her outside of the great room. He paced nervously, and it amused her.

"Why are you pacing around like a schoolboy whose crush just walked past him?"

He stopped and faced her. "I am not." His indignance even more amusing. He rolled his neck. "She is here."

"Who?"

"Who, she asks." He ran a hand through his hair and laughed. "The most important woman in the Plasmadian kingdom. The Queen of the Undead," he said in a hushed tone.

Jane gasped. "The freaking Queen? In there?" She pointed to the doors.

"Yes, and she wants to meet you."

"What? Why?"

"She heard about the blood drive…and now she wants to thank you personally."

"Fuck…I'm not dressed to meet the Queen," she said, looking down at her crumpled suit.

There was a soft giggle from behind them. "Why, you could always take it off and meet me naked."

Jane spun around to find a woman who looked to be her own age, but she knew was probably centuries old. She was beautiful, with hazel eyes that shimmered gold at her and held her gaze. Jane bowed, her cheeks flushing red. "Your Majesty."

There was that laugh once more, more solid this time. Hearty and real. "That's quite charming, but firstly, I am Queen of the Undead, and you Detective, you look very much…alive."

Chapter Two

Mrs Didcot served dinner. The Queen of the Undead insisted that Jane join them. Rare steaks were served alongside mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables. It was odd, Jane thought, how she had never really considered whether they ate like human beings. Of course they would; she internally berated herself for being so obtuse. In reality they were as human as she was. They had a heart and lungs, and every other working organ. It was just that they never decayed. Their aging process was so slow that one might live a thousand years before they began to feel old. Plus of course, they had the ability to regenerate somewhat, so as long as they could feed, they would continue to live unhindered. So, like sex, they ate for pleasure and not necessity.

She watched surreptitiously as the Queen cut into her steak, delicately dissecting it before popping the smallest morsel into her mouth and chewing as though she had just been given the most delectable dish ever to be served.

"I wanted to thank you, Detective Rizzoli," she said the moment she swallowed. Jane's eyes moved quickly from her neck back to her face and found her smiling at the interest.

"Well, really there's nothing to…"

The Queen cut her off. "I disagree, I think there is much to thank you for." Her eyes sparkled gold and held the detective's darker gaze. "Maybe one day you might let me show our…appreciation?"

"That's really not…" A quiet cough from across the table stopped her speaking. Paul was glowering at her. Clearly you didn't turn down the Queen. "I mean, that would be wonderful and all but, I know you must have more important things to be concerned with."

The Queen placed her knife and fork down, wiped the corner of her mouth with the starched, white napkin. "A decorated detective helping my kind to exist peacefully in a world of so much intolerance for your own kind, never mind mine…I think that is very worthy of my concern."

"Well, if you insist, then I would be honoured to enjoy anything that you came up with."

A smirk appeared almost instantly on the Queen's cheek. "Anything?" She winked playfully and laughed gently as the blush rose on Jane's cheeks. "Maybe lunch one afternoon this week?"

"I will look forward to it."

~R&I~

Trying to concentrate the following day was impossible. Every time there was a quiet moment, Jane found herself drifting off to thoughts of the Queen. That in itself felt completely at odds with everything that Jane stood for. Not once, ever in her entire life, had anyone's status and title meant anything to her. She didn't buy into all that crap that someone had a right by birth to look down on you while you bowed and curtseyed, and yet, there was something about the Queen that made her consider how much she might enjoy bowing down to her.

She was happy to admit that she was a little smitten with the woman. Then she reminded herself that this wasn't just any women, regardless of how good she had looked in that fancy designer dress. She was a Plasmadian, and Jane wasn't. That got her thinking about it: did humans and Plasmadians ever hook up? Was it possible, did they even have the same body parts? Now she was intrigued more than ever, but it wasn't quite the over-coffee chit-chat one could have with someone, was it?

It was Wednesday when a text came through on a number Jane didn't recognise.

It was an offer to pick her up out front at 1 p.m., but she knew instantly who it was from and found herself smiling, checking her watch every fifteen minutes. Before she knew it, she was heading down the steps two at a time to a waiting Mercedes.

The sexy sports car fit well with the occupant of the driver's seat. She wore tight-fitting blue jeans and a short black leather jacket over something white that was low cut, and she smelt divine. Jane felt almost dizzy in her presence.

"Do you have this effect on everyone?" Jane blurted the minute she had her belt buckled.

The soft chuckle sounded like music serenading her senses. "And what effect would that be, Jane?" She pulled the car out from the kerb and into the traffic.

There had never been a time when Jane Rizzoli couldn't think on her feet, get herself out of an embarrassing situation or just change the subject, until now. Now, it didn't seem to matter what she thought in her head; she blurted something else out instead.

"That you're kinda hot and sexy and make me wanna get naked." She threw her hand over her mouth instantly to stop the words from continuing to tumble out. She felt suddenly hot, aroused and feeling like she knew this woman intimately.

"I see, maybe we should start with my name first and then see how things go before we get…naked." She spoke in all but a whisper, licking her lips as she chanced a quick glance at the beet-red detective in the passenger seat.

Jane just nodded. Not trusting herself, she kept her palm in place over her mouth.

"Maura, Dr Maura Isles." The Queen had a name.

"Bootifool," she mumbled out from behind her fingers. "Oh come on, this is crazy!" she finally shouted as her hand moved through her hair. "Why am I unable to keep my thoughts to myself?"

"I like it," Maura said as she turned the wheel into the kerb and parked the car outside of the best Brazilian restaurant in Boston. When she cut the engine, she twisted in her seat to face Jane. "Most people do not say what they really feel and think when they are in my presence. Most wouldn't dare, and the others think I don't want to hear it, but a few, just a few, are able to push past the barrier. It's a gift, Jane, and one that I shall explain more in-depth later. But for now, please know that you can say absolutely anything you wish and I will not be offended. I am not your Queen, Jane." And with that, she climbed from the car, leaving Jane feeling somewhat normal again. The haze of lust had gone in an instant.

Chapter Three

"They call us the Undead, which of course is ridiculous." She laughed heartily and reached across the table to take Jane's hand in her own. Warm flesh, and something more, something electrifying wound its way through Jane's fingers and up her arm, into her chest. "Do I feel dead to you, Detective?"

"No, you feel just perfect, so soft and..." Jane said, before pulling her hand away and groaning. "Okay, this is just…this has to stop."

Maura chuckled and picked up her wine glass. Contemplating her next words, she took a sip of the deep burgundy liquid. "It's called Consciousness, at least that is what we call it. For you I imagine it's lust. A simple physical and sexual need that you humans have. For me, it's a little more complicated, it's a…" She thought better of it, smiling as she added. "I find you deeply attractive also, Detective Rizzoli."

Rizzoli's cheeks reddened, but she didn't feel the need to brush the compliment off like she would have if anyone else had said it.

"We are not dead, we are very much alive, as you are, the difference being that we have a slightly different molecular structure that allows us to age much more slowly and to regenerate. But we could all very easily die without a source of…nourishment. Blood carries particular enzymes that react with our circulatory system to ensure that we continue to flourish. And of course, a stake through the heart would kill pretty much anyone." She winked playfully again.

Looking down at her plate, Jane had a sudden realisation. "Oh God, I'm eating garlic."

Now when Maura laughed, it was loud. Her head tossed back and when she finally looked at Jane, there was such mirth in her eyes that Jane couldn't help but laugh along too.

"My dear detective, we outgrew that a long time ago. It affects us no worse than the common cold. Oh, and holding a cross near me won't protect you, and daylight? Well, here we are." She held out her palms and let the sunshine that seeped in from the window drift across her skin. "Stuff of fairy tales and nonsense. But makes for a better story, doesn't it?"

Jane nodded, thankful for the explanation. She was already aware of it from discussions with Ralph and Paul over the years, but hearing it from Maura's lips made it sound a whole lot more enticing.

"Do you have sex like humans?" She dropped her head in embarrassment at the realisation of speaking without thinking again. "Sorry, so not appropriate."

Smiling, Maura reached for her hand again. "I am also sorry that my presence is having this effect on you." She considered the dark-haired detective. She was strikingly gorgeous. "I haven't ever had it happen this quickly or so…" She thought for the word. "Intensely."

"What is it?"

Glancing at her watch, Maura smiled. "Another time, right now I need to be somewhere. Can I drop you back at the station? It's on my way."

"Sure, I'd like that."

The ride back was quiet, and Jane was thankful that her mouth had spared her any further blushes. But when Maura pulled up outside of the station steps, it was a different story.

"I'd like to see you again," Jane said suddenly. "Because, I really do think you're just…" She clamped her hand over her mouth again, much to Maura's amusement.

"I think that's a given, Detective. My appointment is with the governor, I believe I shall be working alongside you very shortly."

"I hope that works out well."

~R&I~

A quiet week was soon interrupted by a gruesome murder in Southie. Rizzoli and Korsak took the quickest route and found themselves parked up near a derelict building, an old warehouse long ago vacated and now used by vagrants, users, and the odd hooker who had no place else to turn a trick.

"Dispatch said it was a stabbing, but I heard from Frankie it's a lot worse," Korsak said as they climbed out of the car. Jane looked around and spotted the ME's van in the far corner.

"I guess we should go and find out," she said, turning towards the tape and the officer guarding it. "Victor 825," she said as she passed under. "Detective Rizzoli."

He scribbled the information down on his clipboard and waited for Korsak's details. "Victor 987, Sergeant Korsak," he grumbled, turning up his collar as the rain began to spit and roll down his neck. "Wait up, Rizzoli."

Jane stopped her fast-paced stomp and turned to face him, growling with an impatience that she didn't quite understand. "Come on, Old Man."

When they reached the scene, she understood the reason for her urgency. The magnetic pull that had drawn her in this direction wasn't that of the corpse or the need to find justice. It was the sparkling gold eyes that reflected in her direction and settled on her throat. "Maura," she all but whispered, awestruck at the queen's presence.

"Detective Rizzoli, how lovely to see you so soon. Come, join me." She beckoned her with fingers that curled in slow motion. Jane's gaze struggling to look anywhere but her. When she was within three feet of her, she suddenly stopped, awareness creeping into her that this was close enough, unless she intended to embarrass herself with random outpourings of sexual desire for the woman. Noticing the abruptness with which Jane stopped, Maura smiled and pondered for a moment. "Yes, probably wise." She smirked and looked away towards the prone corpse. "Male, fifties, well-dressed. This suit alone cost over $5000. The shoes are Italian leather and custom. He has significant lacerations to the abdomen, hands, and chest area, with a significant puncture to left ventricle."

"Sounds like the same thing that happened over in Dorchester last week," Jane said, crouching down to examine the body further. "Did he bleed out?" The pool of blood around him was extensive, and the colour of his skin was extremely pale. When she looked up, she found Maura's own colour drained from her face. "Maura?" She automatically moved closer to the new ME, instantly feeling a sadness overwhelm her. The urge to reach out and wrap her arms around the smaller woman was palpable. Instincts told her to step away, but her eyes held firm until she broke contact to glance around. Out of earshot from anyone, she whispered, "One of yours?"

"The victim, or the killer?"

Wide-eyed, Jane said, "Either."

"I think…there is a high possibility that the marks on the left side of the throat will be bite marks, yes."

"Shit," Jane said, raking a hand through her hair and getting her fingers caught in the tangles. "Are you sure?"

"Until I get the body back to the lab, then no, I am not sure, and neither am I prepared to guess. But I may need your help, Detective." She glanced around once more, taking a step closer to Jane. The intensity of sadness overwhelmed Jane once more. "I have come here for a reason, Jane. This is not the first victim, and if I am right, then we must stop him."

"Him?"

Maura nodded. "Yes, Charles Hoyt." She touched Jane's arm, and the electricity that passed was enough to cause Jane to whimper. "He's one of mine, Jane, and we must stop him. Before it's too late to hide us anymore."

Chapter Four

Jane swung herself up onto the empty steel table on the opposite side of the morgue to where Maura stood. Dressed in black scrubs, she hovered over the body and began the ritual of autopsy.

"Tell me about him," Jane said, and Maura knew instinctively that she wasn't talking about the corpse on the table. "What's he like?"

Maura placed the scalpel down and switched off the recording device. Her eyes filled with tears as she looked up at Jane. "He's my brother," she began, "Well, by name and law, not blood. We formed a kinship as children. Both of us wanted to become doctors. We knew our place in the world, adopted into the clan, but my birth was a royal one and his was not. It didn't matter, we played as children and formed a bond that lasted into our teenage years and then…" She closed her eyes, her head shaking slowly. "I don't know, he just went off the rails."

Jane grinned, and the huge dimples that appeared threw Maura off track too.

"What? Why are you laughing?"

Jumping down, Jane took a step forward, then another, and stopped when she felt the wave of attraction hit her. "It's just, okay…you're like these superior beings who can live forever and then, you have the same issues as us. Teenagers with an attitude, mixing with the wrong crowd."

"Only our teenage years are tenfold longer than yours." Maura smiled herself now. "It was the longest period of my life, so much confusion and learning to do."

"You turned out okay," Jane said, smiling shyly. "More than okay really, I mean look at you, you're stunning and so intelligent and just…" She stopped mid-sentence, stepping back. "Anyway, please, go on…about Hoyt."

"Charles failed his exams. I mean, it didn't matter in the long run, he could take them again, over and over for 50 years and still pass for 21. But something about it rocked him. His confidence, his ego. He became unruly, started to hang out with the discards."

"The what?"

"The discards…Plasmadians that have been banished for one thing or another. No longer protected by the cell. They're on their own. On the whole they cause mischief, but now and then one will cause bigger problems, and we are forced to eliminate them."

Jane's brows rose instantaneously. "Seriously?"

"Yes. We cannot risk it. We have lived peacefully amongst you all for hundreds of years now, because you don't believe we exist. We're a fairy-tale, a nightmare for horror movies. If people really knew we existed, how long do you think it would be before we were hunted? Became trophies, or worse, experimented on?" She shook her head once more. "We couldn't let that happen. It would be a bloodbath, and we would be victors in such a fight."

"But…you don't want that? To be all powerful and rule over everyone?"

"No, God, I can barely deal with being Queen of the Undead, imagine the hassles of taking on humanity too." She smiled. "Charles, however, has a God complex. He has no regard for the demands and conventions of society, yours or ours and…"

One brow rose over a warm brown eye that reached into Maura's soul like a stake that had been thrust so hard it penetrated even the hardest of hearts. "And?"

Maura chuckled derisorily. "Charles suffers with a blood lust." Their eyes met and held. "The irony is not lost on me. He takes pleasure is draining a soul of its life source, or torturing defenceless human beings."

"How long?" Jane asked solemnly, her head tilting to one side as she tried to capture Maura's eyes with her own once more. When it finally happened, when gold latched onto the depths of brown across the room, Jane felt something she had never experienced before. Love, pure and untouched by anything or anyone else. Love that was meant only for her, and she knew that, instinctively. She felt it.

"In your years? 82. He has murdered hundreds across the decades and the lands. His apprentices are helping him. The discards look to him as their king."

Jane rubbed at her face. The feeling from before was now gone, instantly. "Jesus, 82 years and nobody has caught him?"

"Once, just after the…after your war in the 40s, we had him surrounded and he came willingly. That was my mistake and I take full responsibility. I stupidly believed that with our shared history he would just…"

"Do as you asked?" Jane said, smiling sympathetically at her.

"Yes," she nodded. "Ridiculous, right?"

"A little naïve, I guess." Jane nodded towards the table. "And this is his latest victim?"

Maura nodded.

They remained silent, both lost in their own thoughts. The world around them seemed to just disappear, and Jane was very aware of a loud clock ticking somewhere. She looked up and found Maura staring at her, her eyes shining, gold and watery. She was breathing deeply, her line of vision firmly on Jane's neck as her chest heaved up and down with every deep breath. Her lips parted and for a fleeting second Jane was convinced that she saw fangs. And it didn't scare her. The way that Maura was looking at her was…sexual. It gave Jane a thrill.

"Maura?" She finally pushed the name from her lips. "What happens if I touch you?" She stepped forwards, the gap between them smaller now, and the urge to take another step was palpable. She could feel herself being physically drawn to the woman. She knew that Maura was aroused, that she was wet for her. Only her.

"Then you'll be mine, Jane," Maura said, taking a step back. Distancing herself. "For eternity, all mine."

Chapter Five

Casper Weinberg was who Jane should be focused on. Instead, all she could think about was Maura. What had she meant by all hers and for eternity? She banged her pen against her teeth while she pondered that. She could do that now; think. While Maura wasn't in the room it was easier, but something was different.

That first night they'd been introduced, Jane had felt the usual stirrings of interest and not much else. Over lunch, when Maura had touched her, it had sent an electric wave of arousal through her, and she had felt somewhat inclined to just spout out all that she was thinking. But now, as each day passed, it was getting stronger, this consciousness.

Even now, with Maura three floors below her, she could feel it: the need. It was urgent and passionate. If she sat very still, she could swear she could feel Maura's hands all over her, her breath on her neck, fangs gently scraping while she waited…what was she waiting for?

"Hey, Janie. Found anything?" Frankie said, hovering over her desk as he tried to grab a Twinkie.

"Huh? What?!" She blinked several times until he came into focus.

His eyes were narrowed and his brow furrowed. "You okay, Jane?"

"Yeah," she said, fidgeting in her seat. "Yeah, what did you say?"

"I said, did you find anything? You've been searching the computer for an hour now…get a lead?"

Her eyes moved to the screen and to the page she had been reading. "Yeah, he uh…" She needed to get a grip. "Librarian, he worked at the BPL."

"Wanna go down and ask around?"

The idea of leaving the building was a good one. The further away from Maura she seemed to get, the more she could concentrate. "Yes. Let's go."

~R&I~

Over 160 years old, the Boston Public Library wasn't that old in comparison to Boston's rich vein of history, but it was a building worth admiring.

It was an architectural masterpiece with its huge stained-glass windows and archways. The detail in the ceiling and the marble staircase made BPD look positively grim. "Some place," Frankie said in awe as they climbed the steps and took it all in.

"Yeah, I wonder if Maura's been here," she pondered aloud.

"I guess, she seems the type."

"Yeah, must have been some place when it was being built."

"You like her, don't you?" Frankie asked with a knowing grin forming.

Jane stopped mid-step and faced him. "Yes, I do. And yes, like that…I like her like that," she said before he asked and embarrassed them both.

He shrugged and carried on up the steps, calling over his shoulder, "That's cool, Janie."

"Yeah, I don't think I'm being given a choice," she mumbled so only she could hear.

She took the last few steps two at a time and met Frankie just as the head librarian came out of her office. She took one look at them and smiled. "Detectives?" Jane held up her badge. "Why don't you come with me, where we can talk more privately?"

When they were safely ensconced inside her office, Jane asked, "What can you tell us about Casper?"

"He was just a lovely man. We're all very shocked here, of course. Casper was your average, friendly…"

"Ghost?" Frankie quipped and received a glare from both women. "Sorry."

"As crass as that joke might be, it was true. Casper was always helpful. He absolutely loved his job; he had a real passion for the Renaissance and the early history of Boston. The colonial era especially."

"And there was nobody that you can think of who would want to hurt him?" Jane asked.

She shook her head. "No, Casper spent all of his time here, down in the vaults with all the ancient texts that we can't display. He was putting a book together about mythical Boston."

Jane felt her hackles rise and goosebumps surge across her skin. "Can we take a look?"

~R&I~

The mansion in Weston was quiet when Maura arrived back. She found Paul lounging in the summer room, his head resting easily against a velvet cushion as he caught up with the news on his tablet.

She coughed politely, alerting him to the fact that she was there, and wondered how he hadn't heard her. Their hearing was so much sharper than that of humans.

He jumped to his feet. "My Queen." Bowing, he kept bent low until she spoke.

"Paul, please. This is your home, I am a guest; therefore you do not need to bow every time I enter a room. It's going to get very tiresome, don't you think?" She smiled and took a seat on the couch opposite him.

He tilted his head in her direction. "Whatever your majesty desires, of course." He reached for the decanter and held it up to her. When she nodded, he poured a generous glass and brought it over to her, placing it down on the silver-plated coaster beside her.

"Thank you." She reached for the glass and took a sip while he took his seat again.

When he was comfortable, he spoke. "I sense that something is on your mind?"

She smiled appreciatively. "You have always been very good at reading people, Paul." She breathed deeply and then exhaled. "Yes, something, or more, someone."

"Ah, our dear friend Detective Rizzoli. Quite the looker."

"Yes, she is somewhat attractive." She chuckled and took another sip. "I…it's there…between us, I feel it very strongly with her."

He sat forward, paying more attention. "The consciousness? With a human?"

She nodded. "Yes, that's never happened before. It's always been…one of us."

"I see, does she know?"

She shook her head, "No, I fudged the truth a little. She noticed it, of course she did. I explained it as similar to lust."

He laughed. "Well, yes. That is definitely part of it."

"Yes, and I have to say that it's becoming harder and harder to ignore the urge to…"

"You should take her. Make her yours, it's your right after all," he said, sitting back and sipping his drink some more.

"No, she has to come willingly. She has to offer it to me. I'll wait."

Chapter Six

Charles Hoyt lingered in the doorway, half-hidden by the shadow of a sun that was dipping low into the horizon and the hood that covered his head. Emanuel had returned to the lair and informed him of a couple of nosey detectives sniffing around. It wasn't the first time and surely wouldn't be the last, but he was intrigued with this one. There was something about her, something that pulled him towards her.

Over the decades and centuries of his being, only eight souls had ever drawn him like this, all of them now gone. He didn't like the way that he was naturally joined by the universe to another, especially a mortal soul like this one. He wanted to be beholden to nobody, and had taken pleasure in removing them from any further attachment. But it had been a while, a long time in which his only pleasure had come from simple kills. Nothing was more exquisite to him than a consciousness connecting. Killing a consciousness was more than just taking a life. It was snuffing out a desire. The very thing that Plasmadians lived for.

She turned in his direction, as though sensing him. Her eyes boring into the darkness and finding nothing but bricks and mortar, she turned away. Yes, he would enjoy killing this one. He just needed a chance.

~R&I~

Maura Isles closed her eyes and fought the urge to just leave. Her mother, the woman who had raised her and Charles, had informed her that she would be visiting now that Maura was settled in. Their relationship was good on the whole, but there had been a few decades where things hadn't quite been so comfortable between them. Mainly those where Charles was heading off the rails and her mother didn't want to acknowledge it.

Charles was the blue-eyed boy her mother always wanted. And Maura had no issues with that; it meant that she was free to come and go as she pleased. She could study and enjoy life without her mother's interference or disapproving eye. Charles revelled in it, mostly. But then something changed in him, and his indifference to their mother became hurtful and upsetting. At that point, it was Maura who Constance turned to. And ever since, their relationship at grown. But now, with Charles out there running amok with the discards, the last thing she needed was her mother being here. Of course, then there was Jane also. Her mother would see it, sense it and try to force it. How often had she told Maura that it was time to settle down once more?

She opened her eyes and avoided the images of Ian as he fell, a battle that had raged throughout Europe taking him from her. The last 80-odd years felt like a mere eight. She still missed him. There had been many to warm her bed at night, but none who had woken the consciousness quite like Ian had – or now, Jane Rizzoli.

She smiled to herself as the feelings overwhelmed her. Jane was close by. Her heart beat faster at the knock on the door. "Come in," she commanded, and the door swung open. Darkness walked in with a confidence and swagger than only made Maura want to rise up, fly across the room, and take her. "Jane." She said the name as she exhaled, their eyes connecting.

Rizzoli subconsciously brought a hand to her throat, touching the skin there reverently, stroking back and forth as she fought to control the urge to…she didn't know what she was fighting. Part of her wanted to back out and close the door, put distance between them. But the other part, the part that was winning, wanted to undress, kneel before her and…

"Jane, how can I help?" Maura's voice cut through the fog.

"I…don't know. I came to ask you something and now, I find myself…" Maura's eyes flicked to her neck, her tongue travelling across her lip so slowly that it almost hypnotised Jane.

"Tell me," Maura urged. "Tell me, Jane." She took a step forward and witnessed Jane shiver. "I can help, but only if you tell me what you want."

Jane's eyes closed, her head naturally tilting to one side as Maura neared. "I want…"

The bang on the door made them both jump apart. Rizzoli shook herself. The haze fell away in an instant, but her gaze couldn't ignore it as Maura's tongue licked the sharp fang. "Maura, what the hell is happening to me?"

Before Maura could say a word, the door opened. Frankie's head popped in through the opening. "Jane, we got a body on the South Side."

"I'll get my bag," Maura said. Turning away from the siblings, she calmed herself and ran her tongue across her teeth. How much longer could she do this?

Chapter Seven

For three days, Jane kept away from the morgue, sending her brother, or anyone, down there to deal with anything death-related. It wasn't that she didn't want to see the new ME, the Queen, because she did. This burning need inside of her was spreading and sending waves of arousal and thoughts that she hadn't ever encountered with anyone else before. But it was impeding the investigation, and now they had two bodies. Emanuel Gonzales had been found in a dumpster behind an old warehouse. Just like Casper Weinberg, he was pale. Drained of the life blood that once coursed his veins. The difference this time was not bite marks to the neck, but a single puncture wound to the heart. Initially, he hadn't been considered a link to Casper. It was only Maura's keen eye that noted the subtle signs of a Discard.

Jane couldn't concentrate when she was within 10 feet of the woman.

There was something else knocking at the back of her mind. It was something that usually she wouldn't need to contemplate, but now, her mind felt like it had been fogged for the last 48 hours, and only now was it beginning to clear enough to think more clearly.

"Hey, Frankie? Remember when we were at the library, down in the vault?"

Frankie leant back on his chair and shoved a pen into his mouth like a cigarette. "Yeah, creepy as fuck."

Jane nodded; it had been. "What did the curator say Casper was working on?"

Frankie sat up, scratching the back of his head as he searched his desk for his notes. "Uh…mythical Boston."

Her eyes rolled and she stood up so fast the chair fell backwards, clattering to the floor. "How the hell? Come on, we need to read whatever it is that he was reading."

She hadn't taken more than three steps when she came to a halt and looked at the elevator. The number on the illuminated sign that signalled which floor the car was on was rising. "Let's take the stairs," she said hurriedly, moving toward the far side of the room. Her heart was beating faster, and her feet felt like glue as she tried to get as far away from the Queen as she physically could. Her palm pushed the door to the stairwell just as the ding announced the arrival.

Frankie chased after her. "Janie, hold up, will ya?" She was already down two floors by the time he took the first flight. "What's got into you?"

"Nothing, I just need a clear head," she shouted back as she continued down the concrete steps.

"It's Maura, right?" he said as they reached the bottom and came out into the foyer, both of them ignoring their mother's erratic waving as she desperately tried to gain their attention. "I've never seen you like this."

Jane stopped and pushed him into a quiet space. "Yeah. I dunno what she does to me, but…I can't think when she is around. And I need to think. Casper deserves that."

"So, what are we doing now?"

"I wanna see what mythical story he was researching. Read it properly. Maybe it holds a key?" She stepped back, and they continued walking towards the car lot.

"Alright, what can I do?"

Jane sighed and opened the car door. "Keep Maura away from me."

~R&I~

Korsak spun around, his eyes searching the room for Jane and coming up empty. "I swear, she was here a minute ago," he said, smiling amiably at the new ME.

Maura glanced casually around the room herself. She already knew that Jane wasn't here. She felt her leave as much as she could feel her arousal. "Never mind, it wasn't…important. I'll leave the findings of the Gonzales case on her desk. Maybe you could ask her to pop down when she isn't quite so…busy?" She was aware completely that Jane was avoiding her. Not that she could blame her; it was a daunting thing, to be consumed with the consciousness. She needed to fully explain it, so that Jane could make a righteous decision.

"Sure, of course, Maura."

He watched the beautiful woman turn and walk towards the elevator. But then she stopped and turned towards the stairs, her heightened sense of smell leading her to follow after Jane's scent.

When she was gone, Korsak pulled out the phone from his pocket and sent a quick text. Maura wants you asap.

~R&I~

She deleted the message as soon as she read it. Maura could want her all she liked; she wasn't getting her. It was too…intense, too…consuming. She couldn't breathe when Maura was around.

They'd been escorted down to the vault, provided with white gloves and strict instructions on how to treat the books they needed to read. Frankie had Casper's notes, while Jane read through page after page of myths and fairy tales. Most of it she had heard herself in playgrounds and bars. Halloween was especially good for bringing forth a good story or two. It was getting late and both siblings were struggling to stay away awake.

"I don't get it. There is nothing really that interesting here," Frankie said, closing the notebook. "I mean, he has hundreds of little comments and page markers, but nothing stands out."

"What are you expecting, the killer is…." She raised her palms in disbelief. "Come on, Frankie. You know it could be any tiny little thing."

He puffed out his cheeks and opened the pages again.

"It says here that before time began, two were born of one. Yin and Yang. Dark and light. They were the chosen ones. The ones who would lead the Plasmadian to victory," Jane read aloud. "Imagine being chosen like that, no say in it, just this is who you will be?"

"Yeah, not sure I'd want that." He flicked through some pages. "I think he had notes on that though, it sounded familiar." Jane waited as he searched. When he finally found it, he read, "QM and KC? Too much coincidence."

"What does that mean?" She let her gloved finger scroll down the page further and read. "Torn apart at birth. The offspring raised in separate bodes until fate brought them back together, unknown to each other."

Frankie's face said what she already thought. "I don't get it. So, they were born, then separated and then returned, but they don't know it?"

"Wait, then it says, she of the above, him of the below."

"That is creepy as shit. But what does it have to do with Casper's death, and now this other guy?!"

She shrugged. "I dunno, but something about it just…" She checked her watch; they'd been here over 5 hours. "Come on, let's call it a day."

Chapter Eight

Maura paced the length of the great room. The fireplace crackled into life, but it had no bearing on her self-regulating internal thermostat. She was already boiling, with anger. Jane was ignoring her, avoiding her at all costs, and it irked her, but more than that, it physically hurt. The pain of a consciousness turning their back, putting distance between them, it was painful. Everything ached.

Of course, she understood why Jane would do such a thing, but she didn't have to like it! What she did need to do was take her mind off of it, somehow.

Grabbing her bag, she exited the room, calling out to her host. "Paul, I'm going out, don't wait up." With that, she was out of the door and into her car. The leather seats wrapped around her. Carmen blared from the windows of the sports car as she shifted into gear and sped down the drive, barely waiting for the gates to open as she squeezed the car between the wrought iron gates and almost hit a car as she rounded the first bend.

Distance, that was what she needed. She had to remove herself from anywhere near Jane Rizzoli and get some respite from this continued yearning. She sped up, hitting 50, then 60 as she took turn after turn. Only when the constant buzzing of her phone drove her to distraction did she pull over. Closing her eyes, she took several deep breaths before reaching across to the passenger seat and grasping for the phone.

Six missed calls, all from the same number.

"Just what I need," she mumbled, pressing the buttons that would dial the number. It answered on the second ring.

"Darling, where are you? I just got here and Paul said you left in a hurry."

"Mother. Yes, I'm…I'll be back shortly."

"Wonderful. It's been eons since I saw you last." Her mother's voice had softened over the years. Long gone was the stern matriarch of her childhood, though they would often still clash now and then, mainly over Charles.

"It's been eight months, Mother. Which to us is barely a week at most," Maura said, but she couldn't help the small smile that forced her lips upward. At least her mother cared enough to miss her. "I'll be right there. Tell Paul to entertain you."

"Oh, Darling, he already is."

Maura rolled her eyes and disconnected the call. She was about to drive off when her phone beeped.

Jane: Hey, I'm not ignoring you, I just can't with you right now.

Maura: I don't understand what that means.

Jane: It means, I dunno, Maura. When I am around you, I can't think straight, all I can do is think about…look, I just need some time. I am reading some really interesting shit that Casper was working on.

Maura: Okay, that's fine, Jane. Let me know if you discover anything worth knowing.

~R&I~

Jane slumped back on the couch. Even texting the woman had given her a feeling she didn't know what to do with. How was she ever going to cope at work if she couldn't spend any time around the new ME, and not just any ME, but the freaking Chief Medical Examiner for the entire freaking Commonwealth? She grabbed the bottle of beer by the neck and swallowed down a long swig. Her mind stuck on that, the neck. Why was she so fascinated with Maura's neck? Of course, she was attracted to her, that was obvious, but her neck? Not her ass, or her boobs, it was her neck that drew her, the long, rigid muscle that became visible any time she turned her head. Sternocleidomastoid; she'd even looked it up. "What the hell is wrong with me?" she grumbled to nobody but herself and downed the rest of the bottle.

Her fingers itched to pick up the phone and call Maura, have her come over and…and do what? That part she hadn't figured out yet, but whatever it was, it was going to be intense.

~R&I~

"Mother," Maura said, walking towards her mother to greet her appropriately. They kissed on either cheek, while holding biceps and smiling. On the whole, Maura enjoyed visiting with her mother, but right now, with Charles running amok, she knew that her mother would find it difficult. "I hope the flight was all good."

"Nothing this old bat can't deal with." She laughed at her joke. Plasmadians, or Vampires as they were often thought, were also bats in many myths and fables. Bats who hung around in the dark, upside down with long black capes wrapped around them, just waiting for prey. "So, come, sit beside me and tell me all about things here. Have you settled? Met anyone?" Her mother's eyes sparkled as she spoke.

Maura smiled and took the seat offered. "Things are…interesting. I do feel as though I have settled, yes. I like it here, it feels homely."

"Well, that is wonderful. Though Paul told me that you were under a lot of pressure already with a case? You are taking care of yourself, aren't you?"

The one topic Maura had hoped to avoid. She stood up and moved towards the decanter, pouring herself a large glass of Bordeaux. "There is a case yes. It involves something a little too personal, and I am doing all that I can to take care of myself around it." She swallowed a mouthful and then drained the glass. "And yes, I have met someone."

"Maura, what on earth is so bad that you need to drink that way?" Her mother stood and crossed the floor, taking the glass from her hand. "Tell me, child."

"You won't want to hear it."

"I will. If it involves you, then I want to know what it is."

Maura wrapped her arms around herself. The long black cardigan she wore made her look like the bat. Her emotions were all over the place, and she felt as though she might cry, which was something she was not used to doing. It was Jane, that much she knew. Her physical being was now completely in tune with Jane's human emotions, meaning that Maura could now feel so much more than she ever had.

"Maura, please. What is it?"

"It's Charles, Mother." Her arms dropped to her side as she waited for her mother's usual defence of her brother. It didn't come. Instead, her mother turned away and walked back to her seat.

Sitting down, she said, "I am aware that Charles has got himself involved with the wrong crowd."

"And are you aware that he has murdered at least two people here? One a human, Mother."

Constance Isles adjusted her position. "No, I was not aware of that. May I have a glass of that?" She pointed towards the decanter. Maura poured two glasses and returned to join her mother. "In due time, I want you to fill me in on all that you know. Charles needs help before he hurts anyone else. And that is what we will do."

"Yes." Maura couldn't have agreed more.

The sipped their wine silently for a moment. The fire crackled, and shadows danced along the walls from the light that came from it.

"Her name is Jane," Maura suddenly said. Needing to talk about this, she wasn't so sure that her mother was the ideal candidate. However, bearing in mind her stance on Charles, she was willing to take a chance. "I feel the consciousness strongly with her."

"Jane? Do I know her family?"

Now, Maura looked away. This was the part that she hadn't wanted to tell her mother, but it was inevitable that she would find out. "No…she's human."

Eyebrows raised, and Constance went to speak, but thought better of it and closed her mouth. She seemed to consider the idea before finally settling on, "One cannot argue with the consciousness."

"No, though she might not see it that way. She is avoiding me."

"I see. Well, for many of our own, the feelings and emotions evoked by the consciousness can be…overwhelming. I can only imagine what it must be like for her. Does she seem at all interested?"

Maura smiled. "I think so, yes."

"Then take her," Constance said easily, sipping the wine. "You have the right to take whomever you choose, Maura. Take her; once you have, she will be yours regardless."

Maura shook her head. "No, I don't want that. I want her to come to me…I like romancing her, Mother."

"Well, romance isn't very much fun when she is avoiding you. Are you sure she is interested? You can easily close the connection."

"I don't want to. This feels different. It feels as though it could be real with her, if she would just…" She growled in frustration. "I think I shall turn in. It's been a long day."

Chapter Nine

"We have a lead!" Korsak shouted across the room. "Come on."

Jane's head turned in his direction. Mid-way between her desk and her mouth was a perfectly made meatball sub dripping its juicy goodness all over the wrapper beneath it. "What? What kind of lead?"

"Gonzales and Weinberg," he stated as he pulled his jacket on.

She put the sandwich down onto the wrapper. "Okay fine, gimme the address and I'll meet you there."

He scribbled it down and handed it to her. "Frost said he would keep watch till we get there."

"What the hell is he doing on his own anyway?"

The old man shrugged. "I dunno, said something about luck and fortune…I'll see you there."

Carefully, Jane re-wrapped the sandwich before quickly unwrapping it and taking a huge bite. "Oh God, that's good," she said, chewing it as she re-wrapped again. She could just eat it on the drive over, but the mess would look like she had been stabbed in the chest. You didn't eat a meatball sub with anything less than care and consideration.

As she stood and grabbed her own jacket, her phone beeped.

Unknown number: Vanilla, he is at 10 Crown street. He doesn't know you know.

"What the…" She checked the address Korsak gave her. It wasn't Crown Street. Quickly she typed up a text to Korsak.

Rizzoli: Whatever Frost has is wrong. Hoyt is at 10 Crown St. I am heading over, meet me there.

~R&I~

Constance Isles wandered around her daughter's home, trying to decide the best way to move forward. She always knew that this day would come, but she hadn't expected it to involve so many other facets.

"Mother, why are you so unsettled," Maura asked, coming into the room to find her mother fiddling with her pearls as she walked back and forth across the 18th century rug.

"Oh, nothing dear. I just…" She stopped in her tracks and dropped her head. "Maura, you're right, there is something that unsettles me, and I think it is probably high time that you knew. But I made a promise, and it's very hard to break such a solemn oath."

"This sounds ominous." Maura took a seat on the couch and patted the space next to her. "Come sit with me and explain what has got you in such a struggle."

Constance hesitated for a moment before finally giving in and taking the seat. She grasped her daughter's hands. "Firstly, you must remember that what I did, I did from a place of love and goodness."

Maura laughed nervously. "Mother, please just tell me."

"I know that you are aware that yourself and Charles are adopted, that your father and I chose to be your parents."

Maura nodded; this fact had never been hidden from them. "Yes, of course, but…"

Constance placed a finger against Maura's lips, silencing her. "Please, promise me that you will let me finish before you speak."

"Alright. Go ahead."

"As you know, giving birth and procreating are not things that all of us Plasmadians are required to do, and I was fine with my place in the system. I had my own Consciousness with your father and we were, we are, blissfully happy. But I always felt like we were missing something." She smiled at Maura. "That something was you, and Charles. When news came that both your mother and father had been killed in an attack by Discards, we didn't think twice about taking you in…" She chewed her bottom lip before adding, "Both of you."

Maura remained silent, unmoving.

"The council realised that you were in mortal danger. The Discards were actively trying to rebel and create their own independence. They wanted rid of all heirs. Your mother, the Queen, she fought and gave her life to protect you…both.

"The council made the decision to split you up, place you into two different homes and give you both new identities, identities that would only be revealed once you came of age and you became Queen. Unfortunately, there was a leak. Someone took a bribe for information, not about you. You were safe, but Charles wasn't. His new parents were killed protecting him. It was at that point that I argued he should come to us, that we could and would protect you both.

"There was much argument about it, what was right for you, for him, for the kingdom. But in the end, they agreed, on one condition…neither of you would ever know that you were siblings."

Slumping back into the couch, Maura sighed. "I suppose that explains why I feel so bonded to him. I had assumed it was just something that had occurred as we grew up together. We were always close as children."

"You're not angry with me?" Constance asked.

Maura sat up and took her mother's hands. Smiling, she said, "Of course not. You have been the very best mother anyone could wish for. You made a promise, and I know all too well how good you are at keeping those."

"Now you understand why I have always excused his behaviour. He is you and you are him, born of the same egg."

"But I came first, and now I am Queen and he is…"

"Angry. Imagine being a small child and losing not just one set of parents as you did, but then to lose another. I can only imagine how angry at the world he is. That can surely be the only reason he behaves this way…we did all that we could to love him…" Constance broke down, tears falling.

"Oh Mother, we couldn't have asked for better. Whatever is going on with Charles, it's not because of you."

~R&I~

Number 10 Crown Street looked anything but royal. Garbage flooded the street as discarded bags had been ripped open by hungry animals and in some cases, people. Jane took it all in. There was barely anyone around. She couldn't blame them; nobody would be here by choice. Unless, of course, they were hiding out from law enforcement.

She checked her watch. Korsak and Frost should be there by now. There were no new messages on her phone. "Come on, guys," she mumbled to herself. "How long does it take, for Christ's sake?"

It was cold inside the car with no heating. Her coffee was long gone too. All at once, she felt a sudden urge to leave the car and enter the house. She felt the same overwhelming desire she had whenever she was around Maura. She glanced around quickly; had the ME followed her? The street remained desolate. "Just relax, it will pass," she told herself as she sucked in deep breaths and exhaled slowly. But it didn't pass. The urge became stronger. She hadn't even realised that she was doing it, but the car door slammed shut behind her. Her legs walked her along the sidewalk until she was standing outside of the door.

It swung open. "Hello Detective, I've been expecting you."

Chapter Ten

Jane woke up in a room she didn't recognise. It was, for want of a better word, dilapidated. Wallpaper peeled from the walls as though it were trying to escape the musty smell that hung cloyingly in the air. Her head felt a little muzzy, like when you woke up after an operation and didn't quite have your bearings. When she tried to move, she suddenly felt her bearings.

Her right hand was pinned to the floor by a scalpel, and she screamed out in pain as she tried to roll over and release it. Then she heard him. "No, no, no…" There was a soft chuckle and a scraping of chair legs. "Come now, Detective. I didn't go to all of this trouble for you to just pull it out. This is art, Jane. You are my art." He grinned. It was a man in his late 30s, blonde with scruffy-looking hair. His face had a somewhat maniacal look to it as he stared down at her with wide eyes.

Staring hard at the scalpel, she was surprised at the lack of blood. There was just a small trickle from a pool in the centre of her palm.

She wanted to shout at him, to put him in his place, and yet, she couldn't. Something about him held her back, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. She thought hard, tried to put something together, but her mind kept coming back to Maura – to desire and lust for her, how whenever they were even in the same room, it was almost unbearable. The need to reach out and touch…that was it, she wanted to reach out and touch him. Even though the idea of it repulsed her, she couldn't get past it.

"So, you feel it too, don't you?" He said as though he could read her mind. "I felt it the moment I set eyes on you, Jane. I can call you Jane, right? We're kind of intimately linked." His grin wasn't warm like Maura's. His eyes, grey and cold, bore into her.

"I wouldn't touch you if you were the last man on Earth," she hissed at him.

His laughter roared out, and then he was up, hovering over her and screaming, "Liar!" His own hand reached out towards her face, but when he was within touching distance, he quickly retracted it. "Naughty, Jane." He laughed, backing away. "I know what you want, and uh huh uh…" His finger wagged back and forth. "The Consciousness is…a burden. My sister has the romantic blood running through her veins…Oh, she will want you, I bet it's killing her to be anywhere near you and not touch, take you for herself." He walked back across the room and squatted down about a foot away from her. "Has she not even tried? God, she is so pious," he raged again as he jumped up and went back to his chair. "Do you want her as much as she wants you?"

She ignored him, the pain in her palm far outreaching anything he could say that would upset her.

Sighing, he leaned back. "Are you ready for it, Jane? Are you ready to live forever, to spend eternity with Maura in your bed…" He leaned forwards lasciviously. "…between your legs? Do you want that?" He sat back again. "That's what she wants. It's what she will want when she smells your blood…" His eyes moved to her hand and the congealing pool of blood. "As soon as you say so, she will take you…it's hard to ignore, isn't it, Jane? To fight it, to disregard those feelings that you can't control. So very human," he sneered. "Trust me, Jane. There is more power in snuffing it out, taking the life blood and draining it until there are no feelings left to control." Licking his lips, he added, "It really would be delicious to take that power from you, Jane. Feel your life drain away in my hands, on my lips. But alas." He sniffed the air. "She won't allow it. But if I kill her too? Or maybe you'll choose me, Jane. Knowing that I will put you out of your miserable little insignificant human life and not torture you by making you live ever after as you watch all of those you love die, one by one. Oh, the tragedy of it all, is that what you want, Jane? If you pick me Jane, she can live. I won't need to kill her if you come willingly to me."

He stood up abruptly again and crossed the floor, opening the door. He took his seat again and then waited.

Barely a few seconds passed and she heard it, the click-clack of heels hurriedly walking the hallway. Jane wanted to shout out, to warn her, but she couldn't. She felt torn, wanting both and yet, she didn't. She couldn't think straight.

It was like being stuck between a rock and a hard place; everything was pushing in on her. She could feel him, dark, heavy and cold, forceful and aggressive, crushing her.

But something else was there forcing him back, something bright, lighter and hot. It was tempting and flirtatious, but rage licked at its corners.

An inferno was coming.

And Jane Rizzoli was in the middle of it.

The air was charged. It was electric and smouldering all around her as she lay there, unable to help or hinder. Jane closed her eyes to it all. There was nothing she could do; whichever of them won would take her, she knew that, and either way she would be dead.

"Charles, what have you done?"

"Dearest sister, I have brought you a sacrifice."

Jane could hear the confusion in Maura's voice. "What…what are you talking about?"

Laughing, Charles turned towards Jane. "It's simple really, my Queen." He bowed theatrically. "You let me drain Jane." He laughed again. "Did you see what I did there?"

Maura moved an inch closer. Jane could feel it: the heat of her.

"Uh-uh. Don't touch. I want her, Maura. You can give her to me, I'll drain her and then. I'll go. I won't kill you. I'll disappear."

Maura scoffed. "Don't be so absurd. Let her go right now."

Charles shrugged. "Then I guess I'll just have to drain you both."

Chapter Eleven

Ash fell all around her. Like snow on a cold winter's night, it drifted gently, back and forth as it lowered to the ground and carpeted the floor – and her.

Something had lifted. The air around her wasn't quite so thick. She dared not open her eyes, so she used her other senses.

From the moment Maura had arrived, Jane had kept her eyes closed. Her heart beat rapidly as the sounds and smell filled the room. It was sulphur and cedar, smoke and hickory. Like the devil had come to barbeque. The noise was like a thunderstorm rolling in from the sea and hitting land with an almighty bang.

And then there was silence. Just for a second, just like all existence had ended. Now she heard the sirens, the stomping of booted feet on the ground, up the stairs, and inside the room.

"What the…" It was Korsak.

"I can't touch her. Get her help!" Maura screamed at him, and Jane wanted to scream at her, "No, I want you." But the words don't come. And then Korsak was by her side.

"Jane? Jane? It's alright. We need to get you out of here. Frost, see to Maura," Korsak instructed. He was in charge here now.

"I'm fine, please. I just need to be away from her," Maura said, staggering to her feet. She was filthy, covered in soot and grime, and she could barely walk without Frost's helping hand. "Get me away from here, Barry," she asked quietly.

He looked back over his shoulder to check on his partner. She was in safe hands. Ahead, he could see the EMT arriving. "Alright, where do you need to go?"

"Home. Take me home, please," she managed before collapsing into his arms. He slid his other arm behind her legs and lifted her bridal-style, carrying her limp body past the growing crowd and out into the street.

He didn't get much further before a voice stopped him. "Hey, need a hand there, Buddy?" The guy was in a uniform, paramedic.

Barry waved him off as he placed Maura on her feet, pressing himself against her to hold her up against the car. "No, all good. Thanks, though."

It was not easy moving a limp, lifeless body into the back of his car, but he managed it, and just as Jane was being brought out on a stretcher, Korsak running alongside beside them, Frost pulled from the kerb.

"Hurry…Barry," Maura murmured.

~R&I~

The gravel beneath the tyres crunched and cracked as Frost floored the car up the driveway, coming to a screeching halt right outside the front door. Without pause, he opened his door and jumped out, wrenching open the back door and diving inside to pull an unconscious Maura out.

She was limp, cold to the touch, and he ran, cradling her like a child. His boot connected with the door twice, and a loud thud thud vibrated through it.

"Come on, come on," he muttered, ready to kick the door in if he had to. With his leg raised to kick again, the door opened, and he pushed in past Mrs Didcot without a hello or explanation. "Where is Paul?" he said with urgency as he moved around the hallway, looking in through doors.

"He's up…"

Frost didn't wait. He moved with lightning speed towards the stairs, shouting for Paul as his legs lifted them one by one. "Paul!"

When he was almost to the top, he heard running. Glancing upwards, he saw the man he needed bounding down the stairs towards him. "What's happened?"

"I don't know," Frost said as they met on the landing and Paul took his queen from him. Both men moved down the hallway.

"Second door, open it," Paul ordered, and Frost followed through. "Open the cabinet, get me two litres of red and a pack of platelets." Grateful that he could trust the detective, he got on with laying Maura gently on the bed. Beside him was a small bedside cabinet and he slid the drawer open, retrieving a hypodermic needle and a small bottle. "She needs insulin, fresh blood…and hope."

Frost passed him the packs and watched as he went about connecting it all up and then inserting the needle into the jugular vein. "What's wrong with her?"

"Exhaustion, extreme exhaustion," Paul said without looking up. "Whatever she has been through, it's completely depleted her…if we can't get her…" He leaned forward and licked her forearm, grimacing. "Her electrolytes are too low. She is secreting salt. We need to flush her system with fresh blood."

Frost nodded. "What can I do to help?"

Paul looked at him, a thin smile on his lips. "You've done all you can. It's down to me now."

~R&I~

Angela shrieked down the hall as she ran through the hospital towards Frankie. "What the hell happened to my baby?"

"Ma, calm down," Frankie implored, but it was no use. An Italian mother in a moment of parental angst was never going to calm on the whim of her son.

"Don't you 'calm down, Ma' me," she said, slapping at his arm. "Your sister's in a hospital bed and you want me to be calm!"

"I'm okay, Ma," Jane's voice shouted from the room she was in. She smiled when Angela's head popped around the door. "You can come in, Ma."

"Oh, my God, Janie, what happened?" she cried, looking down at her daughter's bandaged hand.

"Ma, Ma, it's fine. They're gonna operate in the morning and fix it up," she said, lying back in the bed with her hand raised to make some kind of placating statement.

She felt tired. She felt sadness, loneliness settling in. Something about her missed him, his presence. She couldn't feel him now.

She didn't want to think of him anyway. It was Maura she tried desperately to find. She searched her very soul for any sign of Maura. When she found the faint beat of something hot and sexy and smouldering, she grabbed hold and pulled it closer to her, wrapped her heart around it and closed her eyes.

Chapter Twelve

Paul dozed in the comfortable armchair next to the bed. One leg hung over the arm, his own arms wrapped tightly around himself as his head lolled, chin to chest. It had been a long night. One that he hoped never to witness again.

His supplies where out. Every drop had been used to first flush, and then replenish. He had put the call out, but with Rizzoli in the hospital and her entire family and team all surrounding her, he had no idea when they would find time to donate. Korsak had finally answered at the third attempt and given him the polite brush off, but when Frost arrived back at the hospital with news of the Queen, Korsak had called. They would work something out as soon as they could. He just hoped that it came in time.

For now, Maura was resting. Humans would call it a coma, but for Plasmadians, it was nothing more than a deep sleep. Essential to the healing process, and something they could survive for weeks, so long as someone was watching over them, feeding them as required, and preventing any harm from coming to them while they were unable to defend themselves. This was Paul's job now, but he was exhausted himself, sleeping fitfully between feeds.

He had spent the first few hours, once she was stable, wondering what could have happened. Frost had no answers, but Paul had an idea that was swirling around his head. Something, even he only thought of as legend, a myth told by generations, of the power a Queen really holds. The power of life over death was not something Plasmadians were concerned with, but death over life, that was different. They were born to live for decades, centuries even, to have that snuffed out on the whim of a Queen was something they all secretly feared, and yet, there had never been any sign that this Queen, Maura, was anything less than benevolent, kind hearted, just. And yet, he had smelled it on her. The acrid stench of sulphur, the tell-tale signs of ash rubbed to powder on her dress, and the burns to the palms of her hands. There had always been talk, always a story, but nobody had ever actually witnessed a combustion.

"Jane." She had been mumbling the name in her sleep for hours. Paul barely took any notice now. It was worse, when he had managed to flush her system and had started to replenish her, that was when she had been most alert. Her head had shaken back and forth against the pillow, mumbling incoherently. One or two words had sounded so clear and yet, nothing she said made any sense. The language was old. Something from a time long past. They had no need for it now, only the elders clung to such things. The name, Jane, slipped out easily from between her lips, and then she would fight an invisible force, until Paul could finally get her to relax. The light sedative wouldn't harm her.

He rubbed his hands over his face and through his hair roughly. An attempt to liven himself up and push away the need to sleep. Checking his watch, it was almost 9 A.M. The rest of the house would be awake. The Queen's mother.

Yawning, he stood and found his phone. A message from Korsak that a delivery would be arriving soon. Paul closed his eyes and let his head fall back in relief. His joy was soon gone with the sharp knock against the door.

"Maura. May I come in?" The dulcet tones of Constance Isles on the other side of the door panicked him for a moment. A reminder of that time he had been almost caught in the bed chamber of Marie Antoinette. He smiled at the memory before shaking himself into action.

Standing by the side of the bed, he waited and watched as the door pushed open and Constance stepped inside. She looked from the bed, to him, and back again before moving further into the room. Stopping on the opposite side. "Is she…"

"She will need some time, but I believe that she will be fine." Paul said, putting her out of her worry quickly.

"And…Charles?" she asked, without looking up.

"I don't know. He wasn't…it was just Maura who was brought to me." He confirmed, turning he began to pick up the empty plasma packs, tidying away the detritus that had built up and been tossed aside in his hurry to help her.

"Do we know what happened?" She asked, finally looking at him.

He wanted to look away from the grey eyes that stared at him. But politeness and duty meant that he couldn't, she would see straight through a lie, and yet, what he thought might have happened wasn't necessarily the truth anyway.

"I've never known you to be shy in speaking your mind, Paul." She said, moving around the bed, she held his gaze until she passed him and sat down in the chair beside her daughter.

"I do not believe that I can accurately say what happened."

"But you have an idea? An opinion?" she stated, she was very adept at reading people.

He nodded slowly. "I do, but it's not one that can be taken lightly, nor with anything more than a large pinch of salt. Until Maura, her Majesty wakes…"

Constance smiled, "You don't have to stand on ceremony with me, Paul. I know that Maura is far from the airs and graces she could insist upon. Tell me what your hunch is."

He sighed, there was no use in trying to fight it any longer. "When Maura was brought to me, she was completely depleted. Drained of her energy. If Detective Frost had not done all that he could to get her here, I fear we would be having a very different conversation." He said gently, sitting on the edge of the bed, he faced her. "It took all of my supplies to get her to the point of being stable."

"Go on." She insisted, her eyes moving to Maura. Steadfastly watching her daughter's face twitch and grimace.

"Her hands…they showed signs of heat, immense heat that singed the derma. There was ash, a lot of ash, all over her clothing, and the smell…"

She looked back at him now. Her eyes more alert, sadness flickered there in the watery depths.

"Sulphur," he whispered, "She smelled like the Volcano's of Pompeii." And he would know, he had been there at the last eruption.

"Combustion?" Constance whispered, more to herself than anyone else. "Then Charles…he must be…"

"Incinerated." Paul answered before releasing a shaky breath and turning towards Maura. "If she did it, then I must assume that she had good reason."

Constance nodded solemnly before she too turned towards Maura. "Yes, that's what I am afraid of."

Chapter Thirteen

Maura sat in the big comfortable wing backed armchair in front of the tall bay window and looked out across the lawn. It was cold in the room and she pulled the shawl a little tighter around her shoulders. An imperceptible movement that Paul didn't notice. He stood alongside her, looking in the same direction and wondering what she was thinking. He chanced a sideways glance at her. She looked smaller; legs tucked up beneath her. She had barely spoken these past few days since finally coming around and waking from the deep sleep her body had needed in order to replenish itself.

"You don't have to hover around me, Paul." Her voice was quiet, but with no other sound in the room, and his superior hearing, he heard her perfectly.

Another sideways glance and then he sighed. "I am aware of that; however, this is where I am staying."

Now it was her turn to sigh. The grass looked especially green today in the sunlight, it wouldn't be too much longer before she could take a stroll around the grounds.

"Would you like me to start a fire?" Paul asked, rubbing his hands together against the chill.

Her head whipped towards him. "No, I can't bear the smell…" she looked away. "Acrid smoke…the flames, its all too…" her voice tailed off as she drifted into a memory.

His voice cackled as he caught sight of her. "Oh dear sister. Did you come all this way just for me?" he turned to his left, "Or was it her that you wanted?"

His words were barely out before the fire in Maura's soul ignited her rage and she flew toward him. Palms out, facing him. Holding him back and away from Jane. Sweet, Jane, whose only part in this was being the object of the Isle's sibling's hearts.

"You will stay away from her Charles or I swear…" her glare should have told him. He should have known to back away and take the loss but no, his ego would push her limits.

"You swear? Come now, she is nothing more than a plaything for the likes of us. Have our way with her and then feast upon her sweet essence." He breathed deeply to emphasise the point. "She is so very appealing."

He tried to move towards Jane, but Maura's power pushed him aside. "You can't have her."

"Because you want her? You'll just fuck her and throw her away like you have done with all of your other lovers. Too scared to watch them die by your side, or worse, too scared to take them and have them forever. At least I have the courage to do what I want with her." He bellowed, cackling again at Maura's reaction. Her anger bubbling away on the surface. "I could enjoy her in so many ways, Maura. Let me have her and I promise I will make it quick. I won't torture her."

Maura's attention was taken when Jane moaned loudly. The pain in her hands throbbing. Maura felt the pain herself, the urge to go to Jane. To comfort her and make her her own, was overwhelming. She had never wanted any being the way that she wanted Jane Rizzoli.

Charles felt the force against his chest lessen as Maura let her guard down just enough. With all of his strength he took the opportunity to make his move.

"I'll get some heaters delivered, it's going to get colder and you need the warmth for not to keep your blood at the optimal temperature." Paul stressed as he reached into his pocket for a phone.

"Has there been any word?" Maura said.

He let the hand holding the phone fall away from his ear. "No, nothing further since Detective Frost last visited."

She nodded, but said nothing.

"I can make some calls?"

"No, leave her be. When she is ready, she will come."

~R&I~

Her apartment looked like a bombsite. Clothes strewn all over the floor where she had finally managed to push them off her body. She hadn't had a shower in days and was at the end of her tether with the humiliating bed baths from her visiting nurse. But that was nothing to the annoyance she felt at the fact that the nurse was being paid for by Maura Isles.

The one person who hadn't been by to check on her. The one person who, in Jane's opinion, should have been by to check on her. Afterall, wasn't it because of Maura that Jane was now sitting uncomfortably on the couch with both hands bandaged and resting in her lap? Her only saving grace now was that the bandages would be coming off today.

Eight days. Long days, with her mother fussing over her and journalists trying to get an interview with the cop that caught the serial killer. How the brass had squared that she didn't know. No body, no trial. It was a mess.

Dr Maura Isles: every thought in Jane's head was of Maura Isles walking through that door like a Marvel character. It was hot. The way she commanded him, held him back with her sheer power. Jane wondered how she could do that; it was like mind control. And then her attention had been turned toward Jane and all Rizzoli could feel was the absolute love that poured from Maura, bathing her in its gloriousness. In that moment, Jane would have done anything to just have Maura Isles attention, her touch. She fidgeted in her seat, the crease of her jeans rubbing just where she wanted to feel Maura Isles. Just thinking about Maura made her more aroused than she had ever been with anyone else, and Maura hadn't even touched her…yet. It had been days since she had touched herself even.

She couldn't stop her hips from rolling, the movement against the seam giving small relief to how she really felt, what she really wanted. For now, that was impossible, her hands were useless, but that didn't stop the rush of endorphins from flooding her body the moment she came.

~R&I~

The sun was setting in the distance. And Maura Isles watched as it slowly disappeared. For a while now she had worried the connection was lost. But now, as the sun dipped, she felt the tension leave her body. Jane had just ignited the consciousness. It wouldn't be long now.

Chapter Fourteen

Jane stood on the doorstep. She fisted her hands against the cold, the ache in them almost unbearable, but as she waited, she could feel the pull, so much stronger now than ever. It had been tugging her for days until finally she could no longer stand to be anywhere other than where Maura Isles would be.

The door finally opened, and a woman in a black dress eyed her suspiciously. "Yes?"

"I…I'm here to see…" She felt her nerves start to tingle. The hairs on the back of her neck startled. From behind the older woman came the voice that all but melted Jane to the spot.

"She's here to see me."

The door opened wider to allow Jane inside. It closed with a slight bang as the wind caught it, but Jane didn't notice. Her entire being felt like it was floating somewhere above her. She caught sight of Maura and her feet began to move towards her.

"Stop," Maura commanded, her palm out in front of her. Jane felt it hit her square in the chest and yet, they were 30 feet apart. "Don't come any closer."

"Why not?" Jane asked. She was stuck, immobile even though her feet where still walking.

"Before I let you move, I need to know something," Maura said, the older woman having left the room without Jane even noticing. It was just the two of them. "Do you come of your own free will?"

Jane frowned at the question. Her eyes narrowed as she took in the form of Maura Isles, all powerful and majestic.

"Do you accept that if I let you near me, then I will not be able to resist. I will take you; you will become mine and only mine. Forever, Jane. Or at least, for a very long time. You will worship me, and I you."

"Hell yes, Maura, I can think of nothing else. You're in my head all day long. I need…" She tried to wriggle free. "I need you to…you know?"

Maura smiled. The prudish detective in an aroused state was delightful. "You understand that the Consciousness has chosen you for me?"

"Maura, I don't understand any of it, but if you don't let me go right now and get me naked, then god damn it…"

"You must understand Jane, there is no turning back. Once I take you, that's it. Immortality. You'll outlive every one of your loved ones. You'll watch them all die while you barely age. You will have to follow me. Wherever I need to go, you will go with me."

"I can see a lot of Red Sox games." Jane smiled before her face turned serious. "Maura, I can't keep fighting this. It's too strong, and I don't pretend to understand it, but I feel like the only thing I can do is to go with it. That once I do, then I'll be just fine."

"It might be painful. Your body will undergo many changes," Maura warned.

"I can take it, Maura."

The pressure on her chest eased and she was pulled forward, coming to a halt just inches from Maura. "This is the last…chance, Jane," Maura all but gasped, her chest heaving at the close proximity of her Consciousness. It had taken all she had to hold back. "Once we connect, it's sealed. I'll make you mine with every thrust. Each kiss will bond us. We will be joined for eternity."

"Kiss me," Jane pleaded, the sinews in her neck tightening as she stretched forward to meet those lips. Her eyes closed as she imagined Maura moving in, but instead, she felt hands on her shoulders, her arms, and she was moving backwards. "What the f…Hey get off me." She struggled as four giggling women in white dresses carried her away.

"Hush, you need to be presented," one whispered into her ear.

"Presented? What the hell?"

"Don't worry, Detective. We will take care of you; you'll be with your queen soon enough."

~R&I~

Maura stood naked in the middle of the room as nymph-like creatures swarmed around her, washing her body with cloths. Every inch of her was cleansed and prepared for the taking.

"Your Majesty." A voice spoke gently from the side. "Your mother is wishing an audience."

Maura held out her arms and instantly was covered with a white silk robe, tied around her waist. "Send her in."

~R&I~

In the room along the hallway, Jane Rizzoli was not quite so calm. "Now look, I don't know what you all think you're playing at, but…"

The same woman who had spoken earlier stepped forward. "Jane, it is customary that the chosen Consciousness be prepared for the taking."

"Fine, then get the hell out and let me prepare."

Smiling, the woman came around and stood behind her. "That isn't the way of the Plasmadian. You must be cleansed, all impurities washed from your body." She came around in front of Jane and glanced down. "Everything needs to be…bare."

"Oh hell no. Maura!" Jane shouted, but the touch of a fingertip to her lips brought with it silence.

"You would dishonour the Queen?" She smiled at the look of alarm on Jane's face. "If the ritual is not complete, then the taking cannot commence, and the Consciousness would be lost between you."

"What? But…"

"Jane, try not to worry. We have done this many times. It is an honour for us to prepare you. Please, just relax and allow my sisters to ready you."

Jane considered the alternatives. "Fine, just…make it quick."

~R&I~

"Mother, your timing is impeccable." Maura smiled and ushered the nymphs from the room.

"Sweetheart, you know that I couldn't leave without wishing you all the best." Constance smiled and leaned in to kiss her daughter's cheek. "Now, remember who you are, what you are entitled to, and take it when it's offered, as you know it will be."

"Yes, Mother. This isn't my first rodeo."

"It is your first with a woman like Jane Rizzoli. I have been reading up on her. She's feisty."

Maura grinned at the description of her soon-to-be companion. "Yes, she is, and I intend to encourage that wildness."

"Of course, who wouldn't want to harness that passion?" Constance reached for her bag and opened it, pulling from it a small box. She handed it to Maura. "It was my mother's."

The ring box opened to reveal the most exquisite blood red ruby. "Oh Mother, its…It's perfect."

"Enjoy, my darling." Constance grinned and left the room as the nymphs ran in excitedly.

"Helena, is Jane almost ready?" Maura asked as the robe was removed and the nymphs continued with the ritual.

"Yes, we had a little…shall we say, standoff at first, until I persuaded her that the ritual was essential." She smiled mischievously. "I believe Ms. Rizzoli is very eager to commence the taking."

"As am I." Maura grinned.

Chapter Fifteen

Jane wore a red flowing gown, her hair perfect atop her head with tiny white flowers woven into the crown she wore. Her feet where bare and she was nervous as hell just standing there.

The nymphs had gone. Now, she waited.

Unsure of just how long she waited, she jumped as the beam of light was switched on and ahead of her an alter was lit. Stone slabs on all sides with what looked like a fur covering the top. She took a step towards it and then stopped when she heard footsteps. Lots of footsteps. Turning, she saw people entering the room. Dressed up like they were attending a wedding.

"Okay, that wasn't what I expected." She mumbled to herself.

One by one each guest took a seat and stared up at her. Someone took her hand and she turned to find Paul by her side. "Come, its time." He said, leading her towards the alter.

"Are you some kind of priest?" she asked, much to his amusement.

"No, I am just here to make the offering. Its just a custom, like a father giving away his daughter." He explained, leading her around to the back of the alter. Two small steps lead up. "Go on, climb up and lie down. Make yourself comfortable."

"What? Are you fricking kidding me? There's an audience for this?"

"Jane, this is the taking. It's a ceremony. There has to be witnesses." He smiled, "It will be fine, just lie back and forget about them. Maura will do everything that needs to be done."

She looked around the room. With the light facing her on the alter, she couldn't see the faces staring back at her, but she still knew they were there. "I dunno…" she was about to complain, and then she felt it. The pull that had her climbing the steps and laying down on the furs. Maura was near.

Music began to play and another beam of light shone out and picked up Maura being carried aloft. Four bearers lifted the fancy stretcher and brought her Queen closer. Every step adding to the arousal that flipped in Jane's tummy. They moved around the room, parading the queen to everyone's view before finally bringing her to the alter and holding still, allowed her to climb down.

She grinned at Jane.

Wearing a gown that matched Jane's, she stepped forwards.

"You have all been gathered to witness the taking." She said, her voice clear as she spoke to the room. "The council will recognise Jane as my consciousness. They will honour her as they do me." She then turned to Jane and held out a hand. When Jane accepted it, she felt the heat that passed between them, she smiled. "Do you agree to the taking? To be mine for as long as we exist? And to honour the Plasmadian way as a member of the royal household?"

Jane nodded, "Yes."

Paul stepped forward holding a velvet pillow, a gleaming, jewel encrusted dagger lay glinting in the light. Maura reached for it. "Do not fear." She whispered, picking up the knife, "It will only sting for a second before my blood will heal you."

Jane nodded.

Turning back to the crowd, Maura held the dagger aloft. "I hold the dagger with my right hand and mark the flesh of the left." She drew the blade across her palm and the red line oozed. She then repeated the same line and drew the blade across Jane's palm. Across the newly sealed scar. It stung like hell. When the blood began to drip, Maura placed the dagger back on the cushion. "With my blood I seal thee to me. With your blood, you seal me to thee." She then placed her left hand over Janes and pressed their palms together, the lines of blood meeting.

It was a strange sensation and Jane gasped as she felt the skin tingle and begin to heal. Her arm prickled as Maura's blood joined her own and rushed to flood her veins. She had never felt more alive. The urgency she felt before to be taken by Maura had eased. It was there, bubbling under the surface, but not with the ferocity of before. Now, it felt manageable.

Music began to play and lights swept around the great hall as those sitting began to stand and clap. She could pick out her mother, and Frost. The music quieted and Maura stepped forward to speak again. "You have witnessed the sharing of our life force. Now, I ask that you leave so we may enjoy the taking."

Chapter Sixteen

The room was silent. And yet jane could hear something. A thumping, rhythmical. She looked around, expecting to see someone beating a drum.

"My heart." Maura said as she stepped closer. "That's the sound you're hearing. You'll always hear it; it will just become a background noise." She explained gently. "Over the next few hours everything will become…heightened. Your vision will become crisper, sharper. You'll see further and your peripheral view will widen."

Jane watched her as she moved. Almost gliding around her.

"Your sense of smell will become more pronounced, especially toward me. You will know when I am aroused and desire you, and you will come to me when that happens. Over time, you will learn to control it," she grinned, "But I won't complain until then."

"Jesus, I'm going to become a sex crazed…"

Maura laughed. "My darling, you already are…I've just been masking it so that you could make the decision to come to me with free will. I could have just taken you anytime that I wanted. You would not have been able to deny me."

"Well, thanks for that." Jane smirked. She leaned forward and inhaled, "Uh huh. Got it."

"Jane!" Maura shrieked and playfully swatted her. "I'm trying to be serious. This next stage will be overwhelming on all of your senses. You need to be accustomed to them as much as possible before…"

Jane's brow raised, "Before?"

Maura grew more serious. "Jane. We will copulate and…"

"Maura! Can we just say have sex?"

"Fine, we will have sex, Jane. And during the process…when our bodies connect you will feel everything so much more. You will never feel more alive, and then just at the right moment…I will drink from you."

"Drink from me?" Jane said, an octave higher than usual.

"I will have no control over it, its animalistic, it's my right as queen. I will take you in every way that is possible and you will not be able to fight it. You won't want to. Your body will be in such a pleasurable state that you won't be able to think about anything other than my touch." She edged closer to her prey. "It will hurt though, when my teeth sink in. A pain mixed with pleasure."

Jane swallowed hard. If she was honest, she wasn't the kind of woman who got off on such things. She was reasonably willing to experiment in the bedroom but in a warm and vanillary kind of way. Not when Maura spoke though, and looked at her that way. Then she found herself wanting so much more. Things she didn't even know existed.

The silk belt around her waist became all she could think about, untying it, revealing herself. Her fingers moved of their own volition and she watched as Maura's eyes held and then lowered. The tip of tongue wetting her lips.

Loosened, the robe fell open. Maura inhaled deeply, exhaling slowly as her eyes rose up to meet Jane's once again. Unblinking, Jane reached forward and took her hand. Placing it above her heart. "Do it. Take me."

Maura nodded. She had no choice now anyway. There would be dire consequences for them both if she didn't. Jane shimmied out of the robe, naked before her. Now when Maura reached out and her fingertips brushed soft skin, Jane hissed a sharp intake of breath.

It felt like a hot knife had seared her skin where the knuckles brushed.

"Shit." She muttered.

"Sorry." Maura smiled.

"Don't be."

Jane took a step forward, the atmosphere crackling between them the closer she got. She pulled at the belt, and when it opened, she gasped. "You're so beautiful."

"Thank you, as are you, my love."

Maura inhaled deeply and as she released the breath, Jane found herself moving involuntarily towards her again. The pressure against her chest bone was gone. No longer was Maura holding her back.

Their lips crashed together and Jane swore she felt lightening spark through her limbs and into her fingers and toes. When Maura's tongue entered her mouth, it felt like a dragon, breathing fire, had filled her lungs, and when Maura's fingers grabbed at her flesh she cried out. They fell to their knees, Maura pouncing and pushing Jane onto her back with a strength that contradicted the woman's stature.

Pressing her hips forward, she thrust against Jane. It was all the detective could do to not pass out. The sensations were overwhelming and yet, the longer they travelled this path, the more Jane became accustomed to it all. Her senses were on overload, she was soaring high and then burning, she would plummet to the depths.

When she finally opened her eyes, she was amazed at the colour. Everything was so vibrant, vivid and there was a clarity to her vision that she hadn't had before. Maura looked at her, her eyes were burning gold as she smiled. "I'm sorry my love." She whispered. Before Jane could even form the question of why, she understood. Maura's fingers pushed inside her like hot pokers searing their way. Jane wanted to cry out, and then just as quickly the pain was gone and a new sensation filled her. Love. They were one. Moving together in unison. She had never felt like this before. The intensity of it all was mesmerising, and just as she thought she was balanced and settled with the feeling. Maura kissed her. Deep and passionately as her movement brought Jane the pleasure that finally overwhelmed her.

Jane had never been one for dirty talk, expletives or even making much noise at all during her bedroom exploits, but now, as Maura took her it was all she could do to keep the world outside from hearing every word and sound she uttered.

She was floating on such a high that she didn't hear Maura at first. But then the words swam into her aural cavity and she knew this was it.

"Tilt your neck." That was all Maura had said, and Jane had not hesitated. Hot lips kissed her there, a wet soothing tongue licked across the skin and then she felt it. Maura's fangs piercing her skin. She cried out. The rush of blood in her ears as it whooshed through veins towards the exit point.

A gentle sucking noise as Maura took her fill.

The world began to turn black. Images swirling in front of her as Jane tried to focus. Sensations everywhere. Between her legs, deep inside, it was building. Her eyes closed for a second and all conscious thought drifted away as the orgasm exploding within her.

When she opened her eyes again, the pain had gone. Maura was licking the wound. It felt soothing and she mewled contentedly. Unsure why Maura had been so concerned. If that was the worst of it!

Jane turned towards Maura. Blood dripped from her lips, Jane's blood, and yet, it didn't feel weird.

"What are you smiling about?" Maura inquired before sweeping her tongue around her lips.

Jane sat up, uncaring that she was naked. "Nothing, just I thought you said this was going to be a painful event."

"Let's hope you feel the same way later."

The creased brow caused Maura to chuckle. "What do you mean later?"

"Sweetheart, we've only just started."

Chapter Seventeen

The carnal pleasures of the night were varied and eye opening for Jane. She had never felt so adored, and full of love, as she did this night. But as she lay there resting, readying for another round, she noted the look of concern on Maura's face.

"What's wrong." She mumbled against the velvet pillow.

Muara smiled at her. "I think it's time, my love."

Jane groaned. "Not yet, babe. I need a few more minutes before you…"

Chuckling, Maura leaned down and placed a soft kiss against her shoulder. "No, sweetheart. It's time. I have filled you with all that I have, I've drunk from your life source and as such, set in motion the pathway to life with me."

"I don't understand, too tired." Jane mumbled again.

"Just sleep, you'll know soon enough, and then I won't be able to help you." Maura said, "You're strong enough, Jane."

But Jane was asleep already.

An hour later and Maura was roused by the sound of coughing. A dry retching sound that she felt as well as heard. "Jane." She said quickly scrabbling across the bed to where Jane was. Sitting on the edge, leaning forward.

"Maura." She croaked and reached a hand out blindly for her. "I can't…I can't breathe."

Closing her eyes, Maura grimaced. She knew this would happen, maybe she should have explained more to Jane about the process. "I know, sweetheart. It's okay. This is what happens. Your lungs will stop requiring air."

Jane coughed again, before sucking in a wheezy breath. "What?"

"Darling, just try to stay calm, it will pass."

"Calm…" More coughing and she grabbed at her throat. "I can't…"

Taking her hand, Maura pulled it away and pushed her back down onto the bed, straddling her thighs. "Look at me, don't take your eyes off of me. The coughing is just your human body resisting. You don't need to breathe. Once you recognise that, the coughing will stop."

"I don't under…" she coughed some more.

"Look at me." Maura insisted. "You are no longer living, Jane. The moment we joined physically; your humanity died. You are eternal, Plasmadian."

Jane stared wide eyed at her.

"Just keep looking at me… concentrate on my voice, my face. Remember what it felt like to be inside me, and I in you. Your body will adjust, mimic the old you. Your chest will rise and fall, but you don't need the air."

It took several, long, torturous moments and then Jane relaxed. Her body finally understanding. She gulped and swallowed down the fear, but then another sensation hit. Covering her ears, she cried out. "Make it stop!" the noise, it was so loud.

"Jane, concentrate on one noise. Pinpoint it and then move on to the next. Your hearing is amplified." She only whispered the words, but Jane heard them like a truck driving through her head. "Close your eyes, pinpoint the sound."

She trusted Maura, with everything she had, her life for one. Closing her eyes, she focused: Maura's heartbeat. Moving onto the next: The clock on the mantle; an almost silent tic toc to anyone else. One by one she moved her focus until gradually, everything she pinpointed began to fade. New noises taking their place, but as each one was recognised, it quieted. Her head throbbed, the migraine from hell had nothing on this pain.

"Maura." She croaked; her throat was dry from the coughing. Maura held a glass of water to her lips and she sipped gratefully. "My head hurts."

"I know sweetheart, it won't last for long." Maura soothed.

When Jane opened her eyes, expecting to see the beautiful face of her wife, she panicked. "I…I can't…Maura? I can't see!"

"Yes you can, just focus Jane. Forget about everything human. Close your eyes and then open them slowly. Adjust to the new vision."

Doing as she was told. Jane closed her eyes, letting the blackness settle and then slowly, her eyes opened. Colour flooded in, not just the usual colour that she was used to, this was brighter. "It's like the world is in neon." She said, amazed. Her eyes swept the room before landing on Maura's face. The green of her eyes was illuminated.

Maura grinned at her, "Amazing isn't it?"

"It's awesome." Jane grinned, sitting up and staring at every possible thing in the room. "Okay, what else is going to happen?"

"Well, it could take a few hours but you'll start to…"

"Maura, no need to shout." She raised her palms and covered her ears.

Chuckling, Maura tilted her head. "amplified hearing." She whispered. "It will stabilise, but you'll be able to hear conversations from a further distance, once you learn to focus. At first though…it maybe a little jumbled, so I would advice we introduce more voices to you bit by bit so you can get used to it."

"Okay."

Maura reached out and with just her fingertip, she stroked gently along Jane's thigh. "Holy fuck, what did you just do to me?"

"Your skin is now much more sensitive in general, but it is also uniquely in-tune with me, and will react much more intensely, as will mine when you touch me." She smirked. "I could make you orgasm just touching the right nerve pathways."

"No way." Jane said, incredulous.

"Close your eyes." Maura said, smiling confidently. When Jane did as she was asked, lightly, Maura let the back of her fingertips glide effortlessly down Jane's cheek, and chuckled to herself as Jane's spine arched slowly, her body leaning into the touch. "Over time, you'll learn to temper your reaction to this, and nobody else's touch will be quite so sensitive. Whenever you are within a few feet of me however, you'll enjoy this tingling sensation. The closer you come to be near me, the more stimulating you will find it is."

"Jesus, Maura, that feels like you're touching my…" her eyes opened and looked down into her lap.

Maura smirked once more, "As I said, the lightest touch from me, can cause you to climax." She dragged her fingertips more firmly down Jane's neck and across her clavicle and laughed as she squirmed and then arched, groaning at the sudden sensation to pulse through her core.

Jane fell back against the sheets, while Maura got up and moved across the room to the drawers. "Wait," Jane said, smiling lazily as she raised up onto her elbows. "This works the other way around; I touch you and…" she winked.

"Yes, Jane. Very much so."

Falling back. Jane said, "I suggest you get prepared, Maura! We have a lot of years to practice this."