Author's Note

Hey Everyone! Long time, no update…longer story. I have been utterly consumed with work and taking care of people. Not to mention being sick and being consumed with family-oriented problems. Where does the time go? I hope all of you are doing well and that y'all are continuously inspired in whatever way you need to be. I've read some very good chapters from my fellow authors and I'm glad to see that this particular forum isn't dying out after all. I was afraid for a little while that's what was happening. I'm pleased to say y'all have proved me wrong. Let me go ahead and get this out of the way. Although, I'm unaware if people here are doing it; I've had people elsewhere lift ideas and plotlines from my stories. Sometimes down to the exact wording and sentences. I really hate that because I try to be original. So if anyone out there sees a story on the web that looks strangely similar to mine, please drop me a note. I'll really appreciate it. Now…onto the better and brighter…Those of you who seem interested on the status of my one-shots, I'm currently working on one… A good one! It'll be posted soon. I've already titled it, Behind Closed Doors. So keep a sharp eye will you? That's all for now…

M-

Chapter 7: Deep Seeded Reservations

King advanced on her. This could lead nowhere good. Abby read the look in his eyes and became wary. The nervousness associated with being alone with him began to stir inside of her, creeping its way throughout her body.

"What are you doing?"

She had seen that look on him before and it always made her uneasy. It was a cross between asking permission to let him in and wanting more than she would give. His eyes looked like they were going to burn her. It was completely smoldering.

"I wish you wouldn't look at me like that."

His voice dropped a few octaves to a serious and scratchy baritone. His movements were slow and premeditated as he sauntered closer with each word that passed through his lips. Like a predatory animal.

"Like what? I've been looking at you like this since I came here…it hasn't bothered you before, or so it would seem. So why would it bother you now, unless you've just been trying to ignore it. Well, guess what Abby? I've tried that…and no, it doesn't go away."

He crawled closer to her and she leaned farther back to get away from him. She placed a hand on his arm to stop him.

"King, no…"

It had been long enough, and he had come within the brink of his sanity. This was a challenge that he wouldn't back down from. He moved forward on the bed as she counteracted, moving backwards, farther and farther until she realized that she was running out of room. Apparently King noticed this as well and placed an arm on each side of her, trapping her from escaping. His body weight pressed her deeper into the mattress and his mouth was millimeters from hers. She could feel his warm breath trying to tempt her into closing the gap.

"One kiss, Abby. That's all I need. And if you can honestly look me in my eyes and say that you feel nothing, I'll stop. I won't pursue you any further, I promise."

His lingering vampire senses were entirely in overdrive as he hovered there in the space between partners/possibly friends and perhaps something more. He could smell her clean body mixed with the undertones of a scent that was entirely her own. King's ability to pick up on these little things is what made him special and extremely important to the Nightstalkers. Each person knew that he possessed certain powers that remained after he was cured. King had an incredible sixth sense on how to read people and Abby was no different. As the two of them were just a fraction of a breath apart, he could hear the blood rushing and coursing through Abby's body; a telltale sign of fear, one that King knew way too well. It was a fear that despite her efforts, Abby was afraid that she might actually feel something if he kissed her. But, unlike Abby, King was willing to take the shot.

Abby hadn't felt anything in such a long time. It almost seemed unfair that now after all these years; one man could rouse such feelings in her. She felt ashamed even admitting it to herself. One thing was for sure; if she was able to stop it before the damage was done, neither of them would know, so neither would get hurt. She didn't need that kind of connection, especially not with work. She had seen firsthand what happened when loved ones were involved in the equation and that was not something she was going to risk again. Her dad unconsciously crossed the line between his family and his work before. And look what happened? His heart proved to be a liability, and the vampires found his only weakness and destroyed it. Abigail wasn't dead in the literal sense, but since she left behind her normal life, she felt that way.

Her eyes had been clenched shut since her back hit the down comforter, and now with her last ounce of bravery she opened them to find two curious and determined coffee colored orbs looking down at her. He wasn't closing his eyes. They searched her and the looked changed as if he now knew something she didn't. He was so close…too close. She could even taste his breath now, Cinnamon… As the last possible second approached, the feeling became too much and Abigail ducked her head out and maneuvered herself from beneath him and clambered out the door mumbling something about unfinished work. King was left there, not puzzled as one would suspect, but surprised with a brand new revelation. He brought his own fingers up to graze his lips and whispered quietly to himself.

"I guess it doesn't take a kiss after all Whistler…"

Abby ran down the halls to her office and slammed the door, completely infuriated with herself. She felt the panic and anxiety rise in her throat as she tried to swallow it down. Goddamn him for being so straightforward. She was now furiously pacing back and forth, completely flustered. Her hair was wild as she nervously ran her hands through it repeatedly trying to comprehend how something like this could affect her so deeply. Unless King had been right…

For the next hour, Abby spent it biting her lip in concentration. So much so, that she had caused it to bleed and swell up. No amount of work was going to keep her mind off of him tonight, no matter how busy she kept herself. Truthfully, she did feel bad about barricading herself in her office, but she couldn't risk looking King face to face right now. Her mind was bombarded with paradigm of questions.

What made him have to phrase her insecurities out like that? How did he know exactly what she was feeling? Why did he have to have to use his leftover vampire powers to decipher her? Why was he right all the time? Why did he have to look like that?

She was going to figure out a way to solve her problems, or at least put them on the backburner for the time being. Soon enough she had fought herself into exhaustion. Still, she was trying to figure out why things had become so complicated. Begrudgingly, with her limbs resting in all angles, she fell into a fitful sleep.

King must've stood outside her door listening to her scolding herself for thirty minutes. She would cuss and then she would follow it up with intervals of silence. When that stopped, he heard noises that would lead him to believe she was steadily working. King debated whether or not he should try to talk to her

Abigail awoke with a start and jumped from her rolling chair, stumbling with a terrible sense of vertigo.

"Shhh…shhh…shhh…"

The voice startled her and a strong, steady hand grabbed a hold of her in the semidarkness. Its size and roughness instantly gave away the intruder's identity. King stepped out from the shadows. He had come in there earlier in hopes of reconciling this whole mess and solving it like civilized adults. A trait he did possess, but rarely put to good use. When he came to her office, her computer was chattering and buzzing, and from the sound of it, cussing her out. He called her name and got nothing in return. For a moment he had thought she was just ignoring him, and then he moved her chair only to find that she was out cold. And now she was just a wobbly mess. She looked straight into his eyes with her blurry ones and whimpered in frustration. The first thing that came out of her mouth threw King off by a long shot.

"You Bastard! I can't eat cinnamon gum anymore…"

Maybe she wasn't fully coherent. King decided to just roll with it.

"Actually Baby, I think you're supposed to chew gum."

She let out a snort and a giggle and poked his nose with her finger.

"You know what…you're right! Of course you're right! You're always right aren't you? I hate that…but you're cute."

Okay, something was definitely off kilter. He could swear that…no, not possible. King eyes began searching around the room for a culprit. Not far from some rolled plans, he had found the evidence. A freshly opened bottle of good ole' Jack Daniels.

"Oh Abby, Abby, Abby… how much?"

She held up her forefinger and thumb to symbolize the relatively small amount of liquor she consumed. Winking, she peered at him through the tiny space between her fingers. Judging from the contents in the bottle, King had to believe she was telling the truth. Only a little bit was missing from the top; maybe a shot or two at most.

"Easy there…No wonder you were sleeping halfway off the computer chair. Did you know your foot was propped up on the printer button, causing the computer to scan and print the same layout simultaneously?"

His voice was a gentle lull in her ears as she relaxed. Her head didn't even register the question he asked her. She smiled numbly at him with sleepy eyes. King fought the urge to laugh at this usual display of uncontrollable goofiness on her part thanks to the uninhibitor.

"Well, that explains why I can't feel my foot."

She wiggled her foot around until the dull ache of needles spread throughout it. King turned his head to one side and saw that her lips were unnaturally rosy. Surely Whistler didn't wear lip gloss to do her filing. It was then he realized that the pale reddish color was blood.

"Abby, why are you bleeding?"

She looked perplexed for a moment until she licker her lips and wiped at her mouth with her sleeve, looking at the newly formed stain. He saw as she recognized the cause and shrugged, yawning and stretching at the same time.

"Bad habit…"

She teetered on her feet and almost fell. He helped her sit back down and waited for her to calm her dizziness. He dabbed the rest of the blood away with his finger and she sat perfectly still and patient. His touch was soothing on her arm as he idly rubbed the length of it with his free hand. Abby suddenly came to her senses and reality of the past few hours slipped back into her mind. Nothing like that to sober you up really quickly. She sprang up, causing King to nearly fall over and shot an accusatory glare at him.

"What are you doing in here?"

King looked confused for a split second then realization hit and he tossed up his hands. There it went. She was back to being the invariable Ice Queen. It was a sequestered trait that he was not so willing to deal with again, at least not at this hour. It could wait until morning. He sighed and then bowed, replying sarcastically.

"You welcome you Highness… I was just cleaning up your mess."

Her mind was reeling and he wasn't being sarcastic as in funny, he was literally serious. Abby knew instantly that she had been wrong for jumping down his throat when he was just trying to help her, but anger had always been her guarded first response. She shook the cloudiness from her head as he circled around her chair. He was close to her. She felt his coarse beard scratching near her right cheek as he leaned across her to turn off the small desk lamp. His nostrils flared and his breathing was rapid with aggravation. His arm grazed her skin and she wished at the moment she could just apologize but pride be damned if she would allow herself to be that vulnerable. The pheromones in his body somehow made their way to her nose to tingle her senses lightly. Now, shrouded in complete darkness save for the faint hallway light seeping through the crack in the door, Abby watched as King ran his hand raggedly over his face. His voice sounded just as tired as she was and maybe just a bit more aggravated.

"Go to bed Abigail."

Somewhere deep down that request stung her. She didn't even reply. He didn't use one of his many names he had devised to avoid calling her Abigail. It almost felt like a stab. The tone was the kind you would use on a stubborn child to reprimand them. Obviously she had struck a nerve with him when she fled her room earlier and now it looked as if he had given up playing nice with her. King wracked his brain all the early morning hours in which he was supposed to be sleeping. Lying awake in his room, he kicked himself mentally for ever pushing Abby that far. That was just stupid of him to blatantly ask her to kiss him. Now the thin line of trust he did have with her was severed. He felt like he was back at square one again, like their agreement on a partnership that silently solidified a friendship had been taken away by that one bad move on his behalf. Once again the overzealous King had been impatient with getting what he wanted and it had landed him into another situation he didn't want to be in. Somehow he felt slightly better off knowing the small fact that Abby wasn't 5'1 with skunk hair, latex gloves and an oyster-shucker looking to have some recreational fun with his extremities without his consent. Although her rhetoric was just as vicious as his sometimes, he doubted she would ever just spar with him using witty banter either. No, if Abby was going to hurt him, she would do it in a way she was comfortable with. She would go internal. He studied her in the full darkness for a minute. She didn't appear to want to make a move to leave, yet she looked utterly uncomfortable in their silence. He would have to wait for her to make the first move now.

They both got up to leave to their respective quarters. Abby still being somewhat groggy, felt like there was a bag of rocks on her lap, rooting her to where she stood. Finally, she stumbled out of the door, grabbing it for support by its hinges. King wouldn't let her fall. He placed a hand on the small of her back and led her down the corridor. The touch was non evasive and it lacked the pleasing warmth their handshake had earlier. But, nonetheless his hand was there, and she knew it was only because he felt it was his responsibility as her partner to look out for her on and off the job. Turning down the hall King watched as Abby stopped at her room looking at it gloomily as if all her fears were waiting inside. She felt as soon as she crossed that threshold, a giant hell mouth would just open up and swallow her whole. He walked right passed her and to his door. As soon as Abby noticed King was unaware of her, she tiptoed, unseen, up to his open door to see him standing just inside of it with his back to her, getting ready to remove his shirt and crash into bed. She pushed him by his bare back further into the room, garnering a shocked and surprised look from him, letting one sentence slip from her lips before she turned around slamming the door, locking them both inside of it.

"We need to talk…"