Story I – Chapter 10
Hotch appraised Bartles. "What do you mean, the control I already have? I almost attacked my own wife!"
Bartles chuckled. "When I was turned. . . Way back when. . . I didn't stop attacking people for several days, or at least I think it was several days. It may have been more or less. I was a monster through and through. Your first instinct when you woke up was to go back to your hotel and figure out what was going on. Mine was to see how many people I could kill and feed on. That speaks volumes for your deep rooted goodness. I wish I could have been a fourth of the man you really are."
Rossi smiled. The detective had just voiced what he already knew since the first day he'd met Hotch all those years ago. "That's my boy."
Hotch huffed. "And yet I almost attacked other people, too. Does it get that bad every time I get hungry or whatever you call it?"
Kahlan sighed. Of course you would beat yourself up for even thinking a bad thought. Oh Aaron, why do you always have to be so hard on yourself? She reached over and squeezed his hand. "What Aaron wants to know is if it can be handled before it ever gets bad in the first place," she explained to Sabastian.
Bartles nodded. "Yes. If you feed regularly, about every other day if you choose to not drink human blood. . ."
"Not human? You mean he can drink animal blood?" Chuck cut in making a disgusting face apparently thinking drinking animal blood was somehow worse than drinking human.
Bartles nodded again. "Yes. He can drink any type of blood. Human, of course, is the best for him."
"The best, how?" Kahlan asked and the look Hotch shot her made her duck a little but she stared at the Detective wanting an answer.
Bartles bit back the grin that wanted to show seeing how disturbed Hotch thought drinking human blood was. "Human is the most nutritious if you want to think of it like that. It keeps us strong and healthy, but other blood comes in a close second."
Kahlan raised her brows wanting more. "Give me an example."
Hotch shook his head. "He doesn't need to! I don't care what the effects or whatever it is, I'm not drinking it!"
Kahlan gave him her 'Hush, I know best so you will listen' look and turned back to Bartles. "Please, Sabastian. We will be better prepared if we know it all."
"I concur," Rossi agreed, and when Hotch looked at him as if he'd lost his mind, Rossi shrugged. "It's just like profiling, Aaron, the more we know the better decisions we can make."
Hotch sighed and sank back into the seat. "I'm not drinking it," he muttered under his breath like a child who had just been told he had to drink liquid spinach or something else just as disgusting.
Sabastian took a deep breath. "For instance, if you were to get really hurt, drinking human blood would make you heal faster than drinking animal blood. You will feel more energized and stronger after drinking human blood, too," he started to explain and Hotch started shaking his head, so Bartles quickly went on. "But animal blood is a close second; it's just not as good. Some vampires prefer the taste of human blood and don't like animal blood at all; some prefer the taste of some animals over others. It's just like anything in life; it all comes down to preference."
"So he might like beef more than pork sort of thing?" Chuck asked when a grin, and then cringed when Hotch shot him a dirty look.
"That's exactly right. I personally prefer pork if you want to call it that," Sebastian told him with a grin.
"And where do you get it?" Kahlan asked and Hotch could tell she was thinking a thousand things at once.
"I have a few contacts at the local slaughter houses," he stated plainly.
Kahlan nodded. "So you don't drink human at all?"
"I am not attacking anyone!" Hotch insisted as he stood up and walked over to the window.
"You don't have to attack anyone. Anything can be bought if you know the right people, Aaron," Kahlan told him as she got up and went to stand beside him.
"Just go to the blood bank and make a withdrawal," Chuck offered with a laugh, but he shut up when Kahlan shot him a hard look.
"He does have a point, though," Bartles started. "I keep some human blood on hand for when it's needed."
Kahlan nodded, and Hotch could tell she was thinking he was going to be on a diet of human blood if that was the best for him. He turned to Sabastian. "What kind did I drink earlier?" he asked even though he wasn't even sure he could remember what it tasted like exactly, but if it cured his hunger then, he could argue that he could continue drinking it.
Bartles winced slightly. "That doesn't count."
Hotch's stare emerged. "You promised it wasn't. . ."
"It wasn't human!" Sebastian insisted as he held up his hands.
Hotch relaxed a little, but he didn't like the look on the detective's face. "Then what kind was it?"
He gave him a little grin. "That was the end of the changing process, so it was mine."
Hotch pinched the bridge of his nose, and Kahlan pat his back. "But Hotch didn't bleed, so how did you get. . ."
Bartles smiled. "That was before the change was completed. He will bleed now, but now as badly or as quickly as he would have before."
Kahlan took a deep breath. "So is everything the way it will continue to be, or should we expect more changes?" she asked as she led Hotch back to the loveseat.
Hotch took a deep breath and downed his scotch. "Can I still get drunk?" he asked sarcastically.
Bartles gave him a sympathetic smile. "Yes, but it will take a lot more than it usually does. I wouldn't recommend it, though, because you may lose control."
Hotch balked at that thought and put the tumbler down on the table next to him. "I wouldn't want that to happen."
"But as per your question," Sebastian started again as he looked at Kahlan. "He is as he will be for now on. He will have to learn to control it all, but that will get easier with practice."
"Practice? What do you mean?" Hotch asked him with furrowed brows.
He shrugged. "All of the vampire things you can do. You will have to learn how to do them and control them."
Hotch shot a look to Kahlan, and she smiled. "You mean like his vampire powers?"
Hotch shook his head slowly as his cheeks heated. "You are enjoying this a little too much."
She giggled and looked at the detective for clarification. Sebastian chuckled. "Yes, his vampire abilities. He can do a few things."
"Like?" Chuck asked almost as excited as Kahlan.
Rossi chuckled, too. "Would you please tell them before one of them busts a vein."
Hotch winced with Rossi choice of words and then shook his head some more because he could tell Rossi was just as interested as they were. "Let me guess? I can turn into a bat."
The look on Kahlan's face told them all she hoped he could, but Sebastian shook his head. "No, sorry, that's one point from the classic movies that isn't true, but you can turn into a wolf."
"A wolf? As in howling at the moon, wolf?" Chuck asked quickly with a mile wide grin, and Sebastian nodded. "That's cool as shit!"
"And, of course, like I said, you can compel people. Oh and there's the moving so fast that people think you can disappear, too."
Kahlan giggled. "We've seen, or not seen if you would, how fast you can move."
"And you can sort of fly," Sabastian finished with a grin.
"Fly?" Hotch asked suddenly a little more interested.
Bartles shrugged. "Well, that's what most people would consider it. You can jump really far and with as fast as you can move, it seems like you can fly."
Kahlan looked at her husband. "You must have flown from hospital."
Hotch frowned. "How could I do something I didn't know I could do?" he asked and Kahlan shrugged.
"You can't travel great distances like that, though," Sebastian put in. "So he probably just ran, but you have to be careful moving so quickly."
"Meaning?" Hotch asked.
"If you don't pay attention you'll move like that without even meaning to, and that would give away your secret."
Hotch nodded. "I understand. Exactly how hard is it to keep it hidden?"
Sebastian shrugged. "After all this time, it's easy for me, but I would think that as long as you are careful, you'll be alright."
Rossi smiled. "We're used to keeping secrets, so he'll be fine."
"And the less people who know, the better it will be," Bartles quickly put in with a serious look.
"But he'll have to tell his team," Kahlan insisted.
"Why?" Bartles asked her.
"How else is he going to explain how he's not dead?" she asked him matter-of-factly.
"He could block their memory of him supposedly dying," Bartles offered. "Or I could," he quickly added with the 'I don't think so' look Hotch gave him.
"No. They have to know the truth because they are the people who spend the most time with him," she insisted.
"Maybe I could. . ." Hotch started.
"And what happens when an unsub shoots you and you don't even flinch?" she asked him with raised brows.
Rossi cleared his throat. "She's right, Aaron. There are too many possibilities of something happening for them not to know. If they know, then they can help cover if need be."
Hotch nodded. "You're right. It would be better all the way around."
Bartles didn't look so sure. "The last group of people I shared my secret with turned on me."
Hotch's eyes narrowed. "My team isn't like that," he told him with deadly certainty.
Bartles held up his hands in acquiescence. "You would know best."
"Does he just turn when he's hungry or can he choose to do it?" Kahlan asked to turn the subject.
Bartles shut his eyes for a second and when he opened them, his eyes were yellow and red and his fangs had dropped. "He can do it at will," he offered and then made himself go back to normal.
Hotch looked half shocked. "My eyes look like that?!"
Kahlan laughed. "Yes, Hun."
"No wonder you looked at me like you did. That's enough to scare anyone," he offered as he shook his head, but Kahlan looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. "Well, most people would be afraid." Kahlan huffed and Hotch shook his head some more and then turned back to Bartles. "And how do I do that?"
Bartles took a deep breath as he rested his elbows on his knees and steppled his fingers in front of his face. "I'm not sure."
"What?" Kahlan asked before anyone else could.
He sighed. "Most people, the ones I've changed and the ones I've seen changed by others, have to fight to get it not to show. They have to learn to keep it under control, not the other way around. It almost seems as if your human side is the dominate one and the vampire is the subservient. Most of the time it's the opposite."
Hotch ran a hand along the back of his neck. "Maybe that means there's something wrong with me."
Kahlan sighed. "No. More like you are too much of a control freak when it comes to yourself that there's no way you'd let something have control over you without a major fight."
Bartles nodded as he considered it. "That could be it. Do you feel it within you?"
Hotch took a deep breath and search inwardly. After a moment, he half shrugged. "I'm not sure. I think so. It almost seems as if something is coiled within me. It sort of feels like anger trying to boil over."
Rossi winced mentally. He knew that if Hotch connected his vampire to anger, then he would do everything in his power to fight against it, and that would make for a very hard road ahead of him.
"Maybe it's something like the Hulk and you have to be mad for it to come out," Chuck offered.
Hotch shook his head. "I wasn't mad when Kahlan cut herself. The smell of her blood and the beating of her heart brought it out."
"But that wouldn't have happened if you had fed like you should have. That's just the way it gets if you go too long without feeding it," Bartles assured him.
"Then let it uncoil. Let it out and see what happens," Kahlan suggested softly.
Hotch balked. "And if I lose control?"
"It's not like it turns you into something or someone else. It's still you, just in vampire form," Sabastian tried, but Hotch's look told him he wasn't sure. "I wouldn't let you do anything," he quickly assured him. "You may be a vampire but the older you are the stronger you are. Don't take this the wrong way, but you'd be no match for me."
"You have to do it sooner or later, Hun. You might as well try it now when you have Sebastian here as a safe guard if you're that worried," Kahlan offered.
Hotch took a deep breath and nodded and then shut his eyes and tried to call what he felt inside him to the surface. His hands balled into fists as he felt it edging its way forward, but he tensed and held it until he felt Kahlan's hand rubbing circles on his back and whispering softly that he could do it. When he felt his fangs slip down, he figured that meant his eyes had changed, too, so he slowly opened them and looked at the floor.
Kahlan ducked her head down and gave him a smile. "Hey there."
Hotch looked up at her and frowned. "So did it work?"
She giggled. "Yep. How do you feel?"
He ran his tongue along the bottom of his top teeth testing his fangs and then shrugged. "No different, I guess," he uttered and then looked around at everyone else.
"Dude!" Chuck exclaimed. "That is so cool, and yet very creepy at the same time."
"Charles!" Kahlan yelled.
"Sorry," Chuck muttered as he sank back into his seat sheepishly.
"Can you make it go away?" Rossi asked as he studied him. Seeing those eyes in place of the brown ones he had grown to love was a little daunting.
Hotch closed his eyes as he took a deep breath and felt his fangs go back up and opened his eyes with a smile. "That was a lot easier than I thought it would be."
Kahlan grinned. "See? I knew you could do it."
Hotch's cheeks heated a little with the praise.
"Now turn into a wolf!" Chuck urged.
"You can be sent home, Charles!" Kahlan told him with a mean look.
"Like you don't want to see it, too?" Chuck asked as he held up his chin.
Kahlan bit her lip and looked at the floor. "Maybe."
Hotch sighed as he hid his face behind a hand. "I have to apologize for my wife and her friend, Sebastian. They are both a little crazy."
Bartles laughed. "I think it's amazing that you have such an understanding support group. I would have loved to have someone on my side when it happened to me."
"When did it happen to you?" Rossi asked him.
Bartles sighed. "When I was twenty three, I was attacked on my way back from town. I had no idea what had happened, but I lived alone and went through the change without anyone realizing it." He looked at Rossi. "That was almost seven hundred years ago."
Rossi almost choked on the drink of scotch he'd just taken. "Seven hundred years ago?"
Bartles shrugged. "In some ways it seems like forever ago, but other times it seems like just yesterday. Of course some years are just a blur, but others. . . Well, I have many memories to keep me company."
