Not as Dark or Deep

Chapter 4

Vicki stood in front of the bathroom mirror trying to put on a touch of mascara as Henry stood looking in the same mirror, studying his own reflection. They kept getting in each other's way and finally Vicki gave him a gentle shove saying, "My lease, I get first dibs on the mirror."

Henry adjusted the wave in his hair and countered, "I'm paying the rent."

Vicki smiled at him as he continued to analyze his looks. For the last few weeks he had been in the process of re-inventing himself. Henry Fitzroy had left town for good and Hank Royce had moved in. Where Henry had red gold hair and deep blue eyes, Hank had dark brown hair and green eyes. The well dressed look Henry preferred was set aside for the very casual Hank. Tee shirts and jeans were what he wore in public these days.

Vicki lips formed a slight pout as she said, "I hate the fact you look better and younger than me."

Henry looked at her image in the mirror, "You're beautiful." Then he smiled and let a bit of the vampire show, " I can't understand why you doubt that. We could always stop your aging."

Vicki shook her head saying, "I've come to a decision about that."

Henry turned away from the mirror and placed his hands on her waist, "What is it?"

She kissed the tip of his nose and said, "I'll tell you later tonight. First I have to meet up with Mike. He called today and said it was time for us to talk."

She went into the other room to get her coat and bag before saying, "Henry, I've liked having you stay here with me. I'm sorry I didn't take advantage of all your skills as a lover."

Henry watched as she closed the door behind her and said to himself, "Well old boy, it sounds like you'd I'd better hunt for another place to live."

Vicki walked into the Chinese restaurant that had been her favorite when she and Mike were together and looked around. She moved toward their table and saw an outline of two people sitting side by side, when she heard Mike call out, "Keep coming Vicki."

Vicki got closer and saw that Mike was wearing his 'lucky' tie and pointed to it saying, "That looks familiar."

Mike looked down, "Not really, it's new. It's a gift from Marianna." Mike stood and added, "Vicki, this is Marianna Celluci, my wife."

Vicki sat down hard on the chair Mike held out for her as he said, "Marianna, this is Vicki Nelson, the best partner I ever had."

Vicki put a cop's mask on her face and sat making polite small talk as Mike explained how he had met Marianna again at a high school reunion. She had been the love of his teenage life and now, after so many years, all the old feelings were back plus he found out that he had a nineteen year old son. The mistakes of twenty years ago were corrected with a simple wedding.

As soon as she was able, Vicki made her excuses, wished the couple happiness and left. She walked the busy streets until she could think straight and hailed a cab.

Vicki jabbed at the button that would take her to her apartment. She kept praying under her breath, 'be there' as the elevator stopped at every floor thanks to someone's prank. She said out loud, "Damn it! Be there."

She fought with the key trying to push it into the lock as the door opened. She shoved past Henry and he closed the door.

She spun around and said, "Turn me."

Henry brought his brows together and asked, "What did you say?"

"What's so hard to understand? I said turn me vampire. Right now."

"Not without knowing what happened. You can't come home and start giving me orders without some kind of explanation."

Vicki threw her bag against the wall and came straight at Henry saying, "I thought you wanted me. Take me, have sex, take blood and give me death."

Henry pulled her in and held her in a bone crushing hug while whispering, "I want you Vicki, and when we love it will be with joy, not anger or tears. If you want to be vampire, I'll do that too. But first, tell me what's wrong."

"That damn low life, sorry ass, rat bastard, excuse for a useless cop got married."

"Celluci? Married?"

"He knocked up his prom date in high school and now, twenty years later she's back, and he married her."

"Oh, Vicki. I'm sorry."

"Finally, I figure out who I want and why and it gets f'd up."

Henry dropped his arms and said, "I don't appreciate being a second choice."

Vicki grabbed onto him and gave him a shake saying, "Damn it, Fitzroy. You aren't the second choice, you're the first. I chose you, but I wanted to be the one to finally dump Mike permanently, not the other way around."

The vampire pushed aside the carefully constructed mask Henry wore in public and snarled, "Once you start down this path there's no turning back."