Lena hated being confined. Honolulu Heights was a big house, but it wasn't big enough. She needed to walk, to run, to ride a bike, to dance until she was exhausted and dripping with sweat. She didn't need to sit at a table answering emails and coordinating her business calendar and tracking the worldwide search for Hetty that she had established long before she knew of the threat against Hal. Lena had her own agenda, vampire-wise, and it included Hetty's extermination. Maybe using Hal as bait would be the easiest way to make it happen, but Lena would rather it didn't come to that.

She and Hal had their routines in place and he had even helped her unpack the clothes she had shipped from home. She could tell he was disappointed by the lack of frilly girly things in her wardrobe, but she didn't care. She had nobody to please but herself, and she liked practical clothes.

Lena called the Harrimans to see if she could begin demolition on the space that was to become her dance studio, but they advised against it until all the plans were in place. It would be at least another few days. Besides, she didn't have the tools for the job—they were on order but had yet to arrive. That's the trouble with internet shopping; no instant gratification. Everything had to be shipped in.

Finally she couldn't take it anymore and just stood in the middle of the floor and yelled. "Jesus fucking christ-on-a-cracker, I need to do something!"

Hal looked up from his jigsaw puzzle. "Restless?"

"Shit yeah, aren't you?"

"As a matter of fact I am," he replied. "Other me appreciated the bars of his cage and the endless useless trivial tasks he gave himself. I do not."

"Great. That's it, then. C'mon, Fangboy, you and me are going out." Lena scrawled a note for Alex and Tom, who had gone to the Archive to visit Ben and Beth Riley:

Gone out.
Be back.
L (& H)

She headed out the back door and Hal followed her, bemused. She walked to the center of the enclosed garden and turned to face him. "Here we are."

Hal was disappointed to learn that their trip only went this far, but he had to admit that there was a nice breeze blowing a hint of saltwater up from the docks, as well as the scent of roses from somewhere, and the seabirds squabbling in the distance didn't sound too annoying. Suddenly Hal realized that the world had frozen around him: no breeze, no smells, no sounds. The air took on that particularly effervescent quality that warned him something was coming, but he was still unprepared when Lena grabbed him around the waist and pulled him to her.

"Hang on!" And she laughed as suddenly they were moving inside a bubble of stillness that shouldn't exist.

Hal threw his arms around her neck and squeezed his eyes shut, and before he could say "Oh shit!" he felt his feet on the ground again. Lena pulled them apart and looked around, clearly satisfied that she had chosen an isolated landing spot.

Hal spun around, gasping at the sudden change of scenery. "We're in the Brecon Beacons, I'm sure of it. I haven't been to this area, but I recognize the shape of those hills, this is somewhere in the Black Mountains."

"If you say so. I just focused on 'isolated, no warm-blooded creatures nearby'." Lena also looked around until she spotted a large outcropping of rock a good mile away and at the top of the slope they had landed on. There were gravel slides, gullies, and brushy areas between them and the outcropping. Lena decided it would be an excellent destination point.

"Race you to the big rock!" She pointed to the outcropping, gave Hal a backhand slap on the chest, and took off in a run.

Hal hesitated a moment, but the predator in him couldn't stand the sight of her getting ahead of him. "Bollocks!" He took off after her.

They ran, Lena always slightly ahead, Hal pushing to catch up. He didn't notice how fast they ran or how high and far they leapt to clear brush and gullies. She scrambled across loose gravel and so did he; he used his hands to balance himself on the steepening slope and ignored the dirt and sweat and pain until at last they reached the outcropping. Lena pulled herself onto it and let out a whoop before spinning to see Hal join her. She collapsed onto the rock and leaned back on her elbows, panting and laughing.

He wavered on his feet, hands on his knees, and gasped, "I thought—you weren't—trying to—kill me." He flopped onto the rock next to her and did his best to breathe. In theory he was dead and didn't need oxygenated lungs or a working heart, but Hal had never fully reconciled himself to that theory. His heart pounded almost painfully in his chest, and the stitch in his side assured him that his lungs were valiantly trying to pump oxygen into his system.

Lena sat up and used her shirttail to wipe the sweat from her face. She was a dirty, sweaty mess and as happy as a pig in slop. Hal was just as dirty and sweaty, but she wasn't sure he was quite as happy.

"Damn, I needed that," she said. "I have got to get that dance studio done so I have someplace to burn off some energy."

He turned his head a bit to look at her. "If it keeps me from doing this every day, I'm happy to help with the construction effort."

"Good, 'cause that's what you'll be doing. Do you have much experience with a wrecking bar? Sawsall? Drill-driver? When was the last time you built something Hal, before the age of power tools?"

"I don't think I've ever really 'built' anything, architecturally speaking. It will be a grand new experience, I'm sure." He sat up and gazed over the territory beneath them. "I don't see a lake or river from here."

"Do you need one?"

"I am thirsty, so unless you can pull a magical water bottle from your whatever…" Seeing her eyeroll, he continued. "Then I propose we find some water in the area. Without knowing where we are, I can't say how far away or in what direction that would be."

"We'll fly," Lena said nonchalantly as she got to her feet. Hal stayed where he was, shaking his head. "Oh come on, I'll take it easy on you this time. No bullet train. We'll go slow, look around."

"That sounds even worse," he said, although he allowed her to pull him to his feet. "I'm not keen on the idea of being carried around like a child as you sightsee through the Black Mountains."

"How about I piggyback you?" She turned around and carefully unfurled her wings to show him that there was room for him to squeeze between them. "I'll tie us together so you won't fall off. You can see where we're going, you won't have to worry about me dropping you, and you can point me in the right direction if you think I'm going off course." She had the bola in her hand, ready to go.

Hal considered her suggestion. "Piggybacking" as she called it, wasn't his favorite position when dealing with a woman, but he didn't mind it. In fact, he was concerned that he might enjoy it a bit too much and anger her in the process, a thought that apparently also occurred to her. She looked at him over her shoulder.

"Try not to get a boner just thinking about it, all right?" She rolled her eyes. "Men. So predictable." There was clearly a pun built into her last statement.

Because he didn't have much choice Hal cautiously stepped between her wings, brushed against the satin-steel of her feathers, and set himself against her back. He draped his arms loosely around her neck. She stood on tiptoe to equal his height as she lashed them together just above the waist and made sure the bola was snug around them both. Then she said the words he dreaded.

"Hang on!"

Hal felt the lift of her wings, saw the ground recede, and heard the air whistle past his ears until suddenly they were in a bubble again, but moving over the landscape several hundred feet in the air. Lena must have done something to keep them from being seen. Neat trick, another one he'd never heard of. As soon as they gained altitude they both saw a lake in the distance and Lena flew toward it, circling a bit until she found an isolated inlet into which a stream emptied. Running water was more likely to be drinkable.

Hal tried to play it cool as they set down, but his entire body hummed with excitement and internally he was screaming that flying with Lena was THE MOST AMAZING THING HE HAD EVER DONE! Instead he studied the stream, which appeared to have relatively clean water.

"These streams used to be very clear. Who knows, nowadays," he said as he cupped his hand in the water and brought a sip to his mouth. He noticed that his hand was trembling just a bit, whether from excitement, exhaustion, or fear he couldn't be sure.

"It's not like dirty water is going to kill us," Lena responded as she also knelt and cupped her hand to catch a drink. When she had sated her thirst Lena walked to the edge of the lake, kicked off her shoes, and rolled up her jeans. She waded into the water and sluiced the dirt off her head and arms, shaking the water off as she returned to the shore. Hal decided it was a good idea and did the same. He joined her on the shore and they rested in the grass and allowed the sun to dry their hair and clothes.

"Do you do that often?" he asked.

"What, fly?" She shook her head. "Hardly ever. I was raised to follow human paths as much as possible and only use my gifts when necessary."

"Why?"

"It keeps me from getting a big ego. I mean, I know what I'm capable of, but I have to stay grounded, literally and figuratively, so I don't forget my purpose. When I was young I chose to protect human life, not just to use my gifts for my own advantage and to use this world as my playground." She gave him a lopsided smile. "It is a pretty cool playground though, and I have some pretty cool gifts."

"Agreed. Your ability to be unseen, to move without time passing…I've never heard of those."

"Well, it's not like we go around advertising our gifts. You aren't supposed to know everything about us, remember? Natural enemies and all that." In truth, those gifts were uniquely hers.

"Right. Sorry. Forgot. When Alex rent-a-ghosted me it was like moving through death."

"Well, she's dead, Hal." He gave her a no-shit look. She continued. "Time has stopped for Alex, but she hasn't gone through her door yet, so in some ways her death is incomplete. That's why rent-a-ghosting feels like it does, and why she can still claim some qualities of a living person if she's strong enough."

"The thing with you, it felt different." Hal prompted Lena to tell him more. He found himself wanting to learn all he could about her.

"It's an angel thing, moving without time because angels exist beyond time. Most eternal creatures can do it, to some extent or other. No passengers though, most people can't handle it, scrambles their brains."

"What!?" Hal had been laying on his side, leaning up on one elbow. He sat bolt upright as he spoke.

"What?" She shrugged nonchalantly, "Come on, Hal, you're not exactly people any longer. And if the bullet train did shake you up a little I could probably fix it."

"My lady, I fear it was a mistake to trust you. I wrongly believed that you knew what you were doing when you brought me here," he said, returning to the formal language that indicated a loss of the easy comfort they had established.

"Well, shit." Lena was upset by the turn in their conversation. "Look Hal, I don't know what I'm doing with any part of this thing. It's not like I've hung out with vampires before. I just have a sense of what should work, so that's what I do."

"Ah. The all-important belief in yourself that you were explaining to Alex," he said sarcastically.

She replied quietly, "I have only been captured one time in my life, and that was because I believed I could be. I learned a hard lesson that day, and I will never doubt myself again."

They sat quietly for a little while and watched water birds try to catch fish in the lake. Hal was glad for the time to give his exhausted muscles a chance to recuperate. He glanced at Lena. She seemed physically unaffected by their race/climb, and she was relaxed and seemingly at peace with herself. Her restlessness was gone, as was her watchfulness of him, which was odd considering that they were out in the wide open where anything could happen. She was the most puzzling creature he had ever met.

"What's the longest time you've spent with a vampire, my lady, before you decided to embark on this great experiment?" His words were formal, but his tone was lightly teasing. He reclined again as he spoke, relaxing his manner as well as his voice.

"Hmmm, whew, um…five…minutes maybe? If the crowd was big enough and some of them tried to run?" She frowned as she thought back. "I've never timed it, sorry."

Hal laughed. "My god, how you must have hated coming to live with me!"

"Nice use of the past tense, Fangboy," she said dryly.

"That was technically the correct usage. I can bring it to present tense if you prefer, my lady. How you must hate living with me." Hal began his statement in jest but found himself ending it in bitterness.

"I hate being trapped. End of."

"As do I."

They were silent for a moment as they each reflected on the situation they found themselves in.

"Isn't this rich? Are we a pair?" she sang softly to herself.

"Me here at last on the ground, you in mid-air," Hal matched her vocally on the next line, arching his eyebrows at her surprised look.

"You sing?"

"Only when I'm alone," he replied.

"Gotcha."

He continued, "At least we aren't trapped with clowns, because would be my worst nightmare." He tried to keep a straight face, but the corners of his lips twitched in spite his best efforts. Lena almost believed him, until she saw his struggle not to laugh. In a lifetime of unspeakable violence and horror, Hal Yorke had never taken the time to develop a fear of clowns.*

"Smartass," she said casually, laughing with him at the joke.

But the song was in her head now, and she rose to her feet, humming it softly, and began to dance something like a waltz in the grass. She ended near the stream they had drunk from and paused, cocked her head, and listened to the water noises until she found another beat. This time it was a light-footed, light-hearted dance that led her to the lake itself. There she paused again and listened to the gentle slap of water on shore. Her new beat. Skip-skip-slap, skip-skip-slap; she moved along the shore with a foot gently slapping the top of the water with each third step, a folk dance of her own creation.

Hal watched her, fascinated. He knew most formal dances from the past 500 years and could lead a partner effortlessly. He had seen and eaten many amazing dancers; some of the most erotic meals of his life had begun with dance. What Lena was doing wasn't erotic at all. Her dance had no purpose other than the joy of moving in the world. She wasn't so much a woman as she was a wild creature playing in the wilderness.

She turned and realized how far she had gone from him and called out, "Watch out, Fangboy!"

Suddenly she ran, then leapt and spun in the air, bounced into a mid-air somersault, and another, and landed a mere foot from where he sat. She dropped to one knee with a flourish and he applauded politely, but she could see by the look on his face that he was impressed. She had moved so quickly that he could barely tell what she was doing.

"You really dance," he said.

"Only when I'm alone," she replied as she rolled onto her stomach in the grass. She propped herself up on her elbows and watched a bug work its way along the ground.

"I know that you know how to kill me," she said without looking at him.

"Cut out your heart and brain and burn them?" Hal nodded his awareness. "Your blood would kill me first."

"Yes."

"Does that mean you can regenerate one or the other, but not both?" he asked.

"I don't know, and I don't intend to find out," she said, looking at him with a smile. "Some rules I'd rather not break."

Lena relaxed for a little while, but eventually she stood up and stretched. "Well, shit, we should probably head back home soon. Tom and Alex will worry if we're gone too long." She looked down at Hal. "So Fangboy, how do you want to travel? Bullet train or slow boat to China?"

Hal tapped the side of his head to signify his as-yet unscrambled brain. "Slow boat to China, my lady. Just in case."

It was past 6 o'clock by the time they walked through the back door at Honolulu Heights, dirty, disheveled, slightly wind-blown, and happy. Tom and Alex were in the kitchen, with Tom putting together his supper when they returned.

"Honey, I'm home!" Lena called out her signature greeting as she entered the house.

"Don't you mean we're home?" Hal said as he entered the house behind her. She hadn't insisted that he lead through the door; her watchfulness had yet to return.

She had taken the scenic route back to Honolulu Heights, which he enjoyed, and pulled a few aerial stunts just to shake him up, which he, surprisingly, had also enjoyed. He had held tightly to her through the loops and rolls and may have even wrapped his legs around her at one point—it was a bit of a blur.

"You know, that would have been sexy if it weren't so terrifying," he said, referring to their return flight.

"That's what they all say." She threw the line over her shoulder as she headed for the fridge and a cold beverage. "Aye up!" She tossed him a bottle of water and opened one for herself as they slumped at the table and touched the necks of their bottles in a toast to the day before taking good long drinks.

Alex marched over and crossed her arms. "And just where have you been?" she said with a glare.

Hal and Lena looked at her for a moment before they burst out laughing.

"You wouldn't believe it if we told you," Hal finally got out.

"Just flittering around," Lena managed at about the same time.

When they regained their composure, Hal said, "I need to shower."

"I need to shower," Lena replied.

"Yes you do," Hal said.

"Wait a minute, what are you implying?"

He started laughing again as he got up, took Lena's hand, and pulled her to her feet. "Come on, my lady, we'll flip a coin to see who goes first."

When they returned to the first floor, cleaned up and calmed down, Tom and Alex were sitting on the sofa together watching television. While Lena went to the kitchen in search of food, Hal joined Tom and Alex in the living room. He sat on the sectional and explained briefly where they had gone. "Lena flew us to the Brecon Beacons, we had a good run, and she flew us back."

"What does that mean, she flew you?" Tom asked.

"She picked me up and we flew. With her wings. Like a giant, invisible bird. She does this thing where she can't be seen and…you know, Tom, you're just going to have to take my word for it, because I really can't explain it."

"She carried you?" Alex was grinning. "Like Superman carries Lois Lane? Hal, you're Lois Lane!"

"It wasn't quite like that, Alex, believe me, there is a lot more to it. She does something similar to your rent-a-ghosting when she wants to, but it's some sort of angel thing. I've never heard of it." Hal was most definitely not Lois Lane and he wanted to make that clear. However, he realized that he was failing miserably to do so.

"Wait, so she flies and she rent-a-ghosts? Hal, have you been drinking?" Alex was enjoying herself.

"He's telling the truth," Lena came to Hal's rescue with a plate of chicken salad sandwiches and a bowl of spiced apple chunks with two forks sticking out of it. She plopped onto the sectional next to him, handing him the plate while setting the apples on her other side. She snagged a sandwich and Hal took one as well before he set the plate on his off side.

"It isn't rent-a-ghosting, but it is the same principle. I can create a bubble in time and move within that bubble so when I get where I'm going no time has passed. It is an angel thing, immortals live beyond time and can move from place to place without needing time to do it. I can also just flap my wings and fly like a bird. We did some of both."

They ate in front of the television like normal people, the vampire and the Seraphin Nepos with their werewolf and ghost companions, and no remarks were made until Alex watched them sharing the single bowl of spiced apples.

"Doesn't that bother you," she asked Hal, "sharing the bowl? You'll be getting her germs and stuff."

"Other me would most certainly be bothered by sharing a bowl, or by eating without proper dishes properly placed at a dining table," Hal replied. "I'm just happy for a clean bowl and a fork."

"Especially the fork," Lena added, waving hers gently in front of them. "What a great invention."

"Remember when we had to carry our own utensils in a box? And forks were considered effeminate?" Hal shook his head, recalling the days when every food was finger food and he was lucky to have a spoon to call his own.

"You two are worse than my nana and grampa, with your stories about the old days," Alex said.

"Of course we are," Lena replied, unperturbed. "We are centuries older than your grandparents and have a lot more old days to talk about."

"My biggest fear is that I'm going to end up like you some day, talking about the old days and how much better things are now," Alex was sort of teasing but not really, and she could tell that her fear carried through to her friends.

"I don't think you'll be around that long," Lena said. "A few more years, maybe even a few decades, but not centuries. I just don't see it."

"Can you tell? Can you find out?"

"Do you want me to?"

"I don't know, let me think about it?"

Lena shrugged. "Sure, no rush. I can ask around if you want, maybe get a hint of what your unfinished business is."

Hal thought it was time to change the subject, so he asked Tom about the Rileys, a topic that Tom was happy to discuss at length. Hal also asked about the hotel, another good topic for Tom, and the conversation flowed smoothly until the evening ended on a congenial note for everyone.

# # #

Hal lay on his back in bed and stared at the ceiling. "I had fun today."

"So did I," Lena said from the next bed.

He didn't realize that he had spoken aloud until he heard her reply. Having inadvertently begun a conversation, however, he decided to continue. "I don't have fun."

"Really?" She rolled over to face him. "I thought you took great pride in your ability to amuse and entertain yourself and your cohorts." She wasn't being sarcastic or mean, she was merely referring to his dossier.

"Yes, but my amusements include enslavement, torture, and murder, so I don't put them in the same category as 'fun.'"

"So the word 'fun' carries connotations of what? Light-hearted? Innocent? No creatures were harmed in the making of this fun?"

He chuckled. She had once again managed to explain exactly what he meant with words he would never consider using. "Something like that, yes."

"What about other you? Doesn't he have fun?"

"He is afraid of fun. It could lead to the loss of his precious self-control." He thought for a moment about the day. "I also don't laugh freely, as a general rule."

"Laughter is good for you."

"The things I usually laugh at aren't good for anyone."

"And other you?"

"Mild to moderate, brief laughter or smile. The self-control issue again."

"Other you sounds like a real stick-in-the-mud."

"He is. I hate him. He's unnatural."

"You know you said that he enjoys the bars of his cage?" Lena propped herself up on an elbow so she could see Hal better. "I think you have it wrong. I think he is the cage." As Hal moved to face her and mimic her position in his own bed, she continued. "I think that the human part of you eventually gets so sick of what the vampire does that you put up a cage, or put on another personality like a suit of armor, and you squeeze into it and lock the vampire down. At some point you learned to take the parts of your character that worked to control the curse and you amplified them into a whole other personality."

"That may be it," he agreed, "or I may just be insane." Hal had never admitted that to anyone.

"I don't think you're insane. Well, no more than usual." She smiled. "I've seen a lot of insanity. You don't fit the profile. No, you are something else altogether."

He lay on his back again and she absently did the same in her bed. He frowned to himself, not sure that he should say what he was thinking. They were getting along well. He didn't want to spoil it.

"When you came here, I thought you were going to keep me prisoner," he began, "or turn me back into him, make me good again."

"You are a prisoner, Hal, but so am I. We are locked in this thing together."

"I see that now. I don't understand how you can do it, give up your life and come here, come to this. But I see that you are as much bound to it as I am. Is that why you are being so…decent about it?"

"It makes sense to keep things as normal as possible for both of us, except for the enslavement-torture-murder thing. I'm in this for the long haul, Hal." She sighed. "I hate that you are a vampire. I hate that you chose such a horrendous life for yourself. I hate seeing the curse draped over your body like a blood-soaked sheet. Were it not for that, I think we could be friends."

"You can still see it?"

"Yes, always. It is getting lighter. Today it was barely visible."

"Ah. So that's why you could stand to touch me." There was a note of sadness in his voice. She didn't respond. She wasn't willing to tell him the effort it took her to keep his curse from invading her whenever they had prolonged contact.

"I like having you close," he whispered to himself, with a hint of wonderment, caught off guard by his own feelings.

"Early days, Hal. You may change your mind once I get a sawsall in my hand." Lena rolled away from him as she spoke, hiding her own surprise at what she had heard. "Good night."

"Good night, Lena." He lay awake for a long time and listened to her breathe, to the little purr in her throat. He liked having her close to him, and he liked himself when her influence calmed the vampire inside him. Hal Yorke hadn't truly been human for centuries, but he was beginning to remember what it felt like. He sighed. Now if he could just keep from falling for her.

*They are referencing lyrics from the song "Send in the Clowns" from A Little Night Music, a musical by Stephen Sondheim (book by Hugh Wheeler). The musical's title is actually the English translation the German name for Mozart's Serenade No. 13 for Strings in G Major, Eine kleine Nachtmusik.