The return to Lena's hotel suite began quietly as they each held moments from the concert in their minds. Hal heard her humming and saw her arms gently swaying to the music. Good thing she had arranged for them to be driven, as she really couldn't resist moving when there was music in her head.

She called ahead and ordered an assortment of delicacies to be brought to their suite from the hotel kitchen, and Hal assumed that she was once again putting his need for seclusion ahead of her own pleasure. Part of him badly wanted to take her out and treat her to the finest London had to offer, but he also realized the risks such a venture would entail.

"Are you sure you don't want to go out for a late dinner?" he asked. "I wouldn't mind walking into a restaurant with you on my arm."

"Thanks, but I think we've had enough public exposure for one night," she replied with a smile. "I don't spend a lot of time at this sort of thing, and I've about had my fill." She looked him over and added, "I suppose you could party all night long."

"At one time, yes, I would have looked forward to it," he acknowledged, "but it wouldn't be the kind of party you'd enjoy."

She chuckled. "I probably would, until you started the torture-murder part of the evening. I've been known to cut loose in my day."

"Would you be referring to your table dance of 150 years ago, my lady?"

"That was not my only table dance," she said lightly. "You should have seen me in Paris. Or Budapest. Or Athens. I could go on." She smiled to herself as she reminisced.

"I'd love to dance with you again," Hal said quietly.

"Then maybe you should," she answered. "There's a sound system in our suite."

Hal suspected that Lena would go straight to her room to change, so as soon as they stepped out of the elevator he caught her hand and pulled her to the sound system, where he recognized a CD and she put it in the player.

"I can't believe you have this one," he murmured as the sound of The Platters singing "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" filled the room.

"Find me something better to dance to, and I'll get it," she answered as she allowed herself to be drawn into his arms.

"I don't suppose you know the Astaire-Rogers version?" He smiled as they moved together around the room. "I'm an admirer of his work."

She smiled as she spun lightly out to the length of his arm and back. "So am I, but we'll need the studio for that. Not enough room here."

The song ended and "Only You" began. They continued dancing, easily changing pace and style with the new melody, through "Red Sails in the Sunset" and "Twilight Time."

Finally Lena pulled away from him and turned down the music. "You are by far the best dance partner I've ever had," she said, "but I'm hungry." In truth she would have danced with him for hours, which is why she had to quit.

Lena went to her room to change out of her dress before eating, which left Hal alone to investigate the table and wish she had stayed with him longer. He enjoyed being sharply dressed and was in no rush to change, and besides, he knew she liked the way he looked in his new suit. He saw her eyes linger on him, saw the corner of her mouth twitch upward in the hint of a smile. After a moment's thought Hal removed his suit jacket and hung it carefully over the back of a dining chair. He would give her a new silhouette to enjoy over dinner.

When she came out of her room he felt his stomach cave in; how could she be so impossibly beautiful, even in a simple t-shirt and trousers? He found himself once again at a loss for words in her presence.

Instead of trying to think of something witty to say he simply offered her a glass of wine. Hal had checked the vintage and knew it was a good one. He was once again pleasantly surprised, as he discovered how much better a good wine tasted without the underlying note of disappointment that it wasn't blood.

"You're unusually quiet this evening," Lena said as they ate. "Aren't you enjoying yourself?"

"Yes. More than you can imagine."

She waited. It sounded like Hal might have something more on his mind.

"I've used concerts as hunting grounds or preludes to a feast. I've spent hours listening to music just to focus on counting the number and type of instruments and the time changes and number of beats per minute, to help me control it, control the hunger. In 500 years this is the first time I've just listened to the music. It was more beautiful than I expected."

He poured them each another glass of wine and offered a simple toast. "Thank you, my lady."

"You're welcome," she said with a smile. She took a sip and set down her glass. "This is a far cry from wine fermented in goat skins in the corner of a mud hut."

He smiled at the image of her living in a hut. Every time he thought he had a good picture of Lena she added another tidbit of her past to throw him off. From concert hall to mud hut, he believed that she could master any environment through which she moved.

They finished the bottle of wine before retiring for the night. Hal said it would help him sleep, so it made sense to do so. They both realized that they would be further apart than they had been since Lena's arrival at Honolulu Heights. She asked him not to hesitate to wake her if he needed her during the night, but Hal was determined not to allow the curse to ruin their perfect day. Surely he could survive one night alone without disturbing her. Once he settled into bed, however, he realized that he wasn't as alone as he would have liked. Someone was moving above him.

Hal heard heartbeats and the soft whisper of voices and he felt the vampire stirring deep within him.

"No." He wouldn't accept it. He jumped out of bed and began doing press-ups, focusing on the movement of his body and the rhythm of the count. He just about had it under control when he heard the man above him curse and smelled blood. The man had cut himself shaving.

Hal rushed out of his room and into the living area and pushed open Lena's bedroom door. His senses told him when he touched her door that she was asleep, but before he had taken a step inside her room she was poised in attack position on the far side of her bed, swords in her hands, glow-in-the-dark stars on her t-shirt. He stumbled to a halt. She relaxed when she saw him.

"There are people above me," he said. "Someone is bleeding. I'm sorry." Hal meant that he was sorry for ruining the evening and waking her up and startling her, and for being a vampire and needing blood and forcing her to isolate herself from the world. His 'sorry' carried a very heavy load of meaning and she understood that.

"Don't apologize, Hal. You haven't done anything wrong."

"Still, I'm sorry." He was sorry every second of every minute of every hour of every day and night that he was a creature she couldn't love, and sorry that she spent her life watching his cursed self be less than a man.

"You keep saying 'sorry' and I'm going to slap you upside your head." She moved around the foot of the bed toward him. "So, you can't sleep in the other bedroom. We'll trade."

He let his senses reach out and heard it again, the beating of hearts above him. He shook his head sadly. "This one is no better."

She stood quietly for a moment. "I can sense them. Lots of souls. The fifth floor must be full to capacity tonight. I should have thought of that before bringing you here."

She frowned thoughtfully and looked at her queen-sized bed. "It's a very big bed."

Hal wanted desperately for her to invite him to sleep with her, so instead he shook his head and said, "Not big enough to keep me from finding you while we sleep."

"Well, shit. I don't want to wake up next to a pile of dust in the morning."

"That's not the problem you'd find yourself with, my lady." He glanced at her, then back at the bed. "Unless you don't consider it a problem."

"We can't commingle," she reminded him.

"If I get in that bed with you, there will most certainly be commingling," he said grimly. "Attempted commingling, at least."

They stood silently for a moment, until she said, "You know, those sofas are bigger than some beds I've slept in." She moved to get a pillow and blanket off the bed.

"Very likely much more comfortable as well," Hal added as he took the blanket from her and they began moving toward the living room.

"It's got to beat a pile of animal skins on the floor," she said as she dropped her pillow on the near sofa.

"They are surely better than a hammock in the belly of a ship," he agreed as they went to his room for pillow and blanket.

"I think those sofas are a great choice for the night," she finished.

As they settled in on their individual sofas, Hal once again felt his frustration rising. Damn the vampire curse! He couldn't see it but he knew it was a red curtain blocking him from reaching her. He sighed and thumped the sofa cushion with his fist.

"Hal?"

"Christ, I wish we could just have sex like normal people!" The words burst out before he realized what was happening. His brain was a half-step behind his mouth, an embarrassing aspect of his response to her closeness and to the wine.

Lena laughed. "Come on Hal! You know damn well we never just had sex like normal people." She rolled over, leaving him smiling in spite of himself. Her creativity and stamina had certainly impressed him at the time, and knowing her true nature explained a quite a bit. "Good night, Hal."

It was still dark when Hal became conscious of a weight pressing on his chest. As he began to awaken he recognized the familiar sensation of a body draped over his own. There were soft curves under his hands and silken hair on his face and shoulder. A woman. He smiled. Last night must have gone well.

Suddenly reality slammed into his semi-consciousness and he jerked awake. Lena! Surely he hadn't…he couldn't have hurt her?"

He heard her voice, thick with sleep, in the hollow of his neck. "Are you really awake this time?"

"Are you really laying on me?"

She nodded her head. "Nightmares. Had to keep you quiet. Thought you'd wake the neighbors. Too much wine, I think."

"And you thought this was the best way to quiet me?" He was incredulous.

"Nothing else worked. Only way I could get some sleep."

"Oh. Sorry." He had ruined her sleep.

She lazily slapped him upside the head. "I told you to stop saying that. Go back to sleep, Hal. It's too early." She pushed her hair off of their faces. Within moments she was asleep again.

Hal studied their situation. His blanket left off at about waist level and was trailing on the floor. She had lain on his bare chest and covered them both with her blanket. She was sleeping comfortably with a modicum of skin-to-skin contact, which must mean that the curse was becoming less of a threat to her. Something had changed.

He carefully slid his arms more firmly around her. Her only response was to nestle in. He turned his head and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. He felt her mouth twitch as she smiled in her sleep. It was enough, for now. He felt his body quietly hum in response to her touch, his heartbeat and breath begin to match her own again, and the soft song of her blood worked as a lullaby as he drifted back to sleep.

Nastusia had the most exquisite hands Henry had ever seen. Once in a while he would be awakened by one of her exquisite hands wrapped around his morning erection, expertly drawing him into a crashing climax while she whispered bawdy encouragement in Polish and English into his ear, her warm breath sending chills through his twisting, arching body. He still dreamed of those mornings and always woke up with the sticky residue in his pants to remind him of just how realistic a dream could be.

Hal was fully engulfed in the dream before the thought occurred to him that Lena was probably witnessing whatever he was doing to cause the inevitable result. He began to fight it and pull himself awake. He heard Nastusia's voice in his ear.

"Don't open your eyes, you'll ruin the dream."

"Too late." He opened his eyes, only to have them squeeze them shut again with his orgasmic convulsion. He heard her chuckle as she took one last nibble and suck of his earlobe. She was gone.

"Dziekuje," he whispered as he sank into half-drunk, post-orgasm sleep. "Thank you."

Hal woke up for good to see daylight making geometric shapes across the room. The curtains had been opened. He was alone.

"Morning." Lena came out of her room fully dressed and aiming for the kitchen. "Breakfast will be here in half an hour if you want to shower first." She began grinding coffee.

Hal went straight to his bathroom, hoping that Lena had returned to her own sofa, or better yet her own room, before his erotic dream had begun. He took a hot shower and pissed while he was in it, because he needed to and because he liked the idea of marking the shower as his territory.

Hal put on the luxurious bathrobe that had been provided as one of the amenities in the suite and went to the closet, drying his hair with a towel while considering his clothes for the day. A surge of energy flowed through the suite and the air quality changed. They had company.

He heard Lena's voice. "Hello Dad." There was no joy, only acknowledgement. This wasn't good.

The male voice, apparently belonging to Lena's dad Michael, archangel and commander of the armies of heaven, also held no joy, but it did hold a great deal of power and an ominous threat. "I've come with a warning. You are too close to the vampire. You must end this thing."

"Why? Because I gave him a hand job? That's not really commingling, Dad."

Her comment hit Hal like a physical blow. It hadn't been a dream! But why? Grace can't possibly extend to sexual favors.

Whatever her reason for it, Hal was grateful to Lena for giving him the release he had desperately needed. Now she was in trouble for doing it, and he wasn't about to let her face it alone. He would stand with her, although he wished that he had time to dress first. So much for looking dignified.

Hal had no idea what he would see when he reached the living room, but he was glad that he could face it as a vampire and not a human. Centuries of conflict with creatures who could detect heart rate, respiration, and minute amounts of sweat had prepared him to handle any crisis. He locked down his body with practiced self-control. There would be no sign of fear. Lord Henry Yorke was in the building.

He strode into the living room, nonchalantly drying his hair as he went, and looked toward the sound of voices. He saw a creature resembling a man, nearly seven feet tall, with white-gold hair and fiery eyes. As those eyes zeroed in on him Hal fought to maintain his control. A human would have died of cardiac arrest on the spot.

But Lord Henry Yorke wasn't a human, he was a vampire Old One and Lena was his woman and this was their suite and he didn't give two fucks who decided to drop in uninvited. He met the look with the arrogance and ease of an aristocrat who didn't appreciate unwelcome guests.

"I thought I heard voices. Not breakfast, then." He was cool, relaxed. He tossed the towel on the back of a chair and approached as Lena moved toward him, meeting him halfway.

"Hal, my dad wants to meet you." She smiled at him as she took his hand. She was ready for the game.

"Aren't you a bit mature for your father to approve your dates?" He casually leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Thanks, by the way," he murmured, letting her see the genuine warmth in his eyes.

"You're welcome. My pleasure." She turned to her father, who was barely in control of his righteous indignation. "Hal, this is my dad, Michael, archangel as you know. Dad, this is Lord Hal Yorke, vampire Old One, as you know. My boyfriend."

"Am I now?" Hal teased her, staying in character, acting amused rather than ecstatic at her use of the term. "So last night was officially a date?"

"Of course you're my boyfriend. I don't do that for just anyone." She sent a significant look toward his privates as she spoke.

"Enough!" Michael's anguished roar shook the room. He suddenly held a sword in his hand.

In a moment Lena had squared up on her father, her own two swords at the ready. "Don't do this, Dad. I will bury you."

For the first time in her existence Michael's daughter stood on the opposite side of the battle line from him. "Daughter. What are you doing?"

"A threat against Hal is a threat against me. Your rules. My game."

Michael lowered his sword. "You don't know what you are saying, what you are risking with this game."

"I know the edict against commingling. I've cleaned up the devastation that it causes, destroyed the monsters that it creates. I also know that any edict delivered for the Seraphin Nepos has to be accepted by me individually, because I am unique in the world. And I know that I will defend Hal Yorke with my life."

Hal had never known tension to literally be palpable, but in this case the air was bubbling and fizzing with it. He spoke quietly to Lena. "He's your father. Put away your weapons." She did so without protest, and Michael followed suit but father and daughter continued to glare at each other, neither willing to back down.

Hal was now the only one in the room who was even attempting to be civil. He looked past Lena and her father to the counter. "Coffee ready?" He moved in that direction, passing calmly within a few feet of the furious archangel as he did so.

"It is," Lena said, relaxing a bit and following him. "No tea yet, it's coming with breakfast."

Hal poured himself a cup of coffee. "I'm developing a tolerance for this beverage," he said to Lena with a smile. He turned to Michael, subtly placing himself in front of Lena as he did. "Care to join us?"

The two creatures locked eyes, vampire and angel, both men and yet not, but only one with a semblance of humanity. The angel blinked. "Another time," he said, and disappeared.

After a moment the atmosphere returned to normal. Hal set his cup on the counter. His hand was trembling. "So, that's your father."

"Yep, and is he going to be in trouble when he gets home." Lena shrugged at Hal's questioning look. Who could possibly cause that creature trouble? "Mom hates it when he gets in my business."

"And your mother is-?" Hal asked as he moved to sit at the table before his shaky legs betrayed him.

"Agraja, the first-born, the first Nephilim. Grandpa was a trendsetter," she said with a smile as she joined him, bringing his coffee along with her own, "and something of a ladies' man, until Grandma got ahold of him. So I've heard."

"And your grandfather is Raphael."

"Yes. You met at the house."

"Why didn't you just say so at the time?"

"He said not to let on. You thought you had killed me, remember? And I guess he was worried that it might scare you off if you knew the truth."

"I didn't know I had the option of being scared off," Hal said.

"I don't believe you have it in you to be scared off," she said in quiet appreciation, a smile curling one corner of her mouth.

Hal had no idea how to respond to her compliment. He had never considered himself particularly brave. "Thank you," he replied quietly. "You have an interesting family. Does your father have a point? Have I put you at risk?"

She held her coffee cup in both hands, looking at it rather than him as she gently swirled the liquid inside. She frowned as she considered how best to explain her father's concern. "Big evil is easy to spot, Hal. People can avoid it if they choose. It's the constant and insidious encroachment of evil upon good that we don't always recognize until it is too late. That's what dad is worried about. He's afraid that your curse is damaging me more than I'm helping you."

"He's wrong," Hal said flatly. "He underestimates you."

"I know that. But he doesn't understand humans so he can't see how we change each other. He can only see a result, and he didn't like what he saw this morning."

There was a knock on the door and a cheery voice announced that breakfast had arrived. Hal went to his room to dress, closing his door before Lena allowed the concierge to bring in their meal. He stayed there until the man was gone. Lena's friend Bernard joined them for breakfast, and although Hal wanted more time alone with her, he enjoyed the older man's company. It was good to see Lena relax and enjoy herself with someone who could take the piss and get away with it.

Bernard stayed with them as they met with members of the hotel design and management world, giving Hal extra stability as humans came and went from their suite. The meetings crowded their day and left them with a mass of valuable, intriguing, sometimes ludicrous ideas to digest regarding the future of the Barry Grand.

# # #

Finally they were on the road back to Honolulu Heights, with Lena driving, and Hal had the chance to ask her about the morning. He had several questions and decided to work his way from easiest to hardest.

"You slept on me for a while. Why didn't the contact bother you? Doesn't the curse affect you when we touch?"

"Not really, not anymore," she said. "It is weaker and I've changed. I don't want to kill you now, and I don't hate you like I did. I am giving it less ammunition to use against me."

"Good to know. It is nice to not be hated, my lady," Hal said. He couldn't put into words the extent of his joy at what she had confessed. He moved to his next question instead.

"You told your father that you would bury him. Your words. How is that possible?"

"I might have been channeling Bruce Willis there for a moment with that line," Lena admitted. "Angels are like demons, Hal. They are spiritual beings with no physical body so technically they can't be buried. They can assume a physical persona in order to represent themselves in the physical world, which demons can't do, but they don't actually own a body to be buried in."

"That's not quite what I meant," he replied.

"You mean, can I defeat him? I don't know why not." She shrugged. "When I was young he trained me, taught me everything he knew about weapons and warfare and hand-to-hand combat. I've fought a lot of battles since then, against creatures he's never faced. I've also fought alongside him. I know every move he makes before he makes it. One-on-one I could take him."

She let Hal digest that little tidbit before continuing. "Of course, if all of heaven lines up against me I may be in trouble."

"You are as terrifying as you are beautiful," Hal said. She gave him a sideways look but made no reply.

After a short silence Hal asked his next question. "You said that you have to accept each edict individually because you are unique. Again, your words."

"Jesus, Hal, were you taking notes?" She drove in silence, not offering an explanation of her previous statement.

"You told me that Seraphin are forbidden from commingling with cursed beings."

"They are."

"Are you personally forbidden?"

"As of now, yes."

"Can you please explain what that means?"

Lena couldn't explain what it meant without getting into their personal history and her knowledge of his dossier of atrocities, which could only end badly. She refused to be with him because she didn't trust him for multiple reasons, and she wouldn't allow herself to be hurt by him again.

Instead she said, "Look Hal, my genetic makeup is different from any other Nephilim or Seraphin ever. They've only been angel half-breeds at best, and I'm more than half angel. On top of that, most of the rules were made because somebody did something stupid long after I was in the world. So the rule might apply to future generations of Seraphin but not necessarily to me because things don't affect me like they do the others."

She sighed. "Sometimes I have to figure out which rules apply to me and which don't. I have to distance myself from certain things as long as I believe that they are not in my best interest."

"Me being one of those things," he stated it as fact.

"You being one of those things," she agreed.

"Very well my lady, then tell me why you—" Hal hesitated a moment to find words that wouldn't offend Lena, but he shouldn't have bothered.

"—serviced you like a pro this morning?" She finished his sentence with a grin as she remembered how much she had enjoyed playing with him.

"I have yet to find a professional who could come close to your abilities," he replied with his own grin.

"Shoddy training. I say 'Learn from the best, practice what you learn.'" She chuckled as his look. Clearly he was intrigued. "The Sumerians were people of many talents."

She thought for a moment, trying to find a way to tell him what happened. In the end, she lied.

"I woke up and you were in a dream. You were talking in your sleep. I could tell what was going on."

"Yes," he said when she paused. "I have that particular dream with some regularity." He looked out his side window while speaking, not willing to meet her eyes.

"Well, you said that blood and sex are closely linked with vampires, especially with you, but the curse wasn't changing while you dreamed. It is getting weaker, Hal, I can tell, and I don't see it darken when you look at me like you do sometimes. I think that somehow blood lust and sexual lust are separating, or the blood lust is just diminished enough that the link is very weak now."

"Yes. I can tell that there is a difference." Again, he spoke without looking at her.

"I wanted to know what would happen if I was – directly involved – in things. I wanted to see if the curse would strengthen or reach out for me." With that, Lena stopped talking. She just couldn't put the words together to say any more. In her ears, each phrase sounded more ridiculous than the last.

"So it was an experiment," he said calmly, with ice in his voice. "Did you learn anything of value?" Finally he looked at her, but this time she couldn't meet his gaze.

She slammed her hands on the steering wheel. "I am such a fucking liar! Hal, that bullshit I just said, forget it okay?" She glanced at him before returning her focus to the road. "Just forget it."

Caught off guard by her outburst, he said nothing.

"I was asleep, just like you, so I don't know how it started. I heard you say her name—"a tremor ran through her as she recalled the aching need that had roughened the edges of Hal's voice. "Anyway, you said her name and there she was, with your dick in her hand and her tongue in your ear and I was perfectly happy to keep it that way. I could have stopped, but what the hell, right? I used to love getting you off, and you were asleep and dreaming so you'd never know. Then you started to wake up and I freaked out and ran as soon as it was over."

"You ran?" He didn't believe it.

"Like a shot. Straight to my room and shut the door, then held my breath and hoped you'd go back to sleep and not realize what had happened."

Hal couldn't help laughing at her description. "Which I did. I thought it was a dream until I heard you say something to your father. Speaking of which, have you had many conversations like that with him, because I don't remember meeting him the last time we were together."

"That was actually a first." Lena said. "But then, you weren't a vampire the last time we were together."

"It's ironic that we slept on the sofas so I would keep my hands off of you," Hal teased her gently. "Not that I'm complaining, of course. In fact, I'd like to see if I got the same reaction every time I said that particular name."

Lena responded in her usual good-natured way. "Fuck you."

"And which name would I use to request that menu item?" he asked with laughter in his voice.

"That would be 'Miss When-Hell-Freezes-Over. For blow jobs, please request "Madam Kiss-My-Ass." She smiled, enjoying the conversation. "While I'm in the mood for full disclosure, I have to tell you that you were sexy as hell with the whole badass-in-a-bathrobe routine this morning."

He was taken aback by her compliment but did his best to hide it. "Oh, you liked that, did you? That was Lord Henry Yorke, you know. Are you sure you want him around? I thought you preferred the nice guy in the sharp suit."

"I like them both, actually. They each have their good points. Now, if I could have Lord Henry in the sharp suit I'd be one happy camper," she answered breezily.

"Noted. I'll see what I can do." Hal kept his tone light as well, but inwardly he was shaken by her comments. He had been trying to be the kind of man he thought she wanted him to be, and he had felt awkward and clumsy and worthless. Maybe he needed to stop being sorry and start being himself.

After a few minutes of thought, Hal said, "I'd like to drive for a while."

"Okay," Lena replied. "We can stop for a fill-up while we're at it."

She pulled into the next service station and Hal got out first and took care of the petrol. When she moved to the passenger side of the car he opened her door for her, made sure she was settled, and closed her door before settling himself behind the wheel. There was a subtle shift in his attitude; she was no longer allowing him the command position, he was simply claiming it for himself.

As they neared Honolulu Heights, Lena decided it was time for her to transform back into her familiar self. "Time to revert to everyday Lena," she said.

"No." Hal said. "I'd rather you kept your true form."

"People are used to seeing me as everyday Lena."

"People will adjust. Tom and Alex already know that you are a shape changer. Who else are you concerned about?"

"Hmm. Nobody, I guess," Lena replied.

"Then why go to the effort to be something you are not?" he asked.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather have me as a blue-eyed blonde, if you are choosing my appearance?" she asked, referring to Nastusia.

"I'm happy to have you any way you choose to be, but I prefer your true self above all else, my lady," Hal said simply.

"Then you shall have it, my lord," she replied with a lilt in her voice and a smile on her face. "We'll try it on for a while, at least."