Jared shambled away from the table and over to stand in front of Henry, his arms hanging loosely at his sides. His posture was relaxed though his hands shook slightly. There was a pulsing tic, under his right eye.
"There's a good man," Henry stated his approval in a voice dripping with sarcasm. He turned and looked over his shoulder to Vicki, "Close the door."
Vicki did as he asked, standing with her arms folded across her chest and her back against the door.
Henry pulled a chair into the open space in the middle of the room and indicated to Jared with an elegant wave of the hand that he wished him to sit. Jared moved woodenly forward as though his limbs were not quite under his control and lowered himself into the chair. Vicki could see that his complexion under the overhead bulb was as paper white as Henry's. There were deep blue shadows under the pale eyes that darted from side to side.
Henry began to circle Jared's chair, his hands clasped behind his back, and as he moved, Jared swiveled his head to keep the dark clad figure in his view.
"I heard you have been to the doctor, Jared. What did he have to say? You seem just a trifle pale," Henry commented as he leaned forward to look in Jared's face.
The human's Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he grasped the edge of the chair seat. But he answered calmly enough, "He told me I was severely anemic and he asked me how it happened."
"And what did you tell him?" Henry inquired mildly as he continued to circle the man seated on the chair.
Vicki could feel something building in the still air of the room. It started out as a prickling at the back of her neck and it grew until it was rolling over her skin like static electricity or eldritch fire; all of her hair was standing on end and gooseflesh ran up and down her arms. It was coming from Henry, she knew that, as he paced catlike in an ever-tightening circle. Vicki didn't know whether her instinct was to run, or draw closer.
"I told him that I get turned on by blood play, that I like to be cut," Jared whispered.
Henry paused behind the pimp's chair and laid a cool hand on Jared's trembling shoulder. He raised his face to Vicki and she saw. She saw the predator look back at her, strong and sure and in complete control of his prey. Henry's black gaze held hers with a laser focus. His expression was benign as he said past the ivory fangs of his kind, "And do you engage in blood play, Jared?" He asked this as he lowered his face to the same level as the male's, to speak softly in his ear, though his eyes never left Vicki's.
Jared turned his terrified face to Henry's and whispered, "Only with you…"
***
She followed, her scent floating around him with her proximity. There was the tang of fear to her signature fragrance, but overall there was the coloration of excitement. Will I regret this? She says she wants to know, but…I am not even sure I can do this; her presence so close to hand is…distracting. I am not sure that she can do this, for all her admirable strengths and qualities; she is one of 'them' after all. Perhaps she will take their side…her side… He shook his head to dispel his doubts, his course was decided and no amount of second guessing would help him now.
Henry carried on an inner dialogue as he moved swiftly down to the corner. He neither looked nor spoke to her, yet she remained occupying a portion of his attention, though even she was being slowly edged out by the need for sustenance. The insistence of the heartbeats surrounding him was intruding on his senses; it was symptomatic of his need. He could no longer shut out the rhythmic indication of the life all around him.
At the corner he halted, falling back a pace, waiting for the approaching traffic. As the brilliant headlights drew near he turned his head away, reaching out a hand instinctively to pull Vicki back as well into the safety of the darkness…as though she were a…Childe?
He crossed Cordova and headed up Hawks to the laneway behind the Astoria. He could sense his marked one, near. His anger and need compelled him forward to seek out the satisfaction and validation of retribution…she wants to know what I am, let her see how I care for my territory.
He endured the whore's touch on his arm as he made his inquiry, no need to search when 'his women' would provide an exact location.
Room 605, the marked one was above him, close at hand. The humans in the vicinity were now nothing but glowing shapes that pulsed with their life force; his hunger robbed them of their individual identities…as all became prey. But his need had a focus now and a name. He opened the steel door and moved towards the stairs; he could feel his Chosen at his back, his shadow. He was able through force of will to glance back once to see her on the stair below him. He did not speak as the hunt had already claimed him. His prey was close by.
The flimsy door of the room proved no barrier, and he was through in a moment, the scent of the marked one sending the hunger into a final upward spiral. He spoke though he did not heed the words, as he manipulated his prey through compulsion. When his Chosen stood in front of the closed door and his prey was seated compliant and terrified in front of him, he paused, though his mouth was full of saliva at the waves of fear that emanated from the human in his grasp.
This is what she wants to know; this is what she needs to see, he thought, as he watched Vicki at the door. Even her face, was blurred in the golden nimbus of enticing light that surrounded her.
He trained his attention on her, bringing his 'Chosen' into focus.
"Come closer, Chosen," he said, using the archaic terminology of his kind, without thought.
"Come closer, Vicki, let me show you." There was no compulsion in his voice, and his tone was gentle, mild.
****
Vicki started forward, her normal bravado evaporated in the swelling power that echoed in the room. She said nothing, because she had no idea what to say. Jared sat terrified and completely docile as she approached close enough to touch Henry where he stood behind him.
Henry's long-fingered hands eased aside the neckline of Jared's shirt until it was spread to his shoulders, exposing his throat.
Vicki could see the long lines of scars on either side of Jared's neck and shoulders, evenly and precisely spaced, the evidence of Henry's bites forming a bizarrely beautiful raised decoration of the pale skin. She thought there may have been as many as a dozen sets of scars.
"Are you draining him?" she finally asked, as she watched Henry tilt Jared's head to the side, stretching out the line of his throat. The human male was trembling violently now, his eyes closed.
"Mmmhuh…" Henry managed to mumble as he positioned his fangs over the trembling flesh, the pulsing river that flowed beneath the surface was all to him now.
As slow and as purposeful as his movements had been up until this point, Vicki was caught off guard at the sudden violence as Henry's arm swept out and around Jared's chest, under his ribs faster than she could see, pulling him up out of the chair, lifting him into Henry's embrace and driving the flesh of Jared's shoulder up into Henry's waiting mouth.
She fell back a step as she watched Henry lock his lips onto the other man's shoulder as he dangled helpless in the vampire's grasp. Jared managed a choked whisper, "Please…oh please…" even as he leaned his head further to the side, granting Henry unobstructed access.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that she should be appalled at what she was witnessing, yet as her eyes flew to Henry's face and she witnessed his beatific expression as he began to suckle, she felt, she felt…some admiration, or relief, or satisfaction…
She leaned closer, there was no blood, Henry was fastidious, and not a drop escaped him. She listened to the soft sounds of pleasure Henry made as his throat worked.
Jared had grown quiet in his arms, sagging against the vampire's chest after a few minutes. Henry's hair had fallen over his eyes, and as Vicki reached out a hand to brush the curls back, Henry opened black eyes at her touch.
He withdrew his fangs slowly and Vicki watched the blood well up in the four puncture wounds, four expanding drops which eventually lost form and began to trickle slowly down over Jared's clavicle to soak into the edge of his undershirt.
His voice brought her back from her reverie, "Do you wish to taste as well?"
She should have been revolted by the question but for a moment she considered the idea, did she? "Not this time," she managed after a moment. Henry nodded cocking his head to the side, and then he lowered Jared to the chair again, where he sat limply, his chin resting on his chest.
Henry passed his hand across his lips, closing his eyes. When he opened them again they were a clear cerulean blue. He started towards the door and when he was in the hall and Vicki had passed him by, he checked that his compulsions were in place and then said to the human, "Jared," when the chalky face was raised to his he continued, "…until next time."
***
Henry started down the narrow stair and had reached the third floor landing, Vicki following close behind him, when he stopped so suddenly that Vicky ran into his solid back. He lifted his chin swiveling his head to stare down the hall.
Shaken out of her silence Vicki asked, "What is it?"
"Blood," Henry replied, "A great deal of blood."
He moved carefully down the hallway, to the third door. He paused outside, his head to the side, listening, a puzzled frown on his face.
Vicky watched as the frown was suddenly replaced by a look of horror. The recent flush that had come to his cheeks, drained entirely away in an instant.
"Henry what is it?" she asked, but he had already burst through the door into the darkened room beyond.
"Holy Mary, Mother of God…" his voice was choked as he glimpsed the pitiable scene in front of him. Vicki came up behind him as he lunged forward to his knees, and for a moment stood transfixed in horror.
On a filthy mattress in front of her lay the body of a young woman. Her face was calm, turned to the side in quiet repose.
She wore only a dirty T-shirt, her thin arms upturned and the smooth skin covered by a snaking trail of needle tracks.
It wasn't the perfect stillness with which she lay that told Vicki she was dead, but the large pool of bright red blood that had soaked into the mattress between her outspread legs.
In spite of all her years on the force, Vicki's gorge rose as she saw the tiny form of a newborn babe lying in the red, spreading stain, still attached to the twisted umbilicus that disappeared behind the corpse's thigh.
Henry was on his knees in a moment at the end of the bed and gathered the infant up into his arms; there was no crying and no movement.
He turned white faced to Vicki, "The heart falters, and he is very weak," he said, as much to himself as to her, "but there is still life."
Vicki knelt beside him and ran a hand through her hair, what to do...what to do?
"Give him to me Henry," she said, "and then call 911."
Even as she said it though, she knew as she looked at the tiny being's blue-tinged skin under the smears of blood that it would take too long. She held out her arms anyways.
Henry rolled the baby up higher in one arm and snarled at her. His eyes were once again as black as the night sky and his fangs had fallen. The very air around him began to vibrate with a sense of urgency that seemed to sink into Vicki's bones…and she suddenly realized that the vampire was…afraid.
"Henry! Wait! We need to tie it off first," she said. She reached across and pulled the leather thong of his medallion over his head, pulled her knife from her pocket and cut the thong into two lengths. Quickly slipping the medallion into her pocket, she tied two knots a few inches apart along the cord and she used the knife to slowly saw through the resilient tissue between the knots.
When the babe was finally separated from its mother Henry scooted back away, across the floor, holding the tiny infant against his chest. His flesh was warmer having so recently fed, but he cursed inwardly that he didn't have the human body heat that the child needed.
Vicki looked for something to wrap the child in but there was nothing remotely clean in sight.
After a moment she walked over to Henry where he sheltered the infant with his body. She held out her arms and said firmly, "We need to get him warm Henry. Give him to me and then take off your shirt; we need something to wrap him in."
Henry could hear the small heart faltering and the tiny lungs struggling to inflate. He could see the net of new life flickering over the chill flesh of the tiny body.
He handed the babe into Vicki's arms and stood to quickly strip off his coat and shirt. He spread the woolen coat out on the floor and then ripped the shirt up the middle to spread it over the open coat.
When he turned back to Vicki, she held the tiny body inside her jacket against her body. She supported the infant against her shoulder, her hand cupped behind the too large head.
The vampire knew that the heart beat was erratic now, too fast even for an infant, and the breathing was...somehow wrong.
"I will not allow this," he hissed in challenge to the night air that surrounded them. "I will not allow it!"
"Lay him down Victoria," he urged her. After a moment she laid the babe on the floor, watching with tears in her eyes as the small limbs grew limp...
The Vampire bent and covered the child's mouth and nose with his own mouth; he puffed soft little breaths into the tiny lungs. His artist's hands ran lightly up and down the tiny body as though he were attempting to transfer his own will to live to the infant.
Vicky watched, breathless, for a minute or more and then finally the tiny legs stirred and drew up to the body once again as the little hands clenched into fists.
Henry lifted his mouth away from the child's and wrapped him quickly in the shirt. He tossed his phone to Vicki and barked, "Call the preset number 17 and then when they answer…ask for Augustus, tell them you are calling for me!"
Wrapping his coat around the babe as well, Henry sat back and cradled the swaddled baby against his bare chest.
Vicki watched as Henry lifted his index finger to his own mouth. His fangs had run out and he bit down quickly on the end of his finger, bringing blood. She started forward as Henry gently worked his finger into the baby's mouth.
"What the hell are you doing?" she cried.
The baby began to weakly mouth at the tip of Henry's finger. Henry bent his head and the tip of his own tongue gently lapped the baby's cheek, encouraging the infant's reflex to suckle.
"It will not harm him Vicki," Henry said lowly. "He is weak and...diseased. His mother has passed her weakness to him. If he suckles a small amount of my blood, he will become stronger, he will heal. Do you not wish him to thrive? Will you please call Augustus?"
Henry removed his now healed fingertip from the child's mouth and sliced it against his fang again…wiggling it past the tiny lips once more...
Already the child began to suckle more strongly and his heartbeat began to even out. The net of new life firmed over the tiny features, clearly visible to Henry's eyes.
"Just a little more, poppet," he whispered.
"Can I speak with Augustus?" Vicki said, as she scuttled across to hold the phone to Henry's ear.
Twenty minutes later they descended the stairs to the laneway unnoticed and walked out to the corner of Hawk and Cordova.
While they had waited upstairs Vicki had watched Henry open his finger twice more to allow the child to take his blood.
If they were observed on the short walk to Cordova, no one remarked on the shirtless pale young man who held, a now squalling bundle, to his chest.
A short black limo was parked on the side of the road and as they approached, the rear door opened and a middle-aged woman emerged with a soft blanket in her arms. She waited until they drew up alongside her.
She smiled as she held out the blanket. "He is rather noisy isn't he?
Henry flashed an uncertain smile as he lifted the shirt-wrapped babe from his coat and laid him in the woman's outstretched arms.
"I am glad that Augustus sent you, Annie," Henry said. "I know that he will be in good hands."
His eyes returned briefly to the Astoria and Annie understood.
"Don't worry Henry, we'll take care of everything," she said as she propped the babe on her shoulder.
The infant began to whimper and nuzzle against her neck.
Henry said worriedly, "He hungers."
"We'll take care of everything Henry," Annie repeated, and she climbed back into the car holding the babe in her arms.
Before he closed the door, Vicki watched as Henry leaned in close and said in a solemn voice,
"Tell Augustus, that this babe has had my blood."
Annie's eyes met Henry's and widened slightly.
She nodded solemnly, "I'll tell him."