The long, lean, black expanse of the limousine pulled smoothly away from the curb and moved off down Cordova.
Henry watched pensively after it as the taillights' red glow disappeared around the curve in the road. As he was watching the car, Vicki was watching the vampire. Finally he shook himself and came back to the present. He turned to her with his eyes shadowed with the memories of the past, then he dropped his gaze and pulling his coat closed across his pale chest, he carefully buttoned its length. He turned up his collar and shook his curls clear. His face was composed and clear-eyed when he looked at her again.
She had so many questions floating around in her mind, bubbling up and demanding attention and explanation. So much that she wanted to know, and there was so much that she suddenly wondered would she ever know? Could she ever know?
Henry glanced once more in the direction the car had disappeared and then said, "He will be alright." It was a statement that seemed made more to quiet his concerns than hers.
"Augustus will know what needs to be done, to care for the Foundling," Henry said as he took her arm and began to walk along the deserted street in the direction of his car.
"The Foundling," Vicki repeated the words and the tone as she pulled her arm free from his loose grasp. "The Foundling, you make that sound like a name, like it describes the thing that he is…Oh My God! Henry, does your blood do…something to the child? Please don't tell me that…"
Henry interrupted her with an abrupt movement of his hand. "Vicki please, there are actions which are proscribed, even among…my kind. We do not feed on the young or those who carry the young. We would never, never turn a juvenile. The thought itself is repellent, reprehensible; it is simply not in our nature. My species has no children Vicki, no younglings. There are newborns in the blood, yes. There are fledglings, yes. We can sire a Childe…but there are no children. That would be a true abomination."
"But I heard you tell Annie to tell Augustus that you had given your blood to the baby, why?" Vicki persisted.
"I told you Vicki, back in that hellhole, that my blood would not harm him, it will not. It is the virtue of my blood which maintained his life, allowed him to strengthen and heal from the ravages of his birth; without it he would have died, you know this."
Vicki nodded numbly as the Jag came into view, parked beneath the streetlamp under the watchful eye of Cassandra.
Henry stopped to stand still in the street, and as Vicky turned to him, he sighed and then dropped his shoulders, turning his hands up in a swift supplication. "Augustus needs to know. I am sure I will be hearing from him as soon as Annie tells him, what I have…done. My blood will not turn the infant, but it does have…ramifications. The child is now bonded to me and I to him, a blood bond and all that it entails. I said, 'the foundling' Vicki, but it would be more correct to say, 'my foundling.'"
Vicki watched as Henry's eyes drifted back down the deserted street, back in the direction that the limo had vanished. When he turned back to her, though his eyes remained human they had a distinct inward focus to them. "His belly is full of milk, he is warm and there is a comforting secure grip around him. He is, uncomfortable though, an ache in the belly, which pains him. He protests this…bitterly. There is a soothing pressure on him, a rhythmic tapping like a heartbeat. Then a sudden release of that pain…he has, lost some of the sustenance that he took.
Henry's eyes drifted closed and he turned his head as his actions illustrated his words. He feels the warmth of flesh against his cheek; he searches for…more, more comfort, nuzzling…searching…
With a long sigh Henry's eyes re-opened and he looked at Vicki tenderly.
"He will be fine," he said again.
"You're in his head?" Vicki asked, struggling with the concept.
"Not precisely Vicki, we are linked together by blood, I can…travel…that link to him," Henry explained as he began to walk again.
"Is this a two way street Henry? Can that babe sense what is going on in your…life?" Vicki asked, unsure of what she felt.
Henry's lips tightened slightly, but he answered readily enough, "Were I to open myself to the link, and were the foundling to seek me, yes, he would be able to sense me."
"Anything else?" she asked, sensing a certain diffidence in Henry's response.
"There are other…"
"Ramifications?" she supplied, the touch of sarcasm plain in her tone.
"The Foundling will be more sensitive, to certain…things. Will have certain abilities, which are…less common in the human population. Augustus will know what to…"
Vicki drew in a sudden breath, "You've done this before, haven't you, haven't you? That's why you know so much about what to expect. That's why Augustus is going to be angry, isn't it?"
"Twenty-eight years ago, I found an abandoned infant in a dumpster," Henry admitted. "Yes there is another, though he is a man grown now. And yes, Augustus will be angry with me. Rightfully so, for in some ways I endanger us all, by what I have done; but I couldn't Vicki, I just couldn't let him…die."
They had reached the car by this time, Cassandra watching them from dark eyes. Henry approached the hooker and caught his gaze. A large and lascivious smile spread across the heavily made up face, and the carefully manicured hand raised to tap Henry on the chest.
"Offer's still open Henry," the low-pitched voice purred, suggestively, and hope sprang into the shadowed eyes as smiling, Henry pulled another fifty-dollar bill from his clip.
Vicki could hear the unmistakable note of compulsion in Henry's voice as he said, "You did a good job watching Cassie, thank you." The whore's smile grew wider as he handed over the money. "You haven't seen me tonight Cassie, take your money and go home, get out of the rain."
Then he stepped back, and Cassandra, now oblivious to their presence, pushed away from the fence and in mincing steps disappeared into the darkness. Henry turned and opened the passenger side door of the car for her. Without quibble Vicki slid past him to seat herself in the leather interior.
When they were headed back towards the park, Vicki spoke from the shadows; she did not turn her face toward Henry as she asked the question.
"Can you tell me about Jared?" she said. She felt rather than saw the shift in Henry's posture, as though he drew in on himself slightly, still his voice was even as he said, "I should take you back to your hotel Vicki. It is after three." Then he added more softly, human concern coloring his voice, "You must be tired."
"Oh no, buster," she said, turning in her seat towards him. "There is no going back on this now; you have at least a couple of hours until it's nap time. Take me some place where we can talk."
Henry turned towards her, his eyes pools of shadow in the dimly lit interior. "Haven't you seen enough for one night Vicki?"
"Oh yeah, quite enough," she said resolutely, "but now I need your help to make sense of what I saw." And what I felt, she thought to herself.
Henry piloted the car back onto Georgia and they were almost at the foot of Georgia Street and the entrance to the park when Henry's phone began to ring.
If Vicki had not so recently witnessed the predator at the hunt she might not have found the trepidation in Henry's face funny when he glanced toward her. Perhaps it was because she had seen the ruthlessness of his recent feeding that the slight widening of his eyes as the phone rang again made a hysterical giggle well up in her throat.
"Augustus," they both said as one, and Vicki suddenly lost it as laughter won out.
The affronted look on Henry's face only made it worse, and she clapped a hand over her mouth as he flipped open his cell with one hand while tightening his grip on the wheel with the other.
"Fitzroy," he said shortly as he brought the device to his ear. There was a burst of speech on the other end of the line, and though Vicki could not hear the words, the giggling returned as Henry held the phone away from himself, a pained expression on his face.
"Augustus, after all these years have you forgotten how sensitive a vampire's hearing actually is?" he asked.
Again a long burst of speech, which Vick could not make out, though admittedly the volume was lower and Henry brought the phone back to his cheek.
"Yes, your son told me that you were in Montreal, I'm sorry it is so early Augustus. Thank you for suggesting Annie come for the…babe. It was easier for me to hand him over to her. I take it that she told you…" he paused for a moment, listening to the voice raised on the other end of the call.
"No, no I don't suppose it was, old friend, but what would you have had me do…leave him?" Henry said with a low growl, as he barreled through a yellow light and then made a hard right onto Park Drive, the maneuver causing Vicki to lean in her seat.
There was another short burst of unintelligible speech and then Henry shook his head and said, "Augustus, I have no doubt that Corie would take exception to that assertion." Henry paused again as Augustus spoke at some length. Vicki's amusement died as suddenly the air grew electric in the car and the vampire emerged again.
"This child is not Corbin, Augustus! They may be nothing alike," Henry replied heatedly and then modulating his voice he continued, "Will you foster him, or not?"
Again the electronic muttering just below her range of hearing and Vicki leaned towards Henry as they passed by the Aquarium unnoticed, her attention now focused totally on the vampire.
"Thank you Augustus," Henry said on a sigh as his shoulders dropped in relief. "Yes, yes I know, you're not as young as you used to be. No, of course, we can set it up the same as before…yes…we can go over the details as soon as you are back in Toronto, or if you prefer, make a trip to the coast. All right. Yes; and Augustus, thank you."
Henry flicked the phone closed and turned the car into the lot at Prospect Point pulling straight into the space. The lights of the North Shore spread out across the water in front of them and off to the left the span of the Lions Gate Bridge lit by thousands of white lights against the velvet of the sky. After a moment Henry turned off the car.
He could feel his Chosen next to him, his Vicki, his link. She was warm and her blood scent was rich and calming to him. He drew in a steadying breath. I didn't realize how worried I was that Augustus would refuse the child, he thought.
"Who's Corbin?" Vicki asked.
Henry was fairly certain he didn't actually wince and his voice was calm as he said, "It is very late Vicki; there is not much time. Do you wish to know about Jared or Corbin?"
At the mention of his name, the image of the necklace of meticulous bites around Jared's throat rose to her mind, and the swift violence of Henry's feeding. Her eyes were steady on Henry's as she said, "Jared."