In the morning Helen decided to check on Nikola. It had been quiet all night and she wanted to make sure everything was all right. She got her master key out of her nightstand, but was a little troubled by the fact that it was in the middle of the drawer rather than next to the side where she usually left it. Well, yesterday there had been enough going on to distract her; still, she was usually very careful about putting things were they belonged.

The door to his suite was locked. She knocked but there was no response so she used the key and went in. The sitting room was empty but the bedroom door was open so she looked inside to find Nikola wasn't there either. The bed was neatly made everything was in its place; in the bathroom there was still some dampness in the shower so she concluded he had spent the night there and gone through his usual morning routine and was now likely either in the lab or the library.

Helen went back to her own suite, completed her own morning routine and went to her office. A tax crisis in the Denmark office she shunted to Will and took on a three-way dispute between Chile, Argentina, and an Abnormal group living high in the Andes. Likely it would require a team on site to resolve, but a little diplomacy might save someone the trip.

By mid-morning she was satisfied she had done all she could and was hopeful the issue would be resolved through diplomatic channels. She made herself a cup of tea and sat back to enjoy it when her office door burst open and Nikola strode in.

He plunked his bottle of diazepam down on her desk and pointed at it like it was a poisonous snake. "I'm not taking any more of that" he declared.

"But you had a quiet night didn't you? You slept?"

"Yeah, sort of, but I just looked at the code I wrote yesterday. It started out with my usual brilliance, and then just degenerated into garbage. That stuff dulls my mind, and look." With obvious effort Nikola forced himself to change to his vampire form, but his fangs and claws only extended half way before retracting again. "I couldn't even do that much this morning."

"You didn't take your pill this morning."

"No, and I'm not taking any more." He crossed his arms defensively.

"Except for the quality of your coding, what you are describing is the desired effect of any anti-anxiety medication. It should help you to relax, and I'm not surprised it inhibits your change since you are usually excited in some way when you vamp. You need it right now to get better."

"Helen, I've managed my mental state my entire life. I can get through this without drugs."

"We've already had this discussion Nikola. You need the diazepam to help you sleep and lower your stress while you work through your issues. There isn't any better alternative."

Nikola uncrossed his arms and put his hands on his hips, looking away and tapping his foot. Then he looked back at her and spread his arms out in a pleading gesture and said "I can't work while I'm taking it. I need to work. Please, Helen, there has to be another answer."

She got up and went around her desk to him, wrapping her arms loosely around his waist. "I'm sorry Nikola, but it's only for a few weeks, not forever. The dog fence will still be there."

He didn't hug her back. "What am I supposed to do for those weeks? It's not like I can go out on missions. I hate being useless, doing nothing, you know that."

"There are two new boxes of books for the library, you could unpack them and shelve them for me. You could spend more time with your pigeons; I think they miss you when you're not around very much."

He replied sourly "Great, so now I'm a pigeon-minding librarian."

She let him go and picked up the bottle of pills. "Oh please, spare me the drama. You love your pigeons and the library, you'll survive just fine. Now take your pill. I'll look at reducing the dosage, perhaps you can get away with less, but for now . . ."

Nikola grimaced and took the bottle. "Fine, if that's what you want I'll be a drug-addled useless burden" he said sulkily.

"I did say spare me the drama, not chew the scenery. Now go to unpack the books and let me get back to work. By the way, when do you think Lord Dramelin will have the new law written?"

"I got it on E-Mail this morning and sent a copy to Legal to review."

"I didn't know the vampires had E-Mail capability."

"Yeah, they set up a network. It's a little slow, takes nearly a second and a half for them to send a file, but they're learning. You want a copy?"

"Please. I'm going to take Henry and go talk to Rene's HAPs. Do you want to go with to operate the gate or give me a button for the vampire society on my gate controller?"

"I can't even be a vampire with this stuff in my system. Give me your controller; I'll add a button before I go back into my drug-induced haze. But just talk, okay? More than that and I'll be accused of using humans in a theft ring."

Helen sighed and gave him her gate remote. She could see Nikola was going to be depressed for a while, but she knew him well; it would only last until he found something else to become enthusiastic about.

He was back with her controller in less than an hour, and looked happier. "Don't push the button for an hour, the paint for the drop of blood isn't quite dry."

"Thank you Nikola. Did you take your pill?"

He wrinkled his nose at her as if he smelled something bad, but took out the bottle and popped a pill. "Satisfied?"

"Yes. You looked at the new books?" It was the most obvious explanation for his change in mood. One box was new works in physics, mathematics, chemistry, and genetics; the second was old rare books scrounged in used book shops. Helen was interested in digging through that box herself.

Nikola nodded. "I'll be puttering in the library if you need me."

Helen just smiled as he left. The books would entertain him for a few days, but she wasn't sure what she could find to distract him after that. Well, she'd deal with it when the time came.

After lunch she and Henry went through the gate to talk to Rene Dramelin's HAPs. They wore their "free human" symbols and no one bothered them, although one or two vampires gave them curious looks.

Henry hung back inside the building where the HAPs were housed; he didn't want to stir up the male again. Helen opened the inner door and he followed her, with much the same reception as before; mostly disinterest, although the male stood up when he saw Henry.

Helen spoke to them in vampire. "Hello, my name is Helen. Do you understand me?"

One of the females stood and walked over. "I speak a little. Hungarian? German?"

Helen nodded brightly at the second suggestion and they conversed in German. "Are you all from Germany?" she asked to get the conversation started.

"No, my mother and son and I are, but the others are Hungarian. Why are you here?"

"To ask you what you want to do. What is your name? Would you rather live here or go back to the surface?"

The woman looked surprised. "I am Brigitta. I would very much like to go home; my husband is probably frantic by now, or perhaps he has given up looking for me." She turned and spoke Hungarian to the others. All of the adults came over, while the boy ignored them all and continued to play with a group of small animals carved from various types of stone.

Brigitta had an intense conversation with the three Hungarians; the male was apparently arguing. She turned back to Helen and said "Everyone would like to go back to our lives, although Leo is single and not terribly unhappy with the current arrangement. But if all the women leave he doesn't want to stay by himself."

"The women aren't leaving" a male voice said from behind them. Rene had entered the building without anyone noticing and two vampire guards were with him. He switched from German to vampire and spoke just to Helen.

"You are here alone? Unwise, Ahelena. This one," he said, pointing to Henry, "Belongs to Teslat, or so I was told. But if he is here without his owner then he is a runaway and I claim him as my own."

Helen said quickly "Henry is jointly 'owned' by Teslat and me so he is with his owner."

"You are not a vampire, you are a freed human; you cannot own him regardless of how highly the king regards you."

Helen switched to English. "Oh lord. Henry, Lord Dramelin is claiming you as a runaway and he won't accept my ownership of you. Rene, you know perfectly well Henry hasn't run away. He's escorting me by the king's direction, and he would be an idiot to run away to caverns filled with vampires, and believe me, he is certainly not an idiot."

The High Lord shrugged. "Just because you say so does not make it true Ahelena. You, Henry, show me your pass from Teslet."

Henry held up his 'free' symbol. "I'm not owned by anyone, and I don't need a pass."

Helen looked on with dismay as Rene jerked the symbol out of Henry's hand and off his neck faster than either of them could react. Henry had exerted his independence at exactly the wrong time to the wrong person.

"Good!" Dramelin declared. "Then as a stray animal you are now mine. Come along, Ahelena, I will see you safely back to the king's gate."

Henry had drawn his stunner and stepped away from the vampires. The other HAPs hadn't understood much of the conversation, but at the appearance of the strange-looking gun they scattered. Henry said "I don't belong to anyone, except maybe my wife and child. Any of you come near me and I'll stun you into next year."

Helen would have rather settled it peaceably, but one of the vampire guards sprang at Henry who fired point-blank. The guard still landed on him and they went down together. The other guard moved forward and Helen drew her stunner and shot him, quickly swinging the barrel to point it at Rene.

"We're leaving now Lord Dramelin. Please don't make me shoot you too." She saw that both of the guards were still conscious but groggy and moving slowly. Henry was trying to get out from under the one on top of him, but the guard was much larger and heavier than the HAP and Henry was struggling. Rene just stood placidly watching.

Henry finally got up and they edged around the High Lord. But before they could get to the outer door it opened and a half dozen vampires dressed in Queen Ana's livery charged in. They weren't armed but Helen realized it would be futile to try to fight their way out through the entire household, and angering Ana by shooting her people would not be a good idea. The two stunned guards were also up and standing behind them.

Henry looked to her for guidance. Helen put her hands up and surrendered and he did the same. Rene took both their stunners and handed them to one of Ana's people. "Please escort Ahelena back to the gate; I'm sure she would like to go home now." He pointed to Henry and said to Helen "This is my new HAP. If Teslat wants him back, tell him to come and get him."

Helen touched Henry lightly on the arm. "Cooperate for now; you know I'll be back soon. There's no sense in fighting, you'll only get hurt or hurt someone else."

The short HAP shook his head, glowering at the vampires. "No way . . ."

"Henry, that's an order" Helen said sharply. Henry scowled but didn't fight as the two guards led him back into the large room that housed the other HAPs and closed the door behind them. Helen turned to Rene and said "If he has so much as a scratch when I come back you will dearly regret it, High Lord Dramelin."

"Nothing to worry about, I take very good care of my pets. Do tell Teslat to be prepared to fight to get him back, though, I believe in fair play and the current law is very clear about challenges."

Helen let them escort her to the gate room, but the stunners were nowhere in sight when she and her vampire escort arrived. She closed and locked the door in their faces and activated the gate.

Back at the Sanctuary she headed directly for the library. Nikola wasn't there, but she soon found him sitting in a chair on the roof surrounded by his pigeons. There were bread crumbs scattered around, one pigeon was perched on his shoulder and he was petting another sitting in his lap. He looked relaxed and happy, and smiled at her as she approached.

"Nikola, bad news. Rene Dramelin has confiscated Henry. He gave me some claptrap about Henry being a runaway or out without his owner or some such thing."

Nikola stopped smiling. "But he was wearing his "free" symbol, wasn't he?"

"The High Lord confiscated that and called Henry a stray animal. I'm afraid you're going to have to deal with it as Henry's 'owner'."

"Aaagh. Is Henry all right? He didn't struggle did he?"

"Well we stunned a couple of vampires but everyone's fine. Dramelin also sent a warning to be prepared to fight to get Henry back."

Nikola looked down at the cooing pigeon in his lap. "I took that damned medication Helen, I can't even change completely much less fight anyone." He gently shooed the one off of his shoulder and let the one in his lap flutter to the ground as he stood up and faced her.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked.

"Perhaps you can get Henry back without fighting. You already established that he belongs to you and Rene acknowledged that."

"If Dramelin or anyone else challenges me, I'll have to fight. They get choice of weapons, I choose time and place, but I can't delay more than 24 hours without a good reason. Being certain to lose doesn't fall into that category."

"We need to get Henry back."

"Yeah I know. I just don't know how to do that. I don't want to fight Rene; he's Ana's blood son as well as being older, stronger, and very likely meaner than me. Maybe she can help."

They called Ana. They already knew she didn't care about the HAPs, so they only mentioned Henry's captivity as the source of contention between Nikola and Rene. When asked how she would react if her blood son challenged her blood father, she only said "It isn't unusual within the ruling family for there to be challenges. I would not interfere. It would be unpleasant to lose one of you, but either way it would merely require an adjustment on my part."

On speaker Helen said "Explain please?"

"If Dramelin loses, I would need a new manager for my properties. This would be inconvenient since I would need to choose a new child and it takes time to train someone properly. If Teslat loses I would rule on my own; since I do so most of the time anyway, this would be less of a change, but more irritating."

Nikola asked quietly "You would be irritated if High Lord Dramelin killed me?"

"I have grown a little fond of you, young one. Your blood has showed me so much, and you think in refreshing ways. You have a little wisdom and I am curious as to what you will become in a few centuries, assuming you survive that long."

"Ah" Nikola said. With the speaker on mute, he said to Helen "Don't be upset with her. She thinks logically and for the long term, and doesn't let emotion deter her." Helen just shook her head and said "She's a cold-hearted bitch Nikola, if she can address the death of a blood relation as an inconvenience."

"True, but perhaps all old ones get like that, I don't know." He turned off the mute button. "Queen Ana, I appreciate your candor. However, if you know of a way to prevent a challenge and avoid inconvenience, perhaps you could do something?"

There was a short silence and Helen feared she was about to hang up. But Ana said "I will consider it. Give me a day before you come for your creature." Then she hung up.

Nikola asked Helen "How long will it take for the diazepam to get out of my system?"

"I'm not sure, I've never prescribed it for a vampire before. I would guess somewhere between 24 and 36 hours."

"So we wait."

/

Henry didn't argue when he was told to undress. At least one of the vampires was speaking to him in English. He'd given up being body shy when he'd accepted his alternate form; he had to strip to change forms, and when he changed back . . . he hadn't figured out how to do it with any modesty.

The only disconcerting thing was the other HAPs watching him. They were way too interested in what was under his clothing. He turned away to undress, and one of the vampires handed him a length of narrow colorful print cloth to wrap around himself.

He wasn't very adept at turning it into clothing. He realized as he attempted to make something out of the long piece of material that the others were way more skilled at turning a simple piece of fabric into something stylish; at least the women were, the male had just wrapped a short piece of wider fabric around himself and tied the top at the side of his waist. He obviously wasn't very concerned about modesty.

Henry didn't want to be that exposed, but he only had so much cloth. He finally knotted the fabric at his waist in back, dropped the longer tail between his legs and pulled it up through the band in front to let the remaining fabric hang spread out over his thighs to his knees. The short end he just let hang down in back, hitching the top edge into the waist band so he could spread it out and cover at least most of his buttocks. That still left a lot of skin showing, but he consoled himself with the thought that he was with HAPs, and they'd very likely already seen each other naked a number of times.

But he was unprepared for the looks when he turned to them. The male had his arms crossed and was standing with his legs wide, his head up, and a very pugnacious look on his face. One of the women was looking at him with very plain sexual interest in her eyes, and another was coolly appraising his body.

Henry blushed and said "Look, I'm a married man. I have a wife I love and a little girl, so there's not going to be any hanky-panky. And none of you have a clue what I just said."

The vampire guards were turning to go. Henry asked the one who spoke English "Um, hey, excuse me? Could you tell them that, before you go?"

The vampire shrugged and spoke to the others in German and then in Hungarian. To Henry in English he said "You are to stay here. If you are found outside without an escort, you will be punished. Do you understand?"

Henry nodded and said "Yeah, got it. Thanks."

He turned back to the other HAPs and found the women had lost interest and the male was still watching him, but no longer looked aggressive. Henry walked in a wide circle around the other HAPs and inspected the water and food troughs. They were made of stone and the water was crystal clear and the food looked fresh, but strange. Henry took a dipper of water but decided to hold off on the fungus; maybe someone would come rescue him before he got that hungry.

Some of the platforms on the wall had bedding on them. He picked up a couple of pillows and a puffy comforter from the floor and tossed them up onto an empty one at one end about a meter and a half up the wall. Henry hoisted himself up on to it and arranged his bedding to his liking, then got down again.

So what was he supposed to do all day long? He couldn't even talk to the others, and the only objects in the room were a scattering of wooden toys and the small stone animal figures. But there were no knives or tools, so the HAPs hadn't made the things themselves, the vampires had supplied them.

Henry wished the English-speaking vampire was still around, he could have asked for something to do, although at the moment he didn't know what. He was pretty sure he wouldn't be allowed anything that could be used as a weapon or anything valuable like scientific instruments or computers. Maybe a Frisbee or a ball or something?

There were a couple of wooden balls on the floor, one a little larger than a golf ball and the second a bit smaller than a softball. He walked slowly to the edge of the group and settled on a pillow near the larger of the balls. The other male sat down and watched him, but the women just glanced his way when he neared them. Henry picked up the ball and tossed it up a short way into the air and caught it. He did that a couple of times and saw the other male smiling a little. The man stood up and held up his hands and Henry lobbed it to him gently.

The Hungarian backed up, and Henry stood up. The throw back was overhand but not hard. Henry backed up too and tossed it back. He didn't know if the other guy was envisioning the wooden sphere as a baseball or not, or even if Hungarians played baseball, but they definitely knew how to play catch.

/

Helen and Nikola shared a bottle of wine after dinner in her sitting room. They both avoided talking about the elephant in the room most of the evening. But as it neared time for bed, they knew they had to decide what to do with an unmedicated Nikola overnight.

Nikola finally brought it up. "Helen, I'd like to try a different sleeping arrangement tonight."

"I've been thinking about it too, Nikola. I don't want you going off alone to Bhalasaam or some such place. What if I lock you in one of the containment rooms?"

"Actually, that's what I was thinking. For one night I guess I could stand it. At least everyone else would be safe and I wouldn't wake you up."

"You will be locked in though. Would that be . . . worse for you?"

"I don't know. It's not the same as being restrained, but the big windows sort of creep me out. Being involuntarily on display like that kind of reminds me of how I was in Ginger's . . ." Nikola didn't finish the sentence, he took a long swallow of wine instead.

"Restraints would be worse and you can't stay in your own bed without them. If you hadn't wakened when you did the other night . . ."

"I could have hurt you, scarred your face, or even killed you. You don't have to remind me, I'd probably have nightmares about it but they have to get in line with the ones I'm already having." Nikola finished his wine and stood up. "Let's do it, now, before I change my mind."

Most of the Abnormal habitats were in another building, but there were a few on one of the lower floors in the residential building, primarily in case they needed a temporary holding facility for a prisoner or some similar exigency.

Helen led him to the largest, more like a guest room than a cell except for the big viewing window and the combination lock on the door. She opened it and stood aside. Nikola dithered in the hall for a few moments, then took a deep breath, put his head down and forced himself to stride in quickly to the center of the room. Helen closed the door behind him, ensuring it latched and locked.

Nikola just stood frozen in the center of the room, breathing heavily. Then he raised his head and slowly turned to face the window. He gave her a little nod and said tightly "I'm fine. Good night, Helen."

Helen could see by the tension in his body that he wasn't fine, but her watching him through the window was more likely making it worse rather than better. Hoping he would be able to relax after she left, she put a smile on her face and said warmly "Good night Nikola. I'll be back in the morning to let you out." Helen forced herself to turn and walk away; she would much rather have held him, but that wouldn't make it any easier for either of them when she had to let go.

Nikola wished there were drapes he could draw across the window; he could possibly hang the blanket up somehow but he decided against it. If Helen saw it she would see it as pathetic and he didn't want her thinking of him that way.

There was no one out there, the corridor was empty. He told himself he had as much privacy as he would in his own bedroom, but he found himself unconvinced. Well he'd made his decision and now he had to make it through the night.

He took off his jacket, vest, tie and shoes, setting them neatly across and under a chair. If his clothes got wrinkled it didn't matter, he'd be back in his own rooms in the morning. Nikola got into the small bed, turned his back to the window and tried to sleep. The window behind him gave him the sensation that someone was watching, although he knew better. He pulled the blanket up over the back of his head and eventually he slept.

A/N: Thank you for the review epichlexi. I have a hard time getting started on the next chapter until I get feedback, and your continued encouragement helps a lot.