Disclaimer: Insight, Kaleidoscope, and Tanya Huff own the copyright to Blood Ties and its characters. This piece of fan fiction was written solely for the love of the characters and to share freely with other fans. No profit is being made from the posting of this story.

Pairing: Henry / Vicki

Rating: NC-17 / FRAO

Warnings: Mild use of bad language

Summary: Vicki discovers what it means to take on a vampire lover.

Comments welcome and appreciated!

Dawn. When had it gotten so late... or was that early?

Vicki shook her head in wonder and looked down on the sleeping form of Henry Fitzroy, bastard son of King Henry VIII, a vampire of breeding and courtly grace. She lifted a hand to trace her fingers across his bare chest, outlining the well-defined pectoral muscles. Resting her head over his heart, she heard the slow, sonorous beat.

Sleeping. But was this sleeping? Did vampires sleep? This seemed like so much more. In this state, Henry was vulnerable, helpless... unable to rouse if danger approached. Yet he trusted her with his very life.

Last night. Oh, last night... life flowed through his veins: her life. She had surrendered at last to the growing compulsion to open herself to him. Was this the doing of the vampire's powerful persuasive will, or her own choice? Henry had answered that. He couldn't control her; her personality was too strong. She had chosen of her own free will to go to his bed, to discover what taking a supernatural lover would be like.

Just once in her life, before she died, she wanted to know...

Henry was magnificent naked. His young body was toned and fit, pale and seductive. Vicki had surrendered her will to this man for the night. He blanketed her body with his, kissing her, stroking his hands in places long left untouched. Vicki moaned and arched beneath him, ready to give more, needing to give more.

His head slipped between her legs, and with his long, brown curls buried in her crotch, she felt the initial sting as his teeth sank into the tender flesh of her inner thigh. As the blood welled from the wound, his tongue flicked out, tasting her. Soon his mouth had engulfed the punctures and his gentle suckling pulled Vicki's first orgasm from her body. A shuddering cry escaped her lips as she trembled with the power of her completion.

Henry looked up at her, smiling, before making certain that the coagulants in his saliva had stopped the bleeding. He pulled himself up alongside her, cupping her head in his hand and pulling her toward him for a kiss. She could taste the blood, her blood, from his mouth, and found it was not unpleasant.

And then she felt herself filled in a more conventional manner, her arousal being reawakened to peak a second time that night. She hadn't known that Henry was capable of human physical love, but she was learning. She was learning much about the young man who just happened to be nearly fifteen times her own age.

By the time dawn neared, Vicki marveled. She had had no idea she could come so many times in one night. No lover had ever cared more for her fulfillment than his own. As Henry slipped into his near comatose state, she marveled and thanked the higher powers, God, whoever... for giving her this gift.

In the living room, her cell phone rang. She considered ignoring it, as she brushed the back of her fingers against Henry's cheek, but the annoying ring was persistent. Finally, gathering Henry's robe off the foot of the bed, she wrapped herself in it and padded barefoot out of the bedroom.

"Vicki Nelson," she said curtly into the small device.

"Where the hell have you been?" Mike Celluci's voice boomed over the wireless connection. "I've been trying to get a hold of you since yesterday!"

"It's none of your damn business," Vickie growled back, the pleasant lethargy from the night before dropping away like flecks of dried paint.

"It sure the hell is!" Mike stormed back. "I worry about you, Vicki. I know you can't see worth shit at night. Where were you all night, anyway? You weren't at home or at your office."

"I had a case," Vicki ground out through clenched teeth.

"And did Henry help you out on this case?" The jealousy in Mike's voice was clear to anyone with half a mind to hear it.

"Not that it's any of your business, but yes," Vicki answered. "He was instrumental in solving it, as a matter of fact. We got finished late, so I stayed here."

"Here? Here as in Henry's condo? All night?"

"Just the part of the night we weren't working," Vicki spat back. "I thought it might be easier for me to get home after the sun came up."

"Well, it's up. Why aren't you headed for home?"

"You woke me up, you bastard! At least let me get a cup of coffee before I have to call a cab to take me home."

"I can come and get you," Mike offered more softly. "I'm just getting off a late shift myself, and I'm headed home."

"That's okay," Vicki murmured. "I'm not dressed yet and I need my coffee."

"Oh, God! You didn't sleep with him, did you?"

"And what business would it be of yours if I did?"

"Did you let him drink your blood, Vicki? Did you?" Worry was evident in the detective's voice.

"That's how vampires make out," she said simply. "Sex is the blood, and blood is sex."

"Oh my God," Mike groaned. "Vicki...."

"I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself," Vicki told him.

"I'm not so damn sure," was the last thing Vickie heard before snapping the cell phone shut and returning to bed. She hadn't done much sleeping last night between the demon hunt and making love with Henry, and she was tired.

***

The scent of coffee woke her up. Dressed only in his red silk robe, Henry brought a hot, steaming mug of the strong brew into the bedroom and perched himself on the edge of the bed. He reached out to stroke an errant strand of hair from her forehead.

"How are you feeling this evening?"

Vicki looked up at the sweet smile that accompanied the words and frowned, puzzled. "About how you'd expect a 31-year-old woman to feel who hasn't had sex in the last eight months, and who just woke up from a night of sexual orgy with a vampire."

"That good, huh?" The smile never left Henry's face as he held out the coffee mug to her.

Vicki scooted up to a sitting position, demurely pulling the blankets to cover her breasts as she reached for the proffered mug. "Mmmm... this is good," she said, taking a sip of the strong brew. "How is it that you know how to make decent coffee when you don't even drink it?"

"Years of practice," was the not-so-unexpected reply.

"I should have guessed," Vicki said dryly.

"I'm going to take a shower," Henry said, rising and letting the robe drop back onto the bed. "Take your time getting up."

An hour later, Vicki sat on the couch, watching Henry as he sketched intently with pen and ink, determined to finish his latest book before his publisher's deadline.

"What happened last night?" Vicki finally asked. "Between us?"

"We kicked demon ass and came home and celebrated," Henry said, looking up briefly before going back to his work.

"Was that all there was to it?" Vicki wondered. "We just celebrated?"

Within the blink of an eye, between one heartbeat and the next, Henry was beside her, his hand tangled in her hair, his eyes dark with desire. "No," he said, his voice deeper and more resonant the usual. "It meant far, far more to me. What is it you want to have happen between us?"

"I-I want..." Vicki looked into the black depths of Henry's eyes; saw the sharp points of fangs that glinted between his lips. "I want to know what it means to love you."

"It means death," Henry said simply. Silence stretched between them for several heartbeats while the vampire's countenance returned to human normal. "I love you, Vicki, for what that's worth. I don't want to harm you. But I'm afraid..."

Vicki pursed her lips and studied the handsome face. "I didn't think you were afraid of anything."

"I'm afraid of losing you," he said.

"You won't," Vicki assured him.

"But I will," Henry insisted. "Either I'll kill you and make you a vampire, in which case we'd be at each other's throats in a matter of months, or you'll grow old and I'll move on. Either way, I lose you."

"It must be hard," Vicki mused. "I used to think how glorious it would be to live forever and have all the time in the world, but it has its drawbacks, too. You must be very lonely, Henry."

"You have no idea," the young prince sighed. "I cannot get close enough to most people to have a real relationship. Getting close means revealing my secret, and revealing my secret means I risk my own life."

"Not with me, not ever," Vicki promised. "Let's live for the 'now' and worry about the future later. Even a vampire deserves some happiness."

"What about Celluci?" Henry asked, knowing that Vicki had had a relationship with the man in the past, and that Mike hadn't quite let go yet.

"I'll deal with him," Vicki promised. "Now, how about showing me some of the other ways you've learned to make love in the last four hundred and fifty years?" The one thing Vicki had always been able to count on with Henry was his lustful nature. The man had been trying to get into her pants practically since the first day she'd met him. He didn't disappoint. Warm lips pressed against hers and Vicki knew that come morning she'd have some serious explaining to do with Mike Celluci.

But it could wait until morning... for now, she had the night....