Libera Me Part I
Title: Libera Me
Fandom: Blood Ties
Pairing: Will be Mike/Henry and maybe Mike/Vicki
Rating: T like suitable for Teens?
Spoilers: 5:55
Word count: 1847
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: Mike gets turned by Henry during the events of 5:55.
A/N: This fic was inspired by a BT vid. luvinmike pointed me to EstelKenobi's alternate ending for 5.55 and the idea to turn Mike got stuck in my head. And yes I wrote a fic with a title that references 'Interview with the Vampire'. Please hit me for being a walking cliché. Thanks for beta-reading luvinmike!
Later, he would only remember it in flashes.
Vicki kneeling above him with tears in her eyes, quickly fading to black as his sight started giving out...the pain/pleasure of Henry’s bite...doubling over, which made the pain in his chest flare even more until he couldn’t breathe.
Then, the rich red color of blood… red as wine, smooth as red velvet… dripping and dripping… one drop of blood and then another glowing in the light like perfect clear rubies until there was a flood… the sound as it flowed in and out of him a permeating deep ring like from a giant gong.
He remembered drinking.
And then quiet.
***
He woke up swathed in white and marvelling over the absence of pain. He had to be in the hospital and he had to be on the good stuff. But what moron had placed a sheet over his face? He moved an arm to draw it back and it was surprisingly completely effortless. The sheet slid down to reveal an unremarkably grey ceiling. However, the light was far too bright in the room and it made his eyes hurt. He closed them.
Then, just like that, as if a switch had been turned, a cacophony of sounds assaulted his ears. He heard the building above swarming with humans: talking, walking, breathing, telephones ringing, doors being closed, keys tapping and computers and other electronic knickknacks vibrating. Oh my God, he would never use a cell phone again. He was definitely on the good stuff. He opened his eyes again just to get away from the noise and his gaze fell on a wall of stainless steel doors.
He held his breath. He couldn’t believe it. He stared at the row of doors, wide-eyed and glued to the spot. Only now he noticed he wasn’t lying in a hospital bed, but on a steel table. It was very cold and he was naked under the sheet. He wrapped himself up in it and caught the sheet on his toe tag.
Okay, nothing surprised him anymore. He was alive, so what? He’d ended up in the morgue, falsely presumed dead. It happened from time to time. Thankfully nobody had cut him open yet. He looked at his chest. Nope, no ugly scars and also no … gunshot wound. He distinctly remembered being shot.
Then he began to panic.
“Mike?” a soft, hesitant voice came from the side. He turned his head and saw Rajani just standing there in a corner of the room. Only it wasn’t Rajani. It was a glowing, pulsing being. A kaleidoscope of light and colors surrounded it, gently moving in the rhythm of its heartbeat as if on a breeze. He stared at it, full of wonder, and tried to determine if it was Rajani or not. Then he felt something strange, something like hunger. He wondered if the glow the creature gave off was edible. He thought it was. Only, how did you eat light?
“Mike!” another voice called quietly. He could taste the power in it. Could you taste the power in a voice? Was that right? Mike whipped his head around. Henry stood in the door to the morgue, leaning casually against the doorframe. Anger initially bubbled inside him.
But Henry was so beautiful. If Rajani was a butterfly, then Henry was a gem that caught the light, cut from indestructible stone: perfect, eternal, unchanging, immortal.
Mike could feel him. There was a buzzing connection between them. Now, that Mike looked at him, he couldn’t understand how he had missed his approach. Emotions rose like tides within him and battled for his attention, sweeping him up and making him plummet back down. He hated him.
“What have you done to me?”
Every word came slow and with perfect inflection over his lips. It was like learning to talk again. The words carried a new heaviness now. Rajani stood completely still in her corner, but she paled next to Henry anyway.
Henry approached him slowly. Mike could see how much he had to contain himself in the way he moved. It was glaringly obvious he wasn’t made to move like this … like a human. Mike never could have imagined … Henry was standing in front of him soon enough, despite moving so languorously. He raised a hand, still very slowly, as if cautiously attempting not to spook Mike. He held his bare wrist in front of Mike.
“Drink!”
Mike watched the arteries and veins trail beneath his translucent skin. They glowed with life. Mike could see it flowing in the rhythm of Henry’s heart. He could taste it. He traced one of the arteries tenderly with a finger. Suddenly he became aware of the fangs in his mouth. Henry’s heart called to him. It wanted to become one. A ravenous hunger swept him away and he used those new fangs.
Henry was the most delicious thing that he had ever tasted. Every other taste paled in comparison to him. Within a minute he had forgotten the taste of fries, kung pao and soft drinks. In another minute he forgot what beer tasted like. Nothing could be as intoxicating as Henry’s blood. It ran over his tongue, cool and tangy. It soothed the hunger pangs in his stomach and deep in his mind. It whispered to him as he instinctively knew only blood could and told him stories of the night sky in spring before the invention of electric light, of dancing, love, and hunting.
He ripped his mouth free, leaving behind large, gaping gashes. He looked up at Henry, licking the blood that had spilled across his lips as an afterthought. Then he jumped down from the table and ran. He didn’t have a destination. He just wanted to get away.
***
Henry looked up at Rajani with a sigh. “Are you okay?” he asked her.
She looked stricken and shocked. During all the time he had known her, she had dealt with the strangest things that mortals usually shied away from, but she had never judged nor never lost her professionalism and her innate sense of respect for the dead. Henry loved her quiet dignity and her ability to remain unfazed even when confronted with the unexplainable. He’d known that she’d known his secret for a while and they had never exchanged a single word about it. He knew he could trust her. But this had apparently shattered even her composure.
She nodded. “He won’t kill anybody, will he?” Henry had never heard any hesitancy in her voice before.
“Don’t worry, I won’t allow it.” He tried to sound as calming as he knew how without putting his power of persuasion into the words. “I have to go now.” He sped out of the morgue, following the faint feel of Mike in his mind as it moved away at a fast pace. He had to catch up with the newly turned vampire before he decided to stop. He was doubly glad now that Mike had accepted his blood, or he would have lost his trail by now otherwise.
He followed the newborn vampire to the next park. He had obviously tried to get away from the noise and scents of the teeming masses of humans who went about their business in the still early evening. Henry released a pent-up breath. Mike had probably moved so fast the whole way that nobody could see him. That was good because he now stood in the middle of a clearing completely naked. He hadn’t even taken the white sheet with him. There was nothing worse than starting out your existence as a vampire with hoards of journalists hunting you down because you were streaking.
Mike stood in the clearing calmly looking up at the sky with an expression of wonder on his face. His skin had already lost most of the suntan he’d had as a mortal. Henry regretted its disappearance. Soon his skin would take on the pallor of a vampire.
“Mike!” he called out softly. He approached slowly, careful not to spook the other man. He froze when Mike’s gaze turned to him. “I know this is confusing for you. Believe me I know exactly how you feel. But you can’t run away from me right now, Mike,” he pleaded.
“Why did you do this to me?” Mike whispered brokenly. There was a world of hurt in his eyes, though beneath it, also a sense of fascination that Henry knew very well.
“You were dying. Vicki asked me to.”
Mike expression became shuttered. “Of course. And soon, she’ll ask you to turn her too and then we’ll be a big, happy vampire family until we can’t stand to be in the same city anymore.”
Henry looked at him sadly. “She begged me to turn you, Mike. How could I say no?” His thoughts turned back to that moment in the hotel. Vicki had been sobbing over Mike while his lifeblood seeped out of his body and his heart faltered.
‘You’d die for him, wouldn’t you?’ he’d asked.
And she had nodded and bent over the human. Henry’s heart had broken with the realization that she loved him. He closed his eyes in remembered pain.
“Did she even know what she was asking?”
“No,” Henry said without hesitation.
Mike gave a sob before catching himself. “But you knew!”
Faced with this accusation, Henry stayed silent.
Mike looked away, breathing heavily even though he didn’t have to, as if the exertion from his run across the city had belatedly caught up with him, though Henry knew it hadn’t.
He dared to come a few steps closer. Mike’s head snapped back to him, but at least he didn’t run. “It doesn’t have to be bad. You get used to it. But right now, you’re hungry. You have to feed some more,” he whispered.
Mike gave a harsh and painful laugh. “Feed!” he said, as if it was the grandest joke in the universe. “And if I don’t?” he dared him challengingly. At least he seemed to regain some of his fire. That was a good sign. Maybe he wouldn’t walk out into the next sunrise.
“Then you’ll get hungrier and hungrier until you can’t control it anymore. By sundown tomorrow or the night after that at the latest you’d kill.”
Mike closed his eyes. “And if I feed on animals?”
“That’s only an option for older and stronger vampires. And it’s actually pretty distasteful. You are newborn. You are … weak right now and need to feed properly.” Henry moved even closer until he was almost in touching distance. He was positive he could grab Mike now if he tried to run off again. “Just try it.”
Henry stiffened as he sensed two humans approaching on the solitary path above. He could tell Mike hadn’t sensed them yet because he was so confused. He reached a hand out to his newborn child. Initially hesitating, Mike finally took it and let himself be drawn to the path. Then he tensed as soon as he heard the human couple.
Fandom: Blood Ties
Pairing: Will be Mike/Henry and maybe Mike/Vicki
Rating: T like suitable for Teens?
Spoilers: 5:55
Word count: 1847
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: Mike gets turned by Henry during the events of 5:55.
A/N: This fic was inspired by a BT vid. luvinmike pointed me to EstelKenobi's alternate ending for 5.55 and the idea to turn Mike got stuck in my head. And yes I wrote a fic with a title that references 'Interview with the Vampire'. Please hit me for being a walking cliché. Thanks for beta-reading luvinmike!
Later, he would only remember it in flashes.
Vicki kneeling above him with tears in her eyes, quickly fading to black as his sight started giving out...the pain/pleasure of Henry’s bite...doubling over, which made the pain in his chest flare even more until he couldn’t breathe.
Then, the rich red color of blood… red as wine, smooth as red velvet… dripping and dripping… one drop of blood and then another glowing in the light like perfect clear rubies until there was a flood… the sound as it flowed in and out of him a permeating deep ring like from a giant gong.
He remembered drinking.
And then quiet.
***
He woke up swathed in white and marvelling over the absence of pain. He had to be in the hospital and he had to be on the good stuff. But what moron had placed a sheet over his face? He moved an arm to draw it back and it was surprisingly completely effortless. The sheet slid down to reveal an unremarkably grey ceiling. However, the light was far too bright in the room and it made his eyes hurt. He closed them.
Then, just like that, as if a switch had been turned, a cacophony of sounds assaulted his ears. He heard the building above swarming with humans: talking, walking, breathing, telephones ringing, doors being closed, keys tapping and computers and other electronic knickknacks vibrating. Oh my God, he would never use a cell phone again. He was definitely on the good stuff. He opened his eyes again just to get away from the noise and his gaze fell on a wall of stainless steel doors.
He held his breath. He couldn’t believe it. He stared at the row of doors, wide-eyed and glued to the spot. Only now he noticed he wasn’t lying in a hospital bed, but on a steel table. It was very cold and he was naked under the sheet. He wrapped himself up in it and caught the sheet on his toe tag.
Okay, nothing surprised him anymore. He was alive, so what? He’d ended up in the morgue, falsely presumed dead. It happened from time to time. Thankfully nobody had cut him open yet. He looked at his chest. Nope, no ugly scars and also no … gunshot wound. He distinctly remembered being shot.
Then he began to panic.
“Mike?” a soft, hesitant voice came from the side. He turned his head and saw Rajani just standing there in a corner of the room. Only it wasn’t Rajani. It was a glowing, pulsing being. A kaleidoscope of light and colors surrounded it, gently moving in the rhythm of its heartbeat as if on a breeze. He stared at it, full of wonder, and tried to determine if it was Rajani or not. Then he felt something strange, something like hunger. He wondered if the glow the creature gave off was edible. He thought it was. Only, how did you eat light?
“Mike!” another voice called quietly. He could taste the power in it. Could you taste the power in a voice? Was that right? Mike whipped his head around. Henry stood in the door to the morgue, leaning casually against the doorframe. Anger initially bubbled inside him.
But Henry was so beautiful. If Rajani was a butterfly, then Henry was a gem that caught the light, cut from indestructible stone: perfect, eternal, unchanging, immortal.
Mike could feel him. There was a buzzing connection between them. Now, that Mike looked at him, he couldn’t understand how he had missed his approach. Emotions rose like tides within him and battled for his attention, sweeping him up and making him plummet back down. He hated him.
“What have you done to me?”
Every word came slow and with perfect inflection over his lips. It was like learning to talk again. The words carried a new heaviness now. Rajani stood completely still in her corner, but she paled next to Henry anyway.
Henry approached him slowly. Mike could see how much he had to contain himself in the way he moved. It was glaringly obvious he wasn’t made to move like this … like a human. Mike never could have imagined … Henry was standing in front of him soon enough, despite moving so languorously. He raised a hand, still very slowly, as if cautiously attempting not to spook Mike. He held his bare wrist in front of Mike.
“Drink!”
Mike watched the arteries and veins trail beneath his translucent skin. They glowed with life. Mike could see it flowing in the rhythm of Henry’s heart. He could taste it. He traced one of the arteries tenderly with a finger. Suddenly he became aware of the fangs in his mouth. Henry’s heart called to him. It wanted to become one. A ravenous hunger swept him away and he used those new fangs.
Henry was the most delicious thing that he had ever tasted. Every other taste paled in comparison to him. Within a minute he had forgotten the taste of fries, kung pao and soft drinks. In another minute he forgot what beer tasted like. Nothing could be as intoxicating as Henry’s blood. It ran over his tongue, cool and tangy. It soothed the hunger pangs in his stomach and deep in his mind. It whispered to him as he instinctively knew only blood could and told him stories of the night sky in spring before the invention of electric light, of dancing, love, and hunting.
He ripped his mouth free, leaving behind large, gaping gashes. He looked up at Henry, licking the blood that had spilled across his lips as an afterthought. Then he jumped down from the table and ran. He didn’t have a destination. He just wanted to get away.
***
Henry looked up at Rajani with a sigh. “Are you okay?” he asked her.
She looked stricken and shocked. During all the time he had known her, she had dealt with the strangest things that mortals usually shied away from, but she had never judged nor never lost her professionalism and her innate sense of respect for the dead. Henry loved her quiet dignity and her ability to remain unfazed even when confronted with the unexplainable. He’d known that she’d known his secret for a while and they had never exchanged a single word about it. He knew he could trust her. But this had apparently shattered even her composure.
She nodded. “He won’t kill anybody, will he?” Henry had never heard any hesitancy in her voice before.
“Don’t worry, I won’t allow it.” He tried to sound as calming as he knew how without putting his power of persuasion into the words. “I have to go now.” He sped out of the morgue, following the faint feel of Mike in his mind as it moved away at a fast pace. He had to catch up with the newly turned vampire before he decided to stop. He was doubly glad now that Mike had accepted his blood, or he would have lost his trail by now otherwise.
He followed the newborn vampire to the next park. He had obviously tried to get away from the noise and scents of the teeming masses of humans who went about their business in the still early evening. Henry released a pent-up breath. Mike had probably moved so fast the whole way that nobody could see him. That was good because he now stood in the middle of a clearing completely naked. He hadn’t even taken the white sheet with him. There was nothing worse than starting out your existence as a vampire with hoards of journalists hunting you down because you were streaking.
Mike stood in the clearing calmly looking up at the sky with an expression of wonder on his face. His skin had already lost most of the suntan he’d had as a mortal. Henry regretted its disappearance. Soon his skin would take on the pallor of a vampire.
“Mike!” he called out softly. He approached slowly, careful not to spook the other man. He froze when Mike’s gaze turned to him. “I know this is confusing for you. Believe me I know exactly how you feel. But you can’t run away from me right now, Mike,” he pleaded.
“Why did you do this to me?” Mike whispered brokenly. There was a world of hurt in his eyes, though beneath it, also a sense of fascination that Henry knew very well.
“You were dying. Vicki asked me to.”
Mike expression became shuttered. “Of course. And soon, she’ll ask you to turn her too and then we’ll be a big, happy vampire family until we can’t stand to be in the same city anymore.”
Henry looked at him sadly. “She begged me to turn you, Mike. How could I say no?” His thoughts turned back to that moment in the hotel. Vicki had been sobbing over Mike while his lifeblood seeped out of his body and his heart faltered.
‘You’d die for him, wouldn’t you?’ he’d asked.
And she had nodded and bent over the human. Henry’s heart had broken with the realization that she loved him. He closed his eyes in remembered pain.
“Did she even know what she was asking?”
“No,” Henry said without hesitation.
Mike gave a sob before catching himself. “But you knew!”
Faced with this accusation, Henry stayed silent.
Mike looked away, breathing heavily even though he didn’t have to, as if the exertion from his run across the city had belatedly caught up with him, though Henry knew it hadn’t.
He dared to come a few steps closer. Mike’s head snapped back to him, but at least he didn’t run. “It doesn’t have to be bad. You get used to it. But right now, you’re hungry. You have to feed some more,” he whispered.
Mike gave a harsh and painful laugh. “Feed!” he said, as if it was the grandest joke in the universe. “And if I don’t?” he dared him challengingly. At least he seemed to regain some of his fire. That was a good sign. Maybe he wouldn’t walk out into the next sunrise.
“Then you’ll get hungrier and hungrier until you can’t control it anymore. By sundown tomorrow or the night after that at the latest you’d kill.”
Mike closed his eyes. “And if I feed on animals?”
“That’s only an option for older and stronger vampires. And it’s actually pretty distasteful. You are newborn. You are … weak right now and need to feed properly.” Henry moved even closer until he was almost in touching distance. He was positive he could grab Mike now if he tried to run off again. “Just try it.”
Henry stiffened as he sensed two humans approaching on the solitary path above. He could tell Mike hadn’t sensed them yet because he was so confused. He reached a hand out to his newborn child. Initially hesitating, Mike finally took it and let himself be drawn to the path. Then he tensed as soon as he heard the human couple.