by Maria Wiberg

PART 1

"Get over here, lover," Peter pleaded from the door to his apartment. "I want a goodbye kiss before I go to work."

His words were answered by a giggle; Moura bounced towards him, her steps light as a ballerina's.

She wrapped her soft white arms around his neck and pulled him down towards her inviting red lips. He'd expected a brief and playful kiss, but what he got was one that once again stirred the passion they had shared that night.

"Hey, hey, I gotta get to work or the Captain will have my head," he moaned as he reluctantly let go of the woman filling his arms.

"See ya tonight, Lover!" her voice low and husky, still filled with the promise of passion. Leaning up against the wall, stretching out to reveal the soft curves of her body, she did everything she could to make him stay just a little while longer.

Peter closed his eyes in a feeble attempt to resist her, knowing he'd made a mistake when he'd asked for a goodbye kiss. With a cry of defeat, he ripped off the thin lace gown covering her body, pressing her harder against the wall.

~~~

Captain Karen Simms opened her office door to find out if Detective Caine was late again. She didn't find him where he was supposed to be. "Strenlich, send Peter in here if he decides to come to work today!" she barked

"Yes, Captain!" Strenlich understood exactly why she was getting irritated at the young Detective. He had not been himself lately, that much was clear.

"He's been behaving too irresponsibly lately. Arriving later each day, looking like he hasn't slept in weeks. Dozing off on stakeouts and his reports are near enough impossible to read these days. It's time to do something about it."

"Yes, Captain."

Simms returned into her office, closing the door with a bang. She didn't like to lecture people, but something had to be done about Peter's behavior.

Outside Jody and Skalany giggled with their heads together when they saw the object of the commotion this morning come waltzing into the squad room like he didn't have a care in the world.

"He's in love. Ten bucks says he's in love!" Skalany whispered.

"You're on. He's never behaved like that when he's been in love before. This is something else."

Strenlich stepped into the path of the absentminded young Detective. "Captain wants you!"

"Oh shit, I'm late again, aren't I?" Peter said, but he didn't sound very sorry about it. In fact the very thought about why he was late brought a smile to his lips.

"And you better stop grinning like an idiot before you get in there, too."

"Okay, Chief. On my way." He couldn't hide a hint of a smile in the corner of his eye as he walked towards her office.

Inside the Captain's office, he felt like he was back in the orphanage principal's office once again. He knew he'd been naughty. Knew he'd be lectured for it. He sat down even before she asked, wondering what she'd punish him with this time.

"Detective, tardiness does not suit you well. Sloppy work becomes you even less." Karen Simms was her usual calm self, but her words were as sharp and hard as a knife's edge.

"No Captain, It's just that I've had trouble sleeping lately," Peter replied. He was perfectly honest, he just didn't tell her the reason.

"Oh, is that so? Then I have the perfect solution. As from tomorrow you work nights."

"What?!" Finally, she got through to Peter. "Are you kiddin' me? Nights?"

"If nights are when you're awake, then you might as well work then. Report in tomorrow at seven." Then she dismissed the now wide awake Detective with a wave of her hand and went back to her files.

Peter wandered out of the office, stunned, no longer smiling. He ran his hand through his hair, didn't quite understand what had brought this down on him. Sure he'd been a bit tired lately, who wouldn't be with a girl like Moura, but it couldn't have been bad enough to bring this on. Could it?

"What happened Peter? You look like you've been fired or something?" Skalany teased him.

"I think I just got demoted," he answered, shaking his head in disbelief. "I'm on night shift as of tomorrow."

~~~

The apartment felt empty without her in it. He sat down on the couch with a beer, not knowing what to do with the rest of the day. He wouldn't be able to see Moura until this afternoon, and his father was out of town. He didn't have to make any decision though, within ten minutes he was sound asleep on the couch.

He woke by a gentle kiss placed on his lips. His lover had entered the apartment without him even noticing. It was already dark outside, and he realized he'd slept through the whole day. Well, he might have needed it, he knew he had not slept a whole night since he met Moura. And that was a month ago now.

He willingly let himself drown in her mouth, forgetting she was the reason he'd been demoted to working nights. With this woman, he was rapidly becoming a sex-crazed maniac; everything else came second hand. The job, his father, his family and friends were neglected and almost forgotten when he was with her. And she was with him every single night. Waited for him when he came from work. Kissed him goodbye in the morning. Peter had no life without her anymore. He didn't miss it either. He readily threw it out the window every time he laid eyes on her. The long dark hair, the brown, almost golden glimmering eyes, the soft curves of her small body against his own, the smile, everything about her amazed him. Made him want her even more.

Sometimes at work, daydreaming, he realized he honestly didn't care that he didn't know much about her. He knew her sparkling laughter, her witty jokes and constant friendly tease. That was more than enough. Hell, it was enough to make him think about her all the time.

"Peter, darling, what are you doing home this early?" she queried when she'd satisfied her thirst for his kiss.

"Told ya, I'd get in trouble this morning, didn't I?" he smiled at her. The world around them faded now that she was here. He just couldn't be mad at this woman.

"I didn't think you were serious, darlin'. You always tease me that you're gonna get in trouble."

Pulling her down into his lap, he nibbled her ears, started to kiss her neck, not the least interested in anything else.

"Hey!" she pulled away from his arms. "Do I really need to stay out of reach to get a remotely serious answer from you?"

"I'm under your spell, you know that Moura," he teased before he actually told her what had happened. "The Captain moved me to the night shift. Beginning tomorrow at seven."

"Nights? Nights!" Her surprise and disappointment was painfully obvious in those plain words. "But...? What about us?"

"I don't know, Moura. I honestly don't know." Not until he saw her disappointment he realized what working nights meant for the two of them. Less time together. "Let's not waste a minute, not a second of our time together."

"Yea, let's not," she agreed and moved forward to embrace her lover.

PART 2

"Nooo, what have I done?!" Moura moaned out aloud and backed away from the almost lifeless body of her lover. With terror in her eyes, she stared down at the harsh reality of her deed.

In the moment of pure passion, she had done what her true nature dictated; she had drained him of blood, and she had vowed never to do that. She'd told herself that she loved him too much to ever let that happen.

The very thought of now losing him made her heart ache on the verge of breaking. A heart that until a month ago had been frozen, dead. If she left now, he would die. In only moments she had to make a decision, live or die. Both a curse.

"Noo," she cried again. "I can't lose you! You may hate me forever for this, but I can't bear to lose you." And then, with tears rolling down her cheeks, she bent down to kiss his pale mouth. Biting deep in her tongue, she let her own blood pour down his throat to give him something very much resembling life back.

Within seconds, he reacted to the warm blood gushing down his throat. Still unconscious, he started sucking, drawing his life back through the blood from her. When she started to feel dizzy herself, she pulled away, quickly shutting her mouth so that she wouldn't bleed all over him and the floor.

Seeing the wonderful color of blood fill the body of her lover once again made her heart once again whole. He'd be like her from now on, but she didn't care as long as he lived and loved her. With ease she lifted him up and carried him in her arms towards the bedroom they had never used that night.

She placed the sleeping man on the bed, and kissed him lightly goodbye on his lips. She left him there alone to make sure she herself had enough blood to make it through the daytime sleep.

~~~

Peter woke with a dry mouth and a headache from out of this world. He didn't remember drinking though, only lots of good sex. He reached out to touch Moura but she wasn't there. "Moura?" he called out. No answer. She wasn't in the apartment.

It wasn't until he pulled the blinds and looked outside he realized it wasn't morning. It was night, and he'd slept through one more day. It was time to go to work. "Night shift," he sighed. He shouldn't feel like crap now, he'd made love and he'd slept. He should feel great, on top of the world, but he didn't.

He opened a new bottle of water to clear out his dry and foul tasting throat and to wash down some aspirin. Head back he let the cool water run down his throat. ‘God, this is terrible!" he realized, choking on the water. It was like sewer drain or sour milk mixed with vinegar. Emptying the content of his stomach in the kitchen sink, he really began to feel sorry for himself. Even Moura began to fade in the pain of the moment.

A shower and a shave later he didn't feel any better, but he had to get going. If he concentrated on work, he could perhaps forget about this thing he was coming down with.

~~~

Work didn't help, the longer the night progressed the worse he felt. The dry throat and foul taste in his mouth rapidly progressed into a terrible thirst. But whatever he tried to drink came right back up again. He'd tried to eat, same thing. Nothing made the thirst any easier. Even thinking about food or drink had made him nauseous.

On the way home, he had to concentrate to even be able to see straight. His vision blurred, and he felt like he was going to pass out any second. Miraculously, he made it home with both him and the Stealth in one piece.

Moura opened the door before he could get the right key into the small hole. It was like he was drunk, everything was out of balance. "Moura!" he smiled and almost fell over her into the apartment when he tried to embrace and kiss her.

"Peter, I'm so sorry." She easily supported and guided him towards the couch. "I should have stayed with you. I didn't think you would go to work feeling like you must have felt this afternoon when you woke. I thought I had time before you left."

"I thought it would go away." Peter managed to reply while falling down onto the couch.

"No Peter, this will never just go away." Moura said with words so sad and so full of regret that she actually got through Peter's own pain and confusion.

"What are you talking about? I just got the flu or something, all I need is to rest."

Moura sighed and slowly shook her head. "No Peter, what you've got is not the flu or any disease you've ever heard of before." Actually saying the words, trying to gather enough courage to tell him made her almost cry. She'd spent the entire day regretting what she'd done the night before.

Peter looked at her, didn't understand what she was talking about. How could she know what was wrong with him when he didn't understand it himself?

Turning away, not able to face his disoriented gaze any longer, she confessed. "Oh, Peter, my true love. I'm responsible for this. And I'm so very sorry."

He tried to get up to comfort her, it hurt him to see her in so much agony. He couldn't, his limbs didn't want to cooperate. "Moura, please, tell me what's wrong." And he didn't mean what was wrong with himself, he didn't care.

Avoiding the inevitable words she walked over to the kitchen to get the only thing that could cure Peter's pain. For a while anyway. She'd thrown out beer and food leftovers to fill his fridge with bottled blood. She knew he'd need a lot the first few weeks before his body got stabilized on the new diet.

She grabbed two wine glasses and one of the bottles from the fridge and returned to the living room couch. Sitting down beside him, without a word she filled the two glasses.

"To love forever!" she toasted.

Peter looked at the thick red liquid in the glass, not sure if he could keep wine down when all else had failed earlier at work. "To love!" he returned the toast and finally made himself take a careful sip of the wine.

The careful sip, was immediately followed by the rest of the content in the glass. Finally! Something he could drink, it tasted like nothing he'd ever tasted before. Better than anything he'd ever tasted. In an instant he also knew exactly what it was. ‘Blood!’

He just had to have more. Grabbing the bottle from the table, not wasting time by using the glass this time he poured the content down his throat without even bothering to swallow. When he was done with it Moura handed him another one and he grabbed it with animal-like greed. ‘More!’ was all he could think.

He emptied three bottles before the thirst was under any kind of control. He slowed down, took the time to taste the wonderful stuff. Closing his eyes, leaning back in the couch he realized he felt so good, so very good. Horny.

Like she knew what he was thinking, Moura popped down into his lap, giving him a kiss still tasting of the blood she'd been drinking. It made Peter mad with desire for her like he'd been for the blood moments earlier.

PART 3

Peter stood out on the tiny apartment balcony. His old fear of heights strangely gone, he leaned his elbows on the edge, and looked out over the lights of the city night. He desperately needed some fresh air and solitude to be able to think.

It was night, but it wasn't dark, not for him. The moonlight was as bright as the sun had ever been, but the world he saw was different; he was different. In only a few hours he'd changed so completely he had a hard time knowing who, or what, he was.

When all he wanted was solitude and silence, the world around him was violently imposing on his heightened senses. The wind brushed lightly against his skin and played the trees far below him like chimes. He listened briefly, until a wild and rhythmic beat took over; a man jogging passed the tree below. Peter couldn't help himself; he let his eyes eagerly follow the man until he disappeared around a corner. His sensitive nose could still follow the trail of blood and sweat left behind. He looked out over the city skyline again. The siren of an ambulance skirting through the heavy traffic on Main made him want to cover his ears.

Still clasped in his hand was the bottle of blood. Absentmindedly, he lifted it to his mouth and took a large sip of the dark liquid. It tasted good, better than anything he'd ever tasted before, but at this moment he didn't notice; his mind was elsewhere.

He wondered if he would be able to continue his life as a cop now? Could he ignore what was happening to him and be the one he'd always been? The strange things he could feel happening within himself made him uncertain he could be around people.

He could smell the blood, it was everywhere. He wanted to throw himself off the balcony, float out over a world reeking with blood in search for live prey. But he didn't have to search, or even concentrate to hear the rhythmic thump of an old man's heart through an open window two blocks away. It was as if the whole building pulsated along with the hearts of the people living there. He started to fantasize about the warm liquid gushing down his open willing mouth, what it would be like cutting a throat to get to the wonderful liquid. He took another sip.

Sadness sneaked into his mind, enclosed the core of pleasure the blood had created. So much would be lost to him now; the sun, the blinding light of day, dawn. A world of carefree happiness and laughter. Then again, the loss didn't seem as hard to bear when he looked up at the bright light of the moon and it was just as bright as the sun used to be.

‘Pop, what will you think of me now?’ he wondered. ‘Will you turn away in disgust over what I've become? Will you still love me, a creature of the dark? Maybe it's a blessing you're not here to see this.’

Peter heard Moura softly pad across the carpet, heard the whisper of the drape as she brushed past it and onto the balcony to join him out there. The early morning already made the light so bright that Peter had to shut his eyes. He hugged her close without seeing her when he felt her hesitant touch on his arm. "I don't know if I'm gonna be happy or sad, sane or mad. What am I gonna do now, my love?"

"Oh Peter, whatever you decide, I will be right by your side." She comforted and lead him inside, away from the rising sun. "Your path may be lit by a different light now, but you can still walk it. You can still be a cop if that's what you want."

"I'll try Moura, I'll try."

"That's all any of us can do, Peter. Come, let's go to bed, it's morning."

"Okay." Peter followed her into the bedroom. For the first time since he met her he didn't have any need to make love to her. He was so tired, so very tired.

~~~

The precinct. It used to be home, a safe place. It wasn’t anymore. The constant loud buzz of people made Peter's head spin. The bombardment of impressions on his heightened senses made him confused and irritable. He didn't know how to turn it down, how to cope with so many people, so much blood all around him. The painful need for blood was still so new to him, it imposed on his every thought. He'd emptied three bottles before driving to work and then an hour later all he could think of was the next meal.

Hardly even communicating with his fellow officers, he got his paperwork done faster than ever. Concentrating on that very practical chore was the only thing that kept him from going berserk in there, sensory overload very close. Done with the paperwork, he almost ran towards the exit. Two deep breaths outside on the stairs and he regained some of his calm; the thick walls of the precinct effectively shut out the chaos and the blood.

"I can do this, I can do this!" he kept saying, trying to convince himself that he actually could as he slid in behind the wheel of the Stealth. All he could really think about was blood. He needed it badly now. Leaning over, he quickly opened the glove compartment to find the bottle of blood he'd hid there earlier. It was empty in seconds, and he still wanted more. "Damn!"

Almost out of control, he let the Stealth spin out of the parking lot on the way to his first assignment for the night.

~~~

Peter soon found he really could do his job. With a couple of bottles hidden away in the trunk of his car, he could function just like any normal human being, only better. Absentmindedly drinking out of a coke can, he smiled wickedly as he tuned in on a phone conversation in an apartment across the street. The perp he was watching kept a busy line, but always seemed to find the time to talk to his favorite phone sex operator. Peter patiently waited for a call from the man's accomplice, and couldn't help but miss his own woman when he heard the man whisper into the phone.

Young Asian girls were kidnapped in China and Hong Kong and sold as sex slaves on the black market in the US. Ships from several Asian destinations were about to arrive in the city port, and Peter knew this sleaze would lead him to the right ship. Donny was a good snitch, he knew better than to make something up for Peter. Bowman had to be the one he was looking for.

‘All things considered, being a vampire isn’t so bad,’ he thought. All he needed was a steady supply of blood and he was okay. But it would never be the same again, he knew he was rapidly becoming a stranger to his old friends and coworkers. It wasn't just the night shift, it was the fact that he needed to hide his true nature. He knew without a doubt he'd never pull it off if he didn't work alone. The Captain had, of course, offered his old day shift back when she saw he behaved. He'd declined with a smile. "I like nights, Captain. I'm staying." Inside he ached, he would have loved to go back to days. If only he could.

He knew they blamed his unbalanced behavior on his father's absence. But they couldn't be more wrong. All the anger and feeling of abandonment he'd felt when Caine left had disappeared the moment he met Moura. He didn't need his father, he had her. She filled his senses, made everything else around him fade. And the feeling of independence from his father grew even stronger when the blood entered into his life. For the first time in his life, he actually didn't care that his father had gone somewhere unknown.

He focused on the present again when he realized Bowman had finally stopped breathing heavily into the phone and was now talking enthusiastically with another male. Peter smiled when he heard what they were discussing.

"Gotcha!" he smiled.

~~~

"Tomorrow, Chief. The next shipment of girls will arrive in a cargo-ship called MS Fortuna, tomorrow evening," Peter happily reported when he returned back to the precinct.

The Chief didn't smile, but it was as close as he'd ever come to smiling. "Good. And we will be right there to catch the bastards."

"Count on it! There's no way they can escape us this time."

"Finish up your report, and get some sleep Caine. You look awful."

"Okay Chief," Peter readily smiled. He knew he looked like shit. He needed blood, and the sun would be up in less than an hour.

~~~

Peter and the others from the 101st hunched down behind the plentiful crates and boxes on the dockside when their target drove up to the docking ship. The place was full of activity, but the dark made it easy to blend in among the shadows. The thin, almost spider-like smuggler nervously paced the dockside, cellphone glued to his ear, impatiently waiting to be allowed on the ship.

Peter almost giggled when he listened in on the phone conversation. The guy amazed him. He was obviously very impatient to get aboard the ship, and still he could make out with his girl over the phone. If not for the fact that Peter could hear her on the other end, he might have thought it was some kind of code.

The cops waited too, only a slight degree less impatiently. Peter soon wished he'd brought a bottle of blood; this thing took longer than he'd calculated. He needed to drink, and soon.

When the gangway finally was down, Bowman was almost running over it. Peter, ignoring the swat team, quickly hurried after him, equally fast. He didn't want to lose him inside this huge ship. Damp air and sticky heat hit him like a wall when he entered. "Make sure to put on your gas masks before you enter, " he joked into his radio to the swat team following behind. He didn't wait for an answer; he had to stay reasonably close to hear the perp's footsteps and constant talk over the distractions of the sounds of the constantly moving ship.

Deep into the ship, Bowman obviously found what he was looking for; he stopped talking. Peter sneaked close. From his position just outside the door, he could almost touch Bowman and Alexander in the next room.

"Is the cargo okay?" Bowman anxiously asked.

"Sure thing man, they're just fine, " the other man responded.

Peter took a deep breath of the thick air and entered the room like he belonged there. "Police. I'm here for the girls. Hand them over, and I will go easy on you."

The two surprised smugglers turned to face the intruder. "You gotta be kidding? You're no cop!" Bowman protested when he saw the glaring eyes and the pale face of the intruder.

Peter briefly flashed his badge as he slowly but steadily closed in on the skinny man right in front of him. "You better believe it," Peter said with a low, almost growling voice, "and then you better forget it. Cause you're sure as hell gonna regret it if you don't tell me where the prisoners are."

Alexander didn't just stand by to watch his accomplice get squeezed. When Peter's eyes focused on Bowman he drew his gun. "Not so fast, copper!"

Peter laughed when he turned towards the fat man with the gun. "Watch this!" he playfully called out as he snatched the gun from Alexander and sent him flying with a punch right on the nose. The heavy man with a face as round as a pumpkin almost bounced when he hit the cabin wall, blood splashing out of his nose.

Even before the poor criminal realized the cop in front of him had moved, Peter had grabbed him by the balls and effortlessly lifted him two feet off the deck. "You don't want to mess with me! Understood?" he said as calmly as if he was ordering pizza.

Alexander almost screamed his lungs out, but he got the message. "Okay, okay, let me down. Let me down!" he miraculously managed to beg.

By then Peter had almost forgot the man himself; all he saw, all he smelled, all he could think of was the blood right in front of him. Slowly he let the man down only to put his lips to the man's quivering double chins. He instinctively wanted to bite but in the very last instant got some scrap of sense back and instead started to lick the blood off Alexander's throat and face. This ultimate humiliation and show of power was too much for the man; he messed himself as he passed out.

Peter dropped Alexander, he was no longer of interest to him. Lustfully smiling, licking off the last of the blood around his lips he turned towards the other man in the room. "I want the prisoners!"

Bowman tried to back through the wall. "I don't know where they are. Honestly. I don't know where they are," he babbled when Peter came step by step closer.

Peter lost his sense of reasoning as well as his temper. "You're going to tell me where they are!" he demanded. "Now!"

"Pleease, I don't know where they are..." the terror and fear made Bowman's voice crack up.

"You're lying!" Peter snapped back. "You know your way around this ship, you've done this thing before, you bastard!"

The man hunched and tried to turn away from Peter's glaring eyes and demanding posture. "No," he squirmed, "no!"

Peter didn't let him. With a disgusted grimace he grabbed Bowman by his greasy black hair and lifted him up. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

It didn't work, all he got was a scared silly lowlife criminal that couldn't get anything said. "Snap out of it!" he called out as he slapped the man hard over the side of the face. The shock of the hit didn't do any good, Peter still couldn't get anything out of the guy. "Where are they!"

"I..I...I don't know..." came an unsteady stutter.

"You're going to tell me!" Peter didn't even register that the man was too scared to lie. He slapped again, and again, and again. He didn't even stop when Bowman's face turned into a bloody mess. It felt good to hurt this man, and the blood released a wonderful sweet fragrance into the thick warm air.

"Peter! Stop! You're going to kill him!" a sharp voice called out behind Peter.

"I know," he grinned as he turned to face Kermit and Skalany in the doorway. "This sleaze doesn't deserve to live."

"Peter, my God! What happened to you?" Skalany gaped. "You got blood all over your face."

"I do?" Peter replied as if he didn't know and wiped his face with the back of his blood covered hand, and made it even worse.

"For his own good, get him out of here, Kermit."

"Come Peter, it's all over. We already have the girls. They were held in a couple of the crew cabins below. The captain was very helpful."

"Thank god for that," Peter sighed, and left the room without even a look back at the bloody scene behind him. It was over.

On the way back to the precinct, when he'd silenced the craving demand for blood, he realized what he'd done. He'd enjoyed hurting that man. He'd been only too close to ripping Alexander's throat open. "What if I can't stop myself next time I see blood?" he shuddered, the car suddenly freezing cold.

~~~

"Peter, my darling. What's wrong?" Moura whispered as she crouched down beside the man curled up against the bedroom wall.

He lifted his head and showed eyes filled with fear and confusion. "I'm losing it, Moura."

She sat down beside him, took his hand. Wanted to make him feel better, but she also needed to know what had happened. "What's happened to you?"

He didn't look at her, as if he didn't want her to feel guilty for bringing this on him. "You said I could go on living like I used to... be a cop. But I'm not so sure about that anymore. I almost killed someone today. I almost beat him to death with my bare fists, and I enjoyed it. Every damn blow."

Moura sighed. "I'm so sorry, Peter. I was afraid this would happen."

Now she had his full attention. "What do you mean? You knew?"

"You're a vampire Peter. Vampires are deadly and dangerous creatures. You've only experienced a tiny part of what it means to be a real vampire so far."

"What else is there? What haven't you told me?" he snapped at her, his fear turning into anger.

She looked away from his demanding stare, couldn't face him. She herself had left her vampire life behind, decades ago. And she had not intended to go back to it. But she knew that she couldn't hide the true ways of a vampire from Peter much longer. It would soon start to take over, if it hadn't already done so that afternoon. She definitely preferred the transformation happened under the control and supervision of an elder vampire instead of among unsuspecting humans.

"Don't be angry, my love. I never intended you to become a vampire. It was an accident born out of my passion for you. It happened, and I couldn't undo it. So instead I let you stay as human as I possibly could. I had ruined enough in your life as it was."

"Don't give me that guilt crap. I want the facts!"

"There's no way I can tell you, Peter. This you have to experience. Nothing I can say could possibly prepare you for this."

"Okay, show me," he demanded.

"First thing tomorrow, it's too near sunrise now to be safe." She let him know the discussion was over by leaving him alone on the floor. The sun was near and she was ready to sleep. She sat on the side of the bed. "Come, get some sleep."

He just gaped surprised at her. "Do you really think I can sleep? You drop this bomb over me and expect me to be able to sleep. You're crazy!"

She smiled and started to remove her clothes. That had always distracted him before. "Come over here and hold me then, let me feel your strong sensual arms around me. Let me give you the comfort of my undying love for you."

His tense expression weakened as she had planned. "I'll never be able to resist you, you know that."

~~~

"Peter, darling." Moura purred when they had just finished their act of love after waking up. "Are you really up for some fun tonight?"

"Always." Peter smiled and rolled over on his side to face her. "What do you have in mind?" his eyes telling her what he was expecting. The anxiety and fear of the night before was forgotten for a moment.

"No, not that, you horny bastard", she teased and rolled away when he reached to pull her close again. "You wanted to be a real vampire, remember. I will take you to meet a friend of mine, he will help us."

"You mean there's others like us?" Peter almost held his breath waiting for her to answer. He'd never even thought of the possibility that they weren't the only vampires in this city.

"Yes Peter," she confirmed. "Others like us."

"I don't know. What are they like?" Peter sounded really nervous even thinking about it. The vampire part of him scared him more than he wanted to admit. Sure it was part of him and he had more or less demanded that she showed them to him, but at that moment he was more scared than curious.

"Peter, you've been living like you've always done. Continued your work, continued being the caring individual you've always been, continued being the son of a Shaolin. But you have to know, inside you lurks a vampire. A vampire just like the one's you've read about in the stories. Dangerous, deadly and without mercy."

"If I'm really this savage beast, how can I still be me?"

"Because you haven't yet had human blood Peter. When you do, everything will change. And you will know what it truly means to be a vampire."

"I'm not sure I want to know that. I'm perfectly happy the way I am now. I like being this kind of vampire."

"I know you do Peter, and so do I. But you have to know that sooner or later that will change. And I don't want to be around you when you do. You need to get this other part of you under control before it starts to control you."

"Okay." His reply was very hesitant. He didn't really want to do this. "And how do we accomplish this?"

"We release the beast and hope for the best," she answered, but couldn't hide a humorous twinkle in the corner of her eye.

"No, we don't," he picked up on the twinkle immediately. "Stop kidding about this you little tease, you."

She laughed too. "Okay, okay, we don't really. But you will have to face your demon."

"Let's go then, my love. With you by my side I can face anything. No danger too great, no enemy too strong for Peter Caine."

PART 4

Peter and Moura stopped at the bar when they entered Delancey's. "Hi Terry!" Peter cheered happily. It had been too long and not until he entered the place he realized exactly how much he'd missed it.

"Good to see ya again Peter. Hi Moura, always a pleasure!" Terry replied without even raising his voice to make himself heard over the loud crowd around them. "The usual for the both of you?"

"Sure," Peter replied without even thinking. To his great surprise he didn't get what he expected. He got what he wanted. A wine glass with nice cool blood.

"Enjoy!" Terry winked when he saw Peter's surprise. "Talk to ya later."

Peter looked at Moura. "He knows?"

Moura smiled back. "Yeah, he knows. He's the friend I mentioned we'd meet tonight."

"No shit! I've known Terry for ages, and I could never have told, not even now I could have guessed."

"I know, it takes a long time to learn how to spot the others."

Peter's friends cheered happily when they approached. They'd missed having him around. They rarely saw him at work, he was always in a hurry to get out of the precinct in the morning and the rest of them didn't do night shift that often.

"Welcome back, stranger!" Skalany teased and moved over to make room for the couple around the table.

Jody looked at his glass and couldn't help but tease about it. "What are you drinking? I don't think I've ever seen you drink anything but beer Peter."

"It's this wonderful woman that's doing magic with me lately," Peter replied and squeezed Moura closer, dodging the question.

"Don't listen to him," Moura laughed. "He's the one doing magic to me."

They had a wonderful time, Peter even managed to forget the real reason for them being in Delancy's for a little while and just enjoyed himself. He promised himself that he would get together with the old gang much more often. Just because he drank blood instead of eating and drinking, he didn't have to deprive himself of good company. Moura was great, but friends were too. And he needed both.

For two night people like Peter and Moura the night was still young when the others broke up around midnight to get some sleep. They moved over to the now almost empty bar to catch up with Terry, and to get a refill on their drinks.

"Ready for some adventure, Peter?" Terry greeted them when they sat down at the bar.

"I don't know, Terry. I have absolutely no idea what you and Moura have in mind for the night. She's been really mysterious about it."

"You will find out soon enough. Come into my back room, this isn't something you'd like humans to see."

Wondering what was going to happen, he followed. What ever it, was it had something to do with the vampire part of him, and he wasn't sure he even wanted to know more about that.

He could sense something inside himself that he didn't like very much, something cold that probably had taken over at work more than once, but the other night it took over, no mistake. He found himself wanting to step over the line to protect the innocent, and he had been too close lately. It was only a matter of time before he crossed that line, and became a killer himself. It scared him, a lot.

In the back of the bar Terry had a spacious living room, complete with leather couches and a big screen TV. "Wow," Peter whistled. "This is not what I expected in the back of a bar."

Terry laughed "I know, but this is my place, and I kinda live here at the moment. Have a seat friends, and I'll bring out the good stuff."

"Good stuff?" Peter wondered.

"Haven't you taught this youngster anything yet?" Terry teased Moura shaking his head.

"What?!" Peter was suddenly getting impatient.

"Let's begin this with the blood." Terry started when he reached into a huge refrigerator and brought out a glass carafe filled with the liquid. "There's a very good reason you're still the Peter Caine I used to know when you were human. And that's the blood, the kind of blood I should say. What you and Moura usually drink are pigs blood, it will keep you alive, not much more."

Peter got a disgusted expression on his face. "Eww, pigs blood!" But inside he let out a sigh, secretly he'd been worried about the huge amounts of blood he was drinking. He had wondered where Moura got it, and too afraid to ask. But pigs blood, that had a disgusting ring to it.

Moura and Terry laughed at his disgusted outburst. They knew exactly what he meant, perhaps even more than he did. They knew what the real thing tasted like. But the real thing was a little too dangerous to drink on regular basis.

"This is the real thing Peter." Terry said as he handed Peter a filled glass. "It will blow your mind. Literally blow your mind. Enjoy yourself Peter."

"You sure make it sound dramatic and almost dangerous. What's the big deal? It's only blood."

"Drink!" Moura encouraged and lifted her own glass in a silent toast.

Peter drank. And from the moment he emptied that glass everything changed. "Moura...noo...what's happening to me?"

In an instant she was by his side, hugging the shivering body of her lover. She knew what was going on inside him, she felt it herself, but she knew what was happening and had learned not to fear it, he hadn't.

In a rapid flow of motion, Peter's body became that of a fierce creature of the night with nothing remotely human about him. The demon inside him, now fed by the blood of a human, kicked to life, and covered the mind of the surprised Shaolin like a wet blanket. Helplessly he looked with his now bright red eyes at Moura, saw that she'd changed too, saw in her what he himself must look like.

"Drinking animal blood does not only sustain us Peter, it keeps the demon inside us asleep and passive. We can live and be the humans we once were, only we have to do it by night," Terry explained to his guest while pouring a drink for himself from the same carafe.

It didn't take long for the change to settle and Peter found himself feeling rather good. He still didn't understand exactly what had happened, but he didn't care. He let out a loud growl, opening his gap showing off the sharp fangs that had replaced his teeth. "I feel soo good!" he roared, and stretched out his body. His voice was different too, it came from somewhere deep down his throat.

Without even asking he snatched the carafe on the table and poured another drink. But he found it was difficult gripping the elegant glass with his long clawed fingers, and it was even more awkward drinking from a glass. In a fit of anger he threw the glass away, smashing it against the far wall.

"Come Peter, let's go hunting, " Moura invited, opening the back door out into the alley behind the bar. She was as equally thirsty for blood as Peter.

"Okay, my love, show me the ropes. This will be fun." Peter quickly agreed and followed her outside into the night.

PART 5

The annoying noise of the alarm-clock returned Peter to the world of the living once again. The first thing he noticed was that he wasn't hungry. He always used to awake starved. Not this evening, he felt good. He felt so very good. He turned to his bed partner, and reached out to gently touch her. A chill of fear ran down his spine when he saw his own hand and arm. It wasn't over, his body was still not back to normal. And in an hour he had to be at work.

"Moura, look at me. I'm still a monster!" his voice was still low and growling. Nothing had changed but his mind, the wild raging beast was gone. The demon must be retreating.

Still half asleep, Moura turned over to look at him. "What are you talking about?" she mumbled. She was her usual beautiful self. Then she saw him and woke a bit more, he looked wonderfully wild. She loved him like that, almost as much as the old Peter. She reached up and caressed his deformed face, looked into those confused red eyes, and kissed him. "Don't worry dear, you will be fine soon, it will wear off in a few days."

Peter bolted away from her. "A FEW DAYS! are you crazy? I have to go to work?" His raised emotions woke the demon inside him again. And a short breath later he didn't care. "Sorry Moura," he immediately apologized, and returned to the bed. Sitting on his side of the bed, he called the precinct to tell them he was sick. And with a voice like his, they didn't doubt him for a second.

Then he joined his partner under the covers to do as they had done many times before; to spend most of the night together in bed.

Just before dawn, Peter finally had the nerve to make himself face the change in himself. He entered the bathroom and faced the mirror. He wanted to be shocked, he wanted to be afraid of the monster that looked back at him from behind the mirror. He wasn't. The demon inside him made that face his, just like his old face had been his. The fact that he wasn't worried about the change was what bothered him more.

Thinking back at the night before made him smile when it really should make him terrified. Hunting human blood together with Moura and Terry. He had killed a young woman, and he didn't even care. He had buried his teeth into her neck and felt only satisfaction, and buried her body out of necessity. He had flown high over the ground, wondering what it was about heights that he'd been afraid of all his life.

"Get back here lover!" Moura pleaded from the bed.

"What's the hurry?" Peter teased as he leisurely strolled out of the bathroom. "We got all eternity."

~~~

"Peter's doing it again," Karen Simms complained. "He's getting unfocused and sloppy. I've been getting complaints from the officers working nights with him. He's been acting weird."

"Yea, it's as if his mind isn't in it anymore," Strenlich agreed with her. "He's been showing up at Delancey's more frequently lately, but he seems wired and stressed out. Perhaps it's that girl of his."

"Send him in here when he comes on his shift tonight. I will have to talk to him about it."

~~~

"The Captain wants you!" Strenlich barked towards Peter when he arrived shortly after sunset for his shift. He looked like shit, he was pale and sweaty, and Strenlich could see a hint of the blue circles under the dark glasses Peter wore even inside lately. "You been seeing too much of Kermit lately?" he tried to joke.

Peter just grunted "Hi Chief," and passed him to get into Simms' office.

"Peter? Are you all right?" the Captain asked. When she saw her best detective in this condition, her determination to come down on his behavior disappeared. He was obviously sick.

"Well, I've been out of shape lately, that's all. I'm gonna need a few days to get back on my feet again." His voice still wasn't completely back to normal, and he had to clear his throat several times.

"Have you been to see a doctor?"

"No, you know how I feel about hospitals. I don't go there if I don't have to."

"Well, I say you have to Peter. I can clearly see that there's something wrong with you."

"Nothing wrong with me, Captain. I'm just a little under the weather. It will pass."

"I'm not so sure about that, Peter. You're going to see a doctor, and until you do, consider yourself on sick leave. I don't want to see you here looking like this. Understood?"

"Yes Captain."

Peter left her office feeling even worse than when he'd entered the precinct. He'd woke up this evening with the worst hangover he'd ever had. The human blood had finally worn off, and he was back to his normal self. In every sense of the word. He had gotten his body back a few days earlier, but it wasn't until this morning the mental effects had worn off completely. And now he was absolutely appalled at what he'd done under the influence. His conscience was killing him just as the headache threatened to do.

~~~

Once again sent home from work by his Captain, Peter went directly to the kitchen to get a drink. Looking at the bottles, he realized he longed for another kind of blood already. He didn't want to feel this way, he wanted that good feeling back. And he knew just what he had to do to get it back.

"No I don't!" he screamed at himself the next moment, and grabbed a bottle.

But the blood didn't taste good to him. It was dead, the taste was stale, and it didn't stop the hunger anymore. "Shit!" he put the now empty bottle down on the sink with such a force it shattered against the hard surface. Peter didn't even notice the splinters of glass scarring the inside of his hand.

He already wanted to be a vampire again, wanted to get away from this aching pain in his mind. With a cry of defeat, he surrendered. With a few fast leaps, he was out on the balcony, balancing on the thin iron rail. Only hesitating for a brief fraction of a second, he threw himself forward, out into the air.

~~~

When Moura entered the apartment a few hours later, she immediately understood what had happened. She had feared it would, but she didn't regret her decision to show Peter this side of the vampire for one second. The demon inside them were strong, especially for the young ones. She herself could control it, she could stay human even after drinking human blood if she wanted to. Peter didn't have that control yet.

She left the apartment the same way Peter had, to look for him.

She found him on the roof of his father's apartment. Sitting on the very edge, looking like he'd lost everything; his sanity, his life, his very soul. And in a way he had. Everything he used to be was now out of reach. He'd given in to the demon.

"Oh Moura I love you so," he confessed, and hugged her close when she sat down beside him. "Don't leave me, please don't ever leave me."

"Oh Peter, I will never leave. I'm forever yours. Just as you are mine, my love."

"I feel so lost. I am no longer Peter Caine, the cop. And I can't be this savage beast either. The two parts of me are on a collision course. I don't know what to do."

Moura hugged him close. "Just relax, Peter, and let me take care of you. I will never let anything bad happen to you."

He sat silent for a while. "Okay, Moura. I'll try and let go of my fears, and be whatever it makes me. I just wish Pop was here. He'd know what to do."

"Didn't you tell me once that he would be back?"

"Yea, he promised he'd be back."

"Then, let's wait until he gets back. We're not in any hurry Peter. We got eternity."

"Okay, I guess I can do that." Peter admitted, but he didn't feel any better.

~~~

"Where are we going, Moura?" Peter wondered when Moura started to pack a bag when they returned to the apartment.

"We need to go someplace where you have no emotional attachments. Too much around here reminds you of who, and what, you used to be. You are not a Shaolin cop anymore, Peter. You are a vampire."

"But you said I could be both if I wanted to."

"Yes you can, but I can clearly see it's tearing you apart inside."

He was silent for a moment, thinking. "I guess you're right."

"Of course I am, darling. And since you can't get rid of the vampire inside you, I'm going to take you away from the cop part for a while. I'm not asking you to forget who you were, but you could use some distance."

"Okay, were are we going?" he asked again, this time a little bit more enthusiastic.

"We're going to see an old friend of mine, and then who knows. Haven’t you ever wanted to just go wherever the road leads you?"

~~~

"Captain, I've been trying to find Peter for days now. No luck. He's not answering his phone, and he's not home, days or nights. He's not been at Delancey's either lately." Kermit's voice betrayed his worry about his coworker and friend.

"I've kept this quiet, Kermit. I didn't want to believe it, but I got his resignation in the mail the other day. He wrote that he wouldn't come back, he didn't feel like he belonged here anymore." Simms shook her head. Peter was one of her best detectives, but lately she would have to agree with him. He'd lost his drive and motivation. She'd thought it was because he was sick, but it had to be something else too.

"If only Caine was here," Kermit thought out aloud. "He could probably find out what was wrong with Peter."

"Do we know where to find him?" Simms got a glimpse of hope in her eyes.

Kermit sadly shook his head. "No."

"Keep your eyes and ears open for him. He might be in trouble again, and need our help."

"Will do," Kermit replied and left Simms' office to start his search. If Peter had indeed turned in his resignation, then something really bad must have happened to him. Peter wouldn't do that in a million years if he still had his sanity.

PART 6

Some time later:

Jack Wong entered the hall of the local mob boss. He was pissed as hell to even be there. Bon Bon Hai had practically thrown him out of his own territory, had told him he wasn't needed in Chinatown anymore. And that just because Bon Bon Hai was bored since both Caines had disappeared. The operations ran smoothly, the cops no real threat with Caine gone.

The boss waved him closer when Jack entered the spacious room at the end of the hall. It was very different style from what Jack was accustomed to in Chinatown. It looked more like a traditional men's club, than a base of operations for a mob boss.

Jack bowed respectfully in the customary Chinese way even though the huge man in front of him wasn't of Asian descent. Quite the opposite, the thin short hair was blond and the watery blue eyes looked almost as white as the soft pink face was supposed to be. "I'm honored to be here, Mr. Z," he replied, carefully hiding how disgusted he was at the sight of the fat man.

"Welcome to Debville, Mr. Wong. You come highly recommended by my good friend, Bon Bon Hai."

"Thank you, Mr. Z. I had hoped to break in some new territory here, now that Chinatown's in our hands at home."

"That is why I invited you here. Our Chinatown has so far resisted every effort from our side. They're a stubborn bunch. If you can bring them in line, you will be greatly rewarded, Mr. Wong."

"I will do my best, sir."

"Good, good. I already have one of my men present down there. I'm sure he will agree to show you around." He looked around the room, and found what he was looking for on a brown leather couch across the room. "Caine, get over here and meet your new partner!" he barked to get the man's attention.

Jack turned surprised to see who the man with the familiar name was.

For a moment, the very out of place looking man, dressed in black leather and making out with a girl, didn't seem to notice. "Caine!" Mr. Z barked again. "Stop fondling your missy and get over here!"

"Yea, yea, yea, hold your horses, boss," came a reluctant reply. "Who do you need dead now?"

Then he turned towards them and Jack saw who it was; Peter Caine. Damn. This job was too good to be true, that particular cop meant only one thing. Trouble. "That's Peter Caine!" he called out. "He's a cop!"

But...it was something different about this Caine, Jack could clearly see when Caine calmly, almost mockingly calmly, came closer. It wasn't just the clothes and the attitude. It was something in his eyes. But it wasn't enough to make Jack even reconsider this wasn't an undercover cop.

Mr. Z laughed. "Was a cop, Mr. Wong. Was a cop. He's a killer for hire these days. And I pay well for the kind of job he does."

"Good to see ya again, Jack," Peter greeted as he laid his arm around Jack's shoulders, and gave him a pretend affectionate squeeze. His voice was deeper and completely void of any emotion. His arm radiated coldness through the thick leather.

"Are you sure he's not just pretending? I don't trust him, he's been a cop too long. He's done too much damage to my old operations."

Caine laughed, it was a cold and utterly chilling laugh. "Trust me Jack! I'm not a cop anymore!"

"Caine might be a weirdo, but he's earned his place among us, Mr. Wong. We trust him, and I'm sure you will too when you get to know him better. Now, I have other business to attend to," he dismissed the two. "And I expect a progress report in a week."

Peter turned the paralyzed Jack around, and steered him towards the door. "Come, let's get to work. We have lots to do." He waved at his 'missy' to come along when they passed the couch.

Jack couldn't believe that Mr. Z actually trusted Caine. How could he? Caine was a cop, and a Shaolin. His father was a Shambhala master. He knew Caine would never ever turn to the dark side. "You may fool them, Caine, but you can't fool me. I know you."

"Do you, Jack? I'm not the same Peter Caine you used to know any more."

"Yea, you look different, you sound different, you act different, but deep inside you're no different; once a cop always a cop! How did you fake those killings? "

"No fake, Jack. I've even done a few of them right in front of Mr. Z himself. And we had fun, didn't we Moura," he winked at the woman beside him. "This is my Moura," he introduced.

"A pleasure to meet you Jack," she smiled and winked at him.

Jack stepped away from them in disgust. "What is this shit! I know you!" It didn't matter what anybody told him. He could not believe Caine was anything but a cop. Too much had happened between them over the years for a few words to change that.

Peter just shrugged and sighed at the show of temper. "Well, in a sense you're right, you do know me Jack. Since I left the force I've found a great way to cut crime on my own. I kill off the bad guys."

"Then what the hell are you doing here? If anybody's bad, these guys are."

Peter laughed shortly. "My relationship with Mr. Z is a strange one, I have to admit. He's sort of paying me to stay away from his people as well as for taking out his opposition."

"Tell me one good reason you're not dead yet, Caine."

"I'm not that easy to kill?" Peter winked.

"I'm being serious here Caine! Bon Bon Hai, or me for that matter, wouldn't hesitate a single second before blowing you away."

Caine only smiled back, nothing seemed to affect his good mood. "They tried, believe me they tried, Jack, but they soon realized I really wasn't that easy to kill. So instead, we made a kind of truce. Mr. Z gets rid of his enemies, and I don't have to waste any time searching for the baddies."

Jack shook his head. What Caine said was logical enough, but this was Peter Caine; the cop that single handedly had made more trouble in Chinatown than all the rest of the police force put together. "I guess that makes some kind of weird sense. But I still can't believe you're actually killing people, Caine. This must be some kind of elaborate scheme on your part."

Jack's doubts didn't seem to even touch the strange Peter Caine. "I got a new target tonight. I'm of course going to check up on the information before I'm actually going to do anything, but if it checks out, I have a bad guy to kill tomorrow. Want to come?"

"Sure thing, I'd love to see you get out of this one."

"That's a date then," Peter confirmed. "It will be fun to have a friendly face around. I'm at Brennan Square. Show up any time after dark and we'll set it up."

They had their own transportation Jack saw when they got back out on the street. A classic Harley waited for them right outside the entrance. Puzzled, Jack watched Peter recklessly burn rubber as he took off into the night. Moura's long dark hair flew in the wind. "What the hell's going on here?"

~~~

"Jack Wong, who would have thought he'd show up here?" Peter mused as he opened the front door of the dark building on Brennan Square for Moura. "This will be fun, don't you think?"

"Will it Peter? Are you sure he will not stir all your old doubts again?"

"So what? I am what I am. Nothing can change that."

"True," Moura agreed.

"So quit talking and enjoy the fun, my dear. Tomorrow we make a friend out of an old enemy."

"Let's just make sure we're not killing the wrong man tomorrow, first," Moura reminded him.

~~~

The Harley outside was the only thing telling Jack which of the dark houses belonged to Caine when he arrived at Brennan Square. It was a very traditional Chinese style building located at the corner of the flower-market, right in the middle of Chinatown. It wasn't the kind of place he'd imagined Caine living in. It looked more like the home of a successful businessman than an ex-cop.

A bit nervous, he knocked on the ornamented wooden door. What if he was Caine's target tonight? 'Don't be silly!' he told himself sharply.

"Step right in, Jack!" he heard through a well hidden speaker above him.

He entered the dark building. It was pitch black inside. He groped for a light switch as the door slammed shut behind him, but couldn't find one. Still in the dark with one hand against the wall, he slowly made his way into the building.

He almost died of shock when a hand grabbed his shoulder from behind. "Welcome to my house of a thousand deaths, Jack!" a familiar voice greeted from out of the dark.

"Jeez, Caine! You want to scare me to death?"

"Sorry about that, Jack. We don't have any lights out here, this house is supposed to be empty," Peter apologized, but didn't sound very sorry. "Come, we're in the kitchen."

"How can you move around in this? I can't see a thing," Jack complained as Peter dragged him along, never hesitating or slowing down the brisk pace.

"I can see in the dark," Caine said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Night goggles," Jack thought.

Finally, a faint light could be seen under a door at the other end of the corridor. Caine swung the door open before Jack had a chance to cover his eyes. The bright light blinded him temporarily. When he could see again, he found himself in a spacious country style kitchen.

"One of Mr. Z's more trusted associates turned out to be skimming. Mr. Z wants me to kill him to set an example."

"And exactly how are you planning on doing that?"

"Any way you like, Jack," Caine smiled wickedly, and turned his attention to the door at the other end of the room. It opened. Moura entered, pushing a huge bear of a man in front of her. The man staggered, almost fell. He had a confused look on his deadly-pale face.

Jack stepped out of the way, didn't understand a thing. But obviously the prisoner understood. The moment he laid eyes on Caine he panicked. Obviously he knew what it meant to be taken to Brennan Square.

"Help me, pleease, get me away from him!" the man pleaded towards Jack when he saw him. "I didn't do it, I swear, I didn't do noth..." the begging was abruptly cut short as Peter slapped a piece of duct tape over the man's mouth.

"What did you do to him?" Jack wondered.

Peter laughed, and easily grabbed the bigger man by the arm and forced him down on the huge kitchen table. "I didn't do anything...yet." One by one, he strapped the struggling man's limbs to the legs of the table. Jack could hardly believe how easy it looked, it was as if Peter had handled a small child and not a terrified grown man twice his own weight.

"You've been a bad boy, Frankie! You should have known better!"

"MMpf, ommpf.." the man shook his head in terror when he saw what Caine got out of a drawer under the table.

Caine smiled at the reaction and turned towards Jack as he calmly started to pick his nails with the tip of the huge kitchen knife. "So, Jack, how do you think we should end this man's life? You're my guest, you're the one doubting I can do it, you decide."

Jack tried to swallow the lump growing in his throat. This situation looked less and less like a police setup. The man on the table wasn't faking, he was really scared for his life. "I'd break his neck or shoot him in the head, quick and no pain," Jack reluctantly replied.

"Okay, Jack." Caine looked almost disappointed when he put down his knife on the counter and walked over to the man on the table. "Broken neck it is. I'm afraid I don't have a gun available."

Peter laughed, that misplaced evil laugh, and grabbed the man's head. One second later it was all over.

Shocked, Jack stepped up to the table and put his finger to the side of the man's neck. The man was indeed dead. Speechless and with disbelief in his eyes, he looked up at Caine's still smiling face.

"Told ya, didn't I?" I'm not a cop anymore. I'm Doctor Death."

"What the hell happened to you?" Jack could but ask, trying to avoid looking at the dead body.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that."

Somehow Jack knew Caine was gonna say that. Perhaps he was under some spell or been brainwashed? Whatever had happened the last few months since he last saw him as a cop, it had made a monster out of Peter Caine.

"How about some coffee, or perhaps a drink now that the job's finished for tonight?" Moura smiled towards them, completely ignoring the macabre sight on the table.

Peter casually grabbed Jack over the shoulders, and led him out of the kitchen. "I wouldn't mind a glass of wine," he said as if Jack was only there for a friendly chat.

"I'm sorry Caine, I'm outta here. This is just too much even for me," Jack said as he disengaged from Caine's arm to put some distance between himself and this weird new Peter Caine.

"No problem, Jack. It's not every day you see your favorite cop turn psycho criminal, huh? Get settled, and I'll get in touch with you in a few days."

"Let me show you out, Jack," Moura volunteered.

Jack left the house with one big question buzzing through his head. ‘Why?’

'He killed that man without even blinking. As if a life meant nothing to him.' Trying to shrug off the uneasy feeling he entered his car and left Chinatown.

~~~

"I believe we confused our guest tonight, Moura."

"You have changed, my dear. Maybe even more than you realize yourself. If you think about it, you are now the very opposite of your old self."

"I guess you're right, but I couldn't care less. I'm enjoying myself too much."

"I know, and so am I. I didn't realize how much I've missed being a real vampire again. I've been pretending to be human too long."

"Who could have imagined the dark side was so much fun? Since I gave in to the demon, I've had the time of my life."

~~~

"I'm getting nowhere here!" Jack complained when Peter entered Jack's new office in the heart of Chinatown.

"They're a stubborn bunch. I could have told you that," Peter smiled back. "That's why I'm here to help you."

"Whatever I come up with to threaten these people, they just seem to turn their backs and ignore it."

"That's what I'm here for. I don't just threaten them," Peter laughed.

Jack looked at his new friend, still wondering if he was for real or if he was still a cop.

As if Peter could read Jack's thoughts, he continued. "Don't you worry. I will not let you down. I'm gonna have far too much fun for that."

PART 7

one month later:

For a brief moment, the Debville Chinatown looked just like home. For a fraction of a second, Peter could almost see his father step out of one of the small shops. For a short while, it was as if he was still human, walking among other humans. Then, the people around him started to realize who he was. They saw his darkness for what it was in the early evening; evil, and they turned away in hate and disgust.

Realizing he could never be a part of this world, he began to wonder if he could go back; if he could reclaim his old life, his old place in society? He'd destroyed every chance of that ever happening in Debville. He'd made sure of that on his nightly walks around Chinatown with Jack. He'd made too many threats, acted upon too many of them to get Jack what he wanted. They knew him too well here, knew he was evil. The people on the street turned away from him, tried to move as far away from him on the sidewalk as they possibly could. He could smell their fear as well as their warm blood in the air all around him.

Peter sighed when he thought of the reality of his new life. 'I'm a bad guy now, not a cop, not a Shaolin. I'm an evil vampire, sucking the life out of others to live.'

Walking among the normal people of Chinatown made him, for the first time, question this existence. 'Is this really who, and what, I want to be? Is fun and games really everything in life?'

~~~

"Can I go back, Moura?" Peter asked his love later that night when they met at their luxury hideout.

"I don't know." She replied, hugging her sad partner.

"I miss being a part of the real world. I miss my friends on the force."

"I know my darling. It's your home."

For a while, they just stood there in the middle of the room. Hugging, supporting, each in their own thoughts. Both of them calculating if they could pull off pretending to be human again.

"Our job's really done here, Moura. Let's clean up all loose ends and return home." Peter had decided what he wanted to do.

"Anything you want, my darling. Let's pack."

~~~

Months had passed, and Peter was still gone, and so was his father. His friends didn't spend all their free time looking anymore. Slowly, they faced the fact that something awful must have happened, and there were nothing more they could do. That was when someone finally spotted him.

"Hey Peter!" Skalany yelled, and started pushing her way through the Friday night crowd at Delancey's to get to the far end of the bar. She'd been sitting at a table, waiting for the other's to arrive, when she spotted a familiar shape coming in through the door. Her heart started to move faster at the thrill of finally seeing her old partner alive.

When she arrived at the bar, she couldn't find him. She knew he'd been there only seconds earlier. "What? Where did he go?" she said to herself.

"Hey Terry! Where did Peter go?" She called out to Terry standing just on the other side of the bar of her.

"Peter?" he looked completely surprised. "Haven't seen him in ages, MM."

Something in his eyes made Skalany question his sincerity. "Don't lie to me Terry!" she blurted out. "I know he's here, I just saw him right here. You couldn't have missed him."

For an instant, Terry didn't know what to do. Then, he decided. "I'll see if he's still here." Then, he disappeared into the back of the bar.

"Pete, you still decent?" he called as he entered the back room.

"Yea, no problem Terry. I got the transformation thing mastered by now." Peter replied as he emptied the last of a carafe human blood from the refrigerator.

"I have a friend asking for ya. She saw ya come in here."

"Okay Terry. If you don't mind us using your room, send her back here.

"No problem, Pete. Just put your glasses on, will ya? You still haven't gotten those eyes under control," he laughed, and went to get Skalany.

"Peter, it's so good to finally see you!" Skalany cheered happily at the sight of Peter coming towards her. He looked so very different from the Peter she used to know. He looked more like that actor he once doubled for, Wolf Gannett. The black leather fit him well, but his pale complexion still made him look sick. If not for that sparkling smile below the dark sunglasses, she would have been worried about him. He did not move to take them off either as he hugged her.

"Mary Margaret, my friend! It's good to see you again too. I've missed this place too much to stay away you know."

"Where have you been?" the question was inevitable and she just blurted it out immediately.

"Oh, we've been traveling around," Peter answered in a very evasive tone that made Skalany aware that he didn't want to talk about that subject.

"You're staying here now?" That question was safer.

"Yeah, we're back to stay. My dad may like to wander, but it's just not in me. I like a steady address and my friends around me."

"If you asked the Captain, I'm sure you could get your old position at the precinct back."

Peter laughed shortly and shook his head. "I don't think I want it back." And then after a short break: " "No, there’s no way I can go back. I'm not a cop

anymore."

"But Peter, you used to love being a cop. What happened to you? You're so different." Skalany couldn't believe what she heard, but it kind of fit the image she could see in front of her now.

Peter just shrugged in a way that made her think of his father. "I dunno, I guess love and Moura changed everything for me."

Something made Skalany doubt that. He had never been able to hide his emotions very well. And his casual shrug made her suspect that this was much more serious than he wanted to let on. She decided right then that she would find that secret out.

"What are you gonna do then, Peter?"

"Terry's got an opening here in the bar, so I'll start working here, and I guess we'll see what happens."

Skalany just looked at him. She had a hard time believing that the once ambitious and dedicated cop was gone, replaced by a carefree and completely different attitude towards life. Now more than ever, she needed to know what exactly had happened to him.

"The others must be here by now. Come out and have a drink with us like old times, Peter," she invited when she realized she wouldn't get a straight answer out of him.

"Okay!" he happily agreed. He didn't seem to have a need to hide.

She followed him out into the bar again. He stopped behind the bar to pour himself a glass of red wine, and then went over to say hello to the others.

~~~

"It's good to be back, Moura. I've missed my friends so much," Peter said to his lover, leaning his head on his hand as he laid beside her in their bed.

"Yeah, we had a good time in Debville, but this is our home."

"I wonder if my father's back in town," Peter said almost to himself.

It had been a long time since he'd lost his mental contact with his father. At first, he'd been too busy with the wonders of his new life to notice, but later he came to realize he missed it and wanted it back.

"Are you thinking about going back to your old life as a cop?"

"You know I am. It doesn't matter how much I enjoy this life, I still want to go back. Is that silly of me?"

She wanted to shrug it off, tease him about going back on the pig stuff. She wanted to see that face of disgust when she mentioned it, but none of that came out of her mouth. "No, my dear, I know that way of life was more than just a job with you, it was part of your soul. And I am so very sorry to have ripped that away from you." She turned away, couldn't face him when he was in this mood. She would forever regret her quick decision to bring him over to the Vampire world. She loved him just as much now, but for his sake she wished he was still human.

Peter couldn't watch her suffer alone. He embraced her, and reassured her that he didn't love her any less because of what had happened.

Sitting there with Moura in his arms, he honestly didn't know why he even wanted to change. He was happy, happier than he'd ever been in his whole life. He lived and loved. An interesting and gorgeous woman shared a life that was never dull or boring. Every time he thought about it, he came to the conclusion that he didn't want to change at all.

But something about meeting his old friends had once again sparked that romantic and very unrealistic desire to be Peter the Cop again.

"I need some time alone," Peter turned away from her, trying to decide what he really wanted to do without getting distracted by her beautiful sight by his side. He didn't succeed, he could still sense her presence close to him, her sadness. Suddenly frustrated, he got out of bed. "I need to meditate, I'll be back in a few hours dear."

"Meditate? This must really be getting to you."

He discarded his usual black outfit, and dug into the closet to find his old jeans and a T-shirt. He didn't want anything from his new life distracting him when he went searching for his old self inside of him.

Standing on the balcony railing, ready to throw himself out into flight like he used to, he realized that flying wasn't what he needed to do. Completely oblivious of the height, he turned around and stepped back inside. Grabbing his car keys, he went to get the Stealth from the underground parking garage.

It felt good to be driving again. Doing something simple and very human. He enjoyed driving just as much as he'd always had. The night time journey with Moura had been interesting in it's simplicity, no suitcases and no car. None needed.

For a while he just cruised the bright night of the city, but without being able to relax from the vampire within. All the people around him distracted his focus on himself. Too much blood filled his senses.

He ended up at his secret place by the lake, no people around at the late hour. Sitting comfortably only inches from the water, he finally managed to shut the rest of the world out.

Trying to analyze his current situation only resulted in more questions. ‘Who am I? Where and when did Peter the Cop disappear? Why do I enjoy this life so much? I've become everything that I once despised and fought as a Shaolin. I could fit in among the Sing Wah easily these days.’ And that was true, he could. The police probably had a file on him too, the vampire assassin.

When he thought about it, it scared him how easy it had been to take that first life. The vampire demon inside him had mixed itself with his mind and taken over when Peter didn't know how to stay in control. Making him love every moment of the hunt and the prize.

The appeal made so strong that Peter's whole world of beliefs changed along with his body. And not even when he had made the demon go to sleep, and he got his body back, had that appeal disappeared. As the days had gone by the demand for human blood only got harder to endure. Until nothing else mattered.

No amount of Shaolin training had managed to restrain that demand. His father might have been able to help him battle it, but he was gone. And without that support he'd given in.

Now he wanted his old life back, and didn't know how to do it. Inside, he wasn't able to feel any remorse or regret about what he was or what he had done these past months. And still, he would very much like to go back to being a cop.

Sitting by the lake, he knew that as long as he was a vampire, that would never happen. He'd asked Moura about going back to being human, and she didn't know of any cure. All she knew was that animal blood kept the demon sleeping. She had never heard of anyone that had got rid of it and lived.

A vampire could live forever but very few did. A vampire was more likely to die from suicide than a stake through the heart. For a brief moment, Peter actually understood why.

Sensing dawn coming closer, he got up and walked back to the car. The car used to be his passion. He'd loved to just drive around the city, feeling the power of the engine, controlling it. Now it was only a reminder of time lost.

Half way home, he realized he wouldn't have enough time to get back to the apartment before dawn. He quickly parked the car, and took off through the skies towards sanctuary with Moura.

~~~

Skalany spotted Peter right away when he came out on the balcony. She'd never even seen him open the door out there when she'd visited his place. Now, he scared the shit out of her. He jumped up on the railing, elegantly balancing with his arms stretched out. For a moment, it looked just like he was about to jump out into the air. With a sigh of relief, she saw him jump back down onto the balcony, and just as quickly as he had entered the balcony, he disappeared inside again.

"Peter, Peter, what are you doing?" she mumbled to herself in her car.

Minutes later, she saw the garage gates open and the Stealth appeared. Without even stopping for traffic, it sped away down the street. Skalany quickly got out of the parking lot and followed. It seemed like he was only driving around, he changed direction every once in a while, but didn't seem to have a destination.

More than once, she wondered why she followed him around. Wondered why she doubted her old partner. Her gut feeling was that there was something weird going on in his life, and she wanted to know what it was. It wasn't likely that he would just tell her.

Skalany was about to give it up for the night when he suddenly sped up and headed for the outskirts of town. Soon, she saw him enter one of the parks in the city. "Now what's going on?" she wondered. "This must be it, he's meeting someone here," she assumed.

But no, he just sat down by the pond. His whole posture looked troubled and sad to her, and she wondered if that was the whole problem. Maybe he wasn't in trouble at all. Maybe he was just depressed?

Driving back towards his apartment, she only followed him because it was on her way home too. It was then she saw the thing that convinced her that he really was in trouble, big trouble. She followed him off the highway and saw him park the car in the early morning. She could almost see the sun over the horizon in front of them. He stepped out of the car and she briefly wondered what he was up to out there in the middle of nowhere. The office buildings and stores in the neighborhood were all closed this early.

He briefly turned his head around, as to see if anybody could see him. He didn't spot her, and then he flew off into the skies. Skalany's heart almost stopped right then. "Oh my God!" was all she could gasp.

She didn't move for a long time.

PART 8

The thrill of the hunt once again flooded the senses of the being known as Peter Caine. He hunched down on the rooftop of a Chinatown warehouse, his red eyes eagerly followed a young woman walking down the alley below. Grinning, showing off all the sharp fangs, he let himself fall forward, down towards the unsuspecting prey when she passed right below him.

In the very last second before he reached her, she turned, startled by the loud growl. She hardly had time to get scared, and no time to scream before she had a strong hand over her mouth and fangs buried deep into her neck. In seconds her world and her life started to fade.

"Let her go!" a sharp voice called out.

Surprised by the dare and determination of that voice, Peter did just that.

"Pop?!"

Forgetting the now unconscious girl, he dropped her on the spot and smiled at his father. Surprised and happy to see him, he smiled and showed off all his bloody fangs, sparkling blood-red eyes and animal-like features.

The shock in Caine's eyes was apparent when he watched the grinning monster in front of him turn into his son before his very eyes. "Peter?" he managed to say.

"Pop, it's been too long. I've missed you," Peter smiled as he moved closer to hug his father, like he'd always done.

Caine backed away from him in terror. The very thought of hugging this being that now looked like his son made his skin crawl. He could feel only the presence of evil, pure evil. Not since he'd fought the Dark Warrior in Shambhala had he encountered this kind of deceit. "Who are you? What have you done with my son?" he called out, still carefully backing away.

Peter couldn't believe his father's reaction. "Pop, it's me, Peter." Not realizing the extent of his own change, he continued walking towards his father. "I love you Pop, don't push me away, " he pleaded, reaching out, but somehow his words didn't quite sound as sincere as they were intended when he, in the excitement of finding his father, didn't manage to control his vampire voice.

Caine continued to back away, the words of this creature meant nothing to him. The soul of this man or beast was a deep void of darkness, so deep he couldn't see into it. "No! You are not my son!"

The harsh words made Peter finally realize that his father didn't recognize him at all. "NO!" he cried out in pure despair, and faster than Caine or any human could register, he was gone.

Left in the alley was a visibly relieved Shambhala master. He quickly moved over to the unconscious girl to see if she was okay. She was still breathing, but she had lost a lot of blood. He quickly grabbed some revitalizing herbs out of his pouch, and placed them under her tongue before he lifted her up to carry her to the nearest hospital.

~~~

"Moura, Moura..." Peter cried as he dove into her comforting arms. "...he didn't recognize me. He was right there, just a few meters away and he didn't recognize me...my own father..." blood red vampire tears ran down his cheeks as he couldn't stop sobbing. He'd put every hope of ever being human again on his father's return, and his father had treated him like a stranger, an enemy.

~~~

'Where are you my son?' Caine pondered as he walked back home to his long closed up rooftop apartment. 'I should never have returned to help the emperor in China. I should have stayed with you, my son. They said you were alive and well, yet still, I can not feel your presence anymore.'

He was tired, so very tired. He could already see the sun bleaching the night away, and he knew he wouldn't have the luxury of sleep. He entered the alley behind his building. The spot where the girl had been attacked drew him closer. Touching the ground where it had happened, he tried to trace the essence of the creature of the night. He could not, all that entered his mind was the desperate plea that had echoed through the alley hours before. "Pop, it's me, Peter."

PART 9

"Caine!" a happy female voice shouted from a car pulling up behind him in the alley.

"Mary Margaret!" Caine's troubled face lit up at the sight of his friend. He moved over to her car. "It is good to see you again." He fondly touched her cheek through the open window.

"It's good to see you too, Caine. I've missed you," she smiled back at him as she got out of the car to hug him.

"You are troubled, my friend." Caine stated when he'd let go of her.

"Oh yeah. Something's happened to Peter, Caine. And I don't know what to do. I can't tell anyone without being dismissed as crazy and I can't help him. I don't know what's wrong."

"Come, I will make some tea and you can tell me all about it. I am worried about him too. I cannot find his essence anymore. That is the reason I am back."

Fondling her teacup Mary Margaret hesitated. What she was about to say sounded so crazy. The week since she'd seen him fly off had been full of doubts. Perhaps it was just a dream. She could have fallen asleep waiting for him to get back to his car and dreamed it all. When she'd met Peter at Delancey's the next evening he'd been as normal as ever, except that he still couldn't be persuaded to come back to the precinct. "You're gonna think I'm crazy!"

"Let me be the judge of that. Go ahead, Mary Margaret."

"A week ago I saw Peter fly off into the sky."

This was not what Caine had expected her to say at all. He'd expected her to say he'd been hurt or perhaps missing or kidnapped. "Are you sure?" slipped out before he could stop himself.

"See, even you're doubting me!"

"I am sorry, I did not mean to. I do believe you. I saw someone; or something; looking like Peter fly off a few hours ago too. I do not think that thing is Peter."

"That thing? What are you talking about? He looks just like he's always done. He just doesn't behave like he's always done."

"Tell me about him, what does he do that is not like him?"

"Well, for starters, he quit the force, disappeared for months and is now happily working as a bartender at Delancey's"

"You are right, that is not the Peter we know."

~~~

Merely hours later Caine stood outside the door of his son's apartment. The conversation with Mary Margaret had only increased his confusion. He had tried to find his son's essence for a long time with no success, but according to Mary Margaret Peter should be right here. Standing outside the door, with only a thin piece of wood between them, he still felt nothing. Focusing his chi, he easily opened the lock and quietly entered the apartment.

Even though it was almost noon, he entered a dark room. All the windows were covered with heavy black drapes, shutting out every glimpse of sunlight. Caine easily adjusted his senses, and saw that except from the drapes the place looked completely normal. Almost holding his breath, he slowly opened the bedroom door. The sight that met him surprised him because it was so normal, and warmed his heart because it was a scene of love. Curled up in Peter's arms, was his woman, both of them sound asleep with a hint of a smile on their faces. The only thing lacking in the picture was the presence of his son's essence.

Moving his hands close enough to almost touch the sleeping body of his son, he tried to examine the chi of his son. But no matter how hard he tried he found nothing, only a huge dark void where the familiar presence of Peter should be.

‘I do not understand.’ Caine readily admitted to himself as he quietly slipped out of the bedroom.

~~~

"Pop! You're here!" Peter smiled happily when he stepped out of the bedroom just after sunset and found his father waiting. This time, there was not the slightest hint of vampire in his voice. Just honest surprise to see his father after that violent denial in the alley the night before. "You came."

"How could I not..." Caine replied before he even opened his eyes from mediation to look at his son. When he did open his eyes to return the smile he heard in the voice of his son, he couldn't get a word out. In front of him was not the still sleepy son he'd expected to see. Towering over him stood the leather clad demon from the other night with a very misplaced smile on his face and eyes glimmering with tears.

Before Caine even had a chance to get scared, he'd been pulled up from the floor in a wild hug. He was so strong Caine didn't have a chance to resist the now wildly sobbing beast.

"Oh Pop...I've missed you like crazy...thank God you're back," the creature managed to say in between the sobs.

For the first time in his life as a Shaolin, he had to trust what he saw and heard and completely ignore what he felt. Every ounce of his soul were itching with disgust at the contact, but his hands touched soft hair and his eyes saw real tears. When his inner vision heard the roar of a beast, his ears heard the honest cry of a lost son. And he knew the truth.

"I am here my son, I am here."

PART 10

Peter could plainly see the conflict of emotion radiating from his father. He knew no human mask could hide what he'd become from his father's inner vision. He just hoped his father would be able to see past the darkness and into his aching soul.

"I'm walking in the darkness Pop. What you saw in the alley last night, and what you are sensing about me is true. I'm a monster, an evil beast. I know the light is out there somewhere, I treasure it, I want it, but I just don't know how to get there." His every word betrayed the pain in his heart, and his words were the only thing he could use to make his father understand. The mental link was gone, and Peter knew his eyes were as cold as ice.

"You have changed my son, but I can see now that it is really you."

"Hey Pete, you talking to the breakfast?" Moura broke the tender moment between the two when she, half dressed, toweling her hair, entered the living room.

Peter let go of his father, and turned smiling towards Moura. "This is my father." And then adding with a twinkle in the corner of his eye "...and no, you cannot have him for breakfast, he's all mine. You fix your own snack." No matter how serious the situation, the sight of her still made him full of laughter.

Caine heard the affection, and the joy of the joke, and knew he'd made the right decision. These two creatures of the dark were indeed his son and his woman. "Moura, I am honored to meet you," he bowed slightly towards the woman he instantly knew his son loved. She might be a vampire, but he could not sense any danger from her.

Moura raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You are?" she'd not expected him to accept her just like that.

Caine smiled. "I can sense your honest affection for Peter, as well as the darkness radiating from you."

Peter squeezed Caine around the shoulders in a very honest and appreciative way. "Didn't I tell you he's someone very special? Didn't I tell you once he came back, he'd help us?"

"You sure did, darling. It's just that I've never encountered a warrior of the light that didn't try to kill me." she admitted, still looking at Caine with wonder in her eyes. "This will take some getting used to for the both of us, I think," she admitted, and reluctantly broke eye contact to get back into the bedroom and finish getting dressed.

"Want some tea for breakfast, Pop? I'm afraid that's all I got left from my human days." He queried as he wiped off the tears with the back of his hand, and was in the kitchen before Caine even realized he'd moved.

"Breakfast?"

Peter laughed "Ooops, my mistake, it's dinnertime for you. Let me get you something to eat, Pop, and then we can all have a talk."

At a moment like this, food was the last thing on Caine's mind. "The tea will be fine..."

Looking into the refrigerator Peter took no notice of the reply. "No bother Pop, we're low on the red stuff too. I'll be right back," and before Caine had a chance to stop him, he was out the balcony door. Peter's vampire powers such a natural part of him now, he never even thought of taking the elevator and the car to get some Chinese food for his father, and some fresh blood for himself and Moura.

Left alone in the living room, Caine wondered if he was doing the right thing. His psychic abilities had never been wrong before, but now his ordinary senses told him he had found his son, and the inner vision screamed viciously that he had found two evil vampires with minds black as the darkest night. Reasoning told him that this had to be the reason he had lost contact so completely with his son. Accepting this as the truth didn't make it any easier to watch the obvious change. Once again, Peter was a stranger to him, just like he had been when they had found each other again four years ago. He knew this was a change he could never accept, something he could not allow to go on. He must find a way to exorcise the vampire parts of Peter and Moura. Preferably without killing them in the process. There just had do be a way.

When Peter came flying back into the apartment with a box of food in his arms, Caine knew this would be a difficult task. Peter seemed a little too comfortable being a vampire.

PART 11

Caine could hardly believe it, but the two vampires in front of him on the couch had trouble focusing on him. The moment they touched to sit down together, it was as if the world around them disappeared. "What happened? Who did this to you?" Caine had to interrupt to get their attention.

Peter forced himself to ignore the closeness of Moura beside him in the couch. He kept his arm around her waist, but let go of her captivating eyes. "It's not important who did this to us, Pop. It just happened." He shrugged just like Caine himself used to do.

"It is important to me, my son. If I am to prevent this from happening again, I need to know who did this." He could not let this go just like that, it was a danger too great to ignore.

When Peter hesitated, Moura spoke up. "It was me. I did this to your son!"

Her voice was calm but somewhere, beneath the surface of the simple confession, Caine sensed pain and perhaps even guilt. Too surprised by the simple honesty, he forgot to be shocked, he'd expected anything but that. He wanted a vicious monster of a vampire, someone he could fight for his son's freedom, and not the woman his son loved. This would be difficult.

"Don't judge her too hard, Pop. I have forgiven her a long time ago. It doesn't matter who did this, all you need to know is that we want this to be over. We want to be human again. Will you help us?"

"I will find a cure. I promise you I will." He wasn't sure he believed in it himself, but he hoped he made his voice sound confident enough to reassure his son and his woman.

~~~

Peter could hardly sleep a minute the next day, and only minutes after sunset he landed on the terrace of his father's apartment. "Pop, you here?" he called out just as he'd always done when he came for a visit, and as usual he just darted in, not waiting for an invitation.

He found his father and the Ancient in front of the Buddha statue, hands joined, in deep meditation. Not wanting to disturb them, he backed out on the terrace again. He actually didn't mind waiting at all, he rather enjoyed sitting on the edge of this terrace looking out over the city. It was peaceful like no other place he knew. He'd sat there many a night contemplating his fate, wishing his father was back. Desperately trying to deny the bloodlust.

Not even five minutes after his arrival, he heard a car pull into the alley below. Curious to whom it might be, he bent out over the edge to find out. It was Skalany.

"Hi Skalany!" he greeted, and waved to her while she climbed the last steps of the fire escape.

"Hi Peter! Is your father here?"

"Yeah, but you better get in line. The Ancient's in there now, they're meditating," Peter joked, and smiled fondly at his old partner as he casually swung his legs around to face inward the terrace.

Skalany drew a shocked breath. "Hey, what happened to your fear of heights?"

For a moment Peter didn't understand what she was referring to, then tried to joke it away. "Fear of heights? Me? You gotta be kidding, I love heights!"

She smiled and even managed to get a laugh out, but inside she noted yet another thing that was different about her old partner. "Let me catch my breath for a moment, and then I think I'd better leave the two of you alone to do some catch up. I can always come back tomorrow."

"Don't worry, I'm just having a quick word, and then I have to get to work. He's all yours for the evening."

"You sure?"

"Yea, I'm sure."

Caine entered the garden with a smile on his lips. "My two favorite people here for a visit. Welcome"

"Hi," Skalany smiled back. "Is my favorite man available for the evening?"

"Always for you," Caine confirmed as he hugged her briefly, and gestured for her to walk inside ahead of him. "I just need a short word with my son."

"I needed to see if you had any good news." The eager anticipation in the seemingly casual statement revealed just how much Peter wanted a positive answer.

"There is hope my son."

The smile on Peter's face grew wide. "Thanks Pop, see ya later then." And in a blink of an eye, he was gone.

Inside, Skalany's eyes grew wide as she saw him apparently disappear into thin air. ‘What's going on here? Is Caine in on it too now?’

~~~

Except for the anticipation of a possible cure, Peter and Moura's vampire lives continued pretty much as usual the next few days. None of them had any live prey, Terry’s deal with the blood bank supplied the bar with everything they needed as usual. Peter didn't want to disappoint his father, and stayed away from the deadlier of the games he liked to play. For once in a long while, the precinct had a slow week.

"Hey Kermit, we're going for a beer at Delancey's. Wanna come?" Skalany queried sticking her head into the loner's office.

She didn't get much more than an absentminded grunt of an answer.

Skalany opened the door even more, and gambled her life with a wave of her hand in between the screen and the covered eyes of the ex mercenary. "Was that a yes or a no?"

"What?"

"We're going to Delancey's, Kermit. You could use a break too."

"I've run into a mystery here, Skalany. Nothing's more relaxing than investigating a good mystery."

Now Skalany got interested. Having her own mystery, she instinctively wondered about his. "A mystery, how intriguing. Do tell?"

Kermit looked more than a little hesitant before he decided to share with his friend and coworker. "Dr. Sabourin called me. They're getting desperate for blood at the hospitals. For no apparent reason, they're short in supply lately. When I started to look into it, it turned out that blood banks and hospitals all over the city, and even some of our neighboring cities, are constantly losing blood. Inventory never adds up, random deliveries never arrive at their destination, and a delivery truck in Debville was robbed. Three fuckin' times!"

"Blood thieves? This is weird."

"Oh yeah! And because of that, nobody even reported the theft. Except for the robberies we have nothing, not even a case."

"Come on, Kermit. We all need a break from mysteries and cases some time." Skalany winked. "I'll give you a hand tomorrow." She knew she wouldn't get any rest from her own mystery. Peter would be there all evening bugging her with his very existence.

"Oh, what the heck, let's go!" Kermit sighed and switched off his computer screen.

~~~

"If I live to be a hundred, I'm never gonna understand what happened to Peter," TJ commented to Skalany, Jody and Kermit when Peter had left another round of beer at their table.

"I always knew love would do strange things to him when it finally hit," Jody replied as she let her eyes follow her old crush and partner as he moved towards the bar. "He's happy." She could almost hear him sing along with the music as he took dance steps around the tables and people in his way. It was weird seeing him that happy.

"You are right, Jody. I was just wondering what was so different about him. He's happy," Karen Simms added as she squeezed in between Kermit and Skalany around the table.

Kermit looked in the direction of his friend, knowing the women were probably right, he felt a sting of jealousy. The woman of his dreams now so close to him, yet so far away. Behind his blessed glasses, he let his eyes caress the curve of her neck and downwards. Sighing, he sipped his beer and told himself to forget it.

'I don't get it?' Skalany thought to herself. One day he looked as if he was going to jump off a cliff, and the next he was happier than ever. Might be just his father returning, but something in her gut told her everything was not entirely right with Peter Caine these days.

PART 12

"We must be crazy, staking out a blood bank!" Skalany tried to shake off the uneasy feeling she had. "Who would want to steal blood?" Her mind made up explanations ranging from the very rational to the more mystic. She almost wanted it to be an illegal organ transplant operation, or a deranged psycho thinking he was a vampire. She didn't want to admit it, but she'd been around Caine long enough to actually contemplate the real thing.

"I promised Dr. Sabourin we'd find out what's going on. You don't have to stay, Skalany. I can do this myself."

"I know you did and I promised to help you. My imagination is playing tricks on me, that's all. This neighborhood is creepy after dark. I'll take the overcrowded Chinatown any day rather than these dark, empty streets."

Kermit tried to laugh, but only a chuckle came out. He didn't want to admit it, but her mood was rubbing off on him. "Oh yeah!" he agreed, then grew quiet.

Three hours later Skalany slept behind the wheel of the car, and Kermit surfed the net for more information on stolen blood on his palmtop. All he got were links to vampires. Somehow, he couldn't make himself believe all the references to vampires even if many of them came from otherwise reliable sources. If they were indeed out there, he preferred them to drink blood like this rather than from the living.

Kermit almost dropped the small computer when a car sped past him and screeched to a halt right in front of the blood bank doors. "Wake up, Skalany! It's going down" he whispered, and poked her in the side while getting his gun ready.

"Who? What?" Skalany yelped, still disoriented and only half awake.

"A car pulled up," He paused as he got a better look. "It's a ... a Stealth?" His disbelief grew even more when he saw a familiar figure exit the very familiar car, and quickly run up the steps to the bank. The locked door stopped him only momentary, as if he had keys. "Peter?"

Now he got Skalany's full attention. Peter in another weird situation. She hadn't told Kermit about Peter, but now she would probably have to. "That figures..." she mumbled.

"What? Do you know something I don't? What's Peter doing here?"

"I don't know Kermit, but I've seen Peter do some very strange things lately. This just adds a bit to it."

~~~

Whistling a happy tune, Peter put his keys back into his pocket and headed towards the storage cooler in the back of the building. The night watchman would be there somewhere, but he didn't care. His mind was preoccupied with imagining Moura in that little blood red lace and silk outfit he'd bought for her earlier that evening. She would be waiting for him when he'd finished this little errand for the bar.

The box with bottled blood stood waiting for him in the cooler, just as it always did. Terry had a nice little arrangement here, he had to admit. Peter had been more than a little surprised to find out that Terry not only had a steady blood source, but also had a company dealing in human blood. It must have been a dream for any vampire to have his very own blood bank.

Turning the last corner before the exit, he confronted the night watchman's flashlight. The blinding light almost made him drop his precious load. "Jeez, Martin, you scared me," he smiled when he realized who was in front of him.

The poor man backed when he saw who it was. He knew what this man or beast was capable of. "I'm sorry, Mr. Caine, didn't mean to scare you. Just doing my rounds, that's all." He was almost crawling backwards, eager to put as much space between himself and Peter as possible.

Peter flashed his red eyes towards the man to emphasize his words. "Don't worry Martin, just forget you ever saw me."

The red eyes made Martin very aware of what the man in front of him could do to him if threatened. "The police's been here, Mr. Caine," he nervously babbled. "They were asking about stolen blood. I told them I've never seen anything suspicious, but I have a feeling they will be back."

"Don't worry Martin. I know the police, have lots of friends at the department too. Just stay quiet and nothing bad will happen to you or your family." Peter disregarded the now visibly trembling wreck of a man, and continued towards his car.

So, someone finally reported a loss of blood. He didn't care. They would never find anything out. The staff here knew what awaited them if they as much as hinted something was wrong. And Peter would love administering that punishment. The thought of fresh, warm, living blood made his hunting instincts stir for the first time since his father's return. And for a moment he forgot about his desire to be human again.

Driving towards Delancey's he scouted the streets for a suitable prey.

~~~

"What's he doing?" Kermit and Skalany asked themselves as they followed their old friend. Peter was driving slowly as if looking for someone on the crossing streets, then speeding up for a while, then once again slowing down trying to find something on the empty side streets.

When Peter had entered the bank they had decided to stay in their car and see if he indeed was the blood thief. They had wished he had some other reason to be there, but that had been crushed when they saw him exit with a box that looked like it was filled with bottles of some kind. A wine pickup? Why would he get bottles with anything from a blood bank? It had to be him. Without hesitation, they had started the car and followed him.

They saw him enter the alley behind Delancey's and unload the box he'd picked up at the blood bank. He stayed inside the now closed bar for almost half an hour, and then emerged with Moura by his side. They were laughing and kissing all the way over to the car, then continued to kiss inside it. They didn't drive off for another twenty minutes.

"Now would be a good time to tell me what strange behavior you witnessed, Skalany," Kermit demanded as Skalany tuned off the car outside Peter's apartment building a few minutes later.

"Okay, okay."

PART 13

"Is it true Pop? You found a cure?" He was so eager he could hardly stand still. He'd got a note delivered to the bar from his father. That was only a few minutes ago. He had headed for his father's apartment right away, not even looking to make sure nobody saw him fly off.

"The answer to your prayers is in the Book of Shambhala, my son. It clearly states that the Book itself can be used, not only as a gateway to Shambhala. It can also light up the darkness of your soul, and cleanse it from the demon possessing your body and mind. The healing atmosphere of Shambhala will then heal your weakened body when you arrive there. This I know."

Peter gaped. "You gotta be kidding me! All this time I had the cure right here under my nose."

"Not quite that easy, my son. You do need a Shambhala master to show you the right page, or it might even be dangerous."

"I can't wait to tell Moura that we have a cure. Yess!" Peter cheered happily, and turned to leave and tell Moura the good news.

"Peter, wait!" Caine called him back.

Peter turned and saw that there were more his father needed to tell him, and from the expression on his face and his now sad eyes, it was not good news.

"How old is Moura?"

"She was born back in Europe in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Why? What's that got to do with anything?"

"When the demon leaves her body, the years will catch up with her. She will die. I am sorry Peter."

"Pop, are you sure?" Peter pleaded with his father. He didn't want to believe this was only a cure for himself and not for her. He wasn't even sure he wanted the cure if it didn't help her too.

"Yes." Caine replied, lowering his head. He could not face the disappointment in his vampire son's cold eyes.

"No!" Peter cried out, and this time he was gone before Caine could stop him. Before he had a chance to persuade him to do it without Moura. No matter the personal consequences for Peter, this demon had to be stopped. And very soon.

~~~

"Another night, another stakeout. I'd rather be watching Peter than some lowlife involved in a small time smuggling operation. It’s not even our turf, we’re homicide, dammit!" Kermit, tried to stretch behind the wheel of the anonymous sedan parked across the street from a small antiques shop in the docklands.

"Let's hope this goes down soon, and we can get the hell out of here. The Captain wasn't happy with us this afternoon, and I can't blame her really."

"Why don't you go over to that bar back there, and get us some coffee." Kermit nodded towards a sailors hangout two blocks behind their position.

"Okay, back in a minute."

~~~

The knowledge of his own way out and the cruel denial of Moura's, tore at Peter's heart. Unable to face Moura, or any of his friends, he embraced the anonymity of a crowded bar well away from his usual path.

At first pretending to be drunk, he let himself get drawn into one loud brawl after the other. It was easy enough in a place like that to quickly sink his teeth into a wrist or arm to draw blood. The victims never even noticed it, they just fell asleep on a table or in a corner somewhere. Soon, intoxicated by the high alcohol content in the blood of his prey, he didn't have to fake drunkenness. Moura had warned him about toxic blood, but tonight he didn't care.

His actions grew even more careless and cruel. He wanted to take his disappointment out on the world, and these stranded sailors just happened to be in his way.

‘Fresh blood!’ Peter could smell it even through the alcohol haze that covered his mind. Like a homing device, he turned towards the woman making her way towards he bar.

She didn't see him until he hugged her close from behind. It was like an irresistible perfume, he couldn't help but let his hands run over her neck, clearing away her hair to let his hungry mouth make brief contact with the soft flesh beneath it. "Hi MM, what are you doing in a place like this," he whispered into her ear the second before she drove a sharp elbow into his ribs.

"Let go of me, you jerk!" she shouted, and turned to punch out the drunk that dared to touch her like that.

Peter, the vampire, easily caught the raised fist before it connected with his jaw. He laughed and smiled at her. "You don't want to hit an old friend like me do you?" he teased, and once again drew her close. He didn't care that it was someone he knew. He had to have a taste.

"Peter!" Skalany could hardly believe her eyes. In front of her was a Peter she'd never seen, or even imagined. For a moment his eyes flickered red and then he was once again close to her, closer than she wanted him to be. She tried to get away, but his arms and hands held her motionless without effort.

She didn't scream when he buried his razor sharp fangs in her neck. Once the cut was done, it didn’t hurt at all. The cool touch of his mouth sucking her life’s blood, felt almost erotic. Seconds later, he let her go to meet her eyes again. Now his eyes not only flickered red, they raged like fire at her. A fire willing her to forget what had just happened.

"Peter, what are you doing here?" she wondered. "This is not a place where I expected to see you." The incident was gone from her conscious mind.

Peter smiled, fangs and red eyes gone. "Just happened to be in the neighborhood and dropped in. What about you?"

"Kermit and I are on a stakeout down the street. We needed some coffee to stay awake." She suddenly felt weak in her knees. She had to hold on to the bar to not fall into a heap on the floor.

"Hey, are you all right?" Peter grabbed a hold on her to steady her balance. He knew what was wrong, he'd taken a little too much and now she was almost passing out on him. "Let me help you back to the car."

"I'll be okay." She was confused. The coffee forgotten now. It was as if she'd taken a blow, everything was spinning and something in the back of her mind told her to get as far away from Peter Caine as possible. Suddenly, she was scared of her old friend. With steps as unsteady as the others in the bar, she made her way to the exit.

"Bye bye, sweet dreams MM." He said to her back while slowly following her outside, knowing very well her dreams would not be sweet.

He had dove into his vampire world without concern with what he did to the people in that bar, his friends or even the community. He stopped silently in the shadows outside the bar to watch Skalany try to make it back to the car.

Skalany could hardly walk. She had to stop every two steps to clear her spinning head, and to stabilize herself against a wall. It was as if she was really drunk, she had to force her legs to move forward. But she didn't remember drinking anything. She'd bumped into Peter, and then this had started all of a sudden. She didn't understand.

Kermit saw her when she was half way back there. "What the heck?" he wondered, and quickly backed up the car to meet her.

"Kermit, get me away from him..." Skalany sighed and fell into his arms. Finally in safe hands, she let herself fall into unconsciousness even before he had got her into the car.

~~~

Peter made it home with only seconds to spare that morning. He wasn't even sure he wanted to go home. He felt like a traitor, like he was about to abandon his only true love. But it was his love for Moura that did bring him back. The very thought of her warm body sleeping against his, convinced him he had to get home.

She wasn't happy to see him in that condition. She knew it would be days before he'd be back to normal again after drinking that much toxic blood, and he wouldn't be a pretty sight in the evening. Hangovers wasn't something that happened to humans exclusively. At least it was just alcohol, she didn't know what she would have done if it had been garlic. He would have been up the walls screaming his lungs out before that withdrawal wore off. For now she just put him to bed with some sweet talking.

~~~

The next few days Peter did everything he could to take his mind off the effects of the alcohol. He had a great time tampering with brakes on cars, busses and trucks. Traffic accidents made such a wonderfully bloody mess. Peter felt so wonderfully naughty doing it too. Moura tried to be a voice of reason, but he didn't listen. At least not at first, it took a few days before he consciously realized what he was up to, and finally came to his senses.

'What the hell am I doing? I tell myself I want to be human and then I go out and feed on them. I tell myself I want to be a cop, and then I go out and kill people. When all I ever wanted was to bring Moura back with me, I instead throw myself further into the darkness. This has gotta stop!'

PART 14

Peter stretched lazily in the bed in the early evening. He could sense the sun was about to set outside, and he felt good and relaxed. Just as he had done for a while, he woke fully vampire. It was the most natural state for him, and he didn't even reflect over the fact anymore. Usually he put on his human face out of old habit, but not this evening. This was the night he would leave the demon's face and body behind. It was time to reclaim his own. No matter how much he wanted this, he could not help but hesitate. It felt like he was about to lose a vital part of himself. He rolled over on his side, and leaned his head on his elbow. Watching Moura sleep was a joy he wouldn't lose. He knew without a doubt she would be there for him until the day he died, human or not.

He had tried to work up the courage to tell her about the cure for several days now. The cure that could not help her, only him. She didn't know that this was the night it would happen, and he knew he could not tell her.

'Oh, Pop. Why did you have to find a cure that will help only me?' Peter cried out within his own mind. Then, quietly, he left the bed.

~~~

Peter entered Caine's rooftop garden only moments after sunset. He came like the vampire he was, showing his true form one last time.

The smile on the face of the vampire son told Caine all he needed to know. The cure was welcomed. More than once the last few days, he'd questioned if his son would actually go through with the cure. Friends all over Chinatown had told him more than he had ever wanted to know about his son's vampire life, told him Peter had truly surrendered to the dark side.

"It's time Pop!" Peter said with his growling vampire voice. "Time to leave this beast behind."

Caine bowed, saluted his son, showed just how much he respected and honored his son's decision. "I have the Book ready for you, even though I had no idea when, or even if, you would come, my son"

Peter ignored the doubt he heard in his father's voice and walked over to the small altar in the other room. He didn't even notice the myriad of candles lit all over the floor because the light radiating from the small Buddha and the Book was so bright he had to turn his vampire eyes away to avoid being blinded.

"Look into the light of Shambhala!" Caine commanded as he opened the Book on the page he had marked earlier.

~~~

Peter had no concept of the time he had been out when he woke to the peaceful sound of chanting. He'd recognize it anywhere, it was one of the good memories he had from the temple of his childhood. Something he had discovered he loved to do himself when he had finished his Shaolin training up north.

"Shambhala, this must be Shambhala. And I'm still alive." He marveled when he realized the bright light no longer hurt his eyes as it had done when he had forced himself to meet the light of the Book head on.

He felt weak, weaker than he'd been in a long time. But he also knew right away that what his father had done had worked. The demon, the hunting urge, the desire for blood, the super human abilities were all gone. But if Caine had expected to get his good hearted, caring and kind son back, he was in for a surprise. Peter knew without a doubt his heart and soul were still cold as ice, the dark void inside him created by the vampire demon were still there. His recovery would be long and hard, he wouldn't just snap back into the person he once was. He would have to learn the hard way who he wanted to be from now on.

He wanted to be a good guy, but he could just as easily be evil and cold. The raging beast inside were gone but he and had taken Peter's conscience and his sense of justice with him. Still, nothing inside of his mind stopped him from hurting, or even killing other people. He would have to rebuild those barriers.

Then, echoing inside this dark void, he heard a familiar voice. "Do not be afraid, I will help you fight this, my son."

Peter looked up at his father, standing only a few feet away, and realized he wasn't alone anymore. He could feel a warm presence embracing his mind, filling him with joy. Peter smiled at his father. "I missed you, Pop."

"I missed you too, my son," Caine replied out aloud and reached out to dry off the tear running down the face of his son.

"Let's get back to our own world, Pop. I want to see the sun again, and I can't wait to tell Moura."

PART 15

Kermit was as mad as hell. Skalany was out of the hospital, but she didn't want to talk to him about what had happened in that bar. All he got were excuses and the cold treatment. Something significant had happened in there, and she just wouldn't tell him what.

He had returned to the bar after he had brought her to the hospital, but all he could find was a bar full of drunken sailors. Nothing strange at all. The bartender didn't remember her ordering anything, so she probably never made it as far as to the bar.

Kermit pounded the keyboard to get into the hospital computer and the records of his partner. If she wouldn't tell him what had happened, the records would. In a few minutes he had her data on his screen. "Hmm, loss of blood, puncture wounds on the neck..." he said out aloud, talking to himself, confirming his fears. "Blood, that's gotta be the key."

Adding this new information to his Intelli-Net search only got him more links and references to vampires. Page after page of them. And all of them were marked as reliable by Intelli-Net. By experience, Kermit knew that meant he could trust the information. One of them caught his eye in it's simplicity: "Top Ten Signs Your City Has Got A Vampire Infestation - by Dr. M. Martin, University of Chicago, 1966." Determined to find out if what he and Skalany had encountered was indeed a vampire infestation, he called up the document on the screen.

He didn't want to believe in vampires, but it all fit. Everything, from blood robberies to an increased number of bloody traffic accidents and records of flying people. Not bothering to even conceal his findings on the screen, he called Skalany into his office. "It was Peter, wasn't it? He did this to you!" Kermit confronted her before she even had time to close the door behind her.

She squirmed, she didn't want to admit it even to herself that he was on to something, but she couldn't really deny it either. Something had happened when she met Peter in that bar, she just couldn't put her finger on what it was. She had been reliving the meeting over and over in her mind without being able to figure out when the blood loss might have happened, and why she couldn't remember any of it.

"Well, what did he do?" Kermit impatiently pushed her again.

Her resistance finally weakened. "I don't know, Kermit. Honestly, I don't know. I met Peter in there, but he just said hello, and then I felt weak and had to leave. I can't seem to remember what happened to me, no matter how hard I try."

"I think he's become a vampire."

That caught Skalany's attention. "You gotta be kidding! There's no such thing as a vampire, Kermit!"

"Think, Skalany, think. It's the only possible explanation."

"You're really serious about this, aren't you?"

"Oh Yeah!"

~~~

Peter came back to the apartment he shared with Moura just before dawn. He was tired and worn out, the exorcism of the demon had taken all his strength. Moura met him in the bedroom door, and before she had a chance to even ask where he had been, he embraced and kissed her.

"Oh Peter, what have you done!" Moura stepped away from him, suddenly raging. She couldn't believe her love and partner had gone through with it without even telling her. She had seen the sadness as well as a strange happiness when he entered the room. Then, when he'd kissed her, she immediately tasted the humanity in his warm lips, and knew without a doubt he was no longer a vampire.

"Pop found the cure. Isn't it great?" he smiled at her.

"He did WHAT!" she countered. "And you just went ahead without even telling me about it?"

Peter was puzzled, he desperately tried to understand her reaction. "You wanted this too. You've told me so many times that you regretted making me a vampire. Why are you mad now that Pop helped me reverse it?" What was wrong? Why didn't she understand? He'd thought she'd be as happy about it as he was.

Nothing Peter said or did could soften her feeling of betrayal. It hurt that Peter did this without her. She had wanted to be there to encourage and support him, and he had taken the decision and the huge step all by himself. He might say he did it to ease her pain for making him a vampire in the first place, but she felt betrayed. All she ever wanted was to be a part of his life, all of it. She wanted to share everything, good as well as bad.

"Moura, what's wrong? I thought you'd be happy for me." Peter almost pleaded when he saw her fight a strange misplaced anger bubble up inside her. Reaching to touch her, embrace her, to comfort her in her turmoil, he tried to get close to her.

Moura backed away from him, couldn't bear his human touch. She had to get some space to think this over. She knew she couldn't stay or she'd become dangerous to her loved one, and that was the last thing she wanted. The sun would rise any moment now, but she couldn't stay. "I can't be here, my feelings are afire! See ya..." she snorted and left the confused and still very surprised human Peter behind. The earth would give her shelter, like it had done so many times over the years.

"But my destiny is still in your hands my love...You can undo this any time you want to... I can never resist you." Talking to an empty apartment Peter stood watching out the window, to see if she would come back. She didn't, it was too late, the sun had already started it's journey over the sky. The moment he'd been longing for didn't taste as good as he thought it would.

He was human, human without Moura, and it meant nothing to him without her. It felt like he'd filled one black hole in his soul and created another, deeper one, in the process ."Come back. Please, come back, Moura, " he whispered. "I can't live without you."

~~~

Kermit restlessly paced the floor of the small interrogation room at the precinct while Skalany went to get TJ. TJ was the only one they could think of that might know what to do about a vampire.

"What's all the secrecy about?" TJ wondered. "Why are we cooped up in here, closed door and everything."

"We're here because Skalany and I are very worried about Peter." Kermit removed his glasses as to emphasize the seriousness of the situation, not sure his words alone would. "There is something very odd about his behavior and habits lately. And the conclusion we've made is, shall we say, controversial."

"Now you got me curious, Kermit. Out with it!" TJ almost interrupted.

When Kermit had trouble actually saying the words, Skalany spoke up. "We think Peter has become a vampire."

TJ's immediate response was disbelief, but he soon saw in both Skalany's and Kermit's eyes and serious faces that they were dead serious. "There's no such thing as a vampire!" TJ wanted to say just like Skalany had earlier. He wanted to deny the very existence of such an evil creature of the night, but couldn't. His own experiences in the past told him they could actually be on to something. He just didn't want to believe it about Peter. "I know he's been acting out of character lately, but how in the world did you come up with that explanation?"

Only then could Kermit explain his theories; "Our, or at least my suspicions that something was very wrong started when we found out he's stealing human blood from a blood bank downtown on a regular basis."

"So? There could be lots of explanations for that."

"That's not all TJ, far from it." Skalany said with a sad voice. "Both of us can swear we saw him fly on at least two occasions, and at Caine's he just vanished into thin air right before my eyes."

"Flew?"

"Yes, he took off just like Superman would. Right up into the air." Kermit shook his head and sounded like he didn't want to believe it really happened when he recalled the memory. "Peter just dashed out from Delancey's and without a second thought took to the skies right in front of us."

"We were puzzled by this but didn't know what to make of it. It wasn't really until I lost almost four pints of blood after a brief encounter with Peter in a bar that Kermit started to take the hints he'd found on his Internet sources seriously."

Kermit started to look pissed again. "She almost died. And she's supposed to be his friend."

"Are you sure? It could have been someone else in that bar." TJ cut in.

"This is not all, TJ. Think, there's many small things too that points in this direction. Things like the only time he's ever out of that apartment of his is at night. We never see him eat, he doesn't drink beer like he used to, he drinks what should be red wine, but looks more like blood. It's all the things together that does it."

Skalany filled in with the conclusion: "That's why he only worked nights. That's why he became so distant. And most important; that's why he became so violent and insensitive those last weeks on the job. He probably quit because his new values didn't agree with being a cop." her words echoed harshly in the small room and gave TJ no easy way to deny it.

"I believe you." TJ reluctantly admitted. Then, after a deep breath, he told them his reason why. "I've never told anybody about this before, but that was what happened to my fiancee. She became a vampire, and there was nothing I could do to help her. She stayed with me for a while, but she became a stranger to me, a very violent and scary stranger. I only regret today that I didn't have the strength to end it."

"I'm so sorry TJ. But, end it?" Skalany looked like she didn't want to hear his solution to the problem. "She was your love. There's gotta be another solution. As much as this vampire thing scares me, I don't want to lose Peter completely."

"I'm sorry, Skalany, but there's no way back for a vampire. Death is the only way out for them. Believe me, I tried for years to find a way, and found nothing."

Kermit looked just as sad to hear about TJ's fiancee. "All we really have to do is confront him. If he's a vampire, we'll know. If not, we will look foolish, but relieved."

"But what if he really is a vampire. What do we do?" Skalany spoke up, driven by her own fears. She felt a chill of fear running down her spine just thinking about a vampire Peter Caine running free on the streets. "We can't let him go on like this!"

Her sharp fearful tone made TJ look twice at her. Made him realize that Peter Caine had done something to her to make her his adversary, and put their friendship second hand to fear.

"Drive a wooden stake through his heart?" Kermit volunteered with a rather doubtful tone. "This is insane! I can hardly believe we're even considering this." He was the one who came up with the vampire-theory, but he obviously doubted it just as much as anybody would have.

TJ confirmed with a nod. "That's supposedly what you do, yes. But from what I understood, the sun is an even better vampire killer. A stake could be removed, but a pile of ashes can be spread by the wind."

Kermit took command again. "Okay, let's all meet outside Peter's building at noon. Safest time to surprise a vampire got to be mid day. If all else fails, we can always force him out into the sunlight."

TJ shook his head "In theory, that would work fine, but you have to consider that a vampire is both stronger and quicker than a normal human, Kermit. We might not be able to do a thing before he's overcome us or just plain disappeared on us."

"Perhaps we can make him see it our way and stop drinking blood?" Skalany wondered. "Can they drink other types of blood than human? Maybe we don't have to kill him?"

"That's a good question, Skalany." Kermit admitted. "TJ, did your fiancee tell you anything in that direction?"

"No, she didn't. But it could be a solution."

"I'll do some more research. Let's meet here before lunch and I'll hopefully have something more by then."

The small group left to get back to their normal work. All wondering if they were doing the right thing, all of them contemplating the situation.

~~~

Curious about what Peter had been up to the months he’d been gone, Kermit typed in Peter Caine in his Intelli-Net search window, and sent the query. 'Let's see if you left any traces while you were out of town, my friend,' he thought to himself as he waited for the information to come up on his screen.

"Gosh," he said out aloud when page after page with references to the name Peter Caine came up. "I guess I need a more specific search here."

Next time he only got one page, a page filled with references to murders, accidents and kidnappings in Debville. "What do we have here...," Kermit mused and started reading about a serial murderer that was only targeting the Debville crime world.

Kermit knew the signs of a hired killer, and he could bet his glasses this was one. Never identified, never caught, nobody seemed to know him. But then he read the name, Peter Caine. It had been mentioned in connection with the murders by a snitch before he too got hit. The local police had followed up on it, but never made the connection with this Peter Caine. They just dismissed the name as coincidence, who could ever suspect a decorated officer to be a killer for hire? Kermit, did; for more than one reason.

The few witnesses to three fatal death leaps from high buildings, all mentioned a dark shadow dressed in black leather. None in the Debville police knew the ex-cop Peter Caine liked to dress in black leather. If they had, they wouldn't have dismissed him as easily.

More and more disgusted Kermit browsed through the connected files about the murders. He knew the dead men and women had been criminals themselves, but some of the deaths had been more than cruel, they were the work of a vicious beast.

Further down he ran into a list of forensics reports indicating that every single victim seemed to have lost more blood than what would be natural.

And if this last thing didn't prove Peter was involved, he didn't know what would. More determined than ever, he left his office to share his findings with his friends.

PART 16

Trying not to worry about Moura, Peter cleaned out old bottles of blood from the refrigerator to make room for the groceries he'd bought in the convenience store around the corner from his building. The very human hunger was refreshing compared to the painful need for blood. He'd stuffed his face full with hamburger and fries until he'd felt sick. He might be back to humanity, but his stomach wasn't used to solid food yet, he had painfully realized.

Standing out on the balcony, looking out over the city bathing in sunlight he couldn't help but smile. The joy of seeing the light again made the seductive beauty of the night through a vampire's eyes fade in his memory. Like he had months earlier, standing out there sipping his first blood, he now sipped milk out of the carton. It tasted like heaven. With his reawakened Shaolin awareness he could almost sense the light rebuilding, strengthening his body.

When he leaned his elbows on the railing and looked down, he realized he'd truly lost his fear of heights. He knew he couldn't fly anymore, knew he'd be dead if he tried, but he also knew he wouldn't fall.

"I hope you're safe, Moura," he said out into the empty space, and he meant it. He missed her, he wanted to share his happiness to be human again with her. "Please, come back to me, I love you."

He stood there for a while before he went inside, and closed the curtains to get some sleep. He was still very tired. Sleep also seemed to be the only way to shut out his worry for a little while. He prayed for a dreamless sleep as he crashed down on the bed.

~~~

Kermit quickly and silently opened the door to Peter Caine's apartment. It was early afternoon outside, but the heavy drapes that covered every window in the apartment efficiently shut out every hint of the bright sunshine. Kermit waved to Skalany and TJ to follow him inside. All but TJ went in with raised guns. TJ's only weapons were a big cross in his right hand, a vial with holy water in his left and a bead of garlic hanging around his neck.

"Hey TJ, that cross will not do any good on Peter. He's not a Christian, " Skalany whispered.

TJ just kept grasping his cross. "It's a vampire thing, Skalany! And we don't know about her, " he sneered.

"Shhh," Kermit urged them.

Slowly and silently, they sneaked into the dark bedroom. With arms and legs spread eagle, Peter lay alone in the king size bed, snoring. It looked very normal, and very peaceful. Instantly they regretted even coming over, what were they thinking? This was Peter, not an evil stranger or a criminal, and yet they stood over him with guns drawn and fear in their guts.

Skalany positioned herself by the window and quickly made sure she could open the drape quickly if she had to. One hand holding the end of the drape, and the other firmly holding her gun ready.

"Peter!" Kermit called out when he and TJ had positioned themselves on opposite sides of the large bed. "Wakie, wakie!"

With a jerk that made TJ and Kermit instantly step back, Peter sat upright in the bed. Confused he looked at his three very tense friends around him. "What are you guys doing here?"

At first he didn't get a response. Then TJ forcefully handed Peter the cross and splashed the holy water in his direction.

Still not awake enough to really understand why they were there he automatically grabbed what was handed to him. Looking from the plain metal cross in his hand to the raised guns of his friends, he dried off his wet face and chest with the sheet. "Hey, what did you do that for?"

Then, TJ started to panic. He grabbed the garlic around his neck and threw it at Peter.

Wet, still sleepy and definitely not in the mood for jokes, he caught it in the air before it hit him right in the face. "Garlic? This is some sort of fucking joke, right?"

Now TJ started to get really scared. Nothing seemed to help against this vampire. His old girlfriend had backed off in terror when he had presented these things to her. She'd been really anxious to get the burning holy water dried off. It didn't affect Peter at all. This didn't make sense. Terrified he started backing off towards the door, leaving Kermit alone by the bed.

Skalany was ready to draw the curtain when Peter finally understood the terrified faces of his friends. With the cross and the garlic still in his hands, he became very aware of the significance of the stuff thrown at him.. "You're not kidding me, you really think I'm a vampire, don't you?"

For a moment it was dead silent in the small room, then Skalany managed to speak. "Yes."

The others just nodded in agreement.

"Well, you're wrong! I’m NOT a vampire! " Peter exclaimed angrily as he ignored their guns and bolted out of bed towards Skalany and the curtain. "And I shouldn't have to prove that to my friends!"

Skalany had the window half uncovered by pure reflex when Peter violently tore the black fabric down completely. In a second the whole room bathed in bright, unforgiving sunlight. Crosses and garlic he would have been able to handle as a vampire too, but never the sun. Never the sun.

Turning towards his now relieved friends, he smiled grimly. "See."

"Thank God for that!" Skalany smiled, visibly relieved.

Kermit was probably as pleasantly surprised as Skalany, but he didn't show it. He just stood there, a frown hinted above his shades, saying nothing.

TJ just looked at his friends, didn't know what to think. "Sorry Peter, they talked me into it," he excused himself with an embarrassed smile. "I never wanted to believe this about you."

"I'm sure 'my other friends here' presented a very convincing case," Peter said with a grimace of contempt. "Get out of here...all of you!"

"I'm happy this was a mistake, Peter. Come, let's go." Skalany commanded her fellow officers and lead the way towards the door.

TJ was happy to comply. Kermit a bit more hesitant. He had wanted to be wrong, but now he couldn't accept it. He couldn't accept that all the evidence had been wrong.

~~~

The minute TJ, Skalany and Kermit closed the apartment door, Peter sighed of relief. ‘That was too close, too damn close.’ One day earlier and his friends would have been dead right. His so called 'eternal' vampire life would have been over sooner than he'd ever expected. He'd never thought anybody would figure out what he and Moura really were, but his cop friends had.

‘I gotta find Moura, warn her.’ The next second he called Terry at the bar. He knew they wouldn't settle with this. He knew Kermit, he would go after Moura when he clearly saw Peter wasn't a vampire. And Moura wouldn't be able to get out of it as easily.

"Terry, I need to speak to Moura!" Peter impatiently demanded when he got his tired vampire friend on the line.

"Gee, Peter, she's your girlfriend," a half sleeping voice grouched on the other end.

"She's not there?"

"NO! Get back to bed Peter, it's way to early!"

"Damn," Peter swore. ‘Where could she be?’ "Sorry, Terry, go back to bed."

"Later man."

Now more than ever Peter started to get worried. He had honestly thought she'd be at the bar, but she had obviously not got that far. ‘What if she'd been caught in the sun? What if she was hurt?’ Pacing the floor of his living room, he didn't even notice the wonderful sunshine outside. All he could think about was Moura, and the fact that he didn't know where she could be.

~~~

"I don't understand, Kermit? All these signs, and he's still human. How could he fly? What's he doing with all that blood?" Skalany couldn't but shake her head in disbelief when they returned to their car across the street.

"He's not a vampire now, that much I can tell," TJ added. "God, I felt like a jerk up there. He's a friend of ours for crissakes!"

"Don't remind me, TJ. I was the one who came up with this explanation to his weird behavior, remember," Kermit sighed.

"Let's get away from here!" TJ said, and entered the car.

Kermit snapped the keys out of TJ's hand. "I'm relieved I was wrong, but I can't let this go just yet. What about his girlfriend? What if she's the vampire? We're staying."

Reluctantly, they stayed.

~~~

She knew instantly when she woke that the sun was gone. Shrugging off the dirt, leaves and small creatures of the earth, she looked up towards the apartment above her. She wanted so much to just fly up there and take Peter in her arms again, but she didn't know if she could do it without harming him. The fact that he was human was like a huge wall in between them now. She remembered when they had first met, she'd happily pretended it wasn't there at all. Now it wasn't as easy. She'd been as one with Peter, and now he had forcefully torn himself away from her and built a new wall.

‘I know I told you time and time again I regretted making you a vampire, but I never ever expected you or your father to find a cure,’ she sadly thought to herself. ‘I need to be happy for you, not sorry for my own loss.’

She had lived as a human for decades before she met Peter, and she'd actually learned to like it. This brief return to her natural state was too short but fun. She would miss the wild glow in Peter's eyes when he needed her. She would miss the excitement of hunting together. She would miss real blood. But she could not make herself even think about losing Peter altogether. She loved him too much to live a single day without him. "A vampire's not supposed to have a heart, dammit!" she swore, angry with herself. She didn't want to be this vulnerable. But she had to admit it was time. Time for her to put away the bloodsucker again for a while.

With a sigh she gave in to the power of her love for Peter Caine and entered the building like any human would, through the front door.

~~~

"See, what did I tell you. She must be the one." Kermit was getting excited.

His companions were too baffled to even say anything. They had just witnessed Peter's lovely girlfriend crawl up from under the ground.

"Sun's just gone down and she comes crawling out from under the fuckin' lawn!" Kermit cursed.

"Now all we need to do is not lose sight of her and she's ours at dawn," TJ smiled.

"Time for some serious watching," Kermit mused. "Skalany, call Blake and tell him we need a long distance listening device. I'm going up there to see what I can hear through the door."

~~~

"Moura! Thank God you're back!" Peter reached out and hugged her fiercely even before she had the time to say or do anything. "I thought I'd lost you!"

"You will never lose me, Peter. I'm the one who will eventually lose you. I'm the only one of us who will live forever, remember." Slowly drifting inside, letting her vampire skills lift them, she kissed him like never before. She needed to be close to him, but also needed to apologize before the situation got out of hand completely. She half freed herself from his grasp, holding her arms loosely around his waist, meeting his eyes, she continued. "I'm so sorry about the scene this morning, Peter. I'll take you any way I can have you."

"You can have me any way you want, Moura. If the price for my humanity is losing you, it's too expensive." He emphasized his words by slightly tilting his head back to reveal his neck before her.

She could clearly see the sincerity in his eyes, but couldn't do what he suggested. "You were human when we met, and I fell in love for the first time since I myself became a vampire. I loved you when we were both vampires, and I still love you more than ever now that you're human once again. You mean everything to me, I would even return to humanity myself for you." She placed a light kiss on his lips, begging for his forgiveness.

"Oh Moura, I love you so. Please forgive me, this cure can’t help you, only me."

She pulled him close, whispered in his ear "Don’t be sorry… I forgive you." ‘Plenty of time later for him to explain how a cure could help only him,’ she thought briefly, before she let herself get lost in the pleasure of his touch.

~~~

"All set, Kermit, " TJ whispered to Kermit just outside Peter's door. "We got a laser listener rigged on his bedroom window and they're havin' some serious fun in there at the moment," he almost giggled.

"Okay, let's sit down and wait. Sooner or later they're gonna talk about what happened today, and hopefully they will talk about what they're gonna do about it."

"And when they do, we will be right there."

~~~

"We need to talk, Moura." Peter said with a very serious tone a couple of hour later when the both of them had satisfied their lust for the other.

"Mmmm," she answered in a still lazily satisfied tone from her position beside him in the bed. Not really paying attention.

"Kermit, Skalany and TJ busted in here this afternoon, confronting me about being a vampire. If not for our argument, you might be dead, and if not for my desire to be human again, we might both be dead."

"You're kidding!" Moura was suddenly wide awake, sitting upright beside him.

"No, I wish I was." Peter sighed sadly as he looked up at her shocked face.

"This was too good to be true. Too good." She looked away in a futile attempt to hide the bright red tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Time again to leave...."

"No, never!" Peter protested. "I will NOT let them hurt you."

"Do you really think you can stop them?

He'd been thinking about it since his very embarrassed friends had left him that afternoon, and so far not come up with any solution other than Moura hiding somewhere during the day. Night time he didn't think they would have the guts to do anything. "We must, I don't want to have to choose between them or you. They would lose...and I really don't want that."

PART 17

"Hiding?" Moura shook her head. "Peter, hiding's never been a solution."

"I know, but it's the only thing I can think of right now."

"It might buy us some time, that's all."

"Yea, time to figure out what to do on a more permanent basis."

"Do you have any place special in mind?"

"Not really. Why don't we just check in at a hotel and wait for the heat to blow over?"

"That could work. They would never expect us to hide in the open like that."

"And you still have that old identity available, don't you?"

"Yes. I still have the James name up to date. I guess we'll be Mr. and Mrs. James on vacation in the city. Are you sure they will not recognize you?"

"Well, we will just have to make sure they don't see me then, my dear," Peter winked, not about to let anything stop him.

"Absolutely," Moura laughed. "I'll fly you up there when I've checked in."

"Don't exaggerate," Peter smiled back. "I'll take the elevator straight from the garage, that will do just as good."

"Let's get packed!" Moura said, a little less worried than before as she left the bed and Peter's arms to make the reservation.

~~~

"Finally! They’re done," Kermit informed his co-conspirators in the car outside Peter’s apartment. He was the one with the headphones. None of the other two had felt comfortable listening in on Peter and Moura making love up there.

"He says they need to talk," Kermit continued his narrative.

"Good," Skalany replied. "Perhaps, now, we might get some real information and not just entertainment for you."

"Oh my!" Kermit commented to something he heard on the wire, and then grew quiet again, listening intently. Looking somewhat more confident, he continued; "It seems we weren’t wrong about Peter after all. He really was a vampire."

"He was? How can that be? I don’t understand?" TJ looked as confused as he sounded.

"Caine must have had a solution to the problem. From what I hear, it seems Peter didn’t really want to be a vampire after all."

"He couldn’t have been too distraught about the situation if he could drain *me*, now could he?" Skalany sneered, her fear and anger speaking.

TJ looked at her with understanding eyes. It had taken him a long time to get over his own anger. "Skalany, the vampire is strong, I’m amazed Peter even had the strength to doubt his vampire existence. My fiancee just kept getting deeper into the dark world of the vampire. No matter how much I pleaded with her, she wouldn’t even consider *not* being a vampire. In fact, she kept begging me to let her make me into one too."

"I’m glad you didn’t, TJ. Losing good guys to evil always seems such a waste."

"We have to take her out before she does it to him again then," Kermit decided. "With her gone we do have a chance to get *our* Peter back.

"How can you even consider that, Kermit? He’s a killer. We will have to bring him to justice," Skalany almost shouted, her anger rising again.

"Calm down, Skalany," TJ cautioned.

"It’s not like he’s the only one of us who’s been a killer, Skalany, " Kermit argued. "And it’s not like he was himself when it happened either."

"Yeah, Kermit," TJ agreed. "Get her out of the way and this will be over."

Skalany looked at the other two in the van, thinking that they were ganging up on her. "Okay, okay," she reluctantly agreed. "You’re probably right."

"Good," TJ confirmed. "And when that’s taken care of, I’m going to have a serious talk with Caine. Perhaps I can actually have my own woman back as a side effect of all this."

"I don’t know why, but I got the impression Moura can’t be helped. They are not even considering it as an option up there."

"Or she doesn’t want to be human?" TJ wondered. "Keep listening, sooner or later we will know their plans."

"This is almost too easy to be true. They're going to a hotel right here in the city," Kermit smiled only minutes later.

"Let's get busy," TJ said, and started the car.

"We need some swat equipment, their room bugged, and the windows rigged with explosives before they get there. They didn't exactly pick the best hotel for a vampire to hide in; the outer walls of the Plaza are made of glass. If we blow out that wall in their room, they have nowhere to hide tomorrow when the sun comes up," Kermit mused.

"Swat gear? Explosives? You can't be serious, Kermit!" Skalany protested.

"Very!" Kermit replied with a grim face.

"Simms will have our heads when she finds out what we're doing."

"Don't be silly Skalany. I'll make sure we are well disguised. Trust me, nobody will know. I have some experience in this line of work."

"Don't remind me, Kermit. I don't want to know what you did and didn't do before you joined the force."

"Then shut up and do as I tell you."

Skalany still wasn't convinced, but she shut up and let Kermit make his arrangements.

~~~

"Any trouble checking in?" Peter wondered when Moura let him into the suite on the thirtieth floor.

"None whatsoever. I've been registered here lots of times before. They know me, even gave me my old room back."

"Here's the window covers," Peter said as he handed her one of the two suitcases he'd brought from the rental car.

Moura immediately started covering up the wall of windows at the other end of the room, and Peter playfully tried the king size bed.

"With the mirror effect, it will not show on the outside that the windows are covered. One advantage with these modern buildings. Besides, who would ever look for a vampire in a building like this?"

"You're right, never thought of it that way before."

"You haven't been running and hiding for two hundred years like I have, my darling."

"I guess I'll have to start now too."

"I've been meaning to talk to you about that. You know there is an easy way out of this, don't you?"

"No, Moura, no. They're the best friends I've ever had. No matter the hole in my heart, I can't do it!"

"Okay, okay, it was just a thought."

"Then forget that thought and get over here, we have more pleasant things to do now that we're safe."

Moura's serious face turned into a reluctant smile when he pulled his T-shirt off and showed off his magnificent upper body. "You're impossible!" Ripping off her short summer dress without even unbuttoning it first, she joined him on the bed.

~~~

"NOW!" Kermit barked into the portable radio. He was in full swat gear, ready to jump over the edge of the roof as soon as he heard the windows breaking five floors down. Kermit was more than impatient, it had been a long morning. With only minutes to spare they had managed to apply the plastic explosives around the window frames of the right room. He smiled when he remembered Skalany's surprised face when he'd pulled out the colorful tubes from his bag. "Toothpaste?"

Skalany's confirmation drowned in the muffled explosion, and the sound of glass breaking. Even before the smoke cleared, Kermit was down there. With his Desert Eagle ready and loaded with cross marked silver bullets just for this occasion. They didn't know if it would hurt Moura, but they wished it would if it came down to that. If nothing else, the gun would keep Peter in line.

When the smoke cleared for a second, he could clearly see why Moura was screaming her lungs out in sheer pain. Her naked skin was boiling with blisters as it caught fire right in front of him. And facing this sight of pure terror, he knew that this wasn't a mistake; this was a real vampire.

Kermit couldn't even look at his friend, he had to put the poor woman out of her misery. He aimed the gun at her head.

"No!" Peter called out and rolled over to cover Moura when he saw Kermit and the raised gun in front of him.

"Peter!" Kermit called out as he squeezed the trigger, "get out of the way!" But it was too late.

Peter cried out in pain, but didn't stop moving. Scooping up Moura in his arms, he moved towards the door to get her away from the sun, leaving a thick trail of smoke behind them.

"Stop right there, Peter!" TJ commanded from his position at the door.

Peter didn't stop, he didn't even slow down. He was furious and unstoppable. He plowed right into the surprised detective. TJ wasn't really prepared to fire at his old partner, but the force of the shove made his finger jerk ever so lightly when he hit the wall in the corridor behind him. The gun went off.

Peter went down immediately; his left ankle crushed by the stray bullet.

In a state of shock over what the sun had done to Moura, Skalany couldn't move. She just stood there, and saw her friend go down with his still smoking girlfriend in his arms.

~~~

Moura, now out of reach from the direct sunlight, started to notice her surroundings again when the pain eased slightly. She was on the floor. Peter, groaning in pain, gasping for air, on top of her.

She had to get them out of there before the two detectives in front of her got to their senses again. Desperately looking around her for an escape route, her eyes found the laundry shaft hatch just above her.

Moura got to her feet and quickly opened it. The opening seemed just big enough for Peter to get through. She lifted him from the floor and half pushed him, head first, into it. He screamed when his hurt shoulder rubbed against the edge. He almost passed out. She couldn't let him drop, there were more than thirty floors to the laundry room in the basement. She grabbed his unhurt ankle and dove right after him down the narrow vertical passageway. She was too hurt herself to be able to levitate, but she still had enough strength left to brake the speed of the fall with her feet and legs, using her hands to hold on to Peter.

Seconds later, they fell into a bin of dirty laundry at the bottom of the shaft. Peter's loud groaning stopped abruptly when he passed out from the hit, and from Moura landing on top of him.

Rapidly getting weaker herself, she quickly tore strips from a sheet to stop the extensive bleeding from Peter's shoulder and ankle. She put pressure to the wounds and wrapped it as good as she could, wishing she knew how to do it properly. She had never needed to keep the blood inside a man before.

Wearing a too big dress she'd found among the sheets, and finally done patching Peter up, she lifted him up in her arms like a baby. The contact made her even more painfully aware that her skin was burnt badly. She didn't care, if she didn't get the both of them out of there, and quickly, they would never survive to see another night. Luckily the garage was located only a few doors further down the corridor from the laundry.

For a moment she couldn't remember what car they had arrived in when she stepped through the door to the garage. "Don't panic!" she told herself. "Don't panic!" Two deep breaths later her brain started to work again, and she quickly found the blue Thunderbird only five cars away from the door.

Carefully she placed Peter behind the wheel, he would have to be the one driving them out of there. The sun had done too much damage already for her to chance another exposure to it. "Peter! Please! Wake up! ... Peter!" she pleaded loudly.

No reaction from Peter. His head tilted forward when she let go of him; he was out cold.

Getting desperate, she slapped him over the face. Hard. "Peter!"

He moaned, and slowly, very slowly, raised his head.

"Peter, you gotta get us outta here!" Moura almost screamed at him when he didn't seem to know where he was, or why.

He turned his head towards her, and for a moment she thought he was about to ask who the hell she was. But the sight of her apparently made the whole difference; his eyes popped wide open and he remembered the urgency of their situation.

"Get in the trunk! Let's get out of here!" he commanded and tried to reach for the key. Only to be painfully aware his right shoulder and arm was out of order.

"Let me do that for you, " Moura volunteered and reached past him to turn the key and put the car in drive.

"We're a great team, thanks. Now get in the trunk, my dear."

Happy to comply she did just that. Knowing her life depended on her severely wounded lover's ability to drive them out of there, in spite of an ankle and a shoulder shot to pieces.

~~~

"Dammit!" Kermit swore when he realized that Peter and Moura had disappeared in the cover of the smoke from her burnt skin filling the corridor. He felt a chill down his spine when he thought of Moura screaming. She was on fire when the sunlight hit her bare skin. The terrible screams had slashed through the shields of his mind, made him hesitate when he should have been cold and without mercy. And that brief moment was all Peter and Moura had needed to get away from them.

"Close the garage, NOW!" Skalany barked into her cellular. "Someone's stealing my car!"

"Get in the elevator! They're not going to get away from us again!" TJ commanded, holding the elevator for his two hooded friends. "They're both badly injured, we'll catch up with them in notime."

Kermit followed them down, but somehow he knew he'd already blown it with that brief moment of hesitation when he'd first entered the room. There was no room for hesitation in this kind of operation.

~~~

Careful not to move his right arm too much, Peter steered towards the exit. It was difficult steering with only one arm in the narrow lanes between the cars in the garage, but somehow he managed to keep the car moving faster and faster towards the exit-ramp. Biting hard, he refrained from screaming when he accidentally set his left foot down on the floor when he made a sharp turn.

"Careful, Peter!" he heard Moura's muffled voice from the trunk.

He didn't answer, the door started to slide shut ahead of him. Putting the foot down even harder on the pedal, he made the car shoot forward and pass through the door with only millimeters to spare.

"We're out!" he called out triumphantly, only to realize he had to deal with lunch hour traffic and pedestrians. For a moment, he'd forgotten it was daytime and the streets weren't empty anymore. Pure luck made him miss a mother and child passing the garage opening on the sidewalk. Slamming the brakes, he managed to avoid crashing right into a passing bus.

Miraculously enough, the car didn't stop running and Peter could keep driving, this time with more normal speed, down the street. Still stressed, constantly glancing backwards in the mirror, he kept driving. He had no idea where he was going, he just had to get away from Kermit, Skalany and TJ.

"Where can I go? Pop? No, can't get him involved in this. Terry? No, that's the first place they will look." Peter was too wired and in too much pain to be able to think clearly. He knew he didn't have much longer before they would find him again and the urgency to run blocked his mind. Rational thoughts out of his grasp, he was but a wounded deer running for his life.

As if Moura could see and hear his panic from her hidden position in the trunk, she acted the voice of reason. "Peter, you need to get to a hospital, immediately."

"No! I have to get you somewhere safe first." Peter didn't even consider the fact that he was badly wounded, the fact that Moura was in danger was more urgent.

"Just find me another garage and drop me off. I'll be fine, it will be dark in a few hours."

"A garage! Good idea, we have to switch cars anyway. They're gonna be looking for this one."

"You have to get those wounds taken care of, Peter. I can smell the blood running again even from back here."

Peter was too stubborn to admit just how right she was. "Mall in sight," he replied and tried his very best to ignore the terrible pain radiating from his right shoulder. A pain that made his arm and hand feel numb and dead.

He made a swaying wide left turn over the street to get into the open garage, barely avoiding a collision with a van going the other way. Not prepared for the sharp right turn downwards, Peter hit the curved concrete wall of the ramp. Without his seat belt on, weak, in pain and with only one arm usable, Peter couldn't avoid hitting the wheel at impact. The steady Thunderbird turned broad side to the ramp and continued downwards in a rain of sparks as Peter passed out and unconsciously pressed down the gas.

The silence when Peter's foot slid off the pedal and the car finally stopped, was deafening. Then, people started to gather round the car to see if the driver was okay. The bloody mess that met them when they opened the passenger side door wasn't what they expected. "Call an ambulance, he's badly hurt!" the middle aged man called out when he saw it.

~~~

"I'm sorry, Peter. I can't let you sacrifice your own life for me. Let the paramedics take you to the hospital," Moura whispered. She knew he couldn't hear her, but she needed to say it.

She wrapped Peter's leather jacket closer around her and walked away from the scene. She had to find a good place to hide before three particular cops found out about this accident.

~~~

Peter cried out in pain when the paramedics tried to move him out of the car. They had managed to lift the car free from the ramp and were now by his side to help him out of it. He tried to get away from them. He couldn't let them take him, he had to get Moura out of danger.

"Take it easy, Sir. Let us help you," the paramedic politely told him as he firmly held Peter still.

"No! I gotta get away from here!"

Peter started to get desperate. He had to get away from them or everything would be over. The desperation made him use his right hand and arm to turn the key. The car miraculously started immediately. The pain made the last haze of unconsciousness disappear and he was ready to run for it.

The paramedics and the bystanders threw themselves away from his path when he sped up. A square of light ahead of him told him he had a passage out and he aimed towards it.

He got out, away from the confined space of the garage. He forced himself to drive calmly. He felt cold, he couldn't seem to stop his body from shivering. Reluctantly he looked at the bandage on his shoulder. It was already soaked and the blood ran slowly down his bare chest and arm.

"I'm no good to anybody like this, dammit!" he swore and realized just what he had to do to get through this.

PART 18

Kermit, Skalany and TJ shred their black disguises on their way down in the elevator. They knew they had to walk out of the building right in the open. The explosion had probably attracted enough attention as it was. Running out of the building like masked bank robbers was out of the question.

"Kermit, couldn't you have rigged this elevator to move faster?" Skalany complained as she watched the digits on the display count down painfully slow. "They're getting away from us!"

Kermit didn't bother to answer her, he just looked at her, knowing exactly how she felt. He was getting impatient himself. Every second, Peter and Moura might be moving further away from them, right into the unknown. It had been a big mistake not to find out what car they had arrived in. But who could have known they would actually slip away.

"You two get the van, and I'll check the garage to make sure they're not still down there," TJ said when they finally reached the lobby.

"Good, let us know if they're down there, or we'll meet you back at the precinct later." No time to wait around for TJ if they were already gone. Kermit put his arm around Skalany's shoulders and strolled out of the elevator.

They stepped out into an almost empty reception area. A young couple checking in, a middle aged businessman waiting for a cab outside. The explosion in the back of the building had by some small miracle gone by unnoticed down there. No sign of alarm they thought. Unconsciously, both of them let out a sigh of relief as they calmly walked out through the doors.

It wasn't until they came outside they noticed the sirens of the police coming closer. They forced themselves to walk slowly along the sidewalk until they were out of sight around the corner. Then they ran like crazy, passed the now closed garage gate, towards their van. It was parked just around the next corner behind the police tape they had used to shut off the whole street. No matter what they were doing with Moura, they didn't want to risk any innocent bystanders getting hurt by flying glass.

"Damn!" Kermit swore and kicked the car door when he realized TJ had the keys.

"What are you waiting for? Simms will have our heads if they spot us here!" Skalany urged him.

"I don't have the god damn keys!" Kermit swore back at her, losing his cool. Everything was going against them. This whole operation was fucked up.

"Why don't you just pick the lock?" Skalany could hardly believe he would be as upset about a set of keys after a stunt like the one they just pulled.

"Because I had the new security system installed in this van last week, and not even I can bypass the ignition lock."

Skalany picked up her radio. "TJ?!" she almost shouted into it.

"They're out!" she heard a sad voice respond almost immediately.

"Get back out here! NOW, TJ!"

"You go without me, I'll be okay, Skalany!"

"YOU HAVE THE KEYS!" Skalany was getting more and more impatient.

"I'll be right there! Sorry!" TJ replied, finally understanding the urgency.

Kermit couldn't wait. He started to pick the door lock, and succeeded in doing so just as TJ came running around the corner behind them. Kermit already had the parking break off, and was rolling down the street before TJ finally caught up. "About time!" he grouched.

TJ, breathing heavily from the run, sat down hard in the back seat when Kermit accelerated forward. Then almost fell forward again when first the right, then the left front tire blew like small explosions.

Kermit violently hit the wheel "Damn, damn, damn... this was all I needed... We're cursed!"

Skalany just looked at him at first, as if she couldn't believe her eyes. Then started laughing. Seconds later, TJ joined in from the back.

"What!" Kermit barked at them.

"You..." Skalany said desperately trying to stop laughing and keep a straight face. "I've never seen you lose your temper like this before!"

"You better stop laughing, or it will be the last thing you do!" Kermit grunted through his clenched teeth.

~~~

Moura tried to wrap the leather jacket even closer around her body even though her skin was raw from the burns. The heat was turning into cold now that she was well away from the sun, and she shivered. She had to get away from there within the next few minutes if she was to escape. Trying not to look back at the wrecked car and the still unconscious Peter, she forced herself to walk slowly away from the scene.

She was sure Peter would be fine without her. He was human again, they had no reason to kill him. The paramedics would do what Peter didn't want to, they would take him to the hospital.

Over at the other end of the huge underground garage, she found what she was looking for, a way down into the sewer system. She cautiously looked around her to make sure she was alone. Nobody was close by. Peter and the arriving paramedics at the entrance attracted all the attention. Seemingly without effort she lifted a section of the grid covering the drainage and slid down into the waist deep passage.

Going down on her hands and knees, letting the grid fall back into place above her, she was thankful there had been no rain the last few weeks. She started to crawl, then realized the darkness made her vampire powers slowly return again. Stretching out horizontally, she flew slowly and carefully forward, thankful she didn't have to touch anything. Within minutes, she was blocks away from the garage and possible capture.

Moura knew the city sewer system very well. She always took the time to learn the layout when she moved to a new city. It had saved her life more than once over the years. She headed for a hiding place she had prepared when she first arrived in the city. Not even Peter knew about that place.

Blood, she needed it badly to recover. Sniffing the aromatic air, trying hard not to feel sick, she almost immediately picked up on a faint scent of a human. Further ahead it grew stronger, and suddenly she was right upon a homeless drunk, slowly staggering forward in the dark tunnel. She could smell the alcohol in his blood but her hunger couldn't be stopped.

"Who's there?" the man called out when he heard her behind him.

She didn't even bother to reply. She grabbed him from behind and buried her fangs deep into the dirty neck.

"What the ..." His words trailed off when Moura rapidly emptied him of blood. He was dead within seconds.

Not feeling any better, but at least not starving anymore, she dumped the body right there. She didn't even bother to conceal the traces of her meal as she continued towards her hideout. Now, with her own basic need taken care of, she started to worry about Peter. She hoped he'd been taken to the hospital in time, he was also in dire need of blood.

~~~

Peter drove slowly in silence for a while before he realized Moura was a little too silent. He'd expected her to riot at his decision to make a run for it, rather than go to the hospital. She didn't, in fact she had not said a word since. The brief moment of relief when he'd escaped from the paramedics was immediately turned into violent worry about Moura.

"Moura? Are you okay back there?" Peter called out when he didn't hear anything from her. "Moura? Answer me! Don't you dare pass out on me now."

Nothing.

"Moura...please be okay," he begged, momentarily forgetting all about his own injury and pain. "Hold on just a little longer. We're only minutes away from Delancey's now."

It was agony not only to his aching wounds to drive, every minute of silence behind him tore at his heart. Not being in shape to speed up made it worse. The fact that she might have slipped out in the garage didn't occur to him at that moment.

Thankful none of the daytime staff or any delivery trucks were around, Peter was finally able to park the car in the deep shadows of the alley behind Delancey's. Peter tried to get out of the car. He opened the door and moved his left leg without thinking, sending violent stabs of pain through the entire leg from his crushed ankle. Drawing a deep breath and biting his teeth firmly together, he managed to stay conscious. Slowly, he maneuvered his body into a position where he could use the right leg to stand up. It was not an easy task with only one arm to push his body up from the seat. Only his worry about Moura in the trunk drove him forward. The world spun around when he stood up, the extensive loss of blood threatening to take him out permanently.

Still clasping his teeth against the pain he moved slowly towards the trunk. Leaning heavily on the side of the car, he tried to not fall the few feet back to the trunk. With a trembling left hand he opened the trunk.

No Moura, it was empty.

"Moura?" he faintly called out to the empty trunk.

For a while he just stood there and looked at the empty trunk, unable to do anything. Then, through the heavy layers of pain, he realized she must have had the opportunity to slip out in the garage after all. That had to be it, she couldn't just be gone.

Somewhat relieved, he sagged against the open trunk. She was out of the light. Now all she had to do was stay out of the light and find something to feed on and she would be just fine. And all he had to do was to find Terry. He looked towards the bar. It was only a few meters away, but it might just as well have been kilometers. Half jumping on his good leg, half limping on the bad one, he managed to move far enough to fall against the back entrance.

~~~

"Get out of the van with your hands above your heads! This is the police!"

"Is that Lasher?" Skalany wondered.

"We're in deep shit!" Kermit moaned and let his head fall back on the seat.

"Get out of the van!" Lasher shouted into the megaphone again.

Slowly and reluctantly they obeyed. None of them wanted to give the trigger-happy swat leader any excuse to shoot.

Surprised and slightly disappointed, Lasher lowered his gun and ordered his men to relax when he saw who it was he'd apprehended. "What the hell...?"

"Why are you stopping us? We're in pursuit of two desperate terrorists," Kermit snapped when Lasher approached them.

"I'm afraid our informants are telling a different story, froggie! You must be losing your touch, Kermit. We've been getting reports of three people in a black van, acting very suspicious around the Plaza this afternoon."

Kermit just glared back. "You're wrong!"

"We'll see about that. You will have to come with me to the 57th and we'll get to the bottom of this." Lasher waved two of his officers over to take care of Kermit, Skalany and TJ.

"But...they're getting away..." Skalany protested as she reluctantly allowed herself to be taken away.

~~~

"Terry! Terry, where are you? You gotta help me!" Peter gasped, no louder than a whisper, when he staggered into Terry's private room in the back of Delancey's. He was rapidly getting weaker. His strength had run out of him along with the blood from the two bullet wounds. He couldn't go to a hospital; he had to protect Moura from Kermit. She would be too weak to heal him even if she did agree to it. And he had to get Kermit taken care of. "Terry, where are you?" Peter whispered again as he realized he was going down.

"Peter? What the hell happened to you!" Terry rushed forward to support his friend before he hit the floor.

"They tried to hurt Moura. I had to stop them." Peter had used up his last reserve of strength. He blinked, tried to stay awake long enough to explain. He couldn't. "Please help me..." he pleaded as unconsciousness claimed him.

"Oh, Peter, you foolish youngster," Terry sadly sighed as he could hear Peter's heart slowing down, not able to beat any further without the support of the blood he’d lost. "You couldn't stay human for even a week without getting into trouble, could you?" Knowing the only way to help Peter was to make him into a vampire once again, he ripped off the blood-soaked bandages and put his lips to the open wound in Peter's shoulder.

~~~

Blood, the sweet wonderful taste of vampire blood filling his mouth, flowing down his throat was the first thing that Peter noticed when he came to. Then the rest of his senses came to life a moment later, and he immediately knew he was a vampire again.

~~~

"Peter!" Caine cried out as he jerked out of meditation. Peter was once again torn out of his mind. A steady flow of pain, anger and confusion was abruptly cut off. "No, not again!"

It had been less than two days since Peter had returned to humanity. They had been days filled with fear and anger. His happy return to humanity had been disturbed by the fact that his cop friends had found out about them being vampires. Peter and Moura had been running from them, and Caine wished there was something he could do, but Peter had been very clear when he told Caine to stay away from them.

"Stay out of this, Pop!" Peter had yelled when Caine had tried to convince his son to let Moura go. "Don’t you get it? I love her, and I can’t ever leave her!"

"She is a vampire, Peter. She will take you again if you stay with her," Caine had pleaded. He knew he would once again lose his son to the dark side if Peter stayed with her.

"Then so be it! I’ll take my chances!" Peter had snorted and left.

And now Peter had returned to the vampire world, he was sure of that. Peter's essence was blocked from his inner vision again. Knowing Peter would not hesitate to go after the source of the threat, Caine started walking towards the place he knew Kermit could be found; the precinct.

PART 19

"What the hell were you thinking!" Captain Simms practically barked, pacing back and fourth behind her desk.

Skalany and TJ squirmed in their seats. Kermit looked as calm as ever. The temper tantrum of that afternoon was long gone. He'd had time to come to terms with the failure.

"What possessed you to go after two terrorists like that? No orders! No backup! No Nothing!"

"Opportunity?" TJ answered.

"Don't give me that crap! You could have called it in!"

"Don't be too hard on them, Captain, It was my fault. I told them not to report it in," Kermit finally admitted, sighing. He hated more than anything to be confronted with his own mistakes. And this had been one big mistake from the beginning. And he couldn't tell the Captain who they were really after, and why.

"This isn't something I'd expect from any of you. This looks more like a classic Peter Caine stunt, and as far as I can see, he's not here anymore."

That remark made the three almost jump in their seats. Peter Caine had been very much involved in this stunt. They just couldn't let the Captain know he had turned to the Dark Side now, that Peter and his girlfriend had been their target that afternoon.

"We can't tell you much more about it, Captain," Skalany almost whispered.

"Until you decide to tell me everything about this, you're all under suspension! Is that understood?"

"But, Captain..." TJ tried.

"No!" Captain Simms pointed out of her office. "I don't want to see any of you again until you've come to your senses! And don't think for a minute your daddy won't back me on this, TJ."

~~~

"Fine friends you have there!" Terry swore as he handed Peter another carafe of blood from the refrigerator. "I'm gonna kill those bastards!"

"Calm down, Terry. There just have to be another way to get them off our backs! As you said, they are my friends."

"I know they are, Peter. But you know the rules just as well as I do. Nobody can know. Besides, they almost killed you and Moura, you should be just as pissed as I am."

Peter sat down heavily on one of the black leather couches. "I am pissed, Terry. Believe me, I'm pissed as hell, but I'm also sad. The only way to stop Kermit will be to kill him. And choosing between my friends and Moura is something I never wanted to do. You know that."

"You're a sentimental fool, Peter! Take their blood and it will all be over."

"There has to be another way to stop them! There has to be." Peter pleaded with the older vampire.

Terry sighed again, realizing Peter was hopelessly human, already back to the human way of thinking. Back to thinking like the cop he once was. He sat down opposite Peter on the other couch, looking him straight in the eyes. "Yes there is, and I know just what to do too."

"You do?"

"Yes. I've used it a few times myself as a last resort."

"What do we do?"

"We make them forget everything they found out about us."

"Is that possible?"

"Oh Yeah, as Kermit would say!"

"This sounds like the perfect solution to the problem. Why didn't you tell me about this from the start?"

"Because, just like I said, it's a last resort. Something we might do when all else fails."

"What aren't you telling me here?" Peter wondered, now suspicious over the *easy* solution.

"Making a victim forget a short contact, a snack, is easy. I’m sure you’ve done it many times without even realizing it. You’ve looked into their eyes and willed them to forget. Making them forget a whole series of events, is a more difficult procedure. Not just technically, but also emotionally. You have to get inside their heads, browse through their memories and emotions to find what you need to remove. You can't avoid finding out stuff that you really wish you didn't know."

"I see you point, Terry. But I'll just have to take that chance. It's better than death."

"Are you sure your friendship will survive this? You know, you might end up hating them."

"I said I'll take the chance!" Peter glared at the other vampire.

"You know I'll be more than happy to help you get them off your backs if you're afraid to," Terry offered with a dangerous glimpse in his red vampire eyes. "There's nothing quite like the sweet taste of revenge, you know."

"NO!"

"Okay, okay," Terry surrendered. "I'll teach you."

~~~

Skalany and TJ followed Kermit into his office when they left the Captain's office. "So what now?" TJ wondered.

"We're going to continue looking for them. That's what we're going to do," Kermit firmly replied, more determined than ever to catch that elusive vampire.

"I'm with you all the way, Kermit!" Skalany added, every bit as determined not to let this slip because of a minor setback. "We can't let monsters like that roam free on the streets!"

"Let's regroup at my place tomorrow. We're all pretty tired now, it's been a long day..." Kermit had to fight to stop himself from yawning.

"How can you be so calm, Kermit? I'm wired like a spring about to burst. I can't possibly sleep now," TJ said.

"Do whatever you like, TJ. I'm going to get some shuteye too," Skalany added. "See you both tomorrow."

"Okay, okay. Sleep or not, I'll be there."

~~~

The thin mattress on the cot was more than uncomfortable; it was pure torture. Moura tried to get comfortable. It was impossible. No matter how she turned her burns made themselves painfully known.

She'd expected to get better within minutes after the feeding. She did not. Quite the contrary, she shivered under the leather jacket and the thin blanket as her temperature kept getting higher and higher. This was not normal. Something was very very wrong.

When a bursting fever blister made the jacket lining catch fire she knew this wouldn't go away. This was it; the end. And Peter wasn't there. There were so many things she wanted to tell him. So many things she needed to share before she died. But most of all; she didn't want to die alone. Not like this.

"Oh, Peter!" she moaned. "I'm so sorry."

~~~

Peter guarded the entrance to the precinct from a high rooftop several blocks away. Kermit might be his friend, but at this moment all Peter could think of was to protect Moura. This afternoon had been too close, too damn close.

Peter blamed himself for almost bringing destruction on his love. He should have been more careful around that sneaky frog. He didn't know what had tipped off the three vampire hunting cops about their location, but they had exposed Moura to the sun. He wished he knew she would be okay. He had not seen her since had sneaked away from him at that mall. She knew how to hide, but it would only a matter of time before Kermit would find them again.

"I can't let you hurt her, Kermit." Peter called out aloud as he threw himself off the rooftop when he finally saw his prey exit the building.

Hovering high above the street, he waited until Kermit was out of sight from the precinct in the Kermitmobile before he let himself slowly descend right in front of the hood of the moving car. Kermit almost lost control over the car when he tried to both brake and steer away from the man appearing in front of him. Peter laughed and easily moved out of the way.

Kermit stepped out of the car to confront the man he almost hit. "Peter?"

"Yeah, that's me Kermit," Peter replied with his growling vampire voice just before he grabbed his friend around the upper body and took off through the skies to the rooftop he'd occupied earlier.

He'd meant to scare Kermit and by the looks on the ex-mercenary's face he knew he'd succeeded.

Peter stepped up close and caught the eyes of his friend, he didn't even mind the glasses, and with his superhuman eyesight he could easily see through them. With a dangerous smile on his face he let his eyes glow red. "You were absolutely right. Behold the vampire, Kermit."

Kermit tried to back away when the man he knew as Peter Caine suddenly transformed into something else, something very scary. Peter didn't let him, he grabbed him hard over the shoulder with a strength that no human could escape. "You're one of my best friends Kermit, but I can't let you pursue this any further."

"But...but...," Kermit gasped, he had a hard time even talking. "You were human."

Peter smiled, showed off his sharp fangs. "Yes, I was returning to humanity, Kermit. I was happy to do it. But you changed all that with this crusade of yours. I can't let you hurt Moura."

"You can reverse it at will?"

"Sure I can, and I will again once I've taken care of you, Skalany and TJ." Peter forced Kermit close enough to bury his fangs into the soft flesh of his neck to get a taste of the sweet smelling stuff.

"Peter, please, don't do this," Kermit pleaded as the vampire sucked all his strength out of him.

With a sneer Peter released Kermit, and with the support of Peter's arm gone, gKermit fell into a heap on the ground. "So, even Kermit the tough ex-mercenary pleads for his life in the face of death. Hah, never thought I'd see that happen."

"And I never thought I'd see Peter Caine go over to the dark side." Kermit replied with an equally mocking tone as he fought to sit.

Peter just shrugged "Shit happens, Kermit. But I didn't bring you here to kill you, I brought you here to stop you. I can't let you hurt me and Moura."

"And just how do you plan on doing that? I assure you I will not stop unless you do kill me."

Peter let out an evil laugh, still mocking the weak cop. "I am a vampire Kermit. I'm your worst nightmare, and I can do things you never even dreamed possible. I will simply make you forget all about me and Moura being vampires."

"You can do that?"

"Oh yeah! I can make you do anything I want." He laughed again. Having Kermit weak and defenseless at his feet made him feel better again. "I can even make you forget you ever wore those green glasses. Wouldn't that be fun, huh? I'd love to be a fly on the wall when you arrive at the precinct without them tomorrow."

"Dammit, Peter, you can't do this! You're not evil, not really." Kermit tried to reason. "You're Peter Caine, one of the good guys. You were the only one I trusted in this city when Paul left. I would have given my life for you."

"I am still your friend Kermit. If I weren't, you would not be here talking to me, you would be lying dead on the ground down by your car, and I would be on my way to do the same to Skalany and TJ." Peter sighed, he'd stalled long enough. Time to do it.

"Peter, NO!" a new voice called out behind Peter.

"Pop, what are you doing here? You know you can't stop me!"

"Help me, Caine," Kermit weakly pleaded

"I have to try, son. This is not the way."

"You know I have to do this, Pop. As long as he knows, he's a threat."

"Come with me, Peter. Let me take you back to Shambhala." Without even a slight touch of fear he reached out his hand to the raging vampire, begging him.

"No, Pop!" Peter cried out, and before his father had a chance to even move he had grabbed Kermit by the tie and brought his face close to his own. Kermit desperately tried to look away, but Peter easily forced him to look deep into his eyes. With ease he dove deep into the scared human soul and forcefully ripped out the knowledge he didn't want Kermit to keep. He tried to be gentle, but this wasn't something that could be done without force.

"It's done!" Peter simply said afterwards when he turned his red eyes towards his father's disappointed figure behind him. "And unless you want the same treatment you'll back off. Okay?"

"Yes my son," Caine's sad voice agreed.

"Good!"

Peter then returned Kermit to his car. He rested Kermit's head against the wheel as if he'd fallen asleep driving home. Peter put the green glasses on his own nose. They would be his from now on.

Then he left to take care of the other two...

~~~

"I'm going to die. I'm truly going to die after all these years...", Moura reluctantly admitted to herself.

Her condition was getting worse by the hour. For the second time in her long life, she knew she wouldn't live through the night. Trying to get some kind of warmth from the thin blanket she rolled up like a ball against the cold wall. Shivering from the fever raging through her body she easily recalled the last time she'd been that cold. It was as if it was yesterday, the last time she thought she was going to die.

Snow, it was too deep to run in. She stumbled and fell, again and again. Every time the howling wolves behind her came closer and closer until they surrounded her with their growling, starving yells.

The winter had been long and hard that year. She had been just as starved as the beasts surrounding her when she was forced away from her home. There had been no more food to share among the ten children. Walk out into the snow in search of food, or die right there in bed. With not much of a choice, she had left.

The young girl screamed as the beasts closed in on her, got ready to attack her small frozen body. She was too weak to resist even one of them.

The leader leaped first. Moura put her arm up to defend herself. The furious beast clasped her wrist between his strong jaws, biting hard, twisting his prey from side to side. Moura lost her footing in the soft snow, and as if on queue the rest of the flock was upon her.

They yanked and tore at the thick layers of cloth covering her, and soon she didn't even have that small protection left.

The pain from getting her flesh literally torn from her body was something never before experienced. It made her wish it would be over even more quickly. She wanted to die.

But she didn't die. Something else lurked in those dark woods. A vampire. He took pity on her and chased the wolfs away. She was but a heartbeat away from death when he let his cold vampire blood run down her recently torn throat.

That blood was the end of pain and cold for her, and the start of another kind of hunger; the hunger for blood.

She loved being a vampire. Suddenly the world opened up for her. In an instant she went from farm-girl to world traveler. And wherever she went, she killed.

She felt no respect, no loyalty, and no regrets towards her prey. She had known no kindness in her short human life, only starvation and hardship, so how could she as a vampire?

"I was a magnificent vampire, Peter!" Moura sobbed on her narrow bed. She missed those days now. They had been so uncomplicated. No guilt, no doubts if it was right to kill like they did.

But once the doubts had entered her life nothing was ever the same. And after she met Peter she was completely lost. Love, it was a feeling she had always thought were for humans only. It took her by surprise, and the depth of her emotions made her lose the control she had managed to claim on the vampire inside her.

She'd been furious with herself when she stood over Peter's drained body. Later she would have done anything to undo what she did, but at that moment the pain of losing him had been too great. The newly awakened vampire demon inside her had brought him across rather than face the pain of loss.

Looking back on the time she'd had with Peter she realized she could die happy. She had the fortune to know love. Her love had been allowed to return to humanity.

Her life was over, but his would go on for years to come. If only she could tell him goodbye one last time.

Still freezing , she tried not to scream out her pain as she silently resigned to the fact that she would die alone.

~~~

It was over. The threat gone. No more hiding. Now all he had to do was find Moura and then they could return home again. The cruelty of his actions that night completely out of his grasp, his only concern was Moura. He could have taken out the world to protect her.

He returned to the mall.

Standing where the car had crashed, he could easily pick up the terrible smell of her burns still lingering in the air. Fighting hard not to be sick at the smell of her pain, he followed the faint trail with his sensitive vampire nose.

~~~

"It's over! Let's go home, Moura!" Peter bubbled enthusiastically when he happily entered his love's small hideout. "You're safe from the cops."

"Peter, you're here! You're a vampire again!" she faintly smiled, happy he was there, happy he was alive and well.

Peter smiled back at her "I had to stop them from hurting you. And I know them, they would never stop until you were dead. They were ready to kill me off too when they thought I was a vampire. Only as a vampire could I stop them without hurting them. Terry knew his cover was in danger too, he was more than happy to help when you couldn't."

"What did you do?" Her curiosity took over from the first shock to have Peter there, to have her dream come true.

"I made them forget all they had found out about vampires and what made them suspect us in the first place. We're safe now, as long as we're careful."

"I wish you hadn't done it Peter. It's too late for me anyway. The burns are too severe."

Now it was Peter's turn to be surprised. "What? Sure, you're injured; but you'll be okay, won't you?"

"I'm dying Peter, and there's nothing you or I can do about it."

"No, it can't be true," Peter denied as he lifted her up from the cot and hugged her fiercely. Only to notice her body was burning hot. "You're burning up!"

"Yes," she sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. "I've seen this happen to others. The fire of the sun has started a chain reaction inside me. Once it's started it can't be stopped. A pile of ashes is the only thing that will remain of me when the sun comes up tomorrow morning."

Peter sobbed and continued to hug her. Refused to even think of losing her. "We're supposed to be immortal, dammit!"

"We are, my darling. I just never said we were invulnerable."

"I don't want you to die! I don't want you to leave me all alone, I love you too much."

"I know. I love you too."

The two held each other silently for a while, until the heat from Moura's body became too much even for Peter.

Peter took a deep breath, unsure how Moura would react to his request. "Let me take you to Shambhala, Moura. I can't lose you like this. We need more time. I'm sure my father won't deny us a few last days together."

Moura smiled weakly. "Please...it hurts...anything..."

PART 20 - CONCLUSION

For the first time since he had found his son alive and well, meditation didn't come easy for Caine. The images of Peter as an evil beast haunted his very being. Every time he closed his eyes, his mind projected the image of his son lost in the savage lust for blood and revenge. Snarling at him, telling him to stay out of his business.

Peter had been so happy, so content to be back as a living, breathing, human being again. And now he seemed just as content being a vampire. What had happened to make him choose the darkness once again? Moura?

Caine wondered if he had not underestimated his son's love for Moura. If it had been Laura, hurt and hunted, would he have done like Peter? Would he have sacrificed everything to keep Laura alive? He did not know.

Caine snapped out of his half meditative state with a surprised gasp when Peter materialized right in front of him. Arriving too fast for him to even notice the movement.

"POP! You gotta help us!" Peter yelled urgently right in Caine's face.

Still startled at the intrusion, Caine just stared at first. He couldn't believe that Peter had been able to sneak up on him like that. "Peter, what is wrong with Moura?" He was immediately more worried about the condition of the now visibly burning shape in Peter's arms.

"The sun. She's dying, Pop," was all Peter could say at first. He squirmed, he didn't know how to actually ask his father another favor after what he had done on that rooftop.

Caine touched Moura's burning face in a futile attempt at healing. She was literally burning hot, her face boiling with blisters, wisps of smoke rising from her body. She must indeed be dying. "What can I do, my son?" he asked. No matter what this woman had been, what she had done, the pure agony he saw in her face made him ache with compassion. There was no way he could turn his back on them.

"Father, I know we have no right to ask, but please, take us to Shambhala. Let her die in the light, let her long dark path end with a spark of light," Peter begged, with a voice barely audible.

Caine was surprised. Perhaps there was hope for his son growing up to be a responsible human being after all. He actually didn't demand any miracle or Shaolin magic to fix his vampire woman. He wanted to give her a chance to die free from the demon that had controlled her for so long. How could he possibly deny her that?

Silently Caine nodded and went over to the Book. Peter followed right behind. Swiftly Caine found the right page and opened it. Within seconds they were transported into the bright light of Shambhala.

No longer under the power of the vampire, Peter collapsed on the ground with his now too heavy burden still in his arms. He'd accomplished his mission. Moura was free. He was free. Smiling he passed out.

~~~

Kermit slammed the precinct door open, and plowed his way straight towards his office. He felt completely out of shape and he had a strange urge to kick something. This morning had started with one hell of a headache. It still didn't want to let go, it was as if the bright sunlight made it only worse while driving to work. Rubbing his forehead, he stopped to pour himself a cup of coffee.

Turning to continue his path towards his office he stepped right into the Chief.

"What are you doing here?" Strenlich grunted and crossed his arms, as if he was dead determined to stop Kermit from walking another step towards that office.

Only then, Kermit became aware of the silence around them. Everybody had stopped what they were doing to stare at Kermit and Strenlich.

~~~

"Moura?" Peter cried out when he woke up. He was still very weak, but all he could think about was Moura.

"She's right here, my son," his father immediately replied from somewhere close behind the bed Peter was resting on.

Too weak to sit, Peter turned in his bed, towards his father and Moura. Caine was sitting by her side. Holding his hands a few inches above her dan tien he tried to strengthen her severely weakened chi. Like a miracle, her burns were completely gone. To Peter, it looked like she was sleeping peacefully. "How's she doing, Pop?"

"She is very weak. I am trying to strengthen her chi enough, so that she may wake up for a short while."

Peter knew the answer, but couldn't help ask. "She's still dying, isn't she?"

"Yes, my son," Caine answered with a voice betraying great sadness.

Peter blinked away the tears flooding his eyes. "Father, I love her so..."

Caine turned his attention from the still woman and met his son's sad eyes. "I know..." he paused briefly. "You would never have invited the demon back inside you, if you had not."

"I'm sorry..."

Not able to do more for the dying woman, Caine moved over to his son, and started to gently caress the head turned away in shame and sadness. "Tell me what happened?"

Peter took a deep ragged breath. "Pop, I was on the brink of death. I had to choose if I wanted to die, or go back to being a creature of darkness again. I didn't know Moura was that badly hurt. I just knew I couldn't leave her, or you, behind."

"I am glad you are still with me," Caine said, and hugged his son to give him at least some kind of comfort.

Surprised, Peter turned to meet his father's eyes "You're not mad?"

"I may not approve of what you did to Kermit, Mary Margaret and TJ, but I am thankful you are here with me now. I do not know what I would do if I had lost you a second time."

"Thank you, father. Your support means more to me than you know."

"Go back to sleep, regain your strength. I will watch over Moura and wake you when it is time, my son."

"Thanks, Pop," Peter smiled, and was asleep as soon as he closed his tired eyes.

~~~

"Kermit, the Captain put you on suspension. Why are you here?" the Chief asked when Kermit tried to pass him.

"Suspension? What are you talking about?" Kermit was genuinely puzzled.

"I'm talking about the terrorists you went after the other day, and your stubborn refusal to tell us the names of those terrorists!" the Chief barked.

"Hummel and Schwartz? Why would I keep their names secret?" Kermit replied, even more puzzled. ‘He had failed to catch them, but why keep their names secret? Why do it at the cost of his job? He had no connections to those guys, he didn't owe them anything. ‘

Strenlich glared suspiciously at Kermit. "And just why are you suddenly so cooperative about this when you were willing to be suspended to keep their identities a secret yesterday?"

Kermit shook his head and sighed. "To be honest; I have no idea."

"Why don't you come with me to see the Captain, and we'll clear all this up before you decide to clam up again."

"Sure, anything," Kermit agreed, knowing the headache would only get worse before this day was over.

~~~

The next thing Peter sensed was his father's gentle touch on his arm. His heart skipped a beat when he realized just what it meant. Moura. "Moura? Is she...?"

Caine shook his head "No Peter, Moura is awake. She is asking for you."

Peter was by her side even before his father had stopped talking. "Moura, my love," he whispered, gently taking her by the hand, smiling down at her pale face on the white pillow.

Even though it seemed to take a huge amount of effort, she smiled back at him "I'm free..."

"Hush, my love. Save your strength."

She must have known her time was short because she didn't stop. "I love you...", her voice became almost too low to hear, "forever."

"Oh, Moura, I love you too."

Her eyes started to flutter, trying desperately to stay open. "Forgive me...," she managed before her eyes finally stopped fluttering and stayed open, this time forever.

She was gone.

"No! Please! Stay!" Peter begged in despair, hugging her limp body close. "Stay..."

She was gone.

"I wanted to live forever with you. Stay!" he sobbed.

She was gone, and he didn't want it to be true.

"Father, help me! What am I going to do?"

She was gone, truly gone.

She was gone, and he was alone.

She was gone, and there was nothing he could do. Ever.

Alone.

~~~

He didn't know why he had returned home, the apartment was so very empty. Moura would never again wrap her arms around his neck and give him a welcome home kiss. She would never again plead for him to stay home and play when he was supposed to go to work. The rooms echoed of a loneliness only equaled by the one in his heart.

He didn't turn on the light when he stepped inside, the darkness still felt like a friend. This time hiding the emptiness instead of the evil vampire demon. He didn't want to see the two glasses left on the living room table or the discarded clothes she'd left on a chair, but it wasn't dark enough for what he already knew were there. They had left in a rush, never expecting to return.

Moving towards the bedroom, he tried to shut out the images of Kermit, Skalany and TJ destroying his world, his life, his happiness. "Damn you!" he swore. "Why did you have to do this to me?"

The lingering warm fragrance of her perfume only made the empty bed feel even colder when he, fully dressed, curled up on the bed. Hugging one of the pillows, he finally gave in to the tears.

~~~

"Detective Griffin, have you come to your senses about the terrorist hunt?" Captain Simms bluntly asked when Kermit and Strenlich entered her office.

Kermit sighed. "I guess I have."

"Have a seat then, tell us all about it!"

Kermit sat down heavily in one of the visitors chairs along the wall. "I think it started a few weeks ago..."

"You *think*?" Simms interrupted.

Thinking hard, Kermit remained silent for a short while. Then looking up, meeting her eyes, he continued. "It's so weird, Captain," the whole thing was like a blur in his mind. "I don't seem to remember any details at all. It's as if it happened ten years ago and I only now have to remember the details."

"But you do know what happened, right? And more important, you do remember *who* it was you were after?"

Kermit nodded. "Sure, we were after Sean Hummel and Lindy Schwartz, the couple responsible for the Salzburger killings last year."

"Good, I will relay that information to the appropriate agencies," the Chief chimed in when he finally had something to contribute to the weird conversation.

"You do that, Strenlich," Simms agreed. "And while you're out there, why don't you call detectives Skalany and Kincaid, and see what they have to say about this?"

Strenlich knew when he had been dismissed. "Sure thing, Captain," he said and left the others alone.

"Are you Okay, Kermit?" Simms wondered when they were alone and she could show how worried she was.

"I'm not sure, Karen. I have a terrible headache, and I can't shake the feeling that I've lost something."

Karen smiled. "I bet I know just what."

"You do?"

"These," Simms said opening a desk drawer and handed over a pair of green sunglasses. "You never leave home without them."

It was with a sense of relief he put them on. "Oh yeah?"

"Oh yeah!"

~~~

Peter's voice was heavy with sadness when he met the eyes of his vampire friend and had to say the words: "She didn't make it, Terry."

"Didn't make it? What are you talking about? I thought we took care of the problem."

Peter looked down and almost whispered. "It was too late. She's gone. Moura's gone."

The vampire reached out and put his hand on the shoulder of the sad human, trying to comfort Peter as well as himself when he realized why Peter was so sad. She had been a good friend. He would miss her deeply. "What happened?" he whispered.

"It was the sun, she was exposed too long," Peter replied with tears in his eyes.

"A delayed reaction," Terry nodded. "I've heard of that before. I'm so sorry, it's a painful way to die."

"Give me a drink, Terry. The strongest you've got."

Reaching for a bottle of Vodka under the bar, Terry couldn't but feel sorry for his now human friend. It would take some time to heal a wound like this. And the fact that it was some of Peter's closest friends that had caused it, probably made it even worse to accept. "Whatever you decide to do, Peter, I will stand by you. Anything I can do to help, you just name it."

"Thank you, Terry. I'll be okay," Peter tried to sound more confident than he actually was. "All I need is some time..." He emptied the glass of Absolut Terry had placed in front of him, and reached for more.

"Anything you need, Peter. Remember that," Terry said and left the bottle with his sad friend.

~~~

"Oh Moura, I thought we had forever..." Peter was beyond sadness now. Looking out over the still water of her final resting place, the place he'd always come for solitude and peace. A place that he knew would be of comfort to him for a long time to come. If not forever, at least for the rest of his lifetime. "...and I promise you, I will love you, forever... I just can't live like this...the pain...I hope you understand..."

~~~

"Terry, make me forget."

 THE END