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elrhiarhodanTitle: The Blood of Helios – Vampire World Chapter XI - There is Always a Choice
Author:
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elrhiarhodan Fandom: White Collar
Rating: R
Characters: Neal Caffrey, Sunlight Agent, Captain Peter Burke, Lt. Diana Berrigan, Lt. Clinton Jones, Master Reese Hughes
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Triggers: None
Word Count: ~ 3300
Summary: Vampire Peter, Shapeshifter El and Neal, who is something more than he ever expected to be. Chapter XI – A history of tragedy and the revelation of the Helios
This story is dedicated to
gyzym who has held my hand and encouraged me when I felt this was all turning to shite. I couldn’t ask for a better friend. Beta’d by the awesome riazendira . All mistakes are mine. Feedback is adored. Prologue | Chapter I | Chapter II | Chapter III | Chapter IV | Chapter V | Chapter VI | Chapter VII | Chapter IX | Chapter X
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Unlike other nights in Reese’s arms, the Master did not feed from Peter and complete the circuit, taking back some of Peter’s own strength and power. Now, the flow of energy went unchecked and Peter struggled to absorb and contain it. He hadn’t felt such an on-rush of his Master’s power since he had been made, four and a half centuries ago.
Relax. Just let it come, don’t fight it. Reese whispered in his head.
His heart beat fast and hard, filling with an unnamable brightness. Peter didn’t know how much more he could take, but this power was beautiful, seductive and different from anything he had tasted before.
This is the power of the Helios, this can be yours. Are you willing to forego it?
Peter’s world shattered.
Peter was confused when he opened his eyes, the coffered ceiling was an unfamiliar sight, and was the hard floor underneath his back was strange. He had a vague memory of Hughes’ moon garden, taking, but not sharing The Gift and the strange bright power that flooded into him.
The Master stood over him, wearing his customary and slightly dyspeptic expression. Seeing it from the ground up was disconcerting. Hughes held out a hand to Peter and helped him to his feet and into a chair, and then sat down himself. They stared at each other for a few moments, both vampires slightly ill at ease.
Hughes broke the silence first. “Do I owe you an apology?”
Peter looked at his hands. They seemed unchanged but yet everything felt different. It was this new power within him, and he wanted to find someplace dark and quiet to explore it, to taste the edges of it. “I don’t know. I don’t know what you did to me. I think you said something about the power of the Helios”
Hughes nodded slowly. “I gave you almost the last of it. My last reserves from Theron.” He closed his eyes in remembered pain.
“Theron?”
“My hunter, my own Helios.” He scrubbed at his face, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “How do you think I’ve known about your Mr. Caffrey?” The sadness was palpable.
Peter was aghast. He hadn’t any idea that his master was once bonded with a Helios. Nearly fifty years ago, he came to Hughes, troubled by dreams of a uniquely beautiful man, simmering with power, dreams – not nightmares – of walking in the sunlight. Reese had looked at him with pride and with pity, and explained that he was moving fast towards a destiny that would bring him more power than he ever could have imagined. He was to be given a Helios – or at least the chance to join with one. Never once in that conversation did Hughes mention that he had had his own, or that they were no longer bonded.
“What happened? Where is he now?” Peter was afraid he knew the answer.
“Theron was murdered in the last war.” Hughes continued to speak, quietly as if he were talking to himself. “No. That’s not quite right. Theron’s murder started the last war.” Hughes propelled himself out of his chair and paced around the room, touching and toying with the objets d’art that decorated the bookshelves.
Hughes looked back at Peter. “I’ve told you something of what the bond with a Helios will bring you. The power is immense – almost immeasurable.”
“I remember.” Peter hadn’t forgotten a word of that discussion, and how it disturbed him. “You never said you experienced it first hand.” There was a hint of recrimination in his voice.
Hughes let Peter’s censure slide over him. “No, I didn’t, and I don’t regret not telling you. I live with his loss with every moment - with every slow beat of my heart. It’s been five hundred eighty seven years, four months, six days, two hours and twenty three minutes since the Ocar masters cut out his heart.” At Peter’s expression, Hughes’ lips tightened. “The unconscious understanding of time is just one of the Helios’ gifts. You’ll find it useful.” He fell silent, losing himself in memory.
Peter didn’t know what to say. He was angry with Reese for keeping this secret, and for forcing the taste of power onto him. Yet his Master’s grief, his anguish cut through him.
Peter’s curiosity won out over his discretion. “Tell me about Theron - what was he like?”
Reese’s smile was heartbreaking. “He was power incarnate - and as innocent as the rising moon. Like your Neal, he knew nothing of what he was, but he always sensed that he was different. He was intellectually brilliant - a master of languages. Had his lived…” The Master’s voice cracked. “Had he lived, I would have brought him to the Fae, so that he may have learned to speak the true language of the beasts.” Hughes gathered the straining threads of his control. “I dreamed of him for nearly three centuries - I thought I was going mad at first - like you.”
Peter nodded in agreement - he had first come to the Master with troubling dreams of sunlight.
“I had no one to guide me - I would tolerate no equals to my power, so there was no ancient to ask. I looted libraries from Alexandria to Byzantium looking for the smallest clue. There were hints, the arcana mentioned a rare creature of power - the Helios child, who was intended as the blood mate for the most powerful vampire in the most powerful Kiss. But the nature of that power was never fully revealed in any of the books or scrolls.”
Hughes resumed his pacing, circling the room like a troubled specter, a living thing made unreal by his secret grief. “I finally prayed to the Goddess and she answered my prayers. Selene spoke to me - she told me of one of the very greatest gifts of the Helios - to restore the power of the sun its mate. She told me other things, but that was all I wanted to hear.” Reese looked at Peter, as if he were trying to will Peter’s understanding.
“I searched for him for another century, until one night, in the middle of feeding, I experienced this moment of imminence. I knew then - that Theron existed in this world and it was just a matter of waiting. What I didn’t realize was that every other Master knew of his birth.”
A sick fear rose inside Peter. Had Neal been in danger all his life? Could he have lost him before ever having a chance?
Hughes recognized the worry in Peter. “Theron was mine - I was the only one who knew were he was. I kept him hidden and unaware of what he was until I was ready to make him my own. Sound familiar?”
Peter swallowed, shutting Neal away had been the right thing to do, except that it had nearly killed them both.
Stopping in front of a small altar to the Goddess, Reese bowed his head and said a short prayer. When he turned back to Peter, Peter could see his friend, his Master was as worn out as he himself felt. “I don’t want to talk anymore about Theron - not now. Maybe not ever - but I will answer some of your questions about Neal. That is the least I can do for keeping this a secret for so long.”
Peter suddenly recalled what Neal had told him about his reaction to other, non-Whryccrid vampires and explained the conundrum to Reese, who actually grinned when Peter described it as an allergy.
“That’s the Helios’ sole mechanism for self-defense. It’s kept him well away from other vampires, who would eventually discover that he was a Helios - even if they didn’t know what a Helios was. His blood would be irresistible.”
“But why doesn’t Neal have that reaction with the other Whryccrid vampires, or my cadre?”
Hughes shook his head at his Captain’s lack of understanding. “Think about it - how much of your blood runs the the veins of your Cadre, and throughout this Kiss?”
“Is Neal in danger from them?” Peter hadn't considered the incident with Cruz to be anything more than her impaired judgment.
“No - just as your blood protects Neal, it also keeps your cadre from desiring him. At most, they’ll feel a deep urge to keep him safe.”
Another, more frightening question occurred to Peter. “What did you mean when you said you gave me the last of Theron’s reserves?”
“The power in the blood of a Helios never fades, it can be hoarded like a dragon’s gold. But once it is gone...”
Peter reached out to Reese, as if to give it back.
“No, don’t worry about me – I am not diminished. After so long, there wasn’t much left – a mere penny, well spent.”
Peter’s eyes widened in wonder. If Reese characterized that terrific rush of power as the smallest of small change, then he was right to be cautious.”
“You are a far wiser vampire that I am – I was, Peter. You know you should fear power. When I was faced with the choice, I rushed headlong into it, I didn’t consider the consequences beyond having Theron by my side forever. To be able to walk in sunlight – I was in love and could be with him at all times. I never thought I could so easily become drunk on that power and forget to protect him.”
“Did you ever think about refusing the power of the Helios?”
Hughes walked to the window stared out onto the balcony. Peter joined him and they watched the clouds chase the moon. “Everything I read extolled the power of the Helios. To be given such a gift and refuse it? That seemed the height of insult – the Goddess offered me a child of the sun and I tell her ‘No’ ? Now I know better. She was testing me – just as she’ll test you – do you have the strength - not just to handle the power, but to protect your own.” Hughes turned back to Peter. “And I failed. I took the power and never thought about the price I’d have to pay.”
“And yet, you want me to accept this power?” Peter was appalled.
“I look at you and see the vampire I should have been. Strong and cautious and honorable above all else. I have watched with such pride as you’ve grown into a leader of unparalleled wisdom. I’ve never engendered that kind of loyalty. Fear, yes – not love, not true loyalty.”
Peter opened his mouth to defend his master, but Hughes held him off.
“Between us, yes – but there is no one else I trust. I know that it’s not my power that has brought this Kiss to the heights it’s reached. This has been your doing, my friend. You have the wisdom to take on the Helios and see it not as a weapon, but as a burden. You will use that power properly You will keep him safe and we will all prosper.”
“It’s not a foregone conclusion that I will take the power Neal has within him.”
Reese didn’t say anything, his lips curling in a mockery of a smile. “From the moment I first drank from you – when you were brought to me in iron shackles, I knew what you were destined for. I could taste the future simmering in your veins. That is why I objected to your marriage. I didn’t want you to be foresworn – but I shouldn’t have doubted you. Elizabeth has only made you stronger, wiser.”
Peter was stunned that Reese saw this fate for him nearly half a millennia ago. He had been a very reluctant officer in Cromwell’s New Model Army, charged with trying to keep Charles Stuart from returning to England. His troops were ambushed in the middle of the night by “demons.” The monsters that came out of the dark - vampires as he soon learned - swarmed over his small, poorly outfitted unit and took everyone prisoner. When Peter had pleaded for his mens’ lives, they took him in chains to their leader, a man who seemed unnaturally old and unnaturally powerful. He gave Peter a choice - his blood for the lives of his men. Peter was afraid, but he didn’t hesitate to bargain. These creatures needed to give his men, little more than forcibly conscripted farm boys, safe passage home. The “old” man kept his word and Peter became enthralled. That first night had been terrifying – the teeth and the blood and the sexual feelings. Yet over the nights and weeks and months that followed, terror became rapture. Despite his fearsome aspect, Peter Burke found that Reese Hughes was a man – a vampire - worth following. When he offered Peter the choice of become a vampire, Peter accepted without any hesitation.
Peter straightened his collar, touching the oak leaf insignia of his captaincy. “I don’t know what to say to that. Have you been keeping any other secrets that I should now know?”
At first, Hughes didn’t answer, then eyes went silver with the power of prophecy. “You will take his gift – not because you seek it, but because it becomes your life.”
Neal made a few quick sketches for the Captain’s anniversary gift, played with some designs for the gold work, but nothing that was particularly inspiring. The events with Peter and Lauren disturbed him, and he kept replaying the scene in his head. What if the Captain hadn’t heeded him - would he have killed him? Neal dismissed that thought. Burke could have moved him out of the way with ease. So why didn’t he? Why did he listen to him?
As he sat in Peter’s office, Neal felt a strange tension build in him. Something was happening, somewhere - something to Peter. He left the room and found Jones and Diana hovering. “What’s going on?”
“You feel it too?” Lieutenant Jones was surprised.
Neal shrugged and lifted his pants leg to flash the anklet. “Maybe because of this?”
Diana nodded in agreement. “It’s the full moon, so Peter’s with Master Hughes.”
Neal’s eyes widened. He hadn’t thought of Peter being with the ancient vampire. “So you feel him … Gifting … with the Master each time?” It made sense to Neal - the Master was so powerful even he could sense it.
“No - never.” Diana answered. “This is weird.”
“Is the Captain in danger?” Neal felt sick - maybe his interference with Lauren had gotten Peter into trouble.
“From Master Hughes - no way. He wouldn’t hurt Peter, they are as close as brothers.” Jones sounded positive, but he paced back and forth, constantly looking at the passageway that lead to the South Tower.
Everything was cloaked in an unnatural silence, and it seemed like his heartbeat was the only sound he’d ever hear again. Neal looked to Diana and Jones, and was surprised that their eyes were white with power. He thought about ducking back into Peter’s office and barricading himself inside, but despite everything, he had no sense of being in danger from the two vampires. So, the three of them stood there, waiting for something, anything to happen.
As quickly as the tension had built, it burst. The power drained from the vampires’ eyes and Neal swallowed deeply, as if he were trying to clear his ears.
Diana pinned him with a look. “Don’t talk about this with anyone, Caffrey. If the Captain wants to discuss it with you, he will. Otherwise, you’d be smart to keep your mouth shut.”
Neal wasn’t too happy with that. “So, I shouldn’t tell Peter that I felt anything?”
Diana rolled her eyes. “Does everything need to be repeated?”
“Just making sure.” Neal wasn’t sure he was going to heed her orders, he didn’t work for her. Neal stood there for another nine seconds and nodded to the two lieutenants before going back into the Captain’s office.
He picked up the sketchbook, but instead of working on the plans for the enamels, he closed his eyes and pulled up an vision of Peter in the Master’s arms, under the full moon, and began to draw. The images flowed from his mind, through his hand and on to the page, as if they were photographs developing. Page after page of Peter, sometimes younger, but not by much, and the Master - unchanged, ancient and ageless. Always together - always under the full moon. He only paused to sharpen the pencil or turn the page. When the last of the visions evaporated, Neal was exhausted, and for the first time that Neal could remember, he had no immediate sense of how much time had elapsed. The sound of the door opening startled him, and he closed the sketchbook.
It was Peter, and Neal smiled at him - as if nothing was wrong. Yet something was - Peter looked different. There was an aura around him - a shimmer of blue and white the limned the edges of his silhouette. Neal hoped he kept the shocked expression off his face. Beyond this aura, the Captain seemed tired and distracted, but when he looked at Neal, there was nothing in his face to indicate any distress.
“Everything okay?” Peter’s tone seemed almost indifferent as he sat down and began looking through some papers.
Neal decided to take Diana’s advice for the moment. “Everything is fine. I’ll start work on the portraits as soon as the studio’s ready.”
“Hmmmm, what? Oh - yes.” Peter wasn’t paying attention to Neal.
“And I’ve decided that both portraits would be better with full-frontal nudity.”
“Sounds good.” Peter suddenly realized what Neal just said and looked up. “Very funny, Caffrey.” A hint of a smile played on the Captain’s lips. “I think it’s time for you to call it a night.”
Neal tucked the sketchbook under his arm and went to stand near Peter. It certainly had been an eventful evening. He had a lot to think about, and he needed to get in touch with Moz - about the tapestry, about Hagen. And a few other things. Moz may be fae, but he has sources of information that Neal couldn’t even begin to imagine, and Neal had the feeling that without having the right information, his life could become very difficult again.
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 02:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 03:01 pm (UTC)Glad you are enjoying the series.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 02:16 am (UTC)Let me rephrase,
WOW.
Give me a minute.
OH WOW.
You built up to this so that while the whole Helios thing is sort of a surprise, it isn't and that's great writing. So we still aren't quite sure what a Helios is and the answers we have leave more questions. Looking forward to the next part with bated breath.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 03:02 pm (UTC)There's much more to Neal than what Hughes has told Peter, and that will come later in the series.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 02:37 am (UTC)I look forward to Mondays because of this story.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 03:06 pm (UTC)I am also glad to know that Peter/Hughes doesn't creep you out.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 03:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 04:07 am (UTC)Very well done!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 03:12 pm (UTC)Mythos
Date: 2010-08-10 05:14 am (UTC)Re: Mythos
Date: 2010-08-10 03:13 pm (UTC)Thank you again for your feedback...it really keeps me going.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 03:25 pm (UTC)I had hoped that someone had a truly classical education and figured out that Helios was the name of the Greek Sun God.
"Brave Helios, prick up your steeds
Bring us the warmth the countryside needs"
(Shameless Moody Blues reference)
no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 07:09 pm (UTC)This story is weaving into a rich tapestry, and I can't wait to see the finished product.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 04:28 pm (UTC)It's not just Fowler that wants the power... (cue the doom-laden music).
New chapter tonight!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-14 03:41 pm (UTC)1-To bond with the Helios themselves -- but am I right that while his blood would be a Nummy Treat to other vamps, only Peter is Neal's destined Bonded and can utilize the power the Helios bestows?
And assuming that I'm correct and only Peter is Neal's Bonded:
2-To keep Peter from gaining the Power that Bonding to the Helios would give him.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 04:29 pm (UTC)New chapter tonight.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-17 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-07 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-09 08:50 pm (UTC)The old man kept his word - even to providing coin , and over the weeks and months that followed, Peter be
Hughes’ eyes went silver with the power of prophecy. “You will take his gift – not because you seek it, but because it becomes your life.”
no subject
Date: 2015-01-09 08:51 pm (UTC)Thank you for reading.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-09 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-09 10:13 pm (UTC)Peter was stunned that Reese saw this fate for him nearly half a millennia ago. He had been a very reluctant officer in Cromwell’s New Model Army, charged with trying to keep Charles Stuart from returning to England. His troops were ambushed in the middle of the night by “demons.” The monsters that came out of the dark - vampires as he soon learned - swarmed over his small, poorly outfitted unit and took everyone prisoner. When Peter had pleaded for his mens’ lives, they took him in chains to their leader, a man who seemed unnaturally old and unnaturally powerful. He gave Peter a choice - his blood for the lives of his men. Peter was afraid, but he didn’t hesitate to bargain. These creatures needed to give his men, little more than forcibly conscripted farm boys, safe passage home. The “old” man kept his word and Peter became enthralled. That first night had been terrifying – the teeth and the blood and the sexual feelings. Yet over the nights and weeks and months that followed, terror became rapture. Despite his fearsome aspect, Peter Burke found that Reese Hughes was a man – a vampire - worth following. When he offered Peter the choice of become a vampire, Peter accepted without any hesitation.
Peter straightened his collar, touching the oak leaf insignia of his captaincy. “I don’t know what to say to that. Have you been keeping any other secrets that I should now know?”
At first, Hughes didn’t answer, then eyes went silver with the power of prophecy. “You will take his gift – not because you seek it, but because it becomes your life.”
no subject
Date: 2015-01-09 10:19 pm (UTC)