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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
Completed:
2010-01-26
Words:
39,360
Chapters:
17/17
Comments:
10
Kudos:
38
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3
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10,382

Reason To Live

Summary:

The trio is divided when another vampire sneaks into town and captures one of them just when our Prince was discovering a passion long denied. What does the ancient one want? And is there more to him than meets the eye? Not too long and a tragic story of love, lust and betrayal enfolds and our friends are cought in the middle.

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Notes:

Author: BELOVEDbyWAR
Rating: R/Slash
Warnings: Depression, insobriety/alcohol poisoning, sexual relations between two men, humor
Spoilers: Not really, but references to scenes from: Heart of fire, Wild blood, 5:55; the series in general
Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money.
Summery: After Mike gets suspended he is hopeless and seeks refuge in the bottle. Will the others be able to provide him with a new reason to live?
AN: Up to 1x20 (2x08), after that my own story-line, only similarity is the suspension.

Beta: The wonderful luvinmike
Wk: 3820

Chapter Text

“Detective Celluci, you are suspended until further notice. Please hand over your badge and gun!” 

This sentence still rang in Mike’s ears. How had it gotten this far? Why had he let it come this far? He should have known better, should have expected that all this supernatural stuff would cost him. Worst of all was the fact that he could not even blame his superiors. No, they were in the right, for he did not do what he was paid to do and had even stooped so low as to manipulate evidence. Dear Lord, what had happened to him?! 

Sitting alone in his living room, looking out at the garden, he staring unseeingly, not realizing that the sun had already set and risen again several times. He had become a dirty cop! He, who believed in the law, who tried to bring justice to the victims! How could this have happened to HIM?! Mike just could not put this aside. For the first time in his adult life he felt ashamed of himself.  He was so ashamed that he could not cope and that led him to drown his sorrows in one bottle of whiskey after the other. Consciously, he knew he had to stop, had known it after the third glass, but this nice fuzzy feeling overshadowed the pain and let him forget for a moment what a disgrace he was. 

From somewhere just outside his stupor he heard noise, but nothing could draw him out of his little private haven. Here was where he belonged and felt connected to the world.  Yes, the world--- he could feel her warmth, pulse, and movement. A calm settled in him and his last conscious thoughts wondered when it had become so dark.

*** 

Vicki was concerned. It has been days, ten to be exact, since she had last heard from Mike. Normally, she would not have thought anything of it, especially since the last time they met they had had a big fight, but an unexpected visit this morning had changed everything. 

She was just going over the evidence in her last ‘normal’ case (were it not for the seemingly incapability of most of the male species to be faithful, many a P.I. would go bankrupt) when she was rudely disturbed by a livid Kate Lam throwing open her door. So taken by surprise, Vicki just stared dumbstruck at the other woman whose narrowed eyes spit fire at her. 

“I hope you are satisfied now! I warned you that it would come to this! Heck, I told HIM, but did anyone listen to me? NO! It is all YOUR fault! Why could you not have left him alone? Was it not enough to nearly break his heart? Did you have to ruin his career too? Were you so jealous that he was still a cop when you could not be that you also had to destroy that part of his life too?!-“ 

“Wait a second! What the hell are you going on about- and how DARE you talk to me like that!” 

“How dare I?! Mike got suspended for withholding evidence in of one of the cases you so coincidentally shared with us! The Mike I know would never, under any circumstances, do that! He is one of the best cops I know – Oh, my bad – WAS! I hope you are damn proud of yourself!” 

This said, she turned on her heel and went as she came, throwing the door closed so hard it almost became unhinged. Moments later a hesitant knock announced Coreen’s arrival before she curiously entered the room. 

“What was that all about?!” 

Absentmindedly Vicki bit her lip. Could it really be true?
“It seems that Mike got suspended.” 

Coreen looked shocked ”Really!” A heartfelt “SHIT!” followed. 

“You said it, sister!” Vicki whispered. This could not be! Mike could not take the fall for her! Why had he not called?
She must have spoken the last part aloud for Coreen answered, sadly shaking her head. 
“Shame.” 

This got Vicki to focus on the gothette. 

“What?!” 

“Shame.” She answered as if it was clear as crystal. “Mike, as far as I know him, is one of the few people who actually believes in what he does. Being a cop is not just a job to him, it is what he is. Having been told to go must be like a slap in the face, like a critique on his very being. If I was in his place I would be crying my heart out.” 

“Yes, I suppose… but still- mmh…” 

 

For the rest of the day, Vicki collected information on exactly what had taken place. When a silent shadow entered her office shortly after sunset, she still sat there pondering. It had been nine days since the suspension, NINE days! And nobody had heard from Mike since then. Dave had tried to call him and even been to Mike’s place, but had gotten no answer. Had Mike left Toronto? Vicki did not know why but her gut said no. A pale hand waving in front of her eyes ended her musings. 

“What is the matter?” Henry inquired. 

“I – mmh – we’re going somewhere.” She said standing up, having made her decision. She had to see for herself that Mike was not at home, and if he was she would… She did not know what she would do, but first things first! 

“Where to?” asked the vampire curiously. 

“To see our favorite ex-cop.” 

“Hnn?” Henry asked perplexed, all eloquence forgotten. 

“Looong story! I tell you while you drive.”

***

When they arrived at Mike’s place, it was dark. With a foreboding feeling Vicki opened the entrance door. The air that hit them was stale, but had an underlying odor to it. 

“Someone is here.” Henry whispered. ”I hear a heart beat.” 

Slowly they walked from room to room until they eventually reached the living room. It reeked of whisky and unwashed male and there on the floor lay Michael Celluci, out cold, surrounded by empty whisky bottles. He looked pale and thin, almost frail, if you could say that about a man of his size. Both Vicki and Henry crouched down on either side of the motionless body. 

“Lord, Mike, what have you done to yourself?” Vicki whispered, eyes tearing up. She carefully shook his shoulder but he did not move. When a more forceful shove did not wake him either, she looked hesitantly into a pair of stormy grey eyes. 

“He is alive.” Henry confirmed her questioning glance and stood to fetch a glass of water, which he nonchalantly emptied in the detective’s face. A faint moan was heard and Vicki again tried to rouse her friend and ex-lover. This time she was more successful and soon Mike’s eyelids moved to reveal the tiniest slither of blue. Instead of focusing on Vicki, however, they located Henry. As if using up all the strength left in him, Mike opened his eyes a little more, locked gazes with the vampire, and uttered an eerily calm and raspy “Kill me.” The frightening thing about it was that both his companions realized how dead serious Mike was and Vicki could not hold back a sob anymore. 

“No, Mike,” she said, “not because of something like this! It’s just a suspension! Crowley will have you back in no time. It is just a disciplinary measure. You did not get fired!-“ 

“Vicki, don’t!” Henry cut her rant off. He understood how Mike felt. He had been surprised when he had first seen those glimpses of integrity in the blond after he had gotten to know the other man a little bit better. Mike had, as Henry had to grudgingly admit, many redeeming qualities. He was honest – sometimes to a fault-, brave, patient, loving, passionate and above all honorable. And this honor, this self-respect, this base of his very being had been, to a degree by his own doing, taken away from him. How could he represent the law when he himself did not abide by its rules? But in one point Vicki was right: This was no reason to end one’s life! 

Eyes turning black, Henry spoke. ”You will sleep now. After you awaken you will regain your will to live and serve justice. You will not despair or try to end your life! You will find a reason to live! Now sleep!” 

Right on cue, Mike’s eyes closed and his head fell to the side in a deep sleep. Carefully, Henry put one arm behind the sleeping man’s back and the other under his legs to lift him from the cold floor and carry the human to his bedroom. After having convinced Vicki to call and ask Mohadevan for a quick home visit, (for he knew Celluci would not want this in any hospital file), he started undressing the slumbering man. Mike indeed had lost weight, but this just emphasized his long muscular frame. Henry could only imagine how very handsome Mike must have been in his youth, for what he saw now was mouthwatering.  Nice, well trained arms led to broad shoulders that narrowed into a perfect V- shape to a narrow waist. Well-defined pectorals shaped his chest and, despite his age, he had not the hint of a potbelly, but instead a firm, flat stomach with the remainders of a six-pack still clearly visible. Supermodels would be envious of those impossibly long and sculptured legs. Were it not for the man’s worldview, Henry could easily picture Mike on the catwalk.  However, the vampire was sure Mike considered the profession of modeling not as real man’s work, seeing how he teased the vampire about his graphic novels. But even his hands and feet were elegant! 

A sudden vision of Mike in the throws of passion, coupled with Henry’s memory of the taste and feeling of this man in his arms while feeding, let him to quickly cover that glorious body with the blanket just before Vicki’s return. Thankful for the distraction from his latest train of thoughts, he listened to her recount the phone call with the forensic doctor. 

Fifteen minutes later the other woman arrived carrying a backpack that contained her instruments. She diagnosed Mike with slight alcohol poisoning, but said that his body had already done most of the recovery, so she opted for an infusion to counteract the dehydration. Assuring Vicki that Mike would be fine, she left half an hour later with a last commiserative look at the bed’s occupant. 

Both Vicki and Henry stayed by Mike’s bedside for the remainder of the night. Shortly before sunrise, Henry had to leave, but not before he had reminded Vicki of her own need for sleep and convinced her that the king-sized bed was big enough for her to sleep in it too without disturbing the patient’s rest. 

His own last thoughts, before succumbing to his own sleep at home, were still about the blond, who had somehow, despite their rivalry, wormed himself into the vampire’s heart.

*** 

After the sun had set the following day, Henry fell in a drawing frenzy. He did not know what came over him but he simply had to draw. In his latest series he had previously planed to let the friend of his heroine be torn apart by hellhounds (with very big teeth), but now he had another idea. What if said friend, wounded and near death after the hounds’ attack, would be, due to the heroine’s pleading with her vampire-partner, be turned? 

Henry was inundated with the onslaught of pictures he saw in front of his inner eye: Vicki calling unbelievingly out to Mike as he falls wounded to the floor, a gathering pool of blood filling the air with its odor – Henry could almost smell it – her, crouching by the tall man’s side, eyes filling with tears as her hands come away bloody, outright crying as she sees the light leave those very blue eyes, pleading and begging that he could not die like this, not when she could do something about it. Himself nodding in agreement, taking the taller man into his arms, sinking his teeth into that beautiful corded neck, drinking all that delicious red ambrosia until nothing is left, all the while feeling the body fight in a last, desperate rebellion to survive, before succumbing to the vampire bite’s and breathing for the very last time as a mortal man. Formerly lifeless lips sucking his wrist, a tongue probing the wound for more, as his blood was taken in greedily, as cornflower- blue eyes capture his, the blue eyes slowly turning completely black and blunt teeth elongate to sharp deadly fangs— 

RING, RING

Henry looked up disoriented and still panting from what those pictures had provoked in him. Realizing that the shrill sound was his phone ringing, he looked at the caller ID and answered it up after seeing that it was Vicki. 

“Vicki?”
 
“Look, Henry, I really hate to ask, especially after all you already did yesterday, but I have to meet my client in an hour and Mike has yet to wake up and he would be furious if I let Coreen see him this way. You already have so he could not get angry at me for leaving him alone with you. So, would you be willing to come by, just to make sure he is all right in case he wakes up while I’m away? I promise to hurry back-“ 

“Vicki! It is all right! I have no prior engagements. I’ll just grab something to eat and be on my way.” 

“Grab, yea, literally!” she smirked in the phone. 

“Vicki!” he replied. 

“Yea, well, see ya then.” And she hung up. 

Head shaking Henry turned his attention to his last creative illustrations and had to swallow. There in the last picture he beheld a sight he was sure never to see, but had to admit was the embodiment of lust on earth. Would Michael Celluci really make this a striking a figure were he to be turned? Lord, how he yearned for another swallow of the detective’s blood! Wait! No, no, this was not good! He could not go there in less than an hour with thoughts like that! God forbid Vicki got wind of his sudden fascination with her ex! And where the hell did those thoughts come from anyway?! He could not stand the very sight of the other male, let alone want to be connected to him for eternity! What had possessed him?! 

Thinking this, Henry went out to hunt and it was no coincidence that his donor was a decidedly well-endowed, petite, brown-eyed, Afro-American female. That her blood seemed mellow and tasteless in contrast to the memory of the blond Italian’s was just his imagination. 

Sated for the moment, but still in a bit of a huff, he arrived shortly before Vicki had to leave Mike’s home. She was waiting and was happy to see him. They had a short talk and laugh over how Coreen had pouted at hearing that they had practically spent the night together in Mike’s bed when she was not even allowed in the house. Coreen, being who she was, despite Mike’s condition, had dreamed up a hot ménage-a-trios with two gorgeous males; one a vampire prince, the other a GQ-model lookalike. She ignored the fact that the detective would sooner run screaming in the other direction than even lie in the same bed with another male (family excepted; he was Italian after all!). Vicki gave him a quick, thankful kiss on the cheek and went to her appointment. 

For the next hour everything was quiet in the house. At around nine Mike started to show signs of waking. His body moved from side to side as his breathing changed and with it went the tranquility of the earlier hour. Facing the inescapable, Henry went into the detective’s bedroom. Having tossed quite a bit as it seemed, Henry was greeted by the sight of a delectable, golden tanned back and even caught glimpses of the rise of what promised to be a nicely shaped derrière. Taking a deep breath the vampire turned around. The last thing he needed was being caught eyeing a waking, almost naked, supposedly homophobic Celluci. 

When he heard a low moan, he turned his attention back to the bed’s occupant. Mike was slowly turning on his back, one hand already clutching his head. In anticipation of something like this, Henry had already readied the aspirin and a glass of water. Retrieving these, the vampire drew closer to the waking blond, holding the objects within easy reach. Nodding his thanks, Mike took the offerings. After the glass was empty, Henry took it back into the kitchen. He returned to an empty bed and the sounds of the shower running. The vampire was not sure if that had been a smart move, imagining Mike still very weak, but grateful anyway, for Mike had started to smell a bit and the vampire’s delicate sense of smell could tolerate only so much. The shower stopped abruptly and when Mike came back, clad only in a white terry cloth towel, Henry could guess why. The human’s face was as white as the cloth and he stumbled unsteadily to the bed as fast as he could. Once he had reached the bed, he lay back, breathing heavily. Even like this Henry had to admit Mike was an allure to the eye; body glittering with moisture, chest heaving, which resulted in muscles contracting and relaxing, head leaned back to breath easier and thereby exposing that nice, long neck… 

He must have made a sound, for mentioned head was suddenly turned in his direction and with it those impossibly blue eyes, eyes that had only yesterday pleaded to be put out of their misery. But today those eyes looked speculating, - could it be – almost daring. That neck, exposed even further due to the turned head, called to him, taunted him.  As those eyes never left his, Henry wondered what Mike was thinking. The answer to that question was unexpected.
“Hungry, are you?” Mike said with a still raspy voice. Hiding his surprise behind an almost scandalized expression, Henry focused back on the man’s face. 

“My apologies but to what are you referring?” 

Clearly seeing through the fake façade, Mike almost flirtatiously batted his eyes and turned on his side facing Henry.  By laying his head on his folded arm, he exposed his neck and those pulsing veins even more to the vampire’s gaze. Fitzroy was mesmerized by the sight. A triumphant “Ha” made Henry realize his faux pas. 

“You should never tease a vampire like that, Detective. He might take your advances seriously!” Intending to scare the human, the vampire tried to “vamp out”, as Coreen put it, only to realize that he already had, and had been the whole time.  To his mortification, the human had shown no fear at all! So that was why he had asked. 

Clearly having read him like a book, Mike grinned. “Yeah, I thought you might not have realized your, ahem, state.” 

Henry shook his head unbelievingly. He should be angry or at least upset by Mike’s clear enjoyment of the vampire’s lapse in control, but surprisingly, he was not. He even liked this playful side of the older-looking man. 

Deciding to have at least a small revenge, he moved too quickly for Mike to see and lay down behind the mortal, letting his hand wander down Mike’s stomach in the direction of the towel.  Speaking into the man’s still exposed neck and deliberately grazing it with his fangs, he murmured,  “Who said it was that kind of hunger, Detective?” 

Mike took in an unsteady breath.  Henry heard his heart beating faster and saw him blush becomingly. Curious. Was Mike maybe more sexually open-minded than Vicki gave him credit for? Very carefully he turned Mike’s head in his direction, which resulted in Mike lying fully on his back, having to looking up to the undead prince. 

Deciding to go the whole hog, Henry lowered his head so that their lips were almost brushing as he spoke again. “Are you prepared to take what you dish out, Michael?” 

It should only have been a little payback, but as if drawn together, both men closed the distance simultaneously and started to kiss. They attacked each other like two beasts in heat, groaning and moaning, ripping clothes out of their way until nothing was left between them. While rutting urgently against each other, Henry suddenly felt a long fingered hand leading his head to an invitingly exposed throat. Disbelievingly he stopped all movements until dilated blue eyes looked at him. 

“Are you sure? You know you don’t have to…“ Two fingers touched his lips, effectively silencing him. 

“Yeah, I know, but lord, do I want you to!” Seeing this was the truth, Henry kissed Mike so passionately that both were breathless once they parted and when Mike exposed his throat this time, Henry did not have to be asked again.  He descended upon the human’s neck like a man possessed, kissing and sucking it and in doing so, driving Mike mad with need. The blond sighed and uttered the vampire’s name urgently until he finally felt the sharp fangs penetrate his now hypersensitive skin. The resulting low scream was almost orgasmic and Henry felt himself being desperately clutched to the other man’s body as Mike’s breathing became continuously erratic. Jesus, but Mike was responsive! And this fact made Mike’s blood taste even sweeter than Henry had remembered. Sensing Mike close to orgasm, he took one last powerful swallow, which indeed pushed the blond over the edge. Uttering a soundless scream, his whole body contracted and arched up off the bed. Henry felt the evidence of the mortal’s completion spill between their bellies. This, combined with the additional pheromones released into Mike’s body, triggered his own seemingly endless release. When he finally calmed down enough to register his surroundings, he was greeted by a sexy smile and a pair of blue eyes that seemed almost black in the light. Henry had to rub his eyes because this was almost exactly how he had painted Mike earlier that evening (minus fangs). 

Seeing that amazed look, Mike laughed. Lowering himself back down so that his head was resting atop the vampire’s shoulder, he whispered roughly against Henry’s throat,
“I believe I found my new reason to live.” 

Perplexed until he recalled exactly what he had ordered the human to do, he turned his head, seeking out Mike’s gaze. 

“You remember? But-“ 

The moment was interrupted by the sound of a door slamming shut and footsteps nearing the room entrance as last a warning before Vicki came hurrying in.  Stopping mid sentence as she found Mike lying snuggled atop the vampire, she asked, 

“Henry, is Mike finally –“ 

“Up”