Yay a new fic! You can thank (or blame, depending on how you like it) this on lastrequest, who wanted more fluffiness. I promise this one won't be so angsty! ;)

So, enjoy. :)

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"Helen -,"

"Nikola, for the last time," Helen ground out, "No, we are not going home. Not until we've found the abnormal artefact that is in here."

"How do we know it's even in here?" Nikola said, petulantly, walking beside her. Kate and Henry exchanged an annoyed look behind the bickering pair.

They'd been searching for two days now in some tomb in Egypt. None of the 'children' even wanted to hazard a guess as to how their very well connected boss had pulled this one off. Surely someone would notice there were people traipsing through a cordoned off archaeological site, but apparently not. That, or Magnus had pulled strings so that the right people would be conveniently looking the other way. One thing was for sure, the scope of their boss's connections never ceased to amaze.

None of them were quite sure either why the sulking vampire had come along, aside from the obvious fact that he would miss far too many valuable opportunities to hit on their boss. He'd complained about almost everything since they'd arrived, from the heat of the Egyptian sun, to the sandiness of the desert, to the coldness of the tomb. They'd all seen Magnus's hand hover longingly over her gun more than enough times for them to know she was irked by him at the moment too.

Helen herself was loathe to actually shoot Nikola right now, not because she felt guilty about the act in itself, nor was it because of the incredible restraint she'd built up in his brief time as a mortal. No, it was more because she just knew he would use it as an excuse to whine even more once he'd healed. On the up side, his complaints about the temperature did distract him from any innuendo laden comments – for the moment.

Helen stopped abruptly, holding up a hand. None of them had been paying particular attention and so almost walked into the vampire and their boss.

"What is it?" Will said, shining his flash-light up to Magnus's face. She squinted and raised a hand to ward off the sudden flooding of light. "Sorry." He added sheepishly, shining the light in front of them instead.

"Dead end," Kate said, letting out a sigh. They were indeed standing in front of a solid stone wall. Helen's lips curled upwards.

"It's not a dead end," Nikola huffed in annoyance. Helen recognised the excited glimmer in his eyes. His previous complaints were forgotten in the face of an exciting discovery, as it always seemed to work with Nikola. She knew that the promise of whatever powerful abnormal artefact that was held inside the tomb was too exciting for him to ignore, even if he'd been sceptical in the first place. Nikola was a scientist with a thirst for knowledge and a formidable intellectual curiosity first and foremost after all.

"I see a wall," Will said, "I think that's what we usually call a dead end."

"I could have sworn these were the right coordinates," Henry muttered, furiously fiddling with the navigation device in his charge.

"Maybe they built over it?" Kate suggested. "Or our intel could just be bad?"

But when the 'children' looked over to see what Magnus and Tesla had to say, they saw that the pair had walked over to the wall, ignoring the others completely.

"Or the Doc and Vlad know what to do," Henry said, "Of course."

"It could be similar to the key-stone in Afina's tomb," Helen said, fingers brushing over the cool stone as she searched for a release button.

"Theoretically," Nikola agreed, "However that a vampire stronghold. This is human."

"As far as we know," Helen said.

Nikola straightened up, pausing in his search.

"What are you thinking, Helen?" he said.

"The artefact we were told about," Helen said, standing straight again too, "Was a powerful abnormal artefact. Do we really need further evidence to suggest that there is a possibility it is vampiric in origin?"

Nikola grinned. The idea of uncovering ancient vampire knowledge was too exciting and alluring to deny.

"As long as we don't find another stuck up in-bred bitch," he said as he began scouring the walls once more. Helen let out a laugh as she too recommenced her search.

They'd been moving closer together – as they had both started on opposite sides of the wall – until they stood side by side. Barely noticing this, they both spotted an almost invisible crack in the wall. Their minds both registered it seemingly at the same time and they reached out to press it. Helen shuddered at the contact with Nikola's hand, inwardly chastising herself for it. She quickly withdrew her hand. Before Nikola could make any comment about it, the door sprang to life, and a loud grating noise could be heard.

"Seems like no one's been down here for a while," Nikola commented.

The small group stood and watched as the stone wall ground to a halt, revealing a dark entrance-way. Helen pointed her flash-light through the archway shedding light on a small tunnel.

"Oh great," Kate muttered sarcastically, "More tunnels."

"No, I can see light at the end of this one," Helen said. Before any of them could say anything else, Helen had taken off down the tunnel with Nikola hot on her heels.

Just as Magnus had said, the tunnel was a short one, and they soon emerged in a large chamber. Once they'd walked inside the lanterns attached to the smooth stone walls sprung to life and cast an eerie orange glow over the room.

"Creepy," Will murmured, jumping as the room lit up.

Helen was much too preoccupied with the symbolic depictions carved into the walls to pay much attention to her edgy protégé.

"They're reminiscent of the ones in Afina's chamber," Nikola commented from beside her. She hadn't even noticed his approach. Helen simply nodded.

"I think it's safe to assume that this is a former vampire location," Helen said.

"What, like more of him?" Henry said, referring to Tesla. Nikola smirked.

"Please," Nikola bit back, "I have much better pedigree than that righteous stuck up -,"

"Nikola," Helen said in exasperation, "Now is not the time for your qualms about the former queen of the vampires."

"Hey Boss," Kate said. They turned to Kate who was looking at the end of the room where there stood two small columns raised up on a platform. "Do you think it's some sort of vampire voodoo worship altar?"

Nikola shot her a scathing look.

"Is it just me, or are the pillars glowing?" Henry said with more than a little concern in his voice.

"You're right, Henry," Helen said, walking closer, "The pillars do appear to be emitting a soft green light. Perhaps triggered at the same time as the lanterns were?"

"That's not any more comforting, Doc," Henry said. Helen merely smiled softly to the werewolf.

"I'm assuming that is what we came here for," Helen said.

Magnus walked up to the altar with the rest of the group following behind her. She climbed the short flight of stairs to the two pillars.

"Bracelets?" Nikola scoffed.

Indeed laying on each of the pillars was a bracelet. They were identical thin silver bands with a single turquoise gemstone in the centre.

"Ancient vampire bracelets, dude," Henry ramified. "Maybe they give you, like, awesome super-powers or something?" He added excitedly. He really did read too many comic books.

"But they're still bracelets," Nikola said with a look of disgust, "I hate jewellery." He added the last part under his breath, to which Helen just smiled. Oh she knew all about his hatred for jewellery, and would never admit that – for a long period of time – it had been why she had worn minimal jewellery.

"Um, is anyone else seeing this?" Will said.

They stood in front of the pillars which seemed to be steadily glowing brighter and brighter.

"Interesting," Helen said.

"Yeah I'd go with eerie," Will said.

"I agree with Will," Henry said. Kate rolled her eyes at the boys.

Helen reached out to touch one of the metal cuffs.

"Do you think that's a good idea, Helen?" Nikola said, with a worried expression on his face.

"Weren't you the one who was talking about intellectual curiosity overriding caution?" Helen said.

"Yes, well the last time..." Nikola trailed off and it was then Helen realised he was concerned for her. He was afraid that something like what had happened to him in Afina's tomb would happen to her. She was touched by his worry but knew there was only going to be one way to figure out what these cuffs did and that was by getting them back to the Sanctuary for study.

"If there were security measures," she said, "I would have thought they'd have already been enacted by us entering the chamber. The lights were triggered after all as well as the glowing of the pillars. Our presence has already been made."

It didn't do much to sooth Nikola's nerves, but then Helen had that gleam in her eyes that she got when on the verge of an exciting new discovery – and no one, no one, could dissuade her once she got to that stage.

"At least let me try first," Nikola offered.

"We both have Source Blood, Nikola," Helen pointed out.

"Yes but I'm so much harder to kill again," Nikola grinned.

"Oh, we know," Kate said sweetly. Helen smirked.

Nikola sighed dramatically and reached out to touch the bracelet nearest to him. He picked it up. There was a short pause, and nothing happened. There was a collective release of breath from the group when it was apparent nothing was going to blow up or something along those lines. Helen regarded Nikola for a moment before shrugging and reached to pick up the other bracelet.

Immediately the bracelet in Nikola's hand clamped onto his wrist as the other did to Helen's wrist.

"Ah...!" Nikola yelped. "Get if off!" He shook his hand violently.

Helen, who was a lot calmer than the vampire, tried to remove her own cuff but to no avail.

"Well, it seems we've been trapped by vampire jewellery," Helen commented eyeing her wrist.

"Uh, aside from the whole bling-factor," Kate said, "Why?"

Helen and Nikola exchanged a thoughtful look and then Helen shrugged.

"I don't feel any different," she said, "Nikola?"

"Nope," he said, "Except the horrible thoughts of germs crawling up my arm from this hideous thing." He shot the offending item a look and Helen couldn't help but notice how adorable he looked.

"They've likely been here for hundreds – if not thousands – of years untouched, Nikola," Helen said, "Take solace in the fact that any germs have probably died out long ago."

"Oh, how comforting," came his sarcastic reply.

"No need for sarcasm, Nikola," Helen said. Nikola's eyes widened and the others gave her curious looks. "What?"

"Why did you say that?" Will said.

"Say what?" Helen said, confused.

"Tell Tesla there was 'no need for sarcasm'?" Will said.

"I was responding to his remark," Helen said.

"He didn't say anything, Doc," Henry said.

"Yes he did," Helen said.

"No, he didn't, Boss," Kate said. The three of them exchanged worried glances.

Well this certainly is an interesting turn of events...

Helen jumped and her eyes widened. Nikola had said that, well at least she'd heard him say it, but she'd been looking at him and he hadn't spoken. Nikola smirked.

Telepathy? Helen remarked in her mind, to Nikola.

It was an odd sensation as she sent the mental communication to Nikola. It was instinctive almost, like speaking, but inside your mind.

It does seem that way, yes. He said, glancing down at the bracelet with a newfound curiosity and childlike joy. He grinned. This is going to be fun.

Helen could only groan.

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Let the fun begin... :)