Seven Devils

asha's throat had gone dry. It was one thing to toy with Harvey Van Helsing Cruz on the town's network, it was another to prepare to meet him after twenty very long years. So much had happened in the time since they'd parted ways that Sasha didn't know where to begin. Before Kozlov could even consider how he felt about the situation, he first had to sit with the danger that Harvey living in Seven Devils presented. Sasha had a job to do. He'd set up shop, he had a name and an identity that was different than how Harvey remembered him, and it was a name and identity that was important to keep up for his work. This was a variable that Sasha never considered and one that he felt he needed to map out and dissect before he gave Harvey an inch of ground in this new life.

Since they were in their twenties, Sasha had always been this way. Taking stock of their relationship, it was always Harvey that loved more. Van Helsing was so open with his feelings that Sasha could see the pace of Harvey's heartbeat in every word he spoke. The former hunter was like a raw nerve or an unstanched wound; he bleeds his emotions so profoundly that it was a near impossible for Sasha to deny knowing how his lover felt, even being as aloof and distant as he was.

All the time that they were together, Sasha was the opposite. Kozlov put their survival first, their work, Harvey's training, his weaponsmithing -- and Sasha had needed to do that. More than once he'd saved them both with his pragmatism. He loved Harvey as much as it was possible for him to love anyone, but his hierarchy of needs came in a very distinct order. And, as it was, Sasha had no deep sensitivities that needed to be catered more. He was content to be the one who felt less.

It was part of why Harvey's sudden flight to the United States never made sense to him. It was true that they were seeing less of each other by then. Sasha had entered into secret work with the Men of Letters at the Vatican at that time, and Harvey's hunting had always meant he had to travel more. But they'd kept in touch until they didn't, and it was the waning frequency of Harvey's letters that had brought their relationship to a halt.

It was true that Sasha had questions about all of that, but he wasn't sure where to place those inquiries in his hierarchical list of priorities. It was somewhere after convincing Harvey to keep all his secrets and coming up with a back-up plan for when Harvey failed to keep those secrets, he supposed. But as it were, he was running out of time to lay the cornerstones of his contingency plans. The hour that Van Helsing-Cruz had promised to come to the store was drawing nearer by the second and Sasha knew the man too well to expect he'd be late.