New
Arrivals
Author-Amanda
Titles
Blood Wite
Part Two
by Amanda
See notes and disclaimer on part one.
"And so, the marriage remains unconsummated for the first month until the celebrations are complete."
Corineus watched his young scholar give an excellent lecture to second year students. It had been an hour and he was impressed with Blair's ability to deliver such a comprehensive account of...whatever people he happened to be talking about. Corineus hadn't paid much attention to the topic but had been busy watching Blair's talent when it came to gaining, and keeping, every student's interest.
The young man had a wealth of knowledge for his few years and Corineus wondered at how much the graduate student would be able to impart if he had only been born a few hundred years ago and one of them. Corineus forced that thought from his mind. Blair was Blair because he was mortal. Mortal with all its shortcomings and vulnerability.
Blair wrapped up the lecture with the announcement that another lecturer would be replacing him for the next week or two. Corineus had suggested it, deeming it safer if he stayed away from the university until they rid themselves of their threat. Blair had argued that there would be safety in numbers amongst the student population as long as Corineus stayed near, but the vampire had asked how he would feel if his continued presence on campus lured a known life-taker to the students.
Blair had conceded, seeing the logic of the argument. Upon return to his office the call from Jim came through saying that Selket had been to the station looking for him. She now had a name and he wanted Blair to return to him. He and Corineus left immediately and headed straight for the precinct.
The drive to the Cascade PD was suffered in silence, neither wanting to talk. As Blair steered his Corvair down the department's underground driveway, Simon having given him leave to park under the building for the time being, he noticed Corineus was fidgeting.
"What is it?"
Corineus didn't answer him. Not a good sign. The older man looked about them in apprehension. It was only 6.30 at night and there were still a number of cops about in the garage. But Blair's car had the roof down and he didn't like the vulnerability it presented.
She was nearby and he could feel her presence like cold water down his spine. "Park as quickly as you can and get to the elevator."
Blair looked about frantically, his heartbeat increasing with Corineus' tone. "Why? Is she here?"
"Yes," was all he said.
The barred security gate, as always, automatically slid shut behind them, increasing Corineus' agitation. A couple of cops that knew Blair waved to him as he parked his car with a screech of rubber.
"Hey, easy Blair, leave some of the floor behind for us," one of the cops called good-naturedly.
Blair remained in his seat until Corineus vaulted from the car, not bothering to open a door.
"Get to the lift. Now!" the tall man hissed.
Blair left his car the same way and ran to the two cops that had greeted him. "You've gotta help us. There's some nut down here and she's after us."
Officer Parker looked at the young man sceptically but his partner, Dawson, took him seriously. The young man wasn't known for his lying and the older officer drew his gun in readiness. The three of them watched as Corineus took a few cautious steps away from the car.
"Get him upstairs to Ellison!" Corineus ordered.
At the elevator doors a young woman stepped out of the shadows, effectively stopping their escape in that direction at least. She was also too close to the stairwell.
"This her?" Dawson asked.
At his words she turned her gaze on him and he halted. She exuded something he couldn't quite put his finger on but it terrified him. She had a deadly beauty and her eyes were as chips of ice. She then moved her malevolent stare to Blair and the young man thought his heart had stopped.
"You were the one to kill my child."
"Your quarrel is with me," Corineus growled and he frowned as her laughter answered him.
"My quarrel is with you all. You'll all pay the blood-wite for Sagremor."
Blair paled. He knew that term. It meant revenge payment for spilling of someone's blood. He saw Dawson take aim beside him and daringly placed a hand on his arm.
"Don't shoot her, you'll only make her angrier."
The officer looked at him in amazement, not quite believing what he had just heard. As Corineus and their hunter squared off against each other Blair could only think of the fight with Sagremor all those months ago and how Jim and the two vampires had failed to defeat him. He thought back to them telling him that this, being a female was much, much stronger. The woman's face was one of maniacal determination and he was frozen in place under her basilisk stare.
She would have her blood-wite today.
************************
Ellison’s head jerked up as the officer ran into the bull-pen calling that there was trouble in the parking garage. The detective had a strong sense of deja-vu and knew that Blair was involved once again. Michael was instantly at his side and, as one, they left at a run.
Gaining the corridor, Ellison shouted at the man causing him to halt. The vampire frowned in confusion, surely they had to go downstairs immediately, but he ran after Ellison as the tall man disappeared into another office nearby. The room was filled with computers and radio equipment and monitors. Ellison leant, large hands pressed to the desk, and watched one such monitor.
The drama in the parking garage unfolded before them in black and white pixels. Michael hissed as he spotted his friend fending off what could only be Selket. Blair was nowhere to be seen and Ellison instantly concluded he was out of view somewhere watching the struggle. One of the officers was in frame, however, and was trying to gain good aim and get a shot off.
Ellison spun to gather Michael but found the man already gone. He heard his name screamed and shot from the room like a bullet to join Michael in his berserker run down the stairwell. At that moment Banks ran into the room and saw, for himself, the deadly fight taking place under his building.
**********
Selket caressed the bloodied face she held in her pale hands. Corineus was spent and close to the end of his life. It had taken all of two minutes but felt like and eternity to those involved and to those watching helplessly. Officer Dawson had eventually shot her anyway, his partner joining in as she seemed to only shrug it off and, true to Blair’s words, only become more furious. Both officers then tried to apprehend her physically but soon found themselves near senseless on the cold cement floor.
She looked deep into his bloodshot eyes and saw the man’s remaining strength denying his own final rest. She brushed his hair back from his face and pressed her lips gently to his own.
“And thus, an old light is snuffed out...” she whispered, her lips briefly touching his ear.
Corineus shut his eyes, the pain of his broken legs becoming too much as she held him almost standing. He opened his eyes reluctantly when he heard a sound near them. A pained voice pleading for his life to be spared. Blair.
“Please, don’t do this. Don’t hurt him anymore.”
Selket drew her gaze from the dying vampire to the young man standing so tantalisingly close, within her reach. She smiled at him and his breath caught again. Blood marred her pale features, a face that could have been beautiful if it wasn’t so cruel and delighting in another’s pain.
Blair could only watch dumbly as her long fingers left Corineus’ damaged face and reach slowly for his own. He stood, stock still, as she drew her bloodied nails down his cheek to his throat, her concentration not wavering even as two more foes burst from the stairwell into the surrounding carnage.
Michael released a choked cry as she allowed Corineus to drop to the ground. His friend of centuries collapsed bonelessly to the floor and his assailant was as fresh as when she started. She left her fingers stroking Blair’s cheek as Michael shouted incoherently and stalked nearer her.
The male halted but a few feet from her and held out his hands in supplication, offering himself. His face, however, betrayed that he had no intention of submitting to her.
“Leave them and try me,” he challenged.
Selket’s blood was no longer heated and she regarded the handsome vampire coolly. She would kill him too and then the two mortals would follow. The killer of her child and his protectors.
“And me,” boomed a voice behind the enchanting male vampire. Ellison stepped out from behind Michael and tensed in readiness to do battle, all the while fighting his worry at the long fingers still too close to his roommate’s face.
Selket’s expression surprised them. Her smile slowly dropped as she looked at the detective and a frown soon replaced it. Realisation seemed to hit her and she lowered her hand from Blair’s shivering face, allowing it to fall at her side.
She seemed frightened, not of them but of something else intangible to those watching. “Sentinel,” she breathed.
Ellison stopped his advance, as did Michael. Selket backed away, almost tripping over the still form she had beaten near to death. Blair fell back towards the two men and the protection they afforded him and swallowed as his eyes met hers again.
Confusion. She was confused. The fight was over, for the time being. All blood lust had gone and she wanted only to leave and rally her thoughts. She again looked at Ellison and memorised the strong features that watched her with hatred. There was a time when those features would have smiled at her and loved her.
Although she could have beaten them all easily she chose to turn and run. The automatic metal gate proved no barrier as her strong hands tore its locks from the wall and rolled it aside. She was gone.
Michael couldn’t believe their luck and had been certain his 600 years was at an end. Dropping to his knees beside his fallen comrade he inspected the damage, his breath hitching in sympathetic pain as he catalogued Corineus’ injuries.
Ellison walked to the two officers, downed within moments of the fight beginning. They were unharmed, save for a few bruises. Luckily, for them, they had not been her objective. Banks happened, at that moment, to enter the garage with officers in tow and he joined Ellison in his perusal of the downed officers.
“Corineus?” he asked, having seen Michael cradling the badly beaten man.
Ellison looked over to them, Blair standing above the two vampires seemingly impotent to help, not knowing what he could do.
“He’s lives. Just. Simon, take these two upstairs. We’ll join you soon. Can you send down one of the sickbay stretchers?”
Banks nodded, waving over the officers he had brought with him to help the dazed men back into the building. Ellison walked to Blair and placed a comforting hand on the young man’s shoulder, not surprised when Blair flinched in surprise.
“Michael,” he whispered softly, “what can we do?”
The tear streaked face looked up at him as his fingers tried to sooth the groaning vampire he held closely. “So many injuries....I don’t know where to start. Every breath is causing him immense pain. What do I do, Ellison?”
“We’ll take him home”
“Thank you. He will heal, but the pain he is in....I can’t stand it....” Michael lowered his head, ashamed of the tears that he couldn’t seem to stop.
Blair’s heart felt like it was breaking for him. He knelt beside the vampire, trying to handle seeing the shattered face of the one who tried to protect him. Presently the stretcher came and Jim directed them to his truck, opening it so they could push the injured man inside. The two officers who had brought it protested at this strange treatment of a man who obviously needed medical help but Ellison muttered something about religious reasons and observing his rights and they seemed to accept it, albeit unhappily.
**********
Blair watched from the kitchen table as Jim straightened the broken legs while Michael held the writhing vampire down. He turned his face away and covered his ears at the muffled cries coming from the barely conscious Corineus. The vampire was in incredible pain but unconsciousness and its dark mercy eluded him.
Presently the legs were straightened and Corineus lapsed into silence, his grunting subsiding at last. Blair couldn’t move from where he was sitting, feeling, somehow, responsible for his friend getting hurt. He watched, eyes haunted, as Jim stood and stretched. He was grateful that his roommate had medic experience and the courage to set aside the pained cries and get down to work. Michael, too, was grateful. Such was his companion’s pain he would have been unable to hurt him further while setting his legs.
Within an hour Simon had joined them, the tall captain casting worried looks in Corineus’ direction. The vampire remained curled up on the lounge facing away from them. Jim explained again what their guests were and Simon, despite wanting to instinctively dismiss the idea, eventually accepted it. They sat awhile in silence until Blair suggested he make coffee for them all, his manners being partly the reason and the rest of it being made up from wanting something to do.
It was around midnight that the young man plucked up the courage and approached his saviour. Corineus could feel his presence and turned over slowly to better see him. Blair managed to hold his shock in check as the battered face came into view.
“It’s all right, little scholar, it looks worse than it is.”
“You nearly died.”
“But I didn’t.”
“You nearly died protecting me....”
“She would have killed you.”
“It’s my fault.”
Corineus laid a hand on his arm. “We brought the danger here. We allowed it to follow us to you. We are at fault, not you.”
Blair’s eyes betrayed his doubt. Corineus pushed back the blanket that covered his shattered legs. The bruises and cuts were fading but the muscular limbs were not easy for Blair to look at.
“See? I heal. I will be as I was by morning.”
“You were in such pain, I couldn’t stand it....”
Their conversation was interrupted by Simon announcing he was going home. The police captain said his goodbyes, with a promise to return in the morning, and Jim walked him to the door. The next day was Saturday and they could better discuss their next move. Jim assured him they would be fine. Michael was unharmed and they had learned that Selket was, for some reason, afraid of the Sentinel.
Corineus stretched out, the pain was still making itself known but this time it was the pain that accompanied the bones knitting together and the skin closing over tortured muscle. He saw Blair watching, as if afraid the vampire would cry out again.
The tall man pat his worried friend on the shoulder. “I can best remember my mother when I was very, very young. My father had died leaving her a young widow and our life was hard for a time. Then a passing merchant met and fell in love with her. They married and I was raised as his own son. Before that my mother used to make her own candles, we didn’t have much money to spend on luxuries like that. When she married again and our lives became easier, she continued to make them instead of buying them.”
Corineus smiled at the memory. His mother and stepfather had died before his meeting with Michael but his memories of them, despite being over 300 years old, were still clear as crystal.
“I asked her why she bothered, when we could buy all the candles we wanted, and she said to never take for granted what you had that day because the next day it could all be gone.” He looked at Blair, the worry in the young face still not gone. “I live that way even now. I am immortal but it can be just as fleeting as your mortal life. We are not made of stone. We are in constant danger from our own kind, from accidents that you would survive but could kill us.”
This was not what Blair wanted to hear. He liked the idea of Corineus and Michael being impervious and, if his friend had hoped to allay his fears, he had achieved the opposite. The last thing he needed, with a threat like Selket so near, was to hear that what stood between him and her was as brittle as he.
Corineus could see the nervousness emanating from the young man like a wave of heat and frowned. His words had done more damage than help. He had wanted to absolve him of blame and, instead, seemed to have made things worse.
Jim crossed to the television and switched it on, despite the late hour. He hoped for an old movie and got his wish. ‘How Green Was My Valley’ had just started and he settled himself into a lounge chair. Blair watched him from where he sat, studying the strong face in profile. Michael asked if he could take a shower and Jim waved his consent from where he sat. Blair didn’t move from Corineus’ side, the vampire having nodded off into a light sleep. The young man listened to Michael’s shower, wanting the vampire to finish and return to them, anything to end the silence.
The phone broke it instead. Blair crossed to it quickly, wanting to end its clamouring in the night’s quiet. “Yes?”
“I have your captain.”
Jim’s head shot up and met Blair’s horrified eyes. The Sentinel jumped up and ran to where Blair held the phone away from his ear as if it were poisoned. Grabbing it from him he shouted into the receiver.
“What have you done to him?”
The female voice paused a moment. “Nothing. Yet. I wish to talk with you, Sentinel. Alone.”
“Where are you?” Jim growled.
“At your captain’s home. I will not harm him if you come now.”
“I don’t believe you. Put him on!”
A few moments passed and his captain’s voice came to him. “Jim....she was here when I got home. Don’t come....”
Jim heard his friend and captain pushed to one side and land solidly on the floor.
“Do you believe me?”
Jim rubbed his eyes in frustration. “Yes.”
“Come alone.” The connection was severed.
The detective managed to keep his anger under control and not slam the phone down. He turned to Blair, waiting for the argument to begin. He wasn’t disappointed.
“You’re not seriously considering going there?”
“I have to. You heard her, she won’t harm him if I come.”
“No, no, Jim. Divide and conquer. Classic tactic.”
Jim’s control snapped. “What do you suggest I do! Let him die? Use your brain, Blair. It’s not like I have much option here!”
Moments after his outburst left his lips he regretted it. Blair wasn’t offended but looked up at him in disbelief. Disbelief that his Sentinel couldn’t think of a better way.
“Take Michael with you.”
“No.”
“Please, Jim, she’ll kill you without....”
Michael had stepped from the bathroom. “I will go with you. He’s right, you stand no chance alone.”
Jim glared at his roommate, angered that he had presented a logical argument, and angry with himself for wanting to smack the young man in the mouth. One of his pet hates was the way Blair argued, always from a well thought out position. The only way he could counter such an argument sometimes, he thought, was to stop the mouth that was saying it. He thought grimly of the times he wished he could use that tactic and knew Blair would be horrified if he knew how often it really was.
He thought in silence about the ‘classic tactic’, as Blair had put it. Him gone would leave his partner alone and only a badly wounded vampire as protection. She could come while he was heading to meet her, but he had to retrieve Simon. Torn between imagination and common sense he remained rooted in place. Blair took the worry out of his hands by calling Henri Brown, explaining certain parts of what had happened and asking if he could come over while Jim was gone. Jim’s fellow cop was happy to comply, despite the late hour.
Jim waited long enough for their friend to arrive, explaining again that he had to help Simon but didn’t want to leave Blair without help. Henri had heard about the madwoman that had a go at their young observer and pushed Jim out the door, fully understanding the situation.
His Sentinel gone, Blair wandered about the loft, Henri watching Corineus from where he sat. Word had rapidly spread throughout the station about the fight in the basement garage. He’d only seen Corineus once or twice, when the man had first visited months ago and then again the other day. He hadn’t liked the younger one, Michael, and he had his worries about the older man, too.
“Blair, please stop pacing and sit down, you’re making me nervous. I want to be out there as much as you but she told him to go alone. I just hope that other one stays out of sight.”
Corineus heard the derision in the cop’s voice as he spoke of Michael but let it pass. The vampire settled further into the couch and willed his broken body to heal faster. He didn’t like having Michael heading for such a powerful force of nature either. He was almost twice his maker’s strength and she had still managed to nearly kill him. Michael would be defeated even more quickly.
**********
Ellison had dropped Michael down the street and continued to Simon’s house alone. Parking his truck outside he turned off the ignition and pocketed his keys. Not leaving the car he looked at the dark house, practically feeling the eyes watching him from inside. Thanking his lucky stars that his senses were, more than likely, better than hers, he decided to use it to his advantage. Leaving the truck he walked up the dark path.
Upon reaching the door he inadvertently shouldered the ship’s bell that hung from the eaves. He had been concentrating on not making a sound stepping up to the door and had failed to see the bell. Freezing, he bit back a curse. Giving up on all pretence now of making a quiet entrance he opened the door and stepped inside.
“I’m in here, Sentinel.”
Jim walked, cat light, through the dark hallway to the livingroom, filing away his relief that she hadn’t used the opportunity to entice him away from Blair and attack their home. His eyes easily sought out his captain sitting on his lounge. Banks wasn’t restrained in any way, the vampire’s strength being more than enough to ensure docility. Selket stood by the window looking out into the street.
“Please understand me when I say I’m not usually like this.” Brown eyes shifted to meet his, her demeanour very business-like.
Jim wasn’t in the mood. “Not like what? A kidnapper? A murderer?”
“You killed my child. I was....enraged. I have known Sagremor for over two hundred years....”
“Eye for an eye. I can understand that. Your Sagremor murdered the wife of the older vampire that is with us.”
Selket’s face betrayed nothing. “I....didn’t know that. He was brash and more bloodthirsty than I had thought possible. But he was still my child. I made him and take responsibility for anything he has done. But I also take revenge for his death. It is my blood right.”
“Your blood right to try and murder my partner?”
“He is your partner? I hadn’t thought that. He killed. Now I kill him.”
“You’ll have to kill me first.”
Selket said nothing and watched him silently. Then, “Sentinel, I know of your kind. Can you imagine what it would be like to be one of us *and* have your talent?”
Simon squirmed slightly. The planned seduction was now coming out. She wanted Ellison.
“I can help you,” she continued, “I know what you can do. You will be stronger than any vampire ever made. You will be magnificent,” she purred.
“I have a partner, thanks. He’s all I need.”
“The young one? I have known your kind from long ago and a Sentinel’s partner is usually unlike the one you have chosen.”
“He’ll do,” Jim said adamantly. He now fully expected to fight for their lives and tensed. A sound outside caught his attention, and Selket’s a moment later.
Simon followed their gaze to his windows and stood, Selket allowing it. The vampire knew that Ellison wouldn’t have betrayed his back-up, had he been foolish enough to bring any. So she surmised the new arrivals, four men by the sounds of it, were as much a surprise to the Sentinel as to her.
The livingroom windows were shattered by a spray of bullets and all three hit the floor. Jim dragged himself over to Simon, keeping as low as he could and hoping his butt was close enough to the ground not to be shot off. He had thought his friend shot and was relieved to find that is was Simon’s quick reflexes that had floored him so quickly. Machine gun fire pock-marked the rooms walls, the confusion caused not giving any of them enough time to think clearly. They covered their heads against the glass showering down and the objects likewise destroyed about them. The noise and confusion froze the Sentinel and any thought he may have had about retaliation.
“Who the fuck is this!” Simon screamed, his hands over his ears to lessen the din.
Waving at Simon to remain where he was he crawled to the window to chance a look outside, hoping his butt wasn’t sticking up enough to get shot off. Upon reaching the window he jerked his head up and ducked just as quickly. Four men stood laughing as they littered the house with gunfire, reminiscent of bootleggers from the 1920’s in their long coats. Jim had managed to get a good look at one in particular.
He crawled back over to Simon. “Hitler Travers!” he hissed.
“What? Why in hell has he got it in for me?” Simon shouted back. He ducked his head as the remnants of a damaged painting fell from the wall above him.
As suddenly as it had started it stopped. Absolute silence.
Ellison raised his head carefully and, gun in hand at the ready, crawled back over to the window. He poked his head up again and was rewarded with the sight of Michael standing over the prone forms of the four gunmen. He could pick up their heartbeats, so the vampire had only incapacitated them.
Smiling he stood and motioned to Simon it was safe to get up. Crossing to the door he switched on the ceiling light, it having miraculously survived. Simon looked about his formally decent livingroom and grimaced in frustration, hands on hips. He’d only painted the damn room six months ago. He hurried from the room to check on and secure their attackers outside.
In the minute that had passed they had lost track of their initial foe. A sound Ellison knew only too well reached his ears. The sounds of someone dying, the sound of breathing with blood flooded lungs. Selket lay, in a mass of her own blood, beside the couch. Much of her neck had been shot away and she had been trying vainly to sit up since the first bullets tore through her. She hadn’t managed to hit the floor as quickly as they, her usual indestructibility giving her more arrogance towards danger. But, this time, the deadly spray of bullets cut through her as easily as they would have mown Ellison down.
Jim moved to her side, keeping in mind how dangerous she could still be. Michael had entered the house and stood at his back. She struggled like a landed fish on her back and tried to sit up. Falling back in agony she watched him and then Michael when he stepped into view. The male vampire watched her struggles but did nothing. Why couldn’t the first shot have done the job?
“You mean to kill me, Bedwyr?” she managed to gurgle past the blood that had formed in her throat.
Michael started at her use of his real name.
Selket nodded. “Yes, I know of you, I am only eighty years younger than you. I have heard of the noble Bedwyr.”
Michael said nothing, his brow furrowed. He took in the amount of blood she had lost. She would die.
“Do you mean to kill me?” came the question again, a question asked around the wetness of too much blood. “Finish me,” she then said, in a voice stronger than they thought possible.
Jim made no move , not entirely knowing what to do. Any other person would have been dead from the multiple bullet holes she was suffering. He felt movement beside him and thought, in that instant, that Michael meant to finish it. The male knelt next to her and gathered her broken form in his arms. Standing, he left the house, a mute Ellison behind him, and placed her in his truck. Jim got in, after a quick word to his captain, and they drove off.
Banks stood in the road looking at the unconscious men at his feet. Men who didn’t know how lucky they were to even be alive. In the distance he could hear the sirens as they made their reassuring way to his home.
**********
Blair sat chewing his nails. He had just hung up the phone, Jim having called him on the cellphone saying they were on their way home. His Sentinel avoided all questions telling him to wait until he got there and that he could tell Henri to go home. Blair saw his friend to his car, thanking him for coming at such a late hour to help them. Henri pat the young man on the back and went home to his bed.
Blair stayed outside the building, watching for his partner’s truck. He was rewarded twenty minutes later with their arrival. Blair watched, stunned, as their nemesis was carried upstairs. He was speechless, not able to form any questions and hurried up the stairs after them. Michael carried Selket to the couch and asked Blair to place a blanket over it to protect it, despite her wounds having ceased flowing. Blair watched Corineus the whole time, imagining the other’s reaction. He wasn’t disappointed.
The male vampire’s anger could be felt and Michael cringed slightly under its weight. As his arms released her he felt himself being dragged up and he turned to face his friend’s rage.
“What are you thinking!” Corineus shook him violently. Lesser bones would have broken under the assault and Michael fancied he could feel his teeth loosen. Pulling him aside the larger vampire put his hands on either side of the other’s head and Jim wondered, for a moment, whether he would have to intervene. Michael’s head was violently shaken as Corineus shouted at him. He tried his best to explain himself.
“She is helpless, she is dying....” he faltered under another furious shake. His eyes betrayed his hurt as Corineus thrust him aside and paced in his fury. Michael didn’t have the time to flinch when he was seized again.
“Why didn’t you finish her?!” another fierce shake brought Blair to their side who placed a hand on the big man’s arm.
Corineus thrust Michael’s face away, shouldered past Blair, and stalked to the couch, his threatening presence easily making itself known to Selket who stirred from her stupor and struggled to sit up. Michael watched his friend fearfully, in fear he had strained their friendship and in fear of what Corineus would now do. The tall vampire stood next to the fallen female, his long frame shuddering with his fury, and considered his options.
Michael quietly stepped up to stand beside him, knowing Corineus was a killer who held little remorse for his victims whom he felt deserving of their fate. But the tall vampire looked down at her and stood unmoving. He felt his companion at his side but refused to look at him.
Ellison pulled Blair out of their way, in case it did come to blows between the two, or even three as he didn’t totally discount Selket just yet. He could hear her heartbeat slowing from its previous erratic pounding and settle into a more normal rhythm. She was recovering, far faster than it had taken Corineus. He now, perhaps, understood Corineus’ anger at her being brought here.
Obviously torn between decisions, Corineus turned his anger on his smaller companion again. “Why?”
Michael shrugged, the normally self-confident persona suddenly gone. The smaller vampire, despite his age, shrunk beneath the palpable anger of his bigger offspring. Michael’s throat was gripped by a large hand and he was shaken again but Corineus’ eyes had softened.
“You have no sense of self-preservation. Must I do all your thinking for you?”
Michael lowered his eyes in shame. “I couldn’t kill her. I can’t kill a woman.”
The grip hardened again. “She ceased being a woman centuries ago.”
Behind them, Jim circled the couch to stand nearer to them. Corineus’ caution and fear was affecting the Sentinel and he wondered why the vampire was reacting the way he did. This went beyond anger for being almost killed by Selket. He had the horrible feeling that Corineus knew the female to be better recovered than she was letting on.
“I’m sorry, Corineus,” Michael said quietly, “I can’t kill women.”
A voice spoke up from below them, “I had heard that about you. In fact, I was counting on it.”
Corineus stepped back as Selket raised herself up on shaking arms.
Blair looked at her, horrified. Quickly he was thrust aside and Ellison stepped up to see the female rising to sit up. She used the blanket to wipe the blood from her face and neck, her dark clothing hiding the rest of it. Corineus, likewise, stepped back as he pushed Michael out of her reach. He swiftly crossing to the fireplace to swing open its heated door. Picking up a long piece of wood from beside it, placed there earlier just in case she managed to get into the loft, he pushed it into the fire, lighting it. He then withdrew it, end ablaze and held the weapon before him. She had managed to get the better of him before but he defied her to fight the fire.
Selket hadn’t moved, her eyes glittered in the low light of the room. Her form was renewed, as strong as it had been before being riddled with the destructive power of the bullets, but she didn’t intend to betray just how rejuvenated she was. Not that it seemed to matter, the large male and the two humans were affording her the respect she was due. The other of her kind hadn’t been able to kill and had stupidly shown her mercy, pity.
From where she sat she addressed this one. “I ask again, do you mean to kill me, Bedwyr?”
He made no effort to cover his shock and looked at her stupidly. Selket smiled at him. Almost six hundred years old and he still retained the human naivete he was probably born with. Her smile faltered slightly in the face of such innocence, the thought of it still existing in one such as Michael disarming. The other one, the murderer of her child, was the same and her gaze went to him next for a moment before returning to the slim vampire.
“Yes, I said I know you. Who, of our kind, hasn’t heard of the ancient Bedwyr. There was only one other older than you, that I know of, and I killed her last century. You have retained your chivalrous ways, Bedwyr, you even have your pet Charybdis do your killing for you.” Selket paused, smiling as her words hit home, “But, it is not you I want.” Her eyes settled again on Blair.
Before Jim or Corineus could twitch a muscle she had moved. In a blur of colour and whispered sound she stopped behind Blair and draped her arm casually about his shoulder. None moved, not wanting to provoke her. Blair’s head spun, his effort to trace her race for him almost inducing a headache. He looked at Jim in shock and fear.
Selket’s smile had vanished. The killer of her child was hers and she kissed the side of his face, her tongue slipping out to momentarily lick the sweat that had broken out. “My Sagremor was the only one I ever made.” She rested her temple against his and knew he fought to not shrink from the contact. His thoughts were his.
Long buried memories leached from him by Michael months before, residue of Michael’s own thoughts somehow merging and surviving. She felt the other’s desire to taste this human when they had first met but Michael had resisted. The death of her child was barely there but she found it and dredged it up again. Blair now squirmed in her grip as he visualised the memories he didn’t think were his. He heard her voice in his mind. *Michael desired you. Wanted to make you like him*
Jim saw the pain on his friend’s face and moved forward only to be brought up by Corineus’ hold. The tall vampire shook his head urgently. “She will kill him in the time it takes you to blink.”
“What is she doing?”
“Recalling the memories of Sagremor’s death.”
Jim shook the hold off but remained where he was. “I thought Michael took those from him.”
Corineus shook his head again. “He would only have masked them. They’re still there, he just didn’t know it.” He watched the female with glittering eyes, she was incredible to behold. Females were rare enough to induce curiosity in those that encountered them, those stupid enough to remain near one.
Selket moved her head against the anthropologist’s and swivelled around so their foreheads ground together. Her eyes were closed but Blair’s were wide open and staring at her. *He frightened you, my Sagremor, he intended to you to be his dinner.* Her eyes tightened as the picture of the flames consuming him beat at her mind. *Kill or be killed. I cannot blame you for that*
Selket stepped back but still kept her hands on his shoulders, tears welling in her eyes. Blair’s terror subsided a bit and he frowned at her. He could feel her trembling through the fingers clamped on him, holding him fast.
“I knew a Sentinel once,” she breathed.
He stared at her.
“I was paired with him for ten years.”
“Paired? Where was this?” Blair’s fear was squashed by his curiosity.
“Biafra. Cameroon now. His people thought it hilarious, a white woman running around with one of their warriors.” Selket released her grip on his shoulders and stepped away, looking at the others. “I will not harm him. Sagremor deserv....” she moved to the door.
“No! Wait! Please tell me more,” Blair moved toward her and Jim toward him.
Selket paused, she eyed Corineus warily and could tell he wanted her dead. “Tell me, Charybdis, would you easily take the death of your Michael? Then know, while he was no saint, Sagremor’s death was no easier for me.”
Corineus’ face didn’t alter but he knew her to be right and secretly gave her her due. He would be inconsolable if Michael was killed in such a way.
But Blair was glad to see her move to the door was halted. A moment ago he wanted her gone but now he wanted her to stay, anything to make her stay. Paired with a Sentinel! “How long ago was this?”
Selket frowned. “I don’t really remember....sixteen hundred something. I joined his tribe but they didn’t think I was tough enough. Little did they know....” she trailed off and looked at Blair again. “You are very lucky, to be who you are and have who you do. My....Watchman....was not an easy man to tolerate. Despite what I am he had a far bigger penchant for causing death.”
Blair’s eyes lit up. “You called them Watchmen?”
Selket ignored him. “My ‘Sentinel’ was an unforgiving type. Had I been mortal I would have died early in our relationship.”
Blair frowned. “He abused you?”
“He abused everyone. He was the strongest in our village and he was needed, but he was hard to contain, to control. He led attacks on other tribes and resulted in most of his people suffering enormous losses. He was a rogue and couldn’t be allowed to continue.” Selket thought back to their last night and how his murdering of a baby had been the last straw for her.
“Allowed to continue?” Blair ventured, not really wanting to hear the next bit. “You killed him?”
“The bloodfest had to stop. I rarely killed, we don’t need to, you know.” Her eyes had taken on an almost pleading expression, a plea to be understood. “When he killed the child and smiled at me I knew I had to...end it.”
“My god. You killed your Sentinel.” Blair’s hand hovered near his mouth.
“Wake up, boy!” Selket grew angry with his show of disbelief. “They are not omnipotent! The elders were taking too long to decide and I took matters into my own hands.”
“Why did you stay?”
“Because I loved him. At first. Why do you?” she asked, her voice rising.
Blair thought a moment and looked at Jim. Looking back at Selket he admitted, “Same reason, I guess.”
Jim looked at his friend and could see that the admission cost him nothing. Blair had merely stated the truth of the matter. Jim searched inside himself and knew he felt the same way. Their bickering, looking out for each other, it all bespoke of a friendship that had long settled into affection.
Selket wondered at the stupidity of men as she watched the Sentinel digest what he had heard. A speck of jealousy rose within but she pushed it aside. “I knew your Burton. Well, I knew his vapid little wife just after he died. Inhibited prim and proper little woman. Too caught up in her Victorian ideals. Burnt all his journals, but you know that don’t you?”
“You knew him?”
Selket glared at him. “Pay attention. I knew *her*. I had heard tell of some of his journals and was curious enough to want to look at what he said about Watchmen and their partners. There wasn’t much left after she’s burnt everything.”
Blair couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was all too fantastic. “This is incredible. You were actually part of a Sentinel pair. What are the odds!”
“Not that astronomical,” Selket breathed, “when you think about it. I am over 500 years old. I have seen a lot and done a lot in my lifetime. I am Persian and have seen a lot of this world since leaving my birthplace. I would have thought meeting only two Sentinels in my life was unusual. The two have been plenty enough for me.”
Jim stiffened at the slight and Selket didn’t fail to catch it.
“A word of warning, little Blair, they can be an overbearing lot. I pray you never have to kill yours.”
Blair was looking at nothing but air. His mouth dropped open and his eyes scanned where she had been moments before. Selket was gone, the front door to the loft swinging slowly shut. He wanted to know more, he had hundreds of questions to ask her. He started to follow but was pulled up by Jim.
“Think again, Junior. Let her go and count our blessings.”
**********
Once again they found themselves farewelling their friends. Michael and Corineus joined them the following night at the loft, keeping them company while the two mortals ate their dinner. The conversation was unusually strained and awkward. Blair, while normally the peacemaker and conversation starter when things stalled, stared out the balcony doors from the table.
“Why so quiet?” Michael asked eventually.
Blair’s attention returned to their guests. “Just thinking. In a hundred years you’ll still be as you are, unchanged. We’ll be dead.”
Jim looked at him horrified, dropping his fork to the plate. “Jeez, kid, you sure know how to kill an evening. Can’t you pick something less depressing to think about?”
Blair realised what he had said. “I’m sorry, I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s weird.”
Michael decided to pose the question he wanted to ask the first time he met these two. “I can help you there.”
“Michael,” Corineus’ low voice warned.
“What? I can offer it?” the slim vampire shifted his eyes away from his companion and back to Blair. “Would you like to never grow old?”
Blair smiled at him. “I know what you offer and no, I don’t want that kind of immortality, not at that price.”
Michael leaned forward to better press his point of view. “You old. Jim old. She said an immortal Sentinel would be a power to be reckoned with. Imagine it, the things you could do....”
“The lives we’d have to take,” Blair finished for him. “As much as it appeals to me I must say no.”
Michael sat back and considered the kind expression Blair was giving him. The mortal actually pitied his life. In his long life he had been feared, hated, loved but never pitied. His eyes held Blair’s gaze and the young man found he couldn’t tear away. Corineus placed a hand on Michael’s arm but was ignored.
“Michael, not by force. He doesn’t want it.”
The vampire didn’t remove his hold on Blair’s eyes but answered his friend. “Such a waste. Such a waste. Their lives are so short.”
Jim had not said a word so far but watched in interest. Strangely, he felt no threat, knowing that Corineus wouldn’t allow it.
Michael grew agitated. “Both of you! You could do unimaginable things. You are too secular.”
Blair leaned forward, his eyes boring into the vampire’s with equal intensity. “What you are offering is....death. To be what you are requires our death. To continue as you are would require the death of others.” Blair, strangely, knew that Michael was being kind in his offering of immortality. “Michael, thank you but I’m looking forward to what the next life holds for me, for us. The prospect of never getting there, or taking hundreds of years to get there, isn’t attractive.”
Michael released the lock he had on Blair and the young man slumped in his chair. The vampire shook his head in frustration. “I wasted a perfectly good opportunity when here last time. Back then I wouldn’t have asked, I just would have taken.”
Blair tried to make him understand. “Can’t you see, I couldn’t live with having to take lives, however rare the need. Jim couldn’t either.”
Michael looked at the quiet Sentinel and saw the truth in his eyes. Michael smiled. “I fear you are mistaken, young scholar, he would survive no matter what it took.”
The Sentinel remained quiet.
Blair spared him a quick look, but no more. “I couldn’t live with it.”
Michael shrugged. “Self immolation isn’t easy, kid. If I made you one you’d *have* to live with it.” He couldn’t understand how such an offer could be refused and his mood was being badly affected by these mortals who had become his friends. Friends stupidly insisting on living out their normal lives and dying.
“I would end it for him.”
Finally, Michael thought, the Sentinel speaks! He turned his annoyance on Ellison. “Would you just?”
Jim nodded.
Michael turned an amused face on him, leaning his chin on his hand. “You would kill him? Him?”
Jim nodded. “If he became as you, and didn’t want it, I would....end it.”
Blair couldn’t look at him. He was, quite truthfully, stunned. He wasn’t sure whether to be grateful to Jim for offering him a way out in such a circumstance, or be saddened. End it? Jim would kill him if he wanted him to? Surely not.
Corineus watched Blair digest what his friend had just said and knew the truth of it. He wanted to reassure the young man but couldn’t, not with Michael near.
“You would kill me?” the younger man asked quietly.
Jim looked down at the face watching his every move, watching for some kind of sign that what he had said wasn’t true. His heart clenched at his partner’s sense of betrayal. You just can’t please the kid, he thought and he rubbed his eyes in frustration. “No, not really. I’m sorry to say I would leave you to your fate. I couldn’t kill you, I’d make you live the life they lead.”
“Not even if I asked you to?”
Rock and a hard place. Jim looked at him incredulously, he found his young friend’s mental somersaults too convoluted for his liking. What was up with Blair? He was pissed off that I’d kill him to spare him the existence of the undead and now he’s annoyed that I wouldn’t? I can’t win. Jim placed his head in his hands. “What would you have me do?”
The normally sharp brain couldn’t find the right gear. “Dunno.”
He caught Jim watching him from behind his clasped hands. The big man’s mouth was twitching into a smile, despite his best efforts. Blair returned the smile and Corineus was pleased. Michael watched the exchange in annoyance and thought it was time they took their leave. If they were too foolish to see what he offered....
“I think we’ve disrupted their little lives enough,” Michael growled as he stood.
Corineus looked up at him in amazement at his rudeness. Michael refused to look at them and stalked to the balcony doors. He would wait there while Corineus said his goodbyes.
“I’m sorry....” Corineus said, standing, only stopping when Blair placed a hand on his arm.
“It’s all right. He can’t understand why we can’t see what he’s offering.” Blair left the two men where they sat and approached the slim vampire.
Michael looked out over the night skyline, hearing the human’s approach but intent on ignoring it. Deep inside he knew the real reason for his bad behaviour. He wanted them to come home with him. He could show them things they would not normally be witness to. Blair stood beside him, matching his stance with hands, likewise, clasped behind his back.
“I would like us to be friends. We’ll see each other again. Please understand that our lives are here.”
Michael maintained his rigid posture, determined to not be moved. For all his apparent youth he was more determined and immovable than Corineus could ever be.
Blair sighed, “I’m sorry, then. I would have liked us to part friends. Please know that I’m flattered by your offer and know you intend the best....” Blair couldn’t think of anything else to say and trailed off, preferring to leave it unspoken.
He turned to Jim and Corineus and shrugged. Before he could walk away he felt himself seized from behind and drawn into a strong embrace. Michael had turned him quickly and he found his face pressed into the vampire’s shoulder. At the table Jim jumped slightly, thinking the overture a threat but he calmed himself when he saw it was only a hug.
Michael breathed into the mortal’s hair, its tendrils tickling his nose. Blair didn’t resist the embrace and he thought again how wonderful it would have felt to cross the young man over. “I don’t want to part this way, either, Blair. Please forgive me,” he whispered into the curls.
Blair pat the vampire’s back, any words he said muffled into the cotton covered shoulder.
Minutes later saw the two men alone again in their home. Blair still looked at the closed door through which their two unusual friends had left and he felt oddly sad and relieved at the same time. He frowned and turned to Jim.
“You really wouldn’t kill me even if I wanted you to?”
Jim stared at him a moment then rolled his eyes. “Let it go, Chief, it’s been a big day.” The tall man made for the stairs leading to his beckoning bed. He could almost feel the other following and turned to face the inevitable.
“It’s just that I’m not sure whether I’m okay with that or....” Blair fished for the words.
“I’ll do you a deal. If you ever ask me I’ll kill you. Happy now?”
The young man’s face didn’t seem any happier, in fact the lips pursed in thought and the frown deepened.
“Or,” Jim shrugged, “I could kill you now. Save time later.”
Blair couldn’t suppress the smile and he waved at his Sentinel, backing off. “No, no, that’s all right.”
Jim returned the smile and resumed his weary way to his bed. “G’night, Blair.”
“G’night, Jim.” The young man watched his friend walk from view and shook his head. Stretching his arms above his head to relieve some of the night’s tension he walked to his own room, suddenly very tired.
That night his dreams were not of vampires dying painfully of a fiery death or of fighting between immortals with inhuman strength, but of a woman with long hair and her Sentinel before it had all turned sour. Selket had, unwittingly, left a few shreds of a treasured memory.
END