Dark Light
A Christine Feehan Carpathian Fanfiction
Summary: There are some places where humans had to learn to defeat the vampires on their own. And there are teams of people to exterminate the threat that the vampires pose. How will the Carpathians react when their first encounter with the Executioners results in blame, accusations, and not one, but two pairs of lifemates?
Rating: T
Disclaimer: If I owned the Carpathians, do you really think that I'd be sitting on my ass in a library? LOL!
Chapter One: Stay In The Light
Saoirse Blanchett had long ago learned that there were some things that were better left unquestioned. Besides, her best friend and roommate was generally too much of a smartass to give her a straight answer, presuming that Kibeth knew the answer. Kibeth Montgomery was her direct opposite, but also very much like her.
Saoirse was a Scottish name that meant freedom and free was how she intended to live her life. She belonged to no man, had no ties to anyone, save Kibeth. She had pondered idly and rarely if, perhaps, she could see Kibeth in another light, if, just maybe, she desired no man because her sexuality wasn't wired that way.
But, she didn't take that necessary step. Kibeth was her partner in the Executioners and there was no need to overly complicate something that was successful enough as it was. If it wasn't broke, there was no need to fix it.
"Saaaaoi!" Kibeth whined. Saoirse sighed and looked up from her laptop. She was busy. Why couldn't Kibeth cook or whatever it was by herself?
"Yes, Kibeth?"
"My gun's stuck!"
Saoirse muttered a half-dozen curses in a few different languages. At least Kibeth hadn't yelled that out in the middle of an Execution. That actually had happened before and it was incredibly inconvenient to try to fix her jammed gun with vampires hovering everywhere.
Yes, vampires. The nasty creepy-crawlies of the night existed and Saoirse and Kibeth were the Executioners for the State of Florida. Which meant that their territory was roughly fifty-eight thousand square miles and almost twelve hundred miles of coastline. They knew the state intimately. Every mile from Jacksonville to Key West, Pensacola to Jacksonville.
"Bring it here, Kibeth. Gods-be-damned! You jam it at least twice a week and three times in battle. Do you realize how careless you are?! Being an Executioner is serious business!"
Kibeth smiled childishly and laughed. "And here it was that I thought it was only good for getting drink discounts at the local Goth bar."
Saoirse growled and took the gun from the young African girl. "Now, Kibeth, do you want to know why your gun jammed?"
Kibeth nodded and Saoirse showed her the barrel of the weapon. "Perhaps because there's fuckin' strawberry jam in the fuckin' barrel!" Saoirse shouted, her anger making her psychic abilities go haywire for a moment. The walls of the apartment bulged and relaxed.
Kibeth turned to Saoirse and blinked. Saoirse knew that her anger was exaggerated, but she had been busy and Kibeth was currently wasting her time.
"Damn Saoi. What's crawled up your ass?"
"We've a mission tonight. Someone's killing vamps outside the treaties. And, as Executioners, we shall deal with all violators, not just vamps."
Kibeth smiled. "In the name of the Goddess, traitors shall be sent to whatever punishment is deemed worthy. Amen."
"Amen."
The treaties were what kept the vampires from overrunning the city. The Master Vampire of Jacksonville was named Sebastian and was roughly five hundred years old. He obeyed the treaties readily enough after the Executioners had proved that they were willing to attack him at the slightest provocation some fifty years ago. Saorise remembered that battle quite well... She had shot two of her supposed best friends after they had been unwillingly bitten by one of Sebastian's subordinates, Alan.
Executioners often chose to be bitten by vampires, figuring that, after so long policing the vampires, they deserved the immortality and the freedom of being unholy undead. Both of the women that Alan had bitten were Roman Catholics.
"Saoirse! Saoirse!" she remembered Samantha screaming. "I've been bitten. Saoirse, you have to shoot me. I won't become the undead. I won't lose my soul. Shoot me! Shoot me!!!"
I can't, Sammie. Why are you asking me to shoot you? I love you! You're my sister. I can't shoot you, she remembered thinking, even as her hands raised her gun, taking aim at Samantha's forehead.
"Shoot, Saoirse."
"I love you, Sammie. Go with your God and with the speed of angels. In the name of God, the unholy spirits of the damned are condemned. Forever a child of God, Samantha Rivers, and unto You I lift her soul," Saoirse murmured, closing her eyes as her finger squeezed the trigger.
"I love you, Saoirse."
Saoirse walked away from Kibeth, not bothering to explain the tears in her eyes. Sammie had been the only person to say those three words to her in centuries. Fuckin' centuries.
"Saoi?"
She continued walking, headed back for the garage to continue cleaning her weaponry. Swords were effective and she made sure that the gas canisters were full. To kill a vamp, you cut off it's head, ripped out it's heart, and burned everything. She'd only had one vampire survive that treatment and that was because she hadn't used enough gasoline to burn him.
She never made that mistake again. She'd douse them with gasoline until she couldn't stand the fumes. And she would send match after match into the fumes. Sometimes she lit up one match and sent the entire book into the gas pool.
And she'd watch the vampire burn.
She cleaned her swords, sharpening them with a whetstone. She would never make the mistake of caring for anyone ever again.
Three hundred years, mateless. She was a failure to her sire and dame, to her grandsires and granddames. Her cousins pitied her, her brother smothered her… Everyone tried to set her up on blind dates, hoping against hope that she'd find her soul mate. Her forever mate.
Only, they didn't accept what Saoirse had realized long ago. No man wanted an Amazon for a forever mate. And she was a warrior woman of old. Like the Celtic warrior queens that had ruled their realm without the interference of consorts or kings.
And that left Saoirse, in the end, when Kibeth died and the Executioners decided that they didn't want to give her another partner, only for her to outlive them, when all the vampires were dead and gone and the Executioners faded from existence, completely alone.