A/N Written for Sanctuary_Santa 2011 for Palmaceae. Many thanks to my beta PoorQueeQueg for hand-holding, and thwapping me with the big Victorian and grammar stick. All mistakes left are my own. A lot of research went into this fic, but there may still be some anachronisms in terms of what scientific discoveries an Oxford scholar would have known about at the time, for which I beg your pardon. Also, vampires.

"Only the chosen left alive, immortals all the holy five."

-John Druitt, Sanctuary For All (Part 2)

PROLOGUE

"Dear gods…James, get your pistol."

"No, don't!" Helen cried, holding her slashed arm awkwardly at her side. "For heaven's sake, James, don't."

James looked between Helen and John, alarmed. John was livid, the colour having drained from his face. Helen was similarly pale, the blood seeping through the sleeve of her dress but she was pleading with him to spare Nikola.

The small laboratory had been torn apart, furniture splintered and large gouges split in the walls and floor. It was only moments after Nikola had been injected with the source blood that he began to feel ill. His body began to seize, undergoing a transformation that he could not control, and he screamed at the body that betrayed him. Nigel and John were trying to pin him to the floor as best they could, Nikola still writhing as if he were trying to claw out of his very skin.

"Cannot you see he needs us?" Helen cried.

James' face hardened at the sight of her mangled arm. "That is not the Nikola you know, Helen." Refusing to hear another plea, he dashed for his quarters nearby.

An unearthly howl tore from Nikola's throat and Helen sobbed harder. She reached for them and John cried out in alarm. "Stay your distance! He's already close to breaking loose again!"

James burst into the room, pistol cocked and ready to fire. He nodded at John who wrestled Nikola towards James' direction. James breathed a quiet "forgive me" and fired a bullet into Nikola's chest.

Nikola slumped back like a puppet with its strings cut. Nigel and John exchanged a nervous look, still holding onto his arms. "Dear god, is he dead?" Nigel asked.

Nikola lurched forward unexpectedly, eyes still black, pointed teeth bared and James fired again, the bullet burying itself between Nikola's eyes.

"That is enough!" Helen roared.

Nikola lay cold and still on the floor, when John and Nigel finally let go of his arms. Helen and James rushed over to check his pulse. John pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and bound Helen's arm.

James' barely blinked as he counted the seconds on his pocket watch. "He is alive…but his pulse is very weak."

"Look, James…the bleeding has already stopped." Helen carefully examined the wound on Nikola's chest, braving herself to check next on the hideous one marring his face.

John looked about the destroyed room and the man, now just a man as the vampiric features faded, bleeding on the floor. "We have unleashed a monster."

Nigel looked sombrely about them all. "Yes, but in whom?"

When Nikola awoke next it was to find himself in Gregory Magnus' private infirmary. He looked down quickly at his hands, trembling, to see if the black talons were still there.

Helen rushed over to his side. "Are you all right?" She lifted up the bandages from his face, astonished to find no trace of the wound. "Not even a scar…" she breathed in wonder.

"What…what happened?"

She gave him a small, apologetic smile. "You gave us a bit of a fright. It seems you hold more secrets than even you know yourself, Nikola."

He looked as if he were going to be sick. "So…so I am the nightmare mothers tell their children to scare them at night…"

"No, no—"

"And Oxford? What have you told them?" He refused to look at her, shrugging away from her touch.

Helen looked down at her hands, playing nervously with fingers. "You are not allowed back."

The news wounded him more than he himself expected. He looked sharply away from her, turning his gaze to the window instead. It was snowing. It reminded him of Smiljan.

"It is cruel, the condition of man…" he began softly, still staring at the fat snow flakes falling to the ground. "We have the will and power to play at Gods…but not the wisdom to realize it is never truly play. Not until it is too late."

Helen didn't know what to say, scared of the desperate, somber mood that had taken over her friend. She reached out for his hand, but again he pulled away as if burnt.

"You need to rest, Nikola."

He shook his head. "I need to go. First ship from here…"

Helen felt as if she had been slapped. Her voice threatened to break as she tried to keep her anger and betrayal in check. "Running away? Just because some stuffy school has decided they have had enough of you – when have you ever let another's opinion colour your own?"

He looked at her this time, a knowing gaze piercing hers and causing her to blush with shame. His eyes flickered from the engagement ring on her finger back to the wintry scene outside.

"The Five wasn't forever, Helen. We all knew we would not be traveling down the same paths…" His lips quirked into a small smile. "Some of us are not that lucky."