Julian's wedding

by Maryland Rose

Julian Luna's wedding to Caitlin is disturbed by atomic terrorists...

Julian's Wedding

"Welcome to the madhouse." Julian said to Duncan as he stepped inside his house. "You will not believe what we are going through."

"Anything serious?"

"Something ridiculous, that we cannot get rid of." Julian steered Duncan inside, passing a room where several men and women were handling phones. "I cannot believe how many readers that Weekly World News has. And they all seem to have my number."

"That rag? The one that once said that twelve U.S. Senators are space aliens?"

"That one."

"What does it have to do with you?"

"See for yourself. Elvis story of the month." he gave the offending paper to Duncan, who read the headlines with amusement.

"So they claim that Elvis is actually a vampire, and that is how he could fake his own death. But they do not describe you, or any real Kindred. They get their vampire images from the movies."

"I know. The problems is that I am finding out how many Kindred are Elvis fans, and they all want to believe that the report is true, so they are calling every Prince in every City for information. They want to know where is Elvis booked to sing next week. They want to know if he will appear at the Haven, and when. They ask me for autographs. I even got panties sent through the mail. And these are all our people! I do not know how we managed to get so many..."

"So many fruitcakes? Well, someone embraced them."

"Yes. Someone. There ought to be a rule against it."

"Put it there. Please stop embracing fruitcakes, if you do not want to send the Prince of the City to the mental ward." Duncan laughed.

"It isn't funny! I had to set up a phone bank to take care of the calls. I swear that if I have to pick up the phone myself I will end up yelling at them to get themselves a life. And you know that I rarely lose my temper."

"Julian, you have to appreciate more the absurdity of life. I mean, life is not always serious. Sometimes it is downright hilarious, and this in one such time. Go with the flow. This is California, after all. Laugh about it. Enjoy those events in your life where there is not tragedy, no reason to mourn. Laugher is good for the soul."

"Just laugh?"

Duncan laughed. "Yes, laugh. You know how it is done, don't you?"

"I am getting married in a few days and I don't need this aggravation..." but Duncan's expression was contagious, and he laughed, reluctantly.

"By the way, how formal is the wedding? Do I have to rent a tuxedo?"

"Yes. It is going to be formal. And we would feel better if you did not carry your sword around."

"You know that I never part with it." "Yes, but you can check it at the door. I will not have my guests wondering if you want to take their heads. Immortals have beheaded Kindred in the past. And Kindred have beheaded Immortals, too. We do not want to remind them of the bad old days."

"So I have to wear formal attire. Plus leave my sword behind. Oh, Julian, the things I do for you. Are you really getting married, I mean, legally?"

"According to Kindred law, yes. Also by human law. We are doing it at a justice of the Peace first."

"Julian, I am curious. Who is it among you who can perform marriages? And do you do it often? I mean, since you are sterile, both men and women, you do not have the need for the institution. Same thing with Immortals. Immortals marry, but with mortals, and cherish them for the limited time they have together. With each other, the normal relationship is what I have with Amanda. You know, good friends who on occasion sleep together."

"Well, that is the rule with us, too. But still we have couples who have stayed together for centuries. If they want to solemnize their relationship, their Primogen can perform the ceremony. And if they are of different clans the Prince of the City can do it."

"So you can perform marriages yourself?"

"Yes. I have the authority."

"But if you are the one with the authority, who marries you? Or do you marry yourself?" Duncan laughed. "Do you give yourself the questions and the answers at the same time? Jump from the bridegroom position to the justice of the peace and back all through the ceremony?"

"I deputized Sonny to act in my stead. Are any of your friends coming? I would be glad to have Amanda. Just tell her that this time she should not lift anything."

"Amanda is coming as soon as she can find a suitable gift. She does not want to show up with a blender."

"Blender?"

"Standard gift for newlyweds. Do not be surprised if you end up with at least fifty of those. Some of your friends might think it a great joke to give you one. I was thinking more of tickets for a Caribbean cruise, you know, lying in the sun all day."

"You wouldn't!" Julian smiled at the idea.

"Send you to Bimini. I read somewhere that if you go there you may get caught in the Lethargy Zone. It is said that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve went there in the fifties and never returned. He just lays there now. He has become a puddle of flesh in the pier, unable to shake the delicious lethargy. Twice a day they pour a pitcher of daiquiris on him and he is happy."

"I do not think that I am ready for that kind of happiness." Julian smiled at the description. "Although when I think of Elvis, it sounds very tempting."

"Well, I almost did to give that to you, but decided not to. I remembered that you are not supposed to leave San Francisco, anyway. So I did what any antique dealer would do. Get rid of some unsalable stock. It is this carved Chinese table. I cannot sell it, and it takes too much space in my shop. But it is a valuable piece, and has its own charm."

"Duncan, I would not care if you showed up with fifty blenders that I would have to give to Goodwill the next day. Just be with us. Any more of your friends coming?"

"Connor is in the Middle East at the moment, and too busy to come. Which means that you do not have to worry about the MacLeod boys being drunk and disorderly again, or making haggis and insisting that everyone taste it, nor playing the bagpipes indoors at full blast. You can control one MacLeod, but not two. Richie will not come."

"Came up with an excuse, eh?"

"He's seen too many Hammer movies."

"I thought so. It is a shame, but there is not point in forcing the issue."

"I am expecting Joe Dawson to show up." Duncan was suddenly serious.

"How much does he know?"

"More than I wanted him to know. He has passed none of it along to the other Watchers, yet. He has suspended judgement and will not take any action unless you prove to be a menace. If you can convince him of your...harmlessness he will keep your secret. He keeps secrets as a matter of course. And if I bring him along you can rearrange his memories, if need be. Joe, even when the other Watchers had him on trial for his life, he kept Methos' secret, even though he might have offered him as an alternate suspect. So if I say that if he thinks the secret should be kept, he will keep it, I know what I am talking about."

"All right, bring him. I will ask Frank Kohanek to put him up in his place. Frank can tell him stories about me and other Kindred he knows, specially the disreputable ones. Maybe Lillie will give Joe a first hand experience of what to expect from a hungry Kindred. I might even arrange to have him come along to a couple of feedings. That should reassure him. Or is he the type to go into a moral frenzy over petty larceny?"

"He has been guilty of petty larceny himself in the past. We all have, in some ways."

"Except for Amanda, of course."

"Yes, nothing petty about her larcenies."

o

"I can't believe it." Cash grumbled as he met Frank and Sonny at the table. "Formal wear. Julian requested formal wear."

"You mean that we have to rent tuxedos?" Frank asked.

"He is turning us into penguins. That is his way of getting even with me, put me into a penguin suit. And you and you. How do I tell the Gangrels that if they want to come they have to be penguins for the occasion?"

"Tell them to put on penguin suits, and then penguin masks." Frank offered. "What do you mean getting even with you?"

"You remembered when he embraced Caitlin, the scare he gave us?"

"Yes, you said that you would have a serious talk with him."

"I did. With a baseball bat."

"You beat him up?" Sonny was aghast.

"Yeah, I beat some sense into him. How did he dare do that to Caitlin and to his friends? How could he have allowed himself to bleed almost to the point of death right on top of the woman he allegedly loved? Didn't he think how it would be for her if he had died? Did he think what he was doing to us? I do not care how good it felt, when he finally embraced her. He had to have some self-control. And I find that my arguments carry more weight if I back them up with physical persuasion."

"So that was why he was so stiff when he met with me a few days after that...incident." Frank said, laughing. "He was still smarting from your...forceful arguments."

"But I thought that Julian could beat you in a fight." Sonny said, frowning.

"I got the drop on him. And we were not fighting for real. If we had been he would have killed me. But he knew I was doing out of concern, and he let me get away with it. He knew that he deserved it."

"Still, you were way out of line."

Sonny was not convinced and could not understand Cash's attitude. Hero worship had its drawbacks, Frank thought, looking at his partner. It would be better for Sonny, and for Julian too, if Sonny could assess Julian realistically as Cash and Frank did, instead of worshipping him.

"Well, it worked." Cash shrugged. "He and Caitlin have had not more scares when they bleed each other for pleasure. And Julian and I are back to our normal relationship."

"Except for the penguin suits." Frank pointed out.

o

"Just what is this famous haggis, anyway?" Caitlin asked Duncan as the three of them were driving to pick up Joe Dawson.

"It is a stuffed sheep stomach, filled with oats, suet, and the sheep's internal organs, all chopped up." Duncan said.

Caitlin made a face.

"It is how they get rid in Scotland of guests who overstay their welcome." Julian said "When all other hints fail, they ask them to try their delicious haggis. Works like a charm; the guests make a face and disappear."

"And if that does not work, we play the bagpipes indoors."

"And if that fails, they use explosives."

"You got us confused with the Irish. They used explosives to get rid of the English, which were their overstaying guests."

"I know an Irish joke." Caitlin said. "this IRA man goes to confession and tells the priest: 'father, it is me who blew up this train, and that train, and that other train.' and the priest says :'for penance do the stations.'"

Julian laughed at this while Duncan appeared puzzled. Julian saw this and laughed again.

"Duncan was never a Catholic. He has never heard of the Stations of the Cross."

"Is that a Popish rite?"

"A spiritual exercise. An exercise in prayer, praying at each stage of Christ's Crucifixion. The priest used to give me that a lot as a penance when I was much younger. When I had reached puberty and could not live as chastely as the Church wanted me to."

"I did them a lot too." Caitlin said.

"Same reason?"

"What do you think?" Caitlin shrugged.

Duncan circled the bus station looking for a parking space, then he saw Joe walking out of the station door.

"There he is." he waved to him. "Let's catch him."

"Duncan" Joe smiled at him, then looked over at the couple in the back seat. "Are these...your friends?"

"The bride and bridegroom. They are disappointed that Connor and his famous haggis cannot make it, but I promised them that you would play at the wedding."

Julian took Joe's bag and made room for it in the back seat, while Joe, a bit reluctantly sat next to Duncan.

"So these are the friends you told me about. I..."

"I warn you, Joe, they are both Papists." Duncan sighed. "If my father could see my choice of friends, he would disown me again, and with good reason. He did not hold with the Scarlet Woman."

"He should not worry." Julian interjected "I am lapsed. It has been ages since I have set foot in a church." he sighed. "I'd go if it was not for Confession. I mean I cannot tell the priest the truth, can I? And if I lie, what value does his absolution have?"

"You don't have to lie." Caitlin said. "Just leave the details out. That is what I did. Said that I had been living in sin with this man, but that he was making an honest woman out of me. He wanted to know if Julian was a Catholic, and if he was not, if he was willing to agree to raise our children as Catholics. I said yes, that Julian was a Catholic, though lapsed, and that any children that we had would be Catholics. You see, the difference between me and Julian would be that Julian at that point would start explaining that there would be no children. Then the priest would give him a lecture about the evil of contraception. Then Julian would have to explain what he meant, that both bride and bridegroom were sterile. Then the priest would want to know if we would raise as Catholics any children that we adopted. And Julian would start saying that he could not adopt, because children would not adjust to our lifestyle. Then the priest would want to know about our lifestyle, and how perverted it was. At that point he might end up imagining that Julian was gay and that I was a lesbian and that we were marrying to give each other respectability while we seduced the innocent into our perversions. And all because Julian had to give the man a lot of useless information."

"Hedging the truth is as bad as lying. And I wish you had not gone to the priest at all." Julian said severely.

"Why not? I just talk about what really weights in my heart. Don't you think so, Duncan, Joe? Don't get lost in the details. Get to the main point and tell which of your sins worry you the most. The cardinal sins are Pride, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth, Anger, and Greed. Flying through the air is not one of them, so don't talk about it, anymore than you should talk about the make of your car. The church does not care how long or sharp your fingernails are. And since there are so many bores nowadays going on about diets, the priest will be thankful if you do not mention yours. You may have to confess taking advantage of other people, because you have to, but insist that you make sure that they are not truly harmed. If you put it that way, you may turn out to be more ethical than a used car salesman, and those get absolved for their sins."

"Caitlin, apart of the danger of saying too much, I do not think it is right. I mean, it is absolution on false pretenses. What do you think, Duncan?"

"Well, I do not hold that there is one true Church. Holy Ground is Holy Ground, no matter what religion, and Immortals respect them all equally. So you can say that I am truly ecumenical. Which means, don't draw me into your Popish Jesuitic arguments."

"How about you, Joe?"

"I hold with Caitlin's common sense. As long as you tell the important truths, you can hedge on the minor matters. That's what Catholic Watchers do when they go to Confession. They never mention Immortals nor Watchers to their confessors, unless the confessors are Watchers themselves."

"But it is not truly a minor matter." Julian said. "The Church waged a war of extermination against us. Not just the guilty, which I could understand, but just anyone they caught."

"That was fear." Caitlin said. "And the Church waged war of extermination against heretics and Jews, while now all religions accept each other's right to exist. You cannot hold that against them forever."

"I know too many stories of the persecutions, the killings, the torturing. Going to a priest might betray secrets and lead to such brutality to happen again."

Duncan sighed. "Julian, you know that none of the priests you meet committed any of those deeds. Why hold it against them? Most of them would be horrified at the idea."

"That was then and this is now? Christians are now too civilized to slaughter those who are not like them? Tell that to the Muslims in Bosnia."

"Julian, that is just one instance..."

"Duncan, the persecutions can start again, any moment. If it was not you who asks it, I would not take on the risk that Joe Dawson represents. He would be dead, embraced, or made to forget. I am sorry Mr. Dawson, but you must realize what we are."

"Duncan told me..."

"Duncan does not realize what it means. Caitlin does not, either. She has not yet learned our history as well as she should."

"Julian!" Caitlin protested.

"Mr. Dawson, think of Nazi Germany having survived fifty years. Time enough for them to assume that all Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, and other unfit races have been exterminated. They have shut down the extermination camps and the crematoria, because there is no more need for them. Germans resume their normal lives. What they do not know is that there are still Jews and Gypsies among them, passing for Aryan. It has been long time since anyone remembers what a non-Aryan looks like, and most Germans get squeamish at the idea of killing someone. They tell themselves that they are gentle, non-violent people, and they believe it. But let them find out that there are Jews still among them. How long until the camps and the crematoria open again? That is where Kindred are. And that is why I do not go to Confession, and why I would rather that Caitlin did not go. Because we may let slip some bit of information out that the priest would recognize."

"You seem to have a jaundiced view of human beings." Joe said.

"A realistic one. I like most of them. And I know that I need them, that all Kindred need them. But I know what they are capable of. I know what they do to each other. A wise one among us said that for all the dark deeds in Kindred history, we have yet to be guilty of genocide. Can you make the same claim for your fellow human beings?"

"No." Joe admitted.

"What hurts us is that while all Kindred understand why there must be humans around, and plenty of them, there is no reason for humans to want to have Kindred around. We have no possible use. There is no benefit for humans to have us around. I grant you, individual Kindred may make themselves useful to individual human beings, but in the overall picture, we need them, and they need us not at all. If the world ever finds out that we are around, we would be exterminated mercilessly. Our only salvation is to stay hidden. And our hope is to find, one day, a way to be of value to humans so that they would be willing to let us live."

Joe was silent for a few moments. It had not occurred to him, when he had found out about Duncan's friends, that vampires could be afraid, terrified, of human beings. All the fear was one-sided in his mental view of the situation. But what Julian had said was true. Vampires had a lot more to fear than humans in their relationship.

"Maybe there is a way to find out." He said. "After what happened, after all those Watchers were killed, I got access to information that the ruling circle had kept, which the rank and file did not have access to. I found there some references to vampires. If I dig deeper I may find more. Maybe I can find a clue there why vampires exist as well as to why Immortals exist. Not everyone in the ruling circle believed in the Gathering or the Prize, for example. If I find that you and your people have a useful role in the scheme of things I will pass it along."

"Will you do that?"

"I can. Mind you, I cannot promise to find anything, only that I will look."

"We lost much of our history during the persecutions. Still, there are records. Maybe we can compare them and see where they lead us."

"It is a deal." Joe turned around and shook hands with Julian.

"You can ask Methos, too." Duncan interjected. "He has been around since well before the persecutions. It would not surprise me if he ran into a few Kindred himself."

"There are references to a Methos in our history. The references are mixed. Some of the old Kindred referred to him as a good friend. Others called him the Beheader, the Executioner. There are references to Kindred killed by him. I hope that if he did the killings were justified."

"What would justified mean?" Dawson asked.

"He means that he hopes that Methos only took out predatory Kindred, the kind that Julian himself has the authority to condemn to death. He hopes that Methos did not kill the innocent Kindred he ran across."

"I can go back to Methos's records, except that he has probably doctored them. After all, Methos is his own Watcher. On the other hand I could get my hands on that book that he brought to my trial. He may have become loose of tongue with that admiring Watcher...Damn it, Duncan, do you realize that all you and I know of Methos is what he chooses to tell us?"

"And what we have witnessed him do."

"Maybe I can talk to him." Caitlin said. "I can play the wide eyed admiring innocent well enough. People do not realize how much they give themselves away when talking to a pretty admiring young woman. If you keep your mouth shut, except for a few praising comments every now and then, you can get the whole story. I always got my story. Julian was the only tough nut in my career. And if I had not fallen in love with him, I would have cracked him, too."

"But you did crack me." Julian kissed her on the cheek. "It was just that there was a price for you to pay for that knowledge."

"I think that I can crack Methos too. Find out if he is a threat to us."

"Just make sure he does not become a threat to you personally. Watch your head when you are with him." Duncan said.

"It can be arranged. We can meet only when there are witnesses around, and we can keep tabs on him to make sure that he does not follow me. Give me some credit, Duncan. I may be new at being Kindred, but I am a seasoned reporter. It is not the first time that I have been in potential danger from a story. If I can get through organized crime stories without a scratch, I can get through Methos the same way."

"She is good, Duncan. And I can offer her a lot of backup. Plus I am insisting that she train on firearms and self-defense. I hope to avoid further clan wars, but if I fail, I want her able to fight for herself."

"You will not fail, I know it. You have too much going for you and too many friends to help you out. Including me."

For the next few minutes there were no words from the back seat as Julian and Caitlin kissed.

"This is damn embarrassing." Joe said. "At least they are keeping their clothes on."

"Well, they are in love."

"Yeah, I know about love. I was in love myself, and like them, I made an ass of myself in public. Duncan, you know, they are very normal looking."

"What did you expect? Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee?"

"I do not know. Not these two, obviously."

"They come in all shapes and sizes. And all kinds of mental quirks. Right now Julian is having a problem with Elvis fans." He told Dawson about the tabloid story and its aftermath. Joe laughed wholeheartedly.

"How long to the hotel?"

"You are not going to the hotel. You are rooming with this cop who is a friend of Julian's. A human cop. His idea is that you and him can trade stories."

"I'd feel better in the hotel."

"Joe, Julian has guaranteed me your safety, and his word is good. He just wants you to get as many answers to your questions as you can. Convince you that he is not threat to humans. I know that this is true, and Frank Kohanek can tell you what he found out. He was not always a friend of Julian's. At the start he wanted to expose him, but gradually came to accept him."

"All right. But you know our code. If I use it, it means get me out in a hurry."

"You will not need it, but I will watch for it, anyway."

Frank was not there when they knocked at the door. They tried several times with no response.

"Is he in?" Julian asked, trying to listen through the closed door. "He knew that we were coming."

The next door neighbor opened the door. "Mr. Kohanek had to leave in a hurry. An emergency. He left this for you." She handed Julian an envelope. "Said to make yourselves at home."

With the keys from the envelope they let themselves in.

"What does the note say?" Duncan asked.

"Sorry, have to run. Beer is in the fridge. Hope that Mr. Dawson likes Heineken, if not, too bad."

They dropped Joe's bag on the floor, then Julian went to the fridge.

"Heineken, as he said. Care for a bottle, Mr. Dawson?"

Joe hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. "Yes, toss me one. Got any chips in there?"

They sat on the sofa, each of them holding his or her own bottle. Julian insisted in pouring his into a glass, the other three were less fastidious and drank straight from the bottle.

"Joe, I forgot to tell you, the wedding is formal. You'll have to rent a tuxedo." Duncan said.

"Black tie or white tie?"

"White tie." Julian answered.

Joe rolled his eyes. "I have not worn formal clothes since...I just can't remember for how long."

"Well, you will do it again. It won't kill you." Duncan said.

"How do you know? Maybe the Surgeon General will come up with the news that formal clothes give you cancer. Maybe I will be the first recorded case of formalwear- induced cancer."

"Why is everyone so upset about formal wear?" Julian asked. "I thought that most people would like to put on their best clothes. Instead all I get are complaints. Cash called them penguin suits, and said that if he wears the suit he will wear the penguin mask too."

Caitlin laughed at that. "Well, men are not as sensible as women. And then formal wear for men is so monotonous. All men look the same, like penguins. While women all wear different outfits. If men got to vary their clothes like women, they would like formal wear, too."

"You think so?"

At that moment Julian's pager rang. Julian picked it up, and frowned at the number displayed.

"Anything wrong?" Caitlin asked.

Julian looked at Duncan, and at Joe. He considered for a moment whether or not to tell them. He knew that he could trust Duncan, as for Joe...that was what was in the balance now. This may be the chance to find out. And he could always rearrange his memories later...

"Major emergency. From Sonny." He dialed the number. "Sonny, what is the problem?"

He listened, looking grimmer and grimmer as Sonny explained the problem to him.

"I will get back to you. We have to make plans, and soon. I'll contact the other clans. You and Frank get all the information."

He hung up and turned to his companions.

"Anything bad?" Caitlin asked.

"Nuclear terrorists. If we do not find them soon the entire City of San Francisco will go up in one big mushroom cloud."

o

It was the shortest Primogen meeting he remembered. Not even Cameron had protested when he explained that he needed their cooperation to keep San Francisco from joining Hiroshima and Nagasaki, only with more megatons. Plain survival made them all pledge their unstinting support. They came out to meet Caitlin who had deployed her PC and was running a printout straight from her modem.

"These are the names of all terrorist cells in the U.S.A. Don't ask me how I tapped into the FBI computer, and I won't have to lie to you. I have talked with both Frank and Sonny. They gave some of the phrases that the terrorists used. I will try to correlate with any known statements from any of these cells. Maybe they can give us a lead. The problem is that this is too slow."

"We can start looking for them ourselves, if we knew what to look for." Daedalus said

. "I know." Caitlin answered. "I have some words from their statements that might be code words. Or not so much code words as part of slogans. We can try using them to flush out the ones you want. Tell your people when they go out to feed, that as soon as their source goes under use these words. Any of them who responds, who reacts as if they know what is being talked about, take their name and address, go through their pockets or purse. if they can, hold them there until one of us comes take charge. If not, direct them someplace where they can be tracked. After they feed, continue putting people under and questioning them. We may be able to cover all of San Francisco in one night that way."

"Caitlin, you think..." Julian began, but a look from Caitlin froze him.

"This is not normal feeding procedure." Caitlin said. "But these are desperate circumstances. If a nuclear holocaust is not reason enough to break the privacy rule, then I do not know what is."

"I will tell my people to do as you say." Cameron agreed. "And pass the information along."

Daedalus, Lillie, and Cash repeated these words. Then they left without wasting any more time.

"Well, Julian, you tell the Ventrue the same thing. Get the information by hook or by crook. And get back to me when you hear something."

Julian nodded. For a moment it was as if he wanted to talk, then changed his mind. Caitlin's plan made too much sense to reject it.

"You, Duncan, Joe, help me out with this printout. Take a highlighter, each of you, and mark any group where you see any of the code words. Right now."

"What did she mean about normal feeding procedure?" Joe asked to Duncan.

"Normally they do not invade the privacy of those they feed upon. No asking for names, no going through their pockets or purse. They just get what they need and release their sources with no words exchanged. They remain strangers afterwards. She is telling all Kindred that they are supposed to break that rule, by order of the Prince. Only it was Caitlin who gave the order this time."

"Julian has put her in charge. He gave her the authority and did not contradict her." Dawson said.

"You should not discuss me as if I wasn't here." Caitlin said. "it is bad manners. Except for that Duncan is right. We are breaking the privacy rule big time. Julian is unhappy about it, because he is a stickler for the rules. But he agrees with me."

Dawson nodded and returned to his printout. He looked at one group.

"Damn it!" he said.

"What is it?" Duncan asked.

"I saw the name of this group before. In Watcher records."

"What do your remember about it?" "It used to be a small ineffectual group until an Immortal named Peter Langren took them over. They have become a lot more daring and ruthless since them."

"Peter Langren..." Duncan said.

"You ever ran across him?" Caitlin asked.

"I heard of him. Ruthless bastard. Always has some ideological reason for killing. He always kills for the greater good, whatever he imagines it to be. I never met him, but I did hear stories."

"Anyone wants to take bets that Peter Langren is mixed up in this?" Dawson asked.

Caitlin and Duncan looked at him and shook their heads.

"It is a sucker bet, Joe." Duncan said.

"Any way that we could tap the Watcher computer from yours?" Joe asked Caitlin.

"Easiest thing in the world. The Kindred that are Watchers gave us the passwords."

"Peter Langren did a lot of killing for the Communists, in the early days." Joe Dawson said. "He was one of their commissars, trying to bring about a brave new world. He was executed by Stalin, who of course, did know how to kill him. He reappeared later in Asia and Africa during the struggle for independence. He seemed to find the most fanatic and ruthless groups and hire himself as a mercenary to them. There is no atrocity that he has not committed. And always in the name of an ideal, whatever that might be."

"Just the type to hold a whole city hostage with a nuclear device. Or to blow one up to make a point?" Caitlin asked.

"Just the type."

Caitlin sighed. "Duncan, you are all right, but some of your fellow Immortals are nasty pieces of work."

"You'll get no argument from me about that."

The information from the Watcher computer showed up in the screen.

"Peter Langren was sighted about a week ago near San Francisco. His group was involved in hijacking a shipment of nuclear material."

"There it is, then." Caitlin turned to Joe. "Joe, did the Watchers know about the nuclear material?"

"Yes." "And they didn't tell no one? Didn't they pass on the information to anyone?"

"That is against the rules." Joe was uncomfortable.

"Against the rules? What did the Watchers think those terrorists would do with the nuclear material?"

"We watch and record, and never interfere."

"Great! And some say that people in the media have no ethics nor sense of responsibility. But you got us beat. You would rather watch thousands of people go up in smoke than break one of your stupid rules."

"Caitlin" Duncan broke in. "Bickering will not help us any. Get all the information you can, print it, and then let's study it."

"All right."

She got on the phone. "Julian, tell your people to ask also about Peter Langren, or about Skyhawk, he goes by that code name among them. I will call the others. Just keep your people looking."

She repeated the call to Lillie, Daedalus, Cash, and Cameron.. They all gave short acknowledgements.

"I should be in the field, with them. I can ask questions best of all of them. I hate being here, just waiting for the news to break."

Fifteen minutes later there was one call from Cash. One of the Gangrels had ran across someone who recognized Skyhawk.

"Where is he?" Caitlin asked.

Cash gave her the answer, and she nodded.

"Let him go, and have him followed. Get several people on his trail. See who else he runs into, and interrogate them. We will try to get all his contacts."

She hung up and called Sonny.

"We have a lead." she told him. "Can you get here, you and Frank? We may need the police to make the arrests and retrieve the material."

There was another call, from Julian. One of the Ventrue had ran into a woman who reacted to the name Peter Langren. The Ventrue had elicited the information that the bomb would go off in twenty-four hours, that it was rigged to explode unless deactivated by Langren.

"Julian who do we have who is an explosives expert? If we cannot get Langren to cooperate, we may have to dismantle the bomb ourselves."

Unfortunately the woman did not know where the bomb had been moved to. Caitlin gave Julian the same instruction she had given Cash. Let the woman go, and follow her. She then called Daedalus.

"Daedalus. Tell Sabazius to get ready. We will need him to deactivate a nuclear bomb."

She sat back. "Well, we made progress. Whether or not we get there on time...I will not call the authorities with this news for an hour. Then they can begin evacuation procedures. We want to find out all we need before the evacuation starts. It will be a lot harder to move around with so many cars heading out." she looked at the club downstairs, still packed with patrons unaware of the danger they were in.

"We should tell them to go home, so they too can evacuate" she mused. "We cannot ask our employees to take the same risks that we do. Their paychecks do not cover it." She remembered that she was hungry. "Joe, Duncan, do you prefer Italian or Chinese? I can have some food brought here."

"Italian." Joe said. "Pizza would be better, but I am not sure you serve it in this classy joint."

"We do. At exorbitant prices. And with luck we will serve it tomorrow." Duncan agreed on pizza, too, and Caitlin called for it on the intercom. Five minutes later an Hispanic middle aged woman came up with the plates.

"Thank you, Consuelo, come in." Caitlin said. She extended the pizza to the other two, then with a quick movement put Consuelo under.

Joe gasped when he saw Caitlin cut a wound on Consuelo's hand and press her mouth to it.

"Duncan, she's..."

"She ordered dinner for the three of us, Joe. Get used to it."

A few minutes later Caitlin was done. She put pressure on the wound she had made until she was sure that it had closed. And even if there was slight bleeding, it would look like a scratch.

"Consuelo, wake up." the woman opened her eyes. "Get back downstairs. I am closing the club right now for tonight. Tell the patrons to go home, and then you go to your families. Just go home, don't bother to clean nor count the money. Just leave."

The woman went downstairs again, leaving behind an astounded Dawson. Duncan, who had seen this before was already attacking his pizza.

"So that is how you do it."

"Yes. I hope that we can get them out in time...I would offer to evacuate them right now, but they all have families, and I think that they would rather be with them. I know that I would rather be with my family than save myself by abandoning them. It may be that there is not much that we can do for them if we fail."

"So we will not fail." Duncan said.

Caitlin gave him a desolate look. "We may fail yet. We are doing our best not to fail. But this is a timed thermonuclear device. If we do not disarm it in time, I hope that at least we are in close enough range to be killed by the blast."

Joe grimaced at this. The pizza that he was eating suddenly lost all flavor. He was going to die in a nuclear explosion. An explosion that might have been averted if the Watchers had passed on their knowledge to the authorities...

Caitlin repeated her orders to the manager on the intercom. Everyone was to go home. There would be explanation later, now she wanted everyone on their way.

The next phone call cheered her. Daedalus had called with an address, and Sabazius was ready to go to work.

She called Cameron, asking him to get Geiger counters in a hurry. Cameron answered that he had them gotten them already. He figured out that it would be a good way to find the bomb, if direct interrogation failed.

She told him of the bomb being already timed to explode, and that Sabazius would try to dismantle it. "So if you find it, wait until Sabazius shows up. Don't try to dismantle it yourself, or we may be having our next conversation next to Saint Peter."

She hung up.

"Cameron is smart. He knows that there is no way that he can make a profit out of an exploding bomb. But it does not hurt to remind him of the fact."

Lillie was the next one to call. She had another man tell her where Peter Langren was. She was moving in there.

"Lillie, Peter Langren is Immortal. He may be immune to some of your power. Be very careful around him. He is not as harmless as Duncan."

"Caitlin." Duncan interjected. "If you are hunting Langren, I am a living Geiger counter. You get me driving around the general area, and I will find him for you."

"I'll drive you." Caitlin said. "Joe can take care of the incoming calls. Just reroute them to my cellular phone."

"Can't you set it up automatically?" Joe said "I'd rather not be alone. If I am going to blow up into tiny radioactive dust, I want to know when it happens. And I am Duncan's Watcher, anyway."

"All right, come in. Just watch and keep out of the way...you are aware that we cannot guarantee to keep you safe?"

"I understand."

"If we have to, we will sacrifice you to get to the bomb."

"I know. But there is no safety anywhere."

They went down. They passed the empty Elvis phone bank. They had told the operators to join the search and disconnected the Elvis phones.

"When we home into the device we will tell all Kindred to evacuate the City, except for those who can be of help." Caitlin said as she started the car. "No need to get them killed if we fail."

They drove in silence for a few minutes. Then Joe spoke. "How come you and Julian stayed? You could have gotten out in time, with the advance warning."

"And leave our City? I do not know about the others, why they chose to stay, but Julian is the Prince of the City. He cannot abandon it. And I cannot abandon Julian. Either we succeed or we die together."

"Julian has a responsibility, first to his fellow Kindred, in keeping the City a decent place for them to live in." Duncan explained. "And then to the humans who provide them with what they need. Julian takes his responsibilities seriously."

"Joe, if Julian left and the bomb did not go off, he would be disgraced. The way they would treat him, he might as well be dead. If he left and it went off they would say that he shirked his duty, that if he had stayed he would have prevented it, and they would punish him for that." Caitlin sighed. "It is not just altruism. The rules by which we live often force us to be better people than it is within us to be."

"I saw how you fed on that woman. You were concerned about her, and felt bad that the only thing you could do for her was to allow her to die with her family."

"She might make it out of the city. I do not know."

"I did not realize you could care so much for your...victims."

"That is not the only way I...victimize them. I get stories out of them. Julian is upset about it and insists that I protect them when I do so. They all have green cards in our business, so they cannot be touched by Immigration, but the series on illegal immigrants I published two months ago, I got it from them. In confidence, many of them are illegals. We arrange for them to get their green cards before we hire them. We have to keep it legal. We do not care to have Cameron arrange for a raid by La Migra, as they call it."

Caitlin called Lillie, telling her to stay put, that they were bringing reinforcements.

"I hope that Lillie does not go for silly heroics. If I have to, I will tell Julian to order her to evacuate the Torreadors right now. She was close to Duncan once, and if she thinks that all Immortals as nice as he is... I know that we cannot put Duncan under, like we do with humans. If she forgets this, she may be in trouble."

"You were close to her?" Joe asked Duncan

"We were lovers. We broke up because she could not handle what I was any better than a human. She could not take my going on challenges and waiting to see if I came back with my head." Duncan sighed "Every day that passes I realize how special Tessa was."

There was a call from Sonny. They had tracked down the cell, following Cash's lead. They were set to make arrests.

"Sonny, do you have a good human expert in dismantling bombs?"

"We have one coming in two hours. He is very good."

"Do you trust him enough to do the job? Or would you rather have Sabazius try?"

"No offense, Caitlin, but Sabazius' expertise is all theoretical. I'd rather go with this guy. If we find the bomb, the Police Department handles it."

"All right. It is your call. We are closing down on Skyhawk."

They drove one more block, then Duncan tapped Caitlin's shoulder. "He is here. Stop the car."

Caitlin did, and called Julian with the news. Then she called the others. She called Sonny, and told him it was his call when to tell the authorities what they had found.

"He is here." Duncan said.

Caitlin looked around. "I do not see Lillie. Either she missed him. Or she is inside with him."

Caitlin put the call to Julian, as Duncan got out of the car, brandishing his sword. "Stay in the car, Joe. You might get hurt."

"Not a chance. I am not sitting here, wondering if I am going to make it or not."

"Don't slow us down, then. You keep up with us, or stay behind."

The door was locked.

"Stand back, I will blow out the lock. When it does, Duncan barges in. I will follow him."

It took only one shot to force the door open. Caitlin gave Duncan her gun and changed shape to a wolf, crouching down as Duncan pushed inside.

An Immortal stood on top of the stairs in front of them.

"I am Skyhawk." Langren said, brandishing his sword.

"I am Duncan MacLeod, of the clan MacLeod."

"So you are. Do you know the lady there?" Langren waved his hand in the direction of a heap on the floor.

It was Lillie, stabbed through her chest by a metal pole which nailed her to the floor. She was alive, but could not move.

"She thought she could take over my mind. But I know more about vampires than she knew about Immortals. I know how to keep them from interfering, and they die just as easily as humans."

Duncan looked at Lillie for a moment, then back to Langren. Her wound was nasty but not fatal. It could wait until they had taken care of Langren.

"I have come for your head, Langren. You will kill no one else."

"They will all die. I have advanced the timetable. In forty five minutes this place goes up, unless they give in to my demands."

Duncan thought quickly. He had to take Langren's head. He needed Langren's knowledge on how to find and dismantle the bomb. He wondered about Caitlin and hoped that she did not interfere.

"I will learn from your Quickening how to dismantle the bomb." He said, so that she would let him do.

Their swords clashed.

"Why do you do this?" Duncan said. "You may not survive the blast either. The explosion might rip your head off."

"Then I would die for an ideal, for something greater than myself. Better than dying for some stupid Prize."

Duncan said nothing else. Talking would do no good, and he needed to concentrate on his swordplay. Langren was just too good.

Sword clashed against sword. Caitlin looked around. There was someone else there, someone that she should attend to before trying to help Lillie. She knew the mistake Lillie had made and she would not repeat it. She heard a small sound a few feet from her. She looked and noticed the movement behind the crates. She dove in, and fell on a fat guy with glasses who was clutching a recording device.

"I am not one of them." the man said quickly. "I just Watch."

"You are Langren's Watcher?" She released the man.

"Did you call the police with the information you got?"

"I cannot. I am supposed to watch, and not interfere."

"You stupid son of a bitch!" Caitlin grabbed the man angrily and shook him. She then twisted his hands behind him and bound them tightly with her scarf. She pulled at the scarf so hard that he screamed in pain.

"I should kill you right now, except that it would make it easy on you. You wait until we know if the bomb will go off or not. You will not know when you will become a radioactive cinder. You will wait slowly until it happens, and think how you could have avoided this death if you had used your brain. Anybody else here?"

"No, just Skyhawk. He told everyone to leave, said that he would change the setting of the bomb himself?"

"You mean that the bomb is here?" "Yes."

Caitlin cursed.

"Are you a vampire, too?"

Caitlin saw Langren stumble and fall on his knees. Duncan lifted his sword to take the head.

There was a shot and Duncan fell. Caitlin turned to see Julian gun in hand. He waited until Langren got himself up and shot him too.

"The bomb is here." he explained. "I did not want to see if a Quickening would set it off."

Behind him came Cameron carrying a Geiger counter. "Seems that we are all meeting here." he said.

"Call Sabazius, Julian, quickly." Caitlin said "Langren reset the bomb to go off in forty five minutes. That was seven minutes ago. We cannot wait for the police expert."

Julian did so while Caitlin pulled the pole off Lillie's wound.

"She thought that she could take Langren, and was wrong."

"Too many movies," Julian threw a rope to Joe. "Tie up Langren, then rouse Duncan. Apologize to him on my behalf."

"What you mean by too many movies?" Joe said as he knotted the rope tight.

"Too many movies emphasizing the predatory aspect of vampires. It finally get to us, and we start thinking that we are these powerful unstoppable predators, and it is only our naturally sweet disposition that keep us from slaughtering humans right and left. We forget how dangerous, how predatory, and how nasty non-Kindred can be. Lillie thought that because she was Kindred that she had nothing to fear from Langren. She knows better now."

Langren cursed as Joe finishing tying him up. "Gag him, Joe. I do not care to listen to him."

"Why not have him tell us how to dismantle the bomb?" Cameron asked. "I could make him talk."

"You cannot put him under." "I can hurt him."

"He can withstand torture until the bomb goes off. And do you want your last act in this life to be the torture of another, no matter how justified it seems? I do not want to die with that fresh in my conscience."

"You sanctimonious bastard." Cameron muttered. "You should have been a priest." but he gave in.

Julian was right. Langren would be able to withstand torture for the half hour they all had to live.

"Gag him, Joe." Julian repeated.

Lillie staggered. "I thought I had him. Then he turned on me.."

"Well, it does not matter. Take what you need from him. Take a lot, you cannot hurt him."

Lillie did not need more prompting. She fell hungrily on Langren while Joe watched wide eyed.

Julian's beeper went off. "The police is coming here. Frank and Sonny, with five more cops. We can put these cops under, and come up with a scenario for when they wake up. We better have Langren safely away by then."

"And Langren's Watcher." Caitlin said. "He's tied up. I should kill him, except that it might not be the best way."

She brought back the bound man, who stared wide eyed to the group. "All of you are..."

"Lillie, take him and Langren in the car. The Haven is closed, so you will have little trouble getting them into the subterranean garage and the basement. Keep them tied up until we come back."

"If we come back." Cameron said, studying the situation. He was glad that he had ordered Gray earlier to evacuate as many Brujah as he could. At least some of them would live. Maybe Gray would make it out of the city before it blew up.

Duncan staggered back to Julian. "I am sorry Duncan, but I know what a Quickening is like."

"You were right. He reset the bomb."

"Yes. Sabazius will be here in two minutes."

"And Frank and Sonny in one."

In schedule the police cars came in. Julian nodded to Caitlin and to Cameron. They waited until the first two came in. With quick gestures these two were entranced and moved out of the way. The next two followed, and then the last one, carried by Sonny.

"What happened?" Frank asked.

"We are waiting for Sabazius to show up." Julian said. "Should be here any moment."

Right there the Nosferatu flew in. "You do need my services, don't you?"

"Caitlin." Sonny protested. "I thought we went through this."

"We cannot wait. We have to dismantle it now. Damn bastard moved the timetable and we only have half an hour. The human expert cannot get here in time."

Frank gasped at this.

"All right," Sonny agreed "Sabazius, do your best. If you fail, we will all meet at St Peter's Gate."

"I will not fail. I am good."

"I know." Caitlin smiled her encouragement.

Sabazius was good in theory. This was his first field test. Julian looked around, then closed his eyes and crossed himself.

"Santa Maria, Madre de Dios, ruega por nosotros, pecadores, ahora, y en la hora de nuestra muerte." he said, reverting to the Spanish that he had learned as a child. He turned to Caitlin. "Give me your hand." he asked her. "We may not have much time together, you and I."

Caitlin took his hand and smiled at him. "It is all right, Julian. We will go together."

They were now standing next to a thermonuclear device that had not been dismantled yet, with less than a half hour to live. They felt a need to make their time count.

"Caitlin O'Neill" he looked into her eyes, feeling lost in them "light of my eyes, light of my heart, right here, right now, in the sight of God, I take you for my wife, to have and to hold, to love and cherish, until death and beyond."

"Julian Luna," she squeezed his hand as she spoke."you adorable, impossible man, right here, right now, in the sight of God, I take you for my husband, to have and to hold, to love and cherish, until death and beyond."

They kissed slowly, then Julian made a small cut in Caitlin's hand and put it to his lips, and Caitlin made a cut on his hand and put it to her lips. They held each other, tasting this one bit of Heaven on Earth.

Frank wetted his lips. He wished for a beer, any beer. His mouth was dry, and he ached for relief.

Cameron sang softly the Achy Breaky Song. A devotee of Weird Al Yankovic, he wished to get out one last Karaoke action before he was called to account for his lousy taste.

Joe turned to Duncan. "So this is it, Duncan. It has been a pleasure to Watch you. I imagine that you can survive even this."

"Not if my head is blown off by the explosion. It might well be that I will meet all of you at St. Peter's Gate. They are going to have a busy day there today."

"You don't have much confidence in me, do you?" Sabazius grumbled. "I told you that I am the best there is at it, so why worry?"

They said nothing, letting him work in peace. Frank looked back at the cops that had come with him, still in a trance. Their lives also hung in the balance. They should not die like that, not knowing what was happening...On the other hand, when cops left the station, there was always the chance they would not return. They had accepted the risk with their job. And all in all, their best hope was with Sabazius's skill.

Sonny looked at him and shrugged. He probably knew what he was thinking, but there was nothing he could do about it. As an afterthought, Sonny crossed himself, just as he had seen Julian do.

Cameron finished his song and started on "Dare to Be Stupid", perhaps to comment on the position he found himself in. All that he had hoped to do might never happen. He would not even see Luna die, because he would go out with him. And Cyrus and his gang might regain control of the surviving Brujah. Gray would do what he could, but he could not hold on, not without a City.

The minutes ticked on the wristwatch that Joe held. He kept looking at it, then to Sabazius. He thought about what he could say, some way to sum up his life, to explain himself to the world he was leaving. He felt a sour taste in his mouth. He was proud of being a Watcher, at least he had been. Now he, as well as thousands, was facing death, a tragedy that could have been avoided if at least one Watcher had made an anonymous phone call to the police. He had heard Caitlin's condemnation of Langren's Watcher, and he agreed with it.

He looked at Julian and Caitlin and felt a pang of regret. They loved each other so much, and all they would have would be these few minutes on earth. He remembered their courage and resourcefulness. He remembered how Caitlin had agonized over the plight of her employees, just as she had fed off one of them. He remembered Duncan's stories about Julian, about his generosity and compassion. He remembered Julian's words when they had first met. If they made it, the Watchers would never know about Kindred, he swore to himself. Nor anyone else. He would give Julian peace of mind as a wedding gift.

"Well, it is dismantled." Sabazius said. "it is safe now."

Cameron lifted his head. "Are you sure? You mean, we are going to live?"

"Why, don't you like it?"

"We..are..going to live." Frank said, feeling how his insides were turning to jelly.

"Of course, don't you understand English?" Sabazius said, peeved. "I do not know why everybody is so worked up."

"We will have to get penguin suits now." Sonny said, smiling. "Hey, will somebody rouse those two, tell them that they are going to live, so they should stop making a spectacle of themselves?"

Duncan tugged at Julian's sleeve, until he caught his attention. "Sorry to interrupt, but we made it. Saint Peter will have to wait, after all."

Julian pulled his hand off Caitlin's lips with an effort, then released Caitlin's hand. "You mean..."

"Sabazius dismantled the bomb. Now we have to get out of here."

Julian looked around to the five entranced policemen. "We will have to cook up a plausible scenario for them. I know. Sabazius, can you reset the timetable to the original?"

"I could, but why?"

"To have it officially disabled by the San Francisco Police Department. Make the connection the simplest one to disarm. And hang around just in case."

"You are crazy, Julian." Sabazius said.

"No, I am trying to cover our tracks. Duncan, you have Skyhawk build. At a distance you can pass for him. If Frank and Sonny swear you are him, the other cops will go along. You will shoot at them, they will shoot back and you will fall." He looked around. "Let's see, how will we have a body that is never recovered...I know, jump out of the window. When they follow run towards the pier and jump into the water. They will not recover the body immediately, and with luck it may surface a couple of weeks from now, decapitated by a propeller blade."

"Julian, do you think..."

"I know, there are flaws in the scenario, but they won't look at flaws. They'll be too excited about the bomb to worry about minor lapses in logic. And Sonny can smooth over those. The cops are tired and overwrought. They will be too glad to know that they are going to live to worry too much about details. Their memories can be arranged easily within boundaries. Specially if they have a couple of beers afterwards, and then go home to sleep."

They all got in position, Duncan brandishing a gun, with instruction to shoot in the air, or at most, at Sonny. Sonny positioned himself in front of the other cops, so that their view of Duncan was obscured by him. Julian, Caitlin, and Cameron stood behind the five cops, and released their mental hold on them.

It was quick.

Duncan shot at them and ran before they could get a good look at him. Frank chased after him with two other cops, while Sonny screamed that he had found the bomb.

Duncan ran to the pier, let out a couple more shots, and jumped into the water. It was not the first time that he simulated a drowning, so he did it again. He kept a sharp lookout for propeller blades, just in case.

o

"Do you want to go home now?" Julian asked Cameron

"I want to see the police expert disable the bomb. Just in case."

"You know, you and I worked well together this time."

"This time." Cameron said. "Next time, it will be different." He stared at Julian. "I know what you are, and what you pretend to be. This time we had the same interests, but watch out. One day everybody will know what you really are."

"Cameron..." Caitlin said, conciliatorily..

"Lady, you still believe in him, and now I cannot tell you otherwise. If one day you learn better, I will be glad to help you get rid of him."

They glared at each other in silence.

It was a long wait until the police expert got there, but eventually he did. The bomb was disabled a second time, and San Francisco let out an official sigh of relief.

"Now, it is over." Caitlin said. "Except for two details."

o

"Why don't you turn over Langren to us?" Frank asked Julian after he had finally left the police station for the day. "We can punish him within our Law."

"Because he has done enough to be executed." Julian said.

"And suddenly you are against the death penalty?"

"Neither the State of California nor the Federal Government uses the guillotine. And the only way that Langren can die is by decapitation."

"You mean..."

"He is like Duncan. You give him a fatal injection, and before you know it his body disappears from the morgue, and he is free to continue his depredations elsewhere. Stalin already tried to kill him and failed. He has to lose his head, either at Duncan's hands or mine. Unless you want to do it."

Frank shook his head. "No thanks. Are you sure that he would get the death penalty? He could get a good lawyer."

"He'd make sure to get a bum lawyer. He will not want to spend too much time in jail, it would slow him down. And then there are fights and accidents in jail. Or he can be shot trying to escape. Langren will not stay in your jail for long."

"Yeah, I see your point. We cannot hold someone who escapes by dying."

"So the report will say that Langren is either missing or dead. We hope to provide a body before long. And we will fill the corpse's lungs with Bay water, so he will look like he drowned, and then lost his head, instead of the other way around."

"Yeah, state the bald facts, and let people get the wrong inference from them. I am getting quite good at it, don't you think?"

"We do what we have to do. Cheer up, Frank. We saved the City, and we brought the perpetrators to justice. Even Langren. Why quibble over details?"

"Now we have one more problem to take care of." Caitlin said. "Langren's Watcher. He knows about Kindred now. And the stupid son-of-a-bitch knew all the time where Skyhawk and the bomb were and never thought about passing the news along. He is too stupid to live."

Julian shook his head "I know that I have to make a decision, but I am too angry to think straight about him. If I see him I might kill him. The entire City of San Francisco might have died and he would have kept his mouth shut, just because of his stupid oath."

"He did that?" Frank said. "He knew where the bomb was all the time?"

"Yes."

"Julian." Frank shook his head. "Let me do it. I will shoot him myself with pleasure.

" "Frank, don't"

"I want to do it, Julian. I just escaped being burned to a crisp knowing that an entire city died with me. And this...jerk would have let that happen. He isn't human. I don't know what he is, but he does not deserve to be human, nor Kindred, nor anything but dead meat. And you know what your Law says. This one is mine."

"He does not need to die." Julian tried to be fair. "We can embrace him, according to our Law."

Frank laughed. "Embrace? And who will do it? I know what being somebody's sire means, the responsibility and the emotional bond. How many Kindred can you find that will want to stay in the same room with this guy, let alone sire him? Who would want to take responsibility for this jerk, or be emotionally bound to him? I will put him out of his misery right now."

"If you do it, it is murder." Julian said.

"And you cannot pass it as anything else." Caitlin said."The M.E. will see that he was bound when he was shot. I tied him tightly enough."

"We do not have that many choices."

"We can make him forget." Caitlin said. "With instructions on what the tell the Watchers."

"What if he makes himself remember later?"

"I know of a way. He will get a concussion and be hospitalized. He will get drugs that will bring hallucinations. Add enough hallucinations, and he will think that vampires are part of them. We will work on his mind while he is drugged. I have his personality profile from the Watcher computer. We can use it to give him the kind of visions that will make him reluctant to go over his memories. His recording device was broken and he could not retrieve the tape. The only record of Langren's death will be written by Joe Dawson. We need Joe Dawson's cooperation, and we will get it if we let his fellow Watcher live."

"I know. You are right, my heart. I cannot make this decision out of anger. And you Frank, I do not want to hear any more of your committing murder."

"All right. Still, I would have liked to shoot him."

o

Duncan crossed his arms and shook his head.

"I will not behead him while he is helpless. Not with bound hands."

"You had beaten him when I shot you. You were about to take his head when I interrupted you. You can take it from where you left off."

"That is not how we do things."

"Do you want to fight him again?"

"That is what we do. That is our nature. We engage in fights to the death, and the winner takes the loser's head and receives the Quickening."

"You engaged in a fight. You were the winner, and he was the loser. Take his head. You do not need to start at the beginning again."

"I have to. Julian, you know our agreement. I do not interfere with your nature and you do not interfere with mine. I will fight Langren again, and only then take his head."

"And what if he takes yours?"

"Julian, we have gone through this already."

"Duncan, I am tired of your silly rules. Tired of the whole Immortal rituals and Watcher's secrets. First that Watcher whose mind we are working on lets Langren almost blow up San Francisco, because he is not supposed to interfere. Now you want to risk your head one day before my wedding. It would be a lot of fun having to bury you tomorrow, just in time for the party."

"That is my way."

"All right, if that is your position, I will tell you mine. I refused to turn him over to human justice because, as I told Frank, they do not know how to execute him properly. Were it not for that they would have him in custody right now. He is still in my custody and I am not releasing him to yours, either, and for the same reason."

"Julian, you said..."

"I am a judge among my people. Never forget that about me, Duncan. I can pass death sentences when I have to. And I am passing one now on Peter Langren for the attempted murder of the entire population of San Francisco, human, Kindred, plus any Immortals who would have had their heads ripped off by the explosion. Don't contradict me. I have the authority and you know it."

"But..."

"I know of our agreement, and I have kept it. How many challenges have you taken since I have known you? How many in San Francisco? Did I ever ask you about them? Did I keep count? Did I ever let you know how worried I was when you went to any of them that I knew about? I respect your nature. Please respect my authority." He walked towards the door. "I am going to make arrangements to the execution. You are welcome to attend and receive his Quickening. If you do not, his Quickening will be wasted, but his head will fall anyway."

He went through the door, then he turned to Duncan once again. "It is out of your hands. Get his Quickening or waste it, it is all the same to me."

o

"You do not like me, do you?" Joe asked Frank as he prepared to go to sleep.

"You are a Watcher, same as that jerk that would let us go up in flames to keep the stupid rules. No, I do not like you one bit. But Julian asked me to put you up and I will. No need to give him more problems for him to handle."

"They will not kill him, will they?"

"They were tempted, but they decided not to. They will rearrange his memories, and you better not let him suspect that they are not true. But if anyone deserved to be shot, it is him. Too stupid to live, if you ask me."

"I know. I do not agree with the policy of not interfering. I was almost executed by them for breaking it." he explained how the Watchers had discovered his relationship with MacLeod, and how he had pointed MacLeod in the direction of predatory Immortals that needed to be taken out.

"So if you had been Langren's Watcher, you would have done more than Watch."

"Yes."

"Then I guess that you are OK."

Frank went to the fridge and got himself a beer. "You want one?" he asked as a gesture of peace.

"Yes."

Joe drank it, then began to laugh uncontrollably. Frank watched him, and then broke into laughter of relief himself.

"What a night." Joe said, when he was at last able to speak. "I really thought this was it. It was worse than when the Watchers were going to shoot me. At least then I had made peace with myself and accepted it. This...I was coming to a wedding, and to see Duncan's vampire friends, and have them justify themselves to me. Well, I attend a wedding of sorts, and then I have to justify myself to the vampires, for being one of a select group of jerks...and then I may end up blown to ashes in a few minutes..."

"And me... I was so happy having tracked down the bomb. Actually letting Julian and Caitlin track it. But anyway, I let the other cops to it. And I am standing there, proud of myself. The next thing I learn that I am a few feet away from an activated nuclear devices. Then I see Julian cross himself and hear him pray in Spanish to Mary, Mother of God. Then he marries Caitlin in the sight of God. And all the while we know that if Sabazius does something wrong, you and I and the rest would be radioactive ash in the middle of a big hole in the ground."

"Was that why he modified the wedding vows? There would not be any "until death do us part" for them if the bomb went off."

"That was corny as Hell. I bet he got that out of an old movie."

"The African Queen, that was it. When Humphrey Bogart asks the ship's captain who is going to hang him and Katherine Hepburn to marry them first."

"I never figured Julian for the Humphrey Bogart type, but then who knows. Funny, why didn't he ask Sonny to marry them? He had already deputized him to do it tomorrow night."

"I guess it was not dramatic enough for his taste."

"Yeah, Julian has a flair for the dramatic gesture. I can imagine him proudly refusing a blindfold in front of a firing squad."

"He's quite a guy, isn't he?"

"Yeah. I know what you are thinking. That he is all right for a vampire. I went through that stage. Then I went to the stage when if I forgot that he was a vampire I could admit that he has a lot of good points."

"And now?"

"Now I understand that it is all of one piece. He is who he is because of what he is. The rules that they have to live by emphasize responsibility in one area of their lives, then the question for all of them is how much that responsibility spills over the rest. In Julian's case if spills all over who he is. Responsibility is his middle name. Not much of a sense of humor, I admit. And an uncontrollable tendency to lecture everyone around. It took me a long time to figure out that the one thing that made me edgy about him is exactly the same one that drives other vampires crazy."

"That other guy called him a sanctimonious bastard."

"Yeah, Cameron. The leader of the rival clan, the Brujah. He wants Julian's job, and he hates Julian personally. I do not know the whole story, but I know that Julian will not turn his back to him."

"You said that they enforce responsibility in one area. Is that the feeding?"

"Yes. Basically the idea is that after they feed, there must be a witness that sees their...source walk away from them unharmed. And that they are responsible for their safety until they regain consciousness. They are very quick, and very efficient about it. And very brazen. They will feed anywhere. Julian once fed right in the police station. I heard stories about their feeding in the White House, in the Oval Office itself. Or in the FBI building, the Pentagon, CIA Headquarters... I think that some make a game of it...see how much they can get away with. Some of them claim to have fed on IRS auditors, come to check their returns."

Joe laughed about it.

"I saw Caitlin do it." he said. "It shocked me. Then she released the woman, and after she had left, she was worried about her and the others making it out of the city, or at least being able to die with their families. She regretted she could not do more for them...I guess that is a case of being responsible.."

"Yes. I know of a better example. The woman that was being bled was shot by a hit man, who thought she was a witness. So they all hid her, took the bullet out of her, bandaged her, and contacted me to see how we could play it. When I found out my first instinct was to rescue her from the den of vampires. Then Julian told me that she would be released to me if I swore on my immortal soul (Julian likes high- sounding terms) that I could keep her safe. If I couldn't, it would be irresponsible for him to let me have her."

"So how did it end?"

"We caught the hit man, and the one who hired him. She went back to her family with no memory of her stay with her hosts. And everybody was happy."

"You are not kidding, are you?"

"No kidding at all. I went through it."

"Impressive." Joe admitted. "You know, I think that I am to Julian what you are to Duncan. Why don't you tell me about you two, and about the Watchers, and why are they such jerks?"

"How much do you know about Duncan?"

"I saw the fireworks when he cut off Felicia Martens' head."

There was lighting flashing through the window. Frank looked at it, and so did Joe. There were other flashes of lighting, all seemingly coming from Julian's house.

"Peter Langren has paid for his crimes, at last." Frank said.

"Duncan?.." Joe ventured.

"Julian. Their justice is harsh, brutal even, but it is swift. And they know how to execute Immortals."

o

The party was a letdown for Frank. Not that there was nothing wrong with it, on the contrary. It was just that it did not compare, in excitement with the events of the past night. The guests all seemed to share his feelings. They were mostly thankful to be still around, and too busy contemplating their own mortality to appreciate the fun that they were supposed to be having.

Joe Dawson was the only one enjoying himself thoroughly. After playing a few bars on his guitar he had struck a conversation with members of a Gangrel band and had ended up jamming with them in the basement. Duncan had checked on him once, and then gone back to circulate among the guests.

He saw Amanda hanging from Julian's arm. She was reassuring him that the Spanish baroque sculptures that she had brought him as a gift had their provenance fully documented, and that he did not risk being accused of receiving stolen goods if he accepted them.

Julian nodded distractedly. This wedding was a letdown for him, too. As far as he knew he had already married Caitlin, and he was now carrying this charade for the sake of the guests.

Julian finally broke free of Amanda and went to find Frank.

"Frank, I would like to talk to you, in private." Frank followed him to his study. He finished his drink and made himself comfortable in a chair. Julian crossed his arms and stared at Frank.

"Frank, why did you offer me to kill Langren's Watcher yourself?"

"I told you why."

"It does not ring true. It felt forced then, and it still does. Why did you do it?"

"I was upset. All right, I had wet my pants, and I was furious about it."

"You were acting, for my benefit. Did you do it to keep me from killing him myself?"

"Why would I do that?" "To protect me. To keep me from having another death on my conscience. To save me from the psychological consequences of yet another act of violence."

"Julian..."

"Unfortunately you know more that I would want you to know about my...problems."

"All right, I know about your flashbacks. You are a vampire who cannot stand the sight of blood on occasion. Like when you feel guilty about an act of violence you had to commit. You are starting on your honeymoon, and I know what your sex life is about, giving and taking blood with your mate. If you were to get a flashback it is the same as being impotent. Think of it as my wedding present."

"Frank, don't protect me. I am an adult, capable of making my own decisions. I respect you enough not to babysit you, and I expect the same respect from you."

"You do protect me."

"Only as far as the fact that your presence is a breach of the Masquerade. As for the rest, I do not interfere when you have to face criminals shooting at you. Sonny does watch your back, but that is part of his job description with the San Francisco Police Department. I let you take your own risks, same as I let Duncan MacLeod engage in individual combats that might cost him his head, when I could easily step in and take his opponent down. You have to let me take my own risks."

"Julian, I did not want you to do it. I mean, you have every reason to feel good about yourself. After all, you saved thousands of people at great personal risk. Why ruin that good feeling with killing that jerk?"

"And would I feel better if I knew that you had committed murder for my sake? That you had broken your oath as police officer because of me? That you had started on a slippery slope where things would only get worse for you? Frank, for you it would have been murder. I am a judge among my people. I have the authority to pass death sentences, and on occasion I carry them out myself. You have no authority, so do not do what you have no right doing. You cannot go around killing people as a favor to your friends."

"All right, I won't"

Julian sighed.

"Frank what do you see when you look at me?"

"What?"

"At the beginning you looked at me through your anger and grief for Alexandra. I was not a person to you, just the object of your hatred. There was truth in that, for I had done something that was hateful to you. But that was not all of me. What was the next thing you saw in me?"

"That you are...Kindred."

"That I was not human, and moreover that I need to take human blood. I do not deny my need. But eventually you saw that while I have this hunger, this hunger is not all of me. It is part of my existence, but far from the most important. Actually, by the way it is regulated, it is the part of my existence least likely to give me problems."

"I'll buy that."

"Then you learned about my psychological problems. I do not deny their existence nor their severity. But I am more than a collection of interesting symptoms. I know what they do to me. But Frank, remember, when I have to act, I can put them aside and do what must be done. I have goals and hopes. I have duties. I have responsibilities, and I keep them. I want you to see that too. I want you to see all of me, not just parts."

Frank nodded. "Last night I executed Langren, for instance."

"I saw the lighting from my window."

"Yes. Duncan got the Quickening, but the head was struck off by a Kindred hand, at my command. Frank, I do not feel queasy nor guilty about it. It had to be done and I did it. I doubt that I will get any symptoms from this, but if I do, I will live with them. I have learned how to do it."

Frank nodded. He had to accept what Julian was telling him.

"Well, now that this is out of the way, we can go to the party and see that everyone has as much of a good time as they allow themselves to have. Maybe it was not a good idea to have it right after they are all still convincing themselves that they are going to live, after all. But moving the date would be such a headache that we went along anyway."

"As far as I am concerned, you and Caitlin are already married."

"Yes, we are." Julian smiled thinking of the improvised wedding vows he had said the night before. He loved Caitlin so much...If only he could make it last.

"Julian, I wish you the best. I am sorry I got out of line, but I did it because I care about you."

"I know." Julian put his arm around Frank's shoulders. "You are a good friend, Frank. Just stop protecting me, all right?"

"All right."