TITLE: Forever Darkness
BY: Showndra Ridge

DISCLAIMER: Like most of my stories this is a x-over. The character of Sita belongs to Christopher Pike. Nicholas belongs to whoever created Forever Knight. The master vampire is based upon a character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer the TV show.

The story that comes before this one will be found, it was lost. This story was for a short story in one of my classes.

No one had seen the old woman for nearly a year, and everyone had begun to think she had died in the depths of the cave. What remained of her family had finally stopped mourning and had started to look towards the future. Then one night two girls, Cryss and Drew, walked by the entrance to the cave and heard a long shrieking scream followed by a long cackling laugh. They ran back to town and told everyone what they had heard. I was the only one that believed them. Now do you see why I need your help. The letter had been signed Nicholas.
Nick had once been a good friend of hers. He had been her major teacher before Sita came along. Then Sara had left with Sita and she had lost track of him. When she was finally able to get a track on him it turned out he had moved to a little town to "get away from it all".
Sara glanced out of the window of the train and watched the sun setting. When at last the sky was only a little pink the train came to a stop at the station, and she stood and left.
As soon as she got off the train, she began to look for him. When it became obvious to Sara that Nicholas was not there, she decided to sit down and wait. She was just about to find a seat when someone grabbed her arm. Sara whirled around to face her attacker and screamed "Nick what in the world are you doing?"
"I just came to pick you up and take you into town. Did I scare you?"
"No."
She walked with him over to his car, and he drove her into town, and to his house. Once at his house he asked the question she knew had been coming, "Would you like to see the cave tonight or tomorrow night?"
"I think I would like to see it tomorrow morning, in the daylight, so I can get a good look around."
"Then of course you know I can't go with you."
"Of course."
The next morning Sara stepped out of Nicholas' house and into the bright warm sunlight. She was very careful to shut the door quickly, securely behind her so it would not blow open and allow the light inside, and she started towards the cave. Most of the town's people stood and looked at her. They were not afraid of her, she was only a teen age girl, they where more afraid for her. One of the older teens started towards her, but when she looked at him, he stopped.
At the entrance to the cave, Sara looked in. There was a cool wind blowing out of the cave, but as pleasant as the wind was that hot morning it carried the stench of death. Any mortal standing near by, so close to what Sara believed was a vampire den would probably feel very uneasy and leave as quickly as time would allow. Sara did not like standing all alone next to something that would probably like very much to kill her, so she did the only smart thing she could do. She went back to the village to get help.
After nightfall, Sara and Nick started to go to the cave. As they walked through town, they were stopped by the town's folk. Most of the men stood holding various Vampire killing stuff: stakes, stuff to behead Vampires, flaming torches. "You're going to the cave to kill that old woman?"
"Yes."
"We are going to escort you."
"You look more like you're going to kill Vampires." Nicholas said trying to keep himself composed.
"That would explain why a lot of our people have been disappearing."
Nick only shrugged at that. The men walked to the cave, with Sara only getting more annoyed every step.
Once at the cave entrance the man made sure they were ready and took out their crosses and garlic necklaces. Some of the man even had crosses woven into the garlic. That Sara thought was an overkill. When the men offered cross necklaces Sara turned them down showing them the gold one she always wore that had been given to her by Sita, and Nick flatly refused.
They slowly entered the cave with Sara in the lead and the men following. As weird as it may seem Sara was more worried about Nicholas then she was about the men. Nick had never before been forced to kill a Vampire, not that any of the other men had, it was just they had to so they could protect their families. Nick did not have any family. He had one old friend that was very sick, but that was about all, and he was not in danger.
As they walked deeper into the cave, the smell grew stronger. Finally, when Sara thought the men could stand it no longer, they entered a large room. One of the men almost rushed forward, but something held him and all the men back, something about the fact that what they were looking at could not be right or of this world. All of the missing town's people were sitting on the ground looking at something. From where Sara was standing, she could not see what it was. She walked forward and motioned for the men to stay where they were. Once she got to where she could see she stopped and stared. All of the Vampires, as they must be, were looking at the old woman. She was actually floating. Sara motioned for the men and Nick to come forward. They stopped next to her and just looked. To them this was amazing. Nicholas, however, just looked worried. He knew that for a Vampire to levitate its self, it must have very strong powers.
Suddenly the old woman looked towards her followers and said, "It looks like dinner has come to us tonight, but what is that stench you bring with you." (Talking about the garlic.)
One of the men shouted back "You have stolen out friends and families. For that you must die."
"And who is going to carry that out little man? You perhaps?" and with that she turned her eyes on him and began to force him to come to her.
Sara actually could hear his heart begin to beat faster. She knew that Nick would probably be of no help as would the men so she took matters into her own hands. She grabbed the stakes out of a man's hand and walked slowly forward. As she neared the old woman, she yelled, "Let him go you un-dead creature." Amazingly, the Vampire did as she was told.
Immediately she turned her eyes on Sara and found, they had no effect on the teen. Sara ran forward, and in Slayer fashion jumped through the air and planted the stake in the Vampire's heart. The crowd watched as the Vampire burst into flames and disintegrated. The Vampires came out of whatever trance they had been in and turned towards the villagers and Nick. Sara got ready to start killing more Vampires, but one of the men stopped her by shouting, "Stop!" She turned to look at him, as did the Vampires. "These are our friends and families, we just can't kill them."
"What do you suggest?"
"We want to become like them."
"Hold on a second." Nicholas almost shouted. "You do not want to become a Vampire."
"Why not?"
"I'm one and let me tell you it's no picnic."
"All this time you were a Vampire and you never told us?"
"No. There are two kinds of Vamps. The ones who kill humans like this old woman. And the ones who kill other Vampires. That's just the personality. There are ones like me who can't go out in the sunlight, also known as, the traditional Vamp. However, there are also ones like Sara, who break every law.
Nothing you say can change our minds." the villagers insisted.
"Very well." Sara said before Nick could say anything. "Step into the room and let them bite you."
Amazingly in one week, all the villagers were Vampires. The worst part is that they became un-dead by choice. Nick and Sara left together to find Sita and see what she thought. Obviously, the town is now not ripe for harvest.
The master Vampire looked at the letter one of his subjects had written. If he was able to ever get his hands on Sara she would join in his band or die.