*****
Galway, Ireland 1753
*****
He left Peter lying on the road outside the tavern, a position his friend found himself in quite often in life. This time, though, there'd be no sleeping it off. Peter had finally found the oblivion he'd so often searched for at the bottom of a pint. He considered it a final gift to someone who had brought him so much amusement...though never so much as in those last moments, staring Death himself in the face and yet playing the part of the stubborn drunk as perfectly as ever.

He straightened his cuffs and neatened the silk ribbon that tied his hair as he neared his family's home. Now comes the most important part of the game, he thought. It was imperative he look his absolute best. He tossed his walking stick aside, suddenly realizing how foolish it was. It was their time now, and her Liam would never carry a walking stick.

He crept around to the east side of the house, where her bedroom was. He laughed to himself when he realized he could hear her breathing...living on the inside. He tapped gently on the window and watched as she stirred. He whispered her name and she sat up immediately, wide-eyed and alert. She ran to the window, unlatching it with the bright, toothy smile he could never forget.

"Liam!" she squealed. "I knew you wouldn't leave me. I prayed to God every day that you'd come back."

"Aye, Kathy, it was that very thing...the Lord, just and kind as he is, heard your prayers and returned me to you. He knew we couldn't be apart for long." He shivered dramatically, "But even those returned from Heaven can catch a chill on a Galway night."

"Come in, then silly," then, amazed, she whispered "Returned from Heaven?"

He climbed in smiling, "Just for you."

"My own angel?" there was that smile again.

"Your very own, love. I'd show you my wings, but I'm afraid the Almighty's a bit strict about that sort of thing. Even a single feather and I'd be sent back immediately, no arguments."

She laughed, "I can't see your halo either?"

"I'm afraid not...not even a glimmer." He laughed with her.

"I kept a candle lit for you every night, Liam." She pointed to a small nightstand where a candle burned brightly, down to a stub. "Could you see it all the way up there in Heaven?"

"I could indeed, Kathy. How do you think I found my way here, then?" He put her on his knee the way he used to when she was younger, "That tiny flame shined all the way up to me in Heaven, and I followed it down here to your window."

She looked at him, beaming. "Where'd ya get such a nice suit?"

"Come now, you don't think God would let an angel make an appearance in those awful rags I wore, do you?"

A look of fear crept onto her face. "I'm so glad you came back, Liam. It's been so awful here. Something horrible...something..." she suddenly burst into tears.

He put his arms around her, hugging her tight to him, rocking her gently. "Hush now, sweet Kathy. No worries. I'm here."

"Forever?"

"Forever, love..." he bent his head toward her neck, fangs bared, tears streaming down his face. "...Eternity."

*****
...Somewhere in time, he wished he'd died with her...and somewhere in time, part of him did.
*****

He crept into his mother's bedroom and took her as she slept. He took a handkerchief and wiped the bit of blood that still flowed from the wounds he'd made in her now cold flesh, pulled the blanket up to her chin and fluffed her pillows. He got up, went over to her small dressing table, and slipped a few bank notes into one of the drawers, the exact amount she'd given him the last time they'd met. He kissed her on the forehead and whispered, "I don't need your pity now, mother." He got up, blowing out the candle he'd taken from his sister's room. "Goodnight."

He went back to Kathy, lying in her bed just as he'd left her. He stared at her for what seemed like hours. She was so peaceful...her skin so pale, her hair so dark...A little smile still playing on her lips...She looked just like an angel...His darling Kathy...his very own angel. He picked her up gently, cradling her like an infant. He heard the sound of a hammer coming somewhere from the kitchen, and so he followed it, carrying his sister with him.

When he reached it, the kitchen reeked of garlic and incense. He saw his father hammering great strands of garlic bulbs over the doorway, and would have laughed, had it not been for his sister. He would do nothing to profane the memory of the sweet, innocent thing he held in his arms. Silently, softly, he put her down against the wall of the doorway he'd come through, again whispering an almost silent "Goodnight," meant only for the two of them.

He leaned against the wall, watching his father another moment before he spoke: "You're no different from the rest of them, are you, father?" The old man spun around, a look of complete fear in his eyes. He laughed. "Cowering in their houses, boarding up their windows...smearing that foul-smelling herb in the doorways. You'd think that something evil...and vile..." He paused after every beat, taking a step toward his father with each word, "...and monstrous...had taken to terrorizing this village and everyone in it."

His father held up the hammer he'd been using, as if in warning. "Be gone, unclean thing," he all but screamed. "A demon cannot enter a home where it's not welcome." He had backed into the front doorway now, having nowhere else to go. "He must be invited!"

"That's true...but I was invited." He motioned toward Kathy, slumped in the doorway, and his father gasped. "She thought I'd returned to her...an angel."

The old man charged at him with his hammer, his eyes a mix of tears, desperation, and fear...mostly fear. He screamed the hopeless scream of the already dead: "Murderer!" and was cast to the ground with the wave of a hand.

"Strange," he said as his father backed away in fear, pushing himself against the wall and to his feet, "You seemed taller when I was alive."

"Lord, bind this demon now..." his father was crying now, and it made him stop in his tracks for a second. It was something he wasn't prepared for...but a welcome surprise, he thought.

"To think I ever let such a tiny, trembling thing make me feel the way you did." He moved towards him, slowly, step-by-step, letting his thick leather boots echo loudly off the hardwood floor.

"I pray ye, give me your protection, Father." He crossed himself, pushing against the wall, as if he were trying to disappear into it.

"You told me I wasn't a man." He watched his shadow slowly cover the cowering figure of his father. "You told me I was nothing..." he spat. "...And I believed you." He was almost upon him now. "But you see father," he let his face change again, savoring the look that came over his father's face. There was the surprise...the fear that he'd wanted to see when he'd taken Peter. "Well you were wrong." He hissed, "You see father, I have made something of myself after all." He sank his fangs in, and the world slipped away.

*****
He came slowly back to reality when he heard her delicate footsteps come through the front door. He looked to her, smiling, sipping playfully from his father's mug of ale he'd found half-full on the table.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "The contest has ended, is it?"

"Of course." He was surprised at her question, "I proved who had the power here."
She looked away, casually scanning the room, her eyes stopping for a second when she caught sight of little Kathy. She smiled. "You think?"

"What?"

She turned back, "Your victory over him took but moments."

He was curious now, "Yes?"

"But his defeat of you will last lifetimes."

He laughed angrily "What are you talking about?" he stood up, gesturing towards the crumpled body in the corner, "He can't defeat me now."

She put a hand on his shoulder. "Nor can he ever approve of you -in this world or any other." She moved behind him, slipping her arms around his waist, laying her head against his back, "What we once were informs all that we have become...The same love will infect our hearts...even if they no longer beat." She took a step and turned, looking him in the eyes, "Simple death won't change that."

The confusion washed over his face. "Love? Is this the work of love?"

She took him in her arms again, "Darling boy...so young. Still so very young." He was about to speak when she put a finger to his lips "No worries, my love. You have forever to learn. Eternity is yours."