Disclaimer etc.: see prologue

The Breton: chapter 18 - Rebirth

"You know what I said about my crew?" Gunn said, staring in fascination at the empty mirror. "Forget that. I release you from your promises. Let's go."

Angelus put an arm around Gunn's shoulders. "I knew you'd say that. They live there, don't they?"

"Dammit, yeah."

"That's all right," Angelus said, calmly. "We'll think of something. We've done that before."

"Half the fun," said Darla, examining her nails.

"Remember that time in London?" Luc asked.

Gunn looked from Darla to Luc to Angelus. "You were right. I am goin' to enjoy this, aren't I?"

Luc stood up, straightening his collar. "Lesson number one, mon frère," he said. "He," gesturing at Angelus, "is always right."

Darla linked arms with Angelus, and exchanged smiles with him. "Except when I am," she said. "Anyone hungry?"

"Hell yeah," Gunn said. "Ain't never been this hungry." For a second, his eyes glinted yellow. "Will this come naturally, kind of?"

"Just let it take over," Angelus said, leading the way out of the room. "Don't think. Act."

Luc watched Gunn all the way to his old place, fascinated by the new vampire's reactions to being outdoors for the first time. He had seen Darla awaken, but Darla had centuries of experience and seemed to have known what to expect. Gunn, thought Luc, watching him tip his head back and gaze up at the sky, was much the same age as he himself had been over a century and a half before.

Gunn turned to meet Luc's gaze and grinned widely. "This is great."

"Didn't I say?" Luc said.

"Luc," put in Angelus from the driver's seat, "is a walking advertisement for vampirism. He'd recommend it to anyone."

"Not anyone," Luc demurred. "For instance, I've never found someone to turn, not yet." He returned Gunn's grin. "Mais oui, I would recommend it to almost anyone."

"So Alanna was right, then," Gunn said. "I could've had a year of this already."

Angelus shook his head. "Not quite. Your sister was a day old. Fledglings that age can't turn anyone successfully. You've a good start in death now. You did your sister a good turn by staking her, anyway," he added. "That nest was full of idiots too."

"Lesson two," said Luc, "most other vampires are pretty stupid. We are not."

"Correction," said Angelus, "you and I and Darla are not. I wish I could say the same for the rest of this family."

"Spike, and Drusilla," Luc explained to Gunn. "Spike isn't always stupid," he said to Angelus. "You know, he stayed with me in Chicago, in the thirties. We had a good time." He turned back to Gunn. "And Drusilla . une belle fille, but crazy."

"Irritating," said Darla.

"And ." Luc began, but stopped himself as Angelus swung the car into a rough parking lot outside a low building from which no light came. The engine off, he turned to Gunn.

"It's good you moved. I've never been here before. You knock, when questioned tell them we're here, get an invitation."

Gunn nodded. "I can't get in without one?"

"No."

"Okay." Gunn squared his shoulders and, with Luc and Darla watching from the car, knocked. After a moment, a square panel in the door was pushed back, and the point of a wooden arrow poked out. "It's me," Gunn said. "I need an invitation for Angel here. He's cool." The person pointing the arrow said something, and Gunn spread his hands. "'Cos I'm out here and you're in there? You've seen the guy before, Joe. C'mon."

After a moment, the door swung open, and Luc just caught a "Come in," from Joe inside.

"That's our cue," said Darla, and together she and Luc crossed to the door.

"Invite them in," Angelus was saying, holding a lanky boy by the neck.

Gunn was watching. "You always were a fool, Joe. Do the thing properly now you've started."

Joe, pale-faced with fear and struggling for breath, nodded, and Angelus released him enough for him to stammer out an invitation. Then his neck was broken, swiftly and efficiently. Luc stood back to allow Darla in first, and followed, closing the door behind. Angelus picked up the fallen crossbow and snapped it as easily as he had snapped Joe's neck, and threw it down next to the corpse. "Now, Gunn. Go and find your best friend, your closest lieutenant. Kill them first."

"Bon appetit," Luc added.

An hour later, the four of them stood back and surveyed their handiwork with pleasure. Gunn licked his lips and slowly, his features changed back to human.

Wiping his hands with a black silk handkerchief, Angelus nodded. "Good. Very good. Well?"

"I've been fightin' on the wrong side for four years," Gunn said, shaking his head. "What's next?"

Darla turned on her heel and began to lead the way out. "You shouldn't eat anyone else this evening, Charles. Too much the first night isn't good. Tomorrow, you can do whatever you like."

"On the other hand," Angelus said, following her and throwing the words over his shoulder, "I rather fancy a small digestif. Darla, love?"

She smiled. "I quite agree."

Luc turned to Gunn. "It's hours till dawn. Blood may be forbidden, but would you like a beer?" They came out of Gunn's former home. "Sire, we'll follow on foot. I'll make sure we're back by sunrise."

"Make sure you are," Angelus warned.

The convertible roared off, Darla's blonde hair blowing in the wind, and Luc raised a hand after it.

A few minutes' walk away, they found a diner that was quiet, and chose a corner booth, sliding in one either side of the table. A fading waitress with too much cleavage showing came over, took their orders, and returned quickly with two bottles of beer. Gunn drank, and then looked Luc in the eye.

"So what is your story?" he asked. "We never heard nothin' about you before you turned up in the hotel the other week."

"I was looking for excitement," Luc said, drawing patterns in the moisture on the side of his beer bottle, and remembering leaving the small farmhouse overlooking the Atlantic, many years before, with his head full of ambition. "I had no future. So I went to Paris - the lights of the big city, you know? I did odd jobs here and there, cleaned, swept, mended, and so on . then I saw an advertisement in a paper." He closed his eyes. "'Valet required for single gentleman.' And it gave the address. So I wrote and was given an appointment, and went along one sunny day. Big house, courtyard, all yellow sandstone, you know? And I went up the stairs and into a dark, dark study. I could barely see anything."

"Human eyesight. Sucks," said Gunn. Luc nodded his agreement.

"Et comment. And I could just see someone behind the desk. He asked me questions, the usual ones, why I wanted the job. Then he switched on the light."

"And?" asked Gunn.

Luc considered. "I was charmed, I suppose. He treated me like a person. All I'd had till then was insults and little to eat, and I was starting to think of going back to Morbihan. I was disillusioned. And suddenly there was this . man, as I thought, in velvet and silk, offering me a job." He drank. "Oh, and then he asked me to take off my crucifix. And that was that. I got the job. I worked, he killed, threw parties, killed at the parties . I suppose I was terrified. One day, I took refuge in a church, and confessed, but the priest knew about him, and wrote a letter, to the Council of Watchers."

"Wesley's gang?" Gunn questioned. "He told me about them. English stuffed shirts."

"Maybe now, but back then they were better," Luc said. "My downfall came weeks later, when I met the priest outside the church one evening."

"Let me guess," Gunn said. "Someone was out for a stroll?"

"And Darla. She was staying with him then. Back to the house, excruciating pain, I woke up the next night."

"The priest?"

"He died," Luc shrugged. "Stupid old man, really. So full of human compassion, it was sickening."

"Now see," Gunn said, "I don't get that, not yet."

"You're still too close," Luc replied. "It was only yesterday you were human. Give it a little time. But think of this evening, and the pleasure you got from that, and let that side of you take over." He picked up his beer and drank. "Though I'm not the best person to be telling you about this, pas vraiment. Ask Angelus. And believe me, you are off to the best start, the best. Anyone would tell you that."

Gunn nodded. "There ain't many vamps like him, I see that. Hell, even with that soul everyone was scared of him. And this evenin' ."

"Magnifique, je sais," Luc agreed.

"I have a feeling," Gunn said, "that I'm goin' to enjoy this."

"I know you're going to love it," Luc said. "Santé."

They clinked bottles and grinned at each other.