Disclaimer: Highlander does not belong to me or any of the series' ideas and characters. I just do this for fun and not to make money, so please don't sue me!

Chapter One

NEW YORK

Again, she heard the familiar sound. Footsteps followed her. It was a moonless night and she loved it. Blending among the shadows earlier, she thought she had lost him. She knew the stalker was a male. The steps were heavy and sure.

She first sensed she was being followed when she made a turn at Dover Street. The unmistakable footsteps of the stalker was heard a few seconds later. With a sneer on her face, she quickly eluded the man with a practice ease that would have brought any stalker at lost. But after a few blocks, she heard the steps again. It was the same man, she was sure of it. It wasn't likely she was wrong. She had a sixth sense that most people would like to have for themselves. She wouldn't know who he was, that was beyond her capability. But if, no, when she catches him, she thought with a grin, he'd wish he went north instead of following her south to Gutter's Lane.

She saw her opportunity for an offensive move when she spied an upcoming alley. With a quick move, she turned in the alley and deftly grabbed hold of the hanging fire escape ladder. She pulled herself up onto the fire escape with barely any sound and anxiously waited for the man.

She wasn't disappointed when he turned into the same alley. A smile was already playing on her mouth as she prepared to leap from her hiding place. She intended to attack from behind and surprise the stalker. But unfortunately she was the one who got the shock when the man spoke.

"Come now Miss Lancaster, don't you think it's about time to put a stop to this foolish game", he said in a mocking voice with a trace of English accent.

Sarah Lancaster froze where she is, the smile gone from her face. How did he know who she is? Having no social contact with anyone in this country, it was impossible that her identity is known. Other questions and emotions passed through her mind, but the strongest of them all was the anger she felt for the man. He just can't possibly know her!

Sarah slowly controlled her emotions and put aside the jumble of questions racing through her head. There was only one-way to get the answers she wanted and that was to confront the man. She grabbed hold of the railing and gracefully jumped off the fire escape.

"How did you know my name? Better yet, who exactly are you?" Sarah asked the man in front of her. She was already in an attacking position. Just one suspicious move from the guy and she'll be ready to rip him limb from limb.

"I don't think that's the right question to asked me right now. Have you ever wonder how we could have possibly met seventy years ago and still be as young and alive as we were at that time?" he said with that mocking voice of his.

All the while the man was talking, his right hand was slowly taking out a sword. As soon as Sarah saw the weapon, she knew that he was one of them. She knew all about them, have seen a couple of them, but never really interfered with anything that concerned them. Her kind had tried to separate themselves from his kind. They called themselves Immortals. She didn't know how they became what they are, but other vampires had warned her against Immortals.

The man slowly smiled when he saw comprehension lit her eyes, "Ah, I see that you now know who I am. Or should I say what I am. A pity though that you don't recognize me."

"Should I?" Sarah said nonchalantly.

The Immortal smiled, "We didn't exactly know each other, but we have met nonetheless."

"Really? I don't seem to recall the occasion. Perhaps you've mistaken me for someone else."

"I don't think so. If I'm not mistaken you already confessed to having the name of Sarah Lancaster."

Sarah cursed herself for not being more cautious. From the arrogant smile on the man's face, she could tell that he was obviously enjoying her situation. As hard as it was not to make any advances, Sarah patiently waited for the guy's next words. She didn't have to wait long.

"To answer your earlier question, I am Nicholas Ferrington. Our, shall I say, chance meeting was quite accidental."

When he got no answer to what he said the man continued to talk.

"If you'll go back to Paris, 1927, perhaps you'll recall the little sword fight in the cathedral. Yes, you do remember don't you? You were following a man, your next victim I presume? Anyway, you didn't know he was an Immortal. I, of course knew. Having tracked and researched about him for a few months, then, I could easily know him without getting too near. You probably know that one Immortal can sense another when they get close enough to each other.

"That was how I knew you. I was watching from a distance. At first I placed you for a mere street mugger and therefore didn't give you a second thought. I probably don't need to tell you the rest since you had a fairly good idea of what happened next."

Sarah just raised an eyebrow and let Nicholas interpret that expression for himself. She wanted him to continue, but dared not say anything at the moment for fear of revealing something. She was slowly recognizing him The clothes and the different hairstyle and the fact that she didn't stay long to see who won the sword fight didn't really help much. With Nicholas standing in front of her, she could only conclude that he won and had taken his opponent's head- the only way to kill an Immortal.

Nicholas didn't seem to be bothered by the absence of a reply and continued on, "You can't imagine my shock when I saw you, the same exact image seventy years ago, in Central Park last month."

Nicholas walked around her, the sword still in his right hand. Good, Sarah thought. He must be afraid of her if he needed some sense of protection.

"I thought to myself, 'Could it be possible that an Immortal has finally found a way to let her presence be unknown to the others?' The concept was so intriguing that I started my research on you. It was not easy, as you probably well know. There didn't seem to be any record of you for the last two hundred years. But luck was on my side. I found your name in the last thing I would have looked for: The Vampire Chronicles. The book had a small insert about you. It was written by a witness who saw you suck out the blood of his brother almost about three hundred years ago. Wasn't very careful back then, were you?

"Anyway, a kid was doing a report on vampires and he had the book. He was turning the page when I saw your picture. The rest of course is a piece of cake."

"You of course, being the arrogant bastard that you are, chopped off the kid's head to get the book," Sarah said.

Nicholas chuckled, "I didn't know vampires have a sense of humor."

"Cut to the chase, Immortal, what exactly do you want from me?" she asked. Nicholas was only three feet away from her now.

"Well, you see, I've never really known any vampires before. I'd like to know more about your kind. And you could know about mine. I also think that we could work together. We could be invincible. You can lure the other Immortals to me. With you , they won't know what hit them. Of course you can have some of their blood just before I kill them. So, what do you think? Are we partners?" His hands were extended toward Sarah ready to seal the agreement. But she had other plans.

With fangs ready, Sarah leaped on Nicholas with lightning speed. She aimed for the throat like she usually did, but the man saw what was coming and moved out of the way. Sarah saw the sword baring down on her and quickly stepped back. But it seems that she didn't move fast enough because she suddenly felt a burning pain at her left side. Clutching her side, Sarah fell on her knees. As she went down, her right hand brushed the neck of a broken bottle.

She turned to see Nicholas advancing on her, sword ready, "Too bad you can't see things my way, " he said to her. "I think I'm going to have to kill you now."

"You should have continued reading the book on vampires," Sarah said in a soft and angry voice. "You seem to have missed the section on how to kill one," grabbing the bottle, Sarah brought the glass to his stomach and stabbed him with it.

Nicholas apparently didn't think she had any weapon when she saw his eyes widen with surprise. He dropped his sword and stared dumbly at the bottle sticking out his midsection. He stumbled then dropped on his knees. Sarah wanted to finish him off, but the pain at her side became unbearable. She also noticed that it's only a matter of time before the sun comes up.

With great reluctance, Sarah run to the next street, looked back to check if the Immortal followed her. When she didn't see him anywhere she went down the nearest manhole. Once she was inside the sewer, Sarah walked for only a few yards before she fell and lay on the ground. Closing her eyes, Sarah thought only of rest. By tomorrow night the wound would be gone. With a pained smiled she thought, not for the first time, what grim luck she has for being a vampire.