7/24/09: Edited for original upload errors caused by text editor.

Touched By An Angel was about angels helping people.

Forever Knight was about a vampire family--one of whom sought redemption.

I wrote the crossover, but don't own either property.

Chapter 23: History Lesson

A/N: For purpose of this story I am ignoring the existence of The Butcher from the Jack the Ripper Episode of Forever Knight. If you must have a reason why he was not mentioned in the following story by Adam and Sam, then I will say that The Butcher was too insane to meet the requirements Evil needed.

The Raven nightclub: Upper Floor/Current Time

"Death!" Lacroix roared, managing to get up and take a couple of almost normal steps. "I will not allow my son to be taken by Death!"

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Andrew hastily threw up his hands in a gesture of truce. "I'm not 'Death'. I'm just an... Oh, never mind. Just trust me in that we would both very much like to see Nicholas alive and well."

"And you," the Elder grit his teeth as he fixed ruby eyes on Sam. "What are you?"

"Me?" Sam smiled easily. "I'm his supervisor. Well, when he isn't working under Tess that is."

"Supervisor?"

Lacroix managed to make the job title sound like some sort of curse word. Fortunately, Sam had come expecting the vampire to act abusive and took it in stride.

"Yes. We all need someone more experienced to show us how to do things properly and give advice. And right now, Mr. Lacroix, I would advice that you trust my young friend here. And that you get some sleep. Tonight is going to be a major battle, sir, and you will need to be at your best." He produced a green bottle from under his jacket and set it down on the side table. "Here…a gift from one Father to another." Giving the stunned vampire a gracious nod, he departed as suddenly as he had come, taking Andrew with him.

Silently, Lacroix went up to the side table and tentatively picked up the bottle. When the glass did not sear his fingers, he opened it up and sniffed. It was blood. The elixir of life with an aroma that spoke of ripening grapes under a warm sun and wildflowers budding along the Mediterranean Sea; of long summers and cool breezes that played with children's hair as they themselves played their games together. Taking another goblet, he poured himself some of the red liquid and took a wary sip.

It tasted like...

peace...

comfort...

It tasted like...

Heaven.

[Kurkan's Toronto Abode: Cellar/Current Time]

Andrew felt himself re-materializing beside Sam in a dank cellar. Spotting Monica with Tess, he made to greet them, but Sam's voice whispered into his ear:

"No, Andrew. They can't see us and we will not disturb them just yet. Tess is about to recite a bit of early history for Nicholas. This is important, and something the Father wants you to hear as well. Just listen."

Tess cleared her throat as she began:

"Now, Babies, this is all just another battle of the Great War that was waged between the Father's angels and Satan's minions back before the beginning of Time itself. Satan was banished to Earth, but lost dominion over it when the Father created Man and gave it to him."

"Hey-I think I remember that from Sunday School," Jenny chimed in. "The devil was jealous of Adam and Eve, so he tempted Eve with some apple that was supposed to be good, but was really poisonous-sort of like in Snow White," the teenager finished sagely.

Snow White? Tess smiled tightly over gritted teeth as the rest of the angels (both seen and unseen) and one reclining vampire tried to stifle their laughter. Dear, Father! What was the educational system coming too?

"Um... actually, Jenny," Monica whispered as she gulped down her giggles, "it was the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge she ate. Not an apple."

"Oh. Whatever," the girl shrugged.

Tess rolled her eyes. "As I was saying…?"

Her audience hurriedly settled down again.

"Eve ate the fruit and Man fell from Grace, losing his direct communication with the Father." She looked askance at Jenny. "Like a personal, one-touch dial up on a cell phone," she clarified before the teenager could say anything. "Now Man was susceptible to all the darts that Satan and his demons could throw at them, including hunger, age, pain, anger, and death.

After a time, Eve gave birth to a couple of boys. One of them they named Abel; the other, Cain. But Cain and Abel didn't get along very well and Cain became consumed with jealousy over Abel's easy friendship with God. So he murdered his brother and tried to feign ignorance of the deed when the Father asked him about it. But the Father was not fooled, and voiced the Truth of the matter: Abel's blood had been spilled-and Cain's actions were the cause.

"Wow," The teenager couldn't refrain from interrupting yet again, "you mean God was the first homicide detective on the scene and did the pathological report?"

De Brabant burst out laughing again, hugging his sides tightly when they started to ache from the strain. Monica placed a warning finger over her mouth and shook her head at Jenny, though her own lips threatened to crack open with more than a smile. Adam had his face buried in his hands, shoulders shaking.

Angrily tapping her foot, Tess glared at Adam while warning the prone vampire, "It wasn't that funny, Fang Boy."

Oh, yes it was! Nicholas and Adam wanted to say, but seeing the stormy look on Tess's face chose instead to cough out a more tactful: "Yes'm" as he dutifully tried to curb his mirth-though it had been a wonderful distraction from his ongoing hunger pains..

"You'd better "yes, ma'am", Fang Boy, and pay attention, because there isn't anything funny about this next part at all," she scowled at him with a serious expression in her eye.

"Then the Father told Cain that as a consequence of his having taken a life, the earth would no longer provide him with its food. Furthermore, he would become a wanderer upon the face of the world, never being able to call one place home, and hunted by those who had once been his brothers."

The icy chill of foreboding struck the vampire and he automatically called for help.

"Adam?" Nicholas' eyes widened and his voice quavered a bit as the implication of this retelling of Genesis 4 began to fall into place. Although he had long been familiar with the story, never before had it really sunk in. Unconsciously, his right hand sought the angel's, forcing Adam to quickly convert his cells to a more fleshy covering to prevent the vampire becoming severely burned by his spiritual hand.

"Ssh...Nick." the Angel of Death soothed. "It will be okay. This won't define who you are."

Tess continued on, "And Cain pleaded to the Father that all of this would be more than he could stand: to be separate from His Grace, and without a home, and that everyone who he came across would try to kill him. So the Father granted him this mercy that his protection would be given to Cain and his progeny that none could hurt them without suffering even greater harm. And the Father sealed this promise by setting a mark upon Cain so that everyone would know he was protected."

Sam chose that moment to become visible to the others, signaling for Andrew to do the same.

Looking away from the figures quietly weeping together in front of her, Monica gave a start to see her two friends appear. She was relieved to see that both Sam and Andrew were in their true forms and started to give the latter a little smile and wave-but then Andrew's body seemed to shift as he knelt down across from Adam and Monica knew he was a vampire again. Choking back a little cry of distress, she hurriedly lowered her hand, feeling ashamed that she could still feel this way despite all of Tess' admonishments.

Sam waited until both of the two Angels of Death were beside de Brabant in a form safe for him to touch before he confronted the trembling vampire.

"Nicholas de Brabant, do you understand the story?" Sam asked in a gruff, yet not unkind way.

It was obvious from his shaking that the once Catholic defender of his Church did understand quite well and that the knowledge was proving very hard to swallow. Sam disliked having to be the bringer of such anguish to De Brabant; but as Jehovah had explained, it was better he face the shock of it now while amongst God's angels then later amongst the demons who would not hesitate to do all they possibly could to tear and worsen any wounds.

Straightening, Sam began to recite the ancient history of the Night People, alternating in the chore with Adam's help.

"When Cain ended Abel's life, he started the path down into darkness for himself and all his future children. Afraid of their fellows and ever forced to move from place to place as the Father's mark of protection, (the gift of immunity from disease and destruction save by a few means), became seen as a way to identify them, the children of Cain chose to shun the Light. They hide from every vestige of God's glory until it actually became painful to them to feel its presence."

"Unable to eat from the fruit of the earth, they became drinkers of blood such as Cain had so willfully spilled, their bodies becoming adapted to the will of the darkness that they surrounded themselves with in their shame. But like a man whose other senses strengthen after blindness strikes, the Cain children gained new senses and abilities that seemed almost godlike to Abel's children-and the Day People's hearts grew harder against these 'Night People'. The fear between the two deepened until finally the Night People chose to hide themselves totally from the Day--- whereas before they had attempted to coexist as much as was possible. And those of the Day in their fear and disgust tried to wipe out the Night. Yet the Father's promise held, and the children of Abel found that when they killed those of Cain that disease would strike their own-but not those of the Night. So the two People's shunning of each other became total, each socializing only within their own group."

Sam became silent while Adam cleared his throat to continue the recital.

"Now there were others watching this all unfold with great interest: this conflict between Day and Night. Satan and his followers were enamored of these new ones who still held the right of Dominion over Earth, yet had forgotten that they did so---even when they still used it; just as they of the Day came to forget how to use and twisted the meaning of what they, perversely, still remembered was theirs. And the demons saw that if they could gain control of the Night People, then they could use them and their abilities to cause wholesale slaughter amongst the Day; for it would be like having a man who was an expert swordsman even though he did not know what a sword was called, fighting a duel with another who knew a great deal about swords-but had never touched one. Then they had only to wait as the Night starved into extinction after having killed their estranged brothers. Or even killed themselves off as well as each fought to survive. Dominion would by default fall again to Pure Darkness," Adam smirked to add, "-a form of 'squatter's rights, if you will."

Sam almost rolled his eyes before retaking the story.

"But there was just one problem to getting what they wanted-the same protection that bound the physical world also bound the spiritual. Neither Angel of God nor Demon of Satan could cause direct harm to a child of Cain without suffering something seven times as bad. However, they found that there was no such protection existing between the Night People themselves. A 'vampire'-as they now called each other-could kill or hurt as many of its kind without fear save for vengeance by its own in return. Satan put one of his top demons in charge of searching for a vampire willing to be possessed. He found it was not as easy as he had hoped, for the Night People had become clannish and distrusting of anyone outside themselves. Nor did they believe in the words of demons as all but the youngest fledglings seeming to sense a spoken lie. And even when one suitable was found, the others called Enforcers---the strongest vampires whom the Community had given the right to safeguard them all from the human 'Hunters' who sought to exterminate their race---would destroy the demonized one when its behavior threatened to expose their existence to the Day."

"It wasn't until 79A.D that he finally found a vampire that lasted more than two nights, and that one was destroyed by her own progeny. Yes, Nicholas," Sam nodded, when the former gave a small grunt of recognition, "Divia and her father/fledgling Lacroix. The demon tried to subvert the fledgling as well, but Lucius proved to be too stubbornly independent to want control by another. Now this demon was enraged. He had waited so long and had come so close only to be thwarted by a vampire whose anger delighted in violence-yet whose one persistent refusal to give up a human moral taboo had caused the plan to fail. And now this vampire refused to give itself over in return. Yet the line itself seemed to this demon to hold so much promise due to the violence at its foundation that the demon blackmailed the fledgling into 'giving' him a choice of 'adopting' one of his future children. Still, none of the resulting fledglings that proved strong enough to survive a test of endurance also proved to be of the same caliber of evil as the first had. The demon was about to give up on the vampire entirely and search elsewhere."

Adam smiled woefully down at de Brabant, who was now breathing in raspy breaths despite the comfort that both he and Andrew were trying to give him, praying that the knight would accept all of this information without cracking under the strain. In truth, the Brabantian looked ready to curl up within himself as he had before Andrew had brought him out of his self-imposed shell.

"But then something unexpected happened in the behavior of Lucius of Pompeii, and this sudden reversal caught the demon's notice. Instead of stalking another immoral human like himself to turn, Lacroix became transfixed by someone quite different: someone who had fallen away from God not by act or deed but by a bewildered and questioning conscience."

"To say the least the demon was intrigued by this," Sam grimaced. "And it occurred to him that if the degenerate were too self-prepossessed to allow another to take control, then perhaps someone of higher morality would prove more malleable. Someone whose guilt could be flamed into such despair that he would come to believe that he deserved nothing better than to lose his selfhood..."

Adam winced as he added: "And again this demon came so close to his goal, but this time it was one of his own who thwarted his plans---for one of his demons became impatient with waiting and tried to force himself into the chosen candidate by sheer will. However, again the protection held-and being aided by love---Legion was driven out. The first demon was going to destroy Legion for this, but Legion begged for another chance. Divia, it had learned, was not dead after all-only dormant. He would partnership with the girl: 'mutual' control in exchange for revenge. And in case this did not work, Legion would be sure to use the grandmother to infect the moralistic grandson for later."

Sam finished the tale by breathing loud enough for all to hear, "And J'ranor agreed." He paused. "Nicholas de Brabant," Sam repeated, "do you understand the story?"

The vampire gazed back at him with haunted eyes. "I think so." the knight replied very softly from where he now sat propped within the cradle of Andrew's and Adam's arms. "I'm a child of..." he swallowed convulsively, unable to continue for a moment, "Cain the Murderer, whom J'ranor intends to use to...destroy...humanity."

"Listen to me Nicholas, Andrew held him even tighter. "It doesn't really matter. A child is NOT the same as the father. You of all people should know that is true."

"The sins of the fathers-" de Brabant began a protest that threatened to end in a wail.

Adam hurriedly clamped a hand over his mouth. "-were the consequences passed down to the flesh. Just to the flesh. Your soul and Cain's are not the same; consequences only to the flesh, my friend."

Nicholas tossed his head violently under the hand but was unable to shake it. Still the self-loathing was plain in his eyes. To him, there was no worse a human depicted in the Bible than Cain save perhaps for Judas the Betrayer. To discover that he was a descendant of such a one--it seemed too much to bear.

"Yes, that is exactly right," Sam coughed, wishing there was a way to sugar coat this for the poor man, yet knowing there wasn't.

'Nothing for it but to plow ahead.'

"Since 1228 you have been one of the Children of Cain. Now J'ranor has plans to possess you. To do that he will use every weakness of yours he knows to get you to comply and we will be unable to stop his attempts unless he resorts to force."

He paused.

"So, Sir Nicholas de Brabant, you see what you must do if the demon is to be stopped?"

Adam removed his hand so that Nicholas could answer, very glad that the hysterics had calmed to a dull numbness over the knight. He hoped that too would soon pass and de Brabant regain his equilibrium. They only had so much time.

Nicholas closed his eyes. "I have to resist him, hoping he will lose his patience first and try to force a possession so that you can act against him," de Brabant answered as if he was reciting an undercover plan of action to one of his former precinct captains.

"Yes, de Brabant." Sam affirmed.

The vampire took a shuddering breath, piercing the elder angel with frightened eyes.

"They have Jenny."

"I know. And I'm sorry. We will do our best to protect her for you."

"I can't do it," the knight decided aloud in a dead tone. "I'm too tainted to do it. I'll fail. I'm a murderer amongst innocents; my nature is that of the predator, I'm descended from the first murderer. It's impossible...impossible."

"No, Nicholas," Andrew began, "remember how you won-"

"It's not the same!" Nicholas hissed at him through fully descended fangs. He jerked his chin in Sam and Adam's direction then clutched his scalp as if suffering a sudden migraine. "They said it themselves that Legion was a lesser demon with an improper hold on me. This is different! I can't fight and win this one! I'm not capable of it! Look at me!" He opened his eyes to reveal red where there was normally blue. "I can hardly control myself now!"

The angels felt their hearts sink. Time was growing short and Nicholas was too mired in his despair. Only the Father could help them now.

"You know what this reminds me of?" Jenny asked, breaking the black cloud of silence that had fallen. "The Empire Strikes Back… when Luke Skywalker first learns that Darth Vader is his father and he's, like, really bummed out by it."

"Jenny!" Tess, Adam, Sam, and Andrew admonished together. This was no time for her childishness.

"Well, it's true!" Jenny exclaimed, feeling kind of flustered by all the glares suddenly thrown at her. "Luke thought that being the kid of the scum of the galaxy somehow made him bad too, but it didn't because he was still Luke Skywalker and not Darth Vader." She broke away from Monica's hold in order to go over to her 'Uncle' and look him straight in the eye. "He became a Jedi Knight anyway and saved everybody, Uncle Nick. If a kid from Tatooine can do it using the Force, then you can do it using what you've got. Dad told me you seemed like Superman to him sometimes and that he thought you were the best cop ever. He trusted you with his life. Well, Uncle Nick-I trust you too!" She fell upon him with a fierce hug as an astonished Andrew and Adam leaned away to give her room.

"Jenny... this isn't a movie." Nicholas swallowed, striving to keep his mouth as far away from the girl's bare neck as he awkwardly patted the sobbing teenager on the back. Didn't she understand how precarious his control was? How hungry he was?

"You can do it, Uncle Nick," was the muffled reply at his shoulder. "Dad never lied to me about anything. I know you can do it."

Nicholas threw everything he had at controlling his Vampire and felt it reluctantly back down. "I'll...try."

She pushed herself off him enough to give him a good sock on the chest. "There is no try. Do or do not!"

He stared at her with his blue eyes, then smiled and rubbed his chest as if her small fist had actually managed to hurt him.

"Ow… Okay, stop beating up on the vampire… I'll do," Nicholas conceded with a mock grumble, turning to Andrew to plaintively ask, "Is she going to still be this way when she grows up?"

The angels exchanged grins. Thanks to Jenny Schanke, they had managed to clear a bad hurdle: De Brabant's own feelings of inadequacy. Hopefully, he would be able to hold faith in himself long enough for the demons to hang themselves.

"God only knows, Nicholas," Andrew chuckled. "But if I were you, I'd tow the line. Now get some sleep. And don't worry-nothing will happen to Jenny today."

"Mmmphf," the knight mumbled, all too willing to comply as his exhaustion was now enough to eclipse even his Hunger. Within moments Nicholas was asleep, a pleased Jenny snuggled up against him.

"Sam, he's in a lot of pain", Andrew whispered to his peer, "why not ask the Father to feed him as He fed Lucius?"

"Because without taking from Jenny or Monica, Kurkan would wonder from where he got the blood and might tip off J'ranor to our presence." He sighed. "Come," he gestured at Adam and Tess, "let us pray for him. It is all we can do right now."

As Tess, Sam, and Adam prayed over the sleeping pair hoping to ward off any demonic attempts to invade the vampire's rest with tormenting dreams, Andrew crawled over to the wall where Monica still sat.

"Hi, Monica," Andrew greeted her with a tentative smile, testing the waters. "You okay?"

The pretty angel blushed and looked down at her hands in her lap."

"I'm sorry, Andrew..." she began to say.

"You don't need to apologize."

"Yes…I do. I've been treating you like you're... like you're...something different." Dear Father, she had trouble even saying it!

"Like I'm a vampire?" Andrew asked with raised eyebrow and that lopsided grin of little-boy mischief. It was the look that just tore through her defenses as if they were constructed of rice paper.

"Well...yes," she replied feeling very flustered, yet with the return smile starting to break onto her face. "Oh, I know it's not their fault, but..."

"Monica," Andrew captured her chin with one finger in order to turn her face towards his. "It's all right. Every one of us reacts the same way at first. We can't stand to see death, so we blame the unwilling pawns instead of the Enemy who caused it all since the pawns are so much easier to see. And because they usually are the winner in a contest." He grinned at her blank look. "Most everyone roots for the underdog in these circumstances, Monica. Think of it. If you saw a cat chasing a bird, which would you be irked with?"

"The cat," she answered without thinking.

"And if it was a dog chasing a cat?"

"Andrew..." Monica groaned, already seeing where he was going with this.

"C'mon, 'Miss Wings' humor me here," her friend said in a passable imitation of Tess's voice.

"The dog," Monica grumbled.

"Would you decide to dislike all cats and dogs forever?"

"Andrew!" She turned her head away from him. "Can we please change the subject?"

"Only if you can look me straight in the face and tell me what you see."

Feeling a little annoyed with her friend, Monica turned back to tell him to just let it drop-and emitted a little squeak of startled amazement instead.

A vampire was looking expectantly back at her, his fangs protruding slightly passed his upper lip, his eyes flecked half amber to half green. She tried to look away, but one firm hand held her face parallel to his.

"Look beyond the physical, Monica," Andrew instructed in a deeper voice than was normal. "What do you see beyond the fangs and golden eyes?" Andrew felt her heart leap with fear that she would not get past her fright even for his sake. He pushed the feeling down. "Please try?" he pleaded with that injured puppy-dog look that...

Oh, Father! Monica sobbed, burying her head in his dark shirt. "You're Andrew! Of course you're still Andrew. I've been blind."

"Fear blinds, Monica." Andrew fiercely hugged her close, heart soaring that his friend had accepted him in his role at last. He kissed her hair. "Satan uses fear to blind us all."

Review Responses:

Papa Wheelie: Of course a cliffhanger. Isn't that how stories go? smiles You're welcome, although 'Bang up' makes me think of some sort of regrettable accident. Lol

Wanderer D: Oh Lord- cooties! Hah! Gets out can of Lysol Spray. Ordering me will avail you not. Until I win the million dollar lottery, I can only deal with writing as time allows.

Lacroix is... a complicated character (which was what made him just as much a beloved character in the fandom as Nicholas). In A More Permanent Hell, we saw him cursing the Gods and claiming he was more powerful than they just before Divia turned him. This would imply that he did believe in higher powers (the Roman ones of the time). Yet on the other hand he was either still drunk or suffering a hangover as Vesuvius erupted. So we can't be sure. Too, later on in the same episode a morose Lacroix wonders what sort of God would be so cruel as to snuff out all life on a whim (asteroid scare).

Personally, I think Lacroix is afraid to believe in God because he fears not being in full control of his life. (Goodness- he already has to deal with the Enforcers denting his desire for superiority!) Belief in God is rather disruptive to his independence- or so he thinks. Better to just ignore the whole question, right? But he does question God's motives in AMPH, and is willing to invoke His being for Nicholas's benefit during the latter's possession.

Eh... I'm going off on a tangent again, huh?

Anyway, he saw Christianity being born. The Jews believed in monotheism well before that.

So I don't think he believes in Jesus of Nazareth other than as an obscure human who was the basis of some noisome unrest in Israel because his followers didn't want to let go. And that he believes in a higher power or powers... but doesn't want to.

The Angels will attempt to follow God's will to the best of their ability. As this chapter revealed, the stakes are pretty high, but they are constrained by certain rules on when they can intervene and how much. Monica is losing her fear, so she'll be better able to help out now, whereas before she would have been a detriment during battle. (And there you have one reason why Andrew was given fangs in this assignment. It wasn't just Nicholas who was hindered by issues!)