Part 28: Sacrificial Offerings

"Look!" Monica's cry of alarm warned the others as some distance out the dark waters of Lake Ontario burst upwards like a fountain. After the sudden cascade fell back to its resting spot, the only thing to remain airborne was the dripping figure of Joran tightly clutching de Brabant to himself. The demon was flying towards the shore.

At his position of higher altitude, Lacroix also noticed their arrival and flung Kurkan northward as hard as he could before racing back in the demon's wake. His adversary was about to give chase as well when Kurkan thought better of it. The battle with Lucius had not gone as neatly as he had hopedthe Elder's fury had given him added strength and Kurkan could feel the numerous injuries he had sustained at the Roman's hands and teeth. Nor did he care to confront Joran again without the element of surprise working in his favor. No... a retreat might be the best alternative. He had enough strength to reach at least Niagara Falls if not Buffalo before dawn. From there he would fly to New York City and purchase a flight to Amsterdam and the Council Lair. Surely one of the ruling Ancient Elders there would be pleased enough with his news of Joran's treachery to grant the informer a position of some power?

Giving the Toronto cityscape one last look of regret, Kurkan set a course across the lake, already considering the best ways to ingratiate himself to a new mentor.

High on the blood of the slain Enforcers they'd finally managed to destroy, the victorious New World vampires gathered around J'ranor as he landed before them, their eyes a mixture of ruby and amber that left no doubt of their displeasure with the High Elder.

The Brabantian looked terribly pale against the dark charcoal of his shirt and he was shivering uncontrollably; soft whimpersun escaped from his mouth whenever the Councilor shifted position. Even those that had come solely for Lacroix's sake and did not particularly care for his unorthodox prodigy were angered, for the son of a city Elder did not deserve such mean treatment. But even more importantthey were not inclined to forgive the Third Council Lord for having ordered their true deaths.

"I say we stake him and leave him out for the sun to finish," Bridgette growled.

"Decapitation, he's too old for a regular staking," the more prudent Miklos advised, nursing a sore shoulder. The clavicle bone had snapped fairly early on from a lucky blow and was just now finishing its mending.

J'ranor glared balefully at them, but still refused to relinquish his hold on his prize. ""Ignorant lot! You don't know what you are dealing with," he warned them. No, they had no clue as to what power they were dealing with. However, he would gladly show them.

"Stop!"

A rush of air heralded the return of Lacroix. He landed close before J'ranor as he held out his arms in a gesture of truce. A truce, though, did not mean that the Roman was going to let Joran take his son, but he wanted witnesses that he'd tried to compromise with the Councillor first. Nobody needed the European hierarchy down on their case any more than could be helped.

"Joran you are outnumbered and there is nothing I would like more than to personally scatter your ashes to the wind," the Elder snarled in his anger. "You have plagued my existence since nearly the beginning. To say that I hate you would be like saying that the Iliad was a quaint bit of poetry: an understatement of immense proportions!" He paused to reign in his temper, then continued in a more stately manor. "However, I do not consider myself to be a fool. Even outnumbered, you make a formidable foe whose age, I sense, is greater than even Andrew's and my own. I am not certain of your defeat hereand I dislike battling where the outcome is unsure. You and I know that I have neither the power nor the connections to take you, Councilor. At least not quickly or decisively enough to safeguard that which is important to me." He let his gaze linger on Nicholas for a long moment, before staring at J'ranor with expressionless eyes. "Therefore...I offer you a deal. One that will save us both possible grief. Give me back my son and I will send you a gift every month for as long as both I and Nicholas exist."

The archdemon smirked, already knowing his answer, but curious as to what Lacroix was willing to give to buy him off. "And what sort of gift would that be?"

"A bottle of Nicholas' blood. Pure. Uncut with wine and brought to you by the fastest means I can procure."

J'ranor threw back his head and laughed. He almost regretted his decision to destroy all life on Earthsome of it could be quite amusing.

"An extravagant gift indeed! But a month? When I have rightful claim to all of himnow?"

"Need I remind you," Lacroix seethed, "that there are multiple witnesses to Kurkan's accusation? I will command their silence if you keep yours." He leaned in even closer to vehemently declare, "We are even, Joran. Let this end."

"Even?" J'ranor snorted with a short laugh, "Hardly. However, I am finding this compromise idea of yours most amusing."

The Roman's eyes narrowed, sensing a trap. "Then you will accept it and leave us in peace?"

"Perhaps. It depends."

"On?"

"On whether Nicholas survives at all," Joran smiled, enjoying his taunting of the other. "Due to this unnecessary ruckus your mutiny has wrought, the one we are bargaining for is currently rather the worse for wear. He needs bloodfresh blood."

Lacroix gave an almost imperceptible nod of agreement. "As his sire, it is my duty to care for his needs. I will feed him my own."

"As will I," Janette seconded

"And I," chimed in Aristotle. "Between the three of us, young Nicholas will be fine."

"Human, blood," J'ranor qualified as he gazed down towards Jenny causing Monica to clutch the girl closer. "Give him one of the humanssay, that childand I will gladly loose him to you." Yes, the girl would be perfect! De Brabant felt humans had more worth than his one kind. And the death of the mortal child would strike him the hardest.

"Very well," Lacroix concurred. Normally, there was an unspoken rule against feeding from children, however he was feeling a bit desperate. After all, High Councilor Joran could decide not to give him back Nicholas, and then they would have to fight. And there was still the niggling worry that Joran was not what he seemed and was, in fact, not Joran at all but something worse. How did one fight a demon? That night with Dr. Vanderwal and the exorcism... Lucien had felt powerless for all his rage.

Monica wanted to scream as she and Jenny were seperated; Jenny was being pushed forward so that Lacroix could hypnotize her into a catatonic state. Looking very pleased with himself, J'ranor knelt down enough to hold the knight's head on the same level as the teenager's jugular. Surely, Monica thought, she wasn't expected to just watch the poor girl be murdered before her eyes? She glanced around, but although her angelic friends looked upset, none were moving a finger to stop the vampires. Her last hopethat Nicholas himself truly did love the girl and would stop this madnesswas dashed when he opened his eyes. All traces of blue were gone as Hunger-reddened orbs burned into Jenny's without showing any signs of recognition. He even growled impatiently as he struggled against J'ranor's arms to reach her neck.

"No!' Andrew cried out. "De Brabant will kill himself if he hurts Jenny! Choose another!"

J'ranor just grinned at him. "Oh, I think suicide is far from his mind just now, Andrew."

Hearing their banter, Lacroix frowned. The professed angel might well be right and Joran was giving in awfully easily. Then again it would be better that they not weaken their own side by feeding Nicholas from themselvesmuch as he longed to do so. Too, it had been so long since Nicholas had taken in his food as it was meant to be consumed. A feeding on pure human straight from an artery would do his child good.

But the girl? True, his son had been overly fond of the human's annoying sire, but... damn, Nicholas's penchant for making things more difficult than they had to be! Even when he was succumbing to his true nature, the boy's conscience managed to complicate matters!

Lacriox looked again at Andrew, seeking confirmation and got it through the anguished glint in the angel's eyes.

"Wait!" the Elder smoothly pulled Jenny away from his protégé's reach. "The child is too young, Joran. Such a small body will not hold enough blood to satisfy my son in his current state. Perhaps the woman would be a better choice."

Andrew was nearing panic. Being the instrument of Jenny's death would destroy Nicholas' barely reclaimed mind, but he was not conscious enough to comprehend what was happening around him to fight the urge. Yet, Monicahe couldn't let that happen to his dear friend! No, she could not truly die like a human wouldshe was an angel, but she would be terribly traumatized by the experience. What was he to do!

Evil cannot stand before My Light, Andrew. And the act of receiving is worth much more when the act is willingly returned. Blessed are those that share what they have. Remember that.

Of course!

Purposefully, he flew over to take Monica's and Jenny's hands in each of his own.

"I have an idea. Turn him loose. Let Nicholas choose his own prey," he confidently challenged the vampires. De Brabant would choose Andrew, of that the Angel of Death was sure. Jehovah would not have reassured them that everything would be okay if that was not so. And the shared blood memories of their mental adventure together would bring Nicholas back to his sensesback to the Light. He would pray for God's protection and J'ranor would be driven away by the Warrior Angels. This was what the Father had meant by those parting words!

All around, the surviving vampires murmured their agreement: Let the Brabantian feed and go home with his family so that they could do likewise. What with all of the fear and anxiety around them, they were getting hungry again as well.

"You sure my Angel Boy knows what he's doing?" Tess fretted as she stood at the sidelines with the invisible angel contingent. Her boy did have a tendency at times to jump ahead of himself.

"Yes," Sam smiled, giving her shoulder a squeeze. "I think he knows exactly what he is doing."

J'ranor however, was not as thrilled by Andrew's proposal.

"I will not allow this!"

"Why not?" Aristotle asked him. "This idea satisfies everyone." His eyes glared at the Councilor. "What possible reason could you have to object?"

"You will not challenge me on this!" J'ranor hissed in warning, his eyes riveted on Andrew.

"Then we shall go back to challenging your right to dictate to us!" Merlin cried and heard the others voice their agreement. Standing closer to the demon than most of the others, a Montreal Ancient who at one time rode with Ghengis Khan screamed in defiance as he burst through the crowd to reach Joran, sending both Andrew and Lacroix alike stumbling aside and making the angel losing his grip on Monica and Jenny. With a powerful thrust from a concealed dirk, the Mongolian expertly severed the High Councilor's neck from his shoulder's, tumbling to land triumphantly on his feet behind the mortally wounded body. "And now we can go home!" the Eastern vampire grinned at his fellows as he held up his weapon and waited to receive their praise for so neatly dispatching their foe.

He didn't get it.

Rather than cheer the smiling Mongolian, all eyes were fixed on the body lying in two parts on the ground. A body that was not gushing out blood...but something else.

A pitch black ooze was bubbling from the Councilor's bodyno... it was becoming the body! Midnight syrup thicker than molasses and as darkly iridescent as machine oil. And there was a lot of it. Plant life and soil itself seemed to wither at its touch as the substance began to gather in on itself, only continuing to spread outward in one particular direction...

Quickly, Lacroix yanked Nicholas away from it, but not before a bit of the substance managed to touch the knight's hand. Screaming in pain from the slight contact, De Brabant found the energy to leap away. He landed nearly on top of Jenny, who was still held under Lacroix's hypnotic spell. Growling, the Hunger-filled Vampire within Nicholas licked at the girl's neck, sensing the warm blood flowing just beyond his tongue. For a moment it looked uncertainthat there was something not quite right about taking this preyand his eyes dimmed to a cautious amber; yet the Hunger demanded it feed, so it blocked out the uncertainty, bared its fangs, and rearing back its head in preparation for the strike.

Oh, Father! Monica cried out in her mind, I've got to stop this! He doesn't know what he's doing!

Not waiting to see where Andrew was, Monica summoned all her courage and hurled herself at Nicholas, throwing him off balance. They tumbled over and over together, Nicholas landing on the bottom. For a moment his startled face looked up at her with frightened blue eyes, shaking fingers skittering down the sides of her face.

"Help me... please... I don't want to... so hungry... "

Then the stormy blue became rapidly overrun with scarlet flecks. Still he didn't move to knock her off, and Monica realized he had no energy left to even that.

Nicholas de Brabant was absolutely, positively exhausted, having used everything he had left to voice his plea for her assistance instead of just biting into her and taking her energy as his own...instead of killing her.

Still... he knew she was an angelso he would have realized that she could not really die from exsanguination, right?

But then hadn't he purposely touched herin a tentative way... as if... as if he hadn't been sure at that precise moment whether feeling her skin would burn him or not.

Why had he gone ahead and touched her thenf he might be injured by the act?

Because he's scared, Monica told herself, scared for himself and of himself and what he's been asked to do and he wanted the comfort of touch before the demon takes him and possibly wins and destroys everything...

And that meant it wasn't a trick by this vampire to deceive her. De Brabant truly cared for people just as much as she did. He risked getting hurt and suffering pain for her sake and Jenny'sall while thinking he was going to Hell.

Well, wasn't that what he was being asked to do, really? Submit to Hell so that God's side could win?

Knowing that she didn't have much time before someone pulled them apart, Monica deliberately laid her neck upon his mouth.

"Take what you need."

For an endless moment nothing happened and she began to wonder if Nicholas was truly too weak any more to even bite her. But then there came a sharp pain as two ivory daggers pierced her skina split second onlyswiftly followed by the sensation of something being pulled from within, slowly at first...and then faster and faster until she felt the edges of her vision start to fade into darkness...

tbc

Review Responses:

Wanderer D: If it turns out at the end that I managed to surprise you after all, please let me know what direction you thought the battle was going to take. I'm one of those people who likes to daydream alternative endings for stories she's read, so different ideas intrigue me even if only for mental fun. :-)

A word to Forever Knight fans: Yes, I know that FK never delved into the hierarchy of the vampire world other than that their were Enforcers with oversized fangs who acted as policemen and that older usually meant more powerful. But it's sort of an fkfanfic unwritten legacy that there are city Elders and a council or some sort somewhere of really ancient vampirs who tell the Enforcers what to do. Somebody had to make up those rules of conduct:-P

Sorry taking so long, but my employer and family honestly don't give a wit on whether I get these out or not.