Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, I just like playing it and took their meaning for the term 'ghoul'.
BTW Yellowfur, I never actually said William was dead now did I...?
Tryst and Trust
Pete squeezed Tanith's shoulder. "I'll find the others. We'll meet you later." Tanith only nodded, still glaring down at William, and Pete walked away. William sank to the ground, his blood still pouring out of his chest, gasping in rattling breaths as he stared up at Tanith.
'I'll never forgive what you've done,' she thought. 'For what you've done to me, to them, to everyone in this city, you'll burn in my hate forever.' But she couldn't bring herself to say these words. With one last glance, she turned and started walking away. Her steps slowed as William's breaths became weaker and harder to hear, until she finally stopped walking completely. "Oh, damn me," she groaned, rolling her eyes and turning back, hurrying to William's side and jerking the stake out of his heart. She pulled a syringe out of her jacket pocket and jabbed it into William's jugular, injecting him with the vampire cure she had created specifically for him when she found a strange locket with blood in it in William's room years before. The blood locket had been a gift from Christina, she discovered.
"What are you doing?" William rasped.
"Saving your sorry ass," Tanith grumbled. "And I don't know why, so shut up before I change my mind. This is gonna hurt. A lot." She ripped into her wrist and dripped the blood over the gaping wound in William's chest until it closed. Licking at her wrist, Tanith grabbed her cell phone from her belt and flipped it open to walkie-talkie mode. "Night Hawk calling Phoenix, come in Phoenix," she barked.
"Copy Night Hawk, this is Phoenix," came a new voice through the phone.
"Phoenix, I'm in Chicago and I have…I need an evac stat," she said hesitatingly. "Subject one-five-oh Beta has been apprehended and staked, but…"
"Night Hawk?"
"I've administered serum one-twenty-three. The change is underway."
The military tone coming through the phone changed drastically. "Tanith, you dumbass! What were you thinking?! Subject 150 Beta has been marked for extermination for two years, in case you had forgotten!"
"Shut up!" Tanith snapped. "I know what I'm doing, and there's nothing that can be changed now! So yell at me another time, but in the meantime do as you're told! Evac, Chicago, now!"
"You know I have to report this to the Syndicate master!"
"I'll talk to Uncle later! Now, there's a boy dying in the streets here!"
"Fine, fine, evac is en route. Phoenix out."
Tanith was pretty sure her contact muttered, "You idiot," before the line went dead, but she didn't care. She glared at William, who was convulsing violently, blood starting to trickle out of his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. He stared at her in shock and horror and she looked away pointedly, trying not to pity him.
"You did tell me one truth, I'll admit that," she said, not looking at him still. "You didn't kill my family. Whoever that kid was, he died that night; the demon killed him. You found the ritual and the body. So I guess I'm sorry for blaming you. Sort of." She looked at him and sighed. Evil or not, the humanitarian in her hated to see others in pain. "It has to be this way," she said quietly. "It won't last long, don't worry. The Syndicate will know what to do after that. It might feel like it, but you're not going to die. I guess I would feel badly if you did." She sighed. "Look, if you repeat this to anyone I'll deny it, but I…really did love you. I guess some small part of me still does, and that's why I couldn't just let you die like this. But you can't hear me anymore, can you?" she added thoughtfully. It was true: the pain was so intense that William had blacked out, lying prone in a pool of his own blood, still seizing and crying out in pain. He sounded like a little boy. Suddenly he looked so innocent, so helpless and frightened, a kid thrust into a world he didn't understand, and for the first time Tanith realized how very young he was. She sighed again, unable to keep from pitying him now. Slowly, tentatively, she reached out and touched his hair. She started playing with it, smiling as it slipped through her long pianist's fingers. "You would never let me play with your hair, never," she said softly. "I always wanted to, kept trying to, but you wouldn't let me. And you never said why either. Well, now I can play with it all I want. I swear you stole my shampoo when I was still there. Don't you know a guy shouldn't have hair that smells like coconut and mango?" She laughed softly. "Well, whatever. Oh, the Syndicate's here." A black helicopter had just appeared in the moonlight above them, and she stood up and waved her arms to call its attention to her and William. Two rope ladders and a special stretcher were lowered down, the ladders occupied by two young men. Only a very well-trained eye could have detected that they were not entirely human. Tanith knew them well: Matt and Tony, two of her old friends, and 'ghouls' as well. By 'ghoul' the Syndicate meant a human who had drunk vampire blood. They had taken the meaning of the popular term from a computer game that many of the Syndicate kids enjoyed called Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. You couldn't tell if you didn't already know, but the boys were teenaged only in countenance; in reality they were in their forties.
"It's great to see you two," said Tanith happily, hugging them each briefly. "I wish we had time for pleasantries, but William needs help now."
" 'William'? So we're on a first-name basis now?" demanded Tony in annoyance.
"Don't start with me now, Tone!" Tanith snapped. "Yes, his name is William. I gave him serum 123 about ten minutes ago and the convulsions are ending. He needs transfusions, now. I don't care what anyone has to say about what I've done, and I'll take care of it all another time." Her steel-colored eyes dared him to protest. He didn't. "Take care of him, and for God's sake don't let anyone kill him. I'll come back to headquarters in a few days; I have work to finish here. Uncle will have my report via e-mail at the earliest convenience." As she spoke she had helped Tony and Matt strap William securely into the stretched and now signaled for him to be raised into the chopper.
"T, are you sure about this?" asked Matt.
"Very sure, my carrot-topped compadré," answered Tanith with a weary grin. "He'll be human in a few hours if all goes well. If it doesn't, I'll be rather upset." She hugged him and Tony again. "I have to go, but it was good seeing you again. I'll be home someday soon, I promise." Even gruff Tony smiled at that. With a smile and a jaunty wave, Tanith set off for the warehouse.
She was whistling gaily when she arrived, the hunters all gathered around celebrating their victory with cold beer and warm laughter. Tanith laughed too when she came inside, drawing attention to herself. Minuet ran and hugged her tightly, Émile joining in. Tanith hugged them back and kissed Brendon when he came forward before smiling around at the rest of the group, her eyes finally coming to Pete's.
"You did it," she said. "You've finally brought it to an end. All of you," she added, scanning the rest of the band. "Congratulations."
"Hey, it's not like we did it alone," said Pete, standing up and smiling at her. "I don't know where we'd be now if you hadn't come. Thank you, Tanith. Thank you for everything." Grinning, he raised his beer bottle towards her and crowed, "To Tanith!"
"TANITH!" the rest of the group cheered, taking deep swigs from whatever they were drinking while Tanith laughed. Grabbing a nearby bottle of red wine, she raised it and shouted, "To freedom and friendship!"
"Here, here!" The group drank again, all of them laughing and cheering, talking all at once, hugging each other and celebrating. Tanith smiled as she took a drink of the wine, unable to keep from remembering when she would sip wine while she and William played chess late into the night. Setting down the bottle, Tanith went up to Pete.
"Y'know, I haven't quite given you everything yet," she said meaningfully, looking directly into his chocolate-colored eyes. Pete looked back and set down his drink.
"I guess that's true," he said quietly. Tanith cocked her head slightly, knowing there was something he wasn't saying. Pete sighed. "It's just…what if it doesn't work? What if something goes wrong? I mean, I'm not saying it will, it's just…I just don't want to end up some psycho serial killer or something because I didn't change back all the way."
Tanith smiled gently. "In the Syndicate, Pete, we call my cure serum 123. That's because it took me a hundred and twenty-three tries to get it right. And I performed every test and experiment possible before I used it on myself, and then the Syndicate did even more when I brought it to them. There has never been a case where something goes wrong with this serum. And we'll all be here to make sure it doesn't. And whatever happens…if something does go wrong, which is highly unlikely, Brendon or Minuet or I…we can…well, if you want…" Her voice trailed off and she sighed. "We can make you a vampire again until we can isolate the problem and correct it."
Pete nodded thoughtfully, looking around at his friends with a sad look in his dark eyes. "I read a line in a book once that's been going through my head ever since William did this to me: 'Better to die among people you love than to outlive them all'. Maybe that's true, unless you can find an alternative." Taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Pete said, "All right, let's do this. I'm ready now."