FicWad

Title: Incarnations of Immortality
Author: TheBear!
Crossover: XF/HL/FK
Pairings: M/S N/N T/V
161,428 words
15-Apr-02

Disclaimer—I don’t own any of it.

=====

Chapter 15

Nick’s Loft

6:30 p.m. Friday December 15th

Mulder and Scully pulled away suddenly at Nick’s teasing admonishment and Natalie’s sudden gasp. They both turned toward the two descending the stairs with blood dripping from their fangs and their necks, as neither had taken the time to close the other’s wounds.

To say that Nick and Nat were surprised was and understatement. Nick was embarrassed at having interrupted such a private moment. Natalie, being a newborn- unable to control herself- felt her own fangs drop and saw everything through a green/gold haze as the pheromones of vampire sex pervaded the room.

Fortunately, Nick recovered quickly enough to restrain Natalie from doing anything to embarrass herself. He quickly advised Dana through their link to calm herself and Mulder down.

Mulder felt Dana’s chagrin at being caught in a compromising position by her ‘father’. He was unable to keep himself from chortling at the ridiculousness of the situation. [Sorry, Scully,] he thought as he began to laugh out loud.

Mulder’s humor overwhelmed her own embarrassment and Scully dissolved into laughter as well. [I’ll get you for this, Mulder!] she thought to him as she said, “Sorry Nick. We didn’t hear you coming down.”

Nick felt Natalie calm down as the tension was broken and chuckled himself. “I guess I’m not used to having to worry about catching my daughter making out with her boyfriend in my living room,” he teased. “I’ll make sure to walk loudly next time, so you hear me coming.”

Natalie, now fully recovered, laughed out loud at that, while Mulder smirked and Scully ducked her head in embarrassment.

“Were those fangs I saw, Mulder?” Nick asked, looking at the rapidly healing bite on Scully’s neck.

Mulder smiled, showing off his new orthodonture, while he unabashedly reached over to the side of Scully’s neck and wiped up the blood on two fingers and then licked them clean.

Scully melted at the tenderness of Mulder’s gesture, and copied it.

Nick repeated his earlier admonition, “Alright you two, take it upstairs!” as he and Natalie continued their descent.

Scully smiled warmly at her ‘father’ and said, “It’s not my fault, Nick! We were just talking and Mulder went and proposed to me. I can hardly be held responsible for my subsequent actions!” The delight on her face was unmistakable.

[I love you so much!] Mulder thought to her, letting his internal joy wash over her in radiant waves.

[I love you too] she replied. [But I’m still going to make you pay for this!]

[Hurt me, G-woman!] he thought back, only half-teasingly.

“Enough Mulder,” she said as she turned her attention to Natalie, noticing the change. “Natalie! It worked!” she said joyfully. She leapt up and over the couch and flew over to Natalie, wrapping her arms around her.

Mulder was laughing again, as was Nick. Natalie was hugging Scully back, feeling a little of her through their joint link with Nick.

Mulder, ever the perverse, said “You know, Nick, when all is said and done, I’ll have a sister-in-law who is married to my father-in-law.”

Everyone laughed at that, and Scully said, “I don’t care what you say Mulder, we are not moving into a trailer park!”

After the laughter had died down, Nick went to the fridge and grabbed another bottle of Raven reserve label and two more glasses. He sat down in the chair and Natalie took up residence on his lap. Nick poured each of them a glass as Mulder and Scully returned to the couch. “I see your choice of beverage has changed, Mulder,” he said, gesturing to the two glasses on the coffee table.

“Well, it’s no Scully special, but it is pretty tasty,” he answered, picking up his glass and sipping.

Natalie had been listening raptly to the sound of Mulder’s heartbeat when it occurred to her that she shouldn’t be hearing a heartbeat at all. “Mulder! Why is your heart beating?” she demanded.

“I can’t answer that, Natalie,” he said. “I have no idea what is going on with me.” He sat back and wrapped his arm around Scully, pulling her close. “Whatever it is, I know I like it,” he said, hugging her tightly to him.

“It would be interesting to do some tests,” Natalie began. “Just to see how advanced the vampire factor is.”

“You don’t feel like a vampire, Mulder,” Nick added, reaching out to him with his enhanced senses. “You also don’t feel like any human I’ve ever met.”

“That’s normal. I’ve never fit in well,” Mulder said, self-deprecatingly. “I can still feel you though, Natalie,” he said.

Natalie looked stunned. Scully looked at her and then back at Mulder, “What do you mean, Mulder?” she asked, concerned.

“The immortal buzzing,” he answered. “It feels the same today as it did yesterday.”

“How is that possible?” Natalie whispered, afraid that somehow she would still have to get involved in this whole ‘Game’ thing. She really didn’t want to do that, didn’t see herself as a swordfighter.

“I don’t know. It’s supposed to kick in when you die for the first time. At least that’s what you got from the Watchers, isn’t it Scully?” he asked.

Scully no longer held any of Perone’s memories, but she remembered everything she had discussed or spoken regarding them. “That’s what they thought, anyway,” she answered. “I don’t know how complete their knowledge is,” she added.

Nick had been thinking quietly. He said, “You know- we don’t completely die.”

Mulder leaned forward, as though he didn’t hear him correctly, “What?”

“If the heart completely stops, the person cannot be brought across,” he said quietly, remembering Alyssa, whom he thought he had loved. Whom he had killed when he tried to bring her across. “It is a matter of timing, and it isn’t the easiest skill in the world to master.”

Mulder leaned back, muttering “she didn’t die…”

Scully and Natalie were remembering their transformations- each so recent as to be crystal clear in their minds.

Nick continued, “We reach the crossroads of life and death. We are offered a choice; to go forward or back. If we go forward, into the light, death takes us. The spirit is gone and the body is dead. If we go back, we are as you see. Undead… Vampire,” he finished with a smile, being deliberately melodramatic.

“How is the choice offered?” Mulder asked, genuinely curious. He and Scully hadn’t discussed this. Suddenly struck that his question might be inappropriate, he quickly added, “Is it OK to ask that? Is this something that isn’t discussed?”

Nick smiled again at that. “Actually it isn’t usually discussed, just because it is a relatively constant experience among vampires, and of course we don’t normally discuss anything about ourselves with mortals.”

Scully looked at Nick and Natalie, sensing Nat’s reticence. “It was like a vast dry plain- featureless in all directions. At first there was nothing around me at all. Then I turned around and saw…” she paused remembering the intensity of emotion when she saw her sister.

Mulder, sensing the combination of sorrow and joy in her, reached up and gently stroked the side of her face. [What did you see, Scully?]

“ I saw my sister. I saw Melissa,” she started. “I was so happy to see her!”

Mulder stroked her hair as she burrowed her face against his neck, tears falling onto his collar. [You tell them, Mulder.] she silently pleaded, unable to speak for a moment.

Mulder felt torn by the guilt he sensed from her. Especially when he felt that he was the one who was guilty. He wiped an errant tear from his own eye- clear not bloody- and explained, “Those who we have been working to expose, they had someone in Scully’s apartment… Melissa went there to see Scully. They were waiting for Scully, but they killed her sister by mistake.”

“I tried to tell her how sorry I was…” Scully began again, sobbing into Mulder’s shoulder and neck.

“Surely she didn’t blame you?” Natalie asked, feeling Scully’s guilt through Nick’s link.

Scully looked up, wiping her eyes, and answered, “No. She told me I couldn’t blame myself, or let Mulder blame himself either.” Regaining her composure, she continued, “She offered me the choice- go with her or back to Mulder. Of course, you know which I chose,” she smiled and pulled Mulder’s face to her own for a kiss. [There was no choice. I could never leave you, Mulder,] she thought to him.

“I wasn’t offered a choice,” Natalie said softly.

“What!?” Nick practically shouted.

“What happened?” Mulder and Scully chanted in unison, both filled with overwhelming curiosity- Mulder, given Nick’s reaction- and Scully, given her own experience.

“I went to the place you described, Dana. But there was no door. I looked around and finally shouted ‘Anybody around?’ Suddenly there was this…” Natalie paused for several seconds, her brow wrinkling in concentration. “I can’t remember anything about it except that it told me that I wasn’t supposed to be there. ‘Your kind don’t come this way,’ it told me. Then I woke up to the taste of Nick’s blood in my mouth.”

Nick just sat there staring at Natalie, his jaw agape. He couldn’t formulate any words to say.

“I take it that that isn’t supposed to happen?” Mulder asked gently.

“NO!” Nick exhorted. “I’ve never…” he trailed off, shaking his head.

“I didn’t need a choice, Nick.” Natalie said soothingly. “I knew what I wanted. And, I got it!” she said fiercely, capturing his mouth in a searing kiss.

“Wow,” Mulder said. “We’ve taken the paranormal to new heights, Scully!” he said excitedly.

For once, she was on exactly the same train of thought when it came to ‘work’ as Mulder was, “An X-File within an X-File,” she said.

“X2!” Mulder agreed, laughing. [Scary, G-Woman…] he began thinking to her.

Scully finished the thought, [operating on the same wavelength, G-Man!]

Natalie interrupted their tête-à-tête, “What do you mean by that? What’s an X-File?” she asked, bewildered by their exchange.

Mulder and Scully looked at each other for a moment before Scully answered, “Our division in the FBI is sort of on the fringe- we investigate anything that ‘conventional’ investigation is ill-equipped to deal with.”

“Paranormal, occult, extraterrestrial… Any ‘inexplicable’ phenomena that ‘conventional’ investigators wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole,” Mulder continued.

Scully joined in again, “These investigations are filed under X, because they don’t fit into any of the usual categories.”

Mulder finished, “Thus, X-Files.”

Nick asked, “What did you mean by an X-File within an X-File?”

Scully and Mulder looked at each other again for a moment before responding. Scully said, “If things like vampires and immortals are ‘paranormal’ to general society…” she began, “Then Natalie is in a ‘paranormal’ category above the general paranormal society.”

“You’re in a class by yourself, Sister-in-law. Or, is that stepmother-in-law?” Mulder joked. Turning to Scully, he asked, “Which do you think?”

Natalie interrupted, “Just Natalie, will be perfectly fine, thank you very much Fox,” she began, shaking her finger at him. “And I think you land squarely in the ‘superparanormal’ right along with me!”

Scully and Nick both laughed out loud. Scully said, “She’s got you there, Mulder!”

“Alright, Alright. No need to take my name in vain, Just Natalie,” he teased, eliciting another mock-scowl from Nat.

“We need to go see LaCroix again tonight,” Nick said to them all. “I need to introduce him to his newest granddaughter and I’m sure he will be interested in your latest trick, Mulder.”

“Ok, when?” Scully asked.

“Why, Dana, did you have plans for this evening?” Nick asked.

“Tentative plans,” she answered evasively.

Nick looked at Mulder, but he seemed just as surprised as anyone else.

“Are we going somewhere, Scully?” Mulder asked aloud.

“I want to go somewhere, Mulder. I want you to come with me, but I would understand if you didn’t,” she said cryptically.

[There isn’t anyplace on this earth I wouldn’t go, if I knew you wanted me there with you, Scully,] he thought to her. [Even your brother Bill’s] he thought, eliciting a half smile from her. [You know that, don’t you?]

“Yes, Mulder. I know that,” she answered his unspoken question, cupping his cheek in her palm. She turned to Nick, who’s own questions were pushing at her through their link. “I want to go to Mass, Nick.”

Nick read her determination through the link, and tried to gently dissuade her, “Dana, Crosses and Holy Water are no laughing matter. You could be seriously injured.”

”Nick, you’re still thinking as though we were among the damned,” she said, shaking her head sadly. “That is a bad habit you need to break.” When she saw that he was about to protest, she reached into her shirt and pulled out the chain around her neck. “Look Nick. I’ve been wearing this the whole time,” she said, showing him the tiny gold cross on the chain.

“I knew it!” Natalie said. “I always knew vampires weren’t inherently evil,” she said as she reached out to touch the cross Dana was holding.

Nick had to restrain himself from grabbing Natalie’s hand. He watched with wide-eyed anticipation while she reached for the cross, grasped it unflinchingly and turned to smile at him. “Maybe the vampire in us brings our spirit closer to the surface. The evil in your spirit was burned by the cross, Nick” Natalie said in quiet wonder. “But you aren’t evil anymore. You can be forgiven,” she trailed off into a quiet whisper as Nick reached out to touch the cross.

Blood tears streamed down Nick’s face as he hesitantly touched, then grasped the gold cross hanging from the hands of his daughters. All he felt was the smooth metal surface. “Thank you” he whispered to God. The God he had thought to be forever separated from.

“Meet us at the Raven by 2:30,” he said to Mulder. “Natalie and I need to start training anyway.”

Scully impulsively snuck a quick kiss on Nick’s cheek before dragging Mulder toward the elevator door.

“Dana!” Nick said before they closed the door behind them. “You might try St. John’s Cathedral. Father Rochefort.” He turned away from them toward Natalie, but not before seeing the smile of gratitude on his daughter’s face.

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

Nick’s loft

7 pm

“Nick, surely you know by now- we aren’t evil! I don’t feel evil. I don’t feel any less good than I did yesterday,” Natalie tried to reassure him.

“Nat, you haven’t done the things that I have done in my life,” he began. “I know, I know,” he said, overriding her attempted protests, “I know in my mind that I am not beyond forgiveness.” Tears began to well up in his eyes, “But I feel such guilt inside me, Nat. I feel so awful for the horrible things that I have done. And, I remember them so clearly… It’s hard to tell myself that that is all in the past- long ago and far away. I remember it like it was yesterday.”

Natalie felt the depth of her master’s pain and remorse and was herself moved to tears. “Nick, you can never undo what you have done. No matter how you live your life, you can’t make up for the sins of the past; none of us can. You can only go forward, living now as you might wish you always had.” She stroked his cheek and softly kissed his lips, then added, “you can’t earn forgiveness, Nick. Only accept it when it is offered.”

Nick smiled at his beloved, feeling through their link the depths of her love for him. “Thank you Natalie. I am so glad that you and Dana were brought across in an age when it isn’t necessary to hunt to live,” he said with a serious look on his face. “However- it will still take training before you’re ready for the general populace. And, the fastest way to accomplish this is…”

Natalie interrupted, “Dana told me. She said it would be strange and confusing, but I’m ready. As ready as I can get anyway,” she finished hesitantly.

Nick smiled and said, “Good. Then there is no reason to wait.” With that he scooped her into his arms and unhesitatingly drove his fangs into the smooth column of her neck.

As the maelstrom of images assaulted her, her last independent thought was, “she wasn’t kidding!”

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

The Corbeau

7 p.m.

MacLeod came back to life as he usually did, gasping for air and having little idea where he was and what had happened. This brief moment of confusion was compounded by the fact that he seemed to have a dead body laying on top of his own. While this was not the first time he had experienced that particularly unnerving situation, this was the first time that he and the body were both naked and apparently in the midst of sexual congress. All of that passed through his awareness in the barest of moments before memories began flooding back. He began to relax as he realized that she wasn’t dead, she was just a vampire. That thought struck him as being surreal, even for him, and he began to chuckle.

Janette woke to the sudden sound of a wildly beating heart right below her ear, swiftly followed by the vibration of laughter across her entire body. She opened her eyes to look into those of her fair Duncan, whom she had known for less than twenty-four hours. “It feels like I have always known him,” she thought incongruously. Aloud she asked, “What has amused you so, Mon Coeur?”

An enormous smile broke out on MacLeod’s face had when he saw Janette’s eyes open. He reached up to stroke her face with the backs of his fingers as he delighted in her mere presence. It was almost as if he had to convince himself that she was real. “Mon Ange,” he began, as she leaned into his caress. “For a moment when I came to, I wondered how I had ended up with a dead body on top of me; then my memories came back and my next thought was, ‘She’s not dead, she’s just a vampire,’ and that thought struck me as being bizarre.”

“Some believe that we are dead,” Janette began. “That we are evil spirits animating the bodies of the dead,” she said, only half in jest. It was not always easy to go through life (or unlife) knowing that most of those around you would be horrified to know what you really were- a monster. She didn’t often concern herself with what mortals thought of her- but rejection was an unpleasant facet of her life that had been with her since she had been mortal herself.

“Balderdash!” MacLeod interjected. “That’s pure nonsense,” he said, tucking his fingers below her chin and lifting her face until her eyes met his. “As someone who has just gotten to know you rather intimately, I can assure anyone that you are the furthest thing from dead- and you’re certainly not evil!”

Janette averted her gaze from MacLeod’s, “Yes, but I have done many terrible things in my life, Duncan. I never thought about it before, it was natural that I should feed on mortals- that is just what we did,” she said softly. Returning her eyes to his, she caressed his face and continued, “I reveled in the hunt, you know. I laughed in the face of my victim’s terror as I devoured their life. I treasured the fear that I could taste in their blood. I was a monster, Duncan.”

“We both have things in our past that we regret, Janette,” MacLeod consoled. “Regrets won’t change history. We can only control what we will do, not what we have done.”

She laid her head back down on his chest and said, “I never used to think of these things- worry about them, or feel guilty for my crimes.”

“What changed that?” MacLeod asked as he stroked her back with one hand and ran his fingers through her hair with the other.

Janette rubbed her face along Mac’s chest, luxuriating in the warmth, the masculinity of his skin. She began to tell the tale of Robert McDonagh. How she had fallen in love, how she had drank from him over time- lessening the vampire in her, and how he had been murdered before her eyes. She told him how she had seemingly regained her mortality with his death.

“It didn’t last?” Mac asked as she paused in her story.

“I don’t know if it would have been permanent or not,” she answered. “I was brought back across some months later,” she said, pausing again as the memories of those events played out in her mind once again.

MacLeod caught impressions of a fire- a house on fire. “It must be from the blood sharing,” he thought. It wasn’t a memory of his own, he was almost certain. “Janette… a burning house? Why am I seeing that particular memory?” he asked.

“Yes, you must have caught that out of the bloodkiss,” she answered. She resumed her caress as she continued the story, “I had tracked Robert’s killers back to Toronto, ironically enough. I killed the corrupt fire inspector who had set up and killed Robert, but I still hadn’t uncovered the evidence to clear his name. Those who wanted to keep that a secret had Robert’s son and his sister. In a rescue attempt, I ended up lying wounded on the floor with the house on fire while Nicolas rescued the other two. When he came back for me, I told him to let me die. He, of course, ignored my request and brought me back across.” She laughed humorlessly at that irony.

“Why is that funny?” Mac asked, bewildered.

“Nicolas has been trying to ‘regain his mortality’ for the last century. He thinks it is the only way he can ‘atone for his sins,’ yet he would not allow me to keep the mortality he himself desired so,” she answered. “Such behavior is so like him. He wants to grow old and die, despite the wishes of his family, but selfishly would not allow me the same.”

Duncan felt an ache in his heart at the thought of Janette dying before he ever met her. Though he would have never known what he was missing, now that he had her, he couldn’t imagine life without her. “I hope you won’t be angry if I tell you that I am glad he didn’t… whatever his reasons were,” he said staring at the ceiling and trying unsuccessfully to keep the heartache out of his voice.

“Oh, chéri,” Janette reached up and placed a kiss on his chin. “I blame Nicolas, but the choice was mine in the end. I didn’t have to come back. I do much better as a vampire than I would have ever done as a mortal.” She snuggled into his chest once again and hugged him tightly to her. “Besides, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this,” she said, planting a cool kiss on his chest.

Mac hugged her tightly and kissed the top of her head. “What do you mean you didn’t have to come back?” he asked, curious about how one became a vampire.

Janette smiled at the thought of discussing this particular subject. “Trying to find out all of our secrets?” she teased.

“Naturellement, mon ange,” he teased back.

“Well, when one is brought across, one goes to the crossroad of life and death. There is a doorway and a doorkeeper. One is offered the choice- to go through the door into whatever lies beyond, or to go back. Heed one’s master’s call and return to this world as a vampire,” she said.

Mac mulled this over for a bit, then asked, “So… Nick is your master?”

Janette just nodded her head, wondering how that might make him feel; that she must call another man Master.

“What was he to you before that?” he asked, sensing a mishmash of confused feelings and remembering snippets of Nick in period dress over a long time.

“Brother… lover… husband…” she began. “He has been all of those things to me in the last eight hundred years. LaCroix brought him across at my urging early in the thirteenth century. The three of us traveled together on and off for six centuries,” she said, remembering good and bad times. “We were man and wife for 97 years before I left him.”

Mac wisely chose to leave that discussion for another time. “You said he has been trying to become mortal again?” he asked, trying to lead the discussion in a different direction.

“Yes. It infuriates LaCroix. They have terrible fights about it, and Nicolas has spent a great deal of time running from him. LaCroix always finds him sooner or later,” she whispered.

MacLeod frowned slightly, remembering the events of Wednesday night. “They seemed to get along well enough when I met them,” he said. Nick’s daughter and lover were with him, and LaCroix seemed quite genial towards them. He seemed especially, I don’t know, proud I guess, of Dana.”

Though their discussion was seemingly placid, their caresses had grown bolder and more stimulating. Janette could feel the life returning to Mac’s member as it stiffened along side of her thigh. She was licking and sucking at his chest, and his hands were wandering over her ass, stimulating a rise in her own desire.

“Hmm, chéri. Can we discuss this later? I would rather apply myself to another pursuit at the moment.” She said between licks and kisses.

Grasping her ass and sliding her up his body till their faces were aligned, Mac answered, “Anything Milady wishes.”

Their lips met in a searing kiss, and Mac suddenly rolled them both over and broke the kiss. His mouth moved to her breasts and one hand moved down to find the cool wetness at the intersection of her thighs.

Janette arched her back at the lovely sensation of Mac suckling her breast and gently dipping into the moisture collecting between her legs. She ran her hands through his thick, luxurious hair, delighting in his ministrations.

Mac began to move down from her delightful breasts when he felt her hands clutch in his hair and make as if to pull him back up. He looked up into her eyes with a question written on his face.

Janette looked down at her lover and said, “It’s blood,” gesturing with her chin at his hand buried between her thighs.

Mac looked down at his bloody hand and back up at his lover’s face. Seeing the ashamed look he asked, “This is normal?”

“It’s the only body fluid we have,” she explained with some embarrassment.

Mac smiled and placed a kiss on her soft abdomen, “Then don’t worry about it.”

Janette sighed with relief at the smile on her love’s face. She raised her hands to her own breasts as the feel of her lover’s tongue began to drive her wild.

Mac worked on her for several minutes, stroking the roof of her vagina while licking and suckling her clitoris. He heard the fabric ripping as Janette’s nails tore through the sheets she had began to grip. He heard her begin to pant, “Oh! Oh! Oh Duncan… I need… I need…” when he realized what she needed. He reached up with his free hand to her mouth and she grasped it, biting roughly into the heel of his palm. MacLeod winced at the pain, but was immediately rewarded with the contractions around his fingers as Janette came.

The link, while not as intense as the previous one was sufficient for MacLeod to spend himself onto the foot of the bed as he felt her orgasm through her blood. “Oh, no!” he thought. He was highly embarrassed- he felt like an adolescent boy. He slowly kissed his way back up Janette’s porcelain white body- turned slightly pink with a fine sheen of blood-sweat. He would have been concerned about that as well but for her earlier comment. Nevertheless he was still feeling sheepish as he kissed his way to her mouth.

Janette calmed back down from the delightful orgasm Mac had given her, opening her eyes to meet his down turned gaze. She imagined that she knew the cause, having encountered such before when coupling with a mortal. She knew that no words would be appropriate, and that she would just have to work to inspire a ‘return to attention’ on his part.

“I’m sorry, that hasn’t happened in a long…” he began.

Janette silenced him with a kiss and rolled him onto his back before she began to take a trip down his body as he had done for her. She was sure that she could evoke a response by the time she got there.

She needn’t have worried about that. Mac was ready for the next bout before she made it past his throat. He was embarrassed because he had made a mess of the bed spread, not because he was down for the count. Rapid response was one of the many benefits of immortality after all.

Janette was delighted to find that her journey didn’t require the languor she might have thought. She briefly toyed with his nipples, and ran her fangs along the muscles of his abdomen before arriving at her destination. She grasped him below the balls, encircling them along with his cock- pulling the sack taught and smooth. She laved the taught skin for a few moments before placing small kisses along the entire shaft of his member. Each sucking kiss left a mark as she moved toward the head- which by this time was so engorged as to be almost purple in color.

The remnants of MacLeod’s premature expenditure slowly oozed from the tip as she worked her way up. She looked up at his eyes, which were fixed unwavering on her actions, and made one long, sensuous lick, cleaning the shaft and head. She watched him stare at her tongue as she slowly brought this offering into her mouth and swallowed with apparent relish.

MacLeod’s eyes rolled up in his head as he let loose a low, guttural moan. He would have exploded right then if not for her grip at the root of his cock. The sensations that followed as she took him in her mouth and bobbed her head up and down on him, sucking voraciously, were sweet agony. His ardent moans and groans were torn from his lungs as though against his will, as the feelings of pleasure were nearly painful in their intensity. He began to plead with her, hoarsely begging her to let him cum. When she finally released him, his orgasm was so explosive that he didn’t even feel the sting of her fangs. It if it weren’t for the sudden awareness of the link, he would have never noticed anything beyond pulsing waves of his orgasm and the sensations she elicited as she gulped down both fluids with abandon.

“Sweet Jesus in Heaven, woman. If I weren’t immortal I think you would be the death of me!” he rasped.

The look on Janette’s face as she sinuously crawled back up to him was the look any woman gets when she has reduced her lover to a whimpering pile of spent flesh; smiling satisfaction. “Hmm. You like that?” she asked, coyly.

“If you aren’t an angel straight out of heaven, you’ll certainly do till one comes along,” he answered with a smile.

Janette laughed delightedly. “I don’t think angels do that, Duncan,” she joked.

“I don’t know, I’m pretty sure I just saw God,” he replied. Then he became serious and looked deep into her eyes, “I have never felt for anyone the love I feel for you Janette dúCharme.” He reached to her and took her face gently in his hands, “You are the most incredible woman I have ever met. You are more wonderful than I could have ever conceived. I feel like I have found what was missing in my life- as clichéd as that might sound it is nevertheless the truth.”

Janette felt a tear slip from her eye as the feelings welled up inside her- feelings that she had never imagined she could experience. “I think that I would stay with you forever, if you would let me, Duncan.” She didn’t know where these words were coming from, and frankly it was scaring her a little. She had never felt more vulnerable in her life than at the moment she spoke those words.

MacLeod had always fallen for strong, beautiful women. His enemies, and even some of his friends would say it was his biggest weakness. He knew with certainty, however, that he had never felt like this before in his life. Not once in four hundred years had he felt this strongly. His own eyes were moist as he said, “Forever would be a fine starting point, lass.” He saw the warring of hope and doubt in her eyes and added, “Here, now. See for yourself,” as he tipped his head back and bared his throat to her.

Touched by his gesture, she pulled herself tightly to him and gently pierced the flesh of his throat over a major vein and began to suck strongly, thinking, “I love you Duncan MacLeod. It shouldn’t be possible, but I love you more than I could have ever imagined.”

Though Janette might have been able to stop, if his life were at stake, Duncan urged her on- reveling in this joining, which was more intimate than mere sex ever could be. Their joint thought as the darkness once again claimed them was “Forever!”

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

St. John’s Cathedral

8 p.m.

As Scully sat through the ritual of Mass, she felt herself become more centered and focused. The comfortable familiarity of this service reminded her of her youth, her family, and of growing up. No matter how often they moved, or where they moved to, Roman Catholic Mass was virtually identical wherever they went. She felt closer to her family and to God when she sat in a cathedral and listened to the priests’ solemn intonations from the Word of God.

As she sat, she allowed her mind to ponder the events and actions of the last week. She never in her life imagined that she could have been on such an emotional roller coaster ride. The last seven days contained more joy and sorrow, peace and torment, laughter and tears than her entire puberty. “Things are certainly on the right track now. Thank you God for that!” she thought.

She was feeling slightly anxious about going into the confessional. She wanted absolution for the lives she had taken. She was penitent for that night- even though she felt they more than deserved death, she also truly believed that it was not her place to judge and carry out sentence on such people. She didn’t feel bad that she had killed them though, she didn’t feel guilt or remorse over their deaths- she just wished that she hadn’t been the one to do it. She was sure that that didn’t make very much sense; she was wondering how to tell the priest without confusing him or revealing her vampirism. Maybe she would see if she could whammy him, and then if she could, she would just remove the knowledge from him after she had made her confession and received her penance.

Scully thought about God. Not long ago her faith had been faltering, but some of their more recent cases and events had led her back to her foundering faith- and had strengthened rather than weakened it. She couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for Nick to have gone for centuries feeling separated and alone- cut off from God and beyond forgiveness. “It must have been truly horrible- beyond imagining,” she thought with a shiver. It’s no wonder he was so angsty all the time, as Natalie described him. “Wanting to be good, to atone; but feeling like the sins of the past couldn’t be forgiven,” she thought. That had obviously made it impossible to forgive himself, and so he had beaten himself up for every little slip or fall- feeling worse for every mistake and discounting every success. She prayed to God that he would give Nick the strength to accept forgiveness.

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

Mulder sat through the service as quietly, mentally and physically, as he could. He didn’t want to disturb Scully as she got whatever it was she got out of this. He might not have come to grips with the existence of God in his own mind, but he wouldn’t do anything to inhibit Scully’s faith. So, he closed his eyes and focused on her impressions of this service.

He experienced her emotions and listened to her inner discussions and prayers. He listened to her thoughts about Nick, and even though he only caught the emotions and a few word-thoughts, he marveled at the self-loathing that Nick apparently felt. He could sympathize, even though Mulder hadn’t spent eight hundred years ruining lives and causing deaths, he knew what it was to see the pain that his actions caused others; especially those that he cared about, those he loved.

Mulder knew from Scully’s mental re-hashing of her conversation with Natalie that Nick’s guilt had driven a wedge between them on many occasions. That his tendency to blame himself for everything that went wrong contributed to her own despair. She loved him and ached for the pain he felt. Even though she was willing to forgive him- or more to the point, felt that his life now was so removed from the harm he had brought about in the past that forgiveness wasn’t even necessary. Nick’s refusal to accept her love and mercy had been a constant source of pain for Natalie.

Mulder found himself sympathizing with both of them- yet he was still in such denial about his personal feelings of unreasonable guilt that he didn’t make the correlation to his own attitudes and behaviors. He watched as Scully stood up at the end of the service and walked toward the confessional booths.

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

Chorley Park

9 p.m.

Tracy had begun her night in what was rapidly becoming her normal fashion; She attacked Vachon as soon as she had slaked her waking thirst. Vachon had, again, been startled by Tracy’s sexual appetite. She was amazed herself. Part of it was the indisputable fact that Vachon was the most fabulous lover she’d ever had. Another contributing factor was that she felt like a different person now. The propriety and seriousness that she had clung to so desperately her whole life long now seemed inconsequential. It was as though in shedding her mortality she had shed all of the self-conscious inhibitions. She used to define her self-worth by the approval or disapproval of her father, a tyrannical bastard who was never satisfied with her, no matter how well she performed. “Well, I have a new master now,” she thought. And, this one wasn’t quite the tyrant that her mortal father had been.

Following the thoughts of his newest childé, Vachon added aloud, “I couldn’t picture you doing this with your dad!”

Tracy looked up from where she was, his cock buried in her throat, one hand massaging and pulling at his balls, the other with three fingers plunged into herself. “Oh, you are Bad!” she thought to him, giving him a little squeeze before resuming her morning ritual.

Vachon tipped his head back and groaned as he approached climax. Tracy let go of him and offered her wrist. Again, she had timed it nearly perfectly so that she reached her own precipice just as he bit down. He filled her mouth just as the bite on her wrist filled his and they came together once again.

Vachon took her other hand and licked her fingers clean as they enjoyed the afterglow. He hugged her lithe, responsive body tightly to his own and gently, but thoroughly kissed her; two thoughts flowing to her through their link- ‘I love you so much!; and, don’t ever stop doing that to me!’

Tracy laughed out loud, breaking the kiss. “Better than an alarm clock?” she teased.

“Much!” he sighed.

Tracy remembered those moments as she and Vachon were now flying over the city of Toronto, ‘looking for a place to hunt’ he had said. She was very nervous and kept thinking of other, more pleasant thoughts to distract herself.

Vachon could feel his daughter’s disquiet and reassured her, “You don’t have to kill anyone tonight, Trace. Trust me.”

“Of course I trust you, Vachon. I’m just nervous- I’ve never done this before.”

“Shh, Trace. We aren’t hunting innocents,” Vachon reassured her, hearing the undercurrent of Tracy’s thoughts. “We’re hunting the same kind you have been hunting for years. Only tonight the hunt doesn’t end with an arrest.”

Tracy was both nervous and excited as they flew over a wooded area in Chorley Park. It was right on the edge of the city areas frequented by drug dealers and other unsavory characters. She followed as Vachon slowed and began to fly just above the trees; listening for the sounds of the particular prey he was interested in that night.

The sounds of a low-voiced conversation carried by the wind attracted both of their attention and they drifted over to the vicinity from which it seemed to originate.

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

Jimmy and Tony were having a familiar argument; which one of them would be the first. The concept of taking turns was entirely foreign to them.

“I saw her!” was Jimmy’s final salvo.

“Yeah, but I grabbed her!” was Tony’s swift riposte.

Stunned by his adversary’s skillful repartee, Jimmy could aught but surrender, “Bite me!” he grumbled.

The object of their debate was a homeless woman that they had grabbed for the purpose of an evening’s entertainment. Jimmy and Tony were brothers, in their early forties, who had been in and out of prison for thirty of those years. After their last 6 year stretch they had not changed their criminal ways, but rather they had settled on targets that were less likely to be missed. Their ideas of entertainment were torture and rape. They had never done a stand for murder, but only because they had been lucky. They had been in and out for assault and rape many times each.

Tracy and Vachon had landed not far from the two brothers and had listened to their argument. Vachon had witnessed this scene a thousand times in his life. Tracy had had to clean up the aftermath many times, but had never been in place to see it go down. Vachon didn’t have to urge her to act, she zeroed in on Tony and had him up against a tree and her fangs buried in his throat in less time than it took him to blink. She stopped drinking long before his life was at risk, as the images in his blood were repugnant to her. This one had no remorse for his atrocities. He had no thought for the pain he inflicted beyond his own enjoyment of it. She held Tony propped up in one hand and turned to see her lover treating Jimmy to the same.

Vachon turned to his childé and said; “Now make him forget.”

“I can’t, Vachon,” she began.

He interrupted her, “You’ve done this before, Trace…”

“No Vachon,” Tracy explained. “I can’t let this piece of crap live. I wouldn’t be able to sleep tomorrow knowing that these two were out there raping and killing.”

“Tracy, are you sure you want to be a killer?” Vachon gently asked.

“I’ve killed before, Vachon... four times in the line of duty. I never had a single nightmare and I never felt the slightest guilt.” With that she spun Tony around gripped him around his neck. Whispering harshly in his half-conscious ear, “you like to hurt women, do you? When you wake up in hell, remember who sent you there!” Then she snapped his neck like a rotted branch.

The woman on the ground jerked and whimpered at the sound, still terrified and disorientated. Vachon silenced the gibbering Jimmy with a single stare and waited to see what Tracy would do next.

Tracy let the body drop and went over to the homeless woman huddled on the ground. Capturing her heartbeat as Vachon had taught her to do, she quieted the woman’s whimpers and instructed her to go to the nearest shelter, forgetting the events of this night.

As the woman left Tracy stood up, silently considering the vermin that Vachon held enthralled. She was grateful that Vachon had not killed him. She wanted to do it herself. She looked at her lover and master, asking, “Are you disappointed in me?”

“No. You didn’t lose control. You made a conscious decision; one I agree with. You handled the woman fine… I think you’re ready to be around mortals again.” Then he smiled and added, “Though I wouldn’t want to be a criminal who meets you in a dark alley.”

Tracy thought about that, “I’ll have to make sure I don’t kill the ones I’m supposed to arrest.” She captured Jimmy’s heartbeat and did what Vachon had cautioned her never to do with a mortal- let her anger flow. She was angry that these animals thought they could prey on innocent women for their own twisted pleasure.

To Jimmy it felt as though his brain and heart were caught in a vice. He heard this woman screaming in his head so loudly that he thought his ears were going to explode from the inside out. The pain was incredible- a thousand times worse than anything he’d ever felt before.

Vachon had never witnessed anything like this. He had killed for food, and for fun. Of course he had killed in battle as well, but he had never used the whammy to kill someone before. Never had he killed with such deliberate intent to punish. Jimmy’s eyes and ears began to bleed, and then his heart just stopped. All the breath exhaled out of his body and he collapsed on the ground, dead.

Tracy’s hands unclenched and she relaxed. She hadn’t noticed that she had tensed up every muscle in her body. She felt a bit drained.

Vachon sensed the exhaustion in his Childé and offered his throat, “Drink, Tracy,” he commanded. Adding, “Next time just break their neck.”

Tracy grinned and impishly said, “Ok Dad,” as she took his offering. She felt his acceptance of her decision through the bloodkiss. She was relieved, although she didn’t know why he would have disagreed; after all he was a killer too.

When she broke away she said, “Lets get rid of these and go to the Raven!” She was looking forward to being there as a vampire for the first time.

“We’ll dump the bodies in the lake. Then we’ll go home and make sure you feed well,” Vachon started. When he saw her disappointment he finished with “Maybe after that you can convince me to take you out.”

Tracy caught the not-so-subtle proviso, “I think I can come up with a compelling argument,” she said, reaching out to stroke him through his tight jeans.

“I have full confidence in you Querida,” Vachon said as he reached down and grabbed the body of the late Jimmy Jackson.

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

The Dirty Mick

9:30 p.m.

Methos thought this was probably the worst in the series of dive bars that he had been to already tonight. Looking for that bastard Froag was taking a great deal more time than he had anticipated. He knew from reading the watcher chronicles about him that Froag tended to spend his free time in dark clubs and bars looking for women, or dive bars looking for fights. Methos was hitting as many of each as he could, knowing that Froag wasn’t much of a bar hopper and tended to stay in one place until he found one of his goals- sex or violence.

As far as anyone knew, Froag hadn’t left town. The good news was that his watcher hadn’t found him yet, meaning Methos wouldn’t have to worry about being seen. The bad news, of course, was that his watcher hadn’t found him yet, which meant that he couldn’t use that source to track him down.

Methos spent the time while he waited thinking about these vampires. They had come as a serious shock to his worldview. He really thought he had seen it all, and now he wondered if he really knew anything about anything at all. Now that he had seen a few of them he noticed that they seemed to be everywhere. He was pretty sure he saw one in here tonight. It was the stillness. When they weren’t actually in motion, it was like they were mannequins- they were absolutely unmoving. It was like looking at an eerily accurate carving, a moment in time encapsulated and on display in the midst of the kinetic frenzy around them.

He wondered how Mulder had managed to take out Williams like that. Was he something more than immortal? Had his girlfriend been able to turn him into a vampire too? It had happened outside a diner, just minutes after sunset. Surely Mulder couldn’t be in that place, at that time if he were a vampire. How had he torn off someone’s head barehanded? Heads were pretty firmly attached. Even a blow from a sharp sword, if not landed at just the right speed and angle, wasn’t enough to guarantee decapitation. He remembered quite a few embarrassing moments early in his life where he thought he had made the killing blow only to watch his sword get stuck part way through. The human body was at once marvelously resilient and fragile. The most horrendous damage could heal, yet sometimes the least little blow could kill.

He would head to the Raven Sunday night with a few questions on his mind.

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

St. John’s Cathedral

9:30 p.m.

Scully walked over to the confessional with a strangely light-headed feeling. She hadn’t been to confession in a while; with work as hectic as it had been lately, she hadn’t been to Mass in about four months. She recognized father Rochefort from Nick’s parting mental shot as they left the loft earlier in the evening. She wondered if she should ask him to forgive her for putting the whammy on him. “Is it a sin to whammy a priest?” she asked herself. “Better than putting his life at risk I suppose,” she rationalized.

She paused just before entering, “No, I’d better ask.” She decided that she could hardly expect absolution if she went into this with less than pure intentions.

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

Father Rochefort was properly shocked. “She is coming into the confessional!?” his mind shouted at him, incredulous. He had seen her in the congregation during the Mass and had actually stopped breathing for a moment. As soon as he had recovered his breath he had immediately given thanks to God that Father Gianninni was giving the service that night. He was sure he would have been unable to continue. A vampire in the church! Sitting through Mass! He was waiting for the flames to erupt at any moment. When they didn’t he thought surely he must be wrong, but he had never been wrong about this before. Even that homicide detective that had managed to pass an entire day within these walls had obviously been a vampire. At the time that had shocked him as well, but that one had shown signs of serious weakness at the profusion of holy symbols and relics in the cathedral.

Nevertheless, the shock had transmuted into fascination with this little vampire and her companion who had decided to attend service in his church tonight. The companion was definitely more uncomfortable than the woman, yet he didn’t seem to be a vampire. “Too alive,” was how Rochefort thought of him. He fidgeted and moved, and breathed too much to be a vampire, whereas she had that preternatural stillness that was one obvious indicator of vampirism. Even a yoga master in silent meditation had some animation; an eyelash twitch, the slight rise and fall of the chest in breath. The beating of the heart and the pulse of blood through the body carried a subtle sense of vitality to a person, no matter how still they tried to be.

But vampires, they could be so still that they might as well be carved from living quartz. Like a DVD on pause, they seemed to occupy a moment outside of time, and one could be forgiven for thinking that they were indeed as dead as the legends claimed- until they chose to move. They had a fascinating sinuousness to their movement that went beyond feline. This one had sat through the service like that. Her movement startled him every time the congregation went to their knees. She went from stillness to motion with mechanical suddenness and smoothness. She definitely knew the routine of the Mass; unlike her companion who was caught by surprise at every ritual motion. All of these thoughts rushed through Father Rochefort’s head in an instant as Scully stood at the confessional, entered and sat down.

Scully sat down and paused for a moment before speaking, still not sure exactly how she was going to say this. She noticed that the priest’s heart was beating rapidly and she could smell the adrenaline coursing through his veins. She turned to look at him through the screen and saw that he was afraid. She didn’t understand why, “Surely he doesn’t know what I am,” she thought. Nick had taught her that mortals were not allowed to know about vampires, that the enforcers forbade that knowledge and mortals who couldn’t be whammied were brought across or killed.

Rochefort felt the icy grip of panic inside as the vampire just sat there staring at him in that absolute stillness they had. The church did not accept the existence of vampires, but those within the church who had encountered them knew the truth. The old priest who had introduced the truth to Father Rochefort had assured him that the church would always provide sanctuary against such creatures. And, even when the vampire who had inexplicably taken a job as a police officer had entered this cathedral- against everything his mentor had said was impossible, Rochefort had felt no fear. The vampire-detective was so weakened by being inside the church that he had barely been able to move.

This vampire seemed to have no such vulnerability.

Scully noticed that the priest seemed to be about to bolt from the confessional. “Father, are you alright?” she asked, concerned.

Rochefort asked, “What do you want?” in a quavering voice- angry with himself for the obvious fear he was projecting. “This is the house of God!” he thought. “I am God’s servant, he will protect me.”

Scully was baffled. She restrained herself from looking back behind her to see if the priest was talking to someone else. “Father… I’m here to confess,” she said very calmly- as though speaking to a madman. She still didn’t realize that the priest knew she was a vampire- Nick’s knowledge and experience from their deep link overcoming for the moment her logic and deductive reasoning.

Father Rochefort gaped at her. “Are you serious?” he asked in disbelief. As her brows furrowed in confusion he whispered, “How can a vampire even be in here?”

“Well, obviously Nick’s information and experience is incomplete,” she thought. Fortunately her brain kicked back in before her mouth could spit out the clichéd question, “You know about vampires?” Clearly he did. The next question was whether the priest would be able to treat with her like a person or would dismiss her as a monster. Scully hadn’t fully considered the idea that mortals might be prejudiced against vampires- beyond the whole Witch-Hunt scenario.

“Father, we are not evil. Not all of us anyway,” she answered. Seeing his disbelief, she showed him the cross hanging from her necklace, “I believe in God. I believe that Jesus died for my sins. I am a Christian just like you are.”

If the pope himself had walked up to him and said he was converting to Jehovah’s Witness, Father Rochefort didn’t think he would have been more surprised than he was right now. In that moment he experienced the feeling that a child feels when he becomes old enough to realize that his parents not only didn’t know everything about everything, but it seems that they don’t know much about anything at all. His mentor’s information was obviously far from complete.

Scully watched while the priest gaped at her for a bit longer. “Will you be alright, Father?” she asked. The doctor in her worried about the possibility of shock, but it seemed as though his heartbeat and respiration were returning to normal.

Rochefort suddenly felt mortified. A child of God had come to him for forgiveness and he had, in essence, damned her as the devil’s spawn. Not his finest moment, to say the least. “I apologize, my child. I… I…”

Scully smiled. “It’s ok, father. I imagine it was quite a shock if you knew something of us already.”

“I didn’t think vampires could… I’m sorry,” he said, realizing he was about to make another offensive characterization. “But I have seen a vampire repulsed by the cross, child.”

“We are not all good, either father. People are people, even those of us on the night shift,” she said with a smile, not wanting to get into a discussion on a subject she herself knew so little about.

Rochefort pulled himself together and said, “I will hear your confession, child.”

Scully was relieved- though they would have to have a discussion later regarding the priest’s knowledge of vampires. She didn’t want to endanger him. She composed herself and began, “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned…”

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

Mulder began to notice that he could think ‘aloud,’ as it were, without disturbing or being disturbed by Scully’s thoughts. It was like sitting next to someone who was speaking on the phone- as long as they weren’t yelling or directing their conversation towards you, you could carry on your own conversation right next to them without either of you bothering one another.

Mulder pondered thoughts of God, and eternity. That there was an afterlife of some kind seemed evident from Scully’s experience- one shared by all vampires, apparently. Except for Natalie of course. He wondered about that as well. If God did exist and there was a ‘Heaven’ or some sort of life after death, were immortals not invited? Would his ‘spirit’ be spent feeding the personal power of the one who took his head? He had the knowledge of Willy Williams, and all those who’s heads he had taken- perfect recall seemed to be a normal part of the immortal condition- but he didn’t really feel them as actual presences- spirits or souls or whatever you want to call them. It was more like watching a movie.

Scully just seemed so sure. She wasn’t threatened by his disbelief, she didn’t seem to be rocked by the pure evil they had witnessed, or the brutal inhumanity they had seen perpetrated by people upon each other and themselves. None of that seemed to shake her faith. It shook his, and he didn’t even know if he believed in God in the first place. Once he had been so certain that God couldn’t exist, now he was less certain about that as well. “I guess I will have to table that decision for now,” he thought. Scully was in confession now, and Mulder couldn’t help but listen in a bit.

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

The Corbeau

10 p.m.

“Why proud?” Janette asked.

MacLeod had gasped to life wrapped in the arms of a vampire for the second time in as many hours. While he was initially confused, as he always was when coming back to life, he quickly remembered where he was and whom he was with. He decided that this was perhaps the most enjoyable way to come back to life that he had yet experienced. Usually they weren’t quite so pleasant.

As they lay together in the afterglow of sex and death, Janette had slid off him until she was laying on his left side, her leg draped over his and her head snuggled onto his shoulder while he wrapped his left arm around her. Janette played with the hair on his chest and then asked that question.

It took Mac a moment to understand to what she was referring. “I think it was because she had taken down a group of renegade watchers who had inflicted Mulder’s first death.” He answered. “I think she was embarrassed about it, because she seemed hesitant to discuss it, but he pressed her to do so. Like a parent would when their child had done something special and they wanted to show the child off to their friends,” he explained.

“Nicolas’ childé is a killer?” Janette asked rhetorically. “If I had not seen him in your blood, I would be certain that we were not speaking about the same person,” she stated emphatically.

“Why is that?” Mac asked.

Janette continued to stroke Mac’s chest, as though she could not get enough of touching him. “Nicolas has rejected everything about our community for a century. He drinks cow blood, he doesn’t kill, he doesn’t do anything that has to do with the vampire,” she groused. “He wants to be mortal again.” She gently kissed his chest and added, “At least he did. It is obvious that things have changed radically since I left Toronto.”

MacLeod, not knowing any of the players in Janette’s family beyond meeting them- and a few memories of hers that lingered from the last bloodkiss- remained silent on the matter.

They lay in shared silence for a moment- just enjoying each other’s physical presence before Janette realized, abashed, that Mac must be very thirsty after being drained twice. She sat up and moved to get out of the bed.

MacLeod asked, “Where are you going?”

Janette looked back over her shoulder at him and answered with a small grin, “I thought you might be thirsty”

As though he just realized it himself Mac agreed whole heartedly and made as if to get up himself.

“Just lay there, love. I will bring it to you,” Janette said, forestalling him.

She didn’t bother to put on any clothes, allowing MacLeod a most wonderful view as she left the chamber to go out to the front room. She called the bar and had one of the waitresses deliver a tray to her quarters, leaving it outside the door. She waited until she heard the girl- a fledgling only a decade old- leave before opening the door and picking up the tray.

As she returned to the bedchamber she felt her heart catch at the sight of him, gloriously nude, laid out on her bed like a virility statue. She felt his eyes on her own form and watched as he rose to half staff just looking at her. She set down the tray beside the bed and handed him a large bottle of water, “Water first, then we will see about that,” she said, indicating his evident arousal.

Mac greedily drank the water, slaking part of his thirst. He was glad that she had brought several as she handed him a second bottle without any question. “You were right, I was thirsty!” he said as he set down the second empty bottle. He looked at her standing there beside the bed and couldn’t help saying, “You’ll probably grow tired of me saying this, Janette, but God in Heaven! You are so beautiful.”

Janette laughed delightedly. She stopped and struck a pose, crossing her arms, one finger on her lips, and her face turned up as if in thought. After a moment she returned her eyes to meet her lover’s gaze and said, “No… No, I am reasonably certain that I will never get tired of hearing you say that.” She added teasingly, “Especially if you say it while lying before me naked and hard like you are now.”

MacLeod grinned and crooked his finger at her in a ‘come hither’ motion.

Janette played coy, pointing to herself and saying, “Moi?” before crawling onto the bed and heading straight for Mac’s cock. As she reached it, MacLeod reached over to her and grabbed her by the hips, lifting her off of the bed and settling her down over his face so that he could reciprocate the attention she was about to pay him.

MacLeod began to explore the territory before him, licking, sucking and gently nibbling the contours before delving into the center. He worked his way down to Janette’s clit and gently stroked and teased the hood for a minute or two before gently pulling it back to reveal that little bundle of nerves. That he circled with his tongue for a while before pursing his lips around it and sucking it into his mouth. He began to stroke it in earnest as he felt her ministrations pushing him closer and closer to the edge. He wanted to bring her over first and finish his journey inside of her.

Finally Janette had to pull off of him and sink her teeth into his thigh. She came with a muffled scream against his leg.

The pain of her bite was enough to help Mac keep from cumming, but even then it was an exercise in iron will and he had almost lost it several times. Fortunately Janette only took a single swallow and the link wasn’t established or else he would have been taken by her orgasm.

As she recovered she asked “Why?”

“I need to be inside you,” He panted.

She climbed off of his face and lied down next to him saying, “Then take me. Right Now!” she commanded.

Needing no further urging he knelt between her legs and penetrated her in one swift thrust of his hips. He rested most of his weight on his knees and elbows, so as not to crush her. She tried to pull him down fully onto her and he resisted, “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said.

She wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms around his back and yanked him down onto her, pressing her into the mattress. “I am vampire; you could park a truck on my chest and not hurt me,” she whispered savagely into his ear. She then began to clean her blood off of his face with her tongue.

MacLeod groaned from someplace deep in his belly at her words and actions. He began to violently slam into her with all of the strength in his body, and she spurred him on with her ankles crossed at the small of his back. He suddenly leaned back and thrust his arms between himself and her legs, then dragged his arms up to her shoulders, pressing her ankles between his shoulders and hers. This pulled her lower torso up off of the bed, and rotated her pelvis so that he penetrated as deeply as possible on the down thrust and dragged the head of his cock across her g-spot as he pulled back. He continued to slam into her as fast and hard as possible until he couldn’t take it any more and he released into her powerfully.

Having been driven to the edge again by his skillful maneuvering and powerful thrusting, she leaned her head forward and bit into his neck, just below the ear. This time the link was established and they felt the full force of each other’s orgasm in addition to their own. An entirely delicious feeling, but- due to their positions, Janette had to end the link before draining MacLeod. She made up for it, once he had lifted himself off of her by going down and cleaning her blood off of his cock and balls. This, of course lead to a rapid return to full tumescence and Janette finished what she had started a few minutes before.

MacLeod groaned in sweet agony as she sucked his sensitive head deep into her throat. He couldn’t help a single involuntary thrust, and immediately apologized.

She shook her head and responded by digging her nails into his ass, eliciting another involuntary thrust. After a couple more repetitions, with her humming in delight and nodding her head, he got the idea that she wanted him to do that. He remembered that she didn’t need to breathe, and it would appear that she had no gag reflex. She looked up into his eyes and began pulling him into her throat, grinding his crotch into her face. And, though he would never dream of doing this with a mortal woman, he began to deliberately thrust himself up into her mouth and throat. She then removed her hands from his ass and began to massage his balls and perineum.

He knew that he wouldn’t be able to hold out for very long, but then she suddenly slipped one finger up inside of him and found his prostate. He had never before in his life felt that particular sensation! He immediately began to spasm into her, screaming her name as he came. She stopped bobbing her head, but kept rubbing his prostate and squeezing his balls. He felt like she was squeezing the life out of him as he continued to cum and cum, while she swallowed it all. When she finally stopped, withdrew her finger and slowly slid her head up off of him he thought he was going to die. When his head slipped out of her mouth with a wet popping sound he thought he might not come back this time. His voice was hoarse and his breathing ragged as he said, “Well, now I know what heaven feels like!”

Janette smiled in delight, glad that she could elicit such reactions from this man. She had never done that for a man since becoming a vampire. Though forced to learn such techniques as a slave in the brothel her husband had sold her into, she had never used them on any man since gaining her freedom. She had felt degraded at the thought of such submission to a male’s desires in the past- but with MacLeod, she wanted to do everything and anything she could to please this him. She knew from the bloodkiss that he felt the same way towards her- and such knowledge was the most overwhelming thing she had felt in a thousand years of immortality.

MacLeod was exhausted. He held her tightly in his arms and looked into her dark eyes, saying, “I love you Janette.” Then, he kissed her before finally succumbing to sleep.

Janette stroked his hair for a bit before getting up to go into the club. As she got dressed, her eyes kept returning to linger on his sleeping form. She felt a tenderness towards him that brought a tear to her eye. She leaned over him and kissed his forehead, whispering “l'amour de mon Coeur,” before breezing out of the chamber and into her club for another night- this time absent the melancholy she had been wearing like a shroud for two years.

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

St. John’s Cathedral

10 p.m.

“…it has been 4 months since my last confession,” she began, and then paused, unsure of where to go from there.

“Go on my child,” Rochefort said gently.

“So much has happened to me since then father,” Scully hesitantly started. “Actually, up until a few days ago my life was as it had been for years. Then we came to Toronto for a professional conference; my partner and I- we’re with the FBI.” Scully remembered the feelings she was experiencing almost a week ago. Another puzzle laid out before her, this time in the body of a man who’s cause of death was obvious, but who’s cadaver was unlike any she had seen before.

“We’ve been partners for seven years, father. In many ways we were already closer than husband and wife, even though we had never had a romantic relationship,” she continued.

Father Rochefort had heard this story before, but this time there was the added element of vampirism that had him literally on the edge of his seat, his mind whirling with questions.

Skipping over a large emotional mess, she jumped right to, “We changed that this week… I suppose that it was technically fornication, father. It wasn’t lust though,” she was quick to explain. “Though desire was definitely a big part of it. We have loved each other for years; we have been one person mentally, emotionally, socially- even spiritually I think. Just not physically. Not until this week.” She looked at him through the screen and asked, “Is that a sin, Father?”

“Have you been faithful to each other?” he asked.

“For years now, even before we knew we were in love,” she answered.

“Do you plan on staying together now that you have ‘consummated’ your relationship?” he questioned.

“We already have plans for our ten millennia anniversary,” she answered with a smile, remembering when Mulder proposed to her.

Rochefort almost choked at that, the sheer scale of vampire relationships was mind-boggling. “I… I would say that, in God’s eyes you’re definitely married,” he said, stuttering slightly.

Scully smiled even more widely at that. The thought that God was smiling down on her and Mulder’s relationship sent a tingle of warmth through her cool body.

Rochefort misinterpreted her silence, saying, “Is that all you have to confess, child?”

Scully’s smiled dimmed, as she answered, “No father. There is more.”

When she didn’t say anything more for several seconds he prompted her again, “Go on then.”

“Father, you know about my kind already. That knowledge is dangerous- mortals aren’t allowed to carry that knowledge, and if certain members of my community found out…”

“God protects me, child. You don’t need to worry about that,” he interrupted, forestalling any further discussion of that type. He knew that vampires could mentally influence people; he would have none of that.”

“Of course, father. However, there are other… races if you will…”

“Your ‘partner’ whom you brought with you tonight?” he asked.

“Well, yes. Do you know what he is?” she wondered the extent of this priest’s information.

“He isn’t vampire and he isn’t human. Beyond that… I’ve never seen anyone like him before,” he answered truthfully.

Scully didn’t respond for several moments and Rochefort added, “Child. What is said in this place remains only here and in the mind of God. I am constrained from sharing with anyone- even other priests.”

Scully needed to get this off of her chest so she took him at his word. “His kind appears human in every way until their something kills them…”

Rochefort again had to prompt her, “Something… or someone?” he guessed what it was that she had to confess.

“You guessed it, father. A group that was, coincidentally, hunting for another of his kind kidnapped him. When they realized their error- thinking that he was just another human- they shot and killed him… as though he was a piece of garbage to be thrown away rather than causing them to be inconvenienced.” She remembered the horror and loss she had felt- as though someone had reached in and torn her insides out. Her voice dropped to a whisper, “I was too late to save him, father… but not too late to see them kill him.”

“And…” he gently pressed.

She continued to whisper, “I killed them, father. I killed them all.”

Father Rochefort could picture the reaction of an angry vampire to seeing their lover slain before their eyes. The image in his head wasn’t pretty. He thought the reality would probably be even worse.

“Tell me, child; are you sorry that you killed them? Are you sorry that they are dead?” he pressed.

“Father… I am an agent of the FBI. I firmly believe in justice. I believe their punishment was just- so, no; I’m not sorry that they are dead,” she answered firmly. “However, I also believe that justice is something that should be decided in a court of law. I am sorry that I killed them. It isn’t my place to be judge, jury and executioner.” Scully lowered her head and whispered, “I didn’t think, I just reacted.”

Rochefort asked, “Do you think that that excuses your behavior, child?”

“No father. It doesn’t excuse anything,” she answered, her expression doleful.

It was a hard question to ask, but Rochefort just had to know, “And if your lover were permanently dead…”

“Would I still by sorry?” she finished the question for him. “Father, I don’t want to be a murderer. I don’t want to be a killer,” she began. “You have no idea how easy it would be to give in to that desire.” She paused for several seconds, “I’ve seen terrible things, father. I am a pathologist- I have seen carnage you could never dream of; mass murders, torture, cannibalism… I’ve seen things done to women and children that would turn a maggot’s stomach. I have hunted down the monsters that perpetrate such atrocities,” she was near sobbing at this point. “I wanted to kill them, make them pay for their evil. I’ve seen it in Mulder’s eyes as well- that desire to wreak instant and fitting justice on the wrongdoers… But we never did. I never gave in to that impulse in my life until I watched them kill Mulder.”

Scully took a few deep breaths and regained her composure, “I still wouldn’t be sorry they were dead, father. I will always be sorry that I was the one to take their lives.”

Father Rochefort was moved by her recitation. He could hear the passionate desire to right wrongs. He had heard it many times before in the agonized voices of policemen who confessed before him, and it never failed to move him. To see such evil every day, and maintain ones honor, to uphold the law in the face of such provocation was laudable. He had only one thing left to say, “Child, you are granted absolution. Your sins are forgiven. Go with God.”

It was just a man speaking the words, but she felt God’s forgiveness fill her penitent heart, which might be cool and slow these days- but was neither cold nor hard.

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

Mulder was wowed by Scully’s confession. He had really never known the depths of her desire to exact vengeance. She always maintained such an even disposition- on the outside at least. He was glad that they had been able to refrain from surrendering to their desires for retribution. It would have changed the entire dynamic of their relationship for the worse.

He was also encouraged by the lightness in spirit that he felt from her after receiving absolution. He had, of late, begun to come up with a radical new (new for him at least) theory; his guilt over the bad things that happened to her was causing her pain. It was also selfish- by divorcing her from any responsibility for her actions, and the negative consequences, he was in fact telling her that she was not able to lead her own life and make her own decisions! He was treating her like a child. Well! No more of that! He would put aside his guilt and move forward. He would forgive himself, even if it killed him. And, he would ask her to forgive him- not for her pain, but for his conceit.

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

Scully came out of the confessional with a lightness of step that matched her lightness of heart. She felt like flying, but knew that would be a bad idea. She practically skipped over to Mulder and grabbed his hand, pulling him up out of the pew. “Mulder, let’s go flying!” she whispered conspiratorially.

[Absolutely!] he thought to her. He loved to fly with Scully almost as much as she did. He took her arm and she basically dragged him out of the cathedral. [Where are we going?] he added.

[Someplace high!] she answered.

===== X-FILES ===== FOREVER KNIGHT ===== HIGHLANDER =====

First Canadian Place, 951 feet up

11:30 p.m.

Scully had taken them for a rollicking ride through the sky. She luxuriated in the feeling of freedom and the sensation of the wind in her hair, as well as the feel of Mulder wrapped up in her arms and legs. She was happy and horny and they hadn’t even landed before she had begun her assault on him.

By the time they had landed on the roof of the tallest building in Canada, Mulder had one hand down Scully’s pants, stroking her clit through the silky panties, and the other hand under her shirt and bra, kneading her breasts and tweaking her nipples. He was caressing her fangs and suddenly impaled his tongue onto one of them, sending her crashing down into orgasm.

The blood from Mulder’s tongue was enough to spark an orgasm, but not enough to really initiate a bloodkiss- it healed too rapidly. Scully was disappointed when, rather than tear her clothes off and ravish her, Mulder put her back together- so to speak- and stepped back from her. She could feel a sense of apprehension from her lover and was concerned, [Mulder, what’s wrong?] she asked.

Mulder stared into the azure brilliance of her eyes for a moment before saying, “Scully, I want to confess… To you. I want to ask your forgiveness.” Feeling her ire, he quickly reassured her, “I’m serious, Scully! I don’t know if there is a God in Heaven, but I do know that I have faith in you. I know that I love you. And, I feel that I have ill-treated you.”

[Alright Mulder,] she thought to him hesitantly, wondering where he was going with this, and feeling anything but ill-treated at that particular moment.

“Scully, I want to ask your forgiveness for all the guilt and self loathing I have dumped on you for the past seven years. Every time I told you that I was responsible for the bad things that happened to you since you partnered with me,” he began. “I am sorry for presuming that I was such a dominant influence on your life and your mind that you couldn’t make decisions for yourself. As though you weren’t smart enough or wise enough to weigh the potential consequences and choose a course of action that involved risks. To do everything you did because it was your resolute choice- rather than my coercion.” Mulder reached out and wiped the tear from her cheek as he continued, “I’m sorry that I ever made you imagine for a moment that I thought so poorly of you; because I didn’t,” he said with tears in his own eyes. “I have always thought you were the stronger of us. I was just selfish and self-centered- I only thought of things and events in relationship to my feelings and my supposed inadequacies. Can you ever forgive me? “

[Oh Mulder. You have no idea how happy I am to hear that, well maybe some idea] she corrected, seeing the joy in her heart reflected in the look on his face. [That is the one thing that you were actually guilty of doing to me… and it hurt a lot. I always knew that it was just a function of your painful past, and I always forgave you, without you even needing to ask.] She pulled him tight and laid a sweet, compassionate kiss on his lips, [I absolve you of your sin, Mulder. Go forth and sin no more!] she said in all seriousness.

As Scully let Mulder go, she noticed two things: One, Mulder was staring into her eyes, crying with joy, not noticing anything else around them. Two, they were floating about ten feet above the roof of the building, and she wasn’t touching him.

“Um, Mulder?” she began.