Who Wants To Live Forever? Prt 4
by Ben Church
b_church@yahoo.com
(Feedback! Please!)
Continuity Note: This obviously takes place before Becoming. In my
Buffy story this is a sequel to Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered:
Martin's Story. In my Highlander series, this takes place after
Unsinkable.
Buffy and all associated characters belong to Joss Whedon. Highlander
and all associated characters belong to Rysher Entertainment (to the
best of my knowledge). And The Last Vampire and all associated
characters belong to Christopher Pike.
England 1860
Tut heard the sound of weeping from round the back of the
house. He hurried back, afraid of what he might find. Drucilla had
been hit hard by the collapse of the mine. She wouldn't tell him why,
but he guessed it had something to do with the conversation she'd had
with her mother afterward.
Sure enough, his fiancee sat crying on a bench behind her
house.
"Drucilla," Tut said softly, sitting down next to her. "What's
wrong? Please tell me."
Drucilla looked at him sadly. Despite her plight, his mere
presence was enough to cheer her up. "I can't." she said.
"Drucilla," Tut implored her. "We're to be married, you must
trust me."
"I," she bear to look at him when she said it. "I can't marry
you." Her eyes clenched shut as the tears returned.
"What?" Tut's face fell. "Why not? Drucilla tell me what's
wrong! I deserve and explanation."
Taking a deep breath, Drucilla told him. The visions, the
words her mother had spoken, leaving out only her visit to the
confessional that morning, still not sure how to cope with what the
priest had told her.
"Drucilla." Tut said. "Do not take this the wrong way, but
your mother is a fool."
Her mouth opened with shock. "How d-"
"Let me finish." he insisted. "It is not for your mother to
judge what is an affront to God. That is for God to judge only. This
gift, yes, Gift, is from God not the devil. It is true that you saw
a horrible thing that came to pass, but you did not cause it. God
grants us each special gifts. To you he gave beauty, virtue,
intelligence, and now the power to warn of danger before it occurs.
You are not wicked. You could never be wicked. God did not design you
that way. You could never be anything but the wonderfull, good woman
who has stolen my heart."
Drucilla smiled in spite of herself. "Then, you still wish to
marry me?" she asked tentatively.
"Yes," he answered absolutely. "I do. With all my heart and
soul."
"Then I will marry you." the girl smiled. All thoughts of her
mother and the priest leaving her mind. Tut leaned in and kissed her
gently on the mouth.
"Kids, kids!" a familiar voice mocked them from the darkness.
"Save some for the wedding night!"
Drucilla gasped, recognizing the voice of the priest from the
confessional. Why had he followed her? Unless he wasn't a priest?
A monster stepped from the shadows. Once it had been human,
but one look at the creatures face proved that it was no longer.
"Ra's eye!" Tut swore under his breath in spite of himself.
"What are you?"
"It's a demon!" Drucilla screamed. "He's come to claim me
because of my power!"
Tut was as certain as ever that her power did not come from
any devil, but this thing before him certainly looked demonic. And
perhaps it had even come for her, to use her power for evil. But
it would not. Not if he had anything to do about it.
"It shall not have you." Tut promised, rising to his feet and
drawing his sword. "It will have to come through me first."
"I wouldn't have it any other way." the thing grinned.
"Drucilla get to the house." Tut ordered.
She tried to do just that, but suddenly two more monsters were
in her way. They grabbed her and turned her back to the fight, forcing
her to watch what came next.
Tut feinted with the sword, testing his opponent. He guessed
it may have supernatural powers that might make it an interesting
challenge. But then, he had over a millenia of experience on his
side.
But the thing was fast. It dodged all but one of his blows,
which caught it across the chest. It hissed in pain, but suddenly,
it grabbed the blade in it's hand and pulled the sword from his grasp.
Tossing the weapon aside, it grabbed Tut by the throat.
"Now," Angelus said. "Tell me when it hurts."
Drucilla tried desperately to turn her head, or close her eyes,
but her captors wouldn't let her. They forced her watch as the monster
before her, tortured her beloved.
Tut woke, gasping, in his coffin. He coughed, amazingly glad
his ordeal was over. He'd been gutted, and flayed alive.
It took him some time to free himself from his grave. By the
time he'd gotten out, and returned to Dru's home, it had been burned to
the ground, and her family had been killed. He found out that she'd
gone into a convent, and had later been killed.
Sunnydale, 1998
"Spike," the Vampire girl sang, entereing with her burden.
"Look what I've found."
"What's that you've got there Ducks?" Spike asked, sitting in
his chair, reading an Anne Rice book. They just kept getting funnier.
"Did you get take out?"
"Oh, he's not for eating." Dru smiled. "At least not yet."
"What'd you bring home this time?" Angel called from the loft.
They were staying in another warehouse, this one nicer than the last
one.
"I've brought an old friend home to play." she smiled. She set
her prize down in a chair and began to tie it up.
Angel leaped down, curious. Had she captured one of Buffy's
little friends? His widened in shock when he saw who it was in the
chair. "The hell?!"
The Next Day
"You're absolutely sure of what you saw?" and Agitated Giles
asked for the third time.
"I keep telling you yes." Willow said. "Me and Oz both saw
it."
Giles sighed, removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his
nose. "Good lord," he thought. "I just can't keep ANYTHING a secret
anymore can I."
"You know what's going on don't you Giles." Buffy said. "Spill
it."
"Yes, I'm afraid I do." The Watcher admitted. "It means that
the murders of the past two nights were not in fact perpetrated by
copycat killers, but by the origional killers themselves."
There was silence in the room. Everyone waiting for him to
continue.
"You should know," Giles went on. "That much like in any
Military organization, the Watcher Council occasionally classifies
information on a need to know basis. And until just now, you did not
need to know.
"Vampires and Demons are not the only forms of Immortal on
earth." He went on to explain Immortals, and the Game.
"So, Tom is actually older than he looks." Cordelia guessed.
"Yes, quite a bit older. He is in actuallity, over three
thousand years old. His name is not really Thomas Kammen. It is
Tutahnkhamen."
"King Tut?!" Willow exclaimed. "Tom is King Tut?"
Giles smiled slightly. "Yes Willow. That's exactly it."
"But wait a minute," Oz broke in. "It that guy is Tut, then
who'd they find in his tomb?"
"We don't know." Giles told him. "Tut himself has no idea."
"So what you're telling us," Xander said. "Is that Jack The
Ripper, Geoffry Dahmer, Ted Bundy and The Boston Strangler are Immortal
and loose in Sunnydale? Lock your doors tonight folks."
"That's not completly accurate." The librarian corrected him.
"You see, The Boston Strangler, is not Immortal."
"Then who is it?" Buffy wanted to know.
"Most likely it is a man named Richard Ramirez."
"The guy who had no set M.O." Xander agreed. "That would make
sense."
"Make sense?" Cordelia snorted. "Nothing in this town makes
sense."
"Okay," Buffy said. "Let's sum up. We had five, now four
Immortal Serial killers loose in Sunnydale. One is dead thanks to Tom,
Tut, whatever his name is, after the bad guy attacked Willow. The
others are still on the loose, and the only one who can find them is
missing?"
"Missing?" Giles shot his head up. "What do you mean?"
"His girlfriend's looking all over for him." Oz told him.
"He hasn't shown up for school."
Giles thought for a moment. "He may have simply left town."
he said. "Perhaps he knew that he'd been seen by Willow and rather
than let his secret get out, he left."
"Without telling his girlfriend?" Buffy asked dubiously. "Does
that fit with his profile."
"Actually no." Giles grudgingly agreed. "But there are still
four of them left. He may be out searching for them."
"Tell me about the others. What do you guys know about them?"
"Not as much as we'd like." Giles answered. "There is a
Watcher assigned to each Immortal, we record their actions, experiances
and battles, but we're sworn never to interfere. But with Immortals
as dangerous as these, well, volunteers are rather hard to come by.
"But we do know that they were banded together by Jack himself,
and that they...tend to act in concert when faced with an Immortal."
Buffy had heard enough. She strode purposefully into the
weapons closet, and exited with a sword.
"Buffy where are you going?"
"Tut may not be able to handle four on one. I'm gonna even the
odds."
"Buffy you cannot interfere! The rules-"
"I'm not a Watcher, Giles." The Slayer interupted. "I'm not
Immortal either. Besides, four on one is against the rules too." With
that, she left the library.
"How does she think she's going to get off school grounds in
broad daylight with an un-concealed sword?" Oz asked.
Angel sat on a chair facing his prisoner, waiting. Being
patient was never his strong suit, but somehow he managed it.
Groaning, Tut came to. His head didn't hurt, as it might have
someone else. But being an Immortal had it's advantatges. He opened
his eyes carefully, preparing himself for whatever he may see. He
remembered seeing Drucilla alive, and also remembered that he hadn't
sensed a Quickening. He opened his eyes.
"Ra's Eye!" he cursed. Sitting before him, was the same
monster that had killed him before Drucilla's eyes over a century
ago.
"That's an interesting expression." it said. Though It no
longer seemed appropriate. It's face no longer looked like that of
a demon from hell, rather a handsome young man. What had happened?
"What the hell are you?" Tut asked him.
Angel almost laughed. "You know I knew you were going to ask
me that. I guess I'll tell you. I'm a Vampire." He was expecting
many things, fear, disbelief even. But not laughter.
"Nice try." the Immortal said. "But I've lived with a Vampire,
talked to one. Had my blood drunk by one. And you sir, are no
Vampire."
Angel sat back. Pondering. "And what are you?" he asked. He
wasn't sure how to convince the boy. After all, if he'd lived with a
Vampire, and had fed one, he must know what they looked like when they
fed. And he'd seen Angel in his Demon face.
"I don't think I'm going to tell you that."
"Are you two getting along?" Drucilla whispered in Tut's ear.
She'd crept up behind him, unseen. Circling to the front, she let him
see her in all her demonic glory.
Despair and pity filled Tut's eyes, then fury. He glared at
Angel. "For what you did to me, I can forgive. But for what you did
to her, I'll kill you myself."
Sita cursed, crouching in the alley. The scent was very clear.
Tut, an unfamiliar scent, ozone, and a Dimisti. She guessed that Tut
had fought an Immortal, won, then been captured while he recovered from
the Quickening. She didn't like to think what they would do to him
if they discovered his powers.
"See something interesting?" Buffy asked from behind her,
apparently thinking she'd snuck up on Sita.
Sita had of course smelled her a block away, further actually.
"As a matter of fact," Sita said. "No. But I certainly smell
something very interesting." She stood, and pointed. "They went
thataway."
Buffy stood disbelieving for a moment. "I don't smell
anything." She sniffed for a moment, and wrinkled her nose. "Nothing
usefull anyway."
"Yes well, you're only human."
"Oh? And what are you?"
"I'm a Vampire." She seemed to be quite free with that
information these days. She'd have to watch that.
"Right." Buffy snorted. "Tell me another one. If you're a
Vampire, how are you standing right in the middle of the sunlight?"
Before Buffy could blink, Sita had crossed the distance
between them, grabbed her by the throat, and pinned her against the
wall. "I'm not that kind of Vampire."
To be continued...
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