The blast only sent the hunter stuttering back a few steps. He did not hear the outraged cry of the mage or the words of his partner. He did not hear anything. All he could sense was the smell of vampires surrounding him and the echo of Raymond Travers' last taunting threat against his family; he had to protect them.

He had to protect all of them.

It was his destiny!

Brendan tightened his grip on the sword and sought out the one who had stopped him from ridding the world of one more vampire and advanced like a panther to the kill.

Capri looked up from beneath the protective dome she had cast around Sarah, David and herself, sure of her ability. Yet she hadn't counted on a vampire hunter conceived in love and innocence but manipulated to be the final move in a centuries old faerie curse and all the implications inherent in such cruelty. The mage did not worry as that charged weapon made its sure way down towards the shimmering spell over her head. She did not worry until the sword made contact with the spell ...

And shattered the dome.

"What the buggers ..." she had time to say before her shattered magic reached back for its origin and knocked her backwards, sending her jerking, semi-conscious body skittering along the muck-laden floor.

Capri lay stunned from the backlash of the energy that had shattered her protective dome. Such power was always dangerous; she had not counted on the latent other-worldly ability of the vampire hunter brought to the surface by the scattering of Travers' evil blood.

"No ... please ..." David managed as he tried to fully cover his sister's frail body with his own.

"Brendan! Stop!" Rene cried out as he gripped the hunter's wrist.

Another vampire! Another evil to be wiped off the face of the earth!

The smell was nauseating. The touch of the creature like the cold grip of the grave.

Brendan transferred the sword to his left hand and sliced at this foul thing.

Kenyon looked at her from his position of safety against the wall. "And I thought only humans got stunned that badly."

Dejah chuckled.

"Shouldn't we help?" Kenyon wanted to know, Capri's fall allowing him a distraction from his own pain.

Dejah looked incredulous. "With all that residual energy? I don't think so!"

Rene had seen what was coming and moved away from this stranger he had thought to be an ally. But he did not move fast enough and felt the tip of the sword connect with the flesh just about his knee. Rene instinctively bent over to grasp at the wound and the hunter moved in for the kill, weapon raised over the vampire's neck.

"Brendan!" a female voice cut through the sounds of carnage in the room.

Karen, watching from the relative safety of the sidelines, noticed Capri's effort to stop Brendan from attacking Sarah. She recoiled in horror as the mage's energy was turned back on her, sending her across the room. Somehow, in all this confusion, Brendan had gone crazy, intent on slaying all the vampires that happened his way. He had to be stopped, but how?

And then Brendan was lashing out at the one person Karen had kept in focus during her time in captivity. The one goal that had helped her keep her sanity. The one thing that had never, and would never, fail her.

The strange sword that he had found lashed out at Rene; the one constant in Karen's life.

Karen cried out in desperation as Rene bent over to grab at his wounded leg and Brendan raised the sword high over his head.

"Brendan!"

The sword stopped where it was, Rene looking upwards in a weird fascination.

Meanwhile, a dazed Capri lay nearby, trying to reorient herself. ~Blast 'im, what was 'e thinkin?~ she thought as she tried to catch her breath, and picture Brendan in her mind. Raymond Travers and Giovanni were dead, so as far as she was concerned, there was no one left to fight. Then she remembered earlier communications with Brendan where he had indicated he could lose control. Why didn't she think of that now? All her concentration had been against Giovanni, and trying to revive and protect Sarah. She wasn't prepared for Brendan to lose it after the evils had died.

She couldn't yet see clearly enough even to make out who was saying what, only that she was by herself, no longer holding Sarah protectively, and something warm and wet was running down from somewhere on her head. ~Damn!~ There were more voices and more struggles from elsewhere in the room, but Capri was shaking too badly at this point to do anything to help. First thing she needed to do was find that blasted first aid kit and put something on that sword wound.

Karen and Kenyon could see her struggling but she didn't see them. Blood was pouring down into her eyes now as she managed to move her head off the floor. She rebuked herself. ~Well if ya stayed inside yer own ward while tryin ta fix it ya wouldn't be in this mess.~

Deciding against expending any more energy for now, Capri lay quietly on the floor, eyes shut, letting herself come around naturally. It seemed to take forever though, and she was getting concerned about bleeding so much with all the vampires in the room. What was it going to be, get done in by Brendan's sword or by some vampire's fangs? What had she stuck her neck out for anyway? and how would little NT take losing a trusted friend, especially this way? ~C'mon gal, buck up. Yer made o' sterner stuff than this, ain'tcha? Y'ain't gonna let 'em kill ya after all this.~ She had to keep fighting the temptation to slip into unconsciousness. ~Probly gone and gotcherself a concussion, now, that's nice goin.~ She heard a voice cry out "Brendan!" then everything went dark.

Mustering all the strength she could, Karen forced herself to stand, and began walking slowly towards the Hunter; it was her turn to do the rescuing, to repay the generosity of spirit that had brought all these others to her rescue. Karen began talking softly to Brendan.

"Brendan, don't; Brendan, Look at me!"

Karen stopped where she was as Brendan's head turned slowly towards her.

"Put the sword down, Brendan," she urged.

Yet the weapon did not waver, although it appeared that the gold flame surrounding it withdrew just a bit.

"Brendan, it's me Lady Karen."

The half-remembered images of infancy began to flood the hunter's mind. A smiling woman with big eyes hesitantly holding out arms.

The sword dropped an inch.

Karen took another wobbling step forward, ignoring the hand that Rene held out to her.

"It's over, we've won," she said.

~Bouncing in those arms. Smiling. Reaching out little hands to those lips and finding only joy in new life, the heady smell of talc and baby lotion. Not the fear and anger and hate that he had expected to find.~

Brendan's knees began shake from emotional and physical exertion.

"Please," Karen begged, "put down the sword."

In those arms he had felt as safe and secure as he had in the arms of the woman who had given him life. It was a strange, wonderful sensation for the infant who felt uncomfortable around the other people in the house.

Karen drew ever closer, relief creeping in at the edges as Brendan slowly lowered the sword, the strange golden flames disappearing from the weapon and his eyes. Yet he still gripped the weapon and there was a grim look on his face. Karen searched deep into her memory.

What else could she do?

And then she remembered a night listening at the nursery door as his mother had sung him to sleep. Ellie had explained that the song seemed so appropriate for her little hunter; it held a sense of promise that the future would always be bright and full of the darkness that she had feared would be her new son's lot in life. The next night Karen had taken a turn singing to the child.

It couldn't hurt.

"Beyond that road ..." Karen started in a soft voice as she continued her approach.

"Beyond this lifetime ..."

Brendan's fingers loosened their grip slightly.

"That car full of hope will always leave ..."

Moses parted the Red Sea and Brendan could see the carnage around him.

"With the promise of happiness ..."

Karen was so close.

"And the freedom he'll live to know ..."

Brendan's hand grew cold as he looked around him, the sword clattering to the floor.

"He'll travel with head held high ..."

Brendan closed his eyes and felt his knees give out.

"Just as far as his heart can go ..."

Brendan buried his head in his hands and began to rock back and forth.

"And he will ride ..."

Karen blinked back the blood tears and reached out to wrap comforting arms around the stricken young man's shoulders.

"Our child will ride ..."

Brendan buried his head in Karen's shoulder, feeling the familiar comfort and safety of a long gone time.

"On the wheels of a dream."

And then it was over.

The only sound in the room, the quiet "shushings" coming from Karen as she comforted the horrified young man.

Capri came to, just in time to hear a female voice softly singing. There was no more screaming or battle. When the song was over, the room fell silent for a moment. then there was some murmuring, and the sound of someone dragging somebody, or perhaps themselves, along the floor somewhere else in the room.

Capri had to lift her shaky hands to her face and get some of the blood out of her eyes before trying to open them. Looking around, she could make out that everyone was apparently still alive except of course Giovanni and Raymond. She managed a weak smile in Kenyon's direction and looked over to David and Sarah, who were now joined by Andrew.

Capri wanted to move to where they were. and just as she had thought, the first aid kit was still there as well. ~Not that it'd do any good now.~ As she quickly wiped away a stream of blood from going into her eye, she caught sight of Karen seeming to comfort Brendan. Now it came back to her what had happened. It was Brendan who had injured her. She only hoped Sarah was strong enough to survive by the time it happened. Capri shot an accusatory glance in Brendan's direction and turned her head away.

Then she heard Andrew calling Sarah's name. Capri lifted her head, she wanted to see if the girl was indeed alive. Sarah had made no audible response. But when Capri's head was lifted off the floor, everything about the room swirled, and she had to close her eyes and put her head back down. ~What the bloody 'eck!~

After a moment, she looked back toward David, Andrew, and Sarah, asking in a low, rasping annoyed tone that gave away how much pain she was in, "Ya still all breathin over there?"

* * *

And at this same 'moment'...somewhere else...

The young woman with the fashionably short black hair sat huddled into one corner of the antique leather sofa, dark circles under her eyes nearly as black as her hair. The woman next to her with the short blonde curls reached out a hand, only to be rebuffed.

"Don't, Tegan," Isabelle said as she pulled away. "Save it for Brendan. He's going to need it if ...." She shook her head. "When .... when he comes back."

A strikingly beautiful woman by the French doors turned around, anger on her face. "Why didn't he call for me? Why he is always such a self-rightous idiot?"

"Emily!" Tegan yelled at her baby sister.

A man with a long, curly brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, moved from where he stood quietly on one side of the room, to place a comforting arm around Emily.

"And that from a woman whose husband is a minister!" Terry chuckled softly.

"Yeah ... well ..." Emily said as she shrugged her shoulders. "Has anyone told Mom and Dad?"

Isabelle nodded slightly. "They wanted to come and I told them no. I promised I would have Bren reach them when ..." her voice broke. " ... he gets back. Your mother made me promise to come to England for a vacation."

Terry, ever the family conciliator, smiled, "Yeah. That's Mom. You would think Dad would have found the button that turns off her nurturing instinct after all these years."

Isabelle rose to her feet, her delicate skin going nearly as white as her sweater.

"What ..." Tegan began and rose to her feet as well, noticing the purple cloud that was beginning to seep into the room from the hallway.

"S'gnac," Terry said under his breath.

_Now ..._ a disembodied voice whispered. _He needs you now._

Emily shrugged out of her eldest brother's embrace. "Bout da ... darn time, too!"

* * *

Back at the aftermath of the battle...

David watched as Karen moved towards Brendan then began singing--singing?--to him.

And it seemed to be getting through in a way nothing else had--he couldn't remember ever being this scared in his life, not even those weeks he'd spent tramping through the woods around Clearbrook searching for some trace of Sarah fifty years ago.

Only now Sarah was back. Though she wasn't the same as she'd been--and yet she was. He reached down, it was still hard to believe, to understand but it was real. He touched her cheek, cool and smooth like the young girl she still seemed to be. The blood that was everywhere now was the only thing that took away from that. He had to fight to ignore the smell of it, it was making him want to be sick and he knew he couldn't give in to that.

Sarah's eyes fluttered again, she let out a soft moan.

David shushed her. "Don't try to talk," he said softly. "It's over...he's gone. They're both gone."

Still holding her up, he eased her to where she could see Giovanni's body, which still lay where Rene had flung it once they couldn't get any more out of him. Then turning her slightly, he let her see the dark puddle on the floor that was all that remained of Raymond.

She moaned again and closed her eyes, but he could feel some of the tension going out of her.

He eased her back so that she was lying against him, then he heard another groan from behind them. He turned slightly...and saw Harrington.

Andrew had managed to drag himself over to where they lay, and was fighting to stay conscious--he'd already been injured during the fight with Raymond, and taking the extra beating from Brendan hadn't helped. But at least Sarah was safe now. He had to talk to her, though that was assuming she'd want anything to do with him after this.

"Sarah.." Andrew managed, struggling not only against the weakness but also the Hunger...damn it if he didn't get something soon he wouldn't be able to stop himself from taking David or one of the other mortals here.

Sarah, even as weak as she still was, heard the voice. She turned and met Andrew's eyes for a moment...there were so many things she wanted to say to him. The years of lies, the hurt and pain of the last hours...but she simply didn't have the strength. She closed her eyes and looked away.

Andrew's face fell. He'd lost her, like he'd always known he would. She'd been like a daughter to him all these years and now...but he couldn't abandon her. If she never wanted anything to do with him again, that was her choice but he wouldn't abandon her.

Gabriel had thought that Brendan's eyes softened for a moment, showing the person he trusted and the partner he would work with, but then Brendan had dragged the sword roughly from his stomach and pushed him to the floor. During the chaos that followed, Gabriel had concentrated on crawling to the spot where Travers' ashes and Giovanni's body were left like days-old garbage. _This is my job,_ he thought, as he made his painful way there. _This is my curse, now._

He made it to the spot as Karen shouted at Brendan, and he breathed a sigh of relief that she'd known what to do. But his attention was drawn back to the body and the ashes. They were dead, but the spirits of Travers and of Giovanni still lingered. As did the evil stench of their deeds and their thoughts.

He managed to gain his knees and he began to pray, his voice low and melodious in the room. As he did so, the air around him began to glow, a soft golden sheen like the one he recalled from his Journey. It wrapped him in a pale echo of the contentment he'd known there, but when it touched the spirits of Travers and of Giovanni, it burned white hot and incandescent, making him close his eyes while the evil was eradicated for once and for all.

Their spirits were being judged and sent to the afterlife by the Light which he now bore, which he would bear forever, as an agent of the One... In his mind, he heard the Voice telling him that he would be Its instrument against Evil. Any kind of evil, but particularly the evil that harmed the innocent.

As the last echo faded from his mind, the light faded to the golden glow and then he toppled to the floor, his mission done.

Sarah lay back against David. There was so much she wanted to say to Andrew right now, but she just didn't have the strength. And where was Gabriel? She'd seen him just before...just before she'd stabbed herself.

"G..Gabriel..." she moaned.

David tried again to calm her. "I think he's over there." He looked around, and saw Gwabriel lying by the wall. The man was moving, somewhat, despite the wound in his side, so David figured he was still alive. "He's all right," he said again, hoping to keep Sarah calm. She was still so weak, she didn't need to see the shape he was in.

"Gabriel...please...where is he?" Sarah only cried harder.

Andrew cursed silently. He'd go over there and drag Tallant to Sarah himself if he could, if only he wasn't in such desperate straits he couldn't even hold himself up.

"Sarah, please..." David tried again to keep her quiet.

The pain that Sarah was broadcasting aroused Gabriel from the blackout that had taken him, and he lifted his head. She wasn't in danger, but she was hurting... emotionally and spiritually, and Gabriel knew that his task wasn't over until she'd been eased.

Gritting his teeth, he began the long crawl to Sarah's side. Peripherally, he noticed that Brendan was crying in Karen's arms, and that his partner was also distressed, but he couldn't be in two places at once and Karen was doing a good job with him.

He could hear Sarah's sobs as he neared the huddle of David and his sister. Andrew barred the way, and he touched the other vampire to ease their communication. *Andrew, please, let me ... she's confused, and hurt...*

Andrew's stricken eyes showed Gabriel how much the other man was hurting, but he could do nothing, for Andrew was not an innocent in this matter. He had known of the danger to Sarah and had not warned her or told her of his suspicions, and now he would reap the harvest his actions had sown. *Andrew... let her go... she'll contact you when she's less confused...*

Andrew moved aside, and Gabriel finally gained the side of the woman he'd suffered through this nightmare to protect and to save... He looked up at David from his sprawled position on the floor and touched the elderly man's hand. *David, she's going to be all right. Rest now, don't worry about her.* He sent the comforting emotions deep into the man's mind, then turned to Sarah.

"G..Gabriel?" She whispered.

"Right here," he whispered back. "I'm here, Sarah."

Sarah reached out and clasped his hand. "Please...tell me...I have to know..." In her fright and confusion a part of her mind kept going back to that horrible moment when she'd watched Gabriel and Karen in each other's arms. She wanted with all her heart to believe it had been a lie, but until she felt Gabriel's presence again she couldn't be sure.

*Know what, my dear?* He asked gently within her head.

Her confusion and sense of betrayal flooded through the link they shared. Gabriel held on until it had subsided. "Karen...and ...you...I saw...and Ray said..." Sarah whispered.

*No. Never,* Gabriel answered her. *What you saw...what we...did ...that wasn't US. Giovanni used his magic to move us like puppets. Karen is someone I'll always admire and respect, but I can't love her. How could I when you've already filled the empty places in my heart?*

"But ... I saw ... the letters..." Sarah persisted. She had to have every question answered, after the betrayal of Andrew and of Raymond.

*More of Giovanni's tricks,* Gabriel sent. He moved closer, to take her into his arms, both of them on the floor, but it didn't matter. Sarah was still here, and Travers and Giovanni were gone. *I promise you, Sarah, that I will always be there for you, when I can. But...* His mind turned to the new purpose, the blessing? Curse? He really didn't know. *I have other duties, now, my dear. Can you see ...there? In my thoughts?*

*What...what do you mean?* her mind whispered, she only knew she needed him, loved him, in a way she never had anyone else. Not even what she had taken for love so long ago had come close to what she felt for Gabriel now. *please...* her hand clutched his tighter, needing to know, to understand the fear that she might lose him after all, if not to Karen then something else.

"Relax," Gabriel murmured. "Let me show you." He closed his eyes and deepened his own trance-like state so that he could drift through the memories of the last several hours at will. Then he began sharing those memories with Sarah, the last few hours before her arrival, the despair and the anger that he and Karen had felt as they'd been manipulated like dolls in the sadistic hands of Giovanni, to hurt her, and to mock the whole idea of love, or anything but brutal lust.

Then, the arrival of the others, and their long hard journey to this room, his own despair at his weakness and his conviction that he'd failed her, and then his journey to the Light... and his offer to It of himself and his soul, if only ... if only ... the innocent could be saved... Sarah, and her brother... Karen, Rene ... and Brendan. As his thoughts ranged over the time he'd spent in the Light, the aura grew around both their bodies until they were encased in it as if they were pooled in liquid amber.

Sarah's eyes met Gabriel's as she felt his memories, the emotions that came with them. It meant so much, that he'd borne all this for her. She clung tighter to him.

Which was when she felt the Light, the Presence, surrounding both of them...and her love for him was absorbed and reflected by It...a sense of peace of love filled her, one way beyond any she had ever known. She closed her eyes, lay back against Gabriel's chest...and for the first time in longer than she could remember, smiled.

Andrew slumped back against a fallen table as Gabriel crawled past him to where Sarah lay in David's arms.

He watched as Gabriel took Sarah from David and held her close to him.

~Oh, Sarah...if it takes me a thousand years I'll make this up to you,~ Andrew thought. ~I promise you.~

If he only had the strength, he'd tell her that himself--but then, she probably wouldn't listen. And it would be only what he deserved.

David hadn't wanted to let go of Sarah, but she'd been so desperately pleading to speak to Gabriel that he didn't want to upset her further. She was still so weak and hurt and not just physically. So he surrendered her limp form to Tallant and moved to one side to allow them some privacy--but stayed close in case she needed him.

A golden light appeared around Gabriel, spreading quickly to engulf Sarah as well...it was like an amber bubble around the two of them.

David started forward as it appeared. "What the--" He'd intended to leap forward and drag Sarah clear, but Andrew's hand on his arm stopped him. That and the feeling of Peace and Love that seemed to radiate outward from the Light, though it did not touch either of them.

Andrew's eyes rimmed with bloody tears. "I don't know how, but I know it's all right." he whispered. In seven hundred years he'd only heard rumors of this sort of thing...half whispered tales. He'd never thought any truth to them, but now, it was right before his eyes.

David stared at Andrew. "What are you talking about?"

"Can't you feel it?" Andrew whispered.

David nodded. There was something, a sense of Love he'd never experienced before. Though his body still ached, the sense of rightness and Peace that filled him made that fade.

To Andrew, who had not seen or felt the sunlight in so many years, the sensation was both wonderful and frightening, because his vampire senses were screaming at him to escape, to flee, while his mind and heart were basking in the sense that everything was well, that he was Loved and that the Light would always be there for him, waiting... no matter how long he stayed in the shadows.

David, on the other hand, was surrounded by the images of angels just as he'd imagined them in church every Sunday for fifty years -- all with Sarah's face and with ineffable love glowing from their expressions.

~The Wall. That voice kept insisting on going to the wall. What was this? Pink Floyd? Get up against The Wall..~ Kenyon closed his eyes against the carnage in the room. He had kids at home - probably more than he should have at 24, but seeing as he felt at least 34... He had a wife and a mother and a father and two younger brothers. He had promised Anna that trip to Ireland as a Christmas present.

He had promised his mother he would teach his brothers how to drive over the summer.

He had promised his father he would help build the addition to the house.

He had promised Aaron he would help build the new house in New Orleans before the wedding rolled around in July.

He had promised Connor...

He opened his eyes. The numbness creeping over his upper body and the lack of sensation in his legs told him he probably wasn�t going to be around much longer to keep those promises. He let his eyelids slide back over his weary eyes and drifted off again. If he was lucky, he�d die before he woke up.

For a long time, he heard nothing and felt nothing. Everything was calm, finally. For once in the past week, everything was peaceful. No one was demanding answers out of him, no one was nagging him to �do something� and no one was racing for his throat.

Then he heard something.

A woman; and she was singing. It was a song he knew, or thought he knew and when he opened his eyes, he saw Brendan slumped in a woman�s arms. Undoubtedly the same one who had been singing. Why singing? He didn�t know, he had missed the entire thing.

_At least Brendan isn�t out for blood anymore._ He thought ruefully, then shook his head, wincing as the pain came rushing back. He sighed and closed his eyes again, he was becoming far too accustomed to this sort of thing. Connor was right. It might be better to hop back in time and just go back to the clubs and the streets of New York City.

�Babe?� It was another woman�s voice, this one gentle. A strange gentleness, it seemed like �gentle� was a foreign tone for her, �Babe, come on, wake up. It�s over, we�ve won and we�re getting you to a hospital.�

�Can it Dejah,� Kenyon�s voice sounded thick, �I�m not moving because I don�t feel like it.�

It was all Karen could do to keep from breaking down herself. Hearing the soft cries of Brendan, holding him close, hoping he understood how she felt about his friendship towards herself, a Vampire. It broke her heart even if it wasn't beating, to see him suffer like this, and she felt like she owed him this comforting that he needed so much at this time. How lucky and proud Ellie and Connell should be for having such a beautiful and giving son. She owed this young man her life, and there was truly no way she could think of to pay him back properly.

As she rocked him, she let her eyes roam over the room, such chaos that had happened here. Poor Gabriel, battered and bruised, poor Rene, wounded, and also Capri, there wasn't too much she could do for any of them right now. All she knew was that this terrible nightmare had ended, and that they had all come out of this wounded, but alive.

Rene watched as Karen sang softly to Brendan, cradling him in her arms as if he was still the babe they knew him to be. A lump formed in his throat along with a sense of overpowering loss. Karen would never hold a child of her own, of his, because of their vampiric state. Watching Karen brought this fact home with more intensity than anything else ever could. It came as a shock to Rene when he felt tears on his cheeks. Blinking, he wiped his face with the back of his hand, the blood red of his tears a bright stain on his pale skin. Instead of rejoicing that this nightmare was over, Rene grieved for the lost pleasures of fatherhood, of a normal life, forever lost to himself and Karen.

It was these thoughts that he dwelt on when he saw a bright flicker out of the corner of his eyes. Turning, he saw Gabe and Sarah enclosed in a bubble of golden light. Fascinated, he could only watch as the light seemed to spread out, until finally it bathed him also. Rene felt the warmth shining from the light, covering him in love and peace and . . . Oh my God, it was wonderful!

Rene gave himself over to the feelings he was experiencing, letting the light caress him and flow through him. Turning his head, his eyes sought Karen's and found she was watching him, a smile on her face. Suddenly nothing mattered except he was alive and the light favored him. There was no rejection in this light; only love and acceptance and joy. Rene listened intently; he could faintly hear a choir of voices, the music beautiful beyond understanding. The light stroked all his senses and the music filled him with immeasurable ecstasy. Rene knew he was in the presence of God and he gloried in it.

This way back to part 9

This way to part 11