Meanwhile, outside...

The group of Tibetans with Francis Cullen had driven from Lourdesmont to the fields of Gettysburg, although the fact that none of them had ever been in the United States before and they didn't have a road map had not detered or delayed them.

But, eventually, Subira's sense for her God had flared and she had begun to direct the driver to turn HERE and THERE and GO LEFT...

The group piled out of the car and stood staring at the old farmhouse. The front door was open, leading into a darkened hall, and certain thumping sounds came from within, but it was not all that scary. Francis thought so anyway, as he boldly strode up the steps and into the house. Subira motioned to her group and they split up, some of them going to search for other entrances, and some of them following her into the front door.

"Down there," she said, touching Francis' arm and pointing past him to the corridor branching off the entryway. "He's there."

"If you say so," Francis muttered. "I say, do you have a light? This floor seems awfully lumpy...." He looked down and jumped back. At his feet was a body. A scaly body that oozed dark blue blood.

Subira looked down and shook her head. "Demon. Fourth circle, I'd say. Easy killing."

"You ... you've faced this...THING...before?"

"When one's God calls, one does the job. Now, young Cullen, we go. You may stay or follow..." Subira stepped daintily over the body and her companions did likewise. After a few moments, Francis decided that company was better than being alone in this house.

Subira was annoyed, the muffled sound of her footsteps echoed the emotion. Not only had this Travers taken her Lord, but he'd mocked the relationship the People had to Him, and he'd implied rather nasty things. And to call up demons to fight against the others... that was just rude. And she hated rude people. So she marched to where her God awaited her.

Through the open door, she saw her Lord, knelt beside a blonde woman and a wounded man. He seemed not to need her aid, yet, so she looked at the other people in the room.

"What the ..." Francis said rather loudly as he peered over Subira's shoulder.

Gabriel's apostle turned, angry words on her lips, to quiet this damn impossible mortal when a soft wind blew past, slamming the door shut.

"Hey!" Subira shouted as she grabbed the ancient rusted doorknob, shaking it for all it was worth. "Let me in!"

Francis reached into his pants and pulled out a small silver flask, raising it to his lips. "Damn stupid vam ..." his words died in his throat as the silver flask flew from his hands to land on the opposite side of the hall.

Subira stopped struggling with a door that wouldn't open and turned at the very same moment the rest of her compatriots converged from various connecting halls.

_Not yet_ a strange voice echoed in their minds. _The time is not yet come for you._

"Oh Christ," Francis breathed as he felt his knees give way and slid down the wall.

"Not exactly," Subira replied, a particularly wicked little smile on her face. "Not exactly."

* * *

Back inside the main room...

A short distance away from where Raymond and Brendan were facing off, Giovanni struggled to get his breath back, unable to believe how everything had gone so wrong so suddenly. He fought to rally what strength he had left.

"You...will...pay...for...this...!" he growled through clenched teeth at the nearest interlopers he could reach, Capri and Rene.

Capri glared at him, "Shadup, stupid!"

The taunt was enough to give Giovanni the prodding he needed to reach deep inside himself, to draw on resources he had all but forgotton. The necromancer drew a deep breath as he felt the darkest depths of his power surge through his being.

"Oh damn," Rene said softly as his vision was drawn towards the far side of the room where Karen and Andrew had managed to gain their feet.

Giovanni saw the direction of Rene's look. "I haven't finished with her yet," he said in a silky tone. "Perhaps you would like to watch this time?"

"You bastard!" Rene and Capri chorused as one as they surged towards Giovanni.

Cold, out of control rage blinded Rene as he sped toward Giovanni. When he did slam into him, it was like slamming into a brick wall. Giovanni's lips curled up in the beginnings of a smile, but the smile died prematurely as Capri plowed into him combining her strength and magic with Rene's. The three tumbled to the floor, with Rene and Capri on top, throwing vicious punches at Giovanni's face and head.

"You filthy woman abuser," Rene spat at him between punches, "You animal!" Rene wasn't even aware of the verbal barrage he was flinging at Giovanni. As his fist made contact with Giovanni's face, his other one was already in a downward swing with all his vampiric strength behind it. Capri took hold of Giovanni's hair and began banging his head against the floor. With each slam of the necromancer's head against the hard wooden floor, blood flew up, spattering all three combatants, but for once the blood gave no siren call to Rene; he was in the grips of a rage that blinded him to the blood, the hunger, the very existence of anyone else in the room.

Suddenly Giovanni roared and his arm shot up, grabbing Rene around the throat. Fingers of steel dug into Rene's throat, stopping the volley of punches he had been showering on the madman. Still roaring, Giovanni jerked his head away from Capri and gave her a backward punch over his shoulder. Capri flew back, landing several feet away. However, it takes more than a punch to keep a good woman down and Capri was on her feet in a second, then springing onto his back.

Giovanni's grip never wavered. As Rene tried to pry his fingers away, Giovanni brought his face near to Rene's and he said, "Little vampire, you don't know who or what you are dealing with. You are much too puny to face me now, or ever. My magic is far superior to your vampire strength."

Rene tried to break free of the cruel grip that was stealing his strength away. A red haze covered his line of vision as consciousness began to drift away. Not knowing what else to do, he drew his fist back and hit Giovanni as hard as he could one last time. When that didn't seem to faze him, Rene did the only thing he could think of: his body went completely limp and he turned into a mist.

Capri had been holding Giovanni's neck in a strangle hold and kicking at his back while he had Rene at his mercy. "Dammit let 'im go ya bloody murderin sasquatch!"

Giovanni didn't even seem to be aware he was being kicked in the back until Rene vanished. "The stupid fool!" he raged, "I can always get you back, you little vamp!"

Just then, Capri delivered a stunning blow to the back of his head with a hand gun she had been concealing. Again and again, she smashed it into his head, uttering words of contempt with every strike. "This, fer messin with m'friends! This fer meddlin with stuff y'ain't got no business doin! This fer all yer "I'm too good fer the likes o' ya"hoity-toity ways! This fer cuttin fingers off people and usin all manner o' torture known ta man!"

Giovanni's head spun. He reached back to grab at the object that the enraged faerie kept swinging at him, but she saw the move and quickly got it out of range. "You...Don't...Know.Who..You're..."

"Shadup!" Capri jumped to the side, grabbed a handful of Giovanni's hair and threw him on his back. He moved to sit up and fling her off again, but she smashed her head into his, sending him flat. Then came a barrage of savage punches to the nose and lower jaw. Giovanni flailed his arms and legs about, kicking Capri in the back, but she sent a terrible burning sensation through them every time they connected with her.

"I will...Make you pay *dearly.!" Giovanni said in a faint yet threatening voice.

"Yer in no position ta do that and we both know it!" Capri shot back, glaring daggers at him as she continued slamming him again and again. Once his arms went down in an attempt to support himself into a sitting position, or at least try, Capri quickly muscled them by his sides so that she was sitting on them as well. All the while, she was draining Giovanni of his strength. His body was starting to feel a numb but burning sensation all at the same time, and he was finding it harder and harder to resist Capri.

"Now that I got yer attention, lout, how does it feel to 'ave the shoe on the other foot? Eh!? Yer goin down and out. Jig's up, enda the road, curtains, yer finished!"

"No!"

"Oh yes."

The more Cristoforo Giovanni struggled, the more the drug like sensation and burning intensified. Capri held him there in a determined, iron grip, and his nose was bleeding down into his wind pipe, causing him to choke, splutter and gasp for air. Eventually the burning sensation stopped as Giovanni could only fight to breathe. He was no longer able to fight the faerie, but death itself, and the total loss of strength.

Seeing him truly weakened and heaving great gasps for air, Capri propped him up just enough for the blood to run out of his nose rather than into his lungs, but she never loosened her grip on him. She had now become eerily calm as she too, was tiring out. And Giovanni was looking more and more like any other victim of drowning or smoke inhalation and Capri had to fight any twinge of mercy that came up. She knew that there could be no other way. As terrible as it was seeing someone struggling to breathe until unconscious or dead, the other alternative was far worse. Under no circumstance could she ever allow Giovanni to live to hurt another living thing. He wouldn't think twice about inflicting this and much worse on anyone else, and Capri kept reminding herself of this.

The last thing Giovanni saw was Capri staring right at him. then everything went hazy. He thought he detected some kind of mercy in the woman who held him firmly and was making him weaker by the second.

"I warned ya," Capri said as she continued to drain his power out of him, "But ya wouldn' listen. Now yer gonna do somethin useful fer once in what's left o' yer life." Out from one of her pockets, she took a little pocket knife, pulled it out of it's case, took aim at Giovanni's throat and plunged it in. The blood came gushing out in pulsing streams. Now all that needed to be done was get the bleeding Giovanni over to Sarah and quick.

David knelt beside Sarah, fumbling desperately as he tried to figure out what he should do--or if there was anything he *could* do. What he had read about first aid didn't cover vampires! There was still blood oozing from the wound at her throat, though nowhere near as much as he thought there should have been: that probably was because Travers (damn him!) had taken so much. Sarah was looking even thinner now, almost as if she were one of those people from Africa or wherever that you saw on the news, from those places where no one ever got enough to eat.

"Damn it someone help me!" he cried out, somehow knowing Sarah was slipping away, but not having the slightest idea of how to stop it, or even if it could be stopped.

Raymond swatted the sword-wielding Rhys away and seized David's shirt."You're too late--all of you. She's *mine*!"

David fell back with the force of Raymond's shove and stumbled to the floor. Ignoring the aches that screamed from every muscle he forced himself back to his feet, just in time to see the dark skinned woman and the other vampire dragging a bleeding Giovanni towards them.

""Ere, she needs blood--make 'er take 'is." the woman snapped, shoving Giovanni down towards where Sarah lay.

"Yes, give her his blood," Raymond laughed coldly. "it'll just mean more for me in the end."

Giovanni raised tormented, amazed eyes towards the one who had promised him immortality. Surely he had heard wrong!

Capri's anger flared and she sent Raymond a dangerous glare. Drawing and cocking her gun, ready to shoot, she roared, "Shadup unless ya wanna get yerself burnin up with hot lead!"

Raymond smiled smugly, saying, "You think so, fool?" And he reached for the gun, only to be thrown back a step by the mere touch.

"An' jus who're ya callin a fool, fool?" She taunted. "If yer smart, y'll stay put and maybe y'll live ta see Sarah finish that pal 'o yers!"

In only a second Raymond had recovered and went for Capri again. The mage backed up a step, glancing towards David and his protective stance over his sister. Much as she would have liked to move from her position and all out kill Raymond, Capri couldn't afford not to keep watching Sarah and ensure that Giovanni would not find it in him to recover.

So she chose.

"Giovanni!" she called out to Rene who had begun to reform.

"With pleasure," the hollow voice of the vampire replied as Rene began to cover the injured Giovanni.

"Get down!" Capri ordered David who had raised his head as she approached and adopted a protective stance over the mortal and the unconscious vampire.

"Not so fast," Raymond said as he reached out an taloned hand towards this interloper.

And before Capri could even begin the words to protectively spell herself and those she sought to succor, the room was filled with a bright golden flash. Everyone closed their eyes in an involuntary reaction.

"Enough!" they all heard the hunter shout.

Raymond had been on the point of seizing Sarah's limp form once again, but paused at Brendan's shout.

"Mortal!" he sneered. "You have interfered for the last time--now pay the price!" With that he lunged towards Brendan, claws extended. Travers had not yet completed his regeneration but he was far enough along to deal with this impudent upstart. He ignored the pathetic pleadings from that piece of human waste, Giovanni. Let the others deal with him; that was one less problem he, the powerful vampire, would need to resolve.

"Your pathetic abilities cannot help you now," Raymond said in a deadly soft tone of voice as he stopped in his tracks and changed tactics, fixing his gaze upon Brendan.

Brendan felt his world begin to shrink around him.

Raymond took another step closer. "You don't have any quarrel with me. You were brought here against your will."

Brendan could feel Belle's tiny hand slipping from his as he was dragged through time and space.

"These pathetic creatures are not worth the effort you are expending for them." Raymond took another step closer.

Oh this was *too* easy!

Gabriel's gaze was drawn toward the center of the room; he started in horror as he saw Raymond's hand reaching towards his partner's throat.

"Brendan!" he cried out.

Gabriel's desperate shout reached through the fog that Raymond had begun to wrap around Brendan's mind. It snapped the unholy control that the vampire was extending -- just in time.

Brendan moved his neck back quickly as Raymond's talons raked across his all-too human flesh, little trickles of blood following in their wake. The hunter raised a hand to his neck as he shook his head to clear away the cobwebs of Raymond's control.

The smell of human blood and the shouted warning enraged the reforming vampire further. Raymond let out an unearthly yell and flew from his solid stance to land behind Brendan, wrapping a taloned hand around his throat. "Time to die!" he hissed in the hunter's ear.

"Like hell it is!" Brendan managed to squeak out as he pulled on strength buried deep within and swung the strange sword he held in a backward arc. Brendan felt the metal connect with something and the hand around his throat withdrew allowing him to quickly turn on his heel, holding the sword in front of him in a tight two-handed grip.

Raymond was looking down at the gaping wound in his thigh. He raised blood-red eyes to meet the golden-fire of Brendan's.

The scream that echoed from both men was unintelligible.

Raymond's red eyes blazed so brightly they could almost have been emergency flares. "Your...blood...for this..." he whispered in a deadly tone, already savoring in his imagination what it would be like to feast on Brendan's blood after he was finished with Sarah, the strange power he could smell therein. Ignoring the throb in his thigh he circled Brendan to the left, then lunged, slamming against Brendan's side and clawing at his shoulder to make him lose his grip on the sword.

Brendan took the full-force of the vampire's attack and fell hard to the ancient floor, the wind knocked out of his lungs, the strange sword skittering across ancient boards in the opposite direction. He struggled to get his elbows underneath him, to find *some* type of leverage, all the while battling to see through the swirling dots clouding his vision. Then he felt his upper body slowly rising--and a tight, cold grip clamping his head.

"I could rip your head from your neck." Raymond's foetid breath nauseated Brendan. "But that would be too easy."

"You wouldn't know easy if it bit you in the neck," Brendan managed to shoot back.

"Arrgghh!" the vampire screamed at the top of his lungs and viciously slammed the hunter's head onto the hard wood beneath it.

Brendan felt something warm trickle down his neck, the brush of the vampire's lips against his neck as the swirling dots faded into a black-tinged greyness.

Meanwhile, Karen, who was still not fully recovered from the injuries she'd suffered at Giovanni's hands, had been watching the battle from one corner of the room. She was thankful that these people had showed up, but where had they come from, how had they known where to find herself and Gabriel? She'd have to hope for answers to that later on, assuming any of them survived this.

She looked over at Rene, who was helping Capri with Giovanni. She wondered how she was ever going to explain all this to him. And Sarah, who was an innocent pawn in all of this. Karen hoped Sarah would be able to forgive her, and that Gabriel wouldn't think badly of her. Karen sighed. Had she and the others, especially Andrew, been thinking rationally, they would've told Sarah about Raymond from the very beginning, and that might have prevented what was now happening.

She looked around and saw Gabriel, hell bent on killing Raymond. Hopefully Raymond would really be destroyed this time.

Then her eyes fell on the other man. She struggled to get up, not taking her eyes off of him. She watched him coming out of the shadows, moving right into the battle. He looked so familiar--why? Then it came to her. It couldn't be, she thought, closing her eyes, then opening them again. It was who she thought it was.

Ellie's youngest, Brendan, Vampire Hunter, and how he looked like his mother! The fine bone structure and those big eyes were a dead giveaway along with that blonde hair and determined look that she had seen in his father. Yet .. What was he doing here? How did he get here? And grown ... he was an adult! The last time she had seen him, he'd been all sloppy smiles and sweet-smelling powder and baby noises. Maybe she was still under the effects of the drug Giovanni had given her? she wondered. Was her mind playing tricks on her?

It seemed like anyone and everyone that had become her closest friend was here, putting their lives on the line. And now to add to all of this chaos, Brendan arrived on the scene. Will it ever end, will we all get out of this unscathed? she asked herself. She hoped so, she couldn't bear losing people she held dear. She'd sworn she'd never let that happen again.

Giovanni choked, it was getting hard to speak but the defiance and anger still burned in his eyes. He fought to draw in the deepest levels of his being, every bit of dark power left to him. Oh, these foolish upstarts would pay and pay dearly!

He needed only to focus that energy to repair some of his injuries, then these fools would reap the rewards of their effrontery.

The only thing that truly rankled was Raymond. How dare he refuse him immortality after all he'd done to bring him back, to ensure that foolish vampire-child's presence here?

"You will not 'ave a say in it this time, stupid!" Capri mocked, mimicking Giovanni right down to his growl. She countered his effort with a magic blast of her own that tingled through his body and made everything about him seem to swirl faster and faster. It was like a real bad trip.

David continued to hold Sarah in his arms, desperately fumbling for what to do. He slapped gently at her face--smooth and young even as thin and drawn as she looked now she still didn't look a day over sixteen. "Sarah," he whispered, almost sobbing, "Sarah, please, wake up...you've got to wake up!"

Damn it what were those two doing, he thought as he looked up through tear filled eyes and saw them dragging that bastard Giovanni closer. "Haven't you done enough?" he growled at Giovanni.

"Mortal...fool..." Giovanni gasped, still struggling to hang on.

"Oh, talking to yourself again, bastard?" Rene spat at Giovanni as he and Capri brought him over.

"No, 'e's not done quite enough," Capri answered David. "We thought 'e could be useful in revivin Sarah. There's a nice lotta blood comin outa him there."

"Then, he dies!" Rene said.

Capri nodded. "If we can jus get 'im positioned ta bleed inta Sarah..."

David glanced back down at Sarah's pale face. Her eyes still closed, her head lolled back against his lap and her mouth fell slightly open, revealing the two elongated, pointed teeth. But she didn't wake up.

He blanched slightly on seeing the fangs--he'd known she was vampire, of course, but somehow actually seeing those rattled him somewhat. He closed his eyes for a moment, shutting out the image of Sarah as she had once been, then opened them again. "She'll choke if you try that, she won't wake up..." He was torn between what seemed to him to be a rock and a hard place. "She'll die if we don't but--wait, she's a vampire, isn't she already dead--" he broke off in confusion and raised desperate, pleading eyes to Capri.

Capri began, "Alright, I'll hafta--"

"RAYMOND!" Giovanni howled in a last-ditch effort to get Travers' attention.

Raymond, still intent on his duel with Brendan, ignored him.

"Shadup!" Capri roared back, glaring down at Cristoforo Giovanni. Looking back to David, she said, "'ere, les' get 'er propped up a bit," and Capri helped David to hold Sarah in a sitting and slightly reclining position as if she was a baby about to receive a drink from a bottle. "Now, Rene, help me ta keep this bugger still while I give 'is blood a helping along."

"With pleasure!" Rene agreed.

Capri could see that David was having some trouble, there was confusion and even some revulsion there. "Ya don'afta look if ya don't wanna, jus 'old 'er steady now."

Rene and Capri got Giovanni into position, Capri opened Sarah's mouth wider and stuffed Giovanni's slit wound in. Concentrating, Capri used her magic now to guide the blood as it flowed from Giovanni into Sarah, making sure it didn't choke her. Rene held Giovanni's body in place, Capri kept his head steady so the wound bled where it was supposed to. And David, eyes shut, held Sarah.

At least his eyes were shut for the first few seconds...then he seemed to steel himself, forced himself to watch. He had to. He was going to have a hard enough time explaining all this back home--he had to see it all the way through. For Sarah's sake as much as his own.

"Oh dang it." Capri suddenly said.

"What?" Rene asked.

"Sarah's gonna need stitchin up. That dirt bag Raymond made a dandy of a wound on 'er."

Rene cursed under his breath, and David made no discernible response, What could he do?

Capri sighed in exasperation. Time was running so short, and she was not a healer. She had to try something though, and fast. Gripping Giovanni firmly with one hand to keep him in place, she reached into the pack that held her gun, knife, and first aid kit. Taking out the kit, she opened it. Rather awkward going with one hand, but it opened all the same. Looking through it, she discovered that there was the means to stitch Sarah's wound, but the trouble was that Sarah was bleeding from 2 arteries, one in her throat and one on her wrist. Glancing down, Capri saw and remembered the wrist wound and how it was inflicted. "Oh terrific!"

"What's wrong?" David asked in a frightened voice.

"I nearly forgot about the wrist wound. And there ain't much time, that's the trouble!" And I dunno 'ow ta mend arteries." I can bind 'er wrist so she don't bleed out from there, or at least make it less. but that throat injury. I'll 'afta try gettin as much blood inta her that's what"

Capri took out some gauze, cloth and tape, let Giovanni's head fall for a moment while she bound up Sarah's wrist tightly enough to stop the blood as much as possible. It was messy work, and Giovanni bled all over Sarah, making her look even more injured. Capri herself looked terrible with a swollen and bloody cut face and now blood on her hands and clothes as well.

Once she got the wrist bound tight, Capri picked up Giovanni's head and replaced the wound into Sarah's mouth. But the blood wasn't coming fast enough and Capri was getting increasingly frustrated. Furiously she squeezed Giovanni, pumping his blood ever more rapidly and magicly into Sarah. "C'mon, girl, wake up!" she said through clenched teeth as she worked desperately at the blood transfer.

This way back to part 7

This way to part 9