The Sire, Part 11
Fandom: Moonlight
Characters: Mick/Beth/Josef
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: After last tv episode, "Sonata"; also inspired by "The Mortal Cure"
Summary: Mick realizes he had successfully sired another vampire long ago.
Author's Note: Seventh in my post-"Sonata" series. Thanks in advance for your feedback!
*Like to catch up on all my previous stories? The links are posted here: http://donnamour1969.livejournal.com/
“Well, you can’t kill them with fire,” Coraline said, as Josef prepared to douse her brothers with oil. Fully recovered now, she walked over to look at the two staked vamps, and I saw no sympathy at all for their coming fate. Couldn’t say I blamed her, but then, she was no prize either.
“What?” said Daryl in disbelief. “How can that be?”
“Years of using the cure,” she said. “A side-effect was an eventual immunity to fire. So, anyone got a sword? That way still works.” That confirmed my guess about why Lance’s hand hadn’t burned when he was in LA.
“Try this,” said Daryl, removing a small but lethal machete from the scabbard hidden beneath his coat. He tossed it to Josef, who wielded it around in admiration, before deftly decapitating the vamps. I saw Beth cringe and turn away as the heads rolled, but Coraline looked on coldly.
“Thanks,” she said to Josef.
“Oh, no problem. Now, tell me why I shouldn’t use this little beauty on you.” Josef advanced toward her, machete at her throat. Her former coldness evaporated into true fear. It was as if she suddenly remembered that we all hated her.
She looked to me, hoping I could summon up some sympathy for my kidnapping, murderous, betraying ex-wife. “Mick…please…” Everyone looked at me, and Beth’s eyes seemed especially heavy. And I couldn’t do it. Maybe it was the remembrance of the love I used to feel for her. Maybe it was the glimpse of humanity I’d seen when she’d returned as Morgan. But mostly, it was the feel of the spreading warmth within me right after she’d given me the cure.
“Don’t, Josef,” I said softly, avoiding Beth’s eyes.
“Why, Mick?” he asked, still holding the machete. “The world would be so much better off without this bitch polluting it. She’s certainly caused you and Beth no end of trouble. I’d make it quick and relatively painless. Like putting down a dog.”
“No!” This from Beth, grasping the wall to help her get to her feet. She shrugged off help from Daryl as she stepped slowly over to face Coraline. “No. She could get the cure for Mick. Or for you guys, for that matter. You know how important this is to him, Josef. Do it for him. For us.”
I knew Josef would never in a million years go back to being human. He liked himself too much the way he was. Daryl had seemed interested though. Maybe that was something else I could do to make up for turning him.
Josef looked at me and had his answer. He regretfully lowered the machete. “Fine. But next time she kidnaps Beth, don’t come running to me, Mick. You’re missing a golden opportunity here.”
“Maybe,” I said. I stood before Coraline, hating both her and myself for my weakness, and unable to completely stop myself from admiring her beauty. So, before I could change my mind, I quickly withdrew a stake from my pocket and shoved it back into her chest, wincing as it seemed to slide in like butter. I held her before she could fall, and laid her gently on the floor. Everyone looked at me in surprise. So much for my promise to kill her next time I saw her.
“This should keep her out of trouble awhile till we can find Carrie. I’ll come back for her later and make her take me to the cure.” Daryl and Josef nodded in understanding, and Beth slipped her hand in mine. I looked down into her eyes, feeling myself smile hesitantly. She wrapped her arms around me, and I was reminded again how close I came to losing her. “I love you,” I whispered, and that covered so many things at once.
Daryl cleared his throat politely. “Sorry to break up this happy reunion, but I’d kinda like to work on my own welcoming party.”
“Lead the way,” I said to Josef. For Beth’s benefit, I grabbed the lantern and we followed Josef back down the dark corridor.
Carrie
I had lost Coraline’s scent for a while, but picked it up again near the palace where I used to live. Along the way, I caught a whiff of Daryl, Mick, and, I thought, Josef. They were close by. When I picked up Coraline’s trail again, I realized with a sinking feeling that Beth was with her. Damn. My so-called rescuers had just made my job much more difficult. I guess I wasn’t too surprised that they had found me so quickly, especially since they likely had access to all of Josef’s assets.
The rain was both a blessing and a curse. I could stay outside without the damaging sun, but it made tracking more difficult. I looked at my childhood home with mixed emotions. There had been some happy times there, before my family was killed. Before I was raped and turned. It was still beautiful despite all the ugliness that had happened there. I hadn’t seen this place in nearly two-hundred years, but all the memories-good and bad-almost overwhelmed me as I stood in cold rain that mixed with my sudden tears.
No time for that, Carrie, I told myself. Resolutely, I headed unerringly toward the secret entrance to the palace. I knew without even her scent that Coraline would enter the palace in this way. And there it still was, behind a thick-grown hedge. I squeezed behind it, uncaring of the scratches from its tiny branches. If one didn’t know the entrance was there, it would be almost impossible to find. I had known this palace like the back of my hand, and I paused again at the sharp pain of loss. My sister and I had played in these passageways when we were children, long before she had met her death at the guillotine.
I reached out to press on the door in just the place I remembered, when another scent assailed me. A scent that had haunted my vague nightmares since the night I was turned. Now, the odor of decay was much riper than I remembered, thick with a cloying, French cologne that could not mask the evil and the age. I hesitated. Was I ready to meet my maker? The irony of that thought almost made me laugh hysterically. I unsheathed my machete and reached up to open the door. It swung open inwardly, and it took me a moment for my eyes to adjust. Then, from out of my nightmares, Lance walked from behind a stone pillar to stand in the middle of the corridor.
“Carissa, ma cherie! What a pleasant surprise.” And then, he smiled.