Closing in closing down
It's your cross I cannot bear
Play while you can, forgiveness is to understand
I want to undermine you
I know what truth's beyond you
I want to redesign you
I know what lies behind you
Wait and see don't expect too much from me
You're touching on nothing
Touching nothing that is sacred to me
You're touching nothing
Nothing that is sacred to me
Losing touch, losing heart
Reflect on what you forced apart
Far removed, well deserved
The pointless and the self preserved
- Nothing, Rosetta Stone
The dark haired man stared at the hole in the ground with fear and loathing in his eyes, before looking up at his companion and asking, "Will this be the end?"
His companion turned to face him. Red hair blew back from her face as the wind changed direction, exposing the fine bones and chiselled, hauntingly beautiful features to his eyes once again. Each time he looked, he marvelled.
A work of Art. A pure work of Art. But even that work of art could not hold back the tide of terror that was threatening to slowly overwhelm him as he watched the grave. It was as if it could leap up and bite him; he had seen too many friends go into holes similar to this one. Unmarked, unremembered by any but those who had buried them.
She smiled, "Nothing is truly the end for us, my love. Lestat proved that even sunlight itself can only incapacitate. and the power of his blood flows through both our veins."
The man nodded sombrely. "That is true, but it is a shame that he chose to oppose those he should have aided. He will take many years to recover, and that Body Thief. he should have known better."
"As true as that is, we both know this: nothing, not time, not experiences, not even the Devil himself, will change Lestat."
The man nodded again. He suddenly looked back at the hole, frightened. "I don't want to do this, Jesse."
Jesse smiled softly. "I understand that, Xander, but we must. this age is becoming self-destructive, and we need to hide from all the fame you have. gathered us, for a while."
Xander turned back to watch the first of the dawn rays peek over the horizon. "I always though of the sun, the beginning of the day, to be a glorious event, a respite from the darkness that I fought." he laughed bitterly. "Now I am that darkness."
"You still have that spark, Xander. It's just buried all the deeper inside you, even harder to remove than ever before."
"But I'm still the enemy. what I used to fight. You're what I used to fight. The bogeyman in the closet has come out to play, boys and girls!" He flung his head back, shouting at the sky, "and he's not gonna go away!"
Jesse sighed. There was no reasoning with Xander when he got into one of these moods. like there had been no reasoning with Louis, or Lestat before him. "Calm, Xander. The one thing we both know is that we'll never go away. because of our Gift, we'll be standing there at the Second Coming, waiting t o shake his hand."
Xander chuckled at her well meaning but half-hearted support. "Thanks."
"Still," Jesse continued, if Lestat were with us, he'd likely spit in his face."
Xander laughed. "I can see it now: 'I have come', 'Great, phutooehy!' Lestat faced the Devil. He can certainly face anyone else." He turned thoughtful for a second. "He might even get what he wants most: an end."
Jesse rolled her eyes. "Perhaps."
He sighed out a breath slowly, changing the subject. "I still don't know why you helped me. It would have been easier for you to pass by, wouldn't it?"
"It would," began Jesse in a haunted tone, "but you. called to me. In a primal way I had never encountered before. My blood. hungered for yours. Even now, so many years later, it burns with the fires from the core of the world when we." she drifted off, as if suddenly shy.
Xander smirked at her. "Don't tell me you're still bashful, Jess? After all we've done together?"
Jesse smiled, but turned toward the hole. "We had better get in. the sun will be up fully soon. I'd rather avoid a tan if I can. besides, you like my skin, don't you?" she winked at him coquettishly.
Xander stepped up behind her, and lowered his head to bring his lips drifting over the side of her throat, and down, beginning a journey into the cleft of her breasts. His body turned round hers as he teased her. Whispering into her flesh, he breathed lightly. "I love your skin. So pale, so beautiful. so." he paused, and suckled on one spot of flesh. "So. erotic. Full of Life."
"That's because I've broken your feeding habits, love." Jesse clenched a hand in Xander's short hair, and pulled his head away from her neck gently. "I'd be full of hunger if we still lived by your rules."
We must get in now.
The mental communication between them was more intimate than the closest embrace, a complete opening of ones mind, everything done, everything felt, even if forgotten in the mists of time, open for viewing.
Xander blinked slowly at the sunlight that was even now making his skin warm. Soon it would become far more painful. He looked deep into Jesse's eyes as the two of them floated above the makeshift grave, and began to sink into the darkness beneath. As their waists levelled with the ground, Xander leaned forward and locked his lips to hers passionately. Jesse used her powers of telekinesis, a side effect of being 'Brought Across' by the only living vampire to have fed off the Queen; Akasha, as well as being kin to Maharet, to pull the earth and turf over the unmarked grave, obscuring their hiding place.
Seconds later, it was as if the ground was unbroken, and did not now have two immortal Vampires locked together hidden beneath. The sunlight ran over the stretch of green grass, unaware that it illuminated the place of rest of the two most sought vampires in the past two hundred years. Sought after by both their kin, and those straggled remnants of Humanity that believed the Old Tales about the Creatures of the Night: the descendents of the Talamasca. The last surviving remnants of a Society that Jesse had helped to exterminate.
The final words, ones that could not be heard, came from Xander:
Tell me a story.?
Jesse began.
Embraced in the darkness of the earth, Xander could feel the power and the hunger both flowing over him, through him. With his very being. Jesse felt it too. The complete want of being, of knowing that there is something that cannot be broken: the circle of Life.
Tell me a story.? Xander asked.
From where? Beginning when? Jesse responded.
How did you find me?
That one is harder than it sounds, my love.
Lestat walked along the bridge, with Jesse at his side. The traffic slowed down, their supernaturally strong eyes showing them the world faster than any camera ever could.
He turned to her, and his eyes held no softness. "You realise, of course that we must part ways. Don't you?"
Jesse sighed, but did not look startled or unhappy. "Yes. You, Lestat, are still too much the human, the mortal. Even though you try not to be, to embrace that which was given you by Marius." Her hair billowed outwards as the wind changed, and Lestat found it whipping his face as she stepped closer. "But of course, you're search will turn self-destructive eventually."
"Will it?"
"Of course. It did with Louis. You must hold back your inquisitive nature if you are to survive. Akasha should have taught you that much. You wondered about the Mother and Father, and so disobeyed a direct instruction from your sire to never, NEVER, go to them. Play to them." She frowned. "And yet. you did. With your Nicky's Violin."
Lestat wheeled on her, angry. "Don't you, for so much as one second, presume to understand the bond that myself and Nicky had! Never! It was too precious, too. beautiful. Even though you now walk in the darkness, do not ever presume that I cannot take that away from you if I so choose!"
"You cannot kill me, Lestat. You would never. Despite the pain that both Louis and Claudia put you through, you would never have harmed either of them! Claudia and her mother may be dust now, but that was not your doing. The Coven performed that act of savagery. Armand performed that act."
Lestat closed the gap between them, bringing his body close to hers, feeling her press against him. His voice was a low whisper, anger had solidified in his gut to cool, calm rage. "You may have read my diary, my journal, little Talamasca whore, but do not presume to know my every whim and feeling. Some are too dear to ever be put into mere. words."
Jesse's eyes hardened. "I forsook the Talamasca when I asked you to Gifted this life to me, Lestat. Do not use my previous alliances against me, or I shall be forced to wake an enemy that you would never put down."
Lestat, even though not directly concerned by this threat, backed off. "It seems I was right when you asked to be given the Gift. You are too strong willed. We can be friends, Jesse my sweet, but we can never be lovers. We are too much alike to remain faithful to one another."
"So we go our separate ways?"
Lestat leapt nimbly up to the rail at the side of the bridge. "We do." He launched himself into the air, leather duster catching the wind and billowing backwards as he moved through the night. "So long, Jesse. If you have need, call. I will hear you."
Jesse watched as Lestat vanished into the night. "May we meet again, when we 're both ready."
From that moment on, Jesse spoke in Xander's mind; I was alone in the world once more. Maharet had vanished from sight for a time, and the vampire Covens had no need of a vampire given the Gift by a traitor to them. My family were gone, with Maharet being my only 'living' relative, and the Talamasca forever blocked from me now I was a vampire. I had not imagined it would be so lonely, much as Lestat would never have thought it would be that. solitary.
I wondered for months, not really knowing where to go or what to do. I terrorised David for a while, as much for the fun of it than for any real purpose. We both seemed to get pleasure out of baiting each other, and it was something to pass the time.
In the next year, I saw Lestat once, as he left from a meeting with David about some leads he had found in relation to a rogue Coven that was destroying everything that got in it's way.
It turned out to be the Coven that was maintained by a German named 'Nest' .
Xander interrupted. I know that name. the Master!
Jesse mentally rolled her eyes at the interruption, but agreed. Indeed. Heinrich Joseph Nest. A more evil man I will never find. The Devil himself had nothing on him. Fortunately, you're little blonde friend killed him, didn't she?
Yes, Xander said, but she died.
And you brought her back. So do not worry overly about it. Prophecy is a chancy affair at best. I learned that, after all the years the Talamasca put me to researching them.
So, anyway, Jesse's mental voice carried a hint of reproach at being interrupted too often, Lestat went looking for him. And found him before your little friend did. Buffy. He gave Angelus the hints as to finding the Codex. It was Talamasca property, after all. I lifted it. Her voice showed a hint of pride in that achievement.
So, Nest was killed, finally, and that Coven annihilated. But they had 'turned' as they called it, too many weak vampires. Nest had been doing it for generations. One of his first was a street whore named Abigail. She later took the name 'Darla'. And she in turn turned the Scourge of Europe.
When Lestat heard about him, he was absolutely livid. 'His Europe', as he had begun calling it, was to be safe from the scourge of any vampire other than him. So, he went after Angelus.
That's a fight I would have paid to see. mused Xander.
It was apparently not much of a fight, Xander. Jesse said. Lestat attacked Angelus as he was feeding, and almost killed him. When he failed, he then orchestrated his demise by Gypsies. I believe you know about the soul curse?
I do. Xander stated. But how do you know all this?
Luck, and judgement, Xander. I have read Lestat's most intimate thoughts in his journal. No matter what he says, that will always be the place where he puts things he wishes not to forget. In case there is a time when he can no longer remember.
Sounds crazy. Xander said.
He is, perhaps. Perhaps he is the only truly sane person. Who will ever know?
With Nest gone, that town, Sunnydale was safe. at least for a while. None of us could feel the Hellmouth beneath us in that town. We knew something was there, but did not; could not; tell what it was.
You met me. Xander whispered.
Yes, I did. And I nearly gave you the gift then. But you were a little too young. Not yet fully at a man's growth.
Thank you. Xander said dryly.
It's the truth. You would hate me if I had given you the gift at fifteen. You are too young to fully understand the weight of ages then. As I was when I continually pestered my aunt Maharet. I know differently now.
Why did you wait three years? Xander asked.
I wanted to see if you would survive.
Oh, thanks. Great vote of confidence. Xander groused.
You did ask.