Disclaimer: Richie Ryan, Connor MacLeod, and the concept of Immortality belong to Rysher.  Gabrielle and Night Island are from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles.  Victoria, Justin, Laurana, Violet, and all other bit characters belong to me.  This is in answer to the June 2000 challenge on the Hetskateers list.  Rated PG-13 for language and violence.

Note: [ ] denotes Spanish translations.  Laurana is the type of vampire from Forever Knight.  Victoria is the type of vampire from the Buffy/Angel universe.  Enjoy!

April, 1998

Richie Ryan and Victoria DiThon Kestral trudged down the small country road in silence.  Richie pushed his motorcycle as Victoria studied the map, shivering in her leather jacket.  Actually, it was her best friend Justin Le Faye’s leather jacket, and she was very glad she had snagged it on her way out the door that morning.  Finally, she threw up her hands and stuffed the map back in her pocket.

“The bad news is that it’s getting too dark to read the map,” she announced.

Richie looked at her hopefully.  “There’s good news, right?”

“No, the worse news is that I don’t even think we’re *on* the map,” Victoria answered.  “I so cannot believe you talked me into this.”

“Hey, you’re the one who wanted to go visit David Keogh while I delivered that letter from Mac to him,” Richie pointed out.

“I’ve met him before and wanted to say hi - he’s a sweetie.”  Victoria thought for a moment.  “And yeah, well you’re the one who forgot to fill the bike up with gas before we left,” she suddenly added.  “And I reminded you.  Twice.”

“Yeah, well you’re the one who decided she just *had* to go check out the dagger set in that antique store when I was ready to leave,” the younger Immortal parodied.

Victoria suddenly grinned wickedly.  “You should’ve been there.  The owner of the shop thought I was some sort of psycho kid.  It was hilarious.”

Richie looked at her innocent confusion.  “Wait, you mean you’re not some sort of psycho kid?”

Pretending to think, Victoria said, “Kid?  Definitely not.  Psycho?  That would depend on who you ask.”

The two lapsed back into silence as they walked. As they climbed over a hill, both Immortals saw something in the distance between the ancient spruce trees of western Washington.  They glanced at each other and quickened their pace without comment.  The road emerged from the trees into a field with a deserted house standing in the middle.

“Looks homey” was Richie’s only comment.

Victoria surveyed the house with a critical glance.  “It’ll do,” she said with a shrug.

“It’ll do for what?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never camped out.”  She shook her head at Richie’s blank look.  “Sorry.  Justin and I have a habit of staying in abandoned places when we’re touring Australia and Europe.  He likes the feeling that we’re the last two people on earth.  Brings out the philosopher in him or something.  Anyway, we call it camping out, because we both hate sleeping in tents.”

“So…what?  We spend the night in that house?” Richie asked.

His companion nodded.  “Yep.  It’s got a chimney, which means it’s got a fireplace.  And I know you have all those candy bars in your bag.  We can have junk food for dinner, sleep in front of the fire, and keep walking in the morning.”  She looked back towards the dark forest.  “I don’t know about you, but I really don’t fancy being caught all night in there.  Besides, it looks like it’s going to start raining.”

When a peal of thunder echoed her words uncannily, Richie instantly made up his mind.  “Okay, as long as you know what you’re doing.”

She grinned mischievously.  “Richie, I *always* know what I’m doing.”  Ignoring Richie’s derisive snort, she headed across the field towards the house.  Calling over her shoulder, she said, “The driveway starts down there.  I’ll go scope the place out while you walk around with the bike.”

An hour later, Victoria and Richie were camped in the living room of the abandoned house, a fire blazing merrily.  Saving three Milky Way bars for the morning, they still had five candy bars and a bag of M&Ms each for dinner.  A thunderstorm clashed outside, but they were warm and dry.

“Okay,” Richie said.  “I’ll admit it.  You do know what you’re doing.”  They were leaning against an old chest companionably as they stared at the fire and ate chocolate.  “But I’m bored.  What do you want to talk about?”

Victoria shrugged.  “I don’t know.  What do you want to talk about?”

Richie thought for a moment.  “Actually, something has been bugging me.  You know that picture you guys have in your apartment of you and Justin at the beach?”  Victoria nodded.  “I was looking at it while waiting for Kane the other day when Justin banged in and started ranting in Welsh, and he scared the crap out of me.  He freaked out when I dropped the picture.”  Richie held up his hands defensively.  “It landed on the carpet and didn’t break, but man, does your lover-boy get possessive about the weirdest things.”

Rolling her eyes at the name Richie persisted in calling her dearest friend, Victoria replied, “You know I hate having my picture taken, and that’s one of only two Justin has of me.  And the one in his wallet was taken when I was slightly drunk off my ass.  He keeps it for blackmail purposes, I swear,” she added with a slight laugh.  “I look at least somewhat decent in the framed picture.”

“So what’s the story behind it?” Richie suddenly asked.

Since there was nothing else to do and knowing the younger Immortal would nag at her until she told, Victoria caved in without argument.  “Well, there’s no harm in telling.  But there’s some background you need, first.”

“Okay,” Richie readily replied.

“First of all, you know Connor MacLeod, right?”  Richie nodded, and Victoria continued.  “Good, so he needs no explaining.  And I know you know Justin and I own a ranch down in Australia.  But do you know who Justin’s first teacher was?”

“Another teenager like you guys named Laurana.  He’s mentioned her in passing a few times.”

“Laurana de Brabant – well, right now it’s Laurana Thompson – was the luckily the first Immortal to stumble across Justin after he had his First Death.  She whisked him down to France and taught him for a few years, then disappeared without a trace until 1805 when we went to live with her in Paris,” Victoria explained.  “To hear Jus’ and ‘Rana talk, they hate each other’s guts, but they really do care for each other in their own ways.”

“So what’s that got to do with the story?” Richie broke in.

“It’ll all relate, don’t worry,” Victoria said with a withering glance.  “Anyway, it all began in about November of 1990.  Justin and I were living at the ranch in Australia at the time…”

When Victoria answered the door to the ranch house in Australia, the last person she expected to see was her friend Laurana de Brabant.  But when she took in the older Immortal’s harried and tired look, she merely invited her in, sat her on the couch, and handed her a cold soda from the bar in the back of the living room.

“What’s wrong, ‘Rana?” Victoria asked when Laurana appeared to have gotten her wind back.  “Why didn’t you call us from town to come pick you up?”

That made Laurana sit up.  “Who else is at the ranch?” she asked nervously.

“Um, I’m the only one in the house at the moment.  Justin is out at the next ranch and the Korrisons – our caretakers – are in town.  Why?”

“I think someone’s after me,” Laurana explained as she sank back in relief.

Knowing that Laurana was not the paranoid type, Victoria merely said, “Who?”

“Someone who lives in New York City, I think.  I was staying with some mortal friends when someone began stalking me.  They’ve followed me all the way here,” Laurana said, worry evident in her face.  “I felt whoever it is in town, too.  That’s why I bummed a ride over here instead of calling and waiting for one of you to come pick me up.”

“Well, I only know two Immortals who live in New York City on a regular basis.  One is Erik von Strausse, but I happen to know he’s been in London for the past few weeks.  The other is…”  She paused.  “Uh-oh.”

Laurana stared at her wildly.  “¿Quien?” she demanded, slipping into her native Spanish in her worry and excitement.  [Who?]  Recovering, she asked again, “Who do you think it is?”

“Have you done anything to piss off Connor MacLeod recently?”  Laurana shook her head.  “Well, that wouldn’t necessarily matter, because he’s prone to spurts of headhunting.”

Groaning, Laurana put the soda down on the table and put her face in her hands.  “I know of him.  That totally did not occur to me.”  Something occurred to her.  “Crap.  He’s also a friend of yours.”  Hastily standing up, she continued, “This won’t be good when Justin finds out.  I’ll get out of here.”

Victoria stood up and pushed her old friend back down on the sofa.  “Don’t even think of it, Laurana de Brabant.  Neither Justin nor I leave friends in the lurch – especially not you.  And I’ve actually got a solution to your problem.”

“What?” Laurana asked, beginning to look hopeful.

“The Korrison’s teenage daughter Violet is going on a two week trip up to the coast with a group of friends.  The deal Jordan and Lila struck with her was that she could go stay in her friend’s beach house if Justin and I stayed at a nearby hotel.  We promised not to follow her around, and she promised to come to us if she got into trouble,” Victoria explained with a gesture to the suitcases by the door.  “We reserved a suite with two bedrooms like we usually do for vacations like this.  You’re welcome to join us.”

Laurana thought it over and finally nodded.  “I packed for an open-ended trip, so I’m pretty much ready to go.  I’d just like to borrow some more shorts and t-shirts from you.”

“Got a bathing suit?” Victoria asked with a grin.

“Hey, I live in Florida.  I’ve always got a bathing suit.”

“Okay, so why exactly was Connor MacLeod after Laurana?” Richie asked impatiently.

“Patience, child, all will be revealed,” Victoria answered in a condescending tone.  But the grin on her face belayed her amusement at her fellow Immortal.

“So anyway, we got to Cerrington without meeting any Immortals, of Highland descent or otherwise…”

As the three apparent teenagers walked along the beach, they blended in perfectly.  The blond boy and brown-haired girl even sounded Australian, and their friend was easily explained as a friend from America, despite her slight Spanish accent.

“Actually, I’m kind of glad you talked me into this, Toria,” Laurana said to Victoria and Justin Le Faye as she adjusted her ever-present sunglasses.  “It’s been a nice week.  Despite having been forced to spend it con el.”  [with him.]

“Oh, lo siento,” Justin replied innocently, also in the Spanish-English mix he and his teacher had always used around each other.  [Oh, I’m sorry]  “I wasn’t aware that this was such a hardship for you.”

There was a reason she always walked between the two, Victoria thought wryly.  But instead of commenting, she merely rolled her eyes.

“Hey, there’s that place where we can rent sailboats!” Justin pointed out.  “You said you wanted to do that yesterday, ‘Rana.”

“Yes, let’s,” his teacher immediately replied.  “I haven’t been sailing since Gabrielle left Night Island.”

“You coming, Victoria?” Justin asked cautiously.  He knew that she wasn’t that fond of boats, and for a very good reason.

Surprisingly, she nodded.  “But don’t think this is going to be a regular occurrence,” she added with a grin.  “I just don’t want to leave you two alone without supervision.”  It was Justin’s turn to roll his eyes, and Victoria gave him a playful kiss on the cheek.

“Wait,” Richie interrupted.  “Why don’t you like boats?”  When Victoria was silent for a few moments, he turned to face her.  “Well?”

She sighed, and continued staring into the fire.  “One word for you, my friend: the Titanic.”

“Oh,” was all he could thing of to say.  “Hey, that’s two words!”  Victoria smiled at his retort, and Richie warmed inside, glad that he’d managed to stave off one of her unexpected attacks of depression.

“Anyway…”

Justin was sitting in the bow of the boat enjoying the sun while Victoria napped with her head in his lap.  They were anchored a ways out from shore, where the only sounds they could hear were the gentle rocking of the boat and an occasional birdcall.  Closing his eyes and leaning his head back, Justin smiled peacefully and continued to gently stroke Victoria’s hair.

A few minutes later, the boat rocked momentarily, and Justin heard a large splash.  Jolting straight up in shock, he then relaxed when he heard peals of laughter from the water.  Transferring Victoria’s head to a towel, he made his way to the opposite side of the boat.  “You know,” he called casually in Spanish to Laurana, who was treading water a few feet away from the boat, “there was a shark sighting around here a few days ago.”

At that, Laurana merely grinned.  Her sunglasses were off, so her eyes were slightly glowing with the effect of the sun on her unique form of vampirism.  “I’m sure they wouldn’t want me.  Dead meat and all that.”

She dove underneath the water gracefully as Justin shook his head in amusement.  Suddenly something wet hit him in the back of the head.  He spun around, stunned, but Laurana was nowhere in sight around the boat.  Grinning, Justin picked up the offending object – Laurana’s bikini top.  When she resurfaced, he held it up and asked, “Missing something?”

“Nah,” she said.  “I’m going skinny-dipping.  Join me?”

“Sorry, but Victoria would freak if she woke up and found herself in a boat all alone,” Justin replied.  “Otherwise I would.”  His former teacher nodded in understanding and dove under the water again.

A few hours later, the three friends were again headed down the street, this time towards dinner with Violet and her friends.  Victoria and Justin were walking with arms curled around each other’s waists, and Laurana was a few feet behind them, talking animatedly with two teenage boys she’d met at the beach.

Justin and Victoria entered the resturant and headed towards the table Violet and her five friends had already been seated at.  That’s when they realized Laurana was no longer behind them.  With an embarrassed excuse, Justin went to find his errant teacher.  Victoria sat and ordered drinks for the three.

“Victoria,” Violet said finally, breaking away from the conversation with her friends, “you’ve been giving the door nervous glances for the past five minutes.  Go find Laurana and your lover-boy.”

“Ha!” Richie cried.  “She calls Justin your lover-boy, too!”

“Yeah, but Violet’s known us since she was born,” Victoria defended.  “You’ve only known us for less than a year.”

“Okay, fine,” Richie seemed to relent, but Victoria knew better.  “Continue with the story.”

It was only slightly past early evening, so the light outside was still fairly good.  Victoria began to backtrack the way the three Immortals had come, peering inside every alley as she did so.  Finally she saw the two young hunks Laurana had been flirting with hanging out by a surf shop.

“Hey,” she called.  They recognized her and waved back.  When she reached them, she immediately asked.  “I seem to have misplaced my friends.  Do you remember the last place you saw them?”

The blond one looked at the other, then back at Victoria.  “You mean the girl with the long blonde hair?  Yeah, she ducked into this shop with us so we could show her a board, but then she left towards the resturant you and the other guy went into.”

“We haven’t seen her since,” the black-haired one added.  Victoria nodded her thanks and headed off down the street.

Finally she sensed an Immortal…no, definitely more than one Immortal.  Justin’s teal-blue aura, then Laurana’s icy gray flashed before her eyes, and finally a less recognizable one.  Pulling her gun out the outside pocket of her backpack, Victoria cautiously entered the dim alleyway.  Since none of the three had their swords (impractical in the ninety degree heat of daytime, anyway) and she was the only one carrying a gun, she wouldn’t be hesitant to use it on another Immortal.

The sun wasn’t completely down, so she could not rely on her vampiric gift of enhanced vision yet.  There was only silence from the alley.  When her eyes finally adjusted, Victoria stopped at the sight of Justin and Laurana’s prone bodies.  A man stepped out from behind a Dumpster and connected the pommel of a blade with her forehead.  Victoria could only find relief in the fact that her two friends still had their heads, and she blacked out before she could realize that that might not be the case for much longer.

“But you’re still here, obviously, and so is Justin,” Richie broke in.  “And he’s never spoken of Laurana in the past tense, so she must still be alive.”

“Silence, child,” Victoria simply said.

When Victoria came to, she realized that she had only been knocked out instead of killed.  But had she been mortal, she would have had a hell of a concussion.  She heard voices talking softly and opened her eyes a slit.

Justin realized that she was awake and gently took her hand.  “It’s okay, Toria.  Connor didn’t want to fight Laurana without a sword, but she attacked him anyway.  He managed to turn her knife back on her and freaked out when I came around the corner.”

“Yes, but did you have to do the same to me, MacLeod?” Victoria retorted and sat up cautiously.  She found herself lying on the couch in the living room of a small beach house, probably one of the cottages rented out by a nearby hotel.  Justin was sitting next to her, and Connor MacLeod sat on a chair across the room.

“Sorry, Kestral, I wasn’t expecting you.  I was waiting around until Justin and the vampire woke since I couldn’t move them both to a safer place,” Connor replied.

“The ‘vampire?’  Really, MacLeod, you know what I am.  How is she any different, besides the fact that you don’t know her?” Victoria asked.  “By the way, where is ‘Rana?” she asked Justin.

“She went back to the hotel.  Didn’t want to stay around with someone who was going to try and take her head,” Justin replied.  He was not happy about the situation – Victoria didn’t blame him, seeing as how one of his friends had just tried to kill his teacher.

“I told her that I wouldn’t hunt her anymore,” Connor explained.  “I didn’t know she was a friend of yours, and I didn’t make the connection when she went to the town near your ranch.  I wasn’t thinking.”

“Obviously not,” Victoria said derisively.  “So you don’t hunt her.  I’m not saying you can’t challenge her,” she added when Connor tried to interrupt.  “Just don’t do it for no reason.  Please, MacLeod?”

At the pleading look in her eyes, Connor relented with a short nod.  He never had been able to resist Victoria DiThon Kestral, not from the moment they had crossed paths at Darius’ church in the midst of World War Two and been pulled into one of her schemes.  Not that Darius had tried to dissuade him in the least…

And Victoria had good reason for pleading with him, knowing full well the effect it had on the elder Highlander.  If MacLeod killed Laurana, Justin would have challenged him.  Laurana stood a chance with her vampiric abilities, but Justin would have been child’s play compared to MacLeod’s skill.  Victoria didn’t like the facts, but there they were.

Justin stood up and pulled Victoria with him.  “Okay, we’re going,” he informed MacLeod.  The stony look in his eyes bade the Highlander not to argue.  “Our plans were to stay in town for another week.  But I’d appreciate it if you left.”

One look at Victoria told MacLeod that she agreed with her best friend.  “That’s fine with me.  I’ll be out of here tomorrow.”

When the two got back to their hotel suite, they found Laurana pacing anxiously.  Justin went to his former teacher and pulled her into a warm embrace.  She held on to him in relief, then reached over and pulled Victoria into the three-way hug.  “Muchas gracias Justin y Victoria,” she whispered.  [Thank you very much, Justin and Victoria.]  “I nearly got us killed tonight.”

“Don’t worry about it, mi profesora bonita,” Justin replied, using his favorite nickname for her.  [my beautiful teacher.]  “I’m just glad you came to us in the first place.”

“After all,” Victoria cracked with a grin.  “Where would we be today if it weren’t for you?  Just called it a debt on it’s way to being repaid.”

“And that’s pretty much it,” Victoria finished.  “Connor MacLeod left the next day and I actually haven’t seen him in person since.  We stayed at the beach for another week to keep an eye on Violet.”

“Hey, you never explained about the picture!” Richie exclaimed.

Victoria thought for a moment.  “That was the whole point of this story, wasn’t it,” she stated.  “Okay, it was the day before we were planning to leave…”

“I cannot believe you bought one of those horrid things,” Victoria muttered as she spread out her towel on the sand.  “Really, ‘Rana.  What’s the point?”

“It’s a camera, Victoria,” the older Immortal explained patiently.  “One of those cool disposable ones.  I have no pictures of you, and only one of Justin.  And that’s back at Night Island.”

“Why do you need a picture of me?  It’s not as if I’m a normal teenager, and I’ll have grown any by the next time you see me,” Victoria argued.

Laurana threw up her hands and put the camera back in her backpack.  “Whatever.”

In half an hour, Victoria had forgotten all about the camera.  She was lying on her stomach reading a magazine when Justin plopped down on his towel next to hers.  Leaning forwards to read over her shoulder, he began to massage her shoulders.  In response, Victoria merely slid the magazine over and scooted closer to him.

When she reached up to turn the page, Justin poked her gently in the side, then began tickling her in earnest.  She shrieked in laughter and tried to turn over to retaliate.

Lying on the next towel over, Violet rolled her eyes and reached out to steal the magazine.  She had been an observer of their amusing antics for years.  As per the tradition of the Korrison family that had been watching over Full Circle Ranch for over one hundred years, she had been let in on the secrets of the two’s Immortality when she turned thirteen.  Three years later, it never ceased to amaze her how two beings so old could act so young.  When asked once, Justin had merely shrugged and replied, “It’s hard to be serious all the time.  Just leads to being depressed.  And with the two of us, that’s not a good idea.”

Laurana, however, was inspired.  Grabbing the offending camera out of her bag, she waited until just the right moment.  When Victoria and Justin were both sitting up, she called out, “Smile!”

The result was Justin and Victoria both looking towards the camera with relaxed grins on their faces.  Victoria was on her back, sitting partially up with one arm around Justin’s waist.  Justin had caught her other arm and was holding it up so he could tickle her side.

Justin had also received a sound whack on the head for his proclamation of wanting a copy after Victoria realized what had just happened.

“That wasn’t very interesting,” Richie stated.

Victoria rolled her eyes.  “Guess you had to be there.  But hey, you wanted to know the story behind the picture.”

“Actually, now I want to know about the other picture Justin has,” Richie said mischievously.  “The one where you said you were drunk off your ass.”

Groaning, Victoria merely said, “Now that, my friend, is definitely a story for another night.”

“But what happened?”

“Just take my advice, kid: never annoy people with wicked senses of humor.  It just sets you up for great blackmail fodder.”

~finis~

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