The Council's Decision

"Run!" came the cry, and the vampires fled. There are few things more feared than an vampire. Their speed, strength, and blood-lust is legendary. These monsters are the cause of more nightmares in more countries that perhaps any other creature of myth and lore. That these most feared monsters were fleeing, desperately trying to escape what followed, should explain just how horrible an Inquisitor can be.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit," Jay chanted, running as fast as he could manage, ducking into the shadows to move faster at every chance. Even for all his speed, white robed men with deadly expressions were never far from his sight. Running with him, were three other vampires, two he did not know, and one he knew and loved: Claire.

"Why tonight?" Claire moaned again as they fled. "Why did you tell me tonight?" Jay smiled weakly to his love as they fled.

"Bad timing?" Jay joked. Bad timing indeed.

"I will find you!" one of the Inquisitors roared after the fleeing vampires. This man, more than any other Inquisitor, was what the vampires feared. With a growled chant and sudden explosion of magical energy, every vampire in the entire city was denied entry to the shadows. A malicious laugh escaped this most deadly Inquisitor's lips as he twisted reality and simply appeared behind the fleeing vampires who scattered before his wrath.

"Oh hell," Jay groaned when he was denied entry to the shadows. Then, after seeing who followed, he growled, grabbed Claire's hand, and leaped into the air, vaulting over the side of the fire escape eight floors from the ground. Claire stumbled after Jay, white faced and breathless. Vampires have no need to breathe, but some frights still leave any person breathless. The other vampires that had been with them could not follow Jay's desperate leap; they searched for their own escape.

Jay did not slow for his love's sake. He knew what it meant to stop; more than anything else he did not want Claire to fall to the Inquisitors. On Jay ran, up the stairs of the escape to leap off the escape and soar into the air onto the roof of the adjacent building. Even for all his speed, the Inquisitor was fast enough to appear on the roof mere seconds after Jay and launch a powerful blast of air meant to knock Jay from the sky.

Jay, rather than leaping again, crouched low and skidded under the blast of air before leaping off the side of the building, Claire still in tow. Claire, though terrified, had the wherewithall to cast a malestrom of wind that kicked up a huge cloud of dust obscuring their escape. Jay made good use of the distraction, bouncing nearly directly to the right after careening into the side of the taller building. He reached out and clawed desperately at the building to slow their fall long enough to leap again into the fifth floor of a parking garage.

Claire shrieked a word and every light in the building shattered instantly. The two vampires were plunged into darkness, sadly not the comfort that it would normally be, but enough to keep the Inquisitor from immediately following. Across the city, a simlar destruction of lights took place, evening the playing field if only for a moment, and for that long moment, silence ruled the night.

"Are they gone?" Claire asked, shaking with fright. Jay put one finger to her lips to silence her. Though he'd always had impressive ears, even for a vampire, Jay tried that much harder to listen tonight. He could hear many of his friends and allies on their escape; he heard the confused shouts and cries from humans out trying to have a normal night; what he could not hear was what scared him. Jay could not hear any Inquisitors.

"I don't hear them," Jay whispered, clutching at Claire's hand. They shared a look of horror, but slowly began to sneak through the garage, looking for the fastest escape from the city. Jay led his love silently, passing between cars and humans alike, leaving no trace of their movements, no sounds of their pasage. The two reached the far side of the garage, and peered over the side. For a long moment nothing happened.

"Wait or run?" Jay asked quickly and quietly. Claire did not immediately respond. She was listening too, though in a very different way from Jay. Her love did not miss her expression of horror as it blossomed across her face.

An explosion of magical not two blocks away was followed a horrible scream of fear and anguish. That scream was quickly cut off. The Inquisitors had captured their first quarry.

"Oh no," Claire whispered in horror. Jay growled and pulled his love away. They ran away from the screams cut short. Jay scooped Claire into his arms as he vaulted the side of the garage to plummet to the street below. They hit the ground and Jay was already running. Claire buried her face in Jay's neck and held him close for an instant, before falling from his arms and running along side him. The two fled in silence, dodging their way down the street, unconcerned by who might see.

Jay desperately put his heels to the ground and screeched to a halt when a man in a white robe walked out of an alley not two blocks ahead of them. Jay dragged Claire down a side street even as the Inquisitor turned and hurled a blast of magical power after them. Claire twisted and the attack missed, but the man was already on their trail calling out for his brethren to assist him.

Claire's eyes glowed red with rage as her fear was finally overrun by anger. She shouted a word and shattered every window in a hundred feet. Those shards of glass became deadly missles that pelted the ground behind the fleeing pair. Two Inquisitors tried to persue, but could not step into the hail of deadly glass and were forced to wait for the glass to run out. Claire had bought them precious seconds.

Jay took the momentary distraction and exploited it as best he could. He careened right into an alleyway between two very tall buildings. Jay then jumped from building to building, each jump throwing the pair higher and higher into the air. When he finally ran out of wall, they were hundreds of feet in the air soaring through the night.

"I hope you know a way for us to fly, otherwise this landing is going to hurt," Jay commented to his love. Claire gave him a look.

"Couldn't you have asked that before we were plummeting to our deaths?" Claire teased him weakly before casting a curtain of air that led their descent towards a small park close to the edge of the city

"I was a little busy," Jay pointed out as they coasted across the air. Then he smiled at Claire and squeezed her hand. She smiled back as best she could. Jay blinked as he realized...

"They're down there, aren't they?" Jay asked, already knowing that at least one Inquisitor waited for them in the park. Claire closed her eyes and bowed her head, blood tears flowing. She knew what was coming. They had no sooner touched the earth before they were violently parted by a blast of energy.

"Run away!" Claire screamed at Jay, knowing he would not. Even in the face of these odds, the boy who had professed his love for her, the vampire whom she'd realized she'd come to love, Jay would not back down. When the Inquisitor saw the horrible demon that charged him, eyes blazing red, for the first time this night an Inquisitor knew fear.

"No!" came the cry. Jay skidded to a halt, not by choice, at the command of his love and her magical will. With a flick of her wrist, Jay flew back from his goal. The Inquisitor stepped forward and tried to reach his prey, but to no avail. Claire slashed a hand and the Inquisitor fell back from the assault of pure power. The vampire sorceress took her love's hand and they disappeared into the night once more.

"Do not hurt them!" Claire demanded of her love when they appeared some ten blocks away.

"What?" Jay gaped.

"Do not hurt them," Claire repeated softly.

"How can you-" Jay spoke, but his love placed one finger on his lips to silence him.

"It was a lie," Claire told him. "None of ours attacked any of theirs. They follow orders, but they are not to be blamed, not to be fought. For our survival, we must have peace."

"They've already captured-" Jay protested but Claired slienced him once more.

"They will capture one more," she said sadly, "but to fight is to give the lie credence. We cannot fight them. We cannot survive against the full fury of the Inquisitors. No Inquisitors can die at our hands this night." Jay growled, but said nothing. The two sat and stared at each other for a long moment.

"Why tonight?" Claire asked suddenly, quietly. With a sudden burst of energy she slapped Jay and screamed, "Why tonight? Of any night you could have picked-" Jay held her before she could go any farther. She struggled for a moment before sagging into his arms, sobbing. Jay started to answer, but tensed as he noticed they had been sorrounded by grim faced men in white.

Chief among those surrounding was the cruel man who had denied the vampires the comfort oy the shadows. His face was no less cruel or confident than before. Most of the other men stood impassively, simply watching the two vampires. Jay could tell from the way Claire sagged against him, sobbing more bitterly now, that she knew their brief freedom was at an end.

Jay glared at the Inquisitors and tried to find some escape, but there was none. As he looked on, an older limping man joined the group. That man walked up to the cruel man and quietly ordered the other man to stand down. He recieved an angry glare for his trouble, but the older man was obeyed. The old man turned to Jay with a sad look on his face.

"Tell her, lad," the man told him. "Tell her or you will regret that you didn't for the rest of your life." The old man's face was cold, but compassion leaked through the cracks. Jay sighed. He looked down at Claire whose sobbing had calmed and hugged her close.

"I told you before," Jay told her. "I love you. I have loved you for a long time and I was a fool to not tell you before now. Why tonight? Mostly because I am a master of shitty timing, but tonight because I could not wait any more. Because I couldn't go on living without you knowing how I feel."

"You do have bad timing," Claire sniffed through a weak smile.

"I really do," Jay tried to smile.

"I do," Claire said after a moment.

"Do what?" Jay asked blankly.

"Love you," Claire smiled and shook her head. Jay smiled, kissed his love, then hugged her for what he knew was probably the last time he ever would.

"It's time lass," the old Inquisitor told Claire gently. Jay tensed but relaxed when Claire put her hand on his chest. Emotions raged on Jay's face, but he stood and watched as Claire backed away from him, tears running down her cheeks, then turned and walked away with the dour Inquisitors surrounding her. The only man who remained wan the old man with the limp who sighed then turned to look Jay in the eye.

"What?" Jay asked of the old man. Jay was considering attacking the man just so he could vent his rage and stave off the wave of sorrow.

"This," the old man said simply. The man removed his robe, tossed it negligently to the ground, and set it ablaze. "To hell with the Council. I quit." The man informed Jay with an angry shake of his head, before turning away and walking into the night.

With nowhere for his rage to go, Jay fell to the ground and sobbed till he could cry no more.

Claire died the next day. There was nothing Jay could do.