Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 12:50:33 EST Reply-To: Vi Moreau Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Vi Moreau Subject: ELENA IN PARIS, PART VI ELENA IN PARIS, Part VI On the third day, Duncan said, "Enough!" Four Immortals, all killers, all armed, all paranoid, all losing sleep, and all holed up on the barge, made for short tempers, and he was afraid they'd wind up killing each other. They went everywhere in pairs; every night they took guard duty in shifts. There was absolutely no sign of Rios, Kaminsky, or any other Hunter, and they had absolutely no idea where to look for them. Their only physical relief was going to a nearby fencing studio, and they could only practice and sweat and disarm unsuspecting fencers for so long. On the third day, Richie and Amanda packed up their belongings to move to a small private rented home on the Rue Sauval, three blocks from the river. They had a cell phone to keep in touch, and they were supposed to stay pretty much together for the duration, but at least they each had their own bedroom and some privacy. Duncan felt a little guilty about leaving Richie alone with Amanda, but it was worth it to feel free again. And he absolutely needed, needed to spend some time alone with Elena. While Duncan gave Richie and Amanda some last minute instructions, Elena took her clothes off. She had another kind of tension to worry about. She lay back on the bed, shivering slightly. She could hear the sound of his voice at the door, and she closed her eyes, imagining his hands on her. Her nipples hardened; her heart started to beat faster. When Duncan came back inside the barge he saw Elena's jeans on the floor, then her blouse, her panties, a clear trail to follow. He looked across and saw her, naked, on the bed. As he came closer, she arched her back like a cat, and made a sound deep in her throat. The pulse at the base of her neck was throbbing, and she held a hand out to him. "Veneis, mi amor, veneis aca," she said. Duncan smiled and quickly removed his own clothes. Her hair, which she usually kept tied back, lay loose like a curtain behind her, reaching halfway to her waist. He knelt by the bed and kissed her left foot thoroughly, then her right. She squirmed. Then with his lips, tongue, and fingertips, he went up the soft skin of her leg, her calf, the muscles tense with pleasure and anticipation, up to her knee, then back down and up the other leg, slowly. Ignoring his own urgent hunger for her, he caressed and kissed her right knee. With a feather touch, he ran his fingers up the inside of her thighs. He could smell her. Elena's back arched even more, if possible, her breath coming in gasps. "Please, Duncan, please!" she pleaded with him, reaching down and pulling his hair, trying to pull him further up her body. But he wasn't finished yet. He made a satisfied sound, kissing his way up her t! highs--then they felt the presence of another Immortal. "!No!" she groaned, "please, can't you just..." and Duncan thought, 'If it's Richie, I'll kill him!' just as Richie came through the door. "Hey Mac, guess who's here? Dawson!" said Richie, then added, "Whoa! Sorry, look, we'll..." "Come on in, Richie," sighed Duncan, pulling on his pants. He looked at Elena in frustration. She felt like she wanted to cry; instead she put on a robe and tied it angrily. Richie, Dawson and Amanda all came inside--Amanda looked like she wanted to say something, but Duncan glared at her and she limited herself to a small giggle. "I was just filling Dawson in on what happened. Mac, he thinks he may have a lead on Rios!" "Hello, Dawson. Where is he?" asked Duncan. Finding Fernando Rios was the best thing that could happen to them right now--any amount of danger was better than sitting and waiting. Dawson nodded at MacLeod and Elena. "First of all, I don't know where he is. Rios was a Watcher until two years ago. We think that's when some Immortals started getting killed by Hunters again. But now we think he also killed some of those Immortals' Watchers. He was in Mexico watching an American named Gordon Powell; both Powell and his Watcher, Carlotta Parona, disappeared about twenty months ago." "Gordon Powell and I had been friends since 1862," said Elena bitterly. "He was shot down in the middle of the street, carted off like a side of beef, and his body was never found!" Dawson nodded and continued. "Sixteen months ago Rios was spotted in Buenos Aires, by another Watcher, Pedro Gonzalez. Gonzalez' body was found in an alley, killed by a sword. He was your Watcher, Duran, so we thought you'd killed him. It's happened before when Immortals have found out about us; it's a risk we're willing to take." He looked hard at Elena. "Did you kill him?" "I didn't start killing Watchers until after they murdered Maria on the 10th of November 1994. I didn't even know about them before that." "That's what I thought," Dawson said. "Gonzalez was killed in September. We think Rios did it--and that he was after you." "He was, and he found us. But if you knew this so called 'renegade' Watcher was after me, why didn't you warn me? Or is this against your rules?" Elena was going to stay calm; she refused even to raise her voice. But the anger was obvious. "Yes, it is against our rules, but we didn't know he was after you. Remember, we thought you'd done it. Anyway, we lost track of Rios. We didn't even know about this Paris address. I can tell you that other Hunters you're likely to find with him include your friend and mine, Evan Kaminsky. When Kaminsky turned he took with him two brothers, Glenn and Randall Morrison. I'm pretty sure you've met them both, Duran. We think Glenn was one of the five men at that warehouse in Seattle. His brother, Randall, was found in Managua, Nicaragua, beaten with a blunt instrument and finally killed by a sword." "It was a baseball bat," said Elena quietly. "I remember him. I don't blame his brother for wanting my head." There was a long silence. Elena wanted to regret having killed the man in such a way, but she felt too cold about it, and couldn't quite bring herself to do it. And Duncan just wondered if she was sorry at all. "Yeah," Dawson finally said. "Well, we have found others of his...friends...in the Watchers, and we've flushed some of them out, worldwide." "And what are you going to do about them, Dawson?" asked Duncan. "How are you going to stop them?" "You'll have to trust that we'll take care of our own problems, the way I ultimately took care of Horton. Or tried." "I'm trusting you, Dawson, remember?" asked Elena. "I know. And after you kill these Hunters, what then, Duran? Will you stop killing? Can you stop?" Elena leaned into him, her face centimeters from his. "What gives you the right to judge me, Dawson?" she asked between clenched teeth. "It was your Watchers who turned killers first!" No matter how she tried, she would forever dislike Joe Dawson. "And you've taken your pound of flesh, Duran! These names are all I'm going to give you. Will you be satisfied with them?" "If not, your Watchers will kill me, is that it?" she asked, sarcastically. "That's not the way we work! But we did hunt Kalas, and if we have to protect ourselves, we will." Elena could see that Dawson was scared, but he stood firm. "For almost four centuries I've been threatened by the best, Dawson. You don't even come close! But I'll keep my word. I won't kill any more Watchers. Will you be satisfied with that?" "I guess I'll have to be." The others stood back while Elena and Dawson had their confrontation, but now Duncan said, "Do you have any idea where we can find any of these men, Dawson?" "Sorry, no, but I do have something for you. I went to visit Anna Kaminsky, and she mentioned he let it slip that he was on his way to Paris to, quote, make the biggest acquisition of his career! unquote. She thought he was talking about some special sword." "But you and I know better," said Duncan grimly. "They're after some Immortal!" put in Richie. "But who?" Dawson, Duncan and Amanda looked at each other, but Amanda was the first to say it. "Methos." "Methos? Damn! He's the oldest Immortal there is! If they nail him..." exclaimed Richie. "We'll lose his Quickening. All his experience; all his knowledge; all that he has been; all lost, just like Darius." Duncan felt sick at the thought of it. "But Methos is a legend," put in Elena. Duncan looked at her, shaking his head. "He may be a legend, but he's also real. I've met him. He's a friend. And I'm not going to let his five thousand years of life be lost to the Hunters!" 'Five thousand years,' thought Elena. '!Madre de Dios!' "I've already tried to get in touch with Adam Pierson," said Dawson. Nobody's heard from him for two days." "But that's not unusual for him. He's certainly disappeared before! Maybe it's time for him to move on," said Amanda. "Who's Adam Pierson?" asked Elena. "Adam Pierson is a Watcher who's in charge of locating Methos. Except that he is Methos," said Dawson. "Methos is a Watcher? And the Watchers know this?" asked Elena, incredulously. "No, I know it. The other Watchers don't have a clue." "So, you've broken your own precious rules for him." "I'm breaking the rules now by talking to the four of you! But Adam is a friend, and so are MacLeod, and Richie and Amanda. I just want to make sure, Duran, that I haven't just set Methos up for you to take his head!" "I'm not like Rechenko, challenging every Immortal I meet. Besides, I wouldn't take the head of one of Duncan's friends." She waved her arm around the room. "As you can see, Amanda and Richie are both still alive." "Yes, that's very sweet of you, 'gracias'," said Amanda sarcastically--but she was smiling. Elena bowed. "My bet is, you find Methos and Rios won't be too far away. I've already put out the word that he may be in danger, but you four have an easier way of finding him--that Immortal radar of yours." "Richie, why don't you and Amanda drop off your things at the house and go with Dawson to Methos' place, see if you can find anything. Elena and I are going to visit Marcus Constantine. Methos isn't the only old Immortal in Paris," he answered. Their visit to Constantine taught Elena two things. The first was that Roman and Egyptian antiquities were much more fascinating when explained by a museum curator who had been there. The second was that Duncan MacLeod was fully capable of taking the head of one of his lovers. When Constantine described Elena as "another beautiful, wilful woman, full of notions of revenge," she didn't miss the reference or the warning. For Duncan the visit was more painful than he'd hoped, bringing back terrible memories of another fight he would have given almost anything to avoid, again, 'God, am I doomed to keep killing the people I love, Bryan, Michael Moore, Nefertiri? Who was next? Elena? Please, no!' he agonized in his mind, thinking the same things Elena was thinking. In spite of Constantine's reassurances, they left still worried about his safety, as he was a stationary target. Still, Duncan believed that not all Watchers knew about every Immortal--or else why try to steal Dawson's disks--and Rios had been based in the Americas anyway. Methos, on the other hand, had been avoiding Mortals and Immortals alike for five milennia and was not going to be easily caught. Because he was a researcher, he could be in any museum, church or library in Paris, a city filled with museums, churches and libraries--and that was only if he wasn't already in hiding or had simply left the city. Dutifully, Duncan and Elena, and Richie and Amanda, made the rounds of all the most likely places. "Boy, look at me, I'm covered in dust from all these museums!" complained Richie. Amanda smiled at him. Duncan had noticed after just the first day that Amanda and Richie seemed to be touching a little too much, smiling at each other, even giggling. Well, it was none of his business, and Richie was a grown man, capable of making his own decisions, except that in Amanda's clutches he was as helpless as a child. At least, Duncan rationalized, Amanda wouldn't hurt Richie deliberately, and they were probably having a good time together. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Duncan felt he should be jealous, but Elena took up so much of his time and energy that he couldn't even think about another woman, not even Amanda. They spent two days at the fencing studio or looking for Methos or checking in with Dawson or watching for Hunters, and two nights sleeping and making love and watching for Hunters. Elena still had her nightly 'pesadilla'--it had lasted too long to go away easily-- but it was more bearable because Duncan was there to soothe her and to love her. "Maybe,"' she said in a shaky voice, a pounding heart, pressing her sweat-soaked body against his, "maybe when this is over the nightmare will go away once and for all, Duncan. Please God! If I thought I'd have this same dream, seeing that head rolling toward me every night for the rest of my life, the rest of my immortal life..." "No, sweetheart, this nightmare will end! The sleeping and the waking one both!" "I don't know, 'querido'...I just can't stand this every night...I feel so helpless...you must be so tired of this..." "No, no, come here." He hugged her again. "It'll be alright," he said, burying his face in her hair. He thought back to the terror he'd felt when Garrick had filled his dreams, and even his waking moments, with that horrifying hooded creature, and shuddered, knowing what she was going through. "Nothing lasts forever. Not even for us." End of ELENA IN PARIS Part VI Translations: 'veneis, mi amor, veneis aca '- come here, my love 'Madre de Dios' - Mother of God 'pesadilla' - nightmare 'querido' - beloved copyright by Vivian Moreau, 1995 =========================================================================