"Go, be with your Childe, one last night, for when she rises at the setting of the sun, you will either be dead, or she will pay the final price for your crime." One of the other elders looked upon both Marcus and this wounded Childe with pity. "I can safeguard your life, for one night, but not even I can do so for more than from now until the rising of the sun. You should have never done this, but now that you have. My word, my bond, that if what you say is true and you will freely go into the sun at dawn. I will stand as her protector." "Thank you Anise, I am not insane. I knew exactly what I was doing, and will do. Just one last night, let her know my love, for just one last night, and then I will give myself to the sun." Kris whimpered as Marcus closed the door to the bedroom that she had shared the day with him in. "Master?" "Call me Marcus, Kris, for the last night I hold you, I am not your master, I am your father, and I would rather go to my death with the memory of my name from your lips."

"No, please, this one she does not understand, why are you willing to die for her, she is nothing." She trembled as he pulled her close. "Oh, no Childe, you are far from nothing, you are near perfect. I would brave the sun, die of unspeakable agonies countless times for you." He gently lay her back on the bed. Leaning over her to press her into the mattress. "Least I will never have to lose you." He sighed at the completeness of her response to his kiss. "I would really rather die, than face that." "Master," she whispered clinging to him. "Make love to this one, like you did earlier. Please, she wants to feel you again." "Ssshh, Childe, I will. Gladly, just please, if you can hear me wherever you have fled. Call me Marcus. No, Master tonight, just call me Marcus. Let me be your father, your lover, for just one night. Please, my darling Childe. Call me 'Marcus'." He pushed her away to stand and disrobe before laying over her again, kissing her. She giggled at the feel of his hands as he ran them up her sides, tickling her a little. "Marcus." Yes, my beautiful Childe, Marcus. He had taken, both, her virginity's the night before, had made her a woman even as he made her his Fledgling. And here, now, like this, he would do more than just see to it that she was a maiden no more. For the last night, he would see her cry, but in pleasure and not fear or pain.

Her moan was sweet music to him as he gently parted her thighs, reaching to touch her. She was still so fresh, so new to all that a man could do for her. And regardless of who loved her after this night, he would go to his death, knowing he was the first, and that he would see that she never forgot him. She gasped, almost sitting up at the feel of his mouth on the skin at the back of her knee, as he began to make slow and easy love to her with his mouth. It just, kept, feeling better and better. She sighed deeply as she began to melt as his mouth moved slowly up her inner thigh, kissing and biting gently. She moved restlessly, stroking his hair as he gave her this. No one, ever, had ever made her feel like he did. And as he added gentle fingers to his teasing play, as his mouth found her. She just pressed, herself up, father into the wonders he was gifting her. He felt more than heard her giving herself to the warm haze of orgasm, as he loved her. The feel of her fluids as they washed over his face only made him burn all the more.

"Hush Childe." He moved up her, to press against her, as he went to give her what they both needed. And as he thrust deep, feeling her sweet, tight, warmth sheath him, he could only thank all those that had been willing to give him this little time with her. She lay under him, lost in the joy he was sharing with her, as she came again, holding to him, sobbing mindlessly. But as his fangs sank deep into her throat, she was thrown even farther into the exquisite heat, screaming, begging, and shuddering at the joy that was now hers. Now Childe, drink, take from me. Let me feel your hunger. It was his turn to weep as he felt her greedy mouth on his neck, and her fangs that sought what he offered. Love, heat, passion, and it were all offered in his gift of his blood to her. She had lost count of the number of times that he had taken her to that final point of bliss, but as he drove her to it again, she could do nothing more than lay there, helpless, spasming in the waves of joy that he had gifted her. Again, Childe feed from me again. Let me go to my death knowing the feeling of your unquenchable hunger. He held her there, as he used almost brutal force in his thrusts, losing himself again in the joy that this Childe was offering him in her willingness to be his. He could die now. There was nothing left that life could ever offer that would ever compare to this, to the wonderful joy of knowing that it was his Childe, his precious, beautiful Daughter that clung to him, begging his touch. Yes, now he could die.

Marcus leaned over his sleeping Childe to kiss her cheek. He had let her drink from him for the last time. He knew that. He met his mother at the door. Hugging first her and then his sister. "Take care of my Daughter. Don't let anyone hurt her while she is still lost to herself." "She is your Childe, you are mine, go to your rest, knowing that no one will ever harm her, not as long as I still live." Asha tried to sound supportive, but this was killing her. She had never lost a Childe like this before. Oh, yes, there had been other of her Children that had gone on, but never like this. Never with the fate of his own Childe hanging in the balance. "Go on sister, feed from me, just one last time. I don't need my blood anymore. Better by far if I give it to you and my mother, than just let it burn with me.

Janis wept as her fangs sank deep into her brother's throat. Go to your rest, knowing that if our mother is unable to see to your Childe, I will. Jessy was the last to be made before the Law was passed. So to him I will take her. He should know only too well, what it is like to be a Childe, in a world where there are no others. She looked down the hall as she drank, towards where she knew his Child lay sleeping. It has almost driven her mad listening to the confused and frightened Childe, beg her brother to just kill her. That he didn't have to die, and Marcus trying to explain that it was too late. He would never kill her, and it wouldn't matter if he did now, anyway. He had been caught and judged guilty. Then to you, dear sister, I give you my Childe, my only Childe. See her grow strong. I made a hideous mistake in making her as I did. Please Janis, see to her, don't let her follow me I don't want to die knowing that my Childe will follow me. Don't let her. You are older than she is, by far. Dominate her if you must, but see that she lives. She pulled away, kissing him, trying to smile. "You are my baby brother, when have I ever not seen to you and your needs? I only wish you had come to me sooner, before this. There is a new trend in our kind. We are taking and keeping mortals to feed from. There is even talk that now if this new trend lasts, of lifting the ban of no more children. If only you had come to me, this might not be happening."

"Janis, my love, I was an old man when Asha gave me her blood, made me her Childe. I have lived for near three hundred years, I am tired. All the sweet little mortals in the world would not have kept me from seeking my death. But you are right. I should have come to you. You would have seen to it that the girl I had chosen as my Childe, would have been, not my Childe, but my replacement, as my niece or sister." He kissed her just one last time before turning to the woman that had gifted him the night. "Mother, come. Anise is beginning to look a bit peckish, even as old as he is, it is fastly becoming dawn, you all need to seek your beds." "I will get no sleep this day, Marcus, my sweet Childe. I will sit up, and, will be, with you as long as I dare before the sun forced me to hide from its rays. Know this, of all the children I have ever given my blood to, you were my last and you were and still are, greatly loved." Again, in an act almost as old as time itself, she sank her fangs into his neck, going to lessen the pain he will feel when the sun took him, by draining from him as much as she could. Anise felt the restless stirrings of Kris's troubled mind. "Best you hurry Marcus, your Childe's sleep is not peaceful, and should not see you die, especially with as lost as she is. I have pledged that I will stand as her protector, but not even I could keep her from being stupid, not in the shape she is in now.

Marcus turned to him. "Thank you, Grandfather. I know that I have not been close to you for a long time, but I do thank you." Anise pulled the man to him, holding him tight. "You are my Childe's youngest Childe. Could I do any less for one of my blood? Now, go dawn is just moments away, and you need to prepare yourself to meet it. I will see to it that the Childe does not wake, or if she does, no matter what she hears, I will not let her see you. I watched my own father, go to the flames, and I was not as wounded as your little one is. I would never wish that pain, not even if they were my sworn enemy, on anyone. Now," he turned Marcus's head to one side so he could grant his GrandChilde at least a lessening of the pain he know he would feel as the sun touched him. "You should seek your bed, Mother." Marcus was a bit groggy from loss of blood, but, in this case, that was a good thing. He stripped the garments he would need no more.

Asha shook her head, smiling at her youngest Childe. "I told you once, already, you are my son. I will not leave you until I no longer have a choice. What you did was wrong, but she is a lovely Childe." Marcus looked up at the sky that was beginning to lighten. "Yes, she is. I saw such promise in that one. There is an envelope, in the desk drawer, see that she gets it. Within it is a portfolio of all I, no, she, now owns. You will see that I have been planning this for some time, and I have not left her penniless." He was fighting down the instinctive urge to flee the day. If he did so, it would only be to face a much worse fate. He had to die. To live, with the sins he had on his soul, was to be entombed, and his Childe killed. 'Well, no matter', He rationalized as he lay on the cold stones. 'I am not ashamed of what I did, though the way I did it, was the only mistake I made'. But all thoughts ceased as the first delicate rays of the sun touched his naked flesh, and all the control he prided himself on having fled him as he lay, paralyzed, screaming in agony at the searing, knifing pain that took him. Anise shook his head as he watched over the restless Childe. "He should have gone to the flames. It be over much sooner." He had watched, as the flames consumed his father, so many years ago. Death by fire, was not an easy one for one of their race, but kinder, by far, than death by the sun. Janis just shook her head. "Not for my brother. He wasn't as mad as he seemed there at the end. He knew what he was doing was wrong. But look at this house, wood and drapes as the only thing that blocks out death for us. He wanted to die." Anise nodded, wincing at a particularly shrill scream. "Die, yes, but like this?"

Asha bit back a sob. "My son knew what he was doing was wrong. Don't you see that Father? He committed a crime, and sentenced himself for it. Yes the flame would have been kinder, but better the sun than what I would have had to do to him, had he not chose this path."

It took almost four hours for the screaming to finally end. Death by sun was the worst way for any vampire to die. Anise was right, it would have been much kinder, had he went into the flames.