Fires both sacred and profane

Rating: PG-13 atm
Pairing: Gabriel Knight/Baron Friedrich von Glover
Time Frame: GK2, the final chase....and beyond
Characters: Canon for the most part
None of GK's original characters or stories belong to me, all hail Jane Jensen!


Fires both sacred and profane -.Chapter three


Whenever I reached out for life,
Nothing remained in my hand.
I want to be fire and turn to ashes,
Yet I have never burned!
I want to rise like a phoenix,
But I keep falling into an abyss of tears.
I want to be an angel or a devil,
Yet all I am is a creature that crawls, lies...
And tears apart whatever it desires!

If there were but a moment of bliss in store for me,
I'd embrace eternal torment!

The preacher's daughter let me in her room
In seventeen-seventy two to love me was her doom,
With the silk and blood I wrote a poem of blood,
Upon her ivory skin...

And the bashful page of Napoleon the Great,
In eighteen hundred thirteen
He stood at the gate;
When I recall his body
I can't help but think
To consume it was a sin.

So many victims washing on the shores,
An ocean of pure tears,
So many pleas for mercy, howls of pain
Intoxicating fears!
(Jim Steinman, Original Sin)


"A letter? What letter?" Gabriel felt utterly lost now. Why would Friedrich write to him in the first place? He knew where to find him, so why the secrecy of a letter? Plus it was way too much like Gracie to write a letter, it just didn't feel right.

The Baron's features were as steady as ever, he was clearly not surprised that Gabriel never received his letter. His little friend was resourceful indeed, plus she enjoyed to meddle in other people's affairs.

"It doesn't matter, Gabriel. Finish your breakfast. We shall talk once you've changed."

"Cut out the patronizin'! I wanna know what was in that letter!"

Riddles, always riddles with that guy, Gabriel thought indignantly. But his anger shifted soon and found its real target in Grace Nakimura. It was just like Gracie to keep things from him, so why was he surprised at her sneaking ways?

"It was a long letter and you, mein Schatz..." The Baron's eyes twinkled mischievously as he paused after the rather obvious endearment. "...you need to change. Besides...."

His words were cut short by the rather piercing ring of the doorbell. Friedrich smiled a mysterious little smile at the girl's guts, for guts it took to come straight to the devil's den. He gave Gabriel another smile and left the room to answer the door.

Gunther was there before him and he was fighting a rather one-sided battle to keep an outraged Grace Nakimura from entering the villa. Friedrich dismissed Gunther with a dismissive wave of his hand and a smile and allowed Grace to enter. She was still wearing her evening dress, so she had not slept at all. Puzzling indeed how women in love forgot about their looks first when it came to tracing down the object of their desire. His eyes rested on her for a short moment to determine his friend's taste in women....and indeed, Gabriel didn't disappoint him there either. She was slender and exquisitely built, her dark eyes promised fires yet to be fanned and her mouth was made to be kissed.

"Miss Nakimura, please, do come in!" Friedrich said kindly and offered her his hand for a friendly shake. She didn't take it. You're a determined one, aren't you? Friedrich thought, half amused, half intrigued.

"Lets skip all the pretense, Baron. I'd like to see Gabriel, please!" She held her chin up and returned his gaze for a moment. The man had class, that was certain. He didn't undress her with his eyes or flirt in an obvious way. So what does he like about Gabriel anyway?

"He's in the middle of changing, Miss Nakimura." He enjoyed her aghast expression as long as civility permitted it...and maybe a little while longer. "There was a little mishap with the coffee...."

"Gabriel's still Gabriel...." She caught her smile too late. How did he do that anyway? Only a few hours ago her must urgent desire had been to see him dead and now she smiled at a devilish remark? Obviously the Baron and Gabriel had more in common than she had believed.

"Please, have a seat, Miss Nakimura. And do call me Friedrich, all my friends do so."

"What do those who want to kill you call you, Baron?" Grace responded with a sarcastic smile.

"Do you?" His accent was silken and warm.

"Do I what? All I want is to get Gabriel back home!"

"Do you really want to kill me, Grace? Wouldn't the world be a dull place if justice had its way all the time?"

Was he mocking her? If he was, he was a master at it. His ice-blue eyes shone with barely hidden delight as they watched her fishing for a smart reply. Why was this man's presence so unnerving and why were his words like physical caresses?

"What do YOU of all people know about justice anyway?" she snapped, angry at herself for showing that his calm attitude irked her.

"More than I ever wished to know, my dear." A hint of melancholy veiled the Baron's voice as he spoke those words, Grace didn't fail to notice it....and it made her uneasy.

"Well, I'm not here to discuss justice with you, all I want is to...."

Both of their heads turned towards the door as Gabriel interrupted her. The Baron, who had sensed his chosen one's presence wasn't surprised but the look on Grace's face was right out of a bad comedy.

"Yes, what DO you want here, Gracie?" Gabriel asked, dangerously calm.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________


Author's note: The conversation described here should be in German of course. ;-)

"Statter, where the all are you?" the Kommissar shouted.

"Right here, sir!" Statter saluted his superior.

"Cut out the damn show, we have work to do!"

"We do?" The look on Statter's face was puzzled.

"There has been another wolf killing near a hunting lodge at the Nationalpark Bayrischer Wald. Well, not a wolf killing, someone's been shot and the witnesses speak about nothing but the wolves!"

"But wolves can't shoot anyone, can they?"

"Hell, Statter, it's a panic. We have to get there and calm things down. Oh and....we have to track down Herr Knight. That guy's showing up at the wrong places way too much for my taste."

"Sure thing, sir!" Statter saluted again.

"Oh...just move it, will you!?"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


"Gabriel, I've come to take you back home! The Smiths are waiting for us there!" Grace explained.

"What makes ya think I actually wanna be locked up again?" Gabriel gave back hotly.

"It's all for your own good...I just......." She was fighting an already lost battle.

"Listen, Gracie, and listen up well. For I'm not gonna repeat myself: I'm not goin' anywhere with ya at the moment. I'm gonna be stayin' here and look into things. And neither your preachin' nor your patronisin' is gonna change a damn thing."

"Gabriel, I cannot leave you here with....." She wanted to take back those words as soon as they had left her mouth.

"You're not my Mom, Gracie. I'm a grown up, ya know? Now get lost before I'll really get mad!" It wasn't an empty threat, Grace knew that only too well. Gabriel had been rough with her before but there had always been a warm twinkle in his eyes that showed that he didn't mean everything what he said. Not now...was the curse already swallowing up his good side? Good side? As if he ever had had one!

"Gabriel, watch your manners!" Friedrich interceded. "That's not the way to talk to a lady!"

HE was defending her? Grace felt the sudden urge to smack herself for ever having cared in the first place.

"I need no help from you, Baron!" she snapped and walked towards the door. "I'll not be back again, Gabe, so here's your chance. Either come to your senses, if you've got any, or throw your life away here!" she said coldly.

After a most awkward pause she let out a deep sigh and left. But not without slamming the door shut violently.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


"Gosh, she's a handful, ain't she?" Gabriel let out a sigh as he fell onto the couch in the Baron's Salon. (Living room)

"You didn't have to be such a bastard around her, Gabriel. The woman is confused and angry and you weren't helping just now!"

The Baron sat down next to his friend and eyed him with a sparkle of mirth. "You look great in that suit, we'll have to buy you some that will fit you better than mine though."

"Nah, I feel like a damn politician. Forget 'bout her and tell me about the letter, man!" Gabriel was bursting with curiosity, it was the same look Friedrich had seen on him many times and it warmed his heart.

"All in good time, mein Alles. Why don't you read it yourself? I have kept a copy. Here, take it!" The Baron handed him a stack of papers with an inviting smile.

"Wow....that's....well, I like mail..." Gabriel said with a grin.

Gabriel:

I know you are very ill right now. The change is always painful. I went through it myself when I was only twelve, and I did not even know what was happening to me. I'm sorry I am not there to help you, but I have a pretty clear sense that you would not welcome my presence. You are safe in Rittersberg. For now that is enough. Let me speak, then, of the future.
You hate me now. I know this. But I have some hope that by the pass of the second moon, when the sickness wanes and the blood has inflamed the greater part of you, you will see things differently. You will need me then and, I think, you will want me then.
It is for hope of this that I did not have you destroyed the night you were bitten by von Zell. I could have done so. You were passed out for hours at the lodge. It would have been a simple thing to wake the men, show them von Zell's corpse, and make up a story that would enrage them enough to kill you. I did not. Let that be proof of my true desire for friendship with you.
I have desired companionship for more years than you have lived. I have even, very rarely, taken the risk and Changed others. But the Blood was always too much for the brain, and my Chosen One ended up dead. Or mad.
This is why I started the hunt club. It was my idea that if I could first indoctrinate men's minds to the religion of tooth and claw, they then might be prepared for the Change. As you have seen, it did not work. Von Zell was the best of the lot. If he had turned out well, I would have taken the others. But there's no point in even trying with them now.
You are different. You're a Ritter. Your blood is already supernatural. Yes, I know of your family. It was a Ritter that captured my own father, Claus von Ralick. I never blamed you, even though I myself would have been killed had not my mother had the foresight to flee. No, it was not your ancestor but my father that I hated for years, until I learned to appreciate his legacy.
You see, I have studied much over these centuries. When you and I met, I felt instinctively that you would not be destroyed by the Change. You have an enormous streak of the beast in you, and you are innately strong in the Occult. You will be powerful and beautiful in the Change, I am sure of it. I did not intend for it to happen so soon and in such a way, but perhaps fate has its own reason.
But how confused you must be. You may feel I used you to dispose of von Zell. I did. He had to be taken care of, and you obligingly showed up. What was I to do? I am too old not to have learned at least this much about the light—you cannot shut it out. Better to let it in and let it simply dim to adjust to the relative brightness inside. But the warmth between us, this was genuine, I assure you.
Think well on these things as your body adjusts. Think about meeting me in Munich in two months' time. We can leave Germany if you wish and go anywhere you like. I will teach you how to hunt, how to live safe and well. You can feel the night wind on your face, exalt in running free, taste the heartbeat of the kill beneath your jaws. It is glorious—much more so than the priestly life the Schattenjager offers.
Don't confuse yourself with ideas of good and evil. Nature shows us that there are no such distinctions. You and I both inherited something from our fathers. Is your legacy any less of a curse or blessing than mine? Join me.

With deepest affection, Friedrich

"Sweet Jesus....Friedrich, I...." Gabriel had never been so moved in his entire life. This great man, his friend and yet his foe, had opened his heart to him and he had been so close to killing that incredible human being. So full of wisdom, so gifted and brilliant, he felt small at his side. Wretched and lonely he had seen his loved ones die one by one and those whom he presented with the gift as he called it either died, went mad or tried to kill him.

"Don't say you're sorry, mein Alles. I understood you, you cannot even comprehend how much." The Baron put his right arm around Gabriel, drawing him into a warm embrace. "Do you remember now?" his velvety voice spoke, so very close.

"I..ah....Gawd, I feel....I have never felt so much. I probably look like an idiot now......" Gabriel tried to smile his way out of the situation with his usual tactics.

Mein einziger Engel...." von Glower said quietly, playing with a curl of Gabriel's hair.

"Lets get goin' then......" Gabriel muttered and withdrew from his friend's arms to the other corner of the couch.


To be continued

Translations:

Mein einziger Engel = My only angel
Liebling = Darling or sweetheart