#benjamin fuchs

Marcus loved music. The 80s may have been one of his favourite decades, but he loved all music. They told stories and distracted from him momentarily from real life. Between recruiting for the Knights of Lazarus, trying to continue his medical work and looking after Sophie, he enjoyed the walk and distraction.

He was enjoying it, until he felt a hostile presence. Another vampire. A new vampire.

"May I help you?" Marcus asked.

He led him to an empty park, needing to be out of the way in case there was a fight.

He turns around and sees the man. The same height as him, his dark hair combed back. He is overdressed in a suit and coat; his manner telling him that he had been preparing for this meeting.

"Merely passing." The other vampire held his hands up in surrender, but a wolfish smile appeared across his face as if something had clicked in his mind. Marcus tensed, ready for a fight if need be.

"You are Marcus de Clermont, are you not?"He could hear the slight German accent in his voice.

"Yes, I am." He confirmed, "What is your business here?"

He shrugged, "You are well known. The chip on Philippe de Clermont's shoulder, someone once called you. I wished to meet you."

"I was his first political headache," He continued, "Our father chased me across the continent once."

That certainly was true. Marcus enjoyed pushing his grandfather's buttons in the years he spent with him. A persistent political headache due to his support for abolitionist movements and socialist programs to help the poor.

"My reputation may be exaggerated." Marcus replied tersely, "State your business with me."

Our father. Marcus noted. He was speaking of Matthew. But he was the only son Matthew had sired.

"Of course; they erased me. Anything to protect the family name. Did Lucius or Godfrey take me out of the pedigree? Or did Father have the balls to do it himself?" He growled slightly.

"Benjamin Fuchs," He finally revealed his name and frowned as there was no recognition in his eyes, but confusion and intruige.

"Are you supposed to mean something to me?"

"I am my father's first and only son," Marcus said, but there was something that he could feel.

Sometimes, he felt it around Ysabeau. A familiarity that one could not explain. He would feel that connection in his blood even if he couldn't see her.

Friend or foe, your mind will tell you, she advised, but family is what one feels in their blood.

And his blood stirred with recognition of this stranger. Same bloodline, so close His mind whispered urgently to him.

***

"I have a brother. I have an elder brother!"

Miriam has the gall to look slightly surpsied. But she is not. She had known Benjamin when he was a political headache during the Crusades, becoming a danger to all of them.

"A brother who was kicked out-" Miriam tried to explain.

"A brother nonetheless." Marcus interrupted sharply, his eyes glaring at his father's oldest friend.

He hated Benjamin with all his heart. A monster of a vampire.

But he wondered to himself how he was made.

"Why did you not kill him? You are usually very good at that - disposing of those with blood rage." Marcus muttered, "Or did you hope for some depraved reunion?"

Two sons, who Matthew failed to raise properly, ran away and created their own children that Matthew disposed of. Two sides to a coin that belonged to Matthew de Clermont whether he liked it or not.

"I disowned him." Matthew explained, "You know that's the worst fate for a vampire - a vampire who belongs to no one. Especially at that time..."

"I could have been Benjamin, you know?" He thinks of their similarities. He may be a healer, Benjamin a killer but they have both rebelled against him. He's had many lovers, many unruly children.

"You could never be him. You have made choices I do not approve of but you are a good man-"

"Are there any more children you wish to alert me of? Just to update the pedigree?" He snapped.

"No," Matthew snapped, grabbing his shoulder and holding him in place, "He is not my son. Not like you. You are my first son. My heir, if it came down to it. I love and trust you."

"Do you?" He can see his father's eyes dim at that question. He may have made him the Grandmaster of the Knights of Lazarus but it couldn't be Gallowglass and he couldn't bear to give it to Baldwin.

Father and son stare at one another, their distance growing with every secret. But the buzz of Marcus' phone interrupts them. A text with a picture from an unknown number.

Family reunion, brother?

He opens the file to see he is in Oxford. Where Diana and Phoebe were and he glares at his father who is just as angered.