Subject: Legacies (00/?) Date: Fri, 27 Dec 2002 13:29:05 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Okay, I'm tired of waiting and so are you, so screw February! Enjoy! ~AF Forever Knight: The Sons of Lilith Episode 104: Legacies Cast: Geraint Wyn Davies as Nick Knight Natalie Disher as Natalie Lambert Nigel Bennett as LaCroix Deborah Duchêne as Janette Lisa Ryder as Tracy Vetter Kristian Ayre as Kai Thorn Tobey Maguire as Julian Claire Rankin as Miranda Thorn Guest Starring: Alan Cumming as Alain Barbour Rufus Sewell as Étienne Le Morte Illya Woloshyn as Daniel Haley Joel Osmett as Alexei Andrew Robinson as Partington Mackenzie Astin as Gulliver James Franco as Dennis Allerton Alec Newman as Sperling Author's Note: This was an extremely complex story for me to write, with the introduction of several new characters, not to mention the different storylines--which I really hope everyone can keep track of... I am utterly unsure about the reaction people will have to the situation that I've placed Janette in, but in my own defense, I thought long and hard about it and decided that it was a logical extension of the ruckus the PTBs at the series put her through in 'Human Factor' (which I've dated in a completely arbitrary way as taking place in March of 1996). The LaCroix/Miranda storyline exists mainly to give Miri a little more in the way of a backbone; the last thing I want is to make LaCroix's character any softer, so I hope I haven't. As for Nick... yes, I'm being cruel. Very cruel. But I don't think the word 'consequences' is in his vocabulary, and it's about time he learned it. Just a small note about the dream scenes. The dreams that involve the double brackets (aka the <<>>s) are scenes that, if they were filmed, would consist of someone tossing and turning in bed while voiceovers of things people have previously said explain what is going on in their heads. Dreams denoted with '+++' are total dream-sequences and should be treated as such, not as real memories. Apologies for all the technobabble. Very many sugar-coated-chocolate-covered-with-insides-of-peanuty-goodness-candy-thanks go out to the incredibly helpful, almost but not quite scientific book, "The Science of Vampires," by Katherine Ramsland, Ph.D. Praise, comments and kudos will be tucked safely away into LaCroix's Family box. All flames will be eaten by Anton the Highgate Vampire. This story will be posted at my site, along with all the others in the series, at http://www.geocities.com/runeshard/fkficindex.html Permission is given to archive at the FKFIC site, the FKFIC2 site, and the FTP site. All others must first bribe me with big red toy fire trucks, onyx and crystal chess pieces, and Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com ===== "And we shall exist by amusing ourselves, by dreaming of monstrous loves and fantastic universes, by complaining and quarreling with the pretenses of the world..." --"The Flash of Lightening" by Arthur Rimbaud __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (01/?) Date: Fri, 27 Dec 2002 13:32:38 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Legacies (1/?) Toronto: March 1997 The bookstore was dark and quiet, undisturbed but for the barely discernable sound of dust brushing across the floor. Silently, a spare, slender figure descended a concealed staircase, and moved through the stacks to the back of the store. He pulled aside a hinged bookcase to reveal a door. A thin hand took a key from an inner pocket and unlocked the door, stepped inside, and softly pulled the bookcase closed. Striding across the dark office, he pulled open a refrigerator. Light spilled briefly onto the floor for a few seconds, while the figure chose his breakfast. He selected a tall green bottle, and shut the fridge with a muffled slam! Biting into the cork, he spit it out, using the practiced technique he had learned from his father. It sailed through the air in a perfect arc and plopped awkwardly between the three artificial logs in the gas fireplace. Taking a swig from his bottle of 'Scotch,' Kai turned on his desk lamp, dispelling some of the darkness in his office. He sat down and spilled the contents of a large manila envelope out onto the polished wood surface. There were photographs, old letters, and legal-looking documents. Kai stared at the mess of paper for the seventeenth time. "Shit," he sighed, passing a hand over his face. "I must be working off a load of terrible karma from a hundred past lives to have deserved this." Kai had never meant to get into this business. He'd certainly never expected to. To be honest, no one else had, either. @}----- Brooklyn, New York City, 1930 "Kai! Kai Allerton, well, I'll be damned!" Kai stepped jauntily down the staircase into the cavernous library, his fedora in his hand. "Actually, it's Thorn now, Gulliver." Gulliver shrugged his nondescript shoulders. "Allerton, Thorn, what have you." He smiled. "Anyhow, it's good to see you again. How long has it been since you've been in Brooklyn, anyhow? Fifty years?" "Sixty." "Yes, that's right. I think I saw your master up on Broadway a few years back." "On stage?" "No, in the audience for Bela Lugosi in 'Dracula.'" "Ah, yes, yes. The Hungarian. I hear they're looking at him for the film version. Pity. Personally, I would have preferred Lon Chaney in the role, but--" Kai spread his hands. "That option, alas, is no more." "I know. The day after he died, I stepped on a spider and felt no remorse. It's been very depressing." Kai sighed. "But I'm afraid I'm not here to compare cinematic preferences, Gulliver. I need some information." "Of course, of course you are. That's what I live for, after all." He rubbed his hands together. "What'll it be?" "I need everything you've got on a vampire named Jakob Tomlinson. And that's Jakob with a K." Gulliver nodded, settling his wire-rimmed glasses more firmly on the bridges of his nose. "Tomlinson, Jakob." He dove into an indoor jungle composed of stacks of papers, books, folders and filing cabinets. "Have you any specific information in mind?" "Anything and everything. Particularly everything incriminating." "The plot thickens. What's he done?" "He owes money." "To you?" "To a client of mine." Gulliver straightened. "A client?" He chuckled. "Oh dear, oh dear. That is a hoot." "How do you live in Brooklyn for six years without picking up an accent?" Kai grumbled. "Shut your mouth, Gulliver, before I sic a sack of Lilliputians on you." "I'm sorry," Gulliver said, not in the least contrite. "I just never thought that out of all the trades in the world, that one would claim the interest of St. Kai. So... are they calling you the 'Black Falls Blackmailer' yet?" Kai rolled his grey eyes. "'Milverton,' actually." "You see? I told you all that Victorian nostalgia would bite you back eventually." With a strong jerk, Gulliver pulled out a hefty folder. He wended his way out of the jungle, placidly ignoring the loud crash! that his discovery had caused. "Thank you," said Kai gratefully, leafing through the pages. "Lovely. My client will be pleased." "You're a very hands-off blackmailer, I take it?" "I'm just paid to get the information. It's up to my clients to decide what to do with it." "Well, it's your business, I suppose." "What do I owe you?" "Never mind that. Kai." Kai looked up. Gulliver's bland brown eyes were concerned. "Be careful. do this because I'm curious. All this information is for my own intellectual pleasure. You're using it to ensure the downfall of others. That's your business. But be careful." @}----- He hadn't seen Gulliver since 1961. His old friend had simply... vanished. Because of Kai. "Guess I wasn't careful enough, old fellow," he said sadly. He thought he had left this wretched business behind when he left Black Falls. He had tried to, anyway. But this particular client would not take no for an answer, and if Kai wanted any peace, he was going to have to finish what he had started. "I swore I'd never go back except in an urn," he muttered petulantly. But there was nothing else he could do to resolve the situation. Kai stared at the bottle in his hand, no longer hungry. He walked into the immaculate, seldom-used bathroom and poured the blood down the toilet. *** "The past," purred the Nightcrawler, "is never dead. It is always following, creeping up behind you... It walks in your footsteps, hiding in your shadow... waiting... to strike." LaCroix looked up as someone walked into his sound booth. Miranda was eyeing the radio equipment with some trepidation and a little youthful patronizing. Her expression inspired a small grin to form on her husband's alabaster features. "But the past never intrudes with a vengeance," he continued, mouth close to the microphone but eyes on Miranda. "Or at least, very rarely. More often, it creeps insidiously into you everyday existence..." Miranda moved to stand behind LaCroix, the tips of her blond hair tickling the nape of his neck. "Patiently... slowly..." She put her hand on his shoulder. "Until the day when all your worst fears and most desperate dreams descend upon your unwitting head in one massive deluge, and drown you." He licked his lips. "Utterly." With the push of a button, LaCroix cut to music. He turned and brushed his lips against the slender hand resting on his right shoulder. "Don't me when I'm working," he admonished. "Is that what you call this?" He turned and met her humor-filled cobalt blue eyes. "Working? No way. You're having far too much fun." "'Fun?'" LaCroix repeated the word with dripping distaste. But through their bond, he was laughing. It was amazing how much this man could laugh, and a laughter totally devoid of malice or ulterior motives, if only the privacy of Miranda's mind. "I'm only having as much 'fun' twisting the minds of Toronto into knots, my dear, as you're having skulking about the club and bewildering every male under three hundred. You have as devastating an effect on men as my... as Janette does, did you know that?" Miranda nodded ruefully, removing her hand and bending down to rest her chin in its place. "I was aware of it. Could've had any man in Black Falls. Could've had all of them, if I'd wanted them." She paused. "This is the part where I'm supposed to say something horribly sappy about you being the only man for me." "Oh, well, don't say that. By any means." "Of course not. No point in swelling your ego any further." "As I said, you have a devastating effect on men." LaCroix slid his hand behind Miranda's neck and pulled her down for a long kiss. It hadn't taken Miranda long to decide that he didn't know how to kiss any other way, but she didn't mind. Finally, she had to break away. "Damnably annoying process, breathing," LaCroix smirked. "I assume you came in for something else?" he asked. "The song almost over." "Nothing earth-shattering. Just a phone call from Julian." *** End Part One April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com ===== "And we shall exist by amusing ourselves, by dreaming of monstrous loves and fantastic universes, by complaining and quarreling with the pretenses of the world..." --"The Flash of Lightening" by Arthur Rimbaud __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (02/?) Date: Fri, 27 Dec 2002 13:34:41 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Legacies (02/?) Tracy shoved another shirt into her miniscule suitcase. Kai was leaving for Black Falls in the morning and she had to be ready to go with on his trip. A 'business trip slash parent-child bonding long weekend,' he called it. Tracy tossed several items into her bag, tried zipping it shut... "Aw, come on!" She was so busy rearranging the contents and trying to make it all fit, that she didn't realize she had a visitor. "Child, I said pack for a day, not a decade." She jumped five feet across the bedroom. "Ack!" Kai leaned one shoulder on the doorframe, with his hands in his pockets. His calm grey eyes regarded her with amusement. "Dammit, don't that!" "Sorry. Family failing. But Black Falls does have shops. Whatever else you need, we can pick up when we get there." He walked over and glanced in her bag. "Tracy," Kai said quietly. "You don't need those." "What?" "The tampons." "Are you crazy? Of course I--oh...oh. Damn." Tracy felt like she actually managed a blush. She grabbed the handful of tampons and threw them in the garbage. "Two months, you'd think I'd remember by now." "Hmm." Reaching out, Kai cupped Tracy's face and stroked the line of her cheekbone with his thumb. She stiffened. "Perhaps this trip is more necessary than I thought." He let his hand fall away. "Tracy, are you all right? You're as jumpy as a roomful of scorched cats." "It's nothing." Tracy struggled with the zipper. "The nightmares still bothering you?" "Yeah." "Who was it this time?" "...my mother." "Hmm," he said again. Kai closed his eyes in seeming thought, but Tracy could feel the warm touch of her master's mind. She braced herself for his gentle and insistently probing questions. He had every right, she supposed, but right now there was nothing more that she dreaded than to have Kai inside her head. But he said nothing. He turned to go, hesitated, turned back and with one sharp tug, zipped the bag shut. "Have a good night" was all Kai said. *** "Hey Nick, Tracy," said the forensics guy absently, making notes on his clipboard. Nick nodded to him and knelt down besides the remains of what was once a grocery store attendant. The sheet covering the body had only a few clean spots remaining to prove that it had once been white. "Hell of a mess, ain't it?" "Yeah, sure is." Nick lifted the red sheet and grimaced. "Talk about overkill." Behind him, Tracy took one look and turned away quickly, covering her mouth. The forensics guy shrugged sympathetically. Nick dropped the sheet and stood to 'comfort' his partner. "I thought I told you to feed before coming to work," he whispered. "I did!" "This kind of sight is still hard even for me." "I don't mind it. But the smell..." Tracy shook her head sharply. "It's overwhelming." "Hey Knight!" someone called. "Dakins. What've you got?" "Hand gun. .45 caliber. Could be the murder weapon." Tracy reached for it, glad of something to take her mind off the blood. "There are a few other weapons scattered around. Looks like the perp might've cleared out his car before taking off." "Yeah, maybe." But Nick wasn't paying very much attention to Dakins. He was watching Tracy. She was turning the gun over in her gloved hands, looking at it from every angle as though probing it with her newly enhanced vision. Then she raised the barrel to her nose--and sniffed. Nick smothered a grin; Dakins just looked confused. "Detective Vetter?" he ventured. His answer was to get the gun tossed back at him. "Have that sent down to ballistics for analysis," she instructed. Purposefully, Tracy strode over to where the corpse was just being loaded onto a gurney for transport, lifted the sheet--and sniffed. By now, everyone at the crime scene was watching Tracy with a small measure of concern, wondering if perhaps they should dig out that old straitjacket that they kept in the glove compartment (just for emergencies...). Finally she straightened. "Okay. Take him out." She ignored the stares and sniggers. "Nick? Are we done here?" "Uh... sure," said Nick, bemused. "Later, Dakins." Dakins half-raised a hand, then gave up and just shrugged. Tracy got into the Caddy, closed the door, buckled her seatbelt, and sneezed violently. Nick chuckled. "Little gunpowder up your nose?" "Just a little." "What was that all about?" "Kai's been teaching me how to match and identify scents." "Really? I'm impressed. That's not something I'm very good at. So, what did your nose say?" "The .45 caliber Dakins handed me was the same one the pumped The Little Grocery Boy full of holes." Nick pursed his lips as he drove down the highway. He really was impressed... and a little envious. One of the smaller points on contention between himself and LaCroix was his inability to adequately track prey by following their scent trail. No matter how old he got or how hard he tried, it just was not a talent that Nick possessed. He shifted under his seatbelt and changed the subject. "So, when are you and Kai leaving?" "Saturday night." "And are you looking forward to this trip." His partner didn't answer right away. "Trace?" "I don't know. It was all right at first, but now being around Kai just... makes me nervous." Nick chuckled. "Well, Kai does tend to have that effect on people. Just give it time, Trace." Tracy nodded, unconvinced. *** Coming down the world turned over And angels fall without you there I go on as you get colder Are you someone's prayer? Amid the clapping and catcalls, Alain stepped down from the stage and sauntered over to the bar for his post-song drink. "The usual?" Janette asked. "Of course." "Honestly, Alain," complained the dark-haired hostess, selecting the bottle that was Alain's favorite. "I don't know how you drink this filth. It's almost as bad as when Nicolas was imbibing cow blood." "Janette!" Alain exclaimed, wounded. "I'm totally against the consumption of animal byproducts." He took a deep gulp of his disgusting cocktail while Janette looked ill. "So... what do you think of this fellow... Julian?" "I haven't met him. But LaCroix has. He has a high enough opinion of the young doctor." Alain did not look convinced. "I don't know about this. The last time I went to a doctor, I nearly ended up castrated." Janette rolled her eyes. "Alain, the last time you went to a doctor was in the fifteenth century. LaCroix say that Dr. Gorey seems very knowledgeable, takes admirable care of Nicolas's Kai, and that unlike Nicolas's Natalie, he has no pretensions of finding a 'cure' for vampirism." Janette noted with some pride that her voice was quite level. Abruptly, Alain reached out and grasped her hand briefly before returning to his drink. "How are you dealing with Nicolas's Natalie? Now that he's ready to be balled and chained?" Alain knew something of her stint as a mortal. he knew was the better question, because she certainly hadn't told him. And LaCroix would never tell Alain, of all people, something so private. However he had found out, Alain had proved to have an uncharacteristic sensitivity about the subject, and refrained from mentioning it. He was not, however, above bringing up other topics in conversation, and Janette took a long time before answering. <> "Natalie is what Nicolas wants. And... he is no longer what I need." *** End Part Two April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com ===== "And we shall exist by amusing ourselves, by dreaming of monstrous loves and fantastic universes, by complaining and quarreling with the pretenses of the world..." --"The Flash of Lightening" by Arthur Rimbaud __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (03/?) Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2002 04:37:57 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in first post. Oh, and the song lyrics in post #2 are from "Black Balloon," by the Goo Goo Dolls. Legacies (03/?) Friday Night Natalie tossed Nick an evidence bag as he came through the door. " is the bullet that killed him," she said without preamble. A bemused Nick passed the bag to his partner. Natalie walked around the table and gestured to a mini-mountain of evidence bags on the counter. "And are the rest of the bullets that I pulled out of him. This guy was like Swiss cheese." Tracy opened the bag and sniffed. "Ugh. Yep, same gun." "Sorry?" Tracy flushed slightly, embarrassed yet again. Nick grinned with some pride. Grandfatherly pride, Natalie reminded herself with mild shock. "Apparently, Tracy has a fantastic nose. She's smelling the gunpowder residue. Unfortunately, aromatic evidence isn't admissible in court. Has ballistics gone over it yet?" "Yep." Tracy brightened. "So we've got a match?" "Looks like it. "Great. Oh, do you guys have plans tonight?" "No, not... really." Natalie, not being a vampire, did blush, and furiously, when Nick scowled and sent her several vivid mental images of exactly what had planned on doing when their shifts were over. she jabbed. A muscle in Nick's right cheek twitched in protest, but he shut down. "Why?" "Julian." Natalie groaned. "Oh, that's right, he warned me about that before he took off." Nick proceeded to look very blank. "Julian's giving Kai a full medical exam before he leaves for New York, and he got the idea into his head to do comparative exams on everyone else in Kai's Family that happen to be in the immediate area. Which includes you and Tracy." "And Alain. And Janette, and LaCroix... What for?" asked Nick nervously. "For the hell of it. He's curious. And why not? I think it's a fabulous idea. Besides, vampire or no vampire, he's still a scientist. And so am I." Natalie slapped Nick's chest with a file. "You have your hungers, we have ours." *** "How did get roped into this?" Nick exclaimed, stepping off the elevator. LaCroix regarded his son balefully. "I volunteered, Nicholas. Anything for the advancement of science." "Your sarcasm is touching." Nick hung up his trench coat and jacket. Brushing a lock of black hair back from his forehead, Alain Barbour looked up from a magazine and grinned his vagabond's smile. "Volunteered nothing. He 'volunteered' for service as a doughboy eighty years ago, but Miranda made him come today. Three cheers for married life!" Before LaCroix could respond, Kai came out of the dressing room, buttoning up his shirt. "Well?" "He'll take his next 'patient' as soon as he's done with Tracy. And if it makes you all feel any better, he's put his own Family through this a dozen times." Alain grimaced. "And we all know how much Julian his own Family..." "What's your bill of health?" Nick asked hastily. "Good. Well," Kai amended, "as good as can be expected. A little better." He smiled wanly. "I haven't had a hemorrhage since January." "That's something, right?" "It's the calm," Kai shrugged. "The one that comes before the storm. It never lasts. But I certainly enjoy it while it does." Nick clamped down very firmly on the wave of pain that hit him. "Where's Tracy?" Kai jerked his head towards another door. "With Janette and Natalie. Tracy and I have to get going, so she's in the exam room with Julian right now. He's got a particular few tests that he wants to run, and he needs Natalie to get some samples from the ladies." "Why Natalie?" A strange cast came over the younger vampire's face. "Tell me, Nicholas, do you know the meaning of the word 'gynecology?'" "Of course I--oh." Nick pressed his lips together. Alain threw his arm around his brother's shoulders, delighting in his discomfort. "You see, Nicolas, when a man and a woman love each other very much--" "Get off!" "Oy!" Julian's voice came though the door. "If you two are through with the male bonding, who wants to go first?" Alain and Nick traded uneasy glances. *** The examinations lasted well into the morning, so LaCroix, Janette and Alain were forced to spend the day in the Corvina's dormitory. As the sun rose, Nick and Natalie relaxed in front of their fireplace. A mug of hot chocolate and a bottle of good bloodwine rested on the floor next to the couch. His arms were encircling her, her head was on his chest, they were basking in the simple joy of each other's company, and neither of them envied the other vampires their narrow cots. "That," Nick said at last, breaking the silence, "was grueling. Even you never put me through that kind of medical gauntlet." "Aw, come on. It wasn't that bad." "Nat, you weren't the one getting poked and sniffed and stared at." "Hmm. Well, the poking I can understand, and possibly the sniffing. Why was he staring at you?" "I asked him that myself. Apparently, he can use his heat-sense to get a visual on the inside of the body." Natalie sat up. "No kidding. He didn't do that with your leg, though." "Actually, he did. But he wanted to double-check and have a physical record, so he shoved me under the X-ray." Natalie's eyes were wide with fascination. "Okay, that's it," she decided. "Julian's being way too stingy with his information. I have to pick his brains." "What--I hope you don't mind me asking, but what did he have you do to Janette and Tracy?" "Female things." Natalie looked at her fiancé expectantly. "You really want the full details?" Nick grimaced. "That's okay." *** On Saturday night, Julian drove Kai and Tracy to the airport. They got their tickets and checked their bags, and then he waited with them by the gate. Kai was engrossed in another book by C.S. Lewis, so Julian had a few minutes to himself with Tracy. "Listen, be careful down there," he said seriously, taking her hand. "Black Falls is no place for anyone, even if you've been born there. Listen to Kai, do what he says and don't go without him." Julian took a card from his pocket. "If worse comes to worse and you two lose each other, go to this house." Tracy looked at the plain white card. Printed on it was an address, as well as the name "J. Benjamin Gorey." "That's my older brother Joshua," Julian explained. "If anything happens while you're there, go straight to him. He'll help you." "I'll do that," Tracy promised. "Thanks." Suddenly, Julian reached out and cupped her cheek in his gloved hand. "Be careful," he repeated in a hoarse whisper. Then he kissed her. Julian honestly meant it to be a touch of brotherly affection... but it escalated. At the first touch of his lips, Tracy froze. But something in the back of her mind reminded her that he would not hurt her. And that this wasn't totally unexpected. She was about to into the gentle kiss when he pulled back "Sorry," Julian said, flustered. "I--um--er--" He coughed. "Well, that was eloquent. Trace, I'm sorry." "Hey, it's okay." "You, um... didn't mind?" Tracy smiled weakly. "Julian... Okay, look. I'm new at this. This whole thing. It's still a lot to take in. You're a nice guy and I trust you, but... it's a little too soon for me." "Vachon." "Yeah." Julian nodded, and smiled resignedly. "Okay. Okay." He stood up, zipping his coat. "Have a good trip." *** End Part Three April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com ===== "And we shall exist by amusing ourselves, by dreaming of monstrous loves and fantastic universes, by complaining and quarreling with the pretenses of the world..." --"The Flash of Lightening" by Arthur Rimbaud __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (04/?) Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2002 04:40:12 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in first post. Legacies (04/?) Sunday Night On returning to the Raven at sunset, Janette and Alain secured permission to take the night off and disappeared into their separate quarters to get some real sleep. LaCroix snatched a bottle from the bar, nodded to Miklos to put it on his tab, and wended his way in back and up the stairs to his apartment, looking forward to the comforts of his own bed, promising himself to never again spend a day at the Corvina clinic. Halfway up the staircase, though, he stopped. Listening. Someone was in his home. Concentrating on what his ears could hear rather than what his mind was trying to tell him, LaCroix found that he could hear Miranda's heartbeat, loud and strongly confident. But he could also hear a voice, a deep, curiously compelling male voice. No steady heartbeats. No regular breathing. Miranda was alone with an unknown vampire. LaCroix was up the stairs with the door open in an instant. "Bon soir, mon frère," said the dark-haired intruder quietly, sipping from a wineglass as coolly as you please. "So good to see you again." For a moment, LaCroix's voice deserted him. He shook his head. he thought wryly. At last, he said, "Étienne, you take the most suicidal of chances." Étienne was, in fact, one of LaCroix's younger sons. But his upbringing had been overseen by LaCroix's sister, who had been thoroughly infatuated with the musician, and on top of that, Étienne could not bear to call anyone 'father.' But their bond was humming, powerful and imposing, and LaCroix kicked himself for not recognizing it. Étienne shrugged gracefully. "That's what you liked about me, remember?" "As I recall, I liked you for your music. Shosha was the one who enjoyed your more maniacal tendencies." "If you say so. Incidentally," he raised his glass, "my congratulations on your marriage. She's a fine choice." Miranda stood before LaCroix could retaliate. "Don't be angry," she said softly, taking his hands. "There's no reason for him to be. When have I ever hurt a woman? Besides, you and I are old friends, after all." "Étienne taught me to sing," Miranda continued. Resigned, LaCroix kissed her forehead. "I might have known. But he could have been anyone, and you're not that attuned to my fledglings yet. You still should not have let him in." Miranda rolled her eyes. "I didn't. He was here when I woke up. Him and the boys." LaCroix stiffened. "The 'boys?'" He looked at Étienne sharply. "You didn't." "I most certainly did." The General snarled and stalked into the kitchen. Miranda curled up like a cat in an arm chair and looked at Étienne doubtfully. "I warned you," she pointed out. "And I agreed with your assessment, petite ange. But it must be done." Coming back with a glass and a bottle, LaCroix seated himself across from his intruding son. "What do you mean by bringing them here?" he asked curtly. Étienne raised a finger to his lips. "Not so loud," he chided. "They're asleep in the guest room." His naturally yellow eyes hardened. "As for why we're here, I'll get straight to the point. Shosha and I have had Alexei for ninety-seven years. Daniel for fifty-two. We have children of our own, LaCroix, and your sons are not my responsibility." Étienne raised a long, expressive finger. "They are healthy, educated, and reasonably obedient, and I want them " The temperature in the living room physically dropped nearly ten degrees. "I never thought to hear you, of all people, say such a thing," said LaCroix, with great venom. "You, who know what it is like to be an abandoned child." Swiftly, Étienne was inches from his father-brother's nose. "It is precisely because I know what it is like that I am here!" he hissed. "I have spent the last two decades trying to convince those boys that you haven't forgotten them, that you are coming to get them soon. are their father, not I. They do not want to be with any more. They want to be with " His beautiful voice softened. "LaCroix, they haven't seen you for twenty years. For mercy's sake, at least spend some time with them." "Mercy," LaCroix sneered. "Yes, mercy," Étienne retorted. "I assume you remember the meaning of the word?" Narrowing his icy eyes at the Parisian, LaCroix stood. "Alexei! Daniel!" Through the guestroom door, Miranda heard the hurried scramblings of the two boys tumbling out of their blankets. The door opened slowly. "Father." "Father." One Russian, one British, both brothers. Blooded brothers, as the term went in Black Falls. Brothers of blood and fang. "My sons." The General held out his hand. Alexei, the brown-haired older boy, stepped forward and kissed the ancient ring with great affection. Daniel cast formality to the wind and threw his arms around his father. LaCroix tensed. "I've missed you," said the fifty-year-old child sincerely. Gently, LaCroix pushed him away. It was odd, he reflected, not to hear the Cockney tones in Daniel's voice anymore. "We've both missed you," added Alexei, the Russian accent only just lingering after nearly a century of speaking French. Stiffly, LaCroix nodded. *** At a fork in the road, Kai stopped the rental car. He leaned on the steering wheel and stared grimly at the odd tree growing out of the split between the two concrete paths. "Three-legged tree," he grunted sourly. "Christ, I do want to be here..." "Then why come back?" Tracy was getting a little tired of her master's constant griping. First the plane ride down to Albany, then at the hotel where they had spent the daylight hours of Sunday, and now the drive back up into the Adirondacks, which consisted of mainly circles as Kai tried to remember exactly how to get back into Black Falls-- "Trust me, child, you'd gripe too, if you knew what this place could be like." He sighed. "I've got one last nasty bit of business to take care of. So I might as well get it done." Putting the car in gear, Kai took the right fork, and drove deeper into the forest. *** LaCroix tried to fend off the spaniel's overtures. "He's quite the friendly little entree." Alexei looked mildly alarmed, and quickly held out his arms for his dog. "Good boy, Joy." The red and white Cavalier King Charles spaniel yapped in agreement and licked his master's face. "Odd name for a male dog," LaCroix commented. Étienne shrugged. "The entire time he's been with me, he's had a dog. They've always been male, always looked relatively similar looking, and always been named Joy." He raised his voice. "Alexei, mon enfant, you know Joy can't stay." The Russian boy's face fell. "I know." His voice was wistful. "You'll take care of him, won't you, Étienne?" "I promise, I won't let Sultana lay a paw on him." Étienne snapped his fingers. Joy leapt up and padded over to the tall vampire, and sat obediently at his feet. "Just call me the dog whisperer." He looked over at the corner where Miranda and Daniel were examining the few belongings he had brought. Lowering his voice so that only he and his father could hear, "Watch him, Lucien," he said. "I haven't said yet that I'll keep them." Étienne ignored him. "He's a good boy, but sometimes his teeth run ahead of his brain. Watch him. Especially with her." Something came into Étienne's permanently amber eyes. "So like mon ange," he whispered. He closed his eyes in pain, remembering. LaCroix was silent, remembering as well. "Watch him." End Part Four April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com ===== "And we shall exist by amusing ourselves, by dreaming of monstrous loves and fantastic universes, by complaining and quarreling with the pretenses of the world..." --"The Flash of Lightening" by Arthur Rimbaud __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (05/?) Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2002 07:47:56 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Legacies (05/?) Natalie peered down into the microscope. "What that?" she wondered aloud. "Hm?" "This sample of Alain's blood." "I haven't had a chance to look at his results yet. What's wrong?" "It's... tinted." "Tinted? Really. What color?" "Green." Julian leaned back in his desk chair. "Well, I suppose he does look a little bit like Mr. Spock... But green... Huh." He thought for a moment and shrugged. "I'll have to double-check, but my best guess is that he's been drinking absinthe. Blood mixed with whiskey and wormwood instead of the usual straight bloodwine. No wonder he's such a knucklehead." "Absinthe turns vampire blood green?" "Absinthe turns just about anything green." Julian picked up a chart and snorted. "You know, Nat, even for a 2,000-year-old vampire, LaCroix is disgustingly healthy. Although he and Nick have some really shaped hemoglobular scarring, not to mention the most screwed up antibodies I have ever seen. It almost looks like--" "HIV?" "Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly it. But all these antibodies are functioning perfectly." His puzzled frown vanished when Natalie explained about the Fever. "Oh, okay. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah. I'd heard some rumors about some kind of vampire plague, but honestly, I couldn't make heads or tails of them." He chuckled. "I can see why nobody would want to talk about it. Do you still have viable samples of the thing?" "A few." "You mind if I take a look at them?" "They're at the lab in the loft. Drop by some time." "I'll do that, thanks." Julian suddenly grinned. "Hey. Wanna see something cool?" Several charts were spread out on his desk. "DNA maps? Julian, you don't have the equipment here for all these tests," Natalie began. The conspiratory grin grew wider. "Don't ask, don't tell," he cautioned. "Now look." Natalie looked. "What am I looking for?" Julian pointed to a specific spot on LaCroix's chart, highlighted in green. "This marker right here. You'll never see this in a mortal. It's only found in vampires. It's what we call a sire mark. If you look at Nick's chart--" He pointed again. "--and Janette's, and Alain's, you'll find the same mark. Now, on Kai's chart, it's a little less prominent, and even less than that on Tracy's but it's still there. But Nick's sire mark, the one in blue, is very noticeable in Kai's profile, and Kai's--which is orange--is the same in Tracy." He glanced at her. "Catching on yet?" "It's a paternity test," Natalie realized. "A vampire paternity test." "Yes!" "That's incredible. Did you develop this?" "Mostly. I did have some help. The idea was my mother's." <> "Do these charts show the all vampire DNA or just the sire mark?" Julian picked up the maps with some haste. "Just the sire mark. Standard DNA tests on vampire blood only reveal that one marker. You need a very specific test to do a mock-up of all our unique features. And believe me, it's something to see." "You'll have to show me how." He shoved the DNA charts into a file cabinet and locked the drawer, and blatantly ignored the suggestion. "Hey, there is one other thing I wanna show you before we get going. You know what a human skull looks like, right?" "I should hope so." "Okay, okay. Just for argument's sake..." Julian took a cast-resin skull from a shelf. "Average, run-of-the-mill fake human skull. Pay close attention to the cheek areas and the nasal cavity. Now." He took down another skull encased in twelve-inch-thick plastic. " is a vampire skull." Natalie all but grabbed the specimen away from him. "Easy, tiger. A real one, not those saber-toothed things you find in Ren-Fest magazines." "How did you do this?" she asked, point blank. "What did you do to this to make it--" "Not crumble into ashes or vanish into thin air?" He leaned forward. "You know how shrunken heads are made?" "Vaguely." Julian shrugged. "It's relatively the same process." "Charming." "But look here." He pointed to the cheekbones of the vampire skull. "You see these cavities leading into the nasal passage?" "I've never seen this type of formation before. These develop after someone's been brought across?" "Exactly." Natalie turned the clunky rectangular block of plastic over in her hands. "And so these nasal cavities are what allow for the enhanced sense of smell." "You're a quick study. These are average sized passages. Nick's are quite a bit smaller than normal, which is why he can't smell much more than the strongest scents. Now nasal passages are perfectly enormous." "Which is why she could smell the gunpowder residue." "And identify the gun it came from, if necessary. Here." He took Natalie's hand and pressed her fingertips to his left cheek, just under the eye socket. "Don't press too hard," he warned. "Some of the soft tissue is easily damaged." Natalie probed the edges of the nasal cavity, fascinated. "Bats have extra folds of skin around their nostrils to enhance their sense of smell. But contrary to folk tales, we have nothing to do with bats." Julian tapped his throat, just under his Adam's apple. "Vampires trained specifically in tracking always keep their mouths open when trailing. Swallowing allows the scent to reach the Jacobsen's organ, which in turn provides mountains of information to the brain." Natalie poked at the small organ. "Oh, I'm going to have an interesting day in store for Nick." Julian snickered. "I'll bet. Listen, can you do me a big favor, and get another couple of samples from Janette?" "Oh, she is not going to like that," Natalie grimaced. "Well, if vampires could produce urine, I wouldn't have to do this type of test in the first place. As for Janette's discomfort, well, that's just one of the disadvantages of being brought across before the development of Pap smears." "Only a man could call not having to undergo a Pap smear a disadvantage. Why do you need more samples?" "The first set was contaminated. I'm not sure how, but they're just not adding up." "Are the others all right? Is Nick's?" "Picture perfect," he said, a little too quickly, "but Janette's have to be done over again." Julian looked at the clock. "Man, I hate Mondays. Come on, we're gonna be late for work." End Part Five April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com ===== "And we shall exist by amusing ourselves, by dreaming of monstrous loves and fantastic universes, by complaining and quarreling with the pretenses of the world..." --"The Flash of Lightening" by Arthur Rimbaud __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (06/?) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 05:33:58 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in first post. Just have patience, things are gonna start getting interesting soon... Legacies (06/?) Just after sundown, they finally parked the car with the tinted windows in front of a small, rustic-looking hotel called the West End. "Which," Kai commented, "is predictably located on the East End of town." He flexed his thin fingers, cramped from the long drive. "I told you we'd need all those maps to get up here." Tracy, putting away the small mountain of maps and charts, managed a half-hearted smile. They hadn't been out of the car more than three seconds before Tracy felt the crawl up and down the length of her spine. The tiny hairs on the back of her neck and hands were shivering, and she thought she could feel her body shrinking in on itself, trying to get as far away from the Black Falls air as possible. Kai touched his bond with Tracy sympathetically. "Now you see why I didn't want to come back? The very atmosphere entangles you, like a giant spider web." His breathe caught in his throat, and Kai had to close his eyes and compose himself. "Let's... let's get the bags." They checked in and got their room key, Tracy looking around curiously all the while. The lobby was empty, and the girl behind the front desk was surprisingly mortal, right down to the tired bubblegum on her breath. Tracy remembered what Kai had said about the town: "'It's a queer place. Suffers from the 'Superman Syndrome.' No matter what happens, no matter how weird the evidence, nobody notices anything out of the ordinary. It's one of those pits into which every atrocity perpetrated disappears without a trace. Drained bodies everywhere, but the mortals take no notice of us.'" "Does this town have enough tourists to justify supporting a hotel?" she asked in the privacy of the single elevator. Kai shrugged. "It's privately owned and operated. Besides. You call it a hotel. Everyone else calls it a restaurant." Tracy gulped. "I've stepped into a Stephan King novel," she muttered in horror. "It's Black Falls, not ''Salem's Lot,'" Kai shot back. They disembarked, and spent a few minutes searching the hallway for their suite. It wasn't bad, Tracy decided. Very nice common area, well-stocked bathroom and not gaudy at all. "And yes, surprisingly, this town gets a lot of lost tourists somehow stumbling through its borders, and they get put up here. In the morning," Kai continued, putting the contents of his suitcase into the bedroom's dresser, "they leave, and only a few dollars and a few pints poorer than when they came..." He trailed off, realizing what he was saying. "My God. I'm defending the ass-end of Hell." "Julian would be very disappointed." "Hungry?" "Starving." "Good." Kai shut the dresser drawer. "Because I'm feeling crossed tonight." "Why, what's the matter now?" Kai blinked. Then he chuckled. "Not cross, Tracy, 'crossed.' Means I'm in a LaCroix-ish mood." "Should I be scared?" "Probably." Kai put a hand on her shoulder. "I need you to take this seriously, Tracy. There are certain things that every vampire needs to learn, and this is the easiest place in the world to start teaching you." "Teaching me what?" In the dark bedroom, Kai's eyes glowed a brilliant amber. "How to hunt." *** Julian was oddly quiet that night at the morgue, almost... pensive, Natalie decided, as if he was steeling himself to do something that he really didn't want to do. For hours, he sliced, peeled and dissected, bagged, tagged and catalogued with barely two words for his co-workers. Grace, passing by him more than once, looked the American up and down, and finally passed judgment. "Who stuck a stick up his butt?" she muttered, shaking her head. Natalie walked behind him. "I'll get you those samples as soon as I can," she promised under her breath. Julian jerked, badly startled. "Huh? Oh," he shook his head fretfully, "I know you will. It's not that, it's... it's something else. Do you expect Nick in tonight?" Natalie blinked. "Not off-hand... why?" "I need to talk with him, is all." "Does this have something to do with his blood tests?" "Nope. No, not a thing. But..." Julian tapped his palms against the table and the report he had been working on. "This is all finished. I'm heading over to the precinct to drop it off," he decided, and was halfway out the door before Natalie's voice stopped him. "Julian? Tell Nick I love him." "Sure." *** Nick rubbed his much-abused eyes. He had been staring at the computer screen for God only knew how long, trying to find some reason for David Parks, the twenty-three-year-old grocery boy, to have been so brutally gunned down that he was only identifiable by his blood type, driver's license and the safety pins on his sneakers. A finger popped into Nick's field of vision and abruptly turned off his computer monitor. "Julian!" Nick said, surprised. "Can I talk to you?" the doctor said tersely. "Alone?" Captain Joe Reese looked out his office window just in time to see Dr. Gorey drag Detective Knight into the interrogation room. Twenty minutes later, Julian emerged in a huff and quickly left the office. And twenty minutes after that, Nick came out. Reese was stunned to see the change in Nick. He was paler than normal, wide-eyed, listless, and walked straight into the nearest desk as though blind. Reese got up from his chair. "Hey Nick," he said from the doorway. "You okay?" "Sure," Nick mouthed woodenly. "Fine." "You positive?" Nick blinked a few times, stared at the floor, nodded, and booked off for the night. *** Tuesday Tracy stepped out of the steaming shower. She scrubbed herself with the fluffy hotel towel vigorously enough to flay off two or three layers of skin. She pulled on her PJs, brushed and blow dried her hair, and tried not to think about Kai's 'hunting lesson.' When she went into the bedroom, which was in near total darkness thanks to the industrial-strength window shades the hotel provided as solar protection to its undead clientele, Kai was already there. Sitting in an armchair near the door, reading an eight month old magazine, his ash-blond hair smelled fresh and damp from the shower he had managed to scrounge from somewhere. Tracy thought he might be naked to the waist under his bathrobe, but she didn't want to look too closely. His eyes met hers and suddenly, she did not even want to be in the same room with him. Tracy turned to go and make up a bed on the couch, but Kai had already shut--and locked--the door. "Take the bed," he said quietly. "No, you need it. You're sick..." "The couch will do me nicely for a day or two. Go on. I'll stay until you're asleep." She made sure to turn her back to him as she settled in under the blankets, and wondered if there was someway to turn away from the bond with her 'father' as well. Tracy thought vaguely as she drifted off to sleep... End Part Six April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com ===== "And we shall exist by amusing ourselves, by dreaming of monstrous loves and fantastic universes, by complaining and quarreling with the pretenses of the world..." --"The Flash of Lightening" by Arthur Rimbaud __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (07/?) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 05:36:11 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in first post. Darn holiday season... Is anyone reading this? Very mild PG-13 rating. So mild, I don't think I need it. Legacies (07/?) +++ Kai threw back his head, baring his fangs in tribute to night in the mountains and late winter wind. "Taste it," he rumbled to his fledgling. "Smell it. Take it into yourself. The tang, the... seduction." He crouched down next to Tracy in the alley opposite the cafe. "Can you smell her?" he asked, his frozen breath teasing her neck hairs into alertness. "She is waiting for you." "I can hear her heart. Beating..." Tracy flared her nostrils and opened her mouth slightly, as Kai had taught her. A woman. One who smelled of ink, old leather and denim, pepperoni pizza and Sprite with extra lemons. And something more. Beneath the surface scents, Tracy could smell violets. And apple wood. New grass after the first warm rain of spring... "I know that scent," Kai whispered. "She is perfect for you." They ducked into the shadows just as the mortal woman came out of the brightly-lit restaurant. She was tall and plump, with a cheerful, freckled face and tight, rich brown curls that reached down past the middle of her back. She was perhaps nineteen. "Eden," Kai called softly, no louder than a whisper but his voice somehow carried to the other side of the street. The woman looked up at the sound of her name. Her eyes were satin brown and vibrant with life. Her eyebrows puckered in confusion. "Eden," he called again. Decisively, Eden shoved her hands into the pocket of her dark blue parka and crossed the street to the alley. Kai pulled Tracy even further back into the darkness. , he commanded silently. "Hello?" Eden took a cautious step into the alleyway. "Doug? Is that you?" With a roar, Tracy sprang from the shadows. One arm grabbed Eden round the torso and held her fast, while the other tangled itself into that glorious brown mane and pulled the young woman's head back, exposing it to Tracy's aching fangs. Willingly, she reared back and bit down, expecting but still totally unprepared for the rush of sensation and emotion that filled her mouth. she realized with horror. What finally made Tracy stop and whirl away, flooded with nearly uncontrollable nausea, was the realization that that last thought had been her own. Kai knelt down beside the discarded body. He dipped a finger in the red stuff trickling steadily from the two little round punctures and lifted the treat to his mouth. "Her name was Eden Ann Malloy," he said absently. "She had hopes of becoming a screenwriter." He closed his ice-grey eyes in appreciation. "Delightful. Just as you are, " He began laughing, terrible tearing laughs. When he opened his eyes, they were blood-red, reflecting the gore that covered Tracy from head to foot. +++ Tracy shot out of bed and made blindly for the door, dragging half her blankets with her. "I've got to take a shower," she gabbled. "Tracy--" "I'm covered in blood, I've got to take a shower--" "Tracy." The tone of command in Kai's voice was more than enough to wake her. Kai tossed aside his magazine. "Come here." Tracy didn't move. Kai's expression hardened slightly. "Come here," he repeated, softly but firmly. Hesitantly, Tracy stepped forward. Her master stood and held out his arms, and she reluctantly put herself in his embrace, leaning her head against his chest. "Ssh." His cool breath rustled the hair on the top of her head, followed by his lips. "You're shivering, Tracy. Come to bed." The shivering increased. "Kai, I..." "You what?" His arms tightened around her, not hurting her but effectively cutting off any escape. "Tracy, child, are you afraid of me?" he asked with disbelief and amusement. He was laughing, always slightly laughing at her, even as he gently stroked her back. "Tell me, Tracy," Kai said persuasively. "You're my master," she said softly. "I... guess I don't really have any recourse, do I?" Kai chuckled into her hair. "To answer your question, no, if I desired you in that fashion, you would have no choice but to submit. But I think you misunderstand me." Tracy looked up. "I'm not talking about sex." Kai's face grew concerned. "Child, stop avoiding me and come to bed. You'll sleep better once you do." Still a little nervous, Tracy replaced the blankets and slid back under the heavy covers. Kai shrugged off his robe and followed suit, settling against her back and wrapping his arms around her abdomen. "Another nightmare?" She nodded. "Tell me about it." Haltingly, Tracy did so, finally truly hesitating only at the end. The Kai in her dream had called her 'my child' with such lechery... A vampire and a mortal might have radically different body temperatures, but two vampires could keep each other very comfortable, so it was not Kai's cool skin that made Tracy uneasy. Kai growled in the back of his throat. "You know," he commented blandly, "if I had an ego, you would have bruised it very badly." Tracy smiled weakly. "Nothing personal. You're not bad-looking." "Thank you. Neither are you." Tracy tensed even more. Kai growled again, ducked and nipped her shoulder. "Eep!" "Tracy, relax and take the compliment for what it is. For God's sake, girl, I'm not going to rape you. I promise." Very deliberately, he pulled her closer against his chest. "If you're going to thrive in my world, you have to let go of your mortal limits." He stroked her stomach lightly with the tips of his fingers. "We are creatures of sensation, we need to touch and be touched, to be in contact--both mentally and physically--with others of our own kind. You cannot avoid us. You're too young to segregate yourself." He settled his chin into the juncture where her shoulder met her neck. " Go to sleep, ma femme. And no more nightmares." She managed to sleep a few dream-free hours in Kai's embrace. Tracy woke up around two in the afternoon and just lay in bed, thinking. "Talk," Kai grunted. "I have this bizarre need to apologize." "For what? Insulting my desirability?" "Something like that." "I'm difficult to insult. But there may come a time when you would welcome my company in that manner. It's very common for masters and their fledglings to strengthen their bond through intercourse." "What if--" "They're the same sex? Makes no difference. Most vampires don't have sexual orientation, just sexual preference." Tracy worried at an incisor with her tongue. "You and Nick have a really strong bond." "Yes." "So... you and Nick..." "Yes. In the early days, it was something I needed." "Did... did Nick and LaCroix...?" "I never asked. Very probably, yes, but I would think only once or twice. And I doubt it was for some centuries. Nicholas was a Frenchman who was brought across in the 13th century; homosexuality was a heinous crime in those days." Kai shrugged. "Well, in my days, too. But I'm an American; I can adapt to just about anything." "Don't take this the wrong way, but... did you... have you..." "Stop stuttering. Now, repeat after me: 'The rain in Spain grows mainly on the plain.'" "Have you and Julian ever had sex?" "No." Kai sat up, rubbing his neck. "Julian's not my fledgling, Tracy, he doesn't need that kind of attention from me. Besides, he's always seen me as a father. Never as a lover." He raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?" Tracy shrugged and blushed faintly. "He's got a crush on me." "Yes. Yes, he does. Does that bother you?" "No. I mean, Julian himself doesn't bother me. But before we left, he kissed me--" "I hadn't noticed," said Kai dryly. "And I'm not ready for anything like that, not yet." "I'll tell him to back off, if you like." Tracy smiled and shook her head. "That's okay. I told him. I'm... I'm a big girl." She yawned. "Who needs some more sleep." And this time, she snuggled gratefully against her master's chest, and welcomed the respite from the nightmares. Kai lay quite still for some hours, but he did not fall back to sleep. His mind was too awake now, too restless, too caught up in thoughts of his rapidly approaching meeting with the vampire Black Falls knew as Slade. End Part Seven April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com ===== "And we shall exist by amusing ourselves, by dreaming of monstrous loves and fantastic universes, by complaining and quarreling with the pretenses of the world..." --"The Flash of Lightening" by Arthur Rimbaud __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (08/?) Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 05:40:24 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in first post. Okay, that's it! No more posts until I get some responses! (Actually, I have no more to post--house is full of people, can't escape to write. Ack!) Legacies (08/?) Tuesday Night Nick stared at his computer, unseeing. He knew he had work to get done, but... He just couldn't concentrate on the case. After what Julian had told him, all Nick wanted was... was someone to talk to. Anyone. Tracy, Kai, LaCroix, Janette. Even Alain. Anyone but Natalie. <> <> <> <> <> <> Nick shook his head fiercely. "I can't think about that right now," he muttered. "I can't!" <> @}----- Baltimore: 1842 "What does it feel like?" Nicholas asked. "To know that you are dying?" "Like being ripped apart by four wild horses," rasped the young man in the pathetic bed. Kai scrubbed at his much-abused chest muscles and coughed painfully. When he opened his eyes and found that Nicholas's expression had not changed, he reconsidered his answer. "You wish for me to be serious?" "Please." Kai leaned back against his thin pillow, and Nicholas made a mental note to get him a better one. "What exactly do you want to know?" "What does it feel like to know that you will soon be free? That your... pain and suffering will be over?" "Fearful," Kai replied quietly. The pathetic candlelight threw struggling shadows on his grey, gaunt face. "It's a waste. Sheer waste. To lie here, knowing that, as you say, all my pain and suffering will end soon, but the suffering of others will go on and on... And there's nothing I can do to alleviate their hurting..." A racking cough cut Kai off in mid-sentence. Nicholas held his shoulder firmly. "And there's nothing I can do," he repeated. "Nothing to leave behind. No property, no family... No one but you to even remember that I existed. "It might be different for you. But for me? My death won't just be the death of flesh, Nicholas. It will be the death of everything." @}----- "How different would it be, Kai?" asked Nick softly, rubbing his forehead. The ringing of his desk phone jabbed into his angsting. "Knight. Myra!" Nick's mood was suddenly lightened. "Hello! How are you? And how's Jenny doing?" The chattering voice of his late partner Schanke's widow was not one that would normally lift one out of melancholy, but just then Nick would have turned an ear to Lucifer himself to take his mind off Julian's warning. "Yeah, Natalie's sister-in-law is coming this weekend to help make plans for the wedding. I'm--I'm--Myra, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. Yes. It's--Yes, it's in September. No, not yet. Of course you and Jenny are--Yes. This weekend. We'll--Nat and I will expect you. All right. G--Goodbye, Myra." Nick hung up the phone before Myra could say anything more, and smiled ruefully. "How did Schanke ever get a word in edgewise with that woman?" *** "I've got to be back to work tomorrow night," Tracy reminded Kai as they were shown into the office of Joshua Gorey, Black Falls' deputy mayor and Julian's older brother. She looked around quickly and decided it looked like a well-used lawyer's office from the U.S.'s Old West. "I know." "Now who's nervous?" "Kai Thorn," said Joshua, getting up from his desk. "Welcome back." And he shook Kai's hand warmly. "You have no idea how relieved Violet and I were when Jem told us that you'd gotten Miranda back safely. How is she?" Kai smiled lopsidedly. "Married." "No kidding! May I offer my congratulations?" "If you like." "Jem?" Tracy asked. Joshua chuckled. "My brother Julian. And you must be Tracy. He told about you, as well." He held out a broad hand. "A pleasure." Tracy shook his hand and tried her very, very best not to blush. Joshua Gorey was tall and darkly handsome and didn't resemble Julian in the slightest. In fact, he was the spitting image of Lawrence Olivier in 'Wuthering Heights.' "And now, down to business." Joshua's tone was apologetic. "I'm sorry to have to be involved in this transaction, Kai, but you know the law. You're no longer a resident, so I'm here as a witness." "Yes, Joshua, I know." Kai took a chair at the table on the far side of the office and began spreading out papers and photographs from the envelope he had brought. Engrossed as he was, Tracy edged over into a corner and stood behind him. "Just go bring in Slade so I can get this over with." Joshua nodded and left. "Kai?" Tracy ventured. "I can't wait to get back to Toronto," Kai muttered. "Mr. Thorn. Welcome back." Kai stiffened. Slowly he stood, and half-turned his sleekly groomed blond head to permit a view of the newcomer. "Andrew Slade. Don't welcome me back to this hellhole; it was you who asked me to come." Slade was a well-dressed vampire with bland good looks, of perhaps four hundred or so, more than two hundred years older than either Kai or Joshua, but it was clear to anyone who saw the three that Slade's age did not give him the upper hand. He was practically quaking as Kai's icy-grey gaze held him rooted to his spot on the worn wooden floor. "I don't want to waste anymore of my time here than I have to," Kai ground out finally. "Sit down." For three hours, Kai and Slade went over the information that Kai had gathered during his sojourn in Toronto, with Joshua listening closely all the while. It seemed to Tracy that they were discussing a vampire named Conroy, who had at some time 'dealt Slade a grievous insult.' But she couldn't be entirely certain. They talked in what sounded to her like a queer kind of doublespeak, a code formed from shared knowledge of people, places and sensitive information. At last, Kai leaned back in his chair. "That's everything. May it bring you no small misfortune." He moved to stand. "I'll send you my bill from Toronto." "Hold on, hold on, Mr. Thorn," Slade called as Kai was putting on his coat. "This isn't everything I asked for." "Well, it's everything I could find. Be a big man and deal." Slade pulled a piece of paper from an inner paper and threw it in Joshua's direction. "But it's not everything you were contracted to find! Mr. Gorey, read the contract!" Joshua read through the contract closely while Slade fidgeted and Kai fumed. "I'm sorry, Kai," Joshua sighed at last. "But you're legally bound to find out where Conroy ." "I beg your pardon?" Kai zipped up his jacket roughly. "Joshua, how the hell am I supposed to figure that out?" The deputy mayor of Black Falls shrugged. "You're the information broker, Milverton, not me. By starting from his last known location?" "But that was seventy years ago! And in London!" Confident that he had Joshua's backing, Slade stood. "Well then, Mr. Thorn, I guess you're just going to London." He put on his hat. "Good night, Mr. Thorn, Mr. Gorey. Miss," and Slade tipped his hat very politely to Tracy before sauntering out the door. Kai slumped back down into his chair, defeated and with the deflated air that always caused his master so much worry. Joshua touched his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Kai. But a contract is a contract, and you did sign it." He shut the door silently as he went out. "Damn," Kai whispered, his breath beginning to coarsen. Tracy knelt down and quickly searched through his pockets for a handkerchief. "Come on, Kai, it won't be so bad." "Yes, it will." He sighed heavily and pushed her hand away. "I'll go, since I'm contracted to go. But let me tell you, I'm not looking forward to this trip. Tracy, I England." "I thought you liked Dickens." "Dickens's England is dead." *** Thursday "Okay," Julian swore quietly to himself, "this time, this is going to work." Resolutely, he slid the little piece of glass under his microscope, looked into the eyepiece--and his hopeful expression fell faster than water over Niagara. "Aw, shit! Not again... Six times! How could I have possible screwed up an elementary test like this six times? In a row, no less!" He struck his forehead with a hard fist. "What could in the world could I--" Julian looked up, horrified. "Holy mother of..." He looked into the microscope again, mentally comparing the blood cells with those he had taken from other vampires in Black Falls. "It is. It is! Mother of..." Julian grabbed for his phone. *** End Part Eight April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (09/?) Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 06:01:06 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in first post. Last post for awhile, while I write more. You're all going to hate me for this cliffhanger... Legacies (09/?) Thursday Night For four days, Nick had gotten no sleep. Though Natalie was always spooned against his chest, his mind was restless, and his half-conscious dreams were severely disturbed... <> <> <> <> <> <> "Nick. Nick!" He bolted up out of bed and landed on the other side of his bedroom. "Natalie," he gasped. Nick gulped a few times and wiped the red sweat from his forehead. Natalie frowned. "Are you okay?" "Yeah." Nick nodded, straightening. "Yeah, I just... had some trouble sleeping. Again." Natalie wasn't convinced--the bright tendril wrapped around her spinal column was pulsing in a way she didn't like--but she let it go. She'd had some trouble sleeping as well, and it was probably Nick's fault. Again. There was a message on the machine when they got downstairs. "Nick, Nat, it's Julian. There's a problem. I need you guys at the clinic as soon as possible. Sooner." Nick was tense as he got dressed. Julian had only told him about his 'problem' three days ago. When they reached the clinic, however, Nick could breathe again, because Julian had something else on his mind. LaCroix and Janette were there again, as well as some unexpected guests. "Nikolai!" "Nicky!" A little blond blur and a taller brunette blur zipped through the air and barreled into Nick, crashing him to the floor. Natalie stifled a laugh. "Gonna introduce me, Nick?" "All right, up! Both of you! Up, up. Nat, these are..." Nick sighed and smiled ruefully. "Three of my brothers. Alexei." The Russian bowed politely. "Daniel." He ruffled the child's hair. "The infamous Daniel?" The fifty-year-old British boy grinned and nodded. "And Étienne Le Morte." Étienne glided over and kissed Natalie's hand. "A great honor, Mademoiselle Docteur. Nicolas speaks of you will his every breath, but even his description of you falls far short of truth." Nick coughed, slightly embarrassed. "Don Juan's in Hell, you know. And exactly what are you doing here?" "Relinquishing my babysitting duties," replied Étienne, not missing a beat. "The little gamins are staying with their father from now on." Nick looked from boy to boy and began to look mildly alarmed. "That still remains to be seen," LaCroix interrupted. "And now, Julian, if you don't mind, why are we here? Again? If you want to inflict your twentieth century torture chamber on the rest of my Family, then by all means, but--" "Why didn't anyone tell me about Janette's period of mortality?" asked Julian bluntly. The vampires looked at each other, some in puzzlement and others in shock. Daniel blinked. "I'm sorry, I think I missed that train. Come again?" "It's not something I like to discuss," Janette said with some difficulty, after a long moment. "Why do you need to know?" "Because it royally screwed up my test results. I've got a one-thousand-year-old vampire on my hands whose cells can't be any older than eighteen months. I thought my samples had been spoiled. And how long have you been having stomach pains?" he asked suddenly. Janette was stunned. "How did you--?" "How long, please, Mademoiselle DuCharme?" The formality put Janette on guard. "Since Nicolas brought me back across," she said icily. "And I don't see what--" "When was this?" "A year ago. Last March. Dr. Gorey--" "A year..." Julian murmured, oblivious. "A year!" He shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe it. I've never heard of such a thing!" "What?" Janette insisted. "Nicholas, you're her master now? Listen to her heartbeat. Do you hear anything odd?" Everyone waited in complete silence for about seven minutes before Janette's heart performed its once-every-ten-minute beat. "It's... " Nick proclaimed, amazed. "It's almost as though there were two heartbeats." "There are." Nine pairs of eyes turned to stare at Julian. "She's pregnant." End Part Nine April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com ===== "And we shall exist by amusing ourselves, by dreaming of monstrous loves and fantastic universes, by complaining and quarreling with the pretenses of the world..." --"The Flash of Lightening" by Arthur Rimbaud __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (10/?) Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 10:00:15 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU I'm back! Disclaimers in first post. Only two posts today; never again do I write a story without a plot... It's a rambling story, I know, but it'll get tighter soon! Legacies (10/?) Julian wasn't sure what kind of reaction he was expecting. Dead silence would probably fit the bill; then again, so would an uproarious outburst from everyone present. What he got was a lot of puzzled looks and condescending smiles. "Your tests must still be inaccurate," Natalie finally said. "I've got to do Nick's over seven, eight times, sometimes. Vampire fluids aren't that stable." Julian shook his head vehemently. "No offense, Nat, but I'm no amateur." "Well, you must have screwed up somewhere," Nick pointed out. His grin faded when he saw that not only was Julian not smiling, but that Janette's face had taken on a grayish tone. "No, Nicolas," she said hoarsely, pressing her hand to her stomach, "I don't think he is." Nick glanced at Natalie and moved to Janette's side. She grasped his hand tightly. "I think... he may be right." LaCroix stared at the doctor. "How?" Julian defiantly stared back; Kai might be able to pin him to the wall with a glance, but Julian wasn't taking any crap from some old Roman despot. His eyes flickered to the two boys, a gesture which said quite clearly: I don't care how old they are. "Etienne," LaCroix said finally. "Take Alexei and Daniel back to the Raven." Etienne, recognizing a dangerous situation, bowed submissively. "Come, boys." "Oh, and Etienne?" "General." "Tell Miranda not to go to sleep until I get back. As long as those two are in the city, I want her on her guard." He didn't miss the way Daniel scowled as he was led away. "How?" he repeated blandly. Julian's face was drawn into a confused frown. "Truthfully? I'm not sure. I don't even know how she became mortal in the first place." He looked around. "Anyone here care to explain that?" *** Janette lay on her back in the narrow hospital cot, with her eyes closed. The dormitory lights were dimmed and the windows were tightly shut, leaving her in a grayish electric twilight. Nick sat beside her in a folding chair, his hand gently covering hers. he wondered, half-expecting someone to answer. "It can never be the same," Janette murmured quietly, breaking in on his thoughts. "The way it was before... It was so dark, Nicolas. When we were brought across, all we knew was darkness and pain and despair. LaCroix was about to die, I was ready to die..." "And I was already dead." And he had been. The Crusader known as Nicolas de Brabant had been killed so many times in the Holy Land, killed by hunger, by thirst, by illness and injury. By enemies, by friends... By sheer disillusionment. <> <> And now, with Julian's warning hanging heavy in his mind, he might yet be dead again. "But now..." Janette opened her eyes and looked at her one-time lover. "Now that I am... pregnant--Ugh!" she exclaimed suddenly. "What a horrible word. Now I understand all those stupid little euphemisms that mortals used to use. Now that I am ... what now?" Nick worried at his lower lip, and rubbed her knuckles fretfully with the ball of his thumb. "What now, Nicolas?" Janette insisted. "What do I do?" Nick grasped her hand tightly, almost frenetically. "Be thankful," he whispered lowly, not trusting himself to speak any louder. "You have had a second chance at mortality, the love of a good man, and now you're going to have his child..." Nick stroked her hair. "Janette, I envy you so much!" She turned away from him. "Go away, Nicolas." "Janette... Janette, please--" "I lost Robert. You took my mortality. This child has been in me for over a year and has who knows what kind of chances for survival. So tell me, Nicolas: what exactly is there to envy?" End Part Ten April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com ===== "And we shall exist by amusing ourselves, by dreaming of monstrous loves and fantastic universes, by complaining and quarreling with the pretenses of the world..." --"The Flash of Lightening" by Arthur Rimbaud __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (11/?) Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 10:02:31 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in first post. And yes, I know no one really cares about Kai... but he's important to the story! Everything will make sense eventually, I promise! Legacies (11/?) London, England Kai thought. He leaned out the window of his hotel room and looked over the Knightsbridge district. Seventy years since he had set foot in Britain. He'd been away nearly twice as long as he had actually lived in the country. His parchment-covered hand dipped into his pocket and pulled out a small, cheap locket, so old that the fake gilding had been worn away years ago. Kai rubbed the tiny trinket in his long fingers. He had once tried to make a promise to himself, to never revisit a place once he left it. In some cases, the decision to leave and not return had been an easy one. Black Falls held nothing for him but painful memories and bad dreams. But London... living in London had been glorious and tragic, and so mind-bendingly happy that leaving had been like ripping out his spinal cord nerve by nerve. Kai sighed raggedly and turned away from the window. Far away in Toronto, something was wrong with Nicholas, he was certain. Possibly several things. But with the Atlantic Ocean between himself and his master, Kai had no idea just what the matter was. Even Kai's mental abilities were not that powerful. He wandered over to the mini-fridge and browsed through the alcohol. All expensive, all bloodless. He closed the fridge and leaned his forehead on the door. Baltimore and Paris, he had left with no regrets. Brooklyn, Russia, Edinburgh, Vienna... And if he could forget the way into Black Falls so easily, with a little more effort, maybe he could forget the town altogether. But London... Kai slid to the floor. He dropped his head into his hands and dug his thumbs into his temples, while the oval locket rested coldly against his eyelid. Seventy years since he had set foot on English soil. Seventy years since he had opened that locket. Every vampire had something, some possession that they hung onto over the years. Getting rid of the object never crossed one's mind, but one always avoided touching or thinking about it, as if ignoring the item could erase its significance. But that theory never worked in practice. One look, one touch, and all those locked-away memories came pouring back. Kai opened the locket. @}------ London: 1892 The thrill of the hunt, Kai reflected with no little annoyance, was generally more thrilling when one had something to hunt. He had been prowling the streets for hours now, with no success. No doubt the fault of the foul weather and the greasy yellow fog that this great cesspool of a city was so famous for. He thought briefly of abandoning Knightsbridge altogether and flying out to Whitechapel to track down a meal, but discarded that idea as a fruitless one. He preferred hard hunts and expensive tastes to the ease feeding off a doorway drunk. Besides, Nicholas had been in Whitechapel. No matter that it had been four years ago; Kai was not yet willing to face any part of the city his master had been in, or the minute chance that Nicholas might be looking for him. Kai growled in the pit of his chest and licked his canines. If he had still been able to produce saliva, his mouth would have been watering copiously just now. He had not eaten in at least three weeks, and he was "Perhaps the time has come to be a little less judgmental," he reasoned. It was not that he had not any prospective meals. He had seen several. It was simply that no one was striking his particular fancy--none of the mortal scents he had picked up on made the back of his throat tingle with that spicy, prickling sensation that he had been craving of late. But three weeks was a long time to go without eating, even for him. So Kai buttoned up his coat, dropped down to the street, and decided to take one more turn around the wealthy district before packing off to the slums. Knightsbridge was part of his normal hunting ground, so the bobby pounding his beat was easy enough to avoid. He walked with slow, steady purpose, using the vampire's heat-based night vision to maneuver his way through the fog. By now, as late as it was, all the respectable folk of this district were snug in their homes, and the few prospective suppers he had seen from his rooftop perch had long since vanished. Kai's ash-blond head was beginning to droop... when his sharp ears caught the soft sound of a sleeping heart. He was just passing by a small private park, so he hopped over the twelve-foot fence into a bed of roses, tilting his head this way and that, looking for the heart beat and the mortal that went with it. Huddled next to a bush in the impeccably well-manicured park, was a woman, shivering in her sleep. Kai said gleefully to himself, She was small and short, perhaps his own height had she been standing, clothed in decent, fairly fashionable garments and with long brown hair spilling out of a once-tidy bun. Kai knelt beside her and pulled the woman's head into his lap. She did not stir. He whistled softly; the poor girl was very exhausted. He wondered briefly why a well-dressed girl such as she was sleeping under a hedge but he shrugged it off. "It's none of my business." He brushed strands of hair from her white throat with his slender fingers. "Weary, no more," he whispered, his eyes hot and yellow, his fangs aching. "Rest, eternal." He threw back his head, more than ready to finally enjoy his meal-- When he heard the second heartbeat. Kai choked and nearly dropped his prey. That sound had dampened his ardor faster than a cold shower-bath, and now he was stymied. "Damn," he muttered. "There goes breakfast." The woman was pregnant, and Kai didn't need his master's overly heavy morals to tell him that if he took this woman as he had first intended, he would have the infant's blood on his hands as well. Besides, it was not the normal way of vampires to make a habit of killing unborn babies. In fact, it was against the Code, based on the very pragmatic way of thinking that, if vampires were allowed to commit rampant infanticide, eventually they would have no food left. Kai cradled the woman's head on his thighs, pondering what to do. He could just leave her here, he supposed. But it was very cold, and she would likely perish from exposure before dawn. He could flag down that bobby and have her taken to come charitable institution... but she was doubtless unmarried, and the chances of her having her fatherless child taken away was great. Which meant he was left with only one option. Kai stripped off his coat, wrapped the woman in it, scooped her up in his arms and flew off into the night. He took her to his rooms in the Marylebone Road, flying in through an open upper window to avoid the landlady. He would deal with her in the morning. Kai set water to boil over his fire. Through it all, the nameless woman remained asleep. So she would stay that way, Kai applied a very subtle mental suggestion, whispering softly into her ear as he stripped off her muddy, frozen clothes and began to sponge-bathe her. He did not want her waking up in the middle of his ministrations; that would be very awkward. When she was clean, he put her in his bed. She was really quite lovely, with delicate, fine-boned features. Her hair, now that it was clean, was a most beautiful shade of mahogany. Kai submerged his hunger--both for blood and otherwise--and returned to his earlier wonder. She was well-fed, healthy and strong, well-dressed and, if the state of her fingers was anything to go on, not unaccustomed to holding a pen. Well-educated, fairly well-clad. Most likely a servant in a fine house. A governess or a ladies' maid. So the question remained: what had she been doing sleeping in a park? @}----- Kai cut his flashback short with such force that the locket when flying into a corner. Shaking, he crawled into bed, and left it. End Part Eleven April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (12/?) Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2003 19:07:00 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in fisrt post. Once more unto the breach... Legacies (12/?) Friday Night "Pregnant?" Tracy repeated incredulously. Nick nodded. Nervously, he flexed his hands on the steering wheel. He was glad to have Tracy back, although he would have preferred less complicated circumstances. Funny how he had gotten so used to riding with someone; four years ago, he might literally have killed to be working alone again. "Nick, I know I'm a very young vampire, so stop me if I'm wrong about this, but: Huh?!?" "That was pretty much everyone else's reaction." "But how? Who?" "Remember last year, we worked that Larouche case? Mario Larouche?" "The Montreal arson investigator who got shot in a seedy motel." "Right." Tracy held up her hand. "Okay, hold it. Before you say anything else... you lied to me on that case, didn't you." Nick held his tongue. "Come on, Knight, we're related now, so 'fess up. Janette DuCharme and Janette DeBrabant are the same person, aren't they?" "Yes." Tracy smiled, a bit smugly. "If you'd figured it out already, why lord it over me?" "Because eating crow is good for the soul. And--oh, what was his name?" "Robert McDonough." "Right. He's the father?" "Yes." "Huh. So she really your sister." Nick sighed. "She was my sister. Now she's my daughter." He glanced over at his partner, who was looking masterfully confused. "I'll explain some other time, Trace. Right now... She's been my sister, my daughter, my lover... my informant, my confidante... my friend. God only knows exactly how this happened, but... I mean, I've heard legends about vampires children, but never to one. I'm worried about her." Tracy didn't say anything. She had met Janette all of once, so she didn't really feel qualified to agree or disagree with Nick's analysis of their relationship. She had to say something but all she could come up with was "Anything else?" A beat. "Nick?" < material. We find a way. I promise...>> <> <> "Everything I ask for, everything I dream of, goes to someone who doesn't want it. Why does the universe hate me?" Nick asked quietly. He didn't wait for an answer, reached for the button to turn on the Nightcrawler, but instead grabbed his police radio as it began beeping wildly. "81 Kilo, 81 Kilo, please respond." "This is 81 Kilo, go ahead." "Homicide at Nester's Convenience." Tracy and Nick shared a startled glance. "That's right next to the grocery store." Nick nodded. "We're on our way." *** "I think this may be the first case in history of a strip-mall serial killer," Julian said, examining the mangled pulp that had once been Thomas Donaldson, Nester's manager. "No robbery, same area, total overkill and--I'll bet--the same damn gun. Detective Vetter?" Julian wafted a bit of scent in her direction. Tracy grimaced. "Probably." Tracy turned away as one of the uniforms got her attention. Julian pulled Nick to one side. "You stick to the proper dosage today?" "I didn't drink any today." Julian growled and peeled off his surgical gloves. "Bag him and take him away!" he shouted over his shoulder. "As for you, I never said anything about going cold turkey." "Frankly, Julian, you scared me." "Well, now I'm un-scaring you." "I didn't need any; I didn't go out in today." He looked around furtively. "How's Janette?" he whispered. "Shaken, but in good health." "You never explained how this could happen." "I assume you know the story of the birds and the bees? Nick, look. I need a little more time before I can give you any definitive answers. She's stable for now. Something will have to be done about her condition soon, but I have to make some calls, call in some favors..." Julian eyed the blond detective suspiciously. "And aren't you showing a bit too much interest in this?" "Janette is my-- She's Family." "Yeah, she told me that story." "I have a right to be concerned!" Nick insisted. Julian just looked at him. "Nick, I appreciate the fact that you are worried about her. But jealousy is a fickle thing--" "I'm not jealous--" "And you have a fiancée who you may be guilty of neglecting." Nick suddenly found the ground very interesting. "I thought so. You didn't even ask where she was. You've both tight as wax lately. And you, sir, have been out of sync ever since Miri and LaCroix tied the knot behind your back. Nick, I am most likely going to need Natalie's help if we're going to bring your... 'relation' out of this situation intact, so please, be nice to her. She can't work with Janette if they're both going to be at each other's throats, okay?" "Okay," said Nick meekly, knowing that Julian was right. "Good." His hard brown eyes suddenly glinted with mischief. "And now, I suggest you hurry home and change." "Change?" Nick repeated. "Your clothes. You've got a reservation for dinner at the Azure--all paid in advance, I hasten to add--in twenty minutes, and I know of one lady coroner who is going to be most disappointed if her favorite homicide detective stands her up." "You sly son of a..." "Don't thank me, thank your partner, I just paid for it. Get moving!" He chuckled and shook his head as Nick took off, the wheels of the Caddy squealing in protest. Tracy joined him, grinning. "You're driving me home, I take it?" End Part Twelve April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (13/?) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2003 04:18:07 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in first post. And for those who've asked... I'm writing as fast as I can!!! Legacies (13/?) In the end, Étienne had simply refused to argue with LaCroix. In his mind--as always--he was right. End of story. He had returned to France the night before, leaving Alexei and Daniel with their rightful master. "What are you going to do with them?" Miranda asked. She purposely sat on the opposite side of the couch from her husband, who was as rigid and still as a stature, his elegant fingers in a pyramid before his lips. LaCroix didn't answer. In the firelight, his ice-white alabaster features glowed orange and yellow, but he was still cold, somehow. Miranda was coming to recognize these moods, and learning when to keep her distance. "I know you don't have much... affection for them. But they are yours, Lucien. Now that Étienne has left them in your care..." "You do not have to lecture me on my parental responsibilities, Miranda," said LaCroix shortly, eyes closed. "I know them." Miranda ignored him and pressed on. "I was going to say, you have a responsibility to this to keep the boys in line. You have two immortal children on your hands that are never going to pass puberty. And children who don't age are far more noticeable than adults in the same situation. You can't keep the boys locked up here forever." LaCroix folded his hands in his lap. "Lucien." He sighed. "No, I suppose not. They would wreak havoc on the furniture." "They want nothing more than to please you. Which is more than anyone can say for Nicolas." Miranda inched closer. "He's not going anywhere, Lucien. I think you can afford to stop paying so much attention to him and start worrying about your other sons." "Worry? Worry does not even begin to fathom what I am feeling, ma fleur. "Nearly everyone who comes into contact with them makes the mistake of thinking that Alexei and Daniel are exactly what they appear to be. Little boys. Innocent. Harmless. Innocent they may be, in some ways. Age has nothing to do with how old one may happen to be. But harmless? My laughter threatens to strangle me. They are dangerous. Dangerous to others. And to themselves..." LaCroix opened one eye at last and held out an arm. Gratefully, Miranda snuggled against him. "I never wanted Alexei," he murmured into her hair. "He was quite literally left on my hands. That fool Rasputin couldn't do anything properly." Miranda stiffened. "Oh yes, he is Alexei. Alexei Nikolavitch Romanov, the last of the Romanov dynasty and heir to the throne of Russia. Well, the former throne, anyway. But once he recovered, he turned out to be surprisingly little trouble. His only real fault is that he underestimates his own strength. Daniel, on the other hand..." LaCroix paused gravely. "Daniel was one of those rare mortals about whom I should have taken Nicholas's advice." "To not bring him across?" "That, and Nicholas and I had an agreement, some years ago... In return for not killing Daniel, I was to give him to Nicholas to raise." "Why didn't you?" "I'm not entirely sure. Certainly not out of affection. Arrogance, I suspect. I didn't want to consider the idea that Nicholas might be able to do a better job of it than I." "Arrogance seems to be a common failing among vampires." "I was correct, of course. Nicholas could not raise a successful fledgling if his very life depended on it." Miranda smacked his arm lightly. "What? Kai survived in spite of his master." "If you say so. Why did Nicolas want you to give Daniel to him?" Warning bells went off in LaCroix's head, and he quickly snuffed out any light his mental bond might be throwing on forbidden subject. "Just an old wager," he temporized. Miranda was not fooled, as he knew she would not be, but they respected each other's privacy. It was a curious thing, for LaCroix to be so thoroughly infatuated and dependant on this mere chit of a girl he had only known for three months. But she had intelligence and hard-headed common sense as well as beauty, and Fleur's dreaming soul... and something else. "'Why did you marry her?'" Etienne had asked him. "'I see much in her that is worth holding on to. Any mortal man might kill to have such a woman at his side. But why you?'" To that, LaCroix had answered, simply "'Who else?'" "I suppose this means I shall have to have bunk beds or something installed in the guestroom," he said finally. "And contact Larry Merlin to have the necessary papers drawn up." He chuckled shortly. "The Nightcrawler, married and a father. What will my listeners think?" "Remarried and a father," Miranda corrected. "Have this Merlin make up something about your late wife or your ex-wife or something." "Why bother? This city already thinks the worst of me. Let them notice that Alexei and Daniel look nothing alike." Miranda pondered that. "Maybe, but... What about Nicolas?" "What of him?" "He is also your son. And... he may want you to stand as his father at his wedding." "After the way you and I acted, I may not even be on the invited list." "You will be." LaCroix closed his eyes again. "I'll consider it." End Part Thirteen April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (14/?) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2003 04:19:31 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in first post. The 300-line-limit is not my friend... Legacies (14/?) Groomed and neat and impeccably clad, Nick allowed the Azure's to show him to the table that Julian had reserved. It was in the far corner, half-shrouded by draped curtains, on a unique raised platform that seemed to be part of the renovations that the restaurant had recently completed. Flickering from behind the half-hidden table revealed the presence of candles. Best of all, Nick could smell a delicious aroma, a strange, unique perfume of spiced wine and rich chocolate. It was a scent that Nick knew intimately, and he smiled to see the woman already seated there behind the discreet curtains. "Natalie," he said warmly, grasping the hands she held out to him. Their lips met in a long, cherishing kiss, during which the decided that discretion was the better part of valor and slipped away. When Natalie finally had to pull away to take a breath, Nick drank in the sight of her. Her chestnut hair was loose in waves of curls about her face, and she was wearing the luscious paisley shawl that he had given her for Christmas. "You look..." He couldn't find the words, so he just smiled in defeat and brushed her face with his fingers. Natalie's blue eyes sparkled impishly. "Good enough to eat?" she offered. Nick grinned. "And better." He pulled Natalie's chair out for her and sat down. A waiter materialized from somewhere and poured Nick a glass of water and gave him a menu. "I've got to admit," Natalie confessed, "you have no idea how surprised I was when I found those flowers on my desk. Or how nervous." Nick had no idea what she was talking about. "Oh?" he said, taking a sip from his water glass. He had fortified himself for the encounter with a pint of holy water, so he would have no trouble eating or drinking. Actually, if he was going to be completely honest with himself, he had had pints. Unfortunately, the first pint had ended up in the toilet. "Why?" "Why? Nick. The last time I got a bouquet of flowers with an anonymous note inviting me to dinner at the Azure--" "Okay, I get the idea." That was Julian's fault, but how could he have known? "Well, that certainly wasn't my intention. I'm glad you decided to come." Natalie bit her lip lightly. "Frankly, Nick, I had to." She picked up her fork and prodded the bread roll on her plate. "Nick," she said suddenly, "you're hiding something from me, aren't you?" Boxed into a proverbial corner, Nick could only clench his teeth and nod. It had been so long since he had had to contend with the intimacy of a blood bond... He had known she would pick up on his evasiveness sooner or later, but he had underestimated her tenacity. "Does it have to do with the wedding?" Nick's head shot up, appalled. "No!" "Does it have to do with Janette?" "No." "Will you tell me about it?" Nick opened his mouth, but nothing came out. "Natalie, this is incredibly painful for me, but I swear, it has nothing to do with you. I promise, when I figure out how, I will tell you. But not yet." Natalie regarded him with her great, bright blue eyes. "All right." She held out her hand. Nick grasped it like a lifeline. "I'm here, Nick. If you need me." <> <> "Thank you, Natalie." Dinner was a quiet affair. The only excitement came in the form of a portentous green bottle. "It was sent here this morning," explained the waiter. "Compliments of the doctor." "The doctor?" "Julian," Nick explained, stopping the waiter from opening the bottle. "Thanks," and he handed the man a bill to make him go away. "I think he and Tracy are playing matchmaker. I made the mistake of telling them about this yesterday," he lied. Nick glanced at the label on the bottle. "'Winterborn Winery,'" he read, impressed. "Julian's got good taste. And a deep wallet. 'Shades of Tuscany.' Whew. Expensive stuff." He sat the bottle of bloodwine down, looked around and whispered, "I'm taking home." They had come in their separate cars, so Nick and Natalie walked out to the parking lot, arm in arm. They dawdled a bit, making small talk, enjoying the quiet joy of each other's company and the spark of fire that was kindled by their closeness. They reached Natalie's car, but before she could pull out her keys, Nick kissed her hand and pressed it to his cheek. "I've... been a little preoccupied lately," he confessed after a moment. "I can't imagine why," Natalie said dryly. "I've been neglecting you, Nat, and I'm sorry. But I'm just so... overwhelmed. I'm worried about Janette, and I'm jealous and I'm... afraid. And I can't help her. We don't know anything about how this happened or what’s going to happen to her... and I feel so helpless. "Ever since Kai came back, I've felt so strong. And then you and I... And for the first time, my life felt right. Like I could take on the world and win and come out fighting. Now? I just feel like some helpless bystander at a car wreck. Sickened and fascinated... I can't do anything to help. But I can't turn away." Overcome, Nick hugged his fiancée tightly, burying his nose in her hair. Natalie let him hold her. Then she pulled away. "I'll see you at home," she promised. Then she made her way to her own car, leaving Nick to the Caddy and his own bleak thoughts. End Part Fourteen April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (15/?) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2003 04:21:40 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in first post. Sorry about the cliffhanger ending. Oh, wait... no I'm not. ;-) Legacies (15/?) Uneasily, Alain stood outside an unmarked doorway in the Raven's basement. "Janette?" he called. "Cherie, I know you're in there." A peevish French-speaking voice answered him. "" "" "" "" Alain rocked on the balls of his feet. "One, two..." The door was wrenched open before he got to five. "" she hissed, blue eyes blazing. "Come in, damn you." Alain followed her into her apartment. "I thought you'd still be at the clinic." "Oh, Julian wanted me to stay for some 'observation.' But he had to go to , so..." "So you slipped out." Alain smirked. "Sneaky. I salute you." Janette ignored him. "I've got nothing for you to drink. I've drunk it all." "You shouldn't do that," he replied, concerned, and seated himself with lanky ease on her couch. "Don't preach to me about drinking. At least my blood isn't turning into guacamole. And take your shoes off my furniture." "I'm serious. Alcohol is poison to growing fetuses." "Ah, but it isn't growing." Janette curled herself tightly into an overstuffed armchair. "According to Julian, it's completely dormant. And it's been that way for a year." She threw up her hands, exasperated. "I have a stone in my stomach and no way to get it out!" "A way will be found." "Merde, Alain. You're such an optimist. Just like Nicolas. As long as you 'believe' that it will happen, eventually all will be right with the world. What's wrong with you males?!" Alain's almond-shaped eyes regarded her balefully. "I know what's going on. This is a mood swing, isn't it?" "I am *not* having a mood swing!" Janette shrieked, lobbing a pillow at him. Alain jumped up, grabbed Janette, and pressed her head to his shoulder. She began sobbing. Alain held his sister close, rocking slightly, softly singing an old French lullaby as Janette's thick tears soaked through his t-shirt. "" she choked out, sniffling. "" Alain dabbed at her eyes with a disreputable-looking bandana. "" He tilted her head up to look her in the eye. "But don't think this means I'm going to stop picking up men at the bar." *** Saturday Night Julian flipped up a paper on his clipboard, scanning over his notes one more time. Scattered around his office were four vampires and one mortal woman. "Well?" asked Janette, fed up with the doctor's stalling. He tossed the clipboard aside. "Okay," he said, turning around his desk chair. He straddled it, leaned his chin on the back, and looked Janette directly in the eye as he spoke clearly, coldly, and to the point. "Here is your situation: "The fetus is about four months along in its development, which as I understand it, was when you were brought back across. Now, as I told you, it is alive but it's dormant. As far as I can determine, something about the manner in which you were brought across--perhaps even because it was the second time--it jerked the fetus into a kind of suspended animation. It's synchronized with your bodily cycles. But only up to a point. The stomach pains you've been having are your body trying to rid itself of what it's come to perceive as a foreign mass. One way or another, it's got to come out." He paused to allow them to digest this information, and observed his audience. Nick and Natalie exchanged a deep glance, and Nick put his hand on Janette's shoulder. LaCroix, statue-like, gazed fiercely at nothing in particular. Julian thought. Alain, leaning against a wall, grunted. "So, what're her options? Are you suggesting surgery?" Julian shrugged. "Surgery is definitely an option, yes, and probably the one with the least risk to Janette, although removing a fetus at this stage of development will doubtless kill it." "Well, what other options are there?" Natalie pointed out. "I mean, Julian, what is there that can be done to save this baby? Nothing." The red-headed vampire rolled his eyes heavenward, as if asking for strength. "The only thing that can be done to recover the fetus is for Janette to carry it to term and give birth." Janette had had enough. "And precisely how am I supposed to do Dr. Gorey? You said yourself, the child stopped growing the moment Nicolas made me a vampire." "That is so." Julian sat up. "Therefore, the only thing to do is to make Janette mortal again." End Part Fifteen April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com ===== "And we shall exist by amusing ourselves, by dreaming of monstrous loves and fantastic universes, by complaining and quarreling with the pretenses of the world..." --"The Flash of Lightening" by Arthur Rimbaud __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (16/?) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 18:47:07 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in first post. Okay, I think I'm picking up speed... Lagacies (16/?) Once again, he got those contemptuous stares. "And if we could do that," said Natalie, deadpan, "it would be a wonderful thing." "Goddammit, you think I'm joking?" Julian cried angrily. "I wish I was! Nat, vampire bodies can take a lot of punishment, but they're not built to withstand the kind of strain that the fetus is putting on Janette's system. If we don't do something about this child quickly, she may die!" "But we can't her mortal!" Julian stood up, his spine very straight. "I can," he said softly. Janette started, and then winced when Nick's hand tightened spasmodically on her shoulder. "You're... not joking," Nick managed, his voice strangled. "Are you." "No." "Why didn't you tell ?" "Because I've tested it! The treatment is unpredictable. And it's only temporary; it'll last eight months, at most." Julian turned to Janette. "If you want to chance it, I'll give it to you." "Oh, but you can't give it to me? You couldn't even tell me about it?!" "Even if I thought you could handle it, you're in no condition to attempt to cross back," Julian shot. "And you know it." "What exactly does this treatment entail?" LaCroix cut in smoothly, shooting a warning glance, not at Nick, but at Natalie. She put her hand on her fiancé's arm. "Nick." Nick was still furious, but he held his tongue. "It is a series of chemical injections," Julian explained. "They act as jump-starters for the body's systems. Endocrine, circulatory, digestive, respiratory, reproductive... all of them. There is a risk involved, to Janette, not to the fetus. The six injections are administered over a period of six hours. Once they're done, they're done. They only last about eight months and I haven't been able to develop a booster shot. The greatest danger... "The greatest danger comes once the chemicals wear off. Vampires who have undergone this procedure experience a reversion, a regression of sorts. It is extremely violent. The vampire becomes mindless, predatory. They will literally shred the first person they can get their hands on. It's... it's not a pretty sight..." Julian swallowed, trying desperately not to remember. <> "But if you decide to do this, Janette, you don't have to go that far. The child only needs perhaps five more months. Once it's born, I can flush most of the drugs from your system. Then Nick or LaCroix or whomever you choose can bring you back across. But only if you want to. I can't make you mortal permanently. If you'd rather not go through this..." Julian spread his hands out. "Surgery is an open option." His tone was compassionate but eminently serious. "It's up to you, Janette. Do you want the child?" Her eyes dropped to the floor. The tension in the tiny office was almost visible, and to Julian, time seemed to slow down as his patient, colleagues and friends waited for someone to speak. Natalie, Nick and Janette were all in physical contact, forming a queer kind of chain that seemed to give strength to the odd little love triangle. Across the room, Alain was looking wistfully at the group with his almond-shaped eyes, as though he wished to join them but didn't quite dare. LaCroix was staring at Julian, ever and always staring, but whether he was trying to uncover an ulterior motive or just attempting to pick up the doctor's faint scent, no one could say. At long last, Janette looked up. She made eye contact with Nick, whose outraged cobalt eyes softened slightly, and then with Natalie who, unable to deduce the hidden message, just looked confused. Janette looked over at Alain. He shrugged his lanky shoulders and gave her a sickly smile. LaCroix did not meet her gaze, but simply nodded. "Do you want the child?" Julian repeated gently. Janette's expression was one of repressed terror, but immeasurably resolute. "Yes." "Are you absolutely certain?" <> <> <> <> "I am." Julian nodded, his expression suddenly unreadable. "All right. Go home. Get some rest. I'll need another day to mix the doses." End Part Sixteen April French daomir_darkfel@yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (17/?) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 06:24:47 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in first post. Legacies (17/?) Nick and Natalie crept quietly back to their loft. Natalie's sister-in-law, Sarah, and her niece Amy were staying at a hotel, but Myra and Jenny had arrived that evening and were installed in the guestroom, so silently, as not to wake their guests, they climbed the stairs to their bedroom. Nick tossed his coat to one side and wrapped Natalie in his arms. "I didn't know," she began. Nick pressed a kiss to her temple. "I know you didn't," he soothed half-heartedly. "You couldn't have hidden something like that from me. I just... can the risks really be so great?" "Why else would he keep this a secret?" Natalie turned around to face Nick. She couldn't see him properly, but she knew he could see her and she knew where his face was. She reached out a hand. He grasped it and pressed it to his cheek. "Nick, don't go back to the clinic tomorrow night." "What--" "This is something Janette has to do herself. Alone." "She's my responsibility, my Family. I--" <> <> <> <> Nick sighed. "Maybe you're right. I'm probably the last person Janette wants to be near right now." *** His hands shook as he measured out the clear, straw-colored liquids into their separate syringes. Julian shut his eyes tightly and forced air into his lungs, trying to tamp down the voices... <> <> <> <> <> <> His hand spasmed, and the syringe exploded. "Christ," Julian swore, his fingers bloody from the sharp fragments. He felt no concern about the drugs seeping into his own system; he knew from painful experience that these chemicals would have no effect on one such as him. He stared at his hands, cut and bloody, covered in tears and yellow chemical residue. <> he sobbed, falling on his mother's body. <> Julian washed his hands and got back to work. *** Sunday Morning The phone rang just as Tracy stepped out of the shower. "Crap." Anticipating a long-distance call from Kai, she threw on a towel and raced into the heavily-shuttered kitchen. "Hello? Ka... Dad!" "Hey, honey." "Hi, hi. Um... what's up?" "Oh, nothing much. I just haven't talked to you in a while, that's all. Liz and I missed you at Christmas." Tracy rolled her eyes. She felt awkward enough as it was, speaking to her father, without bringing his 'female acquaintance' into the equation. "Yeah, I had made other plans." She smiled into the receiver. "Sorry about the inconvenience. A friend invited me over; he's had a hard couple of months and I didn't want to turn him down." "'Him,' eh? Does 'him' have a name?" Richard Vetter's voice came over the phone as slightly menacing. Tracy only shook her head; she recognized the tone: it was the 'some punk's making a move on my little girl?' voice. "'Him's' name is Julian. He works down at the Coroner's Office. if you're really interested, he was the one who patched me up after that little car crash back in January." "Oh, so he's a Good Samaritan?" "He's a friend, Dad. It's not like we're dating or anything." Her father chuckled. "Okay, Tracy, okay. Well, I just wondered if you'd like to go out for breakfast this morning." Tracy worried at a canine tooth with her tongue. "Um, thanks, Dad, but no. No, I can't." "Why not?" "Oh, because..." "Because I had a long night. I was out doing errands--and it was pretty nasty out last night. I think I may have come down with something, so I really just want to go to sleep, okay?" "Okay, honey," her father soothed. "I'll just take a rain check. You feel better, all right?" "All right, Dad." "I love you, Tracy." "Love you, too, Dad." Tracy hung up her phone guiltily. As she dressed for bed, she thought about the conversation. Lying about the reason for not going to breakfast bothered her only minorly; she had no reason to think that her father would believe her, or if he did, would keep his mouth shut. What really bothered Tracy was that she had not told her father, someone she truly loved and trusted, even when he exasperated her to the point of self-immolation, about how she really felt about her 'Good Samaritan.' She had told Kai, but she couldn't tell her own father. She hugged her knees to her chest, gnawing on her lower lip. Her eyes fell on a framed photograph on her nightstand. It was of herself, when she was twelve, and her father. They were at the beach. The sun was shining and they were both smiling. Before, when Tracy looked at that picture, it had always lifted her out of whatever funk she might have been in. It always made her happy. Now, it was like looking at a picture in a museum. Nostalgia, detachment, and a little regret. "I guess I'm not that little girl anymore." End Part Seventeen April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (18/?) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2003 07:14:38 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in first post. Will repost disclaimers if anyone really wants me to. Is this story making any kind of sense yet?? Legacies (18/?) Someone did go out for Sunday brunch that morning. The rising sun found a bemused Nick Knight in a cozy, bustling little diner, surrounded by chattering females. He had Natalie on his right side and Myra Schanke on his left, Sarah Lambert across the table, two little girls thrown into the mix, and a stack of magazines on the table in front of him. Nick caught Jenny Schanke's eye and mouthed "Help!" The little girl giggled. "Myra, I appreciate the offer, but honestly, Nick and I don't want to do anything elaborate." "Oh, nonsense, Natalie," insisted Myra, who had ignored their requests for suggestions and had appointed herself their official wedding planner. "After all, this is the first wedding for both of you, and you'll want it to be something to remember." Natalie heard in her mind, Natalie gave him a mental shrug. "Actually, Myra," said Nick casually, spreading butter on his pancakes, "this is my third marriage." Myra's eyebrows went up like a rocket. "Your " she repeated. Natalie smothered a grin. Myra the gossip queen would be on the phone the moment she got home. "Nick, I had no idea," Sarah commented. "I don't broadcast the fact. I only mean that I've done this before; I know from experience that all the fuss isn't necessary." "Yes, but Natalie--" Myra was cut short by the two girls, who had hit things off famously. "What were their names?" Amy and Jenny asked simultaneously. "What were they like? What happened?" "I married right out of high school," Nick began carefully. "Her name was Alyssa." <> <> <> <> "But she died of... leukemia, three months before our first anniversary." "Oh, Nick," said Sarah sadly. "I'm so sorry." Nick shook his head. He would accept no pity for Alyssa's death--whom he had killed--and certainly not from Sarah Lambert, who had lost her husband at Nick's hands. Both Alyssa and Richard Lambert had died because of him. They were only two of the many deaths he would never forget or forgive himself for. "It was a long time ago. And she'd been sick for years, so it wasn't entirely unexpected. "My second wife and I were married for about ten years, but we eventually grew apart. We went our separate ways and we're still good friends." "Is she happy that you're getting married again?" Amy asked, curious. Nick smiled wanly and put butter on his pancakes. <> "I wouldn't go that far." "Have you thought about who you're going to invite, Nick?" Myra asked, getting back down to business. "And you, Natalie?" She pulled a pad of paper and a pen out of her massive handbag. "Well, I don't have that many people. Just Sarah and Amy, and a few people from work. Nick?" "The same. A few people from work and some... old friends." "Are you inviting... um... you know who?" Nick took a deep breath, and buttered his pancakes. "You mean my father?" Myra's eyes almost popped out of her head. "Don always said you didn't have much in the way of family." "What he probably said was 'Knight's got no family to speak of.'" "Well..." "My father and I didn't get along very well in the past. We still don't. But we're making an effort to reconcile, so... yes, Nat. The General is on the list." End Part Eighteen April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Subject: Legacies (19/?) Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2003 07:16:24 -0800 From: Daomir Darkfell To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Disclaimers in first post. Who wants to take guesses on what's wrong with Nick? Legacies (19/?) Sunday Afternoon Miranda was peaceably curled up in the armchair in the sun-filled living room, deep in a book. LaCroix was sleeping and so were the boys. At least, that was the idea. "Daniel?" she called softly, seeing the small figure. "Is something wrong?" "New bed. Can't sleep. Don't guess but you might close the curtains?" Miranda covered the windows thoroughly, and Daniel stepped out of the shadows. "Thanks, luv." The girl grinned. "So much for losing the Cockney accent." "Comes back at the oddest times. But I can smother it when I 'as to." Daniel plopped himself on the couch, and Miranda had the chance to examine him more closely. He was a short, skinny boy, with a head of thick, golden-blond hair and an innocent expression in his dark eyes, one that could easily fool someone less experienced than Miranda in the ways of vampires and small boys. She had never had any brothers, but she had baby-sat for years, and she honestly was not sure which species was the more devious, vampires or boys. Daniel looked her over in his turn, in a way she did not like. "Can't believe the Ol' General got married. What spell'd he put on you?" Miranda shrugged. "I've known Lucien for years." And when you got right down to it, that was no lie. "He asked, I accepted." "Hmm." Daniel frowned, trying to equate his master with this pretty girl. "And you don't care that he's a... that 'e is what 'e is?" "No." "You like vampires, then? That's your thing?" "I like my husband, boy." Daniel giggled, an unnerving sound. "'Boy'? Luv, I'm old enough to be your grandfather." "Maybe. But you're not my grandfather. And maybe that's the problem." Miranda seated herself next to Daniel and put her arms around his shoulder. The old boy stiffened. "You've never been with a woman before, have you?" Daniel squirmed. "Étienne, well... He's old-fashioned, y' see. 'E wouldn't let me." Miranda nodded. "Let me tell you something, Daniel. Lucien is not nearly as 'old-fashioned.' Stay on his good side, and he'll turn his eye away from you just long enough... you understand?" Eyes wide, Daniel nodded vigorously. "But if you try and have sport with me..." She trailed off. "Lucien has decided that you and Alexei will stay here with us. That means both Lucien and I are responsible for you." "You?" Daniel scoffed. "You're not our master. You're not even a vampire!" "He is having papers made up that say you and Alexei are his sons. His legal wards. And since I am his wife, that makes you my stepsons." Miranda's eyes softened. "How old were you when your mother died, Daniel?" "Nine." "Did you like living with Étienne and Shosha?" "They were good to me. They taught me a lot. Étienne's a lot of fun, like a big brother. Shosha... she's just like the General. Standoffish, kinda, all high and mighty, you know? And the last couple years, they had fledglings of their own, and Shosha's got this little mortal boy she's bringing up... It was like living with a good auntie and uncle. They cared and were nice enough, but..." "But they weren't parents." "Right." "Daniel, look at me." Reluctantly, he did so. "You've got a crush on me, haven't you?" "Ye-es. I couldn't 'elp it, Luv." "Daniel, I can't be that kind of girl for you. I'm LaCroix's wife. You're his son. I can be a mother, for you and Alexei. But that's all." She eyed the small boy sternly. "Understood?" "Yes, mum," said the British vampire meekly. He got up. "Can I go back to bed now?" "Of course." "Miranda?" "Yes?" "Will you... could you help Alexei and me unpack tonight? We don't have much, but it's a small room for the two of us, and we've got the rearrange the furniture. If you don't mind?" "I'll help." Daniel's wide grin split his face. "Thanks, Luv." Miranda watched him go back into his bedroom. Her smile faded. "Oh, boy," she murmured. "This is going to be harder than I thought." *** Sunday Evening "You didn't mention his name," Natalie teased. Myra and Jenny had gone home, and Amy and Sarah were safely ensconced in their hotel room, so Nick had his loft back and could take the bloodwine out of hiding, and he and Natalie could return to one of their favorite activities: lying on the couch in front of the fireplace. "I wasn't about to," Nick shot back. "Mention the name 'Lucien LaCroix' in casual conversation? I might as well shout 'I am a cult follower!' from the top of the CN Tower, because according to most parents, that's what listening to the Nightcrawler amounts to." "Captain Reese is going to flip when he finds out that the man Toronto loves to hate is the father of one of its most popular detectives." Nick groaned. "He'll drop me back to pounding a beat." "Nick, is something else bothering you?" Natalie hurried to continue when Nick began to protest. "I mean, you buttered your pancakes three or four time. You put so much butter on your pancakes, it was practically pancakes with your butter. And then you didn't even eat them!" "Just nerves, I guess." Nick shrugged sheepishly. "I... I really have never gotten married before. Not like this. When I married Alyssa, it was all very rapid. The courtship, the ceremony... the marriage. This time, I'm not afraid. I don't have to worry about your safety, about being with you. So, I think--if you don't mind--that I know some people who could take care of almost everything for us. And Étienne has already offered to do the reception. Not that I don't appreciate Sarah's help. And Myra, well, she