Subject: FK fanfic to archive: One Moonlit Knight Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 19:06:44 -0600 From: "Angela Gottfred" To: I forgot to give you permission to archive this when I first posted it, in response to the Friday the 13th challenge a couple of years ago. Would you please? Thanks!--Angela Gottfred ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here's my response to the Friday the 13th challenge. What most folks from the States don't know is that, not only was Friday the 13th, but the preceding Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving. So I just had to work that into my piece. It was written with what, for me, was blinding speed--I just had to exorcise this little idea. Hope you enjoy it. ************************** One Moonlit Knight (1/1) by Ligeia ************************** Natalie frowned. Sidney had shed while she was gone. Grey cat hairs were everywhere. He couldn't help it, though. Not only was there a full moon, but it was Friday the thirteenth to boot. She went to the fridge and pulled out some leftover turkey and stuffing to microwave; Sarah had given it to her after they had Thanksgiving dinner together at the cabin, last weekend. Sarah was still sad about Richard's death, three years earlier, but she still didn't have a clue about what had really happened. Natalie visited Sarah and Amy regularly, just to make sure. As she ate her leftovers, Nat watched the rising moon and took a moment to think. Meeting Nick had been quite the stroke of luck. The very luck she'd been casting spells for ever since Nana Tash told her about vampires years ago. Nana Tash--she was a tough one. A real cookies & milk grandmother to Richie and the rest of the world, but when they were alone together, there was no doubting that her bloodline went straight back to Baba Yaga. Nana had taught little Natashka all the sorcery she knew; a mistake in an incantation or the wrong ingredient in a potion would earn Natalie a cuff to the head, or an open-handed slap. But Natalie had a real aptitude for the Dark Path, even Nana Tash had to admit that. By the time she was sixteen, there was nothing more Nana could teach her. There was only one more thing to do. Together, she and Nana Tash cast the spells to bring Nat her familiar: Sidney. _He_ had shown her that her true talent was necromancy. Nat knew then where her path would lead: to medical school, so she could get access to cadavers, and then on to a career as a coroner. Corpses would be the source of her greatest power. Necromancy was a rare talent amongst sorceresses; Nana Tash had been thrilled and excited. This prompted her to tell her little Natashka the old legends about what happened when vampires and sorceresses met. The next night, Natalie began casting the spells that would, sooner or later, bring her a meeting with a vampire that she could use. She continued casting them every night for more than ten years. Then Nick showed up on her autopsy table. A vampire with a conscience-- he had to be one in a million, and Nat was careful not to be too hasty and blow her hard-won opportunity. She shielded him from any hint of her true nature; a whiff of _that_, and she'd never see him again. His conscience made him weak enough for her to win his trust; his pathetic quest for mortality gave her an unusual opportunity to get him to drink a love potion, not once, but three times. After that, he'd been putty in her hands. When LaCroix had shown up at the museum, Nat made sure to keep her distance. He was trouble, she'd known that from the first time she saw him in her scrying bowl. Unfortunately, the same spells that safeguarded Nick from LaCroix had also protected LaCroix from Nick. She'd had to send the interfering Roman to Hecate's realm for a year, and covered his disappearance with the illusion of his death. When Richard was shot, it was an excellent opportunity for her to see how far she could push Nick. If it worked, she was sure she could get Richie to bring her across; if it didn't, she would have lost nothing. If only Richie's blood-addled brain had made him attack Nat at home, instead of going after Sarah right in front of Nick, she would have already attained her goal. She'd realized then that it would take time for her plan to succeed, and when Lucius had returned, her spells were ready for him. A good thing, too; that little incident at the restaurant would have been a complete disaster if it had happened only a year before. As it was, it had still taken her full concentration to keep her cover in place under LaCroix' intense scrutiny. After that night, she had decided to set the wheels in motion to eliminate him. She discovered that the shadowy solution to her problem was trapped in Egypt; she did everything she could to liberate it, whatever it might be. And it had worked; although Divia had not killed Lucius, she had shaken him so much that he was going to move on. Already, Nat had set the stage for a final appeal to Nick, one she was sure he couldn't deny. By the end of the night, with the help of the full October moon's power, she would have it all: sorcery and immortality. At the appropriate moment, she would move into Sidney's body, to give the illusion of her death. After Nick brought her across, she would return to her own body, to live forever with Nick and all his blood relations firmly under her necromantic thumb. Natalie poured Sidney some more milk and refilled his food bowl with fresh calf liver. She stroked him fondly for a moment, admiring his new coat of glossy black fur; then, mentally rehearsing her lines, she left the apartment. This time, nothing could possibly go wrong. ************************** Send any brickbats or bouquets to agottfre@telusplanet.net.