Date:         Sun, 12 Jun 1994 09:00:28 -0500
 
 
     Merle Micklin (-------------------------) came up with an
interesting line for fiction:  "Look, put down the snake and we'll
talk."  Since she gave permission for others besides Susan Garrett
to use the line, here's my take on it.  I hope you all enjoy it.
 
 
--Sandra Gray
 
 
 
The Cure
 
 
A Forever Knight Vignette by
 
 
Sandra Gray
 
 
 
     "Look, put down the snake and we'll talk," said LaCroix.
     "Where did you get this?" asked Nick, studying the small
golden statue.  It was of a coiled cobra, head raised and neck
flared, and its' faceted ruby eyes sparkled in the lamplight.
     "Oh, it's just something I picked up for decoration.  A
mere bauble," said LaCroix lightly.  But Nick caught an under-
current of--something--in his speech that made Nick study the
piece more thoroughly.  The statue was a very lifelike
representation of a cobra, except that it was smaller, perhaps
ten inches tall.  LaCroix came closer to him.  "Put it down,
please."
     Nick looked at LaCroix.  Although his tone was polite,
LaCroix's expression was one of almost _worry_.  Nick looked at
the snake again.  He frowned.  There was some legend connected
with a golden cobra.  What was it?
     But he forgot to think about the subject--or anything else--
_entirely_ when the statue came to life in his hands!  Startled,
Nick threw the snake (still golden metal, but still very much
_alive_) away from him.  LaCroix caught it, his eyes wide.
     The snake struck LaCroix in the throat.  He cried out and
tossed the snake to the floor, where it clanged and lost its'
animation, becoming merely a statue again.  "No!" he screamed.
His expression took on a sick look.  "No," he said in a weaker
voice, putting his hand to his throat.  Then he fell to the
floor.
     Nick frowned and approached LaCroix warily.  LaCroix was
shaking.  Nick knelt down beside him.
     LaCroix smiled slightly, then winced.  "Should have--kept
it hidden.  Intended to use it--on you."
     "To destroy me?" Nick asked.
     LaCroix laughed--a short, bitter laugh.  "No.  Cure you.
Give you back--your mortality."
     "What?"
     "Then I could have--turned you again.  Maybe then you--
would have embraced being--vampire."
     Nick stared at LaCroix in shock, then glanced over at the
statue.  "Only--only works once."  Nick looked at LaCroix again.
"Causes coma--then cure."  He grabbed Nick's arm.  "You can't
let this happen to me!  When I'm--_mortal_ (he said it with
disgust)--again, you must bring me across!"  His eyes pleaded
with Nick.  Then they closed and he lay still.
     Nick hesitated, then felt LaCroix's throat.  He still had
a pulse, but one that seemed to be slowly _increasing_.  Nick
stood.
     So LaCroix intended to cure him and then bring him back
across?  He must have hoped his control over a new vampire
would help him convert Nick to his views.  And who knows?
Maybe it would have worked.  It had taken centuries, after all,
for Nick to get truly out from under LaCroix's influence.
     Nick looked at the statue.  A cure.  And it had been used
on someone who never even _desired_ it.
     He looked back at LaCroix.  LaCroix would wake a mortal.
Nick smiled slightly.  A fitting torment for him after all
these centuries.  He couldn't _really_ expect Nick to bring
him back across.  Although LaCroix would have had no hesitation
in doing so to him, just so he could control...
     Then again...maybe it wasn't such a _bad_ idea, after all.
 
                             THE END