EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 

Standard disclaimers apply.  Nick, Nat, and the FK gang 
don't belong to me, except for the characters of Alihra and 
Elohr, both of which are the creations of my own, warped 
little mind.  Any similarities to other stories or real 
life occurrences are coincidental/unintentional.  Permission 
is granted to archive on fkfanfic.com and the ftp site.  All 
others please ask so that I can keep track of it. 

This fanfic is fourth in my Darkness series, which started 
with When Darkness Falls, and was followed by The Light Must 
Follow, and And So I Walk Into The Fire.  Although it is not 
necessary to have read those previous stories in order to 
understand what is going on in this one, you may find this 
more enjoyable if you have read them.  In any case, all 
stories in this series are available at my web site, at 
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/diharris/Homepage.htm

This is a NNPacker story, although Janette, Schanke, and 
my own characters make many appearances.  This is likely to 
be the last story in this series, I think I've finally come 
to a good stopping point :)  

I would like to profusely thank my beta reader, Lois 
Frankel, for all the patience she's had with my bad grammar 
and interesting typos :)  I'd also like to thank Laurie and 
Neil for their aid in my French translations, they were a 
big help even if it was just a small part!

Thanks for all the feedback I've received on the previous 
stories in this series, it's kept me writing fervently on 
what's become my longest story ever.  All comments, 
questions, flames, and whatnot may be sent to me, at 
aria5@vt.edu.  Flames, however, will be promptly 
discarded :)  

Anyhoo, you can read now :)

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

The pale, full moon drifted overhead in the murky black sky, 
its silver halo crowning it with a ring of icy mist.  As its 
cold light fell in a soft blanket over the cave-like alley,  
a medium-height, stocky man stood in the darkness looking 
upwards towards it, the embers of his slowly dying cigarette 
glowing like hot glass in a fire.  After taking one last 
puff, he threw the thin white cancer stick to the ground and 
snuffed it out with a leather booted foot. 

He could hear carolers in the distance, faintly singing 
Carol of the Bells and he shook his head.  How they could 
stand out there for so long was beyond him.  It was cold, 
damnit!  And as far as he was concerned, he was just not in 
the Christmas spirit.  He glanced around fruitlessly in the 
darkness.  This, was a frozen Hell.  That's what it was.  
Stomping his feet lightly, he jumped up and down a bit to 
increase his circulation, debating whether he wanted to stay 
outside long enough to smoke another cigarette. 

Drawing his hands to his mouth in two tightly clenched 
fists, he blew his smoky breath onto to his heavily 
callused fingers in a last ditch attempt to warm them.  He 
cursed to himself softly.  It was so damn cold out!  Why'd 
they have to make him take his smoking breaks outside?  
Stomping his foot, he turned towards the door with all 
intents of going back to work, but something stopped him, 
and he turned back to peer into the frigid, tenebrous alley.  

He shivered, more out of coldness than of nervousness.  His 
thick black parka was not serving its function at all.  In 
all his years in the city of Toronto, he'd not once 
experienced such nipping cold.  The chill was seeping in 
through his bones and at once it made him feel desperately 
lonely.  Cold...  Too much like death for his liking.  

He shook his mane of flame-red hair as if he half-expected 
it to be frozen solid.  It wasn't, but if he'd had the 
unfortunate chance of getting wet he would've found himself 
with a head full of pointy red icicles.  Something the 
teenagers of today would've probably made into a cool new 
fashion.  Literally cool...  

Shrugging off the biting air as if it were a caustic insult, 
he turned once again towards the inviting brown door.  
Inviting him to warmth and security.  Its arms were 
beckoning.  Come inside, Harry.  It's warm.  Come on, you're 
done with your cigarette...  He placed his frozen hand on 
the handle and pulled the door open a couple inches.  Time 
to go in, he'd had enough of contemplating the bitter 
coldness.

<EEEEIIIII>

It echoed through the alley like a screeching bird of prey, 
the high pitched scream assaulting the brick walls and his 
ears until he felt that his fragile eardrums were about to 
melt.  His hands immediately flew from the door handle and 
clapped over his cherry-red, frostbitten ears.  "Who...  
who's there?" he cried, terrified at what specter could make 
such an ungodly noise.

Only the wafting chill of soft northern wind greeted him.  
He would've passed it off as his own overactive imagination 
if it weren't for his ringing, throbbing ears.  

<CLICK CLICK CLICK>

It sounded like the spiked heal of a woman's pump on the 
pavement and he threw his glance wildly about trying to 
pinpoint the sound, but the echoes provided by the alley 
walls made it next to impossible.  "Hello???" he called 
again, his voice wavering nervously like a runaway seesaw 
as he fought to keep his calm.

Something flew past his face, the cool whiplash of air 
shocking his already flushed, frozen cheeks.  That was it...  
He turned to dash inside, he wasn't up for these games.  It 
must be someone from the office trying to play tricks on 
him.  Tricks.  That was it.  

But he was stopped as a pair of bony thin arms snaked around 
him and pushed the air out of his lungs with a sharp 
squeeze.  The exhalation of breath was like a pitiful yelp, 
and he slowly started to panic when the crushing grip would 
not let him inhale again.  Standing there in quiet terror, 
he felt the world begin to dim as his oxygen-deprived brain 
began to shut down.  But just when he thought it was the 
end, the arms loosened, and he drew in a desperate breath, 
his lungs whistling as they spasmodically sucked in as much 
air as they could.  He felt warm, moist breath on the nape 
of his neck slowly move around to his ear as he panted 
wildly in terror, his breath escaping from his chapped lips 
into heavy clouds of twisting vapor.  

"Don't say a word..." the whisper came like a tinkle of 
heavenly bells, as if an angel itself had come to speak with 
him.  It was a woman, that he was sure of, and for some 
reason he felt his fear siphoning out of him.  He became 
relaxed and yet somehow exhilarated at the same time as an 
acrylic nailed finger traced patterns in the short, soft, 
fuzzy hair that littered the back of his neck.

He shuddered and he felt himself becoming strangely 
aroused.  The danger, the passion.  It was all so 
enticing...  He was ripped from his fantasies, however, when 
the mysterious woman roughly turned him around and planted a 
wet kiss on his lips.  Deep and fulfilling, he was shivering 
in ecstasy before he even had a chance to look her in the 
eyes.  His brain felt like it was about to explode and he 
grabbed at her, kissing her back wildly and wondering at the 
same time what the Hell he was doing.  Kissing a complete 
stranger in the freezing, darkened alley?  This was not the 
thing he would've imagined himself spending his night doing.

But he somehow didn't care.  He was in the arms of a goddess 
to behold.  A goddess.  He didn't care.  It felt too damn 
good for him to care, and as he groped at her deliriously
unrestrained, he felt a fiery warmth replace the bitter 
cold that had inhabited him only minutes before.      

Finally, in desperate need of air, he pulled back and took a 
deep breath.  "Who..." he started to ask breathlessly, but 
she clapped her hand over his lips before he could utter 
another word.  

"It doesn't matter..." she stated quietly, her deathly pale 
skin gauntly stretched across her face to the point that she 
looked unnatural.  Like some creature not of this earth.  He 
sighed dreamily.  Not a creature of this earth...  An 
angel...  

Her eyes even seemed to glow a glittery golden hue, shining 
forth like two suns in a blackened sky, their brilliant 
fires blinding all those who dared to look.  "Close your 
eyes..." she commanded.

He could hear his own heart thundering in his ears, and as 
he stared at those beautiful eyes, the rest of his world 
became black.  All he saw were the eyes.  Two floating orbs 
of sunlight in the abyss, calling to him longingly to obey.  
Without even consciously willing them to do so, he felt his 
eyes lazily droop shut as he took in another breath, 
anticipating the further ecstasy that was to come.

A bestial growl rumbled through the alley, but he was too 
lost to care.  Lost in his own drumming heartbeat, thumping 
wildly.  Cold, gnarly fingers unzipped his parka and drew 
the confining fabric away from his pulsing jugular.  His 
mind began to drift to a far away place as he felt a sharp 
prick in his neck.  

Now...  You are mine...

He didn't hear it really.  He just knew it.  And that was 
when he felt his consciousness slipping away through the 
cracks, into the dim shadows that suffocated the alley.  

Mine.  

His body slipped to the ground of the alley with an echoing 
thud, the mysterious woman already long gone.  True darkness 
slid forth over the cool pavement as the clouds finally 
overtook the weeping, defeated moon.  And as the cold wind 
began to blow more fervently, glittering snowflakes, like 
facets of a crystal in a gleaming sunrise, fell softly to 
the ground and coated the still corpse with a light dusting 
of winter frost.

*****         

Natalie stared at the vial of liquid on the table in quiet 
anticipation.  Lyzatrex.  An experimental drug, very similar 
to Lidovuterine B in chemical components except that unlike 
Lidovuterine, it was meant to stimulate red blood cell 
growth in anemics.  Lidovuterine had been the closest she'd 
every gotten Nick to a cure.  If she could just find some 
derivative of it that worked without the addictive and other 
psychological effects, she'd have a great start as long as 
the vampire element in Nick's blood didn't keep regenerating 
like it had for the Lidovuterine.  

Staring hard at the tiny vial, she sighed.  She desperately 
wanted to test it, but... if she did, was she prepared for 
yet another failure?  She glanced down to her outstretched 
hand, simply frozen in midair as if it were inanimate.  The 
muscles ached, but for some reason, she simply couldn't 
bring herself to advance.  

With her free hand, she brushed a stray brown curl out of 
her face, away from her wide eyes.  Taking a deep breath, 
she laughed heartily when she noticed that the rubber 
dropper in her hand was getting slightly damp from her own
perspiration.  Why was she so nervous?  It wasn't like this 
test would have any real bearing on anything...  

Well, yes, actually, it would...  If it worked, Nick would 
be the happiest man alive.  And if it worked, it would be 
the happiest day of her life since Nick had returned to her.  
Because it would mean that he could become mortal.  Nick, 
her angsty vampire lover, her _best friend_, would have his 
one great wish.  The most precious wish in his entire life.  
One that had never truly been granted.  The Lidovuterine had 
given him a taste of what was to come, but its psychotropic 
effects had ruined any enjoyment he would've gotten out of 
it.  

She brushed a tear away from her eye.  There were so many 
ways they could've spent that one day in the sun...  and 
she'd chosen to be the scientific one and act skeptic.  It 
pained her to realize that even if he'd suggested a simple 
thing like a picnic or a walk in the park, she probably 
would've told him that it wasn't a good idea and that he 
should stay inside.  True, they hadn't been romantically 
involved at the time, but they could've done _something_ 
special...  Like, she'd always wanted to see what he thought 
of chocolate, and she hadn't even forced him to sample a 
Milky Way, or double fudge ice-cream.  What a crime!      

But enough of that.  If the test worked...  She sighed, 
trying to ignore the little voice in her head asking her 
doubting mind what would happen if it didn't work, even 
though she already realized that the odds against this were 
nearly insurmountable.  Nick had developed a pretty 
reasonable immunity to the Lidovuterine.  It was doubtful 
that this Lyzatrex serum was different enough to work to its 
full capacity, if at all.  

Nat realized with a laugh, that unintentionally, she had 
shifted her thoughts to the negative side once again.  
Enough!  This was the first possible cure she'd managed to 
research since Nick had returned.  She had to be positive!  
It wasn't like Nick would know if it didn't work.  She 
hadn't even told him that she was getting close to something 
yet.  She didn't want to get his hopes up.  But what about 
her hopes?  She realized it was too late to save them from 
their trip into the rafters.  

Nat shook her head.  This would work.  It _would_ work.  
Yeah, that was right, be an optimist...  With a firm new 
resolve, she took the dropper still waiting patiently in her 
clammy hand and dipped it into the vial of pale blue liquid, 
loosening her grip on the rubber end of the dropper to suck 
some of the Lyzatrex into it.  

Lifting the dropper from the vial, she glanced at it only 
briefly before sweeping her hand across the table towards 
the slide that held a small sample of Nick's blood.  With 
one final deep breath of anticipation, she squeezed the 
rubber lightly, slowly dripping out a few drops of the 
liquid onto the slide.   

Like a flash she was at her new microscope, gasping slightly 
as she saw what was happening on that small slide.  The 
Lyzatrex was overwhelming the extra nucleotides in Nick's 
blood, completely obliterating them.  It was as if they were 
just exploding.  And then nothing.  She was suddenly staring 
at a very normal looking, human blood sample.  Woah...  

She smiled as she stared at the slide.  That had happened 
really fast.  And it appeared to be working.  The only 
problem was that a violent reaction like that probably meant 
it was going to hurt if she injected Nick with it.  
Obviously, there were a few more things she'd have to look 
into, but...  She bit her lower lip, already starting to 
worry a bit.  How to bring this up with Nick?  

The results of the last drug test she'd tried with Nick had 
been very disturbing for her.  For Nick it must've been a 
nightmare.  She still remembered what she'd walked in on in 
the loft.  Nick had gone home after giving his statement 
regarding Vinetti, and she'd gone over a few hours late to 
check on him.  Nothing had prepared her what she saw.  

FLASHBACK - TORONTO 1995

She entered the loft to find him huddled in the corner by 
the steps, shaking like a leaf caught in a breeze.  His arms 
were clasped around his knees with a vice-like, white-
knuckled grip as if he were afraid he'd fall apart if he let 
them go.  And slightly threatening, she couldn't tell if he 
was vamped out or not because his forehead was resting on 
his forearm, safely tucking his face away from view.  
"Nick?" she said with worry, afraid that he was wallowing in 
their failure to cure him.  The Lidovuterine had been a 
terrible mistake.  A terrible mistake...  

He looked up in her direction, but it appeared as if he 
wasn't actually seeing her.  His glassy golden eyes wandered 
back and forth minutely as if they couldn't focus and she 
felt her heart quicken slightly in fear.  He was obviously 
in the grips of his vampiric side, and she briefly found 
herself contemplating the danger she was in but when she 
heard him moan as if in some discomfort she forgot all about 
it.  "Nick?" she called again hesitantly as she walked over 
to him.

He still said nothing, only continuing to stare blankly in 
her general direction.  Something was wrong.  Very wrong.  
His breathing was ragged, and she could hear it rasping in 
his throat as if it were causing him pain.  Very concerned, 
she sat beside him and placed her hand on his trembling 
shoulder, only now noticing that his silky blue shirt was 
ruined with the red wetness of his sweat.  Her touch 
finally registered with him, and he practically leapt out of 
his skin, growling wildly with his fangs extended.    

"Woah!  Nick, it's me!  Nat!"  He flailed blindly and let 
out a small sob, blood tears trickling down his pale face.  
Nat hugged him to her tightly.  "Nick, what's wrong?" she 
asked quietly as his sob became sobs, and then full blown 
crying.  It was shocking, and she was at a complete loss as 
to what to do.  She'd never _ever_ seen him cry.  Never.  
He was not one to show his emotions so unchecked...

"Nat..." he gasped as he pulled himself out of her embrace.  
The look in his eyes was enough to make her want to cry 
right along with him.  It wasn't so much the pain evident 
in his sullen eyes, but more the look of being utterly lost.  
"I can't...  I can't stop my hands from shaking..." he said 
pitifully, holding up his hands for her to see as if that 
was the worst of his troubles.  True to his word though, 
his hands were trembling despite his obvious attempts to 
hold them still.  

As Nick groaned in frustration, staring at his hands with a 
look of utter consternation, Nat finally realized what was 
going on.  It was withdrawal.  The Lidovuterine had had 
addictive properties, and now he'd come crashing down off 
the high of the past night when he'd caught Vinetti.  He'd 
seemed all right then, but he'd gone home almost immediately 
after they'd taken his statement.  She hadn't thought 
anything of it.  But she should have...

She looked at his trembling hands for only a second before 
she clasped them warmly in-between her own.  Even then, she 
could still feel them shaking in her grasp.  "Nick, shhh, 
it'll be all right," she said softly.  It felt fake telling 
him that he'd be all right.  She knew that some addicts 
never got over their cravings, and that they went through 
life constantly reminding themselves not to give in...  What 
had she done?

"Need some more... lido... vu... te... rine," he said 
woefully as his teeth began to chatter.  

She was shocked, her eyes widening in response.  "Nick, you 
can't be serious..." she exclaimed, looking at his withered 
form in alarm, but it appeared that he hadn't even heard 
what she'd said.  With her heart in her throat, she watched 
as he clutched his abdomen and cried out in pain.  He leaned 
forward slightly and she saw his torso spasm as if he were
about to vomit, but nothing came up.      

He gasped and ground his molars together.  "Stop... stop the 
pain..." he whispered as he looked forlornly in her 
direction, off into some void of space only he could see.  
She'd never seem him look so incredibly disoriented.  So 
defenseless...

"Can't stop my hands... from shaking..." he said again, as 
if he didn't realize he'd already said it.  Suddenly, he 
cocked his head to the side and stared at her with a strange 
look in his eye.  "Nat?  What're you doing here?" he asked 
with a sniff, his look of confusion turning into one of 
nausea. 

Good lord, he was really out of it...  Nat wanted to cry.  
She should've done more tests before giving that awful 
stuff to him...  And it was all her fault.  She'd done this 
to him...  

She enfolded him again in a tight embrace.  "Nick, I'm so 
sorry..." she said sincerely as he started to sob in her 
arms again, not caring about what his tears must be doing to 
her white silk blouse.  

THE PRESENT

"Oh, Nick..." Nat sighed as she was brought back to the 
present.  Tears were streaming down her face at the horrible 
memory, falling softly onto the slide that had so recently 
been the bearer of good news.  It was all her fault that 
things had gotten so incredibly out of hand.  She 
should've...

"Natalie?  Why are you crying, sweetheart?" Grace 
Balthazar's soothing voice interrupted her thoughts, nearly 
startling Nat out of her skin.  When had she snuck in?  How 
much of that episode had she seen?      

Natalie quickly wiped away the tears and turned to face her 
worried friend.  "It's nothing, Grace.  I must've gotten 
something caught in my eye..." Natalie quickly rushed to 
make an excuse, and for emphasis she raised her left hand, 
rubbing her eye as if something were bothering it.  But 
judging from Grace's worried frown, her impromptu acting 
wasn't all that believable.  

"Nat, dear, you were crying your eyes out.  Don't even think 
about telling me that was just an eye bug..."  Grace said, 
crossing her arms in front of her chest in a classic 
'Superman' pose.  

"I... I was just remembering something from a long time ago.  
Nothing important..."  Natalie hedged, hoping her friend 
would leave it be, but from the look on Grace's face, she 
knew that she wouldn't.  Definitely not.   

"Nat, it wasn't unimportant if it's making you feel so sad.  
Come on, it'll make you feel better to talk about it..." 
Grace said quietly, guiding Natalie to the chair by her 
cluttered desk and sitting her down in it with a light 
shove.

Natalie looked down at the floor.  She was trapped.  There 
was no way that Grace was going to let her out of this one.  
She sighed.  "Grace..." she began, "Do you remember how Nick 
has a skin condition that makes it so that he can't go out 
in the sunlight?" she asked hesitantly.  Of _course_ Grace 
would remember...  She doubted anyone who knew Nick could 
ever forget that little detail, it was just a little too 
unusual to forget.  

Grace nodded.  "How could I not?  Why, is this about Nick?" 
she asked curiously.   

Nat sniffled a little bit and before she knew it a tissue 
had magically appeared in front of her eyes.  Graciously 
accepting the proffered item, she continued.  "Sort of.  
It's just that... I've been trying to find a cure for him 
for years, and now I think I may have found one..."  

Grace's face brightened up like a hundred watt light bulb.  
"Nat, honey, that's wonderful!  But then why..." her voice 
trailed off again as Natalie gave a little sob.  

"But see, Grace...  I just..." Nat sighed.  How to explain 
this without going into too many details?  Without revealing 
Nick's secret?  "Last time I thought I had found a cure it 
ended in a big disappointment, and Nick really got hurt..." 

Grace got a serious look on her face.  "How so?" she 
questioned.    

"The drug I tried had some unforeseen side effects.  Nick 
got incredibly paranoid, and pretty soon he was shooting 
the stuff up hourly.  He was addicted, Grace..." her voice 
involuntarily trailed off until she saw Grace's nod of 
encouragement that simply seemed to say, 'keep going, Nat, 
you need to talk about this'.  

Natalie continued.  "And when I discovered that the 
so-called cure I had found was just masking the symptoms 
of his disease instead of actually curing him, he went off 
the deep end...  I...  I don't know if I could put him 
through that again..."  Nat couldn't take it any more.  She 
started to sob, not caring that Grace was here to see her 
in probably one of her weakest moments.  

"Oh, honey!" Grace exclaimed softly.  "Shhh, don't cry.  
Maybe I can help you work through this..."  

Nat's tears briefly subsided and she nodded.  Any help 
would be great.  Anything at all.  She didn't really have 
anyone to talk to about Nick, except Schanke.  And well, it 
just wasn't the same as having a girlfriend to discuss 
things with.  This was as close as she'd ever get to having 
a really open conversation.  

"Does Nick know you've started working on a cure again?"  
Grace asked.  

Nat shook her head.  "We've sort of talked about trying to 
cure him again.  He's been trying all our old plans like 
dietary supplements and vitamin pills...  But...  I haven't 
told him I've been researching more drugs for him to try."  

"And you're not sure you want to tell him about this one, 
even if it may work, because you don't want another 
failure?" Grace summarized, making sure that she knew all 
the details.

Nat nodded mutely, almost ashamed that she was getting so 
worked up over a seemingly easy to solve problem.  

"Oh, Natalie..." Grace exclaimed, compassion filling her 
voice.    "Don't you think that's his decision to make 
though?  He can always say no, but if you don't give him 
that choice, you'll spend your life wondering 'What if that 
_had_ worked?'" 

"Yeah, Grace...  I suppose your right.  But...  It's 
just... so..." she paused while searching for the right 
word, "complicated."  Complicated was probably 
oversimplifying matters a bit, but it served as an adequate 
generalization.    

"Nat, with guys like Nick, it always is," Grace said with a 
teasing smile and Nat couldn't help but smile back.  Nick 
was an enigma, even to her sometimes.  And with the 
exception of herself, and possibly Schanke, she doubted 
anyone would ever truly understand him.  Not in a million 
years.  

Nat smiled again, surprised at how much better she felt, 
simply from relating her problem to someone else.  "Thanks, 
Grace.  Thanks for making me talk.  I think I'll discuss 
this with him tonight after work," she commented softly.  

"Anytime, Nat.  Free of charge!" Grace said with a wink as 
she gestured with a quick flit of her hand and sauntered out 
of the office.  

Nat grinned at her friend's joking manner, but as Grace 
quietly shut the door behind her, her grin fell into a tiny 
frown as she thought about her decision.  After work.  After 
work, she would drop the bombshell.        

*****

//His power and glory ever more proclaim.

Clapping flooded through the precinct as the last strains of 
O Holy Night died into the background.  "Bravo!" Schanke 
screamed, and then he started clapping furiously as other 
fellow officers stood up to join him.  The Christmas carols 
had been a welcome relief by practically everyone in the 
precinct, those who celebrated Christmas and those who 
didn't.  The cheer they provided transcended specific 
religious sects.         

Nick gave a reluctant, wry smile as Schanke stood and gave 
his daughter's choir group a standing ovation.  Cohen had 
reluctantly allowed them to sing two songs for the precinct, 
knowing that it would brighten up the very gloomy in-the-
proximity-of-a-holiday night shift.  Jenny, standing in the 
front row in her heavy red parka and woolen mittens, blushed 
enough to match her coat.  Schanke wisely sat down and 
turned his eyes towards a suddenly very interesting paper on 
his desk.  

Nick placed his head in his hands and sighed.  Christmas.  
This time of year had always been so...  painful.  It had 
always reminded him that he was alone.  But now, things 
were different.  He had Natalie.  And he wanted it to be 
special this year.  But how? 

"So, Nick," Schanke began, apparently finally noticing that 
his partner didn't look as happy as everyone else did.  
"What's wrong?  The carols...  They didn't..."  Schanke 
glanced left and right as if he were checking to make sure 
no one was watching, "hurt you, did they?" he asked 
seriously.

"Huh?" Nick asked before he finally realized what on Earth 
Schanke was talking about.  "No!  Nononono, only crosses, 
Schank.  And blessed objects.  Churches, holy water...  But 
the day a Christmas carol kills me will be the day I drink 
one of Nat's protein shakes and like it," he assured his 
worried partner, chuckling in spite of himself.  

He had to admire Schanke.  He was really trying to get 
everything straight.  It had been two months since that 
awful mess with Infaustus, a little over three since he'd 
come back from his year with LaCroix, and ever since then, 
Schanke had been drilling him about every little aspect 
of his vampirism.  Schanke wanted to know everything, from 
how fast he could fly, to if he _really_ could turn into 
a bat.  _That_, had sent Nick into rolls of laughter, but it 
touched him that Schank had cared enough to ask.  

He knew there was a constant effort by Schanke to make him 
feel accepted, and he couldn't thank him more for it.  No 
one had ever made him feel so...  so...  normal.  

Nick was broken from his musings when Schanke finally 
responded.  "I don't see what's so funny about it...  Here 
you coulda been dying a slow death by Christmas carols, and 
you're sitting here laughing about it," Schanke said with 
a smile on his face.  Although he was joking Nick could 
detect a small hint of something more underneath...  Like 
maybe something like that could actually happen and Schanke 
was afraid...

"Schanke, will you relax?  I'm practically indestructible, 
you really don't need to worry..."  Nick assured him, 
leaning back into his chair with a complacent grin, but 
practically flying over backwards when the wheels of his 
chair slipped and sent his arms reeling to maintain his 
balance.  When he finally regained his equilibrium, Schanke 
was laughing heartily.  

"That wasn't funny, Schanke..." he said, feeling a strange 
heat on the skin of his cheeks.  If he was capable of 
blushing, which he really wasn't sure of one way or another, 
he was certain that this would be a good indicator.  

"Oh, Nick," Schanke stopped as he broke into more gales of 
laughter.  "The look on your face..." he managed to get out 
between wheezes.  "I'm pretty indestructible," Schanke said 
and thumped his chest, mimicking Nick in his best 'I'm Mr. 
Nick Knight.  Supercop extraordinaire' impression.  

Nick felt a growl forming in his throat, but he was stopped 
as Jenny came bounding up to them, like her feet were made 
of pogo-sticks and tensely coiled springs.  "Daddy!!!" she 
cried gleefully, skidding to a stop just in front of her 
chortling father.   

Schanke sat up, finally stopping his monstrous laughter.  
"Hi, pumpkin.  Wonderful job, Jenny," he said 
enthusiastically as he gave his daughter a hearty hug.  "The 
precinct loved you!"   

Jenny's eyes got wide at her dad's sincere compliments.  
"Really?"  

Nick took that moment to break in to the conversation.  He 
reached over and patted Jenny on the shoulder 
affectionately.    "Absolutely!  I haven't heard a better 
rendition of O Holy Night since 1872!"  

Jenny playfully batted him on the arm.  "Awwww, Nick, you 
are _so_ lying!  You weren't alive then..." she said with a 
very serious, matter-of-fact tone.  It was as if she felt 
herself a teacher on the subject.   

"Shoot, you got me..." Nick conceded defeat, even though 
he'd actually been serious.  He hadn't thought she'd really 
pay attention to that.  "Well at least not since I was a 
kid.  And that was in...  uh...  um...  the 1960s.  I 
think..."  Nick said, scratching his head.  When was his 
birthday in this life supposed to be again?  So much 
switching around got him pretty mixed up when he tried to 
remember fake dates.  He had enough trouble with the real 
ones.

Jenny gave him a big grin and kissed him on the cheek.  
"Well, thanks for the compliment anyway," she said as she 
glanced passed them towards where the others were all 
standing, bundled in their heavy winter coats.  "Oops, I've 
gotta go," she said.  "Bye, Nick.  Bye, Dad!" she cried, 
and then she bounded off towards her friends in what seemed 
like hyperspeed.  

Nick all at once felt incredibly old.  Had he been that 
hyper when he was a child?  He hoped not.  It was a wonder 
his mother hadn't killed him if it were so.  

He glanced up at Schanke, who was staring at him with a 
smirk.  "What?" he asked innocently, but he already had a 
pretty good idea where this was going...  

"Oh, come on, Nick!  1872?" Schanke asked sarcastically, 
rolling his eyes.  

"Yeah, it was in France..."  Nick said, his voice 
subconsciously reverting to his native accent, sighing as he 
began to remember...

"WOAH!  Nick!  Back the flashback trolley up there.  I don't 
need the gory details," Schanke commented as he thwapped 
Nick on the head with a hand roll of papers.  He had learned 
that procedure as an almost fail-proof flashback 
annihilator.   

Nick shook himself slightly, briefly disoriented by the 
quickly changing centuries.  "Sorry," he mumbled 
apologetically.  He knew his little habit of flashing back 
to the past was more than just a little annoying.  Luckily 
most people just thought he was spacey, rather than 
suffering from perfect recall. 

"Seriously, Nick.  What was bothering you earlier?" his 
partner questioned him, this time more seriously.  

It took Nick a moment to get back to the original subject of 
their conversation.  "Oh, I don't know.  I was kinda trying 
to figure out how I'm going to make this Christmas special 
for me and Nat..." he glanced over at Schanke only to see 
his partner staring at him with a wicked gleam in his eye.  
"Schank...  That's not what I meant..." Nick hastily 
explained. 

"Sure, partner...  Sure..." Schanke assured him, albeit with 
the most scheming tone Nick had ever heard.  "Seriously 
though?  You've got two weeks.  Fourteen whole days, and at 
least you don't have a nine-year-old to shop for.  I'm sure 
you'll think of something."  

"Yeah, well, I'm sure coming up blank right now..."  Nick 
sighed wistfully as he wracked his brain for ideas.  
Anything would suffice at this point.   

"I'd suggest that you volunteer to do the laundry and the 
dishes for a week.  Women always like that," Captain Cohen 
said seriously as she walked up, only her slight smile 
betraying the fact that she was amused by her star 
detectives' discussion.  

Nick and Schanke sat up straight and at attention the moment 
their superior officer interrupted the conversation.  
"Sorry, Captain.  We really were working on paperwork..." 
Schanke began an actually reasonable sounding excuse, wildly 
searching his desk for _any_ partially filled out form that 
would back him up, but Cohen raised her hand to shut him up.  

"Boys, relax.  I just came to let you know that you'll be 
getting an associate to work with for the next few days.  
She just arrived and is sitting in my office as we speak," 
Cohen told them, waiting for the explosion.  This had the 
potential to not go over well.   

"Associate?" Nick questioned somewhat suspiciously at the 
same time that Schanke squeaked, "She?!"  

"She's here from higher up.  Consider it an evaluation of 
our police department.  I decided to stick her with my best 
pair of detectives," Cohen tried to assure them, hoping 
that this wasn't a mistake.   They already looked plenty 
apprehensive.  

"Yes, consider me that, if you will..."  

Nick and Schanke both turned at the interruption, and upon 
a quick glance, Nick couldn't help but wonder if Schanke's 
mouth could drop any farther.  It already looked like he'd 
disconnected his jaw from his skull.  "Schanke, close your 
mouth," he whispered out of the side of his mouth, trying 
not to make it appear obvious that he'd said anything.  

"Gentlemen, meet Alihra Dale," the Captain gestured to the 
stunning woman who had just appeared before them.  Stunning.  
That was an understatement.  

She was about 5'9", clothed in a rather striking black 
business suit.  Her waist-length, jet-black hair was pulled 
back into a smooth black ponytail, pulled so tightly that it 
looked like a skull-cap.  She was thin, but not too thin 
like the sickly looking models that frequented the fashion 
runways.  This was a healthy-looking thin.  And her skin, it 
was the color of smooth, milk-chocolate.  Very tan, almost 
Indian-looking.  But not quite.  

Nick couldn't help but stare.  Her eyes, though, they were 
the most striking he'd ever seen.  The irises were a deep 
emerald green, with streaks of gold clawing outward from 
the pupils, all of which were framed by the fullest looking 
set of eyelashes he'd ever seen.  They looked... almost 
feline.  Animal...  

He looked in those eyes...  and he was lost.  Lost in the 
depths.  He swallowed hard as he felt himself drowning in 
those endless pools of green.  Thump-thump.  Thump-thump.  
The sound of her deliciously mortal heart was drumming in 
his ears like a raging thunder, and all he could think 
about was her warm blood running down his throat.  
Delicious...  He licked his lips in anticipation.  

And suddenly, he was back in the precinct.  He shook his 
head, disoriented.  What on Earth had happened?  That had 
been downright strange...  He looked at Alihra after 
regaining some equilibrium.  Something...  There was 
something... wrong... about her...  He squinted his eyes 
lightly as he tried to analyze her on sight alone.

"Alihra, this is Detective Nick Knight, and this is 
Detective Don Schanke.  You'll be working with them for the 
next few weeks," Cohen said, gesturing in turn to each Nick 
and Schanke with her thin, crisply tanned hand.  "I just got 
a call, we've got a bad one.  Here are the specifics," Cohen 
said as she handed them a thick manila folder.  "Now," she 
added, "I'll just leave you three to get acquainted, and 
then you can all head down to the crime scene.  Forensics is 
already there."  

With that, Cohen walked off, and Nick almost regretted that 
she had to go.  For some reason, he felt like he didn't want 
to be left alone with this mysterious woman...  He shook his 
head.  He was probably just imagining things.  Yes, 
imagining things.  That was it.  

Alihra gave a wide smile as Cohen departed, showing her 
gorgeous pearly white teeth with no shame.  "Uh-LEAR-uh..."  
Schanke tested out her name carefully, shaking her hand as 
she proffered it.  

"Yes, Detective, that is correct..." she confirmed with a 
slight accent.  Although for the life of him, Nick couldn't 
quite place its origin.  Definitely middle-eastern, or 
thereabouts.

Schanke swallowed heard.  "Don...  You can call me Don," he 
squeaked, sounding as if someone was forcing all the air 
out his lungs like an accordion, nearly dropping the manila 
folder that he had been so desperately clinging to since 
Cohen had given it to him.  

Alihra smiled again.  "All right then," she paused and then 
spit his name out as if it was a difficult thing to say, 
"Don."  She then turned to him, and he could feel his throat 
constricting wildly.  "And should I call you, Nick?" she 
asked, turning her glance towards Nick.  

Nick felt a lump forming steadily in his throat.  "Uh, yes, 
that'll be fine," he managed to utter before his voice 
abandoned him.  The woman's presence was overwhelming, even 
though it looked like she didn't even notice the effect she 
was having on both him and Schanke.

"So, uh, Alihra, can we call you Ali?" Schanke questioned 
jokingly, trying to lighten the tense mood.  Two males on 
testosterone overdrive and one gorgeous woman did not make 
for good conversation.

Her smile faded and her somewhat friendly glance turned to 
a cold stare, her deliciously green eyes on fire.  "No, you 
may call me Alihra."  And with that, she turned and headed 
towards the door of the precinct, her heels clicking loudly 
on the floor. 

Schanke stared at Nick.  Nick stared at Schanke.  Woah...  
"I didn't think that was such a controversial question, did 
you?" Schanke asked, completely confused.  Nick just 
shrugged.  That had been the most bizarre encounter he'd 
ever had...      

Shaking their heads slightly, they both quickly grabbed 
their coats and raced out the door after Ms. Dale, hoping to 
catch her before she actually left without them.  This was 
going to be an interesting night.  An interesting one 
indeed.  

*****

The Caddy was deafeningly quiet as the three drove to the 
crime scene.  Oozing trails of pale vapor trailed out of 
Nick's mouth as he sighed, and hearing Schanke's subtly 
chattering teeth behind him, he cursed himself for not 
remembering to fix the stupid heater.  Schanke had been 
complaining about it nonstop since he'd come back, and he 
was sure to hear more of it as soon as Alihra was gone if he
didn't get it repaired.  

Alihra...  Nick glanced out of the corner of his eye to 
Alihra, who was sitting in Schanke's usual spot, seemingly 
unaffected by the bitter chill.  Despite the nervousness 
instilled in him by the situation, he smiled.  She'd usurped 
Schanke's supreme reign of 'shotgun' and Schanke hadn't had 
the guts to tell her that she should sit in the back.

"So why exactly _are_ you here?"  Schanke asked innocently 
from the backseat, apparently trying to get a conversation 
started.  Nick chose to remain silent and not join in.  He 
didn't want to talk with this woman if he could help it.  
There was something that just didn't rub right about her.  
Not at all.  And it bothered him immensely.  

"I believe Captain Cohen said I was here to observe..."  
Alihra said absently, never tearing her catlike eyes from 
the road passing by beneath them.  It was as if she felt 
above them in some way, like they had no business 
questioning her motives.

"Uhhh, can you be a tad more specific?" Schanke prodded, 
gesturing with his thumb and index finger to indicate a 
small amount, but to no avail.  

"No," she said tersely, smiling arrogantly when she looked 
in the rearview mirror to see Schanke's stunned expression.  
Nick felt himself growing angry at her rudeness, and his lip 
began to quiver slightly from the effort it took  to 
suppress a growl.  Even if she was their superior, she had 
no right to treat them the way she was.  No right!  

He found himself taking several deep breaths just to control 
himself.  His fingers clenched the steering wheel 
desperately, his knuckles turning white from the intense 
pressure.  With great effort, he loosened his hold so as to 
save his precious steering wheel.  And despite the rage 
gnawing at his mind, he wisely remained silent.   

"Well...  So where are you from?  You have a most unusual 
accent..."  Nick raised an eyebrow, surprised that Schanke 
had even noticed that, it was very subtle.  

Alihra ignored his question and turned to Nick with a face 
of stone.  No emotion.  It was if she wasn't human.  "Tell 
me, Nick," she paused at his name, saying it 
condescendingly with a slight curl of her lip, "How do you 
feel right now?"  Her voice was sickly sweet, like an 
overripe nectarine, and it almost made him nauseous. 

"Pardon?" Nick asked, unsure as to what on Earth this 
mysterious woman was getting at.  This was disconcerting, 
not being in control of the conversation for once.  With 
mortals, he'd always felt safe from their prying, and yet, 
with this woman, he not only felt compelled to answer, he 
found himself actually getting fearful.  

Alihra attempted to clarify, sighing slightly before she 
began again, "How do you feel, knowing that you are about 
to start a murder case?"

That was an odd question...  "Sad, I guess...  That people 
are terrible enough sometimes that they wind up killing 
each other..." he answered, somewhat truthfully.  He could 
see Schanke nodding minutely in agreement through the 
rearview mirror, but the look on Alihra's face was not one 
of agreement at all.      

"Do you not feel exhilarated, knowing that a hunt is about 
to begin?" she asked seriously, his previous answer not 
satisfying her for some reason.  

At the undercurrent of passion in her voice, Nick felt his 
heart freeze in his chest.  God, yes.  That's how he always 
felt, not that he ever told anyone about it.  And here, this 
exotic woman who had walked into his life not an hour before 
had hit him right on the mark.  It was as if this woman knew 
him from the inside out, more so than he knew himself, and 
his mind began clawing wildly for answers.  Who was she?  "I 
don't..." he struggled to speak, "I don't see what you're 
driving at..." he lied weakly.    

And she knew.  She knew he was lying.  The look on her face 
confirmed it.  He swallowed hard, trying to shrink back into 
the seat and out of her wicked gaze.  "Yes, you do," Alihra 
whispered, her voice deep and rich.  Threatening.  "That is 
why you do this job.  You like the power you feel when you 
catch your offender.  It gives you a rush...  A thrill..."  
Her voice grew a strained edge to it, and it sounded almost 
like she was commanding him to feel that way, not that he 
needed her prodding. 

Oh, yes...  The rush...  The adrenaline...  The power...  
That was what it was about.  That was always what it was 
about.  If he could atone at the same time as feeding his 
desires, all the better, but they were always there, under 
the surface, no matter how he tried to equate it with making 
up for his past sins.  

Nick clenched his teeth as he felt himself start to pant, 
not able to stop himself from licking his lips.  He thought 
in detail about what was to come, the chase, the tracking, 
like a game of hide-and-seek with deliciously exhilarating 
consequences.  The vampire screamed inside him for release.  
Let the hunt begin NOW!  Closing his eyes briefly, although 
not long enough to jeopardize his passengers, he inhaled as 
fully as he could.  "No..." he denied her words hoarsely, 
suddenly becoming very hungry.

She raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow, but thankfully, 
they had arrived at their destination before she could 
respond to his blatant lie.  "Oh, look... We're here," he 
sighed, his voice dripping with relief.  God, anything to 
get away from this woman.  This woman who had basically 
sifted through his entire soul in mere minutes.  

All three got out of the car and into the bitter cold 
simultaneously, resounding thuds following in quick 
succession as three car doors harshly slammed shut.  Schanke 
was looking at the two of them strangely, but Nick chose to 
ignore it in favor of beginning the investigation as quickly 
as possible.  The faster it began, the faster it would be 
over, and the faster Alihra would be gone.

The alley was teaming with forensics crews.  Nick walked 
deliberately through the crowd, not caring that he'd left 
his partner adrift behind with _her_.  Finally free of her 
strange arrogance and eerie gaze, he looked around and took 
in his surroundings.

The alley was small, probably only about six feet wide, 
maybe seven.  Red brick walls rose above the white concrete, 
making it cave-like and claustrophobic.  No streetlights 
graced the walkway at all, the only illumination being 
provided by the forensics crews so that the alley could be 
thoroughly searched and whatnot.  Luckily, even though the 
alley was still dim by mortal standards, he was quite at 
home and able to see from the alley's mouth all the way to 
where it ended about fifteen yards down in a heaping pile of 
trash. 

He searched the crowd, sweeping his eyes over the dozen or 
so people milling about.  Smiling when he caught sight of 
her, he strode towards his favorite coroner with a sudden 
purpose.  "Natalie!" he called, not caring that people saw 
him acting so informal with her.  He wasn't hiding anymore.  
Everyone from here to Timbuktu knew about their 
relationship, and he wasn't going to do anything to hide it.  
He was through hiding, at least with this...   

She turned slightly upon hearing her name called, but the 
look on her face was filled with a quiet tension, not the 
pleasure he would've expected.  Worry lines creased her 
delicate forehead as she tried to bury herself further in 
the warmth of he brown, ankle length coat and he immediately 
rushed over.  "Nat, what is it?" he questioned her, his 
tone betraying his sudden worry.  

"Nick, you'd better take a look at this," she gestured 
towards the body, her voice tired, wavering slightly as she 
pointed downwards.  No hi, no hello, just a gesture towards 
the cold, very dead man on the ground.  

"Nat?" he questioned as he snapped on some rubber gloves 
automatically and looked down.  And then he froze.  The 
body was splayed on the ground like a rag doll, the head 
turned towards the pavement and the right shoulder pointing 
skyward, in a perfect angle for him to view the pale neck 
of the victim.

There were two neat little puncture marks right on top of 
the jugular where the base of the neck met the shoulder.  
He gasped.  "And I can't tell when it happened either.  
It's too damn cold out, and it's screwing with my 
calculations.  Nick, what should I do?  I haven't seen one 
of these since... well since before you left!" she sighed, 
obviously frustrated.  

"Just say it was a wild animal, Nat.  I'll find the one who 
did this, just leave that to me..." he started to say, his 
mind filling with rage all over again.  Stupid fledglings.  
That's who left bodies out carelessly like this.  It 
sickened him.  He was almost into a tirade when he noticed 
that Nat was not really saying anything.  

"Nat?"  He hugged her tightly and kissed her forehead, 
ignoring the smiles from several nearby peoples who were 
_obviously_ not watching them...  "Nat, what's the matter?  
Don't worry, I _will_ take care of this..." he assured her, 
confused as to what had upset her so.

"I need to talk with you, Nick.  After work, come back to 
the loft right away, ok?"  He felt himself practically melt 
as he saw Nat's large blue eyes searching his own hopefully.  

"Sure, Nat," he said, slightly confused.  What could 
possibly be so important?  He was about to ask her why when 
Schanke and Alihra walked up.  

"Jeez, Nick.  You could've waited for us, you know!"  
Schanke said with a murderous glare.  He'd apparently felt 
the same way about Alihra that Nick did.  "Anyway, I checked 
around while you were courting our dear coroner.  Harry 
McKenzie.  32.  Single.  No witnesses to the actual murder, 
but we know that he left to go on a smoking break at around 
two A.M.  He left quite alive.  And now, he's very dead..."  
Schanke trailed off under Nick's glare of death.  "What?" 
he asked, slightly miffed. 

Nick just pointed to the neck of the victim.  Luckily, 
Schanke got it immediately and no clarifying was necessary, 
not that he could've said anything with Alihra standing 
right there.  "Oh," Schanke said quietly, looking slightly 
worried at the direction this case was taking.  This was 
the first vampire kill he'd ever seen with the prior 
knowledge that vampires existed.  

Alihra looked down at the victim as well.  "What, I don't 
see anything..." she commented while she stared at the body 
curiously, her voice losing all previous hint of arrogance 
and being replaced by utter inquisitiveness...  "What's 
that, did a dog bite the guy or something?" she asked, with 
all the innocence of a two year old.

Natalie took this moment to step in, clearing her throat.  
"Animal attack.  Probably a rabid dog, we should notify 
animal control...  But I can't guarantee anything until I've 
done the autopsy.  Which won't be until...  tomorrow, since 
the shift is almost over..." she said absently, glancing 
down at her watch.  

Nick was stunned.  She wasn't going to stay overtime to do 
the autopsy?  Not that she really needed to do one, the 
cause of death was obvious, at least to three out of four 
members of the party.  Whatever she had to talk about back 
at the loft must be pretty damned important...  Oh God, what 
if she was ill?  Dying?  What if she was going to break up 
with him...  His mind started playing through all sorts of 
terrible news when Nat's voice brought him back to the 
present. 

"Nick, hellooooo?"  Her hand was waving in front of his 
face.  She hadn't the heart to thwap him with stuff like 
Schanke did...  He blinked as she continued.  "Are you going 
to introduce me to your new friend?" Nat said, looking at 
Alihra with a slight look of...  What, was it curiosity?  

Friend!?  That was a laugh...  He recovered himself from his 
musings to issue a rather reluctant introduction.  "Uh, 
Natalie, meet Alihra Dale.  She's observing us.  Alihra, 
meet Dr. Natalie Lambert," Nick said, sweeping his hands 
between the two. 

"Hello, Dr. Lambert," Alihra said sweetly as she took her 
hand into a firm grasp.  "It's good to meet Nick's 
significant other."

Nick nearly choked.  Significant other?  It was true... but 
he hadn't told her.  He looked at Schanke, who just 
shrugged.  He was as in the dark as Nick was.  

Natalie's eyes darted back and forth between Alihra and 
Nick suspiciously, and then to Schanke.  "Hi..." she said 
warily, but her voice trailed off as she stared into 
Alihra's eyes.  It was like she was being hypnotized, and 
Nick watched in astonishment as she just kind of froze there 
for a second before quickly withdrawing her hand.  "Well, 
uh, Alihra.  Nice to meet you...  Nick, it's almost sunrise.  
You should get going..." she said distractedly, prodding him 
slightly with her hands, but more with the worried look in 
her eyes.  
   
"Yes.  Yes I should..." he confirmed.  Now that he was 
paying attention to it, Nick could feel the tingling 
sensation in his head that meant the sun was sure to rise 
shortly.  He looked at Nat.  "You'll catch up to me?" he 
asked quietly.  Upon receiving her nod, he looked to 
Schanke.  "C'mon Schanke, Alihra.  Unless you have something 
else that you need to do here, I'll drive you back to the 
precinct."  

Schanke nodded.  "Sure, Nick.  That won't be cutting it too 
close will it?"  

Alihra looked at him quizzically and started before Nick 
could answer, "It's still an hour until sunrise.  Unless his 
allergy kicks in in indirect light, it shouldn't be a 
problem," she stated matter-of-factly, looking over to him 
with a gaze that simply screamed, 'just try and prove me 
wrong!'  

Nick was dumbfounded.  He'd never told her about his 
'allergy'.  Again he looked to Schanke and again he received 
a shrug.  This woman...  She knew things that she wasn't 
supposed to know...  He looked at her strangely, but was 
nearly knocked flat when she returned his gaze dead on with 
a smile.  

His blood went cold.  She knew.  Somehow, she knew about 
him.  No, her reaction to the body that'd been found was too 
naive.  She couldn't know.  Could she?  

He would have to look into this.  But now was not the time.

*****

Natalie tapped her foot anxiously as the lift engaged and 
began its slow trek up to the second floor of Nick's 
building.  Why did this thing have to be so slow?  She was 
practically ready to jump out of her skin by the time the 
thing finally lumbered into place.

With a mighty heave, she slid the lift door aside only to 
be greeted by the sight of Nick, pacing restlessly by the 
stairs like a impatient lion.  "Nat!" he cried as she came 
into the bleak expanse of the loft.  "I've been waiting 
since the sun came up, what took you so long?" he asked 
rather harshly, looking irritated that she'd not arrived 
as promptly as he obviously had.  

Nat, surprised, glanced at her watch.  "Nick, it's only 
fifteen minutes after sunrise...  I had some quick 
paperwork to fill out on the body.  You know standard 
procedure," she answered defensively.  She'd come home as 
quickly as she could, and that would have to be good enough 
for him.  

Nick sighed, and she saw his tense shoulders give way into 
a slump as he brought his pained eyes to look into hers.  "I 
know, I'm sorry," he apologized quickly, but the strain in 
his voice was still very evident.  "I just got worried when 
you told me that you really needed to talk.  Please, what is 
it?" he pleaded, walking up to her and giving her a quick 
hug and a kiss.  

She chuckled.  "Nick, I'm sorry, it's not anything bad.  At 
least, I didn't think it would be," she commented softly, 
returning his hug and guiding him towards his big, black 
leather couch.  They needed to sit for this talk.  She 
lightly shoved him down onto the sofa and then sat herself 
down next to him.  

Taking a deep breath, she looked at him only to find him 
watching her expectantly.  "Nick, I think I may have found 
a possible cure," she stated bluntly, knowing that it would 
be no use to slowly build up to the news.  

His jaw dropped open.  "Nat, I didn't know you were working 
on a cure, aside from the protein shakes I mean..." he 
exclaimed, slightly suspicious. 

She stopped him and attempted to explain before he thought 
too much about her secrecy and got angry at it.  They had a 
very open relationship, and she knew it would bug him 
immensely that she'd kept this from him, especially since it 
wasn't just a little tiny secret.  "I didn't want to get 
your hopes up," she admitted softly.  "I _still_ don't, but 
the only way I can go any further with this is to try it out 
on you."  

"But...  I'm not sure if I'm really up to being guinea pig 
again..." he said cautiously.  Normally he would've jumped 
at the chance, but lately, Nat had found that he was getting 
more and more wary as each cure was tried and failed.  He'd 
tried drugs like Lidovuterine and ended with disastrous 
results, he'd tried supernatural cures and ended with the 
same.  The more he tried, the more he doubted.  And the more 
he doubted, the less he was willing to try.  It was as if 
his hope was slowly being crushed.  

"Nick, this is a lot like the Lidovuterine," she paused when 
she saw his wince.  That was still a sore spot with him.  
For months after taking the Lidovuterine, he still had 
little withdrawal attacks.  Cold sweats, stomach pain, the 
works.  Like an ex-smoker who had to deal with the 
occasional urge to light up and take a drag, except to the 
point that it made him occasionally ill.  And although she 
hadn't seen anything like it since he'd come back from 
LaCroix, she suspected the addiction was still there, lying 
under the surface, waiting for the right moment to pop up.     
    
"It's different though.  The Lidovuterine wasn't nearly as 
effective on your blood samples as this stuff, and it's 
lacking in the psychotropic chemicals that the Lidovuterine 
had.  I don't think it'll have the same effect mentally, but 
physically it looks like it'll pack much more of a bang."  

"More bang?" Nick questioned cautiously.  He was obviously 
getting more interested in this as time went on, but he was 
still in no way ready to commit.  

"Well, when I added the Lidovuterine to your blood samples, 
the vampire element was kind of...  well it just 
disappeared.  It was dormant.  Hidden.  The Lyzatrex, that's 
the drug I've found, seems to actually attack your extra 
nucleotides and it destroys them.  That way, you won't have 
to worry about dormant nucleotides becoming active again," 
she explained, trying desperately not to lapse into her 
erudite 'medical-speak' that always left him clueless and 
completely confused.

"Attacks them?  That sounds like it would hurt..." he 
whispered with a slightly fearful edge.  Nat could tell that 
he still remembered painful application of the Lidovuterine 
all too well.   

"I can't say that it won't hurt, but we can try it in small 
doses at first until we're sure of how much you can safely 
tolerate.  I would suggest using it in conjunction with 
curare, but if we kill the vampire element in your blood, 
the curare would kill you the second you became mortal," she 
said bluntly, only realizing how blunt when she saw him 
cringe.  

She rushed to continue.  "But Nick, I won't make the same 
mistakes I did last time.  I'll monitor you much more 
closely, and I certainly won't let you take the Lyzatrex 
with you this time...  I really think this might work if we 
give it a try and we're careful about it.  Lord knows I 
don't want a repeat of the last time any more than you 
do..."  

"Ok." 

"And now that Schanke's in on your secret, we can have him 
help.  At the first sign of any trouble we can..." she found 
her voice trailing off as she processed what he had just 
said.  "Wait.  Did you just say ok?" she asked, completely 
surprised by his sudden acquiescence.  

Nick smiled, giving her a goofy, lopsided grin.  "Nat, I 
trust you.  If you think it's worth a try, then I'll do it," 
he said seriously and then he added, "I don't blame you for 
the Lidovuterine, and despite the disastrous results, that 
was as close as I've ever gotten to being mortal.  Doesn't 
that saying go something like, 'try, try again?'" he asked 
her playfully. 

"But..." she felt herself starting to protest. 

"Or was that, 'no pain, no gain...'" he said, looking up as 
though he were deep in thought, grasping for more cliched 
quotes.

"But..." she said like a broken record.

"Nat, I said yes.  That's what you wanted, right?"  She 
nodded slowly in response.  "Well then quite arguing with 
me!" he stated, giving her a playful punch in the arm.  

"Ok," Nat said dreamily.  He'd actually said yes.  This had 
been easier than she had first thought.  "If we leave early 
for work tomorrow, I can administer the first dose 
tomorrow..." her voice trailed off as Nick took her into an 
abrupt, yet very passionate kiss.

"Nat..." he mumbled between kisses as he pulled away from 
her lips and started trailing his lips down her pale neck, 
"Why don't you explain the details later.  I can think of 
much better ways to spend the morning..."

She moaned softly as he caressed her, and her skin felt like 
it was on fire.  "Hmmm-mmm," she agreed quietly as he began 
to remove her shirt gently.  There was a very light thud as 
her garment leapt from his fingers and onto the floor, but 
she didn't really notice.  She was too enraptured to care.

*****        

Nick sat down heavily into Nat's chair, wrinkling his nose 
as the smell of formaldehyde wafted through his sensitive
nostrils.  He sighed, trying to ignore his growing sense of 
unease.  Nat was tapping a syringe lightly with her index 
finger to get the air bubbles out, and he watched with a 
leery gaze as the dim fluorescent lighting transformed Nat's 
office into something out of a mad scientist's laboratory.  

"Are you sure you want to do this, Nick?"  Nat asked 
doubtfully, her questioning eyes noticing that he'd begun to 
tremble a little bit.  

He nodded mutely, but the sense of unease grew from a mere 
nagging sensation in the back of his mind, to a panic of 
sorts.  He felt an increasing sensation of being trapped, a 
cold feeling enveloping his heart like the walls were 
closing in around him and he had no way to escape.  True, 
he'd agreed quite readily last night, but now he wasn't so 
sure.  Not at all.  Was he really ready to try this again?  
Was he really ready for the pain?  The disappointment?  The 
failure?  

The last time hadn't worked, except to give him a bunch of 
unnecessary pain and heartache.  The last time...  His chest 
giving a mighty heave, he sighed restlessly as he began to 
remember...

FLASHBACK - TORONTO 1995

The pain was incredible.  Explosions of color flooded his 
vision like a flamboyant bouquet of fireworks, and all at 
once he was so hot he was freezing.  Sweat dripped down his 
brow as the agony raced through his tortured nerves and he 
began to shake spasmodically.  This was worse than any time 
before, and yet he wanted it more than anything.  He needed 
it to the point his very being was screaming for it.  For 
sanctuary from his explosive bloodlust.

More.  His lip twitched in readiness.  He needed more, the 
vampire was still alive within him, quivering in his chest 
as it protested weakly against the onslaught of the drug.  

With trembling hand and panting breath, he drew up another 
syringe from the vial of Lidovuterine and closed his eyes.  
Pain, sweet pain.  All over again he collapsed to the floor 
and screamed as the toxic serum saturated his system.  
Muscles tensing, nerves rapidly firing, he felt his stomach 
begin to object and flutter about crazily, but he was too 
wild with delirious agony to care.    

Peace.  Calm.  

He began to laugh as the euphoria swept over him and took 
him into its clutches, the pain washing away on a receding 
riptide.  He sighed as his body went limp and relaxed.  So 
completely spent, he couldn't even lift himself off his 
cold, wooden floor and into a suitable chair.  

"Nick!"  The roll of thunder peeled through his head, and 
it felt like his innards were being ripped to pieces. 

He rolled his head over towards the sound invading his 
private nirvana.  The room was so incredibly bright, like 
staring into an eclipse.  Squinting, he tried to identify 
the blurry form standing above him like a weeping angel.  
"Nat?" he mumbled as she placed a cold hand on his sweat-
slicked forehead.  

"Nick...  You've got a fever.  You took it again, didn't 
you..."  It was a statement more than a question.  One that 
carried great disappointment as well as guilt.  She blamed 
herself...

Laughing, he looked around at the kaleidoscope of colors.  
"I...  I guess I did..." he said, not quite sure if he had 
or not.  Although that would explain why he felt so relaxed 
and yet so deliciously awful at the same time.  "I needed 
it," he stated with a snide curl of his lip, a cruel inhuman 
tone in his voice.  And yet, at the same time, he knew that 
what he'd said wasn't true.  It was only causing him pain...  

"Nick!  This is a psychotropic drug!  You do _not_ need it!" 
she cried, the sound ringing through his ears along with the 
racing beat of his own laboring heart.  

He blinked.  And then the nausea raced up from behind and 
claimed him without any warning at all.  He rolled over 
slightly and vomited blood all over himself until he was 
trembling.  Until he had nothing left.  No strength, no 
dignity, nothing.  What had he become?  How had he 
allowed this to happen?  

He let out a sob as Nat began to cry.  But he was too weak 
to do much else.  

THE PRESENT

Nick shook himself from the awful memory, gasping at the 
horrid nightmare that had become his life.  God, he didn't 
want to be like that again.  He didn't.  Not in a million 
years.  

"Nick?  Are you ready?" Nat asked for his confirmation, the 
syringe ready for its intended use.  The silence broken, he 
looked down and noticed for the first time that she'd 
already tied off his arm with a piece of latex tubing.    

He stared at the needle, which was dripping slightly, and he 
couldn't help but swallow hard.  A small bead of bloodsweat 
trailed down the side of his forehead in a lazy, winding 
path, and Nat saw it almost instantly, hastily wiping it 
away with a latex gloved hand.  

"Nick, if you have any doubts, I don't want to do this," Nat 
stated, placing the dripping syringe on the desk beside him 
for emphasis.  He stared at the small needle sitting 
silently on the desk, briefly weighing his options.

"No, Nat.  I need to do this.  I need to.  If not for the 
cure, for my own peace of mind," he responded quietly, 
assuring her that she was doing the right thing.  What he 
said _was_ true.  This fear needed to be overcome if he and 
Nat were ever going to get anywhere on a cure.  It was 
obvious, however, that she was not entirely convinced. 

Nat picked up the syringe again, but still looked at him 
doubtfully.  "Really, Nat.  I'm sure.  Just do it," he 
commanded her and then he closed his eyes, not able to 
watch. 

He felt the prick of the needle, but everything else was 
a blur.  "Well?" Nat was saying anxiously, but he couldn't 
bring himself to respond.  There was already a dull ache 
in his veins and he felt it escalating with alarming 
swiftness.  An ache.  A twang.  A shooting pain.  And then 
it was unadulterated agony.  

Through the intensifying roar, he heard himself cry out, and 
he could feel Nat's arms enclose him in a safe cocoon, but 
the rest was waterfalls of sensation.  Skin crawling, rapid 
panting, sweating brow...  Trying to ride it out, he 
clenched his teeth and rested his head against Nat's 
supportive shoulder, her soothing hand running through his 
dampened hair, combing out his mussy blond mane as he 
writhed painfully in her grip.

Help... Help me!  He wanted to scream through the abyss and 
the chasms of blackness that bit at his consciousness.  Stop 
it!  And amazingly, it did.  Taking a deep breath as the 
pain went fleeting away as quickly as it had come, he 
realized he was quaking.  Only Nat's strong grasp had kept 
him upright.  "Nat?" he asked shakily, making sure that he 
wasn't just imagining things.  That she _was_ there.  

"Nick...  How do you feel?" she asked, her voice strained.  
As painful as that had been for him, he was certain it had 
been worse for her to watch, knowing that he was inflicting 
such pain upon himself at her suggestion.  

He lifted his head up and immediately regretted it, the 
dizziness completely disorienting him until he barely knew 
which way was up.  "I feel...  weird..." he said weakly, 
biting back a light wave of nausea.  He didn't really know 
how he felt, except that whatever it was, it most certainly 
wasn't right.

"Define weird..." she stated cautiously, her eyes narrowing 
slightly at his lacking description..  

How was he supposed to define weird?  That was a good 
question.  "I feel... not mortal.  But not vampire...  I...  
I don't know..." he struggled for the correct words to 
describe how he felt, still confused as to what was going 
on.  Trying to call up the vampire, he found that his fangs 
would not descend.  And yet... he could still feel the beast 
slumbering within him, a quiet raging monster just waiting 
to be released.  He was startled from his thoughts felt 
something cold sneaking between the buttons of his black 
silk shirt and onto his chest.  Looking down, he saw Nat 
gently placing a stethoscope on his left pectoral muscle.  

"Well, your heart is beating really slow, but much faster 
than it should be.  Take a deep breath and let it out 
slowly..." He complied, growing worried when she said 
nothing.  

"Again."  He did so and again was greeted with silence.  
Opening his mouth to ask what was up, he was quite startled 
when a thermometer was relentlessly shoved into his mouth 
and all that he managed to utter was a smothered "hmmpff!"  

He sighed frustratedly and repositioned it more carefully 
underneath his tongue.  After several moments, Nat pulled 
the confounded device out of his mouth and read the liquid 
crystal display with a look of such dire seriousness that he 
almost felt like laughing.  She was treating this like some 
monumental experiment that the fate of the entire world was 
riding upon.  "Your temperature is up quite a bit, still not 
human norm.  How do you feel now?" she asked, concerned at 
the readings she was getting.  

Nick stood up experimentally and tested his balance, 
relieved to find that the ground was still indeed the 
ground, and that he wasn't going to be joining it anytime 
soon due to a misplaced step.  "I feel fine, I think," he 
commented absently as he checked himself over.  

"You _think_?" Natalie questioned doubtfully.   

"Well, I don't feel sick or anything, and I'm definitely 
not as...  well...  high as I was with the Lidovuterine...  
But I'm not a good person to ask, seeing as how I haven't 
even caught a measly little cold in over seven hundred 
years..." he responded, slightly annoyed that she was 
grilling him like this, although he couldn't blame her.  
She was being careful to avoid a repeat of least time. 

"Look, Nat," he said, glancing at his watch, "It's getting 
late.  Why don't I go to work?  I'll have Schanke keep an 
eye on me if it'll make you feel better.  I need to follow 
up on this vampire kill before it gets out of hand."

Nat smiled wryly and reluctantly agreed .  "I guess you can, 
but you have to _promise_ me that you'll go home if you feel 
_anything_ wrong and call me _immediately_.  I do _not_ want 
a repeat of last time," she stated warily, tapping his lips 
with her index finger for emphasis.

"Neither do I, Nat."  He sighed, kissing her softly on the 
lips and then repeating, "Neither do I." 

Nat parted from his comforting embrace and gave him a wide 
grin.  "Well fine, but don't leave before I take a blood 
sample..."  She said, a wicked smile invading her face as 
her alter-ego evil Dr. Nat took over.

He grimaced and hastily backed away from her possessive 
gaze.  "Another needle?" he whined, knowing that he was 
sounding like a child, but not caring.  

"Absolutely.  How else are you going to earn the nickname 
Mr. Pincushion?" she asked, advancing upon him and virtually 
pinning him to the door of the nearby fridge. 

He laughed as Nat yanked on the lapels of his shirt and 
pulled him into a mind-blowing kiss, knowing that pincushion 
was soon to be an understatement.  

*****     

Schanke stared at the desk twiddling his thumbs impatiently, 
tapping his pencil furiously, shuffling back and forth 
between incomplete reports, doing whatever he could think of 
to pass the time.  For once, it was Nick, and not him who 
was late.  He looked across the room to see Cohen glaring at 
him, but all he could do was shrug helplessly and smile.  
Nick hadn't told him anything was up, so for all intents and 
purposes, he _should_ be there.  Nick just didn't keep 
secrets about his whereabouts anymore, it was much easier 
for Nick to just let him know where he was going, rather 
than get all mysterious-like.  

He impatiently glanced once again at his watch.  
Thirty minutes late now.  Glancing at his Captain standing 
in silent vigil across the bullpen, he grimaced.  Cohen 
would be on the warpath soon.  And he just knew that he 
would be caught in the middle of the battle zone, drowning 
in the blood-soaked trenches right along with Nick.

Well, at least Alihra wasn't due in for another half-hour.  
Damn, but that woman was creepy.  Like Nick in the sense 
that she had a certain air of power about her.  Alihra was 
definitely not a woman he would ever want to cross.  She 
took things very seriously, and her sense of humor was 
nonexistent at best, almost like pre-disappearance Nick, 
who had at least loosened up once he no longer had a secret 
to hide.  But where she lacked in endearing personality, she 
was quite well endowed in looks.

She was probably the finest specimen of woman that he'd 
seen in a long, long time.  A _long_ time.  When he had 
first looked into her beautiful face, he'd thought he was 
looking into the eyes of an angel.  The deep, crystal pools 
of jade were endless.  And the oddest thing that he'd 
noticed was that they didn't seem to reflect anything, even 
when he'd gone up to shake her hand he'd thought there was 
something missing, only later realizing that he hadn't been 
able to see himself reflected in them.  They were just an 
infinite sea of emerald.  And her blond hair... so golden it 
looked like it had been kissed by the sun.  

Stop it!  Myra will kill you!  Schanke sighed, trying to rip 
his mind away from the memory of Alihra's supermodel figure 
and gorgeous looks.  Thankfully, Nick chose that moment to 
arrive.  His partner came in through the main doors, 
mumbling a quick apology to Cohen as he passed, and then 
head straight for his desk.

He looked at his approaching partner somewhat suspiciously.  
His partner looked...  flushed?  Definitely not wonderfully 
so, but a lot more alive than he usually looked.  "Nick?" he 
called, his eyes following Nick as he snuck through a crowd 
of officers standing in the aisle.

Nick sat down with a slight grimace, wrapping his coat 
around his chair and placing his keys in his desk drawer.  
"Hi, Schanke.  Is _she_ here?"  

Nick didn't mention Alihra by name, but Schanke knew exactly 
who he was talking about.  "No, Alihra's not going to get 
here for another twenty minutes or so," he assured his 
worried partner.  Whatever bad vibes he'd gotten from 
Alihra, it was obvious that Nick had gotten the same or 
worse.  "Nick, why were you late?  And is that a hint of 
color I detect in your cheeks?" he asked with somewhat of a 
teasing tone.  What if he and Nat had...  And that was 
why...  Woah, better not go there, Schanke admonished 
himself.

"Nat tried a new drug on me.  It kinda worked, but it kinda 
didn't.  Which reminds me, if I start acting weird you have 
to make me go home," Nick commented absently as he placed 
his head in his hands.  

"Nat tried a what?  You mean she cured you?!" Schanke cried, 
ready to leap out of his chair and congratulate his partner.  
The sharp look Nick gave him made him realize how loud he 
was being, and he sat down.  "Sorry..." he apologized, 
slightly embarrassed at his own outburst.  He knew Nick 
didn't like being singled out, and he especially didn't like 
reminding his fellow officers about his little problem with 
sunlight.

Nick sighed tiredly.  "She tried something similar to the 
Lidovuterine but..."

"Wait, Nick.  Isn't the Lidovuterine the stuff that made you 
go all psycho?" Schanke interrupted, suddenly wary.  He 
raised his hands and wiggled his fingers like claws for 
emphasis, putting a little sadistic curl to his lip.  He
didn't want to have to deal with that all over again.  

"Yeah, but this stuff is different.  Nat says that it 
shouldn't have the mind altering effects that the 
Lidovuterine had.  But you're supposed to keep an eye on me 
just in case," Nick said, sounding somewhat embarrassed that 
he was asking his friend to watch him.    

Schanke could understand that, he'd never been comfortable 
asking for favors like that either.  "Sure I can do that," 
he assured his partner quickly and then he dropped the 
subject as if it had never been brought up.  "So did it work 
or not?" he asked anxiously, hoping desperately that maybe 
his friend had finally found the mortality that he had 
sought for for so long.  

"Kind of," Nick commented, turning his hand palm up and then 
palm down in a repeated motion.  "I'm about half-and-half 
right now.  I don't know if or when it'll wear off," Nick 
said somewhat worriedly.  

It was obvious to Schanke that Nick preferred being one of 
the extremes, and not halfway between mortal and vampire.  
Although, to Schanke, half-and-half sounded like it would be 
much better.  If it was an ideal combo, with the strengths 
of both and none of the weaknesses.  But then it occurred to 
him that maybe the reason Nick was looking so worried was 
that it was the unideal combo.  The weaknesses of both and 
practically none of the strengths...

"Well, hey, Nick.  It's a start.  Maybe it'll work with the 
second dose..." he tried to assure him.  

Nick only groaned, running his hands through his soft blond 
hair and shaking his head.  "If the second dose is anywhere 
near as unpleasant as the first one, then it had better 
work..."  

Schanke didn't really know what to say to that.  It hadn't 
occurred to him that the drugs his partner was trying could 
be potentially harmful to him.  Jeez, to be that desperate 
for a cure...  It was a scary thought.  One that he didn't 
particularly want to entertain.  

"Well, I suppose we'll just have to wait and see...  So...  
What are we going to do about the case?" he questioned, 
switching to a more work related topic.  Seeing that blatant 
vampire kill had been very scary.  He'd not seen once since 
he'd found out about Nick, and now that he had the 
knowledge of vampires it was very frightening.  Especially 
when he knew how well vampires could camouflage themselves 
amongst mortal society.  Hell, his partner was one and he 
hadn't known for quite awhile.  

He supposed it was even scarier knowing that Nick was 
capable of doing that if he chose to, although Schanke 
doubted that Nick would ever do that now.  There had been 
the past, which Nick had reluctantly related bits and 
fragments about, but Nick was too good of a person now to 
even think about it.  

"I figured we'd go over to the Raven and ask around.  If 
there's a new vampire in town, Janette will probably know," 
Nick interrupted Schanke's musings quietly.  

The Raven.  That's where Nick always went for tips on his 
cases, or at least to see Janette under the guise of 
getting tips...  He chuckled at the thought.  "Sure Nick, 
although I'm not entirely sure what Alihra will think of 
that...  The Raven's got pretty weird clientele," he 
commented.

Finally!  Schanke wanted to shout and point, for there on 
Nick's face appeared the most reluctant of smiles.  "Yeah, 
well, what can I say other than stay away from the ones who 
look hungry," Nick said good-humoredly. 

"Who looks hungry?" a rich feminine voice asked innocently 
from behind Schanke.  Nick looked up, surprised, and sat up 
board straight from his former relaxed slouch, all joking 
manner vanishing from his persona.  

Schanke felt himself turning a deep shade of crimson.  
Hopefully she hadn't heard the remark about the weird 
clientele.  "And trust me, Don.  I can handle myself quite 
well in the presence of less than civilized people..." she 
said reproachfully.  Inwardly, Schanke groaned.  Well there 
went that hope down the drain... 

He turned and cleared his throat purposefully.  "Alihra..." 
was all he could manage to say before his voice inexplicably 
cracked and forced him silent.  She was standing there with 
her arms crossed, tapping her foot somewhat impatiently.  
Schanke looked at her hard.  Something was different.  She 
looked flushed?  Almost as flushed as Nick had looked when 
he'd first come in.  There was a pinkish tone to her smooth 
skin now, where before it had only been a uniform shade of 
pale peach.    

"Well, shall we visit this, what did you call it, Raven, and 
ask around?" Alihra questioned doubtfully, her thinly 
pencilled eyebrow raised in question.  Schanke was the first 
to find himself nod, completely sidetracked from his 
previous train of thought.  

"Uh, yeah..." Nick said weakly from beside him as he 
reached for his coat, obviously as flustered by this woman 
as he was.        

Alihra smiled an alluring, sensuous smile, her pale face 
looking all the more angelic.  "Well, let's go then," she 
commented sweetly, huffing slightly in her black leather 
coat.  It was obvious that she wanted to move things along.  
She certainly didn't waste any time.  

Nick stared at her blankly for a second, and then shook his 
head.  "Yeah, sure," he commented absently as he put his 
coat on and walked out the door, followed shortly by Alihra.  
Schanke was unsure whether his odd behavior was being 
caused by the cure or by Alihra.  Deciding it was the 
latter, he shrugged, grabbed his own trench coat, and was 
quick to join them.

*****

The Raven.  Nick stared at the door warily.  The energetic 
beat of the Raven's gothic music was missing, as was the 
usual muscle-clad bouncer standing vigil.  Funny, he didn't 
think it was a holiday or anything.  And even then, that had 
never stopped Janette from keeping the club open.  Even on 
Christmas, the bass was pounding and the dance floor was 
writhing with vampires.  But then, most vampires didn't have 
much use for Christmas anyway.

No, for Janette, the club was an amusement, a way to pass 
the years.  She liked to watch the people as they conversed.  
As they danced...  When she was forced from her haven to 
perform some mundane task she always felt excessively bored.  
The club... well... it gave her life.  It was funny.  No 
matter how much she denied it, Nick felt that The Raven was 
her way to participate in the mortal world.  To have a 
mortal life.  It was an interesting concept.  To have the 
lives of her patrons on loan, simply by watching them as she 
sat regally at her usual spot by the bar.  

"Nick?  What's up, why's this place closed?" Schanke asked 
curiously from behind him, his voice interrupting his 
thoughts.  He looked back only to find both Schanke and 
Alihra watching him expectantly, waiting for an answer to 
Schanke's perfectly reasonable question.  

"I'm not sure.  Let me open the door..." he answered 
truthfully, whipping out his key from his left breast 
pocket.  

Alihra smiled.  "You have a key?  I thought you and Dr. 
Lambert were a thing...  Isn't she jealous?" she prodded 
with a teasing grin, as if she were deliberately trying to 
provoke Nick's rather wild temper. 

Nick looked at her in shock, taken aback by her boldness.  
"Of course not!  Janette is a good friend, nothing more..." 
he said angrily in his own defense, wondering who this woman 
thought she was, asking him a personal question like that 
when she wouldn't even tell them specifically why she was 
there.  It also bothered him a bit that Alihra seemed to 
think him capable of cheating on Natalie.  That wouldn't 
happen in a million years.  He'd worked too damn hard to get 
things the way the were now, and he wasn't going to mess it 
up by having some fling with Janette, or anyone else for 
that matter.

"But she used to be more..." Alihra hedged, either unaware 
of his anger, or apathetic towards it.  Whichever it was, it 
was still quite disconcerting.  

Nick felt fear growing in the pit of his stomach.  How did 
this woman know so much about him?  How did she know things 
that he'd never told her, that she wouldn't be able to find 
by simple information digging.  "Not for a long, long 
time..." he whispered wistfully, a pained tone entering his 
voice.  For some reason he found himself unable to lie to 
her.  

Alihra smiled in triumph as he shakily turned the key in the 
lock.  "Was it serious?  Major commitment?" she asked. 

Thankfully, Schanke finally chose that moment to break into 
the conversation.  "Alihra, pardon me for saying this, but 
it's obvious that Nick doesn't want to talk about this... 
why don't you just let it be?" he asked her in an annoyed 
tone, stepping between the two of them

Nick sighed in relief as Alihra gave Schanke a hateful glare 
but remained silent.  Thank you, Schanke.  What a 
lifesaver.  He'd felt like he'd been backed into a hole 
and that the only escape would be to confess his innermost 
soul and secrets.

The door opened slowly with a creak and Nick peered inside.  
The expanse was completely empty, encased in the darkness 
except by the bar where a lone vampire stood mutely, wiping 
glasses off with a towel.  Miklos.  

Nick turned to both Alihra and Schanke as soon as he 
recognized the man at the bar.  "Guys, you might want to 
wait here," he said, motioning to the stoop inside the door.  
Alihra nodded mutely, although slightly reluctantly, as 
Schanke walked in and planted himself on the top step by the 
railing, obviously prepared to sit for a long while.  

Nick descended the short staircase and approached the bar 
where the dark, European Miklos was standing, watching him 
cautiously.  "Nick.  What brings you here?" he asked, his 
voice somewhat strained.  

"I need to see Janette.  It's very important.  Is she in 
the back?" he questioned, glancing towards the backrooms 
for emphasis.  

"The last I saw yes, but I would not disturb her.  She was 
accompanied by a man..." Miklos said mysteriously. 

Nick nodded, surprised that he found himself feeling a 
little jealous upon hearing that the fact.  "That's ok.  I 
promise to knock..." he said, faking a light-hearted 
chuckle, wondering just what exactly he _would_ do if 
Janette were with a man.  He respected her privacy, but he 
also desperately needed to talk to her about the kill.  This 
needed to be stopped before it happened again, when perhaps 
he and Nat wouldn't be there to cover for it.  

Miklos nodded slowly and went back to cleaning the glasses, 
looking rather warily towards Alihra and Schanke, who were 
conversing quietly by the door.  At least Schanke hadn't 
come down and asked for a drink or anything just to peeve 
him.  That would be _just_ like him, Nick thought with a 
smile.  

With that, Nick turned and went through a cascading 
waterfall of multi-colored decorative beads and into the 
dark back hallway that ran along the side of the public part 
of the Raven.  His feet hit the lush, blood red carpeting 
almost silently as he progressed up the old wooden staircase 
and down the dim walkway towards the third door on the left.  
The door to Janette's private apartment.  He hesitated only 
slightly when he arrived at Janette's closed door.  He heard 
a muffled sound coming from within her private chambers.  He 
strained to listen with his slightly dulled sense of 
hearing.  It sounded like... crying.  

He knocked loudly, his knuckles rapping on the cold oak wood 
of the door in quick succession..  "Janette?" he called, 
suddenly very concerned.  

"Nichola...  go away!" came Janette's voice back through 
the door.  She sounded panicked, but when she followed her 
request with a cry of pain, he couldn't bring himself to do 
as she asked.  

He forced open the brass doorknob with a little bit of 
applied strength.  "Janette!" he cried, running into the 
apartment as swiftly as he could upon hearing another sob 
emanate from her lips.  

She was lying curled up on the floor between her large, 
king-sized bed and her antique writing desk, fully clothed 
in a black satin dress and very much alone.  He ran to her 
side across the plush carpet, sweeping up her body in his 
arms.  "Janette, what's the matt..." he began to ask, but he 
stopped when he noticed the steady trickle of blood flowing 
freely from two neat punctures at the base of her neck.  
She'd been bitten...  

Janette began to tremble, the shivers racking her body in 
tiny little waves, starting from her chest and descending 
all the way down into the tips of her perfectly pedicured 
feet.  "Nichola, I'm sorry!  I did not tell them anything!  
Forgive me!" she cried deliriously, rocking back and forth 
in distress.

"What?  Tell who?" he asked, completely confused as she 
began to mumble on incoherently in her native French.

He shook her lightly, enough to get a few moments of 
lucidity.  "Ooooh, Nichola," she moaned, her wild mane of 
dark brown curls damp and flattened with sweat.  "Je suis 
trhs disolie..."  

"For what, Janette?  Why are you sorry?  Tell me what's 
wrong and I can help!"  Her teeth chattered relentlessly, 
and she did not answer.  Nick inhaled deeply and clenched 
his jaw shut, frustrated beyond words.  He set her down on 
the floor gently and went to her private bar, grabbing a 
bottle of uncut blood.  He thought briefly about giving her 
some of his own blood, but realizing that he had no idea 
what effect the Lyzatrex would have on her, he decided that 
wasn't the best choice. 

He sat down next to her shaking body and uncorked the 
unlabeled glass bottle, gently sitting her up so that her 
head was resting in his hand, and tilting the mouth of the 
bottle towards her sensuous lips.  After several moments, 
she grabbed the bottle and began to gulp it down readily as 
if she hadn't fed in years.  

With the last swallow, she brought her chin forward in a 
motion that made it seem like it was difficult for her, but
after, she turned to him with her soft blue eyes, obviously 
troubled.  Obviously in pain.  Nick grew very afraid when he 
saw that the wound on her neck was not healing very much at 
all.   

"Janette, mon coeur, please, what's wrong?" he asked softly, 
pulling her tightly to his chest.  

"Nichola..." she whispered, distractedly, her eyes 
fluttering golden a bit before she was able to quell her 
obvious hunger.  "Your heart... it is beating..." she 
commented, her large eyes opening even wider, amazed at what 
she heard.

"I know.  Nat tried a new drug, and it seems to be working 
somewhat..." he explained quickly.  This was not what he'd 
come to discuss...  She nodded slightly, looking at his 
neck as if it were the most delectable thing in the world, 
and he began to feel slightly uncomfortable.  "Janette, 
control yourself!" he cried as she almost snarled at him, 
her lip curled upward in a hungry grimace.  

Breathing hard, she looked at him.  "I am sorry, Nichola...  
I do not know what has come over me..." she commented 
absently, fingering the wound in her neck softly, wincing 
when she hit a particularly sore spot.  "It must be their 
fault..." she whispered, looking at him in sheer terror.  

"Who, Janette?  What happened?" he questioned once again, 
hoping that he would finally get an answer.  At this point 
the curiosity was burning so brightly within him it 
threatened to turn him to ash, as sure as the sun on a 
bright clear day. 

Janette looked at him sadly, placing a blood-red nail onto 
his supple lips.  "They are here, Nichola.  I only met one, 
but I've never seen one traveling alone...  Always in 
pairs..." she sighed deeply.  He was already getting a very 
bad inkling as to where this was going.

"The Enforcers, Nichola.  One was asking about you...  He 
came as soon as the sun set, I was unprepared...  When I 
refused to tell him anything, he did this..." she said, 
gesturing towards her now slowly healing neck.

"They took what they wanted from my blood..." she said with 
an ever increasing amount of dread, until she finally began 
to sob, repeating that she was sorry.  

Nick felt his stomach sink as a feeling of utter coldness 
hugged his soul short of breath.  The Enforcers.  Looking 
for him.  They must've found out somehow that he'd broken 
the code.  Numerous times.  Oh God, Schanke...  Natalie...  
They were both in danger...  Glancing between Janette and 
the door, his heart began to pound.  "Janette, Janette I 
have to go...  Have to warn..." he said mechanically, his 
voice dying in a slow wheeze as he realized how much trouble 
he was in.  Not one, but _two_ mortals knew about vampires 
because of him.  He had to get out of here and warn them... 
he had to get Nat and Schanke to someplace safe... 

"Nichola, NO!  If they found me, they can find you," she 
began in a frantic effort to get him to listen to reason, 
interrupting his panicked train of thoughts.  "They are 
probably watching you this instant!  If you run to Natalie 
they will know and they will kill you without hesitation.  
Don't run away Nichola.  There is a chance that they did not 
glean everything that they could from my blood.  They may 
not know everything.  If you run away, if you warn Natalie 
and Schanke, then that advantage is lost!" she pleaded, 
grabbing onto the lapels of his shirt ferociously.  

Nick looked again towards the door, but the initial panic 
was slowly dying as reason began to kick in.  The Enforcers 
hadn't killed him, or Nat, or Schanke, yet.  And that was 
for a reason.  Maybe they didn't know all the facts, maybe 
they just weren't sure if his small transgressions were 
worth their time.  After all, Nat had proven herself a 
valuable asset in covering up for the community, and Schanke 
had proven to be quite trustworthy. 

Janette was apparently watching him and knew what he was 
thinking.  She attempted to encourage his course of logic as 
much as she could.  "Oh, Nichola...  Promise me you won't 
run away!  If you don't run, they may be willing to grant 
you mercy..." she pleaded with him, her eyes filled with a 
burning passion.

Nick opened his mouth slightly to protest, but she cupped 
her smooth hand across his mouth and prevented it.  
"Promise," she demanded softly, blue eyes flashing wildly. 

He closed his eyes in pain.  "I promise Janette," he 
whispered sadly, taking her into a tight embrace.  She 
really was right.  If the Enforcers were indeed after him, 
there was not much he could do about it anyway.  But if they 
_were_ after him, why hadn't they gotten him yet?  It's not 
like he was all that hard to find...  But that only meant 
that they were observing him...

His mind brightened at the possibility.  Maybe if he could 
solve this case, they would be more lenient with him...  He 
could show them how he helped uphold the code...  "Janette, 
have you seen any new vampires in town _besides_ the 
Enforcer who bit you?"

"No, Nichola.  No one new has passed through that I've 
seen," Janette answered, slightly confused by his quick 
subject change.  "Why on Earth do you ask?"

"That's why I originally came here.  There's been a messy 
vampire kill that was left completely out in the open.  No 
witnesses or anything.  I had been hoping you could provide 
me with a lead..."

"Ah..." Janette nodded, understanding, but not quite 
grasping how he'd steered to that subject...

"Janette, if I can stop this rogue before he kills again, 
then the Enforcers may be lenient with me," he explained.  

Her eyes widened and she kissed him lightly on the cheek, 
forgetting both her physical and emotional pain momentarily.  
"Oh, Nichola...  I do hope so.  I do not know what I would 
do if you were dead.  I do not want you to die!" she cried.  

"I won't if I can help it," he assured her, although the 
feeling of dread from  before was coming back to rest in the 
pit of his stomach.  As with the mysterious Alihra, he felt 
like he was being backed into a corner, hunted...  "I just 
don't understand who would've done this!  There wasn't even 
an attempt to disguise the bite marks.  It's like someone 
just left the body there, with the _intention_ of me... 
finding it..." his voice trailed off as he realized that 
what he'd proposed had a high probability of being true, 
especially if Janette had neither seen nor heard of a new 
vampire in Toronto.

Someone was baiting him.  Toying with him before they went 
in for the kill...  But who?  He got up to leave and ponder 
his situation, but his thoughts were interrupted when he 
felt a tingling sensation in his nose, an inexplicable urge 
to... "ACHOO!" 

Janette looked up at him sharply.  "Nichola...  you 
sneezed..." she said, worriedly stating the obvious...  

Nick turned towards her, a strange look of confusion marring 
his normal emotional mask.  "I..."  He didn't know what to 
say.  He hadn't sneezed since...  well he couldn't remember 
the last time he'd just randomly sneezed.

Janette got up from the floor and rushed over to him.  "You 
sneezed!" she cried again, shaking a pointed index finger at 
him wildly.  "This drug Natalie is trying on you, it is 
making you sick!" she accused angrily. 

"Janette, I'm sure it's fine..." he tried to reassure her, 
while at the same time reassuring himself.  So that was what 
a sneeze felt like.  Odd...  

"Nichola, I've never heard you sneeze before, and you tell 
me that this is all right?" Janette questioned, perplexed.  

"Janette, relax!  If I sneeze, that's a good thing, right?  
If I want to become mortal, I have to deal with the problems 
as well as the advantages..." he rationalized quietly, 
hoping she'd understand.

Janette sat down in a nearby chair in a huff.  "Mortals have 
no advantages.  They grow old and they die..." she said, 
dejectedly.  "Nichola...  I...  This quest of yours to 
become mortal does not bother me so much as the concept of 
me losing you..." she told him honestly, her soft French 
accent becoming more and more pronounced the more emotional 
she got. 

Nick felt himself smile.  This was the first time she'd ever 
admitted that she needed him as much as he needed her.  They 
were each other's only constant through the changing decades 
and centuries.  "Janette, I know..." he commented softly, 
reaching down to pull her up from the chair and into a warm 
embrace.  "But as far as I'm concerned, we can deal with 
that if and when it happens.  I'm not mortal yet..." he 
tried to console her as she started to weep, immediately 
feeling bad.  

"But you are getting close...  I don't want to be alone, 
Nichola...  You're the only static thing that I have 
left..." she whispered into his chest, blood tears beginning 
to fall freely from her damp eyes. 

Nick swallowed as he heard her forlorn whimpering.  That was 
partially his fault.  LaCroix...  He'd always gotten along 
much better with Janette.  And now he was gone...  "Janette, 
I don't know what to say.  I can't stop my quest because of 
this..." he said, hoping that his admission would not make 
her angry.  But at the same time, he felt that he was being 
terribly self-centered.

Janette looked up and wiped her eyes with her fingers.  "I 
know, Nichola.  I know that I am being selfish...  You 
deserve your happiness," she said softly, and then she 
started to cry again.

"Shhh, Janette...  It's all right..." Nick found himself 
saying as his own tears began to fall.  But it wasn't all 
right.  If this cure worked, things were going to be more 
difficult than he thought...

***** 

Schanke glanced down at his watch for the third time in as 
many minutes, they'd been in there talking for two hours.  
He stared nervously at Alihra.  "I don't know what's taking 
him so long...  Usually he's in and out..." he excused his 
partner, but Alihra only smiled.  

"It's quite all right, Don.  Tell me, is Nick often like 
this?" Alihra asked, looking away towards the empty bar as 
if to de-emphasize the fact that she was being nosy.    

"Like how?" Schanke asked cautiously, looking in the 
direction of her glance.  Miklos had left about an hour ago 
to go take inventory in the basement, and it was just the 
two of them sitting alone on the stoop of the dark, 
unnervingly silent Raven. 

"Leaving you here doing nothing while he goes and solves the 
case alone..." Alihra explained, her voice dripping with a 
sickly sweet innocence that made Schanke queasy. 

Schanke sighed.  "He used to, now he doesn't at all.  I 
think the only reason he didn't bring me along to talk to 
Janette this time is because of this..." he commented, 
gesturing to the unexpectedly closed Raven.  "Janette 
doesn't really mind if I come to talk to her during business 
hours, but she has a low tolerance for having her privacy 
interrupted," Schanke said with a chuckle, remembering the 
last time he'd come here without Nick to see if she had any 
tips on a case.  

That had not been pretty at all, although Nick was laughing 
out his ears when he found out Schanke had been scared out of 
his wits upon trying to enter the Raven during the daytime.  
Luckily Janette had recognized him before a crisis had 
happened...  He could still remember her snarling viciously 
at him.  And he thought that she was a scary woman when she 
looked normal...  Vampire Janette was not one to be trifled 
with, not at all, and he commended Nick for his bravery.  Of 
course, Nick and Janette were on much more even ground...

"So how close is he with Janette?" she asked, curiously, her 
emerald eyes flashing.  

"I think that if he wants to tell you that, it's his 
business," Schanke commented dryly.  This woman had a 
terrible propensity for prying.  

"Well, what about Dr. Lambert.  What's going on with her?" 
Alihra asked, rapidly changing her approach. 

Schanke stared at her in amazement.  She just didn't quit!  
"Natalie is Nick's significant other, as I believe you 
termed it.  They're real serious, and I'm not going to say 
another word unless it's common knowledge that you could 
find elsewhere just as easily..." he said, rather annoyed.  

Alihra seemed to realize that she was making all the 
progress of a runner on a treadmill, so she switched 
approaches again, much to Schanke's increasing irritation.  
"So, Nick has a sun allergy?  Don't you find that the least 
bit odd?"  

"Of course it's odd!" Schanke cried anxiously, "He has a 
very rare skin condition, I believe Nat called it something 
like Hemolotololopapsia... but I can't remember..."  Alarm 
bells were starting to chime rapidly in Schanke's head.  He 
didn't like where this was going at all.  Not one bit.  

"That's not really the cause, he has no disease.  There's 
something that you're not telling me," she said, her almond 
shaped eyes narrowing ever so slightly, marred with 
suspicion.

"I..." Schanke felt a lump forming in his throat.  Nick had 
never really coached him on what to say in a situation like 
this.  His partner had trusted his judgment to keep his 
secret and keep it well.  God help him if he blew it.  

"I thought so..." Alihra said haughtily, a wicked smirk 
splitting her flawless face.  She then turned to stare 
directly into Schanke's eyes, and he felt himself start to 
go weak in the knees.  Lucky for him that he was sitting 
down...

"Why don't you tell me what you know?" she asked 
seductively as she curled her sinuous body over his, and he 
heard her voice as if it was resonating in his head, echoing 
off the sides of his skull.  He could hear his heart beating 
steadily in his ears, a rumbling sea of pounding war drums.

"Tell you ... what I know..." he found himself repeating 
dangerously, unable to stop himself.  It felt like she had 
a grip on his mind, commanding it to bend to her will.  
Almost like Nick when he was mesmerizing someone...  

"What do you know about Detective Knight's allergy?" she 
prodded, taking hold of his shoulder with her hands as she 
looked deeply into his eyes, her voice echoing as if it were 
being thrown across a wide canyon.  

"I...  I..." he found himself gasping for breath, 
desperately trying to resist, but finding that he simply 
could not.  

And suddenly, the strange sensation left his mind as if it 
had never been, his heartbeat receding back into his chest 
where it belonged.  He heard Alihra groan beside him, 
frustrated.  Why?  

Oh... he realized then why she'd stopped, as Nick solemnly 
appeared at the door to the back, his face screwed up in a 
picture of grief.  Strangely, he was wearing a different 
shirt than the one he'd entered with, and Schanke wondered 
distractedly whether Alihra noticed the change at the same 
time as wondering why on Earth Nick had switched shirts.  

"Nick!" he cried.  He had to tell Nick about Alihra.  About 
how she had been prying.  About her strange hypnosis 
ability.  Unless...  Unless she was a vampire?  Nah...  
Nick would've mentioned that, and knowing Nick, he certainly 
wouldn't have left him alone out here with her if she was 
one, especially since Nick was visibly disturbed by her as 
well.

"Schanke, I have to go.  I have to take care of something 
before it's too late..." he said, his voice growing hoarse 
with raw emotion.  It was obvious that he'd been crying...  

"Nick, what's wrong?" Schanke asked, worriedly, but Nick 
didn't even seem to hear him as he walked towards them, a 
prisoner of his own overwhelming grief.  He was heading for 
the door.  He was going to leave him here with Alihra!  
"Nick, wait!" he cried frantically.

But it was too late.  Nick shoved past them and left before 
Schanke could utter another word.  With the slamming of the 
door, he felt Alihra grab him harshly and pull him out of 
the Raven and onto the frigid street, her nails clutching 
the lapels of his shirt like sharp talons.  He tried to 
break free, he really did...  "Tell me what you know..." 

And God help him, Schanke could do nothing other than 
submit.       

*****

He landed only quick enough to be thrown almost completely 
off balance by a terrible sneeze.  "ACHOO!"  His whole body 
flung forward with the intensity, his black leather boots 
unwittingly kicking up a fine layer of dusty snow.  Nick 
wiped his sniffly nose on the back of his hand, not having 
a handkerchief or anything else with which he could take 
care of his problem.  He'd been sneezing a lot since that 
first one that he'd experienced while talking with Janette.

The air was cold, so much so that he was surprised it 
wasn't frozen solid, and he wished at once that he'd had 
the smarts to have bought a warmer coat.  Although it wasn't 
like he actually would've needed it until now.  He'd found 
that after the initial shock of receiving the Lyzatrex had 
warn off, most of his vampire powers still quite accessible, 
like the power of flight he'd used to get here so quickly, 
but he was also noticing that things were affecting him more 
than usual.  He was more sensitive to the bitter cold night 
air, and he had a hunger looming about his stomach that he 
wasn't necessarily sure whether it was for blood or not.  

He clutched Schanke's red scarf tightly around his cold neck 
and red-flushed face.  Thankfully, his partner had been nice 
enough to loan it to him on the way to the Raven when he had 
mentioned that he was really cold.  

He sighed.  Schanke...  Nick realized he was feeling 
particularly guilty for leaving Schanke with Alihra so 
unexpectedly, but his conversation with Janette had made it 
apparent to him what he needed to do.  He wanted Christmas 
with Nat to be special.  And now he had the perfect idea.  

Sobbing slightly, he realized that there was a good chance 
he wouldn't even live to see Christmas, what with Enforcers 
and a hunter of some sort after him.  He only had to make 
it another thirteen days.  Thirteen days. 

He approached his destination at a more than leisurely gate 
and tapped gently on the glass door.  A short balding man in 
his bathrobe, sitting on a stool within, smiled upon seeing 
Nick's arrival and immediately got up to let him into the 
store.   

He entered quickly and looked first left and then right.  
Finally choosing a direction, strode down the aisle, the dim 
lighting bringing out his haggard features in a ghastly pale 
visage that started even him as he glanced into one of the 
many mirrors that littered the store.  Mortality, it seemed, 
even partial mortality, was not doing good things for his 
stress levels.  

"Well, Mr. Brabant, it's good to see you, although I do hope 
you make it worth my while for opening the store for you so 
early in the morning," the owner smiled cheerfully, trying 
to stifle a glaringly obvious need to yawn.  

Nick smiled sheepishly as he glanced at his watch.  It was 
rather early, especially for someone who was not working on 
the nightshift.  "Don't worry, Mr. Mathias.  I'll add in an 
extra twenty percent onto the final price to make up for the 
inconvenience," he said quietly as he looked around, hoping 
that something would catch his eye.  Something special.  
Something eternal.  

"Ooh, Mr. Brabant, you're too kind," Mr. Mathias said with 
a greedy smile, clasping his hands together and raising his 
index fingers towards his lips in the classic gesture of 
complacence.  However kind the man may have been on a 
regular basis, the prospect of making a lot of money always 
made him kinder.     

"ACHOO!"  Nick shuddered as a shiver ran through him.  He 
was getting sick...  Really sick...  

"Bless you, Mr. Brabant!  You sound very ill!" Mr. Mathias 
stated the obvious as he gracefully proffered a crisp 
handkerchief out of his bathrobe's front pocket to his 
special customer.  

"Yeah, I must be coming down with something," Nick sighed 
worriedly as he continued to look around.  There must be 
something here!  Something... 

There!

It was perfect.  Beautiful.  Fit for a queen.  His queen...  
Smiling, he pointed to the display as he walked straight 
towards it with a look of determination.  "I want that 
one..."  

Mr. Mathias's eyes just about bugged out of his head.  "Mr. 
Brabant, are you sure?  That one is rather expensive..." 
Mr. Mathias said cautiously, obviously hoping that Nick was 
not pointing to that one by accident or by 
misunderstanding. 

"I don't care.  Price is not an object in this anyway.  How 
much?" Nick asked carefully, hoping the man did not wish to 
haggle over the price.  He was rapidly developing a 
headache and he didn't think he'd have the energy.

Mr. Mathias smiled and wrote a rather large figure on a 
piece of paper.  "That's fine," Nick said.  "What's twenty 
percent on that?" he asked as he pulled out his black 
checkbook from the inside pocket of his black duster.  

Mr. Mathias wrote another figure onto the sheet.  "Oh, I'm 
so glad to do business with you, Mr. Brabant!  You've 
pretty much paid for the next year's rent!" he commented 
excitedly, obviously very glad that he'd opened the store 
despite his previous misgivings. 

Nick smiled warmly despite his rapidly deteriorating state 
of health.  "I trust this will be ready for me to pick up as 
soon as it's been fitted and my check has been cleared with 
the bank?" he asked, making sure he had the details of the 
contract correct.   

"Oh, absolutely!  I can do it express if you need it in a 
rush.  May I ask who the lucky recipient is?" Mr. Mathias 
asked jovially, running his chubby hand through his 
thinning hair. 

Nick smiled again, this time much more dreamily.  "Someone 
very special..." he said, his voice taking on a far away 
tone. 

Mr. Mathias grinned a toothy smile, his mustache creasing 
upwards ever so slightly.  "Ah, a lovely lady, I'm sure."

"Oh indeed.  And she gets lovelier every day..." Nick sighed 
as he thought of Natalie. 

"Ah, beauty is always greatest when true love has swept up 
the eye of the beholder," Mr. Mathias commented, clapping 
his warm hand across Nick's back in a friendly gesture.  "I 
wish you the best of luck, Mr. Brabant!"     

"Thank you," Nick said as he bid the kind man goodbye and 
stepped back outside into the bitter chill of night.  He 
closed his eyes and took a deep breath, tilting his head 
skyward.  

The sun would be rising soon... 

*****  

Nat looked at the body on her table, perplexed.  It was 
definitely a vampire kill, no doubt about it.  But there was 
something that was bugging her about it.  Like it was too 
by the book. 

There was not a scratch on the body.  Nothing.  Usually 
she'd found _some_ indication that the victim had put up an 
initial struggle before the vampire hypnotized the victim 
into submission, but this time there had been nothing.  Only 
the two punctures, and a _huge_ amount of blood loss.  It 
was as if this victim had wanted to be sucked dry.  Like it 
was a pleasurable experience.  

Nat subconsciously fingered her neck, where two tiny 
puncture marks had taken up what seemed to be a permanent 
residence.  Although Nick had successfully finished once 
before without biting her, it was a fairly isolated event.  
Only once since then had he been able to make a repeat 
performance, not that Nat minded.  Getting drunk from _was_ 
a very sexual experience, one that she enjoyed thoroughly, 
but she doubted it would be quite the same outside of the 
context she'd experienced it.  

Nick had never really talked about it, and although she was 
dying to know, she didn't think it was her place to ask.  He 
was very uncomfortable just talking about the little things, 
like his hunger, and whatnot.  Talking about feeding from 
someone would probably send him into a terrible guilt 
fest...

"So what did you find?"

The voice penetrated her thoughts, and Nat looked over 
towards the door, startled.  She recognized the older, 
slightly wrinkled, graying woman standing before her almost 
immediately.  "Alihra!  What brings you here?" she asked 
curiously, looking behind her shoulder for either Nick or 
Schanke and growing slightly nervous when she saw neither.  

Alihra approached Natalie hesitantly.  "Nick had to run an 
errand and Schanke's out parking the car.  I got sent in to 
find out any details that you may have found..." she said, 
staring at Nat with a hard glare.  

Nat immediately felt uncomfortable.  Parking the car?  They 
always parked it illegally anyway, it wasn't like someone 
would be taking their spot...  And Nick, running an errand?  
That was logical, he often left in mid-shift if he thought 
something was important enough, but he usually jumped at the 
chance to come and visit her at the morgue.  It had gotten 
to the point that Schanke just didn't even volunteer 
anymore, Nick always got the info from the morgue when they 
didn't come together.  Not to mention that this was a 
'special' case.  They'd never send an 'uninformed' person in 
to talk with her.  Would they?

"Really?  Well," she said distractedly, clearing her throat, 
"it was obviously an animal attack.  I would attribute the 
blood loss to evaporation, but I'm going to have to check 
into that more when I get the opportunity.  I've been busy 
today as you may have guessed...  Suicide rates during 
Christmas and New Years always skyrocket..." she babbled, 
going off on the first tangent that hit her.  Perhaps if she 
dodged the subject and distracted Alihra, she wouldn't ask 
too many questions that she couldn't answer without it 
looking suspicious.  

Alihra smiled.  "Come now, Dr. Lambert...  What did you 
_really_ find?" she asked, her tone getting dangerously low, 
seductive almost.  

She tried to hide her shock at the question, but she 
couldn't help it as her hands began to shake.  This woman 
knew something that she wasn't supposed to know...  "I'm not 
sure what you're talking a..." Nat's voice cut off as she 
saw Schanke come into the room and she sighed in visible 
relief.  "Schanke!"

"Hello, Natalie...  It's so good to see you..." Schanke 
said, almost completely monotone. 

Natalie backed herself against the desk.  "Schank?" she 
asked, a feeling of dread coming to rest in the pit of her 
stomach as Schanke stopped next to Alihra and stared blankly 
ahead.  Nat's eyes shifted to Alihra, who was standing there 
with a ghastly wicked grin on her face.  

Alihra brushed a stray gray hair from her eyes with a blood 
red nail.  "Don't worry, Natalie..." she said sweetly as 
she motioned to Schanke. 

"Don't worry, Natalie..." Schanke said monotonely, in that 
strange, possessed voice, repeating Alihra word for word as 
if he had no mind of his own.  He began to walk towards her 
slowly, his arms outstretched like he was preparing to grab 
her.  He _was_ preparing to grab her...

Nat tried to back up, glancing back and forth between Alihra 
and Schanke with panic, but she realized that she was 
already back as far as she could go.  And she couldn't bolt 
out the door either, Schanke and Alihra were blocking any 
possible exit.  "Schanke?  Listen to me!  She's controlling 
you!  Stop!" she pleaded desperately, but to no avail.  

Schanke said nothing as he grabbed hold of her shoulders 
and clasped his hand in front of her lips to prevent any 
hope of screaming for help.  She struggled against his firm 
grip with all her might, twisting this way and that.  
Despite the fact that she was in much better physical shape, 
she was still no match for Schanke's large frame and he was 
able to hold her fast.  

"Natalie, this won't hurt a bit.  I assure you.  If you 
hold still it will make it easier and then we can all go 
home..." Alihra said, slightly condescendingly.  It was as 
if she thought Nat a mere child.  

Nat's eyes widened and she kicked her feet out in one last 
ditch effort to escape, knocking over a tray of scalpels and 
whatnot, her blue heeled pump flying off her foot and almost 
right into Alihra's pale, lined face.  Alihra dodged and 
quickly righted herself.  "You little witch!  How can Nick 
like you?!" she screeched as she advanced upon Nat and 
slapped her stingingly across the face.  

Tears sprang into her eyes and Nat blinked furiously to keep 
them from falling, breathing hard into Schanke's warm hand.  
What on Earth was going on?  She didn't understand at all, 
Alihra had seemed perfectly fine, if not a little strange at 
the crime scene...  She cried out futily into Schanke's hand, 
but all the resulted was a muffled moan.  No one out in the 
hallways would be able to hear her...

"Now, Natalie, I want you to look at me..."  Alihra said 
threateningly, her hand raised again to discipline her if 
need be.  

Nat squeezed her eyes shut in response, turning her head 
away as far as Schanke's firm grasp would allow.  Another 
slap.  "Look at me!" cried Alihra, frustration dripping from 
her voice.  She was obviously not used to such furious 
resistance...  

"If you don't look at me, I'll have Schanke carry you out to 
Nick's Cadillac and lock you in the trunk while we go to 
the loft and stake him while he sleeps..." Alihra said, her 
tone going from angry to dangerously low.  Dangerously 
calm... 

Natalie felt her heart stop in her chest as he mind began to 
race.  This was a hunter.  It had to be...  And she would 
kill Nick if she didn't cooperate...  But she would kill 
Nick if she _did_ cooperate too...  wouldn't she? 

Apparently knowing exactly what she was thinking, Alihra 
continued.  "Look at me!  I'm not going to kill him if I can 
help it but you're not giving me much choice!"  

Nat hesitantly opened her eyes and looked into Alihra's 
shocking fiery green ones.  She couldn't help but notice how 
incredibly exotic they looked, with the golden streaks in 
them they looked almost...  hypnotic...  

"Now, Natalie," Alihra said, sighing with obvious relief.  
"I want you to tell me what you found..." she commanded 
huffily with a slight shake of her head, the condescending 
tone returning to her rich feminine voice.  The command 
echoed for years in her head, and it almost felt like her 
brains were being turned to mush as the older woman spoke.  
And then it turned to a terrible pressure.  Her legs gave 
out, but Schanke caught her before she could fall to the 
cold, tiled floor.  

"Don, remove your hand from her mouth so she can speak..."  
Alihra said smoothly.  Schanke's hand fell from her mouth 
almost the same instant that the command was issued.  

Nat knew she should scream for help.  She knew it...  And 
yet she found herself strangely unable to.  The pressure on 
her head and her chest were increasing.  "Tell me what you 
found!" Alihra said more forcefully this time.  

"I...  I...  Two..."  Natalie found herself speaking, 
completely outside of her control.  It was as if she was 
sitting somewhere outside her body, helplessly watching it 
respond to the commands of this mysterious woman.  

"Yes, two?" Alihra said excitedly, almost visibly jumping in 
a cheer of success.  

"Two...  punctures...  vampire..."  That was the last thing 
that she had conscious realization of saying, her resistance 
completely lost.  Natalie sighed as the pressure became too 
much and she fell into the heavy black waterfalls cascading 
across her view field.    

*****

Nat sighed as she pulled open the elevator door, dusting off 
the wet snowflakes from her overcoat and wild hair.  Damn 
headaches!  She'd had an awful bordering on a migraine 
headache since that stupid autopsy, which, of course, had 
shown her nothing except what she had already known from the 
start.  

"Nick?!" she called out tiredly as she set her purse down on 
the floor beside the door and strode across the practically 
empty floor, her heels clicking on the cold hard wood as she 
progressed.  No answer.  

She rubbed her temple with her hand as she glanced about, 
the shooting pains in her forehead increasing slightly.  
Nick was nowhere to be seen, at least on the first floor.  
Odd...  He _always_ waited for her to get home, and she for 
him.  

<MREEEEOOOW!>

Natalie glanced down, where a certain gray and white fur 
ball was now rubbing furiously against her legs.  "Hey, Sid.  
Didn't Nick feed you?" she asked curiously as if she 
expected an answer.  Even if Nick was too tired to wait up 
for her she would've hoped that he would've taken care of 
her poor, obviously starving cat.  Hah.  That was a laugh.  
He was so spoiled that the day Sidney was starving was the 
day that Hell froze over.  Not that that wouldn't be hard 
with the weather they were having...

After taking care to feed her over-indulged cat, she walked 
up the stairs and poked her head in their bedroom only to 
find Nick dead to the world.  Damn!  She'd wanted to talk to 
him about how the Lyzatrex was working.  Not having the 
heart to wake him up when he was obviously tired, she 
decided that that discussion would have to wait until 
tomorrow.

She wandered back downstairs and over to the fridge, 
grabbing an apple for a quick snack.  With a groan, she sat 
down at the black table in the kitchen, eating quickly.  She 
was tired.  And her head hurt.  Sydney hopped up onto the 
table to keep her company, purring up a storm.  

"Hey, Sid.  Got any miracle cures for headaches?" she asked 
jokingly, rubbing her temples again in pain.  Since she'd 
already taken well beyond the max dosage of ibuprofen, there 
really wasn't much else she could do.  Sydney just looked at 
her, meowing in indignation as her hands went to pet her 
forehead rather than his.  She laughed despite her 
discomfort and indulged him briefly, rubbing behind his soft 
ears and underneath his chin.  His most favorite spots. 

After she finished appeasing her cat and her stomach, Nat 
went back upstairs.  Ooooh to join Nick in sweet slumber...  
Quickly undressing, she looked around for her nightgown.  It 
was gone...  DAMNIT!  

Frustrated and not really interested in rummaging around for 
a clean one, she just grabbed a pair of Nick's black satin 
pajamas off of his valet and put them on.  As tired as she 
was, she laughed slightly as they tented around her, way too 
big for her and yet still very comfortable...  Very... 
smooth...  She wiggled a bit in them and smiled as she 
turned towards the bathroom with all intents of going to 
brush her teeth and be done with it.    

<COUGH>  

She stopped cold in her tracks.  Was that Nick?  She looked 
more closely at him than she had the last time she'd come 
up and noticed that his sleep was not nearly as peaceful as 
she'd originally assumed.  His face was covered with small 
beads of bloodsweat, and his breathing sounded very labored.  
Normally when he slept you couldn't see him breathing at 
all, and now his chest was heaving up and down like he was 
running a marathon.

"Nick?" she called as she approached the bed.  He coughed 
again as she placed her hands on his shoulders and shook 
him.  

Unlike how he usually awoke involuntarily, snarling and at 
the ready, he opened his eyes blearily.  "Nat?" he asked, 
his voice hoarse and painful as he broke into a coughing 
fit.  

"My God, Nick!  You look terrible!  Is this the Lyzatrex?  
Why didn't you call?" she started asking him questions a 
mile a minute, but it was obvious she'd lost him pretty 
much with the utterance of the name.  His eyes closed and 
she shook him hard, her own headache all but forgotten.  

She glanced at her watch.  She'd given the Lyzatrex to Nick 
almost eleven hours ago.  That wasn't much time for any 
disease to multiply enough to be seen, symptom-wise, and 
that was assuming that he'd been infected the second the 
Lyzatrex had kicked in.  But then again, there was always 
the odd, incredibly virulent strain...       

"Nick, c'mon.  Stay with me here...  When did this start?" 
she asked worriedly, trying assess what specifically was 
wrong.  She didn't _think_ the Lyzatrex would've done 
this...  

"Dunno...  borrowed scarf... cold..." he murmured 
unintelligibly.  

Cold...  Her mind raced, trying to decipher his broken 
speech.  Of course!  The Lyzatrex had only partially worked, 
making him somewhere in-between mortal and vampire.  It 
must've weakened his vampire immune system.  Good lord, that 
was something she'd never even considered...  He'd never 
been exposed to today's diseases, he would have virtually no 
immunity at all.  No wonder he'd gotten sick so soon, his 
body had no defenses whatsoever against all the current 
germs.  Probably every bacterium in Toronto had located 
Nick's virgin immune system and exploited it.  

She placed her hand on his forehead, completely unsurprised 
to find it burning up.  He had a terrible fever...  His 
eyelids drooped tiredly and she was immediately sympathetic.  
He probably hadn't been sick since he'd been a mortal.  This 
was practically a new experience for him.  

He coughed again, and she immediately forced herself back on 
task.  She ran into the bathroom and grabbed the rubbing 
alcohol from the medicine cabinet and a dry washcloth from 
the towel rack.  Returning, she unbuttoned his pajama top 
and swathed his forehead and chest with the alcohol.  
Hopefully, the quick evaporation would help cool him off a 
bit.  

"Nick?  Can you hear me?" she asked quietly, patting his 
cheek in hopes of giving him some lucidity.  His eyes 
fluttered again and she gasped at the sight.  They were 
golden, glowing slightly on their own in the darkness of the 
room.  If he had the vampire...  then why was he sick? <I 
feel... not mortal.  But not vampire...>  

Her hands went immediately to his jugular.  Thump.  Thump.  
He had a pulse, a very slow one, like that of an Olympic 
athlete, but it was definitely a pulse.  What in the world?  
<I feel... not mortal.  But not vampire...>  It seemed, that 
the Lyzatrex had dealt him a cruel blow, giving him the 
weaknesses of mortality, but not the strengths.  Why was the 
stupid Lyzatrex working so much differently in Nick's 
bloodstream as opposed to Nick's blood samples?  

"Nat?  Tht'stuff rlly smells..." Nick complained sleepily, 
opening his eyes only a crack, only enough to see her, but 
at least this time they were blue.  

Nat looked down and found that the whole time she'd been 
contemplating what the Lyzatrex was doing to his system, her 
hands had been on auto pilot, applying and reapplying the 
alcohol.  "Well you shouldn't have gotten a fever then!" she 
chastised him playfully, glad that he was getting a bit more 
lucid.

"Srry," he said, slurred slightly.  It was obvious that he 
was not in the best of health.  He coughed lightly again, 
and then it grew into a rather bad coughing fit.  She sat 
him up and rubbed his back until it subsided.  "Thanks..." 

"You're welcome.  Although I think we need to try something 
else, because Nat-medicine is getting really tired..." she 
said with a pronounced yawn, making sure he had his balance 
and then getting up.  

Nick raised an eyebrow.  "Just knock me out and put me out 
of my misery..." he said as he placed his head in his clammy 
hands.  "You shoulda just left me feverish, at least I 
wouldn't remember it..." he had to stop to cough again, and 
he looked rather distressed.  "Nat, am I dying?"

Nat couldn't help but laugh.  "Of course not, Nick.  You've 
just got a bad cold...  well it's probably not a cold since 
you've got a fever...  Or was it that fevers sometimes...  
Oh I can't remember...  I'm a coroner not a virologist," she 
babbled until she saw she was losing his attention quite 
rapidly.  "To put it simply, no," she answered finally.  

He smiled.  "You know, I think I have a whole new 
understanding of how you felt when you were out with the 
flu...  Remind me to be more sympathetic next time," he said 
with a laugh, again accentuating it with a cough and a 
sniffle.  

"I think I'll have to hold you to that...  Now wait there a 
second," she answered, not waiting to see his response as 
she went back into the bathroom and opened the medicine 
cabinet again.  With her index finger she scanned through 
the contents, Tylenol... nah...  Sudafed... no..., until it 
finally came to rest on the sacred blue-labeled bottle.  
Ah, NyQuil.  Cold medicine for the Gods...

"Nick," she began as she grabbed it and walked out into the 
bedroom.  "_This_, my friend, is your first lesson in 
mortality.  What I am about to give you, is the cough 
medicine of cough medicines.  The elixir to appease the sore 
throat God.  _This_ is cherry-flavored NyQuil," she said 
grandly, waving her hand in front of it like Vana White as 
if she had just turned over a vowel.

Nick looked appropriately awed.  "It looks...  gross..." he 
commented with a slightly disgusted curl of his lip as she 
poured it out into the small plastic cup.  

She snapped her head up and looked at him.  "Hey!  Never let 
it hear you say that!  It might not work now because you've 
hurt its feelings..." she said jokingly, handing him the 
cup.  "Just pretend it's purple blood..."  

"Purple blood?" he asked, an eyebrow raised. 

"Yeah, purple blood," she confirmed, trying to keep the 
smile from her face as he downed the contents of the cup, 
screwing up his face in a look of surprise as the initial 
zing cleared up his nose and throat.  

"Wow...  This is powerful stuff..." he said, staring at the 
bottle as she set it on the nightstand.  

"Yup.  But _never_ take it during the day, cuz it'll knock 
you out," she added informatively as she snuck into the 
covers next to him, her headache coming back slightly, but 
not nearly as bad as it had been before.  

Nick nodded and lay himself down into her warm embrace.  It 
was silent for several moments, and Nat almost thought he 
was asleep.  "Nat?" suddenly came Nick's cautious voice.  
"Not that I mind, but why are you wearing my PJs?"

She laughed in spite of her returning headache and 
tiredness.  "You know, if I make it through the night 
without catching whatever nasty bug you have...  I just 
might tell you," she said huffily and then settled in for 
what she hoped would be a restful sleep.   

*****

<Come now, Dr. Lambert...  What did you _really_ find?">

<I'm not sure what you're talking a... Schanke!> 

<Hello, Natalie...  It's so good to see you...> 

<Schank?>

<Don't worry, Natalie...>

<Don't worry, Natalie...> 

<Schanke?  Listen to me!  She's controlling you!  Stop!>

<Natalie, this won't hurt a bit.  I assure you.  If you hold 
still it will make it easier and then we can all go home...>

<You little witch!  How can Nick like you?!> 

<Now, Natalie, I want you to look at me...>

<Look at me!>

<If you don't look at me, I'll have Schanke carry you out to 
Nick's Cadillac and lock you in the trunk while we go to the 
loft and stake him while he sleeps...>

<Look at me!  I'm not going to kill him if I can help it but 
you're not giving me much choice!> 

<Now, Natalie, I want you to tell me what you found...>

<Don, remove your hand from her mouth so she can speak...>

Her lip twitched as she began to moan.

<Tell me what you found!>

She tossed in her sleep frantically, side to side, almost 
falling off the bed.  

<I...  I...  Two...>    

Natalie snapped awake like a overly tense springboard, 
panting and drenched in salty sweat.  That had been a crazy 
nightmare...  She glanced around wildly, only to realize 
that she was alone.  

"Nick?" she yelped, her heart still beating wildly in fear 
from the terrible dream.  He wasn't there, but she didn't 
have time to ponder it as a bolt of pain coursed through her 
head.  She winced and sucked in a quick breath through 
clenched teeth, her eyes squeezing shut against the 
onslaught.  

Nick poked his head in the door almost instantly.  "Nat?  
What's the matter, I heard you moaning..." he said worriedly 
as he walked in, a steaming coffee mug in his hand, almost 
completely forgotten.  

She opened one eye cautiously and then the other, peering at 
him like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.  
"Noth...  Nothing, it was just a nightmare..." she assured 
him, although she said it to assure herself more than him.  
Luckily the pain shooting through her temples was rapidly 
receding.  

"I don't suppose it's too much to ask that you're drinking 
real coffee?" she asked hopefully, distracted by the large 
cow-spotted mug clasped absently in his hand.  Cow spots.  
She'd thought it funny when she'd gotten it for him a few 
weeks ago, but now it was just plain obnoxious.

"Actually," he said with a grin, looking down at the cup, 
"It is coffee.  I already had some blood, but I was still 
hungry and I thought I'd give it a try.  It's not really all 
that bad..."

She felt herself break into a wide grin.  "Oh, Nick!  That's 
wonderful!  I..." she exclaimed as she hopped out of bed and 
ran to him.  Without hesitation, she placed her hand to his 
forehead.  "Your fever is gone too!"

Nick smiled triumphantly, as if his entire self-worth relied 
on the fact that his overworked immune system had finally 
come through for him.  "Yup.  Although I still feel like 
I've been hit by a truck..." 

She frowned and hugged him, careful not to jostle the mug in 
his hand.  "Well, Nick, this wasn't exactly what I'd hoped 
for when I gave you the Lyzatrex, but it's a good start," 
she said with a satisfied smile, resting her head lightly on 
his broad shoulder.

Nick affectionately brushed her hair absently with his free 
hand for a few moments but his fingers suddenly grew still 
as if he were pondering something of deep importance.  "Nat?  
Will this stuff wear off?" he asked curiously.  

She brought her head off his shoulder and peered into his  
worried eyes.  "To be honest, Nick.  I'm not sure," she 
said honestly.  From the look on his face, she could tell 
that that was _not_ what he wanted to hear.

"It obliterated the vampire nucleotides, not just 
deactivated them.  Don't worry about the half-mortal, half-
vampire thing.  I think if we give you a second dose it'll 
probably get rid of the rest of your vampiric cells.  I only 
gave you about one cc, hardly enough to do the entire 
job..." she explained, and thankfully, the worried 
expression slowly bled out of his face.  

But, she thought as she looked closely at his cleanly 
shaven face, there was still _something_ there.  Doubt?  
"Nick, what's the matter?  Are you having doubts about 
this?" 

Nick looked back at her, a certain sadness clouding his 
eyes, and he shook his head, walking over to the nightstand 
to place to now cooling coffee down on the wooden surface.  
"About this?" he asked, gesturing absently towards himself.  
"Certainly not.  I've wanted this for _years_.  It's just...  
It's just something that Janette said.  Nothing big," he 
commented, trying to brush off whatever was bothering him 
like it was nothing.

"What did she say?" Nat prodded.  She'd learned very early 
on in their relationship that while Nick always tried to 
hide his problems away, he was almost always screaming on 
the inside to talk about them.  He just needed a little help 
getting started.

"I..." he paused and then tried again.  "She...  She said 
that my quest for mortality was bothering her not because I 
would become mortal, but because she would lose me..." he 
whispered softly, his face filling with pain as his speech 
came to an end. 

"And now you're feeling guilty?" Nat questioned him softly, 
starting to realize where this was going.  Guilt.  That was 
Nick's arch enemy.  Always lurking, waiting to strike him 
when he was vulnerable.

He shrugged and looked down at the floor.  "I... I don't 
know.  Nat, never doubt how much I love you...  It's just 
that I..." he said, struggling to find words that expressed 
the feelings he was so obviously a victim of. 

"You love her too, and you're not sure you could stand her 
being left behind," she finished for him, her voice raw with 
pain.  Not out of her own jealousy, but out of his hurt.  
"It's ok, Nick.  I understand that you two once had 
something very special.  I've seen it when you've taken my 
blood.  You don't have to act like you don't care about her 
anymore," she assured him, trying to be supportive.  She 
knew there was no chance of him ever leaving her for 
Janette, but that didn't mean he didn't still care...   

"Yeah, I guess.  Don't worry, Nat.  I'll figure it out 
somehow, I just need time..." he said wearily, rubbing his 
eyes with his index fingers.  

Don't worry, Nat.  

Natalie blinked, as a strange tingling sensation started at 
the nape of her neck and swept around to her face.  

<Don't worry, Natalie.>  

And suddenly the pain came roaring back to life.  She 
groaned.  "Nat?" Nick said frantically as she doubled over, 
but she was unable to respond.  "What's the matter!?" he 
cried, his voice echoing through her head like muddled 
thunder as the images began to replay in her mind.  Blurry 
at first, but then clear as the pale moon on a crisp night.    

<Tell me what you found!>

"She made me tell her!" Nat suddenly blurted out, the agony 
practically making her see stars.  She screamed loudly, 
shaking wildly as she felt Nick's strong arms encircle her, 
pulling her back towards reality, making her feel safe and 
cared for.  

And suddenly, the pain receded.  All the events of the 
previous night that had replayed in jumbled skits assembled 
in sequence, becoming crystal clear in her mind.  "Oh, God!  
Schanke!" she sobbed worriedly.  What had happened to 
Schanke?  The last she had remembered, he had been 
brainwashed into Alihra's little servant. 

By this time, Nick was about sick with worry.  "Natalie!" he 
yelled as he shook her hard.  "What are you talking about!?  
What's going on?" he cried frantically.

She shook her head, trying to calm down the panic that was 
forming but to no avail.  "Nick!  Alihra!  She hypnotized 
me.  And Schanke, she hypnotized Schanke!  I...  That's why 
I was having headaches I think...  I was trying to remember 
but I couldn't..." she explained rapidly, but it was obvious 
that she'd lost Nick almost completely by the end.

"Wait, wait, headaches?" he exclaimed, crisscrossing and 
uncrossing his arms in rapid gesticulation as he tried to 
catch up with her.  "Since when were you having headaches?" 
he asked, very concerned.

"Since last night.  You were ill, so I kinda forgot to 
mention it...  Nick, you've got to stop Alihra.  She was 
threatening to kill you, I think she's a hunter..."  
Although she had managed to begin her speech at a moderate 
pace, by the end her heart and voice were racing fast enough 
to challenge a Derby winner in a sprint.   

"A hunter?  Hunter's can't hypnotize people...  They get the 
bloodlust, the anti-sunlight stuff, not hypnotism..." Nick 
said with a perplexed look, being entirely too logical for 
such a dire situation.

"Well, Nick.  Whatever the Hell she is," she began, growing 
angry as she thought of how Alihra had violated her, "that 
hag hypnotized Schanke, and me, and..."  

Nick interrupted her again.  "Nat, Alihra may have done the 
things you said, but I wouldn't hardly call her a hag..." he 
said, obviously trying to put some humor into the situation.  

At the look on his face, it became apparent to her that he 
was humoring her.  He didn't believe a word she was 
saying...  "Well fine then, an exceedingly mature, fiftyish 
woman," she began angrily and then asked "Is that better?" 
with an eyebrow raised, daring him to make another joke.  
This was real damnit!  Not some nightmare, which Nick 
obviously thought it was...

Nick just laughed out loud and she felt her cheeks turning 
red and hot at the horrible sound of his ridicule.  "Nat, 
Alihra's barely thirty, and she doesn't have a gray hair 
on her head!" he exclaimed.  "Really Nat, you almost had 
me there..." he paused upon seeing the look of daggers her 
face.  "Wait...  You're serious, aren't you?"

"Yes!" she hissed, amazed that he could be so incredibly 
thick.  Thick as a goddamned brick!  She wanted to scream at 
him and shake him she was getting so angry.  "I am telling 
you, Alihra is dangerous!  She hypnotized me, ME, a 
resistor!" she exclaimed, gesturing to herself wildly, 
thumping her chest hard for emphasis.

Nick closed his eyes and took a deep breath, recollecting 
himself.  "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said quickly in a 
cursory apology, but she could tell that he meant it.  
"You're probably going to clobber me for sticking on this 
track, but you really think Alihra is an fifty-something 
woman?" 

Nat could only nod, not understanding where he was going 
with this, but curious as to why he was focusing on it.  
"Well, that's news to me... because I'm seeing a dark, 
middle-eastern looking, black-haired, thirtyish year 
old..." 

Nat stared at him, mouth agape.  "You weren't joking when 
you said that earlier?" she asked curiously.  She thought 
he'd said that just to deride her...  Nick shook his head.  
"Well one of us has to be wrong, because last time I 
checked, people can't change their age at will, and they 
certainly can't change their coloring..."

Nick looked at her seriously.  "Nat, maybe you _were_ 
dreaming..." he suggested quietly, but she could tell that 
he meant no offense.    

"Well I wasn't dreaming at the crime scene...  She looked 
the same to me there too..." she said, her voice trailing 
off as the gravity of the situation began to set it.  What 
the Hell was going on?  

After pondering for several moments, Nick suddenly 
brightened up like an overhauled light bulb and he sprang 
towards the phone on the nightstand, quickly dialing a 
number.  He looked over at Nat and then up towards the 
ceiling while it rang.  Nat could vaguely hear a click on 
the other end of the line, and Nick took a deep breath 
before speaking.  "Schank?  Listen, this is going to sound 
like a really weird question, but what does Alihra look 
like?"

Well, at least the fact that he'd picked up the phone 
probably meant he was out of Alihra's clutches, Nat thought 
as she perched herself on the edge of the bed in 
anticipation.  She strained to hear what was being said on 
the other end of the line, but all she could discern was 
laughing, and Nick looked a little frustrated.  "Seriously, 
Schanke.  What does she look like?  Humor me..." Nick said 
into the receiver, looking towards Nat and shrugging 
helplessly. 

More noise on the other end.  "You're kidding...  You've got 
to be kidding, please say your kidding!" Nick pleaded, his 
voice becoming strained as he continued, defeated, "You're 
not kidding...  Listen Schanke, I'll explain later, I've got 
to go..."  Nat couldn't help but snicker as Nick put the 
phone down.  She didn't need to be holding the phone to 
understand _those_ expletives...  

"Well, Nat," he said with a harried sigh, "We've now got one 
woman, who looks like a graying fifty-year-old, a young 
black-haired middle-eastern thirty-year-old, and a creamy 
white blond of unspecified age."  

"So what the Hell is going on?!" Nat cried, leaping up from 
her perch on the bed.  Her patience was suddenly wearing 
very thin.

"I don't know.  I've never encountered anything like this 
before.  Maybe she's a shape shifter or something...  All I 
can say for sure is that she's not a hunter, and she's not a 
vampire," Nick said, putting his head in his hands as he sat 
down heavily on the bed.  

"Nick, don't you think that if she can fake superficial 
appearances, she'd be able to fake that too?" Nat asked.  It 
was a perfectly logical assumption, but lord, what a mess!

In response, Nick got up in a huff and went to the dresser.  
The look of frustration on his face as he manhandled a pair 
of cleanly pressed pants off his valet was clearly 
inadequate towards expressing his turmoil.  "Nick?  Nick, 
what are you doing?" she asked cautiously.

"I'm getting ready for work.  When Alihra gets there, I'll 
just ask her what the Hell is going on, although in nicer 
terms I think," he stated coldly, his face suddenly becoming 
a mask of stone.

"But, Nick!  You can't just waltz right up to her and ask 
her that!" she exclaimed incredulously.  He couldn't 
possibly expect something as direct as that to work...  

"Yeah?  Well then what do _you_ suggest I do?" he responded 
angrily, although she knew his anger wasn't really directed 
at her.  She simply remained silent.  She didn't really have 
a better suggestion, even if his idea _was_ pretty set for 
failure.

"That's what I thought," he commented dryly, pulling on a 
shirt and buttoning it furiously, his fingers fumbling with 
the small buttons.  

"Well if you're going to do this, I'm coming too," Nat 
stated calmly, waiting for Nick's overprotective side to 
burst through his well kept barriers.  Watching his face, 
she was surprised to see nothing but acceptance.  It was as 
if he had temporarily given up all protest.  Life had 
thrown him one too many curveballs, and he just couldn't 
catch them all.  

Well, it was just as well.  Because there was obviously 
the same question burning inside her that was burning 
inside him.  Who was Alihra?  Or more accurately, _what_ was 
Alihra?

*****

Nick stared blankly as the windshield wipers whisked the 
sleet off the windshield of his Caddy.  Nat was right.  This 
was never going to work...  Not in eight hundred years...  
But he had to try.  Alihra, she knew things that she wasn't 
supposed to know, possessed an art of illusion so developed 
that she'd had three people seeing her as three different 
women, all at the same time.  And it was scary.

"Nick?  Are you planning on turning the car off anytime 
soon?" Nat's voice interjected his thoughts impatiently.  

He sighed and brought his head down on the steering wheel, 
groaning in frustration as he weakly turned the key towards 
himself.  The steady murmur of the car's engine abruptly 
ceased, and all that remained was the sound of the sleet 
hitting the window in sheets of slushy mess.  "Nick, it's 
ok.  Everything will be ok..." Nat said worriedly, rubbing 
his back.

"Oh, if you only knew..." he grumbled, sitting up and 
looking into her soft blue eyes.  He really should mention 
the Enforcers to her, but they could be watching, even 
now...  And he didn't need anything _new_ to worry about at 
the moment.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nat asked suspiciously, 
bringing her mitted hands and arms together in a stern cross 
across the middle of her abdomen in a perfect expression of 
'Oh lord, what now?!'

"Nat, after this is over, you'll hear all about it, I swear.  
But I think we should get this out of the way first, don't 
you?" He asked, trying to escape her penetrating gaze.  
Luckily she seemed to accept that explanation, for now.  He 
sighed, shuffling in his seat and grabbing the lever on the 
door, pushing it open with a hardy shove.  Nat followed 
suit.  

They walked through the precinct parking lot in silence, 
buffeted by the chilly weather.  Always chivalrous, Nick 
pulled open the precinct door and motioned for Nat to enter 
first.  Nat smiled, happily complying.  

Schanke looked up from his desk almost immediately as if he 
had a radar which had the specific purpose of detecting when 
Nick arrived...  "Hey, Nick!  Do you mind, oh hi Nat," he 
paused as he noticed Nat walking in beside Nick and said 
hello to her out of politeness before continuing, "Do you 
mind maybe telling me what that phone call was about?" 

"Where's Alihra?" Nick asked coldly, not bothering to answer 
Schanke's question.  

Schanke glanced over his shoulder, "Well, she went to the 
ladies' room a few minutes ago, oh wait, there she is..." 
He pointed beyond Nick towards the bullpen where Alihra was 
now exiting into the office section of the precinct.  
Schanke waved meekly and she smiled back as she approached.  

Nick, however, was not interested in letting things get very 
social.  The minute Alihra was within reach, he grabbed her 
arm viciously and started yanking her towards a private 
conference room.  "Alihra, we need to talk, and we need to 
talk now!" he hissed into her ear.  

Nick didn't know if it bothered him more that Alihra wasn't 
protesting at all, or that Alihra seemed to be much more 
powerful than she looked and that she was simply allowing 
herself to be led like a dog on a leash.  "Nick, what the 
Hell are you doing?" Schanke cried from somewhere behind 
them as he leaped off his chair and followed in hot pursuit, 
Natalie not two nose-lengths behind him.  

Soon, they were all in the conference room, Nick, Nat, and 
Schanke sitting on one side of the long conference table, 
and Alihra sitting on the other side, looking like a defiant 
child facing up to the authorities.  Nick didn't wait any 
longer to begin.  "Schanke, tell me what you see," he began 
mysteriously, pointing to Alihra with an outstretched index 
finger.

"I see you going psycho!  C'mon, Nick.  What's going on?" 
Schanke asked, obviously frustrated that Nick wasn't giving 
any answers.  

Nick turned and stared at him coldly in silent fury, using 
every form of silent intimidation that he could muster.  
"All right!  All right!  I see Alihra.  Very blond, and 
_very_ pretty," he smiled with a twinkle in his eye and 
winked to Alihra, who up until then had been sitting there 
silently.  

She stood up, the chair legs screeching in protest as they 
were pushed back across the tiled floor.  "Look, it's 
obvious that you've figured out there's something not quite 
right about me.  Let me just make this easier and I can 
explain everything, all right?" she said calmly, and Nick 
peered at her with narrowed eyes.  It was obvious to him 
that this was a situation she'd been in before...  

"Fine," Nick said flatly, gesturing unmercifully with his 
hand for her to continue while at the same time trying not 
to let his face betray the surprise he felt that she'd given 
up that easily.  

Alihra lightly sat back down in her chair and opened her 
mouth to begin, brushing her luscious 'black' hair away from 
her face absently, but Schanke interrupted before she had a 
chance to speak.  "Nick?  Nat?  Alihra?  Would _SOMEONE_ 
explain to me what the Hell is going on?!" he cried 
frantically.

Alihra began, getting straight to the point.  "Relax, Don.  
Your partner has obviously become upset because I do not 
appear the same to him as I do to you, or to Dr. Lambert," 
she said coolly.  "My appearances," she continued, "are in 
the eye of the beholder.  I appear the way you want to see 
me, except my eyes.  They are my one constant...  I don't 
know why this is so, I've never met another with similar 
capabilities.  I am alone," she trailed off, looking 
forlornly at the table.  Nick realized that despite her cool 
appearance, this fact bothered her immensely.  It was like 
Alihra felt she had no identity.

"What?" Schanke asked incredulously.  "You mean to tell me 
that the reason I'm seeing you as a gorgeous blond babe is 
because I _WANTED_ to see a gorgeous blond babe?!  And you 
also expect me to believe that you're only appearing like 
a blond babe to _ME_ and not Nick or Natalie?  That's 
ridiculous...  Really, Nick.  This was very funny, but..."

"Schank, would you be quiet for a moment and listen?!" Nat 
snapped, obviously distressed by this news.  "Why would I 
want to see you as an older woman?" she asked curiously.  

It was a rather open-ended question, but Alihra was quick 
to answer.  "You are obviously quite attached to Nick, why 
would you want competition?" Alihra said with a grim frown.  

"Competition?!  Am I that petty?  That I would conjure you 
as an older woman because I think Nick would be attracted 
to a younger, prettier one?" Nat cried, becoming more and 
more upset she spoke.  

Alihra sighed.  "Whether you want to admit it or not, every 
woman feels that way to some extent.  Even if it's something 
you may never actively think about, it was still how you 
_wanted_ to see me.  And so here I am..." she explained.

Nick frowned.  "Then why are your eyes the same?"  

Alihra shrugged.  "I don't know, except that I am a firm 
believer that eyes are a pathway to the soul.  All other 
looks are superficial, but the eyes, they can tell 
everything about what a person is feeling, even when they do 
not wish to express it," she said softly, looking down at 
her hands which were clasped firmly in her lap.  

It made sense, Nick supposed.  But that still left a lot 
unanswered.  A lot unsaid.  "This still doesn't explain why 
you hypnotized Nat last night.  And Schanke...  And it 
certainly doesn't explain how..." Nick said cautiously, 
looking her in the eyes, but Schanke interrupted before he 
could finish.

"Me?  No one hypnotized me, buddy!  I was completely lucid 
since...  Wait..." Schanke claimed, his voice trailing off 
as he realized he couldn't remember what he'd done last 
night.  At all. 

"I...  I cannot tell you that," she said, her voice 
wavering.  "How...  How did you possibly find out about 
that?"  Her chest began to heave.  

"It doesn't matter.  We know.  And why were you threatening 
to kill me?" Nick prodded, rising from his seat and leaning 
across the table, bringing his face threateningly close to 
her gold and green streaked eyes.  The vampire within him 
screamed for release as he stared at her hypnotic eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" she insisted, but 
it was obviously a lie, she'd basically confirmed that with 
her first admission.  He could hear her heartbeat increasing 
rapidly as she began to panic.    

He looked at her coldly, having no sympathy for her 
whatsoever.  This woman had hurt Natalie, and Schanke, and 
he most certainly didn't take kindly to death threats.  
Leaning imperceptibly closer, his voice low with quiet rage, 
he began, "Alihra, tell me what you know about me..."  

The intimidation was too much for her.  She snarled, her 
fangs dropping and her eyes turned a true gold, the streaks 
flooding the entirety of her irises.  "I didn't want this 
assignment!" she screeched.  "I didn't want it, damnit!" she 
pounded her fists on the table.  

Nick felt his own fangs drop, and his vision turned an amber 
hue in instinctual response.  "You...  You're a vampire!" he 
hissed, standing rigidly, not backing off in the slightest.  
"But... but your heart beats!" he cried, completely 
confused, his mouth agape in a wicked display of sharp, 
pearly canines. 

"So does yours," she said flatly through her fangs.   

"But..."  

"You wanted to see a mortal.  You saw a mortal.  Right down 
to the heartbeat.  The only reason you see me like this now 
is because I allowed my mental masking to slip.  You can 
feel me now?" she asked, but it wasn't really a question.  

Nick nodded.  God yes, he could feel her.  The soft buzz at 
the back of his mind that LaCroix always produced was 
nothing compared to this.  The air was thick with her 
presence, wrapping his mind in thick cotton.  Suffocating 
him.  She radiated age, and power.  With great difficulty, 
he forced his fangs back up into his gums, knowing that even 
if he had been a full vampire he would never have been able 
to match her.  

"I'm sorry," Nick found himself saying, praying that Alihra 
wasn't going to do anything.  As it were, she could probably 
snap him in two like a twig, and Natalie and Schanke would 
be left defenseless.

Red, sticky tears fell from her amber eyes.  "I didn't want 
this...  I didn't want to have to do this.  I'm not like the 
others, I believe you're not a threat..."  she whispered 
frantically, breathing heavily as she sat down.  

"What are you talking about?" Nick asked her, keeping his 
eyes averted.  He didn't want to provoke her in this 
obviously troubled state...

"I'm from the Council.  I was sent to asses the threat you 
posed and kill you if I saw fit," she said honestly, looking 
at him with a sniffle.  "You... you don't have to act all 
submissive.  I won't do anything.  At least not yet..." she 
stated sadly, her eyes drooping with an age-old weariness.  

"The Council?  You're an Enforcer?  Oh God, you're the one 
who bit Janette...  She said it was a man, but knowing 
Janette, that makes sense..." he whispered hoarsely as he 
grasped the entirety of the situation, suddenly realizing 
what deep trouble he was in.  Here he was, cowering before 
an Enforcer who basically knew everything about him and his 
quest.  Hell, he was in mid-cure.  And now, he was probably 
dead...     

Alihra nodded mutely.  "I had to asses how much everyone 
knew.  I killed that poor man in the alley too.  I had to, 
I had to see who all was involved," she confirmed and then 
looked to Natalie.  "I'm sorry I had to hurt you Natalie, I 
thought that my mesmerizing job would stick, but it 
obviously hasn't..." 

Nat, who'd been in silent wonder of the scene enfolding 
before her, was shocked into speech, "I...  no, I'm a 
resistor," was the only thing she could think of to say. 

Alihra let out a sigh.  "That doesn't matter when you're as 
old as I am," she said quietly.  Nick felt himself actually 
growing empathetic towards her...  And it was obvious that 
she was hurting.  "Nick, I can't let you live.  No matter 
how much I want to.  The others would realize you'd been let 
go and they'd not only kill you three, but they'd sack me as 
well," she said quietly, and Nick felt a lump forming in his 
throat.  

"Why am I not dead already?" Nick asked in a hoarse whisper, 
silently fearing the answer.

"Because I like you.  I admire you and your quest," she 
closed her eyes and sighed, weeping silently.  "And... I 
want it too..."  Her admission was soft, almost too quiet 
for even his enhanced ears to pick up.  She looked up, her 
eyes finally changing back to their normal gold-streaked 
green.  "Six thousand years...  It is a long time to live 
without a soul, without any real identity except what others 
make for you," she whispered forlornly.  

Nick stared, his eyes wide.  Six thousand years...  That 
made even LaCroix seem like an infant.  "Is there any way to 
save them?" Nick said, pointing towards Natalie and Schanke, 
both sitting speechless, mouths agape.  

Alihra shook her head.  "No," she said simply.  "You know 
the Code.  They must die," she stated bluntly, her disgust 
with the whole idea evident through the expression on her 
face.  

Nat stood up abruptly at that.  "What are you talking about?  
I've known for years, and I've never told a soul!  Hell, 
I've even covered for you!" she said furiously as she 
slammed her right fist into the table, her cheeks turning 
slightly red as she spoke.  

Alihra blinked and looked at her, suddenly becoming 
defensive.  "I don't really have a choice in the matter, Dr. 
Lambert.  Even if I let you go, someone would come for you.  
They would know I'd been soft with you the moment I share 
blood with Elohr, my master.  You _do_ know about the blood 
sharing..." Alihra said softly, looking pointedly at the 
small bite marks on Nat's neck, who immediately blushed and 
sat back down.

Nick paled.  Elohr...  He'd heard that name before.  He was 
the second in command of all of the Enforcer clan.  The son 
of the eldest vampire.  He'd heard about him by word-of-
mouth, but even LaCroix had never met him.  And even what 
he'd heard was sketchy.  Most vampires he'd met over the 
years avoided discussion of the Enforcers like the plague.  
They were feared throughout the Community, and definitely 
not a topic of choice for casual discussion.

A knock came at the door, and Alihra managed to work away 
her vampiric appearance just before the Captain stepped into 
the conference room.  "You've been in here for an hour!  
Are you working on a lead?" she asked curiously, an eyebrow 
raised as she brushed a stray black hair away from her eye 
and folder her arms authoritatively across her chest.

"We were discussing theories," Nick said flatly, trying 
desperately not to let the emotions generated by their tense 
confrontation seep through and into his tone.

The Captain nodded suspiciously.  "Ah...  Well, I came to 
tell you that we have another murder.  Same pattern, no 
marks except the two cuts on the neck," she said as she 
handed Schanke, who was sitting closest to the door and to 
her, a file.  "The address and particulars are in there.  
The body is already waiting at the morgue for you, Dr. 
Lambert."  

Cohen looked pointedly at Schanke and Nick.  "Please bag 
this one, guys.  I don't want this developing into a rampant 
serial killer case," she warned them sternly before exiting.  

Nick turned to Alihra.  "Was it you?" he demanded coldly.  
This was all so unnecessary.  One person had already been 
killed because of him, he didn't need a second death on his 
head.  

Alihra shook her head.  "No," she said, a strange tone 
entering her voice.  "But as long as I'm in town, I might as 
well take care of this offender as well..." she said with a 
bitter sigh.  She didn't like her job, not one bit.  That 
much was evident.

"What about me?" Nick found himself asking hoarsely, 
desperately not wanting to hear her answer.

"I'll," Alihra began, her voice breaking as she began to cry 
lightly again.  "Later.  I will deal with you and your 
friends later..." she whispered as she stood up to leave to 
conference room.

Nick sighed in relief collectively with Nat and Schanke as 
she departed.  "Nick, what are we going to do?  If we help 
her solve the case do you think she'll relent?" Nat asked 
worriedly as Schanke sat in a speechless daze.  

Nick shrugged.  "I don't know, Nat.  I just don't know," he 
stated honestly.  A death sentence was practically 
irreversible in the vampire underworld.  Enforcers, even 
emotionally wrecked ones, were not vampires to be trifled 
with.

*****

"Nick, Schanke, this wasn't a vampire kill."

Natalie's voice brought him out of the shocked daze he'd 
been sitting in since they'd arrived at the morgue.  "Huh?" 
Nick asked, practically falling out of his chair at the 
interruption. 

Nat pointed towards the neck of the victim lying on her 
autopsy table, and Schanke moved in closer to see what she 
was pointing at.  "These two 'bite marks' were made by a 
needle.  There's also no evidence of vampire saliva in the 
wounds, but it was so similar I'd almost say the murderer 
was trying to make it look like a vampire kill," Nat 
commented softly, the professional confident tone completely 
gone from  her voice.  She was being affected by the events 
at hand more than she probably wanted to admit.

"Are you telling me that some wacko figured that he was 
going to go waltzing around like Count Dracula?" Schanke 
asked incredulously, finally breaking the silence that he'd 
kept since Alihra had revealed her motives.  

"Yes, Schank.  That's exactly what I'm saying, although not 
quite that elegantly," Nat said lightly, giving Schanke a 
smirk despite herself.  

Schanke slammed his hand down on the desk.  "Damn!  That 
means Alihra is probably going to be on our backs again, 
real soon..." he commented, the worry in his voice steadily 
increasing.  "Nick, what are we going to do?  You could 
bring us both across, couldn't you?"

Nick looked down at the floor and shrugged.  "Alihra may 
still want to find the mortal who did this, Enforcers don't 
police just vampires...  And yes, but bringing you both 
across is an option which I'd rather not consider, and which 
I'm not even sure if I could do," Nick answered hesitantly.  
He'd hoped that neither Schanke nor Natalie would've thought 
of that...

Schanke peered at him with a raised eyebrow, "Can't, or 
won't?" he asked suspiciously.

That was a good question.  In the face of death, _would_ he 
actually bring them across?  And if he did, would he regret 
it for the rest of his life?  Hopefully, he would never have 
to decide.  "Schanke, with that drug Nat's given me, I 
honestly don't know if I can.  Not to mention my track 
record with fledglings has been less than stellar..." he 
commented honestly.  He would save the rest for later, if it 
was necessary.  A feeling of dread began to flood his system 
as he realized that it probably was.

Schanke looked at the ground.  "Oh," he said, obviously 
disappointed that it wasn't simply Nick's morals getting in 
the way of the decision.  

"Schanke, I'll figure something out, I promise," Nick found 
himself saying before he could stop himself.  Like what the 
Hell was there for him to figure out?  The Enforcers wanted 
all of them dead.  End of story.  And definitely not much 
leeway.  

"Well, we can still try and find the person who did this, 
that may get us into Alihra's favor..." Nat said hopefully, 
but it was something she knew was pretty much destined for 
failure.  

Nick stared at her and immediately felt the guilt constrict 
his chest.  She and Schanke were going to die.  And it would 
be his fault.  Because he'd been too stupid to walk away 
when he could've, when he'd been presumed dead.  He'd come 
back, and despite his better judgment, he'd stayed.  And now 
they would all pay for it with a fatal price.

"Nick, don't you dare start feeling guilty about this!" Nat 
said when she saw the look on his face change.  "This is all 
of our faults.  We're in this together, and if anyone is 
taking blame, it should be split three ways between us..."  

Schanke nodded mutely in agreement, but Nick still couldn't 
see it.  How could they even pretend that this wasn't all 
his doing?  How could they...  He was broken from his 
thoughts when Natalie planted him with a desperate kiss in 
an attempt to distract him.  "Nick, stop it, now!  We will 
get through this, even if I have to knock your head in and 
drag you through," Nat commented with a little laugh.  

Schanke smiled as well, "I agree, but don't expect me to 
kiss you..."

Nick couldn't help but grin in response.  "Schanke, I think 
I'd rather have Nat do violence to my head than have you 
kiss me, no offense," he said playfully, feeling a strange 
tingling sensation beginning in his abdomen, but choosing to 
ignore it.  "I'm sorry I'm being all doom and gloom about 
this, I know that we should be working out a plan of escape, 
so to say.  It's just that, the Enforcers are not ones to 
show mercy..." 

"Hey, there's always a first time for everything," Nat said 
optimistically, and Nick couldn't help but admire her for 
it.  She was so...  so...  incredible.  He couldn't even 
begin to put her into words.  And he didn't want to.  He 
liked her just the way she was.  What on Earth had he done 
without her?  It almost seemed like eons ago, another part 
of his life that he cared not to remember.  The tingling 
sensation he felt earlier was getting worse.    

He was struck from his thoughts when he felt a burning 
sensation in his chest, and suddenly an incredibly intense 
urge to feed.  Blinking as Nat's and Schanke's heartbeats 
began to flood his ears, he clutched at his chest, panting 
hard.  What was going on?  "Nick, what's wrong?" Nat asked 
worriedly, placing her hands on his shoulders to support him 
as he felt the muscles in his legs giving out.  

His world turning a blaze of gold, he found himself snarling 
wildly as the pain began to set in.  He blinked furiously, 
trying to breathe, but it was if the air itself was crushing 
him.  "Nat..." he hissed through his taut lips, "Please..." 
he managed to utter before muscle spasms engulfed him.  He 
felt Schanke's hands in addition to Nat's, straining to keep 
him upright.  

"Nick, what?  Please, what's wrong?" he heard Natalie cry 
through the thunder.  "Schanke, get some blood out of the 
fridge!" he heard her demand.  Two hands left his shoulders.  

He let out a forced moan as his nerves all seemed to fire in 
rapid succession, leaving him on fire and freezing at the 
same time.  His teeth began to chatter, even though he felt 
like he was being flamed in the fiery pits of Hell.  Stars 
exploded in front of him, completely blinding him, and 
despite Nat's efforts to keep him standing, he felt himself 
collapsing to the floor and onto his knees with a painful 
crack.  

Something cold was placed in his hand.  Something that could 
only be...  He growled wildly, a complete slave to his 
vampiric instincts as he took the blood pack to his lips and 
practically ripped it a apart in an effort to get to the 
blood inside.

The pack was soon empty, but he was too crazed to care.  He 
sucked at it wildly, trying to get every last drop, panting 
sharply between swallows, like a desperate addict.  It was 
like he hadn't fed in a month, he was starving. 

Another pack appeared before him and he completely drained 
it as well, throwing it to the floor in a bloodlust induced 
rage.  Growling, he exposed his gleaming fangs to his two 
observers and he tried to get up, but instead fell back onto 
the floor, hitting his head on the cold tile with a loud 
crack.  That was enough to bring him back to his senses.  

Bloodsweat dripped down his face as he lay there panting.  
The thunder in his ears went away, the wild chorus of 
beating hearts receding dimly into the background.  He 
sighed heavily, surprised to find that he was still very 
hungry.  

"Nat, what just happened?" he heard Schanke ask curiously.  

"I don't know!"  Nat sounded completely dumbfounded.  

"Nick?"  Nat's hands were at his chest shaking him, but he 
couldn't open his eyes.  They were just too heavy to lift, 
his jaw too heavy to open.  A warm finger gently pushed his 
his eyelid up, and the light brought shoots of pain to his 
brain.  He clenched his eyelids shut, still finding himself 
unable to respond even though he was completely aware.  He 
tried to move and found himself strangely paralyzed.  

"Well, he's awake... but..." he could hear Natalie mumbling 
to herself.  He was hungry.  His insides were practically 
clawing at him, chewing him out from the inside.  He wanted 
to tell them... he wanted to, but he couldn't.  It was like 
he was completely frozen.  Hunger induced paralysis...  
Something he'd never had the unfortunate chance to 
experience until now.

There was a cold thing on his chest suddenly, probably a 
stethoscope but he couldn't tell for sure.  "Oh, God.  His 
heart isn't beating anymore..." Nat said frantically, and 
he could feel her hands probing him here and there.  
"Everything else seems fine...  Schanke, he must've 
reverted..."

"You mean that Lyzastuff didn't work?" 

"I don't know, I'm not sure..." Nat whispered, worriedly.  
"Nick?" he felt her warm hand patting the side of his 
cheek, trying to get him to wake up.  

He managed to groan lightly in response, the pain in his gut 
was starting to make him see stars even though his eyes were 
closed.  "Nick, if you can hear me, make noise!" Nat said 
frantically, obviously hoping his groan hadn't been a 
fluke.  

Nick made a gurgling noise in his throat, unable to do much 
else.  His insides were screaming.  "God, Nick.  Do you 
know what's wrong with you?"  

He gurgled again.  Just let her realize he needed blood...  
Please...  "Maybe he needs more chow..." Schanke mumbled, 
obviously looking down on Nick from somewhere almost 
immediately behind Nat. 

"Schanke, he couldn't possibly, he just had two pints!" Nat
rebuked his theory almost immediately.

Nick made another gurgling noise.  Please.  Blood.  Please!  
His entire body was burning with need...  "You need more 
blood, Nick?" Nat asked, amazed.  He confirmed almost 
instantly.

Within minutes he felt a prick in his arm.  "Jeez, Nat.  Is 
he supposed to absorb blood that fast?" Schanke asked, 
amazed.  Natalie must've responded with either a nod or a 
shake of her head, because Nick couldn't hear her reply.  
After what seemed like eons, he could feel the burning 
subside, and feeling returned to his limbs.  

With some difficulty, Nick opened his eyes to a world of 
amber colored pain.  "Welcome back, buster," Schanke 
commented playfully as he sat up weakly, but Nick couldn't 
help but notice the worry behind his and Nat's eyes.  

He looked from Schanke to Nat, who was removing the IV setup 
from his arm.  "More," he whispered in a choked sob, tears 
of pain beginning to flood from his eyes as his gut began to 
wildly cramp again, urging him to feed.  

Natalie put her hand on his cheek.  "More?" she asked in 
disbelief but reached over towards the cooler that now sat 
beside him and pulled out another pint bag.  He drained it 
immediately and went for another, not remembering a time 
when he'd ever been this hungry, not caring that the blood 
he was desperately consuming was human.  Even as a fledgling 
suffering from the first hunger, it hadn't been this bad.  
Shaking with need, he grabbed a third.  A fourth.  A fifth.  

It didn't seem to end.  He was ravenous.  Finally on his 
sixth, he collapsed back onto the floor shaking like a leaf 
fluttering in the wind.  "Nick?  Are you all right?" Nat 
asked hesitantly, her hand on his back.  

"No..." he whispered, hugging his knees closely to him.  He 
felt like he was going to puke.  Everything hurt.  

"I... I think you reverted Nick.  I think the Lyzatrex 
failed..." Nat whispered, rubbing his back in soothing 
circles, trying to calm his tense muscles.  

"No, not yet.  Something still lingers," he moaned, his 
entire body aching.  The hunger was gone, and he could hear 
a heart beating wildly in his ears.  His heart...  "I can 
still hear my heartbeat..." he said with a shocked whisper, 
inhaling sharply as his tortured nerves continued to stab 
him. 

"Nick, I listened to your heartbeat while you were out, it 
was gone..." Nat said softly, as if she were afraid the 
truth would hurt him.  But even so, she placed her hand to 
his jugular and gasped.  "Ohmygod, you're right!  The 
Lyzatrex!  It must be failing in stages.  That was just your 
vampire side trying to break through, but it obviously 
didn't succeed," she exclaimed rapidly.

Nick wobbly got up off the floor with the help of Schanke 
and Nat, his muscles weak and strained.  "Is this going to 
happen again?" he asked fearfully.  He didn't even want to 
think about what would happen if it occurred while he was at 
the precinct, or in a public place.

"Nick, I hate to say this, but I think it might, if this was 
any indication.  You're body is at war with itself...  God, 
I've made another mistake!  Another failure!" Natalie cried, 
tears falling down her pale face.  "I'm sorry, Nick," she 
whispered sincerely, taking him into a firm embrace.  

Nick sighed, his breath coming in weak, ragged gasps.  
"Please, just take me home..." he whispered tiredly, resting 
his head on Nat's shoulder.  

Nat nodded softly and worked herself under one of Nick's 
arms, clasping her arm behind his back to support him.  
Schanke followed suit and put Nick's other arm over his 
shoulder.  Nick closed his eyes to the pain as they slowly 
guided him out of Nat's office.  

*****

Surprisingly enough, Alihra met them at the door of the 
Coroners' Building.  "I checked around, no one saw anything.  
Hey, what happened?" she asked, suddenly concerned when she 
saw Nick leaning heavily against his two friends.  

Natalie sighed as Nick's weight rested against her.  God, 
this was her doing.  She'd given him so much hope, 
especially when the Lyzatrex had seemed to be working at 
first, only for him to come crashing down.  What's worse is 
that she couldn't tell if he was being despondent because he 
felt ill, or if it was because he was disappointed, or if it 
was a combination of both. 

"The potential cure I tried on him didn't work.  He's slowly 
reverting," Nat said softly, not surprised that Nick hadn't 
said anything.  It looked like Nick was practically asleep 
on his feet.

Alihra put her hand to her chest, "Oh, I'm so sorry," she 
said sincerely.  Like she hadn't been planning to kill them 
at all.  Like she was some dear friend who knew exactly what 
Nick was going through.

"Alihra, what do you care?  It's not like you were going to 
let him live long enough to enjoy it even if it had 
worked..." Nat said caustically before she could stop 
herself.  Great way to win her over, Lambert.  

Alihra looked appropriately set in her place.  "I'm sorry, I 
deserved that," she admitted, looking down at the ground in 
shame.  Nat couldn't help but notice that now that she'd 
been exposed for what she was, Alihra was less intimidating 
than a mouse.  

"Anyway," Schanke interrupted, sensing the coldness in their 
speech, "Nat discovered that the kill wasn't made by a 
vampire."  

"Really?" Alihra said, her eyebrow raised, green eyes 
flashing.  

"Yeah, we think a mortal did it on purpose to look like a 
vampire kill," Schanke commented, guiding Nick down off the 
sidewalk and onto the asphalt carefully.  

Nat glanced around cautiously.  The parking lot was very 
dark, she'd never enjoyed walking in it at night while she 
was alone.  She was actually happy to have Alihra there for 
once.  It made her feel a lot safer knowing that they were 
being accompanied by one of the planet's most perfect 
predators.  

"I wonder why," Alihra said curiously, rocking a bit on her 
heeled pumps.  

"To track you down!" a baritone voice came through the 
darkness, somewhere behind a nearby pillar.  

Alihra spun on her feet, glancing this way and that, 
perfectly able to see in the darkness, even though as hard 
as Nat tried, she couldn't see anything but inanimate 
shadows.  "Hello Alihra, so nice to see you," a man in a 
dark trench coat stepped out of the shadows, lighting a 
cigarette as he came to a stop in front of her.  Its 
glowing embers provided an eerie cast to his face, making 
it seem abnormally pale and gaunt.  

"Who are you?" Alihra said, obviously trying very hard not 
to succumb to her vampiric urge to rip this threatening 
man's throat out.  

The man smiled.  "I knew you wouldn't be able to resist 
investigating a vampire kill, and I knew you were in town.  
My source at the Raven told me all the details.  Seems you 
had a little problem with Brabant.  He's a hard one to keep 
a lid on, never was able to track him down, his ancient 
bastard of a father who I never had the fortune of 
successfully killing, kept getting in the way..." the man 
said amusedly, flicking the ash from his cigarette and 
lightly gestured with his free hand.  Six more men stepped 
out of the shadows, surrounding them.

Alihra stood fast, still not committing to any action, and 
Nat felt herself becoming very nervous.  This was a hunter, 
it was obvious!  Why didn't Alihra do something?  With Nick 
as a crutch, she and Schanke were pretty much out of the 
picture.

"That's right, dear.  Snarl for me.  Show me what a big bad 
Enforcer vampire you are," the man said, speaking like he 
was someone swooning over an infant.  When Alihra merely 
glared, the man threw his cigarette to the ground and 
stamped it out.  "You disappoint me, Alihra.  I've been 
tracking you for a good decade.  Now I find you and I'm 
greeted with... well with you.  Ok, boys," the man said, 
gesturing with a blase sweep of his hand.  

Nat held her breath as each of the surrounding men pulled 
weapons out of their coats, all obviously geared towards 
taking down a less than cooperative vampire.  "Now, Alihra, 
you all can come quietly, or you can put up a fight," he 
said with a maniacal laugh.

Alihra snarled in response, her eyes glowing bright amber, 
arching her neck like a cobra ready to strike.  

<EEEEIIIII>

Her fangs revealed, she let out the ungodly screech, and Nat 
unsuccessfully tried to cover her ears.  She'd never heard 
Nick even attempt to make a noise like that, she doubted 
that he could.  

"Much better, Alihra!"  The man giggled as he pranced 
backwards trying to induce her to take a step forward.  
There was a breath of freezing night air as she disappeared 
from her current position, and reappeared behind one of the 
men in the circle surrounding them.  She took quick leave of 
him, draining him like he was a plaything, and he slumped to 
the ground with a sick, hollow thud.    

Nat couldn't stop herself as her instincts of self-defense 
kicked in.  She let go of Nick and kicked out towards the 
closest of the six men, catching her pointed shoe in his 
exposed crotch.  The man buckled in pain and cried out as 
another one grabbed her strongly from behind.  "Ah, ah, 
little missy.  I wouldn't interfere if I were you," he 
hissed in her ear, his hot breath clawing at the nape of her 
neck as he closed his grip on her midsection uncomfortably 
tighter.  

Suddenly, there was a thud as Schanke clobbered him from 
behind with a swift punch, and Nat sighed in relief.  
Apparently, Schanke had set Nick down gently on the pavement 
before coming to her aid.  Unfortunately, the remaining men, 
who had been distracted by Alihra's advances, began to 
notice that the mortals in the group were putting up 
resistance.  One of them brought out what looked to be a 
teargas gun, and suddenly, there was a strange hissing noise 
echoing through the cold air.  

Nat felt herself get lightheaded.  Gas.  They'd used gas!  
Her last sleepy thought as she slipped to the ground was 
that she hoped Alihra hadn't waited to long to strike...  
Again she heard that awful screeching noise, a scuffle, 
discharge of numerous weapons, and then it went silent as 
the rush of blood in her ears engulfed her.

*****

It was black.  When had it gotten so dark?  It was cold too.

"Nat?"  

Someone was shaking her.  

"Nat, wake up.  Please, wake up!" a familiar voice was 
bidding her to wake, no, pleading with her.  It sounded 
worried.  

She groaned and cracked an eyelid open.  "Damn!" she managed 
to say through her parched lips as her head began to ache 
like two jackhammers were playing tag inside it.  Whatever 
drug had been in that gas must've been pretty nasty.  

"Shhh, don't sit up too quickly," Schanke said as he helped 
her up, his warm hand supporting her back as she rose into 
an upright position, dizzy and nauseous.  

Squinting in the dim, soft light, Nat finally got a good 
look at her surroundings.  She was in a small barred cell, 
maybe twelve by fourteen feet if that much.  The floor was a 
pale, cold concrete, no padding whatsoever, and there was a 
small window up near the top of the wall in the left hand 
corner.  Enough to light the cell dimly but not enough to 
hurt Nick...  

Nick...  Nat glanced around frantically until she located a 
rather large, unmoving lump on the floor in the corner.  It 
was Nick, she could tell from the shock of mussy blond hair 
on the crumpled figure's head.  She sighed in infinite 
relief as her eyes located him.  He was crumpled up like a 
neglected toy, his arms clutched around his stomach, 
breathing rather evenly.  Asleep.  He was asleep.  Nat again 
sighed with relief, at least he hadn't had another one of 
those awful attacks.  

"Where are we?" she asked hoarsely, looking around.  
Something was missing...  Something important.  She finally 
realized that Alihra was nowhere to be found, and despite 
her dislike of the woman, Natalie found herself feeling 
worried.  

Schanke shrugged.  "I've only been awake about an hour.  
Nick's been out like a light the whole time, I think that 
gas really got him good...  But I haven't seen anyone walk 
through here."  

Nat took another look at Nick.  Why had the hunters left him 
here and not Alihra?  Then it occurred to her that they 
didn't know he was a vampire.  For all intents and purposes, 
he appeared to be a mortal.  His heartbeat was a little 
slow, and his temperature a little low, but they were more 
similar to mortal vital stats then vampire ones.  Not to 
mention that he'd been knocked out cold by that gas, and she 
suspected that it had just been for their benefit and not 
Alihra's.  

She got up and walked over to the door of the tiny cell, 
jerking at the bars with all her might.  The door gave about 
a centimeter forward and backward on its rusty hinges, 
moaning pitifully in protest.  Nick would have no trouble 
ripping it open if he were awake and all vampire again.  But 
at this moment, neither of those two premises were met, she 
and Schanke would have to fend for themselves.  

"Should I try and wake him up?" Schanke asked curiously, 
pointing towards Nick's unconscious form.  

Nat shook her head.  "No, he might need the sleep," she said 
absently, testing the barred door once again, only 
receiving another horrific groan as it rocked back and 
forth on its joints.  Sticking her head into the narrow gap 
between two of the bars, she glanced as far to the left and 
right as she could.  There was a small, three foot wide 
corridor in front of the cell that led off indefinitely in 
either direction, with another cell directly across from 
them, and to either side of that.  The concrete walls to the 
left and right prevented her from seeing any length down 
either side, beyond the three cells in her direct view. 

Nat went back to Schanke and sat down in a huff.  "Well, it 
looks like we're stuck here for now.  I wonder why they took 
us?"  Schanke just shrugged.  He was as much in the dark as 
she was, and at least she'd had _some_ experience with 
hunters.  

Somewhere down the hall an unearthly scream ripped through 
the air, echoing harshly down towards their cell, and Nat 
squeezed her eyes shut.  A feeling of dread set into her 
stomach like a brick as she suddenly developed a very good 
idea as to where Alihra was...  "God, I think they're 
torturing her..." she whispered fearfully, her eyes 
subconsciously darting towards Nick. 

"But why?" Schanke asked, looking in the direction the sound 
had come somewhat worriedly.  Nick hadn't really told him 
about hunters.  Schanke didn't know...

"They're hunters Schanke.  That's what they do," she said, 
gritting her teeth.  She was suddenly very thankful that 
Nick was still under the influence of the Lyzatrex.  At 
least he wouldn't be subjected to the same fate as Alihra.

"Comfy?" a voice asked.  Nat and Schanke both looked up in 
shock to see the same man they'd seen last night, standing 
there in front of their cell with a grisly smile of sadistic 
contentment.  

Nat ignored his question.  "What do you want?  Why have you 
kept us?" Nat demanded coldly, standing up quickly to look 
him daringly in the eyes.  

"My, you are a spunky one!" the man commented gleefully.  
"Well if you must know, you all are just chow.  We like to 
keep our vampires fed, at least for awhile..." he said with 
a haughty snicker.  

"You, are a sick monster!" Nat screamed, trying desperately 
not to launch herself at the bars.  She would not lose her 
temper.  Would not lose... her... temper...  She took a deep 
breath.  She needed to keep her cool if they ever hoped to 
get out of there.  there would probably be a tiny opening 
somewhere along the line, a brief chance of escape.  And if 
she angered their captor, that might ruin it.

"Ah well, I suppose I am.  But right now, I've got a 
vampire who is just _dying_ to see me again.  Ta ta..." he 
said cheerfully, laughing at his own pun as he grinned 
wildly and turned to skip down the corridor like a giddy 
two-year-old on a sugar high.  

Nat felt hot tears start to fall down her stinging cheeks.  
"Nat, shhh, it's all right," Schanke soothed her as she sat 
back down onto the cold ground.  "There's nothing you can do 
about it, anyway," he said softly.  "We'll find some way out 
of this..." he rubbed her back softly, taking her into a 
platonic, comforting embrace.  

"Schanke, Alihra may not have been the most amiable of 
vampires, but she still didn't deserve this," Nat sighed, 
her sentence punctuated by another inhuman scream of agony 
from down the hall.  A snarl and a growl followed, and then 
the scream of what was most certainly a mortal man.  Nat 
smiled.  At least Alihra wasn't making it easy for them...

"Yeah, well," Schanke said staring down at the floor sadly.  
"I kinda feel guilty for feeling this, but I can't help but 
wonder if this will get the Enforcers off our backs..."  

Nat looked at him, understanding where he was coming from.  
For the briefest of moments, she'd thought the same thing.  
"I don't think so Schanke, they'll send even more Enforcers 
into Toronto if she were to disappear.  Not to mention that 
it's doubtful that we ourselves will get out of this 
alive..." she commented bitterly.  It seemed like it was 
just one thing after another these days. 

In the corner, Nick suddenly started as another howl 
penetrated the cell, his eyes flying open in surprise.  
"Nat?" he said with a gasp as he pushed himself into a 
sitting positing with his palms.  

"Nick, it's all right," Nat said, scootching over towards 
him.

Another scream.  

Nick winced.  He didn't have to ask what was going on.  He 
just knew.  "They're killing her..." he whispered, his voice 
a harrowing picture of his emotions.  

Nat hugged him close as he started to tremble at the sounds 
of her screams.  He was afraid...  Hunters were something 
that every vampire feared, she was sure of that.  Nick had 
never said it in so many words, but it was probably his 
worst fear ever.  He'd told her of many instances in the 
past where he'd come within an inch of his life at the hands 
of some crazed hunter or religious fanatic.  The most recent 
being in 1994 when a woman had been hunting people and had 
just by accident discovered that she could hunt one of the 
world's most ultimate predators.  Him...  

"She doesn't deserve this," he commented softly into her 
shoulder, breathing softly into her neck as another shiver 
coursed through him.  But he suddenly went silent, a quick 
gasp cutting him off.  

"Nick?" she asked cautiously. 

He let out a small whimper, followed by a rather deep growl.  
Nat could feel his back vibrating as he fingers ran over his 
his torn shirt.  He clutched at his stomach and let out a 
cry of pain as he ripped himself from her grasp, backing up.  

Schanke was beside her in an instant.  "Nick?" he called, 
but Nat knew it was no good.  Nick was having another 
attack.  And there was nothing she could do to help him.  

She put out her hand to stop Schanke from advancing.  
"Schanke, stop.  He's hungry, and we don't have anything to 
give him..."  She whispered sadly, desperately wanting to go 
to him, but knowing that she would probably lose her life if 
she did.  Schanke reluctantly sat back on his haunches, not 
going any further. 

Nick snarled in a wide grimace, his fangs dripping with 
salivation as he threw himself back against the far cement 
wall.  "Stay away," he warned in a guttural, vampire-laden 
voice, shaking as he pressed himself into the wall as hard 
as he could, his muscles straining at the effort.  Blinking 
furiously, his eyes leaked a steady stream of red tears as 
he clutched wildly at his abdomen.     

Another scream ripped through the corridor, followed by 
several shouts of men.  It sounded kind of like "Hold her, 
you idiots!" but Nat couldn't be sure.

Nick cocked his head to the side, listening calmly despite 
the sweat that was now pouring down his face.  And suddenly, 
he flew up off his feet and flung himself at the door.  Nat 
screamed, startled as it swung open almost immediately upon 
impact.  Nick stumbled around for a moment trying to gain 
his footing, a bit stunned from the force of his crash, and 
then he was off down the corridor faster than Nat could 
discern.  

Schanke leapt up off his feet as Nat sat there staring in 
shock.  She hadn't expected that at all...  Sounds growls, 
frantic shouts, and weapons firing echoed through the 
corridor.  "C'mon, Nat!" Schanke screamed in her ear, and 
Nat was finally able to come to grips with what had just 
happened.  

They took of down the hall, the breeze hitting their faces 
as they ran.  In the craziness of the moment, she blindly 
followed Schanke for a good fifty feet before she realized 
something was wrong.  "Schanke, wait!"  Schanke came to a 
halt just in front of her, so abruptly that she almost ran 
into him.

"What?" he hissed, but then he cocked his head to the side.  
He heard what she heard too.  Nothing.  It had gone silent.  

He motioned to her with his head, his cop persona obviously 
taking over as he hugged the walls with his back, 
stealthily approaching the narrow blue door that lead to who 
knew where.  All Nat knew is that that was where Nick had 
gone, and that was where all the noise had been coming from 
before it had stopped.  

Schanke grabbed the door and opened it a crack, peering in.  
He gasped and yanked it open all the way.  Nat and Schanke 
both walked into the small room.  Blood was streaked 
everywhere, dripping off the walls and onto the floor.  
Three men, including their captor lay, on the ground 
unconscious with lightly bleeding wounds in their necks, and 
two quite dead, although it appeared from their own weaponry 
and not from either of the two vampires in residence.  
Alihra was on a small steel table off to the side of what 
looked to be a miniature torture chamber, strapped down 
harshly with twine ropes and rosaries, and from the stench, 
probably all dipped in garlic.  

She weakly looked towards them and gasped in pain, her eyes 
streaked crimson and gold.  "Alihra?" Nat called, trying to 
determine if the vampire was lucid.     

"Please," the vampire gasped, "Please untie me!"  She 
whimpered and started to struggle wildly against her 
restraints, yanking them this way and that only to receive 
new cuts for her troubles.  Blood welled up where the twine 
had rubbed her skin away.  

Nat rushed over to the hurt vampire.  "Shhh.  Alihra, stop 
moving, I'll get you out," she tried to sooth Alihra as she 
attempted to untie the garlic-slippery ropes and rosaries.  
Finally, she managed to get most of them off, enough for 
Alihra to rip herself out on her own.  

Alihra coughed, spitting up a bit of blood.  "Nick!" she 
cried worriedly, pointing across the room.  Nat whipped 
around in the direction of Alihra's outstretched index 
finger, she'd forgotten all about Nick while she'd been 
helping Alihra.  

Schanke was hunched over a body, all Nat could see was 
the legs due to the angle.  "Shhh, Nick.  Calm down.  
Breathe!  There, that's good.  Take it easy, you'll be all 
right," Schanke was saying calmly, and Nat sighed in 
relief and turned back to Alihra, knowing that Schanke had 
enough sense to ask for her help if something was 
genuinely life threatening.  

"Alihra, are you all right?" she asked as the elder vampire 
started to shake wildly.  

Alihra sucked in a quick breath.  "There are splinters," 
she said painfully, "In my thigh.  And..." she started to 
explain more but she lost her train of thought, obviously 
quite out of it.  She stared ahead blankly and Nat had to 
snap her fingers in front of Alihra's face to get her to 
keep talking.  

Alihra blinked and licked her lips.  "I'm hungry..." she 
whispered, but she appeared to be in control for now.  

Nat turned to Schanke.  "We've got to get these two out of 
here, and we have to get the police in here," she said as 
Schanke turned around.  "What's wrong with Nick?" she asked, 
wanting to make sure she hadn't been wrong in her earlier 
assessment.

Schanke looked at her grimly.  "He's a bit hungry, Nat," he 
said tensely, the lines on his face showing his strain, and 
his worry.  Nat resisted the urge to laugh.  Hunger seemed 
to be the common medical problem of the day.  Too bad it was 
a bit more serious when it involved vampires...  "Why don't 
we get you three out of here, and then I'll call for backup 
and take care of this..." he said as he threw Nick's arm 
around his shoulder and stood up.  Nat did the same with 
Alihra and as a group they limped back down the corridor 
where they had come from, luckily finding that the other 
direction led to a nice clean office and a small parking 
garage.

*****

"Stop, I'm through," Nick said softly, raising his hand to 
ward off Nat's hand as she tried to offer Nick yet another 
bottle of his preferred beverage.  When he and Nat had first 
limped through the door of the lift, he had been able to 
think of nothing except the hunger, and he had been amazed 
that Nat had remained unscathed through the whole ordeal.  
But now, numerous bottles and a brief nap later, the beast 
was sated.  At least for now.  Sighing, he lay back on the 
couch as Nat pressed her hand to his forehead.

"Nick, I'm sorry," she said softly, brushing a stray lock of 
his hair out of his face. 

Nick sighed.  "Is it all gone now?" he asked, his voice 
hoarse and sore.  His entire body ached, and he felt more 
weary than he'd ever been before.  Nat nodded and he 
couldn't help but suppress a sob.  "I really thought it was 
working this time," he said quietly as he looked forlornly 
towards the closing shutters that warranted the arrival of a 
new day.  So.  He sighed again.  Sunlight was to be his 
enemy for a good while longer.  

The pain in Nat's eyes told him that this was as hard for 
her as it was for him.  Hell, she'd hesitated in telling him 
that she'd found a possible cure, just to avoid getting his 
hopes up.  "So did I, Nick," she whispered.  

"While you were asleep earlier, I took a sample back to the 
lab.  The Lyzatrex has no effect anymore, it's like your 
body developed an overnight immunity," she said softly as 
she sighed and put her head in her hands.  "If I had tried a 
larger dose to start out with, it might've worked, but I 
don't know.  I just don't know!" she sobbed, looking into 
his eyes with a pained stare.  

"It's all right, Nat.  It's not your fault," he whispered 
quietly, taking her hands into his firmly, looking at her 
reassuringly.  

She shook her head.  "I can't stop thinking about what might 
have happened if I'd just given you a full dose to begin 
with...  It _did_ work, but now the window of opportunity is 
gone because I wanted to play it safe, just like always..."  
she said angrily.  She was angry with herself...  

"Shhh," he soothed her, hugging her closely to him, trying 
to be supportive even though he felt as down as she did, if 
not more.  "Nat, this just means that we've got a base.  We 
know it worked once...  Maybe another derivative will do 
the trick," he said, trying to reassure both of them at the 
same time.  

Nat wiped a stray tear away from her red cheeks and inhaled 
deeply, trying to recompose herself.  "I know, Nick.  Hell, 
I'm the one who should be telling _you_ this!  But I...  I 
just can't help feeling this way...  I'll figure it out, I 
just need some time..." she whispered disjointedly as her 
emotions threatened to take over her again.           

Nick tried to comfort her, closing his eyes briefly to the 
pain of failure, but it didn't go away.  It never went away.  
He didn't know how much more of this he could take.  He 
wasn't built of optimism...  "Where's Alihra?" he asked, the 
fact suddenly occurring to him that his potential 
executioner was nowhere in sight.  

"She's in the bedroom sleeping off the worst of her 
injuries.  I didn't think you'd mind if I let her have the 
bed..." Nat replied, her eyes darting upwards towards the 
door of his bedroom.

Nick sighed.  "Of course I don't mind, Nat," he said, 
accenting his speech with several yawns.  

Suddenly, the lift began to hum.  Nat looked towards the 
sliding door far across from the sofa.  "That couldn't be 
Schanke!  He called an hour ago and said he was going to be 
at the precinct clearing things up for at least another two 
hours!" Nat exclaimed, her eyes suddenly turning suspicious.  

Nick sat up and looked towards the lift, desperately trying 
to remember who all had the codes to his apartment now...  
Let's see, Schanke and Nat... and...  and... That was it.  
Technically no one else should've been able to get through 
his security system.  "Nat, why don't you go upstairs and 
stay with Alihra?" he suggested, the edge in his voice more 
than a little apparent, but Nat firmly shook her head.  

The lift came to a stop and the door slid open, revealing a 
tall, rather handsome man with skin the color of a rich milk 
chocolate.  He was large, muscular large, although most of 
it was hidden underneath his beige Armani suit.  With a cold 
stare, he looked towards them.  "You must be Brabant," he 
said, his voice deep and rich, and very threatening.  

Nick was nearly knocked over as age and power swept over his 
senses.  This was a vampire.  A very old vampire.  And while 
he had thought Alihra's presence had been intimidating, this 
made her seem like a mere child.  "Yes," he said cautiously 
even though he knew that the vampire had not really asked, 
his previous statement being just that.  A statement.
 
Subconsciously, Nick glanced quickly to the right, checking 
on his mortal companion.  Luckily Nat was staying quiet 
beside him.  Apparently even she could sense the power 
emanating from this ancient.  "Who are you?" he asked, 
praying that the elder wouldn't take offense. 

The man did a graceful bow, his silky black hair falling 
lightly over his forehead.  "I believe you would know me as 
Elohr," he said suavely with a slightly more friendly 
quality in his tone, his eyebrows raising, waiting to see 
Nick's reaction to the news of his identity.

Nick felt his heart freeze in his chest.  Oh... my... 
lord...  He was standing face to face with the second in 
command of the Enforcer clan, the son of the eldest vampire, 
and all he could think of to say was, "You're Alihra's 
sire..."

Elohr snickered, a deep bellow erupting from his lips as his 
striking violet eyes gleamed in amusement.  "You know, of 
all the greetings I've ever gotten, that has to be the best 
I've heard in awhile!" he exclaimed, taking a small step 
towards them.  

"I have most vampires sniveling in fear the moment they hear 
who I am," he said disgustedly, pausing to shake his index 
finger at Nick.  "But you," he paused, his eyes narrowing, 
"you are different.  Why?" 

Nick was struck speechless.  Why?  Because he'd had so much 
experience dealing with domineering, elder vampires that it 
was rather laughable that he was even acting _this_ nervous?  
"I...  I just don't find that type of thing very 
intimidating anymore..." he said honestly.  It was true...  
He'd seen enough that not a whole lot fazed him anymore.  He 
was more apprehensive about what this vampire would do to 
Nat, who's loud heartbeat was permeating the air to the 
point that a vampire as far away as Cleveland would probably 
be able to hear it...  

Elohr simply stared, his lips suddenly curving upwards in a 
twisted sneer.  "You're worried about what I might do to 
your little mortal pet.  Aren't you?" he asked, his 
eyebrows arched upwards.

Nick was quick to deny as he subconsciously stepped between 
Nat and Elohr, blocking her from his immediate reach.  "No," 
he said, his voice rushed.  

The Enforcer just smiled.  "I am an Enforcer, you silly 
fledgling, do not think that you can lie to me," he said 
condescendingly as he strode across the floor and helped 
himself to a seat.  "Brabant...  I know you from somewhere, 
where have I heard your name before?  Is this your first 
time in trouble?  Ha, of course it is, otherwise you'd be 
dead..." Elohr began talking to himself absently without a 
care devoted towards his curious audience, placing his chin 
in his hand as a look of utter consternation enveloped his 
face.  

Nick just watched with dread as a look of recognition marred 
the elder's face.  "Ah, now I remember you.  You were 
LaCroix's little brat.  Always causing trouble with your 
fruitless little quest for mortality..." he said, 
his voice containing a tacit warning in it.

Nick swallowed hard.  He'd known that he was a common object 
of ridicule amongst the community, but he hadn't known he 
was so well known throughout the Enforcer community.  He was 
broken from his thoughts when Elohr continued.  "Tell me 
something, Brabant.  Why do you search for what you surely 
will never find?" he asked, his tone becoming more curious 
than condescending.

"Because..." Nick paused.  He couldn't very well tell this 
man that they'd actually come very close on more than one 
occasion, that would establish way too much of a case 
against him.  There was already too much against him.  
"Elohr, what type of world do you think this would be if we 
didn't follow our hearts?  When you were mortal, did you 
ever think something as simple as a CD player would be 
possible?" Nick asked in a sudden flash of insight.  

Elohr nodded slightly.  "Yes, yes, I think I can understand 
that..." he commented softly, his voice containing none of 
its former threat.     

"What are _you_ doing here?"  Alihra's voice suddenly 
floated down from the upstairs walkway as she instantly 
appeared beside Elohr in a gust of air.  

Elohr did not look the least bit startled as he calmly 
turned to address his vampire daughter.  "I felt your pain, 
I came to check on you..."   

"It was a hunter.  It has been taken care of..." Alihra 
snapped.  "Look, I'm fine.  You can go back to wherever it 
was that you were so I can take care of this..." she said, 
her voice breaking slightly as she gestured to Nick and 
Natalie.  

Elohr glanced to them and then back to Alihra.  "Taken care 
of?" he asked suspiciously, raising himself gracefully into 
a standing position.  He reached out and grasped Alihra's 
shoulders.  "You're hurt," he stated flatly when he saw her 
wince.  

"With all due respect, I'd be dead if it weren't for them," 
Alihra whispered grimly, gesturing absently towards Nick.  
"So please leave.  I have to show my thanks by enforcing 
your _stupid_ law!" she cried, a single red tear flowing 
quickly down her cheek.  She was losing it, and she was 
losing it fast.  Nick couldn't help but sympathize with her.  
His relationship with LaCroix had been similar, if not much 
more extreme...  

Elohr turned to Nick, obviously shaken at the news.  "Is 
this true?  Did you save her?" he asked softly, and Nick 
could see Alihra wince as Elohr's grip on her shoulders grew 
slightly tighter.  He obviously cared a great deal about 
her.

"Well I helped, but Natalie is the one who treated her 
injuries..." Nick commented hopefully, trying to keep his 
cool.  This might be exactly what they needed to pull them 
out of this mess, and there was no way he was going to ruin 
it with a misplaced smile or show of self-satisfaction.  He 
was in the presence of an Enforcer.  He was supposed to be 
afraid...  Submissive...

Elohr seemed to debate silently with himself for a brief 
moment before gracefully bowing.  "Then I thank you," he 
said simply.  "Alihra is my first and only fledgling, I 
would not do well to lose her," he commented softly as he 
looked at her, his eyes reflecting a certain, hidden pain.  
There was a weariness amongst the violet irises, and Nick 
was surprised that he had not seen it before...  

The elder turned to Nick with a click of his heals.  "I will 
grant you one request, within reason, in return for what you 
have done for me.  Name it and I shall do my best to adhere 
to it," he said seriously, the look on his face grim and far 
from friendly. 

Nick felt a surge of hope spread through him as he took a 
deep breath.  "Let us go.  I promise no more infractions..." 
he said, his voice low and meek.  He wanted this, but he 
wouldn't, he _couldn't_ make it seem like he was desperate.  

Elohr briefly considered the request and then nodded 
minutely, apparently coming to the decision that it was a 
fair trade.  "Done.  I grant you asylum.  The Enforcers 
will not interfere with your affairs provided no further 
serious infractions of the code are incurred.  And I expect 
you to contact us _immediately_ should there be an accident 
regarding that..." he warned them and then turned to Alihra, 
not even waiting for a response or to see their reaction.  

"Alihra?  Shall we depart?" he asked, extending his arm for 
her to grab onto.  Alihra smiled and nodded.  

"Thank you," she whispered and kissed his cheek.  Elohr 
looked rather startled at the open gesture of affection, but 
he quickly returned it with a light hug.  Nick found himself 
unable to move as he closed his eyes and held his breath, 
waiting for himself to wake up from this wonderful dream...   
But it wasn't a dream.  Alihra grabbed lightly onto her 
sire's arm and led him out of the loft.  

Letting his breath out in a heavy exhalation as the door to 
the lift slid shut and the whirring motors hummed to life, 
Nick felt his shoulders suddenly slump in relaxation.  He 
hadn't realized how truly tense he'd been...  "Did you hear 
that Nat?" he whispered in wonder, needing to reassure 
himself once again that he wasn't dreaming.

Nat smiled and moved closer to him.  "Yeah, I heard him," 
she said with a wicked smile on her face, "Now c'mere and 
let's start collecting."  She grabbed him in a tight 
embrace, planting her lips on his, practically crushing 
herself against him as a blissful silence filled the loft. 
It was just he and Nat, their panting breaths flooding the 
air in an explosion of passion.

*****

Natalie startled awake, slapping her evil alarm clock as 
hard as she could until she was greeted with blessed 
silence.  Funny, she couldn't remember setting her alarm...  
What time was it?  She looked up blearily towards the 
digital display, and was greeted with an ugly green display 
that read 7:00 AM.  

AM?  When was the last time she'd actually woken up in the 
morning?  Wow, she couldn't even remember it.  She rolled 
over to embrace Nick and go back to sleep, only to be 
greeted with an empty bed.  

Opening her eyes wide, she glanced around.  There on Nick's 
pillow was a small note.  

Meet me downstairs, I'll be waiting.

				 Love, Nick.

It was succinct, but it did get its point across.  Nat got 
up and put her pink terrycloth bathrobe on, wondering what 
this was all about.  She peered out of the room and into the 
living area below.  It was completely void of Nick, except 
there was one thing there that hadn't been there before...

She raced downstairs, her feet padding furiously on the cold 
floor.  It was beautiful.  "Do you like it?" Nick came up 
from behind her and grabbed her into a tight embrace, 
rocking her back and forth as she stared at it.  

"You put up a tree!" she exclaimed happily, staring at it 
with wide eyes.  It was a green fir, so laden with lights 
and glittering ornaments that it lit the entire room on its
own, and there, on the top, was a little angel with wings 
outspread in a gesture of rejoice.  "Nick, it's lovely..." 
she said dreamily, leaning back into his arms as he kissed 
her back and shoulders repeatedly.

"Your present is down there, why don't you go open it?" Nick 
suggested innocently. 

Nat turned to him suspiciously.  "Nick, Christmas isn't for 
another three days, what have you got up your sleeve?" she 
questioned him with a light kiss.  

"Just open it," he said with a mischievous smile.  

She looked down underneath the tree and found a small box 
about three inches long and two inches wide, wrapped in 
plain green paper and a tiny red velvet bow.  Looking up at 
Nick curiously, she only received a small nod of 
encouragement.  

Lightly, she creased the tape with the nail of her thumb, 
and eased open the paper, careful to protect it from any 
tears and breaks.  "Nat, it's a present.  You're supposed to 
rip it open..." Nick said with a chuckle.  

Nat looked at him indignantly.  "I like to save the 
paper..." she said as she eased open the small box and 
gasped.  There inside, was a tiny ring, a marquise-cut red 
stone set between two smaller brilliant-cut white diamonds.  
She shifted the box in her hands, letting the light reflect 
off the facets of the crystals in the sheer brilliance of a 
sunset captured in stone.  It was absolutely stunning.  

"What's the red stone in the middle?" she asked curiously as 
she continued to examine the little ring, feeling slightly 
lightheaded from sheer joy.  

"It's a red diamond," Nick whispered softly.  "Red for 
passion... for love.  Natalie, you are my heart.  My 
life..." he said, his voice hoarse with emotion.  He gripped 
her abdomen in a tighter embrace, looking over her shoulder 
patiently as she stared at it and the way the light glanced 
off its surface.

She glanced down in awe.  "I didn't even know they came in 
red..." she said absently, delicately touching the stone as 
if she half expected it to break at the slightest jostle.  
No one had ever given her something like this before.  
Never.  The red diamond was rather large, but being no 
expert on diamonds herself Nat couldn't really gauge it 
other than to say that Nick must've been out a fortune.  

She pulled it out of the box and fingered it, turning it 
over lightly in her hand.  On the inside of the golden ring 
band at the base of the diamonds, was a small inscription, 
"All my love forever," Natalie whispered, reading the tiny 
script in wonder.  Testing it out, she found that the ring 
fit perfectly, not too snug, not too loose. 

Finally finished staring at the beautiful ring on her 
finger, she turned around in his embrace and looked up at 
him, her eyes wide.  "Nick, is this what I think it is?" she 
asked hesitantly, not wanting to get her hopes up only to 
have them smashed. 

Nick nodded slowly.  "Unless you're thinking it's not an 
engagement ring," he said with a twinkle in his eye.  "Nat, 
I love you more than life itself, will you do me the honor 
of being my wife?" he whispered softly, getting down on one 
knee and taking her hand in the classic proposal pose.

Nat suddenly felt like she was floating as a smile split her 
face.  "Oh, God yes, Nick!" she cried happily, leaping into 
his arms and practically knocking him over, kissing him 
wildly.  

Nick smiled mutely and softly kissed the ring on her finger.  
"Thank you, Nat.  Thank you for everything," he whispered 
passionately as he took her into a warm, fervent kiss.

THE END 

Diane Harris (aria5@vt.edu)