IN THE NAME OF LOVE All Rights reserved by StormyNite 1996 The tall dark brunette stepped into the alley behind the Raven to smoke a cigarette. It was a vice she had when she was mortal and she did it more out of habit than anything else. It was her escape from the noise and the chaos within. Every night after her dance set she would go to alley, light up and relive the night's conquests and failures. Only this night, she was not alone. She sensed the man at the end of the alley as she would any other mortal entering her space. As he approached his heartbeat rang loudly into her senses. He was obviously a brave man or stupid because his heartrate never increased as he approached. Foolish man! No one approached an alley behind the Raven after 2 am without precautions. Oh, well she was beginning to feel the pangs of hunger anyway. "You are beautiful child!" He spoke with a slight English accent. One of culture and refinement with no sense of fear. Rana blew the cigarette smoke into the air and walked forward to eye her next meal with lascivious pleasure. "You must be new to the area Sir!" Her eyes turned golden as she approached him unafraid laughing. "Ah, you must be referring to my choice of location for our meeting!" He pulled a weapon similar to a gun from his coat. "You see, I am not totally uniformed!" Rana laughed as she continued to approach while her fangs dropped. She lunged for the gentleman as he pulled the trigger on the weapon, firing not a bullet, but a wave of some sort. As the wave hit Rana full in the chest, she crumpled to the ground in agony. Writhing on the pavement, the man knelt beside her adjusting the dial on the weapon. "That was only at the setting of 1, would you care to feel 2." Rana tried to pull away from him as he pulled the trigger, firing yet another blast, causing her to scream in agony and collapse against the nearest wall. "Now that I have you attention, you will answer a few of my questions! Understand?" She nodded in compliance. "I want the name of the oldest vampire with the most control in the community!" He set the dial to 3 and placed it against her chest. "LaCroix…..Lucien LaCroix! He owns the Raven!" He smiled patting her head like an obedient child and placed the gun back into his coat pocket removing a wooden stake at the same time. With one swift motion he plunged it into her heart. "LaCroix! Interesting! Maybe this time he would get lucky. He returned to his car placing the gun in a small suitcase in the backseat. ------------------ It was almost dawn when Nick stepped into the loft. 2 murders-both domestic violence crowded his mind. Nat would not be home till she finished the autopsies on both. It would be late day before she would finally give in to fatigue. Then she would complain about the raccoon look for 2 days!. Women! So that left him with Sidney to take care of. Actually, he and Sid were starting to come to an understanding. No pouncing on the stomach to wake him up during the day or no food when Nat was gone. It wasn't that he disliked Sidney, he was just more a dog person than cats. Nick went to the refrigerator and removed a glass of blood and drank it slowly, savoring the taste as it ran down the back of his throat. When he finished he pulled out the protein shake Nat left him that morning with the note attached: "I know you had the blood first, so drink this second or Sidney sleeps with you instead of ME!" Love Nat She never ceased to amaze him. He accused her of being psychic on repeated occasions. So he refilled his blood glass and took the shake to the sofa. He lit the fire and sat down drinking the shake first while Sidney climbed warily onto the back of the sofa. "Well, Sid you will vouch for me or we get to be bed partners!" Sidney with questions in his eyes, climbed down the coach and sat beside Nick giving him the unusual opportunity to pet him. Nick’s thoughts drifted back 3 months to LaCroix pulling the stake out of his heart and the aftermath that followed. ************* "When you come to your senses Nicholas come and see me!" LaCroix pulled the stake out that he planted in Nick heart, at his request, and tossed it into the fire. "You will see the foolishness in this endeavor. I promise you!" LaCroix disappeared through the skylight with Nick cursing his name. By sheer will Nick lifted Natalie into his arms and flew her to the hospital. He sat by her side day and night for three days until the Doctors pronounced her out of danger. Only then did Nick return to the loft and collapse. The wound over his heart, not completely healed due to his lack of blood, only seemed to amplify the guilt he felt for almost killing the one person who meant everything to him. 2 days later, Nick sat at the hospital dreading the look he would see in Natalie's eyes when she came too. He could smell her, taste her, feel her in his blood to the point he thought he would go mad with desire. Yet he refused to leave her side. He promised her they would be together forever. He would not let her wake up and find him gone. When she woke, his was the first face she saw. He was afraid to touch her. That she would pull back in fear and disgust. He had let her see all that he was and all that he felt. It scared him most of the time, it had to terrify her. Instead of fear in her eyes, he saw love. She reached for him and he pulled her into his arms burying her deep within his embrace. She willingly went to him, placing kisses along his neck as he lost himself to the sensation of having her in his arms again. They both sat crying in each others arms until exhaustion claimed them both. "We have to have a talk about your foreplay Nick!" Natalie laughed, lighting up her whole face as Nick let her lay back down on the hospital bed. Nick pulled her hair away from her face as he caressed her with his fingertips memorizing each feature with his touch. "I guess that means you will have to move in with me and teach me EVERYTHING you have in mind!" "That means you will have to take Sidney too you know!" Testing him for his seriousness. "I don't scare the Hell out of you after what I did?" He was terrified of the answer, yet he knew they could not go back to the way they were. "I love you Nick! All of you! Bad and good! Vampire and Man! But most of all, I trust you! I was not wrong Nick! You stopped! I did not want you too because I want to be with you forever until you let me see what it was like and why you hated it so much. I understand now why you are afraid to cross me and how much you love me." She pulled him back to her, and kissed him gently at first until he deepened the embrace tasting the inside of her mouth with his tongue. Refusing to let her go, she melted her body into his as his hand caressed her back and arms. He released her lips long enough for her to breathe and captured them again. Rapidly losing control of their desires, he laid her down on the bed and joined her. Laying on top of her, filled with desire to plunge himself into her willing body he could not stop touching her. Natalie arched toward him as he kissed her neck and then her breasts eliciting a moan from deep within her soul. When he returned to her lips swollen from his kisses, he was almost beyond control. " "Natalie! Look at me!" His eyes golden and his fangs dropped. Barely in control he forced her back to him. Afraid she would pull away, he waited for her to understand their circumstances. Natalie knew his fears. They were in his blood and now hers. She understood what it took to control the vampire and how hard he fought. "I'm not afraid Nick! We can do this one step at a time! Your not alone anymore! ***************************** Natalie moved in with him the next day...Sidney and all. They continued to get closer everyday. She slept in his arms each day, and continued to love him no matter what happened. Sidney had crawled into Nick's lap for attention, and was purring for the very first time as Nick drifted off to sleep on the sofa. He hated sleeping in bed without Nat in his arms. Some things were easy to adjust too. -------------------------------- LaCroix turned off the final set of lights in the bar when the heartbeat became very distinct. Turning towards his intruder to late, the blast of pain sent him to his knees. Recovering quickly to lunge at his attacker, he was hit with a stronger blast toppling him to the floor in pain. The last thing he remembered were green eyes of fire placing something into his chest which made him explode into fire and then blissful nothingness. ---------------------------------- Coming too in a room filled with laboratory equipment, tubes, IV, and a hospital bed in which he was chained down to, LaCroix felt the residual affects of the blast. Odd, his body should have healed faster than that. He must increase his blood intake to compensate for the drain on his metabolism. He tested the chains, deciding in his present condition he was not going anyplace soon. The sunlight shown through the window on the side stopping short of the bed by 2 feet. LaCroix eyed it warily and the tall gentleman from the alley as he entered the room. "I see you are non to worse for wear Mr. LaCroix!" The man carried the small gun in his right hand. LaCroix focused his attention on the gun. "I used a setting of 5 to bring you down. I must admit no one has ever survived a setting that high. You must be very old or you have incredible control. Which is it?" He waited for an answer. "Both!" "The name is Dalton Merriweather...Monsieur LaCroix and I am in need of your help!" "Indeed! Most people usually ask!" "Most people are NOT a 2000 year old vampire!" LaCroix raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I am going to release your chains so you can follow me. I have this gun set at 6. Since 5 knocked you out, 6 will probably kill you. Or at least slow you down enough for me to use this." He pulled a wooden stake from his coat pocket. " A man needs a little insurance these days." He released LaCroix and proceeded into the next room where a beautiful young woman lay dying on the bed. "I need you to cross her before it is too late!" The man eyed LaCroix pointing the gun directly at his chest. "If you kill her...I kill you!" LaCroix sat down on the bed by the young woman, admiring her beauty and feeling the life drain away from her as they watched. "She is already dead!" He rose carefully watching the man with the gun. "She still breathes. I can see that from here! Cross her before it is too late!" Stoic and patient as always, LaCroix approached the man slowly. "She lies near death as we speak. You must care whether she lives or dies in order to have a chance at crossing her. You need someone with a conscience, and a desire for her to live. I have neither of those. That is why I am OVER 2000 years old." LaCroix smiled wickedly at the man as an evil thought crossed his mind. "You need my son and his delicate sensibilities for such a task!" ------------------------------------------ It was noon before Natalie finished the last of the 2 autopsies. She felt like death warmed over and was certain she looked like it as well. She added the last bit of information to the computer disk and the hard drive, grabbed a sandwich out of the refrigerator, and headed for her car. Nick would have crashed hours ago and she did not want to wake him when she came in. She knew he would be on the coach when she arrived. He would not sleep in bed without her. It both pleased her and scared her to have someone love her as much as Nick did. They were becoming closer each day. He kept the vampire in check longer each time, but progress was frustratingly slow. Some days she just wanted to throw him down and have her way with him. Soon! Soon! It was what kept them both going. She sat wearily behind the wheel and started the engine. A man with a very large knife placed his arm silently around her neck forcing her to freeze in place. "Natalie Lambert... I presume! Your pictures do not do you justice! You will drive exactly where I tell you to go." ------------------------- Nick awoke before dusk and placed a telephone call to the morgue. Grace answered. "Grace! It's Nick!" "Nick what a pleasant surprise!" Grace suppressed a giggle. "Liar!---Where is Natalie?" "I don't know Nick. She didn't go home?" Grace knew they were living together. Half the precinct knew. Nick was sure Tracy made a brochure to announce it. "Tammy said she left around noon and her car was gone when I came in." Fear grabbed Nick's heart as he hung up the phone and dialed Tracy's number. "Trace--I need a favor! Can you swing by and pick me up early. Natalie's disappeared. Something's wrong." "It's still daylight Nick! You will fry like an egg!" "I'll ride in the trunk. We need the computer banks to start the search! Hurry will you?" --------------------------------------------------- Nick put an APB out on Natalie. Half the precinct dropped their assignments to help with the search for clues. Natalie was well known and liked. Heaven help anyone who would hurt her. The phone rang on Nick's desk. "Knight!" "Nicholas Knight?" "Yes" Fear clutched his heart. "I have something you want. Very badly I believe. She is about 5’5 with auburn hair and bright blue eyes. You will come alone to the warehouse on 4th and L Street. Bring anyone with you or try to have the place watched, and I kill her. Understand? 10 minutes! I know you can fly to make it! Be alone!" He hung up. Nick grabbed his coat and ran out the door saying nothing. Trace caught him in the parking lot before he became airborne. "Nick... It was him wasn't it? He has Natalie? I am coming with you!" "He wants me Trace. For what reason I don't know. If he sees anyone else...Natalie's dead. I cannot take the chance!" She touched his shoulder calmly. "Be careful!" "Always" and he was gone into the night. --------------------------- At the warehouse on 4th and L Nick cautiously entered from the top floor. Though it is dark his eyesight could distinguish everything within. Circling the building from the inside in the air, he landed in the center of the room. The tall dark Englishman entered the warehouse from the South. Walking into the light shining through the window, man came to a standstill in front of Nicholas. Nick not sensing anyone else with them lunged toward the man, who in turn shot him in the chest with his gun. Feeling the impact but very little pain, Nick knocked him to the floor. Rolling to one side, the man came to his feet retreating a few steps while changing the dial on the gun. Not possessing vampire speed, the man aimed the gun in a wide pattern. As the second blast hits Nick, pain screams through his body causing him to collapse on the floor. Still struggling to gain the weapon from the man, Nick pushed off the floor to attack again. Now certain of victory, the man advanced on Nick placing the gun directly on Nick's chest releasing it full force. Every nerve it Nick's body reacted to the energy wave, yet he still managed to stay conscious bringing the man to the floor with him. Unable to stop the man from changing the dials on the weapon, the final blast put him into blissful blackness eliminating the pain raging through his body. The man looked at Nick's unconscious body on the floor, and then the setting on his ultra--gun. "10 no one can survive a 10. NO ONE!" He picked up Nick's limp body and returned to the lab. ----------------------------------- Natalie stood chained to the wall in the laboratory. The lab was ultra-modern and equipped with the finest equipment that money could buy. A small man with wire rim glasses entered the room several times, and drew her blood. Never once speaking, he would leave and return for more. Silently he ran the equipment occasionally sneaking a peak at her. After looking under the microscope, he finally spoke. "You are not one of them?" He stated it like it was a revelation. "One of them?" "Vampires! You are not a vampire? What does he want with you?" The little man seemed confused as to why she was there. The door opened with Merriweather carrying an unconscious Nick over his shoulder. Placing Nick on the table in the center of the room, Merriweather proceeded to chain Nick to the bed. He turned to the little man. "Draw his blood! He is the one we have been seeking! I am sure of it. I had to hit him with a 10 setting to bring him down. His control is incredible!" The little man stared in amazement. "That could cause irreversible damage to his nervous system! His system may not be able to throw it off! He will need blood and a great deal of it just to survive!! What were you thinking?" "I was thinking about staying alive and getting him back here in time…before he ripped my head off!" Merriweather looked at Nick and then Natalie. Walking over to her, he released her shackles. "How much control does he have Dr. Lambert? Enough to keep you alive? I need to know." He then walked to the table and unchained Nick. "He is in your care Doctor, and yours is the only blood in the room! Come Vernon we should leave before the good Detective awakens with his pain and hunger. "Nick! Nick! Can you hear me?" Natalie checked him over for signs of injury. His breathing was fast and it seemed everywhere she touched him caused pain. The gun had to be ultra-sound. She had seen the effects on Nick when he went by the ultrasound department in the hospital. It caused him intense pain throughout his body. The perfect weapon against a vampire. Total central nervous system shut down with the pain to match. Coming slowly awake as the waves of pain racked his body, Nick finally focused on Natalie's voice. "Nick...It will wear off in time. He shot you with ultra-sound. Your whole system is in shutdown. You need blood to fight it!" Frantic.. knowing he would fight her on the only workable solution, she forced him to listen. Pain ravaged his body as well as the hunger that was seeping through his very core. He needed blood! And he needed it now. He screamed in agony as the pain continued and he collapsed to the floor trying to escape it and Natalie’s heartbeat. "Please Nat! You have to stay away!" His eyes were golden, and his fangs extended. Panting from the exertion and the fight not to take her, he came closer to the edge of sanity. "You have to take my blood Nick! It is the only way!" "NO! I WILL NOT STOP!" Doubling in pain as his entire body began to shake and go into convulsions. "Remember what happened last time? I almost killed you. I know what you taste like! I want you beyond all reason Natalie! I won't stop! Self preservation will take over. IT’S THE ANIMAL IN ME! PLEASE! Nat stay away." Nick tried to get to the window where the sunlight touched the floor. He would end it before he hurt her again, but his body would not cooperate. Realizing what his thoughts were, Nat pushed him up against the far wall from the sunlight. "Look at me Nick! You said I will love you forever! I believed you Nick! I trust you beyond all else! You will stop because you love me! I know that because I know you Nick. The real you! All of you! One step at a time. I cannot do that alone, and if you walk into that sun that is what I will be... alone! I won't be alone again Nick. You promised me that! Did you lie to me?" As pain ripped through his body, he brought her into his arms. The hunger was beginning to control his every thought, but he would not let it control his heart. "I have never lied to you Natalie!" "Then save us both Nick, because I cannot live without you!" Nick pulled her into his embrace as he sank his fangs into her delicate skin. Savoring the flavor and the warmth as it poured into his veins, he felt her come into his soul. His Natalie with love and hope for both of them. She warmed his soul. She made him whole. All that he was he gave to her and her in return. He felt her start to fade and he pulled back afraid to hurt her, caused her to whimper as he pulled away. "Don't stop Nick, please don't stop, I need to feel you inside me. He looked into her eyes and the desire to be with him. He returned to her neck tasting her one more time and then pulled back. She rested her head on his shoulder as their breathing came back to normal and Nick's pain disappeared. Locked in each others arms, they both began to feel the exhaustion overtake their bodies. Meriweather returned. "You are the man I seek Detective Knight!" Anger flared in Nick's eyes as he pulled Natalie behind him to protect her from this vile creature. Meriweather placed the ultra-gun on the table and stepped back. Nick picked it up and hurled it against the wall advancing on Meriweather. "Kill me if you must Detective, but I had to know you had the control and the desire to keep a mortal alive. I need your help!" "You need my help!!! You kidnap Natalie and torture me and you want my HELP! You are certifiably crazy!" Nick's eyes returned to those beautiful pools of blue as he returned to the gun and smashed it into a thousand pieces. "Correct me if I am wrong Mr. Meriweather, but don't most people just simply ask when they need help?" "Come with me...Please? Both of you" Meriweather walked toward the far door to the lab and invited them into the next room. Nick and Natalie entered the darkened room to find the beautiful young women lying unnaturally still on the bed. "My wife Detective Knight. She is dying!" Natalie checked her over slowly, as she still suffered from the loss of blood given to Nick. "Leukemia?" Natalie affirmed his diagnosis with a quick nod. "We tried everything? Drugs, bone marrow transplants, chemo, x- rays. Everything! She just keeps fading away." Meriweather went to her side to hold her hand. "I cannot live without her. She is my life, my hope, my future! Without her, there is nothing! I am told only a vampire with a heart, and a love for life has any chance of bringing her across! YOU are that vampire!" Looking at Natalie beside Nick "You love her beyond all else, including saving your own life. I watched you both. What you feel for her is what Rachel and I have. In the name of love, I beg you to save her. Save our love just as Natalie and you saved each other." Meriweather collapsed to his knees beside his beloved wife with tears flowing down his cheeks. Realizing how close Rachel was to death, Nick looked to Natalie for guidance. "I cannot choose for her Meriweather. The decision to become what I am is hers alone. You cannot choose and neither can I." "We chose a long time ago!" "Do you know what she will become? What she will face? What you both will face if she becomes vampire and you stay mortal? Can you live with not touching her? Watching her turn cold before your eye? Watching her kill to survive? To become part animal as she ages? Is that what you want for her? Can you live with that? Can she? This is not a life! It is the darkness the encompasses your soul and sucks all that is good out of you! It makes the evil within you control all that is around you and destroy anything of beauty Yet you claim you love her!" Nick walked toward the door. Natalie placed her fingertips gently on his arm to stop him. "Love is forever Nick! You and I have defeated the evil within you in the name of love. They can too! Do this! Not just for them but us as well!" Natalie put her arms around his waist to hold him next to her. Nick ran his hands through her hair as held her close. He walked back to the bedside and gently placed his fangs into Rachel's neck. He drained the sickness away and her mortal life. As she lay on the brink, he ripped his wrist with his fangs till he bled placing it on her lips till she began to suck gently then harder. Nick pulled away as she began to awaken. "Bring her blood now if you value your life." Nick held her down as she came fully awake assaulted with the first wave of hunger. Meriweather brought the blood as Nick forced her to feed. After having quenched her thirst she looked to Nick for guidance. "You do not want to be my master?" "I am no one's master. You belong to yourself and only yourself ." Rachel stared at Natalie across the room. Nick followed her gaze to Nat. "Thank you for sharing him with me Natalie. You are a very lucky woman! His heart belongs only to you! Not many find what they search for in a thousand lifetimes, but you and Nicholas are one and nothing shall ever change that! I envy you! For you both have found what you seek, while Meri and I have just begun." She smiled at her beloved husband and turned back to Nick and Natalie. "But we have a lifetime to learn!" The End All comments to: StormyNite "Only Love is Forever and Death Shall Have No Dominion" nitewind@www.plantnet.com nitewind@www.plantnet.com Stormy’s Scifi Window to Fun//http://www.geocities.com/Area51/2012