Sirens 
by Amanda Berendt
Copyright July 2003

Note:  This is kind of a sequel to my story "Secret Soul" at the
request of April French.
 
   He had gotten too close again. He had always been so careful
about his contact with mortals.  Yes, he immersed himself in their
world more than others of his kind, but he always kept an emotional
distance from them.  This time he had let down his guard and he had
almost paid the price.
  Nick Knight sat alone in the empty loft.  He had only purchased it
about a month ago.  At the moment, the only furniture was the black
leather living room set, on which he was sitting, and the bed
upstairs in the bedroom.
   The past few months had been extraordinary.  After being presumed
dead while preventing a robbery, he found himself in the city
coroner's office in a body bag.  There he had surprised the on-duty
medical examiner by getting up off the table and drinking from the
emergency blood supply.  He had tried to hypnotize her into
forgetting the incident, but he soon discovered she was a resistor.
   A few days later, he crossed her path again. She remembered him
and offered to help him.  She said she wanted to understand.  Thus
began his association with Dr. Natalie Lambert.
   Over the course of the next few months, he would visit her in the
lab almost every evening.  She would draw his blood and run various
tests, trying to figure out what made him what he was.  Then she
wanted to try to reverse the condition.  During their time together
they talked about many things and he found himself smiling and
laughing with her.  Until last night.
   Natalie had suggested that he limit his blood intake because it
appeared that it was the blood that gave the vampire it's strength.
Last night, as they were talking, an orderly had brought a body into
the lab.  He could smell the blood before she even unzipped the bag.
When she finally did open the bag, the blood smell was unbearable. He
felt the vampire emerge.  It went for the first available prey -
Natalie.  Her cry of pain when he grabbed her arm brought him to his
senses.  Before the beast could reassert itself, he had to get out of
there.  He bolted for the door, pushing Natalie aside when she tried
to stop him.
 
*Damn the passion, damn the skies
 Damn the light that's in her eyes
 I know to well where it has lead before
 She saves me but I can't be saved
 Frees me but I'm still enslaved
 Now I battle what I most adore*
 
   Now, as he sat alone in his loft, he gazed into the fire burning
in the fireplace.  Natalie had called three times since last night,
each time leaving a message asking him to call her.  He had ignored
all of them.  He couldn't be with her.  Being near her gave the
monster inside of him the opportunity to harm her.  He couldn't let
that happen.
 
*Oh, let me sail away
 And make this vow
 That what my heart wants
 I will not allow
 For as sirens call the sailors
 She calls me now*
 
   Natalie sat at her computer desk in her apartment.  She was
entering her most recent observations of Nick into the terminal.  It
must be more than just the blood, she thought.  Perhaps if his hunger
cold be satiated by some other means.  Maybe some kind of protein
shake or something....  She paused and looked out the window.  The
sun was just beginning to rise over the city.  It gave her hope to
continue her work, thinking that maybe someday she would be able to
share this view with Nick.
 
*God save him if he can be saved
 Free him if his soul's enslaved
 Clear the clouded refuge of his mind
 Quell his anger, calm his scorn
 Let his spirit be reborn
 Help him gather strength where he is blind*
 
   Nick knew Natalie was trying to help him.  He knew she was
probably going over her notes right now - wondering what might have
gone wrong.  Once more he filled the glass that sat on the coffee
table.  He held it up at eye level, gazing into it's depths with
disgust.  This was the sweet nectar that fed the beast - this demon
he carried inside.  The quest to free himself from this evil had been
troubled with one setback after another.  Last night was just the
most recent of many.
   "No!" he growled, taking the glass and throwing it into the fire,
watching the shards of glass shatter.  He would not let the vampire
win, he decided.  He had been fighting far to long to give up.  Some
how, perhaps now with Natalie's help, he would beat it.
 
*I cannot stand another knock
 My body dashed upon the rocky shore
 The darkness that invades my soul
 It sucks my blood, it takes control
 Well, I will not endure it anymore*
 
   As the sun set that evening, Nick had just finished getting
dressed and was on his way down the stairs when the buzzer rang.
Crossing over to the intercom, he turned on the closed-circuit
television and saw Natalie standing at the door.
   "Hey," she said looking into the camera. "I brought us dinner."
She smiled as she held a lunch cooler up to the camera.  Nick smiled
and pressed the button to release the lock.  Maybe they would indeed
find a cure, he thought.
 
--Finis—


DISCLAIMER: Nick and Nat don't belong to me, I am just borrowing
them.  The song "Sirens" is from the Original Broadway Cast Recording
of "Jane Eyre the Musical" - Book/Lyrics: John Caird, Music/Lyrics:
Paul Gordon - copyright 2000 Sony Music Entertainment.