Where Angels Sing--a Forever Knight story Sequel to Heaven Can Wait By April French Author's Note: This is the long-awaited sequel (and I'm not kidding, either; people have been flooding my inbox!) to 'Heaven Can Wait,' and I just wanted everyone who emailed me to know that it's all your fault that this was written in the first place, because I never intended to write a sequel. Praise, comments, criticisms and kudos are all accepted and will be rewarded with cheese. All nasty flames will be forced to become immortal Packers fans. This story will be archived at my site, http://www.geocities.com/runeshard/fkficindex.html. Permission to archive is given to FKFIC, FKFIC2 and the FTP site. All others wishing to archive must first bribe me with funnel cakes. ~~~ Where Angels Sing (1/2) Nervously, Natalie stood on the curb just outside her apartment building. It was a chilly, foggy night, and she could see her breath form in the late night air. Shivering, she pulled her coat closer, and continued to wait. She started and turned when she heard the sound of a car drawing near. It pulled up alongside the curb in front of her. The back door opened, and a blond, well-dressed man stepped out. Natalie smiled. "Hello, Nick." "Meet me downtown on the corner I'll be waiting in a big ol' yellow cab" Nick Knight returned the smile. "I knew you'd be here," he told her, taking her hand and kissing it. "Are you ready to go?" "As ready as you'll let me. Are you sure you don't want me to bring anything? I can still run up and throw some things into a suitcase." "Don't bring a suitcase You won't need a thing" Nick shook his head, his grin half merry and half sad. "Don't worry about it." He bent closer to Natalie's ear, whispering. "You've thrown your lot in with me. You're moving on. And part of that is leaving your old life behind." He kissed her cheek lightly and stepped back. "Whatever you don't want to get rid up, we can have sent to us in Wales. Don't worry about it," Nick repeated, helping Natalie into the taxi. "There'll be no worries Where angels sing" *** "I got my tickets in my hand" Nick pulled two airplane tickets from inside his jacket and handed them confidently to the man behind the counter. He might have taken Natalie to Wales on one of the Brabant Foundation's private planes; the appointments were far more luxurious and comfortable than first-class airliner. But Wales was a bit out of the Foundation's jurisdiction, so to speak... and the less attention Nick attracted within his business, the better. He felt a tug on his sleeve. Natalie's lovely blue eyes were wide in shock and a bit of social horror. She must have seen the price. Nick grinned. "Don't worry about it," he repeated, pulling her close for a soft, lingering kiss right there in the ticket line. "Oh, the price is paid in full" They took their seats in the first-class cabin, which--although there were only nine or so seats--was, apart from Nick and Natalie, completely empty. She shot a questioning look at her... at Nick. "I wanted us to have privacy. Now there's no one to overhear... 'delicate information.'" His eyebrows drew together in a fierce scowl so like that of a villain from a bad spy movie that Natalie began to giggle. Theirs was an all-night flight across the Atlantic. They would land in Heathrow Airport at about 3:05 in the morning (8:05 AM in Toronto), Natalie would have a rest and a meal at the airport, and then they would take a chauffeured car (with tinted windows) to their ultimate destination of Carreg, Wales. After the plane took off, neither Nick nor Natalie spoke for some time, content as they were to simply bask in each other's company, and to examine their emotions after this series of actions--once thought by them to be unwise, dangerous and absolutely impossible. "I feel like--I feel like I feel like a teenager eloping with her unsuitable boyfriend," Natalie confessed after a time. "Like someone should be coming to stop us from leaving." Nick raised an eyebrow. "No man can stop me" "But I don't," she continued. "I don't feel guilty at all. I feel... complete..." Nick understood more completely than he fancied she realized. She shot him a lopsided grin. "Although, with both of us gone, I don't even want to think about the rumors that are going to be flying around the precinct." Nick chuckled. "To be honest, Nat, I couldn't care less." He waved his hand. "Let them talk." "Their words won't sting you" "We've both waited too long to take notice of what anyone says. waited too long," he added, in a husky voice. "Nick. You only asked me to come with you last night." Nick brushed the pad of his thumb over Natalie's left cheekbone. "Do you really think I've only loved you since last night?" he asked. "No dreams will haunt you Where angels sing" For a moment, the two pairs of blue eyes--one soft and one bright--both hardened in remembered pain. The memories were unique, some different, some the same, but all painful, like a child's half-healed wounds they must needs keep picking at, rather than put aside and let mend. "I get so weary On this troubled road" She yawned. "Tired?" Nick asked. "Oh, very." "Believe me... I know the feeling." "Unlock these chains And gently rock me home" "It's a long flight." Nick held out his arms. "C'mere." Natalie unbuckled her seat belt, curled up on the chair and fell asleep with her head in Nick's lap. He stroked her hair until sleep overcame him as well. "Beyond the clouds and the rain Where angels sing Where angels sing..." Where Angels Sing (2/2) Natalie woke with a start. She felt cold, and for a split second, she had no memory of where she was... Wales. She was in Wales, and she was with Nick. They had arrived at the hotel at about 6:30 in the morning, and had promptly fallen into bed. To sleep. Nick had offered to take the suite's couch, like the annoyingly proper gentleman he was, but Natalie had declined. That nap on the plane, when she had been in Nick's arms, was the deepest and most restful sleep she had had in a long time. "I'm cold," he'd murmured, slipping under the bedcovers but careful not to touch her. "Define 'cold,'" Natalie had muttered back, snuggling against him. She had not felt cold until Nick had left the bed. Natalie listened carefully; she could hear voices coming from the suite's living room. Quietly, she pulled on a robe and inched towards the door. "Have you asked her yet?" inquired a voice Natalie recognized as LaCroix. "Not yet. I will, soon." "And if she refuses?" "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it." Nick paused. "Which is probably right now." A brief interval of silence was followed by Natalie jumping back as Nick opened the door. "Sleep well?" Natalie tried not to blush. Nick kissed her cheek. "Sorry," she whispered. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop." LaCroix stood. "I think I shall leave the two of you alone for the moment." He held out his hand and Nick grasped it. "Nicholas." Then he turned to Natalie and inclined his head slightly. And then, suddenly, he was gone. She leaned against Nick's broad chest, thinking. "Nick?" "Hmm?" His nose was buried in her chestnut curls. "Stop me, if I'm wrong about this, but... was LaCroix being polite to me?" "Y'know... I think he was." "Nick?" "Yes?" "What do you want to ask me?" "Where lies can't hurt The flesh desert me" One of Nick's rare breaths brushed over the top of Natalie's ear, giving her goose bumps. When he spoke, his voice was husky but sure. "If you still want me to bring you across." "No in or out" When Natalie didn't answer, Nick's arms around her loosened slightly, but he continued to speak. "Because... if you do... I'll do it." "No loss or doubt" "What changed your mind?" she asked. "You kept telling me that being a vampire is a state of damnation. That it isn't living--" "Life is what we make of it." "Nick--" "Don't interrupt me when I'm having a revelation! It doesn't happen often. But life only what we make of it. So is death. And so is... whatever state of existence that I live in, that I'm offering you. It's what we make of it, what we do with however much time we have. I no longer fear what I am. The only thing I'm afraid of... is being immortal... without you." "No living with or doing without" "Is that why LaCroix is letting me... be?" "Where money ain't the power king And kindness is the most precious thing" "He feels that anyone who can bring me to my 'senses' deserves to live free from his molestations." "And that's why you brought me here? To bring me across?" Nick shook his head. "Whatever you decide, I brought you here to be with me. For... for a little while, at least." "Where angels sing" Natalie turned in his embrace. She reached up a hand and laid it on Nick's lips. "Forever." "Oh, where angels sing" She kissed him--and he kissed her back, gladly--and tried to pull his mouth to her neck. "Patience, love," Nick murmured huskily. "I don't want to rush..." "Where time means nothing No hustle No one rushing" He trailed his lips softly up and down her throat, drawing her scent into his brain, hearing her heartbeat in his ears. "No dark of night No hate or spite" He felt the pull of his fangs descending, the leap of his exalting Beast. Nick reared back his head, and struck. "No wrong or right" The first taste of her blood solidified Nick's contention that he was doing a noble thing. He drank of Natalie's sweet, strong blood. "No day or night" Soon, too soon, his instincts told him that he must stop. He lowered Natalie to the floor and withdrew his fangs from her throat, only to tear them into his wrist. "No towns and no cities There's no pain, no pity" "Come back to me, Natalie," Nick pleaded, holding his bleeding wrist over her mouth. "Stay with me." A horrible agony of waiting fell on Nick--although it was only a few seconds--until mouth closed over the wound and began to drink. Nick's eyes rolled back and shut in relief. When she could drink no more, Natalie fell into the sleep that heralded the beginnings of the great change. Nick licked his tore wrist until it stopped bleeding. Then he picked Natalie up and carried her into the bedroom, laying her on the unmade bed. He left her only for a moment, to gather up some of the bottled blood he had stowed in the mini-fridge and set them on the bedside table. He drew the blinds, lit a few candles and some cones of incense, to stimulate her burgeoning sense of smell. And he waited. For two hours... three... He could feel the thin silver cord that connected them thickening and bringing them closer, could feel Natalie rising ever nearer to consciousness, and a new life. He slid an arm around her shoulders and lifted her upright, holding an open bottle under her nose to entice her. Her nostrils flickered, and then his Natalie came back to life, eyes gleaming red with hunger. She was beautiful. Nick kissed her forehead while she drank. She pushed the fourth bottle away and looked at him with golden eyes. "I never thought it would be like this," she said. "I never thought I would... like this." "Like what?" "Alive," she breathed, smiling. "So alive." Nick returned her smile. "Life is what we make of it," the vampire chuckled. "Where hunger is no longer" He kissed her, and teased her fangs with his tongue until they dropped for the first time. Natalie hissed in delight. Though his eyes glowed, never once in his eight hundred years had Nick felt so sated. "And a good man just grows stronger Where angels sing" "If this isn't Heaven," he proclaimed quietly, "then I'm not going. I'm staying right here." "Where angels sing" ~Finis--July 17th, 2003~ April French daomir_darkfell@yahoo.com ===== ~Forever Knight: The Sons of Lilith~ http://www.geocities.com/runeshard/fkficindex.html ~The Corvina~ http://www.geocities.com/runeshard/index.html "And we shall exist by amusing ourselves, by dreaming of monstrous loves and fantastic universes, by complaining and quarreling with the pretenses of the world..." --"The Flash of Lightning" by Arthur Rimbaud