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Post by dragonfan on Jan 6, 2008 14:03:50 GMT -5
Chapter 19
Back at the station Captain Stonetree had his head in his hands. A textbook case of attempted murder and aggravated assault, should Vachon survive, had been caught on live tv not even five minutes ago and already he was tripping over complications. The first complication was that Knight had arrested the perp. That was ok, as long as he didn't have anything else to do with the case. He was too close to the victims to be impartial. The next complication was that the only other two detectives that he had who had any experience with the local Community were Vetter and Schanke. Vetter couldn't touch the case, Vachon was her boyfriend. And Schanke, well he didn't know how close the man was to Vachon or any of the rest of the vampires that lived in Toronto.
It wasn't just that his detectives were too close to the victim either. This crime had gone down on CNN while the reporters were interviewing the King and his girlfriend! Stonetree didn't want to touch the political implications of this. He looked up as Schanke walked into his office. "You wanted to see me Cap?" he asked.
"Did you see the attack down at the Raven on tv?" Stonetree asked, waving his hand at the small television in his office.
"No, is everyone alright?" Schanke asked worried. He knew that Nick was down at the Raven watching over the King while he gave an interview.
"Some schmuck came in and tried to kill his vampire girlfriend. The whole thing was caught on live tv. The uniforms are bringing him in now. The worst part is that the new Elder, that Vachon guy got a stake in the chest. Take Vetter down so she can see if her boyfriend's alright and take Richards and Johnson with you too. They'll take the lead on this case. You back them up. I don't want this case tossed because the detectives are personally involved but I don't want to have people calling me incompetent because I didn't send anyone with experience when we've got you three on the force either," Stonetree growled out the rock and the hard place that he was currently stuck in.
"Yes sir," Schanke agreed and ran out of the office. He gathered up the other three detectives and hurried them out to his car. Stonetree was right, as a group the three of them were far too close to the case to investigate it. On the other hand, he barely knew Vachon and Richards and Johnson were good cops. They would need to be to navigate this tangled mess.
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Immediately following the successful operation Natalie had Vachon moved to one of the back rooms. This one had been set up as a guest bedroom for older vampires that were passing through Toronto and needed a safe place to spend the day. Stephan had ordered Nick to watch over the situation while he, Michelle and Janette finished the interrupted interview. Nick was glad to get out of the rest of the interview. He had never been one to seek the spotlight. Even when he had been an actor it had been more as a curiosity and a favor for his current lover than a craving for attention.
Nick made certain that the crime scene was secure and turned it over to the junior of the two detectives that showed up with Schanke and Tracy before showing them into the room where Vachon was sleeping. "Nat is he ok?" Tracy asked as she rushed over to his side.
Natalie was putting the last of her kit away in its bag. "He'll be fine Trace," she said. She nodded at the small group of fledglings on the other side of the bed. "They've been very good at making sure that we have everything we need to patch Vachon back up." She pointed over at the small fridge next to a table and chair in the corner. "There's plenty of the 'House Special' in there for when the bags that Ducky brought run out. He lost a lot of blood but he'll make it."
Tracy smiled and turned to Nick. "Did anyone get a hold of Urs? She had to have felt Vachon get hurt."
"Trace," Nick began, his voice sounding both awkward and oddly gentle.
"NO!" Tracy snapped. "I know what you all think but it isn't right!"
"Tracy, she's not going to survive for much longer anyway," Nick said gently. "It isn't right to prolong her pain."
"Ok," Schanke clapped his hands together and started rubbing them, "does someone want to clue me and Richards in? Who's Urs and why would anything happen to her? Is she one of Vachon's fledglings?" Richards just nodded from behind Schanke. Nick turned back to his partner and examined the detective behind him.
Richards had been the oldest detective on the force before Nick was revealed as a Vampire. He was tall; about six foot two inches with graying black hair and tired blue eyes; the kind of eyes that you only got from seeing a lot of heartache. This man had been a cop for a long time. He was also smart as a whip and knew how to use other people's skills to his advantage, not that he was looking for promotion or anything like that. No, Richards had gotten to where he wanted to be on the force and was happy where he was. He was just good at using others skills to help him put the bad guys away. This was a man to watch. Before, he would have been someone to avoid or to kill if he couldn't be avoided. Now he was going to have to explain things that few outsiders knew and even fewer understood. It wasn't going to be easy.
Nick sighed to himself. On the outside his face was expressionless as he explained, "Yes she's one of Vachon's. Urs is about two and a half centuries but she's his daughter. It takes about two centuries for a Vampire to grow beyond being a fledgling, a child. She's the best job he's done so far with bringing someone across. Most Vampires don't turn that many others. It takes time, practice and a good teacher to learn how to chose a good candidate and bring them across successfully. So the statistics aren't as good as most people think. 50% of those turned do not survive the turning or the first 48 hours. 25% of those that survive the first two days do not survive the first week. Of those that do survive there are still those should never have been brought across. Those are the ones we call mistakes, those and the Carouche. Most of all of those are brought across when the sire is still young. By the time a Vampire is six to eight hundred they've learned how to judge the potential fledgling's chances."
"d**n, those are some serious figures," Schanke said, his face pale at the thought of Nick loosing so many of his children. Nick was 800 years old. There was no telling how many kids he'd tried to turn in that amount of time. "How many have you lost?" he asked quietly. If Nick had turned eight people, then he'd have only three survive with those figures. Schanke couldn't imagine the pain of loosing so many of his children. It made him want to call home just to check on Jenny.
"All but one not that I tried to turn many," Nick said harshly, "and she hates my guts. But at least I know that she has no problems surviving." He looked over at his partner. "She was one of my mistakes Schanke. We were talking about two different things when I brought her across. She didn't realize that I was talking literally when I offered her immortality. She was more than a little angry when she found out." He didn't think there was any reason to tell Schanke that there was at least one other daughter that he had, one that he hadn't intended to turn. She didn't like him either because she'd been an interrupted meal back when he hadn't cared about the people he was killing.
"And she still hasn't let you forget it either, has she?" Schanke said with fond memories of his own screw ups with the women in his life.
"It's been less than a century. She'll get over it eventually," Nick reassured him. "It's not like she doesn't enjoy being a Vampire, it's just that she wanted a child."
"And Urs is one of Vachon's mistakes," Schanke said getting back to the subject at hand.
"Vachon's told us that his Master committed suicide the morning after he and his twin were brought across. No one knows why she did that. You see, Vachon is a New World Vampire. We just don't know anything about the Vampires that were here 500 years ago or about their culture. Vachon's Master killing herself has to have some sort of significance; we just don't know what it is. That culture was pretty much wiped out during the centuries of conquering and colonization by mortals. Only a few Vampires from those times survive and Vachon is one of them. Vachon has only brought two across in his five centuries Schank, and he made mistakes with both of them. Screed became a Carouche because Vachon had no idea how long before First Hunger would strike and Vachon took too long to get back to him. Urs well, she wasn't a good candidate. She was badly abused in her mortal life and she wasn't one of those who could be helped. She keeps looking for a replacement for her abuser. No one expects her to live for much longer. At any rate, he made mistakes with Screed and Urs because he didn't have a Master to teach him how to bring someone across correctly or how to choose someone who was likely to survive both the infection and the life afterwards," Nick explained. He didn't tell the mortals that crossing over only killed about half of the fledglings, madness of one sort or another was the reason the rest died. Of his children, he had been forced to kill more than he wanted to remember because they couldn't control themselves and he could see the madness overtaking them.
"I can see where you wouldn't want to make someone like that live for centuries," Schanke said shaking his head. As a cop he had seen that sort of behavior time and time again from abuse victims. They couldn't break free of that pattern without a lot of outside help, help that wouldn't have been available centuries ago.
"The question now is, what will Urs do now that Vachon has been badly injured? She just might greet the sun if she is shaken up badly enough. And we don't try to stop anyone from that if that is what they choose to do," Nick warned glaring at Tracy. She would learn soon enough. Sometimes living just became too hard for a Vampire; there were too many adjustments to be made. In short, they grew old and it was an accepted option for those who truly wanted to die.
"She'll greet the sun," Sarah asserted. She was still standing off to one side with her fellow fledglings. The three young men weren't all that noticeable, being the sort that one would find on any college campus. Two were brunets while the third was blond. All of them had short hair and athletic builds that their leather clothing showed off. "She's never been really happy that I've seen but ever since the Fever its been much worse."
"Since Screed died," Nick agreed. "In their own way they were a very close knit family."
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Post by dragonfan on Mar 1, 2008 20:03:02 GMT -5
Chapter 20
Richards knew by now that he wasn't going to get any information pertinent to the case by listening to Knight and Schanke talk but he was getting a feel for the vic's family and other background. But how else was he going to get to learn about the Vampire Community that they lived in? It wasn't like there was a class he could take! He was writing down the information he was learning when Natalie and Ducky came over from where Vachon was sleeping off the curare. Natalie had been sitting on the bed monitoring Vachon's progress and Ducky had been beside the bed watching the blood absorption. "I take it you're the lead on this one Hank?" she asked. She knew the rules as well as the detectives did. Nick and Tracy wouldn't be allowed to touch this case, (aside from Nick's very necessary arrest of the perp) and Don could only help in an advisory capacity for the same reasons.
He nodded. "What can you tell me Doc?" he asked her. He, like most of the detectives, respected the heck out of Doctor Lambert for her work on murder cases. But the knowledge that she treated Vampires and was researching the cause of Vampirism to help victims of Vampire criminals increased Richards respect. It took a very brave lady to see the people behind the monster legends.
"Javier Vachon, current Toronto Community Elder, just over five centuries old which puts him at the equivalent of late twenties or early thirties, two known fledglings, one deceased," Nat said, rattling off Vachon's stats.
"And us," Sarah said motioning to herself and the other band members. "We're adopted. We all lost our Masters to the Fever."
Natalie nodded and continued, "Four adopted fledglings, boyfriend to Tracy Vetter, lady in waiting to the soon to be Queen of the Vampires and rookie Homicide detective. He was staked in the heart." At this point Ducky handed over the evidence bag that he had placed the stake in. "I removed the stake approximately one minute before Vachon's next heartbeat. Had his heart beat before I could remove the stake he would have died."
"Close call," Richards observed.
"Very," Natalie said grimly. "Vampires are very tough and can survive a lot but this is as close as it gets for them. This won't heal overnight. He'll be on bed rest for at least two nights and probably won't recover his full strength for at least a week." Richards watched as the fledglings reacted with fully transformed faces and a major round of hissing. In the face of their fury the seasoned detective surprised himself by taking a step back. That was not the reaction he had expected from an abused girlfriend or her geeky musician friends. He had expected the girl to be timid but she was just as pissed off as the others.
"Calm down children," Knight called. "He'll be just fine and I'm certain that you can handle any threats in the meantime."
Richards didn't know if it was the prognosis of a full recovery or Knight's vote of confidence but the fledglings, (he just couldn't bring himself to think of them as kids) did calm down. "I need to talk to everyone, one at a time. With the attack on tape there isn't that much that a lawyer can do to get this guy off but we do need to make sure to get all of our i's dotted and t's crossed so he doesn't get off on a technicality. Can I talk to you first miss?" Richards asked Sarah.
She nodded and Knight spoke up. "I'll find you an interview room."
Nick escorted Richards and Sarah to Janette's office. He hoped that Richards would take into consideration that most vampires, especially the very old and the very young didn't look at personal violence the same way that mortals did. Ancient vampires had spent their formative years in a truly brutal age. They thought nothing of torture and enjoyed the fact that as vampires they could take far more punishment than most mortals could dish out. Fledglings were still at the stage where everything, even being the focus of violence was exciting. They were so caught up in their new found immortality that they enjoyed seeing the proof of it on a nightly basis. From her reactions tonight Nick thought that was how Sarah had gotten involved with the mortal she had called Charlie. He was going to have to have a talk with Vachon about her. She needed to be reigned in before something like this happened again.
He slipped into the bar and got four bottles of the House Special for the fledglings. He knew that they wouldn't touch the blood that had been set aside for Vachon. The last thing they needed to do was to let the fledglings become hungry when they were already angry and upset. It was hard enough for most of them to control their impulses. "The interview is over and the reporters are gone," Janette said as she also picked up a bottle. "How is Vachon?"
"He'll be fine in a few days but Sarah is going to have to be dealt with. Playing with a dangerous mortal is one thing, letting him get close enough to stake you or your master is another," Nick said seriously. Dating, or just hanging around mortals who reeked of garlic or who could other wise physically hurt them was a game most fledglings played at one time or another but usually they had masters to reign them in when they were about to get over their heads. "Did Vachon know about Charlie? Did he say anything to you about it?"
Janette grimaced and nodded, "Yes, he asked me if I would have a talk with Sarah but I was called away before he could explain what he meant. I think he believed that the warning would be better accepted from a woman than from him. Now that my lady is asleep for the night I'll have a word with Sarah once she'd done with that detective."
"I've got to get these to the fledglings. Have you seen Urs?"
Janette brightened. "Yes I have, she's gone in to see Vachon. I think she's doing better, at least at the moment."
"That's good; it would have really hurt Vachon to loose her right now. He's had a hard enough time loosing Screed. Tracy's been saying that she should see a psychologist to help her with her abuse issues. What do you think?" Nick asked as delicately as he could. While he wanted to know Janette's opinion, he didn't want her to think that he thought any less of her because of her own history with abuse.
Janette had been a gently raised lady, although she had been well aware that she had been only a commodity to her father. When she had not conceived a child after her first year of marriage to her husband, the man had sold her to a brothel. That was where LaCroix had found her and Nick knew that her first meal after crossing over had been her pimp. Personally he didn't blame her one bit; he knew that the centuries hadn't changed those sorts of men at all. If anything his time as a police officer had shown him that the majority had actually gotten worse. Few pimps centuries ago had used drugs to tie their women to them.
Janette seriously considered the notion. She had become rather addicted to day time television since its invention. It was her one secret vice. So she was more aware of how shrinks and councilors had actually begun to help women rather than blame them for the problems that such men had caused. "Perhaps, it is an option we should offer her now that it is an option," Janette admitted. "It still wouldn't be up to us if she should choose to greet the sun but I'm sure that it would help Vachon if she should choose to remain with us."
Nick nodded. It would also get Tracy off his case about being a cold hearted brute where Urs was concerned. That was one that hit a little too close to home for him. He did care now but for years, centuries, he hadn't given a d**n about anyone or anything but himself but over time he had grown up and now he was very ashamed of himself. It was more than the fact that he was a murderer, having killed in order to survive. He had slowly, over the last several years, come to terms with that part of his past. No, it was his callus disregard of others and the way that LaCroix had encouraged him to kill for the sheer joy of killing that appalled him now. It was that attitude that he had to make up for now, that and the lives that he had taken.
He considered his change in attitude as he returned to Natalie's side and passed out the bottles of blood to the fledglings. He had been so very like Sarah, so very long ago. So sure of himself, so sure that human life didn't matter, he had been so certain that he had the right to do with any human exactly what he wished. He waited but he was no longer swamped with the same self loathing that had always accompanied those thoughts. 'Well, that was one good thing,' he thought as he poked his head over Natalie's shoulder as she checked Vachon's wound. 'As much as I know violent emotions are simply a part of being a vampire, I'm glad that I'm not getting overwhelmed be them any longer.' He smiled down at Natalie as she looked up quizzically at him. She would never truly understand the wonderful gift she had given him.
"Urs was worried," she whispered, nodding to the young looking woman who was holding Vachon's hand. Tracy was holding the other. "But he's doing fine," she said firmly to both women.
"It's going to be a long night. Do you need to get back to work? I could take you?" Nick asked. He hoped that Natalie would say yes. He had wanted to be the first one to take her flying but he couldn't find fault with the vampires who had brought her here. Vachon had been very close to death and Natalie had been his only hope. If they had taken any longer he would have died, but that didn't mean that he couldn't be the one to return her to the morgue. He could also take his time and show her the difference between an emergency flight and one taken just for fun. He really wanted to show her the one thing that he hadn't regretted about becoming a vampire.
"Can we go back the same way I came?" Natalie asked coyly.
"I think that can be arranged," Nick said with a smile.
"I think I'll take a cab back, if you don't mind," Ducky said. "I think that I prefer my flights to include a vehicle as the mode of transportation."
Natalie and Nick both grinned at the elderly doctor. "Schanke, make sure that Dr. Mallard makes it back to the morgue safely, will you?" Nick asked as he gently pulled Natalie out the door.
"No problem partner," Schanke said with a happy little smirk. It looked like Nick was going to take advantage of the situation to nock another item off of his court Natalie list. He wondered if Myra was up for planning a night time wedding.
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Post by dragonfan on Jun 5, 2009 15:37:54 GMT -5
Chapter 21
Schanke got out of his car and slowly made his way along the walkway that ran from his driveway to his front porch. There were no toys, bricks, sticks or other assorted items that his nine year old daughter and the neighborhood kids played with littering his path between his wife's flower beds. 'One of the little perks of working the night shift,' he thought bemused. Myra made Jenny clean up the yard before dinner every night but his shift started before then so his trip to his car on the way to work sometimes resembled an obstacle course, one he was at least awake enough to deal with.
Dawn was well on its way when he reached his porch and he paused for a moment, knowing that this was one of the things that his partner had been denied for centuries. He watched the sunrise while thinking of all the vampires that were pulling the curtains and doors shut and locking themselves away from the danger. 'Well, we got one danger off the street,' Schanke thought, satisfied that Charlie Robinson was going to be put away for a long time. There was nothing he could do to protect vampires from the sun, but putting Hunters away, even incompetent ones like Robinson, was more than worth the effort to him.
When the sun was finally above the horizon, Schanke turned and walked into his house. It didn't look like a large house from the outside, but with a full basement and attic, both of which were finished and converted into living space, it was more than roomy enough for his small family. The moment he walked in Schanke did what he did every morning; he secured his weapon in the downstairs gun safe. His family was not going to become a statistic. He knew them better than most people did because he dealt with the aftermath of people's stupidity on a nightly basis.
All of the safes in his house had keypad locks and both Myra and Jenny had taken gun safety courses. How many times had he worked a scene where there was a gun in the house and the homeowner couldn't get to the guns in time to shoot an intruder in order to save their own lives and that of their children simply because they couldn't get to the keys? Or just the opposite, where an adult had a gun and didn't treat it with the respect it required and someone got a hold of the gun and someone died? Myra and Jenny both knew the codes for the safes and they had made sure that Jenny was well aware of the fact that guns weren't toys.
But right now Schanke wasn't going to think about the bad things that could happen. He went into the large kitchen to complete his homecoming ritual. He paused in the doorway from the living room to the kitchen and said, "How are the two most beautiful girls in the entire world this morning?"
"Dad!" Jenny squealed and jumped up to hug him. "Is Uncle Nick ok? Is that guy in jail? Is the guitar player ok? Is he the one that Aunt Tracy is dating?"
"Woah, woah, one question at a time!" Schanke laughed. He sat them both down at the table and accepted the hot bowl of homemade stew and cornbread that Myra handed him. He knew that it was simply her way of saying that he was important to her. Myra did something called once a month cooking, where she made simply huge batches of food and froze them in one to three serving sized portions. With Don on the night shift, her job as make up sales person and Jenny's school and various activities, it was rare that the three of them were sitting down to the same meal at the same time. This morning Don was having dinner while Myra and Jenny were having breakfast. With Myra's system they could all eat whatever they wanted at almost a moment's notice. It was just one of the many reasons that Don loved her. "I take it someone was watching the news last night?" Don asked Myra.
Myra rolled her eyes. "Nick was going to be on TV. Do you really think that we wouldn't be watching?"
Schanke shrugged and dug into his dinner. "Honestly I wasn't. This whole King of the Vampires bit is getting a bit old. I've known what I've needed to know about vampires for a couple of years now." He turned to Jenny. "Your Uncle Nick is fine and so is your Aunt Natalie. No one got bit, not that I expected anyone would bite someone with Stephan right there and watching, so yes, that guy is in jail and I imagine he's going to be there for a very long time. Vachon's going to be alright in about a week or so, and yes, he's the vampire your Aunt Tracy's dating. She's spending the day with him down at the Raven. Now you'd better finish that up if you're going to catch the school bus." He pointed at her plate of French Toast.
"Dad! It's Saturday!" Jenny protested.
"Saturday? Are you sure?" Schanke said, looking at his watch and yanking his daughter's chain at the same time. He knew very well what day it was and the plans that they had.
"Come on Dad! We're supposed to go to the zoo today!"
"Is that today?" he asked. "Are you sure?"
"DAD!" Jenny exclaimed, bouncing in her seat.
Schanke laughed. "We need to be back by two so I can get some sleep before I have to go in. I'm helping with this new case but we should be able to see everything if we hurry."
"I wanna see the penguins!" Jenny said before she started bolting her breakfast.
"Well I want to see the new bird exhibit. The birds are nest building right now." Myra said. Deep into plans, they hurried through their meal so they could make as much of their day together as they could.
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Natalie let herself into her apartment shortly after dawn with a dreamy smile on her face. Flying with Nick had been every bit as magical as she had imagined. Nick had held her close, tucked up against his chest, which had felt even more wonderful than the flight itself. By the time they had landed on the steps leading into the morgue what little amount of control she had over her feelings was in shreds, and Nick had known it.
The look in his eyes as he kissed the back of her hand, the old fashioned gesture coming naturally to him, before leaving had been predatory and it had thrilled Natalie. The gift of chocolates in front of her peers could have been simply a thank you; done to impress upon her audience how important she was as much as being a gift from a grateful patient and friend. That look however, had told her that Nick was done holding back with her. One way or another she was going to be his and she couldn't be happier about it.
Her cat Sydney wound himself around her ankles to both welcome her home and to demand his due treatment as the only royalty that mattered. Nat picked him up and scratched him under his chin. "You had better learn to get along with Nick better, Sydney. He's going to be around a lot more from here on in." Sydney flicked his ear to show her how far beneath him he felt Nick belonged. Nat laughed and put the cat on the floor and her coat and purse on the couch before she headed for the kitchen. Sydney needed his breakfast before she went to bed.
As she scooped her cat's food into his bowl and checked his water she wondered just what sort of approach Nick would take. Would he take things slowly and carefully, still frightened of hurting her? Or would he take advantage of his new knowledge and her familiarity with vampires to sweep her off her feet? Natalie put the cat food can in the garbage and looked out her window at the rising sun.
She really needed to sit down and figure out what she needed or wanted to do before giving up the sun. She had lived for years only seeing the sun on occasion and quite frankly her last few attempts to get out and be more involved in the daylight world had not ended pleasantly, Roger Jameson being a prime example. 'How strange is it that I felt safer in the arms of an 800 year old vampire, one that had shown me more than once that he could kill me in an instant, than I did any where near Roger even before I figured out that Roger was the serial killer we were tracking?' Natalie thought.
Then she realized that it wasn't so odd after all. At first Nick had been a patient, a medical mystery to sink her professional teeth into. Then she had found out that he was a Homicide detective, one that she would be working with. She could have left it there but by the time Stonetree had teamed Nick up with Don Schanke, the two them were quickly becoming friends. Helping Nick to keep his nature a secret and having someone to share the joke with when he played tricks on his partner or someone else, had cemented their friendship.
Nick had so few true friends that he truly treasured each and every one. Natalie was aware that as a vampire, Nick's mortal friendships were bound to be short lived, even if they knew his nature. Often he would be forced to leave his friends soon after they became aware of just what he was, even if he trusted them enough to retain that knowledge. Natalie was probably the first mortal in 800 years who had both known what he was and had remained friends with him, seeing him night after night, for an extended period of time. Falling in love had been inevitable, for both of them.
Sunlight, the first thing that sprang to her mind, she dismissed as inconsequential. Natalie turned from the window and opened her fridge. 'Food?' she thought. That would be a little harder, but honestly the stuff that she would really miss she really couldn't, or at least she shouldn't, have a lot of anyway, chocolate being the top of that short list. So she should make a list of everything she wanted to try and her favorites and set up a schedule so that she could indulge in them without having it affect her figure. The last thing she wanted was to be turned looking less than her best. She would be stuck with whatever she looked like at the time forever. Janette had to cut her hair every couple of days to keep it short, and ironically, so did Nick. He had made a joke once about it not being a good idea to be turned at the end of a couple of weeks long drunk.
Speaking of which, that was one bodily process that she was going to be more than happy to give up. She rarely drank enough to give her a hangover, but when she did it had always been a doozy. The others could be a real nuisance at times but were not anything she was going to want to cling to either, except for one perhaps. Her period was the key to her fertility. Was she ready to give up the possibility of becoming a mother? That was something that she was going to have to think about, and perhaps do some research into. There were options now that weren't available even five years ago. With that decision made, Natalie went off to bed.
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Post by dragonfan on Jun 5, 2009 15:38:57 GMT -5
Chapter 23
The sun had risen over the horizon but Janette could not sleep. Her lady and the king were safely tucked away at Nicola’s loft in the secure apartment that he had commissioned for them. She had taken care of the worker’s memories herself. They only remembered that they had been paid extremely well to create a secure room for a vampire, but not where its location was nor whom it was for. It was not her charge’s safety that kept her awake in her own rooms at the Raven.
It was the realization that for the first time in her life if she did not want to leave a place, she did not have to. Her duty to her king was a mere nothing. What was fifty to seventy years to her, if she would even be called upon for that long? Her lady was a scholar, not a spoiled debutante. Her tastes were simple and she spent as much time, if not more, interviewing members of the court about their defeat of the Turkish Army 500 years ago as she did planning her wedding! She was not a woman who needed to be coddled and waited on hand and foot. In all likelihood, the next Queen of the Vampires would be spending the rest of her mortal life happily buried in the Archives, and perhaps the rest of her immortal life as well if Janette knew her king.
As for Janette, she would be able to stay in Toronto if she wanted to, and thanks to vampires now being whatever it was that mortals now thought of them, she would not have to move on either. Janette sighed and sat down in her comfortable chair. It was an antique now, she’d had it for a couple of centuries, but she hadn’t been able to find anything as comfortable to do her stitching in to replace it. Next to her was a well lit lamp on a small round table, well it was bright enough for her at least. Next to it was yet another chair; one that either Nicola or LaCroix had often sat reading in. At the base of the table and next to her feet, was the small chest that she kept her supplies in. Janette looked every inch the successful modern business woman she was, but she was still the product of a mindset that had only died within the last century. In some ways she would always be the noble born lady she had been in her early mortal years, just as Nicola would always be the knight crusader.
For centuries as her father and brother had wandered through the roles open to men, she had been confined to the two, well three if she could have lowered herself to the level of streetwalker, roles that were open to women. She could never bring herself to even approach the state that LaCroix had rescued her from, the one her husband had sold her into when she could not bear him a child. So she walked through the centuries as Nicola’s wife when they were in less than promising circumstances and his sister when they were afforded a higher class of surroundings. Centuries of being bound to act as a proper lady or wife had subjected her to endless rounds of proper gatherings that she had recently mentally classified under three words, stitch and b*tch. She hadn’t come up with the phrase, a mortal woman had written a book she had seen in passing with that title. It had described those boring evenings before or after a hunt so well that the phrase had stuck in her mind, but all those endless rounds of doing all sorts of women’s work meant that Janette knew her way around more than one set of needles.
With her lady’s pregnancy now confirmed Janette was working on knitting a proper layette for the new heir. Only the finest materials would touch the child if she had anything to say about it. The king may walk around looking like a scruffy college student but the child was royalty and should be dressed as such. The finest silk and wool yarns, as well as more exotic types now rested in her chest as well as patterns that were far more practical than the layette she had made for the king when he was born. That did not mean that she intended to do away with all of the traditions of course. The Vladislas family crest and protection runes were already knitted firmly into the weave of the blanket that she was currently working on.
Setting her hands to working these days seemed to help calm her down and help her focus when she was disturbed she had found. Her maman would have found the notion amusing. All of the work that she had taught Janette had been practical, even the tapestries that they had made had served the purpose of helping to keep their small castle warmer during the winter months. Janette had learned a great deal of needlework in the following centuries, some of it practical, some of it not, but until this century she seldom had gone long without something in her hands to work on. ‘So, should I go or should I stay?’ she thought.
If she stayed then she could make the Raven a permanent haven for vampires. On the other hand, there was no reason that she couldn’t go and still keep the Raven open. It would be nice to travel whenever she wanted and still have someplace to return to, she decided after a moment. Having a home was a rather alien notion to most vampires, as up until now they had needed to keep moving so as not to be discovered. ‘But we have already been discovered,’ she thought. ‘And I have already had several people come into the Raven directly to sell their blood.’
That had been a shock. When the first one had come in wanting to know the price of a pint of blood, she had thought that he had wanted to purchase the blood. She had told him that she only sold blood to vampires, not to mortals who could legally get blood from other sources, (if his purchase had been legal that is). He had then interrupted her with waving hands and had said that he didn’t want to know the purchase price for a bottle. He wanted to know how much they paid for the blood and if he could sell some of his to her. Janette was sure now that her shock had been all over her face, but she wasn’t fool enough to turn the young man down.
She had grabbed his wrist and brought it to her nose. There was no mistaking a mortal on drugs or one who was ill from a vampire’s sense of smell. The young man was neither. He was very healthy. “You are very healthy and are taking no drugs. For you, I have a little proposition, if you are willing?” Janette said, her thoughts turning to the one thing she had wanted to be able to sell, but hadn’t been able due to the natural restrictions.
“I’m more than willing to listen. I’m Brad.” The young man didn’t bother to hold out his hand as Janette already had a hold of his wrist.
“Well Brad, I am Janette,” she replied as she released his wrist. She didn’t want to scare him away now. “I regularly purchase blood such as yours at ten dollars a pint, but that is for expired donated blood. If you wish to sell me a fresh pint every now and then, I would double my purchase price. If you would be willing to come in once every two weeks and wait until someone bought a fresh glass, I would pay you forty dollars a glass. You would not be able to give more than one glass. I have to follow the Red Cross donation rules about how often and how much you would be allowed to sell me.”
“Forty dollars a glass? Are you sure?” Brad asked amazed. That sounded an awful lot for just a little blood to him.
Janette laughed. “For fresh blood on tap, I could ask eighty dollars or more a glass and still be swamped with orders. Tell your friends that the offer is open to them as well as long as they are healthy and not doing drugs. I will buy their blood if they are, but I need to label it as such and I can’t buy it for more than twenty dollars a pint.”
“You guys have quality control issues huh?” Brad asked. He was a business major in college and knew a few things about that from working in the restaurant business.
“You can’t hide that sort of thing from a vampire. We can smell both long before we take a taste. Trying to pass blood off as something its not is beyond foolish,” Janette warned. Brad smiled and agreed. Now there were about twenty mortals who supplied fresh blood to the Raven. Janette hoped that the number would increase as these young mortals spread the word. It was an easy way to make a little pocket money after all.
‘Yes,’ Janette thought. ‘I will keep the Raven open. I hadn’t looked forward to selling it, nor would I wish to learn what someone else would turn my club into. Then there are also the fledglings,’ her thoughts turned to the fluctuating group of young vampires that slept in her basement. She had told Nicola once that she wasn’t the maternal type. She had lied of course, the pain of her inability to become pregnant as a mortal had wounded her deeply, aside from the consequences to her mortal position in life. She had drowned her feelings by taking in fledglings and those just released from their master’s care, giving the excuse to LaCroix that she was simply making sure that the young ones didn’t bring down mortal hunters down on her head by being stupid. She had done that for a long time now.
But she no longer needed to excuse herself to anyone. LaCroix no longer ruled her and she answered to only one man, her king. He would certainly not object to her taking in a mortal child, nor would he do to her what LaCroix had done. The pain of losing young Daniel was still fresh, less than a century old. She had been so happy to have a child in her life at long last that she had forgotten who she was living with. Nicola had known and he had tried to save the boy. She had only wished that he had been successful. She had left after that, making her way to the Americas. She had wanted to see neither Nicola nor LaCroix, not that she blamed her brother for his actions. Once Daniel had been brought across by their master, it was the only thing that could have been done. Children do not survive becoming vampires. She had been grateful that Nicola had the strength to do what she could not.
It had always been so. Of all of the fledglings that LaCroix had made over the last thousand years that she had known him, only Nicola was able to stand up to him and defy him to his face. She had always been too frightened of him, although she had never understood Nicola’s aversion to what he was, to what they were. She loved being a vampire. She only hoped that now, with the bond between them and LaCroix broken, Nicola would find the peace that he had sought for so long.
He seemed to be doing much better now, and surprisingly Dr. Lambert wasn’t pushing him to continue her work either. That was for the best. Nicola loved her and it would be far better for her to accept him for who and what he was. In a way it was too bad that only the royal men could conceive children with a mortal woman. She knew that Nicola would make a wonderful father. Perhaps she could convince him to look for a child for her to adopt? Janette knew just how easy it would be for him to lose his heart to a child; just as hers would be the moment he brought her one. ‘Yes,’ she thought as she bound off the baby blanket. ‘That would be for the best. A child for each of us to raise and companions for the heir as well.’ She tucked the now finished blanket into the chest and went to get ready for bed. Tomorrow she had a stubborn knight to talk into helping her.
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Post by dragonfan on Jun 5, 2009 15:39:59 GMT -5
Chapter 23
Lucien LaCroix stalked through the newly restored gardens of Castle Vladislas deep in thought. He did not apologize, ever; at least not to anyone who was not an Enforcer or the King. It was simply not in his nature. He had never thought that his two favorite children would ever be placed on that very short list, but now he was faced with that very situation. Nicholas’ temper tantrums over the centuries had been caused, not by his willfulness as Lucien had always assumed, but by Lucien’s own carelessness in taking proper care of his son. If he had only looked deeper into why Nicholas had been so very uneasy around other vampires! ‘If only wins no battles!’ he reminded himself sharply.
LaCroix stormed to the top of the curtain wall and looked out over the forest that surrounded Castle Vladislas. It was as dark as any night he had ever seen. The only light to be seen came from the moon and stars. He could not even see a faint glow from the village. He was more than happy to ignore the fact that the village was even there. The presence of so many mortals only reminded him of his current difficulties. Nicholas had been obsessed with mortals for nearly three centuries now. Lucien wrenched his mind away from the mortals and turned his attention back to the problem facing him.
The only question was what form should his apology take? He most certainly would NOT simply tell Nicholas that he was sorry. He would not demean himself that way. There had to be some sort of gesture that he could make that would achieve the same result. Most of what he would think of as an appropriate gesture he knew that Nicholas would reject out of hand.
In some ways the fact that he knew he should also apologize to Janette was even worse. Janette was a fine daughter, a good vampire and had made a fine companion for centuries, but she was a woman. Lucian had never apologized to a woman, not once in his two thousand years. On the other hand, there was a gesture that he could make to her that would do and that he knew she would accept. It had been a mistake to turn the boy child she had asked to take in during WWII. It seemed that she had had plans for the boy that he had not been aware of. He had been nauseated with the way Nicholas and Janette had been playing house and parents to the boy, and had turned the child so as to return his household to normal. If he procured a child for her, one that she could once more do with as she saw fit, he would have to do nothing more. That still left the problem of Nicholas.
Although Lucien did not want to admit it, it was the rumors coming out of Toronto about his son that had him contemplating making an apology. It seemed that Nicholas had at long last given up his search for mortality. That meant that it was his treatment of his son that had driven Nicholas to such absurd lengths to escape him. He hadn’t been careful enough with his son, and in doing so, had lost him forever; unless he could find a way to show that he regretted his actions. It was only this small possibility that had him even contemplating making the apology.
Where he could easily get a child, no an infant, with the new queen pregnant that would suit things better, for Janette, he had only a few ideas about what to do for Nicholas. The directors of the orphanages in this country were easy to bribe and he would be able to send Janette an infant in a matter of days. Dr. Lambert, on the other hand, already had as much funding for her research as she would ever need now that vampires were public knowledge.
That woman was the one that Nicholas had fallen in love with, something that could easily torment Lucien’s undead heart if he let it. The king had put an end to their agreement, so there would be no repayment for his beloved Fluer’s life. No matter what other’s thought, he knew that before now Nicholas had never truly been in love before. He marched down the stairs to the flower gardens that he had ordered replanted. There was a white rose against one wall. He paused there, gently touching one of the closed flowers. Could he let her memory go unavenged?
It would be the smart thing to do, he knew that. He also knew the odds against his survival if he did not. Lucien LaCroix had not been a top ranking general for the Roman Empire because he bought his way into the position. He simply had a hard time letting go of the idea. It had been the only thing that had kept him going on many occasions over the last eight hundred years. Any time another woman had caught his attention, the memories had overwhelmed him, and he had taken his grief and anger out on Nicholas. It wasn’t like he had romanticized her memory either, vampires had perfect recall. He could smell her scent, recall her words, even remember the feel of her soft hand any time he wished.
It was that memory that had caused Lucien to look after Fluer’s descendants over the centuries. Nicholas had tried, but he had made certain that it was he who would be the one that his Fluer’s family could turn to. At least he had that comfort. Lucien stopped in his tracks and cursed. That was the gesture that would ensure his son’s return; returning his family to him. LaCroix roared his fury into the night.
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“Should I worry that you seem to know the name of every clerk in every flower shop in Toronto?” Nick teased. Schanke scowled from his side of their desks, phone caught between his shoulder and his ear, and his hands working on a list on his desk. “It’s called politeness, customer service and a rookie with a phone book Knight,” he whispered. “Yes, four dozen roses, to be delivered to Dr. Natalie Lambert at the city morgue.”
“Yes, at the morgue,” Schanke confirmed.
“Because that’s where she works,” Schanke said rolling his eyes. The clerk’s reaction of disbelief was one that he’d been getting all night since he’d started calling flower shops. It was no wonder that Nick had been so hesitant about ordering flowers for Nat, or the fact that he’d willingly traded his partner doing Don’s paperwork for the job.
The fact that Nick had simply handed over a credit card and told him to order whatever hadn’t surprised him. What did Nick know about ordering flowers anyway? That was a modern custom that he seriously doubted his partner had ever needed to take part in before. The fact that Nick had told him to simply get Nat all the roses he could, and hadn’t so much as blinked at the prices, had him thinking that maybe the joke Nick had once told him about moving, (what had it been half a million? A million and a half? It had been something like that) from his savings to his checking account during that cult case hadn’t been a joke after all.
“Knight, Schanke, Vetter! My Office!” Stonetree yelled. They put up what each of them were currently working on and filed into the captain’s office. “Alright listen up. We’ve just had a credible threat against King Stephan.”
While they were homicide cops, rather than major crimes, everyone knew that the three detectives were involved in the vampire community up to their necks. So being called into their captain’s office for this threat was no surprise to them. It was also no surprise to the other detectives gathered in Stonetree’s office that Knight had his cell phone out and was making a call almost before Stonetree had finished. “Janette, someone’s made a threat against Stephan. I’ll let you know when I have the details. For now, stay with the king and keep safe.” Nick closed his phone and turned his attention to the other captain standing next to Stonetree. “What do we have?”
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Tracy Vetter let herself and her tagalong into her apartment. “Bathroom’s through there,” she pointed out for her fellow detective. Rather than follow Nick, Schanke and the major case detectives assigned to work with them down to the Raven so that they could get to know the major players among the local vampires, Detective Carpenter and Tracy had decided to head to her place to continue to go over the files of possible suspects. The back seat of her car was full of them, as was her arms. She went to put her armful down on her kitchen table and start a pot of coffee. If they had to stay up all day, she was going to need better than the sludge they had down at the station.
“HEY!” she heard, coming from the bathroom. Automatically she pulled her gun as she hurried into the living room. There she found Carpenter hauling a semi-naked young man out of the bathroom. “This guy was about to take a shower in your bathroom and he’s covered in blood,” the detective explained.
Tracy smirked. It seemed that Carpenter was going to get his first lesson on the Community right now. “Let him go Carpenter.” She turned to what she figured was a fledgling. For some reason it was the younger members that tended to show up at her place. “Go ahead and finish your shower. Just remember the rules and there is o and a positive in the fridge if you’re hungry.”
“Thanks my lady,” the vampire said, giving her an awkward bow before hurrying back into the bathroom.
Tracy turned to the bewildered detective. “If he was mortal, you’d be right to be suspicious, but he’s not. My apartment is a sanctuary.” She turned and led him to the kitchen.
“What’s a sanctuary?” Carpenter asked. He sat down at the table and watched Vetter bustle around the kitchen. He wished that he had about half of her energy. “And what was that my lady business about?”
Tracy paused in making a pot of coffee and glanced over her shoulder. “Nobody told you that I’m a lady in waiting to the Queen of the Vampires?” Carpenter shook his head slowly. “Well someone should have,” she muttered. She switched the pot on to brew and went over to sit down at the table. “A sanctuary is basically a bolt hole. My place is one where vampires can get cleaned up, get a packet of blood and spend the day if they get caught out by the dawn. I get paid for it, either in money or information. We’ve gotten quite a few tips that way. It’s mostly the younger ones that hangout here anyway, that and the occasional carouche. I’m all set up here with blood deliveries and my windows are covered with shutters and heavy blinds. They don’t have to worry about sunlight and few mortals with homicidal intentions are going to go breaking into a cop’s place.”
Carpenter shook his head. “I’m going to get the rest of the files. When I get them all up here, you can tell me everything that I didn’t get briefed on. I’m thinking that there’s a lot of stuff that someone didn’t consider important that I should know.”
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