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This author has a new email address as of October 1998

Please contact Marcia at this address <darknick@flash.net>

Thank You

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"Dark Welcome"
A Forever Knight story
Copyright, 1997
by Marcia Tucker




	Nick sipped silently on the glass of blood in his grasp, 
absorbed in the heady richness of the mortal blood mixed with the 
Chardonnay, but at the same time acutely aware of the swirling miasma 
of the Raven around him.  Without turning, he could pick out the sets of 
distinct heartbeats of the mortals on the dance floor behind him, and the 
tickling interplay of the vampiric presences he could detect around him.  
His senses were	alive and finely tuned, honed in his return to his 
nature these past six months.  
	Abruptly a shift in the balance caught his attention, and his 
senses leapt upon it, reading it.  He hadn't moved, but now his mouth 
curved into a wide, sensual smile as his powers identified the change.  
A new presence had entered that explained the delicate tingling he'd felt 
all night.
	She was here.  Disguised, of course - he didn't need to check 
that, knowing she was aware of the risks.  Likely only close associates 
could identify the particular swagger, the lift of chin, the exquisite 
carriage that would give her away.  
	This tingling, a sensation he had never quite sensed like this 
before, increased in intensity until it was quite close.  As it neared, Nick 
found himself tensing, his immortal body priming itself for the 
confrontation.  He took another deep swallow just as a hand was laid on 
his arm.
	"Nicolas."  His name was spoken in the lilting French tones he 
knew intimately, the sound of it falling upon his senses like a caress of a 
lullaby.   The hand pressed, fell.
	"You're here," his deep voice dropped on her senses, heavy 
with emotion and intent.  Unconsciously she jerked more erect in 
reaction, stabbed with its impact.
	"I'm here," she affirmed, her voice only faintly quivering.  An 
elegantly gloved hand raised to pull the shielding scarf closer about her 
face.  
	He turned as she came around to his side, his deep blue gaze 
connecting first with her icy blue glance.  A resonant thrum sounded 
within both of them, fired by an electric rush.  Her eyes widened as the 
changes in him became apparent.  "No," the gasp escaped her and she 
turned her shoulders as if to leave again, but something in their link 
forced her to look back at him again, her eyes widening.  Quickly she 
glanced down at the glass he'd laid aside on the bar, then back up at 
him.  "It's happened."
	His eyes had never left her.  Silently he nodded, solemn, his 
gaze intent and searching.  "You didn't feel it."
	A minute toss of the head, and the scarf slipped back a bit to 
reveal the lush brunette hair.  "I... have lost much," she admitted, chin 
high, then added, "But I am swiftly regaining lost ground."
	"Including the ground that has separated us."
	Janette's glance fell upon his wide, sensual lips, then seemed 
to harden as she met his eyes yet again.  "You almost sound as if you 
mind," she said flippantly, dismissing him as she had in the past, older 
sibling to younger sibling.
	But it was her master looking at her now, his eyes so intensely 
probing, and for the first time she truly realized that her brother was 
gone forever.  They shared a master no longer - he *was* her master, 
and the difference was growing more apparent by the second, a fact she 
hadn't expected.  
	"Mind?"  Nick's voice was impossibly deep, going right to the 
heart of her.  "Never..."  
	His eyes went steely then, and before she knew it, he had her 
by the hand and was leading her to one of the back rooms of the Raven, 
a swath cut through the crowd for them largely through his sheer mental 
dominance.  Janette ducked her head from scrutiny and went with him, 
wondering where the hell LaCroix was.  She could no longer sense him.




	Nick released her completely when the door was shut behind 
them, though taking his hands from her caused an unbearable ache to 
start up within him.  "Janette," he breathed and turned back to face her, 
looking down into the liquid depths of her beautiful eyes.  "How could I 
possibly mind that you've returned?"
	Janette narrowed her eyes at him, though it was difficult to 
keep her hands clenched into fists at her side, needing to establish 
some things with him before... before anything else.  "Nicolas, I should 
have expected that you would come back to..."  - she almost said "us" - 
"... to this.  What you did..."
	He was quick to spell it out.  "What I did was react as a 
vampire whose heart is selfish and could not bear the thought that the 
world might exist without you in it, that you might never look at me 
again like..."  Nick's voice caught, the first waver of his impressive new 
control.
	"Like what?"  she flung the word back to him, eyes flashing in 
challenge.
	"Like this," Nick answered immediately, quicker than she'd 
expected, again gazing deeply at her, through her, into her.  "I see so 
much in your eyes, Janette," he went on in a husky whisper that 
betrayed the passion in his being.  "And I see so much now in our link, 
more than I can believe.  You and I were born to be vampires, set upon 
this eternal and inevitable path by forces larger than us, destined to be 
creatures whose greatest challenge is to move through eternity, alive 
and free and powerful... and to find love out of death."  
	"What love?" Janette tried to throw back, but her defenses 
against his potency were weakening, to her private thrill - still, she must 
stand up to him.  "And it's all death, isn't it?  This pretend existence of 
ours?"
	Nick raised his hand to her scarf, drawing it back to reveal more 
of her soft dark hair.  "It's life, Janette, the promise of life to love as 
vampires can love..."
	Unnerved by his tender touch, she countered sharply.  
"Vampires cannot love, Nicolas!"
	"You don't believe that, Janette," Nick said immediately, his 
eyes going steely hard on her momentarily before softening again.  "Nor 
do I.  You cannot ignore what is."
	When he laid a hand on her cheek, she wanted to slap him but 
leaned into the gentle caress instead, her fears losing out to an older 
desire.  "And... and what is, Nicolas?"  Her eyes were a little wild with 
her internal battle.
	His breath kissed her cheek as he neared, slipping his hand up 
into her hair, drawing her closer.  The resistance in her body was 
already evaporating and she edged into the circle of his other arm.  
"This... is..."  he whispered, then his lips were upon hers.  But the mere 
sensual input of the pressure of their mouths together paled beside 
what roared, sang, exulted in their link as master and child.  A swell of 
love exploded in their minds.
	Janette, stunned and exhilarated, yielded to it with a joy she 
could scarcely recognize in herself, her heart she once thought cold 
now warming and free.  And to know that the old flame of love for her 
still burned so hot within him, such that he'd had to pull her back into 
immortality to be with him, even if she rejected him for all time.  That fire 
awoke things in her she'd long denied, ignored, pretended were not 
there, but of course they were, and from the beginning.  
	Then, to her surprise, Nick was releasing her already, and she 
made a small noise of impatience, unwilling to leave his mouth already.  
But he was instead drawing her over to the couch to sit down with her.  
Before he even spoke, he was taking her face in his hands and looking 
intently at her.  It was a gesture she was used to, but never from her 
Nicolas, and the fact chilled her.
	Her master was examining her.  It was a scrutiny that she'd 
early on learned to allow LaCroix on demand, and knew she must hold 
still.  Certainly Nicolas himself had had to bear this also, and now turned 
that cold study on her.  At least his hands did not grip her as bruisingly, 

and his eyes now bore a tenderness to soften the rapier gaze.
	Nick studied not only the strength and quality of their bond 
together, but what he could read of his daughter... not her mind, but the 
power that could be discerned in their link.  Not that he should worry, 
he knew, but he must be sure.  "You are strong, getting stronger," he 
observed after a few minutes, and the firm hold on her jaw turned into a 
caress as he relaxed into a smile.
	Janette found herself matching his smile as well, and wanted 
more than the soft brush of his thumbs on her cheek.  "I told you I'd lost 
ground.  At least I did not start from scratch.  Perhaps..."
	One hand fell to her lap to clasp hers.  "When I tasted your 
blood..."  He paused, closed his eyes, remembering, then looked at her 
again.  "I suspected as much.  The vampire was not entirely gone, but 
you could not have come back to us alone.  There was still a faint 
signature of what was once within you..."
	Her eyes widened.  "LaCroix."
	He nodded, squeezing her hand.  "And I feel his mark upon 
you still, Janette, as well as... mine.  We are both there."
	"Mostly you..."  She squeezed back, holding his hand in both 
of hers.  "I do not have a link with him any longer.  Only you.  Oh, 
Nicolas, when I think of what might have been..."
	Nick dropped his hand from her face and turned his head, 
emotion surging within him.  "You asked me to let you die."
	"Do not speak of that again," Janette said quickly, and pulled 
him back into her arms.  "It does not matter now what I thought I 
wanted then.  None of it matters, cherie, only now and the future."
	A gasp from each as their link flared...
	For a long few minutes they simply held each other tightly, the 
physical pressure working to convince each that the other was really 
here.  Then, gradually, names were whispered tenderly, hands caressing 
lightly, lips kissing hair and cheeks softly until both calmed again.  Then 
Nick was settling her against his side, his arm around her, pillowing her 
head against his shoulder as they sat back against the couch.  
	He spoke before she could, already feeling her question.  "I 
know you're surprised to find me, ah... like this.  I mean...what you sense 
in me, Janette - it's true."
	She laid her hand upon his chest, but did not move otherwise, 
preferring the closeness.  "How?  For a century..."
	"I know."  Nick brought her hand up to his lips, kissed it 
quickly.  "Is it important?"
	Janette's mind was still grappling with the strangeness in her 
beloved, the darkness in him that had been hidden and denied for so 
long.  It was comforting for she had also come back, the relief to be a 
vampire again more than she could ever have expected.  She was 
intensely curious as to what could have caused his own return, but...
	"No.  It is just a relief to feel how content you are, Nicolas.  
And you... are?"
	Another kiss dropped on her knuckles, then he settled her 
hand against his chest, folded in his.  "I was... resigned, Janette.  I gave 
up the foolish fantasies and the self-destructive behaviors that 
needlessly endangered others, and barely in time, for I was close, so 
close... but that's not important.  LaCroix finally allowed me to see for 
myself what I was doing, and I saw what I had become... and began to 
allow myself to see what I could become."
	"What did LaCroix do?"  Janette nuzzled him, luxuriating in his 
nearness, so long missed.
	"Nothing," Nick replied with a smile. "Absolutely nothing.  
And paradoxically that restraint on his behalf made a deep impression 
on me.  He saw what was already happening and stood back so that I 
could see it for myself.  I'm back, Janette, more content to be as I am 
than I ever could have imagined I could be.  Yet my resolve to abstain 
from the kill has never been stronger.  But for the first time in decades, 
that desire is not in conflict with my nature."
	Her eyes widened.  "Non?"
	His eyes twinkled, his contentment setting a deep thrill within 

her.  She had hoped for his return for so long - it was the last barrier 
between them.  If he was truly back, then...
	Janette did not have a chance to speak further.  Nick was lifting 
her chin and covering her mouth with his, letting desire speak the rest.  
Being swept up in the loving swell that spilled over in their link from 
him, she gave herself to welcoming her darling Nicolas back... and more.



The End


Marcia Tucker / scfimarci@aol.com
DK / UF / Cousin / IB