Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 15:50:19 EDT
From: Tanya Smith <bodybldr@VNET.IBM.COM>
Subject: Last Knight/ New Day

And yet, another ending to this endless night...
 
 
"Damn you Nicholas!" Lacroix screamed, the wooden stake raised in anger
towards his only living child, his lover, his friend.  With sudden
force Lacroix thrust the stake through his son's chest, the strength of
the blow propelling the piece through Nicholas' back and into the floorboards
of the loft.
He had hardly felt the jolt.  In fact, he felt very little as the liquid
of his existence gushed forth, out onto the floor surrounding him in a pool of
lives raped from the earth prematurely.
He was prepared to die; he had secretly longed for this moment, ever since
he had comprehended with contrition the horror of his influence upon the
world.  How many people had he stripped of their lives?  How many women had
he made love to, only to rapture up their souls in the heaven of the
moment?
He deserved death, and Lacroix knew it.  He supposed Lacroix covertly
craved his death also.  For once he was dead, Lacroix would be free from
his own contrived entrapment, his own personal prison named Nicholas.
He sensed Natalie on the floor beside him, her body rigid with death, or
was she dead?  He couldn't tell; his faculties were too scattered from
the loss of blood.
Closing his eyes, Nicholas waited for death to come, his arrival
as sweet and innocent as a child, as grewsome and terrible as a demon.
Or so he thought.  But death did not persue him.Instead, Nicholas felt
the regenerative powers in him still lingering; he was caught in a struggle
between death and life--in limbo between heaven and hell.
"Lacroix," he uttered.  "Your aim was off.  Retract the stake and stab
again."
Lacroix had sat regarding him the entire time, his mind in tune with
the dying vampires thoughts and emotions.  Standing up, Lacroix strolled
over, and with equal energy, pulled the stake from Nick's heart.
He threw it on the ground.
"Why Lacroix?!  Why?" he demanded, perplexed and agitated at his father's
disobedience.
"Because Nicholas," Lacroix said, "you do not want to die."
"Yes I do.  Nat is dead; there is nothing to live for."
"Oh contraire, Nicholas.  She lives and breathes.  She knocks on his
door, but he does not answer.  Watch, Nicholas, as I resurrect her from
her state of nebulousness."
"No!" he cried, but it was too late.  With swiftness of lightning Lacroix
descended upon Natalie, supplying her with his own life, with the fruit
of his body which would raise her from her departing state.
Slowly, she regained consciousness, shocked to discover Nicholas'
predicament.
"You've killed him!" she yelled at Lacroix.
"No, Natalie.  He only lies there transfixed for the moment.  I will
nourish him, providing his body with the nutrients it needs to
replentish themselves.Watch, and you will learn something about your
new nature.
"New nature?"
Slashing his wrists with his thumbnail, Lacroix held his bleeding wrist
to Nicholas' palate.
"Drink Nicholas.  We are three now, we are whole.  Become one of us...
again."
Nicholas gazed at Lacroix, a look of quiet aquiescence on his face.  Yes,
he would come back.  Even if Lacroix should chase him through eternity,
with Natalie by his side, Nick could survive even that.
With determination, Nicholas opened his mouth to accept the blood of
his savior.
*********************