Date: Tue, 27 Feb 1996 22:53:40 -0500 From: "Susan M. Garrett" Subject: Tied Up With String Tied Up With String (A sort of sequel to Brown Paper Packages, as promised) by Susan M. Garrett Natalie hated going to the Raven, especially now that Janette was no longer in charge. The thought of running into LaCroix on his own turf, even in the middle of the day, set her teeth on edge. Still, she knocked on the front door sharply with her knuckles and glanced to the left and the right of the deserted street almost nervously. What did she have to be nervous about? No one knew she was here, after all. No one knew she was here, least of all Nick. And that's the last thing she needed, Nick finding out not only that she'd come here in the middle of the day, but why she'd stopped by-- The door opened the barest crack. She couldn't see into the blackness and there was only a shadow beyond, standing behind it, shaded from the noon sunlight. "We're closed." The voice, thankfully enough, was female. "It's me--Dr. Lambert," Natalie added quickly. "I called earlier--?" "Oh. Yeah." There was a hesitation, then the door swung open just a bit more. "Come on in. But hurry. It's really bright out there." Natalie stared at the thin crack of the door with a certain amount of disbelief--like Twiggy could have gotten through there?--then pushed it open enough to get herself and her handbag inside. Almost as soon as she'd cleared the doorsill, the door shut behind her, the echo of the bolt clicking into place the only thing to orient her as her eyesight adjusted to the sudden darkness. There was a glint of blonde. Natalie heard movement, but stood her ground, not quite ready to dare the steps in the darkness. "I really hate to bother you about this." "It's no bother. Just ran another batch off today. You'd think they had nothing better to do with their time." Urs swayed her way down the steps to the floor of the club, not giving Natalie a hint of whether she should stay where she was . . . or follow her further into the darkness. Natalie hesitated, then set her chin, grabbed the strap of her handbag tightly, and took to the stairs, feeling very much like a fly wandering the outskirts of a spider web. She wondered if it would be impolite to ask if the spider were home. "He's not here, don't worry," said Urs. She reached the bar and turned, leaning on it and smiling in a cherubic fashion that brought to mind faint memories of Marilyn Monroe--innocence and sexuality rolled into the same zaftig. Then she shrugged at Natalie's frown. "And I'm a mind reader--the old dragon scares the willies out of me, too, and I've got a couple of years on you." Natalie merely smiled at the age comment and seated herself on a barstool beside Urs--a of years? Not that she really knew how old Urs actually was . . . . "But you still work here? Despite LaCroix?" "Why not? One place is as good as another." With a slight pout and the tilt of a shoulder that allowed her loose-fitting blouse to slide to other shoulder, Urs leaned over the bar and picked up a stack of papers bound together with a bit of string. "I think these are the ones you wanted." "Thanks." Natalie took the package from her with a studied air of nonchalance, not wanting to appear too eager. The papers were bound in a solid stack and she hid her disappointment at not being able to get a look at them. There'd be time enough later, of course. She'd been going through withdrawal since Janette had left and wasn't even certain that someone was still printing out and distributing these particular stories. In fact, she'd only recently gotten up the nerve to call one of the Raven staffers who'd stayed on through the change of ownership and they'd directed her to Urs. Who seemed to be blondely enjoying the whole situation. "How'd you end up with this job?" asked Natalie. "I know Alma took care of the distribution for a while--" Urs smiled and sank down on a barstool, pulling a laptop computer across the counter toward her. "Yeah. I heard about that. Nick got some stuff he didn't want to know about." She tilted her head and stared out across the empty club. "Although I could see it sometimes, y'know? Him and the old dragon . . . ." Wisely, Natalie didn't add her own thoughts on the subject. Picking up a bit of string from the counter, she idly tied it into a loop. She'd only discovered the existence of this type of fiction by accident and she was still more than a little miffed that Nick had never mentioned that he knew of its existence. In fact, he'd never mentioned it at . She wasn't about to make an awkward situation worse by telling him that she knew about it, that she knew that he'd read it, or that she knew he'd particularly asked for those stories about her and Janette. There some things it was just better not to think about. Urs sighed contemplatively and, after a moment's pause, leaned her arm on the counter. The laptop beside her elbow made a small beeping sound, leading Natalie to recognize that it was connected to a phone line. With a frown, Urs tapped something into the keyboard. "Great, he's at it again." Then she looked up at Natalie over the back of the laptop screen, continuing, "Somebody had to pick up the slack. I mean, there's just tons of the stuff, isn't there? And Javier--" Urs' lips pursed and she leaned forward conspiratorially. "A word to the wise--don't let Vachon near machinery that doesn't have an engine. Cars, bikes--those he understands. But ten seconds with a blender and it hits the fan." Natalie winced at the pronunciation of 'Javier,' but nodded sympathetically and made a mental note. "Thanks for the warning." "Actually, sometimes it's fun. Depends on the machinery. And the circumstances." Urs shrugged, but the computer beeped. She peered at it, frowning, then struck another key. After a second, she looked up at Natalie. "Where was I? Oh, right--Javier. He asked me if I'd take over when Janette left. He wanted the stories about him and . . . you know, Tracy. " The slightest roll of her eyes said more than her words or tone did about Urs' opinions on that pairing. Nat managed to keep a straight face . . . almost. "There's a lot of that, is there?" "Some." After another dismissive shrug of her shoulders, Urs glanced over at the laptop. "And some about me, too. Kind of funny, reading that. But nice. Nice to be noticed." Then she looked up at Natalie. "That's right--I wanted to ask you something." "Me?" Natalie coughed lightly into her hand and shifted the bundle of papers on her lap. "Um . . . what did you want to know?" "I wanted to know--" Another beep from the computer demanded her attention and Urs snarled, "Give me a , will ya?" She tapped a key and shook her head. "Some people just can't get a clue, you know?" It was the phrasing that caught Natalie. Rising, she moved to stand behind Urs. "What's going on?" "There's some yahoo trying to sign on and he can't get the string right." Urs sighed dramatically and looked at Natalie over her shoulder. "I've tried to help, the listowner's tried to help, but all we keep getting are these subscribe messages--" "I can be hopeless with the technical end sometimes, but maybe I can do something," offered Natalie. Urs opened her eyes a little wider--Natalie almost choked, guessing that she'd unknowingly picked up that habit from Vachon--then waved her toward the laptop screen. "Be my guest." Natalie opened the pieces of mail one after another. Urs was right--it looked hopeless. An alias sign on, of course, but the user just couldn't seem to get the code right. Message after message scrolled past-- And a very long and complicated string of French of which she recognized one out of every three words. She pretty much deduced the identity of the user and the context of the message from that. "Can't someone just sign him on?" asked Natalie sharply. "Well, I guess the listowner can. At first it was kinda fun--some of his messages got pretty raw, this guy knows a about frustration--but after two weeks--" "Two ?" asked Natalie, amazed. Then, glancing at the pile of paper sitting on the bar, she realized that Nick had probably hit absolute withdrawal just about the time she had. But whereas she'd only had to steel up her courage and deal with vampires, Nick had taken the direct route . . . or had tried to. "Urs, do me a favor and get him signed on, okay?" "Huh?" Urs blinked--which nearly sent Natalie into hysterical laughter--then looked back at the screen again. "Why?" "Just trust me on this. You may end up saving the life of someone's laptop." "Oh . . . hardware karma, huh? I can deal." As Natalie moved back to her string-bound pile of fiction, she heard Urs quickly tapping the laptop keys. After a few moments, she chirped, "Okay. He's on." "Thank heavens." Natalie shook her head, wondering just how much Nick's recent behavior had to do with being cut off from what might be for him a very important form of recreation. Then again, it have quite a lot to do with Janette having left him in the lurch, too . . . . "Oh, yeah. Nick." She'd been fussing with the loop of string, idly twisting it back and forth around her wrist, but Natalie turned quickly at Urs' comment, her gaze going to the laptop. "What?" "Nick." Urs blinked again. "I wanted to ask you about " "Oh." With a relieved sigh, Natalie seated herself on the barstool again. She pulled the string from her wrist and dropped it onto the counter. "What about Nick?" Urs leaned forward, wearing a sly smile. "What's he like?" "What's he . . . like?" she echoed uncertainly. "Yeah. You know." Another slight shrug of Urs' shoulders. "What's he ?" "Oh." Natalie cleared her throat and looked away from Urs, finally understanding the full implications of the question, one that had kept her own imagination busy on certain dim and lonely days. "Um--I wouldn't know. We haven't . . . uh . . . not really . . . the whole mortal/vampire thing and--" Urs wasn't helping--she simply hung on Natalie's every word with a very polite, interested expression. Finally, she reached over and touched Natalie's hands, which she'd clasped together. "That's okay," she said in a soft and sympathetic tone. "If I find out, I'll let you know." "He's a good kisser," Natalie blurted suddenly. For a moment, she felt foolish, but then defensive instincts kicked in, especially in light of Urs' sympathy and more than slightly disturbing, if well-intentioned, offer. "In fact, he's a kisser." Urs straightened on her bar stool, smiling. "That's something, then." "Yes. Yes, as a matter of fact, it ." Natalie picked up the bundle of fiction--her handbag on top of that--and clutched them to her chest, knowing only that she needed to get out of there. "I've gotta go. Thanks for the help." "Hey, anytime. That's what I'm here for, right?" As Urs rose from her seat, Natalie waved her back. "No, that's okay--I know where the door is. I've probably taken up too much of your day already." She backed away, heading for the stairs. "Just give me a call if it piles up again." She didn't wait for an answer. Natalie hurried up the steps and out the door, clutching the bundle of paper as if her life depended on it. Which was silly. It was only fiction, of course--a pack of lurid lies. But a pack of very lurid lies. A girl dream, couldn't she? **** Urs counted silently to herself, waiting, as she automatically shut down the program on the laptop. It was only after the cover closed with a click that she felt cold fingers on the bare skin of her shoulder. "I did just like you said." "So you did," said LaCroix softly. He walked around her and seated himself on the stool Natalie had occupied a moment before, watching her. "And you gave her--?" Urs picked up the loop of string Natalie had tied and slipped it around her own wrist. "What she asked for--the stuff about her and Nick. And . . . the other stuff you wanted me to put in there." Urs licked her lips nervously and looked away from him, into the darkness of the empty Raven. For some reason she felt unclean. "I don't think she'll read it." "Then you've forgotten quite a bit about mortal nature." There was a tug on the string around her wrist. Urs looked back toward him and met his gaze again. "Or perhaps you don't know enough about that mortal's nature. Curiosity." LaCroix's smile chilled her. "It need not kill a cat to be the perfect bait for our local coroner." The smile softened somewhat and LaCroix leaned closer to her, stroking the length of her hair absently with his fingers. "Do I detect a vestige of guilt? Dear Urs, I thought you'd long outgrown such mortal trivialities." She shook her head and half-turned, freeing herself from his immediate touch. Clasping her hands together tightly, she swallowed, the string swinging free. "She hasn't done anything to me. I don't want to see her get hurt." "Natalie has nothing to fear from me, at the moment." LaCroix rose to stand behind her, his fingers resting lightly to either side of Urs' neck. "Nicholas presents the greatest danger to her. Consider my gift to be a sort of . . . warning. A danger signal. What she does with it is up to her." Urs closed her eyes as the fingers began to massage the muscles at the base and back of her neck. Her head lolled back and LaCroix's voice whispered in her ear, "We made a bargain, didn't we? You've kept your end; I'll keep mine." "He'll get hurt." Her eyes opening, Urs turned her face toward LaCroix. "I know he will. This thing with Tracy . . . it has to end badly. That's all I want--to keep Javier from getting hurt." "And what I've asked you to do will keep Natalie from being 'hurt.'" He touched his forehead to her own. "So, you see, we are not so different in our goals, pretty Urs." Reaching down, LaCroix picked up her hand and held it in his own, slipping his thumb into the loop of string and twisting it so that it dug into her flesh. Her hand followed his as he flipped it into his grasp and touched his lips to her knuckles. "Not so very different at all," he murmured, against the cool flesh of her hand. It was only when his lips touched her cheek, then drifted down the side of her face to her neck that she allowed herself to shudder, less from anticipation of the mingled pain and pleasure his bite might bring her, than the realization that the old dragon might, after all, be right. *** The End susang@vitinc.com -- http://www.vitinc.com/~susang Visit THE essential webpage for Forever Knight info at: http://members.aol.com/CuznJamiMR/SaveForeverKnight.html