darkrivertempest (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
darkrivertempest) wrote2009-05-03 08:55 pm
darkrivertempest) wrote2009-05-03 08:55 pm
"Choices" for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wildcatcdc
In response to a drabble prompt by wildcatcdc
Natalie and LaCroix - I think they should have him and Nick fighting over her.
Oh, I how I loved Forever Knight - and what do you know? I just happened to have a couple episodes available to watch on DVD from Blockbuster Online! So I watched a few to become familiar with the characterizations again and I think I did a pretty good job. Alas, there were only three seasons, but it left its mark on the vampire genre.
And CONGRATS are in order towildcatcdc because today, she finished her magnum opus, "Out Of Control." It's available on aff.net and her own LJ if you want to read (yes, I'm pimping the shit out of that fic) and it's totally engrossing. This is for you, hun - I hope you like it!
Disclaimer! Some lines of dialogue are taken from the series, but they worked so well that I had to use them. Don't sue me Canadian TV, `cause I ain't rich and the exchange rate would kill you.
This is based loosely on an episode in the second or third season - I can't remember which - where Nick took Natalie out to dinner, but Lucien showed up.
Many thanks to my lovely betas -dusty273 and imbloodyenglish - you guys rock my world. :D
Rating: PG
Word Count: 841 - WOO HOO - still a drabble!
The vial sat between them on the table, taunting Nick with its promise of a new life, the clear liquid so innocuous looking that anyone passing by might think it a bottle of water.
“You’re sweating, Nick.”
The woman sitting across from him was responsible for this miracle, and he didn’t know whether to kiss or bite her for giving it to him. “Right, sorry,” he muttered, dabbing the napkin on his forehead, thanking the gods the cloth was red.
It was always this way for him. From the beginning, he struggled through the loss of his human family, cursing the fake idols he prayed to, begging that he be taken instead of them. Then, when given the chance at immortality, he’d grasped it with open arms only to later despise what he’d become in order to stay alive.
Returning his gaze to his companion, he smiled hesitantly and picked up the vial, slowly turning it, seeking some answer that was clearly not there. “Three years, right?”
Nodding, she crossed her arms and sat back in her chair, watching indecision war on his face. “Three long years,” Natalie said in the gravest of voices. “That’s your one and only shot, though. The ingredients were hard enough to get the first time, and some are no longer in existence.”
“Pity,” drawled a voice from over her shoulder.
She didn’t need to turn her head to know who stood behind her with his cold hand on her neck. Since she’d wanted some privacy to finally give Nick what he’d been looking for over eight-hundred years, she’d chosen a secluded restaurant that was easy to break into, lighting candles just before the vampire arrived. Good thing the place was deserted at two in the morning or this could really turn into an ugly scene.
“Lucien,” she deferred politely.
“Let her go,” Nick hissed at his sire. “She’s got nothing to do with this!”
Then again, maybe it would still turn ugly.
The white-haired master vampire looked at his wayward child and tsk’d. “Nicholas, why would I do such a mundane thing as letting-” He gripped her thick curls in his fist and twisted. “- Doctor Lambert go?”
“Because you loved once.” Nick pleaded on behalf of Natalie, staring at her shuttered countenance.
“Foolish Nicholas… still haven’t learned your lesson, have you?” Lucien pulled on Natalie’s hair so that she was forced to look him in the eye. “Power comes with the absence of love. Love... drains us of our strength. We never learn, do we?” He caressed her cheek, observing that she was now completely under his thrall. “Knowing you love her, what would you give so that she would still breathe tomorrow?”
Looking at her body, arched as it was over the back of the chair, brought her displayed neck in sharp focus. “Take me instead, LaCroix. It’s what you want, isn’t it?”
The older vampire stroked the tangled mass of hair away from the woman’s face lovingly. “It was once, Nicholas… but no longer.” The pad of his thumb flitted over the pout of her lower lip. “I find my tastes hunger for new blood.”
“No!” Nick roared, planning to seize his master by the nape, but he froze when LaCroix smiled.
“Life is a gift, is it not?” Propped between Lucien’s index finger and his thumb was the vial of fluid that Natalie had worked so hard to develop.
“Don’t do this,” Nick implored.
“Love. It warps our senses, twists our souls, can take us past hope, past cure,” the other vampire mused, shaking the glass tube at him. “Past help. I know about love. It’s suffering, it’s anguish, it’s pain. Heaven makes means to kill our joy with love. And yet we must have it at any cost.”
Bending low, LaCroix nuzzled her neck, breathing in her scent, his eyes changing and his fangs dropping to scrape along the smooth column of her flesh. “Mortals die, Nicholas… does it really matter when or how?”
Before his sire could sink his teeth into Natalie, Nick screamed, “Wait! What are my choices?”
Smirking wickedly, LaCroix did not move from his position, tightening his hold on the woman. “The vial or the woman, tough choice, I know.”
Die as a mortal and live without Natalie or continue on as a vampire and never touch her. In retrospect, Nick did agonize for some time until he came to the conclusion that his life was not worth hers. “Let her go.”
“I assumed your sense of nobility would win over,” LaCroix sneered.
“Well, I’ve learned a few things here and there.”
“Such as?”
“I’ve learned that I have to live with the choice I made eight-hundred years ago, and that forgiveness is not something you ask for, it's something that you earn here, among the living,” he answered somberly.
“Quaint.” LaCroix chuckled. “But I don’t buy it.”
Embedding his fangs in Natalie’s neck, Lucien smashed the vial on the tile floor, laughing as her blood slipped down this throat, ridding Nick of all those pesky choices.
wildcatcdcNatalie and LaCroix - I think they should have him and Nick fighting over her.
Oh, I how I loved Forever Knight - and what do you know? I just happened to have a couple episodes available to watch on DVD from Blockbuster Online! So I watched a few to become familiar with the characterizations again and I think I did a pretty good job. Alas, there were only three seasons, but it left its mark on the vampire genre.
And CONGRATS are in order to
wildcatcdc because today, she finished her magnum opus, "Out Of Control." It's available on aff.net and her own LJ if you want to read (yes, I'm pimping the shit out of that fic) and it's totally engrossing. This is for you, hun - I hope you like it!Disclaimer! Some lines of dialogue are taken from the series, but they worked so well that I had to use them. Don't sue me Canadian TV, `cause I ain't rich and the exchange rate would kill you.
This is based loosely on an episode in the second or third season - I can't remember which - where Nick took Natalie out to dinner, but Lucien showed up.
Many thanks to my lovely betas -
dusty273 and imbloodyenglish - you guys rock my world. :DRating: PG
Word Count: 841 - WOO HOO - still a drabble!
The vial sat between them on the table, taunting Nick with its promise of a new life, the clear liquid so innocuous looking that anyone passing by might think it a bottle of water.
“You’re sweating, Nick.”
The woman sitting across from him was responsible for this miracle, and he didn’t know whether to kiss or bite her for giving it to him. “Right, sorry,” he muttered, dabbing the napkin on his forehead, thanking the gods the cloth was red.
It was always this way for him. From the beginning, he struggled through the loss of his human family, cursing the fake idols he prayed to, begging that he be taken instead of them. Then, when given the chance at immortality, he’d grasped it with open arms only to later despise what he’d become in order to stay alive.
Returning his gaze to his companion, he smiled hesitantly and picked up the vial, slowly turning it, seeking some answer that was clearly not there. “Three years, right?”
Nodding, she crossed her arms and sat back in her chair, watching indecision war on his face. “Three long years,” Natalie said in the gravest of voices. “That’s your one and only shot, though. The ingredients were hard enough to get the first time, and some are no longer in existence.”
“Pity,” drawled a voice from over her shoulder.
She didn’t need to turn her head to know who stood behind her with his cold hand on her neck. Since she’d wanted some privacy to finally give Nick what he’d been looking for over eight-hundred years, she’d chosen a secluded restaurant that was easy to break into, lighting candles just before the vampire arrived. Good thing the place was deserted at two in the morning or this could really turn into an ugly scene.
“Lucien,” she deferred politely.
“Let her go,” Nick hissed at his sire. “She’s got nothing to do with this!”
Then again, maybe it would still turn ugly.
The white-haired master vampire looked at his wayward child and tsk’d. “Nicholas, why would I do such a mundane thing as letting-” He gripped her thick curls in his fist and twisted. “- Doctor Lambert go?”
“Because you loved once.” Nick pleaded on behalf of Natalie, staring at her shuttered countenance.
“Foolish Nicholas… still haven’t learned your lesson, have you?” Lucien pulled on Natalie’s hair so that she was forced to look him in the eye. “Power comes with the absence of love. Love... drains us of our strength. We never learn, do we?” He caressed her cheek, observing that she was now completely under his thrall. “Knowing you love her, what would you give so that she would still breathe tomorrow?”
Looking at her body, arched as it was over the back of the chair, brought her displayed neck in sharp focus. “Take me instead, LaCroix. It’s what you want, isn’t it?”
The older vampire stroked the tangled mass of hair away from the woman’s face lovingly. “It was once, Nicholas… but no longer.” The pad of his thumb flitted over the pout of her lower lip. “I find my tastes hunger for new blood.”
“No!” Nick roared, planning to seize his master by the nape, but he froze when LaCroix smiled.
“Life is a gift, is it not?” Propped between Lucien’s index finger and his thumb was the vial of fluid that Natalie had worked so hard to develop.
“Don’t do this,” Nick implored.
“Love. It warps our senses, twists our souls, can take us past hope, past cure,” the other vampire mused, shaking the glass tube at him. “Past help. I know about love. It’s suffering, it’s anguish, it’s pain. Heaven makes means to kill our joy with love. And yet we must have it at any cost.”
Bending low, LaCroix nuzzled her neck, breathing in her scent, his eyes changing and his fangs dropping to scrape along the smooth column of her flesh. “Mortals die, Nicholas… does it really matter when or how?”
Before his sire could sink his teeth into Natalie, Nick screamed, “Wait! What are my choices?”
Smirking wickedly, LaCroix did not move from his position, tightening his hold on the woman. “The vial or the woman, tough choice, I know.”
Die as a mortal and live without Natalie or continue on as a vampire and never touch her. In retrospect, Nick did agonize for some time until he came to the conclusion that his life was not worth hers. “Let her go.”
“I assumed your sense of nobility would win over,” LaCroix sneered.
“Well, I’ve learned a few things here and there.”
“Such as?”
“I’ve learned that I have to live with the choice I made eight-hundred years ago, and that forgiveness is not something you ask for, it's something that you earn here, among the living,” he answered somberly.
“Quaint.” LaCroix chuckled. “But I don’t buy it.”
Embedding his fangs in Natalie’s neck, Lucien smashed the vial on the tile floor, laughing as her blood slipped down this throat, ridding Nick of all those pesky choices.