Chapter Three

(A/N:  I just realized something.  Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  What's up with that?  Vacation just started.  So, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Anyway, this little tale is really rolling along.  I hope you enjoyed the last chapter, and thanks for all the comments.  R/R/E)

Disclaimer:  Same as last time.  I think.

            Tracy glanced over at Nick again.  He was still off in his own little world.  At first, she had been nervous every time he had spaced out behind the wheel.  But once she realized he reacted the same, whether his mind was on the road or elsewhere, she calmed down.  Now that not even a car crash could kill her, she grinned every time he got lost in his memories and wondered what he was thinking about.

            But he had been inordinately silent for a long time.  She reached over and prodded him with her finger.

            "What are you thinking about this time, Nick?"

            "Hm?  Oh.  Nothing, Trace."  That single thought back at the loft had sparked a fire in his head, one that he couldn't put out.  He glanced over at Tracy, who was looking at him expectantly.  "What?"

            "I bet it had something to do with a certain coroner we both know," Tracy said with a wicked gleam in her eyes.  Even though everyone knew that Nick and Natalie were living together, she still enjoyed ragging on him.  And, most of the time, he would play along.

            "If I ask you something, will you keep your mouth shut?" he asked.  That came out more harshly than he had intended.   

            Tracy took it in stride, realizing he was serious.  "Of course."

            "Do you think…" Nick paused, doubting the wisdom of asking her.  He continued anyway, needing female input.  "Do you think if I asked Nat to marry me, she'd say yes?" he asked in a rush.

            Tracy burst out laughing uproariously, tears of mirth streaming down her face.  "I'm sorry Nick," she said when she regained control of herself.  "But…honestly!  Do you really think there's a possibility of her saying no?"

            "Knowing what I am…"

            "When has that ever mattered to her?  She'd say yes, Nick.  She'd say yes and she'd be ecstatic."

            A brief smile lit his face.  "Thanks, Tracy."

            She laughed again.  "Me and Vachon better get invited to the wedding."

            "Don't worry."  Nick smiled boyishly.  "You will be."

            That's when the call came in.

~~~~{@

            Natalie woke seconds later, to someone prodding her with something and a voice accompanying the sharp jabs,

            "Get up.  Let's go.  And don't even think about running."

            She got groggily to her feet, facing a man. "Who…?"

            He slapped her viciously across the face.  "Shut up and get in the car."

            He made her drive.  She could see that he knew what he was doing - the bat he had used to render her unconscious for the few moments was covered in cellophane.  He could take it off and dispose of it, leaving no evidence on the bat.  Gloves covered his hands, eliminating fingerprints, and his clothes were a generic brand, totally untraceable.  She would bet they were new, directly from a store, so nothing could be used to trace him.  His short black hair had so much gel in it that a nuclear explosion couldn't lift a hair of it from his head - which meant no hairs left in her car to trace.

            No one would be able to find anything to trace him.  She was going to have to get out of this by herself.

            He suddenly grabbed the wheel.  "Be ready to jump out, but don't try to run," he told her.  "Now!" he said as he jerked the wheel so the car was headed straight towards a tree.

            She threw open her door, and tumbled out.  Not letting the fall to the ground stun her, she immediately got to her feet and started hauling ass away from her abductor.  They were in a deserted area, which made her run even faster, hoping to come in sight of a building.  Unfortunately, she didn't get far before something smashed against the back of her knee, and she crumpled to the grass.

            Her captor hunkered down by her, and she could see her car in flames in the background.  "You really shouldn't have done that," he said pleasantly as his hand found her kneecap.  Skillful fingers easily found the pressure points, and he began to squeeze.  Pain shot up Natalie's leg, and she began to whimper despite herself.  It hurt so bad that she was immobilized, and tears streamed down her face.  If he kept squeezing, he was going to pop off her kneecap.  Blesséd darkness consumed her.

~~~~{@

            Nick and Tracy arrived at the scene of the crash in a relatively short time.  A call had come out over the radio reporting a flaming car, crashed into a tree, with no known survivors.  Tracy had been making cracks about drunk drivers all the way there.  Nick abruptly fell silent as he caught sight of the flaming hulk - and the license plate that was still legible.

            "Tracy," he moaned, pointing to it as he got out of the Caddy, "please tell me that doesn't say what I think it says."  If it did… anybody that was in there would be charred beyond help.

            Tracy paled - as much as a vampire could pale - as she read the numbers.  "Oh my God.  Oh my God, oh my God."

            "Nat…" Nick whispered, sinking to his knees, raw pain in his voice.

            The two detectives watched in silent horror from the sidelines as firemen put out the blaze.  They were left cold by grief, too cold to even cry.  Nick used his vampiric sense, searching for blood through his daze.  Burned blood, even when it had been boiled away, left a very distinct flavor in the air.  He could not detect it.  Of course, the stench of the raging inferno could very well mask it.  They watched, still in a state of shock, as the blaze was extinguished.  When the hunk of metal cooled down enough, firefighters began sifting through the wreckage for bone fragments and such.

            Pretty soon, they came to a conclusion.  "There was no one in here!" one of them shouted.

            "Thank God," Nick said.  His mind hadn't been able to comprehend that his Natalie was gone forever, and did not rejoice, because it didn't have to.  He was quickly building up a wall around the entire experience, as quick as it had been, to protect himself from the thought of her death.

            "Then where is she?" Tracy asked, choking back tears.  She and Natalie may not have been close friends, but Tracy did truly like and admire the coroner.  "Why would she torch her own car?"

            Nick's mind jumped to the first conclusion he could reach, the obvious one.  "The serial victims all looked so similar…"

            "And similar to Natalie.  Oh, Jesus, Nick.: her now-perfect memory tracked back to each case file.  Every single victim had been tortured over a number of days, then raped, and finally murdered.  Natalie's temp, while she was out with the flu, had come to the conclusion that they had been murdered while being raped, because it was a single-time thing in ever case.  Had they been repeatedly raped, it would have been a different story.  But the temp had surmised that the perp got off on other people's pain.

            "Let's go," Nick said.  He pushed his way through the other officers at the scene as quickly as he could without drawing undue attention to his speed.  Tracy followed closely behind.'

            "Where are we going?" she asked, once in the Caddy.

            "Belasarius," Nick said dangerously.  "Use your cell and call the precinct to ID the vehicle in case they haven't yet, so they're not wasting their time.  But don't tell them where we're going.  I need to be bale to get answers out of whoever's there."

Tracy did as he told her, seeing the flecks of red in his eyes.  When they reached the cozy little white house, Nick got out and slammed the Caddy's door.  Tracy winced at his rough treatment of his belovéd car.  He pounded on the front door, heedless of the late hour.

            The door was almost immediately opened by Abel.  When he realized who was standing there, he looked surprised, like he had been expecting someone else.

            "Where is he?" Nick growled, his voice made deeper by the slight unleashing of the vampire within.  He shoved past Abel, listening for heartbeats.

            "Who?" the Bible-monikered man asked.

            "Your brother."  Nick already determined that no one else was in the house.  He shoved Abel up against the wall.  "Where is he?"

            Tracy stood behind her partner, watching the scene unfold before her.  The small man cowered in the face of Nick's wrath.

            "I don't know," he whimpered."

            "Bull shit," Nick said quietly, dangerously.  "If you don't tell me, I'm going to kill you.  I don't give a flying fuck about the consequences.  I'll kill you with my bare hands."

            Abel heard the deadly intent in Nick's voice, and his features took on a look of panic.  "I don't know!  He doesn't tell me where he goes when he disappears like this!" Nick had him literally sobbing and cowering against the wall.  "I don't know!  I don't know!"

            "Back off, Nick," Tracy said, quiet enough so that only he could hear her.  "He's no use to us if you've got him so scared he can't think."  She could visibly see Nick have to fight to take a couple steps away from Abel.

            The man had his arms crossed protectively over his chest.  He had huddled in on himself, to take up the least amount of space, and was shaking like a leaf.  Tracy would put money on a bet that they were standing in front of a severely abused man, most likely by his older brother.

            Her gently, cool fingers forced his head up so his eyes met hers.  "Your brother's the serial we're looking for, right?"

            Miserable eyes stared back at her, occasionally flickering to Nick.  "I don't know for sure…"

            "But you would guess he is," she said, praying Nick would hold his tongue until they could get answers.

            A quick nod was his answer.  "But I can't tell you anything.  He'll…" Abel's gaze quickly flickered to a spot behind Tracy.

            She followed his gaze and saw the SM stuff.  She met Nick's eyes and knew that he had seen the same and understood.  She could see the anger at the man in front of him slowly leaching out of his body.  But not the panic over Natalie.

            "Did Kane ever tell you anything about where he was keeping the women?" Tracy asked, applying a bit of hypnotic pressure.  He was too distressed to put completely under.  It would probably end up breaking his mind, or something like that.

            "No," Abel sobbed.  "He never tells me anything."

            "Think hard," Tracy said with more pressure.  "Has he ever said anything?  About another property, or a building…"

            His distress was making hypnotism difficult.  "I don't know… I think he talked about a warehouse once when he was drunk…"

            "Please…" Nick said suddenly.  He let the pain, fear, and worry show through in his voice.  "Your brother has my girlfriend.  Please help me get her back."

            Abel took a shuddering breath, his eyes focusing on Nick.  He used his shoulder to wipe off his face.  "He'll kill me.  Or worse."

            "Then we'll put you in protective custody until he's apprehended."

            He seemed to steel himself, pushing slightly away from the wall so he was standing straight and squaring his shoulders.  "Do you have a search warrant?"  Nick and Tracy glanced at each other, and shook their heads, praying he wasn't going to decide he wanted a lawyer, or something.  "Would it help if I went through his stuff with you there?"

            "Yes, it would," Tracy said.  They followed him down the hall to a closed door.  Abel had bucked up for a few minutes, steeling himself, but now he began to shake again.

            "I don't think I can go in there."

            "Please help us," Tracy said.  Pleading had worked to get them this far.  "If we don't find him soon…"

            Abel visibly steeled himself again, as he pushed open the door.  Tracy's eyes widened perceptibly at what was within.  Even Nick, in all his jadedness, was a bit shocked.  Whips and chains hung from the ceiling.  The walls were festooned with handcuffs, manacles, knives, and other torture devices.  Then there was a hundred times as much SM stuff on the floor.  Abel brushed against one of the dangling straps of leather and flinched away like it had stung him.

            "He's going to kill me for showing you this," Abel muttered.  "No matter where you put me."

            They searched for as long as they could, really pushing the limit.  After the first half hour, Nick and Tracy helped, regardless of the consequence.  Both of their beepers went off multiple times, but they ignored them.  There was nothing that they needed.

            Nick swore viciously when he realized they had to leave if Tracy was going to get back to her apartment in time.

            "What about me?" Abel asked as they prepared to leave, watching with terrified eyes.  "You have no idea what he's like.  See this?"  He jerked up his shirt to revealing scabbing over slashes in his stomach.  "That's just because I didn't put enough sugar in his coffee last time you were here."

            Tracy and Nick glanced at each other.  "It's too late to get a patrol car," Nick said.

            "You've got the best security," Tracy returned.

            Nick turned to Abel.  "The best we can do now is you staying with me.  If you're coming, get a change of clothes."

            "Hull'on a sec."  Abel was gone and back in a flash, carrying a small backpack.

            "You're in the back," Nick said shortly as they walked out of the house.  He cursed his vampirism again and again.  He could not continue his search during the day, because of his curse.  If Natalie died…

            Before Tracy got out of the car, she turned to him.  "If you're going to call me, call my cell phone.  I'm…not going to be home.  Don't worry, Nick.  We'll get her back."

            Nick nodded.  Abel was silent as Nick drove back to the loft.  Nick did not speak either, desperately trying to come up with a way to find Natalie.  He couldn't think of anything.  Abel followed him out of the car when they reached the loft.

            "Nobody can get in.  There's enough security traps to catch a professional.  You better hope to God your brother doesn't kill Natalie."

            "I'm sorry," Abel said quietly.

            Upstairs, Nick grabbed sheets from the closet and tossed them on the couch.  "There's the couch, there's the bathroom, there might be food in the freezer, and don't touch the green bottles."

            "Okay," was the timid answer.

            Nick played the messages on his answering machine.  The first was from the Captain, asking where the hell he and his partner were.  Then it was Reese again, asking if Nick knew where Natalie was because she hadn't been in the car.  Then Reese again, saying that Nick had better answer his beeper, or else.  The last message started with a silence.  Nick could hear a very familiar heartbeat - Natalie's heartbeat - and one he recognized as Kane's.

            "I've got your girlfriend, Knight.  I wouldn't suggest that you look for her, unless you want her to die before her time."

            Nick could hear Kane moving around, then it fell silent for a short moment.  Then Natalie whimpered, which quickly turned to a tortured shriek, and the call ended.

            The vampire raged for release within Nick.  His eyes glowed red as he clenched his fists to try and regain some semblance of control.  In the background, he could hear Abel's frightened heartbeat.  He stalked to the fridge, almost throwing the door off its hinges.  He chugged down two and a half bottles before the vampire was appeased.  Leaning his head against the cool metal, he fought to hold back the bloodtears that threatened to overwhelm him.

(A/N:  There was something I wanted to say, but then I forgot it.  That sux.  'Pi' is on, Tuesday at 4.  Someone remind me.  *grin*  J/K.  If I don't remember to watch it, I swear, I'm going to kill myself.  Oo, maybe that's what I'll buy Katie for her belated (and very much so) b-day gift…)