Author: The Wanlorn
Title: A World in a Grain of Sand 24/?
Summary: This is a sequel to "Every New Beginning…"
Rating: PG13
Spoilers: I honestly don't know, so beware.
Distribution: Ask, and ye shall receive. Take without permission, then screw the Law of Three, I will cures you with the nefarious curse of…da da dum…WRITER'S BLOCK!!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Disclaimer: Same as all of the last times, so far. I'm just having fun with them. The song "Rockabye" belongs to Sean Mullins.
Thank Yous: Thanks to Carla, my beta. Thanks to Mike and April, who are the only people giving me good reviews.
Author's Note: I GOT IN!!!!! Nire got in!!!! Yes!! ::cheers::
Chapter Twenty-Four
Abel came through first. His face was white as a ghost, making his black hair and blue eyes all the more striking. He appeared relatively unharmed, although he was shaking like a leaf. His eyes pleaded with them to save him and to hurry. Before either of them could do anything, a group of people poured in after him, guns in hand. Ref-heads, brunettes, blondes, men, women, vamps, and mortals. They were all there. Kane came to stand right behind his brother, throwing off Nire's first prediction.
"Come down here, kitten." Nire motioned to Abel as relief lit up his eyes.
The relief died, panic replacing it, when Kane's hand clamped down on his shoulder. A cruel smile slowly formed on the fugitive's face. In the blink of an eye, Nick's gun was out and aimed, Nire's appearing at the same time. Anticipating the words to come next, Kane forcible jerked Abel in front of him as a shield. Abel mewled and stumbled, the look of a cornered rabbit filling his face. Nick now could not shoot Kane without running the risk of hitting Abel.
"Let him go," Nick said evenly.
"Why should I?" Kane asked in a voice that could only be described as evil.
Unfortunately, Nick did not have an answer to that. Right now, they had the advantage. They hadn't even *done* anything, and they had the advantage - in numbers, in strength, in position. They were between him and Natalie, but at least he hadn't seen any of them leaving the group to go find her. They seemed to be focusing on him and Nire. Watchful eyes, some nervous, some cold, some cruelly confident, focused on the two of them, almost like they were a pack of hunting animals… The five vampires were calculatingly bored, but watchful underneath. They knew the danger Nick could be, no matter how little they respected him.
Someone in the back of the group, some cocky, arrogant soul, took it upon himself to speak up, taunting Nire. "Why don't you put down the gun, little girl, before you hurt yourself."
Although directed at Nire, the condescending tone rubbed Nick the wrong way. He noticed the fierce glare shot towards the man by Kane as his mind distantly picked up the sound of a gunshot. It wasn't until the man who had spoke dropped to the floor, a perfectly round hole in the middle of his forehead, that Nick realized Nire had shot him. They reaction from everyone on the catwalk was immediate - guns slithered from holsters and focused on the girl. Kane raised his hand at the same time, stopping most of them in mid-motion. Whimpering uncontrollably, Abel cringed away from the raised hand. No longer did coherent thoughts run through his head. Fear and overwhelming despair robbed him of speech.
"Kindly remove that limp piece of flesh attached to the end of your arm from Abel's shoulder," Nire said in a voice that dripped icy poison, "and maybe I'll let you live."
"You don't have a shot," Kane sneered.
"So?" Nire shrugged easily, uncaringly. Nick had to control his urge to stare at her in shock. Who's side was she on? With cold-blooded accuracy, she had taken down one of them just for a comment made. But he was relived to see that Kane, after a moment's consideration, dropped his hand and stepped back. A shudder, worse than the trembling that was constantly shaking him, ran through Abel's body.
"Come down here, kitten." Nire's voice was once again warm and gentle.
Abel didn't get the chance to move. At a flick of Kane's fingers, a black-haired woman darted forward and *threw* Abel from the catwalk. He landed on the floor by the speakers with a sickening crack of braking bone, crying out sharply. Then he fell silent.
The opposing forces broke then, knowing that this would be their only chance. The vampires focused their malignant attentions on Nick, swooping down from the catwalk like vengeful rocs of destruction. Nick had his hands full dealing with them. If Nire couldn't handle the rest herself, oh well. There wasn't much he could do, even if he wanted to. But he was pretty confident that she could take care of herself.
As if to attest to that, he could hear her chattering on as gunshots were fired. "Hey Kane the Vain, wassup with all this? Man, did you even know there was more people here other than Nick, him? This is pretty pathetic to be trying to lay the smack down on one measly vampire. A bit worried about your strength, ey? Hey! Don't you be shootin' that damn gun at me! Bang bang, you're dead. Hey kitten, what say you? Leave 'em alive but down for the count? Or blow their fucking heads off?"
Barely audible above the chaos of gunshots, he could hear Abel whimpering on the ground, repeating over and over, "Kill them, kill them, kill them."
His own problems drew his attention back to the vampires. No one had gone to find Natalie. Why not? He could feel her fear, but it was more from the noise downstairs than anything else. That and knowing that Kane was a mere floor below her. And Nire had been right, voicing what he had been wondering since seeing Kane's entourage. He could understand the man coming on his own, but bringing an attack force? His famous 'hunches' were telling him there was something wrong with the whole thing. Maybe it was just the fact that this man was obviously highly intelligent and highly manipulative.
As Nick dodged the flying vampires, he realized quickly that this wasn't going to be a fight the way he was experienced - a battle with LaCroix. When the first one lunged at him, fangs extended and snarling, it was driven home that this was for real. This was no LaCroix, seeking to teach him a lesson or playing some sick game. This was real, and he dodged accordingly, one hands lashing across the vampire's face. First blood hit the floor, splashing outward, running in little droplets away from the gashes.
Laughing silently, looking oddly like grinning hyenas, one of them lunged at him. The acrid smell of gun smoke burned his nostrils as he tried to dodge again, staying on the defensive. A sharp, burning pain in his abdomen made him glance down to see a wooden stake sticking out from just below his bottom rib. Snarling as he ripped it out, he fired his gun, loaded with Nire's bullets. Shoulder-length auburn hair swirled around the pretty-boy's face as he stumbled backwards, an ululating wail emanating from his mouth as he clawed at his stomach, tearing the gaping hole wider.
Fighting, killing vampires, was oh so different from mortals. He had no moral qualms about the death of one of the undead. They were the perversions of nature, the evil. *He* was one of them. He did not have the advantage any longer. It became a matter of survival. He knew that one way to kill a vampire, to finally send it to its final rest, was to cut off its head, to completely decapitate the body. Judging from the hole in the stomach of the vampire who had stabbed him, whatever Nire had given him to load his gun with exploded on impact. Fending off the other vampires through hissing and lunging, he fired at the vampire's head. It blew to smithereens, the body already beginning to disintegrate to ash.
The other four stopped playing games with him and attacked from all four sides. Whirling as fast as he could, barely faster than the young ones surrounding him, Nick slashed at them with his hands. They were too close for him to get off a shot. Wood slivers pierced his clothing and his skin, sticking into him painfully. It wouldn't be long before one got lucky and reached his heart. Throwing himself backwards, he bowled over one of them, bring up his arm and hitting another across the face. Now he had room to move.
Unfortunately, he was also backed into a corner. Firing off four rounds, three of the vampires dropped. Ashes to ashes. The last vampire, a little Asian man, managed to successfully dodge the bullet and lunged at Nick. Sharp fingernails raked down his chest, slicing through his shirt and piercing his kind. A sharp, piercing pain bellow the third button of his shirt made him jerk his hand down, the barrel of his gun connecting with the vampire's wrist. He heard it snap and fall away, then jerked out the short stick. The blood spread slowly in an ever-widening circle on his shirt, but he could feel the wound already closing. He shoved the bloody stake back into the Asian vampire, making a mirror wound. With a gasp of pain and wild, saffron eyes, the vampire clutched at his chest. Nick had made contact with the heart. To finish it off, he fired the last round into the vampire's skull.
The sudden stillness was deathly. Nick's Beast slowly receded, allowing him to look around and *see*. Five piles of ash. Dead bodies littering the floor, blood pooling. Nire was sliding across the floor on her knees, skidding to a stop by Abel's side. Since he could feel that Natalie was perfectly fine, worried for him and Abel but fine, he too went to Abel's side. The young man was shaking, crying silently. Kane's dead body was lying a couple feet away, a gaping hole in his chest.
Abel's eyes were unfocused, staring up at the ceiling but not seeing it. He didn't even react when Nire began to stroke his hair. The only way Nick could tell he was alive was the incessant shivering and his heartbeat. Ever so carefully, Nire turned his head so he was looking through her.
"Hey kitten, look at me, sweetheart. You have to tell me what hurts." She continued to run her hands through his hair and to speak to him, patiently waiting for his eyes to focus on her.
Nick looked around the loft. He needed to call the hospital, get an ambulance. There was no way that Abel could have been thrown off like that and not be hurt. But the carnage made it difficult - there would be questions. And while he could explain, it did not look like the kind of thing one man could do. Besides that, he couldn't find the phone. While there was little actual damage done, there were artifacts strewn randomly around the big room. He was about to get up to go look for it and check on Natalie when Abel's eyes finally came into focus.
"I can't feel my legs," he whispered, his voice full of fear, tears pouring from his eyes. Now he flinched from Nire's touch. "I can't feel them."
"Yeah, I know kitten," Nire said soothingly. Her eyes met Nick's grimly. If he couldn't feel them, odds were his spinal cord had snapped and his backbone was broken. "Listen to me, sweetheart, okay? You have to shift, or else your back is going to heal all screwed up."
Abel whimpered unhappily, his teary eyes never leaving Nire's face. She caressed his cheek, gently brushing away the tears.
"Yeah, I know. But listen. There's really nothing else we can do. I'm going to put you to sleep, okay? And then we'll move you outside. But you *have* to promise me not to fight it. It hurts when you fight it, okay kitten?"
Once more, he whimpered, this time in fright. Nick tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Abel needed a hospital. What the hell was she talking about? When Nire lifted her hand again, Abel cringed away from it. The only way he knew of to knock someone out was a swift blow to the temple.
But Nire smoothed back his hair lovingly, singing softly. "Everything's gonna be all right / Rock-a-bye / Rock-a-bye / Everything's gonna be all right / Rock-a-bye / Rock-a-bye / Rock-a-bye." When she brought her hand down over his eyes, his breathing slowed and his eyelids closed.
He was either deeply asleep or unconscious.
"How did you-" Nick began, shocked.
Nire immediately shushed him, speaking in quiet tones. "I don't know how easy he'll be to wake up, so keep your damn voice down. I don't know how I do it, I just do it."
"We need to call an ambulance," Nick said quietly. "Where's the phone?"
Nire shrugged. "Somewhere in the mess. And the last thing he needs is a doctor prodding at him. Take a leap of faith and *please* believe me on this. You gotta carry him outside, okay? 'Cause if I make him shift here, he'll freak 'cause of the mess."
"Make him shift?" Nick wasn't going to do anything until he got some answers.
Nire nodded, speaking quickly. "Bring out his were form. It'll fix whatever's wrong with his back, but if it's not done soon, it'll heal that way and someone'll have to rebreak it. He's got quick healing, like you."
That was the correct phrase to get Nick moving. In the past, some of his broken limbs had healed wrong and they had to be rebroken and set straight again. It was one of *the* most painful things he had ever gone through, and he could only imagine the pain a broken back would cause. And while the last thing he wanted to do was leave Natalie alone in the loft, Jander was up there. Since she was still alive and unharmed, he had to assume she was well protected. Gently picking up the dead weight, praying he wouldn't awaken, Nick cradled Abel in his arms and carried him over to the lift. Nire followed closely behind, and he could hear her reloading her gun- guns? She had more than one?
"Lie 'im down," Nire directed when they got out into the grimy street.
Since she seemed like she knew what she was doing, he did as she said. Nire knelt down beside Abel, stroking his hair again, coaxing him awake.
"Kitten, wake up, sweetheart."
His eyes fluttered open, and he whimpered again. With amazement, he realized that she hadn't hurt him to knock him out. But now, what she was going to do… Absolutely terrified, he whimpered again.
"I promise you, kitten, it's gonna be okay. If you don't fight it, it doesn't hurt." His eyes rolled in his head, anyway. And while Nire wished to God she could calm him down, there wasn't that much time. "Being a leopard is the most kickass thing ever, at least when you're around sane people it is. Ready?"
He whimpered again, looking at Nick. His eyes didn't hold a request for Nick's help, but pure and blatant fear. Fear of Nick. Nire, too, looked up at Nick and then glanced meaningfully down to Abel. He understood the hint and… and he trusted her. He felt that he could leave Abel alone with her.
"We'll be back around dawn, okay?" Nire begged him with her eyes to leave quickly.
With a nod, Nick moved back. "Have fun, guys." He needed to check on Natalie, anyway.
"Um, listen." Nire spoke quickly as he held the door open. "I doubt you're gonna want to deal with all the bodies and all the issues that will come with having officials around. So, ya know, just let Jander deal with them?"
Nick nodded and let the door to the lift close.
~~~~{@
The knock came on the bedroom door when Natalie was in the middle of a sentence in one of her 'dead body' magazines. Coroners needed to stay updated just as much as doctors did. She dropped the magazine on the bed before asking who was there. She would guess Abel.
The liquid-silver voice that answered was a surprise. "It is Jander. May I come in?"
Slightly nervous, she opened the door, blocking it with her body. "Why?"
Backing up, Jander spoke quickly and quietly. "Kane broke out of prison. Nick can hear him and what appears to be backup coming up the back stairs. He sent me up to protect you while he and Nire take care of the issue."
"Why? Why would he do that?" Natalie could feel the first pricking of fear.
With a shrug, he indicated his lack of insight into the mind of criminals. "Because you embarrassed him by getting away? He is seeking revenge? I do not know - that is Nire's area of expertise. Are there other rooms up here? Where they would not think to look?"
Numbly, Natalie nodded. She reached out to Nick for comfort, and to make absolutely sure that Jander was telling the truth. Unfortunately, it was the truth, and she could feel Nick's worry. Warm, comforting tendrils curled through her as Nick tried to reassure her. Only slightly calmer, and wishing he was up here with her, she led Jander back through this upper level of the loft. She allowed him to scope out the rooms before he found one that suited their needs. Windowless, one door, junk in the back. It was a good place to make a last stand if it came to that.
Jander shut the door behind them and took a tour of the room once more. Satisfied, he folded his long legs and sat on the floor, producing a deck of cards from his pocket. As he shuffled them, he motioned her over.
"Would you like to play a game of cards? It is most likely that we will be up here for a while."
She sat down gingerly, keeping a light mental contact with Nick. The sounds of people opening the door on the catwalk could be heard.
"What do you want to play?" Jander asked, apparently oblivious to the noises in the rest of the loft. "War… Slap Jack… Poker… I can teach you a game…"
"War," she replied absently. She wouldn't have to concentrate to play, which meant she could listen to what was going on downstairs.
A few attempts were made by Jander to engage her in conversation. While, in the back of her mind, she knew that she could use this time to learn more about these two strange visitors, she just couldn't concentrate and gave short answers. She played the game mechanically, listening to the murmurs of voices and trying to make out their words. When the gunfire started, she jumped visibly, her head swinging to focus on the door. While she wanted to go and see what was going on, logic kept her put. Jander, too, looked nervous, which didn't help. He began to drum his fingers on his legs, which *did* distract her because it was so annoying.
"Would you stop that?" she snapped as an ululating wail rose above the chaos. It didn't sound like Nick, which slightly reassured her, but it could still be Abel or Nire.
A sheepish grin briefly crossed the golden vampire's face. "My apologies. I am used to being down there with her. And our last battle involving the nosferatu did not go well. You can see why I would be nervous."
Sure, she could see, but she didn't care. The gunfire continued unabated, cries occasionally rising above it. They both gave up any pretense of playing the card game and listened intently. The sudden silence, when it finally came, was almost heart stopping. Was Nick okay? How many bullets would she have to pull out of him? Did he kill Kane? That sounded like an awful lot of action for just trying to kill one person. Worried, wanting to check on Nick, she stood.
Immediately, Jander grabbed her ankle. She froze in fright, and he let her go. His silver eyes stared up at her, and apology in them. "Do not go out there yet. We wait for someone to come get us." His voice was barely audible.
But, she supposed that was what made the most sense. It could be some sort of trap. So, she sat back down. But she made absolutely sure that she stayed out of Jander's reach. He may mean no harm, but… The sound of the lift startled her. She listened closely as it traveled to the bottom and stopped. After a few moments, it came up again. Glancing at Jander, she saw that he seemed more relaxed. Could he sense that the fight was over and who won? Footsteps sounded coming up the stairs. Although she recognized them as Nick's, could she really be sure? Jander was sitting calmly - but that didn't mean anything. He could really be on their side, sent to … infiltrate the loft. She had to choke back a laugh as soon as that thought crossed her mind - it was ridiculous.
When the door was opened, Nick stood there. Before she could register *how* he looked, she had gotten up and run over to him, throwing herself into his arms. Nick muffled a groan as she did so. There were definitely wooden splinters still stuck in him, left from when he jerked out the stakes. And he thought he could feel one or two bullets that he hadn't noticed striking him. Still, he wrapped his arms around her and buried his nose in her neck, inhaling her calming scent. She was okay, she was safe, and he would make sure she stayed that way.
As soon as she realized what a state Nick was in, Natalie loosened her death grip on him. His shirt was ripped and bloody in multiple places. While his skin was unbroken, there were dribbles of smeared, dried blood marring his smooth skin. Before he started drinking human blood again, he healed a *lot* slower. She still had time to get bullets out before the wounds closed. But now, she had to go digging. And the bullets would *move*, be pushed by the healing flesh.
"Did you get shot?" she asked, resting her cheek on his chest.
An easy, reassuring smile filled Nick's face. Whenever his precious Natalie was frightened, disturbed, or couldn't handle what was happening, she retreated back into her shell of a scientist and caregiver. For once, he was glad of that - she would be less inclined to go downstairs.
"A few bullets, a few slivers." He nuzzled her cheek. "Nothing major."
With a snort, Natalie stepped away from him. "And I suppose you need me to remove them."
"If you would be oh so kind as to." He smiled charmingly at her.
And answering grin spread across her face, but it quickly faded. "Where's Abel?"
"Nire took him out for a walk to calm him down. They're both fine. Jander-"
"I know," the other vampire interrupted. "I could hear her." He slipped out by them.
"Where's he going?" Natalie asked Nick as he rocked back and forth, hugging her tightly. She wasn't quite sure who needed the most comfort and reassurance.
"To clean up downstairs. Don't worry about it."
"But-"
Nick shushed her with a needy kiss. He knew that Natalie thought she could handle whatever was downstairs, thought that this could be taken care of officially, and she could handle it. But she did not understand, she *could* not understand, how different blood and violence was when it was in your own home. The last thing he wanted was for her to have to see the bloody mess downstairs and have that image haunting her dreams. He could only pray that Nire knew what she was talking about and that Jander would leave Kane's body alone. While he knew how hard it was to fake a crime scene and to doctor one properly, he would place money on a bet that said that the two visitors had much practice. There was something about them… For all of Nire's annoyingness, and bossiness, and interference, he was *extremely* glad that she and Jander had been there. He did not know if he could have handled *that* many people without backup, and he didn't want to find out. If Jander did this right, then that would be that many less people he would have to worry about whammying.
When they broke away from the deep kiss, he kissed the tip of her nose. "How about if we go into the bedroom and remove all of this shrapnel from my poor, abused body?"
Nick led her to their bedroom a back way so there was no chance that she could see the carnage downstairs. While she gave him a funny look, she followed without comment. Maybe he was being overprotective, and maybe he was underestimating her. But he was not going to risk it. Not with his precious Natalie.
When he took off his shirt and sat on the bed, Natalie gasped at the sheer amount of blood caking him. It was like mordant icing on an exquisite cake. She searched for her doctor's bag, the one with everything in it that she used to care for Nick when he was hurt.
Looking at his chest and back again, she tried to suggest, "Nick, maybe some curare-"
"No," he immediately said. "Don't I need to tell you where it hurts?" His classic, boyish grin lit up his face.
She sighed at his stubbornness and began digging for foreign objects.
(A/N: If anyone wants to know just what the fuck Abel and Nire are doing, email me. If I get enough people saying they want to know, I'll write it. Otherwise, I'm not wasting my time writing something no one's going to like.)
