GLAIVESTER'S FOREVER KNIGHT SEASON 4
Not affiliated with the virtual fourth season.
Forever Knight belongs to TriStar or whomever. Krull belongs to Columbia Pictures, I think. This work is not intended to infringe on any copyrights. If the owners of Forever Knight wish to profit off this story, it's fine with me. Permission to archive and post freely given to anyone. Please give credit to "The Glaivester."
Note: I have not seen "Human Factor" yet, in case this fact becomes glaringly obvious.
EPISODE TWO: VAMPS
Part 1 of 3
Janette sighed. It was - not good, but at least familiar to be back at the Raven. Now that LaCroix had sold it back to her and that she had been essentially set free by her new master, she needed something to ground her.
Was it age, or experience that made a vampire more powerful? She was quite old, but had only crossed over (again) very recently. She could tell that she was powerful than most vampires who had been brought across fifty years ago, but not as much as those who were nearer to her total tally of years spent as a vampire. And of course, such factors as diet, strength as a mortal, and one's sex DID factor in, after all - age was a lot, but not everything.
Since Robert had died, she had lost all the joy of living. She hadn't really wanted to be mortal, she had only asked not to be brought across so that she might die and join Robert, maybe - somewhere in the afterlife.
She had heard that vampires didn't have souls. She had often pretended to believe that in order to tease Nicolas. But she never really believed it. Not quite.
-------Flashback--------
She didn't remember much about nearly dying. No desert, or anything quite like that this time. Only a choice. Why it was different, she had no idea. She had seen herself blown along a path toward a fork in the road. One way went off deep into a cave, the inside of which could not be seen. The other led - she saw the Toronto skyline.
"Choose."
She looked around but could not see a source for the voice.
"Choose. Now."
She was careering toward the cave. Would she end it, now? Or would she take this new chance she had been offered? Did she have a reason to go back? She thought about it for the briefest of seconds.
Suddenly she heard a voice. Robert's.
"Janette. It's not time. There's so much you can do."
Suddenly Janette realized something. The problem with being a vampire was that too often, you get absorbed in yourself. You forgot to find a meaning to your life. That's why Nick was able to get so passionate about whatever he believed in, he had found a meaning - finding his humanity. Granted, finding mortality was a destructive goal, but it was a goal. Not her goal, but - damn it, what was her goal. She had lived almost a millennium. What did she have to show for it? Whose lives had she touched? No, she couldn't die like this - not without feeling that her life had meant something.
"I choose," she hollered, to herself, really, "to go back!"
--------End Flashback------------
Janette picked up a phone. She dialed a few numbers.
"Nicolas? We need to talk."
Natalie looked forlornly at her empty apartment. Voices echoed in her head.
"I love you, Nat"
"I love you, Nick."
"But - I need time to digest what you said. I don't know if I can believe you anymore... or trust you. Do you really love me, or are you just - just- using me?"
Natalie slumped into her chair. She couldn't sleep, even though it was broad daylight outside. She went over to the UV-light bed in the corner of the room and got in.
She turned it on for only a second before she was in so much pain that she had to turn it off again. Ugh. And to think that Nick had done this in an attempt to be mortal again. What he hadn't realized is that it could be a useful tool for developing resistance to the Sun even if one was planning to remain a vampire. She had heard that sunlight was the number one cause of accidental vampire death, and she had decided to protect herself as much as possible. If only she could have protected her feelings as well.
Janette looked at the dance floor. So dark for the daytime.
But tonight she would see Nicolas.
Looking at the door to the back rooms, she saw a large man come out. He walked over to the bar.
"Thanks for letting me stay. Sorry. I guess morning came earlier than I had thought it would. How much?"
"One hundred for the room, and fifty for the bottle of horse. You can settle when you leave."
The man nodded. "So, how is the motel business?"
"I run a nightclub. The spare rooms are just - a convenience. And getting the occasional paying guest is always a bonus."
"How much for - other services?"
Janette glared at him. "I haven't made money that way for a -long- time. And I never made it that way for myself. If you don't want to be kicked out to roast in the Sun, I suggest you temper your appetites."
"Sorry," said the man. "Hell, it's not like I can find companionship any other way."
"Why not - you are not ugly - not by any standard that I know of."
The man smiled at her. "This is why." He vamped out, showing rather large fangs. To bring the point home, he reached into his pocket and brought out a wallet. He opened it, flashing a badge.
"An Enforcer." Janette was suddenly very, very cold. "Why are you here, what have I -"
"I'm here for the same reason as everyone else." He looked at Janette. "You know, I don't spend all my time staking strays. Good grief, your friend Nicky was a cop, and he had a personal life. Why shouldn't we - I mean that is what we are, you know, cops."
"Are you all male?" Janette had only come across Enforcers rarely, and they had always been male in her experience.
"Actually, there is a new female recruit to the Ontario team. Draygon and Harchin are training her. Oh, where are my manners? My name's Macintosh."
Janette looked at Macintosh for a moment, then looked toward her bottles of - mortal's drink. She had to take inventory today.
Natalie turned on the television and put in a video. As Peter Horner's score filled the room, she thought back to a few nights ago:
-----Flashback----------------
"Using you? How?"
"To escape death. To... to escape your fear of the end of this life. When you thought you were going to die in the asteroid hoax, you asked me to bring you across - and then when I wouldn't you went off looking for Mr. Goodbar. You had me bring your brother over. And I hate to say this, but you have always been seduced by my vampiric side. When I said that I thought you were seeking some sort of sexual thrill - well, it wasn't just the blood overdose talking."
Natalie slapped Nick.
------End Flashback-----------
Natalie could hear the words on the screen: "This it was given me to know, that many worlds have been enslaved by the Beast and his army, the Slayers."
But she heard Nick's last words before leaving.
"You must have planned this for a while."
-------Flashback---------
Vachon was explaining to her: "Well, in general, they have to taste their own blood filtered through the vampire."
------------Later------------
Nick was on the table.
"Listen, Nick, I may have a way to cure you. After you lost your memory, a few new avenues opened up.... I need to give you a blood transfusion and then take the blood out and see how it changes... I can do it again after a few psychological experiments. Vampires are highly - telepathic. This may explain their reactions to religious symbols - but if vampirism is at all psychosomatic - we may have a way to cure you."
Natalie took a bag of blood and poked the needle into Nick, "Now we will administer the blood. In five minutes we will take blood out again."
"I'm not sure I understand, Nat."
"I have a new method for separating blood by genotype. I can isolate the new blood from your system and see how it was changed." Thank God Nick was not a scientist. He was able to perform some basic medical procedures, but he had never been interested in the biochemical aspects.
"Who did you get this blood from, Nat?"
"Oh - just an extra bag from someone who had to have it removed for medical reasons. Hematochromatosis - too much iron. Can you see anything about them?"
"It's difficult when the blood is transfused this way - I can sense a longing, not much else."
Nat felt her arm for a second. "I'm sure that whoever gave this blood will soon have their longing - satisfied."
----------Much later---------
Nat tore open the bag and poured its contents into a large glass.
---------Later------------
Nick bit Nat.
----------Later---------
Natalie woke up, fangs displayed. LaCroix stood over the prostrate body of Nicholas, a stake sticking from his chest - but not through the heart.
--------End flashback----------------
Natalie watched the screen.
"That depends. Do you expect a husband to jump every time you clap your hands?"
"Wouldn't you jump for me?"
Nick always jumped to help me, Natalie thought. It was unfair to compare her actions to rape. LaCroix's comparison to someone getting pregnant to force a marriage was much more apt.
Later that day, at night really, Nick looked out his window. It was time to go to work, and as usual, Charlie - as Detective Charles Green insisted on being called - was bounding up the stairs to Nick's new apartment. He had French fries, which he had figured out somehow was the easiest thing to get Nick to eat.
Nick held his head in his hands. It would be one of those days - or nights.
Well, Janette would be here in another - five hours maybe? Nick didn't understand why she insisted on flying all the way over here, but then again, he never understood much about Janette.
For their first century and a half, she would occasionally come up to him and reenact the scene of her original seduction of Nick. However, she seemed to menace him at the time, reminding him of her greater age and power, and to suggest that he was only a vampire because of her insistence, and that if she grew bored with him, LaCroix would kill him on the spot.
Not that Nick believed this - although LaCroix seemed very willing to allow Janette to assert control - even encouraging it. Perhaps LaCroix had wanted to see whether Nick's will could be broken by a woman more so than by him.
As for Janette, well, she had needed to gain control to prove that she was superior. Mostly due, really, to issues from her mortal life that she was still working out. He understood that now, having finally convinced her to share the story of her pre-vampiric existence back during that pimp-murder case.
--------Flashback--------------
It was only a few years after Nick had been brought across. He was alone for a week or so while LaCroix and Janette were off taking care of some "business." LaCroix always had a hundred different things going on somewhere. It was his way of amusing himself, thought Nicholas.
Nick went into the village to meet a girl he had become quite smitten of. The best thing about it was, she was like him. They could drain each other without her dying, as others had. He always hated that about being a vampire. You meet a pretty young thing, and then the instant she arouses you - oops! She's dead.
Not that a lot of them were exactly unhappy about it, thought Nick. Quite a few of them died very - satisfied. Not like some of his other feedings. No, it was quite different when he fed on people he had no feelings for. It was like the difference between sex and using the toilet, decided Nick. Same general areas involved, but in a very different way.
Nick went to the tavern. She was sitting at a table, waiting for him. But something was different.
"Nicholas."
"Elizabeth."
"Nick - I can't see you anymore. I - please don't ask me why."
"But, but,"
"Nick, my life is in danger if I stay with you, I am so very young. I am so very weak, compared to my elders. I must not ever see you again."
------End flashback---------------
Of course, in time she had softened, and they had fallen in love. But that ended as soon as Janette had seen herself losing control - Nick's love for her was so strong - she hated feeling attached or dependent on anyone.
"Hiya, Nicky-boy!" Green shoved the French fries under Nick's nose. "Eat up!"
"You know, I am capable of driving to work myself- "
"Great! You can drive me! I always wanted to ride in a vintage car!"
A few minutes later, Green was having a philosophical discussion with Nick.
"A great uncle of mine died today. Cancer. Good grief, Nicky-boy, doesn't it seem as thought there's never enough time? Life's so short, you're always wishing that there was more time to do this, to do that. Don't you ever wonder what it would be like if you could live forever? If you didn't have the certainty that your clock was ticking away, that your hourglass was running to the bottom?"
"Uh-huh."
"I think it's TV and the movies and mass literacy that are to blame. Times were, your only concern was to survive, reproduce, and leave something for your family. Now we want to do everything once, to become an expert at everything. Sometimes I wish we could go back to the old days."
"With all the diseases and inconveniences."
"Hey, not everyone gets sick. Some people have a very strong constitution."
It was a slow day, thank goodness, thought Nick. Paperwork only, and that was fine for him. At three a.m., Nick received a call.
"Hello, Nicolas! I'm at your apartment. When do you get off duty?"
"Soon, I'll see you soon."
Because it was summer, Nick had shorter shifts, there being less night and therefore less time in which he could move around. He would be headed home in about an hour.
Back at Nick's apartment, a second visitor came in through the window. Janette sensed the presence, and decided to see if it was friendly.
"Hello. Who is it?"
"Janette? What are you doing here? I thought you were..."
"Dr. Lambert? You went with Nicolas? But how he could he take a mortal along with hi... Doctor, is someone else here other than us?"
"Not that I know of."
"Welcome to the club, then. I see Nicolas finally decided to give you our gift." Janette suddenly began to worry. Maybe it was too late for rapprochement with Nicolas.
"Not exactly."
Janette's heart leapt. "Did you find yourself another, then, like that Spark fellow?"
"Er - no. Nick did bring me across - it's just that, well, I sort of made the decision for him. He is a little upset with me right now. In truth, I don't know how he feels - I think he has feelings for me, but he reviles me for betraying him."
"I understand the feeling, believe it or not."
"You do realize, don't you, that I am not giving up without a fight. Now that I too, am a vampire, I can do anything you can do, so Nick won't come crawling to you every time he begins to feel his oats." Natalie sounded threatening.
Janette sighed. "Nat, we don't need to fight like this. Ever since Robert, I don't know how I feel. I want to - set things right with Nicolas, one way or another. Yes, I do admit that I would like to get involved with him again. but more than anything, I want to stop the games. I just want to figure out where my life is headed. I don't want to wake up five hundred years from now and find that my life has meant absolutely nothing. What's the point of being a vampire if you don't do anything with it? You mortals - oh, sorry - well, you were one recently enough, you know what I mean, you create society, vampires too often just live off of it, not contributing, not making their eternity meaningful."
"What is it you want, Janette?"
"A goal. Something to work for. I also want - I guess I am finally - feeling maternal. I want - I want to bring someone over. Show them what we can do - you know, a child, or a protege, or a new pledge to the club, whatever you want to call it. I need something outside myself. Nicolas has becoming human again. I need to feel that I am here for a reason. That if someday I do die, I will leave something behind to make the world a better place."
Natalie nodded her head. "I think I see what you mean. Now that I have come across, I find myself asking "Now what? I don't want to become a coroner again. I could lose control and then if someone wondered why all the homicide victims brought in were bloodless?" She looked around. "I also wonder if I am going a little crazy. I mean, I'm supposed to be a self-sufficient, modern woman, right? So why am I sneaking into Nick's apartment at night like this?"
"Don't ask me. Nicolas invited me."
Just then they saw Nick drive up to the apartment building. He got out of the Caddy and walked to the door. This apartment was on the outskirts, in a suburb really, and so did not have the parking problems or quite the buildup that would be found in Manhattan or in the more densely populated regions.
Ohhhh... Nick thought. Those French fries really hadn't agreed with him. Maybe if he had had the donut instead. Or if he had drunk from the bottle of maple syrup that Green had given him. Maple syrup should have been okay. It -was- blood, really. Tree blood. He could drink that, surely.
Green certainly didn't have any problems with Nick eating that way. He seemed to have the strangest eating habits. He seemed to like to eat things out of their original containers, whether that meant swilling syrup, holding up a bag of cereal and pouring it into his mouth, or drinking pasta sauce from the can. Even Schanke had been known to use a fork on occasion.
But that was just a distraction from his real worry right now. The sun was soon going to be up and he would have to go inside. What would he do when he faced Janette? What did she want? Did she want to get together? And what about Natalie? Would he forgive her or not? Did he want to be a vampire or not?
Oh well, he might as well go in and face it now. He'd think of something.
--------Flashback--------------
Nick walked around, confused. It made no sense. Why was Elizabeth no longer willing to see him.
"Hello, Nicolas."
Nick spun around. "What the- I thought you were taking care of something. That you'd be gone a lot longer."
"I took care of it tonight. Listen, Nicolas. LaCroix has his deals with you, I have mine. He may not let you fall in love with a mortal, but I will not let you -be- with another vampiress. You may dally with mortal women all you wish. But there is only one of us whom you will drink from or who will drink from you. Elizabeth understands. I am young, but she is younger, almost as much so as you. In a fight, I would drain her, or, if need be, stake her."
"Why?"
"She would be controlled by you. Most women would be. She would be better off dead, You see, I am a firm believer in the woman being in control in these relationships."
Nick looked at her coldly. "And LaCroix is not in control of you?"
"I let him be," said Janette, because we want the same things - besides, ours is not that way. Occasionally there are situations where one has to drink from the other in a feeding sort of way, but we have never made love, the way you and I do, Nicolas."
"Why must you control me?"
"Because I will not allow it to be the other way around for me, again, EVER."
In the distance, LaCroix laughed. So Janette thought she was in control? They would see. They would see.
------End flashback---------------
"Hello, Nick/Nicolas," heard Nick as he walked in. Janette had an expression that conveyed concern, but not happiness or sadness. Natalie looked miserable, as she had almost every time Nick had seen her since she had brought herself across.
"Nicolas," said Janette. "What do you want. You brought me back across for a reason. Did you hope to start a relationship with me again?"
"I- I- just couldn't stand the thought of you not being there."
"But do you desire that we - turn the clock back? Be what we once were?"
Nick shook his head. "No. I'm sorry. But mortal or not, I can't go back to the life I was leading. I have to look forward. I need you, Janette. I need you to be there - but not that way. Not again. I - I can't just redo everything. Make everything like it was."
"You have tried before," replied Janette, in a slightly mocking tone, as if she were a competition or debate with Nick.
At that moment, something burst inside Nick, and his nasty side came out.
"That, mon cher-ie, is because you threw yourself at me every time I was anywhere near you. Once when you saved my life, you even demanded sex in return. I felt I had to."
"I -did- NOT demand anything. You were feeling the old feelings, and I simply prompted you to show them. Of course, we were interrupted."
"HA!" screamed Natalie. "I knew it! I knew I had walked in on something! Four years ago! Right? You had that run in with the old Chinese man?" Then she changed her tone. "Nick, how could you? Why did you always run to her?"
Nick burst into tears and ran toward the window. The sun was coming up, so he ran back. "I'm sorry, Nat. I'm sorry Janette. I'm sure it's all my fault, again! God forbid I have a moment of weakness. God forbid I decide not to wait to become mortal before I make love again. At that point, I didn't even know how you felt, Nat!" He began to tear at his hair. "I don't know. Maybe you should have tricked me into bringing you across earlier. Maybe you should have made your move during that glorious day when I was mortal - who knows? Maybe that Lytoveuterine B would have let you have a baby by me. Or were you just stringing me along until you could find a way to join the fang club?"
Janette suddenly slapped Nick. "Nicolas! What are you doing? You brought me across again when I asked you not to. Why? Because I had to be around for you! How is what Natalie did any different? You don't want me anymore, fine. But you have to start forgiving at some point and determining who you do want. Unless -" she looked at Nick. "Unless you have become so overwhelmed with guilt that you can't forgive yourself for, unless you've taken so much blame for everything that you can't take anymore. Maybe you are so full that you are overflowing, and finally your guilt is spilling over to everyone else. You can't forgive yourself, and you can't take any more guilt, so you blame everyone else."
Janette walked toward the guest bedroom. "It is daylight. May I stay the day - as a guest?"
"Yes, fine." Nick waved her away.
"Nicolas - may I speak with you for a moment?" Natalie glared at Janette, and Janette hastily added, "no, no, I won't bite."
"What is it?" asked Nick, quietly. Trying to be courteous, Nat did not listen in.
"Nicolas. She is in despair right now. If you don't do something, you will soon have another reason to feel guilty. She is about to break down. If you have any compassion, you will comfort her."
An hour later, Janette awoke from a fitful sleep. She heard noises in the other room. She got up with great anxiety. Listening carefully, she could make out words.
"Nat, I can't - I can't promise you anything."
"Just this moment. That's all I want. Let the next moment take care of itself."
Concentrating for a moment on her link with Nick, Janette felt the canine teeth extend into fangs. She could feel them sink into the soft flesh, flesh that felt warm only to one another. She felt a sudden sharp pain on the left side of the neck. She could feel blood draining in, and out, in perfect dynamic equilibrium.
She fell back onto the bed. Blood red tears streamed from both eyes.
"I will always love you, Nicolas," she whispered, so softly that only she could hear it.