The Enforcer

By Maria Wiberg
Maria@honeybat.com

Part 1

“You don’t want to go? You just want to sit in here and pout?” Nat was getting irritated at Nick. First, he had backed out on dinner, and then he backed out on a concert they had been waiting to see for months. “What’s going on? And it better be good!”

“Nat, we have to be careful, there are Enforcers in town,” Nick said with a worried frown. “I don’t think it’s us they’re after. LaCroix said one of the younger vampires is missing, as is an unfortunate witness, but you never know.”

“Nick, if they want to hurt us, they will. Why the need to hide?”

“You don’t understand, Nat. You do not want to piss these guys off.” Nick actually sounded scared. “When they look at you they see your every thought, your every desire, and if they don’t like what they see…” he suddenly shuddered, with almost utter disgust.

“Explain it to me,” Nat countered, putting her handbag down on the coffee table, making herself comfortable in his couch. “I have all night, now that you backed out on the concert.”

“Nat, please, I can’t. Just tell me you will stay away from the community, and me, until I say it’s safe.”

“Okay, if that’s the way you want it,” Nat fumed, her temper flaring. “I thought you trusted me, apparently that’s not the case.” Angrily she snatched up her purse and without looking back, she left the loft and a rather baffled Nick.

~~~

Still angry, Nat poured herself a glass of Chardonnay and sat down to contemplate yet another Saturday night alone. As if on cue, Sydney jumped up beside her and mewed gently to comfort her. She scratched him behind the ears and caressed his soft fur. “Oh Sydney, if only Nick were as affectionate and cuddly as you,” she mumbled.

The brief moment of comfort was cut short when she realized she was not alone in the room. In the shadows by the window two yellow eyes watched her every move.

Natalie was about to scream, but all that came out was a hoarse gasp when she realized it would do her no good. Nothing could protect her if it was what she thought it was watching her. She tried to swallow the lump forming in her throat as her heart started to pound in her chest. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” She dared to ask with a trembling voice.

A tall blond woman, dressed in a black pantsuit, stepped out of the shadows. “I am Christina of the Enforcers,” she greeted Nat with a short nod.

Nat gulped, an Enforcer, here in her home. “Welcome to my home,” she managed to reply as she rose out of the couch to get as far away from the Enforcer as possible. Suddenly she realized just what Nick had meant by a look that saw through everything. “What are you doing here?”

The Enforcer completely disregarded Nat’s obvious discomfort and stepped even closer. ”I’m going to get right to the point.“ She looked Nat straight in the eye with her now blue eyes. “Natalie Lambert, you have done the work of an Enforcer for years. You have protected the community from discovery; you have healed our sick; you have put yourself at risk doing this, without asking anything in return. I am here today to reward you for your unselfish work,” the slender Enforcer woman stated solemnly.

“Reward me? What are you talking about? You’re not here to kill me?” Nat was confused. All she had ever heard whispered about Enforcers were bad. They weren’t ‘rewarding’ mortals for their work in the community, they ‘terminated’ mortals for their very knowledge of the vampire community.

“Tonight you officially join The Enforcers, Natalie.”

“You mean…” Nat’s voice faltered when she realized what exactly they had in mind.

“Yes, you will be brought across and made an Enforcer,” this time the woman actually smiled at Nat.

Nat backed away even further. This was not what she had expected, or wanted. “I’m perfectly happy the way I am, thank you,” she declined firmly.

“I’m afraid this is not negotiable, Natalie. Besides, we’ve studied you carefully over the years; we are more than satisfied you will enjoy your new life.”

“How can you possibly consider this a reward when you know the work I do for Nick? How can you expect me to enforce a code that I’m defying right now?”

The woman smiled brightly. “I’m afraid you got us all wrong, Natalie.” She gestured towards Nat’s couch. “Sit down, let me explain.”

Nat shook her head and remained plastered to the wall, still very suspicious of the Enforcer’s motives. “Okay, go ahead, but I’m staying right here.”

“Natalie, contrary to what the vampires you’ve come to know say; we are not demonic beasts out to make every vampire’s life a living hell. We are more of a modern police force within the community. ‘To Protect and Serve’ is our motto too. We do not ask you to abandon your life here; the work you do, as a Coroner for this city, is very valuable to our community. We do not ask you to give up your quest to find mortality for de Brabant. The code merely serves to protect us, and as long as his quest does not jeopardize the community, you need not worry. As long as Lucien keeps the other vampires away from him, he should be just fine. What we will do is to simply give you better means to do the things you do.”

“I don’t get it. If you’re just the friendly neighborhood cops, why are they so afraid of you?”

“Because we’re stronger, more powerful than they are. There’s nothing more threatening to a vampire than a stronger vampire. And in this case a stronger vampire with the power to enforce our laws.”

Nat’s natural scientist curiosity stirred at that explanation. “You are more powerful? How can you be, are you that old?”

The Enforcer smiled brightly again, and Nat almost had to pinch herself to keep remembering this wasn’t just any friendly vampire in front of her. “We are more powerful because we are a different breed of vampire. Even as fledglings we can match the most ancient of the so called ‘regular’ vampire.”

Nat gaped in surprise. “There are different breeds?” She wondered if Nick knew that?

“Yes, you might say that, “ the Enforcer grinned almost wickedly. “I will teach you all about our history later, when it is your history also. It is time we were on our way, we have a long way to fly before dawn my dear.”

Before Nat could protest further, that she didn’t want to become one of them, the Enforcer forcefully grabbed her around the waist. “NOOO, let me go!” she screamed. “HEEELP! Somebody! Pleease…help me!” She tried grabbing a hold of her furniture, turning tables, lamps and even the couch over in her violent, but futile, attempts to break free.

“Don’t bother, Natalie,“ the Enforcer told her firmly. “Your neighbors are not resistors, they will witness that you left earlier with a suitcase. Your boss will tell everyone she sent you to that Coroner’s conference in Vancouver, and that you decided to take some vacation while you are there. We even found a good home for your cat. Nobody will miss you for weeks.”

Still screaming for help, for Nick to come rescue her, she found herself rapidly carried off into the night. The information she had been given was spinning around in her head as they flew high over the city. She wished it at least had been a clear night; the view over Toronto would have been marvelous. All she could see below was a gray mist; she had no idea where they were going, or even in which direction they were traveling.

“Nick!” She sniveled, “don’t let them take me…”

Part 2

It was already twilight when they landed on the porch of a big country mansion that looked as if cut out of a British Country Magazine. Gray stone, green ivy almost covering the surprisingly large stained glass windows. The lawns and the gardens were spotlessly kept. The huge pool behind the house looked well used, sun beds and towels were spread around. She could spot horses in a corral behind a large stable located at a discreet distance from the house. The inviting scenery was open and the garden sloped down towards a lake.

“Welcome to the Enforcer headquarters of Canada, Natalie,” her capturer grinned. “Welcome home.”

“This is NOT my home, never will be!” Nat objected wildly. She took a few steps away from the Enforcer as she was released out of her iron grip.

The Enforcer only smiled. “Oh you will love it here Natalie. And please, call me Christina or Chris for short now that we’re home.”

Natalie just looked, slightly stunned at the Enforcer woman’s friendly approach. She had half expected to be thrown into a dungeon; awaiting doom, or in her case waiting to be brought across… Same thing.

Once inside, they were quickly joined by a rowdy group of teenagers, or what Nat perceived as teenagers in loose fitting jeans, t-shirts or bikini tops, and baseball caps over their unruly, slightly wet hair. They came bounding down the grand staircase on roller blades and skateboards; doing flips in the air. Never had Natalie seen such a collection of vampires before, because she had no doubts they were vampires; their eyes were bright yellow, and their fangs longer and sharper than any she had ever seen before.

“Meet the family,” Christina said, indicating the group standing in front of them.

“Hi, Natalie, welcome,” they said as one, all smiling at her.

“Hi,” Nat managed, still trying to back away. She was overwhelmed. This was nothing like she had imagined a vampire hideout.

“I’ll get Nat settled for the day and we’ll go ahead with the transformation tomorrow night,” Christina said, addressing the other vampires.

Nodding briefly in agreement they went on their way, each and every one of them briefly hugging or gently reassured the stunned mortal woman as they passed her.

“Are they Enforcers too?” Nat wondered when they climbed the stairs and the group had disappeared down the hall.

“Oh yes, very much so.”

“But…”

“They don’t look like it, or act like it, you mean?”

“Yeah.”

“This is our home, here we can relax and be ourselves. Out there,” she indicated the world with a sweeping gesture, “we are the Enforcers, and as such we have the responsibility to enforce the code, to keep our communities alive and healthy. As such we have to keep up our image, so to speak. Sure, we go undercover among humans as well as vampires at times, but only here we can truly relax.”

“I see. It did look like they enjoyed themselves.”

“Oh, they are, believe me. It is not often we are all gathered here like this. Tomorrow you and I will join this new game, if you’re up to it. The conversion process is rather exhausting you will notice, but you will end up with more energy, more power than you could ever imagine.”

Nat looked at Christina, trying to forget that little conversion process bit, this was certainly nothing like what she had expected. To be faced with such a positive and joyous view of life from a vampire might actually be quite refreshing. If it wasn’t for the fact that her life was at stake here, she might have enjoyed exploring this unlikely family. Strangely, there didn’t seem to be anything dark or threatening about this at all. They seemed to be only happy to make her a member of their family. They had greeted her in a manner that made her almost envy their confidence in her. A sting of fear hit her when she realized that she was actually attracted to them. Had their hypnotic eyes already started to do their work on her? Had they managed to bypass her resistance somehow?

She had never felt anything like that around Nick. He was constantly fighting with his father, and he didn’t even want to be a part of the community. Seeing even this brief glimpse of a happy family made her wonder what it would be like to be a part of it, even if it did mean she had to become a vampire first. It was times like this she really missed her mortal family. “Maybe,” she thought, “Maybe this Enforcer thing won’t be so bad?”

~~~

“This will be your room, Natalie,” Christina said as she swung open one of the heavy oak doors on the second floor.

Nat, still in her own thoughts, stepped inside without comment. Then she noticed the beautifully decorated corner room. Deep blue, gold and yellow tones made the whole room look almost regal. The whole design was surprisingly modern and comfortable. Nat instantly liked this room. “This is beautiful,” she smiled impulsively at Christina, forgetting for a brief moment to be afraid.

“Yes, it is, isn’t it? Amanda was a great decorator. She did many of the other rooms here too.”

“What happened to her?”

“She died.” Christina didn’t elaborate, and Natalie could easily see that the pain was too fresh for her to talk about.

“I’m sorry.”

Christina seemed to physically shake herself out of the sad memories as she turned to leave. “I’ll see you tonight, try and get some sleep my dear Natalie.”

Nat didn’t reply, she wasn’t looking forward to it. It didn’t matter that they seemed so friendly, so human; they were vampires. They were the vampires that all the rest of the vampire communities feared. No matter what Christina said, there had to be a very good reason for that.

Nat stepped up on the slightly elevated platform and tried the bed. The soft yielding material shaped itself around her body and she was instantly comfortable. She stretched out, still with her clothes on. Strangely enough she started to doze off immediately. The events of the night had taken their toll on her.

She woke with a start as she realized it was broad daylight and she was sleeping away her probably last day as a human being. The cold April rain of late had disappeared and she could see the light blue sky through her windows, no shutters to be seen anywhere.

She stepped up to the large window in front of the bed to take a look at the view. The lake was beautiful, as were the early greens of the trees and the grass in the gardens below. Watching all of it, she wished she didn’t have to lose all this. She didn’t want to be a vampire, damned to live in eternal darkness.

Full of desperate hope, she pulled at the door out of the room. It was locked, of course.

She sighed, defeated, as she went back to the window again. Even if she did manage to get out of this room, where could she possibly run? They would find her, and when they did, they might not be so friendly anymore. No, it would not help her to run now, she had to stay and face this cruel fate.

She knew there was a way out of this, but she wasn’t ready to die. She wasn’t ready to step into the light; she wanted to live first, live life to the fullest. She wanted to love and be loved. Suicide wasn’t the answer, she knew that, but if it turned out to be a too horrible existence, she would walk into the sun with no regrets.

She remained sitting in the window sill until her very human hunger reminded her that she had not eaten all day. Tearing her eyes away from the view, she explored the spacious room, big enough to fit her entire apartment easily. Behind a wooden panel she found a cupboard and a refrigerator next to a very high tech microwave oven.

The fridge was well stocked with dark green bottles, just like Nick’s used to be before she had started him on protein shakes. These bottles weren’t unmarked and she was willing to bet they didn’t contain cow blood. She browsed the fancy labels and was surprised to find one with the Raven insignia on it. “Raven Special Lovers Vintage” she read. ”Wow,” she thought, they actually take blood from certain occasions. She remembered what Nick had told her about drinking human blood, the images, and the emotions it brought to them. ”Lovers, that must be the ultimate thrill from a bottle,” she thought, putting it back among the others.

There among the bottles of blood she found her favorite type of chocolate bar and a mug of coffee. She almost laughed when she realized that her last meal would consist of chocolate and coffee. ”Not too bad,” she thought. Chocolate and coffee would probably be the two things she would miss the most about not being able to eat again.

She warmed the coffee as she nibbled the dark chocolate. Then sipping the dark elixir she went back to the window. She enjoyed her “meal“ immensely; there was something deeply satisfying about chocolate that no amount of science could ever explain.

When the coffee and the chocolate were long gone and the sun touched the horizon, she wondered why she wasn’t more scared. She should be screaming her lungs out for mercy, or at least try and get away from there any way possible, but she wasn’t that scared. Was it because she was now faced with the certainty that there was no way out, that no matter what she did, she would cross over tonight?

She thought back to the asteroid scare, when she had pleaded with Nick to bring her across. She had wanted to live more than anything. Her fear of dying had outgrown every other fear she might have had. She had been willing to sacrifice everything to live just a little while longer. She had been ready to give up her mortality.

What about now? Was she ready? ”No,” she thought, ”She would never be ready for a life as a vampire, but maybe she was ready to face her fears.”

She saw the last rays of the sun disappear over the water as she heard steps outside her room. With the growing darkness, she felt a stirring of nervousness inside her. It was time.

Part 3

The group that entered her room was quiet, their separate identities well hidden beneath hooded black robes. Nat tried unsuccessfully to push away her uneasiness when the silent figures surrounded her. One of them held an extra robe, and she realized it was for her when they started to gently and carefully undress her. Embarrassed, she stood naked before them; they had not even let her keep her jewelry. She suddenly wished she didn’t have to go through this alone. If only Nick had been there to hold her hand, to guide her through this.

A low, yet strong voice entered the room from all around her. “For the last time in your eternal life you are separate. For the last time the world will see your soul bared. For tonight, Natalie Lambert, you become one of us. Let the process begin!”

Nat took a deep ragged breath when they again moved closer. This time to drape the robe around her, tie the rough black rope around her waist and collect all her hair in a loose bun at the back of her head. They hid her now blushing face under the hood, and engulfed in the dark fabric, she felt almost safe.

Surrounded by dark hooded vampires she was lead into a large, candle lit room, with a terrace facing the lake and the pool area below. The big French windows were opened towards the night sky and she could feel the chill of the night against her bare feet and hands. Natalie fidgeted nervously as she watched their still forms take up position around her. Suddenly she wanted to scream and run, this was real, they were going to drain her blood and replace it with something evil, something cold, and she would be damned, just like Nick. She took a deep breath, trying desperately to tell herself that panicking now would do her no good.

At first, the group remained still and silent, unnerving the hell out of Natalie. ”Get on with it!” she thought one second, only to beg ”Don’t do this!” the next.

“Tonight we honor Amanda. “ a dark male voice started. Then another filled in: “She was a powerful healer, born out of the druids and witches of a more ancient time.” Then another, female this time: “she brought peace and harmony into the community in this most turbulent of times.” Then all together as one: “As was her wish, and out of respect of her memory, tonight we bring another healer into our midst. Natalie Lambert, tonight we welcome you into our family.”

Absolutely terrified she pinched her eyes shut when she felt them embrace her, and then stiffly let them pull her hood back to expose her neck. “NOOOO!,” she screamed, finally letting all her fear, and all her anger free in one last, desperate plea for them to stop. They didn’t. Ice-cold lips touched her bare, unprotected neck and then she felt the equally cold fangs penetrate her skin.

The images that bombarded her mind were of comfort and warm laughter, not the evil horrible images she had always imagined. Being sucked dry was a most pleasant experience she realized when she started to lose consciousness.

She found herself facing a magnificent white portal on a grassy meadow. The sun was comfortably warm and just as she wondered where that portal lead, it opened, and she was faced by her brother.

“Nat, how wonderful to see you again,” he smiled down at her, reaching out to her.

Stunned Nat watched him step out of the bright light to embrace her. “Richard?” she smiled. “Is that really you?”

“Yes Nat,” he replied over her shoulder, spinning her around in glee. “I’m so glad you’re here, I was so afraid I wouldn’t get to tell you the good news.”

“Richard, you’re not damned? You’re in the light! We’ll be together now.” She was too happy for him to notice his words. The terror of the conversion was behind her; she wanted to enter the light with her brother.

“Nat, listen to me.” He pushed her away from him to meet her eyes. “You can’t stay; this is not your time.”

“What are you talking about? I can’t go back, they’ll make me a vampire.” It was so very easy to put her life behind her in presence of the wonderful bright light in front of her.

“Nat, listen to me. It doesn’t matter if they do. As long as you have love in your heart, you will always have a place here.”

“Richard?” She didn’t understand. He was pushing her away.

“When you are safely across, Natalie, remember Amanda. Let her be your guide and you will never have to worry about damnation. She’s here now, after more than four thousand years as an Enforcer.”

She looked at him, a bit shocked. The name Amanda made her suddenly remember the more clearly why she was there. She was to be made an Enforcer to honor Amanda; they had deemed her a worthy heir. She had a life, a life that was only beginning. They needed her, and they trusted her. “I must go,” she realized. “I must go back.”

“Have a wonderful life, my sweet sister!” Richard called out to her when she turned and ran into the shadows that were waiting behind her.

~~~

It was over; one by one they had all drained her, and let her drain them. She had all nine of them inside her now, all their perfect memories, all their thoughts and dreams, and they had hers. Within those memories were the one she had already come to see as her guide and her master, Amanda. An Enforcer didn’t have a master, not the way a normal vampire did, but they all had someone in their family who they looked to for guidance and comfort. Natalie had Amanda. She had been a vampire filled with passion, as well as power, after so many years, and she had used that power to help and to heal, never to punish. It didn’t matter that she was gone, in that way she was the perfect mentor, always present, right there in Natalie’s mind.

Blood tears ran silently down Natalie’s cheeks when she thought of how Amanda had died. Full of confidence in her strength and abilities, she had left for Toronto the very day the news about the fever had reached her. How cruel wasn’t the fate that the normally so powerful Enforcers were even more sensitive to the virus. Amanda had died within 10 hours of her arrival in Toronto, long before Nat and LaCroix had found the cure. If only she had found it sooner, so many lives would have been spared.

She turned towards the open doors behind her and slowly she moved towards the terrace. She tried desperately to put her raging emotions aside, and to comprehend what she had become. The whole experience had been overwhelming, too brutal for her to fully understand at that moment. Slowly, still very much with her attention inward, she stepped out onto the terrace.

Taking a hesitant deep breath, she inhaled the cool April air, only to find it wasn’t cool anymore, it was soft, warm and filled with the most wonderful fragrances. Spring flowers, recently mowed grass, and a salty tinge from the ocean she had thought was a lake. She knew where she was now, the location of this mansion being only a tiny fragment of all the information she had been flooded with through the blood of her new sisters and brothers.

She looked out over the landscape towards the water. It was dark, yet not; the water was afire by the reflections of the sky, a sky that was no longer a dark blanket that covered the earth from dusk till dawn. She wanted to laugh and dance at the beauty of the stars; they made the sky glow brightly in all the colors of the rainbow, making the night light as the brightest day. “It’s so BEAUTIFUL!” she screamed out aloud, and throwing her head back, she reached for the skies when her heart filled to the brim with the pure emotion of it all.

Tears running down her face of pure joy, she stood there, just taking it all in, her new world. Soon she was no longer alone, gently touching her mind they let her know that her family was there with her. “Will it always be like this?” she wondered.

“Yes,” Jessie replied softly, “It doesn’t matter if you live one or two thousand years, every night is a new miracle.”

“Then where is the darkness that Nick always curses?”

“The darkness is in his soul, Natalie,” the saddened voice of Loren sighed. “Not in the night.”

Natalie felt a wave of sadness too when she thought of Nick, if he saw this explosion of bright colors as a curse, then he would be sorely disappointed in the pale light of the sun.

The group stood there in silence, each and every one of them enjoying the night of renewal.

~~~

Tired, Nat entered her room at the break of dawn. She had strangely enough enjoyed her first night as an Enforcer and vampire. She could feel the hunger tearing at her, but it wasn’t to the extent that it ruled her actions or made her leap at anything with a beating heart.

The light that flooded the windows started to blind her, but instinctively she knew how to dim it. Amanda had installed polarized glass in these windows when she redecorated three years ago, and at the push of a button, they dimmed the light to a more comfortable level for her sensitive eyes. ”This is a much more pleasant technical solution than Nick’s iron shutters,” she thought with a smile. Now, with the dimmed windows, she could still see the garden and the sea without getting burned or blinded.

She opened the refrigerator and selected a bottle of blood at random among the bottles marked PURE. Her body was still not completely across, wouldn’t be for another 12 hours at least, and she would need the strength of pure blood to do it as quickly and painlessly as possible.

The moment she tasted the blood, her world changed. Until that very moment when she took her first swallow, she hadn’t really felt different. Sure, her senses had been enhanced and amplified, and she had been given experiences and knowledge beyond what any human being could comprehend; but not until the moment the blood ran down her throat, did she “feel“ like a vampire. The abnormally long fangs of the Enforcers almost shot out of her gums, she found herself upending the bottle with both hands and the world turned blazing red before she had even had the time to mentally react.

She impatiently growled out aloud when she couldn’t get another bottle quickly enough from the fridge when the first one was finished. Bottle after bottle followed that first one. ”My gosh, I had no idea I was that hungry,” she thought when she finally had had her fill and she could think straight again.

Curious, her scientist mind kicking back alive again after the almost religious conversion, she went into the bathroom to investigate her new “look“.

“Wow! Look at those fangs!” she almost stepped back from the mirror in surprise. No wonder they had seemed to fill her mouth, and then some. For a moment, she was stunned, and then she started investigating. She was supposed to have total control of her body as well as her mind; a control that would even let her change her appearance for limited periods of time. She put her fingertips at the tips of her fangs and pushed gently upwards at the same time as she imagined her fangs shrinking. They did. Obediently they let themselves be shortened to a length more normal among vampires. ”That looks better,” Nat thought. Now how to make them stay that long was another matter. When she relaxed her efforts, they wanted to slip back out again.

“Oh well, maybe I’m just too tired,” she yawned and the fangs dropped down to full length again.

Still with her new fangs sticking annoyingly out of her mouth, she dropped the robe by the bed and slid down between the soft royal blue silk sheets. She was asleep the second she rested her head on the pillow.

Part 4

“Rise and shine, Natalie!” a cheery voice whispered into her ear.

“Nooo, just a little while longer, mom” she moaned. “I had such a wonderful dream, Nick and I…” longer than that she didn’t come before she remembered that she wasn’t home in her childhood bed, dreaming of vampires, fangs and putting the bite on Nick.

“Chris, good evening,” she grinned through her still very much present fangs.

“Had a good day’s sleep, honey?”

“To judge by my dreams, yeah, a very good day’s sleep,” she giggled when she thought of how she had pushed Nick backwards onto his couch, going straight for his delicious neck.

“Wanna have some fun tonight? No Nick though, I’m afraid,” she winked.

“Sure, what do you have in mind?” Nat wondered, pushing the thought of Nick out of her mind.

~~~

Nick woke up with a scream, blood sweat running down his forehead, the sheets and pillows drenched in the sticky liquid. “Whoa,” he groaned out aloud. “Whatta dream!“ Nat had attacked him, pushed him violently down on the couch, and before he could even react, she had snarled viciously at him with fangs like an Enforcer and bit him deep in the neck.

He shuddered when he remembered the intense pleasure of it all. “Nat, God, don’t let anything have happened to her!“ he gasped, immediately pushing the pleasure aside.

Trying to wipe off some of the blood sweat with the sheet, he dialed her number.

“Hi, this Is Dr. Natalie Lambert, I am out of town, but you can reach me at the following numbers…” he put the phone down with a growing sense of dread.

She was out of town? What on earth had possessed her to say such a thing on an answering machine? Something must be wrong. Had they taken her already?

Chilled to the bone with fear, he quickly showered and with vampire speed and flight, he was on his way to Natalie’s apartment. He rarely used his spare key, but he didn’t hesitate to let himself in this time.

Nick’s detective skills quickly noted that nothing seemed out of order. He briefly noted the usual signs of packing. Her two suitcases in the closet, were gone, as were all her toilet articles and some clothes and underwear. Sydney’s scratchboard, toilet and bed were gone, as was the cat itself. No sign of struggle, the place was properly locked. Maybe she really had gone out of town.

Somewhat less worried that something might have happened, he locked the place up again and flew back home to get the Caddie before he went in to work. Maybe the Coroner’s office knew more about what happened? Calling her felt somehow wrong now that he’d had time to calm down. She had been so mad at him for his over protectiveness, and it had been he who told her to stay away from him. It just wouldn’t do if he kept contacting her.

“Calm down, Knight, she’s okay!“ he told himself firmly.

~~~

“Rollerblades? You gotta be kidding me!” Nat laughed when Chris opened up a box and emptied out two pairs of black blades and some very youth inspired clothing on the floor.

Chris didn’t laugh, but she did look rather enthusiastic as she pulled at the clothes. “Didn’t you say the other day that it looked fun?”

“Sure,” Natalie agreed, “but shouldn’t you rather be teaching me about my new status?”

“This will do just fine for that kind of training too, Natalie. You’ll see. Get dressed,” Chris commanded, tossing a tiny sports top and a pair of jeans to Nat.

In only a few minutes, they were both dressed as kids, standing on wobbly legs on the skates. “So okay, Natalie, now all we need is to be 15 again and the illusion would be perfect.”

“Hmm, can’t we do that?” Nat wondered out aloud when a spark of a memory and knowledge that was not her own entered her mind. She grinned triumphantly when the faint recollection bloomed out in full and she “knew“ how to be 15 again. “We CAN!”

Chris grinned back, “Of course we can, Natalie. Told you even this childish game would tap into your new powers. The trick is to make it work physically. You may know intimately how to do it, but to be able to master these skills you have to practice. Now, apply what you know to yourself.”

“Okay, let’s begin by getting rid of these fangs,” Nat stated. She closed her eyes, and imagined herself with no fangs, and with her old hazel eyes. She knew instantly that she had succeeded. It was easy. Why had it been so difficult the other night?

“Just remember, that the more drastic change, the more energy you will need, Natalie,” Chris cautioned her. “This age thing shouldn’t be too draining.”

Nat closed her eyes and started to explore not only the change she needed to do, but also the possibilities. The fact that she now had more than ten thousand years of knowledge amazed her. To know that much, to have experienced so much, and still she was the same Natalie she had always been. Well, not quite, she “was“ an Enforcer now, with all what that meant of power and responsibilities, but she “felt“ the same somehow. She didn’t drown in the mass of memories; she floated comfortably on top, with a sea of knowledge to draw upon at comfortable reach.

She drew upon the memory of her own image at her fifteenth birthday. Eyes still closed she looked at herself in her imaginary mirror, the thin almost skinny frame of her body, the freckles and the braces…“No, no, no,“ she thought. “Skip freckles, skip braces.” Image corrected she willed her body to become like that once again. With a surge of hunger in her gut she felt her fangs fall again as the belt of her jeans slacked and her body tightened up.

“Here you go,” Chris grinned at Natalie when she opened her eyes, and handed her a bottle of blood, already drinking out of one herself.

Natalie laughed and shook her head at her lack of control over her fangs. “Thanks.”

“Natalie, you have to understand, you are still young. If you had not been an Enforcer, it would have taken a lot more than a couple of hours to even contemplate this kind of control. For most vampires it takes years or even decades to control their appearance or impulses when they are hungry.”

“I know,” Nat sighed. “It’s just…” She didn’t know what she expected really. She did want to be in control, at all times. It disturbed her more than she wanted to admit that a part of her was not submitting to her control. “It’s annoying!” she stated.

“That it is!” Chris agreed.

Nat finished her bottle and tightened the belt on her hips the way she saw Chris do, and tried not to feel naked with half her 15-year-old flat belly exposed. “C’mon Crissy, let’s roll!” she giggled, struggling to stay vertical on the skates as she moved towards the door.

“Comin’ Nattie!” the other young teenager giggled too, not one bit more confident on the wheels.

“Now, let’s see if we can get the hang of this before the others see us,” Nat challenged, already tapping into the knowledge she had received through the blood.

“Hey, Nat, slow down,” Chris cried out after Nat when she raced down hall. “You’re gonna fall…”

“Like hell…oooaaahhnnnoooo….” Nat screamed of surprise as she flew off the edge of the top of the stairs, out of control.

Nat was aware of every bump all the way down to the floor, where she ended up in a rather undignified heap. She was lying on top of her arm, and one of her legs had snapped out through her thigh. The other foot was swung around in a rather nasty angle above the edge of the skate, as was two of the fingers on her only unhurt limb. She groaned in pain through her fangs when she realized she’d broken just about every bone in her body.

She groaned again when she realized that every breath was causing her severe pain, and a wheezing, gurgling noise made talking difficult at first. “This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

Christina was instantly at her side. “Oh dear, I do believe you’ve had your very first fatal accident,” she giggled before she started to pull Natalie’s limbs straight so that she would be able to move.

“I was a bit overconfident, wasn’t I?” Nat winced when Chris pulled at her leg to get the bone inside of her thigh again. The blood flooded temporarily, before Nat’s vampire body started to suck it back in again. “Hey, how did you get down here so quick?”

“I flew, of course,” Chris grinned. “Which is what you should have done when you went off the stairs up there. You’re not mortal anymore you know. Gravity doesn’t apply if you don’t let it.”

“I knew that,” Nat tried, to cover her blunder. “Now, don’t just stand there and laugh, get me a bottle of blood, or are you gonna let me bleed to death?”

~~~

It was early morning when Natalie returned to her own room again. Exhausted and in need of something relaxing, she started the water in her hot tub. Although tiring, it had been a very interesting first night as an Enforcer vampire. She was strong, stronger than she had ever thought possible, and she had the power to do almost anything. She was painfully aware that she needed more practice. It was so strange, in her mind she knew exactly how to do all the stuff they had been doing, and then when she tried actually doing them, she failed, sometimes miserably. It was like you know how a piece of music sounds, but when you try to play it on a piano, you don’t hit the right keys without practice.

During the twenty-four hours she had been with her new family, she had had to reevaluate all that she thought she knew about vampires. Vampirism wasn’t just a physical condition, as she had always tried to tell herself. There was definitely a supernatural part, a part that was the stronger in her now. There could be no other answer to flying, shape shifting, or the kind of mind control they had.

She made herself comfortable in the hot tub, stretched out lazily in the cocoon of jasmine scented bubbles; she looked at the hand that had been broken in her fall down the stairs. It had healed perfectly in merely minutes, now it was as if nothing had ever happened to it. She had fed on human blood, and it had healed her quicker than she had thought was possible. Her body was mainly the same as Nick’s or LaCroix’s, it was the dark, supernatural part of her that made her stronger than the both of them. It was as if she was floating in a dark pool of pure energy, ready to be used at will.

Dressed in a luxurious blue silk robe, she sat down in the window sill when the water of the tub had ceased to warm her cool body. With the same sense of dread as she had watched the sun set on her last day as a human; she now waited for the sun to rise and block out all the wonderful colors of the night sky. She pushed a button on her remote control, and the windows darkened to let her continue to watch the new day grow brighter. She was at a dawn of a new life. As surely as there would be another day, she would continue to grow and to change in her new reality.

She thought of Nick. How would he react when she told him? Would he still love her? Her cold still heart ached when she thought of how it would affect him. He would blame himself for what had happened to her. He would never believe her when she said she wasn’t unhappy, that she didn’t feel cursed by any darkness. No matter how she looked at it, she saw no reason to hate what she had become. She sighed; this dilemma would definitely need some thought.

Part 5

Nat was lazily sipping blood by the pool when Paul, one of the Enforcers who had gone back to work since her conversion two weeks earlier, came stalking towards her with a grim expression on his face.

“Paul, what’s up?” Nat smiled at the very formally dressed Enforcer from her position on the poolside. Any other vampire or mortal would have been a trembling wreck at the sight of him, but Nat just smiled fondly at her friend and brother.

“Natalie, there you are. We have a situation, and I think you should be the one to take care of it.” He had a definite aura of urgency about him, and Nat could clearly sense the smoldering anger lurking below the grim surface.

“Great!” Nat was instantly out of the water. “I can’t wait, lead the way.” She had been wishing for something to happen, two weeks doing nothing but playing was starting to get to her. She couldn’t remember when she last had had such a long period of time away from work.

Paul’s grim face broke into relieved laughter. “And here I was worried that you would be reluctant to leave this vacation paradise.”

“I’m just getting a bit restless, that’s all. I’m not used to this much free time,” Nat grinned back.

“I’m afraid you might wish I never asked you before this is over, Natalie,” he said with a reluctant grin. What I have with me is one rather difficult mortal resistor and a vampire who’s been sloppy one time too many.”

Nat did get a slightly less eager knot in her stomach when she realized the implications. “You mean…?”

“Yes, I’m afraid so, but you have to face it sometime, and what better time and place than here?”

“You’re right. I can use the support.” She really could. No matter how comfortable as a vampire she had become these last two weeks, she had still not killed, or even met a mortal so far. She didn’t know if she even wanted to. It was the kill that had made Nick such a mess, and now she was about to find out if she would be able to cope much better.

“It won’t be as difficult as you think. Once you face them, you’ll see.”

Nat gulped down the rest of the blood in her glass. Determined not to let Nick’s shortcomings affect her, she pushed her doubts aside. “You’re right, let’s get this done as quickly as possible.”

“Okay, get dressed and I’ll meet you at the entrance to the dungeons,” Paul nodded.

~~~

The moment Natalie opened the dungeon door, all her doubts about killing disintegrated like snow on a hot tin roof. The sound of a beating heart, the smell of fresh, living blood filled her senses, and blocked out the damp chill of the dungeons that also drifted out from the dark passage. Nothing could have stopped her, or even slowed her down when she eagerly stalked towards the mortal that was imprisoned down there.

It didn’t matter to Nat what that woman had done, it didn’t matter that she was a security risk any more than it mattered that she was a resistor. The hunger that flared through Nat was rapidly taking over her actions as well as her thoughts. She had never expected her first encounter to be business related, a permitted kill.

Conjuring up her last ounce of control, Nat stopped herself outside the heavy metal door of the cell, and turned towards her companion. “What do we do with her? Kill her?” She was afraid of the answer, because she didn’t know if she could stop herself if he said no. She found herself not only willing to make the kill, she was eager.

“You may do whatever you like, but I’d consider learning as much as you can, before you actually drain her,” he urged her gently with his usual stone-faced expression.

She managed to make herself look human, but inside the cool façade, every little scrap of her mortal conscience was gone when she unlocked the door. With her perfect vampire vision, she saw a woman curled up against the far wall of the tiny cell.

“Who’s there?” the woman squealed in terror and tried to crawl even further away when Nat stepped inside and closed the door firmly behind her.

Natalie grinned at the teasing sight, and turned on the light even though she didn’t need it to see her prisoner. A single naked light bulb spread its cold light in the barren stone cell. The rumpled figure on the floor blinked at the sudden light. Natalie rapidly adjusted her own sight to watch the pathetic condition of the woman on the floor. Her once stylish business suit was wrinkled and torn by the futile attempts at escape, and dirty after crawling around in the thick layer of dirt on the floor.

Her pretty face was streaked with trails of tears. Two mud brown pools of despair turned both pleadingly and defiantly towards Natalie. "Please, help me."

Nat glared at the woman. “What makes you think I’m here to help?”

“They’re not human! You‘ve gotta help me, please!” The woman was clearly terrified.

“I know,” Nat grinned. She marveled that she actually could control herself, even though she had a feast right in front of her. Her curiosity was awakened. Paul had told her that the woman in front of her was a resistor, a resistor determined to tell the world about vampires. She needed to see if she could determine that on her own. If this was to be her job from now on, she needed to find out how to do it.

Nat closed her eyes briefly to bring forward the knowledge and the skills she needed to do this. As one, her brothers and sisters of the Enforcers stood behind her, their collective awareness flooded her senses and without hesitation, Nat knew who she was, and what she needed to do. It was all so clear to her.

Nat stepped closer to the woman, and reached to help her up. “Sure thing, honey, I’ll help you,” she whispered. “I’ll take you away from this cold hard world, forever.”

The woman smiled briefly before the grin turned into another terrified scream when Nat stopped trying to look mortal. “Nooooo!”

The sharp edges of Nat’s fangs glimmered when she smiled coldly at the mortal. She could read the mind of the woman as clearly as if she had been speaking aloud. With a clarity that left no doubts, Nat saw the firm determination in the woman’s mind to expose these monsters if she ever got the opportunity.

“What gives you the right to decide who lives and who dies?” Nat hissed. “What gives you the right to condemn a whole race to certain death?”

“W-w-what are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about YOU, Linda Sellertz. You have just sealed your fate. You might plead for mercy, or agree to anything just to be free. But the moment you are out of here you will betray us.”

“No, that’s not true, I’ll keep my mouth shut. I promise! Please!”

“You are pathetic,” Nat snarled. “Don’t you get it? I can see your every thought, your every intention, and I’m afraid that is not what you are thinking.” Nat’s anger burned hot and nothing this woman said would ever be able to stop her. Nothing would make her sacrifice her new family, certainly not one stubborn mortal woman. If she had not been so furious, she would have been startled to realize that she didn’t identify with the human race anymore. She wasn’t human anymore, and this human, mortal woman helped her see that with a terrifying clarity.

“You saw something you were not supposed to see, and you don’t have the good sense to keep your mouth shut. For that, I am sentencing you to death.” Nat didn’t hesitate when she buried her fangs into the neck of the woman. She would have been willing to do anything to protect her new community, a community that had only them, the Enforcers, standing between life and certain death.

When the blood flowed into her, Nat forgot all about the code, the threat and the small cell she was in. The sheer bliss of the act filled her every sense. Linda had been strong, determined, and passionate. Very much like Natalie herself had been as a mortal. Nat saw it all, experienced it all as the blood flooded. She sucked and sucked, every gulp a fountain of pleasure. She couldn’t get enough. Angrily, she bit the woman again, and again to get just a little more blood out of her when the steady trickle started to fade.

“Nat, Nat, she’s empty!” Paul cautioned with a gentle hand on her shoulder

Sadly, Nat sighed and threw the pale body like a rag doll into the corner of the cell. She didn’t want it to be over, dammit! She wanted more.

“Where’s the fool who’s responsible for this mess?” she demanded when she had taken a deep breath to calm and center herself again.

“Right this way,” Paul nodded and went to show her the way.

Nat followed him past a dozen or more dark cells to a larger area with a large collection of torture equipment spread out over the floor. Flares lighted the room as well as the roaring furnace on the right wall. James was shoveling charcoal into it to make it even hotter. Nat knew what it was for; the bodies would be cremated. No incriminating evidence would ever be left behind when the Enforcers were forced to terminate someone.

On a huge metal table in the middle of the room was the furious vampire. He was chained to the sturdy legs with modern titanium handcuffs that clashed with the medieval setting. No matter how much he twisted or yanked, he couldn’t move more than a few inches in any direction on the table.

“Why are you doing this to me?” he growled.

Nat walked over to him, slowly. She let her eyes caress the beautiful body on the table. She touched his chest through the torn black T-shirt he was wearing. Totally ignoring his snarling protests, she traced her fingers along his throat and neck up to his now wildly twisting head. “Such a waste,” Nat sighed at the thought of him dying.

She looked up from his body and met his furious red eyes with her own just as fiery. She was angry about what this one had done, he had let himself be not only spotted, he had let the witness get away without checking that his whammy had worked. It happened way too often that a careless hypnotic suggestion wore off, or didn’t work at all. Still, in the midst of her anger, she felt sad that his life had to be taken. “We warned you the last time, didn’t we?”

“What are you talking about?” he growled. “I haven’t done anything!”

Nat looked deeply into his eyes and found him just as easy to read as the mortal woman had been. He really didn’t know. That was even worse; if he didn’t know he had screwed up, he’d do it again and again and again, until they were indeed doomed. “Remember Linda Sellertz?”

”Yeah, what about her? I took care of her.”

“No you did not. She remembered, and she was about to let the world know. If not for one of our loyal informants, you would have been on the front page of today’s newspaper, picture and all.” Nat continued to humiliate him by letting her hand travel down his body, enjoying the silky smooth skin below her fingertips.

That finally made him lose the attitude. Beaten, he sank back onto the table. “Oh, my god. I’m toast, aren’t I?”

“Yes,” Natalie smiled sweetly at him. “You’re toast, the furnace is ready for you.”

He looked blankly towards James and the roaring fire. “Please, let it be quick.”

Nat was impressed. His acceptance of his destiny was something she had not expected. She would have thought he would have begged and groveled just like the mortal woman had done. “Oh, I have the perfect way for you to die,” she grinned wickedly as her hand reached down into his faded blue jeans.

His head snapped back onto her grinning face. “You can’t be serious?”

“Oh, very,” Nat grinned as she straddled him on the table. “I have always wanted to know what it is like to make love to a vampire. You are just the right one to show me what it is like, you who have seduced thousands of women in only a hundred years.

He gulped nervously, and nodded. What else could he do? He pinched his eyes tightly together and exposed his neck so that she would get better access.

Briefly marveling at the soft texture of the pale white chest, she bent down and let her fangs slowly penetrate the soft white flesh of his neck. This time she took her time to drink; she wanted to enjoy this for as long as possible. Somehow, it was a lot easier to do that with a vampire than a mortal. This blood was cool and smooth like chocolate milk. She wanted all of his memories, all his experiences.

When she had emptied him of his blood she slid down on the floor beside him again. He was so still, and so cold. If left like this, he would not die, he would just keep existing, unconscious to begin with, and then later, aware and unable to take a breath or even let his heart beat. It would be a torture she, or any of the Enforcers, would never submit anyone to, not even this fool. The furnace would burn his body as well as the mortal woman’s.

~~~

”She had killed!” the thought echoed through her shocked mind. ”I have killed, I have killed, I have killed!” nothing could possibly have prepared her for it. No amount of excruciatingly clear memories could have told her of the immense pleasure, or the immense, all encompassing anger that had brought her to the edge and over it. The very moment she had stepped into that tiny cell and seen the mind and the intent of the mortal woman, she had been lost in a whirlpool of anger.

A few hours later, she finally started to calm down. She sat on a cliff overlooking the raging seas. Her heart and her soul felt just as hard and cold as the unyielding rock. If she didn’t breathe, if she let her heart be silent, she’d be just as dead. She knew, beyond every doubt, what it was that she had become. She was an Enforcer. She was one of the cold, unyielding creatures that enforced the vampire code. It didn’t matter how much warmth or how much fun she might have as a vampire, in her heart, the very core of her being, she was one of those who would sacrifice everything for the good of the vampiric community. She would kill again, and it would never make her feel guilty or cursed, because it would protect those she loved.

”Oh Nick, what am I going to do about you? I still love you, but I know now that you will never understand.” He hated what he was. Nat wondered if she could maybe change that. She called up her memories of Amanda, the healer. Maybe she could find something to heal Nick’s tormented soul.

”Blood!” she grinned. The recollection was almost immediate. ”I can make my blood a carrier of my emotions as well as specific thoughts or moods.”

It was all so easy. Amanda had rarely needed any medicines or potions in her healing. All she had done was make her blood the carrier of what ever was needed. If she could only enhance the thoughts and emotions that made him doubt his quest, she might be able to get him right where she wanted him. She knew he had been shaken in his beliefs when he had been faced with death. ”My next protein shake is going to be irresistible,” she smiled. Nick would drink them as if they were the sweetest human blood, and with every shake, he would drink himself closer to the vampire world.

Nat only laughed when the wind and the waves wrapped her in crisp coldness. She stood at the edge and howled at the glimmering skies. She was dead, and she loved every minute of it. Nick would get well, she was certain, he’d once again be able to see the beauty of the night. And when he did, she would be right there by his side to enjoy it with him.

Part 6

Three weeks, Nat could hardly believe it had been that long since her conversion. It seemed like yesterday one moment, and an eternity the next. It was time to return home. Return to her old life as a coroner, and return to a new life as the Toronto city Enforcer. She knew she would have to return soon if she were to continue her life there without any suspicions. She knew Nick would start to wonder what had happened, and so would her supervisor if she didn’t return to work.

She had one week to acclimate herself to living in the mortal world before she had to be back at work; it would have to be enough. Her Enforcer family was quite certain she was ready, and she reluctantly had to agree with them. She knew she had the necessary amount of self-control to pull it off. If it had not been for Nick and his quest for mortality, his all encompassing guilt and regret, she would probably have left her old life rather immediately. She did “not“ look forward to working in the morgue again.

The pale shadow of the sun accompanied her through the darkened windows as she packed both the few things they had brought her from her apartment and some of the things she had been given from her new family or inherited from Amanda. There had been tons of Amanda’s old clothes left in her closets, and Nat wished she could have saved some of the beautiful gowns and suits. Only some of the short, loose fitting styles fit Nat. Amanda had been taller and more slender than Nat had ever been.

Nat held up one of the many tight, floor length dresses in front of her, and for a moment, the image of Amanda dressed in that very dress appeared like a ghostly image of a memory in the full size mirror on the closet wall. Nat played with the idea of making herself fit the black dress; it was such a stylish garment. She discarded the idea when she thought of how much energy that would take. She had a far too long journey ahead of her to waste energy on a shape-shift. She returned the dress to its hanger and picked up the small pile of clothes she had decided to take with her.

She looked at the roller blades and smiled at all the fun they had had just playing around, getting to know her family in person, and not only as memories. She was still amazed at how silly and childish the usually so deadly serious Enforcers could actually be. Only a few days old, she had found everything around her to be totally amazing and they had slowly and safely guided her into it. She felt prepared when she snapped the suitcase shut. A couple hours sleep and she was ready to leave.

~~~

With her suitcase strapped like a backpack onto her back, she flew. The cold night wind whipped at her black leather jacket and jeans, but she hardly even noticed. It was with a sense of loss Natalie left her new home. She smiled when she remembered her arrival, how she had objected to Chris welcoming her home. How right she had been, it was her home now. No matter where she went in the world, this would always be home; here she would always be welcomed with open arms. They were her family. They would die protecting her, as would she to protect them. It felt so good to have a family again. She wished she could help Nick and LaCroix reunite. That would be a difficult task, she knew that much, but she felt up for a challenge. She would make Nick and LaCroix her first real mission as a healer and Enforcer.

She had a new home in Toronto too now, a penthouse suite in one of the more fashionable apartment buildings by the waterfront. The Enforcers owned the whole top floor, and it would also work as her base of operations.

She wondered, as she did almost every day, what Nick would think of her now? Would he still like her and want to be with her if she told him what she’d become? She wasn’t prepared to take the chance that he wouldn’t. She wouldn’t tell him until he was ready, when he was cured from his obsession with mortality. She chuckled, it would be she who had to hold back now or she might hurt him. She wasn’t really worried about hurting him though, more than anything, she knew that she had her enormous power under her control.

Natalie landed softly in a dark secluded spot behind her old apartment building. She was back. With mixed feelings, she entered the apartment that was so very much associated with the old, mortal Natalie. Nothing was as she remembered it. With her new eyes, everything looked so very different. The one thing about the place that actually made a difference in her new life was the fact that it wasn't vampire proofed. No blinds or even curtains to efficiently protect her come morning. She wouldn't be able to stay there, at least not until she had got the windows taken care of.

”What am I doing here?” she asked herself as she looked around the empty apartment. ”There’s nothing here for me anymore.”

She stood briefly on her balcony, looking out over the small park outside. When all she wanted was solitude and silence, the world around her was violently imposing on her heightened senses. The wind brushed lightly against her skin and played the trees below her like chimes. She listened briefly, until a wild and rhythmic beat took over; a man jogging on the narrow path below. Natalie couldn't help herself; she let her eyes eagerly follow the man until he disappeared among the trees. Her sensitive nose could still follow the trail of blood and sweat left behind. She could smell the blood; it was everywhere. She wanted to throw herself off the balcony, float out over a world reeking with blood in search for live prey. She started to fantasize about ripping open a throat with her fangs, warm liquid gushing down her open willing mouth.

Her fangs itched of the hunger that welled up within her. She needed to feed. With a longing sigh, she shook off the desire to go after the jogger and returned back inside to grab the suitcase and her keys. Hunting was far too dangerous, and there would be plenty of blood stocked at her new apartment. Her family had prepared well for her arrival even before they had picked her up.

She went directly to the bar when she had unlocked the panorama windows out onto the spacious roof garden of her new home. She found that her bar was as well stocked as promised. With her mind still echoing of the many thousands of heartbeats of the city, she selected one of the darker vintages. If she couldn’t hunt, she could at least experience some of the emotions of it through the blood.

After quickly gulping down one goblet, she sipped the next as she wandered through the light and open floor plan of the penthouse. Two of the outer walls, and part of her living room ceiling were of glass. She smiled, the most beautiful thing in her new life was the sky, and in there, she would never have to be deprived of its beauty. She was already starting to like the place. When she had acquainted herself with the top-notch sound system, spacious hot tub and pleasantly warmed waterbed, she was in love with it.

When the sky started to lighten, she had already blackened the windows and went to bed. She was exhausted.

Part 7

Nat woke with an angry growl. A deafening sharp wail of some kind of alarm interrupted her sleep in the early afternoon. “What the hell!” she cursed. Her cold, dead vampire body did not want to wake up that early. Every movement was an effort, as if she was tied to the bed with heavy chains.

She looked at the small screen on the nightstand by the bed, it was flashing, immediately cutting through to her sleepy brain with its bright message. “ALARM!” Something needed her attention as an Enforcer.

“Not already,” she moaned and pressed the button by the screen to acknowledge that she was indeed awake. “The sun’s not even down yet.” She had really wished for a few days to settle in before getting thrown into her new job, and all she ended up with was not enough sleep.

Still grumbling over the hour, she wrapped herself in her new silk robe before she grabbed a bottle of blood, and went over to the office part of the penthouse. She turned on her computer and logged on to check her messages.

“Enforcer Alert! Immediate action demanded!

The following was reported from daytime watch:

Hostage situation is in progress at the Fantasia Nightclub, downtown Toronto. Police and hostage negotiators are in place outside. Our watch has confirmed that there are two vampires, master and fledgling, who are holding approximately 50 mortals hostage since last night. As of now, nothing is known about their motives. It is imperative that these criminals be terminated as quickly as possible, and the mortal observers taken care of before they have a chance to talk.

Nat confirmed that she had received the message and that she would be on it immediately. This could get tricky, and she found that she loved the challenge. With her knowledge of police procedure and with her new talents in the whammy department she was fairly certain she would be able to pass herself off as a hostage negotiator once on the scene. She opened the drawer with identity cards and other official documents to find what she needed. Only moments later, she had a badge, ID and driver’s license with the name Natalie d’Enforce.

She looked up at the sky, still hours from dark. She was not about to let that stop her though. She smiled when she thought of Nick spending the day in the trunk of his car; he really should get into the twentieth century. Daytime might be an alien world for the vampire, but if mortals could go safely into space or spend time diving under water, why couldn’t vampires do the same in the sunshine?

While listening in on the police scanner to keep herself informed, Natalie stepped into one of the sun proofed emergency suits that was part of every Enforcer’s uniform. The silky black high-tech material fit comfortably snugly and she donned one of her strict pantsuits on top of it.

The underground garage of the building held several cars that belonged to the Enforcers. She looked longingly at the small Mazda Miata convertible standing next to the anonymous black Volvo 740 with tinted windows for daytime driving. She’d be delighted to drive the tiny sports car, another night. For daytime driving, she needed the extra protection of the tinted windows.

Not even with the protective suit, and the tinted windows did she feel safe under the sun. It was an alien world to Natalie, only a thin veil of protection between her and death made her feel uneasy at best. She found it hard to believe it was only three weeks ago it had been her home. She couldn’t wait for the sun to disappear below the horizon.

She sat watching the scene outside the club for a couple minutes before she had gathered enough strength to actually venture out into the daylight from the small haven of darkness the car provided. She made sure her mask was in place and her wig fit perfectly before she put on her black glasses and stepped out. If she had still been alive her heart would have been beating hard from excitement and fear, as it was, all that betrayed her nervousness was the impatient set of her shoulders and her forced pace towards Captain Reese standing behind a van across the street form the club.

“I’m the new negotiator, Natalie d’Enforce at your service,” she introduced herself to Reese. “I need to get in there.” She said the last words with a slight mental push, mortals were so easy to manipulate sometimes. This one was no problem. She knew that she would probably not be so lucky with the group inside. There were bound to be resistors in such a large group.

“Ms d’Enforce, I’m glad to have you here,” he said with a rather strained welcoming nod. Natalie could almost hear an impatient “finally!“ in his tone of voice.

“I came as soon as I could, sir.”

“I’m sure you did. If it wasn’t for the fact that our own negotiator is indisposed at the moment, we would already have someone in there.” She could see the pressure of the situation was starting to get to him. He wasn’t his usual composed self, or he would never have snapped at her like that.

“Can you give me an idea as to how they are set up in there?” she asked, not because she would actually need the information, but because it was expected of her. She couldn’t stick out too much or they would take notice of the strange negotiator.

He directed his attention across the street as he explained what they knew. “As far as we can tell there are two of them in there. So far, they haven’t made any demands, they just keep shouting at us to leave them alone. In addition, to show that they are serious, they’ve practically thrown out five of the hostages. All dead, cut up with a knife.” Reese was starting to fume with frustration as he explained.

“Let me go inside and talk to them,” she replied with a determined grin.

Reese looked down at her; she knew he only saw a fragile petite woman in her early thirties that didn’t seem to even be able to scare a mouse. How could she possibly make a difference in this? “Are you serious? You want to go in there?”

“Yes, I’m quite certain. I’ve been underestimated by many a criminal in my career, Captain. It is my main weapon, and it is usually enough.” She lied of course, but it sounded good, and it would get her in there.

“All right,” Reese reluctantly agreed. “I’ll tell my men to stand back while you go in.”

“Thanks Captain.” She smiled, and gave him a silent command to hold off his men at least until dark. Then she immediately started to move towards the club entrance. She didn’t want to remain under the sun one second longer than necessary.

The lobby inside was empty and stinking with fresh blood. She could see traces of bodies being dragged over the floor towards the door. Certain she wasn’t visible from outside; she pulled off the confining mask from her face and pulled off her black gloves. Without hesitation, and without hiding exactly who and what she was, she stepped into the main area of the club. With a quick glance, she assessed the situation. On the spacious dance floor, the remaining mortals stood in a trembling, sobbing cluster. On the stage beyond them, were the two vampires. Without regard of the presence of mortals, they were drinking their fill of their hostages.

Natalie jumped up at the long bar leading up to the stage and cleared her throat loudly, calling attention to herself. “Did you forget something, Gentlemen? Like the small matter of the code, maybe?” she nonchalantly quipped at them when their head snapped up at the intrusion.

The pure look of fear that entered their eyes made Nat smile. They might be big bad vampires, ten times as old as her, but she had the upper hand. She was the Enforcer. She slowly sauntered closer to them, and enjoyed seeing their fear turn into full-fledged terror when she grinned and let them see her superior fangs. “Say good night to the world, you are at the end of your eternity.”

She intimidated them to the extent that they not even tried to get away from her. ”Too bad,” she thought. ”Could have been fun with a chase.” Out of a strap on her back, she pulled out two sharp stakes. “These are for you,” she whispered dramatically as she moved close enough to touch them.

They were trembling. Had they been human they would probably have wet themselves in pure humiliation. She met the pale blue eyes of the older of them, and at the same time, she plunged the stake deep into his heart. He went down with a moan, nothing more. His fledgling was possibly even more paralyzed; he didn’t even look up to meet her eyes as she sent him into true death.

These vampires were two she did not want to even taste; they disgusted her so much that she didn’t even want to learn why they had done it. All she wanted was for this situation to be over and as few as possible would suffer. She turned towards the crowd below the stage. They shrugged back when they realized that their savior wasn’t any more human than their capturers had been.

“Not to worry,” Nat grinned with her fangs still present. “Be still and I will take you all away from this nightmare.” A whisper of renewed fear swept through them. Nat had not intended to scare them, but she knew the sight of her must be a fearful one. She found that she didn’t mind. She began the hard, boring task of making all of them forget what had happened.

~~~

Nick paced the floor of his loft like a caged tiger, every time something happened that needed him to go to work before dark, he felt the burden of his curse weigh even heavier upon his shoulders. His Captain had called him early, they had a hostage situation downtown, several of them dead so far. “Dammit, I need to be there!” Nick cursed to himself, but realized there was nothing he could do until the sun set. He would have to let the hostage negotiators do their job best they could. Talking down kidnappers, jumpers or crazed killers had become something of a specialty of his over the years. ”At least this curse is good for something,” he grouched. ”If only I could get there!”

It was barely dusk when he donned his black duster, hat and a thick scarf, and left the loft. It would be dark enough when he got there to not raise suspicions in the warm spring evening with too heavy clothing.

“What’s happening, Captain?” he greeted when he arrived at the scene.

“I think we may have lost the negotiator, she went in there over an hour ago, and we haven’t heard anything since then. No shots, no screams, no nothing. We’re about to move in now.”

“Give me a couple minutes, Captain,” Nick begged. “Maybe I can sneak a peek and see what’s going on in there.”

“All right, but be careful Nick, these guys are not kidding. We’ve got five bodies, all mutilated with a sharp knife and drained of blood.”

Nick nodded and moved into the shadows to sneak around to the back entrance, which was hopefully less open and visible from the inside. He had never been to this particular club before, but usually the back entrances were easier to sneak into.

He nodded a greeting to the swat team watching the dark door as he moved stealthily along the dull concrete wall towards the back door. He slowly turned the handle. The door was locked. With a twist of his wrist, he forced the lock open with his vampire strength. Within seconds he was inside, a dark silent corridor stretched out along the side of the building. At the far end, he could see a faint light around the corner.

What he saw when he peeked around the corner made him gasp in surprise when the full force of the situation hit him like a punch in the gut. The hostage situation was over, the bodies of two men were on the stage, staked. A petite woman with long curly hair moved among the mortals and with a very intense whispering voice made them one by one forget and sleep. He frowned, ”Nat?”

Her yellow eyes and too long fangs almost jumped out at him when she raised her head and met his gaze. “I could use a hand here, detective!” she called out to him; she didn’t even seem surprised to see him there.

This wasn’t Nat, even though he could have sworn a moment earlier it was. This was an Enforcer! She was beautiful, and in some strange way, she reminded him of Nat even though they really didn’t look alike when he faced her. Nick gulped and moved closer. How had she gotten there so quickly? It was barely dark outside, and it looked like she had been working with the mortals for some time, only a dozen or so of the fifty in there were still standing. “Okay, what do you want me to do?” he asked hesitantly. He didn’t really want to get involved with the Enforcers. “Here,” she said as she pushed one of the mortal girls into his arms, “Take care of her.”

“Take care of her?” Nick hugged the wildly trembling girl close to his chest, trying to comfort her.

The voice that replied was cold. “She’s a resistor, take care of it!”

Nick gaped. “You want me to kill her?” How could she possibly ask that of him? Didn’t she know who he was and what he stood for?

“Yes, of course! We can’t take the chance of any of them telling those reporters out there the wrong thing, now can we? Forget, or die! Have you forgotten the Code already, detective?”

“I can’t do that, I’m sorry,” he looked up from the girl, only to meet the two burning yellow eyes of the Enforcer head on. He felt a chill down his spine. It was true; Enforcers could look into a soul and see everything. He found himself unable to break the connection. She was too strong.

“Nicholas de Brabant, you will put aside your personal convictions and do what needs to be done for the survival of your community!” she said with her compelling voice, tearing into his soul with her command.

“I will do as you command,” Nick heard himself respond obediently. Before he had a chance to reflect upon the fact that he had been hypnotized just like any common mortal, he forgot that it had even happened.

“Take care of her!” the Enforcer commanded again.

This time, Nick didn’t object or hesitate, he too felt the need to protect himself and the community. This had nothing to do with his personal quest for mortality; this was about the survival of his race, the vampire race. The fact that he tried to leave the community behind didn’t give him the right to betray them. He roughly pushed the head of the young woman aside and buried his fangs into the soft flesh of her neck. He drank of the deliciously hot blood like the starved creature he was, until nothing was left and the girl was dead in his arms.

“Good job, detective,” the Enforcer nodded when he lowered the body to the ground.

Nick was amazed, the woman Enforcer actually acknowledged what he had done as good job. Slightly less intimidated by her presence, he bowed back. “Only doing my duty as a police officer and member of the community.” Why didn’t he feel guilty? He had killed this girl. She had been an innocent in this, her only crime being that she couldn’t be hypnotized.

“Why don’t you take her up on stage to the other victims and make sure they don’t look like vampire kills while I take care of the last of these mortals?”

Nick threw the girl up on his shoulder like a piece of trash and flew up on stage. For the moment he was purely vampire, he was doing what had to be done to protect himself and those of his community. The cop in him that would have objected wildly to his tampering with evidence was sleeping peacefully when he creatively used a knife he found on one of the killers to disguise the fang marks on the victims’ necks.

If not for the Enforcer’s interference, this might have turned into a formidable disaster with fifty witnesses to these vampire killings. Nick felt sick at the very thought. He might be dead set on leaving the vampire community, but they were still his people. He owed them his loyalty before any mortal obligations he imagined himself having. He turned towards the Enforcer again. She was draining another resistor, and then there would be no mortals left awake. No more casualties to these renegade vampires.

She tossed him the drained man like a rag doll when she was done, and Nick slashed him up and placed him on the pile with the others. “Such a waste,” he mumbled at the sight of the dead.

“I agree,” came a soft voice from behind him.

For a brief moment, he saw not a cold Enforcer, but a young vampire woman with sad yellow eyes in front of him when he turned to face her. Then the cold mask of indifference snapped in place and her eyes bore into him like daggers. Before he could answer her he suddenly felt a wave of dizziness engulf him, helplessly he sank to the ground, unable to stay awake. It was over.

Part 8

Natalie left the nightclub through a skylight when she had made sure Nick was sleeping soundly, and the scene was void of any evidence of vampires. Without effort, she picked up one staked vampire in each hand and flew off. Not too far away from the club, she dumped their dead bodies on the flat roof of a warehouse. The sun would do her bidding in the morning and burn them to a fine ash. There would not be any evidence.

Finally rid of the bodies and finished with the night’s work, she headed home through the skies. She could get the car later when the commotion outside the club had calmed down, they wouldn’t remember her being there anyway once the drama was over. The strange negotiator would be forgotten as she had ordered.

She needed to get away from the world for a little while, relax and reflect upon the night’s events. She shut the door firmly behind her when she stepped in from the roof garden; the silence was immediate. The timer had cleared the windows, and it was almost like still being outside, except that none of the imposing sounds and smells reached her in there. It was almost as good as sitting by the ocean at the mansion. She put on some soothing classical music and headed for the bathroom.

Engulfed in bubbles, she sighed contentedly. She had done a good job; a severe situation had been turned into something non-threatening to the vampire community. She felt good about what she had done. She wondered how Nick would feel when he woke up. She had forced away his doubts, but she was certain they would not stay away once he had the time to think. Making him aware of where his loyalties were would at least be a start on his way to recovery. If only she could make him feel as good about himself all the time, and not just briefly when he was under her influence. She would have to take it slowly, one small step at a time. Hopefully, this night would at least be a start.

Nat stretched lazily in her tub. She had finished her first assignment and it was barely dark on her first day back in Toronto. She wondered if all days would be as busy. She yawned, and hoped sincerely that they wouldn’t be. The fatigue she had felt earlier, before the sun had set, transformed into comfortable laziness when the warm water made her tense body loosen up and almost melt into the tub. She sighed, and before she knew it, she was sleeping right there among the fluffy white bubbles.

~~~

Nick slowly became aware of urgent, worried voices when he started to come to again.

“Over here, we have a live one!” he heard someone yell right next to him when he slowly moved to sit up, still disoriented. What had happened? For a moment, he was at a loss even as to where he was.

“What happened?” he asked the paramedic helping him sit up.

“The hostage situation. You went in to try and stop it, remember?” He heard his Captain’s voice booming not far away from him.

He turned and the gruesome sight of a woman staring at him with pale dead eyes, made it all come back to him. The room filled with sleeping hostages, the Enforcer making him drink from the very woman whose eyes he now stared into. Slashing the throats of every single victim around him. The vision of himself doing what he had done made him feel sick. He clamped a hand over his mouth to try and stop himself from heaving up the human blood now burning in his stomach.

She had been an Enforcer, but how could she do what she had done with him? She had made him her willing accomplice. He had gladly killed. He had gladly killed to protect himself and his family. Again, he needed to be sick. What if she had not been there, he would never have had the strength to stop what was going on. What if these hostages had been released with full knowledge of what their captors were? What if the police had stormed in there and shot them to hell, only to find out that bullets couldn’t hurt them?

A disaster had been prevented here tonight, and he had been a part of it. A very reluctant part of it, he felt just as much a victim of those two renegades as every one of the hostages. It was their fault he had been forced to choose between the mortal world and the vampire community. He felt cold, and utterly lonely now when he knew. He had built a life among the mortals, but he was not one of them, he was a vampire.

“Nick? You okay?” Reese reached down to give him a hand off the floor.

“Yeah, I think so, Captain. I was just knocked out.” He looked away, couldn’t meet his Captain’s eyes when he told him: “I’m afraid they got away.”

“I know, detective. They were long gone when we stormed in here. Don’t worry, we’ll bring them in soon, and we have plenty of witnesses to identify them when we do.”

Nick took a deep breath and tried to quiet his screaming conscience. He couldn’t very well tell his captain that they would never be found, that they were already as dead as their many victims. That would have to stay the secret of Nicholas de Brabant, vampire, and an unknown female Enforcer.

“Go home, Nick. Get yourself a stiff drink, and try to put this behind you,” Reese urged. “You can write your report tomorrow night.”

“Thanks, Cap. I think I need to get away from here before I really do throw up and contaminate the crime scene.”

Tracy was interviewing the newly awakened hostages outside when Nick stalked past her. He couldn’t talk to her now, he wasn’t sure he would be able to pull himself together enough to lie convincingly, yet. He was afraid she’d see right through him, right into the vampire core that had enjoyed drinking that innocent woman’s blood, and felt satisfaction when he slashed the throats of the dead. He couldn’t face anyone this night, the guilt would be clear in his face.

He needed to be alone.

~~~

When Nat became aware again, she was acutely reminded of her new vampire nature. She was under water, comfortably curled up on the bottom of the now cold tub. Panicking for a brief moment, she shot out of the tub; coughing up the water that she had only moments earlier comfortably breathed in. Mentally, she knew she didn’t need air; she knew she could breath just about anything. Instinctively, was another matter; when under water you held your breath, or you choked.

This was true with a lot of her new abilities, she knew she could do so many things that she had never been able to in her mortal life, yet when she was about to do them her subconscious fought her knowledge. When she had fallen down the stairs on her first night as a vampire instead of flying free of the floor, just because she had expected to fall. Knowledge, especially second hand, and in some cases third hand, was not enough. Some practical skills still have to be experienced first hand to be truly learned.

Going out in the sun, enforcing the code swiftly and mercilessly, was a new experience, and it had taught her that she indeed had what it took to do the job. There had been moments when she had been absolutely terrified under the sun, but she had not let it break her. There had also been that terrifying moment when she had realized that Nick was approaching her in the nightclub. She had heard the back door open, she had sensed the presence of a vampire, and then the chilling realization of who it must be had washed over her. Nick! Who else would pass the SWAT outside and sneak in the back door instead of using a skylight or a window?

Until that moment she had never really made herself look any different, the mask she had used in the sun was already spent and useless in her pocket. With only the briefest moment to spare before he really saw her, had she managed to get her panic under control and her knowledge put to use. She had heard his surprised whisper, knew he had thought it was her at first, and not some strange Enforcer.

Nat looked herself in the bathroom mirror. She was back to her usual self, the Natalie Lambert her friends knew and expected to find come Monday and it was time to go back to work. It was not an appearance she could use in her new world if she expected to keep what had happened to her a secret. She wanted to do more than just keep it secret and go on as Natalie Lambert, mortal coroner; she also wanted to be a part of the Vampire community of Toronto. Then, if she were to be a part of the community she would have to hide that she was an Enforcer, or they would never let her in.

“Too many secrets,” she mumbled to herself. This could get complicated, and she didn’t need complicated right now when everything was still so new. Half the time she didn’t even know who she was anymore. The depth and pure mass of information that was stored in her vampire brain, threatened to overwhelm her at times. What she needed now was to find out exactly who she was, or wanted to be now that she had not only left her mortality behind, but also a lot of the values and opinions she had relied on as a mortal doctor. She was a vampire now, an Enforcer, and as such, she had other needs, other values that would make up her new identity. She would never find that out if she just stayed isolated from the world, or pretended she was still mortal.

“You need to get out more, girl!” she scolded the pale face in the bathroom mirror. She needed to get out and meet some of her own kind. She was feeling victorious; she had successfully averted a potential disaster that afternoon. She had done a darn good job. She deserved a reward. She felt like celebrating, and somehow sitting out on the terrace roof watching the beauty of the skies wasn’t enough. More than anything, she would have loved to race over to Nick’s to share her triumph, but she knew he wouldn’t appreciate what she had done. She had killed, she had completely disregarded human life, she had even made him do that. No, she wouldn’t be welcome there like this, even if he had been home. He would probably be tied up for hours at the scene of the crime anyway.

There was really only one place to go for some fun as a vampire, the Raven. She smiled and started building her new self in front of the mirror. She ran her fingers through her still damp curls to straighten them out. After having had an unruly mass of curls all her life, she loved the slinky feeling of straight hair. Straight hair was more practical too, with all the flying around, the curls kept getting tangled and almost impossible to manage. She clearly understood now why Janette had liked to keep her hair in a tight bun. The faint blond highlights that were barely visible among her curls made the straightened hair shine as the sun itself.

She had to make herself physically unrecognizable by even her closest friends. It would be just too hard to have fun if she had to keep track of everyone in the club, and if they might recognize her. She could of course have entered that nightclub in her lab coat, a bloody scalpel in her hand, and everyone would have seen a beautiful mortal woman with a rose in her hand, if she wanted to; but what was the fun in that? She wouldn’t be able to relax one single moment, and she would have to drink constantly to keep it up. No, it was best to keep the mind control at a minimal level at all times. It would be draining enough to pretend to be perfectly mortal with Nick. A slight shape-shift was definitely easiest, and would take a lot less energy and concentration.

Humming a happy tune, she played with her appearance in the mirror. “Plastic surgeons, who needs ‘em!” she giggled when she smoothed out the last of the fine wrinkles around her eyes. What woman had not wished that they could change the way they looked? Now she could, and in seconds, all the little things that had always irritated her about the way she looked had changed. The difficult part wasn’t to look different enough; the hard part was finding a look she could live with. Once she introduced herself at the Raven, it would be too late to change much.

~~~

Lucien LaCroix, master vampire and the owner of the Raven, was bored. As was his habit, he stood at the end of the bar, watching the crowd gyrate to the loud music. Trying to drown his boredom in blood wine, he gulped down yet another goblet of his best vintage. It did little good. He wondered what was wrong with him lately; nothing seemed to interest him anymore. Not even pestering Nicholas made much sense, even his son failed to interest him of late. Except maybe for a brief moment that afternoon, when he could have sworn Nicholas had been drinking human blood from the source again. The pleasure his son had projected through their link was for once overpowering the constant trickle of guilt. It didn’t last long, though; soon the guilt had hit hard and ruthlessly again, when his son had realized what it was that he had done. It was as usual too much to hope for that Nicholas would see the error in his ways, and return to him.

Perhaps it was really time to move on, leave Nicholas to his own destiny, and leave this northern city in favor of a darker and more vampire friendly climate. Maybe it was just summer, the coming of lighter times, when he and those of his people were forced inside for far too many hours of the day?

He was just about to leave the club when he spotted her, a vision of beauty among so many dreadfully ugly mortals. She paused a moment on the landing by the door to take in the place and he took the opportunity to let his eyes caress the full body poured into a sleek, red velvet dress. She shook out her long flowing hair over her shoulders and draped the glimmering silver scarf over her bare neck and plunging cleavage. He wouldn’t have thought it possible until he laid eyes on her, but he was actually stunned.

She turned to walk down the stairs; LaCroix licked his mouth subconsciously in anticipation when he glimpsed a long slender calf through the slit in her dress. He had to meet this woman; she looked so confident, so utterly delicious; a queen among the peasants of his club.

He lost her briefly in the crowd, and then she was suddenly right there, next to him. She called the attention of the bartender with a voice both smooth and sensual. LaCroix shivered with delight when he realized that this was no ordinary mortal woman, this was a vampire. It surprised him that he had not noticed the pure power this woman radiated until she was upon him. She must be at just as old as he was, if not older.

“I’ll have whatever he’s having,” he heard her order the bartender, and nodding towards him. She was bold too, he grinned inwardly. This night might prove interesting after all.

“Good evening,” he greeted when she finally turned towards him. “Lucien LaCroix, at your service.”

She looked coolly at him, not giving a hint of what she was thinking. “Good evening, Lucien, you may call me Natalie,” she boldly returned, giving him her hand the old fashioned way, for him to kiss.

“Enchanté, Madame.” This time he smiled. “What brings you to my humble establishment, may I ask?” He was curious, maybe more than he should be, but this woman had already captured his interest. Another Natalie, a Natalie so very much more interesting than the mortal doctor friend of his son’s, he would enjoy getting to know this woman.

“Oh, nothing much, I just needed a night out, I’ve been working too hard lately. They said this was the place to go when in Toronto,” she turned to accept her goblet of vintage blood wine from the bartender before she turned back to him. “You own this place?”

“Afraid so,” he admitted.

She raised an eyebrow, as if surprised by his confession. Somehow, it looked like she didn’t quite approve of the place and it made him a bit defensive, and he amazed even himself when he felt a need to explain himself to this stranger. “It’s a diversion, I also host a radio show from a booth in the back.”

She sipped her drink and smiled, at least she must approve of his blood wine. She turned away from him to scan the room. Had she already lost interest? Could he have lost his touch to that degree that he couldn’t even keep the interest of a woman for more than a few minutes? Had he been alone so long he didn’t know how to court in this modern age?

“Looking for someone?” he forced himself to ask, before she left him completely?

“No, just for some fun, you know,” she replied almost casually. “Maybe something tasty to bring me through the night.” She turned towards him again and let her hand sensually run up his chest towards a certain spot on his neck. “Or maybe a lover to ravish through the day?”

LaCroix gasped of surprise, and nearly turned over the goblet he had been nursing on the bar when he grabbed her probing hand on his neck. Never before, had a woman made such an obvious advance, in quite such a playful and completely unafraid manner. She knew her strength, as well as his, and she used it to her advantage.

“Oh my,” she feigned surprise. “Did I just stun you into silence?” she whispered and moved even closer. “You never had a woman make a pass at you before?”

He forced himself to smile down at her. “I was only pleasantly surprised that you so eloquently voiced my thoughts, my dear Natalie.” She had, he did want to spend the day with her, exploring her every part, getting to know everything about this mystery woman. Where did she come from, who was she? He wanted to know it all.

She broke the moment just as quickly when she grabbed his hand and pulled at him. “Come, let’s dance!”

“All right,” he stiffly let himself be led in among the dancing, something he rarely did. Mortals and vampires instantly surrounded them, pushed against him, but he barely noticed when she sensually started to move in front of him. He must have gone crazy, the rest of the room didn’t matter anymore; he was under her spell. Her lips were devil red, her body moving seductively, he couldn’t resist her. When the song was over, he bent down and kissed her. He didn’t understand it, but what the hell, who said he had to understand everything?

Part 9

Natalie let her hands caress Lucien LaCroix’s body as they danced for the third, or was it fourth time that evening. His firm, well shaped body invited her touch, she found that she rather liked to touch him like this. It had been a very long time since she had let herself enjoy the body of a man. With Nick she always had to be so careful, not to arouse him and his “cursed“ vampire. Every advance was literally a danger to her life. Tonight, and for the rest of her life, that would never be an issue.

She moved even closer, rubbing her body against his, deliberately letting her iron grip on her vampire appearance loosen to show him just how aroused she was. She let her gold streaked eyes meet his right before she met his mouth in a kiss. Hidden deep in his mouth, she let the tip of her fangs pierce his tongue, draw blood into the kiss. Her mind was instantly filled with a mighty blast of pleasure as his coolness filled her being. They had been right, the kiss of another vampire was the sweetest of all.

Even Natalie’s superior Enforcer control was about to shatter in only moments as she suckled on his tongue. With a moan she forcefully broke away from his mouth, his arms. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled as she looked down to hide her now flaming eyes from the crowd. “I’ll be back in a minute.” Without even looking at him again, she made a beeline for the ladies room. She had to get away from him, or all would be lost.

She leaned her back on the backside of a bathroom stall door and took a deep breath. She was shaken, was her control really that fragile? What had happened out there? She didn’t understand, how could she possibly be attracted to Nick’s abusive, controlling father? He was a cold, manipulative bastard. Wasn’t he? She had wanted to tease him, have some fun, nothing more. Why had she let herself become attracted to him?

”Damn, why did he have to be such a charming bastard?” she cursed to herself. Her cold heart beat one extra time when she thought of how easily she could fall in love with him too. Charming or not, she was not about to let him draw her in. This was close enough, she knew him now, knew his sweet blood, and how dreadfully one-sided her image of him had really been. Through his blood she now knew he was not such a mean old devil that Nick had always made him out to be, he was actually a whole lot more interesting than that, even though he had fallen for her advances rather quickly.

She looked at the reflection in the mirrors when she had her appearance sufficiently under control to leave the stall; it still felt like the image of a stranger. The blood red lips, the wicked glimmer in her eyes, and with a dress that revealed more than it concealed. She had chosen this appearance, she was rather pleased with the result of her transformation, but it would take a while to get used to. Perhaps just as long as it would take to get completely comfortable with her new reality, she didn’t know. It would just have to take the time it took; she was determined not to let it stop her from continuing her life and having some fun in the meantime.

She couldn’t remember when she last had so much fun. She had approached LaCroix, Nick’s master, when she first saw him only to see if she could maybe torment him like he had done with Nick over the ages, and instead found herself a good time. ”But a good time wouldn’t necessarily exclude the other,” she mused. With an even more wicked grin, she put on some more lipstick and snuck back out into the club. He was standing by the bar again, waiting for her to return. ”Let him wait!” she thought and turned to leave through the back door. ”Let him wonder,” she chuckled to herself as she took to the skies in the alley behind the club.

The sun was already lightening the horizon when Nat touched down in the garden of her penthouse. She felt drunk on life and blood wine, she felt more alive than she had ever as a human. She had had fun, and maybe she had managed to annoy LaCroix just a little in the process. It had been a good night, and she looked forward to a nice long rest through the light hours of the day.

~~~

“Not AGAIN!” Natalie moaned when she was once again pulled out of her sleep by a blaring noise. “This can’t be happening,” she grumbled as she pried one eye open. “Please, don’t let it be another emergency!”

She focused on the alarm display by the bed, 2.15 pm. The clock wasn’t the source of the annoying sound, the display wasn’t flashing ALARM in angry red letters like it had been the other day, discreet green digits just quietly blinked out the seconds of the day. Then what? It took her another two blaring signals to realize it was the phone standing on a table by the window.

“Hello?” she croaked into the receiver when she had stumbled over to the phone.

“Dr. Lambert, you’re home, great. We could really use a hand down here at the morgue.” Nat recognized her supervisor’s voice through the fogginess of her brain.

“Just got in this morning, Dr. Santini,” she said with a big yawn.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I wake you up?”

“Don’t worry about it. What’s going on?” She tried to get her mind working, but it wasn’t easy, too early for that.

“We are dreadfully short of personnel, and too many bodies that need our immediate attention. Please, Nat, can you come in?”

Nat sighed; she should have known that her Enforcer intervention would make the morgue swamped with clients. “All right, give me a couple more hours of sleep and I’ll be there.” No more lazy days getting to know herself. ”Right back to business, Natalie,” she sighed.

“Thank you, Natalie. We can really use your help with this.” Her supervisor sounded a bit less stressed now that he knew she would be coming in.

“No problem, I’ll see you later,” Nat said, sounding every bit as tired as she felt. ”I really have to make sure they don’t call this time a day,” she thought walking back to the bed. She was sleeping again almost before she hit the pillows.

~~~

Walking through the doors of the morgue was like getting a cold shower of reality over her. In an instant, she was transported back in time, to her old mortal life. She had changed, but walking through the corridors of her old life it was as if that change, and her new life, had been only some strange dream.

If it hadn’t been for the smell, it only took one deep breath to remind her that nothing was indeed the same as it used to be. The place reeked of old blood and death, it instantly made Natalie feel nauseous of disgust. She wondered how she could possibly have ever ignored it to the point of not noticing. With her new senses, it was overwhelming, every breath threatened to make her violently sick. In an attempt at escaping the worst of it, she stopped breathing. How did Nick do it? He never seemed to mind it.

“Hi, Nat! Welcome back!” a cheerful voice greeted her when she opened the door to her office.

”Oh, no,” she groaned inwardly, talking meant breathing. She took a shallow cautious breath and feigned a cheery attitude, and a smile. “Grace, hi! It’s great to be back!”

“Did you have a nice vacation?”

Grace was entirely too cheerful, but Nat was not about to let Grace notice her back to work blues. “Just wonderful, nice and relaxing,” Nat grinned.

“Honey, you look so pale, you weren’t out in the wonderful spring sunshine?”

Nat sighed, “You didn’t hear? It’s been a record spring over there, the rain’s been pouring non-stop for a month.” It wasn’t even a very good lie, but Nat backed it up with a slight mental whammy, and Grace swallowed it, hook, line and sinker.

“Aw, I’m sorry,” Grace grimaced.

“Don’t worry Grace. I had a great time anyway. Plenty of time to think and to reflect over what I want in life.” That was true at least, a bit understated perhaps; she had been forced to re-evaluate every detail in her whole existence.

“You gonna tell Nick you are in love with him?” Grace pushed, obviously thinking it was the thing she had been thinking about.

“You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” Nat laughed.

“You do love him, it’s all over your face when you talk to him, and even when he is mentioned. I always thought it’s a pity you two wouldn’t acknowledge it.”

“It’s a little more complicated than that, but you’re right Grace, I do love him. And it’s long overdue he knew that I want him.”

“You GO, girl!” Grace cheered Natalie on. “When are you gonna tell him?”

“Oh, I will take it slow, but when I’m done he will be mine, forever.” ”Oh Yeah!” Nat added in her mind. ”Mine forever.”

“I’m with you all the way.”

Nat nodded, her eyes traveling to the pile of files that had accumulated on her desk. She wouldn’t have much time for anything but work the next few nights. “Looks like I have my work all set up for me the next century,” she joked.

“You are right there, and the cooler is just as full,” Grace sighed.

“Then let’s get to work. The sooner we’re done, the sooner we can go home and sleep, right?”

“And the sooner you can put the squeeze on that Detective,” Grace winked.

They laughed together, and again Nat was brought back to the old days of easygoing camaraderie between them. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad working after all. All she really needed was to get back into the routine, and to get over her squeamishness again.

~~~

“Nat is back?” Nick was genuinely surprised. He had thought she wouldn’t be back for another few days. Why hadn’t she told him she was back in town? And now she was even back at work.

“Yeah, you didn’t know?” Tracy replied sitting down at her own desk in front of Nick’s.

Nick shook his head, “No, didn’t expect her for a few days yet.”

Tracy shuffled around on her desk to find the report she needed. “Detective Collins told me he saw her when he picked up the dead stripper report earlier today.”

“Perhaps they had called her in early with all the bodies from the night club.” He shuddered at the thought that one of them had been his own doing, and all of them bore his disgusting marks. He could barely meet Tracy’s eyes thinking about it. They were investigating something that could never be solved. He, the detective in charge had to make sure it didn’t, or he would really be in trouble with the Enforcer woman.

”Can I really tell Nat what I did?” he wondered. She had doubted him, and his motives enough before she left. How would she react when she found out that he had acted like any other responsible vampire would. But, more important; how would she react if she found out about his doubts since that awful afternoon?

Yes, he had to admit it even to himself, he had doubts. He had doubts because it had felt so very good to drain that woman. It wasn’t until later the guilt had struck him like a stake through the heart; when he had to face his fellow officers and lie about what had really happened.

The words from that woman Enforcer had hit a bit too close to home. He was as much a part of the vampire community as he was the human society. Moreover, the vampire community would always have to come first. Because no matter how much he hated it, he was still very much a vampire.

”Do I really need to deny what I am to continue to do good, or to seek redemption? Do I really want to even continue the search for a cure?” Suddenly he wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Earth to Nick? You still with me here?” Tracy’s voice cut through his thoughts. He had lost her again. “Are you listening to a word I’m saying?”

“Sorry Trace, I was just thinking I’d head over to the coroner‘s office and welcome Nat back myself.”

“You do that,” Tracy winked. “You are obviously not any good to me until you have.”

“We’re just friends, you know that Tracy,” Nick quickly, a little too quickly, denied the implication.

“Yeah right!”

Nick sighed; he knew he couldn’t convince Tracy, or any of the other officers at the 96th that there was nothing between them but friendship. That there could never be anything but friendship between them.

Being able to be with Nat as more than a friend was the main reason he was still there, and still searching for that illusive, impossible cure. He ”did” want Nat, very much, more than he had ever wanted any other woman before in his 800 years.

Frustrated, he pushed his dilemma into the back of his mind, and headed for the morgue. He didn’t have to decide anything yet. First, he had to find out if he was even on a friendly basis with Nat. Would she even talk to him? She had been really angry with him when he had last seen her. She had been so upset, she had left for a whole month without as much as a word to him. He was more than a little nervous. Not only Nat had had a month to think, so had he.

He didn’t know what she would demand of him, but he feared it was more than he was willing to give. How could he bring her closer without endangering her precious life? She didn’t seem to care much for the risks she put them in by moving their relationship further. Well, if she didn’t, he would. Even at the cost of his own heart, he would watch out for her, and keep her safe from himself, from the community and LaCroix.

Walking into Nat’s place of work, he was determined to win her friendship back, no matter the danger of a romantic relationship; he still needed her in his life, even if it only meant as a friend.

~~~

Nat fought her hunger, and tried to ignore the enticing fragrance of blood when she examined the messy slash marks on the young woman’s throat. She of course already knew exactly how and why they had been made, knew about the lack of blood, and the bruises. This girl was Nick’s kill. On her order, he had drained her and hid his work with the slashes to the throat. However, she would never be able to put that in her autopsy report. She chuckled ”Who would ever believe the coroner and the detective sucking and slashing away like that one second, and investigating it the next? Nobody,” she answered her own question.

Knowing what happened, vividly remembering the intoxicating blood of the poor resistors, didn’t make her job any easier. ”Such a waste,” she sighed to herself when she snapped off her recorder and covered the body. She could feel the unmistakable buzz in the back of her mind that signaled the approach of another vampire. She reached out with her mind and found, just as she had expected, that it was Nick.

Effortlessly, she hid the fact that she was a vampire behind a mask of pretended humanity. She wanted Nick to hear her heart, and even though she was unable to actually make it so, she could make him think that he heard it. He expected to hear her heartbeat, and she wouldn’t disappoint him, even if it were rather draining on her energy supply.

She grinned when she thought of how Nick and most vampires must wonder how the Enforcers seemed to know everything and everyone. Even the knowledge of vampires among humans wasn’t a secret as well guarded as the secrets of the Enforcers. She would have to be very careful around Nick, and even more careful around LaCroix.

She sat down by her desk, and with lightning fast moves, she had downed one of the bottles of blood she had hidden in her desk while Nick was still in the corridor outside. When he opened the door and peeked inside, she was ready for him. He looked every bit as worried as his mind had already betrayed. A brief flash of regret flickered through her mind when she thought of what she had made him do, and what she was about to do. She could only hope that in the end, he would be happier and less haunted by guilt.

She smiled at him to help take away some of that worry, and because she was actually happy to see him. “Nick! I’ve missed you,” she greeted, leaving the desk to meet him with a hug.

“Nat…” he was speechless.

“I’m sorry I left like that, Nick. But I just had to get away and sort out my thoughts,” she said, still holding on to him. Oh, how good it felt to hold him again, feel his cool body against hers, breathe in his masculine scent. It was like coming home, really coming home.

“Oh, Nat,” he hugged her back fiercely.

She leaned her head back to meet his now soft eyes. “I want to continue to be a part of your life, Nick. Maybe one day as more than a friend.” No point hiding what she wanted anymore, he might as well know.

“You are not giving up on me?” he asked incredulously.

“No, I’m going to continue to fight for the two of us. Whether that means a cure for you, or something else for me; that remains to be seen.”

“Nat, you can’t be serious? You don’t know what you’re asking!”

Nat smiled “I don’t care Nick, I want a future with you, and if that means coming across later, then so be it.” Inwardly Nat was laughing, if only Nick knew, it was already way too late for her to turn back now. She wished she could tell him now that she wasn’t the slightest bit sorry she was a vampire, an Enforcer; but she couldn’t of course.

“Oh, Nat,” he whined. “Please don’t ask this of me. You know my point of view already.”

She smiled again. “Don’t worry, Nick. I will not let this come between us. I came back because I love you, and I can’t imagine a life without you. I’ll continue my research and who knows what happens? Maybe we will never have to consider me becoming a vampire.”

“Thanks, Nat.” He kissed her on her forehead with his usual friendly attitude. “I do care about you, more than you know; but I would never do anything to hurt you.”

Natalie could sense his honesty, and she knew he only did what he thought best for her, however misguided his opinion. “I will find a cure for you, Nick. I give you my word,” she vowed once again, meeting his eyes. She wasn’t lying, she could say those words with total honesty; but what she meant by “cure” was not what he thought. She intended to make him a happy vampire, and she had all the time in the world to do it.

They parted reluctantly. “Do you realize we just hugged for the longest period of time ever, without you vamping out on me?” Nat joked.

Nick chuckled. “You’re right, maybe you should be mad at me more often. I do like your way of making up,” he winked back.

“Oh you!” she swatted him playfully.

Laughing he stepped away from her. Right at that moment, when he was just grinning playfully she glimpsed the man he could be all the time if only he let himself enjoy life. “Hold that smile, I think I like it,” she grinned back.

“Wanna come over later?” he invited. “Movie and popcorn?”

Her smile disappeared in a sigh. “I wish I could. I’ll probably be working around the clock the next few days. I have a cooler filled to the rim with dead hostages from that nightclub. Not to mention the stack of paperwork, high as the CN tower, over there on my desk.”

Her mention of the Club made Nick even paler than usual. “Oh Nat,” he moaned. Looking around, making sure no one was around one extra time, he continued: “They were vampires Nat,” he whispered so low, so full of guilt that she could barely hear him in spite of her excellent vampire hearing.

“What did you say?”

“Vampires, Nat. They held the whole club hostage. One by one, they sucked these poor youths dry.”

Nat feigned shock. “Oh my God…” she pulled off the sheet covering the body on the slab to again look at the brutal slashes. ”They did a pretty good job covering it up though.”

Nick didn’t meet her eyes when she looked up; he just stared at the body of the young girl. “No they didn’t,“ he gasped with a pale voice, void of any life. “I did that. I covered up the fang marks. All of them.”

Nat grabbed his painfully fisted hand and projected warmth and comfort. “What happened?” She couldn’t very well let him know she already knew.

“I had to do it, Nat. It would have been too obvious, the secret would have been out in the open.”

“But Nick, there were survivors, they must have seen.”

He cringed even more. “Only the non resistors survived,” he admitted, looking away.

“There were over fifty people, Nick. How did you manage everything?”

“I didn’t,” he replied flatly. “I wasn’t alone, an Enforcer was there too, she whammied them all, killed the resistors, took care of the bodies of the criminals, and ordered “me” to cover up.”

“Oh Nick, I’m so sorry,” she tried to comfort him. It wasn’t easy when wave after wave of his pain hit her mind.

“ I had no choice, it had to be done, Nat.”

“I know. It’s just such a waste. And all this only to keep that precious code of yours!” That code was her law too now, but she had to keep up appearances; it wouldn’t do for her to openly defend it with Nick when she had always hated the strict vampire code before.

He looked at her strangely, for a second she wondered if he had found her out. Then he shook his head and continued his miserable stare at the body on the slab.

“Why don’t you get out of here, away from these bodies? I’ll call or come over when I have done my part; but you already know what my reports will say, don’t you?”

He sighed, “Yeah, I guess I do.”

She caressed his back comfortingly as she led him towards the door. “ I’ll talk to you later, when we get some kind of order around here.”

“Okay, talk to you later.”

He was in a state of shock, still. She could easily tell even without her mind reading capabilities. Briefly, she wondered why she wasn’t all that shocked. Deep inside, she knew the answer to that already. It was her job as an Enforcer to handle those types of situations. In her vast second hand memory archive, she had already handled them hundreds, or thousands times before. Nick wasn’t prepared for things like that, he hated what he was, and he loathed the idea of killing, even to uphold the code.

With her help he had not only killed, he had enjoyed it. She knew she had planted doubts in his mind, now all she had to do was wait. With some minor subconscious suggestion, he would come around.

With renewed strength from out of another bottle, she sat down at her desk to begin the fabrication of an autopsy.

Continue to Part 10

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