Work Text:
Title: Alter Idem
Author: Poodle
Rating: PG-13
Summary: (Post Script to Ashes To Ashes) As Pompeii fell beneath the fury of Vesuvius; Lucius LaCroix was spawned by a creature even more malevolent than himself...His daughter.
Alter Idem
~*Another Self*~
By Poodle~
Tiny and infinitely precious.
He took her into his arms. She folded gently against him, rested her head against the broad expanse of his chest and sighed. "Was it truly so great a thing to ask as all that, father?"
"*Never,*" the word hissed from his lips, "Call me that again. Call me what you will; son, lover, *slave,* if you must, but I am not your father. Lucius died, here, tonight, among the dust and ash of ancient tombs; atop this sarcophagus where you so callously entombed the creature who spawned you."
Her laughter rippled though the chamber, a child's laughter, tinkling with a chilling innocence among the dusky shadows, lost in the darkness beyond the painted walls displaying with solemn pageantry the passage of the Ka down the river Styx toward the judgment of after-life and beyond...
"How melodramatic you've become, father."
He cut her with an icy stare.
"Oh, very well, have it your way," she huffed with exasperation. "Perhaps *General* is more in keeping with your current turn of piety."
"Even that is greater honor than I deserve." He turned away from the girl reclined in his arms where they lay atop the sarcophagus, and stared into the distant shadows. "What have I become?"
"The greatest of all things -- *my creation.*"
"The embodiment of eternal evil."
Her sigh cut the darkness. "Such droll sentiments. This, from the man who slew a thousand Gauls. Tell me, Lucius, did you believe yourself to be evil when you raped their woman? Did their cries of pain and anguish prick this conscience of yours when you thrust yourself into their unwilling bodies as they writhed on the ground?"
"War and its inevitable consequences are mortal necessities."
"And we, of course, are no longer mortal. Or have you forgotten? We are free, free to be, to do, all things. None dare judge nor stand against us. If war is a necessary evil, how can you deny our love? Can you gaze into my eyes and sincerely claim you did not relish what just transpired between us?"
He shuddered and squeezed his eyes shut.
"You, who in the prime of your manhood experienced all that life had to offer before succumbing to my eternal embrace; how dare you seek to deny me the ecstasy that is rightfully mine to know? You owe me this -- and more! I have never known such rapture, even in the throes of pure blood-lust, as what I experienced here, tonight, crushed beneath you atop this stone--"
"*Silence!*"
The walls of the burial chamber reverberated with his rage. Mortar crumbled and a scattering of dust rose in the air.
"Must you speak of it?" he rasped.
Divia's laughter rippled over his senses, laying bare the raw edges of what remained of his soul.
"My beloved." Her tiny hand sought the cool alabaster of his cheek. She turned his head, forced him to face her.
Truth taunted from the seeming innocence of her childlike eyes. The truth of what he'd done.
"Again," she breathed.
The word pierced a stake through his chest and his breath caught.
"Do it...again."
Rage consumed him; it rose in a roar of anguish that ripped from his lips. "Surely this is madness! Tell me that I died in the rubble of Pompeii and this is my hell." He dropped his face into his hands.
"Why do you fight me, so?" Her fingers traced patterns over the firm muscles of his arm. Her lips brushed his cheek. "Would you deny the ecstasy embodied by my embrace? Our blood cries to intertwine. Swear to me that it does not beckon to you, this blood of your master encased in ageless flesh. Our thoughts are one or have you forgotten? Do you foolishly believe I did not feel the passion surging through you? Your lust for me as you claimed my supple young body? Why do you turn away?"
"May the gods have mercy upon us for what we've done."
"The gods! How long has it been since I heard you acknowledge the existence of fictitious deities? Even in life you sought only to defy, never to beseech them. Why start now?"
"You're my *daughter!*"
"Lucius is dead or so you said. He lies within this tomb, eternally enshrined with the ashes of my master, the one who foolishly sought to harness an evil greater than himself. Indeed, Lucius lies dead and buried, perhaps beneath the very ash of Pompeii itself." She grabbed his chin with a grip of insurmountable strength and forced him to look into her face. "So be it; as your master, I order you, General. Make love to me again."
Rage and shame strangled his chest; it fought to force free in a torrent of anguish that glared from his eyes. "I should have lived to see the day you were given in *iustum matrimonium* to the man of your choice; one worthy of your virtues."
"I choose...you, my *triumphator.*" She chuckled deep within her throat. "If it will ease your sentiments, I shall don the *flammeum,* pay homage to Juno, and permit you to loosen my girdle with all due pomp-and-circumstance in the presence of witnesses, no less--"
"There is nothing amusing about this unholy union, you despicable, wicked child! To lie with your own father is an abomination against nature."
"Shall we gather daises to plait into my hair and cast aside my girlhood *toga praetexta.* Dedicate it to the gods!"
"*Stop it!*"
"Do you think me a total innocent?" she hissed, her tiny face a pale oval, sublime and beguiling in the dim. "Don't you realize, even in life I felt such passion that only you could suffice to fulfill it. We are alike, you and I, as only kindred souls can be. *Alter idem.*"
"Another self," he whispered as the truth of her words twisted his heart. "*Tamquam alter idem.*"
"I watched from the shadows as you laid with my mother; weak, sniveling creature that she was, totally unworthy of the gift I chose to bestowed upon you. The bed chambers could hardly be considered private, now could they?" The girl leaned near, her breath a whisper of blood-scent, caressed his cheek. "Your pale, strong limbs; firelight flickered over your form as you writhed and strained against her in the darkness--"
"Evil incarnate. I am as much to blame for the monster you've become as the creature who magnified that evil only to be consumed by it. I should have destroyed you when I held the scythe in my hand."
"But you did not." A smile taunted from her lips. "Father."
"I...did not." His words echoed and faded into the silence that fell between them.
A whisper of light caught the golden halo of her hair. Innocent eyes, crystal blue, a child's eyes, studied him in silence; the wisdom of ages lingered in their depths. She squirmed onto his lap and settled near, arms around his neck; so like the child he'd known and loved in life; a chilling silhouette, accentuating the depravity of what they'd become. "Why?" she breathed against his ear.
Her question seized his heart, twisted the vestiges of humanity and his response froze in his throat.
"Why didn't you kill me when you had the chance?" She melted into his chest and searched his face with knowing eyes.
"Truly I am damned." He crushed her near, enfolded her in the sanctuary of his arms, and pressed his lips to the coolness of her brow. "Eternal companion."
Eternal tormentor.
"Child of my heart's desire." His words quenched the embers of mortality that smoldered, faded...
...and died.
A tinkling of laugher, child's laugher, danced through the chamber of death. Hollow and empty it echoed beyond the tombs where they lay entwined, into the darkness that rose to claim it...
~*~*~*~*~*
"Divia!"
The cry wrenched from his lips and LaCroix bolted awake in the stillness of his room.
Silence taunted him from the darkness.
He drew a ragged breath and dropped his face into his hands. Dampness coated his palms and he pulled back, stared at the crimson sweat soaking his hands. Scarlet plastered his nightshirt to his chest.
"Wretched creature," he spat in defiance. "What right have you to haunt me?"
//Damno! Eternal damnation is far more fitting a price to pay, wouldn't you agree, Father? Should I not haunt your dreams - eternally?//
"LaCroix?"
The voice drew his attention and he turned and faced the silhouette framed in the doorway. Candlelight backbit the familiar lines of the man's face, the golden hair, clear blue eyes deepened by concern. Nicholas.
"Are you all right?" He stepped into the room.
"Always." LaCroix sat up straight and faced his visitor. "What makes you believe otherwise?"
Nick opened his mouth to respond, met the stoic gaze that dared him to comment, then reconsidered and said nothing.
"To what do I owe the unexpected pleasure of your presence?" The silken tone betrayed nothing of the turmoil within.
His visitor stood for a moment in silence as if struggling for a response, then he shrugged and held out a glass; its amber liquid caught the light and beckoned to LaCroix, tempting his thirst.
Nicholas crossed the room and relinquished it into his hand.
He gulped the refreshing contents then stalled in surprise. The vintage was human! The finest. Part of his own stock to be sure, but it was the deliverer of this culinary delight that produced the master vampire's astonishment. He thought to make mention of his wayward protégé's lapse of mortal refinement, then decided against it. "Is there something that I can assist you with, Nicholas?" He slowly sipped his repast with an air of indifference. "I was led to believe that your astute associates were content to consider the events of the last few days settled, or am I to be subjected to further incarceration?"
"I didn't come here on department business."
"Really?" He studied the detective with an unwavering gaze and waited as the minutes stretched between them.
Nick was the first to look away. His eyes roamed over the contents of the room, the massive four-poster bed, a velvet Victorian lounge, a Queen Anne chair, an imposing oak bureau of unknown origins, and dateless objets d'art. All in all, an appropriate collage-of-the-ages to adorn the domicile of an ageless entity.
"I trust there's a reason for your visit?" LaCroix's voice smoothly wove into the silence of the moment.
"Yes...well." Nicholas turned and faced his steady gaze. "I was just passing by and I thought that..."
"Yes?"
"I thought that, perhaps, you might enjoy a little company."
The master vampire arched a sculpted brow. "Your concern is appreciated, Nicholas, but as you can see, I'm quite all right." He spread his hands with nonchalance. "Clearly, there are no bogeymen lurking about." He drew a sigh and whispered, "Nor little girls seeking a collection of heads as one might expect a child to collect dolls."
Nicholas cringed but said nothing.
"So if you'll excuse me, I'll return to the oblivion of sleep; Morpheus awaits." He rested his glass on the nightstand and resumed an air of relaxed refinement while delivering the younger vampire a pointed stare. "*Au revoir.*"
The detective cleared his throat and retreated a step from the bed. "Sorry to have disturbed your sleep." His eyes fell to the blood-sweat despoiling the sheets, but he refrained from commenting. "I'll be going. I just stopped by to remind you--" he paused, returned to the bed and surprised them both by resting his hand on the Master's arm. "I'm here if you need me."
"So you've said." LaCroix's expressionless eyes fell to the hand, then rose and locked the younger vampire in a steady gaze.
The minutes stretched between them, until uneasy beneath the unwavering stare, Nicholas dropped his hand. With a stiff nod, he retreated for the door.
"I should have done as Divia asked."
Nicholas froze in the doorway, the confession a tangible presence between them, and slowly turned to face him. "That's pure insanity and you know it."
"Do I?"
The air rushed from his lungs and he gasped. "Without doubt. How could you possibly believe otherwise?"
"Was it truly so great a thing to ask?" His voice fell to a whisper. "What irony; I, the creature whose atrocities against humanity are without precedent, recoil at so simple a request."
//Let us do what must not be done.//
The flicker of a lash betrayed the wince that marred the powerful vampire's poise, and he turned away.
"You could not have conceded to her demands and retained even a vestige of your humanity."
"*Humanity,*" he roared. "What have such sentiments to do with me?"
"Everything." Nicholas returned to his side and sat on the edge of the bed. He rested his heel on the frame and laced his fingers across his up-drawn knee. "No one could fault your refusal."
"I very much doubt whether Vachon and Urs would consent to grant such leniency in my regard." He chuckled deeply in his throat. "*Terra es, terram ibis.*"
"True, neither wanted to die. I suppose it can be said that all vampires are cowards at heart." Nicholas focused on the shadows in the corners of the room and sighed. "Cheating death is our specialty. Still, if they knew the facts, even they would agree you had no choice."
"Choice is a subjective issue given to much debate, would you not agree?" He drew the air deeply into his lungs and released it slowly. "If we had lived mortal lives, I would have given her in marriage. As ludicrous as it seems in this modern age, her mother and I would have paid homage to the gods, and in the presence of a priest of Jupiter, offered up the dress of her girlhood, draped her in a veil of red, and presented her hand to her betrothed. Instead, she sought the only love she'd ever known -- her father's. I suppose, given the circumstances, it was logical, even if reprehensible. What good could be said of a child who seduces her own father?"
"You could not *consent.*"
"And so, I lose my lovely daughter not once...but twice."
Silence fell between them, broken only by the distant sounds of Toronto's stirrings. Dawn beckoned to its human inhabitants. Hinting beyond the far horizon, it drew them to the birth of a new day while signaling its demise to those who sought the night.
"The evil she possessed was no greater than my own." The words were a silken whisper floating though the room. "Spawned as much by myself as the creature she destroyed; your great-grandfather, one might say."
"By her own admittance, Divia chose her own destiny," Nicholas protested. He turned and met the ice-blue eyes of the one who granted him eternal life. "No one is to blame."
"She would choose her own way," he repeated softly. "Not unlike another of my offspring."
"As we all must."
"Birds from the nest." His gaze passed over the fair countenance; expressive blue eyes, golden hair. Struck by an eerie sense of déjà vu, he was surprised to realize the similarity to his daughter had escaped his observation over the years. "As she was my flesh, you are my blood."
Beyond the moment, dawn threatened. It whispered its warning along their senses, uniting them in a common bond unique to their kind, an instinctive foreboding of the hours to come...
"You were not alike." Nicholas dispersed the hush; conviction hardened his tone.
"It is said, we spend our lives searching for another self." LaCroix's voice rose in a melodic whisper that filled the room. "*Alter idem.*" He leaned near, rested his palm against Nicholas' chest and felt for the stirrings of a heart he'd silenced centuries before. "If you linger, the sun will trap you here."
Nicholas' eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected intimacy of the gesture, then he astonished himself by reclining back and settling against the broad expanse of the master vampire's chest; no heartbeat echoed from its depths. "I know."
~*~the end