SquidgeWorld Archive

DISCLAIMER: The characters don't belong to me, they belong to Sony. When I am done with them I promise to wave my magic wand and put them back the way they were before I took them out. I don't claim any ownership of them, just of this particular story which can be posted to any website as long as I am told where you are putting it.

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LaCroix lay silently on the bed glaring at Natalie. "I don't know how much this is going to hurt you in your present condition," Natalie tried to be as considerate as possible only her innate sympathy for any creature in pain allowed her to evidence any concern for Nick's tormentor of the past eight hundred years.

"Pain is not a concern, Doctor" The last word slipped from his mouth like an insult. Natalie's spine stiffened, as she had to remind herself that he had to be LaCroix even if he was dying. Natalie inserted the needle and forced some blood into the chamber.

"So Nat?" Nick had been pacing nervously in the background while Natalie had conducted her examination, but now he came to his father's bedside.

"I don't know Nick," Natalie set the syringe down on the table and looked into her best friend, almost lover's, eyes, "From his symptoms now and what he described from the last week I'd say it's a relapse or a mutation of the -fever' virus. But I have to get the sample to the lab before I can say anything else." As Natalie placed the vial of blood in a small cold pack, she froze for a moment and pulled another syringe and vial from her medical bag and turned to Nick. Nick looked at her questioningly. "If it's a relapse, Nick," her eyes were clouded with fear.

"I feel fine," Nick said reassuringly.

"Nicholas," the voice though weakened was still forceful enough to cause Nick to shudder convulsively. Nick turned to his father, "Allow Natalie to take the blood sample." Nick nodded and rolled up his sleeve. Natalie gently inserted the needle and withdrew her sample. As she finished she looked at LaCroix gratefully.

LaCroix turned away.

"I better go," Natalie said and laid her had on Nick's shoulder before she made her way down the stairs from Nick's bedroom.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Nick asked. There was no answer. The only sound was the gate on the elevator closing as Natalie left for the morgue. It was after all a question with an obvious answer. The pride of the older vampire could not admit that there was something wrong, something he needed his son to help with, until it was to late. Nick silently prayed it wasn't too late.

They stood in silence for a few more minutes until it weighed so heavily on both of them that Nick felt compelled to break it. "Are you hungry? I'll get you some of your reserve."

Nick turned to go down to the kitchen, when LaCroix spoke, "I am dying Nicholas and there is nothing that can be done to stop it."

"You don't know that," Nick's voice was almost desperate.

LaCroix internally smirked. It was amazing how his son could claim no right to live for himself, yet would be so desperate to cling to life for the very person he had tried to escape for so many years. "You should be happy Nicholas. Soon you will be free."

"I'm not," Nick glared at his father.

Even though LaCroix understood what his son was saying, he felt the need to twist it as he always had. Even imminent death could not change him that much, "Not happy, Nicholas or not free. You're right you won't be free for sometime yet unless you help me..."

"We are trying to help, LaCroix. Natalie will find a cure." Nick sat on the edge of his bed where his father lay.

"Find a cure, as she's done for you all these years my -mortal- son?" LaCroix's slight was acid toned and Nick glared back at his father, "Do not fool yourself Nicholas. She doesn't have the resources to help me."

"I could use the DeBrabant Foundation's money... I could..." Nick started a chant that seemed to be more for himself than for LaCroix.

"Nicholas... STOP," LaCroix's hiss turned into a hoarse cough that did more to bring Nick out of his litany than his father's command had. "It is over my son and I need you to give me the death I deserve. An honourable death, a death with dignity."

"NO," Nick growled, "Where there is life, there is hope." Natalie's words sprang from Nick's mouth unbidden.

"You, Nicholas are a hypocrite." LaCroix's tone was calm, while Nicholas stared at him in shock. "If you were in my position now, you would be arguing that it was god's will for you to die. But as it's me and not you, your beliefs of our evil don't apply now do they."

Nick's temper was flaring. "How dare you? You're the ultimate hypocrite. You say you live forever, yet you do nothing, you only live to torment me, you live through me. If I wasn't here you would be nothing." The younger vampire hissed out his words at his father, looming over him like an angry giant.

"And if it wasn't for me, Nicholas... You would be nothing." LaCroix growled. "Let's finish it now." LaCroix swung out from the bed and stood toe to toe with his son, both yellow eyed with anger. Then Nick stepped back.

"No", he said simply. "I see what you are doing LaCroix." He turned to walk away.

LaCroix sat heavily on the bed, his legs were too weak to hold his weight any longer. Nick heard the thud and turned back to his master, "Do you know why I came to you Nicholas?"

"No"

"So that the young ones would not see me. So they would not know what was happening to the elder of this city. So they would not see the opportunity to kill me like the jackals they are. Perhaps, I should have let them. Perhaps I should not have thought so much of Toronto's community." LaCroix left that remark like bait, waiting for his son to bite.

He did. "The community?" Nick looked at his father quizzically.

"Do you know what the Enforcers will do to every vampire who came in contact with the virus? What they will do to every vampire in Toronto, if they learn there is a -mutation' or a chance of a relapse?" LaCroix watched as the mental images ran through his progeny's mind and Nick turned away shuddering. "They will do anything to protect the community as a whole. Even if that means destroying an entire city's population of vampires. So I came to you, to hide. To save the young ones. To ask you for your help."

Nick stood there contemplating what his master had said. Knowing it was not the only reason for LaCroix's plea. Nick knew that pride also motivated his father. "I can't LaCroix. I'm sorry. I can't kill like that, not even for you."

"Must I beg, Nicholas?" LaCroix's voice while still cold and calm, had something in it that Nicholas almost never heard from his master. Desperation. "Do you think I want you to watch me while I waste away like some mortal?" The word was spat out like it was a curse. To LaCroix it was. "I am immortal. I was as to a god. To be laid low, to sit and rot away, because of some tiny, insignificant particle of life. This is not how I was to die. I was a roman general, Nicholas. I should have died on a battlefield or even during the eruption, but this is not -my- death, Nicholas. As slow, torturous withering of my body while my mind, my spirit watches you all loose the respect, the fear I am due. No Nicholas. I will not. Look at me." Nick had looked away during his father's diatribe. He would not, could not listen. The words were almost too compelling. Now his father commanded him to look. "LOOK AT ME..."

Nick looked. LaCroix wasn't a pretty sight. His eyes and cheeks were sunken, like those on a corpse. The once flaring blue eyes that wielded such power, were dull. His sensuous lips were dry and cracked. His skin was like yellow, white tissue paper left to long in a window where the sun could make it dry and curl. His limbs were wasted and could barely hold his weight to walk, as though he had not fed in years, even though Nick knew he had fed just a few hours ago. Now Nick understood Natalie's fear. If this was a relapse of the fever virus, he could be looking into a mirror. Would he then beg Natalie for release? The thought came into his mind unbidden and he knew the answer but he still couldn't bring himself to admitting defeat. There was still a chance. Natalie might have the answer.

"I have to think." Nick answered. He pulled his leather car coat from the closet. "I'll be back in a couple of hours." LaCroix nodded and seemed disappointed.

As Nick drove to the morgue, his mind was a whirl. Was it right for him to deny his father's plea. Was it right for him to comply with it. Why was it so easy to condemn himself to death yet, he could not bear to see his father or Janette die. Would he be able to let Natalie die if the time came, when the time came, even though he felt that his unlife was a hell. LaCroix words about the fear and respect that he was due slipped back into his mind. Was that all that LaCroix felt he had in his immortal life. Was that all he felt for LaCroix. There were too many questions in his mind and no answers, when he finally arrived at his destination.

He walked in to Natalie's office and she looked up. Nick could tell be the look on her face that the answers she had weren't good. "You're okay. Not a sign of the virus left in your blood at all. I don't know why but you're fine. Just lucky I guess." Natalie spoke as she walked to Nick and took his hands into hers. "I can't say I understand you and LaCroix's relationship, but I know this isn't going to be easy for you. Nick, LaCroix is dying. I can't do anything. The rate at which the virus is progressing. I'm sorry. Maybe if he had come to you sooner... No not even then. I tried every thing I could think of. In this mutated form, AIDS blood speeds the degeneration not retards it. I would guess healthy blood slowly seeps into all the body cavities like his lungs, that's why he's coughing so much."

Nick nodded. "Nat, he asked me to kill him."

Natalie looked at Nick seriously, "And what did you say?"

"No, repeatedly." Nick expected a positive response at this point.

"Oh..." Natalie turned slowly and sat on the edge of her desk. "Why?"

It wasn't the response Nick had been expecting. "Because I don't have the right..."

"It's LaCroix's life, Nick. He has the right and I would guess he's asking you because he trusts you." Natalie stood again and faced Nick, "Normally I wouldn't agree with this either Nick, but in this case there is no hope. There's only pain and death left for him. Curare might ease the pain, but I don't know what it would do to him with this virus in his system. It might work and it might make things worse for him."

Nick nodded.

"You know this just isn't how I pictured LaCroix dying." Natalie shook her head.

At that moment with those words in his mind, Nick had his answers.

Nick returned to the loft. As he entered, he could hear the coughs that racked his master's body. He walked to his fireplace and pulled a carved wooden cane from the stand beside it and slowly walked up the stairs. "LaCroix. Tonight I realized I couldn't watch anyone I love die..."
LaCroix was laying on the bed and could barely pull himself upright, but he managed to sit. The master vampire started to speak. Nick could almost hear his remark that than killing him should be easy before it left his mouth. Nick stopped it. "...Like this. I was talking to Natalie and I realized that I wouldn't be able to put her through the hell you are going through and I won't put you through it either. I -might- do something else with Natalie, but all I can do for you is asceed to your wishes."

LaCroix looked at his son gratefully. "Help me stand, Nicholas. I do not wish to die in bed, but on my feet." Nick helped LaCroix to stand, then with some effort flew them both out the skylight to the roof of the warehouse. They stood facing each other in the brisk night air. The music of the Toronto night embraced them, as did the light of the stars and the moon. LaCroix's voice joined the song, "Thank you, my son. I hope you find the peace that you are looking for, after my death."

Nick nodded. In some ways LaCroix knew him better than he knew himself but then how could he not. LaCroix was his master, his brother and most of all, "I love you, father." Then the wooden stave in Nick's hands flashed forward and impaled LaCroix.

Tears streaked down his face, and he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. He turned to find that Natalie had come up the fire stairs to the roof, to find him after his final act of obediance to his vampire father. "You gave LaCroix a great gift, Nick."

"Then why do I feel like a murderer." Nick turned his wet face into the wind. It coldly whipped his skin.

Natalie turned Nick's face back to face her with one of her hands. "Don't. You did what he asked, what you had to do, what was right and he gave you a gift in return." Natalie laid a hand over Nick's heart. "He gave you your freedom, Nick. Feel." She took Nick's hand and placed it over his heart, under her own. There was the tell tale throb of a steady mortal heart beat.

Nick turned his eyes to the night sky and the wind once more, "Thank -you-, Father".