Work Text:
Title: Descent To Hell
Author: Poodle
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Forever Knight
Pairing: Nicholas, LaCroix
Summary: A Postscript to "Last Knight." After the screen went black for the final time....
Descent To Hell
By Poodle~
~*Facilis descensus Averno.~*
LaCroix raised the staff above his head, clutched the polished surface in a crushing grip--
"*Damn you, Nicholas!*"
--And plunged it downward, impaling his unholy-begotten son.
A wail of anguish ripped from Knight's lips as the momentum of the thrust threw him forward across his beloved's supine form and pinned him to the hardwood floor. Natalie's hand slipped from his grasp; he struggled to reclaim it but failed.
The world grew dim.
"*Facilis descensus Averno.*" The words were a velvet whisper that echoed through the gathering darkness. "The descent to Hell is easy."
Blood strangled Nicholas' throat; he thrashed instinctively against the impalement. Soon the end would come and faith would lead him home. His eyelids fluttered -- closed...
Then flew wide in shock.
"Damn you, LaCroix!" The words tore from his lips. The stake had plunged through his shoulder not his heart, pinning him to the floor. The pain was unbearable, but the betrayal surpassed even that. He struggled to free himself but failed.
LaCroix knelled at his side. "How well I know the agony. At least you've been spared a fate of flame and smoldering ash." His gaze traveled to the scarred surface of the lift's door. Inner memory of a similar impalement clouded the ice-blue depths of his eyes. "Quid pro quo."
"Free me, damn you!"
"So that you may complete this gruesome task?"
"*Please.*" He fought with inhuman strength to pull himself from the floor, but the staff was buried deep and his consciousness waned with the blood gushing from his open wound. He struggled to reach Natalie's hand...
"I beg you, LaCroix...her hand!" His eyes cried out to the master in anguish as his fingertips brushed the surface of her skin; he felt the vestiges of lingering warmth and struggled to clasp it.
LaCroix snatched it from his grasp.
The loss twisted his soul and he hissed in torment, "I *despise* you."
A chuckle rumbled through the loft. "-Let them hate, provided they fear.' And I assure you, Nicholas, there is much to fear."
The world grew dark and shadows rose to claim him. "Promise me this." His hand floundered until he found LaCroix's knee. He clutched the pristine crease of a darkly clad leg in desperation. "Swear to me that you won't bring her across and bind her to yourself."
"If you, in turn, will pledge an oath to me never to relinquish the life that I have granted you."
"She believed in me! I betrayed that trust and stole her life. I cannot bear to exist with such guilt."
"Absolution is not mine to grant, but her life need not be forfeit."
"No! This darkness is mine alone to bear; I won't condemn her to it." Through force of will he raised his head and hissed in defiance, "I concede."
"A wise decision, and one you won't regret. Life is the most precious of gifts, and eternal life -- its pinnacle. In time the pain will pass, and once again you'll relish life's abundance at my side. I shall hold you to our bargain for all time, agreed?"
"Agreed! Now swear it, *goddamn you!*"
"Finding oneself skewered in such a manner avails one of few options, would you not agree?" The master vampire leaned near, firmly clasped Nicholas' face and pressed his lips to the fount of blood gushing from his child's mouth. Despite the resistance, he savored the eternal ambrosia and sighed. "I swear she shall not be bound...to me."
Nicholas drew a strangled breath; his eyelids fluttered and closed.
"Rest, my wayward one."
LaCroix turned his attention to the woman who lay in peaceful repose, her serene face splattered by droplets of crimson from the gruesome scene. The faintest embers of life smoldered in her resilient breast. "You would aspire to take him from me," he breathed. "What grandiose conceit!" A smile twisted his pale lips as he whispered, "-Ye shall not surely die;' so said the serpent to Eve. -For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened.'"
The master vampire turned to his fallen son. Nicholas lay as if in death, blood trickling from his lips. He gently brushed the locks of hair from his brow and covered his mouth with his own...
//She shall not be bound...to me.//
LaCroix smiled, his lips laced crimson, bent near to Natalie, pressed his mouth to hers--
--And spat.
The Beginning