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Seeing the anguish in his son's eyes at the memory of the young priest was more than enough reason to speak with Dr. Lambert. Maybe she could be reasoned with, LaCroix thought.
Natalie was engrossed with the
details of this case. Six years ago...... Had it been that
long? In some ways it felt like yesterday.
Six women. Brunettes, single 26-35,
business women. Probably relaxing, having a night out on the town.
They all had promising careers ahead of them. They were bright, well
liked.
Then each full moon, for six months, she would
be called to the scene. She remembered it well. It was one
of her first
experiences as a coroner. One that made her rethink her career and
consider something safer, more natural....professional skydiving, for example,
had sounded appealing.
She shivered. It could have been you,
Lambert.
Maybe that's what was so frightening.
The last victim, six years ago had been a close friend of Grace's and a
police officer herself. And now it was happening all over again.
Same thing, different guy. No creativity, this copycat killer.
She had never seen the man tried and convicted
of the original murders. He was doing time.
OK, back to work. She stared through the microscope.
"Dr. Natalie Lambert?"
Natalie didn't look up. "Yeah, that's me.
Just put the Chinese take out over on the chair and I'll be with you...."
The man's deep laugh made her look up. When
she did it was into velvet brown eyes. "I'm sorry I don't have any
dinner to offer, only my expertise. I'm Tony Giosso.... Doctor
Giosso.. Criminal psychologist. I was called into do a psyche profile
on this case."
They shook hands. "Sorry, Doctor,
I haven't been entirely filled in on all of the details yet," Natalie
said.
"Call me Tony," he said.
She nodded. "I'm supposed to talk to the last murderer
and find out what makes him tick. Hopefully, help you guys
out."
Natalie observed him a moment. He certainly
didn't look like any of the Psychologists she had ever seen. Long black
hair cascaded half way down his back. He was dressed casually in
a white shirt, sleeves rolled up, a pair of jeans and a brown leather jacket.
"Tony, I guess you would want to maybe
take a look at the victim and maybe read my
report?"
"Uh, just the latter. I can go without
seeing the corpse."
"Well, I only have the preliminaries done.
I am finishing up- but it's going to be a little while. Have a seat?"
she offered. He accepted and she went about finishing up the autopsy.
As she worked he offered polite
conversation.
"So- a coroner. I bet you have some really
great dead people jokes, huh?" Natalie looked at him blankly, then
laughed
at his apparent discomfort when he had elicited no response.
"Yeah, I heard a really good one yesterday.
An oldie, but a goodie."
"Shoot," he said
"OK, what's the difference between a vampire and
a lawyer?"
Was she delusional or had he suddenly gone
pale.
"Tony?"
"Yeah, still here- sorry. Vampire threw me for a
loop. Reminded me of something."
Natalie looked at him closer. Had he been a victim, too?
"Sorry", she said sincerely.
"I'm fine now, so how about that joke-"
Thirty minutes later she was enjoying dinner and
conversation at a restaurant. He had insisted on it, even though
he had already had his own dinner, hours earlier. "For interrupting
your own dinner plans," he'd said.
Natalie had laughed, "I accept. This will be better
than Chinese fast food."
They had found it easy to talk to each other.
In fact, by the time Natalie looked up, they had been there for two hours.
She yawned, and he laughed.
"I guess it must be getting past your bedtime, hmm?"
"I'm afraid so."
She had dropped him off back at the station
and had headed home, surprised by the fact that being in the company of
a normal mortal man had pleased her so much.
She had just switched into her favorite pajamas
when she heard the knock at the door.
An hour till sunrise.
"Nick?"
She looked out the peephole and seriously considered
not answering the door. She glanced upwards at the open window and
sighed. What's the point?
She opened the door.
"LaCroix," it was a statement.
The vampire entered, glancing around
her apartment, relaxing in the armchair across from the sofa. A bit
cavalier for him, Natalie observed. His one redeeming feature had
been his manners. Were they gone now too, she wondered.
"Make yourself at home," she quipped.
"Natalie," he began. She raised an eyebrow.
"We're on a first name basis, now are we? Ok, so what is it again....Lucifer?"
"Lucien, and I think we know each other well enough
for that, don't you?" he asked.
"No," Natalie said. "At least I don't know you.
You, however, seem to know everything about me, where I live, where I work.....
so anyway, to what do I owe the honor of this visit?"
"Yes, I'll cut to the chase, as they say. It's Nicholas;
he is suffering."
"Nick? Is he hurt?" She was concerned,
he could see.
"Yes," LaCroix said seriously. "Though not as you
understand it. You must stop this *cure*, this false hope you give
him, that he can again become mortal. It causes him pain, and I will not
allow my son to be hurt. Not even when the wound is self- inflicted."
"Why waste your time and concern on this now, LaCroix?
You know my answer and Nick's choice. I thought you had come to terms
with it, maybe even been a little glad for it, as it has given him something
to look forward to."
"A puppy is something he could look forward
to, what you offer is a deception. And what about five or ten years
from now when you are gone and Nicholas is in despair once more.
What then?"
Natalie thought how very odd it was that LaCroix
was thinking in terms of the future..... his, hers or Nick's.
"LaCroix, normal life expectancy for a woman
is 85,.... that gives me at least..."
He interrupted, "I doubt your commitment to this beyond the next year.
I saw you at the restaurant this evening with the new boyfriend.
You two were really enjoying yourselves. In addition to that, you have
anything but a normal life."
Natalie's eyes narrowed. "*Doctor* Giosso
is just a friend, an acquaintance really, and besides I would never aban.."
Her words were cut short. He stood inches
from her.
"Return him to me. Ask him to go.
End his eternal suffering and stop this obsession for a cure. He
has been mine for eight hundred years, you cannot presume he's yours after
less than a decade."
Natalie stepped back, afraid. Then she
moved inches closer still. Only a few months ago, she may have gone screaming
out of her own home, but no longer.
"It's not my decision to make, not yours, it is
Nick's and his alone. And like I mentioned, I'm not going anywhere."
The last four words were spoken slow and deliberately. Natalie surprised
even herself.
Steely gray eyes looked stared into her own, mirroring
her resolve.
"Yes, but you and I know Nicholas would not
continue this cure on his own. With you removed from the scene, he
would come to his senses and return to a more fulfilling lifestyle."
He relaxed once more in the armchair.
"Would he? Natalie asked. I don't
think so." She bent down to pick up Sydney who purred loudly as she
stroked his glossy fur.
"Dr. Lambert, take Fluffy here...
"Sydney," she corrected as he reached out
to touch the feline with one finger and was awarded with a hiss.
"Whatever, and you introduce him to the great
outdoors, to life beyond these square boxes..Teach him the delight of hunting,
in stalking. Instinct returns and your harmless little pet becomes
a predator, reveling in the glory of a kill. He may even drop a mouse
or two at your feet in gratitude.
Now you take that same housecat, let it evolve into
a tiger, allow it to hunt, to feast, and then you bring it back indoors.
Oh- it may de-volve into a housecat again, tail slunk between its legs,
ever staring out the window at the nights it will never know again. Because
the memory of it will never go away. The freedom of it, the hunt,
the chase, the smell, the taste... it will haunt him into the eternities.
That is what you've done, Dr. Lambert, what
you continue to do. So I ask you, which of us is the more cruel?"
Natalie listened to the interesting interchange
of the words: it and him (monster or man) when describing the cat.
Rising to the challenge she responded, letting Sydney down. She paced
slowly.
"Take that same cat. Snatch it from
its mother, brother, sister, father, from family of any kind. The
only life it's known. Teach it to hunt, to stalk, to kill, and yes-
it may find satisfaction in providing for itself. But one day, you
find the cat- listless, wandering, searching, looking in windows, glancing
longingly at those indoor cats. Food brought to them, love lavished
on the, true intimacy with family and friends- even kittens of their own.
Remembering what it was like," she said finishing with LaCroix's
own words, "because the memory of that will never go away. The closeness,
the touch, the concern, the love....it will haunt him into eternity."
"No one said Nicholas couldn't have
a kitten. He's had several throughout the years," LaCroix said. "And besides
many cats are contented to be outdoors. Never needing anything more
than a good hunt," he stood.
"Wrong, Lucien," she said, using his first name
to capture his attention. "An indoor cat will always return to a human
when he needs comfort, attention, affection, help."
It was LaCroix's turn to pace. As if
in a carefully choreographed dance he offered Natalie the armchair.
She accepted.
"But doctor, you've changed roles on
us now. What exactly are *you* to the cat? What part do you
play? Friend? Owner? A human being as you say? Perhaps
a relative? Mother? Sister? A fellow cat?"
"You see, Natalie, you have missed something.
When a cat is introduced to the outside world, he receives an adopted family.
A father," LaCroix smiled in false modesty. "A tiger, like the cat
only stronger, better able to protect him when needed, and to teach the
cat the....finer points of the life outdoors. Along the way, there
may be sisters, brothers, welcomed into the family. The invitation
is always open....." LaCroix placed his cold hand over Natalie's.
So warm.
"So, you're a patriarchal society then," Natalie
said shakily, yanking her hand away. Upset with herself at reacting
to his invitation.
LaCroix smiled to himself. Surely she
knew she was safe as long as Nicholas felt about her the way he did.
If not, this would be really enjoyable.
"I heard no mention of a mother, a woman, the very
voice of reason. Maybe then Nick would have-"
"Why Doctor Lambert," LaCroix interrupted.
"That sounds like a marriage proposal...... and I accept," he smiled slowly,
sinking next to her in the armchair.
She was poised on the armrest, ready
to flee, he sensed. He picked up a strand of her chestnut curls letting
it slip lightly through his fingers, enjoying the texture, and much more-
her reaction, the flush on her cheeks, the bloodrise.
She stood quickly, uncertain of what to do next.
"You see, Natalie, that's the beauty of our situation
here, when the cat scratches on the door to be let in, someone is always
there to open it. We may go in and out as frequently as we please.
The best of both worlds."
"But you can't," Natalie protested. "Not really."
Tired of the argument, or maybe just weary
of toying with her, Natalie couldn't decide. LaCroix readied to take
his leave.
"Don't nail the cat door shut Natalie," he said.
"At least not until you let out the cat. Goodnight, Fluffy."
were his parting words.
"That's Sydney," she shouted to an empty sky,"
and Doctor Lambert", she added more quietly.
The End of Chapter 2.
Back to Part One! / Onto Part Three!
