As always, hugs and mocha to my good friend and lost twin Mary Jenkins for
being a most excellent beta reader and for her endless encouragement and
support. A big 'ol hug to my pals Shana Nolan and Laura Griffin just for
doing me the honor of being my pal's and last, but certainly not least,
huge thanks and many cups of English Toffee Cappuccino to my good friend
Kim Rhoton for suggesting the ending.
I welcome feedback at DarkPNinja@aol.com
I do not own any of the Forever Knight characters in the following story.
My permission to archive it is granted to whoever would like to do so. Mel
has my permission to archive it at www.fkfanfic.com, it goes without saying
that it may be archived at any Dark Perk page!
Now without further fanfare I humbly submit,
The Unforgiven
Part 1 of 1
Renee Miller
August, 1998
In his nearly 800 years as a vampire Nick had never felt such fear. He
paced the floors of his loft anxiously as blood sweat began to dot his
forehead and upper lip. He glanced nervously toward the upper level at the
closed bedroom door, then expectantly toward the skylight, finally, upon
hearing the sound of the elevator, he hurried toward it. He grabbed the
door and slid it open, surprising his visitor. "What took you so long
LaCroix?" He snarled, "I've been going half mad waiting, you said you'd
be here in ten minutes!"
Lucien LaCroix raised an eyebrow at his son's blatant rudeness then
pointedly glanced at his watch and coldly replied, "Nicholas it has been
exactly 9 minutes since we spoke. Now if you'll tell me what this is all
about . . ."
Ignoring his creator's remarks Nick grabbed LaCroix by the arm and dragged
him toward the center of the living room. "You must help me LaCroix, I
don't know what to do!" he urgently whispered.
Shocked by this unseemly display, LaCroix removed Nick's grasping hand
from his arm and carefully straightened out his jacket sleeve. "What on
earth have you done now and why are you whispering Nicholas?"
With another obvious glance toward the closed bedroom door Nick almost
sobbed, "It's . . . it's Natalie. I've done something horrible and I
don't know how to fix it." Desperation overwhelming him, Nick grabbed his
elegant mentor by the shoulders and pulled him closer, "You must help me!"
Shocked beyond description by this performance, yet, at the same time,
rather pleased that his wayward son had turned to him for help, LaCroix
once more disengaged himself from his son's sweaty hold and calmly
announced, "I warned you of the dangers in becoming involved with a mortal
Nicholas. You were unwise not to heed my advice."
"You never told me about this!" Nick snapped back.
With a dramatic sigh LaCroix sat down and focused his full attention on the
obviously distraught vampire pacing before him, "Fine, tell me Nicholas,
what have you done this time?"
Nervously running his hand through his blond hair Nick glanced yet again
toward the ominously closed bedroom door and then poured out his story.
When the tale was finished LaCroix merely stared at his errant son,
speechless for the first time in nearly 2000 years. He raised one elegant
hand up to his face and covered his eyes for a moment as though the mere
act of gazing upon the teller of this anecdote was far too much for him to
bear.
Nicholas stood before the ancient one, arms limp at his sides head lowered
in defeat. Hearing LaCroix rise and move to stand before him Nick looked
up expecting sympathy, instead he received a quick slap across the face.
"What was that for?" He incredulously exclaimed rubbing his cheek.
"How could you? You, my blood son! Nicholas have you learned nothing,
nothing at all? This time you have gone too far, even I can not help you."
With that LaCroix turned to leave.
"You must help me!!" Once more a sweaty hand desperately grasped an Armani
suited arm.
In turmoil LaCroix paused. His every instinct told him to leave, to
finally rid himself of this millstone that had once been his favored child.
Yet, old habits die hard and the thought of what Nicholas might do if left
to his own devices was disconcerting at best. His decision was made.
Turning and shaking Nicholas' still grasping hand from his arm he said,
"Nicholas what on Earth possessed you to tell her that her new jeans made
her butt look big?"
"Well she told me that she wanted honesty in our relationship and I thought
. . . "
"FOOL!!! When women ask for honesty they don't really mean it! Don't you
remember when Janette put on that absolutely awful flapper get - up in the
20's? Did *I* tell her that it made her hips look wide when she asked? OF
COURSE NOT!! I merely assured her that she was a vision of awe inspiring
beauty even though the hideous creation did indeed make her hips appear
wide enough to offer a full grown vampire family of four shade from the
noon day sun! When Francessca asked me if I thought that she should have
taken a bit of weight off before she was brought across did I tell her that
I'd been wishing I had thought of that before I created her? NO, I told
her that her voluptuous figure was equal to that of Helen of Troy and that
Cleopatra herself would have wept in envy! And, when that delightful
little Urs asked me if that nauseatingly cute gamin hairdo she somehow
acquired "looked good" on her did I tell her that I thought it caused her
to bear a distinct resemblance to an unkempt Shitzu? NO, I told her that
it framed her exquisite face the way DaVinci would have! No, no Nicholas
you don't tell women the truth regarding their bodies or their hair you
allow their 'girlfriends' to do that!"
"Their girlfriends?" Nicholas repeated, confused.
"Of course! Women will accept criticism regarding their appearance from
other women but never, never at any time from their men. How you have
survived as long as you have without this knowledge is a mystery."
Almost as though LaCroix's words were a que the elevator door slid open and
Tracy Vetter stepped out. Giving Nick a disdainful 'once-over' and shaking
her head in disgust she headed directly for the second floor.
Nick intercepted her at the staircase and gave her his most charming smile,
"Trace? Can you tell her how sorry I am? I . . . umm, didn't mean it the
way it sounded, I just thought that she would want to know! Now I don't
know how to make it up to her."
Tracy rolled her eyes and sighed. 'God, he does look miserable' she
thought and patted Nick on the shoulder. "There may be hope Nick, let me
access the damage that you've done first. There's one thing that might
work but it will come at a price, and considering what Nat told me on the
phone, that price may be quite high. Are you prepared to meet it?"
When Nicholas simply stared blankly in confusion LaCroix quickly moved next
to him and answered for him, "He is my dear, I assure you he is."
Tracy nodded then continued up the stairs and knocked gently on the bedroom
door, "Nat? I'm here, let me have a look." The door was opened, Tracy
stepped inside, then it immediately closed.
The two vampires stared up at the door and waited. Breaking the tense
silence Nick asked, "What price LaCroix?"
"Oh Nicholas, will you never learn?" LaCroix replied, shaking his head
sadly, "There is only one avenue left for you, one thing that will placate
a woman who is so grievously wounded by her man. Nicholas, you do have
charge cards don't you?"
At that moment the door opened and Natalie came out head held high. She
was clad in an old, worn pair of jeans that, not unattractively, fit her
quite tightly accentuating her derri?re. She held a wrinkled shopping bag
containing the new offending jeans in her hand. Tracy followed close
behind her. They gracefully came down the staircase and stopped directly
in front of Nick. Natalie silently held out her right hand, palm up, and
waited.
Nick diligently reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet.
Flipping through it he extracted a charge card and handed it over to
Natalie.
"Oh no!" Barked Tracy, "Not that one buddy, she needs the platinum one!"
Nick glanced helplessly towards LaCroix who slowly shook his head,
"Nicholas, I suggest that you surrender it to the ladies, it is the only
way."
Nick pulled out another card and gingerly placed it in Natalie's hand. She
slipped the card into her purse without a word then turned and headed
toward the elevator with Tracy.
"Natalie," Tracy began as they walked, "I can't believe that you ever even
considered those 'Wonder Butt' jeans, didn't the clerk tell you that they
just add inches? Don't worry, they'll take them back. God, nobody looks
good in those. I'll show you the brand that I like the best." The two
women headed toward the elevator while Nick stared forlornly after them.
The elevator door was pulled shut and began it's descent. With a deep sigh
Nick turned to LaCroix and was shocked to find that he too was preparing to
leave, "Now, where are you going?"
"Well, the ladies may need help carrying their parcels." LaCroix patiently
explained.
"You're going shopping with them?" Nick was aghast.
"My dear boy, just because you are unable to appreciate the beauty of an
attractively rounded backside does not mean that I can not!" With that,
and an uncharacteristic wink, LaCroix was gone.
End
Send all comments, gently worded criticism and hot fudge sundaes (gotta
keep my attractively rounded backside ya know) to DarkPNinja@aol.com
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