From: Dianne Therese De Sha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: DTD: "So, what's your sign?"
Dusk to Dawn: "So, what's your sign?"
by Dianne T. DeSha
(the original "DTD" ;-)
As he turned to face Nat, he could see by the expression on
her face that she *knew*--it might not have all sunk in yet,
but the game was over.
"Is what Grace told me true?" Nat asked flatly, an
unreadable expression on her face.
"Grace?" he fumbled lamely. <Dammit!> he thought,
Nat's assistant _had_ finally made good on her threat and
called it all off. "Why? What did she tell...."
"I've seen *pictures*, Nick," Nat's voice was almost
menacing. "But I want to hear it from *you*...."
"*Are* you a vampire?"
After a moment's pause he shook his head slowly,
unable to meet her eyes. He therefore missed the full effect
of Nat's incredulous expression as she sank into a chair.
"But what about all the blood I've seen you drink?"
" 'Bikaver.' It's a Hungarian wine," he explained.
"The name means 'bull's blood' you see, so we always joked
about it. Then this one time we added vodka and put it in
these empty donor bags a buddy of mine in med school got
and we called it...."
" 'We'?" she interrupted.
"Lou and Jan and I, ...back when we were in
college."
Nat nearly choked. "You went to _college_ with...
'Lou' and 'Jan'?"
"Yeah," Nick smiled at the memory. "Of course,
Lou was in grad school--getting his M.A., you know--so
Jan and I started calling him 'Master' and it just kind of
stuck."
"But I've *seen* you! Your eyes, the fangs...."
Nick looked at the ceiling, "Well, you see...I know
these guys who do special effects for movies...."
"They're *props*?!?"
"Well, yes," he admitted, "But very state-of-the-art!
You'd never know just to look at them."
Nat just stood there, her mouth hanging slightly
open.
Nick continued in a nervous babble, "But then, of
course, when they insisted on having a turn playing along
_they_ had to go in for the really *big* showy fangs. I
mean, I don't think those look as realistic, do you?"
"The 'Enforcers'," Nat said with surprising calm.
"Yeah, they insisted they have a really cool name. I
thought it was kind of dumb, but they threatened to cut off
my supply of those vests that have little explosives in them
so it looks like you got shot,...."
"Wait!" Nat jumped to her feet. "*Speaking* of
getting shot, I've dug bullets out of you! I've seen you heal
before my eyes! Pull doors off their hinges! *Fly*!"
She turned on Nick so suddenly he tripped
backwards over the coffee table, smashing it rather badly.
Ignoring his groans, she continued accusingly, "You *are* a
vampire! I've seen proof! What, were you trying to do,
hypnotize me?"
"Uh...well...sort of...," Nick mumbled from the
general vicinity of the floor.
"What do you mean 'sort of'?" Nat demanded,
kicking debris out of her way as she moved to glare down at
him.
"I mean," said Nick, carefully extricating himself
from the ruins of the coffee table, "That _yes_, I did
hypnotize you--quite a lot actually."
"But you can't...," Nat started.
"Sure I can," Nick corrected her. "That's where
Grace found me, you know," his eyes glazed over as he
began to reminisce. "I was doing a nightclub act in
Moosejaw...hypnotizing audience members. I'm really
*very* good at it, but it's just a way to pay the bills while I
work on my acting career. That's why this was such a great
opportunity, a way to get some great experience and pay
the bills all at once."
"But that still doesn't explain how you move so fast,
or how you can heal yourself, or how...."
"Yeah, actually, it does. See, I would just hypnotize
you to stand still with your eyes closed. I'd move, then have
you open your eyes and forget closing them. Kind of like a
stop-action movie--like the really old Godzilla flicks, you
know?" His grin faded at her look of horror. "I mean, you
wouldn't *believe* the stuff we could pull off with that.
Sometimes we used it so much I was starting to think you
spent more time forgetting then actually awake."
Nat shook her head suddenly, as if just coming out
of a trance. "But I've tested your blood! Samples I took
myself!"
"Yeah, you're awfully quick with the needle don't
you think? I mean _geez_! I was starting to feel like the
human pin cushion. Try doing a quick switch on blood
samples with a really sore arm sometime and see how easy it
is!"
"So where did you get that blood like _that_!"
"Well it was Sparky...," at Nat's look he clarified,
"That's what we used to call Lou's twin brother. See he
works at a lab over in Chicago, so anyway... he got us some
chimp blood. Then he decides to start getting creative and
puts in this virus that apparently only shows up occasionally
in this rare strain of Ukrainian gerbils...."
"Gerbils," Nat said, again with a surprising air of
calm that was almost akin to coma.
"_Ukranian_ gerbils, they're the best for this
particular experiment they're running over at the lab, you
see, and so...."
"But the litovuteraine treatments...."
"Ugh!" Nick turned slightly green. "That stuff gave
me a stomachache like you wouldn't _believe_! But then I
kind of got into it you know...I could wander around during
the day again, act all drugged out...it really gave me a
chance to stretch my repertoire...."
"So you _aren't_ 800 years old."
Nick laughed outright, then tried to cover by
looking at the floor. "No, I'm 35. Just like it says on my
records."
"And the flashbacks?"
"Well, I've always had this attention-span problem,
ever since I was a kid. So that part was actually kind of
handy...," he frowned suddenly, "Except when I had to look
up all those names and dates and stuff on my CD-ROM
encyclopedia--I _hate_ research."
"Joan of Arc's cross?"
He looked at his feet as he shuffled them on the
floor. "I did that as an Easter project in the third grade. My
mom keeps *everything*...I _never_ thought it'd come in
handy."
Nat paused, trying to absorb it all, then gave it up as
hopeless and just plunged back in. "You were born 'Nick
Knight' in Chicago, on New Year's 1960?"
"Well, no," he admitted, looking now somewhere
over her right shoulder. "I've had some...um...trouble with
the authorities, you see.... 'Nick Knight' is really more like a
stage name. Kind of catchy, don't you think?" He made the
mistake of looking directly at Nat, then quickly shifted his
gaze to the air above her left shoulder.
"So who _are_ you really?"
His gaze shifted uncomfortably once again, finally
settling somewhere in the vicinity of her knees. "I'd really
rather not say."
Nat just stared at him until the silence was more
uncomfortable than the confession.
"Elmer Hieschlop," he admitted.
A silence descended upon the loft for a few long
moments.
"All I want to know is why."
Nick took a deep breath and stalled vainly, "She just
thought you needed a bit more excitement in your life. You
were in a rut...." Realizing, albeit belatedly, that he was not
scoring points that way, he lapsed into silence.
"I know Grace _started_ it. She told me all about
that first night, how it was all planned. A little practical
joke. What I want to know is why _you_ insisted on
keeping it going all this time."
"I...uh...," Nick stammered.
"And all the people who knew, all the people you
had to get involved...."
"I don't know, it just sort of happened...."
"Why go to all that trouble? Why spend all that
energy pretending to be a _vampire_? *Why*, Nick?"
Nick paused. If there was to be any future in this
relationship, he would have to do it. He closed his eyes,
took a deep breath, and gave her the truth.
"It's a really *great* way to meet women."
For once, Nat didn't pause at all. Her right hook caught
Nick (Elmer?) squarely on the jaw and sent him crumpling
to the floor. Nat then dusted her hands, turned on her heel,
and walked out into the night.
***The End*** <and none too soon! ;->
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