A New Daughter
***
She approached him as he sat at the bar, sipping his wine.
“LaCroix, I wish to ask you a favor, a very......... important favor,” she sat next to him and placed her hand on his arm.
“And you would be.......” he gave her a questioning stare.
“You don’t know me. But I need you. I would like to be brought across. I need you because you are the only one I trust to do the deed.”
LaCroix looked at the girl with increased interest. He was immediately drawn to her neck. So smooth, so soft. He could hear her steady heartbeat and see her vein. It was large. This girl had wide veins; he could tell. He liked it when they had wide veins. It made it easier for him to eat without making a mess of himself. She had beautiful hazel eyes and deep auburn hair. It had a slight curl to it, very much like Natalie’s hair. This girl continued to look at him, with a pleading in her eyes. She really wanted his help. Her thoughts practically sprang out to him.
“Follow me,” LaCroix stood up and took her by the hand. He led her to his apartment in the back. After closing the door behind them, they went to a black leather couch and sat down. “Now, tell me why you choose my world of darkness?” he asked her, speaking to the young girl as if she were a child.
“You ask that question as if I have made an unwise decision. I have thought of this for so long, battling in my mind. Should I do it? Is my life really that bad? But I realized that I was doing it not because my life was bad, but because my life has been so good I want to stay alive forever.”
As LaCroix spoke his reply, it shocked him how he sounded so very much like his son, “You realize that once you cross over to immortality, your life will change.”
“There is another reason why I am doing this. It is not the good things in my life that make me want to live forever, it is the living that I love; waking up each day and knowing full well that I may die, but yet I am still alive. I am living, and I want to stay this way forever.”
Her answer astounded him. Yet something held him back from agreeing. It was the hunger and the lust for her blood. He wanted so badly to sink his teeth into her neck and feel her body go limp in his arms. That feeling of power was overwhelming. He agreed to bring her across, yet he planned in his mind only to take her life, and not to give it. She moved closer to him and leaned her neck so that he could see her vein. It pulsated with each beat of her heart. He wanted so badly to taste her that he could practically smell his own lust. He took her in his arms and sank his fangs into her neck. A gasp escaped her lips as he began draining her of her blood, but something incredible happened that he hadn’t planned on. As does always, her feelings flooded his mind. Normally, when feeding, he blocked off the memories so as not to create a guilt within his heart, but for the first time in years, he began to feel sorry for this body from which he was feeding. He felt her joy, her laughter, and her love for life. He knew what she talked of, the love of living; waking up in the morning and knowing you are alive. And so, a second incredible event took place. LaCroix, the most unlikely of vampires to do such a thing, stopped feeding upon her, and took pity on his victim. He stopped just before her heart beat it’s last, and so she continued to live. Her heart, beating slowly now, continued it’s struggle to keep her alive. She was at the point where he could either bring her across, or drink her last drop. He remembered her words. ‘You are the only one I trust to do the deed.’ She trusted him. LaCroix began to weep.
“I am so sorry. I intended only to drink your life from you,” he spoke to her, stroking her cheek as his blood tears fell on her face. He saw her eyes, closed now, and remembered the beautiful hazel they had been. He took his wrist and tore into it, but the pain of the wound no longer mattered. He hoped only to save her from death. He placed the dripping blood to her mouth and helped her to drink. She slowly opened her eyes as his life-giving blood flowed into her weak body. She grasped his wrist and held him tightly, drinking noisely from him. He took his wrist from her mouth and watched as her eyes took on their new color, and her teeth took on their new shape. As the gold flooded her pupils, LaCroix, in his mind, almost began to miss the beautiful hazel, but he knew very well it would return. She ran her tongue along her fangs, and blinked her eyes several times.
“Thank you, LaCroix. I knew I could trust you not to take my life. I have yet another favor to ask of you. Treat me like your daughter. Take me under your wing and love me. I ask you not only to give me eternal existence, but give me a life to live.”
LaCroix practically lept at the offer. Another fledgling to rule. He hoped this one wouldn’t leave him, for after Nicolas left to pursue mortality, and Janette died, LaCroix had always yearned for another child. This girl, who had come to him for a favor, was really offering him another chance.
“I accept with great honor, the role of your father,” LaCroix took her hand and kissed it; his statement couldn’t be truer, for he also remembered the memory of her real father’s death. It had been the one memory to flood his mind that had troubled him. “Now, I must ask you a favor. Since you are to be my new daughter, I must know of which name to call you. Would you like to tell me what you prefer, or shall I make one up for you, to fit your new and better life?”
“Oh LaCroix, my name is one thing I am happy to leave behind. Please, give me a new one,” she replied. LaCroix looked her over, thinking hard about what would suit her.
“I shall call you Hazel, for your eyes enchant me so.”
“I love it, LaCroix.”Disclaimer: Hazel is mine. Everyone else is not.