White hands cannot hurt 1/1

Forever Knight and the characters and ideas associated therewith are the
property of Mr Parriot and Sony/Tristar.  No infringement of their copyright
is intended.  This piece is the property of Spike Shovelton and I assert
copyright hereto.

Archive permission is granted to Mel for the fkfanfic site as well as to
Cousin Mary.  Anyone else who wishes to archive it is welcome but please ask
first. Comments are welcome at blot30@hotmail.com but flames are unwelcome.
This is the sixth story in a sequence beginning with "Lucifer in Starlight."
  It will probably make more sense if you read the others first. This one
comes after "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi." The title comes from a Spanish
proverb of unknown origin.  It just seemed to fit.

White hands cannot hurt 1/1

By Spike Shovelton

Tracy sighed, it was two months since someone had tried to burn her flat
down.  The fire brigade and arson investigators could find no evidence of
who had set the fire in her building.  The arsonist had not been very
skilled, so the fire had remained in front of the door and had not spread.
Still it did not exactly fill her with confidence.

Cindy, the socialite was as odd as ever, flirting blatantly with Lacroix,
and glaring at Tracy.  As they worked she was unable to shake a sense of
unease.  She had received more anonymous telephone calls and it was starting
to concern her.  Especially as she had received a letter this morning
containing a threat.  Perhaps it was Cindy, wanting rid of her to have more
chances with Lacroix.  The woman was a bit weird.

She had taken the letter in to work and was waiting to see what they could
find out about it.  She looked up as Lacroix sat down beside her and smiled
at him.  During the break the group talked together, discussing the weather,
and local politics.  They were a few months into the course now and Tracy
still liked it.  She remembered her dance with Lacroix at the ball.  He was
very good and he knew it.  They had played blackjack and she had won.  Her
victory meant that Nick and Natalie were both walking around with
insufferable smiles on their faces.  It also meant that Lacroix seemed to
watch her with growing intensity.

She concentrated on the lecture.  Five minutes before the end of the session
she felt her pager vibrating against her leg and she sighed and excused
herself as she went to answer the page from the station.  She returned and
made her excuses before gathering her books up to leave.

Lacroix sighed as he paced up and down, what was keeping the wench?  She
ought to have finished work by now.  How was he supposed to be majestic and
seductive if she was late back?  He heard the key and moved back through the
window, watching as she came in.

She then sat down and began to read her reports and type on her laptop.
"Like to take this paperwork and stick it up Nick's ass."  She murmured as
she worked on it.  "I hate the fact that because I'm female people think I
don't mind doing most of the paperwork, making coffee.  Just once I'd like
Nick to make coffee for me."  She moved her aching shoulders in circles.  "I
know he doesn't drink it, but I do, and he doesn't ever consider that I
might like a coffee.  Especially when I wasn't even due into work that
evening."

She shook her head and stretched wincing as she did so.  There was faint
tapping on the window and she walked over to it.  "May I come in?"  She
looked at the figure floating out there.

"Enter freely and of your own will."  Tracy quipped.  "Leave some of the
happiness you bring."

He looked at her and was unable to repress the urge to burst into laughter.
It took nerve to use those particular words to a vampire.  She kept doing
that to him, making him laugh.  He had to keep her around for the next
century to amuse him.  Plus she didn't trust him and he enjoyed the battles.
   He studied her.  "I wondered if you might like to talk."

She had spent a long time at the crime scene, examining the minutiae and
then doing endless paperwork on it.  "No you just wanted to know what
dragged me away from our studies. Murder, a man tore his two stepchildren
and his wife to pieces before killing himself."  She felt the bile return to
her throat.

"I see."  He looked at her.  "Reason given?"

"He was under suspicion of assaulting them.  The eldest stepchild had left
home and reported him, social services were coming to interview him, when
they got there."  Tracy pulled a face.  "Could we talk about it later?"  She
asked, not wanting to dwell on it, not wanting to have any more discussions,
rational conversations that would increase her burgeoning headache.  "I
really don't want to think about it."  There had been so much blood and then
she had been obliged to deal with the formalities and seemed to have wound
up doing the paperwork.  She winced as she stretched slightly.

"Stiff?"  He asked and Tracy nodded.  "I could help you with that."  Lacroix
smiled at her, his eyes very blue.  "I know a way to relieve the tension."
His voice was very seductive and Tracy shivered at the innuendo attached to
the last word.  She raised her eyebrows and waited.  "Sit down."  She did so
and looked at him.  "You really don't trust me."  His tone was almost
approving.

"No."  Tracy said and looked at him as he walked around her.

"You are still alive."  He pointed out and smiled.  Tracy returned his
amused look and then gasped as he began to rub her shoulders.  His fingers
were cold and she sighed as he began to massage the tension out of her
shoulders and back, forcing the muscles to unknot themselves.

"Oh that's good."  Tracy said and he smiled.  She relaxed, feeling the
strong fingers drawing the tension out of her shoulders.  She knew from
experience as a detective how delicate the spinal column was.  With vampire
strength he simply had to move his hands up in a certain way and he could
choke her to unconsciousness.  If he moved another way then he could break
her neck easily. She wondered whether it would be wise to stop him from
doing that any more.  Yet somehow she was unable to form the words to make
him stop.

"I could improve the experience if you would take some clothes off and lie
down."  The old vampire looked at her.  He was going to get her to trust him
if it killed her.  She was such an appealing little thing, but she did try
his patience sometimes.   He decided to mention to his son that leaving
Tracy all the paperwork was not a good idea.

"I think not."  Tracy said, as good as this was, she hadn't lost all sense
of self preservation.  "Did I miss anything in class?"

"Not really, simply the concluding remarks.  You have the details of the
homework."  He said and went on massaging her back.  He looked at the book
on her coffee table, smiling at the cover.  Obviously she was quite
interested, if she was reading about Claudius.  "What do you think of it?"

"I think it's amazing you're even half sane."  Tracy responded, hissing
slightly as he went on rubbing her shoulders through the thin blouse.  "If
any of this is true."

"Most of it actually, Robert Graves is quite accurate, not that I knew
Claudius.  He was before my time"  Lacroix slid a hand under the collar of
her blouse and began to ease the tension in her shoulders.  "He had a
certain style."  He slid a hand down and unbuttoned the top of her blouse.
Tracy stiffened but did not stop him as he continued massaging her shoulders
and arms.  She was starting to feel wonderfully relaxed and her headache was
fading.

"You're good at this."  Tracy murmured.

"I have had the time to perfect my skills."  His voice was a soft purr.
"There are some advantages to being very old."  His hands stilled and Tracy
froze for a moment, waiting for him to do something, make a move or
whatever.  "Now I would suggest you have a glass of warm milk with honey, a
hot bath and a good sleep."

"Oh."  Tracy looked at him.  That was it?  What happened to making a pass at
her? Wait a minute, did she want him to make a pass at her?  Sometimes she
thought he was going to do so, sometimes she felt she would even welcome it
if he did.  She stretched out and felt wonderfully calm, headache gone and
mind and body focused and a little sleepy.

He watched her stretching and smiled.  He had enjoyed learning massage and
he remembered how he had used it on Janette, helped her to become more
comfortable with her body and confident.  Janette had been very damaged by
her time in the brothel.  She had offered him her body at the start out of a
sense of obligation and he had declined, amused by the joy in her eyes at
his refusal.  He had told her to come to him when she wanted him.  It had
taken three years for her to trust him enough.  She had come to him over
those years out of gratitude,  or when she had wanted something, and each
time he had refused her, until he knew she actually wanted him.   He had
waited for her mind to heal from her experiences in the brothel.  It had
healed well but not without scars.  No wound ever heals completely.   He
could have taken her body but he wanted her mind too, wanted her to love him
as well as fear him so he had waited and in time she had come.   No he had
never forced any of his children, not even Nicholas.  He was prepared to
wait; patience could be a rewarding thing.

He looked down at the figure on the sofa.  He hoped this was not going to
take three years.  He felt his body responding to that thought.  Obviously
his patience had decreased over the years.  Still she wasn't ready yet, she
didn't trust him.

"Right." Tracy gathered her thoughts and looked at him.  Most men would have
considered giving her a massage to be a sexually provocative act.  "Well
thank you I suppose."

"You are most welcome."  Lacroix watched her.  "See, you can trust me a
little."

"Oh I don't think so."  Tracy said and lifted up the cushion on the sofa to
reveal the stake she had near to her hand.

"Maybe next time."  Lacroix looked at her.  "You are intriguing, always
resisting me."  He stepped back and saw the surprise in her eyes.  "In time
I will see your eyes warm with trust as well as cold with fury.  I can wait.
  Hunger sauces the dish."  That sweetly beautiful smile crossed his face
and his eyes were speckled with gold.

For a moment Tracy almost gave in to the look in his eyes.  She almost went
to him almost lowered her defences and let him in.  She remembered the
feeling of his skilled, icy hands making her skin burn as he eased her
muscles and wondered how those hands would feel.  The desire to throw
caution aside and simply feel was very strong.

"No."  Lacroix said, seeming to see the struggle.  "You want me of course
but you do not trust me.  I could seduce or compel you very easily but I
prefer not.  I will wait, once I bring you across then you will come."  He
smiled at her.  "I will see you in class.  Vale."  With that he was gone and
the cold air blowing through the window made Tracy shiver.

"Well that was interesting."  She said as she came out of the spell his
voice could cast.  "He could sell coals to Newcastle with a voice like
that."  She shivered and shut the window, before starting herself a hot
bath.

She smiled at Nick as she went in for work.  "Hey Partner, how's life?"
Tracy felt good, she had slept soundly, her head was clear and she was ready
for work.

"Fine."  Nick looked at her with interest.  "So why are you smirking?"

"No reason, just life."  She sobered.  "Has Nat done the post mortems on the
Turner case?"  She thought of the murdered children and shivered.

"I was just on the way over for the report."  Nick said quickly.  "Coming?"

"Sure, why not."  Tracy fell into step with him and smiled.  "Be good to see
you trying to think of things to say to her and her turning bright red."
Tracy smiled, Natalie had taken to wearing a lot of scarves lately, probably
to cover bitemarks.  Nick tried to frown but his smile was too near the
surface to be repressed.

He was handsome and as carefree as anyone in his position could be.  Natalie
had the same contentment and Tracy was pleased.  Nick looked at her.  "I'm
glad my personal life provides so much amusement."

"I'm happy for you."  Tracy said and looked at him.  "Now you just make sure
you treat Natalie right, otherwise the caddy gets it."

"Yes boss."  Nick said, smiling again.  He sobered.  "I wouldn't hurt her, I
love her more than anything."  He did not know how they managed to be
together but they had gradually managed it.  "She is everything."

"I know."  Tracy said as they walked into the morgue.  "Nick, word of
advice?"  Her partner nodded.  "Take her out somewhere, do something
romantic.  Can't spend all of your evenings in bed."  She grinned cheekily
as they walked over to Natalie.

Natalie looked up and for a moment she and Nick were the only people in the
world and time stopped.  Then it resumed and Tracy gathered her control for
the forthcoming ordeal.  The autopsies only confirmed what they had deduced.
  Mark Turner had killed his wife and her two children.  The pitiful child
sized bodies showed a profusion of minor injuries, burns, bruises and
lashmarks, as well as sexual injuries.

Tracy shivered at the thought.  He had put those children through hell.
Tracy wished for a moment that she could use some of the older ways of
punishment, wished that Turner were not already dead.   Not that she
approved of capital punishment as a principle, but sometimes she wished they
could make an exception to the rule.  Odd how being around vampires made her
wish she had a pair of fangs that she could take to the criminal in
question.  Tracy decided that she had been hanging around the undead for too
long.

Now they had to go to his eldest stepchild, tell her what had happened and
sort out the case.  Tracy wondered if they could persuade social services to
do it.  As they sat in the caddy Nick reached for the radio.

"It is easy is it not my children?  Easy to evade duties for which we do not
care.  We seek to palm them off onto someone else.  We all do it, give our
colleagues this or that and do not think."  Tracy grinned, this was
promising well.  "Yet we forget the gratitude, forget that they too have
duties."

"So don't forget to do your share of the paperwork next time."  Tracy said
and Nick turned to her.  "I never thought I'd say it but Mr Nightcrawler is
dead right."

"You think so?"  Nick looked at her in surprise, not sure whether to believe
that.

"Yeah I think so."  Tracy smiled at him. "Cute too, in a creepy sort of way,
and a great dancer."

Nick looked at her in alarm at this.  "How is the evening class going?"  He
sought to change the subject quickly.

"Well, I like it, the people are very nice."  She sighed.  "Except for this
one woman, who I think doesn't like me very much.  The teacher is really
good and the work is interesting.  We're looking at the expansion of crimes
against property in England."  She saw Nick going into flashback mode and
shook her head.  "Nick, wakey wakey."  She said and pinched his arm.  Nick
sat up and concentrated again.

As she went back home and contemplated the new anonymous letter in her
letter box she wondered what to do next.  Someone was certainly after her.
She wondered if it might be Cindy, she seemed possessive enough, and was all
over Lacroix.  Tracy had read enough books about obsessed woman going after
their rivals.  That was the trouble, it was too much like a book.

There was some element that did not fit.  Something she couldn't quite put a
name to and it bothered her.  Hopefully it would come to her.  It was
probably nothing important and she was not going to let it get to her.  They
would find whoever was behind this and stop it.  She switched the phone off
to ensure that her anonymous caller did not disturb her sleep.

The End

1) "Enter freely and of your own wish" and "leave some of the happiness you
bring" both come from Dracula by Bram Stoker.  They are lines spoken by
Dracula to Jonathan Harker when the latter arrives at Castle Dracula.  The
irony of Tracy using them amused me.

2) The book Tracy is reading is "I Claudius" by Robert Graves, an incredible
study of the life of Claudius, emperor of Rome.  It creates a vivid picture
of life in Roman times.  Claudius was the uncle of Caligula and the
stepfather of Nero.  He would probably have died before Lacroix was around.